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.
The sea is everything. It covers seven-tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides. — Jules Verne Writing a monthly column has its challenges, though they’re not what you might think. It’s true that a good topic can be temporarily elusive, but a very early wake-up call summons a patch of quiet time and space to think. Deadline pressure and strong coffee usually does the rest. (If I don’t have more than a dozen good ideas buried somewhere in my subconscious after four decades of living, I haven’t been living right.) No, the hard part is timing. Many years ago I had a friend who was an interior decorator…
Two features in the January issue evoked happy memories of my youth spent on Buzzards Bay in the ’70s. For several years I taught sailing at the Wild Harbor Yacht Club in Falmouth (alongside then world-class sailor and future world-class author and historian Nathaniel Philbrick). While a very active Beetle Cat club, it was the fleet of Herreshoff 12-1/2s that captured my heart. Steve Knauth’s review of those classics brought back how perfectly those little yachts sailed through the southwesterly chop. I loved match racing with one club member who owned two and liked to tune up before the Saturday races. The excerpt on the birth of the Whaler 13 from Stan Grayson’s book on C. Raymond Hunt brought back happy days of buzzing around Red Brook Harbor and the…
Scout has added the 231 XS to its bay boat fleet, a 23-foot shallow-draft fishing boat that joins the 251 XS and 177 Winyah. The 231 XS has the high level of fit and finish that we expect from Scout, along with clever seating and stowage options. For instance, the transom seat hides under the aft casting platform, and a center deck hatch opens to morph into a padded two-person seat. The seat bottom is an access hatch to the bilge. Beneath the bow casting platform are three stowage compartments. There’s room for three batteries in the center of these, with enough space remaining for life jackets, fenders, lines and such. The lockable side compartments provide rod stowage. An optional curved leaning post, which wraps around the skipper and companion…
1. INTERNATIONAL RULES: If you hear three blasts — short-prolonged-short — while underway in fog, it should indicate: A. vessel towing B. vessel not under command C. vessel towed D. vessel anchored 2. Under International Rules, you see two red lights, one over the other, and a white light to the side. It would be: A. survey vessel at anchor B. not under command, at anchor C. aground D. none of the above 3. What type of splice is designed to pass through a block easiest? A. short splice B. long splice C. eye splice D. marlin splice 4. The smoke signal authorized for distress signaling should be colored: A. black B. red C. orange D. any color 5. When towing astern, the danger of your vessel capsizing increases the…
The Barnstable County (Massachusetts) Sheriff’s Office has received a $445,965 Homeland Security grant to buy and equip a Safe 31 radiation detection boat to patrol the waters around Cape Cod, and to train personnel to operate the vessel and its detection gear. The Coast Guard, which coordinates Homeland Security’s maritime strategy, is concerned about terrorists in small craft undertaking attacks around Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, says Barnstable County Sheriff James M. Cummings. This could include terrorists targeting the region’s ferries, including the service between the Cape and the two islands; boarding a ferry in port and undertaking an attack while it is underway; assaulting one of the growing number of cargo vessels using the Cape Cod Canal or a cruise ship visiting the region in the summer and…
Capt. Todd Prestidge, the commanding officer of the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, New Jersey, welcomes on average 100 new recruits each week, 40 weeks a year. The men and women who sign on for the eight-week basictraining program are impressionable, and it’s Prestidge’s job to make a positive impression. “Eighty-percent of our workforce is enlisted, and they all start here,” he says. “This year we will bring in 3,750 recruits. Next year it will be closer to 4,000.” (By comparison, about 150,000 recruits enter the Army each year, about 40,000 join the Navy and 30,000 the Marines.) This first stop is where the Coast Guard’s core values and basic message are impressed on every member, Prestidge says. “We tell them they are now living for something bigger…
