Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2023 i Yachting World

It takes time to effect real change. But once the seeds of a great concept are planted, with a little patience, then – wow, it can be rewarding to see that early idea grow to fulfil its promise. This month I’ve been to the Fastnet and Ocean Race finishes, and two things struck me. The first is how things have changed for female sailors in The Ocean Race. As Annie Lush, who was part of the all-female Team SCA in the 2014/15 Race recalls: “With SCA, we needed to be all girls in the pink boat – that was the only way to be in the race.” The 2017/18 edition rule changes dramatically increased the number of female sailors on the crews. But it’s this latest race, nearly a decade…

For the first time since records began, two named tropical storms formed in the Atlantic in June. While hurricane season officially begins on 1 June, the peak is usually from August to October. The arrival of Storm Bret, closely followed by Storm Cindy, is the first time two named storms have formed so early in the season. Neither developed into hurricanes, but four cruisers were rescued by helicopter from a liferaft after abandoning their catamaran during Storm Bret. Forecasters believe unusually high sea temperatures in the Atlantic are responsible for the early storm development. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast an average of 12-17 named storms this year, with 5-7 of them potentially becoming hurricanes. Meanwhile forecasters at Colorado State University and the USA’s Tropical Storm Risk (TSR)…

It may have only taken four days and 17 hours for the fastest boat to complete the 2,225-mile Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, but wind conditions elevated eight 20th century designs into the top 10 places on corrected time. Transpac race starts are staggered across three days in an attempt to get all the yachts to finish within a small time frame, but as the breeze died near the coast of California, the first wave of older cruiser-racers got away leaving the fleet of 21st century all-carbon racing machines unable to sail at full power. The MOD70 Orion crossed the finish line at Diamond Head after 4 days 17 hours to take multihull line honours, while the famous Barn Door Trophy, for the monohull with the fastest…

A driver picked me up from Hong Kong airport to take me to the factory. They said the new bridge would make the trip much quicker as I wouldn’t have to take the ferry across the South China Sea to get to Zhuhai. A simple connection after a long flight. I feel embarrassed now that I hadn’t done any local research beforehand, restricting my enquiries to McConaghy Boats’ product line to get a feel for what I’d be looking at in their Chinese facility. Had I looked at a map beforehand I’d have realised the bridge they were talking about was in fact 55km long, with a six lane highway and an impressive tunnel in the middle. In fact, it’s the world’s longest sea crossing bridge and tunnel system. This…

CC ▪ Inflatable passerelle that can do triple duty as a SUP and a swim platform▪ Bean bags that can be secured to the trampoline so can be used while sailing▪ Table lamps for cockpit area – cosy and don’t attract as many insects at night▪ Solar-powered garden lights that can be put on corners of the boat to illuminate the boat at anchor▪ Dyneema cover on spinnaker halyard to prevent chafe▪ Camera on mast or stern connected to chartplotter to help with blind spots when close quarters manoeuvring▪ Water heater wired to inverter to heat water using the battery▪ Sunshades that let air through to the trampoline that can be kept up while sailing in light conditions▪ Mini scuba gear for clearing a fouled anchor or cleaning the boat…

For two weeks in mid-June it looked as if those evocative black and white photographs taken by Beken of Cowes had come alive and the past was racing again. But this time the scene was in glorious colour, as the Richard Mille Cup brought a magnificent collection of classic yachts to the English south coast. It was just like the days when King George V sailed his beloved Britannia: young, 20-strong crews hauling ropes on swept teak decks; towering spreads of washed-out buff sails; varnished spars glinting in the sun; and polished brass binnacles and ship’s bells. Some things on these classic leviathans simply haven’t changed: the bronze oxidising to a deep venerable brown green, the teak weathering to a pleasant pale grey. The hulls often painted a broken white,…

In the sweltering heat of midsummer in the Ligurian Sea, temperatures and tensions were steadily rising on board 11th Hour Racing. Simon ‘Si Fi’ Fisher restlessly tidied lines in the cockpit. Skipper Charlie Enright was glued to his phones, endlessly hitting refresh. “You were either in your bunk staring at the ceiling, or couldn’t sit still and just walking around talking to yourself. It was a weird place,” recalls crewmember Jack Bouttell of the long delivery from The Hague to Genoa. With zephyr light winds, the IMOCA’s usual roar had been replaced with an uncomfortable quiet, broken only by the hum of the engine as the crew frantically tried to make headway to Genoa. It made no difference when they got there. After 36,000 miles of racing, nine months crisscrossing…

LOA (transoms raised) 14.23m 46ft 8in • LWL 13.28m 43ft 7in • Beam 7.15m 23ft 6in • Draught (fixed keels) 1.52m 5ft 0in • Displacement (OC model) 8,750kg 19,290lb • Payload approx 4,750kg 10,000lb • Mainsail 74.2m2 799ft2 • Solent jib 51.1m2 550ft2 • Base prices 44-OC US$957,000 ex vat; 44-SC US$1,325,000 ex VAT hhcatamarans.com The old adage that the many benefits of a cruising catamaran are achieved at the cost of its sailing qualities is no longer true and a growing proportion of buyers are seeking performance boats that are responsive and fun to sail. This part of the multihull market has of course existed for a long time, with the likes of Outremer, Catana and more recently Gunboat and Marsaudon Composites proving that lightweight ultra-fast catamarans can be safe…

LOA 10.40m 34ft 1in • Hull length 8.99m 29ft 5in • Beam 2.99m 9ft 9in • Draught 2.0m 6ft 6in • Displacement 2,700kg 5,952lb • Base price €142,500 ex VAT jeanneau.com This boat is the outcome of a design competition run by RORC, UNCL in France and the Storm Trysail Club in the USA to produce a more affordable option for short-handed offshore racing. The one design formula should help keep operating costs in check, as well as providing an extra level of competition; 43 have already sold. It satisfies the stability requirements for racing transatlantic and is also Groupe Beneteau’s first production model built using Arkema’s recyclable Elium resin (see YW August 2023).…

The long-awaited first design from the new collaboration between renowned designer Niels Jeppesen and Ariadna Pons promises to be among the best performance cruisers of its size. It’s designed to be a fast and long-legged, yet light displacement yacht that’s easy to handle, without compromising comfort. Vacuum infusion of hull, hull liner, deck and deck liner, with local use of carbon fibre, plus lightweight cored composite/marine plywood panels should help deliver an optimal power to weight ratio, while the deep bulb keel, with a healthy ballast ratio, provides plenty of stability. The prototype boat is equipped with options including carbon sprit, retractable bow and stern thrusters, electrically powered main and headsail furling systems, plus composite Flexiteek decking. Price: €879,000 ex VAT. arconayachts.se…

The first new model since the sale of the brand by Groupe Beneteau to Solaris a couple of years ago, this 78 met with immediate success when four were sold off plan and an 88 was also announced. CNB remains a very popular name for those looking at managing a large, fast cruising yacht short-handed. The design team has remained the same in Philippe Briand and Jean-Marc Piaton so the signature styling, particularly around the coachroof and deck saloon, remains with some tweaks to the interior layout below decks. But production has moved to Solaris’s ever expanding yard near Trieste and the construction techniques improved to give a stiffer, lighter result and a promise for higher finish quality.  cnbyachts.com…

TESTED: SUNGOD RENEGADES 8K0 Pros: Clarity of view, light weight, durable Cons: Not full wraparound protection Priced from £70 non polarised 4K0, to £140 polarised 8KO. sungod.co Your eyes are so valuable, yet reflective glare and UV from the water and sun is incredibly damaging to them over time. I wish I’d learned to wear quality protective lenses from an earlier age as the cataracts and damage caused is already irreparably evident. I was introduced to this British brand in its infancy and wrote a review of its Classics2 polarised sunglasses eight years ago. They were stylish, affordable glasses at the time, but the product and company have improved markedly in the years since. SunGod was built on a direct to consumer model – order a pair online from around…

New Zealand is one of the most remarkable cruising grounds in the world with seemingly endless anchorages. From the Bay of Islands in Northland to the Hauraki Gulf and all the way down to Stewart Island and Fiordland on the South Island, the possibilities are limitless. The only real restrictions are time and the weather. When I arrived in Aotearoa (the Māori name for New Zealand), I did so without a working engine aboard Triteia. It had been giving me trouble since Fiji and after exploring the Yasawa Group of islands I spent two weeks in Port Denerau getting it running enough to get me out past the barrier reefs. On arrival in New Zealand, I pulled the engine out in Opua to have it rebuilt and sailed around engineless…

The contrast a century in yacht design brings… the stunning Fife Hallowe’en, which launched in time to compete in and win the second Fastnet Race in 1926, is crossed by Emirates Team New Zealand’s foiling AC75 during the Puig Vela Clàssica Barcelona. The 37th America’s Cup, for which Puig recently announced its partnership, will take place on the same waters next year, and the last day of this year’s classic regatta coincided with Team New Zealand launching Te Rehutai for the first time in Barcelona.…

A Pacific search and rescue operation for a 45ft yacht with a man and his son aboard, instead discovered a solo ocean rower who had just abandoned ship into his liferaft. Skipper Dave Wysopal and his son, Zach, lost contact with friends and family ashore more than six weeks after setting sail aboard their yacht Yasukole from La Paz, Mexico, bound for the Marquesas and then American Samoa. They’d registered with the Pacific Puddle Jump (PPJ) rally, which is an informal gathering of crews who set sail independently with no set start/finish times, but did not share their locations with the fleet. Wysopal used a Spot satellite texting device to broadcast their GPS coordinates to relatives but sailed out of the device’s coverage range on 13 May. “After several weeks…

Fourteen boats are currently entered for the Ocean Globe Race, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Whitbread Round the World Race. Entries include five yachts that took part in the early editions of the Whitbread, together with nine other pre-1988 production yachts, though at the time of going to press many are in a race against time to be ready for the start in Southampton on 4 September In the five-strong Flyer class of ‘early’ Whitbread competitors, two ketches, Pen Duick VI and Translated 9 (formerly ADC Accutrac skippered by Clare Francis in 1977) take on three veteran sloops including 1985’s overall winner L’esprit d’équipe, and Maiden, which was the first all-female entrant from the 1989-90 race. Marie Tabarly, daughter of ocean racer and yacht designer Eric Tabarly, skippers…

“Once we left Brazil, we suddenly remembered we had a spinnaker on board and we’d never used it!” Knut Skauan and Anita Stark were recounting the stories and learnings of a five-year circumnavigation of the globe on Mais Uma, their Outremer 45, during one of many seminars and coaching sessions that make up the biannual training week Outremer organises for owners. Not remembering you have a spinnaker on board after sailing over 5,000 miles from the Mediterranean to Brazil sounds like a pretty significant oversight. But is it really that unusual to sail a third of the way around the world and not open a spinnaker bag? Well, no. As I looked around the room, the audience were split between those nodding in empathy, and those who looked completely puzzled.…

Joe Phelan is one of Ireland’s great sailors. With his wife and equal partner Trish he has been quietly standing out from the crowd for over 50 years, with dinghy trophies, Fastnet silverware and many a wild cruise under their belts. He has held flag office at commodore level in several high-ranking yacht clubs and managed all this alongside a distinguished career in medical science. In 2004/05 Joe signed on as right-hand man to owner-skipper Peter Killen of Malahide, bound for Antarctica in Pure Magic, a 54ft Amel Super Maramu ketch. The book of this voyage with fellow rovers from the Dublin/Malahide region forms a big part of what is, in a sense, an autobiography of Joe Phelan. It is called Sailing To Antarctica because to Joe, now 81, this…

LOA 22.2m 72ft 10in • LWL 15.6m 51ft 2in • Beam 4.8m 15ft 9in • Draught 3.1m 10ft 2in • Displacement 28,000kg 61,700lb • Price POA spirityachts.com The second 72ft deckhouse model from Spirit Yachts will be a headline act at Southampton Boat Show. It’s a stunning yacht that combines traditional aesthetics with up to date underwater profiles, equipment and materials. The hull is strip-planked in yellow cedar, with double diagonal khaya outer layers covered with an E-glass/epoxy outer skin. Ring frames are laminated sipo with carbon fibre reinforcement at the mast, chainplates and keel. Carbon fibre is also used for the rig and the rudder, including the stock. Where the first 72DH is used for charter and occasional regattas, this model is more typical of Spirit owner use. It…

Following the success of Garcia Yachts’ Exploration 45 and 52 models, which attracted notable clients including Jimmy Cornell and Pete Goss, this Cherbourg-based yard has announced a significantly larger yacht in the same mould. The Exploration 60 is intended as a tough aluminium centreboarder with a reinforced stem, watertight companionway door, aluminium forward and aft bulkheads, plus skin fittings that are effectively above the waterline. Although this is a much larger vessel than the two existing boats in the range, all essential sail handling can be carried out from the cockpit and there’s a sheltered watch keeping position/navstation in the deck saloon with good forward visibility. A large sail plan, twin rudders and a massive 3.65m (12ft) draught with the centreboard down help with sailing performance. At the same time…

Beneteau’s Oceanis 38.1 has been a mainstay of the range since its launch nine years ago, yet yacht design has moved on in leaps and bounds since then. For its replacement, Marc Lombard Yacht Design and Nauta Design were asked to improve both performance and accommodation volumes. As a result, the hull shape embodies much recent design knowledge, with broad forward sections and a marked chine almost the length of the boat. The effect is to markedly improve form stability when the boat starts to heel, without a big increase in light airs wetted surface area. This gives more interior volume, allowing a wider forecabin that’s also pushed further forward in the boat. Two- and three-cabin versions with one or two heads are offered. Standard deck layouts allow for easy…

Full details of FP’s new flagship are still emerging, but at 24m LOA and over 11m beam it will eclipse even the Lagoon SEVENTY7 as the giant of production cruising yachts. The Berret Racoupeau design boasts the equivalent volume and space of a 20-30ft longer superyacht monohull (including the 66-tonne displacement). Key features include fold out wings each side of the cockpit, a full beach terrace, a covered flybridge and dedicated toy spaces. The cabins (4-6) look equally plush, especially the owner’s suite with its accompanying jacuzzi. catamaransfountainepajot.com…

Although an early adopter of them, I used to think waterproof Bluetooth speakers were a bit of a niche, something to take to the beach now and then. But after seeing portable speakers used to telling effect while testing some high end new yachts over the last couple of years, I’ve changed my tune (ahem). Placing your sound source where you want it can make a lot more sense than hard wiring in speakers all over a yacht. No holes needed in your bulkheads or cockpit benches, no long wiring runs, no danger of upsetting the compass. Quite apart from taking the wiring complexity and maintenance out of the equation, crew can easily choose their own music in different cabins – allowing others peace and quiet. The quality of these…

SPECIFICATION Californian sailor Terri Nelson likes nice things. One of her pet peeves, she tells me from her home in San Diego, is that even when checking into luxe hotels, as a wheelchair user she misses out on some of the finer design elements that other guests enjoy. So it’s no surprise that when she commissioned a custom-designed trimaran, one of the key briefs was that it should not look like an adaptive boat. Instead it needed to combine performance, style, and a certain luxuriousness: a tough brief. Terri Nelson had sailed for much of her adult life, initially on Hobie Cats, then Catalina 30s, and bareboat chartering with friends all over the Caribbean. Always highly active despite her limited mobility, she enjoyed adaptive snow skiing and, as she puts…

‘The owners’ vision was to sail great races with good friends’ ADRIAN STEAD NOMINATES MAXI 72 RAN II The Maxi 72 Ran II was a dominant force both inshore and offshore, sailing an intense programme after its launch in 2009, including taking back-to-back wins in the Rolex Fastnet Race under IRC overall in 2009 and 2011. “The Ran 72, we sailed it so much in so many great places – we won the Maxi Worlds, two Fastnets, RORC Caribbean 600 – loads of stuff! It was a great boat, with a great team, and great competition,” said Stead. “I think it was owners Nicolas and Catherine’s [Zennstrom’s] dream – their vision to go sailing, to sail great races with good friends. Out of all the boats I’ve sailed that’s definitely…

Saturday 22 July dealt up a wild start for the record entry 430 yachts taking part in the 50th Rolex Fastnet Race. The largest offshore racing fleet ever, comprising nearly 3,000 sailors, set off from Cowes in 25-knot wind-against-tide headwinds, which made for a punishing scene in the western Solent. Conditions described by competitors as ‘boat breaking’ and ‘survival mode’ led to the retirement of around one in four entries over the following 24-hours – but also helped spark a blistering pace which led to overall course records being set in both multihull and monohull classes. Wind speeds in the western Solent were particularly high on the first evening, gusting up to 40 knots, fuelling an incident-packed first day and night for many competitors and for rescue services along the…

Another remarkable Pacific rescue hit the headlines in July when lone yachtsman Tim Shaddock and pet dog, Bella, were rescued from his catamaran Aloha Toa, 1,200 miles off the Pacific coast of Mexico after apparently drifting for a number of weeks having suffered damage to the boat’s electronics. The pair was spotted by a helicopter launched from a Mexican tuna fishing boat and returned to Mexico, from where they’d set off several months earlier. Shaddock says he was well provisioned for the voyage to French Polynesia and supplemented that food with raw fish and rain water.…

Jimmy Cornell: where to sail now Every five years Jimmy Cornell – the indisputable authority on modern cruising – surveys where yachts and sailors are in the world. Cruising patterns have had a big shake up in recent years: so where should you sail now? The wilderness challenge ‘Not for everyone,’ is how organisers describe the Race 2 Alaska, a self-supported 700-mile adventure race on the Pacific North-West. Nikki Henderson won this year’s edition and reports on its unique appeal Try before you buy Ever fancied taking your dream yacht for a cruise before you commit? Will Bruton reports on new ‘try before you buy’ charter options Supersail special Toby Hodges gets aboard Y-Yachts’s spectacular new Y-9, J-Class join the Superyacht Cup fleet in Palma, Monaco Yacht Show preview, and…

If you’re contemplating buying a multihull for bluewater cruising, be it a new one or a brokerage yacht, what equipment and spec should you be thinking about? The choices you make could determine much of your experience along the way, from comfort at sea to safety, but you don’t want costs to mount up unnecessarily. Where’s the right place to draw the line? For this feature, we consulted two very experienced bluewater sailors with oceans of multihull miles behind them, catamaran owner Chet Chauhan and coach Nikki Henderson, for advice and guidance. Here, they look at what they consider the most important priorities, from downwind sail choices to energy requirements – and not neglecting essentials such as a robust workhorse tender. It is aimed squarely at speccing a multihull, but…

The night is almost over when we motor our dinghy across Namatote Strait, drawn by the glinting fluorescent bulbs of a dozen fishing trimarans. The lights that attract the nightly catch lure us in too, and we call to fishermen as we draw alongside for ‘ikan besar?’, or big fish – and by that we mean whale sharks. Moving from boat to boat, we race against the rising sun that heralds the moment when nets are hauled up and the whale sharks return to the depths. A fisherman waves frantically to us and we zip across to tie up alongside, donning fins and masks and slipping silently over the side. Through the clearest of waters, warm and calm, a whale shark circles languidly up from the seabed, its enormous mouth…

LOA 23.75m 77ft 11in • Hull length 22.0m 72ft 2in • Beam 6.2m 20ft 4in • Draught 2.6m or 3.7m 8ft 5in or 12ft 2in • Price POA (65LC from €2.3 million range ex VAT) grandsoleil.net The new flagship for this Italian yard follows the performance version launched last year and differs in having a larger coachroof and raised saloon, with a 270° view even when seated. This in turn gives space for machinery below the saloon, freeing up more space towards the back of the boat for accommodation. This is not superyacht territory, even though interior volumes are as large as those of a small superyacht of 10-15 years ago, but the yard sees the sector above 60ft as being a semi-custom sphere and will work closely with owners to…

LOA 15.24m 50ft 0in • Beam 7.92m 26ft 0in • Draught 1.03 to 2.32m 3ft 5in to 7ft 7in • Displacement 11,200kg 24,700lb • Base price from €995,000 ex VAT windelo-catamaran.com Windelo has redesigned the deck and superstructure tooling for its 50 and 54ft models. The result is a lighter and airier boat, with a more curved and sportier look that includes flush glazing. Eco-responsible materials, forward cockpit with twin helm stations, a modular loft-style living space, plus electric motors with green energy production have been retained. Battery banks are sufficiently large to motor for four hours without running the generator.…

Bavaria’s C-Line range has won plenty of praise for its wide bodied hull shapes by Maurizio Cossutti that offer lots of form stability and interior space. The C46 (see YW June 2023) is the first second generation model in the line, and has several accommodation layouts to suit both charter and private use. The lack of a tender garage increases space for the aft cabins, which are particularly large. Base price €307,900 ex VAT. bavariayachts.com…

The launch of the Hanse 460 two years ago marked a step-change for the German yard. New designers Berret-Racoupeau created a yacht with a totally different feel to the existing range, with a bold new look and the feel of a significantly larger vessel than the Hanse 458 it replaced. Yet, despite the extra bulk, this is a boat with better sailing qualities than earlier cruisers – narrow waterline beam translates to surprisingly good light airs performance, especially using a Code 0 or reaching with an asymmetric kite, yet as with other recent designs, stability builds rapidly as heel increases. Accommodation includes large cabins both forward and aft, while there’s 2m (6ft 7in) headroom throughout the boat, which helps amplify the feeling of space. Options include all electric propulsion with…

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It’s common for cruisers who plan on staying in New Zealand for cyclone season (and are not flying home) to buy a cheap used car to explore the country. New Zealand is a large country with a distance of 1,055 km between Cape Reinga and Wellington on the North Island and another 992 km separating Nelson and Bluff on the South Island. My friends Ian and Laura Redwood on SY RaLa bought a used car, packed up their camping gear and headed south from Marsden Cove to explore the South Island for six weeks. They covered the whole of the island camping, staying in walkers’ huts, hostels and B&Bs. This is a more popular way for cruisers to explore the south island, due to the distance of sailing down and…

When handling under power is done well, it’s like a black art. It wasn’t until I became an instructor that I realised it could be broken down into a few key concepts. I called them ‘The 10 Golden Rules of Boat Handling’. However, when I wrote them it was largely from the perspective of a heavy displacement yacht with fine ends, using a shaft drive. Most of the large yachts I’ve sailed in the past 10 years, such as the Clipper and Challenge yachts, matched this profile. Recently, I’ve realised that the rules need updating. Yacht design has moved on considerably, and sail drives, long waterlines, bow thrusters and high topsides are now the norm, and twin rudders are increasingly commonplace. Flexisail, which operates a fleet of modern cruisers, kindly…