A Conversation with Tom Cunliffe: Seamanship, Storytelling, and “Hurricane Force”— A Berthon Podcast

“Making a landfall after a month at sea using only the sun and stars… that’s something GPS can’t give you,”

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This episode of the Berthon Podcast welcomes one of the most recognisable voices in British sailing, author, journalist, broadcaster, and master mariner Tom Cunliffe. Tom has spent a lifetime at sea: racing, cruising, teaching, examining, and writing. Whether you know him from Yachting Monthly, Sailing Today, his BBC TV series, or his many books, he has a rare ability to make even complex seamanship feel approachable and full of character. Sitting down over a cup of tea, Tom took us from the Norfolk Broads to the Arctic, from gaff cutters with no engines to GPS-era navigation, and finally to his brand-new novel Hurricane Force, a yachting thriller decades in the making.

Tom’s lifelong connection to the sea began unexpectedly. “My dad was a Cambridge rower,” he tells us, “but nobody in my family really had anything to do with sailing.” That didn’t stop his father from putting 14-year-old Tom and a friend on a train to Norfolk with nothing but a copy of Teach Yourself Sailing. “It wasn’t much good,” Tom laughs, “but we read it on the train, arrived, were handed a 25-foot gaff sloop with no engine, and told to ‘get on with it.” That engine-free foundation shaped everything that followed, including the years he and his wife Ros spent exploring South America and the Caribbean aboard a 1903 Colin Archer. “We went 42 days out of Rio with no engine,” he remembered. “We were entirely on our own, responsible for our lives and our little boat. It bred real self-reliance.”

Traditional Seamanship in a Modern World

Across the conversation, Tom reflected on the changing nature of navigation. He speaks with deep respect for traditional seamanship, something he feels modern sailors lean away from. “Making a landfall after a month at sea using only the sun and stars… that’s something GPS can’t give you,” he said. “Today, the experience is watered down. You press a button, and that’s that.” He isn’t anti-technology, far from it. He writes for Marine Electronics Journal and helped develop the AngelNav app, but he believes strongly that sailors should still know how to think, calculate, and navigate without relying entirely on screens.

One of the most refreshing parts of the conversation was Tom’s perspective on qualifications. Despite being a Yachtmaster Examiner, he has never believed that certificates alone define good seamanship. His wife Ros, who has sailed with him from the Arctic to the Tropics, holds no formal qualifications at all. As Tom put it, “I’m proud to say that my lady wife, who has sailed to the Arctic and the tropics… hasn’t even got a competent crew certificate.” It’s not a dismissal of training, but a reminder that the sea rewards judgment and awareness long before it rewards paperwork.

^ Berthon’s Sue Grant, Tom and his wife Ros at Berthon Marina – Lymington

Behind the Scenes of Tom Cunliffe’s Hurricane Force

Tom also spoke about his latest project, Hurricane Force, his first published novel, although its roots go back decades. Set in the Caribbean during the 1970s, the story draws on the world he and Ros knew well. “It should come with a government health warning,” he joked. “You won’t be able to put it down.” Originally drafted in the 1980s on a roll of wallpaper found in a skip, rediscovered years later, then rewritten aboard their current yacht while cruising the Baltic, the book has already earned rave reviews. Alexander McCall Smith even described Tom as “the Dick Francis of yachting thrillers.”

The episode is packed with stories, from sailing backwards under mizzen alone to smuggling bikinis across the Caribbean for $400 (“the man paid us upfront and said ‘you won’t be back’… and he was nearly right”).

Through it all, Tom’s humour, warmth, and deep seamanship shines through, offering not only entertainment, but insight into a life lived entirely on, near, and because of the sea.

You can listen to the full conversation, including more tales, more wisdom, and Tom’s thoughts on a potential sequel to Hurricane Force, on your preferred podcast platform.

For further information contact sue.grant@berthon.co.uk.

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