Yachting

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STRICTER

RULES FOR

YACHT

ENGINE

EMISSIONS

Round the world in a 22ft trailer-sailer

IN BRIEF

Bob Shepton wins

photo award

Artic sailor and YM contributor

Bob Shepton has won the

Royal Cruising Club’s Giovanni

photographic prize. The winning

photo was taken on a recent

expedition to Greenland.

Fiji cyclone fundraising

Cyclone Winston devastated Fiji

in February 2016. Sailing and

emergency relief charity Sea

Mercy is sending its volunteer

fl eet of yachts to provide food

and aid. See http://www.seamercy.org

Chatham Marina berths

Chatham Maritime Marina on the

River Medway in Kent is to get

54 new berths in April this year

as part of a £500,000 expansion.

Liverpool Boat Show

The Northern Boat Show is

returning to Liverpool on 3-

June with a four-fold increase in

the number of boats on display.

‘Sail to the North Pole’

Yachts will be able to sail across

the North Pole by 2080, said the

National Oceanography Centre.

Szymon Kuczynski

completed a solo

circumnavigation in March.

The trip took the Polish

sailor 15 months in his Maxus

22 Atlantic Puffi n.

The journey is not a

new one, but Szymon’s is

remarkable for the fact that

his Maxus 22 is only 6.4m

long, has no auxiliary engine

and was designed and built

as a lake-sailing keelboat.

His 27,000 mile trade-wind

route took him from the

Canary Islands, through the

Panama Canal, and south of

the Cape of Good Hope.

He faced several

challenges during the

circumnavigation. On one leg

north of Australia, he lost all

communications with his shore

Regulations governing emissions

from diesel engines on yachts

could soon be tightened,

affecting all new boats and all

new engines fi tted to old boats.

The Recreational Craft

Directive (RCD) will soon

enforce stricter controls on

for coastal vessel engines

according to RYA legal

affairs manager Gus Lewis.

‘Regulations in a 2009 EU

directive requiring ultra-

low-sulphur diesel to be

used on inland waterways

came into effect three

of four years ago,’ he

explained. ‘Tighter emissions

standards for coastal craft are

on their way.’

The current RCD (Directive

2013/53/EU) became operational

in early 2016 and from 18 January

2017, new engine exhaust limits

will apply to all recreational

marine engines made available or

put into service in the EU.

‘Low-quality fuel stops

emissions control mechanisms

from working, so making fuel

cleaner was the fi rst step. With

this in place, engines emissions

can now be tackled,’ said Lewis.

At the same time, the Royal

College of Physicians has found

that outdoor pollution, to

which diesel fumes are a major

contributor, cause as many as

40,000 early deaths a year in

the UK. Exposure to diesel fumes

could be a problem for sailors.

Boat maintentance expert

Nigel Calder explained: ‘Old

diesel engines in boats have

pollution levels presumably vastly

above newer engines. Sailors use

them for short periods, lightly

loaded and not properly warmed

up, which dramatically increases

pollution levels.’

The Royal College of Physicians

research also found high levels of

indoor pollution were affecting

health. Several sources of this

pollution are also found on

yachts, including gas for cooking,

solid-fuel heaters, cleaning

chemicals and solvents.

team when his satellite phone

stopped working. He also

encountered a number of storms

up to Force 12. In one of these

the boat was swamped by

a breaking wave, fl ooding

the cabin and damaging

electronics including his

autopilot, forcing him to steer

the rest of the leg by hand.

The toughest conditions

of the voyage were on

Christmas Eve as he passed

the Cape of Good Hope.

‘The waves reached 7-9m,’

he recalled. ‘With every

breaking wave I would lay

fl at and hold tight as the

wind speed rose to between

45 and 50 knots, with gusts

of 60 knots.’

Atlantic Puffi n was

modifi ed at the Northmann

boatyard in Poland, including a

watertight companion-way hatch,

an escape hatch in the transom

and reinforced standing rigging.

Szymon taking

on the world in

his tiny

boat

PHOTO: DARIA PAWEDA

PHOTO: GRAHAM SNOOK/YM

Exhaust fumes from yacht engines could be harming our health

Maiden returning to UK

The Whitbread yacht Maiden

has been rescued and is being

brought back to the UK from

South Africa for girls’ education

charities. Tracy Edwards, who

skippered Maiden’s all-women

crew in 1989 is fundraising for

the trip home and wider project.

South West 3 Peaks

The fourth edition of the South

West 3 Peaks Yacht Race will

be held on 17-19 June. It is

an adventure race for yachts

between 26ft and 50ft, with 125

miles of sailing, plus running and

cycling. It starts in St Mawes and

fi nishes in Plymouth.

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

If you have a news story to share, contact News Editor Theo Stocker

TEL 020 3148 4873

PHOTO: BOB SHEPTON

Bob’s dawn photo

of Evidhedsfjord