Yachting World - July 2018

21

http://www.facebook.com/

http://www.twitter.com/yachtingworld yachtingworldmagazine

Water everywhere.

Should the VO65s

have cockpit

enclosures?

AIS is a huge boon to boatowners, but

some areas of the world have no coverage

Pinpoint accuracy?

I am writing to you with regard to your

article online about AIS MOB devices.

I recognise the French SAR pilot who

wrote in your letters pages in May has

relevant knowledge of SAR, but what he

perhaps lacks is knowledge of the 1,400

terrestrial AIS stations and numerous

AIS satellite receivers for a maritime

intelligence company.

What he did not mention or recognise

is that the world is not entirely covered

by AIS coverage, and vast areas have

no coverage. This is firstly due to the

limitations of terrestrial AIS (shore-

based) and the distance it can track,

and secondly the number of AIS

receivers that are placed on satellites in

geosynchronous orbit around earth.

The only way to combat this is via

an incentive deal with the equipment

manufacturers and customers.

Daniel Holland

Bavaria in trouble

What went wrong? In my view, leveraged

private equity owners with no margin for

error. The brand remains sustainable if a

responsible restructure takes place.

Love it or hate it, Bavaria has made

yachting more affordable.

Mark Harper

The road to hell for a boatbuilder is to

get the wrong business owners and

wrong management.

I believe private equity equals a weak

balance sheet and a short time horizon,

and managers from outside the industry

a lack of business understanding. We’ve

seen this before, actually a few years ago

at Bavaria. Will they never learn?

Gustaf Hafrén

Faster and drier

Watching the footage of the Volvo

yachts at speed... For goodness sake put

cockpit enclosures on the VO65s, like

they do on IMOCA boats.

There is no reason for the crews to

be in this washing machine all the time.

Look at François Gabart’s 100ft MACIF

Ultim trimaran: the skipper is totally

enclosed but in control of all sails. These

boats are faster despite being raced

solo! Go figure.

Malcolm Robertson

Sailing with kids

Perhaps the cover of your May issue

(pictured right) should have placed the

coverlines ‘How we helped our kids to

love cruising’ and ‘Get paid to go sailing’

in the reverse order of importance!

A comment on the former: last

summer we sailed with two families

in two boats in tandem and, in our

experience, it was a summer holiday

cruise with four times the fun.

The attraction is of being with others of

your generation, all looking forward, once

moored, to the parents being together on

one boat and kids on the other. The age

mix provides alternative role models for

the kids and helps provide a humorous

angle on the minor mess-ups that

characterise any good cruise.

Lastly, the serious and

sometimes fractious business

of route planning and updating

of cruise plans becomes a

healthy, if heated, negotiation

when there are four parental

parties rather than two.

When sailing from Alderney,

where should we go next?

Should we head for Poole

Harbour or sail towards

St Vaast?

John Field

Ugo Fonolla/Volv

o Ocean Race

Graham Snook/YM