Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2021 i Soundings

Starting this autumn, America will have another maritime high school, giving kids from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to learn about the fun of recreational boating, and about the opportunities to work and build careers on and near the water. Only a handful of maritime high schools exist in the nation right now; the standard-bearer is The New York Harbor School, founded in 2003 and now located on Governors Island, just across the water from the Statue of Liberty. The newest school will be on the other side of the country: Maritime High School, part of the Highline public school system just outside Seattle. The school is on track to open this fall with a single incoming freshman class, and then will add additional grade levels in following years, welcoming students…

The Mercury Verado 600 is an outboard motor by definition, but only because it bolts to a boat’s transom. In the past decade outboards have grown ever more powerful, but the basic design has not really changed since Ole Evinrude screwed his brass kicker to the back of a rowboat. The Verado 600 is a different beast; it’s a collection of new ideas that together could redefine outboard power for large boats. The spec sheet alone is impressive: 600 horsepower from a 7.6-liter V12 powerhead driving contra-rotating propellers. But this is more than a big motor. A two-speed automatic transmission provides gear ratios for hole shot and efficient cruising. The gearcase is steerable, while the powerhead stays stationary. The cowl opens like the hood of a Mercedes, to accommodate all…

On her way to being saved, Hindu was almost lost. On July 10, 2020, the 95-year-old William Hand-designed schooner was transiting from her charter home in Key West, Florida, to her summer home in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It was 3 a.m. Hindu’s captain, Josh Rowan, was just off watch and sleeping on deck while his fiancée, Erin Desmond, was at the helm. “It was dark and a little foggy,” Erin remembers. With two friends along as crew, they’d been sailing almost nonstop to stay ahead of Tropical Storm Fay. They motorsailed through Long Island Sound as they followed another boat’s track at 7 to 8 knots when midway between Connecticut and Long Island, just north of Port Jefferson, New York, the boat came to a complete stop. “Suddenly it felt like…

Michael Peters is among the most renowned yacht designers in the world. His studio—Michael Peters Yacht Design in Sarasota, Florida—has collaborated with some of the biggest names in production boats—Azimut, Bertram, Chris-Craft, Hinckley and Valhalla Boatworks, to name a few—and created one-of-a-kind craft for blue-chip builders like Van Dam Custom Boats and Brooklin Boat Yard. When he’s not working, Peters and his family cruise aboard one of three Bertrams in the clan’s fleet. We talked with the designer for some perspective on boat design—past, present and future. You’ve been a professional boat designer since the early 1970s. How many boats have you created over the course of your career? The firm is well into the 500s, with designs ranging from 20 to 160 feet. A lot of our work is…

The new teak transom glistened, with gold letters shining beneath the coats of varnish. At the bow, a floral wreath was placed. Stefan Cushman’s boat was ready to launch. With the crew at the John Williams Boat Company on Maine’s Mount Desert Island watching, Hog Penny splashed into Downeast waters, and the wreath cast into the sea with all due ceremony. It was a special moment, says Cushman, 52, a commercial real estate manager based in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was part of the experience of buying a boat in Maine. It was also the final chapter in the 12-year restoration that remade Hog Penny, a 25-year-old Pemaquid Beach 26, into a Downeast headturner. “It was in very rough condition. It needed to be completely overhauled,” says Cushman, who bought…

INSPIRED BY WORKBOATS I loved reading about Sam Devlin’s Tugzilla 26 (pictured above) in your February 2021 issue. My wife and I are big fans of tug designs. We own a 21-footer (shown at left). It has a 90-hp Mercedes diesel engine and was active moving docks and smaller barges around the San Francisco Bay area before it was brought down to Southern California. Today, we enjoy cruising around places like Channel Islands Harbor in our boat. It has a very loud air horn that lets everyone know we are coming around the bend! THE CREW OF TRITONSANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA EDUCATION COMMITTEE In your February issue Gary Huge wrote a letter titled “Simpler Rules,” in which he asked for feedback to comments he made about how to simplify the boating…

Autopilots are highly advanced navigational tools. A good unit is obedient and unwavering in steering the intended course without judgement. That makes it incumbent on the boat’s operator to be a vigilant supervisor and to guard against complacency. We need to stay knowledgeable about autopilot efficiency and its limitations under varying conditions There have been many autopilot incidents over the years. Accidents and groundings occur because there is simply no substitute for keeping a good lookout and executing a safe voyage plan. Monitoring the performance of the autopilot and having the common sense to know when not to use it are just as important. There are plenty of YouTube videos that show boats being mowed down by other boats in flat water and perfect visibility. We watch them in horror,…

Barb Hansen is projecting a major maritime backup from the Great Lakes straight down the Mississippi River in summer 2025. “Our school has gone crazy,” she says, referring to bookings for sail and powerboat courses at Southwest Florida Yachts, which she runs near Fort Myers. “If everybody who says they’re going to do the Great Loop in the next three to five years actually does the Loop, it’s going to be a serious traffic jam.” The ever-changing restrictions from the Covid-19 pandemic all across the United States have boaters—and those who’ve always dreamed of becoming boaters—flocking to Florida. Hansen and others say that even despite the winter spike in cases, demand for everything from bareboat and crewed charters to learn-to-skipper courses shows no signs of slowing. It started this past…

In 2018, Sea Ray ceased production of all its yacht models over 40 feet in order to focus on its smaller sportboats and cruisers. So, when an invitation came to test drive the builder’s first new-from-the-keel-up cruiser design since that landmark decision—the 2021 Sundancer 370—I jumped at the chance. The sea trial took place in Sarasota, on Florida’s Gulf Coast. It was a sneak preview, because the official launch of the 370 was scheduled to take place several months later. This new model introduction is so important to Sea Ray that company President Steve Langlais was among the first to greet me on the dock. “We currently have a Sundancer 350 that will be discontinued, but this is much more than a replacement, because it embodies the future of the…

With white clapboard siding and rustic red roofs silhouetted against the whites and blues of a Maine coast sky, plus the Monhegan lighthouse bell in the mix, artist Doug Brega captures both the reality and the mood of an iconic New England scene in this work titled Monhegan Light. This is the type of place many art fans would like to see in person, while feeling the sea breeze, smelling the tangy salt air and enjoying the solitude. It’s also the kind of scene the 72-year-old artist is known for “I strive for a precise and honest interpretation, not a mirror of reality or a personal comment about a subject,” Brega says. “Beauty is found in clean forms and the solid function of each architectural element.” A contemporary American realist,…

There was a time when sailboat racing was a national sport. Regattas received coverage in major newspapers, and skippers and their boats graced the covers of popular magazines. Carleton Mitchell was one of the yachtsmen people read about. For a time, Mitchell—who owned the 38-foot S&S yawl Finisterre—was kind of like the Babe Ruth of sailing, garnering three straight victories (begining in 1956) in the prestigious and challenging 635-mile race from Newport to Bermuda. Since then, no one else has won even two of those races in succession. More than just an accomplished sailor, Mitchell was a photographer and a writer who, with skill and insight, took his readers on board with him to experience the world of bluewater sailboat racing. “No 20th-century man can really escape,” Mitchell wrote. “But…

Not many boats live to see a 90th birthday and look incredible for their age. An exception is Avocette III, the oldest-known Huckins in existence, a Fairform Flyer that was the predecessor to the PT boat designed by Frank Pembroke Huckins. This Offshore 48 was recently made over at Yachting Solutions in Rockport, Maine, where founder and CEO William Morong is quick to note you can’t call the boat a refit or a restoration. Avocette III is what he calls a “resto-mod” craft, which combines restoration and modernization at the same time. Avocette III made her public debut at the New York Boat Show in 1931. Soon after, she was bought by Fred Voges for $17,000. Voges, who served as the Commodore for the Port Washington Yacht Club on Long…

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING GLOBAL VOYAGERS Ben Brehmer and Ashley Stobbart have been sailing around the world full-time on their Lagoon 410 catamaran since 2016, traveling to 35 different countries and covering 40,000 nautical miles. They have filmed their adventures along the way, which are all documented on their YouTube channel Sailing Nahoa. In late 2019, the couple returned home to Canada to have a baby, leaving their boat in Thailand. When Covid-19 lockdown restrictions prevented them from returning and retrieving their boat, they spent the summer exploring British Columbia aboard a 1974 Westerly Cirrus 22-foot monohull with their newborn. Now, after a year, they are reunited with their cat and planning to travel from Thailand to the Maldives, Chagos, Seychelles, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and South Africa. MORE SALTY READS FAR…

When Boston Whaler’s R&D team set about designing two new models for its Dauntless bay boat series, which runs from 17 to 27 feet, the goal was to give owners an expanded repertoire. The new 220 and 250 models combine fishing functionality for calm inshore waters with the ability to target offshore species along the coast. These boats also serve as versatile platforms for family adventures and watersports fun. The 220 Dauntless will eventually replace the 210 Dauntless and the 250 will replace the 240, but both boats are new designs from the hull up. Each new deep-V running bottom has 18 degrees of deadrise at the transom, while the older models have 16 degrees. Freeboard is also two inches higher on the new models. “The freeboard increases the ability…

When Capt. John Smith set about exploring Chesapeake Bay in 1608, he described the nearly 200-mile-long estuary as having oysters that “lay as thick as stones,” and being loaded with “sturgeon, grampus, porpoise, seals, stingrays, brits, mullets, rockfish, trout, soles and perch of three sorts.” Smith also observed that the people of the region were adept at harvesting these bounties from the shallow, fruitful bay using dugout canoes that were hewn into a single piece by hand from felled trees. Remarkably, these simple but effective craft were the genesis of what would become one of the Chesapeake’s most iconic and recognizable vessels—the deadrise workboat. With a proud, high bow, graceful sheer line, salty wheelhouse and expansive aft cockpit, the Chesapeake deadrise is a treat for the eyes. The design is…

Onne and Tenley van der Wal did not waste any time once they purchased their 1986 Grand Banks 32. After clearing out all the gear from the boat and bringing his tools aboard, Onne gave the bilge a good scrubbing and then turned his attention to the dirtiest job of all, the head. Initially, Onne intended to refurbish the vintage Wilcox Crittenden Skipper marine toilet, which back in the day sold for more than $1,000 and some people claim can flush a raincoat. Used ones still sell for hundreds of dollars, and never used ones are listed online for $1,600. Onne was going to order new parts for the old throne, but when he discovered that all the assembly bolts and screws were corroded and wouldn’t budge, he decided to…