Innholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2020 i Cruising World

Keep the rig up. These four words mean everything to a sailor. Over Lyra’s winter layup, I spent many hours working on her rig to ensure that we do just that. A big part of that came in the form of replacing the forestay, as well as a comprehensive overhaul and inspection of the ProFurl furling system. Lyra is our 1980 Reliance 44, and has a nine-year circumnavigation and several trans-Atlantic crossings under her belt. Additionally, we’ve been racking up an average of 2,000 nautical miles annually for the past 10 years on a rig that was last seriously serviced in the early 1990s while the boat was in New Zealand. It is a testament to her overbuilt design and uncompromising owners that it has held up well. With the…

To describe the shared living area aboard the Bali 5.4 catamaran—a tilt-and-lift door between cockpit and saloon all but eliminates the distinction between indoors and out—a builder’s representative said that the open space created by the lack of interior bulkheads means the boat will be enjoyed “no matter the weather.” I was, in fact, able to test that theory a few days after the close of the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland, when our Boat of the Year judges and I returned to the Bali for sea trials in monsoonlike conditions. After a thorough dousing (but very enjoyable trick at the wheel) atop the flybridge, I headed below, where, covered by the Bimini, all was as dry as a bone. And yes, the surroundings were indeed enjoyable. The ride…

One of the things I like best about baseball is watching a batter swing for the fences, and at the crack of the bat, he knows that he can afford to take a leisurely jog around the bases because he just hit the sweet spot. I had that same kind of feeling one day this past February when I stepped from the dinghy onto the transom steps of the new Seawind 1600 catamaran. Right away, I knew I was about to go for one fine sail—and on a near-perfect day to boot. Blue sky. Thirteen knots of breeze. Could it get better? Not until the sails were up. Built in Vietnam, at 52 feet LOA the 1600 is Seawind’s largest catamaran. It was designed by Reichel Pugh as a luxury…

SAIL THE GREEN MOUNTAINS Navtours has opened a charter-yacht base in Burlington, Vermont, giving sailors direct access to Lake Champlain from summer through September. The Burlington Harbor Marina, finished in 2019 and just outside the city, is the location of the new base. Nearby amenities and attractions include parks, the Church Street marketplace, restaurants, bike paths, walking trails, breweries, and grocery and liquor stores. Burlington is close to some of the lake’s most beautiful destinations to visit by boat, including Shelburne Bay, Willsboro Bay and Converse Bay. The Lake Champlain fleet of four bareboat monohulls and two multihulls includes Beneteau, Jeanneau, Dufour, Lagoon and Bali models. The base is also a sailing school, offering the American Sailing Association curriculum. Newport, Rhode Island, is another Navtours base in the United States.…

When queried how he could so consistently capture incredible photographs, renowned 1930s street photographer Arthur “Weegee” Fellig famously quipped, “f/8 and be there.” Beyond the technical lesson, I’ve always found this quote deeply impactful. Perhaps it’s because much of my career has been spent out in the world, but I believe there’s a painfully obvious and often overlooked truth buried in the simplicity of that sentiment. Being there. Being present in the moment. Paying attention to the world. But above all else, the importance of just getting yourself out there into those bewilderingly wild corners of our planet. And what better place than the ocean, and what better way than under sail? It was an early winter morning when I snapped this photo off the coast of Petit St. Vincent…

As cruising sailors, there are certain things that we have had to give up in the pursuit of our lifestyle, and until very recently, consistent, fast broadband internet was one of them. When away from shoreside Wi-Fi, many cruisers rely on cellular technology as their sole link to the internet, but it has its challenges—namely speed and coverage. With the launch of 5G networks, however, this has changed. With 5G, the service has the potential to offer speeds that are much faster than 4G LTE capabilities and greater bandwidth for all your gadgets. So what’s the catch? The tech is still new, 5G-capable phones are pricey (starting around $1,000), and not all carriers have the coverage that coastal cruisers need. But for significantly better internet aboard, it might be worth…

Spreading her wings: Shockwave gobbles up the miles tearing to weather in the Caribbean Multihull Challenge. There is a sound in the world of sailing unlike any other, one experienced (thankfully) by a small, select group of sailors, most of them elite, competitive racers in the thick of action on some of the lightest, fastest, most innovative boats on the planet. I’d never heard this particular noise, at least not up close and personal, until I found myself in the cockpit of the amazing 63-foot trimaran Shockwave late last winter on a very windy race around the Leeward Island of St. Maarten. In a side gig as the press officer for the second running of the Caribbean Multihull Challenge, I’d been invited aboard for the day to do my daily race…

MONTHLY MAINTENANCE In the midst of conducting a used-vessel pre-purchase inspection a few years ago, I encountered a textbook example of a failed secondary bond. I sat in the mid-bilge area with the buyer and rested my rigging knife on a shelf that had been recently installed to support a large battery bank. OK, hold that thought. The “parts” of a fiberglass boat—including the hull and cabin/deck structure—are made using resin and reinforcement. The former might be polyester, vinylester or epoxy, while the latter can range from traditional glass fabric, or E-glass, in various weights and weave patterns, to exotics such as Kevlar and carbon fiber. Regardless of materials, the construction of these parts is accomplished in such a way that the resin used for each laminate (a single layer…

France’s Groupe Beneteau coined the phrase “be immoderate” to promote its new Excess Catamarans brand. So, we were. On a day when a forecasted gale set off a wave of sea-trial postponements during the week following the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland, Excess regional sales director Frédéric Signat insisted that the Boat of the Year judging should go on as planned. It turns out, he was right. Not only did we have one heck of a ride before gusts topped 40 knots and convinced us it was time to drop the double-reefed mainsail and motor home, it was so good that the judges later named the Excess 12 the Best Midsize Cruising Catamaran for 2020. The Excess line was launched to offer a sportier alternative to what’s currently available…

1. GARMIN QUATIX 6 • $700 • GARMIN.COM The latest in the line of Garmin GPS smartwatches can do just about anything. It’s loaded with all the typical smartwatch functions, such as activity monitoring, and call, text and email notifications, plus specialized marine features, including navigation charts, tides, NMEA 2000 data and more. 2. NOMADER COLLAPSIBLE WATER BOTTLE • $25 • NOMADER.COM Packing a water bottle just got much easier. The Nomader bottle is made out of a sturdy heavy-duty silicone and can roll up compactly when not needed, yet is just as easy to use as a hard-sided bottle. The Nomader is leakproof and BPA-free. 3. DACOBLUE FUEL AND WATER BACKPACKS • $168 (KIT) • DACOBLUE.COM These fuel and water backpacks were born out of necessity by a cruiser…

DESIGNS Hydrofoils have been providing dynamic lift since fish sprouted fins. And people have been employing foils ever since they first put paddle to water, and certainly since adding keels and rudders to boats. But the modern, flying America’s Cup boats, kiteboards, Moth dinghies, shorthanded offshore thoroughbreds—these are all playing in a new world in which the terms “hydrofoils” or “lifting foils” describe those oriented to raise a hull or hulls from the water. In these racing realms, if you ain’t got foils, you ain’t got nothin’. Lifting foils that allow these boats to sometimes home in on three times the wind speed might appear to be of little interest to cruising sailors, but with such common cruising features as self-steering and autopilots, self-tailing winches, rope clutches, fin keels and…

There’s no question that the Neel 47, designed by the ubiquitous, performance-oriented French naval architect Marc Lombard, was an outlier in this year’s Boat of the Year contest. After all, it was the lone trimaran in the fleet of a half-dozen multihulls, the other five being cruising catamarans. But it was also a winner, named by our judging panel the Best Full-Size Cruising Multihull for 2020. When the votes were tallied, it truly proved to be in a class of its own. A big reason for that was its stellar sea trial. Eric Bruneel, the company founder, earned his boatbuilding stripes as a longtime top executive at cat-builder Fountaine Pajot, but in his spare time, he campaigned fast offshore multihulls on solo transoceanic yacht races. Superb sailing prowess isn’t a…

When it came time to replace its popular Helia 44, Fountaine Pajot asked customers what they wanted in a midsize cruising catamaran, and then turned to naval architect Olivier Racoupeau and its in-house team to design it. The result is the Elba 45, a stylish-looking cat with slightly inverted bows, a reverse sheer to its hulls, and a sporty coachroof and Bimini that does double duty as a flybridge lounge. The Elba made its North American debut this past fall at the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland, where our Boat of the Year judges and I first inspected its construction, layout and systems dockside, and then a few days later, took it sailing on a picture-perfect morning on Chesapeake Bay. In breeze that wavered between 12 and 16 knots,…

There was a time when cruising meant stepping off the map’s edge and enjoying days, weeks, months or—for the fortunate few—years away from life’s everyday hustle. Untethered from a landline, just communicating by snail mail posed challenges. Now, for better or worse, the modern world has caught up. While there’s no question that this has changed the face of cruising, modern conveniences such as satellite phones and satellite-communication systems have flung the door wide open to itineraries that involve a blend of sailing and work, all while staying in touch with friends and family. So, while that silence in some remote anchorage might occasionally get punctuated by a ringing intrusion, it’s also plenty possible that this same communications line can enable the adventure of a lifetime. Here’s a look at…