Innehållsförteckning för November 2024 från Yachting Monthly

Expert sailor Jon Amtrup, winner of the 2024 and 2022 Brian Black Memorial Award, is currently the skipper of Greenpeace high-latitude expedition boat Witness off the coast of Norway and in the Arctic. Witness has spent two weeks documenting the ecosystems of whales and dolphins in the region – many of which are threatened by Norway’s proposals to allow deep-sea mining. The mission was planned following a Norwegian government proposal to allow deep-sea mining in an area twice the size of Denmark – from Jan Mayen island in the south, through international waters to Svalbard. In a YM exclusive, skipper, Jon, explains more about the mission: ‘For a Norwegian, deep-sea mining conjures up mental pictures of harpoons firing, red-coloured salt water, and a bitter taste of an old era when…

Roy Harris and his partner Caroline Wilson were sailing back to the River Crouch from Kent on Sunday 25 August when a storm whipped up unexpectedly, causing his 40ft yacht Samphire to take on water. ‘We sailed for six to seven hours in good conditions but then the wind started whipping up and, when we turned into the Crouch, the wind caught the tender on the front of Samphire, the jib sheet broke, the ropes got tangled and water started pouring through the hatch,’ said Roy. ‘I became exhausted very quickly and sent a PAN-PAN. I didn’t want to call for assistance because the airwaves were busy but I had no choice. The Essex Police Marine Unit turned up out of the blue. I can’t express my gratitude and appreciation…

Little is known about The Monastic Republic of Mount Athos in pre-Christian times, but monastic communities already existed when the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 AD. The Eastern (Byzantine) Empire, which endured for 1,000 years, granted Athos its present autonomy in 883 AD. The most prominent of Athos’ monasteries have now been active for over a millennium. The Athonite monasteries house a rich collection of rare artefacts, books, ancient documents and historic works of art. Only 100 entrance visas are granted to Eastern Orthodox visitors per day, with just 10 visitors permitted from outside the faith. Women and children may not enter at all. The community includes 20 monasteries housing around 2,000 Eastern Orthodox monks from Greece and other Eastern Orthodox countries such as: Romania, Moldova, Georgia, Bulgaria, Montenegro,…

www.yachtingmonthly.com/books Jean-Luc describes his feelings as he waits for the start of the 2018/19 Golden Globe Race. He’s already circumnavigated the globe five times, but this time will be different – he’s racing ‘the old-fashioned way’. It’s time to cast off the lines. The last days on land are quite exhausting, with demands from all directions – information briefings, final checks, meetings with journalists, visits from friends and family, my children and grandchildren, my sisters and my brother. The usual anxiety before departure seizes me but I don’t show it, reinforcing my reputation as a tough guy and the associated monikers such as ‘man of iron’ or ‘hermit’. A major regional newspaper drives the point home: ‘VDH: the old man of the sea’. My white beard and my venerable age…

Modern boatbuilding’s favourite construction material, GRP (glass reinforced plastic), may be strong and durable, but it’s also, unfortunately, relatively heavy. To overcome this problem, naval architects and yards will laminate much lighter core materials between the GRP layers to reduce the boat’s weight and increase its stiffness. Older-style balsa wood cores suffer from rot and structural failure once moisture has begun to make its way along its grains. Modern balsa materials are, thankfully, a lot more resilient to moisture transmission while offering even greater compression strength and impact resistance. Newer synthetic foam cores are lighter still and a lot more moisture resistant. But while they will never rot, as such, they can still delaminate from the GRP layers because their bonding properties are a lot weaker than balsa’s. Any water…

Seacocks close holes below the waterline. Should one fail, the boat is likely to sink. Additionally, if there’s a leak in the pipework and the seacock is seized, you may not be able to stop the leak. It’s important, therefore, to operate your seacocks regularly to ensure they are not seized. Seacocks for use in salt water should be made from a marine material. They are sometimes made of brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, which will gradually de-zincify in the presence of seawater. Make sure yours are made of DZR bronze, which resists dezincification. Seacocks are also available in reinforced plastic. Always service your seacocks when the boat is out of the water. BALL VALVES These usually have a bronze body with a chromium-plated bronze ball set in…

CONTESSA 26 Jeremy Rogers had already established a name for himself building wooden Folkboats – not in clinker, as the original boats were built, but in strip-plank – when he decided to join the GRP revolution and build the boats in fibreglass. First, though, he decided to tweak the design a little. According to legend, he cut the transom off one of his strip-planked Folkboats and used wedges to open up the hull until it looked about right. He also raised the topsides slightly, added bulwarks, and levelled off the bottom of the keel so the boat would sit level when taking the ground, rather than dipping down at the bow as regular Folkboats do. He then redesigned the coachroof, taking inspiration for the ‘keyhole’ companionway devised by Van de…

Two incredible stories won this year’s Brian Black Memorial Award, in association with Coppercoat and YM. With entries focusing on ‘treading lightly’ in the marine environment, Jon Amtrup wrote about living aboard his yacht in the Arctic, eloquently setting out the case for more sustainable living and highlighting the rate of change in the Arctic. ‘Winning the Brian Black Memorial Award is a big honour and inspires me to sail and write even more from the Arctic,’ he says. ‘Right now I am in Tromsø and it’s very warm here – over 20° in mid-September. It’s just yet another example of how fast the climate is changing in the Arctic, and we all have to push the decision makers to do something about it. Not just talk about the challenges,…

Custom superyacht builder Pendennis Shipyard has taken a majority interest in its Cornish neighbour Cockwells Boatbuilding for an undisclosed sum. ‘Cockwells has been actively seeking support in the marine sector to move the business to the next phase in its business plan – including the production of this year’s new model, the Duchy 45,’ says Cockwells MD, Dean Short. ‘Pendennis is perfectly placed to provide that support and we are delighted to be moving forward with the company.’ Cockwells and Pendennis have worked together for many years with a number of Pendennis superyachts having commissioned Cockwells’ custom-built tenders. Both companies are also known for their highly skilled workforce, for innovation, apprentice training and excellence in all aspects of yacht building and will work together to develop their teams. Pendennis owns…

When it comes to building successful cruising yachts, there are few yards that can match the might and scale of Jeanneau. If the number of hulls sold is any measure of how good a yacht is, then the fact that Jeanneau built over 2,500 Sun Odyssey 349s in its 12 years production run is a pretty big stamp of approval. Every boat has its day, and the time came to bring the 349 up to date. Jeanneau unveiled the new baby in its cruising range at the Düsseldorf boat show in January 2024. Anyone who has sailed on the 349 will feel instantly like they’ve just been reacquainted with an old but subtly different friend, as if they’ve had a midlife crisis, started working out and had a touch of…

The Monastic Republic of Mount Athos, roughly the size of Malta, dates back to at least 800 AD. The sovereign region within Greece has a policy of extreme isolation which has defended the Orthodox Christian communities there against invasion and political upheaval for over a millennium. Athonite roads don’t connect to the Greek mainland and foreign boats are forbidden from landing on its shores… Or are they? Having sailed 3,000 miles single-handed from Britain, I was determined not to depend on the few Athos-flagged boats which ply the last 20 miles across the frontier from Greece. Would a lone foreign sailor be granted access to the 500-metre coastal exclusion zone? Satellite images revealed four potential landings on the territory: three on the south side, belonging to the monasteries of Panteleimon,…

Enjoy every minute of it,’ said INEOS Britannia team member, Nick Hutton, presenting prizes on Day 5 of the ABP Cadet World Championships in Plymouth. Nick’s own last event as a Cadet had been the World Championships in Hobart, Tasmania, 30 years ago. He was delighted to meet his former teammate, Dominic Stanislaus, who was also in Plymouth. Dominic’s daughter, Mia, was competing – still sailing the same dinghy, Utopia. That’s one of the joys of the Cadet class – its combination of an international reach and a strong inter-generational feeling. Event organiser Alan Krailing from Suffolk, shared the thrill of returning to Plymouth after 32 years and watching his own children compete. He also managed a convincing win in the hotly contested ex-Cadet sailors’ race, where the lanky and…

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There was only ever one sort of boat that Richard Gregson was going to buy. As the owner of the Wooden Ships brokerage firm in Dartmouth, he was duty-bound to buy a wooden boat. For, as he puts it: ‘I can’t preach to people to buy a wooden boat if I don’t have one myself.’ That said, wooden boats come in all shapes and sizes, and Richard was perfectly placed to choose from any number of boats that pass through his business. Instead, he did a remarkable thing. He went to Sweden and bought not one but three Folkboats, and had them shipped back to the UK. This was pre-Brexit, and there were lots of wooden boats for sale in Sweden with very little local demand. So Richard bought the…

Zhik and YM presented the Zhik Spirit of Adventure Award at the recent Southampton Boat Show, celebrating the most inspiring cruising adventures undertaken in British and Irish waters. Winner Hamish Southby-Tailyour captivated readers with his detailed account of exploring the Isles of Scilly and Guernsey with his family, also illustrated by beautiful drone shots of his Moody 33 MkII Equinox at anchor. Hamish was presented with a suite of lightweight high-performance Zhik sailing kit, which included the CST500TM jacket and salopettes, plus a pair of Seaboot 700s and a 45-litre waterproof duffel bag. ‘Family sailing has become my passion ever since I have had a family. I am grateful for this award and for the privilege of having been brought up sailing on my father’s boat,’ he said. Other commended…

When I was a ship’s boy in the Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service, an old-timer once offered a piece of advice: ‘Make the tide your friend, boy.’ I’ve embraced it ever since, for it makes sense to work with nature as opposed to against it. Not all, it seems, are this way inclined, as illustrated by an anecdote from one of the harbourmasters who buzz about in Guernsey’s St Peter Port, bringing order to the daily influx of various nationalities, sizes and abilities. Recently, impervious to advice that a 1.7m keel won’t cross the sill with only a metre of water above it, a skipper imperiously pronounced that he was going in. Gunning the engine, he hit the sill at five knots. Not to be deterred, he backed up and had…

Would you sail if you found this in the bilges? Q Andy and Jane are on the trip of a lifetime to the Caribbean on board their 12m cruiser racer Ambition with two crew. They are currently in Las Palmas preparing for the passage to Antigua. On the way down they met strong winds off Portugal, but Ambition weathered the storm and they arrived safely in Gran Canaria. However, there is a slight ingress of seawater in the bilge. Ambition is eight years old. She was previously owned by a charter company and was used for skippered and bareboat charter. She was certified and inspected for commercial use. Andy and Jane have fitted her out for ocean sailing with all the safety equipment. The sails and rig look fine. Because…

The eastern Pacific was quiet and beautiful at 0300 in the middle of May 2022. Hippolyta and her crew were transiting an area of squally calms, not truly the ITCZ but with similarly unstable conditions. But on this night the ocean was living up to her peaceful name and, with my friend Shaun on watch, we were motoring quietly through a calm under the panoply of stars, pleased to finally be clear of the ubiquitous and poorly marked longlines of the Colombian offshore fishing fleets. Suddenly our electric wheelpilot, only pressed into service in the absence of wind to drive the Hydrovane, screeched the wheel left and right to no effect and the boat’s head started to wander aimlessly. Urgent investigation revealed sheared steering cables at the rudder quadrant. In…

European civilisation was profoundly shaped by the Etesian northerly winds of the Aegean. Southerlies are rare and never occur in summer. There are three accepted routes north, described to me by a fisherman’s daughter in Monemvasia: a western route via the gulfs of Euboea, a central route through the Steno Kafirea and straight up to Lemnos, and the eastern route through the Cyclades and then hugging the Turkish coast to the Dardanelles. But I took none of these. After visiting the Cyclades, Athos was to the north-west, so I went through a tiny gap between Andros and Tinos and hugged the Etesian polished northern cliffs of Andros and Euboea. Beware – the rare north-facing harbours which afford shelter from the Etesians seem, perhaps by the same anomaly, to be exposed…

Fair weather sailors will undoubtedly be familiar with the flotilla. From family-friendly holidays to booze cruises, many readers will know the feeling of arriving at a fleet garnished with flags of blue and yellow, orange or green. Flotillas begin with afternoons waiting in the taverna whilst the crew deal with last-minute ‘routine maintenance’ (spoiler: it’s never routine). Flotillas end with hugs, leftover bottles of olive oil and exclamations of, ‘See you next year!’ But what is flotilla life really like, behind the sunglasses, flip flops and handheld VHFs? Patrons know flotilla as raft-building, group meals and morning briefings. It’s where many of the best intentions of the RYA and Day Skipper initiatives go for a crash course in alternative mooring. Being on a flotilla is slipping lines and having a…

SAIL JACKET WEATHER PROTECTION www.henrilloyd.com Part of Henri Lloyd’s latest range of waterproof marine clothing, featuring a dropped adjustable hem, soft fleece lining, hood adjusters and mid-height collar with a microfleece chin guard. It also has a mesh and taffeta lining, asymmetric cuff ends for extra protection over the hands, and laminated cuff adjusters with secure hook and loop cuff closure, to optimise warmth and comfort in the harshest of sea conditions. Its conspicuous high visibility, meanwhile, is enhanced thanks to three tonal reflectors and reflective logos. There are also fully waterproof zippers on all of the pockets, with the main YKK zipper sporting an anti-corrosive aluminium puller. Available in red, ice white and navy blue. YOUSAFE PRIME VIKING LIFEJACKET www.viking-life.com Developed for commercial maritime use, this automatic lightweight lifejacket has…

When it came to searching for a smaller yacht, I was quite specific. I wanted a boat I could keep on my Chichester Harbour mooring while my other big boat, a Dufour 41, remained in the Caribbean for long winter cruises. The new boat, therefore, had to be cheap, yet enjoyable to sail, capable of Solent weekends and cross-Channels, and comfortable. I had other specific requirements: it had to be good looking with a racing pedigree, have a tiller for single-handed sailing, have double cabins fore and aft with the heads by the companionway, and a forward-facing chart table. I soon realised, however, that these criteria, especially on a budget of around £25,000, could only be matched by the French cruiser-racers of the late 1980s and early 1990s. My extensive…