Cruising World September 2023

Well, troops, I think we may have a problem up here,” my dad said, cinching his foulies a bit tighter around his wrists and neck. It was just after dawn when he peered down the hatch to my mom and me, deep in the warmth of the cozy salon. We were halfway down the Eastern Seaboard, heading toward warm Florida waters. Dad had hoped to cast off lines early for the next leg of adventure on our Hunter 31, Ragtime. Things obviously weren’t going according to plan. Twenty-one-year-old me sprang into action, joining him topside. Late the night before, we had puttered to the sleepy sea town of Coinjock, North Carolina, which had already shut down for the night. There wasn’t a soul about. And with no response to our…

My wife, Kati, and I are among the million boaters who helped to make Florida the state with more registered boaters than any other in America. We’ve lived in Orlando for three decades, cruising our 50-foot schooner, Britannia, all around the sailing haven and beyond to the Bahamas. Florida really is a paradise for those of us who love to take to the water. For so many boaters, it can be hard to imagine living anywhere else. But last year, Kati and I reached a pivotal moment: We needed a fresh start in a new place, even if it meant bidding adieu to all we held dear. So, we looked to the north. Yes, there were drawbacks to this idea. Venturing north would elongate the return trip to the enchanting…

After owning the same sailboat for a good long spell, I naturally became quite familiar with the electronic navigation kit, including our modest (by today’s standards, anyway) Garmin chart plotter. That is to say, when I needed to, I knew where to find most of its features without pushing too many buttons or resorting to the dreaded user manual. That’s not the case, though, when I step aboard friends’ boats and encounter less-familiar brands of plotters, often set up in peculiarly whimsical ways, or when I take the occasional charter and try to reset the previous skipper’s preference for, say, chart soundings in fathoms or meters instead of feet. And then there are those sea trials aboard newly launched sailboats that may or may not have calibrated instruments or even…

This would really be a lot easier with stone counters,” I said to my husband as my fingers clawed at the stubborn dough adhered to our galley’s Formica countertops. Chris responded with a wink and a smile, jotting notes for our upcoming galley remodel. We’d been living aboard Avocet, our 1979 Cheoy Lee 41, in Southern California for three years, planning to head to Mexico and beyond in the near future. We’d always had an issue with the fridge failing to stay cold, causing the compressor to run nonstop. Ironically, the fridge had been a huge selling point for me because it’s large in comparison to those on other 41-footers. “It fits eight large pizzas” is how Chris describes it. Although we loved the space, we couldn’t ignore the inefficiency,…

I know nothing about hauling in the good ol’ US of A. The last time I did so was in the early ’80s. However, during the past 20 or so haulouts in foreign waters, I’ve learned a thing or two about being on the hard along distant shores. Of course, my perspective might not be yours. I have little money, do all my own work, and continue to live aboard while out of the water. Plus, I’m prejudiced. I’d rather haul at a family-run yard managed by boaters than at a corporate-owned yard run impersonally for the benefit of landlubber stockholders. Is that wrong to admit in print? I don’t think so. The quality of our lives—my wife, myself and our vessel—is important to us. Hauling is stressful. I’m always…

SEATRIAL REPORTS and EXPERT INSIGHT for CRUISING ENTHUSIASTS Few boats would merit a glance from a savvy, experienced skipper looking to consolidate the best qualities of his performance cruiser and his motoryacht into just one boat. Someone might even ask: “Are you kidding me? Can you do that?” Enter the Oyster 495. As the smallest yacht the company has developed from concept since 2005, the 495 is rigorously detailed. It is true to the heritage of a builder where a 50-footer has become the entry-level model. For this latest raised-salon offering, Oyster created a new facility in Hythe, on the Southampton shores of southern England. The aim is to build 12 boats a year, and sales to date suggest that this figure is not overly ambitious. I encountered Genevieve, the…