Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2019 i Sailing Today

I WAS FORTUNATE ENOUGH to make a trip to Slovenia this month to test the new Elan 45.1. July in Slovenia in the midst of one of the most savage heatwaves was quite an eye opener and the only place to be by midday was out on the water. It was also very interesting to sail the new Elan - not least because she is a development of the Elan 444 which I worked on back in the hazy days of 2014. The contrast between the old and the new boat was fascinating and made you realise how much work goes into refining and improving these yachts as they are developed. Working on a boat day in, day out gives you a familiarity with a yacht that is strangely intimate;…

GOOD NEWS Eeyore RTI winner An 18ft Alacrity named Eeyore won the 2019 Round the Island race – albeit modified and skippered by her Olympic medal winning owner Jo Richards. Her time around the Isle of Wight was 7hrs 33mins. Hanse dealer of the year Inspiration Marine Group was named Hanse Group worldwide dealer of the year award in July. The Hamble Point Marina based outfit topped the charts based on customer service, feedback and sales. BAD NEWS Paul Heys racing mark for Solent Friends of recently deceased yachtsman Paul Heys are raising funds to drop a racing buoy in the Solent to be named in his memory. The cost over 10 years is £20k. Entangled sharks counted University of Exeter scientists examining studies and social media have found reports…

NEO 350 Neo Yachts is an Italian boatbuilder based in Bari that has carved out a reputation for stylish cruiser/ racers with a strong emphasis on performance. The 350 is the latest addition to its fleet. As you can see from the picture, it’s a very stylish and purposeful-looking yacht. The lines were penned by Bernardo Ceccarelli, who is vastly experienced. Weight has been kept down to a relatively modest 4,500kg and the interior is smart yet relatively spartan. ● €170,000 ● neoyachts.com BENETEAU OCEANIS 30.1 The Oceanis 30.1 is an exciting new addition to the Beneteau range and is definitely the smallest in their Oceanis bracket of cruising yachts (separate from the much racier First range). Yet there is a little bit of racing heritage in the 30.1 as…

Swap meets – I love them. The traditional car boot sale or antiques market in land-lubber life has always had a certain appeal but they are always plagued with the business of having to root through all the junk to uncover something useful. By contrast, a boaters’ swap meet is a thing of beauty as everything, just EVERYTHING, has a use and a function that makes it perfect for someone’s yacht, somewhere. Yachties like a good bargain, probably because we all invest so much time and money into maintaining our boats. In fact, add the word “marine” onto anything in a shop and you’re generally looking at a hefty pricetag with more zeros than you would like to see. So we all share a thinly veiled hope that any compilation…

This trip to Greenland was part of a clockwise circumnavigation of the Northern Atlantic that began thousands of miles ago on the Skeleton Coast – this leg would add another 900 miles. But the Arctic region was both destination and voyage, the Greenland coast ahead a thin break between sea and ice. Coastal voyaging around Newfoundland involves constant contact with ice, which drifts south from Baffin Bay – the sea that divides Greenland from the American continent – Arctic breakaways, many from the eastern Arctic ice shelf driven south then north again by currents, and their cousins calved from Greenland glaciers. At sea, it is a traffic problem something halfway between a shipping lane and a rocky archipelago. One never truly has the feeling of being mid-ocean as a route…

Lowell North was a man respected by all, particularly by those who, like many of us, had met him. It wasn’t difficult to like him, his personality radiated welcome. Even his competitors held Lowell in respect and many of them – as well as his close associates – dubbed him “The Pope”. He was simply superior in technology before it had even been given that term in sailmaking. He was first and foremost a sailor. From the age of 14 when his father purchased a Star and the young Lowell was encouraged to crew for him, his lifetime sport was decided. That Star had cotton sails (it was 1944) and in Lowell’s eyes they had to be altered. He took them to pieces and re-cut the many panels into a…

By the end of September, most prudent sailors in the UK are packing up their boats for the year ready to return to the water with renewed vigour and enthusiasm in the spring. Instead, Pete and I were preparing to embark on a 600nm voyage down the east coast, from Inverness to Southampton, as we needed to get N’Tiana, our beautiful Oyster 435, back to the Hamble River to be put up for sale, before winter frost really set in. It was the final leg of a voyage that had taken us from southern Portugal up to Galicia, across Biscay and the Channel to the Isle of Wight before sailing around the UK. Sailing, like many of the best things in life, rarely runs on schedule. Inevitably, we had reached…

BENETEAU OCEANIS 46.1 The latest generation of the Oceanis range, this is a slightly larger yacht than the Elan. The 46.1 boasts extra volume forward thanks to distinctive 'champagne glass' hull sections, with extreme flare forward above the waterline boosting internal volume beneteau.com JEANNEAU SUN ODYSSEY 440 A smart new design from a French manufacturer with a strong track record in producing yachts for the charter market. The 440 was launched in 2018 and scooped the European Yacht of the Year award in the Family Cruiser category. jeanneau.com HANSE 458 The Hanse 458 is one of the latest additions to the Hanse stable and is a revamp of the hugely popular Hanse 455. Designed by the Judel/Vrolijk design house, she features typically aggressive styling and bountiful internal volume. hanseyachts.co.uk…

CHICHESTER HARBOUR 50° 48.228’ N, 000° 49.830’ W To visit Birdham Pool Marina in Chichester Harbour can feel like you have sailed back to a gentler time, when wool-clad yachtsmen caulked their own seams, packed tins of bully beef for passage, everyone carried a sextant and no one had heard of satellite navigation. Tucked into the eastern edge of the natural sailing playground that is Chichester Harbour, at the southern edge of Chichester Lake, Birdham Pool is a locked, non-tidal basin (apart from at high water springs, when the lock is operated on free flow at the top of the tide), formed when part of the old Chichester Canal was opened up and a lock installed. The site, with an ancient water mill, two large mill ponds and a village…

BIRDHAM POOL Website: castlemarinas.co.uk/marinas/birdham-poolTel: +44 (0)1243 512310 Email: info@birdhampool.co.uk VHF: Ch 80 Call sign: Birdham Pool Marina Charts and plot guide: Admiralty 3418; Imray Y34; Shell Channel Pilot; Solent Cruising Companion Max yacht draught: 6ft 2in (1.9m) Berths: 290 Wifi: Free Electricity: £3.60 per night Water: Free Fuel: Available at Sparkes Marina, Hayling Island Pump out: Not available Waste: Bins and recycling behind office block Laundry: From £1.20; accepts £1 and 20p coins, charge/coin operated Showers and WCs: Free Car park: Free (for berthholders only) Boatyard and lift out: 30 tonne crane; 30 tonne boat mover Boat repairs, maintenance and engineering: The Old Boatshed (Kevin Horn), including GRP, +44 (0)7766 521575; Nelson Engineering (Tony Nelson), Volvo specialist, +44 (0)7803 047863 tony@nelsoneng.co.uk; Tim Gilmore, wooden boats, +44 (0)1243 513872 woodenboatsforever.co.uk; Andrew…

A cruising boat needs to be easily driven. A boat that constantly needs attention on the helm to drive it is just tiring on passage and even under autopilot or self-steering will not achieve good passage times. If a boat is constantly veering off course on a downwind run before it can be brought back onto the proper course, you are effectively adding distance to the passage as well as using lots of amps with the autopilot struggling or putting strain on self-steering components. Most displacement boats have an optimum speed range in the trades and this varies with the type of boat and the sort of rig you have driving the boat. You need to keep the boat moving at a good enough speed through the water so it…

Stainless steel yachtsman’s knife This handy 50mm blade stainless steel yachtsman’s knife with small spike for splicing comes with adjustable length lanyard and includes a shackle key • £26.75 • amazon.co.uk Clipper Compact stainless steel serrated knife - 65mm blade The Compact stainless steel knife from Clipper is a good low budget boating knife. The serrated tempered blade is 65mm long, and a small shackle key is incorporated in the handle. • £13.26 • amazon.co.uk Whitby Ibberson Doublesharp yachtsman’s knife The fine quality stainless steel Whitby Ibberson Doublesharp yachtsman’s knife has a fully serrated blade and a handy locking marlin spike, shackle key and all important bottle opener. • £43.95 • amazon.co.uk Lomo Compact BC knife This hi-vis yellow Lomo Compact BC knife has a stainless steel blade with a…

Yachting Barry Pickthall It seems somehow fitting to have a Barry Pickthall book alongside a Basil Lubbock one; alright, Barry isn’t quite the historical titan that Basil Lubbock is, but he’s not far off. Certainly a yachting institution. I believe he started writing books around 1850 and has been turning out books ever since. Not all of them are excellent but there are some real gems such as To Beat the Clipper Ships, first published in 1980. Anyway, Yachting: start to finish is one of his more workmanlike products and is basically a heavily illustrated guide covering all the basic aspects of going cruising, from the vagaries of navigation through to the technicalities of mooring up. It’s never going to be spectacular, but it is nicely illustrated and well written.…

The China Clippers Basil Lubbock There is an argument that the splendidly evocative name of the author alone means this book merits inclusion in the Classic Choice section. Come to think of it, wasn’t he on the shortlist to be next leader of the Conservative Party? Anyway, Basil Lubbock was not a politician, he was the foremost authority on clipper ships and he was fortunate in that he picked up his pen when many of the captains and crews of the ships that were unquestionably the zenith of commercial sail were still alive. As such, he was able to follow Captain Woodget, skipper of the Cutty Sark, as he stumped around the smallholding he had retired to, diligently taking notes as Woodget tended to his livestock and in between regaled…

A £3.75m deal to upgrade Sunsail’s UK based charter fleet will see 25 new Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 410s arriving at the firm’s Port Solent base. Jeanneau will deliver 15 of the new boats – to be known as Sunsail 41.0 yachts – in 2020, with a further 10 yachts arriving the following year. The new fleet will be available for charters exploring the UK south coast, starting in Portsmouth, Southampton, Cowes, Lymington and throughout the Solent. “We are proud to announce the most significant investment by a charter company in the UK for the last decade,” Simon Cross, Sunsail President said: "The acquisition of these top-quality new yachts will provide a fantastic matched fleet sailing opportunity that is fun, exciting, safe and combines comfort and luxury, unrivalled by any other…

The spirit of the Whitbread Round the World Race is being recreated in a new retro event called the 2023 Ocean Globe Race – 50 years after the first Whitbread was sailed. In a world dominated by professional sailors, foiling yachts and eye-watering budgets, organiser Don McIntyre says the Ocean Globe Race aims to offer once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for ordinary sailors and adventurous yacht owners to follow in the wake of Tabarly, Blake, van Rietschoten, Blyth, Knox-Johnston – and Mexican Ramon Carlin, winner of the first Whitbread fully crewed global challenge in 1973 with his production Swan 65 Sayula II. Organised along similar lines to the successful 2018 Golden Globe Race, which McIntyre also founded, the 2023 Ocean Globe Race (OGR) will follow the original Clipper ship sailing route, just as…

Often I’ve wondered if there is such a thing as the perfect cruising ground, and the general conclusion I’ve come to is that there probably isn’t. The problem is that every member of the crew is looking for something different from their boating holiday, and I doubt there is anywhere in the world where a sulky teenager, an over-enthusiastic skipper, and someone who had bad knees, could all return to their mooring agreeing that they’d all had a jolly good time. Of course, no cruise is entirely perfect; there will always be that row over who let the kettle burn dry, and who was to blame for splattering dazzling new white shorts with glutinous harbour mud. But these are minor skirmishes and will soon be forgotten because overall the entire…

•N’Tiana is a beautiful Oyster 435 – a 43ft (13.1m) ketch – built by Oyster Marine in 1986 •Elegantly designed by Holman and Pye of Colchester, with a fibreglass hull and encapsulated keel, she weighs in at just over 13 tonnes •With a draft of 6ft 6in (2m), her waterline length is 36ft (11m) and beam is 14ft (4.3m) •With a 60ft (18.3m) mast, she has a 821sq ft (76.3m2 ) sail area •She has six berths with three cabins with a large central cockpit •N’Tiana is one of just 65 Oyster 435s built between 1983 and 1995 •They proved to be the second most popular Oyster design ever made…

Plastimo Lifecell A buoyant platform that combines the functions of grab bag and life-float. Provides safe and waterproof storage for distress flares, handheld VHF, lightsticks, EPIRB and PLB, etc. Various sizes – and some are SOLAS approved. • TBC • plastimo.com WS700 Wind Sensor B&G has released a new vertical wind sensor designed for race yachts and larger cruising yachts. The instrument is mounted on a spar that elevates it above sail-plan disturbances, meaning the measurement error is under ±0.5° for wind direction and ±0.2 for wind speed. The design was optimised following more than 500 hours of wind tunnel testing and more than 200,000 hours on the water. • From £1,883 (exc VAT) • bandg.com Typhoon roll-top bag This new roll-top waterproof bag comes from the world’s largest manufacturer…

Shortly after we had paid for our mooring at Palmižana marina in Croatia’s Pakleni islands, we knew we had made a mistake. The plan had been to stay the night at this stunning marina and catch the water taxi over to neighbouring Hvar town, where moorings were scarce. But by late afternoon, things had started to go wrong. What appeared to be several hundred Yacht Week charter boats turned up and all hell broke loose. The marina turned into a circus as the yachts moored up and disgorged their fleshy cargo – thousands of musclebound meat-headed men and worryingly thin bikini-clad girls. All were taking selfies and braying at each other. We fled to Hvar on the water taxi but they pursued us, arriving shortly after on an overloaded gulet…