Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i Practical Boat Owner

Comings and goings Often I hear the complaint that when you’ve enough money to own a boat you’ve no time to sail it, and when you’ve time to sail it, you don’t have enough money to own it. Those of you who subscribe to PBO will know that two summers ago I became a boat owner. What you might not know is that I’ve only managed to sail Maximus a handful of times, despite my many visits to the boat to fit her out. That said, taking David Harding out to test our Maxi 84 was a real high point. I looked at the 45-year-old cruiser, with her beautiful new sails, and took great pride in knowing that I’d returned her to her rightful place; the water. You can find…

The British Sailing Team has launched the British Sailing Squad, a new academy aimed at developing Olympic stars of the future. The squad will act as an apprenticeship to the senior British Sailing Team, giving talented young sailors a taste of Olympic campaigning and the opportunity to perform on the international stage. Sailors will get to train alongside British Sailing Team athletes, as well as access the team’s world-class performance services at its base in Portland, Dorset. To earn a spot in the British Sailing Squad young sailors need to achieve performances close to or within the top 50% of an international senior fleet. Podium performances at age level may also be considered. RYA Performance Pathway Manager Jack Grundy, who heads up the British Sailing Squad, said: “For any young…

Every day in every boatyard, marina and port the cleaning of hulls, slipways and marine infrastructure kills billions of marine micro-organisms – all vital for sustaining wildlife and the food chain all the way up to human beings. Eco-friendly entrepreneur Gavin Moth says that a simple switch from bleach-based algae cleaning products to a non-toxic solution – like his Marine Algae Cleaner (MAC) – could massively help the environment. In 2013, Gavin was diagnosed with the life changing condition multiple sclerosis, and with a growing young family he was looking for a job that would provide flexibility around childcare. Gavin said: “Then following a visit to a client in a previous job, I found out they had been using almost 1,000lt of bleach every two months to clean a slipway.…

Seeing a mast sticking up out of the water where a boat should be is an awful shock. I’d been off the island. On my first day back I walked down to the marina, and noticed a thick green rope running up the far side of the marina wall. I looked to where it was coming from, and realised that Hope, the bonny wooden fishing boat which sat along the hammerhead, had gone… then I saw her mast emerging from the water. Salvage attempts began on a day of rain which varied from mizzle to torrential. A team arrived in force and set up a compressor, festoons of yellow hose, deflated airbags and a diving unit with multicoloured plaited tubes wound in figure of eights on the outside. ‘Naturally everyone…

We pay for your cruising stories and harbour updates – email pbo@futurenet.com. For more adventures, visit www.pbo.co.uk/cruising Bass Strait has earned a well-deserved reputation among mariners as one of the most treacherous bodies of water in the world. Known locally as The Paddock, this unwieldy waterway separates mainland Australia from Tasmania. For boats taking advantage of the Roaring 40s, Bass Strait is a 300km short cut between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, cutting 600 miles off a more southerly voyage around Tasmania. Yet the Strait is unusually shallow, averaging just 60m. Compare that to a depth of several thousand metres in the oceans on either side. Its coastline is littered with wrecks, with many ships having disappeared without trace. Despite all the myths and legends, these disappearances can invariably be…

A. If you haven’t done it before, now is a good time to check the hull for any problems. And if you’re thinking about getting a cradle for next winter, measure up for it now. B. Cradles come in all shapes and sizes, but make sure it’s a type approved by your insurance company. C. Some people lash the boat to the cradle, or have stops to prevent the keel moving sideways so high winds can’t wiggle the boat and make it slip over (D). Leaving the mast up increases the likelihood of this. E. I know of one long-keeler that was just held up by four chains tensioned to two girders under the keel. F. Extension girders could be added in very windy weather. G. While she’s out it’s…

The organiser of the 2023 Ocean Globe Race, Don McIntyre, is looking for crew to sail with him in the round-the-world race. His ketch Explorer, a 1978 Nautors Swan 57, will be skippered by retired Navy commander Mark Sinclair (also known as Captain Coconut) of Golden Globe Race (GGR) fame. The event will be the 50th anniversary recreation of the first ever crewed round the world race, the original 1973 Whitbread. Crew places are now open for ordinary sailors to join the team. McIntyre will sail on leg three around Cape Horn. Sinclair, who recently retired from the 2022 GGR, will skipper the Sayula Class entry and build the team. The opportunity is open to all sailors dreaming of a circumnavigation and looking to challenge themselves. The OGR begins on…

The Ministry of Defence and Defence Equipment & Support has suspended the design procurement process for the new National Flagship. A design for the ship submitted by Harland & Wolff was a finalist in the competition from a wide industry field. The vessel was estimated to cost up to £250million. John Wood, chief executive of Harland & Wolff, said: “We are certain that had the National Flagship gone ahead, the vessel would have returned many multiples of her build cost to the UK economy over many decades, acting as an international demonstration of the creativity and engineering talent the UK has to offer.” He added: “The decision to suspend is disappointing, but we understand the rationale for doing so, considering the current macro-economic environment and the ongoing situation in Ukraine.…

Got a news story that would interest a fellow PBO reader? We want to hear from you! Email PBO news editor Laura Hodgetts at pbo@futurenet.com SOUTH COAST & CHANNEL ISLANDS Solent Freeport The Solent Freeport has been announced as one of the first UK Freeports to be fully approved by the Government. As an important part of the UK’s post-Covid economic recovery, freeports are areas that benefit from incentives to encourage economic activity. Freeport customs sites help enable the tariff-free movement of goods for both export and import through simplified customs procedures. They also offer occupiers business rates relief and other incentives to support capital investment, skills and employment. Business rates growth generated at the tax sites can be retained locally and reinvested in the area. Levelling Up Minister Dehenna…

Sam Llewellyn writes nautical thrillers, edits The Marine Quarterly, and is perpetually patching up a 30ft ketch: samllewellyn.com Scilly is a dangerously rocky spot, as you’ll have noticed if you have sailed there. Among the islands beachcombing, known locally as wrecking, has over the years become a fine art. Scilly wrecking is not the wicked old lantern-on-a-cow’s-horns murder-by-drowning. Indeed, it has even received Divine approval: one of its patron saints, St Warna, was famous for raising gales to relieve famine and shortage with the proceeds of wrecks. And a couple of hundred years ago a parson in the Tresco church, hearing news of a wreck in the course of his sermon, leaped from the pulpit, tearing off his surplice and cassock, and cried ‘Come, come, let’s all start fair!’ before…

Even when you test boats for a living, some makes manage to pass you by for decades. For example, I had known Contests – seen them, photographed them and known people who owned them – for ever, but it wasn’t until 2019 that I tested my first one. Similarly, I only sailed my first Maxi a couple of years ago, and that was a relatively recent model, so it was with interest that I approached Maximus to see what this design from 1977 had to offer. I knew a little of the history and that the boat was afloat and sailing but very much still ‘work in progress’. Other than that, it was all new territory. You don’t have to be a serious boat nerd to know that Maxis have…

Have you ever wandered down an autumnal towpath, amid the mild fug of stove smoke, and wondered how cosy a trip aboard a canal barge could be? I know I had. A few steps more and a welcoming pub is usually to be found, only adding to the appeal. So when my wife, Ali, suggested a narrowboat holiday with Beacon Park Boats, I didn’t need convincing. We could combine it with seeing Welsh relatives, while the kids – used to ‘roughing it’ in our 45-year-old project boat – would be thrilled at the prospect of a boat with a TV (we didn’t mention there was no signal reception). The Monmouth and Brecon Canal (known as the Mon & Brec) is a little known stretch of canal, unconnected to any other…

Without doubt, safety has been the biggest improvement to long-distance cruising over the last 50 years. This is my own experience, as well as something highlighted in my surveys. There is, however, an important distinction between personal safety and that of the boat. In the Suva survey of 1979, when I spent two months interviewing cruising boats passing through Fiji, neither the participants nor I had any serious concerns about their own safety simply because there was no reason to worry, certainly not in that peaceful part of the world. But we were all extremely worried about the grave risks involved in depending on astronavigation as our sole means of position fixing. While techniques had improved, fundamentally it had little changed since Captain Cook’s days. Utter fear Remembering the sleepless…

Dorset’s Jurassic Coast near Bridport has been a regular holiday spot of mine since I was in short trousers. But despite having enjoyed many (often very productive) fishing trips aboard charter boats, I had never once in the ensuing 50 years actually sailed into the harbour at West Bay. The entrance has been significantly improved over the years and, with the wind coming from the north-west, the opportunity arose to punctuate the otherwise tedious trudge across Lyme Bay when coming back up-Channel – on this occasion from Falmouth towards Weymouth, Yarmouth and Portsmouth. The entrance is tight and the pontoons are slightly bouncy, but in glorious late-summer sunshine my elder sister and I enjoyed a very pleasant evening and morning ashore, before slipping lines mid-afternoon in order to catch the…

The adventure company 59° North Sailing has announced that it will now reserve two bunks for women on its offshore sailing passages. The company’s professional sailing staff is equally divided between men and women, and they believe this action will trend the paying crew’s gender ratio toward equality. As past crew member, Dave McKay, wrote: “Otherwise, we're missing the talents and contributions of half the population.” Historically, 25% of 59° North Sailing’s paying sailing crew have been women. The staff has learned that the risk of there being no women, or just one woman, on the crew can be a barrier for some. Past crew Laura Ladenheim said: “I was the only woman on my trip. It was still wonderful, but I do think it would have been great to…

Email pbo@futurenet.com or write to us at the address on page 5. Photos are appreciated, letters may be edited. GRP classics in PBO January I very much enjoyed your piece on GRP Classics (PBO, January 2023). The offerings from the Gaffers & Luggers yard in Mylor Cornwall are a worthy addition. The 28ft and 23ft versions of traditional Oyster Dredgers were built with GRP hulls and wooden superstructure. The moulds having been taken from original wooden boats. The gaff rig may not be to everyone’s taste but the boats are heavily laid up and seaworthy having over 100 years of design behind them. The deck and interior layout are custom built in wood to the owner’s specifications. My Heard 28 launched in 2002 displaces 8.5 tonnes with 5 tonnes encapsulated…

Marsali Taylor sails an Offshore 8M, Karima S. She’s a dinghy instructor and author of The Shetland Sailing Mysteries starring liveaboard sleuth, Cass Lynch. Spring is not far away. The three minutes more of light each morning and evening will eventually become an extra two hours, and soon, as we move towards March, it’ll be light enough and (sometimes) warm enough to do outdoor work after tea. The shalders (oystercatchers) will be returning in a flurry of peep, peep, peeps and settling down on the football pitch like dinner-suited guests picking at the last of the buffet. And of course my fellow boat-owners will be talking about cranes for those boats which have spent the winter in the marina, safe from gales but growing weed even in these cold waters.…

Selecting a boat can be a bit of a lottery. Especially if it’s getting on a bit. If you are looking at a brand-new model you can of course ask the dealer for a trial sail. But this won’t necessarily tell you the full story. If the test is on a sunny day with light winds, what will she be like in a blow? Or vice versa? Reprints of test reports can also provide extra useful input (although they’re not so easily available these days) and help you to build up an overall picture. You can also study owners’ opinions by visiting class association websites and YBW forums. Either way, you need to tap into the experience of as many people as possible to build up a picture of any…

When I was working for the National Grid I decided that I wanted to be self-employed. I’ve always loved sailing and fancied running a yacht marina. I was flicking through the Saturday Times when I noticed an advert for a canal boat business in Llanfoist, South Wales. I asked for the details and when I visited the site (with a house and 10 very old boats), I knew this was the project for me. I had to raise the finance, and I remember the bank asking what my nautical experience was. I told them my parents had a yacht on the River Orwell, which I’d sailed from Harwich to St Katherine Dock on the Thames, and they said, ‘that’ll do’. That was in 2000, and 23 years later, here I…

WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE TO Practical Boat Owner® This 100% waterproof first aid bag is suitable for quick submersion and even floats if dropped in water. Constructed from tough nylon-coated PVC, this first aid dry bag includes over 30+ treatments for injuries typically sustained from water sports, as well as general outdoor or water-based activities. Features a fully adjustable shoulder strap and rear belt loop. WORTH £29.99 WHY SUBSCRIBE? Best Price Guaranteed Save up to 33% Delivered straight to your door Free home delivery Never miss an issue Secure online payment CHOOSE YOUR PACKAGE MAGAZINE ONLY £23.50 every 6 months PRINT + DIGITAL £31 every 6 months SUBSCRIBE TODAY! www.magazinesdirect.com/B33V or call 0330 333 1113 and quote B33V TERMS AND CONDITIONS: Offer closes 13th April 2023. Offer open to new subscribers…

There’s a tale behind the photo of Will Renilson’s elegant Jersey 36 in Peter Poland’s ‘We swapped sails for power’ article (PBO, September 2022). When Will asked us to take some photos of Jersey Lass under way for PBO he forgot to mention that we’d have our own personal bouncy castle for the day. Diaries synchronised and date selected, Jersey Lass was primped and polished to perfection ready for her starring role. The big day arrived and after several mugs of coffee and a final polish it was time to slip our lines. Walkie-talkies at the ready we left the marina on our Princess 33 and I started snapping Jersey Lass behind us – what a difference digital cameras have made, in the old days by the time we returned…

Here’s just a selection of the latest questions from PBO readers. For more expert advice, visit pbo.co.uk/expert-advice/expert-answers ENGINES Why a loss of power under load? Q I have a Rival 34 that was kept in the IJsselmeer in the Netherlands for years, but she’s now been in Greenock since 2021. I try to keep her afloat over the winter. The hull was Coppercoated in 2021, including the Autostream feathering prop. She was refitted with a Volvo Penta D1-20 by a previous owner. I haven’t been able to sail as much as I’d like recently, and I noticed green fouling building up on the waterline over the spring/summer. When I finally got out again after two months’ inactivity I noticed the engine wouldn’t rev beyond 2,000rpm in ahead, although it ran…