Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i Soundings

In many parts of the country, December isn’t the best month for spending days on the water, but it’s a great time to show our appreciation for those boaters who are close to our hearts. With the holidays just off the bow, many of us are in search of the perfect gift for the mariner in our circle who is always looking for cool gear to bring aboard. To make the hunt easier, the Soundings edit team put together a holiday gift guide on page 48. The options range in price from $20 to $4,000, so there’s something for every budget, and for most needs. There are gadgets for the angler in your clan, electronics for the navigator in the family, audio systems for that person with the best cruising…

A new model from C.W. Hood Yachts in Marblehead, Massachusetts made its debut recently. The Hood 26E Runabout is the builder’s first fully electric model. While it’s high-tech, it also embraces true New England style. Designed by Chris Hood and David Robinson, the boat has an LOA of 26 feet, 3 inches and a beam of 8 feet, 6 inches. The 26E runs on a modified deep-V-hull and is made of carbon fiber, a material that produces a solid yet light boat. A teak helm console amps up the aesthetics, and the dash has plenty of space for optional electronics. The boat also features a leaning post with storage and a full-width bench seat located aft. Owners can opt for seating in the bow as well. According to Chris Hood,…

When art and naval architecture intersect, the result is obvious to those who prize boats with timeless lines and enduring appeal. The Cherubini 44 certainly meets those criteria. In 1938, 17-year-old John E. Cherubini was a student of naval architecture in the Westlawn School of Yacht Design, one of the many schools then on the leading edge of distance learning. Cherubini would subsequently go into aviation engineering, but he also built small outboard-powered boats at a family-owned business, which speaks to his breadth of talent. When he drew the lines for the Cherubini 44, the first of which was launched in 1977, he was already well on his way to becoming a successful designer. He had already designed the Hunter 25, which his friend, Warren Luhrs, had turned into the…

It took a decade longer than anticipated to build, but come spring 2024 a replica of the historic Oyster Bay shellfish dredge Ida May will be carrying paying passengers on New York’s Oyster Bay so they can learn about its ecology and maritime history. The effort required a dozen years, about $1 million, 35,000 hours of mostly unpaid labor by 70 volunteers and a few professionals, plus a lot of perseverance in the face of fundraising difficulties and Covid 19 complications. But the project finally came to fruition last spring when a special trailer slid Ida May into Oyster Bay, New York. The boat was constructed in a shed on the southern edge of the harbor by the Christeen Oyster Sloop Preservation Corp., which previously restored the 1883 sailing oyster…

In the image above, a young man is seen running across a string of lobster crates between the commercial fishing piers of Pierce Island and Four Tree Island near Portsmouth, New Hampshire in June of 1988. The sign reads “Run at your risk.” What’s the rush? This youngster was competing in the Lobster Crate Races, which were held annually on the Piscataqua River during the Blessing of the Fleet ceremony. During this race, wooden crates were tied together with rope to create “stepping stones” across the waterway. For participants, half the challenge of the event was staying on the crates; in addition, each race was timed. The fastest competitor won. Young children tended to excel in the event due to their light weight, which allowed the crates to remain above…

Few people would dare claim that anyplace other than the British Virgin Islands is the world’s mecca for bareboat charters. The BVI’s line-of-sight sailing, reliably beautiful weather and abundance of charter-ready boats make the waters around Tortola, Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke a paradise for skippers of all levels. But sometimes, there’s an itch to push a little farther. Seasoned bareboat skippers often look well past the last mooring buoy and wonder if they have what it takes to harness the winds and waves in more challenging locales. Here’s where the experts say those adventurous skippers should book a bareboat charter next. ST. VINCENT & THE GRENADINES The waters around these islands of the southern Caribbean can be so challenging, Horizon Yacht Charters prohibits its bareboat clients from visiting…

For many boaters, winter is a time to reflect on the past season, especially for those whose vessels are in dry dock, nestled on trailers or bundled up under cover. Unfortunately, my memories of this past summer are full of incidents and observations that have dampened my enthusiasm for next season. This fall, a friend whose idea of boat winterization is to head to Florida, motored south on his new 50-plus-foot convertible. No stranger to ocean travel and ICW stops aboard his well-seasoned 40-footer, he was jacked up for a trip aboard his new ride to Pompano Beach, Florida. For one, the new boat offered a 35-knot cruise, which was 15 knots faster than his old vessel. An experienced boater, he felt comfortable with his wife as the mate. He…

The indicator light flashed on the 2017 Pursuit OS 325, Wait ’n Line, somewhere between Southeast Florida and the Bahamas. It wasn’t Kelly White’s first time being at the helm offshore, but it was her first time as a skipper crossing the Gulf Stream—and the light indicated that one of the boat’s engines was overheating. She pulled back on the throttles with water all around, finding herself in the kind of scenario that unnerves so many boaters, they never attempt a Gulf Stream crossing at all. But in White’s case, she wasn’t alone. She and her husband, Dale, were cruising with a group as part of Pursuit Boats’ summer rendezvous. Owners of more than three dozen Sport Center Console, Dual Console and Offshore models from 28 to 45 feet long…

1 NEWPORT NT300 3HP ELECTRIC OUTBOARD If you’re looking to ditch the gas outboard on your dinghy or tender and go green, the NT300 electric outboard and one of Newport’s lithium batteries may be your ticket. The motor is available in two shaft lengths (24.6 inches or 29 inches) and puts out the equivalent of three near-silent horses that can easily push boats up to 12 feet. Combined with a Newport lightweight 36-volt 30Ah lithium battery, the whole ensemble weighs in at under 50 pounds. Soundings Executive Editor Pim Van Hemmen used it to propel an 11-foot, 7-inch rowboat and after an hour on the water, which included numerous high-speed runs, he returned to the dock with more than 95 percent of the battery charge remaining. That kind of performance…

Brunswick Corporation—parent company to brands including Boston Whaler, SeaRay and Veer—recently announced a new line of boats that, according to Brunswick President Aine Denari, will meet the unmet needs of its customers. The new line is Navan, a series that Brunswick says will satisfy the growing demand for premium adventure family boats. Navan will come to market with two models: the C30 and S30. Both designs are based on a twin-step hull that should allow for more stability and safety, as well as fuel efficiency while cruising, according to Brunswick. This hull design should make for softer landings when traveling at high speeds, a feature that is especially important for families traveling with young children. The C30 is for daytime adventures, overnight stays and poor weather conditions. At 33 feet…

LOA: 36’11” Beam: 12’3” Draft (motors down): 2’7” Weight (dry): 19,200 lbs. Power: (3) 350-hp Mercurys Fuel: 327 gals. When Turkish shipyard Vicem Yachts was established in 1991, it quickly established a reputation for building beautiful cold-molded wooden yachts. Over the years, I have toured a number of large Vicem cruising boats and sportfishing convertibles with hulls and interior woodwork that gleamed like fine furniture. So, it came as a surprise this spring when Soundings asked me to check out a new fiberglass center console from Vicem. At the time, Vicem was calling this new model the 37 CC, but since then the company has re-christened it as the 37 Tuna Master Center Console. Of course, big center consoles with multiple outboards are all the rage these days, so launching…

Before I’d even laid eyes on a cala, the word conjured mystical visions. Formed by ancient rivers, calas are delightfully protected coves of turquoise water and white sand beaches framed by precipitous cliffs, and Mallorca, where we were spending a week chartering, has an embarrassment of calas. My partner, Michaela, and I figured a cala would be the perfect place to introduce our 1-year-old daughter, Sarah (sailing on her very first charter, if you don’t count our trip in Sweden when Michaela was pregnant) to the Mediterranean Sea. And when we arrived at our first cala, Cala Màrmols, on our first full day of sailing about 30 miles from the Navigare Yachting charter base in Palma, we were awestruck. Sailing the island’s southeastern coast, we had left the high-rise hotels…

Seagulls fly and caw around a humorously sized fishing boat and lobsterman in the painting Some Lumpy by David Witbeck. Bold blues make up the rolling waves and clear sky as the boat bobs in the water. Colorful buoys add to the piece’s comical proportions—a defining aspect of Witbeck’s work. Born in New York, Witbeck grew up in Rochester, where his earliest memories of being on the water took place on the Hudson River and Erie Canal. He learned to sail in a Cape Dory Typhoon and later owned a Marshall catboat. Always interested in painting and drawing, Witbeck attended the Rhode Island School of Design from 1965 to 1969. He says he became a “ridiculously young father” and turned his focus to photography in the 1970s. He didn’t paint…