Innholdsfortegnelse for January - February 2017 i Cruising World

Yesterday I visited Windward, a hamlet on the far side of Carriacou, where I’m anchored in Tyrrel Bay. Windward is so laidback that the palm trees yawn, but it’s famous for one noble heritage: boatbuilding. The people of Windward have been handbuilding traditional island boats for generations with native timbers and simple hand tools, the lines and designs ingrained in their very marrow, being descendants of Scottish shipwrights, Irish fishermen and abducted Africans. I’d heard there was a new vessel, a big one, being built, so I went to check it out. It wasn’t hard to find. Boats are built on the beach in Windward, and everyone knows about it. I asked Cee Pee, the driver of the bright red minibus I took from Hillsborough, to tell me where I…

Summer in Newport, Rhode Island, offers no shortage of sailboats of all persuasions. From graceful 12-Meters to 100-foot racing sleds to cruising boats of all stripes and plenty in between, the view is never boring — particularly if there are any foiling boats out. For years, I’ve watched Moth sailboats flit around Narragansett Bay, barely touching the water, and thought that it must be such a rush to do that; I didn’t think it was something that I might actually get a chance to try. But then the Red Bull Foiling Generation team rolled into town, and my colleague Ben Meyers and I had our chance. The Red Bull Foiling Generation is a series of regattas targeted at sailors who are 16 to 20 years old to give them opportunities…

MY husband, Seth, and I stood less than a yard from an Alaskan brown bear. We could see every hair on his body and his powerful muscles underneath. His claws stretched three inches out from his paws, and he was studying us with slightly bloodshot eyes. His nostrils flared to take in our scent. But then he turned back to the stream on whose bank all of us — humans and bear — were sitting or standing. He leaped into the river after a salmon. He missed it and charged again, back toward us! But his focus was concentrated on the spawning pinks, and this time he caught one. He started upstream, ignoring us as he passed so close I could see the blood run from where his jaws…

Import Boat of the Year Domestic Boat of the Year Catamarans, catamarans, catamarans: Never in the 22-year history of our annual Boat of the Year competition have we seen so many catamarans. In fact, of the two dozen nominees in the 2017 contest, fully half of the entries sailed in on two hulls; there were so many cats that it took three separate divisions to categorize them. It reminded us of an old story. A music critic who caught a young New Jersey singer’s act before he was a huge star famously said, “I saw rock ’n’ roll’s future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” As cats are now firmly established as the fastest-growing segment in the sailboat industry, we may now be able to say much the same thing:…

The first of three dedicated catamaran classes for 2017 was a decidedly French affair, with three of the four contestants hailing from the sailing-crazed nation, which has been one of the hotbeds of cat design and construction for decades now. So it’s no surprise that the competition for Best Full-Size Multihull Under 50 Feet came down to a battle between a trio of boats from two longtime BOTY adversaries and competitors: the Fountaine Pajot Lucia 40 and the Lagoon 42 and 450 S. Before diving into the category analysis, we’d be remiss not to mention the fourth boat in the class, a sharp 39-footer built in Vietnam, the Seawind 1190 Sport. While the minimalist, performance-oriented Seawind was an outlier in the battle of more traditional cats waged between Fountaine Pajot…

It’s not every year that the Boat of the Year fleet includes a group of performance- oriented sailboats that are competitive on the racecourse, laid out for vacation cruises, and ideally suited to pleasant daysails. But the class of ’17 produced a bumper crop of four very different vessels, ranging between 30 and 36 feet, that tick all the boxes for fast, fun, compact boats that were crafted for the purest of reasons: the simple joy of sailing. It was also an international collection of nifty coastal cruisers, with nominees built in France (J/112E), Germany (Dehler 34), Slovenia (Elan E4) and the United States (Alerion Sport 30). We’ll begin with the Alerion Sport 30, which caught the judges’ collective eye for several reasons. “I have always been in love with…

The story of how the Xquisite X5, the most fascinating and technically advanced yacht in the 2017 BOTY contest, came to be (and how it arrived at the Annapolis boat show) is at least as interesting as this special, intriguing catamaran. It’s a tale of chasing dreams, of youthful sailors and entrepreneurs, of translating lessons learned circumnavigating aboard their own cat into a vision of what modern multihulls can and should be. It’s also a tale with a happy ending, with the Xquisite X5 unanimously earning the prize as the Most Innovative Boat for 2017. Having just beaten the deadline for completion at Phoenix Marine in South Africa, the X5 arrived in the Port of Baltimore aboard a freighter three short days before the start of the show. Over the…

ANCHORING As the total weight of books and articles written about anchoring approaches the total weight of the anchors themselves, one might reasonably ask, “Why another anchoring article?” Well, because no other aspect of sailing so directly and immediately affects the safety of our vessels. We need to get it right the first time, every time, or things will go bump in the night. That is why the topic deserves constant reiteration. Anchoring may appear a simple task: throw a hooked hunk of iron overboard with a lot of scope. But in fact there is a lot of forethought, experience and even finesse in properly attaching ourselves to terra firma. The first consideration is the anchors themselves. What kind, how big, how many? The single most important factor is…

PHOTOGRAPHY I use my iPhone 6 Plus for much more than making calls, texting, emailing and tracking the latest social media trends. As a sailor, I use my iPhone 6 Plus to navigate, check destinations and weather, plan routes, book tracking the latest social media trends. As a sailor, I use my iPhone 6 Plus to navigate, check destinations and weather, plan routes, book make dinner reservations prior to arriving in port. As a professional photographer, I have also been using my iPhone 6 Plus not only to supplement my expensive, large and heavy equipment, but in many instances to replace a full-sensor DSLR as my camera of choice. Here are some features and tricks that have helped me get the most out of my smartphone’s camera.…

We were about 20 miles out from the South Atlantic island of St. Helena when distinct lines started to break up the soft gray clouds that were obscuring the horizon. Charles Darwin once wrote, “St. Helena rises abruptly like a huge black castle from the ocean.” Closer to the coast, we spotted stone fortifications built into the cliff faces, and the impression that we were approaching a midocean fortress was reinforced. For more than 500 years, the only way to reach the British Overseas Territory of St. Helena has been by the sea. Before the Suez Canal opened, more than 1,000 ships a year called at St. Helena. By traveling there aboard our own boat, we followed in the wakes of Capt. Cook and Joshua Slocum. In the more recent…

Life is all about cruising into second chances for Capt. Michael Long. Without a second chance of his own, this 20-something who once journeyed through Florida’s juvenile justice system wouldn’t have landed in Sarasota’s New College as a public policy/economics major in need of cheap housing. In 2010, Long swapped his Jeep for a 30-foot sailboat and became an anchored liveaboard without a clue about sailing. The self-taught sailor, with friends as crew, eventually realized the positive impact sailing was having on his life. This sparked the idea for a program that would utilize the life-changing potential of sailing to navigate off-course kids into entirely new worlds. The foundation of SailFuture was laid. Today it’s a well-respected youth intervention program for society’s highest-risk teens. The success of the initial pairing…

When we sailed into Savusavu, Fiji, on our 41-foot Tartan, Hotspur, I had no idea we’d soon be lending our hands (and fingers) to help replenish one of Earth’s most impressive ecosystems. But when our 15-year-old daughter, Carolyne, and I received an invitation to join some local middle school students in learning about the importance of mangroves and even planting some seedlings, I added the two-day function to her home-school lesson plan. On the first day, we arrived at a small public school and took a seat in the dark classroom. The speaker, Cassie Gann, of Nawi Island’s Mangrove Rehabilitation Program, flipped a switch and the slide projector glowed. Gann explained how mangroves not only serve as living sea walls, acting as a barrier against wave action, but how…

1. F-RIB 275 • $2,995 • FOURSEAS.US If you love the freedom of having a hard-bottom inflatable but have trouble stowing it on board for passages, check out the F-RIB. It’s a foldable RIB that stows in a carry bag that can easily fit inside a cockpit locker. The 275 (shown) is 9 feet long and can be used with up to a 15-horsepower outboard. 2. WIND WARRIOR TYPHOON • $150 • WINDWARRIOR.COM Wind is great when it’s filling your sails, but not so much when you’re trying to have a picnic on the beach. The lightweight, compact and portable Typhoon is a wind-blocker that can be set up in minutes and withstand wind up to 50 mph. The fabric is designed to not stretch or fade, and the support…

WE PLAY A GAME ON MOMO, OUR MASON 43. WHEN WE ARRIVE IN A NEW PLACE, WE THROW OUT OUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS BEFORE WE HAVE TIME TO BUILD UP ANYTHING ELSE. BEFORE WE ESTABLISH ANY RHYTHM OR CREATE ANY LASTING FEELINGS. THEN, AFTER SPENDING A FEW MONTHS IN THE PLACE, WE COMPARE NOTES TO SEE HOW OUR EARLY IMPRESSIONS HAVE DEEPENED OR CHANGED. IN INDONESIA, OUR CREW OF FOUR — MY HUSBAND, BERNIE, DAUGHTERS LOLA AND JANA, AND ME — ARRIVED IN THE KAI ISLANDS AFTER SPENDING 10 YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. WE NOTED OUR EARLY IMPRESSIONS IN THE LOG: “GENTLE, ACTIVE, SMILING, LOUD, CURIOUS, WELCOMING, PHOTO-OBSESSED, SMOKING, ISLAMIC.” Then, after nearly two years in Southeast Asia, we arrived on the other side of the Indian Ocean in what felt…

Not every naval architect gets the chance to take a second swing at a popular design a couple of decades after the splash of the original. But that is precisely the opportunity that presented itself to Catalina Yachts designer Gerry Douglas with his Catalina 425. The company’s original 42-footer debuted 23 years ago, and before all was said and done, Catalina produced more than 1,000 units of the highly successful production boat. Now Douglas has taken all he learned in the intervening years and amalgamated that knowledge in the new 425. And he knocked it out of the park (see “Born in the USA,” December 2016). That’s why we’ve awarded the 2017 Domestic Boat of the Year award to the Catalina 425. “With his history with the previous 42-footer, and…

When it comes to cruising catamarans, there are two nations above all others that have become the world leaders in the design and construction of new models: France and South Africa. Yet in a still- surprising twist, in the Full-Size Multihull Over 50 Feet category in the 2017 BOTY contest, all four nominees — the Balance 526, Royal Cape Catamarans Majestic 530, St. Francis 50 MK II and Xquisite X5 — were South African products. Perhaps not so surprisingly, they represented the strongest division in the entire fleet. The most unusual cat in the quartet was the Majestic 530, built in Durban and originally designed as a 40-footer, but one that over time evolved into ever-larger siblings, including 42-, 45-, 50- and finally 53-foot versions. The company billed the boat…

During every BOTY contest, the judges find themselves critiquing boats that defy easy characterization. It’s a contest, of course, and as such, every boat must be categorized, even if it means sometimes attempting to put round pegs in square holes. Yet some of these outliers are so clever, unusual and well conceived that the panelists, during their deliberations, find themselves returning to them again and again. This year there were three such nominees, including two boats built in the United States: the Alerion Sport 30, a stylish daysailer with an electric engine and camping accommodations in the Performance Cruiser class, and the Gemini Freestyle, which boasts a floor plan unlike any other, in the Charter Boat division. But it was a third boat — a catamaran, naturally, in this…

VOYAGING Over the past decade or, the number of boats cruising the Virgin Islands has grown to the point, some sailors claim, that it is impossible to find an uncrowded anchor age. A couple of years ago, I set out to prove that this is not the case. My old friend and shipmate GeoffCurtain lent me his Olympic 48 ketch, Ariel, so I could take family on a 16-day cruise over Christmas and New Year’s — not exactly a quiet time in the Virgin Islands. With me were Trich, my wife of 48 years; our daughter, Dory, and her husband, Scott Vogel; and their two children, Dylan, 22, and Emma Kate, 18. We hit many of the “checklist” spots on a typical Virgin Islands bareboat itinerary, but we also…

I’d heard a lot of things about Andros, the Bahamas’ largest island, that had caused me to steer clear of it. I pictured a sort of Wild West with drug dealers flying in and out in small planes, drunks flying out of saloon doors, and pickpockets lurking around every corner. Even worse, the Morgan’s Bluff anchorage was supposed to have poor holding and full exposure to the north, while the inner harbor was noted to be too crowded for cruising boats. On top of that, the buoys leading into the anchorage had been blown away by a hurricane. Thus I was a bit apprehensive when, on a recent cruise on my friends’ sailboat, we had to seek refuge in Andros due to building southeast winds that would prevent…

Life is sweet aboard our Westsail 42, Outrider, particularly when we’re cruising Mexico’s pristine waters. But sometimes we want a “sweet” of a different nature — dessert! — which often means firing up the oven in an already hot boat. In an effort to maintain endurable temperatures in the galley but still have our cake and eat it too, I did some experimenting. This no-bake cheesecake fits the bill. It’s so good, I vowed always to have the ingredients aboard for more than one. § During a recent island cruise with my visiting sister and brother-in-law aboard, I was glad I’d kept that vow. Three days into a weeklong trip, we encountered a problem: Our guests, both of whom had a sweet tooth, had just run out of their stash…

ON THE EVENING OF OCTOBER 6.2015. I HAD PARADISE to myself — Paradise Bay, specifically, on the west side of Urupukapuka Island, in New Zealand’s Bay of Islands. In 2014, I crossed the Pacific Ocean on Gannet, my Moore 24, sailing 7,000 miles. We had some 1,000-mile weeks and several 150-plus-mile days. Now I was trying merely to sail 25 miles from our mooring offOpua to Whangamumu Harbor, and there were times I didn’t think we’d make it. Earlier that day, on a sunny, pleasant but windless morning, I had Gannet ready to sail, except for raising the mainsail and dropping the mooring, at 1000. I finally did drop the mooring at noon. The tide was coming in, keeping our bow to the north, and an almost imperceptible wind…

For 2017, the big-boat category on the monohull side of the equation featured three worthy contenders, two of which were offered by a pair of major French players in production boatbuilding — the Beneteau Yacht 62 and the Jeanneau 58, whose builders are both subsidiaries of Group Beneteau — with a third built in Italy, the Solaris 50, which was a first-time nominee in the BOTY program. Given the size of the yachts and their respective nations of origin, there was no question that the matters of style and luxury would play key roles in determining the winner, and so it came to pass. Unfortunately, due to scheduling issues with the crew tasked to sail the boat to New York to deliver it to its new owner, for the first…

BOTY Specs at a Glance (1) Sail area is working sail area. (2) Displacement values are for light ship; D/L=(D/2,240)(lwl/100)3. (3) SA/D = SA/(D/64).2/3. (4) Prices are quoted by builder with standard Boat of the Year equipment inventory; prices reflect currency values as of Oct. 31, 2016. 2017 BOTY Judging Team Ed Sherman is the vice president of educational programming for the American Boat & Yacht Council and is the former chairman of the marine technology department at the New England Institute of Technology in Warwick, Rhode Island. An experienced racer and cruiser and BOTY judge, Sherman is the author of four technical marine books, a frequent contributor to CW and other boating publications, and often works with boatbuilders, marine surveyors, field-service personnel and engineering staffs in the United States,…

The adage goes that what’s old eventually becomes new again. While this applies to some yacht-design elements and sailhandling equipment, it does not describe the flatout straight-line evolution in marine electronics, which become more powerful and feature-rich with every dizzying spin of the design cycle. Advances in micro processors, solid-state componentry, and touchscreen and scanning technologies — as well as networking and software advances — enable cuttingedge innovations such as Doppler radar imagery and interdevice connectivity. This past fall, I scoured announcements from the NMEA Conference & Expo, attended the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show and the METS expo in Amsterdam, and consulted industry insiders to learn more about 2017’s state-of-the-art marine electronics. If you’re shopping for equipment, I’ve compiled a roundup of the latest- generation gear — sorted…

SWEET-WATER SAILING IN THE GREAT LAKES The popular Unsalted Sailing Flotilla returns in summer 2017 to the cruising grounds of northern Lake Michigan. Set out from Traverse City and cruise to dozens of islands, harbor towns and anchorages in an area whose range is nearly comparable sizewise to the combined British and U.S. Virgin Islands. Options for joining the seven-day adventure include booking by cabin, taking the trip as a coastal cruising course, chartering one of the company’s fleet either as a bareboat or with a captain, or following along aboard your own boat. The flotilla is guided by a lead crew that assists in organizing activities and the itinerary, which includes wine tasting, nature hikes, an informal race and frequent opportunities for participants to explore on their own. Expect…