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

Celebrating 100 years of the BBC Shipping Forecast, Jane Russell takes us on a series of coastal cruises through the forecast sea areas, exploring some of the special places on offer in each of them

Per Harrtoft shows how much fun you can have on a fast open day boat

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

It was exhilarating. I was exhausted and relieved, as well as in shock but so happy – just grinning from ear to ear,” says Lindsey Walke, after achieving her long-held ambition of swimming the English

The last word