Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2019 i Yachting Monthly

75 2018 marked the 75th anniversary of the Swedish boatyard Hallberg-Rassy. Harry Hallberg started the family-run firm in 1943 before he retired in 1972 and sold the yard to Christoph Rassy. It was renamed Hallberg-Rassy, and since then has built and delivered 9,400 yachts. 2 The two floodgates at Queenborough Harbour in north Kent have been replaced as part of the Environment Agency’s £2.5 million scheme to improve harbour defences. A new silt management system has also been implemented. 277 A new record has been set for Rolex Fastnet Race entries, with all of the 340 places for boats in the IRC fleet being taken within 277 seconds of registration opening for the 2019 event.…

Whichever yacht you currently have, we’re willing to bet you have your eye on a bigger one. You’re probably setting money aside for your next major purchase, but with low interest rates and ever-increasing prices, saving can take years. The alternative, which offers higher growth potential but at a higher risk, is investing. SHOULD YOU INVEST? If you’re already regularly saving, for example in a cash ISA, you may think you’re doing all you can to reach your goal. Although storing money in a savings account may seem sensible, over the long term inflation can eat away at your savings. Investing your money over the long term can help to protect from this wealth erosion, as your investments can be positioned for growth. HOW MUCH CAN YOU EXPECT YOUR INVESTMENTS…

ANDY DU PORT Andy is a Yachtmaster Offshore, and formerly an RN specialist navigating officer and RYA Cruising Instructor. He edited Reeds Nautical Almanac for five years. He now sails a Hallberg-Rassy 34 with his wife Kate. NORMAN KEAN Norman has been Editor of the Irish Cruising Club’s Sailing Directions since 2005. He and his wife Geraldine Hennigan sail a Warrior 40 in West Cork. BRIAN BLACK Brian has survived nine Arctic seasons since the mid-1990s. He often finds himself getting out of tricky situations at sea. DUNCAN KENT Duncan Kent is an experienced sailor and feature writer/editor for nautical magazines and digital publications.…

Q Mike is a professional delivery skipper and a commercially endorsed Ocean Yachtmaster. His current job is to deliver a Beneteau Oceanis 38 along with two crew from the Solent to Fuengirola in Southern Spain. It’s been a pretty uneventful passage but as they sail along the Spanish coast the offshore wind has freshened. By the time they are outside Fuengirola marina it’s blowing 30 to 35 knots straight from the mountains. The Oceanis is a comfortable boat, spacious and pleasant on board and complete with fold-down bathing platform at the stern. The yacht is easy to handle in normal conditions and Mike is an experienced and confident boat handler. However, in this wind the high topsides mean that as soon as he slows down the bow immediately gets blown…

Keith Harvey is the base manager for Sunsail in Dubrovnik, one of the world’s busiest charter destinations ‘Read up in advance on the destination you are going to be sailing in. Getting the most out of a place takes research,’ he says. ‘The information we supply in advance of the charter will save you time when you reach the base. In particular, it’s well worth establishing the nature of the insurance you have chosen and level of cover. We also provide an eGuide in PDF format to each destination. ‘Checking into a boat charter sadly isn’t as quick or simple as a hotel, but it’s a two-way process, we’re here to help you get the very best out of the boat. ‘While a brand-new boat might sound like the best…

Ahuge cheer breaks out across Rodney Bay marina as Garuda, a Beneteau First 50, motors in. Boats sound their horns, the steel drums play loudly, and crews put down their morning coffees and dash bare-footed across the pontoons to take their lines. Everybody’s looking at the rig, for where there should be a mast, is a spinnaker pole. The crew are exhausted. ‘Thank goodness for help,’ says Russian skipper Slava Gromov, as he takes a longed-for sip of rum punch. Five days ago, Garuda lost her mast, and two boats had to turn back to help her. It’s certainly the most dramatic story from the ARC 2018, but every skipper has a tale to tell. The 2,700-mile voyage across the Atlantic puts yachts under strains you might never encounter in…

PETE GOSS, PROFESSIONAL SAILOR One of the most important elements of any disaster is unity in the crew and it’s clear that the experience tightened this boat’s crew as they fulfilled their ambition to cross an ocean. I wasn’t there during their finest hour but a few constructive thoughts come to mind. Preparation and planning is essential to any passage but more so for an ocean crossing. Consider all scenarios and have equipment and immediate actions in mind. Have your boat surveyed by professionals and if in doubt, do something. In this case the rigging should have been renewed with clevis pins that could be knocked out with a hammer and drive. Have spare steering cables, an emergency tiller and an oar. Sit down with the crew and discuss potential…

This article is from the series Rites of Passage, commissioned by Yachting Monthly, the RCC Pilotage Foundation and Imray, which will be available as a book in 2020. PETER GIBBS learned boat handling as a youngster on family holidays at Whitstable and the thrill of boating never left him. Later, when his daughters had grown, he took the plunge at the London Boat Show and bought a day boat. He traded up to a Westerly Fulmar to stretch his range around southern England and the Continent. Following his retirement, Peter took his Bavaria 38 Ocean, Joelle, and further extended his sailing to the Baltic and south-west France. This boat, Peter exclaims, will ‘probably be my last’, and is named after his forgiving wife. He says that Holland remains his favourite…

Fancy being a part of a Blue Economy in the Aegean? Places are now open for sailors to help transport local produce from island to island in a small fleet of yachts. Honey, wine, olive oil and cheese are just a few of the items sourced and sold during the voyage of 18 Greek islands. The Aegean Cargo Sailing trip, which departs in May, will be the third annual voyage for Sail Med, whose aim is to revive sustainable production and transportation by sail. The yachts’ power is supplied entirely by solar panels and fuel is only used for entry to ports. During the voyage, volunteer crew will get to visit the island producers and cook and taste the local products. Sail training is provided. The cost per week is…

A new north cardinal buoy is in place to mark the dangerous Voose reef on the south side of the Helford River. Not only is this seasonal buoy larger and more prominent than the previous one, but it is also lit. Seafarers are often surprised to hear that the navigation buoys of the river, namely August Rock, Car Croc, The Voose and Bar Buoy are entirely financed and maintained by voluntary contributions. This one has been replaced thanks to a donation from the Trinity House Charitable Trust. Donations can be made to Helford River Navigational Aids Committee (HRNAC) c/o John Head, Pentira, Prospidnick, Helston, Cornwall TR13 0RY.…

Beryl Chalmers has sailed for nearly 40 years, on the East Coast as well as Europe and the Caribbean. It was almost 20 years ago that I first cruised in the British Virgin Islands, so when I returned, last October, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Just a year earlier, Hurricane Irma hit the BVIs, wrecking homes and businesses; 134 people died and hundreds of boats were lost. Over two weeks, the hurricane wreaked havoc from Florida down to the Caribbean with winds reaching 180mph. Would the seas be full of floating debris? Would the roads be impassable, and the shops still empty? Whilst the destruction was still evident – from Road Town, the capital of Tortola, which is the biggest of the BVI, to Jost Van Dyke and Peter…

ZHIK PURRSHA MIDLAYER FLEECES £89.95 Zhik’s Purrsha fleece range works as a midlayer but is good looking enough to be worn as an outer layer as the weather warms up. The hoodie (£99.95) and jacket (£89.95) are both made from performance fleece material and have a super soft brushed inner with a quickdrying, moisture-wicking outer. The quality suggests these tops will hold their shape, wash after wash, and not end up a bobbly mess like some fleece jackets I’ve owned. Available in men’s and women’s sizes. www.zhik.com SIMY MOB100 AIS MINI MOB BEACON £180 If your vessel is fitted with an AIS receiver and you regularly sail with others, an AIS MOB SART could really be a life saver. The SIMY MOB100 AIS is claimed to be the smallest AIS…

Brothers Alek and James long to go coastal cruising in a yacht big enough to have their respective families along for a few days, but they can’t afford the boat and a year-round marina mooring. They’ve decided the best way is to find a yacht that they can tow back to their works yard for the winter – saving storage costs and allowing them to maintain and upgrade her in the winter evening and weekends without having to travel to the coast. They’d like a boat with four 6ft+ berths, a sea toilet and shower, a reasonable galley (although they’ll mostly eat dinner ashore) and a cockpit with plenty of space for four adults when sailing. They also want good stability, so as not to deter their partners or kids,…

As the bridge opens and you steer out of the narrow creek, which snakes through the flat marshlands, you could be forgiven for thinking you have escaped into the open sea. But when you leave Havengore Creek and enter the Thames Estuary, there are three miles of water no more than 5ft deep to cross before you are free, because you are crossing the greatest expanse of mud in Europe: the Maplin Sands. There is an undersea road here at tide time, the site of the only recorded incident of a sailing vessel colliding with a vehicle, when a Thames barge ran into a submerged coal wagon, unhitched by a worried driver who galloped his horse clear of the incoming tide. I’ve sailed over or around it hundreds of times,…

The RYA’s Yachtmaster scheme does of superb job of accelerating learning and understanding where a candidate’s remaining weaknesses lie. However, while anyone who takes a Yachtmaster course invariably learns a great deal, there are some aspects that can’t be absorbed in such a short time. Maybe this explains why we’ve all met qualified Yachtmasters who haven’t yet mastered every aspect of skippering a yacht. In any case, what really counts in producing a strong candidate is a combination of experience and reflective learning. Early in my skippering days, one of the most useful pieces of advice I received was from John Chittenden when he was cruising secretary of the RYA and before he went on to skipper yachts in two round-the-world races: ‘A good sailor is someone who looks back…

Not so fond of following in a thousand other wakes? As the popularity for chartering grows, the number of unusual destinations has increased too. Dream Yacht Charter claims to have the largest number of charter destinations of any charter company and currently offers: The Exumas. Just 26 miles from Nassau, the Exumas island chain offers some of the clearest waters and most abundant marine life in the world. Belize. Favourable trade winds and over 450 cays to explore. Various charter companies offer catamarans, perfect for exploring the shallower waters here. Cuba. With a surprising amount of government funded infrastructure, Cuba is rapidly becoming a popular destination. New Caledonia. A selfgoverning territory of France, in the Pacific. It features the world’s largest lagoon, roughly 14,912 square miles. La Paz. Mexico offers…

MY FLANNEL It kept me cool! Des, Gitana SPINLOCK LIFEJACKET I didn’t even know I was wearing it Dave, Gitana AERO EXPRESS COFFEE MAKER Mark, Rum Truffle HEAD TORCH James, Gitana GOPRO ON A STICK We could see the weed on the propeller James, Gintana THERMAL COOKER Heat it up, stick the food in and it cooks for a few hours Fiona, Oran Mor WATER-BALLOONS & WATER PISTOLS Kai (10), Banyu Aman CHILDREN’S SEASICKNESS TABLETS We’d have been stuck without them Maxine, MR TREAT CUPBOARD Because a bar of Cadbury’s costs $10 in St Lucia! Roy, MR MY HOMEMADE CAN CRUSHER Torbjörn Holm, RiRi NOISECANCELLING HEADPHONES Gemma, Aurora B SOLAR SHOWER 40 litres gave us 10 showers Kim, Oran Mor FISHING LURES To catch tuna and dorado Andras, EH01 AUDIOBOOKS…

1 INSPECT THE RIGGING We had corrosion inside the rigging – it wasn’t in a good state. It would have broken sooner or later, but when the squall hit everything had started to fail. 2 STOW THE RIGHT TOOLS We should have carried better tools. It didn’t help that we had aluminium pipe over the bottle screws to protect the sails from chafing. It was very hard to saw through. 3 EQUIP THE MAST CORRECTLY On other yachts there is a small pin on the bottom of the mast that you just hammer out if you break the mast. We didn’t have one. 4 CONSIDER ANTENNA POSITION It was a good thing that our satellite antenna wasn’t on the mast. It was mounted on the stern, which meant we could…

Young adults from Portsmouth are to benefit from a new partnership between Sunsail and the Andrew Simpson Foundation (ASF). The yacht charter company is giving free access to its fleet and training facilities to allow 125 children aged 12 to 15 to get on the water. The youngsters will use the Sunsail Match First 40s to do the RYA Start Yachting course, with the view of working towards Competent Crew and Day Skipper qualifications. Richard Percy, CEO of the Andrew Simpson Foundation, says the programme is specifically targeting young people from socially deprived areas who are at risk of unemployment: ‘This will help them to grow their confidence, teamwork and leadership skills whilst gaining valuable qualifications,’ he says.…

In January 2016 Kitiara Pascoe and her partner Alex reached the Outer Bahamas. They’d covered 1,103 nautical miles in 10 days from the coast of Nicaragua. There’d been frustrating calms, persistent adverse wind directions and short, steep, punchy seas as they beat through the Windward Passage. Returning to the Atlantic, Kitiara began thinking about weather. I changed course to go around a squall. Isn’t it mad that you can do that, to change course for rain? Before I went sailing I never imagined you could change course for weather, I thought it was something unavoidable, something that loomed on the horizon and would hit whatever you did. Weather was something that happened to you. But now I’m discovering that idea only applies to immovable things like houses, roads and other…

£1,069 Where windsurf boards once festooned cruising yachts, inflatable stand-up paddleboards (SUPs) are now de rigeur. And with good reason; being able to step off the boat and explore, escaping any hint of cabin fever, adds a brilliant extra dimension to cruising. Inflatable SUP design has come a long way and there’s now a lot of choice, but Red Paddle are still one of the top brands for quality and their products command a higher price as a result. THE TEST We tested their 12ft 6in Voyager throughout this season. The board is designed for heading off and exploring as well as just being a water toy for the boat. With 370 litres of volume and 32in wide, it is buoyant and stable enough for a large adult plus a…

From 1 April 2019, sailors using some of the UK’s harbours and waterways will have to fit a carbon monoxide alarm on their boat. The new regulation follows a public consultation by the Boat Safety Scheme (BSS) and will affect those cruising the Scottish Canals, BWML marinas, Bristol Harbour, all Canal & River Trust waterways, The Broads, the rivers Medway, Thames, Blackwater, Chelmer, Cam, Dee, Wey, and other waterways run by BSS-regulated navigation authorities. It will apply to all classes of boat with accommodation.…

We’re wrestling a headsail on the foredeck, a stark deck light illuminates the ring provided by guardrails. There are six of us and we are on the back foot as another wave throws its punch. My periphery vision senses a flash of colour in the maelstrom, instinct grabs a handful of jacket as it floats over the guardrail into Neptune’s embrace. They’re not clipped on; the strength to arrest disaster comes from a burst of adrenalin. I am incandescent, as clippingon is being hammered home during the British Steel Challenge training. I throw the bundle of foulies on their back and peer into the hood to see who is about to get the bollocking of their life. My anger evaporates at the shock, fear and confusion in those glassy eyes.…

THE TEST VERDICT Beneteau has succeeded in producing cruisers that strike the right note with customers for the last 20 years, and the 46.1 promises to do just that. It hits what is the core of the new yacht market at the moment, as evidenced by the slew of 46-footers launched recently. The concept and layout of the 46.1 has already been well proven in the Oceanis 45, while offering improvements in the feeling of space, an attractive new aesthetic, and class-leading practical details such as engine access and cockpit stowage. It did all this while still delivering a perfectly balanced sailing performance and helming pleasure. Admittedly, this boat was a pre-production prototype and there were a few rough edges. The layout we tested offered plenty of space, but personally…

Sir John Harvey-Jones, erstwhile chairman of ICI, once said, ‘Planning is an unnatural process; the nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise rather than being preceded by a period of worry and doubt.’ When you see the fog rolling towards you, it is too late to start planning. Not many of us would happily set sail in fog but sometimes it is unavoidable, either out at sea or as we make our way into harbour. Sailing in poor visibility – fog, heavy rain, even snow – can be disorientating and worrying but some prior thought and basic preparation will help to keep the heart rate near normal and, vitally, you and your crew safe. With any luck you won’t be in fog for long…

Hiring a yacht comes with a level of responsibility that some people, quite understandably, don’t associate with being on holiday. Getting to grips with the boat’s systems, shaping family of different ages into a crew quickly and mooring to an uncompromising town quay with more ropes than you are used to can sometimes be challenges you might decline in favour of a beach and a sunbed. A week’s charter has the potential to be more stressful than a week at work, but get it right and it needn’t be; you will find yourself anchored a long way off the aforementioned busy beach or swimming ashore to a private one of your very own. Done right, charter is a mechanism to access destinations beyond any five-star resort, on your own terms.…

Photo right The Coppercoat on the Clipper boat hulls revealed no loss of coating thickness after 2017-2018 Clipper Round The World Race. Photo below In a 5 year immersion test, completed by Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Coppercoat outperformed all other anti-fouls. Panels treated with Coppercoat (the five dark green panels) remained the cleanest and lost the least thickness. Coppercoat® is currently celebrating its own memorable result in the aftermath of the 2017-2018 Clipper Round The World Race. When the Clipper boats were finally lifted out after 40,000NM of racing and 16 months of continual immersion, the Coppercoat® on their hulls revealed no loss of coating thickness. Barring the faintest trace of slime at the waterline in some parts, the hulls were virtually spotless. So well did the Coppercoat®anti-foul perform that, for…

WEST HIGHLAND WEEK Q: I’m wondering how numptyfriendly WHW actually is? Wee_niall A: Seriously, it is a very broad entry, I guarantee you will be welcomed and enjoy it. Quandary A CAUTIONARY TALE Having made an intimate reconnaissance of Oyster Rock, which is unlit, I am sensitive to the hazards presented by the exit from St Helier in the dark. One chappie (a 62ft motoryacht) I think went green to green to avoid it and probably wished he hadn’t. harry potter NV CHARTS Q: Has anyone used paper charts for the west coast of France produced by NV Charts? SAWDOC A: We used the NV sets for North and South Brittany. Excellent. SERVICING AN ENGINE Q: How long does it take to service an engine? I’m flabbergasted by the number…

SAILING TO THE EDGE OF TIME £18.99 John Kretschmer, Adlard Coles Autobiography, personal philosophy, adventure and advice – John Kretschmer’s new book criss-crosses the oceans of the world and different periods of the author’s sailing life. There are many action-packed episodes, often terrifying, but this is also a literary book where wide reading supports the central message. ‘A small boat under press of sail, surrounded by the steel blue sea with a good crew poised to take whatever comes their way is the perfect environment to unleash eudaemonia.’ For Kretschmer, Aristotle’s concept of well-being entails periods of strenuous effort and thousands of miles under the keel, as well as regular meaningof-life discussions during ‘Captain’s Hour’. People pay to sail with him: the majority form deep friendships and return. THE EPIC…

RED PADDLE CO 10’6” RIDE MSL £849 Red Paddle Co’s 10’6” Ride is one of its most popular boards. At 32in wide, it is stable enough for beginners, while still fun in the waves or on flat water. An ideal beginner board. £849 (with alloy paddle);£999 (with carbon paddle) www.redpaddleco.com DECATHLON ITIWIT 500 12’6” TOURING £479 Designed to a similar concept as the Voyager, the 500 Touring includes luggage stowage on the bow and a sleek form for efficient paddling. Suitable for paddlers up to 140kg. www.decathlon.com TWO BARE FEET SPORT AIR 12’6” TOURING £425 The highest volume option from Two Bare Feet, this board is designed to float high in the water with 6in of thickness, and to track straight for longer paddles. £425 (basic starter kit) www.twobarefeet.co.uk…