A summer sail to the terrific spot of Heybridge Basin near Maldon on the stunning River Blackwater in Essex. Four blokes and a hound enjoy a jolly jaunt to this fantastic canal basin. We paddleboard along the canal and make the most of the local facilities including the Tiptree Tee Rooms and Jolly Sailor pub. Summer Breeze is a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 29.2. We enjoy cruising and sailing around the UK coast, mainly east of england and along the south coast.

Richard has enjoyed a full season sailing with Dreamtime. In this episode myself & Lottie Boat Doggy are generously invited back at the end of the season for a sail on the River Medway. It's a beautiful wintry day on the water and wonderful to get another chance to sail the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 349. Let's see how many scratches he's put in her!

I get to sail a brand new Limited Edition Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 349 on the last leg of her maiden voyage from Ramsgate to Gillingham. Along the way I review some of the features of this beautiful yacht, sharing what I love and what could be improved. Thank you to Richard for having me along for the ride! Dreamtime is a stunning boat with many optional extras and upgrades. Including an Ultra Marine Anchor, Ultra Flip Swivel, Mantus Anchor Mate, Bowsprit, Grey Hull, Furling Code Zero, Liteskin mainsail and self tacking jib. Sunbrella plus canvas, Raymarine axiom electronics with evolution auto pilot and a bow thruster. Sails are by Technique Voile. The engine is a Yanmar 3YM20 (21HP). The Sun Odyssey 349 is a category A rated yacht, this is the 2 cabin version with a dedicated garage and large shower in the heads compartment. She has twin wheels, twin rudders and a shoal keel giving a draft of 1.45m. There is a fold down bathing platform with a cockpit shower and dedicated life raft stowage.

It was really special during the particularly challenging year of 2020 to enjoy a wonderful day with my lovely Grandad. It was the old boy's first time out on Summer Breeze and as an old Navy man we had a wonderful time together, usually trying to out-do each other up with some good stories. Here we are on the River Medway on a sunny and still September afternoon.

We set sail at dawn from Queenborough on the stunning Swale to head 50 miles up the east coast to Suffolk Yacht Harbour on the picturesque River Orwell. One of the most beautiful rivers to sail. A lovely meal in Levington was followed the next day by a superb sail back home to Gillingham Marina on the River Medway. Thank you to Mark, Jay & Ian for joining me as affable beer swigging pirates on this adventure.

Jess enjoys her first circumnavigation of the delightful Isle of Sheppey, wearing her special sailing pyjamas. We set off from Queenborough on a sleepy summer's day in July 2020 for a gentle sail around the Island. It's around 30 miles to get all the way around the Isle of Sheppey. We managed it in around 7 hours mainly motor sailing and by working the tides in our favour. We sailed the Swale from West to East and then along the top home.

Lucky enough to be invited for a sail on another beautiful yacht, this time a Dufour 32 Classic. Take a sail with us and enjoy a boat tour of this superb sailing cruiser. Thank you to Richard for the sail.

Take a tour of a stunning and very different boat. A Nonsuch 30 is a cat boat, quite out of the ordinary considering your usual sloop. She has a single huge sail, a bit like a giant Windsurf. The single large slab sail together with wishbone boom and completely unstayed mast makes her rather unique. NONSUCH are based in Canada made a series of beautiful Cat Boats in 80s and 90s and 'No Rival' is a very fine example. I was lucky enough to spend a sunny August afternoon sailing on her with her owners. Huge thanks to Mike for the detailed overview of the boat and for Maz for the fantastic below decks tour. Great fun and a great boat!

Learning as I go I am trying my luck at re-configuring my mainsheet setup. This means making several holes in the deck for various new fittings, while trying to figure out what i'm suppose to be doing. Summer Breeze is a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 29.2 and her original mainsheet was connected to an eye at the end of the boom to a deck eye just in front of the helm. This has always been a pain because it's right in the middle of the cockpit in everybody's way. Moving to the German Mainsheet system gets the connection point out of the cockpit and instead on to a traveller on the coachroof, it's then connected with various blocks to the mast, then led back to the cockpit, not very far from where it was before but very much out of the way! I'm using a Lewmar NTR pinstop track size 1, together with a Lewmar NTR car size 1. I'm using plain bearing blocks from Wichard together with a Spinlock deck organiser, Spinlock Mini Jammers and a Spinlock PXR Cam Cleat. This worked well to begin with but ultimately I changed the track to high beam after some experimentation, there's a follow up video here: https://youtu.be/8jEae7B0VnM

In my last film I show you how I moved to a german mainsheet system from a conventional end of boom setup. In this film I take a solo sail to test out the new mainsheet and see how it works. There are lessons learned along the way and eventually I found that the original pinstop NTR track began to bend, so I have since replaced this for Lewmar's High Beam track which avoids the need for additional re-enforcement along it's length. Comments, questions and feedback welcomed! If you enjoy the video please subscribe :)

A boom brake could save your life or the life of your crew. It's a simple safety device that's easily fitted to the boom to prevent accidental gybes. I recently purchased the Walder BoomBrake at the Dusseldorf Boat Show and in this video I show you how i've installed it on Summer Breeze my Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 29.2 which I keep on the River Medway in Kent. While it's primary function is safety the BoomBrake can also help improve downwind sailing, by ensuring you only gybe when you want to and making goose winging extremely easy. Without the BoomBrake goose winging your yacht can be a bit of a dark art, however I find this so easy now. I'm using the BoomBrake 103, details can be found here: https://www.walderweb.com/our-boom-brakes-range/ Please note I'm not affiliated in any way with Walder however as I've found this a valuable safety device and sailing tool I thought it worth sharing how to install it.

Crashing your boat is never fun but it can be made better if you have Champagne. Jay and I take the less travelled path Sailing to Stangate Creek on the River Medway in Kent. Beautiful marshland and waterscapes await on this sunny jolly day in June. Restrictions have just begun to ease and old friends can finally meet up. Expect the usual medley of fun, silliness, boat beer reviews and general tomfoolery. Hope you enjoy the film!

Back in January before the world went crazy, Stuart & I visited Boot at Düsseldorf. This is the more honest light hearted side of the show they don't put in the magazines or brochures. We take a detailed look at the Haber 660, the amazing Moody 41DS. Moody 54DS, Sirius 35 and Viko S35. However there's something for everyone as we also take a look at everything from Anchors to Winch Handles. Come and join us for what may be a thing of the past for a while - a whirlwind tour of a big boat show!

With lockdown relaxed we make a break for Stangate Creek enjoying a beautiful day on the water. For Jess as a hard working nurse this is truly a much needed break. Hats off to all our amazing key workers, you're all incredible!

New crew mate tell us some really bad dad jokes to keep us going as we set sail in wintry December. Brace yourself as some of these dad jokes are really rubbish. We make no apologies! Tap subscribe to keep seeing these terrible videos from Sailing Summer Breeze!

Anchoring alone to test my shiny new Quick GP2 Genius Windlass (self isolating before it was popular!). Check out how I get on, anchoring in a small creek on the River Medway. This was filmed on a chilly day in November 2019. The Windlass is a Quick GP2 Genius 2000 which has an 800w motor and is suitable for boats 26 to 39 feet long. I've recently had it fitted to Summer Breeze my Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 29.2. I'm using 8mm galvanised chain and the anchor is an 8kg CQR Plough Anchor. The windlass is really easy to use on your own, I have a wired remote control plugged in to the bow locker so I can keep an eye on the windlass and chain while I'm using it. If you'd like to know more feel free to get in touch!

Summer Breeze sets sail with a mutinous new crew, thirsty for piracy & nandos. Join us for a near death experience, dubious boat handling and a lesson in how not to wash your boat! It's all happening in the latest episode of Sailing Summer Breeze (filmed August 2019). With thanks to my crew Julia, Laura, Cisem & Shannon.

We sail to Deadman's Island, abandon our boat and take our paddleboards over to explore this peculiar place. Who knows what we'll find when we get there! Join us for the adventure. Drone footage courtesy of Medway Drone Exploration and www.Boatpics.net Photos from Unsplash with credits to: Andrey Zvyagintsev, Andrik Langfield, Austin Neill, Chris Chow, Kyle Peyton, Marco Bianchetti, Sebastian Leon, William Isted, Zachary Debottis & Ruben Bagues

The boys are mucking about on the boat again. We start with a superb lunch at stunning Upnor Castle. Ditch & Jay review two paddleboards, an iRocker Sport and Red Paddle Wind. Find out which is best for beginners. Jay then gets dunked as we take one of the boards wake boarding or as we call it Fakeboarding on the back of a Sailboat. It's all fun and games in a summery Sailing Summer Breeze. Please comment below!

Summer Breeze enters her first ever yacht race the prestigious Mary Cup. With wind speed reading zero to nothing, see how we did! As underdogs we inevitably spent a lot of time fighting the tide and hilariously crashing very slowly in to our fellow competitors. Who knew sailboat racing could be so much fun! With thanks to the Royal Engineer and Medway Cruising Clubs for organising the Mary Cup race which took place in September 2019.