Innehållsförteckning för December 2024 från Practical Boat Owner

Cape Horn is a landmark many sailors dream of rounding; it is the ultimate accolade. If you complete it solo, you’ll join an elite group of just a few hundred women and men who have achieved this feat. Eugénie Nottebohm (page 90) shares her journey to rounding the southernmost cape of the Americas in this month’s Cruising Notes, from crewing on friends’ yachts to buying a Contessa 32 and sailing solo across the Atlantic, before heading south down the coast of South America where she picked up two crew to sail around Cape Horn. Kerry and Fraser Buchanan also had a dream, albeit closer to home: to cruise through the French waterways to the Mediterranean, and the couple share how they prepared themselves and their Barbican 33 to sail from…

Sailors preparing for the new McIntyre Mini Globe Race (MGR) must not only build their own 19ft (5.8m) plywood/epoxy Class Globe 580 yachts – they should also ‘learn to fly’ according to the founder. Don McIntyre, who is also behind the Golden Globe Race, believes one piece of equipment will make the difference to participants’ success, or not. He said: “The wind vane can end the dream! It is that serious and that simple.” Inspired by the late John Guzzwell, whose self-built 21ft wooden yawl became the smallest boat to sail around the world in 1969, the MGR will follow a similar course to Trekka – west about via Panama. Eighteen sailors are expected on the Antigua start line in February. All have purchased a set of Globe 5.80 plans…

Two yacht delivery sailors have switched to bicycles to cycle nearly 1,000 around Biscay to raise funds for the RNLI. Halcyon Yachts managing director Pete Green said: “I have sailed across Biscay more times than I can remember but cycling around the bay certainly seems an awful lot more daunting. I am cycling with an old friend who has crewed for Halcyon Yachts many times.” They began pedalling on 28 September on the fortnight’s challenge. pbo.co.uk/biscay_ride…

AkzoNobel has launched two new digital training capabilities to expand its technical service help for yacht coating applicators worldwide. An XpertEye camera headset is a hands-free visual assistant tool that connects applicators directly to AkzoNobel’s team for real-time technical support. Users wearing the XpertEye glasses can stream video and take pictures, so the team can observe issues and assist globally. The software can be used via mobile phones and is compatible with both Apple and Google operating systems. The virtual reality (VR) spray gun is portable, hands-free and ‘intrinsically safe’ to teach and refine painting techniques, without the use of any liquid paint. Users can choose between conventional, pressure pot and electrostatic spray guns, all complete with air compression sounds and the resistance felt when pulling the spray gun trigger.…

Mirror transformed The end of a boat is always twinged with a mixture of sadness and happy memories. So, what better way of extending those memories than by finding other uses for the structure? I was recently gifted a badly damaged Mirror dinghy, and have also been gifted other dinghies past their best and needing costly uneconomic repairs. The boats can be stripped of all fittings, made safe from trapping little fingers, or giving grazes etc and donated to schools for imaginative play. From the latest Mirror dinghy, I created a seat that will be placed in a chill-out, sensory zone. The stern flotation chamber is now a hedgehog house, the side flotation chambers have become bird boxes and the cut-out from the seat is a fete game of a…

The year is darkening steadily, and dismal mats of cloud are drifting at Orion as he hangs in the icy sky. Most of the world is turning towards Netflix, which will be trundling it into a kind of tranquillised semi-hibernation. People will be playing bridge and chess, no doubt. But for real stoveside entertainment as the rain lashes into the ink-black sea, give me The Ashley Book of Knots. This volume, in case you have not tripped over it yet, was written in the 1930s and 40s by Clifford Ashley, an American from New Bedford who trained as an illustrator, went to sea with some of the last of the sailing whalers, and became fascinated with knots of all kinds. His book contains 3,850 bends, hitches, splices, Turk’s heads, knob…

What kind of sailing do you like to do? What kind of sailing would suit you best? Each question may supply a different answer. One, two or three hulls? The matter of whether monohulls or multihulls perform better is a topic for book-length treatments. A magazine article can only skim the surface of knowledge. Definitions: by ‘boats’ or ‘yachts’ this piece infers modern production craft for recreational sailing not usually over 40ft overall. By ‘catamaran’, those with two hulls whose design ‘rafts’ them together, as originally meant by the Tamil word ‘kattu-maram’’: henceforward ‘cat’. By ‘trimaran’, we imply one central hull and two smaller outrigger hulls, a design extension of the catamaran derived from that word, which has been in use since the 1940s. Referred from now as ‘tri’. Comparing…

Freshwater setting Located in the heart of the Hungarian Great Plains region, the Mahart-run Kisköre base is on the shores of Lake Tisza, also known as Kisköre Reservoir – Hungary’s largest artificial freshwater lake. At 127km² in size, and connected to the 966km River Tisza, it’s a vast area to explore. The lake next to Abádszalók town offers a fun first stop with its sandy beach, water slides and activities such as jet skiing, kayaking and paddleboarding. Other nearby attractions include: ■ Tiszafüred spa resort where you can swim thermal waters of 39°C ■ The Ecotourism Centre of Lake Tisza at Poroszló, home to the largest freshwater aquarium in Europe ■ Tiszacsege, at the entrance to the Hortobágy nature reserve ■ Tiszaújváros thermal baths ■ The 19th-century Andrássy Castle at…

The Comar Comet 11 is based on an innovative interior concept that creates an enormous amount of space, making it easy to forget this is only a 36ft boat. Yet the hull is that of a successful racing design, with very fair hull lines, and a powerful rig. The saloon is right aft, under the cockpit, with a big central table and big windows across the transom that let in plenty of natural light, while providing an unusual vista. This opens onto a big, bright working area with great headroom at the foot of the companionway, a linear galley to port and a massive outboard-facing navigation station to starboard. Ahead of this is a double cabin to port, plus bunk beds to starboard alongside a passageway leading forward to the…

Two fogies were going south. My husband Fraser and I were both in our late 50s, one disabled and the other recovering from radiotherapy for cancer, but we had a dream. It had started 28 years ago, while sweltering in a heatwave throughout my first pregnancy, when I read a PBO article about someone who took their yacht on an idyllic trip through the French inland waterways, north to south. From those pages, the seed of inspiration was planted: one day, we’d sail our own boat to the Mediterranean via the French rivers and canals, turn left and follow the rising sun. For the next few decades, life got in the way. We had a young family, jobs, schools, the usual rat race stuff. We continued to sail with the…

Liferafts are your last lifeline should the unthinkable happen, so it makes a lot of sense for them to be easily accessible in every eventuality. Of course, you should only step up into a liferaft, but before you can do that you have to launch it, so a little thought now could save time or even lives if you ever need to use one in anger. Most new boats have a dedicated stowage space for a liferaft but is that necessarily the best place to keep it? It might protect the liferaft very well but, if you have to fold down the transom to access it, it’s not an ideal location should your yacht happen to be inverted. Canister or valise? When first purchasing a liferaft you need to make…

There is a wide spectrum of sailors, ranging from those who have ‘back-up and redundancies’ for every scenario to others who will leave everything to the roll of a dice. The majority of boaters seem to fit somewhere in between, coping with the impact of minor breakdowns and failure, as and when they appear on their cruise to an anchorage. It is, however, useful to take time to think about the ‘what ifs’ on a more regular basis. You don’t have to become obsessive about every type of scenario that could happen on a yacht, but it’s good to remind yourself of some of the big ones like a medical emergency. These incidents can happen at any time and in any conditions, but the likelihood of them occurring increases as…

The Yachting Journalists’ Association (YJA) has named Kaia Bint Savage as its 2024 Young Journalist of the Year. The award, which recognises exceptional young talent in the field of yachting and marine journalism, was presented by YJA chair and PBO editor Katy Stickland at the Southampton International Boat Show. Kaia impressed the YJA members with her work as head of digital content of the Maiden Factor team. The former Whitbread race yacht Maiden is a global ambassador for the empowerment of girls through education. The YJA said Kaia’s contributions have set a high standard, and her unique voice continues to raise awareness in the industry. She was awarded a £500 Henri - Lloyd voucher. Second place was a tie between Annie Means and Anne de Kerviller. Each received a £250…

A new series of reports – The Blue Carbon Mapping Project – provides the first estimate of carbon stored in UK seabed habitats, including Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Around 244 million tonnes of organic carbon are stored in just the top 10cm of the UK’s seabed sediments – principally made of mud – plus vegetated habitats including saltmarshes and seagrass beds. Of this carbon, 43% is stored in MPAs. The Blue Carbon Mapping Project, completed by the Scottish Association for Marine Science on behalf of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Wildlife Trusts and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), highlights how physical disturbances to the seabed, including from human activity such as trawling, moorings and offshore developments, pose threats to blue carbon stores. Disturbing…

The 55th Southampton International Boat Show has been hailed as ‘one of the most successful yet’, with praise from exhibitors and visitors. Held over 10 days in September, the event attracted more than 100,300 visitors, thanks in part to glorious weather. The show covered over 70,000m2 and featured 650-plus craft of all shapes and sizes, with more than 86 world and UK premieres and debuts including the Sunseeker Ocean 156 and Rustler Yachts’ first motor yacht, the Rustler 41MY. More than 10,000 people got on the water to try kayaking and paddleboarding, dinghies, yachts, motorboats, rigid inflatable boats and diving. Visitors also stepped aboard the tall ship Thalassa, and a World War II F8 landing craft the high speed Launch 102. Flyboarding, jet-skiing and wingfoiling demonstrations also entertained. Special guests…

For a while, I thought there was something sinister going on in our marina. The fishing vessel Hope, which sank and was recovered using divers and floats (PBO, March 2023), was being repainted. I noticed the painted side from the sea, and wasn’t sure about a delicate primrose being a proper colour for a boat. The Fisherrow boats of my youth were dark colours: black, navy, green. Still, it was good she was being done up. Then I realised, looking from the marina, that she was getting a Kismul’s galley paint job: primrose with her name picked out on starboard, plain white and nameless on port. Kismul was a notorious Western Isles reiver who escaped because people didn’t realise the black-sided boat which raided them from the north was the…

You don’t need any credentials to skipper a Nicols motorboat on the Hungarian inland waterways, but it’s lovely to have overqualified crew. So I was delighted when my brother Jack, a master mariner for Condor Ferries, could join my family’s charter holiday, along with his wife Louise and their son Bruce. The two-cabin Quattro B sleeps four to six (€2,644 per week), but ‘going large’ to the eight- to 10-sleeper Estivale Octo (€3,657 per week), would add to the pool of drivers and people to watch and entertain our young crew. A bow thruster promised easy manoeuvring. With direct 2½-hour Ryanair flights from Bournemouth to Budapest, and a minibus driver recommended by the boat base for the 90-minute airport transfer to Kisköre, the plan fell into place. My daughters Neve,…

The smaller the boat, the greater the pleasure is commonly said by sailors, and although that sounds a bit too neatly proverbial, I have to say my long and close relationship with a humble 13ft GRP Torch dinghy does seem to bear out that claim. A perk of my first job in 1979 was free sailing tuition for new members of Southampton University’s staff. The boats for this beginners’ course were Wayfarers, and we sailed them on the river and the adjoining Southampton Water. When it came to capsize drill we used some older dinghies, which had just been replaced by the larger Wayfarers. Determined to practise my new skills I set about buying a boat. In the local newspaper, I saw a dinghy advertised at a reasonable price. It…

Being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 felt like getting hit by a thunderbolt on a bright summer day. After the successful treatments, I realised that I should not leave my dreams for later and bought Giulia, a Contessa 32. At the time I was an occasional crew on my ex-boyfriend’s and friend’s boat. I enjoyed sailing so much that I took various courses at Les Glénans, a French sailing school. I wanted to be a good crew. However, when I bought Giulia I was far from capable as a captain. I undertook a skipper’s course to fill that gap in my experience, and learned that I did not need to know everything about sailing and maintaining a yacht. The main skill required was to make the decisions. At a…

Which chart did I use? I like to have paper and electronic charts. The paper ones were from Imray and Admiralty. For the electronic ones, I chose Navionics on an iPad. Only in Patagonia were the Navionics charts not precise enough to follow the coast – switching to ‘satellite view’ addressed this problem. I have no chart plotter on board, just a GPS. I do the routing myself. To prepare I consult the usual pilots, but also talk to as many sailors as I can, and local fishermen who know the seas very well and are happy to share their knowledge. I write down in my notebook all comments and the route with waypoints, potential dangers and navigational aids, visualising the trip helps me to cope with bad weather as…

When faced with a cold, rough slog to windward, many people long for the comfort of a wheelhouse, a modest split rig and a large engine to help push them along. Motor-sailers fit the bill, but here are a few points worth noting… 1 Some boats have a high after-deck, surrounded by dodgers. These can severely restrict your view if they are not fitted with windows. 2 A small mizzen can be useful to stop her sheering about at anchor, and might steady the motion when motoring. 3 Recessed rear windows help to keep the water off… 4… as do forward-raked windscreens. 5 Atransparent hatch over the helm lets you see the rest of the main, or poke your head out for a better view. 6 Unlike forward-sloping windscreens, aft-sloping ones…

The not-for-profit Cruising Association (CA) which has been supporting sailors who cruise on small boats for more than 100 years, has launched a new dedicated Motorboat Section. The aim is to bring together motorboaters from all backgrounds, regardless of location or the type of motorboating, and create a platform to share information, updates and resources tailored specifically to motorboating. CA president Derek Lumb said: “Our new Motorboat Section will remain true to the principles of sharing knowledge that has guided the CA for over a century but now, for the first time, is also specifically aimed at those who cruise in motorboats.” Membership benefits will include the CA’s renowned wealth of specialist knowledge, and access to new opportunities and support, including cruising in company, Zoom talks, and active online forums.…

The Greek Transit Log for private foreign-flagged visiting boats is now available online. The digital system aims to make it easier to submit the Greek Transit Log, as required for all private foreign-flagged recreational boats over 7m. Boat owners who can demonstrate the status of Union Goods (ie EU VAT paid) on their vessels will be given a transit log of unlimited duration (UTL) to avoid checking in and out of every controlled port. Vessels without Union Goods status will be given a limited Transit Log for 18 months and will still be required to check in and out as before. pbo.co.uk/transit-log…

SOUTH COAST & CHANNEL ISLANDS Combined forces Falmouth-based Pendennis Shipyard has taken a majority interest in Cockwells Modern & Classic Boatbuilding. Cockwells has been actively seeking support to progress its business plan – including the production of this year’s new model, the Duchy 45. Company founder Dave Cockwell, now sales and technical director, said: “Over the past 28 years we have grown from renting a tiny space in Underfall Boatyard in Bristol with one apprentice to operating three sites in Cornwall with more than 140 employees. “I am delighted that we are joining forces with the Pendennis Group. With the backing of an established global superyacht brand, Cockwells will grow further.” Cockwells will continue to operate independently with the existing management team headed by Dean Short. Harbour vision A future…

Ella, my first little yacht, was a Westerly Cirrus. A fine fin-keeled cruiser with a Vire 6hp, single-cylinder inboard engine affectionately named “Old Thumper”. Thumper made us all into good sailors because the noise she made was unbearable and we couldn’t wait to turn her off and get sailing. Thumper would also stop at any time of her own choosing, leaving us with no option but to sail back to our crowded swing mooring at Bosham. As the years went by Ella started to put on weight and when she was holed, she sank as quick as a brick. Accumulating tools This extra weight was contributed to by her toolset. You see, Old Thumper needed careful maintenance and repairs and to do this away from shore facilities required a mechanic’s…

Know your boat Every vessel is different, even sister ships have different handling characteristics. Consider your boat’s side profile and how the wind will push it. If you have a cabin it’s likely the bow will be blown down first with a beam wind. At what wind speed do you lose control of the boat due to power limitations? Practice berthing in light wind conditions, then try manoeuvring out in open water with a bit more wind and get comfortable with your limits. Engine kicks It’s tempting to use minimal engine power when manoeuvring. Slow is pro after all. This works great in light conditions but as the wind picks up you need more power to overcome the elements without gaining too much speed. Engine kicks work well, by putting…

+ Moody 34 and 346 | Westerly 33 and Discus | Amel Sharki | Sweden Yachts 340 | Dufour 39 CC | Sadler Starlight There are many things to like about the Hallberg-Rassy 352, one of the Swedish yard’s most popular models ever. More than 800 were built over a 14-year period and they continue to command a high price on the secondhand market, far in excess of most other boats of a similar size and era. A big part of the appeal is that the Hallberg-Rassy 352 was one of the first centre cockpit boats of its size to combine an aft cabin with a walk-through from the main saloon, while retaining dependable sailing performance with good handling characteristics. At the same time, excellent build quality and a high…

British fell walker Alfred Wainwright famously said “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” Of course, bad weather is very much a ‘thing’, especially for us sailors, but it can certainly be mitigated by the right gear and good practice. Whether it’s installing a heating system, sipping soup from a Thermos or a good old pair of woolly socks there are plenty of ways to make winter sailing more comfortable, whatever your boat. Dinghy clothing Keeping warm is about layering, explains Matthew Rich from Andark Diving and Watersports. “A lot of the products we do now are breathable, and it’s about making sure you wear individual layers so on a colder day you wear several items and on a warmer day, a lot less.” Staying dry as…

Boat interiors are generally resilient, but over time bulkheads, doors, the cabin sole and surfaces become scuffed, stained and suffer general wear and tear due to the marine environment. With the boat ashore and emptied, now is the time to think about giving the bilges a coat of paint and/or varnishing the interior over the winter. These are not quick jobs, at least in my experience. However, if other parts of the boat are under control and you can spare the time, brightening up the interior can be a very rewarding boat improvement, especially of an older boat. Ideally, the best location to undertake such a project is inside a heated boatshed, well protected from the winter weather and with access to power for decent lighting. Unfortunately, this was not…

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Sail cleaning the DIY way Mike Attree shows how he spruced up his genoa in the garden Our nine-year-old genoa was dirty, had green algae stains and definitely needed cleaning. We considered having it cleaned professionally, but it’s fairly easy to clean a sail yourself, and DIY does save quite a bit of money. I checked the internet for sail cleaning advice and there was the usual barrage of conflicting, and sometimes unwise suggestions; for example, using household bleach or ‘throwing the sail in a swimming pool’, despite the fact that both of these can damage a sail. Bleaching is a very useful way of tackling stains, and bleaches often use oxidising agents to do the work. Household bleach (sodium hypochlorite) releases the powerful oxidising agent chlorine-a toxic and corrosive…

ELECTRICS Remembering to switch things off Q Our Bavaria 34 has several services – GPS, VHF & Eberspächer heater – which are not routed through the main switch panel but rely instead on the individual controls to switch them on and off. The boat’s main switch panel has an isolating switch which is our final check on leaving but we’re a little concerned that, without a final safeguard, it might be possible to leave the ship without isolating the individual services. To that end, I’m looking to install another switch panel to address this shortcoming. The VHF is switched on/off at the unit, and has inline 5A fuses on both positive and negative. I’d have thought one on positive sufficient? Would you recommend an isolating switch? I note that the…