Table of contents for October 2017 in SAIL

It was a relatively trouble-free Rolex Fastnet Race this past summer, with no major gales or any massive windless parking lots in the English Channel. However, that made it no less competitive as the 368-boat fleet found itself first bashing upwind for days on end, then dealing with a series of squalls and increasingly shift y breezes as the race progressed. Here, the spectacular 115ft superyacht Nikata rounds iconic Fastnet Rock, the midpoint of the 605-mile off shore classic. For more on the race, visit rolexfastnetrace.com…

Sailing is the ultimate escapist activity. However, many of us still want to remain somewhat connected to family, friends and, alas, even work. Over the years, I have discovered a number of good techniques for staying in touch. The one I seem to use most oft en is “borrowing” Wi-Fi. Today, almost every restaurant or bar offers Internet, although taking advantage of this fact typically requires ordering a beer (or two), something that is easily and painlessly done. When I can’t find a Wi-Fisignal, my second line of defense is cell service. To make this work, I have to configure my phone to work as a hot spot (pretty easy to do), and then everyone on the boat can log on with his or her devices. Of course, I also…

Bigger is better, except when it’s not. Sure, big boats attract big crowds at boat shows, but a pocket cruiser that offers the amenities and sailing characteristics of a larger vessel and also fits a smaller slip and wallet, may be the better answer for some. The question then is, how to fit big-boat fun into a tidy compact package? To solve this riddle, Bavaria Yachts tapped into the magic of German engineering to build the Cruiser 34, a vessel that packs in up to three cabins, has a functional cockpit and can sail at 7-plus knots, all with a waterline length of just 30ft . DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION The new Farr design replaces the company’s previous 33-footer and adds a bit sportier profile. The foam core sandwich hull and…

Never chartered? No problem. Here are some tips to get you through your first (few) time(s) chartering in the Caribbean, a tropical paradise close to home where the time change is minimal, English is prevalent and the remarkable change of scenery will make you forget that snowstorm back home. HOW TO MAKE YOUR CHARTER EASIER Start small. Unless you have handled a 50-footer before, choose charter vessels that are easier to sail, reef and dock. Consider a catamaran if you need the extra room. Cats are easier to dock thanks to their twin engines, they’re better for people who suffer from seasickness and provide more space so everyone’s comfortable. Do not miss the chart briefing. There’s no substitute for local knowledge, whether it’s about tourist highlights, shoal areas, weather or…

While many boat owners are consumed with the annual task of hauling and storing their vessels for the winter, others are prepping for the cold months by turning theirs into a stationary den. I liveaboard in the snowbound Northeast, where most liveaboards cover their decks by erecting a temporary structure to be wrapped in heatshrinkable plastic sheeting. Such a shrinkwrapped cover adds a layer of protection and comfort for the ship and her crew by helping to shed rain and snow, reduce condensation and provide passive solar heat during the day. Last winter I decided to build a seasonally reuseable structure that offers plentiful space to do the only thing I love more than sailing— boat work. Here are the steps I took, from conception to realization, in making a…

“Imagine you’re driving an old rustedout pickup truck over railroad tracks,” my boyfriend, Phillip, said while trying to answer one of the many questions our friends had for us aft er we’d just spent the last five weeks crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a catamaran. I didn’t agree with him. Phillip hadn’t added the part about the bags of cement in the back—bouncing cement really captures it. What does it feel like to cross an ocean on a catamaran? It’s fun, fast and can oft en be teeth-jarring. Each time water trapped between the two hulls rumbled, thundered and finally bashed its way out, I had to convince myself that we had not just hit a whale. While I had felt our 1985 Niagara 35, Plaintiff ’s Rest, slam into…

It’s funny how oft en the islands of the Caribbean divide into neat groups of bite-sized cruising territories. It’s as if they were doled out by divine intervention like cookie batter on a baking sheet of azure waters. Some of these convenient clusters, like the BVIs and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, have a certain homogeneity. Other groups like St. Martin and its neighbors, Anguilla and St. Barts, are bursting with refreshing contrasts. Although within half a day’s sail of one another, these islands differ in language, customs, approach to yachting and even the daily pace—although their signature flavors all remain definitively Caribbean. Having some idea what to expect, I decided I would heed that niggling feeling in my gut, that intuition that tells you “here is something special,” as…

With offshore sailboat racing now entering the “appendage age,” the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) may very well be the last great conventional monohull competition round the world. In the future, the offshore classic is expected to see monohulls with lifting foils (much like in the most recent Vendée Globe) and inshore racing on multihulls, possibly eventually transitioning to offshore multihulls. This fall, however, the seven teams competing in the event will be sailing aboard the same Volvo Ocean 65 one-designs as in 2014-2015. Which is not to say the race won’t still be plenty exciting, nor that it is standing still. First and foremost for U.S. VOR fans, the race is continuing to grow in significance here in North America: on the one hand, there will be the joint…

The Baja Ha-Ha is a high point of the West Coast cruising calendar. Each year, at the end of October, around 150 boats make the 750-mile voyage from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with stops at the small Mexican settlements of Tortuga Bay and Bahia Santa Maria. This popular southbound rally spans two weeks and is a convenient start for cruising the Sea of Cortez. Most boats continue on to La Paz or Puerto Vallarta. A few return against the prevailing winds and currents, fondly known as the “Baja Bash.” For many West Coast sailors, the Baja Ha-Ha is their most ambitious off shore passage. The Baja peninsula is rugged and remote. You need to prepare for off shore conditions ranging from days of flat calm to 25…

The two things you’ll notice almost immediately when you land on the island of Bequia are that you’re probably mispronouncing the name (it’s “Bek-way”), and that you’ve just found possibly the friendliest people in the West Indies. The largest of the Grenadine Isles, Bequia has a charm that’s layered. Each successive visit reveals a fresh surprise—a tour with a friendly local, a beautiful beach or a breathtaking view—which is why I continually find myself figuring out ways to return to this little hidden gem of the Caribbean. Bequia is the largest of the Grenadines, a chain of “picture postcard” islands that lies in a curved line between St. Vincent and Grenada. Bequia’s English-speaking population makes you feel immediately welcome, whether you sail there on a charter boat or come down…

In 1968-69 Robin Knox-Johnston won the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, the world’s first solo, nonstop circumnavigation. In June 2018, 30 sailors will set out to honor that historic accomplishment, marking its 50th anniversary by also attempting to sail 30,000 miles, alone, nonstop, unassisted, around the world. They must sail full-keel boats designed before 1988 and electronic navigatiuon is not allowed. At 26, Susie Goodall was the first woman to enter this Golden Globe Race 2018 (goldengloberace.com). She is an accomplished professional sailor, having logged countless hours aboard boats of all sizes, and has sailed thousands of off shore miles. SAIL interviewed her in Antigua shortly aft er she’d completed her qualifying passage. What was your motivation to consider entering the Golden Globe? I had always wanted to sail off…

Aluminum boats that carry true integral centerboards and can take the ground with impunity have been long popular with French cruisers. However, until recently they have gained little traction in the United States. This is now starting to change, as the French mini-conglomerate Grand Large Yachting, which owns two builders of these sorts of boats, Garcia and Allures, has pushed to gain them more exposure. The debut of the Allures 39.9 at the 2016 U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis was part of this effort. Though it shares many attributes with other boats of this type, the 39.9 also has some unique features. CONSTRUCTION The hull of the Allures 39.9, quite obviously, is unpainted aluminum, although with round bilges rather than hard chines, as is more commonly seen on similar boats…

The sudden jolt and the sound of fiberglass grinding on rock instantly told me that this grounding was not like the others we’d experienced. I could look straight down into crystal-clear water and see sharp edged rocks sprouting branches of hard corals, rather than the turtle grass or sand that had surrounded our boat in previous groundings. Ordinarily this would have been a beautiful sight—one of the things we seek out in our cruising adventures— but now my knees went weak when I realized that Threepenny Opera, our trusty Catalina 42, was now hard aground in the middle of an uncharted reef. My wife, Pat, and I had headed east from Varadero, Cuba, on a 180-mile eastbound jaunt toward Marina Cayo Guillermo, where we were to clear out of the…

The back of my tongue erupted in flame and the heat of a thousand suns spread in my mouth like lava gushing from the depths of Hades. Tears ran down my cheeks as I gasped for air and groped for the nearest liquid—fortuitously a bottle of Singha beer, which I downed in three desperate glugs in a futile search for relief. It seemed my week of fiery (or so I’d thought) Thai cuisine had done nothing to inoculate me against the devastating effects of bu pad pong karee, curried crab, a usually benign dish that had, upon closer inspection, been all too liberally seasoned with the tiny but deadly pri ki nu (literally, mouse-shit peppers). The waiter at least had the grace to look concerned, but the young women peeking…

The progression of boat ownership typically begins with a dinghy. Once you start sailing, though, you are likely to succumb to “two-foot-itis,” until suddenly the day comes when you find yourself with a boat too big to trailer. Now the work of maintaining the boat will require the services of a boatyard. The first trip to a boatyard with your own boat can be intimidating. How do you prepare yourself and your boat for this experience? My wife, Cristina, and I are full-time cruisers. When you are moving all the time, there is more wear and tear on the boat, and more chance of breaking things that require service. You also can’t always run home to your regular boatyard. We have been hauled five times in the past three years…

No, I was not rooting for Oracle Team USA in this 35th America’s Cup defense. And yes, like many others, I look forward to seeing how Emirates Team New Zealand will transform the oldest competition in sports. But I do not understand why everyone has been trashing Larry Ellison. Most of the commentary I’ve seen would have it that he was the devil incarnate, and that but for ETNZ he would have destroyed modern-day Cup competition. How ungrateful can we be? I’ve never been a fan of Larry Ellison’s, but I do think we need to give credit where credit is due. Have we forgotten that it was Ellison who thwarted Ernesto Bertarelli’s heavy-handed attempt to highjack AC33? Have we forgotten that it was Ellison’s team that staged what many…