Innehållsförteckning för May 2022 från Sailing Today

After a month at sea, sailing our Lagoon 440 catamaran from Panama across the Pacific Ocean, we were eager to explore this tropical destination. However, when we arrived in Tahiti, the heart of the Society Islands, our experience was a little out of the ordinary. Due to the onset of coronavirus, French Polynesia had closed its borders and our first month was spent in mandatory lockdown at the airport anchorage off Tahiti’s capital of Pape’ete. The vistas were stunning, but sitting still after so long at sea was very frustrating. So, when restrictions eventually eased and inter-island travel was granted, we wasted no time in setting sail. Many boats planned to backtrack to the Tuamotus – a beat against the trade winds – to see one of the archipelagos missed…

Where did they come from? The first (fig 1) involved a classic coming together in a multi-class club race. The Skiff (Yellow) rounds the windward mark, takes a quick glance downwind to see there is a clear lane, and hoists the kite. As all asymmetric sailors know, once it is up, there is a huge blind spot to leeward. It’s a shifty day, and the Topper (Blue) is fully focussed on compass and tell-tales. Blue takes a final hitch out to the port layline, oblivious to the inconvenience this may cause the skiff later. Blue feels no need to glance over their shoulder: any boats converging from that direction will be keep clear boats. By the time the boats see each other, at position 5, it is too late for…

1. Be properly prepared - Have good gear to ensure you are warm enough and comfortable when the sun goes down, especially if you have to sit on the rail all night. It is always a lot more fun when you’re not wet and miserable. Make sure you always have a trim torch close to your hand and a good head torch as well. 2. Be organised - Have your sheets well-marked so you have a good reference on the trim before it gets dark and you can always get back to your good settings. Know where your halyards and sheets are and what needs to happen for the next sail change so you are not trying to figure it out in a rush in the dark. 3. Get used…

There’s nothing new about trimarans with foils. Eric Tabarly’s 16.5m Paul Ricard in the 1970s, for example, was by no means the first. However, the implementation of the mini foils on the Libertist 853 make this one of the stand out boats of its generation. The foils are positioned well forward, so also counter the tendency for the bows to dig in. They also offer potential to eliminate leeway. It’s therefore not intended as a boat that will fly clear of the water. Instead, the small foils beneath each ama contribute significantly to stability and also lift the bows, thus markedly reducing the potential for capsize when pushed very hard in strong winds. The amas have a substantial amount of buoyancy, but the big benefit is that the faster you…

"Don’t overcook the start" Hamble man Chris Warwick has done the race “er…14, maybe 15 times?”. He’s done it as a family, with wife Mel and their two children on a Dufour cruising yacht, and he’s done it with two elite racers, Olympian Mark Covell and Olympic coach Mark Rushall, on the 30ft one-off design, Collective Spirit. Chris has even enjoyed the taste of victory – in 2009 he was the recipient of the Crankshaw Bowl in 2009, when the yacht he was sailing, Osprey of Hamble, was first in its division and group. Chris’ advice to first-timers is clear: “Don’t overcook the start! It’s a race but it’s not a race. It’s a long – keep it fun. Give yourself clear air. Try to stay in the tide, but…

NORTH BASS WEEK 30 July-7 August, Bassenthwaite SC, Bassenthwaite Lake, Cumbria OVERVIEW: Nine days of racing and partying in the beautiful Lake District, at the foot of Skiddaw and close to the town of Keswick. Camping available on site. Social programme for all the family. A mix of fleet and handicap racing suits all abilities. Some races are run as a series whilst other races are one-offs. The best value summer race week! INSIDER TIP: Tactically make friends with a GP14 sailor, with a plan to borrow their boat for one of the two highly-contested pursuit races. GP14s have won more than any other class! SPONSORS: The Lakes Distillery and Craftinsure.com WEBSITE: bassweek.org.uk FILEY REGATTA 21-22 May, Filey SC, Arndale Country Carpark, Filey, North Yorkshire OVERVIEW: Filey SC is celebrating…

More than 7,000 dinghy sailors and watersports fanatics from across the UK flocked to Farnborough International in February for the new-look RYA Dinghy and Watersports Show, presented by Suzuki. Featuring its traditional core of dinghy sailing, the event this year also had stands for windsurfers, wingsurfers and foilers plus paddleboarders. Olympic gold medallists Dylan Fletcher and Eilidh McInytre cut the ribbon and the crowds packed into a back-to-back schedule of talks by them and other famous names, including our writer Mark Rushall, the British Sailing Team strategist.…

Budworth wins Club of the Year award Budworth Sailing Club has been named as winner of the 2022 RYA and Yachts & Yachting Club of the Year Award, supported by Gallagher. The Cheshire club was one of 10 finalists selected by the RYA awards panel and ultimately crowned by a public vote. The coveted trophy was presented by the British Sailing Team’s Sam Whaley on 26 February at the RYA Dinghy & Watersports Show, after the finalists were introduced by the RYA’s CEO Sara Sutliffe. Budworth SC was recognised for implementing changes which have attracted more members of all ages and backgrounds into the sport, including volunteer run open days and dedicated sessions for newcomers. Having been recently recognised as an RYA training centre, the club is also now able…

‘Of course I love the Finn, but it’s not the only solution out there, let’s be honest’ Wandering around your average boat show these days, you can’t help noticing something different – something with a lurid colour scheme, a mildy anarchic logo, something that carries words and stickers unintelligible to the average Hallberg-Rassy owner. This, plainly, is a foiling kiteboard. But what’s it doing in a boat show? Our late and greatly esteemed columnist Bob Fisher spent some time in the years following the Rio Olympics giving World Sailing a magnificently hard time. It was Bob at his best, firmly on the side of the ordinary sailor, armed as he always was with fact and history as much as emotion. Bob’s bugbear, or one of them (he really did give…

The key to minimising mistakes and maximising gains at the windward mark is thinking ahead and knowing the likely outcomes in different conditions so that you are able to make a quick yet informed decision based on risk vs reward. 1. Laylines – As a rule, try not to hit the lay early. The earlier you get to a layline, the higher your risk and the lower the reward. Your option to tack is now limited to a huge shift, where you are likely to lose out, and it is very likely that others will tack on top of you. Think ahead early on if it looks likely you'll end up here, and look for shifts to take you back to the middle of the course. 2. The starboard drag…

‘Practical matters apart, there’s pleasure in a wind vane that feels lacking in other systems’ Hands up everyone in the room who has an electric autopilot. A sea of waving palms appears before me. Autopilots are as common on boats these days as baked beans used to be. They are, without doubt, useful little critters, and so common that there are some amongst us who wouldn’t even consider a trip from Hamble to Poole if the little buzzing box wasn’t in working order. The cruising population now divides into two camps; those with electric self steering, and those who are about to get it - with apologies to that couple at the back of the room who have turned up in sou’westers and tarred canvas smocks and have never heard…

First to grab the headlines was a battle of the giants that went down to the wire in this year’s hotly contested RORC Caribbean 600. A trio of 70ft tris chased each other in a record-breaking dash from Antigua and around the beautiful Leeward Islands, the winner sailing into the history books with a new multihull race record of just 29 hours, 38 minutes and 44 seconds. Incredibly, at the end of this super-charged battle just two minutes, 13 seconds separated first and second, with the winner decided in the final few miles of the 600nm race. Scooping that top prize was Jason Carroll’s Argo - third time lucky for the boat, which had been runner up in this now-iconic race twice before. They overhauled Giovanni Soldini’s Multi70 Maserati in…

Why start so early? “It’s a 50-mile course, so it can be a very long day on the water. We try to give everyone the best possible chance of finishing, even in very light winds. The whole race is based on tides – we try to get people out through the Western Solent and Hurst Narrows with maximum tide behind them. In a year with a good breeze most boats will get round fairly quickly, but on a very light wind day boats can struggle to make the tidal gate at the Needles and many others won’t be in until late evening. There are so many boats it’s not safe to start them all at the same time. That's why the start sequence lasts for two hours.” Why do the…

A couple of months ago a vaguely disgruntled reader wrote a moderately miffed epistle in which he described me as ‘big boat’ Sam. I found this ironic, given that I endured the first Covid lockdown living aboard a Morecambe Bay Prawner 28 with headroom of 5’3”. However, as I sat down to write up this test, I began to see his point of view. The fact is that new boats are getting bigger and monsieur ‘big boat’ is obliged to test them. I recall some years ago testing the Jeanneau 64, a monohull aimed at cruising couples who happened to need masses of space. I thinking to myself; ‘well, this will never take off’. How wrong I was. I guess the Lagoon 65 is the multihull equivalent; a production multihull…

Chichester Marina offers a sheltered haven just a stone’s throw from the Solent and in the heart of a stunning natural harbour, designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Chichester’s massive natural safe-haven has been providing shelter since the time of King Canute who mythically tried to turn back the tide here to little avail. Later William the Conqueror spotted what a good place it was to land and promptly invaded England from this start point. In these less violent times, Chichester’s magnificent harbour continues to flourish and Chichester Marina was one of the first to be constructed in the UK, having been built in the mid-1960s. Safe and secure, this locked marina is home to 1100 berths, a modern boatyard with two boat hoists, a slipway and plentiful hard…

Sebago Manitou loafers Sebago probably didn’t name these handsome deck loafers after the S&S once owned by JFK, but the association does them no harm. Made of a “soft, yet thicker, resistant suede”, they feature a “leather sock lining” as well as “a fashionable vulcanized rubber outsole inspired by the historical ergonomic American high foxing boat shoe”, quite befitting a president, really. They’re part of a new summer range from Sebago. ● £100 ● sebago.co.uk Double lilo Cast off from your anchored yacht in some gorgeous Mediterannean cove and float lazily, with your beloved by your side. This new double lilo is made by Oliver James, “creator of the world’s finest luxury upholstered pool floats”, who has been inspired by “iconic destinations such as the Hamptons and Los Angeles”. Clearly…

C Cat 48 The C-Cat 48 is a lightweight and fast Italian cruising catamaran from the Comar Yachts yard and their latest launch is definitely designed for high speed cruising. The boat is designed by French naval architect Francois Perus and the new yacht features C-Foil daggerboards to reduce displacement at speed and increase clearance of the nacelle. Comfort wise, the key concept has been to create a single large outdoor living space. The cockpit is protected by a large bimini, which is fully closable for pleasant outdoor living, and the cockpit and dinette are both on the same level, divided by a large sliding door. c-catamarans.com Lagoon 51 Lagoon’s relatively new 50 (launched 2017) has been obliged to take a bow in order to accommodate its replacement, the 51.…

When it comes to putting a programme for sailing fitness into action, there are a huge number of variables, so although it is hard to generalise, the most important thing is to be smart with what you are trying to achieve. First, think about your on the water performance; ask for input from your coach or training partner. Consider where there are gaps from a physical point of view and rather than jumping into a generic programme, target these areas. That way you will get the most direct benefit to your sailing results. For example, if you struggle with hiking, you would look at working on quad and trunk strength; to improve mainsheet pumping would require upper body strength work; or if you get tired after an hour or two,…

“The front of the fleet will always look after itself, it’s the back of the fleet that needs the lion’s share of the care and attention” The great thing about one-design racing is you know exactly where you stand. The bad thing about one-design racing is you know exactly where you stand. Unlike the vagaries of handicap racing where there is always somewhere to hide, if you fare badly in a one-design race there is nowhere for the ego to seek refuge. It’s on you. Of course, if you were fortunate enough to find a boat that has a strong one-design fleet but also performs very well on handicap, that would be a wonderful but very rare combination. Well, one boat that seems to be having its cake and eating…

“So long as we kept on pumping, it was unlikely to sink us, but it was nonetheless disconcerting” By the time this edition of Sailing Today lands on the doormat, Easter will be upon us. Brexit may have affected the hassle-free option of an early trip to France for South-Coast boats, but sending in customs forms isn’t the end of the world. It’s true that in recent years we’ve enjoyed a period of seamless travel, but the good old days of bottles of rum tucked away in pillow cases and packets of fags stashed in the anchor locker are still within living memory. In a way, the formalities that are back with us add to the sense of occasion. We’ve really ‘been foreign’ now, rather than just nipping over to…

Winning always makes a race memorable – and setting a new race record has got to help too! But for pro offshore sailor Brian Thompson, who already has many records to his name, super close racing, ideal conditions and being part of a slick well-prepared team were the added ingredients that made this a perfect race... “It was a fantastic race with the lead changing hands almost at every island,” says Brian. “The most spectacular part was the first evening when we were going up behind Nevis and into to lee of St Kitts heading for Saba, and all three MOD70s were doing 35+ knots in flat water; we were perhaps 30 metres away from Maserati at times, doing that sort of speed - that was an amazing sight, one…

After a bumper year of regatta-inspired sailing clothing in 2021, the pendulum has swung back towards bluewater cruising again. While there is still plenty of new gear for dinghy and keelboat racers, the bulk of the launches ahead of this summer focus on full-fat foulies. Musto, Henri-Lloyd and Gill have all tweaked their headline ranges, and it is encouraging to see that sustainability is taking root in this most synthetic of sectors. Many of the novelties for 2022 relate to recycled fibres and non-harmful fabric treatments. It’s been a busy 12 months for Musto, with new products aimed at pretty much every category of sailing, from dinghy racing to offshore racing and cruising. On the cruising side, Musto’s mid-range BR2 foul-weather clothing line has also been given a performance boost…

HANSE 575 | LUNA The Hanse 575 first hit the market in 2013 and impressed with a blend of very high volume combined with sprightly performance and easy handling. The huge amount of space inside was achieved by gving the boat generous freeboard but a relatively sleek look was maintained by keeping the coachroof low and sleek. Meanwhile, the self tacking jib and powered winches made the boat a dream for short handed sailing and the boat has become a proven performer onm the transatlantic circuit, with numerous boats completing the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers. This Hanse 575 has to be the very highest specification example on the market. Commissioned and delivered by UK Hanse agents Inspiration Marine Group in 2016, there has been no expense spared either…

All of us love a good view. A sunset at anchor, a white sand beach with ubiquitous palm trees or a full moon reflected in the water; the sea makes an outstanding backdrop. However, things get a little different once you’re 17 metres up. Climbing the mast is never just to take in the view. It’s always a practical task needing to be tackled. Measuring a fitting or checking an electrical connection. It could be repairing or replacing something. And, like much of the cruising life, any trip up needs to be balanced with what the weather and the sea-state have in store for you. On one of our early forays up the mast we switched out our old incandescent navigation lights for LEDs prior to crossing the Atlantic. There…