OUR PICK OF THE SEASON’S BEST NEW YACHTS
SEPTEMBER 2016
Our pick of the season’s best new yachts CRUISING
SEPTEMBER 2016
Force 13 in the North Atlantic Get ready for night sailing Mystery in the Chilean fjords RACING
Short-handed spinnaker drops
ON TEST
Azuree 41 Euphoria 68 Waszp – a dinghy to get you foiling
Chasing the Olympic dream – who to watch in Rio FEATURES
Battle of the schooners Three Peaks – sailing’s ultra-endurance race
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Ainslie leads race to America’s Cup
SEPTEMBER 2016
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Top yachts at the autumn shows Our pick of the best new yachts launching this autumn and where to see them
AT A GLANCE ON THE WIND
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New route for Volvo Ocean Race promises long Southern Ocean leg
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Collision at GC32 foiling cat event Match racing victor shares $1m win
NEW GEAR AND YACHTS
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On test: Azuree 41 The third in this impressive range from Turkey
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New gear Data on your wrist, plus turning your mobile into a satphone
RACING
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Battle of the schooners A spectacle of sail as seven schooners race together in Palma
PRACTICAL
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Special report How to prepare for sailing at night
Home victory for Ainslie
Chasing the Olympic dream
100 Extraordinary boats We look at
It was a thrilling victory for the British team in Portsmouth as plans are put forward to hold the America’s Cup every two years
Every sailor competing for a medal has a story of joy, sacrifice and sheer hard work. Helen Fretter meets some of the hopefuls
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The mystery of the whales
Peak performance
Hundreds of dead whales were spotted in the Chilean fjords. Why were they there? An expedition by yacht aimed to find out
The Three Peaks Yacht Race is one of ultra endurance. Dee Caffari describes how the challenge took her totally by surprise
the exciting one-design WASZP
Short-handed sailing Pip Hare on dropping the kite without drama
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Weather briefing Chris Tibbs on thunder and lightning at sea
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Get out of that Brian Thompson tackles a ripping affair at the mark
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From the Editor Letters Matthew Sheahan Skip Novak Great Seamanship Yachts for sale Classified advertisements Backfire COVER PICTURE
SEPTEMBER 2016
Our pick of the season’s best new yachts CRUISING
Force 13 in the North Atlantic Get ready for night sailing Mystery in the Chilean fjords RACING
Short-handed spinnaker drops
ON TEST
Azuree 41 Euphoria 68 Waszp – a dinghy to get you foiling
Chasing the Olympic dream – who to watch in Rio FEATURES
Battle of the schooners 3 Peaks – sailing’s ultra endurance race
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Ainslie leads race to America’s Cup
SEPTEMBER 2016 £4.90
Published monthly on the second Thursday of the month by Time Inc (UK) Ltd, The Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU ©Time Inc (UK) Ltd, 2016 ISSN 0043-9991
From the same stable as our test boat this month is the impressive Turkish-built Euphoria 68. Read about her on page 80.
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The spirit of adventure and innovation
ten days to shine
Jésus Renedo/Sailing Energy
Few areas of sailing involve the same degree of dedication as the Olympics. For all the sailors competing this summer, it is the culmination of at least four years of training. The cold, hard, exhausting months and years on the water are over, and everything will be decided in ten days. We can expect exciting and skilled racing in the capricious conditions of Rio. New sailing heroes will be made. One of biggest stories will be the quest of Robert Scheidt, five-times medallist (and erstwhile rival of Ben Ainslie) to win a medal in his sixth successive Games. That would make him the first Olympian to do so, and before his home crowd. (See page 42.) There is also the Paralympics to look forward to in September. There, for example, Britons Stephen Thomas, John Robertson and Hannah Stodel will be racing for the fourth time in the Sonar class, trying to gain the medal that a technical penalty wrenched from them in 2012. This will be a poignant end to sailing in the Paralympics. Controversially, the sport is being dropped from the 2020 Games. The Rio Olympics will also settle, one way or the other, the rumpus about water quality in Guanabara Bay. Let’s hope that it is less of a risk to competitors than feared. With so much of sport right now in disrepute, sailing remains one of the cleanest and should be highlighting the importance of water quality.
Elaine Bunting Editor Twitter @elainebunting
AND ANOTHER THING . . . Some still argue that monohull racing is a more engrossing spectacle than foiling cats. The America’s Cup World Series Portsmouth proved – again – that this style of racing is in sync with modern sporting entertainment: quick, tactical, powerful and savagely brief.
This summer, the supermaxi Comanche set a new monohull transatlantic record, François Gabart broke the 24-hour solo record and the time for the Round the Island Race fell. While some greet new records with ennui, behind them all is a steady wave of technological development and terrific crew skills.
We posted a video on Facebook recently of White Pearl, the world’s largest sailing yacht, and asked readers’ views. You didn’t like it much. One comment brutally summed up the mood: ‘Never has an oceangoing vessel been in greater want of a reef, a torpedo or stout whale.’
Become a Yachting World reader with benefits: visit yachtingworld.com/16S to subscribe today
ON THE WIND
4 I September 2016
PICTURE THIS Golden oldies eritage, a 1984-vintage Sigma 33 belonging to yacht surveyor Mike Newton and sailing in ISCRS Division 6C, is having a blast in the windy conditions of the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, in which records tumbled and there was one sinking. Read more on page 14. Photo by James Tomlinson/RTP
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ON THE WIND
PICTURE THIS Rakish angles rtemis Racing, the Swedish team’s AC45, soaring high at the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series in Portsmouth in July. Achieving a stable flying angle is key in the one-design foiling AC45s, which have 2.7m deep curved daggerboards with adjustable rake and T-foil rudders. Photograph by Ricardo Pinto/ACEA 2016
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ON THE WIND
Top: pre- and post-race sailors’ parades proved a huge hit with fans young and old queuing to meet their heroes. Above: the Duchess of Cambridge congratulates the winning crew of Land Rover BAR
Home victory as Land Rover BAR leads race to the America’s Cup HELEN FRETTER AND ELAINE BUNTING REPORT
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year since the first racing of the 35th Cup cycle graced the Solent the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series returned to Portsmouth for the second time from 21-24 July and it was evident that the game has moved on. This second UK World Series event felt very much like like a dress rehearsal for the Cup in the Solent. After last year, when racing was cancelled because of gale force winds on the final day, in July conditions in Portsmouth allowed all racing to be completed on schedule – the first World Series event so far to do so. The weekend attracted a huge turnout – event director Leslie Greenhalgh initially estimated 120,000-150,000 visitors over the four days. Spectators had staked out their places on the shoreline three hours before the racing began, and the race village was
8 I September 2016
packed with committed fans, many proudly wearing their own team kit. But it was on the water where it became clear just how far things have come since last year, when many teams were still finding their feet in the foiling AC45s. Day one featured some shake-ups. On a baking hot day of ‘low-riding’ conditions with sub-12 knot wind speeds, Franck Cammas’s Groupama Team France put in their best showing so far, finishing the day tied at the top with Land Rover BAR. The French team’s form had not previously lived up to the talent of the squad and skipper, and with champion match racer Adam Minoprio stepping in as wing trimmer and tactician, the tricksy, reactive conditions of the first day seemed to suit their style. The imminence of the Rio Olympics brought other changes. Emirates Team New
Above: the 2016 Portsmouth World Series event was the first to complete every race on schedule, with foiling conditions on day two
Zealand went into the Portsmouth event as series leaders, but with 49er medal hopefuls Pete Burling and Blair Tuke headed to the Games, the Kiwi camp had a major reshuffle. Team skipper Glenn Ashby moved onto the helm and all but one team member shifted into a new position. Ashby is one of the world’s most talented catamaran helmsmen, winner of 15 world championship titles, but the team could finish no better than 3rd to take 4th overall in the weekend. There were big changes on Artemis Racing also. With Nathan Outteridge also in Rio, Francesco Bruni took the tiller. Bruni has been sailing with the Swedish team on their test boats, but Saturday’s racing was his first on the AC45F and the blue boat finished at the bottom of the table at the end of the series. The final Sunday brought 14-16 knot foiling conditions. Land Rover BAR cemented their lead with a straightforward demonstration of speed and timing to win the first race. In the
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Race is on for Boxing Day launch for AC50 wo, possibly three more America’s Cup World Series events are still to take place, but while these regattas play out, there is intensive behind the scenes work on the teams’ AC50 race boats. The Cup rules allow the AC50s to be launched 100 days before the qualifiers – the day after Christmas this year. This is the day the battle flags in Bermuda will be raised. The race boats are not just 1.64m longer, they are 1.5m wider and have substantially greater righting moment. They are around twice as powerful, capable of foiling in six knots of wind and reaching peak speeds of 45-46 knots. This and the teams’ improved sailing techniques mean we will routinely see fully foiling tacks and gybes in Bermuda. These boats will be much more sophisticated than the AC45s. Teams have been, and still are, working to refine areas of development, such as control systems, wings and foils. They are allowed to build two wings, and while rules specify size and shape, they do not dictate what happens to these under power – that is, how the wing bends, deflects or distorts. There is limited freedom of design for boards, so development and selection of the right one for each day’s racing will be paramount. This is an area on which teams have been spending millions. Land Rover BAR, for instance, has been using the engineering expertise and computing power of Jaguar Land Rover, applying machine learning (see Matthew Sheahan’s comment, page 26) to interpret 300 channels of data from fibre optics and strain gauges to analyse performance and in turn decide which parts of the new boat to develop and which to use in what wind strengths. When the race boats are launched the pace of design and modification will slow. In the meantime the teams are all putting each other under closer observation. The days of keeping appendages under wraps are over – this is no longer allowed. But all the teams closely observe and follow others’ development boats, often taking ‘spy’ photos with a long lens. The days of espionage and intrigue are not yet done.
ACEA/Ricardo Pinto
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America’s Cup key dates
Above: Oracle Team USA had a strong second day at Portsmouth, taking two wins and closing to within a point of new overall series leader Land Rover BAR. However, the defending team have yet to win a World Series event
ACWS Toulon 10-11 September ACWS Fukoka, Japan 18-20 November ACWS still to be confirmed, possibly Sydney, February 2017 AC qualifiers double round-robins, Bermuda, 26 May-5 June 2017 Challenger play-off, Bermuda Four teams in match race eliminators; best of nine. 7-11 June 2017 AC match best of 13 races 17-27 June 2017.
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SoftBank Team Japan
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ON THE WIND
Lloyd Images
Above: Ed Powys (standing, centre) was competing in his third event as tactician on Land Rover BAR, with Giles Scott set to compete at Rio. Left: Dean Barker, skipper of SoftBank Team Japan, which took 3rd overall
10 I September 2016
day’s second race defenders Jimmy Spithill and Oracle took their first win of the event. It all came down to the final race – Spithill got the better start, with Ainslie chasing. Oracle Team USA covered the British team tack for tack, trying to slow them sufficiently that SoftBank Team Japan might sneak through into 2nd. But it wasn’t to be: Oracle Team USA won, Ainslie came 2nd – enough to win not only the Portsmouth event, but move into 1st overall in the World Series. Spithill and Ainslie playing a 26-knot game of chess in front of a vast spectator boat fleet was a tantalising glimpse of how America’s Cup racing might look on the Solent. Asked if the day felt like a dress rehearsal for a Cup final, Ainslie smiled: “Well that would be fantastic. We’d love to be that team taking them on.” He added: “Knowing Jimmy [Spithill] I know he’d have loved nothing more than to have beaten us today in front of the home crowd, that’s just how his mentality works! So to block that was big for us.” Besides beating the defender, this was a victory that felt significant. It proved that the depth of talent and team management in Land Rover BAR have given them room to make changes without sacrificing consistency. All the crew were full of praise for strategist Ed Powys, who ably rose to the high-pressure challenge of standing in for Giles Scott. Meanwhile at the supporters’ post-race briefing at their team base, David Carr praised sailing team manager Jono Macbeth for managing the transition. Contingency planning has already begun among the British event organisers for what happens after next June. Event director Leslie Greenhalgh said that their ideal scenario would be an agreement to resume the World Series after the Cup match, with the first events as early as September 2017. But the Portsmouth ACWS also proved
An America’s Cup every two years? artin Whitmarsh (right) has been CEO of Land Rover BAR for a little over a year. “It’s fresh for me,” he says enthusiastically about his new role. The former CEO of McLaren Racing F1 team was brought in not only as part of Ben Ainslie’s drive to ‘bring the Cup home’, but to assist in trying to put America’s Cup competition on a surer commercial footing. “San Francisco was transformative. You had a product that was exciting and televisual and then nothing for 18 months. The public interest dissipated. We need to drive up value so that sponsors can make a longer-term commitment and the public and fans’ interest can be sustained,” he declares. Whitmarsh is playing a key role behind the scenes of the America’s Cup in trying to persuade teams to sign up to a framework agreement for the next and future America’s Cups. What is on the table is a radical plan that would transform a four-yearly extravaganza into a tightly organised and comparatively predictable cycle culminating every two years. From an event subject to the designs of the winner, it would become a more
Above: the Portsmouth-based Land Rover BAR team were favourites to repeat their win from last year and attracted huge home support (left) – early estimates talked of 120,000-150,000 visitors attending the four-day ACWS event
that if the BAR boys do win the America’s Cup, the UK can put on an event that will do them proud. Greenhalgh commented: “Sir Keith [Mills] wanted to demonstrate that the UK can host world class events and there was definitely an air of showing what can be done in the future.” With just ten months until the qualifying series begins, the quest to bring the America’s Cup match back to Britain is now hurtling towards its conclusion.
What’s in it for the winner? Besides the boost of beating the challengers in one-design AC45s, the winner of the America’s Cup World Series also gains a points advantage when competition moves into the AC50 development class in 2017. The winner of the ACWS overall will start with a two point advantage heading into the qualifiers, a round-robin match racing series which determines who will get to challenge Oracle Team USA for the America’s Cup. The ACWS runner-up gets a one-point advantage. Oracle Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill added that there was also an incentive for the defender: “If we win the series we get to start the America’s Cup one point ahead. So it’s definitely worth fighting for, and we’re taking it seriously.”
Harry KH/Land Rover BAR
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favour of such an agreement. Five put up their hands. Glenn Ashby of Emirates Team New Zealand conspicuously did not. The team is still awaiting arbitration on a decision to drop Auckland as a host port for the America’s Cup qualifying regatta. Jimmy Spithill, skipper of Oracle Team USA, is another voluble supporter of a new plan and confirms that there is “general agreement”. “We all need to think of the long-term future and, even more importantly, the next generation,” he says. “I speak to New Zealand and on a one-to-one they are broadly in agreement, as all teams are. They understand what we are trying to do, but there is historic antagonism within our sport, competitive edge, paranoia and things that mitigate against co-operation and we’ve got to manoeuvre our way through that for the good of our sport,” says Whitmarsh. Other countries with an interest in joining in are said to include Oman and Australia (a World Series event in Sydney in February is still in discussion). If Luna Rossa could be persuaded back, and there were to be a Spanish entry as well there could be as many as ten teams in the next Cup. Whitmarsh is pushing for an agreement to be in place this year, before the race boats are launched in late December and those obscuring mists of battle descend on the teams. But how realistic is a 2016 deadline for an agreement that would fundamentally change the Cup? “I am an optimist by nature. We have such an opportunity with this sport to make it bigger, more sustainable and successful. The idea of stuttering from one campaign to another in the way it has been is not on. It needs to be much more businesslike.”
“we have an opportunity with this sport to make it bigger” consensual sport playing to a set of fixed rules. And underpinning the detail is the proposal to “up the tempo” and race for the America’s Cup every other year. The proposed plan would lock down the boats to be used and the schedule, with the goal of reducing costs, providing certainties for teams and longer-term commitment from sponsors. The development boats, the so-called ‘turbos’ would be banned, the America’s Cup World Series made into the qualifier for the Cup and raced in AC50s. The box rule would simplify the 50ft Cup Class, provide for more rig options “to allow them to race in wind conditions from four or five to 26 knots, and reduce costs to not much more than the Volvo Ocean Race by eliminating complexity,” Whitmarsh says. The rule could exclude areas such as foils, control systems, structure and materials to allow the Cup boats to continue to push development. “You’d start out with the AC45s, ban the turbos, encourage a bigger entry and then try to migrate to AC50s as quickly as you can. The migration would be towards testing, World Series and semi-finals, finals and match all in the same class of boat,” explains Whitmarsh. Skippers were asked at a press conference in Portsmouth who was in
September 2016 I 11
ON THE WIND
Movistar
Left: a welcome return to long Southern Ocean legs for 2017. Below: new CEO Mark Turner
Volvo Ocean Race returns to long Southern Ocean legs he Volvo Ocean Race is to have a new route for the next edition in 2017 that puts the emphasis back on its historic and infamous long Southern Ocean legs. The race will now go from Alicante to Lisbon before a big stretch to Cape Town, followed by one of the longest legs in the event’s history, 12,000 miles from South Africa to Hong Kong south of Australia and through the Southern Pacific Ocean. From here the race has a non-scoring leg to Guangzhou in China, then on to Auckland before turning for another Southern Ocean leg and rounding of Cape Horn to Itajaí in Brazil. Thereafter it returns to Newport, Rhode Island and across the Atlantic to Cardiff, back to the UK for the first time in 12 years. Then via the north of Scotland and The Minch to a stopover in Gothenburg before a grand finale in The Hague. Announced by the new CEO, Mark Turner, who had been in place for only three weeks, the route decision largely pre-dates his arrival. Its first big Southern Ocean leg, justifiably dubbed an ‘epic’ and a ‘monster’, was made possible when sponsors Abu Dhabi decided not to participate again – the last route hitched north from Cape Town to the Middle East. However, the stamp of Turner can nevertheless be seen in some of the ways he is seeking to implement the changes, and his enthusiasm for the return to a historical
12 I September 2016
Ainhoa Sanchez/Volvo Ocean Race
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“this route is taking us back to our roots” The route of the Volvo Ocean Race 2017/18 Leg 1
Alicante-Lisbon, 700 miles, 3 days approx
Leg 2
Lisbon-Cape Town, 7,000 miles, 22 days approx
Leg 3
Cape Town-Hong Kong, 12,000 miles, 32 days approx
Leg 4
Hong Kong-Guangzhou, transition leg and in-port race
Leg 5
Hong Kong-Auckland, 6,000 miles, 29 days approx
Leg 6
Auckland-Itajaí, 7,200 miles, 23 days approx
Leg 7
Itajaí-Newport, Rhode Island, 5,500 miles, 8 days approx
Leg 8
Newport-Cardiff, 3,300 miles, 8 days approx
Leg 9
Cardiff-Gothenburg, 1,230 miles, 5 days approx
Leg 10
Gothenburg-The Hague, 520 miles, 3 days approx
Round the world distance: 43,450 miles
tenet of the original Whitbread Race. Turner himself raced in the event in 1989/90 on British Defender. “This route is taking us back to our roots. We’re tripling the miles in the Southern Ocean. This is the big one for us. It takes the race deep into the Southern Ocean, close to the Antarctic and the leg that has forged the reputation of this race, made the skippers as characters and leaders, and it’s what every sailor dreams of. This is the place to test you and your team,” Turner comments. “We will sail in the Southern Ocean three times more miles than in previous races. It is the second longest leg in the history of the race, taking between 27 and 37 days. It’s a monster of a leg and we will apply some bonus points to it. “The race will be over 45,000 miles, longer than any previous race and [sailed] in eight months and not nine. We will be about to capture some of the original spirit and it will visit 11 cities, so we have the chance to inspire more people than ever.” The 2017 race will stop in Hong Kong, a global commercial hub which Turner maintains both he and the race have long had an ambition to include, and to which Turner has links through the Extreme Sailing Series he founded. The new route also features a visit to Guangzhou, what is considered a ‘tier 1’ city in China, a short hop from Hong Kong. This will be a non-scoring leg, but there will be an in-port race that does count overall. The stop in Cardiff also has some Mark Turner hallmarks, as this is a city with which he also forged a partnership for the Extreme Sailing Series. And it will see the race return to the UK, increasing the exposure to that market and providing another neat link with history, as the Whitbread once started and finished in the UK. Organisers hope the next Volvo Ocean Race will involve all seven of the current VO65 one-designs. They also have the time if necessary to build an eighth boat, should sufficient teams be found. At present, four teams are believed to be interested, if not formally signed up.
The first official entry in the 2017/18 Volvo Ocean Race was confirmed in July as a Dutch team sponsored by global paints company Akzo Nobel. It will be skippered by Simeon Tienpont, who was part of the Team Vestas Wind crew in the last race and will be taking part in his third VOR.
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ON THE WIND
Rachel Fallon-Langdon
High-speed Round Ireland Race
Round the Island record tumbles ne of the more dramatic of recent years, this year’s JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race was the last sponsored by the investment firm and a new race record was set. With 40 knots of wind across the course at times, the overall race record was smashed by almost half an hour, as Lloyd Thornburg’s MOD70 Phaedo3 steamed around the 52-mile course in just 2h 23m 23s. The crew knocked 28 minutes off the previous time set by Ben Ainslie two years ago in an AC45 catamaran. Owner Thornburg commented after coming ashore that the trimaran, skippered by Brian Thompson, had been sailing on the limits of control. “It was just on the edge where we could keep the full main up, so the boat was totally powered up. Reaching and downwind it was right on the edge.” Thompson added that with a clear reach to the Needles on one tack the team might have been able to shave a further ten minutes or so off the record time. The Gold Roman Bowl went to Tony Langley’s TP52 Gladiator, with a crew that included the owner’s son, Bernard, on the helm and a professional crew with a great deal of Solent experience between them. Boat captain Brett Aarons recorded boat speeds of 20-24 knots along the St Catherine’s Point to Bembridge leg of the course, reaching under A4. Gladiator completed the course in 4h 28m to take the overall IRC prize. Half an hour later, Sir Keith Mills’s Fast 40+ Invictus came home to take 2nd place. The crew aboard Invictus included Prince Harry. Mike Slade’s supermaxi, Leopard, was the first monohull home.
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Courtesy of the RNLI
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Despite the strong breezes, which meant racing was cancelled for the gaffers, smaller multihulls and sportsboats, there were relatively few retirements. But one yacht was lost. Alchemist, a 1977 Dubois-designed half-tonner took on water and sank in Scratchells Bay. It is likely the yacht, owned by Mark Wynter, commodore of the Island Sailing Club, collided with either the Varvassi wreck or Goose Rock before she sank rapidly in around 17m of water just east of the Needles. All the crew, which did not include Wynter, were rescued safely by the RNLI. Besides competing in almost every Round the Island Race since her launch, the beautifully varnished Alchemist was a familiar sight on the Solent and a frequent competitor in cross-Channel races. Many youngsters who went on to become key figures in the Solent enjoyed their first taste of offshore racing on board. Yacht designer John Corby posted: ‘Seeing it under construction at Lallows when I was about 15 was one of the things that made me want to build boats.’
Above: the RNLI comes to the rescue of the crew of Alchemist. Top: MOD70 Phaedo3 en route for the record
Family set new round IOW records
Lester McCarthy
Half-tonner sunk
Weeks prior to her capsize in the North Atlantic (see page 18), MOD 70 Musandam-Oman-Sail claimed a new world record in the Volvo Round Ireland Race in mid-June. George David’s Rambler 88 smashed the outright monohull record. After a 700-mile drag race three MODs – Oman Sail, Phaedo3 and Concise 10 – crossed the finish line within minutes of each other. Having trailed the other two for the majority of the race, Oman Sail snatched the lead by taking an inshore track less than a mile from the line, beating their own outright record from last year by two hours in 38h 37m. Rambler 88 fizzed round Ireland in just 2d 2h, eclipsing both the 2008 race record set by the 100ft Leopard by 15 hours and the open monohull record by seven hours.
The Bridge family is not one to sit (or even stand) still. On the eve of the Round the Island Race, the British foiling kitesurfers set out to rewrite some speed records. Guy Bridge, 16, beat his older brother Olly in a race round the Isle of Wight by just two seconds, setting a new World Sailing Speed record for the fastest single-handed sailor in the process. Their mother, Steph, finished half an hour later to become the fastest female ever to race round the Island. Great video at www.volvocars.co.uk/kitesurfing
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COMMENT
Above: collision
GC32 foiling catamarans soar in popularity but raise safety issues I
16 I September 2016
has become more of a proving ground for teams wishing to get flying time and technical know-how. The Extreme Sailing Series, meanwhile, is now in its tenth year and the OC Sportorganised event shows no signs of slowing down, with nine events scheduled for 2016 and a core of seven or eight boats competing at each, including teams from Oman, China and Portugal. This year’s calendar includes Hamburg, Sydney and Lisbon, with rumours of visits to Hawaii and New Zealand.
Skipper sentenced in foiling incident French skipper Yann Guichard has been fined and given a suspended sentence following the most serious foiling accident to date. This was between the giant trimaran Spindrift and a marshall boat at the start of a Volvo Ocean Race leg in Lorient in 2015 when a woman’s leg was struck and
severed by the yacht’s daggerboard foil. In June, Guichard was found guilty of unintentional injuries and endangering the lives of others, and sentenced to six months’ suspended sentence by the criminal court of Lorient. He was fined €25,000.
Jean Sebastien Evrard
t was the biggest fleet of foiling catamarans ever gathered at Lake Garda in Italy this July for the GC32 Malcesine Cup. The event attracted ten teams and an international field from Sweden, France, Japan, Monaco, USA and the Netherlands. It was won by Team Tilt, skippered by Sébastien Schneiter. However, sailing was cancelled for the final day after a collision between Prince Casiraghi of Monaco’s GC32 Malizia – Yacht Club de Monaco and a press RIB on the penultimate day, as host club Fraglia Vela Malcesine and GC32 class association were unable to reach an agreement over liability. Meanwhile, seven GC32s took part in the Extreme Sailing Series in Cardiff at the end of June, in the most challenging conditions the fleet has seen since it moved to the foiling GC32 class this season. The two circuits are distinct, although some teams – such as Alinghi – do overlap. The GC32 Racing Tour is in fact the larger, comprising a series of races on Lake Garda and in Palma and Marseille. Originally considered the owner-driver tour as opposed to the Extreme’s corporate sponsor tour, it
between Prince Casiraghi of Monaco’s GC32 and a RIB. Top: sailing Engie
Success can be a scary thing. That was my thought on board one of the ten-strong GC32 fleet as they blasted off at 30-plus knots on a reaching start. With so many together, the pace and proximity are hair-raising. As the guest rider with Sébastien Rogues on his French GC32 team, Engie, racing on the GC32 Malcesine Cup on Lake Garda, I was piercingly aware that it would take just one mistake or lapse of concentration to cause a serious crash. The GC32s are deemed at the limit of what a crew can handle manually without the help of hydraulics, especially raising the foils in a hurry. It is no coincidence that the crews are built like rugby forwards. The pace on board through gybes and tacks is frenetic. With closing speeds of over 50 knots, what would happen in a collision? High-speed foil racing is raising interesting new issues that will need to be resolved as it gains popularity, such as adapting the Racing Rules of Sailing for mark rounding (three boatlengths are over in the blink of an eye), and developing RIBs and chase boats that can keep pace and take quick avoiding action (see left). The remedies to prevent future accidents may include protected areas or better training. But while the GC32s are at a scale suited to honed professional sailors, amateur or semi-professional fleet racing is sooner or later bound to follow in a more manageable and affordable class. When that happens, racing at high speed on foils will be a sport with thrills – but almost certainly spills – and it will turn sail racing into a sport comparable with downhill mountain biking or freestyle skiing. Elaine Bunting
The accident led to the amputation of Virginie Le Namouric’s left leg. Her husband was driving the RIB at the time.
ON THE WIND
Pedro Martinez/Martinez Studio
Flotilla sailing with a difference
RC44s a foil to flying cats trend he RC44s visited the UK for the first time this summer, racing out of Portsmouth from 13-17 July. The design turns ten next season, and while fleet numbers have not expanded beyond around a dozen, it continues to attract a loyal cohort of owners who want their sailing to be based on participation, rather than spectacle. The racing area was set in the eastern Solent, beyond the Forts – and guests watch the racing from RIBs, or on board in the ninth man position, not a hospitality suite. The RC44 is all about a purer racing experience. A serious level of funding is required to take part, but the RC44 class is designed to appeal to the owner-drivers, rather than their company’s marketing departments. The RC44s are tweaky and responsive,
T
with keel trim tabs, adjustable headstay rams and backstays. Class creator Russell Coutts intentionally incorporated “a degree of complexity so an owner can experience what a top-end race boat is like to sail”. They are also hard work. Briton John Bassadone, who owns Peninsular Petroleum Sailing Team, explains the class’s appeal: “It’s such a fun boat to sail. Downwind when you have 15-20 knots it’s fast, but it’s easy to control as well. It’s hard in terms of stiff competition, but in terms of the actual steering of the boat for somebody who maybe isn’t very experienced, like myself, you can get away with it!” His and Chris Bake’s Team Aqua are the only GBR-flagged boats in a fleet that is especially popular with Russian owners.
Above: created by Russell Coutts, the RC44 involves a degree of complexity
Royal Dart YC celebrates its 150th anniversary
18 I September 2016
Lloyd Images
MOD 70 capsizes in North Atlantic Sidney Gavignet and his crew were rescued by a cargo ship after the MOD70 Musandam-Oman Sail capsized off Newfoundland during the Transat Quebec-St Malo race. The crew were later transferred back to land by the Canadian Coastguard. The boat was 450 miles east of the St Pierre and Miquelon islands when it capsized in the early hours of 17 July. This is the second serious incident for Oman Sail, after crewmember Mohammed Al Alawi was lost overboard
during a delivery sail last year. It is the fourth MOD70 to flip over, following Spindrift’s dramatic capsize in Dun Laoghaire in 2013 and Virbac Paprec’s during a training sail off Brittany in the same year. Race for Water overturned in the Indian Ocean in 2015.
Above: the MOD70 Oman Sail at the start of the Round Britain and Ireland Race
Pro sailor and kiteboarder Brock Callen is leading a new flotilla holiday for experienced kiteboarders. Five Sunsail 444 catamarans will be sailing around the Abacos islands of the Bahamas for seven days this November, hopping between the best kiting spots by yacht. Bareboat or skippered charter and single cabin options are available through Sunsail for keen kitsurfers who have their own kit.
The Royal Dart Yacht Club is celebrating its 150th anniversary with a series of regattas this summer. One of these is a new event, the Savills Commodore’s Challenge Cup for team racing, which the club hopes will become a permanent fixture on the South West’s sailing calendar. A challenge was issued to 12 other yacht clubs on the south coast of Devon and Cornwall, inviting them to submit one or more teams of three boats to compete in a fleet racing competition in Start Bay on 23 July. The Royal Dart will also host the start of the Association of Sail Training Organisations Race for sail training ships on 20-21 August, where it will also stage the Royal Dart Yacht Club Provident 150 Challenge. www.royaldart.co.uk
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ON THE WIND
Many a slip A crewmember gets a dunking from the long bowsprit of the Spanish classic Gipsy, during the Puig Vela Clàssica Barcelona. Constant breezes made the ninth edition of this classic yacht regatta one of the best yet. Winner of the event for the fifth time was Moonbeam III Photo: Luis Fernandez
NEXT MONTH
Robertson wins $1 million prize ew Zealand sailor Phil Robertson scooped the largest single cash prize in sailing history when he won the final of the World Match Racing Tour, held in Marstrand, Sweden in early July. But he declared he was sharing his US$1m bounty with his competitors. Robertson and his fellow Waka Racing crew, Stu Dodson, Will Tiller and James Wierzbowski, won $33,000 for their victory in the final Marstrand event. They beat bookmaker’s favourite Taylor Canfield in a thrilling final that involved two collisions. Robertson, 29, was crowned world champion and picked up the bonus cheque of $1m. It was a fairytale finish for Robertson, winning the title he has been chasing since 2009 – he and his crew had resorted to paying their way around the circuit after failing to secure sponsor funding. But Robertson shocked guests at the ‘Million Dollar Dinner’ prizegiving that evening with this announcement: “Every one of the 20 skippers signed an agreement before the event, whereby whoever won the million would share it with the rest of the fleet.” It had been pre-agreed that whoever won would retain the significant share of the winnings ($400,000), but that every team would receive enough money to help ensure their presence for the 2016/17 season. “Håkan Svensson invested a lot of money so that all of us could be part of this new era in the World Match Racing Tour,” Robertson
On sale 8 September
20 I September 2016
Paul Wyeth
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Building Wolfhound explained, “and with everyone getting a real piece of the pie, we’re investing it back into the Tour so we can be sure the next season is as fantastic as 2016 was.” Svensson took over ownership of the Tour last year, rejuvenating the format by switching from monohulls to M32 catamarans. His Aston Harald company builds and promotes the M32. “The competitors delivered thrills, action and drama beyond my wildest dreams,” he said. “I can’t wait to do it all again next season.”
Above: the Kiwi team wins the final Marstrand event in the World Match Racing Tour
Marine artist Steven Dews and his wife, Louise, have just launched a 64ft wood epoxy schooner built in Dorset. Wolfhound has been made for long-term bluewater cruising
Ready for the Tropics There are special considerations when preparing to cruise in the Tropics. Professional skipper and weatherman Chris Tibbs explains
Rio Olympics – the full story Complete our survey and win an iPad Mini This month we are conducting a reader survey. Please help us improve Yachting World by telling us what you like to read. You will enter the prize draw to win an
iPad Mini by completing the survey inside this month’s issue, or if you prefer by doing so online at yachtingworld2016. questionpro.com
We report on action in Rio across the various classes that decided how the sailing medals were won
On test: ClubSwan 50 Toby Hodges tests Nautor’s Swan’s exciting new club racer and declares it one of the coolest yachts he’s ever sailed
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CROSSHEAD
LETTERS
www.twitter.com/yachtingworld
www.facebook.com/ yachtingworldmagazine
Jean Marie Liot/DPPI
email yachting.world@timeinc.com Write to The Editor, Yachting World, Pinehurst II, Pinehurst Rd, Farnborough Business Park GU14 7BF Letters may be edited as appropriate
Who are the cheats?
21 tonnes being too heavy to manoeuvre or fend off manually and a nightmare in reverse, with lots of protuding bits in the wrong places, ready to catch all the other boats in those crowded Solent anchorages and marinas. However, it is what it is and we have a rule that we take it in turns to skipper and helm departure and arrival, as it is important that we both have the skills. This also means we both realise how difficult manoeuvring our boat is and that there is no point shouting at each other. With the children (and friends) on board, calmness and safety are paramount.
We have discussed this topic for years (online post ‘Cheating at yacht racing – how honest a sailor are you?’). The cheaters are usually very well known. These Cheaty McCheatfaces range from one-design sailmakers who ‘over-fettle’ their boat to give the appearance that their sails make a big difference, to a Cowes Week competitor who signs off and then apparently denies that he hit a mark even though the event was witnessed and broadcast live by Cowes Week Radio. As you said it ‘comes down to one’s personal moral compass’. We do know that there are a few that will remove their moral compass (weight 1.5kg) plus 5kg correctors at a dinghy regatta. We have the photographs (inside the tanks) to prove it as they blatantly/ stupidly left them in a bucket next to their boat along with four cans of Fosters lager . . . You have not mentioned boat sabotage, the downright dangerous practice of causing damage to boat/gear to create an advantage.
22 I September 2016
Mystic Seaport/Rosenfeld Collection
I sail a Nauticat 43 heavy-displacement ketch mostly two-handed with my wife. Having a small family, there are no thousands of ocean miles for us, just weekends in the Solent. However, in some ways this is harder than ocean miles. Our boat is totally unsuited to the task: at
Below: the great Ticonderoga. We apologise for the photo mix-up
It is vital and seamanlike that we both have the skills to skipper the boat singlehanded while coping with hysterical children, in the event one of us is incapacitated. To this end, the last part of Kim McGee’s letter (July, Letters) was interesting. Kim, I would rather be sailing with you as skipper than on that boat. Nothing you describe about deliberately sailing into a forecast 50 knots in the Bass Strait (when you had options to run for safety) sounds seamanlike and it sounds as though you were all lucky not to break something or worse. And I reckon there are plenty of men who would agree with me. Piers Covill
Ti corrected
Craig Kirkpatrick-Whitby
Doing it together
Above: whoops! Did anyone notice? We’re sure this crew took their penalty, but there are some who wouldn’t
I was excited to see that the July Great Seamanship article concerned Ticonderoga and the excerpt of her legendary Transpac victory over Stormvogel. Having worked as a cook on board Ti for a year, she holds a special place in my heart. Imagine how disappointed I was to see that the lead photo for the article is of Whitehawk not Ticonderoga. She is, of course, the well known Bruce King design taken as inspiration from Ticonderoga. A mistake which has been made before, but in this case the evidence is clear in the very recognisable domed skylight on the cabin top, not to mention her name written on the lifebuoy! Rosie Frost
❯
LETTERS
www.twitter.com/yachtingworld
www.facebook.com/ yachtingworldmagazine
On yachtingworld.com this month
Is world cruising safe? We ask cruising couples how they feel about safety and what precautions they take. yachtingworld.com/features
Skip Novak on harnesses
Nicolas Claris
Of course harnesses should be worn, but beware the time when you begin to relax. yachtingworld.com/comment
5 tips: kite drop
Cats and safety I don’t agree with Skip Novak about sailing catamarans (Comment online) – cats win out not only if the destination is important, but with the sailing too. What’s not to like about sailing faster and more comfortably? It takes the same skill to make cats sail well, and your chance of capsize is very low if you reef early. To imply that cats are unstable and waiting to do a backflip in any breeze is simply not true. Mark Baummer
SSB for distress Thank you for the article ‘Keeping in touch at sea’ (July issue). All contributors make great points and provide good operational
feedback when discussing pros and cons of SSB v SAT. I do appreciate that the article was focused on communications and data, however I found it very surprising that perhaps one of the biggest pros of an SSB set like the IC M802 referenced in the article didn’t rate a mention. The DSC function of this unit can provide an instant digital pulse distress message with MMSI and position to all DSC monitoring vessels and coast radio stations on both MF and HF. I would consider this the primary reason for installing SSB; any communication that it provides, voice or data, would be secondary. Martin Rollason
Above:what’s not to like about sailing fast and comfortably in a cruising catamaran?
Expert advice on spinnaker drops without drama. yachtingworld. com/5-tips
21 things to know about Sir Ben Such as he has a dog called Biggles. yachting world. com/features
VIDEOS yachtingworld.com/video
Alchemist sinks
Testing test
Dramatic RNLI action-cam of Round the Island sinking.
Boat test of the Jeanneau 54 in gale force conditions.
GALLERIES yachtingworld.com/galleries
HAVE YOUR SAY: Left: SSB was not the most popular in our survey for communication, but its DSS function could be a lifesaver
Follow us on Facebook and on Twitter @yachtingworld for our take on the unfolding news, and let us know your views.
Round the Island Race It was a windy, tough race this year – hard for competitors, but great for thrilling action shots from photographers.
Time Inc (UK) Ltd reserves the right to re-use any submissions sent to the Letters column of Yachting World in any format or medium
24 I September 2016
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COMMENT
MATTHEW SHEAHAN NOT ONLY CAN COMPUTERS BE CLEVERER THAN WE ARE, IT SEEMS BOATS CAN BE TOO THANKS TO THE ENGINEERS AT THE LAND ROVER BAR AMERICA’S CUP TEAM
A
s a boy I remember my father telling me that computers could never be cleverer than humans because it was humans that had written the code in the first place and would therefore always be one step ahead. It made perfect sense and I believed him, first because I looked up to him as any son would and second because his business credentials added weight to his view. Back in the early 1960s, Computer Analysts and Programmers (CAP) was among the leaders in its field and my father was a founding partner. Back then, storing software meant punching holes into reams of cheque book-sized cards and our house was full of them. But today I’m not so sure. And if he were still around I think my father would have his doubts too. Take Facebook for example. Apparently its newsfeed uses a technique called machine learning to personalise each member’s feed. You may know this already if you’re under 25. But if a member frequently stops scrolling in order to read “land rover engineers or ‘like’ a particular friend’s posts, the newsfeed will start to are using an aspect of show more of that friend’s machine learning to activity earlier in the feed. Behind the scenes, the find patterns in sailing software is using analytics to performance data” identify patterns in the user’s behaviour. It then uses these patterns to populate the news feed. Should you no longer stop to read, like or comment on a friend’s posts, the new data will be included in the data set and the newsfeed will adjust accordingly.
Machine learning
Matthew Sheahan is head of performance sailing at Sunset+Vine
26 I September 2016
I’m not sure whether to feel encouraged or worried by that. On the one hand it’s interesting to know that my habits are not simply defined by the random clicks I make online, but worrying that more is being read into my behaviour than maybe I might like. But machine learning is far more widespread than monitoring online behaviour, it’s spreading to boats.
Sir Ben Ainslie’s Land Rover BAR team has tapped into the considerable technical resources of its primary commercial partner to help make sense of what is going on aboard its fleet of high-powered, twitchy foiling cats. Land Rover engineers have been embedded into the team for over a year and are using artificial intelligence, an aspect of machine learning, to find patterns in sailing performance data to help make the boat go faster.
Analysing data Sensors on the test boats measure more than 300 variables, from fibre optic strain measurement to a six-axis accelerometer and sonic sensors that measure the distance from the boat to the water, all of which contribute to the 16GB of data recorded every day. Processing such a large amount of data is a task in itself, but with Land Rover’s computing power this can be achieved instantaneously through real-time analysis. “Unlike a Formula 1 car, where the engine’s power output can be accurately calibrated, the wind is constantly changing. This makes it difficult to quantify performance improvements,” says Richard Hopkirk, Land Rover BAR head of systems and analysis. “This is where Land Rover’s machine learning expertise comes in. The intelligent algorithms can sort through vast quantities of data and see patterns in the variables; patterns that could never be recognised by a human analyst.” Mauricio Muñoz is part of the Self Learning Car team and the Land Rover engineer spearheading this project. He says: “At Jaguar Land Rover we are using machine learning techniques to identify behavioural patterns, how people go about interacting with their cars, with the end goal of automating a lot of it. “The project at Land Rover BAR is a bit different. The focus is not so much on whether the pattern is there, but what is causing the pattern and how to visualise it. Understanding this will present a radically new view of on-the-water performance.” So not only do I find myself wondering whether my computer is already smarter than me, but now I’m worried that in the future my boat might be too.
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COMMENT
SKIP NOVAK THRILLED THOUGH HE WAS ABOUT THE ACWS VISITING HIS HOME TOWN OF CHICAGO, SKIP IS NOT A FAN OF BIG CITY RACING
W
hen I read about Ben Ainslie’s frustration in sailing underneath New York City (literally) in the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series in May, and knowing that Chicago was coming up next in June, I thought there was a real chance of him throwing the baby out with the bath water – in this case Lake Michigan, which is sort of bathtub-shaped. I hail from Chicago – ‘Captain Haddock’s fresh water pirate’. Having grown up sailing dinghies in Belmont Harbor on the near north side shore, I remember the frustration of offshore winds whistling through high-rise buildings catching you off guard – worse when we sometimes capsized in those non-rightable boats during frostbite series in early March when the lake ice was still on the way out. This was well before sailors used wetsuits or drysuits or any specialised sailing clothing so those painful experiences surely sharpened our senses for abrupt wind “let’s face it, a motor changes in view of staying dry. boat race would be more Those semi-survival lessons have stood me in good stead for of a sure bet to satisfy a lifetime of all sorts of the media and the crowds changing conditions on the far side of the world. than a yacht race” What must have been more of a concern for the organisers of the Louis Vuitton Series than variable winds whistling through skyscrapers – now two and half times as tall as when I sailed there – is Chicago’s notorious light to non-existent winds in summer.
Becalmed in front of the city When I was older, racing keelboats, I can remember countless hours becalmed in front of that city. This always provided a ready excuse to sit on the pushpit looking for zephyrs off the end of a cigarette. A similar urban vacuum proved to be the case on the Saturday, day one of the two-day Louis Vuitton event. Luckily, a northerly kicked in for the Sunday, creating
28 I September 2016
the spectacle needed for the punters on Navy Pier, which is arguably one of the best venues for a big city public to hold witness. Let’s face it though, a motor boat race would be more of a sure bet to satisfy the media and the crowds than a yacht race with all the usual unpredictables that make yacht races so interesting, at least for those of us who take part in them. But in spite of half the event being a wash-out what turned into a one-day race event was a resounding success, which is great news for the ‘Windy City’. Organisers take note: the sobriquet ‘Windy City’ does not relate to wind alone; check your Wikipedia.
Punching above their weight Holding this event successfully was a fitting accolade for freshwater, Great Lakes sailors who, if truth be known, have always punched way above their weight when it comes to many international sailing events on both fresh and salt. Buddy Melges comes to mind, as do the Harken brothers, launching their careers from tiny lakes in Wisconsin. At a young age I was lucky enough to have been press-ganged into several Corinthian-sailed yachts from Chicago that had stellar ocean racing careers. The owners needed foredeck fodder and I was the one to sort out the tangles up the rig and also jump over the side to put rubber bands on the folding propellers. Those privileges – going over the side in Lake Superior in May focused my mind to become a navigator as soon as possible – were my one-way ticket out for a life traversing the world’s oceans, but I have never forgotten my Midwestern roots. I was overjoyed to hear that Chicago is firmly back on the America’s Cup map. Although this stadium racing is all the go, it must be said that the risks for both organisers and sailors are substantial in these big city, urban environments where so much heat – both real and ‘hot air’ – is generated that any breeze at all often goes straight up. Coupled with too few days that are locked into live media slots seems like a crapshoot to me, and in the end the casino always wins. Next stop Las Vegas?
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Battle of the schooners SEVEN SCHOONERS RACED OFF PALMA IN JUNE, THE LARGEST NUMBER EVER TO SAIL TOGETHER. IT IS A COMPLEX BUSINESS, AS ELAINE BUNTING REPORTS
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eldom has there been a more magniďŹ cent sight in sailing than on the opening day of the Superyacht Cup in June. Seven classic and replica schooners gathered for a friendly match in Palma Bay, bringing together probably the greatest number of schooners to race at one time. With topsails set and pressing eight sails upwind apiece, it was a superlative
32 I September 2016
exhibition of ageless might and elegance. Such a grand collection of large schooners is unprecedented. For one thing, these yachts were built and raced in different eras; some are replicas. A few rarely compete or have never raced before. Germania Nova, a replica of the 1908 classic Germania and launched in 2011, had never been on a racecourse before. But in June she lined up alongside the 138ft Herreshoff schooner Mariette of 1915, her
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Main picture: Mariette of 1915 charges through to windward of Naema, a 137ft schooner inspired by the 1937 Alfred Mylne
September 2016 I 33
JĂŠsus Renedo
design Panda
BATTLE OF THE SCHOONERS
GERMANIA NOVA
MARIETTE OF 1915
Built 2011 Size 181ft Designed by Max Oertz/ Detlev Loell
Built 1915 Size 138ft Designed by Nathanael Herreshoff
KELPIE OF FALMOUTH
Claire Matches
Built 1928 Size 79ft Designed by Francis Sweisguth
Left: the afterguard and guests on board the giant schooner Germania Nova, a near-replica of the great German yacht
Jésus Renedo
of the early 1900s
Claire Matches
ELEONORA
ELENA
Built 2000 Size 160ft Designed by Nathanael Herreshoff
Built 2009 Size 180ft Designed by Nathanael Herreshoff
NAEMA
SHENANDOAH
Built 2013 Size 137ft Engineered by Hodgdon Yachts
Built 1902/2009 Size 178ft Designed by Theodore Ferris
smaller ‘sistership’, the Francis Sweisguth-designed Kelpie of Falmouth, Naema, a 137-footer launched in 2013 and inspired by an Alfred Mylne design, Shenandoah, the 178ft three-masted schooner, the huge 180ft Elena, a replica Herreshoff design, and Eleonora, the 162ft replica of the 1910 Herreshoff design Westward, built in 2002. The odd one out was Moonbeam. Although an eligible member of what was in its heyday known as the ‘Big Class’ this 115ft William Fife gaff cutter from 1914 had come along to a special spectacle to preface the 20th anniversary of the Superyacht Cup. The idea of a Big Class exhibition race came about through a conversation last year between Kate Branagh, organiser of the Superyacht Cup, and Charlie Wroe, captain of Mariette. There had been interest in taking part from the captain of Elena, too, and Wroe thought it would be great, “unique”, to get all those schooners active in the Mediterranean together. “I thought there were so many classic boats in port that I might get a few others to come out and play, so I spent the winter trying to persuade as many others as possible,” says Wroe. The idea gained ground and the Superyacht
Cup, says Branagh, provided “the infrastructure, the photographers – and the date.” Justin Holvik is as seasoned a captain as they come. He went to sea at 19, when he joined the Norwegian Navy. He is a master mariner, has sailed round Cape Horn on a 1904 gaff cutter and now, at 41, is in command of the enormous 181ft Germania Nova.
Andrew Wright
“this was a superlative exhibition of ageless might”
Above: bow crew at work on consecutive days of racing on the same yacht, the Herreshoff schooner Mariette of 1915
All sails flying Germania Nova feels as much like a ship as a yacht. She was launched in 2011 and is aesthetically as close as possible to Germania, the 1908 schooner built for a scion of the Krupp family. The original yacht won Cowes Week in her first year and regularly raced against Kaiser Wilhelm’s Meteor IV, reputedly yielding to her diplomatically, but her winning streak and that era came to an end owing to the outbreak of World War I. Germania was seized as a prize of war, sold and resold until, in 1930 she sank in a storm off Key Biscayne. The replica Germania Nova charters with a permanent crew of 13: a mate, bosun, chief engineer, deck engineer, chef, sous chef, stewardesses and deck hands. To race takes
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Claire Matches
BATTLE OF THE SCHOONERS
36 I September 2016
Andrew Wright
“THE JACKYARD WEIGHS 300KG. SETTING IT IN PLACE 42M ABOVE DECK TAKES CAREFUL WORK”
Above: bowman on the comparatively diminutive 79ft Kelpie of Falmouth.
Above: Caption to
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Left: Justin Holvik at the wheel of the 181ft schooner Germania Nova
go here xxx xx xx xx x xx xx xx x xx xx x xx xx xx x xx xx x xx xx x x xx xx x xx x xx xx Left: Caption to go here xxx xx xx xx x xx xx xx x xx xx x xx xx xx x xx xx x xx xx x x xx xx x x
Main picture: crew work aloft on the foremast of Mariette of 1915
nearly three times as many – there were 32 on board for the Superyacht Cup. Holvik began planning for the regatta a month beforehand. Extra crew had to be recruited and race sails prepared. The jackyard topsail had not been hoisted in two years and the jackyard topmast had been stored in an industrial estate. Permissions needed to be obtained to bring the yard, at 19.5m the longest in the fleet, to a shipyard in a long loading truck. A large group of schooners sailing together is a toweringly impressive sight. Germania Nova set a jib top, jib, staysail, fore, fore topsail, main topsail staysail, main and jackyard topsail. The jackyard weighs 300kg and setting it in its place 42m above the deck requires careful co-ordination on peak and throat halyards. A deck hand is always aloft for
the set, which is called by the mate. Harder still is lowering the yard; the mate is aloft for this and the captain calling it. The process of hoisting and setting all these sails takes nearly an hour, even with the help of modern hydraulic winches. Yet compared with bygone days, this is slow. “You could do this quicker by hand, but there’d be five people pulling a sail up, not one. You’d need 20 more guys then and it would knacker them,” says Holvik. “Looking at the records, they could set sail in 20 minutes,” says Detlev Loell, Germania Nova’s designer and build supervisor. “But Germania had more than 30 [permanent] crew. Nobody could afford that now.” With all sails flying on the first day of regatta racing, Germania Nova leaned into the breeze and marched out across the Bay of Palma at a stately, but surprising speed. We made towards the layline for the first mark at the head of the fleet, or assumed so until we saw Mariette heading out across the other side of the bay. It took several minutes to discover that the course had been changed just before the start. The course change had been announced on the radio, but the call had been missed in the preparations. Germania Nova was put about and we chased after the other schooners. The large lead on which we had been prematurely congratulating ourselves on the schooner’s first ever windward leg became, at a stroke, a sizeable stern chase.
September 2016 I 37
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Abdrew Wright
BATTLE OF THE SCHOONERS
Above: the skills of the true ‘schooner boy’ in action – head for heights is essential. Below: Elaine on Germania Nova’s enormous bowsprit
There were no other glitches in a well-sailed race, but there was no hope of more than 3rd place, finishing behind Naema. “It would have been nice to win, but we want to sail well and look spectacular,” Holvik commented.“We finished the course, everyone is safe, there is not a single rope burn. If we did more racing, I’d have a more established crew, we’d have different sails and people more familiar with certain jobs,” he added.
A breed apart
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Although technically of superyacht size, schooners are a breed apart. To anyone used to a modern yacht, the plethora of white ropes seems confusing. “There is a system within it, where halyards and topping lifts are and where downhauls are, on the opposite side. It’s the same system as the old days, which depended on who rigged the yacht. The are different dimensions of lines, the halyards are a different size to the topping lifts and downhauls, and you know them visually and by feel.” It takes a level of familiarity to sail these yachts. “The most complicated manoeuvres are settling the jackyard topsail, spinnaker gybes and sheet leads.” As on many classic yachts, schooner crews need an arsenal of traditional skills. Most fall under the heading of seamanship, that simple-sounding, but
38 I September 2016
all-encompassing mixture of seasoned experience, common sense and sixth sense. “The most complicated things are to do with leads, stoppers and transferring halyards from manual winches onto belaying pins,” says Holvik. “Sheet leads when on deck and in the air can look completely different.” “We have got three of the deck crew in harnesses while we are racing ready go aloft to change a lead. Because of the leads in the rig we can only have a sail set on one side and we have to relead a sheet or a halyard or a tack line, such as fore topsail. The fisherman we have to drop, transfer and rehoist.” But if sailing a schooner looks and is more complex in many ways, the task of running a large classic yacht is correspondingly simpler in others. “We can fix a lot ourselves whereas on more complicated yachts work has to be contracted out because it’s all so high-tech and complicated. On modern [superyachts] they’re flying in people at €1,000 a day while I have a lot of junior crew I’m training up at fraction of that and they are learning shipwright skills, carpentry, sail repair, varnishing, rope skills, canvas, leatherwork,” says Holvik. “My mate, Ben, is a shipwright. We make our own palms and ditty bags. It’s good, basic seamanship. We are very self-sufficient. I think that’s why in the J Class now you have a high percentage of classic sailors who have picked up these skills and taken them on there.” Mariette of 1915, the 140ft Herreshoff-designed schooner, is one of the best sailed and most competitively
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BATTLE OF THE SCHOONERS
“The second reason is we fly eight sails upwind and there are a lot of lines between the mast, and the opportunities for a bad lead are high. The most difficult part is getting the crew work to a situation where everyone is working in harmony. That takes time and it’s a question of putting in enough practice,” Wroe continues. “For example, take trimming a sail. It’s easy for someone to trim incorrectly because they are not aware of how their sail interacts with all the other sails and that can only be understood with experience. It’s incredibly difficult with 30 people on board to give everyone the opportunity to properly learn their own job.”
Jésus Renedo
A romantic appeal
Above: aerial view of Germania Nova. Below: the same yacht’s winchmounted breechloading 10-gauge Herreshoff saluting cannon – when fired it scared the living daylights out of the neighbouring crew of Unfurled
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raced classic yachts, and one of the best known of the big schooners. Her captain, Charlie Wroe, agrees, also pointing to the differences between schooner crews and those on modern yachts, things that contribute to a special culture shared among these boats. “If you look at modern yachts you can have 110- and 120-footers crewed by three or four people. There is a trend towards reduced crew and everyone has to be completely expert. I’d say that on a schooner you tend to get a bigger spread of experience and so it’s more family like,” says Wroe. The term ‘schooner boy’ is one still in use. It sums up a variety of skills and attributes: quickness and agility, a head for heights, a nearly prehensile ability to cling on atop, a facility to work with rope and sails, to get on agreeably with fellow crew. “Sailing a schooner, at least the way we run Mariette, makes this a younger person’s game,” says Wroe. “You are able to take on younger crew, irrespective of whether they have sailing experience of not, because they are surrounded by a core of experienced sailors. So I can bring people up through the ranks. That is not so much the case on modern boats. “Because these boats are complicated, we need consistent crew that keep coming back year after year. Essentially, we are looking at two kite hoists at the windward mark and two kite drops at the leeward mark.
Some jobs can only be done aloft. On Mariette, hoisting, setting and putting away the main topmast staysail, or MTS, requires someone to be at the top of the foremast as does helping the sail through the gap when racing. “That’s generally not a problem, but when you get to a certain wind strength and sea state you can get caught out,” says Wroe. “When you have more than 16 or 18 knots of breeze things become correspondingly different.” These complexities are perhaps one reason so few get together to compete. But Wroe wants to change that. He thinks that a regular schooner regatta could be a spectacle on a par with the J Class regattas, albeit in a much more Corinthian vein. He thinks that the display of racing in Palma could be replicated, indeed should become a regular part of the classics calendar. So he is trying to organise another to attract “eight or nine” of the dozen or so big schooners actively sailing. “I think there is an appetite among the owners and captains to have a big classic yacht regatta and in future I see Big Class yachts doing their own thing,” he says. “It doesn’t have to be separate [from existing regattas], but like any successful type such as the TP52 or J Class you have to make your own association for really good racing and race somewhere there are good conditions.” Wroe’s idea already has a name, and a plan. He is calling it Schoonerfest, and it will happen in “Porto Cervo, Bay of Palma or Mahon” next summer. “More and more of these boats are being rebuilt or restored,” says Wroe. “This would be a great showcase and a spectacle. The J Class is magnificent, but just imagine a fleet of eight-sail schooners crossing tacks with each other.”
chasing an olympic dream EVERY SAILOR COMPETING AT RIO HAS A TALE OF JOY, SACRIFICE, AND SHEER HARD WORK. HELEN FRETTER TALKS TO CONTENDERS
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ollution, Zika epidemic, Brazil’s president impeached, athletes robbed at gunpoint – the preparations for the Olympic Games in Rio have been marred by controversy. Part of the challenge for the 380 athletes taking to the water from 8-19 August will be to put the negative commentary behind them and to focus on the holy grail of an Olympic medal. There is no question that Rio has the potential to produce a stunning Games. It is a city of sporting fanatics, famed for its vibrancy as much as for its dark underbelly and vast poverty. The sailing areas include three open-water courses off the famous Copacabana Beach and four inside Guanabara Bay, with Sugar Loaf mountain and the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue rising behind. Brazil has a strong Olympic sailing track record, so fans should be out in vocal force. Rio’s topography provides more than a picturesque backdrop, however. Sailors need to get to grips with a hugely variable set of conditions. Rio in August may provide everything from The schedule Racing begins on Monday, 8 August, for ten days. A maximum of three races are scheduled each day, or four for the windsurfers, Nacra 17 and 49er/49erFX classes, which sail a 12-race series. All other classes have ten races.
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strong winds to zephyr-light breezes, sea breezes and thermals or gradient winds, and the unique effects created by the city and surrounding mountains. RS:X sailor Nick Dempsey says: “It will make the sport look amazing, but it’s shifty, tidal, very unstable and really unpredictable; some days you’re out there just spinning around.” Reigning Olympic 470 Gold medallist Polly Powrie is looking forward to the challenge. “We’d never really sailed in a place that had so many contrasts before, so for us it’s quite exciting. Inside and outside the harbour throws up quite different aspects, so I think it will be who can hold it all together!” It’s clear the Rio Games are going to be as much of a mental challenge as a physical one. British 470 helmsman Luke Patience says the venue will suit some sailors’ temperaments more than others. “I quite enjoy a changeable atmosphere. I enjoy quick prioritisation kind of sailing, and the odd curveball. I’m quite stimulated by it. It’s a very rewarding week when you get all sorts and you get it right. “I don’t know if I’ll get it right every time – but we will get all sorts in Rio!”
Classes
Racing begins
Racing ends
RS:X, RS:X Women,
Mon, 8 Aug
Sun, 14 Aug (reserve Mon 15)
Laser, Laser Radial
Mon, 8 Aug
Mon 15, Aug (reserve Tue 16)
Finn
Tue, 9 Aug
Tue, 16 Aug (reserve Wed 17)
470 men/women
Wed, 10 Aug
Wed, 17 Aug
Nacra 17
Thu, 11 Aug
Tue, 16 Aug (reserve Wed 17)
49er, 49erFX
Fri, 12 Aug
All photos:Pedro Martinez or JĂŠsus Renedo/Sailing Engergy
September 2016 I 43
OLYMPICS
CLASS BY CLASS
470 his double-handed dinghy is not the fastest, nor the flashiest, of the Olympic classes, but in Rio it should provide some of the most intense competition of the regatta in the men’s and women’s fleets. Many sailors who stood on the podium in Weymouth in 2012 will be back, but they’ve got older, and wiser, since. “We’ve both grown up a lot!” comments Polly Powrie who, with Jo Aleh, won at their first Games last time. “I think we’ve had almost eight years of shared experience now, so we know each other very well. Those shared experiences have allowed us to delve a lot deeper, and we probably have a bit more of a professional approach.” For Powrie and Aleh (NZL) the tough question was how to improve on Gold. “Being high-performing athletes you always feel that there are elements of your performance you can improve. We needed to find the challenge of this Olympic cycle. We were still relatively new to the 470, so there were areas where we could strip it right back and find that there was lots to improve on.” Britain’s Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark took Silver in London. They too have re-evaluated their campaign over the past four years. “It feels hugely different,” comments Clark. “So much has changed,
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how we do things, the team we were then. We had such a short time to make things happen for London, whereas this cycle we’ve had a lot more time just to think about it all, strip it all back and rebuild it all up.” The biggest changes, Mills says, have been in their communication, “We didn’t have time to really anaylse it for London. But we’ve made some big changes in how we communicate, the information we pass back and forth between roles, it’s just made us much more consistent sailors.” Both teams are expecting the medal hunt to be close. Powrie says: “Everyone’s had their
Right: the Croatian pairing of Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic are currently world champions in the 470 men’s fleet
moments, so we have a bunch of five or six of us floating around the top of different regattas. From what we’ve learned in Rio already we’ve seen the top tier come through.” In the men’s fleet, meanwhile, reigning Gold medallist Mathew Belcher returns, this time sailing with Will Ryan. GBR Silver medallist Luke Patience also returns with a new crew, but his road to Rio has been more challenging than most. After his 2012 crew Stuart Bithell opted to move to helming, Patience began his Rio campaign with Joe Glanfield. When Glanfield decided to step back to coaching, Patience
Skiffs n the men’s 49er class it looks set to be a clash of the titans, with 2012’s Olympic Gold medallists Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (AUS) defending their title from the onslaught of New Zealand pairing Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, who took Silver last time. The barefoot-sailing Kiwis have dominated this Olympic cycle, winning every event they have competed in bar one over the past two years, including back-toback world championships and Rio test events. The duo are barely out of each other’s sight, also travelling the world together as key members of Emirates Team New Zealand. Outteridge looks ready for a fight back, however, beating Burling to win the last 49er event before the Games. Other teams to watch include Austrians Nico Delle-Karth and Nikolas Resc. Team GBR’s Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign have had a strong final year of preparation, taking Bronze at the world championships. Rio is the first Games to have a women’s skiff class, the 49erFX. This is bound to be one of the more open classes, but if the top-ranked team wins, expect the crowds to
I
Above: Patience and Grube have fast-tracked their Olympic campaign to just eight months
began sailing with Elliot Willis. “Elliot was diagnosed with bowel cancer and here I am on crew No 3,” explains Patience, who is now selected with Chris Grube. “We’ve had to try to fast track our four-year programme into eight months. Our mentality is very much: we don’t have until day one of the Olympics, we have until the last race of the Olympics to learn. “I will run out of days, that’s a fact. I won’t be able to finish some things I want to. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be on the startline. Somebody has to win the sailboat race, and I don’t see why it can’t be me?” Patience’s joy at winning a medal at his home Games shone through last time around. “Stuart and I just had a ball. Win or lose we always made sure we were having fun. Some people took that as a bit of arrogance. We said: “We’re here to win!’’ Of course we were. What the hell else were we there to do? But it wasn’t us saying we were better than everyone. It was our way of saying, we’re not here for a joke, we’re not afraid to say that winning is the goal. “I have tried to carry that through to this cycle. Naturally I’ve grown up a bit, so I’ve probably become a bit less of an excitable child! But it’s been a difficult four years. “The most important thing here is not my mentality. It’s that Elliot becomes healthy and happy and is still walking the Earth. But on the sporting side of things, wow, what a shock the past three and half years have been. I honestly thought after London, Silver medal, here we go! How wrong was I? “One thing that has never faltered is my passion for the Olympic Games, my passion for the sport of sailing and the challenge that provides every time we launch the boat. After everything that happened with Elliot, the thing that drove me forwards, was that I’m going to make damn sure I’m proud of whatever I did in these remaining eight months, as well as carrying on what Elliot and I started together.”
Above: New Zealand’s Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are the stand-out favourites for Gold in the 49er
go wild. Brazilian Martine Soffiatti Grael and crew Kahena Kunze are competing at their first Games as home favourites, having won both Rio test events and the worlds. Grael is the daughter of national hero and five-times Olympic sailing medallist Torben Grael, and a poster girl of the city. British hopes lie with Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth, who have been scoring consistent top ten places.
“in the men’s 49er class it looks to be a clash of the titans”
September 2016 I 45
OLYMPICS
CLASS BY CLASS Finn o be a four-time world champion and never once be selected for the Games is almost unheard of in any sport. Yet such has been the fate of Giles Scott (right), thanks to two factors: the one nation, one boat rule – which allows each country only a single entry in each class – and the dominance of Sir Ben Ainslie, who took Britain’s Finn slot and Gold at the past three Games. Since 2012, besides winning back-toback world championships, Scott has also won the two test events in Rio. Is it strange to be a ‘rookie’, finally? “Getting to the Games is hard,” says Scott, “particularly from such a strong nation as Britain. I’m certainly apprehensive about getting underway, but I wouldn’t say it’s intimidating.” Talking of Scott’s achievements it is hard not to mention his rival – and now boss – Ainslie. It is a mark of both men’s characters that Scott was one of the first signings to Ainslie’s America’s Cup campaign. Does Scott feel a pressure of expectation? “Yes, and that builds and builds the better you do. For me it’s quite a good thing, it keeps me honest, keeps me working hard, and certainly stops me being lazy.” But 2016 in Rio is Scott’s moment, and he has prioritised his Olympic campaign over any Cup team commitments – a balance he says has been remarkably easy. Despite the lucrative lure of a future in the Cup, he says he never considered not going to Rio, not even for health reasons. His only concerns about the water quality are how it might affect his performance over ten days in August. “It is an issue, the water is filthy at times, but the biggest worry is just picking up rubbish when we’re racing, or getting ill and not being able to go racing.” Scott is likely to face his closest competition from France’s Jonathan Lobert, who finished 2nd to him at both Olympic test events, and took Bronze in 2012, while Ainslie’s nearnemesis, Jonas Hogh-Christensen of Denmark, came 2nd to Scott at the last Finn World Cup.
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EXPEDITION OLYMPICS
CLASS BY CLASS
Solo one-designs ith its vast global pool of sailors, the Laser world championships are among the most competitive of all. Unusually, British sailors currently hold the title in both the men’s Laser and women’s Laser Radial classes, with Nick Thompson winning back-to-back championships in 2015 and 2016, and Alison Young taking this year’s Radial contest. However, champion status does not bring any Olympic guarantees. Thompson faces a true giant of Brazilian Olympic sailing, with previous double Gold Laser medallist Robert Scheidt returning to the class after nearly a decade in the Stars. Scheidt has made it clear that Gold at home is his goal, and few would bet against the 43-year-old. In the women’s fleet the most consistent sailors have been Marit Bouwmeester (NED) and Evi Van Acker (BEL), but 2012 Gold medallist Lijia Xu cannot be ruled out. ‘Lily’ made a last-minute decision to come out of retirement to race at Rio. Xu is no stranger to unconventional preparation plans – she was forced to miss the 2004 Games after a large bone tumour was discovered in her leg, recovered to win a world title then Bronze in 2008, before breaking bones in her hand just months before the 2012 Games. She meditated to prepare for Weymouth even when she couldn’t sail, and went on to win Gold. The Laser Radial fleet is also home to one of the true ‘wildcard’ entries of the Games. Four Tripartite places were available to sailors from countries not widely
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48 I September 2016
represented at the Games, and first to be selected was Stephanie Devaux-Lovell from the tiny Caribbean island of Saint Lucia. Devaux-Lovell will likely be one of just three athletes walking under the blue, black and gold flag at the opening ceremony, along with two high jumpers. Ranked 125th in the world, the 21-year-old says she grew up sailing Oppies and Laser 4.7s for fun, before getting a wildcard entry to the Youth Olympics aged 14, which she describes as: “By far the best experience of my life, it was mind-blowing.” She returned with the single-minded goal of going to the full Games.
Without a huge network of sailors to race against – Devaux-Lovell estimates there are around seven Lasers on the island of Saint Lucia – she has relied on travelling to gain race experience, also using Skype to talk to experienced friends and mentors from other countries in the fleet. She is fizzing with excitement at the prospect of going to Rio, where she has never sailed before. “I’m just super-stoked. There’s really no pressure on me. I see myself going in as an underdog, but I know I will give it all my best. And we’ll just see what happens, I’ll learn as much as I can and bring it back home.”
“i’m just super-stoked. there’s really no pressure on me. i’m the underdog” Top: Brazilian Robert Scheidt will be aiming for an unprecedented sixth Olympic medal following his return to the Laser. Right: it could be a Scheidt double in the Laser fleets, with Gintare Scheidt (Robert’s wife) sailing for Lithuania in the Radial class, having won the 2015 test event in Rio
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OLYMPICS
CLASS BY CLASS
Mixed multihull or pure spectacle, watch the Nacra 17 racing – the fastest boats at Rio are a new class introduced at this Games, and the only one to be sailed by a mixed man-woman team. The new dynamic has thrown up some interesting questions – who helms and who crews being one of the biggest, with most
F
Windsurfing wo Olympic classes are devoted to windsurfing, and Britain has some of the most experienced contenders in the men’s and women’s RS:X fleets. Nick Dempsey will be on his fifth Olympics and for Bryony Shaw Rio will be her third Games. Both have scores to settle – Shaw slipped to 7th in Weymouth and will be looking to
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teams opting for a male helmsman and female crew in the lighter winds predicted for Rio. In a big blow, the Nacra 17s have potential to be fearsome, however, with their curved daggerboards and 200ft2 kite. The stand-out team so far has been the French pairing of Billy Besson and Marie Riou, who are the current world champions. Britain stands a good prospect of a medal, though, as Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves are the current European champions.
assert herself as the current world ranked no 1. Her toughest competition is likely to include Charlotte Picon (FRA), who has mastered Rio’s waters to win both Olympic test events. Dempsey took Silver at the home Games, having scored a Bronze and 4th at previous Olympics, so Gold would give him the full set. Dempsey, now 35, says his approach has changed compared with previous Olympics: “I still get nervous, I still get excited, it’s just all very slightly different. You have a
Above: Matias Bühler and Nathalie Brugger (SUI) Top: Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin (AUS)
different outlook. Your priorities change a little bit, your perspectives change. I do have the singlemindedness when I need it, but nothing like as much as I did. I enjoy life more. “I had quite a lot of pressure last time, whereas this time there’s six of us that could all win, so the pressure’s off a little bit. But I’d be very disappointed if I don’t medal. I feel like I’m in a good place, I’m sailing well. I really feel things are falling into place. I’d be pretty gutted if I don’t get a medal. I should.”
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the mystery of the whales ON AN EXPEDITION TO THE CHILEAN FJORDS, GREG LANDRETH AND KERI PASHUK FOUND DOZENS OF DEAD WHALES. WHY WERE THEY HERE? THEY AIMED TO FIND OUT
M
iercoles!” grunts Alex, in weary annoyance. Our Argentinian veterinarian friend’s expletive might have been more forceful as her gumbooted feet scrabble for traction on the smooth beach stones smeared with the noisome grease spreading from the bloated carcass of the small sei whale in front of her. Finding her footing, she makes a deft cut and a tiny slice of the whale’s massive heart falls away from her blade. “This one goes in formalin,” she says, switching to English through her face mask as she passes the precious sample to another white-overalled figure wading close by in the shallows. The carcass is tied as
52 I September 2016
firmly to the shore as we can bring it, but its bloated tongue causes it to bob slightly in the light swell emanating out of Puerto Slight, even though she has bled the gases from its abdomen some hours before. Alex has been in this pose since the tide went out exposing the corpse, the fine slanting drizzle reaching in under her waterproofs and, clinging around everything, the overpowering stench. Still she keeps on calmly slicing away in the twilight, the dull grey whale flesh passing its way slowly up th e slippery beach to where Keri stacks the chunks into labelled jars. The dissection of one of the great whales is a daunting and complex task, which has confounded many of the world’s best specialists even in more
September 2016 I 53
All photos: Keri-Lee Pashuk
This picture: one of the many whale carcasses found on the Taitao Peninsula in south Chile
ANDE
EXPEDITION
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ARGENTINA 50
0
45°S
100
nautical miles
Puerto Alsen
Bahia Hoppner
Taitao Peninsula
CHILE
Taitao Peninsula Golfo de Penas
Seno Escondido
ANDE
Puerto Slight
Golfo Tres Montes
S
Caleta Buena
Golfo de Penas
Puerto Eden
45°S
PaciÄJ Ocean
P A
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Atlantic Ocean Puerto Natales Strait of Magellan Punta Arenas
Strait of Magellan
N
TIERRA DEL FUEGO Ushuaia 55°S
Beagle Channel 75°W
80°W
Puerto Williams
Cape Horn
Loitering with (scientific) intent was what we happened to be doing late that autumn, however. Using our recently acquired yacht, Saoirse, we had embarked a team of scientific divers headed by Dr Vreni Haussermann to explore the vast underwater treasure trove of benthic life hidden below the Patagonian waters. These voyages of discovery are always exciting; we get to find new species and witness the colourful life that teems below the surface of the fjords, but our trip with Vreni and her divers that autumn took a tragic turn. “There’s another one over there,” Keri announced over the radio. With dusk falling quickly, a dinghy full of scuba equipment and cold, hungry divers champing to get back to the warmth of the boat and discharge their day’s discoveries into the pilothouse, it was hard to get excited about anything else. Still, I looked into the gathering dark to see another indistinct pink blob lying on the beach about a mile to the south. A quick glance through the binoculars confirmed it. Another whale carcass, lifeless on the shore of Puerto Slight. “That makes ten just today,” she said grimly, “and add that to the four we saw last month on the geology trip. There is something very strange going on here.” By the time we turned Saoirse’s bow south to return across the Gulf we had counted nearly 30 recent whale carcasses scattered in Puerto Slight and Bahia Hoppner alone. Over the many years we have spent sailing these southern fjords we have all seen the odd dead whale lurking in the trees, gone to take a look as long as the nauseous smell would permit, but none of us had seen anything like this. It was about to get worse though, much worse.
Evidence from the air ‘civilised’ locations, but here in the Golfo de Penas on the far side of Patagonia, the process takes on the quality of some surreal drama. The actors are mostly students of science from Chilean universities, some having never before even left the square gridlock of the streets of Santiago, nor seen the life and death processes of the wild outside their laboratories. Keri and I have brought them here on our yacht Saoirse, now firmly anchored among the trees nearby, and this will also be the first time that most of them have been on board a sailing vessel. A lot of new ground is being broken here, all across the galaxy of scientific endeavour. To understand the events that generated this macabre theatre, we must backtrack in time to the autumn of 2015.
Chilean exploration The Golfo de Penas is a long way from anywhere. It is one of the major barriers to safe navigation along the already formidable coastline of southern Chile. The Taitao Peninsula, which forms its northern coast, juts its curved finger 40 miles westward into the swells of the South Pacific, forcing the sailor to leave the relative safety of the Chilean fjords to scuttle as quickly as possible across its great embayment, exposed to the fury of the open ocean. It forms the crux point of the month-long passage from Puerto Natales in the south to Puerto Montt in the north. Fierce currents and precipitous waves discourage any loitering along this 140-mile passage.
54 I September 2016
Sometime after we had finished our expedition and completed the long voyage back to Puerto Williams, we received some stunning news from Vreni. She had reported what we had found to Sernapesca (the Chilean Fisheries Department), but faced a wall of indifference. Acting on a hunch, she had hired an aircraft to overfly the area and bought some high-resolution satellite photos. The views from above revealed the massive extent of the carnage; the body count came to 337 whales scattered about the beaches, and this was only the confirmed ones. Who knew how many more were outside the purview of the photo surveillance or sunk to the bottom? It would be confirmed as the biggest whale stranding event in recorded history. “We can’t ignore this, we must do something about it. It’s very important,” Keri stressed months later, while we were gloomily working our way through the mindboggling array of permissions needed for a proposed tourist trip to Antarctica. I agreed, but what could we do? During our trip back south the story of the whale deaths had made international news, but Chile’s scientific world was in an uproar. Incredible as it may seem, the efforts of Vreni and her colleagues to study the phenomenon had set the factionalised science community to public warfare. So many insults were being hurled back and forth about the handling of the discovery that finally the public prosecutor of Aysen placed a ban on all further studies in the region for at least two years. This was utterly absurd; the only way to find out how and why the whales had died would mean immediately
This picture:a recently stranded sei whale, offering the chance to do some immediate research
â&#x20AC;&#x153;over the years we have spent sailing these fjords, we have seen the odd dead whale, but never anything like thisâ&#x20AC;?
Above and left: Saoirse is a specially adapted expedition yacht with space for underwater equipment and power for the demands of winches, compressors and sensors. Here Greg manoeuvres the yacht in the remote Chilean fjords
September 2016 I 55
EXPEDITION
Above: scientists at work on an older whale carcass while the tide is out
â&#x20AC;&#x153;ten months had elapsed since the event and it became less and less likely that we would find any useful cluesâ&#x20AC;?
Above: back on board for a few home comforts while the skipper checks the instruments. Left: Saoirse moored in Puerto Slight, centre of our observed whale beachings
56 I September 2016
returning to the Golfo de Penas with a specially equipped and permitted scientific team, but by now we were nearly 1,000 miles away, committed to be heading in the opposite direction. It all seemed impossible. A few days later, our Antarctic trip had been cancelled, we had found a sponsor to cover the costs of the expedition and we were again northward bound. Expedition ‘Return to the Whales’ was born.
In the pursuit of science The Chilean government would have preferred no one to have discovered this tragic event, or at least that it could have been swept under the carpet long enough to prevent any scientific study of it. All this was happening against a backdrop of other massive fish and sealife kills on the Chilean coast, which amounted to a major environmental catastrophe for which it might easily be blamed. But the pursuit of science dictates that we attempt to tell the truth, if we possibly can. I have spent a large part of my sailing life on expeditions, mostly for the privilege of chancing across an unclimbed mountain summit and the truth of this is quite simple: you either climbed the mountain, or you did not, no proof needed but your own word. It is an elegant, but rather useless pursuit based on some anachronistic need to prove how tough we are. Our new interest in expedition sailing, on the other hand, stems from the hope that we could bend our sailing skills and new boat toward science, especially that which serves to protect our natural heritage. There have been many such expeditions in the recent past, mostly aimed at the namby-pamby concept of ‘raising awareness’ of a problem in the ecosphere. In my view, the time for that is long past; there is plenty of information out there about the dire state of the oceans; if a person is not aware by now they probably never will be. It is time to act. But I was singularly unprepared for the web of bureaucratic obfuscation that often seems to surround the pursuit of a scientific result. Perhaps being armed with that naiveté is the reason why we could take this job on, and succeed. The expedition took shape very quickly in January. At the start we really had no idea of the type and quantity of data we would have to collect for the investigation, nor who could come to help us with it. For sure it was going to be a somewhat gruesome affair at times. Also we needed to do impeccable science. “Have you ever cut up a whale before?” Keri asked Alexandra Luiso, our vet who had come across from Ushuaia to visit and was just then grooming and deworming our dog, Pichi, at the Micalvi Yacht Club. “No,” she said, “but I have dissected a few birds, I’ve got time off and I am a veterinarian.” She quickly agreed to volunteer for the trip. Katie McConnell, a Californian science diver, who had assisted Vreni with many of her benthic dive study projects, chimed in with an immediate: “I’m in!” She would act as crew and science adviser. One by one, other volunteers materialised: four graduate students of oceanography, palaeontology and marine biology rounded up by Vreni and her colleague Dr Carolina Gutstein of the University of Chile, who had between them constructed the scientific programme. We would pick them all up 650nm away in Puerto Eden in two weeks.
On 14 January we tightened down the last of the bolts on the brand new hydraulic windlass that had just arrived to replace the last one, which had ground to a halt on the previous trip. Loaded with 8,000lt of fuel, formalin, alcohol, plankton nets, a chainsaw, two dinghies, three outboard engines and some suits that looked as if we were headed into an Ebola zone, we were off.
Top: expedition team at the ‘dry lab’ cum dining table. Above: taking samples of plankton for later analysis
North to Puerto Eden Pichi leapt aboard for the long haul north to Puerto Eden to pick up the team. This is a trip that might normally take weeks, but Saoirse is no ordinary sailing vessel. She is constructed more like a small ship than a yacht and her drivetrain boasts a 250hp engine and a 95cm diameter variable-pitch propeller. Although she is a good sailer, the task of going to windward for hundreds of miles in the Beagle Channel and the Straits of Magellan is much eased by such machinery and we lost no time on the niceties. Ten months had already elapsed since the event and, as time ticked on, it became less and less likely that we would find any useful clues to the whale deaths. We didn’t even know if we would find anything left there at all. Or, an even more frightening prospect – since the El Niño event this year was forecast to be even stronger than 2015 and the theories proposed a strong linkage between water temperature and red tide – we might even witness a repeat occurrence.
September 2016 I 57
EXPEDITION
Above: a sample of plankton from Patagonia
There were many extremely odd things about these strandings. For example, all the corpses noted to date had been sei whales. This is probably the least studied of all the great whales, but it is known that they are an oceanic species that does not often approach the coast. Furthermore, they prefer solitude and usually do not congregate together. Why then were all the bodies found concentrated at the very extremities of the several shallow and narrowwaisted fjords that surround the Golfo de Penas? They had to have swum there to die, it was inconceivable that they could just float in there after a massive die-off out at sea. We had to try to visit every single one of the corpses in an effort to extract as much information as we could – by dinghy and on foot.
Gulf and we had run out of time. All appeared to be set for an anticlimax, but nature had a gift in store. That night, a juvenile whale, newly dead, floated gently in on the tide near where Saoirse was moored in Caleta Buena. We immediately set up our tools on the beach and set to the task, sensing that this would be our final opportunity. As I was running point duty aboard Saoirse for the rest of the team I glanced out into the main sound of Puerto Slight to see a massive disturbance in the water. As the maelstrom came rapidly closer I could see two sei whales with a pod of orcas, clearly intent on murder, in hot pursuit. In a vain effort to evade the attacks of the orca, the doomed seis were frantically dashing from beach to beach, only to be headed off by the superbly choreographed teamwork of the killers. These maintained their lethal body blows and slapped at the water with their powerful tails until they disappeared as suddenly as they had come. Next morning, two more sei whale corpses sat high and dry on the beach, teeth marks clearly evident – if not the smoking gun, then clearly one of them.
Measuring and sampling The further work of this expedition can be followed at the blogsite expedition2016. wordpress.com This expedition was made possible with the support of the Blue Marine Foundation. Further details of this and other projects can be seen at www. bluemarine foundation.com
This time I got the best job, helming Saoirse in back-up for the shore team and looking after the relatively clean oceanography work. Since Keri has made it a part of an artwork she is developing to take a photograph of every single whale, she was perforce obliged to be the dinghy driver, chaperoning the palaeontologists, who busily measured and sampled skin and bone from each carcass, collected baleen samples and a raft of other scientific projects which piggy-backed in on this one. All this time we were really searching for the ‘smoking gun’, something that would point incontrovertibly to the cause of death. In the science world, that is called a necropsy; to dissect the corpse of a freshly dead whale. In the end, we would go one better. On 22 February, during a perusal of the GRIB files Keri snapped the computer shut and declared: “That’s it! Only two more days and we have to leave!” A series of weather systems threatened to shut us in on the north side of the
About our yacht, Saoirse Saoirse is a 59ft sloop, a one-off built to Rolf Modig’s last Langedrag design in 1997 by Alve Henricson in
Epilogue: We are now safely back with Saoirse in Puerto Eden, which has started to feel a bit like home. After a further month spent in the Golfo de Penas in May, rounding out the studies in what we have come to call the Whale Cemetery, we have started in on the study of new life in the Gulf. These concentrate more happily on the regeneration of life after the die-off. Though the phenomenon of wildlife die-offs remains desperate on the more northerly coasts of Chile, we did not encounter any further whale deaths that month. We were even rewarded with a rare hydrophone recording of the sounds that the elusive and secretive sei whale makes. While the full scientific construct of the events surrounding the mortality is still being worked on (and may never be fully understood), stories now flow in from locals about their own experiences with orca attacks and a hitherto hidden world begins to appear. What matters is not the answer itself, it is that we seek it.
somewhat more demanding on equipment and space, so we began to look for a larger and more powerful sailing boat. Since we bought Saoirse we are gradually
Sweden. She was originally named Searcher and
adapting her to fit as many disciplines as possible.
according to the vision of her builder she made
This is made possible partly by the recent surge in
several scientific ventures to remote places such as
technology, which has miniaturised and lightened
the Pitcairn Islands, Seychelles, South Georgia and
equipment needed for field work – drones for example.
even made a transit of the North East Passage.
The first necessity is adaptable and sheltered
Greg Landreth and Keri Pashuk are a
deck space. Obviously sailboats do not lend
husband and wife
and re-christened her Saoirse, which is nearly a
themselves happily to this, but the second major
team who met in the
homophone of the original Searcher and also the
necessity, autonomy, dictates that the sailing rig
Antarctic in 1986
name of Conor O’Brien’s boat that made the first
stays. The third necessity is a robust power system
while crewing on
small yacht circumnavigation of the world by way of
capable of handling the demands of the various
different boats.
the three great Capes in 1925. The name means
winches, compressors and sensors needed. Finally,
They have a special
‘freedom’ in Irish.
comfort and security is of paramount importance.
interest in high
We bought her in August 2013 in Nuuk, Greenland
Our first voyage was a 4,500-mile expedition into the farthest
It is vital that the boat can support two capable dinghies
latitude sailing, first
reaches of Hudson Bay, supporting an epic photographic work called the
simultaneously in case of an emergency with the primary tender and be
aboard Northanger,
‘Atlas of Emptiness’ by the photographer Thomas Joshua Cooper.
able to bludgeon its way off a lee shore in a rescue situation.
a 54ft lift-keel steel
We had begun dabbling in scientific work aboard our first vessel,
These are often conflicting demands, but as Saoirse evolves we are
Northanger, in 2009 in Patagonia, mostly with geologists studying plate
constantly looking to retain her general-purpose capability while being
tectonics. Science that involves undersea exploration though is
able to adapt quickly to new technology.
58 I September 2016
ketch, and latterly with Saoirse.
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Photos: Rob Howard
PEAK PERFORMANCE DEE CAFFARI AND PIP HARE RECOUNT THEIR DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES ON ONE OF WORLD ‘S GREATEST ENDURANCE RACES, THE THREE PEAKS YACHT RACE
W
e were heading into the shore and just past Bear Grylls’s island, Saint Tudwal’s Island West, when the tacking duel commenced. Each tack took us closer and closer to the jagged rocks along the shoreline. The current was swirling and playing tricks with us, sometimes helping us and at other times hindering. We had got away from Barmouth well in the light and fickle winds and were leading the Three Peaks Yacht Race fleet. I had a smile on my face. Our navigator, Libby Greenhalgh – we raced together in the Volvo Ocean Race aboard Team SCA – knew where she wanted to position us. Our first obstacle was a reef that had only a couple of gaps where we could pass through. In theory, at this state of the
60 I September 2016
tide we should be able to pass over the top, but it was a high risk strategy. We saw the girls on Team Aparito tack behind us. We checked the chart. On the AIS we could see they had missed the gap. Another gain to us. The Officer Training Corps students from Southampton gained inside us and we were no longer in the lead. The chase was on. There had been bar talk before we left about sailing inside the island Carreg Ddu, but we were in good pressure. The students stayed close to shore, we stayed offshore and when later we looked over our shoulders we saw the entire fleet skimming the rocks and beaches. Our hearts sank. It was our first rookie mistake. This race is not, as we realised, about good pressure and sailing distances; this race is about
Main picture: hugging the shore off Bardsey, squeezing out the smallest possible gains
September 2016 I 61
RACING
Exhausted and elated PIP HARE SKIPPERED TEAM APARITO WITH AN ALL-FEMALE CREW TO 1ST IN LEG 3 Our runners returned from Scafell exhausted after 9.5 hours of cycling and running. Team Aparito were lying in 4th place and we needed to do something big to overtake three boats that had already left Whitehaven and give our runners the two-hour head start they needed by Ben Nevis. By the Mull of Galloway we were under spinnaker, runners tucked up below recovering and the three sailors trimming the boat as hard as we could. We had overtaken two boats and could see the outline of the leader in the moonlight. Gaining on them fast, we decided to pass inshore, right under the cliffs of the Mull. There was palpable tension as we scraped our way along the shore. Gusts were rolling down the cliffs, heeling the boat and rounding us up. We worked intensely. The strategy paid off and with the sunrise we were leading the fleet. Then all our efforts vaporised as the wind disappeared and our rivals on Pure Attitude sailed effortlessly up behind. We scrambled into our rowing seats, choking on the disappointment that such hard work could be so cruelly undone. For the next couple of hours we ghosted between wind holes – rowing to the next set of ripples, then letting the sails take the strain before the wind ran out. We were all starting to suffer. I had blisters on my palms from the rough wooden oars, Nikki and Elin’s backs were hurting, none of us had slept, but we rowed through the pain determined to keep our lead. When the new breeze arrived the tide was against us and yet again it was time to fight for every metre, short tacking up the shoreline, sometimes going about only a few metres from the shore. We made close to 100 tacks that afternoon. Through the evening the wind increased and we beat our way north in lumpy seas. By now we had gained a decent lead. As we crossed the sailing finish line our hearts were in our mouths. As our runners, Jo and Lowri, set off, the summit was no longer visible; it was raining and the wind was building. We sailors waited at the
Above: Pure Attitude in the Sound of Jura – this is the team, under skipper Fergus McDonald, that won the event
62 I September 2016
local knowledge, experience and squeezing out the smallest of gains whenever possible. This race is one of the most interesting and challenging a sailor can do. It takes crews from Barmouth to Fort William to scale Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis, the highest mountains of Wales, England and Scotland. The course has huge tidal flows so escaping the worst of them will always pay. We realised then this was a long race. The Three Peaks Yacht Race had been on my bucket list for a long time. I found myself ticking it off this year to help out as patron of Sail 4 Cancer. I jumped at the opportunity and started to organise a team to take it on. The course is around a part of the coast that I have not sailed before. It is a complex area with strong tides and many shallows and hazards. It is not for the faint-hearted and so my first priority was to get a sailor/navigator on board who I trusted and would be up for the challenge. Libby Greenhalgh agreed to join the team. I now needed some mountain goats to tackle the three highest peaks. Traharn Chidley is an endurance athlete with a very emotional backstory. She has used sport, predominantly mountain biking and fell running, to get
her life back and overcome the trauma of domestic abuse. She was up for tackling Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis. Matthew Hinge came to the team with a charitable grant from the Rothschild Foundation. He wanted to take on a challenge well beyond anything he had done before. He was running Snowdon and then would join Libby and me sailing the boat. Finally, Rob Barnes, an ultra-runner, was happy to lead the team during the mountain stages.
Rethinking my racing We arrived into what felt like a time warp. Barmouth is a beautiful village on the Welsh coast, but I had to rethink everything I knew about yacht racing. There were no Sailing Instructions or Notice of Race to speak of. Instead we had some guidelines and rules for the transitions of sailing to running/cycling. There was no time check and no communications on a specified VHF channel. We started the race with flares being fired from the start boat in extremely light conditions. The unusual and often difficult aspect of this event is that you can move your boat by the act of rowing. I often found myself working really hard to get the boat sailing in
pontoon, agitated and powerless. But At 1049 Jo and Lowri ran over the
Above: the all-girl
finish line and Team Aparito had won line honours for Leg 3. Our overall
team of Aparito
place on handicap would be 2nd overall with Pure Attitude taking 1st.
Digital Health, racing
This race was a feat of incredible endurance from beginning to end:
the J/120 Nunatak,
sailing, rowing, running, cycling, navigating, weather routeing, strategy
were raising money
are mixed with sleep deprivation. We also fielded a team of talented and
for FindaCure
determined athletes who all just happened to be women. We raced on equal terms and loved every minute. Apart from Pip, Team Aparito included solo sailor Nikki Curwen, ocean rower and adventurer Elin Haf Davies, ultra marathon runner Lowri Morgan and rower, runner and Ironman contestant Jo Jackson.
Left: the X99 Tactix (Team Wight Rose) demonstrate their rowing prowess in the Menai Strait
Sailing photos: Rob Howard
light conditions, only to look over and see another boat rowing along at pace. I would then kick myself as I had forgotten this – rowing was not really on my radar. But then the Three Peaks is so much more than a sailing race. At that first headland I made my first major error. We watched the entire fleet skirt the coastline riding a back-eddy, flying past us on the inside. We were sailing, but against a really strong foul tide. On our final approach to Caernarfon Bar we were able to make up some ground before dropping our runners off to summit Snowdon. This is the start of the Menai Strait. It is hazardous. You have a ripping tide to deal with while you drop your runners on a slippery platform, then you anchor and the sailors try to rest. With a call 30 minutes before the runners return you weigh anchor and get ready for the pick-up. Some boats dragged their anchors and became entangled, meaning their rest time was massively reduced. The choice now is yours. You can sail round Anglesey or you can brave the narrow Menai Strait. The notes say that no one has ever gained from sailing round the outside so on you go to take on the Strait, with its shallows and the notoriously tidal area named The Swellies. The fleet had
September 2016 I 63
RACING
Above: again at the oars, a strange experience for ocean racer Dee Caffari
not gone far as the tide was against us as we collected our runners. Rowing was the only means of maintaining any forward momentum. We tried rowing and sailing when possible, tacking our way along the Menai Strait. A boat close by just rowed in a straight line and achieved the same gains as us. Those who had done this before were to be seen anchored enjoying breakfast before weighing anchor at the tide change and then rowing past us with the current at a rate of knots. This section is wonderfully scenic, but also very technical. Time and time again I said to Libby how relieved I was to be doing this in daylight in light winds. I was actually happy to be rowing the 13 miles out of the Strait. We left Puffin Island to starboard and found some breeze and started sailing again. This was definitely our strength. We sailed through the fleet until yet again we made a rookie mistake. Sailing around the gas rigs and wind farms in this area we found we could make a direct
Above: runners for Team Aparito, Jo and Lowri, complete the final race up Ben Nevis. Below: down from Scafell Pike
“with a wind speed of 40 knots and strong tide, the final few miles were extremely tough”
As a result of Dee and her crew’s adventure and support from various suppliers, Sail 4 Cancer has managed to raise close to £8,000.
64 I September 2016
course at speed to Whitehaven. So why were the others still heading offshore? We closed the headland to the south, got a massive header and suddenly the wind shut down. Oars were yet again deployed. As we closed the headland we saw the rest of the fleet sailing towards Whitehaven and coming in ahead of us. Everyone was affected by the shutdown, but they seemed to be able to hold the wind for a little longer. Now we were rowing against the clock. If we didn’t make Whitehaven in time, we would have to wait for enough tide to lock in and drop off our runners. Tidal range alone gave those ahead of us a huge advantage, nothing to do with sailing or running. I was beyond frustrated at this point. The bottom on the approach to Whitehaven sea lock is sand and many talked of ploughing a furrow to the lock and, by doing so, getting in earlier. When you charter a boat it is not a nice feeling bumping along the bottom, no matter what you have been told.
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RACING
Once in, runners are dropped off. They cycle 18 miles, lock the bikes, then run as fast as they can to the summit of Scafell Pike before descending as quickly as their legs can carry them. Collect bikes and return. In total, this is around 54 miles. The time they take allows the sailing crew to shower, eat and rest before the final and longest leg to Fort William. A recovery from the 26 miles we’d rowed from the last leg was needed at this stage. A time reference for your runners is essential here. If they are not going to make the tide then they can relax and take it a little easier on the way down. With a draught of 2.3m, we were caught once again waiting for the tide. As one of the last boats to leave Whitehaven we had ground to make up. Those ahead had an advantage, but we were leaving with breeze and I knew I could make up the miles. With the spinnaker hoisted we sailed the 40 miles to the headland at speed. After just five hours we had passed three boats and the next two were in our sights. Spinnaker down and the start of a long stretch upwind. There were 130 miles to go. On the penultimate night we sailed between Ireland and Scotland with a beautiful sunset at about 2230. It was flat water and we were sailing direct to the Mull of Kintyre. This was the last rest the sailors got.
Three Peaks Yacht Race
Fort William River Lochy Loch Linnhe
MULL
Ben Nevis 4409ft
Inverlochy
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS
Fort William
Firth of Lorne Sound of Jura
Cow Hill
Route to summit
JURA
Castle Ridge
vis Ne en
Gl
ISLAY
River Nevis
Tower Ridge
Ben Nevis summit
227nm Mull of Kintyre
SCOTLAND
No
Scafell Pike
rth
3209ft
Ch
Whitehaven
Katabatic winds
CUMBRIA
l
ne
an
Mull of Galloway Ravenglass ISLE OF MAN
Route to summit On foot 12 miles
Irish Sea
100nm
Menai Strait
ANGLESEY
Cycle from Whitehaven
Scafell Pike
Wast Water
ENGLAND Snowdon
Llanberis
3560ft
Caernarfon Llan Beris Barmouth
62nm
Cardigan Bay
Three Peaks Yacht Race
Merioneth Yacht Club
WA L ES
Sailing: 389 nautical miles Running: 72 miles Cycling: 26 miles
Pa ss of L
lan
Route to summit
Be
ris
SNOWDONIA N AT I O N A L PA R K
Snowdon summit
Celebrating 39 years this year, the Three Peaks Yacht Race is ranked among the ten most difficult endurance races in the world, alongside the Marathon des Sables and the New Zealand Coast to Coast. It involves teams of five sailing from Barmouth to Caernarfon in Wales, where two of the team must run to the top of Snowdon and back. The team must then sail to Whitehaven in Cumbria, where again two of the team must cycle and run to the summit of Scafell Pike. Finally, the teams sail to Fort William in Scotland where the final challenge is to run to the top of Ben Nevis and back. In total the team must sail 389 miles, climb 11,176ft, run 72 miles and cycle 26 miles. It is not an event to be underestimated and next year will be the 40th anniversary. www.threepeaksyachtrace.co.uk
66 I September 2016
As the channels between the islands grew smaller we were sailing upwind, tacking against the strong currents. The wind increased until we had a small No 3 jib and a reef in the mainsail. The wind comes at you with a katabatic force, but we were into a routine and were determined. By this stage we could see the boat ahead, which had departed Whitehaven five hours before us. Now they were only about 45 minutes ahead and we were gaining. Our poor runners were just surviving. They rolled from the side of the hull to the leecloth with each tack, trying to sleep or just rest. They were all looking a little green around the gills. It was not the greatest preparation for the mountain run ahead. They were not eating enough and not drinking enough. Anything to avoid the need to go to the toilet or move unnecessarily around the boat. With a wind speed of 40 knots and strong tide the final few miles were tough. Loch Linnhe was brutal, but not as bad as the narrow entrance at Clovullin. We made 71 tacks in 16 hours and were relieved to reach Fort William. Now there was only the ascent of Ben Nevis to go. Their sea legs made the runners feel wobbly, a sensation that had not disappeared by the following day and a night’s sleep in a real bed. This led to a few falls during the descent, but a 4h 11m mountain stage allowed us to enjoy our final and best leg of the race, finishing in 3rd place. We got 4th place overall in the race. With our rookie mistakes and a disastrous dead time owing to the tide in Whitehaven it was very acceptable. But being the racer I am, I already know how we could have done better. So will I be back? Well this event is ever so slightly addictive, so I will have to return to get it right. If this has whetted your appetite to enter next year for the 40th anniversary event starting on 17 June, then my words of advice are: pick a boat with the right draught, the right IRC handicap, make sure you can row effectively and efficiently, and do your pilotage well in advance. Then go out and have the best race of your life; it will be unlike any you have done before.
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GREAT SEAMANSHIP
FORCE 13 IN MID-ATLANTIC IT WAS MIDWINTER ON AN ATLANTIC CROSSING AND DELIVERY SKIPPER JOHN KRETSCHMER WAS WRESTLING WITH HUGE SEAS AND FEROCIOUS WINDS. LUCKY HE WAS SAILING AN OCEAN 71
oday’s sailing world is well stocked with sponsored heroes, performing remarkable feats in the cause of being fastest on some great endeavour. John Kretschmer is a different sort of hero. A delivery skipper with 300,000 miles astern of him, he now spends much of his time making passages with crews who want to learn from his vast experience, sometimes using his own yacht, Quetzal, a moderate Kaufman 47 ocean cruiser as his teaching medium (www.yayablues.com). His books, an unusual mix of anecdote and technical data, should be required reading for anyone venturing into deep waters. Here are two extracts from Sailing a Serious Ocean. First, he explains why he does what he does. In the second, we join him during a delivery for one of the nastiest nights it’s possible to imagine: mid-North Atlantic and midwinter. Just thank the Good Lord we’re in an Ocean 71!
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Above: John Kretschmer hanks on the staysail
Force 13 – Atlantic crossing gale 1991
INTRODUCED BY
TOM CUNLIFFE
Sailing a Serious Ocean John Kretschmer, is published by International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press Price £18.99 ISBN 978-0071 704403.
I am a ferryman. Neptune’s lackey, nothing more, and certainly nothing less. I never really fitted in the so-called real world ashore, so I went to sea. I studied at Harvard South – Cape Horn – and then did graduate work ferrying sailboats all over the world and telling stories afterwards. Today I am a connection between sailing dreamers and blue water, their conduit to the sea. They find me and we make passages, real passages; there’s nothing virtual about what we do. I had come to realise that sailing with those who had not lost their sense of awe was what I was meant to do, and sharing hard-won opinions and shards of saltwater wisdom, all the while nurturing dreams of faraway places and fragile visions of personal freedom, was what I did best. Ostensibly I teach my clients about passage-planning, heavy-weather sailing, navigation and the like, but mostly we just sail. We stand our watches, keep the boat moving and spend a lot of time chatting. We talk about the ocean. We talk about boats. The cockpit becomes a confessional; it’s difficult to lie at sea. We cherish fair weather and contend with foul, and we never miss Captain’s Hour. This is my job; this is what I do. It’s a good gig.
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Boat: Isobell, Ocean 71 ketch, crew: 3
According to the radio officer on a nearby Dutch tanker, the wind was steady at Force 11 and consistently gusting to hurricane Force 12, or more than 63 knots. ‘We’re even seeing some Force 13,’ he told me in a casual tone that belied the savage conditions. ‘And your weather service says the seas are 30-50ft and the air temperature is –2°C.’ I knew the situation was serious, but Force 13? ‘The Beaufort scale doesn’t go to 13, does it?’ I asked. Chuckling, he said: ‘Then call it Force Unlucky, Skipper. We will be standing by on Channel 16 if you need assistance. Good luck.’ It was 31 January and we were 300 miles off the US east coast, bound for Sweden. The logical question is: why would anybody sail across the Atlantic in the middle of the winter? The answers were economic, personal and illogical. I was a delivery skipper, and the new owners wanted the boat in Sweden as soon as possible. A midwinter crossing wasn’t cheap and nothing can make a sailor overlook a few double-digit gale percentages on the pilot chart faster than the prospect of a nice payday. And finally, I was compelled by the challenge of a winter crossing. That’s another one of those things you either understand in your soul or you don’t.
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GREAT SEAMANSHIP
Even I wouldn’t test the wintry Atlantic in just any boat. Isobell was a 20-year-old Ocean 71 ketch, designed by Van de Stadt and built by Southern Ocean in the UK. Ruggedly constructed and designed for heavy weather, Isobell was able to withstand the six weeks of nearconstant gale force conditions that defined this passage. With a long fin keel, a deep forefoot, relatively low freeboard and a powerful skeg-hung rudder, Isobell was made for heavy weather. I knew I needed an excellent crew for the passage, but most of my usual shipmates thought I was crazy and took a pass. Poor Molly reluctantly signed on, at least for the first leg from Newport to the Azores. Fortunately, my dear friend Joe Murton from London also agreed to make the passage. Joe was looking for some heavy weather experience. I didn’t disappoint him on that score. After shaking fresh ice out of the rigging, the three of us shoved off from Newport on 26 January, 1991. Our plan was to sail near or just below the 40th parallel to the Azores, a route that I hoped would keep us south of stray icebergs and in a tolerable climate zone. By staying in or near the Gulf Stream, we were looking at expected mean temperatures in the 40s (°F). Breaking the trip in the Azores added extra miles, but it seemed a sensible plan, especially with a small crew, an ever-present threat of ice and extreme winter gales further north. The weather forecast was promising and the first two days of the passage were actually relatively warm and pleasant, allowing us to hurry past Georges Bank and the worrisome shallows that extend well off the east coast of
Above: Joe Murton on the helm in some wild weather. Above right: essential sail repairs
“stretching over the side as far as i dared, I tried to cut the sheet, but it was beyond my reach” 70 I September 2016
the United States. We were hoping that a large cold front would stay north of us. That didn’t happen. A series of nasty line squalls heralded the arrival of the front and soon the wind backed to the south-west and piped up to gale force. A secondary low-pressure system had moved up from the Carolinas and merged with the cold front. Extreme weather was coming our way. We reduced sail steadily during daylight hours. The main was reefed, then dropped, as we flew along on a reach with the mizzen, staysail and small jib. Then we furled the jib. Finally, as darkness swallowed us we doused the mizzen and continued on a deep reach under staysail alone, at times hitting 14 knots.
Survival conditions The wind had clocked back to the west and the seas were massive, but steering was still manageable, with the autopilot coping just fine. I never considered towing warps or reducing sail further to slow down the boat. We were actually snug beneath a makeshift canvas pilothouse that Joe had fashioned back in Newport. Molly had the first watch. At 2100 she screamed: ‘We’ve lost the staysail.’ Joe and I struggled into our foulweather gear and dashed on deck. I was amazed at the frenzied ocean. It looked like an old black-and-white negative, with the foam of breaking waves the only light source. In another boat these would have been pure survival conditions, but the Ocean 71 is the most seaworthy boat I have ever sailed. Without the staysail we were running under bare poles, but still hitting double-digit speeds and occasionally surfing down what had become massive seas. The wind felt as if it would lift me off the deck as I made my way forward, and I had to stay low to not be carried away. I quickly discovered why we had lost the staysail. The halyard had chafed through, and when the sail lost luff tension all the bronze piston hanks had ripped apart like plastic. The sail plunged over the side and was connected to the boat only by the tack and the sheets.
Together with the sheet, which had ripped the staysail block right off the deck, the storm jib wound around the prop shaft with a death grip. The moaning of the shaft was terrifying. If the shaft was torn from the boat, we’d sink in the frigid waters of the winter Atlantic. I grabbed my knife and was back on deck in a flash. Frantically I tried to cut the halyard end, which had jammed in the mast, thinking that it might free the sail if it could run. It was no use. Then, stretching over the side as far as I dared, I tried to cut the sheet, but it was just beyond my reach. I nearly sliced the knuckle off my thumb instead, and it hung by a mere strand of flesh. But there was no time to think about it because Joe was screaming: ‘Now, now, John.’ He had pulled the sheet closer to the boat. I finally cut it and we watched the freed sail and sheet disappear into the blackness astern.
Completely spent
Above: lashing spray on a frenzied ocean as Isobell plunged downwind
Below: Isobell was a sturdy Van de Stadt-designed Ocean 71
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We wrestled it aboard and stuffed it into the forward sail locker. Then we hauled the storm jib on deck, only to find the luff had been cut to fit the furling gear foils on the forestay. This was an oversight of the skipper, namely me. I should have inspected the sail before shoving off. Taking the furled jib off the forestay in Force 13 would have shredded it into hankies. And raising the storm jib in its place, feeding it into the headstay foils, would have been almost impossible. We decided to raise the storm jib by tacking it to the staysail tack point and hoisting it loose-luffed, meaning that only the head and tack of the sail were attached to the boat. It would soon prove to be a poor decision. As Molly trimmed the sheet, the motion was immediately better and she was able to engage the autopilot. A powerful wave crushed Isobell on the starboard beam and washed the decks just as Joe and I went below to warm up. The boat skidded off course and the storm jib backed violently. Then the tack shackle, which carried all the load of the sail, exploded. Without hanks to keep it on the stay, it flew upward and turned into a marauding wrecking ball. It wiped the masthead clean of instruments, lights and antennas and plummeted into the water.
Once again we were running under bare poles. Molly, flailing the wheel one way and then the other, was doing a great job of steering, keeping the stern to the seas. Joe and I lay panting on the deck, knowing that we should hurry back to the cockpit. But we were completely spent. Freakishly the spreader lights popped on – for no reason, it seemed, other than to reveal a bloodstained deck. It looked gruesome and I realized I had to deal with my thumb. A jarring crash sent us dashing below. The problem was in the engine room. The generator had sheered its mounts and toppled onto the Perkins diesel, threatening to destroy our main engine. Joe hurried to get a line as I wedged myself between the engine and the generator, a human fender, and a stupidly vulnerable position. I managed to prop up the generator, and Joe lashed it in place like a cowboy wrestling a steer. Returning to the cockpit, my thumb wrapped in a towel, I was utterly exhausted when Molly informed me: ‘It’s your watch . . .” The storm force winds continued into the next day. We had no choice but to continue to run under bare poles. But the wind was pushing us right where we wanted to go. Even a 75,000lb boat rolled from gunwale to gunwale without a steadying sail. It was vital to keep the stern directly before the waves, and we steered in one-hour increments. Concentration was paramount, and we were lucky to have three capable crew. The winds moderated by the following evening, and we cautiously unrolled a tiny bit of headsail. We had survived a Force 13 storm.
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ON TEST: AZUREE 41 THE THIRD MODEL IN THE AZUREE RANGE IS A WELCOME REFINEMENT IN TERMS OF QUALITY – A GEM, SAYS TOBY HODGES hat is a gem but a stone yet to be polished? When Sirena Marine produced its first Azuree yacht it was somewhat rough – the potential was there to see, produced by a big yard and workforce with industrial production experience, but it needed refinement. Eight years on, with a great deal of hard graft, the brand has moved on and its latest offering is a jewel worthy of admiration – not perfect on close inspection, but one that has a definite sparkle. Sirena Marine’s learning curve has been a steep one engineered by improvements in quality and management. To improve quality Sirena builds a prototype. By the time you get aboard for a test sail any teething problems have been spotted – indeed they are pointed out and have most likely already been adjusted for the production version.
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72 I September 2016
That doesn’t make a test on the new Azuree 41 any less exciting. She is a consummate cruiser-racer, a yacht that has been burnished to be a cut above the rest.
Third time lucky It was hard not to feel a sense of déjà vu on heading out of Pendik Marina on the southern outskirts of Istanbul. This was the third time I had visited the yard and this the third Azuree in six years. Sirena’s original 40-footer was a fun design, a little ahead of her time perhaps, somewhat quirky and cumbersome for a production yacht. Rob Humphreys took the wide aft beam, hard chine, twin rudder theme of that Ceccarelli-designed hull and ran with it to produce a more user-friendly, aesthetically appealing and all round better product in the 46. And now, with this Azuree 41, we
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FACTS
Test Editor TOBY HODGES
Where we tested: between Pendik and Adalar island, south of Istanbul, Turkey. Wind: 5-13 knots over calm sea. Model: hull no 1, with optional teak decks and second heads.
Photos by RICK TOMLINSON
September 2016 I 73
ON TEST: AZUREE 41
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Above: the muscular lines incorporate a high chine and minimised wetted surface for her beam
see the fruits of yet further refinement. Humphreys, who joined me for a test sail aboard the prototype, is particularly pleased with improvements in weight control. Sirena is building stiffer hulls with as much weight as possible concentrated deep in the bulb of the T-keel. His brief was for a modern take on the classic cruiser-racer, but with the emphasis on the ‘cruiser’. “If the balance was the other way it would have a more aggressive fit-out of the interior,” he explained. As it is, some of the weight can be shed – the teak decks, for example; this 200kg luxury is the equivalent of having four people on the rail. For a couple of hours before the wind mysteriously vanished, conditions proved ideal – a 10-13 knot breeze under full sail over flat water. I am unashamedly fond of the hull shape of the 41. Sailing her for the first time was like taking up a musical instrument – an experience that became more rewarding the longer you do it and the more you learn about how it behaves. The helm doesn’t load up with wind
74 I September 2016
Left: straddle the windward wheel and you can steer and trim in comfort with optimum sightlines
3 2 4
pressure; rather heel just keeps increasing. Once past a certain sweet spot, though, the effect has a negative impact on speed. It is easy to become comfortable with too much heel because the beam provides stability and the twin rudders give real traction. Humphreys remarked that an Azuree should be sold with an inclinometer – and its easy to see why, as you can sail at over 20° heel without even trying. I found she responded better when sailed more like a multihull – keep the bow down and get the apparent breeze up before trying to point. By keeping the traveller up and easing the mainsheet a little to get some twist in the main, the Azuree felt freer. As a consequence, with a little less heel, the speed upwind rose from the low sevens up to 7.5 knots. Sacrifice another 5 to 10º pointing and this quickly rises to 8 knots. And there is certainly potential to get better performance out of her by adding the designed roach into the main, for example. The test boat also had approximately 500kg of extras, which could potentially be
removed, including the teak decks already mentioned, certain lockers and the bathing platform (see reference 4, right). Unfortunately by the time we hoisted the gennaker off Adalar island the wind had dropped right away, so we were denied the offwind blast I’d been looking forward to.
Stiff and stable ride The 41 is a fun boat to sail, responsive and light on the wheel. She has a relatively narrow waterline beam and high ballast ratio and the result is a stiff and stable ride. When she is heeled, foot chocks lift for the helmsman to brace on – a useful addition. The diameter of the wheels could be a few inches wider, however, both to allow you to sit out properly – wide side decks mean it’s too far to sit comfortably against the rail and still hold a wheel – and to prevent your knuckles catching on the pedestal. The best helming position I found was to straddle the wheel, which allows you to steer and trim. Unfortunately, the traveller set-up on this boat was, to put it bluntly, terrible –
Above: designer Rob Humphreys (centre) has drawn a delightfully capable modern fast cruiser
1
A fixed bowsprit helps gives the Azuree her contemporary sporty look and hides an anchor roller designed to ensure the anchor is kept clear of the straight stem.
2
2
There are some neat solutions to keep the cockpit tidy, including liferaft stowage between the aft deck lockers.
3
The modular format of the cockpit stowage includes aft helmsman’s benches and box lockers that are optional and removable to save weight and space when racing.
4
A swim platform, which lowers on a block and tackle, is standard, but is removable – as is the cockpit table.
September 2016 I 75
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ON TEST: AZUREE 41
but I was told this was the choice of the owner for this first boat and not standard. In my books it still should never have been fitted as it doesn’t allow for adjustment under load – only from deck level and from forward of the track – useless when heeled and sailing upwind. A traveller that utilises the full beam, with control lines on a swivel cleat or led to cam cleats near deck level, would be a marked improvement. Harken deck gear is standard on future models. For those who would prefer a more cruiser-friendly cockpit set-up, a mainsheet arch over the companionway is also an option. It would be good to see Dyneema used as standard for the running rigging, as our polyester lines stretched continually during the test – a small upgrade, but one that would be more in keeping with the performance credentials of this cruiser-racer.
Well sorted interior With the 41 the concern for Sirena will be whether it is actually stealing potential customers away from its own 46. There is little to choose between the models. The 41
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Saloon The C-shaped table has seating for six, but with tank and batteries below the berth and galley opposite, stowage space is limited.
Galley The longitudinal galley works well on a yacht of this size, as it creates a connection with the saloon and offers plenty of light (including a large hull portlight), worktop space and stowage. The test boat had generous fridge volume and fiddled Corian worktops. has three cabins with an optional second heads and the aft cabins are a similar size to those of the 46. Plus an offset forward berth helps to make the 41 feel voluminous below. Sirena says that the lessons it learned from the 46 were more functional than aesthetic. A lot of after sales research was conducted to try to eliminate future problems. For instance, there was a water drainage issue on the deck of the 46, which was sorted at the design stage of the 41. The Azuree 41 uses a carbon-reinforced spider frame, designed to absorb keel and rig
Navstation This area is as compact as you can go before losing a dedicated chart table, though there is an impractical swinging seat which is being changed – in future boats the aft saloon seat will pivot round for use at the chart table.
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ON TEST: AZUREE 41 Watch the video yachtingworld.com/azuree41
DATA AZUREE 41
SPECIFICATIONS LOA
12.50m
41ft 0in
LWL
11.58m
38ft 0in
Beam (max)
3.93m
12ft 11in
Draught
2.40m
7ft 10in
Disp (lightship)
8,375kg
18,464lb
Ballast
3,145kg
6,933lb
Sail area (100% foretriangle) 93.5m2
1,006ft2
Berths
Forward cabin Providing a light, smart and inviting impression, this cabin has an offset berth to port that allows you to move further forward than with a conventional vee berth. It does, however, render the berth unusable on one tack – obviously a major downside. The heads-cum-wetroom has a shallow bowl sink, but a proper shower stand with mixer tap.
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Engine
39hp 29.11kW Yanmar saildrive
Water
300lt
66gal
Fuel
150lt
33gal
Sail area:disp
23.1
Disp:LWL
150
Price ex VAT: €185,000 (£154,995) Design: Humphreys Yacht Design http://en.sirenamarine.com.tr
Conclusion loads. The admirable engineering is an example of Sirena’s focus on quality, which is now beginning to pay dividends – the 41 looks and feels like a higher end product than models from the mass-production yards that compete with it on price. The comfort of the interior shows the emphasis clearly lies with the cruising brief of this cruiser-racer. Styled by Studio Spadolini, it is bright and smart, with a pale trim, lots of natural light and good headroom carried forward to the forward cabin bulkhead. The standard finish is in oak with options of walnut and teak. Understated, it is an interior that lets the quality of finish do the talking. The outboard-facing navstation adjoining the after part of the saloon berth, the longitudinal galley and offset forward berth all help to create a generous impression of space. Examples of smart detailing include the indirect lighting, headlining with grabrails inset, alloy hinges and door handles. The engine room has solid mesh sound and heat insulation as used by much larger yachts – a cut above the norm. There is access to the Jefa steering gear through the aft cabin bulkheads. The wire linkage to the quadrants is kept to a minimum; the latter are linked by a bar, but each can be operated independently.
78 I September 2016
This is a versatile 40-footer, a stiff, powerful yet manageable design, blessed with high levels of quality control. She will suit both family and performance cruisers and appeal to an owner who likes to race occasionally. The Azuree provides an enjoyable ride, which keeps things interesting by making you work out how best to sail her. Sirena Marine has once again upped its game with weight control and finish quality without undue impact on the price. While in Istanbul we also sailed Sirena’s new flagship, the Euphoria 68 (see page 80). Once a yard steps up to a semi-custom size, there is no hiding place on quality – and this has obviously had a beneficial knock-on effect on the Azuree, helping to add a renewed level of refinement to the smaller product line. In the past potential buyers might not have wanted to take on the risk of a relatively new Turkish brand. But through its mass production of automotive parts, Sirena is establishing itself as a composite expert on a global level. An Azuree is one tier up on quality over what might be suggested by the price, employing pedigree design and engineering. Sirena has continued to polish and refine tirelessly so this 41 has taken on that brilliance that the Azuree name suggests.
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TURKISH AMBITION SIRENA MARINE’S IMPRESSIVE EUPHORIA 68 IS EVIDENCE OF THE COMPANY’S PASSION FOR STEPPING UP A GEAR s Ipek Kirac took the shiny new carbon wheel, her smile revealed a proud sense of achievement – she was in command of her own Frers-designed luxury cruiser, the first of a new model built by the yard she controls. If you were the offspring of two of the most prominent families in Turkish business, it would be logical to question why you’d want to start a yacht building company. The answer is surprisingly simple: passion. “My parents were workaholics when I was growing up,” Kirac reminisces as we ghost along under the shade of a fresh new turquoise kite, “so the times on our yacht were our only breaks spent together.” That particular yacht was a Frersdesigned Swan, one of a number that Pat Lilley sold to her father. Lilley is now a board member for Sirena Marine and his input has been central to its improvement in quality control. So Kirac and Lilley on a trial sail of this new Euphoria 68 represents a wheel turning full circle. Kirac, who speaks effortless English thanks to her years in the US studying biology, is an astute, plucky and extraordinarily down to earth woman. She is the CEO of Sirena Marine, the first mass production yacht builder in Turkey, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. Kirac views the company as a composite specialist that is creating global brands. She is launching a new powerboat line called Sirena Yachts this autumn in addition to the Azuree and Euphoria brands, but it is
A
this particular Euphoria model that really sees Sirena step up a gear. The 68 is very much a small superyacht rather than a large production yacht and she has superyacht design pedigree in Frers and Design Unlimited. “What we really want to do is to change that ‘made in Turkey’ perception,” Kirac tells me. “We believe we can be a global player – there is so much history here, so much energy.” A chief barrier is that sailing is not ingrained in Turkish culture. “It’s very difficult to create a brand from scratch, but slowly, slowly, it’s working.” Kirac believes it’s not about being cheaper than competitors, it’s more about quality. Pat Lilley adds that they have implemented “top quality design, engineers, build and structure – we can’t afford to have any of these go wrong.”
Master of clean lines Frers’s brief was to design an easily driven yacht with a completely uncluttered deck. This is one of his first designs with twin rudders, employed to promote easy control of her broad stern profile. The tinted hull portlights both break up the high topsides and set off a sharp, modern look. The way Frers, the master of clean lines, has continued the caulking line over the coachroof with no join helps to emphasise a distinctive, uncluttered style. A vast rotating anchor arm lies hidden in the large bow locker, so the foredeck is kept flush, broken only by a recessed
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Above: the Euphoria is one of the first Frers designs to use twin rudders, which can give control to the broad aft sections. Inset right: Ipek Kirac at the helm of the 68 and, aged three, on the family Swan
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September 2016 I 81
All photos: Rick Tomlinson
Key to Sirena Marine’s drive has been the introduction of Ipek Kirac as CEO. The daughter of the founder and chairman of Kirac Holding, she says her goal is to create “international Turkish brands”, of which Azuree and Euphoria are the first. Sirena also now produces composite and stainless parts for railways, automotive, defence and heavy equipment sectors.
REVIEW
Above: a large swim platform lowers to reveal a tender garage and vital lazarette stowage
Above: powerful, central, single-point mainsheet winch helps to tame the large sailplan
padeye for the inner forestay. And just two mast base winches interrupt the stretch of teak, together with tinted flush hatches set into the coachroof. On the water we could match the 4-6 knot zephyrs with the aid of the gennaker. With two hydraulic autopilot rams attached, there was little to sense through the carbon wheels in these conditions. But I appreciate how well the 68 is thought out for short-handed use. Despite there being just two of us on deck at times, sail trim can be adjusted without leaving the helm. The mainsail sheets from the end of the boom straight down to a central winch, which is within reach of the wheel, as are the primaries. This first 68 also has an élite hydraulic system that allows control of most things from a panel on the pedestal at the push of a button. The helmsman has an inviting side deck slot forward of the wheel to sit and steer while adjusting the primary winch. This leaves an uncluttered and simple guest cockpit which, combined with copious beam, extensive benches, broad side decks and high freeboard, makes the 68 feel like a very large yacht when on board. The teak is inset into the coamings and benches as standard, rather than laid on top, a tricky technique that looks first class. The stainless steel work is premium quality, the fixtures and fittings all from top brands. It should be noted though that there is an array of optional extras on this first boat, including the carbon Hall rig and the optional ‘Rolls Royce of hydraulic packages’.
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Under the direction of Ward Proctor of Marine & Hydraulics in Finland, the Rexroth hydraulics (which needs a 320lt reservoir of oil) is split into two independent systems, one dedicated to sailing. My only real qualms with the deck design were that it desperately needs a higher pushpit guardrail (since addressed) and that stowage space is neither generous nor practical. There are no cockpit lockers and the anchor arm swallows much of the bow locker, leaving the tender garage to double as a sail locker.
Superyacht style Design Unlimited’s styling has created a tastefully elegant interior. The limed oak finish helps make it inviting – the bare grain is scratched and then filled with lime before the varnish system is applied. This first 68 is a fitting example of the
Above: the navstation is a practical size and well-located abaft the raised saloon. From here you have touchscreen control of all the ship’s systems
Above: long-legged Frers lines and a high sail area: displacement ratio helps ensure a fast ride
SPECIFICATIONS LOA
21.07m
69ft 2in
LWL
19.53m
64ft 1in
Beam (max)
5.81m
19ft 1in
Draught
3.80m
12ft 6in
30,00kg
66,138lb
Sail area (100% foretriangle) 259m2
2,788t2
Disp (lightship)
Price ex VAT: €1.8m (£1.54m) Design: German Frers
extent to which owners can customise a yacht of this size. As well as the top-end spars and hydraulics, this yacht has a very different layout from the standard offering. The owner specified an aft master cabin, a large galley for entertaining and a cabin suitable for a guest with restricted movement. An intelligent power management system is also installed, which provides touchscreen monitoring and control of the ship’s systems, and can automatically program the most efficient means of power generation to cope with demand. It also makes it simple to transfer fuel and water to the weather side. Again it’s an extra over the standard Mastervolt system, but one that demonstrates a high calibre of fit-out. The raised saloon is so beamy it feels like two different rooms with a landing in between. The engine is neatly contained beneath the sole, leaving generous space for
Above: smart, indirect lighting and plenty of natural light combine to make the Euphoria 68 feel luxuriously spacious below
the genset beneath the companionway. A 45° sliding door neatly segregates the galley and crew area from the rest of the yacht, giving the owner maximum privacy. And the master cabin celebrates the generous aft beam, a tried and tested luxurious format with chaise longue to one side of the berth and desk area to the other. In ten years Sirena has gone from building its first 33ft Azuree, to this, a yacht that allows this Turkish company to show a skill level and ambition ahead of its years. Anyone can try to build a big yacht, but you will instantly expose yourself if there are any flaws. There is little to find fault with in terms of craftsmanship and finish on the 68. So it’s not surprising to learn that an 84 is in the pipeline, and possibly even a 100-footer. Sirena has put all the key elements of investment, facilities and skill in place – plus it has that potent extra addition of passion.
September 2016 I 83
AUTUMN SHOW SPECIAL IT’S A YEAR FOR LARGE YACHTS, WITH WORLD PREMIERES OF 58-68FT MONOHULLS AND MULTIS TO 77FT TO BE SEEN AT CANNES AND SOUTHAMPTON. TOBY HODGES LOOKS AT WHAT’S COMING UP
HH66 This powerful clear-coated carbon cruiser is the first of HH Catamarans’ new line of performance cruising cats, which launched in Xiamen, China in April. The project combines the experience of Californian designers Morrelli and Melvin with New Zealand boatbuilder Paul Hakes and Hudson Yacht & Marine’s vast manufacturing capabilities. The timing of the HH Catamarans launch is significant, as the previous leader in this sector, Gunboat, has been undergoing financial difficulties – although it has recently been bought by the Garcia/Outremer group. The Hudson Yacht yard has four more 66s and two 55s in build. The HH66 was designed to be lighter, quicker and more luxurious than any of her competitors. A lightweight displacement of 16.7 tonnes is impressive – in comparison she is lighter than a Grand Soleil 58 10ft shorter – and should help her achieve the mid 20-knot reaching speeds her polar diagram suggests. There is an uncluttered deck, with sailing systems made comparatively easy to handle thanks to push-button daggerboard controls, Cariboni Magic Trim rams and all halyards and reefs on halyard locks. Aft or forward central cockpit versions are offered. Price ex VAT US$3.34m (£2.53m). www.hhcatamarans.com
Photos: Jésus Renedo
Where to see it? The first HH66, R-SIX, was shipped to the Med this summer and will make her show debut in Cannes
84 I September 2016
NEW YACHTS with toby hodges
Oyster 675 A powerful-looking new twin rudder design from the Humphreys board, the 675 is an evolution of Oyster’s recent large series of bluewater cruisers. She sits neatly between the popular 625 and the 745. Oyster says she will be easy to sail short-handed, thanks in part to an efficient yet uncluttered deck layout, and has
performance upgrade options and swinging centreboard or standard keel versions. Below are three luxury double cabins plus quarters for up to two professional crew. A choice of either enclosed or passageway galley is also offered. Price ex VAT £2.35m. www.oysteryachts.com
Where to see it? World premiere at Southampton
Bestevaer 45 Pure The Bestevaer range has a good reputation for exceptionally robust cruising yachts. The Pure 45 is builder K&M’s first series-built version of these aluminium cruisers. The design evolved from Gerard Dykstra’s own 53ft Bestevaer II, which launched in 2003, a rugged yacht aboard which he has visited many remote parts of the world. The Amsterdam-based Dykstra design company continues to draw the range today, including this latest incarnation, which is
pitched at a smaller size and budget bracket. The Pure looks perfect for adventure cruising – maintenance-friendly, with a deep, protected cockpit, tiller-steering and a pilothouse for when the weather is really bad. Two or three cabins are offered below, together with a U-shaped galley. A fixed keel is standard, with an option for a centreboard with double rudders. Price ex VAT €495,000 (£422,050). www.kmy.nl
Where to see it? Amsterdam, Southampton, La Rochelle
September 2016 I 85
NEW YACHTS
Grand Soleil 58 Performance This Umberto Felci and Nauta Yachts collaboration is Italian through and through, which helps to explain the alluring, sporty styling, the low, clean deck line and generous sunbathing area. Beamy aft sections buy stability and volume below, and create room for a tender garage. On deck this helps make a separation between the twin helms and sailing systems and the guest cockpit. “The waterlines are particularly efficient,” says Felci, “the volumes of the bow are generous and the stability form results are quite high. This is to allow a comfortable navigation with no excessive heeling angles and to maintain very high speed average.”
Grand Soleil provides an impressive range of owner choice with this 58. The yacht can be configured towards racing or cruising, with the choice of two sizes of sail plan, self-tacking jib and bowsprit options, and either a single-point mainsheet or an electric traveller. A modular interior format allows for a variety of layouts, including a conventional or forward galley, offset or central owner’s berth and a sail locker or crew cabin forward. The first five yachts sold off plan all had different interior layouts. Price ex VAT €869,000 (£740,944). www.grandsoleil.net
Where to see it? World premiere at Cannes
Euphoria 68
Contest 67CS
With luxury yachts between 65ft and 68ft launching from Contest, Oyster, X-Yachts and Sirena Marine, potential buyers are spoilt for choice this autumn. See our full report on this new flagship Euphoria on page 80. Price ex VAT €1.8m (£1.5m). www.euphoriayachts.com
This is the first Judel Vrolijk design for Contest, and the designers were tasked with providing extra performance without sacrificing cruising comfort. I saw the first two new 67CSs nearing completion in the yard in May and was impressed with the high quality of build. The optional fixed bowsprit, for example, has hydraulic Reckmann and Code 0 furlers incorporated. Price ex VAT €2.57m (£2.15m). www.contestyachts.com
Where to see it? World debut at Cannes
86 I September 2016
Where to see it? Cannes
The VPLP and Nauta dream team, long-term collaborators on the Lagoon range, has finally been let loose on a superyacht-sized catamaran for the Groupe Beneteau brand. There is an 88 in the pipeline too, which speaks of the current appetite for larger and larger multihulls. Leader of the production catamaran sector for many a year, Lagoon is not one to chance its arm – these big projects have been a considerable time in development and will be backed up by client demand. A wide beam of 36ft will obviously create hitherto undreamed of space for a production yacht – however, it simultaneously brings with it issues of practicality with regard to handling and parking. This is a near 60-tonne yacht with a 205m2 square top mainsail. But potential owners will no doubt
Phototèque Lagoon/Nicolas Claris
Lagoon SEVENTY 7
quickly discover many long lost friends materialising out of the woodwork to help out should they purchase a yacht with this hospitality capability. Price ex VAT €2.85m (£2.4m). www.seventy7.fr Where to see it? Cannes or Barcelona
Nautitech Open 46 The inclusion of Nautitech in its portfolio has proved to be a success for German giant Bavaria. With its new Open series, the French catamaran brand was encouraged to keep the angular, modern styling and notable sailing performance and combine it with a very ‘open’ and cruising-friendly format.
The 46 follows the success of the 40 two years ago and includes similar features, such as a solid bimini and twin helm stations, but is offered with a flybridge. She has a spacious modern interior and will cruise at speed. Price ex VAT €387,900 (£330,740). www.nautitech.fr
Where to see it? Southampton, Cannes, Genoa, Barcelona
Spirit 47CR Ipswich-based Spirit Yachts is due to launch the first model from its new cruising (CR) series in time for Southampton. She has fuller lines than previous models, offering greater volume for long-term cruising. “Increasingly we are seeing prospective owners looking to experience extended holidays or live aboard in the Mediterranean or Caribbean,” explains Spirit Yachts CEO and head designer Sean McMillan, “and the
47CR is the ideal yacht for this lifestyle.” The 47CR is hand-built using Spirit’s tried and tested wood epoxy construction method and comes with a full spec, including carbon spars. You can be assured of a premium quality finish in the gleaming mahogany on deck and the joiner work below. The layout offers an owner’s en-suite cabin forward and double guest cabin aft, along with a second heads. Price ex VAT £594,000. www.spirityachts.com
Where to see it? World premiere at Southampton
September 2016 I 87
NEW YACHTS
Oceanis Yachts 62 The Oceanis Yachts 62 by Beneteau – not to be confused with the Beneteau Oceanis range – is the first of a new luxury range of Beneteau cruisers from 53ft to 73ft. The design is a collaboration between Berret Racoupeau and the Italian powerboat designer Pierangelo Andreani. Motor boat influences include the huge tender garage with a platform that submerges and stairwells in the quarters for easy access. The deck features six sunbeds, an enormous cockpit and a novel rigid bimini option. And the interior is sure to be filled with light thanks to the array of large hull portlights disguised by the broad wraparound stripe. Beneteau created a production run in the same big boat facility that produces its Montecarlo motor boats, an industrial approach to provide an unparalleled end price for this size of yacht. Beneteau is also updating its Sense range, starting with a Sense 57 launching at Cannes (also at Southampton and Genoa), and a 51 at Paris in December. The Oceanis 35 and 38 are also morphing into a 35.1 and a 38.1, with layouts similar to the 41.1. Price ex VAT €650,000 (£554,216). www.beneteau.com Where to see it? Cannes, Genoa and Barcelona
X6 and X4 X-Yachts first announced the X6 in early 2014 and the long wait has simply heightened expectation. The Danish yard has so much confidence in the appeal of this contemporary luxury fast cruiser, however, that it is launching a second new model, the X4, at the same time. We will feature full test reports in a forthcoming issue. X-Yachts already has performance cruiser and luxury/ bluewater cruiser lines. This new range sits in between and has X returning to its roots of premium quality fast cruisers. The range uses the same vacuum-infused epoxy hulls as the Xp, but includes X’s renowned steel grid for absorbing keel loads. Prices ex VAT: X6 €1,98m (£1,69m), X4 €279,000 (£237,887). www.x-yachts.com Where to see them? Southampton
Solaris 47
J/112E
A smaller sister to the revolutionary Solaris 50, with which we were so impressed last year, the 47 shares the majority of the latter boat’s Acebal-designed features. She has three cabins, two heads, a tender garage and sail locker, but has slightly less volume, 1.6 tonnes less displacement and, crucially, is €84,000 cheaper. Price ex VAT €396,000 (£337,645). www.solarisyachts.com
This is the latest addition to J-Boats’ cruising-friendly ‘E’ series, a 36-footer with a two-cabin interior, 6ft 3in headroom and a comfortable, ergonomic cockpit. Whether you’re primarily interested in cruising, racing or short-handed sailing, the J/112E makes a versatile solution. You can be confident that she’ll be a delight to helm and easy to manage. Price ex VAT €175,630 (£149,750). www.jboats.com
Where to see it? Amsterdam, Southampton, Cannes and Genoa
Where to see it? Southampton
SEE US AT
BERTH 136 -138
NEW YACHTS
Swan 54 Nautor’s Swan’s smallest cruising Swan in nearly 20 years launched in late June in time for the yard’s 50th anniversary celebrations. A modest-sized bluewater cruiser with conventional raked ends and a fin keel, it boasts ample deck stowage. This includes a cockpit locker cum utility cabin that can house a generator and washing machine, or be used as a workshop or convertible berth if desired.
ClubSwan 50 The first of this feisty new 50ft one-design class, designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Finnish builder, launched just in time to open the main festivities. In commissioning Juan Kouyoumdjian, Nautor has used a designer other than Frers for the first time in a generation. The result is a hot new design that is many things to many sailors, a one-design rocketship that will perform in IRC and be suited to owner-
The generous sailplan should be easy to handle thanks to powered winches close to the aft helm stations and a coachroofmounted mainsheet. A layout that includes a double cabin amidships and a spacious U-shaped galley beside the companionway is one that looks worthy of Nautor’s seaworthy reputation. Price ex VAT €1.1m (£930,000). www.swan54.com Where to see it? Cannes
driver racing or short-handed weekending. The modern beamy, chined profile sports a reverse sheerline and stem. She can be converted for weekend cruising and has two double cabins, plus galley and heads. Price ex VAT €935,000 (£784,000). www.clubswan50.com
Where to see it? Rolex Swan Cup, Porto Cervo, Sardinia
Arcona 465 The traditional varnished mahogany interior of the Arcona 465 is like a comfortable woollen jacket that does very little to disguise this potential wolf of a yacht. That Arcona Yachts chose to build its new flagship in carbon for the first time might put off some traditionalists, but the prospect of a light, stiff and responsive cruising yacht will doubtless excite many more. Past sailing trials on Arconas have all proved to be a treat. Stefan Quiberg has given this 465 a more modern hull shape than her predecessors, including a near plumb stem and beam taken right aft. As well as buying some extra interior volume, he predicts this will create downwind stability. Price ex VAT £388,212. www.arconayachts.com Where to see it? Southampton
Dehler 34 This latest Dehler/Hanse collaboration is created to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dehler’s most successful model, the 1986-built 34. Today’s 34 is a spicy-looking Judel Vrolijk design, with a carbon cage and vinylester full sandwich construction and offering a suite of upgrades to performance sailors. Price ex VAT €108,500 (£92,510). www.dehler.com Where to see it? Amsterdam, Cannes, Southampton, La Rochelle
90 I September 2016
Autumn european shows HISWA Amsterdam 30 August-4 September Cannes Yachting Festival 6-11 September Southampton International Boat Show 16-25 September
Azuree 41
Genoa International Boat Show 20-25 September
See full report on page 72.
Grand Pavois La Rochelle 28 September-3 October
Where to see it Cannes
Barcelona boat show 12-16 October
!!
NEW GEAR Data on your wrist Instant Data Watch £400-500 What is it? Instrument repeater worn as a watch. Customised Grand Prix version already available, but standard version will be out in September. www.instantdata.watch
nstrument repeaters are heavily relied upon for racing – when you can see them easily. Multiple crew performing multiple tasks around the boat mean the ability to view the numbers and prepare for the task can often be restricted. This Instant Data watch gives you all the data you need, whether you are the bowman preparing for the start or the skipper off-watch in your berth. It also avoids the expense of installing more displays. The watch does what its name implies, providing a connection to onboard instruments. Developed by a new wearable technology company in Cambridge, it uses a patented Bluetooth network to enable smartwatch use as a seamless repeater. “It’s like wi-fi, but with much longer battery life,” explains founder Vincent Geake. Bluetooth has less time lag than wi-fi too. Geake’s company is currently using Sony and Motorola hardware with sunlight- readable displays, waterproof to IP67. Geake, who sailed with Laurie Smith on Silk Cut in the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race, and has more recently worked with Team New Zealand and Ben Ainslie in the America’s Cup, is in a good position to see the demand from professional crews. He has used prototype systems at various regattas and superyacht events this season.
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“The first Grand Prix systems are being installed now on leading race yachts, including J Class and TP52s, and Fast 40s Harlequin and Invictus will be using our systems at Cowes Week,” says Geake. The current product integrates with racing software from Deckman and Expedition, multiplexing at source. The more mainstream NMEA 2000 product will have multiplexing built into the individual Bluetooth transmitters. Geake has found that crewmembers like to use the watches to show different data, “numbers that you don’t normally have” for such things as deflector settings, Code 0 tack loads, next leg wind angle, etc. In the
Astra esa D7 Astra, the first company to bring out a mainstream sailing smartwatch with its esa Watch, has now unveiled this standalone racing program, controlled by a smart touchscreen display. The instrument contains a marine-grade computer capable of showing advanced tactical software on a high-contrast, 7in wide-angle screen. It will talk to all existing onboard instruments and includes the Italian company’s own esa Regatta features, including real-time boat polar calculations, startline information plus chartplotter functionality. Price ex VAT €1,499 (£1,256). www.astrayacht.com
92 I September 2016
Above: crew can customise pages to show the data they want – the above is perfect for foredeck crew preparing for the next leg. Left: the watch in action at the 2016 Superyacht Cup Palma
past crew may have had to ask the navigator. Giving data access to individual crew avoids distracting a navigator at critical phases. A twist sensor is built into the Instant Data Watch so the user can roll their wrist over to change the page – useful when you have wet fingers or for one-handed operation. Custom systems are currently being installed, with display pages as required for specific boats. Typically Geake supplies between four and six watches per boat with network, software interface and customised app included, which costs between £3,000 and £5,000.
NEW GEAR
Thuraya SatSleeve+
Zipshorts Padded
The original SatSleeve, which has been on the market for nearly three years now, works on the enticing principle of turning your mobile phone into a satphone. The product wraps around the phone, utilising the mobile’s internal electronics, and encodes and boosts the signal for connection to the Thuraya satellite network. But you needed to purchase a particular sleeve to fit the phone (Android or iPhone). This SatSleeve+ is a more versatile option. It has a universal adapter, so the user can switch between most smartphone models from 58mm to 85mm in width. It also connects to your mobile via wi-fi rather than Bluetooth. A built-in SOS function will work even when the smartphone isn’t connected and email or texting apps can be used when out of cellular range. Price ex VAT £370 or £5 per day to rent. www.globaltelesat.co.uk
Here’s a great idea from an exciting young Norwegian company, especially applicable to offshore sailors, but also to anyone who has suffered from ‘cold butt’ syndrome. The Zipshorts have removable padding and they zip into place, without the need to remove boots or wet-weather trousers. “Outdoor people spend a lot of their time sitting. The butt is therefore a well known source for losing heat,” says Northern Playground in its successful Kickstarter campaign. The padding material is soft, perforated for breathability, flexible and water repellent. The shorts are an Italian fleece made from recycled plastic bottles and have YKK zips. Sailors have the option of removing either the padding, or both the padding and shorts independently. “It’s time to fight for our butts,” the company says. Bottoms-up to that. Price €119 (£167). www.northernplayground.no
Karver 3:1 Friction Sheave As furling flying sails become more and more popular, our dependence on the hardware that allows them to work reliably increases. Despite being one-third lighter than its previous version, Karver’s new Friction Sheave is both cheaper and better quality, and it makes for an attractive performance upgrade to a furling drum. The stainless steel sheave is designed to connect the drum to the deck efficiently while maintaining maximum luff tension control. It can be configured as a 2:1 or 3:1 set-up. Price from £106.75. www.karver-systems.com
Harken V Block What is it about the sight of a highend block that is so appealing to sailors? This new V block is claimed to be ‘the highest-performing, most efficient block Harken has ever offered’. This is a bold statement from the deck hardware specialist, which has totally re-engineered a custom grand prix item into a lighter, more efficient product available to buy off-the-shelf. Carbon sideplates and titanium races and roller bearings were used to reduce weight and also the number of components. V blocks can be disassembled for maintenance and come in four sizes to suit maximum working loads from 1,500kg to 6,500kg. Price from £764. www.harken.com
Raymarine i70s multifunction instruments Most sailors want to be able to view a range of different navigation data (hence the appeal of the Instant Data watch, page 92). The ability to customise a screen to suit individual preference therefore makes practical sense. The new i70s allows users to set digital, analog and graphical displays showing all measures of wind, depth and speed data on a 4.1in super-bright screen. That it interfaces with SeaTalk and NMEA 2000 means you can also see navigation and engine data – or use it as an AIS repeater. Price £440. www.raymarine.com
94 I September 2016
Marlink Smalltrack For those who require a simple satellite tracking device, where voice or text functions are not needed, this compact tracker can be used anywhere without an external antenna or power source – it provides a one-week charge. It features two manual, configurable SOS buttons, geo fencing functionality (to set virtual perimeters) and automatic alarm functions. The Smalltrack is waterproof, measures 123.5 x 76 x 33mm and comes with a web-based monitoring and management platform. Price ex tax US$1,000 (£758). www.marlink.com
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PRACTICAL •
•
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All photos: Tor Johnson
THIS MONTH NIGHT SAILING WASZP, ONE-DESIGN MOTH SHORT-HANDED: KITE DROP WEATHER: THUNDER AND LIGHTNING
96 I September 2016
{
AT NIGHT WE RELY ON ROD CELLS IN OUR EYES TO SEE, WHICH TAKE 20-40 MINUTES TO ADAPT TO A CHANGE OF LIGHT
}
SPECIAL REPORT HELEN FRETTER ON NIGHT SAILING ailing through the night brings its own rewards: a contemplative stillness, phosphorescent trails through a star-lit sea, the soul-warming sunrises. But it also raises challenges – if you cannot see gusts and squalls approaching, how quickly can you react? How well do you – and the rest of your crew – know your yacht’s layout in the dark? We asked some experienced long-distance cruisers, many of whom have sailed extensively in the tropics – experiencing much longer hours of darkness than northern hemisphere sailors who only venture offshore in summer months – for their night sailing advice.
S
Sundowner readiness Romantic though sailing into the sunset may be, heading into darkness requires careful preparation. ‘Bones’ Black, who owns and skippers Emily Morgan, a Bowman 57 charter cruiser, says: “We do a great deal of night sailing, be it from island to island in the Caribbean or transatlantic passages. When doing overnight island-hopping we plan to arrive at the next destination in daylight, especially if we have not been there before. “We prep the boat, all sail covers off, halyards attached, engine checks and of course we recheck the weather – if we are in tidal waters we would double check the tides too. We also prepare the cockpit by putting a good torch, hand-bearing compass, binoculars, bottle of water and spare safety tether to hand. “Then we sit and have a decent meal to relax before we set sail. We also prepare a meal for later as it’s common to feel a little queasy at the start of a passage if it’s a bit lumpy and the last thing you want is to go below to start cooking.” Erik Lindgren, currently cruising his Baltic 56 in Fiji, says: “Spirit V is by design a very fast boat. This means that we cover good distances without pushing and without using too much sail at night. “Our night set-up includes bimini down, sprayhood up, one or two reefs in the main depending on the risk of squalls, lifejackets are worn and we are always clipped on, AIS transmitters in lifejackets and PLB in foulweather jackets.”
Above: time for contemplation on a night watch
Paul Frew, who is sailing his Oyster 575 Juno around Europe with his wife Caroline, says: “We are very cautious offshore. We have a golden rule never to leave the cockpit at night, so we will delay a pole gybe until daylight even it means heading a few miles off course. If for any reason we do need to leave the cockpit the on-watch crew have to call me and we all clip on. “I have an offshore checklist that we always review before any night passages. I keep a highpowered 24V torch in the cockpit and an anticollision flare in the companionway. Radar is always on at night and AIS alarms are checked before dark.”
Golden rules Once underway every skipper applies the same golden rules, summed up by Will Downing, skipper of the Hanse 575 Ximera: “Lifejackets obligatory; lifelines attached even if you are sleeping in the cockpit; don’t go forward without someone else awake in the cockpit and clipped on.” Erik Lindgren adds: “We never, ever leave the cockpit while on a single watch. Sail area is reduced
“we are very cautious offshore. we have a golden rule never to leave the cockpit at night” September 2016 I 97
❯
PRACTICAL
{
NASA
STUDIED THE SLEEP PATTERNS OF SOLO OCEAN RACING SAILORS TO SEE HOW EXTREME SLEEP DEPRIVATION AFFECTS DECISION MAKING AND PERFORMANCE
} Left: going forward at night is not recommended. Many cruisers have a rule not to leave the cockpit
during the night – if hit by a big squall – by furling the jib. The off-watch sleeps on the saloon sofa.” John Dyer, who sailed his First 47.7 Exocet Strike on the World ARC, says: “While on night watches we always take a view on likely weather conditions and reef accordingly before it’s dark – always easier to shake reefs out than put them in. “We also use head torches and use the red LED to preserve night vision.” Bones Black says it’s also important to brief new crew joining the yacht on what to do if they have concerns. “We tell our crew always to wake Anna as skipper or me as first mate at any time. I would rather get up and check something out, be it a strange noise or a light on the horizon in good time, rather than at the last minute when it could be a problem.” Conversely, when all is going well, being considerate of your off-watch crew is important – tether hooks dragging on deck and rattling pans in the galley sound incredibly loud at night. If you need to run a generator, consider timing it so it so the noise is split over two watches.
Watch patterns Your choice of watch system depends on several factors – how many people there are on board, how mentally and physically draining the conditions are, and personal preferences – some people find it hard to sleep down below during the day, for instance, while others prefer a short night watch and a longer day off watch. Will Downing comments: “I am a firm believer in the four-hour sleep rule of REM. Most people sleep for four hours, then two hours, then one hour, with waking moments (or close to) in between. If there are only three people on board, a three-hours-on six-off watch system means you will definitely get that four hours of sleep. Two hours on and four off is not four hours of sleep. Once you’ve brushed your teeth, had a snack, gone to the heads and maybe read for
98 I September 2016
a few minutes, you’re lucky if you end up with just three hours. “Even better is a four-person shift pattern with two hours on and six off. It’s not long on duty, but long on the old shut-eye. I have always found that the crew are better humoured, easier going and just plain happier!” Black agrees: “There are so many different watch systems you could run, but they depend on how many crew you have. If it’s just Anna and me we do three on and three off during the night, and four on four off during the day to catch up. If alone on watch we steer for about 20 minutes, looking around the horizon all the time, then have a look at the AIS and radar. “If there are three people we do three on, six off and steer as much as we can to keep busy. When concentration starts to lapse the autopilot goes on for a while and a drink and a few nibbles help. “If we have a full complement of six crew we run three on, six off with two crew on each watch, this means the crew on watch can steer for half an hour then swap.”
Handover period Above: the right lighting is important on deck and below to preserve your night vision
Getting through it Creature comforts to get through the night (besides the promise of a bacon sandwich): “As we normally have three or four crewmembers on long passages we adopt a mother watch. Desert Island Discs downloaded from the BBC is our favourite distraction!” Paul and Caroline Frew, Juno “Listening to music helps pass the time – but I am always being told off by Anna for singing along while she is trying to sleep.” “We also have what we call the ‘excessive calories box’ stuffed full of sweets, breakfast bars, chocolate bars and anything else we can find. There is nothing like the sight of your watch mate appearing at 0300 with the box to raise morale.” Bones Black, Emily Morgan
Equally important is how you hand over between watches. Downing says it’s worth taking your time over the watch change. “When you finish a shift in the middle of the night and are yearning for your pillow and some well-earned rest, remember that the person coming on watch has only just recently woken up so take time to chat with them, offer them a hot drink, talk about the weather and the shipping. “I always finish with asking: ‘Are you awake enough to do this?’ Remember that your life is now in their hands!” For the person coming on deck Downing suggests: “Read the log. It’s nice to know they saw dolphins and a mermaid, but more important that they heard a rattle from the engine or that the temperature felt like it dropped several degrees very quickly.”
PRACTICAL
EXTRAORDINARY BOATS
Photos: Gilles Martin Raget
MATTHEW SHEAHAN ON THE WASZP
100 I September 2016
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The WASZP measures under the Moth class rules although at 48kg it’s heavier than the top carbon machines
As a development class, the International Moth has been a hotbed of foiling innovations over the past few years. Matthew Sheahan reports on a new accessible one-design version
f there is one class of boat that has turned more heads around the world in the last decade than any other, it must surely be the foiling Moth. Having started as more of a stunt than anything more serious, there is now no other way to race a Moth. Fleets worldwide have grown and the experts make foiling look effortless, yet the reality is that mastering the Moth is even more difficult than carve gybing a windsurfer. Yet there is no doubt that the combination of speed, silence and extraordinary looks has been, and continues to be, a big draw. With so few rules, the International Moth – as opposed to the ironing board-shaped British Moth – has always been at the leading edge of design and development. Famous for its laissez-faire approach, it has just a few simple rules that have resulted in some of the most radical thinking in the sport. But not everyone is able or willing to play. For some, the pace of development got too hot when hull shapes became little more than a plank on edge. A boat that would only float the right way up if you were moving and required the balance of a cat on a fence from the helmsman was a challenge too far for many sailors. But as we now know, there was another big hike in performance to come as the Moth took to foils. Once again, some found this a step too far, though plenty rose to the challenge and helped to create a completely new style of racing. Those who have learned to foil have left the rest of us green with envy.
I
The stern has greater volume to prevent sinking during low-speed manoeuvres and tacking. This also helps keep the boat on the foils
September 2016 I 101
❯
PRACTICAL
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With the option for a small sail plan the WASZP has been designed with younger sailors in mind as well as the more cautious
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But a new design of Moth might change all that as the long-awaited WASZP goes on sale. Conceived five years ago by Andrew McDougall, designer of the MACH2 Moth, the idea was to make a foiling Moth not only cheaper, but easier to sail. So while the WASZP is based on the foiling Moth and conforms to the few class rules that there are, it differs fundamentally in that it is a strict one-design. But it has other advantages for the less daring. For starters, the wings provide sufficient buoyancy to keep the boat the right way up when stopped, and they are also adjustable to allow you to alter the angle by which they rise towards their tips – technically called dihedral. Setting the wings flatter, that is with less dihedral, is like lowering the stabilisers on a child’s bike. The outboard ends of the wings touch the water and support you before things go pear-shaped.
Looking like a pro As you get more proficient at keeping the kind of balance that unicyclists take for granted, you increase the dihedral to allow you to sail the boat heeled to windward. At this point the daggerboard T-foil is hauling you to windward while you look like a pro. Furthermore, the mast is unstayed, making it simpler to rig and, with no shrouds to act as giant cheese wires, considerably safer when you do take a tumble. The main foil and rudder lift like conventional daggerboards so it’s easier to get on and off the beach. Fully fledged Moths have a fixed daggerboard and rudder, which are fitted when the boat is on its side, leaving you to swim out into deeper water with the boat in tow like a dog with a stick before you can right it and sail away. The reverse process is required when coming ashore. Clearly, this is not for everyone. With delicate, expensive carbon foils, you want to get this right from the start. Few do. The WASZP, however, has foils that can not only be lowered progressively once you’re under way, like a Laser, but are made of alloy with injectionmoulded tips, making them far more robust.
One of the keys to the WASZP is the folding wings. Set horizontally, they act as stabilisers and can be raised as you become more proficient, using different-sized wing supports
Different sail plans for different sizes and abilities of sailor have become popular in modern singlehanded dinghies. The WASZP has a choice of 5.8m2, 6.9m2 or 8.2m2 sails
A conventional daggerboard and matching T foil rudder make life easier getting afloat and back ashore
A wishbone boom system, like that on a windsurfer, dispenses with a conventional boom and kicker and makes tacking easier
As with the Moth, the WASZP uses a wand to control the ride height automatically using a mechanical sensor system
With its unstayed mast it is easy to rig, there’s no rigging to collide with when you take a tumble and it’s easier to get back aboard after a capsize
Worth the wait The hull is an epoxy, glass, carbon-infused composite so it is tough, but light, weighing 48kg including foils. And although that’s around 18kg heavier than a modern Moth, the WASZP is the same weight as the RS Aero, which I know from experience is light enough to carry down to the water. And then there’s the cost. At around US$10,000 (£7,550) it is said to be half the price of a fully tricked MACH2. The project has been a long time coming, but now it’s here with a fleet racing at the recent Foiling Week held on Lake Garda there’s a buzz going around that it was well worth the wait.
102 I September 2016
Extruded alloy sections and the mechanical hinge systems make for a simpler and more robust system than the composite foils in a Moth. They are also cheaper to replace
A concave profile bow allows better response in waves for the wand while providing greater volume forward to help prevent burying the bow during a bear away
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SEPEMBER 2016 I 103
PRACTICAL
SHORT-HANDED SAILING PIP HARE SPINNAKER DROPS
QUICK TIPS Be prepared for a drop from the minute the spinnaker hoist has finished.
Throwing halyards and tacklines over the
Above: prepare for the drop by making sure halyards, lazy sheets, guys and tacklines are ready to run
Above: gather the foot of the sail under the boom, or alternatively through the ‘letter box’
back of the boat before a drop will ensure they are not tangled and may provide enough drag through the water to control the speed of the drop. Allow enough length in your halyards for your sail to lie flat on top of the water and still be gathered in. Forgotten lazy sheets on symmetric kites are often the cause of troublesome drops, so don’t forget they need to run free as well as the guy.
BIG BREEZE TIP
Above: when using a snuffer ease the guy enough for the windward corner to reach mid-foredeck
ropping the kite double-handed may seem a daunting challenge, but provided you take adequate steps to ensure the spinnaker is deflated, a drop can be successfully achieved by any size of crew. In most situations a conventional leeward drop down the main companionway will offer security and shelter to get the spinnaker safely away. Halyards, guys, lazy sheets and tacklines should be flaked, ready to run. Hoist the jib and sheet it in – at this stage the headsail is just being used as a windbreak to drop the spinnaker behind; sheeting in will keep it on the right side of the boat. Steer a course as far downwind as conditions will allow without involuntarily gybing; decreasing the apparent wind in this way should help deflate the spinnaker in light and medium conditions.
D
The drop Once on course allow the spinnaker to rotate behind the jib and mainsail by letting off the guy or tackline. Once blanketed by the sails start gathering the foot under the boom – short-handed this is best done from
104 I September 2016
Above: dropping bare-headed gives better vision of the top of the sail and offers greater security
inside the cockpit, minimising the risk of crew being pulled over the side and allowing easy access to halyard jammers. Ease the halyard at the pace of the person gathering the sail. In bigger breeze or with physically less strong crews, consider dropping through the ‘letter box’ – the gap between a loose-footed main and the boom. This can be achieved by leading the lazy guy or sheet through the letter box when preparing for the drop then carrying out the manoeuvre in the same way – pulling the sail through this gap will squeeze any air out of the spinnaker and also give some leverage to the crew gathering in the sail. It can be quite a mission gathering the foot of a large asymmetric so a drop/retrieval line can help pull the sail into shelter more quickly. A sailmakerfitted drop line is usually a soft rope, attached to the centre of the sail then passing through one or two loops sewn in the EXTRA TIP bottom section. Once the sock is down, Pulling on the drop line once the if conditions allow, the tack has been released will ‘fold’ the whole spinnaker can be spinnaker, collapsing it and allowing lowered straight you to gather the bulk starting at the through the middle rather than a corner. forehatch.
If caught out in big breeze be prepared to let the guy or tackline fly out to ensure the spinnaker does not refill mid-drop. Remove knots from the end of these lines and let them run. The result will be noisy flapping and a line or two to rerig, but allows you to focus all your attention on gathering in the sail.
An alternative method is to attach a spare rope to the tack of the sail; once the tackline has been released, this will allow you to pull the windward corner quickly round to the leeward side of the boat. Both drop lines should be long enough to come back to the cockpit for short-handed dropping.
Snuffers When using a snuffer do not let guy or tackline fly, just ease out enough for the windward corner to reach mid-foredeck or mast depending on where you are pulling the snuffer down. Dropping bareheaded gives better vision of the top of the sail and will allow crew to pull from the middle or windward side of the boat, offering greater security. Put a snatch block (ideally with a ratchet) on your snuffer line, clip it onto the deck and pull up rather than down. This will give a greater purchase and in extreme conditions it may also be possible to lead the snuffer line back to a cockpit winch and wind the sock down from there. Next month: Pip describes how to gybe a spinnaker with only two on board
PRACTICAL
WEATHER BRIEFING CHRIS TIBBS ON THUNDER AND LIGHTNING
Spanish plume The other main type of thunderstorm we experience is the result of air mass. In the UK we sometimes get what is known as a Spanish plume: this is a layer of warm air moving north from Spain across France. A temperature inversion traps this warm moist air, which is continually fed by evaporation from the land below, giving very warm moist air at low levels. At the same time as this plume of warm air works its way north, cold dry air from the Atlantic at upper levels is moving east (often in the form of an upper air trough). Over time the inversion is eroded so that the warm moist air, having lost its cap, will rise to great heights triggering large cumulonimbus clouds and thunderstorms. The atmosphere is so unstable that some of the updrafts in a big storm can reach around 60 knots although downdrafts are generally about half this speed. As the cloud top temperatures cool to below –20°C ice forms and the anvil top that is often seen is ice crystals blown from the top of the cloud. We now have this vast overturning cloud that will produce severe downdrafts with hailstones and strong wind – these hailstones hurt and can damage varnish and wood. It is the downdrafts associated with the rain or hail that causes the difficulties when sailing. As the rain and hail descends into warmer air some of it evaporates, which in turn cools the air so we have a cold column of air accelerating to the surface where it spreads out as a gust front. With large clouds we can easily get gale force gusts on the leading edge of the thunderstorm. The western half of the UK experiences thunderstorms usually associated with active cold fronts and they are evenly distributed over the year, however central and eastern parts of the UK have more thunderstorms and these are largely confined
106 I September 2016
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Thunderstorms
Strong gust on or ahead of the precipitation – often to gale force.
Visibility greatly reduced in precipitation.
Hail or heavy rain. Sharp temperature drop.
Lightning
Java (Indonesia) is the most thundery place on earth. It has been estimated (globally) that there are 44,000 thunderstorms per day with about 100 lightning discharges each second. The mechanism of the Spanish plume is similar to what happens in the US where warm low level moist air from the Gulf of Mexico tracks north, while cold air at altitude moves in from the west. The capping inversion erodes giving some supercell thunderstorms x and tornadoes. Count the seconds between lightning and thunder to get an estimate of how far away the storm is. The difference between the speed of light and that of sound means that a separation of about 6s is a nautical mile.
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APEX News and Pictures
arlier this summer we saw considerable thunderstorm activity over the UK and Europe, resulting in flooding and some serious injuries. In the UK and North West Europe the occurrence of lightning strikes on yachts is thankfully rare; however, in the tropics – particularly near a large land mass – the chance of being struck does increase significantly. In the UK we generally get thunderstorms for one of two reasons. The first is an active cold front. This is along the boundary between the warm moist air and the cold dry air of the advancing cold sector. The atmosphere along the front is unstable, with heavy showers forming. In an active front the cumulonimbus clouds continue to grow until they produce thunderstorms. They travel in the direction of the front and generally pass over quickly, although gale force gusts are likely. This front was historically known as a squall line; the height of the cloud indicates how unstable the atmosphere is and they will have some severe downdrafts on the leading edge of the rain or hail.
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CHRIS TIBBS is a meteorologist and weather router, as well as a professional sailor and navigator, forecasting for Olympic teams and the ARC rally
Above: hailstones from a September storm in Cannes to the summer months and linked with a warm moist air mass and the heating of the land – “three fine days and a thunderstorm” is how George II reportedly described the British summer. But it is not only the UK that gets summer
storms – around the Mediterranean in the late summer you will get some fairly active thunderstorms upsetting your sailing. As the cloud top temperature is low, precipitation often starts as hail although as the storm progresses the ice becomes water. With a cold front we are already expecting strong winds and squalls, but the summer thunderstorms tend to be a bit more unexpected as we will have good weather – warm and sunny weather tends to make us less assiduous about getting forecasts. It is then more of a shock when the cloud darkens and we get a thunderstorm; although we normally see the towering cumulus sometimes the sky is obscured by cloud spreading out and the first real sign of the thunderstorm is the flash of lightning. Thunderstorms will be well forecast, however more as a general warning than for a specific place.
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PRACTICAL
GET OUT OF THAT BRIAN THOMPSON ON FREEING A SNAGGED SPINNAKER
What is happening here to the crew of the J/111 Jitterbug, which attached herself to a mark on the Solent a couple of years ago? BRIAN THOMPSON offers tips and advice on the best way to deal safely with the situation. Immediate action When there is enough wind to power the boat, continue on course.
1
t looks a rather pleasant day on the Solent with 15 knots and sun, and crews are enjoying what they probably believe is a decent race. However, as can be seen in the image Jitterbug has got into a bit of a pickle. The helmsman doesn’t seem to have noticed what’s happening, although I suspect the mainsail trimmer is just about to tell him! There could be a few scenarios, so I am not 100 per cent sure what happened in the run up to this incident, but I think Jitterbug is on a different course from some of the other boats around. The camera’s long lens makes it hard to tell where exactly they are in relation to the mark, but I think they are rounding/passing the mark to starboard, and not port as you would first imagine, because the wake is on the other side. The other possibility, which I really don’t believe is the case, is that the halyard popped out of the cleat as they were passing the mark. Assuming the most obvious starboard mark rounding/kitehoisting scenario, I would suggest the eager team hoisted the spinnaker too early and, as you can see, they hadn’t borne away enough and were still on a beam reach. As they hoisted the kite on a very tight leg it immediately flew aft and got snagged on the Flying Fish mark.
I
Thompson’s advice on how to recover The kite is badly damaged and, although it may not be irreparable, the skipper will certainly not want to lose all the sheets, halyards and tack lines by cutting them all free at this point. I can see there is enough wind to power the boat, so I would carry
108 I September 2016
Observation Crewmembers should keep an eye out for other boats around.
2
{
BRIAN THOMPSON (54) is one of the world’s most respected offshore racers, having notched up over 35 world speed sailing records, including the Jules Verne record as crewman on the maxi trimaran Banque Populaire V in 2012. He finished 5th in the 2008/9 Vendée Globe and is co-skipper of Phaedo3, Lloyd Thornburg’s successful MOD70.
}
on and try to let the spinnaker rip itself off. It sounds a bit unpleasant, but it should happen quickly in those conditions. Once they become detached from the mark they need to pull in the remainder of the sail as quickly as possible. Not so good is the fact that fragments of spinnaker cloth will probably remain on the mark for all to see. In light winds, sailing on like this would be more difficult because there probably wouldn’t be enough power to rip the spinnaker off or it might get jammed on the luff tapes. In that situation, it would be a case of untangling it. If they were really tethered to it, they’d have to let all the sheets, halyards and tack lines go, then motor back and retrieve it. Whatever the scenario, the situation will undoubtedly become a bit chaotic, especially with other boats approaching the mark. It is important therefore, to remain calm to avoid a crisis involving accidental gybes, people ending up in the water, or colliding with other boats. Because it will happen quickly, I think it will probably be possible to scoop up the remainder of the kite/ sheets, hoist another kite and be racing again before they know it. It’s worth pointing out that if they continue to race, they’ll need to carry out some penalty turns for touching the mark. If they do end up having to turn on the engine they’ll have to retire from racing.
How to avoid the situation in the first place
Tidying up Remains of spinnaker should be ‘scooped’ up as soon as possible.
Paul Wyeth
3
When everything is pinned in, it would be better to delay the hoist until it is possible to bear off a bit more and the boat is well clear of the mark. It is natural for the helmsman to want to hoist as soon as possible, but this image shows it was clearly too early. In terms of when to hoist, it would generally be a call from the back of the boat by the tactician or helmsman because they know how far to judge it. It is important therefore to make sure whoever is calling the hoist is aware of how close to the mark they are. Interview by Sue Pelling
September 2016 I 109
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ESTABLISHED 1894 Volume 167 Issue no 3296 EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES: Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hants GU14 7BF. email: yachting.world@timeinc.com
Editor Deputy Editor Production Editor Test Editor Art Editor Magazine Assistant
Elaine Bunting 01252 555181 Helen Fretter 01252 555177 Belinda Bird 001252 555176 Toby Hodges 01252 555178 Robert Owen 01252 555180 Clodagh Cahill 01252 555179
Contributors Skip Novak, Tom Cunliffe, Pip Hare, Rupert Holmes Brand Manager Michael Beattie +44(0)1252 555339 michael.beattie@timeinc.com Senior Media Advisers Simon Spong +44(0)7816 443436 simon.spong@timeinc.com Tom Stevens +44(0)7867 503629 tom.stevens@timeince.com Leila Kajouri +44(0)7813 137862 leila.kajouri@timeinc.com Media Advisers Chris Wilson +44(0)7989 428596 chris.wilson@timeinc.com Sam Shaw +44(0)7970 615618 samuel.shaw@timeinc.com Richard Torey +44(0)7816 286312 richard.torey@timeinc.com Trade and Classified James Leaver +44(0)20 3148 2596 james.leaver@timeinc.com Advertisement Production Peter Burton 020 3148 2688 peter.burton@timeinc.com Subscription Enquiries 0844 848 0848 Marketing Executive Amy Golby 01252 555183
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS Advanced Italian Yachts S.r.l 13 Allspars Ltd 103 Ancasta International Boat Sales 114, 115 Axxon Composites Srl 103 Beneteau (Chantiers Beneteau) 19 Berret Racoupeau 105 Berthon International 110, 111, 112 Cantiere Del Pardo Spa 21 Chantiers Amel 25 Concordia Yacht Company S.L. (Northrup & Johnson 121 Construction Navale Bordeaux 47 Conyplex B.V. (Contest 15, 120 Discovery Yachts 29 Dixon Yacht Design 105 Dolphin Sails 103 Doyle Sailmakers Inc 17 Dubois Naval Architects Ltd 105 Elvstrom Sails (UK) Ltd 103 Fleming Yachts Europe Ltd 79 Fraser Yachts Florida Inc 116, 117, 118 Friendship Yacht Company 105 Future Fibres Rigging Systems SL 41 Gerard Dijkstra & Partners 105 Hallberg-Rassy Varv AB Cover III Harken Inc 65 Hoek Design Naval Architects BV 103, 105 Hood Sailmakers 103 Humphreys Yacht Design Ltd 105
Inspiration Marine Group Limited Jeckells OF Wroxham Ltd Karver K&M Yachtbuilders Kemp Sails Limited Kiriacoulis Enterprises Lilley Marine Marine Survey Bureau Marvin Series Med IN Boats Musto Limited Neptune Marine Shipbuilding B.V North Sails Limited Northshore Shipyard Limited OY Nautor AB Onesails Gbr (South Owen Clarke Design Oyster Yachts Limited Pendennis Shipyard Ltd
27, 51 103 103 59 103 123 119 105 105 123 49 88,89 39, 103 123 23 103 105 2, 113 91
Perini Navi Spa 93 Reckmann Yacht Equipment Gmbh 77 Reed Expositions France 68 Rustler Yachts UK Ltd 95 Sirena Marine Denizcilik San Cover II Sirius-Werft Gmbh 77 Solaris Yachts s.r 30,31 Stephens Waring Yacht Design 105 Strike One Media Limited 67 X Yachts (DK-6100 Cover IV
International Editions Poppy Lawton 020 3148 5490 Syndication 020 3148 5476 ukcontent@timeinc.com www.timeincukcontent.com Publisher Managing Director Group Magazine Editor Group Managing Director
Gareth Beesley Simon Owen Garry Coward-Williams Oswin Grady
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September 2016 I 127
BACKFIRE • British 49er • Qingdao Sailing Olympics 2008 • Photographer Ingrid Abery
“incredibly six out of the ten 49ers capsized in the strong gusts”
This alarming shot was taken at Qingdao during the 2008 Olympic Games. It was the final medal race. “After light airs for the regatta, total carnage reigned for the medal race,” remarks photographer Ingrid Abery. “Incredibly, six out of the ten 49ers capsized in the strong gusts. Gold medal hopefuls Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin of Australia couldn’t right their skiff and drifted over the finish line. “As the other photographers in our press RIB watched on I noticed much further up the course the British duo taking a nosedive. Their mast dug into the chop for a few
seconds. Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes struggled to climb back into the boat in the waves. This was a prime example of the power of the still image.” That race was the controversial one of the 2008 Sailing Olympics. The Danish 49er crew, Jonas Warrer and Martin Kirketerp Ibsen, had split their mast just prior to the medal race start. The coach from the Croatian team, which had not made the final race, donated their boat to the Danish team to use. The pair hiked through the start line 50 seconds behind the nine-boat fleet and went on to win Gold.
yachtingworldmagazine 128 I September 2016
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