Innehållsförteckning för January 2022 från Yachting Monthly

The rules for towing trailers have changed for individuals who passed their driving test after 1 January 1997. They are now allowed to tow trailers up to 3,500kg MAM (Maximum Authorised Mass). Previously, they were only allowed to tow trailers of up to 750kg MAM, or tow a trailer over 750kg MAM as long as the combined MAM of the trailer and towing vehicle didn’t exceed 3,500kg. A car and trailer test had to be passed to tow a larger trailer. These tests have now been stopped by the DVLA; those who had a test booked will be refunded. Drivers who qualify under these rules will have their driving licence records updated by the DVLA. A category BE addition will be automatically added when applying for a new photocard driving…

Tougher sentences are being proposed for those caught driving jet-skis and other recreational watercraft recklessly. The UK’s Department of Transport wants to reclassify jet-skis, speed boats and other recreational and personal watercraft to make users subject to the same laws and safety obligations as those who operate ships, as part of efforts to ‘modernise laws and clamp down on dangerous driving of jet-skis to protect the public and coastal areas.’ Following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions last summer, some harbour masters banned the launching and use of jet-skis in harbour limits, because of serious concerns about safety. Hampshire’s Marine Support Unit launched Operation Wavebreaker due to a surge in reports of anti-social behaviour on the waters around Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, including speeding jet-skiers. Poole Harbour Commissioners also…

One of the most important figures in the Swedish yacht industry, Christoph Rassy, has died at the age of 87. Born in 1934 in Germany, Christoph founded Hallberg-Rassy in 1972 after buying the Ellös boatyard of his rival, Harry Hallberg, who had retired. The two boatbuilders were never partners. The first boat built by Hallberg-Rassy was the Monsun 31, with 905 models built between 1974 and 1982. This was followed by the Hallberg-Rassy 41, the first boat to have a proper walk through to the aft-cabin below deck, which made it popular. Christoph learnt his trade in Bavaria, building model boats and his own boats before becoming an apprentice at a small yard for wooden boats in southern Germany. In 1960, he moved to Nötesund, Sweden, after securing work in…

The clocks went back and the winter winds swept in, as the flag fluttered at half-mast over the Thames-side eaves of my club, the Leigh-on-Sea Sailing Club. For centuries the little fishing port, mentioned in the Domesday Book, which is my home town, and place of birth, has squatted in estuary mud, coming alive briefly at tide time for an hour or two. Famous for little more than the cockle, the shell of which the club has at the heart of its burgee, Leigh has slumbered on, the world paying it scant attention until the killing of its Member of Parliament, Sir David Amess. Now Leigh-on-Sea is famous for something other than the humble bivalve mollusc. It is on the world ‘stage’ and can never again return to its former…

Send your questions to our experts at yachtingmonthly@futurenet.com for the chance to win a bottle of Chilgrove gin Don’t lock off too tight Before we set off on our Atlantic crossing, my wonderful RYA instructor was emphatic that locking turns on a cleat were both unnecessary and potentially dangerous unless the boat was being left for some time. Why? Because they lock. In any procedure, be it routine or urgent, being unable to release a line from a cleat in a timely manner can cause nautical embarrassment and sharp words from the skipper. One of my friends is a devotee of locking turns, and on one occasion in my absence he kindly adjusted the tension on my mooring lines, leaving them secured with a pile of locking turns. When I returned…

James Stevens, author of the Yachtmaster Handbook, spent 10 of his 23 years at the RYA as chief examiner Q Dave is cruising from Port Edgar up the east coast of Scotland. The boat is a 10m cruiser racer and conditions are ideal; sunny with a Force 4 from the west-southwest. Dave is a proficient dinghy sailor but has only recently taken up yachting. His crew are keen but have limited offshore experience. The boat is on a broad reach, and Dave decides that it’s time to hoist the symmetric spinnaker. After a couple of false starts, with sheets through rather than over the rail, it goes up and their speed increases by 1-2 knots. An hour or two later, Dave notices the speed has increased by another 1-2 knots,…

Rupert Smalley and his wife are seasoned sailors and own the Laser 28 Flying Fish of Howards’ Way fame. They regularly took part in Wednesday-evening races organised by the Hamble River Sailing Club along with other inshore and offshore events. Their accident occurred when they were on a starboard tack, became aware of the proximity of a larger 40ft Beneteau and immediately took action to avoid collision. However, the stem of the Beneteau still managed to collide with the Flying Fish, holing her on the port quarter below the waterline. Immediately, water began pouring in. The Smalleys took action, coming about and heading back to the mouth of the River Hamble. They were rescued by a passing motor boat, stepping off their fast-sinking yacht. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency was…

1 INVEST IN DECENT FOUL WEATHER GEAR I am usually a second-hand bargain hunter, so winced every time I shelled out for my next piece of kit. However, being warm and dry was vital for the resilience I needed to helm and keep myself and the crew safe. I was very pleased with my Musto MPX foulies – not sponsored, just an honest review! 2 TEST HOW WATERTIGHT THE BOAT IS BEFORE SAILING We had taken Elixir out for many day sails, but Falmouth Bay never offered the conditions we encountered in Biscay. Even with torrential Cornish rain we did not notice the leaks. In hindsight, I would have used more Sikaflex when replacing deck fittings and applied Creeping Crack Cure. 3 SLEEP DURING THE DAY It was immediately obvious…

Many heritage boats in Britain and Ireland are preserved due to the hard work of those who volunteer with associations and societies. They breathe new life into these historic vessels so we can continue to see them in harbours, rivers and canals. Here are a few around our coast: ORKNEY HISTORIC BOATS SOCIETY Founded in 2013, the Orkney Historic Boat Society (OHBS) was launched in 2013 to preserve the boating history of Orkney. It aims to conserve historic boats, such as the Ness Yole, the Orkney Yole and the Stroma Yole, and traditional boat building skills, as well as raise awareness of historic Orkney boats. www.ohbs.net NORTH EAST MARITIME TRUST Based out of South Shields in Tyne and Wear, the North East Maritime Trust has fully restored the historic Tynemouth…

BARTON SLIDING CLEAT TEMPORARY MOORING SOLUTION £140.66 Whitstable-based block specialist Barton Marine has updated its sliding cleat range with a new stainless steel model priced at £140.66. Designed to slide onto 32mm genoa T-track, it’s ideal for providing a temporary cleat amidships. Just remove the track end-stop and slide it on, then use the spring-loaded plunger to secure. It has a safe working load of 1,490kg. Barton already has a 32mm sliding cleat, but it used to be made from cast aluminium. The stainless-steel version that replaces it is stronger and has a sleeker profile. It requires no drilling to fit and is suited to boats of 32-40ft LOA. www.bartonmarine.com FUSION APOLLO AMPLIFIERS SURROUND SOUND £169 Louder and clearer music on board is now a reality thanks to Fusion Apollo’s…

If you have a news story to share, contact News Editor Katy Stickland Email Katy.Stickland@futurenet.com Tel 0330 390 6738 SUNSAIL RETURNS TO ABACOS Sunsail has announced its charter operations to the Abacos, Bahamas will resume in August 2022 VOLUNTEERS WANTED HM Coastguard is recruiting for volunteers in NW England and Wales. www.yachtingmonthly.com/volunteer YARDSTICK DATA REQUIRED Clubs have until 20 Dec 2021 to submit their Portsmouth Yardstick data. www.pyonline.org.uk SOUTHERN OCEAN LEG ANNOUNCED Teams competing in the 14th Ocean Race will have to sail the longest Southern Ocean leg in the event’s history – 12,750 miles from Cape Town, South Africa, to Itajaí, Brazil. WINDFARM IMPACT ON BIRDS A study into how large-scale offshore wind developments affect marine birds is now under way, involving offshore wind developers and public body, The Joint…

Golden Globe Race 2022 entrant Michael Davey has been rescued from his yacht after the Cape Dory 36 was driven onto cliffs during his qualifying sail for the race. The 60-year-old Australian skipper was airlifted to safety by a helicopter crew. He was uninjured in the incident. Davey had just completed a solo, non-stop circumnavigation of the North Island of New Zealand when his cutter-rigged yacht, The Dreamcatcher, was hit by a gale in Tasman Bay on 1 November 2021. Davey praised the professionalism of the rescue crews. He said initial hopes to salvage The Dreamcatcher were ‘quickly dispelled as the pounding by high seas over the next 48 hours shattered her to pieces.’ He has now withdrawn from the 2022 Golden Globe Race. ‘With a broken heart I grieve…

Dredging work is under way at Haslar - part of £3.5 million of upgrades to the Portsmouth Harbour marina. The work will help maintain existing berths and make way for a future extension. The Sealift has also been refurbished and the boatyard will be enlarged by installing a new waiting pontoon at the bottom of the slipway and the complete renovation of the G pontoon washrooms. A new enlarged galley will also be installed on Haslar’s famous green Lightship ahead of its reopening in the spring. Planning approval has also been requested to build a new restaurant, nine hotel rooms and a floating events space. Construction is expected to start in early 2022.…

Data from the RNLI reveal volunteer crews saved the lives of 55 people who got into difficulty while taking part in watersports this summer in the UK and Ireland. This is the highest number of lives saved during watersport incidents since 2002, when 72 lives were saved. Watersports cover people who got into difficulty while bodyboarding, using inflatables, kayaking or canoeing, kitesurfing, paddleboarding, rowing, surfing, swimming, water-skiing, windsurfing and dinghy sailing. The RNLI’s head of water safety, Gareth Morrison, said restrictions on foreign travel in 2021 meant more people holidayed by the coast. ‘That resulted in a huge number of people getting into difficulty around our coasts, with our lifesavers facing an incredibly busy summer as these figures show,’ he said.…

Avessel is the embodiment of a complex series of choices that endeavour to find harmony amidst a plethora of competing needs. This tension forces a succession of compromises whose centre of gravity must be to satisfy, as best as possible, the proposed purpose of the boat. Every design choice, as competing needs pull at either end of many interwoven threads, must be agonised over, for in going firm another small and irreversible step will have been taken beyond that centre of gravity. Any lack of clarity at the outset or lazy decision making will give birth to a boat that pleases no man. It’s endless; draught against righting moment, volume over sleek lines, differing materials, keeping within budget, ease of construction, levels of storm survival, number of crew and visitor…

‘BRUSH UP ON MOORING ASTERN SO I CAN HANDLE MY BOAT SOLO’ DIAGNOSIS: Dave and his partner Natalie have owned Kairos for two years after selling their previous boat, a Contessa 32, because Dave’s 6ft 7in frame had started to grumble at the lack of headroom. The Bavaria 37 is palatial by comparison and in all respects bar one it’s been a positive move. Only power handling has turned out to be more challenging on the modern yacht. Because of his back injury, Dave usually does the mooring whilst Natalie handles the lines. Dave and Natalie make an excellent team, with Natalie using her years of experience as skipper of traditional vessels to manually ‘warp’ the boat around and position it well for Dave to make a slick getaway from…

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www.yachtingmonthly.com/books After gruelling months escorting convoys to Russia, 19-year-old Charlie Erswell’s ship HMS Milne had been sent to the Mediterranean to support Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa. On Christmas Eve 1942, she left Mers-el-Kebir on her way back to Scotland As Christmas Day was being celebrated back home, the Milne was at sea, being detached from the convoy at 1100 hours to refuel at Gibraltar, before rejoining later that day. Although we were headed back to colder climes, there was a general feeling of happiness that we were returning to home waters. However, the feeling of comfort was short-lived as, only a couple of days into the voyage, at 0340 hours on 28 December 1942, Captain Campbell received orders to redirect. He made an announcement over the…

JEANNEAU SUN ODYSSEY 33i The Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 33i was launched as a direct competitor to the Bavaria 33. There are lots of these yachts on the charter market, for good reason, as they tick a lot of boxes on the entry-level, fastcruiser list. The interior is bright and modern, if a little minimalist, and she lacks some of the soft touches of the other family cruisers. The standard two-cabin layout is slightly different in that the aft bunk is athwartships rather than fore and aft. Although this might take some getting used to, it means that you can actually sit up and read a book or drink a cup of tea in bed. This is unusual in a boat of any size, let alone a 33 footer. The cabin…

Sailors can now register their emergency position indicating radio beacons (EPIRBs) and personal locator beacons (PLBs) directly online. The new 24-7 online registration platform – www.gov.uk/406beacon – has been launched by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), as part of its ‘ongoing commitment to improving its digital offering and services’. Previously, the online form was effectively a pseudo registration with the data emailed to an MCA team who would then manually type in the information into the database. Beacon ownership documentation no longer has to be sent in paper form or via post to the Beacon Registry. New beacon owners are advised to create an online account and register at the earliest opportunity. Information required includes an email address, beacon Hexadecimal Identification (HEX ID) or Unique Identifying Number (UIN), manufacturer…

Admiralty Leisure Chart Folios are being phased out and withdrawn, along with the supporting Leisure Notices to Mariners, following the launch of the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO)’s new Admiralty Small Craft Charts service in October. This will effectively remove the regional folio structure for these charts, allowing charts to be purchased individually through a print on demand service. Sailors using pre-existing Admiralty Leisure Chart Folios will continue to be supported until at least October 2022 with Notices to Mariners, either through the continued publication of Leisure Notice to Mariners or by using the link between the folio charts and Admiralty Standard Nautical Charts to apply standard Notices to Mariners. The UKHO said the service would provide all marine users with ‘greater coverage and seamless access to the data required to…

Plans to upgrade Gosport Marina including a new facilities building, which will feature a berth holder’s lounge and shower rooms, have been approved by Gosport Borough Council. The new building overlooking Portsmouth Harbour will also house a marina reception, office and restaurant. Premier Marinas will also be refurbishing and extending the commercial building on the site which is currently occupied by STS Defence Limited, securing skilled employment in Gosport. The dry stack will be relocated and there will be landscaping improvements to the car parking and boat storage areas. Premier received outline permission to build 70 homes on the site too.…

Six skippers crossed the start line of the first Globe 5.80 Transat, racing leg one from Lagos, Portugal to Rubicon Marina in Lanzarote ahead of the second 3,000-mile leg to Antigua. The 600-mile qualifier was won by Swiss entrant Etienne Messikommer aboard Numbatou, who finished in four days, 20 hours and 55 minutes after a constant battle with the elements, and the Czech sailor Michal Krysta, who came second. All the skippers were sailing in their home-built plywood self-righting Class Globe 5.80 Mini ocean racers, a new class of boat launched by Australian Don McIntyre, who is behind the Golden Globe Race and the Ocean Globe Race. McIntyre is taking part in the race aboard his own boat, Trekker. He spent one night running under bare poles steered by windvane…

Finally, we saw something. The surface of the sea broke and a sleek, dark mass rose out of the water some 30m ahead of our boat. Moving slowly, it revealed a fin on its back, before diving back below the water. It reappeared again, and then once more, this time behind us as we tracked its movements. Despite hoping for one more glimpse, the water stilled, and it was gone. A minke whale, itself on passage, no doubt searching for food. We had looked for one every day of our trip, knowing there are sightings of them in the waters surrounding Arisaig. Our perseverance finally paid off and we were in awe to have seen one so close. Having recently bought our twin-keeled Sadler 26, Casper in Largs, we were…

Q We would like advice for mooring alongside a quay which has big truck tyres along the edge. We have an Alubat OVNI 445 in Iceland. The boat’s stanchions are slightly leaning to the outside. Due to the rise and fall of the tide, our fenders, which are smaller than the centre of the tyres, frequently get stuck in the tyres, as do the stanchions. We have tried using a horizontal fenderboard amidship, but even that got stuck between the rows of tyres. We have also tested a 4m vertical wooden fenderboard, but it has not worked either. What would you do to solve this problem, besides doing regular checks throughout the night to make sure the fenders/boards don’t get trapped? Valérie Viel Dupuis A Norman Kean responds: Valérie’s situation…

Have you heard the phrase ‘through hell or high water’? I’ve been through both, simultaneously. In January 2020, after the year-long restoration of our 1970 S&S Swan Elixir, my friends Max, Harry and I set off on the first stage of our circumnavigation. We undertook a few trial sails, but never in foul weather, and I had less than 30 hours’ sailing under my belt. The Biscay crossing started out as almost plain sailing, watches and the lack of sleep were a new routine to adapt to, but an accepted part of the process. We ate, napped and passed each other like Elixir passed the ships through the night. Slowly we became used to the rigmarole of undressing and redressing into our endless layers at the end and beginning of…

The chill of the freezing air gnawed at my face as I gazed at the jigsaw of ice lying between our dinghy and the shore, the gentle hum of the outboard motor drowning out the normally serene quiet of the high Arctic. We were navigating the growlers of Spitsbergen, the largest and only populated island of the Svalbard archipelago. Their sharp edges could easily puncture our dinghy. Our Sweden 38, Cosmic Dancer V looked unnatural against the rugged snow-covered mountains and flowing glaciers that surrounded us. We scanned the shore for danger to avoid an unwanted first meeting with the mascot for Glacier Mints, and pressed on. The ground crunched underfoot as we pulled the dinghy up the beach. The bay was semi-circular, with sporadic rocks and an undulating grassy…

Any yacht older than 20 years that still has its original wiring will require a complete rewire if you’re keen to avoid endless problems and constant troubleshooting and temporary repairs. A few decades ago, boat owners typically had minimal electrical requirements, allowing boatbuilders to get away with providing the most rudimentary installations. Today, however, boat owners appear to want the same level of gadgetry on board that they enjoy at home, which usually requires rethinking the boat’s entire electrical system from batteries to devices, together with a serious upgrade to both cabling and circuit protection. The following is a guide to the main considerations when overhauling your boat’s wiring system. CABLE TYPE Choosing the correct cables for the job is the single most important factor when rewiring your boat as…

The Baltic is a wonderful cruising area, being relatively easily reached from British waters. On arrival, there are several countries to visit which offer varied cruising grounds, different currencies, customs and cuisines, and a plethora of harbours and anchorages. Some may be tempted to overlook Danish waters in their dash for the Baltic proper but this would be a mistake. Brian Navin, author of the essential pilot book Cruising Guide to Germany and Denmark, recommends it as ‘one of the world’s outstanding family cruising areas’. Many of us whose cruising is heavily influenced by the tides find it both strange and refreshing when sailing in Denmark to be liberated from regular consultation of the tide tables, but then come to realise that there can be currents which are much less…