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TOY COLLECTION The power-driven treasures of a very wealthy man

MARSEILLES MAGIC

Special report from the French Riviera Could this be boating heaven?

PRO TOOLBOX

The must-have gadgets for self-sufficient powerboaters

TESTED Trophy 2203 Beneteau MC42 Cobra Sport Fisher

SIX OF THE BEST Handheld GPS ranked and rated

CAUTIONARY TALES FROM THE WORLD’S MOST INSANE SKIPPERS

MENTAL MARINERS

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Plan your year with our guide to the most memorable boating events in the world

MAY 2010

SEASON’S HIGHLIGHTS

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MAGIC MOMENTS

How that dream boat may be closer than you think

CONTENTS MAY 2010

REGULARS Word from the water. ........................................... 10 New entries from Humber, Capelli and Quicksilver

Superyacht News. ................................................... 16 Snap up a cut-price 300-footer

Classics update......................................................... 18 The anniversary parade from Cowes to Torquay

Word from the circuit............................................ 20 A new woman pilot enters the fray

Best accessories....................................................... 22 No, that really is a fishing rod in my pocket

Word from the web................................................ 29 If Carlsberg made chat rooms . . .

RYA keeps it green................................................. 86 The secrets of recycling for boaters

Naughtical terms..................................................... 92 Protect your Xu and your Dong will be peachy

FEATURES Season’s highlights................................................. 32 Plan your year with our abridged UK boating calendar Marseilles magic. ..................................................... 40 Boating heaven on the French Riviera

Six of the best........................................................... 66 Handheld GPS ranked and rated

Ultimate toy collection......................................... 69 The power-driven treasures of a wealthy man

Love me tender........................................................ 74 The world of inflatable tenders laid bare

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NEWS I SportsBoat AND RIB

TEMPEST 770 TO DEBUT AT SPORTS BOAT SHOW Hockley Marine has added to the increasing range of product launches at the Sports Boat and RIB Show, by committing to exhibit its new Capelli Tempest 770 WA Cabin RIB. Making its show debut, the Tempest 770 WA uses the same extraordinarily effective sea hull as the famous Rubson Raid endurance craft.

The difference here is that the space is used to incorporate a cabin with double berth and separate toilet compartment. This has been accomplished by raising the deck area and making a hard superstructure with a walkaround cabin and stainless steel guardrail around the forward deck. As on the larger 900 and 1000 WA models, the aft cockpit has ample seating with a table for entertaining and incorporates a cooking hob and freshwater sink under the helm seat. It also comes as standard with a stern freshwater shower and bathing ladder. The demo boat will be fitted with a Suzuki 250hp outboard engine, which should give the boat a top speed of around 45 knots. It’s a very fine looking boat and you can see it first hand at the Sports Boat and RIB Show at Ocean Village Marine in Southampton from 22 to 23 May 2010 - www.sportsboatandribshow.co.uk.

FLUID EXCHANGE The Boating Vacation Club (BVC) is being hailed by some as the future of recreational boating. It basically allows users to access hundreds of boats worldwide via an online exchange network. BVC then enables the use of boats in the network by contacting the owner and requesting the dates identified by the member wishing to use that boat. If available, the boat is booked and confirmation sent via email, leaving the member to organise the handover with the owner.

The club facilitates the exchange of like-for-like boats that fall into the same size bracket, with categories ranging from under nine feet right up to 100-150 feet.

Alan Gulliver of BVC said: “Our members are not tied down to one geographical area. Once boat owners have signed up, they can build up day by day credit when their boat is used, which can be spent on using another boat in any destination they wish, on dates that suit them via the BVC interactive world map.”

A year’s membership typically costs less than a single day’s charter of a boat within the same class bracket and only fully licensed, fully insured boaters are permitted to join. If owners are happy to put their boats in the hands of others, it may just be the next big thing.

www.bvcinternational.com

FLYING THE FLAG Britain’s only current powerboat world champion, Scott Curtis, 26 from Norwich, has been honoured by the world’s governing body, the UIM, at a star-studded awards ceremony in Monaco. Curtis, whose four podium finishes included two outright wins in the Formula 4 World Championship, was the lone Brit amidst 63 powerboat racers from across the globe recognised for their achievements at the famous Salles des Etoiles venue. He said: “I would love to progress to Formula 2 but for now my focus is on defending the title. As ever, that will depend upon finding sponsorship.”

LEISURE PRO FROM HUMBER Humber Inflatables is to add a new leisure RIB to its range of craft for the 2010 season. The new Leisure Pro model is a highperformance boat aimed squarely at the family leisure market.

Features, such as luxury seating and watertight stowage make it ideal for general-purpose recreation but Humber is renowned for its high performance deep-V hull designs and this new Leisure Pro model is no exception.

Designed and manufactured completely in-house, the Leisure Pro’s looks can be tailored to suit individual tastes with a wide range of colours and an extensive options list. It is currently available as a 6.5 10 I SB&RIB

or 7.8-metre boat, with a generous 2.6-metre beam offering plenty of inboard space and stability.

Apparently, these two craft will soon be followed by a complete Leisure Pro line-up, ranging from five metres to ten metres in length.

Andrew Roffee, Managing Director of Humber Inflatables, said: “The new Leisure Pro model adds another dimension to our offering. We are confident that its distinctive looks, quality finish and performance will make it a popular choice.” Package prices start at £30,000.

01482 226100 / wwwhumberinflatables.co.uk

BOAT ACCESSORIES The latest GADGETS AND GIZMOS from the world of marine recreation . . .

1. Snap-happy OverBoard, the official kit supplier to the RNLI, has launched a waterproof zoom lens camera case. The 0.42mm matt TPU material case allows you to go down to a depth of 19 feet and still take pictures with your regular digital camera.

The case is largely transparent so the photographer can see the subject clearly and it will also float safely to the surface should you drop it overboard or let go when diving. The ‘Slide Seal System’ is easy to use and provides reliable watertight protection and the TPU material is resistant to oil and grease (as well as water), allowing excellent flexibility. It’s even environmentally friendly to produce compared to regular PVC. It’s high-class, boat-friendly quipment. £19.99 01932 500 091 www.over-board.co.uk

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2. Juice Pack It seems the world and his dog is now creating a product to piggy-back the success of the magnificent iPhone - but here, from a company called mStation, we have something that looks particularly worthwhile. The ‘Juice Pack Air’ is a protective case that is also apparently the world’s thinnest Apple-certified external battery.

That means that it takes care of the iPhone’s two main problems fragility and poor battery life - in one simple move. If you like to use your iPhone for energy-sapping activities like web surfing and GPS navigation (and frankly, we all do), it looks ideal. The rechargeable 1200mAh battery is designed to provide almost double the battery life of a solo iPhone and comes in black, white, purple and red.

Price: £69.95 www.store.apple.com/uk

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3. Going overboard OverBoard is famous for making waterproof gear that also looks stylish. It knocks out everything from small mobile phone cases to large sports bags and here in the form of the excellent Overboard Backpack, it might just be having its finest hour. The Premium Waterproof Backpack comes in either 20 or 25-litre capacity. You get heat-welded seams, a two-way roll-top closure system and plenty of adjustable padded straps to keep you well supported and comfortable. There is useful back venting to help keep sweat at bay and an attention to the small details you rarely find on a dry bag. As a means of keeping your gear free of water, dust and sand, it’s as good as we have seen.

Price: from £29.99 www.over-board.com 22 I SB&RIB

A YEAR TO REMEMBER

SPECIAL EVENTS TO TRACK DOWN IN 2010 The annual boating calendar is blessed with a lot of very attractive activities.

But as Irving Stewart discovers, not all events are born equal . . .

H

ere in the UK, we’re not allowed to enjoy a smoke with our pint, waterski on Windermere or do more than 70mph on our excellent roads in our excellent cars.

In fact I’m not at all certain we’re allowed to swear or make love any more. But thankfully, we do still have the right to climb into anything that floats and head for the horizon, so it makes a great deal of sense for us Brits to make the most of it.

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Now as a reader of Sports Boat and RIB magazine, rather than ‘Canal Maintenance Monthly’, chances are you tend to enjoy your boat a bit more when you are permitted to exceed four knots.

But you will be equally aware that our boating season is short, our weather is generally crap and the restrictions imposed on UK boaters tend to be rather severe. Does that mean you can’t get out there and find great entertainment in the season ahead? Of course it doesn’t. What follows are a few genuinely inspiring alternatives to help see you through the chilly, sluggish, windswept times and remind you why you bought a boat in the first place . . .

A PLACE IN THE SUN

In a list of the world’s greatest cruising grounds, the French Riviera would have to be close to the top. Simon Everett packs his bags and goes in search of boating utopia . . .

T

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he French Riviera is just as famous a boating hub as the Solent. And while it’s easy to smile at the comparison, its cogency is borne out by the crowds. The sheer weight of traffic (cars, people and boats) can become a major toil in the summer but further west, on the coast of Provence is another wonderful boating area that doesn’t get nearly as much publicity. It starts at the little fishing village of Callelongue and stretches past Marseilles to the town of Cassis. Between them, lies the Bay of Marseilles itself and the Calanques, an area of small, fjord-like inlets backed by the mountains. It is an area of stunning beauty and its cultural heart is Marseilles.

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COBRA SPORT FISHER The RIB has faced all kinds of reinvention over the last ten years and here we have another unexpected twist. Can a RIB really operate as a sports fisher? Mike Pullen finds out.

F

ishing, or more correctly, angling, is a natural progression from owning a boat. The sea is a wealth of angling potential both in this country and abroad. Sport fishing is a manly occupation whereby hairy-chested males of the species do battle with fish as large as themselves surrounded by wonderful toys and gadgets that only real men can possibly appreciate. There are a few women sports fishers too, but we’ll gloss over them quickly because they are usually better at it, and much better looking at the same time. It is something to do with pheromones, apparently.

Anyway, the new Cobra Sport Fisher RIB has been built around the company’s tried and tested 7.5-metre hull, with special attention placed on the requirements of angling from a boat. You can immediately see this with regard to the seating arrangements and rod placement.

The Cobra Sport Fisher has also been fitted with livebait tanks and dedicated fishboxes for storage of the catch. I know of only two other fishing RIBs. One is a commercial tuna boat working out of Cape Town and the other is a charter boat working from Northern Ireland, so this is a rare and unusual treat indeed.

The angler’s thought process

A specially prepared sport fishing RIB introduces some completely new thinking to the market, but it isn’t such a silly idea. With a large outboard, in the shape of Yamaha’s proven F250, this boat gets to the fishing grounds fast, in conditions that might otherwise have you stuck at home, making up traces. To make life as angling-orientated as possible, there are rod tubes fitted to specially built rod holders, mounted on custom made inflatable tube mountings so a trolling spread can be run in the same way as they are from more traditional angling craft. In Britain, many of our big fish are caught drifting over wrecks in deep water, often mid-channel, so a second fish finder mounted in the stern sheets is very useful for seeing when the boat is about to drift over the wreck. It’s a great help when trying to avoid getting your expensive pirks and lures snagged on the structure.

Fishing for big fish, which is the object of the sports fishing exercise, involves using large, sharp hooks. But pointy paraphernalia and soft inflatable collars do not necessarily make good bedfellows, so the folks at Cobra have come up with an answer - armour plating. The tubes are made from Orca collars that have been heavily reinforced with 6mm rubber plating along the entire

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BENETEAU MONTE CARLO 42

From the people who brought us stylistic arrogance and a thoroughly laudable fondness for going on strike, comes a boat equally likely to split the pack. Simon Everett reports.

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SIX OF THE BEST

Handheld GPS Receivers

By Colin Jones Identifying the six best handheld GPS receivers is both difficult and interesting. It is a very popular breed, so there are dozens of them about but there are actually very few manufacturers. And in any case, what does ‘the best’ mean here? Do we mean a simple GPS, which just gives alpha-numeric data, or do we mean one with full colour cartography? What about land topography? Sea charts? In-car capability? What about all of them? As far as price goes, the choice is also very wide, from the Garmin eTrexH at £68.50, through to the Garmin GPSMAP76CSx, which I managed to find at the impressively discounted price of £223. What follows is a thumbnail portrait of my favourites . . .

Garmin eTrex H - from £65 The little ETH is based on an original old-school Garmin and offers just basic monochrome navigation and position, plus a very simple graphics track of where you have been. It stores 500 WP and 20 routes but, in spite of its simplicity, the unit has the latest Garmin antenna, so it is quick to acquire satellites and stays locked on.

Special features: The eTrex H is ruggedly built and waterproof to IPX7 standard. The two AA batteries give up to 17 hours continuous running. Menus are accessed by buttons on the side of the case, so it can be operated one-handed. The ‘back track’ feature, guiding you back to your starting point is also useful.

Personal reasons: The price is great, the dimensions are compact, the screen is clear and the unit itself is as tough as old boots.

www.garmin.com

Geonav Gyspy - £390 or less This is another handy GPS I know well from prolonged use and abuse aboard our cruise boat, our dinghy, our car and our canoe. It’s not cheap but it has a lot going for it when loaded with Navionics land and sea cartography. It has all possible GPS functions, displayed on a large screen (for a portable) but the Gypsy is still very comfortable for onehanded operation. The rechargeable battery gives about 9.5 hours, which is very impressive for such a large backlit screen. Good audio in the car too.

Special features: Visual and audible alarms, automatic zoom, chart rotation for portrait or landscape views, plenty of mounts and accessories, super ‘state of charge’ indicator and a very ergonomic shape for non-slip, one-handed grip.

Personal reasons: This is a very readable mini chart plotter or adequate in-car navigator, with good cartography and excellent support from the parent companies.

The 3.5-inch transflexive TFT screen is very clear even in bright sunlight.

www.geonavmarine.com

Magellan Triton 500 £185 or less Having abused one of these things for two years, I can vouch for its rubberised toughness and, because I can’t be bothered to download the user manual, I appreciate the intuitive menus, with their logical icon and graphic directions. As a simple boat navigator, the 500 works well.

Special features: Very tough, rubberised, water-resistant case with the SD card protected beneath a rubber cover, so it’s easy to change. The 2.2-inch screen is bright enough to be usable in sunlight and shows a very good tracking display.

There is plenty of memory, even for Geocaching if you are into treasure hunting, and while the sea cartography is reasonably priced, the land maps (especially French IGN series) are prohibitively expensive for one-time use.

Personal reasons: The menu system and one-handed operation are good and, while the Triton 1500 with its bigger screen would be great, the price of this unit is far more accessible.

www.magellangps.com 66 I SB&RIB

Playboy’s

TOY COLLECTION Somewhere in south Devon, at a secret location, sits a shed belonging to a rich man.

Inside that shed is a collection of boy’s toys to make a petrol head weep.

John Cooke takes a look inside . . .

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LOVE ME TENDER A tender on a small sports boat?

Is it really worth doing? Tom Isitt certainly thinks so . . .

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A DROP IN THE OCEAN You’re in the middle of the ocean, miles from anywhere as your broken boat disappears from view beneath you.

You’re alone without a friend in the world. Glad you bought that EPIRB?

T

he development of EPIRBs has taken-off in the last 20 years, thanks mainly to their use in the commercial shipping sector. Increased sales volumes and improved technology have helped to make EPIRBs a viable option to everyone from transatlantic racers to casual passage makers. But the real boom in EPIRB development in the leisure sector came out of Australia. Devoid of a comprehensive VHF radio system, the Australian government and shipping authorities made EPIRBs mandatory for all marine craft. The Australian firm, GME, was quick to act, selling increasingly small and affordable variants to the captive pleasure-boat market.

Today, like most electronic equipment, EPIRBs have become so compact and affordable that putting to sea without one is tantamount to driving a car without an airbag. Obviously, you hope you never have reason to use it but if you do, chances are it may save your life.

Astonishingly though, the proportion of motor and sailing yachts over 35 feet that carry some form of electronic positioning distress beacon is still less than ten per cent and, despite calls to put national regulations in place, none have yet resulted.

How does it work?

The international rescue system is made possible by a network of American, Russian, Canadian and French satellites known as COSPASSARSAT (SARSAT meaning Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking). The system relies on four Low Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (LEOSAR) satellites which orbit the earth every 100 minutes and three Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GEOSAR) which maintain the same position over the earth’s surface and are in constant contact with the earth. When one of these satellites picks up a distress signal, it sends an alert to one of many automated ground stations worldwide which then forwards the alarm to the nearest search and rescue authority.

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TALKING POINT I MENTAL MARINERS

MENTAL MARINERS From the idiotic to the inspirational, what follows is a brief snapshot of a few mariners who deserve a little attention

T

he tendency for people to undertake implausibly dangerous expeditions is a recurring feature of human history.

We have always strived to discover what lies beyond the horizon and, by and large, whenever we have managed to find it, we have planted a flag and set about subjugating the locals. In any case, we need to move on, because this is not about brave ‘pioneers’ and acquisitional pillagers. And neither is this about desperate people, who smuggle themselves and their families across treacherous passages of water, in search of a better life, on shabbily modified baking trays. This is about people who have a choice and then go anyway, in such a fashion as to court exactly the kind of disaster the rest of us continually strive to avoid.

With this in mind, it seems to me that mental mariners tend to fall into three equally dangerous categories.

The first is relatively young men with little experience who, through some deluded inclination to appear brave and slightly ‘zany’, decide that their six-foot bathtubs are good enough to take on the Atlantic. The second is the old seadog, so crusted with salt and swamped by the vast weight of his unmatched seafaring prowess that he thinks there is nothing more to learn. The third type is the authentic nutter. These lonely soles exhibit a profound disregard for their own safety, not through bloody-mindedness but through a profound failure even to recognise that a 4,000-mile boat trip requires a plan.

What follows is a random selection of four such men from the endless annals of seafaring folklore . . .

The bloodthirsty pirate slashed and stabbed like a maniac while singing his heart out in an untrained but very promising baritone

The baritone - ‘Bloody Sword’ Bonito Frustrated in his ambition to become a professional singer, Benito Bonito grew bitter and sought revenge on the high seas, becoming over the course of the next two years the most renowned and vicious scoundrel of his time. Hounded by the British in the east, he rounded Cape Horn and terrorised the west coast of the Americas from 1818 to 1820, looting Spanish galleons and smuggling his hoards off to Cocos Island. It was only when he let two British sailors from one of his hijacked ships join his crew that his reign came to an end. These men were arrested by the authorities and sentenced to hang, but were released after leading their captors to Bonito’s West Indian hideout. Here, backed into a corner, the notoriously blood-thirsty pirate slashed and stabbed like a maniac while singing his heart out in an untrained but rather lovely baritone. He was cut down even as he sang but apparently Bonito’s own private hoard, buried beneath Wafer Bay and estimated at in excess of £250 million, was never recovered.

The urban legend - Frank Tower

Big Frank seems to be the Kaiser Soze of maritime crashes. Rumour has it, this man survived the sinkings of the RMS Titanic, RMS Empress of Ireland and the RMS Lusitania. He was apparently a coal stoker on the Titanic in 1912 before stepping aboard the illfated Empress of Ireland when she collided with the Norwegian collier, Storstad, in 1914. This disaster was

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