SAILING TODAY
GO FURTHER I SAIL BETTER I BE INSPIRED AUGUST 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk £4.20 AUGUST 2013 – ISSUE No 196
INTERVIEW
WIN £1,500
Sailing free
How hostage couple put pirate ordeal behind them
WORTH OF SAILS
POOLE TO SCILLY
CRUISING
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Hidden gems
LOFOTEN ISLANDS
A creek-crawler’s guide to the secret West Country
AIS vs radar Which is the best collision avoidance system for you?
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ALLURES 39.9 •
CORK
BOAT ON TEST
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AIS VS RADAR
French leave Get away in the go-anywhere Allures 39.9 CORK HARBOUR
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POCKET CRUISER
Sailing a gunter-rigged Norfolk Gypsy
TV ANTENNAE
Don’t miss a minute with our group test
RACE TUNING
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Rustler Sailing Today Mar 2013 v2:Rustler
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Rustler 42
| Rustler 36 | Rustler 33 | Rustler 24
At the heart of Rustler始s philosophy is a firm commitment to developing truly unique yachts that are distinctive in looks, design and performance. Rustler yachts stand out in a sea of clones. They are beautifully built. Built for real sailors and real situations.
Beautiful yachts, beautifully built Rustler 42 Principal Dimensions: LOA: 12.81m Beam: 4.06m Draft: 1.82m Disp:11791kg Ballast: 4671kg
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Welcome
london office Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ Tel: 020 7349 3700 MANAGING EDITOR Sam fortescue 020 7349 3752 sam.fortescue@chelseamagazines.com NEWS AND FEATuRES toby heppell 020 7349 3753 toby.heppell@chelseamagazines.com PuBLISHER Simon temlett simon.temlett@chelseamagazines.com PuBLISHING CONSuLTANT Martin nott
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Skipper’s View after the bustle of getting afloat, i hope the gales and rain are no more than a spasm in the summer weather
the blue peter is flying. All hands (well, both) are to return to ship as we make ready to catch the tide for France. Vittles are laid in, sails bent on, the decks scrubbed and all is neatly squared away below. Or at least that was the case until the Shipping Forecast this morning: “Portland. South, veering southwest, 4 or 5, increasing 6 or 7. Moderate or rough. Occasional rain. Moderate or good, occasionally poor.” Belay that order! Strike the pennant, batten down the hatches and crack open a bottle of something warming. Now, there are two things I want to say about this. One is a philosophical point – that as sailors, we are subject to the climate and what it throws at us in the way of weather. The best-laid plans are always subject to change, and even a long-planned, two-week cruise, jemmied in between editorial deadlines after a frantic relaunching the week before, cannot trump the elements. We had initially planned to head for the Frisian Islands in Riddle of the Sands territory, but in the teeth of an easterly, we changed our minds. Next it was Brittany and the Channel Islands. Now it looks as if we may have to content ourselves with Poole Harbour – not in itself a bad thing, but a little too much ‘on the doorstep’. The second point is this. Something queer has happened to summer. It’s too soon to say for sure whether this is more than a blip, but the jet stream of high altitude winds has shifted south, allowing marauding low pressure systems to cartwheel in one after another over the British Isles from January to December, with no let up for summer. If this proves a long-term trend, it spells bad news for British sailing. Hopefully, by the time you read this, I’ll be returning from a balmy 10 days of Brittany cruising. Otherwise, I’ll have to content myself with the summery tale of one man’s cruise down to Scilly and back, nudging into some of the West Country’s forgotten creeks and anchorages (pp22-31). Or perhaps the fortitude of kidnapees Paul and Rachel Chandler, back to bluewater sailing and interviewed on pp32-33. Elsewhere, we have 27 pages of boats and gear in this issue – from the aluminium Allures 39.9 to the classic lines of the Norfolk Gypsy; TV antennae to wet weather gear and lightweight outboards. Enjoy!
sam Fortescue, managing editor www.facebook.com/ SailingToday
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Contributors
© The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd 2013. All Rights Reserved. ISSN 0044-000 No part of this magazine may be reproduced without permission in writing. Every care is taken to ensure the accuracy of information in Sailing Today, but no responsibility can be accepted for the consequences of actions based on the advice portrayed herein. The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd makes every effort to ensure that the advertising contained in this magazine is delivered from responsible sources. We cannot, however, accept any responsibility for transactions between readers and advertisers. Sailing Today welcomes letters. For the Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd full set of terms and conditions please go to chelseamagazines.com/terms-and-conditions
Mark Covell won silver in the Star class at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and sails Collective Spirit
BoB Shepton has led many adventure sailing expeditions to Greenland and the Arctic
howard Steen took early retirement in 2008 and moved to Germany to cruise the Baltic August 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk
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Strap book Contents
Regulars
10 newS 14 new boatS 16 readerS’ letterS Splicing genes, Hammar, which tack?
18 wHat’S on 19 win £1,500 of SailS 20 broadSide 66 bookS 76 riding ligHt 102 diSpatcHeS Jacky and robert black head for corfu
Cruising
8 round tHe iSland photos and stories from the rtir
22 mudlarking 32 interview paul and rachel chandler set out again
34 gull’S eye fold-out guide to cork, ireland
40 Secret placeS avoid the crowds in poole Harbour
48 lofoten iSlandS Sailing in norway’s island playground
74 cruiSing clinic
Boats
42 allureS 39.9
paul brown
creek-crawling from poole to Scilly
22 64-67 boats 27 pages and kit
“outre-mer” to test an aluminium cruiser
56 copperbottomed westerly’s most popular? ocean 33 onedition
78 norfolk gypSy neil thompson trailer-sailer on test
Gear
58 tv aerialS don’t miss a minute with our group test
64 new gear 66 gear teSted
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Henri lloyd, coast torch, cleaner
Practical
70 race tune pimp your cruiser for cowes week
82 aiS vS radar which system keeps you safest? may 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk
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St Catherine’s Photo by Ian Roman/onEdition The Round the Island Race on 1 June presented a sunny contrast to last year’s squally event. A pre-dawn start to catch the tide and a N-NW wind made the first leg to the Needles a fast downwind ride. The race was a success for Sir Ben Ainslie in his AC45, shattering the outright race record in a ‘back for breakfast’ 2hrs 52min 15sec. In this, the 76th running of the ‘biggest yacht race in the world’, 1,459 boats entered with only 52 retiring. Read overleaf how ST’s correspondents got on.
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Aluminium attraction French-built Allures cruising yachts simply bristle with clever features. Duncan Kent reports on the newly launched 39.9
phoTos: AnToine soubigou
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llures Yachting has been building aluminium cruisers for 10 years and has so far launched over 100 boats. The 39.9 is its latest design created by Berret Racoupeau, after taking the many existing Allures owners’ experiences and wishes into account. Allures owns two other boatyards, including Caen-based Garcia Yachting, where its hulls are built. Garcia is expert at alloy fabrication and its hulls are phenomenally strong, yet comparatively light. Once complete, the bare, round-bilge aluminium hulls are delivered to the Allures yard in Cherbourg, where they are burnished, painted and insulated before fitting out. Unlike her bigger sisters, the 39.9 has a GRP deck and superstructure, giving less weight, more headroom below and a smoother, warmer finish. The interior joinery is outsourced, but built to CAD drawings created by Allures’ own layout team, so no further sawing, planing or sanding is needed. If any custom parts are required, they will be put through the same design process and the drawings supplied.
Allures craftsmen then put the whole lot together, knowing exactly what fits where and how, thanks to the precision of the 3D design images, which can be rotated through every angle. The 39.9 is designed as a bluewater cruising yacht, although some have bought her for local sailing as well. She can be quite heavily customised – especially in the starboard quarter, which can be a cabin, technical room, workshop, or a clever combination of all three by using the workbench as a berth and the space below for storage.
There’s also a large area behind the engine, which will house a good size generator, watermaker, extra fuel tank or anything else for long periods offshore. Access to both areas is very good. A plethora of panels in the sole gives excellent access to all areas of the bilge for regular inspection and there are no no-go areas hidden behind mouldings where problems might arise. This is particularly important with an aluminium hull, as a metallic object dropped into the bilges can cause serious corrosion problems.
“Slutter” rig
A mixture of cutter and sloop, the Allures’ sail plan has two headsails for ease of sail handling: an overlapping genoa is on the foremost stay with a smaller working jib on the inner. They are not intended to be hoisted together
August 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk
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SAIL OR SKI ? Howard Steen chose both, using his Vancouver 27 as a mobile ski refuge in the Lofoten Islands of Norway
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ying in my sleeping bag with the cabin temperature barely above freezing, I wondered if my friend James would be the first to get up and put on the kettle. Sadly, the lack of activity from his bunk suggested he considered this to be the skipper’s duty. We’d arrived in Tromsø the previous day, 6 March, enjoyed a fantastic first display of the Northern Lights but after a bitterly cold night, the sea was icing up in our sheltered corner of the harbour and the small electric fan heater struggled to dispel the deathly chill. An urgent priority that morning was to re-commission the diesel cabin heater! I reminded myself that at this time of year most sailors have sensibly left their boats to a long undisturbed winter sleep, but here we were in the freezing Arctic, aiming to use the boat as a fixed and sailing base for several weeks of ski mountaineering activities. We didn’t plan to sail south for Bodø until May.
Opposite: At 20m, the Svartisen Glacier has the lowest snout in mainland Europe Above: Author’s painting of Martha anchored by the Jokelfjord Glacier
Long in the making
The 2,500nM to Tromsø from Baltic Germany were sailed over the previous two seasons, assisted by family and friends as crew. We’d enjoyed the fascination of sailing along the scenic Norwegian coastline using the ‘inner lead’, a series of sheltered channels protected by layers of off-lying islands. All my early fears of Norwegian sailing – deep fjords with unfathomable anchoring depths, unpredictable winds, a hazardous rock-strewn coastline – had been pleasantly dispelled during the first season, so I was happy to take novice crew on some of the voyage. As a sailor who also enjoys both mountaineering activity and being able to sketch and paint mountain landscapes, I’ve found that sailing in west and north Norway is hard to beat. The unique atmosphere of the Arctic region with its spectacular Lofoten Islands, glaciers which almost reach sea level, midnight sun in summer and the Northern Lights in winter is a good enough reason to make the effort to push this far north, though few yachts do. Wintering afloat in the west and north is practical because the Gulf
Wildlife checklist Sea eagle Haliaeetus Encompassing eight different species, these fish eaters can weigh up to 9kg (20lb) Reindeer Rangifer tarandus Widely hunted in Nordic countries, they have also been domesticated to pull toboggans in Lapland Sea otter Enhydra Lutris At 45kg, they are the heaviest members of the weasel family. They have recovered from extinction but are still on the endangered list
Stream ensures the sea does not freeze at the coast. However, the boat must be protected from snow. Tromsø can get up to 2m, so I’d constructed a strong cover of reinforced plastic to keep snow off the decks. During heavy snowfall we could hear from below the reassuring sound of mini-avalanches sliding off the ‘roof ’. The side decks became a good place to store skis and when the sun rose high enough to strike the boat, the cockpit ‘conservatory’ became a welcome extension to our living space.
Arctic winter delights
A lively university town of some 60,000 people, Tromsø enjoys the accolade ‘Paris of the North’, perhaps due to its large selection of bars, cafes, museums and galleries. Set on a small, low island on the inner lead, superbly sheltered by large islands and surrounded by mountains on all sides, it is a deservedly popular destination for exploring and enjoying the local area. Access to the mountains and skiing opportunities of all kinds is excellent. An extensive network of floodlit cross-country trails on the island lies only 15 minutes walk from the harbour, while a short bus ride across to the mainland side accesses August 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk
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DON’T MISS A MINUTE ON BOARD WANT TO RECEIVE TERRESTRIAL DIGITAL TV ON BOARD? DUNCAN KENT TESTS A SELECTION OF THE MOST POPULAR ANTENNAE TO SEE WHICH PERFORMS THE BEST
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t is a quiet Saturday evening, riding at anchor somewhere remote, and the promised summer weather hasn’t materialised. If your thoughts on a chill night aboard are turning from stargazing to X Factor, you’ll need a proper digital TV (DVB-T) antenna that is capable of receiving signals from the nearest TV transmitter. Unless you are desperate not to miss a single frame of TV, then you’re unlikely to want to spend £1,000 or so on a tracking dish antenna. Terrestrial digital TV signals can be picked up from a good number of transmitters, both those on the coast and some inland masts as well, with a simple omnidirectional passive antenna. There are plenty that will do the job, but what makes a good one?
ST TIP Good quality coaxial cable is paramount for the best reception. Only use a proper coaxial plug and socket to join cable runs – never terminal blocks. If your coaxial cable has been bent tightly or pinched, reception can be severely degraded
Power up
MAIN PHOTO: WWW.CLIPPERMARINE.CO.UK
Wideband or directional?
In order to be able to receive a good range of stations, a TV aerial for a cruising boat needs to be of the type commonly known as a wideband antenna. This is distinct from a directional domestic antenna, which is designed to point towards a specific transmitter mast. In Britain, TV signals are broadcast from Ch21 to Ch60, or 474MHz to 786MHz in frequency terms. Technically, this is quite a wide range of to be able to tune into with any accuracy, so for this reason all wideband aerials are somewhat of a compromise and the clarity of reception in more remote areas can leave something to be desired! In a domestic situation your TV antenna will be tuned into your nearest (or most powerful) terrestrial TV transmitter by pointing it directly at the mast. However, if you’re
cruising along the coast, stopping at different destinations each night, you’re not going to be able to fine-tune your aerial unless you know exactly where the nearest mast is located. Besides, it’s quite a fiddly job tweaking a unidirectional antenna to find the best signal and, of course, if it’s at the masthead for the better reception, that’s pretty much out of the question. Unfortunately, directional aerials are usually quite long (2½ft – 3½ft), heavy and not ideally suited to masthead mounting, so the sailing yacht owner is limited in choice.
Main: Even with a good TV antenna on board, don’t expect the same quality as home Below: We tested the antennae on a boat moored on the River Hamble
For this reason, most mobile TV installations use a wideband, multi-directional antenna that is capable of receiving signals from any direction. For practical reasons, they also need to be reasonably small and be protected from the elements. Unfortunately, small usually means a weaker signal (less gain) and the effect of fitting an amplifier or ‘booster’ is limited. In general, an omni-directional TV antenna is never going to give
you as good a picture as a domestic one, unless you’re close to a transmitter and you have a correctly polarised (see below) aerial. In fact the gain of most mobile antennae is negative, usually around -3dB, as opposed to the +7dB gain of a typical directional antenna. Furthermore, having a beamwidth of the full 360°, an omni-directional aerial is more likely to be affected by interference between adjacent transmitters, especially in weak signal areas, so you’re unlikely to get a perfect picture at all times. All TV receivers have a built-in signal amplifier that will increase its sensitivity if the signal is weak. So there is often little benefit to be had by incorporating a separate signal amplifier with a pushpit rail- or coachroof-mounted antenna. However, it’s a different story when the aerial cable is long – in the case of a masthead-mount antenna, for instance. Long cable runs can cause an in-line loss in signal strength, so an integral amplifier can definitely help to improve the strength and clarity of the signal.
Polarisation
To work effectively, a TV antenna must also be ‘polarised’ to match the transmitter from which it is receiving its signal. Although all the main broadcast transmitter masts are horizontally aligned, some repeater masts (often used in poorer reception areas) can be vertically polarised to minimise channel interference. For the best reception, you will require an aerial with vertical elements and even then, you might still suffer from ‘ghosting’ in a poor reception area. AUGUST 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk
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Gypsy magic In the first of a new series reviewing the best small boats built in Britain and on the near continent, Sam Fortescue sails a Norfolk Gypsy
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Although Gypsies have been taken up and down coast, and as far as Holland and France, the boat’s strength is as a day-sailer
gust catches our little boat before I can sheet out the main, and I am again surprised by the ease with which she wears it. It is a keen easterly blowing a fishy scent over the sand from the colony of seals that lie basking in the April sun at Blakeney Point, north Norfolk. I’m in a 20ft (6.1m) gaffer, built last year by Neil Thompson Boats to a design first sketched by the prolific Andrew Wolstenholme in 1989. She has a pleasing classic workboat look to her as we approach, and indeed, Neil is building a lot of motor-only Gypsies at his yard a few miles from Morston Quay. The Gypsy’s bold sheer, short bowsprit and tan sails belie the fact that she is built in glassfibre using modern laying-up techniques – the cabin deckhead is very light balsa GRP sandwich, for example, giving buoyancy, insulation and strength.
Camper-sailer
In essence, she’s a heavy little daysailer, who could be pressed into occasional service overnight with two slim-cushioned V-berths. Her real strength is as a shoal-dodging campersailer whose 1,300kg (2,870lb) displacement makes her easily trailable. Neil Thompson takes pride
in the weight of her construction, which keeps her rigid and stable – something I’m grateful for repeatedly as our fingers numb in the chill wind and reactions slow. Despite never having set foot on one of these boats before, we find her gunter rig a doddle. The jib is rolled up on a furler, with the mainsail neatly sandwiched between the boom and the gaff. It is the work of seconds for one man to raise the two halyards – one fixed to the middle of the gaff, the other to the gaff jaws around the mast. With the main up, we back the jib to clear the mooring and set off on a beam reach across the shallows. In fact, the most complicated thing about getting under way is the boom crutch, which steadfastly refuses to come undone after the winter and makes helming, tacking… pretty much everything rudder-related, difficult. “Normally, they just stand on the coaming,” says yard worker, Pierre. “They’re never usually attached.” No matter: with his help to keep the wooden attachment clear of the tiller, we have few problems. Thanks to her lifting centreplate and rudder plate, the Gypsy draws no more than a foot when everything’s up, so running downwind, I am able to gybe from one side of the harbour to the other. But hardening up as we August 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk
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