Inhaltsverzeichnis für July 2018 in SAIL

Even with a long lens, there’s no substitute for getting in good and close when shooting a sailboat race. _ is, in turn, means a good marine photographer also has to have catlike boathandling skills whenever he or she is all alone—as was the case with this shooter at the 2018 Antigua Sailing Week regatta, which was blessed with the region’s typically big winds and even bigger seas. For details on this year’s Antigua regatta, visit sailingweek.com.…

Thirty-one years after a group of traditional yachts decided to make the most of the Atlantic seas and tradewind conditions on offer immediately outside English Harbour, Antigua, the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta has become a riot of racing and good times. Quite how the unpaid volunteers of the Antigua Yacht Club contrive this annual weeklong extravaganza remains a mystery, but manage it they do. Where else on Planet Earth can you see the likes of L. Francis Herreshoff’s 1936 masterpiece Ticonderoga and the mighty fishing schooner Columbia crossing tacks with Genesis and Free in St. Barth, both built on the lines of cargo carriers from half-models on the beach at Carriacou? Over in the South of England there’s an annual classic car revival called the Goodwood. It’s officially about serious…

The Leopard 50 is replacing the popular Leopard 48, but this constitutes an entirely new yacht, not just an upgrade of the older boat. The new 50 is 2ft longer than the 48, and the beam has been widened from 25ft to 26ft 5in. It is also available with a flybridge, and to minimize your suspense, it’s wonderful! Note that Leopard makes a point of calling it a “lounge” rather than a flybridge, and the version with said lounge is therefore called the Leopard 50L. There’s another version sans lounge called the 50P, for performance. Aside from the lounge seating on the hardtop abaft the helm, the only real difference on the L version is that the boom has been raised a bit, so no unwary guest gets whacked. DESIGN…

The winter of 2016-17 was one of the coldest on record in southern British Columbia. In June 2016 we had sailed across from Hawaii to Sitka in southeast Alaska aboard Distant Drummer, our Liberty 458. After enjoying a summer of leisurely cruising through the Inside Passage in Alaska and British Columbia, we reached Canoe Cove on Vancouver Island where we had decided to haul out for the winter. We lived aboard all through that winter, and as we shovelled snow off the decks and slithered across the ice to the washrooms, it was dreams of hot sunny California days that kept us going. We were waiting for a big fat high to settle in the northeast Pacific to give us a steady northerly wind for the passage south. Our plan…

Knowing how to take care of your sails and how to repair them while at sea is an important part of overall seamanship. The last thing any sailor needs is to get caught on a lee shore with damaged sails. This applies to both racers and cruisers. These days there is a fine line between the kind of engineering used for racing and cruising sails, as many cruisers are now opting for high-tech membrane sails, as opposed to conventional crosscut Dacron or a laminate. But while a membrane sail includes plenty of high-tech engineering in its construction, it is no more difficult to repair than Dacron. Before we look at how to fix these different kinds of sails, though, we’re going to take a look at some of the factors…

Here we go! The 50th anniversary of the Golden Globe, the first singlehanded nonstop round-the-world race, is upon us. On July 1 one tribute event, the Golden Globe Race 2018, will start out of Les Sables d’Olonne, France, with a fleet of 19 amateur skippers setting out in production fiberglass boats, none longer than 36 feet, to race around the world without stopping. Meanwhile, another event, Longue Route 2018, is sending out another 26 amateur solo skippers, most in boats 43 feet and under, to also sail nonstop around the world. The latter is not a race, but more a “challenge in company.” Participants may start from and return to any Atlantic port in Europe or North America (north of 45 and 41 degrees north latitude, respectively) at any time…

I began my sailing life as a kid in an 8ft El Toro and a 16ft Snipe on Lake Millerton in California’s San Joaquin Valley. I am concluding it as an 80-something in a Rhodes 19 on Lake Damariscotta on the coast of Maine. So what does this have to do with the hardy, oceangoing sailors who read SAIL magazine? Well, I’ve been where you’ve been, too, in between my lake-sailing daysailor days, and I’m here to tell you that there is life after saltwater. My feel for boats came early and intimately, as my father—an architect and a master woodworker—built a jig around which my brother and I bent plywood to create our own El Toro sailing prams. Following our father’s perfectionist lead, we ensured that the slot in…

While much of the yacht racing world has had its eyes glued to the Volvo Ocean Race these eight past months, the behemoth that is the America’s Cup has also been slowly but surely lurching into motion, following the publication of the official AC75 class rule in late March. Here at home, the New York Yacht Club’s “American Magic” campaign (so named in honor of the schooner that started it all back in 1851) continues to pick up steam, with its sailors first winning the Ficker Cup and then taking second overall this past April in the Congressional Cup, behind former World Match Racing champion Taylor Canfield of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Interestingly, while renowned U.S. sailor Terry Hutchinson is currently leading the effort, at the helm is Kiwi America’s…

The difference between a racing boat and a cruising boat is usually readily apparent. Differentiating between different grades of cruisers, however, can be another matter: the line between those meant to go off soundings and those better suited to staying within VHF range of land can be blurry at best—unless you’re talking about a boat like the Boreal 47, a boat clearly ready to not only go from the Arctic to the Antarctic, but all points in between. DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION The latest design from Boreal SARL, located in France’s Brittany region, the Boreal 47 is an evolution of the Boreal 44, with the extra 3ft coming in the form of a reverse transom incorporating a modest swim step. Both the hull and deck are fabricated in aluminum: same with…

“Want to check the keel?” North U Coach Geoff Becker calls to me from back by the transom. We’ve just suffered our worst finish in the regatta and are absolutely flying on our way back to shore, spinnaker up and heeling at an angle that feels like maybe we’re tempting fate. Geoff’s whipping the boat, a Flying Tiger 7.5, up to speed in an effort to cheer us up—and it’s working. We’ve all agreed it would be a copout to blame our former lack of boatspeed on some hypothetical debris wrapped around the keel, but Geoff instructs me to check anyway. With the help of my teammate Eric, I slide down the hull, hanging upside-down from the safety line by my knees. We’re heeled far enough that when I stretch…

This past hurricane season was particularly hard on boat owners in both the Caribbean and the Florida and Gulf coasts, thanks to Harvey, Irma and Maria. BoatUS has estimated that more than 64,000 boats were damaged in the United States alone. While for many boat owners these storms have meant a loss, for others, they represented a possible opportunity. In fact, before Irma had even cleared the coast, many bargain hunters were already looking for deals. But be warned: while this might seem like a great way to get a nice boat at a bargain price, some caution and common sense are needed to avoid purchasing a proverbial hole in the water where your money vanishes faster than light into a black hole. First and foremost, before rushing off to…

SURVIVAL KITS Mindful of the confusion that can accompany shopping for survival products, ACR has helpfully collected the most important items that a prudent sailor might need into a pair of “kits.” The Globalfix Pro kit includes a Globalfix Pro Category 2 EPIRB, a C-Strobe rescue light, a signal mirror and Hemilight. The V4 kit (pictured) includes a Globalfix V4 EPIRB, a ResQLink personal locator beacon (PLB), Firefly Waterbug and Hemilight lights, and a signal mirror. Both come packed in a floating RapidDitch bag. $549 (Pro), $799 (V4). ACR, acrartex.com WATCH THIS If you’re in the market for a high-end sailing timepiece with a few tricks up its electronic sleeve, the Breitling Exospace B55 Yachting belongs on your wrist. Not only does it tell the time with uncanny precision, it…

When my wife, Mia, and I first crossed the Atlantic on our Allied Seawind 36, Arcturus, in 2011, we used the same handheld GPS that my parents had aboard their Bristol 38, Sojourner, in 1993 when we spent the winter in the Bahamas when I was only nine. We’ve never owned a fixed chartplotter. On Isbjörn, our S&S Swan 48, we’re no luddites, but we emphasize efficiency, simplicity and presence of mind in how we outfit her. Which is why we now choose to navigate via a dual iPad setup—a large, semi-fixed iPad at the nav station below and a smaller, “portable” iPad, running the same software, that we can bring up to the cockpit. To give some context here, we’re offshore most of the time on Isbjorn. In 2017…

Chartering beautiful boats in exotic locales will give your wallet a workout. Expenses go well beyond the cost of the vessel and airfare. It all adds up quickly, but there are ways to pinch enough pennies on each charter to get a head start on the next one. Here are some tips on how to cut costs without devaluing the experience. BOAT Bareboat charter weeks are a perishable inventory, and when a boat sits unused, that’s lost revenue. That’s why charter companies have last-minute deals that can be up to 20 percent off at specific destinations or added days (10 for the price of seven). If you’re open to various locations and have a flexible schedule, sign up for their newsletters and special offers. Then work with their in-house travel…