Indholdsfortegnelse for May-2018 i Practical Boat Owner

News from your cruising area Send us your local news stories. Email PBO news editor Katy Stickland at pbo@timeinc.com, tel: 01252 555213, or write to the address on page 5 SOUTH COAST AND CHANNEL ISLANDS MORE WALK ASHORE VISITOR BERTHS FOR LYMINGTON Plans to redevelop the Town Quay mooring area at Lymington have been modified. Following demand in the market, the Lymington Harbour Commissioners (LHC) has decided to increase the number of walk ashore visitor berths from 19 to 46. Other improvements include widening the navigation fairway, enlarging the turning space opposite the commercial quay, and relocating 17 commercial fishing boat berths upstream. The southern end of the walk ashore pontoon will also be modified to allow a larger space for vessels using the Berthon boatyard, and 43 resident small…

Mad about the boat Dave Selby is the proud owner of a 5.48m (18ft) Sailfish, which he keeps on a swinging mooring on the picturesque Blackwater estuary in Essex If you’ve been paying any attention at all to my exhaustive cut-out-and-throw-away series on everything to do with boats, your recycling bin will now be full and you’ll be fairly good at golf. Failing that, you may actually have bought a boat. If that’s the case I’m sorry, but I cannot be held personally liable for the fact that you totally misunderstood last month’s episode all about acquiring a boat of your own. Nowhere did I say that you should actually get one. However, if you have bought a boat in the last three weeks, it’s only natural that you will…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Russell Eden’s first boat was his boyhood 6ft inflatable dinghy. Windsurfing took over in his teens, and when sons came along he bought them a Laser Pico. A Laser 2000 arrived too, and ten years of dinghy racing and family sailing ensued, before the urge to travel further became a priority and a Cape Cutter 19 took their place. His wife’s preference for standing up, and not to use a bucket for a toilet, saw him buy Lucy, a 1990 Cornish Yawl, in 2013. The switch panel on board my Cornish Yawl, Lucy, is located above the engine at the top step of the companionway. But I’d never liked the look the setup since I first stepped aboard in the shed at the sales yard three years…

Step by step Unlike wood, leather is one of those materials not always readily available to most of us. Sure, you can order it online and from specialists but that’s an expensive way to experiment if you just fancy trying your hand at some basic leatherwork. It’s for this reason that I’m always loathe to throw it away; old belts have been recycled using my sewing machine to make trim for garments, and I’ve even cut up shoes to make things like small pouches or tool guards. So when the soles of my old rigger boats were finally worn out I could see quite a bit of leather there that could be used again – the job which immediately sprang to mind being to leather the oars for my tender,…

Q The genoa from our 2009 Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 36i seems to get harder and harder to pull up at the beginning of the season. The genoa is on a roller reefing system, so the luff of the genoa slides into one of two aluminium grooves. Pulling the genoa up goes more-or-less OK until the top of the sail reaches the second aluminium profile (there are five). From that point on I have to winch the halyard to get the genoa up. At the end the halyard is very tight, and I’m scared that I’ll damage the sheaves in the mast. The halyard moves easily unloaded, so the problem is not the halyard. I went up the mast and sprayed some WD40 into the groove, but this didn’t help. Getting…

Readers’ cruising destinations, near and far We pay for your published cruising stories and harbour updates. Email pbo@timeinc.com or write to the address at the top of page 5 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Growing up in Leigh-on-sea John Simpson learned to sail with his father on a Lowestoft smack. As a teenager he raced dinghies and bigger boats offshore, then moved on to professional delivering, racing and RYA coaching and examining. Having spent several months bringing my friend Clive’s new Ovni 435, Tintin, slowly north to Arisaig from the River Hamble, he just wanted to go cruising. Crew Stuart and I joined him for eight days, bringing a detailed chart of the Sound of Harris with half an idea of visiting St Kilda. Perhaps we’d be lucky to find a weather…

SEND US YOUR STORIES Email news editor Katy Stickland at pbo@timeinc.com, tel: 01252 555213 A major clean-up operation is underway at Holyhead Marina in Anglesey, north Wales after around 85 boats were destroyed or damaged during Storm Emma. Gales of up to 70mph left yachts and boats either sunk or beached on 2 March. Polystyrene from the marina’s pontoons washed up, chest deep in places, and booms were brought in to contain diesel and other debris, which has since spread along miles of the Anglesey coastline. A significant amount of fuel had to be pumped out of some of the larger vessels. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said it was ‘unclear’ how long the clean-up would take. Jonathan Fox moored his Fiskars Finnfire 33, Mikki Finn at Holyhead Marina.…

Last year, he raced to Scotland in his RS Aero, sailing from Land’s End to John o’Groats. Now Ken Fowler is preparing for a new adventure – to sail around all of the islands in England and Wales. So far, the air traffic controller has identified more than 145 to visit when he starts in April. “While doing the Race to Scotland I really regretted every day that I had to go on and I couldn’t stop and explore more because of the time constraints,” stated Fowler, who said this, and his desire to continue to raise money for two charities – Cancer Research UK and the Oakhaven Hospice Trust in Lymington – are the motivations for his challenge. For the purposes of the adventure, Fowler has defined an island…

A blue stream is making its way from the hardstanding and across the footpath. When it reaches the grassed area, it backs up a little, before seeping its way through the soil and eventually into the marina basin. Once it reaches the water it blossoms into a circular shape about 4m in diameter. It actually looks quite pretty and, about 20m away, another stream, this time pink, is making similar progress. After about 30 minutes the colourful spectacle in the marina is over, although if you want to see it again you could visit here tomorrow, or you could visit the marina on the other side of the harbour, or anywhere in the country really, because it’s a very common occurrence. In a few days, the grass will have died…

Flotsam and jetsam Sam Llewellyn writes nautical thrillers and edits The Marine Quarterly. He is currently patching up a 30ft ketch It is about now, with the refit approaching completion and the mooring fees for the year looming, that the owner of a boat may feel inclined to bury the face in the hands and wonder where the money is going to come from. It was a surprise when the slight rainbow of oil in the bilge turned into a replacement gearbox, and that weird smell of burning meant not only rewiring but buying a new cooker. In addition to which, the halyards were shot, the electronics showed room for improvement, there were complaints about the curtains, and the marina management felt it owed it to itself to jack up…

What is the mysterious attraction of water? Anyone reading this probably suffers from the addiction. Even non-boaters unwittingly demonstrate the magnetic attraction by taking holidays at the seaside and buying premium-priced waterside houses. So what to do if you feel you are getting too old for sailing? There’s nothing nice about the thought of going cold turkey, having sold your sea boat and moved inland to Fiddlers Green. Well there is a part way stage – something that enables you to be near water but doesn’t involve so much physical work and provides a bit more comfort too. Swap your sea boat for a canal boat! I found myself in this position a few years ago and have since discovered a whole new hidden world with many attractive advantages. These…

10am-10.40am: HOW TO DRAW BOATS Cartoonist Claudia Myatt has been bringing PBO columnist Dave Selby’s Mad about the Boat musings to life for more than 11 years. Here the artist shares her obsession with drawing boats and the sea and demonstrates practical tips to help you illustrate your cruising log, even if you’re artistically challenged! 10.45am-11.25am: “ALEXA” SAIL MY BOAT Digital Yacht's Paul Sumpner shares his marine electronics expertise with a demonstration on how the “Alexa” voice-activated technology can assist sailors, plus tips on how to navigate by tablet. 11.30am-12.10pm: LIFERAFT DEMONSTRATION Community Safety Officer for Central Solent, Steve Billet and the RNLI Central Solent Community Safety team will be demonstrating liferaft inflation and discussing the key safety questions they get asked by boat owners. 12.15pm-12.55pm: SAIL BUYING DEMYSTIFIED Anybody…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Duncan Wells is an RYA instructor, principal of westviewsailing.co.uk, author of Stress-Free Sailing and Stress-Free Motorboating and the creator of MOBLifesavers.com Mooring is something that troubles many people, both newcomers and old salts. But if we can master a few techniques to ensure that our return to the dock is faultless and stress free every time, then our enjoyment of boating will improve immeasurably. Here are some robust ways of getting your boat onto the dock safely and calmly. Practise is all it takes. And the more you practise the more confident you will become and the more confident you are the more relaxed you will be. So pick a windless Wednesday afternoon to leave work early – when hopefully there will be fewer people on their…

Before ABOUT THE AUTHOR In 1966 Keith Calton joined the Cambridge University Spitzbergen expedition dodging icebergs as a boat mechanic. From 1969 to 1973 he was involved with glassfibre fabrication making and developing 14ft (4.3m) and 17ft (5.2m) Dejon motor boats. There was a change of career from 1973 to 2013 when he was involved with manufacturing glassfibre cases for musical instruments. He is now developing an 8ft (2.4m) stacking dinghy, which he will be displaying at this year’s Beaulieu Boat Jumble (see preview p42). This all began following a trip to France. We were leaving Cherbourg in bright sunshine then half an hour later we hit dense fog which stayed with us for the remainder of the trip. My partner at the time decided that we needed to have…

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston says he won’t appeal a decision by National Historic Ships UK (NHS-UK) to exclude Suhaili from the National Register of Historic Vessels. Boats on the register have to be a minimum of 33-foot overall. Suhaili is seven inches too short. Sir Robin said he was “not particularly surprised” his beloved Bermudian ketch didn’t meet the requirements. “They have their rules and Suhaili does not fit within those. That’s it,” said Sir Robin, although he highlights that the register’s earlier rules excluded boats built outside the UK, although exceptions have been made for HMS Fordroyant and Sir Alec Rose’s 36-foot Lively Lady, which were both built in India. “It’s not for me to decide whether there should be a change in the rules and I am not appealing…

Entries are now open for ARC Channel Islands, which will feature a new route for 2018 starting from Dartmouth. The ‘South West Edition’, which runs from 11-19 August 2018, aims to give West Country sailors the chance to expand their cruising horizons. A social programme as well as boat safety checks, passage-planning guidance and a skippers’ briefing will be held at Darthaven Marina before the start. Dartmouth Yacht Club is also supporting the event, which is limited to 25 boats. Places are available on a first come, first served basis. “ARC Channel Islands has increased confidence in our sailing abilities,” noted Geoffrey Higginbottom, who took part in the 2017 edition For 2018, the rally will make landfall after the Channel crossing at Guernsey, and Jersey will be included in the…

Monthly musings Yacht surveyor and designer Andrew Simpson cruises in his own-design 11.9m (39ft) yacht Shindig. Read his blog at www.offshore-sailor.com I admit to being something of a miser where electrical consumption is concerned – hence the paeans of praise I heaped upon those tiny LEDs in last month’s PBO. In nudging aside those references to the guzzling halogen bulbs of yesteryear they have eliminated almost at a stroke my impulse to keelhaul any crew who kept a light burning without good cause. Call me obsessive if you must but conservation of energy is a byword aboard Shindig. Yet I do sometimes get it wrong. When Shindig first took to the water in 2001 her foredeck glinted with the sheen from a stainless steel Lewmar windlass of the manual variety:…

PART ONE ABOUT THE AUTHOR Pete Dearden was born in Darwen Lancashire and grew up on the country verges of Birmingham – about as far away from the sea as you can get. His first experience with sailing was in a dinghy singlehanded while on holiday in the Dominican Republic, but it was only while sailing Hobie Cats In France many years later that he realised he wanted to get a boat of his own. As we adjusted our sails to round Pigeon Island heading for Rodney Bay and the finish of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) it was inconceivable to imagine that just six years earlier I’d started out with the intention of just buying an old Hobie Cat. It all started on a camping holiday with my…

Honda EU22i portable generator Honda has been pioneering portable power since 1964, and was first to use inverter technology in a generator. The inverter produces a clean sine wave output for running electronic devices and household equipment without risk of damage. Inverter generators are smaller, lighter, quieter and more fuel efficient than conventional types. The downside is cost, so conventional generators may make more sense for running power tools. The EU22i replaces the EU20i offering a 10% increase on output power at no extra cost. The dimensions and overall weight are also unchanged – it is a lightweight unit: just 24kg with a full tank of fuel. A new fuel valve arrangement prevents fuel going stale during extended periods of storage by allowing the fuel supply to be switched off…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rupert Holmes is a freelance yachting journalist with 80,000 sailing miles’ experience in a wide variety of cruising and racing yachts. He has competed in significant short-handed sailing adventures including two trips to the Azores, the Royal Western YC’s Round Britain and Ireland Race, and two Rolex Fastnet Races. You know when you’ve been hit by a rogue wave. The energy within it is of a different order of magnitude from an inconvenient, but ultimately pretty harmless, wave crest that topples into the cockpit. The first such wave I encountered was more than 20 years ago in the Southern Ocean while being pummelled by a secondary low that produced gusts above 60 knots. Those on deck were swept to the limit of their harnesses. Water streamed through…

The traditional method of glassfibre boat building has been to hand-roll liquid resin into reinforcing fibre as it sits in a mould, adding one layer after another and all the while aiming to avoid any air pockets by fully saturating the fibre with the resin. While extremely effective for producing a wide range of composite structures, there are drawbacks: hand laminating techniques may result in laminates that are a little too thick in places, or have an uneven distribution of resin. There can also be small voids if you’re not careful. Vacuum epoxy infusion is far more precise and works by forcing epoxy through a prepared sandwich of composites by a difference in atmospheric pressure. Modern boatbuilders are increasingly using vacuum infusion techniques to help them create composite products with…