Blue Water Sailing November/December 2018

VOYAGING AROUND THE WORLD

BLUE WATER

SAILING WORLD CRUISING

SAWENI BAY, FIJI SHIPPING A BOAT HOME SALTY DAWG RALLY WRAP-UP NAVIGATION

TOOLS OF THE TRADE BLUE WATER BOATS

TARTAN 395 HYLAS 48

volume 9 2018

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

{ CONTENTS }

18 World Cruising

Beyond the White Sands of Sweet Saweni Bay

On Fiji’s Viti Levu, they find a private anchorage

28 24 Bluewater Adventure

The Saga of Innata: Part One— Shipping the New Boat Home

Great voyages often have bad beginnings, and this one could hardly have been worse

by Tobias Goncharoff

28 Blue Water Boats 28 Tartan 395

by George Day

30 The Elegant, New Hylas 48

Hylas reboots the company with an elegant, raised-saloon, center-cockpit sloop that is a born passagemaker

by George Day

24 to do boat jobs and explore ashore

by Jenny Keene

30

DEPARTMENTS 6 8 14 34 36 43 44 46

4

18

Captain’s Log Blue Water Dispatches Bill Biewenga Offshore Chandlery World Sailing Adventures Brokerage Classifieds Broad Reaching-Andy Cross

Cover photo: The new Hylas 48

sails by Castle Hill Light, Newport, RI

BLUE WATER SAILING

31 35.1 38.1 41.1 46.1 51.1 55.1

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{ CAPTAIN’SLOG }

Ode to Otto Piloto WHEN I FIRST WENT TO SEA IN THE EARLY 1970S, AUTOPILOTS were only just appearing in the cruising fleet so we hand steered all the time. That was normal. Skippers had to take on an appropriate number of crew so there would be rested hands ready to steer.

In the Sixties, Blondie Hasler invented a wind vane self-steering device that would steer a cruising boat fairly reliably. In the Seventies, new improved windvane devices appeared and soon most cruising boats that were headed offshore had one. These contraptions relieved us of what we used to call ”the tyranny of the tiller” which in turn meant that couples could make passages safely without extra crew.

It wasn’t until the mid-Eighties that autopilots became reliable enough and cheap enough to be popular on cruising boats, yet even then and right up until the present, many cruisers chose to carry both a windvane and an autopilot based on the belt and suspenders school of redundancy. Today companies like Hydrovane, Monitor and Cape Horn still are doing a steady trade supplying the cruising fleet with windvane systems.

But, as Raymarine, Navico, Simrad, B&G, Furuno and others designed and built generation after generation of autopilots and created ever-moreintegrated marine electronics systems, the lowly autopilot became ascendant. Using short-handed offshore events like the OSTAR, TwoStar, BOC Challenge and the Vendee Globe as their test beds, the marine electronic companies were able to take leaps ahead in a very short span of time. As they got better and better, autopilots become more popular and even became objects of our affection with human nicknames applied. Ours always has been Otto Piloto.

Last summer, I sailed across the North Atlantic with my buddy Steve aboard his Hanse 505 Maverick. We set the autopilot on course when we passed the sea buoy off Newport, RI and then let it steer us, with only rare interruptions, for 17 days and six hours until we made landfall in England.

But even if we weren’t actually steering, we treated the B&G/Jeffa autopilot with care. It was doing all the work and we wanted to make sure it was happy.

We had a wide variety of conditions on that trip from boisterous southerlies behind us, to head winds and reaching breezes. Keeping the sails well-trimmed was our main objective. If the autopilot began to work hard, if it groaned, if the steering wheels were turning half turns or even whole turns back and forth to stay on course, we knew something was amiss.

Most often, it would be a wind shift and we needed to let out or reef the main. The goal was to keep the amount of wheel turn to under a quarter turn per correction.

Once we got the boat balanced, the sail area perfect for the conditions and the boat in the groove, the autopilot would settle down and do its job without complaint. And, most often our boat speed would improve, too.

Seventeen days, six hours is a long time on the helm. But, old Otto drove the whole way, without drinking our beer or eating our groceries, and never steered us wrong. For those of us who have hand steered across oceans, modern autopilots fall in the small miracle department.

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photo by Bill Kund

BLUE WATER

SAILING Volume 23, Number 9 Blue Water Sailing, LLC 747 Aquidneck Avenue, Suite 201 Middletown, Rhode Island 02842 - USA phone: 401.847.7612 • fax: 401.845.8580 web: www.bwsailing.com SUBSCRIBER HOTLINE 866-529-2921

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{ CRUISINGDISPATCHES }

SALTY DAWGS

Sail South

I

n the first week of November, the Salty Dawg Fall Rally fleet begin to trickle out of Hampton, VA on its way south.

The fleet was aiming at three destinations: The Bahamas, BVI and Antigua and plenty of the boats were planning to sail to Bermuda first to avoid extended upwind sailing as they tried to get east from the start.

This year, the weather in early November was changing rapidly so finding a good weather window was tough. Weather guru Chris Parker was updating the forecast daily and tracking the changing conditions in an effort to keep boats out of the Gulf Stream in bad 8

weather. As it turned out, boats that left on November 4 got hammered in the stream while boats that either delayed for a day or two or headed south to Beaufort, had much better conditions.

The fleet quickly split into three groups, those headed south to the Bahamas, those on the route to Bermuda and those sailing straight to the Caribbean. The Bahamas fleet had pretty fair and quick sailing once across the stream and heading south as they reached across the easterly trades.

The Bermuda bound fleet made the trip in five days or so, which is normal, and once at the Onion Patch, were able to hunker down

for a couple of days as a deep low passed above them into the North Atlantic. Yet, for many of the Bermuda boats, the next weather window didn’t open for several days due to a developing trough in the waters just north of the BVI that the National Weather Service gave a 50-percent chance of developing into a tropical depression.

The Caribbean bound fleet was sailing directly toward this trough, so on Chris Parker’s advice, most of the boats stayed north of a designated latitude to allow the storm to pass well below them as it marched westward. This held up the boats for 24 to 36 hours but did allow many of them to make more easting before turning south into the easterly trades.

The trough did not form into a depression so the southbound boats were soon sailing again and making good time to their destinations. The BVI boats were headed to Virgin Gorda’s North Sound where they could check in at Spanish Town and then pick up moorings or anchor at Leverick BLUE WATER SAILING

Bay Resort and Marina. The resort was badly damaged a year ago by Hurricane Irma but is open for business and very welcoming to the Dawgs.

The Antigua bound fleet was aiming for Falmouth Harbour and the Antigua Yacht club that is acting as the host for the Dawgs. Several fun events were planned for the crews including an evening at the Inn at English Harbour, a cocktail reception put on by the Tot Club of Antigua at the Copper and Lumber Store and an evening at the AYC. Several boats had minor damage on the way down that included some torn sails, damaged dodgers, a broken autopilot and a broken headstay. This last emergency, aboard the cutter Whatever She Wants, ended well because, thanks to the cutter stay, the mast did not come down and the crew was able to get halyards set up in place of the headstay. The incident occurred south of Bermuda, so the crew decided to head to St. George’s and have the rig repaired there.

The Salty Dag Fall Rally was run by the Salty Dawg Sailing Association which is a Rhode Island based 501c3 organization. All cruisers are invited to become members and to enjoy the association’s rallies, rendezvous and seminars. Check out the SDSA website at www.saltydawgsailing.org where you can join online.

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November/December

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{ CRUISINGDISPATCHES }

Books for the Holidays

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10

BLUE WATER SAILING

Sailing to the Edge of Time

by John Kretschmer

J

ohn Kretschmer is a sailor’s sailor and an author’s author. He has sailed more miles at sea than just about any living human and visited all of the world's most famous cruising grounds, often many times. He has been around the Horn and around the world, sailed into the high latitudes of Labrador, explored all of Europe and Scandinavia and has sailed in the Caribbean more days than he could count.

Along the way he has learned a thing or two. Those long night watches at sea, the long days in the trade winds when he consumed books from all of the great writers and the dawn landfalls on magic new islands all accumulate into a kind of world view and perspective that many will enjoy but few will ever really earn.

Sailing to the Edge of Time, published by Adlard Coles, is a collection of sea tales that serve as a magic trail map for side excursions into the meaning of adventure, the ways to lead a life in vivid Technicolor and the philosophy that allows the sea to hold up a

November/December

mirror so you can really see who you are.

“Kretch” as his friends call him is a successful businessman, a compelling lecturer and raconteur and a splendid writer. This new book reminds me of Joseph Conrad’s first book The Mirror of the Sea, which was a memoir from his life as a ship captain and a refection on what a life at sea can teach an observant and thoughtful person. Kretch just may by our own modern-day Conrad, which in my book is no small thing. If you love sailing, life and good writing, you’ll enjoy Sailing to the Edge of Time.

11

The Atlantic Crossing Guide

RCC Pilotage Foundation edited by Jane Russell

H

aving recently sailed across the North Atlantic, the new cruising guide from England’s Royal Cruising Club holds a special place on my book shelf. This is the guide’s seventh edition and includes a lot of new and useful material.

The book is both a general guide to offshore sailing and passagemaking and s specific guide on routes in the North Atlantic and landfalls all around the ocean. So, there is a lot covered that will be of use.

The general guide to ocean sailing is fairly basic and will be a refresher course for veteran passagemakers. But, the book also offers excellent advice and underscores the essential elements of seamanship, boat handling, safety gear and practices and the care and feeding of the crew.

The actual cruising guide sections are tailored for the mostly English and European audience but there is plenty for sailors from North America to learn, too.

If you are sailing from the East Coast to the Caribbean, you’ll find good advice on dates, routes and landfalls.

If you are sailing to Bermuda and the Azores, the guide has you covered.

This is Jane Russell’s second edition of the guide as editor and she has gone a wonderful job. The lists of gear and equipment are comprehensive. The lists of useful websites will be invaluable. And the sketch charts of the various harbors where you might make landfall are attractive and very useful.

I wish we had had this volume aboard when we sailed across the Atlantic and certainly will take it with us the next time we cross the pond.

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search for Blue Water Sailing BLUE WATER SAILING

Run the Storm

by George Michelsen Foy

I

n the modern age of seafaring, it is very rare for a ship to be “lost at Sea.” Satellite navigation, tracking and communications allow ship owners, the coast guard and the crew’s families to know where a ship is at any given second of any given day. We are all linked and all tracked in real time.

So, on October 1, 2015 when the cargo ship El Faro, which was on a passage from Florida to Puerto Rico, vanished from the face of the earth in the height of a hurricane, everyone associated with ships, yachts and the sea was seriously taken aback. How could this have possible happened? And, where could the 790-foot freighter be?

Run the Storm is the compelling and well-told tale of what happened to El Faro and her 28 crew. The story traces every decision made by the captain and the company that owed El Faro. The route the skipper chose to sail is explained and the consequences of his decisions are laid out.

The storm that struck El Faro was well forecast and all the parties involved—crew, company, and Coast Guard—were aware of the dangers of sailing a ship too

close to a hurricane; but they had experienced storms at sea many times and knew what the ship and those onboard could handle.

That this tale ends with the loss of 28 lives and the ship, is stunning. But, when you drill down into the details of what happened, you realize that disasters like this often begin with one mistake, one error in judgement, one broken hatch. When things start to go wrong, all the rest, right to the horrible end, cascades from that first error in judgement.

Foy is a gifted writer and has written a fine, cautionary tale that will appeal to all who love ships and the sea.

AB-Marine.com

November/December

13

{ BILLBIEWENGA }

@Laurie Warner

Time Honored Tools New plotters integrate with systems monitoring tools.

Satellite communications is utilized to download the latest weather imagery and integrate that with routing software. But when the computer, electrical system or power supply fails, you better have a grasp of more traditional navigation tools

N

av stations have changed, and they continue to change. We now have more means to gather positioning, performance and weather data than ever before. It wasn’t long ago that GPS, VHF, SSB, and weather fax seemed like cutting edge that put us in touch with the world outside of our boats. We now have satellite communications to connect us to the Internet via a broadband hook-up, computer displayed digital charts, plotters integrated with weather information devices, smartphones and various other gadgets to help gather an ever-increasing amount of information. But despite all of the new tools, the older, more traditional 14

tools not only have their place in the modern nav station, they still provide the most reliable foundation for our work as navigators and onboard decision-makers. We still need the means and understanding of how to put an LOP (Line Of Position) on a paper chart.

Experienced navigators still have their preferences. What we grow up with plays a big role in what we prefer to continue to do. Aboard one of the boats with which I raced years ago, one of the navigators was a “triangle guy”. Using a couple of right triangles, he placed them side by side, and transposed a bearing line off the compass rose by sliding one triangle against the other across the chart. It’s a technique that has worked well for centuries, and as a graduate of one of the country’s maritime academies, he certainly had qualified instructors guide him in that technique’s effective use. Warren Luhrs, prior to his 1986 BOC campaign was also a “triangle guy”. No parallel rules for these guys! They were fast and effective with a manual system that they preferred.

Others, however, prefer the more common parallel rules that consist of two – usually plastic – rulers joined by a set of hinges.

Variations exist within this category, but the principle is much the same. Recently I even purchased a set of parallels with 3 rulers, enabling a bit more flexibility and speed while crossing from the compass rose to the LOP I was trying to draw. Chart tables can be small as computers begin to take up an increasing amount of limited space, and I wanted to try to reduce the number of times I’d have to move the ruler while bouncing around in the nav station. The set of triple rulers helped, and it was a system with which I was already familiar.

Even manual things have changed and improved over the years, however. Several years ago I spotted a Portland Plotter in a chart house. (See: https://www. google.com/search?q=portland+p lotter&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source =univ&sa=X&ei=3EG9VKLGHP WMsQTE6oDgDg&ved=0CEsQs AQ&biw=972&bih=934) I didn’t take much notice. It seemed like just another plastic gadget I really didn’t need. During a transatlantic race with a friend as co-navigator, BLUE WATER SAILING

{ OFFSHORE }

he told me, “You’ve got to check this out. It makes plotting a lot faster and easier.” Also a graduate of a maritime academy as well as the winning navigator in one of the round the world races and with a staggering amount of offshore experience, it made sense to listen to him. I have checked it out, and now, for me, it has replaced the parallels I used to prefer.

The main advantage I find in the Portland Plotter is that it’s no longer necessary to move anything across a chart. If, for example you’d like to draw your heading from a known position, line up the variation on the dial with your desired course. Point the ruler generally in the direction of the bearing or course. And rotate the ruler slightly until the grid pattern in the middle of the dial lines up with one of the latitude or longitude lines on

the chart. Essentially your compass rose, complete with local variation, is on the tool rather than making it necessary to transfer that information across a chart. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to retrace my tracks with parallels while plotting positions from LOPs taken from bearings on known objects as the boat jumped off waves and I bounced around down below in the nav station. With the Portland Plotter, you just set your course to the local variation, lay the ruler on your position and superimpose the lines. It’s a reliable and accurate manual system.

These more-or-less traditional tools have an advantage over some of the modern electronic tools in the fact that they ARE manual. The day or night that the batteries go flat, the system bus is shorted out for the instruments, the computer

crashes, lightning hits the boat, a wave comes through the hatch or any of a multitude of other “unforeseen” problems occur, you’ll be very happy to have and know how to use the manual, “traditional” tools. You still need to be able to navigate your vessel safely.

You may be able to get a bearing to a lighthouse off the GPSdriven computer display that uses your tracking software. But if there are problems, you will certainly be glad that you had a good hand-bearing compass and had experience in using it. Even without equipment failures, the night you’re approaching another vessel, you will want to know whether they are gaining or losing bearing as you close range. If their bearing is remaining the same and they are within a half-mile, you will certainly want to modify

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15

your course or discuss the matter with the other captain on the VHF. When you determine early that they are gaining or losing bearing, you will know whether they are going to pass clear ahead or astern.

And none of that will be on the computer screen in the nav station unless it’s enabled with AIS – and working. That situation may be illuminated on radar, but radar, too, can be subject to electrical problems.

Hand-bearing compasses come in a variety of sizes and types.

Autohelm has a particularly good electronic model, capable of retaining several bearings in memory and lighting the digital display at night. Batteries are long-lasting, and the unit is small enough to conveniently fit in a pocket or be worn around the neck under the clothes so it doesn’t catch on things.

Non-electronic models come with handles, lights and various sights. My favorite is a simple “hockey puck” type. It can be illuminated by charging with a flashlight or other light source. The numbers are large enough that I can read them – even without my reading glasses. Mine is a French Mini 2000, made by Vion. (see: https://www.google.com/search? biw=972&bih=934&tbm=isch& sa=1&q=Mini+2000+compass& oq=Mini+2000+compass&gs_l=i mg.3..0i24.26387.32658.0.33850 .19.15.0.0.0.3.131.924.14j1.15.0. msedr...0...1c.1.61.img..14.5.361. lYBg8N5j19o) Besides wine, food, and love, it may be one of the best things the French make. It’s elegant in its simplicity.

16

Elegant simplicity for the navigator doesn’t just stop with taking bearings, though. Simple dividers also come in a variety of shapes and designs. Some are merely two straight-legged hinged arms.

Some have a round top, so that you can conveniently squeeze the top to open the arms. After a little use, the motion becomes quite fluid with one hand while you can still try to hold on to something

down below in a boat slamming off waves. Other dividers have a screw-post adjustment that allows for controlled opening and closing of the arms. If occasion takes you aboard boats that bounce a lot, having the screw post means that when you put the dividers to the chart, you won’t be opening and closing the arms every time you slam off another wave. Sailing on fast multihulls, and going long distances on a variety of boats in a wild mix of conditions, I’ve grown to appreciate the dividers with a screw-post adjustment.

The tools to put good marks are just part of the equation. You also need good charts. They should be updated regularly, and you should BLUE WATER SAILING

be aware of the chart datum to which they refer. Make sure that the information you’re getting off your GPS is consistent with the datum of the chart. If you don’t, it’s quite possible that while you’re sailing safely within a marked channel during the day, the GPS position, plotted to the paper chart, might indicate that you’re somewhere up on the beach. That little discrepancy has happened to me in Polynesia and elsewhere. Similar sorts of things may have recently led to the Indian Ocean grounding of one of the Volvo Round the World Race yachts. Good, up-todate charts are critical in any case.

Some charts such as Imray, come in a waterproof paper. Others, such as Admiralty, have a heavier quality paper than the U.S. charts and occasionally have profiles of the land and its various approaches.

And Chartkit offers a collection of charts within a package. The price can be somewhat less for a pretty complete set of charts for a particular area, but sometimes the charts within the kit aren’t always oriented north up. Be aware of what you’re looking at before you need the information in a hurry.

This is where I depart from more of the traditionalists. I like to fold my charts, not roll them.

I want them to lay flat on the nav table rather than curl up and run across the nav station. When I fold them, I want the written title to the chart, its number, and some identifier I create that determines when during the passage I will be using the chart. The writing should be

November/December

in the same corner for each of the charts so that when I’m searching for the next set of charts, an approach for example, I won’t have to open each chart to find what I’m looking for.

Prior to departure, I like to plot the rhumbline between waypoints and label their range and bearing to the next waypoint. And, sometimes I will even highlight those ranges and bearings with a highlighter pen. I know that flies in the face of convention, and highlighter pens are not erasable. If things are penned onto charts, the charts can quickly become cluttered and unusable. But for a race, I may need information quickly, and it may be in the middle of the night. The cost of chart replacement may be a secondary consideration in such situations.

While even the more traditional tools have had some changes over the last few years, the principles remain the same. The fact that they are manual tools means that they’ll work while in some cases the newer and flashier tools may fail. As the navigator, the failure of your tools won’t make a good excuse for the failure in your job.

It is important for all of us to do the best that we can regardless of unforeseen events. Our vessels and those aboard depend on it. BWS Bill Biewenga is a navigator, delivery skipper and weather router. His websites are www.weather4sailors.com and www.WxAdvantage.com. He can be contacted at billbiewenga@ cox.net.

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{ WORLDCRUISING }

On Fiji’s Viti Levu, they find a private anchorage to do boat jobs and explore ashore finding what you want isn’t always quick or easy. Locating fresh fruit and vegetables has been particularly challenging since Cyclone Winston hit in February 2016.

Bananas, coconuts and pawpaws have been scarce in the markets, so we have substituted with apples and oranges when we could find them, and tinned pineapple and peaches when we couldn’t.

Nadi is alive with excited flyin tourists at this time of year and consequently is busy with retail action, with optimistic shopkeepers persistently touting their wares up and down the main street. It lengthens time required for shopping, but on the other hand you never know what you’re going to find on any given day that is the bargain of the century.

by Jenny Keene The vibrant floor than ready for our own bunk again. rugs in our main saloon were an Il Silenzio, our 38-foot sloop had example of this. been sitting snug on a mooring in Stocked up, we decided we Port Denarau, Fiji, in our absence. needed a quiet spot to take a breath After landing, we hopped on a and check off a few jobs before sailbus for the supermarkets and fresh ing north to the Yasawa Islands in food markets of Nadi. Provision- north western Fiji. Our to-do list ing anywhere in Fiji takes days, as had been reduced from double

Beyond the White Sands of Sweet Saweni Bay

I

t was mid-May and after three weeks in chilly New Zealand we were keen to be back on Il Silenzio in the Fiji Islands.

Catching up with friends and family and sourcing boat parts had kept us on the run during our flying trip south and we were more 18

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Above,new mats for the saloon; below, provisioning at Nadi market

digits by the end of the cyclone season, but as we had succumbed to some consumer delights while in New Zealand, the list had crept up again.

Saweni Bay, a remote corner on the northwest coast of Viti Levu looked like a peaceful spot to head to first. Though we had sailed by this small bay on a number of occasions we’d never gone in and taken a look. Just a three hours sail northeast of Denarau, we could set sail after lunch and put down our anchor well before dark. We took the trip at a leisurely pace, 10 knots of breeze from the south put the wind behind us so we goose winged it all the way.

Rob used Open CPN, CM 93 charts and our overlaid Google Earth images to take us around the shallow water as we entered the bay and through the two reefs at the head of the bay. In the late afternoon sun and with a high tide, the reefs were all but impossible to pick up. The charts are based on Captain Cook’s original charts, and are only an indication. They are being upgraded gradually but care must be taken. Our second day in Fijian

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This page; Saweni Bay sho skipper and dinghy; opposite page, sugar cane ra

inshore waters was testimony to this as we touched a bommie, a single coral head below the surface, that just happened to be there and hadn’t found its way onto the chart! Our sturdy steel vessel bounced off it but it was a timely warning and we learned how to make images using Google Earth for our navigation programme soon after that.

Dropping the anchor in four metres on the north east side, it was time for a cup of tea and siesta.

Revived, in the late afternoon we lowered the dinghy and rowed around the inshore reef to the sandy shore. With all the recent travel, we had missed our regular quiet strolls and it was heaven to stretch our legs on the long span of empty sand. Not a soul was in sight. This was the place to slow down to ‘Fiji time’ again.

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op;

ailway

The beach looked full of possibilities for unique flotsam and jetsam, but the best we could find was an empty Fiji Bitter bottle on this occasion, so we drifted further inland. Several meandering overgrown paths and a goat family later, we stumbled upon an abandoned railway track. The miniature and rusted railway lines stretched out before us, squeezing through a distant gap in the mangroves. Another billy goat was shepherding his family along the dusty overgrown track, crisscrossing, searching the rank scrub for tasty morsels.

It seemed an unlikely location for a railroad. Who and what had travelled these small scruffy rails on this lonely coast? We followed the strips of steel as they hugged the coast, nudging a path between mangroves then curving sharply inland. Our line was just a feeder into a clearly demarcated track.

When the deep green of the mangroves beside us suddenly changed to a tall dense plantation, our ‘aha’ moment came. The rusty steel, the weeds, long grasses and the general air of neglect had camouflaged what is the heartbeat of Fiji’s sugar industry.

Vast sugar cane plantations form a patchwork over inland Viti Levu, and hundreds of kilometres of narrow gauge track form a web of rail corridors to get cane crops to factories. At just two feet wide, these tracks carry thousands of tons of canes to be processed into sugar; it’s the largest sugarcane railway in the world. Each winter dozens of diminutive trains spring to life, polishing and re-polishing the rusty tracks to silver ribbons.

Pint-size powerhouses, the locomotives relentlessly haul absurdly huge loads of brown cane sticks, November/December

stacked precariously behind them on a long procession of rickety flatbed wagons. For the remainder of the year the tracks lie silent.

And Saweni Bay had further surprises in store. Hidden from our view at anchor was a small shop (labelled ‘SHOP’ in case of confusion), with an attached one room factory in full swing making the popular spicy Fijian ‘bhuja mix’. These fiery packs of snacks based on corn, garlic, chilli and peas are found all over the islands.

Although too highly spiced for

my palette, the aroma is appetizing and they are a staple at every supermarket and canteen we’ve visited. Many visiting sailors stock up on these as a delicious accompaniment to a drink at sundown.

The locals at the shop were happy to share their insights into making a living in this rural corner. Even the two young men on horseback who passed by, having inconveniently ‘lost’ their 60 cattle in the surrounding scrubland, took the time for a chat. We learned the goats we saw everywhere were all

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Local residents, Saweni

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owned by local families, and used for meat and milk. Goats withstand heat better than sheep, thrive on weeds, and are succulent in curries.

To our astonishment, they told us a local bus runs a service right down to the bay, and could connect us to the main Nadi-Lautoka road. Not so remote after all! The road was tight, unsealed and riddled with potholes, but proved to be a wholly negotiable nearly two-way thoroughfare.

We used this bus several times in our attempt to find some specialized parts, and each time it was a delight – a cacophony of Fijian reggae music, a colorful cross section of passengers, vintage upholstery and most buses without the nuisance of windows!

Our boat job list gradually dwindled. Scrub the dust from the cockpit rubber mat, check.

Arrest rust and apply paint, check. Mount the new solar panel. Our two 90-watt panels usually generate enough electricity for our everyday use, but we had always planned for a third panel so we would have plenty of power on dull days and we carried another panel back with us from New Zealand as oversized baggage.

With the abundance of sunshine here, any

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time of year, solar panels have been the easiest and cheapest answer to solve power requirements for us. Rob is clever with his installations, using nifty alternatives, which are both efficient and inexpensive. Extending umbrella stands proved perfect for lifting these panels installed on the solid steel boat rails.

Jobs completed, caught up on sleep and back in the leisurely swing of life in Fiji, we were ready to move on.

At 9:30 am one cloudless morning we weighed anchor and set sail in 10 knots of north-easterly breeze heading Il Silenzio towards the Yasawa islands. BWS

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The local bus, installing solar panels, looking out of the bay

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The Saga Of Innata: Part One – Shipping the New Boat Home Great voyages often have bad beginnings, and this one could hardly have been worse “JUST A FEW MORE PROJECTS and we are ready to cast off. Let’s give it another year and then we will be ready to go,” I told my wife on year six of our now eight-year build out.

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I went from being totally healthy, having a drug free vital lifestyle for over 40 years, to being diagnosed with cancer and starting chemotherapy in the space of one month.

The first thought that I had was,

By Tobias Goncharoff

“I’m going to be one of the unfortunate idiots who waited until retirement to fulfill his dreams, only to get sick right at the end and abandon all hope of living the life.”

It really, really ticked me off. Right then I decided to fight through the illness and cast off as soon as possible. There was no time to lose.

In 2012 My wife and I decided on an extended cruising lifestyle once our last of four kids was BLUE WATER SAILING

finished with high school. That gave us until 2019 to find a used cruiser, fix it for oceanic navigation and prepare ourselves for the seamanship required to survive the experience. After looking at every used cruising boat in Europe, we desperately shifted our search to the U.S. in hopes of finding a real cruiser rather than the fodder of mediocre boats available in Europe.

We found our diamond in the rough in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

A Sunbeam 44 CC. Austrian, thick reinforced hull, great specs. We sacrificed many criteria such as the integrated keel, skeg hung rudder, keel stepped mast, in exchange for this solid fast cruiser. The best news was that it was German

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flagged with VAT paid. No problem to bring her back to Spain and reflag her! Or so we thought.

Also, we needed a full survey by a trustworthy person in a place where we knew no one and could not be present at the time of inspection. We hired a great guy recommended by our broker, I know, I know‌ She received a clean bill of health, we did the deal and arranged for her to be shipped across the pond back to Spain. Many months of delays later, we receive notice from the shipping company that our boat was arriving. However, they decided to offload her at a port in Andalusia rather than the contracted Palma de Mallorca.

And, by the way, it will be there

tomorrow and the owner must be present for the exchange.

After much scrambling, we arrived at said southern port to witness her drop into the water alongside a huge freighter. They ferried me aboard and began to cast off lines. I hurriedly tried to find the engine seacock, opened it and managed to fire her up in time to avoid being crushed by the freighter that was steaming heartily out of this strange port.

I was directed to the Guardia Civil Dock and tied her off. We had our baby home. On the dock stood perched a gaggle of sweaty suited officials staring at her and scratching their heads. I was hurriedly introduced to the head of customs and we were ushered into

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his cramped office. After reviewing the paperwork and grilling us extensively, he meekly confessed that his port was a lowly fishing port and that they had no idea as to how to clear a vessel into the country.

No worries, we had done our homework. We gently took him through the morrass of legal requirements necessary to bring an EU boat back home from foreign waters.

We explained to him that she was German-flagged, Austrian-built with proof of VAT paid. It was as easy as welcoming her back home and reflagging her for Spain.

Vi s i b l y re lieved, the customs man regrettably advised us that he could not release the boat at the moment until he had cleared it with his superior. A mere formality he assured us. Not to worry, we were now friends and he would move heaven and earth to free up our boat. Meanwhile the port was charging us high season berthing fees per night as if we were on a summer vacation.

Flights back to Barcelona, and waiting for news. A few weeks later, customs contacted us with their resolution and could we come to the port at our earliest convenience. More flights, rental cars and there we were.

A palpable change was in the air. The polyester suit had been cleaned and shoes shined brightly, ashtray on the desk emptied.

The newly transformed head of customs puffed up his chest and

explained to us the dilemma. He said that the law was unclear as to how to proceed, however he has decided that to be safe, we would be required to repay VAT, 21% of the paid amount of the boat.

We gently produced the receipt of the original VAT that was paid in Germany for the new boat, and reminded him of the illegality of requiring double payment of VAT in the ECU. After much

that be. “VAT value of course,” he replied smugly. Oh, and by the way, the boat was unofficially seized by customs until said import fees were paid in full. Of course, I had spent my last dime buying her and paying to ship her over. Off to the port office to try to get a berth long term as opposed to the 60 Euro a night fee they were killing us with.

With a long face, they explained that no other berths were available in the half empty marina. They felt awful about our predicament but their hands were tied.

Back to Barcelona to commence the legal fight. We hired the lawyer that represented the king of Spain. When racing his boat in Mallorca, he broke the mast and had one shipped in to continue the race, only to have it seized at customs.

This lawyer got the king his mast. He flew into an indignant rant upon hearing our story, yanked a half dozen tomes of law out to illustrate the illegality of what they were doing and swore to us that there would be only charred ground left of these southern hick beurocrats when he was done with them!

Finally, some justice! We paid his kingly fee and awaited our day of vindication.

Several weeks go by and we are summoned by the king’s lawyer. Dishevelled hair, stained suit, two-day beard…He lamentably explained to us that the southern courts of the country did not recognize the authority of lawyers outside their jurisdiction. So, his hands were tied. But here are all of the legal precedents. Go find an

Visibly relieved, the customs man regrettably advised us that he could not release the boat at the moment until he had cleared it with his superior. A mere formality he assured us. Not to worry, we were now friends and he would move heaven and earth to free up our boat

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chain smoking and brushing back of his pomaded hair, he kindly informed us that it wasn’t actually VAT which, of course, once paid is done, it was an import tax required to import products into the EU. We explained again that there was no importation involved here, merely a European used boat coming back home.

He sighed and, as if speaking to little innocent children, that he believed that the fact that the boat had been gone for so long and sold out of the EU, that it must be treated as a foreign product and subject to VAT. After waving the VAT receipt at him again, he gruffed and restated “importation fees”.

Ok…and how much would

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Andalusian lawyer and don’t give up. Long live the king, the king is dead.

No Andalusian lawyer would commit career suicide and go up against the tax authorities. We either paid up or the boat would be auctioned off to liquidate the debt.

We were contacted again by the king’s solicitor. He explained that the illegally seized boat was not officially seized and that he recommends that we go down there in the middle of the night, quietly slip the lines and “steal” her. Fed up, we agreed. All we had to do is get out past the 12-mile international waters line, stay out all the way to Barcelona, and prepare to get arrested in Barcelona. They would be waiting for me. Once out on bail, he was then free to represent both

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the criminal and administrative cases, far from the land of Quixote.

Sounds like a plan. We just tuned up the engine, should be fine. A compassionate dockhand who had witnessed our being gang raped whispered to us that he worked nights and that he would make sure that the Guardia Civil were either drunk or sleeping, giving us until dawn to get out past the 12-mile mark.

Late night flight back to Andalusia, screwing up our courage to run the gauntlet and steal our boat back. I receive a call midflight from his royal representative. He had further informed himself, and the problem with the plan was that legally, they were allowed to seize my boat and auction it. So please, do not proceed. More than mildly

relieved to end our short career as pirates we flew back home So, I passed the hat amongst my friends and they graciously coughed up 25.000 Euros for me to free our boat. Wow! We went down with a bag of money, paid the thugs off, changed the flag and name of the boat. Started the motor and limped out of that godforsaken port.

We cleared the jetty set course for Barcelona on our old broken dream boat, and let out a primal scream of liberty at last!

And then, the engine died.. BWS To be continued…

Tobias and Virginie Goncharoff are both chiropractors. They live in Spain and work all over the world.

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Tartan 395

by George Day

I

was scheduled to take the brand new Tartan 395 out for a sail on the Tuesday after the Annapolis sailboat show in October. But, at 4 pm when we were to set sail, the wind died completely leaving Back Creek, The Severn River and the Chesapeake Bay as glassy as a mirror. Consulting with Tartan’s Michael Tamulaites, it was decided to abort the mission and reschedule for the next morning when the Windy app on my phone suggested we'd have six to eight knots of breeze. Not a gale, but enough to fill the sails.

We met up early and were the first customers at the fuel dock.

The 395 is a very manageable size for two people. It maneuvers well under power and is light enough to manhandle around tight slips and docks. We topped up the fuel and as we did we were watching the flags around the creek and the tops 28

of the tall pine trees for a sign of wind. It was there, so we revved up the 40-horse power diesel, which was turning a folding prop on the sail-drive, and slipped smoothly out into open water.

The 395 has twin wheels with the engine controls at knee level on the starboard side. At full revs of 3200 rpms, the boat steamed straight ahead at eight knots while at cruising revs of 2200 rpms it maintained a speed of 6.7 knots while burning under half a gallon of fuel per hour. With 40 gallons in the tank, the 395 will have a safe cruising range under power of about 250 miles.

With the sail drive being quite far forward and behind the keel, there was very little prop wash or virbration on the helm, even at maximum revs. The rudder is all the way aft and quite large so when we put the boat through a hard turn, she actually turned inside

her own length. It was impressive to see just how tighly it turned and how nimble it was. The rudder had a very solid feel as we turned the boat sharply. This is all good for maneuvering in tight spaces.

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION I usually get right into the sailing performance of a new boat in a review like this and focus on design and construction details later. But, the 395, like the rest of the Tartan fleet, is a bit more complicated than most modern production boats, so understanding how the boat was designed and built will help explain its sailing characteristics.

Tim Jackett has been the designer of record at Tartan for decades and is now one of the owners of the company. The 395 is the first new boat to be debuted by the company in quite a few BLUE WATER SAILING

years. The hull is a pure cruising shape without hard edges or chines and is rounded below the waterline.

This will give the boat a soft motion through the waves. The boat has three keel options, a deep keel at six feet, two inches, a shallow beavertail keel at four feet, 10 inches and a keel-centerboard that draws only four-feet, three inches when up and all the way to eight-feet, three inches when all the way down.

The deep fin keel will offer the best sailing performance but the keel-centerboard will compare favorably. The beaver-tail keel has wings or a foil-shaped bulb at the bottom to lower the boat’s center of gravity while still maintaining a shoal draft. The end-plate effect of the beaver tails greatly improves the lift from the keel’s foil shape.

The spade rudder is large and has a highly refined foil shape, so it produces the minimum drag while also providing a very fine feel to the helm underway. The foil shape also adds lift to the hull as the boat sails close to the wind.

The 395, like all Tartan sailboats, has a core composite hull that is laminated with E-glass and modified epoxy resins. The core is closed cell foam so it cannot absorb water. Plus, the laminate is vacuum-bagged to eliminate any voids and to assure the complete saturation of resin into the glass layup. The result is a completely inert hull that is lighter and stiffer than conventional solid glass hulls of hulls cored with organic materials like balsa wood. Reducing the weight and lowering the center ofgravity, makes the boat both better in light airs and stiffer in a breeze.

The deck is also an infused, cored structure made of E-glass and modified epoxy resin. The November/December

boat has a balsa core which provids excellent strength to weight properties, stiffness and very good sound and heat insulation. Where ever hardware is mounted on deck, the structure beneath it is solid Eglass for strength and durability.

The rig on the 395 starts with a Tartan built carbon fiber mast and swept-back airfoil spreaders.

The mast weighs half as much as a comparable aluminum mast and is taller than you will find on comparable modern designs, a design characteristic that allows the boat to have a larger sail plan that is supported by the lower center of gravity or stiffness of the hull.

The larger, lighter mast is an essential part of Tartan’s Cruise Control Rig, which offers a large mainsail with a Solent self-tacking jib mounted inside a large high cut reaching sail or genoa. To make the small sail area of the self-tacking jib really work effectively, particularly in light airs, the design needs the taller, light rig which spreads more sail area in the mainsail. Off the wind the large headsail is a real boon and adds a lot of boat speed.

Plus, both the Solent jib and the reaching sail can be handled from the cockpit so no one has to venture onto the foredeck. For those

who will be racing the 395 in point to point events offshore will want to add a spinnaker pole and spinnaker, either a symmetrical chute or an asym. The pole will be handy, too, for sailing wing-and-wing dead downwind.

So, the concept is to build a boat that is in design harmony. The high teck hull construction and carbon mast lower the boat’s center of gravity and make it lighter than average. This then enhances the easy-to-use self tacking jib that eliminates winch grinding upwind. Finally, with CCR, you have plenty of off the wind power in the big mainsail and the large reaching sail.

SAILING As we motored the 395 into the bay, we headed up and hoisted the large mainsail from it’s in-boom roller furler. This is an option from Tartan and combines the ease of roller furling with the performance of a proper, full roach high-tech mainsail. In-boom furling systems have evolved and sailmakers have learned how to build sails that really work well with them.

As we fell off the wind, Michael rolled out the Solent jib and trimmed for close hauled sailing.

Even in the mild eight knots of breeze, the 395 put her shoulder down a little and accelerated.

The helm felt very light and it was easy to get the boat into the upwind groove. We threw a couple of tacks just by turning the wheel and found that in the light stuff she could sail at about 42 degrees to the true wind. That’s a nice close angle that makes upwind sailing more fun.

After sailing right out into the bay, the breeze began to die so we rolled up the jib, fell off the wind and rolled out the reaching sail.

That’s what we needed. The sail filled and when we got to about 140 degrees off the true wind, the boat found its balance and started to sail really nicely. The combination of a large mainsail, a light hull, efficient underwater blades and the right amount of sail area was the key to the light wind sailing performance.

As we got back to the entrance to Back Creek, we rolled up the headsail, rolled down the mainsail and started the engine. With this rig, sail handing is a breeze and you always can deploy the right combination of sails and sail area to allow the boat to sail in balance and at optimum speed.

LIVING ABOARD When you climb down the 30

companionway of the new 395 you can see at once that you are not on a production boat that was built to a price but instead on a modern, yacht-quality cruiser that will appeal to experienced and discerning owners who value traditional joinery and classic American yacht styling.

The boat has two double cabins, one forward and one in the starboard quarter cabin. These are both “master cabin” but the after berth is slightly wider while the forward cabin has more living space. The salon has the U-shaped galley to starboard and the chart table and large head across from it to port. The galley has double sinks, a three-burner stove and oven and a large counter top fridge.

The head is large and has good headroom. Plus, it has a separate shower stall that will make life aboard more comfortable and will also double as a good place to hang wet foul weather gear. The engine is under the companionway steps and has excellent access from the front and both sides through hatches in the aft cabin and the head. Checking the oil and topping up coolant will be a snap.

The dinette table is not quite on the centerline so you can walk forward easily. It has a U-shaped settee to starboard where you can sit four for dinner. The table also

has a large drop leaf that allows diners to sit on the port setee for dinner.

The 395 comes standard with an all maple interior, white ceiling liners with maple battens and maple hull liners. Door and drawer fronts are solid maple and all doors have raised panels. The ambiance is both traditional and very light and airy. The light colored maple creates a sense of space and warmth that you rarely find on boats of this size.

There is plenty of storage in all three cabins and in the galley so a couple wil be able to move aboard and cruise comfortably on a fulltime basis. Plus, guests will always feel comfortable and have plenty of private space while on board.

Tartan is a venerable American brand of boats so it is good for those of us who have sailed Tartans all our lives to see such a beautiful new model launched that once again establishes Tartan as a leading American builder of cruising boats and racer-cruisers. BWS

Tartan 395

LOA 39’6” LWL 33’3” Beam 12’10” Draft(deep) 6’2” Draft (beavertail) 4’10” Draft (K/cb) 4’3”/8’3” Sail area(upwind) 794 sq. ft.

Sail area (w/reacher) 1,112 sq. ft.

Displ. 17,000 lbs.

Ballast 6,500 lbs.

Fuel 40 gals.

Water 100 gals.

Engine 40-hp.

Tartan Yachts

www.tartanyachts.com

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The Elegant, New Hylas 48

Hylas reboots the company with an elegant, raised-saloon, center-cockpit sloop that is a born passagemaker

I

’ve had the good fortune to sail Hylas yachts many miles, particularly the 54 that became the company’s most popular and success model. The Hylas concept has always been to offer good, modern cruising boats for couples that provide a lot of boat and high quality for a good value. But the company, which was owned by Americans, fell on hard times after the recession. In the end, the Taiwanese builder, Queen Long, took over the brand and is now relaunching it with their first new boat, the Hylas 48.

Right after the 48’s debut at the Annapolis sailboat show, I got a chance to take it for a sail.

Climbing aboard from the dock at Mears Marina in Back Creek, you could tell at once that the design was a good old-fashion, mediumdisplacement cruiser that was November/December

by George Day

destined for blue water sailing. She just felt solid underfoot.

The 48 was designed by Englishman Bill Dixon who has spent the last 30 years designing luxury, mega-sailing yachts for the rich and famous. His boats are known for their fine seakeeping qualities, their elegant looks and attention to traditional details. The 48 is very much in the Hylas family of designs with a raised saloon, center cockpit, large aft cabin, open plan saloon and a simple roller furling cutter rig. The 48 looks very salty because it is very salty.

SAILING TRIAL We were lucky enough to have a bit of wind on the morning we took the 48 out for sea trials. Not a lot of wind, mind you, but at least

eight knots with a little more in the puffs. We cleared the docks and headed down the creek to the bay.

The engine is right underneath the center cockpit, right below your feet, but as we motored and then tried the boat at higher revs, there was almost no vibration underfoot and very little engine noise. This mechanical silence is a hallmark of a luxury, well-built yacht.

At 2300 rpms, the 48 cruised along smoothly at seven knots while at full revs of 3300 rpms she got up to 8.5 knots. Even at high revs there was not much cavitation on the prop or vibration on the rudder. Once out into the bay, we headed into the breeze so we could roll out the mainsail from the mast.

The sail has three vertical battens which allow the sailmaker to give 31

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the mainsail a slightly positive roach and thus a little more sail area than a batten-less main.

We fell off the wind and rolled out the 135-percent genoa and trimmed for a close reach that would take us out into the bay.

The helm felt light and the steering linkage very smooth. The boat has a fairly large rudder so she handles easily. With the sail trimmed, the 48 gradually gathered speed and was soon sailing at five and a half knots in the light breeze. You could feel how well the design tracks and holds its course, so it will be easy for an autopilot to steer, even in bouncy weather, I suspect.

We put the 48 through a series of tacks, which were made easier by the use of the electric sheet winches. In the light breeze the boat tacks in just over 90 degrees and carries her speed well through the tacks. In a medium displacement cruising boat like the 48, many skippers would motor sail in these light conditions; with only 32

1200 rpms on the engine, we got her cruising upwind with the sails full at 7.5 knots.

As we headed back to the docks, we eased sheets and jibed our way downwind. At 160 degrees off the wind, the 48 nipped along well and it was easy for two people to handle the jibes. Again, in the breeze we had, an assist from the engine makes a huge difference while burning very little fuel.

The center cockpit seats six comfortably and all lines and sheets are accessible. The boat we sailed had a dodger and full Bimini over the cockpit, so we were well protected from the elements. The afterdeck is quite wide and has large lazarettes for stowing lines, fenders, and gear. There are two seats aft built into the pushpit and a gate to the swim platform.

Two stainless steel handholds on either side of the swim platform will make landing a dinghy easy and provide an aid for folks climbing aboard.

Up forward is the chain locker and vertical-axis windlass. The chain locker is divided in two so you can keep two rodes always at the ready. The bow has two anchor rollers so setting up a second anchor in bad weather will be a cinch. There will be many cruisers who will have two anchors and rodes always mounted and ready.

The whole deck area at the bow is covered with a stainless steel sheet that protects the fiberglass deck from the chafe of anchor chain and makes cleaning up after a muddy anchor simpler.

The 48 is a fine sailing cruising boat that is easy for a couple to handle. The cockpit is well protected from the elements so standing night watches won’t be a chore. With all lines led aft, one watchstander can reef and trim by herself. The staysail, which we didn’t use, provides a number of sail plan options that will be ready to be deployed in a wide range of weather and sea conditions. In BLUE WATER SAILING

short, the new Hylas 48 is set up for a couple to explore the world in style, comfort and safety.

LIVING ABOARD There is something about boats at the luxury end of the market that makes them distinctive. Such details might be the deep gloss of the varnish on a burled walnut saloon table or the deep satin finish on the teak and holly soles or the matching grain and rubbed effect varnish on all cabinets and doors. You know a lot of care, a lot of expense and a lot of man hours were involved to get this superb finish. That’s the impression you have when you first climb down the 48’s companionway ladder to the saloon.

The 48 is a three-cabin boat with a huge master stateroom aft, a great double guest cabin forward and a pullman cabin with two bunks just aft to port. The master cabin has its own large head with a separate shower stall. The boat’s owners could move in here and expect to live comfortably for years.

The two forward cabins are served by a single head with a phone-style shower mounted at the sink.

The galley is in the passageway that leads aft to the master stateroom, so it has a ton of counter space, storage and room for two large under counter fridge-freezer units. The twin sinks are nearly on the centerline so they will drain properly on both tacks. This is one of the handiest and best laid out galleys you will find in a boat under 50 feet and will work extremely well when making offshore passages.

The saloon has a curved dinette to port with the burled walnut table. Three or four can sit here for meals and a portable bench seat November/December

can provide seating for two more.

To starboard there is another bench settee with storage behind it.

The chart table is large and old-fashioned, just the way a lot of skippers like it. The table is wide enough to spread out a folded chart or ChartKit and inside it’s roomy enough for all of the nav gear you need, plus cruising guides, a laptop computer and sundry tools. The electrical panel is as comprehensive and as well labeled as you will find on any yacht. When it comes time to troubleshoot systems, you will start here with a distinct advantage. There are handy vertical spaces at the chart table for mounting instruments, radios, modems, tank monitors and the control heads for a watermaker and genset.

The 48 carries 119 gallons of water, which is a generous amount for a boat of this size. But it was assumed, I suspect, that all owners will add a watermaker so the tanks do not need to be huge. That said, it is also assumed that owners will sail far and wide and will cross oceans from time to time, and will use the gen set regularly, so tankage for 290 gallons of diesel fuel has been squeezed into the hull.

The 75-horsepower Yanmar will burn about three quarters of a gallon an hour at six knots. Keep-

ing a 10 percent fuel safety margin, the remaining 260 gallons will give you a maximum motoring range of over 1,500 miles. That is three times the range recommended by most offshore rallies that cross oceans.

The new Hylas 48 is a classy addition to the Hylas line and to the cruising fleet in general. There are not many boats these days under 50 feet that fit the “luxury” category but this is certainly one.

And, as the first new boat from the Hylas 2.0 company, it gives a great foreshadowing of what’s to come when larger designs emerge in the months and years ahead. BWS

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DISPLAY Alexseal............................................9 843-654-7755 Amel.................................................3 ATN........................................Cover IV 800-874-3671 Beneteau..........................................5 410-990-0270 Chris Parker Weather......................14 863-248-2702 Celestaire........................................17 800-727-0785 Coastal Climate Control...................12 301-352-5738 Gori Propellers................................13 800-801-8922 Great Circle Sails.............................14 617-271-0712 Island Packet Yachts................Cover II 727-535-6431 Ocens..............................................16 206-878-8270 • 410-263-0008 Passport Yachts.......................Cover III 410-263-0008 Rolls Batteries.................................10 Watt & Sea.......................................11 THE CHANDLERY AB Marine ......................................34 401-847-7960

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{ BROADREACHING }

by ANDYCROSS

Keeping the boat and crew going pays off

MOVE ALONG

S

itting behind the port helm of Marabelle, a Hunter 39, somewhere in the middle of Lake Michigan, I felt the following southwest breeze die. Our spinnaker slowly went lifeless and I immediately recognized that the fun part of the ride was over. Looking at my watch, the predicted shift to the north was about to happen right on time: 2 a.m.

Fresh breeze was on its way, funneling down the lake towards us, and it wasn’t going to be good.

I knew the wind would whip up a stiff chop, bring pouring rain and thus, two to three days and nights of discomfort for our crew. All of that and more came true, we just had to keep going—which was easier said than done.

Our crew of seven was about 36 hours into the 2018 Chicago to Mackinac Race and when the 20- to 25-knot northerly hit us on the nose, we sheeted tight on a port tack. Now, instead of making progress straight towards the finish line off historic Mackinac Island, 46

Michigan, we were headed due east in building seas.

Sure enough, rain came with the wind, soaking anyone on deck, and by morning a steel grey sky emerged over even darker water. The slog was just beginning.

Hours later when we reached the Michigan shoreline, the on watch crew saw a nearby competitor turn around. When cell service came, we noticed others in our division had headed for the barn as well.

Sitting at the nav station plotting our path north, I did the math. If the northerly held like it was supposed to, we were going to endure a long, bumpy ride for several more days. Emerging from the companionway, I laid out our situation for the crew: Home for Marabelle (Pentwater, Michigan) was a day away, at which point we could retire. The finish was at least three days away, as long as the wind kept up. The decision was a difficult but unanimous one, “We’re out here. Lets keep going.”

And so we did. Like a bucking bronco, we rode north over steep chop, through gusty winds

and sometimes unbearably horrible tacking angles. Living at 45 degrees for days on end took a toll on our crew and I started monitoring everyone’s well being more frequently. Food still needed to be made and eaten for energy, and water had to be consumed to keep everyone hydrated. If we were indeed going to fight on, we had to keep our bodies going, I reasoned.

Undaunted, our crew morale only saw minimal signs of wavering and laughter was just as common as a unanimous wince or grimace after dropping off the face of a steep wave. The persistence paid off when, finally, the finish line came for our dreary yet persistently optimistic crew.

Through it all I’m proud to say, we endured. Many others didn’t, and the event once again showed me that whether it’s a race or offshore passage, sometimes just keeping the boat and crew moving is all you can do. And when that finish line or landfall appears on the horizon, there truly is nothing sweeter. BWS Andy, along with wife Jill and sons Porter and Magnus, are currently cruising Alaska aboard their Grand Soleil 39 Yahtzee. Follow their adventures at threesheetsnw.com/yahtzee.

BLUE WATER SAILING

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