Innehållsförteckning för July 2016 från Sailing Today

‘LEARNING TO SAIL IN THE UK OFFERS THE BEST TRAINING EXPERIENCE’ Sailing schools have voiced dismay that the RYA is removing the tidal and non-tidal distinction from day skipper and coastal skipper practical courses. From January 2017, the distinction between waters will be removed, so someone sitting their day skipper or practical skipper course in the Med, for example, will earn the same qualification as someone taking it in the UK. Currently people taking RYA Day Skipper or RYA Coastal Skipper practical courses in waters designated as ‘tidal’ are taught a tidal syllabus. Those taking the courses in non–tidal waters learn nothing about yacht-handling in tides – although tides are always covered in the day skipper theory course, wherever it is sat. From next year, someone taking the course in…

I have long been an admirer of the Maxi brand. Designer Pelle Petterson’s ability to blend speed, good looks and solidity into a yacht was often unparalleled and I would still hold up the Maxi 1100 as one of the finest yachts of its type. It was therefore a great shame when production ended in 2011, following long-standing financial problems. News that Poland’s Delphia would take over the brand a year later seemed worthy of cautious optimism, particularly once it became clear Delphia would retain the services of Petterson as designer. Now in his mid-80s, he made his name as an Olympic medallist in the Star and Soling class, before branching out into design. Early on, his prodigious talent was showcased in the design of the Volvo P1800, an iconic…

CITÉ DE LA VOILE Fantastic child-friendly sailing museum in honour of Éric Tabarly, plus ocean racing boats and subs U-BOAT PENS With 3m-thick roofs, these pens are still used for building boats. The fishing port and commercial area are situated behind it LA CITADELLE Run in close under the walls for the deep water, paying heed to the traffic signals from the control tower ILE ST MICHEL The water south and east of the island is very shoal - if in doubt stick to the west side GÂVRES Small marina with some visitor berths, but the inlet is shallow and dotted with local moorings Brittany’s underbelly is a magical place of sandy beaches and jagged reefs, fortified port towns and standing stones. It is warmer than the wild north coast,…

What happens when you have, say, a Swan 44 of many years’ faithful service and you wish she sailed more like a modern yacht from, say, Morris Yachts? Well, you can either sell the Swan and buy the Morris. Or you do what Nick Millard did: spend £250,000 turning the one into the other. “The whole thing is a little bit crazy,” Nick admits. “It’ll only add £100,000 to her value. But if I’m going to blow £150k, I’d rather do it in a boat to which I’ve got an emotional attachment.” In fact, the sort of performance cruisers Nick was interested in would have lost similar value in depreciation over their first few years of life, so there was logic to his plans. The problem was the design of…

OYSTER 61 | NORWEGIAN WOOD This is hull number six of 14 of these mid-sized Oysters, built by Southampton Yacht Services and designed as a large, luxurious yacht that can realistically be sailed by a family crew. She’s cutter-rigged and the in-mast furling mainsail, furling genoa and staysail are all controlled by Harken electric winches from the cockpit, plus there is a bow thruster and the anchor windlass can be controlled from the helm. Norwegian Wood has been refitted with new hull paint, teak decks and electronics, including Garmin chart-plotters at the cockpit and the nav table. The interior has also undergone a refit. It has the 61’s B layout, with a full-beam aft master cabin, and two cabins forward with a shared ensuite. There is a raised…

ACWS PORTSMOUTH 22-24 JULY, PORTSMOUTH All the action of the exciting America’s Cup boats comes to the UK again, with Sir Ben and BAR competing on home turf. Watch from the water on your own boat or from the ticketed waterfront area. Race days are Saturday and Sunday, with three 20-minute races on each day, with a 10-minute gap between. For watching on land, tickets are available in four different tiers: Race Village: £25/£12.50 concession. Watch the racing and learn about the history, technology, teams and sailors through interactive features. Premier Grandstand: £60/£47.50. An upgrade from the race village that includes a grandstand seat for the day with great views of the course. Sailors Lounge: £120. Includes the race village, a grandstand seat and access to a private bar with…

A clutch of World ARC boats rest in Taha Uku bay, dwarfed by 1,200m tall Temetiu mountain in Hiva ‘Oa in the Marquesas islands. The fleet arrived in the easternmost South Pacific island chain after averaging between 18 and 20 days at sea since leaving Galápagos. This section of the eastern Pacific is usually the longest crossing in a circumnavigation. Thirty-two boats set off from Saint Lucia in January on the 2016-17 edition of the World Cruising Club rally, and more will join in Australia and a few other ports. They vary from the 35ft (10.6m) Albin Stratus Ain’t Fancy to the Oyster 62 Wishanger II. Hiva ‘Oa, the second largest Marquesas island, is the most convenient port of entry for yachts arriving from Galápagos. French post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin…

Oyster 745 £3.15m On the drawing board since 2013, hull number one of this beautiful new bluewater cruiser went on show at St Katharine Docks in April prior to the yacht heading off on a round the world trip. The first of the Oyster range to have the entire hull shell built using vacuum infusion with continuous glass fibre, she also has a vacuum infused girder system built into her hull, for strength and rigidity. The interior is a distinct departure from the 745’s predecessor, with four extremely generous cabins, all featuring en suites. An elegant addition to the Oyster line up. Just add blue water. oysteryachts.com Balance 526 £910,000 Balance Catamarans have factories both in China and South Africa, making this a truly multinational company. The 526 is the…

Fantastic memories will stay with us from this section of our trip, the islands are all wonderful and surprisingly different. There are majestic peaks in the Marquesas to sandy atolls that just show above sea level in the Tuamotu. Here in the Society Islands you get both with lovely lagoons around a tall peak. In complete contrast there is Tahiti, which is an international destination with everything you might want and really excellent restaurants. We have also encountered rain like we have never seen and had brilliant sunny days and more than our share of cloudy ones. Our main relaxation is either to go snorkelling or walking, preferably towards a target probably chosen from the guide book. Here we have been able to do both but not without adventure. We…

‘SAILORS MAKE FRIENDS NOT BY ASKING “WHAT DO YOU DO?” BUT “WHERE ARE YOU HEADING?”’ The stereotypical view of a sailor usually implies a fairly solitary, perhaps lonely existence. One man on his boat gives the impression of being a hermit, quite private, choosing a quiet life away from others. Even we, sailing as a family of four, often have people remarking about what an isolated time we must have, anchored in remote islands or sailing so far away from home. And yet the reality of our social life as longterm, long-distance cruisers is the complete opposite of that. I must admit, it took me by surprise as well. Before adopting the sailing life I had no idea that there was such a thing as the ‘cruising community’. Truth be…

Lorient is a large harbour and there is plenty to do here without heading out to sea in search of adventure. Port-Louis’ old walled city is a spectacular site that now houses a museum of the French navy. On the other side of the harbour, Kernével is a short bus ride from the lovely beaches at Larmor Plage, and there’s the fascinating Cité de la Voile Éric Tabarly and the submarine museum opposite it at Keroman. This is also where the many large ocean racing multihulls and monohulls based in Lorient can be marvelled at from the pontoonside. On a rising tide, there’s a spectacular cruise 6nM up the River Blavet to Hennebont – itself a beautiful walled city. En route you’ll pass the poignant ‘ship graveyards’ – really just…

On passage, your mainsail is hoisted and likely to stay up, barring extreme weather, until you arrive and, for much of the time out there at sea, a boom preventer will be rigged. This raises a number of important questions about reefing. On the face of things, any mainsail is happier being reefed or unreefed at an angle to the breeze that allows it to spill wind. But this does not mean ‘head-towind’, and if you are suffering a system that demands this, the only thing to do is get rid of it now. REEFING THE MAINSAIL Fortunately, despite strange lessons taught in mysterious covens of ignorance, few arrangements really do ask for this. If the sail-handling gear is any good at all, reefing should be easily dealt with by…

Infamous Fastnet footage Shown earlier this spring at the Annapolis Film Festival, this 14-minute film by sailing journalist and presenter Gary Jobson contains footage of the infamous 1979 Fastnet Race. Jobson was watch leader on board CNN founder Ted Turner’s Tenacious, that year’s winner. This mini-documentary contains fascinating footage of the crew on deck and below, as well as photos presented in a slideshow format, while Turner, Jobson and other crew members give voiceovers explaining what happened as the boat struggled to cope with the conditions, unaware of how many people had died and how many boats had been abandoned. You can’t watch it on YouTube in the UK, but it will work via Jobson’s website. Verdict: It might be nearly 40 years since the disaster, but it’s still as…

Things didn’t quite begin with the Contessa 26, but this was definitely the boat that established Jeremy Rogers’ reputation. Having been set up in 1961, within 10 years his was one of the most successful boat manufacturing companies in Britain, when his company included five purpose-built factories in central Lymington and a workforce of nearly 200 employees. Production included Contessa yachts ranging in size from the traditional 26 and 32 to the Doug Peterson designed grand prix 34s, 35s, 39s and 43s. It all started in a garage in central Lymington in 1960-1. Dr David Carnegie was Jeremy’s first customer, bravely commissioning the building of a wooden Folkboat, to be named Dysca. The gamble worked: David Carnegie became a lifelong friend and customer, and Jeremy built another 16 modified Folkboats.…

TIDAL ENERGY FARM FOR IOW A tidal energy scheme 1.3nM off St Catherine’s Point on the Isle of Wight has moved a step closer to reality after permission was granted by the Government’s marine planning body. The Perpetuus Tidal Energy Centre (PTEC) will be the largest in England and Wales, producing up to 30MW – enough to power 15,000 homes. The Marine Management Organisation (MMO), which licences marine activities in the UK, granted permission in late April for the offshore section of the scheme. As well as a 5 km2 site including up to 60 turbines of various designs, there would also be cables running to a substation/control room on the island. Permission for the onshore aspects were granted by local authorities last year. Perpetuus Energy is yet to settle…

‘MY FATHER WOULD NEVER HAVE CONSIDERED ME WORKING ELSEWHERE’ It is dusk. Standing at the end of the harbour wall in Greifswald in northern Germany, I can make out the lights of the island of Rügen with its spa towns. A day sail to the northeast is the Danish island of Bornholm and past that is Copenhagen. This corner of the Baltic is a sailor’s playground – full of ancient Hanseatic harbour towns with stone quays, foaming pilsner and fishy delicacies. It is also the home of the mighty Hanse Group, now the world’s number three production boat yard. In modern factory buildings alongside the town’s ancient quay, in the shadow of a Hanseatic-era tower, it builds the aggressive-looking Hanse line of fast cruisers as well as the Dehler and…

Sailing from Woodrolfe Marina at Tollesbury on the Blackwater is both a joy and a challenge. The area is very pretty with bird-friendly saltmarshes on all sides and the village of Tollesbury itself has an old-fashioned charm. A few years ago one of the shops on the High Street boasted ‘Marjory’s Fish and Fashions’ – an interesting combination, but one that no longer offers customers an unusual one-stop shop. The marina is also friendly, well-equipped (capable of the kind of GRP repairs that most of us would prefer to avoid) and has a great bar and restaurant in the Harbour View. This is also the base for the Tollesbury Cruising Club, which joins in the annual Buxey Ashes cricket match on Buxey Sand whenever they can muster a team. I…

‘THE LARGER THE VESSEL, THE MORE ECONOMICAL CREWED DELIVERIES BECOME’ For serious bluewater cruisers, the idea of hoisting your boat onto a cargo ship for transportation across the ocean runs somewhat counter to instinct. After all, for the purist, ocean crossings are a key part of the cruising experience. But not everyone who wants to sail their boat in the Caribbean has the luxury of four weeks to spend on an Atlantic crossing. Transport is quick, direct and boats carried as cargo are typically less prone to damage than if they went across on their own bottoms. Clearly, there is a place for transport. The most popular routes across the Atlantic and the Med are well served by carriers, and there are plenty to choose from, although they fill up…

Your Sailing Today team is constantly ready to take one for the wider cruising community, and spent a day in the sun testing out the latest inflatable sailing gadgets. Early one morning, we laid out four large sets of bags on the beach at Rockley Point in Poole Harbour, and set about assembling the toys within. They varied in complexity from a simple stand-up paddleboard (itself a miracle of 3D fabric technology) to a 4.2m inflatable sports cat, complete with trampoline and trapeze. Find out how we fared in the following pages, but the common denominator was having fun (and getting wet). Minicat 420 Evoque Weighing 49kg in two large bags, this looked the best fun of the four units we tested. Better still, it should only take 30 minutes…

Raymarine Ray52 Great for crowded helms or cosy chart tables, this latest VHF radio from Raymarine is ultra compact. Just 142mm wide, 59mm high and 134mm deep, it should fit almost any pedestal or corner. It still packs a full power transceiver and has a 72-channel GPS built-in. • raymarine.com • £250 Chatham Spinnaker Designed as part of Chatham’s Aqua-Go technical shoe range, the Spinnaker is super lightweight and very grippy in the wet. Handy if you’re going for a spin on one of the inflatable toys we review on pp60-64. Holes in the sole allow water to drain out (and in!) quickly. • chatham.co.uk • £99 AIS man overboard alarm This little box of tricks from Ocean Signal is designed to work with any AIS man overboard beacons, to…

COMMENT OF THE MONTH Quite a kit list When we sailed the Atlantic circuit in 1973-74 the following kit was considered essential [in reference to Atlantic Survey, ST230]: sextant and a rateable watch together with the appropriate ephemerides and reduction tables. A copy of Mary Blewitt’s Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen. Communications were very rudimentary - only an emergency handheld radio to broadcast on 2182kHz. We tried to contact a fellow yachtie two miles away once and he heard nothing. Maybe too close! But we did have a good Grundig multi-wavelength receiver for WWV time signals and to listen to the BBC World Service commentary on the space station that had just gone into orbit. Our engine was a marinised 1.2lt BMC ex-taxi engine, with dynamo. No fridge, wind generator, solar…