with MARCH 2024 £5.50
FAST AND FURIOUS Thrills and spills in the Sydney Hobart
ORCA ALERT
Avoiding Galicia’s killer whales
TIME AND TIDE
Threading the Menai Strait
HIDDEN HURRICANE HOLE Exploring Guatemala’s Rio Dulce
BUONISSIMO!
Italia’s irresistible 12.98 on test
ALBANIAN ADVENTURE
How to escape the VAT trap
Weather bomb in the Bass Strait The Sydney Hobart Race lived up to its fearsome reputation, dishing up some savage conditions at the back end of the fleet while almost in sight of the finish line. See full report on p46 Photo: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi
HOW TO NEGOTIATE
Boat test – Jeanneau 55
ORCA ALLEY The recent attacks by killer whales off the Spanish and Portuguese coast have caused concern for cruisers. Jetty de Koster narrates a solo trip where she obeyed all the rules to stay ‘orca-safe’
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MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting
Orca safe
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lot of sensational stuff has been written recently in the mainstream media about orcas attacking yachts. However, beyond the hyperbole, there are genuine reasons to be concerned about this worrying new phenomena whereby killer whales seem to zone in on small yachts and attack them – generally targeting the rudder. So far four yachts have sunk due to orca interactions. Perhaps this situation affects your plans or trips to Spain and Portugal too? Each skipper is responsible for their boat and crew and must balance the risks and pleasures of a trip. In case of the orcas, this has been made especially confusing by different authorities, giving opposing advice. On the one hand, The Atlantic Orca Working Group, or GTOA, advises sailors to slow down and stop the engine, if confronted by orcas (see https://www.orcaiberica.org/en/recomendaciones). Orcas Spain & Portugal, or orcas.pt, on the other hand, recommends sailors to follow the 20m depth contour line and to flee from orcas as fast as possible towards shallower water, when encountered (see https://www.orcas.pt/orcasdosanddonts). Amidst the horror stories in the press and the lack of a clear picture of what is going on, it’s sometimes difficult to make an objective assessment on taking a voyage in this area. Having made the voyage and followed the recommendations and advice of various parties, I therefore thought it would be good to share my experience and knowledge. The following is my account of a trip made in the summer of 2023 from The Netherlands to Gibraltar, during orca-migration-season.
PHOTO: SLOWMOTIONGLI/SHUTTERSTOCK
Preparing for the trip and learning about orcas
Last summer I made the best trip of my sailing life so far on my Compromis 888, Pasión. On the 26 June I cast off my lines in Marina Muiderzand, on the Dutch Markermeer, and on the 27 July I arrived – safely and undisturbed by any orcas – in Alcaidesa Marina, just outside Gibraltar. The decisions that I have made, due to the orcas, have greatly influenced my trip. As preparation for the orcas, I was recommended to join orcas.pt’s Telegram group. Since November 2022, I followed the chat messages here on a daily basis, and I learned that most yachts are able to make a safe passage. From all yachts that reported a trip in and under 20m of depth, 100 per cent made it without damage. The Orcinus app and the constant reporting of ‘attacks’ in the Telegram group pinpoint the approximate locations of the orcas, and therefore the risk areas. So, I invested in a satellite phone to stay informed. Because it was going to be my first big offshore trip, I had arranged for the help of a delivery skipper for that part, but, unfortunately, we were not able to match our calendars in the end. I was not expecting at all, at this point, that with regard to going solo, the offshore part of my trip would in fact be the easiest! Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024
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PHOTO: IURII DZIVINSKYI/SHUTTERSTOCK
Boat test – Jeanneau Cruising – Corfu to55Albania
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MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting
THE VAT CRUISE
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Nic Compton explains why he was obliged to take the path less followed to Albania in order to keep his boat in the Mediterranean
irë se vini në Shqipëri – Welcome to Albania!” said the dark-haired young woman as she took our lines on the dock at Sarandë. This was Jelja Serani, our guide for the next few hours as we explored this strange (to us) land. Even though we had all travelled widely around Europe and I had spent my entire childhood sailing around the Mediterranean, none of us had explored Albania, this still-mysterious country at the heart of southern Europe, which seemed so close and yet so alien. Of course, there’s good reason for this disjuncture. For nearly 50 years, Albania closed itself off from the Western world, and no Western visitors were allowed into the country. Its only relations were with other Communist countries, such as the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and China, and it embarked on a major cultural revolution – including banning all religions. Growing up on a boat in Greece as a child, I spent several summers and one winter based in Corfu. I remember often gazing out over the narrow channel that separated us from this forbidden land and wondering what it was like on the other side. One year, both engines on our 48ft Silver motor yacht broke down while we were on passage from Greece to Yugoslavia (as it was then called). A strong wind was blowing from the northwest, and for more than an hour we drifted helplessly towards the Albanian coast, while my father tried to get the engines working again. All the while, an Albanian patrol boat, with what appeared to be a gun mounted on its foredeck (although in retrospect it was probably just a water canon), circled pointedly around us. It was a huge relief when we finally got moving again and managed to escape from the ‘clutches of communism’ – as it seemed to my 12-year-old brain! Albania finally opened up to tourism with the fall of communism in the early 1990s. It’s been strongly promoted ever since, particularly the inland regions, with 3.8 million people visiting the country in 2020. But yachting has been a bit slower to get going, and even sailing there in 2023 felt slightly daring – or perhaps that was just a hangover from my Cold War era childhood.
Post Brexit conundrum
The idea of sailing to Albania had been mooted from the very start of our voyage from UK to Greece the year before – not because any of us were desperate to visit the country but because post-Brexit legislation made it necessary. As everyone knows by now, UK now has to comply with the rules affecting all countries outside the EU – the main issue affecting us being that we could only leave our boat in Europe for up to 18 months (or possibly up to 24 months, see panel) before we would have to pay VAT. The only way to ‘reset’ the clock was to visit non-EU countries such as Morocco, Turkey and Albania, and then re-enter the EU. Although our time wasn’t due to expire for another year, we decided to ‘reset’ our clock early so we wouldn’t have to do it the following year, when we wanted to be free to sail east to the Saronic Gulf in the middle of Greece, with plenty of time left on our transit log. And so at the end of May 2022, ‘the boys’ (my regular sailing crew, Matt, Laurence and James) and I headed north from our base at the Vliho Yacht Club in Lefkada to Corfu, via Antipaxos and Paxos. It had been 30 years since I visited Corfu by boat, and I was pleasantly surprised by how lovely it still is. We moored up at the small harbour run by the Nautical Club of Corfu (NAOK) and enjoyed strolling into the bustling, cosmopolitan town centre. How could anything Albania had to offer possibly compete? Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting MARCH 2024
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TIME AND TIDE
Boat test – Jeanneau 55
The Menai Strait and surrounding waters are some of the most challenging for passage planning. Local sailor Don Smith describes how to work the tides
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Cruising – North Wales
PHOTO: NICOLA PULHAM/SHUTTERSTOCK
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y neighbour’s boat, Inthral, is berthed in Victoria Dock, Caernarfon, where she had been surveyed after a poor deck repair by a firm no longer trading. The surveyor made his recommendations very clear, “Get it done by Yacht Systems in Deganwy.” As my boat is berthed in Conwy Marina, his first question for me was, could he get from Caernarfon to Conwy on the same tide? Yes, all the crucial tidal gates are open as you reach them, assuming a boat speed of about 5kts. However, getting back on a single tide, in a displacement vessel, is not so easy. Tidal gates ahead of you close, eg the Swellies, or have not yet reopened, eg Victoria Dock.” In a fast RIB, it’s not a problem, but... In short, Conwy bound, leave Caernarfon’s Victoria Dock as soon as the gate opens, transit the Swellies before high water slack (Liverpool HW-2) and ride the eastbound flood tide for as long as you can up the Menai Strait. You can use the Puffin sound and go round the island before heading for the Conwy fairway but the Penmean Swatch is shorter. You should reach the Penmean Swatch before the westbound flood tide gathers too much way at about an hour before local high water and be out of most of the tide that runs along the Anglesey shore as you cross the Penmaen Swatch.
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Sydney Hobart
PHOTO FINISH The 2023 edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart race dished up a real treat, including one of the closest finishes of all time
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MARCH 2024 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting