Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2020 i Practical Boat Owner

with the editor To receive the editor’s monthly email newsletter, go to our website: www.pbo.co.uk Picture this… What’s not to love about this picture, below? The feet belong to Tony Smith, a regular PBO contributor and published author, who sails without an engine (see page 32). This issue also features Sam Llewellyn’s description of ‘no sail week: the idea is to climb on board boats of various sizes and use only the wind and the tide to perform the usual manoeuvres and some unusual ones.’ Last month in this column I was looking forward to the future of clean power, but various stories in this month’s issue remind me that all the alternative we need – for leisure purposes anyway – is perhaps staring us in the face. Foiling technology…

Australian skipper Bill Hatfield has claimed the record for the oldest person to sail around the world, solo, non-stop and unassisted. The 81-year-old former fisherman chose the westabout route, against the prevailing winds and currents, completing the circumnavigation in 259 days aboard his 38ft Northshore LÕEau Commotion. He left Gold Coast Seaway in Queensland on 8 June 2019, returning on 22 February 2020, fulfilling a dream he has had since a child. “I’m very pleased to be back and it’s nice to be back on land again. I very much appreciate the welcome I’ve had. It is nice to have done it,” he said. Hatfield carefully planned the circumnavigation, working out a daily diet of “a third of a tin of beans, a tin of tuna, 100g of rice, 100g…

The winner of the 2018/19 Golden Globe Race (GGR), Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, has been awarded the Cruising Club of America’s most prestigious award – the Blue Water Medal. The 74-year-old French skipper finished the race in just under 212 days aboard his Rustler 36 Matmut despite a damaged mast, caused after the yacht pitchpoled in 11m seas in the Southern Ocean. The Blue Water Medal rewards ‘meritorious seamanship and adventure upon the sea’. Previous winners include Eric Tabarly and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Fellow GGR skipper Gregor McGuckin was named the recipient of the Rod Stephens Seamanship Trophy. His Biscay 36 Hanley Energy Endurance was dismasted in a hurricane force Southern Ocean storm. Despite this, the Irish skipper built a jury rig and sailed to assist another GGR entrant Abhilash Tomy,…

■ Open day at the royal southern yacht club, 4 April, Hamble, 10am-4pm, royal-southern.co.uk ■ Beaulieu river cruise, 4 April, from Buckler’s Hard, bucklershard.co.uk/attractions/river-cruise/ ■ Guided waterside walk by the inland waterways association towpath walks society, 5 April, Grand Surrey Canal, waterways.org.uk ■ International multihull show, 15-19 April at La Grande Motte, South of France, multicoque-online.com/en/ ■ Guided waterwide walk by the Inland Waterways Association Towpath Walks Society, 19 April, at Limehouse, Thames Path and Docklands, London, waterways.org.uk ■ Chichester marina boat show, 25-26 April Chichester Marina, premiermarinas.com ■ Horning boat show, 2 May, Horning in Norfolk, horningboatshow.com ■ Jersey boat show, 2-4 May, St Helier Marina, jerseyboatshow.com ■ Iwa canalway cavalcade, 2-3 May, Little Venice, London, waterways.org.uk ■ Mayflower ocean festival, 4-10 May, Plymouth, visitplymouth.co.uk ■ Plymouth mayflower 400…

New-tubers! ■ A refrain I frequently hear is that (insert name of) popular channel has become boring now that the boat’s in good shape or they’ve upgraded to a newer, shinier model, or they’ve learned how to sail, and are now spending all their time spear fishing and sharing ceviche recipes. If you relate to that sentiment then perhaps you’d like to take a look this month at a few new channels featuring people on ordinary boats. Keeping it real ■ Lucas and Jackie Sheasby of Bourn To Sail are an Isle of Wight family who have just bought a 1981 Moody 33 with the intention of setting off next summer with their three daughters (aged 3, 7 and 10) on a transatlantic adventure, and possibly a circumnavigation. They want…

Email your projects and tips to pbo@ti-media.com or write to us at the address at the top of page 5. We pay at least £30 for each one published As an avid DIYer I regularly spend many happy hours in my garage and always have numerous projects in mind. But when a university colleague told me that his team had invested in a £160 3D printer that was accurate to 20 microns, it only took a few days to convince myself I could really produce things of use from such a unit. Two days later I’d bought one, a package arrived and I set about constructing my new Ender 3D printer and creating the test print – a plastic dog. My grandson was very happy with the result! So I…

SEND US YOUR STORIES Email news editor Katy Stickland at pbo@ti-media.com, tel: 01252 555213 Cowes harbour safety review follows ferry fog incident Cowes Harbour Commission (CHC) is continuing to review safety at Cowes Harbour on the Isle of Wight following the publication of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report into the sinking of the Contessa 32, Greylag. The unoccupied yacht was on a swinging mooring to the east of the Inner Fairway channel when it was hit by the Red Funnel-operated Red Falcon ferry in October 2018. The MAIB has highlighted the danger of commercial vessels to people sleeping on yachts in Cowes Harbour, which ‘had not been sufficiently considered, documented or mitigated with risk assessments produced by Cowes Harbour Commission, Shepards Wharf Marina or Cowes Yacht Haven’. Cowes…

Boaters are being reminded to register their vessel details with RYA SafeTrx. It replaced the HM Coastguard Safety Identification Scheme known as CG66 in July 2018, with previously existing data on vessels, owners and emergency contacts being retained for only two years. The Cruising Association is urging all boat owners to register, which will allow Search and Rescue (SAR) authorities to easily access vessel details during an incident. RYA SafeTrx is divided into two parts: a SAR database of account and vessel details, which can be updated at any time by the skipper, and a mobile phone app which as well as vessel registration can also track voyages in Sail Plan and Track Only modes and report overdue vessels. The app does not replace Global Maritime Distress and Safety System…

Despite the February storms, a group of volunteers have managed to sail along part of the Cornish coast, collecting 863kg of rubbish in just ten days. The 10 days 10 beaches campaign was led by Steve Green and Monika Hertlová from the group Clean Ocean Sailing aboard their 66ft gaff-rigged schooner, Annette. They sailed from the Helford River to Carrick Roads, Mylor, St Mawes and as far south as Coverack. “The weather was pretty relentless and it tested us and the boat. We blew out the inner staysail while sailing from the Helford to the Fal Estuary in the first week, and the main sail was also damaged due to the weather. The volunteers were absolute legends,” said Green. He said where possible the collected rubbish would be recycled or…

Yacht skipper Gary Swift, 53, and crew Scott Kilgour, 41, have been jailed after they were caught with £60 million worth of cocaine hidden aboard SY Atrevido. The yacht was intercepted off the coast of Wales in August 2019 and taken to Fishguard where Border Force and National Crime Agency officers discovered 751 kilos of cocaine. The pair had sailed from the Canary Islands to Suriname to pick up the drugs. Swift and Kilgour, who both pleaded guilty, were sentenced to 19 years 6 months and 13 years 6 months respectively.…

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 Any sailing club AGM is a heated affair, but this one was more heated than most. The thermostat in the club room was stuck on high, temperatures were reaching boiling point and the flowers placed on the committee table were already beginning to wilt. And so to matters arising and the arising matter of the arising tempers as a result of the arising temperature. As one faction started making scurrilous, unfounded and highly plausible claims that it was all a conspiracy by the committee to get the meeting over quickly, another group of ‘troublemakers’ (the legal term for members who aren’t on the committee) gathered…

■ The German-built Sirius range is new and particularly impressive. Its 310DS, 35DS and 40DS make exceptional use of the wheelhouse format and offer a choice of fin, twin or lifting keels. ■ The Degerö 28 MS (made in Finland from the 1980s) follows the Scandinavian route of canoe stern and a wheelhouse containing galley and inside steering. It’s a pretty yacht and its sail area/displacement ratio of 17.06 suggests good performance for a heavy long-keeler. ■ Also made in Finland (from 1970), the long-keel and canoe stern Finnclipper 34 is very much a motor-sailer with a modest SA/Displacement ratio of just 10.43. The open-backed wheelhouse contains an internal steering position and is finished in wood, as is the cockpit (also with wheel steering aft). ■ The 30ft Mascot 910…

Calypso Portable Anemometer This range of innovative marine electronics now has a UK distributor – Hampshire-based weather monitoring and datalogging specialist Richard Paul Russell Ltd. Calypso’s Portable Anemometer is a solid state wind instrument that’s waterproofed to IPX8 standards and can be mounted easily on RIBs and daysailers, or at the masthead of larger vessels. The ultrasonic transducers solve one of the most common problems associated with conventional wind sensors – the reliability of their moving parts. The internal battery is charged by a solar panel and has sufficient capacity for 30 days of use without solar charge. Data transfer is via Bluetooth, although a wired option is also offered. The interface is via a smartphone app, or an NMEA gateway. r-p-r.co.uk Boat Beacon adds internet AIS sharing The long-running…

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I noticed on a visit to the boatyard that my wind vane had suffered the ignominy of becoming a bird perch which had subsequently broken off one of the arms. Looking around the boatyard I saw that I was not alone. Fortunately the mast was booked for un-stepping the following week, but the bad news was I couldn’t find replacement arms on any internet search. With the mast down I took off the broken and remaining arm and returned to my workshop. There are basically three things to consider when designing a replacement: the mounting, the stem and the finial. The stem was plastic about 3mm diameter and I needed something light, strong and of a similar diameter. A knitting needle sounded ideal and a trip to the haberdashers was…

A new round the world race for a one design self-built 5.8m yacht has been announced. Don McIntyre, who is behind the Golden Globe and Ocean Globe Races, said the Mini Globe Race would start from a European port in either October or November 2024. The event, which will run over six legs westabout via Panama, is one of a series of races for his One Design ClassMini 5.80, which he was due to launch at March’s HISWA Amsterdam Boat Show. An Azores and Back race in June-July 2022 and two 5.80 Transat events, with the first starting from Portugal in November 2021, are also planned. Designed by Polish sailor Janusz Maderski, the plywood ClassMini 5.80 is self-righting. Hull No1 is currently being built in Poland and will undergo sea…

Q Do I need to use the app to register my vessel details? A No. Details of your boat, the safety equipment carried on board and your shore contact can be registered online at safetrx.rya.org.uk Q. Do I need to use the app to let the Coastguard know of my passage details? A No. As boat owners did previously, skippers can contact the Coastguard on VHF Ch16 and register their voyage details and we are happy that this continues. The RYA SafeTrx App does have a Sail Plan function where you can put in details of your voyage with a logged ETA. A vessel’s position is sent to the SafeTrx server every kilometre in Sail Plan mode if the battery is above 30%, and by default every five minutes in…

A new initiative designed to encourage more women to take up sailing, compete in yacht racing and consider careers in the marine industry has been launched by the charter firm Sunsail and the charity The Magenta Project. Sunsail Magenta will deliver a number of sailing activities, including women-only RYA sailing courses, race training courses, career opportunities and mentoring programmes. There will also be opportunities to participate in mixed-gender teams at UK sailing events, including Cowes Week. It comes after the World Sailing Trust’s Strategic Review into Women in Sailing highlighted the lack of gender parity in sailing, with 59% of female respondents reporting gender discrimination. This increased to over 89% in female offshore sailors. Incidents included serious sexual harassment and being passed over for crewing roles.…

Volunteers who have made it possible for people with disabilities to get out on the water have been honoured for their work at the RYA Sailability Awards. Described as an ‘all-round lovely human being’, Flossy Campion, 18, from Whitefriars Sailability near Swindon took the award for Young Person of the Year. Since 2018 she has donated her time learning to use the hoist, working with the Blind Sailing Team and assisting with schools and groups. Annie Molyneux was named Volunteer of the Year for her contribution to Rutland Sailability and the Challenger Class. Bolton Sailing Club took home the Team of the Year Award while Ben Foulsham, 15, from Oxford Sailability was named Sailor of the Year. Andy Beadsley and The Wheelyboat Trust were presented with the #MoreThanSailing Award for…

Sam Llewellyn writes nautical thrillers and edits The Marine Quarterly. He is currently patching up a 30ft ketch This year, as most years, we will be having a no-engine week. The idea is to climb on to sailing boats of various sizes and use only the wind and the tide to perform the usual manoeuvres and some unusual ones. Its advantage is that it slows the pace of life, reduces the carbon footprint and puts the sailor in touch with the spirit of the ancestors. The disadvantage is that you tend to bump into things. Marinas have been the death of engineless manoeuvring. The prospect of T-boning a million quid’s worth of Sunseeker after an innocent miscalculation has encouraged the use of diesel in close-quarters situations. So has the spectacle…

I have had many forays into the Dutch canals, but last year was my first single-handed. I planned to arrive at Vlissingen, where I remembered there were bollards inset into ‘pockets’ built into the wall of the lock. This means you can’t simply lasso the bollard or cleat from above, while using a normal boat hook is not helpful as the mooring line droops from it. But I remembered a commercial device seen on a previous trip aboard a Dutch boat that worked perfectly. The skipper’s wife had serious knee problems, but from a seated position on the cabin top forward she was able to reach port or starboard wall bollards while he managed the stern lines. I couldn’t find out what that particular product was called, so I decided…

Marsali Taylor sails an Offshore 8M, Karima S. She’s a dinghy instructor and author of The Shetland Sailing Mysteries starring liveaboard sleuth, Cass Lynch. My Karima needed new sails. The current ones had been fine when I’d bought her, over ten years ago, but now the genoa had all the aerodynamic curve of a flattened out sugar bag, and had stretched so far it touched the spreaders. The only reason the main had any shape at all was because it was fully-battened. Worse, they were getting dangerous; instead of accelerating in gusts, Karima blew over, so that I needed a reef in anything over 15 knots of wind, and I was lucky to tack in less than 110°. Something had to be done; and not scarily fragile hi-tech grey laminate…