Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2025 i Soundings

I connected with an old colleague recently, and we got caught up on what he’s been doing and where he’s been going. Capt. Stuart Reininger, who keeps his boat in Connecticut, travels a lot for pleasure and for work as a marine journalist, charter skipper and delivery captain. When the conversation moved to cruising and weather he asked, “Have you ever seen a white squall?” I have not encountered this rare weather phenomenon—a sudden and intense windstorm that’s often unaccompanied by the black clouds characteristic of a conventional squall. Stu had been caught up in one while running a 65-footer near Montauk Point, New York, and the experience tested his seamanship mettle. On that day, NOAA had predicted possible thunderstorms with high winds, lightning and hail, so Stu was watchful.…

I heard it said more than once at the Palm Beach International Boat Show last spring that the docks were overwhelmingly choked with center consoles. And while it’s true that anglers and the go-fast crowd have plenty to appreciate in the layout and performance of this design, center consoles are almost always—and perhaps inherently—lacking in a couple of other departments. One boat that stood out from the fleet was Sōlace’s new 30CS. It’s the third and smallest model in the builder’s CS (short for Center Step) line of offshore-ready, fishing-friendly designs that includes a 32 and a 37. The 30 CS caught my eye because it looked to be the most amenity-laden center console boat in its size range. It was equipped with the features I saw on boats in…

Let’s dispense with the bad news first. Peter Kass, the last full-time designer and builder of traditional plank-on-frame lobster boats, who a lot of people say is the greatest wooden lobster boat builder of all time, is retiring. After more than four decades constructing and designing beautiful lobster hulls, all too often working seven days a week, the 65-year-old Kass is calling it a career. Since opening John’s Bay Boat Company in 1983, Kass—working alongside his small but highly skilled crews—has built 79 traditional wooden boats, the great majority of them eye-catching lobster boats. “It’s sad because it’s the end of an era,” says Rich Armstrong, a serial buyer of Kass boats. Armstrong bought a used 40-foot Peter Kass and was so taken with it he commissioned Kass to build…

Strolling down the gangway of C-Dock at Boat Haven in Port Townsend, Washington, Isswat was impossible to miss. Fresh from an extensive refit, she looked like a million bucks and seemed raring to go places. The name, as documented by Lance Xʼunei Twitchell, an associate professor of Alaska Native Languages at the University of Alaska, means Black Bear in Chinook Jargon. “Not really,” laughs the boat’s current owner, Jeff Galey, when asked if he was looking for a big refit project when he went shopping for a boat. “I told myself I’d get one wooden boat and this one fell into my lap.” As a co-owner of the Port Townsend Shipwright’s Co-Op, Galey worked with one of the boat’s previous proprietors and is intimately familiar with wooden-boat surgery. And…

On the rocky shore of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, the bow of the SS American Star stands tall against the surf. When this photo was captured in 2004, a decade after the ship wrecked during a storm, her stern had already collapsed into the sea. The rest of the vessel would slowly follow, falling piece by piece until it vanished entirely by 2019. So, how did American Star end up here? It began in 1938, when the ship, originally named SS America, was laid down by Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia. Designed by naval architect William Francis Gibbs for United States Lines, she measured 723 feet overall and could carry 1,202 passengers. Two steam turbines propelled her at 22.5 knots. She launched in the James River in 1939, and…

The men in all the photographs looked rugged and weather-beaten. Sophie Elmhirst kept looking at the faces, one after the next. She was researching an article about all the ways people were responding to the pandemic, including by trying to escape in boats headed offshore. Then her research brought her to a series of photos of boat-sinking survivors and the images made it clear that freedom from life on land didn’t necessarily turn out to be all sunshine and blue skies. Two particular faces captured Elmhirst’s attention. “There was a picture of Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, who I’d never heard of before,” she says. “The more I dug into it, and once I started finding all the source material and people who were still alive that knew their family…

Sitting at the flybridge helm of the Marlow 65 Explorer, northbound for Onslow Bay and well off the coast of North Carolina, I marveled at the ride of this passagemaker. As it reacted to 6-foot waves and high winds on its stern, the motion was comfortable, the ride was dry, and the tracking was as straight as the proverbial train on tracks. Marlow Founder David Marlow is well known for his long-distance luxury cruisers, but maybe more so for his hull designs that are capable and efficient in deep water. The Marlow 65 was codesigned with Doug Zurn, the Marblehead, Massachusetts, naval architect who gained fame with his creation of the Shelter Island 38. “The 65 was our design number 9954, which we started in 1999,” Zurn said. “It was…

Walk the docks at any boat show, and you’ll hear the word “semicustom” used to describe a number of boats. But go aboard and ask what the builder means by semi-custom, and you’ll get as many different answers as there are boats themselves. “Even though they’re calling themselves semi-custom, it might be ordering a few options—color of your fabrics, maybe some electronics or equipment,” says Peter Truslow, managing director of Hunt Yachts. From there, he says, multiple versions of semi-custom exist. “The next level is you might be able to choose between a few different interiors, whether that’s color, wood, materials or possibly one or two layouts. And then you get to Hunt, which is even more custom. Essentially, you can order the equipment that you want. We do have…

A sailboat meets the sea head-on, foam rising at the bow as it lowers off a wave. There is no visible skipper, no horizon, no landscape—only sails, sea and a vessel in motion. This is the dynamic moment captured in Bow On, an oil-on-canvas painting by maritime artist Michel Brosseau. Brosseau often emphasizes form and texture over concrete narrative. “Here, three elements converge: the taut, trimmed, immaculate sail; the slackened foresail, its every fold visible; and the streaming foam,” he explains. “I chose to conceal [the skipper] behind the sail, as if only the elements mattered, and man had little place among them. It evokes that indeterminate moment when the boat, having faced a wave, lowers itself in a shudder of foam before meeting the next.” Brosseau’s oil paintings—distinctive for…

You don’t always have the luxury of a skilled crew when it’s time to get the boat on or off the dock. Sometimes you’re doing it with just one other person, or maybe you’re boating alone. It’s especially tricky when you, the skipper, serve as a deckhand. Who is driving the boat if you’re on the stern, fending off, or hauling in a line? If you have a wireless remote docking control, it will be you. A wireless remote docking control is about the size of your TV remote and will let you manipulate your shifts, throttles, thruster(s), the windlass and even the horn, from anywhere on the boat. Remotes can even have a joystick. You can stand in the cockpit or on the side deck, hold the boat alongside…

Sonal Desai and Hement Kanakia had owned a Freedom 40 sailboat that they kept in Annapolis, Maryland, and from that homeport, they spent 15 years cruising the East Coast. They traveled as far north as Maine, where they made great memories, particularly in Camden, one of their favorite destinations. But after they sold the Freedom, the couple got to thinking about their next boat. The choice would be important, because the vessel would take Hement into retirement and Sonal into semi-retirement, when they’d have the chance to spend more time on the water. “We loved our Freedom, but I realized that for me, if our plan was to be aboard more than a couple weeks at a time, it would not be as much fun on a sailboat. So I…

After a lifelong career as a commercial fisherman, Capt. Bob Smith has swallowed the anchor and is on the beach, firmly aground. As self-imposed as his retirement may be, it doesn’t make the shift any easier for the plain-spoken Smith, who has been wresting a living from southern New England waters for 76 of his 88 years. “Look at my hands,” says Smith, holding them out as if there is something wrong with them. “There are no blisters. No cuts.” Smooth and unblemished, the hands strike him as those of a stranger. Smith misses the tough, calloused mitts that belonged to the working fisherman. Even the most stalwart and stubborn of watermen eventually succumb to the effects of age. Commercial fishing is a punishing way to make a living, even…

Modern marine electronics rely on seamless communication between various devices to ensure smooth operation and navigation. NMEA 2000 (N2K) is an industrystandard communication protocol that enables devices such as GPS receivers, depth readings, autopilots, digital switching, and engine monitoring systems to share data efficiently. Built on the Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol, NMEA 2000 provides a robust, high-speed network that simplifies integration and enhances the capabilities of marine systems. The two cable/connector specifications covered under the NMEA2000 standard covers are Micro and Mini, and this article focuses on the Micro standard due to its dominance in the marine recreational market. HOW NMEA 2000 WORKS NMEA 2000 devices connect to a structured network via specialized cables and connectors. These connectors were adapted from the automation industry, and the connector used in…