Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2021 i Sailing Today

Skippers in the Vendée Globe are making an important contribution to global understanding of ocean health, by deploying buoys and floats that gather climate information. The floating scientific instruments are dropped overboard at agreed co-ordinates and will send data back for years to come. The advantage of using Vendée Globe skippers is that they sail to areas rarely visited by commercial vessels. Martin Kramp, of OceanOPS, which works for UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organisation, said: “These instruments will help us in areas where we have little means to gather the data which goes into the day-to-day global weather forecast. This improves the safety of life at sea and helps us understand ocean currents.” He added: “The information is used for climatology and is also used in short term predictions…

British Marine has announced the Southampton Boat Show will take place from 10-19 September in 2021. The announcement was seen as a fillip to the industry after the 2020 show was cancelled and a replacement event, Boats2020, was stopped at the 11th hour by Southampton City Council due to concerns over the spread of Covid-19. Lesley Robinson, CEO of British Marine, says; “It is a great pleasure to announce that Southampton International Boat Show is back in 2021. “The show is such a key event in the boating calendar and a real celebration to the end of season. British Marine is using our years of boat show experience to deliver the 52nd edition at full size and to welcome visitors back in style. We cannot wait to see you all…

The latest big name to join SailGP is Jimmy Spithill, who will helm the United States team in 2021. Spithill joins a stellar line-up of fellow Olympic and America’s Cup winners, including Tom Slingsby, Nathan Outteridge, Sir Ben Ainslie, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. There are four Olympic champions among SailGP’s eight helms, who have between them 10 medals. America’s Cup winner Spithill will lead the US team as it competes for the sport’s largest monetary prize of $1 million. SailGP 2020 was cancelled after the first event in Sydney, which was won by Ainslie and the GB team. The 2021 season gets underway in Bermuda over 24-25 April. Rome Kirby, who previously led the US team as helm, will become flight controller. He and Spithill were teammates at Oracle…

Solenn 27 Journey Solenn is a French manufacturer of modern classics based in the Vendee region of France. The Solenn 27 has been around for a while but comes in a number of different versions – four to be precise: Day, Weekend, Journey and Cabin versions, and the company is making a bit of noise because the first Journey version has been launched. It’s an elegant little boat designed by the architects Mortain and Mavrikios - not to be confused with the Greek resort of the same name. The Weekend and Journey versions were developed for owners wanting a modest cabin and a large cockpit for sailing with family and friends and the result is a pleasing little weekender with a beautiful burnished mahogany cabin top. The modern classic daysailer…

FALMOUTH MARINA RUNNER UP: BUCKLER’S HARD MARINA No marina nomination category would be complete without a West Country destination and Premier’s Falmouth marina ticks all the boxes; stunning location, luxurious facilities and a warm Cornish welcome to visitors and berth holders alike. Mark Evans, marina manager said: “We’re both proud and excited to receive this award; it has been an unusual and challenging year operating through Covid but once the season got underway we were busier than ever. We’re really grateful to all those who voted for Falmouth.”…

RAYMARINE AXIOM+ RUNNER UP: B&G ZEUS3S Building on the success of the Axiom range launched a few years ago, Axiom+ features a new screen that gives wider viewing angles, better touch-screen performance in all conditions, as well as four built-in sonar channels and a next-generation, ultra-sensitive GPS/ GNSS receiver giving for more accurate navigation. Andy King, VP of sales at Raymarine said: “I’m delighted we have been able to build on the success of the Axiom range and it’s very gratifying to see that all of the effort put in to improve an already amazing product has been recognised.”…

Around this time of year I usually make my big annual mistake. It happens when I get the feeling that winter has dragged on long enough - in other words, round about now. I’m ready for spring. What a fool I am; just a brief ray of sunshine is enough for me to declare it party time, and that fleeting warmth on my back is my cue to get stuck into the fitting out of my boat. It is not until I slide back the hatch and feel and smell the dank, chilly, musty air down below that I wonder if all this has been a terrible mistake, and it usually is. You can’t do proper work on a boat if your hands are so cold you can’t feel a…

Northerly winds dictated the route of our week’s cruise around the Inner Hebrides, so with full sail up on our Contessa 32 we headed south along the rock strewn coasts of Skye. Atlantic gales bring powerful seas and winds to this west facing coast of Scotland so cruising sailors have to be hardy and cautious; some reasons why there are so few. There’s many variables about west coast sailing but there is one certainty: rain. Often arriving horizontally but then again often innocuously persistent and even pleasantly warm thanks to the Gulf Stream; but frequently never ending. Our cruise had all the classic west coast weather ingredients – two gales, heavy rain, stunningly clear sunshine and thankfully only neap tides. “You can tell its very windy because the rubber dinghy…

One evening donkeys’ years ago my wife and I were approaching Brazil from the wilds of the Atlantic. GPS and electronics were still decades in the future and we were operating on celestial navigation. I took a five-star fix after sunset and, as usual, plotted it on a sheet of A4 which was cheaper than store-bought proformas. Rather than using the well-thumbed ocean chart, I transferred the lat-long to a virgin coastal version which reached a hundred miles or so offshore. It’s always a grand moment when the landfall chart triumphantly appears out of the drawer and I turned in knowing that we were nearly there, but still with a safe night’s run before we saw any land. At the turn of watch, I was shaken awake with the news…

As the leaders in the Vendée Globe sailed deep into the Southern Ocean, five weeks into the solo round the world race, they found themselves doing something they had never done before – deliberately slowing down. The furious boat speeds of the latest generation of foiling IMOCAs – close to 30 knots at times – were simply proving too much for man and machine to take. Race leader Charlie Dalin on Apivia said: “Every time I try to put more sail up, I end up with big nose dives. I have to un-trim, detune my boat. I find myself looking for the brake pedal. The sea state in the Indian Ocean is really what is limiting my speed. Sometimes the boat accelerates in the surf and we go to 28-30…

Real teak has been the flagship decking material for boats since before the time of Nelson. But in a world increasingly concerned about sustainability, sourcing slow-growing tropical hardwoods from ancient forests in the developing world is not straightforward. Myanmar's teak industry is mired in environmental controversy and, despite traceability schemes, it is very hard to know how sustainable teak supplies really are. All this means that teak is becoming more expensive. The value of the timber has reportedly risen tenfold in 30 years and quotes for supplying teak decking run to around £500 per square metre. Redecking a 42ft Hallberg-Rassy would cost over £10,000 in timber alone. So it is hardly surprising that entrepreneurs have been developing alternatives to the wood. They all aim to replicate the beauty of teak,…

What scares you the most when the wind is fresh (Beaufort scale force 5) to frightening, is it the downwind? Well for a lot of people the answer to that question is yes! I am a big believer in working on your weaknesses because it is by improving these that you have your very best chance to improve your race and therefore regatta positions. After all it can be very frustrating if you work all winter on your fitness for that extra 2 boat lengths of upwind speed to the windward mark if you lose 10+ boat lengths on a swim on the downwind leg. First things first: the boat will always be faster with the mast in the air and the foils in the water (and very often the…

“I want you to meet my new friends, the owls”. It was January 2nd 2000 and I was standing in the freezing drizzle in Cuxhaven waiting to deliver a 50’ ketch, Island Queen, back to the UK. Yet there was a hitch. We have to wait for an easterly the skipper said. “I’ve been waiting for one since Mid November but it didn’t arrive. That’s why the old crew left.” Such prudence was doubtless commendable but it had a somewhat dampened the spirits of myself and fellow delivery crew, Wes, a lively Essex fisherman who had come on this jaunt to escape a broken heart. The prospect of a few weeks in Cuxhaven in January did little for either of us and spirits plummeted to an all time low when…

This photograph, taken in 2002 by French photographer Gilles Martin-Raget, has been voted the Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image of the Century. It shows the Orma 60 trimaran Fujifilm II, with skipper Loick Peyron and crew sailing in ‘the Devil’s Hole’ off Ushant, where the Channel tide and Atlantic swell meet in shallow water. Fujifilm II sailed past safely but was destroyed by a storm few months later during the Route du Rhum. The annual Mirabaud competition saw entries from 131 professional photographers, who because of sailing restrictions over 2020 were asked to submit photos taken since 2000. For all the winners, and the winners of the concurrent Mirabaud Sailing Video of the Century, visit yachtsandyachting.co.uk…

There will be 20 less sailors at the Paris 2024 Olympics, it was announced in December. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also confirmed the 470 would be sailed as a mixed gender crew. Meanwhile the IOC will review the Mixed Two Person Offshore Keelboat event, which is due to make its debut at the Games, sailed from Marseilles. The IOC also said a Mixed Kiteboarding event would be part of the 2024 Olympic regatta. “The IOC would like to further review the Mixed Two Person Offshore Keelboat Event in order to properly assess the key considerations around safety and security of the athletes,” the IOC statement said. A decision would be reached no later than 31 May 2021. The athlete quota for sailing at Paris 2024 will be 330, a…

British sailor Sam Goodchild and his crewmates on the 32-metre trimaran Sodebo Ultim 3 were facing a long sail home after they abandoned their Jules Verne record attempt in the Southern Ocean. Goodchild is sailing with a French crew and skipper Thomas Coville on the state-of-the-art trimaran, capable of more than 40 knots. After 16 days at sea, while sailing between Kerguelen and Cape Leeuwin at more than 30 knots, they noticed damage to the starboard rudder. After several hours of work and discussions with their technical team on land, they decided to abandon the attempt on 11 December. They now face a sail of 2,300 miles to Reunion to make repairs, before sailing back to Lorient in western France. Sodebo had fallen slightly behind the round-the-world sailing record when…

A final decision on whether or not to ban boats from one of the most popular anchorages in the UK is coming closer. Studland Bay, just outside Poole Harbour in Dorset, was made a Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) in 2019 due to its seagrass beds and seahorse population. The sheltered bay with its sandy seabed is a destination for sailors and motorboaters along the south coast. There have been several proposed protective measures put forward for the site by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), which range from an increase in environmental monitoring to a ban of all watersports, sailing and boating activity in the area. A consulation is now underway, which will inform the MMO’s final decision. The RYA has submitted evidence, following a virtual consultation with RYAaffiliated clubs and…

2020 has been a year like no other but, if anything, it has underlined the importance of celebrating the positives. And over the next six pages there is no lack of positives. Despite the pandemic, the marine industry and sailing community gave us boats, kit and sailing achievements of the highest quality. Our annual British Yachting Awards seeks to recognise the greatest achievements of the year and uniquely the winners are decided by public vote. It is this that makes the Awards a vital celebration of the best the cruising and racing world has to offer – covering every aspect of sailing from the finest young racing sailor on the scene to the latest bluewater cruising yacht. We published our shortlist in October and since then you have voted in…

CONTEST 55CS RUNNER UP: HALLBERG RASSY 40C A much coveted category with some really beautiful boats on show but ultimately it was the stunning new Contest 55CS which stole the show, picking up 27% of the vote in this category. What makes this boat so special? Well, quite a lot really. This Judel/Vrolijk design blends quality and cruising comfort with great performance and a really high quality interior that is both practical, tasteful and contemporary. The Dutch yard prides itself on quality and this is the only boatbuilder in this size bracket with full Lloyds certification – a real stamp of quality construction. Editor Sam Jefferson tested the boat this October and noted: “No question, this is a magnificent boat; beautifully put together, fun to sail, luxurious and reassuring. A…

THE FOILING DINGHY RUNNER UP: MELGES 15 Things are moving fast in very sense in the world of foiling dinghies and that is certainly the case with The Foiling Dinghy which has opened the field of foiling to sailors with – how shall we put it – a less refined skill set. It’s a formula that has clearly appealed to the readership and The Foiling Dinghy flew home, securing a massive 62% of the vote in this category. This German built dinghy has been designed by to be an easy to foil sailing dinghy, purpose built to foil with a dual foil system. It’s affordable, lightweight and easy to transport, launch and handle on land. Designer Thilo Keller explains: “The new dinghy is designed to be stable and forgiving in…

NATIONAL SCHOOLS SAILING ASSOCIATION Each year Sailing Today and Yachts and Yachting selects a charity of the year and we are delighted to say that in 2021 we will continue our work with the National Schools Sailing Association (NSSA). We greatly look forward to following the activity of the charity over the 2021 sailing season in order to highlight its work. The NSSA was formed in 1961 as the national representative body for sailing in schools. It’s a charity run UK membership organisation promoting accessible youth sailing and providing a framework to achieve that. Over the years it has helped countless young sailors hit the water for the first time. Steven Lloyd NSSA Chairman said: “I’m honoured to accept this award. This has been an exceptional year in so many…

Moments after Emirates Team New Zealand crossed the finish line to convincingly win the 35th America’s Cup in Bermuda 2017, Circolo della Vela Sicilia, represented by Luna Rossa Pirelli Prada handed over their letter formally challenging the Kiwis for the next cup, so becoming the Challenger of Record. These two actions – the win and the formal challenge – set in motion a chain of events, that would shock the sailing world in 2018 as the new America’s Cup class, the AC75 rule was released. To understand how we got here, it is worth briefly looking back to the events leading up to that moment. In 2017, Team New Zealand were the only team not signed up to a deal put forward by Oracle Team USA, which would see the…

‘PARENTS ARE OFTEN THE INSPIRATION FOR GETTING THEIR KIDS INTO THE SPORT. OFTEN THEY’RE ALSO THE REASON WHY KIDS QUIT’ When I was listening to Veronika Živná talking about her father and how he is the all-engrossing presence in her 49erFX Olympic campaign, I was reminded of a Philip Larkin poem. The best-known verse from the long-departed British poet is not repeatable here, but it goes along the lines that the reason why you and I end up becoming the flawed human beings that we are is because our mums and dads mess us up. “They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had, and add some extra, just for you,” said Larkin. In Veronika Živná’s case, she sails with her sister Kateřina,…

You know a company must be doing something right when they announce that their new boat Is the seventh generation of that marque yet such is the case with the new Beneteau Oceanis 40.1. To say times have changed is, of course, incredibly trite but- by god – it’s certainly the case here. The Oceanis 40.1 feels like an entirely different boat to the first generation yacht. This is the fourth yacht in a new range that started with the Oceanis 51.1; the 51.1 was a real breakthrough in terms of cruising yacht design. The Berret/Racoupeau design team was looking for new ways to increase internal volume while retaining a modest amount of wetted surface area and settled on the cunning ploy of running a chine well forward to the…

Madeira and its smaller sister island of Porto Santo are the logical first stops for boats enroute to the Caribbean but are also an ideal adventure destination for sailors planning to leave the UK in the spring or summer. They are approximately 1,200 miles from Falmouth or the south west coast of Ireland, 535 miles from Gibraltar. Madeira is a high island, highest point about 6,100ft with other peaks only slightly lower. In 1975 on my boat, Iolaire, at we picked up the lights high up on the mountains of Madeira at night when we were 40 miles out. The climate is mild; average temperatures in summer are around 23°C and in winter, 19°C but remember if exploring the higher hills it can cool surprisingly quickly. The low eastern half…

Nautix paints We are told 80% of the Vendée Globe fleet has selected Nautix coating systems for this edition of the race. The paints are designed for serious racing boats and are said to improve carbon protection and boost glide. Nautix also offers flourescent antifouling for security, cold black finish for composite protection, or very hard paint like its NX194 brand to protect foils and rudders against abrasion. NX194 is included in the America’s Cup rules. ● paint.nautix.com Wooden prop We’re always fans of these wooden props from Dad’s Boats. They come in different timbers and this one is one of their larger props at 300mm diameter (1ft). ● From £149; model shown £499 ● dadsboats.com Breton wool jumper Billed as an “authentic” Breton striped jumper for men, in navy…

JEANNEAU SUN ODYSSEY 409 | RESTLESS OF KIP Restless of Kip is a fine example of a fast and fun modern design from the Jeanneau stable. This Sun Odyssey 409 is as elegant as she is swift. Her light and comfortable interior incudes a large owners cabin forward, double cabin aft and a very roomy combined shower and heads unit. With a stable hull form, twin wheels, roller furling headsail and in mast furling mainsail she is well set up for short handed sailing. Year of build: 2012 Cabins: 3 Length: 12.34m (40’5”) Beam: 3.99m (13’) Max Draft: 2.10m (6’9”) Displacement: 7860kg Engine: Yanmar 40HP Lying: Inverclyde michaelschmidt.co.uk craftinsure quote: £406 BLACK PEPPER CODE 2 | ARARA French manufacturer Black Pepper yachts specialise in stylish, extremely…

‘The worst passages are the ones where the forecast led us to believe we’d have enough wind’ Passage-making can be tough. The cruising lifestyle involves an awful lot more dawdling at anchor in enjoyable spots than it does hardcore sail manoeuvres. It’s easy to slip into a rhythm of only moving somewhere when you really have to and choosing to eat up as many miles as possible when you’re underway. Once we had more than one child onboard we tended to opt for more day passages where we could. But, as every boater knows, there is only so far you can travel in one day on a sailboat without pushing the limits of daylight. And, to add a further complication, if you want to actually get there purely under sail,…

Both British contenders for a podium place in the Vendée Globe crashed out of the race after collisions with floating objects. Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss, one of the big favourites for a win, suffered irreparable rudder damage in the south Atlantic. A few days later Sam Davies on Initiatives-Coeur also suffered a collision with a floating object, which damaged her keel structure. Both nursed their foiling IMOCA 60s slowly to Cape Town, where they were photographed talking on the pontoons. Thomson had led much of the race, setting a blistering pace down the Atlantic. Just days before his retirement, he had overcome a major setback when he discovered damage to Hugo Boss’ bow area. Describing the collision, the bitterly disappointed 46-year-old father-of-two system was jammed and all I could…

Viewers in Europe will need to be up early to catch the AC75 racing over the next few months. The four America’s Cup teams were due to show their colours in two warm-up regattas in Auckland in December, before the Prada Cup gets underway in January. The America’s Cup match itself, between the Defender Emirates Team New Zealand and whoever wins the Prada Cup, takes place in March. As we went to press, INEOS Team UK had missed the first practice races in Auckland, leading to widespread speculation that their boat had gear failure. Commentators were also suggesting that the British team, who are hoping to win the America’s Cup for the first time in the country’s history, were off the pace compared to their rivals. By the time you…

Plans have been announced for the free virtual RYA Virtual Dinghy Show, presented by Suzuki, over the weekend of 27-28 February. The event was due to take place at Farnborough Exhibition Centre but there will now be a huge series of talks, interactive coaching sessions and other presentations online. Members of the British Sailing Team, including those going to the Tokyo Olympics in July, will be appearing, as will be Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting writer Mark Rushall, who is the British Sailing Team’s Olympic strategist and will be giving a talk on how the Rules of Sailing have changed in the recent World Sailing update. Visitors wil be able to explore the exhibition halls and connect with boat builders, sailing clubs, classes and holiday companies and more. Despite…

MDL Marinas is putting on a Green Tech Boat Show in 2021. The event will be the first boat show of its kind in the UK and will display the marine industry’s latest green technologies, from 19-20 June at MDL’s Queen Anne’s Battery, Plymouth. Tim Mayer, MDL’s Sales and Marketing Director, said: “Through our new Green Tech Boat Show we want to bring together the marine community’s innovators and change-makers, who are working towards a greener future for boating, and present their products on a public stage. “This show is specifically for boat owners wishing to make the switch to greener options, and prospective owners who’d like to start their boating journey in the most environmentally friendly way possible. “With 70 landside stands and 30 on-water berths available, this strong…

OUTREMER 55 RUNNER UP: DRAGONFLY 40 This was a really hard fought category with the Outremer 55 slugging it out with the Dragonfly 40 for the prize. Ultimately this stunning catamaran prevailed, picking up 37% of the vote. The 55 is a worthy winner too; Outremer has seize the market for top quality, fast blue water cruising catamarans and pretty much made it their own and it’s easy to see why when you look at the boat. Cruising multihulls aren’t always easy on the eye, but this VPLP design most certainly is. Outremer has also turned up the dial when it comes to performance and comfort too. Displacement is an impressive 13,500 kilos and Outremer the 55 can match windspeed up to 12kn of breeze, an impressive statistic. Meanwhile, the…

GRAND SOLEIL 44 PERFORMANCE RUNNER UP: CLUBSWAN 36 In a year of incredibly tight voting, the Grand Soleil 44 Performance bucked the trend somewhat, romping home with 48% of the vote in this category. It’s easy to see why; this is a fast, versatile yacht that immediately caught the eye when it made its debut at the Genoa Boat Show this October. Designer Matteo Polli made his name with Italia Yachts where designs such as the 9.98 picked up both plaudits and trophies. The 44 is his first design for Grand Soleil and he has drawn up a yacht designed to be competitive in IRC and ORC classes. Polli has made a name for producing yachts that perform strongly in light airs and the 44 looks set to follow that…

SAM DAVIES RUNNER UP: SIR BEN AINSLIE Sam Davies is a worthy winner, having enjoyed a phenomenal 2020. Scoring a fourth place in the Vendée-Arctique Race, snapping at the heels of the latest IMOCAs on board Initiatives-Coeur, a 10-year-old design retrofitted with foils. Her top form continued in the Defi Azimut and only bad luck put her out of contention for what many believed was a possible podium position in the Vendée Globe. Speaking from her boat in the middle of the South Atlantic as she raced towards eventual retirement from the Vendée Globe, Sam said: “It’s an honour to receive this award and a massive thank you to everyone who voted for me. I hope to inspire lots more sailors for generations to come.”…

SANDERS SAILS AND OTHER BUSINESSES RUNNER UP: RYA Co-ordinated by Sanders Sails in Lymington, a group of volunteer companies and individuals (including Emma McEwen, pictured, former RS800 European champion), became the main supplier of PPE gowns to Southampton General Hospital during the first UK lockdown in April and May, producing an astonishing 5,000 gowns a week for free. Other significant voluntary donations of PPE followed, for the NHS and other organisations including the RNLI. Pete Sanders said: “I’d like to thank both the selection committee for nominating us and the readers for voting for us. It’s a big ‘us’ because in addition to those ‘other businesses’ there were also sewing groups and talented individuals including RS 800 sailor Emma McEwan.”…

All teams have launched their second boat in recent months, with American Magic first to hit the water in Auckland followed by INEOS Team UK, then Luna Rossa Pirelli Prada, and finally Emirates Team New Zealand. A glance at each teams’ first and second boat reveals just how ‘in development’ understanding of the new class rule is. INEOS Team UK’s second boat saw a radical change. So too (but to a lesser degree) did American Magic and even Emirates Team New Zealand could not be said to have a second boat that is a true development of their first with many new features on their second hull. Of the four teams, only Luna Rossa Pirelli Prada produced an obvious and clear version two evolution of their first design. The second…

‘PERHAPS THEREIN LIES A PROBLEM WHERE A BOAT DESIGNED BY ONE STABLE IS MODIFIED BY ANOTHER WITH LIMITED CONSULTATION’ On the Vendée Globe there are crises and crises. I’m not giving too much away in saying that the main comms tool within the organisation is WhatsApp – about which more later – but suffice to say the level of crises which pop up vary from press officers flying kites to a red alert crisis. More and more you see ‘don’t tell the world until 0x00hrs that we have had a crisis, our skipper has torn two sails but has now repaired them’. That is not a crisis. That is an every day event on the Vendée Globe and to my mind the race needs to be stronger in not giving…

BAVARIA C42 Similar in size to the Oceanis (max length 40’6”) despite being called a C42. This is a recent design from the board of Maurizio Cosutti and it’s a thoughtfully put together yacht which can certainly rival the Beneteau for innovation and modern outlook. bavariayachts.com JEANNEAU SUN ODYSSEY 410 Another Marc Lombard design and featuring a similar emmersed forefoot. If anything the 410 is even more striking as the bow is also inverted. The price is competitive compared to the Oceanis. The Sun Odyssey is also available with a swing keel. Jeanneau.com HANSE 418 Getting on a bit in terms of design but the Hanse 418 remains a good looking boat with its aggressive sporty lines and low coachroof. This is also a highly competitively priced option and a…

For most applications the ultimate goal is to have running rigging that does not stretch at all. But why? Whether racing or cruising, the fundamentals are the same – any stretch in a halyard or other rope changes the sail shape. Therefore in gusts the sail develops a fuller shape, with draft – the position of maximum depth – moving aft. This powers up the sail, increasing heel, and loads up the rudder, increasing weather helm. This, in turn, makes the boat more uncomfortable and more difficult to control in gusty conditions. It will also be a lot slower. By contrast, if the sail shape remains constant in a gust, all the extra power goes into making the boat go faster. It also makes it possible for the helm to…

The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers has always been about providing a framework and a deadline around which sailors can work to. Some form or reassurance if you will - and, by God, if there was ever a year in which reassurance was required it was 2020 – a year in which we all learnt to live with uncertainty. Yet, somehow, with all the travel restrictions in place, the ARC went ahead and, with the storm clouds once more gathering over Europe and basic human freedoms being sacrificed in order to control Covid, the ARC never felt more vital. We often talk of sailing as a form of escape. But this year it's escape in earnest. In the Canary Islands, where refugee boats from Africa arrive with regularity on the road…

The North East of England is a cruising ground which is often overlooked by yachtsmen. This is a blessing for those in the know, as it has a great deal to offer the discerning cruiser: Golden beaches, miles of unspoilt coastline and best of all, a range of quaint, unspoilt harbours. Despite these assets, there is barely a sniff of the kind of overcrowding you experience in many other places around the UK; drop your anchor in a spectacular location and the chances are you will be untroubled by other yachts. Along the coast, ancient tumbledown castles provide a dramatic backdrop for cruising, while offshore, the Farne Islands provide a number of beautiful anchorages amid a riot of wildlife, including puffins and seals. Yet, even above this wealth of beauty,…