John Harries

John was born and brought up in Bermuda and started sailing as a child, racing locally and offshore before turning to cruising. He has sailed over 100,000 miles, most of it on his McCurdy & Rhodes 56, Morgan's Cloud, including eight ocean races to Bermuda, culminating in winning his class twice in the Newport Bermuda Race. He has skippered a series of voyages in the North Atlantic, the majority of which have been to the high latitudes. John has been helping others go voyaging by sharing his experience for 25 years, first in yachting magazines and, for the last 20 years, as co-editor/publisher of AAC.

PVC Pipe

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

We’re amazed that more boats are not plumbed with ordinary PVC pipe, but then again we never thought of using it either until we bought Morgan’s Cloud 16 years ago and found that her builder had used PVC pipe for almost all of her plumbing.

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Q&A: Picking A Sailing Route Across The North Atlantic, West To East

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Reading Time: 4 minutes

Question: We’re planning to sail from New York to Falmouth (UK) leaving around May 18th. Our plan is to sail WSW out from New York till we hit the Gulf Stream and then attempt to sail the great circle to Falmouth. We’re debating whether to consider a more southerly route to stay clear of weather systems? Any views?

Answer: This type of question (asking for a suggested route for a trans-Atlantic passage) has come up several times lately so I’m going to deal with it in some detail.

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Q&A: Radar Scanner Position

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Reading Time: 3 minutes

Question: What is your preference regarding the best place to mount a radar antenna? As far as we can tell from the pictures of Morgan’s Cloud you have mounted yours on a pole aft. Our previous experience with radars tells us that the antenna should be as high and free as possible. Wouldn’t a radar antenna mounted on the mast just above the first spreaders give better range and a more detailed radar picture than if it were mounted lower? It also appears from the pictures that your antenna isn’t mounted in a way that makes it able to tilt so that it can compensate for heel of the boat when sailing.

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Q&A: Norway To The Chesapeake Bay

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Reading Time: 3 minutes

Question: I’m planning to sail from south Norway in mid-June in my Oceanis 46, hoping to arrive in the Chesapeake Bay by the beginning of August. The crew will be 5 to 6 relatively experienced sailors. Presently I’m looking at routing via Færoe and Iceland, then across to Newfoundland and then coastal.

My idea is to be on the northern side of east-moving lows so as to get fair winds. I have excluded the southern option due to the risk of hurricanes even though it is relatively early in the season. I would appreciate your opinion on my route selection.

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Q&A: What Do You Think Of Mooring Stern-to?

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

Question: The Jordan Series Drogue website is fascinating and leads to an interesting question. Faced with anchoring/mooring Morgan’s Cloud for a hurricane, would you be inclined to go stern-to? Jordan makes a fairly compelling argument…although I imagine Morgan’s Cloud is relatively stable as compared to the latest cruiser/racer hull forms.

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