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BLUEWATER VOYAGING – THE DREAM STARTS HERE

OCTOBER 2014

Bluewater voyaging The dream starts here

OCTOBER 2014

GEAR

Autopilots: set up to steer better Bulletproof sails: the 3Di revolution

CRUISING

Rescue in the Caribbean Saving Amundsen’s yacht Abandoned after rudder failure

RACING

Life at 30 knots – Round Britain Race Cowes Week action yachtingworld.com

TECHNOLOGY

Wearable gadgets – the new trend in sailing

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OCTOBER 2014

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AT A GLANCE NEWS

Welcome to the Pacific

The Pacific is magic. The Yachting World team was there to prepare and film our new Bluewater Sailing Techniques series

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Round Britain and Ireland at 30kts

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Raising Roald Amundsen’s polar expedition ship

Ben Ainslie’s new yacht is a classic

NEW GEAR AND YACHTS

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New yachts A fiendish racercruiser and a fun 30 from Mark Mills

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New gear Head-up display is the latest wearable technology

CRUISING

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Rudderless in the Atlantic A catamaran crew abandon ship

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Cruising Piracy waning off Somalia, but increasing in Africa

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Cowes Week – a vintage year

Will your next sail be made of this?

Two racers hit the jackpot for the second year running in a successful Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week 2014

It’s light, strong, keeps its shape and is extremely durable. North’s 3Di is joining the mainstream, says Matthew Sheahan

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On test: a super-Jeanneau

Get the best from your pilot

You thought you knew what a Jeanneau was? Think again. This 64ft flagship has superyacht credentials at half the price

Pip Hare uses three popular autopilots to explain how setting up your pilot to suit conditions will be faster and more efficient

Special report Rescuing Haitian migrants from a sinking boat

RACING

100 A fiesta of foiling Lake Garda hosts the first Foiling Week

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Boat of the month GC32, the cat that learned to fly

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Five tips The dip and the squeeze

REGULARS 5 22 26 28 67 110 125 132

From the Editor Letters Matthew Sheahan Skip Novak Great seamanship Yachts for sale Classified advertisements One amazing day

COVER PICTURE Published monthly on the second Thursday of the month by IPC Media Ltd, The Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU © IPC Media Ltd, 2014 ISSN 0043-9991

A Hallberg-Rassy 46 sails past Mololo Island in Fiji. Photo: Tor Johnson

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Volume 166 Issue no 3273

THE ELIXIR OF YOUTH

S

ailing is good for you. You mightn’t necessarily think so after a regatta season in home waters, when athletic racing during the day is followed by revelry till all hours.

But the fun of it is doing everything possible to the maximum, and knowing that the normal cares and worries of life will get absolutely no look in at all.

It may well be that sailing is even better for you the more of it you do. That thought crossed my mind when I was in Fiji in July preparing for our year-long feature and video series on bluewater sailing techniques. Fiji is a popular stopover on the round-the-world itinerary and for Australian and New Zealand sailors wishing to escape the winter. By the time they’ve reached these islands, most are ready to relax and enjoy some leisurely island-hopping.

Although we were on the other side of the globe, the sailing world is relatively small and I was really pleased – though not especially surprised – to bump into several people I knew. What struck me about them, even those I hadn’t seen for years, was how well they looked: tanned, de-stressed, leaner, fitter. Could sailing make you look ten years younger?

I hope so – that would be another reason to go!

In our new bluewater sailing series we aim to help you build up the skills needed to turn the voyaging dream into reality, from setting up for easy, comfortable downwind sailing, to specialist pilotage arts, as well as reef snorkelling and fishing. The series begins this month on page 30 and online at yachtingworld.com. An app of the entire

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These can be ordered online via a secure server or by phoning +44 (0)23 8033 3051 from 0900-1700 Mon- Fri

series is on its way soon.

No one ever really imagines that they could lose their yacht because of steering problems, or that they might have to be airlifted off a boat that is still sound and in no danger of foundering, but this is precisely what happened to the crew of a 42ft catamaran on passage from the US to the Caribbean – read about it on page 50.

This is a controversial and cautionary story, but not all that rare. In the past five or six years I have reported several times on crews that have abandoned yachts because of rudder failure, either of the stock or the blade. It does make you stop and think: what would I do if it happened to me? This case highlights the uncomfortable dilemmas and, occasionally, public judgements that are stirred up when theoretical solutions fail.

Elaine Bunting Editor GO DIGITAL! Subscribe now to our digital edition at yachtingworld.com/digital yachtingworld.com/digital Use any of the methods listed below for the digital edition of the magazine.

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

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PICTURE THIS Sea legs

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rewmembers aboard the 1928 Fife classic Cambria check out the competition at the Argentario Sailing Week in June. The 135ft Cambria is a regular at regattas for the Panerai Classic Yacht Challenge, sponsored this year by the luxury watchmaker for the tenth time .

Photo by Guido Cantini/Panerai

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

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ON THE WIND Round Britain at 30 knots With a gale at their tails, competitors in the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race broke records and gear, reports Matthew Sheahan

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harging out into the English Channel in a ball of spray at 43 knots, Oman Sail skipper Sidney Gavignet was considering the possibility of a record-breaking run for the 2014 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race.

“The reality is that the sea state will probably slow us down a bit – and we will still have 40 knots [of wind] overnight, so for this we don’t want to rush. The quicker we go, the more wind we will have,” he reported.

His declaration left many spectators open-mouthed, wondering what his defnition of ‘don’t want to rush’ was, as Oman Sail’s slingshot start settled down to a pace of 32-34 knots for the frst half of the 1,800 nautical mile race.

A record it was. Just 3d 3h 32m after fring out of the Solent, the team completed the course and sliced 16 minutes off the outright

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record set in 2011 by the giant 130ft trimaran Banque Populaire. But what many observers were asking themselves was: what on earth was it like sailing at that speed?

“Sleeping at 30 knots requires confdence in the people you’re sailing with,” says crewmember Damian Foxall. “When you get to a certain level of tiredness you will sleep, but these boats are very, very tough. I’ve seen very experienced offshore sailors getting sick, the motion is that violent. The fact is you can’t do 30 knots and be comfortable.”

Slowing down is not an option.

“We pushed the boat hard. You have to,” explains Foxall. “It’s the only way to make them feel reasonable. If you try to sail them with all three hulls in the water they feel awful and you risk doing damage. They’re much better if you’ve got two hulls in the air.”

The race set a raft of new records,

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

M Lloyd/Lloyd Images

Oman Sail thunders into the Solent to break the Round Britain record in 3d 3h 32m

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

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on the wind

but others took a different approach to the conditions. Roderick Knowles’s Class 40, Swish, hacked more than 18 hours off the record for monohulls of 40ft or less with an elapsed time of 8d 19h, and remarks: “We knew we were the only Class 40 left in the race and from that moment on, our only goal was to fnish. Right out of the blocks we had tough conditions and it was painful.

“Several competitors set off at full speed with masthead kites, but we were more cautious. Up until we got to about halfway up the coast of Scotland we had 30 knots of wind most of the time. On the approach to St Kilda we hove to for a few minutes and put the storm sails on.

“I have a very small number of miles compared with the crew, so for me it was an enormous learning experience. But when it comes down to it, it was just four blokes, the youngest is 40, so we didn’t argue about anything or take anything personally. It is

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incredible and really cool that we beat the world record by over 18 hours. I have never held a world record before!”

Swish’s South African navigator, Nick Legatt, has sailed round the world three times and crossed the Atlantic 34 times, and was a part of Steve Fossett’s record-breaking Playstation crew in 2002, but this race is in a category of its own, he says.

“This race is far more intense in terms of weather. We had three different weather systems to contend with. Also the effects of the land are very signifcant in this race, which you don’t get crossing an ocean. We did have some communication issues on Swish, which meant we had no weather data once we left . . . There were many discussions on board about cloud shapes and air temperature, so it was really a bit old school.”

But whether breaking a record or not, everyone had a tough race. Of the 28 starters, ten retired, some inside the frst day. Sir

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

Y Riou/Dongfeng

5Above: Jiru Yang (aka ‘Wolf’) of the VO65 Dongfeng gets to grips with the grinders 5Above right: aboard Team Alvimedica Mark Towill and Dave Swete prepare to go on watch Right: Phil Harmer shows his blistered hands after he fell aboard Abu Dhabi Racing’s Azzam

J Chilholm/Abu Dhabi

Y Riou/Dongfeng

A Ross/Alvimedica

R Tomlinson

Left: for the Volvo Ocean 65s like Abu Dhabi Racing’s Azzam, this was a rare opportunity to race together. Right: a wet and wild ride, as Dongfeng’s French crewmember Kevin Escoffer fnds out

Robin Knox-Johnston retired into Calais with mainsail damage and Conrad Humphreys, on the Class 40 Cat Phone, reported that his mainsail track had come away from the mast.

Casualties 5Above: Oman Sail’s French skipper, Sidney Gavignet – “We don’t want to rush . . .”

Further round the course there were more casualties. From a dislocated shoulder to debilitating seasickness and gear failure, no one was immune. Even the big guns suffered.

Among the frst to report an injury was the Chinese-sponsored VO65, Dongfeng. After another crewmember fell on him, Pascal Bidegorry sustained a serious cut to his hand that required stitches.

Aboard Abu Dhabi Racing’s VO65, Azzam, bowman Justin Slattery and Phil Harmer suffered chest and hand injuries respectively.

A week into the race and long after the front runners had fnished, the bulk of the IRC contenders still had around 1,000nm to go and were being battered by a new and deep

Photos: M Lloyd/Lloyd Images

depression off the west coast of Scotland as a Force 9 punched through the feet. Some took shelter while others battened down the hatches and rode out the conditions.

Interestingly, overall victory went to Jens Kellinghusen’s Ker 51, Varuna, a team positioned midway between the extreme racing machines and the bulk of the more modestly proportioned IRC feet.

Taking 16 minutes off a record might not sound like a large margin over such a distance, but Oman Sail is just over half the size of the previous holder, Banque Populaire.

And the big trimaran had been able to wait for a weather window. Oman Sail’s crew had no such option. But conditions were on their side; they completed their circumnavigation without a single tack.

“The whole trip was an amazing set of coincidences,” says Foxall. “Going anticlockwise around Great Britain was fundamental to breaking the record as we

were sailing round the outside of a low pressure system. Even the tides were with us at the start and the fnish.”

Azzam had a similarly extraordinary trip, smashing the outright record for monohulls by 1d 8h as they completed the course in just over four-and-a-half days. They hadn’t tacked until the closing stages of the race.

5Above: the Oman Sail crew celebrate at the fnish. Above right: “He did it!”

Gavignet credits his teammate Damian Foxall

“We were put about by a squall just off Bembridge on our way to the fnish,” declares Walker. “That was our frst tack of the trip.”

With no less than fve new records, the 2014 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race looks set to go down as a classic. “It is hard to imagine a more perfect weather scenario,” says Walker. “It was incredible.”

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

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Photos: christopherison.com

on the wind

Ben’s new yacht?

Sir Ben Ainslie and his girlfriend, Georgie Thompson, were spotted aboard a Truly Classic 65 at Cowes Week

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s this beautiful neo-classic cruising yacht Ben Ainslie’s new boat? That was the question being asked at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week in August when he and his girlfriend, Georgie Thompson, 36, a broadcast journalist who presents BBC Radio 5 Live’s comedy show Fighting Talk, were photographed on board a Truly Classic 65 called Rita.

Ainslie has long hankered after one of these yachts. When we interviewed him for our London Olympic preview back in 2012 and asked what his dream yacht would be, he didn’t have to think long. “An André Hoek modern classic,” he replied.

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Last year, during his successful tenure with America’s Cup winners USA Team Oracle, a purchasing broker said to be acting for Ainslie bought the yacht for around €1m.

Some say he bought it for his father, Roddy, to enjoy. What is certain is that Sir Ben will not have too much time to relax on the yacht himself in the next few years as his British America’s Cup challenge, and the business surrounding it, gears up. The building of Ben Ainslie Racing’s new base in Portsmouth recently got underway.

But after the deal to buy the yacht in late 2013 she was taken back to Lymington, near Ainslie’s home, and an optimisation

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

programme was carried out at Berthon Boatyard during the winter, overseen by Roddy Ainslie.

The new yacht was rechristened Rita, the same name as all the four-times Olympic Gold Medallist’s previous boats. “I have called all my boats Rita since I was a kid. I don’t know why, but it seemed a good name for a boat so I stuck with it,” he once explained.

This Rita, however, is one about which Ainslie does not wish to talk publicly. “He doesn’t want to say: ‘Look at my boat’; that’s not him,” says his PR, Jo Grindley. So the new yacht, although a poorly kept secret locally, remained frmly below the radar until Cowes.

There, Rita was moored off The Green and was wearing the white ensign of the nearby Royal Yacht Squadron. Members of the club, such as Ainslie, are entitled to fy it from their yachts. Ben Ainslie Racing has nominated Royal Yacht Squadron Racing, a club affliated to the RYS, as the challenging club for its America’s Cup campaign.

5Above: Sir Ben and Georgie aboard Rita fying the white ensign off Cowes in August this year

WATCHING BRIEF What the Yachting World crew have been watching, reading or laughing at this month

New Techniques series See the launch video of our new Bluewater Sailing Techniques series, flmed as we sailed to some of the village communities in Fiji at yachtingworld.com or on the Yachting World YouTube channel

An elegant choice The yacht, previously named Maranatha, was built at Holland Jachtbouw in 1999 in wood epoxy. Although the frst of the Truly Classic 65s was aluminium, fve of the seven built to date have been in wood.

Described as “in perfect condition” when she was bought, the yacht had been laid up since 2008, when her German owner died,

and had previously undergone a reft.

Rita is a cruiser through and through, cutter-rigged, with hydraulic furling and aluminium spars. Below she is characteristic of Hoek’s modern classics, with an interior volume constrained by moderate beam.

Yachting World’s former Editor, David Glenn, sailed the frst Truly Classic 65 after she launched and remembers her being beautiful to helm – “fngertip sailing,” he enthuses.

David comments: “For anyone spending a lot of time sailing, [the design] has great characteristics. They tend to be a little bit dark down below and short of stowage.

I suspect Ben was attracted by the mix of aesthetics and performance. They are proper sailing boats that go well in all conditions.”

Ainslie may love speed and the latest technology, but he plainly enjoys classically beautiful form. When we asked, in the same Olympic interview, what would be his dream car, he unhesitatingly replied: “An Aston Martin Vantage.” He now counts one of those among his possessions.

5Above: we sailed a Truly Classic 65 for a feature in January 2002.

These are some of the photos from that test, showing a beautifully built sistership with a classic interior

Three in one test Our group test video comparing and contrasting three different 37ft family production cruisers.

Three very different boats; three different price tags – but why? http://tinyurl.com/luqz6jz

Spine-tingling sailing Superb heavy weather shots and spine-tingling moments of drama from the Volvo Ocean Race. www. youtube.com/watch?v=UOuM 32kdGm8&feature=youtu.be

Round Britain drama Dongfeng’s ‘emotional, raw, no-nonsense footage’. http:// tinyurl.com/no3fq3c

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

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ON THE WIND IN BRIEF

Skip comes on board Following the conclusion last month of our Heavy Weather Sailing feature and video series with Skip Novak, we welcome him as a new columnist – see page 28.

Skip has a storied background of ocean racing, cruising and expedition sailing, and owns two expedition yachts, the 54ft Pelagic and 74ft Pelagic Australis.

Skip is probably best known for racing in four Whitbread Round the World Races since 1977. At the age of 25 he navigated King’s Legend to 2nd place. He skippered Independent Endeavour in 1979, then Simon Le Bon’s Drum in the 1985/86 race, coming 3rd. In 1989 he was project manager and skipper of Fazisi, the first Soviet entry in the Whitbread Race.

He has also raced round the world in maxi multihulls, coskippering the 108ft catamaran Innovation Explorer to 2nd place in The Race, the non-stop, no limits circumnavigation in 2001.

In 1987 he built ‘little’ Pelagic and has spent every season since then in Antarctic waters, often leading combined climbing and sailing expeditions.

A superbly evocative contemporary photo by Richard Goodwin of crewmember Nina Helmiling repairing sails on the 184ft Dutch barque Europa from the book Voyages: The Sea of Seven Lost Souls, by Geoff Heriot

NZ skipper is seventh Volvo Race entry

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B Carlin/Vestas Wind

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seventh and final entry has been sealed for the Volvo Ocean Race: Vestas Sail, skippered by four-times competitor Chris Nicholson. While the New Zealander knows he is on the back foot with a late entry, no one in the fleet will be prepared to write off his chances.

Before the strict one-design that Volvo has created with the VO65, two months would simply not have been enough time to work up a sophisticated yacht while also pulling together a dream crew. But the VO65 is one of the most impressive one-design exercises we have ever seen, if only from a construction point of view. Strict controls on every detail, from deck gear and running rigging to sails and weather data, should mean that the racing will be close and Nicholson, late though he is, will stand a

decent chance and not end up just making up the numbers.

The event should also be able to return to its roots, focusing on the people and their endeavours rather than whether the boats and their advanced technology will go the distance. All things considered, it looks as if the next Volvo Race, which begins from Alicante in October, could be closer than ever.

YACHTING WORLD SEPTEMBER 2014

Above: skipper Chris Nicholson (front) with crew Peter Wibroeand and Nicolai Sehested and, at the back, Morten Albaek of Vestas

Six teams for America’s Cup Entries closed in August for the 35th America’s Cup, but who is in?

Ben Ainslie Racing (GBR), Luna Rossa (ITA), Emirates Team New Zealand (NZ) and Artemis (SWE) and Team France (FRA) have entered. Details will be announced in early September.

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One of photographer @GaryHolpin’s favourite images –’ Boat on the River Exe’. Could be the reason why a staycation is in order

Southerly Yachts in trouble again?

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ust 16 months after the builder of the Southerly range went into administration, Southerly Yachts may again be in trouble. Southerlys are renowned for their swing-keel designs and the company has commissioned some of the UK’s top naval architects in recent years, including Rob Humphreys, Stephen Jones and Ed Dubois.

The yard, based at Itchenor, in Hampshire, is said to be struggling and, as we went to press, a creditors’ meeting was due to take place. Industry magazine IBI reported: ‘Around 50 jobs are at stake and it is believed FRP Advisory, a company that helps potential businessmen purchase failing businesses, is acting as a consultancy to Southerly Yachts.’

Southerly was due to launch its latest model, a Dubois-designed 535, at the Southampton Boat Show in September, but National Boat Shows confrmed that Southerly would no longer be exhibiting.

Yachting World had scheduled a test of the frst of this new line in July, but it was cancelled by the yard at the last minute.

In April 2013 the company faced criticism when it went into voluntary liquidation following a decline in orders, yet re-emerged under a different corporate structure despite large sums being owed to suppliers.

This autumn had been looking particularly strong for British builders, with the promise of many new model launches.

5Above: the Southerly 57RS, the company’s flagship.

Southerly is renowned for its swing-keel designs

What a view! @uksa Cowes Week photographer Rick Tomlinson captures this shot up a Farr 65’s mast pic.twitter.com/uhseUtwiBz

@matthewsheahan Cover blown on my trip to world’s biggest sailmaker in Nevada. Better keep the shades on pic.twitter.com/gxQLM8YHle

Thomson’s Vendée yacht

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C Barnham

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ound the world sailor Alex Thomson has announced that his team is to start the build of a new IMOCA 60 for the 2016 Vendée Globe solo race. His new Hugo Boss is one of fve VPLP/Verdier designs for the next race and Thomson’s team believes it will give him his best chance to win on what will be his fourth attempt.

The design represents a new generation of IMOCA evolution following rule changes to help increase reliability and drive down costs in the class. The yachts will have one-design forged steel keels and one-design masts, supplied to teams as standard packages.

Some of the new yachts will share moulds – J P Dick’s new Paprec Virbac and Seb Josse’s Gitana, for example, and Armel Le Cleac’h’s Banque Populaire and Morgan Lagravière’s Safran – but Thomson’s will be a closely related one-off. It will be built in the UK in a collaboration between Thomson’s

team and Green Marine in Southampton.

Thomson’s team is bullish about his prospects for 2016. Team MD Stewart Hosford says: “It’s always been an unbalanced chess board, but this time we’ve got the design early, the team, the experience and the skipper so we are there. The reality is that one of these fve new boats is going to win, all being well, so we’ve got a good chance.”

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

Good swimming guys. @jesusrenedo shot this photo at the European ORC championship in Valencia

5Above: Thomson studies the design plans for his new Hugo Boss

@ClipperRace yacht in Trafalgar Square pic.twitter.com/5dWE8BqcKb

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Norwegian National Library, Norwegian Nat. Maritime Museum Vancouver Maritime Museum

Explorer Roald Amundsen’s ship Maud was built specially for the ice, but eventually sank at her moorings in Cambridge Bay, Canada

Amundsen’s polar ship to be raised Laura Hampton meets the team hoping to salvage a historic wreck

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eep in the heart of the North West Passage lies the wreck of one of the most important polar ice ships ever built. Designed to be as strong as possible, her solid oak frame has resisted the incredible pressures of the Arctic ice-pack for more than 80 years. Her name is Maud and she was made for the ice.

Named after the English-born Queen of Norway, this powerhouse of wooden boat design was the brainchild of one of the most famous explorers. At the time, Roald Amundsen was an international celebrity – the frst man to reach the South Pole and sail through the North West Passage.

But one prize continued to elude him: the North Pole. It was the third and fnal part of a unique and illustrious list. Rumoured to be suffering from dry rot, his former ship, Fram, owned by fellow explorer Fridtjof Nansen, was in no ft state for further years in the ice.

Amundsen needed a modern boat.

Maud was launched on 7 June 1917 in a

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

Above: the British tug Tandberg Polar is towing a submersible barge to retrieve the wreck. 3Left: project director Jan Wanggaard

modest ceremony at her home port of Volden, Norway. Wanting to keep pomp to a minimum, Amundsen chose a bucket of ice over the customary bottle of champagne, saying: “You are made for the ice. You shall spend your best years in the ice, and you shall do your work in the ice. With the permission of Her Majesty the Queen, I shall name you Maud.” As she slid gently into the water, her bow turned immediately north – an omen.

Designed by the Norwegian boatbuilder Christian Jensen, Maud was plump, round and homely. At 115ft, a third of that in width, her dish-shaped hull meant she could be easily lifted by moving pack-ice and carried towards the Pole.

The yacht spent six years trying to reach the North Pole, but sadly failed in her attempts. Rapidly running out of money, Amundsen fnally decided to attempt the North Pole by air and became the frst man to reach it by aircraft in May 1926.

Maud was eventually sold to the Hudson Bay Shipping Company, renamed Baymaud and used as a supply ship and warehouse. In 1930 she sank at her moorings in Cambridge Bay and was slowly stripped by locals. The scientifc results gathered during the

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on the wind expedition are now considered some of the most important in Arctic history.

During the past 80 years there have been several attempts to raise Maud from her Arctic grave and now it seems those dreams are becoming a reality. A team of Norwegian sailors, naval architects, engineers and restorers are midway through an ambitious 7,000 nautical mile round-trip to rescue her.

Much like their predecessors 100 years before, the team waved goodbye to their loved ones on a misty morning in Norway in June and headed north with no idea of how long they’d be gone. Not unsurprisingly, they left in a somewhat different vessel.

The Tandberg Polar is a stalwart 50-year-old British tug named after the project’s backers, a family of property developers from Volden. Behind the tug is towed a huge submersible barge, which over the past two years has been transformed from an old rusting oil-industry ballasting system into a giant metal cradle.

It was from on top of this barge that my tour of the Tandberg Polar began. Project

director Jan Wanggaard explained how it will all work: “The wreck will be raised by air-flled balloons. At the same time we’ll sink the barge by fooding its tanks and slide it under the wreck, raising the whole lot by reflling the fooded tanks with air.”

Their fate, like that of Amundsen and his men, is largely down to the amount and consistency of ice in the North West Passage.

“We have no idea when we will be back in Norway. It really depends on the success of the lift and how much ice there is around.”

Explorative dives have revealed that most of Maud’s heavy oak hull remains in a good condition thanks to the preserving qualities of the Arctic water. Detailed physical studies of Maud will take place once the salvage operation has taken place and she has been returned to Norway.

Maud’s fnal resting place will be in a custom-built museum in her home town of Volden. She will not be rebuilt, only preserved, and it is hoped that the opening ceremony will take place 100 years to the day from when she was frst launched.

The adventures of Roald Amundsen Between 1903 and 1906 Amundsen and a crew of six were the frst to traverse the North West Passage successfully. They sailed through in the Gjøa, a 45-ton fshing boat.

Four years later Amundsen led an expedition to Antarctica aboard Fram and became the frst to reach the South Pole in December 1911. Amundsen failed to sail to the North Pole by sea on his own polar ship, Maud, but reached it by air in 1926. He disappeared at the age of 55 in June 1928 while fying on a rescue mission in the Arctic His body was never found.

Next MoNth on sale 9 October

Bluewater Sailing Techniques Our new 12-part series ocean sailing series continues with advice from Dan Bower on navigating in coral

Giant slayers

Cornell abandons North West Passage

C

ruising expert Jimmy Cornell has been forced to abandon his plan to transit the North West Passage this year. Cornell launched his Garcia Exploration 45, Aventura, this spring with the intention of sailing through the Arctic to the Pacifc, but the late retreat of ice made it impossible.

Cornell had reached Beechey Island in Lancaster Sound, made famous by the tragic expedition by Sir John Franklin, whose ships, Terror and Erebus, foundered here in 1846 leading to the deaths of all 129 crew. It was here that Aventura was forced to turn round.

‘Our stop at Beechey Island was tinged with sadness . . . With the ice situation showing little improvement, even if a late

20

transit became possible, we could face the prospect of being unable to reach the Pacifc before the seas started to ice up again,’ Cornell writes in his blog. ‘In such an eventuality the only solution would be to overwinter in Arctic Canada or Alaska, something that I was not prepared to do.

‘It was therefore decided to turn around and sail back to Europe while the weather conditions in the Northern Atlantic are still favourable for our 2,700-mile passage home.’

The Arctic ice retreated this year only in August, providing a window of just a couple of weeks before closing in again. In July, a US icebreaker came to the aid of a 36ft Canadian yacht trapped in ice near Barrow, Alaska.

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

There are no limits on size in the next solo Route du Rhum race. But how do skippers sail the 100ft-plus giants solo? We fnd out

Cruising the Caribbean Pilot guide author Chris Doyle shares his secrets of the best places to visit in the Windward Islands. Plus: our tips for crossing the Atlantic

40 years and counting

Above: Jimmy Cornell’s new yacht, Aventura, reached as far as Beechey Island before turning back

We look back on the stories from the early days of the Whitbread Race and today’s one-design Volvo Ocean Race

On test: Rapier 550 Space-age British-built performance cruising catamaran put to the test

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LETTERS

www.yachtingworld.com

email yachtingworldletters@ipcmedia.com Write to The Editor, Yachting World, The Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU Letters may be edited as appropriate

Keel soundings The very sound article on keels in the September issue of Yachting World was a good read, particularly as I sat in a 30ft yacht in Benodet this summer discussing a 200mm long crack with a structural engineer.

This had occurred where the glassfibre tabbing had pulled away from the vertical face of a ‘top hat’ section transverse frame. The tabbing ran under a steel plate through which the keel was bolted and was intended to reinforce the connection between frame and bottom shell.

In both our views, the crack was the result of poor detail design coupled with poor workmanship. A better arrangement would have been a top hat section with a substantial flange (like the ‘brim’ on the top hat) through which the keel bolt could have passed. This would both have transferred the keel weight directly to the frame and helped hold the stiffener and hull shell together. Such an arrangement effectively distributes the load around the hull structure and avoids the concentrated point loads that can cause keel failure.

This is the recommended practice in the recently published International Code (Small Craft – Hull Construction and Scantlings, ISO 12215-9:2012). The emphasis is on getting the keel bolts as close to the flanges of the transverse frames as possible and well away from the middle of panels, where they are frequently seen nowadays, presenting a structural liability.

LETTER OF THE MONTH Each issue, the editor selects a letter of the month and the author receives a £100 Marine Super Store chandlery voucher courtesy of Bishop Skinner Marine.

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Although admirable in many ways, the new code does have its limitations. It explicitly considers four load cases and, in my view, these do not cover the worst-case scenarios that many sailing yachts will encounter. Only very slow speed

Who needs a keel anyway?

InvestIgatIon: keels

I found your article on keels informative and sensible. There is, of course, another solution, and that is not to have a keel in the first place! We’ve just come back from sailing our little Red Fox/Hunter 20 between Danish islands in the Baltic and usually we sail on the north coast of the Netherlands.

These are places where a fixed keel is a liability, however well it is attached.

Steve, via email

keels

many a sailor: how did this happen on a run-of-the-mill production boat?

Matthew Sheahan investigates the shocking facts about keel failure and fnds

Tor Johnson Photography

How to make sure yours is safe The photo of Cheeki Rafki without her keel sent a chill down the spine of

impact, with 1.2g, is considered and slamming is not. Slow speed impacts in cars (around typical yacht speeds) have recorded accelerations of more than 6g. When a cast iron keel hits a rock there is no crumple zone (or ‘plastic deformation’) to absorb the energy of impact and the shear load on the keel bolts and frames will be substantial.

I’ve cracked a frame hitting an uncharted rock off the coast of Skye while motoring along in a flat sea at just 4.5 knots.

However, you don’t have to hit anything solid to get very high loading – slamming while motoring or sailing upwind in steep seas will produce big accelerations. Accelerations of over 5g were measured on an Ocean 50 sailing upwind by Southampton University about 15 years ago.

Slamming puts huge loads not only on the hull to keel connection, but also on the panels of the flat-bottomed bow sections of a modern yacht.

In my view, slamming should be considered both as a one-off, extreme-value design load and also as a low-cycle cumulative-damage fatigue issue in any structural design assessment.

A final observation: lifting the cabin soleboards to check for damage around the keel connection should be done afloat when the weight of the keel will tend to open up cracks and make them easier to spot. With the boat ashore and resting on its keel, many cracks will tend to close up and be difficult to detect.

Julian Wolfram BSc PhD CEng FRINA (Emeritus Professor), Falmouth

out from experts how you can make sure your own keel is sound

Canting pioneer In the August issue, Pascal Finot is mentioned as the one who made the first canting keelboat in the world. Not so, the first was made in the Fifties by Jim Young in New Zealand. The boat was Fiery Cross, inspired by a book by L. Francis Herreshoff.

Michael Kure

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

A multihull in a storm There are two interesting letters in the September issue, one by Christer Hansson in reference to monohulls, who writes: ‘Serious bluewater design characteristics do not seem to be in high demand,’ and then a letter by Allen Hawkins asking how to handle a multihull in storm conditions.

Over my 60 years as multihull pioneer,

designer and ocean sailor, I have always paid prime consideration to seaworthiness in storm conditions. Meanwhile, I have observed other designers going the route of creature comfort and optimisation for charter usage, without giving much consideration to being able to handle the design in a storm.

Features of this type of design are high, commodious cabins, low bridgedeck clearance, plumb bows and sugar-scoop sterns (for easy boarding). As they are the majority type of production multihull, people buy them to go ocean cruising, in the belief that they will be suitable.

These standard features of the average production catamaran all have disadvantages when it comes to handling in storm conditions: high windage, slamming under the platform, lack of flare and buoyancy in the bows, combined with wide buoyant sterns, with stepped scoops that will also scoop up large following

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LETTERS will enjoy it more and sail it more, safely.

If one is concerned about having to squeeze past fogging genoa sheets mid-Atlantic, as the correspondent was, then make sure the side decks are not too narrow. Internal space under the coachroof that is more important than the security offered by wider side decks is a feature I would attribute to, say, a day or weekend yacht rather than an offshore cruiser.

The ISO regulations for reboarding from the water have just been updated; could it be because designs are now such that MOB is more likely?

Conrad Cockburn Managing director, GT Yachts

A realistic world of sailing

24

One thing should, however, be noted: that there have been various reported situations where scared sailors have abandoned their charter-style catamaran in a severe gale and then found their boat had survived (upright) on its own!

Christer Hansson’s comment regarding monohulls, in my opinion, also applies to multihulls.

James Wharram

Above: if you have the ‘right’ sort of multihull, storm sailing is not a problem Below: to jacket or not to jacket? That is the question for Yachting World photographs

The boat matters most I read with interest the letters in the September issue regarding photos depicting people not wearing lifejackets.

To a degree I concur with the sentiments in these letters that Yachting World, as a leading magazine, should be lifting the profle of lifejacket use. We all enjoy amazing photography where yachts are captured in glorious weather with crew as happy as can be, of course, and, rightly or wrongly, a lifejacket can totally ruin the feeling a photo like this attempts to convey.

The sentiment in the previous letters is that people are more likely to opt to wear lifejackets more regularly if the press were to make an attempt to take the ‘un-coolness’ out of wearing one.

OK, fne. However, the point I’d like to make is that a lifejacket is only one piece of safety equipment; while it’s important to wear a lifejacket for those unexpected circumstances, to be safe on board one must frst look seriously at the boat and how one intends to use it. Choosing a boat that has been designed for sailing (and as always, the devil is in the detail) means one

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

YW pix

ocean waves and dump them into the large commodious cockpit, which is frequently ftted with vulnerable patio doors straight into the living accommodation.

A catamaran designed like this will need to be handled quite differently in a severe storm from one of my designs.

I have always used certain features in my designs to make them able to survive severe storms, which are very different from the current trends in catamaran design: n Overhang and fare in the bows, to give lift and prevent pitchpoling. n Canoe sterns with skegs that will safely handle following seas and not broach. n Low freeboard to minimise windage. n Flush through centre decks that can easily handle a wave breaking over the boat. n High bridgedeck clearance to allow waves to pass through with minimum slamming.

So what is the answer to Allen Hawkins’s question on handling multihulls in a storm?

If you are sailing a Wharram catamaran there is a wealth of frst hand information available from people who have sailed in storm conditions over more than 40 years.

Don Brazier, New Zealand agent for Wharram cats, has collected numerous accounts of these cats surviving storm conditions and the tactics used. His account can be read here: tinyurl.com/pmsm3jj It is up to sailors of the charter type of catamaran to report their experiences in storm conditions. We, as designers, have often been asked for advice by people sailing such multihulls, but are not able to provide it, as we have no frst hand experience ourselves.

I wish to respond to the two letters published in last month’s magazine regarding photos and lifejackets.

As a professional yacht skipper, I do, of course, agree with the value of lifejackets and have my own golden rules, including mandatory lifejackets and clipping on in the hours of darkness.

However, for Mr Burch to suggest that Yachting World must ‘only show images where people wear lifejackets and are clipped on’ is ridiculous. Yachting World should refect a realistic world of sailing.

Wearing a lifejacket all the time is not a legal requirement for pleasure sailors and I hope it never will be. To be clipped on all the time in calm conditions would make moving around the deck slow and dangerous.

Whether to ‘don jackets’ or not is a skipper’s decision and we must retain this aspect of commonsense and not be nannied by publications around us.

If you were to take notice of Mr Burch’s request there would be no photos to publish of charter yachts or superyacht regattas!

Harry Blazeby

YW

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LEADING EDGE

Matthew Sheahan After decades of sailing across oceans, bluewater cruising guru Steve Dashew and his wife, Linda, went over to the ‘dark side’ and swapped sail for power. But this is a boat our Technical Editor never expected to see: a sailor’s motor yacht

f all you looked at was her general arrangement you would swear you were looking at a sailing boat. From the interior layout alone you might well deduce that the FPB64 was designed by someone who had plenty of bluewater cruising experience, and from the size of the galley you might also assume that the layout was for a US customer. In both cases you’d be right.

Studying her deck layout would add weight to your original hunch that she’s a deck saloon cruiser, albeit with an asymmetric aft cockpit; the dinghy is stowed on the aft port quarter – novel.

Below decks there is further confirmation of a well-thoughtout, practical, immaculately built deck saloon bluewater Although powerboats are cruiser. From systems to stowage, everything has been carenot really my thing, I couldn’t fully thought through with a help but be drawn in. This is build quality to match.

None of which is surprising the first I’ve been aboard that when you realise this boat was designed by bluewater cruising draws so much from sailing guru Steve Dashew. Steve and that I’d love to test her his wife, Linda, are well known for their innovative globe-trotting cruisers, such as Deerfoot, Sundeer and their favourite, the 78ft ketch Beowulf, in which the couple clocked up 40,000 miles double-handed.

But after decades of sailing the couple decided to make the move to what Steve describes as the ‘dark side’ and they swapped sail for power. ‘We’ve passed the point where we were comfortable handling this much sail by ourselves, and we did not want to take crew,’ they wrote in their blog at the time. ‘At 62 years and counting, it was no longer prudent for the two of us to cross oceans, dealing with the spinnakers and reachers that are part of our sailing equation.’

Their answer was to build a bluewater motor yacht.

Two years later and the Dashews have not only

I

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clocked up a considerable number of miles, but their 83ft Wind Horse has been the inspiration for a range of similarly styled alloy offshore motor vessels.

Looking like a cross between a naval patrol vessel and a trawler, the FPB range includes motor boats the like of which you’ve never seen before. The most recent turned up in Lymington after a 12,600 nautical mile trip from her builders in New Zealand to the UK. Grey Wolf is a 64ft version, owned by Peter Watson who, with crew Tony Jones, Jeff Holden and a team of Berthon Boatyard apprentices, worked their way home. The Lymington boatyard’s brokerage business acts as agent for the FPB range and laid on a fascinating presentation of the trip by Watson and his crew.

Although powerboats are not really my thing, I couldn’t help but be drawn in. Perhaps it was the description of the trip across the Pacific, or the familiar way the boat was run, or maybe it was the different approach to clocking up the miles.

Or perhaps it was simply the similarity between this boat and Jimmy Cornell’s Garcia 45 Aventura (see our video at yachtingworld.com) that so impressed me. The FPB64 is a motor version of the same concept, a go-anywhere luxury cruiser that would surely inspire even the most timid coastal cruising sailor to head over the horizon. This is the first powerboat I’ve been aboard that draws so much from sailing that I would genuinely love to go and do a test.

While she’s no faster than a typical sailing boat of the same size, she will clock up the same miles effortlessly, day after day. But what really drew my attention was when I started to think of the number of hours we have spent motoring a sailing yacht during a cruise. Overlay that with the number of hours spent motoring up and down confined waters instead of sailing a dead beat with multiple tacks or a dead run and numerous gybes and you start to see the appeal.

A sailor’s motor yacht. I never thought I’d say that.

To see the boat and range see www.setsail.com Twitter: @matthewsheahan

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SOUNDINGS

Skip Novak In the first edition of his new column, Skip Novak takes a trip down the Hamble River and memory lane

n a summer Sunday a sailing friend of mine suggested we take our families for a spin on the Hamble River on his motor boat (he is a sailing friend converted). With 440hp on the back, once out of the Itchen River we went at speed down Southampton Water passing various cruiser-racers ambling up and down the channel under sail. I felt slightly traitorous, what with all the dirty looks.

But I could see my friend’s point if you want to get from A to do something at B. The kids, of course, loved it, but the fun part for the oldies really began at the entrance to the Hamble River as we throttled back to the required six knots. Gee, we passed the very spot where, embarThe memories came back rassingly, we ran the Whitbread with each passing feature: maxi Drum aground on the south bank in 1985 . . . the Royal Southern Yacht It was one of those magical Club; Simon Le Bon caught sunny days on the river, with little or no breeze, but enough with a barmaid in his room – zephyrs for fleets of dinghies to make way, washing the Warsash tabloid field day . . . and Hamble village river banks in kaleidoscopes of colour.

My kids have been to the Hamble on previous visits, but it was their first time afloat here, if you don’t count the public jetty where crabbing was the main activity. I reflected that the last time I was actually on the river – and not in a pub by the river – was more than 20 years ago.

The memories came back with each passing feature: the Royal Southern Yacht Club; Simon Le Bon caught with a barmaid from the King & Queen in his room – tabloid field day; the jetty at Port Hamble where I brought Drum alongside the maxi Côte d’Or under sail after we blew off our propeller in the Solent.

Skipper Eric Tabarly, a man of few words at the best of times, gave his nod of approval as we glided to a halt

O

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

safely alongside – one of those grand moments.

Hamble Yacht Services was the sailing base for Drum in the 1985 Whitbread, and then Fazisi in 1989.

Our engaging Soviet crew became a focal point of amusement and bemusement for the locals. I will never forget paying off all our creditors from a suitcase full of cash in the Portacabin on the hard, just before the start.

I used to kayak up and down the river to work at Moody’s. On this sunny day kayaks were out in force, along with all manner of floating objects old and new, in repair and disrepair, rowed, paddled, sailed and motored, all with contented folk picnicking away.

Of course, the fairway is much narrower than 20 years ago as marinas have gobbled up river bank space so the flotilla jockeyed for position while working up and downtide. It was right out of Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat, edition 2014.

At the bend in the river I could just make out the Old Ship, the Drum crew’s local pub. Photographer Rick Tomlinson and I once jumped out of the second storey window there as the morning work whistle blew. It had been a mega ‘lock-in’ even outlasting the publican. Not much was accomplished by either of us that day.

I looked to port and there was The Jolly Sailor, now renovated for family lunches, hard by the celebrated Elephant Boatyard, now as then – and hopefully in the future – left unchanged. We passed under the A27 and, lo and behold, even more marinas! The iconic Aladdin’s Cave chandlery barge still exists, though, which I regularly trawled for old parts and fittings when building Pelagic in 1987.

Finally, north of the M27 we found open river and some solitude. We took high water at the creek that leads to Curbridge and the Horse and Jockey. After kayaking up on a rising tide on one of those misty winter mornings long ago, a pub lunch ended in a desperate struggle covered in mud trying to get back afloat late in the afternoon, tide down and several pints accounted for.

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1

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Introducing the series

Navigating in coral

3

Coping with squalls

4

Sailing with poled-out headsail

5

Spinnaker for ocean passages

6

MOB under spinnaker

Welcome to

Master the arts of downwind passagemaking and some of

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

7

MOB recovery

8

Night watches

9

Anchoring in coral waters

10

Using a dinghy

11

Snorkelling on reefs

12

Fishing on board

the Pacific

the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most beautiful cruising grounds open up

We went to Fiji to prepare a year-long series on these skills. Elaine Bunting reports

Dan and Em Bowerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Skye 51 Skyelark of London sailing along a narrow channel off the tiny island of Wadigi in Fiji

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

31

2

1

Introducing the series

Navigating in coral

3

Coping with squalls

4

Sailing with poled-out headsail

T

he Russian owner of a superyacht came ashore at the Fijian island of Wadigi and asked the owner, Tracey Johnston, how much she wanted for it. “It’s not for sale,” she told him. “No, how much do you want?” he insisted.

But Wadigi wasn’t for sale, not at any price, and as soon as you land on the island you can understand the conversation from both sides: why the Russian wanted to buy; why Tracey didn’t care to sell.

Wadigi is where Tracey and her husband, Jim, run a small and very beautiful island hotel, and she tells us this story as she leads us to the top of her island to shoot the final footage for our new Bluewater Sailing Techniques series, which we launch in print and online this month. The island overlooks a narrow channel and this was a perfect vantage point to see the yacht Skyelark of London reaching across between two dazzling turquoise-coloured reefs.

With palm trees and long beaches, empty bays and hundreds of quiet islands, Fiji is a tropical dreamscape. The whole of the south Pacific, in its vast half-a-globe entirety, is filled with islands so beautiful you cannot quite believe you’re lucky enough to be there. But we were there: me, IPC Media’s creative director, Brett Lewis, cameraman Mike Deppe and Jonathan Reynolds, an insurance claims specialist representing our sponsors, Pantaenius. It was at the suggestion of Pantaenius that we came to the Pacific. When we proposed a bluewater series they said: go there; this is where yachts are heading now. Happy to oblige.

I’ve cruised among the Pacific islands several times before, on passages from the Marquesas to Tahiti and onwards to Tonga, and have always considered it to be the finest sailing I have ever done. Simply put, the Pacific is magic. Most yachtsmen do not get there. They say they plan to, but the Panama Canal is a portcullis gateway, a commitment too far. Once through, you are almost certainly committed to sailing round the world and so faced with a series of ocean passages to equal or exceed a transatlantic crossing.

This immensity has kept much of the Pacific remote, and it remains in my mind – and that of most others who have sailed there – a Holy Grail of cruising. What we went there to do was to illustrate the passagemaking and pilotage skills that will set sailors up for crossing any ocean safely and comfortably, and add on to that a few of the extra arts to use, and enjoy, among the coral atolls of the Pacific.

We joined Skyelark at Port Denerau Marina, which lies a few miles from the international airport in Nadi. Here we met Dan and Em Bower, who had cruised from the UK to Fiji in the World ARC rally and recently left it so that they could sail to Australia and continue onwards in their own time.

Dan and Em, both full-time professional skippers (see page 35), have logged several hundred thousand

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Top: a local house in the village of Yalobi, Waya Island.

Above and right: Em Bower at the helm; and the yacht she owns with husband, Dan, the 51ft Skyelark.

Right and below: Wadigi Island, a tiny private resort

5

Spinnaker for ocean passages

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MOB under spinnaker

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Using a dinghy

Pacific Ocean 177°E

The Pacific is immense and remote – to my mind the Holy Grail of cruising

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Snorkelling on reefs

Yasawa Group

Fishing on board

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MAMANUCA ISLANDS MONURIKI

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MALOLO LAILAI ISLANDS

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Port Denerau Marina

International Airport

Nadi

2

Navigating in coral

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Coping with squalls

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

BLUEWATER SAILING TECHNIQUES SERIES

miles. They usually work with charter guests of varying expertise, so were ideal people to demonstrate the skills needed for tradewinds ocean voyaging.

Port Denerau is a big, modern marina surrounded by a golf course, water park, hotels and a shopping mall; great, perhaps, if you’ve had months among desert islands, but not somewhere that felt truly Fijian. So we left and motored to the island of Mololo Lalai and Musket Cove Yacht Club.

The moorings and open-fronted, palm-thatched ‘clubhouse’ bar is a congregating point for long-distance yachtsmen, and the anchorage has been famous among round the world cruisers ever since it was set up in 1976 by an Australian, Dick Smith.

Our first few days were spent sailing out of Musket Cove practising sailing wing and wing with poled-out headsail and main – the standard, no-nonsense rig for downwind ocean voyaging – and trying some man overboard routines.

With that done, we set sail for a taste of out-island Fiji.

The Yasawa group is a sparsely populated chain of hilly islands to the north-west of Viti Levu. The first European to sail through them was Captain William Bligh in 1789 who, with a handful of loyal crew, had been set adrift in an open boat without charts or compass following the mutiny on HMS Bounty. They tried to make a safe landing.

Bligh had previously fled the island of Tofua when one of his crew was stoned to death by natives and feared a hostile reception at Yasawa.

H e wa s r i g ht : t h e y we r e chased by cannibals in what is now known as Bligh Water and had to continue westward.

They finally made landfall at Timor after an incredible 3,600-mile voyage.

So life in the islands of Fiji barely changed until the 19th Century and was only charted by a US expedition in 1840. Even today some of the outer islands have few visitors other than yachtsmen.

We sailed along the western coast of Waya and anchored as the sun set off the village of Yalobi, a community of some 150 people sheltering beneath a high ridge of hills. During the night, the wind went very light and at times we were lying beam on to a slight scend that sent us rolling uncomfortably. In the morning we decided it was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate how to use a tender to lay a kedge anchor and hold the yacht bows to the swell.

No sooner had we started preparing than, sure enough, a breeze ruffled the bay and Skyelark swung into wind and sea. The forecast was for light winds for the next few days so we carried on, videoing Dan laying out the kedge astern. We attached a tripping line to the anchor and paid it out, but at some point later on the buoy at the end of the line came loose and floated away. Later that was to be an inconvenience that could have been a real problem.

After that, we went ashore. Island life in Yalobi is simple.

The villagers live a barefoot life, mainly in small, tin-roofed houses with only one room, where the living quarters are separated from the sleeping area by a curtain. Cooking is done on a raised platform outside and water is

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Sailing with poled-out headsail

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Spinnaker for ocean passages

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MOB under spinnaker

Cruising in the Pacific While ocean passages in the Pacific tend to be easier sailing than the Atlantic, it does have its challenges. Dan Bower of Skyelark says: “The sailing has been easier: calmer, with lighter winds and not so squally. Most of the sailing we’ve done has been with poled-out headsails.

“But the distances between ‘civilised’ ports and technical services is greater. Chandlery is hard to find and getting spares

by FedEx can take weeks. It took three months for us to get generator parts. You have got to be a lot more self-sufficient and carry more spares on board.

“And the navigation is more taxing. The quality of the charts is poorer and there is a lack of up to date pilotbooks, so finding safe anchorages and navigating among reefs, and getting into lagoons and atolls is harder.”

Our experience in having to hurry away from Waya is also typical among the south Pacific islands. Many sailors more used to conditions in the eastern Caribbean do not expect such drastic wind changes as commonly occur in this area and every year boats get into serious trouble when caught out by a sudden windshift.

You can be anchored in a sheltered spot and a 180° windshift can suddenly put the boat onto a lee shore, faced with a violent swell quickly formed by several miles of fetch across

the wide lagoon. You have to be ready to leave in an instant!

Cruising in the Pacific is seasonal. The southern summer is the cyclone season, when an estimated 80 per cent of cruisers leave, either carrying on round the world or dipping down to Australia or New Zealand. Cyclone-proof harbours are scarce in the Pacific, though more are being built – there are some in Fiji, including Vuda on Viti Levu and Musket Cove. At the former, yachts are hauled out and secured in dug-out pits.

Although they may seem daunting, none of these points should deter you from setting your sights on the Pacific. I have never talked to anyone who has cruised there who wouldn’t seize the opportunity to return.

The Pacific islands are nearly all safe and friendly, there is a genuine welcome from local people almost everywhere you go, the seascape and landscape are sensational and the island cultures among the most interesting anywhere in the world. If you get the chance, go.

Alamy

1

Introducing the series

Filming laying a kedge anchor using a dinghy

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MOB recovery

8

Night watches

9

Anchoring in coral waters

10

Using a dinghy

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Snorkelling on reefs

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Fishing on board

A year of expert instruction Our new Bluewater Sailing Techniques series carries on from two previous, highly successful multimedia series that we have done in partnership with marine insurance company Pantaenius: the Sail Safer, Sail Faster series with solo sailor Pip Hare and our Storm Sailing Techniques series with Skip Novak. Both of these are still available as an iPad app from the iTunes store.

This series looks at essential topics for anyone planning to go bluewater cruising or to make an ocean passage, but with a couple of twists on navigating in coral that apply especially in the Pacifc.

We will be running a feature each month for a year, accompanied by a free video

Series author: Dan Bower

online, and in January we will launch the

Dan and Em Bower, both in their thirties, are lifelong sailors. Six years ago they bought Skyelark of London, a Skye 51 by American designer Rob Ladd, built in Taiwan in 1986, and have been sailing and chartering her ever since, making some 12 transatlantic crossings and covering around 60,000 miles.

Before that they both worked as charter skippers and instructors, and Em has sailed in yachts as varied as a Challenge 67 to Antarctica and an Open 60 in an Atlantic storm.

When we joined them they had just left the World ARC round the world rally to continue on to Australia by themselves.

interactive app of the complete series of

Setting the spinnaker to

Dan and cameraman Mike

demonstrate what to do

Deppe on the spreaders to

if you have an MOB while

flm how to con through a

sailing with a kite

narrow pass into a lagoon

these subjects: Nov 2014

2

Navigating in coral

Dec 2014

3

Coping with squalls

Jan 2015

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Sailing with poled-out headsail

Feb 2015

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Spinnaker sailing for ocean passages

Mar 2015

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Man overboard under spinnaker

Apr 2015

7

Man overboard recovery

May 2015

8

Night watches

Jun 2015

9

Anchoring in coral waters

Jul 2015

10 Using a dinghy

Aug 2015

11 Snorkelling on reefs

Sept 2015 12 Fishing on board

Don’t miss any of the Bluewater Sailing Techniques series Subscribe to Yachting World. From this month, we have a special offer running to get a digital subscription with every print subscription. See ‘subscribe’ at

yachtingworld.com

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

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1

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Introducing the series

Navigating in coral

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Coping with squalls

taken from standpipes. It is a subsistence economy: the villagers grow fruit and vegetables such as kasava, plantain, mango and bananas in their gardens, travelling by boat on Fridays to Viti Levu to sell any surplus.

Ironically enough, the first person we met was an Australian, Carolyn Mowbray who, with her husband, Tony, has lived in Yalobi on and off for the past three years. Tony is a round the world sailor who first visited Waya three years ago in his yacht, Commitment, found the village so friendly and beautiful that he decided to return and now lives here for much of the year. The Mowbrays have helped organise funding and practical projects for the village, and that day Tony was completing a two-year scheme to install solar power in the village school.

Carolyn introduced us to Atu, a local fisherman, who took us hunting for octopus among the reefs. As we paddled along, I asked him how he knew where he could find them hiding, and he merely noted that they are “very clever” and cover the entrances to their hiding holes with fine stones or sand. Atu was rarely fooled, however, and prodded them out with a fine metal rod, before thrashing them to release the ink and kill them off. After a couple more hours of bashing to tenderise the meat back at home, he cooked them with plantain and coconut cream. It was delicious.

Tony had arranged for us to take part in a traditional Fijian sevu sevu ceremony, where we would be welcomed to the village by the chief and elders, drink kava with them and dance. The ritual is more than merely a tourist gesture. Another settler we met several days later told us that only eight per cent of Fiji is privately owned and that landing on an island without getting ceremonial permission, even if it is uninhabited, is a serious breach of etiquette.

Tony and Carolyn suggested that we might like to have a meal with a local family, and that by paying them ten Fiji dollars a head (about €3) it would help one of the poorer groups. So she arranged for us to have dinner with Andi and her mother-in-law, Taisita.

Andi’s husband Tom died last year from liver cancer at the age of 42, leaving her to care for her son, five-year-old Tom junior. She lives with Taisita in a one-room house. Unlike some of their neighbours, they had a sofa and a raised bed, on which we were immediately offered seats. As it grew dark they lit a paraffin lamp and we all sat together on the floor while they brought out bowls of plantain, kasava, sea grapes and tuna, stewed mutton and curried papaya, a feast of special dishes. Andi’s father, Tui, joined in and answered our questions about the way of life on Waya and on the big island, and lamented the problem of addiction to kava that he said blights many Fijian communities.

As we were making our way back to the beach we could see the tops of the palms blowing wildly. A full moon was lighting up the bay and it was clear right away that the wind was up and driving a short chop into the bay.

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

4

Sailing with poled-out headsail

Above: a feast of local food is prepared for us by Yalobi islander Andi and her mother-inlaw, Taisita.Right: buying kava roots in the market in Nadi for the traditional sevu sevu ceremony in Yalobi (below)

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Spinnaker for ocean passages

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MOB under spinnaker

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Night watches

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Anchoring in coral waters

Skyelark was lying off a lee shore, with a reef not far astern.

We needed get back on board and leave, sharpish.

The six of us got back in two wet dinghy trips. Clambering on board from alongside required careful timing: Skyelark was hobbyhorsing enthusiastically in the swell. The problem now was that we were lying to both bower anchor and kedge, so the stern anchor had to be retrieved (or, if not, buoyed and left behind) before we could leave.

The tripping line, minus its buoy, had sunk so Dan and Jonathan drove out to it in the moonlight pulling along the rode. When over the top of the anchor, Jonathan gave a huge heave and muscled it out. There was no safe opportunity to get the outboard off the dinghy in the swell and darkness; we just had to go. We weighed anchor, slowly motoring ahead as the windlass wound back in the 80m of chain we had payed out and we were off.

Our bail-out plan was to motor to windward through the night back to Viti Levu and a safe, protected bay behind a line of mangroves. By the time we arrived at about 0200 the wind had died again.

Contained within an outer line of reefs, the Fijian archipelago is dotted with reefs and extreme care is needed when making landfall. This is the case across most of the south Pacifc, where the charting is notoriously inaccurate. Large areas have been poorly surveyed and never properly updated – I have heard of some atolls in French Polynesia where the charts have been four or more miles out. In Fiji, on average between two and 12 yachts are lost on reefs each year.

Modern satellite imaging and free sources such as Google Earth are fast changing this, and there are a number of smart, community-minded cruisers who have geo-referenced images far more accurately than current paper or electronic charts (we feature this next month). Nonetheless, there is no substitute for caution and age-old pilotage methods, and these are what we went to the island of Mana to demonstrate.

Neither electronic nor paper charts show any lagoon at all at Mana. But a lagoon does exist behind the coral reefs, as does a very narrow tide-swept pass through the coral reefs.

To enter, you need to time the tide right and thread through to a large anchorage strewn with coral heads.

With Dan at the spreaders getting an excellent view of the pass from above and me at the bow, Em worked our way in under engine, slowly motoring ahead against a gentle ebb. Once into the entrance we were committed.

Many of the atoll passes in the Pacifc are poorly marked,

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

Top: flming our octopus-hunting expedition with local fsherman Atu.

Above: octopus is a staple part of the diet on the island.

Here is one being smoked outside a villager’s home.

Bottom: all the thirsty ocean voyager could need: cold beer and wi-f!

10

Using a dinghy

11

Snorkelling on reefs

12

Fishing on board

and the Tuamotus and the atoll of Suwarrow in the Cook Islands, for example, are completely unmarked. The pass at Mana had channel posts, but several of these had fallen down or moved from their intended positions, illustrating why conning in visually is essential.

Once inside the lagoon at Mana, we got ready to anchor. Dan attached small buoys on short lines at every 10m of chain paid out, in order to lift the cable just off the sea bed and prevent it wrapping around any unseen coral heads.

While you want to avoid damaging any coral, heads rising from the bottom can be impossible to avoid if you are anchoring in a deep lagoon and hooking the chain on one can make weighing anchor again really diffcult.

After a night in Mana we left to do some more flming. In the movie Cast Away, Tom Hanks stars as a FedEx employee and postage obsessive who is involved in a plane crash over the Pacific and is washed up on a deserted island. That island is Monuriki, a small, but dramatic lump of rock in the ocean that trails a golden sand beach like the tail of a comet.

We had a brisk beat up to Monuriki under one reef, but when we got there the wind had risen sharply to 30 knots and more, and low clouds of drizzle were sweeping across at speed. Fiji is at a point in the southern Tropics that comes into contact with weather systems tracking east from Australia, yet the forecasts we received didn’t tally with reality.

In any case, it was too windy to stop, and even landing briefly would have been sporting, so we turned round and enjoyed an exhilarating sail downwind to Musket Cove, slaloming between the reefs.

We all hankered after a return to Waya, a walk up the hills and the batch of special coconut lolo buns we’d ordered from a local woman in Yalobi before being hurriedly forced to do a runner in the dark, but there was no time to go back.

So we set ourselves up in Musket Cove to carry out the rest of the flming and made the most those enticements that, when all the ocean sailing and navigation is done, are YW bait for cruisers the world over: cold beer and wi-f.

P Wyeth/pwpictures.com

COWES WEEK

A vintage year It was a vintage year at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week, despite a lack of wind. The Yachting World team come across some old faces, new blood and some seriously close calls

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

R Tomlinson/AAMCW

W

hat odds would the bookies have offered had you tried to bet on last year’s top three boats taking the same fnal positions in the 2014 edition of Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week? Doubtless the winnings would have paid for most people’s week and more. But by the end of what was a quiet week on the weather front, that was precisely what happened.

The biggest news of the week was that one of the smallest boats in the 800-boat feet – Malcolm Hutchings and Andy Ramsey’s Squib Lady Penelope – scooped the top trophies, taking a class win (for the fourth time), a White Group win and the overall winner’s trophy, all for the second time.

To hit the jackpot twice is extraordinary, but that was just the start of it. The Squib duo’s closest competition for the overall trophy was none other than Adam Gosling’s Corby 36 Yes!, which was the same boat they had pipped to the post last year when Gosling’s team won Black Group.

Gosling himself repeated his performance of 2013, sliding in front of 2nd-placed Charles Ivill’s J/97 ETB Tyres Just Like That for a second time to take the overall Black Group victory – on this occasion by just 0.08 of a point.

In this battle at least, the weather – or rather the lack of it towards the end – played a part in delivering the fnal results, denying Ivill the opportunity to deliver just one more bullet.

There is always a weather spanner to be thrown in the works at some point at Cowes and this year it came when the sea breeze refused to play ball at the end of the week. Though some classes were fortunate and managed to lose only Friday’s racing, those in the mid-Solent were not so lucky.

The cancellation of any racing is frustrating, particularly towards

Left: hundreds of race starts and over 8,000 fnishing times taken at the Royal Yacht Squadron

the end of a regatta when crews are starting to fne-tune what they have to do to get onto the podium. Some believe the demands of the many shoreside activities and functions put pressure on the race organisers to call off racing early. The event’s CEO Stuart Quarrie is well aware of this concern and was quick to highlight a possible scenario for next year.

“It was a good week and just a shame about the wind on Thursday and Friday,” he said. “We are working on a system, especially for days when we know the wind is coming in, where we do go racing even if it starts at 1530, but set a time deadline after which the results count for day prizes and trophies, but not for the points series. That means anyone who wants to go to the cocktail parties can do.”

For the bulk of the feet the racing was much as expected, albeit without any threat of a big Tuesday, wet Wednesday or any other major weather event. Instead, breezes rarely exceeded 20 knots, the sun shone and Cowes High Street was rammed. All of which made it a safe bet that 2014 would be counted as another success.

Main image: champagne conditions as the Mills 39 Local Letterbox Zero II heads the feet in IRC Class 1

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

41

Photos: R Tomlinson/AAMCW

COWES WEEK

Yes! He did it again Adam Gosling won Black Group for a third time. How did he do it?

“Going in as the smallest boat in the feet was always going to be a challenge,” says Adam Gosling referring to his Corby 36 Yes!. “In this situation it is a case of following the big boats round the course. Generally, this determines the route you take, but the key to our win was good starts. We always sailed well off the

5Above: the well sailed Corby 36 might have been the smallest boat in her class, but she got some great starts

upgrade to an electric backstay made a big difference. “By adding an electronic, hydraulic backstay we took a slight rating hit, but it is an improvement on last year. The pump system we had before was quite disruptive and the mainsheet trimmer probably wasn’t using the backstay enough.”

X72 Venus, skippered by Nik Froud (18) and crewed by two of his friends, Charlie Cox (19) and Henry Lloyd-Williams (21), all three of them former RYA youth squad sailors.

Unfazed by the crowded line and their frst Cowes Week, the trio won Wednesday’s race, making Froud the youngest helmsman to win an XOD race at Cowes Week.

“I’m not interested in sailing against the

clock,” he says. “I like one-design, this is the biggest feet so it was a natural choice.

I guess we’re used to big feets and close tactics in the Olympic class racing that we’ve done and the sails aren’t that different from what we’re used to in Lasers and 420s. The key issues for us were dealing with the momentum and learning how to sail slowly.”

It is a skill they picked up quickly.

start and, although we knew we’d eventually get buried by the slightly larger boats along the course, by sailing well we were able to stay ahead of them.”

Among the few changes Gosling made to the boat for this year’s event, including a replacement jib and spinnaker, he says the

ingridabery.com

X factor – big feet, old boat, new young team

Regularly the biggest feet during the week, the XOD class can usually expect to grab the headlines for this fact and the highly competitive nature of its racing. But although once again this year the class had a total of 80 boats, the focus of attention for at least part of the week was the pressure that young sailors were putting on the old hands.

Particularly impressive was the crew of

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5Above: John Tremlett and his crew on Lass were overall winners, but it was 18-year-old Nik Froud aboard Venus in 9th who stole the XOD show

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

Down to the wire

Photos: R Tomlinson/AAMCW

It was a tiebreak in some of the older classes

M Lloyd/Lloyd Images

Jo Richards’s tweaked Folkboat, Woof

Racing for bragging rights As a side show to the main regatta, the Artemis Challenge round the island charity invitational has become one of the highlights of Cowes Week over the last eight years, attracting some of the top new ocean racing designs and celebrity crews to race round the Isle of Wight.

Among the six yachts entered were three VO65 one-designs lining up together for the frst time. Under the gaze of the media, this was a race to gain bragging rights.

Ian Walker and his crew on Abu Dhabi Racing’s Azzam were ranked as favourites in the class, ahead of Chinese entry, Dongfeng, and the women’s crew, Team SCA, and had the added spice of Simon Le Bon and his wife, Yasmin, aboard.

Le Bon raced in the 1986 Whitbread Round the World Race aboard Drum, and he

appeared to enjoy racing these grand-prix yachts as much as ever.

To add some competition, the Le Bons were pitted against Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara Phillips, and her rugby player husband, Mike Tindall, on the IMOCA 60 Artemis. Phillips also seems to love offshore racing – this was her third appearance at the Artemis Challenge. “It was an absolutely beautiful day to be out on the water and I really enjoyed the action. The Artemis Challenge is an event I enjoy every time I do it,” she commented.

Light winds caused the course to be shortened at Bembridge. The overall winner was French sailor Lionel Lemonchois in the 80ft trimaran Prince de Bretagne, and 1st among the VO65s was Ian Walker (with the Le Bons) on Azzam.

Belgrano’s 1939 Laurent Giles 38, Whooper

5Above: overall winner of the Artemis Challenge round the Island charity race was Lionel Lemonchois racing Prince de Bretagne

IRC Class 6 – Whooper and Woof Former Team New Zealand structural engineer Giovanni Belgrano’s stiffest competition during the week came from an equally renowned sailor, builder and engineer: Jo Richards. Both boats can be considered traditional, but Belgrano’s 1939 Laurent Giles 38 Whooper rated 68 points higher than Richards’s refurbished and tweaked Folkboat Woof, which meant they rarely saw each other during the week despite having similar-looking scorelines that added up to the same result by the end.

In the end Whooper triumphed over Woof.

Cowes newcomers

Victory day Wednesday was rounded off with a One Hour Victory race off The Green, starting at 1730, for the Victory class in recognition of its 80th anniversary. The race, in which each boat was crewed by a Cowes Week supporter, was won by Chatham Marine, ahead of Volvo and Solent Events.

The week’s racing was anything but showcase sailing, however, with seven boats from the 18-strong Victory feet taking a podium fnish at some point. Janet Dee and Shaun Hopkins’s Variety won the class overall, ahead of Jim Downing’s Ziva and Kim Taylor’s Zest tied in 2nd.

The battle between two new sportsboats in the UK, the VX One (top) and Viper (above) – of which there were three each – turned heads in the Sportsboat Class

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

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COWES WEEK

A week of ups and downs

Six days into the event and the wind died, leaving skippers fghting for podium places frustrated. White Group bore the brunt of the abandonments

Going for a dip. There were many ways to pass the time when the AP fag was fying on Slow Thursday

More stalls and a greater variety of entertainments made for a new buzz in the Yacht Haven when racing fnished for the day

A classic beat to the fnish in Class 2 as the Prima 38 Revive and Artemis Figaro 43 pass the Trinity House vessel Galatea

Once again the biggest feet at Cowes was the XOD, which enjoyed some close racing. Here Pete Mitchellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mersa holds off Hamish Calderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Leading Wind

Tripping up on a breezy run for the fnish is par for the course. Hunter Impala Trudi, skippered by Chris Williams, has a lively moment

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

people watching Pippa Middleton at the helm of the UKSA’s Farr 45 with Olympic Gold medallist Shirley Robertson calling the shots

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh at the Squadron to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Cowes Combined Clubs – it was originally his idea!

This year Irvine Laidlaw’s Reichel Pugh 52 Cape Fling II was the overall winner in the big boat class, Class 0

Royal rivals.

HRH Princess Anne raced against her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, on UKSA’s Farr 65

The Redwings were out in force once again, with a feet of 25 on the startline.

Harlequin, sailed by John Raymond and Matt Alexander, came 2nd overall

Rain did little to dampen spectators’ enthusiasm for the traditional freworks at the end of a successful Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week

Photos: R Tomlinson/AAMCW, I Roman, M lloyd/Lloyd Images, C Ison, Getty Images, ingridabery.com

Friends ashore, but enemies afoat – two VO65 skippers, Ian Walker and Sam Davies, share a joke

A sport to share – rugby player Mike Tindall and equestrian Zara Phillips race on IMOCA 60 Artemis

Simon and Yasmin Le Bon aboard Ian Walker’s Abu Dhabi Racing VO65, Azzam

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

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COWES WEEK

Notes from a sewer rat

Photos: R Tomlinson/AAMCW

Matthew Sheahan steps aboard an IRC racer and a hotshot quarter tonner

Ingridabery.com

D

5Above: on the rail with owner Richard Matthews (left) aboard his Hakes 42 Oystercatcher XXX

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oing ‘sewer’ and hauling the kite down through the forward hatch might not provide the best view of the racing at mark roundings, but it is still better than simply being the port side assistant cunningham trimmer.

Beggars can’t be choosers, as they say, and while jumping from boat to boat during the week can provide a great regatta snapshot, it would be unrealistic to expect to be given a job with any serious responsibility, particularly if that meant displacing a regular crewmember.

At least that would be the case aboard most boats in the IRC feet, where the need for people on the rail results in a general over-staffng, but then I hadn’t allowed for Richard Matthews’s renowned enthusiasm for sharing the experience.

Keen to have me witness the light and responsive feel of his Hakes 42 Oystercatcher XXX, I was offered the helm for an entire downwind leg, which ran from Lymington to Lee on Solent – perfect.

Having gybed our way the length of the Solent without losing any distance (or pride) in the process, it was back to sewer duties at the mark and the windward rail for the fnal beat home. At least I would know what to expect tomorrow for my second day’s racing aboard the fush-decked grand-prix racer.

But when tomorrow came it was all change and I was handed the mainsheet for a race that had more turning marks than hairpins in an Alpine pass – again plenty to think about and every reason to believe I had earned the T-shirt.

But while the boat was familiar – I had

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

sailed with Matthews and his crew last year – the competition in Class 0 was very different. A broad mix of boats, from the smallest boat in the feet, Baraka GP, a Ker 40, through to the largest, the Volvo 70 Monster Project meant there was a huge variety of craft on the start line. The classic 12-metre Italia proved a weapon upwind and the three Farr 45s continued to prove how competitive the design is, even at 18.

But by the end of the week it was Lord Laidlaw’s Reichel Pugh 52 Cape Fling II that took the overall class victory, narrowly beating Tokoloshe II, a modifed GP42.

Day three was a change of gear entirely for me, as I stepped down from Oystercatcher’s towering topsides to race aboard Peter Morton’s regatta-winning quarter tonner, Bullit.

I was handed the mainsheet once again.

Perfect, I thought, especially as the mainsail looked tiny by comparison. What I had forgotten, however, was how tricky these eccentric 25-footers are to keep on their feet in 18-20 knots of breeze and how heavy 4:1 feels with no ratchet. Add to that a typical Solent chop and for each of the upwind legs it felt as if we were lifting Bullit over every wave as we carried her upwind.

As we squared off to sail our maximum VMG downwind and the hull wedged between the short waves, she felt more like a unicycle built for fve as we trimmed and tweaked to keep the hull under the rig. But I still wouldn’t have traded the ride in one of the hottest classes in the Solent.

Three great days’ racing and only a short spell in the sewer before the Solent summer vacuum struck.

Beginners try sailing at Cowes You don’t need to know how to sail to enjoy Cowes Week. That was the message being promoted by the organisers, together with local charity and sailing school UKSA. For a suggested donation of £5, the UKSA took groups of fve people from the age of six upwards out on one of their Colgate 26 keelboats each day for a full hour’s introduction and training.

The scheme was fully booked throughout the week and by the end of the regatta had taken some 520 people sailing.

Instructor Jonny Michael told us: “It’s a mixture of people. Most have sailed once or twice before, lots are complete beginners and some want to return to sailing. Yesterday we had a guy who used to sail a lot and had a stroke, and he wanted to try sailing again.”

Together with another clever fundraising plan called Boss up a Mast, whereby you hoist your boss 100ft up the mast of a UKSA Farr 65 and keep them there until they agree to give a donation, they have raised over £15,000 already this week.

The money will be used by the UKSA to take every Year 6 schoolchild on the Isle of Wight out sailing.

“You’d be surprised how many people on the island have never been sailing, or even out on the water. Or who can’t even swim,” said Michael.

Young stars

Twenty one boats took part in the Under 25 Trophy event, which attracted a wide range of entries across both White and Black Groups. The overall winners were Jack Davies’s team sailing a J/70 called Jugador (above), who also managed a 3rd in the overall J/70 series and a 4th in the short series. All the crew were under 22.

This was Davies’s ffth Cowes Week at the helm and his second event in the J/70 feet. Last year he fnished 8th in the Under 25 Trophy.

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COWES WEEK

The straight bullets club Here’s who achieved the perfect score – 1st in every race – in Cowes Week this year:

P Wyeth/pwpictures.com

Blanco, Contessa 32, Ray Rouse – Blanco (above) has won her class at Cowes Week for the past fve years with the same skipper and crew Redshift, Figaro II, Nick Cherry/Ed Fishwick Incognito, Beneteau 40.7, Paul McNamara Scallywag, Hunter Impala, Julian Lord Shadowfax, Sigma 33, David Rolfe With Alacrity, Sigma 38, Chris Choules

Success for the Squib family With an overall Cowes Week win for the second year running (Lady Penelope, see page 41), the 46-year-old Squib class once again demonstrated its versatility as an all-round racer. With a new builder – Rondar – and a total of 31 boats on the startline, the Squib class looks set to gain in popularity.

Winning helmsman Malcolm Hutchings says: “The class always attracts a large number of visitors and a wide range sailors of all ages, which is what I believe makes it

so appealing. Plus, probably a third of the feet at Cowes are women – including fve women helmsmen – and there are three boats in the Under 25 category.”

Race winner, Sarah Everitt (32) sailing with Steve Warren-Smith, chairman of the class association, adds: “There are also so many family connections within the class – even if they are not sailing in the same boat. In some ways family politics makes the competition even more interesting.”

5Above: Squibs were the talk of the town – they had grown in number and took overall silverware again

Then there were those who posted fve bullets from six results and were able to ditch their worst score: Moana, IRC 1, Beneteau First 47.7, François Goubau Yes! IRC 2, Corby 36, Adam Gosling Dauntless, Daring, Giles Peckham – class winner in Cowes Week since being relaunched in 2011. Overall winner in Cowes Week 2011.

La Reponse, Beneteau First 40, Andrew McIrvine 1 Buzz, Sea Cart 30, Multihull, Phil Cotton Skua, Swallow, Harry Roome – fve times Cowes Week winners in the past ten years

One of the most signifcant changes over the past decade or so has been the growing proportion of women taking part in the week. Over 30 per cent of the 8,500 crew who took part this year were female.

To celebrate that, Cowes Week holds an annual Ladies Day and awards a Ladies Day Trophy. This year it went to Dee Caffari.

Caffari is a ftting winner with a remarkable sailing career. She took up sailing from a standing start, aged 26, joining the UKSA for a course in instructor training and skipper training.

In her 15 years of sailing since then, she has skippered a yacht in the round-theworld Global Challenge Race, made a record-breaking westabout solo circumnavigation, fnished a highly successful Vendée Globe and then did another circumnavigation two-handed with the Barcelona World Race.

She has also raced in 15 Cowes Weeks,

48

Photos: R Tomlinson/AAMCW

Ladies are up in lights No mean achievement Jerry Hill dominated the 35-strong SB20 feet, posting two 3rds in an otherwise neat-looking line of 1sts to take the SB20 Grand Slam title.

Winners in yachts as diverse as J/80s and Farr 65s.

In October she will embark on her ffth circumnavigation as part of the crew of the Volvo Ocean Race crew Team SCA. Other notable women this year included local sailor and former trophy winner Gavia Wilkinson-Cox, overall winner of the Dragon class at Cowes with a string of podium places in her yacht Jerboa.

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

5Above: top yachtswoman Dee Cafffari is joined by her SCA teammates as she collects the Ladies Day Trophy

Overall winner: Lady Penelope, Malcom Hutchings and Andy Ramsey, Squib White Group: Lady Penelope Black Group: Yes!, Adam Gosling, Corby 36, Class 2 IRC For full results, see www.aamcowesweek.co.uk

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SEAMANSHIP

Rudderless in the North Atlantic A new catamaran en route to the Caribbean was crippled by a huge wave. Did her crew do all they could have done before abandoning ship? American journalist Charles J. Doane was on board

Left: view from a rescue helicopter of the Alpha 42 catamaran Be Good Too. The helicopter was accompanied by a C-130 search aircraft

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Elizabeth City

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BERMUDA Alpha 42 catamaran Be Good Too crippled by a huge wave en route from New York Harbour to the US Virgin Islands BA H

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e were three days into our midwinter delivery trip, trying to sail south from New York to the US Virgin Islands when the wave hit. We were aboard a brand new Alpha 42 catamaran, Be Good Too, which less than a week earlier had been delivered to her new owners, Gunther and Doris Rodatz.

The Rodatzes had hired a professional skipper, Hank Schmitt, to help them take the boat south and Hank had asked me to come along as crew.

The gale had started building the night before. The previous evening, 10 January, the wind was blowing in the mid-20s and we were enjoying the finest sailing of the trip so far, ripping off to the east-south-east under full sail at ten knots. We had now entered the Gulf Stream, water temperatures were more than 21°C and we were happily recovering from two days of bitterly cold conditions.

When I went on deck at 0400 to relieve Hank, I found the wind had increased and was blowing well over 30 knots from the south-south-east. There were now two reefs in the mainsail, our self-tacking solent jib had been reefed down to about half size and the seas were 4m and building.

Things started going pear-shaped a few hours later, shortly after 0700 when Gunther came up to relieve me. First an autopilot alarm sounded, indicating that power was low. We were in the middle of dealing with that when the single-line jib sheet parted, having chafed through because of a bad lead. We quickly rolled up the jib, started the starboard engine and were soon motor sailing under double-reefed main alone, making four or five knots due east.

During all this time, first sailing and then motor

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

51

seamanship

3Left: a similar Alpha 42 catamaranAbove: Doris Rodatz, G Tarjan

Gunther Rodatz and Hank Schmitt resting in the saloon.

4Right: Be Good Too as photgraphed by the US Coast Guard with the crew still aboard as they wait for help

sailing on a close reach into the building breeze, we were occasionally punched hard by seas on our forward starboard quarter. The wave that wounded us hit at about 1130. It seemed much larger than the rest and came in at a different angle, slamming into us from directly ahead.

Enormous impact At the time Hank and I were in the saloon standing right behind the big forward-facing windows. There was a horrendous explosion and a fair bit of water frehosed its way into the cabin all around the edges of the window frames. One large piece of trim was blown right off a vertical frame, but the windows held up. The enormous impact stopped us dead in our tracks and even seemed to back us up a bit. A large amount of water surged up our stern and later we noticed this had blown a large teak step right off its mounts.

Although we immediately had trouble controlling the boat, it didn’t occur to us at the time that our steering had been affected. The wind was now blowing over 40 knots from the south and the seas were running at 6m. The boat spun in a circle, frst tacking then power-gybing uncontrollably, and would not answer the helm.

This, we thought, was because we had lost all our forward momentum. We immediately started the other engine and hoped its extra power would help us get the boat moving so we could regain control. But it made no difference. Even with both engines running hard, we swung around again, turned through another uncontrolled gybe, and the main once again slammed over hard with tremendous force.

I have sailed many times with Hank, including in some pretty hairy situations, but this was the frst time I’d ever seen him rattled. “We can’t gybe like that again,” he shouted anxiously over the wind. “We have to get the main down and lie ahull, right?” He repeated the question, then made up his mind and made it an order.

I don’t mind admitting that I was nervous too. I had often sailed in conditions this strong, but I had never before just laid

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

to the wind and let a boat drift broadside to big seas. I had always believed this was a bad idea. But the boat was very happy.

She was quite wide, even for a catamaran, with a high bridgedeck and she was remarkably stable lying beam-on to the seas. The rolling was not very pronounced and only rarely did waves slap the hull or land on deck.

Although the wind increased that afternoon, blowing in the mid-40s with gusts over 50 knots, we lay comfortably all the rest of that day and night.

Taking stock Early the next morning we found we’d run out of electrical power. The wind, meanwhile, had fortunately shifted north and subsided to around 25 knots, and after sunrise we took stock of our situation. The machinery spaces in the twin-engine compartments aft were much wetter than they should have been owing to persistent leaks and this evidently had taken its toll. Neither the generator nor the port engine would start and though the starboard engine would turn over, it was not charging the boat’s batteries.

We didn’t waste much time worrying about this. We had two handheld satphones on board, so we could communicate with the shore and we had a handheld GPS with plenty of AA batteries in reserve, so could still navigate. We were most interested in getting the boat sailing again.

This, however, proved diffcult. We had no trouble rigging up a new sheeting system for the jib, with one fxed centreline sheet and barber-haulers on either side, but were reluctant to raise the main again until the wind decreased some more. The top two battens, we discovered, had broken free of their luff

Courtesy US Coast Guard

There was a horrendous explosion and a fair bit of water frehosed its way into the cabin all around the edges of the window frame cars when the sail was fogging about as we doused it. We tried all through Sunday and into the night to sail under jib alone, but couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get the boat to sail in a straight line without periodically spinning in circles.

By now, of course, we realised there was something seriously wrong with our steering and wanted to reach shore as soon as possible. For a while, as the wind increased again to 30 knots, we had some luck getting the boat to head south-east on a port-tack broad reach, which put us on course for Bermuda, but we had so little control of the boat we werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t confdent we could actually hit Bermuda. We needed a much bigger target, the continent to our west, but could not sail in that direction.

At sunrise on Monday morning conditions were very calm, with the wind in the south again and less than ten knots. We inspected the steering system closely and soon found that the

port rudder stock was not connected to its tiller arm. Instead of being secured with a pin all the way through the stock, there was only one small set-screw, the tip of which had broken off.

The stock was not spinning freely inside its collar at the aft end of the tiller [arm?], but was slipping as the tiller was moved.

Attempting repairs We assumed this was the cause of all our trouble and set out to fix it. The top of the rudder stock had a hole in it to receive a proper pin and after a lot of head-scratching and tiller-wrestling we managed to line up the hole in the stock with the hole in the tiller arm and hammer in an Allen key to secure it.

We were rather pleased with ourselves, but unfortunately when we started up our one engine to see if we could steer, the boat only went in circles to port, no matter what

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

53

seamanship tried jumping it, but this didn’t work. The starter itself must have shorted out.

So it was back to the sails. It was now calm enough to raise the main again and we hoped that with both sails working we could get the boat moving forward and then use thrust from the starboard engine to counteract the port rudder’s bias. Over the next couple of hours, however, as we tried every possible engine/sail combination we could think of, we could only get the boat to sail in circles to starboard.

No prospect of a tow 5Above: port rudder stock and tiller arm before and after repair4Below: US Coast Guard rescue swimmer John Knight brings Gunther aboard the helicopter in a sling

Whenever we switched the port engine on it emitted a strong smell of burning we did with the helm. Next, we wanted to inspect the rudders to see what was really going on down there. Gunther insisted he should be the one to get in the water to do this and soon reported that our starboard rudder blade had broken loose from its stock and was just spinning in place around it.

The port rudder blade, meanwhile, was badly bent. The stock itself wasn’t bent; rather the blade was bent off its fore-and-aft axis and was toed in so far to starboard that it could only steer to starboard, even with the wheel hard to port.

We speculated that we might still be able to steer the boat if we had both engines running.

Starting from a standstill, with just the starboard Charles Doane is the cruising engine working, the boat immediately circled to editor of Sail magazine in the port because the port rudder had no water fowing United States and often sails his over it. Hopefully, if the port engine was also runown Tanton 39 between New ning, we could get the boat moving forward, then England and the Caribbean. adjust engine speeds to overcome the starboard He is the author of The Modern bias of the port rudder.

Cruising Sailboat (International Whenever we switched the port engine on it Marine, 2010) and keeps a blog emitted a strong smell of burning. We hoped it at www.wavetrain.net was the starter solenoid that had shorted out and

54

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

From this point we didn’t spend much more time trying to fx our problem. We briefy discussed removing the tiller from the port rudder, but we had hammered so hard on the Allen key to drive it into place that we assumed we could never get it out again. Gunther suggested we remove the starter from the starboard engine while it was running and put it on the port engine to start it up. But none of us is a diesel mechanic, and Hank and I thought this sounded crazy.

Instead, we discussed whether it might be possible somehow to arrange a tow. We were now 300 miles from anywhere, equidistant from Bermuda, Chesapeake Bay and New York, and I thought it very unlikely anyone would want to come to us. Hank, however, was more optimistic and at his urging Gunther did place a call to the builder in New York to see if something could be arranged.

We realised it would take days to rendezvous with a tow vessel. The tow would then have to proceed slowly at, say, three knots at most owing to the bent rudder. Meanwhile, there would be a continuing barrage of winter gales – we fgured one or two at least – and during these the tow would have to be dropped and both vessels lie ahull until conditions eased.

Two follow-up calls to the builder over the next few hours yielded no prospect of a tow boat and Gunther reluctantly decided it would be best to abandon the yacht. He called the US Coast Guard late that afternoon to make arrangements.

Afterwards we broke our dry-ship rule, opened a bottle of wine and treated ourselves to a pre-abandonment party.

The mood was subdued, but upbeat. Gunther and Doris were obviously disappointed at the prospect of losing the boat they’d waited two years to sail away, but were very philosophical. They were grateful no lives were at stake, and together we laughed a bit about the problems we’d confronted.

Rescue by helicopter The Coast Guard had told us they would re-route a freighter to retrieve us, but late that night, during a follow-up call, they announced instead they were sending a helicopter. A few hours after sunrise, our sixth at sea since leaving New York, we spotted frst a search aircraft and then the helicopter streaking towards us. A Coast Guard rescue swimmer soon greeted us cheerfully as he swarmed up our transom boarding ladder.

You can watch a YouTube video of the evacuation (see below) and I can assure you it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as it looks. Conditions seemed much more sedate than they look in the video and really the only unpleasant part was having to jump into the water to get hoisted up into the helicopter. The three-hour fight to shore in wet clothes seemed interminable.

Eventually, however, we did arrive at the Coast Guard airbase in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where we were greeted by a crowd of people, including some Red Cross

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seamanship workers who were eager to take care of us. To them we must have seemed like very disappointing survivors. We were perfectly healthy, entirely untraumatised and in rather good spirits. All we really wanted was a hot shower and dry clothes.

What else could we have done?

Back safely on shore, I wrote about our experience and immediately there was a buzz on sailing forums. About a quarter of those making comments thought we’d done a good job trying to save the boat. The rest thought we were incompetent and they were full of ideas of what we should have done instead.

Most insisted we should have dropped the damaged rudder and jury-rigged an alternative steering system.

Suggested rudder removal techniques included: l Getting into the water and cutting it free l Cutting a hole in the deck over the rudder and pushing the stock out of the bearing tube from above l Destroying the bearing tube so we could do same l Attaching anchor and rode to rudder to pull it out of the tube.

Most, however, assumed the rudder would just sink if we released its stock from inside the boat. As for the jury steering system, some suggested we could steer with a cabinet door lashed to the end of a spinnaker pole, but most insisted that towing a drogue with a bridle would do the trick.

Several, like Gunther, thought of swapping engine starters with the engine running and many, of course, thought we were idiots for taking a new boat offshore in winter. One fellow didn’t understand why we hadn’t simply straightened out the rudder.

In retrospect, I think there were things we could have done differently. First, if we had lain ahull to the gale much earlier, we

probably would never have damaged our rudders in the first place. I now believe it may be perfectly safe for most cats to lie to seas that are shorter than the boat is wide. Of course, we can never know for sure what would have happened if that one big wave had hit us beam on.

Second, we should have inspected the rudders before attempting any repair. If we had noticed the port rudder blade was bent, we might then have removed the tiller instead of securing it, and the rudder then could have rotated freely without inhibiting other methods of steering the boat. Having secured the tiller to the rudder stock, there was no way we could either remove the rudder or let it spin freely without undoing our repair. We assumed this was impossible, but perhaps we can be faulted for not at least trying.

Might we have rigged some jury steering, assuming we’d negated the problem of the bent rudder? We had no spinnaker or whisker poles – as is usual on catamarans – and had relatively little gear aboard, so we didn’t have much to work with.

I should also point out that I only later realised that all we had to do to neutralise the port rudder was to let it spin freely.

At the time we assumed we had to lose the rudder to do this.

This seemed impossible, because the rudder was obviously buoyant – it popped right up off its retaining ring as soon as we removed the crossbar to the other rudder’s tiller. Of course, we had no way to cut it off or straighten it. If we’d spent more time dwelling on our problem, we might have realised that YW removing the rudder wasn’t necessary.

See the video of the rescue of the crew of Be Good Too and their airlift aboard an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter at http://tinyurl.com/m3b52da

the designer’s view Gregor Tarjan, Aeroyacht designer, responds:

steel rudder post, which tapers slightly at the bottom

The boat was abandoned as a direct result of a rogue

to receive the foam-cored rudder blade.

wave pushing the boat backwards, twisting the port

The rudder blade itself is fxed to the post by three

rudder and jamming it against the hull. Could it be

horizontal and two vertical 3⁄8in x 2in wide thick

that the boat sailed up a wave too slowly, allowing this

stainless steel fat bar struts.The rudder post is

to happen?

We will never know, but one thing is certain: the

locked to the tiller arm by the use of two 3⁄8in threaded bolts (not set screws, as identifed in the

self-tacking jib lead never worked properly. I had

article) with a 3⁄4in bury that act as a lock, but also

noticed this on my test of the boat. The correct ftting

serve as a safety mechanism in case the boat is

would have taken another week to arrive, but the

pushed backwards, so they could theoretically shear

crew were on a strict schedule. One of the frst things

and leave the rudder undamaged.

to go wrong was the parting of the jib sheet.

Theoretically, because of the jury rig of the jib, the

The massive tiller arm was a 3⁄4in thick x 4in wide stainless steel bar. The crew said they could not drop

boat could not sail effciently. Had the boat been

the rudder because it would foat. At close to 130lb

sailed with a proper jib lead and double-reefed main,

of mainly solid stainless steel and a bit of foam, is

Postscript

she could have been sailed with more speed up the

foating even possible?

The insurers of Be Good Too initiated a search for the

wave face. Since she was slow (the skipper estimates

boat two days after it was abandoned. Two sorties

4-6 knots), the boat was easily shoved backwards by

rudder because the stock was slightly bent from

were fown from Norfolk, Virginia, aboard a Lear 35

the large rogue wave, which hit them squarely.

being pushed violently backwards, acting like a giant

jet. The aircraft was able to spend only an hour on

Alpha Yachts followed the standard specifcations

It is logical that the crew could not dislodge the

spring jamming itself in the upper and lower

station at the vessel’s presumed location each time

of the Edson Steering System rudder stock to tiller

bearings. Only a crowbar, or attaching a line to winch

and the search was unsuccessful. Gunther and Doris

arm attachment and overbuilt the rest. Edson

the blade backwards, could possibly dislodge it.

received an insurance payment and immediately

suggested two types: one with two locking bolts that

purchased another boat, a Fountaine Pajot Lipari 41,

affxed the rudder stock to the tiller arm; the other with

50mph in reverse. The offcial insurance report,

which they named GOgudoGO.

a single smaller bolt and a key as is traditionally seen.

referring to the rogue wave, states: ‘no boat rudder

The Alpha’s rudder consists of a 1½in stainless

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

A fghter jet will fy forwards at Mach 2, but only at

could have withstood this’.

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TECHNOLOGY

Will your next sail

58

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

be made of this ?

Light, strong and extremely long-lasting – will North 3Di trickle down to mass sailing? asks Matthew Sheahan

N

o one sails in Minden, USA. The small town of 3,000 people is in the desert in Nevada, the driest state in America. One hundred and seventy miles northeast of San Francisco, the state is famous for being the first to legalise gambling, but it is not well known for its links to sailing, and definitely not where you might expect to find the world’s biggest sailmaker.

Yet North Sails owes a large chunk of its market-leading position to this remote location and the technology that its staff has developed here. The giant US sailmaker claims to be 25 years ahead of the competition and, after a visit to this huge facility in the desert – you couldn’t really call it a sail loft – I can understand why. What it is producing now, on an industrial scale, is 3Di. 3Di comprises spread filament tapes that have been preimpregnated with resin. These are arranged in multiple layers and thermo- and vacuum-cured over a 3D mould.

Since the company started selling 3Di two years ago aimed at grand-prix racers, the robust nature of the new material has taken many people by surprise. Indeed, the drastic reductions to the Volvo 65’s sail wardrobe over that of the previous VO70 round the world yachts were based on a level of reliability that was not previously possible.

But its not just big grand-prix boats Left: North’s that are seeing the benefits; the tech3Di technology nology is coming downstream fast. has provided one A casual look at the job cards on the of the biggest shop floor in Nevada is enough to drive steps forward home the message. in sailmaking They include Ker 40s, J/111s, technology McConaghy 38s, Melges 32s and

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

59

S Green/ultimatesailing.com

technology

many more in the mainstream racing scene, proving that 3Di has already had an impact.

North claims that in the not too distant future, for those boats that may have separate suits of delivery and racing sails, 3Di will be seen as so robust and reliable that only one suit is required.

But aside from racing boats, the advantages for cruising yachts could be huge. Durability is one of the big attractions – in some cases measured in years – along with performance. North claims that 3Di sails are 10-15 per cent lighter than their conventional equivalents.

“We’ve recently supplied sails for an Oyster 575, an 825 and two Contest 72s,” says Neil Mackley of North UK. “Some of the new Gunboat cats are fitting them and we’ve even supplied a suit for a classic Contessa 26.”

And the cost? It is diffcult to generalise as there are many variables, but as an example an Oyster 575 mainsail in 3Di would be 75 per cent more expensive than a standard Spectra sail. On the face of it this is a high premium, but when the 3Di sail could last years longer, the overall cost seems more acceptable.

These are still early days for 3Di, but what is particularly striking about this development is that sails are just the start. Building composite laminates like this is similar in a

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

Above: originally developed for grand-prix racers, it is trickling down into the mainstream

way to 3D printing. Producing a sail is just one application, further layers can create just about any three-dimensional shape, from body panels for F1 cars to watches, light aircraft components, prosthetics, yacht masts and more. These are areas in which the technology is already being applied.

What is 3Di? North’s factory in Minden feels and smells more like a boatyard than a sailmaking facility, with its tacky foor and whiff of solvent. It’s the frst in a string of surprises.

Twenty four years ago the company set up the frst factory to build sails on full-size, three-dimensional moulds.

Laying continuous fibres over a mould in this way before vacuum bagging and curing the composite was a big step forward for sailmaking and 3Di’s predecessor, 3DL, was born.

These moulded sails, rather than those produced conventionally though joining curved panels, tend to have a better load distribution across the sail, with fewer point loads. As a result they tend to hold their shape better. This, along with the consistent accuracy of build has seen 3DL develop more extensively than anyone expected.

Successful though 3DL has been, the company was well aware that the next stage in the development of sail material was to remove the Mylar and/or the adhesive. Apart from

Case study: 3di for a Contessa 26

nce Chris Charlesworth was told he could have sails

O

that wouldn’t tear he was sold on 3Di. He was

frustrated with laminate sails, which he found holed easily, broke down in key areas and were too diffcult to repair.

“It’s not about price for me – I don’t like laminate sails,” he says. Still it was an unusual choice for Meow, his Contessa 26, a 50-year old cruising design. For his 3Di suit he estimates he probably paid double what he would have paid for laminates, but that is not a fair comparison, as he added a premium to North to do a one-off suit of 3Di for him, as it was the minimum luff length requirement for 3Di at the time. His sails were dyed black and hand-fnished locally in Cowes.

Charlesworth has raced hard with his 3Di sails since ftting them in May and claims they have lasted well.

“I would have taken laminate sails off by now,” he says.

“These can crease up and it doesn’t make a difference.” He reports that the 3Di genoa doesn’t move at all, comparing it to a rigid foil, with no take up on the genoa sheet and no bulges in the leech thanks to built-in batten pockets.

“Because it is moulded, I can see the shape is better,” Charlesworth maintains. “With no seams, no creasing or folding, it looks great and is the best shape of any sails I’ve had. The sails work across a much broader wind range. I can set them both very deep and very fat . . . If I don’t do R Tomlinson/AAMCW

anything stupid, I expect them to last several seasons.”

They are UV-stable so he was able to leave the genoa on a roller furler during Cowes Week, which he says he could not have done with a laminate sail.

“It’s a quantum leap in technology for me,” says Charlesworth. “A one-piece, moulded sail is a no-brainer.”

weight, one of the issues with longevity is delamination as moisture fnds its way into the sail. This is a potential problem for all ‘string’ laminate sails.

One way to solve that problem appeared to come from Alinghi’s America’s Cup defence in 2007, when the Swiss team started to experiment with a completely new method of construction for carbon sails aboard their IACC Version 5 monohull. The process had been invented by sailmakers Gerrard Gautier and Edward Kessi. (By complete coincidence the pair were from the same part of Switzerland as J P Baudet and Luc Dubois, who invented 3DL ).

Impressed with the new concept, North Sails bought the technology after the America’s Cup and spent the next two years developing the process.

In essence, the idea was to use ultra-thin layers of tape, consisting of resin-impregnated flaments of microscopic diameter, to build a section for a sail. Instead of using a Mylar sandwich to hold the fbres in place, the resin – which even when cured stretches more readily than the flaments

– keeps the flaments in place so that they can take the load.

Roughly-speaking, this is much like galvanised steel bars take the tensile loads in pre-stressed concrete.

Setting the production of the tapes to one side for a moment, imagine creating a triangular shape using strips of packing tape or Sellotape by snipping off short sections at a time and arranging them in a mosaic style on a fat surface.

In the high-load areas – the corners of the sail – you would use more strips of tape, while in the centre where loads are lowest you might use the least.

This is one of the three keys to the 3Di process.

The second is the tapes themselves. These consist of a mix of three materials, namely carbon, an aramid such as Kevlar and an ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) material such as Dyneema. Varying the proportions of certain materials changes the fnal properties of the tape. For example, carbon – which has a high tensile breaking strength and high modulus (low-stretch factor) – is brittle and breaks readily.

The advantages to cruising boats could be huge. Durability is one of the big attractions – in some cases measured in years – along with performance YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

61

TECHNOLOGY

But mix carbon filaments with Dyneema – which has a higher ultimate tensile load, but stretches far more before it fails – and the carbon/Dyneema composite results in a much more durable tape. Indeed, it is this durability that has taken the sailing scene by storm.

A similar mix can be achieved between aramid and Dyneema. While Dyneema is very durable and flexible, it is not as good in stretch resistance as aramid filaments. Their weakness is ultraviolet degradation, whereas Dyneema resists UV very well. Typically, the percentage mix of filaments in a tape varies between 50/50 and 70/30 for carbon/Dyneema or aramid/Dyneema mixes, depending on the application.

Producing the filaments Conventionally these fibres are supplied on reels and called tows. Each tow is made up of 3,000-12,000 individual filaments, which are arranged like the fibres in parcel string, generally twisted and wrapped around each other. North’s process separates the filaments, coats them in resin and spreads them out flat on a backing tape before rolling them up as you might with any other tape. Apart from making the material more versatile when you get to the tape-laying stage, separating the filaments improves their modulus (stiffness) by around 15 per cent over the modulus of a tow.

The weight of the tapes can be varied depending on the properties required, but in general the lightest sailmaking tapes are around 25g/m2. To put that into context, typical home printer paper is 75g/m2, domestic paint is around

62

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

Above: having built the panels on a flat surface, the complete sail is assembled on the same 3D moulds used for 3DL sails.

Below: North’s sail moulds in Minden

110g/m2 and screen inks for T-shirts are around 50g/m2.

North’s tapes are thin. Indeed, the TPT (Thin Ply Technology) side of their business, based in Switzerland and aimed at other commercial applications, can produce tapes down to just 17g/m2. Just four layers of this tape placed either side of a 1mm Nomex core provides at least one Formula One team’s engine covers and body panels.

Once off the machine, the resin is starting to cure, albeit slowly and so the rolls are then stored in a refrigerator to slow the process down.

When the construction of a sail section starts, the tapes are loaded onto a tape-laying head, which is mounted on a computer-controlled gantry that runs back and forth over a flat bed. From here the tape-laying process starts as if sticking down packing tape and continues until the panel(s) have been produced. In the case of, say, a Melges 32 headsail, this would use 1,728m of tape, which would be cut into 1,832 strips and take around eight hours to produce.

Bigger sails use significantly more material, some around 40km of tape which takes 20 hours to lay out – hence the company’s 24/7 operation.

The panels are then lifted off the flat bed and rolled onto cardboard tubes as you might a carpet, before they are then sent over to the moulding shop.

Panel assembly The number of sections needed to produce a sail will depend on its size. A Melges 32 headsail has three sections – top, middle and bottom – with markings to allow them to be matched perfectly once they are laid out on the 3D mould.

One of the clever details here is that the joins between panels are tapered, allowing them to be scarfed together.

The next stage is to lay the panels out on the mould and seal them in a vacuum bag to consolidate the sail membrane, a process that takes around 30 minutes for a typical sail. Then a computer-controlled heat lamp is run over the surface of the sail while the vacuum is still applied to help the resin flow. Around 40 minutes later this process is complete, the mould returned to its flat position and the sail removed from its bag and taken to a storing area where it is left to cure for five days.

After this it is off to the finishing area where the various details such as head, clew and tack, batten pockets, leech lines and other details are fitted. Throughout the process our Melges 32 headsail has been handled by just five or six people, none of them sailors. Yet what they produce is a highly refined and advanced sail.

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technology

Building sails in the desert

Matthew Sheahan fnds out how North has invented a new way of making sails of the skilled manual labour out of the process, but without compromising the fnal product.” To do this meant reinventing the sailmaking wheel.

“We had to build everything, including the software to run the processes. It’s why we are so confdent now that we still have such a lead in the market – you simply cannot buy this equipment.”

Today there are virtually no sailmakers at North Minden. “Of the 110 current employees, I think three are sailors,”

N

orth Sails’ two rectangular

and head of materials technology at North.

Above: from a

confrms Pearson. And yet that non-sailing

industrial units in Minden, Nevada

“Originally the technique was seen as a way

bland-looking

workforce are building some of the world’s

are set on remote business parks

of producing sails for the high-end

industrial box on

most advanced sails. And as sail sizes

in the middle of a wide, fat plain between

grand-prix feet, but the development of the

the outside to the

increase, so the practical issues of handling

a pair of mountain ranges. Apart from the

technology and the new way of building sails

world largest and

multiply exponentially.

mirror glass windows and the odd jaunty

led us to a much broader market.”

most advanced

“Five years ago the biggest upwind sail

sailmaking facility

we produced was 520m2 (5,600ft2),”

on the inside

explains Pearson. “Last year we built a sail

angle to the outside walls, the modern, bland,

The California-based company soon

warehouse-like bulk is in stark contrast to the

realised that large amounts of space would

ground-breaking technology within.

be required to house full-sized moulds.

for a 66m (216ft) superyacht sloop that was

The 87,000ft2 facility is the biggest sail

Nevada offered substantially less expensive

double the size at 1,080m2 (11,625ft2). It

loft in the world and the brand name and the

property and Minden ftted the bill. But what

took 30 people just to pack it. Now there’s

technology are well known. Over the years

Minden didn’t have was sailmakers, or

talk of doubling that again.”

3DL – and now 3Di – has spread throughout

anyone who knew much about sailing.

This apparent shortcoming proved to be

the sport. But that wasn’t the original plan.

“When we frst started looking at the possibility of building sails on a three-

The Minden operation produces around US$1million of sails a week. That equates to

a key factor in the innovative approach the

around 100 sails per week, 5,000 per year.

company took to building sails.

But this is no stack ’em high, sell ’em cheap

“One of the goals when developing 3DL

dimensional mould, no one envisaged that

operation. North has industrialised

the business would take off in the way it

was to industrialise sailmaking,” explains

sailmaking and, in the process, created a

has,” says Bill Pearson, a lifelong sailmaker

Pearson. “We knew we needed to take some

new method of composite construction.

how to produce a 3di sail

Spools of fbre (carbon, aramid or Dyneema) are raw material for tapes

Sail panels are aligned on mould and top vacuum bag skin is attached

64

Tow is untwisted to separate fbres, then coated in thermoset adhesive

Computer-controlled heater works its way over sail to help resin consolidation

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

Fibres are placed on a backing paper and cut into narrower strips

Sail panels are built automatically on a fat foor, strip by strip, by machine

Sail cools before mould is defated and sail removed

Head, tack, clew, batten pockets, etc, ftted during fnal process

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GREAT SEAMANSHIP Gut feelinG

TeAm SpiRiT by Brendan Hall

introduced by Tom Cunliffe

Hall, a skipper in the Clipper Round the World Race, learns important lessons about leadership from the School of Hard Knocks as he and his crew wrestle with a near-disaster in the South Atlantic

i

t isn’t often a skipper bears his soul as Brendan Hall does in his book Team Spirit. Hall, who was 28 years old when he sailed Spirit of Australia to victory in the 2009/10 Clipper Round the World Race, has written a book that stands out from the multitude of works about such events.

He tells the story of the race, of course, but rather than the usual blow-by-blow account of what went on, how tough it all was, etc, he invites his readers into his confdence as he learns the essence of leadership in that most demanding of educational establishments, the School of Hard Knocks.

Each chapter winds up with a debrief on leadership lessons

to be learned. All skippers, no matter how humble their aspirations, should read them. So should every captain of industry. I challenge anyone placed in authority over their fellows to search their hearts and say they have picked up nothing from this book.

It’s not going to happen.

We join the crew in the South Atlantic racing hard from Rio to Cape Town. The coming night turns into a shocker. What you won’t read here is that the following two were just as bad. I have, however, appended Brendan Hall’s observations on what all three taught him about the value of gut feeling. Coming from one so young, they make a life-long skipper like me think pretty hard.

First Published

First published in 2012 by Adlard Coles Nautical.

Paperback edition published 2013

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

137 67

GREAT SEAMANSHIP The wind was forecast to increase over the next two days.

We were in 6th place and I was desperate to get us back into the top three. It was this combination of competitive desperation and building wind that led to our frst disaster on the race.

I

’ve always believed in trusting my gut instinct, particularly when it comes to sailing. There have been times when I know something just isn’t right. It doesn’t happen often, but I know it when it comes.

As darkness fell on that night in the South Atlantic my senses were tingling. I knew the big wind overnight should build gradually as predicted, giving us ample warning to take sails down and prepare. According to every instrument on board, all appeared normal, but something didn’t feel right and I just couldn’t shake that uneasy gut feeling that we should start reducing sail now.

Sod it, Brendan, you’re jumping at shadows. Reduce sail now and you’ll just give away more miles to the leaders. There will be time later, and we’re racing. Trust your instruments and the crew.

In the end, I let my gut feeling be overwhelmed by my rational conscious mind. Maybe I was jumping at shadows after all? Was it just nervousness about the safety of the new ‘leggers’ in their frst big blow? Was I losing my nerve in the face of a bit of heavy weather? These were questions that fashed into my mind.

As predicted, the wind and seas built. We were absolutely bombing along, surfng down a long swell at up to 25 knots. I was excited about the next sched, seeing how much we had gained on the race leaders. We had a lot of sail up – a single reef in the mainsail and the no 2 Yankee up front. It was too much, but the boat seemed under control and the helmsmen weren’t struggling.

By now, we were running with only our four best helmsmen and it was a knife-edge balance. If we could keep this speed up, we would be back with the leading group in 12 hours. If we wiped out, we would damage the boat for sure. I sat in the navigation station, lit by the soft glow of the computer screen, gritted my teeth and watched the instruments.

Outside, the night was absolutely pitch black. There was no moon and the sky was clouded over; the darkness had a thick quality that seemed to devour the light of our head torches. The roar and crash of the waves behind us was extremely unsettling, though in the darkness our minds probably exaggerated their height. A wave would pick us up from astern and the whole boat would tip forward, steeper and steeper, like a rollercoaster on the precipice of a terrifying drop. Then gravity would kick in and, with a jolt, the boat would begin surfng, 32 tons surging forward into pitch darkness.

The powerful feeling of momentum was heightened by our blindness to the seascape; all we could see was the white, frothing water cascading down the deck. If somebody wasn’t holding on, the force of the water was enough to sweep their legs out from under them and wash them down the deck. Everyone was gripping on tight and the white-knuckle ride went on, watch after watch.

I knew we had too much sail up. The wind was past the 40 knots predicted and I could feel the helmsman having to pull harder on the wheel to make the boat respond. Watch leader Mike was on the helm and he was one of our very best. He had an instinctive feel for the motion of the boat and, with a lack of visual reference, was keeping us on course using only the magnetic steering compass. He was doing a great job and speed was phenomenal.

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

The midnight sched came through and we’d made a lot of ground on the leading group. Brilliant! A few more like this and we’ll be . . .

‘F***! The compass light! The light’s gone! Get a torch on this thing!’ Mike was screaming from behind the wheel. The 5p LED light bulb that illuminates the compass had blown. Without the compass, he would be sailing blind. He was a great helmsman, but without a compass even he would struggle. The back-up helmsman was fumbling with his head torch, trying to get light onto the compass. We were still howling along, on the edge of control. I was in overdrive and scrambling up the companionway, looking towards Mike on the helm. I saw him correct the course as we came down a massive wave, but he was turning the wheel the wrong way.

I

didn’t even have time to scream for the crew to hit the deck.

The boat lurched away from the wind and swung into a violent crash-gybe. Our overpowered 250kg mainsail backed.

The double preventer lines, with a combined breaking strain of 16 tons, snapped like parcel string under the load. The 400kg boom swung across the deck at head height like a woodsman’s axe swinging at a tree and slammed with sledgehammer force into the rigging on the opposite side. It was over in a second.

If anybody had been hit by that boom, it would have been fatal.

The crew were all safe, but they were deer in the headlights and had no idea what to do. There was panicked shouting coming from down below. Mike was swearing and the boat was lying over in the water, with the mainsail now on the wrong side.

I clipped my safety line on and shot up on deck to take control, did the world’s fastest headcount, then bellowed down the hatch for all hands to get on deck, now! I looked up at the mainsail and saw that it was torn, ripped somehow during the crash-gybe. We needed to get it down, fast. The sail was fogging and the vertical hole was getting bigger by the minute. The well-drilled crew leapt into action and were in the process of reefing down the flogging mainsail when . . .

Bang! As soon as I heard the sound, I knew what it was. It was one of the brass hanks on the front edge of the Yankee headsail snapping. I looked up and saw it was the one at the very top.

Bang! Bang! The next two down snapped off.

Bang, bang! Two more.

Before we had time to blink, every one of the 20 brass hanks on the front edge of the sail had snapped off, like an unzipping jumper, and suddenly we had two sails out of control. The mainsail was still flogging violently and the Yankee was slamming back and forth with a deep, resonating WHUMP! that shook my bones. The fogging sails were pulling the mast in opposite directions and the whole boat was violently shaking. There were more crew emerging from the hatchway onto a deck where carnage was now king.

What to do? The hole in the mainsail was getting bigger, but if we didn’t get that Yankee down, we may well snap the mast.

Below: skipper Brendan Hall receives the winner’s trophy at the fnish of the 2009/10 Clipper race

Leadership lessons Trust your gut feeling With a gut-wrenching tear, the bottom of the Yankee tore off. It wasn’t surprising; the forces acting upon the canvas were more than it was ever designed to handle.

‘Quick!’ I sent everybody up onto the foredeck, where they struggled and heaved and fought with the sail, trying to get it down. The power in that piece of heavy canvas was ferocious and it was hitting them with the power to break fngers and noses. The hanks along the front edge of the sail now had sharp edges from where they had snapped off and were tearing up the crew’s Goretex oilskins. The crew would all grab the sail together, trying desperately to get their body weight on top of it to weigh it down, but the wind would catch the sail again and fick them off like ants. It was a battle against an indifferent and impossibly powerful force.

And we were losing.

E

ventually, we half dumped the sail overboard and the crew wrestled for a further five minutes, dragging it out of the water and back onto the deck. Half of them stayed up there and lashed the sail down, like imprisoning a dangerous criminal, while the rest reefed the mainsail to its smallest setting and made it secure. One of them vomited from physical exhaustion and the others were collapsed on deck, gasping in huge breaths of air. The boat was slower now, but far more controllable. We secured the boom so it couldn’t swing back again, and regrouped.

The adrenalin was starting to wear off and I knew at least a few of the crew would soon be in shock. I made sure everything was safe on deck, and then ordered the off-watch back to bed. After they were safely down below, I got the on-deck watch to clear up and hoist our small staysail to give us some more stability. The crew were still on a survivor’s high, just happy to be safe and sound.

They thanked me for handling the crisis so well and getting them through, but I knew in my heart that, while I kept them safe, the whole situation was my fault. Yes, the compass light failure was unexpected, but if we hadn’t been so overpowered then we wouldn’t be looking at two badly ripped sails. I felt incredibly guilty for the situation. I’d ignored my gut feeling in my desire to see us have a great sched and now we were in deep trouble.

Above: Spirit of Australia in heavy weather in the South Atlantic.

Above right: the crew in calmer conditions. Hall (left) with crew Bob, Gareth and Mike

The phenomenon we call our ‘gut feeling’ or ‘intuition’ is known in the world of psychology as ‘thin slicing’. It describes an innate ability in humans subconsciously to fnd patterns and make fast decisions based on small amounts, or ‘thin slices’, of information.

Our ability to thin slice is an evolved survival mechanism. If one of our ancestors in prehistoric Africa was confronted with a hungry lion, he would need to make a snap decision on what to do.

In the blink of an eye, his subconscious mind would assess the danger, based on his knowledge of lions and any past experiences with them, and his gut feeling would be to run away. If he waited, carefully weighing up his options and thoughtfully deciding on a plan of action, he would be killed.

Our gut feeling is a hard thing to explain rationally. We usually hear it referred to when people say things like: ‘Something just didn’t feel right.’ If you ask them to explain or clarify exactly what they mean, they usually can’t put their fnger on an exact reason.

Somehow, they just know it.

That, very simply, is thin slicing.

I made the big mistake of not listening to my gut feeling on that night in the South Atlantic. It was telling me to reduce our sail area, but I ignored it. If somebody had asked me why I felt this way, I couldn’t have articulated it; I just knew we should.

T

he trouble is that the conscious, logical, explanation-seeking part of our mind has trouble making sense of thinsliced gut feelings and often overrides or dismisses them.

In this case, my conscious, analytical mind subverted my gut feeling, rationalising it as a momentary hit of paranoia.

After all, the boat’s instruments were telling me that the wind was well within acceptable limits and so I made the decision to keep our sail plan as it was.

If I had listened to my gut feeling and reduced our sail area, we would have avoided the awful sequence of events over the following three nights. Since that night, I have never ignored my gut feeling again and it has always been proved right.

As a skipper, you need to be aware of your gut feelings. Listen to them and don’t dismiss them as I did. That feeling is there for a reason. In my experience, it’s usually correct.

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69

ON TEST JEANNEAU 64

70

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

TEST FACTS

Test Editor: Toby Hodges

Rade de Marseille

Marseille DAY 2

Vieux Port

ÎLES DU FRIOUL DAY 1

Mediterranean Sea

FRANCE Port du Frioul

Les Goudes

Where we tested: Marseille and around Frioul islands. 2 days.

Wind: NW (Mistral) 30-45 knots.

Model: Aft owner’s cabin model with two forward guests and an optional Pullman. Options included a genoa, captive winch and stern thruster.

Photos by Paul Wyeth/pwpictures.com

A super-Jeanneau?

So you thought you knew what a Jeanneau was – well, think again.

This new flagship has aspirations to be a superyacht, but for around half the price of rival luxury brands. Toby Hodges is impressed

H

ere is a yacht guaranteed to surprise.

Packed within this 64ft 1in hull, the latest from Jeanneau, are a multitude of qualities that will make you question your preconceptions about the brand. The French production builder has married the world of bigboat luxury and comfort with production boat functionality and pricing to create a new market.

The 64 has been drawn by leading superyacht designers and built by Jeanneau to an impressive quality. The pictures, specs and the base price of €858,900 (£685,583) – relatively low for a yacht of this size and type – paint an attractive picture.

However, a primary concern for many will be the practicality of handling such a large vessel at sea.

Two days of sailing the 64 in gale force Mistral

conditions in the south of France provided us with a ruthless test of Jeanneau’s flashy new flagship.

A small superyacht Think Jeanneau and you probably think basic, economic no-frills production cruiser, or perhaps a wipe-clean bareboat charter yacht. Jeanneau yachts are designed and perform consistently well, but remain, essentially, middle-of-the-road cruising boats. A 64ft Jeanneau that looks like a small superyacht will take most by surprise.

This striking new Jeanneau is 8ft longer than the previous flagship, the 57, launched in 2009 – a telling indication of how LOA has spiralled in recent years.

A production run at this size requires

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

71

ON TEST:jEaNNEau 64 substantial initial investment, so the yard will be depending on a certain volume of sales. Jeanneau identifed that just 33 yachts between 63ft and 67ft sold worldwide last year. Yet the company is confdent a new market exists in this segment, having launched 800 yachts in the 53-57ft bracket. As Jeanneau’s sailboat production director Erik Stromberg points out: “We only need around fve per cent of these owners to upgrade.”

The price of the 64 will be the primary attraction. She is around half the price of other yachts of her size, which are typically luxury brands such as Oyster, HallbergRassy or X-Yachts costing in the region of €2–2.5m. But does that mean there is really a market for a €1m Jeanneau? It seems so.

Jeanneau has, rather astonishingly, already sold 14 of these 64s, 11 to existing owners.

That is already equivalent to nearly half the global sales for this size of yacht last year.

Jeanneau still needs to ensure new levels of both style and substance to maintain this early success. The former is almost a given.

By employing Philippe Briand and Andrew Winch, who have between them developed over 75 superyachts, the 64 oozes class.

A wide variety of confgurations and choices have been engineered into the boat to make sure owners feel as if they are getting semi-custom treatment in a costeffective manner. Both forward and aft owner’s cabins are available, for instance, plus workshop, Pullman and crew cabin options and hundreds of decor choices.

However, it is the host of big boat features throughout that I thought provide the real substance behind this yacht.

1

A trolley system in the garage makes it practical for one person to pivot and launch a Williams 285 jet RIB easily within minutes

2

The transom is abnormally high to accommodate the RIB. A walkthrough cockpit option is offered to increase cockpit space over tender size

3

The huge cockpit is a genuine selling point – it is where owners will spend the majority of their time aboard. Ten can be seated comfortably around the tables, both of which lower on gas struts to form daybeds

4

5

6

A clear panel in the huge sprayhood helps ensure good visibility forward, and useful grabrails are built into the sides An excellent sail locker provides essential stowage for cruisers looking to sail long distance, as stowage elsewhere on deck is wanting. It can be used as a crew cabin and has a watertight door leading into the accommodation

5

The hull and deck are vacuuminfused with polyester, with solid laminate in the keel area and composite bulkheads laminated in

Technology upgrade Peer beneath the forward soleboards of the raised saloon and you will fnd a compact 1.5 tonne Harken captive winch neatly squirrelled away. The Jeanneau is the smallest production yacht to ft a captive winch, a prime example of how to use superyacht technology when price (an extra €21,500) and space allow. Here it provides push-button ease where a winch doesn’t need to share functions. A captive winch can also be ftted for the main halyard.

A vast cockpit and a walk-in engine room were the two most desirable features to top Jeanneau’s wishlist for the 64. But there are many more subtle signs of the big-boat touch throughout. For example, halyardtensioning tracks at the mast base tidy lines that are seldom adjusted, such as furling foresail halyards. Glassfbre bulwarks that run from stem to stern look smart and provide a feeling of security on deck. And a recess is built into the anchor locker to offer the option for a rotating anchor arm.

The size of the cockpit directly led to the majority of its sales in the 53–57ft range, says Jeanneau, who established that this is where owners spend 80 per cent of their

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

Left: the helm has winches within reach, the main captive on a remote button and a tidy pedestal layout to help keep the Jeanneau manageable from one position. Right: long legs and superyacht styling give the 64 a classy appeal

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ON TEST:jEaNNEau 64 Right and below: big boat features include: halyard tensioning tracks to keep lines tidy, a walk-in engine room and a touchscreen display to monitor and control all the systems

time. The brief to Philippe Briand was for a cockpit with the comfort of a motor cruiser fybridge, and the result is an enormous leisure area. This brief might, in part, also explain the motoryacht-style exterior galley additions, which comprise a fridge, sink and grill housed within optional pods.

An arch helps to give the impression of space in the cockpit by eliminating the need for sail handling or a traveller in the seating area. A huge sprayhood can link with a bimini to make this generous exterior space usable in most conditions.

The test boat stood up extremely well to a 25-30 knot Mistral, maintaining a comfortable 9-10 knots reaching

5Above: an example of Andrew Winch’s detailing: the use of leather on door handles and panels

Gale force test The 64 was conceived to be the largest size of yacht that can be managed without a permanent crew. So all the styling merits and gadgets count for little if she can’t be handled easily. As the wind whistled through the rigging of yachts nestled in Marseille’s old port, I wondered whether we would be given the chance to put this to the test.

For our two-day visit, the forecast predicted 25-30 knot Mistral winds that

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

would ease by ten knots by the second day.

Nosing past the breakwater, we instantly shipped green water in the cockpit and it became clear that the winds weren’t going to listen to what the forecast suggested.

We sailed for the majority of the time with just two aboard, in winds averaging Gale Force 7-8 over both days. An in-mast furling mainsail and a self-tacking furling jib made it possible to set the optimal canvas easily, without either of us needing to leave the aft cockpit.

We reduced the mainsail until heel angle became stable – the equivalent of three reefs for the most part – and sailed with full jib where possible. The test boat had a 100 per cent furling genoa on the forestay, plus this small self-tacking jib set off an inner stay. The jib acted like a staysail, providing useful drive. It is a choice I would take in preference to the standard offering of selftacking jib on the main forestay.

With sails set, the helmsman can control all he needs from the wheel, thanks to the mainsheet control button and primaries

being within reach. The 64 proved both manageable and obedient as we reached back and forth in the calmer water in the lee of the Frioul islands. Even here the conditions were challenging, as brief lulls were followed by vicious squalls that whipped up foam from the fat water before barrelling into our tall rig. But though a big, powerful yacht weighing over 30 tonnes, the Jeanneau quickly put me at ease. She stood up well to the treatment and provided plenty of warning before she became overloaded.

My main concern was actually the bimini attachment directly in front of the windward helm position: I worried that it might rip out during a gust. It is reportedly rated to 45 knots, something we put to the test that day.

Sailing with the bimini stowed proved distinctly preferable, not least for monitoring the sails.

True to form for Jeanneau yachts, the 64 provided steady, forgiving sailing rather than anything too spectacular or lively. This is a big vessel to steer. The ballast required to keep her upright is equivalent to the

weight of a 43ft cruiser. Things happen slowly, but purposefully and obediently.

Jefa self-aligning bearing gear controls a single-blade, semi-balanced rudder, which proved competent in the demanding conditions – maybe a little spongy, but certainly more responsive than a similarsized centre-cockpit system. She gave us plenty of warning before she rounded up in ladylike fashion if I took too long to identify the mainsheet button.

Currently the captive mainsheet control is mounted among other similar switches on the starboard pedestal. This should be much more distinctive and ftted on both pedestals to allow the helmsman to dump the main quickly. Jeanneau is still working on optimum winch speeds.

We spent the majority of our time reaching in fattish water to give the photographer a sporting chance, but it was once we ventured out into the 3-4m swell that the 64 really came alive. These were conditions that could ask questions of any boat. Some boats might make you uneasy,

Saloon: the saloon is a tastefully styled, spacious area, with abundant natural light and views.

It offers a fexible layout: the area to starboard of the companionway can be a Pullman or navstation, and that to port a sofa or a desk. The raised saloon creates room for the generator and tanks below

but the Jeanneau gave us the confdence to keep heading offshore. She maintained a very steady 9.5–10 knots reaching while comfortably reefed.

It is a real pleasure to helm a boat of this size from wheels sited aft, as 64-footers tend to be centre-cockpit set-ups, from which the helmsman can feel disconnected.

To stand up high at the windward wheel, staring down nearly 60ft of yacht and point the bow down into the expansive trough of a wave was exhilarating.

The comfort of the cockpit will appeal to the off-watch crew. Sit facing aft on the large sunbathing benches under the generous sprayhood and, apart from the heel angle, it’s possible to be oblivious to the conditions, even when it is howling. It’s like being in the aft cockpit of a catamaran.

Jeanneau had already sailed this prototype from Les Sables d’Olonne to Corsica. Over 2,500nm of testing time had exposed potential gremlins, which is perhaps why they were rightly confdent in her ability in the conditions we experienced.

It is a credit to the yard that it has ensured she is a manageable boat. A bowthruster is standard and a stern thruster is an option all owners have taken so far. It’s one that could save face and repair bills, and certainly helped us get in and out of a tight, windy berth.

24 hours aboard Two things shone out when we stayed aboard the 64: the high-end styling, and the quality of engineering and fnish. It is the smallest yacht London-based Andrew Winch has worked on in 20 years and his enthusiastic return to yacht design is marked by the intricate level of detail he has managed to incorporate in the 64. The styling is tastefully nautical and contemporary. It feels smart and special, and pulls off the grace of a superyacht.

Winch helped select and develop the timber fnish. The test boat had the popular light oak Alpi option (€12,500 extra) with dark laminate foor. This manufactured wood is the choice of most large production yards today, but this

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

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ON TEST:JEANNEAU 64

DATA JEANNEAU 64

GZ (metres)

Galley: the passageway galley is secure to work in at sea, provides reasonable fiddled worksurfaces, plus plenty of dried goods stowage and options for cold stowage. It has been thoughtfully arranged to suit the idea of service, including stainless steel fridges and the siting of a cutlery drawer and drinks fridge close to the companionway. Raised locker and crockery space is limited, however

Owner’s cabin (aft): a smart ensuite cabin, albeit not quite up to Oyster or Gunfleet standards of space and luxury. Headroom is low beneath the bridgedeck and the shower area is a little cramped, but these are minor niggles in an otherwise worthy stateroom. The twin curved, aft-facing escape hatches contribute to the natural light, and stowage is neat and practical

particular Alpi had been specially treated using an open-pore varnish technique to give a tactile finish.

Elsewhere leather is used to striking effect, including on door panels, and door and locker handles. The lockers all have 8mm trench surrounds, which give a neat symmetrical effect, and the solid wood edges of furniture are bevelled.

“We had to step up the quality because the psychology of people coming aboard is one that looks to why it is half the price,” explains Erik Stromberg. He admits the interiors are not fashioned by master craftsmen, but still need to look good and be easy to put together.

“It’s about a higher perceived value,”

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says Stromberg. Jeanneau uses 5-axis machines to save time where possible and the interior has been designed with a versatile layout that offers a variety of choices. In this way, Jeanneau can still build using its industrial processes, but provide enough choice for owners to feel they are getting a bespoke yacht.

The incorporation of an engine room for the first time is a big move for Jeanneau.

The company has tried to house all noisy or vibrating items in this area below the cockpit. “Our client is growing up through production boats so knows the inconveniences of typical machinery systems, so more space for these is a big selling point,” says Stromberg. Three access

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

Stability

1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 -0.2 -0.4 -0.6

Jeanneau 64

Data supplied by builder 0

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60 80 100 120 140 Angle of heel (degrees)

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points make servicing practical. Space is a little tight in comparison with engine rooms aboard centre-cockpit yachts, though.

Despite the efforts to contain noise, the generator is housed outside the engine room, below the saloon floor, so is noticeable when running. But we still ran a quiet ship for the night, thanks to 860ah of 24V batteries, even while charging laptops and camera gear and running the dishwasher. The Jeanneau can run silently for 24 hours offshore on batteries alone, unless aircon is required.

A touchscreen panel mounted beside the companionway provides an intuitive means of monitoring and controlling most of the systems on board. It was developed

Jeanneau 64 Polar Curve

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20¡

60¡

True wind angle

10 knots

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6 knots 80¡

2 0 2 4

yachtingworld.com/jeanneau64

20 knots

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Boat speed (knots)

SEE ThE vIdEO

32¡ 40¡

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Or scan this code with your phone or tablet to access the Jeanneau 64 video

100¡

6 knots 10 knots

6 8

120¡

20 knots

As supplied by designer

10 160¡

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140¡

SPECIFICATIONS LOA

20.10m

65ft 11in

LWL

18.00m

59ft 1in

Beam (max)

5.40m

17ft 9in

Draught

2.95m

9ft 8in

31,000kg

68,343lb

Ballast

9,350kg

20,613lb

Sail area

204.1m2

2,197ft2

Disp (lightship)

Berths Engine Water Fuel

6-10 180hp Volvo shaft drive 1,000lt

220gal

825lt

181gal

Sail area: disp

21.0

Disp: LWL

148

Price ex VAT €858,900 – Test boat: €1,194,050 Designed by Philippe Briand Yacht Design/ Andrew Winch Designs www.jeanneau.com

Conclusion in-house to monitor tanks, batteries, lights and generator operation. It allows for easy interrogation of the system, down to keeping track of each individual battery’s charge and temperature.

After two days aboard, my list of interior faults is short. The doorways are unnecessarily narrow; the sinks are laughably small; the bulkhead between guest cabins is fimsily thin so doesn’t provide adequate noise insulation; the soleboards would beneft from spacers to prevent creaking; raised lockers are all too small; bedside shelves would be a beneft; and the towel rails are inadequate. For the frst boat off the line, however, that equates to YW impressively few complaints.

The Jeanneau 64 is certainly a boat full of surprises, and one that should be lauded for her styling and engineering.

With their current Sun Odyssey range, Jeanneau and Briand have proved, model after model, that they provide the complete boat in terms of layout, performance and handling. So perhaps it should have come as no surprise that the 64 maintains those fundamental qualities.

But how much will her brand name affect buyers’ choice? Would you favour a 26in B&O fatscreen TV over a 40in LG, for example?

However accomplished her design and

however well she performs, she remains, for better or worse, a Jeanneau. Rather than try to camoufage this fact by using different branding, Groupe Beneteau has embraced it, knowing that the quality needs to be over and above any preconceived perceptions. The Jeanneau you thought you knew has consequently changed.

Like the choice in TVs, the Jeanneau offers 10ft more yacht than an equivalent-priced semi-custom yacht. But it’s not simply about more boat for the buck.

To want to spend seven fgures on a Jeanneau, it must make you feel as if you’ve spent a million, yet still got a bargain.

And I think it does.

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

77

NEW YACHTS NEW YACHTS

VISMARA MILLS 62 SUPERNIKKA

Dual-purpose performer Racing boat designer Mark Mills is busier than he’s been in five years, he tells Toby Hodges. This fiendish-looking racer-cruiser is in build in Italy and he has a fun-looking C&C 30, too – see overleaf

A

t first glance this powerful new Vismara Mills 62 looks like the ultimate weapon for the current mini-maxi fleet. But although she will mix it with this fiercely competitive top-end racing class, she is designed as a dual-purpose boat, so she can be cruised as well.

Mark Mills, based in County Wicklow, Ireland, is responsible for the naval architecture and describes the brief as an unusual one these days, as the boat had to race hard, but still be able to take a family out for three or four weeks of cruising.

“I explained to the owner that this introduces compromises, but he still really

78

wanted to do it,” says Mills. The result is “the most competitive racer-cruiser we could possibly do,” he declares.

A multitude of features, including a tender in a garage and a bowthruster, can be removed pre-regatta to make the yacht up to two tonnes lighter.

In 2012 the Viareggio-based Vismara yard built Nikka, a 47ft carbon racer-cruiser for repeat client Roberto Lacorte. Lacorte, creator of the 151 Miglia offshore race on the west coast of Italy, was reportedly inspired by the Mills-designed 68ft mini-maxi Alegre and he proposed a collaboration between Mills and Vismara.

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

This fiendish 62-footer, christened SuperNikka, is the result.

Mills worked up the exterior geometry, including hull, deck, appendages and rig. He stressed how interesting it was working with designer and builder Alessandro Vismara who, under Vismara Marine, has launched an intriguing number and variety of performance designs over recent years.

The Vismara Mills 62 is described as a semi-custom build because her design can be adjusted for future owners. The shape of SuperNikka is biased towards offshore racing in the Mediterranean and should be ideal for reaching angles thanks to her

NEW YACHTS with Toby Hodges

Above: a lifting T-keel will reduce draught for cruising from 4.2m to a more manageable 2.95m

DIMENSIONS LOA 19.00m/62ft 4in Beam 5.00m /16ft 5in Draught 2.95-4.20m/ 9ft 8in-13ft 9in Disp 16.500kg/36,376lb

ruler-edged chine. But for those who want inshore windward-leeward racing the chine could be altered, the designer says.

SuperNikka is being built in carbon sandwich, vacuum-infused with epoxy, and will have a lifting T-keel to reduce draught for cruising. Two twin cabins aft and an owner’s cabin forward with king-size berth combine to accommodate six guests when cruising, or eight for racing.

She is due to launch in spring 2015 and will compete in the Rolex Maxi Worlds and the Middle Sea Race, as well as Roberto Lacorte’s 151 Miglia event. www.vismaramarine.it

Above: SuperNikka is the result of a collaboration between designer Mark Mills and Vismara Marine in Italy. Her hull shape might be biased towards offshore racing, but she is designed to cruise as well

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

137 79

NEW YACHTS C&C 30 Raw boat speed reigns over any rating rules for this exciting new one-design class. The message from builders C&C Yachts is that previous sportsboat generations have required too many crew to get the most out of them. This aggressively shaped 30-footer, on the other hand, is designed to offer grand-prix thrills and offshore racing at an affordable, manageable size.

“One-designs work in cycles,” explains designer Mark Mills, “and there has been a new generation of hull designs that has come out in the last three years.” These have more stability so need fewer crew. “Owners of boats from 20-80ft now want to sail with less people,” he says.

The C&C 30 is typical of this modern trend as she will gain form stability when she heels, “yet without losing anything in the light,” declares Mills. The wider hull shape of the C&C above the waterline immerses with increased heel angle, adding form stability.

Mills compares the hull shape to SuperNikka (see previous page), an all-rounder that will suit offshore sailing.

C&C Yachts and new parent company US Watercraft know how to build one-designs – in the past they have built the Mumm 30,

on the proDuCtion line

Farr 40 and J/24. They describe the C&C 30 as a fast, stable, close-winded, easy-to-race 30-footer that planes easily.

Volvo Ocean Race skipper Charlie Enright helped to design the deck layout for maximum effciency. This includes a spinnaker retrieval system, so crew needn’t leave the cockpit.

The C&C 30 has a carbon keel, rig and removable bowsprit. Two berths are standard, with two more pipecots optional for offshore racing. Whether one-design racing with a full complement of fve to seven crew, or two-handed planing offshore, she looks like an exhilarating prospect. The frst two have launched in the US – fngers crossed we will see them in Europe soon.

Price ex VAT US$124,000 (£73,660) www.c-cyachts.com

5Above: a fast, easy-to-race one-design that needs fewer crew

Dimensions LOA 9.15m/30ft 1in LWL 8.75m/28ft 8in Beam 3.00m/9ft 10in Draught 2.30m/ 7ft 6in Disp 1,812kg/3,995lb

GranD soleil 46 lC In a departure from its 40-year heritage of producing cruiser-racers, Grand Soleil is moving into the cruising sector with what it calls a Long Cruise (LC) range. This 46-footer is the frst new model to appear since Italian shipyard Cantiere del Pardo was acquired by the Trevisani family from Bavaria Yachts earlier this year.

General manager Fabio Planamente explained that the concept behind this new line, which will include a 42 and 56 in the future, is to make it appealing to ageing Grand Soleil owners – a little like X-Yachts’ Xc range then. It will therefore sit between the mass production brands and the less contemporary luxury brands. It has been designed to attract new emerging markets, but should appeal to European customers looking for a stylish, comfortable cruising yacht that’s easy to handle.

The Grand Soleil 46 LC, designed to be sailed by two, looks modern, sporty and comfortable, with a mainsheet arch providing the in-vogue spoiler look. This supports a sprayhood and bimini for cockpit protection. Design is by Marco Lostuzzi and Nauta Design, ensuring a certain amount of Italian fnesse. She has plenty of deck space for sunbathing and easy transom access to the sea. The interior is fnished in light oak

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Winner 8 and 9 The Winner 900 (now called ‘9’) was one of the best small yachts I sailed last year.

She is a complete, compact family cruiser that is built well and sails well, all for a keen price (from €78,000/£62,190). This makes news of a yet smaller follow-up welcome. The 8 will also be available in either Family or Performance ft-out. The former is available with optional 1m shoal draught, twin rudders and two cabins. The Performance model targets club racers, by sporting a 1.5m keel, taller rig, square-top main and retractable pole.

Price ex VAT Family €61,570 (£49,090); Performance €65,207 (£52,000). www.winneryachts.com

5Above: the stylish, sporty GS46 LC (Long Cruise) has a comfortable interior in light oak designed to appeal to ‘mature’ sailors

and tank allocation is reasonably generous.

The Trevisani family, owners of the Trevi Group, which specialises in the production of drilling machines, bought Cantiere del Pardo in December 2013. The shipyard now produces Grand Soleil and the sporty Sly Yachts brands. Fans of the Grand Soleil cruiser-racers need not fear, though – a new Performance model of around 57ft is also in design for a proposed launch next year.

Price ex VAT €349,000 (£278,247) www.grandsoleil.net

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

Dimensions LOA 14.74m/48ft 4in LWL 14.00m/45ft 11in Beam 4.41m/14ft 6in Draught 2.30m/ 7ft 7in Disp 11,000kg/ 24,250lb

J/97 E It’s amazing what a facelift can do. The 32ft J/97 is fve years old, but a new coachroof look knocks those years off instantly. She follows in the footsteps of the J/122 E, which launched last year, the updated version of J-Boats’ popular cruiser-racer from 2007. According to builders J Composites in Les Sables d’Olonne, the main beneft of the J/97 E is the cockpit. A sole-mounted traveller abaft the seating creates the option of having a wheel and makes the benches more accessible for cruising.

Price ex VAT £84,000 www.jcomposites.eu

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NEW GEAR aFTerguarD

head-up display for sailing T

wo minutes to go to the start.

You’re in a frantic tussle fghting for the favoured end. A crewmember is blocking your view of the instruments as you try to calculate distance to the line and whether you can squeeze above the leeward boat in time. Imagine then having all the data you need to make such decisions instantly, on a personal screen, no matter in which direction you look.

It is the sort of technology that has long been the domain of fghter pilots, and indeed it was developed for aircraft. Today head-up displays (HUD, sometimes called ‘heads-up’ displays) are used in cars, sports and gaming. Many will have seen Jimmy Spithill wearing HUD glasses, combined with a backpack containing the ‘brains’ of the technology, during the 2010 America’s Cup Match. Now, in tandem with the rapidly growing technology of wearable computers, Afterguard is bringing its more refned HUD product to mainstream sailing.

Afterguard provides the potential to make a quicker, more informed decision on the racecourse. It takes data from a yacht’s existing instruments and transmits it to the lenses of polaroid glasses. The data is displayed in the periphery so as not to interfere with the normal feld of view.

Vancouver-based Recon makes HUD glasses and goggles for sports such as cycling and snowboarding. Afterguard has added the software to make it sailing-specifc.

Afterguard’s central processor (called a CCU) adds enriched data to the HUD glasses, by taking it from existing instruments on board. “Wind direction and speed opens up 90 per cent of the features,” says Alex Moret, founder of Afterguard.

Above: Afterguard glasses and CCU processor. An hD camera, speaker and microphone are also included. the hDU has four to six hours of battery life, using removable batteries

“Wherever you look, the HUD follows, so you will be able to tell if you will make that tack.”

You can add boat speed data and polars.

The Afterguard processor talks to existing onboard instruments using NMEA 0183, 2000 or Seatalk, which makes the product a cost-effective retroft. The demand for Recon’s HUD glasses is high,

Above: three different screens: swiping the glasses switches between start sequence, Virtual tactician and Performance Dashboard

however, so there is currently a six-month lead-time to delivery. The glasses are daylight-readable and include an HD camera and microphone, so they could prove popular for communications during large yacht racing. A future update planned will allow users to record an entire race to evaluate boat speeds and performance.

4 of the rest Wearable Technology Garmin Quatix

smartbands: Jawbone UP

More a wrist-mounted instrument than a timepiece, the Quatix combines GPS navigation and racing aids. It will wirelessly integrate with Garmin devices, and can show tidal info, COG, SOG and VMG. It can calculate time and distance to a startline, and includes a ‘tack assist’ mode to indicate lifts or headers.

Price: £379.99. www.garmin.com

UP is a wristband that will tell you, via a smartphone, things you probably already know, but normally try to ignore, including how well you are eating, sleeping and exercising. It counts your calorie intake, steps taken per day and hours of quality sleep per night. Other smartband brand variations include Nike Fuelband, Sony Smartband and Fitbit Flex.

Price from £99.99 www.jawbone.com

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YACHTING WORLD OCTObeR 2014

NEW GEAR with Toby Hodges

Start Sequence screen shows crucial info like countdown, distance to line and time to burn

Adlard Coles Maritime Classics This series of collectors’ editions of classic maritime literature has been updated with pictures and maps.

Each timeless masterpiece includes a foreword by a celebrity sailor or adventurer, including Pete Goss and Sir Ranulph Fiennes. The works currently include Shackleton’s South, Bligh’s Mutiny on the Bounty, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, and The Sea Wolf by Jack London. Robinson Crusoe and Lord Jim will follow in February 2015, with two more new books planned every six months.

Price £8.99. www.adlardcoles.com

Virtual Tactician screen follows line of sight so you can clear a competitor or sight a layline

Performance Dashboard shows the specific performance of your boat even while you’re looking at the competition

Moret, a lifelong sailor who previously crewed on the maxi trimaran Geronimo, sees the demand coming from owner-drivers of 30-50ft weekend racers. “Afterguard will be used like a compass rose to make the ‘will I make it in front of another boat?’ decision in a split second,” he declares.

Perhaps a tactician’s days are numbered then. But for those tempted by Afterguard, be warned: “You will have no excuse to sail the boat slowly,” says Moret.

Price: US$1,899 (£1,136) for the HDU glasses and CCU processor. www.afterguard.co

FastFender From the number of fender-hanging devices that continue to come onto the market, you would think tying a fender is a difficult task.

Here is the latest gizmo: the Fastfender, which allows you to secure a fender with one hand.

The design looks simple and secure, and it can be easily adjusted without risking the loss of said article overboard.

Price per pair: £10.95. www.fastfenderhooks.com

Wallet Ninja The Wallet Ninja is a flat multi-tool built to credit card size so its 18 tools can fit in a wallet, ready for action. The gimmick with a catchy name includes six hex wrenches, a can opener/fruit peeler, bottle opener, ruler, letter opener, box opener, phone stand and screwdriver.

Price: £8.99 www.firebox.com

Google Glass

Samsung Simband

Google’s much-publicised wearable computer provides hands-free smartphone-type information. Glass is the personal equivalent of viewing a 25in high-definition screen seen from 8ft away and is designed for those on the move.

Price: £1,000. www.google.com/glass

“The world’s most advanced wristbased sensor module,” claims Simrad about its latest wearable technology, a health-tracking bracelet.

The device monitors diagnostic information such as blood flow, core temperature, ECG and heart rate, and can be adapted by developers to add extra sensors.

Price TBD www.samsung.com

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

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R Langdon/Ocean Images

GEAR TEST: AUTOPILOTS

Get the best from your autopilot Pip Hare explains how setting your pilot to suit conditions will be faster, smoother and more effcient

T

he thing I love about sailing is that nothing is ever the same; from second to second the environment around us is constantly changing and every increase in wind strength, shift in direction or breaking wave will have an effect on the boat and therefore our performance.

When helming, we use every sense to react to the changes around us; we are constantly adjusting helming direction and style to suit conditions and trimming sails to optimise performance. But what happens when we are not driving? Short-handed

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racing sailors consider trimming the autopilot as important as trimming the sails.

Although modern pilots have been developed to drive extreme racing machines in the most challenging conditions, they still need a helping human hand to achieve peak performance. When I started single-handed racing, learning to tune my autopilot was an integral part of my training. I kept notes on settings after each session and during speed tests against other boats to ensure that, even when I was sleeping, my boat would be performing as well as it could.

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

5Above: setting up the autopilot is as important as trimming the sails

Cruising sailors tend to under-utilise pilots, usually simply turning them on and walking away. Learning how to trim and set up your pilot to suit the conditions will not only get you to your destination faster, but should reduce battery consumption and make for a smoother ride.

In this article I aim to highlight a few ways to get the most from your pilot. I will talk you through three popular systems to see how easy it is to change the settings and how much human intervention is required to get the best performance.

THE PILOTS TESTED 1

CRUISER

SmartPilot X-5

by Raymarine with ST6002 controller This pilot is five years old and represents a generation of pilots that is perhaps most prevalent on cruising boats today. The model has now been superseded by the Evolution range. I’m very familiar with the X-5 as I have two of these autopilots installed in my 21ft Mini Transat boat and they have supported my single-handed sailing over thousands of miles.

1

SP X-5 course computer

2

ST6002 control head

3

Fluxgate compass

4

2

3

4 Wheel drive/pilot

CRUISER-RACER B&G AC12N course computer controlled by Triton head We tried this pilot on the Elan 410 Esprit, which is owned by Neil Vardy and used for charter work, racing round the cans and extended passagemaking. This is the newest of all three pilots tested and offers a more intelligent computer that automatically changes settings to suit conditions.

B&G’s AC12N course computer and Triton display

PIP HARE A professional ocean racing sailor, with 120,000 miles and 16 years of experience, Pip Hare grew up sailing Folkboats on the UK East Coast. She launched her solo racing career in 2009 in the OSTAR, followed in 2011 by the Mini Transat in a 21-footer.

She is a Yachtmaster instructor and examiner and has written a number of ‘how to’ features, including our own successful Sail Faster Sail Safer series.

RACER

NKE Gyropilot 2 The NKE has long been the autopilot of choice for single-handed sailors. The system is aimed heavily at racing sailors and it is expected that they will adjust settings to optimise performance.

I trialled this system on Concise 8, a third-generation, Mark Mills-designed Class 40 entered in this year’s Route du Rhum with British skipper Ned Collier Wakefield.

The French NKE pilots are popular with racing sailors

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GEAR TEST: AuTopiloTS MODES Your autopilot can do so much more than just steer to a compass course. Although hitting ‘auto’ and walking away may be what you have always done, selecting the right mode for the conditions and changing between modes when appropriate will help with both course-keeping and speed.

Across the range of brands, modes available are pretty similar, although some have different names. Here is a summary of equivalent modes in the pilots I tested:

Right: a typical wheel pilot set-up on a cruising yacht

NaME Of MODE

Explanation Raymarine

B&G Triton

NKE

Steers to current compass course

Auto

Auto

Heading

Steers to current wind angle

Windvane – manually select True or Apparent

Wind – will automatically select True or Apparent

True Wind Mode

Will steer to a GPS waypoint

Track

Navigate

GPS

Will lock the rudder at a set angle

N/A

NFU (non follow up)

Rudder Angle

Compass is the default mode for most autopilots; once activated, it will steer the compass course shown on the control head at the time of pressing the button.

Choose compass mode for a quick fx while you go forward or below, when motoring, sailing in a confned area, performing sail changes or if fetching or reaching in a challenging sea where the apparent wind angle may change frequently.

Below: activating the Windvane function on the Raymarine pilot

Wind or windvane – Engaging this mode allows your course computer to ‘see’ the wind and steer to it in the same way as a human helmsman. With the exception of conditions mentioned above, I will always choose to steer in wind mode, especially downwind at speed.

For best results switch between true or apparent wind angles as conditions change.

Use a true wind angle when sailing downwind; it will allow the boat to surf down waves, accelerating as the apparent wind angle moves forward, but staying on track.

Switch to apparent wind mode when sailing upwind to allow the pilot to ‘follow the telltales’ just as we would.

Changing between true and apparent wind modes is not always straightforward. If you have extended periods when you do not use your pilot, try keeping a check card in the chart table so you do not have to open the manual every time you want to change.

On the X-5 it needs to be done in the user calibration menu, which takes quite a few button pushes. It cannot be done while the pilot is engaged, which can mean steering and pushing buttons at the same time.

The Triton has intelligent sail steering,

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Apparent Wind Mode

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which offers three options for wind mode, automatic, true or apparent. The automatic mode is the default option and will select true or apparent according to your wind angle and switch between them as the boat heads up or bears away. This feature particularly impressed me as we sailed Esprit under spinnaker and I watched the pilot transition seamlessly from using a true wind angle when running to apparent when reaching, much as a real helmsman would.

The NKE is perhaps the most straightforward to operate, as true wind mode and apparent wind mode are entirely separate options. You can switch between modes while the pilot is running and whichever mode is in operation when standby is pressed will be remembered.

However, if you are considering an NKE pilot, be aware that the true wind mode does not come as standard; you have to buy a code to unlock this on your course computer.

Rudder angle/NFU is featured on both the B&G and NKE pilots and simply holds the rudder at one angle much as a wheel lock would. Though this has limited use under normal conditions, we used it on Esprit in light airs and fat water to hold the boat on a steady reaching course with well-trimmed sails. In light airs and large swell this could save your batteries and even your sanity by avoiding continual course adjustments while waiting for the breeze to fll in.

Navigation mode will allow the pilot to link with chart plotters or GPS and drive to waypoints or follow routes. This full integration of navigation and autopilot

comes from the world of ships and could potentially take all the hassle out of navigating as routes can be designed on your sofa at home and then uploaded before a passage. On a boat I sailed early this year, installed with a Garmin plotter and pilot, the plotter asked ‘Shall I engage the pilot?’ when a ‘go to’ waypoint had been selected.

Although this level of integration between steering and navigating brings a degree of sophistication on board, I have never used this mode with my autopilot other than when motoring in a familiar area and in benign conditions.

I would express a word of caution if considering using this level of automation as it could take away your engagement with navigation and the world outside. An error made plotting a waypoint the night before could be followed without question.

Response Response could be interpreted as the number of corrections per minute the pilot makes to stay on course.

Sometimes called the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;sensitivityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, the response settings are normally the easiest to adjust. In super-light breeze I may knock the response right down to reduce power consumption and keep the boat from making jerky movements. The friskier conditions become, the more I need my pilot to work, especially under spinnaker, so the response will go up in line with how actively I would be steering if on the helm.

It is always a good idea to have a go at steering yourself before turning the response level up as if the boat is struggling to keep on course it is often an indication that sails need to be trimmed or reefed.

The B&G pilot has an automatic response feature, which will select either high response or low response parameters depending on boat speed. This feature should make life easy; however, when we tested the pilot in light winds and fat water, the auto response settings seemed to make the helm unnecessarily active.

It is possible to select response levels manually in the pilot settings menu, though if you press standby the pilot will return to the default automatic response setting.

The gain function on the NKE Gyropilot combines both rudder response and rudder gain as detailed below. Pick a lower number for slower speeds and calmer waters and increase to the highest value for the most challenging conditions.

Photos: P Wyeth/pwpictures.com

SETTINGS

Wind trim The wind trim determines the sensitivity of the pilot when operating in wind mode. This is an often-overlooked control, but if you are struggling to keep your course to the wind, it will often be a tweak to the wind trim that is required and not the response.

For both the B&G and Raymarine pilots, the wind trim will be set to a default value somewhere in the middle of the range, but to gain optimum performance from your pilot it is worth changing the wind trim value to suit the conditions.

A high wind trim value will lead to a boat that responds to every shift and gust, which could be benefcial when sailing upwind in fat water or when under spinnaker downwind. But when reaching in a heavy sea a high wind trim value can lead to a rough and erratic ride. It is defnitely worth recording wind trim values against conditions when your pilot is set up well.

The NKE uses a wind damping feature; this is particularly useful for boats with large rigs, which would feel signifcant acceleration at the masthead owing to the action of waves. In heavy seas you can

5Top: Pip Hare with the skipper of Concise 8, Ned Collier Wakefeld 5Above: close up of Ned setting up the NKE pilot

increase the wind damping to update the course computer with information fewer times per minute so smoothing out any accelerations caused by waves. In smooth seas a lower damping value will allow more frequent and sensitive course corrections.

Rudder gain/counter rudder The rudder gain determines the size of corrective helm movements. The larger the gain, the more severe the helm corrections will be. Counter rudder is the opposite movement of the helm, which stops the boat from over-shooting when a course correction is made.

The balance between rudder gain and counter rudder is critical to keeping

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P Wyeth/pwpictures.com

GEAR TEST: AuTopiloTS

a smooth course. If these two are out of sync, the boat will snake around its course.

During set-up your pilot will go through an ‘auto-learn’ routine, which will defne the default settings for rudder gain and counter rudder. The auto-learn capabilities of modern pilots make it unnecessary to adjust these settings often. However, in more challenging conditions, such as rolly beam-on seas or very gusty conditions downwind, I found I could make a signifcant difference to course-keeping with the X-5 by tweaking.

If the helm is moving often with small movements, but struggling to stay on course, you maybe need to increase the rudder gain and decrease the response.

If your pilot is struggling, take the helm yourself, note how often you move the helm

5Above: the Class 40 Concise 8 at speed. Like many racing boats, she has the NKE pilot, which assumes sailors will adjust settings to optimise performance

ExamplE pilot sEttings chart Conditions

Mode

Wind Response Rudder Counter trim gain rudder

Light winds, fat water, upwind

Apparent

2

2

3

3

Strong breeze, moderate seas reaching

Compass

n/a

4

3

3

Moderate breeze, fat water, reaching, boat powered up

True

3

5

4

4

Downwind, under spinnaker big waves

True

5

6

4

4/5

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

and by how much then try to replicate this with your settings. Large helm movements equal larger rudder gain. When increasing the rudder gain, do it one level at a time and then wait and watch to see the difference.

Make a note of your settings before you change anything so if things do not work, you can go back to where you were.

As a rule of thumb, the gain and counter rudder should be fairly similar values, certainly no more than two levels different.

If the counter rudder is too low, the boat will over-steer past its heading and snake back; if too high, the turn down onto course will be arrested and jerky. For my X-5, I keep a chart with optimum rudder gain and counter rudder settings for particular conditions, which I can refer to if my pilot is struggling.

NKE has nine pre-save confgurations, allowing you to swap between settings.

The B&G Triton pilot uses a more automated system, which works off two groups of settings. During the ‘auto-learn’ phase of set-up the computer will defne a group of low settings and high settings, which will contain pre-set values for response, rudder gain and counter rudder.

At a pre-determined speed (default six knots), the pilot will automatically switch between groups of settings so taking away the need to adjust manually. Unfortunately, our test day was fairly benign so we were unable to see how effective these pre-sets are.

Auto tack All three pilots tested had an ‘auto tack’ feature and, if you regularly sail two-up or with friends who are not sailors, it is well worth getting to grips with this option as it frees up the helm to give an extra pair of hands for handling sheets. If you have never tried the auto tack, but are regularly driving with the wheel in one hand and a rope in another, give it a go.

Within the calibration menu you should be able to adjust your tacking angle and rate of tack to suit your boat and conditions. In light breeze and fat water you may be able to tack faster and through a smaller angle, but as the wind builds you can knock down the speed of the tack to give yourself a little more time to handle sails. Beware of going too slowly through tacks in waves as the boat could stop mid-tack.

Some auto tack functions will also allow you to gybe the boat downwind, allowing you an extra pair of hands to control the mainsail through the gybe. If you are going to use auto tack for gybing, make sure that you slow down the rate and angle of turn.

Always take the time to set up the pilot before going through the manoeuvre.

The Raymarine pilot has a gybe stop function which, when engaged, will not allow you to gybe using the auto tack function.

This can be a useful safety precaution.

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GEAR TEST: AuTopiloTS Top Tips for auTopiloT seT-up n Make the rudder centre mark on your wheel of brightly coloured tape or string so you can see at a glance how much helm is being applied, even in the dark. n When the boat is going particularly well, make a note of the settings and conditions so you can build a trim chart for use on long passages – maybe think about putting an extra column in the log

T Johnson

n When changing sails or performing manoeuvres, always change the autopilot from wind mode to compass mode. This will avoid any sudden changes in course because of shifting wind angles

The autopilot gives you freedom to move around the boat, go below, eat, sleep or just stay dry under the sprayhood, but once it is engaged it is easy to become detached from what is going on around the boat.

As a rule I will always have a windshift alarm on if I leave the autopilot steering in wind mode.

The X-5 pilot has an automatic windshift alarm, which will go off if the wind direction changes by 15° or more. The off-course alarm parameters can be set through an advanced calibration menu and will notify you if the pilot is unable to keep course.

On both the Triton and the Gyropilot, it is possible to set alarms for many different parameters via the alarms menus.

posiTioning/remoTe conTrol When ftting an autopilot control head, think about how you are going to activate the pilot or change settings while the boat is under way. Not only does the control head and display need to be within reach, but you may also need to be able to read headings on the display while steering at the same time.

As my Mini Transat yacht was only 21ft long, it was not hard to ft the control head at arm’s length; however, in certain light conditions I found it hard to read the display headings from a distance while steering.

Esprit suffered from a similar problem; the pilot head was mounted next to the wheel for easy activation, but the Triton display through which calibration menus were accessed was at the companionway and well out of reach. This proved most inconvenient when using the auto tack function, which was activated on the pilot controller next to the wheel, but then prompted an ‘Are you sure?’ question on the

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5Above: once the autopilot is set up for the conditions, you can relax. But set a windshift alarm if it is steering in wind mode.

Below: Raymarine’s larger remote control was useful when offshore

display across the cockpit, which needed to be accepted.

The convenient solution is a remote controller. This will allow you to make subtle changes to course or mode from anywhere on the boat, and is a safety consideration when on deck alone. None of these systems comes with remote control as standard.

Raymarine offers a basic remote that will drive the pilot or a larger version that will also allow you to scroll through and view all instrument data. I found the larger version particularly useful when racing offshore as it allowed me to hike out on the side of the boat while monitoring course and speed, making subtle corrections to the course while the pilot drove the boat.

The NKE remote control features a MOB system, which will cause the boat to round up and tack if the remote control is separated by more than a defned distance from the base station.

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

n Always make a note of pilot settings before you change anything so you can go back to them if you make the situation worse n If there is no wind and you’re making a passage under motor, try playing with the gain, response and counter rudder settings one at a time, while watching the wake of the boat.

This will give you a really clear picture of how these controls affect course-keeping. n To set the response, hand steer the boat then try to set response level to match the amount of correction you are making with your hands.

Left: Ned Collier Wakefeld with NKE remote control. A remote does not come as standard on any of the systems tested

Photos: P Wyeth/pwpictures.com

Alarms

n Make sure tiller extensions are properly secured away when the pilot is driving. Dangling extensions (as above) can get wedged in the cockpit as the pilot drives, breaking either the ram or the helm. n As clever as a pilot is, remember it will only ever react to the conditions it senses using data it has previously recorded. It cannot see what is ahead of the boat – that is still the job of the humans on board!

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CRUISING

T Johnson Photography

All in the lens of duty Sea Fever, a wooden racer-cruiser built in the 1960s for the Transpac race, enjoys a cracking sail in Puget Sound in the US Pacific north-west. The mountain in the backbround is Mt Rainier. The photographer tells us that, to get this shot, he leapt onto a buoy as the yacht was not carrying a dinghy. It was only once precariously perched on it that he read the sign: ‘Sewage Outfall Buoy’.

Drought may limit Panama Canal

A

long-running drought in Panama has forced the Panama Canal Authority to consider limiting the draught of vessels transiting the canal. The locks at the Caribbean and Pacific ends of the canal are supplied by Gatun Lake, which is rainwaterfed, and the Authority fears that if rainfall continues to be light, the canal’s capacity may have to be limited.

Water supply has been a frequent problem for the Panama Canal since the 1930s, when the Madden Dam was built above the Gatun Lake. The amount of water required to lock through a batch of ships or

92

yachts is mind-boggling to experience first hand, as I found when I joined a crew to transit the canal a few years ago.

Each of the three locks at the Gatun flight taking vessels on the first part of their transit from the Caribbean side takes over 100 million litres of water to fill.

Jorge Luis Quintano, head of the Panama Canal Authority, says that the levels of Gatun and Alajuela Lakes have dropped critically and that rainfall between October and December last year was the lowest in the 100-year history of the canal.

Quintano thinks ship transits may have

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

to be limited later this year or in early 2015.

The drought has continued this summer and is severely affecting nearby Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala, where farmers are struggling to feed cattle.

Around 38-40 ships transit the canal every day, stretching if need be to 47 or 48.

They carry around five per cent of the world’s maritime trade.

Right: this photo shows the extent of the drought in the area as tree stumps are exposed in a Panama Canal reservoir

CRUISING

PA Photos

with Elaine Bunting

Piracy is waning off Somalia, but increasing in Africa European coalition forces warn that the root causes remain iracy in the Indian Ocean appears to have been brought under control and has diminished over the past two years as international navies take more decisive action. Organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race, which begins in Spain in October and sails through the Indian Ocean from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi, are contemplating a non-stop leg this time; in 2011 the feet raced along a secret route to the Maldives before being shipped to the Middle East.

However, the European coalition forces, EUNAVFOR, are still warning yachts to keep out of this ‘high-risk zone’.

‘All yachts under their own passage should remain out of the High Risk Area or face the risk of being hijacked and held hostage for ransom,’ it warns starkly. ‘The root cause of piracy has not been eradicated. This is due to limited progress establishing an effective law enforcement capacity within the towns and regions associated with piracy . . . Extreme poverty and lack of employment prospects remain in coastal communities, contributing to large numbers of disaffected youths looking for any opportunities. The motive for piracy therefore remains.’

The warning goes on to explain that, as of September 2013 around US$20 million in ransom had been paid to Somali pirates for the release of vessels and/or crews. ‘Pirates are now cash rich, but asset poor, and keen to seize any vessel which might provide a fnancial return,’ it states.

F Lanting/Alamy

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Above: suspected pirates arrested by marine commandos of the French Navy in the Gulf of Aden. Right: up to date piracy information and a map of the worst-affected areas on ICC’s website

All yachts under their own passage should remain out of the High Risk Area

But while the situation in the Gulf of Aden may have improved marginally, the problem is spreading elsewhere. In the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, the problem of piracy has worsened and since last year 23 pirate attacks have been reported, mainly off the coasts of Nigeria and Ghana.

The Strait of Malacca and Singapore Strait have also become a more active area for piracy, though these attacks are mainly boardings and robbery, rather than hostage taking, and are often opportunistic petty thefts from ships at anchor.

Globally, 116 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships have been reported in the frst six months of 2014, down on the 138 incidents for the corresponding period for 2013.

You can fnd up to date news and a live piracy incident map at www.icc-ccs.org

YACHTING WORLD OCTObeR 2014

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PA Photos

CRUISING

Sea Shepherd

Above: Berserk in the ice in 2005

Norwegian explorer convicted for Antarctic voyage Jarle Andhøy is charged with sailing without permission in his yacht Berserk, which was subsequently lost with three crew

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PA Photos

A

Norwegian court has convicted self-styled ‘Wild Viking’ yachtsman Jarle Andhøy for violating the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. Andhøy sailed his yacht Berserk without permission to Antarctica in February 2011 on an expedition that led to the deaths of three crew. He was ordered to pay a fne of 45,000NOK (approximately €5,500/£4,390).

Under the Antarctic Treaty System, skippers need a permit to sail to Antarctica.

Andhøy’s expedition was conducted without prior consent from the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), which had ordered the trip to be postponed after Andhøy failed to provide the required information about what he planned to do and proof of insurance cover.

Andhøy, 37, a former naval diver and instructor for the Norwegian Rescue Company, took a crew of four from Christchurch, New Zealand, to the Ross Sea in Antarctica on his 47ft steel yacht Berserk.

The Ross Sea – where he and a companion, 18-year-old Samuel Massie, disembarked with all-terrain vehicles to make a journey of almost 1,500 miles to the South Pole – is a part of the continent that hardly any sailors visit. This vast region is usually iced in until late February and refreezes in March.

Top: Sea Shepherd recovers a liferaft from the missing Berserk, but nothing further was found. Above: skipper Jarle Andhøy and Samuel Massie were the only survivors of the unlicensed expedition to Antarctica in 2011

YACHTING WORLD OCTObeR 2014

Unlike the Antarctic Peninsula, which sees between 30 and 40 visiting yachts each season, the Ross Sea offers very little shelter or protection and few places to get securely tied in.

Those left on the yacht, Norwegians Robert Skaane, 34, and Tom Gisle Bellika, 36, along with South African Leonard Banks, 32, were returning to New Zealand and were only 17 miles north of the Scott Base when they met a storm and set off their EPIRB on 22 February. The New Zealand Navy ship Wellington was able to make their last

reported position around ten hours after the distress signal, but found no trace of Berserk.

Conditions at the time were reported to be winds gusting to 75 knots, seas of 6-8m and temperatures of –20°C. It is thought that the yacht may have hit a growler and been holed, been crushed or encrusted with inches of ice forming in the rigging, something that can capsize a yacht in sub-zero winds of as little as 25 knots.

Berserk displaced 25 tonnes and was reported to have been loaded with fve tonnes of extra gear – the all-terrain vehicles had been lashed on deck.

A comprehensive search was made by the US wildlife conservation ship Sea Shepherd and HMNZS Wellington. The search by sea and by helicopter covered some 1,550 nautical miles.

Andhøy returned to Antarctica without authorisation again in early 2012 on the yacht Nilaya. According to Andhøy, the purpose of the second expedition was to gather further information about the missing Berserk. No sign has ever been found of the yacht.

This is not the frst time that Andhøy has faced proceedings. In 2002, he sailed an Albin Vega into protected areas of the Arctic and was charged on his return to Svalbard with sailing without insurance and of failing to submit a route plan, as well as making unauthorised landings and provoking a polar bear.

Skip Novak, Antarctic sailing pioneer and a leading light of the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO), says: “Antarctica is no longer a wilderness; it’s a managed territory with guidelines that have been in place for decades. You have to apply to one of the Antarctic Treaty countries for a permit and you have to meet stringent environmental concerns, a search and rescue plan and you have to have insurance with a very high level of liability. If you don’t, you can be prosecuted.”

IAATO has commended Andhøy’s conviction. Andhøy has told the Norwegian press that he plans to appeal.

More information for anyone planning to visit Antarctica at www.IAATO.org

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CRUISING

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L SPECIA REPORT

Rescue in the Caribbean Early one Sunday in January the crew of Nefertiti set off on passage from Dominica to Antigua. It was the perfect morning for sailing, but then they heard voices . . .

Daniel Calascione recalls a poignant and troubling rescue of four Haitian refugees

S

ome Sundays begin with a morning coffee, breakfast and a lazy newspaper-reading session. Others begin with an early start, a brisk walk, healthy smoothie and productivity. Some Sundays don’t even start till they’re halfway through, and a harsh reminder of the night before lingers for the rest of the day.

This Sunday was like no other for the Nefertiti crew. The four of us were unexpectedly and fundamentally affected by an experience that allowed a glimpse into the lives of the less fortunate and four other people had their destinies rewritten.

There is something special about waking up before the rest of the world to enjoy a few hours of extra time. In this case the feeling was amplifed by the location: Dominica, a modern-day Garden of Eden. With overgrown rainforests, rivers, waterfalls and bubbling volcanic mud, Dominica is an enchanting island and one of the few in the Caribbean that Christopher Columbus

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would recognise if he were to return. The people are generally honest, healthy, happy and glow with a mineral-flled shine in their skin and smiles. The mangoes and avocados are huge and taste spectacular. The coconuts are orange and like no other with their sweet water and jelly nut properties.

We had been anchored in Portsmouth harbour on the north-west coast and the 0500 start was magical. We were heading to Antigua via Guadeloupe and had around 120 miles to cover. I woke up Christoph and we began the process of leaving – transom up, generator and engine on, lines tidied, main readied, nav lights on, coffee drunk and anchor up. As we came out of the bay we hoisted the Swan 90’s 280m2 mainsail and unfurled the big jib. Before we knew it we were cruising under sail at 12 knots on course. This boat just loves to go fast.

The stars were bright. It was still dark, though the faint glow of the rising sun was creeping through. Christoph and I were on

YACHTING WORLD OCTObeR 2014

Above: on board the Swan 90 Nefertiti during her Atlantic crossing. Above right: Portsmouth, Dominica, a modern-day Garden of Eden

deck by the wheel enjoying our watch. It was coming up to 0600 and we were about seven miles offshore between Dominica and Guadeloupe when we heard noises.

They were too faint to interrupt a conversation, but in the silence the sounds were clearly different from normal, defnitely not the wind whistling through the rig.

We looked at each other and agreed they were unusual. As fast as they were there, they were gone; 12 knots of boat speed would do that. Christoph shouted into the emptiness and got nothing back. Amy, the chef, soon turned up on deck. The commotion struck a chord and we realised that whatever it was couldn’t be ignored, so we unanimously decided to furl the jib and gybe back. The wind was between 17 and 20 knots and the sea was no more than 2m.

At this point a faint glow started refecting off the water and we assumed a course just below our track to allow for the ever-brightening light to shine on the most

T Gartside/Alamy

probable area from which the sound came.

We heard it again.

Christoph fetched the binoculars and scanned the horizon to no avail. When we felt we had covered the area, we tacked back and started sailing on our course. Suddenly he shouted: “Off our starboard aft quarter, Dan! Four black spots on the horizon.” We tacked back and headed in the general direction. Emma, the stewardess, joined us.

We had our quarry in sight and now knew we were dealing with people.

Above: how a local radio station in Portsmouth broke the story

One boatlength away now. Four bodies clinging onto something submerged which we couldn’t seem to see.

As we closed the distance between us and them their screams became higherpitched, more desperate, more penetrating.

Their panic seemed to intensify with our approach, though an element of relief became apparent in their voices.

It became clear that they were clinging onto a semi-submerged small craft, probably no more than 15ft. It was an upturned wooden fshing boat, just hugging the surface as a result of the air trapped in the forward locker. We circled them to get a better idea of the situation, during which time they did not stop screaming.

I then needed to drive the boat back in the direction from which we came to allow for an accurate approach. This manoeuvre caused them to become more frantic as they thought we were leaving them.

Bow thruster down, transom opened, lifebuoy out, long line readied. The back of the boat was barely two metres from the sinking vessel and Christoph, Amy and Emma were ready to receive the crew. That was when we realised getting these people on board was not going to be that easy; they clearly did not know how to swim.

Christoph threw the lifebuoy accurately less than a foot away from them and two of them, almost reluctantly, released their

grip on the boat and grabbed the ring.

We pulled them in and heaved their practically limp bodies aboard. Watching them collapse almost immediately is ingrained in my memory.

The gap between us and the other two survivors was quickly widening. Christoph threw the lifebuoy again, this time over their heads. They hesitantly grabbed the ring and lifelessly gave themselves to Christoph’s grip as he hauled them aboard. The desperation and fatigue in their eyes was masked by a clear surge of adrenalin.

Amy, Emma and Christoph instinctively turned into ‘Red Cross’, nursing the survivors with the utmost care: blankets, porridge, hot chocolate, water and dry clothes. As Christoph and the others were dressing our charges in dry kit, I was on the phone to a local contact in Dominica, the famous tour guide, Cobra. He assured me that he would be waiting for us with an offcial in Portsmouth.

The survivors themselves were in shock: two 17-year-old girls, a pregnant 22-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man, all migrants from Haiti. One of the younger girls had clearly been on the bottom of the pile of people clinging to the upturned boat, as her stomach was chafed raw by the wood. She needed to go to hospital.

It was fully light now as we started trying to dig for information about

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CRUISING

where they had come from and where they were headed.

“Guadeloupe… no no … Dominica”, “il y a eu quatre plus persons”“mourri”“telephone”.

They were trying to communicate with us in a mixture of creole and French. We understood that the boat had been upside-down all night. They were heading to Guadeloupe in the hope of fnding some work. It seems it is easier to obtain an entry visa in Dominica than in any other Caribbean island. So people fy in and then try to get to some of the other more affuent countries illegally. Haiti currently offers little in terms of quality of life, driving these people to emigrate towards a better life no matter what the cost.

The local contact they had in Dominica would have taken all their money upon their arrival and kept them locked up for weeks with minimal food and water until the time was right to cross to Guadeloupe.

The most composed of the four was the pregnant woman. She told us in a few broken words that there had been fve others and that they had drowned during the night. She tried to explain how the captain of the vessel, a local Dominican, had allegedly tried to drown all of them when the boat turned over in order not to get caught human traffcking. She alleged he punched her in the belly to try to get her to let go of

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the boat. When he realised he could not overpower them, the captain and his right-hand man foated away from the wreckage on a fuel drum.

Back in Portsmouth we were besieged by local fshermen full of curiosity. They were all on fshing boats exactly like the upturned one. Cobra and a police offcer came on board and started asking questions.

Despite the fact that one of the rescued four was in a critical condition and the other three needed immediate medical help, bureaucracy had to come frst. Only after three hours of interrogation from Customs offcials and the police could they be taken off the boat and sent to hospital.

In the meantime, the local coastguard had driven out to search the scene of the incident. They found no further survivors nor the upturned boat; however, they did fnd the two Dominicans clinging onto an empty drum of fuel. They were brought back for questioning and ultimately were prosecuted. It turned out that the group of Haitians were being traffcked over to Guadeloupe in search of the better life they hoped they would fnd.

By midday we were upping anchor to continue our journey north to Antigua, leaving a turbulent mess in our wake. The Haitians would remain in hospital until they recovered, and their troubles had only just

YACHTING WORLD OCTObeR 2014

Daniel Calascione, from Malta, joined the charter yacht Nefertiti (above) as mate after completing a degree in neuroscience at Edinburgh University.

He became skipper in 2011 and he and his crew have since done both Mediterranean and Caribbean seasons in the 90-footer.

Above: the Swan 90 Nefertiti is a charter yacht available for cruising and racing

begun. The Dominican traffckers would await a trial and be prosecuted.

The rest of that day for us on Nefertiti was humbling and surreal. Though feeting, the emotions you feel after an experience like that can have a long-lasting effect. We all felt fulflled at the idea of saving those lives, although strangely enough not in a positive way. Seeing the survivors walk off the boat was anticlimactic. We watched them with pity and realisation. While we would happily continue with our lives, this incident was just the beginning of further hardship for these people, and they are just a fraction of numbers who endure such hardship.

A deep sense of appreciation for what we have and how lucky we really are followed that Sunday, briefy overshadowing all YW minor dramas and trivial worries.

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dŽ Ŭ LJŽƵƌ ƐůŽƚ ĞŵĂŝů ĨƵŶΛŝďŝnjĂƌĞŶĚĞnjǀŽƵƐ ĐŽŵ Žƌ ůŽŐ ŽŶ ƚŽ ǁǁǁ ŝďŝnjĂƌĞŶĚĞnjǀŽƵƐ ĐŽŵ

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PERFORMANCE A fiesta of foiling

Photography: christophefavreau.com

Lake Garda played host to the frst Foiling Week, where a fascinating array of hardware did its best to get airborne.

James Boyd was there

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OCTObeR 2014

PERFORMANCE with Matthew Sheahan

Foiling? Get truly airborne. Italian ace Simone Vannucci fies the kite-powered ASV foilboard

U

rged on by the phenomenal success of the Moth class over the last decade and particularly by the airborne AC72s of last year’s America’s Cup, more and more foiling projects are coming out of the woodwork. Recognising this trend, Italian Moth sailors Luca Rizzotti and Domenico Boff created Foiling Week, which took place in early July on Lake Garda.

The event was in two halves, starting with the Italian Moth Nationals. But the big draw was part two, which served as a gathering of the foiling clans in Malcesine.

Each morning there was a forum starting with keynote speeches from foiling gurus such as Martin Fischer – designer of Franck Cammas’s Little America’s Cup- winner Groupama C, the Foiling Phantom and GC32; ex-US Air Force test pilot and now Oracle Team USA’s ‘aero and sail project leader’ Tom Speer; and top Moth designer Andrew McDougall.

The PhDs then came out to deliver technical papers on topics ranging from fuid dynamics to engineering developments to structural monitoring.

The main draw, however, was the array of hardware. The AC72s have inspired smaller production versions to be created. Two GC32 catamarans attended Foiling Week, during which one, with French former America’s Cup helmsman Sebastien Col driving, managed a top speed of 37.9 knots – respectable for a Left: Whites 32-footer that many Dragons uses ‘experts’ thought T-rudders and had foils that are too L’Hydroptère-style large, limiting its straight lifting top speed. foils that can be Sadly the GC32’s articulated (see little brother, inset picture) the 18ft Foiling

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101

performance HKF – cat With a sinGle foil

Phantom catamaran (top speed 33 knots), was not here as production has only just got into full swing – many have been ordered by America’s Cup teams, we learned. Also absent was the foiling Nacra F20C, as the event coincided with the F18 Worlds (which Nacra won) and Nacra 17 Europeans.

However, there were two examples of the Italian S.9 catamaran. This is a 13ft 8in single-handed cat, which is also going into production. It has a Moth-style foil package in each hull and a T-confguration rudder, plus a wand on each bow, operating a fap on the trailing edge of the main lifting T-foil.

It was interesting to note that none of the foilers attending was built for pure speed like Paul Larsen’s world speed recorddevastating Vestas SailRocket. In addition to the production boats – and, of course, the foilborne sailboard and kiteboard elements – the other boats at Foiling Week were ‘proof of concept’ affairs.

Among these was the consortium of high-fying British aeronautical pros who have developed C-FLY, a foiler catamaran designed for offshore use, which we wrote about back in December 2012. Now this has been in the water for several years and is proven, the team hopes its concept will be

Above: foiler cat C-FLY is designed for offshore use Left: inserting the giant lifting foils on the GC32

picked up by a professional team (ideally in France) and scaled up.

The Italian-built Whites Knights is another proof of concept boat developed by frustrated ex-Tornado sailors. This uses a foil confguration inspired by Alain Thébault’s record-breaker L’ Hydroptère, with T-confguration rudders and two large straight foils ftted to a hinge mounted

Among the America’s Cup sailors at Foiling Week were Alinghi regulars Nils Frei and Yves Detrey, who were displaying a foiling catamaran they have been developing in their spare time based on chopped down A-Class catamaran hulls.

Unlike the other cats at the event, their boat has a single triangularshaped foil attached to a spine running fore and aft along the centreline of the boat. This rotates, allowing the foil to be angled for use upwind, which makes it similar to the way a Moth is heeled to weather when sailing upwind.

Initially, the boat had a single rudder attached to (and canting with) the spine, but the team has since changed to twin T-foil rudders.

Instead of a mast and sails, the boat is driven by a 10-15m2 kite with the equivalent of the guy attached to the weather side of the forward crossbeam and the sheet to the other end. With this confguration they can get foiling in just six or seven knots.

“The interesting thing about the way the kite works is that you don’t have heeling force, so you can always sail the boat fat,” says Frei.

The sailor/pilot sits on the central trampoline to trim the sheet and cant the foil, while steering is carried out by foot pedals.

James GroGono – shades of speed Week At Foiling Week James Grogono seemed to have died and gone to Heaven. Grogono was one of foiling’s earliest pioneers when he created the fying Tornado catamaran called Icarus. Its frst outing was in 1969, when Grogono admits she was much slower than the standard Tornado, but over the next decade Icarus’s original wooden foils were

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replaced by smaller alloy versions and with these she entered the history books.

In 1976 she set a B Class record of 20.7 knots, which she consistently bettered, ending up with 28.15 knots in 1985 – when, incidentally, she was co-skippered by Yachting World’s David Pelly.

Icarus held this record until 1989.

“It feels exactly like Speed Week only so much more technically upmarket,” said Grogono of the Week, where he presented two papers – on the

design of Icarus’s foils and ‘stability control by surface-piercing foils’. “But the sums of money spent on each of the machines here is many times more. At the wonderful sort of freaks’ conferences, which were the early Speed Weeks, people were doing things on a shoestring.

“Of course, a vast number didn’t work; a lot didn’t even foat and if they did, they needed holding upright or they would go 20 yards before falling apart. It was wonderful, a marvellous experience . . .”

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beneath the forward crossbeam-hull join, enabling them to be hoisted out of the water in lighter conditions.

Although Andrew McDougall (see panel, below) believes foiling monohulls don’t work at a size larger than an 11ft Moth, there are others who beg to differ. At Foiling Week was the Scarliga Mèrluss, effectively a two-man Moth, but working on a similar product for far longer has been Thomas Jundt with his Mirabaud FX. This Lake Geneva-based project began life as a three-man foiling 18ft skiff and has since had its original centre hull replaced with a smaller, lighter version and the skiff rig swapped for a wing.

Development work on the boat has been gradual, but key to the project is the fact that Jundt and his regular crew have become very adept at sailing their radical craft. While the wing had been left at home for Foiling Week, the Mirabaud FX had

gained two catamaran hulls and Jundt is now developing a version of the boat that will be simpler for average mortals to sail.

The frst Foiling Week was considered a great success and its creators are hoping it will become an annual event. With catamarans such as the A-Class now foiling and numerous other projects unable to attend this time, we imagine that this YW event will simply grow and grow.

Top: the GC32 achieved 37.9 knots during the week.

Above: intriguing WFoil, the foiling Sopwith Camel.

Right: the Mirabaud FX has grown an extra pair of hulls

Andrew McdougAll – wAszp entry-level foiler A man integral to popularising the foiling Moth is Australian Andrew McDougall, designer of the Bladerider and Mach 2 foilers built by McConaghy China. He also owns KA Sails.

McDougall believes that, in addition to the Moth, the 34th America’s Cup was instrumental in popularising foiling. “That caused a huge change in perception

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and all the negative stuff about foiling that was around four years ago has all gone,” he says.

Having for years designed Moths at the leading edge of technology, McDougall and builders McConaghy are soon to introduce the Waszp, an entry-level foiler, which will be more robust, built in infused glass/carbon, with alloy foils and sell for around half the price of a Mach 2 (but still US$12,000).

So why hasn’t he designed a bigger Moth able

to be sailed by more crew? McDougall explains: “It is exactly like why most people drive cars rather than motorbikes; it is more practical, easier, etc.

The Moth is the perfect size for a bi-foiler. I don’t think realistically it works if you scale it up and have more people on it. If you go bigger, the catamaran makes a huge amount of sense.”

McDougall believes the future of foiling lies in learning lessons from Nature and increased used of morphing foils.

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PERFORMANCE

perforManCe

BOAT

OF THe MONTH

GC32: the cat that learned to fly Conceived as a 32ft one-design racing cat, the GC32 is now on foils and regularly hitting 30 knots. Matthew Sheahan was hooked

“H

ike her down, guys, and we’ll get her up,” called our helmsman Paul Campbell-James to the fve crew of the GC32 Richard Mille. As our backsides slid over the rounded gunwale and our feet took the load on the toestraps, I could feel the power come on.

As the cat accelerated steadily and rose above the water’s surface, the noise of ripples on the carbon hull were replaced by a quiet hum, like an electricity substation, from the foils and rigging. The transition from displacement to fight took just a few seconds and our speed hit 14 knots – in barely six knots of true breeze. At speed in fat water she sliced straight though the

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wake of a powerboat without missing a beat – a frst indication of what was to come.

Given the stress involved in climbing the steep America’s Cup learning curve for the foiling AC72 teams, along with a plethora of spectacular crashes and nosedives in the foiling Moth feet and the long history of brave attempts and heroic foiling failures elsewhere, there is every reason to feel twitchy about sailing on foils. Yet the racing scene is now learning at an incredible pace as foiling becomes ever more popular.

The GC32 was never designed to foil, but this rapid development in foiling technology and knowledge left her creators in no doubt that this one-design 32ft cat had to fy.

Laurent Lenne, a French entrepreneur based in Amsterdam, was originally looking for a racing cat pitched somewhere between an F18 and an Extreme 40. In 2012 he commissioned multihull expert Martin Fisher to create the GC32 (Great Cup 32) one-design. Originally, she had S foils to reduce displacement, but not to fy.

“When the Kiwis started to foil we knew we had to follow,” he says. “Fortunately, we were working closely with the Flying Phantom guys and C-Class cat builders and were sharing information on designs and sails, which allowed us to go through six iterations of the design in a short space of time.”

“In many ways we now feel safer on foils,” explained crewmember Nick Hutton, who is no stranger to high-performance multihulls.

“What we’ve quickly realised is that we have a big reserve, particularly when it comes to burying the bow at the weather mark. The AC45s seem pretty twitchy by comparison.”

As the breeze built and we foiled more

PERFORMANCE with Matthew Sheahan

Above: “We wanted to have a very stable boat, allowing people to fly very easily and, even when you are doing 27 knots, it is a picnic on board,” says Laurent Lenne

Daggerboards/foils sit in a cassette system.

A worm drive at the front, driven by the green line, adjusts the angle of attack of the L-shape foil. Brown lines lift and lower the board

A belt-driven worm drive adjusts the angle of attack of the T foil rudder. Helmsman can tweak while sailing to change the cat’s trim

Mainsheet 6:1 beach cat system led forward and out to winches on the hulls. Mainsheet traveller controls run inside the aft beam

SPECIFICATIONS LOA 12.00m 39ft 4in Hull length 10.00m 32ft 10in Beam 6.00m 19ft 8in Displacement 850kg 1,874lb Draught 1.60/2.10m 5ft 3in/6ft 11in Mast height 16.50m 54ft 2in 646ft2 Mainsail 60m2 Jib 23.50m2 253ft2 Gennaker Designed by Price ex VAT

90m2 970ft2 Martin Fisher €239,000 (£190,715) ex sails

Hull built by: Premier Composite Technologies, Dubai Rig, spine and beams by: Southern Spars, South Africa Foils and rudders by: Heol Composites, France

Photos: MS/ywpix

readily the GC32 certainly felt very stable at speed. But there were some interesting differences that took a little getting used to.

The frst is how quickly heel comes off as the speed increases. Having hiked hard to get her going, you’re sitting upright and inboard before you know it. Then there’s the hobbyhorse heaving motion that sets up as the vertical momentum generated as she accelerates lifts her a little too high initially.

With too little foil in the water she then drops down a little to fnd her equilibrium.

And then there’s the windward heel and the splash that comes with deceleration in a lull as the leeward foil continues to generate lift after the sail plan has reduced power and heeling moment – a strange and unnerving feeling the frst few times it happens.

So although the GC32 was never meant to foil, she’s a great example of how rapidly the technology is being embraced – to say nothing of a claimed top speed to date of just under 38 knots. One trip and I’m hooked.

Created to be a one-design that can be easily shipped in a container, the GC32 has a central spine split into several sections. The cat can be fully assembled in three hours

Rotating aerofoil section mast in two parts, with a join just above the spreaders. Because the rig uses halyard locks, halyards are also in two parts and separate at the mast join

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

107 137

YW

PERFORMANCE

5

TIPS THE DIP AND

THE SQUEEZE

Dipping and squeezing are essential techniques for untangling yourself from the competition, especially on the ďŹ rst upwind leg.

Jonty Sherwill asked top match racer Ian Williams for his top tips

108

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

E

ven if you get clear air off the start line it’s likely there will be other boats close by on either side and the one to leeward might already be in squeeze mode caused by other competitors to leeward.

Meanwhile, you may also be dealing with a fast boat to windward and so your smart position can soon be under threat, with the imminent risk of dropping behind into dirty air.

It’s time to change mode, but what do you do?

You need height to match the boat on your lee bow, but sailing high means lower speed, with the prospect of the windward boat cruising over the top

1

4

MINIMISE THE DAMAGE

Before the dip consider what the starboard boat is likely to do. If you are near the port layline, they are likely to tack on your lee-bow, in which case you will need to do a late dip to prevent this or at least minimise the damage.

If they are likely to continue, you can dip earlier which will make it easier to be smooth and on a close-hauled course as you pass their transom.

2

of you. Concerted early action and good crew work will be needed to prevent this, with the ultimate goal of forcing that windward boat to tack away.

Mastering this technique will help you maintain position in the front rank of the fleet, giving you better tactical options as the race progresses. But a windward boat forced to tack away might now be dipping sterns.

Once again communication between helmsman, tactician and trimmers is central to maximising boat speed during each dip to help minimise losses, and with luck before long a new lane of clear air will be found for a second bite at the cherry.

PREPARING TO SQUEEZE

The most important information is the relative speed. Unless you are well bow forward, you never want to sail slower than the boat to windward as they may either roll you or convert that extra speed into height later. This sometimes requires a little patience, but as soon as you are faster, you can squeeze up and make it very hard for the windward boat that wants to put the bow down to build speed.

5 THE HIGH GROOVE SQUEEZE

EARLY CALL FOR DIPPING

An early call from the tactician for the dip and the size of it [the alteration of course] is important so that the helmsman, trimmers and grinders can be prepared. Last-second calls cost more time and maintaining control in gusty conditions is vital as you approach the stern of the starboard-tack boat. An under-trimmed jib and an over-trimmed mainsail can make steering more difficult and can spell disaster if the boat spins into a broach.

It is important to have somebody on the rail calling the ‘relatives’ so the helmsman can focus on sailing a high groove.

We call relative speed first (see point 4), then relative height, then whether we are “getting to them” – ie going to squeeze them off rather than get rolled. It is also important to know from the tactician how much of a hurry you are in to get rid of the other boat – eg maybe you are approaching a layline.

3 SMOOTH IS FAST

Get ready to dip

The goal when dipping is to be back on a closehauled course as you pass the transom of the starboard-tack boat. Make sure you come all the way down in one movement and then immediately start a smooth turn back up while winding the sails in.

One trick is to point the bow at the other boat’s helmsman, which seems to be a good rough guide for how far to come down and then how quickly to come back up.

3 Let’s tack

2 Up you guys

Windward boat

1

The Squeeze

1

2

3

Smooth is fast.........

D Forster/Rolex

Point the boat at the other boat’s helmsman........

2

1

The Dip

Time to squeeze

Ian Williams is a four-times ISAF Match Racing World Champion and the only European to hold multiple match racing world titles. He has won the World Match Racing Tour ten times. Williams is also well-known on the professional big boat circuit as a tactician, having won regattas in many different classes, and has been shortlisted twice for the ISAF World Sailor of the Year Award

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

109

See you at SIBS - Stand F028

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CRAFT FOR SALE

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OZRi 435 TiRXiR

-WPaRd 4aGOIX S4 'rYiWIr 2010 ÂŁ259,950

&uilt in 200 and one of tLe last of tLe 4 ´s to be build by %lubat.8Lus unliOe tLe ne[er models sLe Las lead ballast and top class [ood Noinery [itL no corners cut. ,er 0O% is 1 . metres, Ler draft varies bet[een 2. 4 and 0. metres.%nd Ler maximum beam is 4.22 metres.

SLe is an excellent sea boat, good in bad [eatLer, LigLly manoeuvrable , sails [ell and is a comfortable social boat. £230,000 07971560793 p žSGOLarX$XrIWLRiWL GSQ

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

4 < ;IPGSQI

E&Y SXSGO FSaX , iRGPYdIW [arraRXy, ½RaRGI SpXiSRW, 'PIar XiXPI aRd aJXIrGarI 0IKIRdary -WPaRd 4aGOIX UYaPiXy aRd pIrJSrQaRGI, yIar rSYRd GSQJSrX, WiQpPI ZIrWaXiPI WaiPiRK aRd QSXSriRK YaRQar 110 - 230 LSYrW , SPSSp riK, -R QaWX JYrPiRK, 1aiR aRd WIPJ XaGOiRK KIRSa IPIGXriGaPPy GSRXrSPPId JSr IaWy LaRdPiRK 2S[ SR (iWpPay aX EWWI\ &SaXyardW - 'aPP ARdy XS arraRKI a ZiI[iRK 07966 446420 [[[ IWWI\FSaXyardW GSQ

SSXS 40

OYSTER 485 - yr 2003

Soto 40 of 2011 in pristine condition.

Professionally maintained and also very competetive in IRC and ORC. Extensive Sail inventory, custom cradle. Ready to be sailed, lying Spain. Âş240 000 VAT paid 49 40 7296 1910 FPaGOpIarP$dIQPIrQariRI GSQ

8Le last oyster 4 made number ,;Lite ;ings.

SLe is fully loaded and in excellent condition, [itL Panda +enerator, % C,;atermaOer, 2e[ Electric %nderson [incLes, P: installed 2014, complete ne[ rig and sails 200 ,;ebasto Leating,=anmar engine, 2e[ full [inter cover. CompreLensive spares, Profes sionally maintained. Ready for an Ocean %dventure. ÂŁ295,000 VAT paid 0044 (0) 7971 853 876

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business for sale ALL BOATYARD FACILITIES â&#x20AC;˘ refts repairs riggin and electrics â&#x20AC;˘ antifouling cutting polishing painting and osmosis â&#x20AC;˘ 40 plus ton boat hoist â&#x20AC;˘ metal wood GRP and composite repairs â&#x20AC;˘ yard store open to customers â&#x20AC;˘ engineering and fabrication â&#x20AC;˘ Inboard and outboard repair and maintenance.

Hamble point marina berth for sale or rent

boat names

Hamble point marina b12 19m x 4.6m 21 years left on lease. sale price ÂŁ79,950. Rent current price no VAT payable on sale or rent.

07802 628 883 email â&#x20AC;&#x201C; jpudbury@yahoo.co.uk

Rosneath Argyll and Bute, G84 0RW tel 0044 (0) 1436 831222 info@silversmarine.co.uk www.silversmarine.co.uk

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125

MARINE DIRECTORY

WE TRAIN WINNERS

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YACHT CHARTER INSUrANce

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129

YACHT CHARTER CHARTER

TRANSPORT

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INDEX TO ADVERTISERS Advanced Italian Yachts S.R.L. Allspars Ltd Ancasta Boat Sales Ltd Arcona Yachts UK Beneteau (Chantiers Beneteau) Berret Racoupeau Berthon International Boat Sales International Ltd Bruce Banks Sails Ltd Bruntons Propellers Cantiere Del Pardo Spa Cantiere Se.Ri.Gi. Di Aquileia Srl Clipper Marine Ltd CNT Yacht Broker’s Di Franconi Fosco Concordia Yacht Company S.L. (Northrup & Johnson) Conyplex BV (Contest) Diab International AB Discovery Yachts Ltd Dixon Yacht Design

25 110 47, 118-120 21 Cover II 111 113-115 112 110 95 23 81 63 124 116 19 91 29 111

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YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

137 131

ONE AMAZING DAY Heiney fulfils a long-held ambition to cruise to the Beagle Channel in Wild Swan

PAUL HEINEY

A

s a cruising sailor I have many exciting days to recall, but the one that stands out was during my voyage down south in early November 2012 aboard Wild Swan, a Victoria 38 that Libby, my wife, and I bought in 2010.

I had a longstanding ambition to see the Beagle Channel aboard my own boat. Obviously, it was a long way away – about 8,500 miles from Falmouth in a straight line – but I did it in stages, working my way south from Falmouth to Portugal, Morocco, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Fernando de Noronha, Salvador in Brazil, Rio and so on.

I laid up in Piriápolis, Uruguay, for a winter and then rejoined the boat and headed south towards the Beagle Channel together with Chris, a friend of mine.

Naturally, I was mindful of the fact that once we left the River Plate it wouldn’t be long before we reached the Roaring Forties and within 200-300 miles we could expect deteriorating weather. That followed its predicted course and we had some rough spots, and on several occasions had to heave-to for several hours to let blows go through.

That said, it wasn’t a particularly rough passage, but it was quite testing because the weather changed very quickly and blew incredibly hard for 15 hours – 15-20 knots to, say, 50 knots in just ten minutes – then went away before it came back again. But at least it was fairly predictable, albeit wild, and we worked with it because we got to know the signs.

Eventually we made it to Le Maire Strait, the strip of water between the south-east tip of South America and Staten Island. We were lucky with the weather there because it was unusually calm – so light, in fact, that we had to motor through the Strait.

We spent a couple of nights in an anchorage at Buen Suceso and a night at Puerto Español, but anchoring under the cliffs for shelter there was a big mistake. Because the winds come down the mountainside as katabatic winds, the closer we tucked ourselves in under the cliff, the worse it was.

Consequently, we had a restless night with the anchor twanging in howling winds up to 40 knots. It was also a slightly spooky place to be stationed because of the tales of a famous missionary called Allen Gardiner, who was washed up there in the 19th Century. That certainly focused our minds.

Paul Heiney, 65, is a writer, broadcaster and cruising sailor. He has appeared on many radio and TV programmes, including

That’s Life in 1978, Watchdog, Radio 4’s You and Yours and, most recently, ITV1’s

132

Anyway, the forecast came through and indicated lighter winds the following morning which, of course, we didn’t believe so we got up at daybreak feeling exhausted through lack of sleep.

The wind had dropped, but we didn’t have enough diesel to motor all the way to the entrance to the Beagle Channel, so we sailed slowly, using a bit of motor when we came to a standstill. We gradually made our way round the corner and suddenly, there it was: the Beagle Channel in all its glory.

It was one of those very cold, clear, blue mornings and I could see all the way down a ‘highway’ of islands, which eventually led to the Pacific Ocean. It really did feel like a moment of discovery. It was a late spring that year so the snow on the mountains came more or less all the way down to sea level and the whole scene sparkled.

I sat there alone in the cockpit with a cup of tea in my hand and thought it was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen.

Then I realised that a little blurred lump I could make out in the distance was Cape Horn and that made it even more magical. There was something truly mesmerising about the whole experience. It was the colours, the peace and most of all the satisfaction of having finally fulfilled my ambition.

The whole trip had been a real personal success, not least because of the lessons I learned. The biggest lesson for me was the fact that I hadn’t mentally prepared myself for the transition from ocean sailing to testing coastal sailing. I now know that one is definitely not a continuation of the other.

Interviewed by Sue Pelling

Countrywise programme. He also has more

sailing pioneers, which led to his book The Last

than 12 books to his credit, including his

Man Across the Atlantic.

bestseller, Can Cows Walk Downstairs?

At his home in Suffolk he and his wife, the

In 2005 he fulfilled an ambition to sail the

radio presenter/writer Libby Purves, run a

Atlantic single-handed in the wake of the solo

40-acre farm using Suffolk Punch horses.

YACHTING WORLD OCTOBER 2014

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OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2014 ISSUE NUMBER 28

supersailyachts supersail world 08

Supplement to

THE WORLD’S BIGGEST WOODEN YACHT SUPERYACHT CUP PALMA SPECTACULAR MONACO YACHT SHOW PREVIEW OCTOBER 08 SUPERSAIL WORLD

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CONTENTS Issue number 28 – octoBEr-dEcEmBEr 2014

When big is enormous

04 the sailor’s regatta

For all that I had read about the design and build of the huge schooner Maltese Falcon, nothing prepared me for standing beside her on the dock and seeing at frst hand this astounding work of art and science and her gargantuan scale.

This makes it even harder to imagine a superyacht that could dwarf Maltese Falcon, let alone one that will be well over half as big again.

Yet that is what is in build in Turkey in the shape of the 141m/463ft Dream Symphony, a truly show-stopping super-schooner. The incredible part of this story, beyond the scale of the yacht, is that she is being built in wood. When she is complete, Dream Symphony will be the largest wooden vessel in the world, much bigger even than Caligula’s giant barge in Roman times, or the reputed treasure ship built during the Ming Dynasty. The ambition of the project and the technical challenges are nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Read all about her design and build, and about how wooden boatbuilding is experiencing a resurgence, particularly in Turkey, with modern yacht designs.

Technical conundrums and puzzlements are some of the most exciting elements of both commissioning a yacht and designing it.

Superyacht projects often provide the time and budget for developing very ingenious solutions for every element, from rigs and sails to keels. There is the scope to question, and perhaps even defy, convention.

In this issue, designers Bill Tripp and Bill Dixon both, separately, point to the capacity in superyacht design to explore new territory in engineering and aesthetics. But it’s not just about looks.

A yacht of any size should still sail well, be mannerly and balanced.

The wonderful thing about superyacht regattas, such as the Superyacht Cup on page 04, is that they provide a proper testing ground for the effcacy of all these theories, and a chance for owners to experience the ‘feel’ that should be characteristic of any good sailing yacht.

The Superyacht Cup Palma is thriving, with spectacular yachts and challenging racing

17

designer’s diary: Bill dixon

British designer Dixon talks about passionate owners and the drawbacks of technology

18

Best of times, worst of times

Captain Paul Kelly gets a dressing down by a billionaire in boxer shorts

22

colossus in wood

At 141m/463ft Dream Symphony will be the largest yacht ever built – and she’s made of wood

32

monaco 2014

Monaco Yacht Show preview – boats and gear

46 design science Bill Trip III says his engineering background helps keep his designs ahead of the pack

52

Showcase: Inouï

The amazing green machine

Impression of the extraordinary four-masted Dream Symphony currently in build in turkey

Elaine Bunting

A Yachting World publication for the proprietors IPC Media, The Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU. © IPC Media 2014 Printed by: Polestar Chantry

Editor Elaine Bunting +44 (0)20 3148 4831 elaine_bunting@ipcmedia.com yachtingworld.com Art Editor Robert Owen Picture Editor Vanda Woolsey Production Editor Belinda Bird Editorial artist Maggie Nelson Cover picture: the Hoek-designed Firefly at the Superyacht Cup Palma. Photo: Ingrid Abery

Advertisement sales Advertisement manager: Alan Warren +44 (0)20 3148 4888 alan_warren@ipcmedia.com Assistant Ad Manager: Michael Beattie (0)20 3148 4889 michael_beattie@ipcmedia.com Senior sales rep: Simon Spong (0)20 3148 4894 simon_spong@ipcmedia.com Advertisement production: Peter Burton (0)20 3148 2688 peter_burton@ipcmedia.com

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the sailorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s regatta The Superyacht Cup Palma is in rude health with a heady mix

of immaculate boats, challenging racing, serious athletes and a lot of fun, says Andi Robertson

the immaculately prepared and sailed J Class Lionheart was the regatta winner

04

supersail world october-december 2014

J Renedo

october-december 2014 supersail world

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J Renedo

palma superyacht cup 2014

Velsheda’s Garry Bainbridge handling the runners

Drinks are chilled to perfection and dilute any lingering stress after an intense three hours on the racecourse

post-race debrief drags on, objective analysis mixed with banter. Everyone has their view: owner, skipper, family, America’s Cup navigator, deckhand. It is unseasonably warm for a June afternoon in Palma, but drinks are chilled to perfection and dilute any lingering stress after an intense three hours on the racecourse. Brief.

Choreograph. Execute. And repeat. This is the Superyacht Cup routine.

In a nearby bar, run by locals’ favourite Hogans, there are a few more drinks and a chance to catch up with friends, rivals, contemporaries and counterparts. But there is no rush to get ashore, to abandon the consuming comfort of the aft cockpit sofas and luxurious ambience.

The Superyacht Cup Palma has a special appeal, which is why the four-day regatta is in such rude health. In practical terms it holds all the aces. It is a beautiful city-centre venue served by fantastic airline connections 20 minutes away. The expanding superyacht marine industry in Palma is second-to-none in the Mediterranean and having its own event, serving as both hub and showcase, makes sense. And it is a lot of fun for everyone.

The yards and facilities are the ideal stopping point between the Caribbean season and summer in the Med, hence the June timing works for everyone needing pre-summer season fettling. And, whisper it if you dare, Palma might be seen to be a counterpoint

06

supersail world october-december 2014

M Muina/sailingshots.es

A

For the regatta the J Class Ranger was steered by America’s Cup veteran Erle Williams

Martinez Studio clairematches.com

J Renedo

Above: the 24m/79ft Hoek-designed Heartbeat won Class 3.

Left: the startling green hull of the Brianddesigned Inoui.

Below: shoreside fun and games

october-december 2014 supersail world

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J Renedo

palma superyacht cup 2014

Hanuman’s bow crew preparing to hoist the spinnaker as the J rounds the windward mark on the last day of the Superyacht Cup

to the excess and braggadocio that is Costa Smeralda’s Loro Piana regatta earlier in the month. The Superyacht Cup differs from Sardinia and the Caribbean events in that it feels more like a sailor’s regatta. It is inclusive and down to earth.

It is amply housed on the dock of the Servisios Téniccos Portuarios yard, but the regatta is supported by a raft of industry sponsors who fully embrace the event individually as well as fnancially.

This was the 18th Superyacht Cup and each year it brings in an estimated €6-7 million in total, complementing Palma’s three other key regattas: the Princess Sofa Olympic classes event, spring’s important curtain raiser, the Palma Vela, and summer’s Copa del Rey. It is not yacht club-based, but takes place in the city or environs, or discreetly aboard other yachts. Of course, there is the attendant high-level private and corporate entertaining, and the dockside social events provide a pleasant atmosphere – 26 boats is an ideal number. Inevitably, after a while everyone drifts back to the city hotels and apartments.

On the water the Bay of Palma delivers a reliable thermal sea breeze.

In summer it might be considered an almost boringly one-dimensional racetrack, but such rhetoric is usually delivered by someone jaded by endless windward-leeward races on the Bay out from the Real Club Náutico de Palma. The Superyacht Cup racing diet is more varied and more wholesome.

08

supersail world october-december 2014

ingridabery.com

Tacticians are talking on the radio and the goal of safety frst is achieved, but the racing standards are rising

The Spirit 100 Gaia has a bit of a mishap with the spinnaker in the lively breeze

Martinez Studio clairematches.com

ingridabery.com

Above: the reliable sea breezes in the Bay of Palma made for some spectacular racing. Left: crew perch on the rail of 46m/150ft Ganesha.

Below: dockside

october-december 2014 supersail world

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M Muina/sailingshots.es

palma superyacht cup 2014

Crew grapple with a cloud of sail aboard the 29m/94ft Southern Wind Kiboko 2 on the frst day of racing

The 25- to 35-mile short coastal courses are much more a technical test of racing skills than the usual round the island or join the dots scenic passages of other events. The transition zone in the westernmost third of the bay adds spice. Those who know it, anticipate it and beneft, relish it. Those who don’t, lose out and return to the dock muttering about handicaps, staggered starts, competing in different conditions . . .

Entries show an upward turn. Stars of the show were the fve J Class yachts, Velsheda, Ranger, Rainbow, Hanuman and the regatta winner, the immaculately prepared and sailed Lionheart.

They took centre stage literally as well as fguratively with a separate class start to their one race each day, Wednesday to Saturday, providing the spectator feet and the pre-race idling superyachts with a grandstand view of real cut-throat racing. The level in the closely matched feet is going up all the time, as Hanuman’s skipper Ken Read observes: “This started out as a kind of a racer-cruiser fun class and it is very clear over the last two or three years it has turned into a grand-prix class. You go up and down the line-up of boats here and it used to be a bit of a seniors tour, and I guess you can still say there is a bit of that, but intermixed on the seniors tour are a bunch of serious athletes from the America’s Cup, from the Volvo, from all round the world.”

J Class racing protests used to be rare, but there was one every day in Palma, even if they went to arbitration or were withdrawn.

10

supersail world october-december 2014

J Renedo

The stars of the show were the fve J Class yachts. They took centre stage literally as well as fguratively

Pre-start manoeuvres aboard Lionheart as bowman Juan Pablo Marcos gives his signals

Martinez Studio clairematches.com

Martinez Studio

Above: the Js proved immensely popular with spectators for their cut-throat racing. Left: the Spirit Yacht Gaia came 2nd in Class 2.

Below: happy racing: a wave from the rail

october-december 2014 supersail world

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Martinez Studio

palma superyacht cup 2014

Ex and current Volvo and Cup sailors play key roles on the Js and on the superyachts. On Lionheart, Bouwe Bekking – who, he says, was committed to the J programme before Team Brunel’s Volvo entry came knocking – has four current Volvo crew, including navigator Andrew Cape. On the superyachts the talent pool was obvious. Kevin Hall, most recently with Artemis Racing, was back in the navigating seat, on Visione.

On the Class 1-winning Ganesha, the new Dubois 46m/149-footer, Matt Humphries was tactician with local ace Nacho Postigo – ex-Mascalzone Latino and MedCup winner – as navigator. Overall regatta winner Unfurled, the Dubois-designed 34m/112ft sloop, a regatta regular, had father and son Ross and Campbell Field on board; the new Class 1 luminescent green Briand-designed Inoui had Chris Main on tactics and Lou Varney on main trimming. Palma is also home to a posse of top pros such as Miquel Sanchez and Marc Patino on 2nd-placed Gaia; and Ignasi Triay and Rodrigo Sainz on Kiboko.

A core group of pros is increasingly essential as the racing standard rises, as does the size, complexity and performance of the boats, but integrating with the owners’ regular crew and family is paramount.

“Without doubt June is the best time for the Superyacht Cup. You will get breeze to 20 knots at times, it is less predictable than summer, not so hot and the racing is excellent – well-run and the choice of courses is much more technical than other superyacht regattas,” Ganesha’s Postigo

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supersail world october-december 2014

ingridabery.com

clairematches.com

Above: overall regatta winner Unfurled, a Royal Huisman Frersdesigned 34m/112footer. Right: her crew at the fnish.

Far right: the crew of Gaia claim the trophy for winning Class 2

attests: “Tactically it is tricky; it is diffcult to sail really well and I do think that if you are beaten then it is because they have sailed better than you rather than because of a handicap or luck. And I like that.”

The Achilles heels have been staggered starts – essentially a pursuit race setting off at two-minute intervals – and the rating system.

But Postigo believes both are reaching a level of acceptance and respect.

“The modifcations to the handicap system have been good, but we all know that it is never, ever going to be perfect. It is a massive challenge to rate such different boats because it is diffcult to predict how each will sail in different wind and sea conditions. The sailing skill levels are different and as usual it is too easy to blame the rating when people have not sailed well. But now I think for 85-90 per cent of the time it is doing quite a good job – some still need a little tweaking.”

With an independent expert panel now helping with changes, it is thought that the VPP-based rule is better than ever. And Postigo contends that the staggered starts and 40m exclusion zone is also working well: “Tacticians are talking on the radio and the goal of safety frst is achieved, but the racing standard is rising.”

Event owner and organiser Kate Branagh looks forward to more of the same in 2015 – although the Js will likely forego Palma for the Royal Yacht Squadron bicentenary in Cowes. But in 2016, the 20th SW Superyacht Cup promises to be huge.

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designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diary

Bill Dixon The British designer of Yanneke Too talks about passionate owners and the drawbacks of technology

T

here has been huge growth in big motor yachts, but the design and build of large supersailing yachts still remains a small part of the market. Owners are usually passionate sailors, so when we get a commission for a large yacht design, they have a high degree of personal involvement in the project, which is why it is such a rewarding and enjoyable process.

For me, creating these supersailing yachts is the most interesting and challenging experience in yacht design. In my opinion, to design a successful large sailing yacht it is important that the designer has a strong overall vision for the design and a view of how to balance all the elements that affect it.

It is not just about the hull design, or the styling or the interior, it is also about the functionality of the vessel, and understanding and putting together all these differing requirements and balancing them is what really shows the skill, expertise and experience of the designer.

Of course, it goes without saying that the result has got to perform well and look great!

You should not underestimate the complexity of these large, powerful yachts, with all the functions to make them safe and easy to sail. This was brought home to me on one occasion in the Superyacht Cup Palma when I was racing on one of our 40m/131ft designs. We were competing against nearly 50 other yachts and coming up to a mark rounding, luckily in light winds.

The competitive edge always takes over and this was the perfect opportunity to get a really good rounding and take a few yachts in the process. Just as we started the manoeuvre everything went dead: no engine, no generator â&#x20AC;&#x201C; nothing except the steering.

What do you do? You canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ease or sheet the sails, all you can do is steer. Luckily we were out in Palma Bay, as it took an hour to reboot electronics. It was a good lesson in asking the question: what if?

In the 20-odd years that I have been designing large sailing yachts, the associated technologies and the way they have developed mean designs never stand still. We adopt the latest appropriate technology, or we will instigate and develop new technological solutions as part of the design. Without doubt, the client is one of the main driving forces, because they will challenge the designer to strive for new ideas and solutions in many aspects of design.

Our new 45m/148ft design, Heureka (below), is an example of how

the latest technologies have made the whole design achievable and successful. The requirement was for a sleek outline, without all the extraneous items, such as a bimini, that interfere with the harmony of the shape. This led us to develop a new concept, where the bimini stows in the deck. On the face of it this is a simple idea, yet in reality it is a complex solution.

The yacht is to be sailed with minimal crew on deck, primarily in the Mediterranean. The large sailplan, with enough power on non-overlapping sails for light-airs performance, was balanced by a powerful hull and deep bulb keel to help maintain performance across a wide wind spectrum.

The latest carbon rig with the weightsaving advantages of all-carbon rigging resulted in a given target displacement and ballast weight, and increased righting moment to balance the larger sail area.

The fnal challenge was to reduce the minimum draught to less than 4m, in an interior with no available space for the traditional keel box. The solution was to use a larger version of what we call our telescopic keel, a keel that can reduce the draught without intruding above the saloon foor.

Meanwhile, in the superyacht power market we have seen the proliferation of larger and larger production and semi-production designs. I sincerely hope in the future this will not completely dominate the market and that we have clients who enjoy the challenge of being part of creating something very special. Being at the wheel of a large sailing yacht is a truly wonderful experience.

In his twenties Dixon took over the well-known design house of Angus Primrose after the latter died and continued his business.

His superyacht portfolio includes the 35m/115ft Yanneke Too, superyacht award winner in 1995, and 40m/131ft Antares

october-december 2014 supersail world

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on board

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supersail world october-december 2014

BEST OF TIMES, WORST OF TIMES

Paul Kelly Captain of 50m/165ft schooner Borkumriff IV Patmos to Monemvasia was to be the highlight of a charter on board the 70m/230ft Atlantic, but ended in a dressing down by a billionaire in boxer shorts, Paul Kelly tells Daphne Morgan Barnicoat friend of mine on Shamrock V had had the same guests that we were expecting on charter a couple of years before, so I phoned him up to ask about them – you know, get a heads up – and he couldn’t stop laughing when he heard and wished me luck!

They were lovely people. A very wealthy American businessman in his late fifties with his young girlfriend and daughter, her boyfriend and some other very nice guests and it was party, party.

Our brief was to pick them up in Bodrum, Turkey, and to drop them off in Corfu. Not much detail on the in-between, that was decided on a day-by-day basis.

Anyway, they were going out every night and absolutely sending it, getting in at 0400, 0500, 0600 and then sleeping all day and when they weren’t sleeping, they were flat out on their Blackberries, iPhones and iPads – they never really switched off, it was quite an insight into another world. They had chartered this amazing boat and really didn’t get to see much of the day. They would have really late dinners at 2200 and then breakfast would be midday, 1300 . . .

This particular day we were going from Patmos to Monemvasia and the charterer had said to me the night before: “Right, I’ve heard we’ll have beautiful sailing here, plenty of wind, flat water, it’s going to be great, I can’t wait, let’s do it.”

So I told him we would, but that I was concerned about making sure he was back on board when we left, as it would be an early start. And we laughed about it – it was all quite jovial.

Anyway the next day, there was no sign of him and I had said that we would really need to get going by 0800 if we were to get there and be anchored in daylight to have sundowners on deck, which he agreed to. They got in at about 0700 that morning!

As per the plan, we pulled the anchor up on time.

We had 25 knots from the north-east and it was flat water, absolutely flat, we put every single sail up that we had on Atlantic. The boat only leans over to about 12° and stops, so we were belting along at 15.5–16 knots for hours having the most amazing sail ever; it was completely effortless.

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There was still no sign of the guests and I kept asking the chief stewardess to pop down and walk through the accommodation to listen for signs of life, but there was nothing, not a squeak. We eventually got to Monemvasia late in the afternoon and got all the sails down, dropped the anchor, washed down, showered and changed into our evening uniforms and were on standby to serve sundowners. You can picture it – breathtaking scenery, turquoise water lapping against the hull, soft golden early evening light and a summer breeze.

The next thing we know there is a monumental roar from below and the charterer storms up on deck in his boxer shorts, screaming and shouting and demanding to know where I was. ‘Why the hell haven’t we moved?’ he shouted at me. ‘Why the hell haven’t you pulled up the anchor?’ I could not keep a straight face and I burst out laughing. The crew had grins all over their faces!

Once I had control of myself, I explained that we had left that morning at 0800 and had had the most amazing sail ever. He just couldn’t believe it; he thought it was absolutely hilarious!

Thankfully, I had videoed the trip from out on the bowsprit, so I sat down with them at dinner later that night with the iPad and showed them what they had missed.

They all thought it was hilarious. They just couldn’t believe that they had slept through the whole thing. This anecdote pretty much summed up the whole charter.

They were so much fun, we worked really hard because of the hours they were keeping, so everyone was exhausted, but at the end of it the guests got off saying that it was the best charter they had ever done. It was only two weeks, but it felt like forever, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

British captain Paul Kelly, 38, from Lymington has been a superyacht skipper since 2001. He was relief captain on board SY Atlantic in the summer of 2012.

He has skippered beauties such as the 50m/164ft Herreshoff schooner Eleonora and is currently skipper of the similar-sized Borkumriff IV.

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turkish boatbuilding

Colossus in wood The 141m/463ft Dream Symphony will be the largest wooden sailing yacht in history.

Toby Hodges and David Glenn report on this and other wooden builds from Turkey

dream symphony 141m/463ft

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maltese Falcon 88m/289ft

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turkish boatbuilding

The sheer scale of this four-masted staysail schooner beggars belief, but consider this: she is built in wood

f there is a single project that showcases the capabilities of Turkish wooden boatbuilding, it is the astonishing Dream Symphony.

Once completed, she will be the largest private sailing yacht ever built. The sheer scale of this 141m/463ft four-masted staysail schooner beggars belief, but consider this: she is being built in wood. She will be the largest wooden boat in history.

Dream Symphony is under construction at the Dream Ship Victory (DSV) yard in Bozburun, Turkey. Founded by Ukrainian Valeriy G. Stepanenko in 2005, DSV builds traditional-looking sailing superyachts from laminated wood. Stepanenko says DSV yachts revive “the old yacht skills, traditions and art of building all timber yachts, but sympathetically incorporate the more modern techniques in laminating the timber for immense strength”.

The quest for outright size was inspired by the groundbreaking 88m/289ft Maltese Falcon project. Stepanenko got together the same team who designed her – Dykstra Naval Architects and Ken Freivokh – and the collaboration has now produced four different designs. The most recent to launch was the schooner Mikhail S. Vorontsov last year.

At 53.3m/175ft, she is reportedly the largest all-wood classic in the world at the moment.

The two design houses were approached by DSV in 2010 to create an even larger sailing yacht, Dream Symphony. The project brought about an intriguing series of challenges for all involved; the shipyard had to be extended onto reclaimed land for starters. The result is a sleek, narrow, yet modern hull with a single superstructure. But it is the material of her build that is the most intriguing.

The obvious question is: why wood? The simple answer would be that labour rates are very competitive in Turkey, typically one-third cheaper than in northern Europe. Turkey has a proud history of building timber boats so skilled labour is readily available, and workers can be trained easily, a prime factor on such a time-consuming project. But how is timber construction possible at this size?

We have become used to seeing laminated wood construction for stunning sailing yachts. Cold-moulded or strip-planked spirit

I

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Top: the iroko ribcage of Dream Symphony. Iroko was chosen as it could be sourced from a managed forest. It offers a good blend of weight and cost, and is being used for the laminated frames and planks. Above: the yacht will accommodate up to 20 guests and 32 crew

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turkish boatbuilding

Left: an imperial staircase is capped by an array of prisms at main deck saloon level. Styling emphasises the feeling of space.

Above: Mikhail S Voronstov, currently the largest all-wood yacht

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supersail world october-december 2014

Four masts make sail handling manageable at this scale.

Staysail booms will prevent fapping sheets on deck where guests or crew could be walking

The Dream Symphony project has already taken four years, and will probably take another four

cases and safety factors on the hull, from the effects of waves, bending moment and hydrostatic pressure, to the keel weight and the stresses on the rig. Once the load cases are defned, the limit of stresses in the wood needs to be evaluated.

The tolerances differ for each type of timber, so a lot of testing was required to determine the tensile and bending properties of Dream Symphony’s primary timber, the African hardwood iroko (used for both frames and planks).

During the three-year R&D period from 2010, DSV built the ribcage of Dream Symphony. Her laminated iroko frames, 90 in total, are spaced 1.5m apart. The frst planking layer will be longitudinal, in the traditional carvel method. The 30mm thick planks, which vary in width from 130 to 200mm from the keel to the topsides, are glued and screwed onto the frames. The metal screws are then removed and flled with wooden plugs before the additional diagonal (+/–45º) layers of 16mm iroko are glued on. This painstakingly laborious process explains why the build has already taken over three years. “A job better done in Turkey than in Holland,” Nikkels quips, referring to the cost of labour.

Dream Symphony’s vast frames are now built onto the keelson, the longitudinal stringers for the deck have been made and the beam shelf has been laminated in place. Currently the yard is working on the bulkheads, before the frst planks are laid. Thirteen different layers will eventually be added to the hull below the waterline and seven to the topsides. The hull will then be clad in glassfbre (around 8mm).

A blend of styles and eras

of tradition yachts have become extremely popular. Although on a scale unheard of in boatbuilding circles, the Glued Laminated Timber (GLT) construction of Dream Symphony can be compared to these. Every plank and frame is sealed with epoxy to keep the wood stiff and dry, minimising movement and possible water ingress.

Many of us will be familiar with ‘Glulam’ used in building construction, as it has been employed for structural beams and arches for over 100 years. Layers of timber are bonded together to make immensely strong single structures. It offers several advantages over solid wood construction: strength is optimised by aligning with local load paths, and the number of layers reduces the effects of any defects in the wood.

Dykstra Naval Architects (DNA) worked in co-operation with the Italian classifcation body RINA Services to defne the specifc requirements of building such a large vessel in laminated wood. There are formulas and guidelines for using different types of woods and laminates for ‘known-sized’ vessels, Dykstra’s MD Thys Nikkels explained, but these stop at around 60m/197ft. So for Dream Symphony, a direct calculation was required.

The frst step for the naval architects was to determine the load

It is not only her build material and size that will make Dream Symphony stand out. She merges timeless classic style with contemporary methods and design, and the result looks like nautical art deco, helped by an abundance of glossy mahogany furnishing exterior and interior.

“The owner’s brief called for privacy, practicality and classical elegance with a modern twist,” says Hamble-based Ken Freivokh, the designer charged with Dream Symphony’s styling. The owner’s quarters are suitably opulent and include two private saloons, a gym, spa, massage rooms and meeting rooms. A particularly indulgent feature will be the double-height, all-glass swimming pool that takes up two deck levels. This includes a foor that rises to become a helipad.

When building in wood, the huge beams, and hull and deck joins can make it diffcult to create large or intricate features. But Freivokh says the wood will be a real feature of Dream Symphony’s interior. “When we launched Mikhail S. Vorontsov it was so quiet, the insulation so good, that you couldn’t hear the outside world.”

The Dream Symphony project has already taken four years and, according to Freivokh, will probably take another four. The largest wooden ships to date were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when six ships over 100m/305ft were constructed. “The size of these vessels proved too large for practical operation and they either sank due to structural failure or were scrapped due to their limited seaworthiness,” says Dykstra. Projects that venture into the unknown require painstaking investigation.

When the yacht launches, she will represent the zenith of modern wooden boatbuilding and could prove to be the greatest marine testament to this construction method. www.dsv-yachts.com

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TURKISH BOATBUILDING

Jazz, a 33m/108ft André Hoek design, at the Urkmezler yard showing off her cold-moulded wood construction

Turkey’s wooden revolution well, explains: “It’s really wood-reinforced plastic,” a reference to the wood epoxy system which, while not new, has been exploited more in Turkey than any other country I know.

The Humphreys-designed 27m/90ft Tempus Fugit, which was recently launched by the Arkin Pruva yard in Antalya, is one of the most recent and impressive examples.

The widespread use of timber is, in part, owing to readily available skilled labour at highly competitive rates and a strong historical allegiance to the material. The sheer number of yards building in wood in Turkey is confusing and there is a wide variation in standard. Some of the more ramshackle would have given European health and safety inspectors a fright, although at the other end of the scale standards were world class.

David Glenn reports from Tuzla and Bodrum where a new initiative highlights the advantages of building in wood

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ntil quite recently it was a popular misconception that timber yacht construction in Turkey was largely confined to the traditional wooden gulet, the heavily framed and planked local workhorse built on the beach. While that simple building technique still exists and the ubiquitous gulet is much in evidence, modern methods of timber yacht building have become more sophisticated, spawning an entirely new industry along Turkey’s long coastline.

Many yards have evolved from family businesses passed down through generations and as a result there are clusters from Tuzla near Istanbul in the north to Bodrum and Antalya further south. Some are one-man bands, others highly sophisticated superyacht builders.

An organisation called Kayik, Quality Wooden Craft of Turkey, was formed to help promote this specialist form of timber boatbuilding, highlight its advantages, correct misconceptions about its use as an economical and strong boatbuilding material and to share information.

Part of Kayik’s plan was to spread the word, which is why I found myself part of a whistle-stop tour of yards building in wood. I say wood, but as designer Rob Humphreys, who knows the Turkish wood product

The Rob Humphreys-designed 27m/90ft Tempus Fugit, recently launched at the Arkin Pruva yard in Antalya, is in wood epoxy

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SUPERSAIL WORLD OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2014

Historical roots Early on in our tour we visited the fascinating Rahmi Koç museum on the banks of the Golden Horn in Istanbul to give us some background into Turkish boatbuilding, which has very deep historical roots.

The Koç (pronounced ‘kotch’) family is one of the wealthiest in Turkey, owning many different businesses. The RMK shipyard, owned by Rahmi Koç, a keen yachtsman, is one of many ship and yacht building businesses centred in the Istanbul marine industrial suburb of Tuzla.

Koç had his own most recent yacht, Nazenin V, built here, a superb aluminium-hulled Sparkman & Stephens-designed 52m/170ft ketch, and it is where Oyster builds its injection-moulded superyachts.

But of more relevance here is an entire department dedicated to the restoration of classic wooden yachts. A 1919 William Fife seaplane tugboat, a commuter launch once owned by the local US embassy and the Camper & Nicholsons 1903 steam yacht Romola, which has just been relaunched and is in immaculate condition, are examples.

Among the stand-out sailing yachts built in wood epoxy in Turkey in recent years are the André Hoek-designed 33m/108ft sisterships Jazz and Simba, both built by the small yard of Urkmezler, but finished by the giant Proteksan Turquoise superyacht builders in Tuzla. Jazz was built for Mehmet Karabeyoglu, one of the founding partners of Proteksan, and Simba for a friend of his.

I was able to inspect Simba at the Proteksan yard where she was in for a winter refit. Skipper Tim Van Der Weide told me he

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Above: Simba (left) and Jazz, André Hoek 33m/108ft sisterships, built in wood epoxy by Urkmezler

Above: David Glenn inspects the woodworking techniques of some of the smaller Turkish yards. Left: the Hoek-designed 20m/66ft Pilot Classic Mazu, which is currently in build at Metur Yachts

had an impressively short ‘to do’ list and she did indeed seem to be in excellent condition for a yacht launched a couple of years ago. She’s magnifcently well-fnished on deck and below.

Hoek, whose own yacht was built in timber in Turkey, is impressed with the wood epoxy technique, which typically uses western red cedar strip saturated in epoxy as a core and further protected with veneer laminates, often in mahogany.

pros and cons “These boats are very stiff longitudinally,” says Hoek. “Jazz (built in 2009) has never needed to retune her rig because there has been no loss of tension – quite amazing.” Hoek would normally expect considerable movement in other forms of construction with a need to retune.

“The disadvantages of cold-moulded construction are tank construction and capacity, and resale value of the yacht,” he believes. “Tanks cannot be integrated (as they can in aluminium) and have to be made in stainless steel or polypropylene. Therefore more tanks (and more space) are needed.”

I was surprised to hear that he considered noise levels in coldmoulded yachts to be higher – “like in most composite yachts, certainly compared with aluminium (which is heavily insulated).”

“The interior volume of a cold-moulded yacht is quite a bit higher, though. A very nice feature is that the structure can be part of the interior joinery, with real frames instead of fake ones!”

Designer Rob Humphreys confrmed the stiffness of the cold-moulded technique when he heard from Hall Spars, which was supplying the

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Tempus 90 rig. “What surprised them about Tempus was the utter silence that greeted them when they set up the rig – no creaks or movement at all,” he reveals. “For me it is a testament to the homogeneity of modern cold-moulded wood/epoxy, which in this case was executed extremely well by Arkin Pruva.”

The same yard has built a number of yachts, including the 37.5m/ 123ft gulet-style yacht Daina, one of an increasing number of modern luxurious gulets, which have sailing qualities far superior to the more ‘agricultural’ originals.

the modern gulet Another yard that really impressed me was Aganlar, arguably the most advanced of another cluster of builders in the Bodrum area. Here, the gulet-style yacht is built in considerable numbers and the yard’s owner has a sophisticated system for building any size of laminated frames using an adjustable jig.

Fifty frames were being built for the 32m/105ft gulet-style yacht they had under construction, which we were told would have a completion time of 14 months with a price tag of around €3m.

Other timber yachts coming out of Turkey include the Dykstra-designed Gweilo, which is essentially a wooden version of Windrose of Amsterdam with a longer keel and a more cruising-orientated layout.

Clearly there is a wood building network in Turkey worthy of note and the Kayik organisation’s job is to continue to get the right message out about wood epoxy construction.

SW For more information see: www.kayik-turkiye.com

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MONACO YACHT SHOW previeW

Monaco

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supersail world october-december 2014

supersailyachts

2014

supersail world 08

It seems fitting that the world’s only show dedicated to superyachts should be in Monaco, where glitz and glamour is sequenced into its DNA. Mike Owen shares his choice of yachts to view

Useful information 24-27 September, 10am-6.30pm Public €80/day; professional visitors €250 four-day pass Ulysse Nardin www.monacoyachtshow.com

Tom Vano

Dates and times: Price: Sponsor: Website:

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MONACO YACHT SHOW previeW

THE CONCEPTS VPLP 170 caramaran 52m/170ft With studios in Paris and Vannes, VPLP produces a wide range of fascinating designs, from Lagoon charter catamarans and IMOCA world speedsters to Jim Clark’s in-build 30m/100ft record chaser.

A record-breaker itself, VPLP recently launched the world’s biggest sailing catamaran, Hemisphere, from Britain’s Pendennis yard.

Among a number of projects at Monaco it will present concepts for an even bigger 52m/170ft catamaran.

The structural engineering borrows much from the designer’s raceboats, but with the greater comfort expected on hotel-service yachts. Plans for the vast hull spaces include a side garage for the tender and a beach club plus other cabin balcony platforms. The master suite spans the main deck and includes a private terrace with sole to ceiling glazing.

Tripp performance sloop 46m/151ft While also presenting designs for an 85m/279ft, Tripp Design will show the lines of this sloop currently in build at Holland Jachtbouw. In line with previous Tripp designs, such as Mystere (see page 00) and Alitha, in Tripp’s words this new build shares ‘the common threads of modern design for comfortable fast hulls and advanced technologies, facilitating the creation of extraordinary yachts that provide an outstanding experience in both sailing and liveaboard ease, whatever their size”.

It’s hard to argue with that.

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SuPErSail wOrld OCTObEr-dECEmbEr 2014

Dyskstra pilot cutter 49m/161ft Following the design successes of the staggeringly light and enormous Hetairos and only slightly less enormous Kamaxitha, the Dykstra team is developing a 49m/161ft sibling, which they will showcase this year. Slim, plumb-bowed, counter-sterned and classic in appearance, at heart she’s a minimalist, fastcruising, lifting-keel performance sloop with a gorgeous low profle. Accommodation is principally planned around a master and two guest suites aft, a fourth cabin forward of the midships saloon, and enclosed crew quarters with big galley and mess forward. Drawing shows different designs of deckhouse.

Sunreef 92 28m/92ft The parade of multihulls streaming out of Poland’s Sunreef yard seems simply unstoppable. With enlarged deckhouse styling, the new Sunreef 92 Double Deck, for example, doubles the accommodation space of the Sunreef 82 DD launched two years ago.

This means plenty of space for 12 guests as they scatter through the many social areas in the two decks below an enormous fybridge or around the 65m2 cockpit with second alfresco dining arrangement.

The master suite is on the main deck forward of the saloon, running the full width of the superstructure. Guest suites are in the hulls and crew have separate quarters. A sauna and gym can also be specifed. Construction will be in Sunreef’s trademark composites with composite spars and in-house build.

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MONACO YACHT SHOW previeW

Dixon Project Sixty Eight 68m/223ft British studio Dixon Yacht Design will showcase a 68m/223ft sloop originally developed for a client who wanted performance with maximised length, but sneaking in under 500 tonnes. The result is a clean design with a fully glazed, low-profle coachroof on a relatively narrow, low-resistance hull. A proprietary telescopic keel design draws 9.2m/30ft. There are just three guest cabins beyond the extensive owner’s suite, which includes a separate study and gym with balcony, cinema and aft access to private beach deck.

Wally 110 33m/110ft Commissioned in June by a repeat owner, the Wally 110 drawn by Frers continues this Monegasque brand’s distinctive theme. Incorporated into the high-performance composite hull are its

characteristic uncluttered fush decks, slim coachroof, large central social cockpit and aft twin-helmed working area. There will also be all the proprietary Wally technology, from hydraulic sail-handling systems and self-tacking jib on swept

spreader rig, with no running backstays, through to the submarine anchor. And despite a fully ftted luxury interior for cruising, she’ll still weigh in at just 67 tonnes for high-performance competition.

Delivery is due in summer 2016.

Van Geest/Rob Doyle fast sloop 50m/164t

Barracuda 42m/138ft

A collaboration between the design house Van Geest and the naval architect Rob Doyle, who spent 15 years with Ron Holland, this is a fast racing yacht with high-level cruising comfort, which should be different from everything else afoat. On plan, she is distinctive. Style dominates, with an unconventional superstructure framing extensive glazing, the latest heat insulation and shading technologies, and ports that are disguised by the hull stripe for an unbroken hull line.

With a nod to both modern and classic, Spanish studio Barracuda Yacht Design will present plans for a this ketch, reminiscent of early 20th Century pilot vessels, but with major updates. Her fat underbody and wide transom provide a powerful platform, with a deep centreboard backed by movable water ballast as well as high-speed sailing for the ten guests. The sailplan revolves around a fully battened main and mizzen, with a self-tacking jib and overlapping genoa. For downwind options a Code 0 or furling gennaker fy from a long bowsprit.

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supersail world october-december 2014

MONACO YACHT SHOW previeW

the yachts

Farfalla

SW 102RS, Southern Wind 2014, 31m/102ft

The third 102 off the Southern Wind line, Farfalla is the frst of these Farrdrawn, carbon-hulled high-performance cruisers with a raised saloon. The accommodation plan follows this Italian/South African company’s current popular arrangement of owner and guest accommodation forward with dedicated crew living and working quarters aft.

There’s garaging for a 4.8m/16ft tender in the stern, and decks are kept clean and simple with gear tucked away, such as the fxed-point, captive winch mainsheet. Farfalla launched in May this year.

Windquest

Long Island 85, JFA Yachts 2014, 26m/86ft

Swan 105RS

Nautor’s Swan 2014, 32m/105ft

This double-decked newcomer from JFA Yachts to a Marc Lombard design promises a mix of impressive space and fast cruising performance. She is aluminium-hulled with glassfbre superstructure, and carbon spars carry a big sailplan worked from the hydraulic winches up on the fybridge.

There’s a 4.5m/15ft tender stowed abaft the cockpit, launched via a clever retractable pole in the boom end. Interior arrangements can be three to fve staterooms, and Windquest features a neat deck locker for four bikes.

Taking a lead from the preceding 100, 112 and 130, this Nautor’s Swan newbie has a customisable interior primed around three guest cabins and choice of stateroom forward or aft. The Frers hull refects the performance cruising trend, from plumb bow to broad transom with a big platform and hydraulic launching system for the 4m/13ft tender. For shade there’s an integrated hydraulic bimini over the midships cockpit, and below the clean sweep of deck there are six hull windows supplementing ten deck hatches for light below.

Perseus3

Athena

Perini Navi 2014, 60m/197ft

Described as ‘deeply optimised for racing and representing a decisive technical step forward’, this boat seems set to change reputations on the regatta circuit. The fybridge Perini/Ron Holland lines may look familiar, but the hull, with its twin rudders and lifting keel, is full of new Perini technology.

She’s the frst Perini with a carbon sprit and Code 0, extending the total sailplan to 10,000m2/930m2 – that’s the size of a football pitch. There are two 6.2m/20ft carbon tenders, two beach platforms and a pool on the foredeck.

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supersail world october-december 2014

Royal Huisman 2004/08, 90m/295ft

The extraordinary three-masted schooner Athena, from builder Royal Huisman and the shared boards of Pieter Beeldsnijder and Gerald Dykstra, comes to Monaco for sale and charter. Crewed by 20 for ten guests in fve suites, Athena is vast. Social areas are many, from studies and snugs to media rooms and dining spots on deck. Spars are sized to squeeze under the Panama Canal’s max height of 62m/203ft and hydraulically operated crow’s nests whisk you to the top. Price: US$75m ex VAT. Charter €395,000 a week.

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MONACO YACHT SHOW PREVIEW

Wisp

Royal Huisman 2014, 48m/156ft

Mystère

Vitters 2006, 43m/142ft

A beauty born from the collaborative work of naval architect Hoek Design and builder Royal Huisman, the 48m/156ft aluminium cutter Wisp, launched in May this year, has the lines and detail to meet a well-developed brief for an owner wanting “to enjoy cruising as well as gentleman’s racing”.

There’s inherent pace in the long overhangs and slippery underwater sections, with a boost from the Rondal carbon rig. There’s a lot to take in, so why not begin your contemplation from the exquisitely crafted, Edwardianstyle, scroll-armed side deck benches? Interior design by Rhoades Young.

Mystère has romped round the hotspots on both sides of the Atlantic, faring well on the charter and regatta circuits. But then you’d expect nothing less from her creators. Designed by Tripp and built by Vitters, she’s very light (190 tonnes), long and lean, yet she’s still big inside, with a spectacular aft master suite, which leads straight into the private aft cockpit. For eight guests and six crew – the crew are discreetly quartered forward.

A lifting keel extends cruising into places others can’t reach, and she has onboard hotel services. The interior is by Rhoades Young. €12.95m ex VAT.

Reina

Twizzle

Oyster 825, 25m/82ft

Royal Huisman 2010, 57m/189ft

Britain’s semi-custom builder Oyster Yachts is back for its second show, this time with Reina, the new Oyster 825, a performance bluewater cruiser to a Rob Humphreys design. She replaces the successful 82 and, with 15 per cent more interior volume, the 825 also introduces a fourth guest suite yet retains separate crew working and living quarters. Keel options include a shoaldraught swinging version recessed into the keel stub. The first three models built were customised for reverse/counter sterns and deck/raised saloons.

A performance flybridge ketch with a rig of the maximum height to pass under the Bridge of the Americas, Twizzle swept the awards in 2010. Designer Dubois and builder Royal Huisman deferred to the foresight of her commissioning owner. Having owned both a Perini and a Feadship motor yacht, the owner wanted those same comforts wrapped into a sleek, go-anywhere worldcruising yacht. The Redman-Whiteley-Dixon interior continues the anti-clutter line of her wide open decks. Price: €52.5m. Charter: €203,000 per week.

Silent 76

YXT ONE tender

Admiral Sail 2014, 23m/76ft

This summer Admiral Sail – a new division of the Italian Sea Group, which includes Admiral and Tecnomar – launched the first of its series-built Silent line, the Silent 76. These brands are better known for motor boats so there’s an interesting crossover for this boat, which has twin engines and is laid out for short-handed crewing by two, with eight guests. In the words of her makers, she can be ‘compared with an SUV with large spaces and quality of interior finishes, and excellent performance under both sail and motor’.

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SUPERSAIL WORLD OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2014

Lynx Yachts, 22m/72ft

Perhaps it is strange to include this strange vehicle in these pages, but if you’re looking for an envy-tender, check out the YXT ONE, a pocket bespoke support vessel for when your proper yacht needs a bit of extra carrying capacity. YXT ONE serves not just as a tender, toys and Range Rover carrier because, with full accommodation for four extra guests, as well as the four crew she carries, she can boost the size of the party and provide the biggest beach club in the bay. Price: €3.8million.

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Big Boat gear Seabob – new generation

Sanguineti – pop-up capstans

The new Seabob Series 5 will be making a splash around the Ocean Premium stand. At just 29kg, the new Seabob is much lighter than the 64kg original and should be easier to store and more dexterous in play.

Design tweaks are many, and it’s even better-looking than before.

A neat solution for clutterfree decks, the Sanguineti range of retractable capstans, which pop out of the deck for working warps and lines, receives a boost with the new 5000, hauling a maximum load of 2,600kg at up to 8m per minute.

Price: €19,600 ex VAT.

FarSounder – looking ahead

U-Boat Worx submersibles

Forward-looking sonar can give early warning of semisubmerged risks such as containers or sealife, as well as help avoid grounding.

FarSounder will be showing updated software for its 500 and 1000 units, which have improved imaging and viewing, and a new seafoor chart overlay.

How contrary, a business that stays afoat by going under! A leader in personal submersibles – increasingly seen on bigger yachts – U-Boat Worx will have the allnew three-seater C-Explorer 3 on show. It has 300m capability and new levels of viewing and technology.

Price: from €1.8m.

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Studio photography: J Ratclife

designer profile bill tripp

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supersail world october-december 2014

A 20ft test-tank model hangs from the rafters in Bill Tripp’s sun-filled yacht design studio in Norwalk, Connecticut.

It speaks volumes about his design philosophy: engineering first

Design science

Bill Tripp III’s prolific design portfolio has its origins in an engineer’s approach to design, reports Bill Springer

aving a famous yacht designer in the family doesn’t guarantee you will grow up to be one, but it doesn’t hurt. When Bill Tripp III saw how much his father, Bill Tripp Jr – the designer of the iconic Hinckley Bermuda 40 and many others, and who was at the forefront of the American glassfibre boat revolution in the early 1960s – loved designing boats, the die was cast pretty early on.

Bill Tripp spent summers sailing on his father’s designs, but when it came time to go to college, he was drawn to studying the hard science of engineering instead of more artistic design. He went to a highly respected engineering school at the University of Michigan in the American heartland, about 1,000 miles away from the nearest ocean.

“Engineering is the language of design,” he says when I ask about how he got his start. “I loved engineering school and applying what I learned to naval architecture.”

After university, Tripp couldn’t have landed in a better place for a naval architect. He worked as a chief designer under Doug Peterson when the International Offshore Rule (IOR) reigned supreme and the popularity of yacht racing was exploding. “We couldn’t design them fast enough,” he says of his early days working with the highly influential raceboat designer. “He’s a brilliant guy and was also a very good teacher.”

He raced aboard Peterson-designed boats and was a member of the crew of the 39ft Admiral’s Cup racer Eclipse during the 1979 Fastnet Race. Eclipse was, in fact, the fastest Admiral’s Cup finisher on corrected time in that fatal race. And Tripp saw first hand how the internal ballast he added (glued and strapped into place) before the race played a potentially life-saving role – Eclipse was able to recover from a 110° knockdown and win her class in the enormous seas. Waiting to see if the boat would bounce back up, and if his ballast would hold, was “a pretty long three seconds,” he declares matter-of-factly.

Later that year he was hired as the production engineer on

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OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2014 SUPERSAIL WORLD

47

DESIGNER PROFILE BILL TRIPP

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

1997



T Nitsch

Shaman 27m/88ft A true ‘go-anywhere’ yacht, equipped with one of Tripp’s first lifting bulb keels, a powerful carbon rig and a state-of-the-art carbon hull built by Derecktor/Green Marine

1992

2001

Jim Kilroy’s Kialoa IV and he was also involved with other iconic maxis of the day, including Condor and Matador. He even worked on the design of a 82m/270ft US Coast Guard cutter, but he says: “I was always fascinated by the delicate balance of weight, stability and speed in sailboat design. And I wanted to sail on the boats I designed.”

Out on his own Tripp founded Tripp Design Naval Architecture in a small office on Long Island Sound, Connecticut in 1984. His first commission, Breakaway, was an 11.3m/37-footer that was immediately competitive on the US racing circuit and his fledgling firm’s reputation for designing boats that were fast and seaworthy grew almost as quickly. Soon, Tripp’s IOR and early IMS designs were winning races all over the world, including the Fastnet Race, Sydney-Hobart, Newport-Bermuda and eventually Rolex and IMS championships.

“Long Island Sound was our test tank,” he says. In the early days, he and his team designed a myriad of smaller raceboats under 15m/50ft.

“Each new design allowed us to experiment with different keels, rigging and construction materials. Seeing the effects of design changes in almost real time on the water was invaluable. We incorporated everything we learned from our earlier designs into the subsequent ones. We embraced the benefits of bulb keels early on.”

By the early 1990s Tripp’s firm was making a name for itself designing bulb keels for maxis such as Matador, Kialoa IV and Condor when bulb keels were hardly common. “We were also one of the first firms to really figure out how to engineer and build a lifting keel that could combine all the sailing performance benefits of a deep-draught bulb keel with the flexibility, manoeuvrability and harbour access of a reliable retracting keel,” he says.

In fact, Tripp’s lifting bulb keels set the standard back in the 1990s and the basic engineering he and his team came up with at that time –

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Alithia 43.5m/143ft Tripp’s first high-performance superyacht designed for a family to sail round the world.

It features a raceboat-inspired hull shape, deep bulb keel, tall carbon rig, with a high-roach main and a flush deck with captive winches. Built by Abeking & Rasmussen

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Cinderella II 32m/104ft Tripp’s first big commission.

She had an advanced bulb keel, carbon rig, and the hull shape was based on early IMS designs built in composites

by Windship Trident

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SUPERSAIL WORLD OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2014

hydraulic cylinders anchored above the keel box with beefy chainplates on deck and hung inside the keel foil – is what you’ll find on nearly all large keel-lifting system today.

After a steady stream of successes with his smaller designs, it was only a matter of time before his firm was approached by a client who wanted the sailing performance of a Tripp raceboat in a much larger and more luxurious round-the-world cruiser.

“Each boat we do is always a reflection of its owner,” he says as we pore over photos of his first big commission – Cinderella II, 32m/104ft, launched in 1992 – as though he was looking through a valued family album. “We’ve been lucky to work with owners who have always valued sailing performance and haven’t been afraid to push the envelope a little.” Cinderella’s technologically advanced deep bulb keel, composite hull based on his earlier IMS designs and powerful carbon rig ensured she was a quick and safe offshore passagemaker and was way out in front of conventional 30m/100ft cruising boats of that era.

High-latitude cruiser Cinderella II may have been the firm’s big project, but the real gamechanger was Shaman, a 27m/88ft high-latitude cruiser that Tripp designed for an owner who had extreme destinations such as Spitsbergen, South Georgia and Cape Horn on his wishlist. And since it takes time and effort to get to all those far-flung places no matter how big a boat you have, he wanted a fast and fun sailing boat to get him across thousands of miles of ocean and back – a true ‘go anywhere’ boat.

As a result, Shaman was probably the first Arctic explorer with a sophisticated and relatively lightweight carbon fibre hull, low freeboard, plumb bow, powerful carbon spar, retractable spinnaker pole, water ballast, an ultra-stable retractable bulb keel and a mainsheet traveller arch over the cockpit. And unlike most conventional/clunky expedition boats of the day, she was fast and drop-dead gorgeous.

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T Nitsch

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2006

Mystère 43.5m/143ft This award-wining yacht is quite similar to Alithia and illustrates Tripp’s superyacht design vision. Built of Alustar

by Vitters of the Netherlands

Esence 43.5m/143ft Tripp developed this one-ofa-kind, award-winning carbon design with Wally Yachts in Europe for an Italian modern art enthusiast

We have been lucky to work with owners who have valued sailing performance and haven’t been afraid to push the envelope a little Bill Tripp III and, below, his sunny design studio in Norwalk, Connecticut – you can just see the 6m/20ft test tank model for an intruiging new design hanging in the rafters. Previous page: Tripp with his colleague Stephane Leveel

OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2014 SUPERSAIL WORLD

49

DESIGNER PROFILE BILL TRIPP

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ww

2006

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Saudade 45m/148ft This yacht uses the same hull as Esence, but with a modern, yet conventional, deck and interior layout. Also built of carbon by Wally Yachts

2014



Hinckley Bermuda 50 15m/50ft American builder Hinckley Yachts announces its re-entry into sailing boat production with this modern interpretation of a classic Hinckley cruising boat. Built of carbon

Tripp Design

2015

Design 202 (2015) 86.2m/283ft Hush, hush. Big, big

In fact, she caused quite a stir when she was launched back in 1997.

“A lightweight boat like that must be unsafe in the high latitudes,” said the pundits. Her impeccable performance and well-catalogued adventures in the high latitudes proved them all wrong.

Tripp says ‘we’ a lot, and it is eminently clear that his respect for his team is more than just lip service. Stephane Leveel has been with Tripp since 2003. Leveel is smart. He’s French. And he explained how the firm made the jump from the innovative, yet moderately sized Shaman into the rarefied world of superyacht design: “We believe bigger boats should sail better, not worse, than smaller boats.”

It was this idea that attracted the owner of one of the first true round-the-world-capable superyachts to combine a plumb bow to maximise waterline length, an advanced hull shape to reduce drag, a powerful, yet highly manageable rig with a deep bulb keel, captive winches beneath uncluttered decks and silky smooth mechanical steering.

The 43.5m/143ft Alithia was designed for a family to sail round the world. She has stunningly modern lines and a stylish and efficient interior, which Tripp’s firm developed in partnership with Andrew Winch Designs. Both Tripp and Leveel beam when they describe the almost magical feeling you get handsteering such a powerful, controlBill Springer lable and easily driven yacht on During his previous life as an editor at the breeze. And yet, when she was several American sailing magazines, launched back in 2002, she was Springer logged thousands of offshore deemed “too edgy” by some. miles on a wide variety of boats. He’s But maybe the world just sailed to the Arctic Circle, chartered all needed to catch up with Tripp. By over the world and researched, tested and 2006 when the similar-sized Myswritten about everything nautical. These tère – a design that shares the days, he sails, rides his bike and pushes a same hull lines and many of the baby buggy all over New England. same features as Alithia – was

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launched, she won several Superyacht Awards, including Best Sailing Yacht 30-40m.

Tripp and his team continue to use the knowledge they’ve gained on previous projects to expand the idea of what’s possible. Only now they have a lot more experience and, with the right owner who happens to be female, Italian and involved in the world of modern art, there’s really no limit to what they can do.

You might not think that the tall gunwales and ultra-minimalist flush deck that makes Esence such a compelling design were inspired by the great J Class yachts. But according to Tripp, that’s exactly what led him to produce one of the more radical designs he’s worked on. “We reimagined what a big classic could be,” he explains.

A 45m/148-footer with no pilothouse, no lifelines, hardly any hull ports and surrounded by an angular raised gunwale, is obviously not for everybody. But, like good modern art, it doesn’t just make a statement, it challenges you to question convention. And according to Tripp, the enormous deck space makes the boat both safer and easier to sail.

Just as he’d hoped at the start of his career, Tripp gets to sail on the boats he’s designed. He was just returning from racing aboard the 45m/148ft Saudade in Palma when I caught up with him again. And he shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, he has opened an office in Amsterdam to be close to his European contacts.

His firm has been consistently busy with a wide variety of superyacht designs, but there was a question I had to ask about an enormous test-tank model hanging from the rafters. “That must be quite a boat if you need to test a model that big, right?”

“Well,” says Tripp, “We’re not quite ready to talk about it too much yet. But I can tell you it’s under construction now, it’s 283ft [86m], has dual rudders, an enormous retractable bulb keel and is the biggest boat we’ve ever done by a large margin.”

SW You wonder what he could possibly do next.

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showcase inou誰

green machine Elaine Bunting reviews the 33m/108ft Inou誰, which represents a new generation of cruiser-racer

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supersail world october-december 2014

Inou誰 in full fight during racing at the Superyacht Cup Palma in June

october-december 2014 supersail world

53

showcase inouï

trange as it may sound, the most distinctive feature of the 33m/108ft superyacht Inouï harks back to a tiny coffee capsule. The colour of the boat and her name were some of the earliest choices made by the owner, and the lime green hull that makes her stand out everywhere she goes was matched to this. Stéphane Luca, the yacht’s captain and owner’s representative during the build, picks it up and smiles: “We found a capsule matching the right colour and started from this.”

Leaving aside this small element, everything about Inouï’s build was on an ambitious scale and set about with a boldness that marks her out.

She is, according to French naval architect Philippe Briand, designed for performance, using the latest technology to achieve it. She is, according to Briand, “the start of a new generation of superyachts”.

From the racecourse at the Superyacht Cup in Palma to a place alongside the dock sandwiched between other supersailing yachts, Inouï looks different and has, you might say, a big personality. She was launched last year by Vitters, a Dutch yard best known for its high-quality aluminium builds. Inouï is, however, built in carbon. Her hull was constructed at Green Marine in Southampton, a partner company of Vitters since 2010, and this was the company’s fourth carbon build.

The weight saving over aluminium is enormous – one of the principal reasons why Inouï has proved to be so feet of foot. She is around 60-70 per cent lighter than the equivalent design would be in aluminium.

“The new generation of owners in their forties and ffties are even more keen to go racing and they are choosing composite yachts,” explains Briand. This was the case with Inouï’s owner, Marco Vögele, who was clear about what he wanted. His frst sailing yacht was a Jongert, then he owned Gliss, a striking turquoise 32m/105ft

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supersail world october-december 2014

october-december 2014 supersail world

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Photos: Andrew Winch Designs

showcase inouï

The brief was for a timeless look, and she is a mix of aesthetic features from performance yachts over the decades

Briand design that was built in aluminium at Royal Huisman. After taking part in superyacht regattas, Vögele became increasingly enthusiastic about racing and when he returned to Briand a few years ago with an idea for a new yacht, he requested something racier.

“When we frst met ten years ago he had little skill or knowledge of racing, but he has got more interested and better, and now he helms himself and does very well,” says Briand with satisfaction. The Superyacht Cup was a chance to put Inouï’s performance credentials to the test, with the owner sailing and top New Zealand yachtsman Chris Main calling tactics. Revelling in the afternoon sea breeze, the team scored a 1st in one of the races and fnished 3rd in class overall.

The brief for Inouï, apart from performance, was for a timeless look.

Briand interpreted this by incorporating his favourite features from high-performance yachts over the decades. “The long stern [harks back] to the IOR designs of the Eighties, the moderate beam is more classic, the coachroof is more like those of the Nineties and we have some more modern periods, such as the plumb bow. It’s a mix of aesthetic features that are the best of those periods,” he explains.

Among the requirements for Inouï was that she be of a size to be slab-reefed and to use traditional reel winches for sailhandling.

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supersail world october-december 2014

Top: the flush-decked cockpit leads onto an indoor-outdoor arrangement, with the deck saloon separated by a retractable glass wall. Above: an aerial view of the deck, showing the traditional reel winches that were central to the design

showcase inouï

The deck saloon can be ventilated and cooled by a sea breeze

Inouï was designed for and will probably spend 80 per cent of her time cruising – and comfortably

The coachroof profle borrows from the styles of the Nineties

Vögele is said to dislike the idea of automated sail controls, which can turn the enjoyment of sailhandling into a purely mechanical process.

That, determined Philippe Briand, meant in turn a yacht that could be up to a maximum of 35m/155ft LOA. With sailing performance central to the brief, Briand decided to equip Inouï with a latest-generation rig and sailplan. She has a tall carbon rig reminiscent of the 2007 generation of America’s Cup yachts – America’s Cup design is a world in which Briand has spent much of his career. She was designed to have a big square-top mainsail in North 3Di, carbon spars and lightweight carbon composite rigging. The sailplan, which was directly extrapolated from America’s Cup designs, required sailmakers and sparmakers to work hand in hand. The sails and the running backstays and defectors used on the mast, Briand observes, “go together as a piece of engineering”.

The build of Inouï is an interesting part of her story. Because of the trapezium shape of some of the internal bulkheads it was decided to build the carbon hull in two halves in a two-part female mould, then join the parts and complete with internal bonding to make a fair curve with

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reinforcement laminate. This was an unusual and new way to complete the hull build, but it made a very strong connection and a smooth fnish of the two pieces, with cut line just under the waterline. Each of the topsides joined weighed eight tonnes, so there was some delicate manoeuvring to be done in preparation.

Inouï’s design features a retractable fn and bulb keel that rises from 5.35m to 3.75m and allows her to anchor closer inshore than would have been the case with a fxed keel.

Hybrid advanced power One area that kept the Vitters team and suppliers busy and tested their ingenuity was Inouï’s power system. This was always part of the equation for performance as there needs to be enough power or stored energy to run a number of winches simultaneously for critical manoeuvres, such as at the leeward mark.

So with Vitters and its suppliers, a new system was devised that is effectively a hybrid advanced power and hydraulic system, with lightweight batteries and a generator, a solution that cost around

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showcase inouï

Top: the owner’s suite, showing the sycamore joiner work and, to the right, the goatskin-covered chest of drawers.

Left: one of the two guest cabins; steps leading up to the large deck saloon

€80,000. This has important cruising benefts, too: it means Inouï is capable of long quiet periods of eight hours or more, particularly throughout the night, without generators running.

Because the owner didn’t want to be sitting below in the chilled atmosphere of air conditioning, he asked for a deck saloon design that would allow the breeze to circulate, and another interesting feature of Inouï is that the glass aft wall of the cabin can be closed off or opened up. This has the effect of making the deck saloon feel connected to the cockpit, as if it were part of the cockpit itself – an indoor-outdoor type of arrangement that, even when closed, off gives panoramic views outside the yacht.

For the design of the interior, the owner turned to Andrew Winch.

There was no need, or desire, to maximise cabins and Inouï has two guest cabins forward, and the owner’s suite in the bow. The colours here are just as offbeat and original as the hull of Inouï and designed to be vibrant.

Once again, the owner knew the theme he wanted, notes Winch: “In our frst meeting with the client, we were given three reels of cotton thread in the exact colours which would become the signature of the new design: lime, black and fuchsia.” One more colour, orange, was added.

The pale, rippled grain of sycamore was chosen for the bulkhead

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veneers and joiner work. The owner did not want a classic-style wooden boat interior and some of the stringers and frames have been kept uncovered to reveal the skeleton of the yacht. The owner’s cabin also features an unusual black-and-white goatskin-covered chest of drawers.

During her frst year, Inouï has taken part in top regattas such as the St Barths Bucket and the Superyacht Cup, and is primed for more racing at Saint Tropez. But it would be wrong to think of her as a no-compromise racing yacht; she is anything but. She was designed for, and will probably spend, around 80 per cent of her time cruising, and comfortably.

Crossover cruising Inouï has broken new ground in superyacht racing, however, and there is a new spike of interest in building lighter weight carbon composite superyachts for what you might call ‘crossover cruising’. Designer Philippe Briand is in no doubt that this is the beginning of a trend.

“It’s the start of a new class,” he says. “I know of eight or 10 more boats in build between 100 and 130ft, all composite [construction] and with this kind of brand new rigging. Two or three years from now we will have a real class of these boats and we will all be able to race together. This is the frst of a new generation.”

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SHOWCASE INOUÏ Dimensions LOA

33.44m

109ft 8in

LWL

30.57m

100ft 2in

Beam Draught Displacement Sail area upwind

22ft 5in 12ft 3in/17ft 6in

85,000kg

187,390lb

571m2

6,1461ft2

1,276m2

13,735ft2

C Baroncini

Sail area downwind

6.89m 3.75m/5.35m

Philippe Briand – a racing heritage Philippe Briand has sailed all his life and comes from a sailing-obsessed family. His father, Michel, was an Olympic sailor, a top 505 sailor, sailmaker and mastmaker and sailing was in his blood.

Philippe began sailing dinghies in La Rochelle in western France as a nine-year-old and by the age of 16 had designed his first sailing boat. Aged 22, he had designed and developed his first series yacht.

Racing bigger boats was a family tradition as well. His father won the Half Ton Cup in the Seventies, and Philippe made a significant mark in 1984 when he helmed a yacht of his own design to win the then very high-profile One Ton Cup. It led on to his association with Marc Pajot in the French Kiss America’s Cup campaign of 1987 and, subsequently, the America’s Cup challenger Ville de Paris in 1992 . Briand’s

involvement in Cup development is one of the most important areas of his career; he designed a total of eight America’s Cup yachts between 1986 and 2000.

His other noteworthy designs include Mari-Cha IV in 2003, which at the time was the fastest monohull in the world and broke the transatlantic record, setting a new time of 6d 17h. He has since been very active and influential in designing supersailing yachts with an emphasis on performance, and generally designs yachts of between 30m and 95m/100ft and 312ft. He currently has several sailing yachts in build, from a 46m/150ft design developed with Alloy Yachts in New Zealand to a new 38m/125ft yacht for an Italian shipyard, and 30m/100ft and 53m/174ft projects for French clients.

From big yachts to small, there are believed to be more than 12,000 Briand designs of all types sailing around the world.

He admits he rarely gets time to sail for himself, but when he does he likes nothing better than to return to his racing roots.

“I love to take two or three weeks off and go sailing in a one-design class”, he says. “I raced a Melges 24 a while ago and maybe I’ll do that again next year. I’ve always been passionate about racing, and what I love about one-designs is the very close racing.” www.philippebriand.com

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SUPERSAIL WORLD OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2014

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last shot

Pressing hard

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A classic-style photograph in black and white, but a modern scene. This is the jib trimmer on the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;super Jâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Ranger during the last race at the Superyacht Cup Palma in June, easing the sheet as the yacht buries her leeward rail during one of the long beats. Although hard to make out in the picture, one unmistakably modern part of the image is the headset the trimmer is wearing. Communication between the pit crew and afterguard is paramount to crisp, safe manoeuvres

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