Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting March 2021 SAMPLE

with MARCH 2021 £4.95

SOLENT DELIGHTS

Exploring off the beaten track

CRUISING AS A COUPLE Ultimate test of teamwork!

How to fund your sailing with YouTube

RACING

Recover from a poor start BOAT TEST

Moody's new deck saloon AMERICA’S CUP Capsize at 47 knots

FIND A MOORING Tips and contacts

VENDÉE GLOBE Cape Horn drama

Setting New Standards.

Setting Standards.

Our new New dinghy range out now.

Visit Visit us us at at stand stand C28 C28 and and be be in in with with a a chance chance to to win win a a £500 £500 gift gift voucher voucher as as well well as as a a VIP VIP trip trip to to watch watch Sail Sail GP GP GBR GBR race! race!

Our Our new new dinghy dinghy range range out out now. now.

Visit us us atView stand C28 and be in in with agillmarine.com chance to to win a a £500 the new range now at Visit stand be with chance theC28 newand range now at a Visit us at atView stand C28 and be in with agillmarine.com chance to win win a £500 £500 gift voucher as well as a VIP trip to watch Sail GP GBR race! gift gift voucher voucher as as well well as as a a VIP VIP trip trip to to watch watch Sail Sail GP GP GBR GBR race! race!

View the new range now at gillmarine.com View View the the new new range range now now at at gillmarine.com gillmarine.com Designed and Engineered in the United Kingdom.

Designed and Engineered in the United Kingdom.

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REGULARS

10 News 26 Paul Heiney 28 Andy Rice 30 Andi Robertson 38 Tom Cunliffe 98 Jess Lloyd-Mostyn

UNDER SAIL

18 South coast sailing A socially distanced summer cruise

26 America’s Cup How things panned out in the Prada Cup

36 Two’s Company Rod Heikell on cruising as a couple

40 Spring berthing New season, new berth?

52 Vendee Globe Exclusive mid- ocean interview with Pip Hare aboard Medallia

56 Round the world plans Long distance passage planning

68 Interview Graham Nixon, outgoing Commodore at the Royal Southern Yacht Club

80 Gull’s Eye Portishead Marina in Somerset

86 You Tube

86

How to go blue water cruising and make money out of YouTube

BOATS

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16 New boats 46 Moody DS41 A test of this 2020 British Yachting Awards winner

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90 Three of the Best Three of the finest brokerage boats

GEAR

78 Launched 60 Buyer’s Guide: Insurance 66 Shortlist: Propellers 92 Books

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18

MASTERCLASS

72 How to Win

Jon Emmett takes a look at recovering from a bad start COVER IMAGE: MOODY YACHTS

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting NOVEMBER 2020

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Boat Test ~ Moody DS41

PHOTOS: MOODY YACHTS

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hen I put in for a test sail of Moody’s latest offering, I mistakenly referred to her as the ‘41DS’. ‘Of course you can test the boat,’ wrote back the contact from Moody owner Hanse Yachts, ‘but please note that the boat’s name is the ‘DS41’. It is a small but crucial distinction. Yes, the boat is 41ft long, but her chief characteristic is her vast deck saloon – a true deck saloon, where it is flush with the cockpit.

Naturally, the ‘DS’ should come first.

The justice of that minor correction became evident even before I even boarded the boat. As I peered down from the boardwalk above the marina in the placid Flensburger Fjord on Germany’s Baltic coast, I spotted her straightaway. There really is no mistaking her towering topsides and tall deck saloon. Aesthetically, it is a feature that will divide sailors.

But love it or hate it, I was glad of it almost instantly, as a fine autumnal drizzle started up. Though you can’t helm the boat from in here, you can manipulate the autopilot and there is a remote throttle for the engine.

Perched on the comfy navigator’s seat, surrounded by a wall of glazing that offers 360-degree views, it feels more like a catamaran than a monohull. There’s even a strip of glazing down the middle of the saloon roof, through which you can easily check on the sails, although you have go back outside to trim them. A decent galley is up here, as is the table and lounging space, and it’s all on the same level as the cockpit outside. Again, like a catamaran, you can open much of the aft wall of the saloon, with a glass door that slides open, and a hatch that pops up. I don’t know of another monohull this size that connects the interior and exterior spaces so well.

But let’s rewind a short way. Once that drizzle had tailed off, we left the warmth of the saloon and prepared to slip out. Controls for the 80hp Yanmar diesel are on the starboard helm console, alongside those for the 6.3kW Quick bow-thruster. It makes manoeuvring in and out of a tight berth simple with clear sightlines forward over the coachroof. Only the high topsides, with their bulwarks

MARCH 2021 JANUARY 2021 Sailing SailingToday Todaywith withYachts Yachts&&Yachting Yachting

surmounted by a stainless-steel handrail, restrict visibility. We found it easiest to have someone at the bow to keep an eye out.

The boat is cutter rigged with a large genoa, a self-tacking jib and in-mast furling for the main – the last two designed for maximum ease of use. Lines are led back in conduits to emerge on the cockpit coaming, where an array of jammers put them just about in range of the helmsman. Two electric Harken winches are positioned quite low down for the raised helm stations, but they make light of pulling

ABOVE With 20 knots of wind on a broad reach with the big genoa flying, the boat can touch 9 knots BELOW The bathing platform works very well, but Moody doesn’t appear to have considered how or where to store a tender on this boat.

out the main and genoa. The furlers are all manual, although electric options are available.

And therein lies one problem with the boat I tested - hull number two in a series of 12. One winch on each side is simply not enough to take care of sheets, halyards and furlers. My host for the day nods at this and explains: “We’re still fine-tuning the boat. We plan to put two more winches on an archway over the ropes on the coaming.”

At one point we had to lead the jib sheet across the cockpit and put the main on a jammer in order to

put some tension on the vang.

There is also a slight difficulty with the running rigging, because all the lines look the same. Better differentiation of colours and labelling on the clutches/jammers would make raising and trimming sail a faster process. But such things can be easily rectified.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the boat’s performance. With a dry displacement of more than 11 tonnes and a 4.2m beam, plus that big deck saloon, she seemed unlikely to be a flyer. But while that is certainly true, she’s still fun to

sail. We managed around 7 knots of boat speed closed hauled under the jib and on a reach with the 55.2sqm genoa – all in a maximum 10 knots of true wind. She’s not hugely close winded – we managed a comfortable 48 degrees apparent, and that is due to a number of choices that Hanse has made in order to simplify sail handling.

There is no mainsheet traveller, for instance, and the vertical battens of the mast-furling mainsail give a less powerful sail shape than horizontal.

The German mainsheet system is fixed halfway along the boom and

ABOVE With 20 knots of wind on a broad reach with the big genoa flying, the boat can touch 9 knots BELOW LEFT The bathing platform works very well, but Moody doesn’t appear to have considered how or where to store a tender on this boat BELOW RIGHT The cutter rig is a very versatile set up

runs to a fixed sheeting point on the coach roof. It’s all very convenient, but makes for poorer sail trim.

Set against that are a number of handy features. Moody’s trademark wide side decks make it quick and easy to go forward on the boat – there’s no ducking under shrouds here. There is also a useful tack point for a downwind or code sail on the hefty anchor fitting, which stands well proud of the bow, thereby minimising the risk of chipping the stem. This also gives very convenient access over the bow for mooring bows-to in the Baltic style.

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