Sommaire pour March 2020 de SAIL

One of the formative influences on modern cruising, Jimmy Cornell has been uncharacteristically quiet since his attempt on the Northwest Passage a few years ago. Now the founder of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers is all fired up again about yet another circumnavigation and, yes, another rally. Cornell, who turns 80 this year, will set sail in October on the Elcano Challenge—a 30,000-mile circumnavigation following the route taken by Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastian Elcano between 1519 and 1522. The voyage is named after Elcano, because it was he who completed the first round-the-world voyage after Magellan was killed in the Philippines. For the first time, Cornell will turn to two hulls—he is having a 45ft Outremer catamaran built. What’s more, the Elcano, as it’s named, will be fully electric…

The 2019 sailing documentary Maiden received rave reviews as a human interest story that featured excellent racing footage and the heartfelt recollections of an all-female team led by then 25-year-old Briton Tracy Edwards. During the 1989-90 Whitbread Round the World race, Edwards and the crew of Maiden broke into the male-dominated enclave of professional offshore sailing, won two legs and proved the doubters wrong by showing that women could compete at the highest level of the sport. The story of Maiden also includes the only American onboard, Dawn Riley. In 1989, Riley was a young Detroit, Michigan, native working as a boat captain when she joined the Maiden crew. She went on to lead a team in the 1993-94 Whitbread, participate in four America’s Cup campaigns and is now CEO…

It’s easy to run out of superlatives when you’re talking about sailing in Croatia: the 1,800 miles of coastline, arguably the most beautiful in the Mediterranean, stretching most of the length of the Adriatic; the hundreds of inlets and bays in the scores of islands that make it even more of a sailor’s playground; the thousands of hours of sunshine that bless said coast and islands; the predictable summer winds that bring sailors back year after year. You can see why I was looking forward to revisiting Croatia, where I’d last sailed back in 1999. Back then, we enjoyed two weeks’ sailing in the Kornati islands in the north of the country, near the border with Slovenia. If you’re wondering how you could spend two weeks sailing in one comparatively…

If your ideal ocean-crossing boat is a tough long-keeler with a short, stout cutter rig, bulletproof scantlings and a minimum of complicated equipment with its associated potential to fail, you are in the minority. A visit to the starting or finishing points of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) will soon reveal what the most popular bluewater boats are these days—and the aforementioned attributes don’t figure highly among them. The entry list for ARC 2019 read like a Who’s Who of production boatbuilders—Bavaria, Dufour, Beneteau, Jeanneau, Hanse, Moody, Elan, Lagoon, Fountaine-Pajot, Leopard, Bali, Catana—few of whose boats are aimed expressly at ocean-crossing sailors. Builders who market their boats as having bluewater credentials tended to be higher-end, with representation from the likes of Amel, Discovery, Swan, Oyster, Contest, Southerly, Hallberg Rassy…

Though summer may not be when you typically think of escaping to a tropical island, it could, in fact, be the perfect time for a charter holiday. Despite popular perception, the Caribbean isn’t hot as Hades during summer. In fact, the highs vary by only about 8 degrees F between the winter and summer months. The wind also picks up a bit (great for serious sailing), and while there’s an increased chance of showers, they’re usually brief and blissfully warm. The low season in this part of the world kicks off in June and coincides with the start of hurricane season, which runs through November. Tourism also declines drastically, making it a great time for uncrowded restaurants, wide-open snorkeling spots and ample anchoring space. What follows is a look at…

Are you out there sailing, cruising and living the sailing life? Share your experiences with other readers. Send your photos to sailmail@sailmagazine.com And don’t forget to sign up for our free eNewsletter, Under Sail, via our website sailmagazine.com I was returning to Corpus Christi Harbor in my J/80, Defying Gravity, after a MORF Wednesday race and couldn’t resist snapping this sunset.  —Alex Harris, Corpus Christi, TX Here’s one of those gorgeous Lake Erie sunsets along the Cleveland coast, taken from our Tartan 34-2. —Jeff Cochran, Cleveland, OH Here we are setting up for Friday night beer an races at Ala Wai Harbor, Hawaii. I was heading down to our sailboat at the Waikiki Yacht Club and took this photo from our dock.  —Bill Lyon, Oahu, HI I took this shot…

Though best known for its cruising boats, Jeanneau has long kept a hand in competitive racing with its Sun Fast line. The newest of these French-built speedsters is the Sun Fast 3300, which takes the place of the long-lived 3200. DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION A collaboration between veteran Sun Fast designer Daniel Andrieu and Vendée Globe/America’s Cup naval architect Guillaume Verdier, the Sun Fast 3300 is expressly configured for solo or doublehanded offshore competition. However, it can also be used for fully-crewed racing, both inshore and off soundings. The hull is infused in vinylester with a balsa core and features a moderate version of the powerful wedge shape that serves so well for power-reaching aboard today’s IMOCA 60s—no surprise given Verdier’s experience in this area. Twin rudders ensure the boat remains…

If there’s one charter destination that’s impossible to tire of, it’s Greece. This Mediterranean jewel is simply so large, so varied and so special it’s impossible to relegate it to just a single checkbox on a list. This past year a group of friends and I chartered from Navigare Yachting, based in Agios Kosmas Marina, a ways down from the port of Piraeus outside of Athens. Our Sun Odyssey 519 was ready and waiting at the dock, completely spotless. I also had three of the base personnel at my complete disposal within minutes of arrival. It was such an enthusiastic welcome, I double checked the name of the boat on my paperwork just to make sure all this fanfare was for me. Yup, the 2018 vessel, Misty, was mine for…

Although a fiberglass sailboat can seemingly have a half-life of 50 years or more, its electrical system most certainly does not. Up until the 1990s, few production builders used tinned wiring in their installations, and most owners had fairly basic requirements, allowing boatbuilders to get away with providing rudimentary electrical systems. Now, the cruising life is more complex, and sailors want more home comforts, which means more electrical gear on board. This in turn demands a greater battery bank capacity and improved charging systems. Heavy-duty items such as inverters can really test a feeble electrical network and often result in arcing connections, blown fuses and even cable meltdown. As a result, electrical system upgrades are often high on the to-do list for owners of older—and sometimes not so old—cruising boats.…

I well remember the first time I ever saw a flying sailboat. I was on Narragansett Bay several years ago, test-sailing one of those old-fashioned boats—the ones with hulls that float in the water 100 percent of the time—when we spotted a foiling Moth speeding out of Newport like the proverbial bat out of hell. We were suitably impressed. Then one of our company who was more familiar with this phenomenon said with a smirk on his face, “Watch what happens next.” Sure enough, the Moth raced into the lee of a much larger sailboat and fell into the water again with an abrupt, inglorious splash. Flying sailboats have come a long way since then. We are now well into a third America’s Cup cycle featuring boats capable of hydrofoiling…

The ever-increasing popularity of multihulls for coastal and ocean cruising—not to mention chartering—has been mirrored by the growth of the International Multihull Boat Show in La Grande Motte, France. It’s the world’s biggest on-water boat show devoted exclusively to catamarans and trimarans. More than 60 boats will be on show this year, many of them new models. Most of the major multihull builders will have their full ranges—both power and sail—on display, and you’ll also see many interesting boats from the smaller builders that proliferate in Europe but are rarely seen on this side of the Pond. The shoreside booths are packed with designers, builders, sailmakers and service companies, and there’s plenty to see and do in the town and surrounding countryside. All in all, it’s a great introduction to…

YOUNG BLOOD: In a bid to discover and nurture sailing talent for future America’s Cups, a Youth America’s Cup series will see national teams of young sailors compete against each other on 30ft one-design foiling monohulls. The series is a joint initiative between Emirates Team New Zealand, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and the China Sports Industry Group. Crews will comprise two men and two women aged from 18 to 24, and more than one entry per country will be allowed. The new AC9F boats are being built in New Zealand, and the series will begin with a fleet racing event in China this November. A match racing event in Auckland will follow in December, and the finals will be held there in March 2021. For more, visit youthamericascup.com.…

Groupe Beneteau, builder of Lagoon catamarans, has introduced a new multihull line called Excess. The first of the boats to reach U.S. shores at the Annapolis boat show this past fall was the Excess 12, a 38ft 6in design based on the popular Lagoon 40. The thought process behind this new boat was driven by customer feedback, with an eye toward creating a light, open cat with plenty of performance. According to Beneteau, the target market for this sporty-looking design—a winner in SAIL’s 2020 Best Boats contest in the mid-sized multihull category—includes monohull sailors in search of something new and multihull aficionados looking for more of the wind-in-your-hair experience that makes them feel “at one” with whatever boat they’re on. DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION Construction of the Excess is much like…

Last summer, I was delighted to be invited to join two of my girlfriends on a sailing trip—my third, no less! This trip would surely herald my promotion from nautical novice to savvy seafaring expert. I was to join them on a charter in Southwest Florida and sail along the Intracoastal Waterway. Many moons ago I had spent some time camping in the Everglades, but this was to be my first venture to Florida’s west coast. The month was June, not the best time to go to Florida, but the only window in my friends’ hectic schedule. I therefore did what all true Brits do when planning a trip—checked the weather forecast. Horrors! I rebooted my weather app four times, but to no avail. A muggy 85 degrees F and…

We are anchored in an inlet on Waya, one of the Yasawa islands west of Fiji, on my 48ft sloop Sangvind. My wife, Sylvia, my friend Jeroen and I have enjoyed a few drinks in the cockpit on this starry South Pacific night, playing guitar and singing songs. Just before going to bed, Sylvia wonders whether the wind might turn onshore later. “Don’t even say that!” I exclaim. We are just about to go to bed, and the boat is in complete disarray, with stuff lying loose everywhere in full anchorage mode. With four teenage boys aboard, this is the last thing I want to hear. Unfortunately, Sylvia’s sailor’s intuition, honed over 20 years of fulltime cruising, proves faultless, and not an hour later I’m waking her up. “Come on,…

DON CASEY HAS WRITTEN MANY BOOKS AND ARTICLES ON MARINE MAINTENANCE AND REPAIRS NIGEL CALDER IS AN AUTHOR AND EXPERT ON BOAT SYSTEMS AND DIESEL ENGINES GORDON WEST IS AN ELECTRONICS EXPERT WHO SPECIALIZES IN RADIO COMMUNICATIONS BRIAN HANCOCK IS A SAILMAKER, WHITBREAD RACE VETERAN AND CREATOR OF GREATCIRCLESAILS.COM TO BOND OR NOT TO BOND Q: I have a new-to-me Gulfstar 41 Ketch and would like some advice on bonding the through-hull valves. They are not bonded to anything or each other now. I have found a lot of conflicting and confusing information on the internet and wanted a professional opinion. If I should bond, then do they all get tied together? Only some? Do I ground them to my engine or negative bus bar? Thank you for any information…