I searched the internet for a list of least useful items to be found on a yacht and came up with the following:

Wheelbarrow: though difficult to stow except on a largish boat, it could well help with getting provisions delivered.

Spirit level: during maintenance it could be useful in getting the water line correctly positioned.

Bananas make other fruit ripen quickly, so they could be useful too. On the other hand you may, on a long passage, not wish your fruit to ripen too quickly.

Grand piano: I saw an upright piano installed in a 40-foot yacht a few boat shows ago, though I have never heard of a grand piano except on boats of considerable size.

Motor cycle: modern bicycles now can be fitted with electric motors, so maybe a folding bike taken on a yacht could be termed a motor cycle.

Royal Navy officer: I have sailed with quite a few RN officers and have found them to be just as good as the next man, some even better, either as skipper or member of the crew.

Umbrella: these have a real use on board. A good strong golfing umbrella can be put to good use to keep the rain off, particularly in the dinghy but most importantly for me, it acts as an excellent safety net to catch any screws, nuts, washers et al when working on any part of the boat which has no deck underneath.

I was helping a friend fit out his new Elan 434 and was installing the bracket on which the horseshoe buoy was to be fixed.

The boat was on the hard and a search for anything dropped would probably have found it in time. Yes I did drop a nut and you can see from the photo that the umbrella did save a trip to the ground and search for the lost item.

If we had been afloat the nut would have been lost forever.

Still the best

NOT all yachts have a windvane or automatic pilot and on long passage you may need to alert the sleeping watch below.

Whistles on lifejackets never seem much up to the job of waking the dead, anyway it is quite a kerfuffle extracting them from the folds of the jacket.

I have an Acme Thunderer from my days as a soldier. This whistle, made in Birmingham, like a lot of good solid English products of its time, could be heard above the noise of battle by those who needed to hear at a good 100 yards or more.

Apparently you can still buy them from Mr Amazon for about a fiver and they are still made in this country, at least according to their inscription.

Good anchoring

BEFORE going into an anchorage, do you work out how much chain you need to lay out or do you make a guestimate?

If you are staying overnight it is essential that you work out what the least depth of water there is going to be at low water so that you do not ground.

You must also have an idea of the amount of scope to lay out, not only so that you have sufficient chain on the sea bed, but also so there is no chance of swinging close to another moored boat.

Always remember to add the freeboard – the height of bow roller above the surface of the sea – to the maximum water depth needed, multiplying this by the relevant factor dependent on the likely wind and tide strengths, the size and weight of boat, anchor tackle and the nature of the sea bed.

A look at the chart in well surveyed areas will give you an idea of the nature of the sea bed and it is worth knowing which “soils” hold well and which do not:

Poor: Thin sand, weed, gravel, shells.

Medium: Soft sand, soft mud.

Good: Most sand and mud.

Excellent: Dense sand and mud, clay

www.sail-help.co.uk