Innehållsförteckning för March 2022 från Practical Boat Owner

A dismasted yacht was rescued by a newlywed couple and their crew after drifting for three days in the Atlantic. Alfie and Ceylan Moore were sailing the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers Plus (ARC+) rally with friend Stu Finch and Alfie’s mum, Adele Jeal, some 140 miles from Grenada when they spotted the 28ft French vessel on 5 December. “It was tiny, beam-on, and rolling around in the swell,” skipper Alfie told PBO. “When we got the binoculars we realised it was the windex of a sailing boat, but there was no mast. There was a pole hanging over the side.” They approached in Coco, their 40ft Fontaine Pajot catamaran, and saw a man waving a pink cloth. He seemed to be in a bad way. “It was as though he…

The UK Border Force has updated the way in which pleasure craft arriving and departing from the UK must notify officials of their travel arrangements. The update means that, as of 1 January 2022, sailors arriving or departing can notify the Border Force electronically, instead of having to post a hard copy of the completed form. The updated e-C1331 is an Excel template that will allow data to be submitted electronically via email to the National Yachtline and the relevant regional Border Force command. Users of the e-C1331 can use the links and the guidance within the template to complete and submit the form online. It should be noted that the previous PDF version can still be downloaded and posted if required, but the preference, where possible, is for the…

Send us your local news stories. Email PBO news editor Laura Hodgetts at pbo@futurenet.com, tel: 0330 390 6467, or write to the address on page 5 NO-ANCHOR ZONE DATE SET The Marine Management Organisation’s (MMO) phased introduction for the voluntary no-anchor zone in the Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) at the popular anchorage of Studland Bay, Dorset, started on 17 December 2021 and will become a permanent larger area from June 2022. The MMO aims to give recreational boaters in Studland Bay time to explore alternatives to anchoring in environmentally sensitive areas – such as the use of advanced mooring systems. Michael Coyle, director of operations at MMO, said: “The seagrass beds in the area are home to a protected species of seahorse and other wildlife as well as important fish…

NEW PUMP OUT FACILITY Suffolk Yacht Harbour (SYH) has invested in a pump out facility so boaters need not empty holding tanks at sea. The River Orwell marina offers the only pump out facility between Lowestoft and Clacton. Boat owners can call VHF Ch80 for directions to the fuel berth where it is situated. A token purchased from the berthing office gives five minutes’ pump out – plenty for a cruising yacht. The impacts of discharging raw sewage include public health risks, adverse effects to marine wildlife, and further pollution if cleaning products enter open water. SYH managing director Jonathan Dyke said: “The pump provides a valuable service for marina berth holders and local cruising yachts, and it helps protect the local marine environment; it’s a win win.” MERSEA HARBOUR…

Living with the sea Marsali Taylor sails an Offshore 8M, Karima S. She’s a dinghy instructor and author of The Shetland Sailing Mysteries starring liveaboard sleuth, Cass Lynch. Our Shetland winters are generally milder than you’d expect, given that 60° north is the same latitude as St Petersburg. We get light frosts, but below -5° is unusual, and we don’t get a lot of snow: a covering at Christmas, several inches and schools closed in the last week of February and an isolated blizzard in mid-April, the ‘lambie snaa’. People even have palm trees in their gardens – yes, really! Last winter was an exception. We had a hard frost just after Christmas, then a dusting of snow, then more, whitening the hills. And there it stayed, through January and…

Every summer I go cruising with my teenage sons to distant European harbours. In 2018 we decided to spend our six-week holiday exploring Denmark and Sweden before using the Kiel Canal in Germany to take the short-cut home to the Netherlands. My wife would join us in Germany and I’d take various crew for the different legs, on board our 1973 Pearson 36, Skylark. My deal is that I provide all the food and beverages and they make their own travel arrangements. Once the hard work of planning and paperwork had been done, I had plenty of willing crew members to keep me company from Enkhuizen to Skagen, the most northerly part of Denmark. The distance was 400 miles, and with Skylark capable of 120 miles a day, we were…

When we bought Elisabeth, our Nautor’s Swan 43ft ketch, in 2006 she was already nearly 30 years old. At the time we bought her the deck had just been repaired, sanded and oiled. It did not appear to be a problem as it looked beautiful. The rest of the boat was immaculate, we were delighted with her and felt this was the boat for us. Elisabeth is a roomy family cruiser with classic Swan lines and a comfortable layout. A haul out to see her bottom, a perfect test sail around a couple of the Croatian Islands and we were asking where to sign. The deck on Elisabeth is a feature of the boat; 22m2 of the finest Burmese teak running the full length of the boat. When it was…

Replacing the screws Jo and Joe bought 2,000 shorter, fatter, stainless steel screws. After much debate they decided to cover the tops with Sikaflex instead of a teak plug because there wasn’t much depth to play with (planks were worn to only 8mm in places). Careful to avoid damaging the teak, they removed the old screws and re-drilled the countersink holes slightly deeper before putting Sikaflex down. The new screws were fastened in, covered it with a masking ‘dot’ (to stop the Sikaflex going into the cross-head) and finally filled in the hole. A fibreglass deck replacement… for now Jo and Joe were pleased with their recaulked decks but a decade later the water ingress from beneath the teak through the screws became too much, resulting in a soggy plywood…

Despite fitting solar panels I still worry about my batteries going flat when I’m at anchor or in a marina with no electricity. Not only will domestic equipment not work and engines not start but flattening batteries may shorten their lifespan. So how should you monitor them? There are two solutions. The first is a simple voltmeter that will measure how full the batteries are. The second option is a battery monitor. A battery monitor will measure voltage, but in addition will also measure the amount of electricity stored. The best way to imagine the difference is to think of a glass of water. If you have a small glass absolutely full the voltage will be high, however there is not much water in it. A larger glass full of…

Great ideas and tips from PBO readers Email your projects and tips to pbo@futurenet.com or write to us at the address at the top of page 5. We pay at least £30 for each one published The engine start and stop controls for my trusty Volvo MD2020, as with many boats, are mounted inside the cabin at the chart table. This is far from ideal, particularly when short-handed. Not wanting to fork out for an additional panel or second key switch in the cockpit I decided instead to install a waterproof toggle switch in parallel with the existing ignition switch. Being a diesel, any car type off/on/start switch wasn’t going to work as I need a glow plug pre-heater switch as well. Complicated switches like this are expensive. However two…

Here’s just a selection of the latest questions from PBO readers. Email or write to the address on page 5 and our experts will answer your queries SAILDRIVES Checking up on saildrive seals Q I’m planning to sail my boat Zeno back to Britain from Corfu next spring and as the Volvo Penta 130S saildrive seal was due to be changed in 2020 I decided to fly out to Corfu to change it rather than wait until the boat is home. This might seem a little excessive because although the Volvo manual states the seal should be changed every seven years, many people talk of changing the seals much less frequently, perhaps every 15 or 20 years. Indeed when I last changed the seal in 2014 I found that the…

Swiss sailor Etienne Messikommer has won the inaugural McIntyre Adventure Globe 5.80 Transat 2021 – an event that saw competitors build and race their boats. Six plywood Class Globe 5.80m amateur-built Mini Ocean Racer yachts took on the 3,000-mile voyage across the Atlantic. It was a qualifying event for the solo skippers wishing to take on the inaugural 2024 Mini Globe Race around the world. Michal Krysta from the Czech Republic with his Menawan came second, after days of hand-steering. At the time of going to press, Class Globe 5.80 founder Don McIntyre (Aus) was also due to join them on the podium. Messikommer crossed the finishing line at 2048 UTC on 13 December, sailing into Antigua after 26 days, seven hours, and 48 minutes at sea aboard Numbatou, having…

Email pbo@futurenet.com or write to us at the address on page 5. Photos are appreciated, letters may be edited. I’m trying to restore my late dad’s Sea King wooden sailing boat called Alcyone. My dad passed away in 2017 following a brave battle with vascular dementia. Losing him made me think about Alcyone. His beloved Sea King was originally found behind a shed in Southwold. My parents restored her and we enjoyed many happy and memorable holidays on the Norfolk Broads. When my dad was no longer able to sail, he made the heartbreaking decision to sell Alcyone. She went to Woodbridge for four years, after which we lost touch with her. For three years I searched without much luck. Then in 2021, I came across a blog by Nick…

Mad about the boat Dave Selby is the proud owner of a 5.48m (18ft) Sailfish, which he keeps on a swinging mooring on the picturesque Blackwater estuary in Essex Sailors are essentially collectors. At sea we collect anecdotes – mostly of the “there I was holed by a whale and taking on water fast and being driven on to a rocky lee shore at the base of a 200ft cliff in a Force 10 gale on Rutland Reservoir” variety. On land we collect things. And that’s why although psychologists may understand human nature, they’re out of their depth when it comes to understanding the mind-set of the sailor. Take the average man in the street – and I’m afraid it is most usually a man – who upon seeing a…

Branding can be a black art. Ask most sailors the names of the principal French yacht brands, and they will probably say Beneteau, Jeanneau and Dufour. Over many years, all these builders have had their ‘moments’, but all three are doing well today with their monohull cruising yachts and increasingly popular catamaran ranges. Some yachtsmen may not know however that back in the late 1980s the keen sailor and entrepreneur Olivier Poncin bought the then ailing Dufour business from Baron Bic. Bic had first bought into Dufour in the late 1970s and produced his America’s Cup challenger France lll there. Poncin proceeded to put the company back on its feet thanks to modernised methods and the skills of yacht designers such as J&J then Mortain & Mavrikios. Then Poncin sold…

The year was 1949 when my teenage brother and I built an ‘unsinkable’ canoe from sheet metal and called it Illawarra. We transported it by ship from Australia to New Zealand and set out to canoe the Whanganui river – a stunning river valley reserve which is now a premier wilderness destination for canoeing and kayaking enthusiasts. Back then, other than the local Maori people, few had contemplated canoeing its length and certainly not for adventure. We had no maps, but over the course of 10 days we canoed a river bigger than we had ever known. My own father was born in Wanganui in 1904 but emigrated to Australia in 1925, making the Whanganui River my first personal connection with New Zealand. Of course the National Park didn’t exist in…

While enjoying a convivial night at Cattewater Cruising Club in Plymouth in October 1997, a friend approached my wife and I and asked if we’d be interested in chartering a yacht for a fortnight to sail down the Windward Islands in February. After discussing a few details we jumped at his proposal. Why wouldn’t we? We were great pals with him and his wife and like us, they were experienced sailors. We never need much persuading to get away from British winters. After an eight-hour flight from Heathrow to Antigua we caught an island-hopping flight to French Martinique and a taxi to Marina du Marin where Sunsail had their base. We settled into the charter yacht, a 40ft Beneteau, at about 2300. After breakfast in the local bar we met…

Step by step…

After two years on the hard standing, Maximus’s batteries were completely unserviceable. We’d borrowed a lead acid battery from our marine electrician, Adam McMenemy, which would get the Maxi 84 afloat and through the lock to Chichester marina. However, now she was nearing the end of her rewire and we had to make a decision on new batteries. I confess, science has never been my best subject, and if I could have simply gone to a shop and bought exactly the same batteries as Maximus had before, I’d have been happy. However, managing power requirements nowadays is something needing careful consideration. With the help of Raymarine I’d be upgrading my nav gear – running a multi-function display, not just a GPS, and a tiller pilot, and VHF radio with AIS.…

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All boats need extra working surfaces so I decided to do something about it on my Westerly Konsort Concerto. The lid of the fridge/cooler is raised and the sink is open preventing any level working surface. I just thought, why don’t I fit a working surface over the two to increase the working areas. I measured up the sink unit between the uprights, and the surface areas over the coolbox/fridge. I reduced the length and breadth by 10mm (giving 5mm clearance for each edge). I bought a piece of 12mm ply from B&Q that measured 600mm x 1200mm. This cost me £6.98. I also bought two lengths of white plastic angle 8mm x 8mm for the edging. This is not strictly necessary but I just wanted a finished edging. These…

Readers’ cruising destinations, near and far We pay for your published cruising stories and harbour updates. Email pbo@futurenet.com or write to the address at the top of page 5 “I suppose we could sail to Cadiz,” I said. I was in the pub enjoying a few pints in the company of my friend Nick. “I didn’t like to ask,” he said, smiling. Now, Nick is an adventurous sort who retired early to go sailing. Heading for the Mediterranean he had got as far as Cadiz when the pandemic struck and the Spanish authorities confined him to his boat. He enjoyed the company of a few other liveaboards similarly imprisoned but after six months the restrictions were partially lifted and his boat could be taken ashore for safe-keeping and he was…

A. Leaking windows can be just a nuisance, or they can end up causing expensive cosmetic or structural problems. A smear of clear sealant might work for a while, but at some stage seals will need replacing. Several firms specialise in supplying new gaskets and making new panes in plastic, glass or very strong scratch-proof materials. B. Some leaks are caused by structural movement. Ask other owners of similar boats if they’ve suffered the same problems, and reinforce the structure if necessary. C. Window frames and seals can be a simple rubber gasket, or made up of a more complex multi-part metal framework. D. Try to identify what type yours is and then add labels so you know where they fit. Take lots of close-up digital photos and send them,…

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned that organised crime groups are turning to ever more dangerous and unseaworthy boats in efforts to smuggle people across the Channel to the UK from France. Recent months have seen a trend towards larger inflatables up to 10m in length being used. The NCA believes many of these large grey or black unbranded vessels have little or no commercial use, and are being manufactured for people smugglers. Other boats are being adapted using sub-standard materials in attempts to increase capacity and improve rigidity. On 29 November the NCA issued an alert via Interpol to worldwide law enforcement for them to share intelligence about the supply of boats and encouraging them to ask suppliers and retailers in their jurisdictions to be on the lookout.…

Spirit Yachts and BAR Technologies are collaborating to deliver a fully electric, fully foiling 35ft motor yacht. Commissioned by the owner of the award-winning Spirit 111 sailing superyacht, the project goal is to achieve BAR’s high-tech efficiency and sustainability while maintaining a classically beautiful aesthetic. The foiler has six seats in open cockpit configuration quickly converting to a two-seater spider configuration. Spirit Yachts is responsible for the styling of the vessel. BAR Technologies will bring its Americas’ Cup simulation and design expertise to deliver an optimal hull form below the waterline, using foil technology to minimise hull contact with the water and improve both comfort and efficiency. The vessel will ‘take-off’ at 14 knots, and once flying, will cruise at 22 knots and a top speed of 30 knots. The…

YACHT STORM DAMAGE A yacht built for author Nevil Shute has sunk in an Edinburgh harbour following Storm Arwen. The 40ft Runagate arrived at West Harbour, Granton, at the end of November – but days later she broke free in the high winds and sustained damage against the harbour wall. Forth Corinthian Yacht Club (FCYC) members prevented the immediate loss of the yacht, which is more than 80 years old, but she was taking in water and sank two days later. Runagate was built by Hillyard at Littlehampton, West Sussex in 1939 for Nevil Shute, best known for writing On The Beach and A Town Called Alice. FCYC member Jim Glass said: “It’s a sad end. After Storm Arwen, Runagate was badly damaged. The owner who was bringing her from…

I agree with Roly Simpson (Best ever boats, PBO November 2021) that the MacGregor 26 is a fine boat: I’ve owned two of them, one new in 1996 and the other used in 2018. It quickly became apparent that it wasn’t suitable for older people because of narrow decks and canted cabin top making hoisting or reefing the main dangerous. The solution was to change to behind-the-mast rolling reefingw, an inexpensive DIY project but one requiring a new main. The kit was purchased from Cruising Design and gave my wife and I a few more seasons but I’m now 92 and she 80 so the boat will be sold. MacGregors are indeed great, but our all time favourite is the Hughes 40 in which we sailed about 39,000 miles –…

Flotsam and jetsam Sam Llewellyn writes nautical thrillers and edits The Marine Quarterly. He is currently patching up a 30ft ketch Here in the workshop all is in readiness for the next burst of astonishing creativity. Which is to say that the epoxy is standing on the epoxy bench, the sheets of 6mm WBP exterior ply are leaning against the wall where the ply leans, and the plans are out of the plans drawer, the whole ensemble waiting to be turned into a pram dinghy. It has to be said that we are not exactly geniuses at stitch and glue construction. The more normal product of our high-level craftsmanship is one of those wooden frames on to which you wind a mackerel line. The mackerel frame process is to notch…

As a child I’d been much taken by my dad, Lloyd’s, write up of his ‘Boy’s Own’ style adventure in a GP14. In 1963, he and another teenage friend circumnavigated Anglesey anticlockwise and would often fondly recall the trip. Nearly 60 years on, it seemed like a great idea to repeat the process. Anglesey is separated from the northwest corner of Wales by a thin slice of water called the Menai Strait – a stretch of tidal water about 15 miles long. The tidal effects of the Strait are highly unusual and caused by the odd topography of the region. Admiral Nelson himself is reputed to have said: ‘If a sailor can sail a ship through the Menai Strait, he can sail it anywhere in the world.’ This did little…

Teak is a tropical hardwood that has been used in boatbuilding for over 2,000 years. It’s strong and resistant to rot and changes in moisture. However, according to a recent report by the Environment Investigation Agency, there are grave questions over the sustainability and sourcing of teak (see yachtingworld.com). Jessie Rogers, of Jeremy Rogers Boatyard works in her family yacht building firm, which makes the Contessa 32 and has a serious focus on finding environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional materials. She explains that in some applications synthetic teak, such as Flexiteek and Permateek, is really effective for decking and toe rails but there are some jobs when a real wood solution is required (see Yachting Monthly, April 2021). The yard uses Kebony and will also try cork and Lignia, a…

Now we’d decided on batteries for Maximus (see page 60) the next conundrum was how to keep those batteries charged. Premier Marinas had kindly offered us a berth at Chichester Marina for the summer, to be followed afterwards with a berth at MDL’s Cobbs Quay marina in Poole. Both marinas have excellent facilities, including shorepower, so that’s what we’d use initially to top-up the batteries, but for cruising – and for our eventual home on a mooring – we needed to get it right. There’s a bit of a balancing act when it comes to battery capacity. Too little capacity, or ‘storage’, and you’ll have to constantly recharge batteries. However, if your batteries are too powerful, or have too much capacity for your charging system, you’ll never be able to…

Good ground tackle opens up the option to stay overnight in stunning bays and creeks, away from costly marinas and expensive harbour moorings. A decent anchor is also an essential safety item that may need to hold you off a lee shore in the event of engine failure. However, unless your boat’s anchor has been upgraded recently, the chances are it’s of a type that will not provide good holding power. Much has changed in the world of anchors in the past 20 years, which led to classification societies such as Lloyds adding a new Super High Holding Power certification category for anchors in 2008. Most of the best anchors exceed the requirements for this by a wide margin. These advances in anchor technology mean older boats won’t have been…

Q I have the mast out of my 30 year old Malo to solve an in-mast furling problem, but this has revealed that the electrical cabling coming out of the mast base, through the swan neck and into the cabin, is a mess. Some of the cables from the mast are joined just down from the headlining with crude cable joins usually covered by a bit of varnished teak veneered ply. Others are longer and pass down through the mast support and are joined in a locker. Choc block connectors predominate and are bulky and tend to corrode with time, so I’d like to tidy things up. Are there any slim joiners I can use to join cables at the headlining? Ideally I’d like to make new splitable cable joins (the…

The Sabre 27 was designed by Alan Hill and built by Marine Construction (Marcon) in Southampton between 1969 and 1979, with both fin and bilge keeled versions. In 1970, after construction of the first 25 boats, the MkII version was introduced. This had a taller mast (by 2ft 6in) with the ballast adjusted accordingly, and modifications to the deck moulding. In the mid 1970s GRP moulding began to replace the original plywood interior. Between 1969 and 1979 some 400 hulls were moulded and sold at various stages of construction, from bare hull and deck only to kits for home completion and fully fitted sail away versions. Tabitha is a fin keeler and one of the early boats with the MkI deck moulding and a home-made plywood interior, built in 1970.…