For those dreaming of the joys of owning a yacht, Nick Ridley offers encouragement as well as a look at the harsher reality of financing your dreams

My motives for this trip were varied. I was on the committee that vetted applications for the Ocean Cruising Club’s Challenge Grant when Project Manaia had applied for a grant to support their environ

Nicholas Koligiannis explains how he improved the mast on his Albin Ballad

Marsali Taylor swaps skippering her Offshore 8m for being crew on a converted herring drifter, with comfy berths in the former fish hold

Tony Moss and his wife Marike cross the North Sea to sail around Britain anticlockwise, braving the Scottish summer along the way

Far from being a lightweight trailer sailer, Nic Compton finds the third version of this modern classic to be a serious little cruising boat capable of handling far more than a little creek crawling