The ex-fishing boat Dauntless and her crew of teenage boys are sailing up the West Coast of Scotland, determined to return with a bunch of heather on their masthead to prove they have reached the Island of Skye.

But their holiday plans come to an abrupt and sinister halt. A small coaster mistakes their boat for another converted fishing yawl, and Dauntless and her crew are caught up unexpectedly in a hunt for reckless and determined smugglers.

By chance the boys meet up with James McDougall, an ex-Customs officer and a friend of their sailing companion, Captain Blake. Because the crew of Dauntless are the only people who have actually seen the smugglers, they are key witnesses in the chase, so McDougall hitches a ride on Dauntless to track down the smugglers and find out where and when they trans-ship the contraband.

Even then the boys hope to finish their trip to Skye, but the smugglers decide to stop their spying by teaching them a lesson. And when they deliberately smash Dauntless' engine and slash her sails to ribbons, there is no holding her crew back from a chase that ends in a kidnap and the dreadful swirling waters of the Gulf of Corryvrechan.

This is an exciting sea story in the tradition of Arthur Ransome, which will be enjoyed by every young reader who has ever wanted to sail or own a boat. It is the second of the Dauntless adventure stories, well loved and widely read when first published, and which have now been revised for a new generation of young sailors and would-be sailors.

ISBN: 0 86391 008 4
194pp Hardback
Our RRP £6.25