t seems like only last week that I was hove to in a pilot cutter off Newfoundland, wasting a fair wind and wishing I was anywhere else on the planet. In fact, it was 40 years ago, but time does funny things to one’s perspective. I was lying to because I was unsure of my position, but so much has changed in the four decades since then that the situation is barely recognisable today. The shape and performance of mainstream yachts has moved on, with wide-sterned cruisers and race boats careering around on foils, but the real revolution that affects us all is GPS. Even first-voyage tyros know where they are far out at sea. This astonishing fact is accepted as ‘read’ by the modern-yacht sailor who has grown up assuming the chart plotter will tell all, but the classic
