Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2017 i Yachting World

What a winter it has been for sailing, and especially cheering if you are an idealist at heart with a taste for courage and adventure. We have seen huge round the world records broken by Thomas Coville, Armel Le Cléac’h and Francis Joyon, each after years of dedication and back-breaking effort. You only have to read Helen Fretter’s feature about Coville on page 40 to reel in wonderment that such feats are possible at all. Alex Thomson, too, came close to winning the Vendée Globe and gave us all an insight into the skills and resilience needed to compete in one of sport’s hardest disciplines – most of us wouldn’t last an hour. Cynics would have you believe there is nothing much to learn from sport apart from performance and…

Performance cruiser: Pogo 36 The contemporary shape of the 36 helped cause more of a stir than any of its predecessors. And boy, this boat does not disappoint! A Pogo guarantees fast cruising fun, but the performance in light airs of the 36 was a pleasant surprise. Where these beamy designs were once sticky when the wind dropped off, the new Pogo 36 will match any traditional narrow hull shape upwind before leaving it well astern once turned away from the wind. The build quality throughout is also first class. Pogo has prioritised making its interiors more comfortable for cruising and it shows. For me it’s the most exciting monohull of 2016. Special yacht: Seascape 24 The Seascape 24 embodies the best of this Slovenian builder’s previous 18ft and 27ft…

How many times have you heard yourself or someone else say something like, “Look at all those yachts in the marina, and you seldom see them go out.” It is true. And it is a worldwide phenomenon. From the marinas of Europe, the Americas, Australasia and everywhere in between, yachts of all sizes are probably the most visible of expensive recreational assets that can be considered grossly under utilised. Vintage cars might be another example, but they are normally out of sight locked up in garages. Horses might also qualify, although they do need to be fed and exercised daily at the minimum. Yet here there is another parallel for yachts. Anyone who leaves their yacht unattended for lengthy periods knows the possible outcome – a dead engine ignition system…

The 90ft maxi yacht formerly known as Nicorette has had a radical refit, with experimental DSS foils and deck spreaders. She was relaunched as CQS before the 2016 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race We decided to open up a Pandora’s Box of technology and we ended up with something rather different than what we started with on the drawing board; but I think you’d agree she looks pretty cool!” Owner and skipper Ludde Ingvall’s opening words at the press launch of the radical 30m CQS in preparation for the 2016 edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race said something of the revolutionary and evolutionary nature of this eye-catching project. CQS is a joint venture project between Ingvall and his cousin Sir Michael Hintze, a venture that was still very much…

Mike ‘Moose’ Sanderson, CEO of Doyle Sails New Zealand, is one of the world’s most respected professional racing sailors. Here the double Volvo Ocean Race winner explains how to deal with the aftermath of a sail blow out. This situation could have been the result of a few different scenarios. The two most likely are either the boat broached, at which time the sail blew out and this is a photo of the team still struggling to get the bow down. Secondly they could have blown out the gennaker and been forced to head up due to water depth issues or something similar. Certainly the only thing you can safely assume is that they aren’t pointing in that direction by choice! How to get out of that Anything that can…

Sir John Oakeley, one of Britain’s greatest sailors, has died aged 84. A world champion, Olympic sailor and author, he was also a leading figure in the marine industry for more than 30 years, writes Sarah Norbury. In 1957 he was champion of two of Britain’s most competitive dinghy classes, the Merlin Rocket and National 12. Just 24 years old, blonde-haired and ebullient, with outstanding ability, he was British sailing’s golden boy. He will be remembered for his hat-trick of Merlin championship victories in 1956, 1957 and 58. He went on to win the Flying Dutchman World Championship in 1967 and twice won the European Championships. In 1968 he went to the Mexico Olympics as reserve and in 1972 represented Britain at the Olympics in Kiel, racing a Soling. In…

One of the unwritten rules of the America’s Cup is that every decision the defender makes must be in the interests of self-interest. What sets the Cup apart from every other major sporting event is the inherent unfairness of it all, that if you win it you get to make the rules. So it naturally follows that if you do get to write your own rules, you write them in such a way that it’s nigh on impossible for anyone else to prise the Auld Mug out of your hands. Seven years ago, when BMW Oracle Racing beat Alinghi 2-0 in that extraordinary mismatch between the Americans’ wing-masted trimaran and the soft-sailed Swiss catamaran, Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts were seen as the white knights who would clean up the…

Watch the video yachtingworld.com/infi niti46 Conclusion The Infiniti 46 is not just about DSS, it is the whole package and it has already demonstrated performance with and without the DSS assistance. Maverick won its class and came 3rd overall in the Middle Sea Race last summer, despite sailing in full DSS mode for less than ten hours. In the RORC Transatlantic the team finished 2nd overall under IRC, beating the vastly more experienced crew on Leopard. It certainly appears DSS can turn a great boat into a total and utter weapon, but because the Infiniti 46 is the whole package it is not reliant on set conditions to go in for a win. The crew on Maverick fully admit they are still learning and I feel we have not really…

ROKK Mini range Scanstrut has released a range of compact and multi-adjustable mounting systems for phones, tablets, handhelds and action cameras. The Rokk Mini range uses one-click release mechanisms that can be surface or rail mounted, and stuck, screwed or cable-tied down. If combined with the Devon-based company’s waterproof cases, iPhone chargers and new dual USB charge sockets, these mounts help provide a full and robust solution to using phones and tablets around the cockpit. Body £29.99, bases from £9.99. www.scanstrut.com Legacy Atlantic Challenge chronometer Thomas Mercer’s latest work of art is a chronometer that pays homage to Sir Francis Chichester’s feats of navigation. Chichester used a compass as a direction finder, a sextant to calculate latitude and a Thomas Mercer chronometer to determine longitude. This new Legacy version has…

Of all the things I have encountered over my sailing career, climbing a mast at sea is one of the top five to get my heart racing. Any motion felt on deck is amplified the higher you go, leaving the climber not only to contend with the height but being flung around like a rag doll with every roll of the boat. If there is any option not to climb the mast while at sea then take it – get to a port of refuge or at least some sheltered waters to anchor before going aloft. If the problem must be solved while at sea then ask yourself whether you could wait until conditions are light. The rougher the seas the greater the risk when going aloft. When planning for…

On sale 9 March European Yacht of the Year Toby Hodges reviews the award winners and looks at the trendsetters among the new builds and launches Cutting loose When former Volvo Race CEO Knut Frostad quit his job, he bought a catamaran and took his family off cruising to Norway and across the Atlantic. Here he describes the adventures and pleasures of cutting loose Night sailing Professional skipper and navigator Chris Tibbs gives some expert advice on preparing your boat and crew for night sailing Short circuit in BVIs Some say it’s the ideal Caribbean playground: tradewinds, easy sailing, unspoilt, with plenty of places to get away from the bustle. Elaine Bunting plots a course…

Years ago I tried snowboarding, it wasn’t a success. Convinced by friends of a similar age that it was cooler than skiing, much easier than it looked, kinder on your knees and really not an issue if you’d had a skateboard as a kid, I signed up for a lesson. Six years later my daughter, who was also learning, still can’t stop laughing when she remembers the speed, abruptness and regularity with which I went down every time I caught an edge. Thanks also to some family video taken at the time, my demonstration of how a human can be toppled faster than a domino on end in a gale is apparently even more enjoyable if you run each and every short clip backwards and forwards a few times. So…

Sea-Country by Tony Smith. Lodestar Books, 2017. ISBN 9781907206252 The Thames Estuary with its wilderness of creeks, channels and relentless tides has long been the subject of literature. Something about this place, half-land, half-sea, scarred by man, yet always bowing to natural forces, has stirred the souls of writers since before Maurice Griffiths made it famous to all sailors who can open a book. The latest in this line is Tony Smith who took on the 16ft gaff cutter Shoal Waters from her redoubtable owner, the late Charles Stock. Sailing so small a craft without an engine in such challenging waters demands a special sort of seamanship. In this extract from his book Sea-Country published by Lodestar, he describes a single-handed night passage from the River Blackwater to the adjacent…

Chris Tibbs is a meteorologist and weather router, as well as a professional sailor and navigator, forecasting for Olympic teams and the ARC rally Over the last ten years we have seen a huge increase in the use of GRIB files by sailors both for cruising and racing. GRIB files are a type of file format used to transfer large amounts of meteorological data and this data can then be displayed using a dedicated GRIB viewer or by overlaying on electronic charting software. Large meteorological offices produce global models that forecast the weather for the whole world. Of the global models the American GFS is freely available to all, which makes it the most commonly used model by sailors. Although there are other freely available models and additional ones on…