Yachting Monthly - November 2015

Winter refi t

planning

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More tips and advice at

http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/berthon

NOVEMBER 2015 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 29

A QUESTION OF

SEAMANSHIPBill’s answer from p26

You have clearly had the misfortune of the

yacht being perfectly balanced and drying

out bolt upright. You have to keep her that

way for a couple of hours until the water

returns to re-fl oat her. The danger is that

someone else is going to wake up, decide

that they need to visit the heads, get out of

their bunk and unbalance her. You have just

two options. Shout to waken the crew, tell

them what the situation is and warn them

that they must not move until they are

certain that the yacht has re-fl oated. You

do risk that someone will wake up with a

start and move before you have explained

the situation. Your second option is to stay

awake, listening for any movement and if

you hear any shout a warning to whoever

has moved, not to get out of their bunk.

Could you be certain that you will not nod

off? The choice is yours.

An unlikely situation? Yes, but it did

happen to a former editor of YM’s sister

magazine Yachting World in his yacht

Zoom. He managed to stay awake and

fortunately his crew had cast iron bladders.

Precariously balanced

• how would you react?

or contact Berthon’s Yacht Refi t &

Repair Manager, Robin Milledge, on

How can I be sure

that my keel bolts

are failsafe?

Nothing can be

guaranteed, but

checking keel bolts

should be part

of your routine

maintenance. If in doubt, keel nuts can

be checked for tension, or individual keel

bolts drawn for visual or NDT inspection.

When your boat is out of commission

during the winter, use this time to

upgrade and maybe add value to it.

At what sort of age do boats typically

undergo refi ts?

There is no typical age. We have a huge

variety of yachts come in for refi t work

here for all sorts of reasons. Some classic

yachts demand major overhauls; other

newer yachts may just be in for pit stops

following extended cruising or with new

owners applying their own ideas.

What is the most common task you

get asked to complete during a refi t?

Is it to change an interior layout

or upgrade old deck gear?

It depends on the owner’s requirements.

Most refi ts start

with a major job list

such as re-painting

topsides, replacing

teak decks, interior

layout alterations

or re-rigging. This

list often grows,

however, to include

other less obvious

requirements.

A 38ft Buchanan Queen Class in Berthon’s

fi nishing booth, awaiting her top coats

An interior layout

can be changed

during a refi t

What size of

fl opper stopper?

Q

I was most interested in Ken

Endean’s article on reducing rolling

at anchor (YM, May 2015). Storing

a fl opper stopper large enough to stop the

rolling of my 25-tonne boat, however, is a real

challenge. To make a more effective fl opper

stopper for the surface area,could the bridle

attachment to the apex be part way up the

perpendicular height, rather than right at the

apex itself? Would this work?

Hugh Wheldon

A

Ken Endean replies: You are on

the right track. On my own fl opper

stopper, the bridle attachment

points are all inside the perimeter. As you will

probably have gathered, this subject is not an

exact science. As I mentioned, it is possible

that a large fl opper stopper may not be better

than a small one, if it is less agile. I recently

observed mine in action in a short, quick swell,

and noticed that it was tending to ‘side slip’

downwards, rather than turn fully on its edge.

As your boat is pretty hefty, you might fi nd

it worthwhile experimenting. Perhaps you

could cut two different sizes (use cheap ply

for trials) and drill a selection of holes in each,

so that you could swap the weight between

the two triangles and also vary the bridle’s

‘spread’. Low buoyancy is desirable – mine is

in 8mm ply but 6mm might be stiff enough.

The results may vary according to the wave

characteristics, but you will soon become an

expert. Please let us know how you get on.

Flopper stoppers reduce rolling, but they’re not perfect and they take up lots of locker space

PHOTOS: GRAHAM SNOOK/YM

Will I get fi ned

for red diesel?

Q

I’m familiar with the red diesel

debate. Like many cruisers, I stop off

in Guernsey on the way back from

my summer in Brittany and fi ll up with ‘duty

free’ red diesel. How would this be viewed

in Belgium? Is the duty status irrelevant, it

simply being the colour that triggers a fi ne?

Steve Sowik

A

Theo Stocker replies: There is a good

deal of disagreement between the

UK and Europe and within Belgium

itself on this question. The short answer is

yes, you could be fi ned. The UK argues that if

you bought the fuel legally, paid the required

amount of duty where you bought it, and have

evidence of this, you should not be fi ned. The

Continental authorities regard it as an offence

to have marked diesel in your tank at all.

Whether you are fi ned depends on how strict

offi cials are when you call in to Belgium. A fi ne

is more likely if you are caught on something

else fi rst, such as incomplete paperwork.