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