Innholdsfortegnelse for February 17 i Cruising Helmsman

A total of 33 Beneteau owners and crew gathered at the CYCA for the 25th Beneteau Cup and were rewarded in many ways. From the expected croissants and champagne at the preregatta breakfast to the ideal conditions on Sydney Harbour. As always, boats were divided into two divisions to separate those who are serious about their racing from those who are there to cruise the harbour and enjoy the fun. Flying Cloud took the honours in the spinnaker division after a hard-fought battle with Outlaw while Elara won the non-spinnaker division. As is usual at such regattas, it was not all about the winners, with $7600 raised for the charity Mercy Ships. Yaffa Media’s Sam Williams attended his first Beneteau Cup and filed this report on his experiences. It was…

Navico’s B&G announced its sponsorship of Australian yachtsman Jon Sanders on his 2016-2017 ‘swansong’ voyage, attempting his tenth circumnavigation of the globe. The irrepressible veteran sailor completed his first solo non-stop double circumnavigation of the planet in 1982, followed by a triple circumnavigation in 1988. He still holds the record for that 71,023-mile, 658-day journey: the longest distance sailed continuously unassisted and solo. Jon’s latest voyage will be sailed over eight legs, five solo and three with crew. To support the endeavour, Jon’s Perie Banou II has been outfitted with a full B&G electronics system including a Zeus 2 12 inch sailing chartplotter, Triton wind/ speed/depth system, VHF, AIS and Tiller Pilot. This ensures the Sparkman and Stephens 39 is equipped with the latest in navigation and communication technology, crucial…

LETTER OF THE MONTH Response to a retirement TS Hello Phil, I am reading in between the lines of Wayne’s letter in CH October 2016 and conclude that he has done a lot of ‘reader-sailing’ but little if any real life sailing. There are several steps he should take like yesterday, if not today. Go to the nearest boat ramp and sailing club to establish for himself that some of his criteria are unrealistic. Talking to sailors as they launch their trailer sailors at the ramp will show him one of the most important other issues of trailer sailing: the towing vehicle. He might also find that a small motorboat with a cuddy cabin could serve his purpose better. If sailing is however a condition so be it. We belonged…

My husband pulled me close, rested his head on mine and whispered “let’s buy a boat.” I sighed. “Here we go again, Cap’n Hunk.” I should have guessed there would be more than freshly caught fish cooked up when he dragged me along to drinks and nibbles on his friend’s yacht. On a sunny Sunday arvo, Emily seemed a fine vessel. Fine, as in a superb place to watch other people sailing. Every time light winds waft across sparkly water, every time he sees boats lifting gently into arching blue swells, every time he feels caged by work commitments, family matters, suburbia, he says, “let’s buy a boat.” Six foot two in his boat shoes, with powerful forearms and a strong chin, he exudes self-assurance. It has become his mantra.…

There have been many types of material used to build boats and has been for a long time: wood, steel, alloy and ferrocement. The fact is nowadays, most production boats are made of fibreglass: glass reinforced plastic or GRP. This has been so for a long while since this ‘miracle material’ of fibreglass was widely hailed as a maintenance-free boat building opportunity in the 50s/60s and has progressed, albeit with some marked improvements and significant failures, ever since. These days production yachts are being seen more and more frequently in remote and popular cruising grounds alike, a long way from home. Yachts built by Beneteau, Jeanneau, Bavaria and Hanse, to name a few of the larger builders, are crossing oceans and providing long-term homes for an increasing number of people…

Yachts are often based in shipping ports or visit them when cruising, so we sometimes see pilot boats going about their business. Piloting is as old as seafaring itself with yacht development influenced by the fast sailing pilot cutters of the 19th century. The most important thing about pilot boats today is that sighting one implies a ship is on the move in your area! Identifying Forewarned is fore-armed, but at a distance you will often need binoculars to distinguish a pilot boat from other official-looking craft, particularly if the colour scheme seems to include red or orange. International regulations do not specify a day signal for pilot vessels but in most countries red and white flags, or the code H flag which has red and white vertical panels, are…

A traineeship for the marina industries was launched at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia by the Marina Industries Association and the registered training organisation, Safety Corp. The traineeship is called Certificate III in Marina Operations. The syllabus is an amalgam of existing recognised units of competency and units specifically developed by a working party of certified marina managers (CMM) over a two year period. MIA President Andrew Chapman CMM said “the recreational marine industries in Australia have suffered a decade of decline in the number of new apprentices coming into the market and the number of training providers has contracted. The launch of the Certificate III in Marina Operations re-energises the marina and wider marine industries with an entry level syllabus and qualification. “The traineeship provides an excellent new…

The governing body for the sport, Australian Sailing, has established the Australian Sailing ‘Hall of fame’ to acknowledge individuals for their performance and contribution to sailing at an international and/or national level, past and present. The hall of fame will be inclusive of all forms of sailing and for both able bodied and disabled, celebrating the sport of sailing. Given the assistance Australian Sailing provided in the setting up of the Cruiser of the year award, Cruising Helmsman is pleased to see all levels of sailing will be eligible for nomination. The establishment of organised sailing in Australia was considered the appropriate start date to research nominees and research indicates the first sailing race was held on 26 January 1837 and eight months later, the establishment of the first yacht…

Well, it was written more than a year ago now. Yet, just like plots on the proverbial paper chart, ever since ‘Paper. Ruler. Dividers’ was published (CH February 2016) there have been some notations marked on the chart, as it were. So thank you everyone for reading, enjoying and joining in the great discussion that ensued. Now it is true that some also missed the overall thrust and did not review the example of the time, which was the Volvo ocean racing 65 known as Team Vestas Wind. Subsequent to that, in a later piece we also highlighted how the mighty US Navy was going back to teaching celestial navigation at Annapolis after a 20 year hiatus. So please pay attention now because also in the intervening time much more…

When you decide to sell your yacht your preparation for a prepurchase survey should start even before you list the boat for sale. Ideally, you should start preparing your vessel for sale the day you buy it by ensuring that it is well maintained. Hopefully you maintained a service log over the years, with receipts to demonstrate your proactive approach to general and preventative maintenance. Many surveying companies can conduct a general condition assessment (GCA) of your vessel. The GCA report can then be provided to potential buyers as an independent overview as to the condition of the vessel, increasing a buyer’s confidence to enter into an initial conditional agreement for purchase. The following checklist is designed as a guide to assist owners to prepare their vessel for a prepurchase…

Regular readers may remember I tested dinghy anchors some time ago and found the Cooper far superior to the generic four kilogram sand anchor that was its only competition. The new player is the Mantus 1kg., available in galvanised or stainless steel. We tested the galvanised version against our Cooper in sand, hard-packed sand, heavy mud/sand and the same with a weedy surface. Both anchors were on eight millimetre rope only, with the bowline attaching the Mantus providing similar resistance to setting as the shackle used on the Cooper. Testing was done with the full ten metres of rode in depths ranging from half to two metres. Although the scope was excessive, it mimics the way most people anchor a dinghy. I used reverse on our six horsepower Suzuki to…

Abel Tasman may have sailed right past it in 1642, the chart he produced showed only a smooth coastline keeping beautiful, unique Port Davey hidden for another one hundred and sixty years. Until in 1798, along came Matthew Flinders with his good friend George Bass in the tiny Norfolk, out to prove Tasmania was indeed an island. Approaching two rounded hills, a strengthening west wind had timber blocks groaning to the flap of flaxen sails driving the small craft deeper into the icy Southern Ocean. Agreeing the storm had yet to reach its peak, they looked ahead to see white teeth erupting far higher than the Norfolk’s mast from the turbulent sea. Beyond those islets they perceive, “the appearance of a considerable opening.” Suddenly they are wondering whether to maintain…

A definitive guide to sailing in Southeast Asia, Southeast Asia Pilot, celebrates 25 years in print with the launch of its fifth edition in its current guise. What started as Sail Thailand in 1991, grew in stature as Andaman Sea Pilot in 2004 and matured in 2009 as Southeast Asia Pilot. Each time covering more of the region’s vast cruising area. Over nine editions, the book has been in print since a couple of years after the first yacht charter was established in Thailand and has kept pace with the rapid growth of leisure yachting and cruising, not only in Thailand but everywhere from northern Australia to India’s Andaman Islands. During its journey, the makeup of the team responsible for creating it has changed significantly with authors Bill O’Leary and…

The first boat show for 2017 will be staged in March at the Gold Coast Marine Precinct at Coomera. The Gold Coast International Boat Show and Marine Expo is now linked with the Boating Industry Association. Negotiations have seen the dates of the award-winning expo move forward to 17th to 19th of March, so it does not clash with the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show. Boating Industry Association national chief executive Howard Glenn noted “the timing of this March event is seasonally important for boating enthusiasts and it also opens up an exciting opportunity for our industry to continue to innovate and grow.” Expo’s dedicated event and marketing manager Emma Brown will lead the boat show management team to ensure a smooth transition to the 2017 March dates “a stand-alone Gold…

Kraken Yachts first 66 footer, White Dragon, has completed her delivery/shake down cruise arriving in Hong Kong last October. Founder and chairman Dick Beaumont was thrilled with the trip and the way she performed. On board were some of the team involved in the yachts production, Grant McKinnon of Southern Spars said “I might give up race yachts if cruising yachts sail like this. “Ten knots of speed from 15kt of wind is pretty impressive.‘ Rod Taylor, owner of sail hydraulic systems company On Board Systems also said “she sails with the motion and stability of a yacht twice her size.” Unfortunately the sailmakers were not able to join the first sea trials, but they will be on board soon. “We have taken the Kraken ethos to the ultimate level…

On the 25th of October 1616 the Dutch East India Company trading ship Eendracht skippered by Dirk Hartog anchored in a bay at the top of an island on the rugged west coast of an uncharted land. He and some of his sailors went ashore in the longboat, walked up the cliff and out to the north west cape of the island. Here they left an inscribed pewter plate nailed to a post wedged in a crack in the rock. I learnt all this in primary school; plus that they were the first Europeans to set foot on Australia. We now know that is not quite right. Something about the Duyfken in the Gulf of Carpentaria a few years earlier. But Dirk and some of his sailors were probably the…

The countdown was on. I was running around like a headless chicken, frantically bouncing from one meltdown to the next, completely useless to the Captain. All I could think was: “am I embarking on a journey to the bottom of the deep, deep ocean?” My whole body was shaking, my heart beating fast and irregular and a nauseating feeling intensifying in the pit of my stomach. It was the same feeling I used to get while standing on a ten centimetre wide balance beam, a metre and a half off the ground about to throw a backward somersault. Sailing into the unknown with my husband and two young children on a 34 foot boat was much more terrifying. From the day we bought the boat to the day it looked…

I love it when a country surprises me. Maybe it is the sombre clothing: the women dressed in flowing black dresses and hijabs; or perhaps it’s the reserved way the locals interact, but the Maldives can feel very unsurprising. It is not the kind of place that you would expect to have twelve different names for a coconut. Or even the kind of place where a coconut might be detained by the police. But during the 2013 election a kihah (a young coconut) was suspected of being infused with black magic and was accused of vote-rigging in a key presidential election. The kihah was found innocent and released. Background Part of what makes the Maldives so fascinating is how little most of us know about the small Islamic country. The…