Sailing Scenes

TESTING TIMES TWO
We have two boat tests in the April 2026 issue of Yachting Monthly. One of the boats is also on the cover: the Gib’Sea 312 Plus, a Rob Humphreys design from the late 1980s that we sailed and photographed from Lymington on a bright and breezy autumn day with a family of five (a couple, their two sons and a black Labrador).
The other test – a new boat this time – is of the Saffier 27, a swish, speedy and stylish day-sailer from Holland. This particular example cuts a dash in her grey-and-orange livery.
Two very different boats that both meet their owners’ requirements very well. They were also great fun to sail and rewarding to get to know, to photograph and to write about.

VARIETY IS THE SPICE – AND ALL THAT…
Yachting journalism and photography might sound like a niche business, and it is. But the small number of us mad enough to be in it can find ourselves photographing and writing about an enormous variety of subjects.
For example, during Poole Week last summer, while we were writing about and photographing dinghies racing around Poole Harbour for the daily media reports, we were also proof-reading our article for Classic Boat about a semi-bespoke gentleman’s launch – the Westons Point 27 – that’s beautifully built in cedar strip by Traditional Shipwright Services. Then, for the December issue, we supplied CB with some photos of a Nicholson Xyris, built in 1939, that we took a few years ago. The main shot was used as a double-page spread, which really helps do it justice. Where photographs are concerned, bigger is better, and good, big photos in print help set magazines apart from anything you see on a screen.
Adding to the the variety, our feature in the January issue of Yachting Monthly is about the Maxi 1300 owned by the late, great Commander Peter Bruce (he of Heavy Weather Sailing, Solent Hazards etc, member of several winning teams in the Admiral’s Cup and superb all-round sailor, as well as as an exceptionally nice chap who just happened to count Olin Stephens among his good friends and to have Paul Elvstrom’s name in his visitors’ book). Sadly he died only a few months after our sail, but it was a privilege to have known him and to spend a lovely summer’s afternoon and evening sailing with him.
In the February issue of Practical Boat owner is something different yet again: our test of a brand-new and very different type of river cruiser that we tested on the Thames. Whatever else one might have to say about this very particular line of work, there’s no shortage of variety…

RE-LIVING THE SUMMER: POOLE WEEK IN PICTURES
We have finally edited and uploaded the photos from Poole Week, which was one of the windiest Poole Weeks we’ve had for some years.
On our site until now we’ve had just a couple of hundred shots that we uploaded immediately after the event. Now there are over 700, of people looking anything from happy to terrified, XODs rocking and rolling downwind, crews getting extremely wet, Shrimpers leaping (yes, they really can), Fifteens flying, Darts darting, the rain pouring (it did one day, very hard but not for long), and lots more. See them on the SailingScenes web site: https://bit.ly/PooleWeek2025