Innehållsförteckning för August 2024 från Yachting Monthly

Geoff Holt MBE has completed a circumnavigation of the UK, with the goal of raising £1.2m for The Wetwheels foundation, a charity he set up in 2011 to enable disabled people to access the sea barrier-free in purpose-built, state-of-the-art motor boats. Geoff, who was paralysed after a swimming accident, arrived back at St Katharine Docks, London, in the 9m Cheetah Marine Wetwheels wheelchair-accessible power catamaran on 12 June after covering 1,880 miles and 26 days at sea. In 2007, Geoff became the first severely disabled person to sail single-handed around Britain. In 2010, he was the first quadriplegic to sail across the Atlantic Ocean unassisted. ‘This is possibly my biggest challenge to date,’ Geoff said. ‘Having spent 40 years in a wheelchair, paralysed from the chest down, the sea has…

There’s a scene in the film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, where outlaws Paul Newman and Robert Redford watch from a crag as the distant posse chases them. To their dismay they recognise, from his white hat, a tracker whose tenacity invariably results in arrest. In his later years Don Street’s arrival at the boat show reminded me of this cinematic scene as his presence was flagged up by his battered canvas Tilly hat which he always wore ashore or afloat. The hat bobbing and weaving through the crowd would see editors ducking behind display panels, rather than have to turn down a screed of ungrammatical typescript as the bearded shellback doggedly pursued another commission. News of his death last month aged 93, had me thumbing through an old…

Q I wonder whether one of your experts could advise on some replacement ropes for our yacht, a 1980s Dehler 31 with a displacement of a little over three tonnes? Rope technology seems to improve all the time and we want to make good choices taking longevity, price and ease of setup into account. What are the loads on the clew of a 24m2 mainsail and how do you specify strength and thickness for reefing lines? We have a single-line reefing system and one of our reefing lines failed recently, we think where it had been exposed to UV at the foot of the mast. Our boat spec recommends 8mm, but this looks quite thin – we had 9mm before. Breaking strain varies between about 1,300kg and 2,400kg for 8mm…

Rat in Mi Kitchen, one of the greats by UB40, proved to have a whole new meaning when sailing in Greece this year. A rodent infestation was far from my mind as we slipped between idyllic anchorages, enjoyed breath-taking sunsets, stunning vistas and feeling generally pretty chilled. However, our peaceful harmony was soon to be turned upside down with the arrival of a new and unwanted crew member. With my wife Debbie and good friends Peter and Carol, we were on a cruise from the TRNC (Northern Cyprus) to Montenegro, our winter destination. After a great sail across the Cyclades, we took a short cut through the Corinth Canal into the Gulf of Corinth en route to Corfu. Shortly before exiting the Gulf we decided to stop off at the…

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Boat Building graduates launch new boats Graduates from the Boat Building Academy and Furniture School (BBA) at Lyme Regis recently launched their new hand-built boats in the town’s historic harbour, in a ceremony hosted by Mayor Councillor David Ruffle in front of hundreds of well wishers. The 16 students at the 40-week wooden boatbuilding course spent the first 20 weeks learning joinery, lofting, traditional, modern and fibre-reinforced plastic boatbuilding, and sail making. In the second 20 weeks, the students collectively built three boats and renovated a fourth. Andrew Streeter built a 14ft glued carvel Cobby Catboat Trio; Tom Thorley built an outboard-powered 14 ft carvel and cold moulded Riva Scoiattolo; Ginny Harvey built a 14ft 4 Glued Clinker Welsford Walkabout Lug Yawl; and Ben Short restored a 20ft Looe traditional…

CLAYTON POWER LPS II LITHIUM POWER BANK www.fischerpanda.co.uk/marine A new range of compact, lightweight lift-in-and-out lithium electric ‘generators’, designed for small to medium requirements of onboard portable power, with a built-in sine-wave inverter, giving both 12V and 230V suuply. Can be charged from the mains or engine alternator, as well as solar panels or a hydrogenerator whilst out on the water via the built-in regulator and charge controller, allowing you to operate electronics and electrics without the noise and vibration of running your engine or generator. Also has an emergency engine start function. Available in outputs from 1500W to 3000W and 1kWh or 2kWh capacity. ICOM IP-M60 HYBRID LTE/VHF www.icomuk.co.uk Claimed to be the world’s first hybrid transceiver combining marine VHF and mobile device technology, the IP-M60 has two PTT…

INCREASING BATTERY CAPACITY Before increasing the capacity of your service battery bank you need to calculate your total power requirement by multiplying the amperage of all the equipment by the period of time it will be run over a charge cycle (usually 24hrs). Tally up the amp hours and then double the result (to allow for not going below 50 per cent of your charge capacity). Then add another 20 per cent to ensure you will always have enough to spare. If you already have separate engine start and service batteries but want to add further service batteries, they should all be of the same age, type and capacity (Ah rating) to the first. It’s best to create your service bank from a number of smaller batteries and then link…

The governing bodies of seven water-based sports have united to call for clean open water around the UK. Representing 450,000 members as well as athletes and participants, the Clean Water Sports Alliance includes the Angling Trust, British Rowing, British Triathlon, GB Outrigger, Paddle UK, the Royal Yachting Association and Swim England. The Alliance noted that the UK is consistently scoring near the bottom of the European bathing water quality index, and that threats to biodiversity, including pollution, are costing the UK £4 billion per year, according to a 2023 paper, as well as leading to illness in water sports participants and events and training being cancelled due to water that is unfit for safe participation. The Alliance wants to see: further and faster action on pollution and improving the health…

Eight RNLI volunteers and staff have been recognised in The King’s Birthday Honours for a combined 304 years of dedicated service to saving lives at sea. Former volunteer at Longhope Lifeboat Station, Angus Heddle, has been awarded an MBE for 75 years’ service, as has David Corben, chair of the Lifeboat Management Group at Swanage Lifeboat Station, for 53 years of service. Receiving a BEM (British Empire Medal) for 41 years of service is Isabel Taylor, committee member for the RNLI City of Manchester Fundraising Branch. Neil Williamson has also been recognised, with a BEM for his outstanding work in just six years at the RNLI Whitby Lifeboat Museum. Also recognised is the charity’s outgoing Chief Executive Mark Dowie, who has been made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE)…

Nine! Nine point five! Ten! Eleven! Eleven point five!’ Watching the boat speed climb into double figures in the gusts was addictive; we were broad reaching back up the Needles Channel towards Hurst Castle with a Force 5 up our stern, a smooth wake fizzing off the transom and the breeze was building. I’m not going to lie, this was a fun test sail. You need to be pretty confident that the boat you’re selling is a good sailing boat, given the fact that you don’t get much else for your quarter-of-a-million quid with the Saffier SE33 Life. You certainly don’t get much accommodation for her size, or even standing headroom for that matter, and nor do you get a kitted-out race machine either. So just what does this 33-footer…

How would you avoid this collision in fog? Q Martin and Barbara, along with their teenage son, Rob, have sailed across to the Channel Islands from the Solent in their 10m yacht. Rob has crewed regularly and already has a better idea of how to use the new electronic chart system and AIS than his parents. The system does not include radar. On the way over to Guernsey the weather was fair with good visibility so it was helpful to be able to see the ships in the shipping lanes both visually and on the chart. They are now on the way back. The forecast when they left was for fog patches but in Guernsey visibility was about 2-3 miles with very little wind. Martin and Barbara need to return…

SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE AWARD Bleary eyed, we stumbled out of our sleeping bags as the boat rocked gently on her berth. Fumbling around we clad ourselves with nautical attire, had some breakfast and prepared for the high seas. It was three in the morning and the peace was about to be interrupted by the throaty noise of the engine firing up followed by the gleam from the stern navigation light illuminating the push pit. The ungodly reveille was necessary to negotiate the Conwy fairway and its sand bar. I calculated that we had an hour to safely cross this on an ebb tide. The sense of adventure was in the air and all of us knew it. On board to enjoy the experience were my friends Colin, Jeremy and Tim,…

After the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk in June 1940, Winston Churchill promised, ‘We will return’. Operation Overlord was the codename for the Allied landing operation which took place on this part of the Normandy coast four years later. D-Day on 6 June, 1944 met the crucial conditions for a dawn assault in the middle of a rising tide, following a night with a full moon for parachutists. The western-most ports we visited were part of the Utah and Omaha landing areas allocated to the American troops. The other beaches stretching to the east as far as Ouistreham were Gold (British), Juno (Canadian) and Sword (British). The hydrography and topography have not changed, and it requires little imagination to turn the clock back and appreciate the challenges…

Cruising yachts in Scandinavia make a beeline for the Danish town of Skagen over every Ascension Day holiday in May. Nearly all of the entrants are production cruisers. This, along with the international fellowship, makes the event feel more like a cruising rally than a race. Apart from the two years of Covid, the event has grown in popularity and since 1996 is Scandinavia’s biggest regatta. Most boats come from Norway, but Lars-Erik Wilhelmsen, the organiser, is encouraging British entries. The timing and location of the race mean it is perfect for UK yachts keen to explore this gateway to the Baltic. In 2019 there were 276 entrants and they had to enforce a waiting list as Skagen’s small fishing harbour can only accommodate 250 boats, particularly now that the…

MEET THE OWNER After starting to sail less than 15 years ago, TREVOR CARD took his Yachtmaster, has chartered a range of boats overseas and is also an active dinghy sailor. The Bavaria is his first cruiser When you’re looking for a second-hand boat, it’s often easy to imagine that there’s a pretty broad choice in any given category. After spending a while thinking about your priorities and seeing what’s available, however, you might come to realise that, in fact, there aren’t many at all. That’s exactly what Trevor Card learned before buying his Bavaria 30 Cruiser last year. Trevor and his wife, Rhonda, had started looking and planning several years before they would be in a position to buy. ‘Our opinions kept changing as we went along’, explained Trevor.…

Wreck explorers have located Quest, the ship on which explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton made his final voyage to Antarctica, on the seabed off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Shackleton, an Anglo-Irish explorer who made three expeditions to Antarctica, died aboard Quest in 1922 after suffering a heart attack at the age of 47. The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) led the search using sonar equipment and located the 38m schooner-rigged steamship on the bed of the Labrador Sea at a depth of around 400 metres. Quest was found almost upright and has a broken mast but is otherwise largely intact. The ship continued in service until 1962 when she sank after the hull was pierced by thick sea ice. All of the crew were saved. When he died, Shackleton had…

A crew of world-class explorers, award-winning filmmakers and young scientists have embarked on a four-month sailing expedition through the Northwest Passage to study the key climate ‘tipping points’. The crew will film their journey from Norway to Alaska (travelling through Iceland, Greenland and Canada), conducting innovative ocean science along the way. The expedition, with scientific advisor Professor Johan Rockström, the joint director of Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, aims to educate business and finance communities and young people on the importance of the Arctic, encouraging them to take urgent action. According to Rockström, the Earth is regulated by nine critical biophysical systems called ‘Planetary Boundaries’. Six systems are already operating outside of their safe zone, the impact of which can be seen across global ‘climate Tipping Point…

Water management isn’t something we talk about enough on our cruising boats. Blue-water sailors think about it a lot, obviously, and we have, in our time, installed – and mothballed – two watermakers, both hungry for power (meaning fuel) and time. They drizzle out the desalinated supply while someone on board points out how many vital minerals we were going to be missing, rattling a pack of magnesium tabs. Before that, I had the excitement in youth of allowing a much-needed shampoo for my hair (more of it then, and thicker) after three weeks of a slow tradewind crossing towards Barbados. We had been a week under unequal twin headsails, the mainsail down, and a sudden fierce rainstorm filled the bunt of it, dripping temptingly. Exuberantly I dived for the…

The RYA Yachtmaster Offshore has long been the qualification that cruising yacht sailors, both amateur and professional, have aspired to. Quite aside from the fact that it is the gateway to working in the yachting industry if the desire so takes you, it is good to know that you have mastered the sweep of skills and experience necessary for you to be deemed competent at skippering a sailing yacht. I’ve wanted to test myself and see if I was up to scratch for years, and I finally got the courage up to put my skills under the spotlight earlier this summer. I was going to be taking the test with my friend Andrew, as we’d been talking about doing our Yachtmaster for two decades. In last month’s issue, I shared…

www.yachtingmonthly.com/books Peter Webb and his companion, Royal Marine, Phil Ashby (Shaggy), were attempting to row and sail Kotick, an open boat, round Spitzbergen and had reached a point where they must either turn back or continue. When I woke up I uncurled my hand from around the rifle. The safety catch was still on, that was good. My sleeping bag was warm, which was very good. We had hundreds of kilometres and ice behind us, which was good, and there were unthinkable kilometres ahead. They were too many to imagine. If we turn back now, we could make it to Ny Ålesund, but very soon there would be the point of no return, when we would no longer have enough rations to get us home. So far we have been…

I confess, I’m not a marine electrician, and my understanding of boat electronics is at best rudimentary, but I’ve now been managing my boat’s power generation and consumption for three seasons and have developed an approach which seems to work well. Hopefully, you will find some of the following advice useful when it comes to managing your own yacht’s energy needs. Every boat has its own particular balance of power generation and demand, so my system may not work perfectly for you, but it might help you start managing your precious amps a lot more effectively. My wife Debbie and I sail up to nine months a year around the Med, predominantly lying at anchor. We avoid marinas and use our generator infrequently, to help save the planet and our…

MOODY S31 Bill Dixon’s design from 1994 was one of the ‘sporty’ Moodys, designed to compete with the lighter, faster and roomier performance cruisers from across the Channel. Moody’s idea was to offer a boat to appeal to people who considered the traditional Moodys to be a little staid and traditional, and who might otherwise be tempted by a Beneteau First or Jeanneau Sun Fast. In many respects the S31 succeeded. Despite being heavier than some of the alternatives, she had a good turn of speed in all but the lightest of conditions and was raced successfully at club level. In her most sporty guise, she could be seen with a fractional rig, fin keel and tiller steering combined with a mainsheet traveller in the cockpit. At the other end…