The Yachting Year 2018

THE YACHTING YEAR 2018 | 29

T

he beautiful thing about the cruising

sailor’s calendar is the wonderful rhythm of

the year with each season dictating our

sailing movements with the same rhythmic

ebb and  ow as the tide beneath our keel.

Yacht cruising is, almost by de nition,

about freedom and blazing your own trail, whether that be

across oceans or across the English Channel.  e lure of

the horizon, the tang of salt air in the nostrils and the

sheer joy of being at the helm of a yacht headed to some

far  ung horizon are surely the most cogent reasons

imaginable for taking to the water in an ocean yacht.

NEW BASES

Now, that obviously doesn’t particularly lend itself to a

feature on what is scheduled in for the year ahead. Yet the

seasons themselves provide a delightful if somewhat loose

schedule for all but the most adventurous sailor. Unless

you are extremely hardy then the winter months tend to

discourage sailing in the northern latitudes and that even

includes the Mediterranean. Whether you’re chartering or

cruising your own yacht, eyes therefore turn to the

Caribbean for cruising sailors or perhaps even further

a eld, with the south seas and such rich and delightful

cruising grounds as  ailand, Australia and New Zealand.

As winter turns to spring, the Mediterranean once again

beckons and whether you’re planning to head there via the

French canals or make the sometimes treacherous trip

across Biscay, the rewards once you arrive are great. Few

cruising grounds can o er such a compelling and rich

blend of history and pure bite-the-back-of-the-hand

beauty; from the lambent waters of the Dalmatian coast to

the e ortless sophistication of the Côte d’Azur via the

incredible history attached to the Turkish coast and Greek

archipelago, sailors truly are spoilt for choice and all of the

“

With

summer

bringing

balmy

breezes to

the northern

latitudes, a

Baltic cruise

is a joy

”

”

major operators such as Sail Ionian and Kiriacoulis

continue to  ourish and expand their  eets. Even better

news, 2018 sees the opening new charter bases at Sicily for

Sunsail, while Dream Yacht Charter has a new Italian base

in Naples in addition to new bases in Pula in Croatia and

Kotor in Montenegro.

As things warm up further then home waters beckon

and, as always, the British coastline will be a hive of

cruising activity with a whole range of cruising activities

• more on that later though. Summer brings balmy breezes
  to even the northern latitudes and those fortunate enough
  to be able to devote their time to a Baltic cruise are
  generally richly rewarded.  ere’s more welcome news for
  charterers here, because Dream Yacht Charter has recently
  opened an all-new charter base in Stockholm.

RALLIES

While that I opened this piece by arguing that yacht

cruising by de nition lacks any real ‘calendar’ as such, the

rise of the cruising rally has certainly given a more of a

year-round structure to cruising. Indeed, you could argue

that the past two decades has seen something of a

pandemic of these rallies with one of the newest and most

exciting being the Oyster World Rally.  is kicked o in

2017 and the  eet of indomitable cruisers, all of which are

built by Oyster Yachts, set out from Antigua in 2017 and is

not scheduled to complete this round the world odyssey

until 2019.  is year the  eet will  nd itself in the depths

of the Indian Ocean with stopovers in such exotic spots as

the Cocos and Keeling islands, Mauritius, Reunion and

Durban to name but a few.

Yet this epic voyage is just one tiny drop in the ocean on

the thriving rally scene. As we all know, the World

Cruising Club is one of the world leaders in this  eld and

it has a schedule that is absolutely packed to the gills with

Azure seas and loads

of space on board –

what is not to love

about the charter

holiday?

C H A R T E R I N G

TYY4 Year ahead Sailing Today.indd 29 04/12/2017 15:03