Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2023 i Yachting Monthly

The concept is as simple today as it was 55 years ago. One person, one boat, around the world without stopping. Back then, it was just as much an unknown frontier as man reaching the moon. While the modern incarnation of the Golden Globe Race attempts to return competitors to that simpler time of sailor versus the elements, modern technology cannot be uninvented. GPS navigation might be out, but satellite trackers, safety calls, liferafts, EPIRBs, even GRP construction and Dacron sails have all made boats safer and more reliable. The rate of attrition in this year’s Golden Globe Race suggests the challenge is no less real, however. When the last two boats cross the finish line in Les Sables d’Olonne, just five boats out of 16 starters will have completed…

In a world first, innovative Scottish group Zelim has developed the Guardian class of unmanned search and rescue craft, designed to rescue people at sea when conditions are otherwise too dangerous for crewed rescue operations. Deploying from a larger vessel, the 8.5m Guardian will be first to arrive on scene to recover casualties and bring them back to the safety of the parent ship. The Guardian, which can also be crewed, has been designed to cope with extreme sea conditions far from shore. Zelim has selected Boston-based Sea Machines Robotics’ SM300 remote controls to work with the Guardian. The SM300 hardware integrates with the Guardian’s propulsion system and sensors, enabling control of the vessel while streaming real-time data on the situation and detection of casualties to a remote command centre…

Small boat specialist Swallow Yachts is venturing above 30ft for a sailing boat for the first time with the new Swallow 32, and it’s also returning to its roots with wood-epoxy construction. Aimed at sailors who may have owned larger yachts before but want to downsize, Swallow Yachts owner Matt Newland explained that he ‘wanted to build a boat that was fun and easy to sail, simple to maintain and had timeless looks with as low an environmental impact as possible.’ He believes that while there are plenty of boats on the market that would fulfill this brief, very few have lifting keels or are road-transportable. As ever, Matt has applied his engineering expertise to create a pretty boat packed with innovative ideas and the potential for a lively performance.…

For anyone who doesn’t follow the world of multihulls, it might be easy to imagine that catamarans are for cruising and trimarans are for racing. After all, two hulls offer vast potential for living space, both inside and out. Many cats have expanded in all directions to take full advantage of that, becoming high, wide and, some might think, not particularly elegant. Trimarans, on the other hand, are the light, spindly ones that fly around at high speed while giving you no accommodation. Right? So you might think. After all, that’s how things were once upon a time. My father used to describe the typical cruising cats of the day as ‘Dutch barns.’ Our own family cruiser when I was growing up was one of John Westell’s ‘swing-wing’ Ocean Bird…

With the sail plan reduced and the wind rising, the skipper should consider running for shelter. I suggest that the right time to run for shelter is four hours before you thought of it. Put another way, as soon as the crew starts debating whether to seek shelter or not, then they must do so straight away. Possible bolt holes should have been identified prior to sailing and appropriate charts be available on board. A yacht can manage worse conditions when turned away from the wind, ‘running before the storm’. The ability to reef the main while off the wind or even sailing downwind is helpful and safer than having to turn into heavy weather to reduce the main. With in-mast furling this can be more difficult, but to be…

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New Passage Series at West Highland Week West Highland Yachting Week, one of Scotland’s oldest and most popular yacht regattas, has introduced a new Passage Series option in this, its 75th anniversary year. Since its inception in the 1940s the regatta has been one of the most enthusiastically attended events in the Scottish sailing calendar. The sociable and inclusive racing is enjoyed by families and keen sailors alike. From 29 July to 4 August, over 100 boats are expected to form a moving fleet that will race a mixture of round-the-buoys and passage races up the west coast of Scotland, from Craobh Haven, Oban, and Tobermory. The new Passage Series is aimed at those who are new to sailing, are sailing with young children or don’t want to do the…

RE-BEDDING THE FRAME With hatches, the most common areas prone to leakage are the rubber gasket or the seal around the glass where it fits into the frame, so unless you know for sure that the base plate is leaking I’d leave it in place undisturbed. If you do need to remove and reseal the base it’s a good idea to put masking tape all around it before removing it. This will make it easier to align the frame after applying the sealant, plus it will be in exactly the right place to protect the deck from sealant overspill when you come to replace the base frame, greatly facilitating the clean-up afterwards. To remove the base, you’ll have to either slide a sharp blade, paint scraper or a cheese wire…

Once you’ve seen one, Bente yachts are unmistakable. We revisited the brand’s first boat, the Bente 24, a couple of issues ago, which has been around for 10 years or so. The brand then launched the striking Bente 39 which was immensely innovative, but the company ran into financial difficulties. Now under new owners and a more stable footing, a third model has been launched, which I can’t wait to test sail. The Bente 28 is unlike any other 28-footer. The hull is cutting edge with wide transom, double rudders and full bows providing a powerful hull form as well as volume below. Construction is polyester GRP foam sandwich, with the basic version being heavier hand lamination, and the more expensive Edition version being vacuum infused. While this is a…

Q When using tidal curves I often see ‘critical curves’ mentioned for three areas I often visit – Yarmouth, Lymington and Poole Harbour. I’ve been struggling to grasp the significance of the additional critical curve and exactly how to use it. Is there a simple explanation or example available to illustrate how and when it comes into play? Kevin Abraham A James Stevens replies: I think Mr Abraham is referring to the special tidal curves which apply between Poole and Selsey Bill. Because these areas have a double high water it is more precise to base tidal calculations on the time of low water (LW) rather than high water (HW). Reeds Almanac includes these curves based on LW with a helpful explanation and an example of the calculation. The critical…

UPWIND As the wind rises and sail has been shortened, the boat may need to continue to make way to windward. This might be to reach shelter or to keep off a lee shore. When pressing on under storm canvas, the helmsman should close reach across the troughs, then head up into the waves and bear away hard on the wave top to avoid a slam. Incidentally, this is also how both dinghy and yacht racers helm over waves as it maintains the most boat speed. As the boat slows up the face of a wave, the apparent wind moves aft, allowing the boat to point higher. As it accelerates down the back of the wave, the apparent wind moves forward, requiring a bear away to stop the sails luffing.…

Setting sail from the Black Sea my husband K and I have enjoyed wonderful journeys through the Bosphorus, Marmara, the Dardanelles and the Aegean, cruising south along the western Turkish coast on Diva, our 1989 Jeanneau Sunlight 30. The summer Meltemi winds have been particularly strong and gusting this year we were told, and it certainly seems that way. The last week has been very windy. ‘The holding’s a bit uncertain here, I think we should move on. What do you think?’ We sail gently out of pretty Bademli, but then in short order, the wind gets up again and is changeable and gusting. We reef to a tiny genoa. We see the British and US boats we met in Ayvalik and they radio us. ‘How are you? We’ve had…

Shortly after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, I moved abroad from Germany. On the occasions I did return I rarely ventured further than Hamburg where my family lived. Yet now, here we were, sailing to a completely unknown country – the former East Germany. Our family, now based in Sydney, planned an exploratory cruise along the coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – a state in the north-east of Germany. The Baltic is renowned as a soft cruising ground without tide or major swells and is perfect for sailing between the months of June and August. Every few miles there is a marina with all the facilities to welcome sailors at a reasonable cost. Navigation in these more southern reaches of the Baltic is also quite easy. EXPLORING UNKNOWN TERRITORY Looking…

SEAGO CRUISER PLUS IMPROVED LIFE RAFT DESIGN www.seagoyachting.co.uk Marine safety equipment specialist, Seago, has launched the latest version of its best-selling Sea Cruiser liferaft – the Cruiser Plus. Compliant and certified to the latest ISO standards, the Cruiser Plus features a new boarding ramp installed in place of the previous weighted ladder to help make boarding the liferaft under stress a lot easier. It comes packed in a newly designed slimline canister, with a polished finish. Available in sizes from 4-10 persons, the new design also features twin independent Butyl rubber chambers for increased buoyancy, 4 x 55 litre water ballast pockets for additional stability, an insulated floor for increased heat retention, and a high-vis canopy constructed from rip-stop Nylon, which is highly waterproof and durable. Additional features include an…

Being a non-curing, permanently flexible product, butyl can be bought in either 1-pack or 2-pack cartridges or tape formats. For flat frame edges and areas with easy access, the tape works brilliantly, leaving far less mess to clear up. The tape comes in several sizes and on a roll with backing tape. It isn’t particularly sticky, so can be handled without the mess usually encountered when using silicone or mastic. ARBOMAST BR SEALANT Arbomast butyl is not an adhesive but is an excellent, permanently flexible, UV-resistant product for creating gaskets as well as for sealing windows and hatches. Price: around £5.50 EVERBUILD EVERFLEX 195 Everflex 195 is a single component, polybutene sealant that skins over, becoming paintable in 24 hrs, but is permanently flexible ensuring a long-lasting, weatherproof seal with…

SADLER 29 On the scale ranging from Labrador to greyhound, the Westerly Konsort would be on the Labrador side of centre. On the greyhound side of the line is the Sadler 29. A sailor’s cruising boat, she has an attractive sheer line and a reputation for good sea-keeping, as you’d expect from David Sadler, the designer of the Contessa 32. The layout below is very similar to the Konsort, although at over a foot narrower and with finer ends, there’s considerably less volume. Spaciousness in the saloon has been prioritised and some of what’s lost is stowage: she won’t swallow up stores in quite the same way. The quarter berth is definitely a single and not a double, but an infill in the saloon creates a small double there. The…

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) is calling on boat owners to fit carbon monoxide detectors after two men tragically lost their lives in January 2022 aboard sports cruiser Emma Louise, while tied up at Port Hamble Marina. The two men were found unconscious on the morning of January 12 in the cockpit of the 5.5m motorboat after exhaust fumes containing odourless carbon monoxide (CO) were funnelled into the covered cockpit, the MAIB said in its recent report. The report calls on industry stakeholders to raise awareness with boat owners of the dangers of CO poisoning to reduce the increasing number of fatalities. The owner of Emma Louse, William Traynor, 44, and his brother-in-law Martin Steventon, 39, both from Slough, had intended to stay overnight on the boat, moored at…

The Cruising Association has stepped up its collaboration with international organisations as part of its campaign to highlight and research further the interactions of orcas with boats heading along the south and west coasts of Spain and Portugal. In March, the CA’s Regulatory and Technical Services group (RATS) presented its research to the European Sailing Federation (EUROSAF) AGM in Rome. RATS members also discussed the issues with the Portuguese Institute of Nature Conservation and Biodiversity (ICNF) in a webinar. The orca interactions with boats appears to be linked to the migration of tuna exiting the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar and heading west and north around the Iberian Peninsula into the Bay of Biscay. The interactions primarily take place between the months of June and October. Despite many theories,…

The fact that the accommodation of the Pointer is designed around a Nespresso machine, enshrined in glory, tells you a lot about this boat. It was conceived as a comfortable, fast and stylish weekend cruiser that you can take your friends down to for a coffee before a nice sail to somewhere for lunch. This is a boat that knows what it is about. Tea drinkers, don’t worry; there’s still a gas hob to boil a kettle. Starting below deck then, the layout is simple, clean and quietly stylish. Headroom is restricted, dictated by the low freeboard and elegant lines. To port, the heart of the boat is the ‘coffee bar’ on a shelf in the moulded hull liner, next to a small dinette-style table with two leather swivel armchairs.…

Much like Asterix, the cartoon character from Gaul, I have never once considered that our coastal sea might one day find the generosity of its appetite being stretched. As a youth it was an immutable fact that the horizon would swallow us up along with everyone else that put to sea. There were few obstacles in any direction and there was never any shortage of space once the destination was reached. Fast-forward to the present and it seems that the number of differing claims and their scale is growing exponentially to introduce competition for what is fast becoming limited space. In my youth, no-go areas chimed with common sense – MOD dockyards, firing ranges, limited fishing nets, discrete oyster beds and localised moorings for a handful of craft. Remaining areas…

Many years ago, I took a girlfriend of mine, Aileen Doherty, who had never sailed before, out for a jolly. There I was leaping from mooring buoy to mainsail halyard to centre plate purchase. It was the latter she noticed and thought she could help with. I had dropped enough plate down for us to leave the mooring without touching bottom and then made up the line again around a large wooden cleat riveted to the centreboard case. Aileen spotted this and watched as I then leapt back up to haul the rest of the sail up. She bent down to the centre-plate line and cast it off completely. The centre-plate on the Morgan Giles-designed Essex One Design was made of cast iron and weighed at least a hundredweight. So,…

The hero knot everyone should know The bowline might be your everyday knot, but it’s the rolling hitch that is your ‘get out of jail’ knot. At the beginning of this year, we had a horror snap of our anchor bridle at 0300 in 67-knot winds when it was snowing. But the rolling hitch got us sorted with a temporary bridle until morning. And when we have that eventual winch overrun and the whole thing is jammed tight, it’s the rolling hitch that allows me to sort it quickly before we hit anything other than a wave. Or when that line has been routed under the lifelines and a sail is thrashing about beyond your reach, it’s the rolling hitch that will allow you to control the sail whilst you…

Do I need a liferaft on my small boat? Q Bill and George, both retired, have recently bought an 8m bilge keel cruiser. They had it surveyed and it seems structurally sound, the engine, fuel and gas systems are safe, but it looks a bit shabby and the roller-furling headsail needs replacing. It has nav lights, an inflatable dinghy, echo sounder, radar reflector, sound signal, GPS and a few charts. They intend to day sail around the Solent, with the occasional trip to Poole. They are reasonably competent but definitely budget sailors, avoiding marinas and frequently drying out overnight to save mooring fees. They have old but serviceable life jackets and wet weather gear but the time has come to decide what other safety kit to buy. Bill thinks that…

UPWIND In wind-over-tide conditions the waves built rapidly and with enough force to slow the boat down. We found that running the engine greatly assisted in our ability to maintain positive control over the boat, and although we were making good progress, it helped keep the boat driving forwards when we hit some boat-stopper waves. In a long-keeled boat like a Contessa 32, which has a deep V-shaped forefoot, there was no slamming, as she cuts through the waves. This does make her a wet boat in these conditions, but you can’t have everything. TRYSAIL In general, sailing downwind will be easier than upwind and will let you handle strong conditions more comfortably. Sometimes, particularly for coastal sailors, you may not have this option if you are trying to escape…

1 POWER OF NATURE The power and unpredictability of nature can’t be underestimated and we’ve since seen similar storms in Corsica and elsewhere. While being without a working engine it is difficult to see what we could have done differently in the circumstances we found ourselves in. It is a good reminder that even if you sail everywhere, a working motor is a useful safety device for getting yourself out of difficulties. 2 CALL FOR HELP As sailors we are used to being self-reliant, and don’t always like the idea of calling for help. Doing so before a situation deteriorates, however, increases the likelihood that the situation can be resolved successfully 3 ACCEPTING A TOW We are very grateful for the skill and assistance of the Turkish Coastguard. Thanks also…

To explore the coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in particular the waters around the island of Rügen, a shallower draught is helpful, but with careful navigation deeper boats can venture here. Our trip was a maiden voyage on this boat that featured ancient technology, so we solely navigated with Navionics charts on our telephones without any problems. We also consulted paper charts and a German pilot book for the region. It is easy to get lost in the channels, especially in bad visibility, so we ticked off the channel markers with a pencil. The weather is most stable during the summer, but fronts from the west can bring rain and strong winds. Boats moor bow to wooden jetties with stern lines around poles both sides or next to finger pontoons. Almost all…

www.yachtingmonthly.com/books It was a late December day in the Scillies on the headland of St Agnes. The wind cut to the bone and was cold and sharp against my face. Low clouds scudded by as I stood looking westward, out over the grey sea. It was time to get warm. Retreating to the cottage fireside, I pulled down a book from the shelves, Shipwrecks of the Isles of Scilly by Richard Larn. Idly leafing through, I fell on a photograph taken in the 1880s of the pilot cutter Queen lying derelict on a beach in St Martin’s. It was a fine photograph, a beautiful boat. I had to know more. The Scillies lie 35 miles west of Land’s End: an archipelago of small islands, only five of them inhabited, each…