Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2025 i Yachting Monthly

Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is rarely, well, comfortable, but every time we accomplish something we had thought beyond ourselves, the sense of achievement is enormous. It was in this spirit that in 1984 YM inaugurated the Yachting Monthly Triangle Race, and in this spirit that I was keen to see the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club resurrect the event this year as the Yachting Monthly Celtic Triangle race. I know, YM doesn’t ‘do’ racing, and if you want your fill of unaffordable speed machines, you’ll still have to go elsewhere. But the truth is that the boats most of us sail are more than capable of crossing the Celtic Sea a couple of times. That is in no small part thanks to the Royal Ocean Racing Club (100…

Mediterranean rescue yacht Nadir was detained by Italian authorities on 8 June after mooring in the Port of Lampedusa, the first time a sailing vessel has been detained in conjunction with migrant search and rescue operations. The 18m ketch Nadir is part of a civilian rescue fleet and has rescued 12,000 people since beginning its search and rescue (SAR) operations in 2021. During the night of 5 June, Nadir evacuated 112 people from an unseaworthy wooden boat in international waters off the coast of Libya while operating on behalf of SAR organisation RESQSHIP. RESQSHIP is a charity based in Hamburg that is dedicated to maritime rescue, particularly of refugees and migrants in distress in the Mediterranean. It is part of a larger network of civil sea rescue organisations working in…

Craig Wood, a 33-year-old former Army rifleman from Doncaster, made history in June by becoming the world’s first triple amputee to sail solo, non-stop and unsupported some 7,000 miles across the Pacific, despite suffering a broken prosthetic arm. Craig took 90 days to sail 7,506 miles at an average speed of 3.6 knots on his custom 41ft French-built aluminium catamaran, Sirius II, departing Puerto Vallarta in Mexico on 25 March and arriving in Hiroshima, Japan on 24 June. ‘I’m exhausted – but so proud to complete an expedition that many thought impossible,’ said Craig from the finish line. ‘It has tested me and my boat, Sirius II, almost to the limit, but the thought of seeing my wife and children at the end spurred me on. We are expecting our…

SPECIFICATIONS MAKE / MODEL X-Yachts Xc47 PRICE FROM £987,000 ex VAT DESIGNER X-Yachts design team BUILDER X-Yachts Denmark Rarely do boatbuilders start with a genuinely blank sheet of paper. The time and capital required to develop an all new boat make it a serious commitment, and the stakes for getting it right are high. With the Xc47, X-Yachts have not only developed a boat that is entirely new, they have also developed a new concept of boat and stepped into a new market segment, which, in the conservative world of Scandinavian boat building, is a gutsy move. Now, a semi deck-saloon yacht from a yard with a pedigree in cruiser racers may well divide opinion. If you cut your teeth racing on an X-79, X-99 or X-332 – some of…

Taking proper care of your ropes is key to extending their life. The first thing you’ll need to do is make sure you store them properly. Some skippers insist on coiling with big ‘0’ shaped hoops, others demand figures of ‘8’. Still others don’t care as long as it’s tidy, but which approach is best for the rope? For 3-strand ropes, which are twisted by nature, coiling them into large loops and giving each turn a slight twist of the wrist helps maintain their structure and prevent tangles. This method reinforces the natural twist of the rope, keeping it in good condition. On the other hand, braided ropes do not have the same twisted structure and can develop kinks if coiled into hoops. For braided ropes, coiling into figure eights…

1 MARINAS AND CREW CHANGES For crew changes, West Highland Line trains stop at Arisaig and Mallaig. Or the Kyle of Lochalsh line runs from Inverness and stops at Plockton. Buses run between Ullapool and Inverness. CalMac ferries connect Tobermory (Mull) to Castle Bay (Barra) and Lochboisdale (South Uist); Mallaig on the mainland to The Small Isles, Armadale (Skye) and Lochboisdale; from Uig (Skye) to Tarbert (Harris) and Lochmaddy (Uist); and from Ullapool to Stornoway (Lewis), with other connections between islands (www.calmac.co.uk). Loganair flies between Stornoway and Inverness. Pontoon berths are relatively sparse but there are popular hubs with transport connections, facilities and services at Arisaig, Mallaig, Plockton and Ullapool on the mainland and at Castle Bay (Barra), Lochboisdale, Lochmaddy, Tarbert, and Stornoway on the outer islands. https://welcome-anchorages.co.uk is a downloadable…

The islands between Jutland, the continental part of Denmark, and Sweden had long been on my wish-list as a charter destination, but with 1,400 islands in total, just 409 of which are named and only 70 populated, my question had always been where to start. Two of the largest islands (Funen and Zealand) look like giant stepping stones between the Danish mainland and Sweden, connected by ‘belts’ (shipping channels) so one of these seemed the obvious starting point. I found a German company online which had a large selection of around 20 charter bases from Juelsminde in Denmark down to Kroslin near the German border with Poland. It also had a useful cruise planner on its website. We opted for the base of Flensburg because it seemed to have the…

Aberdeen celebrates the 2025 arrival of Tall Ships Race Between 19 and 22 July, the city of Aberdeen will welcome around 50 tall ships and over 100,000 visitors for a four-day maritime extravaganza as the only host port in Britain in the Tall Ships Race 2025. Four different classes of vessels are competing, from large sailing ships to smaller single-masted boats. The ships are stopping in Aberdeen after crossing the North Sea before continuing the race towards Kristiansand, Norway. The streets of Aberdeen will come alive for the occasion, with street food, market stalls, bars, and live music aplenty. And best of all, entrance is free! Emma Wadee, Aberdeen City Council’s Tall Ships Project Manager, says she hopes the Tall Ships Race 2025 will ‘help turn the Granite City into…

BLAST FROM THE PAST Most of us can admit to having recently trawled through yacht ads on the internet. If my own experience is anything to go by, we do this out of interest and curiosity as much as we do to actually look for a new boat. And there are different approaches. If you type ‘twin rudder shoal draught cruising yacht, 25ft length overall’ in to your search bar, the MG Spring 25 might not even be top of the results. I daresay you could scroll past it. But if you type in ‘yachts that starred in BBC TV show Howards’ Way’, the MG Spring 25 will be top billing. You might well click on the accompanying image and the satisfaction may put you one step closer to a…

Forty vessels, ranging from classic yachts, including Gipsy Moth IV, to modern foilers, sailed down the River Thames in June to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, one of the world’s oldest yacht clubs. A ceremonial pageant saw the flotilla sail six miles from Greenwich Pier to take the salute from the Royal Navy’s HMS President. The fleet sailed past London landmarks Canary Wharf, Wapping Police Pier, and King Edward Memorial Park, before assembling at the 200-year-old St Katharine Docks. As part of the ceremony, Tower Bridge was lifted, allowing six vessels to pass and parade through the Upper Pool to London Bridge before rejoining the other boats at St Katharine Docks. Among the yachts were the 53ft ketch Gipsy Moth IV, which Sir Francis Chichester…

Several remarkable individuals from the marine sector have been recognised in the King’s birthday honours list. Mark Todd MBE, CEO of Ocean Youth Trust South and Chair of the Association of Sail Training Organisations, has been awarded an MBE for services to sailing and young people. John Paul Wilkinson MBE, Director of Young People, Volunteer and Business Support at the Marine Society and Sea Cadets, is recognised for his services to young people. Colin Magee MBE, Co-Founder of the Leicestershire and Rutland Youth Sailing Association, receives his honour for services to young people and people with disabilities. Richard Donald Titchener MBE, CEO of the Sea-Change Sailing Trust and Captain of the Blue Mermaid, is honoured for services to disadvantaged young people and the community in Essex. Andy Rodgers, RNLI coxswain…

Glorious sunshine and a packed schedule helped make the inaugural Plymouth Boat Fest a success, with thousands of visitors gathering to celebrate the region’s rich marine heritage and industry. With over 50 exhibitors and more than 30 boats on display, the event showcased the broad spectrum of the marine industry, ranging from leisure boating to commercial vessels, state-of-the-art marine technology and careers within the marine sector. ‘It has been fantastic to see so many families, boating enthusiasts and newcomers on-site, discovering everything our marine industry has to offer,’ said Steve Cox, marina manager at Plymouth Yacht Haven, which is the event organiser.…

Between lashings of rum and bonhomie Mat is in need of a focused crew, for he has a trophy to bag. Blue Peter is a lady of a certain age and Mat has been both her saviour and carer for the last 30 years. She might be a Duchess at just under 100 years of age but he is not scared of loading her up for a good romping sail. This is something that Antigua has in spades, with blue seas, bright sunshine and anything from 15 to 20 knots of wind; a warm balm after a long winter at home. As a group of semi strangers we naturally gravitate to various positions about her glorious deck. Individually focused but well aware that the result rests on working as a…

It is a truth universally acknowledged that kids on boats need to be around other kids. This is especially true of teenagers. Finding buddy boats with kids and teens of similar ages or other live aboard families can become a parental obsession. Counterintuitively, the further off-grid you go, the more family boats there seem to be. Perhaps this is because sending the little tykes off to school is no longer an option when you’re so far from shore. In the Mediterranean, for instance, it was surprisingly difficult to connect with other family boats, but in central America and the South Pacific, it was considerably easier. Or perhaps we just got lucky! Cruisers inevitably have different agendas and timetables, and boats move at different speeds, so the coming and going of…

We all hope to never find ourselves in this situation, but any sailor’s greatest fear is to discover water flooding into the boat. Trying to track down a major leak in a half-flooded boat could be extremely difficult. To find the failure fast and track down any water ingress, we keep a detailed map of all the hull penetrations onboard. In the event of the boat being part-flooded, spots that should be above the waterline may end up being submerged, so these are included too. If we’re trying to find the source of some ingress, having this map ensures we can keep cool and methodically check all possible sources.…

Shorthanded offshore racing is all the rage these days, but Yachting Monthly has known that for decades, having started the YM Triangle Race in 1984, which ran every two years subsequently until Covid put an end to it. Now reborn under the auspices of the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club as the Yachting Monthly Celtic Triangle race, it was the enthusiasm of the UK Doublehanded Offshore Series and the Solo Offshore Racing Club, as well as loyal support from veteran Triangleurs, some of whom have sailed in several previous editions of the event, that coalesced to bring the event back. Kate Cope, skipper of Purple Mist, a Sun Fast 3200, and director of the UK Double Handed Offshore Series, has covered a lot of offshore race miles, including the AZAB and…

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This cruising area is all about wilderness cruising and superlative scenery. It is best enjoyed during longer periods of settled weather. Landscapes vary from the soft plains of the outer islands to the high peaks of the munros; from open white sand beaches to rugged rocky indents. The geology of the whole region is extraordinary, born from ancient volcanoes, tectonic fault lines and glaciation. Even to a non-geologist the remarkable rocks are evident and the scale of it all is astonishing. The wildlife is abundant, with breeding colonies of seabirds in places including Handa, the Shiant Islands and St Kilda. Skye and Raasay are home to many pairs of golden eagles and white-tailed sea eagles. The outer islands are a hotspot for whale watching, including minke, pilot and orca, as…

WORTH OVER £1,000 WITH SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE AWARD Zhik, the pioneering sailing brand, is proud to sponsor the Spirit of Adventure Award. The Award celebrates the most inspiring cruising adventures undertaken in and around British and overseas waters. Whether crossing the English Channel, cruising the Scottish Isles or tackling micro-adventures further afield, we’ll publish the stories we feel encapsulate a true Spirit of Adventure. Share your tale in words and images and we will pick the best one each month. Then, an expert panel from Zhik and Yachting Monthly will pick the best article of the year at the Southampton Boat Show in September 2025. The winning author will receive a suite of sailing kit worth over £1,000, including the all-new OFS700™ Jacket, Salopette and Seaboot 700 packed in a…

It was round about then that the main business of this voyage started to unfold, and it began as no more than a tiny dot at the indistinct junction between the ocean and the sky. I had not seen anything quite like it at sea: there was something odd about its shape and scale. After weeks of observing nothing but the subdued and soft-edged shades of the natural world, I was jolted by the brightness of this whatever-it-was, by its garish intrusion into the all-pervading grey. I pulled out my binoculars and studied it more closely. It was orange-yellow in colour and without doubt a man-made artefact. Was it some sort of strange ship? Or was it something smaller? A scientific measurement buoy, perhaps? For a while I could not…

The Brian Black Memorial Award for Marine Environmental Journalism is in full swing again this year, and the judging panel includes a new member, Brian’s granddaughter Penny Black, who will help assess the junior photography category. This year ‘Our Changing Seas’ is the main theme of the entries. Judges will be looking for images and stories that answer the questions: How have you witnessed the changing marine environment and weather patterns through your sailing and along the coast? What was driving this change? And how do we respond to it? The new photography category is supported by Canon, which is offering two camera kits for best adult and junior photographers. For the written submission, there is a prize of £2,000 for the best 1,800-word article and accompanying images. ‘Sailing with granddad,…

Almost every day we are alerted to a crisis, be it social, political economic or environmental. It is easy to feel overwhelmed and start to block out everything and assume the worst. As sailors, we are all too aware of climate change, warming seas and how that affects our activities. Over the last few years, it has become apparent that steps are being taken to address the growing pressures on our waters, from the Save Our Seas campaign and the Studland Bay eco-moorings in the UK, to numerous initiatives in our home waters in the Mediterranean. I recently attended a meeting at the local yacht show held by the Sustainable Sailing in Greece organisation. It was set up to highlight the pressures that large numbers of yachts can have on…

There’s an unavoidable burden that weighs upon the shoulders of all boat owners – maintenance. This burden lies even more heavily on cruising families. Lengthy, unscheduled stopovers can be a major cause of frustration and tension. Seven weeks locked down and isolated in a filthy boatyard in Spain with no running water and only a bucket for a toilet – as we were during COVID-19 – was no fun at all. Neither was losing our entire battery bank to an electrical fault in Colombia…. My tip is to consider putting a budget aside for a local rental property or Airbnb. It may even be possible to secure a free local house sit if your timing is right and you enjoy looking after pets! This not only eases the burden on…

When we set out to cross the Atlantic, one of the best bits of advice we were given was to do the ‘daily deck walk’. When you’re tired or the weather is a bit rough, it’s amazing how quick it can be to find an excuse when we just don’t feel like doing it – but do it we must. It’s a great way to get the rest of the crew involved as well. The purpose of the deck walk is to, slowly and systematically, go around the whole boat looking at each fitting, making sure everything is still as it should be. In particular, look for chafe on the lines or a broken strand of rigging wire. Run your hand over the bottom of the stays, take a long…

SAFETY GEAR Lifesaving equipment ■ Two horseshoe buoys, at least one must have a dan buoy with pole and flag, both should have lights ■ One rescue sling ■ One throwing/heaving line Emergency beacons ■ At least one EPIRB ■ One AIS beacon per person ■ Ideally, a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) per person Lifejackets ■ Must include attachment points for a safety tether ■ Carry at least one re-arming kit per lifejacket ■ Have at least one spare lifejacket on board AIS and radar ■ An AIS transmitter is mandatory ■ Ideally, install a SeaMe or Echomax active radar reflector Onboard safety ■ Secure all floorboards, furniture, fuel and water tanks, and the cooker ■ Label internal sole boards, cushions and other removable items with your boat’s name ■…

Back in 1925, Malden Heckstall-Smith, then editor of Yachting Monthly, was one of a small group of yachtsmen who formed the organising committee for the inaugural offshore contest, the Fastnet Race, an event that has become a household name for yachties. Heckstall-Smith was indeed an authority on organising handicaps for racing yachts. There was serious debate within this clique of yachting gentlemen about what shape this first ‘Ocean Race’ would take. The renowned Claud Worth wrote to Yachting Monthly in 1925 to state that the Ocean Racing Club’s first course should be to the Spanish port of Vigo and back. It was a colleague, the writer Weston Martyr, who suggested a race from Cowes, around Fastnet Rock and back to Plymouth. His idea was inspired by an earlier race to…

When people talk about a school trip, spending a week in the Italian Mediterranean doesn’t immediately spring to mind. Whereas at my school this is exactly what happened. At the time of this trip I was aged 17 in my third year of Italian High School. Despite sea-sickness, tight spaces and no showers, it actually turned out to be the most unlikely yet perfect school trip. Our journey began with a five-hour overnight coach ride from the city of Turin, in Piedmont, in the far northwest of Italy, to the port city of Livorno in Tuscany, and although the bus broke down, we arrived with enough time for breakfast before getting on the ferry for the island of Capraia in the Tyrrhenian Sea. This is where the real journey began!…

While relatively few boats use AC at sea, the majority of us take advantage of it when alongside. The benefits are many, although not without risks to your health and your boat. The story starts with the local electricity firm supplying 3-phase AC power (typically 415V) to the marina. This is divided into 240V single-phase and distributed to the various pontoons where 3-pin electrical sockets, mounted on pedestals and often metered, are spaced so as to be accessible to neighbouring boats. The sockets are normally rated at 15A – enough for most purposes but not very heavy loads such as household type stoves that can draw up to 40A. ELECTRICAL CONDUCTORS The three conductors that carry the power to the socket are ‘live’, ‘neutral’ and ‘earth’. The neutral and earth are…

A futile gesture of pettiness James Kenning Safely anchored, I set off in the dinghy to explore the turquoise waters of the Tobago Cays. I spied a lovely beach where, already ashore, were some smartly uniformed crew setting up a gazebo on the otherwise deserted sand. After beaching my dinghy, it wasn’t long before a smirking deckhand approached. ‘Well done on choosing the best beach in the Cays,’ he said, ‘but our yacht has exclusively hired this island so you must leave.’ Unfortunately for him, I knew where my rights began and his ended; reserving a marine park shoreline was not one of his! He continued to stake his false claim, but I held my ground telling him where to put his ‘exclusivity rights’ before wading in for a swim.…