Soundings is the news and feature publication for recreational boaters. Award-winning coverage of the people, issues, events -- and the fun -- of recreational boating. Check out our generous boats-for-sale section and our gunkholing destinations.
I left my home in Connecticut in October to do the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, where everyone was having a great time touring new models and talking with like-minded boaters who had come to town to shop for their next ride and a new dream. The energy on the docks was all upbeat and conversations were mostly about plans for future adventures on the water. After the show I drove across the state to Sarasota to spend a few weeks in a high-rise overlooking Sarasota Bay. Outside my window was an entirely different scene from the one I’d just left. A 47-foot Stevens sailboat was laying on its side on top of the seawall that separated the water from traffic-heavy Bay-front Drive. It was just one of the boats…
FROM SAIL TO POWER I grew up sailing as a teenager in Hempstead Harbor on Long Island Sound. My urge to sail was so strong, that my family joined Hempstead Harbour Club, although I was the only one in the family with the bug. My habit influenced many of my life decisions. I attended SUNY Maritime and started a career in the southern Chesapeake Bay so I could sail as a pastime. The final chapter in my career took me to southeastern Connecticut, where I retired 3 years ago. There, my wife Beverly and I had been sailing our Olson 34 for 15 years. We loved to sail for the pleasure of it, but we also loved the idea of accessing all the many beautiful places available to us from…
Since about 2020, people have been trying to figure out why orcas keep ramming sailboats near the Iberian Peninsula, including in the Strait of Gibraltar. Sailors hoping to protect themselves have tried everything from different-color hull paint to blasting heavy-metal music, only to be continually frustrated by the behavior of the apex predators. Bruno Díaz López, director of the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute, thinks his team has finally figured out what the orcas are doing. His researchers combined spacial distribution models with information from boaters to demonstrate that the orcas are practicing to become better hunters of Atlantic bluefin tuna. The findings were published recently in the scientific journal Ocean and Coastal Management. “We tried to understand their movements better,” Díaz López told Soundings. “We knew they were going…
Not too long ago, a Northern Marine owner wanted to spiff up his boat a little before putting it on the market for sale. He decided there was no better place to bring it than to the people who had originally built it, at the shipyard in Anacortes, Washington. “That started word-of-mouth among Northern Marine owners,” says Linn Jennings, director of manufacturing operations for Seattle Yachts International, which has owned Northern Marine since 2019. “We looked at it and said, yes, this is good work for us. We have the space, we have the crew—let’s go for it.” In October, the company made it official, launching the Northern Marine Refit Division. The builder, which was founded in 1995, is now offering all brands of boats a variety of services, including…
Brian Trautman, his wife Karin Syrén, their 5-year-old daughter Sierra, and Brian’s brother Brady are the core crew of Delos. They have made several long ocean crossings totaling over 85,000 nautical miles, touched 45 countries and become accomplished video bloggers with their own YouTube channel, Sailing SV Delos. The channel includes over 300 videos for its 846,000 followers. Delos is a 53-foot Amel Super Maramu, an all-ocean, bluewater-rated fiberglass cruiser with a 15-foot beam, a draft just shy of 7 feet, and a displacement of about 35,000 pounds. First built in La Rochelle, France, in 2000, the boat is rigged as a ketch and has accommodations to comfortably sleep 6 people. Appropriately, for a vessel that has spent weeks and months at sea, the boat has been outfitted for independence. “Delos…
LOA: 33’5” Beam: 9’10” Draft: 2’1” Displ. (w/o power): 8,571 lbs. Fuel: 105 gals. Water: 21 gals. Max power: (2) 300-hp Mercury outboards For decades, the Scandinavians have used commuter boats to get to and from vacation homes or to work. But over the past 10 years, a different breed of Scandinavian commuter has taken the boating world by storm. Long, lean, fast and seaworthy, outboard-powered Nordic adventure boats from builders like Axopar, Nimbus and Saxdor have been showing up everywhere. Builders in other countries have taken notice. They’ve recognized that these plumb-stemmed pilothouse boats with reverse windshields, low-freeboard and a good turn of speed are popular with buyers who have limited leisure time but want to cover a lot of ground. Wellcraft was one of the first American builders…
