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INSIDE THIS MONTH

January 2016, Number 1,319

PHOTO: GRAHAM SNOOK/YM

Anchor like an expert: Chris Beeson compiles techniques and tips from experienced cruisers

PHOTO: BRIAN BLACK

SAILING SKILLS Expert tips and know-how 18 26 28 31 36 38

ON THE COVER Expert on board: How to anchor like an expert Eight experts share their techniques, and what they do when it goes wrong A question of seamanship ‘Was the crew properly briefed?’ Any questions? • ‘Chartplotter with reserve power?’ • ‘How do I clean my fuel?’ • ‘Can I fix Coppercoat blisters?’ • ‘Why do fenders degrade?’ ON THE COVER Practical seamanship 10-step guide to stern-to mooring Skipper’s tips • Wind shadow • Flooding plan • No cracked skulls, please! ON THE COVER Learning curve ‘How we survived a knockdown in the North Pacific.’ Dave Ungless finds himself on the wrong end of a storm force 10

CRUISING Practical advice & real life sailing stories 42 Anchorages Snug overnight stops in south Wales and northern Spain 45 Cruising life Jack Jones designed yachts to look after their owners 46 Home waters: A shared adventure Sue Pelling cruises with Brighton Belle Sailing Club to discover the secret of affordable cruising in an Oyster 55 52 ON THE COVER Fjords in the Med: Montenegro The Gulf of Kotor is a well-kept secret with spectacular scenery and Mediterranean sunshine 56 Cruising log Ray Bowen sails south through the French canals via Paris 58 ON THE COVER Pilotage: Greenland Brian Black offers a guide for cruisers and explains why, no matter how good your planning is, it’s the ice that decides 56 Pilotage: Iceland Why the Westman Islands make a perfect landfall

GEAR & BOAT REVIEWS Useful kit, new & used yachts 66 Tried and tested • We go to sea with B&G’s new compact chartplotter 69 ON THE COVER Group test: Weather stations Knowing the weather makes a sailor’s life easier. Duncan Kent tests eight different weather stations 76 ON THE COVER New boat test: Discovery 55 ‘They’ve made a great yacht even better.’ Graham Snook tests the updated Discovery 55 mkII 80 ON THE COVER Used boat test: S&S Deb 33 Duncan Kent investigates this iconic 1970s beauty and ﬁnds a true classic that’s also easy to sail solo 84 New boats Graham Snook looks at the Oceanis 41.1 and the Dehler 42 82 ON THE COVER Technical: Midwinter maintenance Have you forgotten to do something when you put the boat to bed? Duncan Kent helps you check 90 Christmas stocking ﬁllers Hand warmers, nautical spirits, books and more

A cruiser’s guide to East Greenland: Brian Black shares the knowledge gleaned from six voyages

REGULARS 3 4 6

Editor’s letter ‘Are you coming out or staying in?’ News • Old yachts crisis • Phone roaming charges Letters • Easy berthing system • Extreme conditions • Flying with lifejackets • Aground in Bembridge 12 Tom Cunliffe ‘Christmases are more civilised now’ 14 Dick Durham Winter geese and solo sailing 16 Libby Purves ‘A winter on dry land isn’t so bad’ 68 A good read Joshua Slocum alone at Christmas 108 The Confessional Readers own up to their sins...

THE COVER Chris Lane enjoys a fast reach in his Westerly Ocean 33. Photo by Bob Aylott

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PHOTO: BOB AYLOTT

VIEW FROM THE HELM

Whether a yacht spends the winter aﬂoat or ashore, it’s well worth checking up on her at least several times before next season. For tips, see p85

‘Are you coming out or staying in?’ awkward jobs. It’s less fun these days. With fewer distractions I get a lot more done, but good advice is harder to come by. The trouble with staying afloat is the nagging worry about stern gear, anodes and skin fittings that haven’t been seen for a year. If she’s not coming ashore there’s a lot to be said for a quick haul-out and re-launch, if only for peace of mind. Even if you trust the yard, it’s worth being there if you can – I love watching Cleaver’s curves emerge from the water, running a hand along her forefoot and contemplating the miles of sea that have passed under her keel. I’d hoped to haul out in September, but I’m glad I didn’t. We had a dismal, blustery summer but a warm, dry autumn stretched on for months and I was still sailing in shirtsleeves in mid-November. There’s a price to pay, naturally. I’m right at the back of the haul-out queue with a lot of work to be done. The early birds can enjoy planning next year’s summer cruise over the festive break, but I’ll still be scrubbing the bilges on Boxing Day. Merry Christmas!

PHOTO: GRAHAM SNOOK

t this time of year, boat owners always used to ask each other ‘Are you out of the water yet?’ These days we’re more likely to ask ‘Are you coming out this year, or staying in?’ The answers are different, too. It used to be either a satisfied ‘yes’ or a shamefaced ‘no’. A boat still afloat in December was a clear case of neglect. Not any more. Most marinas are half-full even in February and many boats only come ashore for a month. So what’s changed? Glassfibre hulls, alloy masts and rot-proof gear have been the norm for decades. Insurers are more relaxed about a boat staying afloat, though they tend to insist she’s kept in a marina, not on a mooring. In some ways, a boat’s less prone to damage afloat; in other ways she’s better off ashore. Perhaps it’s about cost. It’s often cheaper for a yacht to spend the winter in her berth than on the hard. For a big boat in the Solent, the difference can be thousands of pounds. I miss the social aspects of the autumn layup. Boatyards used to buzz with activity in the months before Christmas. Friendships were forged, knowledge was shared, tools could be borrowed and help was on hand for

Kieran Flatt, editor kieran.flatt@timeinc.com

Yachting Monthly is also available to buy – as a single issue or a subscription – on tablet. Simply search your favourite app store...

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 3

Harbours across the UK and Europe are inundated with abandoned yachts, according to new research. The European Union Boat Digest Project estimates that at least 6,600 and possibly as many as 23,600 boats are abandoned every year. Marinas, sailing clubs and boatyards are being clogged with unwanted glassﬁbre vessels and forced to foot the bill for their disposal. In the ports of Estepona and Manilva in Spain, the total cost is estimated to be €150,000 (£105,000) a year in lost revenue, environmental damage, legal bills and disposal costs. GRP yachts have an average lifespan of 40 years. Many are now no longer seaworthy or desirable but are not disposed

PHOTO: ALAMY

N NEWS Harbours ‘clogged by unwanted yachts’

If you have a news story to share, contact News Editor Theo Stocker EMAIL theo.stocker@timeinc.com TEL 020 3148 4873

Abandoned boats are eyesores and can pose risks to navigation and the environment

of as easily as their wooden predecessors. According to the International Council of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA), there are six million recreational boats in Europe and in France alone, 13,000 of them become

composite waste are produced in Europe every year from vehicles and wind turbines as well as boats. A solution needs to be found.’ The marine industry in the UK and Europe is currently holding a series of conferences to look at options including better education, more infrastructure for dismantling yachts, fairer sharing of the cost burden, better ways of recycling GRP and better yacht design to aid ‘end-of-life’ recycling. France, Norway and Japan are currently leading the ﬁeld in yacht recycling. Since 2005 Japan has recycled more than 6,000 yachts and France now has 23 boatyards offering environmentally friendly yacht disposal services, compared to only one in the UK, according to the Boat Digest.

‘People don’t realise that scrapping a 23ft yacht can cost around £700’ ‘end-of-life’ boats each year. The problem is exacerbated by the low commercial value of recycled GRP, and increasing costs and legal barriers to landﬁll disposal of GRP. Sweden has already banned the disposal of GRP to landﬁll completely. Brian Clark, British Marine spokesman and ICOMIA environment committee chairman, said: ‘Around 300,000 tonnes of

4 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

PHOTO: DICK DURHAM

It’s often hard to tell whether boats have been abandoned or not

Portsmouth-based Boat Breakers scraps two or three yachts per month. ‘We deal with a lot of yachts around 22ft to 24ft in length from the 1970s and 80s,’ said spokesman Luke Edney. ‘Many people don’t realise the costs involved. Scrapping a 23ft boat may cost around £700, but we always try to help an owner to recover those costs from recyclable materials, and we wouldn’t scrap a boat that still has value.’ Education is also part of the solution, says Rafet Kurt, a naval architecture and marine engineering lecturer at Strathclyde University, and key researcher for the Boat Digest project. ‘We have developed a training scheme for boatyards about the issues around yacht dismantling and an awareness course to help owners to think about the problem,’ he said. ‘We have also created a ‘dismantling network’ of yards across Europe offering boat recycling services.’ (see www.boatdigest.eu) ‘Owners cannot simply abandon their boat once the costs become too much. There are options, including recycling, but it must be done responsibly.’ said Mr Kurt. The RYA believes the marine industry has a greater role to play. Cruising manager Stuart Carruthers said: ‘I don’t think it is acceptable for the marine industry to dump the problem of end-oflife boats on the end user. The car industry had the same problem until manufacturers were forced by law to ﬁnd a solution. The RYA isn’t keen on legislation, but it may be what is required.’

Like us on Facebook facebook.com/yachtingmonthlymag PHOTO: ALAMY

EU phone data roaming charges to be dropped Cruising sailors are set to beneﬁt substantially from the move to scrap all roaming charges for mobile phone users within the European Union. MEPs have agreed that the charges, levied for using mobile phones abroad, will be banned from 15 June 2017. It will cost the same to use a mobile phone for calls, texts and data whilst travelling anywhere within Europe as it would at home. An interim cap will be introduced on 30 April 2016 to limit the extra charges imposed by network operators until the full ban comes into effect. The cap will limit charges to €0.05 (3.5p) extra per minute for calls, €0.02 extra per SMS sent and €0.05 extra per megabyte of data used. Most sailors cruising abroad in Europe rely on mobile data for staying in touch, downloading chart updates, checking weather

PHOTO: ALAMY

Falmouth marina application withdrawn

Solent tidal anomaly

Smartphones are increasingly becoming vital kit aﬂoat, even when abroad

forecasts and more. The Cruising Association estimates that many sailors use up to 4GB of data every month whilst aﬂoat. There have been fears that the loss of revenue for mobile network operators could lead to prices increases for mobile phones in general, both domestic and roaming. It is not clear whether limits on data and call usage will be introduced for phones being used abroad. Cruising Association member Bill Anstead, who cruises in Greece, said: ‘These changes will help avoid the additional cost of tariffs abroad that are charged

Puffins could be facing extinction, according to the latest Red List of Threatened Species for Birds, published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Atlantic puffins are among eight bird species in the British Isles that are on the ‘vulnerable to extinction’ list. There are also 14 species on the less severe ‘near threatened’ list, including the curlew and lapwing. The UK coast hosts around ten per cent of the entire population of Atlantic puffin in the summer

YM contributor Graham Lascelles has spotted a tidal anomaly in Portsmouth Harbour. Some HW tides times in September and October appeared to be an hour early. This is due to a long ‘stand’ at high water, within which the highest point of tide can shift considerably. within normal data thresholds, and will be signiﬁcantly less than current local tariffs once these thresholds are exceeded.’ Mobile network operators would not conﬁrm their 2017 tariffs to Yachting Monthly, but phone company EE said: ‘We comply with all EU regulation and already provide roaming bundles which are designed to offer better value and help customers avoid unknowingly running up high bills while abroad.’

breeding season. Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands are home to another 80 per cent. The population of pufﬁns remains in the millions, but breeding failures at key colonies are worryingly high, with many fewer young birds joining the breeding population, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). The decline is attributed to the impact of ﬁshing as well as changing sea temperatures and extreme weather events.

The

SYSTEMS SOLUTION

t: 023 8045 4507 e: S A L E S @ V E T U S . C O . U K | W W W .V E T U S . C O M

IN BRIEF A planning application to build a 60-berth marina on the historic Custom House Quay in Falmouth was withdrawn after 1,000 people signed a petition opposing it.

Pufﬁns ‘face extinction’ in home waters

Pufﬁns are still quite common in our home waters but breeding colonies are shrinking rapidly

NEWS

for WASTE

WATER

First new barge in 80 years A new Thames sailing barge, commissioned by the SeaChange Sailing Trust, will be the ﬁrst built since 1930. Blue Mermaid will be delivered to Maldon for ﬁtting out in the spring and enter service in 2017.

Rules relaxed at Gelves Following our report (Summer issue ‘15) about new restrictions at Puerto Gelves, on the Rio Guadalquivir near Seville, the marina has reversed its policy. Cruisers can once again live aboard boats laid up ashore, and haul-out charges for long-stay visitors have been halved.

Sea turtles off Dorset A pair of live loggerhead turtles, which are normally seen only in the Med and tropical Atlantic, were spotted off the Dorset coast in late October.

Clariﬁcation Contrary to our report in the November issue, Sunsail is not planning to offer US Sailing qualiﬁcations at its base in the British Virgin Islands.

• Quality engineering • Innovative design • Competitive pricing • Guaranteed compatibility • Unrivalled warranty

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 5

LETTERS

EMAIL yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com POST The Editor, Yachting Monthly, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU Please send us your letters in less than 200 words

Most letters are edited for brevity. You can read more correspondence, online, at www.yachtingmonthly.com/letters

WIN A bottle of RUM The letter of the month wins a bottle of Pusser’s Rum, produced to Admiralty specification and served daily to every sailor in the Royal Navy for more than 300 years (UK residents only) www.pussers.com

PHOTO: Ray Geake

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Pull up to the bumper At our marina near Melbourne, Australia, we have developed a simple but highly effective method of controlling berthing. It consists of 18mm nylon rope, 12in polystyrene ball floats and stainless steel turnbuckles. The nylon rope, complete with styrene float balls, is attached across two finger berths, some 3ft short of the main dock. Knots are placed each side of the floats to prevent their movement along the rope and the rope itself is secured and tensioned each end with the turnbuckles. The boat is motored up to the rope at slow speed and her

forward momentum causes the rope to bow forward. The bow of the boat starts to move away from the finger pontoon, but it is blocked and secured by the styrene ball. With the vessel still idling in forward gear and secured against the styrene ball, you apply full left or right rudder to bring the stern across to align the boat with the finger pontoon. Leave the boat idling in forward gear and simply step off and secure all lines. Easy! Ray Geake, Melbourne, Australia RIGHT: The ultimate solution for bows-to marina berthing?

Sad sight

buoyant in bembridge

Before flying to Corfu, I contacted my carriers, Norwegian Air and BA, and the Civil Aviation Authority, to establish that I could fly with my lifejacket with its 38g cylinder and two spare cylinders. I printed the permissions of all three. At Gatwick check-in, I was told lifejackets were not permitted, so I produced the printouts. After 40 minutes, we were allowed to fly, provided the cylinder was firmly screwed in, with one spare cylinder per jacket, so we each gave the other to Norwegian Air’s collection of items wrongly taken from passengers. At Departures, we were told gas cylinders were not permitted. I asked to speak to the supervisor, who asked why were we wasting his time, then I showed him the print-outs. Then we were allowed one cylinder per lifejacket but not screwed in. Finally, we boarded with our spare cylinders and wearing our lifejackets, to the amusement of the crew. On declaring lifejackets and cylinders for the return journey, BA check-in said that was fine, so did Security. British airports seem to be run by people who would rather apply a misunderstood regulation than common sense. William Potter

While we were in Langstone there were two old, but serviceable small boats on the quay looking sound, but a little unloved. On our return this is what we found. Hadn’t paid their mooring fees apparently! How sad – the Sea Scouts would have loved them. Duncan Kent

Regarding the letter about the grounding in Bembridge Harbour entrance channel (Nov 15), perhaps some context would help. The evening before, my staff advised that, with high water at 0352, any exit should be as early as possible using the middle of the channel. The yacht left at about 0630/0700 when the channel depth would have still been 2.2/2.4m, enough for her 1.4m draught, but motored along the channel’s western edge. There was no damage to the yacht, and her crew enjoyed breakfast, tea and biscuits in our boardroom until she floated off. Regular groundings may have been the case before our ownership, but since 2011 we have managed channel dredging and buoyage. Since May 2015 our new tidal depth gauge shows actual net depth at the channel entrance, updated every 60 seconds (also available on our website and by phone). Together with markings on the visitors’ pontoon, all skippers are well briefed of the prevailing depth, but like most Solent harbours, our access is tidal. I’d like to invite the skipper and crew back to Bembridge – a free overnight berth awaits! Malcolm Thorpe, Bembridge Harbour Auth.

6 www.yachtingmonthly.com january 2016

PHOTO: Duncan kenT

flying with lifejackets

Have you paid your mooring fees? If not, your boat could go the same way

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LETTERS

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Your boat tester, Graham Snook, suggests in the verdict on the Sunbeam 40.1 (Sep 15) that 1m swell and gusts exceeding 35 knots are ‘extreme’ conditions. Hardly! That sounds like a bumpy Biscay crossing in Spring or Autumn, and perhaps suggests Graham needs to get out sailing more often. Nathan Pincher

What conditions would you consider ‘extreme’ for coastal sailing?

PHOTO: GraHam SnOOk PHOTOGraPHy

35 Knots ‘extreme’?

Graham Snook replies: We had more than 45 knots (35 knots was a subbing error – sorry), as stated in the article’s introduction. That may not be extreme for tough, experienced sailors on an ocean passage, but it is for many of our readers, who would not set off in a Force 8 but could get caught out in one.

Stay on board

PHOTO: COlin WOrk

To answer Prof Rodhouse’s question (Why don’t we cut the MOB Risk? Nov 15): wear harnesses. I insist my crew wear one to leave the cockpit and in rough weather. People need to clip on. There should be multiple strong points in the cockpit. A jackstay should prevent anyone clipped to it going overboard. I have a safety line from high in the cockpit to the mast. There is a strong point at the jib. A double tether hooked at mast and jib makes foredeck work safe. Let’s talk less about lifejackets and more about harnesses and hooking on. Peter Tabori

Does overdue mean ‘in need of rescue’?

One of the Lessons Learned in your Learning Curve (Nov 15) is: ‘Always let the Coastguard know of your departure and destination. Had I done that, my failure to arrive would have been noticed and I might have been located and assisted...’ It is worth doing, but would not have helped in this case. The Coastguard does not initiate a search for overdue vessels based on their Traffic Report alone. The Traffic Report will be referred to if a third party raises concerns over the vessel - usually the shore contact (a friend or relative) and can be an invaluable aid to narrow down the search area. Derek Lumb

Dual fuel in Southwold

Safety in marinas

The high incidence of man overboard incidents in marinas led us to check the readiness of boarding ladders. It was a surprise to find that, in local marinas and at sea, not only did some boats not have boarding ladders, but many of those that did had lower section secured out of reach of someone trying to use it from the water. We have secured ours with a bungee, which has the lower end set for easy release and within reach. Alex Parker 8 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

RIGHT: With red and white diesel pumps, Southwold caters for both British and continental cruisers

Bill Anderson missed a trick in ‘Blown off, how would you berth in a breeze?’ (Oct 15). My wife and I cruise a 43-footer two-handed and have never needed shore help. Dress both sides, rigging long bow lines led back to the stern, fender the transom, and approach the berth upwind in astern with enough speed for steerage. Any angle between wind and berth will determine which side-to you will be. Engage forward to nudge the quay with a stern fender, the crew steps off with a stern line and makes it off immediately. The wind will hold the boat off the berth; the long bow line can then be handed ashore and made off. Then a combination of sweating, winching, engine and helm brings the boat alongside. Pride, gelcoat and marital harmony are preserved, at least for a while. Ken Burley Bill Anderson replies: Bow or stern to has been my favourite option as the initial move for berthing alongside with a strong offshore wind, but warping in always tends to be a bit messy so I was impressed by the French trick of landing a couple of the crew somewhere easy and using them as line handlers. There are also occasions when there just isn’t enough space off the berth to allow an ‘end on’ arrival. PHOTO: alamy

A jackstay on the centreline is safer than one like this on the sidedeck, says Peter Tabori

We have heard much of the concerns of British-based sailors being found with red diesel in their tanks whilst visiting Belgian waters but Henry van Kets makes a good point about European visitors to UK ports (Nov 15). The problem is well understood in Southwold Harbour where we have supplies of both red and white diesel on the quayside. White diesel has been available in Southwold for two years now. Having it available locally is greatly appreciated by the increasing numbers of foreign visitors. Once Ramsgate has sorted out its fuel barge, Prof van Kets will be able to top up there and enjoy the welcome he will certainly find in Southwold. Leslie Eddowes

Land crew stern to

LETTERS

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PHOTO: GRaHam SnOOk/Ym

Gothenburg’s archipelago is a sensational place to go cruising – just ask Lars!

Come to Sweden

If you want to contact Lars about cruising the Gothenburg archipelago, email yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com with ‘Lars Persson’ in the subject line and we will put you in touch.

PHOTO: RicHaRd Lawn

As a Swedish sailor from Gothenburg on the west coast, I read YM with great pleasure. I must say I admire you sailors of Great Britain with all your open waters, tides and currents and drying out. We have no tides, but plenty of rocks, narrow passages, inexpensive guest harbours and lot of rocks and cliffs to tie the boat up to. The archipelago is amazing. If any Brits

are looking for a new sailing adventure and want to experience it, I would be happy to offer advice. Meanwhile, please teach us more about drying out techniques! Lars Persson, Gothenburg, Sweden

Not a custom fit but cheaper, and only 10 minutes to put up 10 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Instant deck saloon I have a 28ft Twister, Hegri, so I was interested in your article (Oct15) about the editor’s new cockpit cover. However, I am very happy with my much cheaper option, the small version of the Habitent for £378.95 including VAT and delivery. It isn’t a perfect fit but it isn’t bad. It has enough straps to make you think it will take all evening to fit, but I only fit three on the front and three on the back, the frame jams in nicely, and it takes about 10 minutes. It has withstood some reasonable winds and I have a choice of window, mosquito net or curtains. I realised it will also fit over the rolled-up dinghy so no need to move that, as we did in Arklow. Richard Lawn

Hot spot Ben Sutcliffe’s tale of a badly-fitted heater (Nov 15) reminded me of when we bought a new 46ft yacht built on the South Coast. We ordered a heater, which was installed in a lazarette. On receipt of the boat, I tested out the heater and left it on while I went ashore. On return a couple of hours later, the interior of the boat was cold but the lazarette was red hot, to the extent that the gas strut had melted out of the lazarette lid. The heater had been installed backwards – who knows what would have happened if we had tried it at sea! Even big companies make mistakes. John Neale

Genetic melanoma There is an important additional point for the YM article on skin care and awareness (Summer issue, 2015): 40% of melanoma are genetic. This means that they can happen anywhere on the body. We find that because skin campaigns focus on sun exposure, people ignore melanotic lesions on skin areas that never see daylight. Dr John Marley, New South Wales, Australia

Save your seacocks If your boat is ashore for the winter and her seacocks have ball valves, they should be in a 45° open position, to allow the water/ice to expand without breaking the ball valve housing when the real frost starts. It costs nothing and will save a lot of frustration. John Awater For more midwinter boat care tips, turn to p85

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Christmas or not, a freighter crew worked when the skipper said so. Our family festivities are more civilised these days

onger ago than I care to admit, I spent Christmas and New Year alongside in Eling Creek above the container terminal at the top of Southampton Water. Back then, the drying coaster berth that now acts as an overspill for unlovely shipping containers was a thriving wharf importing timber. Steam cranes lit up every morning at 0600 including Christmas Eve. That year, it was my turn to brew the morning tea for the crew of the 90ton Baltic trading ketch aboard which I was bound, ultimately, for Madeira. I blew the galley fire into life then went on deck for a look round and a smoke while it got going. It was snowing and the view has stayed with me ever since. A small ship was coming up on the tide to berth ahead of us, her decks piled high with logs from Finland. Her foremast light picked up the driving flakes, and above it, spotlit at the truck, stood an illuminated fir tree. I was so touched by this international statement of goodwill that I’ve set up my own on-board tree every Christmas since. The New Year which followed that season of such high romance came as a rough contrast. The crew had been working all day rigging a new mizzen mast. We’d knocked off shortly after sunset and were struggling into our shabby go-ashore duds anticipating a lively night in The Anchor when the call came from the skipper for all hands on deck. There’d been some unpleasantness that afternoon after the boss criticised our excellent bosun over a racking seizing on a cap shroud, so relations between the focsle and the cabin were not cordial. When we shambled up to see what was afoot, despair was soon mixed with righteous rage. Up on the dock stood a full-sized ‘ready-mixed concrete’ lorry and we knew what that meant. We’d cleared the hold after Boxing Day and had packed in several tons of pig iron. This was to form the core of our ballast. To tie it all together, we’d shuttered the lower lining of the hold around the iron. The concrete was to be dumped in and shovelled

around until it formed a smooth upper surface. When it hardened, the weight we needed to sail the ship would be both low and immovable. What we all felt about the timing of this arrival can be imagined. One of the lads started telling the driver where he could shove his truck, but the skipper wasn’t budging. Sending the cement home again was going to cost him a lot of money, a commodity in even shorter supply than conviviality, so we were given the option of walking away into the snow and never coming back, or knuckling down to it. We changed back to working togs, opened the hold and stood aside as ten tons of the roughest grade available roared down into an enormous heap. Then we lit the oil lamps – no luxuries like electric lighting for us – and started shovelling. We made it to the pub half an hour before closing, deeply knackered. Strategic foresight was vital in those days of ‘Time, Gentlemen, Please,’ and our ‘last orders’ amounted to ﬁve pints each which, since the landlord sportingly offered a lock-in, enabled us to forget our troubles until 0600 when the cruel alarm rang and it all began again. New Years’ Eve is more civilised these days. My boat winters at the bottom of the street at Bucklers Hard on the Beaulieu River. The family are always on board, especially my wife, who spent a lonely evening in the public bar on that dreadful night back in the dark ages. We party with whoever shows up and all are welcome; often it’s sailors we’ve never met before. We turn out on deck to ring in the New Year and enjoy the free ﬁrework show courtesy of the Master Builder’s House Hotel. We drink by the lights of my Christmas tree and nobody has to shovel even a bucketful of wet concrete. W

‘Her lights picked up the driving snow ﬂakes and spotlit at the truck stood an illuminated ﬁr tree’

12 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Listen to the podcast EVERY MONTH TOM RECORDS A PODCAST OF HIS COLUMN Listen online or download at: www.yachtingmonthly.com/podcasts

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As the winter geese drop down, so does the temperature. YouÕll need to enjoy your own company to go cruising

he geese had arrived, the winds were high, the temperatures low and crews scarce, so I set off solo for the last cruise of the season: pottering in nearby rivers. The fresh north-easterly wind, which had given the brent geese an extra five knots over the ground from the Arctic, was pinning Wendy May, my 26ft gaff cutter, into her mudberth, but once free of the marsh I let the sheets off and used the high water to cross the vast sands of the Thames Estuary towards the Medway. For the first time this year I closed the butterfly skylight, fastened down the forehatch and pulled over the main hatchway as spray peppered the deck, backlit by a low sun. I dragged up the chart to find a new creek to explore. Otterham seemed to fit the bill although, strictly speaking, I had been there once before, aboard the sailing barge Cambria, loaded with a stack of maize starch from the Royal Docks, but then again a 46-year absence was enough time to bestow novelty upon a place. Otterham is at the heart of Ooze-land. Mud can be described as a flat, a spit, a bank, but here on the Medway there is a half-world of water and deep mud. When mud is deep enough to stand a keelboat upright at Low Water or to swallow a man whole, it becomes ooze. Here was Stoke Ooze, Ham Ooze, Sled Ooze and Bishop’s Ooze, the latter so-named, I assumed, from the mitre-shaped shoal it describes. Running up between was Half Acre Creek, an ominous name for a body of water. Otterham Creek itself is surprisingly wellmarked, but as the buoys petered out I spotted a large skiff to starboard and reckoned the ditch ran in that direction. But as I approached I saw that the skiff had reeds sticking up proud of her gunwales and just as I realised she was the highest part of a marshy tuft, my dinghy came up and hit Wendy May’s transom. We were aground 100 yards from the head of the creek. I dropped the anchor, then the sails and sat drinking tea in the cockpit, surveying my surroundings. There were abandoned vessels

everywhere. To port the drunken mast of a smack half engorged by mud, over to starboard the spiky bones of an old barge. The chart, too, depicted at least half a dozen little black triangles: wrecks abounded. As Wendy May floated and turned to face the wind and tide I dropped back out to Sharfleet Creek. I didn’t want her joining the gathered company. It was the highest tide of the year and as I rowed ‘ashore’ the dinghy went straight over the flooded marsh top. Only a few stalks of grass held their heads above water with bladderwrack hanging incongruously from their spiky tops. Sea pinks bent their heads underwater and a previously unseen yacht, which had been nestling in a sheltered inlet, stood up high and exposed. I left the Medway the next morning and sailed back across the estuary. Away down to the east I could see an anchored freighter’s derricks silhouetted against the dawn sky: she was windrode, which meant the ebb was still running. I needed the ebb to clear the Medway, but the flood to enter my home channel. So I tacked back and forth along the edge of the West Knock sands, and hove-to until the freighter showed me her stern and I knew the flood had started. I ran back up river under headsail alone, but there was still not enough height to get me over the bar and I anchored in the Loway, west of Southend Pier, to await more depth. The voice of John Humphrys on the radio joined me for tea down below until I dozed off in the sunlight that filtered through the skylight. Suddenly two blasts of a hooter had me racing up on deck, thinking I’d dragged into the shipping lanes. But Wendy May was still on station. The only thing moving was the pier train pulling out from its platform bound back to shore. W

‘When mud is deep enough to stand a keelboat upright at Low Water, it becomes ooze’

14 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

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A winter on dry land offers little escape from domesticity, but sailing and housework are more similar than you think

p on a ladder with the Christmas decorations, are you? Teetering, hooking, cursing, dropping the tackhammer on the cat? Or dragging an unwieldy tree around, and working out how many bits of string tied to picture-hooks and window-latches will stabilise it against the buffeting storms of children, dogs, cats leaping for baubles, and squalls of visiting aunts with swishing coats? Or are you laying out the roll of wrapping-paper which may or may not fully cover the little one’s tricycle under the tree, deploying a crafty measurer’s eye like the oldest, most revered sailmaker in Kemp’s loft preparing a racing spinnaker? All good stuff. We’ve got to keep in training in this dark time of year, beached between the sailing seasons. We must hone the skills that keep awkward, cussed material objects under control. A clothesline, a flat-pack wardrobe, a DIY improvement to the airing cupboard: domestic manoeuvring can be regarded as training for the next season afloat, or at least for fitting-out, which will begin when the in-laws go home, the weather improves, and perhaps after a sneaky winter mini-break is achieved. This parallel occurred to us when we were taking turns on a stepladder to hang some heavy winter curtains across a chilly-looking French window, which is delightful in summer but becomes a wall of icy, glassy blackness once November cools off. The stretching upwards, the precarious foothold, and above all the fiddly, infuriating hooking of plastic hooks into meagre eyelets on the curtain rings reminded us of something. Ah yes: fixing sail slides onto the track when they’ve been slid out for a double reef. Or putting the big genoa back on the forestay. The ladder wasn’t actually rolling from side to side in the pointless, teeth-rattling, better-shake-out-the-reef swell that follows a heavy wind. But the physical echo was there: aching arms, fiddly bits, the discovery that an awkward eyelet has not been screwed into the curtain ring. It definitely felt like sailing.

Other parallels crop up, once you think about it. What is a double duvet cover on a clothesline in the rain but a squaresail whose buntlines and clews have come adrift? Come to that, is not the bitter struggle to get a double duvet into its cover not curiously reminiscent of those moments when the mizzen-staysail gets hoisted upside down? And the cupboard under the stairs – the one with the awkward bit where you wedged the sewing-machine last time you used it – is that not a close relation of a meanly sized foc’s’le? It even smells the same, since that leak from the downpipe. Perhaps we should embrace this sense of familiarity, and regard all domestic duties as practice for the season. I used to babysit for the late Iris Birtwistle, adoptive mother of three boys and formidable art dealer, and hers was the ﬁrst kitchen where I saw a Scotch Airer, one of those handy frameworks which you haul up on blocks, laden with ﬂapping pants and shirts, and cleat to the wall. As the laundry rose in sharp jerks of her masterful hand she used to bellow ‘Out of the way, damn you all! If I can’t go sailing, I can yoheave-ho in my own kitchen!’ Moreover, I can demonstrate that this principle of parallel tasks works in reverse. Our daughter Rose never took to sailing (‘When will we GET there?’) and abdicated her crew status in favour of concentrating on horses as soon as she hit her teens. But one day we were packing up the boat, and I asked for a hand with the mainsail cover. ‘Dunno how this thing works’, she muttered, profoundly uninterested. I had a brainwave. ‘The boom’, I said, ‘Is a long thin pony, and it needs its rug on.’ ‘Ah’ she said, and faster than we’d ever managed, she got the boom-cover on, clipped up, snug and smart as in the Royal Mews. W

‘How do you stabilise the Christmas tree against buffeting storms of children?’

16 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

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SAILING SKILLS

How to anchor like an expert A

nchoring is always a hot topic with cruisers. You’re entrusting the safety of your boat and crew to a piece of metal on the seabed and a length of chain or rope connecting it to the boat. In most cruising grounds you can’t inspect your own anchor’s set, much less those of the boats to windward. All you can do is pick a good spot, back her up, dig it in and hope it’s all OK. That’s why it excites opinion: there are no guarantees. We have to trust our kit to keep us

safe, which means the decisions we make about ground tackle and technique are often emotional rather than logical. Some will swear by one type of anchor; others wouldn’t give it locker space, let alone use it. Who – if anyone – is right? Those who anchor most often

‘You’re entrusting your boat and crew to a piece of metal on the seabed’

PHOTO LEFT & RIGHT: GRAHAM SNOOK/YM

Chris Beeson talks to eight experienced cruisers to find out what ground tackle they have, their tips and techniques, and what they do when it all goes wrong Though science is involved, anchoring is deﬁnitely something of an art. This is your masterclass

are best placed to know what works and what doesn’t, so we spoke to eight highly experienced cruisers who’ve dropped a range of hooks everywhere from the South Paciﬁc to the Northwest Passage, on boats from 27ft to 46ft, in winds over 50 knots. We asked them what kit they

use, how they decide where to anchor, how they drop, any tips and tricks they use and what happens when wind or tide changes. Interestingly, there are differences of opinion among our panel of experts, but where they agree, you can be certain you’re looking at best practice.

OUR EXPERT PANEL, THEIR BOATS AND GROUND TACKLE Alastair Buchan Has cruised around Britain three times and completed two Atlantic circuits Boat Dockrell 27 Cruising ground North Sea Bower anchor 15kg Delta on 20m of 8mm chain and 30m of 12mm anchor plait Secondary anchor Fortress FX23 on 15m of 8mm chain and 30m of 10mm kernmantle warp; 15kg CQR on 10m of 8mm chain and 30m of 10mm kernmantle warp. Extra 30m of 10mm kernmantle warp Windlass Manual

Vyv Cox Spends six months a year living aboard in the Med, mostly lying at anchor Boat Sadler 34 Cruising ground Mediterranean Bower anchor 15kg Rocna, 60m of 8mm chain. Secondary anchors Delta 16kg, Fortress FX16, 5m of 8mm chain and 50m of 16mm anchorplait, small grapnel and rope. Windlass Maxwell RC8 1kW with capstan

18 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Ken Endean

James Stevens

Has cruised widely from Scotland to Ireland and down to Biscay

Spent 10 of his 23 years at the RYA as Yachtmaster Chief Examiner

Boat Sabre 27 Cruising ground UK and France Bower anchor 10kg Delta, 60m of 8mm chain. Secondary anchor 10kg Delta, used with rope at a scope of 4-5 times the depth (any mooring warp of the right length, usually with a chum on the rope rather than a length of chain). Windlass Manual

Boat Hallberg-Rassy 34 Cruising ground English Channel Bower anchor 15kg Bruce with 40m of 8mm chain and 30m of 14mm braided warp. Secondary anchor 8kg Danforth with 9m of 6mm chain and 20m of 10mm laid warp. Windlass Electric with capstan

SAILING SKILLS Anchoring is escapism. Dropping the hook lets you leave behind the crowds and bask in the wonders of nature – a world of your own

Bob Shepton

Nigel Calder

Tom Partridge

Cruises the Arctic Circle and has sailed the Northwest Passage twice

Has lived on boats in Europe and the Americas for over 30 years

Is two years into, and half way through, a round the world voyage

Boat 33ft Westerly Discus Cruising ground North Atlantic and Greenland Bower anchor 20kg Delta with 70m of 8mm chain (40m and 30m joined together) Secondary anchor 20kg CQR, or 11kg Bruce with 6m of mixed 6+8mm chain, and 60-90m of multiplait anchor rope Windlass Electric with capstan

Boat Malö 46 Cruising ground North Atlantic coasts Bower anchor 33kg Rocna on 50m of 10mm chain Secondary anchor Fortress FX 37 with 8mm of 10mm chain leader and 50-100m of 12mm nylon rope, bronze Fisherman with a similar cable to the Fortress Windlass Lighthouse 1501 with capstan

Boat Hylas 46 Cruising ground Circumnavigation Bower anchor 33kg Rocna, 90m of 10mm of chain. Automatic anchor cable counter in cockpit. Secondary anchor 20kg Delta with 10m of 10mm chain and 50m of three-plait nylon rope. Windlass Maxwell 2200 2.2kW with capstan

Jess LloydMostyn Is four years into a round the world voyage Boat Crossbow 40 Cruising ground Circumnavigation Bower anchor 30kg Bruce, 60m of 10mm chain spliced to 60m of octoplait nylon rope. Secondary 18kg stainless steel Bügel anchor with 6m of 10mm chain and 55m of three-strand nylon warp. Also 16kg CQR, 16kg Danforth and 90m of 10mm chain Windlass Lofrans Tigres 1.5kW with capstan

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 19

SAILING SKILLS How to anchor like an expert PHOTO: COlin WOrk

‘What is your anchoring technique?’ Alastair Buchan

I make sure there is enough chain and warp on deck and that it will run freely, then stop the boat where I want to set. As the wind and tide start carrying me backwards, I begin lowering the anchor by hand. I usually let wind and tide dig in the anchor though I sometimes burp the engine astern for reassurance. Once I am satisfied that the anchor is set and I’m not going to move, and before taking anchor bearings, I take a couple of visual transits, using daymarks or suitable shore lights at night, and log these along with the anchor bearings. Using transits means I can look around and check all is well without having to reach for the handbearing compass.

Bob Shepton When stationary or beginning to move astern, I release the windlass clutch and let the ground tackle fall. Sometimes, if I can manage to set up a depth alarm, I’ll set an anchor alarm. Some swear by ranging the correct rode on the sidedeck before dropping

Vyv Cox Ken Endean First, range the correct length of chain on deck and secure the inboard end. Lower gently when stationary and then pay out the chain by hand as the boat moves astern, aiming to lay it in a straight line without much slack. Use a backed mainsail or gentle power to dig in the anchor. After assessing the initial set, more sail or engine power may be used to thump the anchor in deeper. We never set an anchor alarm.

James Stevens Under power, stop the boat and use transits to confirm this. Many skippers go head to wind but if there’s a tidal stream, point into that. I then lower the anchor with the windlass, it touches bottom in a few seconds by which time the

Nigel Calder Bring the boat to a stop and drop the anchor. Let the bow blow off and pay out rode until required scope is out, then snub up and have a cup of tea while the anchor works its tip into the bottom. After tea, load up with two-thirds power astern once the anchor has had time to achieve an initial set. We occasionally set an anchor alarm, if a wind shift is likely to swing us into hazards.

Tom Partridge After discussion, we’ll pick a spot and put it into the plotter. Bottom is important. Mud requires around 20 minutes to get the anchor buried, much slower than sand. We agree depth and scope, then consider swinging room. Under motor we check depth and look for obstructions. Then we approach slowly into wind or tide, whichever is stronger,

stop, then drop anchor using the windlass and ideally hold the boat in position until the anchor hits bottom. Then we move slowly astern while Susie indicates the angle of the chain. With a long scope we stop short of dropping it all to help set the anchor. If the chain counter is working I call the amount, if not Susie counts the coloured tags every 10m. We use hand signals as the windlass is noisy. We let the wind blow us back then start reversing, slowly increasing the revs up to 2,2002,500rpm with a solid burst at the end – higher if strong winds are forecast. Susie has her foot on chain to feel for dragging. I swim and check the anchor before the snubber is rigged. We log our position, take three transits in different directions and check our track on the plotter for 30 minutes. We always set an anchor alarm on the first night.

Jess Lloyd-Mostyn I stop the boat at our chosen position and James drops anchor manually to the depth of water we’re in, plus a bit. Wind, tide or motor takes us back whilst he pays out more chain, by hand to ‘feel’ the anchor on the bottom. We like a large scope, 5-7:1 in 5-10m, and dig it in at 1,000rpm, then 1,500, while James puts a bare foot on the chain to feel for any vibration and I check my transits and the GPS. We log position, depth and state of tide before turning off the engine so we can check position on the GPS if it blows at night. We always wake if strong wind comes.

For security, give the engine a solid blast astern to get the anchor set 20 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

PHOTO: COlin WOrk

PHOTO: GraHam SnOOk/Ym

I’ll motor up slowly to select an area clear of weed, stop the boat and lower the anchor using the windlass – I never flake chain on deck – and our anchor invariably lands the right way up. Our preliminary scope is 4:1, the crew runs out the correct amount of chain while I motor slowly astern or let the wind blow the boat down. To dig in, I motor astern at 2,500rpm for at least 30 seconds, watching transits or sometimes the bottom, then I assess whether 4:1 is sufficient for expected wind, increase if necessary, then rig a snubber. Usually the snubber will be from the forward cleat to just below water, around 2m long, but if strong winds are forecast I use the midships cleat to get a longer snubber. Almost always I dive to check that all is well.

bow is blowing off. If there’s little wind, use a short burst astern as the cable is laid out. If the bow comes off the wind or tide too far, snub the chain temporarily. Once the right scope is out, feel the chain to detect the juddering of a dragging anchor and check a transit ashore. If it’s a short stop I don’t use the engine to set the anchor. For an overnight stop I use a short burst of astern.

Several of our experts prefer to handle ground tackle manually

SAILING SKILLS

‘What are the worst conditions you’ve anchored in?’

In anything over a Force 6, many boats start yawing and snatching: prime conditions for dragging

Before my Rocna I had a Delta. I was lying to that in Vliho Bay, Lefkas, when a microburst brought winds gusting to 50 knots in variable direction. We dragged three times in an hour. I trapped a finger between chain and windlass so, with blood on the foredeck, I motored astern upwind, into the mud, and took lines ashore. Then we sat in the

cockpit with a beer and watched others dragging. In Cala di Lupa, Sardinia, we had four days of 30-45 knot winds. The sandy bottom shallows gradually, and we anchored in little more than 2m, drawing 1.4m. Ultimately we had 35m of chain out, a scope well over 10:1. After a couple of days I put out the kedge too, with about the same scope. Life

with a manual windlass and still never got a good set.

on board became much more comfortable, with yawing cut from 140° to about 90°.

Tom Partridge

Nigel Calder

We had over 40 knots in Bequia on Christmas Day 2013, which resulted in local flooding and deaths. We started dragging and hauled the anchor up to find we had spiked a pop bottle. How we didn’t drag the night before with winds over 40 knots, I’ve no idea.

We had 50 knots on the beam while anchored in weed in Sweden. The side decks rolled under but the anchor held. The most frustrating was Nassau Harbour, where we dragged and reset seven times

‘What are your pre-anchor checks?’ PHOTO: COlin WOrk

Ken Endean An anchoring plan should be like a passage plan, starting with an analysis of the likely weather, including wind shifts. The two most important factors are shelter and seabed. In a very strong wind, most of the force on the anchor will come from wind rather than waves, so the ideal anchoring position will be protected by windbreaks such as nearby cliffs – even better if the ground is wooded. Then assess the seabed using the chart, pilot book, personal knowledge, channel formation, local geology, leadline and Mk1 eyeball. In clear water the bottom may be visible, so that the anchor can be placed clear of rocks and positioned to allow adequate swinging room.

Lying to the tide can leave you beam on to the wind and swell. Not comfortable

There are other factors to consider. Even though the best shelter may be in shallow water, greater depth will allow a longer catenary (length of chain clear of the seabed), which will reduce

Nigel Calder When choosing an anchorage, protection is key, especially from swells as we get seasick if the boat rolls. I check for hazards on the lee shore, and other hazards if the wind shifts. If necessary, we lay a second anchor to windward of the anticipated wind shift. We also plan an exit strategy if things blow up at night.

Jess Lloyd-Mostyn

snatching. Avoid sloping seabeds as they’re more likely to be rocky with poor holding. Some deep scour holes tend to collect loose seaweed and/or boulders, which are equally unhelpful.

We always seek out the most sheltered spot in line with the coming forecast. We prefer to anchor in sand or mud, and avoid rocks, coral heads and very deep anchorages. While sailing in the South Pacific, the deepest we dropped the hook was 22m, and only when the conditions were fairly mild.

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 21

PHOTO: AlAmy

Vyv Cox

SAILING SKILLS How to anchor like an expert

‘What are your top anchoring tips?’ PHOTO: VYV COX

Alastair Buchan Shortening the warp once the anchor is set may be good manners in busy anchorages but needs constant vigilance. An unexpected change of wind direction overnight in Porlamar, Venezuela, swung all the boats through 180°. Anchors failed to reset for boats with shortened scopes and they dragged, picking up the anchors of other boats that had not shortened their scopes. Chaos. The concept of catenary may be discredited but I have always found that a tendency to drag disappears when I put out more scope. If I have anchored in weed or some other unsuitable bottom, the safest cure is to go and ﬁnd somewhere better. In prolonged strong winds the anchor may be so well set that I can’t recover by hand. First I try the windlass, then I motor over the anchor, which usually works.

proved photographically that motoring astern at 2,500 rpm for 30 seconds or more causes the anchor to set more deeply than winds of around force 6. Motoring at 2,000 rpm is far less effective.

Ken Endean

Weed and kelp offer notoriously poor holding because they prevent the anchor digging in

Vyv Cox If the anchor is bouncing over the bottom, the chain vibrates. Once set, a hand or foot on the chain can detect smaller drags. We mark transits from the cockpit as convenient, then extend the snubber if needed. We have

22 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

The foredeck crew places a hand on the chain at the bow fairlead, after it is all paid out but before it comes taut, to sense vibrations and to note whether the anchor drags before setting. When selecting anchor transits, it is important to assess their likely divergence when the boat swings and tidal height changes, otherwise these normal variations could prompt unnecessary panic.

James Stevens The hardest part is choosing the spot – good holding, good shelter, clear of other boats. Actually anchoring is simple

by comparison. Study the forecast, read the pilot, and if the water is clear and bottom sandy, choose a spot without weed. If I’m unhappy I move straight away, it’s much better than stressing in my bunk. I don’t have a retaining pin on the bow roller so I secure the chain with a warp between the bow cleats. I remember a sail training yacht getting seriously damaged once, when the chain jumped off the gypsy and started sawing through the bow as it ran over the side.

Bob Shepton Zoom the plotter right in. The track lines will still show, plotting the ship’s course swinging to the anchor and an anchor watch can be kept in the warm at the chart table most of the time, with only the occasional check ‘upstairs’. If the track line

SAILING SKILLS A windshift in Loch Beag left Nigel Calder close to this rocky lee shore. He raised anchor and followed his inbound plotter track to avoid lobster pots and rocks, and reach safety

PHOTO: cOLin WOrk

Nearly all our experts place a hand or bare foot on the chain to feel if it’s dragging

Nigel Calder We have a set of hand signals for the person dropping the anchor to instruct the person driving the boat. It is important not to have to talk to one another, and for the foredeck crew to be in charge. Keep your track on the plotter. I was anchored off a rocky shore at the head of Loch Beag when the wind shifted 180° overnight and rose to gale force. The rocky shore

was now immediately behind us with heavy rain and near-zero visibility, and I had seen lots of crab pots in the narrow, rocky passage on the way in. I had kept our inbound track on the plotter and simply stayed on the line to get back out without fouling rocks or pots.

Tom Partridge If there are risks of swinging in a crowded anchorage or dragging in strong winds, we put fenders out. I’ve never understood why it’s thought ‘uncool’ to protect your boat with fenders at anchor? Always sit on your boat and watch for at least an hour to make sure the anchor is properly set. Relax or tidy up the boat. If you are worried about your boat while ashore, ask someone to watch her and ensure they know how to rescue her if needed. At Fatu Hiva, in the Marquesas, we

PHOTO: Jessica LLOyd-MOsTyn

PHOTO: cOLin WOrk

suddenly moves downwind from the black smudge of tracks, you are dragging. Our bower anchor chain is in two parts: 40 and 30m. They are shackled together and then tied with strong line as a failsafe. If we did lose the main anchor (we nearly did once when it got stuck under coral – in the Arctic!) we could unshackle, ditch the remains of the first chain and still use the second.

Forget your anchor light and you could be hit by a yacht coming into a dark anchorage

Jess nearly lost her boat when the chain jumped off the gypsy, so she cleats the chain and snubs

agreed with another crew to watch each other’s boats. In crowded places, use a buoy to mark your anchor and always mark a stern anchor. Dinghies and water taxis will avoid the bow but not always the stern. Always use an anchor light. We’ve arrived at night in anchorages and nearly collided with unlit boats. Solar garden lamps on the bow and stern are a good idea in addition to the mast anchor light.

we now use the Bruce as our bower. This has coped well, even with grass, and we’ve sat comfortably and securely with winds of up to 40 knots. If winds are strong we may rig two snubbers. While we were ashore our chain jumped off the gypsy in a bouncy anchorage: 60m of chain and 50m of rope went over the bow and the rope had almost chafed through when we got back on board. We’ve no idea what happened to our snubber. Now we cleat off the chain as well. We only ever turn off the engine and log the position once we’re both happy. If one of us is slightly unsure about how we’ve ended up then we pick up and re-drop, no matter how much of a hassle it may seem. It’s important for a good night’s sleep for you to both be confident with set and position.

Jess Lloyd-Mostyn We trusted our Bügel anchor until it dragged badly in part-grass when the wind was only around 20 knots, which was surprising as we’d been anchored in the same spot with the same wind direction for more than a week. This made us keen to acquire a heavier anchor of a different type, which is why

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 23

SAILING SKILLS How to anchor like an expert

Vyv Cox I stern-kedge quite often, and take lines ashore if appropriate. However, we have proved many times that our Rocna resets efficiently after 180° windshifts.

Ken Endean

wind shift leaves us more exposed, we move. A Bahamian moor is probably more useful for a change of tide, although in a channel with strong tides we choose a spot with wind across the channel, when a single anchor should suffice.

A well-set anchor and two lines taken ashore gives Vyv Cox three-point security

James Stevens I would only use a Bahamian moor if space is restricted. I would rather

PHOTO: TOM & VICKY JACKSOn

On a good seabed, we would expect our Delta to reset without dragging. If an unpredictable

PHOTO: BOB SHePTOn

‘How do you handle changes in wind or tide?’

A Bahamian moor: two anchors laid off the bow, on two cables joined by a snatch block. It’s secure, but hard to lay and recover

the weight is taken on the bower anchor and chain. When the tide turns and the anchor has to reset, in anything but calm weather I put my head out to check the yacht has settled. At night, chain moving across the seabed usually wakes me up.

Tom Partridge I haul up and reset. If we expect a wind shift that would leave us on a lee shore, we move. If there’s

no other option, I’ll make sure I’m clear of the shore and set alarms for overnight.

Jess Lloyd-Mostyn We consider tide changes before we drop anchor, to ensure that we’ll have enough swinging room. We also check whether anyone has a stern anchor, and what boats are around us. Multihulls tend to be more skittish in a breeze than our heavy monohull.

‘What do you do if a gale’s expected?’ I do not use a chum and I’ve never used tandem anchors. I would be reluctant to lay two bow anchors, as I have seen the tangles caused by the boat turning. I only use a second anchor to haul the stern round so that I lie bow to the waves for a decent night’s sleep.

I’ve never had to use a chum or set tandem or twin anchors. We only use a second anchor to avoid swinging into hazards.

A chum is the most useful precaution. It enhances holding, damps snatching and yawing, and it’s easy to recover if I have

Tom Partridge uses twin snubbers for double security, giving a less anxious ride at anchor PHOTO: COLIn WOrK

Ken Endean

shore as possible, tidal range permitting, because there’s less yawing in sheltered, shallower water. Using twin anchors or a chum becomes more important if the rode is chain-and-warp rather than all chain.

Nigel Calder

Vyv Cox I’ve no belief in chums or tandem anchors, but twin anchors, the Rocna and Fortress, have held superbly. Yawing, which is probably a contributor to anchor dragging, is greatly reduced. Major windshifts are a problem with twin anchors, as they can lead to considerable tangles.

PHOTO: TOM PArTrIdGe

PHOTO: GrAHAM SnOOK/YM

Alastair Buchan

Tom Partridge Ken Endean swears by his chum’s ability to boost holding power – and it’s quick to retrieve

to move. Complicated underwater gear that may have to be unrigged in the middle of the night is thoroughly undesirable.

James Stevens In strong wind, I use more chain. Get as close to the weather

24 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

We let out more chain and add rubber snubbers to our rope snubber. We yaw a lot and I’d love a riding sail to reduce that.

Jess Lloyd-Mostyn We may double up the snubber, or put on our 10kg chum. In very strong winds, we may use the dinghy to lay a second anchor at the bow, although we haven’t had to do this often.

If the rope snubbers are at their limit, Tom Partridge adds rubber snubbers to absorb the snatch

A QUESTION OF SEAMANSHIP Bill Anderson is YM’s ’s seamanship guru. He was RYA chief instructor from 1972 to 2000 and created the Yachtmaster scheme PHOTO: ALAMY

‘Was the crew properly briefed?’

red was a keen but not very experienced sailor. He lived as far from the sea as you can be in England so boat ownership was impracticable, weekends afloat would have been 60% driving and 40% sailing. He compromised and joined a Midlands cruising club, which ran a well-found 45-footer and went for one long sail every summer. Last year he joined the yacht at Falmouth for a three-week cruise to Spain. The skipper was very experienced and led by example. There were five others in the crew, keen sailors like Fred but none of them particularly experienced. Before the first offshore passage of a cruise, club rules dictated that the skipper should organise his crew into two watches with watch leaders, give a thorough safety briefing and conduct a practical man

Who takes charge if it’s the skipper who falls overboard?

overboard recovery exercise. The skipper injected enough humour and anecdote into the brieﬁng to keep the crew interested and he led them through the man overboard exercise with enthusiasm, showing off his boat-handling skills. The routine he advocated was to throw the danbuoy and lifebuoy into the sea as close to the man as possible, shout ‘man overboard!’ to get the skipper on deck, tack the boat into a hove-to position, to make sure that she didn’t sail too far away from the casualty, start the engine, lower the sails, check that there were no ropes over the side which might foul the prop, put the engine into gear and pick up the casualty on the leeward side

with the boat pointing not quite head to wind. His demonstration of the method was immaculate. The ﬁrst couple of days of the cruise were uneventful – easy sailing in moderate beam winds. Then on day three the wind died for a couple of hours before ﬁlling in again from the port quarter, allowing them to set the spinnaker and resume their steady progress. Just before dusk the wind increased to the extent that Fred, who was on the helm, was starting to struggle to hold course. The watch leader called the skipper and suggested dropping the spinnaker, a plan with which the skipper immediately agreed. The watch below were called and the skipper, both watch leaders

SAILING LIBRARY Books reviewed by by Xxxxx Colin Jarman Books reviewed Xxxxxxxxxxx

The Coastal Headlands of Mainland Britain

By Griff J Fellows, published by Grosvenor House Publishing at £16.99 Proceeds go to the National Coastwatch Institution, a plus for cruisers, but for those of us who visit by land the headlands we have rounded by sea, or intend to sail around, this book is an interesting guide to each one, including access and geology. It is very readable and makes an exploratory visit rather appealing. Each headland is located both as a distance from a main town and as an OS map grid reference (the relevant maps also being noted). The author and his wife must have travelled thousands of miles over the years it took them to write this. It was worth it.

26 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Chasing Conrad

By Simon J Hall, published by Whittles Publishing at £16.99 In the ’60s there was still a romance about the idea of travelling the world aboard merchant ships of the old three-castle, open stow variety. The reality was somewhat less romantic but the life suited some and Simon Hall, who worked up from deck cadet to master mariner, seems to have been one such man. This book tells his tales in a way that soon draws you in and gives you a ﬂavour of the rough, tough, hard living, hard drinking life experienced in out of the way ports along the trade routes of the world. The hours were long, the work unending and the company rarely the best, but friendships were made and good times were had. It’s a good read; sometimes an eye-opener.

and one of the crew headed for the foredeck. The plan was to ease the guy far enough for the skipper, standing on the pulpit, to reach the end of the spinnaker boom and trip the snap shackle. Then the other crewmen on the foredeck would lower the sail and drop the end of the boom onto the deck while those in the cockpit would recover the sail. All went according to plan up the point of tripping the snap shackle. The foredeck crew had been over-enthusiastic in lowering the boom topping lift too early so that as soon as the spinnaker was released from the guy the pole dropped, hitting the skipper a mighty thump on the shoulder, whereupon he lost his balance and plunged over the side. Fred panicked. He knew what the MOB recovery routine should be but, with the boat dashing downwind and the spinnaker ﬂying from halyard and sheet, all that he had been taught seemed useless. The whole crew seemed to be looking at him but nobody was doing anything to help. My simple question for you is, what might the skipper have added to his start-of-cruise brieﬁng that might have made Fred’s panicked state a little easier to resolve? W

For Bill’s answer, see p29

Cruising Scotland – The Clyde to Cape Wrath Second edition By Mike Balmforth and Edward Mason, published by Imray at £27.50 This is the companion to the volumes of the Clyde Cruising Club’s Sailing Directions. These are essential when cruising the West Coast of Scotland, but give little beyond pilotage. This companion cuts out the pilotage details, and offers much more on ports, facilities, history and local interest. It’s nicely presented with many excellent, well-reproduced photos, and generally shows the area at its tempting best. To sail here, you need charts, the CCC Sailing Directions and Cruising Scotland; your cruise would be the poorer without it.

FREE SPINNAKER AT THE BOAT SHOW Hyde Sails have such a reputation for performance, quality and durability that their sails are currently racing around the world on all of Sir Robin Knox Johnstonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Clipper Fleet. The yachts that will clock up 40,000 miles each of hard sailing in every conceivable weather condition. They were also chosen by Sir Robin for his own boat and if they are good enough for him. might they be good enough for you? For the London Boat Show and the whole of December and January we are making an unmissable offer for next season; Buy any mainsail and jib as a set and we will give you a cruising chute, genneker or spinnaker completely free! Come see us at the London Boat Show stand number E051 or contact Wooderz - 07764 933 894 - email: wooderz@hydesails.co.uk

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MAKING SAILS THE WAY YOU WANT

st. 965 1

ANY QUESTIONS NS EMAIL yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com POST Any Questions, Yachting Monthly, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU Please send us your questions in less than 200 words

WIN CHILGROVE GIN

The question of the month wins a bottle of Chilgrove Gin (UK residents only). This super-premium gin, handcrafted by keen sailors in the Sussex Downs, blends the finest botanicals with a neutral grape spirit. www.chilgrovespirits.com

PHOTO: COLIN WORK

QUESTION OF THE MONTH

Does any chartplotter have reserve power? Q I recently suffered a GPS failure mid-Channel at night. Fortunately I had recorded regular ﬁxes and could work up a reasonable estimated position (EP) until I got the GPS up and running again. Had I not recorded these ﬁxes I would have been lost. Are there any plotters that have an internal battery to maintain the unit and sound an alarm if the main power supply is lost, so the skipper can record vital information before it switches off? Justin Neely

Henry Castledine, electronics manager at Berthon Boat Company, replies: It is not common for wired-in chartplotters to

Can I ﬁx blisters in Coppercoat?

Q PHOTO: DAVID CANTWELL

I had my boat Coppercoated 18 months ago by a leading South Coast boatyard, after leaving her ashore for a full year to ensure she was completely dry. When she was hauled out last month, I noticed that blisters had formed on the rudder, between the Coppercoat and the gelcoat. In fact, I managed to knock one of them off with a pressure washer. Can this sort of damage be touched up, or does the whole lot need to be stripped off and re-done? David Cantwell

feature a reserve battery, but there are a few options available to safeguard against these situations. Navigation via an iPad or tablet is becoming increasingly popular, with options of GPS add-ons or built in GPS. This can function as a fully independent system and plug into the boat’s power supply for charging when necessary. Lots of navigation apps are available, many offering extremely cheap charting options. There are also converters available to send NMEA0183 data wirelessly to the app, allowing transfer of heading, speed, wind and depth data to name a few. With connection to most new chart plotters available, an iPad or tablet does a great job as a second station as well as a backup system.

Ewan Clark, of Aquarius Marine Coatings (Coppercoat), replies: If your reader would like to get in touch with us directly we would be more than happy to help look into this problem. From the information given, and from what I can see in the photograph, under normal circumstances such areas can simply be touched in, just as you would if it were any other antifoul. Simply sand the affected area of gelcoat to clean the surface and provide a good physical key, and apply a dab of new Coppercoat. This should give a satisfactory repair.

Why do fenders degrade?

Q If the surface was keyed properly, Coppercoat should stay put for years

28 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Laptops, iPads and handheld GPS units can all offer similar functions without external power

The tops of our Polyform fenders have degraded into a slimy mess and the sticky rubber is transferring to our hull and deck ﬁttings although they are only four years old. This is the second time this has happened. The ﬁrst time we were told the degradation was caused by harmful cleaning chemicals, but this time we only used mild soapy to clean them.

PC navigation has been commonplace for years and offers many of the beneﬁts mentioned above, but a lack of apps limits connectivity with onboard chartplotters. The advantage is having a full functiong PC with a poper keyboard and mouse. Despite huge advances in marine electronics, the logbook and paper charts still play a vital role. The most economic and common backup system is a handheld, battery-powered GPS, which will give you a ﬁx until you can restore power.

Our yacht is kept in the Mediterranean but she is ashore with the fenders inside from October to May. Is it really just UV damage, and what can we do to protect them? Christina Dewey

Lu & Rod Heikell reply: All normal fenders will degrade as a result of exposure to ultraviolet light. Certain cleaners may exacerbate the problem, and rough concrete quaysides will score fenders, allowing a build-up of dirt or chemicals. As you say, the greasy sticky mess transfers onto the hull and ﬁttings, where it takes some serious chemicals and polishing to remove it. We use covers (fender socks), hemmed from a roll of stretchy polyester. They last a few seasons, depending on what they are lying against, and do seem to protect the fenders from UV. Some of our current fenders are over a decade old, and show little sign of sticky nastiness. The alternative is to buy Hypalon inﬂatable fenders, although these are a lot more expensive and can puncture. We keep a couple aboard for extreme situations. We also cover all our aerials with cheap socks to protect them from UV.

PHOTO: DAVID WHITE/MARINE 16

How do I clean my fuel?

The fuel on my yacht has been contaminated with diesel bug, resulting in blocked filters and erratic running of the engine. Can I clean up the fuel by recirculating the remaining fuel in the tank through a 10 micron filter (or finer) and adding a diesel bug killer? Steve Huckvale

Nigel Calder replies: Unfortunately, it is difficult to fully rid a tank of bacteria without opening it up and cleaning all the surfaces. The problem here is the extent to which the bacteria have adhered to tank sides and whether or not the fuel polisher has a high enough flow rate to stir up all the contents of the tank. The bacteria grow in the interface between the water and diesel so you need to make sure there is absolutely no water in the tank. Somehow you have to get a tube down to the very lowest point in the tank and suck out the contents from here until you get clean fuel. If this is a recent contamination and not too severe, I would then add a kill dose of biocide – a smaller ‘maintenance’ dose will not solve the problem and may make it worse – and use the highest volume fuel polisher I could find. The 10 micron filter is plenty fine enough. Add a kill dose of biocide to your next tank refill to knock out any residual bacteria. In my tanks, I always install a pump-out line to within a few millimetres of the lowest point in the tank. I regularly pump a sample from here to make sure I have no water or other serious contamination.

A QUESTION OF SEAMANSHIP

Bill’s answer from p26

‘Properly briefed?’ The vital point missing from the skipper’s brieﬁng was to nominate a second in command to take over in case he suddenly becomes incapacitated. Without an obvious leader, poor old Fred is now likely to get conﬂicting instructions from both of the watch leaders – the classic nightmare scenario of order, counter-order, disorder. The skipper’s plan could have been a bit less dogmatic about how a man overboard was to be recovered. His method may work well for an incident when the boat is closehauled or reaching under main and genoa, but clearly won’t if she’s sailing downwind with a preventer on the mainsail and a headsail boomed out or a spinnaker set. I didn’t actually ask what the skipper did wrong at the time of the incident, or what the leaderless crew should do next . No doubt readers will have their own ideas. The obvious ones are that the skipper was, to say the least, arrogant in his assumption that he would never be the man overboard,

Check your fuel tank regularly. Diesel bug can damage far more than just your ﬁlters

Can I ﬁnd old articles?

The Berthon Christmas Quiz We’re running a Christmas quiz and would like to invite you to win some great prizes, whilst learning more about the Berthon business at the same time. If you can answer the simple questions below, using the Berthon website to help you, then you’ll be in with a chance of winning some early stocking ﬁllers!

I am currently looking at upgrading to a chartplotter but am also considering cheaper iPad navigation apps. YM has reviewed both recently, but I can’t ﬁnd the articles. How do I ﬁnd them, and is it possible to buy a copy of old articles? Jeff Wrinch

Pippa Park, YM editorial assistant replies: We reviewed iPad navigation apps in June 2015, when the iNavX app came out on top for functionality. We haven’t reviewed chartplotters since January 2012, so another test is in the pipeline. If you want to look at these articles, some will be on our website, but you can ﬁnd a full database of our articles online – click on ‘Search and buy archive articles’ on our website. You can buy back issues and article reprints, but the best solution for the future is to keep up your YM subscription.

and unwise in exposing himself to a risky role while dropping the spinnaker. There are many scenarios that would negate the use of a simple pre-planned man overboard recovery drill and probably no one plan would cope with all of them. I do hope that nobody reading this thinks that it simply conﬁrms their opinion that spinnakers are dangerous and unseamanlike sails because, if sensibly used, they aren’t. The incident in the question is ﬁctitious, I dreamt it up after reading an MAIB report of a tragic accident in which a skipper was lost overboard. One of the so-called ‘lessons learnt’ from the accident, although in that incident it had no direct bearing on the outcome, was the importance of having a nominated second in command who is immediately prepared to take over if the skipper goes missing or suffers a sudden and totally disabling accident or illness. It is not relevant if you always sail as a husband-and-wife team (little doubt can arise if there is only one of you left), or as a family in which there is an established and accepted pecking order. But with a crew who do not sail together regularly and have not worked out between them who is the ‘deputy boss’, it may be an important point to address before putting to sea.

Q Q

When was Berthon Boat Co Ltd founded?

How many berths does the Berthon Lymington Marina now have?

How many paint spray jobs (approx.) has Berthon completed since it opened its 8000m2 facility in 1999?

Other than the collapsible lifeboat, what else did the Reverend E.L. Berthon invent?

Go online for more about the stocking ﬁller prizes and to enter the quiz at

www.berthon.co.uk/ christmasquiz2015 All answers found on the Berthon website

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 29

NEW YACHT REPEATER & WIRELESS WIND

Control box

Remote control

ÂŁ349.00 inc vat New large display, mast mounted, multifunction repeater. The Yacht Repeater boasts giant 60mm high numerals for maximum visibilty. Simply connect your instrument NMEA 0183 outputs to the supplied control box and use the remote control to scroll though the screens to view the data. Many functions are available such as boat speed, depth in metres, bearing to waypoint, true and apparent wind speed, cross track error, velocity made good etc, etc. More will be added by popular demand. The overall case size 211mm wide x 140mm high. Yacht Repeater is supplied with display unit, cables, data-box, wireless remote control, stainless steel mounting brackets and weather cover.

Wireless mast head tranmitter

Base unit

The popular Clipper wind display unit is now available with a wireless masthead unit. The wireless masthead transmitter is powered by an internal battery which is charged from ambient light using a small solar panel. Clipper Wind cockpit display

The masthead transmitter sends data wirelessly to the base unit, which is powered by the vessel's 12 Volt supply, the base unit receives wind speed and direction data from the masthead transmitter and sends it to the Clipper Wind display unit.

Clipper Wireless wind is supplied with wireless mast unit, base unit and Clipper Wind display.

Full details see our website

www.nasamarine.com

ÂŁ349.20 inc vat

PRACTICAL SEAMANSHIP

step guide to stress-free stern-to mooring In Mediterranean ports, more often than not you will find yourself mooring stern-to a quay, held off by your anchor and on by stern lines. For many it’s an unfamiliar process, but set up correctly and it shouldn’t present any problems

1 Prepare the boat You won’t know what sort of berth awaits, so rig fenders on both sides before you get into harbour as it’s normal to rest against other boats. Switch the windlass on and remove the anchor retaining pin.

2 Dangle the anchor

3 Give yourself space

As you come into harbour, lower the anchor so it dangles just above the water. When the time comes to drop it, you want it to go down quickly. If not, you’ll lose your perfect placing before it hits the bottom.

The more space you have, the better, so take a long run-up. Make sure the boat has fully stopped before going astern and give the boat time to pick up steerage way. Don’t worry about being lined up yet.

4 Approach facing aft

5 Look around you

Go round to the other side of the wheel so you are facing aft and steer ‘like a car’. It’s easy to get confused looking over your shoulder. Don’t forget where your bow is – take regular glances over your shoulder.

It’s easy to focus only on the quay but stay aware of what’s going on around you. Where are other boats’ anchors? Are there lines or obstructions in the water? How is the wind affecting your boat?

32 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

An expert’s guide to stern-to mooring PRACTICAL SEAMANSHIP 6 Control

your speed Once you have steerage way, get the boat straight. To protect your gearbox, don’t rev the engine quickly between astern and ahead, just keep it in tickover astern. You should have enough speed to be in control of the boat but no more – slow and without stress.

7 Judge your distance

8 Drop the anchor

It’s tricky judging where to drop your anchor. Unless it’s particularly deep, three boat lengths is usually right. That’s the length of your boat, the length of another boat on the quay, and a gap of the same.

Once lined up, drop the anchor sharpish. Pay out plenty of anchor chain so you don’t slow down. Stop paying out when the transom is 2-3m from the quay. This will stop you, but use the engine if needed.

9 Prepare the lines

10 Make fast, and relax

It makes it much easier if you can get the mooring lines ashore first time, so practice heaving them in advance. Coil the rope neatly, have three or four turns in each hand so you don’t have too much to throw.

Heave your lines to someone ashore, or check for underwater obstructions and go in to let the crew to step off. Straighten up and secure both lines, then bring in some anchor cable to hold you off. JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 33

PRACTICAL SEAMANSHIP An expert’s gide to stern-to mooring

What can go wrong

PHOTO: niGel Calder

PHOTO: VYV COx

The trick with mooring stern-to in a crosswind is to approach from upwind. If it’s really windy, this could be as much as 45° upwind of the berth you are aiming for. You will want the anchor to be upwind of the berth, so this approach puts you in the right place to drop it. Don’t worry about other anchors, as most boats will have done the same.

Sort out crossed anchors later. Stop moving ahead and build up steerage way astern as normal, then aim straight at your berth. As you slow down, the bow will start to be blown off, which will serve to bring you into line to slot into the gap, and snubbing your anchor will stop the bow drifting too far. If things do go wrong, take it nice and slowly, heave in your anchor and start again.

ABOVE: Before you can resolve the problem, you need a clear idea of what it is LEFT: If you hook someone else’s chain, take its weight with a line under it, then free your anchor

GraPHiC: maxine HeaTH

How to cope with a crosswind

Kedging for a blow If the wind changes, or is likely to change, consider taking your kedge anchor forwards to set as a second anchor at an angle to the first, in the direction of the expected wind. Your kedge rode will lie across other anchors, but this can be sorted later. If it’s really blowing, mooring stern- or bow-to can be tricky and problems become more likely. Rather than battling the conditions, go and anchor off in an open area of the harbour. The wind will usually drop in a couple of hours, when you can moor with more control.

Crossed anchors It’s inevitable that, at some point, you’ll end up with your anchor chain laid across another boat’s chain, but there are simple ways to deal with it. A dinghy and a glass-bottomed bucket, or a mask and snorkel, are all you need to assess the mess. n Your anchor hooks a chain: Having heaved in your cable, you find that your anchor has picked up someone else’s chain. Pass a line under their chain and cleat it off on the bow to support the chain’s weight. Lower your anchor until it is clear, then retrieve your anchor before dropping the other yacht’s chain. You may have dragged the other boat’s anchor, so let them know. n Your chain is under another: Having bagged the best spot in the harbour, later boats have laid their chain across yours. You’ll know when you come to leave because the chain is hard to heave

Unshackle the bitter end and take it under the chain lying over yours to put your chain on top

in, or you spotted it by swimming over the anchor. Hoping for the best is unlikely to work. Instead, pay out all of your chain and carefully detach the bitter end from the boat. From the dinghy, take the end of your chain to the offending boat’s bow and pass it around their chain, bringing yours back on top. Reattach the bitter end, heave in and sail away. If your anchor is at the bottom of a large pile, consider buoying your chain before dropping it completely and coming back later. W PHOTOS: GraHam SnOOk/Ym

After securing lines ashore, pick up the lazy line, run it forward and secure on a bow cleat. Adjust its tension to hold you safely off the quay

How to use a lazy line Picking up a lazy line can be harder than anchoring, as the anchor helps you control your speed and stops your bow being blown down. Lazy lines can be heavy and slimy so have a pair of gloves or a

34 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

boathook ready. Control the speed just with your engine. The key is being aware of the elements as you can use the wind to blow you into the right position. You can use other moored boats to keep you straight. Once

your windward stern line is ashore, pick up the lazy line, walk it to the bow and get a turn on a bow cleat. When you are leaving the berth, give the rope a few moments to sink before engaging gear or you risk a prop wrap.

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Tom Cunliffe has sailed tens of thousands of miles all over the world and has been a Yachtmaster Examiner since 1978

PHOTOS: TOM CUNLIFFE UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

Wind shadow

I learned a lot from Captain Smith at Hamble School of Yachting when I ﬁrst worked there as an instructor. One of his sayings was that while you’d expect to ﬁnd a wind shadow to leeward of a big ship, it’s less obvious that there’s also considerable disturbance on the windward side. His formula was, seven times the height of the ship for turbulence to leeward, and some degree of disorder at three

I can’t think of anything more calculated to turn one’s insides to liquid than discovering the floorboards floating when out at sea. First, taste the water. If it’s fresh, you won’t drown. Dying of thirst is a long-term outcome that gives time to think. If it’s salt, and rising, a plan is Every hand must help to save the ship needed, especially on a fully crewed yacht going all possible sources of flooding, long distance. give each competent person It’s ten to one the problem responsibility for one part is a skin fitting or associated of the ship, write a flooding plumbing. When the skipper plan, then make it everyone’s is the only person who knows business to know their own where the seacocks are and neck of the woods. If the call there are a lot of them, he’s ever comes, everyone tends to going to have his work cut out. their section, which multiplies Meanwhile, the crew stands the chances of success by the around contemplating a short number of people involved. future. A better policy is to list

36 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

PHOTO: GRAHAM SNOOK/YM

Flooding plan

Dodgy lights

times its height to windward. I’ve found this to be sound, but I trawled the internet for empirical conﬁrmation and found nothing. I offer it, therefore, as ‘anecdotal material that seems to work’. One thing’s sure, though. If you sail too close to leeward of a ship, you’ll experience a strong backdraught at some stage. Many’s the gybe caused by this, so watch out in that wind shadow and keep your head down.

I’m not wagging the finger here, because I’m sure no YM reader would knowingly commit the sort of howler of a light combination that brings us all into disrepute. It’s easy to make an honest mistake, however. I once crossed and re-crossed a busy harbour at midnight with no illumination at all following a misunderstanding. I couldn’t work out why tugboats kept trying to run me down until my mate went to switch off the lights on arrival, only to find they had never been switched on. The classic horror is to fire up the lower lights without dousing the tricolour. From the port bow this makes you a pot boat. From

Using tricolour and lower nav lights bafﬂes everyone, so make sure you double-check

starboard you’re a trawler with nets down. From aft you could be all sorts of things. The one thing you are not is a yacht. Unless your switch gear renders such a bloomer impossible, the only sure answer is always to double-check, then take a ﬁnal look around on deck as well.

SKIPPER’S TIPS Hold her athwart the seas and boarding at the stern isn’t deadly

One of the beneﬁts of newer shapes over the traditional is the aft bathing ladder. This really comes into its own if ever we have to retrieve a casualty from the water. Not all these are helpless basket cases, many have just taken a tumble, the yacht is brought back in short order and they are thrown a line to secure themselves. Much is written about retrieval, but often the sensible approach is to assist them to the stern and encourage them to climb up using the ladder. If this is your choice, don’t even think of holding the boat head to wind when there’s any sea running. That nice ﬂat stern can come down like a jack hammer and turn a mistake into a crisis. Lay the boat athwart the seas instead. She’ll roll horribly which people on board won’t appreciate, but the poor soul trying to scramble up will not care. He won’t be brained for his trouble or speared by the ladder either.

‘Seizing’

Peace will reign with a reliable throne

The end of jeopardy in the heads

Everyone has a yarn about being thrown from the loo when the boat takes a dive off a wave. I’ll go one further and tell you that I once hung onto the porcelain so tightly that the whole bowl snapped off at the thin end and ended up on the other side of the compartment still clamped to my behind. When I bonded it back together with Araldite it kept everything in but I never got rid

of the glue line. A commoner issue is cheap ‘bog seats’ that wobble around in a seaway. My pal Mervyn has solved this by screwing in a pair of stainless brackets under his seat. The brackets secure the seat against the bowl, so Mervyn can enjoy his morning-watch contemplation in full conﬁdence that he won’t be tossed ‘all standing’ into the bilges.

One of the few problems with traditional wire standing rigging is that splicing tends to damage the galvanising so that it rusts. Often, therefore, a better way to make a loop is to bend the wire back on itself and hold the two parts together for maximum friction with a wire lashing called a seizing. Several of these from a good rigger are as strong as a splice. They’re rust-free too.

‘Serving’

Fine-tuning a bomb-proof solution It’s fun to look back over a summer’s cruising by way of the track my chart plotter has recorded. The plot can be useful for insurance purposes and I’ve even seen it produced in court cases. This can backﬁre, however, so if you’re of a litigious nature it may pay to leave the function off. Where the track really comes into its own is piloting out of a difﬁcult harbour into which you have successfully manoeuvred. You know you got in. To be sure of a graceful exit, tide permitting, you’ve

PHOTO: LESTER McCARTHY/YM

No cracked skulls please. Lie beam on!

Coarse adjustment

Fine adjustment

only to follow the same track out again. This works well, so long as the plotter is set up appropriately. The screen grab shows two versions of the same track on my Raymarine unit. The coarse setting is useless, but the ﬁne version leads me straight

back out through the drying banks. It’s all down to setting the instrument to record frequent data. To succeed in close quarters, set the plot to record at shorter time or distance intervals than out at sea.

20 years’ worth of Tom’s cruising tips for skippers and crew have been distilled into this pocket-sized book, published by Fernhurst Books, at £11.99

When splicing galvanised wire, the traditional rigger makes every effort to keep the salt water out. First, the splice is ‘wormed’ by running a light line into the lay to give a smooth surface, then it’s ‘parcelled’ with tarred canvas. Finish with a tightly wound ‘serving’. ‘Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and serve the other way.’ Flummoxed by salty jargon? Email yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com and we’ll explain it in print

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 37

LEARNING CURVE

North Pacific knockdown

Gulf of A l a s ka

D A

FINISH

Prince Rupert, BC

N O RT H PAC I F I C Graham I.

OCEAN Track of low pressure

KNOCKDOWN!

Vancouver Victoria, BC

‘I was thrown down the companionway, across the cabin and into the heads, which meant Sänna was on her side’

A freak wave puts Dave Ungless and his yacht on their beam ends in storm force 10 conditions

San Francisco

PhOtOS: Dave UngleSS UnleSS StateD OtherWiSe

Storm warning Our latest GRIB showed a low pressure forming to the south that didn’t fit the north-east Pacific weather patterns. Although not unusual, it was predicted to deepen and move north-east across our easterly course, giving 20-30-knot winds on our starboard bow. I made a mental note to check the staysail sheets and furling lines as we’d not used our storm sails since leaving Hawaii. Then, I noticed a second email from Skip. He’d picked up a Canadian forecast 38 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

NORTH PACIFIC HIGH

500nm

Chart: Maxine heath

arie and I departed Hanalei Bay on Kauai, Hawaii, aboard Sänna, our customised Bavaria Ocean 50. Ahead of us lay a 3,000mile passage towards Victoria, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The first week brought glorious trade wind sailing, then the North Pacific High blocked our passage so we sailed north around its west side. The wind died away and we had a couple of calm, sunny days under motor. As we reached higher latitudes and the westerlies that would take us all the way to Victoria, the temperatures dropped and dense fog, strong winds and torrential rain set in. By the end of the second week we’d ridden out a couple of blows and we were happy to save diesel. We’d signed up with a weather routeing service but it proved less than useful so we kept downloading GRIB forecasts via SSB radio. We were also in email contact with Skip Kleger, a San Francisco sailor and weather guru we’d never met, who was routeing the US yacht Morning Star, a day or two behind us.

START

Kauai O’ahu

Maui

‘50 Knots, gusting 60’

The wind built slowly from the southeast and we were well prepared by dusk. Everything was secured, storm trysail ready and checked, bilge pumps and engine tested. Marie prepared hot food, and tea and soup in flasks. She also checked our grab bag contained the essentials. I later found her Kindle in there, too. ‘I’ll need something to read if we Sänna motors abandon ship,’ she explained. into the With double reefed furling sunrise. Within main and staysail, we could hours, in force close reach comfortably and 10-11 winds keep the big seas off our beam. and towering We took turns to steer, avoiding seas, chaos the bigger waves, and our would reign autopilot handled things well. We rested when we could and in six or seven hours we’d be predicting a powerful storm closing in. through the worst. The winds were gusting The GRIBs still showed 30 knots but, as up to 35 knots, with 3-4 metre seas, so the the low moved north, it would be squeezed GRIB forecast wasn’t far out after all. by the high spreading east, creating a band Suddenly we had steady winds of 50 of 40 to 50-knot southeasterlies. We were knots, gusting 60. We needed a third reef still 600 miles from Canada. in the main, and to prepare our trysail and ‘We’ve dealt with it before,’ said Marie. I reef the staysail. I activated the autopilot wasn’t quite so certain. Sänna is fin-keeled and readied our tethers to clip on at the with a spade rudder, a design that some mast. I checked we were holding course ocean cruising purists scorn. Would our before joining Marie below to change into keel or rudder fall off? Sänna had got us my sea boots. I reached the half-open more than half way around the world and hatch and saw a towering wave on our through a number of bad storms but I ask beam, twice the height of the others and myself these silly questions in the long, approaching from a different direction. As dark watches of the night. it broke over us, Sänna was knocked down. Hawaii

LEARNING CURVE We made it through the treacherous conditions and were thrilled to see British Columbia’s spectacular scenery

Knockdown

Dave and Marie Ungless Dave and Marie Ungless are circumnavigating west to east on Sänna, a customised Bavaria Ocean 50. Their nine-year voyage has taken them from the Med to Alaska so far. Dave, an RYA Yachtmaster, has sailed extensively in high latitudes and has over 70,000 ocean miles logged, and Marie 30,000. Follow them on www.sanna-uk.com

prepared our Jordan series drogue but Sänna was handling it well. We decided to leave the autopilot on. There were only two of us and we needed to take stock. We had taken a lot of water below deck and needed to know what worked and what didn’t. All the electronics were fine and our two bilge pumps were running. Sänna turned and twisted, and kit was flying around but gradually we organised ourselves. We closed the hatch for some much-needed rest: we’d probably make it through the night somehow.

Landfall Our wind instrument recorded a maximum of 69 knots and consistent winds in the low 60s for a short time. We continued to run north-east and finally reached Graham Island, British Columbia, where we rounded Langara Point and finally reached the safety of Prince Rupert, some 500 miles north of Victoria. W

PHOTO: AlAmy

I was thrown down the companionway and across the cabin, into the heads, which meant Sänna was on her side. Objects flew across the cabin and out of the bilges. As I lay there, seawater poured through the companionway and I thought, quite calmly, this was it. Would Sänna capsize? I feared she’d never recover because of the weight we carried, particularly on deck, but the big loveable piece of German plastic slowly came upright and I fell into a heap on the cabin sole. The pain in my left leg was excruciating but, as Sänna lurched, out of control, Marie ran up to the cockpit. She got us back on track and engaged autopilot. Then she came down to drag me out the heads, checked my leg and told me that I was fine. The wind was now over 60 knots. Back on deck, Marie furled the staysail and all but a scrap of main, and we ran north before 7-8-metre seas at 7 knots. We had

Strong winds can create huge seas, like these seen during the 2004 Sydney Hobart

Lessons learned

n Perhaps we were wrong to rely on our autopilot but as a short-handed crew we had little choice. Knockdown aside, we handled things quite well. Once running north and battened down, we felt comfortable, if not safe. n We would have deployed our drogue had conditions deteriorated. Heaving to is not an option for our fin-keeler. n Sänna is not the toughest boat, but we haven’t found her limits. Despite enormous strain on her spade rudder when running before, there seems to be no damage, and our keel didn’t fall off! n My wonderful wife Marie is a tough cookie, calm in a crisis.

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 39

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Bordeaux

LASTRES Bilbao

Gijón

La Coruña

B ay of B i scay

Chart not to be used for navigation

Bajo de la Plancha

59 57

Pta Misiera

Lonja

F.R TV/Radio tower

22 0°

After crossing the Bay of Biscay Jim Mottram revisited this pretty hillside village on the coast of Asturias

o the east of the major port of Gijón on the coast of Asturias are two mighty headlands with attractive villages on their eastern faces. The first of these is Tanzones, a picturesque ex-fishing village, popular with weekenders from Gijón. The second, Lastres, is 18 miles from Gijón and less reliant on visitors. Sailing along the coast, Cape Lastres can easily be identified by the huge redand-white lattice TV tower that sits atop its summit. The eastern side should be given reasonable clearance. The high breakwaters of the harbour will appear before the large village is revealed clinging to the hillside, its red-roofed buildings an attractive sight. It probably looks much bigger than expected but how often do you see all the buildings of a place in one splendid, panoramic view? Lastres is still a busy fishing port but, like so many others on this coast, mostly taken up by a private marina, which is mainly for small angling boats. I believe that there is now a space for visiting yachts but it was too hot to be stuck in a stifling harbour so I decided to anchor. On my previous visit I had crept in close to the southern

breakwater, out of the swell and wash from passing craft, and now did the same. I spent the afternoon relaxing and watching the youngsters diving from the breakwater before, amazingly, scaling its sheer face. Meanwhile, swimmers were all around and the small beach was crowded. Sadly this idyll was not to last as it was a Spring tide and, even with Reservation’s modest draught, I had to move out to the more conventional anchorage. Two short, rocky ledges reach out from the beach, easily identified as dark patches in the emerald green water, and a transit from the breakwater to the curious wooden daymark to the south clears these. After a comfortable night, next morning I rowed ashore to reacquaint myself with the village. The road from the waterfront takes long zig-zags to the top but these stretches are linked by hundreds of steps and slopes. By the time I reached the summit I was struggling but well satisfied, as I had not achieved this feat eight years ago! Now standing at the same height as the TV tower, there were fine views down over the village, although a heat haze prevented sight of the coastline

‘I walked up to the summit where there were ﬁne views over the village’

I anchored off the hillside village and sat in the cockpit admiring the view

42 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Fl(3)R.9s3M 33

Fl(3)G.9s5M 5

LASTRES

Fl.Y.2.5S 5

500m

9 legged structure

and the distant Picos mountains. I walked back down through the narrow streets, past humble houses with wooden balconies and steps colourful with ﬂowers and potted plants. Even descending was hard going and I wondered how the elderly manage here during the hot summers and harsh winters. Eventually, I came to the clock tower at the heart of the village. Dated 1715, it is most unusual, having only one hand to sweep around the Roman numerals on its dial. By the time I reached the harbour it was very hot and I was ready for a beer at the bar overlooking the bay. As I sat enjoying the view a slight swell began creeping around the harbour and I noticed Reservation was beginning to roll, impatient to get on with the next stage of our voyage. It was time to leave. W

PHOTO: JIM MOTTRAM. CHART: MAXINE HEATH

Lastres, North Spain

ANCHORAGES

ANCHORAGES The bay is so extensive that there is ample room for all

Oxwich Bay, The Gower

etween Tenby and Swansea the choice of anchorage is limited. Diverting across Carmarthen Bar into the estuaries of the Taf and Towy, or across to Burry Port, is not always convenient, and the Gower coast is mostly inhospitable in the prevailing southwesterly winds until you turn the Mumbles corner into Swansea Bay. However, there are two exceptions – Port Eynon and Oxwich Bay. I favour the latter even though the beach itself is popular during the summer months; it is so extensive that there is ample room for all. Those seeking the anchorage in the north-west corner will be far from the madding crowds, and the true peace of this anchorage develops as the sun starts to dip and the call of tea disperses the day visitors to leave this lovely stretch in the hands of a few ﬁshermen, dog walkers, and yachtsmen. Out of season, Oxwich changes its personality and becomes a haven of peace and wildlife. The anchorage is well sheltered from the north through to the south-west – if the wind has north in it, anchor in

the southern part, and if the wind is southwesterly, anchor as far north as the depth allows. If a southerly or easterly is forecast, it’s time to move on. The approach is hazard free as long as the wreck close to the western shore is noted. Coming from the west, give Oxwich Point and its overfalls a wide berth, whilst from the east the bay is open. The best anchorage is between the moorings and the shore – calculate the depth and drop the hook on firm sand with good holding. Do not be tempted to use the moorings. Many of them are marked ‘Keep Off’, which is always a good hint – returning local fishing boats might need the mooring at 0200, and some of the outside buoys are actually lobster keeps. However, if the weather is clement, stretch your legs ashore and enjoy not only the beach, but also the Oxwich Bay SSSI and Oxwich National Nature Reserve behind the dunes, where flora and fauna include everything from orchids to otters and boardwalks meander over the marshes and reed beds that host a wide range of birdlife including rarities

‘Out of season, Oxwich changes its personality and becomes a haven of peace and wildlife’

44 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Carmarthen

Milford Haven

S O U T H W A L E S

Burry Port Swansea Gower Swansea

Tenby

Port Eynon Charts not to be used for navigation

Gowe r

Oxwich Bay

Bay The Mumbles

Pe n i n su l a

Penmaen

Three Cliffs Bay or 3 le T 8 Litt 07

Oxwich

Southgate

28 5 5

Oxwich Bay

Moorings

62 03

2 10

St Christopher’s Knoll

107

Oxwich Point

2 5 10

1nm

PHOTO: ALAMY. CHART: MAXINE HEATH

Despite being a popular beach destination during the summer months, this anchorage can be far from the madding crowd, as Jonty Pearce describes

St David’s

such as the bittern and Cetti’s warbler. On one evening visit we were entranced by a murmuration of flocking starlings performing fantastic group aerobatics that painted shadowy shapes against the twilight sky before they settled into the trees for their winter roost. The spectacle left us humbled, and we had to visit the excellent Oxwich Bay Hotel for a small libation to help fix the memory permanently in our minds. Apart from the beachside hotel, Oxwich offers few facilities. The village has a shop and café and there are toilets in the car park. Local buses do serve the area and allow exploration further afield. The main local hub is Swansea, although those wishing to avoid the hotspots should visit the adjacent Three Cliffs Bay, chosen by the operatic diva Katherine Jenkins as her favourite view. The unspoilt and beautiful Gower Peninsula was rightly one of the first places designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty under the 1949 Act, and Oxwich Bay provides a yachtsman’s gateway into this glorious domain. It’s all there waiting for you... W

CRUISING LIFE

My uncle the yacht designer

Jack’s design Celandine, built in 1967, is now owned by Christopher Kerrison and moored in the Pyeﬂeet

Julia Jones remembers her uncle Jack, who designed his boats to look after their owners

Trained to loathe glassfibre On the river ourselves in Peter Duck, we waved joyfully at yachts Uncle Jack had designed: Riduna, Corista, Wing Sang, Deben and Celandine. Before we reached double figures in age, we had been trained to loathe glassfibre. I learned to recognise certain classes of yachts purely because of the enraged reactions they so reliably produced. There were the ‘Depravities’, for instance… As the 1960s progressed, glassfibre was clearly in the ascendant and Jack and Dad bowed out of the mainstream, fulminating about the modern lack of 'individuality'.

A highly regarded naval architect in his own right, Jack Jones trained other yacht designers including Kim Holman and Alan Gurney

They claimed that their rivers were becoming overcrowded, their customers ignorant and dull. Secretly I wondered whether being a boat snob might also mean you were a social snob. For myself I was content to remain inland. When I returned to sailing two decades later, the wooden post-war yachts of my childhood had mysteriously become ‘classics’. Jack produced 110 individual designs from which more than 1,000 boats were built. I'd loved him as a person – flamboyant, opinionated, touchy – but it wasn’t until I met the designer Alan Gurney that I began to realise what I’d been missing by taking so little notice of his work. Jack had begun drawing boats in late 1930s when he was banished from his beloved River Deben and working as an industrial designer in Birmingham. He received generous encouragement from Yachting Monthly editor Maurice Griffiths, and his first important design was published in YM in December 1939. Griffiths had already been called up but Jack had a further year in which to stir up controversy and comment through the magazine until he too joined the RNVR. Jack did not have a good war. He was twice seriously wounded and chronic pain

Jack's most popular design was the well-balanced Kestrel class sloop

PHOTOS: COURTES Y OF JULIA JONES

t’s 25 years since Jack Francis Jones died and a hundred since he was born. He was my uncle and I am beginning to regret that it’s taken me 60 years to show any real interest in his work. When we were children it was all around us: he and my father, George Jones, had been allies from boyhood when they rejected their farming background and regularly cycled the ten miles from Witnesham to Waldringﬁeld in Suffolk to learn to sail on the River Deben. After the war they set up businesses there: Jack a designer and surveyor, Dad a yacht agent. There was always some project on the go; some client giving trouble, some yard falling behind schedule. We’d be on our way to Scotland for a family holiday then ﬁnd ourselves diverting to spend hours in Eyemouth Boatyard while Dad checked the progress on Uncle Jack’s latest Inchcape. They were sturdy MFV-style yachts, marketed by Dad. As most of these visits involved long periods waiting in the back of the car, or staying quiet during incomprehensible, sometimes tetchy, adult conversations. I quickly grew adept at tuning them out.

was part of the rest of his life. His stroke of luck was finding The Old Maltings, a tall Georgian house overlooking the boatyard and the river at Waldringfield, within a month of leaving the Navy. Alan Gurney was apprenticed to him there, and Kim Holman and Peter Brown with whom Jack eventually went into partnership. One of his first designs was a 16ft sailing sharpie published in February 1946 for Yachting Monthly readers to build for themselves. His most popular class was the Kestrel. There’s nothing undemocratic about them and I know myself how well they sail. Balance, seaworthiness and sailing ability are features of Jack’s cruising yachts and owners have taken them all over the world. As Brian Hammett, owner of Jack’s 1965 gaff cutter Avola and former vice-president of the Cruising Association says, ‘He designed his boats to look after their owners.’ I only wish I’d noticed at the time. W JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 45

Photo: Julio Graham

HOME WATERS Brighton Belle heads out to face the impending weather

A shared adventure Can a club offering affordable shares in an Oyster 55 be as good as it sounds? Sue Pelling joined its members for a leg of their less-than-sunny summer cruise to Ireland to find out

The club is run by members and a committee of eight flag officers elected at the annual general meeting. The club's constitution is checked professionally on a regular basis. Stewart said, ‘We are fortunate to have several members who are used to managing constitutions, from whom who we can seek advice.’

How does membership work? Anyone over 18 can join, regardless of sailing ability. Prospective members should sign up for a free daysail. Once the initial £4,000 share is paid for, the only costs are cruising fees (£35 for members or £55 for guests per day) and expenses such as food, fuel and mooring fees. ‘The cruising fees cover all running costs including insurance, mooring and maintenance and these are adjusted depending on her outgoings,’ said Stewart. ‘Generally, it would cost between £100-£120 in expenses, plus sailing fees for a week's cruising.’ n For more information, go to: www.brightonbelle.org 46 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

PhotoS: CourteSy Sue PellinG unleSS otherWiSe StateD

Who runs it?

hen something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. My initial reaction to joining a group of sailing enthusiasts on the first stage of their summer cruise to Ireland to learn about their unusual ownership scheme of an Oyster 55 was, I confess, tarnished with a little scepticism. I spotted Brighton Belle moored up alongside the east hammerhead pontoon at Brighton Marina during a bright and breezy Saturday The club means you always have crew to help hoist the main at the end of May. She looked impressive with her sumptuous, wide teak decks and stainless hardware aboard, along with club vice commodore glistening in the dewy morning sun. The Liz Ingram and a couple of German guests, prospect of spending a couple of days on Werner and Andrea Junker. It wasn’t long board suddenly filled me with excitement before we slipped our lines and made our and, slowly as the story of Brighton Belle way from the peace and tranquility of the Sailing Club began to unfold, I warmed marina, through the breakwater entrance to the idea that the fantasy of owning an and out into the pot-black, forbidding sea. Oyster 55 and being able to sail her at will To run a project of this scale and deal was a real, affordable possibility. with a constant flow of mixed-ability crew, Owners and co-skippers Stewart Henton people-management skills and patience and Philip Ford graciously welcomed me are prime qualities. I was delighted to

HOME WATERS

The crew (L-R): Stewart (club commodore), Andrea, Werner, and in front, Liz and Philip

discover an overwhelming sense of professionalism on board. Stewart, an RYA Yachtmaster, is a founder member and current commodore of the club with many years of cruising and racing experience. He and Philip were calm, enthusiastic and sympathetic towards their fellow owners and guests. Stewart stressed that Brighton Belle SC takes safety very seriously and a detailed briefing was followed by an order for all crew to wear lifejackets for the duration of the trip, due to the unfavourable weather forecast. Brighton Belle Sailing Club was set up by a group of enthusiasts six years ago as a non-profit ownership scheme. They discovered that they could own a share of an Oyster 55 for the price of an ageing Westerly Centaur or Sadler 25, for example, and offer a ‘pay-as-yougo Oyster sailing’ opportunity to their members and guests. For a one-off joining fee of £4,000, Brighton Belle SC members become

Conditions were lively and sunshine was soon replaced by cloud and rain CHART: MAXINE HEATH

ÔWe made our way from the tranquility of the marina out into the pot-black, forbidding seaÕ START

Brighton 0

Isle of Wight

25nm

Lyme Bay FINISH

Plymouth

Brixham Start Pt

Portland English Channel

‘I was delighted to discover an overwhelming sense of professionalism onboard ’

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 47

HOME WATERS part-owners of the boat. Unlike than favourable. A ridge of most other boat timeshare high pressure was centered schemes, which allow fixed over the country with big periods of use for an annual lows on either side extending fee, Brighton Belle SC gives out into the Atlantic. The members the freedom to sail first band of low pressure whenever they wish. If they was due to arrive later that don’t actually sail, it won’t cost evening. Stewart estimated them any more than the initial that if we ploughed on, on a £4,000 share price. The cost southerly route out into the of maintenance is covered by a Channel and remained in the day sailing fee and additional normal ebb and flow of the expenses such as food, fuel and tide away from the tidal gates, marina costs are split between we could take advantage of a the crew on that trip. backing windshift due in mid‘Six years ago, my friend afternoon and tack onto port, Nigel, who was involved in a heading west. similar project once before Meanwhile it was an almost asked if I would like to get perfect day for sailing with involved,’ Stewart explained. Andrea helms to windward as Brighton Belle leaves the Sussex coast astern sun, blue sky and south‘Without hesitation I said westerly wind. The constant, yes. There were about eight or nine of members of all abilities, including total busy stream of ships as we headed south us originally but it grew so we agreed to beginners, but we are not a sailing school. from Brighton was our other concern, but create a boat share with 64 shares.’ We provide that all-important platform to with careful planning and the assistance ‘Our ownership scheme makes it allow those with little or no experience the of AIS and radar, we kept out of danger. possible to enjoy all the delights of an opportunity to learn from the experience We continued to make good speed, Oyster 55 for the cost of very small of others, which, in my opinion, is the best averaging 8 to 10 knots but the sea state cruiser,’ he added said as we sailed out. way to learn.’ built and, as we sailed into constant ‘The extra manpower of club members Back at the helm of Brighton Belle, headwinds, the boat’s motion became means we have an instant crew available, our concentration turned to the weather increasingly uncomfortable. South of the and we have the option to sail more because the forecast for the first stretch Isle of Wight, the visibility dropped and ambitious cruises than most home waters of the voyage to Falmouth, where I was dark clouds began building, threatening sailors would attempt. We welcome due to depart from the cruise, was less that a big wind was imminent. Photo: Julio Graham

The appeal of joint ownership The club appeals to sailors who no longer want the responsibility of sole ownership of a yacht or the hassle of finding crew to help to sail it. It is also popular with first-time owners who want to share the fun of owning a high-quality yacht and the adventures it brings, while learning from the experience of others. ‘My husband and daughter don’t share my passion for sailing so it’s impractical to own my own boat,’ says flag officer Liz Ingram. ‘This way I can mess around with boats in the winter and have fun cruising to new coasts and harbours whenever I choose, with a community of like-minded and experienced sailing friends.’ Dr Andrea and Werner Junker, the German couple I sailed with, found out about the scheme on a social media site

Brighton Belle on her home berth

and joined as guests to see how it worked. Andrea, a private occupational physician, works in the UK while her husband commutes to and from Germany at weekends. ‘The concept of Brighton Belle really appealed because it offers fantastic sailing and great value for money,’ she told me. ‘Our nomadic lifestyle is not ideal for sole boat ownership, so this is potentially a good option for us.’

The yacht It's nice to have the personal space of separate cabins. Sue shared hers with Liz

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Brighton Belle is a 55ft Kim Holmandesigned, cutter-rigged ketch built by Oyster Yachts in 1986. She is a superb sea boat

and performs well in big winds, when the flexible ketch rig offers a choice of canvas to suit the conditions. She’s easily capable of over 6 knots close-hauled. Downwind, it is not unusual to clock 10 or 11 knots. She has a huge, bright, teak-lined saloon with a traditional feel, copious amounts of headroom thanks to the raised deck saloon and eye-level windows all the way round. There is certainly no hot-bunking on Brighton Belle. There’s ample room for eight people to sleep comfortably in four separate cabins and an extra bunk in the saloon, making a total of nine berths.

HOME WATERS Brighton Belle is a cutter-rigged ketch designed for long-distance offshore sailing

The original plan was to slip into Portland to rest and wait for the system to pass through, leave early the next morning and negotiate Portland Race at slack tide. But, as with all plans, it was subject to change. A weather update indicated more manageable winds and a window before the next system arrived. To avoid getting stuck in Portland, a decision was made to continue overnight and reach Brixham by dawn. All went to plan but it was a taxing night at sea, with winds reaching 30 knots by 0300. While we, the crew, all suffered in the uncomfortable conditions, Brighton Belle was in her element and seemed keen to prove her ocean-going pedigree. With full mainsail and partly furled genoa, she lifted her skirts and ploughed on to provide a relatively stable ride in the relentless strong headwinds. Shattered after 24 hours at sea, we made our way to the visitor berth at Brixham marina, where we enjoyed a hot shower and a hearty cooked breakfast back on board. It was then time to bid farewell to the team as they prepared to sail to Plymouth later that day. After that short hop, they were stuck for the next two days while another nasty weather system passed through. Thankfully, the weather settled from there on and the team enjoyed a pleasant sail across the Irish Sea to begin their west coast of Ireland cruise. As to my initial prejudice against joint ownership, it was dispelled almost immediately I stepped aboard. By the end of my passage with the Brighton Belle Sailing Club, I was convinced. W

PHOTO: STEWART HENTON

Philip and Stewart make the sails ready as they talk through the plan for leaving harbour

Sue Pelling Sue is a freelance yachting journalist. She contributes to various magazines internationally and covers the Olympic Games, Cowes Week and other regattas. She is also the author of Sail for a Living, a comprehensive guide to careers in the marine industry. It was a tough passage and the crew were glad to enjoy warm showers and breakfast in Brixham JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 49

Cruising grounds

The Gulf of Kotor has fjords as spectacular as Norway’s, but basking in Mediterranean sun, and it remains a well-kept secret, says Theo Stocker

lack clouds swallowed the mountains whole. A white line of spray, the vanguard of a solid mass of wind, marched across the fjord before throwing itself amongst the rigging of yachts cowering in the marina. Heavy raindrops drummed down as well-heeled tourists retreated into chic cafés for shelter. This was hardly the sunshine and perfect breezes we expected from Montenegro in June, but the tempest was gone in an hour, and in two hours the Mediterranean heat was drying the quayside. When I first heard about the Gulf of Kotor, I had to check the map as I wasn’t sure exactly where Montenegro was. Once I’d seen the pictures, however, I knew I had to go. It is a small Slavic country, once part of communist Yugoslavia under Tito and then of Serbia but independent since 2006. It nestles on the shore of the Adriatic Sea, pinned between Croatia to

PHOTOS: THEO STOCKER

The unspoilt fjords of the Adriatic Adapting to the jet-set lifestyle in Porto Montenegro

the north, Albania to the south and the mountainous Balkan countries to the east. On the northerly end of its short coast, a deep inlet plunges between ever-steeper mountains, divided into four large bays by rocky narrows, with the Venetian city of Kotor sitting at the head of the gulf. It is all now protected by its clasification as a UNESCO world heritage site. Getting there was easy. My wife Georgie and I took a direct flight from London to Dubrovnik in Croatia, where we were met by a transfer to Porto Montenegro, just over an hour away. As we got closer, the landscape became steeper and rockier until, rounding a hill, the Gulf of Kotor sparkled deep turquoise in front of us. Small towns and villages teetered on the shoreline along a ribbon of road. Above them, dark mountains of verdant scrubland rose hundreds of metres to sharp limestone peaks, the highest mountains in the Adriatic.

Porto Montenegro The gulf’s largest leisure port sits on a low headland in the middle of the Gulf’s second bay, near Tivat. It has all-day sunlight unshaded by the mountains and is central to a wide sailing area. It’s built on an old Yugoslav naval base; the yacht club is in the old officers’ mess and the 60m lido fills what was once a submarine dock. We were staying in the Regent Hotel and for the next four days, we lived a jet-set lifestyle of restaurants and spas, bars and sailing. A tour of the bay by motor launch whisked us passed views once enjoyed by Byron: towering mountains with cumulus clouds bubbling in their lee over the land, centuries-old lighthouses, orthodox monasteries perched on little islands with palm trees and vines growing in their gardens, Venetian walled towns made rich by their trade with the Ottoman empire and dolphins playing in the fjord where cold fresh mountain streams mix with warm sea water. After a dip in the roof-top swimming pool, we dressed for dinner; a superb meal of local fish and excellent Montenegrin wine, followed by a digestif on the balcony of our palatial hotel room overlooking the old naval munitions basin, now a piazza and dock for the boats we would be sailing.

On the water

The town of Perast in the inner gulf is over 1,000 years old and was a major maritime trading hub 52 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

The next morning, I was itching to get afloat and explore the 33 square miles of pristine sailing waters on our doorstep. By midday a steady Force 3-4 Mistral had built from the south-west over the low hills on the coast. Iliya was to be our skipper. Cropped greying hair and weather-bronzed face but boyish agility on deck made his age hard to guess. Having been taught

Cruising grounds Surprisingly consistent winds blow throughout the Gulf of Kotor

BOSNIA & H E R Z EG OV I N A

C R O AT I A

Ancona

Split

SERBIA

MONTENEGRO

Dubrovnik

Porto Montenegro

A D R I AT I C S E A I T A L Y

Bari Naples

GREECE

CHART: MAXINE HEATH

Our Lady of the Rocks I. (Gospa od Skrpjela) 0

St George I. (Sveti Ðorde)

5nm

Perast

Kamenari

Verige Channel

Stari Grad C R

Porto Montenegro

Kotor

Gulf of Kotor

T I

Shallow bar

to sail by his uncle, he was steeped in the millennia-old maritime traditions of Montenegro and was a superb guide both to the boat and to the area. Had we stayed longer, and had the right paperwork, we could have sailed without a skipper. First, we jumped aboard a Tofinou 9.5, a sleek, 31ft carbon-and-teak gentleman’s dayboat. With elegant lines, a deep retractable fin keel, a large laminate mainsail and a self-tacking jib, she balanced brute power with genteel refinement. All the lines are led aft within reach of the helm, so you can sail her shorthanded. With sails set, she heeled gently and pointed high into the wind. Curved cockpit coamings of gleaming brightwork made sitting out comfortable, and the tiller was light and responsive. Bearing away onto a broad reach, the asymmetric went up and she accelerated smoothly, never out of control. Below decks, leather upholstery and more brightwork gave her Spartan interior a touch of minimalist class. She had sitting headroom, a small sink, basic instruments and a chemical toilet.

ALBANIA

We gybed down through the narrow Verige Channel, past the village of Kamenari, where chains were once slung across the narrows and could be pulled tight to snare enemy ships before they were shelled into submission. Off the town of Perast we rounded Our Lady of the Rocks and headed back into the wind. The breeze here was funneled by

Our Lady of Mercy I. (Gospa od Milosrða)

Marina Bonici Tivat Airport

San Marco I. (Sveti Marko)

A D R I AT I C S E A

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 53

Cruising grounds A high aspect ratio rig and a slender hull give the Tofinou a good pointing angle

Holiday options

Useful information

Hotel and sail

Montenegro enjoys the usual Mediterranean heat in the summer, and remains warm and pleasant throughout spring and autumn. English is widely and fluently spoken around the Gulf of Kotor. Although not yet an EU member, the Euro is the official currency.

The Regent Hotel offers simple, elegant luxury in 80 rooms or suites. its restaurants serve very good local food and wine. A spa, outdoor pools and lido offer the perfect place to relax. Our ‘deluxe’ room was the most basic, costing €200 (around £140) per night and was of palatial proportions, including a truly vast bed, well-equipped kitchenette and large bathroom. There are cafés and restaurants to suit all budgets in the Porto Montenegro village. Porto Montenegro’s keelboats can be chartered on a daily or weekly basis. Porto Montenegro Yacht Club also has extensive sports facilities and a range of dinghies and watercraft on which to explore the bay. The holiday offers top-end luxury, but if you avoid the peak summer season, the costs are comparable with a standard bareboat charter and flights (www. portomontenegro.com). Picture-postcard sailing conditions in the Gulf of Kotor

The Regent Hotel sits at the heart of the Porto Montenegro development

Go there in your own boat Porto Montenegro has a Yacht Assist team to help cruisers clear in once you are alongside. There’s a customs office in the marina and tax-free fuelling on departure day. The marina has 460 berths but will soon have 600 and a further 200 are planned. Non-charter crews berthed in the marina become ‘Crew Club’ members and receive a 10 per cent discount to the hotel, the spa and the restaurants. Half a mile beyond Porto Montenegro is a small marina and a boartyard (www. navaryacht.com) offering full marine services, a 200-tonne travel hoist and hard standing where boats can overwinter.

Yacht charter Few charter boats (and no flotillas) venture into Montenegro, but the country is within easy reach from charter bases in Dubrovnik and it’s easy to clear in and out. There are a few local charter companies and agents. Chartering from Montenegro saves around 13 per cent tax (VAT) compared to Croatia.

54 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Flights ■ Ryanair flies twice a week to Podgorica from London Stansted ■ Montenegrin Airlines flies into Tivat from London Gatwick (summer only) ■ Norwegian Airlines flies into Tivat from London Gatwick (via Oslo) ■ Several airlines also fly to Dubrovnik, 1½ hours from Porto Montenegro ■ A hire car from Dubrovnik for a week will cost €50 and a taxi €35

Charter fleets ■ Yachting Adria (Bar): www.yachtingadria.com ■ Parus-M (Kotor): www.parus-m.com ■ Yacht Voyage (Tivat, for catmarans): www.yachtvoyage.com ■ Several brokers also offer private yachts for charter in Montenegro

Publications ■ ADMiRALTY: Chart 1578 Croatia and Montenegro, Ulcinj to Boka Kotorska ■ iMRAY: Chart M27 Dubrovnik to Bar and Ulcinj ■ PiLOT: Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, East Coast of Italy, Albania, by Trevor and Dinah Thompson (imray, £32.50)

CRUISING GROUNDS The Blu26 on a fast spinnaker run back towards Porto Montenegro

Theo takes the helm of the Tofinou 9.5 – she’s beautifully refined and simple to sail The Blu26 was more of handful, but great fun to sail and there is a fleet for racing

ﬂecked the deck as we beat out towards the mouth of the gulf, past the old submarine pens carved into the mountainside, now used only for music festivals. Turning downwind, a large symmetric spinnaker powered through the chop, our wake trailing far astern. We ducked behind the small nature reserve island of San Marco before sailing back into Porto Montenegro with smiles plastered on our faces.

Navigation Striped lighthouses clearly indicate headlands

the mountains, and was starting to blow. It took concentration to keep the telltales flying evenly as the wind buffeted us from one side and the other. When the gusts hit, the Tofinou heeled slightly in a dignified manner and calmly accelerated again. She proved to be a fast, slippery boat, yet beguilingly relaxing to sail. The following day, we were out on the water with Iliya again, this time in a Blu26. Pared down to the bare minimum, this Swiss lake boat was set up for match racing with enough power to bite your hand off if you let her. An aggressive 50 per cent of her ballast is in the lead bulb at the bottom of the fin keel, and the whole boat weighed just over a tonne. With long narrow lines, low freeboard and a sharp bow, she’s built for speed on flat water. With no anchor, berths, or even an engine, there are no concessions to cruising, but these privations are quickly forgotten amidst the sheer fun of sailing her. She heeled on her narrow beam until the weight of the keel kicked in. The sails were easily trimmed with control lines galore for dinghy-style tweaking. Spray

Pilotage couldn’t be simpler. There are four large bays, each connected by a narrow channel, clearly marked with striped lighthouses, usually accompanied by an old cottage or a monastery. Most of the gulf has a depth of at least 30m and rocks do not extend far from shore. There is only one navigation hazard in the whole gulf – a tongue of submerged rock protruding 50m west of San Marco island near Tivat. Although it’s clearly marked with a large stone beacon and light, a number of boats still try to cross it every year and come off worse for wear. Anchoring is allowed throughout the fjord, except along the shores of the narrow channels and this is clearly marked by inverted anchor symbols painted on walls on the foreshore. A number of bays offer moorings. There are some public quays but most are private, so yachts generally anchor off, though you can sometimes agree to moor for a small fee. Good anchorages depend on the wind direction, but north- and east-facing shores are a good bet. San Marco offers the most shelter from all wind directions but everywhere else is reasonably sheltered, and the wind fades completely overnight.

A number of islands are dotted around inside the bay. The most iconic is Our Lady of the Rocks, with its tiny terracottadomed church and miniature harbour. Next to it is Sveti Ðorde (St George), one of two active 12th Century Benedictine monasteries along with Gospa od Milosrda (Our Lady of Mercy) tucked behind San Marco (also called Sveti Marko). The summer Mistral sea breeze gets up around noon, blowing Force 2-4, stronger around headlands. Squalls do occasionally blow through, but are short-lived and are well forecast. The northerly Bora wind usually blows only in winter, bringing bigger squalls and longer lasting storms. Only one brief squall interrupted the perfect weather in which we basked. We left wishing we had more time to explore the country. We’d hardly scratched the surface of the history along the coast. As a start point for a charter holiday in the Adriatic, or even as base for a cruising sailor, Montenegro seems to leave little to be desired. For a hotel-and-sail holiday combining sheer luxury with time on the water, I can’t think of anywhere better. W

Our Lady of the Rocks church sits on an island augmented with rocks placed there by locals JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 55

Readersg’ Cruisin Stories

Yachting Monthly’s founder Herbert Reiach wrote in the first issue in 1906:

‘We shall be glad to receive the best logs and cruising stories offered to us from all parts of the world’ 109 years later, nothing’s changed! We’re still publishing your cruising stories

PLEASE SEND YOUR STORIES TO yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com PHOTOS: COURTESY OF RAYMOND BOWEN

Sailing south via Calais and Paris Tackling some of the busiest French inland waterways singlehanded is no mean feat

After crossing the English Channel and unstepping the mast in Calais, Casabella and I were prepared for our next adventure: navigating the French canals to the Mediterranean. But in truth, I had no idea what to expect. The next morning as I approached the turning for the Liaison Dunkerque-Escaut on the River Aa, a few kilometres from Watten, Casabella stopped dead in the water for a split second with a loud, low thud coming from beneath me. I immediately put the throttle into neutral and froze in a contorted position, concentrating on the noises and

The Canal de St Quentin was idyllic but it looked dilapidated in places

Casabella’s propellor was badly fouled by plastic bags and ropes

vibrations from within the boat. The engine sounded ﬁne, so I tried to accelerate again but Casabella hardly moved. Panicked, I managed to moor up on the bank, then checked the

Vessels must be towed with engines off in the Riqueval tunnel 56 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

engine oil and the water strainer, the fuel and the bilges. All ﬁne, so I started the engine again and checked the exhaust. Still everything seemed ﬁne. Half an hour later I decided I had to head back to Calais where I knew they had a crane. With an average speed of one knot and limited steerage to starboard this took almost three days. I arrived

back at Calais on a Sunday and with a Saint’s day on the Monday, the chandlery that operated the crane was shut. Finally on Tuesday morning Casabella was lifted out and to my relief it was just a black plastic bag full of grass and rope that had wrapped around the propeller. The only damage was to my wallet. With Casabella’s propeller

Emerging from the other side of the Riqueval tunnel, thankfully unscathed

free from grass and plastic, I set off at the earliest opportunity. Determined to make up for lost time I decided to take the Canal du Nord, but at Arleux I was warned by a lady on a barge that there was a five-hour queue for the lock up ahead and that the Canal de St Quentin was much nicer anyway. I turned around and headed towards my new destination, checking the Fluviacarte as I went and Finally approaching the beginning to worry about the Eiffel Tower made the number of locks and the tunnel excitement of the Seine that requires a tow. seem worthwhile My anxiety soon disappeared as I encountered the beauty of the Canal de St Quentin, travelling through small quaint villages and slow-paced towns. The canal is now rarely used by commercial barges and the surroundings provide a tranquil and relaxed backdrop. It is not without its challenges, though: the locks are no longer manned and you are given a remote control, which works most of the time. But when it doesn’t, you can be left in a lock for up to an hour waiting to create almost unbearably large for assistance. More wash. I was concerned about the worrying is what lurks impact of the continuous rolling beneath the water and of the mast on the A-frame, and what is laying across it: with few moorings and a constant large metal rods poked headwind, the trip into the centre out from the water a of Paris was a tentative one. metre from the bank in After a night opposite the Île one place, and semides Impressionnistes, I made the Casabella’s mast was unstepped in Calais, submerged shopping trip upstream into the centre of but Ray had to return for a complete lift-out trolleys can be seen Paris under a cloudless sky. I was near the towns. At one soon surrounded by commercial point a fallen tree was blocking I enjoyed the rest of my cruise barges, river cruisers, restaurant three-quarters of the width of the through the Canal and a turn barges and ferries; poor Casabella canal and the state of ‘possible down the River Oise brought was thrown about non-stop. But moorings’ and subsided banks me to the Seine at Conflansthe awe-inspiring architecture, were just the most visible signs Ste-Honorine. After the smaller, monuments and skyline eased my of neglect. less commercial canals I was worries: the Eiffel Tower, Grand From Cambrai I set off for the unprepared for the wide, wild and Palais, Musée D’Orsay and Louvre 5.6km Riqueval tunnel, through busy River Seine. The supersize were all impressive sights. which vessels are towed by barges take advantage of the I passed alongside the Île a chain ferry. As if the horror increased speed limit of 14 knots de la Cité and the magnificent stories of boats being thrown against the sides didn’t have me worried enough, I also didn’t have the required length of rope Raymond Bowen, 28, from Broom, for the towlines, so I had to tie Bedfordshire, first set foot on a sailing my mooring lines together to boat to complete his RYA competent crew make the 2 x 30m towlines. I was course in February 2013. He earned his positioned at the end of the tow, Day Skipper practical ticket a few months behind a five-metre-wide peniche later, followed by his Yachtmaster theory barge and a Dutch motorboat. certificate and has spent many weekends As no engines are allowed, I was practicing up and down the River Crouch worried about being able to stop aboard Casabella, his 1972 bilge-keeled in time at the other end, so I tied Snapdragon 24. He is self-employed and a bucket to a line off my stern. plans to work while cruising the Med, The chain ferry set off at 2 knots eventually ending up in the Dodecanese. and it took just over 90 minutes to pass through without incident.

Notre Dame, heading for Port l’Arsenal. I had almost made it through unscathed, when, in the entrance lock, a Swedish-ﬂagged Vancouver 36 hit my stern, forcing Casabella’s bow to swing straight into their protruding anchor. Thankfully, the only damage was to a stanchion – another item on the list for when I reach the Med. Casabella seemed to be the smallest boat in the Arsenal and as I returned aboard that evening, an English couple asked with interest about my route. After giving them a brief outline of my journey, the lady asked: ‘What was the hardest part? Crossing the Channel singlehanded? Working all of those locks?’ I contemplated brieﬂy and replied simply: ‘Casting off.’

Raymond Bowen

Passing écluses (locks) singlehanded takes practice and can be exhausting

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 57

ARCTIC PILOTAGE

In East Greenland, the ice decides M

y first attempt to reach East Greenland was in 1998, when we sat off the ice-edge waiting for a lead until my nerve snapped and we ran back to Iceland for shelter. Over my subsequent five voyages to this coast, covering an area from 65° to 72°N, the ice did allow us through. In fact, the leads opened earlier each season, supporting the evidence of accelerating ice-melt due to climate change and tempting a small but increasing number of sailors into this brutally spectacular land of fjords, glaciers and mountains. Then, this season, the rules changed again. Pack ice clogged the entire coastline from the polar basin right down to Cape Farewell. Months of planning came to nought as we sat in Isafjordur in the Horn of Iceland waiting for the break that refused to open until we ran out of time and had to head homeward. Every sailor knows that it’s dangerous to talk about a plan. That’s a sure way to amuse the sea-gods who like nothing better than messing it up. After five successful seasons I was getting used to claiming credit for the smooth unfolding Spectacular mountain scenery with bergs and pack ice making their way to the sea

58 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

of a carefully devised strategy. Others less kind might say it was the random grasping of any opportunity that came our way to get there and back. The truth lies somewhere in between. In planning a cruise to East Greenland, preparation and careful study of ice-conditions are essential, and while some risk to boat and crew must be accepted, the ﬂipside of any plan is knowing when to abandon it. Perhaps a dip into my logs and photo ﬁles from various voyages to Greenland will show the mix of hazard and delight that keeps drawing me back to a coast that has held me spellbound over the years. In 2009 I was able to circumnavigate what had once been a headland. Due to global warming the glacier connecting it to the mainland ice had melted, thus creating the appropriately named Warming Island. Three years later, in 2012, heavy ice off Liverpool Land forced us to turn back for the comparative shelter of Scoresbysund. This was a hard decision to make because

PHOTOS: BRIAN BLACK

Glaciers in East Greenland may be melting faster than anywhere else in the world but, as Brian Black discovered, global warming doesn’t always allow a yacht to get there

the voyage had been planned around the idea of starting where we’d left off in 2009. This time, a minor fjord where we had charted an anchorage on our previous visit was clogged with pack-ice. To make matters worse, the wind was up, pushing us headlong into extensive areas of large floes the size of football pitches, the narrow gaps between them closing rapidly as we surged along. I picked the biggest gap and went for it, hoping that in the lee of the floes we would find open water to the northward. It was immediately obvious that ice concentrations blocked our route ahead so the only option was to run along the edge of the pack and out to sea before heading southabout for a long, hard slog to Amdrup Havn in Scoresbysund for shelter and rest. Whatever plan I’d had was now in tatters, it would take time for the ice to open sufficiently to resume the voyage

ARCTIC PILOTAGE My previous boat, Caelan, making the ďŹ rst ever circumnavigation of Warming Island. The glacier was once connected to the mainland ice

north. But an attractive fallback was in prospect, we would explore the upper reaches of Scoresbysund around Milne Land â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and that was how I learnt the lesson of collapsing icebergs! The statistical probability of a berg breaking up just as you get the anchor dug in is slight, so the drama when it came had us frozen in fear and awe. The crack, whoosh and surge of water lifting the boat, then dropping her into a maelstrom of icy chunks as the berg capsized, left no-one in any doubt. This was an anchorage that left a lot to be desired. Compounding matters, the charts were inaccurate, the plotter often putting us on land, and the seabed sheered from no soundings to a clear view of the bottom within a few metres of the shore. We had made it through to Greenland but, for a time at any rate, were wishing we were tucked up

Our anchorage became a dangerous place when a berg chose to break up alongside Seafra

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 59

ARCTIC pIloTAge

Seafra at anchor in Jyttes Havn. The Stauning Alps make the perfect backdrop

safely back home in Strangford Lough. The only charted anchorage of significance is Hecla Havn, a lagoon protected by a shallow entrance that prevents the bigger bergs from drifting in. This provides perfect shelter from big ice but on my most recent visit in 2013 it gave no protection from another more persistent and threatening menace – mosquitoes. Never before have I been troubled in Greenland by these beasts, but on this occasion they made up for it. They descended in clouds, fed lustily on any exposed flesh and followed us to the boat where they colonised the interior,

creating a nightmare that lasted for days. An anchorage that warms my winter nights is Jyttes Havn in the Bjorn Oer group of islands. We arrived late at night as the sun was dipping behind the huge cathedral cliffs and rocky spires of the Stauning Alps on the nearby mainland. When full light returned in the early hours it revealed a stunning panorama with the distant inland ice curled over the mountaintops like frosting on a Christmas cake. And all around, an amazing array of wild flowers and mosses along with avens, saxifrage, cinquefoil and fireweed, the national flower of Greenland, making

Moraine rubble and a mountain stream pushed the ice away from Seafra as it left the fjord on a falling tide

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Mosquito bites on David McKee’s arm. They turned our anchorage into a nightmare

the most of the brief Arctic summer. Another year when the ice broke early we went looking for new anchorages along the Liverpool Land coast. We nibbled into Storefjord – long, narrow and deep. Sharp eyes watched for hidden rocks as cloud tumbled off the mountains, the forerunner of a screaming katabatic wind that laid us on our beam ends. With all sails furled we motored on, looking for a minor fjord where there was the possibility of shelter. A line from the log sums it up: ‘Huge peaks with hanging glaciers and immense emptiness, all very intimidating.’ I picked a spot in the lee of an old moraine, which had dumped piles of rocks and gravel into the fjord forming a barrier between the boat and major ice concentrations up ahead. Lady Luck was with us. With the anchor down, dinner on the table and a few sips from our fast diminishing bonded stores, we relaxed – though not for long. Without warning there was the sound like a train roaring towards us. Ice, graunching and crashing, swept past us at around three knots, with much more to come. To my amazement, what had appeared as fast ice had chosen this moment to detach itself from the head of the fjord and with

ARCTIC PILOTAGE

PHOTO: VIDAR KRISTINSSON

a falling tide was heading out to sea. The gravel spit saved us by diverting the ice so that it crunched its way along our starboard side, open water and the shore a few metres away to port. There was absolutely nothing we could do about it except pray. Then, just as I was thanking whatever sea-gods had prompted me to choose this spot to anchor, a female bear and her two cubs appeared. The situation had developed with seamless and rapid progress from a drama to a potential crisis. Luckily, a plump seal on a nearby floe proved more appealing, and we got only an interested glance as they passed us by. Then there’s the question of charts. Those that do exist for East Greenland are woefully out of date, mostly from the 1930s, and for big ship navigation anyway. Pilotage is therefore based on a composite of paper charts, the chartplotter and land maps, which are surprisingly accurate. One occasion that comes to mind was when approaching what appeared to be a wall of solid rock where the words Neild Bugt on the chart indicated an anchorage of some sort. I was navigating more on instinct than with any degree of certainty. Suddenly the entrance to a perfectly sheltered, landlocked bay was open before us and in we went. Low-lying cliffs to starboard, a glacier that appeared stable up ahead, a gently sloping snowfield and below it, a flowing stream to replenish our water tanks. Perfect. Again I quote from the log. ‘… you make the right call and no-one says a word, get it wrong and suddenly everyone is an expert.’ My reward was the cracking of a few cans of beer and the expressions of delight on the faces of my companions, there was no need for words. This season we met a handful of boats – several French, one Finn and a couple of Dutch – hoping to make it to East Greenland. We did not see any other British-flagged Aurora at anchor under the Northern Lights vessel intent on getting there, though I understand that Hummingbird, to Siggi, the ice that gave all the trouble out of Gosport, got to Ammassalik. The this year was the storis – gatherings of ice Irish yacht Ar Seachrán struggled through coming from the high north. This is multithe pack-ice, and an extract from her log year ice from large fields or from the Polar illustrates the difficulties encountered. Basin itself. It takes several storms blowing ‘Tuesday, 1000: Sea temperature dropped down the Denmark Strait to break it up from 8°C to 3°C in about an hour… 1930: and these didn’t occur until late August. Met 2-3/10ths ice… 23.00: Too much The generally accepted optimum time to heavy ice exposure, polar bear 100 metres get into East Greenland is around the third distant, going back out to sea.’ They finally week of July, although in recent years there made anchor and had four days of climbing was access from late June or early July. and exploring but the pattern of pack-ice For us on Boandaro, the 48ft Bowman blocking access to the coast remained. I crewed on last year, this information A source of knowledge for these waters was largely of academic interest. After is Sigurdur Jonsson, ‘Siggi’, an Icelandic months of planning and preparation, charter skipper who I have got to know a long slog from the Solent and a well over the years, and his specially frustrating wait in Isafjordur, we had to adapted 65ft yacht Aurora. ‘Some of the accept defeat and head for home, sadder local hunters say you have to go back to but wiser. In the end, when it comes to an the sixties or seventies to find so much ice East Greenland cruise, it will be the this late in the season,’ he said. According ice that decides. W

Boandaro heading for home after the 2015 attempt to reach East Greenland

Fireside reading and more, much more… I was sitting by the ﬁre the other night, sipping whiskey and thinking about Fata Morgana – and before you jump to conclusions, this is an optical illusion occurring in the Arctic that can make objects like cliffs appear where there aren’t any. The explanation, along with just about everything you need to know about ice, appears in Arctic and Northern Waters, edited by Andrew Wilkes and published by the Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation/Imray, at £60. The book spans the northern high latitudes ranging across Faroe, Iceland and Greenland and then to the NorthWest and North-East Passages. For armchair voyagers it’s a compelling volume that takes the reader into waters that few will trave. For those who go there, this is essential reading. Some of the harbours and anchorages are familiar to me, but the quality and clarity of the information adds signiﬁcantly to qualify this as a vital part of the library for any skipper heading in that direction. Of particular interest is the chapter on ice navigation. The RCCPF deserves great credit for this and other publications in the series. BB JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 61

ARCTIC PILOTAGE

What you need to know about Greenland

If you carry a gun, someone needs to know how to use it

Boat & crew preparation The boat must be sound and spares brought for every conceivable need. ■ Medical kit including dental repairs and antibiotics – essential ■ Insurance, if you can get it ■ Medivac cover ■ This is the Arctic, you will need heaters ■ Ice poles to push off growlers ■ As much anchor chain as can be carried ■ Plenty of layers of thermal clothing and good headwear, as well as oversize boots and waterproof, insulated gloves. ■ Sat phone and MF radio ■ Radar

Layers of thermal clothing, quality oilskins, and good headgear and gloves are essential

Provisioning

‘More sailors are being tempted into this brutally spectacular land’

You’ll need stores and fuel for the longest passage, across the North Atlantic to Iceland, about 600 miles. ■ Fresh food is readily available in Iceland. Alcohol costs are prohibitive, so ask Customs for a bond ■ The boat needs to be self-sufﬁcient for the

Warming I.

Jyttes Havn

Liverpool Land

Hecla Havn

Denmark S t ra i t Arctic Circle

Ammassalik (Tasiilaq)

CHART: MAXINE HEATH

Cape Farewell

62 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

100nm

Amdrup Havn Scoresbysund

Alternative routes

Polar bears Bring a gun, preferably a riﬂe but at least a shotgun capable of ﬁring solid rounds, and make sure someone on board knows how to use it. Study whatever you can on polar bear behaviour and take advice, especially from Inuit hunters, about what to do in the event of an encounter.

planned stay in Greenland, although fuel is available at Ittoqqortoormiit and Ammassalik (Tasiilaq)

Ice ■ During a ‘normal’ year, expect to meet the ﬁrst big bergs about 100 miles from Iceland ■ Ice off the Greenland coast can be anything from open drift to major concentrations up to 30 miles off ■ Consider two to three tenths of ice as the maximum safety limit ■ Check with Danish Metrological Institute ‘egg’ charts for the latest information and satellite photographs ■ Fog, ice and strong winds are common close to Scoresbysund

Charts I use Danish charts along with land-maps from the Viking Polar Cruise series. Isafjordur has excellent facilities, including an airport with ﬂights to Reykjavik

Stornoway, in the Outer Hebrides, is the ideal jump-off point. InIsa favourable conditions the direct route to the Westman Islands (see p64) Ris ideal, but in unsettled weather going via Faroe and East Iceland makes sense, Heimaey although this will be against the prevailing current. Isafjordur, in the West Fjords of Iceland, gives a choice of destinations – north towards Scoresbysund or west to Anmassalik, both about 300 miles across the Denmark Strait. I have always returned by North Iceland and Faroe to reduce the periods at sea, making it easier on the crew.

PHOTO: ALAMY

Storefjord

Ittoqqortoormiit

Milne Land

Neild Bugt

PHOTO: ALAMY

Reﬂecting now on my experience of exploring this landscape seldom seen by human eyes, I struggle to make sense of the contradictions. The starting point of any voyage to East Greenland is in the preparation of boat and crew.

+ " ,,, "- -- "

. " " " " -

ARCTIC pIloTAge Photos: Brian BlaCk

A perfect landfall in Iceland The Westman Islands make an ideal stop for a yacht cruising Iceland and then onwards to Greenland, says Brian Black

t might even have been one of my Celtic ancestors who first took shelter on the cluster of volcanic islands off Iceland’s south-west corner. According to the sagas, a bunch of Irish slaves rose up against their masters on the mainland then sought refuge on the uninhabited island of Heimaey. Not a good plan. They were hunted down and killed, thus entering posterity as the ‘Westmen’, hence Vestmannaeyjar. That was in the 9th century AD. Some time later, British privateers used the islands as their base in the North Atlantic, until in the mid-1500s when the Danes kicked them out. After that, the

A lone puffin looks towards Smaeyjar, one of the offlying islands

Barbary pirates came calling and took away more than 200 people, some to be sold as slaves, others as concubines. The point behind this potted history is that the Vestmannaeyjar (63°26’N 20°16’W) occupy a strategic location on the sea route to Iceland and onwards to Greenland. This held good throughout history and they are particularly relevant to smallboat seafarers today. I have made landfall on the Vestmannaeyjar for each voyage Faxasker

W e s t m a n I s l a n d s (Vestmannaeyjar) Heimaey Harbour

Smáeyjar

Vestmannaeyjar Eldfell 1,000m

H E I M A E Y

Arctic Circle

Photo: sarah BroWn

Chart: Maxine heath

Isafjordur Keflavic Harbour Reykanes

ICELAND

Reykjavik

Heimaey

Westman Is.

See main chart

Álfsey

Brandur Suðurey

64 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

north over the past years because they are the nearest point of land between Ireland or Scotland and Iceland. As a result they reduce exposure to the fitful and frequently violent winds of the North Atlantic. My point of departure depends on local conditions in late June or early July. If the weather is unsettled I would head up through the Scottish islands to Barra in the Outer Hebrides or sail Elliðaey into Stornoway with its welcoming marina and well stocked supermarkets. If calm conditions prevail I leave my home port of Strangford, work the tides up the North Channel Bjarnarey and keep going for the voyage of 670 miles on a course of north by north-west, roughly the same distance as it is from the Scottish points of departure but not including the time and mileage getting to them. Either way, careful study of GRIB files and various weather websites will give a reasonable prediction over the six or seven days you should allow for the passage. However, I need to strike a cautionary

The author’s yacht Séafra powering on towards the Westman Islands

ARCTIC pIloTAge The all-weather port of Heimaey showing the entrance to the yacht harbour off the arriving ship’s port beam

note here. The south-west corner the puffin colonies along the coast. A of Iceland can be a windy place and hike up the Helgafell track takes you is prone to the influence of weather past Eldfell, which erupted in 1973 systems coming off Greenland so, with near-disastrous consequences when looking at synoptic charts, be for Heimaey. The entire population alert for any sign of a disturbance was evacuated overnight with only the that might be developing in that emergency services remaining. Heroic area. I have taken some serious efforts were made to save the town. bashings on this passage and as a Even today one can see where the result tend to be cautious and alert lava stopped just short of the suburbs. to possible problems. Last season, Another flow, brought to a halt when even though nothing to cause alarm firemen played their hoses on the showed on the websites, a blow came molten emissions, threatened to block out of nowhere to hit the islands the harbour entrance and would have 24 hours before we arrived, while A ship passing the point where lava nearly choked the port devastated the entire island economy, the worst we had on the passage which depends on its fishing industry. was around Force 6 from the south-west. sail Icelandic waters although, strictly In good time you will want to press on. That said, the Vestmannaeyjar make for a speaking, advance notice of your intentions The Irminger current sweeps clockwise perfect landfall. As luck has had it, most should have been given to Customs HQ around Iceland, so heading on west is of my arrivals have been in the early hours in Reykjavik well ahead of your expected to go with the flow. This can give you a with the sun on the rise, giving a dramatic arrival. Fuel and water can then be lift of up to two knots, which is useful silhouette to the 18 islets, islands and arranged, with well-stocked supermarkets when rounding Reykanes, 68miles from rocks that make up the archipelago. nearby to top up stores, albeit at prices Heimaey. But another cautionary note The main and only inhabited island that will make your eyes water. here – beware of getting caught in a is Heimaey, with its outliers of Ellidaey As a port of arrival, Heimaey, the wind-against-tide situation. Most of what and Bjarnarey clearly visible with deep only harbour of significance along the you need to know is published in the RCC water between. Heading into the harbour inhospitable south coast of Iceland, is Pilotage Foundation’s Arctic and Northern entrance, be sure to keep the red channel growing in popularity. Around 50 visiting Waters pilot, published by Imray, an buoy to port to clear lava deposits running boats put in there last season – most were essential companion along with up-to-date from the shore. A breakwater runs from German and French, a few Poles, plus charts backed up with a good chartplotter. the opposite shore to starboard and shortly a handful of British yachts. Like most After that, it is a matter of choice. Sail after that is the turn for the inner harbour. islanders, the locals are resourceful and to Keflavic harbour, near the international The new pontoon on the south side is self-reliant. On the odd occasion when airport on the mainland for a crew change, intended for visitors. If this is congested, I have needed repair work done to the round to Reykjavik for the delights of tie alongside a moored boat and seek out boat, they have been more than helpful. Iceland’s capital city, or press on towards the harbourmaster who will find a space I generally allow three days at least for the West Fjords. Iceland is a rewarding for you and contact a customs official a visit to Vestmannaeyjar to provide time place to visit and the Vestmannaeyjar on your behalf to arrange clearance to for some wonderful cliff walks and visits to make a wonderful start. W JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 65

BOATS & EQUIPMENT

TRIED AND TESTED Duncan Kent takes B&G’s latest compact plotter to sea to check out its advanced features

&G’s latest waterproof touch-screen multifunction display can be installed as a stand-alone plotter or networked with other sailing instruments via NMEA-2000 wiring. The V7 also has WiFi and Bluetooth – the former for downloading updates directly, the latter for connecting to a remote device such as an

PHOTOS: GRAHAM-SNOOK.COM

B&G Vulcan V7 multi-function chartplotter

own is when it’s connected to the yacht’s NMEA-2000 network. With access to boatspeed and wind data, combined with the tidal current information stored on the chart, it can calculate a number of complicated functions using its clever SailSteer feature. SailSteer ‘learns’ your best pointing and tacking angles from your instruments, or you can enter a polar diagram from the boat’s designer or builder in advance. Tidal current can also be taken into consideration when calculating tack angles. The Vulcan can then overlay laylines onto the chart, showing you the optimum tacking angles, as well as historic tack data. There’s also a compass rose that shows the true and/or apparent wind angles using large arrows around its outer circumference, and the tide speed and direction as a large arrow at the centre. Although you might consider this a racing feature, when use in conjunction with course over groung (COG) and heading vectors it can save you a lot of time and effort when trying to make an early landfall or reach a tidal gate.

‘It can calculate a number of complicated functions using its clever SailSteer feature’ iPad or Android tablet running Navico’s Go-Free app. As a stand-alone chartplotter it offers all the usual navigation features, including a large waypoint and route memory, and autopilot integration. It also has an integral high-speed GPS receiver and can run Navionics or C-Map cartography, which is stored on a MicroSD card in the back, under a waterproof cover. But this unit comes into its

OUR VERDICT The Vulcan is a great little unit with almost as many smart features as B&G’s full-blown Zeus range of MFDs, if it’s hooked up to a NMEA2000 network. The touchscreen works well, but we didn’t ﬁnd the menu system entirely intuitive.

PROS ■ Bright, clear and responsive touchscreen

■ Very useful functions

for sailing boats ■ Tablet and smartphone compatible with GoFree app

66 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

8/10

CONS ■ No NMEA-0183 port ■ Can’t connect two together

■ Menu logic not entirely intuitive

In SailSteer mode, it works out your best tacking angles

Like any other touchscreen plotter, it’s a bit awkward to operate in a rough sea

The rose can either be overlaid on the chart or put into a separate window. When overlaid, we found it tended to obscure the chart in busy waters. Alongside the chart display you can have a vertical window repeating all the instrument data on the network, as well as current location, SOG, cross-track error, heading, waypoint bearing, time to waypoint and SailTime (route time and distance when using the SailSteer laylines). Or you can dedicate the entire screen as an instrument repeater and just toggle between the chart and instrument displays. To customise display windows, you just drag and drop the feature you want. I found it tricky at ﬁrst to get the split I wanted; the operating system isn’t entirely straightforward, but after a while I had what I needed. The V7’s 7in display is bright, crystal clear and has just the right level of sensitivity when touched.

On the water Personally, I prefer a chartplotter with buttons and knobs as well as a touchscreen – it’s not easy to use a touchscreen in rough weather. But if you’ve preprogrammed your route there’s little you need to change, unless you need to edit the route. The SailSteer function is easy to use and eliminates the common temptation to tack too early to clear a shoal or headland. The rose shows an arc of green and red, the width of which depends on the historical wind data. The proposed laylines became very accurate, bringing us with 20m of our intended waypoint.

Price From £699 Contact B&G Tel 01794 510010 Web www.bandg.com

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Sailing alone around the Cape of Good Hope at Christmas Joshua Slocum gets a dunking as he discovers that wind and waves pay little heed to Christmas

he Cape of Good Hope was now the most prominent point to pass. From Table Bay I could count on the aid of brisk trades, and then the Spray would soon be at home. On the ﬁrst day out from Durban it fell calm, and I sat thinking about these things and the end of the voyage. The distance to Table Bay, where I intended to call, was about eight hundred miles over what might prove a rough sea. Gales of wind sweeping round the cape even now were frequent enough, one occurring, on an average, every thirty-six hours; but one gale was much the same as another, with no more serious result than to blow the Spray along on her course when it was fair, or to blow her back somewhat when it was ahead. On Christmas 1897, I came to the pitch of the cape. On this day the Spray was trying to stand on her head, and she gave me every reason

to believe that she would accomplish the feat before night. She began very early in the morning to pitch and toss about in a most unusual manner, and I have to record that, while I was at the end of the bowsprit reeﬁng the jib, she ducked me underwater three times for a Christmas box. I got wet and did not like

keeper of the light on Agulhas exchanged signals with the Spray as she passed, and afterward wrote to me at New York congratulations on the completion of the voyage. He seemed to think the incident of two ships of so widely different types passing his cape together worthy of a place on canvas, and he went about having the picture made. So I gathered from his letter. At lonely stations like this hearts grow responsive and sympathetic, and even poetic. This feeling was shown toward the Spray along many a rugged coast, and reading many a kind signal thrown out to her gave one a grateful feeling for all the world. One more gale of wind came down upon the Spray form the west after she passed Cape Agulhas, but that one she dodged by getting into Simons Bay. When it moderated she beat around The Cape of Good Hope. The voyage then seemed as good as ﬁnished; from this time on I knew that all, or nearly all, would be plain sailing. From the recent

PHOTO: ALAMY

‘While I was at the end of the bowsprit reeﬁng the jib, she ducked me underwater three times’ it a bit; never in any other sea was I put under more than once in the same short space of time. A large English steamer passing ran up the signal, ‘Wishing you a Merry Christmas.’ I think the captain was a humorist; his own ship was throwing her propeller out of the water. Two days later, the Spray, having recovered the distance lost in the gale, passed Cape Agulhas in company with the steamship Scotsman, now with a fair wind. The

About the author Joshua Slocum (1844-1909) ran away from his Nova Scotia home aged 14 and joined the merchant navy, beginning a lifetime at sea. He climbed the ranks before commanding severeal ship and eventually owning his own vessles. He brought up his family at sea but his ﬁrst wife died in 1884 and

68 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

his second wife enjoyed life at sea much less, moving ashore in Boston, Massachusetts. There Slocum rebuilt a 37ft gaff-rigged oyster boat named Spray for a round-the-world voyage, for which he had a book deal. He set off in April 1895, returning three years later, but never settled into domestic life. He sailed for South America in November 1909 and was never seen again, presumed lost at sea.

hard weather the Spray ran into a calm under Table Mountain, where she lay quietly till the generous sun rose over the land and drew breeze in from the sea. On the following morning the Spray sailed into the Alfred dry docks, where she remained while I traveled the country over from Simons Town to Pretoria. The trip to Kimberley, Johannesburg, and Pretoria was a pleasant one. At the last-named place I met Mr Kruger, the Transvaal president. His Excellency received me cordially enough, but my friend Judge Beyers, the gentlemen who presented me, by mentioning that I was on a voyage around the world, unwittingly gave great offence to the venerable statesman, which we both regretted deeply. Mr Kruger corrected the judge rather sharply, reminding him that the world is ﬂat. My friend the judge seemed embarrassed, but I was delighted; this incident pleased me more than anything else. W

Saling Alone Around the World was ﬁrst published in 1899 and has been recently re-published by Adlard Coles, on sale for £8.99

GEAR TEST PHOTO: GRAHAM-SNOOK.COM

A weather station at the chart table gives useful data to supplement the Shipping Forecast

WEATHER STATIONS

Knowing the weather makes a sailor’s life easier, so why not buy a weather station? Duncan Kent tests eight models

hat sailor wouldn’t like a better understanding of the weather? There are many weather stations on the market, suitable for installation either on a boat or at home, offering useful local data to supplement and help us interpret the ofﬁcial marine forecasts we rely on. Some are pretty basic, others measure wind speed and direction and rainfall. Some have a USB port to transfer data to a computer for analysis.

All eight units on test have a barometer. The basic models have a base station and a wireless, battery-powered temperature and humidity sensor. But for

First, we set up all of the units together. Some of the basic sets just have a single temperature/humidity sensor, which only needed pairing up with the base station – pretty simple provided you remember to boot up the sensor before the display. The multiple sensors of the more complex units needed to be assembled onto a pole, plugged together (unless wholly wireless) and powered up. It’s not difﬁcult if you carefully follow the instructions. Most stations came with all the mountings required, other than a tall pole to get them clear of obstructions. With the sensors sorted, we programmed the base units with local data, altitude offset, alarm thresholds and preferred units, then ran them alongside each other, noting any anomalies, and compared them with observational data from a nearby professional weather station.

If you set up a weather station at home, it needs to be high up to measure wind speed/direction

PHOTO: DUNCAN KENT

What to look for

those with wind and rain sensors as well, the word wireless is somewhat blurred. Some are entirely wirelessly linked, each sensor having its own power and transmitter. Others link by cables to a central transmitter, which is also the temperature and humidity transducer. These units are not speciﬁcally designed for boats, but I‘ve installed similar ones on each of my last three boats, with no problems – you just have to be sensible about how you mount things. Most of the sensors are waterproof; there’s no 12Vdc input but the batteries last at least a year, often closer to two. A fully marine-spec weather station with comparable features would cost more than £1,000.

How we tested them

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 69

GEAR TEST

Products tested

Eight weather stations, from £20 to £150

Maplin AO1QX Wireless £19.95 This is a smart-looking desktop unit with a colour display and large numerals and icons that really stand out – provided

there’s not too much ambient light. It can be powered by three AA batteries, but it also comes with a mains power supply that

PHOTOS: DUNCAN KENT

5/10

probably saves a lot of batteries as I suspect the display is quite power-hungry. Measuring internal and external temperature and humidity, a remote sensor is supplied. This has a small LCD screen (showing outside temperature and humidity) and is powered by two AAA batteries. Despite the battery compartment being screwed down with four screws, there is no O-ring or seal and it deﬁnitely isn’t waterproof (as we discovered). The screws just make changing the batteries more tedious. The unit shows the current air pressure numerically, as well as providing a small historic bar chart giving the previous 12 hours’ readings. It needs to be calibrated initially, which is simple enough using the ‘Baro’ keys on the back. It also gives maximum and minimum

The remote sensor has its own small LCD screen

readings for both temperature and humidity, inside and out. Other features include time (12h/24h), date and two different alarms. Although it’s quite goodlooking and very cheap, it is somewhat limited.

Supplier Maplin Electronics Tel 0333 400 9500 Web www.maplin.co.uk

Maplin N25FR £49.95 This is one of the easiest to read, especially with the green backlight on. All of the primary data is displayed permanently, so you only need to press buttons to set the alarms and preferred units, or to toggle readings such as min/max, gusts, wind chill, etc. Pressing the Set key repeatedly takes you to different areas

7/10

of the readout, and is indicated include maximum wind speed, by that area ﬂashing – easier to temperature and rainfall. To view follow than others that just have their settings, press the alarm key. tiny arrows pointing to a ﬁgure. All sensors are weatherproof The time and date are at the and linked together by cable, but top, followed by the in/out the temperature/ temps and humidity. There are two weather symbols, the second showing the Best Budget Buy tendency – from cloudy to sunny, for instance. Next is the current barometric pressure (relative or absolute) with a 24-hour history graph beside it. At the bottom is wind speed in knots, mph, kph, m/s or Beaufort, which will also show maximum gusts and the chill factor. The rainfall measure can be scrolled back to a day, week or month ago if required. Programmable alarms

The temperature/humidity sensor acts as a wireless hub for the other sensors

70 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Supplier Maplin Electronics Tel 0333 400 9500 Web www.maplin.co.uk

humidity sensor then acts as a wireless transmitter for all the data. Although it has similar transducers to the Maplin N96GY, it doesn’t feature wind direction – only speed.

It’s a shame there’s no wind direction reading

GEAR TEST Technoline WS6750 £54.98 This unit is a simple but smartlooking battery-powered, desktop weather station with a radio-updated clock, two alarms

and a backlit LED display. As well as current air pressure it shows barometric pressure history as a bar graph over the past 12 hours and has a trend

4/10

It’s neat and snazzy, but not the best for a sailor

arrow. Surprisingly, it even has compensation for altitude (relative pressure), if you enter your height above sea level. A ﬁve-way weather forecast icon offers a fairly vague idea of the weather ahead, calculated from the previous six-hour pressure trend. It comes with an outdoor temperature/humidity sensor that needs to be mounted in a protected place to keep the rain out. This allows the display to provide current indoor/ outdoor data, along with maximum and minimum readings and a trend arrow for each. It also has sun/moon rise/set readings and a bold moon icon showing eight phases waxing and waning. It’s a neat unit but we found the display tricky to read. Unless

The temperature/humidity sensor isn’t rainproof

we looked slightly down on it, the narrow viewing angle made the ﬁgures very faint. It’s also quite expensive, considering it has no wind or rain sensors.

Supplier The Weather Shop Tel 01243 558280 Web www.weathershop.co.uk

Maplin N96GY £69.95 This one has a touch-screen and a USB port for PC monitoring and control. The display is big, but the contrast is weak and non-adjustable (as far as we

7/10

can see) so it’s hard to read at a distance. A green backlight is selected by holding your finger briefly anywhere on the screen. To adjust time/date and pressure you hold your finger on the figure you wish to change. It beeps, then + and – keys appear

to enable you to change the detail. For other data, doing this enables you to toggle between figures, such as hPa/ inHg for pressure. It’s somewhat long-winded and confusing. Wind direction is shown on a 16-point compass. Speed is in knots, kph, mph or m/s to one decimal. Toggling the speed figure alternates It’s a good, between current powerful and gusts (for unit, but which an alarm the poor can be set) and contrast of touching it a fifth the screen time (if you’ve not lets it down lost count by now) shows maximum speed. There’s a bar graph of pressure over the past 12 hours, or you can move back through the pressure history

This one has a full complement of weatherproof sensors

log in 30-minute jumps. This is a powerful device with all the weather data a yachtsman might need, but it really requires the handbook, or a list of ‘screen touches’ pinned up beside it. It’s really intended for use with a computer (DVD supplied), where access to all the data is much easier and the historical readings can be used to the full.

Supplier Maplin Electronics Tel 0333 400 9500 Web www.maplin.co.uk

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 71

GEAR TEST

Products tested Oregon Scientiﬁc WMR86 £99.95

8/10

Eight weather stations tested, from £20 to £150

Best on Test

Oregon Scientiﬁc has a wide range of weather stations for all levels of forecasting. This is a mid-range model, with wireless link-ups between the sensors and base station. The sensors, common to several of Oregon’s other models, comprise a combined wind speed and direction unit, a rain catcher and a small, weatherproof temperature and humidity sensor. The lack of wires simpliﬁes mounting, but each

It has the same sensors as some of Oregon’s pricier units

PHOTOS: DUNCAN KENT

sensor needs two AA batteries. They are said to last for two years, if you use good-quality dry cells. The base station is silver plastic with an LCD screen the size of a modern smartphone with large, easy-to-read digits and icons, and a selectable orange backlight. It has a 16-point wind compass and wind speed that can be set to knots, kph, mph or m/s. It also has a wind chill factor readout. A ﬂag icon shows wind strength at a glance and you can select either max/min or real-time modes. Air pressure is measured in hPa, inHg or mmHg and there’s an historic bar graph going back 24 hours. You can also toggle between rainfall and UV Index

It’s fully wireless, so each sensor needs batteries

graph with historic data. It’s not immediately obvious what all the buttons do, nor in which sequence you need to press them, but we got there in the end and found this unit to be a useful tool.

Supplier The Weather Shop Tel 01243 558280 Web www.weathershop.co.uk

Technoline WS-1600IT £99.95 This brushed alloy and black plastic desktop display has a pull-out stand and keyhole slots at the back for bulkhead mounting if preferred. This LCD display is

6/10

Nice long leads are supplied with the rain catcher and anemometer

easier to read in daylight than many, having a wide viewing angle and crisp, well contrasted numeral and icons, but it has no backlight, which is a shame. It comes with a rain catchment device and an anemometer for wind speed and direction, both of which have 10m-long leads that plug into a small, weatherproof wireless transmitter box that sends the temperature, humidity, wind and rain data back to the display – up to a distance of 100m. We like the compassstyle wind direction icon, but it would have been nice to set the speed to knots, rather than Beaufort, m/s, mph or kph. It also lacks indoor temperature and humidity readings, which is an unusual shortcoming.

Supplier The Weather Shop Tel 01243 558280 Web www.weathershop.co.uk

72 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

The history feature is good, allowing you to look back for up to 600 hours at three-hourly snapshots of all the available measurements. So is the min/ max key, which covers all the

recorded measurements. This model is well made and looks as if it would survive a harsh climate for a decent length of time. The lack of a backlight lets it down, though.

The display is easy to read with a wide viewing angle and clear read-outs

GEAR TEST Ytora TPW899 £100 This unit has a white desktop base station with pull-out stand and keyholes for bulkhead mounting. The portrait format display is large and clear with big symbols and numerals, and a blue backlight with a button that’s easy to ﬁnd in the gloom. The large clock and calendar is radio-updated and shows the current moon phase.

8/10

The Ytora’s sensors are all reasonably weatherproof

There are no rise or set times for the sun or moon, though. Next down is barometric pressure: a clear bar graph and a ‘current weather’ icon. To the right is a 16-point wind direction compass, with current wind speed (mph or kph only) in the centre. The rainfall measure (mm/in) shows the last hour’s worth, or a 24-hour total. Two lines show temperature and humidity, indoors and out, with trend indicators and ‘comfort factor’ icon. The rainfall and wind sensors plug into the temperature/ humidity sensor (leads provided), which transmits to the base station. The sensors are all weatherproof, to a reasonable degree.

It’s easy to read, thanks to good contrast, a wide viewing angle and large numbers. It shows all the primary data we’d want at a glance, without having to toggle various buttons. It’s a real shame it doesn’t give wind

It’s a real shame that this unit doesn’t give wind speed readings in knots

Supplier The Weather Shop Tel 01243 558280 Web www.weathershop.co.uk

Oregon Scientiﬁc WMR89 £145.95 Using the same wireless sensors as the WMR86, the WMR89 has a different display that can be mains-powered (power plug supplied) and it also sports a USB port for downloading data to a PC for later analysis, using one of many dedicated weather logging software packages.

speed in knots. It also boasts max/min readings on all data. It’s simple to install (pole and mounts included), provided you want all the sensors in the same place, as the cables are very short.

The display is small and neat, with all the primary information such as time (radio-controlled), wind speed/direction, weather, indoor/outdoor temperature and humidity, moon phase and time permanently displayed. The viewing angle is wide and the contrast is good, so the data is easy to read and it also has an

7/10 If you want to run weatherlogging PC software, this unit comes up trumps

Small and need, with all key data displayed

orange backlight on an easy-to-ﬁnd bar switch on the top for gloomy surroundings. Once again, learning which button does what takes a while – I wouldn’t put the manual away for a few weeks. What makes this the most costly model we tested is partly the ease with which the completely wireless 100m-range transducers can be installed, and partly in its ability

to connect to a PC using a USB lead and software that can be downloaded from the OS website. The base station records the past seven days’ weather data, which can then be downloaded to a PC running compatible weather logging software. This means the PC can be disconnected and taken away, except when it is brieﬂy transferring its data. This is a nice unit with all the required data for semi-pro use.

Supplier The Weather Shop Tel 01243 558280 Web www.weathershop.co.uk

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 73

GEAR TEST

Conclusions

Useful weather facts

Which weather stations do we recommend?

Barometric pressure

Maplin N25FR

Some of the cheaper weather stations are as good, if not better than the ‘Pro’ models, although you’d probably need to mount the sensors in a protective box within 25-30m or so of the base station. All but the Technoline WS6750 and the touchscreen Oregon Scientific WMR89 had clear screens that can be read in daylight. The Technoline’s screen is very angle-specific, but does at least have a big backlight button on the top, although it’s a faint blue light that doesn’t complement the black numerals. The WMR89 has very low contrast whichever angle you look from, but at least the green backlight comes on for 10 seconds when you touch the screen. Some of these units are easy to read and operate, while others require the handbook for a step-by-step guide to button-pressing. If I’ve got to press a key five times to get to some data, as with Maplin’s N96GY, then it needs more buttons. I like to have sun and moon rise and set times, but they only seem to come with the basic models, for some reason, although a few of the semi-pro units at least offer a crude moonphase icon. We would have picked Maplin’s N25FR as overall winner, if it had only had wind direction as well as speed. At less than £50, it’s a bargain. But which is best? Well, it’s a personal choice between the Oregon Scientific

A barometer tells you three things: what the air pressure is, at what speed it is rising or falling, and by how much. From that, we can deduce a lot about the weather to come. Air pressure is measured in millibars (mb) or hectopascals (hPa) – the two are actually identical, like centigrade and Celsius. ‘Relative’ barometric pressure is adjusted for altitude, ‘absolute’ is the actual pressure on the sensor.

Best Budget Buy Does everything a sailor could want... except measure wind speed. And it’s cheap

PHOTOS: DUNCAN KENT

Oregon Scientiﬁc WMR86

Relative humidity and dew point

Best on Test A very useful tool for the cruising sailor and it’s easy to set up, too

WMR86 and the Ytora TPW899, although the latter doesn’t offer wind speed in knots, which is annoying. Maplin’s touchscreen N96GY also comes high on the list and is top value if you really want PC data logging, but its LCD is pretty dim and the contrast is not adjustable.

Seven-day comparison of readings We ran all the units alongside each other for seven days and compared the readings with one another, and with observations from the nearest professional weather station

MAKE

WIND SPEED

WIND DIRECTION

TEMPERATURE

HUMIDITY

BAROMETER

Benchmark Pro Station

19.0kn

WSW

12.7°C

80%

1023

Heat/comfort Index

Maplin AO1QX

n/a

13.2°C

78%

1021

Maplin N25FR

13.4kn

n/a

13.9°C

86%

1023

n/a

13.8°C

83%

1025

Maplin N96GY

18.2kn

WSW

12.9°C

84%

1022

Oregon Scientiﬁc WMR86

17.3kn

13.4°C

81%

1023

Technoline WS-1600IT

15.6kn

12.4°C

79%

1020

Ytora TPW899

18.5kn

WSW

12.4°C

79%

1021

Oregon Scientiﬁc WMR89

17.1kn

13.7°C

82%

1024

Technoline WS6750

The warmer a body of air, the more moisture it can hold without condensing out (forming fog at sea level and clouds at height). The point at which it can hold no more moisture is known as the dew point. In a body of air that is cooling, the relative humidity (the amount of moisture a body of air can contain at that temperature) is rising. Cooling of the air will generally take place when there is a gentle breeze close to the water surface. The water, if it is colder than the air, acts on the air to cool it. If you can monitor relative humidity and temperature, you can, to an extent, forecast fog. When the dew point meets the water temperature, advection fog – the commonest type over the sea – occurs.

This is a ﬁgure derived from temperature and humidity readings. Essentially, it is a ‘comfort’ reading. High humidity and low temperature isn’t too bad, nor is low humidity and high temperature, but high humidity and high temperature combined are not comfortable. It isn’t really important for weather forecasting, but it goes some way to explaining why we sometimes feel uncomfortable on warm, moist days.

Features and speciﬁcations of all the weather stations on test MAKE

BATTERIES

Maplin AO1QX

3 AA/2 AAA

12h

Maplin N25FR

5 AA

12h

Technoline WS6750

WIND SPEED WIND DIRECTION DEW POINT UV INDEX HISTORY RAIN

SUN

MOON PC LOGGING

2 AA/2 AAA

12h

Maplin N96GY

5 AA

12h

Technoline WS-1600IT

5 AA

12h

Oregon Scientiﬁc WMR86

9 AA

24h

Ytora TPW899

5 AA

12h

Oregon Scientiﬁc WMR89

6 AA

24h

74 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

NEW BOAT TEST The UK’s most comprehensive yacht tests

Discovery 55 It’s been 15 years since Discovery Yachts launched its first boat, the Discovery 55. Graham Snook tests the new mkII version to see what’s changed

t’s never easy ﬁnding your perfect boat, as John Charnley, the founder of Sunsail, and his wife Caroline discovered when they were looking for their ultimate blue-water cruiser in the late 1990s. Unable to satisfy their desires, they commissioned Ron Holland to design a 55ft hull, Ken Freivokh her interior and in 2000, the ﬁrst Discovery 55 was launched at the Southampton Boat Show. Fourteen years later, John and Caroline’s company Discovery Yachts now builds a range of four boats and the original 55 is now in her second incarnation. ‘Evolution, rather than revolution,’ as John is quick to point out.

76 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Performance We left Lymington in a Force 3, with full mainsail and 90% jib, close-hauled at around 30º off the 13-16 knots of apparent wind. Her speed was lacklustre at ﬁrst, so we furled the jib and set the 140% genoa. She quickly accelerated to 7.3-7.5 knots and the feel on the helm through the Whitlock steering changed instantly, becoming responsive and rewarding. Under power, she cruised at 7.3 knots on smooth water at 1,800rpm with a Gori three-bladed feathering propeller.

At the helm Few helms are so comfy. You really have to try hard to ﬁnd an uncomfortable place

to sit. The high coamings are beautifully rounded with large-radius curves, and there is also good leg support if you sit facing inboard. The view forward is commanding, you are high up but it doesn’t feel exposed. This boat was ﬁtted with optional electric furling headsails, but electric in-mast mainsail furling is standard. The mainsheet was controlled by a pair Lewmar 54ST winches – one

Discovery 55 Performance on test Point Apparent Apparent Boatspeed of sail wind wind angle speed

Closehauled Fetch Beam reach Broad reach Run

30°-34°

13-16 knots

7.3-7.5 knots

60° 90°

11-13 knots 8-10 knots

7.4-8.4 knots 6-6.8 knots

120°

6-6.7 knots 4.6-5.4 knots

180°

5.4-7.9 knots 5-5.5 knots

NEW BOAT TEST LEFT: She has a pleasing sheer line and she’s easy to handle short-handed

Evolution not revolution, the MkII has a number of subtle differences from the MkI

PHOTOS: GraHam-SnOOk.cOm

is electric as standard, for the other it’s optional – and the genoa by a pair of Lewmar 68STs. All are set are within reach of the helm. The twin electric headsail furlers and all the electric winches – including the Lewmar 54ST on the coachroof – can be controlled from buttons on the binnacle.

Design & construction Apart from the addition of extra vertical hull ports to give a better view out from the aft cabin, the hull is unchanged from the Mk1. It’s vinylester resin, with a foam core throughout. Kevlar is used forward of the keel. Up forward she has two watertight bulkheads. A half-length skeg supports her semi-balanced rudder.

Sailplan She is a Solent-rigged ‘slutter’ with a 90% self-tacking jib and a 140% genoa; both live on their own Furlex 400E electric furlers (manual is standard for

both). She also has a jib on a self-tacking system, but I found it necessary to ease the sheet before it would go across during a tack – frustrating, as the winch is on the coachroof and needs to be eased by hand. The genoa requires furling when tacking, as with any ‘slutter’ rig – a tradeoff for having a more versatile sailplan than a sloop. An asymmetric spinnaker can either be taken to a U-bolt and block on the substantial bow roller or to an optional carbon bowsprit to ensure clearance from the pulpit. Optional twin poles stow on the front of the mast to make downwind work easier. This setup works very well – the only downside, as ocean cruising guru Jimmy Cornell points out in his books, is that it could leave you with no spare poles to construct a jury rig in the event of a dismasting.

to make boarding ladders. It is possible for sheets to get caught in the curved corners of the gate, but a Velcro strop would prevent this happening. This isn’t a problem with the standard wire gate. Deck stowage is either in the 1.3m (4ft 3in) deep forward bosun’s locker, or the twin lazarette lockers on the aft deck.

Living below

For a yacht designed to be sailed shorthanded, she offers some lovely berths for guests, as well as the wonderful full-width owner’s cabin in the stern. The maple interior is beautifully constructed: shut lines are parallel, inlay detail is faultless. The raised saloon brings the outside closer – it feels as if you’re sitting in the landscape, rather than hunkered down inside the hull. The galley is a few steps down and aft of the Deck layout saloon, but dishes can The aft end of the be served with ease to coachroof grabrail curves the table or over the aft around to the cockpit side of the C-shaped to greet anyone going seating. Our test boat’s forward. It’s a small saloon was the openThe dolphin-watching seats are nice, plan version. I’d opt for detail, but it’s typical but I’d want them to flip up for access enclosed saloon, with of the extra thought to the mooring cleats underneath that Discovery puts more handholds and into its yachts. bracing points. The decks themselves are surrounded Two opening windows in the deckhouse by large, teak-capped toerails and windscreen add ventilation to the saloon oversized scuppers drain to below the at anchor, while two large, opening waterline. The pulpit is taken well aft, overhead hatches also do their bit. The which adds greatly to the feeling of forward and Pullman cabins share a heads security on deck. It incorporates dolphinand shower forward. It’s not the most watching seats, which I felt obstructed the spacious of heads, but it widens in the substantial mooring cleats beneath. shower compartment aft. The aft cabin It was good to see the pushpit come a floods with natural light, and mirrors long way forward, almost to the back of enhance the feeling of space. The owner’s the centre cockpit, with liferaft stowage heads is well laid out with access to the in its port side too. There is also an washing machine and the engine room, option for well-engineered boarding gates both from the shower compartment of amidships on each side, which fold down the en suite heads. JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 77

NEW BOAT TEST Key cruising features Liferaft stowage is built into the pushpit

The vertical port lights in the hull improve the view from the aft cabin

Push-button sailing: with optional electric furling, all sail controls are to hand on the binnacle

Nice touches like the extended grab rail make moving around deck safer

A boarding ladder is incorporated into the guardrail gate on each side

Flush hatches are standard on the MkII version

Dolphin watching seats are attached to the extended pulpit

‘She’s designed to be used at sea, yet she also excels in port’

ABOVE: The raised saloon makes the most of the view. Leather upholstery is standard

Chart table Like the saloon, the chart table is raised to take full advantage of the view from those glorious 44cm (1ft 5in) high windows, making it possible to keep an effective watch from inside the boat. The seat is neatly padded, deeply squishy and holds the navigator securely when the boat heels over. The space inside the 81cm x 71cm (2ft 8in x 2ft 4in) chart table is deeper at its forward end, so any small items you put in there migrate away from the navigator. There is also a full-sized chart drawer under the starboard seat, a deep cave locker outboard, which will swallow Reeds Almanac with ease, and more stowage under the table outboard from knee level down. 78 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Like most of the drawers on board, the slide-out mechanisms on this boat weren’t the smoothest I’ve come across. There are four opening hatches, and an extractor fan with a light. Discovery fits the GN Espace Ocean Chef cooker, which gimbals well. Its trays are designed to fit snugly into the sink unit when they come out of the oven to avoid them sliding around in a lively sea. Stowage is plentiful for any ocean rover: 27cm (11in) deep beneath the floor, and plenty more elsewhere. There’s also a 1m high (300 litre) fridge that boasts 11cm thick insulation and a further 170 litre compartment, which can be used as either fridge or freezer, is by the steps up to the saloon.

Maintenance A walk-in engine room is great: enough room to sit and reflect on what’s not working and why, and to remedy the fault without hanging upside-down retrieving The aft cabin is flooded with natural light, thanks to a runaway tools from the bilge. plethora of windows. There’s oodles of stowage Raw water enters through two hull fittings via a filter to the Galley raw water manifold, which distributes it The galley is wide enough for two people to to the engine, generator, watermaker and pass, but narrow enough to provide good anything else that needs it. 240/24/12 bracing while working at sea. The LED volt circuit breakers are found in the chart downlighting is excellent, as is the amount table support, forward of which is the of usable workspace and stowage. Beneath main switch panel. Access to all parts of the microwave (aft) are four pull-out wire the boat and her equipment is as good as trays, secured firmly by wooden braces. one could hope to find.

NEW BOAT TEST GRAPHICS: MAXINE HEATH

Discovery 55

OUR VERDICT ON THE BOAT

What’s she like to sail? Her hull has an elegant sheer line, with no surprises; it’s all wellproven and conservative, albeit with lots of hull portlights. The cockpit offers any number of comfortable places to sit and steer while the rounded coaming surrounds you, offering comfort and protection. Either side, the sculpted helm seats are very comfy. With a displacement of over 22 tonnes, she’s never going to be considered sprightly, but nor is she lumbering. She carries her way well and the feedback from the helm is nice and ﬁrm. The standard wheel is slightly bigger, which would make it a little easier on the helm, but there was nothing wrong with the steering as tested. Her Solent rig works well. Obviously, the genoa requires furling before each tack, but it’s a small price to pay in a yacht that might only tack every other day, and has a self-tacking jib, anyway, for inshore work. On our test boat, the self-tacking jib sheet on the coachroof winch needed to be eased before it would tack – a reversible winch controlled from the helm would improve matters.

What’s she like in port and at anchor?

FACTS AND FIGURES ■ Price £1,150,800 inc VAT ■ LOA 17.0m (55ft 9in) ■ LWL 13.64m (44ft 9in) ■ Beam 4.78m (15ft 8in) ■ Draught 2.23m (7ft 3in) ■ Displacement 22,500kg (49,500 lb) ■ Ballast 9,500kg (20,900 lb) ■ Ballast ratio 42.2(%) ■ Sail area The engine room is neatly laid out, with most things easily accessible 152.5m2 (1,641sq ft) ■ SA/D ratio 19.5 ■ Diesel 1,334 lit (293gal) ■ Designer Ron Holland ■ Water 1,008 lit (222gal) ■ Builder Discovery Yachts ■ Engine 160hp ■ Tel 023 8086 5555 ■ Transmission Shaft drive ■ Website ■ RCD category A www.discoveryyachts.com

She’s designed to be used at sea, yet she also excels in port. The long galley has plenty of windows to give the cook a view. The raised, C-shaped saloon, with leather upholstery, offers a wonderful view out, too. All the cabins are comfortable and well appointed. Storage for provisions, equipment and supplies is excellent throughout, as is access to any area or system. On the ﬂipside, at 55 feet long, berths won’t be easy to come by in every harbour and at 7ft 3in deep, some anchorages will be off limits. She has an offset prop shaft to allow the shaft to be removed without dropping the rudder, which will save money and hassle in far-ﬂung cruising grounds. She does have some propwalk, so you’ll be glad of the bow thruster to turn to port in reverse. But even without it, her propwalk is predictable and as long as you work with it, there should be few issues. The bower anchor sits in a substantial, deep-cheeked double bow roller. A strip of teak protects the plush teak deck beneath the chain on its short way to the windlass.

Would she suit you and your crew? She is a beautiful home away from home, and indeed she costs more than most family homes. She’s designed to be sailed long distance by a husband and wife with occasional visitors, but could comfortably take a full crew around the world. She is very well-equipped. Generator, bow thruster, windlass, electric mainsail furling, electric winches, plotter and radar are just a few of the standard items. But as on our test boat, the yard is happy to customise things to fulfil owners’ wishes. For after-sales support, hundreds of photographs are taken of each boat before hand-over, to help the owners with faultfinding from the other side of the globe. To confine an ocean cruiser of this calibre to coastal pottering would be a great shame. She’s a born and bred blue water cruiser and she deserves to be at sea. The MkII version of the Discovery 55 isn’t radically different from the original, but that’s the point. She was already a very good boat and if something ain’t broke, why fix it?

CREEK COASTAL Would she PORT-HOPPING suit your style CRAWLING ★★★★★ ★★★★★ of sailing?

OFFSHORE PASSAGE-MAKING

TRADE WIND VOYAGING

HIGH-LATITUDE ADVENTURE

★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ The galley is excellent, with lots of work space and practical stowage JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 79

USED boat tESt

Deb 33 PHOTOS: jOe mccarTHy

Is this S&S-designed beauty an iconic 1970s classic or just another ageing relic of the IOR rules? Duncan Kent investigates

s far up the Hamble river as it’s possible to get with a mast intact is Deacons Boatyard, where the subject of this month’s used boat test, the Deb 33, was commissioned in 1969. She’s among the least well-known of her designer Olin Stephens’ creations, which include such classics as the She 31, 32, and 36, the S&S 30 and 34, and of course many of Nautor’s early Swans. The Deb 33 shares many similarities with her more famous sisters, but only around 50 were built. She was designed for safe, secure offshore sailing in all conditions. Does she achieve what she set out to?

Performance Our test sail took place in benign conditions – a dry but grey day on the Solent with an offshore NNE Force 3-4 blowing, resulting in a fairly flat sea. We set sail and drifted dead downwind out of harbour, goose-winging the main and genoa easily thanks to her straight spreaders. Being heavy, with a conservative sailplan and high wetted surface area, she is slow downwind under white sails alone and needs a big spinnaker to keep the speed up. Reaching up and down the coast, she comes into her own the closer you take her to windward and the harder you push her. The rising sheer, gentle tumblehome and raised bulwarks keep spray and green water at bay when pushed. Her slender, deep body and long overhangs give her a 80 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

ABOVE: Her slight tumblehome, overhangs and pleasing sheerline are rarely seen on today’s new boats

lovely, relaxed motion through the waves. The strongest wind on our test day was 12 knots true – very tame conditions for a yacht of this ilk. Nevertheless, we had no trouble keeping the log between 4-5 knots on a close reach, dropping to around 4 knots close-hauled. When the wind speed dropped to just 12 knots apparent she remained well balanced to windward, but slowed noticeably on a broad reach. I found her steering a little heavy, even in the gentle conditions, so you’d probably want to reduce weather helm by reefing her large genoa to 100% above a force 4, and shortening the mainsail shortly after, although Brian insists she’s stiff enough to

Deb 33 Performance on test Point Apparent Apparent Boatspeed of sail wind wind angle speed

Closehauled Fetch Beam reach Broad reach Run

35°

12-15 knots 4.8-5.2 knots

60° 90°

12-16 knots 4.2-5.9 knots 12-15 knots 4-5.5 knots

120°

8 knots

3.2 knots

180°

8 knots

3.8 knots

hold full sail with up to 20 knots blowing over the deck.

At the helm Having a pinched stern (in modern design terms), her cockpit is narrow, which is great under sail as it allows the helm to brace against the opposite seat, but not so good when entertaining. That said, there’s room for five or six people to sit in comfort when she’s alongside or at anchor. The primary winches are mounted on wide, flat coamings, within easy reach of the helm on tiller-steered models – likewise the mainsheet and mainsail furler on Midsummer II – so she’s well sorted for singlehanded sailing.

Design & construction Introduced in 1969 and moulded at the Tyler Boat Company, the Deb 33 is a typical Sparkman & Stephens cruiserracer: beamy, with seductive overhanging ends and a small degree of tumblehome in her topsides. She has an encapsulated fin keel with generous lead ballast, along with a deep centreboard, making her stiff under sail in strong winds and giving her an impressive upwind performance. Then, with her board up, her relatively shallow

the UK’s most comprehensive yacht tests USED boat tESt The Deb 33 is a classic from the board of the famous Sparkman and Stephens design team

draught means she can creep up creeks and anchor in the shallows like a much smaller yacht. The centreboard is bronze, thereby adding to her ballast as well as increasing her draught to 6ft 7in for beating upwind. The board is pivoted at its forward end, so flips up if it hits anything and it is raised and lowered via a Spectra line running up through a wooden post in the saloon and onto a dedicated winch on the coachroof. While most Debs were fitted out at Deacons on the Hamble, a few (including our test boat) were completed by their original owners.

Sailplan The Deb 33 has a masthead rig with either a keel-stepped or a deck-stepped mast, both with a short boom and an overlapping genoa. Originally, they had a roller-reefing boom, but many have since been converted. Usually, a track and turning blocks are added to make her slab reefed, sometimes even from the cockpit. Midsummer II has a Tab Sails vertical furler riveted onto the back of the mast, which still seems to work admirably with her small mainsail. She has a track and traveller immediately behind the tiller

(or in front of the binnacle in the wheel steering model). Her 125% furling genoa has long tracks along the side decks, starting aft of the shrouds. Although this offers a tight sheeting angle for improved pointing under full sail, the sheet lead angle isn’t ideal when the genoa is part-furled.

Deck layout Like many yachts of her time she has a raised toerail, which is teak-capped. Not only does this look good, it also offers security to your feet when going forward under duress – plus it stops small items slipping overboard when dropped. Through-deck scuppers exit below the waterline, so she has no nasty dark streaks down her topsides. Her side decks are wide enough for easy access forward, although her stays are mounted on mid-deck chainplates. The coachroof is single-level, adding to headroom below and resulting in the full-length handrails being at a reasonable height for crew on deck. Cockpit stowage is good, with a fulldepth locker to starboard and a spacious lazarette aft, plus four cave lockers in the seatbacks. To port is usually

The owner Midsummer II was moulded in 1972, but not completed and launched until eight years later by the father of the current part-owner, Brian Thornton. Brian (70) also owned a 27ft woodie and a Roberts 34, which he also refitted himself. After retiring from dentistry and inheriting Midsummer II, he has sold shares in her to keep running costs down. Not only does Brian know every inch of the boat, but he and his partners, Peter and Andrew, ensure she is kept in tip-top condition.

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 81

USED BOAT TEST

Her conservative sail area means she’s slow downwind under white sails alone, but stiff upwind

Key cruising features

Like all IOR-inﬂuenced designs she has a pinched stern, but the Deb 33 has a wider beam than most similarly sized craft

The sail controls are all well positioned for singlehanded sailing in the tiller-steered model

Two tons of lead ballast keep her stiff under sail while a centreboard offers ﬁne upwind pointing ability

Her beam makes her roomy and all the wood adds a cosy feeling below

a shallow line locker, due to the need for headroom below in the quarterberth, but Brian has recently converted this into a drained, two-bottle gas locker with no adverse effect on the berth below.

Living aboard I found climbing over the high bridgedeck and manoeuvring safely down the vertical companionway steps to be a challenge with the sprayhood up, but thankfully there are plenty of stout handholds. Once below, the need for the steep steps becomes obvious as you note the engine box in the centre of the corridor forward. This arrangement – fairly typical in S&S designs – puts the engine in the optimal place for ballast. Other than this, the layout of the Deb is straightforward and typical of 1970s boats. She has a long, cosy quarterberth directly behind the chart table to port, an L-shaped settee that can convert to a 1.15m wide double, a fold-down saloon table that stows neatly against a bulkhead, a 1.9m long settee to starboard that provides an 82 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Her coachroof is a constant height throughout its length, giving her a sleek proﬁle and good headroom below

A deep vee hull and long overhanging bow give her a gentle entry and a comfortable motion at sea

The fold-up saloon table is neat and gives extra space when stowed

excellent sea berth with a lee-cloth, and a forecabin with twin berths measuring 2.0m x 0.56m. Headroom is between 1.85-1.89m but drops slightly in the forecabin. The heads arrangement is also typical of her era. She has a loo to port and a sink opposite. The compartment can be closed off for total privacy by shutting the saloon and forecabin doors, but this obviously restricts access forward. Headroom is good at 1.83m, so a shower could probably be fitted with a little ingenuity. Though the portlight is fixed, she has a small hatch above, along with a vent. Like all boats of this period she has oodles of solid wood trim, which gives her a cosy and warm feeling. Her nonopening portlights are quite large, so she’s not gloomy below decks. She has a large hatch above the table to increase light and ventilation, along with the fixed vents. Accessible saloon stowage is very good in large lockers above the settee backs, but most of the space underneath is taken up by two water tanks.

Chart table The good-size chart table is immediately to port on descending the steps and has chart stowage inside and plenty of instrument mounting space on the half bulkhead forward. There are four drawers underneath for the bosun’s stores and emergency gear, as well as stowage in the seat at the head of the snug quarterberth.

Galley The well-appointed L-shaped galley has room for a gimballed cooker and a decent sink. Stowage is good, with lockers above and below for food items, crockery and pans. Midsummer II has a front-opening fridge behind the companionway steps.

Maintenance The engine box – under the settee return aft – allows far better access to all systems than most modern production yachts. Either the lid can be lifted for quick adjustments or the entire box can be removed for a major overhaul.

USED BOAT TEST GRAPHICS: MAXINE HEATH

Deb 33

OUR VERDICT ON THE BOAT

What’s she like to sail? As with all boats of this era, she was designed for quick progress to windward. Despite her shoal draught with the board up, her ballast ratio is still high in modern terms and she is stiff under full (albeit quite conservative) sail. Her underwater shape and deepvee bow give her an easy motion through the waves and good directional stability, although downwind her pinched stern makes her a little vulnerable to broaching if over-canvassed in a big sea. She has no forward balance in her skeg-hung rudder, so the steering (tiller or wheel) is fairly heavy and she can also be prone to weather helm if not reefed in time. The cockpit layout of the tiller-steered model is great for singlehanding. The sail controls are all within easy reach and with the rudder stock, and consequently the tiller, being quite far forward, it’s easy to shelter behind the sprayhood when desired. Being heavy, she needs as much sail area as possible in light airs, so I would recommend a big gennaker or cruising chute for light air work – especially off the wind.

What’s she like in port and at anchor?

FACTS AND FIGURES ■ Guide price £17,500-£27,500 ■ LOA 10.16m (33ft 5in) ■ LWL 7.31m (24ft 0in) ■ Beam 3.14m (10ft 4in) ■ Draught 1.08-2.00m (3ft 7in-6ft 7in) ■ Displacement 6,136kg (13,500 lb) ■ Ballast 2,363kg (5,200 lb) ■ Ballast ratio 38.5% ■ Sail area 45.58m2 (490sq ft) ■ SA/D ratio 13.82 ■ Diesel 90lit (20 gal) ■ Water 200lit (44 gal) ■ Engine 20hp ■ Transmission Shaft drive ■ Designer Sparkman and Stephens ■ Builder Tyler/Deacons ■ Owners Association www.sparkmanstephensuk.info

Modern 33-footers are enormous down below thanks to their massively wide sterns, but in yachts of this era wide open spaces were considered dangerous at sea. The Deb 33 was built for safe, secure offshore sailing in all conditions – and that’s exactly what she offers, albeit at the expense of a few modern luxuries. Saying that, she has a long, if somewhat narrow cockpit that’s fine for entertaining in good weather and could even provide two extra berths if you were to buy a full cockpit tent and enjoy camping. The saloon is cosy and the American-style folding table that hinges up against the main bulkhead means that, when you’re not eating, you have plenty of floor space. Her galley is capable of providing a decent meal for a crew of six if necessary and there’s proper berths for up to five crew at sea, or six in port. You may feel that the rather rudimentary heads is a letdown, but I had exactly the same arrangement on my last two Nicholsons and we always managed without too much bother. It’s only a pain if you have guests staying in the saloon who need to use the heads, or if you sleep in the saloon and the guests forward shut the saloon door and treat it as their en suite!

Would she suit you and your crew? Having the engine box in the saloon means access is excellent for servicing and maintenance

She’s perfect for someone who puts sailing performance above home comforts. That’s not to say she’s uncomfortable – far from it, but the absence of internal volume aft, means there a lack of privacy with friends on board that some mightn’t favour. For those who like to sail hard in all conditions, and often either short-handed or solo, this is a cracking yacht. She looks lovely on the water, her overhangs and sheer give her the classic styling that owners of more mass-produced boats often envy. She’s stiff under sail with a generous ballast ratio, but has the bonus of a centreboard for a ﬁner pointing ability to windward, while retaining the beneﬁts of shoal water sailing and creek-crawling. In all, she’s a solid, seaworthy and sensibly laid-out offshore yacht with the ability to make good passage times on all points of sail and take her owners across oceans.

CREEK COASTAL Would she PORT-HOPPING suit your style CRAWLING ★★★★★ ★★★★★ of sailing?

OFFSHORE PASSAGE-MAKING

★★★★

TRADE WIND VOYAGING

HIGH-LATITUDE ADVENTURE

★★★★★ ★★★★★

The well-appointed galley has stowage for food, crockery and utensils JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 83

BOATS & EQUIPMENT

NEW BOATS PhotoS: Beneteau

Graham Snook looks at the latest launches from two of the biggest yacht builders in Europe

Beneteau Oceanis 41.1

The cook and navigator can both face forwards under way

She’s a big, beamy cruiser with oodles of cabin space aft

PhotoS: Dehler

The new 41.1 is a refinement of the four-year old Oceanis 41, with hard chines that boost the cabin space in the aft quarters of the hull and a broader cockpit. Flip-up helm seats behind the twin wheels increase the already generous access onto the wide fold-down bathing platform. She has an overhead arch for the mainsheet and the winches are forward of the wheel, keeping the cockpit largely free of lines. An option for ‘carbon

Dehler 42 The 42 follows in the keel furrow of her sexy big sister, the Dehler 46: a plumb bow with a fine entry, a sleek coachroof, a black stiletto dagger of coachroof windows and three fine hull ports along each of the gunwales. She’s available in two models, Standard and Competition. The latter has an optional

Price £148,597 inc VAT LOA 12.43m (40ft 9in) LWL 11.98m (39ft 4in) Cabins Two or three Beam 4.2m (13ft 9in) Draught 2.18m (7ft 2in) Displacement 8777kg (19,345lb) Contact Ancasta Tel 02380 450000 Website www.beneteau.co.uk

look’ sails may indicate who she’s aimed at. The L-shaped galley isn’t the biggest but with the sink facing outboard, the workspace (which is also the lid of the top-opening fridge) faces the saloon. The chart table is forwardfacing, too, against the forward bulkhead. The large C-shaped saloon seating to starboard has big through-hull windows outboard and opposite. Contrasting coloured panels (dark panel with light wood interior, and vice versa)

taller, carbon-fibre mast, greater sail area and draws 2.4m. Her internal hull structure is reinforced with carbon fibre and the hull is vacuum-infused; this means her hull is both light and strong. There are two cabin layouts: a single heads, two-cabin arrangement, or two heads and three cabins, including twin doubles aft. The aft heads compartments employs Dehler’s

outboard and on the forward bulkhead add style to the saloon. The feel of space comes from opening the double doors into the forward cabin, although these are reduced to a single door if you opt for an en suite heads compartment up forward.

Who would she suit? Summer sailors who crave comfort and relaxation afloat.

The cockpit arrangement should suit short-handed crews... and passengers

‘Uni-door’, where one door serves two purposes, enclosing the whole compartment or just enclosing the toilet. There’s a chart table to port in front of the heads and the best of the seating to starboard is L-shaped.

Who would she suit? Sailors who appreciate style and speed, and who might even do a bit of racing

She’s a sleek, low-slung cruiser-racer

84 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Price £177,125 inc VAT LOA 12.84m (42ft 1in) LWL 11.50m (37ft 9in) Cabins Two or three Beam 3.91m (12ft 10in) Draught 2.15m (7ft) Displacement 9,100kg (20,062 lb) Contact Inspiration Marine Tel 02380 457008 Website www.dehler.co.uk

TECHNICAL

Midwinter boat checks Got that nagging feeling you’ve forgotten to do something on the boat before putting her to bed for the winter? Duncan Kent helps to jog your memory

Last chance to prepare

Winter is the perfect time to freshen up your yacht’s tiller and washboards with a coat of varnish

PHOTO: DUNCAN KENT

At one time, laying up your boat was a big deal and boatyards hummed as owners set about preparing their boats for the winter. Now, thanks

largely to modern, more durable materials, boats stay afloat longer and when they do eventually come ashore, there’s a temptation to simply leave them in a state of suspended animation until the start of the following season. In reality there’s much to be done as the winter frosts set in and daylight hours drop into single figures. By taking a few fairly simple precautions you can often avoid more serious problems when you come to open her up in the spring. With the cost involved in sailing, it’s understandable that If you’re not going sailing, remove the sails to prolong their life many people try to stretch the seasons a little and get at least a few months of room to check the stitching autumn cruising done and find any spote where before putting their they’ve chafed. Soak out boats away for the any stains on the sails, if you winter. But if you can, or take them to your haven’t yet fully sailmaker if you can’t. de-commissioned Ultraviolet light can cause her, now is the time serious damage to a yacht to think how much you over time. Now’s the time will actually be using her, to make covers for deck and to prepare her more items that are vulnerable Removing lines over winter will prevent this thoroughly for the harshest to UV degradation, fading winter months. and cracking. Put all of your running If you have wooden Do your homework rigging in the washing machine washboards, it’s a good idea to No one likes homework but after ensuring no shackles are make up some temporary winter wherever your boat is based, still connected. Alternatively, boards to leave in place while there are a few small jobs that commandeer the bathtub, wash you bring the real ones home can be done between visits to in fresh water, dry and hang up for varnishing under cover. The spread the work over winter – somewhere warm and ventilated. same goes for other wooden rather than trying to rush through Now you’ve got all the lines detachables – I have my tiller, them all in spring. back at home and cleaned, why outboard bracket and washboards not spend some time cutting off all here in my shed being prepped the worn ends or chafed sections ready for next spring. and whipping the ends neatly? Bring your chartplotter home, If you’ve removed your sails treat it to a warm bed for the and taken them home for winter and prepare to download safekeeping, now is the time all the latest chart updates before to check them over. Send your next season. Paper charts also partner out on an errand, then need to come home for spread the sails out in the sitting safekeeping and updating. PHOTO: GRAHAM-SNOOK.COM

hether she’s on the hard or in the water, before winter really sets in there are a number of essential checks that should be carried out to ensure your boat is protected. Maybe you’d hoped to use her more than you have, or she’s packed away and put to the back of your mind. Either way, we have a few suggestions to keep your pride and joy safe and sweet for 2016.

PHOTO: DUNCAN KENT

JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 85

technical Midwinter boat checks

If she’s ashore

ost boat owners still prefer to store their boat ashore during the winter. It allows her to dry out and you can reach all over for maintenance. Here are a few extra precautions you might want to take before finally leaving her to fend for herself during winter out on the hard.

If you haven’t yet done it, remove as many items as you can from the boat to prevent mould and mildew forming, including sails, cushions, curtains, clothes and bedding. If it’s not practical to remove the settee/ bunk cushions, prop them upright on an edge to let the air circulate around them. As any sailmaker will tell you, the best way to treat your sails over the winter lay-up is to have them laundered as soon as you take them off and then stored in a warm, dry place. Leaving them at the sailmakers is the preferred choice of many, but if you’re on a tight budget, pick a dry day before it gets too cold or windy, hoist the sails and hose them off thoroughly with fresh water. Leave them to dry before taking them off and putting them somewhere that is warmish, but more importantly dry with good ventilation. Assuming you’ve already done the obvious, such as emptying the fridge and leaving its lid or

Fight the freeze Boats left on the hard get much colder than those left afloat as the wind will whistle around the hull, greatly increasing the chill factor. For this reason it’s essential you remove all freezeable liquids from the boat to prevent damage, even if you intend to leave a small heater on board. Now is the time to empty your water tanks, including the calorifier (hot water tank) if you have one, and run the pipes, pumps and filters empty. In any decent installation the tanks will have drain taps at their lowest point, but often it’s easier if you have a pumped system and shore power to simply turn the taps on to empty everything or pull the pipes off the tanks and drain into a bucket. Leaving the taps open once it’s all empty will allow small amounts of water remaining in the pipes to expand without damage, should it drop well below freezing. Some boat owners advocate draining the engine block too, but engineers I have spoken with insist it’s much better to ensure it is filled with the correct amount

‘Boats left on the hard get much colder than those left afloat’

Take off any food that’s open or perishable 86 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

PHOTOS: graHam-SnOOk.cOm unleSS STaTed OTHerwiSe

Manage mould and mildew

door wedged open, check you’ve also removed any food or drink that’s likely to go beyond its consume-by date over the winter months. It’s surprising what you find deep in the bilges or at the bottom of lockers.

Removing cushions and mattresses will stop moisture damaging them

of anti-freeze fluid, as it also contains anti-corrosion products to stop any rust building up. An empty engine block and heat exchanger will be very prone to rust over the winter, which can create blockages, reduce cooling circulation and could possibly overheat your engine when you start it up again.

Keep the rain out I’ve seen quite a few boats that were flooded during the winter storms, much to their forlornlooking owner’s surprise. Even if you leave the cockpit hood on,

Drain water tanks and leave taps open

or cover the boat with tarpaulins, she can suffer if the drains aren’t kept clear of leaves, acorns, sycamore seeds and so on. If your cockpit isn’t covered, the simplest solution is to put some form of strainer over the drains. I’ve seen tea- and even vegetable-strainers used very successfully for this, simply by placing them upsidedown over the drains. And when was the last time you checked the cockpit drain piping and hose clips? They often rust away quickly and very few boat owners ever think of changing these hoses, for some

Ensure the engine’s got enough anti-freeze

TECHNICAL PHOTO: DUNCAN KENT

Try not to let tarpaulins rest against the topsides, it can lead to a scuffed hull

Stop moisture damage by keeping the interior as dry as possible

The best way to keep your boat dry and free from mildew and mould is to thoroughly clean all interior surfaces, removing any damp or salty deposits, and then ensure good ventilation, leaving all lockers open and the cabin sole boards up. During my 40 years of boat ownership I’ve learned that, when you’re not on the boat, adequate ventilation is all you need to keep her smelling sweet. It costs nothing, is easy to do and carries no potential hazards. Of course, if your boat lets in rainwater through dodgy deck ﬁttings, then you’re likely to get damp problems regardless, but much of the rest can be solved by ensuring the air inside your boat is changed constantly. Older boats traditionally

PHOTO: DUNCAN KENT

Banish damp

Inserting a rag in the exhaust prevents creatures and moisture entering

have cowl vents with dorades, designed to allow air in but keep rain and seawater out. The trick with cowl vents is to point their openings in different directions, so that one becomes an ‘in’ vent, the other an ‘out’ vent. Venting the washboards with a simple, close-able grill is always a good move, and it’s also well worth ﬁtting one one between the anchor chain locker and the forward cabin, which then acts as a giant dorade provided it drains at the bottom. If your boat doesn’t have any cowl vents and it’s not practical to install them, then you can often ﬁt mushroom-style vents instead. These are cheap, effective from all wind angles and relatively waterproof – certainly from rain. Solar-powered models are even better, as they force air in and out to create circulation but cost nothing to run.

Quick tips ashore ■ Seacocks can rupture if ice forms and expands inside them, so leave them half-open. Alternatively, leave them all the way open and remove inlet/ outlet hoses to aid ventilation.

PHOTO: DUNCAN KENT

reason, so they often harden, crack and subsequently leak. A word of warning – if you do resort to tarpaulins, make sure they’re not resting against the hull or topsides and ensure they’re not blocking any vents. Spreading a tarp over a cockpit without putting bars or a frame across it ﬁrst will create a big, heavy swimming pool for the birds and stretch the material, making it leak. Most cheap plastic tarpaulins also disintegrate very quickly in the wind and under constant UV light, breaking up into long strands of ﬁbre, which in turn block deck and cockpit drains. If you’re leaving the boat unsupervised for several months or more, I suggest you buy a good quality canvas tarpaulin or a proper boat cover.

Ventilation in all forms is good for a sweet smelling yacht

It’s also an opportunity to check the hoses and clips. Warning: be sure to leave a note somewhere to remind you to replace them before launching! ■ Take transducers out for additional ventilation. Note the warning above. ■ Stuff a rag up the exhaust to keep insects out. Again, note the warning above. ■ Don’t leave fenders hanging. Remove to stop them scratching the topsides in the wind. ■ Take your anchor and chain out of the locker to prevent it from rusting up. Although if it’s already getting rusty, you might question this. ■ Reduce windage on your boat by taking off sails, sail covers, sprayhoods, spray dodgers and so on.

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technical Midwinter boat checks

If she’s afloat

isn’t ideal. Not only does it cost, but it can also create problems with galvanic corrosion to your underwater metallic gear unless you have a galvanic isolator fitted to the shore power earth circuit or your shore power is fed in via an isolation transformer. While it is tempting to leave a mains battery charger on the whole time, it makes more sense to disconnect the batteries completely once they’re fully charged. That way nothing can inadvertently drain them and there’s no chance of any electrical faults causing a fire risk. Of course if you have an automatic bilge pump or alarm system you may prefer to keep these items connected via a fused circuit, but all other items can be depowered. Most modern batteries, particularly AGM, gel or similar dry electrolyte-type cells, will hold their charge for up to six months without attention. But if you’re worried, or you have standard flooded-cell lead-acid batteries that self-discharge quite quickly, why not fit a small solar panel just to keep them topped up when you’re not on board? For around £60, a simple 10W photovoltaic solar panel will produce enough amps during the day, even in the winter, to keep a 100Ah lead-acid battery topped up.

‘Some insurance companies insist she is lifted ashore during the winter months’

Electrics Now that you’ve finished for the season, you need to consider whether or not to leave the shore power connected to the boat. Leaving your boat afloat and permanently connected

Should you disconnect your batteries? 88 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

PHOTOS: graHam-SnOOk.cOm

lthough leaving your boat in the water can often be less expensive than on the hard and it also opens up the possibility of some winter sailing, there comes a point when most owners know they’re unlikely to use her for a few months at least, at which point you need to take steps to ensure she’ll be safe and secure in the darkest days of winter. Boats are often more secure in the water during the winter’s high winds. There’s no danger of her falling off props or cradles and it’s also much warmer in the water, so engines and water systems rarely freeze up unless the weather is exceptionally Arcticlike. It also makes a lot of sense to take your boat out of the water in the spring, when the days are lengthening and the weather is better for working on her. If you’ve decided to leave her in, do check your insurance policy, as some companies put a clause in your contract insisting she is lifted ashore during the winter months and this is no time to be without insurance.

A wind generator helps keep batteries topped up without shore power

Heating and dehumidifying

Important dehumidifier tips

If you have the corrosion protection and feel leaving the power on isn’t a problem, then you’ll probably also be considering leaving either a heater or a dehumidifier on permanently. However, it’s worth noting that the time you really benefit from having an electric dehumidifier is when you’re on board, as your breath is the biggest creator of condensation, followed closely by the use of gas appliances. By all means put a small (200W) bar heater or oil-filled radiator on board, just to keep it from getting too cold and to create a small movement of air, but don’t be tempted use a fan heater, even one with a thermostat, they present a serious fire risk if they fall over and they’re horrendously expensive to run.

If you do decide to leave a dehumidifier on permanently: n Close all fresh-air vents for maximum efficiency or you’ll be trying to dehumidify the entire atmosphere. n The ideal boat dehumidifier should have a permanent drainage option, so that you don’t need to keep visiting the boat to empty the internal water reservoir. The drainage pipe can simply be put into a sink or permanently plumbed into the sink drain. n Some dehumidifiers don’t automatically switch back on if the mains power is disconnected, which could prove pointless if, like many, your shore power frequently trips out. n Keep the filters clean – this is the single biggest cause of

Reduce windage by removing her sails

Burn off any gas and disconnect the bottle

technical dehumidifiers overheating and causing fires – and check on them every few weeks at least. n Buy a dehumidifier with a built-in humidistat, which will switch off to save power when a pre-set humidity level is reached.

On a mooring If you’re leaving her on a mooring then all the above applies, but extra precautions are obviously necessary to ensure your mooring line isn’t going to chafe. The mooring line should preferably be chain, but if you do use rope it needs to be anchorplait or at least three-stranded nylon, and make sure you run it through reinforced hose pipe over wear points and add a second, fall-back line. Reduce windage on your boat by taking off sails, sail covers, sprayhoods, spray dodgers and so on. It’s very common to see a boat on a mooring with her furling genoa unrolled and shredding itself to death or a sprayhood with its wings flapping manically in the wind, just before it self-destructs! If you need power on board (to run an automatic bilge pump, say), then consider fitting a small wind generator (the low-power vertical models are good for this) or a small solar panel to keep one battery topped up.

Quick tips afloat n Check for leaks and remove anything vulnerable to water damage. Try to cure leaks now, don’t leave it till spring. n Visit the boat at least once a month, or get someone else to. n On each visit, sponge out any accumulated water. Check first whether it’s fresh or sea water. n Having burnt off any gas in the

pipes before you left her, check you have also disconnected the gas bottle. n Put a meter on the batteries and make sure they’re holding their charge. You might even decide to take them home to recharge them between visits. n Check that your vents are open and not covered by a tarpaulin. n Give all your blocks, rope clutches, travellers and furler swivels another flush-out with fresh water, to rinse away any accumulated salt. n Ensure any lines or poles you’ve left on board are still lifted clear of the deck to avoid them collecting dirt or going green. Inflate any flaccid-looking fenders. n If you haven’t already done so, change the engine oil and filter to prevent any acidic traces in the old, contaminated oil from damaging engine parts during the winter. Also check and/or replace the impeller and its O-ring. n Make sure you have topped off your fuel tanks to avoid condensation forming and as a precaution, dose the fuel with a diesel bug treatment. n If you’ve used the loo during your visit to the boat afloat, remember to pump the toilet dry again and then flush it through with plenty of fresh water. Pump out, flush and deodorise the holding tank if you have one, then leave it empty and dry.

And finally It’s important not to let your insurance cover lapse over the winter period as there’s a whole host of possibilities that could go wrong, both ashore and afloat, including theft, fire, vandalism, damage by vehicles, storm damage, frost damage and even

Keep lines off the deck to stop them festering

Top up with fresh diesel to avoid condensation forming in the fuel tank

the chance of being blown over in a particularly vicious winter gale. Also, if there’s a stipulation on your insurance policy that your vessel is ashore by a certain date, then that condition must be complied with, or you risk invalidating your entire policy. If a lift-out date is put back due to weather, tides or crane problems it’s important to advise your insurers and get an extension. You should still check on her periodically throughout the

Leave fresh oil in the engine over winter

winter or pay someone you trust to do it for you. Just before you go, give all interior surfaces a quick whizz over with anti-bacterial wipes to avoid mould or mildew growth and remember to leave as many lockers and stowage bins open to the air as possible, even sole boards where you can. It’s no good sorting out the ventilation if the air can’t circulate. Finally, remove any kit to service at home – don’t avoid your homework. W

Pump the heads through with fresh water JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 89

BOATS & EQUIPMENT

Christmas stocking fillers

HotRox hand warmer

Duncan Kent offers some last-minute gift ideas, from £7.50 to £40

Waterproof beanie Are you fed up with getting a soggy head in the winter? From a waterproof clothing supplier that specialises in watersports attire, this snug, striped beanie hat is waterproof, windproof and breathable thanks to its knitted acrylic outer and ﬂeece-lined inner. Available in several colour patterns in sizes S-XXL.

Price £25 Contact Sealskinz Tel 01553 816838 Web www.seaskinz.com

Miniature USB phone charger If you’re always letting your phone run out of juice, this teeny device could be the answer to those days when you’re away from the grid. The Ministick is a rechargeable power pack that measures a mere 5.7cm long x 2.6cm diameter, but still packs 1800mAh of charging power to keep your phone going for a good few hours

once its own battery dies. The Ministick has a soft Tacton rubberised ﬁnish with a keyring loop at one end and a single USB socket at the other. Charging is done via the supplied USB lead and four LEDs indicate the charge level. Available in black or white from many online outlets.

Do you suffer from cold hands? If so, the hand warmer from HotRox will be a godsend. The device, which is a mere 19mm thick, is smooth and sleek so it’s comfortable to hold or slip into your pocket. It has its own lithium battery that is charged from a USB-style charger supplied, or any other USB port available. The HotRox warmer has two heat settings and features an inbuilt hotplate that heats up within 15 seconds of turning it on. One full charge takes up to ﬁve hours from a standard 5V USB port (2-3 hours using the optional HotRox mains/

Price £19.99 Contact Nauticalia Tel 01932 244396 Web www.nauticalia.com USB charger) and lasts up to six hours on low, less on high. It also cools quickly, so you can switch it off and pop it back in your pocket for later.

Sailing Calendar The 2016 Beken of Cowes calendars are now ready for ordering. Choose between the Yachting version, which is packed with brightly coloured yachts in ﬂat-out racing action, or the Classic calendar brimming with

stunning classic yachts. Some of the images are so good that they’re worth hanging on your wall all year round!

Price £12.99 Contact Veho Europe Web www.veho-world.com 90 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Price £24 including delivery Contact Beken of Cowes Tel 01983 297311 Web www.beken.co.uk

BOATS & EQUIPMENT Smartphone anemometer After launching its MkI smartphone anemometer last year, the Vaavud Sleipnir now tells wind direction as well as speed. The device has an asymmetrical rotor with a sensor that performs 40,000 measurements every second and draws power from your phone’s headphone socket. The rotor accelerates just as the wind hits the largest

area before decelerating again. The sensor measures these minute variations in speed and compares the point of maximum velocity to the compass direction, thereby deducing the wind direction. The free Vaavud app, available for both Apple and Android smartphones, delivers a clear overview of average, actual and maximum wind speed. It also contains a global live map and a summary screen that shows temperature, wind chill, barometric pressure and a gust index.

Price €57 (about £40) Contact Vaavud Web www.vaavud.com/shop

Authentic nautical spirits Treat the sailor in your life to a proper nautical nip with one of Yachting Monthly’s favourite bottles. Pusser’s is the original Royal Navy rum, distilled in the British Virgin Islands: Blue Label, with a smooth flavour and mellow depth, or full-on, fiery Gunpowder Proof, made to Admiralty specifications.

Re-usable silicone covers While these ﬂower style covers might look a little twee, they are surprisingly useful on board a boat. Made from sticky (in the peel-off sense) silicone plastic, you simply drop them over a glass or bowl with a smooth top, push the centre down lightly and, hey presto! They stick to the top, sealing it off from ﬂies and insects, keeping it fresh and stopping the contents from spilling as you heel over or bounce around. The natural bond is so good that we were able to lift

For G&T lovers we recommend Chilgrove, a silky smooth gin made from grapes. Handcrafted in Sussex by keen sailors, it has fast become the gin of choice for the yachting community.

Price Pusser’s from £22, Chilgrove from £29 Web www.pussers.com www.chilgrovespirits.com

Instructional sailing game

up a bowl full of salad using the knob on the top (apparently not recommended). Microwave and freezer proof, these re-usable lids are really simple and really effective.

Price 15cm-33cm £7.50-£15 Contact Charles Viancin Tel 01280 841333 Web www.charlesviancin.com

Made in the UK, this unique board game for 2-4 players is the brainchild of two experienced sailing instructors and is based around the RYA training syllabus. Good2go Boating challenges players to sail around the board and be ﬁrst back into the marina by correctly answering a series of nautical questions including navigation, weather, knots and buoys. Along the way are

penalty cards (focussing on safety), which could hamper your voyage.

Price £29.95 Contact Force 4 Tel 0345 130 0710 Web www.force4.co.uk JANUARY 2016 www.yachtingmonthly.com 91

BOATS & EQUIPMENT

More Christmas stocking fillers for sailors

Reeds Nautical Almanac 2016 By Perrin Towler and Mark Fishwick, published by Adlard Coles at £45 (print) or £44.99 (iPad) When you think that Reeds has over 1,000 pages, it comes as little surprise to learn that there are over 45,000 changes incorporated in the 2016 edition. More of a surprise is the extensive variety of available formats for the book: print, but also electronic versions for the iPad, both PC and Mac laptops and desktop computers. The digital versions contain everything that’s in the print book, plus UKHO tidal data and live Met Ofﬁce weather feeds. There are also seven regional packs priced at £29.99 each. No excuse now for not carrying all this up-to-date information on board; a printed Reeds may take up a lot of room at a small chart table, but an iPad doesn’t. It could be the most useful Christmas present you can give.

RYA Day Skipper Shorebased Notes Published by the RYA at £11.99 This is a good little note-form primer for anyone starting an Day Skipper course, or for anyone who has been away from boats for a length of time. The knowledge will either come rushing back or you will realise that you need a refresher course. For the beginner, perhaps moving up from Competent Crew, it’s a good summation of what you need to know to gain skipper status. It uses minimal text with lots of diagrams to help ‘visual’ learning. The knot-tying diagrams are not all as clear as they could be – does that part cross over or under the other one? – and there’s the odd typo (dingy for dinghy), but it is a very good, condensed version of what needs to be learned and applied to achieve perhaps the most worthwhile of RYA qualiﬁcations. A good buy for study or revision.

Yacht Designer’s Sketch Book By Ian Nicolson, published by Amberley at £14.99 In my early sailing years I loved looking at Nicolson’s drawings in sailing magazines. They showed all kinds of hints and tips for re-arranging or bettering things on board, whether it was the run of a sink drain or the ﬁtting of a chain pawl on the bow roller. This book draws together a large selection of Ian’s drawings and advice. It is still valuable; it is still easy to visualise and understand. Some of it may be a tad dated, but the principles still apply and the ideas are just as good. I think the really nice thing is that the drawings are so obviously not computer drawings, they’re proper hand drawings. The book has to be a great present for anyone who likes to ‘adjust’ and personalise – some might say improve – their boat, and perfect for anyone building from scratch.

Throughout All Manner Of Things By Jean Tyrrell, published in paperback at £9.50 (Amazon) To want to sail round Britain in a modest cruiser is quite understandable. There are a thousand places to visit, the weather, wind and tides make it a hugely varied and challenging voyage, there’s no problem with language (excepting some local dialects, perhaps), and it’s right here on our doorstep, there are no oceans to cross to get there. But to start sailing at the age of 49, buy a 37-footer, persuade your husband to crew, gain skill and experience, then do it in three months is certainly different. The trip proved testing for the author, but also fulﬁlling. Would it suit you as a mid-life adventure? Read the book and ﬁnd out. It’s nicely written and enjoyable; it’s just a pity the photographs are poorly reproduced.

92 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

RYA Yachtmaster Scheme Syllabus and Logbook Published by the RYA at £6.49 For anyone taking an RYA course, this is the book to buy first. It details the syllabus for each of the RYA’s qualifications (sail and power), so you know both what you will be taught and, later, what you should have learnt prior to taking either a practical or shorebased exam. There are also carefully laid out pages for you to log your sailing activities and, eventually, to record your exam passes. It could not be described as a thrilling read, but it is interesting and also a trifle daunting. What’s more, it’s rather worrying for an old hand to look at and wonder just how well he would fare in a modern exam. Want to learn and move up through the various RYA schemes? You can’t do better than buy this book to keep you on track.

RYA Rigging Handbook for Cruisers By Allan Barwell, published by the RYA at £14.49 This is a surprisingly interesting, informative book, not the rather dull, heavy-going one it could easily have been. Its main aim is to give boat owners the conﬁdence to set up and maintain their boats’ rigging properly, renew running rigging, and at least understand the process of replacing standing rigging. There is a good section on marlinespike seamanship, with clear diagrams of everything from a three-strand eyesplice to rope-to-chain and rope-to-wire splicing as well as a sensible collection of knots, bends and hitches. The author has drawn on a lifetime’s experience of sailing and working as a rigger to produce an excellent book to carry with you on a cruise and to refer to when selecting ﬁtting new rigging.

Dream Cruising Destinations By Vanessa Bird, published by Adlard Coles Nautical at £19.99 Just as the title implies, this is a book for dreamers – 24 cruises described and detailed. Will anyone agree with the author’s choices? Almost certainly not, but there will be some you think ‘Yes, I’d love to go there’. It’s not the sort of book many people will buy for themselves, but I can see it being a very popular gift. ‘Oh, he/she/ they would love that!’ But where are these dream destinations? Well, they are dotted all around the world, from Scandinavia, to Scotland, England, France, the Med, Caribbean, America, the Paciﬁc, Southeast Asia, Australasia and the Indian Ocean. Each destination is brieﬂy but well described, with information about routes and times to go, and necessary skill levels are assessed.

Reeds Astro Navigation Tables 2016 By Andy Du Port, published by Adlard Coles Nautical at £22 Even the US Coast Guard has started teaching astronav again, due to fears that ne’er-do-wells could ‘interrupt’ GPS. Electronics and electrics can fail, so maybe it’s not so unfashionable to be seen cleaning your sextant and buying these invaluable tables to aid calculations. In just 68 pages, it gives all the information needed for astro, and its presentation has been carefully reﬁned over 20 years to make it pretty much ideal for the ocean yachtsman. There are worked examples to guide you through using the book, but nothing to teach you how to take and reduce a sight. You must learn the techniques elsewhere, but this is a complete set of admirably clearly presented tables for astro calculations.

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Immaculate sailing yacht from the masters up North, still with her original yachtsman. Superb looking blue Nautor Swan 53 that has never raced, rallied or been put away Skipper cherished Sweden Yachts 70 with captivating good looks and also comes remotely wet. Updated and totally ready to roll she is a honey. with a great pilothouse for serious cruising.

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Pocket battle ship from Najad well loved, well presented legendry seakeeping and the ultimate in creature comfort.

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Hugely updated example of the ever popular Hallberg-Rassy 39 the clock was well and truly zeroed in 2014 leaving her blue water ready with nothing to add.

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The newest and shiniest Bowman 42 on the planet. Lovingly fitted out by former Rival Bowman shipwrights and bangup-to-date in terms of inventory. A very special yacht indeed!

2003 Example of the Frers designed 40 a very tidy yacht sporting a great inventory. Effortless sailing courtesy of her push button rig and electric winches.

£199,950 Bestevaer 50’ Spain Custom

NEW LISTING PRICE REDUCTION

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Late example, Immaculate Nolin design that is still with her first owners, with bespoke interior fabrics, and nice North Sails to make the most of her sparkling sailing potential.

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Popular bluewater 4 x 4 this example was one of the last build by Trident. Kitted for blue water manoeuvres she is campaign ready packing a fulsome inventory.

£215,000 Trintella 46’ Lymington

£195,000 Lymington

€385,000 Holland

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Fab Van de Stadt with carbon rig and all the kerfuffle for bluewater. Significantly updated in this ownership and totally ready to go.

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£169,950 Swan 46’ Scotland

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Excellent and competitive Classic S&S Swan from 1969. Excellent engine, sails and services and exceptionally pretty to boot.

Lovely example of the X-43 Performance Cruiser from 2004. Available with Carbon Rigging and new electronics and refurbished hull.

The 46 was one of more popular Swans, this is a particularly good example from 1984. She has obviously been cherished along the way being consistently updated .

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   

                                                                       

                       

                                                                                               

          



        

      

                            

                  

     



2006 BAVARIA 33 2 Cabin

Call Swanwick £49,950 VAT PAID

1990 ELAN 3 2 Cabins

1985 WESTERLY FULMAR Call Swanwick 2 Cabin £19,950 VAT PAID

2015 BAVARIA CRUISER 33 Call Swanwick 2 Cabins £79,950 VAT PAID

2006 JEANNEAU SUN 2500 Call Swanwick Yanmar Inboard engine £19,950 VAT PAID

2003 BENETEAU OCEANIS 361 Call Swanwick 2 Cabin £59,950 VAT PAID

2007 BAVARIA 30 2 Cabins

W NE OAT B

Call Swanwick £19,950 VAT PAID

2015 BAVARIA EASY 9.7 Call Swanwick 2 Cabin £64,950 INC VAT

Call Swanwick £44,950 VAT PAID

BROKERAGE

The UK’s fastest growing brokerage

OVER 200 BOATS AVAILABLE ONLINE

2007 BENETEAU OCEANIS 343 Call Swanwick 2 Cabin £69,950

2003 BAVARIA 32 MKII Call Swanwick 2 Cabins £39,950 VAT Paid

SWANWICK +44 (0)1489 550 583

W NE OAT B

GOSPORT +44 (0)2393 510 433 POOLE +44 (0)1202 916 424 PORT SOLENT +44 (0)2393 510 434

www.clippermarine.co.uk EMAIL: SALES@CLIPPERMARINE.CO.UK

2004 BAVARIA 38 3 Cabin

Call Swanwick £54,950 VAT PAID

FREE STORAGE ASHORE AVAILABLE – SUBJECT TO T&C’S

2015 BAVARIA CRUISER 37 Call Swanwick 3 Cabin £125,586 INC VAT

W NE OAT B

SEE US ON STAND A210 SPECIALISTS IN

2015 BAVARIA VISION 42 Call Swanwick 2 Cabin £195,903 INC VAT

2015 BAVARIA CRUISER 33 Call Swanwick 2 Cabin £95,371 INC VAT

2016 BAVARIA CRUISER 46 Call Swanwick 3 Cabin £212,584 INC VAT

2002 BAVARIA 36 3 Cabins

2005 SOUTHERLY 110 Call Swanwick 2 Cabins £119,950 VAT Paid

2015 BAVARIA VISION 46 Call Swanwick 2 Cabin £254,559 INC VAT

2012 BAVARIA 41S Call Swanwick 3 Cabin £144,950 VAT RECLAIMABLE

2001 BAVARIA 34 2 Cabins

2014 HANSE 345 2 Cabins

2015 BAVARIA CRUISER 51 Call Swanwick 3, 4 or 5 Cabin From £234,955 INC VAT

Call Swanwick £46,950 VAT Paid

2008 NAJAD 332 2 Cabins

Call Swanwick £128,500 VAT Paid

2006 BAVARIA 39 3 Cabins

Call Swanwick £69,500 VAT Paid

W NE OAT B 1999 BENETEAU OCEANIS 331 Call Swanwick 2 Cabins £32,950 VAT Paid

DU RE D

Call Swanwick £102,950 VAT PAID

W NE OAT B

Call Swanwick £42,500 VAT PAID

2012 BAVARIA 40S 3 Cabin

Call Swanwick £119,950 VAT PAID

Sutton Harbour Marina, Plymouth 01752 228855

RUSTLER 36

2005 This 2005 Rustler 36 in excellent condition, with Oxford blue hull, Teak decks, wheel steering and bow thruster. She has proven herself with one ocean crossing and is ready for more! £119,500 TAX PAID

HEARD 35 QUAY PUNT 2001 GRP Gaff Cutter, This yacht has a beautiful feel when you step aboard and provides dining for 6 around her solid wood cockpit table. £69,950 TAX PAID

Jenneau SO 37 £54,950

Southerly 110, £109,950

Legend 36, 2006, £68,500

Feeling 1090 £37,950

MYSTERY 35 2007 A very well cared for and maintained Mystery 35 with only 2 owners from new. She is always wintered ashore with full winter cover and her engine is professionally serviced annually. £109,500 TAX PAID

SOLD SIMILAR BOATS REQUIRED

DUFOUR 36 Classic

2003 This yacht has had many recent upgrades and additions including: New Sails in 2013, fully fitted cockpit enclosure in 2011, Gas cooker and grill in 2012, she also benefits from a comprehensive navigation package. £68,500 TAX PAID

Jen SO42 DS, £112,000

HYLAS 44 1989 This is an awesome cruising boat with global capabilities. Large aft cabin with island bed and lots of equipment. £84,500 TAX PAID

CROSSBOW 40

SWEDEN YACHT 370 CONTINENTAL

FINNGULF 38

1993 A great example. Well maintained with a long list of recent upgrades. Please call us for a full list. £80,000 TAX PAID

1991 Maintained to an exceptional standard with many upgrades and updates including recent standing rigging, sails. Spacious accommodation in 3 cabins & 2 heads. World cruising? Call us £87,500 TAX PAID

- Warner 33 £39,000 - Rival 34 £offers invited - Dufour 36 CC £72,500 - Van de Stadt Seal 38 - £59,000

1996 A performance sailing cruiser built by Bowman Yachts with all the usual refinements expected. White hull with deep lead fin keel, teak decks and all in excellent condition; a perfect package. This yacht has a continuous maintenance program and update schedule. £84,950 TAX PAID

Kiriacoulis Mediterranean

1995 Stunning, fast, well built yacht - inventory includes diesel heating, life raft, recent sprayhood & stacpack system, bow thruster, recent electric windlass, great sail wardrobe, recent electronic package. £74,950 TAX PAID

HEARD 28

1990 A stunningly refitted Heard 28. This Falmouth Working boat, built by Martin Heard at Gaffers and Luggers has just undergone a major refit converting her to a fast stylish cruising boat. Call us for more info £42,000 TAX PAID

SOUTHERN OCEAN 60 1981 With everything new!

£215,000

BRUCE ROBERTS V495 2004 Steel, live aboard family cruising

£115,000

RUSTLER 36 1997 Striking example with black hull & tan sails.

£95,000

J BOATS J39 1991 good sail wardrobe & electronic systems.

£35,000

SALTRAM SAGA 40 1999 Presents as if she has just been splashed

£49,500

RUSTLER 36 1989 All the usual excellent R36 features

£49,950

MOODY 44 KETCH 1974

£40,000

recent engine, teak decks and more

£12,950 £39,950 £49,950 £24,950

www.barbicanyachtagenc y.co.uk

from €

249,000*

from €

136,400*

LAGOON 450 F (2016) STARLIGHT 35

Bavaria 30, £SOLD

- Seamaster 925 - Westerly Seahawk 34 - Saltram Saga 40 - Sovereign 32 -

JEANNEAU SUN ODYSSEY 29.2 2000 Recent new sail wardrobe

£31,500

BARBICAN 30 1997 Pretty, proven sea handling and in great order

£32,500

CONTEST 34 1977 Aft cabin yacht with much volume!

£29,950

TRADEWIND 33 1982 Excellent, robust, well-built yacht

£29,500

SADLER 34 1986 One owner from new.

£29,500

from €

124,000*

BAVARIA CRUISER 46 (2016)

OCEANIS 45 (2016)

from €

103,000*

BAVARIA CRUISER 41 (2016) from €

SUN ODYSSEY 389 (2016)

89,500*

from €

95,300*

DUFOUR 382 (2016)

* price for yacht under yacht management program.

Yachts from BAVARIA, JEANNEAU, BENETEAU, DUFOUR, LAGOON and FOUNTAINE PAJOT Charter management program possible

7, Alimou Ave., 174 55 Alimos, Athens, Greece Tel.: +30 210 9886187-91, Fax: +30 210 9844529 www.kiriacoulis.com • email: sales@kiriacoulis.com

WE’LL HELP YOU FIND THE RIGHT COURSE! ADVENTURE CRUISES 2015/16

These highly popular holiday cruises provide you with a unique opportunity to extend your cruising experience whilst enabling you to build up your sea miles, offshore navigation, pilotage, passage planning and watch keeping.

CARIBBEAN CRUISES

OCEAN CRUISES

BRITTANY CRUISE

St Lucia and the Windward Islands Christmas Cruise 20 Dec 2015 – 3 Jan 2016 14 Days £995

Antigua - Azores 3 – 27 Apr 2016 24 Days 3,000 miles £2,500

1 – 13 May 2016 24 Jul – 5 Aug 2015 12 Days 600 miles £995

Azores – Hamble UK 22 May – 5 Jun 2016 14 Days 1,500 miles £1,525

NORMANDY CRUISE

St Lucia, the Grenadines and Windward Islands 3 – 17 Jan 2016 14 Days £1,250 Tropical Islands Cruise St Lucia to Tortola 22 Jan – 5 Feb 2016 14 Days £1,375 Renaissance Islands Cruise Tortola to Antigua 7 – 21 Feb 2016 14 Days £1,250 Treasure Islands Cruise Antigua to St Lucia 6 – 20 Mar 2016 14 Days £1,250 Treasure Islands Cruise St Lucia to Antigua 20 – 27 Mar 2016 7 Days £760

AZORES CRUISE 6 – 15 May 2016 9 Days 350 miles £980

SOUTHERN IRELAND CRUISE 19 Jun – 3 Jul 2016 14 Days 800 miles £1,350

RYA COURSES Complete 5 day and weekend RYA shorebased and practical training courses from Hamble Point Marina. START YACHTING TEENS CRUISING COMPETENT CREW LADIES ONLY DAY SKIPPER COASTAL SKIPPER FASTNET CHALLENGE YACHTMASTER CRUISING INSTRUCTOR BOAT HANDLING SAILPOWER VHF RADIO FIRST AID SEA SURVIVAL

8 – 15 May 2016 26 Jun – 3 Jul 2016 7 Days 270 miles £770

CHANNEL ISLANDS 18 – 25 Mar 2016 29 Apr – 6 May 2016 15 – 22 May 2016 17 – 24 Jun 2016 15 – 22 Jul 2016 28 Aug – 4 Sep 2016 7 Days 270 miles £770

See our website for more courses, cruises and a full list of dates.

www.boss-sail.co.uk

*Prices do not include flights or travel insurance.

FASTRAK

Intensive leisure and professional Yachtmaster Coastal and Offshore courses;

18 weeks FT16/1 21st February – 26th June 2016 FT16/2 15th May – 18th September 2016 FT16/3 14th August – 18th December 2016 FASTRAK to Ocean also available

British Offshore Sailing School, Hamble Point Marina, School Lane, Hamble, Hampshire SO31 4NB

Tel:023 8045 7733 Fax:023 8045 6744 www.boss-sail.co.uk

craFt For SaLe

To advertise call: +44 (0) 20 3148 2001 marine directory

Hunter Legend 450

Comfortable well equipped spacious ocean going yacht. 2 cabin both double . Master with shower/ bath and heads .second with heads & shower. Well equipped galley Fridge Freezer 3 ring cooker & micro . Generator , air con , 78hp Yanmar Copper coated and rerigged ,new Furlex, bow thruster, full electronic package £110,000. Vat paid 01323 722301 for more details.

Westerly Fulmar 32f 1990 32ft 1990. ³Quartet² Fin keel. Sleeps 6 in comfort. Refurbished 2010, new mast, boom, standing rigging, running rigging, instruments (inc GPS, chart plotter, radar, Navtex and AIS receiver) 2 winches and upholstery throughout. Sails - main, genoa, No1 jib (furling) and cruising chute with stackpack/lazyjack for main. Volvo engine. In good order, ready to sail, no headlining problems. Owner retiring from sailing so inventory can include charts, lifejackets, pilot books, crockery, binoculars etc. Pictures available. Lying Hayling Island, Hants. Price £30,000 ono Contact: Richard Foreman

Dufour & Sparks 42

Rare opportunity to purchase a fine example of the iconic Dufour & Sparks 42 from 1990. She has just completed an extremely comprehensive refit, including: new engine, new standing and running rigging, new sails, new electrics, electronics, heating, and so on. Tis is a remarkably fast, but seaway kindly, classic from the design board of Sparkman & Stephens, with an illustrious cruising history, and is now ready for the next chapter in her cruising life. £90,000, Vat paid. South Devon. Enquiries to crawleydominic@gmail.com. 100

www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Beneteau 423

Bill Dixon designed

2 cabin. performance rig, 2004, shoal keel. Just completed 6 year circumnavigation and equipped with everything needed for long term cruising, including hydrovane, watermaker, inner forestay, SSB, bow thruster, bimini and awnings, solar panels, 2nd alternator, drogue and much more. New rig 2014, new main 2015

47ft steel blue water cutter. Hull by Croft Marine 1994. Circumnavigated 1995-2001. Constantly upgraded ,ready to transit Panama, sailing now in Caribbean. 2015 ultrasound survey.VAT paid. Full specification & pics available

£95000

Email gryphon2@yahoo.co.uk or Tel 0752 2300223 for information pack

£83,000 Email: dasyl2@yahoo.com

Sigma 362

MOODY 336 Bilge Keel

Sigma 362, commissioned 1988, lovingly maintained and updated, lying Hamble, easily sailed by two people. For full specification email: medent@btinternet.com or tel: 07785941733

Retiring from sailing. New Upholstery. Bow Thruster. Holding Tank. Electric Anchor Winch Bruntons Autoprop.Webasto Air top 4kw HEATING PURE water filter.WINTER COVER. fully fitted 40A Charger + inverter. Engine /gearbox MOD. very well maintained.

£45000

Moored Marina.Portsmouth. For Full Spec/view John Reynolds 0208393 4875 or 07568174258 ann4nauka@gmail.com

For Sale Moody 40

2008 Hanse 350 1/5 Share

Moody 40 mark 2 white. Main engine 50hp Volvo. Sailed by my wife and myself this boat is in first class condition. Classified 1A, wintered ashore every year and maintained to the highest standards. Quality teak joinery. Soft furnishings in dark blue dralon. British Registered and exceptionally well equipped including 6hp Farymann inboard diesel engine HML generator,Vetus bowthruster, Raymarine electronics, Raymarine radar, Eberspacher heating and Karver furling code zero with Selden retractable bowsprit. Lying Hamble. Owner buying Moody 46. Extensive details and photos Dr Jim Flanagan

3 Cabin, teak decks. Established syndicate, currently in Ionian, moving to S Aegean next year. Recent new sails, batteries, windlass, tender & outboard. Cruising chute, feathering prop.

email: flanagan6@talk21.com

124,500

TEL: +447715106593

£49,500

£12,500 Tel 07841 427116 Email: boat@la-matha.com

marine directory

to advertise call: +44 (0) 20 3148 2001 berths moorings & storage personal

craFt For sale 2008 m.y. Gemini 105Mc Catamaran with Diesel Auxiliary Voted overall of of all all hull hull types types by by “Sailing “Sailing Today” Voted best best multihull and second overall Today” readers in the survey. the recent 2014 survey.

Deep Water Swinging Moorings on Yealm Estuary, Newton Ferrers, near Plymouth. For more info go to: yealmmoorings.co.uk

boat names Well maintained and extremely well equipped with Air conditioning, Warm air heating, Raymarine C120 Chartplotter/ Radar/ GPS/ AIS/ Smartpilot, 218E DSC VHF radio, Screecher on curved track, Two cockpit enclosures ( one with “bug screens”), Navtex, Solar panel, Electric windlass, built in Microwave, Walker Bay tender with sailing kit and 3.5HP outboard, Davits …. and much more. For detailed specification, additional pictures andcontact layout please contact cliffandpat@hicksonfamily.co.uk For detailed specification please cliffandpat@hicksonfamily.co.uk Tel. 01323 471675 £109,500 £119,500VAT VATpaid paid Lying Sovereign Harbour, Eastbourne, UK

Hallberg-Rassy 37

Shipwright Fully Mobile

Highest quality work in wood, GRP, metal engineering. Half marina rates. 07713 948 631 Google ‘Gordon Wallace Shipwright’

sails & spars

SPARS AND RIGGING

SALES & SERVICE WORLDWIDE

CRUSADERSAILS.COM

Tel: +44 (0) 1202 670580 E-mail: info@crusadersails.com

Sadler 29

boat screens & windows yacht and boat delivery (2006).Well maintained and in good condition. New carpets, sprayhood and cockpit tent. For full details see www.nova-yachting.nl and click on Nova Occasions. Asking price Euros 219,000 Tel 01536 722602 or email d.forrester1a@btinternet.com

38ft Island Packet 1991

£15,000 of new equipment Autumn 2015, including Yanmar engine with only 48hrs usage, fridge, sprayhood and mainsail cover” Extensively equipped cutter for any distance cruising. Immaculate condition. Legendary IP build quality and it shows. More details on www.islandpacketforsale.com Lying ashore in Plymouth.

£72,250

Tel.07967 648239 Email peter@pkershaw.co.uk

Twin keels. 1984. Running rigging, Harken furler, mast lights and cables, wind instruments and Sprayhood, all new Sep.2015. New BUKH 24 2006. DSC VHF, Plotter with AIS,Autohelm, Forgen, Stripper. New cooker 2007. Carefully maintained for 12 years of ownership.Ashore Exeter.‘Helen’ is a very good example of this popular and safe family cruiser.’ 2013 Survey

boat share

£21,500 Tel: 01395 578436 Email: c.j.flood@btinternet.com.

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Beneteau Sense 43

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102 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

Tashatoo III a stunning 60ft Gunfleet is available for charter from March 2016 in the Med. Based in Balearics then moving slowly East during the summer. Early bird and special offers available. Full time captain and exceptional chef will spoil you rotten! Please visit www.tashatooiii.com Email rvass@burland.com Tel: +44 (0)7872 604 234

MARINE DIRECTORY

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CRADLES THE JACOBS YACHT and boat cradle LTD. All sizes and types of craft catered for. Probably the best designed and versatile cradle made. Tel: 01394 448253. Fax: 01394 448408. Email Forgejacobs@tinyworld.co.uk www.jacobsboatcradles.com. Alternatively send for a brochure. E. Jacobs & Sons, The Forge, Kirton, Nr Ipswich, Suffolk IP10 0NU

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CRAFT FOR SALE BOATS FOR SALE. Buy in Greece with conﬁdence. British owner operated brokerage. Quality Service. Also bareboat yacht charter. Details at www.pinnacleyachtsales.com or tel: 0030 6947 040767 104

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106

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Isle of SkyeYachts offer a fleet of modern yachts for Bareboat and Skippered Charter.The yachts are thoughtfully fitted out for comfortable cruising and are likely to appeal to all tastes and crew sizes. For more information call +44 (0)1471 844216 Email: enquiries@isleofskyeyachts.co.uk or visit our website www.skyeyachts.co.uk

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107

THE CONFESSIONAL OWN UP TO YOUR SAILING SINS

WIN

The confession of the month wins a floating Standard Horizon handheld VHF radio worth £140 PLUS an original Bill Caldwell cartoon

POST Confessions, Yachting Monthly, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU EMAIL

yachtingmonthly@timeinc.com Please send us your confessions in less than 200 words

Caribbean cow joins in Christmas cheer

down by clothing, and there was no-one to hear a cry for help; it was down to me. I ﬂoundered towards the pontoon and reached up to grasp the planking. I felt a spreading numbness and sternly told myself that I had one chance to haul myself out before I ran out of strength. Dripping and bedraggled, I went below to dry off. When I arrived home next day I was wearing oilskins and carrying my sodden clothes. I had to confess why. ‘Well, it’s a good thing you didn’t drown,’ I was told. ‘It would have ruined Christmas.’

CONFESSION OF THE MONTH

By Tom Cunliffe Anyone who ever sailed on one of my Yachtmaster Instructor courses knows how strongly I feel about not leaving rope-ends lying around when secured alongside. ‘Ends safe on the dock, lines cleated and coiled down inboard’ is the default position, but I’ve never confessed the traumatic event that hammered the lesson into me. A group of us cruising the West Indies back in the 1970s decided to anchor our boats in a bay at the south end of Grenada (sparsely populated in those days) for a hog roast on Christmas Day. The piglets arrived on the hoof and were humanely dispatched by the South African contingent. The ﬁres were lit, we sang a carol and all went swimmingly until I decided that my boat would take less room among the crowd if I ran out a line and lay stern to the beach. I roused out my kedge warp, rowed it ashore and secured the bight to a handy tree. I dumped the excess in a heap and went back for a second helping of plum pudding. Leaving the next day I discovered a cow tucking in to my warp. I looked the cudster in the eye, gingerly took hold of my octoplait and started to pull. It came out alright, yard after yard, but it was as slimy as a sand eel. When the whipped end plopped onto the sand, the cow peered at me myopically, burped, then shambled off without further comment. The line was a bit furry, but otherwise it

looked OK. It took until Easter to come clean but it never let me down, and as we beat into the stiff Boxing-day trade wind to head north towards the Grenadines, I swore never again to leave a heap of line on the dock.

A Christmas Dip Colin Jarman It was almost Christmas Eve. The temperature was dipping and the wind rising. I wanted to make sure the boat was safe and sound, so I decided to drive down, check the lines, run the engine, sleep on board and drive home again after breakfast. Like all good plans, it didn’t work out quite like that. The boat was ﬁne, the moorings secure and the fenders in place, so all was well. I ran the shore power cable out to put the heating on, but as I turned to walk back along the ﬁnger beside the boat my foot missed the corner and suddenly I was under water. I detest swimming, largely because I can barely do it. The water was icy, I was weighed

A not so salty tale By Chris Flannery I was due to drop my stepdaughter, Clare, at Stintino in Sardinia for a flight home. We wouldn’t usually have left the harbour in a Force 6 but for Clare missing her flight. After six hours’ sailing my wife and Clare went below deck to prepare dinner to find water sloshing around the sole. They called up and I ran down in a panic and began desperately searching for the source of the hull leak. As I flapped around the boat like a junior sea-cadet my mind was racing with notions of dodgy seacocks and where I had last seen my softwood plugs. At this point Clare, who I would politely describe as impractical and is no more than an ambivalent passenger on a yacht, dipped her finger into the pool of water and tasted it. ‘It’s not salty’ came her calm conclusion. I felt like a fraud taking the tiller later as the girls basked in the smug knowledge that I had panicked over a broken fresh water pump. I had honestly thought we might be sinking.

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108 www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

CR RU U S SA AD DEEER RS SA A AIIILLLS S C R D A US

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