Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2023 i Yachting World

One of the biggest problems in sailing is what to do with older and end of life boats; an environmental concern increasingly shared across the industry. Reduce, reuse, or recycle? It’s a problem that’s going to take some creative thinking to solve, and while major manufacturers are progressively engaging with the issue, and materials developments are ever accelerating, it sometimes takes a bit of disruptive thinking from a few individuals to make the biggest breakthroughs. The ‘garage project’ that is the Ecoracer 25 sportsboat is one such creative solution: a fast, fun, recyclable keelboat. We take a closer look on page 80. Before recycling, can more boats be reused or repurposed? Again it takes a bit of imagination, but from a stripped out shell how would you customise your dream…

The captain and crew of a 121ft superyacht rescued 16 suspected migrants in a harrowing incident off St Kitts in the Caribbean on 28 March. The crew of SY Genevieve, a 121ft Ed Dubois-designed sloop, were motor sailing from Antigua to St Maarten shortly before midnight on 27 March when they heard what sounded like a woman’s scream. Thomas Auckland, captain of Genevieve, recalls that they activated a DSC and called a Mayday. “We then positioned four crew around the vessel with torches or searchlights to try to locate the woman or women. “Six minutes later we spotted some reflective tape and discovered a man clinging on to part of a damaged lifejacket. We used a small circular fender, attaching an additional buoyancy aid fastened to a rescue line to…

As I write this, the first teams in The Ocean Race are crossing the finish line of Leg 3 into Itajai, Brazil, having completed a huge loop of the Southern Ocean from Cape Town. What a sense of achievement they will feel: over 14,000 nautical miles and 35 days at sea (see page 40 for our report on this epic leg). Irrespective of their final ranking, that is one incredible feat. I was asked recently: “Would you do it if you had the opportunity?” I said yes, but it certainly took some thought – a month in the Southern Ocean is about as extreme as it gets. However, watching the incredible footage from the teams on this last leg made me feel pangs of jealousy. Yes, the sailing looks incredible…

“I’m so happy not to be alone,” an emotional Boris Herrmann said standing at the base of his 29m/95ft mast, a foot-long gash ripped into the carbon above his head threatening his entire race, “this would be a horror show alone.” Just a week into the furthest non-stop Southern Ocean leg the race had ever attempted, from Cape Town to Itajai, the damage to Maliza’s mast looked insurmountable to outside observers. To continue on for a month of sailing ever deeper into the planet’s remotest reaches would be madness, surely they must turn back? They did not. Instead, Herrmann’s team sailed on to win. This leg confounded expectations in many ways. Back in Gothenburg in 2018 I chatted to Volvo Ocean Race sailors who’d completed thousands of miles in the…

TOBY HODGES Where: Gulf of Lion, Med border of France and Spain Wind: From 3-24 knots, but mostly 15-20 knots Model tested: Hull#1, with high spec including furling gennaker, genoa and staysail, carbon bowsprit, DFi sails, extra solar and lithium battery capacity They seem preternatural, our navlight giving the dolphins an oily reflection as they launch like dark green torpedoes in unison with our surfs. The fizzing noise when they clear the water helps communicate their effortless speed, while the boat hums as it accelerates into the mid teens. Subconsciously I count the surfs, 6, 7, 8… seconds; psychologically I’m wired, absolutely buzzing. But physically I notice I’m shivering, with numb fingers from being on the helm so long, not willing to relinquish the wheel for a single minute even…

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The Ecoracer 25 is the first modern recyclable sportsboat, an ORC winner which could help transform end-of-life fibreglass composites This heartening story involves a crew of Italian sailing friends, who fostered a desire to do something different, to make a change. The fact that this Ecoracer ‘garage project’ has met with award-winning success is due to it using innovative sustainable materials which it then proved can work in a race-winning shape. Arguably above that though, is the notion that it has taken a small startup to show the way forward and to shine a light on the dark and all-to-often brushed aside underbelly of conventional composite boatbuilding. The crew behind it formed in 2012 as a sailing team on a Dufour 34 called Northern Light. In 2019 they established Northern…

British solo skipper Ian Herbert-Jones, who was competing in the Golden Globe Race, was rescued on 11 April following an international search and rescue operation after his 35-footer was violently rolled and dismasted in a South Atlantic storm. Herbert-Jones was approximately 900 miles north-east of the Falkland Islands when a severe low pressure system tracked over his position. Herbert-Jones was at the time the last competitor in the solo ‘retro’ Golden Globe Race, sailing in the ‘Chichester’ division after previously making a stop in Tierra del Fuego to repair his steering gear. Before the storm hit, Golden Globe Race organisers contacted Herbert-Jones and advised him to sail south as fast as Puffin, his Tradewind 35 cutter, was capable of. “So I followed their advice and sailed south as fast as…

The great ARC gear survey How do you ensure you’re as self-sufficient as possible during an ocean crossing? Learning from others is a good start. We asked all 245 skippers in last year’s ARC and ARC+ rallies detailed questions about their autopilots and self-steering systems, and quizzed them for their top tips on self-reliance and making running repairs at sea Handling symmetric spinnakers While asymmetric sails are undoubtedly simpler, there are times when knowing how to handle a symmetric while sailing with just two crew is invaluable. Pip Hare demystifies short-handed spinnaker technique Buying a fixer-upper Buying a yacht that ‘needs work’ might sound offputting, but with a clear plan it can be the path to owning the right boat at a great price On test: Italia Yachts 12.98 This…

Whether you need to fit around work, school, or Schengen zone requirements, three months of cruising can make for a summer to remember. Exploring the many cruising areas in Europe within the 90-day Schengen limit requires some careful planning, but there are literally hundreds of scenarios to choose from. Would your ideal cruising adventure see you head north to enjoy long days on the water where the sun never sleeps? Or does the warmth of the Mediterranean hold more appeal? We have six itineraries to show how it can be done for maximum cruising enjoyment with minimal paperwork. RULES AND REGULATIONS Any non-EU resident can stay in the EU for 90 days during a 180-day period. In the Med, this is enforced by regular checks in harbours. In 2023, a…

‘Tommy, this is no joke. We hit a whale and the ship went down. We are in the liferaft’ “Tommy, this is no joke,” Rick Rodriguez messaged to his friend and fellow skipper Tommy Joyce. “We hit a whale and the ship went down. We are in the liferaft.” In March this year American sailor Rodriguez and three friends - his girlfriend Alana Litz, together with Bianca Brateanu and Simon Fischer - were in the midst of the voyage of a lifetime, cruising the Pacific on Rodriguez’s lovingly restored 1976 Kelly Peterson 44, Raindancer. The crew had enjoyed exploring the Galapagos, and were heading to the Marquesas in French Polynesia – something Rodriguez had been dreaming of for decades. The SV Raindancer crew ran a small YouTube channel. Shortly before…

Bestevaer 36 LOA 10.95m 35ft 11in • Beam 3.80m 12ft 6in • Draught 0.7m-2.4m 2ft 4in-7ft 11in • Displacement 7,800kg 17,200lb • Base price €546,000 ex VAT • bestevaer.com In a world in which yachts are constantly becoming larger, this Dutch brand is bucking the trend, with the smallest-ever model in its 20-year history. It’s intended to offer performance along with shoal draught and the ability to safely dry out on a beach. These rugged aluminium pilothouse cruisers have always reflected what former professional skipper and renowned naval architect Gerard Dijkstra wants in a boat of his own: a safe, comfortable, and good-looking yacht for unrestricted, short-handed sailing. It has proved to be the perfect formula for a lifetime of ocean sailing, high latitude work and solo racing. The 36…

It’s a common misconception that ‘mental health’ only applies when we are experiencing a condition such as anxiety, depression or addiction. But one of the most important points about mental health is that, like physical health, it’s something we all have and it will oscillate between good spells and poor spells for everyone. Have you considered what happens if you or your crew have a mental wellbeing dip while at sea? By the age of 22, I felt I was ticking life’s boxes as if filling in a routine survey. Good grades at school? Check. Reliable university degree? Check. Steady graduate job? Check. My feet were planted firmly on solid ground; my life perfectly mirroring society’s expectations. But there was something in me that felt suffocated by the 9-5 and…

Thinking of upgrading your sail wardrobe? Winning skipper and coach Ian Walker shares advice on how to prioritise with Andy Rice When asked his advice on how to extract maximum value from your sail budget, Ian Walker first offered a health warning: “You do know that I work for North Sails, and we provide sails for the vast majority of the high performance market?” In other words, North Sails are not the cheapest. So it’s unsurprising that Walker is keen to point out that buying purely on price is not the best option, even when budgets are tight. It’s a broad, difficult subject that we have asked him to address, but Walker’s knowledge is highly sought after and he offers some good, solid advice for sailors who have to make…

We’ve all seen gleeful young children in those ride-on cars (or trains, planes or animals) that rock on their plinths in shopping centres, and for a moment I felt uncomfortably self-conscious that I looked no different. Sat in a sculpted carbon seat, my head just visible over the deck, I felt like Toad of Toad Hall, fizzing with excitement at finally getting to climb aboard an AC40… a grown man grinning from ear to ear as he sat in the AC40’s starboard cockpit gripping and twisting the wheel from side to side, pushing buttons and playing out what it would be like to drive one for real. Had it been in the water and ready to sail my enthusiasm could possibly have been excused, but the Kiwi’s carbon machine was…

“Wait, you bought that boat?!” That was 59º North’s bosun Adam Browne’s reaction when I showed him the Farr ‘Millennium’ 65 on the hard in Lymington, which we’d just closed a deal on. “The massive green one that looks a bit abandoned?” Adam wasn’t referring to the paint job. Coated in algae and slime, Falken was green-hued, her tattered mainsail cover hanging limply from the boom, jack-lines from her last offshore passage still rigged to rusty shackles on deck, water nearly up to the floorboards down below. The boat was rotting. That sailing yachts, particularly race boats, are often referred to as ‘thoroughbreds’ is an apt comparison. Race horses are living creatures and I like to think of sailboats as much the same. Falken began life with a promise by…

NEW SERIES In this seventh part of a double-handed sailing series, Pip Hare explains upwind sailing skills and reefing techniques DOUBLE-HANDED SAILING is gaining in popularity across many disciplines – we now regularly see crews of two managing all sizes of boat, and sailing them with the same efficiency and expectations as full crews. In this series I share how I approach key manoeuvres with a crew of two. Beating can be one of the less challenging points of sail for a double-handed team. If the boat is well balanced with an appropriate sail plan, the autopilot will steer efficiently and one person can manage the cockpit while the other rests or, on longer voyages, manages cooking and maintenance. In poor weather only having one person on deck at a…

‘The racing looks like a sort of ballet dance on the boards’ WILL HARRIS NOMINATES THE IKA KITEFOIL “Watching the gracefulness of kitefoil racing had me mesmerised the first time I saw it,” explains Will Harris. “It is an example of pure efficiency and use of all and any wind possible. From as low as 4 knots of wind reaching speeds of 30 knots on a 1.2m long board is incredible.” Kitefoiling is now an Olympic sailing event, and will be making its debut at the 2024 Games. The class is a box rule, with a wide range of approved foil components, and choice of wing sizes. The foil kites use a ‘ram air’ principle so are self-inflating rather than pump-up tube kites. “The racing looks like the kitefoils are…