Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2015 i Yachting Monthly

Tom Cunliffe’s column (May 15) hits the nail right on the head: free anchorages are fast disappearing. He cites one such case right in my back yard, Porthcressa in the Isles of Scilly. It is not obligatory to use them but moorings now hog the main part of what, in the right conditions, is a good anchorage. There is still room to anchor in Porthcressa for free – inside the moorings if tidal range and draught permit, or just outside them in deeper water. Anchoring does not affect your insurance cover – and did I mention that it’s free? Before the moorings were laid, the most yachts at anchor that I have counted was 76, but that was an exceptional year. These days we do not see anywhere near those…

Exactly 90 years ago this month, Yachting Monthly conceived an offspring, Yacht Sales & Charters. The first issue of this bi-weekly progeny was born on 1 July 1925 with the intention of introducing novices to sailing and at the same time showing a new readership just how cheaply they could get afloat. The reason it was felt a separate magazine should be started was that there was enough seaworthy, but small, and therefore overlooked by yacht-brokers, second-hand sailing boats to produce a journal three times a month instead of once. Despite the yacht brokers’ disdain for the hundreds of humble ‘rise-ons and tore-outs’ – converted ship’s lifeboats – every broker in Britain was sent a circular explaining that Yachting Monthly’s proprietors were ‘sure that the more craft purchased or chartered,…

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 Tell me about Essex Q I’m planning a trip from Belgium to the Blackwater Estuary in Essex with my 10.4m (34ft) yacht, draught 1.9m (6ft 3in). Could you tell me where I could find some information about this East Coast area? Christian Hillemans A Colin Jarman, joint author of the East Coast Pilot replies: You’re in…

To tune or not to tune? Would you drive your car with wheels misaligned? Run a race with your shoelaces loose? Sharpen up at Berthon now. Can Berthon tune any rig (even with no rig data)? Yes. There are formulae to calculate rig tension, but it’s more about the experience of the rigger in making sure the mast is straight, properly positioned and the rigging tensioned correctly. How much faster will my boat go with a well-tuned rig? It’s more about efficiency than speed alone. A sagging forestay reduces upwind performance. Loose shrouds will cause the top of the mast to bend to leeward and lose power in the main sail. A well-tuned rig gives better allround performance and thus a better VMG, getting you there faster. How often should…

The Helford River is one of the world’s best-known cruising destinations and this anchorage is simply a stopping place on the north side of the river. However, it is often favoured by experienced skippers because the majority of visiting yachts, encouraged by the pilot books, head straight for the visitors’ moorings in the main channel off Helford Passage. Those moorings become crowded and can be uncomfortable when a strong westerly wind whistles straight down the estuary against a flood tide. It is possible to anchor further upstream but the same wind-against-tide conditions may cause yachts to sheer around. Also the oyster beds must be avoided and their exact location sometimes seems to be a mystery, so that pilot book advice is quite likely to be out of date or incomplete.…

■ In hot weather, set a fluid intake target and encourage all crew to follow it – a minimum 3 litres for men, and 2.2 litres for women, more if it’s very hot ■ Watch your crew for behaviour changes and loss of concentration ■ Exercise in temperate climes easily doubles your fluid requirements ■ Keep suitable drinks to hand in the cockpit to make rehydration easier ■ Delicately ask crew about urination frequency and concentration if you are concerned about them ■ Ensure that crew members suffering prolonged seasickness take sips of fluid regularly…

If you’re after a new 30-footer, there’s fierce competition for your cash. Nearly all the big names in boatbuilding offer a 30ft boat, usually as their ‘entry-level’ model, and so too do many smaller names. They all offer a decent waterline length, full standing headroom, a couple of sleeping cabins and berthing fees in the relatively affordable sub-10m band. With plenty of rivals, the new Dufour 310 really does have to be excellent if she’s to stand out. Performance An easterly Force 5 (16-20 knots) greeted us as we motored through The Bridge between Drake’s Island and Cornwall, and out into Plymouth Sound with the 20hp Volvo saildrive running at 2,500rpm, pushing her along at 5.2 knots. During the test the wind decreased to Force 4 for a short while.…

Cyclone Pam ripped through the islands of Vanuatu in March 2015, causing almost unprecedented devastation. It was classified as Category 5: with maximum mean wind speeds over 108 knots. Port Vila recorded wind speeds of 116 knots gusting to 185 knots between 2200 on Friday 13th and 0200 on Saturday 14th as the eye passed to the east, with winds tracking from southeast to southwest. Vanuatu may be on the other side of the world, but even southern England has had winds of more than 100 knots in recent years, so there is much we can learn from the experience of those who rode out the storm, ashore or afloat. ‘A very scary night’ I spoke to several people who said they were ‘scared – very scared.’ Our friend Carine…

If you have a news story to share, contact News Editor Theo Stocker EMAIL theo.stocker@timeinc.com TEL 020 3148 4873 Red diesel has once again been banned for use aboard yachts sailing to Belgium, but it is not clear if fines will be imposed in practice. The ban on marked diesel had been waived in Belgium but is now officially back in force. European legislation prohibited the use of marked diesel in pleasure craft some years ago, but Britain continued to allow sailors to use red diesel, as long as they paid the appropriate level of duty. Belgium enforced the ban, however, and fined British sailors visiting the country with red diesel on board their boats. Sailors avoided Belgium in droves, with Nieuwpoort Marina reporting a 90 per cent drop in UK…

New VHF channels From 1 January 2017, new marine VHF radio channels will be introduced to meet increasing demand. The old duplex channels will be split in two, and 13 channels will be made available for digital use. There will also be dedicated channels for AIS and new applications. 2018 Golden Globe Race announced A race modeled on the 1968 Golden Globe will start on the 50th anniversary of the original. 26 yachts have entered the back-to-basics non-stop global race for 32-36ft (9.75-10.97m) cruising boats, to be sailed without modern technology. Caledonian Canal reopened after repairs The Caledonian Canal is open for navigation again after a wier at Cullochy collapsed in March. A repair has been made and water levels restored for navigation. Woodbridge Cruising Club turns 50 Woodbridge Cruising…

One of my favourite quotes is from Joseph Conrad. ‘The true peace of God begins at any spot a thousand miles from the nearest land.’ It reminds me of a simpler life when my crew and I would slip our dock lines in June after the usual hectic period of fitting out, clearing our hawse with the authorities, creditors, publishers, bank managers, headmasters and anyone else with leverage on our lives. Sailing past the Needles into the clean wind of the sea, the scent of freedom filled our heads as we squared away for adventures yet unwritten. Nobody could telephone us. There would be no mail where we were going. We were on our own in company of our choosing aboard a ship that had trodden the path before. The…

‘Vortex’ You might not be planning a session with a revolving storm any time soon, but the anatomy of these beasts is interesting to any sailor. The centre of a hurricane is its vortex: the ‘eye of the storm’ where pressure is low and the wind drops eerily as mountainous seas pile up in chaotic heaps. ‘Vertex’ Atlantic hurricanes generally start life well east of the Caribbean and track westwards toward the islands. Forecasting their track might be a lot easier but for a major factor. Unless they are bound for the Gulf of Mexico or Florida, hurricanes recurve away from the Equator and mosey off up the Atlantic. Forecasting where and by how much they will turn is tricky. The centre of this recurvature is the vertex.…

Bill Anderson is YM’s seamanship guru. He was RYA chief instructor from 1972 to 2000 and created the Yachtmaster scheme They were due back in Falmouth in five days’ time, at the end of their summer cruise. The decision to leave Douarnenez immediately and head towards Falmouth, 150 miles away, had been taken at lunchtime, on the basis of a five-day internet forecast. It promised moderate SW winds for the rest of the day, backing SE and increasing 6 or 7 by midmorning tomorrow, then veering W or NW up to gale force by mid-afternoon. For the following four days the winds would be NW or N, strong to gale force. It was clearly a matter of go now, hoping to cross the Channel before the gale arrived but with…

Q I am sure you are aware of events in Libya, and recent reports that ISIS may be planning a campaign of piracy in the Mediteranean. Ex-Rear Admiral Chris Parry has commented that these boys will be in a different league to their Somali counterparts. We are planning a short delivery from Kefalonia to Corfu, with 3 other boats, and I was wondering whether you have heard any rumblings from Greece that there is any concern about security on their coastline? Richard Noble A Rod Heikell, Mediterranean pilotage expert, replies: The risk of piracy in the Ionian is negligible, probably less than an incident happening in the UK. The warnings from retired Rear Admiral Chris Parry are of a projected risk in the Mediterranean. Any initial risk is likely to be…

I was born lucky. This is important if you’re sailing to the Faroes, which lie between 61°21’N and 62°21’N, firmly in the Icelandic low pressure zone, the primary Atlantic gale incubator. The Gulf Stream ensures that it is never really cold – it rarely freezes – but the weather is consistently miserable, with abundant fog and drizzle, and even in the summer gales are common. The only other sailors we know who have been there arrived in 40 knots and never saw less than 25, which severely limited their explorations. Problems with the weather are compounded by geography: the islands are separated one from the other by narrow glacier-carved sounds, which form a series of slots through which tidal currents sluice, often at five or six knots and sometimes as…

The Second Mate was thin, watery-eyed, and bad-tempered. At sea he was to prove much better than he looked to me this morning. My arrival did not seem propitious and after dressing me down for not reporting aft directly I had come on board, he suddenly shot at me: ‘Ever been aloft before?’ ‘No, sir’ We were standing amidships by the mainmast. He pointed to the lower main shrouds, which supported the mast and said simply: ‘Op you go then.’ I looked at the Mate. He had a nasty glint in his eye and I decided I was more afraid of him than of the rigging. If I was killed it would be his fault, not mine, I said to myself with a little satisfaction. Nevertheless I asked him if…

Amerigo Vespucci did more than give his name to the Americas. His account of the beautiful archipelago of Fernando de Noronha inspired Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. Noronha, as the archipelago is known colloquially, lies just off the northeastern corner of Brazil and is en route if sailing from Europe to Brazil or from southern Africa to the Caribbean. It consists of 21 small volcanic islands of which only one is inhabited. The splendid thumbs up of Moro de Pico, the islands highest point, can be seen 20 miles away in clear weather and forms the backdrop to the anchorage in the Baia Santo Antonio, at the north end of the island. Approaching from the east, pass north of Ilha Rata and the other small islands and from the south-west, keep…

The ‘mark two’ version of a sailing yacht is normally a subtle refinement of the original design. Usually it’s the same hull, with perhaps some different windows in the coachroof, a slightly more comfortable cockpit, a new go-faster stripe and a few changes to the accommodation layout below decks. Sometimes, though, the MkII version is a substantially different boat. Take the centre-cockpit Moody 36, for example: the MkII, launched at Southampton Boat Show in 1996, is a development of designer Bill Dixon’s earlier Moody 35 (built from 1991-1996), but she benefits from a slimmer hull and longer waterline, resulting in a faster boat than her forebears – yet with a more sea-kindly motion. Although primarily intended as a family cruiser, Dixon’s CAD-designed 36MkII had an element of performance not previously…

What’s she like to sail? She stands out by having twin wheels, but I’m not convinced that they’re necessary, or even desirable, on a 31ft boat. Like many other systems with two heavy, stainless steel wheels, when you move your wheel there’s an echo of movement from the rotational inertia of the wheel opposite. Yes, this can be reduced by upgrading to carbon fibre wheels, but at almost 10% of the cost of the boat it’s a high proportion of her value. It’s a real shame because I was very impressed with the feel and feedback from the wheel and Lewmar steering. The twin rudders grip well making her finger-light on the helm – even when bashing upwind in 20-25 knots with a reef in the mainsail. Her self-tacking jib…

All boats ■ Remove sails, sprayhood, bimini and lines ■ Take down wind generators, solar panels and stow liferafts ■ Reduce windage as much as possible and leave no loose items on deck ■ Ensure water and fuel tanks are full as demand will be great after the cyclone ■ Remove and stow your tender, or take it ashore when you leave the boat ■ Talk to your insurer, prepare as advised and take photos of your preparation ■ Once fully prepared, leave the boat It is not safe to stay aboard in very high winds and the urge to protect her could prove fatal. Boats can be replaced, but people can’t Boats in a boatyard ■ Double sets of chains and buckles should be used to secure cradle arms…

Each VHF radio was set up in our waterside workshop and then connected to a stabilised 12Vdc power supply and our Shakespeare Galaxy 5225XP (+6dB gain) marine VHF antenna, through an ART-3 power and function test meter. For those without an internal GPS or AIS receiver we incorporated a Garmin GPS and a Comar ASR100 AIS unit into the circuit. We tested the function and output power of each set using the meter and then called the Coastguard for a radio check. We also made calls to the sets using a hand-held VHF some way off, to see how they responded to a less powerful signal. Interconnectivity was tested by wiring them to the relevant NMEA comms ports and to an external GPS, AIS and multi-function display.…

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 Don’t you want the anchor? CONFESSION OF THE MONTH By Peter Leyland Arriving at Fishguard after a good sail, we dropped the hook close to shore’s edge. I decided to give my collie-cross a shore break. ‘Aren’t you taking the anchor?’ asked my wife. ‘No, I won’t need it,’ I said confidently. I jumped into the Avon dinghy and, with only a pair of oars and a long painter, the dog and I set off towards a handy little rocky depression on…

Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/yachtingmonthly Like us on Facebook facebook.com/yachtingmonthlymag A combination of previous groundings, subsequent repairs to the keel matrix, and possible deterioration in the keelbolts may have contributed to the loss of the Cheeki Rafiki, according to a Marine Accident Investigtion Board (MAIB) report. Cheeki Rafiki, a Beneteau First 40.7, was being sailed across the Atlantic by four British yachtsmen when she capsized on 16 May 2014, 700 miles south-east of Nova Scotia. The yacht was found by two separate searches but could not be recovered because of poor conditions. The liferaft was still stowed on board and no survivors were found. The yacht is now presumed to have sunk. The report acknowledges that firm conclusions are difficult with no material evidence, but based its report on photographs…

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 Use sensible scope Fellow cruisers: please don’t use too much scope for the depth. If the holding is good and the water shallow, you don’t need to use all your chain. Anchored here in Tyrrell Bay, Carriacou, I have about 15m of chain in 3.7m of water, perfectly adequate for the excellent holding. On diving to check the anchor’s set, I saw the anchor for the yacht 50m behind me. He must have about 75m of chain…

I’m glad to see, among this month’s topics, the rather vital one of how not to fall overboard. We probably don’t talk about this enough, given that it casts a damper on any merry summer outing to dwell on nightmarish possibilities, and look too suspiciously at the worrying closeness to our comfy cockpit cushions of the churning, chilly, unforgiving sea. Everyone on an RYA course does man overboard drill, and then – I would guess – memorises the what-to-do list while trying to close their mind to the real and actual possibility of either struggling in the water or – actually worse – seeing a crewmate vanishing astern. We prefer to remember that it was in fact a fender, or a cockpit-cushion, or a rather ludicrous sailing-school dummy called Eric…

On 9 November last year the 65ft Team Vestas Wind, a competitor in the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race, was 10 days out from Cape Town heading north towards Abu Dhabi. She was on a threesail reach in a true wind of 14-16 knots, 10° aft of the port beam. Boatspeed was averaging 16 knots with bursts of 21 knots. Shortly after 1900 she emerged from a rain squall. It was dark, the half moon high in the sky astern was intermittently masked by cloud. Suddenly there was a sharp crack, a daggerboard had broken. Rocks were sighted to starboard and immediately an attempt was made to furl the code zero and N0. 3 genoa to depower the boat. The bulb keel, which was canted to port, caught on a rock…

Stress-Free Sailing By Duncan Wells, published by Adlard Coles Nautical at £16.99 The advice in this book is tried and tested on a variety of boats, and benefits from clear diagrams, photographs and QR codes linking to over 20 instructive videos. These have been well made with excellent voice-overs describing what is happening in the film. They add a great deal to the overall value of the book. As ever there may be bits you could argue with, but if you go out and practice what is advised, using your own yacht, your boat-handling skills and confidence will be improved greatly. Though written by a sailing instructor, the book has nothing to do with passing exams, just with enhancing your abilities and sailing fun. All good stuff! Crossing The Thames…

Why should you think that this is an unfair question? If you are a wary and galeaverse sailor, you might fairly say that you would never have got yourself into this situation. You would have taken note of the harbingers of the approaching gale, the cirrus cloud and falling barometer and at the time of the 0048 shipping forecast you would be in l’Aber Wrac’h, tucked up in your bunk and, if not already fast asleep, you’d be wondering if the five-day forecast was really reliable, because often it isn’t. If you count yourself an all-weather seaman this a perfectly fair question. L’Aber Wrac’h is probably about eight hours away, almost dead to windward. Roscoff is three hours further. Falmouth is likely to be 10-12 hours’ sailing, downwind for most…

In medieval times it was considered that three pilgrimages to Bardsey Island gave the equivalent benefit to the soul as one to Rome. Its Welsh name, Ynys Enlli, translates to ‘The Island in the Currents’, and indeed even today Bardsey Sound carries a fearsome reputation – with tides running at more than 6 knots and vicious overfalls, up to a third of boat trips to the island are cancelled. Despite being only 0.6 miles wide and a mile long, Bardsey occupies a prominent place in history – St Cadfan built a monastery here in 516, which survived until Henry VIII’s Dissolution in 1537. Today, all that remains is the 13th century bell tower and a Celtic cross to commemorate the 20,000 saints said to be buried on the island. Now…

GP and RYA Yachtmaster Jonathan Pearce and wife Carol cruise their Southerly 105 ketch Aurial from Milford Haven Dehydration should be a major consideration for anyone sailing in the Tropics, for obvious reasons. In home waters, the level of dehydration we are likely to encounter is mild, but it’s still significant, and it’s likely to result from seasickness and/or excess sun. You may smile at the latter, but I will recall being caught in blazing summer sun off the Pembrokeshire coast without protecting myself with a hat, suncream, and adequate fluids. I felt quite odd, and the initial symptoms – irritability, loss of concentration and subsequent withdrawal – undermined my performance and decisionmaking, which put an added strain on my crew. All skippers need to be aware of the risks,…

What’s she like to sail? These solidly built, medium-displacement cruisers are capable of a very reasonable pace in open seas, where they offer a particularly sea-kindly motion. Thanks to the inboard genoa tracks they do point quite close – up to 33° in fact, although they lose a lot of speed when pinched that tight. Her favourite point of sail is around 50-55° off the apparent wind, when she surges forward relentlessly, oblivious to the sea state. The Moody 36 is also easy to sail singlehanded, with all the sail control lines and winches within easy reach in the compact cockpit, and you’re not going to get shoulder cramps if you have to hand-steer her for hours on end, either. Nor are you going to become bruised and battered if…

After relentlessly tacking up a narrow, rock-strewn channel, Michel Chenon and Darryl Spurling found themselves asking each other how a winch could be improved. If it could, how would they take on existing winch giants? ‘We do something they don’t: make a cruising range of four speed winches’ Darryl explains. Winches aren’t intrinsically exciting and a four-speed winch might mean nothing, but bear with me, these winches are very clever. Imagine tacking without touching the sheet or the fuss that goes with it: carefully adding loaded turns, feeding the sheet into the self-tacking jaws or fumbling with the winch handle. Instead, how about just turning the winch handle until the genoa is snug – too good to be true? Or maybe you’re not as strong as you were and want…

Electronic distress flare The EDF1 from International Safety Products is similar to the well-known Odeo LED Flare, but it’s smaller, with a 30° beam azimuth. Using advanced, ultrabright LEDs, it is easy to operate and can be used repeatedly. In contrast, regular pyrotechnic flares have short burn time, can burn at up to 3,000°C and, if improperly handled, can cause fire, serious injury and even death. The EDF1 is extremely powerful, with up to a sevenmile range, 360° radius and a six-hour battery life. It can also be stored in a grab-bag or attached to a lifejacket and it costs around half that of an offshore canister of ordinary flares. Electronic flares are yet to receive SOLAS approval as an alternative to traditional flares but international standards for their use…

With just two people on deck, if one goes over the side what do you do? Try to get them back or call for help? The VHF radio is below decks, so making the call or pressing the DSC alert could mean losing sight of the person in the water. It’s a frightening prospect with no correct answer. However, upgrading to a VHF radio with a remote handset, or adding a remote to your existing VHF if possible, could be a life-saver. It can also be frustrating when you’re short-handed on deck and your VHF radio is below by the chart table. Having a speaker in the cockpit helps you hear what’s going on, but with no way to silence DSC alerts, change channels or reply to calls from the…