Boat owners, future boat owners, dreamer boat owners – the most common question they ask me is: ‘What’s going to make me and my boat safer?’ They want to know what my one piece of crew-overboard gear is that i’d recommend, my thoughts on which sea survival course is the best, or an instruction manual for emergency situations.

In other words they’re looking for a quick fix. i’ve got a bugbear here. you cannot buy safety. you cannot shortcut safety. safety has to be earned, and that takes time. gear and certificates don’t make you safer – not in isolation anyway.

You need another key ingredient. So what is that? What actually makes you a safer sailor?

It’s true that lifejackets, drogues, sea survival courses, an evacuation plan, knowing where the ‘arm’ button is on the EPIRB… all these things are important. but what is more important?

Sailing. the number one thing to up your safety game is simple: sail more, and get better at it. take performance boats. a common justification for buying the same length boat for double the price is speed: ‘by choosing the performance option we’ll be able to outrun bad weather.’

But the lightest, best-designed hull on the market won’t help you escape the storm unless you know how to handle it. i love performance boats. i also think fitting out your boat with good equipment is not only a safer choice, but more enjoyable to use.

And yes, investing time and money to take safety courses is prudent and necessary. but some owners spend hundreds of thousands on upgrading their boats – adding carbon rigs, nav systems, and 3di sails – yet hesitate to invest in a single day of professional coaching.

Just imagine how much faster and safer they’d be if they swapped the equivalent cost of one sail upgrade for top-class training. sometimes people justify an option like a carbon rig on safety grounds, because it reduces weight aloft. but then they reef early because they don’t have the sailing skills to push the boat to the edge.

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Thus, they probably wouldn’t escape the storm anyway, and they certainly wouldn’t see any of the slight gains of carbon vs aluminium rig (as a side note, the simple act of reefing early is a far cheaper way of achieving the same effect!). this all circles back to that old argument: qualifications versus experience.

Who’s safer, the sailor with a licence but no experience or the sailor with 10,000 miles and no certificate? the answer is neither. what matters is whether they can handle a boat efficiently and sensibly. and there’s only one way to know that – go sailing with them.

I still remember a delivery from Gosport to Liverpool for the 2017/18 Clipper Race start. On board was a full amateur crew, a few of whom had done extra training as coxswains so they could take over if anything happened to me.

So i tested them: i threw bob, our human-sized dummy, overboard and pretended it was me. they knew the theory. they’d drilled the procedure dozens of times. but when it came to turning the boat back downwind to the ‘casualty’ they couldn’t get the boat to turn.

Minutes passed and the dummy drifted out of sight, until someone finally realised easing the mainsheet might help. only after an hour of search pattern practice was bob eventually found. it was a reality check for all of us.

All the theory in the world needs to be underpinned by real sailing skills – and those skills need constant honing. for any sailor who wants to be safe, the job of learning, reflecting, and improving is never done.

So for anyone considering how to make themselves or their boat safer, i’d suggest putting as much time (and money if necessary) as you can into your actual sailing education. be picky about the sailing school you choose.

Lots of national sailing programmes do not include any practical sailing as part of their syllabuses. also remember, the quality of the education is ultimately a result of the quality of your instructor and not the sailing brand or programme endorsing them.

If you’re interested in performance sailing and short of cash, go club racing regularly to see how people don’t just sail fast, but also operate within the chaos of close quarters boat manoeuvres, and the constant stream of inevitable mistakes. because in the end, gadgets, miles, and certificates don’t make a safe sailor. time on the water does.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

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The post Why time on the water trumps all safety gadgets and certificates – Nikki Henderson appeared first on Yachting World.

Most people agree: skippers are responsible for the safety of the crew and the boat. But the job far exceeds keeping everyone alive and afloat. A good skipper also has to deliver an experience. One that aligns, at least partly, with the expectations of the crew.

In my view, that’s the most overlooked and arguably the hardest part of skippering.

For commercial skippers ‘experience provider’ is literally on the job description. Crew sign up to a defined trip, often with a detailed itinerary, and they pay for their place on board.

The task is to keep a group of strangers safe, meet their expectations and finish on time. Sounds tough? It is.

But it isn’t just a commercial skipper’s problem. Every crew, even friends and family, come aboard with expectations. In fact, I sometimes think delivering an experience to strangers is easier than doing it for loved ones. At least if I disappoint paying customers, I don’t have to hear about it for the rest of my life.

I recently had one of these crews join me for a cruise from Alaska, USA to Victoria, Canada. They wanted wildlife encounters, a taste of Pacific Northwest sailing, and some kind of ‘offshore’ experience.

In seven days I needed to deliver overnight sailing, coastal cruising, a remote wilderness anchorage, and a 600-mile passage.

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The timing was tight. The weather wasn’t playing ball. A slim downwind weather window was followed by four days of forecasted no wind – the worst thing ever when you have eight crew members keen to sail.

So, we rallied. I adapted the safety brief to run underway, anchored on the US border, left again at 0500, motored eight hours in the rain, and made it to Prince Rupert – our Canadian port of entry – just before customs closed.

By 8pm, we were cleared into Canada, and I faced a dilemma. The weather window was fast diminishing. And, so were my energy levels. Do we go? Or do we stay?

The forecast was clear: the only wind for the next four days would come that night. No matter how many times I refreshed the GRIBs and compared models, the message was the same – we had to leave that night to catch the wind. But the thought of slipping lines, hoisting sails and heading into the darkness filled me with dread.

The truth was, the only obstacle was me. The boat was ready, the crew were briefed, the conditions perfect: 15 knots on a broad reach all night.

But I was running on fumes. I gathered the crew and explained that while we had everything lined up for an amazing first night at sea, I was calling it: we’d stay on the dock and leave in the morning. They supported the decision, but I still felt I’d failed them.

The next day, the sun shone, and so did I!

With my fresh energy, I embraced whatever nature threw our way. We slowed down to watch whales, chased an afternoon sea breeze, and practiced upwind helming as we zigzagged through forested fjords.

The week ended as a total success. And it was a valuable reminder: one of the greatest influences on a good trip is the skipper’s mood.

Most crews will choose no wind and an enthusiastic skipper over perfect wind and a miserable one.

A happy crew is a very important thing. But sometimes a skipper needs to be ‘the bad guy’

Making the tough calls

For skippers, making unpopular calls comes with the territory. Whether it’s delaying departure, dropping the spinnaker, waking someone early for a sail change, or pulling someone up on bad behaviour – at some point, you’ll make a call that not everyone on the crew agrees with. Sometimes, they may downright hate it. And yes, this part of skippering always sucks.

It’s uncomfortable. It’s lonely. And, like my night in Prince Rupert, it can feel like you’re failing people. But there are ways to cope.

Ideally you’ll win respect for your decision, even if no one likes it. Share as much of your thinking as you can.

The more involved the crew feel, the more likely they’ll empathise.

The harder calls are the ones when you have to weigh fatigue, gut feeling, or that intangible sense that ‘something isn’t right’. My advice is to listen to those feelings. I’ve had to learn and relearn so many times to treat them with the same weight as the hard data.

Just as you wouldn’t push sails, equipment or crew past their limits, don’t push your own nerves either. Even if it’s just a touch of anxiety or feeling a bit ‘off’, remember: your job isn’t just to drive a boat or keep people alive – you’re providing an experience. And that matters just as much as the wind and the weather.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post A skipper’s hardest job? Managing crew expectations – Nikki Henderson appeared first on Yachting World.

The plan is simple: buy a boat and seek out your best life. You’ve decided you want a multihull, for the space and stability that offers.

Your other key requirements are comfort – a yacht you can live aboard for months – and a multihull that’s bluewater capable so you can explore wild remote places. It has to be safe, of course. And spacious enough for you, your partner, maybe your kids (and perhaps someone to help look after them sometimes), or a few friends and family. After all, adventures are better shared.

Bonus items? If the budget allows – performance, please! A fast boat means less time at sea (critical for keeping the non-sailors happy). Faster means more fun, but also the faster you sail the more flexibility you have for weather routing. So speed equals safety.

If this all sounds familiar, that’s because many Yachting World readers dream of the same thing: a bluewater catamaran, powering through the miles, and the freedom of an endless horizon.

Every year, I work with hundreds of people chasing this dream. And wow, it’s a big project! Most begin with hours upon hours, if not weeks, lost to YouTube and online reviews, comparing boat brands. Once committed, the number of decisions to make and to-do list items explodes.

What modifications or custom options will you want? Do you want gas or all-electric? How many cabins do you need, and what layout suits you best? What sails do you need? Who to make them? Then there’s electronics, spares, tools, toys, logistics… and how to leave behind your land life.

Buried in logistics and yard work, cruisers often fall into a common trap: time and time again they forget the sailing element.

Many new catamaran owners are experienced monohull sailors but new to multihulls. Others charter in the Med a few times a year but have never owned their own boat. Some haven’t sailed in years – kids and work got in the way. Some, incredibly, are total beginners.

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The best bluewater multihulls of all time: a complete guide

What are the best bluewater multihulls for long term cruising? The one you own, or the one you can afford…

Best catamaran and multihull: The very best yachts on two and three hulls

There are many categories in the European Yacht of the Year awards, from the best luxury yachts and performance yachts to the best yachts for families and evet…

So when the boat finally arrives or the jobs list is finished in the yard, most owners are exhausted and over-excited. Their sailing skills are rusty. But, at that point, taking the time to polish up their boat handling is not what they want to do. Understandably, they want to slip lines and go.

The problem is that a lack of skill and confidence can lead to a bumpy first couple of years cruising. The best case scenario – if they’re lucky – is that only the boat gets bruised. I’ve seen many boats listed for sale within two years.

Two things matter most to the success of your bluewater experience:

• The brand and model of catamaran you buy
• Your sailing and cruising skills

Your skill and confidence will make or break your experience – and your crew’s too. Here are the 10 top skills to polish before casting off.

Leaving or manoeuvring in a marina – and dealing with twin engines – is likely to be your first test of handling skills with your new catamaran. Photo: Richard Langdon

Docking a catamaran with Twin Engines

Leaving the marina is going to be the unavoidable first step. The departure sets the tone. Nail it, and there’ll be a good feeling in the air.

Twin engines take some getting used to. First, forget your rudders: lock the helm straight and steer with the engines. Famously, cats can spin on the spot. But it rarely turns out quite as advertised… high topsides, no keel, and light bows mean your ability to pivot is often negated by windage and drift.

Once you figure out how to use the limitations of a cat to your advantage you’ll love the double engines. Practice is key.

Catamaran docking tips

• Stern to wind is your mantra. Keeping the stern facing the wind makes the boat more stable and easier to control.
• Park in reverse. Stay stern to the wind, and you have better visibility and comms with the aft line handler.
• Skip the ‘spin’. Where possible, use a 3/5/7-point turn with one engine at a time. It’s simpler, less confusing and thus less risk-prone. And you can keep the boat to windward of the tight space within your turn.
• Use one hand. Traditionally, driving multihulls was taught with two hands: left hand left throttle; right hand right throttle. Change this to one hand. Then you can move around, twist your torso, see, communicate and park successfully.

Multihulls are becoming increasingly popular for sailors taking on an Atlantic challenge – here setting off on the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC). Photo: James Mitchell/WCC

Wind angles and routing

Factory polars can be shocking. “50° to windward?! How will I ever get upwind anywhere?” you wonder. Well… yes… catamarans are reaching machines. They don’t point well. Daggerboards help a lot with upwind performance. But even then, crack off 10° and they fly.

Don’t blame your tools. Learn how to use them. So how to best leverage this?

Sail more miles, faster. Cracked off = big speed gains. Sometimes you can still reach a windward destination faster than a monohull of similar length by using this technique.

Wait it out. If a shift is coming in the next few days, consider delaying your departure. Then enjoy a fast few hours of downwind sailing, rather than the 10 hours slog you initially signed up for.

Don’t pinch – it doesn’t work. Accept your angles and see if you can outsmart your own plan. If you do ever see a cat pinching, don’t be fooled. They will be using the engine for assistance.

Multihulls are weight sensitive so try to keep heavy items central and low. Leading anchor chain aft away from the bows is prudent. Photo: GLY

Weight management

Cats are wider, roomier, and generally have more space for more stuff (much of which you probably don’t need). But they are also lighter, and more weight sensitive. All this means there is a lot to consider when it comes to stowage.
If you are a monohull sailor, be prepared to pay just as much, if not more attention to how much and where you add extra weight on board.

Catamarans are typically lighter displacement than a monohull of equivalent length, and so extra weight on board will have a greater impact. And, unlike a monohull which relies on its keel for stability, a catamaran relies on its beam. Therefore, loading the catamaran with weight aloft, or not distributing it evenly across both hulls, will make it more prone to heeling and reduce its stability.

What to do

• Live minimally. Be ruthless about what comes aboard. Once ‘stuff’ (the usual culprits are extra kitchen equipment, doubled-up tools and spares, shoes you never wear, water toys you never use) comes aboard, you will feel a sense of ‘loss’ to take it off. Save yourself the grief, and never let it on.
• Keep the ends light. I know they are roomy and no one sleeps there. But they are empty for a reason! Weight needs to be central, and low. Consider storing the outboard motor off the tender and use bow lockers for light gear only.
• Balance port and starboard. One hull shouldn’t carry your whole life. Check from astern on a calm day that your boat isn’t listing.

Reefing early is vitally important with a catamaran. Photo: Marianne Urth

Reefing a multihull

Cats don’t spill any power via heeling. They just power up, until they flip. And that is why reefing is key. Reef proactively. Set strict wind speed reefing thresholds (lots of manufacturers recommend these).

But don’t be afraid to err on the more cautious side, as the guidelines rarely take into account sea state.

Multihull reefing tips

• Topping lift! No vang means the boom drops hard onto the roof without it.
• Mainsails don’t drop easily. There is a lot of friction due to full battens compressing mast cars, and probably a 2:1 halyard. Consider using downhauls on the luff or upgrading mast cars to ones with roller bearings and using the reefing line to coax the sail down. If all else fails, you can change course upwind but be cautious of the increased apparent wind when you do that.

Keeping weight out of the ends is key for sailing performance. Photo: GLY

Depowering a multihull

As aforementioned, gusts don’t spill power on a cat – they load it up. Multihulls can take a lot, but the line between everything being fine and not fine is sudden. You need a fast, simple depowering setup in case of any unexpected gusts or squalls.

The previous advice was to reef early – but we aren’t always good at that. So you need a plan if you get caught out and miss the window of opportunity to reef.

Multihull depowering tips

• Active sheets. Keep these on winches with the clutches open – always the mainsheet and headsail/spinnaker sheet.
• Traveller dump. The windward traveller line should also be ready to dump. In a gust, this can be your first move because it’s in the cockpit where you also are likely to be.
• Bear away. Go for a quick bear away as soon as you’ve depowered the sails to reduce the apparent wind. Practice hand-steering this.
• Turn downwind fast. Quickly straighten the helm the moment you don’t feel the wind on your windward cheek.
• Daggerboards. Keep the leeward daggerboard line on a winch ready to quickly raise it to avoid tripping.
• Depowering. For kites and gennakers, set up quick-release tack systems for instant depowering.

Catamaran sailing is all about the fun –especially downwind, when properly set up. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

Downwind sails

Cats sail downwind like a dream, so it’s time to embrace that. You’ll be especially thankful for your and your crew’s proficiency with the spinnaker or Code 0 when the winds soften and you have a long ocean passage ahead of you.

Any monohull sailors might underestimate the gains to be made by flying downwind sails. But a few knots can make a big difference over 3,000 miles. Anyway, you are out of excuses! Cats are stable, the bow is safe – and with its big soft nets, it’s even kind to your knees. There’s no justification for not going up there and giving this a go.

Downwind catamaran tips

• Practice the drop. If you know you can get it down, you overcome the fear of putting it up. This might include using socks, furlers, or a traditional drop to douse the offwind sails. Nail them all!
• Optimise your systems. Make hoisting, flying and dropping these intimidating sails easier – reroute lines if needed, add Martin Breakers (a quick-trip shackle to release tack line under load) and use electric winches if that helps smooth
  the routine.
• Learn the angles. The more you understand about what wind strengths and angles your sails love, the more likely you’ll be to fly them. Get as much data as possible, or a sail crossover chart from your sailmaker. And also keep a good log and note your own numbers.

No excuses to go without a kite. Photo: Saskia Stainer-Hutchins

Feedback cues

We’ve all been there. You go off watch with the boat sailing peacefully in 10-15 knots. And you wake up having fallen out of bed, the boat heeled over hard, in 20 knots upwind. You will now reminisce on those days with fondness. As a catamaran sailor, you are going to have to master the art of subtlety. Specifically, interpreting less obvious feedback that the boat is overpowered or underpowered.

Tips for tuning in

• Use the instruments. But don’t use them in isolation. Boat speed and wind speed tell you a lot and it’s critical to respond to them with reefing (see point No4). However, you can also sense a few degrees of heel, a change in acceleration, or a shift in pressure with your body. The less reliant you are on instruments and the more intuitive your relationship is with the boat, the safer you will be.
• Use your hearing! Listen for slamming, rig hum, and the frequency of the wave slap.
• Log what you ‘feel’. Log regularly and include wider information so you can look back and compare. For example, if a few weeks ago you were happily eating dinner with no reefs in the main, what’s different this time? The sea state? Your fatigue? Intuition?
• Power down early. Comfort trumps speed on cruising boats 99% of the time (which can be hard to adapt to for successful, driven people). But remember the dream – it’s usually a version of ‘slowing down’.

Living the bluewater dream, anchored in an idyllic spot – and catamarans can drop the hook in relatively shallow water. Photo: Robin Christol/GLY

Manoeuvres

Two hulls change things when it comes to manoeuvres: tacking is slow, gybing is violent. You need to get comfortable with it all.

It’s not uncommon to find catamaran sailors who avoid manoeuvres at night. That’s great in theory – until you sail into a wind hole, or want to avoid a squall, or need to miss a cargo ship. Really every bluewater sailor needs to know how to complete manoeuvres in all conditions, at any time of day.

Upwind Manoeuvres

Build up speed before the tack and use it to carry you through. Remember, angles are wider and the turn may well be more than 100°.
If you have them, and they aren’t already down, drop both daggerboards to the same level. It gives you some grip during the turn.
Back the jib through the tack if needed (unless it’s self-tacking, in which case get creative with a handybilly or extra control line).

Downwind Manoeuvres

With a square top, big roach and full battened mainsail, gybing can be exciting. The main needs a lot of control through the gybe. Centre the traveller and make sure it’s locked off on both sides, tighten up the mainsheet, gybe – then control the sheet to dampen the slam when it flips to the other tack.

A remote-controlled windlass will be a big help when retrieving and viewing your anchor tackle, while headsets help maintain communication with the helm. Photo: Saskia Stainer-Hutchins

Catamaran anchoring

Most cruisers are at anchor about 80% of the time, even if they are ‘sailing around the world’! It’s a critical skill, and a core element of living the dream.

But in order to spend your days swimming off the back of the boat or enjoying serene sunset cocktails on the bow – and to comfortably sleep, make repairs, and live on the hook – you need to be able to anchor confidently, reliably and securely.

Making sure the hook is properly set will ensure a more relaxing time in that idyllic anchorage. Photo: Kinetic Catamarans

Catamaran anchoring skills

• Set it properly. Use 3-7 times the depth. Reverse hard on it (1,500-2,000rpm) – better to drag and find out it’s not holding now, rather than at 3am.
• Find space. Choose a spot with not too many boats around. If there are, make sure they’re catamarans too as similar hull shapes swing similarly. Resist the temptation to be too close to the beach in the crowds (instead, get a fast tender and learn how to use it).
• Always use a bridle. If it isn’t already set up, attach a mooring line of identical length to each bow cleat and tie both to the chain in the same place with a prussick knot or rolling hitch.
• Float the chain. Learn to float the chain in preparation for the reef-laden anchorages of French Polynesia or other heavenly spots. Use a couple of traditional heavy plastic fenders at about 10m increments.
• Shorelines. Know how to set up a shoreline to control your swing. This will open up the tighter anchorages, or the deeper ones, which can be beautiful. Anchor as normal and then head ashore with a long line and tie it to something stable like a tree or a rock.

Photo: Lagoon Catamarans

Enjoy the comfort

Sometimes sailors can be a bit masochistic. Let that go. This dream involves two hulls – it’s time to get comfortable.

Before departure, try to relax. You don’t need to prep every meal in advance and psychologically prepare yourself for beyond three or four days of the usual motion sickness. Instead, think about activities to keep everyone busy and entertained.

You can cook, bake, eat, sleep, do yoga, workout, learn the guitar, or dance while underway (yes, I’ve done all of the above). This is a lifestyle.

Just one thing to remember: when sailing downwind the wind funnels through the saloon, so card games don’t work so well. Everything else? Go for it.

I feel so lucky to have spent so much time around people making this dream into their reality. It’s inspiring to see people brave enough to go after more from their life. So if you want to make that dream last you’ll need to invest in the skills to make it work. Docking, reefing, routing, anchoring – mastering these techniques will add a layer of safety, confidence and ease to your experience.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post 10 essential multihull sailing skills you need to know appeared first on Yachting World.

You probably saw the collision between the Allagrande Mapei Racing and Team Holcim PRB IMOCAs just moments after the start of the Ocean Race Europe. In the way spectacular disasters are, it was as harrowing as it was addictive to watch. The ease at which Holcim’s foil cut through Allagrande’s headsail cloth was sickeningly impressive, and it’s lucky no one was hurt. But it was also proof of how remarkable these boats are.

The crash was a hearty reminder for us all: mistakes happen, even to the most skilled sailors. If you’re human, you make mistakes, especially in sailing. We need high-profile moments like this to change the culture around mistakes and to remind us that errors don’t make you a bad sailor.

There’s a story many new sailors tell themselves: “When I get good enough at sailing, I won’t mess up anymore.” Perfection feels like the goal, but that’s a myth: perfection is unachievable.

The reality is that mistakes are inevitable. Just consider all the factors that go hand-in-hand with sailing: fatigue, stress, appetite for risk, cognitive overload. Then combine it with the context of changeable weather, unpredictable competitors and high stakes decisions. It’s ludicrous to think otherwise.

I believe we all get allocated the same number of mistakes in life. They just scale relative to your environment and abilities.

Beginner sailors make ‘rookie’ mistakes like tying fenders wrong and dropping them overboard or putting up the wrong headsail.

Intermediate sailors make bolder mistakes, like reefing too late or making sloppy nav calls, usually just when they need a reminder to stay humble.

There was also a crash in Leg 7 of the last Ocean Race

Pros make high speed, high stakes mistakes like aggressive start line tactics or split-second miscalculations. What changes as you progress isn’t the quantity of mistakes you make, it’s the type of mistakes. And while a crash in the Ocean Race might seem bigger than a poorly tied knot, I’ve seen beginners suffer near-panic over small errors. How awful a mistake feels has more to do with you than the slip-up itself.

I hate making mistakes. I hate looking silly or messing up, or worse: being blamed. It probably stems from a fear of rejection. It’s something I have to actively work on.

Mistakes are part of learning and avoiding them means avoiding improving. And the more we fear mistakes the more likely we are to make them. Just put someone under pressure and watch them tie a knot while shouting the oh-so-tempting “hurry up” and you’ll see their hands shake, their brain fog over and voila, it will be tied wrong.

When mistakes happen, what matters most is how you manage them. My mother’s voice still rings in my ears: “I don’t care who started it. Just sort it.” She was talking to my brothers and younger self, but it’s just as relevant at sea. If mistakes are inevitable and we all suffer the same amount, then worrying about blame in the moment is useless. Just look at Kiel: both teams immediately set about repairing their boats to make the next leg. The protest will be resolved later, but the priority was getting back in the race.

Article continues below…

‘Why is anchoring still such a misunderstood skill?’ – Nikki Henderson

As the sun slipped below the horizon, so did the noise of the day. The thermal wind softened, the engine…

‘Has ‘social media influencer’ sailing gone too far?’ – Nikki Henderson

Our defences have run out: social media has well and truly infiltrated our precious, antiquated sailing world. It’s terrifying to…

On the day the Kiel crash dominated my social news feed, I was helping friends handle a mini crisis of their own. One crew member’s passport had been packed in the wrong bag and was halfway to Hamburg on a Boeing 777. If we’d wasted time focusing on whose fault it was, we’d have missed the window to get the passport on the return flight. But we let it go, jumped into action, and two generous strangers ferried it back across the Atlantic just in time for departure. Faith in humanity, restored.

So, if you want to help make sailing more welcoming for us all, leave the blame behind. If you, or someone else makes a mistake, focus first on sorting out the problem then, second, reduce the chance of it happening again by analysing, learning and implementing better systems.

So, thank you Holcim PRB, Allagrande Mapei, and the Ocean Race team for giving us a real-life example of elite sailors learning from, not hiding from, their errors.

The goal isn’t to eliminate mistakes; it’s to handle them well. Sure, the crash was expensive, dangerous and costly in the moment. But maybe it will save others from similar fates – not by avoiding mistakes entirely, but by avoiding the catastrophic aftermath that comes when errors are buried instead of addressed.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

The post ‘The crash was a reminder for us all’ – Nikki Henderson appeared first on Yachting World.

Yet another wave slammed into our topsides. The carbon drum hull of the yacht we were racing echoed with a thunderous hum as we accelerated, surfing a wave. We were flying! And then we weren’t. SLAM. The boat crash-gybed, rounded up violently and then stalled.

The companionway was a mass of people scrambling into foulies. The boat slopped about in irons. Gong, gong, gong went the broken checkstay as it swung and clanged against the rig.

And me? I stood frozen, can opener in hand, assessing the carnage. Amazingly, the pan was still on the stove. But its contents? The ceiling had turned red. The floor resembled a murder scene of squashed meat. I put my hand to my forehead, dreading the clean up, only to feel coagulated tomato paste binding my already-matted hair into one sticky lump.

As the least experienced crew member, being relegated below decks during an emergency is a rite of passage for offshore sailors. This was one of my first.

I was 18, on a 78ft maxi, somewhere between Sicily and Gibraltar, fresh out of school, and very green. Fortunately in that moment, green in skill, rather than seasickness.

The first days after jumping aboard a new boat can feel like a return to the school playground. You want to fit in. Hopefully, a vacant task reveals itself.

The galley is a good place to start. There’s always something to do. You become popular fast – who doesn’t adore someone who feeds them? Menu planning, provisioning and preparing three meals on shore as well as at sea is full on. So it keeps you ‘out the way’ and gives you purpose.

Early in my career, it served me well. I built practical skills and learnt a vital rule: never serve meatballs in a blow.

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Be careful though, while ‘inside’ jobs may feel like the natural fit for less experienced crew members, this seemingly efficient role-allocation may not serve the crew well in the long term. A pattern I’ve seen again and again, especially working with new boat owners and cruising couples, is that the more experienced person ends up on deck – sailing, fixing and making decisions, while the less experienced often ends up inside cooking, cleaning and organising.

Initially, everyone is happy. The boat doesn’t crash in the marina, you get to where you’re going on time, and the boat interior stays orderly.

But as time goes on, trouble arises. The ‘captain’ gains skill and their crew feel comparatively less knowledgeable so their confidence decreases. They don’t challenge their captain or ask questions so the captain’s progression also hits a ceiling.

The crew starts to avoid deck time. Instead they take full ownership over the galley and their comfort zone deepens. One day, if the captain puts something away in the wrong place, they’re scolded for interfering. Lesson learned, the captain now stays on deck and, just like that, the gap widens.

This doesn’t just happen with couples, but also with friends, families and even professional teams. Often, the more one person or group of people grows, the more others pull back. And, without realising it, they flatline in skill and confidence.

Rotate the galley jobs too. Photo: Lumi Images

So, here’s my advice: level up early.

In the beginning, slow the growth of the more experienced sailor – just for a moment – and focus on the other. Share the throttles and parking responsibilities. Make decisions collaboratively. Practice sail changes together. Take turns fixing the heads. Give each other space to fail and learn.

And don’t stop at the helm. Rotate the galley jobs too. Share the provisioning runs, the cooking, the cleaning. Because the truth is when everyone on board can handle both the deck and the dishes, the confidence builds in both directions.

Given time to reap the rewards you’ll start to build a proper team.

Growing and learning together will strengthen your relationship. Everyone on board will have the freedom to have an ‘off-day’ knowing that someone else has the skill to take up their slack.

And, the best bit, sailing plans tend to match the least confident person on board so if you’re equally matched in skill, you’ll be able to set your sights on more ambitious sailing plans and destinations. Level up and find freedom.

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The post Why you should always aim to share all roles onboard… both above and below decks appeared first on Yachting World.

As the sun slipped below the horizon, so did the noise of the day. The thermal wind softened, the engine fan stopped whirring, and the last of the tourist boats swung into port. In that quiet moment of reflection that one takes at dusk, I was living every sailor’s dream.

We were anchored off the coast of the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve. This remote north-western tip of Iceland is only accessible by boat. Four or five waterfalls cascaded fresh glacial melt down the horseshoe of mountains and into the fjord that was our home for the night. In this isolated northern outcrop of the globe just the hardiest of sea creatures, birds and puffins went about their business on the rocky shores. Otherwise we were entirely alone.

We are living in the age of hydrofoils, carbon fibre and satellites. Our world is getting faster paced and more determined than ever to leap into the future with greater efficiency. And yet, the core components of the universal sailing experience remain the same: simplicity, stunning scenery, self-sufficiency, serenity and solitude.

Are we putting too much emphasis on cutting-edge technologies and forgetting the fundamentals of a good day on the water? Are we at risk of losing touch with our roots?

Anchoring is – literally – one of sailings’ grounding cornerstones, an ancient art that dates back millennia. Devised not long after the boat itself, anchoring began with a large rock and a rope. By Roman times the original ‘anchor rocks’ were shaped to include prongs making them more transportable and better at temporarily digging into the seabed.

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‘Has ‘social media influencer’ sailing gone too far?’ – Nikki Henderson

Our defences have run out: social media has well and truly infiltrated our precious, antiquated sailing world. It’s terrifying to…

‘Does anything ever go completely to plan at sea?’ – Nikki Henderson

Back in December I reminded myself what ‘too close for comfort’ feels like. After 18 days at sea, my crew…

Modern anchors now have hinge points and different designs to suit boat sizes and seabeds, but they’re still basically a heavy thing attached to a warp. For sailors, anchoring marks a shift from moving to being.

As one of sailing’s most unchanged fundamentals, are we giving anchoring enough credit? It’s easy to become so focussed on optimisation, that we’re perhaps brushing over those core skills. From an educational standpoint, anchoring, like many other basic sailing principles (hoisting and dropping sails, tying knots or driving by the feel of the wind on our faces), is often undertaught and misunderstood.

Recently I hosted a webinar to explain how to deploy or weigh an anchor without a windlass. Many of the participants – regular cruisers and boat owners – hadn’t ever been formally taught how to do it. And if they had been taught, they didn’t really understand the whys and hows.

I explained: sit still counteracting effects of the wind or tidal stream, drop the hook plus two- to four-times the depth of the water in chain or warp or both, fall back against it, see if it holds, and pay about the same amount of warp again. If the electricity fails, pull or ease it by hand and use a mechanical aid like a winch or a purchase system to help you control it.

The wide eyes looking back at me were indicative of the disbelief. Is it really that simple? It’s as if, with everything in sailing becoming so complicated, it can be hard to grapple with something so basic as a pulley system or the effects of a metal hook, chain, gravity and the seabed.

This begs the question, why hasn’t anchoring evolved? Is there a better solution? Just as furling can be more effective than hoisting and dropping, is an anchor just too inefficient?

No. Anchoring is still used, because anchoring works. There’s no computer program that can beat the feel of the boat yanking back on a good set. There is no phone application that can feel as trustworthy as thousands of years worth of evidence proving that something works.

Maybe it could – like other ‘old-school’ practices – be filtered out for a ‘better way’. It’s not that crazy to imagine a future in which we keep the engines on to hold station in one spot overnight because it’s ‘safer’ and easier to fit more boats into a bay if we don’t have to deal with the unknowns of swinging, holding and wind shifts. The memory of a silent night alone will be a tale from ‘the good old days’.

So while I’m all for making sailing more accessible, I think we should tread with caution when it comes to optimisations. We often chase new ideas thinking that improvements and complexity are better, but sometimes simplicity is mastery. Anchoring is a quiet reminder that some things are better left unchanged.

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Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

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Our defences have run out: social media has well and truly infiltrated our precious, antiquated sailing world. It’s terrifying to think that our secret passage to escapism and isolation at sea has been discovered. But, like most things that scare us, could there be a thrilling aspect to this challenge?

Decades ago, sailors could go ‘dark’ and justifiably claim the atmospheric conditions weren’t great and the SSB radio wasn’t working. Now, if we don’t live stream every part of daily life at sea, our followers feel disappointed.

As this past Vendée Globe has demonstrated, raw, unedited, and ‘real’ daily updates are now considered the norm. It’s expected – by sponsors, race organisers and content-craving supporters. And so, life at sea for any sailing professional has changed. Now we have to adapt to not one, but two higher powers: Mother Nature, and her fierce deputy: The Algorithm.

Depression in the face of a storm is never useful for a sailor. The shift has happened, and there is no going back. So we need to adjust our course and harness its power.

One upside to wide stream internet at sea is that, when used effectively, it provides a platform for lesser-known sailors to gain recognition and ‘win’ in a broader sense. Violette Dorange is a fantastic example of this. She now has 650,000 followers on Instagram and 3.1 million likes on TikTok, having come 23rd in her first Vendée Globe.

To put Violette’s online prowess into perspective, race winner Charlie Dalin has 73,000 followers on Instagram.

Starting the Vendée at all is considered the pinnacle of many a solo-sailing career. But to get noticed among a fleet of 40 incredible competitors is another feat, and one she mastered with aplomb.

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Online sailing communities and apps: Speaking to Sailing La Vagabonde stars

Fleeting acquaintance has always been part of sailing, particularly for bluewater cruisers. A friendship struck up over a rum cocktail…

10 women doing great things in competitive sailing right now

With a Women’s America’s Cup due to start in 2024, a gender balanced sailing event at the Paris Olympic Games,…

That impact will be a huge bonus for Violette as her career develops. There’s no doubt she will go on to achieve great things in sailing, and her social media mastery will be part of that story.

Another positive thing about social media and an increased online presence for sailing is how it casts the net wider. Participation in major sailing events around the world is decreasing and it’s a major problem. We need to attract more people back to – or new people into – the sport.

US ocean racer Cole Brauer has nearly half a million followers on Instagram, including many of those harder-to-reach audiences: women, younger people. Most of her followers were non-sailors – she told Yachting World that many followers didn’t even know she was competing in a solo race.

Maybe you think that’s silly. I think it’s brilliant. Sailing at the top of ‘normal’ people’s newsfeeds normalises the sport and will inevitably tempt more people onto the water.

But while I do have some enthusiasm for social media, I believe we need to heed caution. There is a shadowier side to the cyber influence at sea.

Professional racers are now expected to document ever moment of their race. Photo: Pip Hare Ocean Racing / Medallia

Practically, it’s really hard work. Memories of endless ‘liquid detected in charging port’ alerts, trying to work a smartphone screen with wet fingers, and having to look at myself speaking into a camera after four days at sea with minimal sleep still haunt me.

But now that demand for social media output has spiked, will it negatively impact sailing performances? Is it actually possible to sail with the exceptional superiority and focus of racers like Charlie Dalin or Yoann Richomme, and put out the quantity of social media required?

People have always followed sailing for the drama and the adventure. It’s what made Ellen MacArthur, Pete Goss and Peter Blake such household names – they had an epic story to tell. But, they told their stories with hindsight. Now we are demanding a real-time connection to the action and to the personal journey of the sailors. Will that push them to make seamanlike choices?

I could easily imagine a scenario where a skipper might feel pressured to wake up the off-watch in an ocean race for a sail change, not because they need to, but because it could make for better drama. We’re already pushing humans to the edge with the increasing speed of ocean racing boats – is a social media output quota a step too far? Guidelines are going to be needed, and soon.

Ultimately sailors are optimists and adaptable. But before we resign our fate to algorithms, we need to work out how to integrate this – possibly wonderful – tool into our sport in a healthy way.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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The post ‘Has ‘social media influencer’ sailing gone too far?’ – Nikki Henderson appeared first on Yachting World.

Back in December I reminded myself what ‘too close for comfort’ feels like. After 18 days at sea, my crew and I finished an Atlantic crossing and parked up in Rodney Bay, St Lucia, with around 5lt of usable diesel left – barely a couple of hours run time for our 60hp Volvo.

You could look at that and consider it an example of exceptional seamanship and precise fuel management – a perfect plan. Barely a drop in the tanks more than needed!

Or you may judge it a reckless ‘near-miss’. Just one unexpected variable such as a messy sea state or dirty fuel, and we’d have been stuck, windless and embarrassingly fuel-less, in sight of land.

Whether you judge it good or bad; two things hold fast. 1) Cut it fine and get away with it and you have a great story in the bar. 2) Dig deeper, and there’ll be lessons to learn.

So, was it luck? Or a masterful plan that came together?

A month earlier, I joined friends of mine on their new home: a 45ft catamaran. The boat was brand new. They’d sailed her straight out of the factory to the Canaries. By the time I joined them they had a few thousand miles under their belt, and the very short list of warranty issues meant a crossing before Christmas was viable. Good news!

We prepared together for almost a week, at which point a brilliant weather window awaited us. As is my routine on joining a boat, I gathered data.

Sailing across the Atlantic into the setting sun

On the fuel specifically: the crew had been monitoring rpm and engine hours from new. From always running the engines in gear at 2,000rpm, and then cross referencing their logged engine hours with the diesel they added to the tanks on their first fill up in Tenerife, they knew the engine was burning 3.8lt/1gal per hour, which matched the fuel consumption curve as per Volvo’s manual.

So, we made an educated assumption that the graph could be used to accurately predict fuel consumption for lower rpms and assumed a 2.2lt/hr burn at 1,800rpm.

At 2,000rpm the boat made 6.2 knots in a flat sea; at 1,800rpm it was 5.4 knots. The power generation was similarly significantly more efficient at lower rpm. On a cloudy day at sea, the power draw on the batteries required five hours of running the engines at 1,800rpm to bring the batteries back up to 100%.

According to the manufacturer’s manual the boat had two diesel tanks of 250lt each and 90% of the fuel in each tank was usable in practice. So, we had 450lt of usable fuel. We then added four 20lt jerry cans as an emergency reserve – which would offer us 125 miles range at 2,000rpm or 160 miles at 1,800rpm.

Assuming a 28-day crossing in which every day was cloudy, we’d need 308lt [28x5x2.2] for charging, and would have 142lt remaining [450-308] for motoring. That would mean 40 hours, or just over 200 miles of range.

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Most of our life on land we spend hiding from ourselves. But at sea there is no escape – Nikki Henderson

Ahoy there, from halfway to the Caribbean! This is my third attempt at writing this column. The first go was…

‘Boat ownership is a wildly impractical love affair, and gets complicated when you’re smitten’ – Nikki Henderson

Being a professional sailor, I realise how stupid this is, and I really should know better. From working for owners…

As each day of the crossing progressed, we recalculated these figures to take into account our real-time progress, the reduction of charging time needed due to solar generation, and the future weather forecast.
But despite our meticulous planning and monitoring we encountered a few surprises. Does anything ever go completely to plan at sea?

During a bilge inspection on day 14, we discovered a stamp on each of the fuel tanks showing their capacity was 230lt and not the 250lt stated in the boat manual. Lesson: check the tanks match the manual.

On the penultimate day, our starboard engine stopped as we’d run its tank ‘dry’. So despite the manual stating that 90% of the fuel is usable, in reality it was 84%. Lesson: find out what the real-time ‘bottom’ of the tank is before you face a wind hole on day 17 of an Atlantic crossing.

We’d been running our two engines in sync, to avoid one having too many more hours than the other. So, when one tank reached bottom, the other wasn’t far off and there was no scope to change strategy. Lesson: avoid stressing all the systems at the same rate.

The jerry cans saved the day. We hadn’t expected to use them at all. Lesson: the extra weight of the odd jerry can of fuel can save a whole load of stress.

So to sum up, assumptions and ambiguity are a sailor’s worst nightmare. Test everything, never guess. And have a back-up plan.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

The post ‘Does anything ever go completely to plan at sea?’ – Nikki Henderson appeared first on Yachting World.

Ahoy there, from halfway to the Caribbean! This is my third attempt at writing this column. The first go was interrupted by a squall. We underestimated its strength, surfed down a wave at 19 knots and then spent the rest of the watch slightly overly vigilant, as if that would make up for our previous 35-knot misjudgement.

Attempt No2 was on my 0300-0600 watch. After a coffee, several snacks, meandering down the B&G settings menu with no purpose, and two log entries made exactly to the minute on the hour, I conceded that writing was not a sufficiently ‘staying-awake’ activity – and stepped outside to stargaze.

With Starlink I quickly realised I could log in every day – and yes, write an article about sailing, for sailors, while sailing – but I could also follow the Vendée Globe tracker, and see the solo racers thrashing about in the Southern Ocean, hitting speed records, and sleeping in 20-minute intervals. Their concerns are in a different league to mine, moaning about 35 knots or struggling to write a column on a 3am watch. So, having put my ‘struggle’ into perspective (in other words, comparative luxury) I’m knuckling down.

Offshore sailing has a way of putting your life, and your ‘problems’, into perspective. A sailing friend of mine, Sophie, once told me that offshore sailing is a magnifier for your romantic relationship. It exposes the cracks and blows them up, like it does for the boat itself. You don’t go to sea to save your relationship, you go to sea to find out what needs work!

Article continues below…

‘Boat ownership is a wildly impractical love affair, and gets complicated when you’re smitten’ – Nikki Henderson

Being a professional sailor, I realise how stupid this is, and I really should know better. From working for owners…

‘Seamanship isn’t about sailing slowly’ – Nikki Henderson

The sailing world is small. But of the 350 or so passengers on board the Boeing 777 I took recently…

Going to sea magnifies your reality. My crewmate, George, and I were comparing sailing to his previous life in the US marine core. Just as on the front line, at sea problems aren’t self-manufactured, they’re real. The watermaker breaking and the risk of running out of water is real. Big winds, ferocious seas, broken sails and a broken boat are risks that require real management every day. And, as we were reminded by the tragic news from this year’s ARC, going overboard and being lost at sea is a real possibility too.

That realness pulls us into the present. The lack of convenience, security and comfort and the focus this ‘real’ life requires, the less time we have to spend worrying about all the things we normally worry about. Being caught up in being ‘busy’, social expectations, how we look, what car we drive… Once we’re separated from all of that we cannot help but ask ourselves: what is actually important to me?

What I’ve seen during my career is that we all basically have the same answer. Strip away all the luxuries and – beyond food, water, and a dry bed – the most important thing in all our lives is love. People, pets, special places, and perhaps a few meaningful trinkets; when you are out here, you realise who and what you miss. It’s who we cannot stop thinking about. Survival and connection: it’s all we really need.

But as Sophie so aptly observed, magnifying your life isn’t always comfortable. It highlights weak points and chasms. We realise how much time we’ve wasted on meaningless endeavours. Offshore we find clarity on what, or even who, we need to let go of.

But without a doubt, the most challenging part of reality to face out here is ourselves.

Most of our life on land we spend hiding from ourselves. But at sea there is no escape. Eventually your baggage, stress, uncomfortable thoughts, character traits – good and bad – will be reflected back at you. At sea the confined space, the intensity of the experience, and the sheer presence it requires, blow YOU up onto the big screen.

Even with Starlink now providing us with the greatest distraction known to humankind (the internet), there is still no avoiding the mirror that’s held out here. Because a power even greater than the internet – Mother Nature – still dominates. So eventually we have to take a long, hard look at ourselves.

As George and I discussed, not only do we have to look but we also have to work through what we see. Because some of those scars we bear, habits and personality traits, can get in the way of dealing with the ‘real’ problems at hand.

And here lies the gold mine to be found at sea: an opportunity to fundamentally change who you are and how you see the world. There’s treasure out here, come and take a look…

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

The post Most of our life on land we spend hiding from ourselves. But at sea there is no escape – Nikki Henderson appeared first on Yachting World.

Being a professional sailor, I realise how stupid this is, and I really should know better. From working for owners and using their credit cards to pay the bills, I know full well that the saying ‘owning a boat is like standing in a shower and ripping up bank notes’ rings true.

I’ve now learned that process begins right at the purchase stage, because apparently it’s a rite of passage to buy a boat that’s triple your original budget…

Like any sensible sailor, I called upon the advice of trusted friends, colleagues and clients. Should I buy the boat? Am I crazy?

Naturally, I picked my advisers carefully: all people who would say ‘YES!’ Romantics, who don’t care for details. Remortgage my house? Sure! Spend a significant proportion of my income on berthing fees? Dreams are priceless!

Boat infatuation is intoxicating. I’m coming to realise that buying a boat is like embarking on a new relationship. The first stage is the dreamy honeymoon phase. Your love can do no wrong! Even their flaws are endearing. Looking up at the deckhead, I saw some water damage. “Hmm, it looks like the deck is leaking. I’d probably enjoy replacing the teak.” Right…

What happens next? The sugar coating will wear thin. Flaws become irritating, infuriating. Lesson 1: just like people we can’t expect boats to change. Especially older ones – they really get stuck in their ways.

Article continues below…

Second hand boats: Buying a yacht to upgrade

Among brokerage listings it’s rare to see a yacht openly advertised as ‘work needed’. After an initial conversation, the potential…

Second hand boats: How to finance a yacht

If you are one of the many boat owners who buys with cash, then great – you can saunter on…

So, the second stage is one of realisation. Realising that her slow acceleration upwind wasn’t just a bad day; it’s who she fundamentally is. Understanding that she will never be as tidy as you want her to be. And, disappointingly, she will always – always – groan and creak in her sleep at anchor.

From realisation to withdrawal. After a time, all those flaws are going to feel too overwhelming to cope with. Maybe you made a bad call? You want out? You might be getting frustrated, angry even. But you’ve committed now. There’s no easy ‘out’. No-one wants to buy an unloved boat. So, defeated, you’ll resort to apathy.

“How’s the boat going?” your enthusiastic advisers will enquire, excited at the prospect of onboard sailing holidays (the real reason they all encouraged you to buy the boat).

“Don’t even ask,” you reply, as you dream of dry earth, a house far from the sea, possibly becoming a farmer…

So why go through this pain and misery? There are thousands of repeat offenders, who are into their second, third, even fourth boat marriage. There must be a good reason? Ah, the final stage: true love. To pull in another cliché: ‘stormy seas make better sailors’.

The first phase of owning a boat is the ‘honeymoon phase’

The conflict, the aggravation, possibly depression, are all a necessary and unavoidable part of the process. If you do it right, out of fury emerges an honest acceptance of one another and a sense of deep almost connection and love. Now you have the boat of your dreams.

But dreams are never quite as imagined. The final stage: heartbreak. You lie awake at night worrying about her in a storm. You feel guilty for not maintaining her better. You reluctantly have to say no to other opportunities to spend time with her. She’ll be a tether, constantly pulling on your heart strings. And for many, many people this all gets too much to handle. And the boat goes up for sale.

So, if the economics of a boat never add up. If owning a boat is painful, slow and full of bad surprises. If there is an exceptionally high neglect and divorce rate, then why buy a boat? Why risk the heartache?

If you’re reading this you probably share my dream of sailing off into the sunset – perhaps on your own yacht. But is it worth it?

In the end, to buy a boat or not comes down to the ‘why’. The ‘why’ must be greater than all the costs. And those costs are great. So identify what that reason is. What are your deep psychological needs that a boat can fulfil? For me, it’s freedom, adventure, and beauty.

I hope the boat I end up buying will align with my values, help me be my best self, and be an extension of my soul. So, ask yourself: why? And if you have an answer, if it comes from a passion that runs deep in your veins, then welcome to the club. We share the same problem!

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

The post ‘Boat ownership is a wildly impractical love affair, and gets complicated when you’re smitten’ – Nikki Henderson appeared first on Yachting World.

Why we haven’t been matching the factory polars for our new boat? I just can’t work it out! That’s something almost every new boat owner has asked themselves at some point.

Ever felt like your boat is sluggish? Or woken up for a watch offshore, thinking you were absolutely sending it, only to find your competition or nearby boats have left you in the dust?

The speed issue is real. For racers, going faster means a trophy. For cruisers, being able to sail quickly means shorter passages, less strain on your boat, and a happier crew. And for all sailors, going fast is fun!

So how to go faster? It’s easy to get sucked into the detail. You might pick up the North U Trim book and start thinking about car positions and draught shape. Maybe you’ve made a weight saving plan, involving luggage limits or even freeze-dried food and a watermaker. Or perhaps you’ve employed a shrewd weather router for your upcoming Atlantic crossing to help pick the optimum route across.

Article continues below…

Tradewinds explained: Everything you need to know before sailing across the Atlantic

A transatlantic tradewind crossing from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean is on many a sailor’s bucket list. Endless sunny…

Sailing across the Atlantic: Bluewater veterans share top tips for your first crossing

On the afternoon before we left the Canary Islands for the Caribbean for a transatlantic with the ARC, I struck…

These are all good ideas. But when thinking about speed, there is an order of priorities to consider. And it starts with sails. Not sail trim, sail shape, traveller position, twist or foot tension… but the sail itself.

This fundamental fact is so often missed: the greatest impact the everyday sailor can make for going faster is to fly the right sails for the conditions. And once you have that nailed then the question of how to go faster is answered more elaborately. Finesse and precision such as tiny adjustments to ballast position or steering cable tension can then make a significant difference to the speed. But only once the right sail is flying.

So the typical new boat owner is likely to be making some basic errors – the same ones I’ve made so many times myself! Mistakes like flying headsails for too long without changing down; not reefing readily enough; and dropping loose-luffed sails (spinnakers and Code 0s) too early.

But why? What stops sailors flying the right sails? One factor is the crew. Are they up for it? Do you have crew keen to heave a headsail up to the bow at 0300 in 15 knots of wind, brace themselves as the boat slops over the short, broken swell, hoist up the J2, haul down the J4, and – now soaking wet – flake it, bag it and put it away all for the sake of a few knots?

That takes a certain breed of crazy. And if the wind is blowing a consistent 20 knots can the crew handle it? Can the helm keep the boat from rounding up with a building quarterly swell? Can the trimmer stay focused and keep the kite full as the boat accelerates down each wave?

Dropping a loose-luffed sail too early is just one of the many reasons we might not be hitting polars.

Another factor is you. Are you brave enough? And, bluntly, are you wealthy enough? It’s easy for a sail crossover chart to tell you the S4 will be okay up to 30 knots of wind. But have you ever flown an S4 in 29 knots when you’re 1,000 miles from the shore? Because it’s not super relaxing. Aren’t you here to have a nice time? And the urge to drop it early increases if you’re worried about the cost of the repair. Going quickly increases the risk of something breaking.

There are so many reasons why you might drop the kite at night, why you might be hesitant to shake out the reef, or why you might not want to send your crew up to the bow for the sake of speed. So how do we all go faster? The answer: nail the manoeuvres.

The greatest impact the everyday sailor can have on speed is to set the boat up well for changing sails. Some ideas: extend the sock line of your cruising chute so that it can divert from the bow back to a winch so you can drop it with mechanical assistance. Set up martin breakers to ensure a reliable de-powering of your spinnaker at any time.

Consider a top-down furling asymmetric spinnaker to avoid the need for a sock or traditional drop altogether. Upgrade or lubricate the mast track slider or car system so the mainsail drops and hoists easily. Service the sheaves in the boom for the reefing lines. Consider a furling staysail as an easy ‘power-down’ solution to your upwind sail set up so you don’t have to go splashing around on the bow at night.

In other words, set your boat up as efficiently as possible so you can get sails up and down quickly and easily. Practise the manoeuvres and build confidence. Once you have this nailed, you’ll be more likely to fly the right canvas at the right time.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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The post ‘What stops sailors flying the right sails?’ – Nikki Henderson on the power driving your boat appeared first on Yachting World.

The sailing world is small. But of the 350 or so passengers on board the Boeing 777 I took recently from Heathrow to Seattle, my seat neighbour turned out to be a French cruiser. How do you spot a sailor on a plane? Very tanned hands and feet; eats dinner with a spoon; reads Yachting World. Six hours in, one of us broke the ice: “You’re a good sleeper in uncomfortable positions!”

That launched us down all sorts of meandering seamanship conversation topics. “Can you home school and liveaboard with teenagers?” (Conclusion: it’s more fun for the parents to cruise with teenagers, and more fun for the teenagers to cruise before they are teenagers.) Or: “Why don’t many pro sailors own cruising boats over 50ft? Because we know better than to buy too big a boat – or because we can’t afford one?” (We agreed on the latter – sailors are romantics and would buy something ‘big and stupid’, or classic and even sillier if they could.)

My neighbour had a racing background in sailing. His trip to Seattle was his last before heading out to Tahiti, to work and liveaboard with his family. Sharing this dream, I asked him about his transition from racing to cruising.

He said that for him it had required a whole different mindset – he had to ‘learn to chill out’ and reorientate his passagemaking strategy. His conservative approach to night sailing could now be summed up as: “At dusk, not just the crew, but also the boat gets into her pyjamas.”

I’ve always struggled with the concept of reefing down for the night as an oversimplified preventative measure. And it’s not always the right choice: boats feel as uncomfortable when underpowered as they do when overpowered. Experienced crew get irritable when they have to sail a boat with her handbrake on.

I’ve often wondered, does this ‘rule’ just exist because people haven’t set their boats up for quick solo reefing? Because the crew aren’t trained properly? Because the skippers are nervous? Or too lazy to get out of bed?!

Article continues below…

Great Seamanship: Knocked down at Kerguélen

Originally from Noosa Heads in Queensland, Australia, Peter Freeman finally became a Canadian citizen in the 1990s, but not before…

Want to be a better skipper? Think like an instructor says Nikki Henderson

Recently I was fortunate enough to find myself on the bow during a race. Well, I thought it was fortunate…

Seamanship and making appropriate decisions

Seamanship isn’t about sailing boats slowly. It’s about sailing boats safely. It’s about making appropriate decisions for the conditions you’re in. Sometimes this means reefing down, but sometimes it doesn’t. The best sailors understand how to make this call, when to throttle back and when to power up.

Always reefing before dark just because ‘that’s the rule’ is inherently risky. Following any blanket rules blindly is not seamanlike. To make good decisions you need to be connected with the variables: people, boats, weather.

The requirement for ‘one way to do something’ is a disconnect from the reality that things don’t always go to plan. It’s as if we’re trying to sanitise sailing. Being a crew member is not like being a passenger on a plane. As much as we might want the [auto]pilot to be in control, to not have to touch the lines or the sails, and sleep all night – it’s not always possible at sea.

Having said all that, ‘putting the boat in her pyjamas’ is something I can get on board with. So, what’s the difference? ‘Reef for the night’ and ‘getting into pyjamas’ imply the same seamanlike message that everything is harder and riskier at night, so take it a bit easier while it’s dark.

The important nuance is that ‘wearing pyjamas’ is a strategic guideline while ‘reef at night’ is an operational rule. The beauty of strategy is that when applied it can result in different actions depending on the circumstance. If you have an evening ‘pyjamas’ routine, you take actions to keep within a safe limit according to the situation. But you stay flexible, and in touch with reality.

So for some nights this might mean taking a reef. For others it could mean taking down the spinnaker. For a competent crew flying an asymmetric, they might hoist a wrap net. An amateur crew sailing deep might drop the main altogether to mitigate the risk of crash gybing. Or maybe they add a preventer. And some combination of navigation lights, compass light, putting the dishes away and other bedtime habits would feature.

Since my chat with my plane neighbour I’ve been thinking of the power of these human phrases. While I don’t believe in one-size-fits-all rules, I do want to make sailing accessible. So strategic sayings might just help. Bite-sized and digestible, they’re a perfect tool for keeping you in the right lane. Some include ‘light the stage’ for manoeuvres at night; ‘one hand for you and one for the boat’ when moving around. Do you have any others?

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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The post ‘Seamanship isn’t about sailing slowly’ – Nikki Henderson appeared first on Yachting World.

Close reaching at a fast 60° TWA I was working out how far forward the outboard jib lead needed to move before setting up something more permanent.

“Where is a handy billy when you need one?” I said to my crew mate, who looked at me with an incredulous expression that so reminded me of my friend’s four-year-old son, Axel. Axel was learning how to speak on the radio with his grandfather, Dennis.

“Roger!” Dennis responded on the handheld VHF.

“Why are you talking about Roger?” Axel replied, confused. “My name is Axel.”

My crew mate’s face: “Er… Nik… Who the hell is Billy?”

So, who is Billy? I thought the same thing. After diving deep on Google, it turns out billy has many forms. The US Navy’s billy is an engine-powered portable water pump to empty out sinking compartments on a ship.

Down Under, a ‘billycan’, commonly known as a ‘billy’ is a name for another piece of emergency equipment: a metal can used to boil water for tea and coffee.

In Canada’s Pacific Northwest, a handy billy is a wooden motorboat with an outboard motor under a housing (for a quieter ride).

Sea shanties such as ‘Rio Grande’ and ‘Heave Away, Me Johnnies’ (British slang – Johnny interchanges for Billy) identify sailors as ‘bullies’, which said out loud with a pirate twang could well be ‘billies’.

And when the Geordies up in north-east England call someone a ‘billy’, they are referring to any good friend or close companion. (Note to self: derivatives of weird sailor-speak lead you down very long rabbit holes.)

The handy billy I was referring to was the naval term for a quick-grab general purpose block and tackle system. It’s a purchase system made up of lines and blocks to give you a mechanical advantage when lifting or pulling heavy loads.

Combine it with a quick release shackle at each end and a cam-cleat to lock off the line, and you can use it almost anywhere on a boat to pull something heavy. The more turning points the line makes, the greater the load you can pull with the same effort.

For example, in a 3:1 purchase system, a load of 90kg (the average man) will require a pulling power of just 30kg (much more attainable) to lift.

Article continues below…

‘Why it’s tough being the only woman on board’ – Nikki Henderson

For Leg 3 of the Ocean Globe Race, L’Esprit d’équipe (FR) and Neptune (FR) were granted dispensation to sail with…

The Race to Alaska: answering the call of the wild

“Nikki, give up the tiller for a second. You gotta see this.” Ev Goussev, co-owner of the yacht Gray Wolf,…

Moitessier fans might know the story of when his steel bowsprit on Joshua buckled sideways during his solo circumnavigation. He used a handy billy to bend it back into shape, and his fix stayed in place for the remainder of the voyage.

I like to think of the handy billy as a fancy tourniquet, the solution to a problem on board when there is no winch close by – a high-traffic piece of equipment that everyone should have ‘to-hand’, just like a multitool, a bucket, or a headtorch.

You won’t regret making or buying a handy billy. Use high spec line so that you can keep the rope slim, the blocks small, and the system lightweight. Remember the handy billy is all about convenience. Taper the splices well so they slide super smoothly on the blocks, and make sure the snap shackles on either end are big enough to clip onto most things. The handy billy has got to be versatile.

Need more convincing? There are plenty more uses, but here are half a dozen to give you the idea:

• Clip to headsail clew to temporarily remove the load off the sheets, perhaps to move a car or sort out a riding turn.
• Add a snatch block on one end and use it to divert the sheet leads or act as a barber-hauler.
• Hook one end onto lifejacket lifting strops and the other to a halyard to create a short-handed solution to recovering a crewmember out of the water.
• Attach it to the end of the boom or spinnaker pole and use it to lift large weights, such as a liferaft or outboard motor on and off the boat.
• Bulk up the number of pulleys and use it for precision placement of ultra-heavy things.
• A quick grab solution for deck level rigging failure such as a failed backstay hydraulic ram.

Come to think of it, all the derivatives could make sense when you consider the handy billy’s true identity: a sailor’s handiest companion on board! Some days it could rival a tea kettle in its frequency of use.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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The post What is a handy billy? The answer depends on where you come from appeared first on Yachting World.

Recently I was fortunate enough to find myself on the bow during a race. Well, I thought it was fortunate but appreciate that sentiment could be up for debate… I don’t get so much opportunity to play on the pointy end these days. It was fun!

I was readying the symmetric spinnaker for a bear away set. Having just fed the sheet and guy around to the starboard side and under the jib, I was bracing myself in some sort of yoga-starfish position. Right foot braced on a stanchion, left foot on the pulpit, my core muscles just about keeping me upright as I rolled the lines around to make sure they weren’t twisted before attaching them to the clew.

Thankfully, it all went up smoothly. It was a good reminder of how the slightest lapse of concentration (easy to happen when every third wave throws you in the air) with your head down in the action can leave you out of sight of the big picture. Quickly, a simple three clips to three corners can become an absolute mess.

I was up at the bow because I was teaching. I wasn’t on board working as an instructor – the crew were experienced sailors, and I was the skipper. But our kite hoists had been messy so I was demonstrating a few tricks to make things run smoother. The bow team took note, and we practised a few more times with much better results before the race that afternoon.

It can be easy to lost sight of the big picture at the bow. Photo: Richard Langdon

When I was 19, I passed my RYA Yachtmaster and the following week became an RYA Cruising Instructor. I remember how self-conscious I felt about doing the courses back-to-back, worried I’d be labelled as the over-ambitious youngster fast-tracking her way up the ladder.

But looking back, a five-day course on how to teach sailing was the perfect complement to my Yachtmaster Qualification. In fact, I’d encourage anyone who is taking a Yachtmaster to pair it with an instructor qualification. Because at the end of the day, skippers are leaders. And the greatest leaders are teachers.

“Why, oh why, do they still not know how to do this?” has asked every skipper I know at some point.

I feel the frustration! But it’s really annoying because deep down we know that it’s our fault, we just can’t think of another way to explain it. If an enthusiastic crew can’t do something, unless they have a physical incapability, they probably haven’t had the procedure explained in a way that they can understand.

Being knowledgeable is not enough for a skipper. Skippers also need to be able to communicate their knowledge to others. It’s probably the most defining factor in what makes a popular skipper. And a popular skipper with returning crew is more successful.

Article continues below…

‘What is it that makes parking a boat so tense?’ – Nikki Henderson

I distinctly remember the first time I parked a yacht with an inboard engine, badly. It was in Cowes marina…

Nikki Henderson’s advice on nurturing a high performing team

The first thing I do when I meet a new crew is gather everyone together and get each member to…

Things always go wrong at sea. There are too many unpredictable variables – humans, nature, weather, and… well… boats! Like good teachers, good skippers can turn mistakes into learning opportunities. With a good debrief, a birds eye view of what happened, an explanation of any ‘why’s, and a plan to avoid it happening again – all turn a bad day into a constructive day.

The best teachers know how to customise their communication style. They know when to give space, and when to help. They avoid the easy mistake of patronising one person by over-explaining, or leaving another feeling alone and confused by under-explaining.

And finally, good leaders are humble. A good teacher invites questions they don’t know the answer to and they nurture an open discussion-based culture in which they give and can receive feedback.

You might be thinking: this isn’t for me because I sail alone. Actually teaching others every now and then will still be valuable to you. It’s a quick way to expose gaps in your knowledge, provided you allow people to ask questions. Whenever you teach you will be reminded of the ‘by-the-book’ methods. This can shake you out of complacency and bad habits.

Right now, skippering qualifications do not put much emphasis on leadership skills, which is crazy to me. So, as a skipper we need to take this into our own hands. And I’d say that applying some teaching skills is the fastest and most effective way to improve the way you lead. Even better is to become an instructor and do it for real.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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The post Want to be a better skipper? Think like an instructor says Nikki Henderson appeared first on Yachting World.

I distinctly remember the first time I parked a yacht with an inboard engine, badly. It was in Cowes marina and I was 18 years old. One moment I was following my well thought out plan to the tee, the next we were hanging off a yacht’s guard rails by our anchor, perpendicular to the berth, closing off all through traffic.

Thirteen years on, I consider the experience a rite of passage which I feel relieved to have taken so young, before I had too much to lose.

Manoeuvring a sailing boat under power in confined spaces can raise even the most competent sailor’s heart rate. Walk the docks on a charter fleet’s changeover day, and the air will be so thick with stress and adrenaline, you too might start to feel your hands shake.

What is it that makes parking a boat so tense? The risk of damage is high. Entering a marina is like entering the dragon’s den of hard surfaces: you’re surrounded by expensive yachts, concrete walls, barnacle-encrusted pillars and wooden docks with sharp steel corners.

But it’s not just the yachts that can suffer scratches and scuffs; your pride is also at stake. Every marina has dock-watching hobbyists. Parking a boat can feel like a game in which the audience expects you to fail.

Article continues below…

‘Should we identify more with our youthful selves to drive motivation?’ – Nikki Henderson

As a team that is much younger than the rest of the competition, what superpower does that give you? That’s…

‘Why it’s tough being the only woman on board’ – Nikki Henderson

For Leg 3 of the Ocean Globe Race, L’Esprit d’équipe (FR) and Neptune (FR) were granted dispensation to sail with…

A hole in the boat, a wounded ego – these are real things to fear. But the main reason that parking a boat can cause so much anxiety is because it’s difficult!

Nailing it means moving as slowly as possible while still retaining control. It’s like walking a tightrope, and a test of your nerve. Can you hold pace just on the edge between losing steerage and going too fast (the faster the boat = the bigger the hole)? Can you feel the boat’s drift, momentum, and time your stop against the dock perfectly, reaching the point of no return just as you sink into your fenders?

Compare it to cycling – for most cyclists, playing on the edge of control is familiar. When approaching a red light junction on a road bike, if you cycle too fast you’ll pass through the traffic lights before they go green; too slow, and you’ll fall over. Ideally you can cycle just slow enough to not have to unclip from the pedals.

This requires prior planning, changing gear in advance, slowing down early, and then picking up the pace at just… the… right… time.

‘Living on the edge’ is a phrase commonly associated with recklessness. But excellent sailors aren’t reckless. Brave, yes. They’re prepared to take risks. But there’s a fine art to staying on the right side of the line. One of patience, sensitivity, and self-restraint. And manoeuvring a boat in a crowded marina is a good place to hone this skill.

Just as you might need to tolerate a temporary lull in the wind and keep the reef in, driving slowly in a crowded marina is a test of patience. The boat is more responsive if you go faster. The crew are anxious to get to the bar before last orders.

You might seem more confident zipping around the marina like you’re driving a car. But sailing is a game of risk management. And what’s riskier? Crashing into a pylon at top speed? Or drifting to a premature stop in slightly the wrong place?

A good sailor ‘feels’ a boat. Just as skis or a bicycle can become extensions of your body, the best skippers have an intrinsic connection with their boat. A sensitivity to heel, the subtle changes of speed, the drift, weight and power distribution, and the drag help you predict what the boat is about to do before it does it. Hone this depth of connection and you’ll find yourself intuitively knowing when to pull back the throttle and glide, and when to up the rpm just enough to keep water flowing over the rudder(s).

And finally, self-restraint. Sometimes pushing hard works out. But success or failure at sea is rarely decided by who went the fastest ‘that one time’. Consistency wins at sea. And consistency is about balance.

Sometimes you need to push, but sometimes you need to hold back.

Practise this in a marina. Find yourself accelerating towards a hard surface, or getting your left and right mixed up, or perhaps going too slow and losing control. The skill is to react with restraint, pushing just enough on the throttle – if at all – to minimise damage. Keeping the urge to slam on the brakes in check. And working out not how to get it perfect, but how to do just enough to stay on the right side of the line, every time.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

The post ‘What is it that makes parking a boat so tense?’ – Nikki Henderson appeared first on Yachting World.

What do you do if a halyard lock gets stuck? What if your spinnaker is wrapped? What if your mast track gets damaged and the mainsail won’t come down?

I’ve been running a webinar series based on various ‘what if’ scenarios with a community of performance catamaran sailors. Some participants were lifelong sailors, some first time boat owners, and some were preparing to start a new life as liveaboards.

Even the most experienced sailors might encounter new scenarios at sea. The best way to prepare for unexpected ‘emergencies’ is to break them down ahead of time, so it doesn’t feel entirely new in the moment. Hence the roundtable discussions.

We had been first addressing the immediate risk to the crew and boat of various ‘what ifs?’. Themes emerged. Most scenarios don’t pose imminent life-threatening danger or catastrophic boat damage, but if handled incorrectly, can quickly deteriorate.

One risk during any unforeseen situation on board is panicking crew. Most terrified people can be stabilised, if not calmed down completely, by a reassuring hand on their shoulder, looking them in the eye, calmly saying “It’s going to be OK”. Other tools include giving someone a menial task to follow so that they can regain a sense of control.

Article continues below…

How to climb a mast safely at sea – masterclass with ocean racer Pip Hare

Of all the things I have encountered over my sailing career, climbing a mast at sea is one of the…

Solo mast climb in a mid-Atlantic squall: Emma Richards’ Around Alone

In 2002, Emma Richards (now Sanderson) was the youngest person and the first British woman to finish the ‘Around Alone’…

Why waste time on a panicking crew member if your spinnaker is ripping itself to shreds? Well, you are unlikely to be able to solve that problem alone. Panicking crew don’t listen. They might pose a danger to themselves. Their mindset might be infectious.

And for the boat? Think about how to press pause and stop things worsening, eg don’t gybe or add excess side load to the track.

Figuring out how to stay safe and stabilise the situation was stage one of a three-stage framework we were using to tackle every scenario.

Stage two is to assess the situation. Collect data that you might need to take further action. We came up with questions for each scenario: did you hear a bang? Wind strength and direction? What jammers are open? Any knots in lines? Is it a forestay wrap, or is there a spare halyard in there too? Any collision risks?

Stage three is finding a solution. Ideally accompanied with a cup of tea and a biscuit to make up for the drop in blood sugar that follows a big adrenaline spike. To solve any of the three scenarios I set out at the beginning, this means figuring out how to get the sail down. And unfortunately, it might involve a mast climb.

Even for the most monkey-like riggers, going up the mast at sea is no fun. Keeping yourself stable enough to work up there is extremely physically demanding and requires engaging muscles that most of us didn’t even know existed. For short-handed crews, even just getting aloft might equate to an hour of CrossFit, either as the monkey or the ‘wincher’. It’s going to be high, exposed, and near impossible to communicate (headsets are so useful). Then add a wrapped kite, or an overpowered mainsail to the mix, and it becomes (if it wasn’t already) scary!

Initially, the horrified looks of the webinar participants didn’t phase me. Everyone has an expression like that when faced with climbing 40ft up in a 3m swell. But then I realised, this wasn’t just fear; it was a realisation that if they encountered a situation like this, they wouldn’t be able to solve it. Because none of their regular crew would have the physical or mental capacity to get up there.

When faced with an obstacle between you and your dream lifestyle, it’s tempting to brush it under the carpet. “We’ll wait until we get ashore,” or “We’re cruisers so we don’t fly spinnakers.” But things are going to get messy if you have a full main stuck up the rig with a gale on the way. Even for the most conservative cruisers there are scenarios that might require a trip aloft while offshore – rig damage, wiring issues or skyed halyards perhaps.

My closing remark to the webinar participants was straightforward. Any yacht out sailing must have someone on board who can, and is willing, to go up the rig at sea. They need to be in good physical condition for the task. There should be adequate equipment on board to go aloft and, ideally, the procedure has been practised.

If you own – or sail on – a yacht on which going aloft is not something you could currently cope with, then source the extra crew member, buy the necessary equipment, and do a ‘dry-run’ on the dock before you next slip lines.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

The post ‘Even for the most monkey-like riggers, going up the mast at sea is no fun’ appeared first on Yachting World.

As a team that is much younger than the rest of the competition, what superpower does that give you? That’s the question I asked of a group of teenagers this month during a sailing podcast interview.

Francesa Dougherty (aged 17), Isa Ford (15), Anna Cezik (16), Simone Ford (17) and Henry Thomas (15) make up a Race to Alaska team named ‘Rock the Boat’. They’re borrowing a Santa Cruz 27 and competing in this year’s 750-mile human-powered race from Port Townsend, Washington to Ketchikan, Alaska. Oh, and if you were wondering, their theme song is the one you’re thinking of. And, yes, it was released before any of them (or me) were born.

Their nervous giggling made me think they didn’t quite see themselves as superheroes. ‘Energy and enthusiasm,’ just about summarises their bashful answer. As the ‘grown up’ in the room, it is now my prerogative to reflect on what else they could have said.

Something that struck me was how able and confident they were, in such a wonderfully humble way. Most adults see this race as adventurous, if not extreme. For these teens to even believe they can do it is a mark of impressive self-assuredness. To find a boat, spend their free time training offshore with mentors, and design and build pedal drive systems to fulfil the ‘human-powered’ (rather than sail-powered) element of the race by themselves is exceptionally resourceful.

Article continues below…

The Race to Alaska: answering the call of the wild

“Nikki, give up the tiller for a second. You gotta see this.” Ev Goussev, co-owner of the yacht Gray Wolf,…

‘Why it’s tough being the only woman on board’ – Nikki Henderson

For Leg 3 of the Ocean Globe Race, L’Esprit d’équipe (FR) and Neptune (FR) were granted dispensation to sail with…

But as they detailed their ambitious plan, there was no arrogance, no cockiness, no overconfidence. Instead there was a lot of “No, you speak first!” giving each other space to talk, coupled with a lot of the aforementioned giggling. I’d be fascinated to watch their future sailing journeys unfold.

As we dug deeper into what ‘being young’ meant, they opened up. They feel an innate sense of responsibility as a young team. They have a sense of duty to be safe, make good decisions and compete at a high level, in order to set an example for other young teams, other young women, and other people of colour.

They hope to become role models in sailing for anyone else ‘who looks like them’ and lay a path that others can follow. Half an hour of talking later, I was feeling inspired – how brave, ambitious and optimistic adolescent energy is!

A true passion for something greater than the race itself – that’s their superpower. It’s that extra surge of energy they needed to go overnight training in the pouring rain last weekend. It’s the thing that will fire them up at 3am when they haven’t slept, and someone wakes them early to help with a sail change.

Team ‘Rock the Boat’. Photo: c/o Race 2 Alaska

It’s what will keep their frustration in check when someone inevitably doesn’t rehydrate dinner properly or forgets to flake the spinnaker sheet during a gybe. It will turn whatever result they have, even if they don’t make it to the finish line, into something that feels good for them.

I left the call with more questions than answers: always a sign of a thought-provoking conversation. Should we all be identifying more closely with our youthful selves, and embracing those ambitions that as adults we cast aside as naïve or inconsequential? I wonder if we are forgetting how powerful it is to go into a race, not to win, but ‘because it’s just so cool.’ Or even, ‘because we could affect the future’.

It’s easy to think that a relentless drive for first place is what elevates you to success. But the problem with the podium being the main motivator, is that if you fall back in the fleet so far that is no longer a realistic aim, your motivation disintegrates. Is success for you actually even winning? To me, they felt like winners because they wanted to inspire others, and I was inspired just talking to them. The race is still two months out.

The time has probably passed for any of us to believe we can change the world by racing to St Malo one weekend. But perhaps we could still find a golden thread – a deeper driver than just results – to weave into our upcoming season. (Cole Brauer making history in a hat emblazoned with the words WILD FEMINIST comes to mind, and remember, she didn’t win).

What would my greater motivation be for the summer? What would be yours? What difference could that make to us all if we flipped what ‘winning’ looks like on its head?

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

The post ‘Should we identify more with our youthful selves to drive motivation?’ – Nikki Henderson appeared first on Yachting World.

The first thing I do when I meet a new crew is gather everyone together and get each member to introduce themselves. It’s a pretty common thing for team leaders to do whether on land or sea.

For the RORC Caribbean 600 race this year, 12 of us sat together sweltering under the boom tent and spent over an hour on this introduction. Alongside the usual, “How do you like to be called?” and “What’s your sailing experience?” I asked, “What are you hoping to get out of this experience?” and “What are you feeling nervous about?”

For many, this whole process can feel like a waste of time. A life story about the challenges someone overcame to go sailing isn’t relevant, right? What we need to know is: can you trim a sail? We’re going racing. We’re not here to sail 600 miles for therapy.

But brushing off the importance of getting to know the individuals on the team is old fashioned and narrow minded. High performing teams are not made from high performance robots, and it would be naïve to think that a win over a multi-day race is simply the result of polishing up hard skills.

Giving each member of the team a dedicated time slot to talk about themselves has so many benefits. It plants the seed for an inclusive culture; everyone speaks, so this is a team in which every person is equally valued. It reinforces the value of listening, both up and down the chain of command.

Article continues below…

‘Why it’s tough being the only woman on board’ – Nikki Henderson

For Leg 3 of the Ocean Globe Race, L’Esprit d’équipe (FR) and Neptune (FR) were granted dispensation to sail with…

The Race to Alaska: answering the call of the wild

“Nikki, give up the tiller for a second. You gotta see this.” Ev Goussev, co-owner of the yacht Gray Wolf,…

This is critical if you want your crew to catch your blind spots and speak up if they see a safety or performance related issue on the racecourse. And if you choose – as I did – to ask deeper questions than a resumé summary, it inspires openness and trust.

A trusting team doesn’t waste time second guessing or micromanaging one another. Less time-wasting on these ‘soft’ issues means faster sailing.

Saying all that, I left the meeting second guessing how I should have answered my own questions.

“Do you think I should have ‘bigged’ myself up more?” I asked Alex, my co-skipper. So many skippers reel off all their achievements to instil confidence. I missed a few important ones. Was I foolish to admit that I was feeling the nag of imposter syndrome?

Alex made an astute observation: as a skipper, ground yourself on the purpose of these meetings. The aim of that meeting was to begin building the team. It wasn’t a meeting to polish my ego. And if I’d used that meeting to elevate my sense of self-importance, I’d have risked making everyone else feel smaller. He felt that honesty and humility was apt for the occasion.

But is it that cut and dry? Is there a place for ego in sailing? Surely ego is an important part of a drive to win? Perhaps in solo sailing, but with team sailing ego is unhelpful. An inflated sense of self-importance, a feeling of being ‘higher’ than your team, impedes your own learning.

Very early sunrise and freshly brewed coffee for Nikki Henderson as she starts a watch

Ironically, by focusing on your ‘greatness’ you risk flatlining your own progression. A steep hierarchical structure on a boat can create a chasm between leader and crew. The skipper can end up relying too heavily on their own opinions. This is especially risky when combined with lack of sleep and physical exertion – risky for performance, yes, but also for safety.

A friend of mine is a leading executive in the tech industry. It’s commonly thought, she explained, that success comes from pleasing those more powerful than you, and thus you rise to the top of the ladder. But the real mark of success comes when you get there.

The real leaders are those who bring people with them up the food chain. When you need to hire a new team on short notice, have you won the support of those that you’ve led in the past? Will they choose to follow you again?

I took this to heart. We all have a choice as leaders. We can use our moment in the spotlight to promote ourselves – the team will have confidence in your skills for sure – but what of you as a leader? Much better to use your position of power to shine a light on the rest of the team.

So, in that first introduction, rather than listing off your accomplishments, join your crew at their level and admit your weaknesses as well as your strengths. You’ll gain their confidence and their trust. They’ll believe you are there for them, and in turn they’ll be there for you – motivated to work hard, and sail fast.

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For Leg 3 of the Ocean Globe Race, L’Esprit d’équipe (FR) and Neptune (FR) were granted dispensation to sail with an all-male crew. The Notice of Race stipulates that every yacht must sail with a mixed crew, which is defined as a crew where there is at least one woman. In the Ocean Globe Race (OGR) newsletter, race organisers explained that the teams had found it ‘too difficult to find crew members at such short notice during the festive season’.

The Race Committee found this a valid enough reason to permit both yachts to compete without suffering a penalty.

For context, there are time and financial penalties outlined throughout the Notice of Race for not complying with the rules of safety equipment inspections, not attending media photo shoots, or not conforming to Ocean Globe Race branding. It’s interesting the OGR does not regard having a mixed team as critical to its brand.

This news was highlighted to me via the Women who Sail Facebook group. As you can imagine, the story inspired the voicing of some strong opinions. But you might be assuming that the response was negative, criticising the OGR management or full of disparaging comments about all-male crews.

That assumption would be wrong.

The major theme that caught the attention of over 100 women on this group was about how hard it is to be the ‘only’ woman on board.

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In an interview quoted in the OGR’s own press release, Capucine Treffot – who transferred from L’Esprit d’équipe after two legs – said: “It’s tough being the only woman on board. There is some stuff you can’t share and sometimes you feel really alone.

“I’d made very good friends on the boat, so I’m not missing friends, I’m missing another woman on board. A mixed crew should mean more than just one woman. It should actually be really mixed.”

Finding a woman who can sail is not that difficult. Every year the Magenta Project is inundated with applications from women to join its mentoring scheme. There are over 20,000 members of the Women who Sail Facebook group.

In the context of the OGR, Maiden is evidence that bolstering a crew with women is possible; they have managed to fill their entire boat with women. What’s more, both boats lost their sole woman not because they didn’t enjoy the race but because they too wanted to join the Maiden crew.

Therefore, the conclusion is that the real challenge if we want to diversify our sport is not to find women but to retain them.

Team SCA was an all-female entry into the Volvo Ocean Race

The OGR has proven that requiring a minimum of one woman on a crew is a way to bolster numbers getting involved, but it doesn’t address how long women stay on board. Perhaps those who are making and enforcing the rules do not fully understand women; I wonder how many of them are women?

The rule that there must be a woman on board is not diversifying this sport – you could argue it’s doing the opposite. Maiden is repeating history in more ways than one – just as in the Whitbread race of 1989, a women’s team in 2023 was again competing against all-male teams in what is classed as a ‘mixed sport’.

From my experience, the culture aboard a yacht becomes more inclusive the more diverse the team becomes, making 50:50 male-to-female crews more attractive to everyone. Adventure charter company 59° North has recently reserved two spots for women on its trips to avoid there being just one, and reported an increase in women signing up to over 30% of their overall crew numbers.

A Harvard Business Review also supports this theory. On investigating how to boost the proportion of women in boardrooms, they concluded that: ‘Solo women feel isolated and marginalised. Adding a second woman helps reduce the sense of isolation, [but] two women may be perceived as a separate group. A clear shift occurs when boards have three or more women. At that critical mass, women tend to be regarded not as “female directors” but as directors.’

The lesson I see for anyone hoping to sail with a mixed gender crew this season is to make sure you recruit more than just one woman. Ideally look to build a crew made up of at least three women. In theory, this should be all you need to retain women crew and avoid drop-outs.

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Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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Gripped by the nail-biting battle at the finish for line honours of the Sydney Hobart race, as the leaders were heading up the Derwent River, I was 455 miles east of Martinique on day 14 of a transatlantic, glued to updates through a temperamental Starlink connection.

It was the second-closest finish in race history. It never ceases to blow my mind that a 600-mile race can come down to seconds.

We’ve all said it before when racing (particularly when you are at the back!): “It’s not over, until it’s over. Anything can happen.” But it’s when we see a finish like that, where we are reminded that nothing is set in stone until the finish gun sounds. Things can change quickly – a breakage on one of the front runner boats, an underdog’s flyer suddenly paying off, or simple human error can make what seems impossible suddenly within grasp.

Close finishes happen in all sports. But there’s something particularly engrossing about a cliffhanger end to an endurance race. That contrast between the closeness of the finish and the length of the competition sparks strong. It’s why the media goes wild for a sprint finish battle of the Tour de France after a gruelling 170km stage of riding – exhaustion and elation together.

But it’s not just the length of these races that makes close finishes in endurance events so amazing. There is something deeper that ties together a 12-hour ironman and 12-day trans-ocean sailing. Success in these kinds of competitions is not just about ‘going faster’. Endurance events are as much about humanity as they are about sport.

How do you consistently perform over a long period of time? How do you manage rest and nutrition? What importance do you put on mental and emotional wellbeing? When should you take your foot off the gas, and when should you make your move to push forward? Do you carry all the tools to fix breakages and weigh yourself down, or do you play conservatively and gamble on not incurring damage? Is it worth using energy to maintain team dynamics? Should you ever prioritise speed over safety?

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There is so much more to weigh up than first meets the eye. What looks like a simple question of ‘how do we make the boat go as fast as possible?’ becomes an intricate web of decisions that are more about the humans than the machine. LawConnect finishing just 51 seconds before Comanche isn’t just down to having consistency of speed or a fast boat (quite the opposite, in fact, owner Christian Beck gave a self-deprecating speech at the prizegiving, in which he admitted that LawConnect, which he referred to as a ‘sh*tbox’, was not as fast or well-funded as their rivals).

Instead it’s down to a consistency of behaviour, a winning culture and team ethos. It’s a delicate push and pull balancing the skipper and tactican’s gut feeling of when to play it safe one minute, versus the conviction to take a risk the next. And when the finish comes down to the wire, we all naturally want to know, of this complex tapestry of ‘winning factors’, which one was the key to victory?

As our sport becomes faster, and the boats look more like space-ships than sailing vessels, we understandably attribute more and more of the success story to technology, mechanics, and engineering excellence. But let’s never forget that it doesn’t matter how good the equipment is if we still rely on sailors to operate it.

Offshore racing stretches not only the craft, but also the crew, to their limits. Understanding how to get the most out of people is just as, if not more, important as the techy bits. Leadership, empathy, sensitivity – understanding psychology – these softer skills win races (in the right boat of course).

So, when watching any race finish, look to the human side of the success story if you want to really understand it and learn from it. There is an immense depth to offshore and ocean racing.

In fact, there’s an immense depth to any kind of sailing when it involves long passages. As I’m out here, writing from the mid-Atlantic, I can attest! Our safe passage has been more than just good weather routing and a strong boat. It’s been about getting the most out of the tools at hand – the most valuable of which is the people on board.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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The post ‘Nothing is set in stone until the finish gun’ – Nikki Henderson appeared first on Yachting World.

“Nikki, give up the tiller for a second. You gotta see this.” Ev Goussev, co-owner of the yacht Gray Wolf, shoved the binoculars in my hand. “Just there. That beach. That’s bear territory, for sure.” A shady stretch of sand lay a quarter of a mile to our starboard during the Race to Alaska. Looking through the lenses, I could see the tide gently rippling past the remains of old logs and bracken washed up on the shore.

Scanning left and right to see if there was any life out there, I almost got lost among the trees. So many trees, so thick, so old – so untouched by humankind. For sure, this place was inaccessible by land. Beyond it were hundreds of miles of dense forest, grizzly bears and uncharted wilderness. I guess some people might view this a desolate wasteland. I’d describe it as an untainted paradise. I wondered how many people had even seen this beach.

Meanwhile, with a dying wind, we were struggling to make headway against the 2-knot ebb. From recumbent bike seats at the transom, crewmembers Maisie and Andy were toiling on pedal drives connected to propellers at the stern of Gray Wolf, a replacement for the removed Beta engine.

The Race to Alaska starts at Port Townsend, British Columbia, and runs 750 miles to Ketchikan, Alaska

Gray Wolf is Jeanne and Ev Goussev’s family boat, a 40ft monohull built in 1995 from cold moulded cedar by Lyman-Morse in Maine. She has an unstayed rig we affectionately referred to as ‘the tree trunk’, a tapering, hollow stick of hand-laid carbon that bends in the wind like a branch so that she depowers her square-topped main independently, increasing twist and spilling air on each puff. Just over a tonne of water ballast adds a little extra when it starts blowing.

The Race to Alaska – the R2AK as it is known – is a 750-mile adventure race that takes place annually in early June. Jake Beattie, executive director of the Northwest Maritime Centre, and some pals came up with the idea late one night during the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend, Washington. “Imagine if we challenged people to a race from here to Alaska,” he mused. “And Rule Number 1: no engines.”

Like many good ideas, its absurdity made it irresistible.

Grizzly bear standing in the morning mist in British Columbia: the Race 2 Alaska passes remote areas of deep forest. Photo: Alamy

In 2015 he launched the first edition. Expecting only a couple of people crazy enough to sign up, Jake planned the opening party at his house in the woods. He lit the bonfire, put on a pot of chilli, and waited for a handful of people to show up. But something about the race inspired people. That first year 39 teams entered.

Jeanne Goussev called me to say she was doing the R2AK again. “Come with us,” she added.

Jeanne and I met in Seattle back in 2018, having just sailed in from China with the Clipper Round the World Race. We became friends and the following year I joined her The Race to Alaska Team ‘Sail Like a Girl’. In Jeanne’s words: “People do this race because they are running away from something or running towards something.”

After the intense responsibility of skippering a team in the Clipper Race, I was looking for a less regulated, more light-hearted adventure. That year, we finished 4th on her Melges 32, Maks to the Moon.

Monkey Fist crew using pedal auxiliary power. Photo: Joe Cline/R2AK

Yearning for adventure

Now I was back again, and mainly because of the community atmosphere. The Race to Alaska attracts people who have a lightness of spirit and a yearning for adventure.

The team for the 2023 Race to Alaska were Jeanne and Ev Goussev, local racers Lindsay Lind and Remy Lang, liveaboard cruiser John Guillote, R2AK veteran Maisie Bryant, windsurfer Andy Kleitch, and me.

Knowing it could be anything from five days of fast sailing to 15 days of pedalling if winds were light, Jeanne and Ev put together the team carefully. We had enough racing and offshore experience to navigate the course safely and competitively, but also have a laugh.

Two-stages of the Race to Alaska

The race is split into two stages. The first is known as ‘The Proving Ground’ and is a qualifying leg designed to filter out ahead of the 750-mile main event any vessels and crews that aren’t seaworthy.

At 0501 on Monday 5 June the starting cannon fired for the first 40-mile stage. It was hard to hear over the Red Army Choir’s rousing rendition of the old Soviet National Anthem blasting through the speakers (apparently that’s still funny in formerly Russian Alaska).

To starboard, the sun was rising over the Cascade Mountain Range, and to port the full moon was still visible, setting above Port Townsend. The aroma of bacon and eggs (my British contribution) wafted up from down below.

On board Gray Wolf at a busy start. Photo: John Guillote

Immediately, we were playing a game of chess with our fellow competitors in a fleet that included kayakers, rowing boats, monohulls skippered by solo sailors, trimarans and a wing foiler. Ev and Jeanne were bickering (co-skippering with your spouse is hard) about whether to stay left or right of the exclusion zone in the middle of Puget Sound.

The tension was broken as we very nearly ran aground the wrong side of a red buoy, but we arrived in Victoria before lunch, less than an hour ahead of a solo kayaker.

The start of Stage 2 is from Victoria, British Columbia, to Ketchikan, Alaska. There is just one waypoint: the tiny and remote town of Bella Bella in Northern BC. Any teams that traverse the 40 miles north of the ‘Proving Ground’ course, from Washington to Canada, within the allotted 36 hours without getting rescued go on to qualify for this stage.

Competitors must rely solely on wind or human power for propulsion. Disabling your motor is not an option; even inboard engines must be removed. No exclusive support is permitted, but anything that would be available to all competitors is fair game, so if you get hungry and fancy going ashore for a Big Mac or a craft beer, it’s OK.

Everything from kayaks to paddleboards take part in the adventure. Photo: Joe Cline/R2AK

You can borrow a can of bear spray from a hunter in the forest, or make friends with the guy down the dock with a welding shop in his garage (yes, these people exist up there and can fix up your steering quadrant as you go) but you can’t have a support crew standing by on shore. Disqualification is the penalty for poor sportsmanship. If a lawyer needs to be consulted for any reason, you’re automatically disqualified.

The event is somewhat anarchic, but the Race to Alaska manages to retain just the right balance of wit, responsibility and humility to be taken seriously. And rightly so. Fellow R2AK veterans, among them world record holders, Vendée Globe sailors and athletes, can all agree that navigating this route in late spring is no joke.

Some years, northerlies blow straight down from Alaska’s glaciers. These icy winds funnel through the mountains, accelerate off every headland and churn up the shallow waters of Hecate Straits into an almost impassable short, sharp chop. This forces the fleet inshore to endure relentless tacking marathons to snake up the inland waterways, most of which are barely more than a mile wide.

Humpback whale off Vancouver Island. Photo: HP Canada/Alamy

On other years, a Pacific depression might pass north and bring with it warm southerlies and powerful fronts. Thick sea fog can cloak the entire course as the warm southerly air flow meets these waters, still cold from winter. Competitors then have to blind-navigate the rocky shores, dodging partially submerged logs (a by-product of the logging industry), turbulent rapids, and currents exceeding double digits without actually being able to see much beyond the bow of their boat.

Don’t break the law

To make Gray Wolf race-ready, Ev had removed her Beta engine and wired up an EFOY fuel cell, which uses ethanol. He built a frame on the transom, added two recumbent bike seats and connected pedal drives to a couple of three-blade baby bronze propellers. They’d be more efficient than oars, and we’d use them when the boat speed dropped below 3 knots. Faster than that, they’d create more drag than propulsion.

For our team name we chose ‘We Brake for Whales’, an environmental message with a nod to the TV comedy Braking for Whales.

Stage 2 began on the pavement above the Victoria Inner Harbour Docks, a Le Mans-style start just before noon on 8 June. We were reminded of the main rule: “Don’t break the law”, and given a few final words of guidance: “Watch out for bears. Avoid the logs.”

Then, after a “3, 2, 1 Go!” everyone rushed down the steps to their boats and set off in a competitive frenzy. Hoisting sails is forbidden in Victoria Harbour, so after the sprint starts there was half an hour of chaos as 25ft monohulls with 20ft of oars vied for water with trimarans, our 40ft yacht, local ferries and even float planes.

Strategically, the race is fascinating. There’s just one compulsory waypoint among the myriad islands, so the route options are endless. Heavy tides create frequent opportunities for the fleet to restart. It’s a nailbiter all the way to the finish.

Gray Wolf is a 40ft one-off design built by Lyman-Morse that was modified for the event including removing the engine. Photo: John Guillote

Inside or outside?

The first big decision is whether to go outside or inside Vancouver Island. You have to weigh up whether to turn right out of Victoria and head for the consistent winds offshore, or turn left and risk light air, rapids, and logs in search of flat seas and better wind angles. This remained a theme for the entire course: weave through narrow waterways or brave open water.

Our priorities were safety, fun, fast sailing, and the spirit of R2AK – in that order. So we opted to sail inside Vancouver Island. We applied the same logic throughout the whole race, ducking inside when the wind was heavy and poking our noses outside when it dropped off.

Author Nikki Henderson on the bow. Photo: John Guillote

The most notorious divider of the fleet falls 180 miles after start. Seymour Narrows is a three-mile section of Discovery Passage, cutting between the mountains of Vancouver Island and mainland of British Columbia. The tidal streams here can exceed 15 knots.

Some 36 hours into the race, we were gybing up Campbell River, 10 miles south of Seymour Narrows looking for the safest way to wait out the tide. Do we anchor or hook a mooring buoy? Do we dock alongside a pontoon? Mid-discussion, the Navionics track showed us sailing a reciprocal COG. With no real plan or preparation, we slipped towards the nearest shore and threw the anchor over the side.

Before I did the race, I’d read reports of the ‘crazy’ tidal waters and put it down to hyperbole. How wrong I was. As we sipped bourbon waiting for darkness to fall, a whirlpool appeared just 50m away, and its centre was at least a metre lower than the surrounding water.

The rare spectacle of a pod of humpback whales bubble feeding. John Guillote

The entire length of the course is bordered by rugged mountains, which plunge underwater as steeply as they soar into the sky. The submarine cliffs and fast tidal flows paint mesmeric patterns of swirling lines on the surface of the water, and fork out tributaries that run like rivers.

Sailing these waterways is like running along a highway on the wrong side of the road, but the oncoming traffic is in the form of logs. A head-on collision with some of these would end your race, if not sink the boat. “Keep watch at all times” is a rule respected even by crazy adventurers.

Vancouver Island’s inside passage. Photo: John Guillote

A rugged passage

In the middle of this turbulence, we lifted anchor then cycled 15 miles on an inshore eddy to sneak through Seymour Narrows in the dead of night.

The moment we poked our noses out of the lee of the cliffs, the prevailing 25 knot winds hit us head on and smacked us sideways. Johnstone Straits is the race’s next challenge: a 100-mile long intestine of water that competitors must navigate in order to round Cape Caution and make it back to open water. Seymour Narrows divides the fleet, but the Straits can destroy it.

Ferocious winds funnelled down the mountains and decimated our competitors. The short head sea was particularly punishing for the multihulls. Many of the lightweight tris suffered structural damage. Exhausted short-handed crews were forced to stop and rest at anchor. A couple of boats hit rocks. After 24 hours and 63 tacks, we made it through battered, bruised but in one piece.

Ev and Nikki deliberate how to navigate light winds on the approach to Ketchikan. Photo: John Guillote

The latter 350 miles of the R2AK is more of a rugged voyage. The course widens and boats disappear from sight of one another as you sail into the wilderness. You are out there in bear territory.

By day four, we were resting up in anticipation of a gale that was forecast to blow in by dinner time.

Suddenly someone shouted: “Whales. Everyone wake-up!” I scrabbled on deck to see a pod of humpbacks bubble-feeding nearby. Perhaps 10 of them, together with their babies, were blowing air up and swimming around in circles.
We huddled on deck to watch. The whales dived, the water settled, then they reared out of the water, mouths open wide as they fed in unison.

As is often the case, the further you get from civilisation, the closer you draw to the people around you. There’s a richness of memories in the smaller moments as well as the grand experiences.

Party atmosphere and a slightly anarchic vibe are traits of the R2AK. Photo: John Guillote

Our race ended by ringing the winners’ bell together in Ketchikan, damp, and slightly bruised. Opening the cast iron wood burning stove of Ketchikan’s local fish house, race director Jesse Wiegal pulled out the winner’s prize, $10,000 nailed to a log (there is only one other prize, a set of steak knives for 2nd place). Before handing it over, he asked us to describe the Race to Alaska.

Ev, not often a man of brevity, answered with just one word: “Adventure.”

For some the R2AK adventure begins with building a boat in their backyard. Yet others see the challenge as an individual physical test, perhaps to completing 750 miles on a paddleboard, pitching camp every night and keeping watch for grizzly bears.

We hadn’t defined our adventure before we set out. And maybe that’s the key: to embark on a journey without really knowing what you’ll find.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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The post The Race to Alaska: answering the call of the wild appeared first on Yachting World.

If you’re contemplating buying a multihull for bluewater sailing, be it a new one or a brokerage yacht, what equipment and spec should you be thinking about? The choices you make could determine much of your experience along the way, from comfort at sea to safety, but you don’t want costs to mount up unnecessarily. Where’s the right place to draw the line?

For this feature, we consulted two very experienced bluewater sailors with oceans of multihull miles behind them, catamaran owner Chet Chauhan and coach Nikki Henderson, for advice and guidance.
Here, they look at what they consider the most important priorities, from downwind sail choices to energy requirements – and not neglecting essentials such as a robust workhorse tender.

It is aimed squarely at speccing a multihull, but many of their recommendations would be applicable to bluewater yachts of any type.

safety in numbers – a good way to get into the groove of bluewater cruising is to sail with others in events like the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC). Photo: James Mitchell

Sail choices and rigging options

Nearly all bluewater catamarans will come with slab reefing, which is simple and durable. Make this system work as efficiently as possible. Check what your mainsail car system is, and possibly upgrade the cars to ones with roller bearings to reduce friction. The smoother the mainsail can drop, the better.

Fit downhaul lines for each reef on the luff to make downwind reefing easier. Ideally, run these back to the same winch station as the reefing lines and halyard. On that note, the ability to reef from one place is important. Running back and forth from port to starboard to control reefing lines and halyards is not practical and increases the risk of a slip or a fall. Check that the winch layout allows that.

When it comes to headsails, buy more than one for redundancy. If your budget is limited, make your extra sail the storm headsail. If you can afford it, choose a blade headsail as well for your ‘everyday’ headsail, and a higher clewed, larger reaching headsail for long downwind legs.

Headsails made from laminate sail cloth and fitted with extra UV protection when furled are a worthy investment. They weigh less, which makes changing sails short-handed much easier.

A tidy cockpit with winches and lines to hand of the helm (plus tailing lockers) is most practical. Photo: Andreas Lindlahr/EYOTY

If you opt for a spinnaker or other loose-luffed sail, getting it down easily is critical. The sock system you choose to douse it needs to be robust. I find that fibreglass rings work best.

Lengthen the sock-line so that it can run down through a block on the foredeck and back to a winch sited aft, close to where the sheets are controlled; this will make dousing the sail easier. Wobbling around on the bow getting your legs caught up in the sock line isn’t fun.

When it comes to asymmetrical sails, it’s all about furlers. Stick with the traditional furlers for a Code 0 or a flatter gennaker, and consider a top-down furler for a true asymmetric.

Unless you’re a performance-orientated sailor buying a performance catamaran, the ability to sail dead downwind is important. Ideally, invest in a symmetric spinnaker.

If you have a performance catamaran, first buy a heavy spinnaker to withstand any squalls. For cruisier catamarans, choose a lighter and larger S2 because it will help in lighter airs and you won’t have the acceleration to safely sail through a squall with it up anyway. If you are limited in budget, not a confident spinnaker sailor, or want a more robust heavy weather option for dead downwind sailing, poled out twin headsails (jib/genoa) is a great alternative. Just make sure you have two tracks in your headsail foil.

Spinnakers need a reliable dousing method – leading control lines to these winches aft makes more sense than foredeck work. Photo: Andreas Lindlahr/EYOTY

For controlling all the sails, lines that run aft to inboard winches are much easier than lines that run to winches by or at the mast only. At the very least, you should be able to hoist and drop the mainsail and adjust reefing lines and headsail sheets from a position where you can also see a chartplotter and adjust the helm manually.

Ready for heavy weather

I recommend having your mainsail built with three reefs. But before requesting this, check the boom has the space for three sheaves, or even four if you have an adjustable outhaul at the aft end – sailmakers and riggers don’t always communicate with custom changes.

If you have a furling headsail and no inner forestay, ensure your storm headsail can be hoisted over the top of it. To my mind, an inner forestay is the better option for a storm headsail, as you can rig it ahead of time to be ready if the weather worsens. It’s also arguably less physical a task to hank on a headsail than it is to slide one over the top of the jib or genoa right at the bow.

If you are cruising anywhere you could meet major rough weather, I’d buy a series drogue. This will help you slow the boat down. Tying warps together is also an option, but lean on the rope option as a plan B. Don’t rely on mooring lines for this as they’ll be unlikely to fit on your winches. Whichever you use, practise it so that you don’t have to invent it in anger.

a protected helm or ability to steer from a protected position is recommended. Photo: Andreas Lindlahr/EYOTY

Cockpit security

If you sail with children, an enclosed cockpit (or a way of enclosing it) is important to create the boundaries they need to have an essence of freedom. The same goes for pets.

An enclosed cockpit not only protects the crew from falling out, but also prevents water from coming in. Tradewind sailing comes with big swells, and the acceleration and deceleration – which is especially pronounced when sailing deep downwind with a symmetric spinnaker – can occasionally result in big quantities of water flooding the aft decks. An enclosed cockpit is the ideal, but you could also consider fitting removable barriers if you prefer the option to be able to walk straight from the saloon into the water on anchor.

Safety gear and features

Many catamarans have a helm station that is only accessible from climbing up a ladder or stairs which are very far aft, without any real protection from falling backwards straight into the sea. I recommend choosing a boat that has a more protected helm access. This will also improve visibility. A helm that is low down and far aft could obstruct the view and communication to the bow on the opposite hull.

What it’s all about: bluewater cruising at Fakarava Atoll in the stunning Tuamotus of the South Pacific. Photo: Jim Hooper/SV Polaris

For man overboard scenarios, a drop-down ladder on the side deck that can be deployed quickly is important. While the stern seems the obvious recovery location, it is not the ideal first point of contact with a crewmember in the water due to the proximity to the propellers.

A hanging ladder provides the casualty with something to hold onto initially. On the topic of ladders, ensure the ladder on the stern is deployable from the water in case you forget to put it down before jumping in for a refreshing dip while at anchor!

Think carefully about jackstay placement. Jackstays that run along the stanchions on the outboard-most part of the vessel can actually be a hazard; if you fall overboard while clipped on, you will drag in the water. Look for ways, or ask the manufacturer, to run jackstays further inboard. You need to be able to get to the helm, to the mast, and to the bow while always being clipped on. I would advise investigating this early in the build, as extra strong points may need to be fitted.

A chartplotter and comms at the helm are vital. Photo: Andreas Lindlahr/EYOTY

A crew overboard emergency GPS button, a VHF transmitter, and a chartplotter or iPad/iPhone holder at the helm are, for me, deal-breakers.

They are arguably more important on catamarans than monohulls as the distance between the helm and the navigation station can be substantial and involve several flights of stairs.

Water

I sailed halfway around the world without a watermaker and have just completed another half with a watermaker, and I can say the difference in comfort is profound. We no longer have the constant anxiety of finding good water sources and we have the luxury of taking a shower everyday.

A DC rather than AC watermaker is the way to go so you are not reliant on a generator. But even if you do have a watermaker, you also need a way to purify the water. Yes, watermakers do produce the purest water, but after sitting in your tanks without chlorine for a few days in the tropical heat, bacteria and viruses can grow. You could add chlorine every time you make water but it is hard to keep track of the concentration.

A good solution is to add a separate tap in the galley for drinking water that goes through a carbon filter and ideally UV light as well to kill any remaining pathogens. Some units also have filters that add back calcium and other minerals that watermakers remove.

Anchoring

A bulletproof anchoring setup is a critical consideration since the majority of the time you will be on the hook. Modern anchors (Rocna, Spade, Manson, Ultra etc) are very reliable across the majority of the seabeds you will encounter.

Bigger is always better but, with catamarans being weight sensitive, a good compromise is to get an anchor only one size above what the manufacturer recommends. Couple that with around 70-80m of high test chain that has better strength to weight ratio and a sturdy bridle and you are all set – literally!

Lastly, the chain hook that connects the bridle to the chain is something that should not be overlooked. If you are anchored in shallow water and the bridle is slack and resting on the seabed, the chain hook could easily come off. To prevent this, it is good to have a hook that is secured with a pin or bolt.

Your dinghy is like your car – luckily catamarans allow for large davits and therefore large dinghies. Photo: Parallel Sea Productions

Tender dinghy

Cruising sailors always say their dinghy is their car, and like your car it’s often the limiting factor on how much stuff and people you can transport. So get the biggest dinghy that can fit on board or on davits, but not so heavy that it affects the trim and therefore the performance of your boat.

You will also need a good tender anchor that can hold the dinghy in 20-knot wind and waves for when you are snorkelling or diving, but also in an emergency if the outboard engine cuts out and you can’t row against the wind or current.

In a lot of remote places you will have to beach the dinghy to land, so having a good pair of dinghy wheels can make it a lot easier and will spare your back.

Lastly, many dinghies are sadly stolen so it’s wise to secure it with a sturdy chain and the biggest padlock you can find.

Good wheels are key for beaching. Photo: Parallel Sea Productions

Handover and after-care

Anyone planning to sail thousands of miles from land really needs to understand their boat back to front, and with a new boat the role of the manufacturer is critical. A quick six-hour run through where you are given the keys and shown how to turn the engine on is not a sufficient handover.

Before you buy, find out as much as you can about the length of time and training you are going to receive on handover and the expertise of the people who will be giving that handover. They should be sailors or engineers and not sales staff.

Ask also about the quality of the manual, as-built drawings, plumbing and wiring diagrams that come with the boat. You are going to need these. Will they be enough to troubleshoot problems?

Before you buy, find out as much as you can about the length of time and training you are going to receive on handover and the expertise of the people who will be giving that handover. Photo: Andreas Lindlahr/EYOTY

Find out more, too, about the length and commitment of the warranty (and ask other owners for their experiences). If there are major issues with the build, will they be covered? How will it be dealt with?

A strong community of owners of the same brand of boat as yours will be invaluable. There are many very active owners’ associations and groups, and they are worth their weight in gold, so if they have some sort of forum to communicate on, this is a huge plus. It will be a resource for helping troubleshoot problems, find crew and also to make friends.

Bluewater sailing can be an isolating venture, and a sense of camaraderie and practical support among owners of the same type of boat as yours will mean more and buy you more than you might expect.

The balance of power

When preparing a boat for bluewater cruising, one of the most critical considerations has to be energy. How are you going to power the instruments, autopilot, lights, fridges, laptops and all the appliances you can’t live without?

It’s important to first start with a calculation of how much energy you plan to use at anchor and underway. This means having a list of all the energy consuming equipment, coupled with the amount of energy they consume in a 24-hour period. You should come up with a table something like this, which is based on typical energy consumption at sea for us as a couple on our Nautitech 46.

This will show you how much energy you need, and help you size the boat’s energy sources as well as that of the house battery.

You’ll tend to use a lot more power underway because of the autopilot and instruments, but it’s also worth remembering that you’ll be spending a lot of your time at anchor. Ideally you want to optimise your energy sources so that renewables cover your energy usage at anchor on most days.

There are many ways to power a boat, each with their pros and cons.

Catamarans do have the advantage of having a lot of space to fit solar panels. This is why it’s better to go all-in on solar first before adding other sources of energy. A transom solar arch works very well because it’s not shaded by the hoisted mainsail, and the solar panels can dissipate heat more effectively than if fitted on the coachroof, which increases their output.

Once you max out on panels on the arch, add them to the roof but these will produce less. On the curved surfaces of the roof, flexible panels fit better but are about 20% less efficient than rigid panels so factor this into your energy projections.

With a solar arch and additional panels on the roof, you’re likely to have enough power to meet all your energy needs at anchor on most days, although obviously this depends on where you are cruising. In a Mediterranean summer with up to 16 hours of sunlight and cloudless skies, you’ll have little problem topping up the batteries. In the tropics you are looking at 12-hour days with 20% cloud cover on average.

Use a cat’s real estate for solar, starting at the davits. Photo: James Mitchell

A rough rule of thumb is to divide your total solar capacity by five (low end) or three (high end) to get your output in amp hours. For example, 1,200W should give around 240-400Ah per day. Finally, to maximise output it’s important to have separate MPPT controllers for every large panel or every 400W.

On passage, with the autopilot working hard and the mainsail shading the solar panels, you may need additional sources of power. Topping up with the alternators is a cheap way to cover this if it’s only for a few hours a day. Installing high output alternators can halve this time, and some people install hydro generators and wind generators, which also have their pros and cons.

Calculate the power usage of every electric device on board. Photo: Billy Black

From our observations in anchorages around the world, more and more boats are getting rid of gensets. This is partly due to better solar and lithium battery technology but also because of new 12V air conditioning systems. And when sailing in remote places, diesel can be hard to come by. For example, I’m writing this anchored in Nuku Hiva, the largest island of the Marquesas in French Polynesia, and they’ve run out of diesel. Even when the ship arrives in a week’s time, it will be rationed to 100-200lt per boat.

Finally, you need to store all this power you’re generating so batteries are the next piece of the puzzle. Lithium is becoming the standard on all new boats and especially on weight sensitive catamarans. When sizing your battery bank, a rough rule of thumb is to have capacity for at least 1.5 times your daily power usage so you can store enough power to tide you over for at least one bad day of solar production (a day and two nights).

To power all the AC appliances you’ll need an adequately sized inverter of at least 2,000W and, lastly, it’s critical to have a battery monitor to see the state of charge of the batteries at all times.

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It has become routine now for me to bookend the summer sailing season with a trip to the south of France for the biannual ‘Outremer Week’. This hugely popular event gathers 100-plus new Outremer catamaran owners for five days of training, both in the classroom and on the water, and three days of friendly racing. The goal is to educate future owners so they are as prepared as they possibly can be for their upcoming bluewater catamaran cruising plans.

It’s an intensive week of 12-hour days, with a lot of information to absorb. Unsurprisingly there are some discussions specific to bluewater catamaran cruising that come up repeatedly, and they apply to owners or prospective owners of all brands of bluewater multihull. Here are some of the most common questions people ask me:

What sails should I buy for a cruising catamaran?

Every day after sailing a new catamaran owner will come up to me and say, “Nikki, I’d love to take up some of your time and rack your brains about sail selection.”

To pitch my advice appropriately, I always ask some key questions about your catamaran cruising plans, and I’d encourage you to ask yourself the same.

What is your route plan?

Tradewind sailing will be predominantly downwind. So, focus your attention on downwind sails. A route involving more upwind requires more focus on headsails. Routes involving more upwind tend to be more coastal routes, or schedules with strict timings that will reduce the option to wait for downwind weather windows.

All bluewater sail plans will need storm options. Three reef points in the main is a must, or at the very least an extremely generous second reef. A storm headsail is another key component. Ideally it should be possible to hoist the storm jib up over the top of your furled foresail. In very big conditions, reliance on the thin furling line gets quite nerve-racking.

Catamaran cruising sail options range from symmetric spinnakers to Code sails for reaching performance. Photo: Nicolas Claris

How performance-orientated are you?

Performance catamarans are designed to sail angles downwind, ideally with an asymmetric spinnaker wardrobe. However, there is a cost to the incredible speeds that you can attain reaching on these boats: comfort. So, a key question is what is your attitude to speed versus comfort?

Performance-focused sailors are typically racing sailors, sailors without kids, or sailors who are in good physical shape. If you fit this category, then I’d advise purchasing one heavy weather flat-cut asymmetric sail that can withstand a squall up to 40 knots, and a rounder, lightweight sail that you can sail quite deeply in light to moderate conditions.

If you don’t have a taste or attention span for speed, then one heavy weather symmetric spinnaker (approximately up to 40 knots TWS) should be enough. This will allow you to sail a rhumbline course, and make night-time take-downs less of a worry because the kite will survive a squall.

For upwind, if you will enjoy fine tuning your boat to get that extra half a knot, your ideal option is a large genoa for drive in light to moderate conditions, and a small flat blade-shaped jib for heavier conditions – small enough that it does not need to be furled to an inch of its life to cope with a Force 6. If an inner forestay is an option, the latter could be a staysail which will keep the centre of effort low and reduce sideways drift.

For anyone less performance orientated in their catamaran cruising, the key for upwind sailing is a strong, flat jib that is not too big. Mark three reef points on the foot with sail tape. Keep an eye on how much it stretches and don’t be surprised if you need to change it every few years to avoid losing 5-10° of height.

Downwind the tradewind route logic applies: performance sailors should invest in asymmetric and non-performance sailors in symmetric spinnakers.

Left: taking videos and photos to remember key points of spinnaker handling technique. Photo: Robin Christol/Outremer

Who’s the crew?

At this point, the conversation often goes full circle. Sailors get enthusiastic about performance, and then remember that the kids will need home schooling, or that this is a retirement plan with potential health and fitness considerations.

Most sail changes will require more than one person, and conditions at the bow can be bouncy. Crew also have to be able to sleep, cook, and live on the boat while it is thrown about. If you are short-handed, you could compromise for downwind sailing by choosing furling sails.

A furling asymmetric such as a Code D can replace the ‘hoist and drop’ asymmetric. Or you can make the sock line on a symmetric long enough to route back to an electric winch.

Upwind sailors could compromise by returning to a single jib and consider altering routing to sail slightly off the wind but faster; optimising for VMG. If you have a staysail, ensure it could be furled and therefore left rigged at sea – though make time to speak to the yacht designer about the impact on stability that having two heavy furled sails up continuously could have on the boat.

How ‘eco’ and time-conscious will you be?

Do you care about motoring? Increasingly for many of us, awareness of climate change is a strong motivator to avoid using the engine. And will you be more focused on the destination or more interested in the journey?

If you are keen to avoid motoring, and you are free of time constraints such as fixed crew changeovers or grumpy children who need to stop and swim, then I’d recommend you invest in a Code 0. A Code 0 can double or even triple the boat speed: in 6 knots of wind, an Outremer will sail at 2-3 knots with a jib, but 5-6 knots with a Code 0. It’s a great sail and worth the investment, but first work out if you will use it. They often have low wind limits – around 15 AWS – which upwind could be 10 knots TWS.

Code sails for reaching performance. Photo: Balance Catamarans

When do you reef a catamaran?

Many bluewater cruisers will reef down before dark every night. I’m not a huge fan of this as a rule; reefing should be straightforward enough to not be an intimidating manoeuvre in the dark.

But all new catamaran owners who are planning to go bluewater cruising are concerned about knowing when to reef, especially if they come from monohull sailing, as a catamaran communicates whether it is overpowered or not in a much more subtle way.

You want to conserve your equipment while sailing the boat effectively. So aim for the least amount of sail necessary to achieve your target speeds and angles. The best way to get to know this is to put reefs earlier or later each time and take note of whether it was beneficial or not. Over time you will know your boat very well.

Sailing favours guidelines over hard rules, but it’s good to have a starting point so here are some general ranges. For more cautious sailors or bigger sea states, use the more conservative side of the wind range:

• Reef 1 in at 15-20 knots TWS
• Reef 2 in at 20-25 knots TWS
• Reef 3 in at 25-30 knots TWS

Note that I am using true wind and not apparent. When sailing downwind it’s tempting to fly more sail because the apparent wind is so low. However, if you need to turn upwind – perhaps to reef – the 12 knots AWS in 20 knots TWS will quickly become closer to 25 knots AWS.

Reliance on numbers is great until the wind instruments stop working (it will happen at some point). Remember your RYA Competent Crew course and use the descriptions of the sea surface at various Beaufort Scale forces to identify how windy it is.

How to share roles is a frequent question among couples planning a catamaran cruising adventure. Photo: Robin Christol/Outremer

There are other telltale signs that the boat gives if she needs a reef. Although hulls don’t fly unless you are at the performance level of a Gunboat or similar, you may feel the windward hull just slightly lifting. This is a sign that a reef might be needed. Another is if the bows are diving down when you are sailing downwind. Heel angle can be most obviously sensed while lying down.

The main hindrance to learning when to reef – and when not – is a hesitation to perform the manoeuvre. If taking a reef feels arduous, people avoid it. I admit I can find myself in this camp: I have to remind myself that it’s a win/win, either it’s the right decision and the boat sails better, or it’s wrong and I’ve learnt from it.

The key to reefing is to practice. Taking a reef should be possible to do in under two minutes, especially if you have fast electric winches.

It’s handy to have the option to reef downwind, especially if you’re tradewind sailing. Fully battened mainsails struggle to come down so set up downhaul lines from each reef tack point. Run them through the reefing point on the sail and through the reefing points on each side of the mast so the sail is pulled down in line with the track. Watch out for chafe on the back of the main if reefing a lot downwind, and add spreader patches to your sail where applicable. Centring the traveller during the manoeuvre can help, but keep your eyes looking up and check nothing is getting caught.

Also practice solo reefing; aside from the possibility of needing to reef alone, this also builds a big picture understanding of the whole manoeuvre. It means reefs are put in faster because anyone can work anywhere.

Catamaran designs at the ARC start cover a full spectrum of performance. Photo: James Mitchell/WCC

How can couples close the ‘experience gap’?

The argument for both halves of a cruising partnership being competent on board has always been that if something happens to the skipper, their partner will know how to safely get to a port of refuge.

However, most people assume that this will simply never happen to them, or they practise parking a couple of times, pick a fender out the water – then never think about it again. The difficulty with starting a bluewater sailing project with a large experience gap is that it tends to widen over time. Each day as leader will be a learning opportunity for the skipper.

They will grow in competence and confidence. Meanwhile, the first mate’s skills will suffer. They will get used to following instructions, their confidence will decrease, and a habit of helplessness will develop. Then, when an emergency does occur, they’ll be in a worse position to take charge than when they started.

It’s critical that couples approach buying a bluewater catamaran for cruising as a team exercise from day one – for both safety and enjoyment. Ideas on how to level up your partnership include:

• Rotate roles each day, or follow a rota. Who drives the boat into dock? Who makes the navigation calls (do this passage by passage)? Who does the safety checks? Who runs the watermaker?
• Divide the boat – maintain one hull each and share the saloon. This forces you to both understand how everything works from bilge pumps and engines to steering gear and gear storage.
• Take a coach with you for the first few crossings. It can be hard to learn to sail from your spouse. A professional coach will force you into a learning environment. They will also create space for the less experienced to be able to take charge in a safe way.
• Sail the boat without your partner. Creating a scenario where your leadership role feels natural is the optimum way to practice skippering. So, invite a few friends who don’t know as much about sailing as you, and go for a low pressure cruise. It’s a brilliant confidence builder, and a chance to develop your own style and your own voice on board.

Do you have the skills for a faster cat? Photo: Rick Tomlinson

Production or performance cruising catamaran?

A common view is that you pay more for less when you buy a performance catamaran: fewer creature comforts, less living space, fewer berths, bathrooms, and instead get narrow hulls and sparse design. So, is the big price tag worth the upgrade in performance?

If you are lured by the comfort of a production catamaran, but plan to sail intensively around the world for the next five years, it might not actually be the most comfortable option. No dishwasher or air conditioning is going to make a boat feel safer in a storm. Conversely, why buy a performance catamaran if you plan to leave the boat at the dock for 10 months a year?

Ask yourself if you have the skills to harness the performance of a faster catamaran? And if not, how prepared are you to invest time into learning how to use the boat to her full potential?

A common justification for buying a performance catamaran is that it can outrun bad weather and therefore is safer. But you cannot take advantage of that option if you sail everywhere with three reefs in the main because you are nervous of the boat’s power.

Similarly, the power of performance catamarans comes in part from how light they are. If you load the boat with extras – personal gear, kitchen appliances, heating, aircon – you will quickly reduce a lot of the speed and safety advantages you’re paying for.

The dream – catamaran cruising in paradise! Photo: Robin Christol/Outremer

How to handle heavy weather in a cat?

A popular heavy weather strategy is avoidance: account for global weather patterns when planning your passages to ensure you sail during the more favourable months; invest in a good satellite connection to download accurate forecasts so you can see bad weather coming; use your boat speed to position yourself out of the predicted storm track; be flexible with departure windows and leave at an optimum time.

However, do not misinterpret avoidance of heavy weather as a safety net. With weather systems becoming increasingly extreme and unpredictable (see page 38), this risk management strategy is becoming less and less dependable.

• Develop scenario plans for the type of boat you have so that you don’t have to start with a blank sheet of paper as a storm approaches.
• In all scenarios, on all boats, avoid 90° wind and waves. Your boat is at its least stable in these conditions. Sail with the weather forward or aft of the beam.
• Keep an eye on heel angle. Reduce sail if you start to see any more than 5° or so, unless you have a catamaran that is designed to lift a hull. Lower the centre of effort by reducing sail, starting with the main.
• Set up and practice how to reef downwind in case the weather comes in more quickly than you were expecting.
• If you can’t sail as fast as the waves, consider trailing warps to slow you down and help with steerage. You should aim to keep the speed relatively high. The key is to reduce the erratic surfing which drops the bows into green-water troughs. I prefer warps to drogues where possible because we are more familiar with them. Unless you practice using a drogue regularly, you will likely need to read the instructions when you get it out, which isn’t ideal in an emergency.
• If waves are breaking over your stern, consider turning into the seaway and holding steady. In a performance cat, you can drop the windward daggerboard, lift the leeward board, and pinch into the wind. In a production cat with no daggerboards, this will be difficult. Running the leeward engine might help you keep your bows into the wind. Watch that there is no back flow of water into the exhaust.
• Avoid lee shores at all costs, sea room downwind is key.

Outremer Week crews receiving coaching on sail handling. Photo: Robin Christol/Outremer

When should we go?

How long should you wait after buying a boat before heading out on your first bluewater passage? Whether you spend £100,000 or £1,000,000 on your boat, it’s likely to need some fine tuning. I’ve never heard of a new boat that was perfect.

Some yards will cover the initial issues as part of the warranty, so staying close to the yard is a good idea within that period. Even if you don’t have a warranty, proximity to the yard can help you access parts, boat builders and people who understand how your boat has been constructed.

The flip side is that you want to get going, and experience all the freedoms of your new yacht! Some serious bluewater sailing is also needed to test some of the systems.

Give yourself two to six months before you head out on the first crossing. This is enough to test the boat out, but not so long that ‘passage-anxiety’ builds up and you never actually leave.

Do not treat the first few months as a holiday. This is commissioning, and it is the last stage of the build. Test the boat as rigorously as you can before you leave the proximity of the yard. Complete a couple of substantial offshore passages of 48 hours or more to test the systems. Run everything, including the watermaker. Fly all the sails you own. Sail in fruity conditions relative to your ability (Force 6-8 as a guideline) to see how the boat (and you) cope.

Women’s only coaching groups for catamaran cruising sailors help bridge the ‘experience gap’. Photo: Robin Christol/Outremer

Get some experienced people on board to bolster the crew for the early days. The ideal is to hire a professional coach, as this will make pushing the boat much safer and more fun
for you.

Do some training; the MCA AEC four-day engine course is a really useful opportunity to explore the parts of the engine you are normally too nervous to. A safety at sea course is worth its weight in gold. Use this to put together a safety kit that you feel confident in and that is appropriate for your cruising plans. A basic maintenance course can also be helpful, ideally one that covers beginners’ sail repair, rigging, splicing, and electrics.

Ask other sailors for a good tools and spares inventory list. On top of the standard parts that the equipment manuals recommend, current and previous owners of your boat model will have a plethora of advice.

Confident to cast off

Preparation for any type of bluewater sailing can feel daunting. Training courses and cruisers’ seminars like Outremer Week are a little paradoxical – learning how to insert an IV line in a morning medical session, then toasting your upcoming lifelong dream in the evening. It’s a bit like watching the flight safety demonstration before taking off on a once in a lifetime holiday.

The reality is that bluewater sailing is the most incredible opportunity in the world to be both savoured, and treated with an appropriate level of respect. But the most rewarding thing is to see sailors’s enthusiasm grow as they learn. With the opportunity to make mistakes and ask questions in a supportive environment, everyone develops their own skippering style and mantras.

Knowledge nurtures confidence, and confidence breeds positivity – which all contribute to a safe, and successful bluewater catamaran cruising experience. If in doubt, ask!

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There has been a huge surge in the sales of performance multihulls and with them a need to know how to handle them particularly when it comes to specific multihull techniques. The market for these boats is broadening; multihull cruisers are upgrading, monohull sailors are upsizing, and even virgin boat owners are tempted.

Over the last 12 months, while coaching for Outremer, I’ve met hundreds of these owners, everyone from young families to retired couples moving aboard a new catamaran and setting sail on a circumnavigation. Handling a performance catamaran is achievable even for a novice multihull sailor. But there is a big difference between just ‘getting by’ on such a boat versus sailing efficiently, safely and in style.

The transition for even experienced sailors can be quite a step up. For a seasoned monohull sailor, the differences are obvious: increased volume and speed, and a lack of heel. Even for an existing multihull sailor, the handling and performance is noticeably less forgiving and requires a shift in focus and technique.

This winter, I set sail on a transatlantic with the new owners of an Outremer 55. They have previously owned another less performance-orientated catamaran but invited me on board to coach them to fine tune the boat, assist with routing, and help them take best advantage of all the performance their new yacht offers. Here are a few of the topics we focussed on:

sailing at higher speeds will change everything from manoeuvre techniques to weather routing. Photo: Robin Christol/Outremer

Speed

Most non-planing monohulls will do approximately the same speed on all points of sail. However, a performance multihull might sail at twice, three, even four times its upwind speed on a reach.

For example, the factory polars of an Outremer 55 give its average speed in 20 knots of wind with a true wind angle (TWA) of 50° at 8.5 knots, but in the same windspeed with a TWA of 110° it’s 19.1 knots. That’s more than twice as fast. How do you make the most of this speed advantage? And how do you best manage it?

In a monohull it often pays to slog it out for days sailing the best course to windward as this normally gives the best velocity made good (VMG). A dead downwind rhumbline route is the usual strategy for longer ocean passages, rather than sailing more miles and wider angles.However, on a performance multihull it is important to prioritise reaching when route planning.

aboard high performance catamarans, such as this TS42, you can race competitively in offshore events. Photo: Jacques Vapillon/Sea&Co

In upwind conditions on a long crossing, consider whether bearing off by even as much as 20° will result in a better VMG, even if it feels counterintuitive. In light winds bearing off to 70° or 80° TWA can be the difference between a totally stalled boat and 5 knots of boat speed.

Faster speeds open up the possibility of keeping up with pressure systems as they move around the globe. For example, if crossing the North Atlantic eastwards, ideally you’d leave the US in clear weather with a depression forecast to leave the American coast a few days later.

You could use its predicted track to decide how much north or south to add to your easterly heading, to ensure that as it catches up with you, you are sufficiently south enough of it to pick up its strong westerlies.
As they approach, you will accelerate, and if you can hold the speed you can use that downwind airflow to push you most of the way across the pond.

Handling at speed

Controlling and handling the boat at these higher speeds requires a change in strategy. Increased speeds and acceleration mean that the apparent wind angle and apparent wind speed change much more frequently.
So you need adaptable and flexible trimming and driving solutions.

Use twist to balance power and control. Photo: Robin Christol/Outremer

Downwind the boat should be carving S-curves through the water to ensure it achieves the best VMG possible. If you can get this right you will attain the momentous double figure average speeds that a performance multihull offers, while also going the right direction! Instead of allowing the speed to plummet at the end of each surf, as the bow sinks into the bottom of the wave, a performance multihull can just keep on going.

How to maintain speed:

1 Sail at higher angles to build up apparent wind speed (AWS) and boat speed.

2 Soak downwind as the apparent wind angle (AWA) surges forward with the acceleration.

3 Drive the boat back slowly upwind in time to maintain the average speed and continue the surf.

In an ideal world, to achieve this the boat would be hand-steered. But realistically, no cruisers want to be on deck for two weeks straight on a transatlantic crossing. Your best compromise is to invest in a top quality, well set up autopilot, as well as good wind instruments.

Set the autopilot to sail to apparent wind angle and watch how the boat slaloms through the ocean. The quality of the autopilot will really start to show its value when the sea state starts to increase. The best ones improve over time as they collect data and learn the wave patterns. If you aren’t sure exactly which AWA is ideal, choose a day that has very consistent wind and sail in open water. Set the autopilot AWA to 90° and then systematically increase the setting by increments of 5° at fixed time intervals until you get as low as you can before the foresail is shadowed behind the main. Measure the VMG by comparing the distance travelled at each of the different wind angles, and the average A to B course over ground (COG) achieved. This will give you a good starting point, and then it will shift further depending on sea states and wind strengths.

Sail setting

Another solution if you want fast speeds but don’t want to actively sail the boat to within an inch of its life is to use twist. Twist is a compromise between having a hardened sail that stalls when the wind goes aft, or a very eased sail that luffs when it goes forward. The more changeable the conditions, the more extreme the acceleration increases are, or the rougher the sea state is, the more twist you need.

Cats have the space and stability to hoist and douse, so keep weight low by dropping flying sails when not in use. Photo: Christophe Launay

Mainsail

The wide beam of a multihull allows for a long traveller, so most won’t have a vang. Sheet tension and traveller position are your primary controls to create twist in the mainsail. Begin by finding a full power setting in the main.

Set your autopilot to 35-40°AWA; most performance multis should make this upwind. Set your traveller at midships and over-ease your mainsheet so that the sail is luffing. Gradually tighten your mainsheet until the top telltale just flies. Manual winching offers better control here than electric.

Pull your traveller to windward until the boom runs down the centreline. The top telltale of the mainsail will now be flying about three-quarters of the time. If it is closer to 50% you may need to tighten the mainsheet further and then ease the traveller until you have achieved this (or vice versa). This is your full power sail shape, and your default car position upwind.

At this point some people like to mark the mainsheet (this doesn’t work with a continuous mainsheet). To begin with, just take note of the traveller position. If the conditions require more twist, ease the mainsheet, and pull the traveller to windward to keep the boom in the same position relative to the boat. You could keep a note of three traveller positions for each point of sail: full power, mid power, low power.

As the wind moves aft, you can add other ‘go-to’ traveller positions for different wind angles by easing the traveller down to leeward while keeping the mainsail shape set to ‘full-power’ mode. Once the wind goes aft of the beam, your traveller will be all the way down to leeward. Keep an eye on spreader chafe at this point.

Jib

Once you are happy with mainsail trim, you can trim the jib in a similar way, using car position and the sheet tension. Bring sheet tension in so that the leech shape looks very similar to the main: flat with a slight curve at the top. Then adjust the cars (if you can) so that the sail is not luffing, and the top telltales are also flying 50-75% of the time. Finally, walk forward to the forestay and view the slot between the sails. Do they look roughly parallel? If not, you may need to open up the slot a touch by moving the car outboard. This is your default jib car position for that point of sail.

Sailing the angles with an asymmetric. Photo: Kinetic Catamarans

When conditions increase, don’t forget to add twist to the jib too. Initially just ease a touch of sheet. Be careful moving the car too far inboard or you might close the slot. Moving the sheet attachment closer to the foot of the clew will open up the leech and create more twist.

Think of twist as the middle ground between sailing fully powered and reefing. Multihulls are much less communicative than monohulls. You do not have the obvious signs that the boat is overpowered, like a submersed toe rail or rounding up as the boat heels.

In time you’ll get to know your catamaran and build a connection to read how aggressively the boat is accelerating, its fore-aft pitching, sounds, and rhythm. But at first it’s useful to have some number guides and wind parameters of when to add twist and ultimately when to reef.

Generally a performance cat will require a reef much earlier because it’s lighter. I’d usually put in one reef at 20-25 knots, two at 25-30 and three reefs for 30-35 knots.

Comfort

On our transatlantic crossing on the Outremer 55, contrary to my advice on the advantages of sailing angles downwind, we chose instead to sail dead downwind with the symmetric spinnaker up for the entire passage.

taking it easy dead downwind under symmetric Photo: Nikki Henderson

There are costs to taking full advantage of the speed of a performance catamaran. Averaging 15 knots boat speed is not everyone’s idea of comfortable. The hulls are so stiff that every wave that hits the hull sounds like the beating of a drum. The humming of carbon rigging, the swooshing of water screaming past the topsides, the slapping of the waves, the wind: it’s incredibly loud even when averaging 10 knots, let alone 15 or 20.

Performance multihulls are also so lightweight that they are really thrown about in a substantial sea state. Our decision to sail dead downwind rather than heating up and taking full advantage of the performance came down to the following reasons:

1. Lack of adequate autopilot We had one, but it wasn’t able to react quickly enough to the acceleration and resulting rapid change of wind angle that broad reaching would have created. It also struggled in a big seaway, so sailing with the waves square on to the stern was easier to cope with.

2. Sails We did not have a heavyweight asymmetric sail, which is what you need to sail these downwind angles (both our reaching sails were light weight).

3. Safety Akaroa II is hull No2 of a new design by Outremer. This was the first transatlantic crossing that this particular model of boat had ever done, so we were a testing ground and deliberately cautious.

Despite our conservative approach we still achieved 90% of the factory polars averaging 9.6 knots in sustained winds of 20 knots across the entire 2,700-mile route.

The trip took 11 days and 17 hours. The beauty of a performance multihull is that even if you don’t push it, you still manage brilliant speeds in the right conditions.

We calculated how much faster we would have gone, had we sailed the angles instead of running downwind. This assumes we would achieve the same 90% polars. TWA 140° appears to be the sweet spot.

Getting the main down when reefing can be problematic – rig up downhaul lines to help grind it down if needed. Photo: Nikki Henderson

Loads

Without any power being dispelled by heeling, performance multihulls will convert additional power into acceleration. With this increased speed comes increased loads on the lines, blocks, rudders, sail cloth and rigging. Winches are upsized. Jammers are used instead of clutches. Halyards are 2:1. You may be sailing on a 50-footer, but the loads are akin to a 70-80ft bluewater monohull.

A future owner recently reminded me of this, when he opened the main traveller jammer while holding the line with only one wrap on the winch. The lack of skin on his hand was gruesome evidence of how surprising the loads can be when a multihull is really powered up.

Interestingly, comparing a standard cruising multihull with a similar sized performance multihull, the opposite is true. A boat that weighs less needs less sail area to power it. For example, a Lagoon 450 has a sail area (main and jib) of 130m2 compared to an Outremer 45 (actually 48ft LOA) at 104m2. So, for the same apparent wind speed, there will be less load on the gear.

Watch out when sailing downwind. Due to a performance multihull’s ability to accelerate and hold high speeds downwind, it is easy to hold significantly more sail area in higher true wind speeds as the apparent stays low. However, if you do hit the bottom of a wave and stop dead in the water, the sail, rigging and lines will feel the full force of that wind.

Another reason to reef earlier than you think on a performance multi is that with swept back shrouds (needed to support the mast without a backstay) and a fully battened mainsail, even with the halyard eased downwind the sail may still not come down. You should be sailing with the minimum amount of sail cloth up to achieve the polars.

Reducing sail

1. Rig up downhaul lines from each reefing point on the luff to help grind down the sail. Keep an eye on chafe on the leeward side on each of the batten pockets.

2. Use the rotating mast to open the sail to the wind more.

3. If that isn’t enough, come upwind to help get the sail down.

Multihull trim

Switching to a performance catamaran may bring new trimming options: daggerboards, a rotating mast, and fully battened square topped mainsail.

Brush up on your fundamentals of sail trim so that you have a solid foundation to build on. When you first start sailing the boat, to avoid getting overwhelmed (which tends to result in people under-sailing their boat), begin by finding a base setting for all points of sail. Forget the rotating rig for now, but find enough twist in the sails that gives you enough height without too much power. Set the daggerboards as you would on a dinghy: down for upwind, up for downwind, mid-way for a reach. Then you fine tune.

Set performance cat daggerboards as you would for a dinghy at first: down for upwind, up for downwind, mid-way for a reach. Photo: Nikki Henderson

When adjusting daggerboards, make sure you have your GPS track switched on. See if dropping a little more daggerboard helps with the COG upwind. Downwind, if you feel like you are on an ice-skating rink, try dropping a little board for better grip. If on autopilot, take note of the rudder angle. If it’s taking the helm from full starboard to full port then it might need some more grip, if not then a reef.

Be cautious of the risk of ‘tripping up’ in big seaways. In sea states much over 3-4m, it’s safest to lift the daggerboards and allow the boat to glide over the waves rather than risk one of the boards digging into a wave and destabilising the boat. While exceptionally unlikely to happen, if a daggerboard digs in, the worst case scenario would be a capsize. If you see any slick in the water that suggests the boat is sliding sideways over a wave, or an increase in heel, or significant water over the deck – these are signs that it’s time to lift the boards all the way up.

Finally, play with the rotating mast. At a basic level, try to get the mast in line with the foremost sail position and curve. The easiest way to see this is actually to stand forward of the mast and look down the line of the sail. It is in itself a foil and when in the right position can add the equivalent of as much as 10% more sail area. In the same way, you can use it to depower by reducing the angle.

With a rotating mast you’ll generally be trying to get it in line with the foremost sail position and curve. Photo: Nikki Henderson

When fine tuning sail trim I’d recommend marking all your tracks and angles of mast rotation, and once you are confident you could mark the sheets and halyards themselves. This is an exercise for the detail-orientated and it pays to be specific. Keep a notebook at the helm station to record your learnings, and over time build up not just ideal trim settings for wind and waves, but also polars.

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Weight

Learning a performance catamaran’s sensitivity to weight can be a real learning curve. Compared to cruising catamarans, performance cats tend to be half the weight (or even less). Meanwhile, compared to a monohull the main difference is in the areas where the weight is most concentrated. A monohull’s weight is predominantly in its keel. Almost the entire weight of the boat is concentrated in around 15% of the boat’s length. Conversely, a multihull has no keel, so without that pendulum effect its centre of gravity is higher and less stable. On a multihull the weight is distributed along almost 90% of its length.

In practice, this means that what you carry, both below and above decks, has a big impact on the boat’s performance and safety. The first step is to become minimalists. Summon your inner Marie Kondo and ask yourself “Does this bring me joy? Does this keep me safe?” of every single item that moves from dock to boat. If it doesn’t – don’t take it.

Performance cats are weight sensitive so streamline your possessions onboard. Photo: Carl Newton

Step two is to arrange your belongings evenly around the boat. Ensure you don’t list the boat to port or starboard. Try to keep weight amidships and ideally low down. Avoid loading up the bow lazarettes or aft areas with too much weight.

When sailing, don’t forget that the worst kind place for weight is aloft. Without the keel, you significantly reduce the stability of the boat by having a furled Code 0 (for example) hanging around up the rig. It’s inconvenient to drop it every time, but it’s worth it.

Safety

Higher speeds, bigger loads, a lighter boat and higher centre of gravity don’t sound like the safest characteristics, and they aren’t if poorly managed. But you can also use them to your advantage. Being able to sail faster means you sometimes have an option to run away from bad weather.

But there are other safety drills that are worth thinking about ahead of time. What is your MOB recovery plan? With cats’ high freeboard, some owners plan to reverse up to the casualty and pick them up from the steps at the back. But how many have practiced that? Will it involve dropping the mainsail? Could the props injure the casualty? How does the back of the boat behave in a significant sea state? I’d recommend practising this until you have a plan that works for you on your boat with the equipment you have. The same should be said for plans to evacuate the boat, or deal with a fire on board.

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