Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2018 i Soundings

South Florida attorney Bruce Marx posted a message on his Facebook page last April, asking friends for the email addresses of local dockmasters. “It’s time that a marina community watch be established,” he wrote. In that post, Marx’s anger didn’t show, but he was boiling at his keyboard. Thieves had stolen a Garmin chartplotter off his 31-foot Contender. They’d struck while the boat was at a dock in Miami. “I’d had it for a little over a week,” he says of the plotter. “I was shocked, irritated and mad all at the same time.” And he was far from alone. Theft of helm electronics and outboard engines is skyrocketing, especially in Florida. CNBC analyzed Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission records last year and found a nearly 20 percent rise…

LOA: 35’9” Beam: 10’8” Draft: 2’6” Displ.: 9,000 lbs. Fuel: 132 gals. Water: 31 gals. Power: (2) 6.2-liter 430-hp Volvo Penta gas inboards Princess Yachts is perhaps best known for high-performance express yachts and sleek flybridge motoryachts. The British builder has broken that mold with the R35, a high-performance, high-tech, foiling sports yacht. Launched at the Cannes Yachting Festival in France, it’s the first in what is planned as a range of speedy, plush sportboats. “The R35 is a rare mix of extreme elegance and technology,” said Executive Chairman Antony Sheriff. “Often, design is a triumph of beauty over function or function over beauty. Princess has been able to develop a technologically game-changing yacht that is also stunningly beautiful. It is in every way a new experience, yet also instantly…

On August 15, 2018, a year shy of its 90th birthday, the American yacht design and brokerage firm of Sparkman & Stephens was acquired. The buyer was Donald Tofias, a former Boston commercial real estate agent and developer, and a serial owner of vintage sailing yachts such as a Concordia yawl and a Herreshoff S-Boat. He is founder of the W-Class Yacht Company, a lifelong yacht racer, and a full-time resident of the sailing mecca Newport, Rhode Island. Tofias is quite mindful that he just purchased a large chunk of yachting history—the design firm that launched the ocean racers Dorade and Running Tide along with the America’s Cup defenders J-Class Ranger and the 12-Meter boats Columbia, Intrepid, Courageous and Freedom. “One of the real gems of this purchase is that…

The 52-foot racing yacht Dorade careens in a very stiff following wind on her way to a record performance in the 1931 Transatlantic Race, with the spinnaker sheet led to windward of the forestay and eased out. This is “knife-edge sailing, where you need all your skills to prevent a standing jibe and subsequent broach,” says artist Tony Blake. “I put her in mid-ocean, showing the conditions they were sailing under, surfing with spinnaker up in good-size seas.” A young, up-and-coming naval architect named Olin Stephens designed Dorade, which the Minneford Yacht Yard built on City Island, New York, and launched in 1930. In the race, Stephens was skipper of the seven-man crew that included his brother Rod and their father, Rod Stephens, Sr. The mahogany-on-oak yawl beat nine opponents…

The 1950s were a decade of change. Sputnik 1 launched, initiating the technological space race that continues today. Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states. Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine, and everybody from Chuck Berry to Elvis Presley taught Americans the meaning of rock’n’ roll. Boating, too, saw changes with the evolution of the cabin cruiser, which challenged the big cruising sailboat as the vessel of choice in postwar America. It’s not that cabin cruisers were new in the 1950s: Consolidated, Elco and other builders virtually created the boat type in the 1920s and 1930s, although sailboats still ruled for much of the early 20th century. World War II changed all that. When it was over, there was time again to get out onto the water, and…

Kadey-Krogen, the renowned builder of full-displacement passagemaking vessels, is getting into the planing-hull game with a new company and contemporary, 26-knot motoryacht. The new venture will be called Summit Motoryachts by Kadey-Krogen and the plan is to launch its first model—a 54-foot flybridge—at the 2019 Newport International Boat Show in Newport, Rhode Island. “We’re not changing our focus,” said Kadey-Krogen vice president and partner Larry Polster at the Newport International Boat Show in September. “Summit Motoryachts is a completely different company that will build very different boats than Kadey-Krogen. The idea is to have an alternative for our customers who ultimately decide that motoring at six to eight knots is not conducive to the type of cruising they want to do.” The Summit 54 will be built alongside the full…

They say the job of a U.S. Air Force pararescueman combines the skills of a Navy Seal, an Army Ranger and a medic. The training alone eliminates more than 80 percent of the people who try out for the job. Those who make it through find themselves surrounded by explosions, pain and killing. These are the guys who might drop into a valley in Afghanistan and fight back out with fellow soldiers who were pinned down under enemy fire. That’s what Roger Sparks did in 2010, helping nine wounded soldiers and earning America’s third-highest award for valor: the Silver Star. He served 25 years in the military before retiring in 2017 with a memory that, he says, was full of “powerful, destructive awe.” His experiences resulted in a diagnosis of…

Sisu is a Finnish word that’s difficult to translate. It means something like endurance, determination, stamina, fortitude—or, in American slang, guts. Certainly, the expression fits the Sisu 22. Designed four decades ago, the doughty Downeaster has been called one of the most seaworthy designs ever for a small powerboat. It came off the drawing board of Maine’s Royal Lowell, the dean of all things lobster boat. In the 1970s, Lowell drew three designs, including a 22-footer, for a New Hampshire builder. The boats were lauded, but the business failed and the fiberglass hull molds were disbursed. But the 22 survived. Prized for its rugged build and seakindly, round chine hull, along with its simple layout and basic amenities, the boat came off the line at different companies in various places,…

Whether it’s a beautiful varnished mahogany runabout cutting across a glassy lake or a sleek center console taking on a tumultuous inlet, Chris-Craft boats have an unmistakable look and impeccable style, in large part because the builder has been refining its designs for 144 years. The history of this iconic builder is chronicled in the pages of Nick Voulgaris III’s Chris-Craft Boats: An American Classic. The 224-page story starts in Algonac, Michigan, in 1874, when Chris Smith built his first wooden boat at age 13. The rest of the Chris-Craft story spans world wars, economic crises and political upheavals, and includes photographs of hundreds of models produced by the company over the decades. The stunning photography in this hardcover edition makes this book an excellent addition to any coffee table.…

LOA: 61’1” Beam: 18’3” Draft: 4’10” Displ.: 88,000 lbs. Fuel: 1,720 gals. Water: 280 gals. Power: (2) 1,925-hp Cat C32A diesels Price: $3.49 million After prowling through the canyons for a few months, the Bertram 61 debuted at the Newport International Boat Show in September. “She rides like a dream, better than we ever imagined,” Bertram CEO Peter Truslow says of the convertible. “We’ve been sea-trialing her the best way we know how—by fishing her hard offshore. We couldn’t be happier with the ride and performance.” Michael Peters designed the 61’s seakindly hull. Seakeeper stabilization is standard. Top speed with a pair of 1,925-hp Caterpillar C32A diesels is 44 knots, while the 61 cruises at 34 knots, according to Bertram. The exterior of the 61 screams Bertram. Chiseled features are…

In the early 1980s, my brother and I would make an annual round-trip between Keyport, New Jersey, and Newport, Rhode Island, aboard his 24-foot Pearson Lark sloop Froetjers. Whether we were coming or going, we would always “go inside”—meaning inside Long Island, via the East River. There was a reason for that. Going outside would have meant an overnight sail into the Atlantic. While that appealed to my brother, our father put the kibosh on it. A former merchant mariner, he was concerned that an oceangoing ship wouldn’t see our cheap radar reflector and run us over. So, we’d run inside and consume the better part of daylight—12 hours or more—getting the Lark from one side of New York City to the other. We’d always pore over the Eldridge Tide…

Tune In The Polk Ultramarine Complete DSP Sound System from ASA Electronics uses a processor to constantly adjust the music to compensate for ambient noise from wind, water and boat engines. The processor ensures that every song sounds the way it was intended. The customizable system includes the brand-new Polk UM2 stereo, and a selection of Polk speakers and subwoofers. It allows for independent volume control in up to four unique zones. asaelectronics.com Pop-Up Light Made from 316 stainless steel (cap and bezel) and ABS (lens), the LED Combination Retractable Bow Light from Sea-Dog pops up with just a twist of the cap. Push the cap down and twist, and the light locks into the deck and out of the way. The light has an IP67 waterproof rating. Like all…