Single-handed sailor Jeanne Socrates carries and has successfully used a Jordan Series Drogue on her Najad 380, Nereida. Roger Taylor would never go to sea without it

Drogues and sea anchors for use in storm conditions are a controversial subject among long-distance sailors. Skip Novak discusses this issue in Part 8 of his Storm Sailing Techniques series and personally is not in favour of either. However, single-handed sailor Jeanne Socrates is a firm fan of the Jordan Series Drogue, as is solo ocean sailor Roger Taylor. They give their views below:

Jeanne Socrates – safe in breaking waves

The Jordan Series Drogue (JSD) was the storm sailing apparatus that came out best in tests by the US Coast Guard, which would have pleased its inventor Don Jordan – he designed the drogue in order to save lives in storm conditions, especially breaking seas.

It consists of small cloth cones spliced onto a tapered line with a small weight (often a length of anchor chain) at its end.

The maximum design load of the drogue and the number of cones is determined by the displacement of the boat. Precise specifications are online here but, in general, 100-200 5in (13cm) diameter cones are attached to the line, and the line is attached to strong points on the stern quarters by a bridle. This is a better system than winches – on a winch the load is applied above the deck line and it tends to overturn a winch and pull it out.

On my yacht, the Najad 380 Nereida, I attached the bridle to specially designed strong points on the quarters. Attachment points should, in general, be as far outboard and aft as possible and through-bolted, preferably using a strong steel backing plate if the deck is made of glassfibre.

I have a dedicated bag strapped near the base of the stern arch/pushpit, close to the port quarter. The line on my drogue – 207ft of 3/8in tapered Dyneema braid with a 75ft leader – has 124 cones and is flaked with the 10-15lb chain into the bag for immediate deployment. The bridle is attached with big shackles to the strong points at each quarter whenever bad weather is likely. I use cable ties to hold the bridle out of the water.

I find a polypropylene retrieval line useful. It is a bit longer than to the end of the port bridle leg and cleated off before the drogue is deployed. I winch it in first to bring the leader line beyond the bridle to within reach. Some people prefer an arrangement with one leg of the bridle led to a winch from one of the strong points in order to keep the stern at a slight angle not full-on to the seas.

Clearly, the companionway area must be tightly closed against any ingress of water. In April 2011, I lay safely for three and a half days off the Falklands in breaking seas when caught between two low-pressure systems – I actually had two sets come by close together, so waited for the second to finish – and eventually winched in the drogue after conditions eased. It took me a long time because I was solo, but it was not difficult.

Now I have a cleat with horns pointing forward at the stern to act as a fairlead and allow the cones to come in easily without me needing to be there. They then pass around a winch with very little trouble.

Sailors’ views

Writing this, I decided to seek the opinions of other sailors who had used a JSD successfully. Steve sails Silas Crosby, a 36ft steel yacht with twin keels and 4ft draught, double-handed. Having made his JSD from a kit, he has used it three times, twice off Chile in galeforce winds. He says that seas were beginning to break, with the yacht running at five to six knots under bare poles, before he deployed the drogue for six hours and 12 hours respectively.

“I used a retrieval line, making a rolling hitch to transfer it to the main line. The third deployment was in June 2013, 90 miles off Adak (Aleutians) in a far worse gale. We rode to the JSD for three days in winds up to 60 knots with lots of breaking seas. We had seas aboard, but down below was dry and there was little rolling. We never even came close to being knocked down or broaching.

“Once when I was in the cockpit, the boat began to fall down the front of a wave and was arrested quite forcefully by the drogue. It was dramatic and confidence-inspiring.”

The drogue on 38ft Nereida is 207ft long

Single-hander Greg sails Alcidae III, a 40ft steel cutter. He used his drogue seven times in 49 days on passage from Kerguelen to Hobart in 2012, mostly in seas of 8-12m. But in one vicious gale lasting over five days he saw seas up to 14m. He finds it best to deploy the drogue while hove-to and flakes the JSD in the cockpit ready for deploying.

Interestingly, he now dispenses with a bridle and uses a single line off the port quarter, saying the boat “seems to like” seas coming onto the quarter.

He notes that 15 per cent of the cones had become frayed and were replaced after this passage. The aft cockpit was pooped regularly, so he says that it is essential to have a well-dogged down companionway door. “I am of little doubt that I would not have safely arrived in Hobart if I had not had a suitable JSD on board, but would have suffered multiple rollovers.”

On Taonui, a 42ft steel cutter, Tony sails double-handed. His JSD set-up uses 1in braid drogue line that’s 200ft long and has 120 cones, with 20ft of  in chain attached via cleats to the quarters using a sturdy 1in braid bridle with a heavy duty swivel shackle.

He has used this in anger eight times in the past 16 years, when it was no longer safe to lie hove to or ahull. His preference in storms is to run before the wind in winds up to 50 knots, but that is impossible for long when single-handing, if there is a lack of sea room or if he needs to make repairs, etc.

“I wish that we had used the drogue when we were off the coast of Argentina in 1997,” he notes. “We tried heaving to, then lying ahull. Big mistake. We were turned upside-down by a rogue wave and lost the mast and had other damage. If we had been lying to the drogue with our stern to the seas we would have just been pooped.”

‘I would never go to sea without it’

A severe gale and the threat of capsize in high latitudes forced single-hander Roger Taylor to deploy a drogue from his Corribee 21, Mingming

Roger Taylor used the JSD successfully on his Coribee 21

All my ocean sailing is done single-handed in small yachts. This has two implications for heavy weather sailing. First, the boat cannot be helmed manually for long. Second, it will tend to lie beam-on to the seas – a very dangerous attitude.

My Windpilot self-steering gear is fine for holding the boat to windward or running at an oblique angle. But very occasionally the sea states are simply too dangerous to sail in – the risk of capsize is too great. In my last yacht, Mingming, a 21ft junk-rigged Corribee, this happened twice during 20,000 miles of sailing in the high North Atlantic and Greenland and Norwegian seas. Both times I deployed my ultimate yachtsaver, my Jordan Series Drogue.

The first time was during a severe gale off south-west Iceland. For some reason this storm generated some of the steepest waves I have seen. Occasional wave faces looked nearly vertical.

Once the drogue had been deployed it seemed as if all the potential danger had been defused. As the drogue is set from the stern, the boat lay quietly in its natural attitude, absolutely stern on to the waves, with just a few degrees of yaw either way. We moved gently downwind at up to one and a half knots. As each crest passed under the yacht we accelerated gently forward until the drogue applied its force.

Tailored to the displacement of my yacht, the drogue applied its force softly; not too much and not too little. It was an extraordinary sensation. As I lay on the cabin sole I felt the boat surge forward then, with a loud creaking as the braking started, gently slowing. There was a moment of near weightlessness as I was lifted off the sole then placed softly down again. It was like a kind of horizontal bungee jump.

Roger Taylor on Mingming. Photo: Mark Lloyd

I rode to the drogue for 17 hours in total comfort without a hint of a broach or a capsize. Retrieval was not a problem as I lost the drogue through chafe (an error of seamanship on my part). Fortunately, the worst was nearly over by then and a homemade B&Q sandbag sea anchor saw us through the rest, although without the smoothness of the JSD.

The second deployment of my replacement homemade drogue was south-east of Greenland’s southern tip, Cape Farvel. This short-lived storm had already built up a fine old sea and created the highest waves I had seen in the Northern Hemisphere. They were not especially steep, but they were truly monumental and were starting to break.

The ride this time was not as comfortable since the wave trains were bisected by a residual swell. The drogue did its work of defusing the threat, but we rolled heavily as the swells passed under the beam. This was more of a discomfort than a danger.

Manual retrieval of the drogue was hard because I had no winches on board. I have since added a floating line to the end to pull it in backwards.

On Mingming II, a junk-rigged Achilles 24, cockpit space has already been allocated for stowage of the JSD. I would never go to sea without it.

Jeanne Socrates

Single-handed sailor Jeanne Socrates has circumnavigated three times alone. After her last non-stop round the world voyage she was named runner-up in the Yachting Journalists’ Association Yachtsman of the Year Award and won the Cruising Club of America Blue Water Medal. She carries and has successfully used a Jordan Series Drogue on her Najad 380, Nereida.

This is an extract from a feature in Yachting World May 2014 issue

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Cruising guru Jimmy Cornell has put his years of experience into a new boat for world cruising. Matthew Sheahan finds her an extraordinary and exciting go-anywhere cruiser

Years of experience have gone into the design of this world cruiser.

Plot Jimmy Cornell’s cruising tracks on a map of the world and you’ll end up with a picture that looks much like the global route map in the back of the British Airways in-flight magazine.

With so many trails stretching back and forth across every ocean on the globe, Cornell’s lifetime of cruising makes for a cat’s cradle of offshore passages. The message is clear: there are few places that Jimmy Cornell hasn’t been since he first set off with his young family in 1975.

That first trip turned out to be a six-year cruise taking in 70 countries and 68,000 miles and the beginning of an extraordinary career that became the inspiration for thousands of others. His most famous achievement is setting up the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, the ARC. Now approaching its 28th year and run by World Cruising, the transatlantic cruise-in-company has seen a total of 5,091 boats cross the Atlantic from the Canaries to the Caribbean over the years.

20,000 miles of cruising

So with over 200,000 miles under his belt and having owned three bluewater cruisers already, it is hardly surprising that when it came to explaining what he wanted for his next boat, Jimmy Cornell had some firm views. But even by his own globe-trotting standards, he upped the ante when he decided that his new yacht would not only need to be the perfect bluewater cruiser, but also be capable of negotiating the North West Passage.

The Garcia Exploration 45 is the product of this challenging brief. But as we were to discover when we headed to Cherbourg to visit the yard and test the boat, she is much more than simply one man’s dream boat.

Cornell’s books, charts and rallies have created a new ambitious cruising niche to leave the popular routes and venture into more remote territories. And while many of the world’s leading upmarket bluewater cruisers are capable and versatile yachts, there appears to be a growing desire for something even more robust: a go-anywhere boat.

With five boats sold and in build before the first boat was even launched, the Exploration 45 is evidence of a growing appetite for this mix, a modestly sized, multi-purpose sailing off-roader.

Jimmy Cornell plots the route of his next cruising adventure

The concept

“He’s a genius,” declared Cornell, showering the boat’s designer, Olivier Racoupeau, with praise as we stepped aboard. “He listened, he understood and came up with exactly what I wanted.”

The fact is that from the moment you see her it is clear that Aventura IV is indeed something very different from the norm. Angular and muscular in shape and style, she has a natural alloy finish to her hull that says go-anywhere from the outset. Like a Severn class lifeboat compared with a typical flybridge cruiser, there is a ruggedness in both her looks and construction that will bring out the explorer in you faster than you can pack your bags and hide your car keys on the front tyre.

Rugged, no-nonsense looks define a new niche in adventure sailing

From her boxy alloy bowsprit with its large and dedicated anchor stowage and warp fairleads, to the chunky welded-on horn cleats on the bow and tubular grabrails on the coachroof, any one of these items looks capable of lifting the entire boat let alone performing the more specific role for which they were intended.

The deck-stepped mast is surrounded by tall granny bars at its base, another indication of a deck that has been designed and built to be worked safely and securely in lively conditions. When you take a look at her deep and well-protected cockpit all the essential control lines are not just led back aft, but to positions where they can be worked easily. Her twin wheels and comfortable seating positions allow good visibility forward and are further indications of a carefully considered layout.

Excellent shelter

But there are two details in particular that really set the tone. One is the coachroof overhang in the cockpit that provides excellent shelter for those sitting at the forward end. Similar to the style that has been popular aboard Open 60s for many years, this simple, but highly effective configuration dispenses with the need for a flimsy and vulnerable spray dodger yet still provides good protection further aft for the helmsman. The design of this roof is clever in that it neither looks agricultural nor does it hinder your visibility ahead.

The coachroof overhang gives maximum protection

The second, and to my mind one of the clearest indications of the faith you can place in this boat, is the companionway doors. Built as if the crown jewels lay behind, these have to be the toughest doors I’ve ever seen on a yacht. They close with a reassuring thud and as you swing the handle and the bolt locks top and bottom to seal you in.

All you need to worry about now is the severity of the weather that might have forced you below decks in the first place. But the bottom line is simple and clear: when you need to batten down the hatches, this is a tank of a boat.

Under sail

Under way she’s anything but a tank. She may be 14 tonnes, built in aluminium and have twin rudders, but even in light airs she slipped along well and was responsive on the helm. This light touch was particularly impressive, not just because she has two rudders, but because for safety’s sake she has two independent steering systems that are also linked, a feature that often makes for a heavy helm.

Contributing to this balanced feel and good windward ability is the centreboard which, when lowered, draws a healthy 2.80m. When raised, the draught is not only reduced to just 1.05m, but the board retracts completely into the hull/skeg allowing her to dry out with athwartships support from the twin rudders.

Interestingly for a bluewater cruiser, the rudder blades are semi-balanced and only have short skegs, a feature that helps achieve the light feel on the helm. For protection, the blades have a sacrificial element not at the tip where you might expect it, but at the top of the blade – the rationale being that if they hit something, the stock will bend aft and push the upper aft surface against the hull. Here the sacrificial part, which is a lightweight alloy frame around a foam core, will bend or pop out and allow the rudders to continue to articulate.

With her sturdy arch and mainsail stack-pack, she is a serious-looking cruiser

Another interesting detail is the ability to pump fresh water from side to side to act as ballast, which increases her righting moment and improves her performance. Keeping weight out of the ends minimises pitching. Here, the anchor chain well is just forward amidships with the chain led back through a tube under the deck.

Her basic sailplan is a cutter configuration using rope-driven furlers for the genoa and staysails. A tack point for a Code 0 or an asymmetric spinnaker is provided at the outer end of the bowsprit. Again, the Code 0 option has a furler unit, this time a continuous line-driven unit to unfurl and recover the sail.

The mainsail is a slab reefing type that uses a stack pack- type boom bag with lazyjacks. The 4:1 mainsheet system is anchored to the coachroof top to keep it out of the cockpit but unlike many other similar configurations is far enough aft to allow a good mechanical purchase.

Satcom, VHF, solar panel and wind generator vane are all mounted on the cockpit arch

A cockpit arch is mounted abaft the pushpit and provides a solid, dedicated mounting for the wind generator, solar panel and satcom dome. The fact that the arch is raked aft also means that this can be used to help raise, lower and stow the dinghy on the transom.

In addition to providing a walkthrough to the sugar scoop-style transom, this aftermost area includes reels for stowing the aft warps, a locker for the kedge aft anchor, easy to access gas lockers (one for butane and one for propane), a boarding ladder, large grabhandles, plus a bracket on the centreline onto which the dinghy outboard can be mounted to provide engine power in the event of a main engine failure. This bracket would more commonly be used to mount the Sail-Gen power generator.

Below decks

Like many semi-custom boats, it is the layout below decks that will attract the most comment. Cornell’s boat will be no exception. He required eight berths in four cabins so that he could cruise with his family and friends. Admittedly, the forward double is the owner’s cabin and for use at rest, but sailing with six aboard a 45ft bluewater cruiser has meant some compromises, principally reduced stowage volume.

Large raised saloon and galley

Whether you agree with his final layout hardly matters as the semi-custom nature of this boat means that owners can either take the standard proposed configuration or develop their own. What does matter is the broad configuration and the standard of fit-out – I loved both.

The raised saloon layout has been arranged so that the navigation station is right forward and sits on the centreline. From here, thanks to the forward-facing and side windows in the coachroof superstructure, you get a terrific 270° view, something that Cornell was insistent on. With plenty of area for mounting instruments and a decent-sized chart table this is a practical, secure and comfortable place not just to navigate, but to stand your watch if required.

Two pilot bertths amidships

I also liked the longitudinal galley, from the ample worktop space to the drawer-style fridge as well as the assurance that you can move about this area when the boat is heeled. As with all decksaloon and pilothouse configurations there will be those who criticise the variety of different cabin sole levels and liken living aboard to spending weeks climbing stairs.

But the different levels are there for a purpose: to provide excellent visibility where it matters and keep the weight and superstructure down where it doesn’t. And so to her build quality which is the easiest aspect to describe – excellent.

Dimensions

LOA 14.72m/48ft 4in

LWL 12.34m/40ft 6in

Beam (max) 4.43m/14ft 6in

Draught 2.80-1.05m/9ft 2in-3ft 5in

Displacement 14 tonnes/30,864lb

Ballast 4.5t/9,920lb

Sail area 93.2m2/1,003ft2

Engine 75hp

Water 500lt/110gal

Fuel 700lt/154gal

Sail area:disp 16.3

Disp:LWL 207

Price ex VAT €425,000

This is an extract from a feature in Yachting World August 2014 issue

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Solo sailor Henry Bomby uses an iPad for everything from navigation and AIS to weather forecasts and routeing. We asked him to choose his favourite apps

Few new products have changed the way I navigate at sea so much as the tablet computer. In my case that means the iPad, although most of the yacht apps I mention here are also available for Android tablets.

Although iPads should only be used as a back-up or as an aid to a standalone navigation set-up, their high GPS speeds and accurate charting applications make them really useful as chartplotters. Only the 3G iPad has a built-in GPS aerial (lower spec models use wi-fi). This will pinpoint your location regardless of whether or not you have a mobile phone signal.

It just connects via bluetooth so you can mount it anywhere in the boat. I use the GNS 2000 MFI, which costs £89.50. Although it is a bit of a bulky set-up, it has a super-fast GPS speed and is a cheaper option than upgrading to a new iPad 3G.

There are two ways to use an iPad, or other tablet device, on board: as a standalone computer using apps or as a remote display link to another computer (or as both). All yacht apps can be downloaded from the likes of iTunes or Google Play and manufacturers’ websites are provided for more information.

Best iPad apps for navigation

Transas iSailor

This is my favourite navigation app. iSailor has one of the largest chart databases worldwide. Its charts are generated from official vector charts and I have found them to be very reliable. It’s a useful tool when you’re racing as far inshore as you dare off coasts such as Brittany. The charts are continually updated and the updates are free. However, charts per zone are among the most expensive, the UK South Coast charts cost £17.49. Price: app free, average chart price £17.49. www.isailor.us

TimeZero

TimeZero is a part of MaxSea, the renowned routeing software company. An appealing part of this app is that you can opt to use raster charts, which are scanned copies of paper charts, for many areas – a comfortable transition to electronic navigation for anyone used to paper charts. You can also download areas to your iPad, so chart loading while zooming in and out is extremely fast. TimeZero provides a 3D perspective, which is great for entering unfamiliar ports. I use this app more and more. Price: app free, average chart price £34.99. www.maxsea.com/maxsea_timezero_ipad_app

Navionics

The most popular charting app, Navionics has similar tools and functions to TimeZero. I don’t use it because I have the routeing program Adrena for more complex tasks. However, it is a very sound bet and its charts for numerous sailing areas are cheaper than those of iSailor. For example, high-definition charts covering the whole of UK and the Netherlands cost just £39.99. Price: app free, average chart price £34.99. www.navionics.com/en/mobile-pc-app

Best iPad apps for race starts

iRegatta

This is packed with features, including GPS, AIS and an NMEA input for displaying boat instrument data (available as additional in-app purchases). I primarily use this for the start line feature. It calculates line bias and has a metre countdown for distance to the line. Price: iRegatta Basic £6.99. www.zifigo.com

iTacTic

This app has impressive starting features, including time and distance to the line, and it works well as a big and easily viewable COG and SOG display, freeing up your other instruments to display other useful information. Better still, it’s free.

Price: free. www.itactic.it

Best iPad apps for weather forecasting

SailGrib

This app demonstrates the potential of tablet navigation. It is only available on Android for now, but there are plans for a release in the Apple app store soon. It lets you download and view weather models from a variety of sources, including Great Circle, Saildocs and NOAA. You can run routeing information through the app. A growing catalogue of polars helps make the routeing calculations more accurate. GRIB files, polars, routes and routeings are all saved in standard formats and are transferable. Impressive. Price: standard app free, Pro £3.99, WR routeing £20. www.sailgrib.com

Weather4D

The iPad equivalent to SailGrib, though also available as an Android app, Weather4D is less powerful, but is still packed with some great features. It has a good GRIB viewer, including a 3D view of the world, which I really like. As with SailGrib, a subscription allows you to download different weather models such as GFS, CMC and the French WRF model, down to a resolution of 0.04°. Weather4D Pro can run routeing in a similar way to SailGrib. However, the operation for this is more complicated. Good, but not quite the complete package yet. Price: standard £7.49, Pro £23.99. www.weather4d.com/en

Best apps for wind tracking

iRegatta

iRegatta has a great, user-friendly interface to track the wind. You can set the wind angle on each tack and can shoot head-to-wind just before the start by taking a photo directly into the wind. The app then helps to keep track of windshifts and easily illustrates the timings of an oscillating breeze with a neat diagram in the bottom right of the screen.

Price: iRegatta Basic £6.99. www.zifigo.com

Best apps for tides

Tides Planner

This is my favourite app to keep track of tides and currents. You simply scroll through its list of destinations to find the tidal height at different times at 8,000 world locations, including all US, Europe and Australasia stations. Tidal stream data is provided for UK, Ireland, Belgium, Holland and parts of Germany and Denmark. The app also has useful information such as tidal coefficients and the times of sunrise and sunset. It is free, but it’s worth buying its tidal atlases of the UK coast and the Bay of Biscay for only £2.49. You can easily flick through this to get an understanding of what the tide is doing.

Price: free, UK/Bay of Biscay tidal atlas £2.49.

www.tucabo.com/products/tides-planner

My iPad set-up

I use my iPad on deck all the time, so I need a fixed point on deck where it can be left on charge and can be detached easily if I need to move around. I have mounted it near the companionway, on the starboard side using 3M Dual Lock, the very strong Velcro-style fastenting strips.

Secured by this, my iPad is easy to view from the helming position on both sides and is well protected, so I can use it when starting a race as easily as when I head offshore and switch it to charting and navigation, using software to display AIS data and position myself within a fleet. I also have a 12V charging port just inside the companionway, so that the iPad is charging when it is in its dock.

Short-handed offshore racing is all about making life as easy as possible and the iPad is a great tool for supplying all the information I need, and more.

Henry Bomby, 23, is one of Britain’s most promising young offshore solo sailors. As part of the Artemis Offshore Academy Scholarship scheme, he completed a fully funded season in the solo one-design Figaro class. He sailed in this circuit for a further year and is currently competing for his third year on the Figaro circuit. See www.henrybomby.com

This is an extract from an article from Yachting World July 2014

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Crosbie Lorimer takes a looks at Comanche, the 100ft super-maxi yacht that created such a stir at the last Rolex Sydney Hobart Race

“The design office were told specifically by me that if this boat wasn’t the worst rated boat in history they have failed,” Dr Jim Clark said about his new raceboat. Not exactly the sort of remark you might expect, perhaps, but Clark, founder of software company Netscape, is well known for his singular approach to his many sailing ventures.

For Clark, owner of the 295ft three-masted schooner Athena and the replica J Class Hanuman, the goal for his brand new 100ft super-maxi Comanche is first and foremost to break records.

At her first major outing in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, she caused something of a stir, although she was pipped for line honours in the 650-mile offshore classic by the well-sorted and immaculately sailed Wild Oats XI.

Not surprising that Clark should look to his regular skipper Ken Read and the French design team collaboration of Verdier Design/VPLP to create his new master-blaster. Despite a punishing one-year timeline for the build team, project managers Tim Hacket and Brandon Linton worked with boat captain Casey Smith – all three were involved in Read’s previous Volvo campaign – to see the new boat launched on time from the Hodgdon Yard in Maine, given an impressive first run in heavy airs and then put on a ship to Sydney.

First impressions of Comanche under sail inevitably draw comparisons with the current crop of IMOCA 60s and globe-circling multihulls in which the design team excels. With massive beam at the stern, long reverse sheer, the mast well aft of 50 per cent of the boat length, towering narrow mainsail and a long boom overhanging the stern, everything is built for speed when the wind is abaft the beam.

In anything above eight knots of true wind Comanche starts to move out of displacement mode and at 25° of heel she has the same wetted surface as Wild Oats XI – the more remarkable when you consider that you could fit two of Wild Oats’s sterns into Comanche’s.

Helming Comanche requires a different mindset, according to Read: “You sail the boat a bit like a multihull in a way, it’s so wide you rock it up on its ‘leeward hull’.”

With the boat arriving in Sydney in early December, giving precious little time for testing, Ken Read understood the importance of having a mine of experience aboard: “You can’t take a chance, you have to put people on board that have seen the movie before and know how to create a happy ending,” he says.

Sure enough, the Comanche team for Hobart read like a Who’s Who of America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean racing, including Casey Smith, Stan Honey, Kelvin Harrap, Tony Mutter, Kimo Worthington and even a late signing of Jimmy Spithill. Even before Comanche had left Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day there were two very clear signs that the Americans were not simply in town to make up the numbers.

So beamy is Comanche that she was given the nickname the Aircraft Carrier

The first came a week before when Comanche gave Wild Oats XI an impressive run in the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge, an aptly named fast-paced showcase race around Sydney Harbour that has a habit of publicly showing up any weaknesses in boats and crews.

The second came on race day itself when Comanche left the four other 100-footers flat-footed from the start line as she powered the short 1.7nm to the first turning mark near the harbour entrance, averaging more than 20 knots.

The range of conditions that are characteristic of the Sydney Hobart Race, however, was unlikely to favour Comanche’s no-compromise design and, despite a powerful surge late on the second day, she crossed the finish line in Hobart 49 minutes behind Wild Oats XI.

It is a hallmark of the impression that Comanche made on the Australian sailing scene that as Wild Oats XI vainly chased the American yacht down Sydney Harbour from the start line it was the race-winning skipper Mark Richards himself who was heard on live TV voicing what everyone else was thinking:

“They are smoking! Look at that thing go . . . woooh!”

Specifications

LOA 30.50m/100ft 0in

Beam 7.80m/25ft 6in

Draught 6.50m/21ft 4in

Mast height 46.00m/150ft 0in

Displacement 31,000kg/68,343lb

Mainsail 410m²/4,413ft²

Downwind sail area 1,022m²/11,000ft²

Upwind sail area 350m²/3,767ft²

Largest spinnaker 1,100m²/11,840ft²

IRC Rating 1.958

Designed by Verdier Design/VPLP      

Built by Hodgdon Yachts, Maine, USA and Owner’s build team

Mast/boom Southern Spars

Sails North Sails

Hydraulics Cariboni      

Foils Re Fraschini

Winch System Harken with Jon Williams

Rigging   ECsix

STERN Comanche’s beamy stern swiftly earned her the tag The Aircraft Carrier. Her optimum heel angle is anything over 20°, while at 25° she has the same wetted surface as Wild Oats XI. The fitting of an escape hatch and the liferaft stowage in her stern are a direct result of lessons learned from the capsize of Rambler in the 2011 Rolex Fastnet

MAST As with the IMOCA 60s, the mast is positioned well back in the boat; sited directly above the canting keel, the mast is deck-stepped on a triangulated mast post integrated into the same frame as the keelbox. Static loads on the mast base are in the order of 75 tonnes, increasing to 150 tonnes under sail

DEFLECTORS The 150ft (46m) four- spreader rig features two running backstays and three deflectors, precluding the need for checkstays for mast bend control, and also reducing windage and weight aloft. Mast height was limited to be able to pass under Sydney Harbour Bridge

COCKPIT AND WINCHES Sail handling is by grinder-powered Harken winches with customised drive shafts, grinder pedestals and gearboxes to cater for the substantial torque. The winch pedestals are placed inboard to permit stacking of up to four sails in the cockpit

WHEEL POSITION The steering pedestals can be moved to a position at the forward end of the cockpit (ringed), just behind a detachable hard dodger over the companionways, affording the helmsmen and crew maximum protection if required for long passages

DEFLECTOR RAMS The three deflectors controlling mast bend are trimmed by three hydraulic rams that work interactively. Although cheat sheets have been developed for basic settings, the crew is still exploring setting refinements for these

CANTING KEEL The canting keel is controlled by a 350kg titanium ram built by Cariboni. The keel can be swung 35° either side of centre and moved through the full arc in about 25 seconds. A secondary slave cylinder can be used to swing the keel if the primary ram fails

WATER BALLAST Manifolds, pipes and valves controlling water ballast are located behind the navstation bulkhead. Water ballast comprises 6.5 tonnes per side in three tanks on each flank. All pipework is built in carbon fibre

COMPASS The cheapest fitting on the boat is a card compass that would look more at home on a Laser. Though the helmsmen and trimmers use the digital read-outs, the rules require a card compass to be fitted, so the team went looking for the simplest and lightest

NAVIGATION STATION is located immediately behind the companionway bulkhead, also being the point from which all the boat’s electrics are controlled. The carbon fibre chart table can be tacked and the bench seat is long enough to allow the navigator to sleep or rest here if required

TACKING HEADS There are two concessions to ‘luxury’ aboard Comanche, one being a carbon fibre tray for six coffee cups and the other a carbon heads that can be tacked! No privacy for the latter, of course

This is an extract from a feature in Yachting World March 2015 issue

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So far there has not been a planing keelboat class to touch the Uffa Fox Flying 15. Could the VX One be the one? Matthew Sheahan is impressed

I’ll come straight out with it: there are some boats that hit the spot from the outset and for me the VX One is on that list. In fact, I’ll go further. This two- or three-crew 19ft performance keelboat was my favourite boat of 2014. It is, quite simply, superb.

Bridging the gap between dinghies and keelboats has always been tricky. What’s good for those used to hiking with their well-trained quads, honed stomach muscles and backsides that only feel right if they keep slapping the tops of the waves is not what will appeal to those more used to hiking facing outwards. For this group, draping their bodies over a 4mm wire like washing on a line, occasionally lifting their sea boots over the waves, is the norm. So the switch from keelboats to dinghies has always proved troublesome and conversely the performance downgrade for dinghy sailors has often been equally unappealing.

Yet back in 1947 Uffa Fox figured out how to tempt both camps when he designed the world’s first planing keelboat, the Flying 15.

Blending dinghy performance with keelboat stability, the Flying 15 established a new concept and continues to be the datum in this field, with over 4,000 boats built and a world championship fleet that can still draw up to 100 at a time. There has been no other boat of this type that has been anywhere near as successful. And while many have tried to emulate Fox’s success with a more modern boat, no one has yet succeeded on this scale.

Although the VX One looks nothing like the Flying 15, the comparison is a good way of describing what the boat is all about.

With her wide, shallow and open cockpit, complete with toestraps and a smattering of control lines, the VX One is every bit a modern high-performance machine and yet she’s designed with ordinary racing sailors in mind.

“From the outset I wanted the boat to be light and lively,” says designer Brian Bennett. “I wanted a boat that was good in light airs and outstanding in heavy airs. It also had to be bulletproof, current in terms of design, incorporate modern systems and be easy to handle. But in addition to being the perfect raceboat, it needed to be a fun daysailer where you can take your family for a 15-knot blast.”

Sales talk, you may think, but that is precisely what she delivered. Had I looked at her anticipated Portsmouth Yardstick rating – estimated to be 860-885 which is close to that of a twin-trapeze RS800, or even her IRC at 1.012 (the same as a 32ft JPK 1010) – I would perhaps have been more prepared when we lit the blue touch paper.

But, having joined Bennett aboard his boat for the last day of the inaugural national championships held in Torquay last autumn, I found the sub-eight-knot breeze provided little clue to what she’d be like at full throttle. The real fun came a few weeks later when I borrowed another boat from the builder Ovington Boats and sailed her in more lively conditions out of Lymington.

In around 12-16 knots of breeze with gusts to 18 she lit up downwind, hitting 16 knots with ease. With the bow up and half the boat well out of the water, she not only looked the part, but was a doddle to handle at speed.

With wind against tide, the Solent chop was at its notorious best – short, steep waves set across our track like a deeply ploughed potato field. But with our weight back and her bow up, she made light work of the uneven surface, skipping over each crest effortlessly.

Heeled at speed

On the few occasions that we did faceplant into the back of a wave, we did so because I was trying to sail the boat too upright, as you might a high-performance dinghy. The VX One is different and likes to be heeled slightly at speed in waves to get her onto her aggressive chine. Once there, not only is she developing maximum righting moment and hence power from her hull form, but the rocker in the chine helps her stern to squat down and her bow to rise.

Given her downwind sail area of 46m² (495ft²) you might think that she’d be a handful, especially for the crew, and yet the deck layout and control lines have been so well thought-out that she is no more difficult than my own RS400. In some ways she’s easier.

Although both of us were new to the VX One, she was simple to sail at speed straight away

Her spinnaker chute is huge, making for easy hoists and drops using the single recovery line on a two patch arrangement on the kite. The halyard and drop line also deploy and retrieve the carbon bowsprit with ease.

Elsewhere her control line layout throughout is simple and well-executed with control lines that have minimum friction, are led to the right places and are easily accessible. A good example is her self-tacking jib, which includes a simple yet effective barber hauler to change gear in different sea states. Both her jib sheet and barber hauler control lines exit from one swivelling double jammer under the foredeck making them easy to adjust wherever you are.

Upwind she proved stiff and easy to get into the groove and while she likes to be hiked, the shaped side decks make this as easy and comfortable as could be expected.

One detail that does take a little while to get used to is the skiff-style mainsheet system that comes directly off the boom rather than through a cockpit floor-mounted jammer. As any 49er, 29er, or skiff sailor will tell you, there are good reasons why this system works and offers a more efficient way of trimming the mainsail. A floor mounting modification is available, but according to Bennett most crews switch back to boom mounting later.

When handling her ashore, her lifting keel, which is raised using the main halyard, means that she can be launched, recovered and trailed on a combi trailer.

She weighs just 260kg all up – the weight of a Wayfarer with someone sitting in it – making her pretty easy to move around on a decent surface and easy to tow with a normal saloon car. Alternatively, her single-point lift means she can be craned with ease.

Two decades of sportsboat activity has now helped to close the dinghy/keelboat gap and encourage more people to downsize and up-speed, but there is still the issue of the perceived athleticism that is required for anything that has toestraps rather than guardwires. Yet the reality is that you can easily sail this boat without having to hike like an Olympic Gold medallist.

While she was new to the UK and Europe in 2014, the first boat was launched in the USA two years ago and around 100 have already been built to the strict one-design rules.

So for all those facing the wrong way or leaning up against a cold steel rail on the side deck, it really is time to turn around, slip your feet under the toestraps, sheet in and send the VX One downwind. Within minutes you’ll be driving like you’re in the getaway car and grinning from ear to ear.

The simple, uncluttered cockpit of the VX One has been well thought-out. For example, water is shipped through chute drains straight out of the transom. The boom-mounted mainsheet takes a little getting used to

The self-tacking jib also has a single-line barber hauler, which allows the sheeting angle to be changed easily while under way (seen just under the car)

Simple control line layout: red jib sheet and barber hauler, blue kite hoist and pole deployment, yellow kicker. Having controls here keeps the rest of the boat clear

The upside-down kicker strut (Gnav) keeps the forward area of cockpit clear. Single-spreader carbon mast

A huge spinnaker chute opening makes for easy hoists and drops. The jib has a roller furler

Simple hand adjustments for V1 and D1 shrouds. Lowers are also included to support the mast at Gnav height

Specifications

LOA 5.79m/19ft 0in

Beam 2.20m/7ft 3in

Draught 2.11m/6ft 11in

Displacement 260kg/573lb

Mainsail/jib 19.97m²/215ft²

Spinnaker 26m²/280ft²

Typical crew weight 135 -250kg/297-550lb 2-3 crew

Price £20,408 ex VAT, inc sails, covers and combi road trailer/landing trolley

Designed by: Brian Bennett

Built by: Ovington Boats (UK) Mackay (New Zealand)

This is an extract from a feature in Yachting World March 2015 issue

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Toby Hodges looks at the first smartwatch designed for sailing
Price €399 (£311) for the watch and app and €400 (£312) for the multiplexer

This is the first smartwatch I have seen that is designed for sailing – and it’s as neat to use as it looks, fusing the sailor’s thirst for gadgetry with high-street technology. The Astra Esa watch means you can view your instruments on your wrist – if at a rather dinky size. It uses wi-fi to connect to onboard instruments so the watch can display performance information.

The Astra Esa watch has pre-installed software to allow it to show real-time performance data including TWA, speed and polar target data. It will also function autonomously using its own built-in GPS, including an excellent pre-start screen that includes time to burn. It is possible to use both an existing onboard router or Astra’s own Gamp multiplexer.

This is not to forget, however, that the Esa watch is still essentially a smartphone, offering full Android capabilities. So it includes a SIM card for calls, text and email, as well as a camera, so can be used just like a modern mobile. The fact that it is wrist-mounted may suit those on the move, whether on the foredeck, or up the rig.

The small screen size does make it a bit fiddly to operate for those, like me, who lack dainty digits. But the resolution is crisp enough to make for a quick and novel way to glance at the numbers.

The watch is waterproof and shockproof, is available in three colours – and I’m rather put out that I didn’t get one for Christmas.

See the company’s own video here

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Crosbie Lorimer takes a close look at Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI, a nine-year-old that is still taking line honours around the world

Two themes recurred consistently in interviews with the skippers of the five super-maxis that raced the 2014 Rolex Sydney Hobart: good management and the right people. In both regards the core of the Wild Oats XI team has remained remarkably consistent over the decade since she was launched and the contribution that made to her record-breaking eighth win in 2014 should not be underestimated.

Apart from her crew of highly experienced and professional crew, who have raced aboard her for many years, Wild Oats is notable for the number of tweaks and reconfigurations she has had. A year earlier she had made the news after being nicknamed the Swiss Army Knife, following the addition of multiple foils. This year the mods were fewer, but no less significant. But the fact remains that for a nine-year-old boat to beat the brand new, no-holds-barred, master blaster Comanche was no mean feat.

But no amount of experience and expertise can make good a shortfall in boat speed. So what have been the major modifications necessary to keep Wild Oats XI on the pace?

Refinements have kept Wild Oats up to speed. Photo: Daniel Forster/Rolex

Regular crewmember naval architect Steve Quigley cites five changes that have contributed most to Wild Oats XI’s winning ways over her nine-year lifespan.

The first was the removal of the forward rudder and the installation of the daggerboards, which made the boat more efficient downwind, but just as importantly improved lateral lift and VMG upwind. The daggerboards came with their own issues, however, the most problematic of which was the substantial shift in the centre of lateral resistance (CLR) which didn’t necessarily match the centre of effort (COE) under different sail configurations.

Small variations could be expected, but when changing from a jib to a Code 0 the COE on Wild Oats XI was moving forward by metres, producing lee helm in light airs.

To resolve this issue a forward centreboard was added – the second major modification – supplementing the twin daggerboards and stabilising the balance of the boat in the low wind ranges up to the point where boat speed matches wind speed, where the daggerboards take over again

The third refinement was the addition of a lateral foil (not a DSS, they say). Off the breeze in a seaway and strong winds Wild Oats XI had a tendency to bury the bow. The lateral foil provides lift and reduces that tendency, resulting in a more even downwind speed profile. A longer lateral foil was recently tested and shows further promise.

The fourth refinement was a new mast, 250kg lighter than its predecessor and substantially stiffer, with significant improvements in upwind speeds, especially in lighter airs. The stiffer mast gave the sail trimmers more options.

The final modification was the reshaping of the bow and rebuild of the bowsprit. The whole bow section was refaired to a narrower profile up to two metres abaft the stem and the bowsprit constructed to a more aerodynamic shape – the bobstay stem fitting was also lifted 500mm.

The result had additional benefits beyond streamlining. “The bow team . . . couldn’t believe how dry the boat now was,” says skipper Mark Richards.

As Wild Oats XI berthed in Hobart having achieved a record eight line honours wins in ten years, her owner Bob Oatley vowed to bring his boat back again next year. It is hard to know what further modifications can be effected. When quizzed on the subject after the race, helmsman Stuart Bannatyne smiled wryly, but was giving little away: “We’ve still got a few tricks up our sleeves!”

BOW The refairing of the bow section, remodelling of the bowsprit and lifting of the bobstay attachment to the stem have streamlined the forward end of the boat and made it drier for the bow team. Photographers are the only losers

LATERAL FOIL The lateral foil adds lift downwind, reducing any tendency to bury the bow into waves and thus improving the downwind speed profile. The foil is deployed to the windward side in upwind mode to minimise drag

FOILS From left to right: starboard daggerboard, rudder, keel, forward centreboard, port daggerboard. The aperture for the lateral foil can just be seen on the starboard side of the hull. Note original position of the bobstay

WITH COMANCHE Given that Wild Oats XI’s stern can fit twice into Comanche’s it’s hard to believe that the two boats were so evenly matched. But when Comanche heels at 25° she has the same wetted surface as Wild Oats. The latter’s narrower cross section allows her to gain mileage from VMG running

Specifications

LOA 30.48m/100ft 0in

Beam 5.10m/16ft 9in

Draught 5.91m/19ft 5in

Displacement 32,000kg/70,550lb

Ballast 14,000kg/30,864lb

Sail area: mainsail 382m²/4,112ft²

Jib 228m²/2,454ft²

Genoa 535m²/5,759ft²

Spinnaker 880m²/9,472ft²

IRC Rating 1.974

Designed by Reichel/Pugh

Built by McConaghy, launched December 2005

Hull type carbon/Nomex monohull

This is an extract from a feature in Yachting World March 2015 issue

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The superlight and ultra-powerful Koujoumdjian-designed Rambler 88 is targetting the Rolex Transatlantic Race

This has to be one of the coolest-looking racing yachts ever. The out-and-out racing missile Rambler 88 is the second of two of the world’s fastest monohulls to launch in one season from the north-east coast of the US.

After Dr Jim Clark’s 100-footer Comanche was unveiled at Hodgdon in Maine in autumn 2014, there comes George David’s latest Rambler, an 88-footer designed by Juan Koujoumdjian and built at New England Boatworks, RI. And she has already proved her mettle, taking overall honours at Les Voiles de Saint Barth in the Caribbean in April.

Like Comanche, Rambler 88’s shape is taken to modern excess: low, wide, chined, flat, super-light and ultra-powerful. But the size of the yacht is a little surprising. Big racing boat owners tend to favour either the highly competitive mini-maxi circuit (up to 72ft) or the super-maxi 100-footers (max length). So what is Rambler 88 for: to win on the water, on ratings, or to set records?

“The goal is to win line honours, which we believe will happen in most conditions,” says Philippe Oulhen from Juan Yacht Design.

Rambler 88 at her launch

David’s previous boat was Rambler 100, a 100-footer, also by Kouyoumdjian, which lost her keel and capsized during the 2011 Fastnet Race. Oulhen says: “The 100-footers are designed for record attempts. The big difference there is that you pick the weather, so they are very powerful for specific conditions. But when racing you have to deal with what you get. So this boat is for racing and winning line honours, not records. And while everyone else is heading for max waterline, so we will win on ratings too.”

Rambler 88 features some radical features, including full-length chines and hull-deck chamfers, very long twin daggerboards with tapered top ends and rudders with teeth or ‘tubercles’ on the trailing edge. This latter feature means the rudders should not stall when the boat is sailed at hotter angles.

“We’re targeting the Rolex Transatlantic Race, but the RORC Caribbean 600 and Les Voiles de Saint Barth are right up there,” said owner George David in January.

The first time these two new radical US racers go seriously head to head will probably be the transatlantic race in late June. So this could be the year when monohull records tumble again.

See the launch video here

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New waterproof coatings based on nanotechnology are claimed to be able to protect your mobile devices from water damage. Do they work? Toby Hodges aims to find out

Like it or not, the use of mobile devices in cockpits is commonplace today, yet our prized smartphones and tablets are very vulnerable to water damage. It’s reportedly the number one cause of mobile phone casualties.

Many of us will have said a silent prayer at some stage, hoping that a disassembled phone drying on a radiator will somehow resuscitate itself. A fellow crewmember once killed three consecutive phones by dropping them into the heads.

So what is the best way of protecting mobile devices from the elements? How do you waterproof your mobile? A number of waterproof hydrophobic coatings have hit the market recently, suggesting that nanotechnology could be the answer to protecting and prolonging the life of our electronics.

Nanotechnology is the science dealing with microscopic objects – typically quoted as being between 1,000-50,000x smaller than the width of a human hair, ie invisible. It can be used to treat mobile devices with super-hydrophobic coatings, which effectively make surfaces extremely difficult to get wet (see below).

The tank test

Trying to capture a picture to tweet from the rail or during a boat test is something I do often, with all the associated anxiety, so I was keen to test out these nano-coatings.

Smartphones are the height of electronic chic, designed by some of the best brains in the business, so I have never understood the collective will to house them in a rubber case and, in an instant, ruin their looks. Today a selection of waterproof smartphones are available thanks to specialist treatment companies like P2i, but for the majority, like me, with handsets in existing contracts, a nano-coating might be the answer.

Our tests centred around two new super-hydrophobic DIY application products from Nanostate in the UK and Impervious in the US. We wanted to know if these invisible coatings could potentially replace a bulky waterproof case. Both companies were formed through crowdfunding sites, so there is obviously a public demand to see practical and affordable protection for mobile devices – even if mobile manufacturers would obviously prefer we buy replacements.

What is a super-hydrophobic coating?

Hydrophobic treatment involves the separation of water and nonpolar substances. Hydrophobic surfaces create a high contact angle, causing liquid to form spheres or droplets. So super-hydrophobic surfaces are literally those that are very difficult to wet, as water beads straight off.

“It etches a surface of the phone at such a small scale you don’t see it,” says Justin Seimits, one of the two co-founders of US company Impervious. “This creates a barrier that forms water into spheres, which roll off the surface.”

Nanostate

This UK company has developed a range of military-spec coatings designed to protect sensitive electronic equipment. It produced the first DIY coating designed specifically for mobiles, says founder Steve Ashley.

Flash Flood offers waterproof protection, while Liquid Sapphire provides scratch and water resistance. Simply rub the liquid thoroughly onto all areas of the phone. Once cured, it provides waterproof protection for up to a year and can be re-applied. Both Flash Flood and Liquid Sapphire can be used in tandem.

“Moisture and humidity can be equally damaging to your device,” says Ashley. “Flash Flood breathes, meaning no misting up or cloudy side-effects.”

Price £27.50. www.nanostate.co.uk

Impervious

Impervious works on all smartphones and tablets. Once treated externally, a mobile device becomes resistant to spills and scratches. If treated internally too, the makers claim a mobile device will be waterproof to IPX-7 – submersible to 1m for up to 30 minutes.

We used the exterior-only spray. The full waterproofing product comes with a tool kit to open up an iPhone, but Impervious stresses that this voids the warranty.

Impervious is a semi-permanent treatment that lasts up to three years.

Price from US$29.95 (£19.45) for exterior spray. www.invisiblewaterproofing.com

How we applied the nano coatings

Both Nanostate and Impervious involve a similar process and have excellent application videos on their websites.

First you clean the phone thoroughly, then spray and diligently rub every part of the device with the liquid. Leave to cure (for up to 24 hours) and a smartphone is then water-resistant.

Impervious was the more reassuring product to apply, because it involves spraying on a goodly load, and directly into the ports. Each surface and side of the phone is sprayed and buffed, before waiting five minutes to polish it off.

It makes you think something will have changed by the time you remove the supplied latex gloves and power the phone up 30 minutes later.

With Nanostate’s Flash Flood, however, it’s more just a case of wiping the product on and off thoroughly over the surfaces.

Put to the test

At first I thought I had made a terrible mistake subjecting my two iPhones (work and personal) to the water-resistant coating challenge. Following application, both temporarily had issues during calls, whereby the receiver couldn’t hear my voice. My guess is that the coatings were still curing the next day and playing tricks with the proximity sensors. They are now fine.

Both the Nanostate and Impervious products have proved very effective – I have poured water over both phones numerous times and they continue to function.

Watching the water collect and bead off the screen is curiously fascinating. The coatings don’t affect conductivity, so the touchscreen can continue to be used – indeed just the beading of the water was enough to scroll a page.

I also coated an old Android smartphone with Flash Flood, as it was easy to take apart (unlike an iPhone). I treated all areas, including the battery and SIM card, as demonstrated on the Nanostate’s video online. Once treated, the old HTC phone amazingly continued to function during our tank test, sitting in a bowl of water for ten minutes before giving up its last breath.

Did they work?

Verdict: These treatments are ideal for protecting against splashes and spills, and if you want to make your existing smartphone or tablet more resistant to the damp, salty conditions we are exposed to at sea – and enjoy the party-trick of pouring water over a ‘naked’ mobile – we found that DIY coatings like these do work.

If, however, you think your device is likely to take green water or a full submersion at some stage, a case such as the Lifedge case (below), or a guaranteed waterproof phone such as a Cat Phone, gives greater peace of mind.

How to revive a sodden mobile

Turn the phone off, take the battery out and put it somewhere warm – or in a jar of rice. Or you could purchase a water damage repair kit from Reviveaphone. The kit involves placing a water-damaged phone and battery into a pouch containing a solution for seven minutes. The company claims that 24 hours later you will have a working phone again.

Price £14.99. www.reviveaphone.com

The alternatives

1. A professional application

US company Liquipel offers a professional waterproofing treatment for existing electronic devices. These are put through a vacuum and plasma based process.

“We call our technology ‘watersafe’ rather than waterproof,” says Liquipel’s Jamie Knowles, “as we never recommend taking your mobile device underwater. Liquipel excels in humid/rainy environments. With the Liquipel coating, water vapour never comes in direct contact with the internal workings of the device, preventing corrosion and other issues.”

Liquipel also now offers shockproof phone skins from US$29.99 (£19.48). A treatment costs from US$60 (£39). www.liquipel.com

2. Get a case – Lifedge

The Lifedge iPhone 5 case we tested is water, dust and shockproof, with an abrasion-resistant screen. Access to the phone functions are unhindered.

Verdict: Robust, lightweight, waterproof and drop-proof. We found the click fit case a bit tricky to fit, but great once in. The phone can be charged, there’s a big camera button to use and calls are clear. Note the ID fingerprint on the 5s doesn’t work with it. At the expensive end, but gives great peace of mind.

Price £74.99. Case is available with a float accessory for £34.99. www.lifedge.co.uk

Waterproof phones

It is only a matter of time before all phones are waterproof; already three well-known brands offer waterproof models:

• Sony Experia Z3 is waterproof to 1.5m, which means you can take snorkelling pics on the 20.7 megapixel camera.
• HTC Desire Eye is the ultimate waterproof selfie phone with a 13 megapixel front-facing camera.
• Samsung Galaxy S5 uses rubber gaskets within its slimline structure to help promote waterproofing.

Two other mobile phones particularly suitable for the marine environment are:

Cat Phones S50

Cat Phones is a relatively new name in smartphones, but as part of the Caterpillar group, it is one with an unsurprisingly rugged approach. This S50 is the Bear Grylls of phones, a fully waterproof, 4G, high- end smartphone that is military-grade and looks and feels like it.

Its 4.7in screen is made from shatter-resistant Gorilla glass, so no paltry screen skins needed. The Android operating system is user-friendly, but the chassis is a little too chunky to be practical for everyday use.

Verdict: Not the most elegant design, but this sturdy rubber and aluminium unit is undeniably rugged. Good battery life. If you need your phone to take a real beating, or make calls while snorkelling, this is the one.

Price €479 (£354). www.catphones.com

Memory-Map’s Android GPS TX3

This is a phone-cum-handheld GPS. It is the UK’s first waterproof smartphone that comes pre-loaded with mapping – either land-based Ordnance Survey maps or UKHO Admiralty charts. The TX3 accepts both PAYG and monthly SIM cards from any network and has 3G, wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity. A 4in TX4 version is due out soon.

Price £329 pre-loaded with over 800 charts covering the UK and Ireland. www.memory-map.co.uk

This is an extract from a feature in Yachting World April 2015

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The vision behind the design of this arresting new sloop, the owner of the yard and the first boat to be built is former Hanse Yachts owner Michael Schmid

Big names may draw the crowds to the red carpets, but they don’t always guarantee success. The fact that Italian style icon Brenta Design is behind this new carbon cruiser, plus a certain world-renowned architect – Sir David Chipperfield’s first foray into boat design – will certainly help cultivate interest in this arresting new sloop.

Lorenzo Argento, designer and now director of Brenta Design, has produced a very clever concept for this 80-footer: a triple-level deck that creates a sunken centre cockpit. And while there are only a few images to go on so far, Chipperfield’s interior looks understated, yet practical and sympathetic to the exterior lines.

However, it is the third name behind this new Brenta 80DC that will perhaps be the most intriguing. The vision behind the design, the owner of the yard and the first boat to be built is former Hanse Yachts owner Michael Schmidt. After four decades in the yacht production business, Schmidt sold Hanse Yachts in 2011 and went cruising for two years aboard his Hanse 630.

The stepped deck creates a deep, long centre cockpit

Wanting to upsize, he could not find a yacht to match his wishes, which included modern looks with classic features, a yacht with simple systems that is easy to sail fast and to maintain. So he formed a new luxury custom yacht building company, Michael Schmidt Yachtbau, based in his hometown of Greifswald where Hanse also remains.

High-end luxury

“There is so much infrastructure here and we know all the suppliers,” says the typically laid-back Schmidt. He stresses that the difference between his new venture and his production boatbuilding days is that he wants to do only a small number of high-end luxury products and to keep them simple.

The first will be this contemporary 80-footer, no 1 of which is being built for Schmidt himself and will launch in the early summer. It is a fast cruiser designed for bluewater, yet will be fun to sail with minimal crew. Designer Argento explained how the requirement for an extra-large master cabin led him to produce this novel take on the age-old centre-cockpit design.

Note how low the coachroof is to the foredeck, but the step creates height further aft

Argento sketched a simple three-deck concept when they met up at Monaco Yacht Show in 2013. “Michael wanted 600mm bulwarks, so we worked at the idea of having a flush foredeck while keeping bulwarks aft,” Argento explained, pointing out that Brenta and Wally have used bulwarks to great effect for 25 years. The result is that the deck tiers up from a protected aft terrace to a foredeck with just 100mm of bulwark.

This creates innovative aesthetics with a coachroof that sinks into the deck aft, so the superstructure appears ultra low-profile, barely noticeable from water level. “The low-profile deckhouse rests behind the bulwark like a cottage behind a hedgerow,” is how Argento quaintly puts it.

Chipperfield interior

Argento’s concept was enough to attract one of his notable past clients to the project. Sir David Chipperfield is a keen sailor and Brenta 42 owner, who appreciated the potential. “I adapted the interior to a comfortable interpretation of the exterior that interacts with the architecture of the yacht,” he said. The furniture features rounded corners and padded surfaces that are practical at sea. He deliberately left the framework exposed, “avoiding domestic stereotypes,” he explained.

Chipperfield’s interior features rounded shapes and padded surfaces

Future clients will be able to specify a custom interior or the Chipperfield design. The furniture is being built in carbon sandwich. Carbon was specified throughout because Schmidt wanted to keep weight down. “It’s nice to have a boat that can accelerate fast and do 13-15 knot speeds – cruising is easier, deck fittings are all lighter.” Performance is key to Schmidt, an ex-Admiral’s Cup sailor and still a talented Dragon competitor.

Hulls are produced at Rega in Poland, a yard with a name for specialising in composite hull production – clients include Vismara, Comet and Mylius (see page 68). They are then fitted out at Schmidt’s new facility in Greifswald. When pushed on pricing, Schmidt says the Brenta 80 will work out significantly less than a Swan and only a little more than a CNB 76 when taking into account full specifications. Potentially around the €4m (£3.1m) mark then.

The prime benefit of a centre-cockpit design is the aft cabin space

Three versions of the Brenta 80 are offered: a centre-cockpit like this first model, an aft cockpit or a deck saloon. Also in design is a 100ft version and a day powerboat of around 42ft.

Is Michael Schmidt moving into Wally territory? “For us this is a hobby,” says Schmidt. “We are doing it because we love boats and the nicest thing is to create boats and see how they work out . . . and it’s a nice way to finish off my career, to do a luxurious product that I can put passion and heart into.”

Price circa £3m. www.msyachtbau.com

Dimensions

LOA 23.99m/78ft 9in

LWL 21.75m/71ft 4in

Beam 6.00m/19ft 8in

Draught fixed keel 3.50m/11ft 6in

Displacement 30,900kg/68,122lb

This is an extract from a feature in Yachting World March 2015

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Elaine Bunting reports from the ice-bound coast of Finland, where Nautor’s Swan build their famous range of luxurious Swan yachts, including the latest Swan 115

At Nautor’s Swan’s yard, new yachts are not launched during the winter. Lying at 63°N, just short of the Arctic Circle, Jakobstad (Pietarsaari) in Finland is hemmed in by ice until the spring. Not until the upper reaches of the Gulf of Bothnia thaw out will any Swans fly south.

It is still very snowy in February, temperatures are well below zero, and beside an expanse of frozen sea, the yard where the Swan yachts are built looks as if it lies a long way from the water. On first impression it seems a strange place to build yachts, but the town has been a centre of shipbuilding for over 500 years, and for the last 49 of them Nautor’s Swan has been producing one of the world’s most distinctive, admired and expensive yacht brands.

The owner’s cabin on the Swan 105 opens onto a private deck

In 2015, Nautor’s range is one of the broadest of any yacht builder. It stretches from the Swan 53 to the newest model, the Swan 115, the first one of which will be launched this spring. The new design crosses the threshold into super-yacht territory and involves a new realm of complexity. Already this €15 million model is an unexpected success as two more are in build and another on order.

The first design, a Swan 36 from 1968

However, Nautor’s Swan needs and cherishes its range and is, it is hinted, looking at the possibility of a smaller Swan. German Frers, who has drawn all the Swan designs since 1988, has made no secret of the fact that his wishlist includes a modern version of the venerable Swan 36.

High-quality yachts

Swan’s success has always rested on fast, good-to-sail yachts of high quality built with modern techniques. The story began in 1966 with a Sparkman & Stephens-designed 36-footer commissioned by local boatbuilder Pekka Koskenkylä. The first yacht, Tarantella, was one of the earliest glassfibre yachts. In a moment of inspiration Koskenkylä picked on the name Swan for its association with strength and elegance, and because the word was equally well understood in Scandinavian languages, German and English.

S&S Swans 48 and 44 from the Seventies

Swans truly fledged in 1973, when Nautor launched the 65 ketch, a yacht so large for the time that you could argue it counted as a superyacht. The Swan 65 was modern and fast. She could be sailed anywhere – and did so famously. The Swan 65 Sayula II was bought by Mexican businessman Ramón Carlin to take part in the first Whitbread Round the World Race, and he won. In those early days crews played Russian Roulette among the icebergs in the deep Southern Ocean and legs were weeks long. But it was not as uncomfortable then as now; Sayula was fully fitted out with proper berths, a saloon, galley and even had a full-time cook.

One of the reasons for the continuous appeal of Swans is that the method of build has evolved exclusively in-house. Nautor’s Swan is unusual in undertaking almost all elements of a build itself, including laminating the hulls and even making the veneers for the joiner work, giving it control over quality.

The post The story of Swan yachts in Finland: will there be cygnets appeared first on Yachting World.

A sleek, modern fast cruiser from Italy, with hulls built in Poland. Toby hodges reports

Mylius produces the pin-ups of the production yacht world. Since its acquisition by packaging company Group Twinpack three years ago, the Italian brand has been quietly turning out a range of super-sleek and modern fast cruisers from 50-76ft.

Like the Brenta 80, the carbon hulls are built at the Rega yard in Poland, before being fitted out in Mylius’s new yard in Podenzano, Italy. So although they look as if they might cost the Moon, Mylius yachts are actually comparatively economical – for those in the market for a carbon bullet with an interior that looks as if it’s been designed at NASA.

The Mylius 76 is once more drawn by Alberto Simeone, the designer who helped found Mylius over a decade ago. It is sleek, powerful and sexy, with straight ends and a rig that reaches for the sky. Think outrageous sail area, including a 500m² gennaker, and it’s no surprise that the polars for this lightweight dart show her hitting the early teens in 20 knots offwind.

The deck saloon version allows a slight graceful rise in superstructure over an otherwise billiard table flat deck. This deck saloon version is the first in build, but Mylius is building two flush deck models this year, also offered in a three or four-cabin layout.

The fact that Mylius can produce carbon cruisers for a lot less than big yards such as Swan goes some way to explaining its current popularity.

Price ex VAT €2,650,000 (£2,068,930). www.mylius.it

Specifications

LOA 23.25m/76ft 3in

LWL 21.00m/68ft 11in

Beam 5.84m/19ft 2in

Draught 4.15m /13ft 7in

Displacement 30,000kg/66,138lb

This is an extract from a feature in Yachting World March 2015 issue

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Elaine Bunting takes a look at the Discovery 58, which looks every inch the competent world-girdler

This is the British yard’s newest thoroughbred cruiser, a development of the Discovery 57 with a more modern coachroof profile. The Discovery 58 looks every inch as competent a world-girdler and her new owner thinks so too. He and his wife previously owned a Discovery 55 that they cruised to New Zealand and have remained enthusiastically loyal, saying that this is “a boat that looks after you”.

If you already know the Discovery range, you’ll be aware that these Ron Holland designs are moderate-displacement and with a manageable-sized, cutter-rigged sailplan, with self-tacking jib and 140 per cent genoa. They are designed to be handled without too much excitement by a couple. The interior by Ken Freivokh is comfortable, bright and airy, with a raised saloon seating area and navigator’s station.

A great deal of care has gone into making the boat easy and safe to move around in at sea, and there are some very fine details, such as the curved companionway that took more than 200 hours to make. It is designed to, and would, make a very comfortable home from home.

The deck saloon

What impresses just as much about the Discovery is how deeply the company understands what it means for an owner to manage and run their own boat. The engine room has excellent access, and it’s easy to get at the watermaker and fuel separation filters. The passageway galley will be safe and secure on both tacks. There are watertight bulkheads, good stowage forward, a monumental stemhead fitting and chain stopper that could hold a frigate.

Small, but important details abound: the gas locker is right beside the midships ladder, so it’s easy to lift the bottle onto a pontoon – or, more likely round the world, straight into the dinghy.

The Discovery doesn’t set the pulse racing, but would you enjoy living on board for the long haul? I’d say.

Price ex VAT £1,260,000, but including a very high spec. www.discoveryyachts.com

Watch out for a full test in Yachting World in the August issue

This is an extract from a feature in Yachting World April 2015

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This unusual-looking French 35-footer is a high-performance yacht that works well fully crewed and short-handed, says Matthew Sheahan

Today, success in the racing keelboat market relies on far more than delivering an exciting-looking boat that goes like a runaway train off the breeze. To win the wallets of owners a new boat has to satisfy three key conditions: first, it must rate well under a popular rating system such as IRC; second, it should have the potential to be a one-design class, ideally with an international following; and third, it should be capable of being raced competitively by both a full crew and short-handed.

Tick all three boxes and as a builder you will have provided three good reasons for potential owners to put your boat at the top of their list. Blathering on about how a boat is as much at home family cruising as it is racing round the cans is no longer a compelling argument. Instead, a boat that is suited to short-handed sailing will often find favour with those who go family sailing anyway.

The JPK 1080’s tall, high aspect ratio rig has provision for fractional kites to make short-handed sailing easier in strong winds

In this respect, niche French builders such as Pogo Structures, Archambault and others in the Brittany boatbuilding region are hitting the bullseye on a regular basis and adding regatta success to their winning list as quickly as there are new customers.

Among builders leading the charge is Brest-based JPK. Its first major success was winning its class in the 2007 Rolex Fastnet Race with the JPK 960. But it was its performance in the 2013 Fastnet that launched the company into the spotlight when one of its JPK 1010s, Night & Day, sailed double-handed by Pascal Loison and his son Alexis, hit the headlines.

Double-handed success

The pair not only won the two-handed class and beat an identical fully crewed boat, but bested the entire 340-boat Fastnet fleet to take overall victory.

The design was no one-trick pony either; various JPK 1010s had already delivered some impressive results round the cans, demonstrating the boat’s versatility. This provided a good starting point for the company to work on a slightly bigger boat.

Designed by Jacques Valer, the first 1080 was launched in February 2014 and quickly made an impression, not least for her looks – her angular stepped-in coachroof gave her the look of the cab windows on a steam locomotive when viewed from head on. But this detail, along with others, is more than just styling; it has practical benefits.

The coachroof ‘bubble’ module provides protection for the companionway area as well as facilitating a good view of the rig and sail plan from below

“Stepping the coachroof inboard allowed more space for the transverse genoa tracks while also providing good visibility forward from below,” says company founder Jean Pierre Kelbert. “This is especially useful when you’re sailing short-handed.”

On deck the recess also provides a good means of bracing yourself when working on the foredeck, and an area forward and to leeward for the full crew to huddle in when the breeze goes light.

The yacht has twin rudders, but a single tiller, which provides more space in the cockpit than twin tillers. A single rudder can be fitted for inshore racing

Originally a professional windsurfer with European titles in 1988 and 1999 to his name, Kelbert started his business building quality sailboards before moving into keelboats. An enthusiastic and successful short-handed and solo sailor himself – he has regularly participated in short-handed events such as the Transquadra, a transatlantic race for over 40s in which Kelbert won the single-handed class in 2008 – Kelbert was inspired to create a practical and easily worked cockpit layout based on many thousands of miles offshore.

Easy reach

Apart from the large, movable foot chocks – why don’t more builders do this? – key control lines such as the coarse and fine-tune mainsheets, the traveller and backstay controls are all placed close to hand for the helmsman. In addition, the mainsheet can be led onto a primary winch on the windward side if required, making it easy to trim the main while helming in any amount of breeze. Other controls can also be reached with ease from the helm.

The foredeck looks straightforward, but the decent-sized toerails and the coachroof position and proportions make the JPK 1080’s deck easy and secure to work

Yet the clever part is that this has been achieved without compromising the layout when the boat is fully crewed. Keeping the mainsail trimmer and mainsheet system abaft the helmsman is one example.

One of the clearest is her single tiller and twin rudders, perfect for short-handed sailing as the rudders provide surefooted control on long offshore legs. The single tiller allows plenty of space in the cockpit while also making it easier to retain full control through manoeuvres. But this boat goes even further as you can switch between twin rudders and a single blade to achieve more nimble performance round the cans if required.

Another example is the option to fit a robust hood over the companionway, which offers greater protection, along with the ability to look up at sail trim from below decks – the ‘bubble’ as JPK refers to it.

Powerful performer, good rating

Under way the JPK 1080 is a powerful yet modest-looking boat. She is light enough to get up into the teens in boat speed in a modest breeze and yet does so without taking a major hammering on her IRC rating.

Rigged here with a symmetrical spinnaker and a conventional pole, although, as you can see, the hull has a moulding for a retractable bowsprit for asymmetrics

She has a powerful hull form that keeps the waterline beam to a minimum. Her forward sections carry a decent amount of volume, and her aft sections are beamy and fair with a flat run aft thanks to her aggressive chines. The net result is a hull that generates plenty of righting moment from form stability, particularly useful for short-handed racing when you don’t have anyone on the rail.

Kelbert also says that her resin infusion construction technique keeps the weight in the structure to a minimum while creating a robust and stiff hull, which allows more of the weight to be placed in the keel bulb.

As for her sail plan, Kelbert and Valer were keen to keep the fractional rig in order to achieve better and easier control over the fore and aft bend while allowing smaller fractional kites to be flown in stronger breezes, particularly when short-handed.

The interior is simple, but attractive and effective

Below decks she’s spacious, simple and open, although not quite as well-finished as her arch competitor the Jeanneau Sun Fast 3600. The 1080 is a touch more basic in her finish, although one benefit is a reminder that this boat has no inner liners, with structural members laminated to the hull.

It is still early days for this design, but her pedigree is something to note, as is her most recent win in the European Yacht of the Year awards where her ability to tick off the three major boxes saw her nudge ahead of some stiff competition.

Specifications

LOA 10.80m/35ft 5in

LWL 9.40m/30ft 10in

Beam 3.65m/12ft 0in

Draught 2.20m/7ft 3in

Displacement 4,750kg/10,471lb

Ballast 2,150kg/4,739lb

Berths 6

Sail area:

Mainsail 40m²/430ft²

Genoa 33m²/355ft²

Asymmetric spi 120m²/1,291ft²

Symmetric spi 105m²/1,130ft²

Price ex works ex tax €132,943 (£99,366)

Designed by Jacques Valer

Built by JPK Composites

www.jpk.fr

This is an extract from a feature in Yachting World April 2015 issue

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Elaine Bunting takes a look at the Grand Soleil LC46, an out-and-out cruiser design by Marco Lostuzzi

Grand Soleil has come up with something really different in its new Grand Soleil LC46. After the company was bought last year by the Italian Sly Yachts group, it has diversified from its background of performance cruisers with this new departure, an out-and-out cruiser design by one of the new owner’s favoured designers, Marco Lostuzzi.

This move is just the start, as four more models will flesh out the range in the next few years, next up being a 58.

You can see right away where Grand Soleil is going with features such as a shallow wraparound windscreen and cockpit arch for the mainsheet traveller and a bimini, as well as a forward sunbathing area and sun shelter.

A self-tacking jib takes care of short-handing, and sheets and halyards are led back through the cockpit coamings to primary winches and rope bins situated right in front of the twin wheels.

Down below a real dose of new Italian styling has been injected. The matt oak interior and floor panels are clean and elegant. The owner’s cabin is forward, with a twin cabin aft, which features clever sliding berths that can pull together to form a double. The boat abounds with clever touches, such as the navigating table that slides up or down to form a bunk base.

This is an ideal Mediterranean yacht, and fuel and water tankage can be added if you want to go further.

Price ex VAT €349,000 (£258,700). www.grandsoleil.net

This is an extract from a feature in Yachting World April 2015

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This Chinese-built sportsboat is a simple, affordable and practical one-design, aimed at the inshore racing market. Matthew Sheahan steps aboard

Just over a year ago a little-known Chinese yard, the Shanghai Fareast Boats Co, made a big impression at the Düsseldorf boat show with a rocket red, all-carbon, downwind master-blaster.

Having moved from its familiar and modest stand of previous years, where it was pressed up against a wall in a corner of the show, the company placed its sportsboat-style Fareast 31R centre stage on a new stand in the middle of the hall.

But while she drew plenty of attention, she didn’t draw orders. One year later, after three had been built, just one was sold. The big red hope hadn’t materialised.

But Shanghai Fareast Boats isn’t a company that gives up easily. Indeed, although you might not have heard of them, many parents who have shelled out for a new Optimist have.

The company was founded in 2002 and shortly afterwards was licensed by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) to build the Optimist. Today it is the biggest builder of the class in the world and, along with the 420 that it also builds, it pumped out 1,500 dinghies in total last year.

Yet despite the company’s ability to build big numbers to small tolerances and its experience of a couple of small keelboat models in its range, the 31R was clearly too ambitious a step. Undeterred and guided by the design team that had drawn the 31R, Simonis/Voogd, along with international sales and marketing consultant Mats Runström, the company made another attempt at producing an exciting, open cockpit one-design racer. But this time it took a different approach.

Whereas the 31R was full of carbon with a €108,000 price tag to match, the only carbon in the 28R is in the keel fin and rudder blade. Elsewhere she’s a straightforward vacuum-infused, glass foam sandwich with a price tag around one-third that of her flashy red sistership.

Yet dropping the price hasn’t meant a commensurate drop in quality – far from it. In fact, she’s really pretty well-built throughout, something that was easy to see in the empty interior. I had a good rummage around the shell-like accommodation, where a tidy bag and some non slip were the only furnishings, and I was impressed. She’s clean, tidy and with no sharp edges – there are plenty of boats on the market at twice the price and half the quality of finish.

Aimed at the inshore market

Intended as a simple, affordable and practical one-design, she is aimed at the inshore racing market and nothing else. Her open cockpit, fractional rig, retractable bowsprit and contemporary dreadnought bow means that she’s every bit the modern sportsboat in a size range that is starting to take off. Yet she’s a much simpler boat all round than some of her competition in the sub-30ft field.

For starters, her deck layout is a modest affair; the jib cars are on pin-stop tracks rather than having lines to haul the cars back and forth. Most of her control lines run over the deck rather than under it and rope tails are stowed away in cockpit rope bags as you’d expect rather than disappearing below deck through individual tidy holes.

The offset companionway is very much in vogue for windward-leeward racing

Her sail plan is more modest too than, say, the grunty Farr 280, and the asymmetric kite is launched from the offset companionway out of a simple kite bag rather than through a chute affair on the foredeck. She’s basic in her spec and conventional in her layout and as such is very easy to get to grips with.

The first thing you notice, though, as you take the helm is how large the rudder is by modern standards. If you’re more used to a rudder blade with the proportions of a bread knife and a finger-light sensitive feel, the rock solid feel of this chunky carbon blade is almost retro. Yet in the context of a boat designed to provide open-cockpit, dinghy-style, one-design fun across a wide range of abilities, that’s no bad thing.

No one likes their rudder to let go with no warning and this one certainly won’t; your arms will come out of their sockets first.

Impressed with her performance

For our trials in the centre of Stockholm, deep in the middle of winter (don’t ask), there was only 8-10 knots of breeze with the odd gust hitting 12 knots scurrying across billiard table flat water. Hardly a punishing test, but I was impressed with this boat’s performance. Even in this light breeze she picked up speed easily and quickly, regularly slipping along downwind at 8-9 knots with occasional bursts over 11 knots.

Like any boat with a large asymmetric kite she needs to be sailed pretty flat to unload the foils in order to let her off the lead. This is a doddle with the huge, powerful rudder. Indeed, fighting it simply puts the handbrake on and wears your arms out so there’s plenty of incentive not to. Upwind she slipped along at around 6.5 knots.

A large masthead kite makes for a powerful downwind sailplan. Photo: Lasse Eklöf

But uphill or down, she seemed to know her way and fell into the groove with ease. Controls were close to hand and everything worked. Furthermore, she’s well-balanced, easy to handle and has plenty of space to accommodate however many of your crew it takes to achieve the proposed crew weight limit of 450kg.

Among the few criticisms that I did have, comfort upwind for the helmsman was disappointing. A combination of narrow side decks and foot braces that were too close made life more uncomfortable than should be the case. Her builders are aware of this and looking into the possibility of moving the foot braces, which would help matters.

But apart from that and in the absence of a good pounding around a breezy racecourse, I can say there really is little else not to like about this boat, which will be a worry for builders such as J Boats and other more expensive machines.

Other advantages include a lifting keel, a slim max beam at 2.70m and a displacement of 1,360kg, which means that she can be towed easily behind a decent-sized car.

But the real clincher given all of the above is that she has a very attractive price tag that starts at US$38,000 ex works China. The company plans to build 150 this year. So far around 40 have been built, with 70 earmarked for countries outside China. So this time the company looks as if it might have struck the right formula.

Looking closer

So while the 28R will provide stiff competition in Europe and the USA for models costing twice that price and more, the overall effect could be a benefit to all racers by helping to build a new class of sub-30ft fast, open-cockpit racers for a broad range of pockets – which can only be a good thing.

A simple, spacious cockpit can cater for five crew easily, but the narrow side decks and position of the foot braces make the cockpit less comfortable for the helmsman

Pit area – this is simple to operate with the minimum of controls: pole in and out, kite and jib halyards, a kicker and a cunningham so no excuse to fumble

The mainsheet system comes standard with a coarse and fine-tune system with conventional traveller control line adjustments close to hand

Her dreadnought bow gives her a modern look. But the clever detail is the simple, centreline-mounted bowsprit

Below decks the alloy retractable bowsprit runs inside an alloy tube. Note the simple, but well-finished structure

No fancy below decks chainplates here, just simple stainless steel brackets for a set of conventional rigging screws

A large powerful rudder in carbon fibre gives heaps of grip long after your arms have come out of their sockets. Note the outboard bracket – there is no inboard engine

Specifications

LOA 8.55m/28ft 0in

Beam 2.75m/9ft 0in

Draught 1.70m/5ft 7in

Displacement 1,360kg/2,997lb

Sail area:

Upwind 44m²/474ft²

Downwind 115m²/1,238ft²

Price US$38,000 (£25,620) ex works, ex tax

Designed by Simonis/Voogd

Built by Shanghai Fareast Boats Co

www.fareastyachts.com

This is an extract from a feature in Yachting World May 2015

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Pip Hare tests three products designed to prevent or ease a crash gybe alongside a traditional rope preventer rigged to lead forward and then back to the cockpit

A shout, the mainsheet whips through the cockpit and the boom crashes onto the other side of the boat – everyone has had a bad gybing experience at some point. Most of us develop the automatic flinch reaction or dive for the helm as we feel the pressure come off the mainsail just before the boom heads in towards the cockpit.

In reality, when we head onto the water either for a daysail or extended cruise we are guarding against those situations, sailing ‘safe’ angles to avoid dead downwind situations and gybe controlling the mainsheet throughout, a planned and practised manoeuvre.

But sailing is a live and organic sport, the wind can suddenly change direction or force as a squall creeps up behind you in the night. A helmsman can get distracted or just get it wrong. Sea states can be difficult. It is under these circumstances that gybing presents a risk even to the most experienced sailor.

There are a number of boom brakes and preventers on the market to help control a gybe and minimise the effects of a crash gybe, but how practical, effective and relevant are they to the average cruising sailor? See our video of the test here

With this in mind I borrowed a Dufour 385 and set out to test the Walder boom brake, the Wichard Gyb’Easy and the Sailfuse and compare them against a conventional gybe preventer set up with a long piece of line.

The day we chose to test these products I had doubts as to how much I would learn as there was very little wind and no chance for them to strain against the force of a fully loaded gybe. However, the benign conditions actually gave me a chance to get to grips with how each of them worked and assess how useful they would be in the everyday routine of a cruising sailor.

Installation and fitting

The first thing I considered was how easy each product was to fit and whether they could be permanently rigged or would have to be fished out of a locker every time they were required. There is often a reality gap between what we know we should do and what we actually do where effort is involved.

The only two items that recommend permanent installation are the Walder boom brake and the Sailfuse, the latter literally being an install-and-forget item.

Straight from the box, the Walder seemed a monstrous piece of kit. However, once the kicker strut was off and the whole thing installed it started to blend in on our 38-footer and if, as on many cruising yachts, your coachroof is already home to a lashed-down dinghy, I think you would not notice the extra space this takes up.

I wouldn’t want to leave the Gyb’Easy permanently installed, although it would be possible to unthread the control rope when not sailing downwind to allow the boom a free range of movement. This would leave the unit dangling unrestrained under the boom and a lazy rope lying on the deck, which I would not be happy about. I think the conventional rope preventer and the Gyb’Easy would be gear that is only rigged when sailing downwind.

Principles and ease of use

Apart from the Sailfuse, all the products I tested were capable of two things depending on conditions: either stopping the boom from moving at all or controlling the speed through the gybe.

From an engineering point of view, the option of a controlled gybe is preferable, particularly on a fractional rig with swept back spreaders, where if the wind loaded the mainsail from behind with the boom pinned out, there would be nothing to support the middle of the mast to hold it forwards and so the mast would be at risk of inversion.

This very much highlights why a conventional rope preventer should never be tied off forward or amidships, but always be led back to the cockpit where it could be released quickly and under control should the boat gybe unexpectedly.

Walder boom brake – 8/10

The Walder boom brake is controlled using tension – leave the control rope slack and it will run friction-free around the boom brake allowing the boom to operate normally at any point of sail. Apply increased tension to slow down movement and wind on tight to lock the boom in place. During the test we found the Walder to be responsive and easy to control.

Upwind or reaching the boom brake will also act as a kicker controlling mainsail leech tension. However, it may be worth remembering that, if wound on hard, the Walder is locking the boom out as well as down. Should the boom dip into the water when reaching it would be doubly important to release and depower the sail.

Installation:

1 Remove the existing kicker strut and hang the Walder boom brake from the kicker fitting.

2. Fasten one end of the control rope to a point forward of the kicker position – we used the shroud base, but a solid toerail or deck padeye would do – on one side of the boat.
3. Pass the rope through one of the guide arms, thread the brake in the correct direction, lead forward to a block, and then back to a winch in the cockpit.

Wichard Gyb’Easy – 6/10

There are two elements to setting up the Wichard Gyb’Easy. The friction that controls the speed at which the boom will swing during a gybe is created by passing the control rope through the unit. There are three possible settings: more turns create more friction. The boom is then held in place outboard by applying tension to the control rope on the lee side.

With just the right amount of friction and the leeward rope tensioned, the Gyb’Easy produces a slow and gentle gybe. However, this is entirely governed by how many turns the control rope takes through the device. With too many turns the boom is pinned out, which can only be corrected by letting the control rope go. Too few turns and the boom will still fly across the cockpit at speed.

When we set the Gyb’Easy up properly it did work well, but over the length of a passage in changing conditions you would need to leave the cockpit to thread or unthread friction to balance changes to sail size or conditions.

The Gyb’Easy comes with a Gyb’Flex control rope and the warning that performance is not guaranteed if a different rope is used. I presume this is down to optimum results requiring a rope of specific diameter/softness, but the rope supplied was not long enough to reach the cockpit winches on both sides of our Dufour 385.

Installation:

1. Fit the Gyb’Easy on a fixed boom bale forward of the kicker. This was not possible on our test so we used Dyneema strops.
2. Fix two blocks at deck level in line with the shroud base.
3. Run the supplied Gyb’Flex rope from the cockpit, forward through one block, over the coachroof to the other and then back to the cockpit.
4. Thread a bight of the control rope through the holes in the Gyb’Easy and over the stump at the top. Increase turns through the unit to increase friction.

Rope preventer – 6/10

A traditional rope preventer will only serve to lock the boom into position. Once rigged it can be trimmed from the cockpit, allowing for any movement of the mainsheet, but in the event of an unexpected gybe a crewmember must immediately be ready to release the preventer to stop the mast loading up.

The closer to the centreline the boom moves, the less effective the preventer will be and if not removed before a gybe the rope will pass overhead through the cockpit catching things and people on the way.

The recommended way to set up a rope preventer is as follows:

1. Attach to the end of the boom; mid-boom or to the kicker is definitely not recommended and could lead to damage.
2. Lead forward to a turning point on the foredeck (a cleat is ideal) and then back down the centre of the boat to be controlled on a winch.
3. Consider which side of the stations to lead the line forward (inboard or outboard) to minimise damage if the line comes under load.

Sailfuse

The Sailfuse has a different purpose from the other products; as the name suggests it is a ‘fuse’, the last resort should it all go horribly wrong and could be used in addition to the other products or as a standalone. It will not stop your boom from gybing.

Each SailFuse is made to be boat-specific; the manufacturer uses the boat’s size, type and sail area to calculate the size of load that would potentially damage the rig and the fuse is created to break just before this load is experienced, absorbing the initial shock and avoiding damage to the rig.

I was not able to test out this theory in anger, but instead had a couple of ‘lightly rigged’ Sailfuses that would break under an easy load so
I could see the system in action.

When put under a shock load the pin connecting the two ends of the fuse broke, allowing the body to extend out to the length of a Dyneema strop contained inside. I understood the theory and it seemed that this product could prevent damage to the traveller system if nothing else.

One consideration anyone using Sailfuse should have is the trim of the mainsheet. The Sailfuse will only work if it does come under load during the gybe. If the mainsheet is so far out most of the mainsail is resting against the shrouds, particularly on a boat with swept-back spreaders, it seems the force of the mainsail refilling may well be taken by the mast before the mainsheet has reached its full extent and the fuse bursts.

To install:

1. Fit the Sailfuse between the bottom mainsheet block and the traveller car.
2. This may take a bit of thought, together with the right shackles. This did not prove simple on our test boat so we had to lash the Sailfuse in place.

What’s the risk to the rig?

Of course, the risk of injury to crew in a crash or Chinese gybe is obvious, as callouts to the Search and Rescue authorities will confirm. But more complex is the risk to the rig.

In my own experience I have damaged a gooseneck and traveller during a badly controlled gybe, but never the rig itself so I spoke to mast engineer Steve Lee to help understand what sort of damage an accidental gybe could inflict.

The answer, of course, is not simple. The most common cause of mast failure is actually down to a failure of the standing rigging caused by damage, overload or fatigue. And of these three fatigue is the greatest factor – hence the fixed lifespan of standing rigging. Overload could be caused by a crash gybe in extreme conditions; however the more likely scenario would be repeated uncontrolled gybes over time leading to fatigue of the standing rigging or components.

Not to be overlooked is the failure of other components such as travellers, goosenecks, kicker attachments and, of course, sails, which can all break when put under enough shock load.

Obviously this is a massive over-simplification of a complex science. There are many design factors that will affect the loads on the rig when performing a gybe: inline or swept-back spreaders, cutter stays, size and type of boat as well as the speed at which you are travelling.

In the kind of boats I am used to racing we gybe at speed to keep the apparent wind as low as possible and so keep the load off the sails, but for those more relaxed times when we do not wish to gybe down the face of a wave surfing at 14 knots the message seems to be plain: a controlled gybe is better for the boat, the rig, the sails and the crew.

Conclusion

For the most part, when we are totally in control, the risks of gybing are mitigated by our own skill as helmsmen and sailors. Many autopilots also have ‘gybe stop’ features. With the mainsheet positioned forward of the companionway and a high boom, the risk of injury in an accidental gybe can be smaller still, but I believe there is value in rigging a gybe preventer in the right circumstances.

I do it myself when on a delivery, particularly when I have novice crew, and on occasion I have used one to great effect when short-handed racing offshore to work my way dead downwind with a lumpy sea and a dying breeze.

The one benefit the Wichard Gyb’Easy and Walder boom brake have over a regular rope preventer is that they can be set to allow a gentle gybe and not just to pin the boom out, which in itself can present a risk.

In particular, I was impressed by the versatility of the Walder boom brake. It was easy to adjust and could lock the boom in position at the turn of a winch.

I can see this would be useful even at anchor when the boom could be stowed locked down off the centreline of the boat, freeing up cockpit space.

Whether you want to invest in a bespoke engineered product or repurpose an old spinnaker sheet, a well-rigged gybe preventer definitely has a place in the cruising inventory if only to allow peace of mind and a well-earned rest during those night-time off-watch hours.

Pip Hare has a background firmly rooted in offshore and ocean sailing. She has lived aboard a boat while cruising the Atlantic and has competed in the Mini Transat single-handed race twice. Pip now works for the RNLI and is also a Yachtmaster Instructor and Examiner. This year she is campaigning an entry in the double-handed class of the Rolex Fastnet Race.

With thanks to Universal Yachting for the loan of its Dufour 385 for this test. www.universalyachting.com

This is an extract from the June issue of Yachting World

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One of the most famous keelboat classes in the world gets a huge makeover in Dubai. Matthew Sheahan went to find out more

Receiving Olympic status is not always the blessing you might expect. The rate at which some of the world’s best sailors and teams refine and develop Olympic class boats and the costs that ensue can be a problem in the longer term. You can end up with highly refined boats that often have short competitive shelf lives, taking them out of the normal league for amateur sailors and damaging the grass roots support for a class.

So gaining Olympic credentials can prove to be a poisoned chalice. Some classes have even been said to have actively discouraged the attention of the Olympic committee for fear of alienating their mainstream constituents.

But not the Dragon. Designed in 1929 by Norwegian Johan Anker, the Dragon was made an Olympic class in 1948 and remained one until 1972, since when the elegant and distinctive keelboat has continued to be popular, offering good competition for a broad spread of abilities.

Represented in more than 26 countries, the worldwide fleet is over 1,500 with a high standard of racing for its annual world and European championships as well as the prestigious Gold Cup, which regularly attracts around 100 entries.

On the technical front the class has also managed to strike a careful balance between being a one-design and having areas open to restricted development.

Back to basic design

Yet despite this there have been few, if any, design studies that have gone back to basics and started afresh in optimising the boat. Until now.

Apart from its impressive track record in composite work in architectural, aviation and rail projects, Dubai-based Premier Composite Technology is best known in the marine world for building grand-prix raceboats such as the Farr 400, the GC32 foiling cats and most recently the Farr 280.

But now, after a two-year study that involved designing seven hulls and building five prototypes, the company has launched its brand new, breathed-on Dragon.

Driven by top Dragon sailors Markus Wieser and Hendrik Witzmann, the project pulled in some serious players, including Andy Claughton from the Wolfson Unit in Southampton, Paolo Manganelli, senior engineer at Gurit, and designer Klaus Roeder. They started with seven different hull and keel sections, which were tested using a velocity prediction program (VPP) from which two designs were then selected.

“Initially we looked at a number of radical options,” explains Witzmann. “From these studies there appeared to be some big gains in some areas, but these also meant having to accept some big compromises. In the end we opted for two designs that were more conservative and looked more likely to be good all-rounders.”

While there is room to alter hull shapes within the class rules, the tolerances are small. One example is the measurement around the hull which allows a maximum tolerance of 0.05 per cent at each of the seven templated measurement stations. This translates to a maximum tolerance of 16mm measured away from the hull at midships and just 8mm in the forward sections. The scope for tweaking the hull shape is clearly small, but nonetheless considered to be worthwhile by PCT.

“By creating a shape that is narrow amidships and fuller in her ends we have produced a hull that has a long waterline length,” says Witzmann.

Improved stiffness

Improved stiffness was also a technical goal, especially longitudinally. “Fore and aft stiffness is particularly important on a Dragon because of the running backstays,” continues Witzmann, “as they can induce a good deal of bending in this plane. Keeping the boat stiff maintains the waterline length and hence her maximum speed.”

Also contributing to increased stiffness, the PCT Dragon has all bulkheads bonded into the hull rather than relying on an inner liner for the internal structure.

Decks are clean and watertight

The hull itself is a solid laminate construction using woven rovings and unidirectional fibres throughout rather than chopped strand mat, of which there is none. The PCT Dragon even avoids the use of gelcoat in order to allow more structural material to be included within the rule limit on panel weight of 12kg/m² and the resin is vacuum-infused to ensure a tight control on this weight. Under the rules no carbon or Kevlar is allowed in the hull or deck.

But while stiffness was important, so too was keeping weight out of the ends, both in the structure and in the amount of water that might find its way inside. Dispensing with a spinnaker chute and launching the kite from a bag in the cockpit 470-style helped to reduce the weight of the chute and its tube, as well as preventing water being shipped through the bow.

The keel came in for some special attention. “Normally the keels are cast iron, but on this boat we used a CNC milling machine,” says Witzmann. “This is the first time this has been done on a Dragon and the process allows us to get close to the maximum keel weight of 1,010kg, as well as achieving a perfectly symmetrical shape.”

Unlike other Dragons where the ballast for the keel is encapsulated in the hull/keel laminate, the PCT Dragon’s keel is fitted from below and coated with a thin layer of glassfibre, which helps to achieve a slightly lower centre of gravity.

Cockpit layout

But it’s not just the structural elements that have come up for review; the layout of the cockpit has also been studied carefully. Among subtle changes, the coachroof and coamings have been altered to allow better control of the horizontal jib car travellers and more comfortable positions for hiking.

A modern Dragon’s cockpit is a string fest and a dream for deck hardware suppliers

The position of the mainsheet traveller drew plenty of attention as the team tried to exploit all the structural benefit they could from this member, as well as making it more efficient from a sail trim point of view. But the area also provided another important detail: support for the helmsman. Toestraps are not allowed in the class so the shape and positioning of the central unit was refined to allow foot support when hiking.

The theory was put into practice for the first time in October 2013 when the first prototype was launched in Dubai. Since then two boats have been shipped to Europe for further testing. This season the company will start to build production versions and engage in the international circuit.

For all the detailed analysis and testing of the previous two years it is here on the circuit in this fiercely competitive fleet that the results will be revealed and the company finds out whether breathing on the Dragon really has made her fly.

New Dragon in build

The longitudinal bulkhead in the after section extends up to the underside of the deck to maximise the stiffness of the boat in this area

Refining the mainsheet traveller control area helps when it comes to foot support for the helmsman. Toestraps are prohibited by the Dragon class rules

All bulkheads and structural members are laminated into the hull rather than use an inner liner

Among subtle changes, the flared coachroof allows for more efficient horizontal jib travellers

She may be elegant above decks, but a snake pit below as many of the control lines run under deck

Milling the keel from an oversized casting achieves precise weight and a perfectly symmetrical section

This is an extract from a feature in the June issue of Yachting World

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It’s a brave owner who opts for a custom cruiser. But this is the second boat Philippe Penichou has created with 72-year-old French builder Guy Fillon. Toby Hodges went aboard

Imagine all of us wanting the same boats! How dull. But how far would you go to have the boat of your dreams? Once you get into 55ft plus territory there are plenty of builders that offer a flexible attitude to specifications, so why go further and have a yacht designed and built bespoke?

In the good old days, of course, all yachts were custom-built to order from wood. But now the choice is generally confined to pre-designed and moulded shapes, the model lines of the production yards. But is it practical, affordable or even feasible to consider a full custom build today?

French sailor Philippe Penichou didn’t know the exact spec of his dream family cruiser, but he knew exactly who he wanted to produce it. Guy Fillon, a boatbuilder in Lorient in France now into his seventies, was once the ‘master of aluminium’, building Whitbread boats such as Gauloises III and Disque d’Or III, and he had already built Penichou’s first yacht.

Fillon first built a 44ft aluminium twin-keeler for Philippe Penichou and his wife, Olivia, which was launched in Etel in November 2003. In both cases the yacht was quite large for the time it was commissioned (44ft in 2001 and 60ft in 2011) and, despite searching around, nowhere could the Penichous find anything that matched their needs and budget.

After eight years of cruising and keeping their 44-footer in Corsica, they sailed her back to Fillon. He was on the dock in Gavres, Lorient, waiting to take their lines, unaware that they had just sold her.

“I said to Guy, who was 72 at the time, ‘It’s a shame you can’t build our next boat,’” said Penichou. “He replied: ‘Why not?’”

When I received a message from Philippe Penichou, inviting me to sail Biphoux, his Portsmouth-based 60-footer, it seemed like the ideal opportunity to find out what he had got for his money, time and effort.

Birth of a custom 60-footer

In the space of 14 years, Penichou had gone from never having sailed to commissioning and managing his second custom yacht.

After looking at various designs and yards over the next couple of months, he and Olivia once again decided that none met their requirements. The decision was taken with Fillon to build Biphoux from scratch. “We have a love/hate relationship with Guy,” said Penichou, “he is like an artist with no consideration to budget!”

This passionate artist is a fifth-generation boatbuilder and Biphoux would likely be his last project. Fillon suggested they speak to Gilles Vaton – he had recently built a boat to one of his designs. Vaton has drawn a wide range of ocean racing designs over 35 years, most notably Adrien, an 85ft maxi that broke the solo non-stop east to west round the world record in 2004.

“Gilles already had a 17.5m design similar to what we were after,” explained Penichou, “and I wanted to keep the budget as low as possible – which is how it began.”

Vaton’s design of Biphoux is certainly bold. The forefoot is so sharp it looks as though it was traced around a set-square. Indeed my first view of Biphoux took me by surprise. Moored alongside a frosted dock in Gosport in February, she looked out of place. She seemed like a powerful performance design, I thought, another lightweight carbon plaything of the Med. It was only on closer inspection that I realised she is actually entirely aluminium.

Philippe Penichou

“Many people ask us if she’s a Wally,” said Penichou as he welcomed me aboard. “A few years ago, aluminium was the only option we knew of for custom boats.” The hull was built in a rented yard near Lorient, “but they were not involved with building the boat – so we had to find all the guys to do it,” Penichou stressed. After eight months, with the hull and keel joined, the project outgrew that facility and they had to move the whole thing to Les Sables d’Olonne.

No average family cruiser

The interior and deck were fitted out by a variety of subcontractors over 16 months. The neat deck details and custom fittings they produced stand out. Step below and you can instantly see the gains of going custom. The impact of the full-beam aft saloon under the cockpit is undeniably the most striking aspect and makes Biphoux feel like an even larger yacht down below.

The couple have created a fabulous saloon beneath the cockpit

“We couldn’t understand why people have such huge master cabins,” explained Penichou. “We just wanted a cabin for us and our three kids.” So the cabins, all forward, are comparatively compact, and the aft heads suffers from being a bit too tight, but the payoff is this capacious living area.

The layout is comparable to a centre cockpit design, but with the saloon aft. Gilles Vaton drafted the accommodation plan and the Penichous designed the rest around their wishes. I instantly warmed to it – the galley and navstation are so large and central and, together with the saloon, form an open-plan central heart to the boat.

The galley has four huge drawer-style fridges

The area below the neat coachroof is comparatively low and it turns out twin engines are sited there. Two compact engines (55hp) allow for a lower sole, provide redundancy should one fail, and assist with manoeuvrability, eliminating the requirement for a bowthruster.

Managing a build

Despite Penichou’s deserved pride as he showed me around, he is candid about the intense project it proved to be. Although the work impressed him, the fitout was a trying time. “[Les Sables] was a nightmare to visit,” said Penichou, who was working as a sales executive for a bank in London at the time.
It could take him eight hours to reach the shipyard. Consider that by the end of the build he was visiting the boat every two weeks and you can imagine the stress of trying to manage such a project.

“Without an independent project manager it was difficult for me to manage both my job and the boat while spending some time with my family too,” Penichou explained. “Thankfully Olivia, who was involved in every decision, stepped in any time I couldn’t. During this 30-month project we went through up and down experiences and without a common passion for sailing it would have been a real challenge for our marriage and family.”

Biphoux was launched in March 2014. Eager finally to have her at their home berth in Haslar Marina, Philippe and Olivia Penichou sailed her back together the following month after a brief commissioning period. It was a sobering shakedown into strong headwinds.

But that summer they finally received their just rewards: a cruise around Norway, Scotland and Ireland, with their three boys, Hugo (14), Paul (12) and Jean (10).

“Thirty months after the first discussion with designer Gilles Vaton, we sailed her to Gosport, our home berth,” said Penichou.

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Philippe Briand and Andrew Winch proved a dream design team for Jeanneau with its 64, but can they repeat the performance? From the initial pictures it looks like they have certainly lavished this Jeanneau 54 with enough innovative details to ensure success.

We tested the new Jeanneau 64 a year ago from Marseille during a mistral. It proved a revelation. Her looks and finish quality give a bonafide feel of luxury throughout. Combine this with her ease of handling – proved by sailing her during two days double-handed in winds gusting over 40 knots – and she proved the standout yacht of her size and class. (Click HERE to read the full report).

And now it seems Jeanneau is set to do it again with this smaller incarnation, the 54. With the help of Philippe Briand and Andrew Winch, Jeanneau’s trusted design team from the 64, the French production marque has created an equally impressive looking cruising yacht that brings with it some innovative concepts – and all for an equally impressive price.

Helms and sailing systems situated right aft and a very lengthy cockpit are two attributes of the Jeanneau 54

There are a number of clever ideas on the deck alone that I think we will see replicated soon by other manufacturers. It looks like a floating beach resort in fact. There is a sunbed incorporated into the foredeck, aft facing ‘armchair’ seats (including drinks holders) at the forward end for the cockpit benches – like first class seating on a 747 –  plus sun lounger seats integrated into the folding bathing platform.

Yet the design has also allowed Jeanneau to incorporate a clever safety feature – a liferaft can stow at the aft end of the cockpit table and be easily deployed without the need for lifting it or opening the transom.

There is no shortage of places to recline in the sun on the new Jeanneau 54

The whole cockpit area is kept neat yet practical, epitomised by retractable davits designed to carry a tender.

Jeanneau has created a very lengthy cockpit for leisure use by leading the sailing systems to the aft helms. Expect such canny solutions below too in an interior offered with a range of layouts from two to six cabins.

The Andrew Winch designed interior on the new Jeanneau 54

I liked the arch on the 64 though – can I have that? And yes, I did double-check the seemingly low starting price of €335,600 ex VAT.

The Jeanneau 54 will premiere at the Cannes boatshow in September. For a full rundown of new launches this autumn, see our September issue from August 13.

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