Innholdsfortegnelse for Jan-2019 i Yachting World

Over 550 miles off the North Atlantic coast, two competitors in the Route du Rhum solo race suddenly collided with each other. Sébastien Destremau was in 2nd place in the Mono division on his older IMOCA 60 Alcatraz It FaceOcéan when he collided with Finnish sailor Ari Huusela in the IMOCA class on Ariel II. Huusela was sailing on a westerly course, Destremau heading south, when the collision happened at around 0600 on 13 November. Huusela suffered some damage to his pushpit while Destremau reported damage to his bowsprit. Both were able to continue racing. Destremau was in his bunk at the time, and Huusela was unable to rouse him. Huusela explained: “I was inside the boat and saw on the AIS that there was some traffic coming. I saw…

Stefan Qviberg, the Swedish naval architect who designed every model of Arcona Yachts to date, died in November after a period of illness. Qviberg’s designs range from the first Arcona 32 he drew in 1980 to the 410 that launched this autumn and is currently nominated for European Yacht of the Year. The Arcona 400, designed in 1999, was Qviberg’s most successful model. Qviberg studied shipbuilding at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm at a time when Sweden was a leader in ship construction. “He specialised in yachts early on,” says his longterm friend, Torgny Jansson, founder of Arcona Yachts. After graduating, Qviberg approached Jansson’s father with a design for a 32-footer that became the first Arcona. Eight were sold from the drawings. “Stefan’s greatness was that he understood…

Few would have bet on Francis Joyon winning this Route du Rhum, but the 62-year-old is not a sailor who should ever be underestimated. Joyon is the current holder of the Jules Verne round the world crewed non-stop record, having led a team of six around the planet in 40d 23h 30m and 30s last winter, clocking up an incredible 24-hour run of 894 miles in the process. In 2003 Joyon set the first ever solo non-stop around the word record in a multihull, on the catamaran IDEC. No-one had attempted it non-stop solo in a multihull before that point as it was considered so risky. Five years later he reset the solo record, in a new Irens-designed trimaran, in 57d 13h, which stood for eight years. Irens commented on…

“Congratulations, captain.” Dave McKay, one of our regular crew aboard Isbjörn, had those words for me as we dropped anchor at 77°N in Spitsbergen. We’d made it to the high Arctic. “Thanks Dave, but save it – you can congratulate me when we’re back out of the Arctic.” Nobody talks about stress. For two months in the far north, every magical experience we had aboard Isbjörn, our 1972 S&S Swan 48, was dampened ever so slightly in a cloud of anxiety as we pushed the boundaries of our comfort zones and explored the unexplored regions of our confidence. ‘THE MIDNIGHT SUN LIT UP THE SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS’ After nearly letting stress derail our Arctic season before it even started, in the end it was our ability first to acknowledge and finally…

FACTS ▸ Where we tested: From Palma and along the se Mallorca coast.▸ Wind: 4–11 knots, calm seas.▸ Model: hull No 1 with twin rudders, telescopic T-keel and e-glass hull (carbon is standard). Were money no object and you wanted the ultimate yacht for long-term cruising, what would you choose? How large could you go without needing a paid crew? What do you really need length and space for and how important is displacement and potential speed to you? These were the sort of questions crowding into my head on first viewing the sensational new Baltic 67 at Cannes Boat Show. It is truly striking. The quality of the yacht is undeniably world class, but it’s the precision of design and engineering that soon absorbs you. The owner of this…

Garmin ActiveCaptain App This app connects a smartphone or tablet to Garmin marine electronics, allowing access to community features and passage planning at home, using the same charts as on your boat. It received a DAME special mention. Price: free app (with in-app purchases). www.garmin.com Scanstrut ROKK wireless chargers This range of neat chargers for smartphones, tablets and other devices with wireless charging technology also won a DAME special mention. A new addition to the line-up we featured last May is called the ‘Active’ (pictured) and holds the device firmly in place for charging under way, while leaving access cess to all buttons and other functions unimpeded. Price: from £60. www.scanstrut.com Shakespeare Marine Galaxy-INFL8 One of those ‘why didn’t I think of that before’ products, this neat, inflating, high-efficiency emergency…

ANDY RICE talks to the fastest sailor on earth, PAUL LARSEN Not only is Paul Larsen clued in to what makes a boat go fast, he’s just as passionate about getting the best out of every crew. Boatspeed comes down to identifying and then working on your weaknesses, whether it’s a problem with equipment or an issue with the crew work. Whatever your team’s weaknesses are, acknowledge them, and create a process for making improvements. This can be easier said than done, because egos can get in the way and people can become defensive. But if you can get everyone to buy into a culture of learning and an ability to take constructive criticism, the atmosphere will improve and the boatspeed will go up. Here are Paul Larsen’s five tips…

A galaxy of ice Drawing a path through the ice, Oyster 62 Uhuru picks her way through the bergy bits of the Antarctic Peninsula. Briton Steve Powell made this voyage, part of a longer circuit of the North and South Atlantic between 2008 and 2013. Powell left from Lymington and sailed to the Med, then across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, to the US east coast, then Cuba, the Amazon basin, Brazil, down the coast of South America to Ushuaia and across the Drake Passage to Antarctica. Read about preparing for remote cruising, cold climates and high latitudes on page 52. Surfing home Dutch sailor Frank Werst’s Swan 53, Silveren Swaen, surges to the finish of the Rolex Middle Sea Race. The race from Malta in October is one of…

In a controversial move, World Sailing has voted for an offshore event to replace the mixed one-person dinghy class at the 2024 Olympic Games. After a somewhat confusing decision-making process (the original submission was rejected by the World Sailing Council after being two votes short in May, but then supported at the annual conference in November), World Sailing has voted in a mixed two-person offshore keelboat class for the 2024 Olympic Games. The 2024 Games will be hosted in Paris with the Olympic regatta held out of Marseille. The planned offshore class will race over a three-day and two-night race, with mixed double-handed crews. This will make offshore sailing the longest event in the entire Olympic Games. The decision will end a 68-year tenure for the Finn, traditionally the men’s…

A new British-built supercharged alternator, which can produce enough electrical power to replace a generator, won the top DAME award for marine equipment in November. Triskel Marine’s Integrel system is possibly the most promising alternative solution to power generation for cruising yachts. Ten years of research and US$10m investment has resulted in what is billed as ‘advanced generator replacement technology’. It uses the second alternator position on a conventional diesel inboard engine, which, together with permanent magnet technology and an intelligent system controller, is able to harness the significant amount of spare power an engine generates to charge a large battery bank. Integrel is designed as a direct replacement or alternative to a standalone generator to meet all AC or DC power needs and allows for days of silent running.…

Rescue mission I read your article on the internet about the trimaran A Capella [French boatbuilder Charlie Capelle’s 1978 vintage 31ft trimaran, a sistership to Loïck Peyron’s Happy]. Interestingly, you mentioned in May 1999 ACapella capsized and the US Coast Guard pulled the crew off. I was the rescue swimmer from the US Coast Guard helicopter who got them off. There were actually two of us but I got on board first and stuck the two in our rescue basket. We were a crew in an HH-60J out of Cape Cod: we had to get the helicopter to Halifax and top up with gas as it was too far out from the Cape. We had one crew fly it there and we flew a Falcon jet to Halifax then took…

‘THE ROOTS OF ITALIAN STYLE GO BACK TO THE RENAISSANCE’Alberto Simeone Stroll along the main sailing yacht pontoons at the Cannes Yachting Festival in September and you’ll be stopped in your tracks by an armada of the latest monohulls, their sizes ranging from 50-80ft. The majority of these lovely yachts will be Italian or have had an Italian hand in their design. Notable are the sexy, sleek, lightweight performance cruisers from yards such as Mylius, Grand Soleil, Advanced Yachts, Solaris, Eleva and Ice Yachts. Their seductive lines come from the boards of Nauta, Cossutti, Lostuzzi, Felci, Argento… designers whose very names sound arty and musical. Yet just ten years ago Italian yachts were still largely cruiser-racers, designs trying to meet the demands of two very different types of sailing. And…

Everyone planning to sail across the Atlantic is dreaming big. But the form in which big is made real comes in some radically different sizes and shapes. For Jason Geale, owner of G2, the largest yacht in the ARC Transatlantic Rally, big, or big enough, is 127ft. The Bill Tripp design has been modified in a huge refit at Pendennis Shipyard and is being sailed by owner, friends and a professional crew of five. For Tim Butler and Triona O’Leary, a dream no less grand is being realised in Butler’s Halmatic 30 Excalibur, smallest yacht in the rally – one of the oldest, too – and it is just the two of them on board. The enduring appeal of the ARC as a migration route from Europe to the Caribbean…

US America’s Cup challenger American Magic is the second team to launch a test foiling monohull. The New York Yacht Club’s challenge has been practising out of Newport, Rhode Island, in a 38ft modified McConaghy one-design, and it has been seen fully foiling in Narragansett Bay. Nicknamed ‘the Mule’ (the name given to test prototypes in the car industry), the US test foiler is substantially larger than the modified Quant 28 being sailed and evaluated by Ben Ainslie’s Ineos Team UK. The Mule is a stripped out version of the 38-footer with a soft wingsail and self-tacking jib, and has separate cockpits on each side for helmsman Dean Barker and five other crew. Training crew include Britons Paul Goodison and Ian Moore, New Zealanders Sean Clarkson, Joe Spooner, Jim Turner…

Golden Globe leader Jean-Luc Van Den Heede is continuing racing despite his yacht being pitchpoled and suffering rigging damage. On 6 November, in 65-knot conditions with 11m seas some 1,800 miles west of Chile, Van Den Heede had thoroughly prepared his Rustler 36 Matmut for knockdowns, including screwing down floorboards as well as stowing everything possible away. “He was in his bunk,” explained race chairman Don McIntyre, “and his storm tactic was to allow the boat to run freely downwind with 6m2 of headsail set and no warps trailing astern, steered by his Hydrovane wind vane self-steering. “Suddenly, the boat was picked up by a huge wave and surfed down the forward face, the bows dug in and the boat went end-for-end before rolling out on her side. Van Den…

An independent report into racing in high vessel traffic density areas has been released by organisers of what was the Volvo Ocean Race. It was commissioned after the death of a fisherman in a collision involving Vestas 11th Hour Racing outside Hong Kong in January 2018. The 50-page report details observations and recommendations made after interviewing over 40 people, including all the skippers and navigators in the last race. It explains that the VO65s’ sailplan meant there was frequently an arc of 90° with no visibility from the helmsman’s position, ranging from a few degrees on the lee bow to abeam the lee side, particularly when racing with the A3 or masthead Code 0 and using outriggers. Crews often resolved this by sending a grinder or trimmer down to leeward…

The legend of the Route du Rhum solo transatlantic race is built on hair-raising mid-Atlantic escapades and dramatic denouements. Leaving St Malo in early November every four years, the fleet plunges into the Bay of Biscay en route to the island of Guadaloupe, and the ride is rarely smooth. Over ten previous runnings there have been spectacular capsizes, tragic losses, and heroes made. Forty years ago, Mike Birch’s little plywood trimaran Olympus Photo slipped past the leading monohull Kriter V right on the finish line of the very first Route du Rhum. The victory, by a winning margin of 98s, was a true David and Goliath result. It made Canadian skipper Birch a superstar in France (huge crowds still clamoured to see him in St Malo). Four decades and light…

LOA 20.11m (66ft 0in) LWL 18.38m (60ft 4in) Beam 5.62m (18ft 5in) Draught 2.75-4.20m (8ft 10in-13ft 9in) Displacement 26,750kg (58,974lb) Price €2.95m ex VAT www.nautorswan.com Swan 65 As with the original Swan 65, this is intended as a yacht for safe and comfortable cruising with family and friends that can also be configured for racing. The Sparkman & Stephens-designed Swan 65 from 1972 did much to cement the yard’s reputation in its early years, thanks to a win for the ketch Sayula ll in the first Whitbread Round the World race and 2nd, 4th and 5th places for the design in the 1977/8 race. Yet the boat also made a supremely comfortable and capable cruiser. German Frers designed the new model with a similar ethos in mind: “We have strived…

B&G Information Display Billed as being a new paradigm in marine electronics, this new display brings the benefits of a glass bridge style system and a streamlined interface to a wider market. In terms of hardware, the key new element is the extra-wide glass, behind which are a pair of 7in, 9in or 12in screens, plus an integration hub. Simplification of the user interface was a key aim, so there are pre-set modes optimised for tasks such as planning, system checks, passagemaking and anchoring. The display for each of these can be further customised and additional modes can be added – for instance for long-distance voyaging. The distinct activity based modes enable a range of functions to be accessed without drilling down into sub menus. It’s therefore primarily the new…

‘THIS WAS A HYDROFOIL BLUEWATER CRUISER NEARLY 50 YEARS AGO’ ROB HUMPHREYS NOMINATES WILLIWAW My choice of the coolest boat is Williwaw, a 31ft foil-borne plywood trimaran designed by unsung hero Dave Keiper in the late Sixties. He built the boat himself and cruised her for 20,000 miles in the Pacific in the early Seventies, finding that her performance in a heavy sea state was much improved with foils deployed and working rather than retracted! Yes, that’s right – 20,000 miles of fast, hydrofoil bluewater cruising nearly 50 years ago! As a matter of interest, the boat was one of my inspirations when I carried out my major student project in the early Seventies, the design of a foilstabilised (rather than flying, like Williwaw) family cruising boat, and then in…