Innholdsfortegnelse for May_2016 i Yachting World

The causes of the keel failure of Oyster 825 Polina Star, which led to the yacht’s rapid sinking off the coast of Spain last July, is the subject of a major investigation this month. Thanks to the quick thinking and professional action of the skipper, all five crew were uninjured and safely boarded liferafts from which they were rescued around an hour later. The incident understandably provoked a large amount of debate, opinion and comment online. Speculation can be tempting, but without access to details about the boat’s build and structural engineering we refrained from conjecture and decided instead to await more detailed information, something that had been promised from the outset by Oyster Yachts. In January the company issued a statement of responsibility and agreed to discuss with us…

The newest of the resurgent J Class made her racing debut at the St Barths Bucket in March in a showdown between three of the class. Topaz, J8, joined Velsheda and Ranger for four days of close racing. It was a precipitous learning curve for the crew of the new yacht. Pitted against some of the most experienced racers in the class on the two rival yachts, Topaz’s helmsman, German Olympic sailor Jorge Heinritz, joked that: “Really our objective was to get round the course in good shape and come back with all our fingers still attached.” Topaz, from an unbuilt 1935 design by Frank Paine, the designer of Yankee, was optimised by Hoek Design and built at Holland Jachtbouw. Like Ranger, she is one of the longer ‘super Js’,…

Matching skippers and crew can be a difficult process and while there are characteristics we can identify in a good skipper, there are also some points that need to be made about being a good crewmember. When I sailed on large racing boats it was often joked that the foredeck crew were like mushrooms – kept in the dark and fed on manure (although that wasn’t the word used). When it comes to cruising it should be somewhat different as not only are you going to have to sail together, you will be living together for a period of time. This might be three weeks or more for a transatlantic crossing and even longer in the Pacific. It is therefore important that crews, skippers and owners all get along, not…

In a previous survey we conducted in 2004, we found broadly similar results. We surveyed 223 crew in the final stages of the Global Challenge round the world race, who had sailed over 27,000 miles. We found that 62 per cent had suffered from seasickness at some stage, compared with 38 per cent who had never been sick, distributed fairly evenly among the boats. Our results indicated that the incidence of seasickness might decrease with age because the percentage of seasick crew declined markedly after a peak between the ages of 20 and 24. As with the ARC survey, we found most people who reported being sick (84 per cent) were able to carry on working, but 16 per cent reported such severe vomiting that they were not able to…

FACTS Where we tested: La Rochelle. Wind: Force 3 flat water, sailing with white sails and gennaker. Model: first boat, with bespoke interior of two cabins. Hydraulics and pneumatics throughout as optional extras Buying a new yacht? Generally, you have the choice of a production boat or going the more adventurous custom route. For a superyacht you might employ a project manager to help you through from design to build, to fit-out and trials. At the less fanciful end of the scale it’s more a case of finding a design you like within your budget from a production yard, or braving the bespoke route alone if you can’t. Adventure Yachts brings some of that big boat mentality to a smaller scale. It’s a new business that neatly fills that grey…

Lift off As an increasing number of lightweight foiling multihulls steal the limelight with their spectacular flying hulls, a reminder that displacement yachts can look equally impressive when airborne. This attention-grabbing photograph appears to show the Italia Yachts 10.98 Trilli hovering above the water during a race in San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy. Alex Thomson takes to the sky First he did his keel walk in 2012, then a jump off the mast of his boat, the ‘mast walk’ in 2014. Now, after much previewing and hype, Alex Thomson’s ‘skywalk’ video was released in March, showing him kitesurfing 280ft into the air behind his IMOCA 60 Hugo Boss. The skywalk video (see it on yachtingworld.com), shows round the world sailor Thomson, 41, arriving at Alvor, a kitesurfing Mecca in southern…

The body of a long-dead German sailor was found on his dismasted yacht off the coast of the Philippines in January. The discovery of the 44ft yacht, Sayo, and the body of its solo skipper, Manfred Fritz Bajorat, was made by the crew of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race yacht LMAX Exchange 473 miles west of Guam. Although the crew reported their find to authorities, they waited for next of kin to be informed before making the discovery public, and news only became public in February when two fishermen rediscovered the yacht and the body of the skipper, badly decomposed and found sitting at the chart table where he had died. A post mortem later found that he had suffered a heart attack. Initial reports said he had…

Seasickness is an age-old problem, but how common is it and how can we prevent or treat it? We conducted a survey among 450 sailors taking part in the ARC rally last year, to find out how people coped with this dreaded affliction. The 2015 ARC provided participants with an exciting start to their ocean passage. During the first few days there were 25-40-knot winds, with large seas around the wind acceleration zones to the south of the Canary Islands and bumpy seas. With only a few days of calm conditions for most amid the downwind rolling of a typical transatlantic crossing, the chances of feeling seasick at some point was high. At the end of the rally, participants were invited to complete our survey on seasickness, asking whether they…

Our Mason 44, Frances B, on the run from ever-colder climes farther north, swept by Cape Anguille at the tip of St George Bay on the south-west coast of Newfoundland. Over the past few hours the seas had got steeper, but we were happy with our progress through an area where south winds prevail. Already the stiff but fair north-easterly was forecast to back to the south-west soon. We were approaching Cabot Strait between Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island. The mighty St Lawrence River runs towards the Atlantic through the Strait. Add conflicting tidal streams on top of contrary swells and you end up with a nasty piece of water. Still we decided to press on. Every mile gained southward brought us closer to the shores of Cape Breton Island…

Infiniti 46 News that McConaghy Boats is to build the latest Dynamic Stability System (DSS)-equipped projects, the Infiniti 46 and 53, puts Hugh Welbourn’s innovative foiling solution a step closer to series production. DSS foils extend horizontally at water level from the leeward side of the hull, providing vertical lift that increases the boat’s righting moment and power. The stronger the wind, the more lift and stability the foil generates, hence DSS-equipped yachts tend to sail fast and with little heel. The first Infiniti 46, designed by West Country-based Welbourn, is already fitted with the lateral foils. It is undergoing sea trials in preparation for a full programme of offshore racing, including this year’s Rolex Middle Sea Race and Rolex Sydney Hobart. The 46 is the first project Infiniti Yachts…

“NOTHING DAMAGED EXCEPT A BIT OF PRIDE” “The breeze was a hefty 28 knots, with the needle heading north of 30 in the gusts. I had captured another yacht sliding around with much of its starboard hull ‘sunny side up’ and was looking for more drama,” recalls Ingrid Abery of taking this photo. “Not 50ft away was Kirribilli, a Beneteau 47.7. She was sailing precariously. Tracking the boat as she teetered, I knew it would produce something entertaining.” Kirribilli steadied before being pinned by another gust. Abery was right there as the boat broached. Max Kenna was a crewmember on board and says: “None of the crew was ready and we spun out uncontrollably. I’ve been in quite a few wipeouts and it’s amazing how slowly everything happens. “It’s always…

A German sailor was killed while at anchor off the Caribbean island of St Vincent in March. Martin Griff, 49, was one of ten crew aboard in Wallilabou Bay when two masked gunmen boarded his yacht in the early hours of the morning and shot him. Two other sailors were injured. Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St Vincent and Grenadines (SVG), spoke of the need for tighter security. “Our people are not like this in a general way, but you have one or two persons . . . who are selfishly and wickedly disturbing the peace and tranquillity of our country,” he said. Wallilabou Bay, the first port of entry for yachts entering SVG from the north, has long been treated with caution by experienced Caribbean sailors. Cruising website Noonsite…

The Transat Race returns in May after a gap of eight years. Billed as the oldest solo transatlantic race, it spawned a generation of famous sailors and saw the emergence of the ocean racing multihull. This year, on 2 May, it returns to the original route from Plymouth to New York. The race has attracted 26 entries in four different classes: Class 40, Multi 50, IMOCA 60s and Ultimes, the current name for the really large trimarans of 100ft and upwards. Competitors include leading contenders for the Vendée Globe Armel Le Cléac’h in Banque Populaire VIII, Jean-Pierre Dick in St Michel-Virbac, Sébastien Josse in Edmond de Rothschild (above) and Vincent Riou in PRB. Other well known names include Thomas Coville in the giant trimaran Sodebo and François Gabart, the last…

On the afternoon of 3 July, 2015, Polina Star III was sailing towards Alicante. The yacht, an extended version of the Oyster 825 (825 hull number 02), launched in May 2014, had returned from the Caribbean via the Azores and Maderia and now was on her way to Alicante so that the skipper, Alessi Cannoni, could meet a surveyor. Cannoni had long-running concerns about localised movement at the back end of the keel between the lead keel and the keel stub. Polina Star was approximately five miles south of Torrevieja and sailing at about 50°TWA on starboard tack under staysail and reefed main in around 18 knots of wind and seas of about 1.5m when the keel detached from the hull and the yacht capsized. On board were Cannoni, his…

Mairi Hedderwick is perhaps best known for her Katie Morag children’s stories about an island village. Katie is a feisty character, but the spirit that drives these books takes on a grown-up light in Sea Change, Mairi’s book, published in 1999, about a modest voyage she undertakes in an old wooden boat as sole crew to ‘The Captain’. From the Caledonian Canal to the isles she loves, Sea Change is one of the best-written books about coastal sailing I have come across. Illustrated with Hedderwick’s own brush and paints, the events are low-key, but the observations come thick, fast and leavened with original humour. Three have been selected here. If you don’t set course for the Western Isles after reading them, at least go out and find the book! Sea…

COCKROACH FACTS • The female German cockroach carries her egg capsule inside her body until they are ready to hatch. If she dies prematurely her last act will be to eject that capsule with her latest batch of 40, which is why you won’t get rid of cockies in an afternoon. The unhatched eggs will continue to develop. • Cockroaches are not a new problem; Columbus and Magellan suffered them too. According to legend, roaches became so abundant on long voyages, and food so scarce, that the insects began to prey upon the sailors. Some of the men even took to wearing gloves at night. A movement caught out of the corner of my eye: something furtive, small and fast. I must have imagined it, but I’ll have to take…