Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2021 i Yachting Monthly

Yannick Bestaven aboard Maître CoQ IV won the 2020 Vendée Globe after one of the tightest finals in the race’s history. The French skipper crossed the finish line at 0319 on 28 January, behind Charlie Dalin and Louis Burton, but took the top podium position after his race time was amended to 80d 03h 44m 46s following his part in the rescue of fellow competitor Kevin Escoffier from the Southern Ocean in November. Bestaven, 48, was awarded 10 hours 15 minutes time compensation by the Vendée Globe jury, while German skipper Boris Herrmann, 39, and French sailor Jean Le Cam, 61, were awarded 6 hours and 16 hours 15 minutes respectively. Bestaven said his win was ‘a childhood dream’. Dalin, 36, aboard Apivia took second place with a time of…

Henri Lloyd has launched a new REPAIR-REWEAR service to try and encourage customers to consider repairing their favourite product before buying new. All repairs will be sent to the firm’s European production centre which is in Poland. Henri Loyd said customers would have to pay for postage. The cost of repairs range from £30 for a hole to £50 for seat pad reinforcement repair. All repair customers will be supplied with a non commercial value invoice when the item is sent back and Henri Lloyd said it was ‘not expecting’ UK customers to face customs charges. All repairs are guaranteed for two years. The chairman of Henri-Lloyd, Hans Eckerström said: ‘The new REPAIR-REWEAR centre is one of our many sustainable initiatives to produce more longlasting clothing and keep products and…

Competing in long-distance singlehanded events on high performance platforms has certainly fuelled my interest in green energy. These kind of boats create big shifts in apparent wind, and traditional vane steering couldn’t keep up and could capsize a multihull. This meant that we were totally reliant on the first auto helms which were power hungry, temperamental and could only follow a magnetic course. For a transatlantic race we needed at least five complete units as backup, and we used to scour chandleries to make sure that they all had different batch numbers; a frustrating detail prompted by a competitor who fell foul of a common production fault across all his spare units when mid Atlantic! Back then we didn’t have to carry engines and so we were at the forefront…

Soft shackles are just the business these days; easy on the hands, no chafe to worry about and no pin to drop in the drink. But getting them undone does require you to pull the inner core to open the loop end and allow the diamond knot through. This is why a quick-release system is a good idea. Pull the inner core of the shackle out so it makes a loop sufficient to get the diamond knot through comfortably. Then make your hole. Use a fid (a pen or screwdriver will do) to separate the 12-strand rope, pass the lanyard through and tie in a knot. Now set the shackle and smooth the outer core from the diamond knot end to the loop end and nip it up tight. To…

Q I bought my boat in Spain in 2018 and paid Spanish VAT. It was Spanish registered and I have since changed this, so it’s now on the UK Small Ships Register. Post Brexit, am I sailing under EU VAT rules as I paid VAT in Spain or UK rules because I am UK registered? I ask the question because I want to know if I can leave my boat in the Mediterrean for a few years. I then want to cruise to the USA. What happens with VAT if I then want to return to the Med? If I am under EU VAT rules, I guess I can return to the EU without having a VAT issue? If I am under UK VAT rules, should I re-register as a…

Yachtmaster examiners love throwing buckets and fenders over the side to simulate a man overboard. Not only does this put candidates in the position of thinking what they are going to do with a crew member in the water, it is also a good test of boat handling and wind awareness under pressure. If you are practising, the bucket and fender can go in when the helm is ready. Brief the crew beforehand and have someone whose sole job is to point at the MOB. UNDER SAIL This is only going to work if the boat is stopped next to the bucket with the main flapping. We’ve all watched boats sail past MOB dummies at several knots with the main drawing. As soon as the MOB goes in the boat…

When you look at the chart, Weymouth Bay looks like the perfect place to anchor. There is plenty of space and it is well sheltered from prevailing winds from the south west and west, but in good weather it can be a busy place. It is easy to navigate in using the sounder as a guide to find a suitable water depth, but this is where you might come up against some problems. Much of the inshore part of the bay is restricted, with the inshore area designated a bathing area for about a quarter of a mile out to sea from the shore. This includes the area just north of the harbour entrance. Further north around the bay there are designated ski boat, sail board and jet-ski launching areas…

According to our fix, we were within 40 miles of Tristan da Cunha. Even though the island’s highest point, Queen Mary’s Peak, is 2,016m above sea level, we still could not see it, our vision partly hampered by the thick band of low cloud. As darkness fell, everyone assembled on deck trying to get a glimpse of land, but when the light finally faded we realised we would have to trust our calculations. There were 11 of us onboard Skip Novak’s 74ft expedition yacht, Pelagic Australis. After completing a five-day RYA Astro Navigation course followed by a 10-day shakedown sail around the Falkland Islands to put into practice what we had learned, we were ready to take responsibility for the ship. This was when the real challenge started. On our…

Boats come in a wide range of sizes, as do our cruising aspirations, from marina day-sailing to high latitude exploration. The suitability of electric propulsion technology depends largely on these two factors. For dinghies, electric outboards are proven and attractive solutions. Inland waterways craft with low speeds and easy access to shore power are also ideal candidates. And the technology is advancing quickly. Recent trends include electric drive options on many day-sailing boats, which only need power to get in and out of their berth. The ‘maths’ gets more challenging for larger coastal cruising yachts on longer passages, anchoring ‘off-grid’. So what are the sums? Roughly: ■ 1 litre of diesel (0.83kg) = 2.9kWh net engine equivalent (allowing for engine efficiency) ■ Thus the energy density of diesel is circa…

S/Y OCTOPUS (2007, Lagoon 420H) Chris, 60 and Beth, 50, Mowatt bought Octopus new in 2007 and three weeks later headed off on an Atlantic circuit with their six children, aged between six to 12 years, having not sailed for six years and never in anything larger than a 30ft monohull. Octopus is one of the last remaining diesel-electric 420s, most of the others having been converted to conventional diesel propulsion. ‘Octopus proved perfect for the Atlantic circuit and over the year we fell in love with her,’ said Chris. ‘Though she provides similar accommodation to her larger sister, the 450, she has a smaller sail area and her hulls were designed to carry the heavy hybrid propulsion system, hence their reputation for being sluggish. It does also mean, though, that…

CATANA 41/42 Although Catana has been producing cats for some 35 years, the 41 was its first with really modern styling and luxurious accommodation. Its pleasant sheer, streamline coachroof and slightly raked masts means it also performs better than most similar-sized cruising catamarans. In the 41, Catana used the very latest techniques and materials. Vacuum-infusion moulding ensured maximum control of the materials during construction and resulted in consistent quality throughout. It also made the 41 strong, light and, consequently, an excellent performer under sail. All Catanas sport daggerboards and asymmetrical, keel-less hulls. There’s a fractional sloop sailplan, but with the popular option of a second forestay. The standard stay terminates on the deck beam and carries the furling genoa. The outer is for a gennaker and terminates at the end…

Bert ter Hart, who completed a non-stop, unsponsored, solo circumnavigation of the world via the Five Capes, without the use of GPS or other electronic aids to navigation, has won the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC)’s highest honour – the Barton Cup. The American skipper left Victoria, BC on 27 October 2019 aboard his 1987 Reliance 44, Seaburban, returning on 11 August 2020. The OCC Seamanship Award was won by Garry Crothers. The solo skipper, who has just one arm, was in St Martin when COVID-19 struck, and sailed from the Caribbean to Derry in 37 days to attend his daughter’s wedding. Described as a ‘fantastic character full of soul, wisdom and experience’, Nick Skeates has won the OCC Lifetime Cruising Award. Since leaving the UK in 1975, Skeates has lived…

Bob Fisher, the larger-than-life yachtsman, journalist and raconteur, died at home in January, sparking tributes from around the globe, writes Barry Pickthall. He was 85. Born on 20 April 1935 in Brightlingsea, Fisher became fascinated as a young boy by stories regaled by the town’s fishermen. They had crewed on the big yachts of their day, including Sir Thomas Sopwith’s two British J Class America’s Cup challengers Endeavour and Endeavour II in 1934 and ’37, and for Bob, their tales began a lifelong fascination with the Cup. He first made a name as a top crew in the 1960s, winning seven national and world titles in the National Hornet and Fireball dinghy classes, together with the Little America’s Cup in 1967. Controversial in word and mouth, Bob’s comments about the…

Brian Black was as passionate about the marine environment as he was eloquent in his writing and filmmaking about the crises facing fragile Arctic ecosystems. A television journalist for RTE in Ireland, UTV in Northern Ireland, and later through his own production company, he was also a lifelong sailor and contributor to Yachting Monthly. His wife Lesley was a sailor and author in her own right, becoming Northern Ireland’s first female yacht club commodore, blazing a trail for women in sailing. Both passed away recently. As a memorial to Brian and Lesley Black, the Black family, in conjunction with Yachting Monthly, have established an award to celebrate sailing adventures which shed a fresh light on marine environmental issues through inspiring journalism and story telling. The award aims to find the…

When the winter gales rattle rain against the window panes, does anyone else wake up in a warm bed, creep through the cold air to the bathroom, and think, ‘Hell, do I really want to go sailing again?’ There is a parallel, it occurs to me, with that moment in the summer months when you slip down the last two stairs onto your coccyx and, in a rare flash of selfawareness, realise that you don’t really want ever to go sking again. Because falling down is no longer the hilarious fun it was when you were younger. Similarly, in the months before the first warm spring zephyrs drive us mad with desire for our boats, the crueller nights bring on the shudders. There’s nothing like tiles crashing off the roof…

When planning a voyage, we take into account the time available, the crew, the boat, the expected weather conditions and the area which we intend to sail. When the day of departure comes closer, we start monitoring the weather systems more intensely, hoping the planned passage can go ahead. In my early sailing years I often worried about not being able to sail the planned route, but over time I have learned to be more relaxed about changing my plans. Now, the only thing I take into account when choosing a destination is to have the correct charts and books on board. Don’t get fixed too much on the destination until the day arrives.…

Q Vikki purchased her 10m cruiser racer, Meridian, last year. She is an experienced dinghy sailor and has entered a few yacht races but today she is on a cruising holiday to the West Country with two friends. She has taken the RYA shore-based navigation course but not the practical training. It is a hot and humid day in midsummer. They are crossing Lyme Bay on the 45-mile passage from Portland Bill to Dartmouth. They are beating against a 12-14 knot wind from the south-west. The forecast is southwesterly Force 4-6 with occasional thunderstorms, but at the moment Meridian is going well with one reef and the No 1 genoa. There is, however, a blot on the horizon in the form of a monstrous cumulonimbus cloud coming straight for them.…

A good maxim is to engage brain, helm and throttle in that order. Every crew member should know how to start the engine and the basic controls including how to stop it. Turning the boat in its own length or as near as you can is an essential skill to get out of a tight corner. Practise without the bow thruster if fitted so you understand the forces and could cope if it fails. Use the minimum necessary power; winding the revs up in the marina rarely ends well. You need to find a reasonably enclosed space outside the channel; if there is some wind, even better. The prop kick is key so turn whichever way uses it to pull the stern round. The boat will turn most effectively when…

Before anchoring for the night it is important to ensure the yacht is going to stay afloat at low water. This is a simple problem but a surprising number of people struggle with it by introducing the charted depth into the calculation. Obviously the chart needs to be consulted before dropping the anchor to check the sea bed is suitable, but the information you need is: the amount the tide will drop to low water + the draft of the yacht + the clearance you would like. Make sure you anchor somewhere where the depth at that time is greater than the sum of these three numbers. The amount the tide will rise is only relevant for calculating how much chain to put out. You have more choice where you…

■ Cleaning products Ensure the products you use to clean your boat meet Marpol standards. An example is EcoWorks products. They have a complete range of products that are biorenewable, biodegradable and sustainably formulated to minimise the stress, acidity and impact on the marine environment. ■ Food coverings We have become heavily reliant on clingfilm. Try a different option as a sustainable alternative, such as beeswax wraps or silicone stretch lids. ■ Regularly clean your boat to remove biofouling to reduce drag and aid fuel consumption. This will also help remove harmful invasive species and plant matter too. ■ Consider using alternative energy sources such as solar panels, hydro generators and wind generators and changing to lower energy alternatives such as LED lighting. Recharge your batteries through electrical hook-ups onshore…

Anything that gets in contact with the water has the potential to spread invasive species, whether it is your boat or your kit. Here are some top tips to stay safe and clean. 1 ANTIFOULING PAINT Talk to suppliers and manufacturers and find out the best type of antifouling paint for your needs. Pay attention to the instructions when applying and use your boat regularly to make it work properly. 2 STAY CLEAN The aim is not to move any sediments or other material about, so ensure you clean your anchor when you leave an anchorage, wash your trailer when you leave the dinghy park and make sure your hull is clean before you set sail. 3 BE AWARE Events and regattas are a potential biosecurity hazard. Ask all attendees…

The 14ft dinghy was in a nasty trap. With the other sailing school boats, its crew had sailed across Plymouth Sound, around Devil’s Point and up-river past the naval dockyard, but on the return passage they misjudged the ebb tide and were drawn against the bows of two moored lighters. Luckily, they managed to grab the heavy Admiralty mooring buoy to prevent themselves being sucked between the hulls, where the mooring chains and churning current could have capsized the dinghy and pulled them under. I was on the sailing school launch with Jack, the senior instructor, for a kind of floating interview as I had applied for a summer job. When he asked: ‘Can you throw a rope?’ this looked like being the key assessment test. Jack throttled back to…

When we arrived at Lundy’s anchorage the sea was smooth and the evening sun warm as we settled in the cockpit for a rewarding sundowner. The island’s bay was well sheltered from the westerly breeze and the anchor had dug in well. We made our plans for a morning expedition ashore and relaxed to admire the view. All was well with the world, and we turned in contentedly anticipating a peaceful night’s sleep. How things can change with the turn of a tide! We were woken by the clashing of pans, cutlery, and plates as our Southerly 105 Aurial began rocking violently from side to side. Having failed to block out the cacophony of unwanted sound I accepted that I’d have to take action. Emerging from the comfortable cocoon of…

Lithium is still the performance choice for storing renewable energy on board. Advances in chemistry and design driven by the automotive sector are making it possible to store more energy in the same footprint. So the capacity of the BMW i3 battery that Torqeedo offers has risen from 30kWh to 40kWh over five years. Promising technologies have been demonstrated in the lab. California’s QuantumScope has developed a stable battery that uses solid lithium as the anode, and offers four times the energy density of current lithium batteries plus lightningfast recharge speeds. Other approaches use graphene, salt, aluminium and even ceramic, as well as solid electrolytes. ‘The technological development of batteries is really fast,’ says Oceanvolt’s head of R&D Marko Mäki. ‘We believe that in the future, the combination of battery…

It’s the elephant in the cabin, the big question that’s been looming for decades: ‘What do we do with old GRP boats?’ Anyone who has been for a beach walk in popular boating areas in the UK can’t help but have noticed the growing number of abandoned boats accumulating on the foreshore or collecting moss up some leafy creek. Most boatyards and marinas have their fair share of ‘derelicts’ which are clearly beyond economic repair. And yet the answer to the question of how to deal with this growing problem has been a resounding silence, simply because there wasn’t an answer. Now, there are at last signs that solutions are beginning to emerge. And just in the nick of time. But first, let’s remind ourselves of the scale of the…

Action will be taken against uncoded commercially operated sailing yachts engaged in racing, the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) has warned. It has just agreed to discontinue prosecutions against the owners of two yachts after they agreed to enter into a written agreement to ensure their vessels are coded when used for commercial activity. Small, commercially operated yachts must hold a valid code certificate when being used for any commercial purposes, including racing and training. The boats must also only operate within the category of water for which they have been authorised. The lead investigator at the MCA as part of the Regulatory Compliance Investigations Team, Mark Flavell, said commercially operated vessels must be coded. ‘This is to ensure commercial vessels are subject to an independent survey and inspection regime.…

Australian solo sailor Jon Sanders has now completed his 11th circumnavigation of the world. The 81-year-old crossed the finish line at Fremantle on 31 January, having left 455 days earlier aboard his 39ft S&S design Perie Banou II. He has now sailed around the world more times than any other sailor. During his #NoPlasticWaste voyage, he collected 214 sea water samples which he sent off to researchers at Curtin University in Western Australia studying levels of marine microplastic. Scientists say the results will form the first reliable database of microplastic levels in the Southern Hemisphere, and will be critical for research to determine if levels of plastic are increasing. Sanders faced delays during his voyage due to COVID-19, which saw him sail 4,000 miles nonstop from the Panama Canal to…

ARCONA 465Z CARBON If standard Arconas are quick, this carbon version is a real flyer that will reward experienced sailors, easily capable of double figures off the wind. I sailed her in little more than 6 knots true breeze, and upwind with 11 knots over the deck we hit 6 knots boatspeed. First built in 2017, the ‘Z’ is why I was aboard for a test sail. The lighter and faster the boat, the more an electric propulsion system makes sense – you’ll be sailing more, the motor will have less work to do to push you along, and you’ll be sailing at speeds that make use of any regenerative potential (6.5 knots+). The limitation of current electric saildrives is that they stop at 15kW (20hp), so Arcona have fitted…

Aged 12, I needed only a lift-off rudder, damp cotton sails and bruised oars to attain a sense of achievement. With these tools I could make physical sense of space and time. I didn’t know it then, but I was involved in reality calculus. Change in wind patterns altered the set of the sails and if I did not trim them, I did not proceed. Change in the range of tide could be mitigated by lifting or lowering the rudder blade and centre-plate. And when both elements failed, in other words when the wind died and the tide started ebbing away, there were the oars. Whatever happened I could advance, and learning to harness the natural forces available in this way instilled intuition. There is no better way to learn…

Send your questions to our experts at yachtingmonthly@futurenet.com for the chance to win a bottle of Chilgrove gin It stands to reason that if lightning occurs more frequently in hotter weather, then the frequency of lightning strikes might increase with global warming. A model published in Science in 2014 predicted that lightning strikes will increase by about 12% for every degree of rise in global average air temperature. A previous sailing boat we owned was struck by lightning on her mooring. The lightning wiped out all electronics and electrical equipment, including all wiring throughout the boat. It also blew the fairing out of the bottom of the keel. That boat had a lightning dissipator on her mast, which we decided was a lightning attractor. Had she had plastic through hulls, they…

These days you tend to trust GPS positions implicitly. It will pinpoint your position and the sounder can show the depth. If the sounder depth does not match that shown on the chart then take this as a warning sign. GPS jamming means there will be no position and depending on your GPS you may not be aware of this. Spoofing can be another problem. This could be the time to rediscover those long lost skills of position fixing without GPS.…

WATCH THE VIDEO www.yachtingmonthly.com/rigcheck There are plenty of ways that a mast or its rigging can fail, but there are often key telltale signs that a problem is about to develop. Fatigue is one of the biggest factors when it comes to the issues that lead to problems and lack of articulation is usually where the trouble starts. So, a good visual check where you can move each component around can go a long way to identifying potential problems. And it is for this reason that, while it is possible to perform a check with the mast in situ, it is more effective to take a good look when it is out of the boat when the rigging is slack and you can get a much better look at the…

Once the sails are up, a few tacks will remind the crew which way the sheets go round the winches and the importance of making up the lazy sheet for the new tack. Any mistakes will be obvious. Gybing is more hazardous on a windy day and some coordination is required. Someone at the stern calling the manoeuvre will ensure that sheets are not wrapped around the windlass, the main is pulled in, heads are down and the helm is put over at the right moment for the gybe. MOORINGS If you can find a mooring in reasonably clear water there are a number of boat-handling exercises which will help helm and crew work together. First is approaching as if to moor under sail. With wind and tide together this…

You can easily tear a sail if the crew is not coordinated when putting in a reef. The most common mistake is forgetting to ease the kicker which is necessary because the boom is usually higher when the sail is reefed. Traditional slab reefing requires a crew member at the mast, on the windward side. The mainsheet is eased to depower the sail, the kicker eased; topping lift raised and the main is lowered until the mast crew indicates the reef cringle is in line with the ram’s horn at the gooseneck. The cringle is attached and the main halyard can then be tightened. The reefing pennant is tensioned. It’s important to hoist the sail before tensioning the clew. Topping lift off and kicker on. Sheet in and secure the…

Here at the boatyard, despite still being able to source Myanmar teak relatively easily, we remain on the lookout for workable alternatives. The answer isn’t easy. In some applications synthetic teak, such as Permateek, is really effective – it works well for decking and toe rails but there are some occasions and jobs when a real wood solution is necessary. We will continue to use Kebony and will also try cork and Lignia, a modified Radiata pine, which has been used to good effect by Spirit Yachts. Accoya is another modified Radiata pine using a greener acetylation process, and although this wood has been around for many years it is not often used in the yachting market as it’s not the ‘correct’ colour to be a teak replacement, being more…

1 DIDEMNUM VEXILLUM Also known as the carpet sea-squirt or ‘sea vomit’. It smothers all other species and competes for food. It’s a particular problem for shellfish aquaculture and is in competition with native species. It can cover large areas of seabed. 2 DARWIN’S BARNACLE This invasive species is now a widespread hullfouling organism. Originally from Australasia, it reproduces and grows more quickly than native barnacles and so can displace them. Most widespread in estuaries in southwest England. 3 THE STRIPED BARNACLE A less widespread pest but it is causing problems in the south east in particular. The most worrisome of the new species is the Titan acorn barnacle. Although now in Europe, it has yet to be recorded in the UK. 4 INVASIVE CRABS The banks of the Thames…

The purchase of Snoopy wasn’t our first impulsive decision. In fact, without a series of spontaneous choices we wouldn’t have been on the outskirts of Oslo about to see our new yacht, with plans to sail her north during the Norwegian winter. This also wouldn’t be our first time taking a boat into the Arctic Circle. In 2014, my partner Daniel and I, along with our friend, Daniel Elves motored our 23ft Carson RIB from Orkney up the Norwegian coast to the Arctic Circle, returning after 29 days. We had made the voyage to raise our friend’s spirits after his recovery from testicular cancer. It was an emotional experience and had led us to decide that living life impulsively bought exactly the type of excitement we longed for. Two years…

I love the way young people now seem to think they have discovered green issues. Some of us have been on about it ever since the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring back in the early 1960s. It was the first book that really pointed out the threats to the environment that were coming. I read it while I was living in India. And it made me sit up and think: ‘Wow, this is something we need to take seriously.’ For those of us concerned at the time, we hoped that the book would create an international campaign. It didn’t. But here we are 60 years on and things have changed. People are taking this much more seriously. David Attenborough’s been very influential, he’s got a voice of quiet authority…

Let’s be clear, electric propulsion is nowhere near a 300-mile range at 6 knots on a 38ft yacht, but I think it is viable for a typical 30 footer in the Solent and crossing the Channel occasionally, as long as you don’t motor long distances against full-bore spring tides, and use the sails most of the time. For example, a 60-mile range under power in a flat calm at 4.5 knots looks achievable. That’s why I have decided to convert my Sadler 29 to electric propulsion. You may need a more traditional approach to cruising, but for me having no noise, no vibration, no smell and no maintenance is worth the compromise. After a season of real-world testing in our Sadler 29 here’s what we found. We fitted a prototype…