Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i Sailing Today

Lendy Cowes Week has launched a new sustainability initiative in an effort to make the event more environmentally friendly. The regatta, which attracts around 100,000 visitors every year, will be raising awareness of sustainability issues and highlighting how we can all help to make a difference both on and off the water. Some of the initiatives planned for 2018 include installation of more water filling stations for the general public and competitors, and improved waste recycling around the town. Kate Johnson of LCW said: "We believe that, as a large flagship regatta, we need to do what we can to minimise our impact on the environment." RNLI RESCUE A volunteer crew from Portaferry RNLI went to the aid of a man and his dog on board their 13m yacht which…

Bavaria C45 £237,000 Bavaria’s new range of cruising yachts has been hotly anticipated and the C45 is redolent of the level of ambition shown by the German giants. They describe her as being designed ‘in the style of a superyacht’ which is an interesting claim for a 45’ yacht. To this end, she boasts, among other features, bow and stern thrusters, a tender garage and the option of five cabins – unprecedented in this size bracket. This leaves us all scratching our heads and wondering how on earth they manage to shoehorn all of that into a 45ft yacht. It’s a good question and, although her beam is a generous 14ft 8in, that alone can’t fully explain it. It will be fascinating to see if the end result simply feels…

 One of my earliest memories of boat ownership recalls a fine Saturday morning squandered between Egypt Point on the Solent’s Island shore and Stone Point across on the mainland. Lymington had looked an easy sail from the Hamble and I, being little more than a boy, with no background in tidal planning and no navigation course completion certificate tucked securely in my back pocket, was bamboozled by the reality I faced. To and fro we went, beating into the stiffening sea breeze. At each tack, East Lepe buoy loomed up with its private bow wave, apparently charging to windward as the east-going spring flood swept past. The distance separating my 22-footer from the Town Quay was no less than it had been two hours earlier. ‘After a further morale-busting board,…

Take a stroll down the cobbled streets and narrow alleys of Falmouth and it won’t be long before even the most dedicated landlubber gets a minor craving for the sea. It’s a town so steeped in mercantile history that every paving slab and brick seems to whisper to you that this is a true sailor’s town. Even the local newspaper, The Falmouth Packet, harks back to a time when Britain’s merchant navy was the lifeblood not only of the town but of the country as a whole; a time when the Carrick Roads were crammed with windjammers either awaiting orders or outward bound to the far corners of the globe. The great joy of the place is that it retains this sea salt infused atmosphere. This remains a place where…

Wine racks. In the bilge. Moulded into the GRP. It’s an oblique opener I agree, but let it serve as a warning to anyone who regularly reads boat reviews. I’m going to let you into a little industry secret here, which is that I firmly believe that if a reviewer highlights that there is a wine rack integrated into the bilge of the yacht it’s time for alarm bells to start ringing. What the reviewer is really screaming out is that there is such a paucity of new and exciting features on the yacht in question that they have to resort to highlighting a feature that is so utterly perfunctory it really doesn’t deserve a mention. Imagine going to look at a house and the estate agent promptly highlighting, well,…

Owing to its location, Port Solent is a tricky marina to access. Passage planning requires vigilance, close attention to charts and a good understanding of the tides in the area. Port Solent tide tables show lock free-flow times and tide heights to local time and chart datum. No adjustment is required for British Summer Time. The marina lies to the far north of Portsmouth Harbour. On approach from the Solent, your first landmark for the Harbour will be Southsea Castle on the east side of the entrance and Fort Monkton on the west. This is a very busy shipping lane, so take care and keep well clear of the ferries, tankers and cruise ships, which always have right of way. The entrance to Portchester Lake, which is about a mile…

We’ve all been there, or at least witnessed, a longline going wrong. The approach is too far downwind, speed is too fast, the lines aren’t ready, anchors get crossed, fenders are deployed and then the shouting starts. Either from your neighbours for the night, making it an uncomfortable evening, or even worse, among the crew, turning a relaxing day out on the water into a catastrophe no-one wants to experience again. To ensure your memories on the water aren’t spoilt by that ‘one time it all went wrong’ here are some tips on how to pull off longlining smoothly, safely and in control. PREPARATION IS KEY The most important part of the manoeuvre is the preparation. When coming in to longline, if your yacht isn’t ready then it is highly…

OYSTER YACHTS SAVED Oyster Yachts has been rescued from administration by gaming software entrepreneur, Richard Hadida, who is believed to have invested many millions, though the exact figure has not been disclosed. The move will allow Oyster to resume construction on vessels and wider operations, which had been stopped with immediate effect, following the company’s failure in February 2018. Mr Hadida, who made his fortune developing software group Evolution Gaming, said he “fell in love” with the British yacht builder, having sailed one of its vessels. However he was also very keen to highlight that this investment was “not merely a hobby”. “I believe we must save this great British brand and nurture it for the long term. But it needs to be a sustainable business: hard, quick decisions need…

POOLE HARBOUR BOAT SHOW 8-10 JUNE – DORSET Poole Harbour will again come to life with the sparkle of new boats and the buzz of music and games, as the annual Boat Show sails into town. There’ll be fireworks, face painting and an eighteenth century frigate to entertain visitors. pooleharbourboatshow.co.uk SEA SHANTY FESTIVAL 22-24 JUNE - CORNWALL Time to warm up your vocal chords and charge your ale tankard, as the Falmouth Sea Shanty Festival is in town. The free fun-filled event takes place in pubs, historic courtyards and quays, and is sure to be a swashbuckling good time. falmouthseashanty.co.uk BRIXHAM TRAWLER RACE 16 JUNE - DEVON Watch as local fisherman battle it out to win the accolade of fastest fishing trawler in the land. Skippers dress their boats with…

Before I start, please allow me to tell you a bit about myself and my sailing experience. I have worked as a skipper and sailing instructor in and around the Solent for over 20 years. During that time, I have sailed many different types of yachts, some challenging and racy but mainly I sail and teach on ‘cruiser’ types of yachts. I was delighted when Sailing Today approached me to write an article about sailing around the Isle of Wight as an accompaniment to the famous Round the Island race itself. As Principal at Sailing Logic, a Hamble based company, we have regular clients who want to race hard around the island which is a ‘bucket list’ option for many sailors but I also understand that this is not for…

 f you remember a song called ‘Where have all the flowers gone?’ a big hit in the 1960s, you may also have hair that is nearer to snow white than the dark thatch of youth. I certainly do. But read on, I promise you this is not about hairdressing. ‘Where have all the small sailboats gone? On the bonfire, every one.’ I took a message from a friend in the US who had returned from a season’s sailing and posed the question, ‘Hey, where have all the plucky little sailboats gone?’ He was wondering why there seemed to be so few small cruising boats around these days? He’d visited some of the most popular anchorages in his part of the world, and was stunned to find that year-by-year the number…

Much of the time cruising yachts are sailed at speeds well below their potential. This is often for good reasons and part of the joy of cruising is taking it easy at times. However, there are also occasions when it is desirable to make the best possible progress and the annual Round the Island Race is an extravaganza that makes it possible to establish a pecking order as to how efficiently you can make your boat go on the day. While much of the media focus is on the state-of-the-art high tech raceboats, the reality is that they are in a minority. Almost two-thirds of the fleet are cruisers that sail under the Island Sailing Club’s simplified rating system. For most it’s the only race they do all year. Making…

BENETEAU OCEANIS 51.1 £241,000 Brand new from the other giants of French boatbuilding, and if anything even more innovative as she takes the ‘champagne glass’ hull section to its natural conclusion. The design ensures she too has a huge forward cabin. A bit bigger, and pricier, than the 490. beneteau.com HANSE 505 £253,839 A few years old now and a proven performer, this Judel/Vrolijk design mixes beauty and brutishness in her hull shape and achieves high internal volume thanks to the high freeboard while the sleek coachroof looks purposeful and stylish. The price quoted includes commissioning. inspirationmarine.co.uk BAVARIA C50 £239,000 All new from Bavaria and already making waves. Again, she’s a little bit bigger and a lot heavier than the Jeanneau 490. The Bavaria boasts a tender garage and there’s…

In the summer of 2016, we were returning from the Lofoten Islands on our way to Bergen, Shetland, Orkney, Caledonian Canal to Falmouth. We had sailed on Easy Rider, our trusted Bowman 40, along the Norwegian coast for two consecutive years. Looking back, we could have stayed for many more years were it not for the very strict VAT laws in Norway which stipulate that any foreign vessel staying longer than a maximum of two years has to pay VAT of 25%. The Norwegian coastline is 25,148 km long. That includes 2,650 km of mainland and long fjords and 58,133 km of islands’ coastlines. When we set out on our journey towards the Lofoten, we carried over 14kg of charts in our suitcase. Each day we had to prepare our…

If you are sailing from Port Solent then you are utterly spoilt for choice in terms of cruising grounds. You could head east towards Brighton, then Eastbourne, with the promise of Dover and Ramsgate beyond. This is actually a great option for Premier berth holders as both Brighton and Eastbourne are Premier Marinas so you could stop off for the night under their visitor benefit system, for no extra charge. Brighton, in particular, has plenty to entertain visitors, with its famed Regency architecture, a lively nightlife and the, almost overwhelming, café, pub and restaurant selection. Plus you could happily wile away a day around the town, whether rain or shine, with the birdlife on the beach, beach-hut shops, the celebrated Victorian pier, and the Pavilion to name but a few.…

Here comes the sun Jazz up your wardrobe These are sailing sunglasses with a difference. They include all the essential technology required to protect your eyes at sea, but also have the style to be worn on and off the water, without screaming ‘I’m a sailor!’ Featuring Carl Zeiss Vision Multilayer PC lenses, the Jazz range will ensure your vision is clear in all conditions, and provides 100% UV protection so, more important than anything else, your eyes are safe wherever you are in the world. The frames are flexible, lightweight and durable, so they’ll happily take on the rigours of life at sea, and the hard coating will stop them getting scratched-up and tarnished. • £76-£110 • lip-sunglasses.com Walk this way Sailing shoes with style Musto is well known…

OK that’s taking the slow route but, donning my Sailing Logic hat, I can also provide you with a few pointers on sailing it more rapidly and doing well in the Round the Island Race should you choose to enter. But first a bit of history: the annual race is organised by the Island Sailing Club and was the brainchild of Major Cyril Windele. It was first contested in 1931 with 25 boats taking part. Now, 87 years later, it attracts around 1,400 boats, making it one of the largest yacht races in the world and a blue ribbon event in the British sailing calendar. Competitors travel from across the globe, to take on the 50nm course, beginning on the famous Royal Yacht Squadron line in Cowes. The boats will…

‘The British Virgin Islands, a place strewn with delicious glittering little beaches’ Summer has begun. For us Brits the snatched breaks of bank holidays and family vacations send us flocking to the beach. Whether it’s the English seaside - complete with donkey rides, rockpools, and someone selling jellied eels - or jetting off to the stronger sun of the Mediterranean, Caribbean or somewhere else exotic, fringed with palm trees and powdery white sand one thing is true: the very idea of a beach holds an incredible allure for so many of us. However, an inevitable consequence of the sailing life is that your judgement of beaches will forever be utterly distorted. We’ve experienced the coastlines of 36 various countries, across different oceans and continents and visited hundreds of shores. There…

In September 1980 I was sitting in the cockpit of Fiddlers Green in the small resort of Bodrum when the army rolled into town. As military coups went it wasn’t a big affair: a couple of trucks of troops, a few jeeps and some rumours of a tank on the road out of town. A few roadblocks were set up and a 10pm curfew introduced. Life went on pretty much as usual and the soldiers on duty were easy-going, even friendly. It was interesting listening to BBC World Service reports of all communications being cut with Greece, of food shortages and general nastiness in the country. One yachting magazine even reported that foreign yachts were to be impounded by the military. While things were more violent in the urban conglomerations…

PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR The marina lies to the north of busy Portsmouth Harbour DRY STORAGE Winter storage and boat maintenance is available to berth holders and visitors MARINA Port Solent is a popular base for south coast cruising and Solent racing Port Solent Marina lies within the vibrant and vital Portsmouth Harbour, home to cruise ships, ferries and centuries of British maritime history. Although this location does demand some delicate passage planning, it also makes for an exciting place to visit. Looking first at the maritime history, you have Nelson’s famed HMS Victory, a 104-gun frigate launched in 1765 and best known for her role in the Battle of Trafalgar. She’s the world’s oldest naval ship still in commission, in order to protect and maintain her for generations to come. And…

Every new round of MFDs includes additional features far beyond simple chartplotting. They do that too, of course, and blazingly fast thanks to modern graphics processors and built-in GPS. But these days, the choices you need to make are more around peripherals and connectivity. Most obvious is the suite of sailing features – an area where B&G still dominates, but Garmin is close behind. Look out for laylines and insights into changes in the wind trends. Support for remote cameras are a growing feature, allowing you to spot dangers even in the dark. Raymarine’s Axiom Pro is even capable of analysing the image and alerting you if it spots an object. It also allows you to synch your camera drone with the MFD, watching its footage and controlling its movements…

We have two young children and decided it was time we did something a bit more adventurous than our usual weekend sailing to anchor off one of Torbay’s lovely beaches. I don’t mean real adventure, I mean an adventure for the gentle, pottering cruising sailor whose main aim is to ensure the family continues to enjoy being on the boat for as many years as possible. Our boat is a Nicholson 32 of 1971 vintage and we know it capable of taking us anywhere in the world. I’m of 1957 vintage and have sailed for much of my life and am thinking the family – my wife Jill, and sons, Patrick (10) and Matthew (7) – would enjoy a trip to France. At weekends they love beaches, swimming and most…

Outside the shimmering waters of Marina Fort Louis, Marigot, we set sail... Our leisurely pace of roughly six knots took us towards the crystalline waters of Friar’s Bay. Welcomed by intimate coves and vibrant umbrellas dotting white sands, the bay made an idyllic backdrop for our first swim. Understandably an area that’s still recovering from Irma, we were happily surprised to be greeted by smoky BBQ aromas in the Grand Case, leading us to tuck into Lolo’s delicious spread of freshly caught lobster and ribs. Gentle trade winds then carried us to the pristine shores of Tintamarre. Untouched by the storm, this spectacular French nature reserve remains filled with lush greenery and hiking trails just waiting to be explored. In the late afternoon we ventured up to Orient Bay. With…