Sam Fortescue meets François Perus, the up-and-coming designer responsible for a broad range of new, fast multihulls
With dreadnought bows and low-slung coachroof, the ITA 14.99 captured attention from all quarters when she made her debut at the Cannes Boat Show last September. Designed to be the kind of catamaran that even dyed-in-the-wool monohull sailors would enjoy, she has a powerful rig and serious helm stations perched on the aft quarter. So it’s no surprise, perhaps, that the naval architect behind the boat grew up sailing and racing monohulls in that most nautical corner of France, Brittany.
François Perus doesn’t mince his words: “I think sitting up on the bulkhead looks stupid,” he tells me.
“I like sitting on the edge in the wind with the tiller in my hand. I think most of the world is designing floating apartments for charter holidays.”
Balance
After such an opening salvo, you might think that Perus favours the sort of extreme designs that barely concede a pipe cot below and frown upon any kind of shelter on deck. But you’d be wrong. The first cat he built after completing his engineering studies at Ensta Bretagne was a fast 8.5m dayboat called the Pandora 8.50, in honour of his grandfather’s 9m wooden boat.
“The concept of the Pandora 8.50 has been articulated around the idea of drawing a balanced boat,” he explains. “We listened to the wishes of potential sailors, then removed the extreme options – nice on paper, but difficult to use for most sailors.”
He began drawing the boat while completing his course as an intern at Berret Racoupeau, had it built as a prototype in Turkey, and it is still one of his favourite designs. He says it will comfortably manage one-and-a-half times windspeed, making a 50-mile daytrip with a picnic from his family home on the Golfe du Morbihan to Belle Ile and back a possibility. “We can be home in time for aperitifs,” he grins.
The Pandora 8.50 never went into series production, but all that may be about to change. “We started to make tooling but we lacked a proper partner to do sales and marketing. It’s in discussion. We will see.” He’s also hoping to find a buyer for a bigger version of the boat, the 13.50, still with tiller steering but with more accommodation and a large, open cockpit.
After spending a further year studying architecture in Paris, Perus joined Australian multihull pioneer Tony Grainger in Thailand. “I was used to multihulls that were either big floating caravans or crazy racing machines. I found a way in-between where we could mix the potential for speed and comfort.”
Grainger was designing cats with broader beam, longer decks in front of the mast and, thanks to lighter construction techniques, were capable of faster passages.
Back to France
The collaboration came to an end when Grainger declined to set up a European office. Perus moved back to France and in 2013 got his first real commission with the Slyder 47 – a design of which he is proud, although the German-Italian parent company slipped into administration in 2016. The boat was well reviewed by the sailing press and went on to sell a reported five units before the company went under.
“The brief was a bluewater family cruiser with good seaworthiness and sailing abilities, and a good look,” he says. Though there was good feedback from owners, he regrets that the boat was heavier than it should have been, so not as fast. “I gained experience: you have to be sure to adapt the design to the builder.”
The brand has since been resuscitated by a new owner and a new 49-footer launched. Just as the Slyder 47 project was getting going, Perus was commissioned to design the Pulse 600 for the folding trimaran builder Corsair. At 20ft LOA, this is the smallest of the brand’s trailable trimarans and has floats that fold up tight against the hull. It is designed unashamedly for fast, wet, fun sailing. “She had to be fast – the record I heard from the Hawaiian dealer was 26 knots sustained – and dinghy-sized. She’s light and the crew account for a lot of the righting moment, so it’s proportionally possible to have way more square metres of sail per tonne of boat than a bigger cruising multi.”
He designed the boat to blend stability and speed. But she was not designed for racing and there is a compromise: the bows are a little fuller to prevent nosediving and the rig could have been bigger to squeeze more from light winds.
Trends
Riding high from the public success of the Slyder, Perus was commissioned to design an even bigger and much more radical catamaran, the North Wind 55, which he says is a major step-up in the complexity of the design work. Drawn but not yet built for a niche Spanish yard, the boat aims to incorporate the latest technology, so can have a full carbon hull alongside T-foil rudders, Z-foils for stability and lift, and photovoltaic windows. “When we started I thought the foils would mainly improve speeds but in the end we came to the conclusion that they also brought seaworthiness, stability and safety.”
The ITA 14.99 is indicative of Perus’ design thinking, combining sleek good looks with strong performance and comfort for bluewater passagemaking. But he is still looking to the future. When I ask him about design trends he points to 3D printing, eco-friendly materials and production technologies and foils – both above and below the waterline. He also thinks that the growth of boatsharing is going to be a factor in design.
In a manner of speaking, he is involved in his own ‘boatshare’ through the Yacht Design Collective he co-founded with Romain Scolari. “The interest for us is the crossover of ideas and skills, and it helps to make us look bigger and stronger,” he explains.
At his own initiative, he is working on an eco-trimaran project, codenamed ‘Kanka’, with a wooden hull. “I am trying to make a homage to the traditional craft of Polynesia, but bringing it into the 21st century with Dyneema, low-friction loops and so on.” Measuring just 4m, she is also meant to be affordable and very portable. “You can carry the parts to the beach, put it together and go sailing,” he explains.
Now, I can’t wait to take that for a spin.
How do you select the right catamaran to best suit your cruising? Learning from other owners is a good place to start
They have two different boats, different sailing plans and two very different sets of experience. But what these cruisers have in common is a desire to explore in two hulls rather than one.
Hal Haltom explains how he drew on decades of monohull sailing to choose a relatively light displacement Outremer 51 for the World ARC, while David Weible and Kellie Peterson tell of their snap decision to sell up and set sail in a Lagoon 42. They share hard won tips about setting up the boat for ambitious cruising and give an insight into life at sea.
Hal Haltom – Outremer 51
Hal Haltom, 59, from Texas, bought an Outremer 51 in 2016 and set off on the World ARC that winter. With his wife Marsha and daughter Haley, he has sailed more than 27,000 miles across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans to reach South Africa and believes that it makes sense to buy a lighter boat that performs better in light winds.
We did two trips through the eastern and western Caribbean with our kids about 10 years ago on a Tayana 52 monohull. This time we switched to a catamaran because it had features that we thought were better: living above the waterline, level (and not rolly) and easier sail handling.
Once we decided to switch, we started looking at the available boats in our price range. My wife Marsha and I have raced sailboats for many years and we wanted a better sailing cat, which ruled out the heavier ones. At the Miami Boat Show in early 2015 we looked at a Catana and St Francis but it was an Outremer 51 that interested us . Afterwards, we flew to the company’s factory in La Grande- Motte in southern France and were impressed. We thought the Outremer 51 was a boat that a couple in their 50s could handle and we ordered one and took delivery in May 2016.
Fit for bluewater
Ours is the base boat with only a few options added because Outremer builds a boat that is ready to go bluewater cruising. We have an aluminium mast, Mastervolt lithium battery system (360Ah at 24V), Dessalator watermaker, 560W of solar panels, and a Watt & Sea hydrogenerator. All this equipment worked well. As did the B&G instruments, Lecomble & Schmitt autopilot, Volvo D2-40 engines, and Incidence and Delta Voile sails. We don’t have a diesel generator.
Sailing on a sunny day, we can run the watermaker using only the batteries and on a cloudy day, I may need to turn on an engine for an hour or so. Each engine has a 110A alternator running through a Sterling booster. At anchor, we rely on the solar panels, which is all that is needed in the Tropics.
My advice would be to buy a boat that sails well and handles easily. Also, I would keep the equipment as simple as possible while maintaining the comfort level you need. Passagemaking is hard on boats. A light boat requires less effort to sail and a simpler boat requires less maintenance and repair. Even though our boat is a light cat, we have found it to be well-built and comfortable. Outremer has also been very responsive in dealing with any issues during the two-year warranty period and beyond.
After spending the summer cruising the Mediterranean, it was time to head off on our big adventure. We left La Grande-Motte in October 2017. We sailed to Spain and Gibraltar and crossed the Atlantic to St Lucia in November 2017 with the ARC+ rally. We joined the World ARC rally in St Lucia and sailed to Panama, through the canal, across the Pacific to Australia, and then across the Indian Ocean to Richards Bay, South Africa, where we are now.
Light airs
The three of us have sailed more than 27,000 miles and are pleased with our choice of boat. Fast cruising is enjoyable and it is always good to get into port sooner.
We typically sail in tradewind conditions at boat speeds of 8 to 10 knots. We had six 200-plus mile days in a row during our crossing of the Pacific from the Galapagos to the Marquesas.
During our Indian Ocean crossing we had 30-plus knots of wind for several days and 4m seas. The boat also performed well in those conditions.
When cruising, you see more light air than heavy air and it is very nice to have a boat that will sail fast in light air. An additional benefit of a fast cat that is often not mentioned is the ability to sail with a reduced sail area and still go fast. We often sail with two or three reefs in the main and just our working jib in 15 knots of wind, which makes the boat very easy to handle, while still going fast. Another advantage is with narrow hulls and a smaller saloon the side decks are wider, which make moving around much safer. Our huge foredeck also makes sail handling much safer and easier, with less stress all round as we move through the water.
David Weible and Kellie Peterson – Lagoon 42
David Weible had a liveaboard adventure on a leaky monohull many years ago but he and his partner Kellie still managed to surprise themselves when they decided to sell their Florida home and go cruising. They chose a Lagoon 42 and, with few regrets, have just crossed the Atlantic to Saint Lucia after a summer in the Med.
A little more than a year ago, we were riding our bikes across the playa at the Burning Man festival in Nevada when a dust storm rolled in. We took refuge in a lighthouse art installation, talked about our dreams and hatched a plan: sell everything, buy a sailboat, sail the globe — and share our story on YouTube.
Four months later, we made an offer on a Tartan 44 monohull in St Petersburg, Florida. A sea trial and inspection revealed major issues, so we kept looking for another bluewater cruising boat. In February, we flew to San Diego to see a Tayana – another disappointment. But the effort wasn’t a total loss: we discovered catamarans. We looked at Leopard, Fountaine-Pajot and Lagoon. When we boarded the Lagoon 42, a comfortable catamaran that could really take us places, we were sold.
The delights
Hull #300 was delivered in August. We moved aboard on a Saturday and set sail across the Bay of Biscay the following Wednesday. Sitting at anchor in Spain, navigating narrow rivers in Portugal, picking our way through the Atlantic fog, surfing big swells on the way to Madeira, lounging with the wildlife in the Selvagens and currently sailing across the Atlantic Ocean have all added up nicely and validated our decision to buy the catamaran.
Starship Friendship handles a lot better than we expected. These heavier cruising catamarans sail really well with the right sail plan, but they do come with a relatively conservative set-up. The square-top main, Code 0 and ACH cruising chute options are a must. On a dead run, speed over ground exceeds half of the true wind speed; up to 45° into the wind, with 15 knots or more, she does even better. On a beam reach, she nearly matches true wind speed; fly the chute in as little as 8 knots and she’ll keep a comfortable walking pace downwind. In a solid swell, she’s balanced and comfortable. Crew members suffer little or no seasickness and are not worn out after longer passages.
Wishlist
We still have a wishlist of improvements including a dual battery charger for 110V and 220V, painted bow compartments to avoid fibreglass itchiness, an accessible place for wet gear and fishing tools, and a bit more solar and battery capacity (oh, and a Parasailor too). The broker recommended two rigid LG300 solar panels, which put out roughly 270W each at max output. This is not enough to run all systems on the boat, so when we go offshore, the generator becomes a necessity – we run it for roughly four hours per day. If money were no object we would have loved to put a custom stainless attachment above the dingy davit with three or four panels, which would be the correct amount of power necessary for our boat.
Otherwise, we have not done much to her. The lighting indoor and outdoor is bright and does not have dim or colour option. We put red spinnaker tape over our lights when offshore to create a more friendly night environment and intend to have red lighting in the Caribbean. We also installed an electric toilet in the owner’s cabin, which has been really nice.
The helm station is a hot topic among Lagoon 42 owners. It’s a love-hate relationship. A lot of owners find the seat uncomfortable and too short. We have seen many modifications. In bad weather we are cautious and always use safety tethers while at the helm. We run a piece of webbing on occasion from the arm rail on the seat to the grab rail on the helm for additional safety in heavy conditions.
Hindsight
Our only real regret is that we were rushed to meet our Atlantic crossing deadline. Buyers benefit from more time and support during the handover. Details like setting up the boat, walking through the installed gear, testing the systems and reviewing best practices make the experience less stressful and more satisfying for those with resources on hand.
If we ever pick up a new boat again, it would make sense to deal directly with a local representative — having boots on the ground seems to improve the experience for those we’ve talked to. Our friends in the Lagoon community rave about the assistance they received with warranties, training, and delivery services from local agents. That said, would we buy again? Yes. The stability, easy sailing rig, forgiving design and comfortable floor plan deliver one hell of a good lifestyle.
The Starship makes cruising easy and handles a variety of conditions comfortably. Her reliable performance under sail has made our passages pretty awesome. From France to Gibraltar, Tangier to Madeira, Salvagen to Cape Verde and across the ocean — the voyages of Starship Friendship have been stellar. She’s even a bit famous. The YouTube channel ‘Sailing Starship Friendship’ chronicles all the good and the bad. Luckily, the stability of a catamaran makes editing at sea easy and new episodes are published every Sunday – even in big seas and strong winds!
Silent Yachts is tapping into the solar zeitgeist and creating a new meaning for the term ‘powercat’. Sam Fortescue reports
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There is a slow, silent revolution under way in the yachting world. It is a revolution that is introducing tonnes of lithium and a sprinkling of silicon to the spec list of new boats. Holding out the promise of silent mobility, plus limitless domestic power on board, it made a big splash at the last Cannes Festival of Yachting – not least thanks to the new Silent 55 catamaran which debuted there.
From the pontoon side, the Silent 55 looks like a typical modern catamaran, with a big coachroof studded with windows and a flybridge helm. Except there’s no mast. Now, bear with me here. I realise that this is a sailing magazine, but we will shortly get back to more familiar territory. The unique qualities of this catamaran only become apparent from up top, where an expanse of solar panels stretches away fore and aft, embedded into the coachroof. The hard top itself carries yet more panels, and can be folded down flush to give an unshaded solar array of 49m2. During the heat of a summer day in the Med, this is capable of generating 10kW of power and up to around 60kWh in the course of the day.
“The boat’s house load is 5-10kWh per day,” explains Jean-Marc Zanni, who designed the 55’s electrical system using 140kWh of Panasonic batteries and the 370W Sunpower panels. “So you can go for weeks between recharging. The aim is to provide full comfort and silence at anchor or in port.”
It’s an intriguing possibility, and one that founder Michael Köhler is betting will appeal to a broad constituency of sailors. He has spent five years honing the concept of the solar-powered boat after he and his wife Heike finally sold the monohull in which they had sailed tens of thousands of miles. “We were annoyed by the fact that on a conventional sailing boat, you are usually motoring 50% of the time,” he explains. “And the whole energy system can’t supply all the boat’s consumption without running the generator.”
With insight gathered from years at sea, Köhler set about researching the best ways of harnessing renewable power aboard a cruising boat to keep the generator off. He weighed up wind, solar and hydrogenation (where the speed of the water flowing over the prop when the boat is sailing turns an electric motor to generate power).
“When you hear the wind turbine making all that noise, you think it will be producing lots of power,” he says. “But it’s not. When we did the measurements, solar produced much more.” The same is true of hydrogeneration using the main prop. “Regeneration starts making sense at 10 knots of boat speed. Before that, it is not as good as it seems.” In fact, Silent Yachts doesn’t include the contribution of regeneration at all in its power equation. “The simple truth is that solar is by far the most effective.”
But to make a solar system work in reality, Köhler had to go back to the drawing board on yacht design. The saloon and hulls have extra thermal insulation to keep air-con losses down, and the use of carbon and aramid in key areas helps reduce the overall weight to a decent 17 tonnes (a Lagoon 52 weighs 22.5 tonnes). He has tried to keep windows out of the direct sun with long overhangs and in contrast to the Lagoon’s 12 deck hatches, the Silent 55 has just two.
Holistic design
On the other hand, it has lots of opening windows, to allow a natural draught to do its job. “It’s a holistic approach – you can’t take the batteries and the drivetrain and drop it into another boat.”
Of course, using the propulsion system quickly takes its toll of the boat’s 140kW battery bank. The model on display at Cannes had two 135kW motors, giving you just half an hour of silent motoring flat-out, albeit at a top speed of over 20 knots. More reasonable 30kW engines and a single-digit speed give you greater range.
Nonetheless, the electric drive alone isn’t going to allow you to outrun a storm, or race home after a day at anchor, so the boat is designed to work with a generator hidden in the heavily insulated transom of its starboard hull. At cruising speed of around 5-6 knots, Köhler says there is rarely any need to use the generator, citing an owner who has just emailed him triumphantly about a second year totally generator-free. “In the end, you have to compare it to the performance of a sailing boat,” Köhler says. “It is as fast as a sailing boat in similar conditions – after all, there is no wind without sun.”
He went so far as to tell me during the sea trial in Palma, Mallorca, that he believed the majority of sailors would happily dispense with the hassle of sails and a rig if only they could enjoy silent motoring and anchoring. “As soon as people realise the incredible concept of this boat, they won’t understand why they ever did anything else.”
The market does not seem to agree with him – yet.
Sales of the boat have been good – they have already sold six, five of which are already in the water. But of those, four customers have taken the sail option, which means planting a 19.7m tall mast complete with boom and rigging slap bang in the middle of the coachroof solar array. “I was a bit amazed,” Köhler admits. “The shade from the rig reduces the energy generated by the solar area, while it costs more and is heavier, so consumes more fuel. Maybe it is for optical reasons.”
In fact, the shade of the rig slashes the average yield of the solar panels in half. In the Med, that means around 30kWh per day. But perhaps it figures. The typical profile of buyers is an environmentalist who has a Tesla electric car and is “an early adopter who likes to have things before others”. And at low speeds, with modest use of the air-con, the reduced energy generation should still cover daily consumption.
Under sail
The performance under sail should be reasonable because of the lightweight build of the boat, its broad 8.47m beam and stub keels added to each hull. Control lines are led back via conduits in the coachroof to the flybridge helm station, to make single-handing under sail a possibility.
More interesting, I think, is a sort of halfway-house option using a kite rig. This optimises the performance of the solar panels and gives plenty of propulsion. On the smaller 55 and the 64, Silent Yachts currently recommends a 19m2 kite that costs around €25,000 – a fraction of the cost of a new mast, boom, shrouds and sails. “The sail automatically makes a figure of eight above the boat, and you can steer it with a joystick or an app on an android phone,” Köhler explains. “It can propel the 55 at up to 6 knots, even in light winds.” Perfect for an Atlantic crossing, then.
For the bigger Silent 79, which will hit the water in the summer, a commercial grade Sky Sail system needs to be used – a smaller version of the ones used on cargo ships. This kite can propel the boat at ten knots, but it costs more than ten times as much as its smaller cousin. Both are capable of pulling the boat upwind.
So far, so new. But outside the novel energy and propulsion system, the Silent 55 aims to do what many other cruising catamarans are trying to achieve. “Most of our clients order for circumnavigation and long-term cruising,” Köhler says. So the boat is aimed to be as comfortable and capable as possible with watermakers, TVs and an induction hob that all capitalise on the boat’s abundant energy.
A flexible configuration allows owners the choice of between three and six cabins – the latter designed for charter. The owner’s cabin lies forward of the saloon, under the windows of the coachroof, which provide magnificent views and abundant natural light. There’s a walk-around bed and steps down into the starboard hull give access to an en-suite shower room and heads.
In my view, the best cabin lies aft of this, accessed in the traditional manner down steps out of the saloon. The king-sized bed lies athwartships and the shower is larger than that of the master cabin. There’s more space down here, better headroom and still plenty of light courtesy of the many hull lights.
The finish is good rather than spectacular, with a range of choices around woods and fabrics. The intention is to keep weight down by using laminate where possible, but owners can choose glass or porcelain fittings wherever they want.
The 37m2 saloon is the star attraction on this boat, offering copious amounts of space for a well-equipped galley, a comfy dining or lounging area and a fully functional interior nav station.
It connects through sliding doors to the broad, uncluttered cockpit, which offers seating and a dining table with room for eight. A 4.5m tender can be slung from the underside of the bathing platform here, which can be raised and lowered hydraulically.There is more lounging space at the bow, where two little trampolines between the nacelle and the hull make comfy, if eccentric, nests. There are also cushions under the overhang of the coachroof.
On Trial
When I had the chance to sea trial the Silent 55, albeit in motorboat format, I jumped at it. It was a contrary autumn day on Mallorca with 15 knots breeze – just a shame, then, that this wasn’t one of the sailing configured versions.
To start with, getting on board is made really easy courtesy of deep boarding platforms on the skirts. She feels rather square because of that vast, glazed saloon with its deep overhang, and perhaps because of the utilitarian nature of the hard top, which is really about supporting more solar panels. Nevertheless, the side decks are broad and uncluttered.
The space up top is designed to concertina down flat, hence the hydraulic rams, fold-down seat back and lowering console. It makes a great sailing position, though, with all round visibility, and is also perfect for sundowners at anchor. When the rain comes down, this feels quite exposed, but there is a fully sheltered helm at the front of the saloon, and it is also possible to drive the boat from anywhere using a tablet thanks to smart electronics.
Under power, the handling is superb. The quietness of the motors is astonishing, and I gather they’ll be inaudible on the next boat, which will do away with the gearbox. Even in the aft cabins, directly above the motors, there is no more than a distant hum. The boat responds instantly to the power and the wind seemed to have no impact at all. As with any propulsion system, the power consumption jumps as you pile on the speed – it was sobering to see. At 6 knots, both motors drew 10kW but at 8 knots it was closer to 30kW.
I liked the huge saloon with its raised table for 360º views. And the sliding door and window gives great access aft, connecting the saloon and cockpit in fine conditions. The finish was smart and in muted tones, feeling more Scandinavian than German.
The future
Intriguingly, at least it seems to me, Köhler has tapped into something with the concept behind Silent Yachts – but not entirely for the reasons that he expected. Buyers are opting for the sail or kite versions of the boat because they want a comfortable wind-powered craft with abundant, quiet energy on tap.
It brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘powercat’
This looks set to be another thrilling year for multihulls with new models from Dragonfly, Lagoon, Fountaine-Pajot and Dufour and more
Yes, the racing world is stretching the boundaries, with 100ft foiling maxi trimarans tearing around the globe and F50s, the ex-American’s Cup catamarans, now turned-up to sail at 50+ knots for gladiatorial-style stadium racing. But it’s the production monohulls, growing ever more popular among cruising sailors, that are pushing this industry forwards.
The sector is a constantly bubbling melting pot of new ideas and models – some of which we explore in this Multihull Guide. In fact, the multihull market has grown so much that the world’s largest boatbuilder is launching its second catamaran range to appeal to younger, sportier sailors.
Dragonfly 40
A new 40-foot flagship has been unveiled by Denmark’s folding trimaran specialist Dragonfly. The boat won’t reach the public eye until the Dusseldorf Boat Show in 2020, but we already have a good idea of how she will look and perform.
“The project has been influenced by past owners who moved up to larger multihulls for greater space, but reported missing the fun factor of their previous Dragonfly,” explains UK dealer Al Wood of Multihull Solutions. “Our owners and potential clients report that they don’t require more cabins when away cruising, but would welcome more living space below plus greater cockpit space for day-sailing with friends.”
The cockpit has been the focus of much of Dragonfly’s design work, with twin wheels and an optional bathing platform transom. It is also wider than on previous models, allowing sail controls to move aft for easier short-handing, and giving easy access to the stern for Med-style mooring.
The mast is in lightweight carbon – 18.5m tall for the Ultimate version of the boat or 16.5m for the Touring edition. Displacing just 4.9 tonnes in her ready-to-sail state, the boat is forecast to be capable of speeds up to 24 knots.
Other details are scant at the moment, except that Dragonfly is putting the emphasis on easy handling. The trademark folding crossbeams give her a beam of just 4m, down from her full span of 8.5m. The folding process slightly increases her length – from 12.1m to 13.5m. At this size, the boat is clearly not trailerable, unlike her little sisters, but with the Quorning yard’s high reputation, expect scintillating performance.
Dragonfly has given the performance variant of its popular 32-footer a makeover. The old Supreme will be replaced with the Evolution, which sports a new wave-piercing float design and 20 per cent more buoyancy to make the boat more comfortable in strong winds and tougher conditions.
Interestingly, the mainsail has been trimmed by around 2.5 square metres, making the rig less powerful, but Al Wood of Multihull Solutions says that this was in response to the greater hull buoyancy. “The mainsail has a slightly reduced roach compared to earlier boats to alter the balance of the boat, which changed as these new wave-piercing floats generate significantly more righting moment with less immersion than the original design.”
The rudder section is slightly improved, to resist stalling in extreme conditions, and the new boat will premier at Dusseldorf this year. Pictured is the first 32 Evolution sailing and with the first of Dragonfly’s contemporary new Elm interiors. Price: from €276,800 Contact:Dragonfly
Lagoon 46
Lagoon says greater comfort is a key goal of its new model, the 46.
The French yard has charged former Renault designer Patrick le Quément with the task of meeting owners’ expectations about comfort in a market where the ‘cruising experience is becoming a lifestyle’.
The design team at VPLP has made fundamental changes to the successful formula of the old 450. Chief amongst these is moving the mast of the 46 further aft on the coachroof. As a result the jib becomes a self-tacker, and the larger forward triangle offers a greater choice of downwind sails. The boom has been shortened and the main has a higher aspect, reducing pitching.
The flybridge helm has been centred and sits directly behind the mast, which means that the footwell protrudes slightly into the cockpit below – something that has been disguised by turning it into a deep frame for the sliding aft windows of the saloon. There’s a sliding stool in the cockpit, and a hydraulic bathing platform.
Italian designer Nauta has made efficient use of the available space with queen-sized beds in all three (or four) cabins, plus a stylish-looking saloon. At 16.6 tonnes displacement, this is no lightweight racer, but it will get you to your destination in comfort.
In the hotly-contested 40-something foot category, the Groupe Beneteau team behind Lagoon and CNB luxury monohulls is carving out a new cat brand called XCS. It is pitched at younger, sportier sailors with the tagline ‘be immoderate’. That translates in part to a bigger sailplan than ‘standard’ cruising cats, and with a higher aspect ratio – that is, tall and thin. This positions the mast further aft and allows a self-tacking jib.
The boats will also feature twin aft helm stations, in contrast to many production cats. “It is the ideal position to keep an eye on the sea and sails, whether windward or leeward, and above all, it provides the most sensations at the helm,” explains project director Bruno Belmont. He also says that having a low boom close to the bimini will increase the mainsail’s performance. There will be plexiglass in the hardtop for a better view of the sails, or the option of a fully retractable bimini.
Snippets of video posted online hint at a longeron between the bows offering a tack point for reaching and downwind sails. And the hull has heavily bevelled topsides with a striking chine just above the waterline, as well as generous curved hull lights.
Three interior layouts will be available, with pared down furniture to save about a tonne of weight. It all adds up to a boat that should be faster than the standard cruising cat, though short of the “super fast” technical offerings from the likes of HH and Gunboat.
“We want to be on the sporty side of the main cruising cat brands,” adds Belmont. “It won’t be an elitist range, but a brand where you get more sailing pleasure.”
There will be five sizes from around 36ft to 50ft, and the first two models will be launched at Cannes Boat Show in September.
The French bluewater cruising cat specialist has continued its range refresh with a replacement for the hugely successful Helia 44, which has sold 260 hulls since 2012.
The new 45 was drawn by Berret Racoupeau, and is slightly bigger in all dimensions. In line with current trends, it offers more creature comforts but at the cost of nearly 1.5 tonnes additional weight than the Helia. That is partly offset by a larger 74m2 main and by a lower wetted surface.
“It means a higher top speed and more comfortable under engines,” says marketing manager Helene de Fontainieu.
What you get for the extra weight is compelling.
The bulkhead helmstation has been remodelled to improve line handling. Inside there is a bigger saloon with a huge galley down the port side and a dedicated navstation aft. There’s the new 8.5m2 forward lounging space, a barbecue in the transom seat and the option of a hydraulically lowering ‘beach club’ (swim platform and tender lift).
There are still sunbeds on the coachroof, and a seating area on the flybridge. The designers have introduced more light, with extra glazing in the saloon and the cabins.
The 45 hits the water in the summer.
Price: €419,000 Contact:Fountaine-Pajot
Update: Gunboat 68
After years of development and design work and over a year in build, the first Gunboat 68 has emerged from the yard at La Grande Motte, southern France, and will be launched in late January. Hulls two and three are also in build.
Fresh details have emerged about the design itself. The hull is finished with paint rather than gelcoat in order to save weight, and to allow customisation to continue long after the boat emerges from the mould. Hull one is painted in dark silver Awlcraft, containing real flakes of metal. Meanwhile, the interior finish is super-light fabric panels that can easily be removed and offer a degree of insulation as well. “The bulkheads are, in effect, triple glazed,” says Gunboat COO William Jelbert.
The high-aspect, heavily raked rig comes in performance cruising and regatta versions. In the first, the boat will only fly a hull in more than 20 knots of true wind, whereas the racing rig achieves this at 16 knots with a rotating mast that is 4m higher. Velocity predictions suggest the regatta rig will perform 12 per cent better upwind and 20 per cent better downwind.
Gunboat also went back to basics with Jefa to design the steering system with the help of Michel Desjoyeaux. The 25kg carbon blades are fully retractable, sacrificial in the event of a collision and the whole system is designed to support T-foil rudders in the future.
Look out for hull number one at the BVI Spring Regatta.
Sailaway price: €5.5m Contact:Gunboat
First look: ITA 14.99
A combination of sharp design, punchy performance potential, comfort and build quality brings plenty of appeal to this sporty new Italian-built cat. Its light displacement of 10.5 tonnes (fully loaded 13.5 tonnes) is impressive thanks to an E-glass epoxy-infused build with carbon strengthening.
“She’s reactive and stiff,” said designer Francois Perus during its debut at Cannes Boat Show, adding: “as soon as there’s a bit of wind she just wants to go.”
The layout will suit those wanting to actively helm. I like the position of the helmstations, with optional swing-out wheels, which give good forward views over the low coachroof. A central aft winch is employed for halyards and reefing lines, which helps keep the cockpit clear of lines.
Despite the lightweight composite build, weight is permitted where it will aid comfort, such as with the use of proper glass windows surrounding the coachroof and resin worktops in the galley. Elsewhere furniture is built in sandwich balsa with a teak veneer finish.
Price: €890,000 ex VAT. Contact:Ita Catamarans
Dufour 48 Cat
Designed and built in Italy, the first Dufour catamaran was hastily finished in time for the Cannes Boat Show last September.
“This is the only cat of this size with a proper flybridge” said Umberto Felci on showing me his new design, “which is divided into three areas of driving [single helm], seating and sunbathing”. The flat coachroof top is huge, which, together with the flybridge seating is designed to act as a second cockpit. The aft position of the mast meanwhile creates a sizeable area for a self-tacking, non-overlapping jib.
There are nicely proportioned amounts of space inside for the cockpit, main deck and galley. I like the island worktop around the mast base to extend the galley. Guest cabins each have their own companionway entrance.
Sunreef is a ‘small family business’ that has grown to its current €50m turnover, said CEO Francis Lapp. He was addressing at least 30 journalists on the aft deck of the first Sunreef 80.
The boat is the queen of a new range that sees the Polish firm targeting the large charter market of 50ft–80ft crewed cats (around 80% of Sunreefs go to charter).
Business is booming, according to Sunreef, which says it has sold eight of the new 80s, eight 60s and ten 50s off the plans. Sunreef already has 500 employees and is looking for more to help meet this incredible demand.
The amount of space on offer on the new 60 and 80 has to be seen to be believed. The designs feature enormous open-plan saloons and adjoining cockpits, which are designed with very little fixed furniture – allowing them to be customised or to double as party lounges. And the flybridges, mostly with Jacuzzis, offer alfresco dining areas and yet more sun lounging space (oh, and the helmstations).
The first 60 to launch is a charter version with five guest cabins, while the privately owned 80 has the largest owner’s cabin I’ve ever seen on any size sailing yacht.
Price: Approximate pricing is €2.2m for the 60 and €5m for the 80. Contact:Sunreef Yachts
McConaghy MC60
The MC50 stole the show when it launched at La Grande Motte in April last year. Just four months later, McConaghy was back with its second Jason Ker design, the MC60, at Cannes Boat Show. It’s very much the larger sister and similar design to the MC50, sharing many of its standout features, including the aft flybridge helmstations, hydraulic centreboards and the sumptuous open-plan saloon and galley.
Its main benefits come down to volume and length. “You get more waterline length for not much more weight,” says Ker of the MC60. There’s more empty bow space and a lot more volume. The British designer also thinks it’s a size that can still be owner-operated – indeed there’s not even a dedicated crew cabin option.
McConaghy says the helm set-up, with its full views over the bows, suits those who want to sail the boat by themselves without a crew. The question remains how comfortable this position may prove in a seaway.
The Design Unlimited interior is styled to suit each owner. The first boat has a very pale finish with light oak veneer masking the foam sandwich build. Again it’s the huge electric opening side windows and three longitudinal skylights in the saloon that help provide the overall wow factor.
Never has a catamaran of this size offered so much living space. Bali takes its outdoor/indoor concept to a whole new level with its new flagship 55-footer.
Similar to its previous designs, Bali uses an open one-level saloon, galley and aft cockpit area, with a garage-style glass door that swings down to close off the aft when required. The flybridge is also enormous, with the majority of space given to leisure area, however the boom is pushed up high and there’s only one helmstation.
Accommodation space is also vast, stretched to both ends of the hulls. A solid deck is preferred to a trampoline to help increase foredeck cockpit space and forepeak cabins.
Two aft compact cabins meanwhile, accessed from the aft deck, also help maximise the number of cabins available. These use clever doors that hinge up like car bonnets, which will likely only suit fair weather sailing.
The four main transverse double guest cabins in the central hulls, meanwhile, are simply enormous.
I often think it a shame that they aren’t more new mid-size (10m/35ft) coastal cruising cats developed these days. The family cruisers of yesteryear at this size (for example Prout and Gemini) are typically now 10ft longer, much more voluminous and consequently expensive.
So I was keen to see this new offering from Aventura, a French brand which builds its more modest-sized cats in Tunisia.
I like the overall design, the fine entry of the bows and the comparatively low freeboard (by today’s standards), which makes boarding much easier.
Unfortunately there is no helm feedback while sailing in light breeze and swell, the single winch set-up is clumsy when tacking, and there is a lot of noise and vibration from the engines located under the aft berths.
But this design still offers plentiful accommodation space. The Aventura has a modern-style single-level main living deck with connecting galley/cockpit. It boasts plenty of natural light, generous-sized berths with large hull windows and reasonable stowage in the cabins and galley. And the price is another pleasant surprise.
Your guide Düsseldorf Boat Show 2019, the world's largest indoor boat show, which is being held from 19-27 January 2019
MAK0K4 Medienhafen harbour skyline in Dusseldorf, Germany
Gone, sadly, are the days of the London Boat Show and the midwinter solace it provided for the landlocked sailor. But something far more impressive has taken its place.
The Düsseldorf Boat Show is the world’s largest indoor boat show. It runs from 19-27 January 2019.
Where the London Boat Show had one hall, the Düsseldorf Boat Show boasts 17.
A new 39ft all-rounder from innovative brand Bente will be at the show
It has become a key date in the diary for sailing enthusiasts, as it is in Düsseldorf that many of the world’s boat builders unveil their new models to the world for the first time.
Whether you’re in the market for a new yacht, looking for ideas and kit to refit your current boat, or just want to browse to your heart’s content, this is the winter boat show to visit.
At the show
Of the 17 halls at Messe Düsseldorf, three are dedicated to sailing yachts, another two to clothing and equipment, and others for charter and tuition.
Ample space is also given to watersports such as dinghy sailing, windsurfing and paddleboarding.
There’s lots to see in Düsseldorf, only one hour’s flight away from London
Not only will you be able to see the latest models, you can also compare complete ranges of yachts from most major manufacturers, and talk to the people who build them.
You’ll also find a wealth of exciting smaller brands you may not have heard of.
New boats
While details are still emerging of boats that will be launched, the winners of the European Yacht of the Year 2019 will be announced.
The nominees include the fast but fun RS21, the Hallberg Rassy 340, the Sunbeam 46.1, and the Arcona 435.
Other boats being launched include the Swan 65, a sleek and attractive boat that aims to offer comfortable and safe cruising for a family, but can also be set up for racing. Hall 16, A58
At the smaller end, the new J/99 is designed for short-handed offshore racing, replacing the J105. It’s been updated to include twin rudder, tiller steering and is optimised for IRC racing. She has plenty of headroom below and twin aft cabins. Hall 15, B21
The new Dufour 430 Grande Large will be on display, along with the 390 Grand Large
For the more adventurous, the French aluminium builder Alubat will launch its new Ovni 400, which follows the trend for deck-saloon expedition yachts. She has a swing keel, reducing her draught to 98cm, and a voluminous bow section.
Bente have also introduced their second model. Following from the innovative Bente 24, the Bente 39 takes its inspiration from offshore racers with a large glazed dodger that forms the coachroof for the galley and chart table. It can be configured as a cruiser, regatta, or ocean. Hall 15, A22
French builder Dufour have two new models, the Dufour 390 Grand Large and the Dufour 430 Grand Large. Both have stronger hull chines and wider sterns for more form stability. Hall 16, B37
Travel and accommodation
Travelling to Düsseldorf from the UK is easy. Direct flights run from all London airports as well as Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds/Bradford and Southampton.
By car, it’s four hours from Calais and two and a half hours from Amsterdam.
There’s a shuttle service from the airport to the show, and advance ticket holders can use public transport for nothing.
It’s 20 minutes from the show to the city centre. There’s plenty of accommodation, although the best rooms get booked early.
The Altstadt is well worth exploring, and no visit to Düsseldorf is complete without having a drink in the Uerige Obergärige Hausbrauerei and a meal in Zum Schiffchen.
There are also plenty of great museums, arts venues and shops in which to while away your time outside the show.
French skipper Jean-Luc Van Den Heede has won the Golden Globe Race, the 'retro' solo around the world race, in 211 days
Jean-Luc Van Den Heede today won the Golden Globe Race after an astonishing 211 days and 23 hours at sea, in an incredible demonstration of seamanship.
The French skipper sailed across the finish line under spinnaker, arriving back into a grey and damp Les Sables d’Olonne. Having completely run out of fuel, Van Den Heede then sailed up the famous channel of Les Sables under mainsail.
This was the first round the world race victory for the 73-year-old, who also set a new record for the oldest skipper to sail solo non-stop around the globe. He had led the solo race for almost its entirety, and finished with a margin of over 300 miles ahead of 2nd-placed Mark Slats.
Both he and his yacht, the Rustler 36 Matmut, appeared in excellent health after seven months of non-stop sailing. Van Den Heede was in high spirits on arrival, leading the crowd in song on the pontoons, and cracking jokes throughout the press conference. He gave no impression of being particularly tired or unsteady on his landlegs, but did say that he was looking forward to a bath, a steak and a beer – in that order.
First impressions of Matmut, meanwhile, were that the Rustler was in surprisingly good condition – there were no obvious barnacles (which have so plagued other Golden Globe competitors) on the hull, the deck was not green, the topsides were shiny. A little growth on the transom and some lines threaded around the port first spreader were the only hint of what the yacht and her skipper had been through.
The Golden Globe started on July 1 2018 with 18 entrants – of which just four are now still racing – and the hugely experienced Van Den Heede was among the front-runners from the outset. After fellow French skipper and early race leader Philippe Peche retired, Van Den Heede built an almost unassailable lead at the Cape of Good Hope.
While the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans saw multiple retirements and yachts rolled, dismasted and abandoned, Van Den Heede arrived at the mandatory pit stop in Hobart virtually unscathed. Matmut by then had a small leak to one porthole, but was otherwise standing up well to the rigours of prolonged Southern Ocean racing.
Before the start, Van Den Heede, together with his shore manager Lionel Régnier, had ensured Matmut was one of the most thoroughly prepared yachts in the race – including a shortened mast and all-new rigging and sails, additional watertight bulkheads, and upgraded deck gear.
But in November, in the middle of the South Pacific, Van Den Heede was knocked down in 65-knot winds and 11m seas. Although the mast held, a connecting bolt which attached the lower shrouds on the port side of the mast was damaged, leaving Van Den Heede unable to tension his rigging. He effected a temporary repair, initially planning to make for Chile to fix it, before deciding to continue racing, re-rigging ropes to support the shroud as he went – he climbed the mast seven times.
At today’s press conference he recalled: “For three days I thought about how to save the boat and so I ran off course. I started to plan my stopover in Chile … and then I said to myself: the mast is so… damn damn damn! I thought I was trying. We did have makeshift rigs, which were mandatory on board.
“Until then I have never abandoned a single race. But I admit that climbing a mast is no longer ok at my age. I climbed seven times! The worst thing was trying to undo the pins. It’s not easy in a workshop on land, but six meters high is a little bit ‘Fort Boyard’ [like the Crystal Maze]!”
Original Golden Globe winner Robin Knox-Johnston and race organiser Don McIntyre welcoming in the winner Jean-Luc Van Den Heede
With Van Den Heede having to nurse Matmut up the Atlantic, especially on port tack, Dutch sailor Mark Slats was able to reduce his lead from nearly 2,000 miles to less than 100. In mid-January the tracker was showing the theoretical advantage at just 49 miles, although Van Den Heede was better placed to extract himself from the Azores High system.
But Van Den Heede was able to reassert his lead through the final weeks, and despite a challenging Biscay crossing that brought a final test of 50-knot winds and 7m seas, arrived safely into Les Sables this morning just ahead of the gale force conditions which began battering the Atlantic town as Van Den Heede spoke to the waiting crowds and press.
The race win sees Van Den Heede complete his sixth full circumnavigation (he has started 10 times) in the ‘retro’ around the world race which set off last July to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Golden Globe.
The 2018-19 Golden Globe Race required skippers to recreate many of the limitations of the original around the world challenge, including no modern navigational aids, which made this Van Den Heede’s slowest ever circumnavigation at 212 days. Nevertheless, his Rustler 36 was a full 100 days faster than Robin Knox-Johnston’s original circumnavigation, the first ever single-handed non-stop around the world, in Suhaili.
This is also Van Den Heede’s first round the world race victory. He holds the record for the fastest east-west circumnavigation, set in 2004 at 122 days, and has twice returned to Les Sables d’Olonne to stand on the podium of the Vendee Globe (3rd in 1990, 2nd in 1994). He also finished 2nd in the 1986 BOC Challenge Around Alone Race and 3rd in the 1995 BOC.
Despite the downpours and biting cold, the people of Les Sables turned out to welcome Van Den Heede home, lining the famous channel and waiting patiently in the rain to cheer his victory. He is a true local hero, and lives in a seafront apartment in the famous Vendée town.
Would he do it again? “After my second Vendée Globe, I said no, I will not do it again. Then after my four world tours, I thought it was over for me. Then I did it the other way and broke the record (122 days).
“Now I will not sail around the world unless someone makes a great thing that still interests me… But hey, no, I don’t plan to go around the world again. That said, my boat is for sale and I can do coaching… ”
Second placed Mark Slats is due to arrive on Friday, 1 February. He initially planned to put into La Coruna to shelter from the storm conditions sweeping Biscay, but sent a message by YellowBrick tracker today “HEADING FOR LSDO [Les Sables d’Olonne]. WEATHER SEEMS TO BE BETTER AND I AM HUNGRY”
We’ll have a full report on the Golden Globe Race in the April issue of Yachting World, on sale in March.
How to transit the Panama Canal in your yacht - preparation, costs, top tips and more from Behan Gifford for a smooth crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean
Cape Horn sailors and ditch diggers sacrificed all to make the path between the Atlantic and Pacific easier for the rest of us. It is a surreal situation to find yourself floating in a small yacht alongside a giant ship in a box of water 25m above sea level. Entering the canal was thrilling, stressful, and awkward. Descending the last lock was euphoric. The Panama Canal is a gem to treasure.
Considering the alternative routes, the canal is a blink between oceans. Yet a smooth transit benefits from advance planning. Our research began about three months in advance after we learned how seasonal congestion can increase the waiting time from arrival in Colón to an assigned transit date. Most of the year, four to six days is typical. During the high season from late January through May, six to 20 days is the range from completion of measurement and fee payment until an assigned canal transit date. For South Pacific-bound boats, December until mid-January is a sweet spot for minimal delay.
The slowdown escalates with the arrival of the World ARC rally. Having waved the fleet off in Colombia we decided to spend a few weeks of leisurely sailing through the turquoise waters of Panama’s Guna Yala instead of adding to the spike in transiting vessels. Hiring an agent was our answer to first staying in tune with the length of the delay, then having an advocate who could help us find a slot to get through sooner during the peak-season waiting period.
We arrived in Colón, Panama, followed by blustery tradewinds and rolling seas that finally abated behind the canal zone’s massive breakwater. Mooring options are few on the Caribbean side of the canal: there are a couple of designated areas for anchoring among the commercial stacks and cargo ships, but they come with security risks and limited options for going ashore. Boats waiting longer than a few days often sail either to nearby Portobelo or further afield to the Guna Yala (San Blas islands) or Bocas del Toro. The lone mooring option on the Caribbean side is Shelter Bay Marina, where we berthed our Stevens 47 Totem to await transit.
Step one: Get your boat measured
Our agent, Erick Galvez with Centenario, met us shortly after we tied up in Shelter Bay to confirm the process. A friendly face at the dock and perfect English softened the news of delays. You have to go through measurement and payment first before entering the ACP system to get a transit date assigned – a transit date cannot be reserved in advance.
Galvez accepted our payment and scheduled an Admeasurer (measurements for transit are only done by an official representative of the Panama Canal Authority, or ACP) for the next day. If you choose to do paperwork yourself, it’s a call to the Admeasurer’s office (English is spoken by all canal officials) to arrange a time and location for your boat’s measurement.
Our assigned transit date meant two weeks in the marina, but Erick’s efforts sourced multiple opportunities for earlier slots. In the end doing rigging jobs for Pacific-bound vessels sweetened the deal of a longer stay.
Heavy duty fenders are essential for rafting up
Step two: Pay canal fees
Galvez took care of payment as part of his agent services, providing a receipt outlining fees. If you’re organising your own paperwork, the Admeasurer provides a form which you take to Citibank and pay. The biggest variable is based on the size of your boat. Under 50ft, the transit toll is $800. For boats 50-80ft, the fee is $1,300. Length is a true ‘length overall’ including bowsprit, pulpits, davits, etc. Totem’s documentation shows our LOA at 46ft 8in but we exceeded 50ft when measured from the front of our anchor to dinghy davits. Deflating the dinghy edged us just below the 50ft mark of the Admeasurer’s indisputable tape.
In addition to the ACP charges, a buffer fee of nearly $900 is due. This is a bond to cover potential fines or additional charges which could be incurred by missing an assigned slot, being too slow, needing a water taxi for line handlers, or other events. An agent covers the buffer fee for you.
For do-it-yourself transiters, the fee (like other official canal tolls) can be paid by credit card, in cash, or bank wire transfer at Citibank along with other standard fees. The buffer will be reimbursed after a successful canal transit is completed.
Our all-in cost to transit the canal (including non-canal specific formalities) was a little over $2,000: this included visas, cruising permit, and clearance fees. It’s a lot of money, but Cape Horn and the North West Passage present inconvenient alternatives and the necessary gear would have set us back more than that!
Every step of the process with Canal authorities was above board, the only flaw being a port captain in Colón who claimed an error in our original entry formalities required a $20 fee to correct. As it was one hour from our scheduled departure, we were stuck without any option to dispute it – delaying transit could incur an ACP fine. It is one of the only times in our decade of cruising we’ve knowingly paid an ‘unofficial fee’.
The new Agua Clara/Cocoli looks were opened in 2016 for the largest shipping, but yachts and smaller vessels still use the smaller Gatun/Miraflores locks
Key Costs:
Transit toll < 50ft, $800; 50ft+, $1,300
Inspection $54
Security $130
Agent $350-500
Line handlers$100/person (or seek volunteers from other transiters)
Lines/fenders $50-$250
Fender return $12
Cruising permit $197
From the Caribbean, the Bridge of the Americas marks the gateway to the Pacific Ocean
Step three: Organise transit logistics
Four line handlers are compulsory aboard, and four lines meeting canal transit specifications are required. You’ll also want robust fenders.
An agent will organise all of these, or you can source them locally yourself. The morning VHF net, marina bulletin board, regional Facebook groups, and the cruiser’s Coconut Telegraph will connect you with local suppliers.
Line handlers are commonly recruited from other cruising boats. Joining a boat to transit is excellent preparation for taking your boat through, and a way to pay it forward when it’s time to find your own handlers.
If you don’t find volunteers, experienced Panamanians can be hired for around $100. Whoever comes aboard, make sure they know how to tie a proper knot and have basic boat sense, and will be ready to work instead of take pictures.
Lock lines must be must be a minimum of 125ft long and between 7⁄8-11⁄2in (23-38mm) diameter. While most boats will gravitate towards standard fenders, the budget option of plastic-wrapped tyres are a fine alternative for protecting your hull from the rough concrete wall or your lock neighbour.
Final preparations to ensure a smooth transit include anticipating meals, snacks, and beverages for the duration.
Transit typically takes two days, the night spent tied to a large buoy just outside the channel in Lake Gatun.
In addition to line handlers, your crew will include at least one canal advisor (occasionally there’s a trainer/trainee pair). Hot meals are expected by the advisers, as is bottled water and cold Coke. Snacks should be available for the duration.
Step four: Time to go!
“Cristobal Signal Station, Cristobal Signal Station, this is sailing vessel Totem.” After weeks of anticipation and planning, this VHF call to inform the port entry co-ordinator of Totem’s location marks the start of our canal journey. We were assigned a one-day transit: the sky was just beginning to lighten when Totem’s advisor, Roy, was dropped off by water taxi. Roy proved to be a significant asset for ensuring a safe transit. Cruising boats are most commonly rafted in pairs or a trio to transit the canal as a block, and Roy directed our raft’s formation. Totem was designated centre boat (making Roy the lead advisor for the raft) based on propulsion ability.
We knew we liked Roy when he dryly commented, “Perfect, now we have big fenders to protect us,” upon seeing two aluminum-hulled Ovni cruising boats approach to raft up.
The canal is roughly 37 miles long, most of which is the waterway of Lake Gatun and Culebra Cut between the trios of locks at each end. Entering from the Caribbean side, three sequential chambers of the Gatun locks lift vessels up around 90ft. Howler monkeys in the jungle nearby greeted sunrise as we approached the first lock behind a large ro-ro car carrier.
Each yacht has an advisor (dropped off by water taxi) and each raft has a lead advisor
When the lock doors close and water level changes, line handlers tension (or loosen) the lines according to the adviser’s instructions. It’s harder than it sounds and requires close attention. One of the boats next to us was inattentive with easing and caused the raft to shift, a potentially dangerous situation for the boats. The crew realised and scrambled to secure the line, and twice nearly caught hands in the process. So much better to keep focused on the role!
Our raft remained intact through the first three locks, then separated to cross Lake Gatun and proceed through the cut towards the Pacific side locks. This was the longest part of the transit, a time for us to relax and enjoy a meal. March is dry season; we could relax in the cockpit for this part of the journey, learning from our adviser about his experiences and appreciating the sights: our history buffs anticipated seeing the crane named Titan that was taken as a Second World War prize, and the animal lovers aboard worked at spotting birds, monkeys, and crocodiles (a 3m croc swam alongside us in the Culebra Cut).
The adviser isn’t the captain – you’re still responsible for boat and crew –but our number one takeaway to transit safely is that it’s essential to work tightly with the adviser. They understand the lock conditions: some instructions may seem odd, like directions to turn the boat to point towards a lock wall, but it’s for a reason. There could be a four-knot current deflected by the wall, and their goal is to prevent the raft from spinning out.
Leaving the Miraflores locks behind, Totem motored towards the Bridge of the Americas and the Pacific Ocean. This marked our return to the body of water where our journey began, the last leg of our circumnavigation, and the final weeks aboard as a family of five before our eldest heads for college. A momentous event, suitably witnessed by a monumental creation.
For the Totem family, transiting the Panama Canal marked the closing stage of a round the world voyage
Tips for a smooth canal transit
• Keep decks clear. Move or stow items to keep the area around bow and stern cleats as clear as possible.
• Ensure all fairleads are fair to start. Re-leading takes time you may not have if currents start spinning the raft.
• Stern lines took the most load. Consider running them to a cockpit winch with the stern cleat as a guide to provide better control and mechanical advantage.
• Prep line handlers well. Hold a crew meeting. Make sure they understand how critical it is to be alert: they should not expect to use a GoPro or post on social media during transit.
• Repeat instructions from the adviser. It confirms you have heard and are responding to the action called for. It may serve to clarify the adviser’s intentions when issuing rapid instructions.
• Engage your adviser. Talk through manoeuvres in advance, asking for clarification on next steps and understanding actions they will want you to take before they need to happen.
• PAY ATTENTION! The lead adviser (who is not necessarily on your boat) may call for rapid engine and/or steering changes.
Thomas Coville recently unveiled the newest, and possibly most radical, Ultime design yet - we found out more about the unique boat and its extraordinary skipper
DCIM100MEDIADJI_0030.JPG
This week solo yachtsman Thomas Coville opened the doors to the build of his Sodebo Ultim 3, the newest Ultime trimaran and a conceptually very different design to those seen in the class so far. Before the unveiling, I was lucky enough to spend time with Coville at a special event in Norway for Helly Hansen, talk to him about the new design, and get a little insight into the equally extraordinary man who will be skippering it.
Thomas Coville spent nearly a decade of his life pursuing the solo around the world record, finally smashing it on Christmas Day 2016, when he sailed back into Brest having completed his circumnavigation in 49d 3h 7m 38s.
Coville had demolished Francis Joyon’s record of 57 days, which had stood since 2008. But record chasing is a cruel sport and Coville’s hard-fought accolade of being the fastest man around the world was snatched out of his hands within the year, when Francois Gabart raised the bar to an incredible 42 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes and 35 seconds in December 2017.
Photo Yvan Zedda
Having achieved the one thing that had dominated his entire life since his first aborted attempt in 2008, you might think Coville would have allowed himself a moment of quiet satisfaction. Actually, he says, it was the opposite.
“When I arrived in 49 days, as an athlete, the thing which was in my mind is that I wanted to achieve something else, because I wanted to kill the idea that I’ve done it by luck.”
After victory, he says, the most difficult thing is to win again. To prove (and it’s not clear who he’s trying to prove anything to, but one suspects mostly to himself) that there was not one iota of fluke in what he had just achieved.
“So six months later we launched the boat back in the water and I went to New York to beat that bloody record, crossing the north Atlantic in 4 days and 11 hours.
“And then I could release,” he breathes out deeply in recollection. “Yes! It was not only by luck!”
The Atlantic record was also a foretaste of the kind of speeds to come. He crossed from Ambrose Light, New York to Lizard Point, UK in a breath-taking 4 days and 11h, sailing at an inhuman average speed of 28.35 knots over 3039 miles.
Sustaining speeds of 30-plus knots is the parallel universe in which solo record sailors now reside. Gabart’s record was sailed at an average pace of 27.2 knots over six weeks.
Coville’s new Ultime is designed, like all the trimarans in this space-race class, to push the boundaries of what is possible yet further. And to achieve this, Coville took a unique approach.
Thomas Coville is not just a remarkably skilled and motivated sailor. Besides being erudite, witty and multilingual, he comes across as boundlessly curious about everything and everyone he meets. When it came to designing his new Ultime, he embraced that open curiosity and decided to have a yacht designed – literally – by committee.
“When I came back from my last round the world trip I went to my team and I said, if we want to build a new boat tomorrow, it won’t be made by only one architect, it’s too complicated. The future is, for me, collaborative.
“It’s going to be with that new generation of architects, and we’re going to find some solutions from cars, from planes, from Austria, Switzerland, New Zealand.
“So it’s open thinking, very collaborative – and we’re going to probably going to break some rules about the French way of thinking, the French way of naval architecture, but this is the only way if you want to make big process,” he tells me.
The design team is clearly impressive – besides long-term members of Coville’s team, like his technical director Elie Canivenc, weather router Jean-Luc Nelias, and Jean-Matthieu Bourgeon, who was in charge of R&D on the innovative Hydroptère, it also included the talented VPLP team, who designed the floats and forward beam, and Martin Fischer, the German designer of the GC32 catamaran, who created the foils.
The build was equally spread out – the central hull, floats and cockpit made by Multiplast, the front beam by CDK, the foils and rear beam by Persico in Italy.
The design group included talent from Ben Ainslie Racing, Oracle, and Luna Rossa America’s Cup teams. “It was quite funny because they’ve been working against each other for so many years and suddenly they’re on the same design team. They were looking at each other like cats and dogs!” Coville recalls.
Latest renderings showing the low boom and forward cockpit (the design was kept top secret until it’s unveiling this week)
But they also brought in expertise from motorsport and aviation, and adopted a policy that no idea was too crazy to consider.
The game change came when they looked into moving the heaviest part of the structure, the companionway and cuddy, radically far forward (it’s an idea Coville says came from discussions about a Porsche victory in the Le Mans 24-Hour Race victory, which was partly due to a decision to move the engine and shift the car’s centre of gravity).
Coville says the central pod weight amounted to 25% of the weight of the hull, and they have shifted it to forward of the mast, nearly over the centre of gravity of the boat. The effect of this is that it lowers the pitching moment down some 2 metres.
The radical move ended much of the battle to save weight aloft. “You can’t imagine how much money we are ready to spend to move the gravity centre of a new boat like this down just 1cm. it’s more than €10,000 per kilo,” he points out.
The other knock-on effect is that it allows the boom to drop to almost flush with the deck, which radically changes the hydrodynamic efficiency of the sail. Coville estimates that it reduces airflow disturbance and increases the efficiency of the whole sail area by some 20%. The rig height can also be reduced.
“And then – today we’ve got T-rudders to put the boat [back] on its nose because the foils, most of the time, are pushing too much,” he adds. “Suddenly, you align all of these [forces] and you don’t need to have such big rudders, so you reduce also the drag on the water.
“So everything, by one change, makes the spirals suddenly better.”
Trail-blazing skipper Tracy Edwards is back, with her next big project: The Maiden Factor. We found out why...
Sportspeople – and sailors are no exception here – can be a little… one-dimensional. That single focus which makes competitive athletes so successful often comes with a very straightforward mentality.
Tracy Edwards is the polar opposite. She is wholly, entertainingly (no doubt sometimes maddeningly) human, in all its contradictions. She has learned to be tough, yet cries ‘at the drop of a hat’, she can be warm and easy to talk to, but at times has closed ranks entirely. She’s no-nonsense, with a dramatic streak.
She went from teen tearaway to national hero to near recluse before she was 30. She skippered a multi-million pound catamaran, and was spectacularly bankrupted.
Edwards and her Maiden teams achieved incredible things in sailing, and paved the way for others to achieve more. She inspires unwavering loyalty among some of her team, but has also fallen out with more people in the sport than most. She is not a woman whose life has ever followed a linear path and, aged 57, she still isn’t backing away from controversy.
A life lived to the full
Tracy Edwards was born in 1962. Her mother, Patricia, was a remarkable woman in her own right – a former ballet dancer who had toured the world, she was a go-kart driver in her spare time, a rarity in the 1960s.
After her father died when Tracy was 10, the family moved to Wales and her mother remarried. Badly bullied at secondary school, and subject to an abusive relationship with her volatile stepfather, Edwards became an archetypal teen rebel. Following years of bunking off school, underage drinking, and run-ins with the police, she was eventually expelled aged 15.
What followed next is well known sailing lore. The teenage Edwards ran away to Greece, worked in a bar in a marina, then joined a motoryacht crew as stewardess. Despite suffering crippling seasickness, she discovered a love of the ocean.
Aboard Maiden in the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race
Edwards moved from motor to sailing yacht, sailing across the Atlantic on her first passage under canvas, learning to navigate on the return crossing. She worked on a yacht chartered for King Hussein of Jordan, who became a lifelong supporter. She bumped into Whitbread Round the World Race crews on her travels and became fascinated by the challenge.
She argued her way onto the crew of a 1985 Whitbread entry as cook. And then, famously, put together the first all-female Whitbread campaign with Maiden (sponsored by Royal Jordanian Airlines), coming 2nd in class and winning two legs in the 1989-90 race.
She was heralded as a national hero, and hounded by the press. Her private life became tabloid gossip fodder (Edwards has divorced twice), and she disappeared from the public eye for a couple of years, rearing horses on a smallholding in South Wales.
Then she bounced back, put together an all-female team to try and win the Jules Verne trophy with the maxi catamaran Royal & Sun Alliance in 1998, before being dismasted in the Southern Ocean. She had a daughter, and moved into campaign management with Maiden II. The team was skippered by Brian Thompson, Helena Darvelid and Adrienne Cahalan, and set multiple world records.
4 Feb 1998: The 92ft catamaran, Royal and SunAlliance sets off on her attempt at the Jules Verne Challenge Photo: Julian Herbert/Allsport/Getty Images
Australian navigator Cahalan joined the Jules Verne campaign without hesitation. “When Tracy got in touch with me I was on a plane in about two days!” she recalls.
“Tracy is a good leader and she doesn’t micromanage.
“I know she is controversial, but working within her team I’ve always found it really a fabulous opportunity, and she’s always surrounded by a great team of people who enjoy sailing with her. Look at the personalities she’s managed and the great success she’s had, getting the best out of them. That’s what she’s good at.”
Tracy Edwards, Sam Davies and Emma Richards at the launching of the Maiden Two Project in 2002. Photo: Jamie McDonald/Getty Images
Edwards then organised the first ever round the world race to start from the Middle East, the infamous Oryx Quest. Four giant multihulls took part in 2005 in a glitzy event, thanks to a £38million multi-race sponsorship deal from the state of Qatar.
But despite the huge sums promised (the $1million 1st prize was then the biggest ever cash award for a sailing race), legend has it that the golden envelopes handed out at the prizegiving were empty.
Qatar had refused to pay up. Edwards, who had already been in financial trouble following the purchase of Maiden II, was forced into bankruptcy with £8million personal debts. She disappeared from the public eye almost entirely. And now, she’s back.
The yacht Maiden is the reason why Tracy Edwards has invited me into her home – and current mission command – after a decade of exile from the sailing community. Immediately after the Whitbread, Maiden was sold – first to an owner who cherished her, and then, like poor Ginger the hackney carriage horse in Black Beauty, she was sold on, falling further and further into ignominy. Eventually the yacht was discovered, rusting and abandoned in the Seychelles, in 2014.
Maiden was in a very sorry state when shipped back to the UK from the Seychelles, with severe hull corrosion, and needed a complete refurbishment
Edwards, with typical impetuosity, announced immediately that she would rescue and restore her. There was the small question, though, of what to do next. It was Mackenna, Edwards’ now adult daughter, who suggested using the boat as a vehicle to raise funds and awareness for girls’ education.
The ongoing costs of the yacht will be covered by sponsorship, paid-for crew berths, and hospitality. The fundraising element of the project is wholly separate, with all charitable funds raised going to The Maiden Foundation, which then partners with small charities working to improve girls’ access to education through focussing on literacy and mentoring.
The yacht has begun a two-year world tour, raising funds in different territories as she goes. It is a significant undertaking, and has attracted some seriously big names: Dee Caffari will skipper for a period, as will Wendy Tuck, the winner of the last Clipper Round the World Race.
A legacy project
For Edwards, the Maiden restoration and tour brings together many things she set out to achieve in sailing – and since – to do with female empowerment. It is also a rehabilitation of both herself and the vintage yacht.
“I’d never really seen this as a sailing project,” she tells me. “Which I know sounds a bit weird because we’re doing a two-year tour sailing around the world. But that’s almost superfluous for me: this is about girls’ education and Maiden’s legacy. And it’s also not letting Qatar be the last thing I ever did, if I’m brutally honest.”
The fallout from the Qatar debacle was savage. “I lost everything,” Edwards explains. After the race, she was held in the country for a month. “They took away my passport. I couldn’t get an exit visa. It was terrifying.
“So, they didn’t pay us and when I threatened legal action, things got very nasty, very quickly. I got everyone out of the country. Mack was five and she flew out with my cousin. I stayed behind to fight the legal battle and suddenly found out I couldn’t leave. They bugged my phones. I was followed, threatened.”
Edwards had borrowed heavily against the contract, and when the money failed to materialise, bankruptcy was inevitable. The order came through on her 43rd birthday, and she had to sell the family home immediately.
“The worse thing for me was putting my mum into a home, which I still find quite hard to talk about because she was living with us and she was disabled, and that’s where she died.” Edwards recalls with emotion. “But you know what, I had a disabled mother and a five-year-old daughter, so what do women do? They get on with it.”
She decided to move to London. “We literally stuck a pin in the map and it landed on the Duke’s Head in Putney. So, we rented a tiny, little terraced house just down the road.”
The infamous Oryx Cup 2005 Photo: Barry Pickthall/ PPL
As a first priority Edwards, a single parent, needed to earn money. Since her sporting celebrity days she had been an ambassador for the NSPCC and was invited to visit the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. Edwards was fascinated by their work, and when offered a job running a project for them she jumped at the chance.
“Can you raise £500,000 to bring 120 teenagers to London for a conference?” she recalls. “I can do that. God, I loved it. I was part of helping to write the 2009 resolution on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. How awesome is that? I would never have done that if all the bad things hadn’t happened.”
Edwards, who had dropped out of secretarial college after just a couple of weeks, now found herself working a desk job. “I don’t take well to bureaucracy,” she admits, “So that was hard.”
Inspired to learn more, she went to university to study psychology. “I started when I was 47 and graduated when I was 50. My mother was delighted – finally, she said, you have an education!”
After graduating she worked on an internet safety scheme for children, but was starting to look for her next challenge. “Then, right in the middle of me going: ‘Oh, God, what am I going to do next?’ I had the email saying, do you know who owns your boat, Maiden?” She mimes thanking the heavens.
Maiden has been fully restored and is currently on a round-the-world tour raising funds and awareness for girls’ education initiatives Photo: Kurt Arrigo
The approach came wholly out of the blue – Edwards had cut herself off from yacht racing, not even sailing for pleasure. “I get really seasick anyway,” she points out.
“I often get invited on day sails, but I say no, because for me it’s a day of misery.”
“And I was angry. I was angry with some people in the sailing world. I was angry that people hadn’t asked for my side of the story before judging me, and I didn’t have the energy to fight at the time. So I had literally walked away.”
Maiden eventually returned to Hamble on the south coast, where Edwards had originally refitted her before the 1989 Whitbread. It was both the natural place for the yacht to go and slightly uncomfortable for Tracy personally.
“Going back to Hamble was very strange because I don’t have hugely fond memories. But then [we were] actually welcomed back with open arms into the fold. That was quite special because I didn’t quite know what to expect.”
Tracy Edwards at the nav station of ‘Maiden’ in the 1989-90 Whitbread Race Photo: Tanja Visser/PPL
Full disclosure
Edwards is also back to her characteristic pull-no-punches style of operating. There are several “Oh God, don’t print that” moments as we get drawn into discussing politics.
She still sees it as her place to call out sexism in sailing, and says she ‘cried with joy’ when Wendy Tuck and Nikki Henderson took 1st and 2nd in the last Clipper Race.
She was part of a group that objected to a video the Scallywag team made during the last Volvo (featuring puerile jokes about how to treat a male crew’s crotch rash), along with Dawn Riley and Emma Westmacott. The group took advice from Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson on the employment law implications.
“We formed a committee. What did they call us? Old has-been hags, that’s what we were called by some of the guys in the Volvo. The rumour was that we were doing it because we were pissed off to be out of sailing and had something to prove.
“I don’t care anymore. I so don’t care what people say.”
“Because we love our sport and we want to see it succeed and we want it to be diverse and wonderful. We don’t want it to be male, pale and stale, which is what it is.”
Cahalan, who was onboard with her when Royal & Sun Alliance dismasted, says: “Tracy never shies away from responsibility, it’s never anybody else’s fault.”
Edwards is currently writing the third instalment in her autobiography, and is also the subject of a revelatory new documentary film, Maiden (see below).
Maiden returning triumphant to Southampton in 1990 after two class wins in the Whitbread Round the World Race
One comment leaps out from the documentary, when Edwards recalls what her mother said when she mooted the idea of an all-female campaign. “You could do it if you stuck to it,” Patricia Edwards had told her daughter, “But you’ve never stuck to anything.”
Maiden succeeded the first time around because Tracy Edwards had something to prove – not just that women could race around the world, but that the teen rebel who’d been told she’d never amount to anything could pull off something audacious.
There’s a definite sense that this new project is about proving the critics wrong once again.
It comes with its own risks (the refit proved complex, and teething problems saw the yacht put in a couple of unscheduled stops on her first leg). But Edwards says she is no more risk averse than she used to be.
“Someone has to take the risk. This stuff has got to be done and I have always felt very strongly that you have to stand up and be counted. And I have never been afraid of standing up and being counted.”
The Maiden documentary
The film opens with a painfully young and nervous Edwards introducing herself as the skipper of Maiden, and traces the arc of how the Whitbread campaign came together through the race itself to their final triumphant return to Southampton.
“[Before filming] the girls called me and said: ‘Is this truth time, or is this like the first documentary where we just go everything’s wonderful?’” recalls Edwards, “I went no, it’s the truth. So they were like well, you might not like some of the stuff we’re going to say.
“Time does soften the memories and the documentary reminded me how awful I’d been, how angry I’d been a lot of the time and how difficult I was to deal with, and the girls were very upfront about that. That was quite difficult to watch. But it needed to be on record.
“It’s a very raw account. There’s no gloss. It’s us telling it like it is and then some amazing old footage.”
The documentary is a thoroughly engaging watch. Although before the Whitbread the Maiden crew were at pains to disprove critics who said girls couldn’t form a cohesive crew, there were deep tensions in the team. It culminated with Edwards and watch leader Marie-Claude Kieffer (née Heys) explosively falling out, and Kieffer leaving. Not all the Maiden crew were involved in the documentary.
Dawn Riley joined the Maiden crew knowing ‘absolutely nothing’ about Edwards. At the time Riley was working as professional sailor and Edwards, who had no background in helming racing yachts, wasn’t remotely on her radar.
“To be fair, at that time I don’t think anybody else on the boat had the weather routing skills she had,”
recalls Riley.
In the film journalists also discuss the appallingly sexist things they wrote about the Maiden campaign, and how they were proved wrong as the female crew delivered back to back leg wins.
The Maiden documentary was released across the UK on March 8 – for showing times see www.maiden.film It has also been well-received at film festivals around the world.
This profile feature appeared in the March 2019 issue of Yachting World, which also includes an exclusive onboard look at the Maiden restoration.
Immense and diverse, the expanse of the Pacific offers some of the finest tradewinds cruising you’ll ever experience and a wealth of friendly cultures. Dan Bower explains how to prepare and where to sail
Sailing across the Pacific is the adventure of a lifetime, but proper preparation is vital. Photos: Tor Johnson / Dan Bower / Olivier Parent / Alamy
You can lose a lot of friends when you’re sailing across the Pacific. After the first couple of photos you post posing next to giant tortoises, swimming with hammerhead sharks your popularity will wane. You’re in the Galapagos among the sea lions, enjoying the sun, while your friends are in the midst of a European winter. And that’s just the start of a voyage of a lifetime across the world’s largest ocean.
A cruising sailor’s blog, newsfeed or Instagram account from the Pacific is an onslaught of images and videos of every flavour of paradise from the green, dramatic and rugged landscape of the Marquesas with its huge waterfalls, the coral atolls and blue lagoons of the Tuamotus, to Tahiti and Bora Bora, the volcanic eruptions and cauldrons of lava in Vanuatu, the breaching whales of the Coral Sea… Enough already, as they say!
The Pacific Ocean is by far and away the most diverse for cruising. The scenery and culture varies between each country but everywhere there is a welcoming and genuine hospitality – and the sailing is excellent.
What to expect when sailing across the Pacific
When examining planning charts and contemplating sailing the Pacific Ocean, it looks huge. It is 8,000 nautical miles from Panama to Australia (you can cross the Atlantic in 2,200 miles) and, because of the scale of the charts and the size of the islands, it appears to have little land. But zoom in on the chartplotter and the islands and island groups are plentiful.
You must make one very long crossing, the 3,000 miles from the Galapagos Islands to the Marquesas, but this is usually fast sailing with a favourable current bringing the passage time down to one similar to a transatlantic crossing. We’ve made this Pacific passage three times, and we reckon it’s easier sailing than on an average ARC. There has been less swell, more regular winds and no squalls, and after you arrive in the Marquesas you’re rarely more than four days from your next destination.
It pays to pick your route carefully
With an eye on the weather there are plenty of protected anchorages throughout the Pacific, and there are all-weather ports in most island groups.
But sailing across the Pacific is not without its challenges. There are tricky coral passes to negotiate, and it helps to speak French, but time spent preparing and planning can help make it plain sailing and, in my experience, the cruise of a lifetime.
Sailing through the Panama Canal
When you enter the Pacific from the Panama Canal you can feel this is a different ocean. The blue, warm waters of the Caribbean are replaced with the decidedly chilly, much darker nutrient-rich ones brought from Antarctica borne by the Humboldt Current. Its favourable effects can be felt under your keel as you head towards the Galapagos, and make for a bracing first swim. The 6m tidal range can also come as a bit of a shock.
Choosing your route
The passage to the Galapagos should pose no major problems but you will probably have to sail through The Doldrums and you will cross the equator. The national park in the Galapagos is sensitive to foreign species and so you can expect to have all your fresh food removed when you arrive. The authorities also don’t like any growth on your hull – they can turn you away or make you go out of the park to have your hull cleaned (an 80-mile round trip), so it’s worth pressure washing in Panama and getting all through-hull fittings thoroughly cleaned if you’re unsure.
Brochure cruising in the turquoise, sheltered water of a typical French Polynesia atoll
From here you depart on the main passage to the Marquesas Islands and ahead the expanse of French Polynesia opens up. This ocean leg is the Pacific Ocean proper, with approximately 3,000 miles of what should be tradewind sailing at its best, a mile-melting broad reach and an equatorial current beneath you. Depending on the position of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) you may be able to sail down the rhumb line or, if not, head a bit further south for more stable conditions.
Arriving in the Marquesas is a pleasurable culture shock and is as dramatic socially as it is scenically. Away from the small towns it is a great place to cruise to quiet bays with beautiful beaches, trade odds and ends with the locals for the most delicious fruit and explore the interior with its wonderful waterfalls and archaeological remains.
Once you’ve had your fill of green and lush beauty (yes, it rains) and have filled the boat with Pomello grapefruit, mangoes, coconuts and pineapples, it’s time to push off to the Tuamotus. The hardest part about this leg is deciding where to go – there are 80 atolls to choose from.
Coral snorkelling is a must
Sailing the South Pacific
On arrival you need to get the tide times right to navigate a narrow pass, but the reward is a calm, clean and incredibly blue lagoon. Snorkelling is the highlight here and the lagoons are home to the prettiest and most diverse coral I have ever seen. The adventurous can drift snorkel through the passes on an incoming tide, and you can effortlessly glide amongst sharks and large fish feeding.
The Marquesas and Tuamotus are, in my opinion, the best bits of French Polynesia. It is tempting to rush off to the Society Islands (which include Tahiti, Moorea, Raiatea and Bora Bora) and tackle the inevitable jobs list, but most people regret it. The Society Islands have an interior like the Marquesas and lagoons like the Tuamotus, but neither are quite as good. However if you’re lured there by civilisation, Papeete is a city replete with a Carrefour supermarket, chandleries and most other things you could need. It can be a welcome stop to reprovision and attend to any outstanding jobs on the list.
Onwards from here you are never far from the next anchorage. Seas are gentle with long, lazy swells and, apart from the very rare trough reaching up from lows in the south, it is settled tradewind sailing. Now is the time to choose how long you wish to stay in the Pacific as that will dictate how much time you have on the way in order to make sure you’re in the right place for cyclone season.
It’s possible to make it to Australia and onwards if that’s your plan, but many cruisers fall in love with the region and cruise there for many years. If that is you, then it’s worth slowing down and enjoying more of what Tonga, Fiji and Vanuatu have to offer. We’ve done three tours of the South Pacific and would happily go back – in fact we might return in 2020.
Author Dan Bower meeting a friendly islander
Highlights of the Pacific crossing are Suwarrow, a delightful stop and a part of the larger chain of Cook Islands. Tonga, meanwhile, offers wonderful short-hop cruising. You cross the International Date Line on the approach so you’ll lose a day. Tonga is made up of three island groups, and the northern one, Vava’u, has protected waterways with lots of safe and straightforward anchorages, unspoilt bays and friendly locals. If you’re there at the right time you can even snorkel with the whales and their calves.
Fiji is a huge cruising area and you could happily spend a whole season here and not do it justice, but if you’re going to pass through quickly, be sure to research what you are looking to do or you’ll barely scratch the surface of these amazing islands.
You can experience the flavour of India in bustling towns, head off to deserted bays and beaches or visit the Fijian villages and take part in kava sessions with the local chief. You can visit 5-star resorts and go diving everyday, surf world famous breaks, kite surf or escape into the mountains. It is also a good place to get work done and it’s a popular place to hole up or haul out for the cyclone season, with good links to the outside world.
Vanuatu, with its amazing volcanoes and local people and customs, so far removed from our society, makes an interesting stopover. Make sure you leave plenty of time for exploring all the islands – the volcano on Ambrym is the best. It’s an incredible feeling looking deep into the earth seeing a boiling cauldron of lava; we felt like we were looking into hell itself. Be sure to get to know the locals and visit some festivals and feasts – you’ll be made most welcome and it will be an eye-opening experience. Vanuatu is reputably the happiest country on earth and, to be sure, everyone greets you with a smile.
Whether your onward destination is Asia, Australia or New Zealand it is hard to leave the Pacific behind, and for us nowhere else beats it for easy pleasant sailing, lovely people and the best underwater scenery.
Fresh local produce is one of many Pacific cruising delights
Preparations and practicalities
The big challenge of sailing in the Pacific is the remoteness, the distance from chandleries, supplies and expertise. If money is no object you can fly in pretty much anything and anyone, but for most people this is cost-prohibitive and realistically you can only expect to make repairs in Tahiti and Fiji.
The bigger issue is lost cruising time while repairs are made. Whether you’re on a rally or sailing independently you’ll likely have a schedule to keep. All this means boat preparation is key and you should replace anything suspect before you head off.
Consider that living systems are likely to see more use than usual, so take spares of water pumps, toilets and filters. Even new systems can fail so try to identify single point failures and build in redundancy for essential systems, for example, charging, refrigeration and watermaker.
Small marine generators are notoriously unreliable, so reduce your reliance with other means of charging. On passage we found the hydrogenerator to be invaluable. We also changed our 110V watermaker to a 12V one, meaning any excess power can be turned to water and we are not reliant on a generator.
Try to be as self-sufficient as possible, take time to understand your boat and systems and overhaul anything suspect. Carry a wide range of essential spares and materials for simple rigging repairs like rivets and thread repair.
Investing in new rigging gives for peace of mind, and it’s likely to be cheaper to replace everything at home rather than fix a few small issues on the way. Riggers advise that wire stays should be replaced at 35,000 miles – which is a circumnavigation – so if you’re going onwards round the world you probably need to do it at some point and that may as well be at home.
For sails, buy super-basic Dacron before you leave, as the UV and ocean sailing will kill anything exotic quickly.
Pacific marinas can be few and far between
Prepare for a huge amount of downwind sailing. Pad spreaders and have patches on sails and batten pockets to reduce wear. Pole fittings, gooseneck and vang attachments take quite a bit of punishment and can really slow you down if they break so consider upgrading any parts before you leave and keep the old as spares.
Communications become tricky as you’re often far away from wifi and phone signal for long periods of time. Your onboard comms can become the main system for staying in touch and receiving weather. Buying big bundles of satphone minutes works out cheaper.
SSB is good to have: you don’t have to be part of a rally to join in on cruiser nets to chat about weather, things to do or for advice. Local SIM cards for data are available in most places. Connections are not always great, but good enough for basic use.
Provisioning
You’re likely to spend around four months without seeing a shop bigger than your average newsagents, except in Tahiti which is madly expensive. It’s not often that you plan to spend so long away from a supermarket and since your comfort and contentment depends on the quality and variety of food that you eat, it pays to plan and provision in advance.
Reading up
We were often surprised how little research cruisers had done on their next destination. If you have a time constraint, having a plan before you arrive will give you more time to get out and explore. Buy your guidebooks and pilot books to read in advance – other great books for an overview are Paddling the Pacific (Paul Theroux), Getting Stoned with Savages (J. Maarten Troost) and An Island to Oneself (Tom Neale).
The next idyllic anchorage is never far away
Other cruisers’ blogs are a great source of information and there are compendiums available online written by other cruisers giving masses of practical information from local advice, to tours, restaurants and anchorages. Governments and yachting groups in French Polynesia, Tonga, Fiji and Vanuatu produce their own free cruising guides, which are well worth downloading. Pilot books for the Pacific tend to be somewhat out of date.
While in Fiji and Tonga, we became great fans of using satellite imagery to create charts. This proved to be essential in many places and generally just useful everywhere else. Some chart packages have a satellite overlay – ut usually just for the land – so it’s worth becoming familiar with how to make your own, or download them from cruisers’ networks.
Oh yes, and learn French.
About the author
Dan and Em Bower run Skyelark, an S&S-designed Skye 51 taking 12 guests. They are regulars on the ARC transatlantic rally, have taken part in the World ARC and cruised tens of thousands of miles while sailing across the Pacific. They wrote and presented our Bluewater Sailing Series, which gives hints and tips on ocean sailing, from downwind sails to fishing on board.
If you quit your job, could your skills pay for you to go sailing round the world? Elaine Bunting and Terysa Vanderloo explain how it can be done
This is the life... but how can you make a living off it? Photo: Amory Ross
Imagine escaping the daily routine of work, the long commute, the corporate life, the grey skies… What if you were paid to go sailing, or paid while you were sailing? Is that an impossible dream? Not any more.
A wave of people are turning their backs on traditional, linear careers and the long wait for financial freedom to take a break or go sailing indefinitely. They have decided to downsize, go travelling, perhaps volunteering, and live a simpler, freer life. But they are quite different to the impecunious sailing nomads of the 1960s and 1970s. These highly educated professionals are cruising in comparative comfort.
If you’re smart – and most of these thirtysomething and fortysomething digital natives are smart and skilled – life on board can be turned into a robust business model, one that offers quality family time, a better work/life balance, and maybe a more meaningful existence into the bargain.
If your aim is mainly to get a fat executive salary for being on a yacht you can get that too – join the superyacht industry. But make no mistake: that route is hard work with long hours and can be extremely limiting; you never get to make the important decisions about where you go or when.
So, for the purposes of this feature, we’re assuming ‘paid to go sailing’ means being master and commander of your own yacht, going where you please and (more or less) when you fancy.
Elayna Carausu (above) and her partner Riley Whitelum (below) have built up a huge following with their Sailing La Vagabonde lifestyle videos
Start a sailing vlog
The means of making money while cruising have diversified in recent years thanks principally to the rise of remote or agile working, and the success of fund-me platforms.
Creative work is being revalued via new platforms. If you haven’t yet explored Patreon, take a look. This is the principal fund-me platform being used by cruisers, and the most popular product is YouTube video logs or podcasts. Creators invite donors to pay according to a tiered structure – larger donations for some exclusive merchandise and engagement.
Some creators have established huge followings and make a surprisingly good living. One of the earliest and best of these is Sailing SV Delos, a core group of four very media-savvy people cruising on an Amel Super Maramu. They make nearly $14,000 a video from 1,800 paying donors, and can create up to four episodes a month.
Sailing La Vagabonde is another now famous vlog channel. Riley Whitelum’s and Elayna Carausu’s travel and lifestyle videos have a huge following and, with 1,800 paying patrons, they earn just shy of $10,000 per episode. They recently got a new yacht by leasing a new Outremer catamaran – this is a serious business.
Running your own sailing vlog isn’t all fun and games
These famous vloggers have spawned around 400 copycat channels, and some of these younger vloggers have serious financial commitments including hefty marine mortgages.
Video documentaries can pay, but it takes a long time to build up a following, requires a solid understanding of social media and intensive daily work on engagement – and it helps if you are young, fit and look spectacular in a bikini! A thick skin helps too – some online commentators are unkind.
As carefree as these videos might look, this can turn into a full-time job: the ‘adventures’ need storyboarding, shooting and a huge amount of editing time. If the episodes are frequent, you are also tied regularly to locations with good wi-fi/bandwidth.
Fund-me platforms are beginning to rejuvenate all kinds of creative art that digital media previously decimated. Patreon’s high earning ideas range from craft videos to a daily newsletter inspired by the Bible, and a US political podcast.
Perhaps some of your knowledge or work skills could be transferrable to an onboard life. Are you a teacher, a translator, a business coach, a designer or illustrator? Those skills can be marketed. Or you could work freelance to pay the bills.
We approached Cocos Keeling at first light and had to pick our way through the coral to approach the anchorage…
Generally, the more freedom and free time you’re after, the lower the potential income. But it can be possible to earn enough money to go sailing, and enjoy it.
Some of those we interviewed admit they work harder than they did in their old desk job, and for less money, but had much greater fulfillment and satisfaction. It’s important to weigh that up, too.
The revolution in working from home has opened up many new opportunities at every point in our careers. The question is: are you ready to disrupt your life?
Are you prepared to take the plunge? Photo: Kristi Wilson
One couple who did just that are Tasha and Ryan Hacker. In 2015 they sold their education business and purchased a new Fontaine Pajot Helia 44, which they named Cheeky Monkey. They picked up their new cruising boat in La Rochelle, France, and over the next 18 months sailed her across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, through the Panama canal, and then to French Polynesia.
Tasha turned to film-making and started a YouTube channel called Chase the Story. Although she had no prior experience as a film-maker, she had a number of transferrable skills such as marketing and communication which allowed her to swiftly grow her audience and increase exposure.
Tasha had three main revenue streams: YouTube (via Google AdWords, and Patreon), which earned anywhere from $200 to $3,000 per month; writing, which earned between $250 and $1,000 per piece in popular magazines; and earnings from investments made following the sale of their company.
Tasha and Ryan Hacker fund their cruising lifestyle aboard Cheeky Monkey with work in creative media. Photo: Kristi Wilson
For Tasha the motivation for turning to film-making was not simply to fund their cruising lifestyle:
“I enjoy having a creative or professional incentive to keep my mind busy, active and sharp.” Being a YouTuber provided that discipline, while allowing her creative side to flourish.
However, there were compromises, such as the constant need to find good internet connections.
For those considering turning to YouTube or writing to fund an alternative lifestyle, Tasha has some advice: “If you love writing or film-making, and then publish them online, the money will follow and it won’t seem like a burden or a chore. But if the primary motivation is money, and you don’t love the creative process – as in, you don’t love sitting in front of a computer for hours on end while in a beautiful harbour – it will be a very difficult way to fund your cruising. It takes a long time to build an audience, and the love is what keeps you going even when the money isn’t coming in.”
Petter and Octavia Bergman live aboard their Hunter 44DS and write about their adventures on svbellamarina.com
Work from onboard
Petter and Octavia Bergman took a sailing class 14 years ago and instantly fell in love with the sport. Soon after they bought their liveaboard boat, a Hunter 44DS SV Bella Marina. They subsequently took a one-year sabbatical to cruise the Pacific coast of the USA and Mexico before settling in Silicon Valley. However, they desperately missed the cruising lifestyle, and immediately began formulating a plan that would allow them to combine their successful careers in technology with cruising.
While Octavia returned to work as a software executive and Petter did contract work building software products, they began to develop their own idea for a business that they could run while cruising: boat management software built by boaters for boaters, that they called Quartermaster. They hope in future this will provide enough income to support their lifestyle, but while it’s growing Octavia continues her consultancy work from the boat.
They also have an investment property, which provides rental income. They find that their monthly income varies greatly between $1,000 per month, to $10,000 per month, depending on the consulting engagements Octavia takes on.
For the past two years they have combined working remotely and running their business with cruising, and are currently in Hawaii preparing for a passage to the South Pacific. Octavia compares it favourably to their “old corporate work-life balance, which was non-existent”, but says that working requires them to stay in certain places for longer as they are dependent on accessing good internet.
Petter and Octavia also find they have less time for fun activities and boat maintenance compared with other non-working cruisers. But they strongly believe that despite the drawbacks, they have made the right decision.
“This lifestyle allows us to be cruising and travelling and enjoying beautiful sunsets and clear waters before being retired.
“Alternative lifestyles are becoming acceptable both in society and the workplace. We are all connected and there is internet on every rock out there. Why not take advantage of it?”
Mia Karlsson and Andy Schell take time out on a tiny island off St Thomas
Set up a part-time sailing business
American Andy Schell and Mia Karlsson, his Swedish wife, both in their thirties, decided to make their business fit the lifestyle they want. They run adventure charters, with a particular emphasis on passing on their expertise and love of the sea, and Andy has a large following for his regular podcast ‘On the Wind’.
“We take paying crew on offshore sailing passages on our 1972 S&S Swan 48 Isbjörn. Each season consists of an offshore passage calendar that we publish on 59-north.com, usually two years in advance, so we get to decide when and where we sail. This amounts to about 10,000 ocean miles per year over the course of about ten passages, each about 7-21 days,” explains Andy.
“We set out with a few goals: make a business where work doesn’t feel like ‘work’; earn enough to be happy, but never make it purely about money; live a simple, inexpensive lifestyle; and have the free time to pursue personal passions and spend quality time with family and friends.
“Ours is a ‘lifestyle’ business for sure – nobody’s getting rich doing it, and it’s not scalable in the same way a tech business is. I want to spend my life doing what I love, so instead of working in a job just to make money, then retire and pursue that passion, I’m skipping the middle part and making a living through sailing.
“We started the business plan backwards, in a way: there is lots of research that suggests happiness increases as income increases, but only up to about $70,000 per family per year.
Isbjörn and crew driving north from Fair Isle to Shetland
“So we used that as a target number, and tried to figure out how few passages we’d need to run to hit that number as profit, leaving a little margin for unsold bunks, unforeseen maintenance, etc.
“We bought a 45-year-old boat, and have replaced basically every bolt-on system. We got the boat relatively cheap – $130,000 – and since have put in at least $150,000 more on refit items. But, come this spring when she launches after a big nine-month layup and refit, she will essentially be brand-new from a systems standpoint, and we’ve got an all-time great ocean sailing boat, fully out fitted exactly as we want her, for $300,000.
“On the income side, we’ve ended up doing better than that initial $70,000 a year projection. In addition to the passages we offer, I host a popular podcast called ‘On the Wind,’ that makes its own revenue through sponsorships and donations (and, accidentally, is our primary marketing outlet; we estimate that about 75 per cent of our paying crew are fans of the podcast first). And, we host a few workshops in the fall in Annapolis, plus write the occasional article for magazines.
“All told, we make just under $200,000 a year, though with the huge refit expenses on the boat, we’ve only cleared about $40,000 in profit in 2016 and 2017. But that profit will certainly grow.
“We budget about $40,000 a year for maintenance, insurance, berthing fees etc. In addition, we have a fund for new sails every 50-60,000 miles, or five to six years, which total $25,000, but the back-end of the business has very low expenses, as everything is paperless and cloud-based, and we have no physical office.
“Ironically, sailing as a living is not really freedom – yes, we’re free to choose where and when we sail, but once we commit, we’re stuck to that plan. The freedom part comes in actually when we’re not on the boat. In our off season, besides running the back-end of the business and producing my podcast, we’re free to do what we want and have tons of free time.
“What scares me most is having a family. When we do have kids, I won’t want to go offshore anymore. We’ll have to take turns on the boat. But our passion has been shared from the start with us, so we’re optimistic.”
Matt and Lucy Wilcox aboard their Lagoon 380 S2 Independence
Freelance from your boat
Matt and Lucy Wilcox have been sailing for 14 years. Two years ago they bought a 2005 Lagoon 380 to cruise the US East Coast and the Bahamas.
The plan was to live off savings, then head back to work, but when the time came to return to their land-based lives they found they couldn’t give up their cruising lifestyle aboard Independence so instead made the transition to becoming digital nomads.
Lucy had previously worked for a university, teaching courses online, and secured a similar job teaching English online to Chinese students. Matt, meanwhile, freelances as a photographer and graphic designer, bidding for work using freelancing websites. Additionally, they are both cruising editors and photographers for the Bahamas Waterways Guide, and both undertake freelance writing work. This results in a 20-hour working week for each of them, with a combined income of US$2,400 per month.
Lack of mobile phone service can sometimes mean that certain areas can’t be explored as much as they would otherwise wish. Additionally, passage plans have to take into account Lucy’s online classes, which start at 0500.
During their two days off per week, they move the boat to another location, explore or simply relax. When they have the time and inclination, particularly if they are port-bound due to poor weather, they are able to increase their workload. When they are busy sailing, doing boat work, or have poor phone service, they are able to drop down their workload.
Lucy says: “Working part-time while cruising has actually brought more satisfaction and balance to our lives. We earn about 25 per cent of our land-based earnings, but we’ve never felt more successful. Working and cruising has been a win-win for us.”
Rubicon 3’s yachts include Oriole (foreground) and Hummingbird
Start a full-time sailing business
Bruce Jacobs and Rachael Sprot decided to make sailing their business when they set up Rubicon 3. The business partners now have three yachts. This is a great example of the small but growing number of very professional, targeted, social-savvy adventure sailing businesses.
“Rachael and myself come from very different backgrounds. She is the daughter of a professional sailor and has worked as a sailor all her professional life. I spent 12 years in industry, working in marketing and product development,” says Jacobs.
“In 2012, we heard that Hummingbird (Blackadder, as she then was) was being sold by Clipper Ventures and begged and borrowed to buy her.
“I knew without doubt that we could outmarket the rest of the industry. But getting the customers was only half the battle.
“For five years now, neither of us has worked less than a 60-hour week and it is often far higher than that. This is partly because we are also committed to building a new type of sailing company that gives professional sailors proper training, pay and job security.”
Rachael Sprot at the office, helming one of the business’s yachts, Hummingbird
The work-life balance is something that should concern anyone thinking of making a leap to a sailing business from another career, thinks Jacobs.
“We sailed almost non-stop for the first two years, and actually it was pretty tough with family life as I was newly married and had a new baby. But now we skipper probably two trips a year as the admin and management side has become a full time job for both of us.
“When you are self-employed the work/life balance is different. There is far less ‘free’ time than before but there’s also far more motivation and satisfaction.”
As for the money, he says: “We spent five years paying ourselves very little (nothing at the start) so there is quite a bit of catching up to do. We pay ourselves enough now to pay the rent and bills, and that is fine. Any spare goes back into the business.
“I would urge huge caution to anyone thinking of trading in their current situation for something quite different. It’s easy to find a hobby is not the same as spending every day of your life doing it, and what may have been a real love can become a chore. Sailing is a very badly paid industry and while it can be a lovely thing to do for a while, it is a rare person who makes a long term living from it.
“My advice is to plan a career. How will you progress? What skills will you need to learn, what courses will you need to take, where will you be in 20 years from now? If you can’t answer that or don’t like the answer it may be better to keep sailing as your hobby.”
When a renowned superyacht yard builds a 67-footer for short-handed cruising you can be sure the result will be something special
Manyeleti is hull number one in the Baltic 67 series
Were money no object and you wanted the ultimate yacht for long-term cruising, what would you choose? How large could you go without needing a paid crew? What do you really need length and space for and how important is displacement and potential speed to you?
These were the sort of questions crowding into my head on first viewing the sensational new Baltic 67 at the Cannes Yachting Festival. It is truly striking. The quality of the yacht is undeniably world class, but it’s the precision of design and engineering that soon absorbs you.
The owner of this first boat is a highly experienced cruising sailor, boat owner and navigator, so joining him for a 24-hour trial from Mallorca proved the ideal way to get under the gleaming composite skin of this athletic new model.
The concept is about combining the pleasure of pure sailing with ease of handling for long-distance cruising at high average speeds. It is the alternative to a full custom yacht – all the engineering is already calculated – but a great deal of flexibility has been worked into the design, with options including single or twin rudders, a fixed or telescopic keel, multiple cabin layouts, and a carbon or epoxy sandwich hull.
Wanting to return to its mid-size fast cruiser roots, Baltic Yachts teamed up with designers and fellow in-demand superyacht specialists Judel Vrolijk and Design Unlimited. The result is this exceedingly attractive, modern-looking sloop, with a powerful hull shape, a flush foredeck and a low-profile coachroof.
Powered sail handling systems means Manyeleti can be sailed by just two
The Baltic 67 is very much at the luxury and custom end of the production yacht scale, so our light wind trial of the boat focused more on the various choices and details aboard and how they might be relevant to sailors in general. Hull number one in particular had a lot of owner input.
Manyeleti, the first 67, belongs to Erik Lindgren. It is his fifth yacht from Baltic after a string of upgrades that started with a used 39 in 1989. “It’s very different to design and build your own boat – in my case using nearly 30 years of offshore sailing experience,” Lindgren explains.
Swede Lindgren travelled to the yard once a month and was in daily contact with the project manager, Kjell Vesto.
The Lindgrens’ plan is to head off on another world cruise in a couple of years time, when Erik’s teenage children have finished school. His shakedown sail involved a 5,000-mile trip from Finland to and around the Mediterranean.
“Not a single thing broke,” he reports, saluting Baltic’s build quality. “I could literally go to El Corte Inglés, stock up, fuel up and sail across the Atlantic.”
It may sound daunting, but it seems 60ft is no longer a big boat. In typical Philippe Briand fashion the…
The Baltic 67 is as big as you can go without needing a pro crew, argues Erik Lindgren. “I’ve spent a lot of time on World ARC boats… it’s the details that make living on board easier. This is a technical boat, but is less dependent on systems than our old Baltic 56. On the other hand it’s great to have aircon and a lifting keel.
“Half the time spent aboard will be for long distance stuff and holidays for the two of us, but a lot of the time will be spent with friends and family too.”
Privacy at this size is a big benefit. “I have no need to have a big boat for show,” says Lindgren, “but I wanted to have the things I need.”
The retractable arm for the anchor roller is an engineering masterpiece. It rises from the anchor locker at the touch of a button
The most important features he wanted, which help explain the jump in size from his previous 56, were a furling boom, a large, practical galley, four cabins and a tender garage large enough to house a forward-facing dinghy. While his yachts have grown and become more complex, Lindgren maintains that the methodical way Baltic builds boats results in a lot fewer problems.
A carbon furling boom is an eye-watering investment, but it does make the hoisting, reefing and lowering of sails a quick and largely hassle-free procedure. It can make the difference to whether you go sailing or not. Within minutes of leaving Palma’s breakwaters, we had main and jib unfurled and were matching the 8 knot wind speeds.
Manyeleti is hull number one in the Baltic 67 series
Easy performance
The Hall carbon boom uses an electric mandrel motor that is synchronised with the halyard to avoid too much sail spilling out during a hoist. The traveller is also electric, while the sheet car pullers, backstay, vang and furlers are hydraulically-operated. The result is the ease of push-button sailing typically used on modern performance superyachts.
We spent the first few hours reaching across Palma Bay. Despite having 24 hours aboard, the most breeze we found was 11 knots, which translated to 9.5 knots boatspeed – very respectable under white sails only (fully battened main and non-overlapping jib). The majority of the time was spent close-hauled, matching the single-figure wind, even exceeding it when it dropped below 6 knots.
Neat details: the forward end of the jib car puller, which is hydraulically powered
I found myself gravitating to the side deck to sit and steer, instinctively wanting to sail the Baltic 67 like a cruiser-racer. There are good views over the low coachroof and flush foredeck, but nothing except freeboard height to prevent a wet backside if the decks ship green water.
The helmsman can also sit forward of the wheel and reach the two winches. I like the way the primary is mounted inboard, though the positioning of the turning block for the jib sheet creates an obstacle on the side deck. Baltic reasons that it helps provide the option to use either winch for the sheet.
Speed for oceans
A flying sail would have helped to get the most out of the conditions, but Lindgren was still awaiting delivery of a Code 0 and A3, both on top-down furlers. However, even when the evening breeze died to around 4-5 knots, the Baltic 67 still provided an enjoyable experience on the helm. It’s rare that you can say such a thing while only using main and jib.
The 67 is designed for potent offwind performance, to limit engine use on transocean voyages. The aggressive sail area to displacement ratio of 30.9 is possibly taking things too far: the boat has so much power to weight that it will need to be treated as a real performance cruiser and tamed accordingly (i.e. reefed early). But what our trial sail did show was how well the Baltic 67 fulfils its brief of being able to offer enjoyable sailing in light wind.
“Bluewater boats don’t usually sail in 10-15 knots downwind – and we had a lot of that,” Lindgren points out, with reference to their previous Pacific crossing. “At 150º true, this boat is sailing at 8-9 knots, which is a big difference. As long as you are over 8 knots you are properly moving through the water,” he reasons. “Below that you’re in the swell and not in control.”
The twin pedestals are well designed to site plotter screens and remote controls for powered deck functions and sail handling
With the relatively low coachroof and cockpit backrests and aft positioning of the helms, protection from the elements may be a concern. When you look at Baltic’s large new designs in build, the 142 and 146, both have lengthy deckhouses that provide plenty of protection. But it chose the more in-vogue deck design for this semi-custom size, so its solutions for cockpit protection depend largely on a retractable sprayhood and bimini. These can remain in place while sailing and have already been tested in up to 40 knots.
The cockpit area on this first Baltic 67 has been adapted according to the owners’ wishes, including a narrower space between benches and no fixed table. The Lindgrens like to be able to brace feet between benches and to be able to sleep on the sole between them when offshore. The table and carbon legs stow beneath the central saloon soleboards.
We anchored at dusk at Es Trenc beach, 25 miles to the south-east of Palma, in water so clear we could pick the spot to drop the hook between weed patches. The ability to anchor in less than 4m amply demonstrated the appeal of a lifting keel. The keel system, from the highly reputable Italian brand APM, raises the T-keel hydraulically up to 2.5m.
The anchor arrangement is another fine piece of engineering: the arm is concealed in a shallow locker and rotates over and into place at the push of a button. The roller then extends out to keep it clear of the stem. The second Baltic 67 will have a fixed roller incorporated into the bowsprit.
The furling jib and powered padeye are recessed neatly
Open transom choice
The garage houses a 3.2m dinghy stowed longitudinally, with the engine mounted, between the dual rudders. Lindgren chose an AB tender with aluminium hull (53kg). It has a 20hp outboard so can plane with four adults yet is light enough to be dragged up the beach. He also opted for an open transom that, although an unconventional choice for ocean cruising, gives easy access to the swim platform and dinghy.
There is copious stowage space throughout the Baltic 67. In addition to the tall sail locker in the forepeak, the aft quarter lockers easily swallow electric bikes, inflatable paddleboards, snorkel gear, waterskis, spare fuel and a liferaft valise. Here there’s also access to the steering gear with independent autopilots used on both quadrants.
I particularly like the way multiple Antal T-lock fittings are flush-mounted along the toerail and in the cockpit. These enable quick and easy swivelling toggles to be inserted for loops and blocks, or for harness attachments.
Weight versus noise
The following morning was windless, leaving us with a three-hour motor back to Palma. The 150hp six-cylinder Steyr was specified for its low noise and emissions, and drives a four-blade Bruntons prop via a standard shaft.
E-glass was chosen over the standard carbon hull. Lindgren’s previous Baltic 56 was carbon and he wanted the better noise insulation over the weight difference (up to one tonne). The 67 is a very quiet, relaxing boat under motor, with no need to raise voices under power.
The spacious saloon has enough room for both dining and coffee tables
Down below the Baltic is an aircon-cooled haven of charm and exquisite quality. The more time I spent aboard and the more I learned of the systems and engineering, the more I began to appreciate what sets this boat apart.
The Design Unlimited styling is elegant and tasteful, with a mahogany finish on this first boat. With four different layout configurations plenty of scope is allowed for owner customisation. But behind the scenes is what you really pay for with the Baltic. It’s the telling result of what happens when a yard goes down in model size – this 67 is built like a superyacht.
For example, the engine room, used for hot items like engine, genset and water-heater, links through to a proper mechanical/utility room abaft the galley, where equipment is mounted on three walls for easy access (including chargers, inverters, pumps, watermaker and compressors).
“The thinking is that everything should be in reach and that you should be able to maintain it easily,” says Lindgren, pointing to the Spectra watermaker (his fourth) mounted on one bulkhead.
The boat’s systems are beautifully laid out for ease of inspection and maintenance
Stowage throughout has been brilliantly conceived. The 2,000lt of water and diesel tanks, plus the batteries, are all mounted centrally, under the saloon, leaving cavernous practical stowage under the berths. Custom-made fabric bags are used under the saloon seats to maximise useable volume.
Lifting the carbon sandwich soleboards at the base of the companionway reveals the sea chests and main manifolds for fuel and water, a prime example of the meticulous and practical systems layout. The 1,440Ah of lithium gel batteries further forward have a reservoir surrounding them, which can cool the cells if necessary without flooding them. And there are custom-made drip trays below any filters to prevent mess or corrosion.
The keel uses a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) to activate the hydraulics, the cylinders for which can be replaced from within the boat. All other electrics are on manual relays. The fuse locker is a work of art and opens out for full access to the wiring, with every wire and fuse numbered and labelled.
Smart cabin choice
Manyeleti’s owner’s cabin, with adjoining heads and shower in the forwardmost section, has an offset double berth positioned aft by the main bulkhead, a relatively central area of the boat to sleep. However, on passage, Lindgren says he sleeps on deck, or in the single cabin amidships. There are also leecloths on the saloon berths, a comfortable option if guests don’t want to share the twins.
The owner’s cabin is (purposefully) the only one aboard Manyeleti to feature a double bed
There is a good reason why there is only one double bed. Lindgren often sails with male friends, hence twin and single berths are a pragmatic choice. The use of a split heads and shower shared between the twin and single cabins is also sensible.
The central section of the interior is superb, with a traditional lower saloon, a navstation beside the companionway and a formidable U-shaped galley. It was important to the Lindgrens that the galley was large enough for two to work in yet still be seamanlike. The result is a very practical area with superb chilled, dried goods and crockery stowage. Ventilation ducts keep it nice and cool, though personally I’d want to have a hatch through to the cockpit.
Lindgren swears by the dishwasher, reasoning that it uses less water than washing up and helps keep the galley tidy. This and an induction cooker would be sensible options if you had sufficient power, and would avoid the need for gas.
The exemplary finish and smaller details help furnish the boat with a top quality feel. From the hinges, light switches and showerheads to the gas sprung hatches and overall joiner work, the Baltic 67 oozes quality.
The Baltic 67 has been designed with short-handed sailing in mind
Baltic 67: the verdict
Baltic has spent the last decade building some of the finest performance superyachts. You don’t receive commissions for yachts such as Hetairos, Pink Gin VI, or My Song without a top reputation, and to get that sort of quality on a 67-footer is truly special. Attention to detail and class of engineering and finish are hallmarks of this new model.
The Baltic 67 has the performance in light airs to match her on-trend looks and is a joy to helm. The choice of a comparatively unprotected cockpit and an open transom may not sit well with conventional bluewater sailors, but times are changing and this design is aimed as much at port-hopping from Portofino as at Pacific passagemaking. It is the solutions, stowage and systems employed throughout that help make it a valid option for distance cruising.
The Baltic 67 has the legs to outrun virtually any other cruising monohull and to keep sailing fast in light apparent winds. To know you’re buying the best in terms of design and composite build – and created by the same team involved in a yacht that costs tens of millions – must help compensate for the significant initial outlay. For the rest of us, we can but dream.
A bluewater cruiser by a Vendée Race boat designer is bound to deliver on performance, but does the Finot-Conq FC3 53 have the comfort to match?
Photos: James Mitchell
If the electric green hull and striking looks of Nica don’t grab your attention, then its on-paper description certainly will. This Finot-Conq FC3 53 is a carbon-hulled, water-ballasted, swing keel offshore cruising yacht. Read that last sentence again. These are words you don’t often see together and this boat definitively smashes the common perception of what a bluewater cruising boat should be.
Nica is the third FC3 53 to be launched and its owners are about to embark on a world cruise. On delivery to the Canaries Nica clocked a top speed of 24 knots and looking at the muscly lines, 5m beam and powerful rig it’s easy to understand why she’s challenging the norms.
But far from being an untamed beast, the FC3 53 has been carefully designed for stress-free double-handed sailing. There is no need to pay a penalty for your speed – the performance is matched by comfort, style and luxurious features.
The FC3 53 hull has been designed with inspiration from the latest generation of IMOCA and Class 40 yachts. There is a hard, full length chine, the foredeck is gently cambered and the bow full volume
Finot-Conq has long been known for blending offshore racing hulls with cruising interiors through the range of boats it designs for Pogo Structures. The FC3 53 takes this concept to a different level. Though some may frown at the suitability of such a performance-orientated design for a proper liveaboard experience, there is nothing gung-ho about Nica. This is the culmination of an owner’s informed and rigorous specification, the carbon building expertise of a German yard renowned for state-of-the-art raceboats and some very clever and beautiful design.
The owners of Nica are a couple who have previously owned and raced light displacement racing yachts. The husband of the team is very experienced, and, while his wife has sailed as part of the racing crew, she is looking forward to cruising double-handed and the opportunity to learn more. They first looked at Class 40s, but as the mission changed to cruising, their next step was to consider the Pogo 50, which led them to the FC3 53.
I was invited to join the owners together with designers Pierre Forgia and Pascal Conq in the Canaries for two days of cruising, and the prospect of experiencing this boat first-hand was genuinely exciting. This would also be the first time the designers had sailed aboard Nica and, as we were gently gliding from our marina berth using bow and stern thrusters, there could not have been a crew of five more desperate to find some wind to play in.
About the sailing
Within minutes we were streaking away from the harbour of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. The fully battened main filled with a crack, the Code 0 flew out, water ballast was pumped in and Nica was up to 12 knots of boat speed with the water gushing past and warm Canaries wind in our faces.
It didn’t seem to matter which way we pointed the bow, or how much we loaded the sails, the helm remained light and at times the boat steered itself. Upwind, we picked our way nimbly around oncoming waves; reaching we powered straight over them. As soon as there was sea room our eager crew rushed to the bow and wrestled an A2 spinnaker from the deep sail locker so the real fun could begin.
With the spinnaker up, Nica carries 360m2 of sail and handles like a Class 40, effortlessly able to catch and surf the smallest of wavelets. In what seemed no time we had lost sight of Gran Canaria in the hazy, sand-filled air.
Tester Pip Hare was in her element on the FC3 53
Downwind VMG sailing in the FC3 53 is a joy. The fully-loaded hull is just 12 tonnes and agile enough for an engaged helmsman to make the most of every puff of breeze. In a wind range of 12-16 knots we kept consistent speeds of 10-12 knots downwind.
Helming was all-absorbing and it drew me in so all other distractions faded to the background. Even in as little as 4 knots of breeze I was able to keep Nica sailing at the same speed, heading up to build apparent and then soaking until the sail started to collapse. I could feel every part of the boat react. Nica felt alive.
Despite hanging around the wind acceleration zones of Gran Canaria for the best part of two days, wind strengths during our test remained below 16 knots, so I never experienced Nica in full flight. However, a fully loaded 53-footer with five crew in the cockpit that is still powerful and light enough to keep moving in 4 knots of wind is telling you pretty much everything you need to know about performance. The polars suggest Nica will make 15–17 knots of boat speed in 25 knots of wind and, judging by what I have experienced, I believe them. This boat will gobble up the oceans.
We tested the FC3 53 off Las Palmas, Gran Canaria in 4-16 knots of wind
The only performance giveaway to the cruising aspect of the FC3 53 was a trailing stern wake downwind which never managed to break from our transom in light airs of up to 12 knots. It’s inevitable that a heavy stern caused by a fully laden tender garage will affect performance like this in lighter airs. But in no way was Nica’s speed disappointing – this telltale stern wake simply informs us the FC3 53 could have even more to give.
Sailing life ‘hacks’
In every aspect, the FC3 53 has delivered on its mission to provide performance and comfort to the highest degree. The sail plan is bold, matching the power potential of the hull, but has been designed for two people to manage while hardly breaking a sweat. This is so much more than just electrifying the winches – it’s thoughtful layout, top quality hardware and some ingenious hacks to just make life easier.
All sail handling, except the spinnaker tack line, is done from trimming areas just in front of the two carbon wheels. There are five electric winches, all are two speeds. The dedicated mainsheet winch is set on a central pedestal at the very back of the cockpit. This also hosts the controls for a full width traveller running across the top of the transom. Bringing the traveller jammers up onto the pedestal allows them to be controlled from a waist height position, well forward of the track, using the mainsheet winch if necessary. This arrangement is not only practical but safe on a boat this size.
Beneteau’s new stepped hull design works so well this 46.1 could become its most popular model ever
The Solent furler is hydraulic, while the staysail furler is manual. As the Solent must be partially furled during a tack, having the furler on a hydraulic system allows control of the sail from either side of the cockpit during a tack, eliminating the need to handle two ropes at once. The vang is also hydraulic, which again makes sense, as maintaining leech tension on a square-headed main requires a lot of power off the wind. The vang can also be dumped at the flick of a switch.
The twin spreader rig has PBO standing rigging. To avoid the hassles for a double-handed crew dealing with split backstays, the rig and supporting structure have been designed with no backstay. The owners of Nica have chosen to install running backstays for a bit of extra security on breezier downwind passages, but most of the time these are stowed forward next to the shrouds.
The 104m2 fully battened mainsail runs on a dual mast track stowage system. This neat piece of engineering sees the mast track split into two about 1m above the gooseneck – rather like railway points. When the sail drops, alternate cars are diverted onto each separate track, building up two stacks of batten cars side by side. This allows the sail to be stowed in a neater form, and with half the height of a normal system the head can be reached from the deck.
Designer Pascal Conq helms while Pip watches the main. Note the central pedestal for easy mainsheet and traveller control
Despite all the clever systems and the absolute ease with which our crew of five managed to boss Nica around, don’t be fooled into thinking this boat is a lamb. Sails of 360m2 mean a monster, no matter how good your winches are. The sail area to displacement ratio is off the cruising boat scale. To sail this boat, you must actively take control, define clear limits for shortening sail and stick to them – otherwise there’s no question this boat will bite.
Nica’s tack line runs inside the bowsprit and is made off on a cleat inside the anchor locker on the underside of the deck. Working in the locker was the only bit of sailing the FC3 53 that I found fiddly. But the solution to handling is simple: just pull on the tack line hard before the hoist, make it off in the locker, then close the lid and forget about it.
Another ingenious ‘sailing life hack’ is the integrated bobstay and tack line. With this system the bobstay is not dead-ended on the end of the bowsprit but instead goes through it and attaches back to back with the 2:1 tack line. When you pull the tack line on, you pull the bobstay tight and the harder the pressure in the spinnaker, the tighter the bobstay becomes. When anchoring, ease the tack line completely and the bobstay can be pulled aft, towards the hull so it will not clash with the chain.
The swing keel
Finot-Conq started designing swing keels during the early 1990s for 8m/26ft daysailers and is now using them on boats up to 31m/100ft long. When down, the keel on Nica is 3.75m, giving optimum righting moment and performance. The lifted keel has a 1.65m draught, which should allow access to most harbours.
The keel pivots around an axis on the back of the keel head, with a ram that pushes the top of the keel head forward to swing the keel down, and pulls it back to lift. There is a fail-safe system when the keel is down, which means if the ram is put under a sudden significant load, it will immediately let go and the keel will swing up. This should eliminate the risk of damage to the keel box and surrounding structure from grounding.
The fit of the keel head into the keel box is extremely precise to avoid vibration while sailing. The space is so tight the head of the keel cannot be antifouled, as the extra millimetres of paint mean it would no longer fit back in its slot.
Smart glazing creates a light, very modern feel
A funky feel
Descend the matt black carbon companionway steps and Nica’s interior matches the cutting edge looks on deck. Working with designer Pierre Forgia, the owners have created a contemporary style by matching unusual striped Zebrano wood with lime green upholstery and white panelling.
Fitting out required a balancing act between equipping for self-sufficient bluewater sailing yet keeping additional weight to a minimum. Far from resulting in a sparse interior, Nica has a funky, modern feel down below and just about everything you could possibly need.
There has clearly been considerable skill in both design and build to deliver such a full interior without compromising performance. All furniture is structural, while doors and tabletops are Nomex forms covered with carbon panels and veneer. Both heads are equipped with full carbon electric toilets.
The saloon is split-level with a high dining area on the port side and a low sofa to starboard. The top of the keel box acts as a bench seat to the dining table. Building the FC3 53 in carbon has allowed Finot-Conq to reduce the height of the keel box compared to boats like the Pogo 50. This means the keel box integrates into the furniture of the saloon rather than separating the space.
The interior of Nica was designed by Pierre Forgia, working in close collaboration with the owners
Panoramic windows fitted with smart glass wrap the coachroof – each panel of glass can be individually dimmed or blacked out at the turn of a switch. Windows can be ‘trimmed’ to different shades depending on the position of the sun and provide total privacy when blacked out, eliminating the need for blinds.
Lighting options are varied, with recessed deckhead lights, under-cupboard down-lighting and well-placed reading lamps. All lights can be individually switched from white to red. Playing with the black-out windows and different lighting creates distinct ambiences to suit just about every mood, from cosy cottage to exclusive restaurant.
The owner’s cabin is forward of the saloon with ensuite heads and shower in front of that. This area is separated from the sail locker by a watertight bulkhead. There is a double VIP guest cabin on the starboard side of the companionway. Walk through the guest heads on the port side to a smaller cabin with pilot berth, which gives access to the generator and 240V systems. All aft accommodation is separated from the stern garage by a watertight bulkhead.
The galley is well-equipped with storage and work space. There is no gas on the boat – both hob and oven use 240V. There’s even a washing machine in the guest shower. Looking at the facilities on board, I was gobsmacked to think this boat only weighs 12 tonnes fully laden.
Lime green upholstery, striped Zebrano joinery and white panels give a funky feel
Designed for hard knocks
You don’t need to sail a tank to roll with the punches of the ocean and Nica has been designed to take some hard knocks and still function to a high specification. For the build, the German yard Knierim yachtbau was chosen for its great track record for building in carbon from one-off race boats to the German America’s Cup entry back in the early 2000s. Largely due to the meticulous specification, most working parts of this yacht are strong, sensible and have practical back-ups in the event of failure.
The keel ram has a manual override for the electrics and a hand pump should that fail too. The water ballast pump can be diverted to work as a second bilge pump and vice versa. The electrical system is 24V served by 720Ah of lithium batteries, with charging via a diesel generator or Watt & Sea towing generator.
An EmpirBus system takes the place of a conventional electrical panel and allows all items to be switched and controlled from one touch screen. Systems can be monitored and operated remotely from a smartphone, allowing you to check bilge alarms or turn on the deck lights to identify your boat in a crowded anchorage. Should the bus system fail, there’s a location map for all electrical node centres on the boat, which are identified by number and can be operated manually. There are also two solid-state computers and communications are via satellite and SSB.
The twin rudders each have their own quadrants with doubled-up steering cables and autopilot rams on both. There is even a spare rudder stored behind a side panel in the owner’s suite.
Our verdict
From the moment I first read about the FC3 53 I believed it could be my dream cruising boat. After sailing it, I’m sure it is. This is not just a case of having your cake and eating it: it’s the having the whole patisserie and the baker on retainer too.
Sailing across oceans is a means to an end for some people, the chance to travel, experience out of the way places in the world but from the comfort of your own home. For others, the excitement of sailing is more important than the destination – to sail slowly is not to sail at all.
The FC3 53 magnificently delivers the best of both worlds to each of these communities. It is staggering to understand how such a full specification could have been delivered on a 53-footer while still retaining genuine performance. I challenge any sailor to experience this boat and not be blown away.
We quizzed 254 skippers who took part in the 2017 ARC rally about the spares they shipped and the repairs they made en route. The lessons gleaned from their Transatlantic sailing problems can benefit us all
ARC veteran skippers explain how to prepare to cross the Atlantic
You’ve got the plan, you’ve got the ideal offshore cruising yacht, you’ve got the time window – you’re set to hit the ocean. Almost. How much thought have you put into your spares and tools inventory? And have you considered how you might maintain and repair all the key equipment? Shipping the right spares and considering how you’d affect makeshift repairs at sea before they happen can make the difference between a trouble-free crossing and being forced to seek assistance or make unplanned diversions.
Thankfully we can learn from the experience of skippers who have already completed ocean passages. During the 2016 ARC crossing, 60 per cent of the 290-strong fleet reported a breakage of some sort. So, after last year’s ARC, we quizzed the 254 skippers specifically about which spares they carried and what repairs they made at sea. The tips and feedback for what they’d do differently, make invaluable reading
In the six months leading up to the 2017 ARC last November, an average of nearly €12,000 per boat was spent on spares – a significant investment that represents the value skippers place on carrying back-up solutions. We asked skippers on the 2017 ARC and ARC+ what spares they carried, in particular for steering/autopilots, power generation, engines, sails, cooking, plumbing, refrigeration and navigation.
ARC entrant Erol Toprak’s X-Yachts X46 Jarramas
Of immediate note from their replies and comprehensive lists of spares is just how well-prepared most yachts and skippers are these days. The World Cruising Club (WCC) is partly to thank for this with its thorough guidelines and minimum gear requirements.
But, however prepared you think you are, there will always be niggles or problems that can expose gaps in your spares inventory and call upon resourceful measures for repairs. Ripped sails and damage caused by chafe are the most common casualties on a tradewinds crossing, but the variety of problems the last ARC fleet encountered were widespread.
You cannot presume to be able to sail across an ocean without experiencing some problems or breakages with your equipment.…
Steering/autopilots
The high number of yachts carrying a second autopilot shows how much skippers value having an electronic helmsman. Over 20 skippers noted that they had at least one back-up autopilot, with many shipping comprehensive spares and service kits, from rams to hydraulic fluid.
The Jeanneau SO49 KALU’ III had two steering systems and two autopilot systems, for instance, and the Berckemeyer 48 GreyHound carried a windvane and autopilot, plus spare autopilot drive and computer.
Windpilot self steering gear coped with almost all steering demands aboard Barracuda of Islay
At least ten yachts carried windvanes that they could use as back-ups to autopilot failure. The Shannon Pilothouse 38, North Star, found their Windpilot indispensable when their house batteries failed to hold enough charge to run the autopilot.
Barracuda of Islay, a particularly well-prepared Ovni 395 (they didn’t have to make any repairs and did not lack any tools required), had a Pacific Windpilot as the primary means of steering control, with a hydraulic autopilot as back-up.
“The Windpilot can cope with nearly all steering conditions that we have with the exception of coloured sails in gusting winds (ParaSailor or asymmetric),” skipper Graham Walker explained.
Our 2016 ARC gear survey on breakages showed how skippers who reported steering linkage problems favoured replacing steering lines with Dyneema – and recommended carrying suitable lengths of line as back-ups. It is sensible to go through your steering system and evaluate how you would replace each part if it failed. Have you tried using the emergency tiller? What would you use for an emergency rudder? Do you carry a drogue?
“In the event of rudder failure we have a Seabrake drogue system that we can use for emergency steering,” Barracuda’s Walker continued. “We carry a spare blade, spare bolts and a tool kit for the Windpilot, and a maintenance kit and fluid for the autopilot.”
Power generation
What happens when the lights go out, when you lose power? How do skippers best prepare for that?
Catamaran sailors will know the benefit of having two engines of course, but a variety of alternative means to generate power is prudent. Whether diesel power (engine or generator), wind, hydro, solar, or fuel cells, many skippers had a choice of at least three means of electrical power generation.
The Allures 40 Passepartout and the Hallberg-Rassy 46 Shepherd Moon took no chances and used a mix of power. The Watt&Sea hydrogenerator continues to increase in popularity, with 17 listed as a spare means of power generation in the ARC fleets.
Back-up navigation systems and a reserve means to power them are key considerations
As we saw from the 2016 survey, generator problems are largely caused by a lack of routine maintenance and cooling issues (typically impeller or water pump failure).
And there was overriding advice from the 2017 skippers to make sure you have enough spares to maintain and service diesel engines and generators adequately: reserve oil, filters, impellers, belts, fuses, coolant, etc. Some ARC skippers also advocate carrying a spare water pump, diesel pump and alternator.
The ultimate back-up to engine failure is, of course, your sails. The feedback shows it is wise to take spare sails and plenty of rope and also to learn how to repair sails.
A comprehensive set of spare sheets, halyards, blocks, Dyneema strops and soft shackles are also recommended. A thorough sail repair kit as well as the time and patience required to fix sails can also negate the need to carry too many spare sails on an ocean crossing.
Skipper Rik Farrer said they were lacking in downwind sails on their Lagoon 620 Moose of Poole, so “created running backstays to allow for more downwind sail area to be flown”
Navigation/instruments
The majority of ARC yachts were extremely well-equipped with electronic navigation and back-up systems. Most had at least a couple of alternative means for electronic chartplotting, as well as handheld GPSs and VHFs. Sextants were also carried by at least 24 skippers.
Steve Jobs probably had no idea his Apple products would one day be considered a viable means for sailors to navigate across oceans, but some skippers simply listed an iPad and iPhone as their spares for navigation.
Others were more comprehensive in their alternatives, such as the Beneteau Oceanis 55 Julia which recorded: “Sextant, supporting books, iPad with iSailor and separate batteries, handheld GPS, two handheld VHFs and a spare satphone.” And the Bowman 48 Tairua carried “SSB, Satphone, two VHFs, two iPads, charts, sextant and tables”.
Many skippers carried spare water pumps or repair kits for each of the heads aboard. A solar shower is also a useful back-up.
An electric hob or microwave is a good alternative to gas – if you have sufficient principal and back-up electric power sources. Most yachts carried between three and six spare bottles of gas.
A cockpit barbecue is a good alternative for cooking in the open and acts as a back-up solution if there is a problem with the galley hob.
Carrying out repairs while sailing the Atlantic
Breakages can still happen even aboard the best-prepared yachts, so how do you deal with them when they do occur? The answer is to carry the right tools and spares, and be creative and resourceful.
Measures to combat chafing
Chafing issues and anti-chafe measures were once again the most common repairs made during the 2017 crossing. Using Dyneema sleeves on sheets and baggywrinkles on the rigging is advised to combat chafe on long downwind passages.
A galley chopping board was used creatively aboard the Beneteau Oceanis 55 Julia to help reduce chafe. “The spare halyard was moused and replaced as it was worn at the top of the mast,” skipper Louie Neocleous explained.
A plastic chopping board was called upon for a makeshift repair aboard the Beneteau Oceanis 55 Julia
“The spare halyard then also wore, so a plastic bush made from a sawn chopping board was fitted to stop wearing at the top of the mast.”
A chopping board also came in handy on Indian Summer, a Hallberg-Rassy 42, when the crew had to fashion a boom vang repair.
“The pop-rivets collapsed on the port side where the boom vang is fastened onto the mast,” Cecilia Hellner told us. “It probably happened when we accidently dipped the boom into the sea during a night watch in strong winds when sailing goosewinged.
“We took three straps and tightened the boom vang fastening onto the mast as much as we could. The red plastic you can see on the photo (above) is a soft plastic cutting board from IKEA that we had in the galley, cut into pieces to avoid chafing on the straps.
“To release the forces on the boom vang further we connected a spare mainsheet from the boom to the very bottom of the mast.”
Innovative rigging repairs
The crew of the Rival 38 Haji had a busy crossing. They replaced three different sheets, repaired a hole in the mainsail, recut the thread in a heavy shackle, and adjusted the rig set-up to fly twin headsails.
Meanwhile, aboard the Sweden 45 Wild Iris, the snap shackles on three 10mm rope blocks broke under load. Mark Pollington reported that they replaced the shackles with Spectra.
When the D1 shrouds snapped aboard the 72ft Challenger 2, both sides of the rig were stabilised using lines taken to winches. Aboard the Bordeaux 60 Tommy, a spare Dyneema strop was used to repair the genoa’s electric furling system. The Wauquiez 43 Khaleesi had to cut their spinnaker pole down, drilling and bolting the top to create a shorter but usable pole. And the Seawind 1160 Victory Cat “used aluminium bars to build a temporary rudder guide after track/car bearing failure.”
Most useful tools for Atlantic sailing repairs
A comprehensive tool set is key to being able to fashion repairs at sea. Standard domestic DIY tools rated consistently highly in the survey – screwdrivers, a power drill, spanners, wrenches, pliers, Allen keys, a socket set, vice grips, wire cutters, a hacksaw, duct/rescue tape, a soldering iron, a multimeter, etc.
As for less common tools, a rivet gun and a large selection of rivet sizes are consistently singled out as useful to carry – as were ratchets and webbing straps for gooseneck repairs.
A rivet gun is one of the most useful tools for affecting mid-Atlantic repairs
Among the bosun’s gear rated most handy were a good torch/headtorch with long battery life, a trusty multitool, a cutting knife and snorkelling gear.
A hot knife is “great for rope alteration,” said Richard Savage, who had to re-run the spinnaker halyard three times aboard his HR46 Shepherd Moon.
Equally, a good sail repair kit from sewing kit/needles and palm to a sewing machine was recommended.
Shipping a thorough selection of glues and lubricants makes sense. The skipper of Nikita, a Beneteau Oceanis 60, advocated taking a glass fibre repair kit and long bolts in case of broken portholes.
As the crew of Mood Magic, a Moody Carbineer 44, wisely commented, a ‘creative ability to fix things’ is key.
The spinnaker pole was drafted in as a jury mast to support a light and VHF aerial after Lykke dismasted
Continuing after a dismasting
Perhaps the most significant recommendation for tools, though, came from Stephan Mühlhause, after he had to cut away the rigging when his Hallberg-Rassy 46, Lykke, was dismasted 250 miles east of Barbados. “It was a normal night with 16 knots of wind and about 2m waves when we lost the mast. We are so glad that our emergency management worked. We acted like machines and we were lucky to have a battery flex [grinder] on board with stainless steel cutting discs. We could free the rig from the deck within 15 minutes without scratching the hull. The falling mast cut everything on its way down and the hydraulic oil splashed all over the deck.
“We waited until the morning came to make sure that nothing overlapped in the water. After that we started the engine. We were lucky that the wind calmed down and we had enough diesel to motor the final 300 miles to Saint Lucia.
“One of our crew built an emergency rig with the second spinnaker boom and could fix an emergency VHF antenna. A second crewmember informed MRCC Martinique which called other ships nearby.” A French ship sailed close by in company and they motored safely to Saint Lucia.
“Why did the mast break? We only had 16 knots of wind and in spring we renewed the shrouds, stays and spreaders. In Las Palmas, Jerry the Rigger said we have the safest rig and he wanted to give us a prize! We carried out a rig check every day and made the check before the night it happened. We could not see anything strange. The mast came down 1m above the deck. It broke to the port side slowly, without a broken shroud or stay.”
ARC yachts were, largely, very well-equipped with electronic navigation and back-up systems
Lessons learned from Atlantic sailing problems
An overriding message of advice from the skippers’ feedback was to bring ‘more’ – more fuel, more sail repair kit, more medical supplies, more adhesive, means, more generator parts, more hoses, more filters, more duct tape – and more patience.
Some skippers had issues with their alternators and advised taking spare alternators and parts. A functioning alternator is essential for maintaining comfort, especially if you don’t have reliable sources of alternative power. And, whatever your means of charging the batteries, they are still the life source of power aboard. During the 2016 ARC, 15 yachts had issues with charging old batteries, and on the last crossing two yachts had to make a pitstop in Cape Verde to replace theirs.
A few skippers assumed their batteries were OK but found they would not hold charge. So double-check your batteries and measure their state of charge well in advance of heading offshore.
We asked skippers what modifications they plan to make to their yachts or systems as a result of their ARC crossing. The answers largely came down to more electrical power and better offwind sail power – and the necessary attachments/deck gear (stabilising spinnaker poles, whisker poles, extra spinnaker halyards, blocks and preventers). The crew of Tintomara summarised it nicely: “more solar power, an extra wind/water generator, and more downwind sails”, while La Cigale wanted “one more cheap secondhand downwind sail for at night”.
Many skippers intended to fit an alternative means of power generation following their crossing – hydro or wind – to improve their alternators, or to increase their number of solar panels.
Personally, I like the sound of sailing on Mood Magic as they only planned “small changes: more cupholders, a cockpit fridge and outriggers!”
The lessons learned with regards to spares and repairs were the most telling and useful section of the survey. As Brian Steven on the Island Packet 420 Brag declared: “Assume that things will break – they do!”
Jeremy Wyatt, director of World Cruising Club, provides crucial support for our survey data
Expert’s advice
Jeremy Wyatt, director of the World Cruising Club, has attended all 20 ARCs since 1998. “The ARC survey has shown how seriously many ARC skippers think about overcoming potential problems at sea,” he told Yachting World. “Their spares kits reflect this.
“One area of concern to anyone planning an ocean crossing should always be how to cope with a steering failure. Often boats are heavily loaded at the start of a passage, and then encounter large tradewind waves, which puts a strain on boat and gear. Clearly, thorough inspection and maintenance is important before setting sail.
“However, plenty of ARC skippers are also planning for steering failure with a range of solutions. Perhaps the easiest is packing suitable lengths of Dyneema lines or spare cables. For hydraulic steering systems, spare hydraulic oil is essential.
“Windvanes, especially Hydrovanes, with their auxiliary rudders, were popular, with 19 boats using them. Perhaps most surprising was the number of boats (30) with either dual autopilots fitted giving 100 per cent redundancy, or carrying a full spare pilot. More still had spare linear drive arms, and/or pilot computers providing a back-up. Spare fuses can also help fix an unhappy pilot – eight pilot failures were recorded in 2017.
“While fully crewed boats can hand-steer if needed, having functioning self-steering is essential for short-handed crews. For them the cost of a spare autopilot, or a windvane, is outweighed by the mitigation it brings to what would be a serious problem.
“This is the best way to view your spares locker on a system-by-system basis and consider the knock-on effect of any item malfunctioning.”
Preparations for the voyage from the Caribbean to Europe need to begin before you leave home, but what should you consider?
Photo: Tor Johnson
By early summer the peak Caribbean season is coming to a close, ushered out by a fusillade of big regattas. Then, with summer returning to the northern latitudes, crews begin the return leg of their migration back home.
While most people focus on crossing the Atlantic from Europe to the Caribbean, the voyage back to Europe or the US east coast is equally important – in some ways more so. The road home can be more testing, but it is also varied, and planning for it should ideally shape your preparations from the time you plan to leave home for a season in the sun. What should you weigh up in your crew and boat preparations and which route and strategy is best?
You could, of course, always take the easy way out – remember that old saw that nothing goes to windward quite like a 747! You could get your boat sailed home by a delivery crew, or shipped back to the Mediterranean or northern Europe.
These options, once the preserve of big motorboat owners and superyachts, are gaining popularity with mainstream cruisers, especially the time-pressed – in fact, a couple of owners I interviewed at the Caribbean 600 this year had their yachts shipped out from Europe and had booked them back by ship later in the season.
Nevertheless, each year, around 1,000 yachts arrive in Horta en route to Europe (the total was 1,232 in 2015, to be exact). Yachts mainly stop here in May and June and around half have come direct from a Caribbean island, while a majority of others arrive via the staging post of Bermuda. According to a survey by Jimmy Cornell: ‘every year approximately 1,200 boats cross the Atlantic from the Cape Verdes, Canaries and Madeira along the north- east tradewinds route.’
A return voyage from the Caribbean to northern latitudes can be testing for boats and crew. Photo: Tor Johnson
The route back is a well-travelled one, but it is a very different proposition to the way out. The days will be lengthening as a crew sails north-east, yet the temperatures are falling and the weather can be very varied and occasionally testing.
Dan Bower, who wrote our Bluewater Sailing Series and made his umpteenth west-east transatlantic passage in May 2018, returning from the Caribbean on his Skye 51 Skyelark, says: “We consider the passage to be heavy weather and prepare accordingly.”
But it is also one of the most interesting voyages, and the almost mandatory stop in the Azores means you’ll visit some of the most unspoilt, hospitable and interesting islands anywhere in the world. Plus there is the undoubted satisfaction of knowing that you are closing the circle of your Atlantic circuit by your own efforts and skills.
Numerically, the most common yachts for an Atlantic crossing are ordinary production cruisers with standard kit, usually with upgrades of…
Preparations
“We look at the west-east transatlantic as very different from the ARC or indeed any of the other ocean trips we do because it can be largely upwind and has potential for heavy weather,” says Dan Bower.
“It is guaranteed that the first week is full on, close-hauled in the tradewinds, and life at 20-30° in a big ocean swell puts more demands on the boat and crew. Then depending on the position of the Azores High, after the lull in the middle, the second half of the journey can be lively downwind or back to beating.”
Make regular checks on sails and rigging, looking particularly for chafe damage. Photo: Tor Johnson
Given this, you’ll need to think from the outset about your upwind and stronger wind sails, and your yacht preparations for the route across to Europe. So when you consider the outlay for an expensive downwind sail inventory, for example new spinnaker or Parasailor, don’t forget the good condition mainsail with perhaps a fourth reef and the strong staysail that will be just as invaluable on the way back.
Preparing your boat for everything from flat calms to gales is paramount, and after a lazy season in the Caribbean everything needs to be checked over. Skip Novak’s Storm Sailing Series features a run through some of the essential deck checks.
Dan Bower also emphasises these basic checks. “A good inspection and rig check before departure is a must, and we rig for heavy weather with our smaller headsail on the furler and have the staysail ready to go.
“We also consider taking some extra fuel on board to give options around the high. Because of the water that will be shipped going into a big swell, all items on deck need to be well lashed down, and thought given to any water entry points. We seal our chain hawse pipe and block off dorade vents. Thought also needs to be given to what items you will need to be easily accessible first, so that you’re not trying to fight to the back of a windward locker as you’re landing off a wave, or needing to access the forepeak for a spare rope.”
Careful and comprehensive rig checks are essential for an Atlantic crossing in either direction. Photo: Richard Langdon
Fuel and spares
As well as taking extra fuel in jerrycans or flexible tanks, don’t forget to pre-empt fuel supply problems by stocking lots of engine fuel filters and lots of Racor water separator filters. On most crossings you rarely use the engine, but if it’s a light wind year its great to have the ability to push through a wind hole and get into the wind on the other side, more fuel gives you more options. Also, consider buying a portable transfer pump as juggling with funnels and pouring diesel at sea is a messy, troublesome job.
To get the most from your fuel tankage, keep to your minimum cruising revs. Boat manufacturers should be able to give you a fuel consumption curve for your engine so you can calculate your range based on engine hours and how much fuel is in your tank.
Duncan Sweet runs Mid-Atlantic Yacht Services in Horta, providing a great service, but one that gets very busy in late April and May. He advises skippers to be prepared to do oil and filter changes themselves. “I get people coming in here to ask us to do it and I have to say: ‘No, sorry, we don’t have time’,” he says.
Sweet also strongly advises that you carry key spares you might need, and replace any you may have used after your Atlantic crossing on the way out, such as pump or autopilot parts. Getting spares out to the Azores can be difficult and takes time.
Carry spare fuel in case you have to motor more than you expect, and find out from your boat manufacturer your vessel’s most economical engine cruising revs
“The average time people spend here is four to five days. If you have to wait for spares that will be six to ten days, depending on the supplier at the other end, it will delay you, and the cost of transport [air freight], for, say, a pump can be €60-80 per leg for the two legs.”
A good rigging check before leaving is essential. Your standing and running rig will now have covered thousands of salty, sunny miles and the return transatlantic crossing will see you spend long days on one tack so expect chafe to occur on sheets and halyards. A professional rigging check can be well worth the cost, but if you do it yourself make sure you work from stem to stern checking every item.
Jerry Henwood, aka Jerry the Rigger, who does most of the rig checks for the ARC rally advises: “Check your standing rigging wire where it enters the swage. Is it nice and smooth? The most common place for standing rigging to break is just inside the swage and as it’s inside you can’t always see it, but you can feel it.
“Look at the mast, boom and spreaders. Check all areas where anything joins, exits or is just attached. It should all be smooth with no cracks. All fastenings must be tight and secure. And check all split pins and key rings and make sure these are taped up so that anything passing over them (ropes, clothing, sails, etc.) does not catch on them and pull them open.”
Here’s more from Jerry’s hit list:
Check for any missing or damaged key rings on standing rigging, especially guardwires.
Check for any loose nuts on pelican hooks on the guardwires.
Check there are no cracks on the tang on the boom where the vang joins.
Check struts on the radar brackets aren’t wearing away or coming loose.
Check VHF aerials at the masthead aren’t loose.
Re-mouse all your shackles so they don’t come undone.
Choosing the best route
Should you sail to the Azores (generally Horta) or go the longer route via Bermuda?
There are pros and cons to each. Weather systems spinning off the US East Coast bring lows and frontal systems that can extend well south, and at some point a yacht making the west-to-east crossing will be overtaken by at least one front, possibly more. So the aim is to catch and ride favourable winds for as far as possible, and most boats head for the Azores to make a stop there and then pick their timing to head across to Spain or Portugal or up to the UK.
Photo: Isbjorn Sailing
Tortola in the British Virgin Islands or St Maarten are the most popular starting points – they are well positioned and good for provisioning, spares, chandlery and repairs. But many crews make an intermediate stop in Bermuda and this is a particularly good option if the wind patterns change three to four days out from the Caribbean. In Bermuda, crews can take a break, re-provision, enjoy the island, and wait for a good weather springboard for the next leg.
According to Jimmy Cornell, author of World Cruising Routes, as early as March and as late as mid-May there are reasonable chances of favourable south-easterly and south-westerly winds on leaving the Eastern Caribbean. The advice he offers is to track north-easterly towards the Azores and stay south of 30°N until 40°W.
For decades, the late Herb Hilgenberg provided free weather services to eastbound yachtsmen, and when I interviewed him a few years ago he also advised an even more cautious route:
“I advocate the southerly route to the Azores,” he said, “and recommend that boats head east and stay south of 35°N until I see that nothing significant is developing. “You can stay at 32-33°N until a few days out from the Azores and then head north. I would not go north of the area north of 35°N or west of 45°W until June.”
Low pressure systems tend to lie further south earlier in the season and if you head north you would typically end up north of the Azores in headwinds. As summer approaches the lows tend to move further north and the Azores High expands so that you get lighter winds as you make your way towards the Azores.
For cruisers a southerly route is generally preferable, staying south of the Gulf Stream in lighter winds and taking on extra fuel and motoring if necessary.
Photo: Tor Johnson
Weather forecasts
Whether or not you’ve considered paying for tailored forecasting and routeing information on the way out to the Caribbean, it’s a good investment on the way back. In effect, you’re gaining an extra crewmember, someone with proper connectivity to put the hours into obtaining weather data including real time information from satellites and weather buoys, to work out your best options.
Weather experts can provide a service as and when you need it – what forecaster Simon Rowell calls ‘leaving note for the milkman’ – or on a daily basis. A good forecaster will ask you to check in anyway and will be keeping an eye out for anything untoward heading your way. They will help you decide how to shape your route, and even adapt your sailing to, say, slow down if necessary and track south out of stronger winds.
Rowell estimates his costs for providing this service to an average 40-footer doing Atlantic crossing at around £500, while Stephanie Ball at MeteoGib charges around £70 for daily 24hr SMS-type forecasts to a satphone or tracker. You can sign up to more comprehensive information and grib files, or request forecasts every two or three days.
Hearty, warming meals will be required as the temperature drops. Photo: Isbjorn Sailing
Crew for the voyage
You might not have quite the number of takers for a voyage to Europe as you had on the way to the Caribbean and, as skipper, you need to think about crew who have the appetite for what might be more of challenge.
As Dan Bower puts it: “There is an increased chance of seasickness and even for those not afflicted there is less desire to do much in the way of domestic duties. “Crew agility and fitness becomes more important as deck work and moving around the boat can be a challenge, at least initially.”
On Skyelark, they make life easier by pre-cooking most of the main meals and keeping lunches and breakfasts simple, though “we carry some other celebration meals for when conditions merit; a Sunday roast is great for morale,” he says.
Photo: Tor Johnson
Hearty and warming meals are needed just at a time when you will be sailing at an angle for perhaps days, so anything that makes it easier is worth investing in. A pressure cooker will come back into its own for probably the first time since you left colder waters.
Round the world sailors Anne and Stuart Letton, who have sailed two-handed back across the Atlantic several times, recommend Mr D’s Thermal Cooker, a slow cooker you can put all the ingredients in during the morning, bring to a simmer and then leave to cook slowly throughout the day to be ready in the evening.
You also need to unpack all those mid-layers and boots that got stowed away when you reached the Tropics. By day the temperatures might be warm enough for T-shirts and shorts, but at night it can get quite cold. This also makes watchkeeping more tiring, so you may want to consider changing your previous rota.
Rolling watches or double watches can help the time go by quicker, and give you as skipper more confidence and rest, though it might mean you need more crew for this route.
The weather will be cooling on a west-east Atlantic crossing… but there might still be a chance for a mid-ocean swim. Photo: Tor Johnson
But the way across to Europe is one of the best ocean voyages, argues Dan Bower. “With all of the above in mind, this remains one of my favourite trips. You have powerful upwind sailing, the days are getting longer, the weather and skies becoming more interesting and the sea and bird life are plentiful.
“The lighter winds midway give a chance for the boat and crew to be scrubbed clean, and perhaps you get a chance to have a mid-ocean swim and a midway celebration, before (hopefully) a downwind ride to the Azores, where the sense of accomplishment and the warm welcome is remembered by every sailor who ever visits.”
The X4-9 is a stylish performance cruiser that is both manageable short-handed and can still win races, reports Pip Hare
Photos: Rick Tomlinson
The X49 is squarely aimed at the no-compromise sailor who wants it all. It combines a comfortable, stylish interior, with clean, beautiful lines on deck and can even be raced with a minimal crew. This is a tough balance to achieve, and so often compromise can lead to disappointment.
Setting out on one of the only blustery days of the summer, with a crew of four, I was intrigued to find out if this 50-footer could really deliver the whole package. Within ten minutes of leaving the berth I was glued to the helm, blasting upwind with a grin on my face. When a company has 40 years of design experience, hybrid does not necessarily mean compromise.
The X49 is the third model to launch in the new ‘Pure’ X range, following the impressive X43 and X65 that we tested two years ago. This popular new range aims to bridge the gap between the Xp performance and Xc cruising lines. Some 18 boats have already sold since the first hull launched early this year.
Hitting the sweet spot between comfort and performance is a tricky thing to achieve, but this boat appears to have it all. The stylish interior combines good looks and practicality. On deck the X49 cuts an equally subtle yet impressive figure. The pin stripes of a full teak deck run seamlessly from bow to stern with every piece of deck gear that may interrupt it recessed or covered.
Control lines – along with the sprayhood – are concealed beneath the completely uncluttered deck
Our test boat had twin carbon wheels on unobtrusive pedestals and carried a carbon rig and deep V-boom. No single item grabs the eye but the whole boat holds your attention. It’s a powerful yacht, yet one that can be simply managed solo using well laid-out electric controls – perfect for a greedy helmsman.
Leaving our berth in the Hamble River, the wind was gusting 18 knots, with grey clouds scudding across the sky. It was going to be a feisty day and I was interested to see how our small crew would cope.
Power on tap
Looking up the 20m (65ft 7in) mast, I sensed the effort of hoisting the mainsail but no sooner had those thoughts crossed my mind than the main was up and the self-tacking jib set. Our test boat had an upgrade to electric power for all four winches and so handling the 119m2 sail area was effortless: without this option, a lot of huffing and puffing will doubtless be involved.
Gently pulling the wheel down we bore away and almost immediately began blasting along at over 7 knots, the X49 straining to go faster. The instant power didn’t seem to match with how easily all the sail appeared; it felt like we’d dropped the clutch on a high-revving engine and I half expected to see steam rising from the wake behind us.
A flush, uncluttered deck contributes to X4^9’s pleasingly clean lines
The wind was at the top limit for a full mainsail as we set off on a bouncy beat, which provided a dynamic and rapid ride. The X49 felt tender in transition from a standing start to being powered-up close hauled, heeling to around 20°, but once under way our angle of heel remained steady and appropriate for performance.
At a true wind angle of 44° the X49 stormed along at 7.5 knots giving a performance on the fast side of the cruising/racing spectrum. Helming from either position required only a light touch and even at maximum heel I felt completely secure standing against the single foot chock – even so, X-Yachts plan to offer a hinging steering ‘platform’ for greater stability on future models.
The low side deck only reached the back of my knees while standing and I wondered if this would be a compromise to comfort. In fact, it proved comfortable when heeled and felt natural with a great view of the sails and sea.
Ease of handling
The wind remained shifty and 20-knot bullets of breeze started to bully us as we tacked between shallows. Our test boat was fitted with an electric mainsheet traveller below decks, an optional feature I was hugely impressed by. The flat winder is effectively a captive winch system that drives the mainsheet car up and down the recessed track. The motor dropped the car fast enough to keep the X49 on its feet during the gusts and only required a light touch of a finger to power us back up.
The standard X49 package has a German mainsheet attached to a central point and no traveller. An increasing trend in cruising boats, this seems an acceptable shift from the barely effective coachroof travellers. However, given the ‘Pure’ X ethos is firmly grounded in a quality sailing experience, I was surprised that travellers are not standard. I personally struggle with the performance compromise when trimming a mainsail on vang and sheet alone.
I quizzed X-Yachts’ founder and designer Niels Jeppesen on this and he responded that not all sailors actively use travellers and that, particularly on larger yachts, they can be dangerous for novice crews or guests. This is good reasoning but I feel the recessed and motorised solution to this problem is beautiful, practical and safe – I would pay the extra £7,000 to control the leech.
When we eventually capitulated to conditions, tucking in a first reef, the angle of heel reduced and our ride instantly became less twitchy with little effect on speed.
If the electric green hull and striking looks of Nica don’t grab your attention, then its on-paper description certainly will.…
For my first tack at the helm I announced “Ready to tack?” and received the confirmation from our crew of three. Steering slowly through the tack, I anticipated a flurry of activity, but instead watched the crew get up, cross the cockpit and settle themselves into the cushions again as the self-tacking jib flopped over. Again, I was surprised by the performance versus effort relationship. There is little for crew to other than to sit back and enjoy the ride.
All four winches are set to the back of the cockpit leaving the seating area entirely rope-free. Despite the frisky conditions, the waves only reached halfway down the coachroof, leaving the cockpit totally dry.
Trimming is done from a slot in front of the helm, with a great view of the sails and its own foot support. The controls are quite low down so trimming on the leeward side requires crouching, which felt a little awkward when heeled.
Primary and secondary winches are of equal size and set well apart for simultaneous use. The bank of jammers and rope organisers are far enough forward to allow ropes to be taken to either winch in a sensible radius. Controls could be reached by the helmsman leaning around the wheel.
The standard package comes with a self-tacking jib, though all boats are engineered to take longitudinal genoa tracks. Of the 18 boats sold to date, none have chosen that option. Our North 3Di jib had a number of holes in the clew, which provided surprisingly effective twist control on the breeze – move the shackle up a hole to reduce twist, down to open the top of the sail.
For reaching, a well-placed padeye attaches to the toerail to create an outboard lead. When powered up reaching under full main, we achieved 10 knots of boat speed at 100–110° to the true wind. I don’t imagine you would use the jib much below 150° true, as the position of the jib car makes it difficult to fill or pole-out, wing on wing. We made speeds of 7-8 knots dead downwind under main alone.
Our test boat carried a 200m2 asymmetric spinnaker on a top-down furler, which we set in the lee of the Isle of Wight. Off-wind sails are flown from a padeye on the stemhead, as the stainless-steel bow roller has no bobstay so cannot support significant load.
We carried the spinnaker in winds from 14 knots up to 20 knots, managing wind angles of between 130° and 150° to the true wind. Our boat speed peaked at 12 knots and steering was fun but quite a handful at the higher wind angles.
In the stronger breeze, the 2.4m deep rudder kept a good grip but needed active interaction, resulting in fun and energetic sailing. I hogged the helm downwind, enjoying the ride and eating up the miles.
A self-tacking jib on an X? It helps make a powerful boat easy to handle when shorthanded
Stowage taken seriously
Stowage on deck is in ‘the ends’ with both a cavernous bow sail locker and a lazarette cum tender garage. The transom drops down to create a bathing platform, revealing a garage 2.5m wide between the rams. This is large enough to stow a small inflated tender and houses access hatches for steering gear, rudder bearings and the mainsheet traveller system.
There is dedicated liferaft stowage under the starboard cockpit seats, which lift entirely off a flat bottom enabling the raft to be slid-out rather than lifted.
The garage is 2.5m wide between rams, but the test boat packed in a 3.2m RIB with deflated bow
The recessed sprayhood sits beneath a number of teak deck panels. To raise it, all panels must be removed, the hood erected, before the panels are replaced. It’s a multistep process, so don’t expect to be putting this up and down during a day on the water, but it’s a stylish solution to the problem of ugly and cumbersome sprayhoods.
Under the water, the X49 uses the T-keel of the Xp but has deeper sections and more rocker, like the Xc, for a more comfortable motion upwind. Topsides culminate in a substantial moulded toerail, and there is a gentle sheerline as the deck rises up to meet a blunt bow.
Strength and quality are cornerstones of X-Yachts build and design. Hulls are vacuum-infused, post-cured epoxy foam sandwich, with three watertight bulkheads. Rod rigging is standard.
Interior fit-out is understated but with a soft and welcoming feel
Below decks
Below decks the Pure X49 is understated but stunning. The standard finish of Nordic oak is earthy but not dark and no reflective materials have been used in proximity to LED downlights to eliminate any ugly pinpoints of bright light. Overall the effect is soft and welcoming. The saloon felt instantly comfortable, a warm space with room both to live and practically stow all that’s needed.
The eyecatching centrepiece dining table is surrounded by a U-shaped sofa. There is stowage under the seats, accessed either via lifting tops on gas struts or deep pull-out drawers. Lockers at head level surround the entire cabin. All bench and cupboard tops are fitted with ergonomic fiddles, which add to a secure feeling moving around under way.
Located forward of the heads is a dedicated navstation. When not in use, instruments can be hidden from sight behind a locker door and, if a chartplotter is required, an additional wooden structure can be fitted over the chart table at eye-level.
The L-shaped galley is spacious and ergonomic, with white Corian worktops including a stove cover, a double sink, the option for two fridges and space for a microwave and the ubiquitous espresso machine. Opposite the galley is the aft heads, which has an integrated shower.
The X4^9 can sleep up to six
Smart cabins
The owner’s cabin is forward, an area flooded with light from two separate full-size deck hatches and bed-level hull windows. The main feature of this minimalist cabin is the large island bed and thick mattress. The bed lifts revealing stowage beneath. The ensuite heads is a generous size and has a separate shower cubicle.
The X49 is available with either two double guest cabins or a twin and a double aft cabin arrangement. Our test boat had the latter as well as bespoke fabric pipe cots.
The twin singles can be converted to a double using an insert, which creates versatility. Set up as a twin, the cabin did not feel cramped, there was plenty of room between the berths and I was able to sit comfortably upright on both bunks.
Engine room access is a bit of a squeeze
Both cabins have large hanging lockers and drawers as well as under-bunk stowage. Access to the space under the cockpit is through side hatches from both cabins – here there is room for a generator, and a washing machine should they be chosen as options.
Our test boat had an uprated 80hp engine which seemed to fill every inch of the space under the companionway. There are additional access panels on both side of the engine bay but you won’t be getting in there to service the engine without a bit of a wriggle.
Our verdict
The X49 is an impressive beast that certainly seems to have it all. It is elegant and stylish without being showy and the consistent, thoughtful design and high quality build will appeal enormously to the experienced sailor.
But the magic really happens when you hoist the sails. It kept me engaged from the first moment I grabbed the helm and I was blown away that such a dynamic sailing experience could be achieved with such little effort.
There’s no doubt that our test boat, with its carbon rig and top-quality sails, gave an enhanced performance, but even without these features I believe this boat could feed our sailing souls.
There is truly a delicate balance between comfort, style, performance and the effort required to sail a boat of this size, but the X49 has the potential to keep everyone happy. This is not a compromise – X-Yachts has nailed it.
With the need to clean up our oceans widely evident, we ask how every sailor can be part of the solution
The dream of turquoise waters is threatened by plastic pollution. Photo: Tor Johnson
We need to clean up our oceans. Biologist Anna Turns investigates the global scale of plastic pollution, while Toby Hodges looks at how the top sailors and event organisers are leading the charge for change…
From lost fishing nets down to microscopic particles from cosmetics, every piece of plastic ever produced is still on this planet. An astonishing 300 million tonnes of plastic items are produced worldwide every year, it never biodegrades and scientists estimate that as much as four per cent washes into or is dumped at sea every year.
Once in the oceans, plastic may get broken down by sunlight and wave action into millimetre-sized microplastic debris, but this can be just as much, or more, of a hazard to marine mammals, seabirds, fish and other creatures as they can mistake it for food.
Photo: UNEP
But with a growing number of campaigns about plastic pollution, hard-hitting documentaries exposing the problem, and inventions to help collect debris, we are finally paying attention to the far-reaching effects of plastic pollution. As consumers, we all have the potential to make a positive impact, and as sailors we can play an important part.
So what is the scale of the problem and what can we all do to help keep our oceans clean?
Richard Thompson is professor of marine biology at the University of Plymouth, heading up the International Marine Litter Research Unit. He first coined the phrase ‘microplastics’ in 2004. Thompson is optimistic that we can gradually change the way we produce, use and dispose of plastic but he says there’s no quick fix: “We can’t manage without plastics because they bring too many societal benefits, so going plastic-free isn’t the answer.
Professor Richard Thompson, who first coined the phrase ‘microplastics’, says it’s crucial to design plastic items with end-of- life in mind. Photo: Lloyd Russell
“It’s complex but solvable. Ultimately, it’s about designing and using plastic differently. It’s crucial that we design plastic items with end-of-life in mind, especially single-use items that are used so fleetingly and yet make up 40 per cent of plastic produced.
“Single-use plastics is a key proportion of marine litter and therefore a great starting place to address the issue of ocean plastics,” says Thompson.
It is the stuff of every sailor’s nightmare – the unseen object, lurking beneath a wave, which punctures your hull…
The garbage patches
Eight million tonnes of waste plastic ends up in the sea each year from land (Prof Jenna Jambeck, University of Georgia, Science, 2015) and 50 per cent of litter found on beaches globally consists of single-use items or fragments of them. That is rapidly increasing year on year according to Ocean Conservancy.
In 1997, just 90 years after the invention of plastics, sailor Charles Moore discovered huge accumulations of plastic waste on the surface of the North Pacific as he crossed from Hawaii to California. What was named the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now known to be one of five main subtropical gyres or circulating systems of ocean currents that draw floating debris into a huge vortex.
A typical catch from eXXpedition’s manta trawl net
These patches are growing so fast that they’re visible from space, according to the UN environmental programme. The heart of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is estimated to be one millions square kilometres (386,000 square miles).
Bold solutions are needed for such a huge problem and a 23-year-old Dutch inventor is one of those who thinks he has one. Boyan Slat, the founder of The Ocean Cleanup Foundation, has designed 62-mile-long floating, curved barriers, which rely on ocean currents to funnel waste together ready for collection by boat.
He plans to clean up the 7.25m tonnes of extractable plastic floating in these gyres within five years in one of the largest environmental rescue operations yet. “We need a combination of prevention and clean up, soon,” says Slat.
The Ocean Cleanup’s pilot barriers collects floating plastic. Photo: Erwin Zwart
But Richard Thompson believes the solution lies more in systemic change: “If I were placing money and effort in terms of solutions, I would put 99 per cent into reducing the input and one per cent into clean-up. As less plastic enters the environment, we could spend more on clean-up.”
What you don’t see
It’s not just the plastic that’s floating on the surface that we need to consider. Thompson’s team has discovered microplastics locked inside Arctic sea ice and in deep ocean trenches. It’s ubiquitous.
“We find microplastic everywhere we look. Plastic is pervading habitats a long way from human civilisations in pieces that even tiny microscopic marine animals called zooplankton can eat. It isn’t possible to cleanse all of those habitats, so the priority must be to reduce the input of plastic to the ocean,” says Thompson.
Preparing the manta trawl net for sampling
“We still don’t have a great understanding of how plastic moves around – computer models make predictions but what we really need is data.”
To understand more, Thompson has been working closely with sailors and scientists circumnavigating the British Isles on board the 72ft yacht Sea Dragon.
As part of a project called eXXpedition that was co-founded by sailor and activist Emily Penn, this boat is fully equipped for scientific research. A 14-strong all- female crew has been researching ocean pollution since 2014, crossing all the main gyres and using a manta trawl net to sample ocean plastics.
The eXXpedition team completed its tenth voyage trawling for plastics and toxics in 2017, sailing round 2,000 miles of British coastline and bringing back a unique set of samples from UK waters, including sediment samples from seven ports. This will help identify microplastics found in different environments.
Plastic is already working its way up the food chain and Thompson’s team recently found evidence of microplastics in one-third of UK-landed fish. “That really brings home the fact that plastics are present in the things we eat,” he says. Human exposure to contamination from seafood is still very low, he believes, so it’s not yet a human health concern. However, this evidence is alarming enough for scientists, policy makers, the plastics industry and the general public to want to make changes.
Toxic food
When marine animals and seabirds consume plastic items, they can starve to death. Microplastics also act like sponges, absorbing toxic chemicals and pesticides, and some plastics attract a layer of algae, making them smell like tasty morsels of food.
Microplastics come in many forms. Countless billions of lentil-sized plastic pellets known as nurdles or mermaid’s tears are shipped around the world and used as the raw material to manufacture plastic products. Spillages pose a huge risk to the marine environment and these tiny nurdles are found in abundance washed up on seashores worldwide.
Plastic in the sea gets broken down by sunlight and wave action into multiple small pieces. Photo: Studio Swine
Nondegradable microfibres shed from synthetic fleece material during laundry cycles can also enter the water system. Tiny plastic balls called microbeads are washed away every time we rinse off certain cosmetics, toothpaste and household cleaning products.
Slowly, policy is changing and governments are starting to ban the sale and manufacture of microbeads. But a more extensive, integrated approach is possible.
Costa Rican government officials announced ambitious plans for a countrywide ban on all single-use plastics by 2021. Most countries in the world have a linear system whereby items are made, used and disposed of. But recovering products and reusing plastics before allowing them to impact our environment changes that to a more innovative, circular economy.
For example, the Italian company Aquafil collects ‘ghost’ or spent fishing nets from around the world and regenerates the nylon to produce Econyl yarn used by companies such as Adidas, Finisterre and Davy J to manufacture swimwear.
If we rethink the future of plastics and the way we create things, products start to look more sustainable in the long-term.
Turn The Tide On Plastic was one of three 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race teams to promote a message of sustainability
Leading by example
The plastic problem seems almost too daunting to digest, but the tide is turning. There is now a collective change in our attitudes towards reusing and recycling plastic. So where does – and can – sailing fit in to this?
Whether it be with respect to technology, manufacturing processes, or innovation, most yachtsmen do look to the top end of our sport for trends that will ultimately trickle down. The same applies to sustainability. Top racing event organisers and pro sailors know that they can reach a big audience and many are now being proactive and leading by example in the fight to clean up our oceans.
“When you’re at the elite level of the sport you are looked at through a microscope,” says Dee Caffari, who skippered the yacht Turn the Tide on Plastic in the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race. “It’s a big responsibility but then you realise how powerful your reach is when you’re delivering a simple message.”
Ellen MacArthur was one of the early sailing stars to realise the impact she could have. Her Ellen MacArthur Foundation includes a New Plastics Economy programme.
Fresh water dispensers are becoming a common sight at race villages. Photo: Pedro Martinez / Volvo Ocean Race
The winners of its $1m innovation prize were announced at the Our Ocean conference in Malta in October and ideas included a new method of delivering groceries without any single use packaging.
The Extreme Sailing Series organisers OC Sport have worked with Sailors for the Sea to set a benchmark for ‘clean’ regattas. And the America’s Cup village in Bermuda in June 2017 was another example of what should already be the norm for any large event. Swedish water purification company Bluewater provided water fountains, there were no plastic plates or bottles and members of the media were even issued with a free Klean Kanteen reusable aluminium bottle – the perfect sustainable souvenir.
A sustainable Volvo Ocean Race
With its 12 stopovers around the globe, the Volvo Ocean Race is the ideal billboard for promoting a cleaner future for our seas. “Our goal is to leave a legacy,” said CEO Mark Turner when he announced the VOR sustainability programme for the 2017-18 edition and beyond. Partnerships were signed with 11th Hour Racing, AkzoNobel and the United Nations Environment and a series of commitments that focus on ocean health were outlined.
“In each location we are able to impact, influence, change views, and get new commitments while we are there from governments and business,” says Turner.
Where once it was alcohol and cigarette firms, banks or mobile phone companies that sponsored the Whitbread and Volvo Ocean Race teams, the last edition was more in tune with our times. Three of the VOR teams, together with the organisers, promoted a sustainability message during the 2017-18 race.
Damian Foxall, who embarked on his tenth round the world race when he set off with Vestas 11th Hour Racing, says it was this focus on ocean health and sustainability that drew him back. “My personal goal is to have a positive plastic footprint… a personal plastic footprint that has refused, reduced, reused, recycled, and recovered more plastic than consumed.”
A Brazil beach clean during a VOR stopover. Photo: Ian Roman / Volvo Ocean Race
Dee Caffari explained to us how the race villages ban plastic water bottles, straws and cable ties, and will serve sustainably sourced food. Her campaign focuses on plastic pollution in particular. “We’re trying to raise people’s awareness of the issues and trying to change their behaviours.
“We’re also carrying a science project onboard that’s never been used before,” she says. The Turn the Tide on Plastic crew will take daily GPS-logged water samples to measure for quantities of microplastics. The actual data we will collect is real data that industry leaders and government cannot ignore.”
Surely there is a large element of hypocrisy here, though: multimillion pound yachts and their large support teams flying in and out of countries all round the globe? Caffari agrees: “We talk about harnessing the power of nature and purity of our sport – but we cook carbon boats, ship containers and fly people to these events. It’s important we acknowledge that, don’t shy away from it and talk about how we’re compensating for it.”
All VOR crews support sustainability with simple messages like this by Dongfeng Race Team’s Marie Riou. Photo: Jen Edney / Volvo Ocean Race
She says the VOR sustainability programme is all about leaving a legacy in each port they visit, both through infrastructure and education. “As a race we are investing in the research to make a difference. Unless we keep demanding the changes then the people at the top won’t make those changes. As part of the UN initiative that Turn The Tide on Plastic is attached to, we are trying to help reach that top echelon. As a sailing team we won’t get there, but as part of a bigger team we might.”
“You have to think how simple things can be done by everyday people,” says Caffari. “If everybody just changes their behaviour slightly it will have a knock-on effect. We’ve got fresh drinking water readily available, but we’re not using it. Let’s have fountains available and have everyone carrying a water bottle. Let’s get people carrying a thermal mug rather than cups that can’t be recycled.”
“Single use plastic is something we can all do better on,” agrees Emily Penn, who has spent the last decade combing the oceans, studying and campaigning against plastic and microplastics. Penn was the first woman to be awarded the international Yachtmaster of the Year and lectured the 2017-18 Volvo crews about sustainability. “What’s really surprised me is that plastic is not only dense in the gyres, it’s literally covering our whole oceans – 70 per cent of the planet.”
She agrees with Professor Richard Thompson’s earlier comments that it is much more efficient to focus on prevention at source rather than clean up afterwards. Penn encourages all sailors to use the free Marine Debris Tracker app.
Sailors must play their part. There is no reason today to ship gallons of water aboard in plastic bottles, for example. The likelihood is that cruisers will be carrying those bottles to somewhere they won’t be recycled.
Back in 2014, we surveyed 225 skippers taking part in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) specifically on the subject of water provision on board. The fleet shipped 30,000 litres of bottled water between them! That’s an average of 145lt of bottled water per boat just for a two- to three-week crossing. In fact, we’d underestimated usage ourselves and the maximum amount they could enter in our survey form was ‘200lt plus’, so the average was probably considerably higher. Yet around 60 per cent of the fleet had watermakers to supplement an average fresh water tank capacity of 500lt.
For storing reserve water, collapsible containers and jerrycans are better than buying bottled water. Alternatively, reduce consumption of fresh water on board by fitting a saltwater tap or using manual pumps at sea rather than electric pumps.
By making small lifestyle changes, every person can immediately make a difference. The wider the message is spread, the more pressure will be placed on the authorities to make changes, such as introducing bans on single-use plastics. Sailors are well placed to help and have the best motivation to do so.
Our promise
Yachting World will support and highlight all areas of marine sustainability. In future issues we will be looking specifically at ‘end of life boats’ and the latest thinking on recyclable materials in boatbuilding. We will champion new products and initiatives or smart building methodology in our news, gear and yachts pages.
Does push-button technology mean a 50-plus footer really can be sailed easily by a couple? David Harding puts the Hanse 548 to the test in the Solent
Sailing photos: Paul Wyeth
Imagine putting a cruising couple from the late 1990s into a time capsule and fast-forwarding them to the present. Then tell them about the Hanse 548 – a stylish, modern cruiser that offers exceptional value for money, sails effortlessly at 10 knots, fits in up to four double cabins and is easily managed by a crew of two.
Would these people believe you? Back in their day, a 40-footer was usually considered the biggest boat a husband-and-wife crew could expect to handle safely and efficiently. And even if they could cope in open water, what about manoeuvring and berthing?
Now let’s invite them to join us on our test sail on the Hanse 548. Just getting aboard will elicit comment because, for some people, the gunwale will be at shoulder height when they’re standing on the pontoon. Then, once the warps are dropped, our guests will observe how the boat can be extricated from an angled berth with only a few feet of clearance at either end, spinning in her own length with the help of the bow- and stern-thrusters.
We tested hull number one of the Hanse 548 over two days in the Solent
When we’re ready to set sail, once again they’ll be struck by the way things have moved on in 20 years. It’s not that any of the sailhandling systems are new or radical, because electric furlers, self-tacking headsails, electric winches and in-mast mainsail reefing have all been around for some time, as have the thrusters.
Some of these are extras on the Hanse 548, but what stands out about her is the way the rig, deck and cockpit layout work with whatever push-button systems you choose to make a boat of this size so easy to manage short-handed. For our 1990s couple it will be extraordinary to witness. Even by today’s standards it’s pretty remarkable.
About 15 years ago I was testing a 45-footer in Croatia. On one outing I hopped aboard with a local sailor who spoke little English, but sailing was our common language and we threw the boat around like a dinghy for a most enjoyable afternoon. You can do that with a 45.
The plumb stem, high freeboard and large angular ports in the topsides all play important roles in the Hanse’s design
A lot changes when you add an extra few feet. Everything gets bigger, heavier and harder to move, which is why you usually need either more crew or the sort of push-button help that most owners of the Hanse 548 are choosing.
Saying ‘most’ owners implies that there are more than one or two of them, and that is indeed the case: they’re queuing up for this new model, which took over from the Hanse 545 in late 2017.
Hanse has long been selling more boats over 50ft than in its 30ft and 40ft ranges. The yard has established an enviable reputation in the 50ft-plus bracket for spacious and comfortable cruisers that sail well, offer good value and don’t need an army to handle them.
Back in 2012, for example, the Hanse 575 was launched as a boat that could be managed by just two people. It really could be, though relatively few couples would contemplate a boat of this size if they had much coastal cruising in mind in parts of Europe. With nearly 60ft of length and a draught of over 9ft with the standard keel, there are many harbours, anchorages and marinas that you couldn’t visit without advance planning, if at all. It says a good deal about the 575 that Hanse has sold nearly 200 of them.
With the 548, the logistics are less of a challenge. At the same time it’s still a big enough boat to take you a long way in considerable comfort. As soon as the owner of the next one to arrive in the UK takes delivery he’ll be getting ready for the World ARC – and this is someone who’s relatively new to sailing, as are a good number of Hanse owners.
Just as 70 is the new 50 in terms of age, so 50 seems to be widely considered the new 30 when it comes to a boat’s length. If you have the budget, can find a berth and don’t mind the restrictions imposed by the draught (8ft 4in/2.55m with the Hanse 548’s standard keel), then why not have a boat of this size? That’s the conclusion a lot of people seem to be reaching.
On the subject of budget, there’s no doubt that the Hanse offers a lot of boat for the money at a starting price of just under £350,000 before VAT, though it would be easy to spend closer to £500,000 by the time you have been through the extras list.
Smooth surfaces need to be treated with caution on a wet deck, but grabrails and substantial bulwarks help
Size matters
At this stage I should point out that the Hanse’s designation over-states her actual length: the hull is just under 52ft long (15.75m). Because of the plumb stem and near-vertical transom, the waterline is the same length as the hull once you’re moving at more than a couple of knots, and that’s helpful for covering the ground.
As we found on our two test sails from Hamble, you can take 8 knots for granted most of the time and at 10 knots the boat still isn’t breaking sweat. To be fair, you would achieve these speeds and more on many a smaller racing yacht, but it’s not bad going for a roomy, 20-tonne cruiser with a self-tacking jib and a crew of two who rarely need to exert themselves. The speed-to-effort ratio matters in sailing.
The hull shape promises good balance, comfort and performance
On our first outing the wind started at around 16 knots, letting us make upwind in flat water under full main and self-tacking headsail at 7.8 knots. When you need to tack, it seems almost unnecessary to call ‘ready about’ because nobody except the helmsman needs to do anything unless you choose to re-balance your glass. Hanse claims to have invented the self-tacking jib and, whether or not anyone challenges this assertion, the system works very smoothly.
A dying breeze later on gave us the opportunity to try the extra sail on our test boat: the 140 per cent headsail set on a forestay immediately forward of the self-tacker. It’s more for reaching than for windward work, though we managed to carry it at 50° to the wind and maintain 8 knots in 12 knots of breeze. Just bear in mind that you have to furl it before tacking or gybing.
With Seldén’s 300 E electric Furlex and the optional Lewmar electric 55 self-tailers in addition to the 65 primaries, all within easy reach of the twin helm stations, it’s a push-button operation that takes about 35 seconds.
It’s a breeze
Given the predominantly light conditions on our first sail, we headed out again a few days later. This time we were greeted by a south-south-westerly topping nigh on 30 knots across the deck, so we left a few rolls in the mainsail as we punched our way upwind at 8.1–8.2 knots.
A conventional, fully battened mainsail in Dacron comes as standard, whereas we had the luxury of electrically-powered in-mast reefing as well as Elvstrom’s high-performance membrane sails and a vertically battened main.
Not surprisingly, the Hanse’s weight and waterline made light work of the short Solent chop, though the helm loaded up a little when the gusts occasionally pushed us beyond 20° of heel. Otherwise weather helm was noticeable but modest and the feel through the Jefa steering reassuringly direct – a function of both the linkage, in which there’s remarkably little friction, and the single rudder.
Choosing extras means no need to wind a winch handle
Hanses have always had single rudders and the 548 maintains the tradition. Despite the broad stern, the blade kept the boat on track until the gunwale was approaching the water. You wouldn’t normally push things this far but it’s good to know where the limits lie.
Another notable point in the face of modern trends is that the Hanse eschews the now almost obligatory chines. By many standards it’s a conservative hull shape; one that promises good balance, comfort and performance in a wide range of wind and sea conditions.
Our test boat was kept sunny side up by the standard L-keel in cast iron. If you really want to save draught at the expense of performance you can have the shallow 7ft 2in (2.20m) option, or go the other way with a deep (9ft 2in/2.80m) T-bulb. Prop-wise, a three-bladed folder thankfully comes as standard.
Lockers for the rope tails are under the helm seats each side
As has become the norm on boats of this size designed for short-handed cruising, the Hanse devotes a lot of space to non-active crewmembers.
The mainsheet is anchored forward of the companionway (to strong points, not a traveller) and the tails are led aft, German-style, to the primary winches by the wheels. With the sheets and furling systems for the headsail(s), plus halyards and other lines also being led aft, the main cockpit area is completely rope-free.
Two times tables
Here you have not one table but two, leaving a direct route from stern to companionway and plenty to brace against. Those who really enjoy pressing buttons, or sunbathing (or both) can have tables that lower to form sun-loungers. The controls are on the consoles, along with everything else including, on this boat, B&G’s Zeus3 multi-function plotter, display and controller integrated with the CZone system.
Our guests from the 1990s would be awe-struck by the ability to turn on or off all the appropriate nav lights for sailing or motoring, control the fridge or engage ‘off boat’ mode before stepping ashore simply by touching a screen at the helm.
On a more mundane level, one consequence of having so many lines led aft is a lot of tails. Hanse’s solution is a tail-locker under the helm seat each side. You need to maintain some discipline, but even after a fair amount of sailhandling over the course of a few hours we managed to avoid creating too much of a snake-pit.
Beneteau’s new stepped hull design works so well this 46.1 could become its most popular model ever
£298,000.00
Minor criticisms in the cockpit include the lack of handy lockers for things like sunglasses, sandwiches and binoculars. There’s a shallow ‘glove box’ under an acrylic lid either side of the companionway, but these won’t hold much and there’s nothing further aft apart from the large locker beneath the starboard seat. Those of us who want to keep a camera – or anything else for that matter – somewhere safe yet easy to reach near the helm feel rather bereft.
I’d also like to see handholds on the outboard sides of the helm consoles to match those inboard. You need something when going forward on the leeward side. Otherwise, moving around a dry deck is easy on the level: in the modern Hanse style it’s pretty flat and ideal for outdoor living in sunny climates.
Substantial bulwarks are reassuring, but handholds are limited and there are plentiful deck hatches as well as smooth outer edges to the low coachroof, so you have to bear that in mind in the wet and think what you’re going to hang on to in a seaway.
The bathing platform lowers to reveal the garage and optional telescopic davits
If your mission really is to get into the water, the electrically operated stern platform is probably the best place to start from.
Press a button (yes, another) on the starboard helm console and the transom hinges down to reveal a garage big enough for a folded 3.6m F-RIB (folding RIB). Then lift up the hatch in the platform and slide out the boarding ladder. It has all been thought out.
Open accommodation
Going down below is supremely easy: it’s more like walking downstairs than negotiating a set of companionway steps. Full-height stainless steel pillar handholds each side are thoughtfully provided, but moving forward from there when the boat’s heeled is more of a challenge. Handholds overhead, 7ft above the sole, are of limited use and would be out of reach for many. It’s a wide-open cabin sole to slide across.
Directors’ chairs were chosen instead of a bench seat on this boat
Such practicalities aside, the accommodation has much to offer. For a start, the volume is enormous. There’s a lot of light thanks to all the hatches, long windows in the coachroof and large ports in the topsides that let you see out when sitting down.
On our test boat the joinery was in European light oak; mahogany is standard. It’s neatly finished throughout and barely a bead of sealant is visible.
Plenty of layout variations are possible. Constant features are the two double aft cabins, the galley (to starboard of the companionway) and the saloon. Elsewhere you can mix and match. The bigger of the aft cabins, to port, can have a large en-suite heads and shower opposite the galley, as did ours.
Hanse has long favoured having the master cabin in the bow, though the occupants of the port aft cabin will hardly be slumming it
Alternatively the space can be used for a smaller heads plus a utility cabin, or for two extra bunks. At the other end of the boat it’s a choice of large master cabin or twin smaller doubles, while right in the bow is a large stowage locker or a crew’s cabin.
Styling to suit
Hanse went through a phase a few years ago when almost everything down below was a cube or a square, sometimes in garish colours. Thankfully the styling has mellowed since then. In the case of the 548 it’s modern but rather more subtle and unlikely to date so quickly.
All the usual mod cons can be fitted: dishwasher, washing machine, air-con and so on, plus a pop-up TV and the ‘gourmet island’ barbecue unit aft in the cockpit complete with fridge and sink.
Hinging up the companionway steps reveals the Yanmar diesel. Side panels can also be removed
Because of the enormous freeboard, vertical space is plentiful below decks and there’s room beneath the raised sole in the saloon for the two diesel tanks, one of the water tanks and the bank of four domestic batteries.
That doesn’t mean under-bunk space is available for stowage, however: much of it is occupied by systems of one sort or another. You can’t stow anything behind the backrests in the saloon because it would drop straight down under the bunks: it’s all one space.
Big plus-points in my book include the absence of interior mouldings except in the heads and some partial headliners. Among other benefits are better access to the inside of the hull (which is balsa-cored above the waterline), the systems and the seacocks.
You can also reach the structural elements more easily and see that bulkheads are bonded directly to the hull and deck. Given the scope and complexity of the electrical and mechanical systems on a boat like this, the more readily you can get at them the better.
Our verdict
The Hanse 548 is a cleverly designed boat that evidently presses the right buttons for many people. She’s built by a yard that has always done its own thing, setting its own trends and refusing to follow fashion simply for fashion’s sake.
The boat’s appeal for gentle cruising with lots of outdoor living is obvious. For what sailors of a more traditional bent might call serious cruising, things are less clear-cut. For a start, those wide-open spaces that are so welcome at anchor might be rather less welcome in heavy weather. That’s an inevitable compromise.
From an offshore perspective, the righting moment is substantial, as you would expect with a boat of this size and weight, even if the AVS (angle of vanishing stability) is relatively modest at around 110°.
All told, the new Hanse is an engaging blend of the tried-and-tested and avant-garde that makes owning a boat of this size a possibility for more people than ever before. What would our guests from the 1990s make of her? After their initial bewilderment I think they’d be suitably impressed.
After upgrading the status of the ominous black clouds ahead from threatening-looking to really quite alarming, we turned to head back downwind… and hoisted even more sail. Boom! As gusts in the high 20s started barrelling through, this yacht really put on a show. Reaching and surfing, we were all whooping with delight, like kids with a powerful toy, especially when we clocked over 14 knots’ boat speed. Now this was what you’d call a test sail!
We were on board Beneteau’s brand new Oceanis 46.1, a design tasked with updating the company’s most popular model, sailing off Port Ginesta, Barcelona, under full main and Code 0. The designer, Pascal Conq, was with us and we had all now become intent on seeing just what this ‘fat-nosed’ new shape was capable of.
It was one of those days when it could have all gone wrong. The fact that it didn’t and that we were actually treated to an exhilarating, unforgettable sail – the type where you step ashore and can’t wipe the grin off your face – simply confirmed that the 46.1 is a quite brilliant new model from the world’s largest boatbuilder. That it looks set to become the biggest-selling cruising monohull is perhaps due to other factors, however.
Replacing a bestseller
To backtrack, the Oceanis 45 I tested in 2011, which went on to win a European Yacht of the Year award, is Beneteau’s most popular model to date. With more than 800 sold, it is arguably the most successful production cruiser of modern times. It’s no surprise then that Beneteau wanted to keep the key strengths and selling points of the 45, nor that it chose to repeat the winning design combination of Finot Conq for hull lines and Nauta Yachts for the styling and interior.
Conq explained that the design team wanted to retain the primary features of sailing performance, spacious cockpit and interior volume. This, he said, has all been placed within a new and more powerful hull shape, with a stepped or full-chined hull, with greater righting moment and the addition of twin rudders for added control.
The new 46.1 also has plenty of options, including a ‘First Line’ upgrade, which further increases performance by adding a taller mast and deeper keel.
A win-win shape
In 2017 Beneteau launched the Berret Racoupeau-designed 51.1, the first of its new seventh-generation Oceanis range to use this stepped hull, together with a much fuller bow shape. The resultant forward internal volume and particularly sharp Nauta styling helped it sell like hot cakes (more than 200 we are told).
The Oceanis 46.1 shares a similar look and the only main difference with its layout is that there is no option for a crew cabin in the forepeak. However, the chine on the 46.1 runs all the way along the hull above the boot top, unlike the forward chine on the 51.1, which tapers out below the central hull portlight.
“We go in the fat nose direction,” Conq explains. “We found an area where there are no losses, just better performance and space. Take out the volume from under the waterline and put it at the sides – that’s the key!”
Conq found there was no need to widen the waterline like the Oceanis 51.1, which seems to make for a telling difference on the water. The 46.1’s hull is less dumpy, with less wetted surface area, reveals Conq. This was very evident when I did my first sail trial of the 46.1 in Newport, Rhode Island, when the two boats squared up to each other. The 46.1 simply sailed through the 51.1 and is clearly a more slippery design.
We had glorious conditions, in early September, sailing on the sunny, historic racing waters, in a building thermal breeze of 6-12 knots. That particular 46.1 had a typical US spec, including a shallow 1.75m keel, the standard in-mast furling main, plus an optional large genoa instead of the self-tacking jib. Close-hauled, we clocked 6-6.3 knots in 7.8-8.3 knots true wind. The new bowsprit is a useful addition over the old Oceanis 45, as it encourages the easy deployment of a flying sail. Our speed rose to 8.5 knots with the Code 0 unfurled.
The only minor negative of our Newport trial was a rudder alignment issue, which made that boat want to turn to port. However, as I was to find out during my next outing, there is power in reserve on this new hull shape and no shortage of enjoyment on the helm.
Sailing the GTI model
The Oceanis 46.1 we tested from Port Ginesta in October was a performance ‘First Line’ version, with a deeper, lead bulb keel, a taller mast and a genoa, which provides 28% more sail area. Beneteau says this is an option many clients coming from its First range choose. It was during this test for the European Yacht of the Year competition that we were able to see how the 46.1 handles in wind and waves.
Punching out into a 2m swell and 15 knots true wind, both of which increased with the threatening approach of the dark clouds, the 46.1 showed a comfortable and consistent turn of speed, heading upwind at 7.5 plus knots. Perched to windward, we enjoyed a relatively comfortable motion.
“The camber allows for a less full bow than the Jeanneau,” Pascal Conq remarked, referring to Jeanneau’s latest SO440 and SO490, which have very full forward ends and full chines. He added that this helps to keep the 46.1 from slamming upwind.
We were heeling a fair bit yet there remained a very light, but guiding amount of weather helm. A bar joining the twin rudders and textile linkage to the wheels helps provide direct helm feedback.
After a good spell sailing to weather, we then experienced the exhilarating downwind ride I described earlier. In 20 knots true with Force 6-7 gusts, we were soon easily maintaining double figures. The wake separates at around 11 knots, which happened regularly with a bit of encouragement from the short wave pattern.
These waves were coming across us slightly rather than directly following, but as the apparent wind moved forward with our speed we were able to soak down enough to enjoy some memorable short surfs, clocking between 12-14.5 knots. We weren’t actively trimming either – the main was pinned against the spreaders and the Code 0 sheet was left in the self-tailer jaws – but, boy, was it a fun ride.
Although it was an impressive display of power and speed, what really struck me was how comfortable the Oceanis 46.1 felt. The twin rudders never even hinted that they might lose grip and hand us a scary, expensive or potentially embarrassing broach. This is a reassuring asset on a family cruiser.
Warm weather deck
The Oceanis 46.1 has a modern, Med-style, extra spacious cockpit set-up, extended at each end by a full-beam bathing platform and sunbeds on the flat coachroof. The helm area is similar to that of the 51.1, designed for one person to be able to sail the boat and control the winches from aft. “Clients really like winches aft and out of the cockpit,” Beneteau product manger Clément Bercault explained, reasoning that it leaves a huge cockpit area clear for the family.
The layout allows you to sail the 46.1 short-handed, but only if you are tidy and organised with running rigging. Thankfully, there is a useful locker for rope tails, with a mesh material base to allow draining. There is only just enough room to fit a winch handle between the primary and main winch each side, which may encourage people to opt for the powered winch upgrade.
The helmsman can share the raised panel on which the winches are mounted to keep a dry seat. However, it is too wide in the aft quarters to be able to wedge in there comfortably and still be able to reach the wheel.
I like the large cockpit table, which provides a sturdy foot brace when heeled and sitting on the cockpit bench. It has an integral fridge and, best of all, room enough to house an easily-accessible liferaft beneath.
There are no bench lockers, the space instead used for headroom below. So deck stowage is all in the ends, in a deep sail locker and quarter lockers. The latter will not suit larger items as they contain unprotected steering gear and electronics. The finish in these aft lockers looks poor, featuring bare plywood and liberal amounts of glue.
Where centimetres count
The layout below decks is understandably similar to the successful Oceanis 45. “We looked at where we could gain space everywhere with the new hull shape,” said Bercault as we descended the 45º companionway to escape the torrential rain.
So although the 46.1 is only 10cm longer than the 45 and has the same beam, its maximum beam is carried further forward and higher up, to increase the internal volume.
The chine gives us 0.5m more beam,” Bercault explained. That beam gained above the waterline allows for the saloon berths to be pushed out 15cm each side compared with its predecessor, which buys valuable room. However, it’s up forward where you really notice the difference. The full bow sections allowed Beneteau to take the forward cabin of the Oceanis 48 and drop it into this 46.1, which tells you something about the volume.
This owner’s cabin is astonishing for the yacht’s length, including an island double berth on which you can comfortably sleep with your head forward. The use of separate shower and heads compartments works very well, further emphasising the sense of space in the cabin. It also makes for a straightforward conversion into two ensuite cabins for the charter version.
The extra space is also felt in the saloon and galley. I like the addition of an inboard worktop section in the galley, for example, which gives more serving space and a bracing position for when working at heel.
Within the multiple layout options, including three to five cabins with two to four heads, there is also the choice of a longitudinal galley with navstation to starboard.
I like the light Nauta styling, which brings smart elements learned from the Oceanis Yachts 62, such as the bookcases built into the central bulkhead, the fabric linings and the indirect lighting. The brushed light oak veneer means no shortage of beige, but, together, with the huge hull portlights, this works well to keep the interior light and bright.
Quite why Beneteau goes to these styling lengths but won’t stretch to fitting rubber gaskets on the sole boards I fail to comprehend, however. Can you imagine walking around a prospective new house with each footstep being announced by a loud creaking? It feels like some sort of pantomime horror scene.
Stowage and tankage is moderate and in keeping with a yacht designed for coastal sailing and family holidays. By this I mean that the Oceanis 46.1 is an ideal yacht for cruising or chartering in the Med for a couple of weeks, rather than a design to suit long distance sailing or lengthy spells aboard.
Conclusion
It’s rare to have the opportunity to sail a new production yacht in a variety of conditions and with different options, and to be able to really push the boat. It is perhaps just as uncommon to see it perform so consistently in all conditions. While its builders will be acutely aware how important the design, styling and accommodation space is to maintain a healthy order book, the designer of the 46.1 clearly knows that the fundamental aspect of success is sound sailing qualities.
With their latest full bow designs, both Beneteau and Jeanneau have added a new dimension in volume for cruising yachts, particularly with their enormous forward cabins. The Oceanis 46.1 takes all the best bits of the excellent 45 and makes them slightly better. The overall impression is of just how much deck space and internal volume you get inside 45 (and a bit) feet.
If the finish quality matched the design this would be a very difficult boat to beat. Even so, the Oceanis 46.1 has raised the bar significantly in the highly competitive melting pot of midsize family cruisers, in terms of both looks and performance. And I wager that it will go on to be as successful, if not more so, than the 45.
Cuba isn’t just another Caribbean island – it’s a completely different world where money can't buy everything, says Rachael Sprot
Hummingbird at anchor off Cienfuegos, where classic Chevy is still an everyday form of transport
“If someone has to go to prison, I volunteer,” said new first mate, Neal, with a grin as we sat on Hummingbird in Cancun discussing our upcoming Cuba expedition. “Really?” I asked incredulously.
“It’s a life experience, isn’t it? I’ve never been to prison,” he replied. Neal is not short on life experience: from being headmaster of a school in Tanzania to summiting unclimbed mountains in east Greenland, he is quite the adventurer. A little brush with the Cuban authorities wasn’t going to cause him too much anxiety. I, on the other hand, was having last minute misgivings.
We’d been planning the Cuba trip for months: I’d joined every forum and Facebook group and dug up every contact I could find to research the current situation, but there was little information available. “Just don’t fall foul of any local rules or regulations,” was the scant advice we got.
I tried for the umpteenth time to get through to the Cuban authorities to triple check the arrival procedures, but to no avail. There appeared to be no requirement for pre-registration and everyone had their tourist cards already, so that was all we could do.
Hummingbird set sail for Cuba from Cancun
It’s an upwind slog from the lovely marina on Isla Mujeres, Cancun, to Cuba with the easterly trades blowing consistently. After filling the boat with food we watched the weather for some northing in the wind and set off. On port tack with the Gulf Stream on the leeward bow shunting us northwards, we made due east for 120 miles across the Yucatán Channel.
We abandoned our original plan of making landfall at Los Morros, the Customs point on the western tip of Cuba, as the open roadstead needs settled weather, which meant sailing on to the next port of entry at Cayo Largo, 200 miles further east.
It was a shame to have to bypass much of the south coast, but I wasn’t going to make landfall somewhere other than a port of entry, even for a rest in an anchorage. I’m sure Neal is a man of his word, but I didn’t fancy testing his gaol offer. Cayo Largo turned out to be a good place to check in. An easy approach through a large gap in the reef and well-marked channel led to a decent marina.
The crew admitted to slight apprehension when sailing into Cayo Largo, Hummingbird’s first port of entry into Cuba
Never smile at a crocodile
The azure water and white sandy beaches were a welcome sight after the upwind passage and I had a struggle keeping the crew from jumping into the bay. The deputy marina manager Embellio met us on the pontoon. “Don’t go swimming”, he said with a smile. “There are crocodiles in the marina.” We weren’t sure if he was joking.
Soon the authorities arrived. The Guarda Frontera (Border control) checked our despacho from Mexico, issued us with an internal despacho for Cuba and stamped our tourist cards. You need permission to move from one port to another in Cuba, so over the next few weeks we’d become very familiar with their green uniforms.
The customs officer had a less conventional outfit: short skirt, fishnet tights and heels. She had a spaniel by her side, which jumped aboard. After various questions including how many mobile phones we carried and what type, our satellite phone was sealed in a bin bag with Cuban Customs tape around it. The spaniel took a good look around, decided we were smelly but innocent and departed. Finally the health officer took our temperatures while the agriculture officer inspected our provisions, sifting through our rice for weevils. We were given a clean bill of health and welcomed into the country. Phew!
I could only laugh. Travis Rice, world-famous snowboarding pioneer, had just jumped into the Pacific waves to chase down his…
That night we ate at the marina bar, which served grilled fish, chicken and lobster while a local band serenaded us. The band was superb and it was very much the taste of things to come. As budding revolutionaries, we sang along and soon knew the lyrics off by heart.
Afterwards the waitress scraped the plates over the decking, straight into the open jaws of enormous tarpon fish below. They swallowed the chicken carcasses whole. We all stood transfixed when suddenly a scream went up: a crocodile had appeared on the scene. Embellio hadn’t been joking.
‘What’s the crocodile policy?’ Michelle, veteran of many Rubicon 3 expeditions, asked. I had to confess that although we have a procedure for everything from polar bear attack to man overboard, we didn’t have a crocodile policy. All I could offer was some advice from a friend who grew up in Zimbabwe: “You’ve got to stick your arm all the way into its throat. If you get your fist far enough down you’ll lock its jaws open and it won’t be able to swallow.”
In my professional opinion, things have probably gone a little too far by that stage. However I did discover that crocodiles are endangered and unlikely to be found in the places where you might swim, so I didn’t begrudge it the remains of my lobster.
Hummingbird is a Clipper 60 converted for expedition sailing by Rubicon3
Freedom to roam
Once checked in we had a little more freedom to roam. We were given permission to cruise the Jardines de la Reine, an extensive coral reef system further east. There are no permanent settlements, just coral, mangroves and perfect white beaches. The nearest town is 80 miles away so self-sufficiency is essential and we became heavily reliant on our watermaker. In four days’ cruising we saw only three yachts and a fleet of identical, grey fishing boats, which looked straight out of the USSR. We were all sheltering from a strong north easterly in Cayo Cuervo, a huge circular island with excellent shelter inside.
As soon as the wind dropped we set off for Cayo Algodon Grande. It was poorly charted so the dinghy went ahead and found a deep water channel into a mangrove-fringed lagoon. Once inside we had perfect solitude and set about exploring. The pilot guide mentioned a mile long dinghy channel to an abandoned holiday camp. Neal returned after an hour. “It’s more of a ditch than a channel,” he reported. It had clearly silted up since Nigel Calder was writing 20 years ago. There wasn’t much left of the resort, just a few lumps of concrete, but there was a beautiful windswept coral beach.
We made it ashore for sundowners and started ferrying everyone back to Hummingbird a little before sunset. It was a weird and wonderful spot, magical because there aren’t many places in the Caribbean that are getting wilder. The mosquitos were glad to see us according to Matt, Rod and Nick, who were in the last dinghy ride home.
A typical street scene in the Cuban town of Trinidad, as viewed from a taxi wing mirror
From wilderness to civilisation
After five days cruising this desert island paradise we made for civilisation. The UNESCO world heritage site of Trinidad is just inshore of an approved yacht port, Casilda. The small marina couldn’t be raised on the VHF so we made straight for the commercial port. I employed my usual berthing tactic – seek forgiveness not permission – and tied alongside an official looking wharf.
It didn’t go down very well: “You’re in a military zone!” Barked an irate security guard, “Leave, now!” Juan, our Spanish speaker, tactfully apologised and with incredible charm asked how to proceed. We had to anchor in the bay and take the dinghy in to the shallow marina two miles away, where the Guarda would meet us.
Rachael buying fresh provisions from a Trinidad street seller
Three hours later we were checked in and two taxis arrived to take us into town: an immaculate pink Chevy and a red Cadillac. Trinidad is a much-loved time warp with a well preserved old town, ochre-coloured buildings and cobbled streets.
We were hoping to pick up some supplies but our first taste of Cuban supermarkets lacked promise. Long shelves were stacked one row deep with a single brand of tinned tuna.
The next aisle was devoted entirely to bags of rice and beans. “Cornflakes?” I enquired, “No.” “Fruit?”. “No.” “Eggs?” “No”. I asked where to buy vegetables. “I just saw the guy with the tomatoes go past the window,” the shop assistant replied.
I hurried out after him, and so began a long day hunting barrow loads of vegetables in a warren of streets, not helped by the fact that Cuban streets all have two names: pre- and post-revolution.
Cienfuegos, our next stop, was a short sail further west, where we’d make a crew change. It is another colonial town with grand pastel-coloured buildings arranged around neat central squares. By sea it is accessed through a narrow entrance but the harbour opens up into a vast inland waterway, although much of it is off limits.
We were allowed alongside briefly at the marina to re-fuel and check in before anchoring off with the rest of the ‘transients’. The nightlife was fantastic – there were rooftop bars and an open dance school where salsa students (who ranged from 18 to 80) were dancing the night away.
Hummingbird at anchor, viewed from a bar in Cienfuegos
Disaster struck the next day when the rubber flexi-coupling between our Perkins Perama M30 generator and the PTO shaft for the watermaker pump failed. I couldn’t find the spare on board. Cursing myself for being so stupid we ran through the options. “Life without the watermaker will be miserable,” pointed out Neal.
“Yeah,” I agreed, “there’s only one marina with a hosepipe between here and Havana.” In any other country you could probably ship a part from the UK but the embargoes would have made that very difficult. Our only hope was that there might be one here – but it was a long shot.
Engineering ingenuity
We explained the situation to a friendly engineer on one of the tourist boats. He took one look at the coupling and shook his head. “The last time I saw one of these was on an old Soviet water pump in a 1960s apartment block. It failed and we couldn’t get another one.” My heart sank.
“But I did fix it with some rubber strips, and it’s still working. I’ll try to get some of that special rubber for you.”
“We’re planning to leave tomorrow morning…” I said. “Oh, I don’t think I can get it in time, not by tomorrow,” he said apologetically.
Reluctantly we decided to move on – the new crew were keen to escape the city heat and explore the islands. Besides, there was no guarantee we’d fix the coupling if we stayed. So we limited fresh water use to drinking and set off on the second leg of our trip: westwards to Havana.
In Cuba, you’re never far from the image of Che Guevara
Knowing the scarcity of supplies in Cuba, Neal offered the marina manager some of our old alternator belts and asked if they’d like them for their boats. “For the boats?” she exclaimed. “No, no, no, I’ll take them home, my husband might finally be able to fix our washing machine!”
After checking in to Cayo Largo again we continued to Cayo Rosario, an uninhabited island with fine white sand and a sheltered anchorage through a gap in the reef. It was quite windy and although the echosounder gave some indication of the isolated coral heads below we couldn’t see them clearly due to the disturbed water.
We dropped the anchor in what looked like a clear patch, but when the chain abruptly pulled tight we knew we’d hooked one. Yorkshireman Ian jumped in with a snorkel: “You’ve got to unwind the chain by circling around it clockwise,” he said pointing to its position. To our relief it worked first time and he scouted out a clear patch of sand for take two.
While the crew explored ashore I thought about our predicament. We had a perfectly functioning watermaker and a perfectly functioning generator. Cubans wouldn’t wait for a supply ship; there probably wouldn’t be one.
They’d find a way around the problem with what they had to hand. I ransacked the repair box, eventually bolting some webbing to the flanges, realising that the webbing needed to be taut in the direction the shaft turns in order to minimise the shock-load as it started spinning. On the third attempt it worked! The webbing withstood an hour of running and looked like it would take more. With any luck we’d have enough webbing left to replace it every few days and make it to Havana without water rationing.
Brilliantly maintained classic cars make up the majority of Cuba’s taxi fleet
Out-of-the-way places
We continued westwards, exploring some of the coastline we’d bypassed on the way from Mexico. We had some fantastic downwind sailing in flat water in the lee of the islands underway to the Isla de la Juventud. Despite being Cuba’s biggest island it is also one of the least explored. The ‘marina’ is really just a shallow harbour that acts as a base for a dive centre.
It is 40 miles from the main town of Nuevo Gerona, but well worth the trip. We arrived on a Sunday when the town was in full party mode, with every variety of rum you could think of, a hog roast on every corner and families socialising in the streets. It was a very happy affair.
On leaving Juventud we’d hoped to visit the Cayos to the west before rounding Cabo de San Antonio and heading up to Havana. Unfortunately it was too windy and with no all-weather anchorages we pulled in to Maria La Gorda instead. The bottom was irregular and we were relieved to pick out one of the moorings in the moonlight. Ashore we discovered a small resort, a sandy beach (with pizzeria), dive school and great snorkelling.
For the final beat to Havana we had a choice: stay inshore for flat water but battle a one knot counter current, or head offshore to make use of the Gulf Stream but contend with the short seas of wind against tide conditions. There were a few longing glances at the Club Med cruise ship which floated past serenely, but there were also squeals of exhilaration as the boat rocketed on into the night.
At Hemingway Marina we were reintroduced to luxuries such as shore power, a walk ashore pontoon and showers with hot and cold running water (although you have to use a bucket to flush the loo). It is a vast, largely empty marina complex ten miles from the city.
Havana itself was a fitting place to end a remarkable month: it is a majestic, crumbling edifice to the rejection of capitalism. Cuba isn’t just another Caribbean island; it’s a completely different world where money can’t buy everything. In fact, it can’t buy very much but, as the Cubans are so quick to point out, everyone’s essential needs are cared for: despite the terrible condition of some of the housing, no-one is homeless, and although food supplies are basic, everyone is fed.
It left us wondering if we’d give up our material world for a simpler life, but in a way that’s why we go sailing. We have many things in common: self-sufficiency and an ability to live simply, taking care of what you’ve got and working with the environment rather than against it. And an appreciation of good rum. Perhaps the spirit of the revolution runs in sailors more strongly than most.
Specification
Specification
Trimming is done from a slot in front of the helm, with a great view of the sails and its own foot support. The controls are quite low down so trimming on the leeward side requires crouching, which felt a little awkward when heeled.
Specification
Design: X Yachts
LOA: 16.22mm (53ft 3in)
