Leader - Bravo Ellen! When did sailing ever attract so many column inches in the press?
Ellen - a new sailing sensation - She captured the hearts of the British and French public and moved the notoriously cynical British press to waves of eulogy on her achievements. But when all the hype has died down, what has Ellen MacArthur's success in the Vendee Globe meant to her and to British sailing? How did she manage to do it? In this 16-page special, we look at the hard work behind the heroism

EXCLUSIVE: Sailing Kingfisher home - Technical Editor Matthew Sheahan was one of the three-man crew to leap aboard Kingfisher a day after the Vendee finish to sail her home to Britain. He learned first hand what it's like to sail one of these powerful machines

On the wind - New UK boat tax threatened - the RYA fights back; startline collision of two BT Challenge boats
Letters to the Editor - Why do British boats come out on top in Boat Tests?
Dogwatch - Keep your old flares, they could come in handy
Heroes of the North - In the second part of our feature on high latitudes pioneers we head to the Arctic and look at explorers who have sailed to the ice in search of adventure: 52 A potted history of Arctic sailing, from the Vikings to John Gore-Grimes, by Tom Cunliffe 56 Trespassers on Ostrov Viktoriya Gore-Grimes succeeds in his third attempt to reach Franz Josef Land, defying Russian authorities 62 In the Tilman tradition Climbing in Greenland with Bob Shepton 66 Fitting out for high latitudes Beth Leonard finds out from the experts how to go about refitting for cold water sailing
Cruising Log - Concerns over ship watchkeeping, investigating Greek taxes and city sailing in Sydney
Letter from the Caribbean - Climb the Quill on Statia with Chris Doyle and find out how to build a boat for less than a 3ft model
Channel surfing in the German Bight - Not pure Riddle of the Sands but a close-run thing. Peter Cumberlidge explores the channels and islands of the German Frisian chain and finds things have changed a little since the days of the Dulcibella
Fishtales - For Sayula II, winner of the first Whitbread Round the World Race, it wasn't all plain sailing
Firefly - Andrew Bray plans some cool tactics for the Tropics
Racing Round-up - One-designs on a roll at Key West and Adrian Stead talks about the British America's Cup effort
Xtreme sailing - Transatlantic record-breaking run by Bernard Stamm
Leading Edge - Jean-Marie Finot, doyen of Open 60 design, had some radical ideas for a speed machine 12 years ago
What's New - The latest in Navtex equipment, remote computers for racing navigators, a new type of lifeboat and Weather Wizard for analysing Internet information
New Yachts - A new Ker one-design built for speed, a 40-footer for solo round the world racing, stylish Spanish 46-footer
Best of Boot 2001 - We comb the halls of the Diisseldorf Boat Show
Roaring 40s - Matthew Sheahan finds out why the Farr 40 is fast becoming the grand-prix one-design to be seen in
SuperSail - Royal Huisman is working on three superb classics
Why Rangerl - The Super J Ranger was built solely to win the 1937 America's Cup. She was not beautiful and was scrapped in 1941 so why are so many replicas planned?
Yachts for sale - 1000s of yachts in our brokerage pages
Classified ads - Boat bits and bargains, courses and charters
Robin Knox-Johnston - How many modern boats have a really strong cleat for the anchor chain or for a tow if necessary?