Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2018 i Yachting World

François Gabart’s background is scrapping hard and ruthlessly in one-design offshore races. But there is so much more to winning this race than competitive ability; it’s his all-round mastery that impresses. The 34-year-old from Les Sables d’Olonne trained as an engineer, so brings to bear an exacting and analytical mind. His capabilities brought him to the attention of France’s greatest modern round the world racer, twotimes Vendée Globe winner Michel Desjoyeaux. As part of his tutelage, Gabart raced with Desjoyeaux in the twohanded Barcelona World Race in 2011 – they were forced to retire after being dismasted. His engineering background and experience led the way for the design of MACIF with naval architects VPLP, and resulted in a trimaran with powerful foils, exceptional average speeds and almost complete protection for…

Organisers of the Golden Globe Race 2018 are in negotiations with the Fédération Française de Voile (FFV) after France’s governing body for sailing stated that the world race does not meet their regulations and could not start and finish from France. Organiser Don McIntyre, the Australian round the world sailor and adventurer, announced in October that the race would start in July from Les Sables d’Olonne in France, home of the Vendée Globe, after councils in the UK sought to charge large sums for hosting the race. But after moving the race on the promise of funding and support from the French town, the FFV said that it didn’t meet their rules. “We have opened discussions with the FFV and already changed some critical elements of the rules,” said McIntyre.…

The Wind Runner Challenge, a new team event which combines sailing in the Solent and a running race on shore, has been launched for March 2018. Organised by Britannia Events and Wolf Challenges, the Wind Runner Challenge will take place from 19-22 March and sees teams of eight people compete in matched Oceanis 37 yachts. The three-day programme includes a sailing race starting in Hamble and finishing in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, before a road and trail run around west Wight. On the second day the runners will race again, before crews race in the Solent, finishing in Cowes. On the final day the yachts will race back to Warsash, then drop the runners off for a sprint back to the Hamble finish. Skippers can be hired for…

Scientific research being conducted by the Volvo Ocean Race has found that the level of microplastic pollution in European waters is far higher than previously thought. Data on pollution levels collected by Turn the Tide on Plastic (skippered by Dee Caffari, left) showed there were over three million microplastic particles per square kilometre of ocean. Microplastics are small, often invisible, particles of plastic that take years to degrade and can harm marine life. The initial results, gathered during the prologue stage and first leg of the race between Lisbon and Alicante, were presented at a summit held during the event’s Cape Town stopover in November.…

A humanitarian project has delivered Christmas presents to children in Dominica who have been affected by the recent hurricanes in the Caribbean. The Christmas Boats project was organised out of Antigua by British sailor Tim Pyne, using old sail bags to create sacks of presents for hundreds of children. The project was inundated with donations raised during the Antigua Charter Yacht Show, as well as contributions from the superyacht community and Antiguans. “We’ve had a lot of interest from the island of Antigua,” said Pyne, “as there are quite strong links between Antigua and Dominica.” He said that presents for about 1,000 children have been donated, including toys and dolls for children whose schools and homes were devastated by the hurricanes. “The response has been really brilliant and we’ve had…

Jason Jefferys had just finished his third transatlantic with the ARC rally, his slowest yet. Ted the labradoodle was lying supine in the Caribbean sun, happy to stop sailing and 3kg plumper than when he began. Yet Jefferys’s partner, Marisa, was still sporting traces of a black eye from being thrown around in some of the roughest conditions she had ever seen. No transatlantic crossing is ever quite the same, even on a typical tradewinds year, but this year’s rally from Las Palmas to St Lucia set new records – just not for the fastest. It was a crossing of extremes – gales, calms, tradewinds, squalls – that illustrate how unpredictable and diverse a transatlantic crossing can be. So when people say the ARC is a cruise in company, the…

Bavaria’s big three: C65, C50 and C45 Just one year after launching what was its largest yacht at the time, Bavaria will return to the Düsseldorf boat show this January with three more brand new models. To develop three yachts between 45ft and 65ft simultaneously, including by far the largest one this yard has built to date, is quite a statement. It is a similarly bold move to its German rival Hanse, which also launched a string of new models over the last year. When the world’s largest production boatbuilders invest so much in new models, it sends a positive message about how they view the future yacht market. All three new Bavarias share looks and features more common to larger yachts. They all include a tender garage (even the…

A head for heights A crewmember on Mariska goes aloft during racing at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez by climbing up the mast hoops. Mariska, designed by the legendary Scottish designer and builder William Fife III and launched in 1908, is only one of four yachts built to the 15-Metre rule still sailing. She was extensively restored in 2007 and restored from ketch rig to her original gaff cutter sail plan, so she requires some good, old-fashioned crew work and skills. yachtingworldmagazine #ywbackfire…

Taking flight The Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image award went to Berlin-based photographer Sören Hese for this image taken during the 5O5 German dinghy racing championships. The image was selected as the best of 137 entries and was a controversial choice as it is a composition of 15 different still photos taken from a drone rather than a single shot. Hese said: “I took this picture using a timemotion- stack imaging concept, capturing the image basically as a time series from a quadcopter. I found its graphical structure very interesting and also storytelling.”…

Following feedback from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), the Clipper Race has appointed a qualified mate on board each of its teams currently racing. The addition of a second Clipper employee, who will be independent of the watch system in order to support each of the professional skippers, comes after the loss of crewmember Simon Speirs in the race from Cape Town to Australia on 18 November. Clipper Race founder and chairman, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, said: “Eight years ago we introduced the CRCC (Clipper Race Coxswain Certificate), a qualification specially designed with and approved by the MCA (Marine and Coastguard Agency), which specifically fit the purpose of the Clipper Race as it is such a unique event in sailing. “However, in light of the recent incidents and as the…

One of the slowest ARC transatlantic rallies in recent years was perversely also one of the windiest. As established tradewinds eluded the 186 yachts, instead a variety of challenging weather systems, from storms to dead calms, filled the void and tested the crews. Yachts that tracked north were embroiled in two successive low pressure systems with headwinds over 40 knots while, to the south, crews were entrapped by flat calms. It all made for crossings five or six days slower than usual. Line honours in the ARC went, for the first time in many years, to a multihull, French sailor Christian Guyader’s TS42 catamaran Guyader Gastronomie. Guyader and Belgian skipper, Bart Vanhaverbeke, sailed across in 14 days, a good preparation for Guyader’s entry in the solo Route du Rhum later…

Discussions are underway to introduce offshore racing into the Olympics, as a showcase (non-medal) event in Tokyo 2020, with a view to it becoming a full medal event for the 2024 Paris Games. The sport’s organising body, World Sailing, also recently announced plans to hold a future Offshore World Championship, which would very likely follow a very similar format to that proposed for the Olympic event. The proposal is for a three-day, twonight, non-stop Olympic race on a course around 400-600 miles long, depending on weather forecast. The yachts would be one-design, and sailed doublehanded by a mixed crew of one male and one female. The intention is that the race, which would become the longest in Olympic history, would have live tracking and continuous broadcasting from on board. “You…

Australian supermaxi CQS took line honours in the RORC Transatlantic Race in December after an eventful run of 11d 0h from Lanzarote. It was Finnish-Australian owner/skipper Ludde Ingvall’s 16th transatlantic and he claimed his victory despite damage inflicted during a knockdown on the way. “We got caught in a bad squall of probably 40 knots, which resulted in a number of issues. There was damage to sails and onboard electronic systems,” reported Ingvall. They also blew their biggest spinnaker, the top three mainsail battens and there was a diesel spill on board, but after a six-hour stop to make repairs the crew got going again. Ingvall’s crew include a number of younger sailors such as 18-year-old photographer James Tomlinson, who is documenting the race on board. “We have a young…

An abandoned yacht ran aground under full sail in December at Lambeau in Tobago after the skipper was lost overboard and his wife evacuated at sea. The yacht, Vagrant, a Bavaria 44, was being sailed across the Atlantic by Polish couple Stanislaw Dabrowny, 74, and his wife, Elzbieta Dabrowna, 67. They left the Canary Islands on 24 November and were around 450 miles from Barbados when Dabrowny fell overboard. According to later reports, he was trying to retrieve the spinnaker at night when he fell or was knocked overboard. He was not clipped on and a report from his family said he was not wearing a lifejacket. His wife used the satellite phone to call their daughter Agnieszka two days later. Their daughter wrote: “It was an odd phone call…

The stories coming off the Volvo Ocean Race boats in the current edition of the race are not quite like anything we’ve seen before. With more video cameras on board than ever, there is no glossing over the tough days. On Leg 2 we saw footage of a deflated David Witt, skipper of Sun Hung Kai Scallywag, rubbing his face in despair as he works out how to share the news of another bad news position report. We watched Pascal Bidégorry, navigator on Dongfeng Race Team, come on deck and tell his crew: “We’re ****ed, completely ****ed,” after a navigation error that cost them the race lead. But the latest warts-and-all coverage doesn’t just show raw emotion. It means shore teams can see their rivals’ set-ups just by clicking on…

As the rumour mill gathered pace ahead of the official announcement, word spread quickly that the new America’s Cup boat would be unconventional — a 75ft monohull with no keel and a 49ft beam. But when the drawings were revealed the new design was even more radical than the gossip had suggested. To call the design unconventional, would be employing understatement. To those who found the previous AC50s hard on the eye and difficult to understand, this was simply bewildering. It had been no secret that the new design would be a monohull following Emirates Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton’s declaration shortly after winning the Cup in Bermuda that the team’s intention would be to switch back from two hulls to one. Some saw his comments as a return…

High adventure takes many forms, and must be seen in light of the times, the people and the vehicle. Penny Minney’s Crab’s Odyssey, written in 2016 using log books dating back to when Europe was recovering from World War II, makes one long for a lost youth, for naïvety, for courage founded on optimism and for a wine-dark sea where the hands-on learning of Penny and her friends could overturn the conclusions of academic giants. Crab is a 17ft clinker-built open ship’s lifeboat, powered by sail, oar and, when it worked, a diminutive British Seagull outboard. Her crew in this extract are three young female students at Somerville College, Oxford. The cockleshell craft and her people spend four summers travelling the Eastern Mediterranean from Malta. Perhaps the best way of…

42 DAYS 16 HOURS 40 MINUITES Days before Christmas, French solo sailor François Gabart stormed back to Brittany to annihilate one of the greatest and most difficult of all sailing records, the non-stop solo round the world. He sailed his 98ft trimaran MACIF home to Brittany in 42d 16h 40m, slashing more than six days off the record set in 2016 by his compatriot Thomas Coville in Sodebo Ultim. This was Gabart’s first attempt at the record and for much of the course he was, incredibly, faster than the record for the fully crewed time. It look him less than six days from Ushant to reach the Equator and he sailed round Cape Horn after only 29 days, beating every record to date. In the process, he also set a…

The Clipper Race is supporting the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 by providing two Clipper 68 yachts for the 73rd Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. The Invictus Games is an international adaptive sporting event for active duty and veteran servicemen and women, which is incorporating sailing for the first time next year. In what is tipped to be an ‘Ashes on the Water’ event, Invictus Games Sydney 2018 GAME ON will be crewed by British wounded, injured and ill defence veterans, and will take on the Australian crewed Invictus Games Sydney 2018 DOWN UNDER. “Clipper Ventures is thrilled to be supporting Invictus Games Sydney 2018 as it prepares to introduce sailing to its event line-up,” said Clipper Ventures founder Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Sir Robin will join the UK crew aboard Invictus…

British soldiers on a yacht training sail rescued five sailors from the sea off Tenerife after a Comet 45S yacht lost its keel. Skipper Colonel Neil Wilson was sailing with a crew of six on the Royal Artillery YC’s Rustler 42 St Barbara V when the incident took place. The crew were all from 29 Commando Regiment in Plymouth and were on a military adventurous training exercise to introduce novice sailors to yachting. Wilson reports that they were returning to port in the late afternoon, and had rounded Punta Rasca approaching the town of Las Galletas on the southern end of Tenerife in company with a another yacht, Tyger of London, a Comet 45S. Winds had risen over the course of the day to a Force 6, gusting 7 with…

French solo sailor Yves le Blevec was rescued off Cape Horn after his 101ft trimaran Actual Ultim capsized in 30-40 knot conditions on 14 December. Le Blevec had set off on a solo non-stop westabout circumnavigation attempt on 24 November in his Nigel Irens-designed trimaran. The trimaran was rounding Cape Horn and heading west on its approach to the Pacific when it capsized in the early hours of the morning. Le Blevec reported that one of the port crossbeams broke as he headed into a west-northwesterly headwind of 30-40 knot with 5-6m seas, swiftly followed by the trimaran capsizing and turning turtle. Shortly before he capsized, Le Blevec posted a photo on social media showing Cape Horn in the background and icy conditions on deck, which he captioned: ‘Cape Horn…

That tiny dot in the sky is pro kiteboarder Nick Jacobsen, who teamed up with Volvo Ocean Race team Brunel to set a new ‘tow-up’ world record on 6 December. The Danish kiteboarder was towed behind the VO65 to soar to a dizzying height of 277m above Table Bay, Cape Town, during the Volvo Ocean Race stopover – more than 30m higher than the previous record, which was set behind a speedboat (for comparison, Alex Thomson’s famous skywalk, where he towed up behind his IMOCA 60, reached a comparatively modest 85m!). Team Brunel sailor Kyle Langford, who is a fellow kitesurfing fanatic, controlled an 800m line on a winch that connected Jacobsen to the boat. After reaching the maximum length the line was disconnected and Jacobsen controlled his descent back…

OBR Sam Greenfield’s blogs hold little back. For Leg 3 he’s on Vestas 11th Hour Racing, here negotiating with skipper Charlie Enright to contribute I strike up a deal with Charlie, telling him I’ll wash his bowl if he gives me a few good lines about the most recent position report, I’m starving anyway and head a bowl for dinner, so it’s a fair trade. “ The Last sched came in,” says Charlie. “ We were the lowest, fastest boat” He changes to a robot voice, a slight reference to Robo-Charlie. My name for him when he delivers garbage, stilled quotes thinking it gets him out of it.…

When I say ‘Jump!’ y’all say ‘How high?’. If y’all don’t want to say ‘How high?’ you can pack your bags,” demanded the owner of the superyacht I was aboard. The captain and I looked at each other and, without exchanging a word, answered in unison that we would be packing our bags. Just like that, my plans of spending the winter drenched in sun and rum in the Caribbean were over. It’s not easy working for billionaires. But word spreads fast and just a few days later another voyage came my way. My friend Clemens Oestreich, a long-haired, chain-smoking, philosophic German hippie phoned and wanted to know if I could join his expedition to Antarctica on his 120ft, handmade ferrocement ketch, Infinity. The next day I was on a…

Congratulations. You’ve finally received that hefty bonus. Or perhaps you cashed in your pension, married wisely, or are a successful gambler or racketeer. However you came across the funds, you have decided now is the time to spend them and live the dream. You want a modish monohull, a yacht that is both spirited to sail and sexy to look at – something out of the ordinary. You crave a yacht that is as at home crossing an ocean with friends as it is providing premium class coastal holidays with the family. And you want something that you can contemplate with pride. At first glance, the CNB 66 could be the ideal choice. But is this just another pretty face or will she perform? And will she, as CNB suggests,…

Voyages across the North Atlantic are usually planned as linear routes from A to B. The cruising focus tends to be on the end points: for many that will mean Las Palmas to St Lucia and a season in the Caribbean, or the USA. But then what? Think of the North Atlantic as a carousel that offers a huge variety of cruising for the curious. Timing is everything as from early June to the end of November the hurricane season impacts a vast area, from a narrow band of storm gestation off the coast of west Africa to a broad fan of potential destruction that covers most of the Caribbean Sea and curves northwards as far as Newfoundland. Equally, the winter depressions that track across the northern Atlantic into Europe…