Innholdsfortegnelse for Jul-2018 i Yachting World

Dodging the bow wave of this yacht is the inimitable marine photographer Tim Wright, who has a frightening dedication to getting close to the action. This is Wright on the front line at Antigua Sailing Week in April. He operates from an 11ft AB inflatable tender, powered by an outboard with a tiller extension. He drives it solo and shoots while standing, clipped on with a harness. “The boat is extremely manoeuvrable, and I can place it with precision without having to explain my intentions to a driver. It’s also nice to be low down and close to the water,” he says.…

A zero emissions circumnavigation is one of the aims of German sailor Boris Herrmann, who plans to enter the 2020 Vendée Globe, and the technology to make it happen is a step closer following a new partnership with BMW and Torqeedo. This is BMW’s first step back into sailing since their America’s Cup involvement with Oracle. It has accumulated expertise in ultra-lightweight carbon fibre reinforced polymer, a material used to construct BMW’s i3 and i8 vehicles and, since 2017, its lithium-ion batteries have been adapted by Torqeedo for marine electric drive systems. Herrmann will be using the next generation BMW lithium batteries, which can hold greater charge for longer, and could replace a diesel engine. A hydrogenerator and electric motor would provide the power needed for systems including the canting…

email yachting.world@timeinc.com Write to The Editor, Yachting World, Pinehurst II, Pinehurst Rd, Farnborough Business Park GU14 7BF Letters may be edited as appropriate Swedish summer Tom Cunliffe’s feature on sailing in Sweden (www.yachtingworld.com) garnered a number of responses and suggestions of where to cruise: Sweden has of the most stunning coastlines for cruising in the world. My favourite is the coastline from Gothenburg and north towards Norway – it is just amazing. There are thousands of islands of polished granite to visit and many charming fishing villages. Each island has microclimates that makes exploring fun. Trond Asdam I would say from Gothenburg visit Göta älv and cross Lake Vänern before taking the Göta Canal on to the east coast. The archipelago is stunning and there is always a place in…

In some respects, Dufour yachts used to be a bit like the early Citroën cars: different, slightly quirky and created by people with firm beliefs and a clear passion for what they were doing. In recent years they have arguably become more mainstream, though when you blend French pedigree with Italian design and styling you’re unlikely to end up with anything plain or boring. Dufour’s new 56 Exclusive looks anything but plain or boring. It simply oozes French-Italian chic and, despite conforming to the template of the modern, high-volume production cruiser, it does so in its own way. I discovered this on a day of testing when we experienced everything from bright sunshine, 15 knots of breeze and flat water to torrential rain squalls, a hailstorm, winds nudging 30 knots…

A complete power failure mid-ocean is thankfully rare, and it is usually (but not always) the charging system that fails rather than batteries. Nowadays it is unusual to find yachts with only one battery bank and without a dedicated engine start battery. Many of us have known selector switchers that can be left in the wrong position, so I prefer a set up where it’s impossible to link batteries like this. One boat I looked after had a paralleling switch to temporarily link all the batteries should the engine start battery not be up to the job. This had to be held in place so it could not be left on; we use a simpler solution and carry jump leads. Long distance cruising yachts will usually have more than one…

‘THE REASON FOR ITS POPULARITY IS THAT IT’S A PERFECT SIZE AND AN ABSOLUTE BLAST TO SAIL’ IAN WALKER NOMINATES TP52 PATCHES Eamon Conneely commissioned the original Reichel Pugh-designed TP52 Patches in 2005 to race under IRC in the Admirals Cup and within the original class box rule on the International circuit. The class has stood the test of time, and an incredible nine new boats were built for the 2018 circuit. The reason for its longevity and popularity, I think, is that it’s a perfect size and an absolute blast to sail. Everyone knows these boats are fast downwind but the real secret is that they are so efficient upwind. Of course I’m very biased but of all the TP52s ever built my favourite is the first, Patches [Walker…

PROJECT NEPTUNE Bringing its design aesthetic to a personal submarine may seem like an odd decision for aston Martin, but the result has something of the Jules Verne about it. the British car maker has taken triton’s existing three-man submersible, capable of reaching a depth of 500m and staying beneath the waves for 12 hours, and turned it into something of beauty – all smoked glass and flowing silver lines. it’s what captain nemo would have wanted aboard the nautilus. strictly limited edition. Approx $4m tritonsubs.com/projectneptune LIFT EFOIL Packing a silent, electric motor, the eFoil can get you up to 21 knots. And thanks to its carbon fibre and Kevlar foil, this board promises the sensation of ‘flying’ over the water. The motor is in a pod near the foil,…

‘It’s all about getting people out in boats that weren’t orignally designed for racing and enjoying it’ From the towering masts and spreading canvas of the 62m schooner Athos to the carbon bladed racing sails of WinWin and Inouï, this year’s superyacht Cup palma will illustrate the extraordinary diversity of superyacht racing. Big boat racing has become more serious and polished, with crews pushing some of the world’s purest pleasure machines to their maximum, but the spectacle underlines the vitality of custom yacht design. Palma is a home base for many, and one reason why the superyacht Cup continues to attract yachts year after year. The port continues to expand as a hub for crew and owners. The convenient central Med location, range of refit facilities and air connections have…

There have been over 12,000 boats built to Philippe Briand designs in the last four decades in a remarkable career that began with a 25ft wooden boat to the International Offshore Rule (IOR) in the 1970s. Briand was just 16 when that first boat was built, and he went on to win the legendary Admiral’s Cup – at the competitive height of the IOR – with a French team that included two of his designs. He drew the French America’s Cup challengers from 1986 to 2000 and then, after moving onto superyachts, he designed the 42m Mari-Cha IV, a superlative ketch that held the Atlantic crossing record for monohulls for over 12 years. It’s a career that had auspicious beginnings. The son of an Olympic Dragon sailor and sail loft…

Could a dinghy-style spinnaker chute be adapted to make spinnaker handling on superyachts faster, easier and safer? only a couple of years ago many would have dismissed such an idea, yet this year deckchutes are being used on eight high-profile 100-130ft yachts, including a trio of J Class. This product was initially developed by danish sailor Henrik Bartholin with the aim of helping shorthanded crews handle spinnakers on standard sized cruiser/racer yachts. The idea is to be able to drop a kite of any size using a dropline, in much the same way as the spinnaker chute of dinghies and keelboats such as the dragon class. The system consists of a deckchute ring that forms the open mouth of the chute and is firmly attached to padeyes on the foredeck…

In the groove This is The Blue Peter enjoying a fantastic day’s sailing during Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta in April and on her way to winning Vintage Class B. The Blue Peter, named after the racing preparatory flag, was built at Burnham-on-Crouch in 1930 to an Alfred Mylne design. Originally 55ft/16.7m, in 1938 she was lengthened by 10ft as her owner, Desmond Mollins, wanted a bigger boat but couldn’t bear to part with her. She is now keenly raced in the Med and Caribbean. Six lengths to go he pit team relay time to the mark to the bow crew aboard the 115ft Farrdesigned Sojana at Antigua Sailing Week. The giant ketch runs a crew of 30 split into two on deck – a mizzen team and a forward team,…

A highlight of the Volvo Ocean Race in June will be when former Whitbread Round the World and Volvo Ocean Race boats join the fleet to race on the final leg to The Hague. The Legends fleet includes such iconic names as the S&S-designed IOR yacht Flyer from 1977, the Whitbread 60 Silk Cut, which was skippered by Lawrie Smith in the 1997 edition, and the Maxi Rothmans from 1999. The oak-framed Polish-built Copernicus, at just 46ft the smallest yacht ever to complete the round the world race, is the oldest boat, dating from the very first Whitbread in 1973. There are also former Volvo Ocean Race entrants taking part, including the 2001-02 race winner Illbruck, SEB, and the VO70s Telefonica Blue and Ericsson 4, winner of the 2008-09 edition.…

The first quarter of the 2018 business year did not start well for some venture capitalists and private equity firms in the boatbuilding business. First, we saw the collapse of Oyster Marine Holdings in February after owners HTP Investment called in KPMG because the company had been ‘unable to secure financial support to enable it to continue to trade’. In April, software entrepreneur and keen Oyster sailor Richard Hadida bought Oyster from the administrators for £6.7m, according to data filed at Companies House, and says he’s willing to invest significant personal money for the next chapter. Then in April giant German boatbuilder Bavaria succumbed, going into self-administration. Current management remained until June while new investors were sought. Bavaria’s Nautitech catamaran arm (acquired in 2014) continues as normal in France, however.…

Willy Persico, the founder of Southern Wind Shipyard, died in April. Persico, from a notable Neapolitan family, was a chemical engineer by training, and in the 1970s built up a crude oil procurement division for SIR, a large petrochemical group, before leaving in 1970 to become partner and VP of Cameli Petroli. His love of ship- and boatbuilding was in the family – his father had been the manager of a Naples shipyard. So when the Cameli Group bought Rodriguez Shipyard in Messina, a company that specialised in fast ferries and hydrofoils, Persico was made president. The same year, he commissioned a 72ft yacht from designer Ron Holland, which was built by a small yard in Cape Town. When the building company went bust, Persico decided to buy it and…

‘THE SECOND HALF OF THE JOURNEY CAN BE LIVELY DOWNWIND OR BACK TO BEATING’ By early summer the peak Caribbean season is coming to a close, ushered out by a fusillade of big regattas. Then, with summer returning to the northern latitudes, crews begin the return leg of their migration back home. While most people focus on the downwind route to the sun, the voyage back to Europe or the US east coast is equally important – in some ways more so. The road home can be more testing, but it is also varied, and planning for it should ideally shape your preparations from the time you plan to leave home for a season in the sun. What should you weigh up in your crew and boat preparations and which…

‘FEW VENUES IN THE WORLD OFFER SUCH IDEAL CONDITIONS FOR RACING CLASSIC CRAFT’ It all began 31 years ago, when a group of pals sat drinking rum in the cockpit of the 106ft schooner Aschanti in English Harbour, Antigua. Among them were the late Kenny Coombs and his wife, Jane, owners of Cora A, a tiny Harrison Butler-designed yacht built in 1937. Immediately outside the harbour, the Atlantic tradewind belt was in full cry, with strong easterly winds and seas unchecked all the way from Africa. Few venues in the world, they decided, offer such ideal conditions for racing sound classic craft. The Antigua Yacht Club was right next door in Falmouth Harbour and, almost before anyone realised it, the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta had been born. Today, with Aschanti…

Luke asked me marry him. My feet didn’t touch the ground, I was airborne in saying yes. Within a month we were discussing sailing trips, big sailing trips, the kind of trips that people spend lifetimes planning. Luke is the kind of guy who chases big ideas. He tackles them and they become his reality. His athleticism in this department is impressive. I was never hankering to cross an ocean. It rested on my mind as a possibility but it wasn’t eating me, in fact I probably had to be gently sold on the idea. Luckily for Luke, he is a salesman, and a damn good one. My perspective on sailing oceans changed in meeting someone who had an admirable passion for the sea, and a confident familiarity with handling…

Hylas resurgence Hylas Yachts has a pair of new serious cruising models of a similar size: a Bill Dixon-designed Hylas 57 and a 60-footer by Germán Frers. Both have twin rudders and a lightweight vacuum-infused cored hull, married to a generous 17ft beam to provide plenty of accommodation volume for three or four cabin layouts. Both boats offer potential for a significant degree of customisation and to facilitate this buyers are invited to the Hylas yard in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, to meet in-house designers and see the boats in build. Beyond these common elements, the two designs have very different characters. “The two were developed for different markets,” says Roger Burroughs of Hylas UK, “with the 60 intended as a European boat, while the 57 has more of a North American…

The St Barths Bucket in March was the first regatta that the 2016 Vitters-built Missy competed in, and her debut here in Palma is much anticipated. This striking, modern 33m fast cruiser is notable for her low-profile, tinted-glass canopy. Malcolm McKeon designed the cockpit to suit the owner and his young family, so it uses the table and benches to form a protected U-shape cocoon in the centre, while allowing an easy safe passage through from either side. The result is a contained den for relaxing or enjoying the sailing that always remains in contact with those on the helm. McKeon achieved this through careful thought and mock-ups. “You learn so much from a mock-up; I always try to persuade owners to do one,” he says. The use of glass…

Advanced composites might be the materials of choice for those looking for a performance edge in their superyacht, but there is normally a price to pay in construction time, the expertise needed to build in composites and, consequently, the cost. Fibre Mechanics, a new Lymington-based company developed by a highly experienced team of composites experts, aims to change that by automating elements of flat-panel manufacture to significantly reduce build time and cost. In large sailing yacht construction, flat panels, made of carbon skins and lightweight Nomex or foam cores, are used extensively for bulkheads and accommodation parts and are usually custom-built by hand. According to Fibre Mechanics, a 115ft carbon composite yacht requires 15,000 hours to build the flat panels alone, taking the equivalent of 15 skilled workers six months…

A 37-year-old Polish sailor has set a new record for a non-stop single-handed circumnavigation in the smallest yacht, one without an engine – a voyage very few knew anything about. Szymon Kuczynski completed his solo circumnavigation when he sailed back into Plymouth on 17 May, after 270 days, 10 hours and 29 minutes at sea in his 6.36m (20ft 10in) yacht Atlantic Puffin. He completed the classic round the world route, setting off from Plymouth, to round all three of the Great Capes. Kuczynski set off under sail from Mayflower Marina in Plymouth last August at drifting speed with just two people waving him off. Charles Bush, managing director of Mayflower Marina, observed that Atlantic Puffin was “the most unassuming yacht in the marina”. Kuczynski’s back-to-basics setup relied heavily on…

Peter Harrison’s Farr 115 Sojana claimed the Lord Nelson Trophy for the second time at Antigua Sailing Week, posting a scoreline of seven race wins in class. The regatta was back on storming form again this year, with 116 entries from 37 countries racing in punchy tradewind conditions. “We have had beautiful crew work, everybody was really on their game,” said Harrison. “We had our boat restored three years ago and have new sails and the crew have all done her justice.” Jonty and Vicky Layfield’s Swan 48 Sleeper also won all seven races in her class. The Layfields are resident in Antigua and are active in encouraging young Antiguans to the sport. They had Antiguan teenager Shanoy Malone calling tactics on board. “I love this regatta,” said Layfield. “To…

This drone shot of VO65 Akzo Nobel on the Volvo Ocean Race leg to Newport, Rhode Island, shows the yacht sailing through channels of sargasso weed. The yellow-brown weed, prone to entangle round keels, rudders and hydrogenerators, has been widespread in the Caribbean and tropical North Atlantic in the last few years. According to the newspaper Caribbean Compass: ‘The actual sargassum route and cycle are not well known, but volume does seem to be increasing each season. Recent research suggests that Atlantic algae responds positively to increased CO2 and acidity in seawater.’ Sailors are being asked to add to satellite observation data to track the concentration of weed.…

Should you sail to the Azores (generally Horta) or go the longer route via Bermuda? There are pros and cons to each. Weather systems spinning off the US East Coast bring lows and frontal systems that can extend well south, and at some point a yacht making the west-to-east crossing will be overtaken by at least one front, possibly more. So the aim is to catch and ride favourable winds for as far as possible, and most boats head for the Azores to make a stop there and then pick their timing to head across to Spain or Portugal or up to the UK. Tortola in the British Virgin Islands or St Maarten are the most popular starting points – they are well positioned and good for provisioning, spares, chandlery…

Dee Caffari puts most of us to shame. She turned up in the cliquey world of offshore racing in her mid-twenties without a reputation built on years of Figaro or Mini Transat racing, no childhood spent dinghy sailing, no private backer, no technical advantage. No leg-up at all, in fact. And yet she is currently the only skipper in the Volvo Ocean Race who has also completed a Vendée Globe. She has achieved so much. Dee is a big believer that anybody can do the same. That can be a little confronting, leaving those of us who haven’t realised such dreams feeling a bit like a failure. For the pros who spent a lifetime racing off Brittany or the IJsselmeer it must be disconcerting to have someone who did a…

Inflatable toys The advent of high-strength PVC inflatables and high-pressure pumps has transformed the world of marine toys. The variety of inflatable paddleboards, kayaks and windsurfers is getting all ages afloat with a minimum of fuss. Red Ride 10’6 THE BEST TENDER TOY YOU’VE NEVER HAD £849 Granted, that sounds like a bold claim to make, but anyone who has tried a good quality inflatable paddleboard lately knows that there is no looking back. These blow-up SUPs (Stand Up Paddleboards) are one of the biggest game-changers in recent years for cruising sailors at anchor/leisure. Why? After a season of trying one, I can safely say the reasons keep growing! For starters, once inflated, a paddleboard immediately creates extra deck-cum-pontoon space. So for lazy summer days it’s perfect for families to…

ANDY RICE talks to America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race winning tactician RAY DAVIES Walk around the dock of any grand prix circuit just after the boats have returned from a race day, or even a training session, and you’ll see the crews in a huddle. The post-race debrief is part of the ritual of top-level competition and possibly where the most learning is done. Without analysing your successes and failures on the race course, how do you know what to improve next time? Yet in lower levels of the sport the debrief is more the exception than the norm. Debriefs can feel intimidating and, wrongly handled, may see crew morale plummet. Here, Ray Davies lays out the methodology for creating a supportive environment where mistakes are greeted as an…

WORLD EXCLUSIVE NEW INFINITI RANGE Infiniti yachts revealed a radical new line-up of models from 50-115ft (15-35m) to Supersail World in may. Hugh welbourn has designed the high-octane fast cruisers around his patented dynamic stability system (dss) lateral foil. superyacht styling master design unlimited is responsible for the edgy, sexy look to the exteriors and interior design. the first three models will be a 60, an 85 (in collaboration with Farr), and a 105. In our last issue of Supersail World (april) our feature about the new baltic 142 demonstrated how the inclusion of a dss foil on a cruising superyacht could have radical implications for its speed, ride comfort and heeling angle. this project has encouraged infiniti yachts, the company set up to take advantage of the benefits of…

Hang around the inset mark, laid in the horseshoe bay of st Jean, on the final day of the st Barth’s Bucket and you are guaranteed one of the most spectacular sights in yachting. This is a course mark that brings the mountains to Muhammad, forcing a superyacht fleet inshore to tack in the shallower waters off a beach. picture clear blue seas with a backdrop of white sands and red-roofed villas set into lush green peaks. on the water, the assembled powerboats carry photographers jostling for the best ringside view. The scene was particularly impressive this year as it featured the incomparable M5 (formerly Mirabella), the largest single-masted yacht ever built, racing for the first time. should this 78m (256ft) leviathan somehow sneak up on you on her approach…

AQUARIUS 46m Design: perini Navi Build: perini Navi 1990 One of the early perini Navi ketches, built with a steel hull and an aluminium superstructure, Aquarius launched in 1990 as Xasteria. Following a full refit in 2010, which included an upgrade to Formula-built in-boom furling rigs, she sold to her latest owners two years ago. The perinis always make a fine sight and, with enough sea breeze, let their waterline length do the work ATHOS 62m Design: Hoek design Build: Holland Jachtbouw 2010 Athos recently returned from a five-year round-the-world cruise, and it is the big schooner’s first time back racing in a long while. Now painted white (for her tropical cruise), she hasn’t been at the superyacht Cup since the year after her launch in 2011, so it will…