wp-oldmansailingcom Nobody is more surprised than me. The oldmansailing Instagram account is now closing in on 90,000 followers. Across all social media platforms, the short videos I have been posting have encouraged well over 100,000 people to follow oldmansailing in one form or another. Who would have thought… The trouble is, I have always been rather … Read more
Since the 1980s I had been a devotee of the Aries windvane self-steering. Tough as old boots, the worse the weather, the better it worked. The trouble is that self steering is so important on a singlehanded yacht that you stop thinking about it logically. It becomes an emotional subject. Then, I broke the rudder … Read more
Other people argue over politics or religion. Sailors argue over anchors. When I started sailing back in the 1950s, my father taught me that the ultimate in anchors was the CQR. The makers wanted to call it the “Secure”, but the regulators wouldn’t allow a name that could be seen as some sort of guarantee. … Read more
I had never heard of a Super Zero – a Code Zero, yes. A Code Zero is a huge downwind sail. But a Super Zero…. Now I think it is just the most wonderful thing on the boat. It is an enormous lightweight sail made of some high-tech plastic*, set on a short bowsprit inside … Read more
It’s called “The Octopus” because, you have to admit, it does look like one. Also, like an octopus, it is very clever. For the cost of a single elastic band, it solves one of the oldest problems on a boat: What to do with all the bits of string. Boats accumulate bits of string – … Read more
When you install Lithium batteries, you assume all your troubles are over. Do not be alarmed, this is perfectly normal. But your troubles are not over. I realised this in Panamarina, the little French marina in Panama about three months after switching to 600ah of pretty blue Victron cells in Aruba. One day, the sun … Read more
I always thought the daftest thing on any boat was the three-piece washboard. I suppose it’s easy to stow. But have you tried putting in the pieces when there’s a socking great wave advancing like an express train and about to fill the cockpit up to your waist? Maybe the designer who first thought it … Read more
6th May 2026 Ben left yesterday. Ben is my grandson. He came for two weeks, and we did a circuit from Antigua to Montserrat, to Nevis, across to Barbuda and back to Antigua. He said we certainly had some adventures. They started in Montserrat with picking up 20metres of fishing net. I wrote about that. … Read more
3rd April 2026 “In the last 24 hours,” said the ship’s doctor, “you have fainted, fallen over and started another fire on the boat.” Then he added: “This cannot go on.” I started doing my” ‘Bu…bu…bu…” routine, which means that I have an objection, a justification or, at the very least, some sort of protestation … Read more
