SAILING TODAY
GO FURTHER I SAIL BETTER I BE INSPIRED SEPTEMBER 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk £4.20 SEPTEMBER 2013 – ISSUE No 197
GROUP GEAR
Tough cameras
We throw sand, salt water and sudden drops at six of the best
Into the wild Salvaging a ketch amidst the jungles of Panama
PANAMA •
CALEDONIAN CANAL •
LAGOON 39 •
SHOTLEY
Jeremy Rogers
BOAT ON TEST
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CAMERAS
Fast cat
Contessa builder’s latest boat
Lagoon’s new 39 thrills a monohull sailor
CALLY CANAL
Sailing up the Great Glen with the Old Gaffers Ed's Letter_Master.indd 1 ST197_001FC_CoverA.indd
COPPERBOTTOMED
Sparkman & Stephens’ Swan 38 holds its own
UPGRADE TIME
Why NMEA2000 kit is harder, better, faster
CROSS THE POND
How to get to the start line for your Transat 19/07/2013 15:41 10:03 16/07/2013
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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
Southampton office Swanwick Marina, Lower Swanwick, Southampton, SO31 1ZL EDITOR-AT-LARGE Jake frith 01489 585213 jake.frith@chelseamagazines.com ART & PRODuCTIOn EDITOR Guy foan 01489 585214 guy.foan@chelseamagazines.com TECHnICAL COnSuLTAnT duncan Kent duncan.kent@chelseamagazines.com
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Skipper’s View sailing weather has set in at last, so why not join ST for the cruisers’ race day at cowes week?
it may have come too late for our two-week cruise to Brittany on Summer Song this year (see the editor’s blog on the ST website for proof), but the fine weather is finally here. And not a moment too soon. The regatta season is well under way, with the classics out in force this month at the Fife Regatta in Scotland (see this month’s big pic, pp6-7) and at Panerai British Classic Week in the Solent. But arguably the biggest of them all is still to come: Cowes Week. I’ve always felt it’s a bit too racy for our Sadler 34 and the sort of sailing we enjoy. But this year, the regatta organisers at Cowes Combined Clubs are making a great effort to promote a ‘white sail day’ or relaxed racing specifically for cruisers. Summer Song will be there with a crew of pressed men (and women) for the racing on Saturday, 10 August. It’s not expensive to sign up – why don’t you come along as well? If enough readers take part, we could even run an ST trophy on the side, so let us know if you do plan to race – addresses below. And make sure you have a look back at Toby Heppell’s handy guide to race tuning your cruiser in the last issue (ST196). Meanwhile, many of the boats that are planning to cross the Atlantic in a rally this winter will be heading south by now. In the first of a new series on crossing the Pond, we look at how to get to the start line (pp70-73). And we may have tested the boat in which to do it this month. Hold your breath, though – it’s a catamaran! Our intrepid reviewer and confirmed monohull sailor, Duncan Kent, was very pleasantly surprised by the new Lagoon 39 (pp40-45). If, like me, your current cruising plans are armchair-based, we’ve got two intriguing cruising tales - one in the jungles of Bocas del Toro in Panama on a salvage mission (pp20-26), the other through the wild Highlands of Scotland on the Caledonian Canal with an equally wild Old Gaffer (pp46-53). As ever, there’s gear aplenty, including a timely group test of the best rugged, waterproof cameras on the market (pp56-61). If you buy one of these technology-packed snappers for your holidays, be sure to send us your cruising pics! Sam Fortescue, managing editor
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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
SAM JEFFERSON is the former deputy editor of ST, now leading an itinerant boaty life
PAUL HEINEY is a wellknown writer and broadcaster just back from a round trip to Cape Horn
PERSEPHONE LEwIN sails a Bay Cruiser 23 and once raced Squibs and Snipes all over Europe September 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk
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Cruising
A SALVAGE MISSION
Sam Jefferson heads to Panama to rescue a dead man’s boat and falls for the untamed Caribbean coast of Central America.
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Main: Another deserted beach - Starfish Beach on Isla Colón Clockwise from top right: Rare red frogs on Isla Bastimentos; the ramshackle waterfront at Bocas Town; local Ngobe kids try to break my camera on Isla Popa
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ife is full of surprises and if someone had told me even a few days before this rummy affair got started that I would be spending two months in Central America salvaging a dead man’s boat at the behest of an eccentric, I would have been surprised. But, as John Lennon famously once said: “Life is what happens while you are busy making plans.” The quote certainly rings true in this case. Allow me to elaborate and endeavour to put this complex state of affairs in a nutshell. I had been hitchhiking across the ocean with my girlfriend, Ivory, for some months previously. We had spent time aboard a luxury yacht in Sint Maarten and were itching for a change when we were messaged by Dr Ben LaBrot of Floating Doctors. This esoteric charity uses yachts to bring medical aid to remote areas of the Caribbean, and Ben needed help. He had just inherited a new yacht, Seahorse, and needed some expertise to fettle her up. He offered to pay our flights out there and we promptly dropped our hazy plans in favour of this
adventure. Up to speed? Complex I agree, but grasp that and you have a solid foundation for understanding the rest of this tale.
The mouth of the bull
We reported for duty in Bocas Town, the only large settlement with the group of islands that make up Bocas del Toro. The enigmatic LaBrot was nowhere to be found, so we took a few days to take in our surroundings. The name refers to the main channel in to this archipelago and translates from Spanish as ‘mouth of the bull’. Columbus careened one of his ships here in 1504, and he found a group of five or six large islands situated in Bahía Almirante on the Caribbean coast of Panama. It is a spectacular place. Across the bay tower the great Chiriquí mountains, luxuriant with verdant rainforest which sweeps right down to the water’s edge. Here, great complications of mangroves weave their tendrils into the water, creating impenetrable mazes regularly broken by gleaming, pristine white beaches, many of them still awaiting their first footprint. It’s the Caribbean that Robert Louis Stevenson dreamed up September 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk
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GULL’S IN ASSOCIATION EYE Pwllheli WITH
THE BOAT INSURANCE SPECIALIST
WWW.BOATINSURE.CO.UK
An Amlin Group Company
GULL’S EYE
SHOTLEY, SUFFOLK 51° 57’ 28N, 001° 16’ 36W
Shotley Marina This 350-berth marina can accommodate boats up to 45ft (14m) but lateral berthing is available for larger craft. Shelter from the elements here is second to none
Locking in Entry to the lock can occasionally become busy, so visitors should be prepared to stem the tide and wait their turn
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Levington Levington Marina operates a little way further up the Orwell. It offers many of the same facilities but provides easier access to Ipswich
Commercial traffic Stick to the recommended yacht track to keep clear of commercial traffic in the river
FACTFILE SHOTLEY MARINA Contact: +44 (0)1473 788 982 www.shotleymarina.co.uk Berths: 350 Facilities: Showers, restaurant, bar, fuel, 40 tonne travel hoist AERIAL PHOTO: PATRICK ROACH
Tides: Dover +0050 VHF: Channel 80 Max size: 45ft (14m) – larger possible Price: £2.45 per metre per night
SEPTEMBER 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk
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On test
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Cat o' fine sails Lagoon's brand new 39ft catamaran surprises monohull sailor Duncan Kent with her pace, easy handling and her many creature comforts
PhoTos: Joe MccarThy
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here can’t be many sailors who haven’t at some time seen a Lagoon catamaran passing them by – you may have even chartered one in the Med or Caribbean. Not the prettiest, the Lagoon stands out primarily for its vertical windows. Subtle changes over the years have mellowed its commercial vessel image by bevelling off various edges and adding a few jaunty angles, but the basic shape of its production range is substantially unchanged since its introduction in 1996. Whatever you might think or say about its looks, however, this stalwart range of cruising catamarans has proved extremely popular – both with long-term liveaboards and casual coastal sailors alike. Those who’ve never set foot on board a modern catamaran should grab the opportunity at the next boat show – especially if you’re contemplating heading for distant horizons. Monohull sailors are always astounded at the sheer volume of accommodation and deck area of a cat – myself included. My last charter was on a 44ft (13.4m) cat and at no time did the seven of us
ever feel cramped, or our privacy invaded. It was a delight at anchor, being far less prone to rocking about in the swell all night, and the deck saloon meant that no one missed what was going on, whether inside cooking or outside relaxing.
Design changes
A great deal of thought and listening to existing clients has pushed Lagoon into radically redesigning its sail plan. Some might say it has even regressed, closer in fact to much earlier designs such as the famous Prout range. As with all the new
series, the 39’s mast has been moved back to the centre of the boat, both increasing the foretriangle and reducing the mainsail area and boom length. This makes them more balanced under sail, as well as easier to handle. Although mainsail furling has become popular over the past couple of decades, the extra weight and jamming risk of the ubiquitous in-mast reefing system is not ideal, especially on a catamaran. In my experience, owners aren’t keen on long, cockpit-sweeping booms and acres of uncontrollable canvas flapping around just when
Tender stow
The dinghy davit option is a must for bluewater cruisers, along with the optional solar panel array that fits neatly above them
September 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk
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glen gaffer
The eccentric tale of a concrete gaffer’s passage through the majestic Caledonian Canal. By Persephone Lewin
The Old Gaffers assOciaTiOn Round Britain Challenge The OGA celebrated its 50th birthday this year with a fleet of members’ boats circumnavigating the mainland, raising money for the RNLI. The climax is a Jubilee Festival in Cowes in August. The Association was formed to promote gaff rigs and it has ensured the preservation of many fine yachts and working boats. It also encourages designers to create new gaff-rigged yachts, many of which are built in modern materials. Gone are the days of the predominately male crew in smock and waders who drank the pub dry at Southwold. Nowadays juveniles of family members are lent boats to race in Classic Boat Week.
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here’s no battling rain and gales, as the Old Gaffers Association fleet had to for the first three weeks; there are no huge waves; no pounding through blue water. No. We’re just entering the little lock at Laggan. Owners Sue and Howard did the easy bit fighting headwinds in their ferro-cement gaff cutter Bonify; we arrived for the hard part – steering between two mountains in the Great Glen. Call it age and experience. But let us start back at Corpach, at the southwestern end of the Glen, and
the beginning of our four-day voyage through the Caledonian Canal. Here we whiled away a wet afternoon waiting for Bonify to appear on the horizon so we could join ship. My skipper David – who over the years has become an ancient mariner, good at racing starts - chatted to the lock-keeper and a lone live-aboard
‘Compared with my Drascombe Drifter’s interior, you could house a brass band’
sailingtoday.co.uk September 2013
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Caledonian Canal
Approaching the first of eight locks in Neptune’s Staircase, Banavie
grown a fringe of weed which had slowed her progress down the south coast and up the Irish Sea. It was hoped she would shed this on entering fresh water. But it was now gone five and they don’t lock boats in after 5.30pm. We’d just have to book into a hotel for the night, as the form filling and payment of Canal tolls, £17 per metre, would take half an hour to complete.
John Ashworth
The first of many locks
Main: Bonify in the narrows after Laggan, heading towards Fort Augustus
while I kept dry in the car under a sign saying ‘No Parking Overnight’. Alternatively you can gaze across to Fort William, at its white-faced houses perched on the cliff face, just like Celesteville in the still-loved Babar the Elephant stories. Look, there’s the smoke of a steam train. It chuffed past drawing 12 coaches, full up with passengers. The ETA for meeting our boat had passed. Back in April, David had photographed the Old Gaffers starting their celebratory circumnavigation of Britain at Heybridge in Essex. In the 10 weeks since then, Bonify had
Below: Imposing ruins of Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness
Then David spotted a speck of a red hull in the distance, far down Loch Linnhe towards the sea. “Sorry, we’re off home,” said the young lockkeeper. But he was teasing us. Would I like to work the lock gates? I would. Despite the sign, we were welcome to leave the car overnight. Our ship passed into the black water of the sea lock and, as we caught her lines, David pointed to his watch. It was 5.29! Howard is expert at steering his quite large vessel (44ft including the bowsprit) within half an inch of
harbour walls. He’s a strong fellow, skipper of a windfarm support vessel. We climbed aboard. A double-ender, Bonify was designed as a ketch with a centre cockpit by John Hanna in 1924. Building didn’t begin until 1980, though, in David Carter’s garden near Colchester. Decks are pine on oak beams with spars of Norwegian pine and Douglas fir. Reminiscent of a Colin Archer design. After taking 13 years to build, someone noticed, ‘By Jove, this is a single-masted gaff cutter!’ For a while she served as a home for Howard and Sue in Ipswich, a stone’s throw from where she was first launched. There are two quarter berths, wide and narrow berths in the main saloon and a double cabin near the fo’c’s’le. They plan to add a mizzen mast to ketchify the rig as per the original design. Howard had the doghouse added. I like the ratlines. As for her name, similar to ketchify, ‘to bonify’ is to make good or bonny. Sue thought this a fitting motto for two DIY men – the builder and Howard. Sue is tall and tough with strong organisational skills. For instance she said, “Persephone, you’ll be writing a piece for Sailing Today”. After a few jars she’s very good at a r-rolling Scottish accent. Once we were all snugged down with a welcoming drink, our hosts, together with foredeck man Trevor, set off for the pub. We were tired after all the driving and stayed aboard. Compared with my Drascombe Drifter’s tiny interior, I reckon you September 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk
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On test
FUJIFILM Finepix XP200 16 Megapixel 15m waterproof 2m shockproof Yellow, black, blue, red OLYMPUS Stylus TG2 12 Megapixel 15m waterproof 2.1m shockproof Black, red
PanaSOnIc Lumix FT5 16 MegaPixel 13m waterproof 2m shockproof Black, silver, blue, orange
SOnY cybershot TF1 16.1 Megapixel 10m waterproof 1.5m shockproof Red, blue, black
nIkOn coolpix aW110 16 Megapixel 18m waterproof 2m shockproof Orange, black, blue, camouflage canOn PowerShot D20 12.1 Megapixel 10m waterproof 1.5m shockproof Silver, blue, yellow
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WATERPROOF CAMERAS GONE ARE THE DAYS OF ‘POINT AND SHOOT’; SAM FORTESCUE TESTS SIX WATERPROOF, RUGGED CAMERAS THAT ARE PACKED WITH TECHNOLOGY
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t wasn’t so long ago that a waterproof camera meant either a basic point-and-shoot device that would only produce foggy images or a state-of-the-art waterproof casing for your existing SLR. But in recent years a range of high-spec digital cameras have emerged that are waterproof, shockproof and not much larger than a matchbox. In the unforgiving environment of a boat, they have the potential to capture everything from the sun sinking behind the saltmarshes or the moment the other boat failed to give you water round the mark, to the parrotfish hiding behind coral 10m down. Several big players in the electronics market have launched new rugged cameras this year, and they are bristling with more features and better connectivity than ever.
Megapixels
Compact cameras are limited by their small lenses and tiny light sensitive arrays, but we still found quite wide differences in their performance
Don’t be fooled by the marketing spin: the number of megapixels a camera can produce is not a good measure of quality. All the cameras we tested have plenty, even for heavy enlargement. More important is the lens and the sensor size. The sensor in a digital camera replaces the film, and generally speaking, the larger the surface area, the better. None of these compacts have interchangeable lenses and they all use the smallest sensor arrays (4.2x5.7mm) to keep lens size down – there’s no grinding telephoto here. When it comes to detail and sharpness in enlargements, you will notice the difference between these and a decent digital SLR.
Another measure of a lens’s quality is its f-stop – that is the ratio between the focal length and the size of the aperture. The lower the f-stop, the more light the camera can let in (making it better for lower light shooting), but the narrower the depth of field – ie objects around the focal point appear blurry. F-stop is usually expressed as a range, because the aperture is adjustable: the larger the range, the more flexible the lens in different light conditions. Most of the cameras were comparable, with a narrow range between 3.5 and 4.9. The other important element of the traditional SLR that is missing among these cameras is a viewfinder. All the manufacturers have chosen instead to provide larger screens. In strong sunlight they can’t compete, so you can miss all sorts of important details.
Waterproofing
These cameras are all designed to deal with more than a splash of spray over the gunwales. They would make good companions on a snorkelling or diving trip, although only one, Nikon’s Coolpix, is able to accompany you to the very deepest point of a typical leisure dive (60ft/18m). There are different programmes (sometimes a bewildering number) designed to optimise pictures and movies in underwater conditions. But with the clock ticking and your air running out, the simple controls and large buttons of some of these cameras will really pay off. All the cameras have the usual array of battery and memory card slots, USB connections and charging connectors, hidden behind rubberSEPTEMBER 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk
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Technical
Get yourself connected harder, better, faster, stronger – Jake Frith shows you how nMea2000 networking can revolutionise your on board electronics
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hink back a decade and most cruising sailors were happy to have standalone autopilots, GPS and sailing instruments. As with many developments in cruising gear though, it was the singlehanded ocean racers who led the charge towards a joined-up system. Having an autopilot that talks to a rate gyro and wind transducer to keep the boat sailing well, while the skipper slept, provided a competitive advantage. Electronics manufacturers soon began to offer full systems whose instruments talked to each other using a bespoke data transmission protocol, such as Raymarine’s Seatalk. Then chartplotters morphed into Multifunction Displays (MFDs), where the screen is used to display and interface with a growing number of devices throughout the boat.
Speaking tongues
The National Marine Electronics Association was set up to develop
voluntary industry standards by which marine electronic devices could share data in ‘sentences’. NMEA 0183, their first network standard, was introduced back in 1983 and is still widely used today. It allowed different manufacturers’ products to communicate, so a GPS could share data with deck instruments, for example. But its data rate of 4,800 bits/second is now considered glacially slow – a computer’s USB connection is 100,000 times faster – and it only allowed a given device to be a ‘talker’ or ‘listener’ to NMEA sentences, not both at the same time. NMEA 2000 wasn’t actually widely taken up until 2005, but it was worth the wait. The maximum data transfer rate was pumped up to 250k bits/ second, but the main benefit has been that NMEA2000 supports a multiple talker, multiple listener network, so data can travel both to and from all devices. According to Paul Knight of Knight Marine Electronics, upgrading to
Scaleability
Adding new electronic kit to an existing NMEA2000 network is much simpler than with previous systems
Connectivity
NMEA2000 means that all connected equipment works as both a ‘talker’ and a ‘listener’ to the network, putting more and more quickly updated information at the sailor’s fingertips
‘NMEA2K has largely delivered on its promises’
a modern MFD uses NMea2k to interact with all navigational data
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NMEA 2000 is rarely a simple case of out with the old and in with the new: “While new boats are now usually specified with NMEA 2000 throughout, when it comes to upgrading electronics stage by stage, we don’t have the benefit of starting from a blank sheet. The vast majority of boats we upgrade with NMEA2K
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Top tips For a tidy, and more importantly reliable electronics upgrade, here are Paul Knight’s top tips: Plan first. All successful electrical installs begin with a pen and paper; once you draw out a wiring plan, you have something to use to obtain a second or third opinion on it. n Always speak to the manufacturer. All the major marine electronics firms have somebody in technical support whose job it is to help you out. If you start by telling them what you are planning to do and how you plan to do it, they might suggest a better way. n Beware of chafe. Remember that everything will move about at sea, so be clever in cable routing. NMEA2K spur plugs often come with an integral clip for mounting to a fixed surface like a bulkhead; always utilise these where you can. n For your own cable runs of non-NMEA 2000 components, always use high quality, marine-grade tinned cable, and label all wires for future reference. n For any cables that require crimping, use a good quality hexagonal ratchet crimping tool rather than the cheap car accessory shop type, and protect all wire ends from moisture with glue lined heat shrink tube. n
PluG ‘n’ Play Like all NMea2000 manufacturers, Garmin’s spur connectors (above) and terminators (below) are waterproof to iPX7 (immersion to 1m for 30mins)
equipment wish to retain and integrate devices still working on 0183.” With this in mind there is a large market in ‘gateway devices’ from specialist electronics companies such as Actisense, to network old instruments and new. For most likely partial upgrade or multi-manufacturer scenarios, there may well be a smaller specialist manufacturer that makes a device to get your system working, even if the main players in marine electronics don’t openly support what you are attempting. After all, for certain simpler tasks, devices can still communicate perfectly well on 0183. An autopilot ram, for instance, will only ever need
to be told steer to port, steer to starboard and at what rate to do so. If this was solely about junking a boat’s old 0183 equipment and replacing throughout with new NMEA2K equipment, it would be a much shorter article. This is because NMEA2K has largely delivered on its promises of being the first true ‘plug-and-play’ system for marine electronics. Let’s look at how it works and what it could do for you.
Get some backbone
The nervecentre of any NMEA2K setup is the so-called backbone. This does away with the bird’s nest of cabling that older systems required. September 2013 sailingtoday.co.uk
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Discovery - the start of
something amazing
“The Discovery 57 boasts many of the finer attributes of the earlier 55, but with a plethora of improvements, new ideas, more modern equipment and a much more contemporary style.� Duncan Kent, Technical Consultant, Sailing Today, February 2013
Discover more at Berth M252 at the Southampton Boat Show 2013 www.discoveryyachts.com Tel: +44 (0) 23 8086 5555
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