with
MARCH 2024 £5.50

FAST AND
FURIOUS
Thrills and spills in
the Sydney Hobart

ORCA ALERT

Avoiding Galicia’s
killer whales

TIME AND TIDE

Threading the
Menai Strait

HIDDEN HURRICANE HOLE
Exploring Guatemala’s Rio Dulce

BUONISSIMO!

Italia’s irresistible
12.98 on test

ALBANIAN
ADVENTURE

How to escape
the VAT trap

SEE THE WORLD,

DIFFERENTLY
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with Sunsail, boasting 50 years of
delivering exceptional sailing holidays.
Explore the unique charms of each
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or the captivating blend of crystalclear waters and nature in Corfu. Our
carefully crafted flotilla and bareboat
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Bareboat Charter, Athens
“Efficient booking, briefing, good
boats, lovely places to sail.”

Flotilla, Lefkas
“We loved being supported by
the lead boat crew and meeting
the other flotilla parties.”

Bareboat Charter, Corfu
“Corfu base staff were great.
The sailing area included beautiful
sights and nice towns. The Greek
people were exceptionally nice
everywhere.”

46

10 News
28 Paul Heiney
30 Andy Rice
42 Tom Cunliffe
98 Jess Lloyd-Mostyn

UNDER SAIL

16 Killer whale alert
Jetty de Koster explains how she avoided
the Orcas on a solo voyage to Gibraltar

22 Beat the VAT trap

COVER IMAGE: JEAN-LOUIS CARLI / ALEA

REGULARS

32

Nic Compton narrates a trip to Albania

32 Menai Strait
Local advice on threading this tricky tidal
challenge

46 Sydney Hobart
A look back at a classic edition of this much
loved race

54 Flotilla sailing - a history
Charter veteran Rod Heikell heads to Greece
to look back at the history of flotilla sailing

6O Interview: Meet the
Olympians
A chat with Team GB ahead of this
summer’s Olympics in Marseille

72 Gull’s Eye
Marina guide to Largs Yacht Haven

60

78 Boatlife

16

Preview of the UK’s newest boat show

80 Guatemala’s Rio Dulce
A hidden Caribbean hurricane hole

86 Skills
Tom Fletcher on how to traverse the Lefkas
Conal stress free

92 Charter
Our intrepid reporter heads to Greece

BOATS

14 New boats
36 Tested: Italia 12.98
An italian cruiser/racer

76 Three of the Best
Three of the finest brokerage boats

GEAR

66 Buyer’s Guide: Insurance
What’s new in the world of insurance

92
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

3

#Instinctive
Sailing

DUFOUR 41

#Dufour41
Palma international
Boat Show
25-28 April 2024

37 | 390 | 41 | 430 | 44 | 470 | 530 | 61

NEW

Welcome

EDITORIAL
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Skipper’s View
CAN THE HUMAN BEING AND THE FISH COEXIST PEACEFULLY?
PERHAPS - BUT WHAT ABOUT MARINE MAMMALS AND SAILORS?
WHAT SEEMS LIKE A lifetime ago I seem to recall that George W Bush,
that great luminary of US politics, noted in one of his more obtuse
moments that 'he knew that the human being and the fish can coexist
peacefully'. You'd have to say, that by and large, he has been proven correct
in this observation but recent events concerning orcas and yachtsmen
suggest that sailors and killer whales cannot. Yes, I know killer whales are
mammals, but leave that to one side. The sudden rise in killer whales
attacking yachts has to be one of the most unwelcome developments of
the last couple of years. In this issue (p16), we cover the adventures of one
solo sailor, Jetty De Koster, who went to considerable lengths to avoid
being attacked and hopefully her experience will be useful to readers
planning to make the same trip. It's a truly weird phenomena that creatures
that have very rarely bothered sailing yachts should suddenly get organised and patrol the stretch of coast
between Galicia and Gibraltar with almost military precision; seemingly picking solely on small to mid-sized sailing
yachts and ripping off their rudders. Initially I viewed reports of the early attacks with scepticism - a whale attack
is an easy thing to sensationalise and I assumed the early victims were just unfortunate. Yet it's more than that
now and the fact that while covering the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, I spoke to two different sailors whose boats
had been attacked while enroute to the Canaries from either the Mediterranean or from northern Europe.
It's a very conflicting issue for sailors. Whales are magnificent creatures and anyone who has seen one on
passage will attest to what an extraordinary sight it is. These majestic mammals belong to the ocean far more
than we do and even the most salt encrusted sailor is merely a temporary visitor to Neptune's realm. Whales are
a fundamental part of it. For all that I appreciate both their magnificence and their right to a stake in the ocean, I
would really appreciate it if they laid off us sailors. Sighting a whale is a magical thing but at close quarters, they are
terrifying and I hope that, just as we have with the fish, we can once more find a way to coexist peacefully with
killer whales.

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CONTRIBUTORS

Also part of the
Chelsea Marine Magazines family:

chelseamagazines.com

JESS LLOYD MOSTYN is
a writer and bluewater
cruiser who is currently
moored in Singapore

TOM CUNLIFFE is an author,
journalist and TV presenter,
and one of Britain's
best-known cruising sailors

ANDY RICE is a journalist and
veteran dinghy racer who has
won championships at both
ends of a skiff

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

5

Y O U R S T O RY A W A I T S
Embark on an enchanting journey with The Moorings to explore the
scenic coastlines of Greece and Croatia. Experience the timeless beauty
of Corfu and Athens, and immerse yourself in the Adriatic charm of
Agana in Croatia. Elevate your Mediterranean sailing adventure with
The Moorings Crewed Yacht Charters, where a private chef and skipper
ensure unparalleled comfort, creating a truly luxurious escape.
moorings.com/uk | 0330 332 1523
Bareboat • Power • Skippered • Crewed

Weather bomb in
the Bass Strait
The Sydney Hobart Race lived up to its fearsome reputation,
dishing up some savage conditions at the back end of the fleet
while almost in sight of the finish line. See full report on p46
Photo: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi

News

PHOTOS: ALEXIS COURCOUX/ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE/INTERNATIONAL OPTIMIST DINGHY ASSOCIATION

Ebb and flow

Around the world in 50 days?
A new supercharged era of ocean racing was ushered in off the Rade
de Brest on 8 January, as a fleet of six 100’ ULTIM multihulls leaned into
a gentle northeasterly breeze, jumped up onto their foils and roared off
towards the distant horizon.
The Arkea ULTIM Challenge will be the first time monster trimarans in
this class have raced singlehanded non stop around the world making
this a truly intriguing challenge, particularly given that these
supercharged monsters are capable of hitting speeds of over 40kts.
The course takes the classic clipper ship route around the world by

Ever the Optimist
Anyone who has sailed an Optimist will know that this 7ft
starter dinghy is not generally a boat designed for the open
ocean. Yet 14 year old Carrack Jones showed exactly what
can be done by setting a remarkable record.
Jones, from Antigua in the Caribbean, set off from Falmouth
Harbour on his native island on 22 November, 2023 and
arrived in Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten, just before midnight on
the 23 November to smash the record (100nm) for the
longest ocean passage ever made unassisted in an Optimist.
Conditions were light the entire way, never breaking 10kts
and often much less. Nonetheless, Jones cracked his
remarkable goal and his biggest concern, unsurprisingly,
was falling asleep on the job. He prepared for the epic
crossing by endurance training - spending hours at a time in
the boat after dark.

10

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

way of the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn meaning that the racers
will be down in the Southern Ocean for an extended period of time.
Such are the vagaries of magazine publishing and the lightning speed
of the boats involved, that by the time this issue hits the shelves, the
racers should be deep in the Southern Ocean. The prospect of a round
the world race being finished in two months is a very real probability. The
six racers are all French and pre race favourite was probably veteran
Armel Le Cleac’h, who recently won the Transat Jacques Vabre on Maxi
Banque Populaire XI.

RORC Transat is Caribbean bound
The 10th edition of RORC Transatlantic Race started in superb
conditions outside Marina Lanzarote. Flat water, 10kts of breeze and 20
degrees of air temperature provided spectacular sailing conditions for
the start of the 3,000 mile oceanic race.

At the time of publication the leading multihulls were already over the
finish line in Grenada with Jason Carrol’s MOD 70 Sixth Gear Argo taking
line honours ahead of Erik Maris’ MOD70 Zoulou. Much of the monohull
fleet will arrive in as Sailing today and Yachts and Yachting goes to press.

Severe penalty leads to skipper
resignation in Ocean Globe Race

Cowes Week entries open
Cowes Week Ltd is delighted to announce that entries for the 2024 Regatta are
now open.
At 198 years young, Cowes Week is the world’s longest running regatta. It
remains one of the pre-eminent and best-known events in the global sailing
calendar. Super Early Bird entries are available until Sunday 11 February.
Competitors can then make an Early Bird entry until Sunday 28 April or a
Standard Entry until Sunday 14 July, and last-minute entries can still be made
right up to the eve of the Regatta. Both regatta and daily entries are available.
Go to cowesweek.org.uk for full details.
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

PHOTOS: ROBERT HADJUK RORC/OCEAN GLOBE RACE/PAUL WYETH

Shoreside drama enveloped the Ocean Globe Race as the fleet was awaiting departure
from Auckland ahead of a gruelling Southern Ocean leg when it was discovered that race
leader Translated 9 had been playing fast and loose with the rules.
It became clear that, contrary to a declaration signed by Translated’s skipper, three sails
from the boat had been sent to a sail loft for repairs. Under the rules of this old school
minimalist race, such actions have to be declared and race approved – plus possible time
penalties given accordingly.
In this instance, no OGR approvals were given to Translated 9 to remove sails for repair.
When all entrants were asked later by the organiser if sails were delivered to a sailmaker for
repairs, a declaration was provided by the captain of Translated 9 clearly stating they had
not been removed and were onboard the boat. In fact, the sails had been removed three
days before the captain’s declaration was received. The captain admitted the declaration he
supplied was wrong and that at the time he supplied the declaration he was aware sails
were at the sail maker, and a 172 hour fine was duly handed down to Translated 9. Following
the official report and penalties applied, Vittorio Malingri the captain of Translated 9
resigned accepting responsibility for his error of judgment.

11

News

Choppy waters for UK marine leisure sector
A recent poll by British Marine, the trade association for the UK leisure boating industry, reports
a mixed bag of results for the final quarter of 2023.
The findings show that 23% of members saw a rise in sales compared to the same period last
year, and 57% feel optimistic about their future (+2 percentage points from the last survey in
June 2023). However, alongside this 51% experienced a decline, while 26% witnessed no
notable change in their sales, highlighting the industry’s mixed fortunes.
These figures are influenced by several factors, not just the challenging economic conditions
being faced by businesses due to high inflation, interest rates and declining consumer spending.
They reflect the continued normalisation of demand post-pandemic, leading to year-on-year
sales declines since 2021, although overall sales still remain at or above pre-Covid levels. The
speed of this change in demand has, of course, been shaped by inflation, however, it also
follows a natural correction to the inflated consumer spending levels seen during the pandemic.
Lesley Robinson, CEO, British Marine, commented: “As the recent British Marine Sentiment
Poll highlights, it has been a period of mixed fortunes for the marine industry. While some
sectors have faced challenges, others continue to show resilience and growth. This diversity
reflects the varying impacts of external economic conditions and market shifts. Despite
these challenges, there is a prevailing sense of adaptability and cautious optimism within the
industry, especially in areas like manufacturing and business services, which have
demonstrated notable strength.”

Round the Island teams up with RNLI
The organisers of Round the Island Race have
announced that they will be teaming up with the
RNLI for this year’s event by naming them their
charity of the year.
2024 marks the 200th anniversary of the RNLI
and, with the support of the Island Sailing Club, the
RNLI is running an appeal to raise the funds needed
to keep the seven lifeboat stations involved with the
safety of the Round the Island Race running in 2024
and for many years to come. Safety of all the
participants is integral to the smooth running of the
race and RNLI lifeboats have been involved in the
running of the event for many years and are
positioned around the course.

Cape Horn hall of fame
Sailing enthusiasts everywhere are being called upon to nominate their favourite Cape Horner for the
2024 Cape Horn Hall of Fame awards. The awards, whose independent judging panel is headed by Sir
Robin Knox-Johnston, offer one intrepid sailor induction into their hall of fame every year.
There are some big names in the hat already, including 2023 Golden Globe Race winner Kirsten
Neuschäfer,the first woman to win any round the world race, together with fellow circumnavigators Paul
Cayard and the late Bill Pinkney from the USA, Frenchmen Loïck Peyron and his brother Bruno, and
Russian adventurer Fyodor Konyukhov who holds the record for sailing around Antarctica.
Organised by the International Association of Cape Horners, public nominations close on 30 April. The
independent judging panel which includes 10-time solo circumnavigator Jean-Luc van den Heede, Dee
Caffari, American, Stan Honey and Captain Dilip Donde, the first Indian sailor to complete a solo
circumnavigation, will select a 20-strong list of contenders which then go forward to be voted on by the
entire IACH membership to select the top six inductees. The awards ceremony will be held in Les Sables
d’Olonne, France in November during start week of the Vendee Globe Race. capehorners.org

12

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

Next month in
Sailing Today
Next month sees us unfurl our sails and
head into the spring season and what
better way to do that than by taking a
quick cruise around Falmouth Harbour
and the upper reaches of the Fal with
local expert, Nigel Sharp.
Beyond that, we test the new Dufour 370,
take a trip across the Indian Ocean in a
28ft yacht, plus head to Norway across a
storm-tossed North Sea to discover why
the Trysail is an indispensable bit of kit.

Position: Peek a boo

PHOTOS: SHUTTERSTOCK/PAUL WYETH/ROB PEAKE

PHOTO: CARLA JUHOVA

How break up the monotony of a long ocean passage
If you’ve ever read Ming Ming
and the art of Minimal Ocean
Sailing by Roger Taylor then
you’ll know that Taylor’s
beautifully written book
describes a series of long ,
offshore adventures in a tiny
junk rigged Corribee. One of
the features of these voyages
was that when the weather
turned dirty, he hove to, retired
to his cabin and occasionally
peered out to see that all was
well. Here we have a modern
day example. The difference is,
there is someone else aboard
so you can cheer them up by
playing peek a boo. The long
ocean passages must fly by.

The long ocean passages must
simply fly by

DIFFICULTY RATING: 1/5

Quote and buy online at www.noblemarine.co.uk
or call us on 01636 707606
Authorised & regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

13

New boats
A look at the latest launches from around the globe
Xc 47

Dutch manufacturer Saffier Yachts has specialised in turning out fast, stylish
weekend sailers with an emphasis on performance and ease of use. That is,
until now. By launching the new SL 46 the boatbuilder has moved into an
altogether new realm, as this boat is unquestionably a cruiser/racer capable of
offshore passages. This is an intriguing move, as it pitches Saffier against a
plethora of established operators such as Grand Soleil, Italia Yachts, even
Beneteau and Jeanneau. Anyway, the SL 46 looks the part, featuring modern
aggressive styling coupled to a big rig, light displacement, and a deep, T-shaped
keel. The interior looks stylish and luxurious and the boat is available with the
option of a tender garage – something of an oddity in a 46 footer.

It has been some years since Danish
manufacturer X Yachts realised that
if it offered a de tuned Xc cruising
range alongside its out and out
performance yachts, it would
massively enlarge its customer
base. The project was a huge
success and the Xc range is now into
its second generation with the
launch of the Xc 47. The new launch
is one of the first since X Yachts
divorce from founder and chief
designer Niels Jeppesen, and the
result is a yacht that leans heavily
towards the cruising market,
featuring something not far from a
deck saloon. The hull lines feature
plenty of beam aft and there has
obviously been a very conscious
effort to up the cruising ante. That
said, the boat retains a powerful rig
and weight has been kept
reasonably modest.

l saffieryachts.com

l x-yachts.com

Saffier SL 46

Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 350
The Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 350 is the successor to the 349 which was actually
launched way back in 2013. At 34’1” excluding the bowsprit, she is the starter
boat in the range and viewed by the French manufacturer as offering a gateway
into sailing for young families. The boat is designed by Marc Lombard and Piaton
Yacht Design and, as you’d expect, the lines are bang up to date, offering plenty
of internal volume via fuller forward sections. Like its predecessor the 349, the
new boat is available with a swing keel – a real boon in UK waters. The interior is
really quite large and there is the option of twin doubles aft plus a double forward.
l jeanneau.com

14

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

Hallberg Rassy 69
Swedish manufacturer Hallberg Rassy is
an institution in the world of bluewater
cruising. Yet it’s an institution that isn’t
afraid to evolve and many were shocked
when the boatbuilder started to introduce
twin rudders and broader aft sections to
its designs. The 69 is another step
forward, being the largest boat ever built
by the Swedes at Hallberg Rassy and
nudging towards the cadre of pocket
superyacht. The boat is designed by
German Frers and features a big rig and
contemporary lines recognisable to those
who are familiar with the most recent
launches from the yard. The difference
with the 69 is she is just a lot bigger and
more luxurious. Fear not though, the
trademark Hallberg Rassy armchairs are
still an option.
l hallberg-rassy.com

Mojito 30
French manufacturer IDB Marine has carved a bit of a niche for itself with
its range of innovative pocket cruisers which often take inspiration from
the Mini Transat pocket racer concept. As often as not, its boats are de
tuned racers designed in this mould. The Mojito 30 is no exception, the
boatbuilder has opted to go for a scaled up version of a Mini Transat
incorporating the rounded scow bow which would ensure good internal
volume for cruising while also giving decent performance, particularly off
the wind. The boat features a swing keel, relatively moderate
displacement and – you guessed it – a very roomy forward cabin.

l Idbmarine.fr
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

15

HOW TO NEGOTIATE
The recent attacks by killer whales off the Spanish and Portuguese
coast have caused concern for cruisers. Jetty de Koster narrates a
solo trip where she obeyed all the rules to stay ‘orca-safe’

16

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

Orca safe

lot of sensational stuff has been
written recently in the mainstream
media about orcas attacking yachts.
However, beyond the hyperbole,
there are genuine reasons to be
concerned about this worrying new
phenomena whereby killer whales seem to zone
in on small yachts and attack them – generally
targeting the rudder. So far four yachts have sunk
due to orca interactions. Perhaps this situation
affects your plans or trips to Spain and Portugal too?
Each skipper is responsible for their boat and crew
and must balance the risks and pleasures of a trip.
In case of the orcas, this has been made especially
confusing by different authorities, giving opposing
advice. On the one hand, The Atlantic Orca Working
Group, or GTOA, advises sailors to slow down
and stop the engine, if confronted by orcas (see
https://www.orcaiberica.org/en/recomendaciones).
Orcas Spain & Portugal, or orcas.pt, on the other
hand, recommends sailors to follow the 20m
depth contour line and to flee from orcas as fast as
possible towards shallower water, when encountered
(see https://www.orcas.pt/orcasdosanddonts).
Amidst the horror stories in the press and the
lack of a clear picture of what is going on, it’s
sometimes difficult to make an objective assessment
on taking a voyage in this area. Having made
the voyage and followed the recommendations
and advice of various parties, I therefore thought
it would be good to share my experience and
knowledge. The following is my account of a trip
made in the summer of 2023 from The Netherlands
to Gibraltar, during orca-migration-season.

PHOTO: SLOWMOTIONGLI/SHUTTERSTOCK

Preparing for the trip and
learning about orcas

Last summer I made the best trip of my sailing
life so far on my Compromis 888, Pasión.
On the 26 June I cast off my lines in Marina
Muiderzand, on the Dutch Markermeer, and on
the 27 July I arrived – safely and undisturbed
by any orcas – in Alcaidesa Marina, just outside
Gibraltar. The decisions that I have made, due
to the orcas, have greatly influenced my trip.
As preparation for the orcas, I was recommended
to join orcas.pt’s Telegram group. Since November
2022, I followed the chat messages here on a daily
basis, and I learned that most yachts are able to make
a safe passage. From all yachts that reported a trip in
and under 20m of depth, 100 per cent made it without
damage. The Orcinus app and the constant reporting of
‘attacks’ in the Telegram group pinpoint the approximate
locations of the orcas, and therefore the risk areas.
So, I invested in a satellite phone to stay informed.
Because it was going to be my first big offshore
trip, I had arranged for the help of a delivery skipper
for that part, but, unfortunately, we were not able to
match our calendars in the end. I was not expecting
at all, at this point, that with regard to going solo, the
offshore part of my trip would in fact be the easiest!
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

17

Instead, I hired a shore-based
support, Rainer, a very experienced
charter captain, who I had met via
the orca Telegram group. His job
was to be stand-by in case I needed
any advice on how to fix anything
that might break and to keep me
informed about the positions of the
orcas, so I could give them a wide
berth. He took his job very seriously.

Route, weather and
orca window

On the evening of the 8 July I left
Camaret-Sur-Mer. There was a
weather window of sorts – I would
have liked to have had it calmer,
but the next prediction of that was
going to be in 10 days and that didn’t
seem very reliable. My original plan
was to sail south toward La Coruña,
where I could take a break if needed.
If I would be up for it and with
the right weather, I would go west
approximately 70nm north of La
Coruña, stay about 70nm offshore
and go south. But this plan was
sabotaged by the orca situation.
In summer, the orcas migrate,
following the tuna that they feed
on. So now there was not just one
pod west of Gibraltar, as there
had been during all the months
that I had followed the Telegram
group, but, additionally, there was
a group of orcas swimming north.
According to Rainer, they were
already near La Coruña and possibly
approaching Gijon around the
13 July. Besides these, there were
other groups near Tangiers, Cabo
São Vicente, Lisbon, and Porto. In
short, everywhere on my route.
I had three weeks of holidays left
from work and none of the options

18

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

that I now had, appealed to me. To
leave the boat in France was my least
favourite. But to sail to Santander,
which would be easier to travel to,
would mean the least enjoyable trip,
from my point of view. First, I would
constantly be on the continental shelf,
with uncomfortable waves. Once
there, I would have to leave the boat
until after the ‘orca season’, because to
stay in 20m of depth off that steep and
rocky coast, and to sail only during
the day, would be very difficult, if
18
between marinas, and probably
dangerous, so close to the rocks. Even
leaving out the orcas, it didn’t tempt
me, as I had already set my dreams on
crossing Biscay from north to south.
So, now my plan A was Gibraltar,
with a plan B option to make landfall
in Santander or to face an orca risk
if I would choose to make landfall

ABOVE LEFT
Pasión safe and
sound in harbour
ABOVE RIGHT
Camaret-Sur-Mer
was a good place
to stop before the
big offshore leg
BELOW
Overview of the route

elsewhere. That, together with the
unsettled weather, meant that I
wasn’t in the best mood on my day of
departure. But, once at sea, I enjoyed
the peace and I felt that I had taken
the right decision to go for it.

No orcas – no comfort

About 24 hours into my trip, I received
an email from Rainer: “Draw a line
on your chart from 47°40.046’ N and
004°33.285’ W to 45°25.363’ N and
007°14.028’ W and stay NW of that
line to avoid the orcas. Next possible
stop: maybe Lisbon.’’ In other words:
tack immediately and sail all the way
west on the continental shelf with
about 25kts of wind (or go back north).
It wouldn’t have been my first choice
for comfort, but at least I was alone,
and I wasn’t likely to get seasick after
the rough seas that I had already
experienced the previous week. So,
I decided to follow Rainer’s advice.
The damage: a drawer came flying
out of the galley and stayed parked
on the saloon floor for the next two
weeks, one broken plate, a small
wound in my wrist and a couple of
new bruises. It was annoying, but at
the same time it was awesome, and a
good learning experience. My sailor
friends told me later that, when they
saw me continue south, after that part
of my trip, they knew I was going to
be all right to handle the rest of it.
And perhaps it was indeed a good
preparation for what was coming…

Risk priority assessment
– orcas or weather?
After that challenge came a relaxing
day of sailing, not so close-hauled
anymore, but on a beam reach,
in deep water, with long waves

PHOTO: ANDRE QUINOU/SHUTTERSTOCK

Orca safe

and in the right direction: south.
Unfortunately, on the next day, there
were zero knots of wind. And for the
following day, a storm was expected.
I didn’t want to make it into port
in La Coruña, partly because of the
orcas. But the further south I went,
the less I would be affected by this
storm, so I had to keep going on the
engine. Had I not taken the detour
west to avoid the orcas, this storm
might have passed behind me.
On a North Atlantic Ocean as
smooth as glass, it could have been the
perfect time to place the galley drawer
back, cook some food, and have a cold
shower on deck, but Neptune decided
that I was in for my next challenge:
my autopilot stopped working. After
trying to fix it and rigging up different
ways to lash the tiller, without success,
I ended up hand steering for the most
of the next 24 hours. When the wind
was back, finally, and the windvane
could thankfully take over again,
I was relieved to get some sleep.
I had planned my weather route
just west of the La Coruña TSS,
tacking up against the southsouthwesterly winds in such a way
that I would be the least affected
by the worst of the storm. I slept
a lot and, being tired, overslept at
one point. Fortunately, I woke up
just in time to tack and get out of
the TSS. After that the wind picked
up to 45kts for a few hours. It was
amazing and I could never have been
more impressed with my dear strong
Compromis 888, her new rigging
and sails, and with the windvane’s
steering capabilities. Everything was
in balance and, although I had to
hold on with both hands and feet, the
waves turned out longer and slightly

36

less bad than those I had experienced
earlier on the continental shelf.
If it wouldn’t have been for the
orcas dictating my trip, I might
not have been out in this weather
with Pasión. But thankfully, it was a
positive experience, that has made
me trust my boat like never before.
Again, it was good to be alone, with
no one to be responsible for, but
myself and the ships around me.
Both episodes of pounding and the
calm have taught me great lessons
in accepting what is, and making
the best of it. Everything will end.

Making landfall

Finally, I got rewarded with the fair
winds and following seas that everyone
had wished me, and with a few
perfect days of sailing. Because I had
become worried with oversleeping,
and since there was again a lot of

ABOVE
Planning was key
BELOW
Orca sightings
mapped on orcas.pt

wind predicted, I exchanged emails
with Rainer about making landfall in
Nazaré, a place that I much fancied
visiting. If I would sail in a straight
line to the coast, the risk would be
minimised of running into the orcas.
But before I got to the waypoint
from which to start my approach, I
decided I wasn’t ready yet to end the
offshore part of my trip. I felt more
rested, the weather forecast looked
better, and I had gained confidence
in my weather routing skills, to keep
me comfortable enough to eat, sleep
and enjoy my trip. So, I made the
plan to keep going to Gibraltar.
Meanwhile, the orcas were
widely spread; one group in the
Bay of Biscay, getting close to Brest,
another near Galicia, even one in
the Mediterranean. But apparently,
they were also still off the south coast
of Spain and Portugal, so Rainer
recommended me to make landfall
in Lagos, and to coast hop from
there on. Again, my nicely planned
weather route was abandoned to
reduce the orca risk. I had gone
quite far west to stay in the perfect
wind conditions (Rainer asked me
if I was planning to go to Brazil)
and now I had to sail on a beam
reach, and even close-hauled again,
through 25-30kts of wind and
uncomfortable waves, to cross just
north of the TSS of São Vicente.
I had messaged Rui from Orcas.
pt, and he told me that the orcas
were seen somewhere between Faro
and Huelva that day. So, I decided
not to stay in 20m of depth after
Cabo São Vicente, but at a safe
and easy distance from the shore,
since I was tired and still lacked an
autopilot that could steer compass
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

19

course. After 10 days offshore it
felt strange to see all the yachts and
fishing nets and I was relieved to
be able to keep some sea room.

Coast hopping in 20m
depth contour line

What some might expect to be
the least stressful part of my trip,
coast hopping, was a lot harder,
more tiring, and potentially more
dangerous than I had anticipated.
Of course, it didn’t help that I was
solo and had no autopilot. First,
there were a lot of fishing nets
everywhere, most marked with
a stick, some with just a plastic
bottle. These were often visible
from two boat lengths distance,
or less, when I was going against
the sun or when there were waves.
A bigger crew with extra eyes
wouldn’t have been an excessive
luxury. At one point I heard a
heavy ‘thump’ against the back of
the hull. But fortunately, I didn’t
see anything, Pasión’s speed didn’t
change, and her bilge stayed dry.
But each visit below deck felt risky.
The second difficulty was that
the weather forecast was a lot
less reliable than for the offshore
part of my trip. From Ayamonte
to Gibraltar it seemed that the
local effect was a lot more wind
than predicted to leave port in the
morning and to enter port in the
late afternoon, with hardly any wind
at midday. Also, there were plenty

20

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

of areas marked by cardinal buoys,
that I had to pass on the shore side
to be able to stay in 20m of depth.
This felt like I was sailing through
a narrow channel, slaloming the
fishing nets, and fishing boats, and
keeping my full concentration on
the depth gauge and on the water.
Some of these areas mark tuna nets
that go all the way to the beach. And
the only side to pass them would
be in deeper water. But with advice
from sailors in the Telegram group, I
learned that some of these were not

ABOVE
Orcas do not generally
bother yachts and
in other parts of the
world do not generally
pose a threat to boats
BELOW
Navionics screenshot
showing Tarifa – a
place where it
was rocky and
the conditions
unpredictable, which
gave cause for concern

being used at that time and so I was
able to stay within the 20m line.
The most stressful, for me, were
the places where the seabed is steep.
Off Faro, this felt fine, as the sea was
very calm, and I could see sand. In
case of Cabo Trafalgar, which local
sailors recommended me to pass
either very close or very far from the
shore, it was also calm, but rocky,
and it made me nervous. But off
Tarifa, where 20m depth is at 200600ft from the rocks, I didn’t feel
comfortable, as the wind and waves
picked up and changed direction as a
local effect of the Strait of Gibraltar.
As a result, I stayed 0.4nm from
the rocks, which involved an orca
risk and a lee shore risk on one side
of Tarifa. That was a bad choice if
something had happened, and I
intend to stay further away next time.

Next time

PHOTO: WILLYAM BRADBERRY/SHUTTERSTOCK

Orca safe

Since Pasión now lives in the Bay of
Algeciras, the orca challenge is right
at my doorstep for any trip I make.
Here is my action plan: buy a backup
12V bilge pump and prepare a 50m
rope with a Y for the winches, that is
ready with my drogue for emergency
steering, practice with it. I already
have a spare autopilot and the broken
one has been fixed by a friendly
neighbour that I met via orcas.pt. Take
crew with good eyes around fishing
nets. And give steep and rocky capes
a wide berth, unless there is offshore
wind or extremely calm conditions.

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PHOTO: IURII DZIVINSKYI/SHUTTERSTOCK

Cruising – Corfu to Albania

22

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

Nic Compton explains why he
was obliged to take the path less
followed to Albania in order to
keep his boat in the Mediterranean
irë se vini në Shqipëri – Welcome to Albania!” said the dark-haired
young woman as she took our lines on the dock at Sarandë. This
was Jelja Serani, our guide for the next few hours as we explored this
strange (to us) land. Even though we had all travelled widely around
Europe and I had spent my entire childhood sailing around the
Mediterranean, none of us had explored Albania, this still-mysterious
country at the heart of southern Europe, which seemed so close and yet so alien.
Of course, there’s good reason for this disjuncture. For nearly 50 years, Albania closed itself
off from the Western world, and no Western visitors were allowed into the country. Its only
relations were with other Communist countries, such as the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and
China, and it embarked on a major cultural revolution – including banning all religions.
Growing up on a boat in Greece as a child, I spent several summers and one winter based
in Corfu. I remember often gazing out over the narrow channel that separated us from this
forbidden land and wondering what it was like on the other side. One year, both engines on
our 48ft Silver motor yacht broke down while we were on passage from Greece to Yugoslavia
(as it was then called). A strong wind was blowing from the northwest, and for more than
an hour we drifted helplessly towards the Albanian coast, while my father tried to get the
engines working again. All the while, an Albanian patrol boat, with what appeared to be a gun
mounted on its foredeck (although in retrospect it was probably just a water canon), circled
pointedly around us. It was a huge relief when we finally got moving again and managed
to escape from the ‘clutches of communism’ – as it seemed to my 12-year-old brain!
Albania finally opened up to tourism with the fall of communism in the early 1990s. It’s been
strongly promoted ever since, particularly the inland regions, with 3.8 million people visiting
the country in 2020. But yachting has been a bit slower to get going, and even sailing there in
2023 felt slightly daring – or perhaps that was just a hangover from my Cold War era childhood.

Post Brexit conundrum

The idea of sailing to Albania had been mooted from the very start of our voyage from UK
to Greece the year before – not because any of us were desperate to visit the country but
because post-Brexit legislation made it necessary. As everyone knows by now, UK now has
to comply with the rules affecting all countries outside the EU – the main issue affecting us
being that we could only leave our boat in Europe for up to 18 months (or possibly up to 24
months, see panel) before we would have to pay VAT. The only way to ‘reset’ the clock was
to visit non-EU countries such as Morocco, Turkey and Albania, and then re-enter the EU.
Although our time wasn’t due to expire for another year, we decided to ‘reset’ our clock
early so we wouldn’t have to do it the following year, when we wanted to be free to sail east
to the Saronic Gulf in the middle of Greece, with plenty of time left on our transit log.
And so at the end of May 2022, ‘the boys’ (my regular sailing crew, Matt, Laurence
and James) and I headed north from our base at the Vliho Yacht Club in Lefkada to
Corfu, via Antipaxos and Paxos. It had been 30 years since I visited Corfu by boat, and
I was pleasantly surprised by how lovely it still is. We moored up at the small harbour
run by the Nautical Club of Corfu (NAOK) and enjoyed strolling into the bustling,
cosmopolitan town centre. How could anything Albania had to offer possibly compete?
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

23

That said, it’s always good to travel
somewhere new, and I felt the usual
mix of trepidation and excitement as
we headed north through the Straits
of Corfu. It was strange to think that
one of the earliest incidents of the
Cold War took place right here in
October 1946, when two Royal Navy
ships struck mines while passing
through Albanian territorial waters,
killing 44 crew. The subsequent
legal challenge was the first case
to be heard by the International
Court of Justice and resulted in the
cancellation of diplomatic relations
between the UK and Albania until
the fall of communism in 1991.

A brutal legacy

There were no mines to worry about
as we sailed along the southern tip of
Albania. The coastline here is mostly
empty and undeveloped – unlike the
villa-pocked hillsides of Corfu – apart
from the occasional very modernlooking holiday development. But
as we neared Sarandë, the coast
was lined with modern blocks of
flats. It was that famous ‘brutalist’
communist architecture which
can be beautiful in its own way,
except that many of them were
unfinished: just concrete skeletons
staring out to sea with hollow eyes.
I was surprised to see about a dozen
yachts anchored in the bay and a
couple tied up on the jetty – including
the stunning 54m three-masted
schooner Shenandoah. Either Albania
was more popular than I’d imagined,
or there were lots of other boats
needing a VAT holiday. Despite being

24

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

one of the main ports of entry for
yachts cruising in Albania, there isn’t
a marina in Sarandë and we moored
at the commercial dock, in amongst
the ferries and harbour patrol boats.
The only other yacht moored near us
turned out to be a Norwegian boat,
also needing to renew its VAT status.
We were all eager to go ashore
and explore the town, but we had
to wait for half an hour or so while
24 It
Jelja cleared us through customs.
was the first time I’d used an agent
in this way, and it certainly made
for a hassle-free experience. Jelja
also advised on car hire, currency
exchange (none – you can pay in most
places with Euros), and the best places
to eat (though that turned out to be
slightly subjective, as we shall see).
Sarandë is a strange mixture of
glamour and seediness. The main
strip running along the beach is
chock-a-block with restaurants and
bars where you can relax and enjoy
a glass of chilled Korça (Albanian
beer). Walk back one block, and you
find yourself on a dusty shopping
street, with ugly modern buildings
and chaotic traffic. One block further,
and it’s a rather grim residential

PREVIOUS PAGE
Ksamili with Corfu
in the background
ABOVE LEFT
Sarande's fishing
harbour, Albania
ABOVE RIGHT
An evening view
of Sarande
BELOW
The gaff schooner
Shanandoah moored
at the main dock
in Sarande

street, with identical-looking blocks
of flat, many of them incomplete.
Even the vegetable market, usually a
place of colour and joy, was a gloomy
affair full of hustling old women.
We ploughed on regardless,
clambering up the hillside to
Lëkurësi Castle, built in 1537 by
Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent to
guard the Ottoman Empire against
the Venetians – those very same
Venetians who built the fortifications
in Corfu to guard against the
Ottomans. The castle enjoys
spectacular views over Sarandë,
which actually looks quite picturesque
from this distance, to the north.
To the southwest, the hazy hills of
Corfu sprawl out over the horizon
– looking a lot like Albania does
when you’re looking the other way.
But the most intriguing view was
inland, where a large valley stretched
out for several miles to the east until
it meets a mountain range running
from north to south. The land looked
lush and fertile, with settlements
dotted all around. A whole, interior
world to itself, seemingly oblivious
to the sea only a few miles away.
That evening we ate at a traditional
Albanian restaurant. I had read rave
reviews about Albanian food online,
but the fare served at Te Bequa was
a cliché of bad ‘communist’ grub:
overcooked, oily and bland. One of
their more interesting dishes was
paçe, translated on the menu as ‘head
meat stew’, which is literally just
that: a stew made from the head of
a lamb or a goat. This was listed on
the breakfast menu, alongside fried

PHOTO: BARDHOK NDOJI/ISTOCK

PHOTO: ISTOCK

Cruising – Corfu to Albania

PHOTO: LEONID ANDRONOV/ISTOCK

eggs and yoghurt. Feeling brave,
Matt tried the tavë kose, or yoghurt
casserole, but left most of it uneaten.
“Bone, fat and gristle in gelatinous
yoghurt with a chaser of grey greens,”
is how he described it. Despite this,
Te Bequa scores 4.5/5 on Tripadvisor,
so perhaps we were just unlucky.
The next morning, we headed
off to ‘see the sights’ in a rental car
arranged for us by the ever-helpful
Jelja. Top of the list was the ancient
ruins at Butrint, nine miles south of
Sarandë. One of only two Unesco
World Heritage sites in Albania,
Butrint is a happy hotchpotch of
Ancient Greek, Roman and Venetian
ruins. There are Roman baths next
to a well-preserved Greco-Roman
amphitheatre, while the museum is
contained in a Venetian fort at the top
of the hill. There’s even a Christian
baptistry here with a stunning

ABOVE RIGHT
The Zelda ‘boys’ crew,
from l-r, Laurence,
Matt, James and Nic
BELOW
Butrint archaeological
site. UNESCO world
heritage in Albania

mosaic on the floor – though you
won’t get to see it as it’s covered for
most of the year by a layer of sand
to protect it from the elements.
Now that’s what I call tantalising!
The whole site is contained within
a wooded, island-like peninsula (the
French would call it a presqu’île) on
the edge of a lake which we enjoyed
wandering around for a couple of
hours. The Greek border is only 12
miles away, and indeed this whole site
was almost handed over to Greece
after the First Balkan War (1912-13),
until Italy objected and it was made
part of the newly-created Albania.
The reason Italy objected? Because
it didn’t want Greece to control
both sides of the Straits of Corfu.
From Butrint, we took the rope
ferry across the Vivari channel
and drove inland to the foothills
of a small mountain range, before
heading north back to Sarandë. It
was lovely open countryside, with
just a few small villages spread out
along the route – though it was

Post-Brexit rules
l Visitors from outside the Schengen
Zone (including the UK) can only stay in
the area 90 days out of 180, counted on a
rolling basis. Your passport must be
stamped on entry and exit, which means
boats entering or leaving the EU must do
so at a recognised port of entry. All EU
countries are included in the Schengen
Zone except for Ireland, Cyprus, Croatia,
Bulgaria and Romania.
l Any boat which was outside the EU
after 31 December 2020 is liable to pay
VAT if it stays in EU more than 18 months.
In some countries (eg Greece) this can be
extended by ‘immobilising’ the boat,
either ashore or on a mooring, and
handing in the ship’s papers to the local
customs office. A certificate from a
boatyard is required as proof of
‘immobilisation’, which is registered on
the yacht’s transit log.
l A certificate of competence is required
when skippering a boat in the EU, usually
the ICC.
l In practice, sailing from UK to Greece,
we were only ever asked for the boat’s
registration papers (Small Ship’s Register
– make sure it’s in date), proof of
insurance (preferably with a local
translation, available from your insurers),
and our passports. We were never asked
about the boat’s VAT status.
l On arrival in Greece, yachts are issued
with a transit log which records their
movements, including any periods of
‘immobilisation’ and any excursions
outside the country. This is the document
which customs use to decide how long
you are allowed to stay in the country. We
were never asked for any other proof of
entry or about the boat’s VAT status.
l Watch out for the upcoming ETIAS
(European Travel Information and
Authorisation System), essentially a visa
system, due to be enforced this year (2024).
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

25

Cruising – Corfu to Albania

noticeable that the settlements we
drove through seemed to consist
entirely of modern buildings, all the
old houses presumably having been
knocked down long ago. Making
things look pretty didn’t seem to be
a priority in this part of Albania.
The rules aren’t clear about how
long you are supposed to stay
outside the EU before your clock
is officially ‘reset’. We figured 24
hours was a reasonable time, and so,
just a day after arriving in Sarandë,
we slipped our lines and headed
back out to sea – closely followed
by the majestic Shenandoah. Had
we had more time, we might have
been tempted to explore the coast
more, though close examination
of the chart suggests it’s mostly

made up of quiet bays and sandy
beaches, rather than the picturesque
fishing harbours which are such
a key part of sailing in Greece.
And there is the nub of the
problem. Sailing from Greece to
Albania, you are always going to have
the memory of that idyllic cruising
ground in your mind. With limited
time on our hands, we decided to
spend most of our time in Greece
rather than Albania. From our very
limited experience, I think that was
the right call – though I’m very
aware there are others who have
cruised Albania far more extensively
and love it. Each to their own.
We anchored off the Old Fortress
in Corfu for a crew change – ‘the
boys’ headed back to the UK while

OTHER PLACES TO VISIT
The main marina on the so-called Albanian Riviera is the
Marina di Orikum, 40 miles north of Sarandë. This is a
large, Italian-owned complex of around 100 berths. It’s not
a port of entry, however, and yachts are required to clear
customs in Sarandë before going to Orikum. Other
possible stop-off points are the commercial ports of Vlorë,
Durës and Shëngjin, which are all ports of entry.
The coast has a wealth of pretty, isolated anchorages,
such as Kakome bay (right) just a few miles north of
Saradë, while Himare is a popular seaside town a bit
further up the coast. Heading south, the Ksamil islands are
well worth a visit (described as the Albanian Maldives by
the tourist board, though this might be over-egging it
somewhat). It’s even possible to anchor in the bay off
Butrint, and visit the castle built by Ali Pasha back in the
18th century.

26

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

ABOVE
The imposing old
Venetian Fortress in
Corfu with the yacht
club and marina
conveniently located for
touring the old town

my wife Anna and our children
joined me for the trip south. I have
to confess it was a relief to be back in
Corfu and enjoying convivial meals
in the beautiful old town. By the time
we headed south at the end of May,
summer had truly arrived and we
enjoyed a balmy sail back to Lefkada
via Paxos and Antipaxos – this time
being treated to calm turquoise waters
and proper sunbathing weather.
A few days later, we emerged on
the other side of the Lefkas canal
and entered the so-called Inland
Sea. With its cluster of pretty island
– Kalamos, Kastos, Meganisi, Ithaca
– and anchorages never more than
an hour away (and usually less), it
made for ideal family sailing. But
that, my friends, is another story.

Paul Heiney
The romance of a winter sail on a crisp, frosty day is theoretically wonderful
but often motivation is lacking at the crucial moment
t the end of every
sailing season I
always make myself
a promise, and every
year for as long as
I can remember I
break it. The promise is that this
coming winter I will go sailing.
I always deeply regret when
another sailing year is coming to
an end. I don't want to let go; let
the magic continue, let's not be
slaves to the relentless turning
of the pages of the calendar. The
winter months can throw up
some splendid crystal clear days
with light breezes and a distant
horizon so sharp you could cut
yourself on it. Why ignore them?
So although I take off the sails,
tie every thing down that can
move in the winter winds, and try to
remember to scour every corner of
the galley lest that forgotten salami
is there to greet me on my return,
in my mind I am not properly ‘laid
up’. Then I say to the boat ‘see you
soon’ and make my way homeward
in the fading evening light.
But making that promise is as
far as I go. I did not go winter
sailing this year, and never
have. And now that winter is receding and spring
will burst before long, I have to admit that the
idea of a few winter days beneath my billowing
sails was all fantasy, and always has been.
However, that doesn't mean I don't spend time on
the boat. My excuse is that I am just popping down
'to keep an eye on things' but careful observers will
notice that this lonely figure climbing on board is
also laden with sustaining shopping, such a pork
pie. I might not be going sailing but I mean to
have a much-needed taste of boat life. I keep my
boat afloat all year round and, as the water taxi
takes me out to her mooring, the driver reminds
me that he ‘knocks off at four’. When I tell him
that’s OK because I’m staying the night, he gives
me a look as if I’m not quite right in the head.
Despite the dankness of everything you touch, and
the chaos of a boat that is out of use, I like the feeling
of stepping into this musty old cave of mine. Thank
goodness for propane gas which doesn't let you down
on a frosty night, like butane does, so the first task

is always to get a light under the
kettle. So cold is the tank water
that it seems ages before the kettle
starts to sing, but gets there in the
end. I sit clutching the mug for a
little while, wondering if the radio
still works, flicking a few switches
to see if the lights come on and the
battery isn't flat – God bless solar
panels. Is my bunk dry, or did the
hatches leak, and is the bedding
now as cosy as a wet flannel? I
stuff my hand into the old sail bags
in which the duvet is kept over the
winter, and it feels half tolerable.
Then I make up my bunk, not
because it is anywhere near
bedtime but because it adds a little
order to the clutter of the cabin.
Then I look at the weather
forecast and the worse it is the
happier I am. It may be rather
self-indulgent, but I find nothing
more satisfying than being on a
boat in complete shelter, safely
held by stout warps, with a gale
making mayhem all around. My
most vivid memory is of being in
the Beagle Channel, tied alongside
the Chilean navy’s immovable old
warship now used as an ad-hoc
yacht club. A storm raged as a deep
depression thundered its way round Cape Horn, 50 or
so miles to the south. As the cold front slammed its
way through, the frigid air brought heavy snow (and
this was in the early days of summer, but Antarctica
is only 300 miles to the south) which soon filled the
cockpit. To be secure in your own boat knowing that
none of this was any kind of the threat was reassuring.
But only for a short while because, naturally,
the diesel heater failed since boats know when
you're enjoying yourself too much and try to
restore a balance. But regular readers will know
that the diesel stove was later ditched in favour
of a wood burning stove which is my most
valuable companion on these winter visits.
So I'm not ashamed that I never sail in the
winter, despite promising myself every year.
There are many different ways to enjoy your
boat, and sitting aboard in the dark days with the
glowing flames lighting the cabin roof is, for me,
pretty unbeatable. The pleasure in boat owning
doesn't always mean putting up the sails.

28

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

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W

here would we be
without the French?
I mean, where would
offshore sailing
have got to over the
past half-century without the relentlessly
pioneering spirit of the French? When you
think it’s not much past 50 years since Sir
Robin Knox-Johnston won the first aroundthe-world sailing race, the Sunday Times
Golden Globe in 1968/69, and now we are
witnessing six 100ft foiling maxi trimarans
charging around the planet at unfathomably
fast speeds. All six boats are French.
Where Sir Robin took 312 days to
navigate the 32ft wooden ketch Suhaili
successfully around the world, the winner
of the Arkea Ultim Challenge Brest is
predicted to take around 40 days.
The Jules Verne Trophy was instigated
around 30 years ago to find out if a sailing
boat could break that magical number, to sail ‘around the world
in 80 days’. While three boats set out on that first challenge,
only one made it. Bruno Peyron’s maxi-catamaran Commodore
Explorer did indeed break the mythical barrier with an impressive
time of 79 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes. A year later in 1994, it was
none other than Knox-Johnston who, with the late Peter Blake,
knocked more than four days off Peyron’s time, ENZA New
Zealand setting a new mark of 74 days, 22 hours, 17 minutes.
Times have tumbled since those pioneering days, and the
current record stands at 40 days 23 hours 30 minutes, set by
Francis Joyon’s six-person crew on IDEC Sport in early 2017. The
current solo non-stop record was also set in 2017 by François
Gabart aboard his 100ft Ultim, Macif, in a time of 42 days, 16
hours and 40 minutes. That was when foiling technology was very
much in its infancy, and in the past seven years the ability for these
multihulls to lift clear of the water has come on leaps and bounds.
With the rise in foiling across so many parts of the sport
we’ve also seen the risk of crashing or capsizing increase, but
such has been the pace of development in the Ultims that
they are now using the foils to mitigate against tipping over.
Not only are the foils there to provide lift – propelling the
Ultim to speeds in excess of 40kts – but they’re also used to
create downforce for additional righting moment, as well as
for keeping the transom clamped into the water. Hydraulics
enable the foils and rudder elevators to be constantly adjusted,
enabling very consistent heel, ride height and fore and aft trim.
The Ultims have been around long enough now for many
of the major bugs to be ironed out. While the recent departure
of six giant multihulls from France was reminiscent of The
Race which set off from Barcelona on 31 December, 2000, the
differences between the two races are very stark. Twenty-four
years ago New Zealander Grant Dalton pulled together a very

well organised campaign to skipper
Club Med to a commanding victory
in a time of 62 days, 6 hours and
56 minutes, and there was only one
challenger who came anywhere close.
That was French entry Innovation
Explorer, co-skippered by Loick
Peyron and Skip Novak who finished
just over two and a half days later.
Best of the rest was Cam Lewis’
USA-flagged Team Adventure who
finished 20 days behind the winner.
Great Britain’s late, great Tony
Bullimore was last across the line in
just less than 105 days, but at least he
beat Steve Fossett’s PlayStation who
failed to finish. And even worse for Pete
Goss’ space-aged but catastrophically
flawed catamaran, Team Philips, which
disintegrated in the North Atlantic
before The Race had even begun.
While The Race really was a leap into the unknown, this
modern breed of boundary-breaking multihulls are a much
better known quantity. When the six Ultims departed Brest on
7 January, former Vendée Globe winner Armel Le Cléac’h on
board Banque Populaire XI was pegged as the favourite. Recent
winner of the Transat Jaques Vabre, Le Cléac’h was among the
best prepared of the fleet. However, a problem with his J0 headsail
in the first week of the race forced the 46-year-old to make a
pitstop at the Brazilian port of Recife to repair the pulpit on the
main hull and to replace the tack line fitting for the gennaker.
It must have been galling for Le Cléac’h to see that fellow
Frenchman Charles Caudrelier was clocking up a whopping 782
nautical miles in 24 hours as the twice Volvo Ocean Race winner
was charging past the coast of Brazil aboard Maxi Edmond de
Rothschild. Holding the lead for most of the first week however, was
26-year-old Tom Laperche at the helm of SVR Lazartigue. By far
the youngest skipper in the fleet, Laperche has been well-mentored
by Gabart who still holds the solo round-the-world record.
As to whether Gabart will hold that record for much
longer, we’ll have to see. The difference with pure record
attempts is you get to choose your perfect weather window
for a swift launch down the Atlantic Ocean. On his 2017
record-breaking circumnavigation, Gabart’s passage time
to the Equator was 5d 20h 45m, while Laperche took 6d 5h
35m to cross the dotted line, almost nine hours back.
Not that these competitors will be concerning themselves
too much about breaking records. The most important
thing is to finish and for everyone to come home safely.
While developments in technology have massively reduced
the risk of capsize compared with previous generations of
offshore multihulls, striking underwater objects – whether
natural or man-made – remains an ever-present danger.

“Sir Robin took 312 days to
navigate the 32ft wooden
ketch Suhaili successfully
around the world”

30

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

ANDY RICE
As a sailing journalist
and TV commentator
Andy has unparalleled
knowledge of the
performance racing
scene, from grassroots
to elite level

PHOTO: GUILLAUME GATEFAIT

The Arkea Ultim Challenge is an extraordinary dash around the world that promises
to break the 40 day barrier. It’s a far cry from the 1969 Golden Globe Race

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Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

31

The Menai Strait and surrounding waters are some of
the most challenging for passage planning. Local sailor
Don Smith describes how to work the tides

32

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

PHOTO: NICOLA PULHAM/SHUTTERSTOCK

Cruising – North Wales

y neighbour’s boat, Inthral,
is berthed in Victoria Dock,
Caernarfon, where she had
been surveyed after a poor
deck repair by a firm no
longer trading. The surveyor
made his recommendations very clear, “Get
it done by Yacht Systems in Deganwy.”
As my boat is berthed in Conwy Marina, his first
question for me was, could he get from Caernarfon
to Conwy on the same tide? Yes, all the crucial
tidal gates are open as you reach them, assuming
a boat speed of about 5kts. However, getting back
on a single tide, in a displacement vessel, is not
so easy. Tidal gates ahead of you close, eg the
Swellies, or have not yet reopened, eg Victoria
Dock.” In a fast RIB, it’s not a problem, but...
In short, Conwy bound, leave Caernarfon’s Victoria
Dock as soon as the gate opens, transit the Swellies
before high water slack (Liverpool HW-2) and ride
the eastbound flood tide for as long as you can up
the Menai Strait. You can use the Puffin sound and
go round the island before heading for the Conwy
fairway but the Penmean Swatch is shorter.
You should reach the Penmean Swatch before
the westbound flood tide gathers too much way at
about an hour before local high water and be out
of most of the tide that runs along the Anglesey
shore as you cross the Penmaen Swatch.

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

33

Cruising – North Wales

Setting out

We made the delivery trip in midAugust when Liverpool HW was
1709, leaving Victoria Dock at 1323
as soon as the gate opened, bound
for Deganwy Marina with a crew of
skipper plus three. Motoring at 5kts,
making 7.5kts over the ground, we
were doing well so we didn’t make
any sail to capture the following wind
– southwesterly 10-15kts. We were
well ahead of the game and arrived
at Stephenson’s Britannia Bridge
before Liverpool HW-2.5, still with
a strong eastbound flood tide, and
shot the mainland span of Britannia
Bridge, round Price’s Point and out
under the Telford’s Menai Suspension
Bridge, still carrying the tide.
Transiting the Swellies eastbound
before local high-water slack
hadn’t been a problem; there was
no significant turbulence or sheers

34

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

though a short trail of disturbed
water marked the head of Cribbin
reef. We pressed on and reached
Beaumaris before meeting the local
slack water as it advanced up the
strait towards the Swellies behind us.
Tides in the Menai Strait are not
straightforward. The flood tide
coming up the Irish Sea divides as
it reaches Anglesey, the portion
feeding Caernarfon Bay provides the
eastbound flow from Caernarfon.
The remainder of the flood tide flows
34
it meets this eastbound stream near
the northeast entrance of the strait.
Where they meet is a transient slack
water that moves progressively from
Puffin Island until it is in the Swellies
at Liverpool HW-2. Hence the
preference for many boats to transit
the Swellies at HW slack, after which
the tide continues to rise for an hour

PREVIOUS PAGE
The Menai Strait
(inset below) Don
Smith (above) Inthral
moored in Holyhead
ABOVE LEFT
Cribbin Reef exposed
at LW springs
ABOVE RIGHT
Deganwy marina
and Conwy Castle
BELOW
The two entrances
to the Menai Strait

and 40 minutes before local HW.
As we passed through the slack
water marking the meeting of the
streams, we could see the wind
against tide effects ahead of us
and observed the yachts coming
up the strait towards Beaumaris
were making heavy weather of it.
The tide was against us now, and
building, but when we turned to
cross the Penmaen Swatch we
would be out of the worst of it.

Penmean Swatch

The Penmean Swatch, between
Dutchman’s bank and Lavan sands,
provides a handy short cut to Conwy
that also avoids butting against the
west-going flood tide on the way to
Puffin Island. As the Anglesey side
of the Penmaen Swatch dries early
in the tidal cycle, the transit is only
recommended about an hour or

two either side of local high water.
With the B6 buoy approaching I
checked the bearings and the transits
but confidence in old school pilotage
had evaporated among the crew.
Each was glued to a chart plotter
or chosen digital device, while I
continued with chart and compass,
aided by any of the above – I’m not
a complete, card-carrying Luddite.
With the two broadcasting masts
on the Anglesey shore almost in
transit and the nearer mast bearing
297°M, we turned to starboard. The
helmsman remained glued to the
chart plotter. I suggested a course
to steer without any expectation
and we all watched the soundings,
four metres (below transducer),
an hour before high water, and
getting deeper as we crossed the
sand and entered the swatch.
I was under no illusion that we
would be doing the passage across
the sands and swatch by compass and
soundings alone, but I continued my
old school pilotage anyway. When the
bearing of the red beacon in the Puffin
Sound was 355°, we were due to alter
slightly to port, but the helmsman
had followed the chart plotter

ABOVE RIGHT
Conwy Castle
BELOW
Conwy estuary

already. From the B6 to the Pool is
about 2nm and when we arrived,
we altered course for the C2 buoy
in the Conwy fairway (065° 4nm).
Whether by old or new school, it
had been a straightforward crossing
though it must be said not altogether
comfortable as we rolled in the beam
sea coming up from leeward. A little
sail set might well have helped.
The Conwy fairway was a treat
for the Caernarfon crew who
were used to single buoys on the
Caernarfon fairway and were very
impressed by the paired buoys. As
we passed the perch shortly after
Conwy HW, the local tide was
ebbing moderately so motoring past
the Beacons landing stage, where
the tide runs the fastest, wasn’t
a battle. It was then a question
of following the channel to the
Bodlondeb starboard marker before
turning to port and following the
three port markers into Deganwy
Marina, with two hours in hand
before gate closure. As instructed
by VHF, we moored up on the
pontoon across from the fuel berth,
four and a half hours after leaving
Caernarfon. Right on cue, our fifth

crew member, who couldn’t join
us for the delivery, arrived bearing
piping hot fish and chips all round,
and very welcome they were, too.

The return trip

Work on the repairs began the next
working day and in a couple of weeks
the first part of the repair was done.
However, the remainder of the work
was deferred to the next season.
We will cover the return trip from
Conwy to Caernarfonand how to
work the tides in a later issue.

Swellies pilotage
1. David Rainsbury Irish Sea Pilot
2. Sailing Today May 2023 pp20-23
3. https://www.caernarfonharbour.
org.uk/passage-through-theswellies/

Penmean Swatch
pilotage
1. Ralph Morris: Cruising Anglesey
and adjoining waters
2. David Rainsbury: Irish Sea Pilot

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

35

Boat test – Italia 12.98

Despite a consistent record of winning on the racecourse, Italia
Yachts somehow remains under the radar.
Sam Jefferson tests the 12.98, the company’s latest cruiser/racer

36

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

37

Boat test – Italia 12.98

erhaps few things sum
up the recent success
of Italia Yachts as
the sight of the Italia
15.98 Nessum Dorma
ghosting into Port St
Louis, Grenada one early December
night in 2023. The significance of
the arrival was that she was the
first boat across the line in the 2023
ARC+. This transatlantic rally is
ostensibly for cruisers but, as always,
it has strong overtones of a race for
those at the front of the fleet and,
in a light weather run from the
Cape Verde islands to Grenada, this
monohull had fended off challenges
from big, sporty catamarans such
as Marsaudon’s ORC 50 and a
number of Outremers, to cross the
line first. In many ways the win was
small beer given the triumphs of

38

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

the Italia 11.98 and 9.98 on more
conventional racing stages such as
the IRC and ORC Worlds where
both have dominated in recent years.
It showcased how perfectly Italia
has managed the crossover from
cruiser to racer and the bluured
lines between a rally and a race
were the perfect opportunity for
an Italia to take the win and then
pass the winter cruising around
the Caribbean in comfort.
Yet I am not here to write about
either the 15.98, the 9.98 or the
11.98. I’m here to cover its latest
yacht, the 12.98, launched in 2023
and boasting the usual impeccable
credentials as a cruiser/racer. This is
a very nuanced category of boats as
there are racers that can be cruised –
such as perhaps the Italia 11.98 and
also fast cruisers that can be raced.

ABOVE LEFT
The Cossutti-designed
hull is certainly
easy on the eye
ABOVE RIGHT
Like other Italia
yachts, light wind
performance
is excellent
BELOW LEFT
I tested the Belissima
version of the 12.98
which is slightly
detuned compared
to the more racy
Fuoriserie version
BELOW RIGHT
A clean,
uncluttered deck

And I would include the 12.98 in the
latter category – although to further
complicate matters, she is available
in two different specifications;
Belissima, which is far more cruising
oriented, and Fuoriserie which is
much more angled at racers. There
are marked differences between the
two specs of boat and this is good
because it demonstrates how serious
Italia is about tailoring the boat to
two quite different types of sailing.
Whichever spec you go for
though, the hull is designed by the
same team: Cossutti Yacht design in
collaboration with the Italia Yachts
design team. Unlike the other boats
previously mentioned, there is one
interesting omission and that is the
name of Matteo Polli, who has been
a key player in penning the lines
of IRC/ORC powerhouses such as

the 11.98 and 9.98. Polli worked with
Cossutti for a number of years and then
became Italia’s in house designer. In
2018, however, he went independent and
started working with a range of other
manufacturers and, on this occasion,
he seems not to have taken part in the
design of the new boat. It must be noted
that he did design the original Italia 12.98
back in 2015 but this 2022 launch is an
entirely new boat from the keel up.
The boat may lack Polli’s nous and
knowhow but it’s not as if Cossutti doesn’t
know a thing or two about penning the
lines of a fast, seductive cruiser/racer
and first impressions are good. The 12.98
retains the slinky looks of other yachts in
the range; 43’ in length with a relatively
low freeboard, moderate beam with
decent amounts of taper aft, knife like
bow and low, sleek coachroof. She retains
the trademarked vertical transom with

rounded aft sections that swell out
considerably above the waterline,
pointing to low wetted surface area
and strong light weather performance.
There is a single rudder and a 2.3m
keel as standard with the option of a
2.4m and 2.46m depths. Displacement
has been kept to 9,000kg on the
Fouriserie, and 10,000kg on the
Belissima. Predictably, the Fuoriserie
also carries slightly more sail area,
with the option of a square topped
mainsail and running backstays. Both
have rod rigging. The key difference
though is the cockpit layout which
features a third set of winches on the
coachroof and the primary winches
shifted further forward on the
coamings. Meanwhile the interior is
moderately different on the sportier
version with the ensuite heads
forward eschewed. There is the option

ABOVE
On the Belissima
version, the winches
are placed slightly
further aft to
make sailing short
handed easier
BELOW
The running rigging is
run through channels
in the cockpit
coaming which
keeps things tidy

of a carbon fibre mast and boom,
while the Fuoriserie version features
a much longer fixed sprit at the bow.

On Deck

I tested the Belissima version of
the boat and the most obvious
pointer that this was the cruising
version as I stepped aboard was
the Permteek decking and also
the face that the twin winches for
headsail and mainsail were set
well aft within reach of the helm,
pointing to simple short handed
sailing. All the sail controls were
led aft through channels in the
coaming and emerged just in
front of this pair of winches.
Despite the tapered run of the
yacht, the cockpit is still relatively
broad, running back to an open
transom with a narrow bathing

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

39

Boat test – Italia 12.98

platform. There are two reasonably
dimensioned lazarettes aft of the
helm and space for liferaft below.
These lazarettes do a lot of work
because there are no bench lockers.
The traveller is just in front of the
helm. Forward of this is a cockpit
table and nice seating area for six
who, at least on the Belissima layout,
are separated off from the action
of sailing the yacht and can relax.
Out of the cockpit and there are
wide side decks with jib cars set on
the coachroof and neatly recessed,
up forward there is very generously
sized anchor locker which has
the gas locker integrated into it,
although there is no way you are
going to be able to shoehorn any
sails in here so they must go down
below via the forehatch. On this less
sporty version there is still a sprit
for the gennaker but it’s shorter
and integrates the anchor roller.

Down below

Italia Yachts are generally very stylish
and vaguely minimalist down below
and the 12.98 is no exception. There
is lots of light materials and it is
all very bright and contemporary.
Step down from the cockpit and
you find yourself in a big, luxurious
space with decent amount of light.
The companionway steps are nicely
sloped and There is an L-shaped
galley to port and this is big with
plenty of usable space. The worktopmounted fridge is very deep and
there is also an (optional) upright
fridge so lots of food storage. There’s
a U-shaped seating area to port
forward of this and a modestly
dimensioned table, then a sofa to

40

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

starboard and no chart table.
One thing I did notice was that
there were no USB ports anywhere
– with every year that passes this
becomes an increasingly glaring
omission. The day heads is adjacent
to the galley on starboard and this
is big with the shower completely
separate which is always pleasing to
see. The double aft berths are slightly
different sizes with the starboard
being a bit larger with good headroom
and decent light from portlights on
both sides. The water and fuel tanks
are under these two double berths
and are both 220l in volume. The port
side cabin feels significantly smaller.
Forward is a decent master cabin and
not bad sized ensuite. Overall the
ambience was very pleasant and it
felt like a great place in which to chill

ABOVE
The interior was
stylish and minimalist
BELOW
A big rig provides
plenty of power

out. Chic and minimalist without
being stark. That said, it’s by no means
huge for a 43’ yacht and the designer’s
willingness to focus on speed and
style have a slight payoff here.

On the water

We set out in very modest conditions
with the breeze blowing between
8 and 12kts. The water was flat.
You would think that this doesn’t
sound very inspiring but I was still
thoroughly looking forward to the
sail as I knew this boat was going
to perform. With the main and
headsail up we ghosted along in
6-8kts of breeze, easily hitting 5kts.
The helm is sensitive and smooth.
The handling was responsive and
the boat just wanted to go. We
were soon to provide it with the
opportunity; bearing away a little, we
unfurled the massive gennaker and
the boat took off. This is a big sail
but in the light breezes there really
wasn't a problem and the boat had
plentiful amounts of grip thanks to
that deep spade rudder. The boat
now zipping along at 7-7.5kts with
absolutely minimal effort. We were
pitted against the Italia 11.98 which
was also part of the sea trial and
it was interesting to contrast their
performance, with the 11.98 sneaking
up in the lulls and the 12.98 romping
away when the breeze filled in.
The sail controls were well set up
with the German mainsheet and
traveller well placed and the general
set up of running rigging excellent.
Our thanks to Yacht Match who
organised this test. For more
information, go to yacht-match.com

ALTERNATIVE
BOATS

ARCONA 435 MK2

SAM’S VERDICT
Italia Yachts doesn't seem to do
a bad boat and the 12.98 was
everything you’d expect from the
yard; fast, stylish and a joy to sail. I
think in light winds it has few rivals
and upwind it also excels. That
said, the designer’s unwillingness
to compromise on performance
means that it is smaller than
some down below and storage

is not huge on deck. Nevertheless,
it’s horses for courses and if you are
after a head turning boat that can
blow others away wether around
the cans or on an Atlantic crossing,
this might just be the boat for you.

Swedish boatbuilder Arcona is another
manufacturer that turns out cruiser/racers that
are bewitching on the water. The company's
435 is getting a bit long in the tooth but
remains a superb all round performer while
the quality of the finish down below is superb.
arconayachts.se

BLUE WATER HHHHH
PERFORMANCE: HHHHH
LOOKS:

H

X4(3) MK2

THE SPEC
LOA: 14.3m (46’10”)

Mainsail area: 58.4m2 / 630ft2

Hull length: 13.16m (43’2”)

Jib: 51m2 / 550ft2

LWL: 12.5m (41’)

Spinnaker: 178m2 / 1,915ft2

Beam: 3.95m (13’

Standard engine: 50hp

Draught: 2.3m or 2.46m (7’6” or 8’1”)

Base price: €386,900 ex VAT

Displacement: 9,290kg / 20,500lb

Builder: italiayachtsinternational.com

Danish cruiser/racer specialists X Yachts
has been moving slightly more into the
cruising sector of the market in recent years
but the X4(3) is still a polished performer
and a serious Nordic rival for the Italia.
x-yachts.com

GRAND SOLEIL 44
An Italian yacht with real racing
pedigree having won the ORC Worlds
in 2021,22 and 23. This is a Matteo
Polli design and, given that he used to
be Italia’s in house designer, this boat
shares a lot with models in its range
in terms of design characteristics.
grandsoleil.net
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

41

Tom Cunliffe

Tom Cunliffe

was shocked to read recently that
9.5 million tons of food are thrown
away every year in the UK alone.
My answer to this is along the lines
of WS Gilbert’s Mikado, making
the punishment fit the crime.
While the Emperor of Japan planned
to have those convicted of cheating at
billiards play for evermore ‘on a cloth
untrue with a twisted cue’, I am
determined to send food wasters to
sea in small yachts with no
refrigeration. Food’s a bit like water

42

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

on a long passage. Unless you have a
water maker or are an expert
fisherman whose luck is permanently
in, once it’s gone, it’s gone. So, waste
not, want not.
Those who live on the sea, even for
short periods, soon become experts
at recycling food. My wife Roz
and I spent so long on the oceans
without a fridge that, although we’re
based ashore at last, we still can’t
bring ourselves to bin anything
we could put in our mouths.

PODCAST
Catch up with Tom’s
columns now and
in the future at
sailingtoday.co.uk

When we made our home moored
on the piles in mid-river off Beaulieu
following an extended cruise, our
eight-year-old daughter used to scull
ashore to the village school in the
morning. She’d hop down into the
dinghy togged up in official pullover
and skirt with her lunch box tossed
onto the stern seat. I don’t know what
her classmates carted along to munch
at mid-day, but Hannah’s creations
showed initiative. Occasionally
it might be conventional cheese

ILLUSTRATION: CLAIRE WOOD PHOTOS: TOM CUNLIFFE

The idea of wasting food while on a long sea passage is unspeakable. Tom lists a few
tips and tricks to make sure the crew don’t go hungry

“My curries have
been described by
connoisseurs of
subcontinental
cuisine as ‘Force
Ten’. Some love
them. Others
grumble”

or ham. More often it was the
remnants of last night’s dinner –
the shepherd’s pie sandwich was
a favourite. Binning the remains
is still against our religion.
We’d a big boat in those days and
made our passages with a full crew.
At sea, we’d follow the lead of the
great HW Tilman and offer the
left-overs from dinner the following
morning. Tilman once stirred an
already mutinous crew into open
rebellion by serving curry for
breakfast. He doesn’t say in his book
whether he had directed the cook to
prepare it specially to give the day

a red-hot start, but in our case curry
for breakfast was a not-infrequent
entry on the bill of fare. Generally,
we got away with it. My curries have
been described by connoisseurs of
subcontinental cuisine as ‘Force Ten’.
Some love them. Others grumble
and gasp, but there’s no escape. If any
is uneaten at the first round in the
second dogwatch, it sits on the cooker
until morning so those suffering
night starvation can heat it up for a
treat, or not, to suit their fancy. Often
this would see the last of it, but if
daybreak showed a decent whack still
in the pan, it went into an omelette.

ABOVE
On a rough passage,
a five-day stew gets
better every night
BELOW
Fresh fish is a great
way for the sporting
sailor to top up
supplies on passage

The idea of scraping it over the
side never entered our heads.
I was introduced to the final
word in turning one’s back on food
waste by the late Harold Hudson,
a professional delivery skipper
of the old school. When I knew
him, Harold used more or less to
commute to the Mediterranean
from the Solent, delivering boats
of wildly varying quality for
gentlemen and others. I was living
in a mud berth near to his and it
was inevitable that I would ship
out on one of these ventures. The
yacht in question was a 60ft wooden
classic whose stability derived
more from a deep lead keel than
a healthy beam. Predictably, she
went to windward like a half-tide
rock at an extreme angle of heel.
We beat out past the Needles
at sunset into a rising sou’wester.
Our crew were a hard-bitten
lot and nobody was seasick, but
volunteers to knock up supper
were not forthcoming. In the end,
Harold did it himself, opening a
random array of cans and mixing
up the contents into a large pressure
cooker. Half an hour later, he served
up the unique result in big enamel
mugs that burned our fingers, but
it warmed us up and filled the
gap. There was half a pan left.
The next night, we prospected
in the can locker, topped up the
remnants with beans and added a
few spuds for good luck. On day
three we’d rounded Ushant and were
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

43

Tom Cunliffe

bashing down the Bay. Harold’s
stew was going strong so we fried
up the last of the mushrooms with
a couple of onions, chopped up a
large black pudding, tipped them
in and served it up again. And so
it continued until, still hard on
the wind, we rounded Finisterre.
As often happens, the wind finally
freed us south of the corner and
we came upright at last. By then
we had a proper ‘five-day stew’
still in the same pot. The quality
was sumptuous and we’d never
washed up, so we finished it off
by tipping in half a can of curry
powder. There was no curry left for
breakfast and absolutely nothing
had been wasted. Just don’t ask
what we did with the empty cans.
Any sailors with half an ounce of
the sense they were born with give
careful thought to their victualling
lists. Things have changed mightily
since Harold’s day back in the
1970s when on-board refrigeration
and freezers were, for most of us,
unimaginable. After the first week
of a trip, the fresh produce was
limited to a few guaranteed ‘keepers’.
Stowed in a string bag so air could
circulate, a big, hard cabbage
could be relied on to stay good to
the end if eaten leaf by leaf from
the outside in. The humble spud
might not have been universally
popular, but it’s surprising what an
enterprising sea cook can do with
it. I was looking at an old log book
this morning and found that in
three months, mostly at sea and a
lot of it in the tropics, my wife and

ABOVE
Our daughter
Hannah laying in
supplies prior to a
long voyage – onions
and fresh eggs are
two guaranteed
‘keepers’ at sea
BELOW
Fresh fruit will last
longer in a string
bag which will allow
air to circulate

TOM CUNLIFFE
Tom has been mate on
a merchant ship, run
yachts for gentlemen,
operated charter boats,
delivered, raced and
taught. He writes the
pilot for the English
Channel, a complete
set of cruising text
books and runs his
own internet club for
sailors worldwide at
tomcunliffe.com

44

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

I consumed 56lb of King Alfreds
with only one given the deep six for
going rotten. Onions are another
winner. A half-hundredweight
netting sack of Spanish onions will
still see an average crew across
the Atlantic with some to spare.
Like decent veggies, eggs can also
go the distance at room temperature.
The trick is to insist that they’re
fresh when you sail. So long as
they’ve come to you straight from
the hen they’ll keep for weeks, so
go and see Farmer Giles and make
the arrangements. I once read that
eggs would stay good for ages if
the shells were rolled in Vaseline.
The theory was that the grease
stopped air passing through the
semi-permeable membranes and
kept out any microscopic pond life
that might sneak across with it. Roz
and I tried this on our early voyages.
It gave us soft hands and the eggs
certainly stayed fresh. Later, laziness
set in and the Vaseline treatment
went by the board, but we still
bought fresh and were enjoying a
soft-boiled double-yolk for breakfast
crossing the Line six weeks later.
Dry goods such as rice and flour
are OK if purchased north or south
of 23°. In the tropics, weevils were
once pretty much guaranteed. With
today’s tidier standards this is no

longer inevitable, but you can’t
be sure, not even in the English
Channel. I bought some sealed
packs of pasta in Salisbury of
all places for a passage to North
Africa a few years ago. When one
was broken out off the coast of
Portugal, there were the pests, as
large as life and twice as small,
chomping contentedly at my dinner.
There’s an old seaman’s remedy
for clearing rice and pasta of
weevils. One thing is certain. You’ll
never pick them all off by hand.
Just when you think you’ve got the
lot, another one will always come
peeping out. Here’s what you do:
Take a large flat pan or a serving
dish, layer in the nice white rice
with the nasty little weevils and
carefully pour in clean water. Not
fancying this early introduction to
Davy Jones, the bugs float to the
surface while the uncooked rice
stays put at the bottom. Scoop them
off and you’re home free. There’s
only one catch. You need to be
smart about the scooping. If you
leave the weevils floating until they
drown, they sink to the bottom like
Pharoah’s Host and you’re stuck
with them. This doesn’t work with
flour, of course, but you can’t have
everything. And remember, you
heard it first in Sailing Today!

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Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

45

Sydney Hobart

The 2023 edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart race dished up a real
treat, including one of the closest finishes of all time

46

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

PHOTO: CARLO BORLENGHI

BELOW
The race was won
by the narrowest
of margins

PHOTO: KURT ARRIGO

LEFT
The start in Sydney
Harbour. The maxis
Andoo Comanche
and Law Connect
already sparring in
the foreground

he Sydney Hobart race
remains one of the
great iconic races in the
yachting calendar and
the sight of the huge
fleet powering out of
Sydney Harbour bound to Hobart
on Boxing Day – just as most of us
are recovering from the effects of
too much Christmas cheer – always
elicits a tip of the hat. This may be
the antipodean summer but the Bass
Strait is always capable of dishing
up the sort of conditions to send a
shiver down the spine of even the
most experienced sailor. This year
was no different and a 103-strong
fleet enjoyed a relatively light
weather crossing of this notorious
strait, yet this came with a sting
in the tail for sailors towards the
back of the fleet who, when almost
within sight of the finish line, were
clobbered by a savage weather

PHOTO: KURT ARRIGO

ABOVE
Wild conditions
off Tasmania

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

47

48

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

Group. Hine, who previously won
the race in 2018 cited the tricky
final run up the Derwent River as
the deciding factor: “It was a cliff
hanger right up to the bloody finish
wasn’t it? The Derwent River always
pulls something out of the bag.
“We worked so hard all the way
through that race. Everyone put
in 100 per cent,” Hine said. “You
don’t always walk away feeling like
you’ve done the best you could have
personally, but I don’t think anyone
would have hopped off the boat
feeling they could have put more in.”
Alive’s victory topped off an
impressive regatta for the Reichel/
Pugh design house, whose yachts
took first, second and third places.

ABOVE
With the fleet nearly
home, the Bass Strait
turned ugly for the
smaller yachts, with
50kn winds off the
Tasmanian coast
BELOW
Law Connect narrowly
leads Andoo Comanche
across the line
RIGHT
Tasmanian owned
Alive was the
overall winner

Closest ever finish

Perhaps the standout moment
of the 2023 race was, however,
the photo finish between the two
supermaxis Andoo Comanche and
Law Connect who battled it out for
line honours across the Tasman Sea
along with HJK Scallywag which was
unfortunately forced to retire. Andoo
Comanche seemed to have the edge
over Law Connect for most of the
race and led by around two nautical
miles as they turned into the final
stretch on Tasmania’s River Derwent.
Here, fate took a turn. Both
boats arrived off the Derwent in
the early morning and, as is often
the case at this hour, wind was in
short supply. Comanche is often

PHOTO: KURT ARRIGO

system off Tasman Island which
dished up gusts of up to 60kts as the
smaller boats raced for the line.
At the head of the fleet there was
a game of cat and mouse going
on with Sydney Hobart stalwart
and many pundit’s favourite Indoo
Comanche leading most of the way
with Law Connect clinging to her
skirts which set the stage for a photo
finish on the Derwent River – more
on that later. The race drama was not
reserved for the maxis competing for
line honours however. The overall
winner on handicap was Alive, a
Tasmanian owned Reichel/Pugh
66 skippered by Duncan Hine. She
was involved in a ferocious battle
right up to the line with URM

PHOTO: KURT ARRIGO

PHOTO: KURT ARRIGO

Sydney-Hobart

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

49

THIS PICTURE
Antipodes in action

Sydney-Hobart

BELOW
Law Connect ghosts
over the line

Onboard Antipodes
We wanted to get a feel for the action mid fleet and Bradshaw
Kellett, veteran of an astonishing 31 Sydney Hobart races –
entering the first when he was 16 – was happy to bring us some

described as the fastest maxi in the
world but she is also known for her
broad aft sections which slow her
considerably in very light airs. She
ground almost to a standstill, while
Law Connect, although herself no
light weather flier, seemed to be
bringing a bit of breeze in with her
and closed slowly with Comanche
then slowly, painfully overhauled
her, crossing the line just 51
seconds ahead. It was the second
closest finish in the prestigious
race’s 78-year history only beaten
by the 1982 edition which was
decided by seven seconds.

racing machine in its day but now slowing up somewhat.
Bradshaw was on as Sailing Master and talked me through her
race while navigating Andoo Comanche back across the
Tasman post race.
“My race on Antipodes was good – bittersweet I guess you
could say. We had a great start for our old boat then a really light
upwind leg and we didn’t handle it very well and just walked off
the playing the field somewhat, which was frustrating.
“It was blowing NE initially and my Initial strategy was to
stay in the NE breeze for as long as possible. That involved
steering a course of 140. Unfortunately instead of that, our
navigator who is very experienced, steered 180 without
telling me.
“Rather than get annoyed, I opted to take a nap. I awoke
to find that we were in a wind hole and lost another five
hours. At this point, you’ve lost the big boats that I was
hoping to hold so we had to start thinking like a 40’ and so
we hugged the coast and that set us up for a straight run
across. That was a superb run and we made a mini
comeback and almost caught Teasing Machine.
“We had lots of upwind – it was 15kts upwind to NSW then a
big transition off Gabo then another southerly front came
through and slowly the fronts developed with greater intensity.
Towards the end, the boats at the back copped 50-60kts. We
call it Hell’s Gate when it’s like that and I was glad we were in
before it got really heavy.

much lighter airs and had a beam reach until Tasmania. In the
end we got back to 13th overall which wasn’t too bad.”

50

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

PHOTO: KURT ARRIGO

“I don’t know if we could’ve hung with the 50 footers but it
would’ve been a different race. The two 100 footers were in

Bradshaw Kellett, who has sailed
extensively on both boats – most
notably on Law Connect for six years,
including in 2016 when she won
the Sydney Hobart and smashed
the course record when sailing
under the name of Perpetual Loyal.
He was not entirely surprised by
her comeback victory: “Every dog
has its day,” he reflected: “It’s luck
of the draw on the Derwent River
and you don’t want to get there too
early because it’s a shutdown and
unfortunately the boys on Comanche
were on the fastest, fattest supermaxi
and it does not like light airs.

PHOTO: ANDREA FRANCOLINI

of the action from Antipodes a Santa Cruz 72 – a fearsome

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Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

51

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Watson steps
back into
spotlight
Jessica Watson captured the
imagination of sailors throughout the
world when, at the age of 16, she sailed
singlehanded, nonstop and unassisted
around the world. She was back in the
spotlight at the age of 30 after
completing the race in a S&S 34
Azzurro, which was the same model as
her famous Pink Lady. She took part in
the race to raise awareness of the risk
factors of stroke and advocating for
prevention and treatment of strokes
after losing her long time partner to a
stroke in 2021.

Watson said: “Someone asked if we
had broken anything and we said ‘just
six people!’ We have bumps and
bruises and one of the guys had a bit
of a cut on the hand. But all are OK
and the boat was great. It was
awesome, but brutal. Really, really
unrelenting. It was either no wind,
which was really frustrating, or a lot of
wind and that was tough and hard.”
Watson is one of so many women
who have been lauded in the race this
year. Women navigated the
winner Alive and second placed URM
Group. Vanessa Dudley sailed her
25th Hobart, and Annika Thomson
PHOTO: KURT ARRIGO

won the Jane Tate Memorial for the
first female skipper to cross the finish
line, while others finished top three in
their divisions.

“Law Connect is still heavier but
it’s all about wetted surface area
and that made the difference. I
wasn’t surprised at all. I knew the
old Speedboat had it in her. The
conditions had enough to just
hang in there across Bass Strait. As
they approached Tasman island
Law Connect just brought the new
southerly breeze down the river
and they just seem to have had a
bit more momentum – that’s what
it looked like to me anyway.”

Ever the Bridesmaid

Law Connect has been the runnerup in the three previous editions
of the race, while the heavily
favoured Andoo Comanche was last
year’s victor. Skipper and owner
Christian Beck clearly hadn’t
fancied his chances pre race, as

ABOVE
Jessica Watson enjoys
a lively ride aboard
the S&S 34 Azzurro
BELOW
The crew of Law
Connect picking up
their winning medals

he told reporters in Hobart: “The
boat, I jokingly call it a shitbox.
But compared to Comanche it
honestly is a shitbox,” Beck said.
“You look up close and it’s rough as
anything. Comanche is a beautiful
boat, it’s better in every way.”
Law Connect’s unlikely victory
was even more remarkable given
a violent gust of wind ripped one
of its sails early in the contest.
“It was totally ruined. That was
during one of those squalls on
the first night,” said Beck.
Beck bought the Juan
Kouyoumdjian-designed boat in
2017 but it has a storied history
going back to its launch in New
Zealand in 2008 under the name
of Speedboat. Since then she
has also raced under the names
Rambler 100 and Perpetual Loyal.

PHOTO: ANDREA FRANCOLINI

Stepping ashore after completing a
tough race with a very rough finish,

Results

Line honours:
1 Law Connect Christian Beck
2 Andoo Comanche
John Winning Jr
3 URM Group
Anthony Johnson
4 Alive
Philip Turner
5 Moneypenny
Sean Langman
IRC:
1 Alive
2 URM Group
3 Moneypenny
4 Law Connect
5 Andoo Comanche

MARCH 2024

53

Flotilla history

THE GENESIS OF
FLOTILLA SAILING
Flotilla sailing might be big business these days but it enjoyed humble beginnings.
Rod Heikell reminisces on the early days of flotillas in the Mediterranean
54

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

LEFT
Social interaction
with fellow guests
is all part of the fun
of a flotilla holiday
BELOW
The Yacht Cruising
Association (YCA)
fleet laid up for
winter in Sivota in
the Greek Ionian

PHOTOS: SAILING HOLIDAYS/MIKE COX

RIGHT
Eric Richardson – the
man who started
it all with YCA

he genesis of flotilla sailing is tied
into the era of the 1960s and 70s
when the democratisation of sailing,
of the idea of going on holiday in the
Mediterranean, was beginning to take
root, not as the prerogative of the rich
or an adventure for the tough, but as something
the man in street could aspire to. The very idea of
sailing in turquoise waters under a blue sky with
the heat of the sun on your back was to tempt
many who would otherwise have turned down a
sail in the muddy swatchways
of Essex or the shouting and
testosterone enveloping racing
in the Solent. I should disclose
at this point that part of this
history takes a personal twist
since I was involved in the early
days of flotilla sailing, though I
have tried to be as objective as
you can with a personal history.
Flotilla sailing started in
Greece in the 1970s and has
proved enduringly popular
ever since. Eric Richardson
started the first flotilla, the Yacht
Cruising Association (YCA),
in 1974. The origins of the
idea are somewhat lost in time, but somehow Eric
developed the idea of a little fleet of identical boats
shepherded by a lead boat with a skipper, engineer
and hostess on board, accompanying them on a
more or less set route around the Greek islands.
Up until this point it was difficult to find a yacht
to sail around the Mediterranean unless you sailed
your own little craft down, or you had the money to
charter one of the large charter yachts dotted around
various places – mostly in the western Mediterranean
and a few spots around parts of Italy and Greece. In
many ways the concept of flotilla sailing was to do

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

55

with the democratisation of yachting
and making it affordable for more
people to charter a yacht around
the Greek islands. The concept of
flotilla sailing emerged on the back
of all-inclusive package holidays
which had become popular by the
1970s. Horizon Holidays and later
Clarksons were the pioneers who
operated all-inclusive holidays to
Corsica, Italy and Spain in the 1950s
and 1960s that enabled the less welloff to go on holiday to foreign places.

Marketing genius

Eric Richardson had worked in the
budget flight business for a number
of years, so was well acquainted with
the concept of the package holiday.
Still the idea of an all-inclusive sailing
holiday in Greece was considered
at best adventurous and at worst
a foolhardy idea that would end
in disaster. The sailing press and
yachting organisations like the RYA

56

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

were dismissive of the idea and
predicted it would all end in disaster.
In September 1973 he ordered 11 24ft
Snapdragons from Thames Marine
with the possibility of ordering more
if YCA proved successful. The initial
boats were all bilge keelers so that
if the company didn’t get off the
ground, the boats could be re-sold
in Britain. Eric wanted to exhibit at
the London Boatshow in January
1974 but couldn’t get a stand. Instead
the Snapdragons outside Waterloo
Station advertising sailing holidays
in Greece on this very yacht. It was
marketing genius and by the end of
January the flotilla was fully booked.
To an extent the snooty attitude
about flotilla sailing has endured to
this day, although it now encompasses
criticism of bareboat charter as well as
the flotillas. And it’s not only confined
to pompous yacht club members and
the ‘better class’ of people who go

ABOVE LEFT
The redoubtable Yacht
Cruising Association
Snapdragon 24 – the
first flotilla boat
ABOVE
A bit of one-design
racing for the flotilla
BELOW
The barbecue was a
quintessential part
of flotilla sailing
BELOW
A sketch showing
Rod's flotilla notes
and plans 1979

sailing in the Mediterranean. A lot
of nonsense and a sort of snobbery
revolves around the idea of flotilla
sailing. Comments like: ‘it is just like
ducklings following the mother duck’;
‘I want to get away from it all and not
sail together with other boats’; and
‘it’s just a package holiday afloat’, are
all too often attached to the idea of
flotilla sailing by private yacht owners,
a few chartering bareboat yachts and
even by some would-be charterers
of flotilla holidays. In practice, none
of it is like this and those who go on
flotilla holidays often return again
and again. Sailing Holidays probably
holds the record with one customer
who has been on a flotilla sailing
holiday 90 times throughout the
history of the company. Nor is it solely
a matter of sailing experience. Often
experienced sailors who own a yacht
at home choose to take the flotilla
option for the social side with a bit of
one-design racing on the side. I had

PHOTOS: SAILING HOLIDAYS/MIKE COX/ ROD HEIKELL

PHOTO: MIKE COX

Flotilla history

PHOTO: MIKE COX/SAILING HOLIDAYS

one crew of more senior sailors on a
flotilla boat who had some 150 years
of sailing experience between them.
Since those early days, flotilla
sailing has expanded to other
Mediterranean countries and
further abroad to Thailand and to
the Caribbean. Thirty years on a lot
has changed. In the first few years it
may come as a surprise to some that
only the lead boat had a VHF radio.
Otherwise communication was by flag
from the lead boat to the other flotilla
boats and if anyone went missing you
had to chase after them, desperately
trying to attract their attention, and
then shepherd them back to where
they were supposed to be going. In
1978 in the Saronic I lost half the
flotilla during a thunderstorm when
rain reduced the visibility to 100m or
so for an hour. It took all afternoon
to find the lost boats which had been
scattered all over the Argolic Gulf.

Logistical headaches

Getting spares and equipment out
to the boats today is a streamlined
operation and companies keep large
stocks of spares for their fleets. In
the early days we asked customers
coming out to bring spares with their
luggage. Newcomers would wander
through the airport with hatches,
engine spares, sails, even an anchor
on one occasion, and pile them up in
front of the rep who was organising
the bus transfer to the flotilla base.
We in turn would provide them with
bad wine and as much local brandy as
they could drink for all their trouble.
Once YCA was up and running, a
number of other companies decided
that flotilla sailing was the way to go.

36

ABOVE
YCA trucking the
boats down to Brindisi
in a somewhat
unorthodox fashion
ABOVE RIGHT
Cobra 850s in the
Saronic 1978
RIGHT
Tom Keen – the
godfather of Flotilla
Sailing Club
BELOW
One of Flotilla Sailing
Club's Jaguar 27s

Tom Keen started Yacht Cruising
Club when he applied to go on a
YCA flotilla and was told the next
availability was a year away. The
son of a successful chicken farmer
from the Midlands, he had a
long held passion for
sailing. During World
War Two he was with
the RAF in Singapore
when the Japanese
invaded. With a mate
he ‘borrowed’ a light
plane and set off for
Australia. Somewhere
over Indonesia they
ran out of fuel and
crash landed on a
beach. He swapped
the plane for a proa and sailed
the rest of the way to Australia.
Maybe Tom got the inspiration
to set up a flotilla company
from his boat trip to Australia.
He certainly had an interest in

yachting and Barrie Neilson, the
current owner of Sailing Holidays
(the successor to FSC), records that
he once owned Stormvogel, the 73ft
classic cold-moulded racing yacht
built by Bruynzeel in South Africa.
Or perhaps he just
wanted to give his
two sons, David and
Tom Jnr, something
to occupy themselves.
However it happened,
in 1975 Tom ordered
12 Jaguar 27s and had
them trucked down to
Ancona in early 1976
from where they were
sailed down to Corfu.
The flotilla quickly
filled up with bookings for 1976
so Tom ordered two more fleets of
Jaguar 27s for 1977 that would arrive
in dribs and drabs from Brindisi
as and when they were built and
trucked down. In 1977, I arrived
in Greece from the UK in Roulette,
a 20ft ply boat built in the 1950s.
With me was Bridget, my girlfriend,
and an empty kitty. At the time we
were living on something like £2.50
a day and when the chance of work
with FSC came up, we jumped at
it. Our combined wage was around
£100 a week, a fortune. At the end
of the season Tom Keen suggested
I run a new fleet of Jaguar 27s he
was buying – we would meet at the
London Boat Show to sort things out.
As it was I was poached by another
company at the boatshow with
probably the most uninspired name
for a flotilla company: Crawford Perry
Travel Sailing in Greece. Flotillas
were already popping up in new areas
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

57

PHOTO: SAILING HOLIDAYS

Flotilla history

of Greece and we were based in
Spetsai in the Saronic with flights
into Athens. In 1978 there was little
to nothing in the way of back-up.
Half of the boats were not registered
with the Greek authorities and
we ran them illegally. Repairs
were rudimentary: an alternator
bracket made up of angle iron, sail
repairs with tape, epoxy resin and
glass fibre tape for patching and
holding things together, engine
repairs on the fly. When we lost a
mast, it was replaced with the one
off the lead boat and we motored
everywhere until a new one was
shipped out. Somehow it all worked
and for the second year there
was an 80 per cent return rate.

Expanding horizons

The success of flotillas had not
gone unnoticed and suddenly
the yachting press, national
newspapers and TV holiday
programmes were featuring
flotilla holidays. Companies
added fleets in what was then
Yugoslavia, Turkey and Corsica
and Sardinia. In Greece, the Ionian
was still the biggest flotilla area
and remains so, but fleets were
added to the Northern Sporades
and Dodecanese. New companies
arrived on the scene and some of
the original companies changed
hands. One of these, Island Sailing
originally based in Poros in the
Saronic bought the original YCA
company and expanded its charter
fleet to areas like the Caribbean,
Thailand and the Pacific. It was

58

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

renamed Sunsail in 1987 and still
operates all over the world.
Attitudes and expectations towards
flotilla sailing had changed and
articles and programmes on flotilla
sailing were invariably. glowing. The
yachts in flotillas were increasing
in size and it was common in the
1990s to find flotillas running 35ft
and bigger boats. Most boats now
had roller-reefing headsails, many
had roller-reefing mainsails, and all
now had fridges, VHF, and some
instrumentation. In the Ionian YCA
used to haul their yachts in Sivota
on an improvised gantry system that
looked like it would topple over if
you gave it a shove. Today flotillas
have a service on hand to maintain
and solve any mechanical issues the
yachts might have. If you break down
there will often be a chase boat that
will come and sort out problems.
It is a long way from the humbler
beginnings of the flotilla story.
Today charter yachts are huge by
comparison to the start of flotilla
sailing and those 24ft Snapdragons.
Most charters back in the day were
of two weeks duration. Today it is
more common to do a one week
charter and this severely restricts
the range in a charter area. Because
the yacht will have to get back to
the charter base within a week it
means that those who take two week
charters will get to places more off
the beaten track. In the Saronic,
once you get to the Argolic Gulf and
eastern Peloponnese, the number of
charter yachts thin out dramatically.
Likewise, in the Ionian once you get

ABOVE
Fiskardo in the
Ionian today

past Ithaca and Cephalonia again
the numbers of yachts thin out.
One other recent development is
the proliferation of catamarans for
charter. While catamarans work well
in the Caribbean, in the Pacific and
Thailand, where you are anchoring
out in most places, they do not work
as well in Greece and parts of Turkey
where if you want to berth in a small
harbour there is often not space for a
catamaran while most monohulls can
squeeze in somewhere. In Greece last
summer there were catamarans racing
to get a berth in a harbour by midday
– a bit of an anomaly when prevailing
winds usually get up after midday.
And yet while today things are
very different to those early days
of flotilla sailing, the yachts are
bigger and better equipped, the
shore bases are more sophisticated
and carry large stocks of spares,
new airports have opened for
international flights making
transfers to sailing areas easier, still
the essence of flotilla sailing that
began 50 years ago has remained
the same since Eric Richardson’s
moment of inspiration. Try it out.
Modified extract from the chapter
on flotilla sailing in The Gift of a
Sea: A short history of yachting
in the Mediterranean. On offer
for ST readers at £26 (normally
£32.50) including P&P in the UK.
Go to www.taniwhapress.com/
buy-books and scroll down to The
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Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

59

Olympics

Georgie Corlett-Pitt meets the sailors set for the 2024 Olympics…

60

maintain Britain’s position – held
for five of the last six Games – as
top sailing nation. “That means
more gold medals,” he says. “That
will be our biggest challenge – can
we be top nation? – particularly
against the French who are
throwing everything at it.”
Overcoming the home nation
in Marseille will be no mean feat,
given the French team’s head-start

PHOTO: BRITISH OLYMPIC ASSOCIATION

he 10 sailors so far
selected to represent
Great Britain at this
summer’s Olympics were
the first athletes of any
sport to be announced
by Team GB; filling the spots in
seven of the ten Sailing classes.
The team is a mix of fresh talent
and experienced Olympians. Tokyo
2020 Nacra 17 silver medallists
John Gimson and Anna Burnet,
and windsurfing bronze medallist
Emma Wilson lead the charge,
along with two-times Olympian
49erFX crew Saskia Tidey, hoping
it’ll be third-time lucky with
new helm Freya Black; the rest
make their Olympic debuts.
The ambition, according to
Mark Robinson, RYA Performance
Director, is to win three to five
medals of any colour, and, above all,

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

ABOVE
John Gimson and
Anna Burnet hope
to better their 2020
silver with gold at
the 2024 Olympics,
sailing the Nacra 17
BELOW
Ten sailors have so
far been selected
for Paris 2024

in the new board classes (several
sailors were already semi-pro),
the hefty funding injection they’ve
received, and their exclusive access
to a new state-of-the-art facility
within the Olympic Marina, out
of bounds to foreign teams.
Mark explains: “It’s always been
a question of trajectory – can we
catch the French for the gold medals
prior to the Games? In last summer’s
Test Event, France and Britain won
five medals each – they took four
gold, one silver; we took four silver,
one bronze. It’s very similar to our
position in the Tokyo Test Event;
we had no gold medals in 2019
and then converted upwards to
win three gold, one silver and one
bronze at the Games. So all of our
focus now is on converting the Test
Event bronze and silvers into gold.”
Of the sailors selected so far,

PHOTO: SAILING ENERGY/WORLD SAILING

GOING FOR GOLD

49ER HELM –
James Peters

Pathway: Optimist, RS Feva, 29er,
RS200, 49er (training partner for 2016
Olympics)
Recent highlights: 2022 – European
bronze, 2023 – Worlds 6th

What’s your super-power?
I love the downwind legs, especially
when it’s gusty and patchy – I like to
think I can find the wind before the
competition.
Other than 2024 selection, what has
been your proudest moment?
Winning the 49ers at the Princess
Sofia Regatta with Fynn in 2017, finally,
after so many memories of success
and disappointments.
What do you love most about your
class?
The 49er requires both helm and crew
to have superb feel for the boat. We
often sail swapped over in training. You
can see the best sailors in the class are
nearly as good this way round.
What will it take to win 49er gold?
Being a well-rounded sailor. Marseille
could bring a strong Mistral wind, or a
light steady onshore gradient – we
must be ready for anything!

Mark says all have shown medal
potential based on results at key
international events. “Selecting early
sharpens the focus and allows us
to focus resources on the one crew
within each class,” he continues.
The initial decision is made by the
RYA’s Olympic Selection Committee
– which includes multiple past
Olympians – before being confirmed
by the British Olympic Association.
An announcement in the ILCA6
is expected shortly, with much
resting on the Worlds in January.
Meanwhile, opportunities to
qualify the men’s kite and mixed
470 spots will likely come at the
470 Worlds in March, and at the

49ER CREW – Fynn Sterritt
-

Pathway: Topper, 420, 49er
Recent highlights: 2022 – European bronze,
2023 – Worlds 6th
When did the Olympics become your goal?
From a very early stage of sailing Toppers in
the Scottish Highlands, the Olympic dream had
me hooked. 49ers were always the goal, so
after a break from sailing for university, I
moved to Portland to sail full-time.
What has got you this far?
One of my very first coaches, when asked
who he thought would go to the Olympics,
pointed at me. This has stuck with me ever
since – in many cases it’s the belief those
around you instil in you which lays the
foundations for success. My parents played a
huge part in that too.
First thing you did when you found out you
had been selected?
I rang James! We have been together as a

team for so long, through so many ups and
downs, it felt right to appreciate it together.
What’s your super-power?
Not letting my emotions get the better of me.
It is also my kryptonite at times! Knowing
when to lean into your emotions is super
important, especially in a two-person boat.
Biggest rivals?
There will be no previous 49er Olympic
medallists in Marseille, which makes the field
pretty open. However, the three-times world
champions from the Netherlands will certainly
go in as one of the favourites.
What do you love most about your class?
The 49er class used to be considered high
speed, however the rapid development of
foiling makes us look pretty slow at times
these days! But no matter how good you think
you are, the boat is always a handful in
challenging conditions.

PHOTO: SANDER VAN DER BORCH

What has got you this far?
My competitive instinct to beat my
sister from a young age pushed me a
long way!

PHOTO: SAILING ENERGY/WORLD SAILING

When did the Olympics become your
goal?
In 2008, when I won the Youth Worlds
and 29er Europeans – that gave me
the belief.

World Sailing Regatta in Hyères
in April – watch this space.
For those already selected, the
next few months are about carefully
managing performance in order
to peak at the Games in July. The
challenge is both physical and mental.
The board classes in particular have
brought an increased physicality to the
Games, adding a greater physiological
dimension. There’s strong temptation
to set goals around upcoming Worlds
and Europeans – which Mark admits
can help to boost confidence and
focus, and aid equipment development
– but it’s a careful balance of risk vs
reward. “Ultimately,” he says, “it’s
the Games that really matter”.
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

61

Olympics

NACRA 17 HELM –
John Gimson
Pathway: National 12, 29er, 420, 470, Tornado,
various pro one-design keelboats, Star, America’s
Cup AC45, Nacra 17 (silver, Tokyo Olympics)
Recent highlights: 2023 – Worlds silver, European
gold, Test Event bronze

PHOTO: SAILING ENERGY/WORLD SAILING

What has got you this far?
Perseverance, hard work – and Anna Burnet!

NACRA 17 CREW – Anna Burnet
Pathway: Optimist, 420, 470, 49erFX, Nacra 17 (silver, Tokyo Olympics)
Recent highlights: 2023 – Worlds silver, European gold, Test Event bronze
What has got you this far?
Perseverance, my parents’ support – and teaming up with John!
How has the experience differed this time around vs the run-up to Tokyo?
We didn’t see our competitors much in the year before Tokyo due to Covid. Also, we
haven’t had such tight British selection trials this time round so we’ve had a longer time
to focus solely on the end goal.
What lessons will you be taking forwards from Tokyo?
It’s hard to control the nerves on day one, but I’ll be expecting it this time round so
hopefully it’ll be easier to come out firing.
Biggest rivals?
The Italians, and then about five other nations are very dangerous on a good week.

What lessons will you be taking forwards?
In Tokyo we learnt to expect the unexpected,
nothing ever quite goes exactly to plan so we need
to be ready for anything.
What do you love most about the Nacra 17?
In this Olympic cycle the addition of the rudder
delta system has enabled foiling upwind and
unlocked more modes, it takes so much
coordination between Anna and I to keep the boat
on the polars. It is by far the hardest boat I have
ever sailed in terms of sailing it well, so it is very
easy to get it wrong, but so rewarding when you
get the set-up, crew work, trimming and steering
in harmony.
What will it take to win at Paris 2024?
Hard work, doing the details well, following the
plan. And, as always in sailing, a little bit of luck!
PHOTO: SAILING ENERGY/WORLD SAILING

What do you love most about your class?
It’s incredibly hard to sail the Nacra well, so it’s hugely rewarding when you get it right.

This is your second Olympics. What’s different?
During Covid we had no access to the venue in 2020
or 2021; this time we are expecting to spend a lot
more time in venue, and we have more regattas too.

49ER FX CREW –
Saskia Tidey
Pathway: Laser Radial, 49er FX (12th at Rio Olympics
sailing for IRL; switched to GBR for Tokyo where she
finished 6th with Charlotte Dobson)
Recent highlights: 2023 – Worlds 5th, Test Event 7th
What’s your super-power?
Performing under pressure, delivering what we
practice no matter what curve balls get thrown at us.
How has the experience differed from the last
Games?
This cycle can only be described as a sprint! Tokyo
was a marathon of five years in the making. Covid was
a very tough time for everyone and certainly affected
performance expectations all over the world. Paris will
be Freya’s and my first Games together. We have had
to put in some serious hours to slot into the top 10 in
the world within 12 months of starting together.
What lessons will you take forwards?
Tokyo was a wild venue for weather. A lot like
Marseille, you can be given all conditions in one week
of racing. There are no short cuts, so every skill needs
refining.
What’s next?
Our Worlds in March is key. For our team it has always
been the goal to strike late. We need all the training
and racing we can get to make mistakes and learn
from them.
Biggest rivals?
The 49erFX fleet has a very tight top 10, with a lot of
shuffling over the last 12 months. The more
experienced teams have been relatively consistent,
such as Sweden and the Netherlands, but no-one is
unbeatable.

62

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

49ERFX HELM – Freya Black
Pathway: Optimist, RS Feva, 29ers, 470, 49erFX
Recent highlights: 2023 – Worlds 5th, Test Event 7th
What has got you this far?
Never settling for anything but winning. I remember winning the 29er Ladies European
title [2018] - I was so happy but annoyed that we hadn’t won the overall title too!
Proudest moment in sailing so far?
Our first 49erFX Worlds in Canada in 2022, where we finished ninth. It was a pretty hard
summer trying to learn the boat and how we work together [the pair teamed up in late
2021], and it felt like everything came together and you could really see the potential in
our team.
What did you do when you found out you had been selected?
It was a pretty surreal feeling, I didn’t quite know what to do with myself! I had a big grin
on my face and went for a champagne dinner with my parents to celebrate.
What will it take to win gold?
Consistency. The team that is well-rounded and keeps the scores on the board low will
come out on top.

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Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

63

Olympics

WOMEN’S FORMULA KITE
– Ellie Aldridge
Pathway: Dinghies including 49erFX until 2018, then switched to kite foiling
Recent highlights: 2023 – Worlds silver, European gold, Test Event silver
What has got you this far?
I wouldn’t be going to the Olympics without the rest of the girls pushing me
[Lily Young and Katie Dabson finished immediately behind her at the world
championship qualifying event]. The key to our success has been our drive as
a group. All of the girls started kite foiling at the same time, we all learned
together and went through everything together.
How did it feel to be selected?
Incredible! It has given me a lot of confidence.

MEN’S IQFOIL
– Sam Sills
Pathway: Techno 293, RS:X for 2016 and 2020 cycles, then iQFOil
(after a break to progress his a career as a naval architect)
Recent highlights: 2023 – Worlds 5th, Test Event 7th
How did you feel when you found out you had been selected?
It was a big relief, it’s pretty amazing. It was probably a 20-year
journey to get there.
What has got you this far?
Not being afraid of commitment and sacrifice, even when it’s
difficult – like missing Christmas with family three years in a row.

WOMEN'S IQFOIL
– Emma Wilson
Pathway: Techno 293, RS:X (bronze, Tokyo Olympics)
Recent highlights: 2023 – Worlds bronze, Test Event silver

Pathway: Learnt in a boat my dad built, Topper, Laser Radial (ILCA
6) until age 17, then ILCA 7
Recent highlights: 2021 – European gold, 2023 – Worlds silver, Test
Event silver

When did the Olympics become your goal?
When I was younger, I played every sport going. Then I went to some
international windsurfing
competitions and just
couldn’t stop thinking about
trying to win Olympic gold.

When did the Olympics become your goal?
Realistically about five years ago, when I thought there was an
outside chance I could qualify for the Tokyo Games. I didn’t win the
trials [finished second], but the goal remained.

What has got you this far?
Stubborn determination! If
someone says I can’t do
something, I want to do it
even more.
How has the experience
differed this time around vs
Tokyo?
I changed classes after Tokyo
[the RS:X was replaced by the
iQFOil], so at the start of this
cycle I was on this whirlwind
of trying to learn as much as I
could in a rush. Now I’m
selected, it’s quite nice to have
the focus of Paris. I am
definitely more of a favourite
this time, which is a bit
different too, as I don’t think
anyone expected anything
from me in Tokyo.

What did you learn from the last Games?
Enjoy the experience! It was the best two weeks of my life, so to get that
opportunity again, I just really want to embrace it.
Biggest rivals?
About 10 girls could win it; Israel, France, Spain, Norway, Holland are all
pretty high contenders.

What do you love most about your class?
How fast it is and how it just keeps developing every day. A year ago,
no-one could foil tack and now we are doing it in races, so I just love that
side of it.

64

ILCA 7 – Micky Beckett

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

Proudest sailing moment to date?
Being ranked world number one earlier this year. I still remember getting
my first world ranking over 10 years ago – I was outside the top 200.
What did you do when you found out you had been selected?
I was sitting in Amsterdam airport when I got the call. I was
travelling alone, so there was nothing to really say to anyone… I just
looked around and smiled, it’s a cool feeling.
Biggest rivals?
Take your pick. The fleet at the moment has so many previous Olympic
and World medallists in it, I wouldn’t recommend placing any big bets!
Best thing about your class?
It’s tough and there’s nowhere to hide. The boats are supplied at each
major event, so if your technique, decisions, fitness or any other part
of your game isn’t up to it, the fleet will just spit you out in no time.
What will it take to win gold?
Good boat speed, consistent starts, staying calm.

PHOTO: MARK LLOYD/WORLD SAILING

PHOTO: SAILING ENERGY/WORLD SAILING

Proudest moment?
Qualifying the nation for Paris 2024 at the Olympic Test event,
despite being in a road traffic accident two weeks before.

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Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

65

Buyers Guide – Insurance

ENSURE YOU’RE INSURED
It’s not the most exciting topic but a good insurance policy allows you to sleep
easy. Sam Fortescue looks at the latest offers and developments in the market
ollowing a year when the
cost of living was never
far from the headlines,
you would be forgiven for
expecting boat insurance
premiums to skyrocket.
Inflation was hovering stubbornly
around the 10 per cent mark this
time last year, reflecting higher
prices across the board. But as some
of the hot air has escaped from the
economy, that figure slipped to less
than 4 per cent in November, and the
major insurers canvassed by Sailing
Today all forecast below-inflation
premium rises in the new year.
We won’t know what that means
until the spring, when insurers
traditionally set the year’s premiums.
Icy conditions currently grip
much of the continent, and there
is the prospect of further named
storms before the weather starts to
improve and thoughts turn again to
boating. But most marine insurers
are talking about a gentle rise in
premiums rather than a sharp hike.

66

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

“We’ll try to minimise any
increase at all, but there are likely
to be some increases,” said Mike
Wimbridge of Pantaenius UK. “The
market as a whole will increase
again, but ours will be nothing like
as big – just a tickle upwards. It
will be less than 3.9% [November’s
inflation figure].”Some boatowners
might have been hoping for a fall
in the cost of insurance, but that is
unlikely, because inflation is still
in positive territory. “Although
inflation is slowly coming down,
it doesn’t automatically mean
lower premiums,” explains Paul
Knox-Johnston of broker Haven
knox-Johnston. “This is because
costs affecting businesses such as
staff, cost of borrowing, energy and
raw materials are still much higher
than they were less than two years
ago.” From labour and electricity
to parts, every step of the repair
process has become more expensive,
and that has pushed up the average
amount of insurance claims. “In

ABOVE
Visions of a sunken
yacht like this are
what nightmares
are made of
ABOVE RIGHT
Last year's big winds
caused havoc in
many marinas and
dinghy parks
BELOW RIGHT
The haunting sight
of the remains
of a rudder after
an orca attack

some areas repair costs appear to
have outstripped inflation rates,
which has the unfortunate knockon effect of insurance premiums
continuing to harden,” says
Keith Lovett, MD of Poole-based
Stoneways Insurance.“Outdrive
and saildrive units are particular
examples where we have noticed
a dramatic increase in the cost or
repair or replacement,” says Rod
Daniel of Craftinsure. “We’ve noticed
prices of stainless-steel rigging
parts have also soared, along with
shipping and delivery costs.”
And there are other reasons that
the cost of insurance is continuing
to grow. Paul Knox-Johnston says
that severe storms are growing
in number. “The increase in the
number of severe weather storms
also means that underwriters will
change their rating models to factor
in the impact of global warming
on marine risks,” he says. “As
weather patterns change and the
global economy remains turbulent,

PHOTO: PANTAENIUS
PHOTO: PANTAENIUS

insurance premiums will continue
to be directly impacted by these
events.” And they’re not just during
the winter, either. Storms Antoni and
Betty hit boats with 60kt gusts when
they were perhaps least prepared for
it last year: in the month of August.
The UK Met Office says there is no
trend in the number or intensity
of the windstorms that it names,
because there is wide variation
from year to year and decade to
decade. What is clear, however, is
that the insurance costs from these
storms dwarfs all other causes of
loss or damage in the marine sector.
Craftinsure’s Rod Daniel also points
to theft as a growing problem
for marine insurers. “Sadly theft
claims have continued to increase
and it’s been noticeable that more
incidents have occurred in locations
previously considered as low risk,
such as Ireland and Greece,” he
said. “Outboard motors remain
a prime target, but tenders and
electronics are also high on the list.

Get the best from your cover
l Many insurers offer cheaper cover if you berth the boat in
a marina
l Keep tabs on your boat’s current market value, as
inflation could push it beyond existing levels of cover
l Mark the tender with your yacht’s name
l Take note of the serial number of the outboard motor and
ensure it is locked to the boat
l Broken moorings are the most common cause of storm
damage
l Check your mooring lines regularly
l Check that your policy covers you for salvage and/or
disposal
l Minimise windage when the boat is in its cradle ashore
l Dinghies should be tied down when left ashore at the club

PHOTO: CRAFTINSURE

The best advice is to try and ensure
you are not seen as the soft target.”
Another small but growing cause
of insurance claims from sailors is
the well-publicised attentions of a
pod of orcas off the Atlantic coast
of Spain and Portugal. What began
as a freak occurrence appears to
have become a settled behaviour
pattern, with the mammals focusing
on the rudders of yachts, sometimes
disabling them altogether. “Half a
dozen orca interactions resulting
in some fairly complex claims have
kept our in-house claims team busy,”

says Mike Wimbridge wryly. “We
thoroughly recommend tracking
reported sightings on social media
if cruising in affected areas.” There
is a useful Facebook page dedicated
to the issue, with sailors posting
the location of sightings, or giving
the all-clear if they got through the
area without contact. The Cruising
Association also maintains a report
page with an interactive map, all of
which is accessible to non members
at https://www.theca.org.uk/orcas/
reports. Less dramatic than a set-to
with a pod of curious orcas, certainly,
but arguably more significant was a
change in the regulatory landscape
in 2023. Industry watchdog, the
Financial Conduct Authority, has
pushed through new rules which
make it the responsibility of the
insurer to look after their clients.
Put more simply, it should mean
an end to sharp practice and unfair
exclusions. “The introduction of a
new Consumer Duty by the FCA...
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

67

Buyers Guide – Insurance

sets higher and clearer standards of
consumer protection across financial
services and requires firms to put
their customers’ needs first,” explains
Paul Knox-Johnston of Haven
Knox-Johnston. “Delivering excellent
customer service and fair value
have always been the underlying
principles of Haven K-J, but now
the FCA has made it a regulatory
requirement for all insurance
providers to act in good faith and
deliver fair outcomes for their retail
customers.” Insurers are taking a very
close interest in lithium-ion batteries,
after a spate of boat fires caused
by defective or poorly maintained
equipment. The scant investigative
data points more to the portable
batteries that power toys like scooters
and bikes than to the larger batteries
that power yacht systems and electric
motors. “The true exposure is still to
be fully understood as lithium-ion
related fire claims are complex and
caused by myriad different factors.
Toys such as scooters are often
implicated in the ignition origins,
with faulty chargers, damage, poor

68

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

storage as well as cheap imports
that are not manufactured to
appropriate safety standards,” says
Paul Knox-Johnston. Underwriters
are still drawing conclusions about
best practice here, but everyone
believes that there will eventually
be an impact on insurance policies.
“Insurers are increasingly
interested in how and where
these batteries are kept and
particularly how they are charged,”
says Dan Dawson, underwriting
manager at Ripe Insurance.
Pantaenius UK
With offices in Plymouth,
Pantaenius UK is a specialist
marine broker that will cover
all risks on a new-for-old basis
for parts and materials. New
this year is a no-claims bonus,

ABOVE
Many yachts were lost
during Storm Babet,
especially in the Baltic.
This one escaped
with a pounding
to the bow which
will nevertheless
require a lot of
expensive remedial
glass fibre work.
BELOW
A sorry sight after
a recent storm

which sees your excess cut by 10 per
cent every year there is no claim.
Pantaenius can tailor cover for
almost any boat in almost any waters,
with a track record in ambitious,
bluewater cruising and racing.
pantaenius.com
Haven Knox-Johnston
Going strong since its return in 2021,
clients get 10 per cent off insurance
if they have a marina berth, a policy
excess reduction and no-claims bonus
– as well as other loyalty offers. Now
under the growing Howden Insurance
brokerage umbrella, alongside
Euromarine and Curtis Marine.
havenkj.com
Ripe Insurance
With a growing marine brokerage
under the insure4boats banner, Ripe

PHOTO: PANTAENIUS

While the biggest named storm of 2023,
Babet, lashed Scotland’s east coast
with winds up to 100kts, Germany and
Denmark actually bore the brunt of the
extra-tropical cyclone on 19-20
October. Under the relentless influence
of the fierce easterly wind, water levels
on the Baltic coasts of Germany and
Denmark rose and rose until they
reached 2m above normal heights in
some places. With little or no tide in
normal conditions, marinas in the region
use fixed pontoons that were quickly
submerged by the storm flood. Many
boats broke loose or were dashed
against their quays. “We were hugely
involved in the Storm Babet claims up in
the Baltic – there were 2,000 damaged
boats and 400 total losses,” says
Pantaenius’s Mike Wimbridge. “We sent
out teams to the sites, hired salvage
tugs and so on. It probably won’t have a
knock-on effect on UK policyholders
because we’re so big. If we start to see
some quite big cumulative claims that
impact the UK market specifically, I
wouldn’t be surprised if we see a
change in attitude on the part of some
of the UK operators.”

PHOTO: BG INSURANCE

Storm Babet

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Unit E4 Fort Wallington, Fareham, PO16 8TT. Tel 01329 232360

Find out more:
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sales@vitessemarine.co.uk www.vitessemarine.co.uk/kiwigrip

INSURANCE
YOUR BOAT
DESERVES
Contact the team today

01752 223656

quotes@pantaenius.co.uk
PANTAENIUS.CO.UK

Motor Boat

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“Excellent and speedy service in
settling my recent claim”
“Great combination of competitive
pricing, knowledgeable staff and
professional service”

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Pantaenius UK Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Authorised No. 308688)

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

69

PHOTO: CRAFTINSURE

Buyers Guide – Insurance

offers a modular policy to suit the
boat and your sailing plans. Basic
UK waters cover includes a £3m
third-party liability clause, and you
can bolt-on cover for EU waters
and wintering afloat. There’s 10
per cent off if you keep the boat
in a marina berth, and up to 25
per cent no-claims discount after
five years, which you can carry
over from another insurer. Instant
quotes are available online.
insure4boats.co.uk

dinghies and race boats, but offshore
cover is only for yachts over 26ft.
Craftinsure.com
GJW Direct
Well known online insurer, which
covers all sorts of boats. Standard
terms include no excess for third
party claims and a raft of benefits for
those with marina berths, including
10 per cent off the premium and no
loss of no-claims bonus if damage
is incurred in the marina. There is
also an attractive 0 per cent finance
option that allows you to spread the
cost of direct debit policies over £100.
gjwdirect.com

Traffords
In a rapidly consolidating market,
Traffords stands out as one of the
few family-owned concerns left. It
began life in 1959 and continues
largely unchanged to this day. “We
don’t do flashy product launches or
tend to change anything, as what we
do works,” says Greg Hill. “As one of
the few true family marine insurance
businesses left, we have our eye
more on the long-term future.”
traffords-insurance.co.uk

70

PHOTO: LAURENS MOREL

Craftinsure
Speedy online quotes make for rapid
cover with decent provisions. Boats
are covered from Brest to the Elbe,
and on into Biscay and southern
Scandinavia in the summer months.
Craftinsure will cover you for haul
out and inspection in the event of a
grounding, and salvage costs are also
covered. There is a specific policy for

Stoneways
The new kid on the block draws on
a wealth of experience via a veteran

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

ABOVE
Craftinsure sponsors
Bass Week, which
brought 200 racing
dinghies to Cumbria’s
Bassenthwaite
Lake last year
BELOW
Ripe offers 10 per cent
off if you keep the boat
in a marina berth

team headed by Keith Lovett. Cover is
tailored to the yacht and its owner – no
online quotes here. Among many other
strong points, Stoneways is the only
insurer to offer cover for mental health
support after an accident. It opened a new
underwriting centre in Poole last year and
is another rare independent provider.
Noble Marine
Covers the full gamut of watercraft, from
surfboards and jetskis to dinghies, yachts
and tenders. Cover can be arranged and
managed online, or over the phone.
Noble offers a 12.5 per cent discount
when insuring multiple craft. You can
bolt on tender cover and racing cover,
but note that cover for boat covers, spars,
rigging and sails falls to 75 per cent when
they are more than three years old.
noblemarine.co.uk

GULL’S EYE

With 730 berths, and a safe and sheltered location on the Clyde at the
gateway to the west coast cruising grounds among its many attributes, it’s
not surprising Largs Yacht Haven continues to hold its reputation as one of
Scotland’s finest marinas writes Sue Pelling
S

55° 46.6’ N 04 °51.5’ W

E

W
N

A-P PONTOON

FUEL

SLIPWAY

DRY BERTHING PARK

72

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

BERTH HOLDERS CAR PARK

BERTHING FOR 730 VESSELS
with easy access at all states of the tide.
24/7 security and just 23 miles from Glasgow airport

ENTRANCE

VISITOR CAR PARK
MARINA OFFICE,
WASHROOMS, CAFES AND
RESTAURANTS

PHOTOS: MARC TURNER

HOIST DOCK

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

73

PHOTOS: MARC TURNER

Gull’s Eye – Largs Yacht Haven Marina

74

args Yacht Haven,
which celebrates its
40th anniversary this
year, is located within
the sheltered waters
of the Firth of Clyde.
Yacht Havens built and opened the
marina back in 1984 from a stretch
of virgin beach just to the south of
the delightful coastal town of Largs
and is now a notable Five Gold Anchor
marina with a good reputation.
Not only does keeping a yacht at
this marina offer peace of mind in
terms of shelter and 24-hour security,
but because of its convenient location
(approximately 23 miles from Glasgow
Airport, and with train connections)
it also attracts commuters as well
as locals. The allure of berthing a
yacht at the gateway to the west
coast of Scotland and spending the
spring or summer exploring the
western isles has become more and
more doable thanks to improved
travel links and budget airlines.

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

ABOVE
Easy access via the
breakwater entrance
ABOVE RIGHT
Calm and well sheltered
730-berth marina
BELOW LEFT
Largs Yacht Haven has
extensive boatyard
facilities
BELOW RIGHT
The marina’s main hub
is well designed with all
the essential buildings/
businesses in one place
including the office,
facilities, cafes and
restaurants

55° 46.6’ N 04
°51.5’ W

Its convenient location, and world
class sailing area are also among the
reasons why Largs has become a
favourite venue for hosting national
and international sailing events.
The marina is home to Largs Sailing
Club, the Firth of Clyde Coastal
Rowing Club, Fairlie Yacht Club,
and is the Scottish base for the
Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust.
As you can imagine, it is a hub of
activity throughout the year, with
the August Bank Holiday Largs
Regatta Festival, and the Scottish
Two-Handed Race two of the
most popular sailing events, which
regularly attract a huge following.
Given its broad appeal, you’ll find
the facilities at Largs Yacht Haven
are high end and offer everything
you’d expect from a Yacht Havens
facility including the group’s
friendly helpful staff that ensure
your stay is as stress-free as possible.
The marina is staffed 24/7 and
accessible at all states of the tide.

Passage planning

The approach to the marina is via the
Largs Channel and, from the south,
is between Little Cumbrae Island
and Farland Head on the mainland.
Navigation lights mark the port and
starboard breakwaters (occulting
10 secs). The deepwater approaches
to the entrance are marked with
a lit safe water mark. (L.Fl.10s).
Because the marina is wellprotected by the adjacent Cumbrae
Islands and the islands to the west,
it is possible to enter the marina in
most conditions. However, in a big
breeze, significant swell can develop
in the Largs channel on the approach.

Cruising ground

Given its location amidst lochs
and islands, there is so much to see
and do. The cruising is exceptional
with interesting fishing villages
and harbours to explore as close
as a half-hour sail away. The
inner Clyde provides an excellent

FACTFILE

PHOTO: ELLGEEMAC/ISTOCK

LARGS YACHT HAVEN
Postcode: KA30 8EZ
VHF: Ch 80 – ‘Largs Yacht Haven’
Website: yachthavens.com/largs-yacht-haven
Email: largs@yachthavens.com
Tel: +44(0)1475 675333

ABOVE
Millport Bay is just a
short hop from Largs
BELOW
Crinan Canal – shortcut gateway to the
Argyll coast

Sail approximately 16nm southwest
from Largs and you’ll reach Brodick
on the Isle of Arran. With plenty of
hills and beautiful views it’s another
great place for hike, plus the village
has lots to offer including hotels,
restaurants, and a golf course. Brodick
Castle is also well worth a visit.
A trip to Troon Yacht Haven – sister
marina to Largs Yacht Haven is a must
because as a berth holder you get
reciprocal mooring. It’s just 20nm down
the coast from Largs and is blessed
with beautiful scenery, and some of
the finest golf courses in the world.
It’s also a recommended place for fine
dining with cocktails on the terrace at
Scotts, which overlooks the marina.
Largs is not that far, relatively
speaking, from Ardrishaig either,
just 32nm taking in the scenic
Kyles of Bute. Ardrishaig marks the
start of the Crinan Canal, which is
effectively a short cut to the Argyll
coast and islands, Skye, and the
Outer Hebrides and beyond.
PHOTO: NAUMOID/ISTOCK

opportunity for day cruising, while
the more expansive west coast and
Ireland are just a day’s sail away.
For a short hop 4nm away, Millport
at the southern end of the Isle of
Cumbrae is a good option. Known
as the ‘Jewel of the Clyde’ this is a
great spot for those with families
because as well as a sandy beach,
there are plenty of shopping, golf,
fishing and cycling opportunities.
For another short passage, head to
Rothesay (Isle of Bute) just 6nm north.
This is a pretty fishing harbour and a
lively town with shops, restaurants, and
pubs just a few steps from the harbour.
The visitor pontoons are in Rothesay
harbour and nearby Port Bannatyne.
There is plenty to see and do
on Loch Fyne too, with Tarbert
22nm from Largs. This quaint and
atmospheric fishing village offers
fantastic views from Robert the Bruce’s
14th century castle and it’s a great
place for a hike to the pretty shelllined beach at the end of Pier Road.

Prices:
Annual Marina Berth
Up to 6m: £1725 (flat rate)
6.1-7m: £442/m
7.1-21.1m: £562/m
12.2m+ £579/m
Summer 7 Dayboat Berth
Up to 6m: £1197 (flat rate)
6.1-7m £303/m
Winter
6.1-7m £150.50/m
7.1m-12.1m £151.50/m
Over 12.2m: £164.50/m
Visitor
Overnight £4.20/m
Monthly £75.93/m
Regatta Rate £30 per boat
Electricity: Pay as you go
Water: Free of charge
Wifi: Free of charge
Fuel: 24-hour diesel/unleaded petrol,
bottled gas
Launderette: Token operated
Boatyard services including lift in/out: Onsite
Places to eat and drink
Bosun’s Table: +44(0)1475 689198
Scotts Bar and Restaurant:
+44(0)1475 686684
Nardinis: +44(0)1475 675000
The Catch at Fins: +44(0)1475 568989
Provisioning
Morrisons close by, others will deliver
Chandlery: Largs Chandlers +44(0)1475
686026
Taxis:
Brisbane Taxis: +44(0)1475
689990/687171/674128
Largs Central Taxis: +44(0)1475 687119
Yacht Charter/Sailing schools
Flamingo Yacht Charter: +44(0)1475 686088
Scotsail: +44(0)845 8340335
Sailaway Charter: +44(0)845 5281011
Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust: +44(0)1475
672770
Go West Sailing: +44(0)7834 527038
Sailing InTuition: +44(0)7771 804723
Sea Clyde: +44(0)7707 860806
Seaspray Yacht Charter: +44(0)1475 520826
Seascape Yacht Charter: +44(0)7557 643365
Yachting Scotland: +44(0)7958 562497
SailPowerTraining: +44(0)7852 831074

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

75

Three of the best

aid
p
ax
T
90
9
,
9
25

£

BROKERAGE | BOATS FOR SALE

£2
99
,50
0T
ax
pa
id

BAVARIA VISION 42 | HALCYON

Handsome Berret Racopeau design from Wauquiez from
2013, Shabby Tiger comes with a generous cockpit and great
accommodation with three cabins. Exceptionally equipped for
bluewater cruising, she has been meticulously maintained and
substantially updated by her current, very experienced owners.
Shabby Tiger is the perfect platform for family sailing and is
turnkey for ocean cruising too.

Halcyon is for sale with a remarkable specification level including
Bavaria’s Advanced Navigation Package comprising a full suite
of B&G equipment, bow and stern thrusters, heating system
and, importantly, the light oak interior upgraded joinery which is
twinned with Oceanline flooring. She also has heating throughout,
along with the deluxe lighting package, a full blind set, and stonegrey upholstery make for a very comfortable and homely interior.
According to MS&P Yacht Brokers, the Bavaria Vision Line of
yachts are very much sought after, offering a notably higher level
of trim and finish than the standard Bavaria models. The shallow
draft keel option allows great access to tidal rivers, marinas and
inlets. This boat has just 244 hours on the clock (at point of listing)
and is ready to go.

Year: 2013

Year: 2020

LOA: 14.36m (47’1”)

LOA: 12.80m (42’)

Beam: 4.61m (15’1”)

Beam: 4.05m (13’3”)

Draft: 2.10m (6’11”)

Draft: 1.72m (5’7”)

Displacement: 14,000kg

Displacement: 10,228kg

Hull Construction: Glass fibre

Hull Construction: Glass fibre

Keel: Bulb

Keel: Shallow draft

Engine: 1 x Yanmar 4JH4-HTE 110hp

Engine: Volvo 50HP

Designer: Berret Racopeau

Designer: Farr Yacht Design

Accommodation: 6 berths in 3 cabins

Accommodation: 4/5 berths in 2/3 cabins

Location: Corfu, Greece

Location: Southampton, Hants

Contact: berthoninternational.com

Contact: michaelschmidt.co.uk

craftinsure quote: £1,138

craftinsure quote: £717

WAUQUIEZ PILOT SALOON | SHABBY TIGER

76

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

£3
Tax3,00
pa 0
id

DELPHIA 29 | STARDUST
The Delphia 29 is a very well-built family cruising yacht, easily
sailed short-handed and offering exceptionally spacious
cruising accommodation for a yacht with a sub 9m LOA,
great for keeping running costs down! She features the wellestablished modern layout of an aft galley and heads for easy
access underway, combined with two good settee berths
either side of a central table, and double berths in the fore and
aft cabins.
Although not as well known in the UK, Delphia is very
popular in the EU and has a long-established history
of building to a high standard for several well-known
manufacturers as well as under its own brand, and became
part of Group Beneteau in 2018. Stardust is a sought-after
lifting keel version ideal for exploring shallower waters, and
comes with the excellent factory mast-lowering kit easily
allowing the mast to be lowered and raised for access to
inland waterways.
In Clarke & Carter’s experience, Delphia yachts often have
a high level of equipment, and this 29 is no exception, with an
electric anchor windlass, diesel heating, hot and cold water,
and a fridge. All in all, an excellent option for anyone looking
for a modern yacht ideal for family adventures or longer-term
solo/couple cruising on a modest budget.
Year: 2005
LOA: 8.6m (28’2”)
Beam: 2.75m (9’9”)
Draft: 1.22m (4’11”)
Displacement: 3,600kg
Hull Construction: Glass fibre
Keel: Lifting
Engine: Nanni 3.75HE 21hp (inboard)
Designer: Andrzej Skrzat
Accommodation: 6 berths in 2 cabins
Location: Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex
Contact: clarkeandcarter.co.uk
Insure your yacht with
Craftinsure - boat insurance
at the touch of a button.
Get a quote online or call
today: craftinsure.com;
0345 2607 888
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

77

Boatlife

BOATLIFE IS BACK!
The UK’s newest boat show will be celebrating its third anniversary this year.
Amanda Thibaut explains how you can get the most out of this smorgasbord
of marine delights
oatLife 2024 - Powered
by Suzuki, is certainly
not just an event, it is
an exclusive experience
tailored to the boating
lifestyle. Taking place
at the NEC in Birmingham from
15-18 February 2024, this third
run of the show promises to be a
fantastic event with an impressive
200+ boats alongside its inclusive
atmosphere, themed days, live stage
guests and much more. Irrespective
of your cruising experience or
budget, there's something tailored
to everyone. Spending a day at
BoatLife is packed with fun-filled
activities and experiences and the
variety of exhibitors across sectors is
diverse - from luxury powerboats to
kayaks, green tech to sailing boats.
Visitors are free to browse, climb
on board, and most importantly
to ask questions; this is where
knowledgeable exhibitors provide
an ideal guide towards best choices
78

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

for every marine lifestyle. Whether a
family looking to introduce children
to the wonders of paddleboarding,
or a keen sailor seeking the latest
innovations to enhance their
experience, this is a scene committed
to helping everyone gain access to the
water.
A focus of vibrant activity is the
Indoor Activity Pool, generally
surrounded by laughter thanks
to the thrill of trying something
new! Professional demonstrations
in kayaking and paddleboarding
by Rockley Watersports add to
the excitement and free have-a-go
sessions are once again on offer. What
sets this area apart is the opportunity
for active participation – it's not just
about watching but embracing the
fun. Families and individuals come
together, creating an atmosphere
where memories grow and the joy
of mastering new skills is shared.
Watersports are so often where a
love of spending time on the water

starts and BoatLife is all about that
opportunity to embrace marine
activities.

Get hooked on angling

For fishing enthusiasts, the Boat
Angling Zone is a paradise, bringing
together novices and pros alike. This
comprehensive hub allows visitors
to soak up the angling vibe, enhance
their skills, whilst exploring the
latest innovations and expertise
brought by various renowned brands
such as Inflatable Boat Fishing and
Suzuki Fishing. Ambassadors from
the angling world will be on hand
to provide valuable insights, while
suppliers for equipment, machinery,
and services such as On-Top Fishing
will cover every angling option.
Also highly anticipated is the
Inland Zone with 18+ fabulous
waterways boats on display,
highlighting both contemporary and
traditional designs across this sector.
Visitors can become immersed in

creating a great atmosphere that
adds to a memorable experience at
BoatLife.

Big names

Expect to hear from prominent
sailing names such as Ken Fowler,
Jasmine Harrison, Tom Cunliffe
and Conrad Humphreys, as well
as exciting new features, including
cooking demonstrations from
the talented Rustic Chef and a
fashion show by Pelagic Sales
Network! Also talking through
their sailing activities are Gavin &
James Sailing who embarked on an
extraordinary journey, transitioning
from a conventional lifestyle to a
sustainable adventure on their 28foot Etap racing sailing yacht. An
inspirational reminder to pursue
your dreams and embrace the tides
of change.

BoatLife is a completely
unique opportunity to explore
the largest selection of boats in
the UK under one roof - truly
bigger and better than before
plus an incredibly comprehensive
experience! The show delivers an
exhilarating family day out like
no other, ensuring every boater
and watersports enthusiast, from
beginner to expert, can explore the
right craft, activity and equipment,
all tailored to their individual
needs.
Please quote exclusive code ST to
obtain an exclusive discount on
tickets at www.boatlifetickets.com

ALL PHOTOS: MANTIS PRO MEDIA

the world of barges, widebeams,
narrowboats, river cruisers and
holiday companies at leisure.
Notable marine ambassadors
will be on hand for meet and
greet sessions and to offer advice
across each of the specific zones
with the likes of The Fish Locker,
Adam Lind and Cruising the
Cut, as well as Harry Dwyer,
Outside your Zone, David Haze
and Aaron Barnet, to name but a
few, taking to the BoatLife floor.
The Live Stage is the beating heart
of the show, a central hotspot to
celebrate all-things boating, set
against a backdrop of gleaming
craft. Here, visitors can hear
adventurous tales, discover the latest
boating trends, or simply relax with
anecdotes from skilled mariners.
It's a space where stories come to
life, laughter and applause merge,

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

79

Where can you leave your boat in the Caribbean
where it will be safe and not break the bank?
Jenevora Swann has a tempting option

80

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

Cruising – Guatemala

io Dulce in Guatemala has
an impressive reputation
for being hurricane-free.
Even the US Coast Guard
says it’s the safest place
in the western Caribbean
for boats during hurricane season.
The marinas and anchorages are situated
at the juncture between two lakes, 20 miles from the sea as the crow flies. This
distance keeps the area protected from
tidal surge and the mountains along the
northern Honduran coast make it almost
impossible for hurricane winds to enter.
This was the case in November 2020,
when Hurricanes Eta and Iota pummelled
most of Central America causing
flooding and catastrophic landslides and
mudflows. The boats hiding out in Rio
Dulce remained well-protected from the
winds, it was just a rise in the river level
from unusually heavy rains that caused
minor damage to a few boats when
flood waters rose above the pontoons.
Many cruisers return to Guatemala
each season to enjoy Rio Dulce’s freshwater river with its extensive selection

of marinas, mooring facilities and active
liveaboard community. The cost of boat
maintenance is significantly lower than the
rest of the Caribbean and skilled labour is
also inexpensive and surprisingly good.
Rio Dulce wasn’t on our radar until our
insurance company refused to cover us for
any named windstorms in the Caribbean or
North America. Investigating online forums,
we weren’t alone in our plight, many others
had similar issues; all looking for alternative
hurricane holes to store or moor their boat.
When friends we were sailing with told
us about Rio Dulce and its popularity,
we didn’t hesitate in booking into a
marina. Not knowing anything about
Guatemala, we were in for a real treat.

All bar one

Reaching this safe-haven involves crossing
a half-mile wide moving sand bar at the
mouth of Rio Dulce at Livingston which
can be a challenge. The deepest route
each season is a hotly debated topic, with
waypoints analysed, cross-referenced
and shared. It’s fine for shallow draught
vessels, but boats drawing 1.82m (6ft)
should cross on a rising tide, while those
with a 2.13m (7ft) draught are advised
to choose the highest tide of the month
and may require careening by a local
boat to get across the bar safely.
Clearing in to Guatemala at Livingston
is an easy process, especially using the
services of a local agent, such as Raul Valiz
at Servamar. However, the currents and
wind in the anchorage are often opposing,
so it’s advisable to leave someone on board.
Our motor up the river was spectacular;
we felt like we’d stepped into a Spielberg
movie as we passed dense hanging
jungle, 300ft-high canyon walls, hot
springs and Mayan villages.

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

81

Cruising – Guatemala

Rio Dulce

Most yachts head first for the
anchorages at Cayo Quemado and El
Golfete Bay, half-way to Rio Dulce.
Ten miles further, there’s a large
bridge, separating Rio Dulce with
Lake Izabal – Guatemala’s largest
lake. This is where the majority of
marinas and anchorages are located.
Our first visit into Rio Dulce
town (also known as Fronteras),
was an assault on the senses as
we found the main road awash
with cars, tuk-tuks, juggernauts,
motorbikes, food stalls and shops
that sell virtually everything.

Pavements are nowhere in sight,
so you take your chances walking
down the street. Yet, amid the chaos,
there’s something rather likeable
about this busy, brash riverside
town. The local produce is fresh
and affordable and easily purchased
from street vendors; and almost
any electrical or mechanical item
can be found, fixed or ordered.
Twice a week a boat, raising money
for a children’s orphanage, acts as a
mobile shop as it cruises between
82
selling fruit, veggies, meat, cheese and
other goods at reasonable prices.

PREVIOUS PAGE
(main image) Aerial
view of the marinas
and anchorage
(bottom right)
Views of a Mayan
Village while sailing
up the Rio Dulce
ABOVE LEFT
A local fish man
throwing his nets
ABOVE RIGHT
The main road
through town
BELOW
Two Drifters is the
middle catamaran
facing forward at
Nanajuana Marina

With over 1,000 boats in the
area, the liveaboard community
in Rio Dulce is huge. Just listening
to the daily VHF net is extremely
informative with restaurant offers,
social events, advice on local services
and organised activities such as jungle
hikes, zip-lining and shopping trips.

Choosing a marina

In addition to three boatyards offering
hardstanding, there are over 15
marinas in Rio Dulce, catering for all
tastes, sizes and budgets. If staying on
your boat for any length of time, items
to consider when choosing a marina
include, its proximity to town; is it
child-friendly; pet-friendly; and does
it have potable water, a swimming
pool and a bar or restaurant?
To get over the issue of potable
water, we rigged up a rain-catcher
with filters. The materials were easy to
get from town and, as May to October
is rainy season, it was an easy way to
collect plenty of fresh, clean water.
Our boat, Two Drifters, occupied
one of the 80 berths at Nanajuana
Hotel Marina & Boatyard for four
months. Being keen swimmers,
the hotel’s 25m pool ticked a huge
box for us when choosing where to
stay, in addition to it being a shortdinghy ride to town. There’s also
a covered palapa area, exclusively
for sailors, with tables and chairs.

Two Drifters
Lagoon 440 catamaran
owners' version 2008
LOA: 13.61m (44.65ft)
Beam: 7.70m (25.26ft)
Draught: 1.30m (4.27ft)

82

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

We hauled out at Nanajuana’s
boatyard to do our antifouling and
used the skilled local labour to assist,
which was very reasonable. There’s
space in the boatyard for 160 vessels
and the boat lift can haul a monohull
up to 55ft and a catamaran to 63ft.
As marina guests, we were
immensely grateful for a special
cruisers’ rate at their 38-room hotel,
which alleviated the need to stay on
the boat while it was in the yard. Both
the marina and hotel are pet-friendly.
Since our visit, excited by the
increase in boat traffic to Rio
Dulce, Nanajuana has recently
undergone an extensive expansion
plan and now offers a yacht club
with an additional swimming
pool, bar area, outdoor gym,
yoga area, pickleball court,
volleyball court and BBQ area.
A new restaurant will open
shortly and there’s further plans
to expand the boatyard.
Alternative facilities for haul
out and storage is offered at RAM
Marina and Abel’s Boat Yard.

ABOVE
Standing on the
viewing platform
above the pools of
Semuc Champey
ABOVE RIGHT
Tikal – Temple
BELOW LEFT
Local Guatemalan bus
BELOW RIGHT
Lake Atitlan – Volcan
San Pedro at sunset

Jenevora Swann and her
husband Fergus Dunipace
were liveaboards on their
catamaran Two Drifters
for eight years. They
sailed halfway around
the world from Greece to
Australia before pausing
their circumnavigation in
2022. www.Facebook.com/
TwoDriftersTravel/www.
twodrifterstravel.com .

Exploring gorgeous Guatemala
With 37 volcanoes and over 3,500 Mayan sites, the sheer beauty, culture and diversity of
Guatemala is not to be missed. With the boat safely in the marina - and a guardian service
appointed to open it up during the humid weather - we set off on an inland adventure.
Driving through the interior of northern Guatemala, on a bus packed with
locals, the countryside seemed lush, green and uninhabited. Rain forest
merged into jungle, with occasional fields of maize on the lower levels
and coffee plants and cashew trees as we travelled into the hills.
We explored Tikal, the legendary Mayan city in the jungle and Guatemala’s
most famous tourist attraction. Spread over 222 sq. miles, it’s one of the largest
ancient cities ever created in the Mayan kingdom. Its neighbour, Yaxha, is also
well worth visiting; it’s less touristy, with a more authentic and mystical feel.
Next was the colourful colonial city of La Antigua Guatemala. Its cobblestone
streets, crumbling ruins, pretty churches and volcanic views were entrancing. From
here, we joined an organised trip climbing the active Pacaya Volcano. It was a tough
half-day hike, but well worth the experience as, from just short of the summit, we
saw the top of Pacaya smoking away and red lava pouring down the volcano.
Other highlights included a visit to Semuc Champey, tipped as one of
the most beautiful places in Guatemala. A hike into the jungle gave us a
fabulous bird’s-eye view of the turquoise blue naturally-tiered swimming
pools, which we didn’t hesitate in getting into as soon as we could!
Our land adventure culminated at San Marcos on the beautiful Lake Atitlan
in Guatemala’s southwestern highlands. Covering 50 sq. miles, Lake Atitlan
is the deepest lake in Central America with an average depth of 220m. From
our waterfront apartment, we enjoyed breathtaking and mesmerising views
of the majestic volcanoes across the lake. It was simply stunning.
Our hurricane season spent in Guatemala remains one
of the highlights of our sailing adventure.

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

83

TIME OUT
SAM JEFFERSON REVIEWS THE LATEST BUNKSIDE
READS, CLASSIC BOOKS AND MORE

Voyage North,
Julia Jones
Confession time. We have probably not
paid enough attention over the past
decade or more to the Strong Winds
series of novels written and published by
sailor and classic yacht owner Julia Jones.
The story of the series starts in 2006,
when Julia, owner of the ex-Arthur
Ransome yacht Peter Duck, was watching
her children learning to sail on Suffolk’s
Alton Water. How, she wondered, would
Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons
– the Blackett and Walker kids – cope in
the 21st century? And what if they didn’t
come from the stable, affluent backgrounds
of those fictional children of the 1930s? Her first novel, The Salt-Stained Book,
was published in 2011, with a new, modern cast of teenage heroes and heroines.
Five books followed, as younger characters aged and had their own adventures.
This, Voyage North, is the seventh and last in the series. Set in the summer of
2012, while the newly-elected Russian president tightens his grip on power and
Britain gets ready to stage the Olympics, series character Donny drops out of
school and sails north on an oligarch’s superyacht with a cannister of toxic
waste. His journey across the Arctic Circle and into the Barents Sea will provide
answers to questions that have troubled him all his life – and others he never
thought to ask. The Strong Winds series has gained quite a few fans over the
years, appealing to adults as well as the intended readership of older children.
Published 2023, Golden Duck, £9.99,
golden-duck.co.uk

84

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

Working Sail
Luke Powell
The story of boatbuilder Luke Powell, who has led the pilot
cutter building renaissance in Britain, was first published in
2012. This luxurious re-issue is 240 pages long in a
hardbacked book, lavishly illustrated with sewn binding,
head and tail bands, and printed endpapers. The forewords
are by Tom Cunliffe and Jeremy Irons, and the book covers
all eight of the Scillonian pilot cutters built by Luke and the
team in Cornwall.
Published 2023, Lodestar Books, £40,
lodestarbooks.com

The Petrol Navy
Steve R Dunn
Much has been written about
the role yachtsmen played in
World War Two, but what about
World War One? This new book,
the 12th from naval historian
Steve Dunn, turns the spotlight
on the subject for the first time,
describing the bravery of leisure
yacht sailors and the Royal Navy
Volunteer Reserve (RNVR)…
“gentlemen turned warriors,” as
Steve describes them. During the First World War, small,
petrol-engined craft were vital in coastal battles and tasks
such as anti-submarine and convoy escort, and a band of
yachtsmen used their small-craft navigation and handling
expertise to the war effort, supplementing the regular navy,
whose officers were less confident in shoal waters. These
sailors include the famous Edward Sycamore, who joined up in
1917 at the age of 62; Hamilton Benn of the Yacht Racing
Association and Royal Thames among other clubs, who was
awarded the DSO for his actions during the bombardments of
Zeebrugge and Ostend; and two yachtsmen who received the
highest possible award, the Victoria Cross – Percy Thompson
Dean and Geoffrey Heneage Drummond. There is as much
about the then-burgeoning sport of yacht sailing as there is
about war in this book
Published 2023, Seaforth Publishing, £25,
seaforthpublishing.com

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PHOTO: CALIN STAN

EXPERTS' FORUM
If you’re chartering in the Ionian
then the Lefkas Canal is the
obvious Passage from the
Northern Ionian to South. It can be
confusing though so Sail Ionian's
Tom Fletcher provides tips

86

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

or many of Sail Ionian’s
guests who have come
up through our RYA Sea
School, and then chartered
bareboat or on flotilla with
us, the Lefkas canal and
the passage to Corfu will be the first
longer passage they will make alone.
Distances between harbours are short
in the Southern Ionian, and the waters
well protected by the outlying islands.
The passage north to Corfu, with the
navigation of the canal, the bridge,
and then the open water of the Ionian,
can be a little daunting, especially as
part of a family holiday. While it is
certainly not the English Channel,
there are many ideas that will help
to make a passage much smoother.

The Passage

From the north of Lefkada to Corfu
Town is just under 60nm in a straight
line. We normally suggest that
shortening the trip, and making a
first stop on Paxos or, alternatively,
in Parga, is a good idea. There are
few good harbours or anchorages on
the way, so this shortened passage
of around 30nm is, to all intents and
purposes, unavoidable. The route
is almost exactly northwest which
puts you taxingly head on into the
prevailing summer winds. The canal
itself is dredged to around 5m and
presents the alert sailor with little
difficulty. At the northern end of the
canal is the ‘Agia Mavra’ floating bridge
which opens regularly to let marine
traffic past. Once out of the canal and
away, you are over 5nm offshore for
most of the duration and there are no
navigational hazards or tidal flows.
Ports of refuge are not easy though –
there is a small harbour in Lygia on the
mainland, but it is very shallow, and
an anchorage in Ammoudia, but you
are close to Parga by then. A downwind return to Preveza might be the
only practical option if necessary.
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

87

Setting Up for Success

While many sailors are keen to break the back of the journey on
the first day, at Sail Ionian we recommend you take a day or two
to familiarise yourself with your charter yacht and allow your
family or friends to find their sea legs before embarking. Waiting
for a suitable weather window can also be very useful. If you
can find a day when the prevailing northwesterly winds are light
or, even better, you have a southerly, then you will have a much
smoother, quicker trip. We usually recommend at least a two-week
charter if you want to be able to relax and explore the north.
Plan to make an early start, so spend the night before somewhere
convenient for the canal and bridge. The marina in Lefkas Town
is well placed but can be expensive in the summer. The town quay
is free, but very busy and noisy! A better option is the anchorage
just north of Lygia’s harbour (south of the canal entrance buoys
and submerged mole) where there are two good tavernas a
short dinghy ride ashore; ‘Ta Kanioria’ and ‘Seven Islands’.

Transiting the Canal

The canal through the marsh and lagoons separating Lefkada from
the mainland has existed in one form or another for centuries –
first constructed in 650BC under Corinthian rule. At only around
3.5nm long it is actually a very simple transit but takes around an
hour due to the 4kt speed limit (there is sometimes a little bit of
southerly current too). It is dredged to around 5m but is shallower
in places. Between the widely spaced large lateral buoys, withies
and smaller markers indicate the edges of the canal and the start
of the shallow marsh. The passage takes you past salt pans and
Venetian forts before you arrive at Lefkas marina, and the main
town quay. After Lefkas Town, the canal follows the road across
the lagoon to the floating bridge and the citadel of Agia Mavra.
The citadel, originally fortified by the Sicilians in the early
1300s to protect Lefkada from pirates and then extended
by both the Venetians and the Ottomans, used to house the

88

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

PHOTO: AERIAL-MOTION

EXPERTS' FORUM

entire town within its walls. After a brief period under French
rule during the Napoleonic Wars, the island fell under British
protection, before the Ionian islands were ceded to Greece.
The current floating bridge dates from 1986 and replaced
the various chain and cable ferries that served here.

The Floating Bridge

The bridge opens on a set schedule during the summer months,
normally on the hour from 0600 to 2200, but it is always worth
checking as maintenance work can change the times. The pilot
book will tell you to call on VHF12 but I have never received an
answer. On a busy day, traffic will hover in the canal 10 minutes
before in a disorganised narrow queue. If you arrive early, it is easier
to circle off the town quay where there is more space. Once the
bridge opens, blocking the road access to the island, marine traffic
generally moves quickly in both directions, as it does not stay open
for long. Note the direction of buoyage changes at the bridge. The
channel around the headland here can be a little chaotic, with yachts
entering the canal racing to get through the bridge before it closes.

The Open Water Passage

Don’t be surprised if it is choppy as you come out of the canal – this
is Ormos Lefkados (Lefkas Bay) and it is a shallow lee shore, our
miniature equivalent of Biscay! If there is any wind it can be rough
here. It can be easier to motor out into deeper water before hoisting

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

PHOTO: KARE PHOTOGRAPHY

the sails. If, however, you have set off early in the morning and got
the first or second bridge, it should still be calm as the wind will not
have built up yet. Once a couple of miles offshore, and on course for
Paxos, you can judge the wind a bit better and set sail or motor until
the wind builds a little later. By setting off early you can break the
back of the passage motoring, even on a windy northwesterly day.
Marine traffic heading straight north out of the canal is
probably bound for the Preveza channel. Any larger ships should
be further offshore, though you may encounter them as you
approach Paxos, so keep an eye out to the south during your
journey. Some of the large international ferries to Italy leave
Patras and pass to the west of Lefkada before cutting inside
Paxos to stop at Igoumenitsa. They can catch up on a neglectful
north-bound sailor very quickly. When teaching, I often stand in
the companionway, and the view south of an approaching ferry
looming larger and larger behind a blissfully unaware helmsman
can often result in a comical double-take, when they finally notice!
A yacht bound for Paxos has several options for a first port
of call. Anti-Paxos has beautiful anchorages but no facilities,
so Moggonisi (or Mongonisi), Giaos or Lakka are the usual
destinations. Moggonisi can be filled with flotillas in summer,
and Giaos town quay can be very busy if you are arriving after a
long day’s sail, so my preference is for Lakka. A large easy, shallow
anchorage with stunning turquoise water, Lakka is well sheltered
unless the wind is northeasterly, in which case avoid it like the
plague! The village is chic and pretty with little streets to explore
and a good selection of shops, cafes and tavernas. There is a little
space to go stern-to on the town quay, though it is shallow and
usually full. After a long sail, I am usually happy to just drop
the hook in the bay and jump in for a swim! The views at sunset
from Fannis cafe-bar are usually my first port of call ashore.
The alternative destination on the mainland would be Parga. I
have often enjoyed the sail to Parga as it a more northerly bearing
than Paxos, and if the wind has a bit more west than north in it,

89

you can sometimes make Parga on one tack from Lefkas. It’s
worth considering once you are out of the canal, have your sails
up and can see what heading you can make. It can be a much
quicker passage than tacking upwind to Lakka. Anchor in Valtou
Bay on the western side of the castle but stay well clear of the
water sports platforms. The western end of the bay is generally
quieter. Taxi boats ply their trade between the beach hotels in
the bay and Parga town. A whistle and a wave, and they will take
you from your yacht to the town pier for a few euros. Parga’s
Venetian castle is a beautiful backdrop, and the small islands in
the bay frame the scene appealingly. The seafront in Parga is very
touristy, but the alleys running up the hill to the castle are great
to explore and there are some wonderful bars and restaurants.
‘Sail In’ is a lively bar housed across the many floors of an old
townhouse, and Kastro 1380 has the best dinner views in town!

Returning to Lefkada

The return passage sailing south is generally an easier trip,
assuming you have the northwesterly winds behind you.
Caution needs to be taken as you approach the Lefkas canal
entrance though, as if it’s windy the sea state can deteriorate
as it gets shallower. It’s a good idea to drop the sails a mile
or two out and motor in from there. We advise holding
back from entrance to the canal until you hear the siren
signifying the bridge is opening. There isn’t much room to
manoeuvre and if a few boats crowd in before the bridge
opens, it can be chaotic in there. Technically, traffic from
the north has priority entering the canal, but usually traffic
from both directions starts as soon as the bridge opens.
As an alternative, if you have the time on your return trip,
I highly recommend sailing down the west coast of Lefkada
and avoiding the canal on the way back. It’s a much longer
sail, but the west coast is spectacular with steep cliffs and
lovely beaches – beware there are no harbours or sheltered
anchorages though, so make sure you have the time. With the
wind behind you it can be a lovely, dreamy long day sail. An
easy anchorage awaits in Vassiliki if you are arriving towards the
end of the day, or Sivota is a little further along the south coast
of Lefkas, where you can reserve a berth on a taverna pontoon.

90

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

A Final Word

PHOTO: DREAMER COMPANY

EXPERTS' FORUM

If you don’t often make longer passages, then it’s worth refreshing
your memory with some of the RYA Day Skipper or Coastal
Skipper books. They’re full of good advice about things like
pre-cooking food in case it gets rough and isn’t pleasant down
below. Easy to access drinks are a necessity too, it’s hot in the
Ionian, and de-hydration and sea sickness are great friends!
You should also check with your charter company about what
support you can expect as you sail further from their base. At Sail
Ionian we issue a dedicated daily northern Ionian weather forecast
and can help with local knowledge each day if you’re new to the area.
Most importantly, make sure you enjoy it. It’s such a liberating
feeling to head out into the open sea with a destination in mind but
out of sight. Nothing quite compares to the feeling of achievement
when you’ve put in a long day sailing and finally sail into a new
harbour.
Tom Fletcher is an instructor at Sail Ionian, based in
Lefkas, in the ionian. Find out more at sailionian.com

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Charter

92

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

PHOTO: ISTOCK

There are few places to beat Greece for that dream sailing
holiday says Sue Pelling. Here we look at some of the options in
three popular areas – Cyclades, Ionian, Saronic Gulf

93

ith 15,000
kilometres
of coastline
and around
6,000 Islands
to explore, the
cruising area of Greece is vast and
offers a huge range of conditions
to suit all levels of ability. If you
are looking to escape the madding
crowds, don’t be put off by the
popularity of Greece because one
of the reasons why it remains a
charter holiday hot spot is because
there are plenty of places to explore
in areas such as the Saronic Gulf,
the Cyclades, and the Ionian Sea.
Most charter bases in Greece are
in prime positions, which means
you don’t need to sail for days to find
tranquil anchorages off the beaten
track, or quaint harbour towns with
waterside cafes and restaurants.
There are plenty of opportunities to
embrace the rich and diverse local
Greek traditions too, so ultimately,
it could be the ideal place if you
are keen to combine sailing with
cultural activities onshore.

The Saronic Gulf

The Saronic Gulf, also known as
the Gulf of Aegina, is created by the
peninsulas of Attica and Argolis,
and includes part of the Aegean
Sea. Given its location – the closest
islands to Athens – and the fact it
is known for its crystal water and

94

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

relaxing way of life, it’s a popular
resort with the locals. The winds
in this area are generally moderate
from the southeast and consistent,
which means if you have previous
experience, you’ll enjoy this area.
This part of Greece is also
rich in culture and architecture
with places like the ancient port
of Hydra regarded as the gem
of the Saronic islands. Its stone
buildings that line harbour,
make it an inviting place to sail
into and, with no traffic allowed
on this island and donkeys the
preferred mode of transportation,
it’s a fun place to visit.
Aegina, Poros, and Spetses are
some of the other places worth
cruising to, as is Agistri, which
is less popular and therefore
a good place to explore.

PREVIOUS PAGE
The delightful
anchorage at Kleftiko,
Milos Island in
the Cyclades
ABOVE LFT
Among its many
options, VentureSail
offers skippered
sailing holidays in
the Saronic Islands
aboard its Beneteau
Cyclades 50.5 Zorba
BELOW
A Saronic Gulf flotilla
holiday with Seafarer

There are plenty of charter
companies that operate in the area
with variety of charter opportunities
including bareboat, skippered or flotilla
with companies like Sailing Holidays,
Seafarer Sailing Holiday, Sunsail,
Dream Yacht Worldwide, and Venture
Sail Holidays just a small selection.
Sunsail’s base at Athens’ Zea Marina
is a good starting point for a bareboat
or skipper charter, while Sailing
Holidays offer a two-week flotilla
which starts and finishes in Astrous
and takes in all the beauty spots and
‘secret’ anchorages. For a by-the-cabin
charter, look at what Nautilus has to
offer aboard its Lagoon 400 catamaran.

Cyclades

Cyclades islands, which are in the
central Aegean Sea are noted for
their iconic, vibrant, whitewashed

PHOTO: MICHAEL HARTZENBERG/SEAFARER

PHOTO: VENTURESAIL

Charter

The Ionian

Holidaymakers with a relaxing
outlook or those with young families
should consider a short leg/island-

hopping option such as the Ionian.
The Islands in these areas are just
far enough apart to enjoy a good
sail in the reliable winds, which
are generally not too much of a
challenge. It is lush and picturesque
and offers stunning anchorages and
beaches with plenty of opportunity
to enjoy the local taverna culture.
Southern Ionian islands are
within proximity, and navigation is
mainly line of sight. Some careful
route planning can mean you can
cover a couple of hundred sea miles
in a one-week visit. Head down to
Kefalonia or Ithaca on day one, and
then back up to Meganisi on day two
– you don’t need to take the circular
route that most flotillas follow. The
Northern Ionian with the beautiful
island of Corfu often a starting
point with companies like Sailing
Holidays, that offers easy access from
the airport, and places like Sagiadha,
Petriti, Paxos, Gaios some of the
highlights of the cruising area.
Sail Ionian, as the name suggests,
specialises in sailing holidays in
the Ionian Islands from Lefkas
(Vliho Bay) and has plenty to
offer from bareboat, skippered,
luxury all-inclusive charter, flotilla,
to tuition-based holidays.
Among the other many companies
that operate in the Ionian, Sunsail,
and Seafarer offer flotillas from their
bases at Maganisi (east-southeast
of the island of Lefkada), which is a

ABOVE LEFT
The iconic blue-top
churches on Santorini
in the Cyclades
ABOVE RIGHT
Med mooring in an
idyllique bay in the
Ionian with Sail Ioinan

great idea for families and groups of
friends. Seafarer also has an option
to combine its flotilla with a beach
club holiday, or tuition. Dream Yacht
Worldwide has bareboat and skipper
charter options in this area too as
does Nautilus Yachting. Nautilus
Yachting also runs flotillas, which
starts and finish in the ancient city
of Palairos in the south part of
the Ionian on mainland Greece.
Finally, for something different
in the Southern Ionian, check out
Dragon Drascombe that runs a
bespoke discover Greece package
holiday aboard its Drascombe
Lugger, or Wildwind, for the ultimate
beach-based Greek holiday.

PHOTO: SAIL IONIAN

PHOTO: ISTOCK

hilltop villages, churches with blue
domed roofs, and windmills. Given
its location further to east and in
open waters, however, you’ll find
the wind is stronger than in the
west part of Greece, which mean
you are likely to enjoy consistently
fresh winds. It is therefore more
suited if you are of intermediate
level and above, and want to enjoy
the thrill of fast passage-making in
spectacular conditions. The ideal
time to sail in this area is May or
June, and September and October for
the best chance to avoid the Meltemi
northerly wind that pipes up in July
and August and can reach Force 7-8.
Nautilus Yachting offers a selection
of option with its recommended one
week bareboat on a Sun Odyssey 410
starting from Lavrion (40-minute
transfer from Athens airport). Sailing
Holidays also operates from Lavrion
with its one-week charter itinerary
taking in all the beauty spots on its
exploration trip of Cyclades with
the most popular islands Santorini
and Mykonos. For a by-the cabin
option, Seafarer’s one week cruise
aboard one of its fully crewed
52ft sailing yachts – Christianna
VII or Blue Marlin – could be
the ultimate relaxing holiday.

Useful contacts
l dreamyachtcharter.com
l dragondrascombe.com
l hdmsailing.gr
l ionianchallenge.com
l moorings.co.uk
l nautilusyachting.com
l plainsailing.com
l sailingholidays.com
l sailionian.com
l seafarersailing.co.uk
l sunsail.co.uk
l sunscapeyachting.co.uk
l theglobesailor.com
l venturesailholidays.com
l helm.yt
l click&boat.com
l wildwind.co.uk

Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

95

Classified

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BOATS FOR SALE

COLVIC
WATSON
29
MOTOR
YACHT.
Recently
reconditioned. 5 berths. BMC 48
hp Marine Diesel Engine.New
carpets, cushions, headlinings.
New comms radio/GPS. New
Genoa. Constructed 1979 with
only 2 owners from new. Twin
keels. £21750 Tel 01494 673802
/ 07925 287279 (POOLE)
49ER FX 1215. Fixed wing
boat, good condition with
aluminium
launch
trolley,
Harken fit out, top & bottom
covers. Ideal starter boat in
the class. Unused last 5 years.
£3500 Tel 07738 984826 /
(TYNEMOUTH)

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LAURENT GILES ‘JOLLY BOAT’.
Excellent condition, gaff rig +
topsail, 15ft, a great day-sailer.
Price is ONO. £5450 Tel 07879
434065 / (EXETER)
29ER GBR 074. Recently
refurbished
by
Ovington
Boats. Complete with launch
trolley, top cover & foil bag.
TRADE. £1950 Tel 0191 2576011
/ (TYNEMOUTH)
OVINGTON
ILCA
220433.
Excellent condition, available
with 4, 6 or 7 rig. Carbon top
mast & tiller. Brand new sail.
Trolley, top cover & foil bag.
TRADE. £4950 Tel 01912 576011
/ (TYNEMOUTH)

www.sailingtoday.co.uk | www.yachtsandyachting.co.uk
96

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

J24
(SAIL
NO.
4239).
Successfully raced for many
years Mojo has had 3 gentle
years in Dartmouth. 1 of 4
Yugoslavian made (1993).
£15k refit (2019). Mast/rigging
in good order. Harken fittings.
Lightly used main. Plenty of
life in jib, genoa, spinnaker
and rigging. Working 3.3 HP
outboard (long-shaft). RM
Trailer. £8000 Tel 07585 996603
/ (DARTMOUTH)
SALCOMBE
YAWL
Y111.
Beautiful wooden Salcombe
Yawl, approx 10’. Approx 1977,
Stored under cover. Life jackets,
outboard
motor,
compass.
Offers accepted. £3000 Tel 07775
077070 / (GAINSBOROUGH)

Classified

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BOATS FOR SALE
LASER 218276. An Ice Blue
Laser with full HD rig, carbon
top mast, new combi trailer,
full covers, sailed twice as my
knees reminded me how old I
was! In essence a new boat at a
reduced price. In New condition.
£4750 Tel 01952 850330 / 07813
206667 (TELFORD)
505 SAILS. Main, jib & spinnaker
- made by BM (Bojsen-Møller) in
good condition 6-7/10. Laminate
main, dacron zip luff jib & blue
spin. Can post. £600 Tel 07738
984826 / (TYNEMOUTH)
J/24 GBR4269, 2005, CACOON.
Fully faired, Italian built hull and
keel. New Selden mast and
rigging. Carbon spinnaker pole.
2nd in 2022 Europeans. Current
UK National Champion. 2 sets of
good sails. Road trailer. Lowered
keel box, All in good running
order. New brake pads. Tax paid.
£14000 Tel 07976 431717 / 07808
177659 (POOLE)

KNIVES

24 FT CRUISER QUARTER TONNER.
Now fully antifouled for season.
Fully Restored (thousands spent)
and going fast. 4 berth, fin-keel,
open-plan cruiser. Good family
boat, self draining cockpit. Remasted, re-rigged, re-keeled,
new rudder. Laminate sails little
used. 3.5hp outboard. Full recent
survey - yard trolley available.
Must be seen. £4950 Tel 07765
900259 / (CARDIFF)
MARAUDER (MIRROR 14). 14 foot
racing dinghy with spinnaker &
trapeze. With launching trolley
and boom-up cover. £200 Tel
07913 604 574 / (STAINES)

To advertise please call
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CLOTHING

RIGID BOAT WINDSCREEN - NEW.
Brand new acrylic windscreen.
£590 Tel 07714 259616 / (OBAN)

MUSTO LARGE HPX OCEAN
GORETEX JACKET. Large size
Ocean Jacket colour Bright
Yellow. As New (Worn Twice)
Unmarked. massive saving on
new price. £375 Tel 07754 337398
/ (CHICHESTER)

LEATHER STEERING WHEELS

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• For all wheel sizes and
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MARINAS

Arbroath Harbour

T: (01929) 554308
The Sail Loft,
16 Sandford
Lane Ind Est,
Wareham, Dorset,
BH20 4DY

www.kempsails.com

SKIPPER WANTED
“Arbroath Harbour has 59 floating
pontoon berths with security entrance
which are serviced with electricity and
fresh water to accommodate all types
of leisure craft. Half height dock gates
with a walkway are located between the
inner and outer harbours, which open
and close at half tide, maintaining a
minimum of 2.5m of water in the inner
harbour.
Other facilities in the harbour include
free parking, toilets and showers, a crew
room, fueling facilities, on site laundry
facilities and boat builders’ yard.

Arbroath Harbour
Harbour Office • Arbroath • DD11 1PD
Harbour Master: Bruce Fleming
Tel: 01241 872166
Email: harbourmaster@angus.gov.uk

SAILS

Don’t miss our
sister title

The town of Arbroath also offers a
variety of social and sporting amenities
to visiting crews and a number of
quality pubs, restaurants, the famous
twelfth century Abbey and Signal
Tower Museum are located close to the
harbour. The railway and bus stations
are only 1km from the harbour with
direct north and south connections.”

Swan 56 Skipper required
based in Hamble

Family owned since 1999, meticulously and
professionally maintained.
Cruising range Solent to Weymouth and
St Malo, France.
Two generations of experienced racing sailors
now using the Swan as support for grandchildren
sailing and windsurfing.
Main activities May to August,
100 days minimum guaranteed.
Apply to Edward – swanyachtuk@gmail.com

www.sailingtoday.co.uk | www.yachtsandyachting.co.uk
Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024

97

Jess Lloyd-Mostyn
...And another thing! Keeping your ‘lid on’ when jet ski/party-bus style groups of rubbish-strewing,
scantily-clad holidaymakers descend on paradise is mentally testing as Jess discovers
’ve just barely opened my eyes
and am slowly having my first sips
of morning tea and then I hear
it. The high-pitched whine and
rhythmical, repetitive smacking
of a small craft on the surface
of the water – the jetskis are here.
All too quickly the bliss of our
millpond-still anchorage, off a white
sand beach fringed with coconut
palms, leading down to a clear
turquoise sea with a healthy coral
reef is shattered by the ubiquitous
scourge of paradise: the tourists.
Now, I know what you’re thinking,
“people in glass boats shouldn’t
throw seashells”, or something like
that. But there is a very big difference
between the type of tourist who
comes to coastlines on their own
boat, gently and quietly exploring the
natural beauty and cultural appeal
versus the party-bus style of large,
noisy, groups of rubbish-strewing,
scantily-clad holidaymakers now
crammed by the boatload into an anchorage, destroying
the peace and tranquillity that abounded mere moments
ago. Maybe I just need another large sip of tea.
I know it makes me sound extraordinarily uncharitable
and believe me, I do appreciate beyond measure just
how fortunate and privileged a position we are in to be
able to travel the world by boat and dawdle at our leisure
wherever we choose. It’s just that nothing changes the feel
of a place quite like it being flooded with day trippers.
In the Caribbean we contended with cruise ships. You’d
have a nice sundowner and enjoy the view ashore from
the cockpit and then a huge behemoth of a boat would
stealthily appear in the wee hours, anchored smack bang
in the middle of the bay. By morning the sleepy little town
was swamped by grinning sightseers, all khaki shorts
and sunburned elbows, clicking cameras and posing for
selfies. They would descend on every little coffee shack
or small local eatery like locusts, stripping them of their
contents. Anyone foolish enough to foray ashore in
their wake would find only slim pickings remaining.
Sailing in Thailand was a game of tourist hide-and-seek.
Between Phuket and the mainland, the water is littered
with steep, limestone islands of staggering beauty that
are home to countless sea caves and lagoons. It doesn’t
take much to see the tourist appeal. So much so that
almost every anchorage, between the hours of 10am
and 4pm year-round, will ring with the ear-splitting

diesel roar of the longtail boat
engines as they ferry group after
group of visitors to the area.
Clusters of kayakers skim
across the surface of the water.
Renting sea canoes is one of the
best ways of accessing some of
the caves, all without scaring the
local populations of bats, birds
and monkeys. Come to think of it,
I wonder how they feel about the
sudden influx of foreign paparazzi
into their habitat? I could’ve
sworn I saw a long-tailed macaque
shaking his fist at one of them…
Next the water is coloured
dayglo orange as another heavily
loaded boat comes in only to spill
its contents out into the water
for group snorkelling activities.
I will never quite see the appeal
of mass group snorkelling, with
everyone floating in the same
spot, all wearing lifejackets
or pfds, kicking up the sand
so the visibility drops to zero. What is the point?
Then there is the explosion of laughter and
squeals of delight as a bunch of vacationers take
to an inflatable banana boat and are trailed round
and round in circles and figure eights. I watch from
the deck and I marvel at the jetskis, zooming and
bouncing across the horizon. And I slowly sip my
tea, and take a deep breath, and close my eyes.
Soon, it is the late afternoon, and a sudden,
almost intimate hush falls over the scene. The
water is no longer constantly churned up by
passing boats. You can hear birdsong again.
And it’s then that we lazily move in, knowing the
great secret that the evenings and early mornings
are for us alone. That ours will be the last and the
first footprints marking their way across the pristine,
smooth sand. It is such a huge, humbling honour to be
allowed the space, the quiet and the time to explore,
or simply to sit, without deadline, on these so recently
rambunctious shores; to dive beneath the water’s
surface and see only natural marine life, rather than the
crowd-choked visions that the day-trippers glimpse.
And I scold myself for my meanness, my
judgemental thoughts and my dependence on
caffeine. And I gain a gentle reminder that we
are all drawn to admire these same places, for
the same reasons, just via different methods.

98

MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting

JESS LLOYDMOSTYN
Jess and James left the
UK in 2011 in their
Crossbow 42 and have
sailed halfway round
the world, growing
their crew en route.
Follow their journey
at water-log.com

ILLUSTRATION HOLLY ASTLE

‘Shattered by the ubiquitous
scourge of paradise: the tourists’

PERFORMANCE HYBRID
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Photo © Graham Snook Photography

CRUSADER SAILS The Sail Loft, Hatch Pond Road, Poole, BH17 0JZ, UK
+44 (0) 1202 670580 info@crusadersails.com www.crusadersails.com

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