Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2025 i Yachting World

Contingency planning is a huge part of preparation for any major voyage and – quite correctly – most of that focus is put into avoiding problems in the first place. But sometimes playing the ‘What if…?’ game can be a valuable exercise in working out how you’d handle a problem you haven’t managed to head off. I used to sail with a crew boss who fired hypothetical scenarios at us on long race legs to see who could come up with the best, fastest solution. It’s a game you can equally play sitting around a table or in a traffic jam, but doing it on a night watch does focus the mind somewhat. The more adventurous your sailing, the more you need to ask yourself ‘What if?’ Pip Hare already…

Organisers of the Newport Bermuda Race have released the findings of an in-depth safety review following the abandonment of three yachts during the 2024 race – two during racing, and one on the return delivery. Race organisers worked with US Sailing and the Cruising Club of America to analyse the three incidents, and make future safety recommendations. The first yacht lost was Alliance, a J/122 racing with a full crew of nine. Alliance lost steering, and the crew quickly discovered that the rudder was loose with a large breach in the hull around the lower rudder bearing area. Though Alliance had high capacity pumps on board, the crew could not control the water ingress and abandoned to Ceilidh, a J/121 that was racing with a crew of four. Lessons learned…

H ave you ever considered outsourcing your night watch to someone onshore? A couple I know of did. They were nearing the end of a three-year circumnavigation on their performance cruiser. Up until that point, they’d recruited a third crew member for any of the long trips to help stand watch and do some of the cooking. But for their last crossing they decided to experiment with something new. They set up a live webcam so that someone on land could hold watch and the captain could enjoy a full night’s sleep. It took me a while to take the idea in, and I don’t know some of the key details. But I’m presuming their third ‘offshored offshore sailor’ (it’s confusing!) had access to a masthead 360° video camera, and…

‘Medallia was surging forwards. We flew and landed, flew and landed, then flew – but as the bow touched down the noise was different. I looked up to see the mainsail falling towards me. In two seconds my race was over’ In the early hours of 15 December 2024, midway between Australia and Antarctica, my second Vendée Globe race came to a devastating end when my IMOCA Medallia dismasted. It still seems crazy that such a complex situation could be summed up in one sentence. Almost exactly halfway through the most competitive solo round the world race ever, I had truly found my stride and worked my way up to 15th in the 40-strong fleet, ranking 2nd among the 2016-generation boats. The Indian Ocean had been brutal for the pack…

Mishi 88 & Mishi 102 Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of Mishi Yachts. The Turkish brand only emerged recently as a project of the Yonca shipyard, which has decades of experience in advanced composite construction for fast (and often armed) motor launches. Driven by its owner’s love of sailing, this knowhow has now been turned to carbon-fibre cruising yachts that put the accent on safety and comfort, with full RINA certification. Both the 88 and the 102 feature a large, sunken guest cockpit completely free of sailing controls, with versatile tables that can be combined, separated or lowered to form sunbeds. A large, raised saloon below offers comfortable lounging or foul-weather dining, and can be open to the galley. The yachts are designed with three cabins, including a large…

Keelboat and dinghy champion Henry Wetherell shares tips for holding a ‘thin’ lane upwind with Andy Rice Learning to live in a thin lane is one of the key skills that separate the great from the good. As Henry Wetherell explains, having boats tight to windward and to leeward of you requires everyone in the crew to work in synchronisation. Although Wetherell has sailed for a number of seasons with helmsman John Pollard, Australian sailor David Chapman was a new addition to Team Xcellent for the SB20 Worlds in Singapore. “We put in as much time as possible before sailing the Worlds together, a winter series event in Cascais, and some good training time in Singapore including the Pre-Worlds,” says Henry. “You can’t really just turn up and win, you’ve…

Framed and dwarfed: for a size reference the polar vessel Vinson of Antarctica is 77ft. Photographer Rick Tomlinson’s recent trip to South Georgia aboard Vinson made for some early mornings. “Sunrise is 0340 so we’ve had many early starts.” The rewards include some truly spectacular iceberg images – check out rick-tomlinson.com…

Lagoon 43 tested Lagoon’s new 43 has some seriously large shoes to fill: the previous 42 outsold every other catamaran to date, with more than 1,150 built. Will this voluminous replacement meet with similar success? Rupert Holmes sailed it in Palma. Multihull focus: new at Grand Motte Among our multihull special pages and a slew of newly revealed designs we’ll preview the debutants at the International Multihull Show in late April. Buying off-plan Would you buy a brand new yacht that nobody had ever seen before? Buying off-plan can be a way to skip the build slot queues and secure a latest technology design: Will Bruton gets essential advice for anyone considering putting their name down. Always ocean-ready Bluewater cruising yachts can be complex machines, so how do you keep…

“When a 45-tonnes Sperm Whale is on starboard tack, it has right of way. It also has right of way when it’s on port tack!” the legendary French ocean sailor Olivier de Kersauson once said. Few would argue with him, and no yacht is a match for a whale. Thanks to the vulnerability of rudders, keels, rudder posts or even foils, the spectre of crashing into a large, solid sea creature in deep water has haunted seafarers long before Moby Dick was written in 1851. For years, reported incidents of cruising yachts colliding with whales were so rare that the risk was supposed to be vanishingly unlikely. The only sailors that did seem to regularly report collisions were ocean racers. Many of those accounts were unclear if they’d hit a…

The streets of Brest are bustling early on this market morning. On the terrace of a bistro some late diners are still finishing off their night, while a nearby poissonnier yells at the top of his lungs about the freshness of his stock, his chest bulging. I wander among the stalls and stop in front of a small shellfish merchant. Two enormous crabs caught my eye. I’ll take them, all 10 kilos. I’ll need them to feed the crew I set sail with from Lorient yesterday. With my arms full, I retrace my steps down the narrow streets back to the Marina du Château. The air is chilly, but the sun gives a touch of softness on this June morning. Towering over all the other masts in the marina with…

Wauquiez 55 Hull length 16.40m 53ft 8in • Beam 5.25m 17ft 3in • Draught 2.40m 7ft 11in • Displacement 20,000kg 44,100lb • Typical on the water price €2.0m to €2.6m ex VAT wauquiez.com WATCH THE VIDEO youtube.com/yachtingworld This serious, long distance cruiser breaks new ground in a number of respects. The exaggerated reverse sheer may be unconventional, but it’s an inherently stiff shape that keeps weight out of the ends of the boat. It also maximises headroom centrally, allowing for a raised saloon above systems, tankage and batteries, while the hard top that gives excellent shelter over the cockpit can be lower and less visually obtrusive. A class-leading full beam owner’s cabin aft has what feels like an exceptional amount of space and natural light, including a view across the…

There are very few times I feel the need to video the scene from a day on the water simply to brag to my friends. But standing in the master cabin of the stealthy Wallywhy 200, watching the foiling AC75s Ineos Britannia and Emirates Team New Zealand streak past while warming up for America’s Cup battle, was a moment to savour – and one that had me reaching for my phone camera. Why am I talking about the Why – it’s a motoryacht? Yes, the Wallywhy 200 is another revolutionary, achingly hip Wally. To experience that view from a master cabin – a sumptuously furnished one with near 360° surround vision – within the motoryacht’s snub-nosed plumb bow was mind-boggling. As was watching the day’s Cup matches over lunch from…

SPECIAL REPORT ELAINE BUNTING ON SAINT LUCIA Saint Lucia is famous as a transatlantic destination and hopping off point, but stay and there is more see and do. Elaine Bunting reports At the end of a long transatlantic crossing, the island of Saint Lucia is a dreamlike landfall. Its hills and Atlantic-facing cliffs emerge slowly over the horizon, taking shape in lush, tropical greens, while on the sheltered west coast, the twin conical peaks of the Pitons plunge into the sea to form one of the most breathtaking anchorages in the world. Although sometimes hard to find, local Lucian food is fantastic and makes the most of the best locally-grown produce and fish As the destination of the ARC rally for most of its 40-year history, Rodney Bay in Saint…

French solo skipper Violette Dorange has become the youngest ever competitor to complete the Vendée Globe around the world race, when she finished in 25th place out of 40 starters on 9 February aged just 23. Dorange’s Devenir was Jean Le Cam’s former daggerboard design IMOCA (also ex-Foncia, winner in 2008, which has been around the world five times). She had been mentored by legendary ocean racers including Le Cam, and Jean-Pierre Dick. Despite carrying the famous ‘Golden arches’ logo of McDonalds, her campaign was a modest-budget affair – the McDonalds partnership was with a regional franchise group rather than the multinational chain. Dorange’s Vendée Globe has been something of a phenomenon in France, her social media profile exploding to over 1m followers across Instagram and TikTok, and enormous crowds…

The World Cruising Club’s transatlantic rally, the ARC, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. The first running in 1986 – the brainchild of Jimmy Cornell, with the support of Yachting World’s then-editor Dick Johnson – attracted 204 entries from 24 countries. It was expanded in 2013 to include a sister rally, ARC+, via Cape Verde, and there was briefly a third rally, starting in January, pre-pandemic. Since then 7,890 yachts and over 30,000 people have crossed the Atlantic with the ARC. To mark the anniversary organisers are giving away four free crew places (worth £700) for all entries in the 2025 rally where the boat or skipper participated in the first ARC back in 1986. There are also special 40th edition discounts for boats under 40ft, with each eligible for…

Close to the Spinlock stand at Boot Düsseldorf earlier this year were three white plastic dogs, canine mannequins sporting three sizes of the Spinlock ‘Fido’, the company’s dog flotation vest. Despite being featureless statues, when real dogs passed by they seemed to know exactly what they were looking at as they stopped to take a sniff. Even when there was more than one dog present, they still explored the mannequins rather than each other. It was comical to watch. Once Fido had been inspected by each real dog, it was time for a quick drink from the strategically placed water bowl before moving on – at least they would have done had their owners not inevitably been distracted in the meantime by the Spinlock stand’s wares. “It’s been like this…

On a Saturday morning in mid-August, there is a light breeze blowing in the Solent. A fleet of yachts is slowly working against the tide, waiting for their start gun. But there are no colourful spinnakers here; these are cotton sails flying from wooden spars. For it is 1927 and this is the start of the Fastnet Race – the world’s oldest offshore yacht race, established two years before. The weather deteriorates rapidly after the start, and most of the 15-strong fleet soon retire due to strong winds and heavy seas, leaving only the schooner La Goleta and the cutter Tally Ho to battle it out. After six days of sailing in continually punishing conditions, La Goleta takes line honours but Tally Ho, crossing the line just 50 minutes later,…

Many new launches these days aim to be lighter, faster and more open. Not so the Moody DS48. From the moment you scale the boarding ladder (via steps which fold out from the solid guardrails to surmount her deep bulwarks), and set foot on the recessed side decks, this is a boat that you are most definitely in, rather than on. High topsides, muscular bow sections and a formidable deck house make the Moody DS48 an imposing yacht, even from the pontoon. Set all 165m2 of canvas and with 21 tonnes of boat in full motion, it becomes even more formidable. The Solent is normally an ideal test ground for sea trials; sheltered enough to play in, yet with strong tides and a decent fetch that can kick up a…

The Inside Passage is one of North America’s great cruising grounds – an intricate, fjord-lined waterway stretching from Vancouver Island to Alaska. It’s a route known for its remote anchorages, powerful tides and extraordinary wildlife yet it remains rarely explored by superyachts beyond the occasional high-latitude explorer design. That’s precisely why the owner of Athos, the world’s largest privately owned two-masted schooner, chose it for an extended expedition. Athos spent three months cruising from Victoria on Vancouver Island to Juneau, Alaska – some 900 miles as the crow flies, but with extensive detours exploring fjords, anchorages, and wildlife hotspots, the total distance covered was closer to 1,400 miles. Whether on a 40ft cruiser or a 200ft superyacht, sailing British Columbia is both demanding and rewarding. Careful planning is essential, but…

Compared with the multihulls and centre cockpit cruising yachts dwarfing them in Las Palmas, Mathias and Katharina Müller von Blumencron’s yacht Red 2 really is extraordinary. The JV43 is compact by comparison and shorn of the many luxuries cruising boats customarily freight. It is clearly a full-throated racer, yet the couple have been cruising around the Med for months. “A boat that isn’t quite sure what it is?” puzzled one observer. Not at all. Red 2 is absolutely certain of purpose. It is a cruiser-racer that harks back to simpler, less complicated times yet is supercharged by the latest design concepts and technical innovations. The full, blunt-nosed bow, flared topsides, pronounced reverse sheer and large cockpit cuddy are clear statements that this is designed as a powerful short-handed offshore racer.…

‘A Nordic Folkboat can join a racing fleet, or sail around the world – in style!’ LEO GOOLDEN NOMINATES THE NORDIC FOLKBOAT “The humble Nordic Folkboat is, in my opinion, the ‘world’s coolest yacht’, because it is so simple, so beautiful, and so versatile,” says Goolden. “It can be taken for a leisurely picnic sail, quickly transform into a finely-tuned class racer, or even set up for ocean voyaging – and will excel at all three, with minimal expense. What could possibly be cooler than that? As long as you don’t mind low headroom and minimal amenities, a Nordic Folkboat will do whatever you ask it to.” Designed as a clinker sloop in 1942, more than 4,000 Folkboats have since been built and they can be bought cheaply in various…