Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2023 i Sailing Today

Long ago, on a far-flung Finnish island, I met a fisherman with two daughters. One had studied at Harvard and spoke perfect American. Her sister had followed the family’s ancient calling as a fisher girl. The salmon weren’t biting, but she had a proper seaman’s optimism. As she shoved off from the dock one night to try her luck, I asked her why she still bothered. ‘Ah,’ she replied shrewdly. ‘You never know what you’ll find swimming in the sea….’ As the years have passed, I’ve often thought how right she was, and never more so than the day I went to sea in a skip. I’d been filming a show for BBC4 that centred on how the allies got troops ashore on the Normandy Beaches in 1944. The programme…

This French yard has been refining the concept of luxurious large catamarans for almost 40 years. They are conceived from the outset to offer private owners looking to sail long distances the optimum in space and comfort. The 580 is an all-new Marc Lombard designed semi flybridge model with impressive accommodation both below and above decks. Lombard has drawn flatter forward sections in the hulls, which increase lift when at speed, allowing the boat to be driven harder when reaching and running in strong winds. Our test boat was hull number two, and the first one with a galley on the bridge deck, and without a forward cockpit. It’s owned by a long-standing multihull owner with a large family, who plans a circumnavigation. This is a size of boat that…

You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said that or was it Bob Dylan? Anyway, it’s not terribly important; the key take home is that it’s tricky to keep people with widely different needs happy at the same time. Ask whoever is leading the government at the time of going to press. But all of this preamble brings me to the subject I’ve been skirting around; namely the cruiser/racer - that most alluring of yachts that tries to span the chasm between comfort and speed. Results have been mixed over the decades but, as often as…

What’s the definition of ‘high performance’? For most of us, we don’t even question the notion that it’s about going faster. And for the past 10 years we have been obsessed with the power of hydrofoiling to propel wind-powered craft to 50kts and beyond. However, the limitation of foiling is its dislike for anything more than mildly choppy wave conditions. The best-known examples of foiling craft such as the America’s Cup AC75s, the SailGP F50 catamarans, Nacra 17 catamarans, International Moths and foiling kiteboards tend to gravitate towards flat water venues. They tend to avoid big wave venues that would actually be a lot of fun in a more conventional boat like a Laser, a 470, or a typical keelboat. While foiling is fun, it massively limits your playground, and…

My mission for the summer was to help an owner to sail his boat all the way from Stornaway back down south to Port Solent. It would be difficult for him to sail all that way singlehanded when quite elderly, and of course it meant more sailing for me. I was rather looking forward to a rest day next day after the long trip up to Stornaway but the owner was quite anxious to get going. At least I was able to negotiate a late start. So that day we made our way tacking and motor-sailing against a southerly wind to reach Scalpay, which I had not been into before. We approached via the northern sound and the question was, would we get under the bridge that connects Scalpay with…

GREEN SAILING The sailing world is a bizarre mix of extreme sustainability (wind power is, of course, a deeply sustainable form of propulsion) mixed with a fairly grim reality of hugely unsustainable plastics. Glassfibre and carbonfibre produced in the traditional manner with epoxy glue are the antithesis of sustainable and it is therefore to some extent understandable that when noted environmentalist Greta Thunberg chose to sail to the US on the carbonfibre catamaran Malizia II a few years back, she was derided in certain quarters. There remains no cost effective way of recycling the thousands glassfibre boats produced since the 1960s and the best solution remains to chop them up into pieces and put it in landfill. Shells of once fine yachts can be seen in every mooring and anchorage…

GULL’S EYE Emsworth Yacht Harbour is a delightful, family-owned business in Chichester Harbour at the top of Emsworth Channel and within walking distance of the centre of Emsworth and railway station. It is known for its friendly community and has a loyal customer base, with over 200 fully serviced pontoon berths and extensive facilities. Emsworth YH is also part of the TransEurope Marinas network scheme that offers reciprocal berthing to its members across Europe, which means half price visitor fees for its members. As with most businesses, its website, aka shop window, is a good indication of the way in which it’s run. Thankfully Emsworth YH’s website comes up trumps there too, with its clear, concise, easy to navigate structure that contains everything required to welcome visitors. With so much…

We British have a reputation for being rather demure when it comes to… ahem… toilet matters. We disguise this most basic of needs by our choice of vague language such as “using the facilities” or “spending a penny”, even referring to “lavatory” or “wc”. And why not? In a normal home you discreetly use the bathroom, press the flush and walk away, modesty intact. Yet when it comes to toilet use on a sailing boat you need to be frank, direct and pretty comfortable with being open about these things. It actually always makes me giggle that shortly after welcoming any guests to stay onboard one of the first things I say is “now, let me talk you through using the loo…”! But far from me actively seeking any involvement…

Ace 30 A boat that couldn’t fail to turn heads at Le Grand Pavois Boat Show was the Ace 30, making its debut on the sailing scene in some style. The yacht is the brainchild of naval architect Antoine Mainfray, who has worked on Alex Thomson’s Hugo Boss project, among many others. The Ace 30 is a dramatic take on the scow design that takes many of the attributes of recent Mini Transat design and transposes them onto a slightly larger boat, optimised for IRC racing but also easily converted into a fast, minimalist cruiser. The boat is constructed in epoxy ply reinforced with carbonfibre and boasts good eco credentials with biodegradable epoxy used throughout. ● archinavale.carbonmade.com CR Yachts 490 DS Remember Sweden Yachts? Remember when Sweden used to make…

Cruising - UK to Caribbean oats are my life, love and passion. You’re about to embark on the biggest adventure of my life. A present-day sailing circumnavigation on board Ocean Strider. An old girl with a modern heart. She’s a Cobra sail boat, designed by David Feltham and produced by Cobra Yachts. A 1979, 10m, Bermudan rigged, twin keel sail boat with electric axillary engine. Nothing out of the ordinary there. The difference is that she runs on free, sustainable, clean energy produced by wind, sun and water. From the seed that started my current quest to the present day and beyond, this is an account about my travels and why I love electric propulsion; my learning curve and how I made it work – short journeys and the huge…

Cape 31 he 2022 inshore race scene was remarkable for a class that swept the IRC Nationals taking the top four spots in IRC2; then, a few weeks later, the top three in IRC2 along with Boat of the Week at Les Voiles de Saint Tropez. At the same time, back on the Solent, the same class was dominating the headlines with a 21-boat turn out for its own national championship – just 18 months on since its one-design race circuit was first established in the UK. The boat in question is, of course, the eye-catching Cape 31, which has seen a meteoric rise since David Bartholomew and his father Mike introduced the Mark Mills one-design to the UK from South Africa in 2019. Having been wowed by seeing the…

MDL’s Green Tech Boat Show moves to Southampton in 2023 after two successful years at Queen Anne Battery marina in Plymouth, showcasing the latest innovations in sustainable sailing. The show is part B2B, with exhibitors finding useful partnerships among like-minded businesses, but it’s mostly about giving sailors a chance to see how they can make their own sailing more ‘green’. Unsurprisingly the demand is growing all the time, with existing boat owners wanting to retrofit environmentally friendly kit to their yachts, and prospective or new boat owners wanting to enter the nautical world in a way that isn’t in conflict with how they live their lives at home. The 2022 show was 30 per cent bigger than the 2021 event and things are only set to grow. MDL’s Sales &…

VISMARA V56 | TAZKEENA Tazkeena is a stunning example of a V56 that was designed as a modern, ultra-slippery bluewater fast cruising yacht for a serial Vismara owner. It was the brainchild of Mark Mills and team from Vismara Marine and came about following the enormous success of the multi-Maxi world championship-winning Vismara V62. With Lucio Micheletti joining the team as interior designer, this boat has a light, luxurious, spacious feel down below, has been well-thought out and functional, and offers exceptional performance. Overall, the V56 is a high quality blue water cruiser for the experienced owner, with tried and tested technological solutions, and built using the best composite materials. Among her huge list of attributes, Tazkeena comes complete with a recently replaced sail wardrobe, air conditioning throughout, solar panels…