Innehållsförteckning för December 2020 från Yachting Monthly

A $1 million research project to produce a bespoke engineered biofilm as a replacement for traditional antifouling on boats, is underway at the University of Essex. The ‘living coating’ would be made from ‘a community of microbes’ that form a protective layer. Dr Nick Aldred, from Essex’s School of Life Sciences, said traditional antifoul had many drawbacks like toxicity, fragility, cost and disposal, and often failed to offer complete protection. ‘A living coating could heal itself after damage, act as a sensor and could be naturally released from the surface when necessary,’ he explained. ‘We aim to create an engineered bacterial community that can be controlled to produce a protective, multifunctional film for vessel hulls.’ The initial focus of the lab-based project – sponsored by the US Navy – will…

Norfolk Police and The Broads Authority have hit back at claims that tougher regulations need to be brought in on the 125 miles of waterway, writes Maurice Gray. The Broads Society says it would like to see tighter restrictions. Its chairman Paul Rice, who was a founder of Broads Watch which promotes water safety, said: ‘We have major concerns for people’s safety on the Broads with the lack of understanding and respect for the water and present dangers, especially cold water shock as well as strong and dangerous tidal waves, so more education is required.’ Others have called for the introduction of licences, similar to the system in France where a licence is required to operate a boat with an engine(s) over 6hp. Hire boat firms have dismissed this idea,…

We snatched a last few days from this weird year: at first a passage of engine-calm then a fine sail fast and free from Salcombe towards Dartmouth, just before the weather closed down. It was pleasing to anchor for the last night somewhere we never had before – Scabbacombe Bay – for a sunset drink, and a last night rolling and listening for the grinding chain over the bow. Nice sandy holding, by the way – the anchor came up clean as a whistle for once. My brother had been intrigued as to why we have a garden hoe lashed on deck. He wondered if we had a landscaping plan in mind. It is ideal for getting sticky clay off the anchor. So as I write, we are laid up,…

THIS MONTH’S EXPERTS RACHAEL SPROT Rachael is a YachtMaster Ocean instructor and co-founder of Rubicon 3 Adventure; she has spent years instructing sailors. RANDALL REEVES Randall is the first sailor to circumnavigate the American and Antarctic Continents in one season. He finished his 40,000 miles solo voyage in October 2019. JULIAN AND PATRICIA MORGAN Julian and Patricia left the UK in September 2017 to sail around the world in their Allures 45.9. They are now in New Zealand. GRAHAM SNOOK Graham is a marine photographer and journalist who has been involved in testing yachts for over 20 years. He cruises a Sadler 32 from Gosport. DUNCAN KENT Duncan has been testing boats for more than 25 years and is a technical feature writer and editor for numerous nautical magazines and…

It was such a rush to get to the start and the first time I had sailed Alchemy solo properly was the day before I left, when I took her from Hythe to the Hamble. It felt quite surreal when I finally left, then between Hasler and Brighton it got windy and choppy in a Force 5 and I thought, “here I am in at the deep end!” Timothy Long had planned six weeks of training aboard his Hunter Impala 28, Alchemy, before attempting to circumnavigate Britain solo, but March’s COVID-19 lockdown in England put paid to that. Undeterred, the 15-year-old from landlocked Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire decided to use the time to improve his navigation and completed an RYA Day Skipper theory course. Nothing was going to get in the…

While many of us are wondering who we will be able to spend Christmas with this year, Pip Hare’s dream is to be isolated and alone. Fingers crossed, the 46-year-old will be deep in the Southern Ocean. On 8 November she and 33 other solo sailors will set out from Les Sables d’Olonne in France on the Vendée Globe non-stop round the world race. The fleet bristles with the latest foil-borne flying machines capable of reaching 40 knots, costing €10-15 million apiece. Lined up against them, Hare will be on Medallia, the almost 20-year-old, resolutely flightless IMOCA 60 she took out a loan to rent. Winning is out of the question. Yet no one is better placed to expose sailing’s fiercest test of survival than this determined, down-to-earth skipper. Galvanised…

Walk down any marina or boat show pontoon and you could be forgiven for thinking there was some sort of nautical jousting competition afoot. Older yachts too can get in on the act with retrofitted deck-mounted retractable bowsprits, but do you really need one and do they improve performance? There’s nothing new about bowsprits – sailing ships have been using them for centuries as a means of creating more real estate from which to fly canvas as well as to balance a vessel’s rig – but they are more popular on cruising yachts than ever before. With advancements in sail-handling technology, a furling spinnaker can now be set up in port by one person and stay rolled up until it’s ready to be used. At that point, it’s a case…

News editor Sailors have accused the Government of unfairly taxing long-term cruisers after HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced that UK boat owners who have cruised continually in Europe for over three years without returning to the UK have until the end of 2021 to bring their vessels home or face paying VAT and import duty on their boat. This will apply even if owners have already paid UK VAT. Ann and David Berry have kept their Moody Eclipse 33, Aderynglas in Greece for the last 10 years. The couple bought the yacht in Poole, paid UK VAT on the vessel before cruising her through the Mediterranean to Greece. Ann said charging UK VAT a second time felt like a tax on long-term cruisers. ‘By making you pay VAT a…

Skippers who rely on older electronic navigational equipment are being urged to upgrade to newer models before the UK’s Differential GPS (DGPS) service is switched off in March 2022. The decision by the General Lighthouse Authorities of the UK and Ireland, which includes Trinity House, the Northern Lighthouse Board and Irish Lights, was made following an extensive consultation with stakeholders, including recreational sailors. The infrastructure needed to run DGPS is also coming to the end of its design life. DGPS is a radio beacon which essentially provides corrections to GPS signals, improving the accuracy of position data. Occasionally GPS satellites can broadcast incorrect information that can cause navigational information to be wrong. Since 2003, Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM), which assesses the integrity of the calculated position, has been included…

Sea trials of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) are underway in Plymouth. The 15m (49ft 3in) trimaran powered by solar and controlled by Artificial Intelligence (AI) will cruise oceans gathering environmental data. MAS is built by the nonprofit research firm ProMare and IBM developers. It has the ability to sense, think and make decisions at sea without human crew. MAS has over 30 sensors, six cameras, with a maximum speed of 10 knots. Over the next six months the trimaran will be tested on various research missions before crossing the Atlantic in spring 2021, on a similar route to the that of the Mayflower in 1620.…

As I walk across the sun-dappled floor of my local wood listening to trees soughing in the wind, it is an odd thought that in these days of woke politics in which all talk of empire is demonised, these creaking boughs were once the seedlings of oaks used to frame up the Mayflower. The Pilgrim Fathers dropped to their knees, on another earthen floor an ocean away and gave thanksgiving to God for their safe delivery across the Atlantic 400 years ago, this month. The Mayflower made her landfall in Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts on 21 December 1620. It is the claim made by several historians: that Mayflower’s timber came from the woodland which still exists today behind the silted port of Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, my home town. Many also say she…

Boats have been built out of wood since Noah first put axe to tree, but when it comes to cutting-edge yachts, timber is right back at the top. Spirit Yachts have been building head-turningly pretty wooden yachts with stiff, lightweight laminated wooden hulls since 1993, including the largest wooden yacht built in the UK since the 1930s in the shape of the Spirit 111, launched this year. But away from all the fanfare, the Ipswich-based yard has also just launched Avvento, smaller sister to its 47 and 55 Cruising Range yachts. Far from being a lesser vessel, however, the Spirit 44 Cruising Range Electric (44e for short) hides advances in sustainable technology under its gleaming topsides that offer a glimpse into the future of boat building. Unrecyclable fibreglass and sails,…

Q Which shallow draft yacht would be suitable for solo sailing? I’m at the beginning of the journey into yacht ownership. I’ve spent some time scouring previous issues of Yachting Monthly to learn about the pros, cons and suitability of different boats. I have decided I need a yacht which can be sailed solo and accommodate three or four people comfortably. It also needs to have a shallow draft. Swing keel would be my preferred option but options are few in my price bracket of £150,000. What would you recommend? Vincent Salva A Duncan Kent responds: There are not that many mid-range cruising yachts designed with lifting or swinging keels so your choice is somewhat limited. As a rule, the more modern the design, the easier it is to sail…

We all know they’re out there… the great adventures on our doorstep. Whether it’s a first cruise to France, sailing to the Scillies or Round the Island race, we are blessed in the UK with some truly wonderful cruising. With this in mind, we began planning a family cruise to the south west of Ireland. Pondering the route, it seemed the possibility of a UK circumnavigation looked feasible. The adventure soon morphed into cruising all of the islands of the UK and Ireland to port, which had a certain ring to it. The tone changed slightly when I realised that Rockall was part of the UK. The granite islet is about 250 miles west-north-west of St Kilda, in itself a difficult place to get to, so there would be an…

Send your sailing gossip, diary dates, cruising news and club or owners’ association updates to Laura Hodgetts laura.hodgetts@futurenet.com Billy bounces back from mid-Atlantic rescue Solo skipper Billy Brannan, who had to abandon his home when his yacht dismasted mid Atlantic, is getting back on his feet. The 63-year-old was rescued by the 69,000-tonne Panamax tanker, Seways Raymar, after his Vancouver 34 Pilot Helena was knocked down during a storm (YM, September 2020). After recuperating with family and friends in Tollesbury, Essex, Billy moved into his new boat, a 1987 Freedom 35 called Merlin in early September. Billy said: ‘I also went out on a friend’s boat as my body is more or less healed. My first time back out and all went well. ‘I spoke with the UK Coastguard and…

LEGATO (2007) Russ and Sharon Stuart bought UK-built Legato, a shoal draft, fin-keeled Legend 36, in 2016. ‘She was originally berthed in Dartmouth where I think she was used primarily as a West Country cottage, so she was little used. The second owner did some excellent upgrades, including replacing all the seacocks and having the hull Coppercoated,’ explained Russ. ‘Being fairly well equipped when we got her we waited a while before deciding what we might change or replace. At the end of our first season we added an MFD at the helm (the original plotter was located at the chart table), an electric toilet and a good quality feathering propeller. ‘We have since replaced the sails with a modern material that has transformed the in-mast furling experience,’ Russ continued. Asked…

Without a paddle Tim Bultitude CONFESSION OF THE MONTH This takes place 11 years ago, when I owned a lovely little Wing 25. My son, aged 13, and I had spent the night anchored off Stone Point in the Walton Backwaters. In the morning we set off just after low water with a stiff southwesterly blowing. When leaving the Backwaters there are two red cans which, around low water in a southwesterly wind, it is best to give a wide berth to as they tend to blow over the shallow water. Well I didn’t, and suddenly we were hard aground. No problem, the tide was rising and soon there would be enough water to float us off. Deciding it would be a good idea to drop the anchor upwind to…

Tributes have been paid to Original Singlehanded Transatlantic Race (OSTAR) and Round Britain and Ireland (RB&I) veteran Mary Falk, who has died, aged 74. She competed in every major UK shorthanded, long-distance race, including three OSTARs, three Azores and Back Races (AZABs), one Fastnet, six RB&I races and numerous Petit Bateau events. In the 1996 OSTAR Mary took the record for the fastest Atlantic crossing in a 35ft boat after coming first-inclass aboard her Pocock 35, QII. Her time of 19 days, 22 hours and 57 minutes still stands. Mary started sailing in her late 20s. She bought her UFO 34, Quixote, in the 1980s before commissioning naval architect Mike Pocock to design QII – launched in August 1990. Her racing career was halted between 2005-2006 when she underwent treatment…

The invasive, non-native carpet sea squirt, Didemnum vexillum, known as D.vex, has been discovered in Loch Fyne in Argyll. Although common on the South Coast, it has only been found in two other locations in Scotland. From Japan, it can grow rapidly, smother immobile species and potentially impact native wildlife and important economic sectors such as recreation, fish and shellfish farming. Marine conservationist Sarah Brown, has created practical marine biosecurity plans for several areas including Loch Fyne, said sailors need to be aware of invasive species. ‘Not only can invasive species cause expensive difficulties for your boat, mooring or marina, they can also potentially make yachts unwelcome in some areas,’ she warned. Marine Scotland commissioned Sarah and her team to identify biosecurity measures to help limit the spread of D.…

A common fear amongst cruisers, especially those sailing offshore, is hitting a whale. According to figures from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) Ship Strike Database, there were 605 confirmed, known as definite, collisions between a whale and a vessel between 1820-2019, although the IWC concedes that many incidents aren’t reported. Most IWC reports occurred after 1990, with the highest number of strikes recorded in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean. Of the 402 cases which included vessel data, 49 involved sailing yachts, second behind ferries which were involved in 52 cases. Fin whales are the most likely species to be involved in a strike, followed by the humpback and sperm. The mammals were generally young and death was a common occurrence. In more than half of incidents there was no vessel…

The sale of Pearl of Penzance was both shockingly sudden and painfully slow. Everyone advised us that Europe would be our best market and we fully expected to sail Pearl home. Or worst case ship her, should COVID-19 steal a summer crossing. With this in mind our cunning plan was to dip our toe in the market to test the waters and so it was a real shock to hear that she had sold in just six hours. Indeed, I was happily passage planning when the call came through. The initial thrill of success soon kicked up a maelstrom of emotions ranging from relief to sadness but not, thankfully, regret. Selling a boat is a confusing, messy and emotional process for there are a multitude of intangibles from import laws…

James Stevens, author of the Yachtmaster Handbook, spent 10 of his 23 years at the RYA as chief examiner Could you manoeuvre through a tight gap? Q Chris is the owner of Veronica, a classic long-keeled wooden yawl built 70 years ago. Veronica is 15m long, sails well and has just won her class in a classics regatta. The mizzen mast, stepped aft of the rudder post, is quite small, about the size of a mast of a 15ft sailing dinghy; the sail makes little difference to windward, but downwind the mizzen staysail is a race winner. After the race Chris has berthed Veronica on the pontoon next to the yacht club for the prize-giving. The clubhouse is situated in a small inlet with a short pontoon in the middle…

Prior to 2014 I had not sailed offshore and my sailing experience was limited to messing around on Lasers and Lightnings; but I had a dream to sail around the world and completed a number of RYA sailing courses, from Competent Crew to Yachtmaster, between 2014 and 2016, plus some mile-building passages. Then in May 2018 I retired to go sailing. I bought my first and only boat, a Sadler Starlight 39, in January 2017 and have since sailed the Solent and Channel waters; around Ireland; cruised the Inner Islands to Orkney and back to Pwllheli (home port) via the Caledonian Canal and have recently completed a 12,000-mile circuit of the Northern Atlantic. We (me the skipper, plus one) started in North Wales in April 2019, cruised south to Portugal…

As my Westerly Typhoon 37, Talisker 1 sailed slowly north in a light easterly breeze I looked back over the starboard quarter at the beautiful island of Santa Maria. Her peaks were cloud-covered, much as they had been a few days before when we approached the island from the east. Santa Maria is the most easterly island in the beautiful Azores chain. Later today we would pass the eastern side of San Miguel and then be clear of land and traffic: we would then have the Atlantic Ocean much to ourselves. Land’s End was 1,150 miles to the north-east. Cabo da Roca, the most westerly point of Europe, 750 miles to the east. I hoped the easterly winds that were promised for a day or two would get us well…

PEOPLE OF THE SEA £25 James Wharram with Hanneke Boon, Lodestar Books 92-year-old James Wharram’s autobiography offers fascinating insight into post-war social and design history, plus changing attitudes. It’s a record of voyaging and an advocacy for a different way of life. He strove to prove that Polynesian double canoes were capable of ocean-crossings, and reliable to windward. His ‘people of the sea’ concept and celebration of the ‘universal female aspect’ is a breath of warm scented air this harsh winter. THE NAUTICAL PUZZLE BOOK £14.99 Dr Gareth Moore, Hodder & Stoughton Such a good idea! This puzzle book from the National Maritime Museum offers 250 pages of brainteasers inspired by the NMM collections and also tests general nautical knowledge. Word puzzles, maritime trivia, codebreaking, pictorial observations are all included…

MOODY 36CC A development of Bill Dixon’s earlier 35, the Moody 36CC was primarily intended as a family coastal cruiser, though she had a level of performance not yet seen in Moody’s CC range. Giving the 36 a slimmer hull and longer waterline resulted in a noticeably faster, yet more sea-kindly yacht. Built to a high standard with Lloyd’s certification, a total of 118 were constructed at Marine Projects in Plymouth between 1996-2000. She has a near plumb stem, retroussé stern and attractive sheer, accentuated by a teak-capped bulwark giving her a sleek, modern look, despite her high topsides. She carries her beam a long way aft, providing sufficient internal space for her trademark roomy aftercabin. The hulls were laid up by hand, stiffened with balsa-cored frames and stringers, and…