Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2016 i Yachting World

The Volvo Ocean Race is to have a new route for the next edition in 2017 that puts the emphasis back on its historic and infamous long Southern Ocean legs. The race will now go from Alicante to Lisbon before a big stretch to Cape Town, followed by one of the longest legs in the event’s history, 12,000 miles from South Africa to Hong Kong south of Australia and through the Southern Pacific Ocean. From here the race has a non-scoring leg to Guangzhou in China, then on to Auckland before turning for another Southern Ocean leg and rounding of Cape Horn to Itajaí in Brazil. Thereafter it returns to Newport, Rhode Island and across the Atlantic to Cardiff, back to the UK for the first time in 12 years.…

Sidney Gavignet and his crew were rescued by a cargo ship after the MOD70 Musandam-Oman Sail capsized off Newfoundland during the Transat Quebec-St Malo race. The crew were later transferred back to land by the Canadian Coastguard. The boat was 450 miles east of the St Pierre and Miquelon islands when it capsized in the early hours of 17 July. This is the second serious incident for Oman Sail, after crewmember Mohammed Al Alawi was lost overboard during a delivery sail last year. It is the fourth MOD70 to flip over, following Spindrift’s dramatic capsize in Dun Laoghaire in 2013 and Virbac Paprec’s during a training sail off Brittany in the same year. Race for Water overturned in the Indian Ocean in 2015.…

Seldom has there been a more magnificent sight in sailing than on the opening day of the Superyacht Cup in June. Seven classic and replica schooners gathered for a friendly match in Palma Bay, bringing together probably the greatest number of schooners to race at one time. With topsails set and pressing eight sails upwind apiece, it was a superlative exhibition of ageless might and elegance. Such a grand collection of large schooners is unprecedented. For one thing, these yachts were built and raced in different eras; some are replicas. A few rarely compete or have never raced before. Germania Nova, a replica of the 1908 classic Germania and launched in 2011, had never been on a racecourse before. But in June she lined up alongside the 138ft Herreshoff schooner…

For pure spectacle, watch the Nacra 17 racing – the fastest boats at Rio are a new class introduced at this Games, and the only one to be sailed by a mixed man-woman team. The new dynamic has thrown up some interesting questions – who helms and who crews being one of the biggest, with most teams opting for a male helmsman and female crew in the lighter winds predicted for Rio. In a big blow, the Nacra 17s have potential to be fearsome, however, with their curved daggerboards and 200ft2 kite. The stand-out team so far has been the French pairing of Billy Besson and Marie Riou, who are the current world champions. Britain stands a good prospect of a medal, though, as Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves are…

Today’s sailing world is well stocked with sponsored heroes, performing remarkable feats in the cause of being fastest on some great endeavour. John Kretschmer is a different sort of hero. A delivery skipper with 300,000 miles astern of him, he now spends much of his time making passages with crews who want to learn from his vast experience, sometimes using his own yacht, Quetzal, a moderate Kaufman 47 ocean cruiser as his teaching medium (www.yayablues.com). His books, an unusual mix of anecdote and technical data, should be required reading for anyone venturing into deep waters. Here are two extracts from Sailing a Serious Ocean. First, he explains why he does what he does. In the second, we join him during a delivery for one of the nastiest nights it’s possible…

HH66 This powerful clear-coated carbon cruiser is the first of HH Catamarans’ new line of performance cruising cats, which launched in Xiamen, China in April. The project combines the experience of Californian designers Morrelli and Melvin with New Zealand boatbuilder Paul Hakes and Hudson Yacht & Marine’s vast manufacturing capabilities. The timing of the HH Catamarans launch is significant, as the previous leader in this sector, Gunboat, has been undergoing financial difficulties – although it has recently been bought by the Garcia/Outremer group. The Hudson Yacht yard has four more 66s and two 55s in build. The HH66 was designed to be lighter, quicker and more luxurious than any of her competitors. A lightweight displacement of 16.7 tonnes is impressive – in comparison she is lighter than a Grand Soleil…

SPECIAL REPORT HELEN FRETTER on night sailing Sailing through the night brings its own rewards: a contemplative stillness, phosphorescent trails through a star-lit sea, the soul-warming sunrises. But it also raises challenges – if you cannot see gusts and squalls approaching, how quickly can you react? How well do you – and the rest of your crew – know your yacht’s layout in the dark? We asked some experienced long-distance cruisers, many of whom have sailed extensively in the tropics – experiencing much longer hours of darkness than northern hemisphere sailors who only venture offshore in summer months – for their night sailing advice. sundowner readiness Romantic though sailing into the sunset may be, heading into darkness requires careful preparation. ‘Bones’ Black, who owns and skippers Emily Morgan, a Bowman…

One of the more dramatic of recent years, this year’s JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race was the last sponsored by the investment firm and a new race record was set. With 40 knots of wind across the course at times, the overall race record was smashed by almost half an hour, as Lloyd Thornburg’s MOD70 Phaedo3 steamed around the 52-mile course in just 2h 23m 23s. The crew knocked 28 minutes off the previous time set by Ben Ainslie two years ago in an AC45 catamaran. Owner Thornburg commented after coming ashore that the trimaran, skippered by Brian Thompson, had been sailing on the limits of control. “It was just on the edge where we could keep the full main up, so the boat was totally powered…

Two Olympic classes are devoted to windsurfing, and Britain has some of the most experienced contenders in the men’s and women’s RS:X fleets. Nick Dempsey will be on his fifth Olympics and for Bryony Shaw Rio will be her third Games. Both have scores to settle – Shaw slipped to 7th in Weymouth and will be looking to assert herself as the current world ranked no 1. Her toughest competition is likely to include Charlotte Picon (FRA), who has mastered Rio’s waters to win both Olympic test events. Dempsey took Silver at the home Games, having scored a Bronze and 4th at previous Olympics, so Gold would give him the full set. Dempsey, now 35, says his approach has changed compared with previous Olympics: “I still get nervous, I still…

We were heading into the shore and just past Bear Grylls’s island, Saint Tudwal’s Island West, when the tacking duel commenced. Each tack took us closer and closer to the jagged rocks along the shoreline. The current was swirling and playing tricks with us, sometimes helping us and at other times hind We had got away from Barmouth well in the light and fickle winds and were leading the Three Peaks Yacht Race fleet. I had a smile on my face. Our navigator, Libby Greenhalgh – we raced together in the Volvo Ocean Race aboard Team SCA – knew where she wanted to position us. Our first obstacle was a reef that had only a couple of gaps where we could pass through. In theory, at this state of the…

FACTS Test Editor TOBY HODGES Where we tested: between Pendik and Adalar island, south of Istanbul, Turkey. Wind: 5-13 knots over calm sea. Model: hull no 1, with optional teak decks and second heads. What is a gem but a stone yet to be polished? When Sirena Marine produced its first Azuree yacht it was somewhat rough – the potential was there to see, produced by a big yard and workforce with industrial production experience, but it needed refinement. Eight years on, with a great deal of hard graft, the brand has moved on and its latest offering is a jewel worthy of admiration – not perfect on close inspection, but one that has a definite sparkle. Sirena Marine’s learning curve has been a steep one engineered by improvements in…

• British 49er • Qingdao Sailing Olympics 2008 “INCREDIBLY SIX OUT OF THE TEN 49ERS CAPSIZED IN THE STRONG GUSTS” This alarming shot was taken at Qingdao during the 2008 Olympic Games. It was the final medal race. “After light airs for the regatta, total carnage reigned for the medal race,” remarks photographer Ingrid Abery. “Incredibly, six out of the ten 49ers capsized in the strong gusts. Gold medal hopefuls Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin of Australia couldn’t right their skiff and drifted over the fi nish line. “As the other photographers in our press RIB watched on I noticed much further up the course the British duo taking a nosedive. Their mast dug into the chop for a few seconds. Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes struggled to climb back…

Golden oldies Heritage, a 1984-vintage Sigma 33 belonging to yacht surveyor Mike Newton and sailing in ISCRS Division 6C, is having a blast in the windy conditions of the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, in which records tumbled and there was one sinking. Read more on page 14. Rakish angles Artemis Racing, the Swedish team’s AC45, soaring high at the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series in Portsmouth in July. Achieving a stable flying angle is key in the one-design foiling AC45s, which have 2.7m deep curved daggerboards with adjustable rake and T-foil rudders.…

It was the biggest fleet of foiling catamarans ever gathered at Lake Garda in Italy this July for the GC32 Malcesine Cup. The event attracted ten teams and an international field from Sweden, France, Japan, Monaco, USA and the Netherlands. It was won by Team Tilt, skippered by Sébastien Schneiter. However, sailing was cancelled for the final day after a collision between Prince Casiraghi of Monaco’s GC32 Malizia – Yacht Club de Monaco and a press RIB on the penultimate day, as host club Fraglia Vela Malcesine and GC32 class association were unable to reach an agreement over liability. Meanwhile, seven GC32s took part in the Extreme Sailing Series in Cardiff at the end of June, in the most challenging conditions the fleet has seen since it moved to the…

The RC44s visited the UK for the first time this summer, racing out of Portsmouth from 13-17 July. The design turns ten next season, and while fleet numbers have not expanded beyond around a dozen, it continues to attract a loyal cohort of owners who want their sailing to be based on participation, rather than spectacle. The racing area was set in the eastern Solent, beyond the Forts – and guests watch the racing from RIBs, or on board in the ninth man position, not a hospitality suite. The RC44 is all about a purer racing experience. A serious level of funding is required to take part, but the RC44 class is designed to appeal to the owner-drivers, rather than their company’s marketing departments. The RC44s are tweaky and responsive,…

New Zealand sailor Phil Robertson scooped the largest single cash prize in sailing history when he won the final of the World Match Racing Tour, held in Marstrand, Sweden in early July. But he declared he was sharing his US$1m bounty with his competitors. Robertson and his fellow Waka Racing crew, Stu Dodson, Will Tiller and James Wierzbowski, won $33,000 for their victory in the final Marstrand event. They beat bookmaker’s favourite Taylor Canfield in a thrilling final that involved two collisions. Robertson, 29, was crowned world champion and picked up the bonus cheque of $1m. It was a fairytale finish for Robertson, winning the title he has been chasing since 2009 – he and his crew had resorted to paying their way around the circuit after failing to secure…

This double-handed dinghy is not the fastest, nor the flashiest, of the Olympic classes, but in Rio it should provide some of the most intense competition of the regatta in the men’s and women’s fleets. Many sailors who stood on the podium in Weymouth in 2012 will be back, but they’ve got older, and wiser, since. “We’ve both grown up a lot!” comments Polly Powrie who, with Jo Aleh, won at their first Games last time. “I think we’ve had almost eight years of shared experience now, so we know each other very well. Those shared experiences have allowed us to delve a lot deeper, and we probably have a bit more of a professional approach.” For Powrie and Aleh (NZL) the tough question was how to improve on Gold.…

With its vast global pool of sailors, the Laser world championships are among the most competitive of all. Unusually, British sailors currently hold the title in both the men’s Laser and women’s Laser Radial classes, with Nick Thompson winning back-to-back championships in 2015 and 2016, and Alison Young taking this year’s Radial contest. However, champion status does not bring any Olympic guarantees. Thompson faces a true giant of Brazilian Olympic sailing, with previous double Gold Laser medallist Robert Scheidt returning to the class after nearly a decade in the Stars. Scheidt has made it clear that Gold at home is his goal, and few would bet against the 43-year-old. In the women’s fleet the most consistent sailors have been Marit Bouwmeester (NED) and Evi Van Acker (BEL), but 2012 Gold…

Miercoles!” grunts Alex, in weary annoyance. Our Argentinian veterinarian friend’s expletive might have been more forceful as her gumbooted feet scrabble for traction on the smooth beach stones smeared with the noisome grease spreading from the bloated carcass of the small sei whale in front of her. Finding her footing, she makes a deft cut and a tiny slice of the whale’s massive heart falls away from her blade. “This one goes in formalin,” she says, switching to English through her face mask as she passes the precious sample to another white-overalled figure wading close by in the shallows. The carcass is tied as fi rmly to the shore as we can bring it, but its bloated tongue causes it to bob slightly in the light swell emanating out of…

Our runners returned from Scafell exhausted after 9.5 hours of cycling and running. Team Aparito were lying in 4th place and we needed to do something big to overtake three boats that had already left Whitehaven and give our runners the two-hour head start they needed by Ben Nevis. By the Mull of Galloway we were under spinnaker, runners tucked up below recovering and the three sailors trimming the boat as hard as we could. We had overtaken two boats and could see the outline of the leader in the moonlight. Gaining on them fast, we decided to pass inshore, right under the cliffs of the Mull. There was palpable tension as we scraped our way along the shore. Gusts were rolling down the cliffs, heeling the boat and rounding…

As Ipek Kirac took the shiny new carbon wheel, her smile revealed a proud sense of achievement – she was in command of her own Frers-designed luxury cruiser, the first of a new model built by the yard she controls. If you were the offspring of two of the most prominent families in Turkish business, it would be logical to question why you’d want to start a yacht building company. The answer is surprisingly simple: passion. “My parents were workaholics when I was growing up,” Kirac reminisces as we ghost along under the shade of a fresh new turquoise kite, “so the times on our yacht were our only breaks spent together.” That particular yacht was a Frersdesigned Swan, one of a number that Pat Lilley sold to her father.…