Yachting

EXPERT OFFSHORE

MAY 2016 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 25

N

ormally, boats aren’t set up

for lots of lines,’ explains

Jonathan, who spent two

years preparing Seraphina.

‘Suddenly you have lots of lines

back to the cockpit, and

you start running out of

attachment points.’ He

reflected that he could have

taken more spare blocks

and lines, and might have

added more clutches and

winches. ‘Look at your

downwind rig. If you think

you need to invest more

in lines and clutches, do

it. That’s your bread and

butter out there.’

Seraphina’s original

set-up had a preventer

led from the boom end

to a block forward of the

mast but, when you need

to lose the preventer to

‘Perfect your downwind sailing

technique before you start’

‘Try it. If you

like it, go for it!’

M

any people dream of

crossing the Atlantic, but

it’s not for everyone. It’s

a very long time to spend at

sea and the prospect can be

daunting. But Patrick, who’d

sailed across in Azimuth with his

wife Johanna, father-in-law and

two-year-old son River, was full

of encouragement.

‘Sailing with River added an

extra challenge,’ said Jonathan.

gybe, the boom end is way over

the side. To allow the preventer

to be unrigged from the deck,

they took a line of about boom

length and attached one end to

the boom end and the other to

a gooseneck padeye with a snap

shackle. To rig the preventer,

they unsnapped the shackle and

snapped it onto a preventer line

run through a block on a

toerail padeye forward of

the mast and led back to

the cockpit. ‘We learned

a lot in Las Palmas and,

reading the likes of

Yachting Monthly, we

adapted as we learned.’

Even a cleverly rigged

and secure preventer

isn’t completely failsafe,

though. One night they

were poling out their

genoa, as they had for

17 days, when a massive

squall hit. The wind went

around 90° and Seraphina

crash gybed, then crash

gybed back again when

the helmsman tried to correct it.

‘The pole was flailing around the

foredeck and in the morning we

could see the track on the mast

was bent out of shape, but it

could have been worse.’

‘For the last 19 days he has been

taking everything out of lockers,

which means for 19 days we’ve

been putting everything back! It

was a pretty mellow crossing, but

it’s been amazing trip.’

Even young River understood

exactly what they had been

working towards. When they saw

St Lucia, he said ‘Finish!’ in his

mother tongue of Swedish.

Richard Anthony and his

partner Tracey were set for ARC

2014 with their Jeanneau Sun

Odyssey 45.2 Why Not. ‘We

booked to do it last year but

we had a bad experience going

through the Strait of Messina,’

Richard explained. ‘Tracey

decided she didn’t want to do

it, so we rolled our entrance fee

over, which gave us more time.’

Tracey sailed from Valencia to

Gibraltar and then on to Las

Palmas where she made an

informed decision not to sail

across the Atlantic. She waved

them off, and was there meet

them as they arrived.

Another crew that tried the

ARC last year but had to return,

was on Rhumb, a Starlight 39,

‘Everything has been better –

wind, weather, sea. We’ve sailed

a lot together and this has been

the best trip we’ve had.’ W

Two crash gybes during a squall

left SeraphinaÕs spinnaker pole

track badly damaged

Jonathan Paull, 53 made the crossing on

Seraphina of Chichester, an Island Packet 440

Photo: Graham-Snook.com

Photo: Graham-Snook.com

Photo: Graham-Snook.com

Photo: timWriGht/Photoaction.com

Family outing: Patrick Gardner, 45, with his wife, son

and father-in-law aboard Azimuth, an Amel Santorin

Stefan FriedrichÕs Bavaria 50 Cruiser Hera reaches St Lucia after nearly 20 days at sea