Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2015 i Yachting Monthly

I have carried out scores of Seachecks for the RNLI and when the subject of ‘What is your man overboard drill?’ is raised, in most cases the response is an embarrassed silence or the claim that they have bought some special gadget. What most fail to appreciate is the fact that the casualty is unlikely to be able to assist in any way with their recovery after they have been in the water for a very few minutes – even less time if they are encumbered with boots and heavy sailing clothes. The shock and surprise of their immersion and the chill of UK waters, even in summer, will quickly immobilise them. It’s also essential that the crew is able to start and use the engine, and handle the boat.…

Gas. The very word is sinister, and I have body-swerved this particular state of matter in various galleys over the years by replacing it with spirit or Primus stoves to alleviate irrational fears of becoming an involuntary suicide bomber. For me, gas aboard a boat creates an illogical terror of death by sudden explosion, which may be more to do with some atavistic trait imparted psychically by my unfortunate great uncle Stanley Durham, who died in the trenches defending Ypres following a gas attack in 1915. The fact that hundreds of thousands of yachts voyage the world over while cooking with gas does not allay my paranoia. Worse, my cooking system of choice has not exactly alleviated risk on board, as the following account of making a cup of tea…

How to set the right camber The point of maximum camber for a genoa is usually somewhat further forward than on a mainsail. This is for two reasons. One, the main gets its wind after the genoa has bent it towards the boat’s midline. This means the air flying off the genoa can easily back-wind the main if its camber is too far forward. The way to stop this is to give the main that easy entry we spoke of in the previous page. The genoa has none of these issues, neither is it struggling to set behind a great fat mast. Its entry comes straight off a thin headfoil, so the air slides around it sweetly. This offers the best shot at an ideal aerofoil. Aim for a maximum…

Keels On Wheels By H A Douglas, published by Riverhead at £9.95 Written by the owner of a road transport company for boats, this shows how – just as for seaborne delivery skippers – things rarely go smoothly for road transport drivers, who, of necessity, become resourceful and develop an enduring sense of humour. This, then, is a light hearted account of 20 years spent moving boats on a succession of lorries from Dobbin to Big Mandy and Dafney, characters in their own right. Illustrated with cartoons, it’s a light read that provides a ‘different’ view of boat owners and their (mostly motor) boats. Perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea, this is nonetheless an eye-opening view. The Classic Guide to Sailing By E F Knight, published by Amberley at £9.99…

‘Gantline’ When a sailing ship or a big traditional yacht was de-rigged for a refit a line was always left rove through a single block at the masthead so that a hand could be hauled aloft to begin rigging when the time came. This was the Gantline (pronounced ‘gantlinn’). After the halyards were rigged, it was taken down. In its moth-balled mode, a mast was said to be ‘stripped to a gantline’. Whatever I am removing for replacement, I always leave a gantline aloft, although today it’s more likely to be a single halyard. ‘Fiferail’ The small rail around the base of a traditional mast where halyards and the rest are belayed is always known as a Fiferail. They were enormously useful for stowing lines on proper belaying pins which…

As you make your way to the Canary Islands, you may well find yourself embroiled in serious discussions with other cruisers about how on Earth to get to Graciosa. The form you have to fill out online causes much grief as it asks the offshore sailor to specify exact days of arrival and departure and to submit the form as least 10 days in advance. Considering the majority will be coming from at least 270 miles away, this is an uncomfortable, if not impossible question. However, this form is actually only for the marina, despite what anyone else may tell you. Considering the draw of Graciosa is its anchorage, you can forget the form. Instead you are supposed to call ahead just to give the name of your boat. Arrecife…

Until the late 19th century Runswick Bay was a fishing village with a sideline in smuggling. Then, as tourism spread from Whitby and Scarborough, its jumbled warren of narrow streets and colourful houses made it an artists’ haven rivalling in importance nearby Staithes and distant St Ives. After the Second World War its young men found work away from the village. Fishing declined. Houses became second homes and tourism the mainstay of the economy. This is a coast of easily eroded Jurassic shales, clays and sandstones. Anyone sailing along it can instantly identify the most recent cliff falls and take bets on the next. During a storm in 1662 a landslip carried the village into the sea. Happily, the villagers were attending a funeral and no one was killed, but…

Vector charts are not solely to blame for shipwreck of Team Vestas Wind in the Volvo Ocean Race, according to experts. Whilst the electronic charting system contributed to the grounding during Leg 2 of the race, several other factors were also critical. On the 29 November 2014, Team Vestas Wind was sailing at 19 knots at night whenshe hit a reef in the Cargados Carajos Shoals in the Indian Ocean. Afterwards, navigator Wouter Verbraak made a statement on Facebook, claiming responsibility: ‘I did check the area on the electronic chart and what I saw was depths of 42m and 80m indicated. Our planned route [had] changed just before we left. I erroneously thought I would have enough information with me to look at the changes in our route as we…

Holyhead Coastguard joins national network Holyhead Coastguard Operations Centre (CGOC) became part of the new Coastguard national network in January. It is now integrated with the National Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC) in Hampshire, with ‘no reduction in rescue resources’. Yachtsman of the Year Sir Robin Knox-Johnston was voted Yachtsman of the Year by the Yachting Journalists’ Association for an unprecedented fourth time. Racing his Open 60 Grey Power, Sir Robin, 75, finished third in class in the 2014 singlehanded Route du Rhum race. New marina planned for Edinburgh Plans have been submitted for a new marina at Granton Harbour on the Firth of Forth. Berths for 400 boats, a larger community boatyard and improved facilities for local yacht clubs, as well as homes, a hotel, shops and offices will be…

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Good advice generally, especially at this time of year, but when you’re planning a cruise far from help it’s tempting to pull things apart just to make sure they aren’t on their last legs. Take the starter motor and alternator on the Ford 4-D in my 1911 pilot cutter. The engine was fifteen years old and had already developed one or two little individualities. You’ll be familiar with the scene. It might be a particular way you have to wiggle a switch, or maybe the engine runs for ever at 1,800rpm with plenty in reserve for short bursts, but if you dial up 2,300 for more than half an hour it overheats, despite all efforts to sort it out. You know what’s going…

Tom Cunliffe is a Yachtmaster examiner (offshore, ocean and instructor). He has sailed tens of thousands of miles around the world When I look at photos of my first boat, I remember how pretty she was. I also recall that, given half a chance, she wasn’t a bad sailing yacht either, but when I cast an eye over her rig my heart sinks. If I’d known then what I know now, she’d have sailed so much better. She wasn’t as close-winded as she ought to have been, and she seemed to heel far too easily. On my way down to the mooring, I’d inspect the trees. If they were bending over I knew that without a lot of reefs in I’d soon be on my ear going sideways. That boat…

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: A BOTTLE OF TALISKER The question of the month wins a bottle of Talisker 10-year-old single malt Scotch whisky (UK residents only). Talisker is an official supporter of the RNLI and the only single malt made by the sea on the shores of the Isle of Skye. www.malts.com Why are winds lighter at night? Q Your article How to tackle a night passage shorthanded (YM, Nov 2014) states that cooling air means the wind is often lighter during the night. I have often experienced this but have never understood why it happens. Can you explain? Jeff Wrinch A Frank Singleton, former Met Office chief…

Chris Beeson is a Yachtmaster Offshore with 35,000 miles logged, including a non-stop circuit of Britain and Ireland Almost every April since 1906, when Yachting Monthly was founded, we have expounded ad nauseam the difference a rigorous fitting-out regime can make to your cruising season. As a new one beckons, we will merely remind the boat owners and skippers among you that it is your solemn duty to inspect your boat from truck to keel, from stem to stern, seeking out and making good any mildewed fingerprints left by winter’s insidious grip. If you need hints and tips, download our Fitting-Out PDF from the link on the opposite page. As you stand back and Swarfega the grease from your fingers, you can begin to consider the acid test of your…

It’s hard to justify why Grace, the Hallberg Rassy 31 I currently call home, hasn’t moved from her berth in the seven months since I arrived in Newcastle last September. Shamefaced, I mutter something about the harsh northern winters, the logistics of getting to the sea eight miles downriver, and the distracting demands of life in general (also called work). I suspect it has much more to do with a reluctance to disturb the accretions of stuff that constitute my home comforts as a liveaboard sailor. Seeing the opportunity of a long weekend in April, I tried to look as if I’d been busy doing winter maintenance. I serviced the lifejackets and the engine at least, so I knew the important stuff was working. My fiancée Georgie and I readied…

Loch Tarbert, on the west side of Jura just north of the Sound of Islay, has one of the most beautiful, remote, yet sheltered anchorages of the Inner Hebrides. Once at anchor there is a freshwater loch separated by a shingle beach to visit, beautiful sandy beaches from which to bathe, a seal colony and, best of all, miles of inner lochs and little gorges to explore by dinghy or, for the brave, by small yacht. The loch is about four miles long and almost cuts Jura in half. There are relatively exposed anchorages on its north and south shores but the place we seek is about two miles in. If you’re approaching Loch Tarbert from the south you need to work the tides because at springs in the Sound…

Serenely she sits, with all the heightened elegance of a still beautiful grand dame who, despite a hectic youth, has lived long and well to take her place of respect within the community But then anyone, whatever the life they may have led, would be deserving of some sort of special appreciation if they’d managed to reach the age of 225 still in reasonably good order, still looking much as they did more than two centuries ago. Such is the case with the 26ft schooner yacht Peggy. When you see her in Castletown on the Isle of Man, it’s as if time has stood still since the 1790s. If you’re into boats and those who sailed them and their history, Peggy blows your mind. The story of her origins, of…

The German yard Sirius is like no other. Torsten, son of the founder Peter Schmidt, considers his boats in minute detail with enthusiasm and unrelenting passion. ‘Obsessional’ barely scratches the surface of his approach; spending more than two months living on board to make sure everything is how it should be. Anyone in any doubt about the strength with which Sirius builds its boats should try lifting an internal door – as with the bulkheads, they are 30mm exterior-grade plywood with 0.8mm-thick mahogany veneer. Beneath the floor some of the sub frame structure is 25cm square. The hull is laid up by hand, vacuum infused and is more than 7cm thick in places. Performance It’s worth noting that I tested her just after she’d been loaded with 930kg of provisions…

WIN The confession of the month wins a floating Standard Horizon handheld VHF radio worth £140 PLUS an original Bill Caldwell cartoon 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 Something is holding me back CONFESSION OF THE MONTH By Ken Gill Some years ago, I’d decided to forego the annual haul-out and tried to antifoul my Gib’Sea 84 against the marina wall between tides. I read all I could about drying out against a wall, and confidently set about the task. I took the main halyard and secured it to a pipe cemented into the concrete quay to control the amount of lean and carefully tended the fore and aft lines. Everything went…

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 Racing skills for cruising Cruisers and racers are often seen to be in separate camps but my wife Monica and I club race on Saturdays and cruise from Schull, West Cork. We plan a longer cruise each June and 2014’s destination was the Isles of Scilly: about 160 miles and up to 30 hours’ on passage. Our son Niall and his partner Claire joined us so we did four-hour shifts: two on, two off. We wanted to…

I have always fancied getting a radio station to make a programme of Car Singalong Confessions. It would approach well known dignitaries – ministers, archbishops, captains of industry – and ask them to confess what they sing along to when alone in their cars. Then they would agree to have a small recorder placed in the car, and out on the open road, when the mood struck them, we would hear the glorious sound of human disinhibition. I am not distinguished enough, but would be willing to blaze a trail by exposing my duets with Dolly Parton (‘I-yeeee will alwayeeees love yoooooo’), the Fron Male Voice Choir and the rockin’ duo that occurs when Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell is accompanied by a middle-aged lady driving a Skoda at…

The south side of Ile d’Yeu is beautiful. A series of rocky inlets, many with sandy beaches at their head, are backed by open heathland, criss-crossed by paths. Exploring on foot or by bike is pleasant but by far the best way to enjoy this coast is by dinghy or canoe, which means finding an anchorage. If there is wind or swell with any south in it there really is no shelter and a west or north westerly swell tends to work into the anchorages, particularly around high water. In settled summer weather the swell is often from the NW, with daytime sea breezes from the same direction and the night time land breeze from the NE. Under these conditions the obvious anchorage is in Anse des Vieilles, a large…

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 Yachtmaster tip Tom has assessed hundreds of sailors for the RYA Yachtmaster exam – the gold standard of sailing qualifications. This is an example of the sort of fine seamanship that distinguishes a great candidate from a merely good one Relieving the load I’m forever banging on about how every boat that needs to move her genoa fairleads after reefing should have a dedicated purchase permanently rigged on either side. All very well, but what if your boat – like mine – doesn’t have the in-built facilities to make this happen? There’s always the old standby of placing a foot firmly down on the…

Carol had gone uncharacteristically quiet. My arms ached, my back felt leaden and my vision blurred as sweat ran into my eyes, though I dared not stop rowing against the fast stream. Lengthening the stroke and digging deeper did not help – whilst Aurial was anchored and safe, she was out of reach until the tidal current eased. Behind us a crowd had gathered on the path past the door of Dylan Thomas’s Writing Shed to lean on the wall and lay odds on whether we would reach our yacht or be swept away upstream. The doubters won as I admitted defeat and ferry-glided back to the shore and quieter water to rest over the oars. The moral of this tale is that though it may be calm when going…

Sun and moon rolled westward in turn to show us the way. The lonely night watches gave us in full measure that timeless perception of eternity that I had experienced on Kon-Tiki. Stars and night-black water. The immutable constellations sparkled above us, and just as brightly beneath us the shining phosphorescence glittered: the living plankton glowed like sparks of neon on the soft dark carpet on which we were floating. We often seemed to be riding under the night sky on a billowing mirror, or perhaps the sea was crystalclear and bottomless, so that we could see right through it to myriads of stars on the other side of the universe. The only thing that was firm and near in these omnipresent stellar heavens was the supple bundle of golden…

The American company Bad Elf has a whole host of useful GPS tracking and logging products in its range, including direct plug-in receivers for smartphones as well as Bluetooth units. The latest is the Bad Elf Pro+ Bluetooth GPS logger, which boasts a 66-channel GPS/GLONASS satellite receiver in a palm-sized, battery-powered device with a multi-line backlit LCD screen. In GPS mode it shows your location, track, speed and altitude. Battery life is said to be 16 hours in Bluetooth mode, when it updates GPS data every 10 seconds. In logging only mode, battery life doubles to 32 hours. It can also stream NMEA-0183 GPS data to a PC via USB, if navigating on a laptop-based program, and charges up at the same time. The Pro+ also has a built-in barometer…

If you close the boat up with a toilet system that has not been thoroughly flushed, and leave it for a while, especially in a warm climate, I can pretty much guarantee it will not smell too good when you come back! The odourgenerator is generally a pocket of standing effluent somewhere in the system which is permeating through one of the hoses, although it might also be tiny leaks around Y-valves (commonly used for an overboard discharge) and hose fittings, or odours escaping through poorly-seated vented loops (necessary in many systems to prevent back-siphoning of seawater into the toilet and boat). Even some heavy-duty hoses are minutely porous and in time will give off foul odours. To test, rub a clean rag up and down the hose jacket, then…

What’s she like to sail? The Mystery is a sailor’s boat. In a force 3 and calm sea she tramps along easily at 6.2-knots under full sail. She's a delight to handle, with a light but positive helm and can sail herself to windward. She has a great, sea-kindly motion thanks to her overhangs and narrow vee bows, which part the waves with the merest ripple. Initially, she heels quite quickly, but her hefty ballast soon kicks in and she stiffens up. She’ll tack through 80° and comes through the wind rapidly, accelerating again quickly. In 16 knots true, with a gennaker, we made 7.4 knots. She doesn’t need reefing until the top end of a force 5, thanks to her high ballast ratio and a mainsail that can be…