Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2016 i Soundings

Some people seem born to sail. Queene Hooper Foster didn’t grow up around boats, but she developed an early fascination with them, poring over Rosenfeld photos and building pond models. (At 14 she wrote to Ted Hood and enlisted his help in designing a mainsail for one of her models.) She explored the creeks of the Chesapeake aboard her first boat, a Luders 16, but Foster did much of her learning aboard the Concordia yawl Moonfleet and, through the vicissitudes of hands-on experience, became a skilled sailor. In 1986, at the helm of her K. Aage Nielsen cruising ketch Saphaedra, Foster became the first female skipper in the Newport-Bermuda Race. She sailed 10 Classic Yacht Regattas in Newport, Rhode Island, and four Newport-Bermuda races. She has been a recipient of…

OUTER REEF 580 The new Outer Reef 580 Classic Long Range Motoryacht has a sensational pilothouse for long-distance voyages. A commanding view (with great sightlines) ensures the skipper will never be lonely. But even when the action moves to the galley or saloon, the open main deck keeps everyone connected with views from the pilothouse through to the aft deck. A 17-foot, 2-inch beam provides room for a king berth master amidships, queen VIP cabin forward and a port guest cabin with two berths. LOA: 57 feet, 5 inches BEAM: 17 feet, 2 inches DRAFT: 4 feet, 10 inches DISPLACEMENT: 69,000 pounds FUEL: 1,000 gallons POWER: Twin 500-hp John Deere 6090 diesels with ZF transmissions SPEED: 13.5 knots top, 9 cruise PRICE: unavailable CONTACT: Outer Reef Yachts, Fort Lauderdale, Florida,…

Roger Hellyar-Brook runs a marine consulting business, repairing and upgrading boats of all types. He has spent more than 40 years in the marine industry and is the former manager of the systems program at The Landing School in Arundel, Maine. Paul Mirto is a digital illustrator, longtime boater and former Coast Guardsman. mirtoart.com Centrifugal and diaphragm pumps both move fluids, but their operation and uses on board are different. Centrifugal pumps have an impeller and use centrifugal force. They are not self-priming and cannot run dry, but they can be throttled — opening and closing the discharge valve — to restrict flow. An example of this is an engine thermostat that’s closed for warm-up while the circulation pump rotates at near-crankshaft speed. An air-conditioning condenser pump is usually the…

SPECIFICATIONS LOA: 32 feet, 9 inches BEAM: 11 feet, 7 inches WEIGHT: 13,224 pounds HULL TYPE: semidisplacement DRAFT: 3 feet, 5 inches POWER: 370-hp Volvo Penta D6 diesel SPEED: 23 knots top, 15 knots cruise TANKAGE: 190 gallons fuel, 80 gallons water, 23 gallons waste PRICE: $300,000 CONTACT: Beneteau America, (410) 990-0270. beneteauamerica.com Beneteau has added a fifth yacht to its fleet of semiplaning trawlers. The Swift Trawler 30 becomes the smallest boat in the European builder’s lineup, which includes two 34-footers (a flybridge and a sedan model), a 44 and a 50. I had an opportunity to walk through the boat at the Yachts Miami Beach show in February. Beneteau has done a commendable job of outfitting this pocket trawler with the accommodations and conveniences of a larger cruiser…

When you imagine a traditional Maine cottage — shingle-style, prominently located, overlooking island-dotted waters — you’re describing Ed and Laurie Blain’s home on Bailey Island in Harpswell. “We fell in love with its distinctive architecture, history and fabulous elevated views,” Laurie says. Ed points out the deep-water dock on protected Water Cove, easy access to Casco Bay and Maine’s premier cruising grounds. The couple purchased the four-bedroom, 3-1/2-bath home in 2004 and continued a previous owner’s renovations. Now family and business commitments call them back to the Boston area. The 3,958-square-foot house and attached 2-1/2-car garage on 1.86 acres with 319 feet of rocky waterfront, dock, ramp and float is on the market for $1.395 million. “In 1900 the materials for this house came by boat because it predates the…

A month after the sinking, a search team aboard the USNS Apache found the wreck on the bottom, with its bridge and the deck below it separated from the ship. As the National Transportation Safety Board continues its investigation into the sinking of El Faro and the Coast Guard holds hearings into the loss of the 737-foot cargo ship, families of 10 crewmembers who died when it sank in Hurricane Joaquin have reached settlements with the ship’s owner. Tote Maritime of Puerto Rico, owner of the 40-yearold cargo ship, agreed to pay the families $500,000 apiece for their kin’s predeath pain and suffering in settlements filed Jan. 22 in federal court in Jacksonville, Florida. Each family also will be compensated for its economic losses, but that amount was not disclosed…

In the late 1960s the fiberglass revolution was in full march, and Swedish yacht designer Per Brohäll was taking a new look at a traditional design known as a snekke. The snekke was a small wooden displacement-hull boat with an amidships wheelhouse that joined the cockpit. It slept four and had a galley and a head. Using fiberglass construction, diesel propulsion and a familyoriented design, Brohäll figured his take on the snekke could be the basis for a new boat with a semidisplacement hull and 10-knot speed. It would be seaworthy and roomy above deck and below, and with a single small diesel it would be inexpensive to run. In 1968, Brohäll produced a 25-foot “second-generation snekke” for Swedish builder Albin Marine. Today the Albin 25 stands as one of…

The story of the 1937 Alden cutter Zaida III is one of patriotic service to her country. It’s also one of quality construction, longevity and persistence. People who respect her have stubbornly sailed and cared for her for 79 years. In today’s culture of planned obsolescence, Zaida’s story is also a celebration of hand craftsmanship and time-honored skills. When the United States joined World War II, citizens were shocked to discover that German U-boats were sinking cargo vessels just off the East Coast. Tankers were prime targets, but ships carrying cargo and passengers were torpedoed, as well. Outraged by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and realizing the death toll from U-boat attacks was increasing daily, Americans were dismayed to learn the Navy did not have the fighting ships to…

The World’s Smallest GPS Compass The Vector Compact by SI-Tex is billed as “the world’s smallest GPS compass that provides accurate, stable heading and position data” to chart plotter/MFDs, PC navigation systems, radar, sonar, AIS or autopilots. At 10 inches long and weighing 0.9 of a pound, the Vector Compact is easy to install, even in tight corners. It is available in the NMEA 2000 N version for $999 and an S version with NMEA 0183 connectivity for $1,159. SI-Tex Marine Electronics, Riverhead, New York, (631) 996-2690. si-tex.com Summer Help At Hand Matador offers two useful pieces of outdoor gear that stow compactly, but come up big when needed. The Droplet, a waterproof bag with a 3-liter capacity, tucks into a tiny silicone cover on your key chain. It keeps…

A HISTORIC AND LUXURIOUS DOUBLE-ENDER A Canadian newspaper called her “one of the finest vessels yet built in Vancouver” when the 67-foot motoryacht Meander slid down the ways at the W.R. Menchions boatyard into Coal Harbour in 1934. Local businessman George Kidd spared no expense when he built his dieselpowered 100-hp double-ender for coastal cruising with family and crew. Her yellow cedar hull and oak ribs were accented by teak, white oak, native cypress and Glasgow bronze. Three staterooms, each with private lavatory and tiled floors, hot-water heating and thermostat control and an automatic sprinkler system for fires. Her luxurious interior appointments rival those of a stately mansion, making Meander a true showpiece. She has been blessed over the decades with good owners who have kept her in “original condition, maintaining…

Mako is now building its largest center console ever and the first with triple outboards — the 33-foot, 4-inch Mako 334 CC. Mako has not offered a boat this big since 1997’s 333 Attack, a twinoutboard open-cockpit express with an LOA of 33 feet, 9 inches. True to Mako tradition, the 334 CC is “a heavily built, durable battlewagon of a boat,” says Chuck Mooney, Mako Boats senior project engineer. The hull, stringer grid, liner and deck cap are bonded together with methacrylate adhesives and fiberglass. “This boat is overbuilt and has that toughness Makos are known for,” says Mooney. But the 334 CC also has a softer side. With its Blue Water Family package, Mako rigs the 334 CC with an oversize T-top, an electric-powered cockpit sunshade, extra bow…

By most accounts, the relocated Progressive Miami International Boat Show on Virginia Key was a winner — a lovely venue overlooking Miami’s downtown skyline and Biscayne Bay, easy-to-find exhibits under air-conditioned tents and sea trials on boats tied up at temporary docks just a few minutes’ walk from the upland sales displays. “It’s a beautiful show. Who can say anything bad about it?” asks Marianne Bilyeu, who with husband Howard came all the way from southern Illinois, where the weather was freezing cold, to attend the show’s 75th edition Feb.11-15. “This morning we had a wonderful boat ride over in the sunshine,” Bilyeu says. “Yesterday, not so much. The boat was cold (the morning air was in the low 60s),” but the couple were among the lucky ones: They only…

CATBOATS are adorable, playful creatures, sort of like their feline counterparts. The little ones have a perky sheer line and are as cute as kittens. Who can resist being seduced by the 12-foot Beetle Cat ghosting through a mooring field in a zephyr or nosed onto a beach for a picnic ashore? The big catboats lure us into their lair with a strong sheer line, maybe a bit of tumblehome in the stem, a relatively low and flat transom, and a gracefully curved cockpit coaming emerging from a trunk cabin of equal grace. From a distance, the large models, say 22 to 25 feet, seem as friendly as a Beetle, but up close the size of the spars and massive spread of sail may intimidate the faint of heart. Truth…

John Barber was 7, walking the beach at Cape Hatteras with his family, when he came upon a man sitting under an umbrella with an easel set up. “He was painting a scene of the Hatteras lighthouse,” recalls Barber. “I decided at that time I wanted to be an artist and focus my attention on the sea.” From such decisions, lives are made. Born in North Carolina, the 69-year-old artist is considered a dean of American marine art and is strongly associated with Chesapeake Bay — a “meticulous chronicler of its watermen, vessels and lifestyles.” Barber discovered the Chesapeake when he settled in Virginia. “So different from the Atlantic shore,” he says. “Men and women lived and worked along its shore, interacted with the Bay, built boats to harvest the…