Carbon fibre... but only where it is useful. Daughter of the Wind’s cold-moulded hull is appropriately reinforced (above) while the carbon unstayed mast was built by Yazykov in a former Soviet aircraft factory. With the Class40 getting pricey, is there a slot for a rugged and affordable 30ft-odd low cost oceanic class? Big fun
the ‘normal’ position will generally head up and be left beam-on to the sea. Having the centre of lateral resistance so far aft, it is a simple matter to then use a forward foil to trim your boat to sail straight; separating the large rudder and front board by the maximum distance further improves this tendency to hold a course. The 55,000nm sailed by Daughter of the Wind to date has been achieved without an autopilot but instead by regularly lashing the tiller.
FujiFilm, Idec, Roxane) are believers in the scale model. In fact Adrian Thompson used to show people how sometimes he would create a scale model of the boat he was working on, then take lateral slices of the model and blow them up to create his lines. Our Russian friend also makes a 1:5 scale model of everything that he is then going to build, to check that it ‘looks right’. Right now Viktor is working hard on his latest design, larger than Daughter of the Wind and with an eye on another round the world race.
He intends to build the boat in Montenegro, which has recently recog- nized Viktor’s potential as an ambassador for a young nation keen to promote itself on a wider stage. As soon as the drawings are ready, we will share them with you. In the meantime, Daughter of the Wind continues to rack up sea miles; a unique little boat that has now carried Yazykov (sometimes accompanied by his wife Ludmila) for more than 55,000 miles across the world’s oceans, often in terrible conditions. Always shorthanded and all without any technical drama. Try that with a modern production 33-footer. Andrew Hurst
On yacht design
In stormy weather you have to carry your heavy boat yourself; your light boat, in any weather conditions, will carry you
On the Chernobyl clean-up It was a depressing time, many on the lorry would die from the radiation and they knew it. It was in their eyes
Own words
Daughter of the Wind was created in 2007 as a result of development of the ideas I first tried on Wind of Change, which took part in the Around Alone 98-99. That’s why we call her Daughter of the Wind. Today the boat has done over 55,000nm, including a solo circumnavigation without an engine and without an autopilot. Now I am ready to build the first boat of the third generation. I know what needs to be changed to make the boat that I hope will be the best boat ever for the Roaring Forties. Based on personal experience I think that the old-style boats like Suhaili and their modern descendants are much too heavy for safe long distance sailing. In the face of a fast-approaching break- ing wave, a heavy boat is unable to go up with the rising water and so just ‘sinks’. It is also more prone to knockdown com- pared to the light but strong Daughter of the Wind, which floats like a cork and slides away on her side after the sideways punch of a big crashing crest. On long voyages, avoiding damaging knockdowns is my most important safety consideration. Another part of our concept is a keel positioned well aft. If a big wave does strike you downwind, then our design bears off further – a boat with the keel in
One example. On the way from Mauri- tius to the Canaries, 150nm west of Cape Town, we had around 4,000nm miles left to sail. With the South East Trades, it looked like the perfect vacation. In reality we got the opposite. A three day storm with winds of Force 10. The only good news was that we were on the right side of the slow moving low so the wind was mostly astern. Still, the breaking waves were up to 10m and my boat is only 33-feet. That was almost the hardest experience of my half-a-century sailing life. Being thrown from my bunk twice, flying across to leeward and hitting the mast on the way with my head. During that storm we were knocked down several times, not badly though, and thanks to the aft set keel and the big transom-hung rudder the stern generally remained square on to the waves. But what a miracle, in spite of the conditions she hardly required my attention at all – I only adjusted the tiller position occasionally before fixing it in place again. During the first night I got up only once, just in case. The next two nights with the same weather I stayed in my bunk for 7-8 hours in a row.
In fact the storm was a stroke of luck for me. Simon Kidd at Beacon Sails in New Zealand had made me a new mainsail and this was a good test! It was perfect. Being on the edge for this little boat and at the edge of my own limits, that we could manage all this with dignity and in safety was a nice reminder of our ability together. But at the end you still feel like you are coming home from a brutal war that it was almost impossible to survive. Viktor Yazykov, Porto Montenegro q
SEAHORSE 33
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