Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2021 i Yachting World

The ARC transatlantic rally set two contradictory new benchmarks in November. The 2020 fleet was by far the smallest in the event’s 34-year history, with just 52 yachts in the ARC and 24 in the ARC+ via Cape Verde, yet it was globally one of the largest mass participation sailing events of 2020, with over 400 crew setting sail. The ARC, which runs across 2,700-miles from Gran Canaria to St Lucia, had around a third of its usual numbers of participants. While the crews will be welcomed straight into St Lucia after spending at least 14 days at sea, quarantine requirements for family, friends or guests wanting to join later made it too difficult for many, and charter and race yachts were largely absent. A majority of the crews who…

As the UK nears the end of its Brexit transition period on December 31, the situation for long-term cruisers and UK owners who keep their yacht in Europe is set to become increasingly complicated. There are three major areas of concern. For UK citizens an immediate impact will be losing the right to spend longer than 90 days in any rolling 180-day period in the Schengen Area. If sailing around Europe, cruisers can ‘pause the clock’ by heading to non-Schengen territories such as Croatia, Turkey, Ireland, Cyprus, Morocco, Montenegro, or Gibraltar – either on or off their boat – but they can’t ‘reset’ the 90 days until the 180-day period is up. If cruisers wish to, for example, overwinter in Spain or Italy, they will need to apply for a…

A new Polar Yacht Guide has been published for cruising yachts sailing in polar regions, as a voluntary code of conduct designed specifically for yachts. The guide is the result of a lengthy collaboration by a group of experienced high latitude sailors including Skip Novak, Alan Green, Andrew Wilkes (author of the RCC’s Arctic and Northern Waters Cruising Guide) and skipper Victor Wejer, and published by World Sailing and the Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation. It has been created in response to the significant increase in the number of yachts cruising areas such as Greenland, Svalbard, the North West Passage and Antarctic over the past 20 years, as well as proposals that the International Maritime Organization’s Polar Code should be extended to cover ‘all ships on all voyages’. Such a…

With not much happening on the water for me, it’s time for a dose of nostalgia. I recently was invited to speak to Shirley Robertson for one of her podcasts in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. This was a real privilege to be interviewed by an Olympian and to join her eclectic line-up of racing sailors, both very current and those a bit over the hill. I am surely in the latter. Readers under the age of 50 might want to skip this column. On my way back to meet the Red Jet to Southampton I had to time to stroll around Cowes High Street in a light drizzle and many memories were rekindled. This was the place I had started my European – no, make that global –…

‘There was no reason not to do this, the rest is just logistics and resourcefulness’ This is the great Atlantic getaway. At the end of a year when the calendar has been mostly crossed out or marked provisional, families who stuck to their transatlantic cruising plans, or even advanced them, were breaking free. Life in the Canary Islands in November always seems a world away from the darkening days of the European winter, but this year so much more so. It is 25°C and sunny in Gran Canaria, ideal weather for working through the jobs list for a transatlantic crossing. And when you’re done the shops and bars and restaurants are all open, and lively. This feels like the perfect time to escape. The pandemic derailed the plans of around…

Oystercatcher XXXV – a 52ft rocketship Fibre Mechanics/Carkeek CF-520 • Hull length 15.85m 52ft 0in • Beam 4.96m 16ft 3in • Draught 3.60m 11ft 9in • Displacement 6,800kg 15,000lb • www.fibremechanics.com Combining much of the concept behind Niklas Zennström’s radical Fast40 Ran VII with the experience of Oyster Yachts founder Richard Matthews is bound to result in an exceptional yacht. Given Matthews’ latest 52ft IRC racer doesn’t have to fit a box rule, designer Shaun Carkeek had plenty of latitude to create the fastest possible 52-footer. As a result this boat is wider, more powerful and significantly faster than a TP52. It’s also just as likely to turn heads as Ran VII. Matthews has been deeply involved with this project and has brought his enormous experience to many aspects of…

CALENDARS RICK TOMLINSON After 33 years of producing calendars, renowned sailing photographer Rick Tomlinson knows how to pick an optimum blend of art and action for your wall. This year’s selection ranges from TP52 and Class 40 racing to whales in the Falklands. Price: £19.95 www.rick-tomlinson.com PAUL WYETH Whether its on his home Solent waters or at a Caribbean regatta, Paul has an uncanny ability to distil action and colour and make a yacht jump out of the image – which also explains why he is one of our chosen regular boat test photographers! Price: £18 www.pwpictures.com INGRID ABERY Recently awarded a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society, Ingrid has picked out two shots per month for this A2 calendar. The dramatic images are from events including the last America’s…

‘It was drawn to be fast, easy to build and straightforward to sail’ MARK MILLS NOMINATES THE MUMM 30 “I picked the Mumm 30 partly out of respect for Bruce Farr, who was so competitive in IOR in my teens, then equally strong in IMS as well as dominating the Whitbread Round the World Races, while penning some of the most successful ‘big boat’ one-design classes ever. Through all those different briefs he managed to maintain a fidelity to light, clean, simple design, no matter what rule pressures applied. “The Mumm 30 for me is the most distilled essence of the clean, light, simple philosophy. The first production one-design to bring nonoverlapping jibs on swept spreader rigs to the mainstream, it was drawn to be fast, easy to build, and…

The old ones are the best… this incredible image taken by Gilles Martin-Raget during the 2002 Course des Phares has just won the Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image Award’s accolade of ‘Photograph of the Century’. It shows Loïck Peyron sailing the Orma 60 trimaran Fujifilm II in ‘Le trou du diable’, south of Ushant, in Brittany. An international jury said it was ‘without doubt an iconic image’. Solo sailor Sam Goodchild checks the telltales on his Class 40 at dusk. This shot is from Rick Tomlinson’s Portfolio Calendar and was actually taken by his son James who was invited to join Sam for the Channel Race to Cherbourg. “This was taken just after sunset,” James explains. “The camera was attached to the boat with a clamp and a long exposure is…

After years of planning to overcome practical and physical difficulties the rest of us could not imagine, 23-year-old Natasha Lambert realised a childhood dream in November when she crossed the start line of the ARC transatlantic rally. Lambert, who has had quadriplegic cerebral palsy since birth, was introduced to sailing at the age of nine and, after meeting Ellen MacArthur, has harboured a dream to cross oceans. She persuaded her non-sailing family, dad Gary, mum Amanda and 14-year-old sister Rachel, to go on the adventure with her. They are sailing with four others, extra carers for Natasha and a Yachtmaster Instructor/Examiner friend from Cowes, Mike Acton. Lambert controls the boat using ‘sip and puff’ controls with plastic tubes mounted on a helmet. She first used this system, built by her…

Royal Huisman’s near two-year restoration of the classic 131ft (40m) Herreshoff schooner Vagrant has resulted in it scooping the Best Rebuilt Yacht award at the World Superyacht Awards last month. Originally commissioned by legendary yachtsman Harold S Vanderbilt in 1913, Vagrant arrived at the Dutch yard in 2017 with a clear brief from her current owner to “reengineer Vagrant with the finest materials and most advanced onboard systems for sensible, effortless and safe operation, allowing her to cruise with a small and happy crew. In summary, Vagrant should be ready to last for another 100 years.” Royal Huisman’s specialist Huisfit team conducted the rebuild over 22 months in consultation with Dykstra Naval Architects.…

The International Association of Cape Horners (IACH) is creating an official register of yachtsmen who have completed solo circumnavigations via the Three Great Capes – Good Hope, Leeuwin and the Horn. The listing currently records 156 solo non-stop circumnavigators and a further 141 sailors who have completed circumnavigations around the three capes with stops. The original list was compiled from records by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, historian DH ‘Nobby’ Clarke, the World Sailing Speed Record Council and public information. Solo skipper Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, a serial Cape Horner who has rounded it no fewer than 10 times, explained: “To list all the sailors who have turned around the world alone with or without stopovers has been a huge task. It is a very important part of the history of navigation…

On test: Garcia Explocat 52 Multihulls get tough: we test the impressive aluminium Explocat 52, which promises the rugged adventuring ability of an explorer yacht, in luxurious catamaran comfort. Is this the best of both worlds? Best boats and gear for 2021 Toby Hodges reviews the most exciting new yachts and multihulls for 2021, while Elaine Bunting reveals the most innovative kit and technology Are you ocean-ready? You’ve prepared your boat – now what about you and your crew? We get expert advice on the skills you need for bluewater cruising and how to gain them The Robinson Crusoe experience An extended trip across the Pacific became a castaway adventure for the crew of Agápe when they found themselves marooned on a tropical atoll…

On the morning of 13 November, the middle of the North Atlantic glowed a deep magenta on the weather maps. Some 200 miles south of the Azores, around 470 miles north-east of the Canaries, and bang in the way of the Vendée Globe fleet, tropical Storm Theta was deepening, with 45-50 knot winds whipping up the grey waves. Avid Vendée Globe followers, overlaying the race tracker with the forecast, couldn’t help but notice the hot pink icon of Hugo Boss pointing directly at the swirling arrows and dark crimson that indicated the centre of the storm. Just a week after the fleet had left from Les Sables d’Olonne, would this be a defining moment in the 24,200-mile race? Nothing about the beginning of this year’s Vendée Globe was as might…

As each of the new AC75s were wheeled out into the open for the first time, amid the celebration and champagne spraying, each team will have been keenly aware that this was it. Barring disasters, these were the boats that would face each other on the start line. After more than two years of planning, scheming, datacrunching, building, testing and training, this was their shot at the America’s Cup. The pressure has been made even greater by the lack of any opportunity to compare themselves against the other teams, after the two 2020 AC World Series events in Sardinia and Portsmouth fell victim to the pandemic. Had they gone ahead, these regattas would have provided valuable intelligence about the relative performance differences across the fleet, and some clues about which…

Where we tested: The Solent, UK Conditions: winds, easterly, 18-29 knots Model: three-cabin version, with furling mast and Elvstrom laminate sails What constitutes ‘good value’? What you get for your money in any market segment often comes down to size – be that square feet of real estate area or gigabyes of memory. But is bigger necessarily better value? Sailors with the means and desire to buy new understandably seek as much value for money as they can get for that size. What we’ve seen over the last decade is a marked increase in the volume to length ratio of new yachts, and more recently in the way contemporary hull shapes can further boost internal volumes at each end. For a production yard to stay competitive though, it needs to…

What is it? Automated monitoring system for identification of dangerous floating objects in the path of a vessel Who’s it for? Serious bluewater cruising and offshore racing yachts Adecade ago the prospect of a device that, on a dark night, could detect a floating obstacle such as a shipping container or a sleeping whale in the path of a yacht, and automatically change course, would have firmly belonged in the realms of science fiction. Yet Boris Herrmann’s IMOCA 60 Seaexplorer – Yacht Club de Monaco is equipped with just such a system for the Vendee Globe. What’s more the core technology is now available for cruising yachts. Granted, we can’t yet buy one that will interface with the autopilot of our own boat, but it will still display the position…

Sooner or later, most boat owners will find it’s time to change their yacht for a different size or model. No matter how well loved their yacht is, wants and needs shift over time and most owners will inevitably find themselves in the position of selling their boat – whether to upgrade to something bigger, newer, or simply change to a different style of sailing. My partner and I have spent the past five years living on board our Southerly 38 Ruby Rose, on which we cruised between the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, including two Atlantic crossings. Before setting off on our bluewater adventure, we spent years researching the perfect liveaboard boat for us, and settled on the Southerly 38. Although the waterline length was relatively modest for a full-time…

Tall ships return to Falmouth Around 40 tall ships will assemble in Falmouth this summer for the start of the Tall Ships Race, Magellan Elcano 500 Series. This will be the sixth time the Cornish town has hosted the race and its programme during August 2021 will include a Parade of Sail before the fleet embarks on the first leg to A Coruña in Spain. Burling wins Olsson prize New Zealand sailor Peter Burling has been named the 2020 winner of the Magnus Olsson prize, given to an individual who has made an indelible contribution to sailing and named after the legendary Swedish Whitbread/Volvo sailor Magnus ‘Mange’ Olsson. Oyster’s Grand Tourer 885 Oyster has a first performance version of its 885 in build in its Southampton facility. Inspired by cars…

One crewmember drowned and three others were rescued on 7 November when French sailor Régis Guillemot’s 50ft Marsaudon TS5, Hallucine, capsized off Portugal. The catamaran was on the way from France to the Canary Islands to start the ARC rally, on which it won line honours in 2019, when it was reported to have hit an object in the water and overturned ‘in seconds’. Guillemot, a highly experienced sailor and former competitor in the Route du Rhum solo transatlantic race, set off his EPIRB at around 2230 on 6 November. Hallucine was said to have been sailing in winds of around 16-20 knots around 120 miles west of Vigo when the boat capsized. Guillemot reportedly stated that the boat had hit an object in the water. A crewmember on watch…

SailGP, the foiling catamaran circuit which was born out of the AC50s from the 2017 America’s Cup, will start its 2021 season in Bermuda. The multi-venue pro series, which is run by Russell Coutts and backed by Larry Ellison, was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. However organisers have announced new venues for the 2021 season, which begins with racing in Bermuda in April – including a preseason training camp for the eight teams to dust off lockdown cobwebs – before moving to Taranto in southern Italy in June. The foiling F50s will then head to Plymouth in the UK in July and Aarhus in Denmark in August. French and Spanish venues are still to be announced.…

Watch enough America’s Cups and you begin to realise teams rarely release a picture or video without a reason. I should have known that when I was watching some onboard footage of INEOS Team UK’s Britannia I, their first AC75. As the boat hurtled along, a fly on the wall-type camera was showing the grinders, arms and elbows flaying as they powered the hydraulic systems. Amid the grunting and sweating in their carbon shell, water gushed into the cockpit as if the local fire brigade were trying to put out a raging blaze on deck, creating a calf-deep bath of foaming water every few seconds. I appreciate this probably confirms the geeky level I’ve reached when it comes to trying to figure out what makes these incredible flying Mini Maxi-sized…

Just three days into the race, favourite Jérémie Beyou on Charal was forced back to the start by a series of breakages. First, a jib sheet block tore from its chainplate, then the boat crash gybed, possibly because it hit something. The starboard rudder was damaged, and the starboard backstay later broke. Facing complex repairs, and the possibility that a foil had been damaged in an impact, Beyou turned around and sailed more than 600 miles back to Les Sables d’Olonne. His disappointment was raw and palpable. “For four years, I have focussed on trying to win the Vendée Globe. I’ve not been aware of anything else,” he said on the return sail. Poignantly, Beyou’s father had been taken to hospital just the week before the race start. Back in…

‘The noise of the wind whistling through the rig rarely abated’ There was a crunching sound underfoot as we loaded Pelagic Australis with provisions for the voyage ahead. Snow flurries had covered the deck with a layer of white, reminding us that we were setting out in deep winter. Monitoring the weather closely over the past week we had tracked a train of deep depressions that were wrapped around Cape Horn and funnelling across the furthest southern boundaries of the South Atlantic. A shiver of adrenaline ran through my body. We were days away from casting off our lines from the Falkland Islands. We’d be taking the expedition yacht Pelagic Australis across a wintry ocean, during a time of year we knew few sailing boats would venture out. Where hours…

OCEAN IS 40.1 LOA 12.87m 42ft 3in • Hull length 11.99m 39ft 4in • LWL 11.70m 38ft 5in • Beam 4.18m 13ft 9in •Draught 2.17m 7ft 1in • Disp 7,985kg 17,604lb • Price ex VAT €170,400 • www.beneteau.com Beneteau knows what you want from a family cruiser; space in abundance, a well-mannered and easy to sail hull with good performance, and twin rudders to keep the steering light. The Lombard-designed hull reaches its maximum beam well forward and carries it back to the transom, giving the accommodation a lot of space. The C-shaped saloon and opposing galley make the most of the hull’s bullet-shape and fulllength chines. Headroom throughout is generous, as is the freeboard at 1.4m, which is arguably a little too high. The main living area feels vast,…

Translated literally, karma does not mean fate, as it is commonly misused, but action. It’s the actions you have taken in the past, take now, and will take in the future, and their consequences. Cause and effect, not some kind of cosmic levelling out of good things you did versus bad stuff you shouldn’t have. So it’s a surprisingly fitting name for this yacht, which was designed with clear intent from the outset. Most aggressive racing one-offs end up looking that way because they are created to do a particular job. But for a cruising design to turn out looking – at first glance at least – as if it could line up on the Maxi Worlds startline was no happy accident, instead Karma is the result of a very…

Professional sailor and top trimmer SIMON FRY shares some downwind speed tips with ANDY RICE According to ‘Stir Fry’, as he is widely known, a good trimmer is defined by his or her obsession to make sure the boat is going as fast as possible, all the time. “Dave Curtis, one of the greatest one-design sailors ever, once told me something that has stuck with me ever since: ‘It’s not when you’re fast that counts. It’s when you’re slow that hurts’,” he explained. Like any great trimmer, Stir Fry feels the boat’s pain when it’s going slow. “You feel the tension in the kite sheet getting too loaded, or too light. But it’s more than that; it’s the hairs on the back of your neck, it’s the heel of the…