Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2019 i Soundings

As I write this, my son, Kyle, is a few days away from his high school graduation. Last night, I spent more time than I should have looking through old photos of him as a kid, to forward a few to the school for a slideshow at the graduation ceremony. In the bulging albums, I found pictures of him at birthday parties, baseball games, Boy Scouts and band concerts, but the images I liked most were the ones taken on boats. The reason is simple: We’ve had some of our best moments together as a family on the water. I suspect that my clan is a lot like yours in the sense that we value any time we can go boating together. In this issue, we celebrate other families that…

Visitors to Montauk call it “The End” because the village is the last stop when heading east on New York’s Long Island. Some of the natives call it the “Sportfishing Capital of the World.” But, Montauk is more than just fishing or falling off the edge. The surfing off Ditch Plains Beach is world-class, and the sand is wide, white and clean. Deep Hollow Ranch, which offers beach and trail rides on horses, calls itself the oldest working ranch in the United States. Montauk Lighthouse, which was built in 1796, is a National Historic Landmark. Montauk Downs, a Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course, is open to the public. Good restaurants and nightlife are nearby, too. And, it’s an ideal place to visit by boat. Like all the South Fork of…

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING If you’re without a boat, sometimes watching others live the life is enough to keep the dream of cruising alive and well. In search of this video elixir online, we found Tula’s Endless Summer, a YouTube channel that chronicles the travels of Billy, his girlfriend Sierra, and their furry first mate, Jetty. The story begins as Billy, who is a lifeguard and kiteboard instructor, documents living aboard his Frances 26 sailboat. Sierra soon joins him. They upgrade to a 1973 34-foot Marine Trader trawler, and eventually, a 1988 Spindrift catamaran. In between are trips up and down the U.S. East Coast from Long Island Sound to the Keys and out to the Bahamas, as well as DIY projects as they improve and upgrade their floating homes. You’ll…

I get asked all the time about survival at sea. Whenever I give a talk on boating safety, at least one person is interested in life rafts, survival tactics and whether or not I’ve read one book or another about epic survival on the ocean. After I lay down all the ways to stay out of trouble, and how to make sure that help arrives if you do have an emergency, the questions come. “Could you talk about how to survive in a life raft and what you think about rationing? When should you first start drinking water? Have you ever read Adrift by Steven Callahan?” Despite my military training in survival (including the extreme ocean type), I rarely find it necessary to discuss open-ocean survival tactics. There are two…

Just one year ago, Pier Luigi Loro Piana—heir to the luxury Italian clothing company Loro Piana—was making celebratory toasts and basking in the light that gleamed off trophy after trophy. His 130-foot Baltic sailing yacht, My Song, racked up three first-place wins in as many races at the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta, which not only bears his family name, but which he also hosts each summer off the Mediterranean’s playground of the rich and famous, Porto Cervo. Soon after those wins, My Song set a speed record for the RORC Transatlantic Race, which saw her crew sail her across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to Grenada. “Racing at 20 knots was amazing,” Loro Piana told Sail-World at the time. “I am very happy.” A few months ago, according to…

Russ and Barbara Jones NORDIC TUG 49 Like many people introduced to boating at an early age, Russ Jones’ nautical wanderlust developed from humble beginnings. At 4, he was figuring out how to pull the oars on a family rowboat, and by 8, he was exploring the back bays and coves around Boothbay Harbor, Maine. “It was my first taste of freedom,” Jones says. “I’d just gaze into the water and over the rocks watching crabs, fish and all sorts of wildlife. When high school came around, a buddy and I built a pram in my parents’ basement, and later we bought a beat-up Penn Yan runabout to take our girlfriends waterskiing.” College, the military and a wedding came next in quick succession, and then, he and his wife, Barbara,…

It was the second day of the Stone Harbor Yacht Club White Marlin Invitational, and I was with Pat Healey aboard a Viking 72C, fresh out of the company’s facility on the Bass River in New Gretna, New Jersey. The morning began with a 120-mile run to Tom’s Canyon from Cape May Inlet, with Capt. Ryan Higgins at the helm while the rest of us slept in air-conditioned comfort. Most of the action took place midmorning, when the team hooked and released a white marlin followed by a wild blue that the older of Healey’s two sons subdued. A couple more whites, and then the action died. At lines out, we were 115 miles from the inlet. The cockpit was cleaned, the tackle stowed for what might have been a…

Enos Throop was wandering his parents’ property on Long Island, New York, right after Hurricane Carol in 1954. He came upon a rowboat, washed up on shore. Claiming salvage rights, he took possession and named the dinghy Termite. So started a lifelong love of boats and boating. “My dad got me a 3-horsepower Johnson,” says Throop, a retired investment manager living in St. Michaels, Maryland. “That was my ticket to freedom and independence as a young kid.” Soon, his father bought a Lyman skiff with a 10-hp Johnson, so the family could go picnicking and fishing. Throop’s father then commissioned an inboard Henry Luhrs skiff, and supplied the wood, as he was in the lumber business. Meanwhile, Throop cruised and fished along his native South Shore and sailed in Blue…

I took my original CPR and first-aid class as a mandatory sailing instructor requirement. As a blasé teenager, I never thought I’d use the skills. I soon learned how effective the training was in a crisis. After expelling a huge projectile from a choking person’s airway using the Heimlich maneuver, I was awed and humbled as I realized I saved someone’s life. I’ve been serious about medical preparedness ever since. One of the realities of boating is that we’re often far away from help. In near-shore waters, getting help is as easy as calling the U.S. Coast Guard on the VHF radio, but what if you’re offshore and days from any facilities? Even with a satellite phone or single-sideband radio, you will find yourself playing ship’s doctor in the time…

In the U.S. market, BRP, the parent company of Evinrude, is alone in remaining devoted to the development of 2-stroke outboard motors. That devotion recently resulted in the new series of 1.9-liter Evinrude outboards with the latest E-TEC G2 direct injection technology. The Evinrude 115 H.O., Evinrude 140 and Evinrude 150 share a three-cylinder power head that incorporates a number of design features previously available only on V-6 Evinrude E-TEC G2 outboards, the first of which debuted in 2014. The 1.9-liter models are not quite as feature-laden as the V-6 Evinrudes, but are available with integral power steering, standard digital throttle and shift control, and a 1.9-gallon oil reservoir below the power head. A pair of balance gears cancels the primary vibration of the triple-cylinder engine. The star of the…

For 60 years, Grady-White’s been known for building reliable boats that get owners to the fishing grounds and back again. The new Canyon 326 builds on that reputation, but also offers features for the comfort of family. “The 326 fits in nicely between our Canyon 306 and 336,” says Grady-White Design Engineer Christian Carraway. “We paid a lot of attention to interior space and making the best possible use of her beam.” An example is a gunwale scoop-out that makes walking past the console easy. “We also pulled in the hardtop supports close to the console, so there are no tripping points in that area,” he said. That carefully managed beam makes the 326 a very roomy boat. For fishing, the boat includes a 32-gallon livewell, three insulated fish boxes…

Dave Brayton wears his many nautical miles well. He has earned a living quahogging out of Bristol, Rhode Island, since 1958, and even now, at 83, he has yet to slow his pace. Old Dog, his 23-foot Ocean Scout skiff powered by a 225-hp Yamaha outboard, is weathered herself. A workboat through and through, she’s 32 years old and has served Brayton for the past 21 years. Brayton is one of the oldest quahoggers on Narragansett Bay, but he has no problem keeping pace with the younger guys. For him, this is just work, the same work he has done all his life. With the persistence of a true New Englander, he sticks devotedly to the profession that was passed down to him, and he knows the history of the…

BRIAN GOODWIN ABYC My beat as technical director for the American Boat & Yacht Council includes supervising the standards covering steering. It’s important to inspect cables and hoses regularly; look for wear in the cables, leaks in hydraulic systems. Purge hydraulics to remove air. When topping up the steering, use the oil the manufacturer recommends. One thing we often see is do-it-yourselfers using Teflon tape on the fittings to prevent leaks. Don’t do it: The tape can deteriorate and get into the system. Keep the bend radius of cables within the manufacturer’s specs, and make sure the cables or hoses are run so they can’t chafe. For mechanical steering, look for excessive play, which can mean steering is ready to fail. MARTY BOLCOME Rose’s Marine Rose’s Marine in Gloucester, Massachusetts,…

Surrounded by pristine waterways, Pamlico County is near the center of North Carolina’s majestic coast, midway between New York and Florida. The area’s natural beauty has been attracting newcomers for decades, if not centuries. The quality of life in Pamlico County is unsurpassed, say those who have made their home here. Quaint, charming, beautiful, friendly, serene and inspiring are some of the words you will hear to describe this area. With only two stoplights and a population of 13,000, Pamlico County offers a respite from the hustle and bustle of city life. In the town of Oriental, the population is just 900, which pales in comparison to the estimated 2,700 sailing vessels that are moored here year-round. Over 40 percent of Pamlico County consists of water, with endless miles of…

On May 20—just before the Memorial Day holiday that draws thousands of boaters and beach-goers to the water—the research firm Ocearch announced that it had tracked a great white shark deep in Long Island Sound for the first time. A tracking device, the researchers said, showed the nearly 10-foot-long animal swimming off the coast of Greenwich, Connecticut. What happened next was the kind of Jaws-meets-Sharknado media frenzy that makes marine researchers cringe. CBS News gave beachgoers plenty to fuel their imaginations, reporting that the animal weighed more than 500 pounds. The harbormaster in Greenwich confirmed for The Connecticut Post that it would be unusual for a great white to be so far west in the sound, adding that people likely had nothing to worry about, because the shark was “probably…

Everyone has a happy place. For me, it’s bellying up to a raw bar while an expert shucker loads up a rock salt-covered platter with plump, juicy oysters. Add in a sudsy India pale ale in a frosty mug and that’s perfection. Despite my great appetite for oysters, it wasn’t until recently that I began to wonder about the creatures inside all those shells. How do they reproduce? How does oyster reef restoration happen? Where is this black magic performed? After a little research and connecting with an oyster hatchery, I discovered that oysters are indeed fascinating creatures—especially when it comes to their romantic encounters. But first, a bit of Chesapeake Bay oyster backstory. Two hundred years ago, Chesapeake Bay oysters were plentiful. There were so many oysters, in fact,…

Anyone who’s fished offshore more than a few times knows the feeling: hours of running, followed by hours of fruitless trolling, until the endlessly droning engines put half the bored crew to sleep. This is the time when we hope for just one bite to save the day. You might not be able to force the fish to eat, but you certainly can try a new tactic for a different species, one that may save an offshore fishing trip: the blueline tilefish. Its larger cousin, the golden tilefish, may get a lot more attention, but bluelines hold several advantages over goldens. Bluelines live in shallower water (usually between 200 and 400 feet, as opposed to 600 or 800 feet). They seem to bite at just about any time of day,…

Designer Tom Fexas, born in 1941, began as a nuclear submarine engineer. In the early 1970s, he decided to design an “ideal boat, without any thought to the wants or needs of the marine marketplace.” The Midnight Lace 44 was long and slim with a black hull. Built at Golden Wave Shipyards, which was founded by Hong Kong-based Cheoy Lee shipyard for Fexas’ creation, the Midnight Lace was a standout from the beginning. The 44 closely resembled boats of the 1920s, with slender, easily driven hull shapes. As Fexas put it, these were “the slippery old hulls that were developed during the age of the rumrunner, boats that were both elegant and fast.” The Midnight Lace 44 had a fine entry, narrow forward sections and rounded chines to reduce drag.…

The sun is barely over the horizon when Maine’s Casco Bay appears before us like a sheet of glass. We want to open up the throttles, but a flock of scoters is blocking our path. As we close in on them, the sea ducks take to the air, peeling off to port and starboard like little jet fighters. Ben Knowles of East Coast Yacht Sales gives them time to scatter, then pours on the power. In the blink of an eye, the Axopar 37’s twin 350-hp Mercury Verados have us moving at 35 knots. Since its 2014 founding, Axopar has sold more than 1,700 boats worldwide. The Finnish company offers models in 24, 28 and 37 feet, with cabins, hard tops, open decks or T-tops. In May 2018, East Coast…

Among the things that inspire marine artists are periods in history, important events, and ships and boats themselves. Location, too, can be a muse. Some places seem to have all the right elements of color, light and atmosphere. For Sergio Roffo, inspiration is often found at the end of a dirt road on Nantucket, Massachusetts, where a cove spreads out before him in the early morning. The sand is still cool from the night, colors shift as dawn gives way to morning and a breeze springs up—just enough to waft a catboat along. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of this idyllic scene captured in Roffo’s piece “Early Morning Sail at Brant Point, Nantucket.” Roffo was born in Italy in 1953. He came to America as a child. Growing…

A slew of monitors, products connected to one another (the Internet of Things) and “smart” devices will be on display at the boat shows this fall, promising to make all of our boating lives better. The general idea is that we’ll be able to monitor everything and spot problems much sooner than in the past. Dan Harper, CEO of Siren Marine, knows more about these products than most boat owners. Siren, which is based in Newport, Rhode Island, focuses on the type of connected technology that makes up the Internet of Things. Harper says there are three tiers of boat monitoring and control that boaters need to understand. The first tier is the boat monitor: It’s a tried-and-true product for keeping an eye on critical parts of your boat (such…

An old Madison Avenue advertising maxim says that to sell the steak, you sell the sizzle. Don’t promote Grade-A qualities or lean and aged beef; instead, show a backyard grill surrounded by a crowd of hungry guests watching the chef at work. Think master of the barbecue. That type of sizzle is the idea behind this 1961 advertisement from the Trojan Boat Co. The creative says nothing about engines, performance or construction. Instead, the ad illustrates the life you can lead if you own the boat. Think master of the marina. That’s you in the wetsuit, with a fish, lounging in the cockpit, relaxing in the sun and salt air. You’re out of the office and out of the house. You’re the captain of your ship and the envy of…