38 - To make a mast, you need threads... of carbon fibre
Carbon! With an exclamation mark. When yachtsmen (and others) talk about this black stuff they seem awed, a mixture of mystery and reverence. But in today's sailing world its use has almost become common. We look at where it comes from, how it is worked and prepared for its end use.

46 - Fighting corrosion
The phenomenon of galvanic corrosion in the pairing of different metals fi nds an active, tireless accomplice in the marine environment, as well as an accelerator of the process. But with just a few simple and effective preventive measures, aggression against intactness of materials can be combated.

56 - Yamaha 350: the most powerful
Outboard motor manufacturers are agonisingly committed to research with a view to making their products extremely reliable and more powerful easier to run, with reduced consumption and pollution fi gures. With this new Yamaha 350 we can say that the sector has achieved a technical level that would have been unthinkable just a few years back.

60 - Evolution of navigation systems
Navigation increasingly resembles a videogame. This article shows how we got there.

70 - Alfa Roar
A preview all about the new “Alfa Romeo 3”, a concentration of technology and design.

76 - We tested:
Itama Seventyfi ve; Contest 60 CS; Regal 5260; Dellapasqua DC 16 Elite; Fiart 4seven Genius; Latitude 46 Tofi nou 8M; Quicksilver 615 Sorrento

118 - 94 and still looking good
We retrace the history of the 12 foot Dinghy, the smallest vintage boat, looking into the reasons behind a success that challenges the passing of time.

124 - Between desert and sea
Eighty years ago the Emirates were known mainly for their pearl fi shers. Now they are famous as the centre of international business, and for their modern marinas, boat shows, sea sport and maritime museums. Western naval historiography has drawn little attention to Arab maritime culture and the role of its great sailors in nautical discoveries over the centuries.

132 - Aloha State
Hawaii is a holidaymaker's dream, the tropical paradise par excellence. Although the area is hyper-civilised today and studded with fabulous hotels, the paradise remains thanks to a tough policy of environmental safeguarding which has succeeded in protecting an immense natural heritage.

140 - Isola di Cavallo
"Horse Island" owes its name to an imaginative man who saw the animal in its shape. Today it's privately owned but you can visit, staying in one of the few houses at the port, in the island's only hotel or aboard your own boat.

160 - Bahamas Charter
The archipelago is an ideal destination for winter sailing. Moreover, the current euro-dollar exchange rate favours European tourists.

LET THE YACHT SECTOR WORK

Yachting, in the countries where it is developed, has contributed considerably to GDP. As for Europe, although statistics are available only from certain nations, that contribution has been calculated at an average of 4-6% of gross domestic product between direct and derived activities. Also in terms of employment the countries that build yachts give jobs to tens upon tens of thousands, without counting the subsidiary segments. The sector therefore has a profile and an importance that is superior to other production activities held to be more prestigious, in which millions are often uselessly invested. Yachts are an expression of style, culture and abilities, offered to an increasingly vaster public of millions, a concentration of added value and know-how not found in other fields. And it is a sector that deals with the sea, to which man has been irresistibly attracted for millennia. It isn’t a virtual fashion, it will never go out of date, so it is something we may safely invest in.

A study by an important and accredited research company demonstrated that in a normal economic period one euro invested in the yachting sector produces around 5 euros annually. Very few other sectors can boast such figures. It’s true that at present, with the economic crisis, shipyards are standing still everywhere. Yet the people who look enthusiastically around the yachts at every boat show give the illusion of recovery, which is then promptly shown to be untrue. With few exceptions nobody is buying, not even those superyachts for the superrich that held up the market until 2007 and will be delivered this year or next. Afterwards, no orders, no commissions. The great American market, as the recent Miami Boat Show tells us, seems dead. So what to do?

Certainly the bad financial state of American banks, which has more or less spread throughout the global financial system, was a triggering element. But over and above the economic trend, albeit negative, the yachting sector had already reached the peak of an excellent period and was about to face a negative cycle of which there had been plenty warnings: excessive increase in production aimed at an already saturated market; second hand vessels hard to sell. And then for the motoryacht segment the very high prices of fuel. At the end of the year, with the banks undergoing crisis, leasing yachts became impossible. The markets of emerging countries were seen as an alternative but it turned out that in general they were not yet ready for yachting. And now with their exports falling they too are undergoing a worrying crisis.

To get back underway, to avoid zeroing the market for several years, it is therefore necessary to sidestep delusion and target consolidated users. At least those with money who should be stimulated by yachts equipped with the most recent technological apparatus for navigation and manoeuvring, and with new engines that are far more economical and perhaps hybrid, meaning engines that also generate power for an electric motor which can be used for sailing everywhere without problems, since the most beautiful corners of the sea are all becoming protected areas. Fortunately this is also the orientation of the European Community.

We have to turn the page and innovate. How? Last November the European Commission approached the question of whether it was appropriate to reduce VAT for certain niche services which might include those necessary to the yachting world, such as refurbishment of places and vessels of historical and cultural value, including the costs of maintaining and repairing boats. It’s a text that needs to be interpreted and it appears to us, as usually happens with political choices, that compromise has prevailed to the detriment of clarity. Why not, instead, reach a clear and immediate agreement to apply the same VAT to yachting services as to the tourism sector? Why not decide to halve VAT on a certain category of vessels, up to 10 metres, the ones mainly used by young and old, in order to give a new lease of life to a sector that risks being overwhelmed by events? It could be merely a temporary measure, but it can only come from the European Commission which – stimulated daily by the Board of Eurmig – is also proposing finance for as much as 75% for small yards that invest in ecology and choose hybrid engines in which energy is also drawn from alternative sources. The automobile industry has been experimenting and studying for more than a decade and the first novelties will soon be on the market. To transfer them to yachts however it will be necessary to solve the problem of safety at sea.

If those who have never been in the market were to witness a more "socially correct" use of boats, there is a fair chance that the whole sector will get back into gear. The EC investments are precious and many American states have set a good example by offering benefits to new companies and for the creation of new berths. Europe still has to grow in this sense. Often because of academic complaicency, it passes the chance of increasing tax revenues and employment figures, both direct and derived, that yacht building – a world of enthusiastic businessmen really – can offer at no cost to the public sector. Why not concentrate on sailing folk and the yachting sector, which only wants to work, it will be better for everybody.

Lucio Petrone