Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2016 i Yachting Monthly

You have to laugh, don’t you? Not long after the Met Office announced that from henceforth, serious depressions creating storm-force winds over the UK would be awarded names, some commentator on Radio 4’s Today slot was referring to a weather system north of Scotland as ‘Hurricane Abigail’. Sailors all know that hurricanes are, specifically, tropical revolving storms that feed off the extrawarm sea found only in low latitudes. They need a bit of a spin to get going, so if they are any closer to the Equator than somewhere around Trinidad, they can’t generate any Coriolis force. Circulation fails, therefore, and they never make the big-time. A proper hurricane complete with eye and winds of anything from 60 to 120 knots must have that warm water to thrive, so they…

If you’re one of the many sailors who also rides a substantial motorcycle, you’ll be fed up with people telling you that your machine is dangerous. I know I am. Why, we bikers wonder, can’t folks realise that there is nothing inherently hazardous about the machine? Peril only arises if it is ridden unwisely. Gybing a yacht is just the same. Gybing is part of sailing a foreand-aft rigged vessel and, unless we revert to square rig, it always will be. Handled in a seamanlike manner, it is as safe as tacking. Take liberties with it and, like the bike, it can lead to some nasty experiences. When I tell the ‘bikes are dangerous’ brigade that I ride defensively, they counter by pointing out that while I may take care…

Bill Anderson is YM’s seamanship guru. He was RYA chief instructor from 1972 to 2000 and created the Yachtmaster scheme George and Anne had spent a long, lazy summer cruising in South Brittany. The weather had been idyllic, two months of sunshine and sea breezes. It had been such easy sailing that they had been lulled into a false sense of security and left themselves just a week to make the 300 miles from the Morbihan back to their home port of Dartmouth. Then the weather broke and it took them four days of fog, rain and headwinds just to cover the first 50 miles to Lorient. That left just three days to sail 250 miles, theoretically just over 80 miles a day, which should be relatively easy but with…

‘How would you cope with flat batteries?’ The best answer depends on the extent to which you rely on your GPS and plotter. Do you have an accurate, up-to-date deviation table for the steering compass, a recently calibrated log, and a full set of paper charts? If the answer is yes to all three, and you have a reasonably recent position on the paper chart or in the log and a powerful torch with a good supply of spare batteries, you can probably continue, navigating by dead reckoning and estimated position. Better still if you never sail without a battery-operated handheld GPS, emergency nav lights and spare batteries for both! It will not be as easy as in pre-GPS days. We have all probably lost the skills of making daylight…

If you have a news story to share, contact News Editor Theo Stocker EMAIL theo.stocker@timeinc.com TEL 020 3148 4873 Yacht movements in and out of Portsmouth Harbour could be prohibited for up to two hours at High Water to accommodate movements of the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers. The two 65,000-tonne Queen Elizabeth class ships are the largest ever built for the Royal Navy, the first of which, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is due to arrive at her new home in Portsmouth in early 2017, and HMS Prince of Wales in 2020. Large areas of the harbour and its approaches are being dredged in preparation. The turning angles in the main channel south of Southsea will need to be eased for the 285m (935 ft) long carriers. Navigation marks and…

Northern Ireland MCZs Four sites in Northern Ireland could become Marine Conservation Zones, following public consultations. Rathlin, Waterfoot, Outer Belfast and Carlingford Lough have all been nominated for protection. 30th Atlantic rally The 30th edition of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers finished in Saint Lucia just before Christmas. One yacht was safely abandoned after she started taking on water. Newquay SAR Bristow Helicopters is set to take over search-and-rescue duties from RNAS Culdrose in January 2016, operating from Newquay Airport. 30 for Golden Globe The 2018 Golden Globe Race, a back-to-basics round the world solo yacht race, now has 30 entrants. As in the original race, the start and finish will be in Falmouth, UK. OCC Arctic Rally The Ocean Cruising Club is running an Arctic rally in summer 2016,…

Henry Dodd would have approved of this year’s Thames Barge Match, which he inaugurated back in 1863, because anything that could be hoisted was commandeered in order to catch wind, even rags. Mr Dodd, aka the ‘Golden Dustman’, made his fortune from shipping rags and other rubbish from London to Kent and Essex where it was burnt, producing ash used in the construction of bricks which he then shipped back, in his sailing barges, to build London. In the 152nd race sailed around the lower River Thames, starting off the site of Joseph Conrad’s onetime farmhouse home at Stanfordle-Hope in Essex and finishing at Gravesend, Kent, the wind started off light and from ESE. As the ten barges drifted down river, the officer of the day, Julian Cass, sensibly decided…

A bad gybe can involve smashing the end off the traveller track, cracking the gooseneck, ripping a batten pocket and anything else you can imagine. I once snapped an 8-inch diameter wooden boom gybing against a preventer that had been foolishly rigged halfway along its 30ft length. I didn’t mean to gybe, but it was a black, foggy night and the fishing boat I had allowed to creep up on my weather bow left me little choice but to run by the lee and pray. Prayers are rarely a substitute for positive action. Perhaps unsurprisingly, on this occasion mine went wholly unanswered. The problems with gybing fall into two categories: boat control and personal injury. Boat control Because they work ‘off-centre’, the sails on a yacht confer a sort of…

Crew safety is as important as looking after the boat. Some might say it is more so and I wouldn’t argue. I’d point out, however, that if the boat is properly controlled, crew safety largely takes care of itself. Here, based on my own experience and also on court cases in which I have been consulted, are the matters you ought to consider. Unless you have someone you can trust absolutely to steer dead downwind until the gybe is complete, take the helm yourself! Then you’ll have the best overview and can make absolutely sure nobody is in harm’s way. Brief the crew, especially inexperienced people. They must know exactly what is going to happen, and when. Nobody must be in a position from which they could be thrown bodily…

Come Rain or Shine By Storm Dunlop, published by Summersdale at £9.99 Did you know that the Gulf Stream is the North Atlantic Drift by the time it reaches Britain? It’s an extension of the North Atlantic Current, which is an extension of the Gulf Stream. If you didn’t know that, you will find much of interest and intrigue in this book. There are bits of weather lore, odd facts and potted biographies of forecasting’s pioneers, such as Admiral FitzRoy. The pocket sized book is designed to be dipped into, rather than read straight through, and to make that easier it has a built in ribbon bookmark; a nice touch. It’s only fair to warn that once you dip into it you may well not re-emerge for some time. A…

Reliable lifting service We lift over 2,500 boats a year. We will lift your boat, check it over thoroughly, repair any deficiencies and ensure it is fully serviceable for the season, or whenever you next want to sail. Rapid refits & refurbs We can make your boat look superb and upgrade the marine technology at the same time. We fit and repair all the recognised brands, and you may want let us help with your on-board Wi-Fisystem. Assured project management For larger projects, we’ll assign a member of our experienced projects team who will direct the work on your boat and be a single point of contact for you. We have over 100 skilled tradespeople on site; ensuring that the work we undertake is of the highest standard. Want to…

Practical advice for all sailors Tom Cunliffe has sailed tens of thousands of miles all over the world and has been a Yachtmaster Examiner since 1978 This skipper has shaped his sails perfectly for the elusive quality of ‘twist’. The heads of both are setting further from the boat’s midline than the lower parts, yet the trim is spot-on. Twist is needed to cope with higher wind speeds aloft being affected less by the boat’s progress. Less wind bend aloft means the apparent wind up there is freed. By twisting the sail to use this, more forward drive is accomplished. It also makes for less heeling force high up – just where you don’t want it. The interaction of the two sails exaggerates the effect. Check the genoa tell-tales. If…

There’s always a good read hidden on a sailor’s shelves. Tell us your favourite. EMAIL theo.stocker@timeinc.com Linda and I headed out, sailing south on a bright blustery day, with our sails deep-reefed. The sea around the islands at the southern end of the Firth of Lorn is always confused – the tide breaks off at odd angles to pass obstructions, then rejoins the flow from an entirely new direction with the result that the sea is humped-up here, and collapsing there, like boiling treacle. Over all this confusion we leapt and scudded, heeled to the breeze, surging along in a lively manner that makes it good to be alive, and with a refreshing bucket of seawater being thrown onto our backs every minute. Arriving from the north, the entrance to…

The Nikon CoolpixAW130 waterproof camera seemed to tick the boxes on my wish list: I needed camera that was waterproof, shockproof and idiot proof. I wanted to be able to take good, large pictures without having to learn an inch-thick manual. Finally, my budget was around £200. First impressions It is solidly built and small, only 110mm x 66mm x 27mm (4.3in x 2.6in x 1.1in). The screen on the back is a full three inches (diagonally) and the controls and dials are kept to a minimum. If you have big fingers it can get a bit fiddly playing with the controls. There’s an antireflection coating on the screen and it also has six levels of brightness adjustment, which makes the screen easy to see in most lighting conditions. OUR…

Most yachts with seven-foot draught can’t access the upper reaches of tidal creeks, but this one can. Hauling her 2.18m keel into the hull reduces her draught to just 72cm. Renowned for their swing keels, the Southerly range has proven popular amongst sailors who like to go creekcrawling or stop in anchorages where only ducks dare venture. However, with that keel fully down, the impressive draught gives excellent performance to windward. The Southerly 110, introduced in 1999, was the first of the marque to sport ‘modern’ features such as canted twin rudders and a near-plumb bow. Does she still feel modern, 16 years later? I sailed one recently to find out. Performance We joined owners Chris and Sarah Elphick on board Wind Rose on a gusty day with the wind…

C-Yacht 1250i Performance on test The 1250i isn’t a new design. She was launched back in 2005, but she’s proven herself worthy of inclusion in these pages and has recently undergone an interior transformation. Does her exterior now look dated? Not at all. Performance For our test on the IJsselmeer we had a steady force 5 from the north. Away from the shelter of Houtribdijk (the dam that traverses this inland sea), we had 3ft waves to play with. Heading upwind, we butted into the Dutch equivalent of a Solent chop: waves at just the right frequency to slow her progress. Even so she ploughed on to windward, her deep forefoot and V-sections forward preventing any slamming as she drove comfortably along. With no sign of her misbehaving we eased…

As much as I dislike antifoul, we all need some form of hull protection to keep critters at bay. It’s been a couple of decades since lead-based TBT antifouling was outlawed for leisure craft and since then we’ve relied almost entirely on copper-based biocides to keep the weed and barnacles away. Now, some countries including Sweden, Denmark and The Netherlands are considering banning all use of copper in antifouling paints. So where does that leave us? Why has this happened? At one time, copper was used on all ships to prevent fouling. But then in the 1950s scientists discovered a cheaper material – tin – and started producing tri-butyl tin (TBT) paints that were rapidly accepted the world over. This continued until the 1980s, when it was discovered that TBT…

WIN The confession of the month wins a floating Standard Horizon handheld VHF radio worth £140 PLUS an original Bill Caldwell cartoon STANDARD HORIZON POST Confessions, Yachting Monthly, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU EMAIL yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com Please send us your confessions in less than 200 words Ramming speed CONFESSION OF THE MONTH By John Green By John Green We were the proud part owners of a Sadler 32, our first boat. She performed well, apart from one problem. You had to put the throttle in reverse to go forward and vice versa. Providing this was borne in mind, all was well. We had just made our first – rather eventful – trip across the Channel, so we felt proud and relieved to berth alongside a French boat in…

Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/yachtingmonthly Like us on Facebook facebook.com/yachtingmonthlymag Two earthquakes measuring 6.1 and 5.2 on the Richter scale struck the Greek Ionian island of Lefkada on 17 November 2015. The earthquakes, within an hour and a half of each other, have resulted in the movement of the entire island 36cm to the south. YM reader Peter Newton was on his yacht, Heather, on Levkas at the time of the earthquake. He described what happened: ‘I was sitting at the saloon table when I suddenly became aware of a deep powerful rumble. It became a roar and my 10m yacht started to shake like a pneumatic drill. It just kept on going. I went into the cockpit and saw people running out of shops and cafés. ‘Eventually the shuddering…

EMAIL yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com POST The Editor, Yachting Monthly, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU Please send us your letters in less than 200 words Most letters are edited for brevity. You can read more correspondence, online, at www.yachtingmonthly.com/letters WIN A bottle of RUM The letter of the month wins a bottle of Pusser’s Rum, produced to Admiralty specification and served daily to every sailor in the Royal Navy for more than 300 years (UK residents only) www.pussers.com LETTER OF THE MONTH Should we tether to a halyard? I have read with interest the article Are harnesses, tethers and jackstays safe? (Dec 15). If I went overboard, I would not hold out much hope of my wife getting me back on board. Instead of jackstays, I am considering connecting…

In the very funny play Clarion, about a crazed right-wing nationalist newspaper editor, he spits rage at ‘English minds enslaved to American algorithms!’ And OK, so we are for much of the time. Facebook, Twitter, online news, blogs, chatrooms and messageboards are now part of the fabric of daily life. From being surprising, useful (dear old Scuttlebutt) and entertaining, constant internet access has become seemingly as vital as air and water. On arriving to stay with friends, especially in the country, the first thing guests say, after ‘Hello!’ is ‘What’s the wi-fipassword?’ If they are teenagers or workaholic businesspeople and the answer is ‘Oh, we don’t have any’ or ‘It’s still dial-up’, there will be a wail of misery and deprivation, and they’ll spend the whole weekend walking up the…

The process This is the classic, safe method, which I personally favour. The devil is in the detail, however, and significant drawbacks must be understood and countered. The objective is to keep the boat moving straight and on her feet to avoid broaching. Given a well-balanced hull, there’s a great deal to be said for controlling the boom fully. If any bar-room expert tries to suggest that this is a formula for a guaranteed broach, advise them gently that the mainsail is in fact stalled throughout this procedure because air is flowing from leech to luff. It is therefore not pulling nearly as hard as one which is full. Once it’s amidships, so long as the helm keeps steering dead downwind, broaching tendency is minimal Opposite lock -the big secret…

Boom end Good for trimming and keeps the forward cockpit clear. However, the traveller and mainsheet are to be watched, and the boom is sited over the cockpit, leaving anyone standing up at risk from the knock-out blow. Cockpit traveller This is the gybe bogeyman. Anyone caught in the wrong place can be in dire danger of being pinned by the mainsheet, injured by an unsecured traveller running amuck, or garrotted by the sheet parts as they whip across. Coachroof The safest option for families and beginners. It carries serious drawbacks for mainsail trimming but it does keep danger well out of the way. It’s more than likely that the boom will also be clear of the cockpit with this arrangement, but if it isn’t, you know what to do!…

EMAIL yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com POST Any Questions, Yachting Monthly, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU Please send us your questions in less than 200 words WIN CHILGROVE GIN The question of the month wins a bottle of Chilgrove Gin (UK residents only). This super-premium gin, handcrafted by keen sailors in the Sussex Downs, blends the finest botanicals with a neutral grape spirit. www.chilgrovespirits.com QUESTION OF THE MONTH What’s the alternative to sidedeck jackstays? Q I enjoyed Alistair Buchan’s article on the wisdom or otherwise of ‘clipping on’ (YM, December 2015). I was surprised to learn that your chances of survival are much better if you don’t clip on. Having said that I’ve always been wary of jackstays, preferring instead to clip onto something solid on the yacht’s centreline with a…

My partner Sarah and I were crawling down the Deben from Woodbridge in French Connection, our Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37. It was a beautiful day when we left for the River Orwell. As it was a very familiar passage, we didn’t bother with paper charts when usually we would. We logged our position on the chartplotter. A couple of miles offshore, we saw an electrical storm off Felixstowe. We were happy that we’d dodged it but then we saw another over Walton-on-the Naze, heading straight for us. We dropped the mainsail, started the engine and motorsailed under genoa. I’d read in YM that electricals should be put in the oven, which is meant to act like a Faraday cage. It couldn’t hurt, so we put in our mobile phones, EPIRB,…

It doesn’t take a genius to spot that a southerly passage along Ireland’s west coast will involve a fair amount of windward work. From north to south, the coastline trends in a southwesterly direction. The prevailing winds are from the southwest, aggravated by more-or-less permanent westerly swells that sweep across the Atlantic from Labrador, over 1,500 miles away. But what’s to be done if the boat is in Scotland, you want to get to the Channel Islands and you’ve heard how spectacular the west coast of Ireland can be? We went for it. Much too late, we realised the reports we’d heard came from cruisers sailing in the opposite direction. It was also unfortunate that Terrie and I, with our grown-up children Pippin and Paul, chose to make the passage…

In September 1977 two university drop-outs set off from Merseyside aboard a DIY concrete boat hoping to swap a rotting, £1-a-week caravan with seized wheels for a desert island they could call home. Thirty-six years later, the ashes of one of them, Jean Edmund, are at the bottom of the Indian Ocean but her boyfriend, Roy Starkey, is alive and well, now 69 and still searching for his dream. ‘I wanted to be a Robinson Crusoe – albeit with a beautiful woman – on an uninhabited island. Now there are very few left,’ said Roy, who lives on a £90-a-week pension aboard his 33ft home-built boat in Hog Island, Grenada. We met at Brighton Marina where Roy was starting a UK tour to publicise his autobiography, Around and Around and…

Atlantic Spain and Portugal 7th edition, by Henry Buchanan, published by Imray and the RCC Pilotage Foundation, £42.50 The fact that this guide is now in its seventh edition shows how popular it has become with cruising folk. It’s not surprising when you look at how thoroughly it covers this long and attractive coast. As well as pilotage advice, there is invaluable information on weather, tides, entry requirements, lights, shapes and courtesy flags, gas, diesel and loads more, making it a genuinely useful ‘cruising companion’. Chartlets, photographs and general presentation are all right up to Imray’s normal standards and it would make no sense to cruise the area without this book by the navigator’s hand. CJ Islas Baleares 10th edition, by Graham Hutt, published by Imray for the RCC Pilotage…

What’s she like to sail? The combination of an easily-handled sailplan, light but positive steering, twin rudders and a fingertip-adjustable keel makes her a doddle to sail and it’s simple to get the best out her in all but the worst sea conditions. No, she’s not as stiff as a boat with a deep fin and lead keel bulb, but her ballasted plate puts another ton of weight low down when fully extended, making her a good deal stiffer than almost any other lifting-keel yacht I’ve sailed. She has modern underwater lines from the highly regarded designer Rob Humphreys, so she’s no slouch through the water either, although her shallow forefoot does result in a little slamming when pounding head-on into big seas. The canted twin-rudders perform well when heeled…

What’s she like to sail? I was pleasantly surprised. She’s built for long-distance cruising but she’s not slow or stodgy, as some boats of her ilk can be. Just free of a fetch she romped along in a force 5, making 9 knots at times. She was well-behaved and the steering, made by Jefa, gave excellent control and a positive feel in 2-3ft waves in the more exposed parts of the Ijsselmeer. Even against those waves, her V-shaped forwards sections didn’t slam and although the foredeck was wet, little (if any) water made it back to the cockpit. She was dry, comfortable and easy to sail – the sort of yacht that makes cruising long distances quite effortless. Sail controls are close to the helm, making the on-watch crew’s task…