Posts by Jon Mendez

Motor Boat & Yachting's boat skills: fouled props

Motor Boats & Yachting's boat skills: Radar vs AIS

Motor Boats & Yachting - Yachtmaster - Part 16

Following on from our recent post highlighting the changes the MCA have made to their pleasure vessel recommendations, they have also highlighted their ‘best practice” guidelines. So in addition to complying with the regulations their top six best practice points are: Get Trained – It is sensible to undertake some form of training suitable to the intended voyage(s) of your vessel; if you do get…

Someone in the water is probably what most boaters dread, and something which all training courses teach and practise is how to return the boat to the casualty. Something that I feel personally, is that far less time is spent actually going through how to get them back out of the water. Last year we had a really scary incident in the marina when two…

As I sit here in the warm looking at the snow falling I almost needed a reminder of why we do boating! Then it dawned on me, not only was it February but 2015, that makes it 10 years since I decided that driving a desk at the RYA was to be a thing of the past and I should start my own little maritime…

The art of going slow!   Todays modern pace of life has us all scrambling about at a crazy pace and many do just that when on their boat. There is another way, slow is becoming the new cool, not just from the fuel that can be saved but it also means that the trip itself becomes part of the adventure, pretty much as our…

  Motor boating is normally a fairly relaxed activity all except for the final bit, berthing. Our previous articles have shown how to choose a berth and what clues to look for. Even with all that knowledge it can still go wrong so here is my view of ways to save the day! Everybody’s idea of ‘when’ its going wrong differs. Newer boaters tend to…

Many a great day out on the water has ended not quite as planned as the wind has got up whilst you were at sea, with a net result that even before you have arrived back at your marina, your stress level is already through the roof.  Windy conditions are what most skippers fear, in reality like most afloat the key is planning what you…

Stern-to berthing is typical in many non-tidal harbours, it just means that more boats can be accommodated in a small area without pontoons and not much has to be provided by the harbour itself. In its simplest form you drop your anchor a good distance out, reverse up to the quay wall and attach your stern lines, then pull in on the anchor rode to…