Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2025 i Soundings

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…

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…

The first Legacy, launched in 1991, was a 40-footer, based on a 39-foot semi-custom Downeast cruiser built by Canadian master builder Mark Bruckman to a design by Mark Ellis. Paul Petronello, president of sailboat builder Freedom Yachts, visited Bruckman’s yard with Roe O’Brien, Freedom’s marketing and sales vice-president, purchased the tooling, and Freedom’s new powerboat division, Legacy Yachts, was underway. The first Legacy 34, also a Mark Ellis design, was built in 1994 at the Freedom yard in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Petronello recalled that they only built five of the 34-footers as sedans, three with single diesel engines before twin-diesel boats came into demand. The company offered three diesel engine options from Yanmar, Cummins and Volvo-Penta. “Roughly 60 percent were ordered as twins,” Petronello said. One owner with twin Yanmars…

LOA: 61’4” Beam: 18’4”  Draft: 5’10” Displ.: 114,000 lbs. Fuel: 1,800 gals. Water: 400 gals. Engine: (2) 405-hp Cummins QSL9 Tendrils of fog swirled above Lopez Sound like serpent tails, pushed hither and yon by the wind that, at 8 a.m., was already gusting to 20 knots. I sat transfixed by the stark contrast of colors on display in the Rosario Strait—the expanse of evergreens on the surrounding islands ran right to the steep, rocky shores that disappeared into mid-night blue waters dotted with whitecaps. It was another splendid morning in Washington’s San Juan Islands, the site of Passagemaker’s Trawlerfest event in the Pacific Northwest. I was on board our test steed, the North Pacific 590 Skylounge, which was making her world debut. The builder’s largest-ever vessel, the 590 is…

Sideways is not a direction that anybody involved with a refit wants to see things go. But it’s a reality on many projects, with all kinds of boats that owners are looking to upgrade in small and large ways. According to experts from three of Maine’s top yards—Lyman-Morse, Front Street Shipyard and Brooklin Boat Yard—problems tend to happen for reasons that can be avoided by working smarter with a better facility from the get-go. “It’s very important to build a relationship with the yard that’s doing the work,” says Eric Beckman, service manager for the Lyman-Morse yard in Thomaston. “That’s not for everyone. They may say, ‘Here’s the list, we’ll see you in August,’ and that’s fine, but if you take a vested interest in the work, it’s better.” Here’s…

In Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, seafaring has been at the heart of culture and industry for more than 200 years. In the 19th century, its shipbuilding and fishing industries made the small port town—now a UNESCO World Heritage Site—one of the richest in the British Empire. Between 1905 and 1967, the famous Smith & Rhuland Shipyard built more than 270 ships, most notably the legendary fishing and racing schooner Blue-nose in 1921, which now decorates the Canadian dime. In the 1930s, Smith & Rhuland built the Big Boat Shed, which became its main facility. With its unique arched tresses, its interior resembled a wooden cathedral and served as a workshop for generations of skilled craftsmen. Over the following decades, dozens of storied ships were built here. But after the yard closed,…

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…

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…

One thing you can count on when you’re offshore in a small boat is that the vast, empty ocean is hardly that. There are more stars and planets overhead than you’ll ever see on land, all manner of creatures rising unexpectedly from the deep for a quick hit and run and birds appearing hundreds of miles from shore. The clouds can be hypnotic. The weather and sea state offshore are dynamic, ranging from sedate and benign to terrifying and dangerous. I’ve made three trips to Bermuda from New England by boat over the years. The contrasts among those passages reflect the advancements in equipment—primarily electronics—and my own yachting evolution. The first two were more like camping, knowingly sacrificing comfort for the experience. The most recent was more akin to what…

Never tell Bob Lico it can’t be done. To him, that’s not advice, it’s a challenge. Bob, 78, grew up on the shores of Great South Bay on Long Island, New York, where he had his first boat at age 6. A union electrician by trade, he’s a hands-on guy who loves restoring boats and cars. He’s owned 14 classic Corvettes and a fleet of offshore race and fish boats, and he holds a 100-ton master’s certification that comes in handy for his part-time charter captain gig. Bob’s son Anthony, 54, also grew up a water baby with boating credits that stretch back to early childhood. He is an electrical contractor and has the uncanny ability to fabricate pretty much anything he and his father can dream up. That skill…

The schooner American Eagle comes around Owl’s Head at the mouth of Penobscot Bay in Maine in the painting Breaking Storm by Carol L. Douglas. Dark clouds congregate over the Owl’s Head Lighthouse, yet just above the foremast of American Eagle, they begin to dissipate, giving way to a deep blue sky. American Eagle cuts through the waves, gracefully navigating out of a storm and into clearer weather, a major metaphor for life. Raised in Buffalo, New York, along the shores of Lake Erie, Douglas learned to paint from her father. Art school was not considered a lucrative career, so Douglas became a mother—though she never fully quit painting. After having her fourth child, her husband encouraged her to return to art, so she attended the Art Students League in…

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…

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…

DON’T CALL KARL KRUGER EXTREME. “After I did the Race to Alaska, people would often throw that word at me,” says Kruger. “They’d say, ‘Did you always know that you’d be doing extreme stuff like this?’ It took me a long time to find the words to explain why that pissed me off so much.” Extreme or not, this sailor and consummate waterman of Orcas Island, Washington, is at the apex of the SUP world. Kruger drew international interest in 2017 when he was the first, and to date the only, person to complete the entire Race to Alaska, or R2AK, on a standup paddleboard. For the uninitiated, the competition is a 750-mile race from Port Townsend, Washington, to Ketchikan, Alaska, primarily through British Columbia’s Inside Passage. The only rules…

Ensuring your batteries stay charged while the boat is away from the dock has become easier than ever, thanks to solar charging systems. Whether you’re trying to keep the refrigerator running, reduce generator runtime or maintain a full battery charge at the mooring, solar charging is typically the best choice. Selecting the right solar charging system involves balancing power needs, budget and your boat’s design. Both rigid and semi-flexible panels offer distinct advantages and disadvantages. Your choice will typically come down to mounting preferences and budget considerations. RIGID PANELS Rigid solar panels have been around since the early days of solar technology. With real-world efficiency ranging from 16 to 24 percent, a long lifespan often exceeding 20 years and a cost of $0.50 to $2.00/watt, they typically offer the best…