Innehållsförteckning för September 2021 från Yachting World

Back in October 2015 our Yachting World cover asked ‘Should your next yacht be a multihull?’. It was a surprisingly controversial question: the historic dichotomy between the multi- and monohull worlds meant few sailors crossed between one side and the other. But one of the most significant changes in the boatbuilding marketplace over the past few years has been the explosion in multihull launches. There is now a huge range of cruising catamaran options, from high performance daggerboard designs to super spacious bridgedeck models. There are aluminium builds suitable for off-grid adventures, all-electric set-ups for fossil-fuel free cruising, and everything in between. There are multihulls that offer a level of responsiveness to appeal to even the most diehard monohull yachtsman, while the stability and liveability of a cat has tempted…

Over 30 years after the event was created, the Vendée Globe solo round the world race has hit a historic high point, leading to a race for limited entry in 2024. A third of the next fleet could be made up of skippers returning for another attempt to gain a place on the podium. The 2020 race, its ninth edition, was perhaps the most successful ever: it saw 33 entries, a record number of new foiling designs, the lowest ever number of abandonments and was followed by a new high of 11 million website users. And when Yannick Bestaven won on Maître CoQ, a 2016 generation foiler, it fuelled the values of recent IMOCA 60s that are tried and tested, competitive and ready to fine-tune right away. That has created…

One of the most eagerly awaited new yachts of modern times, the radical ClubSwan 125, launched in May and sailed from Nautor’s Swan’s yard in Finland to Portland, UK in preparation for the Fastnet Race in August. The black and yellow rocket ship, named Skorpios, is designed by Juan Kouyoumdjian and built to break the monohull line honours records in offshore races around the world. Look out for a full feature on the ClubSwan 125 in next month’s Yachting World!…

Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz, the first woman to circumnavigate the globe solo, has died at the age of 84. The Polish sailor, pioneer and naval architect’s two-year adventure, which saw her battle the elements and equipment failure, came down to a nail biting finish as she saw off her nearest rival, New Zealander Naomi James, by only a few weeks. Born in Warsaw her family moved to Ostróda after World War II and it was here, on Poland’s great lakes, that she discovered her love of sailing. She met her husband Wacław Liskiewicz at university where they were both studying naval architecture and he headed the team that built the Conrad 32 sloop Mazurek, which Chojnowska-Liskiewicz sailed around the world. She was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta…

Kindred spirit I enjoyed reading the story on Luke Powell’s Falmouth Pilot Cutter Pellew in the July issue, especially on his philosophy about boats in general and how they are built to be used. Although he is wood and I am metal, we think alike and don’t mind the natural wear and tear and even the scratches (and in my case the odd dent), as those lend character to the vessel rather than agonising about keeping a boat pristine. Years ago a superyacht owner came on board my original Pelagic in Ushuaia for a drink. As he looked around, no doubt noticing all the well rounded corners of the woodwork down below – not from design but from abrasion – his comment was [that the yacht was] ‘well used’. I…

When first taking Vinson of Antarctica out of the Hamble River I had to think quickly on my feet which way those black triangles face on west and east cardinal marks… It had been not years, but decades, since I had been out in the Solent. I got a further shock on our maiden voyage up the channel, through the Dover Straits and into the North Sea. Traffic Separation Schemes, buoys lit and unlit, wind farms and oil rigs to dodge, with endless heads ups and chatter on the VHF channels. The Admiralty paper chart of the southern North Sea was indecipherable due to the amount of information on that scale of 1:750,000. I know for sailors used to this, on-watch attention span means everything. But by comparison I must…

LAGOON 380 The long-time best-seller from the world leader in catamarans, with more than 1,000 produced over almost 20 years from 1999. With its characteristic vertical windows, the 380 and its big brother the 410 made the purists scream when they were presented. But the 380 proved a pioneer of its kind. Safe bow volumes and light displacement (7,260 kg) helped its seaworthy behaviour. The high number of boats on the market makes this the most affordable bluewater cruising multihull for its size, even if price range is as wide as condition is variable. Guide price: from €150,000-€290,000 CASAMANCE 44/46 Between 44ft and 46ft depending on the year of construction and the length of its transoms, the Casamance was an impressive catamaran on launch in 1985. The design by Joubert/Nivelt…

‘She might be new, but even before her maiden sail, Saecwen was steeped in history’ “Look at that piece of oak behind you. I first met that tree when I was a kid, growing up in the New Forest. Ten years ago it blew over in a storm but I managed to buy a chunk of it through a forester friend. It’s a 400 or 500-year-old piece of oak – the same wood used to build Nelson’s navy – and now it’s the centrepiece of the boat. On the other side, the names of all the people who worked on the boat are carved.” We are hunkered down in the saloon of Saecwen, the latest design by Nigel Irens launched at the Elephant Boatyard only a few days earlier, while the rain…

The Whitbread/Volvo Round the World race has a precedent for replacing skippers in Uruguay. Skip Novak took over Fazisi in the late 1980s. Dawn Riley’s time came in 1993 when Uruguay was a stopover on both the outbound and return Atlantic legs. The US Women’s Challenge entry had run into major difficulties under its previous skipper, leaving the boat in disarray at its first stopover in Punta del Este, in desperate need of an American to head them up who could not only race the boat but could also pull a disaffected crew together. A veteran of three America’s Cup campaigns and a watch captain on Tracy Edwards’ successful Maiden Whitbread challenge, Riley answered the call and delivered the goods handsomely. Just to finish would have been a respectable result,…

This is from the first batch of sailing pictures of Hallberg-Rassy’s elegant new 400, an aft cockpit version of the successful 40C which launched at the end of 2019. It shares the same modern, beamy hull shape, with long waterlines, twin rudders and an easily managed rig. The interior benefits over the 40C with the option of a second heads and is offered with one or two cabins in mahogany or European oak. The first boat will be presented at Scandinavia’s Open Yard show in Ellös, Orust, 27-30 August, before making its debut at Southampton in mid September. Price ex VAT: approx €435,000 CANNES 7-12 SEPTEMBER IC36 (see Yachting World May issue) Aventura 37 (May) Bali 4.2 (May) Ice 52/70 (February/April) J/45 (April) Privilege 510/580 (September 2020) Solaris 40/60 (April)…

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Reaching struts out, sails stacked, surf mode engaged: Cecil and Alyson Rossi’s Farr 57 Ho’okolohe flying into home waters of Diamond Head, Hawaii, in the LA-Honolulu Transpac. First to finish and winner of the famous ‘Barn Door Trophy’ in the 51st edition of the 2,225-mile race was Roy Disney’s turboed Volvo 70 Pyewacket, while Ho’okolohe won Division 8. Photo by Sharon Green/Ultimate Sailing Not sure how to make a 100ft Ultim more extreme? The Gitana crew went for a blast with foiling kiteboarders from the Lorient Glisse et Foil association. Kiteboarder Billy Guy Maupas took on the challenge of recreating Alex Thomson’s famous ‘skywalk’, but going one step further: towing-in at over 30 knots in the wake of the 32m trimaran and then flying from the top of the Maxi…

The Ultim class has announced the first single-handed race round the world for giant multihulls, the Solo Ultim World Tour. This will likely be the most challenging ocean sailing race ever held. The solo skippers will need to navigate a course as arduous as the Vendée Globe, but will be doing so in 100ft foiling trimarans with complex appendages capable of sailing at 45 knots, with the ever-present risk of a split-second capsize. Six of the fastest ocean-racing designs in the world will be taking part in the new solo race round the world, with record-breaking sailors Armel Le Cléac’h, Charles Caudrelier and Thomas Coville among the solo skippers lining up. The Solo Ultim World Tour will be organised by the hugely experienced event company OC Sport Pen Duick, in…

Aboard the world’s fastest monohull The new ClubSwan 125 is designed for outright record-breaking. Toby Hodges sails Skorpios and highlights the features of this radical Juan Kouyoumdjian design that could make it the world’s fastest (non-flying) monohull Fastnet goes big The largest ever fleet, with a new, longer course, the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race was a bigger challenge than ever. We have the full story Boat test double: Lagoon 55 + Jeanneau SO410 We test two family cruiser options designed for serious onboard comfort and shallow draught exploring Baja dreams: cruising Mexico The Sea of Cortez proved a perfect escape for Jessie Zevalkink and her young family on their newly refurbished steel ketch Hitting the reset button Stunning scenery and absorbing teamwork made Sweden’s Gotland Runt an ideal antidote to…

What’s the best multihull for long term cruising? The one you own, or the one you can afford is the simple answer. There is a wealth of proven designs to suit bluewater sailing and a variety of budgets. While we have focussed here on those in production, we’ve also included some cracking pedigree multihulls which tour the planet and might occasionally pop up on the brokerage market. If you can afford to, then pushing towards the 45-50ft length will buy you space, pace and that extra payload capacity needed to take all the items you’d want on your home afloat. Your choice will come down to that perennial balance between comfort/space and speed/weight. Choosing a lighter weight performance design will obviously help you cover distance voyages more rapidly and potentially…

EXCESS 11 The Excess 11 packs plenty of potential as the smallest yacht offered by the big production yards. A little like the Lagoon 380 of old, it presents a good value new entry-level boat for genuine cruising in a more sporty, modern and enticing design. Some may argue against aft helms for ocean sailing, but those coming from monohulls will appreciate the more direct steering they offer. Price ex VAT: €250,000 BROADBLUE 385S Broadblue is a UK brand which offers a distinct line of cruising and Rapier performance catamarans. Its staple 385 packs a lot of cruising comfort into its length, including generous tankage, and has been sailed all over the world. Broadblue built its first electric drive catamaran 12 years ago and offers the only all-electric production sailing…

Nigel Irens is most famous for designing boats such as Ellen MacArthur’s record-breaking trimaran B&Q. In Saecwen, he has applied his intuitive sense of what makes a boat fast to a more traditional hull shape. “My starting point is to suggest that for long-range cruising a heavy boat will always offer a better ride than a light one. That said, no-one wants a slow boat, but in my view satisfying cruising isn’t all about speed, and a well thought out heavy cruiser should be rewarding to sail in all conditions. “For best results I’d start with the longest waterline possible – with a relatively narrow waterline beam but plenty of reserve buoyancy higher up, so that in a sudden squall there is plenty of reserve righting moment and so no…

Premium binoculars test Every sailor knows that anxious moment as you’re making a difficult entry into an unfamiliar port. The chances are there is quite a sea state, the light is poor and despite the best planning in advance, things don’t quite seem to be matching up. The crew are looking to you as the skipper to get them in safely. But what you see are crashing waves, lots of light clutter from shore and a picture you can’t yet tally with your entry plan. This is when you need a serious pair of binoculars. That entry level £40 pair from the chandlery might serve you well in easy conditions, but when things get a little more serious, you’ll never regret having equipped yourself with a set that can cut…

The first signs that something odd was taking place came in July 2020. After the strangest start to a summer any of us can remember, just as Europe began to open up to sailing once again, there were reports from Gibraltar and the Spanish Atlantic coast of orcas apparently attacking yachts. One of the earliest incidents involved a Hallberg-Rassy 36, which was being sailed to southern Spain by a delivery crew from Halcyon Yachts. “Our crew had just set off from A Coruña and were a couple of miles offshore when the crew suddenly felt the wheel being ripped out of their hands,” Peter Green of Halcyon Yachts explained. The yacht was later taken under tow, but the impacts from the orcas continued, snapping the tow rope. When the yacht…

A boutique Spanish shipyard has created the Hanstaiger X1, almost certainly the world’s most radical cruising trimaran Imagine a boat that combines the aggressive loom of a Lamborghini with the controls of a fighter jet. Pop a rig on top, open the transom like the cargo door of a Chinook – oh, and bung a grand piano in one corner of the saloon. This, with a bit more glass, ferocious styling and creature comforts galore, is the new Hanstaiger X1 – a trimaran so beautiful and strange that it has to be the brainchild of an eccentric. The Hanstaiger X1 truly is like nothing else afloat. The individual behind it is John Ordovas, who created a small shipyard in southern Spain. His vision was for a cruising yacht that tore…

Olympian and in-demand professional sailor BEN SAXTON gives ANDY RICE his five best tips for racing in light airs in tidal waters The lighter the breeze, the more significant the effects of any current or tidal flow. Ben Saxton has raced every kind of boat, from foiling catamarans to planing dinghies to displacement keelboats. As he says, whatever you’re racing, you need to be aware of the direction of the current in relation to the course, and take every opportunity to note when the tide might be on the turn. “Every single mark that you go around, take a second or two to see what the tidal flow is,” he advises. “Use lobster pots, moored boats, or even the choppiness of the water to tell you what the direction of…

Brunswick buys Navico US company Brunswick Corporation, the name behind Mercury engines, Mastervolt and Boston Whalers, has acquired electronics giant Navico in a $1.05bn deal. The Norwegian-based electronics company has the Lowrance, Simrad, B&G, and C-MAP brands and gives Brunswick a market position in multifunction displays, fishfinders, autopilots, sonar, radar and cartography. ‘Other Fastnet’ races renamed A race which starts and finishes in Plymouth and conceived as one of two alternatives to the Rolex Fastnet Race has been renamed to distinguish it from the races that start in Cowes. The Plymouth Fastnet 500 Race, organised by the Royal Western Yacht Club, alternates every other year with the also renamed Original Lonely Rock Race, which will start from Ryde, Isle of Wight, on 17 July 2022 and finish in Plymouth. Corinth…

Uncertainty about quarantine restrictions and international travel rules is giving cruising event organisers a dilemma: which rallies can go on regardless and which ought to be cancelled early to allow crews to make firm alternative plans? World Cruising Club, organisers of the annual ARC and ARC+ transatlantic rallies and the annual round the world World ARC, have decided to press ahead with plans for its three transatlantic rallies between November and January from Las Palmas to the Caribbean. However, the company has cancelled the start of the 2022 World ARC round the world rally due to begin from St Lucia next January. No decision has yet been taken about running the second part of the route, which runs from Australia to the Caribbean. “Ongoing uncertainty about Covid infection levels, the…

In a move aimed at reducing illegal migration by sea, the UK government is proposing legalisation to make it easier to prosecute traffickers. The Nationality and Borders Bill proposes big changes to the asylum system but it also makes an offence of facilitating asylum-seekers’ arrival in the UK, and there is no specific exemption for humanitarian rescue. In response to a question from barrister George Peretz QC, the Home Office stated (on Twitter) ‘this doesn’t apply to organisations such as HM Coastguard and RNLI helping those in distress at sea.’ Peretz responded: ‘What about individuals or shipping companies rescuing people in distress at sea? What, exactly, are the boundaries of the conduct to which this offence is said not to apply? Unexplained assertions – in a tweet or even by…

François Gabart, currently the fastest man to sail solo non-stop around the world, has unveiled his latest trimaran, the radical SVR-Lazartigue. Previously codenamed ‘M101’ the trimaran’s most obvious innovation is that it has no ‘cockpit’. Instead, Gabart – and his crew on crewed record attempts or races – will sail the boat from inside. Visibility forward is via two fighter-jet style forward facing pods or ‘bubbles’, with a sliding access hatch. Also like a fighter jet, the trimaran has adopted a radical control system, swapping a conventional 1.5m-diameter wheel for a compact 30cm wheel tucked into the cockpit. Gabart explained: “It’s a new way to sail. It will probably rely more on sounds and movements. We will be able to go very quickly, while being protected from an apparent wind…

I wish my wife had been listening to a recent radio feature which discussed the growth in popularity of buying second-hand clothes. Had she heard it I’d like to think the sustained pressure to clear out my sailing wardrobe would have eased. Ignoring the fact that the interviewee deliberately avoided saying ‘second-hand’ and replaced this otherwise accurate expression with ‘pre-loved’, I was nonetheless interested in the argument that clothes should be like art, where good examples are treasured for what they mean to us. We should also be conscious and enjoy what wearing them must have meant to the person that gave them away, a gesture that was made presumably in the hope that someone else could love them as much as they had. This strategy could surely form a…

MARSAUDON TS4/ORC 42 Few catamaran builders produce genuine performance cruisers at this ‘smaller’ size: this one is kept minimalist and light weight (around 6 tonnes) – the yard’s philosophy is ‘simplicity, then add lightness.’ The 42 is a cruiser-racer with the ability to outpace most yachts across the Atlantic, win a regatta and still offer some space for island hopping. Standard tankage is minimal however. Marsaudon recently rebranded its TS range to Ocean Rider Catamarans (ORCs) and has an ORC 57 in build. Price ex VAT: €418,000 DAZCAT 1495 Dazcat builds fast, seaworthy cats from its Multihull Centre in Cornwall. The 1495 is a true ocean cruiser-racer, which is stiff and rewarding to sail, with direct steering linked to carbon rudders. The 1495 can hit 20+ knot speeds with relative…

“That’s it,” Wietze says, “Not an ounce more of anything is added to the boat. No food, no fuel and no water.” I pause, because I had just grabbed my bag for another quick visit to the supermarket. We have a 6,000-mile trip to go and my fear of running out of food is even bigger than normal. But when I check my little book of supplies, I concede and put the bag away. The next morning we give each other the customary pre-departure look in the eye and ask: “Ready?”. Then we’re on our way for this monster voyage: Cape Town to the Azores. This will be our final big passage in over 50,000 miles of sailing around the world. By the time Table Mountain sinks below the horizon,…

How much faster could an IMOCA 60 go if it were really pressed? Not in bursts, not for brief peak speeds, but at a sustained average pace over days or more. In other words, how much faster would they go if they could be pushed harder, for longer, than a single-handed sailor could cope with at one stretch? It’s a question that has been discussed for some time, even more so since the 60-footers started to fly five years ago. Vendée Globe sailors frequently comment that they’re often sailing their boats at well below 100%, because they simply cannot keep up the intensity of going full-bore when they’re sailing alone. But if you could keep your foot hard to the floor, day in, day out – just as a full…

YYachts Tripp 90 LOA 29.77m 97ft 7in LWL 27.46m 90ft 1in Beam 6.80m 22ft 4in Draught 4.64m 15ft 3in Displacement 55,700kg 123,000lb Ballast 20,000kg 44,100lb Price POA yyachts.de Over the past few years YYachts has cemented a reputation for producing large composite yachts that are remarkably uncomplicated and therefore easy and fun to sail. The German yard’s latest launch, a custom Tripp 90, will be unveiled at Cannes boat show, where it will be on display next to the existing Y7 and Y8 models. The new boat was developed for an American owner who plans to use it for both worldwide cruising and racing. Key requirements included the ability to operate with only three sailors when cruising, yet be competitive in regatta mode. YYachts tends to eschew deck saloons with…

FULL ETHERNET NETWORKING Lymington based A+T’s ATP2 processor enables a boat’s entire electronics to be connected via an ultrafast ethernet network, with a single wire linking all sensors and displays. This also supplies 12V power to low draw items such as sensors. Further advantages are that there’s no limitation to the number of displays that can be networked, and even large yachts have no practical limit on the length of cable runs. Price: from £6,300. aandtinstruments.com HIGH SPEC DECK SHOE Wuzzos’ Corinthian Pro is intended as a traditionally styled deck shoe that incorporates the technical features of top notch deck trainers. The leather and mesh upper maximises ventilation and drainage, while the dual density outsole is engineered to absorb impacts. The sole rubber is optimised to provide good grip on wet…

Alfonso Vega suffered one of the most aggressive encounters with orcas last summer aboard his Jeanneau Voyage 1120, Urki. The Spanish search and rescue pilot was sailing from Vigo in south Galicia, to Asturias on Spain’s northern coast on a 250-mile passage with a friend. They were around seven miles offshore when orcas began attacking boats in their vicinity. “At around 1230am I heard on the radio a Mayday call from a French sailboat that was being attacked by the orcas. I checked their position on the GPS by the AIS and they were six miles away from me. “So I called the search and rescue tower directly to tell them that I was very close to the French yacht. I changed my heading to help the French couple, and…

‘She meant so much more than a race record’ DAWN RILEY NOMINATES USA-51, AMERICA TRUE America True was a ground-breaking campaign for the 2000 America’s Cup. Created by Dawn Riley, it was the first America’s Cup syndicate to be headed up by a woman, and the first mixed team in the Cup. John Butler was racing helmsman. The team out-performed many expectations, getting through to the semi-final stages of the 11-team Louis Vuitton Cup, then raced in IACC yachts, and taking race wins from such heavyweight contenders as Dennis Connor’s Stars & Stripes. “America True was the best bright yellow boat designed by Phil Kaiko and an excellent team who are still designing Cup boats,” recalls Riley. “But she meant so much more than just a race record as we…