Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2017 i Yachting Monthly

The RYA has launched an online tool for sailors to report fishing gear entanglements. More accurate data is needed to persuade authorities of the danger of poorly-marked fishing gear, it says. A new online reporting form has been made available for anyone to report incidents in which they have encountered problems with, or spotted, poorly-marked fishing gear, whether they needed to call for assistance or not. The form can be used by both RYA members and non-members and can include observed entanglements of other vessels. Information required for a submission includes the time and precise location of the incident, a description of the incident and weather and sea conditions at the time. Photos of the gear and subsequent damage can also be submitted. The RYA said: ‘Data on entanglements is…

New tax rules for yachts cruising in Greece are now being enforced after several years of uncertainty, the Cruising Association (CA) has warned. All yachts in the country must comply by September 2017 or face fines, the Greek government has said. The amount an owner could be fined is not yet clear. Greek authorities have finally released a new form to replace the previous DEPKA paperwork, and local Port Police forces are now implementing the policy. The move ends a protracted process in which a new tax was proposed but never implemented, and it clarifies what will be required of yachts and crews from September. To obtain the new DEPKA, owners must present original documents to the Port Police including registration and insurance certificates (in Greek), an International Certificate of…

Sea trials By Wendy Hinman, published by Salsa Press at $20 This tells the story of the San Franciscobased Wilcox family’s 1973-78 shoestring circumnavigation aboard Vela, a 40ft wooden Eastport Pinky cutter. The book opens with a vivid description of Vela being pounded onto a Fijian reef a little over a year after leaving. She was salvaged and, as the cover shows, eight months of restorative, wallet-busting work began, much of it carried out by the family themselves. This is an engagingly-told tale of storms, pirates, thieves, gunboats, scurvy and shipwreck, that ends in public acclaim for the Wilcox family, followed by disillusionment with a life afloat. It’s a rattling yarn of adversity overcome, and it would be ideal for anyone who has yet to acknowledge that living aboard is…

This is a very effective method suggested to us by YM reader Colm Cleary, who calls it ‘spronging’, which, we have since learned, is also popular in Holland. It works best with the current against you but it’s still effective with a slight current with you and it works so well that you can get the boat perpendicular to the pontoon if you so wish. Rig a doubled line from the outside quarter to a pontoon cleat, one that can be slipped from the cockpit, and double the bow line back to the deck. Next, take off the springs and the stern line and fender the nearside quarter well. Once happy with the setup, the skipper instructs the crew to slip the bow line and when that’s done, engage forward.…

We were aware of this method, which, like ‘spronging’ off, is the most glorious combination of simplicity and efficiency, but thanks to YM readers Peter Styles and Stuart Tanner for formally submitting it. With a strong wind blowing off the pontoon, the control problem facing the skipper is that, if you’re manoeuvring relatively slowly at close quarters in a breeze, the bow wants to blow off until it is pointing downwind where it will stop because the wind is the same on both sides of the bow. To neutralise the problem – and this is the genius bit – approach the pontoon stern to the wind and the bow will behave itself. It has to toe the line. After that, we use the same turning moment we use when ‘spronging’…

Norman Kean, FRIN, edits the Irish Cruising Club’s Sailing Directions. He and wife Geraldine sail a Warrior 40 The basic driver of sea state is of course the wind. The stronger the wind, the greater the distance over which it blows unimpeded (termed the ‘fetch’), and the longer it blows for, the bigger the waves – up to a limit, for the wind strength. Waves – as our stomachs know – are not generally regular. A typical winddriven wave pattern is a combination of many wave trains, each with different wave height (trough to crest) and period (the time interval between crests). When these combine, the result appears as groups of waves. Waves passing one spot will build to one or two big ones, and then diminish again before the…

The Peloponnese is often thought of as a rocky obstacle between the cruising grounds of the Ionian and the Aegean and overlooked as a cruising area in its own right. I’ll be upfront and tell you it is one of my favourite cruising areas in Greece and I look forward to each time I cruise around it – and that’s a lot. It is a wild, rugged place split by high mountains and peopled through history by fierce warrior clans seemingly as tough as the landscape itself. It is named after Pelops, son of Tantalus, who had his son sliced and diced and stewed for the gods. Zeus took exception to this and brought Pelops back to life. A little of the father must have rubbed off on Pelops because…

‘I had been planning to cover as many miles as I could, skipping past the home territory of the East Coast rivers and on to the unknown. As is the way with plans, nothing of the sort actually happened. Upon arriving aboard, I experienced the opposite of déjà vu – jamais vu, when something familiar suddenly appears new, as if seen for the first time. That sensation of unrecognisability stayed with me, on and off, throughout the summer. I have been lounging around on Peter Duck for as long as I can remember, on her foredeck and cabin roof, in her cockpit and my bunk, fulfilling the light, infrequent duties of a cabin boy. Despite my years on board, the yacht I boarded seemed almost a stranger. The dawning realisation…

There’s always a good read hidden on a sailor’s shelves. Tell us your favourite. EMAIL theo.stocker@timeinc.com At five in the morning Cruiser turned out to find the ship roaring on up Channel in the breaking darkness, a high great Channel sea running under a wild heaven, and the teeth of the waves gleaming out from the grey. The mate hesitated for a moment, then said: ‘If you please, sir, we’re doing more than fourteen knots and we haven’t had a sight for four days. We’re well into the Channel: and thick as it is we may be on top of anything before we see it.’ ‘No: keep her going,’ Cruiser said. ‘Our luck’s in. We’ll not throw it away.’ ‘Very good, Captain Trewsbury.’ The ship was running on, with the…

I’ve come across all sorts of insulated coffee mugs aimed at sailors. Some rely on wide bases, great until you want to put them in cup holders. Some have supposedly non-slip pads, but sooner or later an inadvertent tack, or a whack with the elbow will send them flying across the boat. The Mighty Mug is different. It can be picked up and put down with no resistance, but a suction mechanism hidden in the base grips any smooth surface. The motion of putting it on a surface creates suction, so when it is tilted or knocked, it stays put. It sounds too good to be true, but it really does do as it claims. It’s available from chandlers in red, black or stainless steel in the standard 32cl size,…

What’s she like to sail? She's an interesting boat to sail. While she is available with a wheel, our test boat had a tiller – and what a tiller it is! More than 6ft long, it sweeps forward, enabling the helmsman to hunker down and shelter under the overhanging coachroof or sit up on the coaming. Although she is 45ft long and tiller-steered, the length of the tiller made her really light on the helm. With the sails balanced it was finger-light and she was reasonably responsive. Her twin rudders maintained her composure at all angles of heel, even when pushed beyond what was prudent. All lines are led back to the cockpit and with the help of six winches on the coamings, she can easily be sailed short-handed. With…

What’s she like to sail? The helmsman has a commanding view from his eyrie atop the ‘layer cake’ style coachroof, with excellent vision forward. She can easily be sailed solo with the sheet winches to hand and the mainsheet sheeted to the aft end of the cockpit. Her wheel steering is light and easy and she responds well, yet is not skittish – you can leave the helm, at least briefly to check all is clear to leeward behind the genoa – and she will not run off wildly. So far so good. However in heavy seas and high winds I think the Beneteau Oceanis 36cc Clipper would be a handful with her relatively small keel for such a bulk of topsides and coachroof. It may not matter much if…

If you have a news story to share, contact News Editor Theo Stocker EMAIL theo.stocker@timeinc.com TEL 01252 555164 A German, Dutch and Danish consortium has proposed the concept, which could produce enough electricity for up to 100 million people. In comparison to the 175-turbine London Array, currently the world’s largest offshore wind farm (100km2 or 39 square miles), which produces 0.63GW of electricity, the new wind farm could initially produce 30GW of power, and could be extended to produce 150GW. The first ‘Power Links Island’ could be complete in under 20 years by 2035, with the wind farm operating at full capacity by 2050, according to developer TenneT TSO. A consortium including TenneT TSO and Energinet signed an agreement in March for the development of a large renewable electricitygenerating system in…

Correction In our article Key safety issues for all sailors in MAIB report on Clipper deaths (YM July 2017 issue), we incorrectly stated the name of one of the casualties, Mr Andrew Ashman. We apologise sincerely for this mistake. RYA safety advice The RYA has published its 2017 Safety Advisory Notice, highlighting critical safety issues from the past year, including carbon monoxide, cold water shock, and how knots affect rope strength. Discovery buys Southerly Yachts Discovery Yachts has acquired the Southerly brand. The popular range of swing-keel yachts is set to go back in production, in Southampton, while the Northshore yard in Chichester Harbour remains a Southerly refit centre. Abandoned yacht sparks major search A major search operation was launched after a yacht was wrecked on the Yorkshire coast in…

London Boat Show 2018 will have a dramatically different appearance to previous shows. The event will run for just five days, half the duration of previous shows, and it will include ‘three shows in one’, according to the organisers, British Marine. Hosted at the London ExCel centre from 10-14 January, the London Boat Show will run alongside the Boat and Watersports Holiday Show, and Bespoke London. British Marine said: ‘London is a magnet for billionaires and millionaires from around the world and this new show has been designed exclusively to target those hard to reach high-net worth individuals.’ Brands at the show will include Beneteau, Dometic and International Paint. British Marine has also announced a number of new attractions at the Southampton Boat Show, aiming to get more people onto…

Three British sailors were rescued from their sinking yacht after she was holed by a whale. The sailors, aged between 41 and 61, were taken from their damaged Hallberg Rassy 48 about 350 miles north east of the Azores in May. The stricken yacht, Destiny of Scarborough, put out a distress call after being hit by a large whale. Skipper David Bowes told the Mirror: ‘It felt as if we had been punched. I was thrown across the saloon.’ He decided to abandon his ‘pride and joy’ when cracks appeared in the hull and water flooded in. The Portuguese Navy sent two aircraft before a Liberianflagged merchant vessel took the crew to Aviles in Spain.…

I went to the edge of the known world recently, as the west coast of Ireland was once known, to look at a Galway hooker (the ones that sail, not the ones that solicit). It is all part of my search for a traditional craft that combines a certain aesthetic with shoal draught and I had become spellbound by video footage taken from a drone of a fleet of these alluring boats circling a shallow bay. As an accordion added the soundtrack they looked, with their crow-black hulls and their high-peaked deep tan sails, like Macbeth’s witches dancing around the cauldron. It was in Galway itself that I saw my first hooker. She was hauled up on a scruffy beach at Claddagh with an assorted collection of yachts moored fore…

We choose to spring off the bow when the current is running against us, because its wash over the keel helps to bring the bow out into the stream. With the engine running in neutral, we’ve taken off the bow spring and the stern line – the wind is blowing us on and the current pushing us astern so she’s not going anywhere. We’ve also doubled the stern spring and bow line, and hung our biggest fender at the nearside quarter. Note the stern spring outside the fenders. Once the skipper is happy that all the lines are correctly rigged and that the crew has been briefed, he signals to the crew to release the bow line. Once the crew confirms that’s been done, the skipper then engages astern and…

When a stiff breeze is blowing off the pontoon, getting a line ashore isn't easy. This method makes it easier because it uses engine power, a good throwing technique and a cannily deployed line to make sure that you don’t need to make a desperate leap ashore. We found the most reliable way of getting a line onto a cleat is throwing a bight of line (Jan 17). It’s worth adding that several YM readers, Graham Lascelles and Stuart Tanner among them, contacted us to say they prefer a loop of thin line on a mooring line’s bowline and using the boathook and the thin loop to drape the bowline over a cleat. On your approach, fender the entire side, but particularly the bow as that will be making the…

Did you know that the way your EPIRB's distress signal is received is evolving? Soon it will be possible for the search and rescue authorities to find out where you are within minutes and let you know they are on their way. New EPIRBs are being developed to take advantage of this new technology, but your existing 406MHz EPIB will still work with the new system. The 406MHz rescue system was originally implemented in the 1980s, and is run by an organization called COSPAS/ SARSAT, a not-for-profit collaboration of 40 countries. In a nutshell, your emergency transmitter sends a signal that is picked up by a satellite and relayed to a ground station. It is not necessary to have dedicated satellites for this task, as the radio repeaters used to…

Win The confession of the month wins a floating Standard Horizon handheld VHF radio worth £140 PlUs an original Bill Caldwell cartoon POST Confessions, Yachting Monthly, Time Inc. (UK) Ltd, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7BF EMAIL yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com Please send us your confessions in less than 200 words Automatic anchoring Confession of the Month By Les Willis I was the new owner of a bilgekeeled Westerly Konsort and was looking forward to being able to take the ground for the first time without the support of a harbour wall. I had enjoyed an overnight passage from Swansea to the Isles of Scilly in company with three other yachts. The two fin-keeled boats went to St Mary's and the other twin-keeler and I sailed to New Grimsby…

Maritime crime is rising in several regions around the world, according to a maritime securituy company. In a quarterly report on global maritime security, MAST has found that incidents of piracy and marine crime have risen sharply around the world. Areas particularly affected include Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia, as well as the western Indian Ocean, western Africa and parts of South America. In the first quarter of 2017 there were 48 incidents of maritime crime, 17 of which were in the South China Seas. This has been exacerbated by international tension around China’s approach to the Spratly Islands and the USA’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the company said. In other areas, famine, poverty and political instability have all contributed to rising in maritime crime. Gerry Northwood, chief operating…

EMAIL yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com POST The Editor, Yachting Monthly, Time Inc. (UK) Ltd, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7BF Please send us your letters in less than 200 words 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 Getting ready for the season is stressful enough but this year it escalated dramatically when my Najad 361, Lora Mhor’s in-mast reefing mainsail refused to hoist beyond about half-height. I was winched up the mast to inspect and, for about 30cm before a join in the foil sections, the groove widened and then narrowed, and it was cracked. No…

RYA Yachtmaster Chris Beeson has raced and cruised over 40,000 ocean miles on hundreds of different boats in his 37 years as a sailor If you keep your boat in a marina, or visit marinas regularly, or if you occasionally moor against river pontoons or harbour walls, you’ll understand the truism that, like flight, the riskiest bits of this sailing business are the first and last few metres. Wind and current can combine to make the start and end of any passage quite a fraught affair. There are two common problems: getting onto a windward berth, and getting off a leeward berth. In the case of a windward berth, unless you’re feeling particularly sporting, you’ll be slowing as you approach, which makes the bow more likely to blow off the…

With the current running from aft, we spring out the stern to get the assistance of the current acting on the keel. With the engine running smoothly in neutral, we’ve taken off the stern spring and the bow line, doubled the bow spring and stern line so we can slip them from the deck, and fendered the bow heavily. Check all lines for potential snags or kinks. Note again that the spring is outside the fenders, you only have to look at the second photo to see why. Once the skipper is happy with the setup and the crew has been briefed and is ready, he lets the crew know the manoeuvre is about to start, releases the stern line and engages forward with a good dose of port rudder…

Inspect the berth first so you know more or less how long the midships spring needs to be and which pontoon cleat you’re aiming for, one next to the cockpit would be ideal. If you’ve a good eye for that sort of thing you could just rig a bight, as we did for the bow spring method. A more forgiving method is to secure one end of the bight to the midships cleat and put the other on a winch (both running through the midships fairlead), which means we have more control over the final position of the boat alongside. Err on the side of caution so you can ease the line out round the winch to bring her forward rather than having to winch her back against the engine.…

EMAIL yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com POST Yachting Monthly, Time Inc. (UK) Ltd, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7BF Please send us your questions in less than 200 words WIN CHILGROVE GIN The question of the month wins a bottle of Chilgrove Gin (UK residents only). This super-premium gin, handcrafted by keen sailors in the Sussex Downs, blends the finest botanicals with a neutral grape spirit. www.chilgrovespirits.com QCan you recommend a method for applying antifouling between tides? We would like to antifoul our bilge-keeler on the beach, rather than lifting out. We can scrub off on the previous tide to save time. The problem, after freshwater rinsing and drying, is having time for the paint to dry before the boat refloats. Paint manufacturers normally recommend impractical drying times but…

I’d been planning for the summer of 2016 as Peter Duck’s 70th anniversary year. Our 28ft wooden ketch had been commissioned by Arthur Ransome in 1945, built at Pin Mill on the River Orwell, launched and sent on her sea trials in 1946. She was not, however, officially registered or sailed by her owner until the early spring of 1947. I had various ideas to mark the anniversary – some rather significant cruise, a dinner at the Butt & Oyster pub at Pin Mill, and transcription of log books – but in the end I did nothing. I spent one night only on board, had two small flurries down the Deben and that was it. My mother’s dementia had worsened significantly and I needed to help her move into a…

The canoes are carved from driftwood – whole trees that wash up on the beaches. Canoe builders are always on the lookout for the best wood and a log is claimed by the first person to see it by carving one's name onto it. The emphasis is on making the canoes as light as possible. Handmade wooden nails (dowels) are still used; the outriggers themselves are beautifully carved by hand, many made just for racing. The biggest weight issue is water flooding over the low freeboard. Spray coamings help, as does decking the canoes, but they also use an 'engineer'. This is a young boy whose job it is to bail the canoe as fast as he can, and it’s a job done with pride. Sails, traditionally made from woven…

My last set of Helly Hansen trousers endured eight years of abuse and these Aegir Ocean trousers are better. The fit is good and can be adjusted around the shoulders, knees and ankles; the Velcro around the ankles is oversized so there are no loose flaps. They feel a little baggy and bulky around the reinforced and padded knees, but the padding makes kneeling on a deck comfortable. Price £600 Contact Helly Hansen Tel 0800 142 2210 Web www.hellyhansen.com The shoulder straps have Velcro securing patches to keep the ends tamed (but I cut the excess off). They have two thigh pockets (one wave-proof, the other made of mesh) that are big enough to use while wearing gloves. The tough reinforcement around the zips, knees, bum and even the hem…

Not many boats priced at under £50,000 could seriously offer liveaboard accommodation as well thought out and as comfortable as that of the Beneteau Oceanis 36 Clipper. So it’s hardly surprising that in the mid-1990s, she became the biggest seller of the French builder’s centre cockpit fleet. Down below, the eye-catching flair of a walk-through head and a galley fit for a chef – just two of her radical features – was down to a collaboration between designers Jean Berret and Olivier Racoupeau. But all this luxury has to come from somewhere and, like the high-rise flats of the 1960s, it was accommodated by going skywards. Performance The first thing to say about the Beneteau Oceanis 36cc Clipper is that if you are used to sailing boats with low freeboard,…