Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2015 i Soundings

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. — John Steinbeck About a month ago, I closed the sale on my Cape Dory FB 28 and moved her from Maryland to Connecticut. I brought along the family: two old Jack Russell terriers and a wonderful first mate, who is invaluable for moral support but otherwise inexperienced at sea. It was a great trip, though it got off to a rocky start. About two and a half hours after we left Annapolis on a Monday around noon, the boat went from a happy 3,000 rpm to dead in the water, quite suddenly.…

Test your knowledge with these Coast Guard license exam prep questions from the National Captain’s Institute captains.com 1. INTERNATIONAL RULES: Rules concerning lights say that they shall be displayed from sunset to sunrise and: A. are to be displayed during daylight B. may be displayed during daylight C. may not be displayed during daylight D. none of the above 2. INTERNATIONAL RULES: In restricted visibility, you hear one prolonged and two short blasts. It is: A. a motorboat underway, making way B. a vessel not under command C. a vessel being towed D. none of the above 3. INTERNATIONAL RULES: Which of the following is not a vessel restricted in ability to maneuver? A. working dredge B. vessel constrained by draft C. towboat with a tow preventing deviation from course…

Capt. Charles Moore has sailed to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch 10 times over the past 20 years on his 50-foot catamaran, Alguita (“kelp” in Spanish), and each time he has been struck by the growing size and density of the plastic debris field. “I don’t call it a patch anymore,” he says. “It’s a gyre. It’s getting worse,” not just off California but also along the western edge of the subtropical convergence zone, off Japan and China. Our throwaway society, which wraps, bottles and boxes an endless array of goods in plastic, is spreading like a contagion to developing nations, China especially, Moore says. In regions where mass-consumption economies are just taking off and there are no curbside pickups or landfills to dispose of garbage, rivers are filling with…

Sabre 54 Flybridge The large windows in this sedan’s deckhouse create a bright space that includes facing port and starboard L-shaped settees with tables. The galley is forward and to port, across from the starboard-side helm with twin Stidd seats. A helm station with twin seats anchors the flybridge, which includes starboard and aft seating. Below are a master stateroom, two guest staterooms and three heads. Powered with twin 710-hp Volvo Penta IPS950 pod drives, the 54 Flybridge has a range of about 400 nautical miles at 22 knots. LOA: 59 feet, 9 inches (with stern platform) BEAM: 15 feet, 11 inches DRAFT: 4 feet, 4 inches POWER: twin 710-hp Volvo Penta IPS950s SPEED: 34 knots top, 28 knots cruise PRICE: $1.8 million CONTACT: Sabre Yachts, South Casco, Maine, (207)…

Away from the spotlight of micromanaged prime-time sailing events, a little celebration is in order this summer. The place couldn’t be more picturesque: Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. The occasion could not be more fitting: a world championship. And the excuse is better than any: The Tempest, like Medicare and Medicaid, turned 50 this year. It’s perhaps the best small keelboat you never sailed. It was used in the Olympic Games in 1972 and 1976, and once enjoyed worldwide popularity. Today it’s mainly Europeans who keep the flag flying; in the United States the class is a faint shadow of its former and much stronger self. In 1965 the International Yacht Racing Union (today’s International Sailing Federation) staged a design competition for a two-person keelboat with a maximum length of 22…

Chumming is the practice of slinging some form of cut bait, ground bait or scented liquid into the drink to attract desired game fish. It is known to be so lethally and universally effective that it’s considered borderline unethical, relative to more “sporting” tactics. And as usual, that reputation has been advanced almost exclusively by folks who’ve never so much as attempted the method. In reality, chunking — the fishing of actual hookbaits in conjunction with chum — while conceptually simple, demands the same awareness of conditions, the same eye for the subtleties of a fishing scenario, the same degree of discipline and the same work ethic as any other fishing technique. Granted, some of the fastest bites I’ve fished have built on a chum slick, but contrary to some…

Boat project morphs into detective story Many sailors know well the legend of Rowdy, a 65-foot New York 40 launched in 1916. Built of pine planking on white oak frames, she was designed by Nathanael Herreshoff to sail fast and win races, which she did. Fast forward to 1998, when Christopher Madsen purchased the neglected sailboat with plans for an ambitious restoration. Rowdy (CPM Publishing, $55, rowdystory.com) is Madsen’s account of meticulously researching the yacht’s history, which prominently features ownership by Holland Duell, a decorated soldier turned patent attorney, state senator, Hollywood filmmaker and world-class sailor. Madsen spoke with scores of Duell’s family members and associates, and pored over personal and legal documents during 16 years of research for the book, which reads like an epic historical yarn. Interpreting the…

Editor’s note: Knowing how to take your boat search to the next level is what BoatQuest.com, one of Soundings’ sister properties, is all about. Research is the smart first step to buying boats online, and BoatQuest.com has the advantage of connecting you with the brokers and boaters who know where to find the best boats on the market. Industry experts and professional yacht brokers share their knowledge with boat-buying tips, boat-selling tips and other practical information. The boats on BoatQuest.com are posted by reputable, experienced brokers who want to hear from savvy boaters — boat buyers and sellers who know what they’re doing. Here’s an example of the extra insight a trip to BoatQuest.com can provide when you’re researching that important purchase. You’ve come to the point where it is time to reward…

Pratt Street wharf, Baltimore, circa 1905. What a tangle of boats, and what an assemblage of humanity — oystermen, fishermen, dockworkers and wholesalers, as well as “loafers” just passing time sitting on the wharf. Baltimore was Oystertown, U.S.A. — home to the F. King oyster packing company on West Pratt Street, Platt and Co. on Platt’s wharf, John L. Shriver & Bros., the Baltimore Oyster Co., T. Callahan Packing, C.L. Applegarth and many others, each promsing oysters that were “sweeter, plumper and more healthful.” Crassostrea virginica is the scientific name for eastern oysters, the bivalves common to Chesapeake Bay, but the public knew them as “Gems of the Ocean” and “Pearls of the Deep.” And they couldn’t get enough of them. Baltimore pioneered the canning of oysters and soon was…

Great story by Mary South on Blake Mycoskie and his company, TOMS, [“Keeping it Real,” August]. I am a member of Lions Clubs International. One of the primary goals of the Lions is sight. There are 7 million Lions members in almost every country. I saw a film at a golf tournament of the Lions and their doctors in Central or South America. Children and 50-, 60-year-old people were tested and fitted with glasses. It was the first time in their lives they had seen. Pretty neat stuff, brought tears to the room. If these two organizations were to get together, what could happen? John Schaal St. Paul, Minnesota SHARED PASSIONS I enjoyed Mary South’s “Underway” column in the August issue. Indeed, I believe E.B. White said it best: If…

Tim Plouff and his wife, Kathy, had spent 30 years kayaking the Maine coast, exploring the pine-clad islands and rocky coves of the Island Trail and Coast Heritage Trust. It was good, simple fun, but their trips were limited by how far they could paddle in a day. There always seemed to be more to see, so Tim Plouff started looking for a boat. “I wanted something with more speed and distance options,” says Plouff, 60, who works for Dead River Oil Co., near their hometown of Otis, Maine. They found their ideal boat in a 2000 Sea Ray 215 Express Cruiser, a 22-foot overnighter that has served them well for 10 years. “The logbook averages out to 10 or 12 saltwater trips each year and [a few] freshwater days…

Capt. Dave Carraro’s Calvin Beal-designed boat — at 44 feet LOA and with a beam of 17.6 feet — is longer and wider than his previous, a Duffy 38. Carraro was looking for a stable platform with plenty of space on deck and in the wheelhouse for the safety and comfort of his charter guests and crew. Carraro is one of the stars of the National Geographic Channel’s show Wicked Tuna, which follows the work of Gloucester, Massachusetts, fishermen who use rod-and-reel to catch giant bluefin, which can fetch as much as $20,000 per fish. Carraro says producers contacted him as one of the fleet’s top fishermen. A cameraman/producer is with the crew 24/7 for 10 weeks. Each captain is portrayed as a “character,” reaching different audience demographics, says Carraro.…

I was told long ago to never write stories about pets on boats. People tire of reading them. So I’m not going to write about pets on boats. I’m going to write about dead pets on boats. As you wind your way down the ICW, you may not know it but you’re also winding your way past innumerable hamster graves. There’s nothing macabre going on; it’s just that we had two daughters who were growing up as we traveled north and south for so many years. Little girls want pets, and their mothers insist. Most of their pets were hamsters. I don’t like rats on a boat no matter what you call them, but my preferences weren’t particularly relevant. One thing about hamsters is that they seem to die a…

We are in that hot and still, latesummer mode here at the bottom of the Bay, waiting for the weather to break into the fall pattern. Our big event, Norfolk HarborFest, has come and gone as I write this. The weather was good, with one exception: A stiff easterly during the fireworks deposited a lot of debris from the pyrotechnics onto the boats and docks of Tidewater Marina on the Portsmouth side. Most was in the form of cardboard, but there was also a sprinkle of hot, sooty bits that marked up decks and, anecdotally, at least, caused a few burns. I haven’t heard any follow-ups about damage or injuries — it seems to have blown over, so to speak. As a transplant to the Bay, I am often staggered…

Breitling Emergency Breitling’s Emergency chronometer, which recently gained FCC approval for sale in the United States, includes a personal locator beacon that meets Cospas-Sarsat standards. The dual-frequency micro transmitter can send a distress signal to rescuers through the 121.5 MHz frequency and satellite transmissions through the 406 MHz frequency. The Emergency has a rechargeable battery that’s 1,000 times more powerful than the cells usually used in timepieces, according to Breitling. $15,825 to $18,910. Breitling USA, Wilton, Connecticut, (203) 762-1180. breitling.com Anchor Nutrition bar Anchor Nutrition bars are an alternative to drugs that are taken to ward off seasickness and other motion-induced illness. They contain only “recognizable food ingredients that are known to prevent and reduce nausea,” according to Real Food Solutions. The company says more than 70 percent of users…