Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2022 i PassageMaker

NAMES Kate and Tim Carney AGES 31 CURRENT BOAT Camano 31 Sweet Day HOME PORT Washington, D.C. YEARS OWNED 1 After getting married in 2019, Kate and Tim Carney started their newlywed life in a New York City apartment, managing busy careers. But they couldn’t shake the adventures that both had read about on their honeymoon in Honey, Let’s Get a Boat…A Cruising Adventure of America’s Great Loop by Ron Stob. They gave themselves five years to go on their own cruising adventure, but when 2020 (and Covid-19) changed the world, they knew the time was right and they purchased the 31-foot Camano Sweet Day. BEGINNINGS My husband, Tim, spent his summers boating on his grandfather’s 21-foot Grady-White on Long Island, N.Y. I spent a few afternoons a season on…

Inland waterways are frequently spanned by bridges. You can’t transit these stretches very far before you’re going to have to pass under one of them. When my wife and I first started boating together years ago, she was quite willing to take the helm if I needed a break, but until she gained more experience, she would always ask, “You’re going to be back before we get to this bridge up here, aren’t you?” Bridges can be a bit intimidating, and judging from the number of scrapes or damaged timbers we see on fender systems, there is good reason for the concern. U.S. Coast Guard statistics show that a significant number of boating accidents involve vessels striking bridges. So, how do you get comfortable passing under bridges safely? As with…

In my late 20s, tired of apartment living but not quite ready for a more significant, land-based commitment, I found myself meandering a local marina. It was one of those clear, sunny May days in the Pacific Northwest that induces the itch to be on the water, particularly after a gray, wet and cold winter. Already an avid boater, I thought buying a boat to live aboard seemed like a fine idea. And so I did just that. Taking possession of a 1981 30-foot trawler in early summer, I became a liveaboard. Which is how today, I am able to set aside all of the customary nautical, navigational, operational and other seamanship aspects of successfully enjoying a trawler, and instead offer some thoughts and considerations about the liveaboard life. Maybe…

DIPPER LOA: 20ft. 2in. 18ft. 8in. (w/o outboards) Beam: 7ft. 3in. Draft: 1ft. 7in. Displacement: 2,545 lbs. Engine: 2 x 10-hp outboard My ears perked up when prospective customer John Irving called me with his idea for a new design. He wanted a boat that would snugly fit into a 20-foot shipping container during the off-season in his home waters of Maine. The container could be relied upon to keep its contents warm, dry and out of the extreme elements. When the spring weather broke, out the little boat would come from her hobbit cave and into the drink for a season’s cruising. He had the additional notion of shipping the boat to Europe, to spend several months upon its rivers and canals. The idea of lazing about upon European…

BENETEAU SWIFT TRAWLER 48 LOA 48ft. 4in. Beam 14ft. 9in. Draft 3ft. 10in. Displacement 27,958 lbs. Construction FRP Fuel 510 gal. Water 169 gal. Engines 2X 380-hp Cummins QSB6.7 Info beneteau.com A few years back, I was fortunate to be the first journalist on the opening leg of the Beneteau Swift Pacific Adventure, which for me was a nearly 400-mile cruise on the then-new Swift Trawler 47. We started in Seattle’s Lake Union and breezed through the Ballard Locks to the Salish Sea. From there, it was on to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where we took tightly spaced, 8- to 10-foot waves on the bow for several hours before a brief respite to fuel up in Neah Bay. We then rounded Cape Flattery—the northwestern-most point in the lower…

Spring launch can be an especially challenging time. The rush is on, with every boater wanting to get back on the water, and more than a few boaters needing a long punch list addressed first. Add the pandemic’s labor and equipment-supply shortages, and things your boat needs can easily get skipped or missed. Before the yard sends the Travelift to launch my boat, I make sure there’s a check mark of completion next to all the mechanical and other maintenance items that can only be addressed while the boat is out of the water. I am a big fan of lists, and without those check marks, mistakes can happen. I never want to forget to tighten a sea strainer filter lid, or discover that a thru-hull overboard discharge fitting is…

Are you kidding me? ARE YOU KIDDING ME! Pardon me for shouting, but I’ve just read what is arguably the worst maritime advice since Capt. Edward Smith of the Titanic told his first officer, “Ah, don’t worry, they’re just big ice cubes. Maintain full speed,” before retiring to his cabin. And we all know how that turned out. Leonardo DiCaprio died. One of the largest marine electronics manufacturers (who shall remain nameless) just sent around a press release titled, “What to Do if You Lose Your GPS Signal.” Now that, in itself, is interesting because every electronics company touts the absolute reliability of its products. These companies promise you can tiptoe through skinny water, cruise through dense fogs and then sleep soundly at anchor when their products are on duty.…

The final moments before two vessels collide are a dichotomous mix of shockingly deep denial and frantically futile efforts to prevent the crash. The skipper’s mind is racing between “How can this be happening?” and “What can I do to prevent it?” Any boater who has been involved in a collision would love to be able to turn back time to see how the accident could have been avoided. Fortunately, in post-accident investigations, we have the opportunity to do just that. Examining what went wrong, and focusing on the lessons to be learned, can teach us all kinds of things about how to keep ourselves and our guests safe on the water. A Case-Study Collision It was 12:50 a.m. when the guided-missile destroyer USS Porter was navigating through the Strait…

When asked to name a system failure most likely to ruin a cruise, many people will guess engine problems or some other major mechanical issue. But in our experience, the culprits are often more subtle. Right up there with failed heads are problems with the air conditioning. In most climates, air conditioning can make or break a summer cruise. How Does It Work? As builders outfit more boats with air conditioning, two questions often come up: What is the difference between home air conditioning units and marine air conditioning units, and why are the marine versions so much more expensive? Many jokes have been made about the “marine tax,” as it seems that simply adding “marine” to the title of an object doubles the price. Granted, many times there are…

That first video spawned what today is a whole YouTube channel called Ship Happens. They now post weekly videos to show the repairs they’re making, and they are as surprised as anyone to have about 45,000 subscribers cheering them on—and sometimes even helping them out. Simon Robins spends a lot of his nights in bed searching eBay for broken boats. Bringing them back to life has been a longtime hobby for him in Wales, on the U.K.’s west coast. He once scored a 1962 wooden restoration project for about $30. His sweet spot for fixer-uppers has always been around 20 feet length overall. Nothing too crazy. Just for fun. One night in January 2021, he leaned over and showed his wife a listing on the screen for a 72-footer that…