Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2016 i Cruising Helmsman

This is the story of Juan and me, okay more about me than Juan. I was in the Tweed River at the Ivory Tavern marina, aboard my Duncanson 34 which I had sailed from Adelaide. I was looking for crew in the modern way, on the internet. No longer able to shanghai crew in the traditional way by thumping them on the head and dragging them back to the ship. The art of finding crew nowadays is more complex. I had joined an internet club ‘Find a crew’ and, for a small fee, I was able to place an advertisement and look at crew profiles. People looking to crew on yachts place their profile on the website, saying something about themselves and their experience. Some have a little experience and…

Our original plan had been to cross the Atlantic in March and arrive in the Chesapeake ahead of hurricane season. Unexpected repairs in Cape Town had us leaving South Africa in June, very late in the season and well behind schedule. Though the South Atlantic is spared the hurricane season, we were up in the air as to where to go once we got to the other side. We spent an easy month in Lüderitz, Namibia pondering, then headed west across the Atlantic to St. Helena Island. Now where? Since the Caribbean hurricane zone was out of the question, our options were limited. We could head to Trinidad and Tobago or Grenada as many do, or perhaps Brazil. After a bit more research, another option became not only apparent, but…

In 2008 Russell Waddy and his partner Cherie took over Allsail Australia just 20 years after the company was started in 1989 by Mike De Berg. The idea behind Allsail was as a sail training club to satisfy the sailing needs of adult sailors and would be sailors who did not have a boat. Nowadays it is an Australia Sailing-affiliated club and a sail training centre. Allsail has yachts for charter and a non-equity yacht share option for members. As well as the charter fleet the club regularly races its yachts in Sydney races with great results. So, in Russell Waddy’s experience, which yacht covers all the different sailing operations Allsail provides? “We had used 40 to 55 foot Bavaria’s on our annual Mediterranean Sailing flotillas since 2006 and they…

August is the time of year when Shag Islet Cruising Yacht Club (SICYC) vice commodores, colloquially known as ‘Shaggers’, attend an annual rendezvous at its namesake Shag Islet. Situated at Gloucester Passage, just north of the Whitsunday Islands, this weekend party has a serious side. The SICYC is believed to be the fastest growing yacht club in Australia, with over 5100 members across 15 countries. The motto of being “exclusively non-exclusive” results in all members being vice commodores of a location of their choice and all having the same membership number, ie. 10. All members are joined by a love of boating and a desire to share their fun with other yachties. In doing so, the club raises funds for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA). Groups of Shaggers…

Necessary: yes. Evil: no. Done properly, it can be your saviour. But get it wrong and it can send a shiver up your spine! During my 30+ years experience in the insurance industry and being heavily involved in the marine sector, I have pretty much seen it all. What I would like to share with you are some tips on what to look out for, to ensure you really do obtain peace of mind, which is what insurance should be all about. Following are the three key areas. What does the policy actually say? I could take up the whole magazine on this topic. It is unfortunate, but insurance is generally sold on price. But what are you saving? What is the point in saving a few dollars when the…

When I was a child I was given a picture book called ‘Time of wonder’, which had beautiful water-colour illustrations of the landscape of coastal Maine (USA) with its glacier-hewn granite boulders and islets and spruce forest. It chronicled one family’s summer holiday on an island including describing a severe storm. Some of the text had stayed in my head all my life: “we’re going to have some weather. It’s a-comin’. She’s gonna blow. With the next shift of the tide.” The children in the book had a small sailing boat and that appealed to both me and my parents. I had always wanted to go to Maine and my husband had always wanted to see the ‘Fall’ in New England so, when our daughter announced that she was attending…

“All ships, all ships, all ships this is the yacht In deep trouble our positions is ***** 450nm ESE of Sydney bound for New Zealand and we have an injured crew member on board with a badly fractured leg. We require urgent medical assistance.” Now what happens? Let us face it, there is no place more isolated than a yacht at sea and, in the case of above if it is blowing 30+ knots, you are well out of helicopter range. If this message is sent via one of the correct emergency channels this will be picked up by Kordia via Charleville and relayed to AMSA in Canberra to deal with. One option, if you were in helicopter range, say 45 or 50 miles off the coast, perhaps you may…

They just keep getting bigger German yacht builders the Hanse Group, have released the first model in its 8 series: the Hanse 588. This 17 metre model offers all the space and luxury buyers expect in a large yacht, yet it is easy to handle. It introduces design features: a ‘Silent master cabin’, updated hull shape and interior design; plus the choice of 72 possible layout combinations. Judel/Vrolijk naval architects have taken its design capability with the introduction of the silent master cabin in the bow, turning it into a sanctuary. Specially developed insulation shields owners against yacht noise as all pumps and devices have been relocated to other areas. Even the air conditioning unit is encapsulated so sleepy-heads can drift off in peace and in the perfect climate. The…

From the yacht production company that brought you the concept of a deck saloon, Jeanneau's latest range of production yachts appears to be phasing this concept out. Or, at least, taking it to a new level. The Yacht 54 is the next in its Yacht range and follows on from the bigger sister the Yacht 64. While it follows the same formula in producing a large yacht easy to sail when short handed and luxurious when at anchor, every aspect of the 54 has been redesigned to fit this purpose. Still using Philippe Briand for the hull design and the aptly-named Andrew Winch for the interior, Jeanneau's sailboat marketing director Erik Stromberg, wanted to see how far they could push this concept and gave the two designers carte blanche. The…