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In one of their guide booklets (§1.6), the Finnish 'Keep the Archipelago Clean' society states that MARPOL Annex V requires all yachts over 12 metres to display a placard notifying passengers and crew of the annex's garbage disposal requirements. Here's an example placard . Here's a page from...

The four Ultim trimarans are doing a racing circuit of the Atlantic: https://www.brestatlantiques.com . Sodebo Ultim 3 has lost the aft end of her starboard outrigger, but is in sight on the next stop Cape Town and still doing up to 36 knots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8HaFP4Y2Vs

I was discussing flag etiquette today at the Helsinki Boat Show with a flag expert from the Finnish yachting association. They have a new book on yacht flags and flag etiquette, and in it they show an example of a British flag being flown at the port spreader when a Finnish yacht has a British...

I'm surprised not to see this here yet: this morning before dawn, two IMOCAs competing in the Route du Rhum, Ari Huusela/Ariel2 & Sébastien Destremau/Alcatraz It FaceOcéan, collided mid-Atlantic. Luckily no injuries and only minor damage, both are continuing to race. Here's the article on the...

We’ve a small hot water tank in our boat, heated by the engine’s cooling water. We recently got round to connecting up its electric heating element, so we have (small amounts of) hot water when we’re on shore power. But we noticed a strange effect: a day after arriving, our engine was still hot...

At our club (in Helsinki) we've recently had a spate of break-ins, clearly not 'professional' as they grab stuff like binoculars, tools, booze, food, sleeping bags, sailing jackets, and in a couple of cases clearly stayed in the boat for a while drinking and eating. During the season we have...

There's a video doing the rounds in Finland of a new Finnish yacht being reviewed by a Swedish yachting site. The yacht is the Sailjet 40: a 38' yacht with a planing hull which can be driven at 20 knots by her 279hp engine...

I've been daydreaming about a scenario: I'm sailing singlehanded on my Maxi 999 (33' AWB, displacement 4200kg) in the sheltered waters of the Finnish archipelago, and a passing harbour cruise ship hits a rock and starts to sink. As I take passengers on boat my boat, how many is it safe to take...

This evening we're entered in the Helsinki-Tallinn Race: 41 miles through the dark along ferry lines and across shipping lines, with 175 other yachts, in a handicapped pursuit format. Our start is at 19:34. The latest forecast is: at 21:00 it will be 0m/s from WSW, becoming by 03:00 0m/s from...

My 1987 Maxi 999 doesn't have a raw water strainer. Her Volvo Penta 2002's water pump is connected directly to the intake on the sail drive, and there's no evidence that it's ever been different. Is this normal? Does the sail drive's water inlet perhaps have some kind of grille anyway? Or should...

This weekend our club has its annual gathering at our island harbour. This includes the "Small Ships Race", in which we borrow the juniors' optimist dinghies and race them around the nearby small island. It's one of those silly events that many secretly take very seriously - I know I've been...

My Maxi 999 (1987, teak decks, bought last year) leaks through the chain plates when it rains heavily. I've just taken them off, and the threads that pass through the deck are covered in some kind of putty, very soggy and wet. Should I replace this with some more of the same (what might it be?)...

I have a Maxi 999 from 1987, and I'd like to install a "car radio" in the vertical wooden instrument panel above the navigation table (there is not yet a radio, nor a socket for one). I've bought a Kenwood KMR-440U marine CD Receiver, which seems to be a standard 'single DIN' size. Can you...