Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2015 i Soundings

Peter Goldsmith’s first sailboat race to Cuba was illegal. The Key West sailmaker and Michele Geslin organized their first race from Key West to Varadero, Cuba, in 1997. The event, which drew 40 boats, violated the 1961 embargo on trade with Cuba and the prohibition on travel to the island if it involved spending money. “The government found out about it right away and sent a cease-and-desist order,” Goldsmith says. Goldsmith and Geslin — his partner of 23 years, now deceased — would go on to organize six more Key West-to-Cuba races. They would become known as the Conch Republic Cup, named after several races across the Straits of Florida in the 1970s. Before each race, the couple received a cease-and-desist order, but enforcement was lax — Goldsmith says the…

Stout. It’s a profound word, short and to the point. Beer or boat, it doesn’t just describe some-thing brave and bold or staunch and sturdy. It also expresses an attitude, something like “ready for everything, afraid of nothing.” It’s an apt word for Canadian Fifer, which made a big impression at this year’s Classic Boat Festival in Victoria, British Columbia. At 33 feet overall, she’s not exactly imposing, but few other boats announce their heritage and intent quite as eloquently as this ketch-rigged motorsailer with a pretty pinched stern. Her most prominent feature, however, is a massive prow, which looks as if it could handle a sperm whale with anger-management issues. Fifer, it is tempting to imagine, could slip her lines on a moment’s notice to steam out to where…

House batteries generally discharge much more than the starting battery during cruises and need more charging current for longer periods to recover. One way to prioritize charging for a house bank is to have the alternator output go directly to the house batteries and, when they have a voltage that indicates a full charge, connect the starting battery. This connection is made with a voltage-sensitive relay that closes its contacts at a preset voltage and allows a charging current to go to the starting battery. This isolates the house bank from the normal voltage drop when starting current is provided and helps prevent sensitive electronics from dropping out because of low voltage. Roger Hellyar-Brook runs a marine consulting business, repairing and upgrading boats of all types. He has spent more…

“We’re so fortunate to live here on South Carolina’s hidden treasure — Bohicket Creek,” says Allen Dawson, 63, a retired Charleston-area contractor. Although Johns Island is near enough to be a suburb of Charleston, Bohicket Creek is lightly developed and has single-family homes on large tracts of land, many with conservation easements. Dawson, who grew up in the area, built the single-story, brick-veneered French Tudor-style home in 1995. Now the couple plans to downsize, yet remain on the riverfront. Their 3.4-acre Bohicket Creek property with deep-water frontage, a four-bedroom, 3-1/2bath home with an attached two-car garage, a detached workshop, greenhouse, dock, ramp, float and boat lift is on the market for $1.495 million. “We built the house to be low-maintenance, functional and comfortable,” Dawson says. “Windows, sliding glass doors and…

In the November “Images” photograph by Daniel Forster, we neglected to say that Dorade’s sister, Stormy Weather, is the boat in the foreground. Although Dorade is behind her in the image, she edged out Stormy Weather at the finish of the Fastnet Race. Both yachts were designed by the legendary Olin Stephens and have enjoyed illustrious racing careers that began in the 1930s. COULD I GET SOME HELP HERE? I have owned two Sea Rays — a 25-foot weekender and a 27-foot Sundancer. The 25 had a low deck in the cockpit with an engine cover that could be removed for easy access to the service areas. The 27 had a high deck over the engine and little deck space when the hatch was opened for service. This meant laying…

It’s the kind of science project any nautically minded grade-school student would love: Launch an unmanned “drifter” vessel, then track its progress as it gathers data while crossing the Atlantic. In June 2012, students in the Region 4 School District in the southern Connecticut River valley launched a 5-foot, 45-pound self-righting, self-steering and self-tending research sailboat to chart Atlantic currents as part of the Educational Passages program, which started in Belfast, Maine. The voyage has gone well. The vessel, named Charger, has logged more than 16,000 nautical miles and visited more of the world than many people do — Newfoundland, Wales, Portugal, then back across the Atlantic to Guyana on the northeast coast of South America. The problem is, Charger is stuck in Guyana and can’t be relaunched. “We are…

We’re a down-to-earth group here at Soundings, and generally not given to idolatry of any sort. However, if we had to choose heroes, Nathaniel Phil brick would definitely be one. Philbrick grew up in Pittsburgh, far from the sea that has floated so many of his accomplishments. Brown University’s first Inter-Collegiate All-American sailor in 1978, he went on to win the Sunfish North Americans. He earned a graduate degree in American literature at Duke University, then worked as an editor at Sailing World magazine for four years. Philbrick also wrote and edited several sailing books, including the legendary (at least in our circles) Yaahting: A Parody. Philbrick published Away Off Shore, a history of Nantucket, in 1994. But as he described in an interview with the Paris Review in 2013,…

Look up the word “utility” in the American Heritage Dictionary, and you’ll find the following: used, serving or working in several capacities as needed. And when it comes to boats, that can be a tall order. Sure, there are plenty of boats that perform well the mission for which they were designed, but what if your boating style is more diverse? Perhaps anchoring is more appealing to you than tying up at a marina. Or maybe you bring along standup paddleboards, kayaks and a dinghy. You might simply prefer a boat with plentiful deck space that allows you to enjoy the wildlife and scenery around you. And let’s not forget about fishing — while underway or at anchor. If any of this is clicking with you, a relatively new class…

Fishing drove the design of the new North Rip 30, a high-end twin-outboard center console from USWatercraft. “There are a lot of multipurpose center consoles out there, but we embraced the idea of designing and outfitting this boat for offshore sport fishing in New England waters,” says Randy Borges, president of USWatercraft, which also builds C&C and Alerion sailboats and True North powerboats. Borges tapped Rhode Island charter captain and tournament fisherman Capt. Jack Sprengel (eastcoastchartersri.com) to help create the North Rip 30. Many of today’s center consoles are far from hardcore fishing boats, says Sprengel, who cites some models as “fluffy with standard forward seating and cushy frills” that snag tackle and eat up fishing space. Of course, owners can add a few amenities to the North Rip 30,…

In 1960 Cornelius “Connie” Ray teamed with college friend Arch Mehaffey in a fiberglass boatbuilding venture. They took over an existing builder — Carr Craft, which also made fiberglass coffins — moved into an abandoned potato warehouse in Oxford, Michigan, and got to work. They produced six models under the Sea Ray name, the biggest just 17 feet. But Ray had grand plans and three basic tenets: A heavier fiberglass boat delivers a better ride, a boat’s interior matters, and a solid dealer network is essential to success. To spice up the boats and create some buzz, Ray hired Harley Earl sea ray srv 240 Associates — Earl also designed the Chevrolet Corvette — to go over the current models. Soon new Sea Rays were coming out with upholstered seats,…

The sky looks darkly ominous — almost bruised — as I drive across Columbus Boulevard and turn onto South Delaware Avenue. Philadelphia is in for a massive thunderstorm, and its moody threat provides the perfect backdrop for this service road’s desolate scenery. I pass a chemical company, a power station, a boardedup brick factory of some sort. Every few blocks the avenue is bisected by train tracks, pitted with tooth-rattling potholes. Up ahead, the road doglegs to the left, opening up a view across piers 84 and 83. And that’s when I see her port side, the massive funnels rising above the industrial skyline like a thrilling and impossible mirage: the SS United States. She is heart-stoppingly beautiful. I pull over to stare, marveling that something so majestic could live…

Garmin Radar Garmin offers the new GMR xHD2 25-kW radar with 4- and 6-foot open arrays for a maximum range of 96 nautical miles. Pulse expansion allows users to increase the duration of the transmit pulse, which maximizes energy on targets that are farther away and otherwise might have been missed, according to Garmin. Other features include Auto Bird Gain, dual radar support and dual range. $7,999.99 (4-foot) and $8,999.99 (6-foot). Garmin International, Olathe, Kansas, (913) 397-8200. garmin.com Diesel Fuel Polisher To keep diesel fuel shipshape, Dieselcraft offers the portable FPS-15, a 12-volt polishing system that’s compact and easy to use. The FPS-15 uses a 10-micron filter to remove more than 99 percent of the water, as well as large contaminants, from diesel. It processes up to 13 gallons a…