Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2019 i Yachting World

Helping hands I would like to tell your readers about a special friendship, without which our participation in the ARC transatlantic rally in November would not have been possible. During a rig check by Jerry ‘the Rigger’ Henwood, he discovered cracks on five of the six spreaders of our yacht Johanna [an X-412]. Jerry strongly advised a repair, and a very exciting time began. With help from other participants we made a direct contact with Sparcraft in La Rochelle. They told us the spreaders are custom made and were not in stock. So Stephan, the owner and skipper, started a telephone marathon. On Monday 19 November, Sparcraft gave a commitment to manufacture replacements on Tuesday and deliver directly via FedEx to Germany. The same day the mast was removed and…

Van Den Heede’s Rustler 36 Matmut was prepared thoroughly over three years. One key change the Frenchman opted to make was to reduce the height of the mast by 1.5m after test sails revealed he was only carrying full sail 10% of the time. He kept a two spreader rig and retained the same mainsail area by increasing the roach on the main. Van Den Heede is confident that reducing the weight and height of his rig saved him from dismasting when he was knocked down. The other key success in Matmut’s preparation was the antifouling – the boat was, bar a slight grubbiness on the transom, clean on arrival. Van Den Heede was the only skipper not to suffer issues with barnacles during the race and didn’t dive at…

We were anchored in Bahia del Sol in El Salvador and planning our passage south. This was last April, and we wanted to reach Costa Rica before the start of the hurricane season in June. Our next port of call would be Nicaragua. We were monitoring the situation there closely. For the previous few weeks there had been anti-government protests and riots, and tension between the protestors and the armed forces was on the rise. But we were keen to visit. We knew that the unrest was limited to the northern cities of Leon and Managua and we felt that San Juan del Sur in the south of the country should be safe enough. Tourists were still visiting and cruise ships were still calling there. We felt confident. The previous…

Swan 65 When it won the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973/4 the Swan 65 became an iconic model, the largest glassfibre production racer-cruiser of the time, which helped cement Nautor’s Swan’s reputation. Nearly 50 years later, the new 65 shows a remarkable demand for yachts of this size for cruising – six were sold before this first hull was even displayed in January. Described by designer German Frers as “clean and modern, without being tied up to any short-lived fashion”, it’s still at an owner-operator size, but is large enough to allow space for a crew cabin. Argentinean Frers has given the new 65 plenty of power and volume, using beam and freeboard to create stability, low heeling angles and volume and headroom below. This is a long…

Our thirst for adventure is as unquenchable as ever. In the marine world, that desire to escape the beaten path seems only to be increasing. There are more and more large exploration-style vessels launching, the commissions of owners wanting to see for themselves the incredible sights that cruising in high latitudes offers. When we first set eyes on these pictures of Acadia voyaging in Greenland, part of an extensive collection from acclaimed marine photographer Onne van der Wal, we were hooked. And the more we found out about this cruise, the more interested we became. It’s rare for an owner sailing a Truly Classic sloop to want to get acquainted with icebergs. But Mark Rohr had a further agenda: to better understand the science behind glaciers and icebergs, to speak…

Try a game of word association with any superyacht industry professional and I’d be surprised if the word innovation didn’t bring the response Wally. Since 1994, Wally Yachts has – initially in sail and then in power – brought to the market a series of game changing initiatives. It’s often true that innovative companies (think Apple or Dyson) are driven by a singular mind, a powerful creative force and vision. In the case of Wally, Luca Bassani is that man. “I had the freedom and the possibility, the financial possibility to realise my ideas,” he told me. “When you just have the ideas, but you never have the chance to realise the ideas because you have to find the finance to do the prototype and then the product… it becomes…

A season in the Caribbean is firmly back on superyacht owners’ itinerary. After the devastation of two back-to-back hurricanes in 2017, the number of visiting yachts dwindled last year, but the island communities’ hard work has paid off. The St Barths Bucket returns in March with a ‘normal-sized’ fleet of 34 yachts – and many of its most loyal racers will be there. “We are back in business,” says race director Peter Craig. St Barth was hit very hard in 2017 by hurricanes Irma and Maria, which took out many business in the main town of Gustavia. Now, 18 months on, the island is making infrastructure improvements – improving roads and taking overhead cables underground to put the island in better shape to make a recovery should it be hit…

Blowing in the wind Matt Sheahan goes sailing on an extraordinary yacht powered by an inflatable wingsail and talks to the inventor about how it works On test: Arcona 435 This Scandinavian beauty has just won her category in the European Yacht of the Year Awards, and for good reason. We put her through her paces and discover what makes her stand out To the ends of the earth We welcome you aboard a brand new custom built aluminium go-anywhere yacht, the Owen Clarke-designed 66ft Qilak, and find out what makes it tick, plus we look at other rugged yacht designs suited for exploration Can you trust your charts? Should we be worried about the accuracy of the electronic charts we use, and could emerging technology help improve them? Wouter…

Mark Slats describes sailing through the most devastating Southern Ocean storm of the race on 20 September: “First you get the north-westerly winds, and it goes up to 50 knots, 55, maybe gusting 60, but I was still sailing really fast and going good. “Then the front comes over, and within two minutes it’s a south-westerly and it builds up to maybe 20-30% more than it was before. “This time, I had the middle of the low pressure on top of me so my barometer went from 1010mb to 968 in five or six hours – I was looking at it thinking: is this real? I made a safety call to Don. He told me to get prepared for 70-80 knots. “Then a big wave smashed the back of the…

Never give up – that could have been the theme to this year’s RORC Caribbean 600 race. It was an event full of dramas and adversity across the 76-strong fleet. The course from Antigua, weaving around 11 Caribbean islands, is renowned for being tough; don’t be fooled by the image of azure waters and tropical beaches. The average wind speed is over 20 knots, the waves are big and the relatively short legs that pinball between islands give this offshore race a rare intensity. The drama this year began well before the start gun when Jason Carroll’s MOD70, Argo, capsized while making a practice race around Antigua. What followed was an extraordinary story which saw Argo return to racing form in just 48 hours, then compete against Giovanni Soldini’s Maserati, with…

I first met Paddy Barry in the late Eighties at a Breton traditional boat festival. I was on a raft of unrestored pilot cutters. Paddy’s and his friends’ Galway Hookers from the wild west of Ireland were lying alongside one. To describe Paddy’s hooker Saint Patrick as ethnic would be an understatement. She was the epitome of a traditional working vessel and the music that came floating out of her soon had our hearts racing. We became friends, then went our ways, as sailors do. We of the pilot cutters did our bits of seafaring, but Paddy and Saint Patrick outstripped us all. I’d be stuck for space if I had to list his voyages, but he has been to New York, Greenland, the Arctic pack, South Georgia, run the…

What is it? Technology that simplifies close quarters manoeuvres, in a similar manner to the aids that facilitate parking a car. Who is it for? Anyone who’d like to take the stress out of berthing. A couple of decades ago few drivers would have been likely to admit openly their parking skills would be significantly improved by using aids such as reversing cameras and autonomous parking systems. Yet these systems are now commonplace across the motor industry. Similarly, a host of companies across the marine industry are developing systems to make berthing a yacht easier and less stressful. At first sight it might be tempting to discount these as gimmicks for inexperienced skippers, but if the motor industry is anything to go by they are likely to be widely accepted.…

ANDY RICE talks to pro offshore sailor SAM GOODCHILD Every serious offshore sailor has more than one story to tell about when it all went spectacularly wrong. Sam Goodchild has experienced multiple breakages in the past year, firstly with Spindrift 2, whose mast broke in January 2018 before the giant trimaran had even crossed the start line of her round-the-world record attempt, then more recently in the Route du Rhum in November when his Class 40 Narcos Mexico dismasted, and then again with Spindrift when rudder damage ended their second Jules Verne attempt. Perhaps not surprisingly, Goodchild’s approach to preparation is about thinking ahead through all the possible scenarios, and doing everything within your power to make sure that such a race ending breakage doesn’t happen. A lot of this…

SPIRIT YACHTS 111 – A WORK OF ART Charged with creating one of the most environmentally friendly sailing superyachts to date, Spirit Yachts is due to launch its biggest and most spectacular offering this summer. The Spirit 111, one of the largest wooden sloops ever to be built in the UK, is designed to be owner-driven without professional crew. It won’t even feature crew accommodation and the interior itself is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. While the traditional lines are drawn by founder Sean McMillan, as is usual at Spirit, it is the first time the Ipswich yard has collaborated with an external design agency for the interior – and with breathtaking results. The Rhoades Young interior is an exhibition of curves, using contours that bring together the interior…

Greenland, the world’s largest island, covers an area of roughly 2.2 million km2. The ice cap at its centre, second only to Antarctica’s, is over 3.2km thick, covers an area of 1.7 million km2 and is the only ice sheet in the Northern Hemisphere that remains from the ice age. Ice flows gradually from the centre of the cap toward the sea. The area around Disko Bay and the Uummannaq Fjords represents the primary western route to the sea and some estimate that half of the total Greenland ice loss occurs from this area. One of the fastest ice streams in the world is Sermeq Kujalleq, which terminates in the inner part of the Ilulissat ice fjord. This moves at an astonishing pace of roughly 40m per day, with an…

“The sailing yacht would be Genie of the Lamp. On the power boat I would take the 118 Wallypower. They both looked very crazy when they were launched but, after many years, you can recognise they radically changed the industry.” [1994] WALLYGATOR II [32m/105ft] (now Nariida) “The first big sailing yacht with a modern racing hull, changing the look with a plumb bow, a very beamy hull and stern, a very flush deck and carbon fibre construction and sails.” [1995] GENIE OF THE LAMP [24m/80ft] “In terms of deck layout [this boat] changed the market. Today, practically 95% of the yachts up to a 100ft are a copy.” [2001] WALLYTENDER [14m/46ft] “The Wallytender opened a huge market that didn’t exist 15 years ago.” [1998] TIKETITAN [27m/89ft] “Tiketitan was the first…

ADELA DESIGN: Dykstra BUILD: Pendennis 1903/1996 A seasoned Bucket competitor and one that is raced hard, Adela was overall winner in 2013. She has been regularly modified and upgraded since her remarkable rebuild 20 years ago and makes for a spectacular sight when racing – 35 crew are needed to manage her six sails. If the breeze is up, expect a punchy performance. AQUARIUS DESIGN: Perini Navi BUILD: Perini Navi 1990 Previously named Xasteria, this early Perini ketch set the tone for a generation to follow thanks to her more spacious flybridge and aft cockpit, a pilothouse amidships and a centerboard trunk below the cabin sole. Changed hands in 2016 and hasn’t been at the Bucket for many years. Will need wind to compete against modern lighter yachts. AQUARIUS DESIGN:…

Two of the leading cruising yacht clubs have awarded their top trophies to intrepid sailors who have made remarkable voyages in small yachts. The Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) has awarded its Barton Cup to Australian solo sailor Bill Hatfield (right). As we reported in our March issue, he recently completed a single-handed circumnavigation which, the citation notes, ‘included a particularly difficult and protracted passage around Cape Horn’. Hatfield, 79, was sailing his Northshore 38, L’Eau Commotion, and returned home to Australia after 414 days at sea. He made one stop in the Falkland Islands after rig and steering damage before rounding Cape Horn and crossing the Pacific to return to Sydney. The OCC’s lifetime cruising award was made to American and Canadian sailors Lin and Larry Pardey in recognition of…

An Italian superyacht designer sailed his 33ft recycled yacht solo across the Atlantic without electronics, compass, GPS or engine in late January and early February. His purist mission was to highlight the damage being caused to the world’s oceans. Dan Lenard, co-founder of Nuvolari-Lenard, which designs for Ferretti and Beneteau among others, has been involved with some of the largest sailing superyacht projects to date, including the 210ft Perini Spirit of the C’s and the 348ft Oceanco Black Pearl. His ten-year-old carbon fibre sloop, SCIA, was assembled using the recycled parts of five other boats, including the mast, keel and rudder. He wanted to create a ‘pure’ sailing yacht to help carry his message across the Atlantic. “SCIA is a reset button in sailing technology to highlight that we need…

The Golden Globe Race is a race like no other. It is a competition, an adventure, but also a celebration of an event that happened 50 years ago – the first ever solo around the world race in 1968. In designing the event, organiser Don McIntyre trod a difficult line between creating an authentic homage, but also building a new race that is relevant today. Whether your think the Golden Globe Race concept madness or genius probably depends on whether you adhere to the view that traditional long-keeled yachts are the most intrinsically seaworthy. ‘WHEN BOATS ARE IN THE OPEN OCEAN, SIZE MATTERS’ In 1968 nobody knew what type of boats would perform best. “They weren’t the right boats last time around – Suhaili was not, Joshua was not, but…

We hit the sandspit at something over five knots and went hard aground. A moment before, the bottom had risen suddenly from 10ft to now visible sand in the wave troughs just ahead of us. The sandspit lay off the north-east corner of a small island. Modest Atlantic swells were working around the island and running into each other from opposing directions over the sandspit, creating 3ft breaking seas which were hitting us at bow and stern. It was too rough to launch the dinghy and set a kedge anchor. I knew we had deeper water to port. I put the helm hard over and throttled up to bring our head around, watching the engine gauges intently as sand began to plug the cooling system and the temperature crept inexorably…

FACTS ▸ Where we tested: The Solent▸ Wind: 17-25 knots▸ Model: Single rudder, deep fin keel, with North 3Di main, Code 2 jib, A2 and A3 spinnaker and a Helix Code 0 on a furler We ghosted down the Hamble River under mainsail alone, the water slipping silently past our red hull in the grainy half-light of a winter morning. We’d hoisted the mainsail in our marina berth, then sailed out into the river, the engine left in tick-over for less than two minutes almost as a token gesture. I felt like a naughty kid, slipping out while the rest of the world was still waking up; going to make some trouble. I had come to test the new J/99, sailing double-handed with the British J/Boats importer Paul Heys on…

Modern yachts are packed with the latest survival kit, but how confident are you in the capacity of your crew to act decisively and use it correctly? I tried a more proactive approach to making sure both skipper and crew are equipped to deal with worst case scenarios on board. While waiting to start a new emergency training course in Cowes, by chance I got a demonstration of how UK authorities bring together an emergency response. It’s not on the course schedule, but the Southampton-Cowes car ferry has run aground in thick fog and the shredded parts of a Contessa 32 the ferry ran over have already begun to drift into the marina. Luckily, no one was on board the yacht. The rescue effort involves two lifeboats, a Coastguard shore…

‘THEY WERE UNBELIEVABLE TO SAIL. EVEN THE BEST WOULD CAPSIZE’ EDDIE WARDEN OWEN NOMINATES THE ULTRA 30 “The Ultra 30s were the coolest boats were way ahead of their time,” says Eddie Warden Owen, who skippered an Ultra 30 and also ran the circuit for several years. The Ultra 30 circuit was the original spectator-friendly sailing concept, with short-course, crash-and-burn style racing broadcast on BBC Grandstand, the prime Saturday sports show of the 1990s. It attracted Olympic sailors and commercial sponsorship, and developed a multi-stage circuit. The dinghies were monstrously overpowered, with bowsprits up to 15ft long and over 500ft2 of sail area balanced by a crew of nine that required complex crew co-ordination in every manoeuvre. “You had nine crew on racks and then we put trapezes on –…

YAMAHA LI 500 SCOOTER The notion of an underwater scooter needs no introduction, having been a mainstay of classic Bond films. However, lithium-ion technology has miniaturised the seascooter, as Yamaha’s 500W offering shows. It gives 90 minutes of runtime, with three gears at speeds up to 7km/h – plenty compared to using flipper-power alone. It works down to 40m and weighs less than 10kg, making it suitable for ages from 14 upwards. Price from £995. superyachttendersandtoys.com ONEAN CARVER X The Basque company that brought us the original Carver electric jetboard in 2015 is expanding the range with the new high-powered Carver X. It is based on the same battery and 5kW jet technology as the original, but it now packs two of them into the board. For a lean rider,…

SPECIFICATIONS LOA 56.18m (184ft 4in) LWL 41.17m (135ft 1in) Beam 9.51m (31ft 2in) Draught 4.80m (15ft 9in) Displacement 264 tonnes Mainsail 520m2 (5,597ft2) Mizzen 440m2 (4,736ft2) Blade 430m2 (4,628ft2) Air draught 58.50m (192ft 11in) Spars Rondal carbon with Rondal/Carbo-Link continuous standing rigging Ademanding brief for Aquarius from experienced sailors has produced a masterpiece from some of the most experienced and talented brains in the superyacht world. Within five months of handover she had already clocked up 11,000 miles and will show her mettle on the race course for the first time at this year’s St Barth’s Bucket. It’s often tempting to sum up new yachts with a short phrase describing their key characteristics. The brief for Aquarius included that she should be, ‘an elegant, muscular sailing yacht with a classic…