Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2015 i Soundings

Valerie Jones has been fighting anchorage restrictions on Florida waters for 25 years. The former president of Concerned Boaters, a now-defunct group that advocated for anchoring rights, Jones was one of the 60-odd cruisers attending a workshop in Vero Beach last year to talk about possible changes to Florida’s anchorage law that would return to municipalities some of the authority they used to have to restrict anchoring. Jones once tried to get herself arrested for anchoring in a restricted zone on the Intracoastal Waterway at the Vero Beach City Marina so she could challenge the city’s no-anchoring ordinance in court. “They blinked. I didn’t,” she says. Vero’s marine police never did arrest her, even though she refused to move. Jones says the issue, remarkably, remains unresolved a quarter-century later. Boaters…

Not all of the boats we wanted to feature will be at the Miami shows. Here are sneak previews of four boats from 23 to 66 feet: the Rossiter 23 Classic Day Boat, the Vanquish 26 Dual Console, the Hunt 32cc and the Sabre 66. The Hunt and the Sabre are in production and should hit the water this summer; both companies are shooting to have their boats on display at the Newport International Boat Show, Sept. 17-20, in Rhode Island. Newport-based Vanquish Boats would like to be in Miami, says director of sales Jacob Popek. “But we just don’t have the personnel to get there this year,” he says. However, you can see the new 26 Dual Console at the New England Boat Show, which takes place Feb. 14-22.…

Bluenose, Canada’s most famous schooner, made its mark almost a century ago fishing and racing in the Atlantic off Nova Scotia. Today, a direct cousin of Bluenose is still sailing off Canada’s other coast, in the Pacific Northwest: Passing Cloud. Bluenose was the 17th William Roué design, and he went on to create more than 100 commercial vessels and yachts. One of them (No. 165 in his portfolio) was Passing Cloud, but Roué did not live to see her sail. She wasn’t built until 1974, almost 30 years after he drew it and four years after he died at age 90 Blame it on bureaucracy. Roué designed the boat for a 1945 contest sponsored by the new United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration as part of a program to help…

Through-hull and seacock installation Installing a seacock and through-hull assembly requires accurate measuring and cutting to ensure it fits your boat properly. Through-hull fittings are usually supplied with adequate length for most installations and are available in longer configurations for boats with particularly thick laminates or planking. They also come with a thin nut that can secure the through-hull above the waterline but is discarded when installing a seacock. It’s also useful for chasing the threads after cutting the through-hull fitting. The through-hull has a straight thread that allows it to be cut anywhere along its length. The seacock has a straight female thread where it attaches to the through-hull and a tapered NPT female thread where it attaches to the pipe-to-hose tailpiece. NPT — or National Pipe Taper —…

Cruising with friends 25 years ago, Fred and Connie Boos discovered their personal tropical paradise: Useppa Island on Florida’s west coast. “It was unbelievable, right here in our own backyard, and it flies the American flag,” says Boos, whose business is based in Tampa, Florida. “We were so taken with the incredible people, activities, lifestyle and sense of community that we bought a home here. Later we bought this house, with its 270-degree water views.” Useppa Island is on the National Register of Historic Places because of its documented 10,000-year history. Its inhabitants have included Calusa Indians, followed by pirates; Gilded Age tycoons seeking great tarpon fishing, extensive boating and a respite from Northern winters; and later, planners of the Bay of Pigs invasion. Now it’s a privately owned club…

Some men forge lives worthy of a Hollywood movie, with twists of fate, grand adventures and great accomplishments, punctuated by moments of peril. They leave an indelible mark on their corner of the world. Such was the life of Warren Brown. The iconic Bermudian world-class bluewater sailor, entrepreneur and patriot died on Christmas Day at the age of 85, closing the circle on a life as varied as that of the fictional character Forrest Gump. “He was an incredible man,” says John Wadson, one of many young sailors Brown took under his wing. “He provided so many of us with what can only be described as life-changing opportunities and experiences.” His reputation as an achiever remained intact onshore, as well. “He was a real trailblazer, a progressive and an all-around…

The 38 Eastbay EX was something different when it debuted in 1993 and launched Grand Banks’ new line,a radical departure from the builder’s well-known cruising trawlers. The dark-blue hull, trunk cabin and distinctive windshield stood out against the sleek, curvy Euro-styling that was popular at the time. Its traditional profile evoked Maine lobster yachts, and it had something of the trawler tradition in it, too. The Eastbay’s performance, however, was most un-trawler-like. The express rode an 18-degree deep-vee hull designed by C. Raymond Hunt Associates and cruised at 20-plus mph with a stan- dard pair of Caterpillar 3208 TA diesels, 375 hp each. Then there was Grand Banks’ expert joinery to complement a firstclass interior with all the cruising comforts. The basic cabin layout — two were offered over the…

Before the arrival of Europeans, the Haida were the dominant culture among coastal First Nations in Canada’s Pacific Northwest, and their unique war canoes were a key reason. With plentiful food and towering evergreens on Haida Gwaii, the natives there had the time and resources to develop a boat like no other in the region. Their canoes were the only ones capable of crossing the 60 miles of Hecate Strait between Haida Gwaii and the coast, allowing them to raid and trade with mainland villages — without fear of counterattack — and range from present-day Alaska to Vancouver. The Haida also had a size advantage: Thanks to their protein-rich seafood diet, the average Haida man in the 1700s stood 6 feet tall and towered over mainland natives and most Europeans.…

When it comes to marine electronics, the sky’s the limit these days, literally, as satellite services cover almost every corner of the globe. With seemingly unlimited choices and technology on a relentless advance, individual budgets play a large role in choosing your electronics setup. Twenty-five years ago, at the advent of commercially available GPS technology, my two crewmates and I pooled our money and bought a $1,100 handheld Garmin GPS prototype and a deeply discounted Sony single sideband receiver. A fixed-mount and a handheld VHF, along with a tiller pilot, completed our electronics inventory for the 2 years we sailed the Caribbean and South America. We listened to broadcast weather reports on our SSB the way people check Facebook now — constantly — noting immediately any predicted changes in weather…

Bayliner has created a boat with all the elbow room of a pontoon but built on a cat-like fiberglass hull that performs well in a chop and excels for water sports, says Bayliner marketing brand manager Michael Yobe. And the 26-foot, 3-inch Element XR7 is comparable in price to many 22-foot pontoons, Yobe says. Bayliner traded the typical pontoon running surface for its patent-pending M-hull — used for its 16- and 18-foot Element models — which delivers greater seaworthiness, agility and overall performance, says Yobe. “The XR7 has a more evolved look, compared to the typical pontoon, and can excel in coastal waters, for sure,” he says. “We call it an ‘all-water’ boat.’ ” The high sides are gelcoat-finished fiberglass, and Bayliner packed the boat with seating and storage, a…

When Julius Britto spoke at the schooner Ernestina-Morrissey’s restoration celebration at the New Bedford (Massachusetts) Whaling Museum late last year, it was the fulfillment of a commitment he had made 40 years ago to keep reminding Americans of their historic ties to Cape Verde. The grandson of Cape Verdean immigrants, Britto sees the 120-year-old Ernestina-Morrissey as a piece of living history, a jack of many trades that has worked as a fishing schooner, an Arctic explorer, a World War II supply and survey ship, a Cape Verde packet schooner and a Massachusetts school ship. “She’s done so many things in her history,” says Britto, president of the Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey Association, an advocate for the boat’s restoration. She was built for the Gloucester, Massachusetts, fishing fleet in 1894 at the James…

For most American cruisers, the Pacific Northwest stops at the U.S. border and the San Juan Islands, but the scenery and cruising only get better the farther you go up the British Columbia coast. Among the very best of Canada’s Pacific Northwest destinations is the Haida Gwaii archipelago, at the nation’s farthest point both north and west. Once known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, they are closer to Alaska than the Canadian mainland and are packed with countless protected anchorages, mountain wilderness, spectacular wildlife and a unique native culture. On many levels, there’s no place on Earth like it. Biologists call these islands the “Galapagos of the North” because parts escaped glaciation during the last ice age, allowing many plants and animals to evolve in ways found nowhere else. Haida…

Leonard Mizerek nurtured his artistic love of nature while growing up in Pennsylvania’s Brandywine Valley, made famous by the Wyeth family of artists. “I was exposed to works by the whole Wyeth family,” he says. “The one who greatly influenced me was N.C. Wyeth, the father of Andrew. He had a great ability to tell a story, and his strong use of light and dramatic color [made an impression].” Mizerek, who lives in Annapolis, Maryland, is known for colorful, luminous seascapes — painted on-site — and expressive brushwork. “I prefer marine subjects because I enjoy the way water reflects the floating objects, as well as the sky and time of day,” he says. “It mirrors shapes and intensifies light.” Annapolis Harbor, City Dock depicts one of the few remaining Chesapeake…

The steamer Romance, loading up in Provincetown for the day’s run across Massachusetts Bay to Boston, looms over an old Grand Banks schooner. The image was published in 1937 by Edwin Rosskam as part of a photo essay on two local industries: fishing and tourism. A freelance photographer at the time, Rosskam went on to have a distinguished career at Standard Oil, shooting oil refineries and river scenes for the corporate giant through the 1940s. Here the German-born photographer wanted to show how Provincetown — indeed, much of Cape Cod — was changing. The fishing industry that had sustained the region’s fleets for so many generations was dying, and tourists were the new catch of the day. City folk were learning to appreciate the rural beauty, the wide, sandy beaches,…