The seventh edition of Isles of Scilly is an indispensable guide for anyone seeking to sail this stunning archipelago, located twenty-two nautical miles off the coast of Cornwall, England.

Meticulously researched and completely rewritten by RYA Offshore Yachtmaster skipper David Hackett, who has been navigating these islands for many years, this pilot offers detailed sailing directions and thorough anchorage information to ensure your safe passage around these challenging yet rewarding waters.

Sam Llewellyn’s Review for the RCCPF, September 2024

Pilot books have evolved from rock dodging manuals into something more discursive and interesting. The Isles of Scilly pilot, seventh
edition, is one of these. As you would expect, the book gives sound sailing directions for reaching Scilly – something of an epic in itself as the archipelago owes its charm not only to its astonishing natural beauty, but to the fact that it is at least thirty five miles to windward of just about everywhere. Then it provides advice and instructions for moving from island to island.

Scilly may be one of the world’s most gorgeous cruising areas, but it is also one of the most alarming. In my youth we messed about there in engineless boats, perpetually reminded that the seas had come all the way from New York to hammer those black deadly rocks and that staying alive depended on many transits and clearing lines all to be learned by heart .

Forty years on, Scillonian sea marks are still largely non-existent. In its purely pilotage section, Hackett’s Isles of Scilly, as well as pointing out anchorages, channels dangers and the complete absence of marinas, features several charts and chartlets showing at least twenty six of the most important transits and clearing lines. These form a foundation for the text.

Anyone tempted to bash on regardless across that nice blue bit of water between the bow and the Bishop Rock and hope for the best, should read the excellent introductory sections of the pilot expanded and indeed completely rewritten in this edition. These deal not only with the multifarious natural wonders of the archipelago and its interesting culture, but its maritime history. A navigator afflicted by the claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in a spider’s web of transits and clearing bearings, may find it salutary to turn to the author’s account of Scilly wrecks. This begins with the wrecking of Sir Cloudesley Shovell with a large British fleet in the now, as then, appallingly
difficult Western Rocks, famous for rips, overfalls and fearsome weather and continues through centuries of disaster and island heroism to the present day.

A nitpicker might raise an eyebrow at a few infinitesimal solecisms: Hanjaque for Hanjague, Hangman Rock for Hangman’s Island. Ignore them. It is hard to imagine a boat cruising Scilly managing without this indispensable companion to the attainment, enjoyment, history, navigation and pilotage of a place unique in the world.

Sam Llewellyn, September 2024

Published by Imray

DISCOUNTS available through Imray and Bluewater Books for Basic and Premium members (see details and links below)