Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2021 i Boating

OFFSHORE MUSTANG ANSI HIGH VISIBILITY FLOAT COAT THE HEAT: If you plan to lose sight of land, it’s good to wear a coat that doubles as flotation. It’s a Type III flotation device that protects from hypothermia. It has 62square inches of reflective tape to help searchers find you in a search and rescue situation. THE CHILL: Protective hood is sold separately. PRICE: $482.99; mustangsurvival.com INSHORE GILL WINTER ANGLER THE HEAT: This two-layer jacket, consisting of a vinyl shell and a polyester liner, features taped seams and is 100 percent waterproof. It has adjustable cuffs and a two-way front zipper to help seal out water. The hood has drawstrings to pull it tight on your head. It comes in a graphite color. THE CHILL: Not as breathable as some other…

A boating video circulating on the internet these days is usually hard to watch, often accompanied by a viewer warning. In the 87-second video shot from the south jetty of Florida’s Haulover Inlet, a large bowrider chugs outbound during a falling tide. A group of young women in their early teens sits nestled in the bow, eagerly awaiting a fun boat ride. But as the boat approaches the mouth of the inlet, it’s met with steep rollers. The first one floods the bow, turning it into a small swimming pool, its occupants bobbing about. A second wave catapults the bow skyward, launching one of the girls over the starboard-side. Screams are heard from horrified guests. Fortunately, this video has a happy ending. A nearby PWC rider noticed and zoomed over…

If you are serious about buying a particular new boat, ask the sales rep if you can demo that model before making a buying decision. It is the only way to determine how the boat feels and handles on the water. Your sea trial may take place at a boat show, a special demo day staged by the dealer or factory, or by appointment. Here’s how to maximize your sea trial once you push away from the dock OH SAY, CAN YOU SEE? Make sure you see well from behind the wheel. A dash, hardtop crossbar or windshield that impairs vision is a safety concern and disconcerting for the helmsman. If you can’t see well, move on to another boat. HOLE-SHOT APPRAISAL The boat should jump onto plane when you…

Terrestrial Bluetooth sound bars once hanging from the roll bars of Polaris RZRs and Kawasaki Mules grew their fins to become a new offering in high-quality audio for boaters, and are easily mounted to a radar arch, wakeboard tower or T-top pipework. It’s a natural option for boaters desiring not to cut holes in the coamings, and requires only one power line. Here are key features of today’s marine sound bars. MUSIC CHAINS Some of today’s Bluetooth sound bars can connect to other nearby Bluetooth-equipped audio systems, allowing you to sync your music with your friends’ audio systems at the marina or while anchored at the local sandbar. LED LIGHTING If you choose a sound bar with LED lighting, you have the equivalent of a disco ball hanging from the…

At first glance, the Super Air Nautique GS22E looks like its sister, the GS22 and, for that matter, many other V-drive watersports boats these days. But one push of the start switch and it becomes clear that the GS22E is unlike any other boat on the market. The “E” in the model name stands for electric, and this zero-emissions boat delivers unrivaled performance in entirely new ways. Equipped with a 124 kWh battery, the GS22E boasts up to three hours of “typical watersports use” on a full charge. While three hours might not seem like much on paper, for many families involved in watersports, especially those who house their boat on the water, this is plenty. The most unique difference that comes courtesy of the battery power is the noise,…

HINCKLEY 35 Due out in summer 2021, the new Hinckley 35 marks another stellar design from the desk of Michael Peters Yacht Design. The 35 incorporates wider chines and strakes to provide more lift and stability to match the standard twin 300 Mercury Verados on the transom. Thus powered, the boat is expected to achieve a top speed of 48 mph while exhibiting deft handling and seakindliness along the way. Construction is top-level, with a resinin-fused carbon-fiber hull laminated with post-cured epoxy. The all-new single-pane Clear View windshield ensures excellent visibility from the 35’s enclosed helm. The teak-varnished helm station sports Mercury Joystick Piloting to help the captain slide in and out of any slip or docking situation. The layout remains true to the picnicboat style that Hinckley is known…

EXTENDED MOTOR POD A Look for a transom on a pontoon that’s extended aft beyond the tubes to allow for a full range of engine trim and tilt, as well as to better position the engine’s thrust for turning and handling, as well as for generating lift. LIFTING STRAKES Lifting strakes on the center and outer tubes help pontoon boats achieve lift and eliminate drag in the water, and also improve handling. Barletta cambers its lifting strakes, which allows water to release cleaner, enhancing turning, speed and efficiency, SPRAY SHIELDS Look for spray shields on the outer pontoons to help knock down water while you’re running and keep everyone dry on deck. M-BRACKETS B These sit on top of the pontoons and support the crossmember chassis. Barletta uses thick, wide…

I readily spotted Pursuit’s S 428 docked between an aging sport-fisher and a relatively diminutive 36-foot center-console. Its four Yamaha 425 XTO outboards shone like Christmas-tree toppers. While it stood out here, can it distinguish itself in a world now full of 40-plus-foot center-consoles? Certainly, the quad 425 XTOs proved show-stopping. They boast the biggest displacement (5.6-liter) production blocks on a transom. And Pursuit built the S 428 especially with them in mind. They feature electronic steering and digital throttle and shift, plus Helm Master EX autopilot and full-maneuverability joystick control. With Helm Master EX, the 43-foot-9-inch ship handles like a sportboat, arcing through turns with the ideal amount of heeling and with minimal effort on the electronic helm. Feeding a little throttle sharpens the turn, and the job is…

Amenities aboard the Scout 330 LXF, such as twin high-back helm seats, posh forward loungers, a retractable bow dining table and a lounger on the forward console, can spoil the saltiest of mariners. There’s also Scout’s reputation for style reflected in a sweeping sheerline, Carolina-style bow flare, and tumblehome of the stern quarters of this centerconsole model. Twin Yamaha 425 XTO outboards vault the 330 LXF to plane in 5 seconds, and from zero to 30 mph in 8.2 seconds. Top speed? Over 66 mph. The 330 LXF handles with precision, and the hull rides smoothly through wind-swept seas. The double-stepped hull lifts with little bow rise during hole shot. It maintained a near-level trim angle while underway. Epoxy-infusion construction results in optimized weight and strength, and delivers a solid…

At least four companies have rolled out this charting function, three of which—C-Map, Garmin and Navionics—now offering it for most United States coastal waters. We thought it might be interesting to compare how each of these three charts paints a picture of the seabed by focusing on a single, previously uncharted and isolated structure spot at a depth of 90 feet in our home waters off the coast of Long Beach, California. We call it the “Boston B” for obvious reasons, and at times it’s surrounded by fish such as barred sand bass, California sheephead, kelp bass, rockfish and more. To be fair, this is just one spot in one area of the Pacific Ocean. The ocean floor is a vast and intricate underwater landscape that extends from the high-tide…

GOPRO ZEUS LIGHT Now you can add video light exactly where you need it with this self-contained, lithium-powered Zeus utility light and its GoPro-compatible mounting system. But its superpowers are in the field as a boating, fishing or hunting light, or a magnetically mounted trouble light that sticks to a fender or under the hood. Its clip-on base fits to a ball cap for hands-free outdoor use. $70 each, $100 per pair; go pro.com FLOW-RITE REMOTE DRAIN The Remote Drain Plug from Flow-Rite operates from inside the boat and shows whether the plug is in or out. It consists of the plug, plus a 6-, 8- or 10-foot cable and control knob. Components feature durable polymer construction. Easy to install with household tools on most fiberglass or aluminum hulls, the…

Many outboard-powered boats use brass tube fittings for the motorwell drains. When properly installed and flanged, the fittings function well, but as a boat ages, the relatively thin brass material can corrode, deteriorate and crack, creating an opportunity for water to seep into the transom core. Such was the case with my 21-foot outboard-powered center-console boat built in 1986. After 35 years of boating in salt water, the flanged collars of the fittings had corroded away, and cracks had opened up along the inner walls of the tubes. When brown water began to drip out of the wood transom core from one of the four fittings, the decision to replace the brass fittings became easy. Today, brass fittings are still in use, but now there are alternatives to flanged bass…

It’s entirely different to build one designed specifically to create large wakeboarding wakes and wakesurfing waves. The team from Ingenity, an electric propulsion company under the Correct Craft umbrella, is behind the world’s first electric wakeboat, the Super Air Nautique GS22E. A 124 kWh behemoth battery (Tesla’s Model 3 comes with an 82 kWh battery) grants the GS22E up to two to three hours of runtime during standard water-sports usage, i.e., some wakesurfing, boarding, skiing or tubing, and the requisite turnarounds and idling. Ingenity’s conversion of the Nautique GS22 turned out seamless. The battery takes the place of the engine, while the high-voltage components and systems fit where the fuel tank lives in the internal-combustion version. The motor—220 kW peak and 145 kW continuous output—is about the size of a…

There’s a lot to love about pontoons, but they are not often thought of as boats that thrive in big water. However, the Bennington 30 QX, with its 31-foot length overall, 10-foot beam, and triple-tube Elliptical Sport Package with 32-inch-diameter tubes, can handle a lot. It has tons of comfortable space and, as it proved on test day, tons of rough-water moxie. We took the 30 QX for a spin in Biscayne Bay down in Miami on a day when the wind and heavy boat traffic combined to create some sporty test conditions. Our test model, a 30 QXFWBA X2, came rigged with twin Yamaha 425 XTO outboards that gave this boat all the low-end torque and midrange oomph it needed to fly. We recorded a top speed of 62…

Charger bass boats have a long, rich history dating back more than 40 years. Interestingly, our test boat represents a modernized version of the same Charger 19-foot hull that in 1987 set a 1,039-mile Mississippi River endurance speed record, blasting from New Orleans to St. Louis in 20 hours, 16 minutes. That effort beat the previous one set in 1982 by Mike Reagan, son of President Ronald Reagan, in an off shore racing hull. While Charger hulls and interior layouts have changed with the times, the focus has been on a balance of performance, quality construction and price. At just under $74,000 equipped with a Mercury 225 Pro XS high-performance outboard, our Charger 198 Elite showed why the boatbuilder has been in business for so long. It offers a smooth…