Inhaltsverzeichnis für June/July 2020 in SAIL

As this issue went to press, there was still tremendous uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic and when life would begin returning to normal. One thing that was certain, though, was that the Summer Sailstice, currently marking its 20th anniversary, would still be taking place as scheduled—and that’s a good thing. “Nobody knows what the circumstances will be like on June 20th, but we are looking forward to connecting sailors and sailing friends at the start of summer,” event organizers said. “The Summer Sailstice event website is filling up with celebrations across the planet, and the event wants to see everyone post their sailing intentions.” In terms of the exact form these celebrations will take, organizers said: “As sailors have always done, adjust [your] sails and plans as the situation evolves.…

I was born in 1955, and although I was a tad young to actually follow the first Observer Single-Handed Transatlantic Race, I grew up in the age of the pioneers of solo off shore sailing—Francis Chichester, Robin Knox-Johnson, Alec Rose, all Knighted for their singlehanded circumnavigations, Sir Robin notably being the first to do so nonstop. As a kid devouring newspaper accounts of their adventures, I would forever find myself thinking, “What would I do in [fill in the blank] situation?” Since then I have come to believe this same thought process is, in fact, a critical part of learning good seamanship, or as I define it: the acquired skills and experiences one gathers that, as a body of information, one can then use to estimate and execute the actions needed…

SPINLOCK DECKVEST A longtime leader in marine safety products, Spinlock has now added yet another deckvest model to its line. The Deckvest LITE USCG has similar safety features to its siblings, like reflective patches and attachment points, but is even lighter and more compact. Though inflatable life jackets have long been the way to go for sailors who don’t want the bulk and constriction of a standard PFD, the Deckvest LITE truly steps it up a notch as Spinlock’s sleekest model. Designed for maximum comfort, it comes in a variety of colors, including white, magenta and grey-green. $159. Spinlock, spinlock.co.uk HARKEN REFLEX ACCESSORIES Looking for the best in cable-free furling for your Code 0s and asyms? Harken’s got you covered. Responding to customer requests, the company has designed a range…

In my experience, every charter has a kind of a theme to it, often encapsulated in a single moment. For me, during a recent weeklong charter off the coast of Belize that moment came toward the end of our first day out. We’d left the Sunsail base (sunsail.com), located part way up the isthmus that is the beachside community of Placencia, around mid-morning. After that, the trip down Placencia Lagoon had taken the better part of an hour, after which we’d tacked round just shy of Potts Shoal and started reaching north along the Inner Channel—an area of relatively deep water between the mainland and the islands off shore, leaving Placencia to port. With around 15 knots apparent coming in over the starboard bows and a light chop, Hamako, our…

Walk around any boat show, and you’ll see a number of differences in the way designers and builders have decided to locate the steering stations aboard their cruising cats. Each position has its good points and bad, among them visibility, protection from the elements, sociability, cost and ease of vessel handling. Before you buy, it’s therefore worth thinking about which configuration will work best for you and the kind of sailing you do. Leisurely daysailing, for example, is a very different proposition from buoy racing. Same thing with, say, high-latitude passagemaking versus harbor-hopping in the tropics. As Boris Compagnon of France’s Catana says, “A boat is always a compromise. It’s important to determine the program of the boat before choosing one or the other solution.” So, let’s check out some…

When first introduced nearly a decade ago, Neel trimarans seemed little more than an oddity, an intriguing variation in an ever-burgeoning menu of cruising multihulls. Since then these unique, fixed-ama tris, with their immense solid bridgedecks reminiscent of the first plywood tris of the last century, have proven themselves a worthy alternative to their more-common catamaran brethren. The new Neel 47 not only slots neatly in between the original Neel 45 and larger Neel 51, filling out what now amounts to a full range of offerings, it also introduces an interesting innovation in multihull accommodations. DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION As with previous Neels, all drawn by designers Michel Joubert and Bernard Nivelt, the 47’s main hull carries pronounced rocker, which combined with a concentration of weight low and amidships, produces a…

After the accident, as we were getting ready to put Zingaro, our Lock Crowther-designed Spindrift 38, up on the hard, clean her up and say goodbye, my partner, Kimmi, and I were more than a little overcome by nostalgia. Zingaro is my fourth boat, but my first catamaran. On her sea trial, the wind picked up and the port jib sheet ripped out of my hand, slapping me in the face hard enough to throw my sunglasses 30ft into the air. It was a humbling experience. It was as if she was saying, “You better show me some respect, boy. I ain’t no Morgan.” The first year was difficult. She was constantly testing me. Both rudders snapped off. There were plenty of broken shackles and halyards. The port engine died.…

After a hard 33-day crossing in the Roaring Forties from Cape Town, South Africa, Jeannie, my wife and shipmate of over four decades, and I arrived to kiss the dock in Albany, a small but well-serviced Victorian town on Australia’s southwestern coast. We were glad the trip was over, but after repairing and provisioning Onora, our 62ft, Chuck Paine-designed, Kelly Archer-built aluminum cutter, I was excited at the prospect of following in the wake of Matthew Flinders, the English naval officer who surveyed these shores 200 years ago in competition with the French captain Nicolas Baudin—the two of them leaving various English and French place names in their wake. The distance from Cape Leeuwin in the west to Tasmania’s South East Cape is 1,600 miles. It’s inhabited by many kangaroos…

I was crewing aboard a boat named Breskell, a 51ft cutter-rigged, cold-molded, mahogany sloop. We were voyaging from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Port Townsend, Washington, via the Northwest Passage. A few days before setting sail, the captain, Olivier Huin, asked me to secure everything on deck—everything being propane tanks, water jugs, gasoline and diesel cans, fuel bladders, the outboard engine, the dinghy and, later, the bowsprit. He pointed to a bucket of short, frayed, “end of life” line and a lumber pile over by the boatyard garbage bin. He looked me in the eye and said in his thick French accent, “It needs to survive a knockdown, but not necessarily a capsize. Thank you so much.” I swallowed hard and contemplated the task before me. Whatever I came up with…

Even in the increasingly crowded world of exotic multihull performance-cruisers, the McConaghy line of catamarans stands out with its emphasis on quality construction, style and performance. The newest member of the line, the McConaghy 60, has been on our radar for some time now, and finally arrived on U.S. shores at the Miami Boat Show this past February. Like the rest of McConaghy’s catamarans, the boat’s infused hulls include plenty of carbon fiber in their layup, along with E-glass and a Corecell foam core, with an eye toward creating the lightest, stiffest structure possible. Topside, the boat features dual helm positions on a flybridge, which provide clear sightlines, both under sail and when coming into a dock. An especially interesting feature of this design, which was drawn by Ker Yacht…

Seawind Catamarans introduced its 52ft 1600 model in Europe last year, where the boat promptly started winning awards. The more jaded among us may look askance at such things, especially when it comes to a bluewater-rated catamaran billed as a providing a combination of performance and luxury—attributes that typically come in inverse proportions and make skeptics of many. However, the new flagship of the Seawind line truly delivers both comfort and speed, in the process kicking all manner of skepticism to the curb. DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION The Reichel/Pugh office’s appealing design resulted in a sleek cat with a low coach roof that extends to a hard bimini aft. The plumb bows are sharp, yielding a fine entry, and a hard chine, which runs all the way back to the transoms…

It’s hard to be sure when things started to change, but I am pretty sure it was the evening of April 20, 1993. As the sun set, spluttering and sizzling into the Atlantic, the 86ft catamaran Commodore Explorer crossed an imaginary finish line near Île d’Ouessant off the northwest corner of France to complete a nonstop lap of the planet. The elapsed time was only a few hours short of 80 days, a new record. Commodore Explorer was the first sailboat to have ever circumnavigated in what was then considered by many to be an unattainable time. The crew was awarded the Jules Verne Trophy for having done so. More importantly, by accomplishing something many thought impossible, skipper Bruno Peyron also started a nautical arms race by proving a big…

It’s easy to assume accurate mainsail trim is only of concern to racers, but nothing could be further from the truth. Aside from increasing boatspeed, a well-trimmed main will reduce heel, minimize weather helm and decrease leeway. The result is shorter, more comfortable passage times and more enjoyable sailing in general, especially when sailing to windward. One of the first things many of us were taught is “a flappy sail is not a happy sail.” However, simply keeping your sails full is only part of the story and often leads to over-sheeting, i.e., trimming your sails in too tight, which increases weather helm, or the tendency of a sailboat to want to round up into the wind. This in turn makes the boat more difficult to steer. It also makes…

KEEL ATTACHMENTS Q: I have an early ‘70s Catalina 27. The keel bolts look pretty good. My question is, why not glass over the keel to bond to the hull rather than changing the bolts if, or when the bolts are too far gone? I haven’t seen anything on this, so could you discuss? Full-keels are permanent. It seems the fin keel could be made the same. — Jon C. Anderson, Deer Island, OR DON CASEY REPLIES A little clarification here: it is not just fin keels that are bolted in place. Full-keel boats often have the keel bolted to the hull as well. When a keel is “permanent,” to use your description, the hull of the boat is molded with a keel cavity that is subsequently filled with a…