Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2016 i Yachting Monthly

The sea, some say, is good to gamblers. The longer I ponder this proposition, the more depth I find. However, I’m allowed only one page, so I’ll stick to an area where it is highly relevant. Insurance. Sailing uninsured has always been an option for those struggling to afford a premium. The stakes are high but the odds on a sorry outcome are very long, especially for far-ranging ocean cruisers steering clear of crowded places with associated risks beyond their control. I remember once enquiring about insurance for an old gaffer bound on a transatlantic cruise to rarely-visited venues. The response of the broker was salutary. She was a specialist in older craft and had been around the cans often enough to know a thing or two. The…

Not so long ago I set off for the coast looking forward to a week’s summer cruising around the Cotentin peninsula with a good friend. We were aiming to cross the Channel to Cherbourg and then go wherever the wind took us, anywhere from Honfleur in the East to Lézardrieux in the West – ambitious for a week, certainly, but we like to set a high bar. The forecast seemed to offer some cracking passagemaking conditions and we were keen to get some miles under the keel. We left Portsmouth Harbour as the ebb began and we were making good time, halfway down the Western Solent, when my friend abruptly gave me the helm and dashed below. After a couple of minutes, his ashen face appeared in the companionway: ‘I’ve…

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 Should I extend my anchor chain? Q I wish to replace the ground tackle on my Jeanneau 50DS, which is a 20kg Delta with 40m of 12mm chain and 40m of warp. I will go with a 33kg Rocna and would like to increase the chain to 80m and add a Kong connector with a certified galvanised shackle. Is it safe to…

Grey Goose’s twin-wheel steering system comprises two lengths of 5/8in chain at each wheel connected together by three 7x7 cables each 5mm in diameter. The two outboard cables terminate on the steering quadrant with threaded fittings for tension adjustment. After examination, there is no doubt that the cable has failed in fatigue due to repeated flexing and straightening at the four sheaves during operation. An example of this mechanism is the well-known one of repeatedly bending a paper clip until it snaps. The majority of fractures appear to have taken place on the exterior of the cables as fitted in position on the sheaves. This is entirely consistent with fatigue, which initiates at points where the tensile stress is highest. ‘The specified cable is 7x19, which is far better for…

In a bitter north-east wind accompanied by flurries of snow we watched the desolate coast recede. By now, even on this coast, all the ice had vanished, all but some bergs that had grounded on a reef three miles out. These, the last we were to see, managed to give me a final fright. Until we had drawn near I did not appreciate how fast we were being set down on them, what with leeway and current, and that if we ran the boat off we would pile up on the reef to leeward of them. We should have gone about but by dint of sailing hard on the wind we scraped by with little enough to spare. We were going fast and by evening had got clear of the…

Dehler 34 The Dehler 34 looks like a smaller 38, 42 or 46 as she shares the same features as the larger yachts. She has the vertical bow, the same sharp window line, narrow rectangular hull windows, broad wedge-shaped cockpit and twin wheels. Down below is more of what we’ve come to expect, too: overhead LED strip lights, roll-top cupboards outboard, double use/single door to the heads and handy drawers underneath the port saloon seating. Even the saloon table is similar but without taking a tape measure to it, I couldn’t say if it was exactly the same as the ones on the larger models, albeit with smaller leaves. There’s a small, fixed, aft-facing chart table to port and parallel seating in the saloon. The heads compartment can…

If you have a news story to share, contact News Editor Theo Stocker EMAIL theo.stocker@timeinc.com TEL 01252 555164 ‘Sailors can be easy targets’ Security aboard yachts is unsophisticated and inadequate, despite technological advances, according to a leading maritime security expert. Gerry Northwood, chief operating officer of Maritime Asset Security and Training (MAST Ltd) told Yachting Monthly that even very large yachts are still relying on oldfashioned mechanical locks to keep them safe. ‘A physical lock and key may be adequate in a secure marina in the UK, but in any other setting it leaves extremely valuable yachts and their contents vulnerable. Cars have had electronic central locking for 30 years, but the yacht industry still hasn’t caught on. Even on small yachts, much could be done to improve companionway hatches…

This year, a blast of hot summer weather brought a slew of tragic drownings and near-death rescues in our seas. Some victims were prudent but plain unlucky; several, though, were simply unaware of the power and behaviour of water. Snatched from perches on too-close rocks and proms, stranded on sandbanks or plucked by rip-tides, some came to grief avoidably. In some ways that’s even sadder, more pitiful than freakish bad luck. Advice from the RNLI and Coastguard has a mournful ‘if only…’ about it, and the underlying message is ‘if only they’d been more afraid of the sea’. If you aren’t on it or near it very often, it’s easy to think of it as just, well, just scenery. A living postcard. The same principle applies to sailing. Yachts are…

The term ‘safety equipment’ is commonly applied to items that could more accurately be classed as ‘emergency equipment’, because they are for use in situations that are already unsafe. Flares, personal locator beacons, lifejackets, fire extinguishers, dan buoys and MOB recovery devices only come into their own when a hazard has turned into a full-blooded accident – in other words, when safety precautions have failed. On the other hand, some pieces of kit do serve to maintain safety and the obvious example is the safety harness, which is intended to keep its wearer on board (or at least in close contact with the vessel) and hopefully avoid the need to use the emergency equipment. When my wife and I started cruising we wore harnesses on night passages or in rough…

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 EASY RIDER I learned this trick from Captain Alec Smith, boss of the first cruising school I worked for back in 1973. I’ve used it ever since and it succeeds nearly every time. When you need a break sailing hard to windward, or you just want to settle things down a bit to visit the heads or make the tea, try fore-reaching. No requirement to reef the main to slow down, no necessity to try and heave to (many modern yachts struggle with this), all you need is a roller headsail or, of course, a proper working jib or a staysail. ■ Set up…

Originally an island linked to the mainland by a causeway, St Malo housed ship owners, some of whom were wealthy corsairs authorised by the French crown to plunder passing English and Dutch shipping. To protect the island from reprisals by the British, St Malo was encircled by stone ramparts and the islands in the approaches heavily fortified. These days St Malo welcomes many English visitors to its two marinas, Port Vauban and Port des Sablons. Port Vauban is a five-minute walk from the Intra-Muros – the city inside the walls. Whereas Port des Sablons is in a suburb of St Malo at St Servan near the ferry terminal. Although within about half a mile of each other, the marinas are totally different in their surroundings; regular visitors tend to have…

Suction cup for ROKK system Scanstrut’s innovative ROKK system allows various gadgets (from iPads to fish-finders to action cameras) to be mounted on almost any surface. Now the range includes a new suction cup mount. It uses Scanstrut’s quickrelease plate, to which a universal joint and bracket are attached. Simply apply the suction cup to a surface and push down the white handle. Once a quick-release plate is attached, the handle cannot be released. To release, remove the quick-release plate, lift the handle and gentle pull on the rubber tab, to remove the cup and relocate it to a different part of the deck. Price £19.99 Contact Scanstrut Tel 01803 863800 Web www.scanstrut.com Waeco’s thermoelectric coolers Waeco’s new Tropicool TCX range of thermo-electric coolers can be powered by 12V or…

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 Seelonce I cannot support Andy du Port’s article regarding unnecessary radio checks strongly enough – not just because he was my captain in HMS Juno when I was a spotty midshipman many moons ago, but more because it ruins your day. In August my wife and I…

For those accustomed to the unpredictability of the open seas, variables are just part and parcel of life. Whether you are sending funds to far-away family, buying or maintaining a second home overseas or are hoping to purchase that dream Sunseeker, most seafarers are exposed to the choppy waters of currency markets just by docking in another country. But is there anything they can do to ensure that unfavourable exchange rates don’t increase the costs of your international transfers? For any nautical enthusiast about to set sail for foreign shores, one event will have dominated their thoughts since the end of June: the UK referendum. As the UK public’s decision to leave the EU unfolded on the night of the election, Britswatched their foreign currency spending power fall off a…

If you ignore the crowds and avoid overnight anchorages exposed to the nocturnal land breeze, which sets in strong from the NE at about midnight after sunny sea breeze days, the bay of Quiberon, Belle Île and the Morbihan must be one of the most idyllic areas within easy cruising range for south coast-based yachtsmen. It offers short passages to several islands, small challenges from the 8-knot plus tidal streams in the Morbihan, plenty of harbours and anchorages within easy onetide distance, no need to sail at night, no shortage of secure bolt holes in which to shelter from the odd bout of rough weather, and all within 300 miles of home. Many owners with time to enjoy leisurely cruising base their boats on that part of the South Brittany…

We took delivery of our Hanse 400 in April 2011 and named her Grey Goose after my husband Jim’s love of vodka. With his retirement we could realise our dream of cruising the Mediterranean. During the winter of 2014-15 Grey Goose was prepared for the trip and on 4 April 2015 we left the Hamble and headed south. Not long after, I found short pieces of wire in the bilges. Later I learned why such things should not be ignored! We sailed into Lisbon on 11 June and flew home for a family celebration, during which Jim snapped his Achilles tendon so I recruited my friend Stevie as crew for the delivery. On 12 September Stevie and I took Grey Goose south to Sines. We left Sines at 0240 on…

With retirement looming, I decided to buy a boat. That was the easy part. I then had to decide what to buy and to find one I liked. I wanted something that could give me safe and comfortable longdistance sailing for some time to come. I settled for a Slocum 43, which seemed to have most of the attributes that I wanted. After a long search, I bought Right Choice in Croatia. I love the Croatian coast as a sailing ground, but keeping her there would seriously limit the amount of time I could spend on board as well as ruling out short trips. So began the planning of a delivery cruise to England via Gibraltar, which would consume much of my time for a year. I planned to leave…

There are many tough 30ft cruisers available for around £20,000, but the Hurley 30/90, also known as the Anderson 30, is often overlooked – and I’m not really sure why. After great success with the 18, 20, 22 and 24-footers, Hurley Marine’s designer, Ian Anderson, was asked to create a 30-footer with standing headroom and more living space for a family, but without any loss of Hurley’s renowned seaworthiness. The first Hurley 30/90 was launched in 1974 and although her design is over 40 years old now, she still has a lot to offer those looking to buy a rugged, seaworthy coastal cruiser. Performance We set off on a breezy and overcast June day out of her home port, Torquay, with the wind blowing a steady Force 4-5 from the…

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 Finding a turtle in Normandy CONFESSION OF THE MONTH By John Marley In the days before GPS, I was one of two students helping a boat owner sail his 28ft sloop across the Channel to Cherbourg. With dead reckoning and Channel tides we had only a vague idea where we were, made all the more so by becoming enveloped for much of the way in thick fog. As there was also a flat calm we were motoring and external sounds such as foghorns were…