DECEMBER 2013 ISSUE OF BLUE WATER SAILING.

Bill Biewenga Offshore: Bitter Winds Cold weather sailing can be hard and dangerous. Or, it can be a rare pleasure. Daniel Collins: Tech Talk Moving Pictures: Tall Tales and Seascapes How to get the most out of sharing your sailing experiences using modern video equipment. Charter Chatter: 10 Days in the B.V.I. The world’s favorite chartering playground.  World Cruising: Dominica, the Nature Island A two-week exploration of this unique Caribbean oasis might not be enough by Diane Gorch. Classic Passages: Marquesas to the Society Islands Part III: How careful planning can keep the Coconut Milk Run smooth by Nadine Slavinski.  World Sailing Adventures: Favorite Cruising Destinations Boatswain’s Locker: Sew What? Sew Everything! Learn how to choose materials and sew canvas throughout your boat by Pete Dubler. Continue Reading…..

The Departure • Experienced cruisers will tell you that the hardest part of getting away for a long cruise—such as heading to Mexico or the Caribbean for the winter—is the process of getting your boat and yourself ready to get away. This is particularly true if you will be making ocean voyages to get to those warm sunny cruising grounds we all dream of.

This fall, our boat partners Tony and Judy Knowles have been deep in the throes of getting our Jeanneau 45.2 Lime’n ready for a winter cruise from Newport, RI to the Caribbean. As I type, they (and we) are watching the weather in the North Atlantic very carefully as we look for a weather window that will allow Lime’n to get to Bermuda (four days of sailing) in relatively benign conditions. We have been logging on to the Passage Weather website twice a day to get the overall weather picture, and we have engaged Commanders Weather to advise us when it looks prudent to go. Continue Reading…..

The X Factor • The new XP 44 from the Danish builder X-Yachts, is a thoroughly modern racer-cruiser built in classic northern European stlye by George Day

Flying overnight from the East Coast of the U.S. to Europe always gives me a through-the-looking-glass sense of being dislocated from time and reality. And so it was when I landed at the Billund airport in central Denmark last September after a hop across the pond from Boston and a layover at Amsterdam’s Shiphol airport. The airport, I was told, was built by and for Lego, whose corporate headquarters are nearby. A Lego airport makes perfect sense. I hadn’t slept a wink and was now, by mid-morning, on my fourth cup of coffee.

I was met by my buddy and host Lars Ostergaard who is with Gori Propellers and immediately swept into his car and driven two hours to a small marina somewhere in west central Denmark. Continue Reading…..

Oyster 54 • The Oyster 54 offers true blue water capabilities in a cruising boat that will make a great couple’s floating home.

It was one of those perfect Indian Summer afternoons in Newport, R.I. when we set off from the mooring in Brenton Cove to give the Oyster 54 Tom Tom a whirl around Narragansett Bay. The sky was clear, the air warm and the breeze was blowing at a gentle 10 knots up the bay. And, despite it being a Thursday, there were dozens of boats out sailing as we all played hooky to get in one last sail before the snow flies.

We rolled out the in-mast furling mainsail and the 125 percent genoa and headed up wind and out of the bay toward open water. The 54 has electric halyard and sheet winches, so deploying the sails and trimming them was a cinch. Close hauled, we settled into the groove at about 45 degrees from the true wind and steadily increased speed Continue Reading…..

Bavaria Vision 42 : The new cruising sloop from Bavaria of Germany gets a short but full-blown test

As I drove by scenic Mystic Seaport on my way to the marina where we were to set off for a test of the new Bavaria Vision 42, I noticed that the big flags on the classic ships were standing out dead straight in the breeze. Yes, there was going to be plenty of wind that afternoon.

I met up with Fletcher Ryan who runs the Mystic, Connecticut base for Bavaria USA and we soon were aboard the V42 and getting her ready to sail. I had sailed the new Vision 46 about a year ago when the first boat was delivered to the U.S. so the new styling for Bavaria was not a surprise. Unlike the Cruiser Line from Bavaria, the Vision 46 and 42 have raised salon cabin tops with sleek cat-eye windows that evoke the design styling of an Audi TT sports car. Continue Reading…..

2013 Boat Show Preview • The fall and winter boat show season is on the horizon and with that comes excitement from not only boat builders, but boat buyers as well. As always, BWS is happy to give you a rundown on what to expect as you tour this year’s shows. For a preview of the newest multihulls, see the August 2013 issue of Multihulls Quarterly.

This year’s crop of new boats on the boat show landscape seems to be dominated by a central theme combining equal parts performance and comfort. In that regard boat designers and builders are meeting the demands of modern boat buyers by producing comfortable yet innovative yachts that also sail to an unprecedented performance standard. Continue Reading…..