Innehållsförteckning för October 2024 från Yachting Monthly

The European Union’s Entry-Exit System (EES) is now scheduled to go live on 10 November, with the Government providing £10.5 million to help ports and border controls prepare. From this date, the EES will require non-EU travellers to register their travel details, passports and biometric information – fingerprints and facial scans – when entering or exiting the Schengen Area. It will replace passport stamping and could cause initial delays. The system has been designed to enhance border security and monitor overstayers across Europe, whilst preserving the openness and mobility that define the region. Closely linked to the EES is the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), a visa waiver program for non-EU citizens entering the Schengen Area. The ETIAS is expected to come into force during the first half…

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is appealing for information from witnesses after a collision between a motorboat and a kayak near Milford Haven on 11 August. A kayaker was reported to have been struck by a motorboat shortly after 1500 on the Cleddau River, off Rudders Boatyard, on the Milford Haven Waterway. The kayaker suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was passed into the care of the Welsh Ambulance Service. The incident was attended by Dale Coastguard Rescue Team, Dyfed-Powys Police and Milford Haven Port Authority Harbour Patrol. ‘This was an incident with potentially serious consequences, so it’s important to find out what happened,’ said Paul Atkins, from the MCA’s Regulatory Compliance Investigations Team. ‘We’re appealing to anyone who saw the collision, has footage or any other information, to please get…

PROMO CODE YM2024 Under-21s go free Two children under 17 go free with every adult ticket Southampton International Boat Show is finally upon us. While there are smaller, regional boat shows around the UK, Southampton stands alone for its scale and importance to sailors and the marine industry in the UK. So if it’s new boats you want to see, especially in the water, this is the place to go. It’s also packed with gear and equipment, clothing, watersports, charter holidays, membership organisations and much more. There are events throughout the show offering entertainment and advice, including some of Yachting Monthly’s own authors. Here’s a run down of what to see and where to find it… IN THE MARINA There is always plenty to see by way of new boats,…

I applaud the idea of families with small children trying out what cruising would be like with them as crew. One of the many things never mentioned in National Childbirth Trust classes or by maternity wards is just how imperially, demandingly, unanswerable are a baby’s demands. Nor does anyone mention how long the riotous qualities of babyhood endure before they become alert, biddable crew members – or even grateful and admiring passengers. Navigating through the new world of infancy makes rock pilotage, tidal calculation, and boat maintenance look like a stroll in the park. And the orderly landbound world of carpeted floors, high worktops, safety plugs and comfy buggies doesn’t let you know what a free-range toddler in a bit of a mood can do to a galley and chart…

Q We will be crossing the pond in November. If the boat leaves the VAT registered country (Spain) I understand that VAT will have to be paid again if the boat does not return within three years. As my boat is European Union VAT registered and I will be in the Caribbean, if I visit Martinique or St Martins, both of which I understand to be ‘special territories’ in the EU, does this restart the three-year clock? A The Cruising Association’s Robin Baron replies: Jeff’s question relates to EU Returned Goods Relief (RGR). I explain the basic rules governing EU RGR later in the answer below. I’m not sure what Jeff means in his question by ‘the VAT registered country’ and ‘EU VAT registered’. If he means that his boat currently has…

Knowing those on board’s tolerance and experience is crucial. Unfortunately, for the majority of people, only by experiencing worse conditions than previously encountered does their tolerance increase. A common mistake is to try and expand their tolerance zone for them. It might work in some cases but get it wrong and they will go backwards. It is a very personal thing. We used to have a saying in the Marines, ‘Go at the pace of the slowest man’. This works for sailing too – having people who are scared and unhappy on the boat does nothing for the success of a trip. WHAT IS THE SKIPPER’S ROLE? The key to a successful trip as skipper is making sure the whole trip sits well within your ‘skippering’ capacity. I think there…

HOW LONG? It is helpful to categorise your cruising plans into timeframes as I think they should be approached slightly differently. EXTENDED CRUISING: FOUR WEEKS OR LONGER This is probably the least risky to plan for as long as you don’t expect to take half your time getting there and the other half getting back. Work in weekly stages with a general direction of travel in mind and take the conservative options when heading home. Better to lose a day or two of your holiday and get back in favourable conditions, rather than ruin your trip by pushing it to get back when you know conditions aren’t right. LONG CRUISE: TWO TO FOUR WEEKS I think this is the most complex timeframe to plan for. It’s long enough away to…

We’ve just touched down at Dalaman airport, Southern Turkey and it’s June 2024. It’s our first time bareboat chartering as a family and we’ve chosen a four-day trip around the western extent of Turkey’s Lycian Coast. I’m a bag of nervous excitement, having spent the entire four-hour flight from the UK poring over the details of hand scribbled notes I’ve made on photocopied pages taken from the Turkish Waters and Cyprus Pilot by Rod and Lu Heikell. I’ve also checked and re-checked the five-day forecast for Fethiye a dozen times in the last couple of days, paranoid an unseasonal weather bomb might materialise within the next few days. So far so good though. The forecast paints an idyllic picture; no rain, 30-plus degrees Celsius every day, and gusts ranging from…

This month’s column broaches a very delicate subject. I’m not going to tiptoe around it, I’m going to take it head on, and ask the question that should loom large for everyone who has just bought their own sailing vessel, and has plans for wonderful smiley escapist utopian trips with their adoring spouse (breathless with admiration) and their children (wide eyed with wonder). Is there a chance, just a chance mind you, that your family actually don’t like sailing? And might actually want to be at home, watching the wide screen and spooning Häagen Dazs, whilst resting their feet on the dog? Well, let me be the first to tell you that there is a distinct chance that this is the case for at least one of them. And, like…

Are paradise atolls like the Cocos (Keeling) Islands doomed to disappear underwater? The IPCC’s most recent climate scenarios vary regarding future sea level rises: from an average of 40cm to more than a metre in the year 2100, depending on how much we let the climate crisis get out of hand. The risk of so-called tipping points, such as ice sheets breaking off in Antarctica, is not included in these predictions. And yet the residents of low-lying islands themselves have hardly contributed to the climate crisis. It is therefore extremely unjust that their continued existence is now threatened. It is up to all of us not to let the worst scenarios become reality. After all, we know what needs to be done, on a large and small scale. Not only…

ECOFLOW RIVER PRO £649 The EcoFlow River Pro is supplied as a 720Wh unit with a 600W output capability, but a second battery can be added to double the energy storage capacity to 1,440Wh. Need more output power? X-boost mode will give you up to 1,800W. The unit will recharge in four hours from two EF 110W solar panels (sold separately), while a mains charge gives 80% in one hour, with a full charge after 1.6 hours. uk.ecoflow.com BLUETTI EB70 PORTABLE POWER STATION £699 Bluetti’s EB70 has a 716Wh LiFePO4 battery with a 240V AC output of up to 1,000W. The 9.7kg pack has a carry handle and non-slip feet. It will power and/or recharge most portable devices thanks to a pair of three-pin AC sockets, two USB-C ports, two…

The trend in recent years is for newer yachts to have smaller just-overlapping jibs, even non-overlapping self-tacking jibs, with the mainsail area increased in compensation. Since the introduction of jib furling gear, the general initial response to an increase in wind strength has been to pull a few wraps in on the jib. Now, though, on newer yachts the response to an increase in wind speed switches to reefing the mainsail, and quite often the small jib is not furled until three reefs have been put into the mainsail. Single-line reefing systems are therefore now the norm on newer yachts. However, having one line running from the base of the mast, up to a luff reefing cringle, then back down to the boom, through the boom, then up to a…

Raymarine has also developed a second new consumer AI product, Neuboat, which can be mounted on the top of a yacht’s mast to help the boat navigate through crowded waters using six cameras to guide propulsion and steering, whilst displaying the information on an Axiom chartplotter. If, for instance, you want to moor up a couple of miles upstream, the software will use AI to plot a course shown as a blue line on the screen, then avoid any floating objects and low bridges. ‘This AI system provides a virtual buffer zone around the vessel,’ explains Jamie Cox, product director at Raymarine. ‘It will be especially useful for larger boats where the skipper has no direct view of the entire hull.’ The Neuboat system, like Dockwise, costs around £15,000.…

Euro Cruising Rules: ‘The Protocol’ LETTER OF THE MONTH The introduction of ‘The Protocol’, making cruising the French coast easier for visiting yachts, is very welcome. However, this is not a return to the plain sailing that is fondly remembered from pre-EU or pre-Brexit times. The new arrangements introduce a ‘parallel’ entry regime to the Schengen area and so, for three young men bent on cruising Brittany, some added complications. The three friends plan to set out together from the south coast, but Jerome is detained by urgent business in town. So, George and Harris fill in the Border Force form online and then the Preavis for their first port of call, and cross the English Channel to France. George plans to stay aboard for the entire trip and sail…

High topsides, muscular bow sections and a formidable deck house make the Moody DS48 an imposing sight, even standing alongside her on the pontoon. Point her bows towards the open sea, set all 165m2 of her canvas and with 21 tonnes of boat in full motion, she becomes even more formidable. Most boats these days aim to be lighter, faster and more open, but that doesn’t necessarily result in better seaboats or more comfortable passage-making. Not the Moody, however. From the moment you scale her boarding ladder (there are steps which fold out from the solid guardrails to help surmount her deep bulwarks), and set foot on her recessed sidedecks, this is a boat that you are in, rather than on. When it comes to boat tests, the Solent is…

We all have a range of safety equipment spread across our boats. Some of it needs to be more accessible than others. On Barracuda we have made up maps of where all the safety gear is on the boat and we give these to new crew so they can get fully familiar with what safety gear is on board and where it is. It can also act as a good prompt for making sure crew know the operating procedures for the safety equipment on board, and also for making sure that we ourselves know that everything is where it should be and that it’s in good working order.…

1 CLEARANCE AND FORMALITIES In a world of rapidly changing rules, cruiser website noonsite.com is our anchor for up-to-date procedures. A rich source of information for South Africa and the surrounding area is osasa.org.za. We also use NoForeignLand (website and app) and Facebook and WhatsApp groups. 2 TACTICS AND WEATHER Due to the climate crisis, the atmosphere and oceans are warming. As a result, weather patterns are becoming less consistent and storms and showers are becoming more intense. Still, we continue to base our tactics on Jimmy Cornell’s World Cruising Routes. These days we have great tools to get good (short-term) weather forecasts. We use Windy when we are online and Predictwind with our Iridium GO! when we are at sea. Windy also has good information about sea currents and…

www.yachtingmonthly.com/books It was one of the oddest places we had ever moored. We tied up to a rusting floating pontoon that looked as though it had once served as a landing dock for tourist boats. At the head of the ramp was a clearly closed-up Space Museum – yes, there was the full-sized Endeavour replica, angled skywards at 60° – combined with an amusement park, all surrounded by high-rise apartments. Suburban trains could be heard clattering past on elevated tracks, unseen, every few minutes. But it was quiet in-between and there wasn’t a soul to be seen. On the other side of the still inlet was a dock for container ships with great spider-like yellow gantries capable of reaching out over the water and plucking shipping containers off the ships’…

In the realm of recreational boating UK-based marine technology specialist Raymarine recently launched Docksense, an AI supported system to help craft manoeuvre in a marina. The system uses sophisticated cameras and a joystick and is said to be particularly useful on any boat that can pivot, such as a yacht with a bow thruster. While not fully autonomous, it has, however, been designed to intervene and prevent any chance of a collision, with the system allowing the skipper to select a berth on a screen and then hand over control of the boat to the computer. I have watched a demo of it. It was efficient but on the fourth attempt it was fooled by a fast-moving tide. It then, very sensibly, moved the boat clear and had another go,…

Meanwhile, over in the Mediterranean, the Italian Coastguard has successfully deployed an autonomous lifeboat and drone combination, as part of a large search and rescue exercise. Sensors on board the drone were able to detect casualties floating in the water, then guide the unmanned lifeboat directly to them. The drone has been equipped with optical and infrared cameras, a maritime radar, AIS receiver, and an emergency position indicating radio beacon antenna, to make it as optimal and autonomous as possible for future search and rescue and maritime surveillance missions.…

In August, the world’s first passenger fast-ferry equipped with an AI vision system was launched in the Canary Islands. At present AIS can only show and identify maritime traffic superimposed over an electronic chart which, in turn, indicates fixed features such as buoys, beacons and other navigational marks. The new AI vision system, SEA.AI, takes this a step further, being able to alert navigators and bridge officers to anything floating in the water that hasn’t been identified and recorded by the other systems. Crucially, SEA.AI’s machine learning means that it can identify target objects and automatically determine whether they are a potential collision threat. It achieves this by using externally mounted high-resolution cameras capable of operating in the lowest light and contrast situations along with two highly accurate thermal cameras.…

RUSTLER 36 If her ocean pedigree hadn’t already been proven, the first three yachts home from the 2018 Golden Globe race were all Rustler 36s, the fourth was a Tradewind 35. On paper, the R36 is the fastest of the 22 recognised designs for the event. While technically still available until recently, it was superseded by the larger and faster R37, and the last R36 was built in 2012. The 32-year-long production run means there are many examples in a variety of ages and costs and built to varying degrees of customisation. This long-keel Holman and Pye design was a development of the earlier Rustler 31. Both yachts have long keels but the leading edge of the 36 has a hollow giving her a defined forefoot ahead of the keel.…

CONFESSION OF THE MONTH I suppose it was fitting that the maiden voyage of my new yacht Serafina Pekkala (the queen of the witches from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials) should have an all-girl crew, though afterwards, I felt that at least one male, if not a wizard, would have been useful. We were very international – Jutta from Germany, Anna the Dane, and me, English of Viking extraction. As they had never sailed before, I was a little nervous. I didn’t know the boat that well yet, but we were only going round Marmaris Bay to anchor behind the island and have a picnic and a swim. Before we left I was very careful to explain what happened when we had to anchor and especially when we came back…

Thanks in part to successful crowdfunding from Yachting Monthly readers, Ocean racer Pip Hare is training hard for the 10 November start of the Vendée Globe, the single-handed, non-stop, non-assisted round-the-world sailing race that takes place every four years on IMOCA monohulls. ‘Many thanks to everyone who entered the draw for the Pip Hare Ocean Racing jacket and donated to our crowdfund,’ Pip wrote to Yachting Monthly. ‘We have managed to raise just under two thirds of the funding we need to get us to the start line of the Vendée Globe in good shape and this has meant that I have been able to go ahead with the majority of work we needed to complete over our summer refit. This final two months on the water is about making…

Actor Daniel Craig has donated two of his limited-edition Triumph motorcycles inspired by the James Bond film No Time to Die to raise funds for the RNLI in their 200th anniversary year. Craig is selling his #003/250 Scrambler 1200 Bond Edition and #001/250 Tiger 900 Bond Edition. Each lot includes a riding experience at the Triumph Adventure Experience in Wales with James Bond stunt coordinator Lee Morrison and stunt double Paul Edmondson. ‘The RNLI has been close to my heart all my life since growing up near the RNLI station at Hoylake,’ said Craig. ‘I have incredible memories of going afloat with the RNLI crew at Ramsgate to experience firsthand what it’s like to be part of the organisation that has saved over 146,000 lives the in last 200 years.’…

Forty years ago this summer I made my first Channel crossing according to an old, delaminating, mildewed and fading logbook. It is the first logbook I ever kept because prior to owning Almita, my 26ft, engineless, Bermudian centreboard cutter, built in 1906, all my cruising had been made in open boats. It was bad enough sleeping under canvas let alone trying to keep the pages of a logbook dry. In June 1984 my crew, Pete Willetts and I departed Leigh-on-Sea in the Thames Estuary to ‘go furrin.’ Although it is accurate to describe Almita as being engineless, that is not to say we were without a propeller completely: a heavy old Seagull outboard was ready to be shipped on the dinghy when the wind died. And the wind did die…

JAMES STEVENS, author of the Yachtmaster Handbook, spent 10 of his 23 years at the RYA as chief examiner Q Bob has just completed his degree, he is a keen dinghy racing helm who has always dreamed of crossing the Atlantic on a yacht before he settles down to a full-time job. He has advertised online and arranged to meet a yacht owner who needs crew for an ocean passage and has suggested an introductory sail from the marina. Jack, the owner, explains that he is a highly experienced sailor, with several transatlantics under his belt and his yacht, which although ageing, is solid and well built. He has faced countless storms and knows many famous offshore sailors. Jack has no yachting qualifications. He says he has learnt sailing through the…

Last October, I had to deliver a Figaro 3 racing boat from Southampton to Lorient. Anyone who has done a similar trip before will know that it’s no fun. With the start of the winter storms rolling in, we found ourselves smashing into 4-metre waves off the Chenal du Four (tip of Brittany). The ride was bad too; 30ft racing designs are pretty uncomfortable to sail. Unsurprisingly, myself and a crew member both found ourselves suffering. I for one was very disappointed, watching my fairly expensive €18 burger exit my body. In retrospect, it’s a funny story to recount with friends – but in the moment, seasickness can be worrying and, at times, dangerous. So how do we best handle the situation? I found that keeping direct and clear communication…

It is important to calibrate your log as your chartplotter will use the information to work out tidal set and drift and it’s the paddle wheel log (distance travelled through the water) that you traditionally record alongside your position (rather than the trip distance over the ground usually displayed on the chartplotter). Your log and trip distance on an instrument display is usually the ‘traditional’ log. Calibration is easy to do as most integrate with the GPS and have a ‘wizard’ function to walk you through it. It is imperative that there is no tide running and the water is flat to get a good result. This ‘single run’ approach is good for most people but if you are going to travel further, the ‘measured mile’ approach gives more accurate…

Once, with two of us on board a light 8m racing yacht, a delay leaving Dartmouth for Weymouth meant we missed our tidal window at Portland race. As conditions weren’t pleasant and the boat had started leaking again (temporarily fixing the leak had caused our delay), we decided the better option was to take the inner passage around Portland Bill in the dark. An unnerving experience and our troubles didn’t end there. Once through and heading north for Weymouth against the tide, we sat for hours doing 7 knots, going nowhere! We eventually arrived, exhausted.…

DARTMOUTH TO THE ISLES OF SCILLY Just as I was putting the finishing touches to this article I was looking forward to a trip from Dartmouth to the Isles of Scilly. A friend had asked me to help him sail there as he was competing in the World Gig Rowing Championships and wanted to use his boat as accommodation. Coming with us was another former Marine who was rowing for another team. Dartmouth to the Isles of Scilly is 120 miles or a 26-hour trip for us and we had a deadline to be there no later than the May bank holiday Friday morning when the first race started. Needing a decent weather window we looked to keep that whole preceding week free. Ideally, we would have a long sail…

The magic and mystery of the western isles of Scotland capture my imagination and draw me back every summer. This once great sea kingdom ruled by the Norse and Gaels is a landscape of breathtaking beauty and a haven for wildlife, which inspires my art. We left Strangford Lough in our Moody 33 Bonaventure II at 0400 on 10 July, pushing against the last of the flood tide to get to the mouth of the ‘Narrows’. Catching the tide, and with favourable conditions, we kept going until we reached Glenarm Marina, 54 miles away, a convenient stop-off for passage-making to the Hebrides. There was a fiery sunset that night, hopefully an omen of good weather. Departing at 0500 the next morning, the early morning light lit up the Glens of…

PASSAGE PLANNING East and North Coast of Ireland. (Irish Cruising Club, £37.50) Clyde Cruising Club Kintyre to Ardnamurchan (Imray, £35) and Ardnamurchan to Cape Wrath (Imray, £37.50) FURTHER READING Hamish Haswell-Smith, The Scottish Islands (Canongate, £40) Welcome Anchorages, free visitor magazine available from most marinas NAVIGATION Boating app (previously Navionics) Antares Charts – downloadable detailed charts of anchorages Memory-Map app – use in conjunction with Antares Imray paper charts WEATHER FORECAST Windy app Predict Wind Offshore app CHANDLERIES Crinan, Ardfern, Tobermory DIESEL Available alongside at Ardfern, Tobermory, Crinan ACCESS Oban or Mallaig – ferries to the islands by CalMac Ferries EATING OUT Book a few days in advance (by phone or VHF radio) as restaurants on the islands get booked up BICYCLE HIRE We hired electric bikes on Islay from…

After much deliberation, we finally decided in Darwin that we were not going to Asia. We would miss out on an exciting cruising area but due to the pandemic, we were running out of time. We had spent an extra year in New Zealand – the year we had originally planned for Asia. Instead, we would sail to South Africa, about 6,000 miles from Darwin. The approaching hurricane season in the southern Indian Ocean determined how much time we would have: just three months. ‘That means a lot of sailing,’ Ivar calculated. ‘But we’ll make time to visit islands along the way,’ Floris added. Indeed, the islands would have to be the bright spots, as the Indian Ocean is not well-known for its champagne sailing. Our long trip started comfortably,…

100 years of Falmouth Sunbeams A fleet of elegant older ladies have been celebrating their 100th birthdays as 27 Sunbeams, including 12 from the Solent fleet and one from Salcombe, gathered in Falmouth harbour to race against each other. V19 Sunbeam Audry, sailed by Stuart Sawyer and Josh Redgrave, won all three days of the Centenary Regatta, while Gilly Fox and Bob Warren, who have been sailing together for 50 years, took the 2024 Open Centenary Championship aboard V38 Halcyone. ‘These iconic one-design racing boats have graced the harbour for generations and are a massive part of the harbour’s culture,’ said Falmouth Harbour CEO Miles Carden. ‘Sunbeams are among the loveliest, well-proportioned racing boats I know, and to see 27 of them racing here was an incredible sight.’ Sunbeams have…

Musto has launched a new BR1 Winter Collection to add to their best-selling BR1 Collection, making the range a year-round set of apparel for the cruising community. Using Musto’s proprietary high-performance fabric technology with high waterproof rating and exceptional breathable properties for mid-length offshore comfort, the new range enhances the existing BR1 apparel by adding additional layers of warmth when cruising in cooler climes. The range includes the BR1 Primaloft Channel Sailing Jacket, the BR1 Primaloft Mid-Layer Jacket and the Solent Primaloft Insulator Jacket. www.musto.com…

Having used the EcoFlow River 2 portable battery bank (£209 battery only) and the 110W folding solar panel (£249 solar panel only) that goes with it, for just over a year now, it has become one of our staple bits of kit. Admittedly, for the last two seasons we have been sailing trailer sailers that are fitted with lightweight electrical systems and no fridge, so it has been invaluable for running a portable electrical cool box. Even on larger boats, however, the ability to have a lightweight battery on board that can supply 230V ‘mains’ power largely obviates the need to install an inverter. We had the smallest 256Wh of the three River 2 series power stations – the larger River 2 Max and Pro having 512Wh and 768Wh capacities…

Innovative technology has always created fresh new chapters in how we approach sailing. You only have to look back at the most advanced and sophisticated navigation systems of the mid-twentieth century, such as Decca and LORAN, to see how they are now nothing more than half-forgotten marine curiosities, trampled into extinction by GPS and the plethora of electronic navigational devices born in its digital wake. Now though, it’s time to prepare ourselves for what is likely to be the most fundamental technological change the marine environment has ever seen – the AI (artificial intelligence) transition – an advance that will touch and transform every aspect of life at sea, from naval operations and commercial shipping to yacht marina manoeuvres, autopilots and search and rescue. NAVAL OPERATIONS Those sailing the waters…