Innholdsfortegnelse for July - August 2015 i Boating

1 Is a poker run a race? A. Yes B. No 2 During a poker run, who has to wear approved life jackets? A. The driver and throttle man B. Just the driver C. Everyone on board the boat D. The driver and any kids, according to state law for the event 3 What is prevented at every poker run around the country? A. Passing the pace boat B. Cutting off another boat in the event C. Washing down another boat with your rooster tail D. Drinking alcohol during the event 4 Many poker runs have signal flags that the organizers fly to alert participants to various situations. What does a yellow flag usually mean? A. Slow down and proceed with caution. B. Come off plane and proceed at no-wake…

Fender? Bumper? Who cares? A “fender” hangs off your boat temporarily to keep you away from a dock, another boat or an obstruction of some sort (fends you off). A “bumper” is attached to a car or truck. OK, so assuming you have fenders correctly sized to your boat, let’s examine the techniques for maximum effectiveness and consider the best method of securing them to a cleat, stanchion or railing. Rafts When rafting with other boats, use the largest-diameter fenders in your inventory since different boats tied together will rock differently and have varying freeboard and hull flare. Largediameter ball fenders are a smart choice because they can hang from the rail or cleats over the topsides, yet are wide enough to keep rub rails from knocking together as well…

THIS BOAT IS SO BIG THAT, HAD WE NOT known Whaler’s Outrage lineup of center-consoles, we could have easily mistaken it for an express. As it stands, the new 420 Outrage is not only one of the largest center-consoles on the market, but also the largest Boston Whaler ever built. With a 42-foot-6-inch length overall and a 13-foot beam, it is 5 feet longer and 1 foot 6 inches wider than the 370 Outrage, the previous flagship in the fleet. The 420’s dry weight (without engines) is 7,500 pounds more too. That’s close to four tons of extra displacement. That should give you an idea of just how large this new Outrage really is. NOTEWORTHY The dedicated stainlesssteel dive ladder stows on the transom, making this boat fit for dive…

WHEN THE ORIGINAL BAYLINER Element made its debut a few years back, we found a lot of things to like about it, most notably how its production signified Bayliner’s commitment to keeping boating easy and affordable. One thing we didn’t love about it was its size; with its 16 feet and 60 hp outboard we could see boaters easily outgrowing it. While that original Element is still a greatselling boat with a fantastic price, we’re bigger fans of the Element XL simply because it’s bigger. The XL version has an overall length of 18 feet 2 inches and a 90 hp Mercury as its base power. That doesn’t seem like much, but on the water you definitely feel the difference. The boat feels roomier, more capable in a chop and,…

SINCE MERCURY RACING HAD ALREADY BUILT A SUPERCHARGED, 350-HORSEPOWER outboard engine, the no-longer-available Mercury Racing 350 SCi, you’d think that the engine manufacturer wouldn’t need to change much to develop a 400 hp model. You’d be wrong. “We made quite a few internal changes in the cylinder heads, camshaft, pistons, even the supercharger itself,” said Mercury Racing General Manager Erik Christiansen. “This is a lineup extension. It’s not a replacement for anything.” I ran four of the new 400R outboards on a Nor-Tech 390 Sport Open center-console with a twin-step V-bottom, and the acceleration with these motors was impressive. Motoring along at 75 mph, I nailed the throttles, and we hit 90 mph in seconds. Christiansen explained that one of the biggest challenges with the 400R was feeding air to…

I am not a tribologist. But I play one for this story. Which is why I’m wearing the lab coat and using a pipette to apply a smidge of oil onto the sample carrier of a Spectroil M spectrometer. A tribologist is a mechanical engineer who specializes in issues of friction and lubrication, a person you want on your team when cooking up a crock of marine oil. That was my mission when Boating decided to participate in the blending and bottling of a batch of four-stroke engine oil, tracing the process from wellhead to gallon jug. FRANK KELLEY Frank Kelley, an expert in tribology, fluids and corrosion, worked in research at Caterpillar for 28 years before joining Mercury Marine in 2003. He also serves on the National Marine Manufacturers…

The first thing any fishing boater asks a radar vendor is “Can it spot birds?” In the past, finding birds required a long-pulse radar with a powerful magnetron that needed lots of juice and big warm-up times. These systems compromised imaging of navigation targets, hiding them in the sea clutter required to spot birds. Safety also was compromised. Simrad’s new Halo radar is going to be very popular among anglers for answering that deficiency. With it, skippers can monitor and separately control two screens on their displays. Each screen boasts individual controls too. So anglers can adjust one to an offshore setting and the other for birds.…

BRIGHT LIGHTS Not every light on the water holds fish. The best dock lights are no higher than 6 feet over the water and either bright white or green. If they create a concentrated light pool in the water, bait will congregate inside it and predators will wait in the shadows to ambush them. SHADOW LINES Speaking of shadows, bridges with a well-defined shadow line will hold fish. For good results, anchor or position the boat up-current and send your baits or lures into the shadow line with the flow. TIME AND TIDE Some places fish better on the incoming, others the outgoing, but no matter what the water has to be moving for a good bite. MATCH THE HATCH Bait flowing through and congregating around light pools is typically…

Nothing sucks worse than a boat with a dead battery, except when there’s a stranded boater on board with a dead smartphone too. So carrying around the compact Weego JS6 standard jump-starter battery pack seems like a really smart idea. The main unit is about the size of a smartphone, so it can easily slide into your pocket or take up minimal space in the onboard glove box or stowage bin. It also comes with alligator clips, 12- and 120-volt power cords, and a USB adapter for smartphone connections. Fully charged, this lithium-ion battery pack is powerful enough to jump-start a car or boat with up to a 4.6-liter gasoline engine or 2.4-liter diesel engine. That’s a nice fallback to have on hand in the rare times you need it,…

1 Through-Hull Fitting This intake through which water from lake, bay or sea is fed to the pump is crucial. The best systems are fitted with a proper seacock, not just a valve. Unlike a valve, a seacock incorporates a mounting flange to be used with a backing plate plus a grease fitting, can be disassembled for service, and has a handle that indicates the open and closed positions at a glance. If metal, it will have a stud for attaching a bonding wire. Shared Intakes There are many successful washdown installations that share a raw-water intake with a livewell system. This is accomplished by installing a T-fitting or Y-valve on the intake hose. The advantage is the use of one through-hull fitting instead of two. A disadvantage is possible…

WHILE EXAMINING THE TRANSOM OF THE Outerlimits SL 41 before our sea trial, we noticed that the Mercury Racing 380S K-Plane trim tabs were installed horizontally rather than parallel with the V-shape of the boat’s bottom. In the go-fast world, riggers and throttle men have long argued the merits of having the tabs in this position because it requires less tab adjustment to affect the boat’s attitude. Lower a single tab a couple of degrees to counter a crosswind or quartering wind or similar seas. Drop them both to keep more of the boat in the water in rough, head-on seas. Typically, performance-boat manufacturers didn’t install tabs this way because they didn’t want lessexperienced drivers to get in trouble by using too much tab, especially with today’s stepped bottom designs.…

WE SAY Nova Boats’ 39 Sport capably handled 4- to 5-foot seas and, powered by twin 370 hp Volvo Penta diesel sterndrives, topped out at 49.7 mph. A unique element of the 39 Sport’s patent-pending bottom is a keel pad at the transom to provide lift. Also, the inner strakes curve downward at the bow, assisting in creating a soft re-entry. Those strakes extend to amidships, while the outer set runs full length. The 5-inchwide chines are turned down 8 degrees. Handling is confident and predictable. The boat’s cockpit is straightforward with two bolsters and a bench seat aft and a sun lounge on top of the engine hatch. The cabin has 6 feet 11 inches of headroom, facing lounges, a V-berth and a stand-up head. Nova builds the boat…

WILL THE ANCHOR HOLD? Good question. Your life might depend on your answer. In a constant quest to evaluate anchor-holding power for its own products and the competition, Fortress Marine Anchors set up a rigorous test of 12 com- comparably sized, premium-brand anchors in typical mud/clay bottom of the Chesapeake parably Bay at Solomons, Maryland. Brian Sheehan and several other Fortress executives invited a dozen boating journalists to participate and “keep the testing honest” by carefully analyzing the methods and results over four days. Chuck Hawley, former vice president of product testing at West Marine and a videographer, recorded comments on each test (available at fortressanchors.com). Here’s what we found. Editor’s Note Many factors will affect anchor selection. Some are boat related, including an anchor’s ability to stow or be…

THE HOLDING POWER CURVES for five pulls of each of the 12 anchors (including two for the Fortress FX-37, set at 32 and 45 degrees) are available for viewing at fortressanchors.com. You’ll note that Mike Hulme and the Fortress crew started at a new datum each day so that the anchors were worked through a fresh area of bottom. It was impressive to see how much the results could vary from set to set with the same anchor in the same area. Every anchor failed to set initially at least once, and several broke free partway through because of either debris on the bottom or a change in the bottom’s composition. During 54 pulls, the nine plow-type anchors held more than 1,000 pounds only twice. Their holding power peaked at…

Boat owners are happiest on their boat and second happiest when they know it is safe. Over the past year, we’ve seen many products designed to help boaters know all is well with their vessels. These gizmos have ranged from ones as simple as a motion-activated lipstick-tube camera to satellite-communication systems monitoring entryways and bilge water, maintaining a geofence around the boat and, on some, even letting you peek on board if something has gone awry. Here are a handful of contenders to consider and the process by which we evaluated them. IZon View $99.99; IZONCAM.COM SERVICE FEE: FREE A little larger than a lipstick tube, the camera’s concave bottom fits magnetically to a convex base. Fasten it to an overhang or set it on a flat surface. The motion-activated…

Sometimes we all have a need for speed, and we’re going to honor that this month with some fast and furious boating content. 1 Get all the high-performance boat reviews and insider information you need on our website at boatingmag.com/high-performance. 2 Or sign up for our performance e-newsletter at boatingmag.com/newsletter. 3 If you want to go fast on the water, you should learn how to do it safely and correctly. Visit boatingmag.com/safe-boating-high-speeds.…

Most boats benefit from a set of trim tabs from companies such as Bennett and Lenco. These devices can improve hole shot, bring the bow angle down for a smoother ride in choppy seas, correct for a list while underway, prevent porpoising and even improve fuel economy. Trim tabs with electric actuators (versus old-school hydraulic actuators) have simplified the installation process. We show how to choose and install a pair of Lenco Marine Standard Performance electric tabs on a 22-foot sterndrive-powered runabout. EXTENTION CABLES With the tab measuring 6 feet in length, most boats require extension cables to reach the helm from the transform. These are available in lengths ranging from 7 to 45 feet and connect at both ends with waterproof Deutsch plugs 1 POSITION THE TABS Locate the…

I’VE BEEN IN THE PATH OF MORE HURRICANES THAN I RECALL the names of. A few come to mind: Bob, Georges, Floyd, Isabella, Charley, Frances, Jeanne, Katrina, Wilma and Irene. These tips came from those experiences. Fact Five square yards of flat surface generates 10 pounds of pressure in a 10-knot breeze. At 30 knots, the same 5 yards creates 90 pounds of force, and at 100 knots, 1,000 pounds. Stay Afloat Not long ago, floating docks weren’t safe to use in hurricanes. Now, storm-engineered floating dock systems survive Category 4 hurricanes, but that doesn’t necessarily make them safe. “Protected” waters just a quarter-mile wide by a half-mile long have churned into 8-foot seas in 100-knot winds. Also, in waterways fed by inland storm runoff, a “mild” tropical storm might…

WITHOUT A DOUBT THE FOUR NEW Mercury Racing Verado 400R outboards installed on the transom of the 2015 Nor-Tech 390 Sport Open we tested grabbed our attention, especially at the top speed of 92.2 mph they helped deliver at 7,000 rpm. We were just as interested in the comfort-focused upgrades that Nor-Tech has made to this mega-console boat since we tested the 2014 version. First, Nor-Tech redesigned the helm. The big, flat panel can now accommodate two 15-inch chart plotters and still have space for a 7-inch screen and a stereo head in between them. Our test boat had two huge Garmin GPSMAP chart plotters with Mercury’s SmartCraft screen in the middle of a carbon fiber panel shaded by a 3- to 4-inch eyebrow. Visibility of this instrumentation proved excellent…

WE SAY The Calcutta 263 is a sweet ride with plenty of stability in rough seas for bottomfishing and trolling. Its skinny 14-inch draft makes it a great bay boat as well. Next, its fuel economy with test power is likely unbeatable: 3.5 miles per gallon at 26 miles per hour. Even at 35 miles per hour, though, it clocks 2.4 miles per gallon, getting you on the fish fast for minimum dollars. While many cats tend to heel outboard in turns, this one behaved much better than most, holding near level footing with the wheel hard to port or starboard. With livewell options and plenty of rod stowage, it’s clearly a hard-core fisher, but the beefy boarding platform steps makes it a great dive platform too. The folding transom…

Anchor size recommendations are for boats of average windage and proportions, 30 knots of wind, average bottom conditions, and moderate protection from open seas. For storm conditions, we recommend using an anchor one or two sizes larger. Chart and data are courtesy of Fortress Anchors. Use three-strand nylon rope and a minimum of 6 ft. (2 m) of chain for every 25 ft. (8 m) of water depth. Be sure to use enough chain and rope for a minimum 5:1 scope.…

Mention the word radar and most boaters naturally think of collision avoidance. I have my own story about how radar saved me and my family while boating in the Pacific Northwest last summer, when a dense fog enveloped us midway across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. One minute we could see, and the next we were blind. A blip on the radar display indicated a fast-moving object heading directly toward us. After monitoring for a few minutes, I determined we were on a collision course and that the target was coming at us very fast. We cut speed and altered course, keeping our eyes glued to the radar screen to make sure we created enough space between us and whatever was inbound. A moment later, a fastmoving cruiser charged…

Thanks to Simrad’s new Halo series, there’s no longer a need to compromise. This open-array system offers spectacular target detail ranging from 20 feet to 72 nautical miles. Halo uses pulse compression, a term describing its ability to transmit concentrated bursts of energy at long distances or define targets at close range. Perhaps most remarkable is its ability to offer both views from the same array, on split screens or multiple displays. In addition, each view can be controlled and adjusted separately. Adjustments are as simple or complex as you prefer. Use the automatic Harbor, Offshore, Weather and Bird modes or create custom settings to see targets your way. The radar uses only 6 watts of power and is warmed up in less than 30 seconds. Magnetron free, it is…

1 SMALLER, LIGHTER BIG-GAME REELS The advent of microthin yet superstrong braided lines means you no longer need an 80-wide reel for the line capacity to land a big tuna or marlin. Reel brands such as Okuma, Penn and Shimano now offer small, light twospeed reels with highstrength gears, beaucoup line capacity and drags that offer incredible stopping power. 2 ANGLER-DEDICATED APPAREL A growing number of companies, such as Aftco, Huk, Pelagic and Salt Life, offer clothing lines dedicated to the recreational angler. Not only are the clothes functional in terms of pocket storage, ventilation and ultraviolet protection, but they also offer attractive styles — shirts, shorts and pants that look great on the boat but also let you announce your avocation at the next cocktail party. 3 AGE OF…