Sailing Today

Paul Heiney

‘Practical matters apart, there’s pleasure in a wind vane that feels lacking in other systems’

Hands up everyone in the room who has an electric autopilot. A sea of waving palms appears before me. Autopilots are as common on boats these days as baked beans used to be. They are, without doubt, useful little critters, and so common that there are some amongst us who wouldn’t even consider a trip from Hamble to Poole if the little buzzing box wasn’t in working order.

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