Table of contents for June 2016 in Practical Boat Owner

with the editor Indulge me for a moment: I’m going to begin this month’s editorial with some expressions of thanks. Regular readers will know that I was absent for the last issue, having been taken into hospital with appendicitis. What should have been a routine operation was complicated somewhat when I developed a rare condition called a negative pressure oedema as the team tried to bring me round from the anaesthetic; a highly hazardous state in which the lungs fill with fluid. So my first ‘thank you’ has to go to the doctors and intensive care team at Yeovil hospital for spotting the problem so quickly and dealing with it before any lasting damage was done. More thanks go to my wife and family, who were tremendously supportive and staved…

It is with enormous sadness that Honor Dubois and the team at Dubois Naval Architects have announced the death of Ed Dubois, aged 63. Following a period of illness last year, Ed had been in better health and working as normal. Unexpectedly, he was admitted into hospital and died a week later on 24 March. From Westerlys to superyachts, the career of designer Ed Dubois was spectacular. Graduating in 1974, Ed worked for Alan Buchanan, naval architects in Jersey, for a year then left to design his first yacht, Borsalino Trois. Following the racing success of this yacht, he went on to design many winners of the major offshore racing trophies around the world. Ed sailed on many of his racing designs through the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. He was…

Flotsam and jetsam Sam Llewellyn is editor of The Marine Quarterly, www.marinequarterly.com, and author of nautical thrillers. Three years ago he bought a Corribee on eBay A long time ago I bought a catboat from a troop of sea scouts on the outskirts of Toronto. They had it upside down and were using it as the roof of a shelter. Large streaks of daylight were visible through the shakes in its planking. But it was dead cheap, and look at that straight stem, and the stubby unstayed mast stepped right forward, and the huge leg-of-mutton sail in half-rotten cotton, and that centreboard, at least a hundredweight of galvanised (all right, rusty) iron... A load of firewood, said the person with me. But it was too late. I bought the thing…

In 1968, the original Golden Globe Race was widely regarded as ‘a voyage for madmen’. But where does that leave the 34 men and one woman who are signed up to recreate the voyage in 2018 with 50-year-old technology? One such madman is Tim Newson, 35. Tim, a cabinetmaker and sailing instructor by trade, sold his London flat and bought a boat, a Baba 35 named Black Sheep, in 2014. He was refitting the boat last year to get her coded so he could run some sailing trips when he heard about the 2018 race. ‘It just clicked,’ he said, and in no time he became one of the first entrants. He’d long been an avid reader of the classic sailing books by Knox-Johnston and Chichester, and remains very excited…

Q We have a Beneteau Oceanis Clipper 411 built in 2002. She has a dedicated engine start battery (1x96Ah) and two domestic batteries (2x140Ah). Last summer the one-year-old engine battery failed us. We discovered that the fridge has been running off the engine battery rather than the domestic bank, bought new in 2010. The question is, should we consider a third small domestic battery or should we rewire/connect the fridge to the domestic bank of two – or think about another solution like a small generator? What might the advantages and implications be in each case? Leigh Merrick Langton Matravers, Dorset PAUL HOLLAND REPLIES: I’d suggest that you move your fridge across to the bank of two domestic batteries. You want to keep your start battery ‘clean’ so that you…

One of the consequences of the two years John Scarlett spent working at Dan Webb and Feesey’s boatyard was his involvement with the owners of old gaff-rigged boats which were being restored from their wartime neglect. John, being an enthusiastic person and natural organiser, was always looking for a new challenge, and once he had completed Essex Melody he threw his energies into bringing together the South Coast gaffers with the East Coast gaffers to form the Old Gaffers Association in 1963. He organised races and became the first secretary of the Old Gaffers Association, a position he held for many years. The OGA continues to be a thriving association with numerous members across the globe, organising rallies and races, and fiercely preserving the heritage of gaff-rigged yachts of all…

SOUTH PACIFIC PRO 710F WINDLASS Compact horizontal windlass, ideal for vessels up to 6m/20ft. Comes with three-year warranty. Boat Gear Direct Tel: 01473 655541 www.boatgeardirect.co.uk BARGAIN PRICE £169.95 ‘OSCAR’ MAN OVERBOARD RECOVERY SYSTEM Supplied in a robust stowage satchel (white or yellow), top-quality rope and sling. Satchel, rope, sling and webbing are all available separately. Jimmy Green Marine Tel: 01297 20744 www.jimmygreen.co.uk RRP £70, OFFER PRICE £56 ROKK MINI MOUNTING SYSTEM Three-part multi-adjustable mounting system for smartphones, tablets, small fishfinders/chart plotters, digital and action cameras. Three component parts sold separately. Tablet not included. Force 4 Chandlery Tel: 0345 130 0710 www.force4.co.uk PRICE £68.85…

Great ideas and tips from PBO readers Email your projects and tips to pbo@timeinc.com or write to us at the address at the top of page 5. We pay at least £30 for each one published Hurricane-force storms during the winter of 2013/14 caused a lot of damage in the west of Ireland. Beaches were washed away, roads and bridges were destroyed and many piers, jetties and floating docks were severely damaged. It was one such floating dock that we needed to repair. One of the big storms had lifted the pontoon in question up and over one of its pilings, flipping it over and twisting and breaking heavy timbers in the process. In order to salvage this section and reunite it with the rest of the dock, it first…

SEND US YOUR STORIES Email news editor Laura Hodgetts at newspbo@timeinc.com, tel: 01202 440825 News and current affairs from the world of boating Tributes have poured in for a 40-year-old British businesswoman who died after being washed overboard during the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. Sarah Young, from London, had been tidying up the cockpit of the 21.3m (70ft) ocean race yacht IchorCoal after reefing the mainsail in 35-40 knots of wind in the Pacific Ocean, when she was knocked down and swept under the guardwire by two successive waves. She was not tethered on at this time and had died by the time her body was recovered an hour and 17 minutes later. Strong winds meant Miss Young was quickly swept away from the yacht, and the man…

A retired soldier is sailing a 21ft Mini Transat round the Baltic to raise money for soldiers’ charities. Richard Keeling is due to set sail in late April/early May, joined by three crew. His chosen charities are Help for Heroes and Sail for Life. Richard said: ‘Sail for Life has an interesting history. Charity organiser Andy is, like me, an old soldier, as was his brother, who tragically took his own life after leaving the army. This hit Andy hard, so he sold all he had to buy a couple of small boats which he uses to take troubled ex-servicemen sailing to take their mind off more negative thoughts. ‘His charity has no fancy offices or websites or PR staff, just Andy doing his bit where he can. I’ll soon…

Email pbo@timeinc.com or write to us at the address on page 5. Photos are appreciated, letters may be edited. SEEKING SUGGESTIONS FOR AN ECONOMICAL BOAT-BUILDING PROJECT Building enthusiasm I have been wondering how the impecunious among us can afford our own boat these days. Many years ago, my father (a clergyman) and I built a little Gremlin in the church hall. I was around 11 years old, and it really was exciting to use the dinghy in the waters around Bangor, Northern Ireland. Gaining enthusiasm and self-belief from our first effort, we went a bit OTT and bought the plans for a Yachting Monthly Eventide, but a boat that size clearly needed a lot of time and space, and we never got started. I still have the plans to this…

Monthly musings Yacht surveyor and designer Andrew Simpson cruises with his wife Chele in his own-design 11.9m (39ft) yacht Shindig. Read his blog at www.offshore-sailor.com It’s in the nature of cruising sailors to take a lot for granted. For example, I don’t expect Shindig’s mast to fall down – although of course I know that under certain circumstances it could. Naturally, I take precautions. The occasional tour of rigging screws for signs of trouble, but nothing too onerous. I simply reassure myself that where the standing rigging is concerned, there’s lots of it and all of it is oversized. Whereas cost savings have pared the rigs on many modern designs to the bone (when did you last see double lower shrouds?), Shindig has lots of string aloft and it does…

SEA SAFETY Will Stephens is Staff Officer Operations (Coastal Safety) at the RNLI BOAT BUYING David Harding is a regular contributor to PBO: his photo archive is at www.sailingscenes.co.uk CRUISING Stuart Carruthers is the RYA Cruising Manager and has sailed extensively SAILS Ian Brown of the International OneSails loft group is an expert on sails MASTS & RIGS Mike Coates worked in the spar and rigging business for many years SURVEY AND CORROSION Colin Brown runs a marine survey and consultancy company, CB Marine Services ELECTRICS Paul Holland is chairman of the BMEA and MD of Energy Solutions (UK) ENGINES Pat Manley is a diesel engine course instructor and marine author GAS FITTINGS Peter Spreadborough, of Southampton Calor Gas Centre, has 20 years in the industry PAINT AND ANTIFOULING Richard…

Q The gooseneck attachment on my Westerly Centaur failed a couple of weeks ago and I've been searching the internet ever since trying to find a replacement or a possible alternative solution. It’s a Proctor boom: I believe they were taken over by Seldén. Any help or guidance would be appreciated. Del Jeffrey By email MIKE COATES REPLIES: I doubt you’ll find a new part as Proctor ceased trading some years ago and the throughmast reefing system was discontinued even before that. You may be lucky and find a rigger (or boatyard) who has replaced a broken mast at some time in the past and might have the remains kicking around as a source of spare parts. As well as the fractured toggle, I can see from the photo that…

Boatswain’s pipe This year, 31 May and 1 June mark 100 years since the Battle of Jutland, the largest sea-based conflict of the First World War: 250 ships engaged in battle on the North Sea, resulting in Britain losing 14 ships and Germany 11, with over 8,500 men losing their lives. To commemorate the sacrifice made by so many sailors, the Royal British Legion have launched several Jutland-themed products, including a British Admiralty boatswain’s pipe. The pipe is made to the original Acme design of 1870 and produced by the same company, J Hudson and Co, carrying the exact markings used in 1916. Originally deployed for giving commands to the crew, the pipe’s high-pitched notes could be heard even in gale conditions. Still used by navies around the world, largely…

The Complete Ocean Skipper Deep-water voyaging, navigation and yacht management For sailors planning or dreaming about long-distance ocean or offshore passages, this guide from the well-respected authority Tom Cunliffe covers all aspects of cruise preparation as well as the voyage itself. From hull choices to recommending glacier ice for whisky (it’s well aerated!), this 271-page book is clear, concise and written in Tom’s inimitable style. ■ Published by Bloomsbury, £30. Yacht Designer’s Sketch Book Hints and Advice for the Amateur and the Professional, by Ian Nicolson workable sketches by yacht designer Ian Nicolson that apply to every part of a boat, accompanied by personal stories from the author. In his introduction Nicolson says: ‘A young lad with nothing more than a handsaw, a hacksaw, a drill, screwdriver, chisel, plane and…

Delphia 31 PRICE: £70,000 Built in Poland and tested in PBO December 2012, she comes with a fin keel or a choice of two types of centreboard, as well as a mast-lowering system. Reasonably well finished and not expensive. www.delphiayachts.com RM 890 PRICE: £79,500 RM’s successor to the 880 (see PBO October 2009) also has a chined hull in epoxy-ply and a choice of fin keel/twin rudders or twin keels/single rudder. Fast, fun, functional – and to be tested here soon. www.rm-yachts.com Beneteau Oceanis 31 PRICE: 76,285 Like the other new Oceanis models, the baby of the range comes with different interior layouts and levels of trim for day-sailing, weekending or cruising. Fin keel, or a centreboard retracting into an external ballast plate. www.beneteau.com…

A. Adding an adjustable chain to the locker door helps to prevent the contents from tumbling out. B. Sloping shelves and deep lockers are secure, while fiddles on the door let you sort things out. C. Deep tipping hoppers can be fitted into awkward spaces around the hull. A vertical lip at the back prevents them opening too far, and a horizontal one helps to hold stuff in on the other tack. C. Drawers can be shaped to fit around pipes, or match the hull sides. Dividing up the insides will hold the contents in place. Quite large ‘lift-up’ stops are needed to stop drawers jumping open in rough seas. D. Slotted dividers work well in lockers and drawers. E. Adjust peg boards for odd-sized things, and pad glasses with…

PBO Project Boat winner Anna Millington has completed her Competent Crew course and is learning to make best use of Hantu Biru. The Snapdragon 23, which was bought as a wreck and fully restored over four years by PBO’s editor and deputy editor, is now based at Town Quay Marina, Southampton. Anna couldn’t believe her luck when she won the free prize draw, after being picked at random from almost 6,000 entries by an independent database company. Electronics engineer Anna started ‘reading a lot of books on how to sail’. Realising she and her partner Andrew Ellison lacked experience, the pair signed up for a five-day RYA Competent Crew practical course with Universal Yachting, on the River Hamble. Anna said: ‘It’s really helped our understanding of how changes in the…

RYA Push the Boat Out will return from 14-22 May, with more than 300 sailing providers already signed up to host events. Now in its fourth year, Push the Boat Out will once again run for nine days, enabling people of all ages to give sailing a go, at numerous locations across the country. Having started as a one-day event to celebrate the start of London 2012, Push the Boat Out grew into a weekend event in 2014 before extending to nine days last year. In 2015, more than 28,000 people tried dinghy and keelboat sailing at almost 350 locations, and also took to the water on RIBs and windsurfers. RYA spokesman Cat Ferguson said: ‘With an exciting year ahead for the sport, including the Olympics and Paralympics, as well…

PBO contributor Alan Watson reports on the Innovation in Maritime Navigation conference, hosted by the Royal Institute of Navigation at Trinity House, London. ‘The conference was well attended by UK and covered the problem of future maritime navigation, with more and bigger ships in more congested waters and with increasing concern about the vulnerability of GPS. A theme that ran through the day on 2 March was that of placing greater reliability upon more complex electronic navigation systems, such that basic navigational skills were being lost. If the electronic system failed due to an onboard problem or loss of GPS, there was no reliable fall-back. ‘The technologists offered solutions including inertial navigators, ranging from MF beacons, radar positioning and position fixing from broadcast transmitters, and then into the future with…

■ Beaulieu Boatjumble, 24 April, 9am-5pm, www.beaulieu.co.uk/events/boatjumble ■ Horning Boat Show, 30 April, 10am until 5pm, exhibiting boats, marine equipment and services within the Norfolk Broads National Park, www.horningboatshow.co.uk ■ West of Scotland Boat Jumble, 1 May, opens 10am, Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine. Admission £4. Accompanied children and car parking free, www.wsbj.co.uk ■ The Transat, race start Plymouth, 2 May, www.thetransat.com ■ London On-Water Yacht & Boat Show, 4-7 May, Old Billingsgate and St Katharine Docks, London. New and used boats will be on display, www.londononwater.com ■ Push The Boat Out, 14-22 May, UK-wide event with sailing clubs and venues offering discounted and free taster sessions, email ptbo@rya.org.uk ■ Jester Azores Challenge, 15 May start off Plymouth Breakwater. Race to Terceira in the Azores, some 1,200 miles out in the…

Mad about the boat Dave Selby is the proud owner of a 5.48m (18ft) Sailfish, which he keeps on a swinging mooring on the picturesque Blackwater estuary in Essex There are two golden rules to boat jumbling. The first is that if you buy anything at a boat jumble you’ve paid too much. This is known as buyer’s remorse, and sets in three seconds after the transaction. The second is that if you sell anything at a boat jumble you’ve given it away for too little. This is known as seller’s remorse, and sets in three seconds after the transaction. Indeed, as they say in the trade, the difference between a buyer and seller is about three seconds. It’s all very straightforward and keeps everyone unhappy, and that makes everyone…

Save up to £400 by doing it yourself Call me oldfashioned, but the statement ‘no user-serviceable parts’ gets my goat – and is usually wrong, even though I’m no technical repair expert. When my boat flooded on dry land in a Turkish marina and its contents were, unbeknownst to me, left to rot in the open for three months I had, as a very minor inconvenience, a £500 Raymarine ST2000+ tiller pilot lying sodden and steaming in the festering heap of ropes, canvas, lifejackets, oilies, pilot books etc being alternately soaked and roasted in the hot, torrential spring weather. Upon reading the ‘no userserviceable parts inside’ warning in the user manual I’d downloaded from the internet (the original was pulp on a dockside), I couldn’t resist the challenge. Raymarine’s helpful…

Despite erring from the original JOG standards, we had saved Essex Melody and made her once again into a worthy little yacht. We were astounded by the cost of our fairly modest restoration, and recognise how easily huge sums can be spent. We also admire those individuals who, by taking longer and doing most of the work themselves, save a lot of expense; but my skills were not up to this! After 18 months of hard work and the help of many friends, Essex Melody was taken to MarineStore and relaunched in the same place where she was first launched in 1959. To celebrate the relaunch on April 16 2011, John Scarlett’s daughter and grandchildren poured champagne over the figurehead in the presence of around 100 people as Essex Melody…

WITT Ltd has announced a prototype device capable of generating electrical power from any motion source, including waves, wind and human energy. The device, called WITT after engineer and designer Martin Wickett, can develop up to 200W. The three-dimensional pendulum system is intended to capture energy from six degrees of motion (back and forth, up and down, and side to side). The Marine WITT has many potential applications, including generating electricity for channel markers and lifesaving equipment, and for keeping batteries topped up. Contained within a sealed unit, the pendulum drives a transmission system which converts all motion into unidirectional rotation of a flywheel, suitable for coupling to an alternator or dynamo to produce electricity. Mass-market appeal The company’s first focus is to power data and navigational buoys, potentially removing…

PBO PROJECT BOAT HANDBOOK ■ This 128-page restoration guide follows Hantu Biru’s journey from a Dorset fish farm to cross-Channel cruising. All for only £4.99 with free UK postage and packaging. Tel: 01202 440830 2016 PBO SMALL CRAFT ALMANAC ■ Full of information covering UK waters, Ireland and much of north Europe. Order yours now from chandleries and online bookstores. Just £17.99 or Tel: 01256 302699 PBO SKIPPER’S HANDBOOK ■ Your quickreference guide, featuring 64 pages of expert advice on Colregs, cruising, safety, sail trim, maintenance and equipment, all for only £1.99 Tel: 01202 440830 PBO CARTOON MUGS Celebrating eight years of Claudia Myatt cartooning in PBO, a dozen comedy boating designs – inspired by Dave Selby’s columns – are now available on mugs! Priced at £6.99 each, plus p&p from…

Most pre-departure days were spent on the internet researching equipment, and evenings were spent poring over catalogues, magazines and instruction manuals. It was all very daunting, and with a limited budget selecting the right and necessary equipment wasn’t easy. We bought a chart plotter with combined radar and found this to be excellent, and have used nothing else for navigation along the way. We keep paper charts on board, of course, and keep a timely log, but haven’t needed to use either for practical navigation. We installed an SSB radio with a Pactor modem for sending and receiving emails and weather files when at sea, and have found this to be superb – especially when combined with the daily radio nets we have when on passage. Due to budget and…

Billed as ‘a comprehensive introduction to cruising for inexperienced skippers’, the shore-based RYA Day Skipper Theory course could be summed up in one word: ‘intense.’ Everyone I’ve met who has completed the course agrees – there is a lot of information to absorb over its five days. Luckily there are numerous sailing schools, clubs and training centres offering varying forms of the course – from distance learning and evening classes to week-long courses and weekenders – to suit individual or group participants. The course is taught over 40 hours with two exam papers. It is promised to equip you with enough knowledge to navigate around familiar waters by day. A basic knowledge of lights is also included as an introduction to night cruising. Topics include the essentials of coastal navigation…

GRIB file viewers Not tested here, but GRIB files are tiny weather forecast files which can be easily sent over low-bandwidth connections, like satphones, and read offline. Resolution Forecasts divide the world up into ‘cells’ – and the spacing of these is what the resolution refers to, ie 1km, or 9km. The closer-spaced, the better. Model Each computer model runs the raw data in a slightly different way, which is why you’ll find many different interpretations of any weather system online. Wind barbs These are the ‘tails’ added to the wind arrows on some forecast charts (eg on Passage Weather, page 31.) The number of barbs relates to the wind strength.…