Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2024 i Sailing Today

Tom Cunliffe The trouble with yachts is, unless you’re lucky enough to have a centreboarder, most of them have deep keels. While I’m often content to stay onboard while lying to my anchor, there are occasions when the local creeks look full of promise, with no chance of exploring unless I take to the dinghy. Once upon a time, this was an undiluted pleasure. For years, my family and I sailed the sort of boat that can carry a hard tender. If well designed, it makes serious dinghy cruising a workable option without an outboard. We owned a boat for a decade and a half that could ship the 10ft glassfibre ‘stem’ dinghy I bought for 30 quid from the barman at the old National Sailing Centre in Cowes. It…

The Vendée Globe is a solo, non-stop, unassisted 24,300nm race, in which 40 skippers representing 11 nations are set to battle their IMOCA 60s around the globe. The race record stands at 74 days, 3 hours, 35 minutes, set by Armel Le Cléac’h in 2017, and there is of course the hope of bettering that. But the Vendée Globe is about way more. It requires preparedness, ability to deal with the unknown, plus limitless grit and determination. The magnitude of what sailor and boat are taking on – facing the most extreme elements, entirely unaided – is brought home by the fact that on three separate occasions in past editions, skippers have had to perform mid-ocean rescues to save the life of a fellow competitor. Simply completing the race elevates…

There are lots of reasons for redecking a boat. Maybe the old surface is beginning to look a bit tatty or it’s suffered some damage. Perhaps you want to cover a glassfibre deck to make the boat look smarter. Whichever it is, you should pause before you pick up the phone and ask your boatyard to recommend a teak fitter. Most of the world’s available teak is now plantation grown. Not necessarily a bad thing, it has nevertheless opened up teak forestry to new regions with different climates. Some say that the result is an inferior wood quality from trees that grow quicker and less uniformly. Shorter planks with erratic grain clearly make it harder to fit a teak deck, for instance, and one experienced fitter I spoke to said…

SOUTHERLY 32 | ROSHANAK Roshanak is a sparkling Southerly 32. Offering the perfect combination of capable sailing performance, first class accommodation, and the ability to explore shallow waters, while also being capable of grounding with her Southerly drop keel. In her original ownership, Roshanak is gleaming. Updates include a Furlerboom in-boom furling system, providing smooth and efficient sail handling, new standing rigging, upgraded navigation gear, and bow and stern thrusters for precise manoeuvring. Below, she has an excellent layout with a beautiful interior that is also very practical. She’s ideal for coastal exploration and offshore cruising, and is ready for new adventures. Year: 2009 LOA: 9.97m (32’9”) Beam: 3.60m (11’10”) Draft: 0.70m- 2.12m ( 2’4”- 6’11”) Displacement: 7,192kg Hull Construction: Glassfibre Keel: Lifting Engine: 1 x Yanmar 3YM30, 29hp Designer:…

Kiwis put Britannia to the Sword The longest losing streak in sporting history remains intact after Emirates Team New Zealand downed Ben Ainslie’s Team INEOS Britannia in the 37th America’s Cup, recording a 7-2 victory over the British challengers in Barcelona to ensure that Britain’s 173 wait for victory goes on. Pete Burling’s well drilled team defended the ‘Auld Mug’ for New Zealand for the second time in a row, with their foiling AC75 proving simply too quick for their British rival in the conditions. After romping into a 4-0 lead, there was a brief scare for the Kiwis after INEOS Britannia clawed back two races in more boisterous conditions before normal service was resumed. Peter Burling, Emirates Team New Zealand skipper told the race commentators: “What an awesome day,…

“The fastest boat always wins.” It’s one of the most enduring truisms of the America’s Cup. For a while during the Louis Vuitton Cup, the challengers looked like they might upend the cliché and prove that sailors do matter after all. And certainly they have never mattered more than the America’s Cup which has just concluded in Barcelona. Sailing ability – whether in terms of good steering and trimming, solid boat handling, clever tactics and strategy – all that stuff has always mattered. But everything in the America’s Cup has played second fiddle to inherent straight-line boat speed, the way the boat, the appendages and the rig have been designed and engineered. In the end, the Kiwis demonstrated that Taihoro, Emirates Team New Zealand’s winning AC75, was the fastest boat.…

America's Cup Many variables led to INEOS Britannia getting beaten by Emirates Team New Zealand but one key factor that made a clear difference - the weather. Britannia's two wins came on the day when conditions were markedly different. It's therefore illminating to talk to the the team working behind the scenes at INEOS who were straining every nerve to gain an advantage from the challenging race conditions we’ve witnessed. Understanding the conditions you’re to go sailing in is an all-important and obvious part of any yachtsman’s preparation. On these finely tuned AC75s engaged in the pursuit of ultimate speed and any slight edge against the competition – a precise understanding of the conditions is vital. This is where INEOS Meteorologist Miguel Sanchez Cuenca (‘Capi’), and the whole data systems,…

Boat test – Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 350 The days when nostalgia seemed passé are gone. Remember when we had weather instead of a series of mini catastrophes? Gone. Remember when a fresh-faced Labour politician told us that things can only get better? Long gone. Ok, lets have another go – remember when a 35’ yacht was considered large? Yes, long gone. The cold, hard economic truth is that the profit margin on a 35’ yacht is modest to extremely modest. A 50’ boat requires only a small percentage of extra labour and expense in fit out compared to the high mark up on the sale price. Thus, a 35 footer is becoming an endangered species. Yet this endangered species is still on the scene albeit demoted to the title of…

Pilotage It is something of a meme to depict a society going about their lives gazing raptly at a smartphone and not at the world around them. Mind you, in my experience it is closer to reality than the jokey depictions on social media might suggest. So it should come as no surprise that gazing at a screen has become the norm on yachts and for many the singular tool for navigation in strange waters. On Skylax we are not Luddites but choose to respect the warning when firing up the chart plotter or any digital device used for plotting that advises that ‘the device is an aid to navigation’. When I first sailed Roulette to the Mediterranean, I was woefully under equipped even for the 1970s. On board was…

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Pacific Ocean is empty. We grow up with maps and globes that show a huge expanse of big, blue space with not a lot else within it. Perhaps it is in part this unknown, seemingly endless sea, that continues to fascinate and pull sailors, young and old, inexplicably towards it. When cruisers plan for their ‘Pacific Crossing’ from somewhere along the shorelines of the Americas, they also tend to think just of that first leap; the 2,700 to 3,600nm push to get them from the coastline to French Polynesia. Though they strategise and provision for eight or nine months’ worth of travel, sketching out intended routes and stops, it is the tropical islands and exotic cultures that fire the imagination of each year’s…

Winter Sailing Trip Boats are like friends, for many reasons – we stick with them through thick and thin, and they are a reason for living. But there is one important difference: boats like to be used. If we lay our boats up at the end of September and wait until the following Easter before our next trip, we may waste the best months of the season putting right what time and the depredations of salty dampness have put wrong. So I like to use my boat every month, even during winter. This way, there are fewer nasty surprises lurking in the lazarette or hiding in the heads. And if there are insoluble grumbles in the galley, then at least I know about them before setting off into the summer…

Entering the Mediterranean, most sailors tend to sail along the Spanish coast rather than the Moroccan, with the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla perhaps being exceptions to this rule. But for British sailors there are certain advantages to staying outside of Europe. This summer I crewed on Nemo, my friend Uwe’s boat, and we sailed along the Moroccan north coast. I was ambivalent about going because my experience of Morocco 15 years earlier hadn’t been so good, with a lot of people constantly hassling us to hire them as a tour guide, buy their wares or visit their shops. But, since Uwe has a lot of experience of travelling through Morocco, I decided that it was the ideal chance to explore a new sailing region close to my current…

Caribbean Preview Picture warm trade winds blowing steadily across your bow, clear blue skies overhead, while in the distance, palm-fringed shorelines hold the promise of soft white sand between your toes and iced rum cocktails in your hand. Sounds like the stuff of dreams – especially now as the UK sinks deeper into the dreariness of winter. Too good to be true? Actually… no. All this promise of tropical bliss – and much more – is standard expectation when it comes to the regatta season in the Caribbean, making racing here a must-do; whether you are an amateur race crew, a pro-sailing team, or simply a liveaboard crew cruising the area looking for a fresh adventure. With a packed calendar of events, each holds its own unique appeal – in…

Gull’s Eye – Fox’s Marina and Boatyard 52.0327° N 1.1532° E There are few marinas in the Ipswich area of the east coast as welcoming and convenient as the independently run Fox’s Marina & Boatyard at the top of the picturesque River Orwell in Suffolk. As well as easy access at all states of the tide (no lock gates), 100 pontoon berths, and storage ashore for over 200 vessels, this marina has extensive on-site yacht repair, refit and maintenance facilities, and a skilled workforce, which makes it a viable option not only for permanent berth holders, but also for visitors. One of the other prime attractions that Fox’s offers is its highly popular chandlery, which has a known is for its extensive stock and good customer service. Established in 1927,…

I’ve sailed the area close to Sail Ionian’s base more often than anywhere else. Located to the east of Lefkada, and to the north of Meganisi, it’s known as the Inland Sea. I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world, and probably the best sailing area in the world too! Many sailors dismiss it once they have been to Meganisi a few times, and head straight south to Kefalonia or Ithaca. To me, that’s a cardinal sin. The Inland Sea is exactly that: bordered by land on all sides, it could almost be a lake within the South Ionian. Indeed, some mornings the deep clear water is so calm it looks like a mirror. The mountains of the mainland frame the view out from Lefkada and…