This Sailing life....a wonderful variety of podcasts from the world of sailing Ceri Hurford-Jones

Capt. Jon Kidd has over 25 years of experience in the marine industry, from stewarding on small passenger vessels to Captain of Red Funnel ferries. He has also been a Cowes Pilot for the last 7 years. Jon was previously a Deputy Harbour Master in Cowes and rejoins from Trinity House, where he was the Inspector of Seamarks.

On this podcast, after just 6 weeks in the role, he talks to Ceri about his hopes and aspirations in this most challenging of roles.

Hello and welcome to The PredictWind podcast with me Ceri Hurford-Jones

This show is all about how this amazing weather portal came about, through its early days of gestation to the huge amounts of financial investment now invested in collecting the data to make it what has become.

We also get to find out more about the people behind it including Jon Bilger the founder and CEO along with an early adopter Dave Kitson.

To celebrate this first episode of the Predict wind podcast we are delighted to offer a free trial for you our lovely listeners……

https://www.predictwind.com/features/weather-routing

The podcast version of a recentYachting Monthly article where Marine podcaster Ceri talks to Rachael Sprot about the story behind the story!


They say that relationships formed at sea can founder on shore, but sit back with a glass of wine in a busy marina and you’ll find evidence of the reverse in action too.

There’s no shortage of couples taking their relationships afloat with varying degrees of success. It’s not long before you hear the familiar phrases: ‘I thought you put a fender there’, ‘Why didn’t you get off?’ and the well-deserved, ‘Just do it yourself then.’

Berthing Bingo is a cruel spectator sport, which I would never condone, but it helps to take note occasionally, if only to remind yourself of the pitfalls we’re all susceptible to. I’m ashamed to admit that until recently I’d never taken my university friends sailing. However, after buying my boat, a Luders 36, Nimrod, last summer, I thought it was time to remedy this.

When sailing as an instructor there’s an invisible student-teacher dynamic, which makes the relationship on board much easier. Your seniority as a sailor and a professional demeanour forms the bedrock of the crew’s trust. How I interact with my family and friends is totally different, however, and taking them to sea was a far more daunting prospect.

These are the people who tried to save me from my terrible fashion sense, terrible cooking and terrible romantic partners. They then stuck around to pick up the pieces when their efforts inevitably failed. Friendship and shared history? Yes. Professionalism and seniority? Somewhat less in evidence.

So how would I cope without my instructor’s hat on? Where would I score on the Berthing Bingo scale? There was only one way to find out.


https://www.yachtingmonthly.com/sailing-skills/taking-your-friends-and-family-sailing-91875

For this episode, marine podcaster Ceri Hurford-Jones meets two heavyweights of the yachting world to talk about perhaps the best known pilot book of them all, The Shell Channel Pilot.

The sailing legend that is Tom Cunliffe is handing over editorship of this long-lived and authoritative tome to its first woman compiler, Rachael Sprot, herself a rising star in the world of sailing writing and from a family of well-respected sailors and authors.  

To many, Tom needs little introduction.  A celebrated career as a broadcaster, writer and Yachtmaster Examiner began when he was sent off to the Norfolk Broads as a teenager with his best mate and a book entitled ‘How to Sail’.  At university he sailed when he should have been studying, and his first boat, Leihane, a 22ft centreboard sloop, led to him buying a bigger boat, Sarri, on which he and his wife Ros lived, berthed in the mud on the Hamble River in the 1970s.  A chance meeting with a man in a pub who said he would give them a job if they sailed to Brazil led to them stocking up and setting off with just £50 in their pockets. He ended up working at the National Sailing Centre at Cowes, where he became skipper of the race boat Griffin, narrowly missing out on the infamous ‘79 Fastnet Race. Since getting his bus pass (his words!) Ros and Tom bought Constance, a 44ft Bermudan cutter that really allows them to stretch their sea legs.

Rachael Sprot is a sailing instructor and a Yachtmaster Examiner who’s been sailing since she was a child, when she was told in no uncertain terms that she’d be grateful for it one day! A prolific writer for sailing magazines including Yachting Monthly and Yachting World, she owned various boats when involved with Rubicon Three, a sailing adventure company, but has just bought her first ever personal boat, a pretty, long keel, 1970s-built Cheoy Lee 36 that she says is now taking an awful lot of her weekends to get up to scratch.

Although Rachael has just embarked on her own journey with the Channel Pilot, she has an impressive number of sea miles logged, and as the book changes authorship so too will its voice, as it has since it was conceived by K. Adlard Coles in the 1930s.  It has long encouraged even the most novice sailor to explore the waters of the English Channel, and the wealth of knowledge it shares includes not just data but a guiding hand, a rich narrative and a sense of exploration that will be relished by all!

To get your copy of The Shell Channel Pilot visit https://www.imray.com/product/The-Shell-Channel-Pilot/IB0202-2/

For this edition I got to to meet up with some of the people who make Lochboisdale and its marina in the Outer Hebrides so special. If you have never visited the area then hopefully this episode will give you some encouragement to do so..... Lochboisdale is an excellent arrival point to explore the 120 miles of this Island chain

In this episode you'll hear from the Marina Manager Donald Curry telling me about the experience boat owners will enjoy. Also joining me is the Chairman of Lochboisdale Development Ltd, Callum McMillan who provides an excellent overview of the whole community set up in this fascinating part of the world.

I'll also introduce you to Lauren, Adam and their Jack Russel Freddie, who together with my wife Carol and I actually visited Lochboisdale in the summer of 2022.

For more information just visit https://www.lochboisdaleharbour.com/

What's the biggest challenge in purchasing spare parts. The biggest challenge is knowing exactly which part is required and where to source them at the best terms? 

Boatclick say they have the solution....Ori Gail talks to Ceri about his plans to revolutionise the boat spares market 

https://www.boat-click.com/