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“If a man must be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most. A small sailing craft is not only beautiful, it is seductive and full of strange promise and the hint of trouble.” — E.B. White By the time you read our July issue, I will have a boat in the water. It’s a bold goal, but Parkinson’s Law — “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion” — is ricocheting around my brain, a pinball fired by budding trees, light evenings, the return of birdsong. And once spring is well and truly here, it is chased by an admittedly irrational sense that summer will soon be half over. In the Northeast, where temperatures occasionally experience…
An historic ship worthy of inclusion on your list of “America’s great ships in crisis” [“In Extremis,” May] is the Coast Guard cutter Ingham. Now a maritime museum and National Historic Landmark in Key West, Florida, the steam-powered cutter served with distinction in World War II and Vietnam. It is the most decorated vessel in the Coast Guard fleet and the only cutter to receive two Presidential Unit Citations for “extraordinary heroism against an armed enemy” (in Vietnam). The ship is also a national memorial to the 912 Coast Guardsmen killed in action during those wars. Built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard for $2.5 million, Ingham was launched June 3, 1936. When decommissioned in 1988, it was the oldest Coast Guard cutter in service. In the 1940s, the Ingham protected…
Boatbuilders are now offering center console bay boats as large as 27 feet, but Yellowfin Yachts has bucked the trend by opting to improve its popular 24 Bay instead of upsizing. “We are seeing bay boats in today’s industry that years ago would be considered offshore boats,” says Yellowfin vice president Heath Daughtry. “Draft is an essential characteristic of our bay boat. Customers want the ability to cross open water at will and also have complete maneuverability in shallow water.” With the 24 Carbon Elite Bay, Yellowfin aims to “redefine the bay boat,” says Daughtry. The company builds the Elite with a Kevlar, carbon and fiberglass fabric and a second laminate layer of just carbon fiber, says Daughtry. “The entire boat is built with carbon fiber, including the decks and…
1. INTERNATIONAL RULES: Underway in reduced visibility, you hear about two points on the starboard bow the fog signal of another vessel. You should: A. slow engines and let him pass B. take all way off, if necessary C. alter course to starboard to pass around his stern D. alter course to port to pass on his port side 2. INTERNATIONAL RULES: Two short flashes on a signal light means: A. My horn is broken B. I intend to turn C. I am turning to starboard D. I am turning to port 3. INTERNATIONAL RULES: Two vessels meeting on the high seas should take what action? A. alter course to starboard, pass port to port B. sound passing signals for the side desired C. alter course to port, pass starboard…
His passion for the water and good Samaritan’s spirit led him to help countless boaters out of trouble, and they remained a source of pride until his final days. “If you asked him what the best moments in his life were, besides getting married and having kids, he’d say it was a day he saved someone’s life,” Joseph Frohnhoefer III says of his father. Joseph Frohnhoefer Jr., better known as “Capt. Joe,” founder and CEO of Sea Tow Services International, died March 24 at his home in Southold, New York, after a brief battle with cancer. He was 71. “He was a character, the type of guy who would give the shirt off his back, but he would also let you make your own mistakes so you learn from them,”…
Rear Adm. Sandra L. Stosz is the 40th superintendent of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, and the first female officer to hold that post. She was previously director of reserve and leadership at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C., and commanded two cutters — an icebreaking tug on the Great Lakes and a mediumendurance cutter that patrolled the North Atlantic and Caribbean. A 1982 Coast Guard Academy graduate, Stosz holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Master of National Security Strategy from the National War College. She has received two Coast Guard Commendation Medals, two Coast Guard Achievement Medals, three Legion of Merit awards and four Meritorious Service Medals. On June 1 she will leave the academy post to…
