Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i Yachting Monthly

Boat owners who moor their vessels on the Medway and The Swale will have to pay more to keep their vessels on the waterways, after Peel Port announced an above-inflation increase in its fees. The annual conservancy charge from 1 April 2023 will be £105.23, and the fee for yacht club moorings from 1 January 2023 will be £125.18. This is an increase of 14.2% (RPI to October) and 15% respectively on the previous year’s charges. The Medway and Swale Boating Association (MSBA) has called the increases ‘unacceptable’ and believes it will have ‘an adverse effect on the number of conservancy licences purchased in 2023’. The MSBA chairman, Peter Norris said: ‘The announcement of this increase has also destroyed the hard work undertaken by Peel Ports’ own staff and that…

With Oddity laid up and winter stalling our housebuilding project, it made sense to bail out and follow the sun down under. A long-haul flight doesn’t offer the enchantment and satisfaction of sailing but it does get the job done, particularly if you are lucky enough to get an upgrade, something that after a lifetime of hope has morphed into a myth. Sydney is a wonderful city that is blessed with a myriad of far-reaching waterways. It looks amazing from the air and its allure soon entices you to Sydney Harbour Bridge to board one of many ferries to explore this marine network. Fast, efficiently run catamarans whisk you through wonderful scenery to take pictures at every turn. Meanwhile the person next to you is head down and looking glum…

SPECIFICATIONS MAKE / MODEL Astus 22.5 PRICE FROM £48,750 DESIGNER VPLP BUILDER Astus Boats Small multihulls can be remarkable boats in which you can do remarkable things. Like Richard and Lilian Woods: each sailing one of their own Woods-designed Strider 24 catamarans single-handed from Plymouth to Russia in a series of day-hops in 1989 – not long after glasnost and perestroika. Joined by Stuart Fisher in a third Strider, they regularly sailed up to 80 miles in a day and once covered the 70 miles between ports in seven hours. Or Rory McDougall, who built a Wharram Tiki 21 and sailed it around the world singlehanded. A few years later, he finished a close second in the Jester Challenge before clocking up to 185 miles a day on the return…

JAMES STEVENS, author of the Yachtmaster Handbook, spent 10 of his 23 years at the RYA as chief examiner Q Adrian is skipper of a 13m cruiser racer, Meridian. He and four crew are planning to cross the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to Antigua. It is late October and Meridian is currently in Camaret, a port near Brest, north of the Bay of Biscay. Adrian’s intention is to sail straight to Gran Canaria, about 1,300 miles. The yacht is well equipped for an ocean passage, although it is, arguably, more of an offshore than an ocean design with an angle of vanishing stability, AVS, of a little under 120° rather than the recommended 130°. The wind is currently easterly. Adrian is studying the synoptic chart. There is high pressure…

Back in May 2021, my wife Lydia and I purchased our first boat, a 1994 Dehler 34 called Troppo Bella, and spent the summer exploring the beautiful waters around Conwy. Planning to venture further afield the following year, I decided it was time to rebuild the somewhat vintage navigation station. With much of the wiring 30 years old and a scant complement of switches, the navigation station hadn’t kept pace with the numerous navigational devices, lights and living comforts that had been added over the years. Unfortunately, half of these additions had since been decommissioned due to faults, including the Navtex receiver, SSB weather fax receiver and autopilot. Sat at anchor using camping lights in the saloon to preserve our fading batteries, it was also clear we had to be…

Everest mountaineers have the Himalayan Base Camp, Patagonian sailors have Mar del Plata. It is the last significant town in Argentina before the coast gets more rugged and inhospitable; safe harbours are few and far between. Those who pass this point can expect to sail through the wilderness of the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties. We stocked up on food and bought long, floating mooring lines to keep our boat clear of the rocks in narrow Patagonian inlets, known as caletas. Violent south-westerly storms can appear within no time, so we had planned our passage carefully. With a north-easterly wind forecast for the next four days it was time to face the challenges and head south. We still had one hurdle to leap; bureaucracy. The Prefectura, the Argentinian coastguard, meticulously…

Send your sailing gossip, diary dates, cruising news and club or owners’ association updates to heather.prentice@futurenet.com Celebratory regatta for the West Highlands The majestic hills and sheltered waters of west Scotland will play host to the 75th edition of West Highland Yachting Week regatta. This special anniversary year promises a warm welcome back to all previous competitors as well as a focus on encouraging new entrants to take part. The regatta features round-the-buoys races and passage racing, as well as social activities such as baking competitions, dinghy races, a beach party and ceilidh. The event is held in various locations, with the fleet scheduled to move between Craobh Haven Marina in Loch Shuna to Oban then up the Sound of Mull to Tobermory and finally back to Oban. Regatta stalwart,…

www.yachtingmonthly.com/books Yachting journalist Paul Gelder covered the whole of the BOC Challenge 1994-1995. He felt a special admiration for the amateur sailors who were there just for the experience of taking part. None more so than his friend 70-year-old Harry Mitchell, making his third attempt to round Cape Horn… Two hours after David Scully sailed Coyote across the finish line in Punta Del Este, Harry Mitchell was 12 days away from his goal of Cape Horn when one of the polar orbiting satellites circling the earth every 102 minutes at an altitude of 500 miles picked up a signal from one of the distress beacons on board Henry Hornblower in that desolate stretch of the Southern Ocean. The signal was relayed to a ground station in New Zealand. It was…

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DUFOUR 390 A designation that overstates a boat’s length has long been the norm among production builders, and the Dufour 390 has a hull that’s actually 36ft 9in (11.20m) long. She’s longer, lighter and more modestly canvassed than the Hanse. As with other modern cruisers of this ilk, the volume of the hull makes her bigger down below than older-generation boats a good deal longer. Such is the volume that, if you need to accommodate the greatest possible number of people, you can choose a layout with three cabins and three heads. Then there are three-cabin arrangements with one or two heads, and a two-cabin alternative with two heads and more cockpit stowage. I tested the 390 in the March 2020 issue of Yachting Monthly and found that she offered…

Email Katy.Stickland@futurenet.com Tel 0330 390 6738 UK sailors who bought and kept their yachts in the EU before Brexit will have to pay VAT for a second time if they decide to bring their yachts back to the UK. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) had previously stated in April 2019 that UK-owned boats would retain their UK VAT paid status, whatever their location on the day the UK left the EU, with owners able to claim Returned Goods Relief. This position was reaffirmed by HMRC in November 2020, but by mid-December 2020, HMRC reversed its position, leaving owners just days to return their boats to the UK before the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020. Since then, the UK marine industry, including the Association of…

Production has started on the world’s first recyclable Optimist. Northern Light Composites and not-for-profit organisation Clean Sailors have now opened a competition to give sailing clubs the chance to own one of the first ecoOptimists. The boats will be ready by June 2023. The ecoOptimist is built from ampliTex™ natural-fibre reinforcements, Atlas HPE core and resin which can be reused to produce new components. Compared to conventional glass fibres, flax fibres reduce the CO2 footprint of the composite from ‘cradle to gate’ and don’t rely on fossil fuel resources for production. Instead, they sequester CO2 from the atmosphere during their growth and act as a natural CO2 sink during their entire lifetime. The Optimist is also recyclable at the end of its life. More information is available at: www.ecooptisailing.com…

There is a winter benefit to shore life if your partner doesn’t sail: you can revisit the scene of your cruise, by car, and regale them with tales of your nautical derring-do. To avoid the risk of boring them to death, however, it’s important to pick a destination where a good hotel supper is available. Over the years this has been a voyeuristic indulgence for the Durham clan during the dark months and has included a frosty-guttered B&B in the heart of the frozen Suffolk countryside while visiting the yachting arcadia of Snape at the top of the River Alde; a seemingly endless drive to the isolated village of Baltimore in County Cork to a seafood restaurant I’d been told about while rounding the Fastnet Rock during that summer’s ocean…

1 REDUCE THE DRAIN Managing power consumption is key. Modern tablets and phones use a lot more power than you think, especially compared to older purpose-built marine technology. Removing your dependency on them for long trips will give you greater sailing range. 2 LEGACY BACKUP Make intelligent use of your navigation aids. In a storm, tablets and smart phones are not reliable and you may be unable to escape the helm to consult paper charts. Legacy marine navigational equipment was designed for the sea so make sure you have loaded your route in case the weather takes a turn for the worse. 3 KNOW YOUR ELECTRICS Most sailors know how to bleed their engine, but few have a working knowledge of the boat electrics. However, depth and wind speed/direction are…

THE SERIES HERE… www.yachtingmonthly.com/howitworks Virtually all diesel engines are started by an electric starter motor. This needs to be powerful enough to turn the engine at a speed high enough to ensure that the temperature rise due to compression is sufficient to spark an ignition. The starter motor has a small gearwheel that drives a larger gearwheel on the engine’s flywheel ring gear. The starter motor’s gearwheel moves along a shaft to engage the flywheel ring gear when starting up. The meshing of the starter motor gearwheel with the flywheel ring gear only takes place when the starter switch is ‘made’, that is, when the starter motor is turning. Therefore, once the engine is running, the starter motor is not turning, and the small gearwheel is not engaged. There are…

A bad installation can render a good machine useless, so there are a few key points to know. Use dedicated through-hulls for the saltwater intake and brine discharge. Make sure the intake is low enough that it won’t be exposed when heeling or in big waves to prevent air bubbles entering the system. Don’t install the intake where there will be turbulent flow, behind the keel, for example, or near the props and rudders. The discharge should be above the waterline. To give the pump the best chance of producing the pressure needed, install it as low as possible in the boat. Follow the manufacturer’s recommendations on hose diameters and avoid long hose runs and tight turns that restrict flow. Finally, use correctly sized wiring as the 12V pumps will…

If you want to tell us why you love your boat, get in touch by email yachtingmonthly@futurenet.com or by post Future PLC, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London, W2 6JR David Harding has been testing boats for more than 25 years. He is also a marine photographer and runs his agency, Sailing Scenes TONY DIXON has sailed and raced all his life. He cruised his Dufour 325 for 10 years, mostly to the West Country and France, before moving up to a Hanse 388 two seasons ago. When buying a new boat, it might be tempting to choose the most up-to-date model you can find within your size and price range. Why not take advantage of the latest in design and styling and, at the same time, give yourself the maximum future-proofing?…

Wildlife charities have expressed concerns over plans for a £2 billion tidal barrage across The Wash in East Anglia. Developer Port Evo wants to build an 11-mile barrage between Gibraltar Point and Hunstanton to generate tidal energy and act as a flood defence. The project also includes the world’s first tidal energy-powered deep sea container terminal, and road and rail links. The plans have yet to be submitted for planning approval so the RYA has not yet been consulted on the impact the development would have on navigation. The RSPB, Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and Wild Ken Hill Estate are urging government and developers to rethink the proposal ‘to avoid catastrophic effects on nature and wildlife’, as the barrage would displace the flow…

UK sailor Simon Curwen was the first of the 2022 Golden Globe Race skippers to pass through the Hobart Gate in Tasmania, marking the halfway point in the race. However, he struggled with light winds and high-pressure systems coming into Storm Bay, which allowed his nearest rivals Kirsten Neuschäfer and Abhilash Tomy to make significant gains on his position. Curwen arrived on Christmas Eve and anchored in the bay. He didn’t stay long as he was eager to rebuild his lead onboard his Biscay 36, Clara. ‘I was really chipper about two weeks ago when I thought I had a pretty good lead in the race. The ultimate objective is to get around, but having found myself having a bit of a lead, naturally you want to try and look…

Q With our boat currently out of the water, we are thinking ahead to next season. I would like to try and make our sailing as eco-friendly as possible in 2023. Clearly, the boat is made out of GRP so there is not much we can do about that but what advice can your experts give us on making other aspects of our sailing more environmentally friendly? Ideally, it would be good if the suggestions could be as cost-effective as possible. Julia Young A Sarah Brown responds: It is great that you already think of your boat as part of your environmental footprint, but it is not necessarily a negative! The emissions were emitted when she was built so look after her; the longer she is in service the more…

There is a myth that a simple life is too costly to pursue. I would like to debunk it. Clearly in the case of voyaging at sea, one must have sufficient resources to purchase a boat and to make her seaworthy. Travelling with my family, I also feel that sufficient funds to cover a few years travelling, with additional put aside for eventualities, is a prudent way to go. But many have ventured out to sea with far less, including big names like Joshua Slocum and Bernard Moitessier… true voyagers in every way. Only you can decide how much you will require, but here are a few pointers: Smaller boats cost less. Simple boats with simple systems have less to go wrong, saving on repairs. It is estimated that one…

Thundery storm cells crept in from the southwest. They seemed so far away and I was convinced they would miss us, but a fierce gust blew up for about 10 minutes and 34 knots registered on the wind gauge, followed by a deluge of driving rain and appalling visibility. Eddie at the helm turned into the wind and with some sharpish reefing, we managed to hold our mandated course. As we finally passed the Scarweather Sands, the wind dropped considerably; it was as if Neptune was trying to play a joke on us. I reflected back to those dank November nights when I had decided that sailing from Portland to Liverpool was a good idea. At the time I had been keen to experience the Bristol Channel in all its…

For over 50 years, Tom Richardson has been the proud owner of the renowned Elephant Boatyard. He’s built a reputation as one of the best traditional boatbuilders in the country – a highly regarded institute executing exquisite workmanship for the most prestigious of yachts. Even Britain’s very own sailing bastion, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston commissioned the yard to undertake the enormous task of refurbishing his Farr 56, Sanjula for his voyage around the east coast of Greenland. BUILDING A COMMUNITY Tom’s life has always been centred around the River Hamble; small craft and sailing yachts line the river’s edges but most tie up along central moorings, acting as helpful navigation, holding on to the edge of the channel. The tide rushes recklessly, racing up and down its course and even on…

The feeling of autonomy that a watermaker gives a yacht is unique. It transforms that weekend-only cruiser into a go-anywhere, life-on-the-hook, adventure craft, breaking the tether to marinas. Filling your water tanks at the fuel jetty will always be a cheaper alternative to the eye-watering cost of buying and installing a watermaker, but there will be times when your plans are limited by having no access to a tap or if the only source available doesn’t look particularly appetising. And in the event of a burst pipe or accidentally draining your tank mid-passage, it means you’ll be able to keep sailing at the flick of a switch, rather than having to reroute to refill. DESALINATION PROCESS Watermakers – technically known as desalination units – use a process called reverse osmosis…

ERD UNITS SCHENKER ZEN 30 I’ve yet to meet the owner of a Schenker Zen 30 who isn’t an evangelist for this machine. The Italian brand has been evolving its range since 1998 and offers a three-year warranty. Measure twice – the pump and membrane make up a bulky unit. www.mactramarine.co.uk OSMOSEA UNITS I love the design of the Osmosea units, which only have one moving part and are one of the cheapest ERD units out there, although reliability is poor, due to the materials used. Cheap second-hand ones are often available, so worth considering if you don’t mind doing a bit of engineering. www.osmosea.it SPECTRA CATALINA While not flawless, this has one of the best build qualities. You’ll find dealers in remote locations, but expect a hefty bill for…