When asked to help guide the 86m/282ft ketch Aquijo for a cruise in Tierra del Fuego and a Cape Horn rounding I was very sceptical. Accustomed to sheltering in small…
skip novak
Skip Novak: cruising is being taken over by permits and paperwork
How rare it is, to be left to your own devices on a wild island. From the tropics to the high latitudes, more often than not when you think you…
Skip Novak sails 4,000 miles to refit his charter fleet in the South Atlantic winter
Pelagic Australis, the flagship of my two-boat fleet, which includes the original Pelagic (my ‘Pelagians’ call me the Commodore), was back on station in the Falkland Islands at the end…
Skip Novak: Volvo Ocean Race CEO Mark Turner is off to a very strong start
I was very pleased to see the new course for the next Volvo Ocean Race. Looking at the map graphic, the course line is once again more or less a…
Skip Novak: Big city venues reduce the America’s Cup World Series to a crapshoot
When I read about Ben Ainslie’s frustration in sailing underneath New York City (literally) in the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series in May, and knowing that Chicago was coming…
Skip Novak finds superyacht regattas are not for the faint-hearted
Superyacht regattas are not really my cup of tea. The last time I did one was in 2001 aboard Timoneer during the America’s Cup Jubilee in Cowes, with my former…
Skip Novak on harnesses, ocean racing risks and the most vulnerable time of all
Of course the loss of crewmember Sarah Young from the Clipper Round the World Race yacht IchorCoal in April was a tragedy. We should be under no illusions, though, that…
Skip Novak goes sailing to climb mountains – in the wake of Tilman
I have always thought that voyaging under sail is more gratifying when it has an underlying purpose. Floating about somewhat ad hoc across oceans from one paradise to the next…
Skip Novak: something should be done about the number of rescues in major ocean races
Describing grand-prix offshore sailors as ‘idiots’ continually in need of rescue (as someone did in a letter to Yachting World recently) is a tad strong in the language. Nevertheless I…
Skip Novak: think about a jury rudder before you have to set one in anger
What a pleasure to read in the December issue about the couple who sailed themselves halfway across an ocean after a complete rudder failure. No rescue was called out, this…
Skip Novak: why a catamaran wins out if destination is more important than sailing
Even if you don’t believe your own eyes, there is no doubt – if the statistics are to be trusted – that catamarans are taking the sailing world by storm…
Skip Novak: where have all the America’s Cup tycoons gone? We miss them
I recently became aware of the new rules in the America’s Cup whereby the challengers are subject to fines if they publicly criticise the Cup organisation. It is US$25,000 for…
Skip Novak: remembering the capsize of the maxi Drum – will they ever complete the Fastnet?
Thirty years ago last August the maxi Drum capsized in the Fastnet Race with 24 crew aboard. The keel had fallen off near Dodman Point in Cornwall, which was dramatic…
Skip Novak: why I consider someone calling my yacht ‘well-used’ a compliment
When superyachts began coming to Tierra del Fuego and the Antarctic Peninsula in the mid-1990s, I gave some professional advice and provided a pilot to a well-known German owner of…
Skip Novak: Should I be contributing to a cruising guide to Antarctica?
There is a plan afoot for a cruising guide to Antarctica. I know this as I was asked to contribute to it. At risk of alienating a large part of…
Skip Novak takes a trip down Memory Lane – aka Hamble River
On a summer Sunday a sailing friend of mine suggested we take our families for a spin on the Hamble River on his motor boat (he is a sailing friend…
Skip Novak: Setting out on sea trials inadequately prepared? Been there, done that
Anyone who owns a boat knows the subject. We’ve all done it, setting out to sea on an extended voyage, with little or no sea trials. I can consider my…
Wearing a lifejacket or not is a judgement call. We are being brainwashed, argues Skip Novak
I first realised there was something amiss when several years ago on a visit to the Hamble River during a dead calm weekend afternoon. I noticed that everyone on every…
Yachting World goes to Cape Horn to research our Storm Sailing Techniques series
As we drove into Ushuaia from the new airport, Skip Novak pointed out a small cruise liner moored in the commercial port. She’d recently had her bridge windows smashed in…
If I had a hammer . . . a winter voyage to South Georgia by Skip Novak
No matter how well you think you have prepared for a voyage, there are always things that slip through the net. Usually they are minor items that didn’t make the…