thf 64 hd

JULY 2021

SO YOU WANT TO

RACE AROUND THE WORLD? The boom in amateur ocean challenges

HOW TO

Route across the Mediterranean Transfer to another vessel Troubleshoot at sea

SAILING IN EUROPE

Where you can go in 2021

BEST OF BRITTANY

Short hops along the Atlantic coast

Putting the thrill into cruising

LAI C E PS E G AP63

POGO POWER

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JULY 2021 RACE AROUND THE WORLD?

Around the world racing is booming, with six new pro-am events set to bring the ultimate sailing feat within affordable reach

gnicaR hannaH/initnaC odiuG

at a glance On the wind

10 Pip Hare secures sponsorship 14 16

The future of hydrogen as a power source for yachts, plus a preview of the fabulous Superyacht Cup Palma

PROFILE: GILES SCOTT

Olympian Giles Scott is one of British sailing's biggest talents - but can he defend Finn Gold at Tokyo this year?

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Falmouth pilot cutter

104 A range of hot performance yachts for the summer

108 Big changes in wet weather kit, plus gear reviews

Practical

A CHANCE TO LINGER

After six years of bluewater voyaging, Terysa Vanderloo and Nick Fabbri enjoy a slow cruise through Brittany

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toiL eiraM-naeJ

AYR/segamI dyolL

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New gear and yachts

32 Pellew, the largest and newest

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SUPERSAILWORLD

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and her 'dream' foiling IMOCA for the next Vendée Globe Americans seek to rewrite the America's Cup rules A new bid for the world's hardest sailing record

POGO 44 ON TEST

With wicked pace, first class handling and comfort, has the innovative French yard produced the most refined Pogo yet?

Published monthly on the second Thursday of the month by Future Publishing Limited, 161 Marsh Wall, London E14 9AP ©Future Publishing, 2021 ISSN 0043-9991

112 Special report Sailing in Europe post-Covid and Brexit 116 Extraordinary boats Foiling TF35 controlled by computer 120 Weather briefing Chris Tibbs on crossing the Mediterranean 122 Masterclass Pip Hare on transferring to another vessel 124 5 Tips Troubleshooting at sea

Regulars

05 From the editor 20 Matthew Sheahan 22 Skip Novak 64 Great Seamanship 126 Yachts for sale 132 Classified advertisements 134 World’s coolest yachts COVER PICTURE Want to race around the world?

The Pogo 44 could be on your list...

Photo by Jean-Marie Liot

Online www.yachtingworld.com

YouTube Yachting World

Facebook @yachtingworld

twitter @yachtingworldmagazine

Leyton Multi 50/Magenta Project

TAKING CHARGE Learning that Pip Hare had secured title sponsorship to take her to the 2024 Vendée Globe, and bought a race-winning foiling IMOCA, was one of the best pieces of news I’d heard in a long time. Pip’s ascendancy from Vendée hopeful to established campaigner has been inspiring to witness.

But when I chatted to Pip about how she’ll be running her new programme, she said something very surprising. One reason Pip will continue working with a small team is because she likes to be hands-on; so far, so understandable. But another reason is because Pip has found that, if she is sailing with a larger team of men, they can take over.

How extraordinary that should still be a

consideration for a female skipper who has raced around the world solo?

Pip realised that even a simple helpful gesture from a male crew – jumping on the grinder handles to hoist a sail more quickly, fixing something because they already know how to do it... all slightly erode the chances for her to train or learn her new boat.

Enormous efforts have been made to promote equality in competitive sailing – the latest include the Leyton Multi 50 and Sail GP (page 15) working to bring female racing talent into multihull racing. But as Pip’s concerns show, there’s a long way to go. Being on the boat is not enough: women sailors need to be given the chance to run the boat.

Helen Fretter Editor

JOIN US AND GET YOUR SAILING FIX Subscribe to Yachting World for £19.99 and get the very best boating news, gear, expert advice and cruising destinations delivered direct to your door – as well as saving 35% off the regular price. See page 103

*Big savings and best price guarantee * Never miss an issue * Treat family or friends 5

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PICTURE THIS

British Finn sailor Giles Scott fully powered up at the Princess Sofia Trophy in 2019; the last Olympic multiclass regatta for many athletes who’ll be going to this summer’s Tokyo Games with little race practice. We talk to Scott about the challenge, and his chances, on page 50.

Photo by Junichi Hirai/ Bulkhead Magazine Japan

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PICTURE THIS

Big boat racing made a welcome return at the Rolex Capri Sailing Week and ORC European Championships in May, with 62 boats from 12 countries overcoming restrictions to line up for the Europeans.

Photo by Luca Butto/Rolex/ Studio Borlenghi

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ON THE WIND NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE WORLD OF YACHTING

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Pip Hare secures ‘dream’ IMOCA

British Vendée Globe sailor Pip Hare has renewed her partnership with title sponsor Medallia, and bought a foiling IMOCA for her 2024 Vendée Globe campaign.

The announcement continues the incredible rise of the solo sailor – and Yachting World regular contributor – who began her 2020 Vendée Globe campaign with no title backer and a tiny budget. Hare secured American software company Medallia as a sponsor just months ahead of the start of the 2020 race, before delivering an incredible result in one of the oldest boats in the fleet.

Pip said: “Medallia and I have had a fantastic

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partnership over the last year – they made a huge difference to my 2020/21 Vendée Globe race when they joined my campaign just five months before the start of the race. So having them with me now, at the very start of my 2024 campaign is brilliant – their support has given me the chance to secure the boat that will take me round the world in about three years’ time.

“I’m now determined to spend those years training, upgrading and finessing and I can’t wait to see what Medallia and I will achieve together in the lead up to the next Vendée.”

For 2024, Hare has secured a newer generation IMOCA, the 2016 foiling Verdier/VPLP model

which was raced as Bureau Vallée II by Louis Burton to 3rd overall. She says it is her perfect choice of IMOCA. “This genuinely is the truth, but when I walked down the dock at the beginning of the Vendée with Paul Larsen and we said ‘Let’s play the game of which one you would choose next?’,” Pip recalled, “I said I’d either choose Maitre Coq or Bureau Vallée – and that was without knowing how they would perform in the race. I definitely didn’t want a 2020 generation boat. They are just too extreme for me. I felt it was too different from the sailing that I know.

“But I think the 2016 generation foilers are

nodgnaL drahciR

Recyclable sails for IMOCAs

Among the new rules announced for the IMOCA class, by 2023, every competitor must have one ‘Green Sail’ among the eight permitted. This sail can be made from alternative materials and/or be fully recyclable.

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Pip Hare has secured title sponsorship from Medallia and upgraded her previous IMOCA (left) for the foiling Bureau Vallée (below)

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strong and proven, and those two in particular current IMOCA (the former L’Occitane), and begin stood out as strong boats. So when Medallia said, the exciting process of training on a new foiling ‘OK, let’s go find a boat’, we went and looked at design. Before buying Bureau Vallée she’d not those two boats. sailed on a foiling IMOCA, although, as she points “We came away thinking that Bureau Vallée out, she hadn’t sailed on any sort of IMOCA was the best boat for me. So effectively I ended before taking delivery of her previous Medallia. up getting exactly the boat that I wanted, which is Pip has budget for a foil development quite extraordinary!” programme within her four-year Previously the IMOCA was plan, though not until she has the 2016/17 race winner Banque done a good two years of sailing Populaire, sailed by Armel Le on her ‘training foils’, as well as a Cléac’h to a course record of 74d new mast and sail wardrobe.

3h 35m which still stands today.

Leslie Stretch, Medallia’s Hare will take delivery of her president and chief executive new IMOCA 60 in July. Before officer, said: “Everyone at Medallia that, she’ll be racing a leg of is immensely impressed with Pip’s the Ocean Race Europe with strength, relentless spirit, and Medallia’s Lesley Stretch the Bureau Vallée team on their compelling story – but her journey

Collision damaged foil on LinkedOut at the finish of the 2020/21 Vendée Globe

Ideas sought for collision avoidance

As ocean racing yachts get ever faster, how to avoid collisions (with both debris and marine mammals) has become an increasingly pressing problem. The IMOCA class is now calling for the marine industry to work together in a search for solutions to improve safety for sailors and help protect marine life.

A Call for Expressions of Interest has been made, with the hope that creating a brainstorming working group might generate some new solutions.

Organised by Pôle Mer Bretagne Atlantique, the hope is to look beyond existing technology such as onboard detectors, but to work with oceanologists and specialists in everything from marine ecology to shipping, or even space.

is far from over. We are proud to continue to stand with her as she faces new challenges, and help her connect with her dedicated supporters in novel ways through our technology.”

Pip added: “This has always been a two-race campaign and my sights were always set on the 2024 race. This last edition was where I learned how to race solo round the world and honed my skills. Now I know what it takes, and I’ve got over three years to build my team, adapt the new boat to suit my sailing style and most importantly train my own skills.

“I was proud of my performance this time round – but in 2024 I want to see if I can race with the big boys and girls at the front of the pack,” she said.

We’ll be following Pip’s campaign closely in Yachting World. Find out more at piphare.com

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ON THE WIND

RORC Crew Match open ihgnelroB olraC

The Royal Ocean Racing Club has launched an updated Crew Match online portal to simplify the process of matching boat owners and crew wherever they race in the world. The Crew Match website is open to all, whether a RORC member or not.

Register and search at crewmatch.rorc.org

Down the mine

Sam Laidlaw’s Quarter Tonner BLT suffers a dramatic nosedive during the RORC Vice Admiral’s Cup in Cowes in late May. The Vice Admiral’s Cup saw 50 boats racing in blustery Solent conditions with a sizeable chop left over from storms two days previously. Eight classes raced, including the Fast 40+ and newly established Cape 31 fleet, but it was the 10-strong Quarter Tonners who kept photographer James Tomlinson busy with a series of spectacular broaches, Chinese gybes and nosedives.

Despite deploying submarine mode, BLT won the class.

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ON THE WIND

HYS and Ancasta merge Hamble Yacht Services Refit and Repair has merged with

the Ancasta Group’s commissioning and aftersales team, to create Ancasta Yacht Services (AYS). This one-stop-shop on the UK south coast will offer services including repair, painting, engineering, joinery and equipment supply.

Knox-Johnston leads call for HMRC rethink ymalA/tterreP lliW

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In a letter published in The Times newspaper in May, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston drew attention to the damaging effect of the current HMRC VAT demands on leisure sailing, particularly on yacht owners returning to the UK after the Brexit transition period.

Knox-Johnston, who is patron of the Cruising Association, wrote: “The freedom for yachtsmen and women to sail from the United Kingdom and return a few years later has been struck a deadly blow by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

“As recently as April 2019 HMRC had said that the status quo (ie no further VAT would be due on returning British registered pleasure craft which had already paid VAT) would persist after we left the European Union. However in late 2020 HMRC changed their ruling and stated that all British boats that had been out of the UK for three years or more will have to pay VAT again if they return to the UK. “An 18 month period of grace within which pleasure craft can return without incurring VAT dues has been granted, but that might be insufficient for yachts that are as far away as Australia. No privately owned boats can now leave the UK for more than three years without having to pay VAT a second time on their return. “…We are asking the Government to add British Registered pleasure craft, on which VAT has already been paid, to the list of exceptions to VAT demands on returned goods in order that British sailors can continue to enjoy the centuries-old practice of extended cruising abroad.”

The letter was counter-signed by celebrated sailors including Sir Ben Ainslie, Mike Golding, Pip Hare, Dee Caffari, Jeanne Socrates, and Bob Shepton.

In April UK yacht owners with boats in Europe at the end of the Brexit transition period were granted an

extra six months to qualify for Returned Goods Relief (RGR).

Previously yachts had to return to the UK before 31 December 2021 in order to avoid a second VAT payment, regardless of when the boat left the UK. Following lobbying by the RYA and British Marine, this was extended by six months. This means cruisers have until 30 June 2022 to bring their boats back to the UK to avoid paying a second UK VAT payment.

Roger Bickerstaff, of the Cruising Association Regulations and Technical Services Group, commented: “While that’s significant, in terms of people bringing their boats back from, say the eastern Mediterranean or potentially places in the Baltic, it’s still quite tricky. So if you’re coming up the Portuguese coast and across Biscay, it’s sort of forcing [you] to do it rather early in the season.”

CEO of British Marine, Lesley Robinson said although the organisation had “requested and set out a strong case for a 3-year RGR transition period, the 6-month extension is welcomed.

“However, given the current restrictions on international travel, we hope HMRC will demonstrate flexibility to the extension to allow all UK boat owners to return their boats in a safe weather window.”

We take a closer look at the European cruising options for third country cruisers on page 112.

“The freedom for yachtsmen and women to sail from the United Kingdom and return a few years later has been struck a deadly blow by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs” 13

ON THE WIND

Boat shows are back

The first British boat show for over a year, the MDL South Coast Boat Show in Southampton, successfully went ahead in early May. The appointment-only format saw over 700 boat viewings booked by 500 visitors. Will Blair of Ancasta International commented: “The format is one that is here to stay, focusing on buyers who appreciate the time and space to really explore their new yachts without queues and distractions.”

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‘We are delighted to hear that the New York Yacht Club is interested in continuing participation in the America’s Cup’

Americans seek to rewrite rules

Everybody knows the America’s Cup winner makes the rules for the next event, creating a protocol following ‘focused and friendly negotiations’ with the Challenger of Record.

For the 37th Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand will be deciding how, when and where the competition is run after agreement with INEOS Team UK. Right now, that is all TBC, to be published by 17 November.

But this hasn’t stopped the New York Yacht

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Club putting forward not merely suggestions but a complete, detailed blueprint of every aspect of how they would like the Cup to be run. The NYYC issued a draft 154-page protocol released on 6 May, along with confirmation of its challenge for the next Cup. The draft defines every aspect, from entry costs to nationality rules, and proposes fixing budgets both annually and for each Cup cycle.

Perhaps most ambitiously, or impertinently,

it sets out race schedules, dates and venues for every America’s Cup until 2039. The NYYC would like to see the next Cup raced in New Zealand in 2024, then Italy in 2027, the UK in 2030, the US in 2033, and from 2035 raced in the winner’s country on a two-yearly then an annual cycle.

It proposes setting up a commission chaired by the Defender ‘to be the permanent control and consulting body of the America’s Cup’.

Corporations would be set up to manage the

ON THE WIND

Cayard heads US Olympic Sailing Paul Cayard, former Olympian, America’s Cup sailor and Whitbread Round the World skipper, has been appointed executive director of US Olympic Sailing. “We have everything we need to win in this country. What we need to do is come together,” Cayard said.

running of the regatta and its commercial arm.

Christopher J Culver, NYYC commodore, said: “The cost of a competitive campaign, the lack of continuity in the class and the inability to plan beyond the current cycle have combined to create a prohibitive barrier to entry.”

The draft protocol was met with silence from Emirates Team New Zealand and a polite but firm rebuttal from INEOS Team UK and the Royal Yacht Squadron. ‘We are working collaboratively with the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Team New Zealand to write the Protocol that will define the rules moving forward. We are delighted to hear that the New York Yacht Club are interested in continuing participation in the America’s Cup and we will keep them informed as we move forward,’ its statement read.

A M AT C H I N T H E U K ?

HK yrraH

Ben Ainslie’s INEOS Team UK is trying to arrange a Cup match around the Isle of Wight next year

The British team has proposed running a rapid turnaround match between the Defender and Challenger in the UK next year, involving or including a recreation of the original 1851 race around the Isle of Wight. Feasibility studies have already been done on this format for the 37th Cup. “It is something that has been tabled as a mechanism to get through this Covid world we have been battling through and looking at how do we get four years down the road,” says Ben Ainslie. “But in all honesty it is very much a distant idea. It is still leftfield thinking, given that the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron is still waiting for clarity from NZ government in terms of funding.”

Consensus has been easier to find on continuing with the AC75 designs. This has been agreed on as the class for at least the next two editions.

An agreement on budget restraints and nationality rules could also find common ground. But centralised governance, ie asking the winner to give away all the commercial rights? That is very unlikely to happen.

“It’s an admirable point to try to get to, though I don’t see it in this cycle,” Ainslie comments.

Other teams that have expressed an interest in challenging besides the NYYC’s American Magic are Luna Rossa, a Star & Stripes US team – and there are keen rumours that Ernesto Bertarelli might return to the fray with Alinghi.

Mentorship gets female sailors into multihulls

The Leytonsponsored programme aims to encourage more women into elite multihull racing

In a unique mentorship programme, French sponsor Leyton has teamed up with The Magenta Project to select three women to fast-track into elite racing. American Kass Schmitt, Pamela Lee from Ireland and Cassandre Blandin from France will take part in a series of training sessions with Leyton’s skipper, British sailor Sam Goodchild, aboard the team’s Multi50 trimaran.

Multihull racing is one of the hardest areas of professional sailing to break into, and despite producing icons such as Florence Arthaud and Ellen MacArthur, has slipped back to almost complete male dominance. This forward-looking project provides a pathway.

The three women chosen have taken part in training days and offshore workshops, including some hosted by Sam Davies and Thomas Coville.

All three women already have considerable offshore racing experience in the Figaro class or other short-handed races, but in monohulls rather than multihulls. They were chosen from 34 applications from nine countries.

“It is going to give us many tools and will help guide us through the steps of creating a multihull project: the logistics, how a shore crew works, how to handle such a racing machine…

It’s also an opportunity to meet other women who share the same passion,” says Cassandre Blandin.

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ON THE WIND itaresaM/enogirO eleaffaR

Fastnet record falls (again)

Just a month after the MOD 70 Powerplay set a Fastnet course record of 25h 4m, Giovanni Soldini and his Maserati Multi 70 had another go, taking the record down to 23h 51m on 7 May. The team averaged 34-35 knots to Lizard Point, and 24.94 knots over the entire 608-mile course.

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Romain Pilliard will attempt a westabout circumnavigation record on Use it Again!

Bid for the world’s hardest record An attempt on the toughest record in ocean sailing, the westabout round the world course, is being planned later this year by French sailor Romain Pilliard. The 46-year-old Figaro sailor and IMOCA crew will be sailing with another as yet unnamed co-skipper in a bid to break the 34,000-mile ‘wrong way’ record non-stop round the world against prevailing winds and currents.

Pilliard will sail the trimaran Use it Again!, the 75ft Nigel Irens design (then B&Q) that Ellen MacArthur sailed to a non-stop eastabout round the world record in 2005.

The wrong-way record has been completed by only five sailors since it was first set in 1971

by Chay Blyth. Then dubbed ‘the impossible voyage’ it was a record of greater duration and vastly greater arduousness than the downwind

HOW THE RECORD FELL

route, as it involved punching much more slowly into a greater number of storms across the expanse of the Southern Ocean, as well as battling counter-currents.

T E S T I N G T H E T H E O RY

While all the previous record breakers have been on conservative, robustly built monohulls, and sailing solo, Pilliard will sail double-handed and follow a different route. It has been a longheld theory that the record would next fall to a multihull, provided it was sufficiently manageable to round Cape Horn to windward.

The argument goes that a multihull would be fast enough to sail into the more clement latitudes of the Pacific and Indian Ocean – in other words, could make the wrong-way route more right-way,

PA Images/Alamy

Keystone Press/Alamy

PA Images/Alamy

1971 – Chay Blyth, British Steel (59ft Robert Clark-designed steel cutter), 293 days. Average speed: 3.85 knots

1982 – David Cowper, Ocean Bound (41ft Sparkman & Stephens cutter), 221 days.

Average speed: 3.91 knots

1994 – Mike Golding, Group 4 (67ft steel Challenge cutter, David Thomas design), 167 days. Average speed: 5.61 knots

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DPPI Media/Alamy

2000 – Philippe Monnet, Uunet (Philippe Briand design Open 60), 151 days. Average speed: 5.97 knots

albeit with some very gnarly corners.

The theory was put to the test in 2017 by Yves Le Blévec on the 100ft trimaran Actual. But Blévec capsized today off Cape Horn when one of the trimaran’s port linkages broke in winds of 30-40 knots and 6m seas. Fortunately he was able to shelter inside until airlifted to safety by the Chilean Coastguard.

Pilliard has thousands of miles of solo racing experience on the trimaran, including racing in the 2019 Route du Rhum transatlantic race. He comments: “The choice of [two skippers] makes sense. Even if I know my boat well, it’s still a multihull, it can turn over. There can be days of waiting [near Cape Horn] if the conditions are not kind and it’s less dangerous to wait doublehanded than solo, especially in bad conditions.”

Marcel Mochet/AFP

Reuters/Alamy

2000 – Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, Adrien (85ft Gilles Vatondesigned cutter), 122 days. Average speed: 7.43 knots

2006 – Dee Caffari, Aviva (72ft steel Challenge cutter, Rob Humphreys design), 178 days. Average speed: 5.09 knots

ON THE WIND

OCC Charitable Trust up and running

The Ocean Cruising Club Charitable Trust is now operational. The Trust was set up in 2020 with the aims of educating the public in sailing, seamanship, marine pilotage and navigation; of promoting participation in sailing and sail training; and promoting the conservation, protection, and sustainable management of the marine environment. The Trust will consider grant applications that satisfy these criteria.

Solent Sonata boom One of the most exciting fleets in the Solent for 2021 is shaping up to be the venerable Sonata, the 22ft David Thomas trailer-sailer design from 1976.

Over 30 boats are already entered for the 2021 nationals, which will be held in Cowes from 15-18 August, and active racing fleets are rapidly growing in Cowes, Poole and Weymouth.

Used boats have been selling within 24 hours of being listed, and the class association is drawing up a map of where the surviving one-designs are currently sailing. Over 400 Sonatas were built by Hunter Boats over a 20-year period and around 250 have been traced.

How to handle orca incidents

The AOWG has drawn up a map of whale interactions, and issued a list of safety protocols for skippers. If an orca begins to interact with the yacht, sailors are advised to stop the boat (take down the sails), switch off the engine and electrical equipment, and leave the wheel loose if conditions allow, then contact the authorities (by phone on 112 or by VHF Ch16). They advise not shouting at the animals, and do not let yourself to be seen unnecessarily.

However, if you have a camera record the animals, especially their dorsal fins, to help identify them afterwards. Make notes of what happened, record the date, time and your position then send the information and images to gt.orcas.ibericas@gmail.com

oidutS zenitraM/zenitraM ordeP

Following a flurry of interactions between boats and orca whales off Spain and Portugal in the last year, the Atlantic Orca Working Group (AOWG) has issued new advice to skippers on how to deal with the whales.

Between July-November 2020, 45 interactions were recorded between the Strait of Gibraltar and Galicia in Spain, including reports of juvenile orca swimming into, pushing and even biting boats off the Spanish and Portuguese coasts last year.

In some cases this resulted in damage to the boats, mainly to rudders or sterns. The incidents happened 2-8 miles offshore and mainly involved boats which were 50ft/15m or under and either sailing or motorsailing.

New technical and ops boss for Swan ymalA/otofotoM

ymalA/emarFretaW

Nautor Group has announced the appointment of Michelangelo Casadei as group chief technical & operations officer. Michelangelo brings a wealth of experience including 13 years in technical management at Ferretti, and eight with the Fiat Group.

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NEXT MONTH

ESTABLISHED 1894 • VOLUME 172 • ISSUE NO 3355

llebpmaC xaM

Dash to the Grenadines

The idyllic cruising grounds of the Grenadines provided a generous welcome for Max Campbell and the crew of his S&S Swan 37 Elixir

The boat Skip built

There’s nobody more experienced than Skip Novak when it comes to commissioning an expedition yacht – we get an exclusive sail on board his brand new 77ft Vinsom of Antarctica to find out what makes a true go-anywhere design

Just for two

Double-handed racing has boomed over recent years, with everyone from Olympic hopefuls to ocean racing pros and competitive couples enjoying the growth in two-person racing fleets. James Boyd finds out why... and what’s next?

Get Fastnet ready

The Rolex Fastnet Race is one of the biggest events in offshore sailing. We have expert advice on how to prepare from ocean racer Dee Caffari, plus a step-by-step guide to the new course finishing in Cherbourg

Future PLC 161 Marsh Wall, London E14 9AP Editorial enquiries Email editorial yachtingworld@futurenet.com Editor Helen Fretter helen.fretter@futurenet.com Test Editor Toby Hodges toby.hodges@futurenet.com Art Editor Robert Owen robert.owen@futurenet.com Production Editor Julian Peckham Deputy Art Editor Daniel Franklin Group Art Editor Neil Singleton Head of Art Kevin Eason Contributors James Boyd, Elaine Bunting, Tom Cunliffe, Robert Deaves, Sam Fortescue, Pip Hare, Rupert Holmes, Skip Novak, Andy Rice, Matthew Sheahan, James Stewart, Chris Tibbs, Terysa Vanderloo Photography All copyrights and trademarks are recognised and respected Advertising Media packs are available on request Advertising Director Sasha McGregor 07917 769177 sasha.mcgregor@futurenet.com Commercial Partnerships Director Duncan Wilde 07767 873080 duncan.wilde@futurenet.com Account Manager Chelsea Speakman 07432 609945 chelsea.speakman@futurenet.com Ad Production Coordinator Peter Burton 07531 46623 peter.burton@futurenet.com International editions Yachting World is available for licensing. Contact the Licensing team to discuss partnership opportunities.

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COMMENT

MATT S H E A H A N A NEW SAILING RECORD PLATFORM BRINGS YACHT RACING INTO THE STRAVA ERA. WHO WOULDN’T WANT A GO?

T

here’s nothing quite like bragging about a trip.

From hitting a top speed while surfing down a wave to reaching a destination in an unfeasibly short space of time, whether we admit to it or not, we all like breaking records. The popularity of smart watches, fitness monitors and apps like Strava and Nike Run Club means that modern technology has allowed us to monitor, quantify and compare our performances in everything from the number of steps we take in a day, to an evening cycle to the pub. Without realising it we have become obsessed with data, times and being faster or better than before.

The interesting thing is that the focus of this competition has shifted away from beating others, to beating ourselves.

Where achieving a personal best was once the talk of marathon runners, now we all seem to have a PB of our own.

All of which makes a neat fit for a new sailing project that has just been announced: IRCRecords. As the name suggests, the idea is focussed on setting and breaking records – not, as is so often the case, for grand prix machines and professional crews (although they are not excluded) – but for everyone. At least everyone aboard a boat that holds a valid IRC certificate. Rather than simply concentrating on the outright record, IRCRecords uses the IRC handicapping system to use corrected times for the records. This means, for example, that a Contessa 32 could compete with a TP52 or a mini maxi in a record time for a circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight.

But why would you want to do this when there is a perfectly enjoyable race on the same course where over a 1,000 boats take part? The answer is that IRCRecords isn’t intended to replace existing racing, but to offer a new type of competition.

You pick when you want to start, and even when to give up and have another go if things aren’t going to plan. You get to sail in your optimum conditions and you get to have the whole racecourse to yourself.

“Brian Thompson holds many offshore records and has often said that one of the biggest appeals of this type of sailing is that you only ever go when conditions are perfect,” explained IRCRecords founder

Charles Darbyshire. “An IRCRecords entry provides a 14-day window for competitors to start their attempt.

This allows teams to target favourable weather and tidal conditions for their vessel. Unlike a race start, these record attempts can be made at any stage and time to suit the competitor, giving greater flexibility to owners.”

The record attempts will be validated through the YB tracking system, which is widely used for offshore races and record attempts. Units can be rented for specific events or bought.

At present, the idea is to use existing racecourses in the northern hemisphere to provide a focus and allow records to be ratified easily and quickly. While the website currently shows examples of some suggested courses, the idea is to encourage participants to suggest others internationally.

The global pandemic has seen plenty of events cancelled or postponed, which has triggered a re-think for many when it comes to racing. The idea certainly struck a chord with me as I believe it provides an opportunity to get more out of our sailing while squeezing more of the bits we like into the increasingly limited amount of time we seem to have. In my other favourite sport, cross country gliding, we have had a national ladder for many years where we post our flights, times and traces to compete against others who flew on the same day, wherever they may have launched from and whatever the length of course that they flew. The British Gliding Association ladder has proved very popular, especially as the ability to filter results by, say, your own local club, means that we can compete against local mates on a daily basis as well as going for a national prize.

Most interesting of all is that the ladder has created an online community that shares and compares experiences while creating a different style of racing that complements the traditional championship model. I see no reason why that wouldn’t work in sailing and have thought so for some time.

But perhaps the most compelling argument for many will be that with record breaking you only get out of bed when there’s good reason to do so. What’s not to like? Find out more at ircrecords.com

‘You only ever go when conditions are perfect’

20

COMMENT

S K I P N O VA K THE BLOCKING OF THE SUEZ CANAL REMINDS SKIP OF AN EVENTFUL TRANSIT OF HIS OWN…

W

hen the story broke about the Suez Canal fiasco I was reminded of my transit in May of 1980, not least of all how I got there in the first place.

It all started in Fremantle. I was asked

by Peter Wright, the owner of the Swan 65 Independent Endeavour, a yacht I skippered on the 1979 Parmelia Race (Plymouth to Cape Town to Fremantle) what we should do with the boat as it had to leave Australia to avoid paying VAT. I suggested a charter season in the Med. Peter Wright was a fascinating chap who, with his partner Lang Hancock, prospected, discovered and developed the Pilbara iron ore fields in Western Australia, which made their fortunes.

Logically the Suez Canal was our route north, and Peter, a sprightly septuagenarian, wanted to sail with us at least to the Seychelles. During one balmy starlit night while he and I were on watch, he admitted that the only reason he bought this expensive yacht was for an escape vehicle for his family when the Chinese invaded Australia – which he was convinced would happen. At the time I thought this pretty farfetched and didn’t know what to say. Fast forward 40 years and how prescient Peter was: not a land invasion, mind you, but certainly an economic one.

Ten glorious days were spent in the Seychelles, moored in Victoria’s harbour. We met and socialised with the local Seychellois and a few young Brits living rough in beach huts having their last hurrahs before disappearing forever into the City of London. Right out of Graham Greene, we often missed the curfew and diverted into ‘so and so’s’ for the night sleeping on their living room floor, as was routine during the time of coup de’etat attempts against the socialist regime.

On we went around the Horn of Africa, giving Socotra a wide berth, and had to stop in Djibouti to re-fuel. I remember feeling distinctly uncomfortable with our shiny yacht while all along the perimeter fence of the post-colonial yacht club hundreds of starving refugees were camped out. It was obvious that to cruise in this part of the world would require a

wreck of a boat in an attempt to blend in and possibly survive. And if you lost the whole shebang, so be it.

At the southern entrance of the Red Sea we like to think we were shot at by pirates while going through the Straits of Bab el Mandeb, but that popping noise could have been the engine backfiring on that fishing boat barely visible in the heat haze. It was a dreadfully long, hot slog going up the Red Sea, in convoy with shipping and never a shoreline visible to break up the monotony.

Our canal agent, the ‘Prince of the Red Sea,’ had his launch at the ready off Port Suez. The launch driver kindly offloaded our six or so plastic bags of rubbish – then walked to the back of his boat and threw them into the harbour, which was an impressive bit of recycling in 1980.

With my briefcase full of greenbacks, I took a nervewracking ride on the back of a scooter to downtown Port Suez and was ushered into the Prince’s HQ. Sharing his hubbly bubbly pipe, we exchanged niceties, then got down to negotiating his fees, which of course were somewhat more than published, for all sorts of reasons. He then related the story of a British sailing couple who refused to pay and had been in Port Suez for three months. I shelled out and our pilot was arranged to be on board first thing in the morning.

I’ve forgotten the pilot’s name but not his face.

Promising to guard the boat while we spent the night tied to a barge in Ismailia, I found him fast asleep by 2300 on our saloon floor. All along the canal passage he politely asked for ‘presents’ which we dished out, ie lengths of old rope, a pot from the stove and even some paint we had for his house, which no doubt needed a lick of it.

As we neared Port Said the requests became demands and the last straw was when he ‘had to have’ my rigging knife (not yet lost as a sentimental object). I objected strongly.

Luckily his launch came alongside in the nick of time, and I argued him into it with shouting and waving of arms on both sides. He fell backwards in his bilge and as his launch pulled away I put our hammer down. The last thing he shouted was: “I will keel you!” Shortly after we were thankfully flushed out into the relative sanity of the eastern Mediterranean.

‘I’ve forgotten the pilot’s name but not his face’

22

SO YOU WANT TO RACE AROUND THE

world?

AROUND THE WORLD RACING IS BOOMING, WITH SIX NEW PRO-AM EVENTS SET TO BRING THE ULTIMATE SAILING FEAT WITHIN AFFORDABLE REACH. ELAINE BUNTING INVESTIGATES

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RGG/gnicaR hannaH/initnaC odiuG

25

‘The OGR unashamedly places its heritage in the Whitbread’

GOLDEN GLOBE GOES AGAIN Next year will see the second edition of the Golden Globe Race. The ‘retro’ solo round the world set up by Australian sailor and adventurer Don McIntyre may initially have been seen as a one-off celebration of the 50th anniversary of the famous 1968/69 race, but it proved to be a hit worldwide, earning a mass audience and producing a queue of sailors wishing to take part.

With a home in Les Sables d’Olonne, where this race alternates with the Vendée Globe, the Golden Globe is now set up to be a perennial of the racing calendar. While it is not an event aspired to by elite professionals, it is a raw and relatively affordable round the world race for the everyman sailor. Being slow by nature of its eligible pre-1988 long keel designs, the GGR replicates the exact ‘lonely race for madmen’ experience that initially ignited our enduring fascination for round the world races.

Stripped of modern technology, from autopilots to communications to weather routing, and with no stops, it is comparatively inexpensive. Jean-Luc Van Den Heede’s winning yacht in 2019 was a Rustler 36, of which secondhand models change hands for around £80100,000. “You can’t win the race with money, as boats and equipment are restricted,” says Don McIntyre.

Below: Don McIntyre is running three round the world events over the next two years

ycnegA otohP LPP/RGG

Have you ever dreamed of racing round the world, passing Cape Horn or surfing down the face of a breaking wave deep in the Southern Ocean? In your imagination you’ve pictured yourself standing behind the wheel of a yacht racing under a spinnaker tight as a snare drum, hosed by spray and wearing a rictus grin of fear and exhilaration.

In real life? No chance. But now, maybe you could, even if only for that one, giant-slaying leg.

From next year a clutch of new round the world events are set to start that open up big ocean racing possibilities at costs that align with private yacht ownership. There are double-handed races, solo races, non-stop and stopping, through the Tropics and deep into the Southern Ocean.

Some mix professionals with experienced amateurs and offer a chance to race against the pros, or hire pros to race alongside you. Several are specifically tailored to older yachts and in the process are remaking a ready market for well-found evergreen cruiser-racers.

Compared to pinnacle races such as the Vendée Globe or Ocean Race, each with a ticket price of €10-15 million to reach the podium, a variety of epic events are now taking off with very different entry costs.

There is already a strong line-up for the 2022 race.

“The [next] edition is going to have a different feel,” says McIntyre. “Those entering this one know what to expect and there are three distinct groups: the ones who are passionate about winning, others with a wholesome attitude focussed on doing as well as they can, and a third group who just want to get round.

“PRB will come back with Damien Guillou, an IMOCA skipper and seven times Figaro racer, with a fully funded campaign – the PRB boss went looking for a skipper. Then we have Graham Dalton [Grant Dalton’s brother and former Around Alone competitor]. He has bought Matmut, Van Den Heede’s old boat, and will spend months working it up.”

Finnish sailor Tapio Lehtinen is returning, and Indian sailor Abhilash Tomy, capsized and dismasted in the Southern Ocean, is also rumoured to want to come back.

Undoubtedly the most experienced sailor will be the

GOLDEN GLOBE RACE 2022 WHERE

Les Sables d’Olonne

26

WHEN

4 September 2022

STOPOVERS Non-stop

ELIGIBLE BOATS

32ft-36ft long keelers

CREW Solo

ENTRY FEE

Approx €9,000

CONTACT

goldengloberace.com

RACING

RGG/LPP/nitraM eisseJ

Finnish skipper Tapio Lehtinen and his Gaia 36 Asteria pass Hobart during the 2018/19 Golden Globe Race

W H I T B R E A D R E B O OT E D Of all the races set to go round the world in the next two years, the Ocean Globe Race in 2023 is causing the biggest stir. The largest of the retro races imagined by Don

McIntyre in terms of boat size and likely fleet numbers, the OGR has caught light in the imaginations of sailors of all backgrounds, from boat owners to professionals, and others who see potential to make this the ultimate ‘payto-play’ experience.

The OGR unashamedly places its heritage in the Whitbread Round the World Races of the 1970s and 1980s, when amateurs and professionals raced together, cruiserracers could win, and before niche specialisms replaced all-round seamanship. McIntyre argues that it also stands against the inbuilt obsolesce of modern races by giving new life to older boats, in this case chiefly pre-1988 glassfibre production yachts of 47-68ft.

The route is a simple one that mirrors the Whitbread Races over four legs, stopping in South Africa, Australia or New Zealand, before rounding Cape Horn and back to Europe. ▲

enigmatic David Scott Cowper, whose multiple solo circumnavigations and polar expeditions in small boats over 40 years is the stuff of legend.

Some pundits are still sniffy about the GGR, its slow boats and proportion of older skippers. Others point to the lack of technology increasing the risks of this race, which had a 27% finish rate last time with five dismastings and four abandonments out of a fleet of 18. The race is not endorsed by a national sailing federation or subject to World Sailing safety requirements. However, it’s hard to make a watertight argument about safety considering the historic retirement rate of the Vendée Globe.

OCEAN GLOBE RACE WHERE

European start

WHEN

10 September 2023

STOPOVERS Ports TBA

ELIGIBLE BOATS

47-68ft/Whitbread/ VO60s

CREW

Crewed

ENTRY FEE

€25,000-€50,000

CONTACT

oceangloberace.com

27

ihgnelroB olraC gniliaS htroN °95

race they always wanted to do. “Dominique Dubois, who McIntyre says: “We are nearly full with a maximum of owns the Multiplast yard, went and bought a Swan 651 35 boats already. We knew it would be big.” and is getting 25 of his friends together with a chef on There are several classes: the Adventure class for listed board,” says McIntyre. “Some of the big names, front line yachts such as the S&S-designed Swan 47, 48 and Frers F1 sailors, want to sail with him.”

Swan 55, 46, 51 and 53, for which entries have already Another who is looking at entering is Andrew Pindar, closed. There is also the Sayula class for 56-66ft yachts, long-time sponsor of round the world yachts and Vendée with a range of Swans plus the Nicholson 55 eligible; and the Flyer class, which can include any yacht of any length sailors. He has two eligible VO60s, the former Assa Abloy and News Corp, both from 2000. “This is about reusing that entered in the 1973-81 Whitbreads or historically significant sail training yachts. A further Classic Challenge and repurposing boats in a world [away from] an arms race, and for people to go back to celebrating what’s been is for approved Maxis from the 1985 Whitbread and achieved in half a century. It’s wonderful,” he says.

Whitbread/Volvo 60s.

“I’d love to go back to that era of sailors The Adventure, Sayula and Flyer classes who have ended up in coaching roles share the ‘back to basics’ concept of the but who have at least one more race Golden Globe Race (although with a weird left in them, people like Brad Jackson or rule that modern equipment such as GPS, Guillermo Altadill, 50-55-year-olds who are chartplotters, AIS and PLBs are all behind amazing sailors, and team them up with a locked screen that “two people on board people who have a great competence but sworn to secrecy can look to check this who didn’t choose that path and maybe equipment and use it for MOB situations,” went on to become accountants or lawyers. says McIntyre). On the other hand the They would never get a place on an Ocean Classic Challenge in Whitbread/VO60s Race or an Ultime, and wouldn’t want to do allows the technology of its era and will it in a Class 40.” possibly sail a different course. Now-classic Pindar can foresee a strong class of Whitbread yachts such L’Esprit d’équipe/ VO60s raced on a “high level pro-am basis”, Export 33, Maiden, ADC Accutrac and King’s with paying crew coming from people Legend are already entered.

Swan 59 Icebear will enter buying a “life experience”. Or, perhaps Some are setting out to take part in a the Ocean Globe Race

MINI GLOBE RACE WHERE

Northern Europe

28

WHEN

December 2022

STOPOVERS Nine

ELIGIBLE BOATS

One design 5.80 class

CREW Solo

ENTRY FEE €4,000

CONTACT

classglobe580.com

RACING

‘This is about reusing or repurposing boats’ ADC Accutrac (below) competed in the 1977/78 Whitbread Round the World Race and has been reimagined as Translated 9 (left) for the Ocean Globe Race

A R O U N D I N M I N I AT U R E A third race being planned by Don McIntyre in 2024 is a new event called the Mini Globe. This is a race for 19ft one-design plywood kit yachts round the world from northern Europe via the Canary Islands, Panama, Marquesas, Tahiti, Tonga, Indonesia, Mauritius, Cape Town and Cape Verde.

The concept echoes the somewhat cultish microyacht voyagers who have followed John Guzzwell’s circumnavigation in the 21ft wooden yawl Trekka in the 1950s and Shane Acton’s circumnavigation in the 18ft Shrimpy in the 1970s.

This circumnavigation will be via the tropics, at latitudes above 40° and will take around 13-14 months. The schedule is based on a pursuit format, with each start date set only after 15% of the racers finish the previous leg.

The 5.80m one-design created for this event was

AN AFFORDABLE CHALLENGE? Another twist on the ‘accessible and affordable’ recipe is a new non-stop round the world pursuit race launched

by Italian solo sailor Marco Nannini. The Global Solo Challenge will have a rolling series of starts over eight weeks between September and October 2023.

Nannini began his solo racing in a Sigma 36 in the 2009 OSTAR and went on to race in a Class 40 in Josh Hall’s Global Ocean Race in 2011/2. He says that experience was hard, and he wanted to turn away from “a format that you either have the fastest boat or there was nothing on earth you could do to win – it was like cycling on bikes with two different size wheels.

“I never wanted to do that again; it was a horrible feeling that you were part of a race... but not.”

His race is open to approved yachts of between 33-55ft with a maximum IRC rating of 1.25, “so it effectively cuts

▲

sweN xajA/dnaltsaE nahtanoJ

“a bunch of legends and the other half mentees from something like the Magenta Project [a programme to accelerate women into pro racing].”

That mix of private owner and their friends, and of professional sailors and paying crew, could make the OGR enduringly popular. Andy Schell, who is planning to race his Swan 59, Icebear, with three other professionals and seven paying crew (see over the page), says the places he can offer have already been snapped up at US$32,000$40,000 per leg and $100,000 for all four legs.

designed by Polish designer Janusz Maderski. It is actually smaller than the Mini 6.50 class that is raced across the Atlantic in the Mini Transat. A build package is available either as a kit, or you can buy the plywood, plans and CNC files separately. A builders’ pack with hardware is also available from Plastimo and one-design mast packages from Sparcraft and Seldén. The budget to be ready for the transocean races planned for the class, the Globe 5.80 Transat and Mini Globe Race, is around €45-50,000, including all the safety gear.

McIntyre is about to launch hull No 1, Trekka II, for himself. “It is being built in Poland and I will be doing the first event for this class [the Globe 5.80 Transat from Portugal to the Caribbean this November] and testing the one-design sails,” he says. He reports interest from an extraordinary 135 builders in 26 countries.

Marco Nannini has launched the Global Solo Challenge

GLOBAL SOLO CHALLENGE WHERE

La Coruña, Spain

WHEN

2 Sept-28 Oct 2023

STOPOVERS Non stop

ELIGIBLE BOATS 32ft-55ft

CREW Solo

ENTRY FEE €7,500

CONTACT

globalsolochallenge.com

29

‘This is easy to understand: first to arrive wins’ out the very latest Class 40s”. Nannini says his race, with a pursuit-style format, will instead feel like “the tortoise and the hare, David and Goliath. This is very easy for the public to understand: first to arrive wins.”

Nannini already has a number of experienced entries with eligible yachts, and the line up has a feel similar to entries in the Golden Globe Race or OSTAR. For serious racers, the staggered start format makes this something of a curiosity, as does a dispensation to allow engine use within 500 miles of the finish line.

The Global Solo Challenge is perhaps best viewed in the organisers’ term, as a ‘fantastic personal adventure’ for those who really want to achieve the feat of a circumnavigation without stopping and with the comfort of some safety in numbers.

Below: the Globe 40 is aimed at double-handed Class 40 yachts like Mussolo 40

TWO FOR THE PRO’S? Chronologically, the first of the six races to set off will be the Globe 40, a double-handed round the world race for Class 40s, which is scheduled to start in June 2022. This is big waves of the Southern Ocean,” says Ramspacher. “But one of two new events hoping to attract professional racers the Globe 40 will not be an easy race. Some of the legs are 7,000 miles and the race is 30,000 miles.” and provided a possible pathway to the Vendée Globe.

So far, French legend Kito de Pavant has expressed The Globe 40 is run by French company Sirius Events interest in racing, US sailor Brian Harris is on board, as is and headed up by Manfred Ramspacher, who was in and Dutch sailor Ysbrand Endt. charge of the Tour de France à la Voile for eight years, Another circumnavigation for Class 40s is planned has twice run the Transat Jacques Vabre, also organised to start in September 2023, The Race Around. This one the Ultimes’ Brest Atlantique Race and set up one of the will go through the Southern Ocean, with both solo and leading Class 40 events, the Normandy Channel Race. double-handed divisions. A multi-stage event beginning Since the box rule Class 40 designs launched in 2005, some 163 have been built, around 50 of which are actively in France it will stop in Cape Town and New Zealand, round Cape Horn to stop in Rio, before being raced in Europe. Despite the returning to Europe. pandemic, a surprising 15 new boats Organisers Sam Holliday and Hugh Piggin were launched last year, and more are have long links with the Class 40 association in the pipeline. and have signed an agreement to provide However, despite being vastly its official round the world race. The event cheaper for professional sailors than is also being validated by the Fédération the IMOCA 60s, the Class 40 is far Française de Voile, which would make it the from a budget boat. The design is now only race of this group to have national body on its fifth iteration and a new build endorsement. costs around €750,000.

Uniquely, the race is working with the Ramspacher has set the rules to Futures Program to research materials that allow co-skippers to be changed at reduce carbon emissions. each port and, unlike the rival Race Organisers plan to build a race yacht Around (see below) it jinks north after fully out of recyclable fibres, and will form a the Cape of Good Hope to go through mixed gender Futures Ocean Racing Team Mauritius and French Polynesia. to compete then go full circle by recycling “These boats are 12m and you need the boat at the end of the event. a minimum of length to be safe in the 5.80m Mini Globe design

THE RACE AROUND WHERE France

30

WHEN

September 2023

STOPOVERS Three

ELIGIBLE BOATS Class 40

CREW

Double + solo

ENTRY FEE €5,000

CONTACT

theracearound.com

RACING

WHO’S RACING?

KIRSTEN NEUSCHÄFER GOLDEN GLOBE RACE

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Globe 40 organiser Manfred Ramspacher also set up the Normandy Channel Race – seen here heading out of Caen – a leading Class 40 event

J A M I E YO U N G

G LO BA L S O LO C H A L L E N G E

The 69-year-old from the west of Ireland has been sailing since his youth. His first solo ocean race was the 1976 OSTAR, which he says taught him “self reliance, confidence and the ability to work through problems slowly and carefully”. He has also taken part in endurance races such as the Three Peaks Race and Azores and Back, and has twice sailed his boat on long expeditions to Greenland. Young will be racing the yacht he has owned for over 20 years, Killary Flyer, a 40-year-old aluminium Frers IOR design.

ANDY SCHELL

OCEAN GLOBE RACE

The American/Swedish charter skipper and adventurer, a regular YW contributor, runs two Swans with his company 59° North. As soon as he read about the race, and seeing his Swan 59 Icebear was eligible: “I got it – boom! It is recreating everything I enjoy, and by luck our boat qualified so that was perfect.” Schell will take three other pro crew and seven other places are already bagged by charterers on a mixture of single legs and whole race spots.

■

AN UPWELLING OF DEMAND Despite so many new races coming onto the market over the next few years, all of the above have entries and, more importantly, include unsponsored or otherwise selffunded sailors who already have yachts.

Their existence is evidence of an upwelling in demand, with the bell curve fattened by middle-aged or retirement-aged sailors eager not to miss their chance. If anything, the pandemic has sharpened that urge.

These races rely heavily on owner participants rather than sponsors, a formula that the ARC rallies, for example, have also proven to be robustly sustainable, regardless of economic climate. There seems to be no shortage, decade after decade, of private sailors with an unquenchable appetite – and the means – for a challenge.

Risk, however, is another matter and some professionals have raised concerns about the possibility of serious problems and rescues in the Southern Ocean that could threaten regulation for well-established events.

The greater the number of yachts racing deep sea, the greater the likelihood of multiple failures and problems.

This boom being played out over such a short timespan raises legitimate concerns.

That said, sailing commentators can be quick to misjudge the abilities of sailors they simply haven’t heard of, and usually underestimate the value of older sailors’ long-won experience. Most of these amateur or pro-am races are for well-proven, conservative designs, which may in itself be a risk mitigation.

The 38-year-old South African had been working since 2015 for Skip Novak’s Pelagic Expeditions. Enthused by the 2018 Golden Globe Race, she has bought a Cape George 36 and is partway through a refit. “I’m a fanatic of adventurous missions, and I love the fact that in this race there’s a greater emphasis on good seamanship and less on sailing by VPPs, polars and best possible weather routing,” she says.

“The Cape George 36 is a fast and seaworthy design and although heavy displacement compared to some other designs, it has a lot of sail area to make up for that.”

GLOBE 40 WHERE

Tangier, Morocco

WHEN

26 June 2022

STOPOVERS Eight

ELIGIBLE BOATS Class 40

CREW

Double-handed

ENTRY FEE €27,000

CONTACT

globe40.com

31

32

Pellew under sail in her home waters of Falmouth’s Carrick Roads

work and pleasure

PELLEW IS THE LARGEST FALMOUTH PILOT CUTTER LAUNCHED IN BRITAIN FOR MORE THAN 150 YEARS, BUT REPRESENTS SOMETHING EVEN GREATER, AS JAMES STEWART DISCOVERS

notpmoC ciN yb sotohP

▲

The upper reaches of the River Truro are not an obvious source of sailing innovation. No foiling cats fly over its shallows as at nearby Carrick Roads. The hightech superyachts of Falmouth’s Pendennis yard are unlikely to appear anytime soon. Yet it’s here, among light-industrial units and auto-mechanics playing Radio 2, between a metal scrapyard and gas storage tanks, that one of the most interesting recent launches in British sailing has emerged.

In February 2020 the 68ft hull of the Pellew was lowered into the river from the Rhoda Mary Shipyard. When I visit a year on from that momentous day – the culmination of over four years’ work and goodness knows how many more planning – the frame of a similar 19th-century cutter stands on the hard mid-restoration.

“She’ll cost her owner a million quid to restore,” Luke Powell says.

“But there’s no logic to wooden boats. Building one is just cavalier

33

CRUISING

‘Pilot cutters were tough enough to bludgeon into heavy ocean swells off the Scilly Isles’

and mad, a romantic idea that it’s something worth doing.”

Grasp that and you’re halfway to understanding why Powell built Pellew, the largest Falmouth pilot cutter launched in Britain for more than 150 years. With 2020 lost, she begins her maiden charter season this summer.

Perhaps only Powell would have had the nerve for such a project. Through his company Working Sail, managed by his wife Joanna, he has not only designed and built eight Scilly pilot cutters since 1993, but has also helped rehabilitate a genre of seakindly working craft that had been left to rot following the arrival of glassfibre. His largest previous cutter was Agnes, a pretty 46-footer currently sailing charters.

WORKHORSES OF THE SEAS In their day, Falmouth pilot cutters upped the ante.

Larger and faster than their rival boats of the Scilly fleet, they evolved into cracking coastal workboats. Tough enough to look after crews as they bludgeoned into heavy oceanic swells west of the Scilly Isles yet easily driven in light airs; and able to race to windward to meet inbound ships yet manageable short-handed by just two crew.

Imagine a Land Rover of the late-1800s and you’re close.

An obvious choice, then, when Powell looked to scale up.

For all that, Pellew represents a game-changer. She is a third longer than Agnes, with three times the displacement at 74 tonnes. Her 14in keel, frames and scantlings are of Lincolnshire oak fastened in bronze.

A 9-tonne external lead keel supplements 14 tonnes of internal ballast (a neat trick that boosts internal volume).

North Sea Sails in Tollesbury, Essex, produced her vast 3,500ft2 of canvas flown over five sails. The 60ft spars are of Devonian Douglas fir – it took the driver of their lowloader two days to navigate a route to Truro.

Without a surviving Falmouth pilot cutter as a template for his replica, Powell worked from a 1:12 half34

A QUIET RADICAL Coming aboard Pellew in Falmouth’s Penryn river, although she’s almost from-the-wrapper new, her spars and blocks still as shiny as conkers, she appears timeless.

Her off-black hull has a workmanlike heft to make the surrounding fibreglass yachts look like yoghurt pots, swooping rakishly from overhang to 23ft bowsprit. The only concession to modernity on deck is a doghouse over the main companionway to shelter charter crew.

Below decks, however, the old pilots would splutter into their pipes. Aft of a fo’c’sle with abundant stowage and a pipecot is a guest cabin with eight bunks stacked four a side, plus a spacious heads with a shower. A snug threeberth crew quarters with a separate heads and nav area are aft of the companionway.

Taking advantage of the full 18ft beam at the centre is a surprisingly modern living space. To starboard is a longitudinal galley with an electric hob and oven, and (what luxury!) a dishwasher. To port is a pilot berth and ▲

liaS gnikroW

Falmouth cutters each carried eight pilots, but could be double-handed on their return to port

model plus contemporary photos of an 1855 boat called the Vincent that worked out of St Mawes (the name is from Admiral Edward Pellew, the son of a St Mawes packet-ship captain who became a hero of the Napoleonic wars, noted for his skill and humane treatment of prisoners). And despite her larger size, Powell produced her lines as he always did – on paper.

While eschewing CAD design sounds almost wilfully traditional, it’s Powell’s secret to fine-tuning a design. He explains: “You get more deeply involved in it [on paper] – you see the faults, the kinks in the line whereas on a computer it always looks good. You can’t look into the depths of a design if it’s too easy to make.”

Initial drawings usually take him a month. “Then I’ll leave it for a month to see it with fresh eyes. It’s absolutely like painting.”

Like painting, Powell believes that, certain parameters aside, 98% of good design comes down to aesthetics. “There’s no point building a boat that is not pretty. You have to fall in love with it.”

Most of us can relate to that. There’s no logic to the allure of wooden boats. Or at least none beyond their elegant lines, perhaps a second sense that on such craft form follows function. One look at those old pilot cutters and you feel that there is a boat to keep you safe in a blow.

As Yachting World’s Tom Cunliffe puts it in the forward to Powell’s terrific book Working Sail: ‘Luke Powell’s boats stand out in any seascape as the loveliest of all. His eye is extraordinary, but it never compromises the critical factor of how the boat swims on the water.’

Five apprentices worked alongside three experienced woodenboatbuilders during the four-year construction

Above top: Pellew in frame awaiting planking in the Rhoda Mary Shipyard.

Above: traditional sails from North Sea Sails in Essex, and components that went into the sail system

Left and far left: Copper sheathing protects the mast from chafe, while traditional mast hoops made of ash take the place of sail slides.

Top: Crewmember Jess Clay operates one of two electric winches on the Pellew

Above: brute force is all that’s needed to haul in the jib sheet, provided here by Sam Coltman (left) and Luke Powell.

Right: a brass plate on the rudder stock records the biggest pilot cutter to be launched for over a century.

Far right: all of Powell’s boats are decorated with carvings, such as plant motifs around the mooring chocks and Pellew’s star at the end of the bowsprit

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‘I learned like the old boatbuilders did, by trial and error’ don’t share the knowledge,” says Powell. “Pellew is about keeping those old skills alive.”

Five young shipwrights in their early 20s were hired to work alongside the experienced three-strong build team.

Sam Coltman, 26, was lured from Pendennis to produce the metal fittings. Everyone at the time realised Pellew was something special, he tells me as we prepare to sail, loosening the heavy mainsail, shackling halyards to the staysail and jib. These boats matter, he says: “Everything is different about a wooden boat: the movement, the creaks. They feel alive.”

REASSURING SOLIDITY Powell fires up the 125hp John Deere engine deep within Pellew’s guts. The propeller shaft was set almost a metre off-centre to port. A good aesthetic call, but it gave Powell the jitters on his first trial. “I wasn’t sure beforehand whether we would make it around the first bend in the river [because the shaft was offset] but she performed perfectly. She feels big under power but as soon as the sails go up she’s totally manageable.”

We hoist the main on one of

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heads, plus a dining table that seats 12 – the social heart of the boat which seems purpose-designed for yarning.

Powell lights up as we clamber below. “I love being aboard,” he says with a grin. “This feels like home. It’s the boat that I always should’ve built.”

Powell is one of life’s enthusiasts: garrulous, as romantic as he is practical when it comes to wooden boats, almost boyishly enthusiastic. He’s also as quietly radical as you’d hope of a man who, aged nine, sailed to Greece with artist parents on a 40ft fishing boat; Leonard Cohen became a family friend during their stay in Hydra.

Powell came back to England after a decade to learn his trade restoring Thames barges in Faversham, Kent.

Aged 21 he returned to Greece, where a near-derelict pilot cutter caught his eye. By then a jobbing nautical artist, he produced 50 paintings for her owner in lieu of the £3,000 price tag. It was while sailing in Greece on that boat, surrounded by one of the last wooden working fleets in Europe, that Powell had an epiphany.

“A long continuity of design and boatbuilding just stops in our time.

I thought, ‘Is no one going to do something to keep this alive? Are we just going to walk away from hundreds of years of evolution?’” The upshot was Working Sail.

While romance went halfway to understanding the genesis of Pellew, the rest comes down to legacy. In the heyday of pilot cutters, before boat design became the preserve of naval architects with letters after their names, any backwater boatbuilder could’ve knocked you up a respectable wooden boat. It was just part of the trade, a knowledge passed down and refined over generations, founded on designs that had proven themselves on the water.

With a twinkle Powell says he is in “the peasant boatbuilding line”. He tells me of a letter he received from an established naval architect after launching Working Sail: “He wrote: ‘How dare you design boats! We have been educated to do this.’ When you think about it, there are a million different shapes to boats and they all work. I learned like the old builders did, by trial and error.”

So, he insists that Working Sail is nothing special. “We’re just the last people doing this.”

Then Powell’s project got really interesting. After the demise of a project to restore a Cornish merchant schooner for want of funds, a friend and keen bargesailor, Brian Paine, offered Powell a deal. He would donate £900,000 from the sale of his independent college in Rochester so that Working Sail could build a boat from scratch. (The total cost of Pellew was £1.2m.) There was just one condition – young trainees had to work on the build.

The decision was a no-brainer. “Everything dies if you

Top left: Luke Powell on the bowsprit of his new boat. Above: crew Jess Clay (left) and Kelda Smith tension the jib halyard.

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‘Boats should be mortal, not so precious you’re frightened of breaking them’

the two not-strictly-authentic hydraulic capstan winches.

“Cheating really,” Powell says, but they are there as a concession for a guest crew who will be largely novices.

“We don’t have the same skill set as those sailors of the old days. There’s no point in making her so authentic she’ll be dangerous.” He anticipates the winches will come in handy for gybes in a blow.

No chance of that for us coming out of Falmouth harbour. All sails flying – including the topsail for the first time – we make a respectable three knots towards the St Anthony Head lighthouse in a Force 3. A mile offshore the wind fills to a southerly Force 5, tearing rags of foam from the waves. Pellew squares her shoulders and leans into the blue-black seas as the numbers climb on the log: 6 knots, 7.1, 7.5, 8 knots. “Hey! We’re really going!” Powell yells at the tiller. In a Force 7 she’ll “do 10 knots, easy”.

The topsail and flying jib come down as the topmast begins to flex. The gaff cutter was the ultimate rig of its era: flexible, relatively easy to manage, able to pivot a boat easily around its mast and drive it to windward. The perfect rig for pilot boats, in other words.

We make around 60° off the wind, perhaps a pinch less, racing towards the horizon like the pilots of old, our wake foaming behind like a steadily unfastening zip. Pellew shrugs off the building seas with an easy motion that engenders confidence. It seems a huge pity when we have to turn back.

NO MUSEUM PIECES Not everyone agrees with Powell’s approach. Some classics societies have argued that replicas devalue the original boats; that the focus should be on preservation not recreation. Back on land he is scathing: “They’d rather there was one boat left that was unique so they could sit around it and polish it.”

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Luke Powell runs Working Sail with his wife, Joanne, who is also first mate on Pellew

Boats are machines, he says. “They have to function.

The sea is no kinder to a boat that’s 200 years old. When they take something like the Cutty Sark and become anal about saving the wood it’s pointless. The actual boat is the shape and its fitness for sea, not the material. A brand new Cutty Sark would have been much more valuable than that shocking relic now stuck above a glass cafe.”

So, yachts are not just made to go sailing they are – I’d recommend you sit down now, classics owners – also made to be ‘disposable’. That’s quite the statement from someone who has just spent five years building one.

“Boats should be mortal, not so precious you’re frightened of breaking them,” he explains. “If you break one make another! You can do that quite happily if the tradition is still alive, and the only way to ensure it’s still alive is to build not repair, which means new boats and new boatbuilders, which bring in more people, more energy. Get enough and the whole scene snowballs.”

I had assumed Pellew was another replica, albeit a large one. Yet she is in fact one of the most interesting launches in Britain in years. Combine her revival of the Falmouth pilot cutter, her blooding of a new generation of shipwrights and Powell’s refreshing take on a sector that can be somewhat Luddite and Pellew appears to be something more. I don’t want to sound overly messianic here, but it offers a manifesto for a living classics industry, one based on more than nostalgia, and which should thrill all sailors. Better still, she is a stonking boat.

The long-term goal is to establish Rhoda Mary Shipyard as a hub for traditional boatbuilding: more apprentices (on my visit I met an evangelical 20-year-old who had never set foot in a marina before his traineeship let alone a traditional shipyard), perhaps a forge and a sailmaker.

The hope is that Pellew will be the first of the big stuff.

But not for Powell. After five years living and breathing the build, he aims to hand the baton to the next generation. He wants to go sailing. This year he captains Pellew on Cornish and Scottish charters alongside his wife, Joanne, as first mate, a cook and, for longer passages, a trainee. Next year? Perhaps the Azores, maybe Norway or Greece.

“She represents freedom. She’s for going over the horizon. That’s what boats are all about.” Given her MCA Category 0 rating, those horizons are limitless.

So what happens if Powell is commissioned to create the first 110ft Cornish merchant schooner of the modern era? He thinks. Then with a smile: “I suppose I’d have to say yes, wouldn’t I.”

Award-winning journalist for The Times, Financial Times and Telegraph, James Stewart has sailed on everything from superyachts to a 120ft brigantine tall ship, but can be most often found on a 36ft Beneteau on the Suffolk/Essex coasts

Above: Pellew is embarking on a first charter season, cruising Cornwall and Scotland.

Right: the comfortable guest accommodation on board

Left: The interior is surprisingly light and modern, concealing luxuries such as a boiling water tap and dishwasher, as well as a dining area for 12 crew to gather around

To find out more about sailing opportunities on Pellew, Agnes and other Working Sail projects, visit workingsail.co.uk

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A chance to linger AFTER SIX YEARS OF BLUEWATER CRUISING, TERYSA VANDERLOO AND PARTNER NICK FABBRI ENJOYED A SLOW CRUISE THROUGH BRITTANY ON THEIR FINAL PASSAGE HOME

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The sun lingered low in the sky, casting a golden glow over the sandy island of Höedic. The small south Brittany harbour is home to three large mooring balls, around which yachts rafted together in a circle, with bows attached to the ball and sterns facing outward, like the petals of three flowers.

In our cockpit, Nick strummed his guitar and I sipped on a glass of rosé, as we watched the late afternoon rush of sailors entering the harbour and trying to secure a place. Sometimes a single-handed sailor would tie up with the practiced ease of decades of experience, leaving us embarrassed at our own clumsy efforts earlier in the day.

Other times, yachts would arrive full of enthusiastic yet unskilled crew, and after watching several messy attempts at securing Main pic: the Baie de Morlaix and Île Louet, Inset: Terysa and Nick

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‘Brittany remains our favourite cruising ground’ Top right: yachts rafted to a mooring buoy at Höedic.

Far right: Terysa Vanderloo and Nick Fabbri spent six years cruising on their Southerly 38 Ruby Rose

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Right: the pretty harbour of La Roche-Bernard

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Below: La Rochelle’s busy harbour

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could prepare to move onto a new 45ft catamaran. themselves, we’d reflect that perhaps we didn’t do so Two months previously, in May 2020, Nick and I had badly after all. Seagulls wheeled overhead, swimmers been desperate to get back to Ruby Rose, which was splashed in the water, and dinghies nosed their way waiting patiently for us in La Rochelle on the Atlantic between the rafted boats and the floating dinghy dock. coast of France. We, like many liveaboard cruisers, had The ferry blasted its horn and, in what seemed an spent the winter alternating between living on board in impossible manoeuvre, executed a tight turn in the the marina, doing all those little jobs that you never seem packed harbour, before steaming away, leaving yachts to get to the bottom of, and travelling home to see our rocking in its wake. families. For me, home is Australia, but as the pandemic This was our evening’s entertainment, and after six hit and international borders started to close, we made years of living full time on our Southerly 38, Ruby Rose, the last minute decision for Nick and I to converge at his the simple pleasure of relaxing in our cockpit after a day parent’s house in London. When Nick left Ruby Rose, the of sailing in the sun, watching the harbour activity, was French border slammed shut behind the very epitome of why we chose him, swiftly followed by the UK going this cruising lifestyle. But, this into hard lockdown. Our boat is our being the summer of 2020, those only home and we, like many others, moments of peace were made were stuck with no way of getting more poignant, both because of back to her. the price we’d paid to enjoy that Ten long weeks later and both the little bit of freedom, and because UK and France were beginning to it was tempered by the knowledge ease the hard lockdown restrictions. that this reprieve was temporary, We booked train tickets and arrived the future uncertain. For us it was at St Pancras station armed with particularly bittersweet, as this sheaves of paperwork proving that was our final season on board we lived aboard and were merely Ruby Rose: we were sailing her trying to return home, hoping that back to the UK to be sold so we Nick Fabbri and Terysa Vanderloo 45

Border Control would understand our unusual situation.

Luckily, after some brief but nerve-wracking discussions, we were allowed into France and that afternoon, feeling lightheaded with relief and joy, we arrived back aboard Ruby Rose. A couple of weeks later the local restrictions eased further, allowing us to start sailing again.

Quite to our surprise, it seemed that we’d enjoy our final sailing season in France after all.

Nick and I had sailed from Kent to La Rochelle and back two summers in a row before we made the move to full-time liveaboards. Since then, we’ve sailed the Mediterranean, crossed the Atlantic to the Caribbean, cruised the Bahamas and the US East Coast, and even taken our boat through the French canals. Yet the Atlantic coast of France, in particular north and south Brittany, remains our favourite cruising ground.

Right: a scenic passage between Île-de-Bréhat and Île Beniguet.

Below: lighthouse of La Teignouse, between Quiberon and Houat

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BEST FOR CRUISING Picturesque islands, sandy beaches, winding rivers, inland waterways, challenging yet enjoyable navigation, historic harbours, and, of course, the sheer Frenchness of the area, from the unparalleled food and wine to the local passion for sailing, make this cruising ground surely one of the best in the world.

And if it rains every now and then, or you misjudge your tidal calculations and end up pushing a foul current, or if you get caught out by an Atlantic low pressure system, well, that just adds to the fun – or so I tried to convince Nick as he lay in the cockpit, overcome by seasickness one grey and lumpen day as we beat into the wind and rain in the Bay of Biscay. Knowing that we’d soon be saying goodbye to riding our bikes around Île d’Oleron, visiting the market, Ruby Rose, we couldn’t think of a better area to enjoy our and occasionally enjoying a coffee sitting in the sun in final cruise on her. the little village square. We seemed to be the only foreign We left La Rochelle one calm, sunny morning in early cruisers, a trend that unsurprisingly continued well into June on a glassy sea with barely a breath of wind. Having the summer, and we loved being totally immersed in the been cooped up for months, we were among dozens of local French culture. boats exiting the marina and heading for one of two nearby islands.

T R I C K Y B I S C AY Île de Ré is slightly to the north, and we’d visited during our previous cruises. It’s a delightful sandy island, easy to Having spent those first few weeks back on board closely cycle around and home to Saint Martin-de-Ré, a charming studying the forecast, we quickly realised that getting north wouldn’t be quite as straightforward as we’d thought. We medieval port with a locked marina that is accessible at had done this passage before but it high water only. was years ago and with hindsignt we’d We loved Île de Ré – it’s impossible forgotten about some of the tricky not to – but decided this time to head local weather patterns in the Bay of to Île d’Oleron, another island slightly Biscay. Essentially, to leave the Bay to the south of La Rochelle, as we’d of Biscay we had to sail in a general never been there before. It was only north-west direction to get to the an 11-mile journey, and we persevered Raz de Sein, one of two tidal races on with the sails for as long as we could, the far north-west corner of France but when we dropped below one knot (the other, the gateway to the English of boatspeed, we capitulated and Channel, is the Chenal du Four). turned the engine on. Even so, we The winds entering Biscay, however, were both wearing big grins, unable would often curve south, following the to believe our luck that we’d been able direction of the coastline. Southerly to get back on board and could start winds seemed to be rare, and in south exploring once again.

Picking the weather windows to Brittany we were often at the mercy of The following week was spent enjoy a final sail on Ruby Rose 46

‘This corner of France could easily entertain any cruiser for an entire summer This was the passage where Nick was afflicted with seasickness, something that seems to be a trend. The last time we sailed here we were similarly port-bound in Sables d’Olonne and upon leaving encountered uncomfortable seas that put Nick out of action that day too. It’s a good thing Île d’Yeu is so delightful and well worth a few hours of misery.

From here, South Brittany, surely the gem of Atlantic France, beckoned: the flat and sandy islands of Höedic and Houat, the lush and mountainous island of Belle Île, as well as the charming river Vilaine and the vast inland waterway of the Morbihan, home to hundreds of small

Entrance to Le Palais on Belle Île

Morbihan has many picturesque places to visit

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the strong afternoon westerlies which, of course, meant that any westing had to be achieved in the early morning light airs. In short, we had to pick our weather windows carefully and be flexible with regard to our timing. On any days when we got any south or west in the wind, we left, whether we wanted to or not.

Heading north, we stopped at Les Sables d’Olonne, a seaside town with a big fishing harbour and home to several boatbuilders, not to mention a supremely wellprotected marina (famously the home of the Vendée Globe). After being port-bound for over a week due to an Atlantic low, we then set off for Île d’Yeu.

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‘The craggy Baie de Dournanex is wildly beautiful’ have time to revisit them this year.

Instead, westward we went, anchoring overnight at Audierne – where we were woken by a very welcome knock on the hull from an enterprising local who was making the morning rounds in his dinghy, selling baguettes, croissants and pain au raisin – before going through the Raz de Sein.

Despite the Raz de Sein’s intimidating reputation, we’ve always timed our passages very carefully and transited the tidal gate on calm weather days. Like our previous experiences, sailing through the gate was uneventful, which is just how we like it. From here we explored the craggy Baie de Dournanez, where the coastline was even more wild and beautiful than further south: steep cliffs overlooked wide, sandy beaches while a world of hidden coves and bays beckoned.

A stop in Camaret-sur-Mer is a must, and with an expanded marina there’s room for many more boats than when we first visited. The managers have a hands-off approach when it comes to allocating berths, and it’s down to the skippers and their crew to find somewhere suitable.

Despite the fact that this marina seemed to be at capacity, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from cruising in France, it’s that there’s always room for one more. We ended up rafted against Local gaffer at Île-de-Bréhat

islands and the picturesque medieval city of Vannes.

This corner of France alone could easily entertain any cruiser for an entire summer. Indeed, we seriously wondered if we were making a mistake in selling Ruby Rose and buying a catamaran to cruise the tropics.

It didn’t really matter what the weather was doing, there were anchorages and harbours to provide protection against any wind and swell direction.

If there was any inclemency in the forecast we simply went into the Morbihan and made our meandering way up to Vannes, or sailed further east, through the lock, and into the peaceful Vilaine (although I must admit the hull slap on the visitors pontoon in the otherwise delightful village of La Roche-Bernard was enough to drive me to distraction – though at €80 for an entire week’s mooring it was worth bearing).

HEADING WEST Eventually it was time to force ourselves to move west. We had a favourable forecast and moved swiftly along the south Brittany coastline, stopping over in Port Louis in the Lorient and Concarneau.

We’d previously visited the Îles de Glenans, an archipelago of uninhabited islands south of Concarneau, but with gentle easterly winds and a tidal race to catch, didn’t 48

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another monohull and stayed for several happy days.

Camaret-sur-Mer is an almost mandatory stopover for sailors going both north and south between the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel as it’s not only reasonably well protected and well placed geographically for breaking up the two tidal races, it’s also an utter delight.

The cliff walks are spectacular, the beaches breathtaking, and the food everything you’d expect from a seaside fishing village in Brittany. We could have spent an entire summer there, watching the comings and goings, wandering the bars and restaurants of the village in the evenings, and taking brisk hikes along the coastline during the day. However, the summer was almost over and, more worryingly, Covid cases were on the rise in France. We hastened north.

Our Chenal du Four tidal race passage was as straightforward and enjoyable as the Raz de Sein: we had one of those rare, perfect sailing days with warm sunshine, 15 knots on the beam and flat seas. We caught the north-setting tide through the gate and soon were back into the English Channel after five years away. It was quite surreal to be so close to the UK and approaching the end of our chapter aboard Ruby Rose.

We could have sailed north across the western approaches and made landfall in Cornwall or Devon, and indeed we were very tempted to do that. However, unwilling to leave Brittany just yet – ‘Just one more gallette and cider!’ – we stayed in France and started to make our way east.

The north Brittany coastline is even more rugged than that surrounding Camaret-sur-Mer, littered with rocky outcrops and islands which were initially quite intimidating to navigate. However, the area is also spectacular, each rock-strewn landscape slowly coalescing into an island, a harbour, or the entrance to an estuary.

Years ago when we first sailed this coastline there was no good option for visiting Roscoff in a yacht. Now, there’s a brand new marina with excellent protection, wide fairways, and a modern bar overlooking it. The air is cooler than further south, and the day we explored the town of Roscoff it was blanketed in fog, the medieval seaside fishing village taking on a mysterious air which only added to its beauty.

P I N K G R A N I T E C OA S T We then sailed east again, timing our passage with the tides to carry us to Île-de-Bréhat. After rounding the north side of the island to arrive at the rose coloured rocky anchorages on the south-east corner, which changed in dimension with every passing hour as the lapping waves rose and fell with the tide, obscuring and in turn revealing the pink-tinged granite rocks that encircled the island.

Heading ashore, we walked the narrow lanes to the village in the centre of the island, picked up a baguette and some supplies, and then made our way back, getting lost a few times but eventually finding our way to the pebbled beach off which Ruby Rose was anchored.

On the morning of our departure to Jersey, the sun was a blurry red orb, the sea and sky a milky pink with no distinct horizon. Heavy with regret, we raised anchor and made our way out of the anchorage, knowing that although the next chapter of our liveaboard cruising lives would take us far away from here, Brittany is the cruising ground to which we’ll always, eventually, return.

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Above: the Raz de Sein has a fearsome reputation but can be easily negotiated in calm weather with the right tides.

Left: thirst quenching beer at a village square bar.

Far left: Camaretsur-Mer

Terysa Vanderloo and her partner, Nick Fabbri, set sail in 2015 on their Southerly 38 Ruby Rose. They’re now awaiting delivery of their new performance catamaran, Ruby Rose II, to continue their complete circumnavigation adventure. yachtrubyrose.com

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giles scott GILES SCOTT IS ONE OF BRITISH SAILING’S BIGGEST TALENTS AND WAS A BREAK-OUT STAR OF THE 36TH AMERICA’S CUP, BUT CAN HE DEFEND OLYMPIC GOLD? HELEN FRETTER FINDS OUT Giles Scott is waiting. Like all of this year’s Olympic cohort, he is in a strange pre-Games limbo. Normally at this point in an Olympic cycle only the most finicky of final details would still be being ironed out, the big picture stuff, like travelling dates and training schedules, having long been bolted into the calendar.

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Multitasking: Scott has juggled Olympic training with America’s Cup tactician duties

This year everything is different. The sailors might reasonably have expected to be in Japan by early summer, acclimatising to the humidity, analysing weather patterns, tuning out distractions. But when I speak to Scott, he’s home on the south coast of England.

The GBR sailing team won’t fly out to Japan until early July, with training time at Enoshima limited to just a couple of weeks. The news is reporting that Japanese public opinion has swayed against the Games taking place; the idea of competing at ‘Tokyo 2021’ seems almost as ephemeral as Tokyo 2020.

Scott, 33, has not spent all year in stand-by mode. While for many of his teammates the postponement left diaries peppered with yawning gaps, question marks where once there was the rigidity of a four-year cycle, Scott faced the opposite problem. Representing his country in the two biggest sailing events any inshore sailor could aim for – the Olympics and the America’s Cup – within six months of each other created a monumental diary clash.

In Auckland with INEOS Team UK from October until March, he bounced back into the Finn in time for the Europeans in Vilamoura, Portugal, in April. Despite limited time in the boat, he finished 2nd.

A few weeks later Scott was back for the Finn Gold Cup, the class world championships, which he has won four times before (an achievement topped only by his predecessor, and now Cup team boss, Ben Ainslie, who won six). He finished 9th, in a tricky event that saw the fleet held ashore for two days, light winds and a sea state that managed to combine a rolling Atlantic swell with chaotic chop. Scott, however, is not into making excuses: “It wasn’t great. Not the way I wanted to do my last Gold Cup, I have to say. But it was actually an interesting week to race in, real tricky conditions with wind and sea 51

‘Scott went into the 2016 Games as near-undefeated favourite’

Scott competing at the 2016 Rio Olympics (right) and at the warm-up event (below)

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on a long shore tether at the age of six. Initially, Scott was unexcited at the prospect of racing. But having grown out of the Optimist and into the Topper, by his early teens Scott had caught the competitive bug, winning the Topper nationals in 2001.

He progressed into the RYA national squad, moving up through the Laser Radial into the Laser, where he won the ISAF Youth Worlds in 2005. At 18 he headed off to Southampton University, putting sailing firmly on the back burner, but still scored a top 10 in the senior Laser World Championship fleet the following year.

By then standing at 6ft 6in, the Finn was the next step.

Within two years he was appearing on the podium at Olympic class events. In almost any other scenario he would have been headed straight for London 2012, but Scott had set himself the impossible task of trying to stop the most successful Olympic sailor of all time from going to the Games thanks to the ‘one nation, one boat’ rules.

After 2012 he briefly joined Team Korea and then Luna Rossa for the 34th America’s Cup. But with Ainslie retired from Olympic sailing, Scott’s route to the 2016 Games was clear. He and his coach Matt Howard planned a ‘flat out’ campaign for Rio, leaving no stone unturned, no regatta mentally discarded. It was a gruelling but 52

rewarding programme, with Scott going into 2016 as near-undefeated favourite.

Things were always going to be very different for 2020.

Before Rio, Scott had joined Ainslie’s first British Cup challenge (Land Rover BAR). But after Bermuda in 2017 Scott re-signed with INEOS Team UK in a much more senior managerial role, as well as tactician.

“This cycle was very different to the Rio one,” recalls his coach Matt Howard. “Going into Rio he was a fulltime Finn sailor who did some America’s Cup tactics, and this time he’s been a full-time America’s Cup sailor who does some Finn sailing.”

“He asked me ‘What do you think? Have I got a shot?’ and I said you do, but it’s going to be really, really hard.”

As Howard points out, even legends of the sport like Torben Grael and Robert Scheidt, multiple Gold medallists, did not win back-to-back Games. The Finn class may have seen multiple wins by Elvstrøm and Ainslie, but defending a single Gold is a rare and remarkable feat.

All of which would have been fine, if challenging, had things had gone ahead as scheduled. But once the Tokyo Games were postponed, Scott’s final Olympic training schedule would be compressed to just months.

Despite this, Scott never really considered not going for Tokyo: “I think I did, but very, very briefly. Then it quickly shifted into the ‘Well, this is the new world we live in,’ and you just have to get on with it.

“We’re so used to being able to work out where we’re going, what events we’re going to be doing, almost four years into the future. Whereas that just got torn up and everyone’s had to work off weeks as opposed to years.”

N O PA U S E When Scott headed out to Auckland last autumn for the 36th America’s Cup, he optimistically packed two Finn dinghies into the team containers in the hope there might be some practice time in between racing. As anyone who followed the Cup knows, things didn’t pan out quite as expected for the Brits, with the entire squad putting in a Herculean effort to get their AC75 up to speed. There was no downtime. “We probably only used the Finns on a couple of days,” recalls Scott.

Auckland did, however, put Giles Scott’s name back in the headlines. While Luna Rossa’s dual-nationality splithelm set up between Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni initially seemed stilted, the easy patter between Scott as tactician and helmsman Ben Ainslie on the back of Britannia was clear from the outset. The watching press seized on the dynamic: the one-time fierce rivals now working in perfect partnership.

Both sailors shrugged it off. “I think we are both just finding it hilarious how everyone’s talking up our bromance,” Ben Ainslie commented in a Sky Sports interview with his wife Georgie during the event.

It’s easy to draw parallels between the two sailors – both are products of the RYA’s enormously successful ▲

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state, and it might actually provide us with some valuable lessons for Tokyo.”

This year’s Gold Cup was won by New Zealander Andy Maloney, also fresh from the America’s Cup. His team mate Josh Junior was 3rd, setting up a battle royal for the single New Zealand Finn Olympic berth.

It’s a scenario Scott will understand well. In 2011, aged just 23, Scott’s name came to the fore when he looked like becoming a serious obstacle to Ainslie’s route to the Games and chances of a record fifth medal. Scott won the Finn Europeans and Gold Cup in that year, but Ainslie won the British team trials, and went on to deliver one of the most thrilling medal battles of 2012.

In truth, Scott’s talent had been evident from much earlier on. He and his brothers were introduced to sailing at Grafham Water, bobbing around the reservoir in Optimists

PROFILE

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“Giles is a fantastic athlete, naturally very, very gifted. But also fiercely determined and committed.

[Mentally] he has a very mature approach to the sport, which means he is able to deal with the high pressure situations and also works really well within a wider team environment, such as in the America’s Cup.”

Ainslie on Scott

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The delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic sailing regatta will take place from 25 July to 3 August 2021 at Enoshima. Follow all the action at yachtingworld.com/olympics

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‘I want to go to the Games and win. The goal remains the same’

UNFINISHED BUSINESS After INEOS Team UK was eliminated from the America’s Cup many of Scott’s team mates made the most of being in covid-free New Zealand, road tripping around the islands after a gruelling Cup cycle. Not so Scott. “I took five days off and went up to the Coromandel in a truck with a tent on top. That was about it,” he recalls.

Once back in the UK, Scott threw himself into a compressed Olympic build-up. “The biggest challenge with Giles coming back was that he needed to fit 12 54

Scott was tactician to helmsman Ben Ainslie for INEOS Team UK’s America’s Cup bid

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development programme, and progressed through the same classes. For years they trained as part of the GBR Finn squad, going to the same events, working on the same drills. It’s unsurprising their approach is similar.

Both are driven, professional, and naturally inclined to give little away. Although interestingly, both have revealed that they didn’t always feel comfortable among their peers in their youth – Ainslie has talked about suffering bullying at school, while Scott says that sailing as a teenager gave him a sense of belonging. “In the squads, I felt as if I fitted in. I wasn’t into the ‘cool’ things, like football. I found like-minded kids at all these sailing events,” he recalled in an interview for INEOS. Whilst Ainslie has famously allowed the red mist to descend at times, Scott is known for being able to hold his own against Ainslie’s aggression. There is clearly a deep mutual respect between the two.

“Certainly when we’re racing, we think very similarly.

I think that’s been quite powerful in terms of being able to quickly bridge gaps on the water,” Scott says. “When you look back to the last Cup, we didn’t have much time to nail down exactly how we’re going to race the boat. So being able to communicate and have a similar kind of philosophy with the way Ben and I sail together is quite a help. But that being said, we’re not the same people!”

Asked how he personally developed over the 36th Cup cycle, and Scott is modestly stumped. “Wow, I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it.

Though I certainly felt like my knowledge and understanding is a much higher level now than it was four years ago.”

As a smart, analytical sailor, Scott is clearly a lynchpin member of the INEOS team. “It’s quite an interesting dynamic, because you have you have these designers that are incredibly academically intelligent. A lot of them are also very good sailors. But the role of the sailors is really to make sure that the information, and the direction the designers are taking, is right and realistic.

“You need a cohesive sailing team, you need a cohesive design team, but you need to be able to merge the two.

And you need to speak a common language,” he reflects.

F I N N FA R E W E L L The Finn class is synonymous with greatness. It debuted as an Olympic class in Helskini in 1952, where gold was won by Danish legend Paul Elvstrøm, defending the heavyweight dinghy title he had won at London in the Firefly class.

Elvstrøm went on to win three consecutive Finn golds, setting the bar for a class that has been a rite of passage for many of the greatest sailors of all time. Jochen Schümann, Russell Coutts, Iain Percy and, of course, four-times Gold medallist Ben Ainslie fill the roll of honour.

With a 69-year Olympic history, the Finn is the longest standing item of Olympic sailing equipment, having been designed in 1949 by Swedish canoe designer, Rickard Sarby. The 1952 Games was also the first time the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China took part, women track athletes ran no further than 200 metres, and the Fosbury flop hadn’t been invented, so seismic have the changes been to the modern Olympics since its introduction.

Finn class secretary, and author of several books on its history, Robert Deaves explains: “For many sailors, back then and today, the Finn became a lifestyle choice as much as an Olympic sport. Sailors would immerse themselves in a training routine, devoted to living and breathing the boat. The boat came to exemplify the Olympic motto of ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’, as the sailors challenged themselves to become faster, better and stronger.

“The original boats had wooden hulls, wooden spars and cotton sails. Today’s Finns use modern materials such as carbon masts, Kevlar sails and GRP hulls, but the basic concept, shape and dimensions are the same.

months sailing into three months,” explains Howard.

“You’ve got to get the volume in there, the hours on the water, but you have to be very careful that you don’t overdo it and go a bit stale.”

The task is one Scott seems temperamentally suited to. “He’s very, very focussed. And by that I mean there’s not much fluff in the programme, he doesn’t really tolerate any kind of wishy-washy bits. It’s all about what’s the biggest bang for your buck and knowing what’s important,” says Howard.

“It’s quite refreshing to be able to do two very intense things and still feel reasonably fresh in both of them because the other is so different,” says Scott. “So it’s not too Groundhog Day-like. I’ve been sailing Finns for 13 years now, and I think if I was doing nothing but going Finn sailing all the time it wouldn’t be healthy, and it wouldn’t be conducive to a good performance.”

If the Games go ahead – and Scott is simply assuming that they will – the Olympics in 2021 will be a strange experience with no crowd buzz, no five-ring razzmatazz.

Howard is running through scenarios of how sailors might travel to the venue or rig up in the dinghy park

PROFILE

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boat. But the one thing that stands out for me is that it is not necessarily the class, it’s the people, and the fact that there’s not really a replacement for the guys coming through that are too big to sail Lasers and 49ers.

“That’s the real shame because I think back and, if this had been happening 10 years ago or so, then I wouldn’t be an Olympic champion and I quite possibly wouldn’t have had the same doors opened for me in other forms of sailing.”

Ainslie concurs: “I think it’s a real shame. For the Finn class because of its history, but also for the sport of sailing, because it’s really hard to see an avenue at the moment for bigger athletes to compete in the Olympics and sailing.

“And I think that’s a real missed opportunity for the sport to be able to showcase athletes of that intensity at that size.”

Away from the Olympic circuit, however, there is every indication that the Finn will continue to flourish. The class not only runs enormously popular Masters events, but also Grand Masters, and even Grand Grand Masters, so lifelong is the loyalty of many Finn sailors to the design.

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“The key to the boat is twofold. First the hull needs the correct flexibility and ability to ‘twist’ through waves and gusts, and secondly the rig can be tailored to each sailor’s weight, height and sailing style. Improved technology such as carbon masts and GRP hulls made this process more scientific and repeatable. The objective is always creating power and speed, but also with the ability to depower automatically through the gusts, with the hull twisting and the mast falling off to open the leech.”

Ben Ainslie says part of the class’s appeal is that it is a complete test. “It’s a huge, huge physical challenge. To be successful in the class you have to be committed to your training, to the physical aspect of the sport, but also the technical challenges of making a Finn go fast set you in good stead for going into other areas, such as the America’s Cup. Understanding the dynamics of what makes the boat go fast is really critical to having a successful career.”

In 2018 the sport’s governing body, World

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Left: Coutts winning gold in 1984. Below: Ainslie in Qingdao in 2008.

Right: Rio 2016

Sailing, voted to replace the Finn at the Olympics with a mixed offshore class, in part due to the need for parity of men’s and women’s medals.

The decision has been much debated – not least following the IOC’s recent request that World Sailing propose an alternative, leading some to hope that the Finn could be reinstated. But most believe the Finn’s days are over, leaving few Olympic options for heavier male dinghy sailors.

“I’ve always tried to stay away as much as possible from the politics side of World Sailing and class selection, and not really get involved,” says Giles Scott. “But I think it’s been a bit of a calamity of errors. It’s not been great that the IOC had to wade in. The Finn being on the butt end of that is obviously a shame, and I think every Finn sailor would say that because we do love the

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Pure relief: a rare outpouring of emotion from Scott when he secured Olympic Gold in Rio 2016

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if they are awaiting covid test results. Scott, he expects, won’t be remotely rattled by the whole thing.

“I don’t think it phases him at all. He seems so workmanlike and clinical about it all, he’s just head down.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t even notice until after the event and he’ll go ‘Right, where’s the party?’”

This will, almost certainly, be the final Olympic Finn event (see above). Scott says even if the Finn did come back for 2024, he wouldn’t be campaigning. Now among the most respected sailors of his generation, he has other ambitions in mind. He has dabbled in some MOD70 offshore racing, and is intrigued by The Ocean Race, while the America’s Cup remains unfinished business.

But, right now, Scott is as singleminded going into this Games as the last. “The pressure is certainly a little bit more focussed internally. It is very similar to what I felt through Rio when I was the favourite. Then, if you’d asked a reporter who was going to win, they’d probably say me. [But] the pressure I put myself under was way more than anything that any pundit could put on me.

And that pressure is still there. I still want to go to the Games and I want to win. The goal remains the same.”

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Designed to

thrill

WITH THIS FAST CRUISING 44 COMBINING WICKED PACE, FIRST CLASS HANDLING AND COMFORT, HAS THE INNOVATIVE FRENCH YARD PRODUCED THE MOST REFINED POGO YET? 56

T E S T // POGO 44

Where we tested: Benodet, south Brittany Wind: east-northeast 11-20 knots Model: hull number one with options including carbon rig with square-top mainsail, Code 0 and asymmetric, B&G electronics pack and 144W Solbian solar panel

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Bearing away around the Îles de Glenans off the south Brittany coast we unfurl the gennaker and accelerate smoothly from 8 knots to 11, with occasional bursts reaching 13 knots. There’s no noticeable hump to get over when we start planing – instead there’s just a smooth and consistent acceleration as we quietly leave the stern wave well behind.

Although the apparent wind is still well forward of the beam this is not a white knuckle ride. There’s only three of us on board, we’re not on a raceboat, and are miles away from the edge of control. Quite simply, the Pogo 44 is unlike any other pure cruising yacht of its size.

This is the latest model in the yard’s five-strong range of ultra-fast cruisers that it has been quietly refining for the past three decades. Unlike most performance cruisers they are designed without regard to type-forming rating rules for racing. They are therefore significantly lighter than most, yet have tremendous stability that helps confer an enormous power/weight ratio. ▲

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Tested by RUPERT HOMES

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The unusually long centreboard is an integral part of the concept. When lowered the Pogo 44 has a colossal 3.10m (10ft 2in) draught, placing the ballast very low down and therefore reducing the amount of lead required. The yard says this saves around 650kg, or roughly 10% of displacement, relative to a fin and bulb keel of conventional draught. Yet raising the centreboard reduces draught to just 1.38m (4ft 6in) – an important benefit for cruising.

This is one of many features that exemplify the insight, experience and knowledge that has gone into creating an extremely well thought out design. Equally, of the 200plus boats I’ve sailed, none have as many comfortable helm positions as the Pogo 44. The most obvious is sitting outboard, on the side deck aft of the coamings while steering with the tiller extension. It’s a secure and comfortable location with good visibility.

However, it quickly becomes clear the tillers are angled inboard, allowing the driver to sit on the aft end of the cockpit benches, holding the tiller itself. This is the favoured position of Pogo’s founder Christian Bouroullec and benefits from protection from the coamings while being closer to the shelter offered by the optional sprayhood. The rig is well aft in the boat, so there’s a clear view of the headsail luff, even though you’re sitting well inboard, while the cockpit table is perfectly placed to use as a very substantial footrest.

Powered up. The comfortable cockpit coaming was the favoured position from which to helm.

upwind performance is better than might be expected from a design that many assume is optimised for reaching. Sailing upwind, with the first reef in the main and full headsail, the boat performed flawlessly in a wind over tide chop with gusts towards 20 knots, holding a respectable angle and averaging 7.5 knots. Thanks to the massive stability it proved very docile even in gusts, with a comfortable level of heel that doesn’t make the wide cockpit feel precarious.

Inevitably there was some slamming where the sea state was at its most confused, but this was not a violent boat-stopping motion, more a gentle bounce that rarely reduced speed significantly.

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DESIGNED FOR HANDLING Sailing downhill in a big breeze you could stand between the tillers, steering with one of the extensions, poised to make big course changes when necessary. My favourite, however, is outboard on top of the coamings, which are shaped to maximise both comfort and security.

Few boats this size have tiller steering, but it’s entirely appropriate for the Pogo 44. The rudders are high aspect and very efficient, so the helm is light and beautifully balanced. An advantage of very light displacement is a general reduction of loads, so it’s easy to forget that, despite having enormously more volume, this boat is 300kg lighter than a J/122. Twin wheels are offered.

Hull shape is typically Pogo, with a flat run aft and very little rocker. Waterline beam is relatively narrow aft, but the aggressive chines dig in quickly when the boat starts to heel. The full bow sections are moderate by today’s standards and this is not a radical scow bow design.

When fully lowered the centreboard provides an impressively efficient deep fin for sailing close-hauled, so

The Pogo leaves very little wake and there's no discernable hump to get over before it starts planing – just a smooth acceleration into double digit speeds

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‘Of the 200-plus boats I’ve sailed, none have as many comfortable helm positions as the Pogo 44’ Right, from top: Few sail handling tasks require going forward; the rotating MFD works well; most sail handling controls, including all sheets, are led to the front of the cockpit Left: fingertip control tiller steering is standard.

Below: forward facing windows let plenty of light in to the saloon below

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By the time we were far enough offshore to bear away and unfurl the 86m2 Code 0/gennaker the breeze had dropped to 13 knots. But with the true wind on the beam and the apparent well forward, we easily left the stern wave behind to hit speeds well into double digits.

This is where the benefits of the Pogo’s very light displacement really become apparent. Displacement/ length ratio is very light at around 84, a figure that increases to 110 when loaded with two tonnes of stores, equipment and people. Comparing these figures to a crewed up Melges 24 at 117, or a crewed J/70 at 128, highlights just how light the Pogo is, and the extent to which it’s different to other performance cruising designs.

Many of today’s yachts drag a big, noisy stern wave and a great deal of power is needed to start surfing or planing.

On this boat, however, there is almost no discernible wake at any speed, nor a noticeable hump to climb over when hull speed is reached. Instead the experience is near silent and the boat just carries on accelerating smoothly.

It was wonderful to see boat speed building steadily from eight to nine, 10, 11 knots and onwards. Smoothly, quietly and with no fuss. Given the light displacement and enormous power, it’s impressively easy to handle, with low loads even at speed.

M I L E E AT E R Bearing away further and hoisting the 150m2 asymmetric spinnaker saw boat speed fall to what felt like a sedate 9-10 knots, with only occasional faster spurts, as the apparent wind decreased and drew aft. This highlights how effortlessly it will eat up miles on passage and the extent to which the easily driven hull form doesn’t need a great deal of breeze to push it at a decent speed.

Our test boat was equipped with a backstay-less carbon mast and square-top mainsail, an option chosen by almost every Pogo owner across the range. On this model the square-top sail is 13m2 larger than the standard 50m2 pin head mainsail. Spreaders are swept aft by 30°, so a backstay is not essential.

Two options are offered for headsail configurations. The prototype boat I sailed has a 50m2 furling genoa with a high clew and painted UV protection. It therefore retains an efficient shape when reefed to 35m2, when it can be used close-hauled in true winds of up to 30 knots. For

Electric winches are optional, as are the cockpit cushions

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The bright interior has a great view and doesn't feel as though you descend to the bowels of the boat

stronger conditions a 20m2 jib is set on a structural furler.

The alternative is a low clew 50m2 genoa, plus textile inner forestay tensioned using a 3:1 purchase system led aft to the companionway. This can be fitted with a 35m2 hank-on sail with a slab reef that reduces area to 20m2. It’s a very effective solution favoured by Class 40s and the majority of Pogo 36 and 12.50 owners.

Most lines, with the exception of spinnaker halyards and traveller, are handled at the companionway. This is an excellent set up where almost all sail handling and trimming can take place under a sprayhood. Primary and secondary winches are powerful and set at an efficient height for manual use. Our test boat also had an electric option on the port primary. The deck layout minimises unnecessary friction and decent rope bags are provided.

Spinnaker halyards are handled at the mast, while the traveller runs across the aft end of the cockpit. Initially it feels odd that this is the only mainsail control within reach of the helm. However, even though the boat is so much fun to steer, the reality when short-handed on a cold and wet night watch is that the pilot may be driving 95% of the time. Then it makes absolute sense to have as many lines taken to the same place as possible so that one person can easily manage the boat from a sheltered

ON TEST Good workable engine access

Left: The galley is well appointed and the centreboard box can be used to augment workop space.

Below: Small aftfacing navigation station

position. The set up also works well when two people are on watch, with one at the helm and the other available for sail trimming and manoeuvres.

The B&G MFD is mounted at the front end of the cockpit table on a 360° rotating NavPod swivel. Although unconventional, this is a flexible solution that works really well for a tiller-steered boat.

Stowage on deck includes provision for the liferaft accessed from the bathing platform and a large lazarette, which also gives access to the quadrants and the steering tie bar. In addition there’s a smallish forward sail locker.

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S M A RT A PA RT M E N T The interior offers strikingly good views of the outside world – unlike many monohulls without a deck saloon it doesn’t feel as though you have descended into the bowels of the boat. In many ways, it’s better than most mainstream cruisers thanks to the large forward facing coachroof windows each side.

Overall the feeling is of a smart loft apartment. Granted it may be minimalist for some tastes, but it’s comfortable, effective and feels spacious. The finish is of a very high standard and less austere than earlier Pogos, with more visible woodwork. This includes the cabin sole, saloon 61

O W N E RS ’ P E R S P E C T I V E S Richard Hargreaves was looking to replace his 28ft long keel Twister with a modern boat that sails really well when the Pogo 30 test by Yachting World's Toby Hodges piqued his interest.

“I found a simple, light, very strong sailboat, put together by people who enjoy sailing fast and efficiently,” he says. “Sailing it downwind with the kite up, bearing away on the face of a wave at 16 knots felt like a slightly more loaded up 505.”

He then couldn’t resist the 36 when it launched. “The transition from displacement to planing is seamless,” he says.

“Suddenly you are doing 10 knots and all that’s happened is it’s become quieter. I’ve sailed both boats in Force 8 – they feel solidly planted on the water and secure, with power to punch through a seaway, without huge sheet loads.”

Ian Baylis owns a 12.50 in

which he completed the ARC with his family. For his next boat, even though “7 knots of wind gives 5 knots of boat speed,” he would like larger fuel tanks, which the 44 provides (and later became an option for 12.50s).

He would also like more stowage, which the 44’s larger forecabin provides, though there’s proportionately less extra volume on deck. Baylis remains a fan of the Pogo concept: “The formula is pretty near perfect – 100 odd boats in the queue across the range validates that.”

table, shelves on both sides and a central overhead panel.

It’s refreshing that there are no linings on the hull or coachroof – exactly how a serious cruising boat should be, in my view. In the event of a problem, whether a leaky deck fitting or structural damage following a collision, you can instantly assess the situation.

Unlike the smaller Pogos, you don’t have to step over the structure, other than a small inch-high step for the main rib that takes rig and keel loads. Saloon seating is to port on a long L-shape settee, with the table on the centreboard case. The table can be easily lowered to transform the seating area into a big double bed, without complex electrical systems, while the aft end of the settee forms a seat for the navigation table. There’s reasonable stowage below the seats and in bins outboard of them.

Arguably the biggest benefit of the 44 compared to the 12.50 is the forward owner’s cabin. This is a good size, with a 1.60x1.99m almost rectangular berth, room to move around and useful stowage volumes. On the downside, as standard the only ventilation is at the aft end of the bunk, so there’s no natural airflow over the bed when at anchor with hatches open.

LIGHT AND BRIGHT Aft cabins are big and bright with very large bunks that have longitudinally split cushions with leecloths. They are easily the equal of other cruising yachts of this length.

There’s a small technical area aft between these cabins, as well as easily accessed provision for the optional watermaker under one of the saloon seats. Long term cruisers who don’t need two aft cabins all the time could arrange one as a large technical and storage area, without losing the facility to accommodate occasional guests there.

The linear galley has twin sinks, a 75lt fridge and excellent worktop space, with commendably deep fiddles, that can be augmented with the top of the centreboard case. Stowage is not extensive, but a second fridge or freezer can be fitted just ahead of the main bulkhead.

There’s a heads compartment aft next to the companionway, plus a basin area and separate shower stall between the main bulkhead and forecabin. An optional second heads can also be fitted here.

'Aspects that impress most are how easy it is to sail fast and the comfort at speed' 62

ON TEST

POGO 44

Above: The forward cabin offers a lot more volume and stowage than the smaller Pogos. Left: Aft cabins are bright and spacious

Construction is of vacuum-infused Vinylester with a 20mm foam core and monolithic sections around rudder stocks, keel box, skin fittings, saildrive, bow impact zone and chainplates. High-density foam is used in way of deck fittings and other high impact areas of the hull.

The thickness of the foam, which is used to maximise structural rigidity, also provides excellent thermal and acoustic insulation.

All bulkheads are structural and bonded in place while the hull is in the mould, so it retains shape when removed. In all some 40 moulds are used for various components – sinks, locker lids and the companionway steps are built of foam core laminate for lightness.

Of course it’s possible to build a boat this size at a much lower cost, but it’s easy to see where the money is spent and Pogo’s operation appears to be an efficient one. Owners certainly don’t seem to be deterred by the price tag. There are already more than 30 orders, backed by substantial non-refundable deposits, for this boat and Pogo’s expansion is limited only by the rate at which new employees can be trained.

OUR VERDICT Pogo has a great formula that has been continuously refined over a long period. It’s therefore no surprise that there are many ways in which this boat excels, but some compromises are inevitable.

This is not a boat for those who want to cruise with all the comforts of home. However it has much to offer those who see sailing as an escape from the increasingly complex trappings of day-to-day life and are happy to forgo a few luxuries in favour of a boat with all the essentials for civilised living, while also offering an exceptional sailing experience.

Aspects that impress most are how easy it is to sail fast and the comfort at speed. The huge stability that comes from the hull form and the low slung lead ballast means the boat shows no signs in any way of being flighty. In this respect it has the feel of a heavier and larger yacht.

S P E C I F I C AT I O N S LOA (inc sprit) 13.55m 44ft 5in • Hull length 12.80m 42ft 0in • LWL 12.80m 42ft 0in • Beam (max) 4.50m 14ft 9in • Draught 1.38m-3.10m 4ft 6in to 10ft 2in • Disp (lightship) 6,300kg 13,900lb • Sail area (100% foretriangle) 100.1m2 1,077ft2 • Square top mainsail area 63m2 678ft2• Fuel (std) 95lt 21gal • Fuel (option) 140lt 31gal • Water 350lt 77gal • Sail area/disp ratio 29.8 • Disp/LWL ratio 84 • Base price €271,715 ex VAT (Test boat €363,865 ex VAT) Design Finot-Conq pogostructures.com

RIVA L S J/45 Designed to provide effortless, comfortable fast sailing, this is a little longer but narrower than the Pogo 44 and a lot heavier. Price €429,980 ex VAT. j-boats.com Django 1270 Slightly smaller than the Pogo but a similar concept with a choice of efficient twin keels or a deep centre plate. Price €333,333 ex VAT. mareehaute.fr RM 1370 Similar hull shape, longer and with more space, but also heavier.

Choice of deep twin keels or a single fin. Price €329,800 ex VAT. rm-yachts.com

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G R E AT S E A M A N S H I P

A SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE

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SELLING UP AND SAILING FROM SCANDINAVIA TO THE BIG APPLE WAS A GAMBLE WORTH TAKING FOR CARSTEN AND VINNI BREUNING

arsten and Vinni Breuning are a modern cruising couple. Like many who make the leap – and the many more who aspire to – they went to sea in retirement from a busy life. Carsten walked away from his work as CEO of companies in Denmark and the Netherlands while Vinni, seven years his junior and a trained nurse, gave up her job running the Danish regional hospitals in Zeeland. Their cruising experience was limited and neither of them had made a passage of significant length, but they bought Capri, a Jeanneau Sun Fast 40, and fitted her out for the ocean. They couldn’t know for sure they were going to like it, yet they sold their home and committed to the adventure of a circumnavigation.

The book they have co-written about the first part of this trip is Capri, Sailing Distant Seas. It takes the reader with commendable frankness from the dream back in Scandinavia to the Pacific end of the Panama Canal via the British Isles, an ARC+ rally, and a serious foray up the American coast as far as New York. Carsten grew up in Canada and his goal was to cruise there for the summer, but they learned rapidly that all plans at sea must flex with the times.

They’re the sort of people you wish to meet in a far-off anchorage and their book is a delight to read. For this extract I’ve not chosen an account of storm and tempest, but the last chapter in which the couple evaluate their experience so far and offer some honest answers.

As we come out of the canal, we have sailed almost 15,000 miles and lived as boat bums for two years. We’ve given up our careers, sold our house and belongings and sailed away from our families and friends. We’re a long way from the comfortable and secure life we had in Denmark. It is time to reflect on what we’ve done.

Did our cruising life live up to our expectations? Yes, we have not regretted our decision. It has been a dream to cruise distant seas in our own boat. Any expectations have been more than exceeded.

We’re looking forward to sailing to even more exotic places in the Pacific.

Let there be no doubt though, that when we sailed out of Thyborøn, we felt like babies leaving the crib and entering the grown-up

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The Breunings were novices to ocean cruising when they decided to sell up an make a life for themselves at sea

world. We would be on the big oceans and would need to take care of everything ourselves – there would be no possibility of finding a safe harbour. We would need to be prepared for anything; important repairs, acute sickness, perhaps even the boat sinking. In other words, we coastal cruisers would be far outside our comfort zone.

A well-known motto among cruisers is ‘cruising means repairing your boat in exotic locations’. This is always good for a laugh, unfortunately it is also true.

Sailing across the Atlantic puts as much wear and tear on our boat as sailing for 10 years at home. Despite knowing all this we’ve still been surprised by the amount of repairs required now that Capri is in use 24/7. The learning curve is steep. It is rare that there is professional help available, though cruisers are happy to help each other.

INTRODUCED BY We’ve brought along boxes filled with spare TOM CUNLIFFE parts, but as one wag said: “Carsten, it doesn’t matter how many spare parts you bring you’ll need the one you didn’t.” We’ve had to buy parts and have them shipped in from the US or Europe, freight alone costing so much that you can have a heart attack when you see the invoice. It costs more money than you think, and we’ve yet to meet anyone who has been able to sail within their budget. Some cruisers Capri, Sailing have had to get a job along the way to earn Distant Seas extra money, or else have travelled home and

by Carsten and worked there for a few months. For some, it has Vinni Breuning, meant the end of the dream and they’ve sold Forlaget their boat and gone home.

Mellemgaard, Budgets are individual, of course, but they £19.99 can be divided into three rough categories:

Trained nurse Vinni Breuning gave up her job running the Danish regional hospitals in Zeeland for a liveaboard life with husband Carsten – and has not regretted the change in lifestyle for a minute

• Typically smaller (under 40ft), older boats from before 2000 with less comfort, less technical equipment (less things to break down). This group is KISS (keep it simple). There are fewer of these each year.

• Mid-sized boats (40-47ft), generally newer, with more equipment (more and more expensive repairs). We’re in this group.

• First-class (48-80ft): newer boats with all the technical equipment and comfort you can imagine. This group is dominated by catamarans and getting bigger and bigger.

Boats frequently cost more than $1million; have very expensive repairs and insurance.

Our impression has been that it usually is the man who has the dream of cruising and, in order to convince his wife to come along, ends up buying a big catamaran to satisfy her requirements for comfort and safety. Catamarans are getting better and better, and even we hard-core monohull sailors have to admit that they are suited for ocean sailing on the Coconut Milk Run. We call them ocean-going condomarans. Scandinavians own few cats – probably because the harbours in the north are too small for them. Before we left, we thought Capri would be one of the larger boats cruising, but no, she is frequently one of the smallest in the anchorages.

this. This is partially our own fault – we turned north and sailed to the US when everyone we crossed the Atlantic with sailed out into the Pacific. We’d like to find some boats that we would continue to meet up with. Perhaps it will come. We’ve met many wonderful cruisers along the way – exciting people that we would love to have as longterm friends – but so far, circumstances have dictated otherwise.

In the past, new arrivals in the anchorages were met with fresh baked bread and a welcome to the tired sailors after a long passage. Today it is different. The advent of GPS, chartplotters and satphones has meant there is a new class of cruisers.

Cruising was hard work in the past. A skipper had to know how to use a sextant, read a chart and the clouds.

Today, this is all done for you. The chartplotter tells you exactly where you are, the sat phone allows you to get updated weather forecasts daily and life is much more secure.

All this has meant there are many more cruisers. We are all less dependent on each other and so we don’t mingle as much. We’ve met true cruisers who’ve been at sea for over 20 years. We hope that sailors like them will people our further journey. We’ll see.

When it comes to visiting friends and family, we’ve learned that if we have guests coming they can choose where they will meet us, or they can choose when they will meet us. Not both. The winds and weather (and boat repairs) decide when we can reach a destination. Delays are the rule rather than the exception and our friends

INCREASING INDEPENDENCE Most of the cruising books we’ve read are years old.

They describe a life where members of the cruising community form close friendships. We’ve yet to find

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‘We particularly enjoy the freedom of having no obligations’

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G R E AT S E A M A N S H I P

Clockwise from above: the Breunings’ Jeanneau Sunfast 40 Capri; Vinni sometimes found herself outside her comfort zone; the good times during ocean crossings more than made up for the difficult moments

70-80%, we are at anchor. Hurricane seasons determine when we can sail and when we cannot. But life as a boat bum is vastly different from life at home. Practical things take much longer. Shopping, clothes washing can take a whole morning. Of course, we don’t have much else to do so it doesn’t matter.

Even after 29 years of marriage, we can still live together easily in a few square feet. It has been wonderful to have so much time together, but friends have asked if we haven’t grown tired of each yet? A relevant question and the answer is: yes. We haven’t reached the point that one of us has moved off the boat to a hotel, but we don’t mind if the other one goes for a long walk or pops to a cafe to use the internet. It can be great to have a little time alone.

We particularly enjoy the freedom of having no obligations. We’re carrying our house on our backs as snails do. Nothing beats lying at anchor and following A N I N N E R V OYAG E O F D I S C O V E R Y the rhythm of the sun. Up at dawn, drink your morning Our limit for what we can handle has expanded. When coffee and prepare for the day. End the day at sundown, we do get tired, hungry and our energy and patience is at perhaps sit and read or else – and this is a big event – haul rock bottom, we react differently. Carsten gets irritable the computer up into the cockpit and put or becomes introverted, while Vinni gets on a movie in your outdoor theatre. It irritated or starts crying. We were both doesn’t get better than that. surprised that Vinni starts crying when The only things that stress us are she is far outside her comfort zone. She’s difficult boat repairs or problems getting experienced being under enormous spare parts. pressure during her professional career We have developed a new mantra; we – including life and death situations as a have no plan and, by golly, we’re gonna nurse – and never broken down, perhaps stick to it! Which means we don’t know it’s because then she felt in charge. where we are going and we don’t know We’ve developed well as a team. We when. Our plans change constantly due have full confidence in each other’s to boat repairs, sickness or just a desire to skills and complement one another well, see something. This is the great especially in critical situations.

Most people think cruisers sail most of Carsten and Vinni Breuning are privilege of being a cruiser – live a life free as a bird. the time, but most of the time, perhaps happy in each other’s company will just have to make allowances for that.

Cruisers are split 50/50 after having made their first long passage. One group likes it and will happily do it again; the other hates it and swears that they will only do it in a casket. It seems no one is indifferent. We wondered which group we’d belong to – the Atlantic was our first test. We’d agreed that if we couldn’t abide passages, we would sail the Caribbean and then ship Capri home on a freighter. Fortunately, we are in the first group. We’re both good at being alone with ourselves and can enjoy the loneliness that comes with being on watch at night.

We’ve also found a new perspective on distance. When we left Crosshaven to cross Biscay, we thought 700 miles an immense distance, and the thought that it would take five or six days was daunting. Today we feel we’ve almost arrived when there is only 500 miles to go.

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840 EUSSI

FUTURE OF POWER Is hydrogen the answer?

S U P E R YACH T C U P PA L M A P R E V I E W

WHAT’S HOT?

NEW YACHTS, GEAR AND TOYS FROM THE WORLD OF SAILING SUPERYACHTS

LOA 23.87m 78ft 4in • LWL 23.84m 77ft 11in Beam 11.53m 37ft 10in • Draught 2.10m 6ft 11in

Polish luxury catamaran builder Sunreef says it will launch a new ‘eco’ 80-footer this summer in Gdansk.

Its electric propulsion draws power from a huge solar array, a hydrogeneration unit, plus twin 80kW DC generators! The 150m2 of solar panels can generate up to 34kW of power, and are built into every surface – the topsides, superstructure, bimini and even the

mast. Sunreef is one of the first yacht builders to experiment with integrated solar panels on this scale.

Thanks to the regeneration system built into the drivetrain, the propellers can generate a combined 15kW at a sailing speed of just 7 knots. The aim is to enable the boat to motor slowly without ever having to fire up the generators. Under sail, she should top out at over 10 knots.

There’s no shortage of luxury in the lavish interior, which will sleep up to 10 guests and offers a Jacuzzi on the flybridge. Sunreef has also developed a more efficient air-con system as part of efforts to slash power consumption. sunreef-yachts.com

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Sunreef 80

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Geneinno T1 Dive Drone

In the congested market for dive drones, this Chinese design has an edge with its remote-controlled robotic arm. It can dive to 150m and stay down for up to four hours, filming 4K video at 30fps. Tilt and angle the camera, and use the onboard LEDs to illuminate the shot.

Comes with a hard-shell case and a Bluetooth controller that uses your smartphone as a livestream display.

Price from €2,999. geneinno.us

Wally 101

LOA 30.80m 101ft 1in • LWL 29.35m 96ft 4in Beam 7.49m 24ft 7in • Draught 4.70m-6.80m 15ft 5in-22ft 4in • wally.com

Wally has sold its first new sailing yacht since the buy-out by Ferretti in 2019 – a 101-footer inspired by the Wallycento box-rule design. The fully custom carbon racer displaces just 56.4 tonnes, much of which lies in the keel. It will

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bristle with technology, including double low- and high-pressure hydraulic systems for faster sail handling, a lifting keel and retractable prop. This last is estimated to reduce drag by 5%, giving a 10-second edge for each mile sailed.

For all that, this is also described as a familyfriendly boat, which retains Wally’s original ethos.

A Magic Trim system allows the boat to be sailed with a minimal crew, and she offers comfortable dining in the cockpit, or sunbathing aft.

Founder Luca Bassani describes the yacht as “flying the flag for the planet”. The claim rests on the Judel/Vrolijk-designed hull being very easily driven, making 18-20 knots in cruising mode, but exceeding wind speed even in light airs. Delivery is scheduled for spring 2023.

SUPERSAIL

RP Nauta 151 LOA 46.82m 153ft 7in nautadesign.com

Royal Huisman is already hard at work building this 46m performance sloop by Reichel/Pugh and Nauta Design. It has been designed for a repeat client in aluminium, despite the overall aim of keeping weight down, but Nauta promises that it will put the existing alloy fleet to shame. Velocity predictions by Reichel/Pugh suggest that the boat will sail faster than the true wind speed – nearly 18 knots beam reaching in a 15-knot breeze.

A key feature of the boat’s design has been the unobtrusive deckhouse, which echoes the owner’s previous boat. This is being built by Rondal in carbon alongside the guest cockpit and spars.

As bluewater comfort was part of the brief, there are plenty of lounging options aboard. A section of the 10m-wide transom folds down to become a beach club, and the deck above transforms into elegant steps down. The aft deck can be adapted into a broad area for lounging and dining.

The guest cockpit has a carbon hardtop and folddown windscreen for ventilation. A recessed tender bay forward of the mast converts into a forward cockpit. Captive winches make sailing easy without disturbing guests.

Data is a big growth area in superyacht technology, and Cyclops is ahead of the game by adding a load cell to its range that can sense up to 20 tonnes of force. Measuring some 11cm x 9cm and weighing just shy of 800g, the titanium Smartlink is exceptionally strong and accurate in tough race conditions.

It communicates wirelessly with a dedicated app on your smartphone, or via the Cyclops wireless gateway to get the data onto your instrument network. The technology was developed with INEOS Team UK, and appears on Olympic boats as well.

Price: £3,095. cyclopsmarine.com

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20T Cyclops Smartlink

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SUPERSAIL

Fliteboard Series 2; Lift Foils Lift3

The foiling surfboard looks here to stay.

The bestselling electric hydrofoil board from Australia, the Fliteboard (above), has been updated to improve performance.

Fliteboard’s tweaks include better stability for beginner riders, and advanced carving and manoeuvrability. Three new versions of the

product have been created: Air for newbies; Ultra is super-light; and Pro is more responsive.

All have a Bluetooth controller, lithium battery and dedicated app.

Lift Foils has also redesigned its board. The Lift3 (above right) is now silent, thanks to some nifty acoustic engineering and a gearless direct

drive motor. The board’s new shape and reengineered underwater nozzle make it easier for beginners to get up on the foil and stay there to enjoy speeds up to 30mph.

Prices: Fliteboard Series 2 from €10,400, fliteboard.com Lift 3 from €10,640, liftfoils.com

SW108 hybrid LOA 46.82m 153ft 7in sws-yachts.com

A tantalising view of a new hybrid project from Southern Wind hints at a new philosophy balancing luxury and sustainability.

Billed as ‘smart custom’ design by the South African shipyard, the new project has been penned by Nauta and Farr Yacht Design for performance.

It will offer electric propulsion drawing power from a large battery bank. Behind that sits IMO Tier III-compliant diesel generation and hydro generation, which harvests significant energy from the water as the boat sails. It is enough to offer hours of silent cruising under power with zero emissions.

Other features will include an ultra-wide beach club aft.

If you have £50k burning a hole in your pocket, British custom wooden eyewear maker Campbell Marson has an interesting new offer. You can tailor your own wooden sunnies to match your lifestyle, perhaps picking up detailing from your yacht, car or aircraft. Any precious metal or gemstone can be worked into the design – one client in Dubai recently specified a pair in amboyna burr studded with diamonds and 24-carat gold.

Price: £sky’s the limit. campbellmarson.com

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Campbell Marson wooden sunnies

SUPERSAIL

ClubSwan 125

LOA 42.56m 139ft 8in • LWL 36.70m 120ft 5in • Beam 8.75m 28ft 9in Draught (canting keel): 7.40m 24ft 3in • Displacement 64.6 tonnes • nautorswan.com

Nautor’s jaw-dropping 125ft super-Maxi racer is set for launch in May in Pietarsaari, Finland. Billed as the “fastest monohull ever conceived”, the ClubSwan 125 has undergone intensive work in recent months.

Its hull has been painted a gleaming black and wrapped with a yellow design that runs from the tip of the imperious bowsprit to the twin rudders aft.

The innovative C-shaped daggerboard foil has been painstakingly lifted into its midships

slot, and the radical canting keel attached.

“Designing a racing sailboat, able to reach a speed in the region of 15 knots upwind and that will always be faster that the wind speed downwind is something unique,” says designer Juan Kouyoumdjian.

The cockpit cuddy makes the Swan slightly reminiscent of his iconic Volvo 70 design.

“I truly believe ClubSwan 125 will raise the stakes in the sailing world and set a milestone in the whole marine industry,” he adds.

BIG colour displays

Oceanbel 128 explorer

LOA 39.00m 128ft 0in • Beam 10.00m 32ft 10in Draught 2.00m-7.00m 6ft 7in-23ft 0in • Displacement 200 tonnes • oceanbel.fi

The man behind this new Finnish brand set up Nautor’s Swan in the 1960s then built 41m luxury monohulls in Thailand. Now Pekka Koskenkylä has teamed up with his nephew Sami for another roll of the dice, and the result is an entirely recyclable 128ft two-master, which can be sailed single-handed.

She sports a curious rig, which sets two large roller-furled jibs, but no mainsails – the aft boom is just for supporting an awning. She

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has a lot of weight in the bilges, as well as a deep swinging ‘keelboard’, which also serves to dampen rolling. Koskenkylä argues that the keel design will give access to shallow waters and allow for cheap slippage.

With twin electric propulsion, supplemented by 30kW of solar panels, hefty regeneration potential and two big diesel gensets, she is described as a solar assisted plug-in hybrid electric vessel.

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Large format coloured mast base displays are all the rage for superyachts that race, but such a market demands the biggest and best.

Lymington-based A+T, which continues to find favour with the majority of large sailing yachts for its upgrades to existing legacy systems, says these Big Format Displays (BFD) are the toughest available.

The company backs that claim up by testing every unit for 24 hours under 1m of water, and in an oven at 70°C. It has even been operating one of its displays continuously in a water tank for 18 months. The BFD is made for ‘plug and play’ connection to a variety of instrument systems.

Price: £4,425. aandtinstruments.com

Back on track SUPERYACHT RACING IN ALL ITS GLAMOUR LOOKS SET TO RETURN THIS JUNE FOR EUROPE’S LONGEST RUNNING SUPERYACHT REGATTA, WRITES TOBY HODGES

Staged from the heart of Palma, Europe’s superyacht capital, the Superyacht Cup is one of the most spectacular events in the world. It enjoys the ideal playground that is the Bay of Palma with its reliable sea breezes that you can set your watch to. Many yachts are based there, their professional crews live on the island, it boasts leading superyacht services, a buzzing city and an international airport just a short taxi ride away.

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It is also a regatta that has always adapted to the times and its ability to do so, this year in particular, is helping to ensure it can go ahead. The Superyacht Cup has always been an event for the sailors and owners.

By focussing on this and the racing aspect above any shoreside activities, the organisers are confident of putting on a safe and enjoyable regatta. Indeed it looks set to be one of the first big boat regattas in the northern hemisphere in the last 18 months, in what

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‘We’ve had to remain flexible but focus on the racing’

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25 Y E A R S O F R A C I N G In 2007, the year of the America’s Cup in Valencia, the Superyacht Cup partnered with New Zealand’s Millennium Cup to attract a record-breaking fleet of over 50 superyachts. The New Zealand contingent organised dub band Fat Freddy’s Drop to play a gig during the regatta: “To organise a superyacht event with a rock concert in the middle of it was extraordinary,” Branagh recalls.

The scale of that event and the number of entries also brought a lot of change to the management of the regatta, says Branagh, “including better ratings, rules and the need to develop our own class.” The safety and insurance implications became much greater, which heralded the emergence of the Superyacht Racing Rule and the development of the ORCsy rating system.

“The progression from 2007 onwards has changed things quite a lot, with a big drive safety-wise, but also on an organisation side,” Branagh continues, adding that they wanted to bring the regatta up to the standard of other Grand Prix events.

Right: racing aboard WinWin in Palma Bay with its predictable seabreezes.

Below: typical Superyacht Cup racing sees a mix of cruiserracers to out-and-out racers and J Class ygrenE gniliaS/odeneR suseJ

is also a milestone year for the event itself.

For 2021 is the 25th anniversary of the Superyacht Cup, an event which started in 1996 as a low-key end of season party for yacht crews waiting to cross the Atlantic. Originally formed by sailmakers Patrick Whetter and Spike Thompson from the Vela 2000 loft, the first pursuit-style Superyacht Cup was won by the 33m Dubois sloop Imagine.

Event director Kate Branagh has been on board for the last 20 years and has overseen its growth in stature and repute, from a handful of boats to a record-breaking 52 entries, while governing the transition into a safer, fairer and more professional racing programme. Her Aquamarine Events company took over in 2013, making this the only privately owned and managed superyacht regatta. Branagh previously worked with the Whitbread Race so had experience of working with sponsors and was keen to get big brands on board in the early 2000s, some of which, including Pantaenius and Astilleros de Mallorca, are still involved today.

Another long standing alliance was formed with New Zealand in 2005, which remains the destination partner.

It’s a recipe which is continually updated to keep racing fair and enjoyable. Branagh’s fondest memories of the regattas are when there is a combination of family cruising boats, racing yachts and the J Class. “When you can get a good grouping like that, that’s the best.” Such a year was in 2018, with two Js and a varied fleet racing, while Branagh vividly recalls the grandeur of seeing six big-class schooners assembling for a parade of sail in 2016, with four taking part in the racing.

The ongoing travel restrictions have made it a challenge too far this year for the classic yachts and those

25 YEARS OF THE SUPERYACHT CUP WINNERS Timoneer

Bolero

1998

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2002

1999

1997

Imagine

Sovereign

2000 Kokomo

2003

2001

Unfurled

Kokomo Rick Tomlinson

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Programme Wednesday 23 June

Registration and practice day

Thursday 24 June

1st race (Pantaenius Race Day)

Friday 25 June

2nd race (New Zealand Race Day)

Saturday 26 June

3rd race and prize giving

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with large and very international pro crews such as the Js to commit.

Covid restrictions have also forced some organisational changes: “We’ve really had to plan this event in a very different way, because it’s had to remain flexible… things will be missed, but let’s focus on the racing,” says a determined Branagh.

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Palma hosts the event, while New Zealand is destination partner

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VENUE CHANGE The Superyacht Cup moved to the STP and Moll Vell site in 2009 where it could stage its own event village and

2006

2004

2008

Hyperion

Timoneer

2005

All Smoke

2010

Scorpione Dei Mari

Hyperion

2007

Hetairos

Rick Tomlinson

2009 Gliss

2011

Drumfire

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SUPERSAIL

‘A new performance class has been offered’

Rick Tomlinson

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2012 Maria Cattiva

2013 Heartbeat

Martinez Studio

2014

Unfurled

2015 Marie

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The record-breaking 52-strong fleet at the 2007 event

returnees such as Nilaya, Saudade and Ganesha. The latter pair promises an enticing battle of the big 45m sloops. Ganesha is always keenly sailed. I was lucky enough to join her for a race at the Bucket a few years ago and recall her designer telling me how well she plays the dual cruiser-racer role – and that part of the owner’s original brief was that she could transform from family relaxing to sailing mode within the seven-minute duration of the dishwasher programme!

The entry of Saudade, meanwhile, was still a doubt as we went to press, but she has spent some time training with Deckchute’s latest iteration so if present should prove sprightly around mark roundings. This system, which has found favour on many superyachts and J Class in recent years, uses a sock on deck into which the kite can be pulled rapidly by attaching high-speed drop lines to the tack and belly of the sail. The result allows for Grand Prix-style hoists and drops of proper downwind kites with a full crew, says founder Henrik Bartholin, or safe drops when cruising or racing short-handed. He produced a video showing Saudade’s regular crew sucking their 1,400m2 kite into the sock and being ready to turn upwind in less than a minute. Such snippets of action whet the appetite for what’s in store.

Volvo Ocean Race veteran Bouwe Bekking, who regularly calls tactics on Nilaya, says the Superyacht Cup offers “as close to guaranteed sailing as you can get anywhere, so it’s not surprising that owners – and crews – look forward to returning year after year.” And 2021 will see these sailors itching to get back on the race course more than ever.

“There’s a lot of pent-up passion for getting back on the sea,” Branagh agrees. Bring on June 23.

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fulfil sponsor requirements. However, this site still needs to be reserved a long time in advance to clear the space. Branagh felt that was too risky to do last year and that it made more sense to use the facilities on hand at the Real Club Náutico de Palma (RCNP – a stone’s throw across the water from STP).

The RNCP has been responsible for the professional race management for the Event director Kate last 10 years. “It’s a perfect match because Branagh they have all the protocols in place and have been running dinghy events there this year,” says Branagh.

The 2021 Superyacht Cup entry list involves several local yachts, which can return to their own berths and social bubbles, while there are eight berths available outside the yacht club. Unless rules change, there is no social programme planned this year, however hosting the regatta at the yacht club allows for a certain degree of flexibility should restrictions be lifted.

“We thought it important to have a continuation of the event,” Branagh comments, “...to be as positive as possible and work within the constraints we’ve got.”

The Superyacht Cup involves three race days with 20to 30-mile courses around the bay. Its two superyacht classes are divided into those racing with and without spinnakers, using staggered starts based on the superyacht ORCsy handicap, with the slower boats first off so all competitors can enjoy the best of Palma’s seabreeze conditions.

A performance class has been offered for the first time to try to encourage some of the more race-oriented yachts, which typically sail in Maxi-type events. This would entail a fleet start on a separate course, as opposed to the arguably safer and more typical pursuit starts of superyacht racing. However, it would require at least three or four yachts in the class to make it competitive.

Looking at the provisional entry list suggests a mixed yet competitive fleet, which includes three Frers designs, and two each from the renowned boards of Reichel/Pugh and Malcolm McKeon. The two Wallys and Swans entered typify the type of dual-purpose cruiser-racer designs that compete in superyacht regattas today.

The entries include many experienced crews and

Ingrid Abery

2016

WinWin

2017 Bolero

Carlo Borlenghi

2019

WinWin

2018

Velsheda

2020

Event cancelled

A - RZ YO F AT HCE H T S U P EC U P

THE ENTRIES yrebA dirgnI

THE HIGH-CALIBRE FLEET COMPETING FOR THE 25TH SUPERYACHT CUP

G A N E S H A 46m/151ft SLOOP AQUARIUS DESIGN: Ron Holland/

GANESHA DESIGN: Dubois/McKeon BUILD: Vitters Shipyard 2013

Perini Navi

BUILD: Perini Navi 1990

The largest entrant this year, this early Perini ketch was formerly called Xasteria and built with a steel hull and aluminium superstructure. She is now run as a family boat. The owner loves racing and the atmosphere of the event, says Cup director Kate Branagh, and that getting around the course safely while having fun is the main goal. Given some breeze, a Perini ketch in full flight always makes for a fine sight.

A fast and very comfortable Dubois superyacht, Ganesha is a development of Lady B, with a hard bimini containing vertically sliding curved windows. Once a regular of the regatta scene, she hasn’t raced for a few seasons, but has cruised thousands of miles, including most recently in the Pacific when Covid hit. This necessitated a swift return to Palma, Ganesha’s home port. In the past she has been navigated by the supremely talented Nacho Postigo. Ganesha is easy to spot thanks to her bright orange spinnaker, emblazoned with the Hindu deity after which she is named.

A Q U A R I U S 47m/151ft KETCH

A sleek design typical of French designer Vaton, Baiurdo has the elegant sloping transom and huge half-sunken wheel that recounts the famous maxis of her era, but with a surprisingly light and contemporary cruising interior. Launched as Arrayan II, she has been away from the regatta scene for many years, but had an extensive refit during 2018/19, which included refurbishing the mast and rod rigging. Baiurdo is sailed by a local crew skippered by Kristen Gill.

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B A I U R D O V I 34m/113ft SLOOP

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BAIURDO VI DESIGN: Gilles Vaton BUILD: Abeking & Rasmussen 1992

A - RZ YO F AT HCE H T S U P EC U P HIGHLAND FLING XI DESIGN: Reichel/Pugh BUILD: Goetz 2009

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Like most Wallys, Highland Fling XI was ahead of her time when she launched and still looks like a contemporary racer today. This was the first Reichel/Pugh design for serial boatowner and fanatic regatta competitor Lord Laidlaw – the design office was selected after its success with record breaking yachts such as Wild Oats and Alfa Romeo. Weight saving was fastidious during the build of what is more maxi than cruiser: she has a mere blip of a coachroof, a minimalist interior, hydraulic carbon winches, and a Southern Spars carbon rig.

H I G H L A N D F L I N G X I 26m/82ft SLOOP

MISSY ygrenE gniliaS/odeneR suseJ

M I S S Y 33m/108ft SLOOP

DESIGN : Malcolm McKeon BUILD: Vitters Shipyard 2016

Missy is a sexy modern design. Originally commissioned for cruising only, she sports a curved glazed decksaloon and a teak deck which lips over the transom. However, once her owner tried racing her at St Barth during his first season sailing he didn’t look back, soon adding a bowsprit and a wardrobe of racing sails. The designer’s son, Matt, is the skipper and has put together a handy crew who know the waters well. One to watch this year.

N I L AYA DESIGN: Reichel Pugh BUILD: Baltic Yachts 2010

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Nilaya set the standard as the modern versatile superyacht cruiser-racer that can be handled by a minimum permanent crew. A raised saloon and large guest cockpit provide ample comfort, while a powerful shape and lightweight carbon build provides exhilarating racing or passage-making. Her highly experienced owner-driver normally benefits from having Bouwe Bekking whispering tactics in his ear and a seasoned crew. A safe bet to take home some chocolates.

N I L A Y A 34m/112ft SLOOP

RAVENGER DESIGN: German Frers BUILD: Royal Huisman 2015

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R A V E N G E R 43m/141ft SLOOP

Set up for world cruising but with the performance to be able to hold her own in the occasional race, this elegant Frers design with dark blue hull launched as Sea Eagle. She features a protected guest cockpit, an aft beach terrace and a Rhoades Young interior.

A 15 knot hull speed indicates this 200 tonne cruiser should have legs in a breeze. This will be her first Superyacht Cup.

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A - RZ YO F AT HCE H T S U P EC U P SAUDADE DESIGN: Tripp Design BUILD: Wally Yachts 2008

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This slippery carbon cruiser with a dark green hull is keenly sailed. She is set up for comfortable cruising and easy handling, while her large water tanks can be used as movable ballast when racing. Despite her regular attendance over the years, Saudade has yet to win the Superyacht Cup so if she makes this year, she will be out to set that record straight.

S A U D A D E 45m/148ft SLOOP

SHAMANNA DESIGN: German Frers BUILD: Nautor’s Swan 2016

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S C O R P I O N E 46m/152ft SLOOP

Frers’ modern hull shape with its plumb bow, wide stern and twin rudders makes for a powerful and appealing performance package. This is the second of the successful 115 series, the sleeker FD flush deck model, commissioned for private cruising and racing, and for chartering. Shamanna is a new entrant to the SY Cup but has an experienced crew (around 25 strong) who are likely to be match fit after the Loro Piana event in early June.

SCORPIONE DESIGN: Judel/Vrolijk BUILD: Baltic Yachts 2006

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This is the elegant looking former Baltic 152 Pink Gin, under which name she competed in the largest ever Superyacht Cup in 2007. In her current Scorpione livery she took part in the 2018 edition in the Corinthian class and will be looking to build on that regatta experience.

S H A M A N N A 35m/115ft SLOOP

UMIKO DESIGN: German Frers BUILD: Nautor’s Swan 2000

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U M I K O 25m/80ft SLOOP

A fine example of the thoroughbred Swan 80, previously called Maligaya. Umiko had a full refit in 2017 including new OYS rigging and a full wardrobe of North sails, which helped her to recording a second across the line in the ARC 2018.

This will be her first Superyacht Cup, so she is a dark horse, but if the breeze is light she may prove nimble among her larger and heavier competitors.

Nemesis One, a 101m luxury foiling cat capable of 50 knots, with hydrogen gas for emission-free propulsion

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power The future of

IS HYDROGEN CLOSE TO BECOMING A GREEN POWER SOURCE FOR SUPERYACHTS? SAM FORTESCUE INVESTIGATES

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Above and left: Nemesis One’s hydrogen-electric powertrain supplements the boat’s wind and solar power capabilities The full carbon design uses the Oceanwing sail developed by VPLP. The result is a real predator

‘Environmentally speaking, it’s the best option’ We all know that hydrogen is the power of the future.

After all, scientists have been discussing it for decades.

Between zero emissions, zero noise and no vibration, it is surely the fuel that superyacht owners have been waiting for. Why, then, is it taking so long to arrive, and when will we see hydrogen-powered boats?

The answer to the last question is simple: they already exist. There is a commercial barge plying the River Seine through Paris running solely on hydrogen, for instance.

At rush hour you can cross the harbour from Antwerp to Kruibeke in Belgium on Hydroville, the world’s first H2-powered passenger shuttle. And the well-publicised Energy Observer project successfully sent a solarpowered hydrogen yacht around the planet without using a drop of fossil fuel.

Hydrogen power is stimulating the feverish imaginations of yacht designers searching for the next step forward in futuristic luxury. In 2019 there was the

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lavish 112m motor yacht Aqua drawn by Dutch design powerhouse Sinot. It had features galore, including a swimming pool that gushed in steps down the long teak transom of the boat, a glass bow observation lounge (pictured above) and shell-like helical staircase running from the top to the lower deck. And at its core were two 28-tonne hydrogen vacuum tanks capable of storing the gas in liquid form at -253°C. With 4.4MW hydrogen fuel cells on board, this was enough to power the yacht to 17 knots and give her a 3,750-mile range.

Then last year, news of the Nemesis One was released, a jet-black ‘stealth fighter’ of a catamaran engineered by multihull experts VPLP in pure carbon to foil at over 50 knots. The boat employs America’s Cup technology on a scale never seen before. Its towering 80m-plus soft autonomous AYRO Oceanwings wingsail is capable of generating huge power and twin L-shaped foils are controlled by an automatic flight system. The 750m2 of

SUPERSAIL

Above: Aqua concept has two 28-tonne super-cooled hydrogen tanks for ocean range Right: Black Pearl already runs a hybrid hydrogen-electric system

NO TECHNICAL LEAPS “The technology is there, and environmentally speaking it’s the best option we can think of,” says Thibault Tallieu of French hydrogen pioneer EO Dev, which spun out of the Energy Observer project.

“The challenges aren’t technical, not even so much the cost,” but, says Tallieu, it’s the combination of those factors combined with the lack of refuelling solutions. “To have that infrastructure in place so owners know they can go from Monaco to St Tropez; Capri to the Balearics.”

The UK’s Fuel Cell Systems is working on a French project for a mobile refuelling station capable of supplying up to 40kg of pure hydrogen – equivalent to about 250 litres of diesel. At first it will be in place in Marseille, supporting the launch of an innovative 40ft hydrogen tender from Hynova this June. Then it will follow the boat up the coast in hops to include Toulon, La Ciotat, St Tropez, Cannes, Nice and Monaco as part of Hynova’s Sea Show.

“We aim to move the boundaries,” says Hynova’s Laetitia Vichy. “Without hydrogen in the ports, we can’t grow the number of boats.” She hopes that the mobile stations will stimulate demand and give way to fixed ▲

solar panels and the hydrogen-electric powertrain appear almost as a footnote to a project that focuses more on the technology of speed and on luxury.

Both of these remain no more than concepts, though, if spectacular ones. Sinot says that potential clients are still showing interest in Aqua, and that hydrogen power continues to be a priority for them. Feadship reports that its clients are increasingly asking after alternative fuels and OceanCo is already working on yachts which operate in a ‘leave no trace’ manner. But across the yachting sector as a whole, the undoubted interest in hydrogen has yet to translate into any meaty projects.

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‘Hydrogen tanks can’t be built into the bilges’

veD OE

Left: EO Dev’s pilot floating fuel station to replenish onboard storage tanks.

Right: Daedalus’s custom tanks

Expect to see petrol pump-style hydrogen filling stations cropping up

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dispensed every day. “We’ll have a technically functional prototype by the end of 2021, but regulations will take at least another year,” says Tallieu.

A Q U E S T I O N O F S PA C E Getting the hydrogen to the boat is one part of the conundrum, but storing it on board is just as tricky. As a diffuse gas, it must be compressed to 350 bar or even super-chilled to a liquid in heavy tanks aboard. Between the cylinders, pumps and handling systems, hydrogen propulsion requires more space than diesel, even though the fuel cell itself is smaller than the engine.

I asked superyacht builder Royal Huisman, no stranger to ground-breaking technology, what that meant in design terms. “We took an existing yacht and used a 3D model of the vessel, energy use of that vessel, and also the installed power, and replaced everything that was needed to run the vessel on hydrogen – just as an experiment,” says proposals manager Henriko Kalter.

“At that moment your technical volume doubles.

“There you have to make a choice.

If you want to build the same vessel with the same range, you will lose a lot of space on board,” he concedes.

“But that’s part of our smart energy approach, where you also have to lower

yewatA

hydrogen fuel pumps with a capacity of 100-200kg.

The transformation can happen very quickly – a matter of months. “It’s a question of investment,” says Cyril Dufau-Sansot of Hy2gen. “Two to three million Euros is the cost of a fixed station, whereas the mobile solution is around €100,000. The cost will drop with scale and manufacturing of mobile modules – within the next 3-4 years, you can halve the price.”

In this model, hydrogen is produced at a large-scale central electrolysis plant capable of turning out 12 tonnes of gas a day, and requiring an eye-watering 30MW of green power. Special trucks carrying a stack of long cylinders then deliver the gas to stations under huge pressure. Other developers want to build small filling stations that make their own hydrogen from mains power and water.

But there is another way of doing it, according to EO Dev. The company is testing a futuristic-looking design for a floating hydrogen fuel station. It would be tethered in ports and harbours and connected to shore power to produce hydrogen from seawater 24 hours a day. Using first desalination then electrolysis, up to 250kg of pure hydrogen could be produced and

SUPERSAIL

HOW GREEN IS HYDROGEN? HYDROGEN TANKS

BATTERY PACK

Hynova will be demonstrating an innovative hydrogen-powered 40ft tender this summer

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your energy consumption.” It is an approach the builder adopted successfully with Ethereal and in the refit of Juliet as diesel-electric hybrids, with a large battery bank and smart peak-shaving power management.

But hydrogen presents another challenge. Being one of the smallest molecules found in nature and highly flammable to boot, H2 gas needs very careful treatment.

This is one reason that hydrogen tanks can’t simply be built into the bilges, like diesel tanks. They must be ‘outside the hull’ where they can vent safely, according to classification societies such as Lloyds.

“In our research, we made the hull look as if it was continuous from the outside (comparable to a hull door), but the actual vessel stops 4m before the aft end. The last bit is just a rack of big 700-bar hydrogen cylinders,” says Royal Huisman’s Kalter.

Some designers see an opportunity here, because it is much more flexible than the current diesel drivetrains.

“The modular nature of an all-electric yacht could also allow unusual layouts which could open exciting design and lifestyle opportunities,” says Lateral’s Simon Brealey, whose team designed the engineering for Aqua. “We can totally re-imagine where the technical spaces on a yacht should go and what they look like.”

A S E L F - R E F U E L L I N G YA C H T ?

The dream is to design a boat capable of making its own hydrogen as it goes, so that it never needs refuelling.

The principle was proven by Energy Observer, and Swiss company Aquon has just launched a similar concept for a very swish 64ft power catamaran. Aquon One can generate up to 13kW of electricity using 70m2 of solar panels. “Many times, the solar panels produce more energy than needed at that specific moment – for instance when Aquon One is at anchor,” explains CEO Christine Funck. “This excess energy is transformed and stored in the form of green hydrogen.”

In optimum conditions, the yacht is capable of operating indefinitely at 3-6 knots, Funck says. And she sees no reason why it shouldn’t work for a sailing version, although shading from sails, rigging and spars naturally reduce the output of the solar panels. “It would work well on a sailing-catamaran of a certain size, and we have had discussions with clients regarding this topic.”

Daedalus Yachts has got furthest with a design for an 88ft catamaran that makes its own hydrogen using a 10kW solar array, wind turbines and hydrogeneration.

The D88 will store the gas in custom-made carbon tanks, which founder Michael Reardon claims to be the only ones certified by DNV. This allows the yacht to fit its tanks in special containment boxes in the bilge of each hull.

This, despite the fact predicted sailing speeds are an eyewatering 36 knots in 24 knots of wind. Lamination has commenced for a predicted launch next year.

“Everybody else is just talking about hydrogen – we’ve actually done the engineering,” says Reardon. “It can ▲

FUEL CELL

Hydrogen is plentiful, but it exists mostly in the form of water. Water can be split into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen when an electrical current is passed through it, called electrolysis. But the most common way of making hydrogen is to react natural gas or coal gas with steam, creating carbon monoxide and CO2 in the process. More than 19 out of every 20kg of hydrogen produced are made in this way, generating 830 million tonnes of CO2 every year. This is so-called grey or black hydrogen.

Electrolysis is energy intensive, requiring 52kWh to produce a single kilo of hydrogen.

But industry estimates suggest that a whopping 1.5 trillion Watts of wind power were shut down in 2016 to balance the UK’s electricity grid – all of it renewable power which could have been used. That’s enough to make nearly 29,000 tonnes of hydrogen.

Pilot projects are running all over the world, so production of green hydrogen is expected to pick up very quickly.

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SUPERSAIL

‘The dream is a boat that makes its own hydrogen’

Above: the Daedalus D88 will carry 150kg of hydrogen in its tanks.

Right: Baltic’s 68 Cafe Racer employs mircroturbine technology, which could be run on hydrogen.

work on a monohull too, but the optimum size is 120ft plus.” A simpler system which takes on hydrogen from a shorebased pump rather than making it from seawater will bring hydrogen propulsion to boats as little as 32ft, Reardon thinks. “In the very near future, there’ll be hundreds of hydrogen 32-footers.”

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power you need even with a diesel motor,” he points out.

However, he admits it is a tough sell to customers, and still recommends a ‘get you home’ diesel generator too.

Lürssen recently announced the sale of its first hydrogen-powered superyacht, due for delivery in 2025, which will use fuel cell technology that converts methanol into hydrogen. The German shipyard says this will allow it to travel 1,000 miles emission-free.

Fellow superyacht builder OceanCo meanwhile wants to focus on what it does know. “We can say for certain that future-proofing requires electrification,” says group marketing director Paris Baloumis.

“Also, more intelligent use of technical space is going to be needed, because all alternative fuels are less energy dense than current fossil fuels. The main way to reduce its volume will be to reduce how much of it is needed.

Which means we need to keep pushing forward with energy reduction.”

But with so much effort being poured into R&D, it is a question of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ a major hydrogen yacht project gets off the drawing board. “I would hope to see a hydrogen yacht being built at Royal Huisman in the next five to 10 years,” says Henriko Kalter.

“We need some brave owners who are willing to make that step. But as soon as momentum picks up, sailing yachts should be among the first to happen.”

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The proton exchange membrane is at the heart of a fuel cell stack

Some in the yachting industry are already looking beyond hydrogen to a source of clean energy they say is even more efficient: thorium. It yields a grade of uranium which generates heat when it undergoes fission in a nuclear reactor, but it has several key benefits over standard uranium. Thorium is much more abundant, it produces less than 1% of the nuclear waste of other isotopes and it is much harder to weaponise.

“The benefits are of course extremely attractive: no more refuelling and potentially a quiet, fail safe source of abundant zero carbon energy,” says Simon Brealey of Lateral Naval Architects. He admits there are huge hurdles, but hopes they will be overcome.

“I see the possibility of floating nuclear reactors being deployed to perhaps create some of the alternative fuels of tomorrow for large yachting.”

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OT H E R T Y P E S O F H Y D R O G E N Another approach making way in the commercial sector is the use of alternative fuels such as ammonia and methanol. Both are hydrogen-rich, and easier to store than pure hydrogen. Alex Corrigan of ship builder CMB says: “Given a year or two, I think all that press you see now for hydrogen will be moving to ammonia.”

It is not without problems, though, because burning ammonia produces toxic nitrous oxide which has to be removed by exhaust treatment. Methanol is not much better, as it generates CO2 when it reacts in a fuel cell.

Nevertheless, Mathias May of Alva Yachts sees some potential up to about 15kW in his 25m monohull.

“We have developed a fuel cell solution using either hydrogen or methanol for our Ocean Sail 72 and Ocean Sail 82,” he says. “In this case we substitute the diesel genset for a fuel cell, but the whole boat is still a serial hybrid.”

“Over a long distance, you can’t store all the

NUCLEAR POWER?

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NEW YACHTS

A RANGE OF HOT PERFORMANCE BOATS FOR THE SUMMER, BY RUPERT HOLMES

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Swan 55 and 58

Swan 58 dimensions: Hull length 17.96m 58ft 9in LWL 17.09m 56ft 0in Beam 5.27m 17ft 4in Draught (standard) 2.70m 8ft 10in Displacement 24,700kg 54,490kg

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autor’s is expanding at an enviable rate – turnover doubled between 2017 and 2019 and the company shows no sign of wanting to rein in its ambition, with around a dozen new models from 48ft-125ft announced in the past three years.

The cancellation of last winter’s boat show season meant we were not able to see the Swan 58 at Düsseldorf, but the first boat is now on the water and photos taken during sea trials show it to be another stunning model.

Images of the boat sailing upwind indicate it moving quickly, even relative to the long waterline, while maintaining a balanced helm. The cockpit looks beautifully uncluttered, with a clear passage

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A new Frersdesigned Swan 55

He says the hull will have “a powerful back end that attains maximum sailing length and low resistance when heeled.” Bow sections are “well rounded transversely and have a sharp entry angle… favouring the sailing condition and comfortable ride when heeled.”

Two versions of the 55 will be offered – a standard cruising model and a performance variant with a square-top mainsail. This will clearly be an attractive option for those planning to race the boat, whether in one of Nautor’s own events, or in iconic regattas and offshore races around the world.

The company understands arguably better than any other yard the importance in today’s market of delivering a compelling and unique experience to owners, rather than simply selling a physical product and its Nautor’s portfolio of events continues to strike a chord with owners both of new and older boats. nautorswan.com

Seascape has been majority owned by Groupe Beneteau since 2018. While no new First designs have been announced since the integration of Seascape into Beneteau’s lineup, rumours abound of a sporty new model that will slot into the huge gap between the First 27 SE, and the Beneteau First Yacht 53 launched two years ago.

In the meantime three former Seascape models have been opened up to a wider audience thanks to the adoption of aluminium masts on the First 14 dinghy and First 24 and 27 sports cruisers. These boats also have simpler deck layouts, smaller rigs (a 20% reduction in sail area on the First 24), and Dacron sails. While performance will suffer a little, as will the ease of rigging when trailer sailing, many potential owners will welcome the reduced prices, which give savings ranging from 11-20% when comparing similar configurations.

For those who still want the original ethos of the Seascape concept, the boats are still available with the original specification including carbon spars. These are denoted by the suffix SE (Seascape Edition) after the model name. We’re told this designation will be used for future Beneteau First models of similar specification up to 40ft.

Prices ex VAT: First 14 €8,510, First 14 SE €11,380, First 18SE €22,600, First 24 €45,100, First 24 SE €49,200, First 27 €66,600, First 27 SE €67,500 (ex engine) beneteau.com

First 24 is now offered in two modes

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from the transom and helm stations to the companionway. On the other hand some will be disappointed by the positioning of winches and clutches outboard of the cockpit benches, rather than inboard on pedestals ahead of the wheels.

Around the same time as the 58 hit the water Nautor’s announced a new Swan 55. This will fit into an increasingly comprehensive range of Swan Line models, between the 48 and the 58.

Like the new Swan 65 that was launched in 2019, the 55 is intended to be evocative of the original Sparkman & Stephens-designed Swan 55. Although overshadowed by the success of the original 65, this was a superbly comfortable and capable boat in its day and the flagship of Nautor’s range when launched in 1970.

The company has yet to release full details of the new 55, although we know it’s another twin rudder German Frers design, along similar beamy lines to the existing new generation boats.

However, it will also benefit from work Frers has done over the past couple of years in analysing optimal hull shapes using latest software tools.

Broader appeal for Seascape

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Left: the newly launched Swan 58 promises engaging performance

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Above: alloy rig and Dacron sails on the First 27, Beneteau’s pareddown Seascape

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Low profile coachroof on the Ice 70

ICE 70

Hull length 21.3m 69ft 11in LWL 19.8m 65ft 0in Beam 5.75m 18ft 10in Draught 2.75m-4.30m 9ft 0in-14ft 1in Displacement 26,500kg 58,400lb

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his gorgeous Umberto Felci design is conceived for fast cruising and racing at the highest levels, both with full and reduced crews and promises to combine elegance with the latest technologies, high performance and versatility.

The result is beautifully crisp styling and a clean aesthetic, with huge unobstructed deck

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areas and a very low profile coachroof. Visually the cockpit coamings are an extension of the coachroof line and even the large instrument pods at each helm station are shaped to echo the lines of the cabin top.

Felci has drawn a very contemporary hull shape with high form stability, but without excess wetted surface area, especially when

heeled. Carbon fibre is used extensively in the construction, representing around 30% of the fibres, and all structural components are of vacuum infused epoxy laminate.

It’s no surprise that a great deal of customisation is possible with interior layouts.

The interior of the first boat, which we have seen in build via video, is simple and uncluttered,

N E W YA C H T S

Moana M35’ WRC

LOA 10.66m 35ft 0in LWL 10.01m 32ft 10in Beam 4.00m 13ft 1in Draught 2.70m 8ft 10in Displacement 3,000kg 6,600lb

underlining the yacht’s refined and streamlined nature. The owner’s cabin and a twin guest cabin are forward, ahead of a large and elegant saloon.

Aft is the captain’s cabin, which has direct access to the galley, located in the port quarter.

The second boat will have more space for guests, including two large ensuite aft cabins that are convertible between twin and double configurations, plus a smaller Pullman cabin.

The galley in this boat is forward of the keel case, with the owner’s suite forward of this.

There’s also a very compact ensuite crew cabin in the bows that can double as a sail locker when necessary. In all cases furniture is mostly of veneered sandwich panels to minimise weight.

Both boats have an unusually large tender garage, with space for a 4.2m (13ft) RIB, that reduces accommodation volume in the aft end of the boat. However, the capabilities of a larger tender will be preferred by some.

Three boats have been sold so far, to owners in Italy, Mexico and Germany, with the first scheduled for launch this May. All have opted for the Cariboni telescopic lifting keel that reduces draught from 4.3m to a much more manageable 2.75m. The ICE 70 joins a range of nine models, from 52-100ft.

This water-ballasted design with a rotating bowsprit is available in several different formats, each of which can be further customised to meet owner’s requirements. It can also be optimised to suit the requirements of IRC, ORC and Open rating systems.

A very powerful hull shape is allied to a deep 2.7m draught keel, giving enormous stability. Alternatively, a canting keel is offered as an option, as are foils.

The Extreme Base specification offers a very stripped-out solo or double-handed raceboat with a minimal Figaro 3-style interior at the base of the companionway. The Race Base version is still race oriented, but uses more of the hull’s length for accommodation. This has space for a full crew and enough comfort for occasional cruising use. There’s also a Comfort option with a fully-fitted lightweight interior for fast cruising.

Everything about the boat is configured for serious offshore use. For instance, there’s a crash box forward and a fully watertight bulkhead ahead of the

rudders. Equally, the large coachroof provides buoyancy when inverted, which increases the angle of vanishing stability.

Rudders are transom mounted and designed to be easily replaced at sea.

Although not shown on the drawings, the cockpit is designed to be fitted with a fabric sprayhood, or an IMOCA-style hard cover to give the crew additional protection.

“We believe a standard M35’ WRC with Extreme interior, a skilled and trained crew on board, racing in an OSTAR, TWOSTAR, ARC, Middle Sea Race, or your area championship… can win its class and leave behind a lot of bigger boats,” says the vastly experienced Vittorio Malingri, a previous Vendée Globe skipper and the general manager of the Italian yard.

Malingri and Moana Bluewater Yachts have built over 130 yachts since 1982 and its Carbon Line team in Fano is a key lamination supplier for many big brands of motoryachts.

Extreme Base from €220,000 ex VAT. moanashipyard.com

M35’ WRC Comfort interior

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Price €2,580,000 ex VAT.

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GEAR FOCUS

BIG CHANGES IN WET WEATHER KIT. REPORT BY TOBY HODGES & RUPERT HOLMES

North Sails Performance V

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ery rarely do new brands of wet weather gear come along, so when North Sails decided to enter the foray it had to be pretty confident that it had something new and enticing to offer.

The world’s leading sailmaker headhunted an industry leader to give it the jump.

Nigel Musto, previously the long-standing designer and consultant for the eponymous former family firm, was effectively given a blank sheet of paper to design the best wet weather gear in the world.

The new range of high performance gear comprises four new lines to suit sailors from the highest end of Grand Prix and inshore racing, to offshore and full ocean foulies. Manufacturing is done in one of the very few Chinese factories licensed to use the Gore-Tex Pro membrane.

“In our market there are only two companies with the license for GoreTex kit – Musto and North Sails,” says Nigel Musto.

Speaking from the North Sails Gosport loft with the first garments ready to go in store, he explained that he had been trying to solve a number of key problems for years when the sailmaking firm approached him in January 2019. The first centred on water repellent coatings: “Over the last 25 years various EU directives have meant durable water repellents (DWR) have been gradually watered down.” This is to reduce the environmental impact of the fluorocarbons they typically use. The downside is that they became less effective. “Where water used to bead off for weeks, now a good DWR will wet-out after a few days offshore and the garment becomes colder and heavier.”

He found that water gets trapped

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OFFSHORE

Optimised for Fastnet Race/Sydney Hobart type races, or up to five days offshore, these are light weight and available as smock (£700), jacket (left, £700) and trousers (£600)

OCEAN

Southern Ocean smock (above, £900), Atlantic dry top-style smock (£900) and trousers (£700) that use Gore-Tex Pro, TightWeave and 4DL for full protection

NEW GEAR

4-layer durable laminate for robust reinforcement

Impervious to water

TightWeave facing fabric

Inner protective scrim Gore-Tex Pro membrane

Above: Inshore Race range includes jacket, smock and this hybrid jacket (£450) Left: GP Aero shorts.

Below: Performance Ocean trouser

DuraSeal is a new 1.2mm thin neoprene for a durable watertight seal

▲

The new TightWeave fabric is naturally water repellent

between the nylon yarns, which quickly adds weight. “We worked with Gore-Tex on some new fabrics and developed a TightWeave, which comprises incredibly thin tightly woven yarns. This prevents the moisture getting trapped.”

This, he says, has prevented the majority of moisture absorption, so the Performance garments are lighter and more comfortable.

“Yachtsmen had been telling me for 30 years that they were getting damp bums,” Musto continues. “Even though we would pressure test them and prove fabrics were not leaking we still couldn’t figure out why it would happen.”

They traced the problem to the patches used on the knees and seat of trousers. “Cordura holds a lot of water so gains weight when it wets-out. When you sew a patch on, it creates a pocket that can never dry out. Body heat warms the water up in this pocket and the breathability process reverses and moisture goes inwards.”

North Sails happens to be a world leader in lamination technology, says Musto, “so we

found a way of laminating on top of Gore-Tex.” Called 4DL, which means 4-layer durable laminate, the fourth layer is a non-absorbent material on top of the 3-layer GoreTex. Laminating the patches stopped water getting through and prevented pockets forming.

“We found we had fixed all of the issues suddenly and the bonus of the combination of TightWeave fabric and 4DL patches is a garment which weighs 30% less than others when dry and with 70-80% less absorption of traditional gear when wetted out.”

“From a sailor’s perspective this is so much more comfortable – not holding water so you’re not getting cold.”

The fabric could revolutionise performance sailing kit, says Musto: “4DL patches are as big an advance in technology as Gore-Tex was in the 1990s – the pros are saying it’s that comfortable.” IMOCA skipper Kevin Escoffier has sailed 30,000 miles in his kit.

North’s new Performance range also introduces other new tech such as a permeable nanofibre to help ensure its GP line is ultra lightweight, and a neoprene-based DuraSeal for waterproof neck and wrist seals, which won’t perish under UV like latex seals. The range is currently available in unisex sizes S-3XL, with women’s-cut items due 2022. northsails.com/performance

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NEW GEAR

878: Innovative tech gear

Most innovation is an iterative process of continued small improvements in product design or materials technology. However, occasionally a step-change in innovation is possible that produces radically different products.

This is the route taken by a Hungarian marine clothing start up, called 878, which uses graphene in its fabric.

Graphene is a single atom-thick layer of carbon arranged in a hexagonal lattice. Key benefits include extreme strength and durability. This material also has ideal thermal properties for foul-weather gear, expelling body heat in warm weather, but preserving it in colder conditions when it’s distributed evenly around the body.

Since Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov developed an easy production method at the University of Manchester, for which they won a Nobel Prize in 2010, graphene has therefore been hailed as a wonder material in the textile world.

878’s foul weather gear is made of a threelayer material that incorporates a graphene membrane and an additional Dyneema/Cordura protective layer in high-wear areas. It’s extremely light, with a complete suit weighing well under 2kg. Despite the light weight it’s strong, doesn’t require a DWR (durable water repellent) coating, and predicted lifespan is measured in decades rather than years.

In addition, graphene based inks can be used

Graphene fabric technology combined with wearable tech such as a foldable e-ink display

with inkjet printers to create the connectivity that’s needed for wearable tech to be seamlessly incorporated into garments. As standard a 5.4in foldable e-ink display, which can connect to the boat’s instrument system via Bluetooth, is built into the arm of 878’s jackets.

The company has launched with two ranges of clothing, Racing and ProRacing. Both are made at an in-house facility in eastern Europe using computer controlled digital cutters, sewing machines and bonding techniques, which ensure consistent quality output. If required 3D body scanning can be used to customise the fit.

In April the company received a design award from Germany’s Red Dot Design Museum.

Jacket from €1,499, salopettes from €699.

878co.com

OTHER CLOTHING DEVELOPMENTS Musto’s new generation LPX range is aimed at top-level dinghy and inshore racers. Among others, they will be used by the France SailGP team. The LPX Gore-Tex Infinium Aero jacket is one third lighter than the original LPX Gore-Tex jacket, while the LPX PrimaLoft Stretch Midlayer Jacket is designed to be worn underneath the Aero jacket to provide extra insulation on cold days. Shoulder stretch panels allow freedom of movement, and the PrimaLoft Silver insulation continues to work even when wet.

LPX Infinium Aero jacket £250. musto.com

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Gill, well as adopting a more sustainable plant-based finish on its OS3 foul weather gear (pictured), has also revamped its range of gloves for 2021.

The comprehensive line up covers everything from dinghy sailing through keelboats to offshore yachts. The latter includes the gauntlet-style insulated and waterproof Helmsman Glove, which recognises that long periods spent on the helm, particularly overnight, can require a warmer solution than typical sailing gloves.

OS3 range: jacket £185, coastal pant £120; Helmsman Glove £55. gb.gillmarine.com

Zhik’s latest offshore jacket for women is tailored to allow layering underneath. The OFS700 has a high-cut ocean collar with a foldaway full-face shield for severe conditions, while the sleeves have a double seal to keep arms dry. Large utility pockets are included, as well as separate hand warmers. There are also unisex salopettes in the range.

The INS100 jacket (pictured) is intended as a lightweight technical cross-over garment, is fully breathable, and available in both men’s and women’s cuts.

OFS700 women’s jacket £330, INS100 jacket £130. zhik.com

Gear Reviews

BRNKL REMOTE BOAT MONITOR

by Rupert Holmes

Who is it for? Every boat owner, particularly those who leave their yacht unattended

★★★★

Since the start of the Covid crisis many of us have been separated from our yachts for much longer than usual. Fortunately, there are a growing number of options for remote monitoring that enable us to keep an eye on essential parameters from afar.

Canadian company BRNKL offers a system that monitors GPS position, bilge pumps and several battery banks. The base unit also includes environmental sensors for temperature and humidity, as well as an accelerometer/gyroscope for heel, pitch and motion/impact.

There are also add-ons for shore power connection and cameras, plus wireless sensors that can be fitted to hatches, companionways and lockers to warn when they are opened.

Since fitting the system to my partner’s 36ft Humphreysdesigned one-off, it has been enormously reassuring to be able to check every morning that all is well and to know you will get an instant notification if anything is amiss.

The built in GPS appears to be extremely accurate, with no erroneous positions and the trace remaining within a radius of just 6m over a two-week period, despite not having an external antenna. As a result I’ve reduced the geofenced area to just 10m. If the boat moves outside that radius we get an immediate alert.

We fitted the device after the boat sustained some damage when it was moved by the marina staff just before a winter storm and without fenders repositioned to suit the new location. If we’d known the boat had moved we could have asked friends who live nearby to check and potentially have avoided the problem.

The base system consists of the main BRNKL box, to which battery banks, bilge pump float switches and one external camera can be hard wired. The BRNKL Mate add-on includes a wireless interface for networking other sensors and Left: the clear and easy to use web and mobile apps are a bonus

WICHARD RESCUE KNIFE

by Rubicon 3’s Bruce Jacobs

Who is it for? Sailors wanting a robust knife on hand for emergencies

★★★★★

So many things can go wrong so quickly on a boat that most professional sailors always keep a knife close to hand. Which knife is a highly personal a choice, but the Wichard Rescue blade is a real winner for me.

The 72mm round tipped N680 stainless blade is highly corrosion resistant which is

key in a salty environment, even if tougher (and more expensive) metals would keep an edge better. We’re not expecting to use this knife often, so staying sharp is not an issue.

For me, a rescue knife should never be a folding one, as trying to unfold it in a crisis can cause serious delays, so I like the rigid blade on the Wichard. It has a hard plastic sheath that can be attached to the boat or crew, and the knife locks into the sheath with a lever the length of the handle that is easy

The BRNKL base unit and external camera

has connections for an additional camera, as well as NMEA 2000 data. This is a fairly expensive upgrade, but is worthwhile for the additional security of adding wireless sensors to hatches, lockers and the companionway.

These have user-replaceable batteries, which will reduce the long-term costs of running the system.

Fitting time will vary depending on the complexity of the system. A basic set up can be done in as little as a couple of hours, although a more comprehensive set up, with multiple battery banks and additional cameras with cables that need to be run behind linings would take longer.

RRP: base unit and external camera €1,074, subscription: CDN$29/month. brnkl.io

to release even with a gloved, frozen hand. The serrated blade chops through rope and tethers in seconds. The 12mm shackle key is a useful addition. My only slight issue is that the handle was maybe an inch too short for my hand.

You’re paying for the robust design and quality of stainless steel, but that’ll seem cheap if you ever need to use it in an emergency.

RRP: £74.95. marine.wichard.com

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PRACTICAL

MEDITERRANEAN ROUTING • TROUBLESHOOTING AT SEA • FOILING TF35 • RESCUE TRANSFERS

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Spectacular Isla Sisarga in northern Spain: cruising across borders will require more planning for UK sailors

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The EU VAT issue is separate from Schengen limits: a non-EU vessel may be temporarily imported (TI) by a non-EU national for up to 18 months before becoming liable to pay VAT

SPECIAL REPORT HELEN FRETTER ON SAILING IN EUROPE

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SAILING FROM THE UK Setting off from the UK into Europe should be simplified later this year, with an online reporting

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systemreplacing the C1331 paper form. Since the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, cruisers have been required to fill out a C1331 customs declaration form with details of their boat, crew, and departure and arrival destinations and dates every time they travel out of or into UK waters.

The form can only be sent by post to the Border Force team in Dover, and if a voyage is delayed by more than 24 hours then a new form with a revised departure time has to be submitted – a situation the RYA described as ‘farcical’. The new system will go live later this year and will be called ‘Submit A Pleasure Craft Report’, filled out via the gov.uk website.

The Home Office told our sister title Yachting Monthly that Border Force was working with HMRC to develop a ‘temporary alternative method of submission [for the C1331 form] that removes the requirement to post the form via the Royal Mail’ until Submit A Pleasure Craft Report was available online.

The bigger question for British-based cruisers is where to go, thanks to Covid-19 restrictions on returning to the UK. At the time of going to press, current UK Government advice is that ‘you should not travel to amber or red list countries’, although travel industry representatives have been at pains to point out that going abroad is not in itself illegal.

That leaves a limited and largely A Schengen impractical number of ‘green list’ deal is under options, requiring only a single test negotiation for and no quarantine on return. For Gibraltar but not example, the Faroe Islands are a yet completed stunning cruising destination – Rubicon 3 is among the adventure sail operators offering berths on voyages from the west coast of Scotland to the North Atlantic archipelago – but require a 500-mile passage from Oban. Likewise with Portugal on the green list, there is the option of making an Atlantic loop to Madeira and the Azores, though with a 1,500-mile return leg that is akin to a full ocean crossing.

For cruisers craving more straightforward

▲

ruising in Europe was once the comparatively simple option, negotiating weather systems in Biscay and overcrowded anchorages being the major concerns for anyone planning to cruise Atlantic or Mediterranean shores in former years. Today, it is anything but, thanks to a moving jigsaw puzzle of Covid-19 travel regulations and postBrexit restrictions for non-EU citizens.

With much long-haul travel still off the cards and a vast choice of cruising areas to explore, Europe remains one of the best options for safe, enjoyable sailing, though a degree of forward planning and flexible thinking is needed.

Attempting to keep on top of latest regulations is a bit like catching snowflakes; as soon as you think you have one in your grasp, it will have vanished, only for a dozen more to have appeared. So while we generally prefer to avoid caveats and disclaimers, the information that follows is likely to change and should be thoroughly checked before making plans.

The situation is liable to change for both welcome and unwelcome reasons, including fluctuating Covid-19 rates, the reopening of tourism, but also as lobbying by organisations such as the Cruising Association and RYA yield some bureaucratic simplifications post-Brexit.

The Faroe Islands were one of the earliest countries to go on the UK's 'green list' for travel

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While Spanish authorities in the Canary Islands have historically turned something of a blind eye to the Schengen status of yachts preparing for a transatlantic, this is not an official policy.

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sailing in the sun, a charter in the green-listed Portugal or Gibraltar will have obvious appeal.

Philip Taveira manages Portiate, a small familyrun charter company in the Algarve in southern Portugal. They have four monohulls and a 40ft Fountaine Pajot catamaran available for bareboat charter, and also run day trips.

“There’s been an insane increase in enquiries for day trips from British visitors in the past week,” he reported in late May. Whereas usually their client base is usually made up of Swiss and German, with some French and Dutch, Taveira is closely watching to see if the spike in enquiries from the UK shifts into bareboat bookings.

“The sailing area here is amazing. We have a constant north-westerly wind, and high cliffs sheltering the sea from swell. The breeze builds from about 1pm to sunset, starting off around 5 knots to a constant 15-20 knots. And the scenery is gorgeous.”

S A I L I N G I N TO E U R O P E

The vast majority of British cruisers make France their initial destination.

While France is on the UK Government’s amber list as we write this (requiring 10 days home quarantine, and Covid tests both before and after departure), restrictions for those arriving in France from the UK are under review. A compelling reason to enter the country is no longer required, though a test within

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72 hours of departure, seven days isolation, then a second negative test, is.

Restrictions on entering other countries vary – as a quick snapshot, Spain reopened to British visitors from 20 May, without the need for a PCR test or incoming quarantine; Greece requires a test or proof of vaccine, but no quarantine; Italy doesn't require a reason to travel but does require five days of isolation, while some countries are still limiting visitors to essential travel only. However, the EU is considering a passport scheme, granting unrestricted entry to travellers – including Britons – who have had two doses of vaccine.

For cruisers sailing into France, improvements are being made to the entry process. Since the end of the Brexit transition period on 1 January, skippers have been required to sail to one of a small number of Ports of Entry, mainly the ferry ports, to register the arrival of their boat and

crew with the authorities – usually the Police aux Frontières. This reverse process was required before departing France for the UK, Channel Islands or any non-Schengen country.

However, following lobbying by the Cruising Association, the French government has confirmed that UK yachts will be allowed entry at any French port. A new form will be available from the websites of each Port of Entry, which can be downloaded, completed and submitted by email prior to arrival, allowing the yacht to enter another local port. This process is already underway for Le Havre and other ports are expected to follow shortly.

Whether this is in addition to, or replaces, the Préavis Douane immigration form is currently unconfirmed. Roger Bickerstaff, of the Cruising Association Regulations and Technical Services group, explained: “It's all a bit unclear at the moment. I think the intention is that it will, but these things have really got to be worked through in practice.

"One thing we are clear about is that, assuming it’s possible to do cross-Channel DON'T FORGET and further afield sailing this summer, the Anyone arriving back into the UK must phone the procedures just aren’t there. We still don't National Yachtline to notify customs, and complete form really know whether passports need to be C1331. “That needs to be done every time,” says Roger stamped in and out.”

Bickerstaff of the Cruising Association. “So if you're The best policy may well be to fill in going to Cherbourg for the weekend, you'll need to do it everything and have plenty of patience. when you come back – just as it was in the 1980s.”

“Talk to the authorities, be as helpful as possible, and recognise that the people

PRACTICAL

TRAFFIC LIGHTS Left and far left: Croatia is likely to be popular among cruisers looking to exit the Schengen zone this summer.

Below: St Malo in Brittany

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on the ground probably know less than you do as a sailor going in. They're struggling, we're struggling. It will require patience and tolerance.”

CROSSING BORDERS

Within the EU a Europe-wide traffic light scheme is in place. Visit reopen.europa.eu and enter which countries you are travelling from and to, and it lists Covid travel restrictions that apply.

There is also country-specific information on local curfews and other regulations.

There are regional variations, and even within countries individual ports also often adopt a different approach. Noonsite reports, for example, that some Spanish ports have not required PCR test for yacht arrivals, while others say that a negative Covid test is recommended.

For non-EU sailors wanting to cruise within Europe, Schengen zone restrictions are likely to have the most significant limitations. All non-EU visitors may spend no longer than 90 days in any rolling 180-day period within the Schengen area. Cruisers can ‘pause the clock’ by heading to non-Schengen territories – either on or off their boat, as the Schengen rules apply to the person, not the vessel – but they can’t ‘reset’ the 90 days until the 180-day period is up.

Travel restrictions around Europe relating to Covid-19 are currently based on multiple traffic light systems (see reopen.europa. eu). Unlike traditional traffic lights designed to ease the flow of movement in multiple directions, the current systems are not reciprocal – hence Great Britain adding countries like New Zealand to its ‘green’ list despite New Zealand being closed to tourism.

Your best options may depend on your longerterm plans. If you’re likely to want to spend next summer also cruising Europe then it may be a case of enjoying a couple of months exploring the Spanish Rias, or Greek Islands, or wherever is convenient to your 90-day starting point, winter your yacht in Europe, and fly home within the time limit (keeping a weather eye on British reentry rules as you go).

For those who wish to extend their trip beyond 90 days then applying for a country-specific visa extension can be an option. Long Stay visas (known as Type D visas) are issued on a national basis – there is no such thing as a Schengen zone extension. Most have to be applied for from your home country before departure, could take weeks (or longer) to complete the process, and may require proof of income and a visit to the London embassy. You may need a confirmed address; a letter of support or confirmation of a booking from a marina should suffice.

It’s too early to gauge which countries are most receptive to long-stay visas. “The Cruising Association is trying to build up the knowledge bank of understanding,” explains Bickerstaff. “So that as more people apply in each country, we will be able to advise this is how to do it in Spain, how you do it in France. But it is still early days."

Another advantage to a visa extension is that it is in addition to the 90-day Schengen zone limit. This may be helpful for cruisers who face a significant return sail from southern Europe back to the UK. Some liveaboard cruisers who were

USEFUL RESOURCES

overwintering in Europe and whose ‘Schengen clock’ started on 1 January, 2021, yet have been unable to move on, have been able to extend their visas while they await, but the applications usually need to be made before departure.

Otherwise this summer will see British cruisers attempting the ‘Schengen shuffle’ for the first time. Visiting American, Australian and other non-EU sailors have planned their routes accordingly for years. However, the sudden increase in the number of sailors affected postBrexit may mean some once-relaxed ports are now taking a more stringent view. As one cruiser told me, “There are a lot more Brits around, and we’re asking a lot more questions.”

Conversely, some ports are adopting a lenient view towards Schengen status while many boats have been unable to move on. Cruisers forums and facebook groups remain a good source of on-the-ground information ahead of arrival.

The main options for stopping the Schengen clock while cruising Europe are Croatia, Montenegro, Cyprus, Morocco, or Turkey (though Turkey is currently red-listed due to high coronavirus numbers). There are extremely limited options for cruising northern Europe, barring a return to the UK. The good news is that we have received no reports of widespread fines imposed from 1 April, when the ‘Schengen clock’ ran out for many nonEU sailors who'd been in Europe over the winter.

Cruising organisations will be closely monitoring whether that changes over the 2021 season.

‘Schengen clock’ calculator ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/content/ visa-calculator_en European traffic light system reopen.europa.eu gov.uk search Notice 8 ‘Sailing your pleasure craft to and from the UK’ Also: theca.org.uk | rya.org.uk | knowledgenoonsite.com

Are you planning to cruise Europe this year? Tell us your experiences at yachtingworld@ futurenet.com

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extrao r d i n a r y boats JAMES BOYD ON THE TF35

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The TF35 is a new one-design catamaran with a unique computer-controlled automatic foil system, that will race in the TF35 Trophy

I

n recent America’s Cups we have seen a small army of grinders pumping away to bring pressure to their flying yacht’s hydraulic lifeblood, while flight controllers attempt to keep up with their speeding craft’s accelerations in three dimensions. But while these athletic and technical skills are impressive, these days there are simply better alternatives to humans carrying out these roles.

Enter the TF35, a new one design foiling catamaran created to take foil-borne sailing to

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the next level. The TF35 has no hydraulics to keep primed. Conventional ropes and winches handle the sails and raising and lowering of foils, but battery powered electric actuators drive the rest, including split-second adjustments of the foils and rudder elevators. What’s more, these operations are automated, leaving crew free to focus on skills such as helming and tactics.

The shape, size and efficiency of the TF35’s foils means it requires just seven knots of wind to take off upwind and nine downwind (when boat speed reaches 2x and 3x wind speed respectively). It also passes the acid test of foiling upwind and through tacks. A small penalty for having such light wind take-off is ultimate top speed, which is 18-19 knots upwind and 34-35 knots downwind, but still plenty fast enough.

After the prototype launched at the end of 2019, the new TF35 is enjoying its first full season of competition this year. The class follows on from the D35, the one design catamaran that provided sterling service on Lake Geneva for 16 years and countless Bol d’Or Mirabaud victories for Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghi, his sister Dona’s Ladycat-Spindrift and many others.

Aside from becoming fully foiling, a significant difference between the two boats is that the TF35 is designed to race not just on lakes but also on open water, and this year the circuit will include events in Scarlino, Italy, in September.

Behind the TF35 is an America’s Cup-level design team led by Gonzalo Redondo of d3 Applied Technologies, who most recently headed the CFD team for American Magic. On structures

PRACTICAL

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Some parts of the TF35, such as foil ends, are sacrificial. If broken they can be quickly replaced with a new part fabricated on site using a 3D printer

}

SPECIFICATION

Hull length Beam Draught Mast height Weight Sail area: Mainsail Jib Gennaker

10.85m 6.30m 2.45m 21m 1,300kg

35ft 7in 20ft 7in 8ft 10in 68ft 11in 2,866lb

79m² 850ft2 34-41m² 365-440ft2 120-140m² 1,290-1,506ft2

The racks increase righting moment but also protect the foils when alongside pontoons and improve crew safety

Understandably, much of the development has been focussed on the TF35’s foils, their operation and software control. Most other flying cats have J-shaped lifting foils, with some ‘V’ (dihedral). This shape provides some inherent ride height stability (the more immersed the foil becomes, the more surface area there is to provide lift) without requiring constant trimming.

However, due to the foils on the TF35 being computer controlled this is less necessary, so they can have a more efficient, flatter and less draggy shape, albeit with a massive 2.7m span.

AUTO-ADJUSTMENTS

On most flying catamarans the amount of lift a foil produces is determined by its rake. On the TF35 rake of the entire foil is controlled

▲

with a long, heavilyrigged bowsprit protruding more than 4.5m forward of the bows. The rig is relatively conventional for a modern day multihull, with a wing section rotating spar and sails that, thanks to the boat’s near permanent upwind apparent wind angle, are never eased far.

To reduce weight the mast has a diamond and a two-part construction, allowing it to fit into a 40ft container along with the boat. The mainsail is a ‘deck sweeper’, with part of the foot touching the flat deck of the centre hull, creating an end plate to increase the sail’s efficiency. However, this requires an unusual boom – it is curved, like half of a windsurfer’s wishbone boom.

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is Cup veteran Dirk Kramers with Swiss genius Luc du Bois on the design and flight control system, plus Britain’s own Adam May, Marc Menec and Jean-Marie Fragniere.

The majority of the TF35’s components were created in Brittany with Multiplast building the hulls, beams by Airbus, and Heol Composites fabricating the intricate foils. Spars are from Lorima, with some of the few non-French parts including carbon diamonds and PBO shrouds from Future Fibres.

Surprisingly, the TF35’s platform was one of its least important parts. The aim was to remove every gram of weight while maintaining a structure stiff enough to prevent deformation due to high foil and rig loads. The D35’s flying central hull now terminates beneath the mast

Battery life is around 6 hours but will increase as systems are refined and continual trimming of foils is reduced

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To prevent leeway the main shaft of the foils is curved outbound so that the lifting surface ends up 24° off horizontal

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This high tech box, known as ‘the fridge’, located in the flying centre hull, houses the computer, comms gear and the numerous sensors

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by a rope-driven worm-drive. This is a broad brush setting, determined by conditions, point of sail, wave state, etc. Split second adjustment of the amount of lift comes from an aircraft wing-style flap on its trailing edge which is able to articulate by up to 5°. This demanded some intricate construction but its operation requires substantially less power than adjusting the rake of the entire foil.

Compared to the main foils, the TF35’s rudders are a simpler inverted ‘T’ configuration with the shaft on each fitting into a cassette attached to each transom via gudgeons and pintles. Like the main foil, lift is also adjusted by computer/electric actuator via a flap on the elevator’s trailing edge. The amount of rudder lift determines the overall pitch of the boat. This, in turn, affects the rake of the main foils, thus trimming them in conjunction is vital – another job that’s vastly improved by automation.

A key feature of the AC50s was rudder differential – ie negative lift in the windward elevator, or a downward force that dramatically increases righting moment. The TF35 also offers rudder differential, but to a much more limited degree. The automation means crew only have the option of switching rudder differential on or off, similarly they have just four settings for ride height and overall boat pitch. This leaves the software to ensure that foils are trimmed to the optimum and that rudder differential (where loads can quickly spiral out of control) never causes structural limits to be exceeded.

The computer is stored alongside a lithium-ion battery within the central flying hull, controlling four electric motors operating trim flaps – a relatively straightforward system. However, the software behind it, monitoring parameters such as ride height, 3D attitude and accelerations with split second accuracy, is monumentally complex.

It requires a multitude of sensors from state of the art GPS to ultrasonic altitude sensors and rate gyros.

While maxi racing yachts with complex hydraulic systems typically use a programmable logic controller (PLC), so the TF35 has a similarly programmable brain, the difference being that it is electronic, controlled via software. This is especially tested during manoeuvres, when the software must recognise when two foils are in the water and the boat is developing twice its usual lift. So vital is this software that it’s one of the TF35’s strictest one design elements.

As a piece of ground-breaking technology, the TF35 is perhaps the first one-design class to have its own operating system.

PRACTICAL

The mainsail foot touches the central hull to create an endplate effect, but requires an unusual half-wishbone boom The main lifting foil hangs off the end of a titanium bulb, with its trailing edge flaps all but invisible The T-foils span 2.7m; substantial but necessary to achieve light wind lift off

The foil sits inside its own case enabling it to be raised/lowered in manoeuvres. The case can be inclined using a worm drive to alter overall rake The curvature of the shafts and the angle of the main foils creates righting moment and reduces leeway

Compared to the D35, the TF35’s hull is now much shorter and its size pared back to save weight, with a long bowsprit Mounted at the top of each foil’s shaft is the electric motor that operates the flap at the bottom of the foil

w e at h e r b r i e f i n g CHRIS TIBBS ON CROSSING THE MEDITERRANEAN

N

0

EUROPE FRANCE

150 300 nautical miles

Barcelona

SPAIN

Mistral Gulf of Genoa CORSICA

BALEARIC ISLANDS SARDINIA

Vendaval Levanter Atlantic Ocean

MOROCCO

D

Bora ITA

LY

Tyrrhenian Sea

SICILY

Tunis

MALTA

Adriatic Sea

Gregale

Ionian Sea

Meltemi (Etesian)

Athens

GREECE

Black Sea

Restrictions over length of stay in the EU may mean British sailors will have to plan longer passages across the Mediterranean

A heat low over Turkey and Asia drives the Meltemi TURKEY Marmaris

CRETE

TUNISIA Lower pressure Mediterranean Sea over Africa will give generally Scirocco easterly winds along the coast Cairo LIBYA EGYPT AFRICA Scirocco ALGERIA

istances in the Mediterranean can be deceptive, with the distance from Gibraltar to Turkey being close to double that of Ushant to Gibraltar, yet we usually spend more time worrying about crossing Biscay than any of the passages in the Mediterranean.

Passages to and from the eastern Mediterranean are significant undertakings which are usually made as extended cruises taking in the Mediterranean islands. This may change for British and other non-EU sailors, who have outstayed their welcome in the Schengen zone and have limited time to return. This turns these long passages into more of a delivery, giving long hops rather than overnighters.

Weather-wise the Mediterranean is an interesting area being a large body of water of moderate temperature, surrounded by mountains and, in the south, desert. This creates large temperature contrasts between the water and land which generates some localised winds and conditions.

A map of the Mediterranean is dotted with locally-named winds which are well recognised meteorologically. Most of us are familiar with the Mistral, the Meltemi, the Bora, and the Levanter and Vendaval through the straits of Gibraltar.

These Mediterranean winds are significant, and generated by a mixture of heat, mountains, and the synoptic situation. Sailing in the Mediterranean is sometimes described as being

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Cruising route Delivery route

CYPRUS

Khamsin

typical of the Aegean summer and the Meltemi will often reach gale force where it is funnelled between islands. The wind is strongest during the afternoons at the time of maximum temperatures and tends to be concentrated through the central part of the Aegean. Although the Meltemi is weakening by late summer, strong northerlies can last through to October M E LT E M I N O RT H E R L I E S when we start to get an increasing number The western part of the Mediterranean tends to of southerlies. Leaving the area is therefore be influenced by what is happening in the generally reasonably easy with northerly Atlantic and where the Azores high is, winds and occasional southerlies. while the further east we travel the The Gregale Between Greece and Crete the wind greater the influence of the land. wind famously will funnel strongly.

To the north, central European almost disrupted Moving further west into the the summit between weather influences the winds – Ionian Sea, we enter a weather Bush and Gorbachev particularly the Mistral and Bora crossroads. The Ionian is to begin ending the (while we think of them as local influenced by northerlies in the winds the Mistral can extend to Cold War. east, but as we get further west the Africa). When setting the Marseille passage of any North African lows has to Carthage record on the maxi cat a greater effect on the wind. We will also Playstation, we carried the Mistral all the way – feel the effects of lows that are generated in the lunch in France and a late breakfast in Tunis!

Gulf of Genoa.

A passage from Greece or Turkey to Gibraltar The Gulf of Genoa is one of the most prolific and the exit from the Mediterranean is generally areas in the world for producing lows. Once done towards the end of the season. Currently formed these lows tend to track south-east the Corinth Canal is closed by landslides which through the Tyrrhenian Sea or cross Italy into the limits departure options from the Aegean to Adriatic. Their passing will give cyclonic weather passing between Cape Maleas and Crete. conditions with changing wind directions and the Due to the heat low often found over Turkey transition from summer to winter conditions can and south-western Asia, northerly winds are be abrupt. The Gregale is the wind to particularly a mixture of calms and gales; though this is a bit too extreme as we can also enjoy fantastic sailing driven by light to moderate sea breezes.

It would take a large book to cover Mediterranean weather patterns and local winds; so we will cover some of the principles to watch for on passage from the east to Gibraltar.

PRACTICAL

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Chris Tibbs is a meteorologist and weather router. He has sailed over 300,000 miles, including three round the world races

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TIMING YOUR PASSAGE

TO G I B R A LTA R

The north coast of Africa is little visited by yachts. While I have cruised in Tunisia, there is little to recommend anywhere else

on the North African coast with ports of refuge few and far apart. What ports there are, are commercial with few yacht facilities.

Most yachts therefore do this part of the passage in one hit – a passage of some 750-800 miles. The pattern to the winds along the coast depends on the season and during the winter months we are most likely to see westerly winds.

As North Africa heats up and the pressure lowers, we see an increase in easterly winds.

The predominance of easterly winds continues from May or June through to October when the wind direction becomes more evenly distributed, before becoming more westerly through the winter. This is also reflected through the Straits of Gibraltar where we see an increase in periods of westerly winds as we get into autumn.

The straits are a great example of a gap wind, where the wind is strongly funnelled between the mountains of Africa and Spain.

The wind will be strong westerly or easterly with little chance of any other direction in the straits.

Whatever the wind strength on the approach, it will strengthen in the straits. This stronger wind will exit the straits as a jet and, while there may be some fanning out in direction, the strong band of wind will extend many miles Clouds over Paphos, Cyprus downwind.

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watch out for as this can be a strong northeasterly wind reaching gale force. High pressure to the north and low to the south will generate a tight pressure gradient bringing strong to gale force winds along with low cloud and rain.

Statistically, while a north-westerly wind is most likely through the summer, by October the winds are fairly evenly distributed from all directions.

Most yachts pass through the Straits of Messina to enjoy the hospitality of Sicily and the ports along the northern coast. If on passage and not intending to stop it is a shorter route to pass south of Sicily.

The Straits of Sicily is relatively shallow with land on both sides, and the wind gets funnelled. These winds are strongest and most often from north-west and south-east. This funnelling usually makes the last couple of days of the Middle Sea Race either exciting running conditions, or a tough beat to windward. Between Sicily and Africa the most likely direction is from the north-west, though this can reverse with low pressure over North Africa.

westerly winds in October. This is not to say that you cannot make the passage later in the year, just that you may have to wait longer for a weather window to do this in one hit, or spend a considerable time beating.

If it is possible, a more meandering route, passing north of Sicily then to Sardinia and the Balearics is an easier, more comfortable route with shorter passages and many ports, but in ‘delivery’ mode the more southerly route will be faster.

TO WATCH OUT FOR

Small intense lows that have the appearance of tropical storms or hurricanes are called medicanes and are a hybrid feature of a tropical storm and mid latitude depression.

Smaller in diameter than a hurricane they produce a distinct eye (like a hurricane) which is visible from satellite imagery; wind speeds can be similar to a Category 1 hurricane at 64-82 knots. Last September a medicane hit Greece with strong wind and high seas. These storms are most likely to occur in the western and central Mediterranean between September and January.

Thunderstorms can affect the whole of the Mediterranean; late summer sees an increase in thunderstorms along the coast as the heat of the land triggers them.

Through the autumn and winter thunderstorms are more likely over the sea, triggered by the warmer water. Active cold fronts crossing the area can generate thunderstorms at any time of the year.

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If planning a passage from the eastern Mediterranean to Gibraltar, my suggestion is before the increase in westerly winds along the north African coast, so that the longest leg of the passage has the best chance of favourable winds. Although statistics are averages and each year will differ, I would plan to be at Gibraltar by the end of September as we usually see an increase in

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PIP HARE ON TRANSFERRING TO ANOTHER VESSEL Transferring by liferaft or inflatable dinghy to the rescue vessel can reduce risk

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hether it’s a medical emergency that requires a single crewmember to be evacuated, or a yacht suffers damage that means it’s impossible to navigate safely to the shore and the whole crew need to abandon, any call for help will most likely be answered by another seafarer. When a rescue vessel arrives at your position it will be a relief, and it may be tempting to allow them to manage your evacuation and become passive. But the reality is that evacuating safely from one vessel to another can present significant challenges which must be addressed by both sides.

vessels and commercial shipping monitor 121.5 MHZ so it is sensible to carry other means of signalling your position such as a SART (search and rescue transponder), which can either work with radar or AIS and has a range of around six miles. Personal and boat AIS devices can also be used to indicate position, but are not recognised distress signals so should not be used as an initial way to call for help.

M A K E YO U R S E L F V I S I B L E

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An EPIRB will give the rescue co-ordination centres your GPS position at around 45-minute intervals, or less depending on the age of your device. This will give a rescue vessel a ‘ball park’ to aim for. Once there, they will need to home in on your exact position. If the rescue vessel is able to receive 121.5MHZ signal then it will be able to home in on your EPIRB. Normally only aircraft, maritime rescue

Before beginning a transfer confirm your plan

Even with an electronic position it can still be hard to spot a target, so make your vessel as bright as possible – you can get creative with this. Hoist storm sails or drape them over the hull, turn on lights, use flares, torches or strobes.

B E R E A DY

Evacuating to another vessel in a big sea is going to be fraught and potentially dangerous so start planning how the rescue will be made as soon as contact is established with the other boat.

The important things to consider are keeping your crew safe, and wherever possible dry, and avoiding any risk to the safe operation of the rescue vessel.

Dress all crew appropriately, wearing lifejackets and each with a torch or signalling device. If one of your crew is injured, communicate this to the other vessel as early as possible. Pack only essential items such as medication and identification documents – do not allow crew to take nonessential items.

Unless you are in perfect conditions it may be unwise to attempt a direct transfer from

PRACTICAL

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During the Vendée Globe Kevin Escoffier transferred from his rescuer Jean Le Cam’s Yes We Cam! to a French naval vessel by swimming – made possible because he was wearing a survival suit.

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to you. Suggest this first. In some cases the ship’s captain may suggest a direct transfer from one vessel to the other by bringing the ship alongside. Consider this option carefully – the ship will provide great protection from the elements but it will continue to make way through the water and the potential for further damage to your vessel or injury to your crew through entrapment between the vessels is high.

The most likely scenario is again transferring using your liferaft or tender. In this case, the ship can be positioned upwind to provide protection from the elements. A heaving line may be fired from a line launcher – stand well clear and allow the line to land on the deck before picking it up – these typically have a range of up to 80m.

Once your transfer vessel is alongside the ship you will need to get on board. Be clear with the crew of the ship about your needs and capabilities. If you have injured or extremely weak crew then climbing up a 12m ladder or scramble net on a moving vessel may be impossible. In that case the crew would need to lower down a sling or net to bring survivors up to deck level.

Don’t assume the ship will have the equipment you require and try to talk this step through before leaving your own boat in case you need to take something with you.

Climbing a ladder or net on a high-sided vessel may be impossible for weak or injured crew

with minimal risk of the two boats colliding.

Once the transfer line is passed across, ensure it is secured onto an appropriate point.

Both liferafts and tenders have external lines that are not designed to pull them – look for the point where a painter is normally attached.

Load your crew into the raft, keeping them dry if possible. Put one strong crewmember in first and last so they can give assistance to Finding a weaker or injured crew. yacht and its crew The rescue crew should pull the that are in trouble is raft across while inside the raft one only a small step crewmember monitors the transfer in the rescue line and the others distribute their process. weight evenly. Once in contact with yacht to yacht, so you must consider the rescue vessel, help the weaker transferring the crew by other means, crewmembers to disembark first. using your own rescue craft. This could be a No rescue will ever follow a textbook liferaft or tender, and any such transfer vessel pattern and the plan will change, depending on should be inflated and made ready to use. If conditions, crew numbers, and kit available. using a liferaft, don’t stream the drogue.

However, in all cases, putting a crewmember in Tidy up before the arrival of your rescue the water to transfer between vessels should be vessel, this is for your protection as well as a last resort. If this must be done, ensure it is theirs. If there is debris in the water around your at the closest proximity possible to the rescue boat that might damage or hamper them, try to vessel and use a transfer line in the same way to haul it aboard. maintain contact with the person.

The rescuing vessel should send a line to R E S C U E BY C O M M E R C I A L S H I P the stricken yacht, which will be used to pull If a commercial vessel has been tasked with the liferaft across. This could be a heaving line your evacuation do not assume they will have which is thrown at shorter range, or a longer an effective plan for your recovery on arrival. It line floated down to the vessel on a fender or life is rare that crew on commercial ships have any sling. With the floating line method, a rescuing understanding of the difficulties of handling a vessel can drag the line through the water into yacht. Don’t be afraid to tell a commercial vessel position, keeping good control so it doesn’t drift what you need and to refuse a rescue plan if it into props or rudders. It is a good idea to use a will put your crew in danger. light weight floating line for initial contact, then The best scenario with rescue from a large swap this for a more substantial rope to pull commercial craft is that they launch a fast the raft across. The boats should be as close as rescue vessel (such as a RIB) and it can come possible to allow shortest time of transfer, but

TRANSFER TIPS

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Put a spare, fully charged VHF battery in your grab bag (these can be purchased for most handheld radios)

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If making regular ocean passages in colder climates, consider investing in an immersion suit for each crewmember. If you have to go in the water for a transfer these provide vital protection.

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Use orange smoke flares or sea marker dye to indicate wind direction and drift to a rescue vessel that is preparing to float or throw a messenger line over.

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Sea survival courses teach and refresh many of the skills and techniques required for rescues. Even if you have done one before, consider booking your whole crew on before any significant offshore passages. There is no substitute for practical and recent experience.

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PRACTICAL

5 expert tips HOW TO TROUBLESHOOT PROBLEMS AT SEA

Professional sailor and boat captain LIZ WARDLEY tells ANDY RICE how to troubleshoot issues at sea

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iz Wardley, by her own admission, hated school.

“I was a very bad student, but if I can learn a skill that’s going to help me make the boat go faster, then I think it’s crazy not to learn it,” she explains.

Wardley has since turned herself into a multi-talented troubleshooter.

“When I got into offshore sailing I had a lot less sailing experience than a lot of the other people around, so I wanted to make myself a little bit indispensable. I figured if I knew how to fix a lot of things on the boat – it’s a mechanical sport, there’s always things failing – then I’d be able to make myself useful. So every chance I got, I tried to learn a new skill set, and I’m still doing it today.

“Right now I’m doing a certificate in marine engineering, learning more about servicing and repairing engines on 80ft-plus boats.”

Frequently employed as the onboard problem solver, Wardley’s Black Diamond head torch is her go-to piece of equipment along with her multitool and basic toolkit. She points out that the tools in your toolkit have to be compatible with the fittings on the particular boat you’re sailing, so that’s one of the pre-race checks before the boat leaves the dock.

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Simple maintenance and some basic spares can avoid common winch failures

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AVOID ‘SHOWSTOPPERS’

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Australian Liz Wardley won numerous titles in the Hobie 16 class before skippering a yacht in the Sydney Hobart aged just 19. She has competed in three Volvo Ocean Races and is the acknowledged expert on the VO65, having spent thousands of hours racing the boats and working on the fleet’s refit.

Identify the ‘showstoppers’, the things that if they go wrong will bring your race to a grinding halt. A lot can be avoided if you’ve planned how to work around the worst-case scenarios. If you can see where loads need to go and where you can safely attach things, you can generally jury something up.

Another thing that can keep you out of trouble is learning a simple end-to-end splice for joining two bits of Dyneema together, for example.

If you snap a sheet or a halyard and don’t have a long enough replacement, a good splice can keep you going. It’s also good to have a few blocks, especially the ones where the side snaps open and shut, so you can rig up a replacement block and tackle arrangement if the vang breaks.

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WONDER STUFF

Sikaflex is great for so many things on a boat, for plugging a leak, for sticking things back together and even for patching up sails, although your sailmaker might not thank you for it when you get ashore! If deck fittings are leaking and your crew are complaining because they’re getting rained on in their bunks, Sikaflex is a good way of sorting out the problem until you get home. If you’ve sprung a leak below the waterline, Sikaflex is great because it works when it’s wet. If you have a patch of something pliable to stick over a leaky area, Sikaflex will bond the patch to the hull very effectively.

KEY ENGINE SPARES

A big thing for yacht engines is the impeller, so we carry a lot of spares because on a Volvo 65 and other big boats we’re very reliant on our engine for battery charging. Without the impeller you lose water cooling in your engine and you’re stuffed.

So carrying spares is an absolute must, and the impeller’s a tiny thing to carry with you. Replacing it is not that difficult. Get someone to show you how it’s done or you can even

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YouTube it. Just make sure you have the right one on board.

Another big issue is the gear lever seizing up. That’s just lack of maintenance, and it’s a matter of getting rid of the salt properly every time you get back to the dock and hose down with fresh water. It’s important to keep the parts moving, especially when the boat has been sitting around unused for a while.

A lubricant like WD40 can be really useful to loosen up the mechanism.

STEERING SET UP

Steering problems can easily get into the ‘showstopper’ category, but if you’ve got two wheels you’ve got options for redundancy. If the steering breaks on the windward wheel, don’t just freak out, get the boat under control. Then you can start diagnosing the problem. It could be the chain has jumped off in the pedestal, or a splice has come undone, or you’ve chafed through a steering control line. So get the boat under control while someone jumps below with a head torch and figures out how to solve the problem.

WINCH MAINTENANCE

The moment one winch goes down it changes the whole dynamic of how you sail the boat, but keeping winches well maintained is actually not that daunting. They all come with manuals and exploded parts diagrams, so are quite simple to pull apart.

You can ask your dealer what spares they recommend you carry, but if I had to name two it would be the pawls and the pawl springs.

They’re the little flaps that you hear click-click-clicking when you turn the winch, and they stop it from spinning the wrong way. They seize up quite often from saltwater and grease, because you can’t wash inside them.

With a bit of salt in it, the pawls seize up, and it ends up with your winch being able to backspin. You see this often but it’s very avoidable if you spend 20 to 30 minutes maintaining the winch every few months.

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WORLD’S COOLEST YACHTS

WE ASK TOP SAILORS AND MARINE INDUSTRY GURUS TO CHOOSE THE COOLEST AND MOST INNOVATIVE YACHTS OF OUR TIMES

‘They became the standard ride for many famous solo circumnavigators’

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DON MCINTYRE NOMINATES THE S&S 34

15-year-old Jessica Watson’s dream to become the youngest ever, solo non-stop unassisted sailor, the choice was easy.

Jon Saunders in Perie Banou twice circumnavigated solo breaking 12 world records.

David Dicks as a 17-year-old took the family S&S 34 Seaflight around solo nonstop, followed shortly after by Jesse Martin, also 17, solo and unassisted on Lionheart. Jessica on Pink Lady [then unofficially took] the record from him, and it still stands today!

Australian explorer DON MCINTYRE finished 2nd in class in the 1990/91 BOC Challenge solo around the world race, recreated the Mutiny on the Bounty, and resurrected the

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Golden Globe Race in 2018. He is currently organising the 2023 Ocean Globe Race, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the original Whitbread, amongst other events.

TOP SPEED 7 knots LOA 10.23m LAUNCHED 1967 BERTHS 6 PRICE £22,000 ADRENALIN FACTOR 20%

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The most innovative all-time classic is the S&S 34.

As a class they appeared in 1967, a year before the first Golden Globe Race, and Ted Heath [then leader of the opposition and later UK Prime minister], won the 1969 Sydney Hobart in his Morning Cloud.

About 200 have been built since, including 130 in Australia where they are loved to this day. Only one has ever been lost at sea and they are renowned for their heavy weather performance.

In 2008, when deciding on a boat to support

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