BLUE WATER
Spring 2020
SAILING
SEAMANSHIP SQUALLS & STORMS NAVIGATING IN ATOLLS
LESSONS AT SEA
SAILING TO CUBA CHILDHOOD AT SEA
BLUE WATER BOATS
X 40 HYLAS 60
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16 Bill Biewenga-Offshore
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SPRING 2020
Squalls and Storms: Black Clouds and Towering Seas
Regardless of what you would like to have for your sailing conditions, heavy weather can and does get out of hand from time to time. Understanding how best to deal with it can be an invaluable body of knowledge
38 38 Bluewater Adventure
The Rhythms of My Childhood at Sea
A young woman reflects on coming of age during a five-year circumnavigation with her family by Zoe Buratynski
24 24 Practical Passagemaker
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The Dangers of Navigating and Anchoring in Atolls
44 Blue Water Boats
by Text and photo: Birgit Hackl and Christian Feldbauer
44 The New Hylas 60 Debuted in Miami 50 Pure Elegance and Performance in the New X-40 by George Day
32 32 Cruising Life
Sailing to Cuba: Surprises and Challenges in April 2019
The passage to and from Cuba can be challenging. So can getting a U.S. permit under the new, stricter rules by Tom Connor 2
50 Photo by Billy Black of the new Hylas 60, courtesy Hylas Yachts
BLUE WATER SAILING
© Photography : J.Ricoul
a m e l . fr
C o n ta c t yo u r l o c a l excl u s i ve A M E L a g e n t i n t h e U S A East Coast M c M i c h a e l Ya c h t B r o ke r s Mamaroneck NY
Southern California N a o s Ya c h t s Marina del Rey
Pa c i f i c N o r t hwe s t S i g n a t u r e Ya c h t s Seattle
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Sailing Through the Coronavirus Storm
I
t looks like 2020 has been cancelled by the coronavirus pandemic, and we have to look forward to 2021 for a do over. All of the regattas, club cruises and boat shows this spring and early summer are now postponed or cancelled. Many if not most sailboat owners are not getting their boats ready for the summer season yet. For us, sailing through this forced isolation is a bit like making a very long passage across an ocean. The longest we have made is from the Galapagos Islands to the Marquesas Islands in eastern French Polynesia. The route is 3,100 miles long and is mostly downwind tradewind running. A long passage has definite phases. There’s the excitement and sleep disruption of the first few days at sea as the crew gets used to the watch routine and gets their sea legs. Then there is the shipboard routine that plays out day after day with the boat moving actively under you so you find yourself reaching out for handholds instinctively. There are sails to be trimmed and the horizon to be scanned for ships. There are communication schedules to follow and weather files to download. There are always two or three things a day to repair. There is bread to bake, meals to cook and dishes to be done. The halfway point on this route after about 10 days at sea is a good time for a celebration. You might crack open a bottle of bubbly or bake a special cake or even roast a leg of lamb from the freezer with potatoes and peas – this last was the tradition during our circumnavigation. After halfway, you fall back into the shipboard routine until you are two or three days from landfall. Excitement and a desire to go for a long walk build daily until one of the crew calls “Land Ho” and you know you are only hours from the end of the passage. You drop sails just off shore and motor into Hiva Oa or Nuku Hiva where the anchor plunges and the chain rattles and the anchor is set. You’re there in the strangely flat water of the bay with the boat hardly moving under you for the first time in three weeks. You endured, met the challenges, enjoyed closeness to nature and the night sky, and will sleep well tonight knowing new adventures lie ahead. In a way, this is how I see us getting through the coronavirus storm. It’s a long passage, isolated from society, with distinct phases and a hoped for and longed for landfall and flat water at the end. Fair winds.
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photo by Bill Kund
BLUE WATER
SAILING Volume 25, Spring Blue Water Sailing, LLC 747 Aquidneck Avenue, Suite 201 Middletown, Rhode Island 02842 - USA phone: 401.847.7612 • fax: 401.845.8580 web: www.bwsailing.com SUBSCRIBER HOTLINE 866-529-2921
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Stranded by the Covid-19 Pandemic by Stephanie Ferrie
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magine planning for years that you’d take an entire year away from your job, or maybe even put your career on hold, to purchase a sailboat for your family to sail the world. You’d probably sell your home, along with many of your possessions all for one dream, one that you may have dreamt about for your entire life, a dream many said would be close to impossible to execute. When the day finally comes, you move onto your boat with your few possessions and your family. You’re in a new country, maybe one that doesn’t speak your language and the only familiar faces you see are your family members. Figuring out 6
how to get food and supplies, and for many, how to sail your boat, you wonder how you’ll ever adapt to such a different lifestyle. What happens if weeks or maybe months into your one-year plan, a global pandemic strikes and your dream comes to a complete halt. You and your family get stuck in a country, without anywhere to go. Healthcare is questionable. The language different, and the locals are petrified you will be the one to bring disease to their country, and it’s exceedingly clear, they do not want you there. This is reality for many sailing families right now. Imagine that one week vacation you had planned, but add in leaving your career, selling your home for a floating one and selling all your things, and then the only thing you can do is stay on your boat and not leave. What about traveling to all those exotic places you had on your list? All those places you talked incessantly about to your family for years. Not happening. Right now, there are families all over the world, ones like the ones I’ve described above, who are close to waving the white flag. They didn’t sign up for this when they were leaving their jobs and selling their possessions. Global pandemic was not on their list of “10 things you should worry about when moving your family abroad and onto a sailboat”. One may think being overtaken by a rogue wave or boarded by pirates was pretty high up there on BLUE WATER SAILING
The entire globe has basically come to a screeching halt due to COVID-19 the things people worried about when you said you were going to sail the world with your kids, but a global pandemic? No freaking way. That’s like Sci-Fi crazy! Not only are there families out there who aren’t even through their one year sabbatical, there are ones out there who may be years into their adventure, and even when they think they may have seen it all, they are faced with the unbelievable. The entire globe has basically come to a screeching halt due to COVID-19, and many families like us who travel by sailboat are left wondering, “what next?” or even more important “where can we go
from here?” and most often, the answer is “no where” or “there’s no right answer.” There are families who had multi-year plans to sail the Caribbean, then cross over to Panama and prep for a month-long passage across the Pacific Ocean to French Polynesia to eventually circumnavigate the globe over a set period of time. These plans, years in the making, involve countless dollars spent prepping for a huge undertaking. Some families were able to leave their boat safely and get back to family, while others ultimately did leave Panama for French Polynesia, only to be turned away once they arrived,
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Almost months on the ocean without stepping foot on solid ground after traveling which is ultiand still nowhere to go with for weeks nonmately their waning food supplies stop, even with home, and kids on board, to be told, there was no islands accepting visitors and they must turn around. Their only option? Sail to Hawaii, another several weeks passage or if they continued on, there was no guarantee other countries wouldn’t turn them away as well. Then what? Almost months on the ocean without stepping foot on solid ground and still nowhere to go with waning food supplies. There are those out there who left their boat in a foreign country to travel back home to visit family, maybe take care of some medical issue, only to be told they were not allowed to return to their boat,
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must stay where they were. They never planned to leave their boat unattended for an unforeseeable length of time and the financial burden begins to build. One family with the mother seven months pregnant, located in the Cayman Islands, had plans to return home to Canada to deliver their child and were notified all the borders and airports were closed before they could leave. The catch? They now will be forced to deliver their new baby in the Cayman Islands. Not only does this create stress and problems for the family, but the financial impact is
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real due to hospital fees and lack of health insurance coverage this family now faces. Some families face being in a foreign country and are now being asked to leave, or have no choice to leave in order to position their boat in a hurricane free zone. The real challenge comes when there is no logical place to go from their current location, or one that is thousands of miles away which entails crossing oceans in order to get home, often with small children aboard and/or inexperienced sailors aboard. The opportunity to find crew members to assist in this potential dangerous undertaking is close to impossible. Travel restrictions around the world make a usually easy task of finding crew almost impossible. Travel insurance companies
are dropping healthcare if patrons cannot return to their home country, all the while the country they are located in does not want them there either. Many islands are harassing people to leave immediately. The challenge is real and most often cruisers are faced with the option of inaction being the best action, which is sitting tight and seeing which direction the world goes. One family we spoke with stated they had no solid plans as to how long they’d continue traveling, but now they may be forced to sell their boat due to financial insecurity. Their primary income coming from a vacation rental property, but with COVID-19, many are canceling, leaving them with drastically reduced income. Unfortunately, situations like the ones
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The truth is, one thing is for true, above are just a small eyes. We are all being faced life is uncertain handful of what cruising with challenging choices families are currently facing. One could say “this is what people get for not going back to their home”, but the reality is, home is no longer home and is now their boat, and home is wherever that boat may be. The truth is, the changes that occurred happened so very fast that it was close to impossible to make plans to leave your floating home safely in a hurricane zone and go back to your country, which often meant that there was no actual physical address to return. The truth is, no matter where you are on the globe, one thing is for true, life is uncertain. It’s a scary new world that we are all just watching unfold before our
Spring 2020
and decisions, and many people like us are feeling exposed and not quite sure where we belong. Those families who had one year to execute their dream are now watching it unfold in unimaginable ways. The sailing community is full of amazingly strong people who face challenges like this with grace and strength, and it’s a special feeling to be surrounded by families like these. We are all facing incredible challenges, but we’re in this together. People helping people, despite the wide range of obstacles that we each face on a daily, or even hourly basis. We are all living the voyage.BWS
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Cruising in the Age of Covid-19
A
ll over the world lives are being disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. In most countries in April, billions of people are either on lockdown or sheltering in place. Something like 90 percent of all children around the world are either not attending school or attending remotely through internet connections. While this is very inconvenient for most and tragic for thousands, most of us are hunkered down in our homes, apartments or even our boats while we wait for the pandemic to pass. But for those in the cruising community who are actively cruising, the pandemic is proving to be a logistical nightmare. While the prob-
lems might be considered “First World Problems” they certain have had a way of changing cruisers’ plans. None more than for Tammy and Darrin Hemphill from Memphis, TN. The Hemphills are attempting to sail around the world aboard their 45-foot Lagoon catamaran My Inspiration. After transiting the Panama Canal, they sailed 800 miles to the Galapagos Islands for a brief visit. In February, they set sail westward toward the Marquesas Islands in eastern French Polynesia. At the time of their departure, the Covid-19 pandemic was only just beginning to spread around the world. But, after a 19-day passage with two
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friends aboard as crew, they arrived at the Marquesan island of Hiva Oa only to learn that the island nation was closed to any visitors, including cruisers arriving by boat. The authorities in Hiva Oa required the Hemphills to be quarantined for 14 days despite the fact that they had been at sea for 19 days and showed no signs of the viral infection. They had to remain at anchor in the small harbor and were only allowed to swim around their boat and could not come ashore. Following the 14 day quarantine, the Hemphills had assumed that they would be clear to go ashore to shop and get some exercise. But, that was not to be the case. They were told they would have to leave the Marquesas within two days. Their options were few. They could sail to Tahiti 800 miles away where they may or may not be allowed to enter and anchor in the transient anchorage at Taina. At the time a few crusiers had been allowed in. But there was no guarantee. Finding a safe haven in which to wait out the pandemic, the Hemphills had very few options. They reached out to immigration officials in Hawaii and eventually were given the go ahead to sail to the U.S. state which was some 2,200 miles away. On the day they departed the Marquesas Island, they and their fiends had been on board without reprieve for 35 days. The passage to Hawaii would take them 12 to 14 days so by the time they arrived and spent another 14 days in quarantine they would have been cooped up on their boat for more than 60 days. That’s a long passage and thats cruising in the time of Covid-19. BWS
Spring 2020
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{ BILLBIEWENGA }
Squalls and Storms: @Laurie Warner
Black Clouds and Towering Seas
Regardless of what you would like to have for your sailing conditions, heavy weather can and does get out of hand from time to time. Understanding how best to deal with it can be an invaluable body of knowledge
H
eavy weather can rear its ugly head quickly or build over time. Whether it’s a full-on storm or an overachieving squall line, there’s always a sense of drama or an air of uncertainty. They’re all different, yet in some ways there are many elements in common from one squall line to the next. Some approach from astern. Others we 16
plunge headlong into. Still others overtake us from abeam. Some are benign. Others seem almost malicious with radical wind shifts and gusting that can tear a sail plan to shreds in a matter of moments. Whether they qualify as storm cells, thunderstorms, towering cumulus clouds or full on squall lines, they happen around the globe, from the Great Lakes to the BLUE WATER SAILING
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Indian Ocean. How can we tell the truly malicious from the merely inconvenient? How can we best deal with them while we still have options at our discretion? There are more than a few clues and reading those clues can help you to avoid the pitfalls and use the squalls for your own purposes. SQUALLS AND SQUALL LINES Squall lines are merely storm cells arranged in a row. With weather satellite imagery you can see squall lines and storm cells from thousands of miles away. The high, cold clouds signal the possible presence of high, towering cumulus clouds, those huge, billowing clouds that can reach 50,000 feet up into the sky. Commercial aircraft will detour around the biggest of them, but aboard a sailboat you may not always have that option. Knowing that they’re coming can help you to be prepared well in advance. As the clouds grow in size, they are indicating an unstable air column. The taller and more ragged-looking the cloud, the greater the instability. That convective instability translates into surface wind as the air moves toward the bottom of the cloud and rises, bringing its moisture up into a colder air mass where it condenses into clouds or rain. As the rising air cools, it becomes denser. The denser, heavier air then sinks back toward the earth’s surface. If the changes in temperature are radical enough, a downburst can result. The downburst is the result of very rapid sinking of cold air from the cloud. Spring 2020
Sometimes squall lines will precede cold fronts by 100 or 150 miles. The cold air that is often associated with the squall is usually from aloft rather than from the cold air mass behind the cold front. Radar can pick up the presence of rain that may also be associated with a squall or cloud that has gusting under it. But neither satellite imagery nor radar will tell you the complete story. You can have wind without rain or rain without wind. My own general rule is: what you see is what you get, and it will change. So, you need to be able to change as the situation changes, always acting conservatively to reduce the risk to you, your crew and your vessel. If you are faced with a huge towering cumulus cloud with a flat, anvil-like top you can be sure that you have convection in the cloud, ventilation at the top, which means significant cooling of the rising air mass, and you will have circulation. The cold air will probably be dropping, creating a divergent wind at the base of the cloud as the air sinks, slams into the surface of the water and spreads out away
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from the base of the cloud. Usually, the strongest winds are along the leading edge of the cloud as it approaches. Often the lighter winds associated with the cloud are behind it as it departs the scene. Check to see if the cloud is billowing actively and has a “ragged”, bubbling appearance. If so, it’s probably best to steer clear of that type of cloud formation by going behind it if possible. If evasive action is not possible, make sure that you err on the side of safety and change down the sail plan early. Downpouring rain is another indication of a possibly unstable air mass. To determine whether or not there’s wind under a particular bank of clouds, check the slant of the rain. Is that slant the result of sunlight streaming through the cloud? Where’s the sun located? Is the cloud itself moving and progressively dumping rain onto a windless sea? Check the movement of the cloud. If you have rain that slants in several different directions, it’s probable that you have circulation under the cloud and the wind direction will vary under the cloud
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depending on location. Under that cloud, you’d probably have a complete calm right under the middle of the cloud. It would be setting up it’s own mini-low-pressure system with a calm in the middle. Those situations are also best avoided by going behind the cloud if possible. Since you don’t have Doppler radar on your boat, you have to use your eyes and deductive reasoning. Check the surface of the water. Is it darker? If so, is that a shadow from the cloud or is it the disturbed water surface caused by the wind? Are there more whitecaps closer to the cloud indicating more wind? Which way is the cloud moving? How fast? If necessary, take bearings on the cloud. If the bearing is changing, you’re either going in front or behind it. If there’s a break in the clouds that you’d like to try to work your way towards, increase or decrease your boat speed or change your heading until you maintain a stable bearing with that break in the clouds. When you know what you’re dealing with, you can plan your tactics. The conditions under some clouds and squall lines are more vicious than under others. If the signs indicate that there is a great deal of wind or radically changing wind directions, you’ll want to proceed with extreme caution. There may be a rising column of air under the cloud if the conditions seem right for convection. The signs will indicate as much: flat, anvil top, billowing cloud, rain, increased presence of white caps or dark sea state near the cloud, etc. Going under the middle of the cloud may BLUE WATER SAILING
mean that there’s no wind in the center or there may be a 180-degree wind shift. Of course, I’ve managed to sail right under the middle of towering cumulus clouds – not by choice but rather by unfortunate chance. The scenario has proven to be less than ideal. Winds quickly built from one side of the boat, perhaps on a starboard tack. Under the epicenter of the cloud, the winds dropped off to nothing with sails slating and boat speed dropping to near zero. As the cloud passed overhead, the wind instantly gusted and shifted 180 degrees, heeling us over on port tack. Upon reflection, I thought that while approaching a large cumulus cloud, one would be well-advised to make sure that runners are clear, preventers are ready Spring 2020
to be eased and re-deployed and everything is secure down below. The wind shifts happen quickly and advanced preparation puts you in control rather than at the mercy of the conditions. Going in front of the cloud may be OK, but you should take bearings on the cloud to stay out of the center. The problem with going in front of a cloud is that if you slow down or it speeds up or gets larger, you could be trapped in the center. Additionally, the strongest winds are usually along its leading edge. Going behind the cloud is usually the best and safest approach to negotiating a malicious looking towering cumulus cloud. You have more options to get away from it whenever you want. And you can exercise 19
a certain degree of control on how much extra wind or shift you get by staying closer or further from the cloud. Similarly, when confronted by a squall line, you may be able to choose the point at which you cross the line or you allow it to overrun your position. Do you want to shoot for a gap in the larger clouds? Or, if that is too much out of your way, do you want to go under a particular part of the cloud? Try to go behind to weather the worst of it. Occasionally, there are situations in which you’d like to stay with the cloud or run down the face of the squall line. If you’ve been sailing in light conditions, perhaps the wind under the cloud is a godsend. During TransPac Races, some successful teams have used radar to spot the rain clouds and ride along with them throughout the night. They then try to dis20
tance themselves from the cloud shortly before dawn when the cloud starts to evaporate and seems to suck the wind out of the neighborhood. In the doldrums, I’ve successfully played “connect the dots”, sailing from cloud to cloud, using the only wind in the area to work my way out of the light spots. Whether you’re being subjected to a building storm or a few brief squall lines you need to understand what you’re dealing with and plan your tactics accordingly. For longer term heavy weather you will need to plan your meals more carefully, make sure batteries are charged well in advance and ensure that the crew is well rested prior to the start of the heavy weather conditions. In extreme circumstances, you may need to clear the deck of any extraneous gear or dodgers, perhaps take down your headsail if it’s on a roller furler, and make sure that storm sails are always readily available and prepared. STORMS AND TRYSAILS If the weather is going to be extreme and seas will build over time, you may want to prepare warps to trail behind the boat. The reduced boat speed will help to maintain a safer boat speed as your boat moves down the face of the waves. Most of those things are more easily accomplished prior to the onset of heavy weather. Plan ahead. The time spent in thorough and early preparation will pay big dividends later. Storm sails play uniquely important roles onboard a boat. Storm trysails serve a BLUE WATER SAILING
number of purposes. Of course, because of their small size and heavy weight, they’re usually used in heavy weather conditions. If your primary means of propulsion are your sails and you’re on a long passage, you’ll certainly want to protect one of your main assets in storm conditions, your mainsail. Trysails are also designed to be flown in the event that you break your boom or lose the top of your mast. Some jury rigging may be required, but the storm trysail at least gives you a few options when situations seem to be their bleakest. When mentoring offshore sailors, often the first exercise we undertake is to set the storm sails in 10 to 15 knots of wind. Frequently the sails, tracks, sheeting angles, obstructions or other potential problems will be unveiled in moderate conditions, and I’d personally rather discover the problems on a sunny day than in the middle of a storm. I’m not sure how many riggers and sailmakers have actually set storm sails in the heat of battle, but I’d venture to guess that the percentage is relatively small. That’s not the issue, however. What may be critically important is that your own storm sails work flawlessly and conveniently when things are least convenient - in a 60 or 70 knot storm or rapidly approaching squall line. Some masts have dedicated storm trysail tracks to be used in lieu of the mainsail track. While the dedicated tracks provide some flexibility, allowing the crew to set up the trysail prior to Spring 2020
dropping the main, there are additional considerations that make setting up the trysail more convenient, as well. Often the trysail is loaded from the bottom of the track. If it’s a dedicated track, that means that whoever is loading the trysail’s cars into the track will have to insert the car for the sail’s head and hold it up with one hand while loading the next car. Then he (or she) will need to hold both cars up while loading the following car, and so forth. That might be simple enough while tied to the dock, but when the boat is healed over, bouncing around in a seaway, and someone is more-than-mildly interested in holding on to the boat, one quickly runs out of hands. It’s usually more convenient to have the track’s gate located a couple of feet above the bottom of the track (or above the flaked main on the boom if using the mainsail track for the trysail). When loading the trysail’s cars into the track, the cars can be slid down, and the sail can be loaded from the bottom up without the need to hold the previously loaded cars. Gates for the tracks should be relatively simple to open and close, requiring few tools and breaking down into the fewest possible number of parts. Juggling tools, sections of track and multiple screws in a storm soon loses its appeal, and if any of those critical pieces are dropped overboard while setting the trysail, the entire exercise can be needlessly complicated or compromised. Trysails are usually cut with a relatively 21
hollow leech so there is less leech flutter as the sail is sheeted on hard as well as to reduce sail area higher aloft. Leech lines can often be improved by running them over the top of the sail, across a bullet block at the head, and down the luff. When it’s necessary to tighten the leech line, the line can usually be reached more conveniently at the tack than at the clew end of the sail. The tack ring should have a car attached directly to it, or an alternate means of holding the sail forward at the foot should be employed. There have been occasions which required that we run a sail tie from the tack, forward around the mast. Failing to hold the tack forward would have resulted in putting too much load on the first car, several feet up from the tack, when the sail was sheeted hard. Sheeting the storm trysail can be a thing of beauty...or not. On several different occasions I’ve tried a couple of different methods. Once, with the boom intact, we used the mainsail’s outhaul run to the clew of the trysail and could continue to use the normal mainsheet. Other times, we have used a more conventional method of running two sheets from the trysail’s clew to blocks on the port and starboard aft quarters’ toe rails. Either system works well, but, given the fact that more boats now have dodgers under the boom, you 22
will want to make sure that the dodger is not interfering with whichever method of sheeting you choose. You will want to sheet the sail down relatively hard, and if the dodger prevents that, the leech may flutter to the point of self-destruction. Of course, in actual hurricane force conditions, you would probably want the dodger completely stowed and out of the way, but in 60 knot winds, a small, sturdy dodger isn’t such a bad thing to have in place. Some time ago, as we confronted our own heavy weather situation in the North Atlantic, we held a brief crew meeting in the cockpit to discuss how we would accomplish the tasks in front of us. The trysail had been bundled securely with sail ties around the luff. Jacklines had been run before we left the dock. Tools were assembled. Each crewmember wore and used his harness, and the sail was tied down immediately as we worked our way to the base of the mast. One by one, the cars were loaded with the sail to leeward of the crew. If a wave came across the deck and flushed the sail into the leeward rail, the sail wasn’t going to force anyone down into the rail or over the side. With the trysail set up, our next task was to put up the storm jib. STORM JIBS If you have a roller furling jib, you will want either an ATN Gale Sail to fit over the roller furled jib or a storm jib that tacks to the base of the inner forestay. Orange is a nice color to brighten up your day. BLUE WATER SAILING
Like the storm trysail, it’s best to check out the storm jib on a nice day, checking sheet lead angles and the tack point. Does the sail trim nicely up and down the length of the luff? Is there a lanyard for the tack? Is the foot far enough off the deck so that waves won’t blow out the foot as they crash across the foredeck on a reach? The leech on storm jibs are also generally hollow to minimize leech flutter in strong winds. Leech lines should be accessible from the deck, and if the sail is set on a lanyard from the tack point, make sure that you can reach the leech line. They are made infinitely easier to adjust when they are equipped with a small block and tackle or other multi-purchase arrangement, tucked safely behind heavy sailcloth and Velcro. After checking out your storm sails during a pleasant afternoon sail in moderate conditions, pack them like you’ll be unpacking them in storm conditions. If the storm jib is to be in a bag, the luff should still be flaked on top of itself and a sail tie securely tied around the luff. The clew should be folded up to the luff, and the sail can be rolled from the middle of the sail, leaving the entire length of the luff and the clew bundled and at the top of the bag. The sail can be hooked up without even taking it out of the bag. In heavy weather when you bring your storm sails on deck, assume that the wind and water are both trying to take them off the boat and always tie them down. Whenever setting any Spring 2020
headsail, the first thing you will always do is attach the tack to keep the sail on the boat. If the tack is not attached, you should be holding the sail. That is especially true for storm jibs. We were able to set our storm sails in short order because everything was organized and the crew was briefed on what we were going to do. Once set, we could confront the oncoming storm with a degree of confidence that we were properly prepared. We could safely maneuver, run off, trail warps, or heave to if necessary. And when the storm had passed, we were happy to realize that the sails were so small that they were unbelievably easy to put away. Try ‘em. You’ll love ‘em! And you’ll be better prepared for when you actually need them. BWS Bill BIewenga, who has more than 400,00 miles under his keel, is a delivery skipper, veteran offshore racer and navigator and is a moderator for the U.S. Sailing Safety at Sea Seminars.
{ PRACTICALPASSAGE }
The dangers
Anchored in Raroia
OF NAVIGATING AND ANCHORING IN ATOLLS
Text and photo: Birgit Hackl and Christian Feldbauer
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ruising all year round in French Polynesia, we witness boats running aground, hear reports of incidents and lost boats on the daily SSB net and listen in on the VHF when JRCC Tahiti organizes rescue operations. You would think that these were rare events, but hardly a month passes without a serious accident and 24
countless minor faux pas. It seems the dangers and risks in and around atolls are increasingly underestimated. Navigating in coral-strewn waters takes some practice and so does assessing weather patterns. Once the hook is set, crews take a deep breath and relax but in an atoll conditions can change quickly and a scenic anchorage can turn into a treacherous trap. BLUE WATER SAILING
This year several boats were lost when but navigating cautiously with a look-out they ran smack into atolls. Of course, in on the bow we often find that in reality the most cases several factors play together charts show only some of the obstacles for such tragedies. But such incidents also and those often in incorrect positions. make you wonder whether the skippers Their feigned level of detail is deceiving did not double-check their charts and the for inexperienced crews. Atoll navigation waypoints they put into their autopilots. means eyeball navigation. Our strategy is All the technical aids and gadgets we usually to explore atolls with a look-out have on modern yachts make cruising on the bow and the sun high up for good seem simple and safe for everybody, but visibility, so we have our GPS tracks to passage-planning still means more than follow if the wind shifts and we have to cross the lagoon to get to the protected just installing an app. The majority of boat accidents in and side later in nasty weather. The weather in the South Pacific isn’t around French Polynesia happen inside lagoons and range from gentle keel-scraping to boats high and dry on reefs. Some skippers try to make shortcuts ignoring clearly marked channels and when their boats get damaged they complain that there were no warnings concerning that treacherous shoal in their guide book. Others overestimate their boats’ capabilities and force their yachts through passes in adverse conditions and end up with damaged rudders. Crews navigate through bommie-strewn waters (coral heads) in bad visibility relying exclusively on the accuracy of their charts. What they do not realize is that many lagoons are basically uncharted apart from passes and the marked channels to villages. Many electronic charts show depths and some of the reefs, Wrecked on Fakarava Spring 2020
25
as reliable as in the Caribbean. The South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) is usually stretched out widely and every one to two weeks a transitory high starts its journey eastward in the subtropics, taking the SPCZ and accompanying troughs and fronts along with it. Before an approaching trough, the tradewinds are usually shifting first northeast then north. While the trough passes, the wind clocks further to the west and then south. The southerly wind arrives typically with a front and strong squalls. Deepened troughs and lows may also have a strong front on their northeastern side where the wind turns 26
north. It is therefore always a good idea to keep an eye on weather forecasts while anchored inside atolls. A pattern we have observed over the last six years is that GRIB files based on the GFS model are very bad at showing those fronts. They usually show light north or northwesterly winds before the onset of strong southeasterlies, so crews underestimate the threat from the north, seek shelter in SE corners too early and get caught in squally weather with high fetch building up across the lagoon from the north. Others ignore weather forecasts completely, convinced that they can ‘sit BLUE WATER SAILING
out’ any weather within the relative protection of a lagoon and get a nasty surprise when the waves build up to impressive heights over just a few miles. Boats that get trapped on lee shores after a shift in the wind direction regularly foul their chain in coral. Having just a short piece of free chain left while pitching madly is a dangerous situation and the results are stressful maneuvers to get the anchor back up, bent bow rollers
and ruined or even ripped out windlasses. Of course, the fragile coral structures get badly damaged with each of these messed up maneuvers. Isn’t an anchorage with colorful coral and fishies much nicer than a dead rubble field? It is easy to avoid damage to the coral and your boat if you anchor in conditions with good visibility. Don’t drop your hook blindly. Anchoring between coral heads requires precision work. The sea bottom is clearly visible only in shallow water (less than 30 feet) where it is possible to precisely place an anchor and chain on a sandy patch. In deeper water the refraction of light makes this impossible (if you can
Floated chain Spring 2020
27
spot the bommies at all). Off motus with sandy beaches or sand banks, fewer coral heads grow on the shallow shelves than in the deeper water, so it’s easier to find a good spot there with only a meter or two under the keel. We take our time exploring an anchorage, trying to find a big, sandy area to drop our hook. If necessary, we then float the chain so that the boat can swing around in shifting winds without getting caught in coral heads. We always keep an eye
on the weather forecast and try to move to a safe anchorage in anticipation of wind shifts. A reliable, firmly set anchor gives the crew the peace of mind to sleep undisturbed through squally nights and to enjoy activities ashore without an urge to constantly check whether the boat is still there. Anchoring around coral means precision work. Searching for the right spot and fiddling with additional equipment may take a little more time but keeping the coral and your own boat from harm is certainly worth that extra effort. BWS Birgit Hackl, Christian Feldbauer and ship’s cat Leeloo have been cruising in and around French Polynesia for the past six years and have explored dozens of atolls. Visit their blog www.pitufa.at for more info.
Shipwrecked on Beveridge Reef
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HOW TO FLOAT YOUR CHAIN Floating the chain is a simple procedure. You just need: 2 medium-sized fenders or (better) pearl-farm buoys 2 carabiners that fit into your chain 1. Drop the anchor in the middle of the biggest sandy spot you can find 2. Pay out chain while reversing gently 3. Estimate your swinging radius and look around at the surrounding coral heads. Hook in the first float before the chain could touch any of them. 4. Pay out some more chain and set the anchor gently pulling in reverse. 5. If the scope is still not sufficient, a second float can be added followed by more chain.
Sailing in Raroia Spring 2020
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{ PRACTICALPASSAGE }
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{ CRUISINGLIFE }
Sailing to Cuba: Surprises and Challenges In April 2019 The passage to and from Cuba can be challenging. So can getting a U.S. permit under the new, stricter rules
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or most of our trip from Key West to Cuba, we were on a sleigh ride, with 15 knots of wind on the aft quarter and a boost from south bound swells. But a few hours from the Cuban coast, the wind let up and the swells became a nuisance, rolling the boat and flogging the sails of our Wauquiez Hood 38. We suffered for a while trying to catch the capricious breeze, then doused the sails and switched to motor just as 32
by Tom Connor
hints of dawn appeared on the eastern horizon. This was about the time we entered Cuban waters and, like many other US boats that make this trip, Carpe Diem’s insurance coverage became null and void. The sky was a brilliant blue and the sunlight, unfiltered by any hint of clouds, revealed details of the shoreline as we approached the coast. Well, actually, there was only one detail that stood out to us. We could not see the shoreline. It was conBLUE WATER SAILING
cealed by a white, shape-shifting curtain that rose from the water, a curtain formed by the large southbound swells stacking up on one another as the sea floor rose abruptly from a depth of more than 1,000 feet to the shore. The once friendly blue swells became huge, short period waves smashing into the rocks and seawalls, exploding into crystalline white geysers and walls of spray reaching high into the sky. I understood the implications of this violent coastline and started thinking through our options. They weren’t good. We could continue to our intended destination, Marina Hemingway, and hope the entrance was wide and deep enough to tame the swells. Or we could enter the wider commercial Port of Havana, where according to every source I’d researched, private yachts are not welcome. Or we could run 70 miles east to the unfamiliar entry port at Varadero, arriving there after dark and without detailed charts. I looked at Don, who I knew was making the same quiet assessment. He is an unflappable air force veteran with decades of sailing experience. By his expression, I could see he had come to the same conclusion as I had…we’re toast! We crossed our fingers and continued the 5 miles to Marina Hemingway. About a mile east of Hemingway, we passed the spot where a 38 foot Catalina, Tumbleweed, had gone on the rocks and had been abandoned a few weeks earlier due to a navigation error. Then, about the time we spotted the buoy marking the entry to Hemingway, our radio crackled to life. “Ahoy yacht approaching Marina Heming-
way, do not attempt to enter. Repeat, do not attempt to enter. Conditions are extreme and unsafe!”. Although the radio connection was not good, Gabriel, the marina dockmaster spoke fluent English and advised us to go to Havana harbor. So, with great trepidation about taking my uninsured boat into restricted space for which we had no charts, we returned to the Moro Light at the harbor entrance. We hailed the port authority. Nothing. Five minutes passed and we hailed again. More silence. Another five minutes and a voice came over the radio calling to the yacht wanting to enter harbor. The speaker spoke basic English, but that was almost irrelevant due to a poor radio connection. We finally understood one thing: he wanted us to move north, away from the harbor and away from the coastline, by two miles. Other than that, we weren’t sure. We think he said to wait there, to stay there, to do something there?? We moved as instructed, then after almost two hours of sitting in silence, we heard a call that Marina Hemingway consists of 4 canals, with side ties along concrete seawalls
{ CRUISINGLIFE }
could have been Carpe Diem, and it may have said to proceed toward Moro Light to intercept a pilot boat. Again, we were unsure, but we headed back to the mouth of the harbor where, to our relief, we spotted a pilot boat sitting mid-channel. The pilot was used to dealing with freighters and cruise ships, and approached us in the same manner, driving along our side, forcing his boat into ours, so that Carpe Diem was moving sideways almost as fast as it was moving forward. I imagined the damage it could be doing to my boat, but in the end, it’s fenders (tires) did a good job. The pilot boarded us and directed us to a spot at the back of the harbor, where we anchored 50 yards off the dock of a military compound, the Stars and Stripes flying off our stern, and our yellow quarantine waving in our shrouds. As he left us, the pilot said not to leave the boat or move it until we were cleared by authorities, who would be visiting us later. No authorities came. The next morning, I made a general announcement on VHF that Carpe Diem was leaving Havana While slipping out of Havana Harbor, Carpe Diem had views not normally available to private yachts
34
Harbor, bound for Hemingway Marina. No response, no patrol boats chasing us, just a spectacular view of Havana waterfront and the massive old Fort of San Carlos. The swells were gone, the shoreline tame and, as we approached Hemingway for the second time, Gabriel radioed a friendly greeting and clear instructions for entering the marina. This time it was a piece of cake. MARINA HEMINGWAY During daylight and moderate seas, it is hard to imagine an easier entrance than the one offered by Marina Hemingway. There is a large sea buoy just under a half mile offshore. As directed by Gabriel, we left the buoy to starboard and maintained a heading of 140 degrees. The straight channel in front of us was defined by a series of markers. According to published information, the channel depth is about 15 feet. Inside the marina, the depth is mostly 12 feet, with a few areas at the back of the marina at 9 or 10 feet. We cleared in at the customs office at the front of the marina. It was an easy process that took about 45 minutes. It involved an interview and boat inspection by several professional, courteous officers. Afterwards, we were shown a large map of the marina and assigned a slip. When we arrived at our slip, there were further official interviews with the dockmaster and representatives of the agricultural and veterinary ministries. These interviews were brief and pleasant, BLUE WATER SAILING
18th century Fort San Carlos guards the entrance to Havana Harbor
but they did end with a request for a tip. Hemingway is not a conventional marina with docks and finger piers. Instead, it is comprised of four large, earthen peninsulas forming 4 canals. The canals are lined by concreted seawalls, with water and electric pedestals positioned along them. So, all the boats are side-tied along the seawalls. All the facilities that we saw were in good condition. The concrete seawalls were a bit scary but with no currents and a tidal range of about one and a half feet we were comfortable securing the boat with three good fenders. The dockmaster’s office and shower facilities, both of which are clean and well laid out, are on peninsula two (aka intercanal B). However, if you or your guests are staying in the Hotel Acuario, it will be found on peninsula 3. This is important, because the peninsulas are more than half a mile long, and if your boat is on the end of one peninsula and you have business on another, you will be in for a long hike or bike ride. HAVANA We took a 1949 Chevy taxi from the marina into the heart of Havana for 25 Cuban dollars (about $29 US). Our return trip was in a current model Renault sedan (the driver, who leased the car from the government, explained that such a car costs $130,000 in Cuba). The city is fascinating and the population is welcoming to tourists. The most interesting thing to me is that so much of the city is historic. I was aware of this before I arrived but was still not prepared for the number of Spring 2020
elegant ancient buildings, small charming streets through the old town, and the cars. Yes, I expected old American cars, but I didn’t expect them to be everywhere, or to be so immaculate and colorful in their outward appearance. There is a great deal of information readily available on activities in Cuba, so I will not go into that in this article. PERMITS FOR SAILING TO CUBA The process for U.S. citizens to obtain permission to sail to Cuba is a moving target. Policies implemented by the Obama administration made the process quite simple. Policy changes announced by the Trump administration in 2017 made approval somewhat more challenging, and caused confusion that scared off some boaters.By the time of Carpe Diem’s voyage (April 2019), many boaters had become comfortable working within the Trump regulations and there was a small but steady number of U.S. flagged yachts showing up in Cuba. Now, beginning June, 2019, new restrictions further curtail U.S. yachts from making the trip. How long this policy remains in effect, or if 35
merce export license for your vessel. This requirement is waived for vessels staying in Cuba less than two weeks. I included a statement with my GC-3300 application stating my vessel would return to the USA within two weeks. This was accepted, but I wondered what would have happened if weather or mechanical problems prevented me from returning on time. And I wonder how it worked out for the owner of the abandoned vessel Tumbleweed, which, with its lead keel and presumably sophisticated electronics, was unintenit will be implemented in a way to allow tionally exported to Cuba. boats to travel under some conditions, remains to be seen. THE RETURN TRIP Approvals to sail a private boat to Cuba Obtaining weather reports and comare obtained through US Coast Guard municating with home can be pretty easy. form CG-3300, which is available on line. Some U.S. carriers offer seamless coverage The key to approval for travel is in section to their cell phone and tablet customers 4 of the form, “purpose of trip”. At the visiting Cuba. Others, like mine, provide time of Carpe Diem’s trip, the “purpose” online assurance of coverage in Cuba, but, was handled by referring to one of the in my case, failed to deliver any service at twelve allowable “purposes” covered by all. However, without cellular coverage, the Treasury Department’s general license you can purchase Wi-Fi access from many for travel and including a description of hotels. Internet access will be important how that general license applies to your to you, as you will want a good weather case. But as of this writing, the Coast report before starting your return trip. AfGuard website says they will only consider ter all, you’ll be crossing the Gulf Stream CG-3300 forms if the “purpose of trip” is again. validated by a special license issued by the Departing Marina Hemingway requires Department of Commerce. checking out at the dockmaster’s office to Assuming there is a way to get a special pay your bill and obtain a departure autholicense, or the restrictions on the general rization form (Certificado De Despacho). license are eventually relaxed, then there The bill will include your slip fees and is one other entry in section 4 of CG- customs fees. Then, on the way out of the 3300 that warrants discussion. This is a marina, you must tie-up at the customs requirement for a Department of Com- office for boat inspection. 36
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We finished the clearance and departed the marina about noon, which we figured would put us back at Key West after sunrise the next day. I had obtained a forecast a day earlier while in Havana. The forecast was for N.E. winds at speeds up to 15 knots, interspersed with spots of calm. There were stronger winds approaching from the West, but these would not arrive until after we reached Key West. We were disappointed about an hour out when the wind died and we had to turn on our motor. But this didn’t last more than 30 minutes, when a steady breeze returned. This time, it didn’t fade, but started building, and kept building for the rest of our trip, varying from E to N.E., blowing straight against the Gulf Stream and keeping us close hauled for most of the trip. At this location, the gulf stream flows to the E.N.E. The prevailing winds, winter and summer, come substantially from the east. So, a bumpy ride is a good possibility. However, we have not heard the same dire Gulf Stream cautions for this trip as are well known for crossing to the Bahamas from Florida’s East Coast. I’m not sure what the difference is. Maybe the Gulf Stream velocity is slower at this location. In our case, we encountered uncomfortable seas that were quite exciting, but we never felt out of control. By the time we exited the Cuban 12 mile territorial limit (and my insurance once again became valid), the wind was blowing a steady15 knots. Before we were at the halfway point, the wind was around 20 knots and going higher. Our Spring 2020
centerboard was down, giving us a draft of more than 10 feet, and Carpe Diem was digging in and flying to windward. With some boost from the Gulf Stream, we were sustaining boat speeds of 8 to 9 knots over ground. It was clear we would be crossing the reef and entering Key West well before sunrise. This was not our plan, but we had no interest in slowing the boat down. Don and I were enjoying the fastest sail of our lives, but we didn’t want to enjoy it any longer than necessary. It was 2 a.m. when we started crossing the reef. The wind had moved to our beam and was gusting to 28 knots. Two miles out from our marina at Stock Island, we dropped our sails and headed in under power. The near full moon was concealed behind thick clouds and the churning sea was black and invisible to us. I crossed my fingers, knowing that there were lobster traps in the area and that one of them could wrap our prop and disable us in a split second. Luck was with us, and we slid into our slip at 3 a.m. BWS Tom Connor is a retired engineer from Oklahoma. Nine years ago, he attended a one-day Offshore Cruising seminar in Oakland, CA. Two months later he volunteered as crew on a 45’ boat sailing from Bermuda to Azores, and two years after that he bought Carpe Diem. She is a vintage centerboard boat that carries him into skinny water gunkholes or across bluewater. Carpe Diem’s home port is Ft. Pierce, FL. 37
{ BLUEWATERADVENTURE }
The Rhythms of My Childhood
AT SEA
A young woman reflects on coming of age during a five-year circumnavigation with her family
by Zoe Buratynski
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rom the age of 10 to 17, my family and I circumnavigated the world, visiting 35 countries and sailing 35,000 nautical miles across three oceans. On a small scale, my life aboard was full of change and on a large scale it had consistency in routine, nature and family. Everyday aboard 38
was different, yet when strung together, a familiar pattern emerged. On a large scale, our lives had predictability: sail at sea, arrive in a new port, settle and adapt to our location, then prepare to leave again. This cycle varied in speed, depending on the distance between ports and the length of our stay. Our lives consisted of predictable change as every day presented new experiences as we lived beyond the constraints of society and built our own schedule. Our flexible schedule perpetuated a lifestyle of feast and famine. At times, it permitted us to put aside boat-work and homeschooling, allowing us to feast on exploration. Arrival in port liberated us from the boat as we explored our new location, whether hiking the ridges of Tahiti’s lush and dramatic mountains or exploring Indonesian night markets. And, like the time we backpacked through India for six weeks, tasting every curry available, riding camels through the Thar desert, hiking through the Himalayas and exploring the ghats of Varanasi. School work was put on the back BLUE WATER SAILING
burner as we embraced every experience. Then we would shift into days and weeks of famine, starved for adventure, as it was when we were preparing to leave New Zealand after living there for six months. There was nothing but non-stop work, upgrading and maintaining our boat and completing assignment after assignment for school. My siblings and I spent every morning for months on end with our noses so deep in school books that we forgot about the world around us. Every afternoon, it was on to boat work, helping our parents with the jobs that needed to be completed prior to departure. We scrubbed, we sanded, we painted. We installed new ports, fixed the emergency tiller and ensured that the windvane was ready for the passage ahead. We immersed ourselves in adventures and experiences, while also learning the value of hard work and grit through this lifestyle of feast and famine. Some days were more balanced, comprised of both exploration and work. The drudgery of boat repairs and provisioning were transformed into adventures. A trip to a mechanic’s shop for repairs became the adventure of locating it deep in the heart of an industrial area. Excursions to local markets exposed us to culture and language. During our sail along the coast of Madagascar we were immersed in a completely different world as we visited a village in search of provisions. As we explored, we saw little girls trailing after their mother with buckets on their Spring 2020
heads as they helped bring water home. In the village, tiny shops made of rickety planks, with little packets hanging from their open shutters and plastic bins filled with dried goods, lined the red dusty road. Beyond, we found women selling fresh produce, which would serve as our only fresh fruits and vegetables for the coming weeks. Laden with provisions, we hauled everything back to the boat to be stowed below decks. Every day presented a new balance between exploration and the work of maintaining our lives aboard. On a large scale, there was consistency;
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an ocean of waves and endless sky above. Ocean passages confined us to the boat and the rhythms of sailing at sea. There was nothing but pure, unadulterated nature that was hypnotically monotonous. The omnipresent shades of blue combined with constant motion caused days to blend together, making one indistinguishable from another. Each passing minute became lost among the waves with as little significance as the one before it. On a small scale, there was inconsistency. The weather conditions were in constant flux and had complete control over our lives. High winds caused waves to rise out of the swell, forcing our boat into a heaving dance. The captive air in our sails 40
heeled us, shifting our lives below decks to ever-changing and uncomfortable angles. Rough waves made sleep an unsettled and interrupted endeavour. All activities, especially cooking, became difficult as the movement hurled loose objects, and us, across the cabin. It made for a constant game of anticipation, as we positioned our bodies to absorb the momentum of our boat. When the winds diminished, the waves melted into endless, mountainous swells. The calm of the ocean brought a hush; the creaking of the boat reduced to a murmur, the roar of the water below the hull diminished to a swish. These conditions led to a resurgence of activity below decks as calmer seas brought BLUE WATER SAILING
about comfort: the ability to sleep more peacefully, and the desire to cook and eat. The atmosphere aboard matched the conditions of the winds and waves as we adapted to what Mother Nature presented. My family was a constant in my life, in contrast to our continually changing social landscape. No matter where we were in the world, they were by my side. The five of us lived in sync in a four-hundred square foot space. Emotions spread like wildfire, sucking everyone into a rat’s nest of frustration or a mass of giggles and joy. We were a unit, each one contributing so we could sail onward. In contrast to land life, where school and work have the tendency to draw families towards individual pursuits, our lifestyle brought us together. We worked as a team and relied on each other. No one person could independently make decisions and act upon them without effecting everyone else aboard. Continual travel and arrival in new places meant that most tasks, experiences and exploration were done together. We were a five-person team sailing around the world. On a small scale, our social interactions were constantly changing. The lack of routine and continual movement from place to place had us constantly meeting new people from all over the globe. Every Spring 2020
anchorage was comprised of a transient community of sailors, with new arrivals and departures daily. Making new friends was as common as saying goodbye. Each city, town and village hosted an array of fresh faces, some of whom became friends before our inevitable departure. The coming and going of people taught us to seek new friendships and be comfortable with saying goodbye, while knowing we could always depend on our family to be there. My childhood at sea was consistently inconsistent. On a large-scale, we had consistency. The pattern of our lives, the role of nature, and our family unit were the structures we relied on. It was the smaller day-to-day aspects of life that were predictably inconsistent. The interplay between this rhythmic irregularity served as the foundation of my childhood at sea. BWS
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The New Hylas 60 Debuted in Miami
by George Day 44
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ur friends at Hylas Yachts have been teasing us and the Hylas family with the drawings and renderings of the new German Frersdesigned Hylas 60 for many months. On paper it looked stunning and represents a new direction for the long-time Hylas builder Queen Long. So, it was with a bit of glee that I got to see the new 60 in the flesh in February at the Miami boat show. Even though it was stern to the floating docks with a display float on one side and another sailboat on the other, you could see right away that the 60 is something different, something that will turn a lot of heads.
With a broad transom, and a dinghy garage inside, sweeping sheer lines and a very low-profile cabin top, the boat is stylishly modern yet instantly a classic. Company president Peggy Huang was there and beaming from ear to ear at the great response the public and the press have expressed on first seeing the 60. American sales director Kevin Wensley volunteered to give me a walk-through of the boat and was able to point out a lot of details that might have been missed on a first pass. The brief for the 60 was to create a luxurious family cruising boat that has very clean lines, uncluttered decks and superior sailing performance. Everything on deck is tidy and hidden away. The roller furling headsail has the drum under 45
the deck. The windlass and chain locker are also under the deck. All halyards and control lines at the mast lead aft through under-deck conduits (each line has its own private tube) to the electric winches at the twin helms. Even the deck cleats are folding models that are stylish and unobtrusive. With a tall fractional rig, the 60 was conceived to be a couple’s boat that can be handled by a lone watchstander. Note the 110-percent jib and the in-mast furling mainsail. All deploying, reefing and furling of working sails can be managed
from the cockpit. The 60’s cockpit is huge and comes in two versions. For a 60 with a large after stateroom under the cockpit, you’ll find a low raised bridgedeck forward of the twin wheels. For a 60 with twin after stateroom, there is no bridgedeck so the cockpit flows on one level from the stern to the companionway. In both designs, all sailing lines and sheets run aft to primary electric winches at each helm. Both cockpit designs have a large drop-leaf table on the centerline and the spaces have been delineated between the active sailing areas aft by the helms and the lounging areas forward. The 60 can be laid out in either threecabin or four cabin accommodation plans as noted. The three-cabin plan had the master stateroom aft under the cockpits as noted. Or, you can opt for the four-cabin version that has two quarter cabins aft and no need for a bridgedeck. In both plans, the cabins forward offer a double berth in the forepeak and a upper and lower bunk arrangement in the smaller cabin just aft and to port. These
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HYLAS 60 SPECIFICATIONS LENGTH OVERALL: 59’2 LENGTH OF WATERLINE: 54’9 BEAM: 17’3” SHOAL DRAFT: 6’6 DEEP DRAFT: 8’10” DISPLACEMENT: 65,256 lbs WATER TANK: 391 gal FUEL TANK: 370 gal SAIL AREA: 1,827 sq. ft ENGINE: VOLVO (D3 150 hp) NAVAL ARCHITECT: Germán Frers INTERIOR DESIGN: Hot Lab
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cabins share a large head. In the three-cabin version, the large after cabin and en-suite head fill the entire aft end of the hull. The berth is huge and there are benches on both sides. The head is huge with its own shower stall. With the large hull windows, this will be a wonderful cabin for living aboard for extended periods. The saloon in both versions have an L-shaped dinette to port with the proper chart table aft of it. Across is a bench settee and the large galley lies in the passageway leading aft to the after cabin. With large hull windows and overhead hatches, the saloon and the sleeping cabins are full of light and have excellent ventilation. The long and large galley is in the passageway that leads aft to the master cabin or the starboard stateroom. It has multiple fridges, large sinks, a large stove and oven Spring 2020
and plenty of storage areas for cutlery, dinnerware, glasses and all the supplies live-aboard cruisers need. In the first Hylas 60, the builders decided to make a real style statement. Instead of the traditional teak bulkhead and joinery, they opted for a very light-colored wood without the bright varnish that you are used to seeing on a Hylas yachts. The look is very modern and the effect in the combination with the natural light, the pale joinery and the light-colored fabrics on the settees is bright, airy and welcoming. We’ll be sailing the new 60 as soon as posible and will come back with a full, indepth report. In the meantime, check out the new 60 on the Hylas website. BWS https://www.hylasyachts.com/sailingyachts/h60/ 49
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Pure Elegance and Performance in the New X-4o by George Day
T
he new X-Yachts pure X4o was recently named the 2020 European Yacht of the Year by an international panel of journalists and judges. That is no small feat in a field crowded with many of the best known and best-selling brands in the world. But the new pure X4o is something very special. By way of background, X-Yachts is a Danish boatbuilder that has been building performance cruising boats and pure performance boats for 40 years, now coming on 41. The boats are premium quality yachts and come to the market priced above the huge production builders in France and Germany. They are more in 50
line with Scandinavian brands like Hallberg-Rally, Sweden Yachts and Najad, but with a performance edge. There are three versions of X- Yachts, the pure X line of standard versions like the 4o, the XC luxury cruising line and the XP performance line. The X line has seven models from the 4o up to the 65-foot (with bowsprit) X65. The Performance line has four true racer cruisers and the Cruising line has three very high end, moderate displacement designs. Despite having 14 models, each boat fits the X-Yacht pedigree. I was in Denmark a few years ago and sailed with the company’s president aboard BLUE WATER SAILING
his new XP44. It was blustery, chilly fall day on the edge of the Kattegat between Denmark and Sweden so we got to see the XP experience in living color. The boat was easy to sail, very close winded and lightning fast for a boat full of handsome furniture. The brand new X4o shares the same pedigree but has not been tricked out as a racing boat or loaded with extra luxury like the XCs. The hull is thoroughly modern with a plumb bow and bowsprit, flat sheer and squared off transom with a large fold-down swim platform. The standard keel is a T-bulb which is pretty racy and very efficient. The rudder is a high-aspect spade with a tapered tip. The hull and deck are cored, infused
Spring 2020
laminates, which are very light, stiff and strong. Since 2018, X-Yachts has been using only epoxy in their laminations so the boats are incredibly strong and absolutely impermeable to water. You’ll never see a blister or even a blemish on a modern X-Yacht. This build-technique means the hull and deck are lighter than normal composite so the boat can be given a heavier keel that in turn improves its stability and sail carrying capability, all of which means more speed and better sailing characteristics. The heart of the boat’s engineering is the galvanized steel grid that runs down the middle of the hull. This incredibly robust structure takes all of the load from the keel beneath it and the compression
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of the big sailing rig and disperses it evenly. As far as I know, X-Yachts is the only builder that uses such a steel structure. The X4o has a tall fractional sloop rig with a large mainsail and small headsails. The standard headsail is an 88-percent self-tacking jib with a track running across the foredeck forward of the mast. Genoa sheet tracks can be mounted on the cabin top that will work well with a 110-percent genoa. With either configuration, the boat will be simple and easy to tack. The idea is that you will fly a large downwind sail from the bowsprit when reaching or sailing down wind and these could include a Code 0 on a furling device and a reacher or asymmetrical spinnaker on a top-down furler. XYachts are designed to be sailed most of the time and to sail fast on all angles. The cockpit is a good size for a 40-footer but not overly large. It has twin wheels so you will always have a good view forward and of the sails. The bench 52
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seats are long enough to lie down on and with the leaves of the table folded up you can get six people seated for out-door meals. A cockpit dodger and a bimini over the helms will make for more protection from the weather. Down below the X4o has either a twocabin or three-cabin layout. In the twocabin layout, there is a double quarter cabin to port and the head to starboard leaving room for a large sail locker under the starboard cockpit seat. In the threecabin layout, there are two quarter cabins with the engine room between them. The master cabin is forward and has a centerline double and plenty of storage for living aboard. The saloon has the L-shaped galley to port with the dinette in front of it and a bench settee across to starboard. In the two-cabin design, there is an aft-facing chart table to starboard, but it did not make the cut in the three-cabin design. Denmark has long been famous for its modern design talents in all things from Lego to high-end furniture. X-Yachts is no exception, in fact it is one of the country’s finest example of design, engineering and technology. The interior finish of the X4o is simple, elegant, warm and very inviting. The standard boat comes with a handsome pale Nordic Oak finish in the veneers of bulkheads, drawers, cabinets and doors. It’s a traditional woody look but also timelessly modern. Teak veneers are an optional extra. The new X4o is the smallest of the pure X line yet it is still an elegant performance Spring 2020
cruiser that will turn heads and always show her rivals her handsome transom as she sails away. For a couple or family that loves high quality, great design and superior sailing performance, the new X40 will fit the bill. All of which is why the boat won the 2020 European Boat of the Year Award. BWS
Read more on the X-Yachts website. https://www.x-yachts.com/en/
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