Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2019 i Cruising Helmsman

THE dates are set and the planning is in place for the 37th. Fiji Regatta Week: September 13th. to 19th. Staged by the Musket Cove Yacht Club, located on Malolo Lailai Island off mainland Fiji’s west coast, Regatta Week has a long-standing reputation for being the most fun in the sun for any sailors when under sail in the Pacific. The regatta’s formula for success, which has evolved over the past 36 years, is built around excellent tradewind racing on well-planned courses that take in nearby tropical islands; sailing matched only by the best onshore fun to be had. Early indications are that a fleet of more than 110 monohulls and multihulls hailing from points all around the Pacific will be there. That converts to some 300 participants, family, friends…

AS you fly into Proserpine you notice the wild and rugged landscape give way to the manicured fields of humanity and the mass production of sugar cane to feed the insatiable addiction of the west for sugar. A parallel springs to mind of Bolivia and its coca leaf. Apart from this small enclave of civilisation there is a feeling that you really are out in the middle of nowhere, a sensation reinforced by the airport terminal, which is no larger than the average Aussie shed and is reminiscent of a backwater Indian village airport. The journey from the airport to Airlie Beach takes you through a maze of cane fields which are a blur of brown cane with vivid green leaves slowly swaying in the subtropical trade winds. The fields…

IN July 2017 we retired; we hate that word because it conjures up the thought of giving up and retreating. Check it out in the dictionary: ‘to shut oneself away, retreat, withdraw from action or danger.’ The one definition we did like was: ‘to quit working’! That is what we did. We gave up our jobs to live on board our catamaran Take It Easy full time; we put our home up for rental and organised ourselves for a life afloat, until it stopped being fun. There was never any doubt we would like the live-aboard lifestyle. We had spent many years cruising in summer for eight weeks at a time and most weekends saw us make the pilgrimage from Melbourne to Gippsland for a sailing fix. Do we still…

THE Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) announced its 2018 recipients of awards recognising achievements in bluewater sailing over the past 18 months. Top awards went to sailors who have featured in Cruising Helmsman. The Club’s premier award, the OCC Barton Cup named after OCC founder Humphrey Barton, went to Australian Bill Hatfield onboard L‘Eau Commotion, for his recently-completed westabout single-handed circumnavigation, which included a particularly difficult and protracted passage around Cape Horn. Reported in Cruising Helmsman in December 2018, his voyage took him south of the great capes, with just one stop in the Falkland Islands after sustaining damage to rig and steering. That was not the first time that Bill had made the Falkland retreat as he had been forced to do the same in the voyage that led to…

FOR over 35 years Australian catamaran manufacturer Seawind Catamarans has made a successful run at producing catamarans up to the forty foot mark suitable for family cruising and predominantly the charter boat market. Ever since its move to the Vietnam manufacturing plant in conjunction with Corsair Trimarans it has really been bearing fruit. Over the past few years the company has branched out into lighter builds of its popular models to enhance capability, using construction methods learned in its trimaran builds. Plus, in our September issue of last year, we tested Seawind’s 1190 Sport model; an extension of the popular 1160 with the inclusion of daggerboards for better performance. As the company has grown in confidence it has now extended itself once again to construct a 50 foot catamaran using…

YOUR first sight of land after a week long passage is a special occasion, especially when it is your homeland appearing over the horizon. But it does pay to actually look! A recent event reminded me of our old high school motto: circumspice, which is latin for ‘look about you’. We had left Fiji six days earlier with four of us on board; myself and crewman Paul had several bluewater passages under our belts, whereas the two others, Rob and Bruce, were bluewater virgins. As we approached the top of New Zealand I had a word in Paul’s ear “let’s make sure one of the others sees land first, seeing as though this is their first experience. We’ve both seen it before, so it would be good to let them…

FOLLOWING the commissioning of the first 50 berths at Margate Marina Tasmania last October, construction has recommenced with the 150 metre major extension of the attenuator/breakwater and the next 73 berths. The attenuator/breakwater extension includes a 90m southern extension and a right-angled 60m westward arm that will provide additional berthing security to the marina. The additional floating 73 berths will include individual 10m, 12m, 15m, 18m, 20m, 25m, 30m, 35m and 40m berths. Considered the largest range of berth sizes of any marina in Tasmania and the only marina in Tassie providing dedicated individual pens for larger vessels including superyachts. All berths have been specially engineered for the site conditions and will be complete with power, water and CCTV monitoring. The boating community has already shown strong demand with around…

SAILING WITH THE NAVY LARK Serving with the Royal New Zealand Navy on a warship at the far east station of Hong Kong Naval base in 1958 we were invited to enter a dinghy crew in the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club’s regatta, which was a race around the buoys inside the harbour. Somehow I got roped in as the forward hand, which I knew nothing about. Two things we found out quickly was the current between the island and the mainland is fierce and, secondly, our clinker-built Navy sailing clunker was no match for the latest in the club’s racing machines. I think we finished over an hour behind the last entry after a torturous claw around the markers. I think at one stage we got a tow by…

WHEN I bought a preloved boat I expected to have to make some improvements and a little remedial work. The 45 year old Duncanson 35 Ard Righ did not disappoint, in either category. It is fair to say that the boat, including its sails, fittings etc., were in good condition, but there is always some work needed. The previous owner has usually by this stage lost interest in everything but selling so major work is deferred and in some cases totally ignored. Some of the things I expected were an almost complete lack of documentation. Some manuals were passed on to me but circuit diagrams, hose layouts and wiring runs were non-existent; they were lost years ago if they ever existed at all. So apart from preparing the boat for…

THERE has long been a belief that if in doubt about fuel quality always use a higher octane or premium fuel. Providing a semi-synthetic oil is used, all two stroke tender outboard and inboard auxiliaries, such as Blaxland Chapman and Vire, can be run on premium 95 RON unleaded. Using mineral based oils in conjunction with 95 RON will prevent the oil staying in suspension with the fuel, resulting in dry cylinder bores. Never ever use premium 98 RON unleaded, the aromatic additives package used to raise the octane to 98 will prevent even semi-synthetic or fully synthetic oils from staying in suspension with the petrol. Although using 95 RON does necessitate using semi-synthetic oil the benefits of doing this are reduced oil-smoke emissions, less smell in following seas and…

GUPPY THE INFLATABLE FLYER Minicats are a sailing inflatable catamaran, easy to fit in any yacht or campervan, adding to your holiday. The three metre long Guppy complements the existing minicat range, which currently consists of the three models: Minicat 460, Minicat 420 and Minicat 310, developed in collaboration with sailor Laura Dekker. The advantage of the Guppy is that it is ready to sail in only ten minutes, yet delivers sailing speed and excitement. The trampoline of the Guppy is now permanently attached, reducing assembly time compared to the other models. A further advantage of this small model is its low weight of only 26 kilograms, which makes transport easy for anyone. Suitably sized for two persons simply roll out the hulls and trampoline, insert the two 0.50 metre…