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.
One of the most popular news items on the Soundings website this month came as no surprise to our editorial team. Based on reporting by environmental journalist Lynda V. Mapes in The Seattle Times, the story chronicled an extraordinary behavior among wild orcas: In at least 30 documented instances across four oceans, the creatures have approached boats and presented passengers with freshly caught fish. These encounters follow a pattern. An orca swims within its own body length of a vessel, drops a live or recently killed fish, and lingers nearby as if waiting for a response from the crew. Scientists say food sharing is common within pods, especially between mothers and calves, but why are the whales trying to feed skippers too? Studies report it may reflect a deeper cognitive…
Transformational change doesn’t happen out of the blue. Ground-work needs to be laid, sometimes for years in advance. Think of a marina being built or a boat model being launched. The big reveal is a public moment of celebration, but behind the scenes, people have toiled tirelessly to make the change real. That kind of a moment just happened with the BoatUS Foundation, which announced in late July that a ground-breaking partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will fund the removal of more than 300 abandoned derelict boats in five states, one reservation and two territories. “It’s a really big deal,” says Alanna Keating, BoatUS Foundation director of outreach. “We’ve been working on this with NOAA for 12 years, but its program was only small, individual projects or…
A well-mannered wake is good seamanship. Most of us are not surfers or wake boarders, so discourteous wakes are annoying. They can be dangerous to other boaters, damaging to property and destructive to a fragile environment. For that reason, you should always slow down in confined waters and look behind you. Be considerate when passing other boats, and when you encounter wakes from other vessels, be prepared to mitigate the effects to keep your crew from getting hurt. Depending on hull design, boat speed, vessel weight and power, a wake can produce sharp repeating waves of significant size. For many boats under power, various speeds alter the way the hull displaces water. Generally, slow speed creates the least amount of wake. When you throttle up, the bow rises and pushes…
It’s hard to explain the emotions that come with seeing the Statue of Liberty at sunset from the deck a boat. Gazing at this symbol of freedom from the deck of my own bastion of independence is inspiring. It’s part of what makes New York Harbor one of the world’s most spectacular, yet underrated cruising destinations. Autumn is the best time to cruise to New York Harbor. Tourist crowds are diminished with kids back in school, the summertime swelter is gone, and the foliage along the lower Hudson River is a kaleidoscope of brilliant colors. This is one of only a few cruising grounds in the country that combines big-city vibrance with pastoral beauty. In my experience, the best head-quarters for any multiday cruise to the Big Apple is Liberty…
When the Porter family, owners of the Thunder-bird Products company in Decatur, Indiana, introduced the stepped-hull Formula 382 FAS3Tech in 1997, the boat became an instant hit with high-performance aficionados. It was the next generation of the 382 SR-1, which had a conventional deep-V performance design. The company had produced 62 of the 382 SR-1 models since 1995. It then sold 372 of the FAS3Tech hulls between 1997 and 2019. The boat was built through 2021, though mostly by special request in later years. “We actually count the introduction of the 302 LS as our first foray into high-performance boats for the public in 1979,” says Scott Smith, Formula’s marketing manager. “We started building our performance lineup by the mid-1980s with the advent of the SR-1 series of boats. The…
When funeral director Jack Conway visited a friend who ran a marina in Freeport, New York, on Long Island in the 1970s, he always admired the distinctive motorboats floating in the adjacent Woodcleft Canal. “Every time I’d go to visit my buddy, I’d see these Groverbuilts tied up in the canal,” Conway recalls. “And I said to myself, ‘I’m going to own one of those someday.’” That day came in 2005, when he purchased a 28-footer. Today, the boat Conway purchased looks very different, as it just underwent a keel-to-cabin top rehabilitation. She’s all spiffed up and back at Conway’s home on Shelter Island, New York. Bobber is a unique boat, because she was originally used by Al Grover, Sr., the founder of Groverbuilt. Conway heard about the 28 from…
