Indholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2023 i Yachting Monthly

Three adventurers, led by former soldier Chris ‘Cam’ Cameron, are now camped out on Rockall, a barren granite rock in the Atlantic ocean, more than 200 miles east of Scotland, where Cameron plans to live for 65 days and raise £50,000 for military charities. Cameron (53), accompanied by radio operator Adrian ‘Nobby’ Styles and mountaineer Emil Bergmann sailed three days (420 miles) from Inverkip Marina on the Clyde and landed on Rockall on May 30. The trio’s ascent up the 17m-high granite rock was hazardous with large seas twice washing Bergmann, who disembarked first, off the sheer cliff face. The team aim to push the boundaries of human endurance, camping on a small 4m by 2.5m ledge, known as Hall’s Ledge on the 31m-long rock. Styles and Bergmann will spend…

Founded in 1994, Nautitech Catamarans have been part of the Bavaria Yachts Group since 2014, though they are still built in Rochefort in France. Previous models have offered options to appeal to charter as well as private owner, but along with other brands leaving the charter market behind, Nautitech has taken the bold decision to go with the boom in private catamaran ownership, and produce a new model focused on the wishes of individuals. Designed and built at the height of the pandemic, it used a working group of current owners and dealers, as well as virtual-reality testing of computer models to create the new design. The 44 Open is Nautitech’s first new model for several years and it aims to strike a balance between high-performance and high-volume. To that…

One thing that’s curiously easy to forget, once you’ve done a fair bit of sailing, is that you personally don’t find any of it unusual. The cramped cabin, nights either tied onto a narrow shelf or up the fo’c’sle tucked up next to a couple of oars and a boathook, possibly with your boots and oilskin trousers still on: all normal. Even by day you accept peacefully the way that your whole small world keeps banging around or leaning over at a ridiculous angle, with an unnerving soundscape and water very close indeed. It’s all fine; you’re clipping along nicely, decent forecast, no problems. Drizzling a bit? Water running down the back of your neck because you had your hood off for a minute during the tack? Well, it’s the…

Unable to commit to the 2022 Golden Globe Race without the financial support of a title sponsor, Abhilash Tomy was the last to enter the race, and therefore had less time to prepare his Rustler 36, Bayanat. This resulted in him making repairs throughout much of his circumnavigation. The work began two weeks before the start, when Bayanat was involved in a collision with a cargo vessel. More than 18 inches of the bow section and a larger portion of the deck was delaminated and had to be cut away and replaced. The repair cost fell on Tomy personally as it was outside of his sponsorship deal; this meant he had to cancel his order for a weather fax, and spent most of the race relying on forecasts from ships…

Barnacle growth on the hull of his OE32 meant the race ended in Hobart for Jeremy Bagshaw, although he still continued in the Chichester Class for entrants who made one stop. He had antifouled Olleanna with Coppercoat and began noticing a drop in speed after sailing through the Cape Verdes archipelago. ‘You have no idea, the anguish that went with giving away between 20-30 miles every single day to the others for weeks,’ he said. ‘It was awful, but one has to try and solve the problem rather than getting angry or disappointed, as that just takes too much energy.’ He spent three consecutive days cleaning the hull in the Atlantic, only to discover the growth was much worse when he arrived in Cape Town. Once again, he removed barnacles…

When will the sea breeze fill in? If you can see a line of puffy cumulus clouds along the shore it often indicates a sea breeze has formed. These are mainly encountered in spring and summer, where the land is much warmer from the sea. When the gradient wind is offshore you’ll have to watch out for the zone of total calm where the sea breeze begins as this will really slow down any progress. Throughout the day this calm zone will shift out to sea, but crossing it may be a risk worth taking for the stronger winds nearer the shore. Contrary to popular belief, sea breezes form better with an offshore wind, despite the fact that at surface level a sea breeze is an onshore wind. This is…

Is the Bill’s inshore passage a good idea? Q Ed is skipper of a 10m production cruiser racer Aurora, which he keeps in Weymouth. He is returning from a West Country cruise with three friends and preparing to round Portland Bill. Portland Bill has a race which extends about 3 to 5 miles south of the Bill, and the streams at springs can exceed 7 knots. It has been described as the most dangerous extended area of broken water in the English Channel. However, in fine weather yachts can round the Bill by taking an inshore passage no more than about 200m off the tip of the land where the sea can be fairly calm. Skippers have to be cautious in this area as there are strong south-going streams which…

Cape Horn gave me a good beating, and I needed to sort some problems on the boat, so I anchored off Picton Island in the lee of the Horn. It was a good break, and the boat felt ready as I set off north amid a snow storm for what should have been a downhill run towards home. I was also very aware, however, that I was still a long way south in the Furious Fifties. For the first few days it was just that, helped by the northward Falklands current, but then a week of headwinds, which pushed me quite far east, about 1,000 miles or so from the Falklands and 4-500 miles north of South Georgia. That’s when I got a weather warning from GGR race control, which…

Heads on yachts, as we all know, represent a range of challenges. Some are physical, some mechanical, and some spiritual. My personal date with destiny came after a lovely weekend sail on Sobek with the family, when someone broke the cardinal rule of ‘No Number Twos’ on board. The reason for this draconian measure, which may seem barbaric to some, is that our heads is a fairly simple ‘seawater in, unpleasantness out’ affair, powered by a medieval hand pump. As such, we try to avoid anything too substantial passing through our system, and then the boat’s system, as it were. There’s the environmental side as well. And I’ll leave it at that. For those of you still with me, my date with destiny aligned neatly with one of the hottest…

Old Gaffers four-day Diamond Jubilee A large fleet of classic yachts and working boats will gather on the River Orwell, Ipswich in August to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Old Gaffers Association (OGA) with a four-day Diamond Jubilee party. The event, from 3-6 August, will see around 100 yachts in a magnificent parade of sail, with historic yachts such as Bonita, built by Crossfields of Arnside in 1888, and motor yacht Lilian, built in 1916, taking part. The event will welcome the fleet of 20 old gaffers, which set out from Ramsgate in May, on a three-month circumnavigation of Britain as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations. The Jubilee Party in Ipswich is the last of nine OGA events planned to welcome the Round Britain fleet at Ramsgate, Cowes,…

www.yachtingmonthly.com/books Watching the sunset, standing under the blazing stars, feeling the wind on my face both day and night, had been a given. Now, here I was, in a grey city with a great cappuccino. A 24-year-old, with party invites to celebrate the end of university, friends to see, exams to take, and yet this terrestrial life felt insubstantial. I wrote the essays, went to the parties, celebrated with my friends, drank the rum, but part of me still felt at sea. I was back on shore for so little time, I didn’t manage to adjust. The days raced by, and almost before I knew it, I was stepping out of a cab and onto the docks of Horta, on Faial, in the Azores archipelago. Something in the air felt…

RED PADDLE COMPACT 11.0 £1,499 A top-end SUP for touring. The middle size of three compact boards, for riders up to 110kg. At 32in it should be good and stable. It’s designed to fold in half before rolling to make a really small pack size with twin fins and a 5-piece carbon paddle fits into the smaller bag, which is just 56cm long www.red-equipment.co.uk JOBE MIRA 10.0 £499 Jobe is a long-standing brand in inflatable water toys and they enjoy a reputation for high-quality boards. The Mira is their entry-level SUP that is recommended for up to 100kg. It has a more rounded shape but is slightly lower volume. It is also heavier thanks to a more heavyweight construction. www.jobesports.com ITIWIT X100 £299 This 10ft touring board is for entry-level…

One sailor has died and another is missing after two separate MOB incidents, hours after each other, during cross-Channel races on the last weekend in May. A British sailor fell overboard in French waters around 1400 on 26 May, some six hours into the 66-mile Royal Escape Race from Brighton to Fécamp, Normandy. A lifeboat, French rescue helicopter and a fishing boat were diverted to the area. The fishing boat picked up the casualty who was airlifted to hospital in Le Havre, but later pronounced dead. Race hosts, the Sussex Yacht Club said the club is ‘deeply saddened by the tragic loss of one of our fellow sailors’. The man, who has not been named, was reportedly from the Greater Manchester area. Later, around 2130, a crew member was washed…

Premier Marinas this month celebrated the opening of the new marina at Noss on Dart after investing £34m of a planned £80m investment in the 37-acre site on the River Dart. The official opening in May was attended by the Mayor of Dartmouth Cllr David Wells, Anthony Mangnall MP and Premier Marinas CEO Pete Bradshaw. The opening marks the end of the first phase of the regeneration of the extensive site. The 232-berth floating marina offers a dry stack for over 100 boats as well as a lounge with panoramic views of the River Dart. A further £45m is planned in the second phase of the development to build a hotel and riverside apartments. The redevelopment sees the use of environmental initiatives such as solar panels, wildlife-friendly lighting, a FiltaBund…

Hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, orca and sperm whale are set to receive greater legal protections under an extension of the UK’s 2018 Ivory Act, which bans all trade in ivory for many different species, the government has announced. Hippopotamus is the species second most at risk from the ivory trade, after elephants. The other species are already threatened by climate change, and the continuing trade in their ivory may exacerbate these threats and make their long-term survival less likely. ‘The Ivory Act is one of the toughest bans of its kind in the world and by extending greater legal protections to five more species, we are sending a clear message the commercial trade of ivory is totally unacceptable,’ said Biodiversity Minister Trudy Harrison. The announcement comes after a public consultation. Those…

Like the previous editions of the Golden Globe Race, the 2022 event attracted both professional and amateur sailors; some were determined to win, while others wanted to fulfil their dreams of finishing a solo, non-stop round the world yacht race. There was no shortage of people signing up to race in long-keel pre-1988 production yachts between 32ft-36ft without the use of modern technology, although just 16 made it to the start line on 4 September 2022. By the first gate in Lanzarote, two – Edward Walentynowicz and Mark Sinclair – had retired due to personal reasons; there were more retirements by Cape Town due to windvane steering failure (Pat Lawless), a bending mast (Arnaud Gaist), loneliness (Ertan Beskardes) and, in the case of Guy de Boer, damage to his boat…

Simon Curwen is a seasoned racer and his sailing tactics during the race were remarkable. His routing skill and his seamanship – constantly trimming sails and steering the fastest course – made it a more exciting race, and saw him come back from the brink of disaster to take line honours after 234 days at sea. He was leading the race in his Biscay 36, Clara, before a knockdown 1,200 miles from Cape Horn broke the main casting on the head of his Hydrovane self-steering gear. The main casting translates the vane movement into an up and down movement through the piston that turns the rudder. It was a part neither Hydrovane or Curwen expected to fail and, as such, he had no spare onboard. The former Mini Transat veteran…

There are boats on which you want to play it safe, reef early and hunker down. The Elan E4 is not one of them; this is a boat that makes you want to get stuck in and enjoy some proper, fun sailing. The solid Force 5 gusting 6 that was pushing a lumpy sea into the Easter Solent off Portsmouth only added to the sense of anticipation as we set out for our test, and lines were rigged for the whopping asymmetric spinnaker. I had in mind that I really wanted to see what this boat could do, having heard much about her predecessor, the Elan 360, of which is she is a very slight update, and reuses the same Humphreys-designed hull of the original Elan 350 from 2012. While…

Electrical systems and electronics have become such an essential part of our normal lives that it’s hard to imagine life without them. Those good old days when there was a map in the glove box, awareness of the sun’s location and a dinghy compass glued to the dashboard of the family car are becoming a dim and distant memory. Amazingly it’s not even a memory for the younger generation who look at a map as if it’s an Egyptian parchment that requires mystical alchemy to decipher the direction of travel. The sophistication that has recently become the norm on standard yachts is quite extraordinary. Chart plotters, AIS, radar, wind instruments, Bluetooth windlass controls, chain counters, fridges, freezers, heaters, hot and cold running water, USB points, satcoms, underwater lights, electric outboards,…

POWER RESILIENCE The first rule of a power failure is not to have one and there’s lots of preventative measures to hand. Spread your sources of power across a number of technologies. On Oddity we have the main engine alternator, a wind generator and solar panels with the option of hydro generation if we go ocean sailing. Make sure your engine is serviced and do your daily checks to include alternator belt tension and running your eye over all connections to see if there is any furring or corrosion. Have your batteries tested at the start of the season because old batteries are a common point of failure. Electrical systems are often overwhelmed as additions start to draw down more power than their original design. In this instance it’s worth…

1 DON’T BE A HERO There were points it was tempting to go on deck to clear the rig, to keep on working when I needed to rest, or to try and cope alone when it was time to call for help. Taking the sensible course of action early is good seamanship. 2 COMMUNICATIONS Having multiple means of communication was a life saver. I was able to use two methods of communication to raise and confirm the alarm, and then establish two-way comms by satphone. 3 THINKING STRAIGHT It’s hard to keep a clear mind in the middle of a storm. Keep planning ahead and taking the next necessary action will help. Work through a jobs list and work to keep options open to keep you safe. 4 RIG PLAN…

Not all that long ago the last word in marine waterproofing was sailcloth coated with tar and some stout woollens. With no more protection than that, fishermen, sailors and explorers achieved the most astonishing feats of endurance in cripplingly bad weather conditions. Frankly put, extreme clothing was pretty rubbish. As late as the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, sailors were still competing in flannel trousers and Guernseys. However, British sailor Keith Musto, who won silver at the games, was soon to upend all that by bringing in modern technical fabrics for the first time. The company he founded, Musto, is still at the cutting edge today, but there are now a host of competing high-quality manufacturers, from Henri Lloyd to Helly Hansen. And they are all trying to find the same elusive…

Water resistance is relatively simple to measure. In essence, you stretch the fabric across the bottom of a tall cylinder, which you slowly fill with water until the fabric begins to leak. The higher the column, the more resistant the fabric. As the head of water can be 30-40m tall, a machine is often used to generate hydrostatic pressure. Some 1,500mm of water pressure is the legal threshold for waterproofing, but even basic sailing gear starts at around 10,000mm. A really extreme garment can manage 30,000mm or more. Breathability is harder to measure, and there are several competing tests. One reproduces the column test in reverse, by stretching the fabric over a jar of water or brine and seeing how many grams of it pass through in 24 hours. A…

Although most yachts are now equipped with affordable electronic navigational aids that can pinpoint your position to within just a few metres, it’s still good practice to keep a pair of decent marine binoculars handy on board. Whether you’re trying to identify a tricky harbour entrance, take a closer look at an approaching vessel in low light, or simply check your rigging, a good pair of binos will repay their purchase price many times over as a vital tool for safe pilotage. Recent years have seen significant developments in the quality of binocular design, construction and manufacturing. Lens coatings and prisms have improved hugely, enabling up to 95% of the light from a distant object to now reach the eye for brighter and more detailed imagery. Only a couple of…

Sailing across the Atlantic in a 1m boat was a dream for Andrew Bedwell, but his attempt to complete the journey is over after Big C took on water shortly after the start and collapsed. After two years of preparation, 49-year-old Bedwell set off in Big C in late May to sail the 1,900 miles from Newfoundland, Canada, to Lizard Point, Cornwall, attempting to set a record for crossing the Atlantic in the smallest boat ever. He planned to raise funds for cancer charities in memory of his father, mother and friend, Tom McNally. Shortly after departing from Newfoundland, Bedwell realised the boat was taking on water. He returned to harbour and while Big C was being lifted out of the sea for inspection, the framework gave way. Big C…

Multihulls are clearly booming. They’ve been popular as charter boats for a long time, thanks to the sheer amount of real estate they offer, and the appeal of life on an even keel. The high-volume charter boats haven’t, however, done much to improve multihulls’ reputation for aesthetics or performance. Outremer catamarans are cut from a different cloth. Light and fast, they are aimed at performance cruising with double-figure speeds, while still being comfortable to live aboard and without being extreme machines. They are serious blue-water cruising boats and are increasingly popular, albeit at a price that puts them on a par with the priciest top-end luxury monohulls. French boat builder and owner of several mulithull brands, Grand Large Yachting has pooled serious knowledge, design and build experience to create what…

The ebb tide poured out of the River Tyne as a small potting boat struggled against it, crawling in past a broken plateau of rock and up towards a few yachts strung out on fore and aft moorings. As I trudged towards the giant Collingwood memorial towering over the harbour mouth, I read a tourist board which stated that the reef beneath me, the Black Middens, had claimed many a ship. One local told me, ‘Yachts still hit it today if they’re not careful.’ In 1536 Henry VIII ordered the first set of lights to mark the reef, but still ships foundered there down the years. In 1864, after three days of easterly storms, five ships were wrecked there with the loss of 34 seamen’s lives, ensuring the Volunteer Life…

Winning meant everything to Kirsten Neuschäfer; her ambition would not only drive her, but would also leave her frustrated and despondent, especially when she became trapped in the calms, believing that first place was beyond reach. ‘I think at my lowest points I might have questioned why I was doing the race, but I knew why I was doing it and I knew I was there because I wanted to be there, but the low points were the calms, and the worst were the Doldrums,’ said the 40-year-old South African skipper. ‘Fortunately, I like swimming and that is the thing that kept me sane. When I got too frustrated, I would jump overboard and swim. I needed that distance from the boat. I never thought I would give up; I…

Originally, Michael Guggenberger planned to take part in the 2018 GGR, but delayed until the 2022 edition to allow more time to prepare. This paid off for the Austrian carpenter, who started sailing in 2012. He had little gear failure during his 249 days at sea. His biggest issue was when part of the drive unit of his Hydrovane self-steering slid out in the Pacific. ‘It looked like an unfixable problem at first, especially in 7-8m waves, but in fact it was an easy fix which took 10 minutes. All I had to do was put the pin back in.’ Each morning, Guggenberger walked the deck of his Biscay 36 ketch, Nuri, using binoculars to inspect his mast and rigging before checking the bilge and that his batteries were charging.…

ORIENTATE YOURSELF It may seem obvious but start by sailing in the general direction of your destination. It’s easy to lose your bearings initially when the instruments you’ve been used to relying on are no longer talking to you. Use your compass, the stars, wind or whatever else is at hand, from a city’s loom at night to following the cross-Channel ferry. Provided you can measure the depth with a lead line you’ll be fine. Even thick fog loses its menace as you follow a contour or drop the anchor at a safe depth to wait for more clues to reveal themselves. Knowledge and the patience to wait for safety to come to you isn’t as intuitive as it might be in this data-driven world. Heaving to for a think…

I like to have a separate electric tool box due to the delicacy of electrical parts A Voltmeter (this is your first line of defence and should read voltage, resistance and amps. Another useful option is one which sounds a beep when testing continuity/fuses) B Alternator belt C Set of electrical screwdrivers D Gas solder with soldering wire E Box of relevant fuses F Roll of tinned wire G A bag of tie wraps H Wire stripper I Silicone or lithium grease J Long nose pliers K Side wire cutters L Electrical tape M Small tin of WD40 N Heat shrink insulation O Your wiring diagram P Various connectors Q Ratchet crimping tool (far better than the ‘squeeze for your life’ version pictured that often deliver too little or too…

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Trying to find a weather window to cross the Bay of Biscay has been all consuming. I just can’t seem to relax and enjoy daily life as I’m constantly thinking about it and worrying about how I will cope – I just need to go. After what seems like a long wait, we decide to cross to France and wait there for a chance to cross to Spain. Although I’m feeling nervous about the crossing, I also really want to do it, to see if I like offshore sailing. HIGH HOPES Finally, we are off, setting sail on a summer afternoon. I envisage a lovely downwind sail on the 125-mile trip, with perhaps a couple of dolphins. My hopes soar. This is my first overnight sail and I am nervous…

Whatever the fabric or membrane type used, there is one aspect that every piece of waterproof sailing gear has in common – the exterior is treated with a Durable Water Repellent (DWR) chemical, designed to reduce the surface tension of the fabric, so that water beads and rolls off, instead of wetting out. Unfortunately, the compounds that achieve this best are hazardous. So-called ‘forever chemicals’ or PFCs don’t break down in the environment – which is why they work so well when the sea is throwing everything at you. There is also some evidence to show they cause cancer and reduce fertility. They have also now been found in the most pristine and remote environments on Earth, from the Amazonian rainforests to the Antarctic. CLAMPING DOWN ON CHEMICALS The EU…

You’d be forgiven for assuming that for sailing purposes the greater the magnification a pair of binoculars offer, the better. However, it’s long been accepted that the maximum useful magnification on a moving platform, such as a yacht is 7x. Similarly, the maximum size of the objective lens (the large-diameter lens at the opposite end from the eyepiece, through which the light is captured) that can comfortably be accommodated with handheld binoculars is 50mm. For this reason, the optimum binocular design for marine purposes will be designated 7×50, which will typically provide a perfectly acceptable field of view of around 120m at 1,000m. Light bodyweight is also a fundamental consideration, to avoid tired arms over any extended period of use. Cheaper binoculars weigh around 600-700g, while better quality ones with…