How Yachting Monthly magazine took a 40ft boat through 8 disaster scenarios.

Published 12 years ago, updated 5 years ago

Edited by Paul Gelder

Crash Tests by Chris Beeson

Published by Adlard Coles Nautical (January 2013)

ISBN: 9781408157275

What’s your worst sailing nightmare? Sinking, capsizing or a fire at sea? Have you ever run aground on a lee shore? How would you cope if your boat struck the rocks, or your yacht was holed in a collision?

This high-octane, action-packed book shows you how to avoid and troubleshoot a disaster at sea. Never before has anyone recorded so graphically, in words and pictures, what happens when a yacht starts to sink, suffers a dismasting, a capsize through 360º, fire on board or a gas explosion.

Panic is often the first response, but by recreating real-life disasters in a series of eight controlled experiments, The Crash Test Boat takes the drama out of a crisis and demonstrates how to stay afloat and stay alive when the chips are down – as well as how to avoid disaster in the first place. The book also features scannable QR codes which link to live-action crash test films, that literally bring the pages of the book to life.

Yachting Monthly is one of Europe’s leading yachting magazines, and its series of Crash Test articles was groundbreaking. Paul Gelder has written three books on round-the-world sailing events and has edited two anthologies of sailing disasters, Total Loss and Sunk Without Trace. After 22 years working at Yachting Monthly – the last 10 as Editor – he retired in 2012.

Chris Beeson, YM’s Assistant Editor, has logged over 30,000 ocean miles. His experience led him to write The Handbook of Survival at Sea, published in 2003.