Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 i Sailing Today

Last month, very different reports about sea ice appeared in the mainstream press. The Guardian reported that Arctic sea ice cover was at the second lowest level ever recorded (records go back to 1981), while the Daily Telegraph said there was 21 per cent more sea ice this year than in 2012. Both put a different spin on the same data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Colorado. NSIDC reported that on 10 September 2016, the ‘yearly minimum’ date used for comparison, there were 1.6 million square miles of Arctic sea ice: more than in 2012 (an unusually low year) but far less than the average amount each year since 1981 (see below right). According to satellite data from NSIDC, the trend over the past 35…

At midnight, Aura quietly slipped out of Gibraltar, the timing chosen to coincide with the optimum tidal movement and wind. Our research suggested leaving two or three hours after high water, preferably with a light easterly wind or no wind at all. We had the latter, navigating Bahia de Algeciras among the many tankers and cargo ships. As we motored past the lights of Tarifa, we caught the outgoing tide and cleared the shipping lanes without incident. Making passage past Cabo Espartel we headed 30nm from the Moroccan coast southwest towards Lanzarote. The 550nm passage was uneventful with the exception of encountering a small wooden fishing boat. The vessel was spotted coming towards us so we changed course to give them a wide berth only to find they also changed…

If you went to the recent Southampton Boat Show you might have walked past the Cruising Association stand. Perhaps you were one of the 2,000 people who stopped by to talk to CA staff. In the past three years, it has pushed up membership by almost a quarter and much of that growth has come from younger sailors. CA general manager, Beryl Chalmers, said: “People are buying their dream boats earlier and are planning to head off to the sun. A lot of them are still working, but travel is easy and cheaper these days so they hop to and from the boat, wherever it is.” The CA’s 5,760 members must be the envy of yacht clubs around the country. But it was set up not to be simply another…

X-YACHTS X6 c£1.79m (€1.98m) This is a new departure for the brand, which wanted a boat that sat more squarely between performance and comfort. The result is a beautiful, luxurious 63ft carbon fibre beast. x-yachtsgb.com DISCOVERY 67 £2.29M The flagship of the Marchwood builder’s range is a beautiful, go-anywhere cruiser with a flexible layout and custom finish. Every detail has been weighed for its value to a bluewater sailor. discoveryyachts.com CONTEST 67 c£2.26m (€2.5m) Freshly launched from the stable of the Dutch semi-custom dream boat merchants, the Contest 67 is the first to be designed by judel/ vrolijk. She is light, designed for better upwind performance and more stability downwind; she is also crammed with luxurious design. parkstonebayyachts.com…

Duver Marina (pronounced ‘duvver’) is the visitors’ section of Bembridge Harbour. The Duver can hold up to 200 visiting boats on its long pontoon, rafted out at busy times. The pontoon was extended in 2012 to include 20 finger berths at the far end that can be pre-booked online. Boats staying on these berths can take advantage of the premium service: a newspaper, fresh-baked croissants and milk delivered to their cockpit in the morning. The berthing office, at the entrance to the pontoon, serves as a small shop (the Galley Locker) stocked with essentials and island-grown vegetables when available, and there is a seasonal café on site (Ralvins @ The Duver) offering coffees, breakfasts and lunch during the summer. Otherwise – and this is part of the charm of the…

CONTROL OF THE SPINNAKER IS KEY. ESSENTIALLY YOU WANT TO KEEP IT OVER THE BOAT When flying the kite, you particularly want to avoid a spinnaker wrap, a broach and a Chinese gybe. Spinnakers can wrap themselves round the forestay for a number of reasons. They can wrap when being set – if you don’t raise them behind the headsail, and sometimes even if you do. A gust of wind can cause a wrap. Or, if you are sailing too directly downwind, air coming off the front of the mainsail can blow the spinnaker through the fore triangle and cause a wrap. UNWRAPPING WRAPS There are a number of things you can do to unwrap a spinnaker. First, try sailing slightly by the lee, being careful not to go past…

Looking southwest, the dramatic chalk stacks of Old Harry Rocks mark out the tip of a white, rocky road that stretches from Studland along Ballard Down to Swanage. The chalk and flint layers were laid down 66 million years ago and were in fact connected to the Needles off the western tip of the Isle of Wight until ‘recent’ prehistoric times. The cliff is undermined with sea caves and fissures, and there are fairly regular cliff slides here. Between the camera and Old Harry himself, a lighter patch is visible, representing an underwater ridge. This can be the cause of overfalls on a spring ebb, but though clearance is low, there is enough depth quite close in for boats to pass.…

“There is a perception that it is tricky to get in and it’s a winding channel,” said Fiona Thorpe. “Most yachts can get in three hours either side of high water.” There is a double high water at springs and a stand of about two hours at other times. When yachts go aground it is “usually because they are on the wrong side of the buoys” or are “pushing it” with the tide, Fiona added. Conspicuous from the Solent is St Helen’s Fort (Fl(3) 10s), the most southerly of Palmerston’s four Follies in this section of water. Be wary of cutting to the south between the fort and the start of the entrance channel over the spit that dries out. The tide gauge post slightly further out (still shown on…

THE HUMBLE BOAT HEATER HAS COME ON CONSIDERABLY SINCE THE LAST CENTURY With temperatures plunging from their heady summer highs, many boats will be coming out of the water to start a winter ashore. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Starting at £2,500 to buy and install, a boat heater will keep the interior of your boat hale and hearty, allowing you to extend the sailing season and take advantage of fine winter weather. It is also a must for anyone eyeing northern cruising grounds. The humble boat heater has come on considerably since the old coal-fired bulkhead stoves of the last century. These days, the top selling brands are based on a remote diesel burner that heats fresh air via a heat exchanger and uses a powerful…

When the German boatbuilder Bente (pronounced ‘benta’) emerged with its debut boat last year it seemed like a breath of fresh air. Here was evidently a young team full of great new ideas; it wanted to shake things up and change the way we looked at boats. ‘Rescuing the world’ was one of its slightly bombastic slogans; but it was refreshing to see a young boatbuilder with real ambition to bring yachting back to its roots and open it up to a younger audience again. It could have been a one-boat wonder. Except it wasn’t: 52 boats on, Bente is still going and making a really good fist of things by all accounts. It is not only a young company, it is a credible one. It is time to look…

CONTEST 48 | WULLIE WAUGHT The broker didn’t want to reveal the identity of this bluewater yacht’s owner but it’s fair to say he is a household circumnavigating name. The broker says: “Few 48-footers have such a comprehensive and recent inventory. She offers very comfortable seven seas sailing.” That inventory they mention includes full air conditioning, 8KVA generator, electric heads, bimini, full safety gear, new standing rigging, new batteries, hydraulic passerelle, and up-to-date electronics, including a Raymarine Hybrid touch chartplotter and B&G plotter and instruments added in 2014. She Is a masthead cutter with electric furling on the genoa, electric winches and in-boom furling mainsail. There is a range of sails for various bluewater conditions. Accommodation is in three cabins, with a large en-suite owner’s cabin aft with…

NEW LOOK FOR NOSS Noss Marina in Devon is to undergo a major redevelopment. The former shipyard on the River Dart was bought by Premier Marinas in the spring. It can currently take 180 boats afloat, plus 47 on trot moorings. Plans are for a new 250-berth marina with fuel pontoon, new shower and toilet facilities, dry stack and boatyard, boat storage ashore and a pedestrian ferry service to Dartmouth. There will also be a luxury hotel with spa and restaurant, and a café, car parking, marine workshops and space for shops and other businesses. Premier Marinas said disruption would be kept to a minimum: “We understand how to make boatyards work for customers and providers of essential complementary services alike.” Planning consent is expected to be determined in the…

Grand Soleil LC52 £495,000 Grand Soleil has built up a fine reputation for building sleek cruiser/racers over the years, but last year’s launch of the Grand Soleil LC46 pointed to a slight change in direction for the company. She was the first of the new LC range aimed specifically at cruising yachtsmen and has been well received. Following hot on her heels is the LC52, her bigger sister. Once again, this boat has no racing pretensions, and features greater hull volume, increased tankage and simplified sail controls compared to a standard ‘racing’ Grand Soleil. Nevertheless, if she’s anything like the LC46, she’ll be pleasingly rapid and fun to sail. keyyachting.com DNA F4 £1.35m Remember the Gunboat G4? You should do; she was that absurdly rapid foiling catamaran that also had…

‘THE SKILL IS TO READ AT AN EVEN PACE BUT FINISH ON TIME WITHOUT SOUNDING HURRIED’ The first time I read the Shipping Forecast my right knee was trembling under the studio desk,” says Zeb Soanes, a familiar voice, if perhaps not face, to many Sailing Today readers. “I was suddenly keenly aware that this was public service broadcasting in its truest sense, life and death meteorological data, and there was no room for error. It is still one of the most satisfying parts of the job.” Zeb – Zebedee, named after the fisherman in the gospels – has been reading BBC Radio 4’s shipping forecast for 15 years. He is one of a team of eight staff announcers who work a rota of shifts to cover the 20 hours…

River Yealm GILL TAYLOR A favourite cruising destination for many; for some, Devon’s River Yealm remains a hidden gem. Tucked away in the eastern corner of Wembury Bay, guarded by the at-times moody Great Mewstone, let alone the Slimers, the Ebb Rocks and a sand bar that dries on low spring tides, you could be forgiven for passing it by! But, entering the river is not as hard as it sounds and well worth it, for when Misery Point is rounded you reach the Pool and moor up alongside one of the visitor pontoons or pick up a mooring. The Yealm, which means ‘peaceful’, is just that if you explore upstream on a rising tide in early morning or evening. Not suitable for yachts, a dinghy is the best way…

FROM THE PONTOON THERE IS NO MISTAKING THE PEDIGREE OF THIS BOAT: SHE HAS THE OYSTER EYEBROW CONNECTING THE DECK SALOON TO THE COCKPIT COAMING, AND THE CLASSIC RETROUSSÉ STERN If you went to the Southampton Boat Show, you might have seen three sets of spreaders climbing above the other masts in the marina. Towering more than 100ft above the waterline, Oyster’s new 675 has an awe-inspiring rig. The contrast was even greater as I arrived for a test sail at Fox’s Marina in Ipswich, where most other boats are shoal-draught East Coast waders. Just getting out of the berth was quite a feat. It involved pulling the boat off the pontoon with the engine, then spinning her in her own length using bow- and stern-thrusters, and weaving her through…

Bembridge is one of the main cruising stops of the Isle of Wight, alongside Cowes and Yarmouth, and it’s easy to daisy-chain your way along the island’s north coast, heading from one to the next, experiencing their very different charms. Cowes is about 9nm from St Helen’s Fort and Yarmouth is a further 9nm. If you’re inspired by the peace and quiet of Bembridge and enjoy bird watching, Newtown Creek is about 14nm from Bembridge. It gets busy in the summer but is a lovely quiet spot – well, apart from the birds. If you can take the ground you can try Ryde, which has a small drying harbour southeast of the pier. Otherwise there are numerous other anchorages around the island plus the marinas, rivers and bays of the…

PARIS BOAT SHOW 3-11 DECEMBER All sectors of the watersports industry in six exhibition halls over nine days, with late-night opening until 2200 on Friday 9 December. Alight the Metro and tram at Porte de Versailles. For free tickets, email editor@sailingtoday.co.uk salonnautiqueparis.com CRUISING CANADA TALK 7 DECEMBER, CA HOUSE, LIMEHOUSE, LONDON Gus and Helen Wilson speak about their experiences sailing in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Starts 1900; tickets £4 for Cruising Association members and £7 for non-members. theca.org.uk GOLDEN GLOBE RACE PUBLIC BRIEFING 6 DECEMBER, PARIS Find out the latest developments in the run-up to the 2018 Golden Globe Race. Local competitors such as France’s Philippe Pêche and organisers are expected to attend. Briefing starts at noon at the Paris Boat Show. mcintyreadventure.com CUTTY SARK CHRISTMAS CONCERT 10 DECEMBER, GREENWICH, LONDON…