Innholdsfortegnelse for August 17 i Cruising Helmsman

Women who sail Australia is a support network for women involved with and interested in, all things sailing and the ocean. It began as a closed Facebook group in which all women were welcome to join knowing they could discuss topics in a female-friendly environment. WWSA has grown to close to 2000 members. The, now, annual WWSA Gathering is an opportunity for members to catch up with old friends, make new ones, learn and share knowledge while raising money for ‘Sailors with disabilities’ (SWD) and Marine Rescue Port Stephens. This year, founder Shelley Wright and organisers welcomed 100 women to the conference once again at Broughton at the bay, Port Stephens. The Friday evening’s pre-event dinner saw a fun talk by cruising legend Lin Pardey about her adventures. After the…

Cruising Helmsman, sister magazine Australian Sailing and our combined website: mysailing.com.au, will all be attending the Yaffa Sailing Media stand in the main pavillion of Sydney’s International Boat Show (SIBS). At the stand you can subscribe to your favourite mags at significantly reduced prices plus, if you sign up to receive the twice-weekly Mysailing newsletter, you will go in the draw to win a Garmin quatix 5 sailing watch valued at $799. The watch was highlighted in our July issue or you can check out Garmin: buy.garmin.com/en-AU/AU/p/580642. Editors Phil Ross and Roger McMillan will also be wandering around the show and look forward to having you stop us and have a chat. Keep an eye out for the logoed hats and tops. To give you a heads up for the show…

I stood on the finger pier and thought, “I do not belong here.” He (‘he’ being Captain Hunk) does belong here, that is why we are here. It was the morning of my first ever day sail on anything smaller than a ferryboat. Anticipation galvanised me like a swashbuckler before a seafaring adventure. I smiled at that silly idea. Swashbuckling adventure was so not on my bucket list. Malc, Emily’s owner, looked up. He stopped unclipping the sail covers and barked, “Avast you scurvy swabs. We sail on the noon tide.” I felt a great yawn spread up my body. My ennui had nothing to do with Malc’s fondness for pirate-speak, but rather the absence of sail covers. To a landlubber (i.e. me), it meant that Malc intended to sail…

WHEN a pal of mine found his yacht washed up at Gosford one day the first thing I asked him was “did you service your mooring, mate?” His eyes dropped to the floor. He bit his bottom lip. Not only had my tardy chum not serviced his mooring, for which Maritime had sent him reminders, it meant his insurance was null and void. Fortunately for my dear chum the damage was minimal. But what if he had taken out a couple of zillion-dollar yachts along the way? Ouch! What is involved in serving a mooring? Do they check by scuba? Snorkel? Trained seals? PRINCE OF MOORS Tethered to the end of Davistown Wharf is the historic Varoona. Built in Sydney by The Manly and Port Jackson Steamship Company in 1942,…

BORNE out of a simple statement from Brent Vaughan during one lunch, the Seabbatical Inaugural cruising short film fest came to fruition at this year’s Sanctuary Cove boat show. Both the Multihull Central director and Cruising Helmsman thought this was a great idea but had no concept of how to get it going. Or whether it would even be successful. Certainly neither of us thought it would be such a hit as it was. The idea was simple, promote the idea to our readership and others to send in a video of under eight minutes long, telling a sailing story. It must include sailing and it must tell a story. Want to guess how many entries we received? Four hundred and thirty two. An exhausting but entirely engrossing exercise in…

THE Hanse 315 was created with the idea of being fast, easy and safe in any conditions. Designed by Judel/Vrolijk & Co. this boat fits easily into that brief. The boat is customisable and adaptable to suit any owners needs. Whether you are after a yacht to race in your club’s weekend racing or twilights, or one that you can take your family away for the weekend this boat makes a perfect size. At almost 32 foot, the 315 fits easily into marina berths and with a draft of 1.85 metre you can sneak into most bays for a weekend stay. The yacht tested had a few of the optional extras including teak decks; which add to the elegance when you first step on board via the swim platform. Just…

ARRIVAL WARNING ENSURES MORE SAILING TIME The level of service for customers who keep their yacht at Soldiers Point Marina has taken a leap into the future with the introduction of a smart-phone application titled ‘V-Assist’. The idea behind the app is to increase the service to the marina’s customers by making it easy to set out and return on your yacht. V-Assist keeps the marina on alert when a yacht owner approaches the marina, either on land or on the water. Each customer is issued with two tags similar to those used for toll roads: one for the car and one for the yacht. On approach by road, an alert is triggered as they pass a sensor about three kilometres from the marina, which identifies the customer’s car, generating…

AFT CABIN ISLAND BED Like many other small, aft cabin cruising yachts, Colin Johnson’s Jarkan 10.5 Freespirit had an inconvenient double bed. In this case, the position of the bed meant one partner had the aft deck close above their side of the bed and the athwartships orientation meant that person had to climb over the other to get in or out of bed. Quite a claustrophobic arrangement and not satisfactory for the lengthy cruise Colin and his partner were planning. Colin decided to create an island bed that had their heads in the most spacious part of the cabin, under a hatch with abundant light and air, which could be accessed from either side. This was no simple task as it required major work to relocate the steering wires…

“ANYONE WHO CAN NEGOTIATE MORETON BAY OR SYDNEY HARBOUR ON A BUSY SUNDAY AFTERNOON SHOULD NOT HAVE ANY PROBLEMS.” THE ‘Wonderful sail 2 Indonesia’ rally was over and we were being checked out of Indonesia at Tanjung Pinang. Once the checkout formalities were finalised and we had the port clearance papers in our hot little hands we had a nice dinner and drinks with the friends we had made on the rally. During the course of the dinner we discussed the Singapore Strait crossing and finalised our plan before retiring to our vessels for the night. We were all organised though a little sad we had to leave Indonesia the next day, we knew the day was coming but now it was finally here. Departure day dawned with drizzly rain…

RECOGNITION is such a subjective concept. We each have different ideas as to what is an exceptional achievement. In a recreational lifestyle such as ‘cruising’ it is even harder to find such achievements. Cruisers are an individualistic bunch. Yes, we may cruise in company and yes, there is something special about congregating in a secluded harbour on one person’s yacht for sundowners. But usually we just do what we want to do because of the pleasure derived, not to break records or even to win awards. So how do we recognise suitable candidates? Without naming names, personally I think it is obvious a candidate has to have done something seen by others in the cruising community as beneficial or exceptional. Top priorities in my mind then would be someone who…

A LARGE fleet of 26 Beneteau’s competed for the 16th running of the Pittwater Cup at the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club recently. First-timers regulars and seasoned salts enjoyed the hospitality of the crew of Flagstaff Marine. However, the first two divisions did get away on time, just. Shortly thereafter, and as Division Three struggled to even make the line, let alone cross it, the answering pennant was hoisted and a 20 minute delay ensued. At 12:45hrs the rest of the fleet started and the ride north improved as the afternoon wore on. In the case of Greg Newton, helming his Oceanis 45 Antipodes of Sydney, his crew had a ball in their Hawaiian shirts, and also kicked on as that breeze filled, with their kite propelling them to a…

LOOKING for new sailing frontiers and adventures? Many yachties, especially retirees without time restraints, are looking for new places to sail. My partner Roger and I have just had the privilege of being caretakers on behalf of Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service on a remote island in the Bass Strait. Deal Island is part of the Kent Group and an historic lighthouse settlement. All summer long and autumn too we received an endless stream of visitors on yachts, motor-cruisers and kayaks and nearly everyone hailed either from Victoria or Tasmania. As we come from the south coast of NSW and I was raised a sailor, I thought it time to raise the curtain on the Bass Strait islands and let the good people of other states in on the secret.…

OUR boat Kate, a Newport 41’, was originally sloop rigged but the hardware for an optional inner forestay was installed both on the mast and the deck during the build. While in Tahiti in 2010 we installed a wire forestay and, although it was removeable by attaching it to the deck with a Highfield lever, when stowed at the mast it clanked around while underway. Left in place but not in use it inhibited the headsail when we tacked. It seemed like no matter where it was it was an annoyance. With more windward passages in our near future we knew we would be using our staysail a lot more but we wanted a rig set-up that was easy to use but could be cleared off the deck quickly. We…

MANY yacht designs nowadays look sleek and racy with flared aft topsides accentuated by somewhat harsh chines. Bavaria’s latest 46 footer remains in what could be seen as ‘old school’ with its high straight sides and rounded transom, which agrees with it being a part of this yacht builder’s ‘Style’ range of cruising yachts. It must be remembered, however, Bavarias are Bruce Farr designs. Given that design pedigree you can be assured there is nothing amiss with this design. There are plenty of other respected designers also shunning the chine. Does it make a difference? OUT FOR A SPIN Certainly not when helming. Recalling previous tests done on yachts of the same size but with striking chine designs I came across both the Azuree 46 (May 2016) and the Dufour…

BEANY was slumped over my shoulder, her tiny body wasted away. She was so weak she could barely stay awake. Giardia and possibly salmonella, had overtaken her body. I barged through the emergency room doors of the Tarawa Hospital, determined to find a cure for my four year old child, instantly I was stopped in my tracks. Shock pulsed through me. A frail man around the age of 50 lay on the floor on a pandanus mat, every last bone exposed under his thin layer of skin. The man’s face faded away. His eyes the only thing left, dribble sliding down his chin. His legs were covered in open sores, the flies swarming around them waiting for their chance to devour the rotting flesh. He was so weak he could…