Table of contents for November 2015 in SAIL

If you think the ICW can get busy, just look at what happened to Amsterdam’s Oranjehaven waterway this past August when 2.3 million people came to town to attend the SAIL Amsterdam festival (which, for the record, has no relation to SAIL Magazine) and its five days of nautical celebrations. “It was certainly an event to be proud of,” said the director of SAIL Event Partners Erwin van Lambaart. “There were no golden medals to be awarded, but I would have liked to deal out two million of them.” For information on the next SAIL Amsterdam event, scheduled to take place in 2020, visit sail.nl.…

The 90th anniversary of the storied Rolex Fastnet Race will be remembered for two things: the fact that it was incredibly slow, and that it was dominated by the French, with Gallic boats taking seven of the 10 top spots in IRC, and the overall win going to French sailor Géry Trentesaux aboard the JPK 10.80 Courrier Du Leon. In stark contrast to the well publicized heavy-air Fastnets of the past, the 2015 running of the 600-mile event began with so little wind in the Solent that many classes found themselves struggling to even get across the starting line. Courrier Du Leon, for example, crossed early and took nearly 40 minutes to successfully re-start thanks to an adverse tide. Later, shortly after such line contenders as the 130ft maxi-tri Spindrift…

Having someone fall off your boat is a possibility, as we all know, but that situation is something the skipper takes care of, right? Well, what if it’s the skipper who goes overboard? This was my harsh reality when I found myself in the middle of the Atlantic, with no land in sight, in 6ft to 8ft seas and 28 knots of wind—and one very scared first mate. A word to the wise, get to know your safety procedures inside out— before a situation in which you need them presents itself. We had been sailing into the wind and bashing into high seas every day for many days and Indigo, our 46ft Leopard Catamaran, was taking a beating. We had left George Town, Exumas, for the Turks and Caicos, where…

DOMETIC MARINE XTC-ZTC DOUBLE-PASS WATERMAKER In its continuous quest to get you the cleanest water onboard, Dometic Marine recently introduced the XTC-ZTC watermaker, a fully automatic, inegrated, double-pass reverse-osmosis system. Eqipped with a mechanical override for redundancy, the unit can be controlled remotely with a smartphone, tablet or computer via Dometic’s Smart Touch Integrated Control System. The unit’s double-pass system works by moving water through the XTC side, making potable water from seawater (or untreated freshwater), and then sending it through the ZTC system, which purifies the water even further, removing 95 to 99 percent of total dissolved solids. For those cruising far flung reaches where clean water is hard to come by, this might be a system worth looking into. XTC starting at $15,900, ZTC starting at $12,700. Dometic…

When upgrading your boat’s electronics, you need to consider which electronic charts are available and supported by the various chartplotter manufacturers. The major multifunction displays from Garmin, Raymarine, Lowrance, Simrad, B&G and Furuno now support digital charts from several sources, including Raymarine, Jeppesen C-MAP, Lowrance, Fugawi, NV Charts, MapMedia, Navionics, Garmin and others. In many cases, this means users have choices regarding chart formats, data sources for specific regions, and enhanced features such as 3D and satellite views, tides and currents, custom sonar soundings, community edits and points-of-interest databases. It is important to understand that commercial chart suppliers usually license chart data from authorized government hydrographic offices that also produce paper charts. The hydrographic offices of several countries, like the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States, share…

The current trend among multifunction displays is to support electronic charts from multiple sources. Raymarine chartplotters support free Raymarine LightHouse Charts for the United States, Brazil and New Zealand, and numerous commercial charts using the same format, like Fugawi Aboard and NV Charts, are being added to their online chart store. They also support Navionics Silver, Gold and Platinum+ charts, including SonarCharts, as well as Jeppesen C-Map Essentials, 4D-Max, and 4D-Max+ chart packages. Lowrance, Simrad, and B&G chartplotters support Navico Nautic Insight and Insight Genesis, Jeppesen C-MAP Max-N BDS, Max-N, and Max-N+, Navionics Gold and Platinum+, and many partner chart developers like Fugawi Aboard and NV Charts. Navico is the first to make it possible to purchase and download charts directly to its chartplotters using a WiFi connection to its…

There are several things going on in this picture, all stemming from the small hairline cracks radiating out from where the chainplate pierces the deck. At first glance, they may not appear to be that serious. However, they will allow water to penetrate the outer skin and enter the balsa core of this high-end daysailer, setting off a series of problems. In Northern states, at least, this water will freeze in the winter months. As it does so it will expand, forcing the crack to get a little wider and increase its length by an imperceptible amount each time, thus allowing more water in when the temperature rises again. The boat will go through many of these freeze/thaw cycles during a typical winter, and before you know it you have…

“Every knock is a boost,” Ben said as the crew passed pancakes around the table. It was the day before the first of our Regatta Time in Abaco Mother Tub-class races and the lighthearted inquiry, “What is your motto?” was posed to each crewmember over breakfast. Some folks concocted a motto on the spot. Others adopted their mother’s or father’s, but each was accompanied with a colorful backstory. It was meant as fun, just an engaging talking point over pancakes. Little did we know how these succinct life philosophies would come back to bite us during the race. Before you race in the Bahamas, though, it seems you must party. As a novice racer, that was the first rule I learned, and I never saw a full-blown party-parade quite like…

In retrospect it seems incredible that over 20 years of racing, not a single one of the approximately 3,300 amateur sailors taking part in the Clipper Round the World Race has been lost. Unfortunately, that perfect record ended this past September shortly after the start of the running of the 2015-16 event when English sailor Andrew Ashman, 49, was fatally injured aboard the one-design Clipper 70 Ichor-Coal off the coast of Portugal, midway through Leg 1 from England to Brazil. According to the boat’s professional skipper, Darren Ladd, the crew was reefing the main in moderate seas and 25-knot winds shortly after midnight when Ashman was knocked unconscious by the mainsheet and possibly the boom. He was given immediate medical assistance, but never regained consciousness. Although the boat immediately diverted…

I enjoyed a fabulous test sail aboard Bavaria’s old Cruiser 45 five years ago off Grenada, and came away impressed both with the boat’s performance and its accommodations. I was intrigued, therefore, when I learned that Bavaria had updated and recreated the 45 as the new Cruiser 46 and looked forward to comparing it with its predecessor after it debuted in late 2014. CONSTRUCTION The vital bits of the new 46 are nearly identical to the old 45. The hull and underwater appendages are the same, but the deck and interior have been modified. Structurally, the 46 also follows the 45. The hull laminate, a combination stitched-biaxial and chopped-strand mat, is laid up by hand in isophthalic polyester resin. Below the waterline, it’s bulked up with two additional layers of…

It’s easy to forget it was just three years ago that Team New Zealand turned the America’s Cup on its head when it persuaded its AC72 catamaran to lift off the water and fl y, thus changing performance multihull design forever. Now, both new multis and older ones retrofitted with foils are taking to the air in ever-increasing numbers. But why should multis have all the fun—what about monohulls, Moths aside? Fear not—their time is coming. In fact, it’s already here. In June, the Quant 23, a skinny scow-hulled sportboat with a pair of curved foils designed by Briton Hugh Welbourn, got airborne on a Swiss lake to become the world’s first foiling keelboat. It was the culmination of a decade of development for Welbourn and partner Gordon Kay’s Dynamic…

It was a gorgeous day off Florida’s west coast— sunny (of course) with a gentle breeze coming over our port quarter—and Nick Hake, creator of the Seaward line of trailerable cruisers, and I were thinking about where to drop the hook. We’d left Clearwater that morning and were now headed north, a mile or so off the barrier islands protecting St. Joseph Sound. To me, the obvious way to get closer inshore was via the channel immediately south of Anchor Key. Not only were the soundings a good 8ft or more, but there was a well-marked channel to both Tarpon Springs and the Intracoastal Waterway that we could employ. We were, aft er all, aboard a new Seaward 46RK, a fully appointed cruising boat, displacing a healthy 23,000lb. To my…

When Vestas Wind ran aground on Cargados Carajos Shoal on the night of November 29, 2014, during the last Volvo Ocean Race, it came as a complete surprise to everyone onboard. How could a vessel equipped with the most modern electronics and a professional navigator fail to navigate around a reef some 25 nautical miles in length that was shown on all paper charts, of every scale, covering the West Indian Ocean? The skipper and navigator believed there was no risk of a collision, because they had examined their anticipated route and saw no obstructions. They did anticipate passing a “seamount” with about 120ft of water over it where they expected a change in sea state. Their confidence was based on having viewed the route on one of the vessel’s…

Last month, we talked about the basics when it comes to wiring your boat. Now that you’ve got the wiring all sorted out, we’ll discuss another equally imporant aspect of online electronics—a guide to fuses and circuit breakers. I have, on occasion, demonstrated what happens when you put a dead short across a 12-volt battery using a length of 12-gauge cable. The moment I throw the switch on the circuit, the cable vaporizes, fi lling the room with a cloud of noxious smoke, forcing everyone to evacuate the premises. I am not suggesting that you try this experiment at home. But I bet a fair number of people reading this have already unintentionally set up the same test apparatus on their boats—or had it set up by someone else—by wiring…

Innovation can be tough to define, but it is easy to spot. One look at the new Bali 4.5 catamaran and it’s clear that its designers have reached beyond tradition and rethought the flow and uses of the vast social spaces aboard a mulithull. The resulting concept, which Bali calls “Open Space,” has created an all-new boat that will undoubtedly give the competition a run for their money. DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION Behind the Bali line is the established catamaran builder Catana, known for seaworthy boats with a good turn of speed and a bulletproof build. Wanting to address new segments of the market at a reasonable price point, Catana has launched this new brand, which is sure to enhance the economies of scale in their French factory and also leverage…

For more photos from Aventura and video of Cornell’s attempt at the Northwest Passage, go to sailmagazine.com Having passed through the Western Arctic and its ice fi elds much earlier in the season than we’d hoped or expected, and with the ice situation still unfavorable in the Eastern Arctic, we could slow down and, for a while at least, turn our voyage into a more leisurely cruise. Our next stops were the Canadian settlements of Tuktoyaktuk and Ulukhaktok, typical of several urban centers that have been set up by the Canadian government to provide the native population with medical facilities, schools and airports. We were warmly welcomed wherever we stopped, as the people wanted to know what had brought us there. At Tuktoyaktuk, mayor Darral Nasogaluake came to greet us.…

Oddly enough, grounding a 46-footer on a beach ain’t that tough. The only question is whether you prefer to go in bow or stern fi rst. Aboard the Seaward 46RK, backing up is made especially easy by that fact that the boat is equipped with twin diesels, which can be “tractored,” as on a catamaran. This allows you to pull up the two rudders well in advance so you don’t have to worry about them suffering a hard grounding. The nice thing about going in stern-fi rst is that it makes stepping ashore that much easier. Basically you just raise the retractable keel and then back up as far as you can go, orienting the boat so it’s perpendicular to the shore. When you can’t go any farther, simply step…

We recycle everything when coastal cruising or island hopping. We do not like to carry disposable plastic water or drink bottles on our boat. I normally assign a drink bottle to each crewmember, identifi ed by color or a number, and then let them be responsible for refi lling it and keeping track of it. We always try to minimize the amount of recycling that we have onboard in the fi rst place, but a sailor’s got to have beer, thus must carry cans or bottles. We use the Soda Stream machine to make our own sodas, and we use refi llable drink bottles for water and drink mixes. We usually end up with plastic, glass jars, wine bottles and a more than a few beer cans. I stow all…

Twenty years ago, I sailed to Anegada— almost—when I boarded a plane in Los Angeles and after too many connections arrived on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands for my first-ever charter in paradise. On the itinerary was Anegada, a low-lying coral island 15 miles to the northeast of the main BVI hub of activity. After traveling 3,000 miles, it was so close, a two-hour sail, just a hop really... Its inaccessibility made Anegada all the more alluring. Once completely off limits to charter boats, the 11-mile island on the horizon was like a siren’s song. Charter companies, which often provide a boat to anyone with a VISA card, were loath to allow their assets to visit anywhere you needed reasonable seamanship to approach safely. Back then, you had to…