Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting May 2024 - Sample Issue

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MULTIPLE MULTIHULLS

 Giles Scott talks SailGP

 Cruising the ‘savage islands’ by cat  Bali Catsmart and C-Cat 48 tested

 Warp speed with the Ultim Challenge

CHANNEL HOPPING

Tidal tests in the Channel Islands

GREECE PEACE

O the beaten track in the Peloponnese

IT’S A WRAP?

How boat graphics can transform your yacht

REGATTA GUIDE

Plan your summer of fun

ADVENTURE PLAYGROUND

Jenevora Swann narrates an adventurous trip to the Tuamotus in the heart of French Polynesia

CHANNEL ISLAND TIDAL TACTICS

Clive Loughlin plans an adventurous holiday in the Channel Islands

This article is aimed at the many experienced south coast sailors, who have always wanted to go to the Channel Islands, but for one reason or another have never actually made it. It is also for those who have made the trip, perhaps many times, but who have always taken the easier options of hopping between the marinas at Cherbourg and St Peter Port.

Fortune favours the brave, and the efforts in getting there will be more than justified by the fantastic scenery and the wholenew-world that can be found there. For one thing there is something immensely satisfying about sailing around an island –and there are lots of those to choose from.

This article plans an adventurous holiday lasting between seven and nine days, with the emphasis on making full use of favourable tides, while avoiding the very unfavourable situations that can be alarming to those caught off-guard.

Tides wait for no man

Tides are always important – but tides in the Channel Islands are on steroids, and are just about double those in the Solent - expect 9m range and rates of up to 7kts at springs.

The tidal streams are so strong that in many ways they make passage planning easier because they really do define when and where it is possible to go.

The prevailing wind direction in the English Channel is between southsouthwest and northwest but for this article I will assume it is from the southwest and Force 4-5. I will also assume a boat speed of 5kts, and will use BST unless otherwise noted. Timings are all with respect to HW Dover as this is the reference for most tidal stream charts in the area. I leave all the passage planning, pilotage and Customs to you for your particular adventure.

My go-to reference for tidal stream information is the UKHO publication NP 264 ‘Admiralty Tidal Stream Atlas – The Channel Islands and adjacent coast of France’ which gives large-scale hourly snapshots of the tidal streams. Much the same information is in the Almanac, but in smaller diagrams.

Reeds Almanac also provides essential data on tidal times and heights and port entry considerations, and I would not dream of sailing in these waters without reference to the various pilot guides for detail on pilotage and passage planning.

MAIN PHOTO: Gorey Castle with Harbour, Grouville Bay, Jersey, Channel Islands

INSET: Three circumnavigations and five islands to explore Chart source UKHO NP 264

ALL PHOTOS: CLIVE LOUGHLIN/ISTOCK/SHUTTERSTOCK

SMART THINKING

Bali Catamarans has been producing voluminous cruising catamarans in huge quantities since 2014 – during that time the company has perfected the art as Sam Jefferson discovers

They say that one of the keys to happiness and wellbeing is self acceptance.

The ability to take a good, hard look at yourself and say, ‘well, this is who I am, take it or leave it’ is a hugely important step if you want to achieve a degree of serenity. What has this got to do with the Bali Catsmart I hear you cry? Well, it’s just a gut feeling I have but, in the world of yachts, more specifically multihulls, Bali catamarans is the marque that is the most willing to accept what it is and feel at ease with this. Unlike some yachts that try to be all things to all sailors, the Bali is unashamedly a cruising catamaran and the company has stuck with this basic concept since it launched its first boat in 2014. Perhaps being part of the Catana group helped because Catana had a deserved reputation for producing top end, performance catamarans so Bali felt at ease producing something tailored for cruising. I do not mean this in a negative way. If you start with a very clear concept of what you want, then you are far more likely to reach a satisfactory conclusion. In the case of Bali, this means providing a comfortable platform for cruising while ensuring performance is perky enough to keep you happy on passage. The company has not been afraid to innovate either; guided by the steady hand of Olivier Poncin, who sadly recently passed away, Bali has pioneered a number of clever features including the tilt/slide ‘garage door’ style saloon door and also replacing the normal trampoline at the bow with a solid foredeck, which massively boosts exterior space. Along the way, the boats have been styled in a manner that fairly yells, ‘I am a cruising cat, take it or leave it’. This is an admirable philosophy which has seen the company

ALL GREEK TO ME

Our resident charter skipper Tom Fletcher narrates an unusual charter that took him a long way off the traditional tourist trail

Ioften ask myself why sailing long distances is so enjoyable, usually when alone on my watch late at night. I think I ask it repeatedly because the answer is always different, like the journey itself. On stormy nights, when tired and stressed, my answers are vulgar. On calm, beautiful starlit evenings, the peace and joy of the journey itself is the answer. The good times always outweigh the bad though. The slow speed of travel measured out in pencil on the chart calms me; there is nothing to do and no responsibility apart from continuing steadily to your destination.

The journey begins

So it was with great anticipation that I stepped aboard the shiny new Bavaria 46 ready to depart on a journey to circumnavigate the Peloponnese. We would sail south from Sail Ionian’s base on Lefkada, around the three southern peninsulas of the Greek mainland. Past tempestuous Cape Maleas, which scuppered Odysseus, continuing up the coast to Athens, where we would change crew for our second week. And from there the return, through the Corinth Canal, to the Ionian.

The adventurous plan was made possible by one of the company’s business partners, who had bought a boat through our Yacht Partnership Scheme. The new Bavaria yacht would be run by Sail Ionian as part of the charter fleet, bought through the company dealership. In addition to an income from the charter business, the new owner received six weeks’ free usage of their boat as part of the deal. Keen to see more of Greece, they had arranged for a longer two-week trip and asked for a skipper to accompany them. Happily, I had drawn the lucky straw.

I think it is always sensible to have a short first day to allow the crew to find their sea legs and familiarise themselves with each other and the yacht before starting with shifts and longer distances. For the crew, this was their first long distance sailing voyage and we all wanted to enjoy the adventure. After a full safety brief, we cast off and headed south to Vathi on Ithaca. It was late April, and the spring wind was fresh off the northwest of Ithaca, topping 20kts, allowing us to have a great afternoon sailing, practicing MOBs, reefing, and generally blowing the cobwebs away!

Sailing into Vathi, Ithaca’s capital, fjordlike entrance comparisons with Odysseus were on our lips. Though Odysseus’ most famous journey was coming back from Turkey to Ithaca, he must have sailed along our route east first, on the way to the Trojan

ALL PHOTOS: TOM FLETCHER/ISTOCK/SHUTTERSTOCK

GREAT SCOTT!

Georgie Corlett-Pitt talks to Giles Scott on Ben Ainslie, Sail GP and his new role as driver of Emirates GBR…