Table of contents for Issue 13 in TIDE

The world’s largest sloop – a brand-new, 85-metre, single-masted Royal Huisman – is currently navigating gale-force winds reaching 60 knots with silky smooth finesse. Which is incredibly impressive… and will be even more so when the much anticipated “85m New World Sloop” heads out on the open water next year. For, right now, engineers and designers have gathered around computer screens in a Milan studio, to test how their latest creation will behave in extreme weather on the virtual seas. New technology allows Frers Design – part of a four-generation “family tradition” (not simply a business) and one of the most respected leaders in yacht design – to get even bolder with their builds, pressure testing the yachts without putting the crew at risk. With tailor-made simulator software, they measure…

“We are coming in as defending champions and we have a target on our back,” Captain Phillip Neil tells the crew assembled in the woody cockpit of the 78ft Drumfire. It’s a sunny morning, right before the start of the 2024 Sydney Hobart Race. “We’re no longer the hunters, we’re the hunted,” he continues. “So we need to stay vigilant and, no matter what happens out there, let’s just support each other.” Having taken first place the previous year in the division governed by the Performance Handicapping System (PHS), Drumfire is the boat to beat for a non-IRC fleet that runs from a 37-footer to an Oyster 100 via an Imoca 60. After a race that swung from perfect reaching conditions to a gale on the nose, then on to…

“We have just one hour in the air to shoot the award-winning brand-new SWS108 #02. Two cameras, each with a different setup, are strapped to my harness. And I’m securely fastened to the helicopter – safety first. “Sharing the cramped space with the videographer, who’s squeezed in-between my legs. We’re both on the same side of the heli – less chaos for the pilot, more efficiency for us. SY Kiboko 4 begins to sail, and the show kicks off. Over 1,300 shots in just an hour. Hopefully, I’ve got a keeper in there. “As a regular drone pilot, though, I miss the low-angle shots close to the sea – easy to capture with a drone, but rare from a helicopter that tends to stay above mast height. I ask the…

When it comes to updating a yacht, choosing a yard with experience of refitting similar vessels is vital – or, even better, using the one that built it in the first place. One example is the 53.9m (176.1ft) Ravenger, previously Pink Gin VI, which recently completed a 10-month overhaul at Baltic Yachts. Originally built at the Finnish shipyard and delivered in 2017, she was, and remains today, the largest carbon-fibre sloop in the world. Despite these impressive credentials, her new owner was nonetheless looking to make some changes, and he chose to return to Baltic for upgrades to her performance and a new interior. Having worked on her original and rather eclectic interior, Design Unlimited were brought in to reimagine her aesthetics for the new owner, whilst in addition the…

Rather like the recent Roman Empire TikTok trend, when women asked their male partners how often they thought of the ancient civilisation – weekly? Several times a day, really? – how often do you think of the Greek Islands? Its whitewashed villages, painterly ocean blues, sun-warmed beaches. No other islands in the world have swirled in and out of our imagination quite like these Mediterranean archipelagos. Leonard Cohen’s Hydra; the Kefalonia of Captain Corelli; the Skopelos of Mamma Mia; its waters sailed by Jason and the Argonauts, and Onassis’s yacht Christina. The stuff of myth and legend, and secrets too. Alongside the well-known stories and the islands that everyone sets course for, here are some new venue arrivals and a few of its more off-radar destinations to inspire your travels.…

The phrase ‘small is beautiful’ is one that is often relevant in the sailing world. Anyone who learnt to sail in dinghies will vouch for the fact that going out in a small boat can be a wonderful experience. The sensation of skimming over the waves is a special one. Your closeness to the water, the feel of the helm and your relatively precarious position means you feel involved with the elements, at one, in a way that is truly life affirming, exhilarating and, yes, beautiful. Imagine though if you could take all the sensations that a dinghy delivers and place them on the bigger canvas of a full-size yacht. That is what the designers of Kiboko 4, a 108ft-long Southern Wind sloop, were aiming for when they set about…

Long before Milos’ chalk-white cliffs and luminous sea caves became an Instagram sensation, Nausika Georgiadou had quietly built a word-of-mouth following at Skinopi Lodge. Insiders return to her understated hideaway year after year for the less-is-more ethos and serene seaside setting. Modelled after the boxy vernacular of syrmata – the colourful boathouses burrowed into the coastline right below the lodge – the seven villas at Skinopi embody an elemental way of life right at the water’s edge. Here, Georgiadou shares his local intel into where to go and what not to miss on the storied, volcanic, notably beautiful Cyclades island. “After a late lunch at To Kyma or To Telonion on Kimolos port, we time our return to catch the sunset on the way back to Milos. We often see…

The far-eastern islands of Greece lean toward Turkey, so close in places that only a few short tacks separate them. Here, in the Dodecanese Archipelago, the Greek islands take on a different personality entirely – distinct from the widely known Cyclades to the west. Grand peaks rise sharply against the horizon, their barren slopes brushed with a warmer, earthier hue than the familiar blue-and-white palette of the Aegean. Their history is layered and complex. Byzantine kingdoms once thrived here, only to cede control to the Ottomans, then the Italians, the modern Turkish state, and finally, Greece itself. This shifting sovereignty left an indelible mark on the architecture, cuisine and culture. Cut off from mainland Greece and bypassed by the tourist crowds that flood the Cyclades, the Northern Dodecanese remain a…