Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2023 i Yachting World

How long could you spend at sea… alone? Kirsten Neuschäffer spent 235 days solo sailing her way to victory in the Golden Globe Race. For her, solitude is something to be embraced – see our fascinating profile of her on page 50. She wasn’t truly alone, however. Every ocean race forms a family, and Kirsten and her fellow 15 solo competitors have a unique connection. That bond will be all the stronger between Neuschäffer and Tapio Lehtinen, who she rescued mid-ocean on her way to winning. There are wider networks too – Peter Mott (known to many as Passage Guardian) ran daily radio scheds and weather updates for the Golden Globe competitors, voluntarily becoming a lifeline of information, as well as a familiar voice in the wilderness of the ocean.…

America’s Cup organisers have announced that the second preliminary regatta for the 37th America’s Cup cycle will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 30 November–3 December 2023. The announcement gives credence to the rumours that Saudi Arabia was originally in the running to be host venue for the America’s Cup itself, which were circulating before Barcelona was confirmed in March last year. At the time many Cup fans raised wide ranging concerns about the venue, varying from the probability of light winds to Saudi Arabia’s record on human rights and environmental issues. It has been confirmed that Jeddah, a major city on the Red Sea and home to the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, will host the second Preliminary event with six teams (Defenders Emirates Team New Zealand and…

The Richard Mille Cup, a brand new race for pre-war classics and faithful replicas, will be launched in June. A fleet will head from Falmouth to Dartmouth on the south coast of England, then Cowes on the Isle of Wight, before crossing the Channel to Le Havre in a series of inshore and offshore races. The aim of the event is to race the yachts, which will all have a minimum LWL of 10m, as they were originally intended to be raced. Fifteen yachts dating from the end of the 19th century to the late 1930s are expected to compete in Schooner and Cutter categories. “Classic yachts bear a living, breathing testimony to the highest values of workmanship, heritage and tradition passed on to us through centuries.” says Richard Mille,…

Know your gear Having been involved in the marine industry for nearly 40 years (the last 17 with Ocean Safety), it was interesting to read the two accounts of rescue and abandonment in the June issue of Yachting World. The saving of 16 people by the skipper and crew of Genevieve illustrated the safety professionalism that exists within superyacht crews. We have the opportunity to work with many of them and clearly the way this rescue was approached and executed emphasised the training they have to have, the understanding of their equipment and their determination to find people in distress. The sinking of Raindancer after the collision with a whale, while tragic with the rapid sinking, showed how the need to have good safety equipment is critical in times of…

On a ferry from Tortola, BVI, to St Thomas, USVI, last month I got chatting with a Swedish sailor who’d been surveying his yacht after chartering it out in the Caribbean. He introduced himself as Johan, and we discovered we had mutual friends – as is so often the case in our small sailing world. “Oh, you were driving that Outremer in the marina yesterday weren’t you?” he asked me. “You were the one blocking the channel and sitting in everyone’s way. We all assumed you were a beginner because you were wearing a lifejacket.” Laughing, I explained that no, I work in sailing, and no, I wasn’t sitting in the channel but filming educational videos on how to handle a catamaran under engine in confined spaces. I brushed it…

A yacht’s autopilot works by using a computer to control the steering. The computer uses information from a compass, wind direction sensor, and GPS system in order to calculate the boat’s heading. It then sends signals to the autopilot drive unit, which moves the rudder to keep the boat on course. There are two main types of autopilot drive units: hydraulic and electric. Electric units are more efficient on power consumption, easier to install and cheaper than hydraulic options. However, the latter can be more powerful, so are often the choice for boats above 45ft. The autopilot control head is the ‘user interface’ between the computer and the autopilot drive unit. It allows the navigator to engage and disengage the pilot, plus set and change course. BRUTE FORCE … The…

Few new boatbuilders notch up a succession of race wins, including three ORC World Championship victories, as quickly as Italia Yachts has managed. What makes this even more impressive is that these are genuine dual-purpose yachts with fully fitted interiors and enough comfort to spend a few weeks on board in style. The vision for the 43ft Italia 12.98 was very clear from the outset: a single design with two distinctly different versions, the Fuoriserie race edition and Bellissima performance cruiser. Our test boat is the latter, which is nearly 400kg heavier than the race version, but has more efficient use of space and greater comfort below decks. At the same time, it still has the same Maurizio Cossutti designed narrow hull with a single rudder and minimal wetted surface…

All eyes will turn to Mallorca from 21-24 June, when the world’s most beautiful yachts will be seeking glory in the Superyacht Cup Palma. Nine yachts were on the entry list for the 2023 event when we went to press, including a brace of timeless J-Class and the 39m Dubois sloop Lady M. By the time owners and their crews have gathered at the Real Club Nautico on 21 June, the crew list will number in the hundreds and include some of the world’s most competitive big-boat sailors. Now in its 27th year, the Superyacht Cup is the doyenne of superyacht regattas, with a reputation for relaxed socialising and meticulously managed racing. Though the entry list is a little thinner than last year, event director Kate Branagh is still looking…

Sailing kit for kids is now just as good as the adults’ options, with many brands taking the latest technology developed for Olympic or high performance sailing and adapting it for their junior ranges. There are good reasons for this – as every sailing parent knows, nothing puts your child off the sport faster than being cold and uncomfortable. Once young sailors move into class training and events, combined with club sailing or cadets sessions, they can quickly be on the water for 100+ days a year including training through cold winter and spring months. Kate Morrison, who works in product design and development marketing at Rooster Sailing, explains: “Young sailors generally have less awareness of their temperature, so designing kit for this audience is even more important. When in…

LOA 11.99m 39ft 4in • Beam 4.3m 13ft 1in • Draught 2.1m 6ft 7in • Displacement TBC • Base price €233,000 ex VAT • dufour-yachts.com This French yard has renewed most of the models in its range over the past few years, merging the previous performance and cruising ranges into a single line-up that features beamy, high freeboard hulls with lots of volume, twin rudders and very full forward sections that balance the broad shape aft. Naval architect Umberto Felci says the new boat is a clear progression from the earlier 530, 470 and 37 models. The mast is mounted well aft and sail area has been increased to boost light airs performance. This also opened up the prospect for a huge owner’s suite forward, which is of a size…

LOA 9.76m 32ft 0in • Beam 2.87m 9ft 5in • Draught keel up 0.44m 1ft 5in, keel down 2.70m 8ft 9in • Displacement 2,300kg 5,070lb • Price £154,000 ex VAT • swallowyachts.com Look beyond the traditional styling of this 32ft trailer sailer and you’ll find a thoroughly upto-date concept with carbon rig, water ballast and deep draught (2.7m) lifting keel. Construction is of lightweight clinker style epoxy plywood with all timber, including framing, CNC cut in house. It’s a method Swallow Yachts has already proven to be a reliable and cost effective means of producing light displacement boats with its Whisper 30 retro-style planing motor cruiser. Total displacement is 2,300kg, which allows the boat to be towed by vans and larger 4x4 cars. While few owners will want to use…

Double-handed sailing is gaining in popularity across many disciplines – we now regularly see crews of two managing all sizes of boat, and sailing them with the same efficiency and expectations as full crews. In this series I’m sharing how I approach key manoeuvres with a crew of two, how to minimise risk, prepare for success and advance your techniques. This month is the first of two covering how to handle symmetric spinnakers. For more see yachtingworld.com and youtube.com/yachtingworld Many new designs now favour asymmetric spinnakers for downwind sailing and we’ve covered those techniques in earlier articles (see yachtingworld.com/tag/double-handed). However, the symmetrical spinnaker still has its place in both the cruising and racing worlds and for many boats will give better downwind VMG performance than the asymmetric alternative. Learning to…

If you need to finance both the yacht purchase and work on it, you might be surprised how open lenders are to bringing a dream to fruition. James Crew is the marine sales director for Close Brothers. A lifelong sailor who provides finance for yacht purchases above £65,000, he explains how he comes to a decision about financing a yacht purchase that needs work. “Above all, our interest is in the asset on which the loan is secured; the yacht is our security so that’s what I look at first. Each decision is on a case-by-case basis, but we’re not put off by a yacht if we know it will ultimately hold its value. Let’s take an Oyster 56 for example, on the market at £500,000, with an owner planning…

South African sailor Kirsten Neuschäfer won the 2022/23 Golden Globe Race on 27 April, becoming the first woman ever to win a solo non-stop around the world race. However, Neuschäfer was one of only three skippers to finish the second running of the ‘retro’ Golden Globe Race, the single-handed race around the world in traditional long-keeled yachts. Sixteen skippers set off in September 2022, with just three going on to complete the course non-stop. At the time of going to press, two more looked set to finish a circumnavigation having made one stop, which automatically moved them to ‘Chichester’ class. Neuschäfer may have returned to Les Sables d’Olonnes as victor (see 50 page for our profile on Neuschäfer and her remarkable race), but unusually, she wasn’t the first boat back…

An innovative unmanned search and rescue craft has been developed by Scottish group Zelim, designed to find and rescue people at sea when conditions are otherwise too dangerous to launch crewed rescue operations. The 8.5m Guardian can be remotely deployed to arrive first on scene to recover casualties, or can also be crewed. Aimed at those working on oil rigs, wind turbine fields and offshore vessels, it has been designed to cope with extreme sea conditions. Remote controls from Boston company Sea Machines Robotics integrate with the Guardian’s propulsion system and sensors so the vessel can be controlled from anywhere in the world. A detection system can assist the remote pilot by tracking casualties in the water day or night, in mist or fog, and the vessel can deploy a…

Tested: Swan 55 A Frers-designed Swan at this size should be the dream. But in today’s busy market of performance cruisers, with Nautor having launched a 58 just one year previously, who is this for and does it live up to its badge? Toby Hodges sails it to find out The future of boatbuilding? What will your next yacht be made of? There have been huge advancements in material technology with many boat builders switching to more sustainable alternatives. Rupert Holmes take a look at the biggest changes happening right now Cruising the Eastern Med Whether you’re escaping the crowds or need to duck out of the Schengen zone, there are some great options for cruising off the beaten track in Turkey and the east Gybing a symmetric short-handed The…

‘Being unable to leave the helm can be a nightmare at sea’ Few cruising skippers would argue with ocean sailing guru and founder of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) Jimmy Cornell when he says some form of self-steering is ‘essential for any boat that is going to be sailing offshore for any length of time’. Yet there is no requirement from World Cruising Club (WCC) for yachts participating in any of their ocean rallies to have any system at all installed. Either way – essential or not – anyone who has endured a long enforced watch at the wheel of a yacht will testify that while steering a course can be a pleasure, being unable to leave the helm can also be a nightmare at sea. More than 250…

Autopilots are complicated systems so it’s not uncommon to find skippers unable to diagnose where problems originate 75% of respondents who experienced problems with their autopilots were en route to the Caribbean when it happened. The other 25% were en route to Las Palmas 46% of problems were with drive units, while the next biggest cohort (33%) selected ‘don’t know’ as the reason for their autopilot problems MULTI VS MONO PROBLEMS? The multihull fleet opted for B&G over Raymarine, going against the grain of the ARC fleets overall. The choice of equipment for multihulls differed from the choices by monohulls 33% used Raymarine control head (compared to 55% in fleet overall). The same number used Raymarine course computer 50% used a B&G control head with 31 using B&G’s course computer…

“Sometimes in the tropics, if it’s nice and calm, I’ll drop sail and I’ll lash the helm over to one side,” recalled Kirsten Neuschäfer before the start of the Golden Globe Race. “I’ll jump overboard and have a swim around the boat, and sometimes I’ll swim away from the boat, just to get that feeling of vastness. That sense of eternity. That if the boat did sail away, it would be eternity. And it is a scary thought, but it’s also kind of intriguing.” What does it take to compete in the longest race in the world, over eight months of isolation? Where the odds are firmly stacked against you. So skewed, in fact, that the risk is not of failure, but of literally having to abandon everything. Perhaps that…

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Kaze Philippe Briand’s office has just published a 60m ketch concept which aims to combine maximum comfort with greater sustainability. As a ketch, Kaze’s twin masts are Panamax rated, with easier to handle sail areas. But Briand has maximised the hull volume to offer a staggering 499 gross tonnage of luxurious internal space, all immaculately styled in contemporary fashion by FM architettura. The drop-down bulwarks and hydraulic aft platform are features more commonly seen on motoryachts. Under sail, the boat can regenerate its own power as the prop turns, pumping out dozens of kilowatts day and night for emission-free operation. philippebriand.com Valo Hyperfoil The ubiquitous jet ski gets the foiling treatment in this new product from a California-based marine start-up. Valo can carry two people, using a 108hp electric motor…

LADY M 38.9m / 127ft DESIGN Dubois Yachts BUILD Fitzroy Yachts 2006 Previously Ganesha, this is an example from the heyday of Dubois/New Zealand partnerships. Launched as a competitive cruiser, she is built in aluminium and has previously competed at Dubois and Loro Piano superyacht regattas. The largest volume competitor here, but her current form is unknown. ONY X 30.2m / 100ft DESIGN German Frers BUILD Nautor Swan 2006 An example of the Finnish yard’s Swan 100 series, and the first to feature a semi-raised saloon, Onyx had a complete refit by Baltic Yachts in Palma two years ago, which included everything from new machinery, electrics and plumbing to new sails. Although a first timer at the SY Cup she will doubtless know these waters well. PATTOO 33m / 108ft…

LOA 24.1m 79ft 0in • Hull length 21.95m 72ft 0in • Beam 9.5m 31ft 2in • Light displacement 21,000kg 46,300lb • Draught (foils raised) 0.65m 2ft 2in • Draught (foils lowered) 5.31m 17ft 5in • Price POA • persicomarine.com This bold design represents a new state of the art in combining comfort and speed: it’s an ultrahigh performance package capable of cruising at sustained speeds above 20 knots, yet has enough space to live aboard in genuine comfort. The design is the result of Persico’s strategy to translate knowledge the yard gains from its work in aerospace, IMOCA 60 and America’s Cup spheres into very high performance cruising yachts. The structure is of high modulus prepreg carbon/Nomex, there’s an all-carbon interior, plus a Southern Spars rotating mast with Future Fibres’…

LOA 15.94m 52ft 3in • Hull length 13.6m 44ft 7in • Beam 3.9m 12ft 10in • Draught 2.9m 9ft 6in • Displacement (without sails) 4,050kg 8,930lb • Ballast 2,000kg 4,410lb • Mainsail 78m2 840ft2 • Jib 63m2 678ft2 • Gennaker 272m2 2,930ft2 • Base price €440,000 ex VAT • aeoloscomposites.com Following the ultra lightweight Aeolos P30 short-handed offshore race boat that weighs only 1,550kg (see YW April 2023), this Dubai-based brand led by German engineer and sailor Hans Genthe has developed a 45ft performance cruiser-racer with the potential to disrupt the existing market. It’s clearly aimed at buyers who might otherwise consider a Pogo 44, J/45, JPK45 or similar, yet light displacement of only four tonnes is less than half that of most performance cruisers of a similar length. This…

Gybing a powerful offshore boat like a VO70 in big breeze is a fraught manoeuvre; team boss and former Olympian Konrad Lipski shares tips on reducing the risk with Andy Rice Gybing any boat in strong wind can be loaded with jeopardy but it’s particularly risky on a powerful boat like a VO70. The boat that was originally constructed for US skipper Ken Read’s Puma campaign in the Volvo Ocean Race, Mar Mostro is now enjoying a fulfilling second life as I Love Poland, a low-budget but well-run campaign on the offshore racing circuit. Lipski says they’re keen to avoid a second mast breakage (Mar Mostro dismasted 2,000 miles from Cape Town in 2011), which is why the team runs such tight procedures on high risk manoeuvres like a heavy-air…

‘The J/105 revolutionised downwind sailing’ BOB JOHNSTONE NOMINATES THE J/105 “The J/105 revolutionised downwind sailing in the sport as the first boat over 20ft with a retractable bowsprit and asymmetric spinnaker,” explains J-Boats founder Bob Johnstone. “The system was pioneered on my son Peter’s One-Design 14.” Peter’s college housemate was then Jonathan Pudney, son of famed International 14 sailor Jeremy. When Peter was looking for ideas for a more exciting boat, Jonathan suggested the system being used on a Cross-3 Int 14. “The rest is history,” adds Johnstone. “The J/105 became the most popular offshore one-design over 30ft worldwide with over 700 boats racing from Chile to the UK. A J/105 has been RORC Boat of the Year, won the Rolex Middle Sea Race, and also won many double-handed races.”…

Tom Slingsby and his Australia SailGP team have won Season 3 overall, retaining their title as the undefeated champions in the foiling catamaran league. The grand final saw Australia defeat Peter Burling’s Team New Zealand and Ben Ainslie with Emirates Great Britain in a winner-takes-all last race in San Francisco on 7 May, despite a last-mark challenge from Burling. The Australian team also took home a $1million prize cheque. Tom Slingsby admitted after racing that he thought he’d lost it on the final leg: “That was not in the plan – I was very scared. I thought it could be the biggest choke of all time, but fortunately we were able to get it over the line. “That was just a crazy race, a crazy week, a crazy year, but…

Harry Clemons ‘Buddy’ Melges Jr, widely considered to be one of America’s greatest competitive sailors, passed away on 18 May 2023 at the age of 93. Reported by the New York Times as the first sailor ever to win an Olympic gold followed by the America’s Cup, Melges enjoyed success in many diverse areas of the sport. Born in 1930 in Wisconsin, Buddy grew up on Delavan Lake, honing his skills sailing boats crafted by his father, Harry Melges Sr, at Melges Boat Works. He earned an Olympic gold medal in the Soling class in 1972 and a bronze medal in the Flying Dutchman class in 1964. He also won two Star World Championship titles and three in the 5.5 Metre, plus multiple titles in other classes, including a long…

Carbon on one side, deep varnished topsides on the other – but bowsprits on both. The juxtaposition of the cutting edge TP52s and the elegant classics was striking as two fleets from opposite ends of the sailing spectrum sat stern-to the dock in St Tropez. Of course, there’s nothing unusual in seeing either at this French Mediterranean venue, but it is unusual to see them in town at the same time. And while they represent completely different eras, over the course of a few days I found myself questioning which was the more complex and demanding machine to race. On the east side of the basin the classics were in town for Les Dames de St Tropez, an annual event for female teams raced in a variety of yachts from…

Long-distance offshore racing nurtures extraordinary levels of self reliance and mutual support. The inaugural Globe 40 race, an ambitious and testing circumnavigation for double-handed Class 40 teams via the three ‘Great Capes’, with diversions into the tropics to Mauritius and Tahiti, took this to an extreme, with some US entries sailing 44,000 miles. At the finish in Lorient the sense of camaraderie, solidarity and respect was inspiring. “We were talking to all the other skippers all the time, a lot of it sharing knowledge about fixing the boats,” says Mélodie Schaffer, owner of Canadian entry Whiskey Jack. “We all had problems along the way and all helped one another.” “We understand each team needs different support and we all try to do that for each other,” adds Craig Horsfield, co-skipper…

4 SEPTEMBER: 16 skippers set off in 32-36ft yachts around the world via the three Great Capes. 6 SEPTEMBER: Highly fancied French sailor Damien Guillou returns to Les Sables for early repairs (allowed under the rules) to his Hydrovane. Canadian skipper Edward Walentynowicz retires two days later on 8 September. 18 SEPTEMBER: American skipper Guy de Boer grounds on the rocks off Fuerteventura, having fallen asleep after passing through the first photo gate in Lanzarote. 23 SEPTEMBER: Mark Sinclair, known as ‘Captain Coconut’ and one of the race’s most well known characters, retires. He instead sails back to France, alone. 16 NOVEMBER: Turkish sailor Ertan Beskardes retires in Cape Town, citing loneliness. “There is no point going on with something where I am not going to be happy most of…

For anyone interested in small-boat voyaging – or indeed, any sailor wanting to get seriously close to the sea itself, The Lugworm Chronicles by Ken Duxbury is a ‘must-read’. I, for one, couldn’t put it down. Ken Duxbury was born in 1923, volunteered for the Navy in World War II, then took up a commission which he held until the mid-1950s. After a four-year cruise in his 14-tonner, he founded and ran a Cornish sailing school. His book about sailing the 18ft open Drascombe Lugger Lugworm home from Greece with his wife ‘B’ 50 or more years ago takes us so close to the salt of the sea that it’s often far from comfortable. The style of writing is from a different era to our own and bursts with charm.…

It’s very rare to see quite such a large vessel, the world’s largest aluminium sailing yacht in this case, truly in its element: sailing full bore in an idyllic location. To us sailing fans, it’s the equivalent of a birdwatcher photographing an exceptional species of finch, kingfisher or indeed eagle. With regards to Sea Eagle II, however, these images really do make you re-evaluate your impressions of scale. We’ve talked in detail about this superyacht before, when it was just a vision, a project in build. But these pictures, showing it in full flight, help bring a long list of impressive technical statistics to life. While there are many big yachts, there are very few sailing yachts as large as this – officially eight, but of those considered proper sail-powered…

HYDROGEN POWER ON PHIL SHARP’S IMOCA 60 British sailor Phil Sharp’s new boat for the 2024 Vendée Globe will be the first ever raceboat with a hydrogen fuel cell. He intends to use the race to demonstrate hydrogen power is already a practical and robust plug-and-play solution for boatbuilders. But how will his boat be set up in this respect? Sharp is already on a mission to decarbonise the marine and shipping industries. Genevos, the start-up he co-founded, produces hydrogen fuel cells ranging from an 8kW unit to systems that can be stacked together to produce a massive 1 megawatt of propulsion power. Sharp’s IMOCA 60 will be fitted with a 15kW Genevos fuel cell. This will be used to power a 15kW or 20kW electric propulsion motor and to…

LOA 15.21m 49ft 11in • Beam 4.56m 15ft 0in • Draught 2.0m or 2.3m 6ft 7in or 7ft 7in • Displacement 14,500kg 31,967lb • Base price €750,000 ex VAT • x-yachts.com In recent years X-Yachts has focussed on developing and expanding its popular Pure X range of fast cruisers. However, the Xc line for bluewater cruising remains important. This model will be the first from the yard with an enlarged coachroof that’s billed as a ‘semi deck saloon’. Details of the interior layout were refined through the use of a full-size mock up that can be heeled at angles of up to 20º. Hull lines retain the deep vee bow sections, generous rocker and stern overhang that aid load-carrying ability and produces a more comfortable motion. At the same time…

LOA 14.86m 48ft 9in • Hull length 13.95m 45ft 9in • Beam 4.70m 15ft 5in • Draught 2.30m 7ft 6in • Base price €309,900 ex VAT • bavariayachts.com Maurizio Cossutti’s sixth design for Bavaria is the first model in a second generation of the German yard’s C-series, which was originally launched six years ago. The new boat offers significantly more interior volume than its predecessor, the C45 from 2018, yet also claims better performance. What Bavaria now calls its V-bow – broad forward sections that taper to a narrower waterline beam – is balanced by distinct chines aft. The net effect is improved accommodation volumes and greater form stability, yet little extra drag in light airs. Bavaria continues to offer a wide choice of accommodation layouts, including a four cabin/four…

For bluewater cruisers one of the most significant impacts of climate change is the increased unpredictability of weather and disruption of established patterns. The Ocean Cruising Club commissioned a report into the effects climate change was having on ocean cruising, and asked several forecasting and routing experts to share their views on what seems to be happening, and what steps cruisers can take to ensure safe ocean passages and cruises. Among them was meteorologist Sebastian Wache: here he explains how ice melt in the Arctic can affect an Atlantic crossing, Northern European cruising season, and more. WARMING EFFECT The world is getting warmer. The greenhouse effect, which makes life on Earth possible in the first place, is intensified by the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The fact that…

A yacht marketed as ‘needing work’ would be a red flag to many, but should it be? Taking on a boat with a clearly defined works list can be the path to the right boat at the right price. Among brokerage listings it’s rare to see a yacht openly advertised as ‘work needed’. After an initial conversation, the potential buyer can be easily put off by not knowing how much everything will cost to bring the yacht into service. Experienced broker Alex Grabau suggests many good prospects are missed for just this reason. “It’s common for a solid yacht to get to the 12-15 year mark and need things doing that any surveyor would expect at that point in the yacht’s life. “They’re things that a seller might not want…