Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2016 i Yachting Monthly

Yachtsman of the year Volvo Ocean Race winning skipper Ian Walker was named Yachtsman of the Year by the Yachting Journalists Association (YJA). Eleanor Poole (14), 2015 Topper national champion, won Young Sailor of the Year and cartoonist Mike Peyton received the YJA Diamond Jubilee Lifetime Achievement Award. Caution in the Channel Hampshire police are warning sailors to be vigilant in the English Channel after UK-bound migrants approached yachts in Cherbourg. A record haul of smuggled weapons was also discovered in Kent in 2015, aboard a small motor yacht. YM on the BBC Yachting Monthly featured in the BBC One TV drama series Death in Paradise on 7 January. Blue Water Medal British sailors Tom and Vicky Jackson, who write occasionally for YM, have won the Cruising Club of America’s…

Is the yacht on the cover of the January 2016 issue of Yachting Monthly really sailing with a forwardfacing forehatch open? Ed’s note: Yes, bit of a faux pas, and not recommended procedure. That said, in the calm waters of Chichester Harbour, I’m glad photographer Bob Aylott persuaded them to delay their cruising chute drop long enough to get that shot.…

My mother died recently and I now know why ships are called shes. I suddenly feel as though I’ve been left to swim for it, even though I’ve been old enough to fend for myself for some 40-odd years. A ship is a she because they are like mothers. They shelter you, they feed you, they carry you through the rough and tumble of life until you can sail solo. One of my earliest memories is of Ma using her own coat to protect my pre-school nape from a summer thunderstorm as Father rowed us ashore from his barge-yacht, Curlew. A little later, while Pa’s 20ft Snapdragon was stranded on a shoal in the Thames Estuary, Mother carried me across an oozy stretch peppered with sharp oyster shells, her own…

In high summer the islands of Oléron and Ré, off the west coast of France, attract slightly more yachts than there are visitors’ berths. The very obliging harbourmasters hate to turn visitors away, so they cram the last few into berths which are just possible to get into but mighty difficult to get out of, just like lobster pots. I encountered a lobster pot berth last summer in St Denis d’Oléron: a finger berth, port side to, on the north side of the visitors’ pontoon. Our neighbour to starboard was much smaller so we had ample room to slot ourselves into the berth. Unfortunately he left shortly after we arrived, to be replaced by a much larger boat, which only just fitted into the available space. Two days later we…

After checking the weather, I prepared to depart Brest at 1530 on a Monday in May, to cross the Bay of Biscay in my Bavaria 33, Isabella, bound for Vigo with three crew. Forecasts showed an area of low pressure, and high winds, expected on Wednesday night but this would pass ahead of us and move east along the northern coast of Spain. Leaving Brest with a fair tide we could see the loom of Ar Men light as night fell. We were on a close reach with two reefs in the main and a reefed headsail. The miles were ticking off rapidly. Using the satellite phone I had been regularly checking the weather and found no surprises. But on Wednesday morning, half way across the Bay, I was horrified…

A few years back, I responded to a reader who asked why, in today’s world of linked functions, marine instrument makers don’t use GPS ‘speed over ground’ and ‘course over ground’ to calculate True Wind from the raw Apparent Wind at the masthead transducer, rather than the more primitive ‘speed through the water’ defined by onboard instruments. Good question, you might think. Here’s the current situation. For most of us, True Wind has always related to a flagstaff ashore or a boat at anchor. Apparent Wind at the masthead is, in reality, the True Wind modified by course and speed over the ground. Unfortunately, until recently, onboard computers had no access to linked GPS, which meant that ‘True Wind’ as given by the dial was nothing of the sort. In…

If it looks good, it’s functional – and I mean well-coiled ropes. Always have the anchor warp coiled down with the fall on top and make sure the bitter end is actually made fast! So, too, with halyards: they should be neatly coiled with loops the same length and hooked with a bend to the top of the cleat. They should be ready to cast off at a moment’s notice and that means being able to lay them on deck with the fall uppermost. I always use Murphy’s Law with a twist: if something can go wrong, it will, and at the worst possible moment: in the dark, when you are alone and it’s blowing hard.…

A city called Byzantium existed on the site and in 330AD it was renamed Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. With the fall of Rome in 476, Constantinople became the centre of the Byzantine Empire. By the 6th Century AD it extended from Spain to Greece, plus much of Asia Minor and north Africa. Gradually the empire contracted as Muslim armies advanced. In 1204, the Fourth Crusade from Europe sacked Constantinople and it never recovered. In 1453, Mehmed II took the city and empire under Ottoman rule.…

There’s always a good read hidden on a sailor’s shelves. Tell us your favourite. EMAIL theo.stocker@timeinc.com Past midnight. The wind is not easing. The seas are high, very high. The moon probably adds to the impression of height, by leaving the advancing wave faces in shadow, darker than all the white around. I ought to drop the main entirely, and perhaps the staysail. With only the storm jib and close-reefed mizzen Joshua would still do very well, and stay this side of going too fast. But we are surfing; it is breathtaking at times, the log has already registered 48 miles in six hours. The hull speed has been exceeded. And I don’t know, shortening sail right now, no. Some sort of rhythm would be lost. The Horn is too…

In the past I’ve found portable vacuum cleaners to be fairly pathetic. This one is seriously powerful. Plus, it comes with a long handle and carpet brush attachment to convert it into a full-size upright. As a compact it is slightly heavy for onehanded use, but still comfortable. It comes with two small heads and an extension tube for use in compact mode – a little brush head and a crevice tool for getting into tight spots. Converting it into an upright is simple. The long handle and wide suction head slot on easily, the latter has both a smooth roller for hard floors and a brush for carpets. There is no rotating brush but the static one does a fair job of lifting dirt and the suction is very…

Recovery rescue sling Quiksling is a large frame covered in closedcell foam that floats. Inside the frame, held by Velcro, is a chest harness. The device is thrown to a conscious man overboard (MOB), who places it over their head and stretches their arms over the sides. When the rescuer pulls on the line the harness detaches from the frame and secures itself around the MOB’s chest, allowing them to be recovered in a safe, ‘deckchair’ position. It all sounds great if it’s easily understood by the MOB and rescuer, but it may prove complicated in use. It boasts many more features and accessories, but it’s pricey, and accessible stowage could be difficult. We will test shortly to see if it works as it says. Price £624 Contact Seasafe Systems…

Painting boats has come a long way in recent years, from tins of colour brushed onto the topsides to today’s high-tech methods of getting the perfect finish. The quality of the finish will depend on the boat’s shape. Slab-sided boats tend to show imperfections, while wineglass-shaped yachts hide defects within their curves. With the health risks of using twopack paints and the difficulty of getting a good finish, this is a job best left to the professionals. What does the process involve? ‘We paint a lot of new boats,’ says Dominic May, a director at Berthon. ‘For starters, we have to ensure that the hulls are clean. This means using an anti-silicon wash, because if any mould release is still on the hull, it will reject the paint. We then…

23 new Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) have been designated in English waters. A round of consultations will now take place to decide on the management measures within the zones before they are implemented within the next two years. It is not anticipated that these will have a significant impact on the activities of sailors. The new MCZs form the second of three tranches to be designated by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). A final third tranche of MCZs will be consulted on in 2017 and designated in 2018. The first tranche saw 27 areas becoming MCZs in 2013, so that there are now 50 protected zones in English waters covering an area of 7,886 square miles. Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are establishing similar schemes in…

Most letters are edited for brevity. You can read more correspondence, online, at www.yachtingmonthly.com/letters WIN A BOTTLE OF RUM The letter of the month wins a bottle of Pusser’s Rum, produced to Admiralty specification and served daily to every sailor in the Royal Navy for more than 300 years (UK residents only) www.pussers.com Never mind the Colregs, enhance my anchor light Alastair Buchan is right (Feb 16) to suggest a change to the Colregs. Most bays in which we anchor are surrounded by shore lights and one white light is usually inadequate. So we are keeping one white light but adding a flashing white light. Collapsible lights like ours are easily bought for £12 or so. They have solar charging; can also be charged by a USB cable from a…

One of my first jobs was at a sailing school near Marseilles. As the blazing, Mistral-swept summer gave way to more pleasant conditions, the place shut down leaving me with no plans, so I rode the motorbike down the coast to see what I could find. Fortune sent me to the little port of Carro where I secured a fair hearing from a fisherman with the local name of Marius. ‘Looking back, gearboxes have caused me as much grief as engines’ Marius seemed built of granite; powerful shoulders, beret, the universal blue overalls of France and the shambling gait of the seaman. He smelt of Pastis and fish. As it turned out, his lad had left for pastures new and so, after sizing me up, he took me on. I…

Tom Partridge is an expert navigator. He and partner Susie Plume, now in Asia, plan to cross the Indian Ocean in 2016. www.yachtadina.co.uk When Susie and I set sail from the Hamble aboard our Hylas 46, Adina, we set off, like any other prudent mariner, armed with an array of paper and electronic charts together with pilot books to help ensure we could safely navigate our way around the world. We always use our chartplotter to record our tracks, primarily as a safety feature if we need to backtrack, but also to see how accurate our charts were. What cruiser hasn’t at some stage found themselves bemused, looking at their recorded position on a chart which shows them theoretically having sailed over, or anchored on, terra firma? We know these…

C2GPXKML Software that converts KML and KMZ files from Google Earth or SAS. Planet to GPX file formats, which are acceptable to GPS GE2KAP ‘Google Earth to KAP’ software that grabs Google Earth images, including latitude and longitude, and saves them as KAP files GPX GPS eXchange; a file format for saving and sharing routes, waypoints and tracks which contain GPS data KAP A file format using encoded raster images and cartographic information that can be read and displayed by electronic nautical chart programs KMZ/KML Key Mark-up Language; a file format used by Google Earth and SAS.Planet to save the likes of waypoints, routes, tracks and so on. OpenCPN Open-source Chart Plotter Navigator; free planning and navigation software developed by a team of sailors WGS84 World Geodetic System 1984; a…

CAPTURE By Colin Darch, published by Austin MacAuley at £7.99 This recounts the author’s life on all sorts of merchant ships across much of the world over half a century. It’s a strange blend of tales and anecdotes, but culminates in the author’s accepting the job of delivering a tug from St Petersburg to Singapore, during which he and his crew were captured by Somali pirates and held for ransom. Surprisingly, Darch avoided retirement a little longer and undertook a few further ship movements. Throughout the book he gives the reader an insight into a world quite alien to most of us, even though the seas we sail are the same. In that sense it is ‘enlightening’, but it is not always an easy read. THE BOAT IMPROVEMENT GUIDE By…

The prevailing winds and swell can push any boat into the Bay. Leaving from Falmouth or Southern Ireland is a better option than northern France. This also keeps clear of the shipping route across the Bay. Weather in the Bay is highly unpredictable. I have heard of yachts motoring across Biscay with no wind and then, just days later, ships having their ninth floor windows smashed by huge waves. Whenever you go, be prepared for big seas, high winds and fog. There is nowhere to run. Experienced crew are vital. Many insurance companies insist upon two skippers. It’s not a place for novices. Before crossing, check the integrity of your steering system. In our case, an emergency tiller would have proved impossible to use. A blocked filter stopped our engine.…

Old hands learned this wrinkle at their mother’s knee, but if you’re just starting it will keep you out of trouble. A boat is rarely going where she’s pointing in our tide-swept waters. When a buoy, or some other immovable object is making a bow wave like this one, it is effectively another vessel under way. The question is, are you going to hit it or not. It’s no good noting that it’s a good thirty degrees out on the bow. In a strong stream you might well be drifting forty or more degrees from where you’re heading. The only sure-fire answer is to note carefully whether the object is moving against its background. If it is, you’re OK. If it’s not, alter course quickly and watch out. If in…

‘Counter’ Far from the counter of a corner shop, a counter stern is found on classic yachts, pilot cutters and some fishing smacks. It is the lines of the boat extrapolated to a logical conclusion and creates the most elegant of ‘blunt ends’. It served yachts well under old rating rules and it created sterns of great beauty. Nothing else is a counter. ‘Reverse counter’ In the 1970s, yacht racing rules finally ceased to favour the true counter stern. Because yachts still had full hulls whose fin keels were part of the form rather than a bolt-on extra, they continued to have traditional lines which needed finishing off. The solution was the ‘reverse counter’. The best were as pretty as this, but the fashion was soon ousted by flat-floored cruising…

Chris Beeson is an RYA Yachtmaster Offshore with 40,000 coastal and ocean miles logged on a variety of sailing yachts When Yachtmaster Instructor and YM reader Colm Cleary wrote in explaining how you can rig a stern slip and power off a tight leeward berth using the engine (‘Spronging off’ against the wind Aug 15), we got quite a response. Some readers tried it and were impressed that such a simple technique worked so well, others wondered why we hadn’t heard of a stern rope or seen it used in that way. One YM reader, David Vasey, wrote in to say it was almost the same procedure, in reverse, that he’d seen Dutch sailors use to come alongside when the wind is blowing off the berth (Letters, November 2015). We…

Always practice SOB (Stay On Board), not MOB. That means always moving along the windward side, always being harnessed on deck and always making sure the tether is kept short: it should never be longer than from your midriff to your boots. Remember, a human head is only 20cm tall: not much to see when it’s bobbing on the surface. Take the time to get to know your engine better Look at your engine as a symphony of systems: combustion (fuel), cooling (coolant) and lubrication (oil) - not just a collection of parts. Find out where all the pipes go and which filters they go through. The MCA carries out a five-day course, and it’s well worth attending. Use your depth sounder at all times Use the depth sounder proactively:…

Watching the grey, pre-dawn sky turn a gentle pink before the sun bursts into its daily flight across the heavens is quite magical. There’s something awe inspiring too about the speed at which the sun lifts clear of the horizon then suddenly separates from it, the gap between lower limb and sea growing as you watch. I have been a fortunate observer of this transition from night to day on far too many occasions to count. Sometimes daylight has come as a huge relief; sometimes as a natural, quiet evolution; sometimes as a slightly unwelcome end to a great night’s sailing; always it has brought a sense of excitement about the new day ahead. It’s perhaps the dawn start for a passage, short or long, that brings the most anticipation.…

Born in Indo-China, now Vietnam, Moitessier (1925-1994) came into the limelight in 1966 when he and his wife Francoise arrived in France after a 126-day passage from Tahiti via Cape Horn in his 39ft steel ketch, Joshua. Recorded in his book The Logical Route, it was then the longest nonstop passage to be made by a yacht. Moitessier entered the Sunday Times Golden Globe non-stop, singlehanded race around the world, won by Robin Knox-Johnston and abandoned by Moitessier at the start of the homeward Atlantic leg. On arrival in Tahiti, he had sailed 37,455 miles, one and a half times around the world. The Long Way was primarily an account of what became a mystical, spiritual voyage for Moitessier.…

These garishly bright, trainerstyle shoes (also available in a more muted black) are based around a well-cushioned foam sole, which offers a surprising amount of support without adding much weight. The rubber outer sole is divided into sections to keep the shoe very flexible on deck. The sole curves up like a running shoe to add to the trainer styling and to offer protection for your toes, although this is showing a bit of wear now. The tread is a combination of narrow grooves and conventional razor-cut grip, which works as well on tarmac as on a wet and heaving deck. I wore the shoes extensively on both and despite my flat feet, the heel of the sole has worn much less than I expected for soft, non-marking rubber. The…

Flick through any issue of Yachting Monthly and you’ll see lots of boats with brightly coloured hulls. A bit of colour can improve the aesthetics of any yacht, and a well-paired tone will really enhance her pontoon appeal – especially when it comes to selling – but what happens when the hull begins to fade? White has been the safe bet for years. It’s no extra cost to the buyer and it hides any slight defects, which helps reduce post-sale claims to the builder. A boat in a nice colour and in good condition will stand out from the crowd, but there’s more to living with a coloured boat than just the looks. I spoke to a range of experts to find out what can be done to bring a…

Hull wrapping evolved from the automotive industry and offers the ability to quickly, and affordably, change the colour of a boat. Fitting takes a couple of days and the boat doesn’t need to be put inside a workshop, saving costs and time, and there’s no need to remove the rigging or mast. What does the process involve? Just like painting, preparation is required to clean the hull from residue, repair any damage and remove any graphics, such as hull lines and model names, which will show through. ‘Vinyl comes in 5ft wide rolls, and it takes three people to apply it,’ says Andy Yeomans of Grapefruit Graphics. ‘Vinyl isn’t permanent, so the owner can go for wacky colours’ Starting at the stern and running it along, the vinyl follows the…

What’s she like to sail? We tested the Performance version, hull no 1, and she was great fun. She handles like a big dinghy, responding to every little movement of the tiller. She’ll reward you when you get it right and won’t crucify you if you get it wrong. To windward, her groove is narrow and she needs to be sailed attentively to get the best out of her, but doing so will give you a pointing angle of around 28 degrees and a decent grin to boot. Sail her a little free and she slows slightly but also becomes less demanding. The cockpit seats are a little low but it matters little because the coaming is low and comfortable to sit on and there are also no winches to…

What’s she like to sail? The Bavaria 34 is a comparatively light boat with the typical ballast ratio of a modern production cruiser with a bulbed, cast-iron fin keel. She’s acceptably stiff under normal cruising conditions, but wants the first reef put in at around 15 knots. She is reasonably quick through the water, although her shallow forefoot can lead to her slamming a little in rough seas, which slows progress unless you bear off and sail her slightly free. On deck she’s well laid-out and the gear quality is above average. Her cockpit works well short-handed, but with the primary winches so far aft it can be a little tricky for anyone other than the helmsman to use them. She has good quality twospeed Harken 48ST primaries and single-speed…

It’s been like hospital visiting, this winter. Major abdominal surgery, complications, expert consultants called in, conferences about treatment plans, unfamiliar parts exposed, stiff upper lips necessary all round. Not anyone in the family, you understand: just the boat. Wild Song owed us nothing, after her 9,000-mile journey to Cape Horn and back, followed by a quick flip to Ireland, an abortive assault on fogbound Brittany and a journey up-Channel for a winter’s work. But we owed her plenty, even after the posh new set of sails. She deserved a proper re-rig, new electrics and instrument repeaters that actually work instead of waving their little pointers hysterically before slumping back to zero. The engine needed thought, and there’s nothing like a good scrapearound in the bilge to see what’s going on.…

Operating systems ■ Windows: XP, 7 and later ■ Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later ■ Linux Kernel 2.6 or later Computer/laptop recommended requirements ■ CPU: Pentium 4 2.4GHz+ or AMD 2400xp+ or for Apple: Dual Core Intel Mac ■ System memory (RAM): 1GB+ ■ Hard disk: 2GB+ of free space ■ Graphics Card: DirectX9 and 3D capable with 256MB of VRAM ■ Network speed: 768 Kbits/sec ■ Screen: 1280x1024, “32-bit True Color” or for Apple: “Millions of colours” GPS plug-in ■ Either a Bluetooth or Wifienabled receiver, USB stick or handheld GPS with USB cord GPS Splitter ■ Optional, to use one GPS input for many applications, www.gpsgate.com…

We start our passage preparation by looking at paper and electronic charts. Paper charts are used in high-level planning, revealing any islands, rocks, reefs or navigational aids that might be hidden in the depths of an electronic chart or not available on satellite images. We carefully read the mariner notifications that warn about reported positions being out. With electronic charts we can create different routes to evaluate our options. Often there are useful user community edits highlighting inaccuracies, particularly the position of navigation marks. Satellite data is next. We use SAS.Planet to look for the best satellite images of our destination. I zoom in to look for potential navigational hazards and check alternative anchorages. SAS. Planet automatically saves all the images as I go. Endless utility Using the SAS.Planet ‘ruler’…

1 Get the paperwork right. You need originals showing a 5-year title chain, including: VAT receipt or other VAT paperwork, RCD documentation, all service and maintenance records and all the major invoices for the yacht during your ownership. Carefully presented records speak volumes about how a yacht has been looked after. 2 If it’s broken, fix it. It is a surveyor’s job to pick up on faults. If you don’t, it will take longer to sell and you’ll get a worse price – the purchaser’s discount will be much more than the cost of mending the breakage. Repair or replace areas showing wear and tear. 3 The yacht should be thoroughly cleaned. Have the topsides and superstructure polished, stainless gleaming, and a fresh coat of antifoul if she’s ashore, to…

Practical Advice For All Sailors Tom Cunliffe has sailed tens of thousands of miles all over the world and has been a Yachtmaster Examiner since 1978 The avenging angels of admin These three look innocuous enough trundling by in the evening light, but look again. There’s a blue light on the stern of their RIB. They are the French customs, or perhaps the Gendarmerie. Whoever they are, they have draconian powers, so don’t be as casual as I was once and forget your papers when you set sail for foreign parts. If all is in order, these guys can be so charming the ladies might fancy jumping ship for the night. If something’s missing, you don’t want to be there. You’ll need: Small Ships Registry (SSR, in date) or Part…

Vyv Cox is a retired metallurgist who spends six months a year in the Med living onboard his Sadler 34, mostly at anchor In the typical gusting conditions of most anchorages, the wind comes off the land from a variety of directions due to frictional effects. The weight of a boat’s anchor chain provides a certain amount of elasticity as the boat moves forward in the lulls, increasing the ‘catenary’ of the chain, and aft in the gusts, reducing it. Yawing, or moving side-to-side, also affects catenary as the wind acts upon the greater area of the boat’s topsides. Traditional anchors are very sensitive to angular loads, relying heavily on a large scope of chain to keep the pull horizontal and dragging quite readily when pulled from any other direction.…

When entering a Dutch box berth shorthanded in a crosswind, don’t worry about rigging lines and fenders both sides. Instead, rig one or two fenders to leeward, plus bow and stern lines to windward. Let the wind push you alongside the neighbouring boat. Once you’ve got the bow and stern lines on and the boat is secured, then you can worry about the leeward mooring lines. We have a lot of locks in Holland so we’ve learn how to moor easily. Rig a bow spring from the leeward headsail sheet winch, it’s usually within reach of the helm and more in line with the yacht’s pivot point than a midships cleat. Stop the boat, secure the bow spring to the leeward side of the lock, then engage forward. With the…

Fancy a secluded place for a quiet afternoon nap, a spot of wild swimming or a private barbeque with only ducks, geese and swans for company? For peace and solitude en bâteau, the delightful River Vilaine in South Brittany has it all. The 20-mile stretch between the barrage sea lock at Arzal and the town of Redon snakes its way through lush countryside, where you can drop anchor or nose into the bank at almost any point. The river here is deep and wide enough to tack. Above Redon, motorcruisers, or shallow draught de-masted yachts, can continue north across Brittany. But that is another story (see Desperately seeking summer, YM August 2014). If you are looking for a base on the Vilaine, there are four marinas hosting between them a…

Three miles off the Normandy coast, in the Baie de Seine, lie two islands – Île du Large and Île de Terre. Occupied by the Royal Navy between 1795 and 1802, gun emplacements were established and manned by seamen and marines who bombarded French shipping plying between Le Havre and Barfleur. The islands were returned to the French under the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. To ensure the British could never again occupy them, Napoleon I built a massive fortress on Île du Large with heavy gun emplacements surrounded by a moat and a tiny harbour where supplies for the garrison could be offloaded. Nowadays the uninhabited Îles St Marcouf provide a popular daytime anchorage. They are just seven miles south-east of St-Vaast-la-Hougue on the east side of the Cherbourg…

Standard Horizon is a leading supplier of marine VHF radios and always ahead of the game when it comes to packing in features. It was the first to bring AIS to its radios and now this featurepacked handheld radio boasts another first – a built-in 66-channel GPS receiver and full DSC operation, among a plethora of other useful functions. The HX870E E2O (E20 stands for Easy to Operate) is no bigger than a standard handheld VHF, but no smaller either – personally I prefer handheld VHF radios to be big enough to get a decent grip on and use the controls with ease, rather than some of the really small pocket models around now. It has a decent size display, so you can clearly see what’s going on, and I…

I’m used to bulky offshore oilies that constrain you as much as the heavy weather they handle, but not the Elite. It’s featherweight (30% lighter according to HL) with a GORE-TEX® Pro shell, fully-taped seams and no liner, to cut weight, boost breathability (by 20% says HL) and speed drying. Does that mean they’ve skimped on some ‘proofness’? No, it does not. I two-handed Graham Snook’s Sadler 32 Pixie to Cherbourg in August 2015, in some interesting weather. Torrential rain at the Needles, squalls south of Wight, a chilly breeze after a front passed in mid-Channel, then champagne sailing to finish. I was on watch as the front passed and found myself dashing around the deck putting in reefs, retrimming, shaking reefs out and tweaking the sails again. I was…

Sailing dinghies is fun, but also wet. Sailing big yachts can be a bit dull sometimes, but it’s (mostly) dry; making it great for drinking tea – something it’s hard to do in a dinghy. The Winner 8 has that fun feeling of a sailing dinghy while retaining the best bits of big-boat sailing – and it’s a great combination. She follows the Winner 9 with the same successful formula: starts off cheap and basic, but can be customised where the owners want to spend their money. Want to cruise in comfort? Choose cabin doors, sprayhood, an oven in the galley and smart lockers and storage bags. Want speed? Pick the Performance version with its taller rig and deeper keel. Want speed and comfort? Tick away on the option list.…

WIN The confession of the month wins a floating Standard Horizon handheld VHF radio worth £140 Plus an original Bill Caldwell cartoon STANDARD HORIZON POST Confessions, Yachting Monthly, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU EMAIL yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com Please send us your confessions in less than 200 words Lock up your mothers CONFESSION OF THE MONTH By Sam Johnston I was going sailing with old friends on a three-day venture in the Channel. As we were starting from the Hamble, I had to travel up from Devon after work in time for an early departure the next morning. I caught the overnight train and made good my estimated arrival time, with four and half hours to spare. The skipper had previously phoned and said he would leave the jetty…