23 July 2012
What is it?
"Heaving to" or being "hove to" is a way of slowing a boat’s forward progress and bringing it almost t...
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10 July 2012
The world’s first wind farm was sited in New Hampshire in 1980, but it was not until 1991 that the first offshore wind farm was installed i...
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11 June 2012
Day 3 – “seasickness and going aloft”
0600 hours – up early to catch the tide and head off down the western Solent t...
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11 June 2012
Day 5 – “tight turns and mud”
We were not leaving Weymouth until late morning; waiting for the eastgoing tide, but were st...
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29 May 2012
Nick White has been sailing for nearly 20 years on friends’ boats, doing courses and chartering both in this country and abroad, but the ch...
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09 May 2012
It’s a familiar sight – a stationary rib displaying a dive flag (either a red rectangle with a white diagonal stripe or a blue-and-wh...
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01 May 2012
Fog is damp, cold, uncomfortable and potentially dangerous! If you are at sea it increases your chances of running into some hazard, or of anothe...
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17 April 2012
As an island nation, we in the UK are used to seeing lighthouses around our coasts, but have you ever stopped to consider when they were first bu...
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26 March 2012
Fire must be one of the most dangerous and feared accidents that could happen on a boat. It is perilous enough when it occurs on dry land, but wh...
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26 March 2012
Are you confused about the value of flares? I am.
All the articles I read put forward such compelling arguments, some for, some against. As ...
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14 March 2012
The Solent Forts
Approaching Portsmouth from the sea, early in my sailing career, I was most surprised to come across four large, round stru...
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24 February 2012
Whether you are an experienced sailor or a novice, it’s likely that the time will come when you have to make the decision – do you ta...
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30 January 2012
For centuries people whose lives depended on the weather have relied on Folklore to tell them what to expect. Farmers and sailors in particular d...
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18 January 2012
2012 is the year the Olympic Games comes to London, but the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing competitions will be held in Weymouth Bay and Portland...
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15 December 2011
The beginnings
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution was founded in 1824, but went under the name of The National Institution for the Pres...
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