Tabla de contenidos para January 2018 en SAIL

Things undone, things still to do; what are your resolutions for the New Year? Here are some of mine. 1. Deep-clean the engine OK, so this one was held over from 2017. And 2016. 2. Make it a rule to reef earlier The screams and crashing of crockery from belowdecks get tiring after a while. 3. Don’t tow the dinghy in open water Those oars were expensive. 4. Install a holding tank gauge Do I really need to explain why? 5. Go up the mast to replace the VHF antenna The handheld works well enough though… 6. Remove and rebed all the stanchion bases Or maybe just the ones above my bunk… 7. Sand the bottom smooth No more just slapping on another coat… 8. Visit the places I resolved…

Much to the joy of everyone on board, Joe Mele’s New York-based Swan 44 Triple Lindy approaches the finish line of the Rolex Middle Sea Race offValetta, Malta, in late October. Th e Triple Lindy crew took first place in ORC 5, in what was a classic battle against the elements—everything from flat calms to storm-force winds and boatbreaking seas. So rough were the conditions on the third day that fully two-thirds of the 105-strong fleet retired. Th e classic race covers 606 miles, from the island of Malta through the notorious Strait of Messina between Sicily and the Italian mainland, passing the active volcano of Stromboli, around the Aeloian Islands and back to Malta. It capped offa busy year for the Triple Lindy team; they shipped the boat to Australia last year to compete in…

There’s no doubt about it, the fastest growth in new cruising-boat sales is in the multihull sector. Sales of production catamarans are booming, and it seems the old prejudices against multihulls have finally eroded away. Cruising trimarans remain a nichewithin- a-niche. But if boats like the Neel 51 are anything to go by, the virtues of three hulls will quickly become apparent to a wider audience as well. Th e 51 follows the successful Neel 45, one of which won the multihull class in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) a couple of years back. DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION Th is is the fourth design for Neel by veteran mono- and multihull architects Michel Joubert and Bernard Nivelt. Neel founder Eric Bruneel, who spent many years on ocean-racing tris, is bullish…

Early one Wednesday morning in June 2016, we motored past Portland Head Light on our Valiant 42, Kite, and approached our mooring offthe Eastern Promenade for the first time in almost seven years. We were completing our circumnavigation, and while we were excited to be back in Maine and a little amazed that we had actually sailed around the world, we were also sad that the adventure was over. For several years, our lives had revolved around seeing new places and meeting new people, day aft er day. Now, as satisfying as it was to be home, we had to adjust to life on land. When we first started thinking about serious cruising, our big question was whether we could and would cut the proverbial cord. We had good careers…

I have delivered many sailboats between Miami and St. Petersburg, Florida since 2004, when I brokered a boat in Bradenton and the buyers asked me to help bring it to Miami. I know the shortest route through Florida Bay is about 300 miles and should take between 50 and 60 hours at a 6-knot average, depending on the weather. I had, however, never done a delivery across Florida on the Okeechobee Waterway and through Lake Okeechobee, mainly because the boats I delivered had masts that were too tall for the bridges you encounter. Earlier this year, that changed when I was asked to deliver an O’Day 35 from St. Pete to Palm Beach. With an air draft of 47ft and a keel that drew 4ft 5in, it seemed a perfect…

I first became acquainted with Randall Reeves when he contacted me via email some time back, seeking boat-buying advice. I often get queries like this, so I didn’t think much of it at the time, though I was pleased that he, like me, favored aluminum as a hull material. I suppose the fact that he was most interested in plate thickness and hull scantlings should have tipped me offthat he was up to something unusual. Th e 41ft full-keeled boat that Randall ended up buying, which I had admired for many years, is quite unique and rugged. Built in aluminum by Dubbel & Jesse in Norderney, Germany, in 1989, the boat’s first owner, a German sailor/journalist named Clark Stede, christened her Asma and with filmmaker Michelle Poncini sailed her on…

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Twenty-four hours before Irma struck Tortola, I knew our boat was doomed. “We’re going to lose Legato,” I told my husband, Scott. We watched in horror as Irma gained strength on her unforgiving trajectory toward our island of Tortola and the beautiful Tayana 48, Legato, that we called home. We were on our annual “low season” trip back to Chicago to visit friends and family with our three young daughters when the Atlantic basin gave birth to Irma. As the hurricane gained velocity and strength, we became glued to the weather models, hoping, praying for a change in forecast. Days were spent tracking her every move with a growing pit in our stomachs. Helplessly watching a record-breaking hurricane barrel toward your home at 15 miles per hour is agony—an agony,…

This past fall, the North Atlantic was absolutely lousy with race boats zipping back and forth, as the biennial Mini-Transat and Transat Jacques Vabre races not only happened to coincide with the second stage of the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race, but were followed soon aft er by the first leg of the Atlantic Anniversary Regatta, organized under the auspices of the Royal Ocean Racing Club. Add in a pair of round-the-world record attempts aboard a couple of maxi-tris out of France (of course!) and you have a crowded piece of water, indeed! The first to hit the starting line was the Mini- Transat fleet, comprised of just over 80 solo sailors aboard 56 “production” Mini 6.50 21-footers and 25 “prototypes,” featuring an assortment of the various cutting-edge technologies for which…

It’s funny how certain brands elicit certain expectations or even prejudices. For example, when you say Hallberg-Rassy, you think of durable stick-built boats battling formidable winds in higher latitudes with spray flying and green water over the bow. But with 96 percent of HRs exported out of their home country of Sweden, surely some have to end up in sunny climes where the breezes are light. How do they do there? Just fine, it turns out. Not only that, but they get compliments no matter where they go. DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION Th e HR 412 is Hallberg-Rassy’s largest aft cockpit model, built on a newly designed hull. Since 1988, Hallberg-Rassy has used German Frers as its exclusive design firm and all the models (31-64ft) have a traditional appearance with no…

Committing to a boat for ocean voyaging is different from choosing one to sail from the local marina on weekends and holidays. At a domestic level, the bluewater craft is home, not somewhere we camp out. On long offshore passages we need an easy motion above all things, plus a boat that can cope with the sort of conditions that some yachts ideal for coasting may find too hot for comfort. We will be examining the liveaboard situation in a future article, but the real secret of happiness when seeking out a bluewater boat is to take a hard, honest look at our objectives. No boat is all things to every sailor. The successful ones are those which have been chosen wisely to suit the character of their owners and…

We all have our preferred choice of techniques for deploying and setting anchors, and if it works for you, that is the right choice. At the same time, though, it never hurts to be open to new ideas. We are fortunate to have a choice of many, very good modern anchors that suit most requirements in terms of holding power and budget. I do not think that any anchor is perfect nor suitable for all seabeds, and anchors can be lost, so my recommendation is to carry at least two. In addition, however many you carry, each anchor should be sufficient to serve as the primary. At least for long-distance cruisers, rodes today will tend to be all chain, but as long as the seabed is not abrasive then mixed…

Just about anyone who’s chartered a catamaran in the Caribbean or elsewhere will be familiar with the Leopard brand—the South African cat builder supplies the Moorings and Sunsail charter companies, and also sells plenty of boats to private owners. Its latest launch is the Leopard 50, a spacious platform both for the charter market and for owners looking to notch up serious cruising mileage. Th ere are some notable differences between the 50 and the boat it supersedes, the Leopard 48. For one thing, the 50-footer is available in two versions—the 50L, with a capacious flybridge lounge that houses wrap-around seating, a coffee table and a large sunbed, and the 50P—a sleeker, lower-profile boat aimed at private owners rather than the charter market. Both versions have the trademark Leopard forward…

AYE FOR AN EYE If you want to bring some carbon fiber bling to your dinghy, raceboat, sport cruiser or maxi-yacht, look no further than the U-block line from Ropeye. Not only do they look dead sexy, they’re superstrong, nearly weightless and useful for all sorts of applications that don’t call for hi-tech roller- or ball-bearing blocks. The carbon fiber frame encloses an anodized aluminum low-friction ring and a Dyneema strop that’s used to attach the block wherever it’s needed. There are four sizes, with safe working loads from 2,000lb to more than 8,000lb. From $177. Ropeye, Ropeye.com THROW SOME SHADE Among the many virtues of cruising cats is the large expanse of netting between their bows, which is the ideal place to hang out with a cold one after…

After crewing on the 2015 Caribbean 1500 rally, I bought Gryphon, my 1993 Morris Justine 36, with a specific goal in mind—sailing from Maine to the Virgin Islands, with pit stops in Annapolis and Portsmouth, Virginia, where I would join the Caribbean 1500 for the last leg. Gryphon is not my first sailboat, but she is certainly my first ocean-worthy boat, and this would be my first serious voyage as skipper of my own boat. The prospect of sailing 1,500 miles, up to 400 miles from land, in a boat that was new to me made me focus on my lists of proactive maintenance and system improvements every day for six months before departure. Despite this intense focus I was still not able to learn what I needed to make…

The burbling of the percolator in the galley accelerates frantically as the bubbling crude’s strength began to build. Soon the crew’s clinking mugs fill the galley sink as the baitfish leap over the line that tethers Sohcahtoa, our Sunsail Jeanneau 41, to the rocky shore of Peter Island in the British Virgin Islands. We all know that the real wake-up call is next. Aft er a brief discussion of the dive mask anti-fogging merits of dish soap versus saliva, it’s all hands over the side with Scotchbrite pads to have a look at the bottom. We’ve seen worse, which makes the excited racket coming out of snorkels a bit of a mystery. I speak tourist snorkel, having mastered common phrases like “Spotted ray!” or “Anchor’s set!” But I haven’t made…