leopard catamaran ocean crossing

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Catamaran sailing across the Atlantic: Why multihulls are taking over the ARC

• Elaine Bunting
• July 2, 2020

Multihulls are making their mark on tradewinds sailing. Elaine Bunting reports from the 2019 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers

A catamaran on the ARC rally reefed for an approaching squall, as seen from Jeanneau 64 Layla. Photo: Paul Laurie/Point Photography

Something big has happened in ocean sailing. It could be the tipping point in the 34-year history of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers , when multihulls move from minority element to ruling party.

When a cruising catamaran sailed by four people in their sixties can beat a larger one-design round-the-world racer with a crew of 15, and many even bigger, you realise something has changed – maybe for good.

Just after midnight on 7 December 2019, Régis Guillemot, his partner Véronique, and two friends fizzed across the finish line in St Lucia in Guillemot’s 55ft cruising catamaran, Hallucine . It had taken them just 11 days and 16 hours.

Celebrations as the four crew of Hallucine , a Marsaudon TS5 catamaran, crosses the finish line at Rodney Bay, St Lucia. Photo: Tim Wright / PhotoAction

“Our boat is very quick, very simple and fast, and we are optimised for light weight,” explains the quietly spoken French sailor. His other half just laughs. “For him, there is full speed ahead, or nothing!”

Hallucine had sailed from Gran Canaria at an average of 12.5 knots, while the crew did Pilates on the aft deck each day, baked bread and shot GoPro videos.

Around 10 hours later came Sisi , a VO65 from the Austrian Ocean Race Project crewed by 12 Slovenian charter sailors and three professionals.

What a different experience: faster sailing but a course of long gybes, on a diet of freeze-dried food, no showers and hot-bunking in the round-the-world racer’s dark carbon recesses.

Astern of them both was top French solo sailor Jean-Pierre Dick’s The Kid , a 54ft carbon composite canting keel yacht designed as a performance cruising interpretation of IMOCA 60 principles.

Article continues below…

Tradewinds explained: Everything you need to know before sailing across the Atlantic

A transatlantic tradewind crossing from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean is on many a sailor’s bucket list. Endless sunny…

Sailing across the Atlantic: Bluewater veterans share top tips for your first crossing

On the afternoon before we left the Canary Islands for the Caribbean for a transatlantic with the ARC, I struck…

Hallucine would also have beaten Ulisse , Patrizio Bertelli’s 105ft Frers superyacht , had it not diverted to another island on the final approach following a crew injury.

In the ARC+ rally, too, the route that goes via a pitstop in the Cape Verde Islands, the first to arrive in St Lucia was also a multihull, the Neel 47 trimaran Minimole .

Cruising multihulls numbers have been growing quickly. Of the 280-strong fleet in 2019, 60 were multis. But the most telling statistic is that they make up 50% of all the new boats.

The crew of Neel 47 trimaran Minimole celebrate arrival in St Lucia 12 days after leaving Mindelo, Cape Verde. Photo: Tim Wright / PhotoAction

The crossing times are incontrovertible evidence that performance cruising multihulls and cruising catamarans designed foremost for spacious living can, if sailed well, be faster downwind than a monohull with a longer LOA.

Of course, what makes the ideal yacht for an upwind passage (for example, the return crossing to Europe) is quite a different matter, but more and more cruisers are planning only a one-way voyage and intend to ship their boats back, or are planning to sail onwards into the Pacific along the tradewinds route. This is a trend that is only going to continue.

Fast, light, simple

In one way, the line honours winner’s story is exceptional. For many years skipper Régis Guillemot ran a charter business in Martinique.

Hallucine ’s anti-capsize system: Two cam cleats flip up to release genoa and spinnaker sheets if settings are exceeded

He is also an experienced racer, cousin of the French round the world sailor Marc Guillemot, and a three-times Route du Rhum competitor.

His Marsaudon TS5 is a lightweight cruiser with a carbon mast and deck, It displaces just 8.6 tonnes, and Guillemot keeps it light.

“It’s not too complicated,” he says. “We have a small 27lt per hour watermaker, solar panels, no generator and we don’t carry too much fuel or water. We set off with only 30lt of water per side, plus emergency water in bottles, and made water every day.

“I want to go fast. We can be sailing at 17 knots and sitting there comfortably having our coffee. And in the Caribbean the size [of the boat] is no problem: there’s more space, it’s cooler and less rolly in anchorages.”

And although the boat is light, it does carry scuba gear and a kitesurfer that they plan to use in the Caribbean and as they make their way across the South Pacific next year.

Guillemot ran single watches and sailed almost all the way with a full main and heavy A2 spinnaker. “We took it down at Pigeon Island after 11 days just to tack to the finish,” he says. They were able to gybe through 145-150° and were making 17-20 knots – “usually 17-18 knots steady”– as soon as they reached the tradewinds.

The kill cord in Hallucine ‘s saloon

In the few squalls they encountered, the wind never topped 17 knots apparent and they felt comfortable enough to keep the full main up and soak down by 10° until a squall passed. To help make sure they never pressed the boat so hard they risked capsize, Guillemot has an automatic sheet release system similar to those used on the huge Ultime trimarans.

Made by ACR, this monitors pitch and heel angle and is set to release the main and spinnaker sheet from a panel of cam cleats once certain settings are reached, and also set off an audible alarm. There is also a kill cord in the saloon. It’s a very simple system.

The yacht’s autopilot can, he says, handle speeds up to 24 knots, but for the last five days the crew hand steered all day. The boat is steered from the aft quarters with tillers, and the video above shows some of the speeds they were enjoying.

The ACR unit senses pitch and heel angle

But although Hallucine ’s crossing was super-fast, another Marsaudon catamaran provided a second benchmark. Fifth over the line was a TS42, Elektra , a 42ft smaller sister from the same French builders, which made the crossing in just under 13 days. They, too, left bigger boats astern – 10 hours behind her was a Swan 80.

Elektra ’s crew had sometimes reefed during the night and may represent a more typical example of sensible catamaran cruising because, as even Régis Guillemot admits: “They are like sportscars – when they go, they go,” he says. “There’s a limit and if you don’t know what you are doing, you can quickly go into the red zone.”

The crossing times of these big multis is a clear sign of an evolution in performance and speed. “I think you can’t necessarily judge all boats by Hallucine ’s performance, but what is interesting is how they are holding pace with larger monohulls,” says World Cruising Club (WCC) communications director Jeremy Wyatt.

View from aloft on Pierre Caouette’s and Lisa McKerracher’s Outremer 5X Biotrek

“A 55ft Bali was holding up with an X-61, which is a fast monohull, and if you pick out comparable elapsed times and distances sailed you can see that a Lagoon 42 is going the same speed as a 46ft Bavaria and significantly faster than a Discovery 55, if you’re sailing them well and getting the best out of them.

“Multihulls are more expensive to buy, more expensive to run and you have to remember that if the beam is over 8m you could be restricting yourself as to where in the world you can be lifted out.

“But for tradewinds sailing there’s a strong argument that they are the right choice and the ability to live your life without any sense of camping is the biggest win-win

“But,” he adds, “go on a performance sailing course first, would be my advice.”

South til the butter melts

Kevin Horne and his partner, Diane, are steadfast monohull sailors. The Australian skipper has a distinguished background in offshore racing with the well-known Aussie yacht Wild Thing , and was sailing in a crew with several professionals including round the world Clipper Race winner Wendy Tuck .

He bought his Jeanneau 51 Wild Spirit in 2018 and had been cruising in the Mediterranean , but is now sailing his way back home.

The crew of Wild Spirit (L-R): Kevin Horne, Diane Rogers and Russell Finch

Horne was taking part in the ARC+ rally – he liked the idea of a stop on the way across and was hugely enthusiastic about the visit to Cape Verde.

He too had an uncomplicated sailplan in action for the crossing: full main and asymmetric, and between Mindelo and St Lucia made “one gybe to the north and one down” to go as deep downwind as possible. They had daily runs of 160-180 miles, with one day over 200, hand-steered “80-85% of the time”.

“The boat was outstanding,” he says. “Our water tanks and fuel tanks were full at the start and we had two weeks of food, so a lot of weight, but the boat helmed beautifully and tracked along. We took the tender and outboard off, and the anchor and chain were stowed over the keel to centralise weight. The boat was stunning and it really was brochure sailing.”

Seas in the wake of Yolo , Gottfried Boehringer’s Oyster 625

This was a year for heading south until the butter melts, avoiding light winds along the rhumb line by following the classic route south towards Cape Verde where early tradewinds begin and turning right for St Lucia.

This is typical a VMG running course, and those yachts such as the VO65 that were running down hot angles had to sail many hundreds more miles that cost them dearly.

Sisi , the VO65, for example, logged 3,950 miles (one of the highest I’ve heard of in years of ARC coverage). For added context, Bouwe Bekking was also sailing a VO65 in the RORC Transatlantic Race between Lanzarote to Grenada, and he too reported sailing around 4,000 miles.

Fast, wet downwind sailing on the VO65 Sisi . Photo: Austrian Ocean Race Project / Michael Muck Kremtz

Yachts able to sail deeper downwind at angles up to 170° are much better set up for this route. The old racing adage that ‘the shortest distance is invariably the fastest’ holds true on the transatlantic.

The southerly route adds around 300 miles compared to the rhumb line distance of 2,700 miles. That can be made back if avoiding light winds on the direct route, but reaching machines with no angles to play are not going to break any records.

This year the trades began gently and built steadily until yachts were seeing 20-25 knots and positively barrelling down westwards.

Exhausted crew at the stern of the VO65 Sisi . The crossing was a full-on racing exercise, and hard, intensive work. Photo: Austrian Ocean Race Project / Michael Muck Kremtz

A common complaint was that life on board was very rolly. Many crews found the motion of building seas and fast sailing an unpleasant surprise, making daily tasks and sleeping quite hard work.

These conditions put boats under strain, and cause breakages. “But it’s really what we would expect, given the strength of the wind,” comments WCC’s Wyatt. “Wear and tear on steering cables, broken goosenecks… That is par for the course.”

Two crews reported bone fractures on board: one person broke an arm during a gybe that went wrong. This was likely because of the strong tradewinds, which made boats roll more.

Szabi Mohai and his Hydrovane

Szabi Mohai, sailing on a Dutch entry, a Bavaria 49 named Wilson , entered the finish at Rodney Bay steering gingerly with an emergency tiller. The boat’s rudder blade had broken four days earlier.

“It was the middle of the night and very dark when we had a crash and heard a loud bang, and when we looked back we could see [the remains of] the blade in the water.”

The boat momentarily came to a halt; Mohai realised they had hit something. The collision left only a little of the foam filling around the web structure from the stock and they were unable to steer with it.

Happily, Mohai has a Hydrovane, which operates with its own rudder blade and is equipped with a stub handle for a tiller, so the crew was able to use this to control the boat. “That really was our best friend,” he says.

The crew had also broken the bowsprit in rough weather at the start of the rally, when the bow buried in a wave and a fitting holding the anchor failed.

The anchor shot up and sheared off the aluminium prodder. The crew lashed the remaining part back in place with a cat’s cradle of lines, as shown below.

Repairs to his broken bowsprit

A few boats had encounters with so-called ‘ghost’ fishing nets. One yacht had part of a net entangled on the keel. Another reported passing a very large ghost net that they estimated to be around 50m x 20m in size.

Some of the crews we spoke to were disappointed they had seen very little marine life. Yet others photographed pods of dolphins, reported catching mahi mahi or seeing longtails, so perhaps these sightings were more common on boats where people were handsteering or on yachts without large biminis and sprayhoods?

At least three crews from the ARC+ reported nighttime encounters with other yachts that were unlit. These were not rally boats and did not appear on AIS.

Dolphins play at the bow of Jeanneau 64 Layla . Photo: Paul Laurie / Point Photography

With lower energy LED nav lights available and modern solar panels able to provide a steady supply of energy, it is hard to understand or excuse.

While the inexorable rise of the cruising catamaran is a very visible trend in bluewater sailing, it is not the only sea change. Another fast-growing movement is the business of vlogging.

Dozens of ARC crews, at least, are dabbling in video diaries and mini documentaries for a wider audience and a handful have followings large enough to monetise through YouTube and provide useful income.

Canadian sailor Lisa McKerracher, who is living on board their new Outremer 5X Biotrek with her partner Pierre Caouette and their labradoodle dog Tiller, is new to the game and began making video diaries for family to follow.

She is seeing an increasing following for her insights into the boat and life on board (the channel is called Biotrek-sailing ). Access to fast 4G/LTE wifi in Europe and through most of the Caribbean islands, and Wi-Fi in most cafes and restaurants has changed how people share their experiences and is giving a huge new audience with less or no sailing experience an enticing glimpse into what life on board entails.

Ross Applebey (centre) and crew of Scarlet Oyster celebrate Ross’s fourth racing division win, the third consecutively. Photo: Clare Pengelly / World Cruising

In reality, life on passage is testing. Says skipper Szabi Mohai, “there is something happening every day” – by which he means something to fix or add to the jobs list.

But it is a very different pace than on land, and with an Atlantic crossing comes the satisfaction of knowing that, with every mile covered, the hard part is receding.

First published in the February 2020 edition of Yachting World.

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The best catamarans for ocean sailing/crossing

Sep 25, 2020

less than a min

The best catamarans for ocean crossing have to embody a few key features in order to be safe for anyone on board, including guests and crew members. Most catamarans do perform quite well in open waters and are regarded as safe vessels to be offshore. This is especially true with large catamarans with big hulls.

In addition, many catamarans have sailed through horrific weather and have managed not to capsize due to their great roll inertia. What basically happens to a catamaran in a rough sea is the boat just surfs sideways when a big wave hits.

Not to worry however as in most cases, weather forecasts will determine whether a catamaran can go offshore on that specific day or not. In addition, the highest risks are when catamarans sail on a north- south axis between seasons. That said, there are a few catamarans that do perform better when crossing oceans than others.

Typically, cruising catamarans are divided into two categories:

• Charter Catamarans
• High-Performance Cruising Catamarans

Charter catamarans have fixed keels, shorter bows, forward masts, heavier displacement, high-windage flybridges, and low-aspect rudders. These boats are mainly chartered to guests and are not designed for ocean crossing rather than sailing close to shore and enjoying views in a touristic way.

High-performance cruising catamarans , on the other hand, have deeper rudders, less displacement, efficient daggerboards, a small weight and large sail plans. They are able to go at a 50-degree TWA to windward in all weather conditions, and can even outsail keelboats. In addition, when a storm hits, all that is needed is for the catamaran to sail at a higher speed and maintain balance and lower loads.

These features make them some of the best catamarans for ocean sailing.

Which is the best catamaran for ocean sailing

After getting a quick glance of what makes a multihull a good fit for offshore sailing, let’s get to the good part: which one is the best catamaran for ocean cruising ?

Technically, there are thousands of options to choose from when it comes to catamarans. So today we are going to present our choice based on the criteria mentioned above.

One of the best catamarans for ocean sailing in 2020 is The Privilege 435 . This is a long-distance, light weight cruiser produced in the Gold Coast area of La Rochelle. The Privilege 435 is a heavy-displacement multihull that has been around for almost 30 years. This is a luxurious well-built yacht with a decent proportion that allows it to cross oceans safely. It has a 23ft 2in beam, 43ft 1in LOA, as well as good proportion with a low-slung superstructure which is perfect for low wind resistance. In addition, the Privilege 435 is equipped with 4 cabins and 4 showers and costs about $300,000 to $350,000. The ample interior makes for a comfortable vessel to withstand long- distance trips.

While this catamaran sits on the high-end of the spectrum when it comes to yachts, there are many other more affordable options to choose from, if you are looking to sail offshore on a long-distance trip. Use TheBoatDB with a free account to compare other catamarans to the Privilege435 and figure out which one is the best fit for you to ocean cruise. You can even browse through TheBoatDB database to get some more options on the table. Last but not least, make sure to take into account the route and predicted weather conditions before embarking on your adventure.

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Crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the Catalac 900 – S/V Horizons

• Post author By Rick
• Post date June 30, 2010
• No Comments on Crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the Catalac 900 – S/V Horizons

continued from page 1

by Jeff & Diane Curran

We were making good progress, averaging 90 miles but after 5 days the wind died and we were then faced with the prospect of grossly exceeding our ETA at Barbados. The last thing we wanted to happen was for our girls back in the UK to become worried because were unable to contact them or let them know in any way that we were ok (in fact, this became the greatest concern during the trip). In hindsight we should have invested in a SAT-phone for such an eventuality.

Actually, we set off with a five day weather forecast and with only VHF aboard, called up the occasional passing ship for an up to date forecast.

We deployed the Cruising Shute, something we thought would never be needed for this passage, particularly as the Trade Winds should have been firmly set for the time of year. At one stage it flew for nearly two and a half days continuously. This was contrary to our plans as we had always intended to shorten sail before sunset. In all, we had the cruising chute up for 13 days although not continually. We purposely bent on the working jib before setting off.

The usual pattern was for the winds to increase before lunch and start to die off before sunset which caused us no end of grief in the tropical heat as the sail plan was often changing and it often became frustrating as we saw the day’s average speed steadily drop off. When there was actually wind, the normal sail plan was jib and main or partly furled mainsail (we favoured a working Jib to a Genoa).

Luckily for us, we had SCRABBLE aboard which often saw us through these times when the weather couldn’t quite make up it’s mind.

Within a couple of days, the bread which we had purchased was mouldy and within a week and a half all the fresh vegetables had seen better days, Cape Verde isn’t the best place in the world to victual for an Ocean Crossing, much of the fruit and vegetables are well below par of the supermarket produce in European Countries. There wasn’t any part baked vacuum sealed bread or bread mix either which would have helped us on our way; instead we purchased packets of what looked like ship’s biscuits which on trying were hard as nails and even after soaking for a few hours still had a consistency of chewing cardboard.

But we got by, it was amusing with what we tried to concoct in order to make the dishes more appetising – eggs kept well, we decided early on that it was pointless trying to use the refrigerator as it used up too much energy, the priority was for keeping the power available for the autopilot and chart plotter .

On a few occasions we ran the engines – when there was absolutely no wind. The concern was that with 2 x 10hp Volvo sail drives and 50 ltr tanks for each and a reserve of 65 ltrs in jerry cans, e should have enough fuel available for any conditions we may encounter for when we reached landfall.

Thankfully, as we reached the three quarters stage, the wind steadied and became less of a problem, unlike the autopilot which had a tendency to overheat and needed to be closely monitored. When this happened, we hand steered for a few hours at a time using the cockpit steering position (the autopilot is attached to the wheel situated in the saloon).

Apart from the ritual of SCRABBLE our daily routine was to remove the flying fish from the deck which had landed aboard overnight; little did we know that this was Barbados’ national dish. We couldn’t eat them anyway because they were the size of sardines and rigour mortis had invariably set in. Di however, had rigged a fishing line consisting of a long length of chordage and a safety pin fashioned to resemble a fish hook (it never worked, she got the idea from a sea survival manual). Even when she purchased the real McCoy in Barbados for the next passage, it too never caught a sausage!

There were two occasions when rain clouds appeared, so fully prepared, naked and all soaped up we waited in anticipation for the expected downpour. It somehow avoided us, leaving us to use up our valuable supply of water to rinse off but boy we did smell a whole lot better. Seriously though, health and hygiene is a high priority and bird baths with the aid of baby wipes were an important part of our daily routine.

It took us 29 days to reach Barbados, and feeling very tired but elated we tied up before lunch in the Careenage having been beckoned to a berth by a person we assumed was a member of the port staff. He appeared very efficient and proceeded to fleece us of 25 euros before we were informed by someone else that clear Customs and Immigration and not under any circumstances land where we were.

Setting off again, for the trip to the port which was another mile or two away, we then were required to wait another 3 hours for the Customs officials to return to their offices after they had finished inspecting a ship at nchor – by this time we were thoroughly tired.

Our second visit to the careenage was more of a success and we spent 3 days bows to in an unofficial berth which cost us nothing and was reserved for commercial vessels, We were introduced to the Harbour Master who was most helpful and arranged for us to tie up in the inner harbour in what is actually a new development for visiting yachts situated in the centre of town. Apart from the initial bad experience, we found the Barbadians to be a lovely and helpful bunch of people and we would love to return.We spent just over a week in Barbados before clearing out and crossing to Bequia a further 100 miles to the West and into the Caribbean Sea. After the Atlantic, the Caribbean was like sailing on a lake with winds abaft the beam and boat speeds of about 5 to 6 knots (even with a fouled bottom).

On reflection, the crossing was well worth the effort, sailing the Caribbean is truly wonderful and as we rest here in Grenada with Horizons ashore in Spice Island Marine receiving some TLC we are getting to know the Grenadian people, fellow live aboard sailors and look forward to the sailing season in late November.

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• LOA: 50 ft 6 in / 15.4 m
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• Beam: 26 ft 5 in / 8.04 m
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Delivery Skipper's Report: Indian Ocean Crossing on a Leopard 44

Earlier this month, skipper Kirsten N. tied up to a dock in Australia after 56 days at sea. She had just completed her task of safely delivering a Leopard 44 from Robertson & Caine's factory in South Africa to the boat's buyer in Sydney. Consider this: 56 days means Kirsten and her crew spent about 15% of 2013 on this one job! 

Kirsten gives us a good look into life at sea in this Q&A session about the delivery.

Q:  How many crew did you have aboard?

A:   2 crew, and myself –  total of 3 persons aboard.

Q: What kind of watch schedule did you maintain?

A:  4 hours in the day (makes up 3 watches between 0800 and 2000 – 1 per person) and 3 hours at night (means the person on watch from 2000 – 2300 is on watch again from 0500-0800, and that way the watches are staggered).

Q:   How do you pass the time during nearly two months at sea?

A:  Cleanliness of the boat – keeping it clean and salt-free and general checks at sea, engine maintenance etc. takes up a couple of hours each day – then the domestic duties taken in turn – such as cooking/doing the dishes - the watches, of course, and general sailing, which often requires sail changes etc., studying the weather and the charts – and for the rest, reading plenty of books, playing cards, philosophizing with the ship’s mates, taking a swim around the boat on a calm day, getting enough sleep and rest to be in healthy shape.

Q: What was your diet like aboard?

A:   Basic starches, such as rice, pasta, couscous, potatoes with certain vegetables that last long like carrots, pumpkin, onions, garlic, ginger, leek, cabbage, chilies, dried lentils, nuts, dried fruits. Some things for the first couple of weeks that last well in fridge: tomatoes, green peppers, cheeses, yoghurts. Then in tins: vegetables, crushed tomatoes, beans. From this we made stews, curries, etc. Breakfast: teas, ground coffee, cereals, milk. Other crisp breads, peanut butter, spreads, salty cracks, processed cheeses, pickles, fruit juices etc. And our first mate did a fine job, making sure we had a good supply of fresh fish: skipjack and long-fin tuna.

Q: How did the boat handle?

A:   The boat took the seas really well. With each approaching depression, we would get strong Northwesterlies: we would fall off with the wind and take the seas and winds on the quarter and go further South, until the wind would back round to the Southwest, and we would head back to North on the other tack, still keeping the weather on the quarter. This would allow the boat to run with only the genoa, which meant that the sail was easy and safe to reef, but allowed for good progress, none the less. The auto-pilot steered the boat with ease, and the helm was balanced. Even when the boat took occasional big beam seas, it felt stable.

Q:   Did you have to make any repairs underway?

A:  No repairs were needed underway. I climbed up the mast once while we were becalmed, to check the rig – forestay and cap-shrouds – and found everything to be as it should. We tightened up slightly on the cap shrouds. In very strong winds, we would tag down tightly the genoa with the lazy sheet on the weather amidships cleat, and tightened up on the topping lift and then main sheet (even without the main being hoisted) to give the rig additional “backstay” support, and we experienced NO breakage.

Q:  What were the highest wind speeds and wave heights that you saw? What was the prevailing wind direction?

A:  We had true wind speeds gusting into the lower 70s, but between 50-60 was frequent,  from NW’lies to SW’lies, hence we would keep the weather on the quarter, and keep apparent wind speeds down. But usually the depressions would not last for more than 24 hours, so the seas would only pick up to 5-7 m, mostly a more or less comfortable, long period swell, which would push the boat along nicely, giving us some surf speeds up to 18 knots on the odd occasion. After the passing of a depression we would sometimes be becalmed slightly for a day or two, giving the sea a good chance to subside again.

Q:   What kind of air temperatures did you experience?

A:  About 12-17 °C , high humidity and lots of rain.

Q: How much fuel did you use?

A: We used about 600-700 litres total.

Q:  What did you see? Any notable encounters with other boats, fish, birds, etc.?

A:  Endless amounts of albatross, black boobies and other sea-birds. We had our encounters with the fish we hauled in on the line and made dinner out of. We saw dolphins off the coastlines (SA and AUS), we saw seals off St. Paul and wales in Oberon Bay and off Jervis Bay. We saw some small fishing boats between St. Paul and AUS, with bright lights like calamari boats – often just drifting, but other than that it was a very desolate stretch – we saw very, very few cargo ships and went for weeks without seeing anything at all.

Q: Anything else about the trip you want to share?

A:  On a whole, a very cold, rainy stretch. Sea temp between 14-16 °C  made for cold swims around the boat on a windless day, and cold dragging behind the boat for a salty “shower”. There were some sea-mounts along the crossing – shallow areas, which we did make sure to avoid, but even passing 40 miles of them, a change of motion could be felt. We caught a good glimpse of the volcanic crater of St. Paul – a rare and beautiful sight – and a privilege, that the Leopard 44 carried us all the way there and safely across the ocean. On a whole, we were lucky with weather, the Indian can be a lot more treacherous, but I had good confidence at all times in the solidity and capabilities of the Leopard 44.

The Leopard Catamarans facebook page has an album of Kirsten's photos from the delivery.

Topics: Deliveries , Leopard 44

Daniela Clark

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Moscow Boat Tour

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Description

See all the gems of historical and cultural center of the capital in short time and without traffic jams or tiresome walking.

Depending on the itinerary and duration of the Moscow River boat trip, the tour can be 3 or 5 hours.

Highlights of the tour

• St Basil’s Cathedral;
• Stalin skyscraper on Kotelnicheskaya (Tinkers) embankment;
• The Kremlin;
• “House on the Embankment” Stalin skyscraper;
• Monument to Peter I;
• The Central House of Artists;
• Christ the Savior Cathedral;
• Gorky Park;
• Moscow State University;
• Russian Academy of Sciences;
• Luzhniki stadium;
• Novodevichy Monastery;
• Kiev railway station;
• Europe Square;
• Moscow City Hall;
• Government House;
• Expocentre Exhibition Complex;
• and other famous sights.

You will learn about the different epochs of the city from the foundation in 1147 till Soviet times of 20 th  century.

Moscow River

Moskva river has the form of a snake and is the main waterway of Moscow, consisting of a cascade of reservoirs. Within the city, Moskva river is 80 km long, 120 m - 200 m wide and up to 14 m deep. The narrowest part of the river is the Kremlin area in the city center, and the most extensive is around the Luzhniki Stadium in the south. 

Bridges in Moscow

Undoubtedly, bridges and embankments are among the most scenic spots and main attractions of Moscow. Plus, they are so romantic.

• Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge –  Great Stone Bridge –  is the main bridge of Moscow . The first stone bridge was constructed here in the 17th century.
• Patriarshy Bridge  is one of the youngest pedestrian bridges, built in 2004. The bridge connects the iconic Christ the Saviour Cathedral with funky Bersenevskaya embankment, extremely popular place among locals for its trendy art galleries, cafes and panoramic views. Patriarshy Bridge used to be a shooting location for ex-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's New Year speech to the nation.
• Borodinsky Bridge,  erected in honor of the 100th anniversary of the glorious victory in the Battle of Borodino (which every Russian kid knows about), a fierce legendary battle during the Russo-French war of 1812.
• Bagration Bridge  one of the  pedestrian bridges with most picturesque views of the Moskva River with its numerous upper-level observation platforms. The bridge was erected to celebrate the 850th anniversary of Moscow city in 1997.
• Krymsky Bridge  used to be in Top 5 Europe’s longest bridges some 100 years ago. The bridge got its name after the ancient Krymsky ford which Crimean Tartars used to invade Moscow in the 16 th  century.

Embankments of Moscow

Moscow river boats 37 embankments, the most popular being Kremlevskaya, Sofiyskaya, Pushkinskaya, Vorobyovskaya and Kolomenskaya.

You can get the most spectacular views of the Kremlin from  Kremlevskaya and Sofiyskaya embankments.

• Pushkinkaya embankment  is the most romantic in Moscow. It meanders along Gorky Park and Neskuchnyi garden and is rich for all kinds of entertainment as well as cozy nooks, including Olivkovy beach, the famous Zeleny theater as well as a pier for river cruisers.
• Vorobyevskaya embankment  is part of Sparrow Hills nature reserve. This place opens a beautiful panorama of the river and city from the observation deck and is considered to be the place for taking serious decisions in life.
• Embankment in Kolomenskoye  Museum-Reserve has a special charm due to its peculiar geographical relief. The boat trip around Kolomenskoye would be the most peaceful in your life.
• Taras Shevchenko embankment  is popular among photographers for its modern Moscow City skyscrapers. Highly recommended for your night boat trip.
• Embankments of Moscow are the pride of the capital. A distinctive feature of each of the promenades is its architecture and beautiful views. In addition, almost all the embankments of Moscow have a rich history and a lot of notable buildings.

Different epochs

Taking a walk along the Moskva River by boat, you will witness the architecture of Moscow from different eras and styles. Archaeological studies indicate that already in the XI century there stood a fortified settlement on Borovitsky hill, which is now called the Kremlin. Little fortress could not accommodate all the residents of the rapidly growing city, and the Grand Duke ordered the construction of a new Kremlin, larger than the former.

Boat trip around Kolomenskoe Park

Moscow river boat trip starts from the pier Klenovy (Maple) Boulevard and provides reat views of Nicholas Perervinsky monastery.

Nicholas Perervinsky monastery was founded at the time of the Battle of Kulikov (1380). The monastery, got its name from the surrounding area – “Pererva”, which can be translated like “tear off” and because of the location –  here it abruptly changed its course, turning to Kolomna, standing on the opposite bank.

Nowadays Kolomenskoye is State Art, Historical, Architectural and Natural Landscape Museum-Reserve, which doors are open to everyone who wants to get in touch with the ancient history of Russia.

Take a break from the big city hustle in the shady parks and gardens of the Kolomenskoe Museum-Reserve. Don’t miss a wonderful Church of the Ascension and Tsar Alexey’s Palace in Kolomenskoye!

Monasteries and temples

• Novospassky Monastery
• Founded in the 13th century on the site where now is located the Danilovsky monastery. After a few decades, in 1330, Ivan Kalita moved the monastery onto the Borovitskii hill of the Kremlin. However, in the 15th century, Spassky Monastery again moved, this time to a more spacious place on Krasnoholmskaya waterfront.
• Church of St. Nicholas in Zayaitskom
• Erected in the middle of the XVIII century in baroque style. The building survived after the 1812 fire, but the utensils were destoyed. Parishioners collected donations and restored the temple on their own. In Soviet times, it was closed and re-opened only in 1992.
• Cathedral of Christ the Savior
• The church was originally erected in honor of the victory over Napoleon and was being under construction for long 44 years. Notoriously demolished in 1937 to be a giant swimming pool under open sky. The current building was constructed in 1990s. It is the tallest and one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world.
• The temple was built in 1679-82, during the reign of Tsar Fedor Alekseevich, in late Muscovite Baroque style and can be characterized as bonfire temple. Each gable is a symbol of a heavenly fire.
• Novodevichy Convent
• The most famous concent and monastery in Moscow, presumably founded in 1524. Novodevichy’s status has always been high among other monasteries, it was in this monastery where the women of the royal blood, the wives of Tsars and local rulers of Moscow were kept in prison as nuns.
• St. Andrew’s church  (male acts as Compound Patriarch of Moscow)
• St. Andrew’s church stands right on the slopes of the Sparrow Hills, on the way down to the Moskva River, on the territory of the Nature Reserve “Sparrow Hills”. The monastery is small in size but is very cozy. It’s situated in a quiet courtyard surrounded by temples, fruit trees and flowers.

What you get:

• + A friend in Moscow.
• + Private & customized Moscow river cruise.
• + An exciting pastime, not just boring history lessons.
• + An authentic experience of local life.
• + Flexibility: changes can be made at any time to suit individual preferences.
• + Amazing deals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the very best cafes & restaurants. Discounts on weekdays (Mon-Fri).
• + A photo session amongst spectacular Moscow scenery that can be treasured for a lifetime.
• + Good value for souvenirs, taxis, and hotels.
• + Expert advice on what to do, where to go, and how to make the most of your time in Moscow.

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