Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2018 i Yachting Monthly

Over the course of 56 years, the winds of society, work and family responsibility dig your anchor deep. When the time comes to sail off on a new adventure, it’s hard to shrug off life’s tentacles as, like Gulliver’s Travels, there are many threads that need to be severed. My wife Tracey and I are doing just that; setting sail this autumn on a circumnavigation that will, we hope, take us to some of the remotest and most beautiful parts of this globe. To do this, our lives need to be rebuilt on a new foundation; the practical building blocks of our voyage are vital. The right boat and support systems to sustain it can be make or break. Logistics, from getting the right charts and medical kits, down to…

Professional skipper Simon Phillips has cruised and raced over 325,000 miles, including 34 Atlantic crossings There is a great sense of satisfaction to be derived from a successful shorthanded trip – even a simple sail down the river can be immensely satisfying when you’re on your own. Getting the dinghy out of the car, inflating it and getting on board after a short row is a lot of work, however, especially when doing it alone. As a delivery skipper, I’ve sailed hundreds of thousands of miles with minimal crew and I’ve learned a few tricks for coping shorthanded along the way. The most important factor is safety, which must always be paramount. This is especially important if you are on your own as nobody else is there to help. You…

Choosing a harbour that many of us regularly refer to, I looked up the times of high and low water on March 4 for Dover and a secondary port, Ramsgate. I used a number of sources, including conventional tide tables and tide prediction apps. DOVER & RAMSGATE TIDE PREDICTION Similar to Absolute Tides and Tides Planner, but with a less slick interface EASYTIDE The UKHO Admiralty online service (www.ukho.gov.uk/easytide) for hundreds of ports around the world, which are free for predictions up to seven days VISITMYHARBOUR.COM This website provides free passage notes and charts of harbours around the UK. For a modest fee it gives access to online Admiralty charts and tide tables TIDES PLANNER This app is published by Imray, available for iPhone/iPad. The app is free but an…

Helen Holden has been sailing on family yachts since she was three weeks old. Today she sails Seewolf 2, a Moody 44 ketch which has just had a major refit, with her husband Dave As the current fascination with all things Scandinavian continues in the UK, with a resultant ever-increasing number of yachts visiting the glorious Stockholm archipelago, we decided to venture away from the traditional cruising grounds and head north in our 1972 Moody 44 ketch Seewolf 2, into the Gulf of Bothnia and specifically to the High Coast. Although popular with German cruisers looking to visit the Arctic Circle via the most northerly harbour of Haparanda, cruising yachts in the Gulf of Bothnia appear to be largely restricted to local sailors from the adjacent Swedish and Finnish coasts.…

Among the prettiest of all Solent creeks is Western Haven in Newtown, which has a simple magical charm. Long ago, the Romans were said to appreciate the quality of the oysters here and a town was founded by the Bishop-elect of Winchester in the 13th century. The town showed initial promise as a trading port but, after a devastating raid by the French in 1377 and perhaps also the effect of the Black Death, it went into decline and subsequently failed, leaving the original ground plan still visible from the air. This rare feature is of great interest to archaeologists because most towns of this age have been built over, destroying the original street pattern and house plot boundaries. Today, it’s one of the more popular anchorages in the western…

OFF THE DEEP END: A HISTORY OF MADNESS AT SEA £16.99 Nic Compton, Adlard Coles Nautical Columbus was delusional and manic depressive; Nelson’s sailors were brain damaged from hitting their heads on Victory’s low deck beams and drinking too much rum; Slocum was dysfunctional and unemployable, and the methodical insanity of Donald Crowhurst continues to fascinate sailors and non-sailors alike. Nic Compton’s wide-ranging survey of madness at sea goes beyond these headline-grabbing stories. He investigates the records of patients in the Navy’s Haslar asylum and teases out the psychological implications as the Age of Sail became the Age of Diesel. Perhaps most interesting of all to yachtsman are the chapters on hallucinations, cabin fever and outbreaks of violence on board. Highly recommended. CAPE HORN AND ANTARCTIC WATERS £60 Paul Heiney,…

Graham Snook, a boat tester of 20 years, scours the market to help you find your next yacht Many British sailors dream of one day sailing around Great Britain, the island they call home. For some, including Phil, 71, it’s the trip of a lifetime. It’s on his bucket list, and he feels 2018 may be the last year such a trip will be possible. Sailing around Great Britain is a wonderful way to spend a summer. From the idyllic sun-bathed Isles of Scilly and the rugged mountains of Wester Ross, to the bustling industrial fishing harbours and remote anchorages, wonderful pubs to tie up next to and amazing restaurants just a dinghy ride away. The wildlife is breathtaking too: puffins skim haphazardly across the water and basking shark, minke…

OWN UP TO YOUR SAILING SINS Send us your stories in less than 200 words by email yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com or by post Yachting Monthly, Time Inc. (UK) Ltd, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7BF WIN The confession of the month wins a floating Standard Horizon handheld VHF (UK residents only) www.standardhorizon.co.uk CONFESSION OF THE MONTH Service with a woof! Beryl Chalmers My friend, his wife and his dog, Popeye, were cruising around the east coast and had moored in Haven Marina in Ipswich. They’d arrived late in the evening so didn’t have time to victual the boat for breakfast the next morning. My friend, whom I will call John to save his embarrassment, promised to be the good husband and to walk to the supermarket with Popeye…

Legendary offshore sailor Pete Goss is embarking on a new adventure. Yachting Monthly’s newest columnist is about to set sail to circumnavigate with his wife, Tracey. The couple have sold their home and now live on their Garcia Exploration 45, Pearl, which Goss describes as a ‘Land Rover of the sea with a BMW interior.’ The boat will take them to some of the remotest parts of the world, hopefully in comfort. Goss and his wife are currently toying with destinations like Antarctica, Alaska and South Georgia, although writing in YM (p18), the former Team Philips skipper admits they ‘don’t have a plan.’ Goss rose to fame in the 1996-1997 Vendée Globe race in which he turned back into a Southern Ocean storm to rescue the French Vendée skipper Raphaël…

Musto, the British sailing brand, has been bought by Helly Hansen the Norwegian outdoor gear company. The move is seen as a ‘complementary purchase’, with Musto remaining in the UK. It will continue to produce its own brand of sailing and outdoor clothing and gear. The acquisition makes Helly Hansen one of the world’s leading suppliers of sailing clothing and technical wear Paul Stoneham, CEO of Helly Hansen, will also become executive chairman of Musto. He said the two brands are highly complementary. ‘Musto accelerates Helly Hansen’s long-term aspiration to become a global leader in sailing, matching our leadership position in professional skiing,’ he said. ‘Our focus will be to expand Musto internationally as an iconic British lifestyle brand with deep technical sailing credentials alongside Helly Hansen. The two brands…

Send us your questions in less than 200 words by email yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com or by post Yachting Monthly, Time Inc. (UK) Ltd, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7BF WIN 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 Q The wheel on our yacht allows only about four or so inches on either side when walking forwards, and both my partner and I end up bumping into it a lot. Would it be better to go with a folding wheel or could we just go smaller? How do I decide which is the best option? Annabel Smith Rob Humphreys, yacht designer,…

Sometimes, just to take our minds off the deck leak and the weird smell in the bilge, it’s good to catch up on what exciting new things technology has in store to improve our sailing lives. We cruising sailors have, after all, had our habits changed and abilities enhanced over decades by everything from GRP to GPS and Kevlar to cruising chutes. Some are now getting a bit excited about the possibilities of those weird Alexa devices – the sinister black cylinders found in people’s front rooms, accidentally ordering things from Amazon whenever they’re mentioned on the telly. You can apparently snap orders at the box, as some people do at Siri on their smartphone. So perhaps in the future, boats will have obedient little Alexas in the chart table…

1 PREPARATION ALONGSIDE There are many variables here, like your starting point, the direction and strength of the wind, so let’s take a closer look. While still alongside, take off the mainsail cover and clip on the mainsail halyard. Next, raise the boom. Ease the mainsheet and vang and then tension the topping lift. This takes the pressure off the sail as it is hoisted, making it easier and quicker to do; the more reefs you put in, the higher the boom will need to be. If you reefed the main when the boat was last used, it may help to pull through a few handfuls of reefing line to reduce friction while hoisting. If you have lazyjacks, then it is best to take these forward and hook them under…

1 PREPARE TO DROP First, flake the main halyard and grab some sail ties. Next, hoist the boom with the topping lift and make fast. Securing the topping lift is extremely important to prevent the boom from falling down. Now haul on the mainsheet to centre the boom, then turn the boat about 10° off the wind so you stay on the high side and away from falling sail. Now you’re ready to drop. 2 LOWER Lower the mainsail, trying to flake the luff as the sail comes down. When it’s lowered, loop the halyard under a winch on the mast and haul the halyard by hand to make fast. This stops the wind hoisting the sail again. Lazyjacks help as they guide the lowering sail on to the boom,…

1 PLAN YOUR PICK-UP For a conventional bow pick-up, good communication between helm and foredeck is key, especially in the last few feet where the helm cannot see the buoy. Approach against whichever element is strongest – tide or wind. It can be tricky if either are strongly abeam. The ideal is to be stationary with the buoy just off the port or starboard bow. It is easier to pick up from one side or the other rather than dead ahead, so the person on the foredeck isn’t wrestling with the forestay. Also, if the helm overshoots, they can turn away and not go over the top of the buoy, risking fouling the pickup line or, worse, the prop or rudder. 2 MAKE CONTACT There are some very ingenious boat…

1 KNOW THE DRILL Since we have a young child and several pets on board, we were always aware of the need to have a tried-and-tested plan of getting everyone up on deck and – if necessary – into the liferaft, and this went perfectly. It needs to be automatic in a stressful situation, so it’s worth practising – no matter how few people are on board. 2 RESEARCH EXTINGUISHERS Dry powder extinguishers are great, but they are also phenomenally messy – their effectiveness lies in the fact that the powder really is very fine and it really does cover absolutely every surface around it for metres. We were lucky with our engine, but a CO2 extinguisher would have been a lot safer in terms of engine health. We tried…

The Victoria 34 ticks so many boxes for a round-Britain trip, and while the voyage is likely to be a series of day sails, the owner can sail safe in the knowledge that if they need to make a move to a safer harbour in punchy conditions, the Victoria 34 will look after them. The Victoria 34 was designed by Chuck Paine just two years after he drew the Bowman 40 in 1983, and the smaller boat is clearly related with the long keel, skeg rudder, spoon bow, counter stern and pleasing sheer bearing more than a passing resemblance. On deck, the square-fronted, boxy coach roof and deep, solid teak-capped toerails are typical of Paine’s many designs. The propeller is enclosed in the skeg, minimising the risk of picking up…

TRADITIONAL SKILLS SAVE THE DAY NCI Bass Point on the Lizard, Cornwall, is reporting that one of its watchman averted disaster by using an Aldis lamp and Morse code to alert a sailor who was perilously close to rocks. NEW PATRON FOR RCCPF Trinity House has announced it is to become the patron of the RCC Pilotage Foundation, which publishes guides and pilots for global sea areas. CHICHESTER STARGAZING Three sites in Chichester Harbour have been designated Dark Sky Discovery Sites making them some of the best places to look at the stars. The British government has gone to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to defend the availability of red diesel in the UK. It is contesting a claim by the European Commission that the UK…

The glowing sense of pride I feel as I brandish my new passport at the airport is palpable. It carries a picture of my yacht printed on the back cover. Well, to be honest, not actually my yacht, but one in which I’ve sailed over 700 miles. The technical sketch shows Gipsy Moth IV, and I can tell from the angle of the deck, the curling bow wave and the creases in the jib that it was copied from a photograph taken by Yachting Monthly’s Graham Snook. The new passport does not expire until December 2026 and sports a European Union, mauve-coloured cover, reportedly to be replaced with a navy blue cover when we have left the European Union, assuming we actually do so. The designers of the passport, guided…

THE TEST VERDICT With this boat, Jeanneau has introduced a new style and new features that may have redefined what we’ll expect from cruising yachts in years to come. Why should we leap over coamings, wedge ourselves into odd-shaped berths or scale the mast to reach the head of the stack pack? We don’t. Jeanneau aimed to make sailing more pleasant, and it has succeeded. She’s comfortable and easy to sail – in fact, she sails well. My three main criticisms are the chart table hinges which are so wrong, but could be replaced with a piano hinge; the lack of handholds on top of the coachroof by the companionway, heads and around the chart table – these could be added by an owner; and finally the location of the…

1 CHECK THE SHEETS Have a quick check of the sheet bowlines on the clew of the sail, the car positions (particularly if you are reefing) and the stopper knots in the ends of the sheets, make sure the furling line is clear to run, and that’s just about all that is required. 2 UNFURLING THE SAIL When unfurling the sail, keep some friction on the furling line. A turn around a winch should be sufficient to prevent the sail unfurling too fast. With hanked-on headsails, get them hanked on while still in the marina, lead your sheets and attach them to the clew with bowlines. Use a couple of sail ties to secure the sail on deck and run the halyard under a sail tie to stop the sail…

1 CALL AHEAD Call the marina to find out which berth you are being given. Ask where it is as some berths are not numbered logically, which side to you will be, and whether you will need to come in bow or stern first. 2 FENDERS OUT Put your fenders out on both sides while outside the marina if you can, just in case. Ideally, have at least four lines ready: bow and stern lines on both sides, and midships lines. 3 MANOEUVRE INTO YOUR BERTH When you know where you’re going, the helm’s job is to get the boat in and to stop it so she can be moored. If the space is between a pontoon and another boat, this can be advantageous, even though the space is smaller,…

Mark Browse has sailed extensively around the UK, Med and Canaries, and took part in the 2006 Clipper Race. He now sails a Bénéteau 36 CC from Ipswich When I started sailing 40 years ago, if you wanted to find out tide times and heights you just looked them up in a book. For a standard port this was a straightforward exercise, provided you knew how and when to adjust for daylight saving. For secondary ports there was a bit of work to do, looking up differences in minutes and metres and as often as not, interpolating between two figures using maths, graphs or your fingers. Whatever approach you took, you would always be confident that the result was truly the time and height for high water and low water…

How would you get into this tricky berth? Q First, I must pay tribute to Bill Anderson, my former boss, who created and wrote this feature for 20 years. He is a hard act to follow, but here goes: Mike and Andrea are on their annual West Country cruise with teenage sons Richard and Andrew. They are arriving in Dartmouth after a pleasant sail across Lyme Bay but eight hours is enough for the boys cooped up with their parents in their 32ft Westerly Fulmar, Windswept. They need to get ashore. There are several moorings on the river but they involve the dinghy or a water taxi. The best choice for getting ashore is an alongside visitors’ berth on the inside of the town jetty. There is one free next…

A WORLD OF MY OWN By Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. First published by Cassells in 1969, republished in paperback in 2004 On Christmas Day 1968, a 29-year-old Robin Knox-Johnston was 195 days into his circumnavigation, approximately 47° south and 2,000 miles from Cape Horn. He knew he was uncomfortably close to the ice but had taken the decision to sail below the 45th parallel in an endeavour to stay ahead of his closest rival Bernard Moitessier. Quiet days earlier in the month had offered him the opportunity to mend his radio set which had been out of action since a knock down in September. This was managed with impressive ingenuity, breaking navigation light bulbs and melting scraps of solder from the terminals – ‘I kept losing pieces and had to go…

Not many people like to think of sailing in bad weather but the reality is that it happens. It has been said that there’s no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong choice of clothing, so unless you can guarantee your sailing will always be warm and sunny, boots are an item of kit that everyone should have. A good pair of sea boots should see you through many a night watch or wet and windy beat to windward. Quite aside from the obvious role of keeping your feet dry, good sea boots need to cover a number of bases. They need to be warm, comfortable and offer grip that you can trust, as well as being easy to get on and off during both day and night. It…