The Cunliffe manoeuvre

It’s not clear whether this beleaguered pair passed their Day Skipper Practical exam on this occasion – or even survived – but at least they panicked in a proper seamanlike manner, applying tried and tested Tom Cunli e-approved techniques. As one crew gamely pushes out the boom with a weighted keg on the end, his mate hauls desperately on a halyard attached to a kedge anchor in e ort to avoid destruction on a lee shore.

Aptly titled ‘A Yachting Emergency’, this monochrome watercolour by Leslie Arthur Wilcox (1904-1982) was originally commissioned for a Learning From Experience-type article in Yachting World, which demonstrates the lengths to which people will go to get a painting of their boat in a magazine – and that we do indeed never learn. Estimated at £250-400, the gruesomely charming image is coming up in Charles Miller Ltd’s next marine sale on 26 April.