Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2017 i Soundings

The National Transportation Safety Board has released a report of what its investigators heard on El Faro’s voyage data recorder: The captain expressed concern about conflicting weather reports as the container ship approached Hurricane Joaquin’s eye and twice rejected his mates’ advice to alter the ship’s course. NTSB chairman Christopher Hart stressed in a Dec. 13 videoconference that the report — actually five of them, on the ship’s electronics, Hurricane Joaquin’s meteorology, the search for survivors and survival equipment aboard the ship, its engineering systems, and the voyage data recorder — is factual and offers no analysis, conclusions or recommendations. El Faro, a 790-foot roll-on/roll-off container ship, was on a weekly run from Jacksonville, Florida, to Puerto Rico on Oct. 1, 2015, when it sank at 7:40 a.m., 36 nautical…

In 1874, a 13-year-old Michigan boy built himself a skiff. The folks in Algonac liked it and asked the enterprising youngster to build more. And he did. Chris Smith went on to become one of the premier boatbuilders in America. His company, Chris-Craft, became synonymous with pleasure boating. By the 1920s, Chris-Craft was building a variety of models at a range of price points so there was a “boat within the reach of everyone.” The public responded. It was the Roaring ’20s, with easy money, fast cars and leisure time for boating. At the end of the decade, Chris-Craft had become the largest-volume producer of standardized powerboats in the world. Among the most distinctive boats were the triple-cockpit runabouts — 11 models starting at 20 feet. (The boat shown here…

This is what the sailing directions said for Cabo Tres Montes to Estrecho de Magallanes, Chile, including the Patagonian channels: “The prevailing wind is from the north and sometimes blows with great fury. … The principal feature in the weather here is not the strength of the wind, but the almost perpetual rain.” We thought about it. As Southern latitude sailors, we were used to bad weather, the cold, the wind, the ice. The one thing we were not much used to was rain. But the sun was shining as Chris and I left Puerto Williams and began our trip west and north toward Cabo Tres Montes, the everyday game of tying Morgane, a steel Triereme 35 sailboat, to the shoreside trees in the evenings and freeing her in the…

Seacocks It could be argued that nothing is more crucial to a boat’s safety than the proper installation of a seacock below the waterline. Common-sense practices help prevent failure from mechanical force, corrosion and installation errors. The standards that U.S. boatbuilders and manufacturers follow are from the American Boat and Yacht Council and are easily accessed. Every seacock, no matter the size, has to be able to withstand a force of 500 pounds at the end of its full length. This protects against a reasonable accidental pressure that could strike in an engine room or bilge. Though 500 pounds may seem like a lot, a long pipe connection can act as a lever and exert tremendous force at the base of the through-hull. This is why a flange on a…

SPECIFICATIONS LOA: 33 feet BEAM: 10 feet, 6 inches WEIGHT: 13,000 pounds (dry) DRAFT: 3 feet, 10 inches (engines down) HULL TYPE: deep-vee TRANSOM DEADRISE: 24 degrees POWER: twin Yamaha F300s, F350s SPEED: 53.7 mph top, 37.7 mph cruise (F350s) TANKAGE: 320 gallons fuel, 30 gallons water, 13 gallons waste PRICE: $286,900 (F300s), $289,900 (F350s) CONTACT: Albemarle Boats, Edenton, North Carolina, (252) 482-7600. albemarle boats.com North Carolina builder Albemarle Boats has introduced its third outboard model — the 29 Express. “Today’s center consoles are great, but they’re not for everybody,” says Ted Haigler, the company’s director of sales and marketing. “Some people get tired of hanging on to the T-top. They’re looking for more weather protection and want to sit in an air-conditioned, enclosed space.” The boat’s cabin (with optional…

My wife and I own a 1969 Chris-Craft Commander 38, and we enjoyed Jim Ewing’s exquisite image of this classic in the July 2016 issue. We have also enjoyed Ewing’s other renderings of such craft in prior issues. Thank you for sharing these with your readership. Fred Delavan Annapolis, Maryland DON’T FAULT THE JETTY The December article regarding the boating accident death of Jose Fernandez and two others was, in my opinion, misguided. It describes alleged issues with the visibility of the Government Cut jetty at night, implying that that was the primary cause of the accident. But it also states that “the baseball player’s [boat] crashed into the jetty at a high rate of speed about 3:15 a.m.” Though not stated in the article, maximum moonlight that night was only…

Weather experts say frequent storms across the Northeast may lead to an above-normal snowfall for the season and extend winter into midspring. Just what you wanted to hear, right? This might be the perfect year to head to South Florida for the boat shows. The Miami International Boat Show and Yachts Miami Beach are scheduled to run Feb. 16-20. Book that flight! If you’re in the market for a new boat, there’s no better place to look. “The variety of boats in Miami is amazing,” says Richard Rostant, 59, of Sarasota, Florida, a longtime sailor who will be at the shows looking for a cruising powerboat in the 40- to 50-foot range. “Several very different powerboats appeal to me, so I can look at them all in one location and…

Listening to the locals and thinking creatively. That’s how Adrian Schimnowski and his crew found HMS Terror, one of two ships that went missing in 1848 with all 129 crewmembers while searching for an Atlantic-to-Pacific passage through the Canadian Arctic. The worst loss in the British Navy’s history of polar exploration, the demise of the Franklin Expedition — the disappearance of its two ships, the deaths of all hands and rumors of cannibalism among them as they struggled to survive the brutal winter — had stumped historians for nearly 170 years. “Great discoveries are made when you jump outside the box and outside traditional thinking,” Schimnowski says. For four summers, the waters west of King William Island had been the focal point of the search for the Terror, but the…

B&G Chart Plotter B&G has introduced the Vulcan 9 plotter for coastal-cruising and club-racing sailboats. A 9-inch multitouch display controls the plotter, and its menu structure makes such functions as wind, depth and course easy to access. The plotter combines essential data into a single unit that features chart overlay and a countdown timer. The Vulcan 9 includes integrated Wi-Fi and is compatible with B&G’s Broadband Radar and ForwardScan sonar, as well as SonicHub marine audio. $1,050. B&G, Tulsa, Oklahoma, (918) 437-6881. bandg.com Trim Tab Controller The 4DHC automatic controller from HydroTab is designed to improve boat handling and address the limitations of older trim tab controllers. With the press of a button, the boat will trim to the ideal angle for a more comfortable ride and better fuel efficiency,…

WATERFRONT REAL ESTATE • LUXURY HOMES The easterly views through a wall of glass convinced Pablo and Alma Juniga to purchase their canal-front home in the year-round boating community of Cape Coral, Florida. After enjoying five years of Gulf access by boat, along with nearby Cape Harbour shops and eateries, the couple is moving back North near the restaurant they own. Their 0.3-acre property is on the market for $499,900. It includes a nearly 2,000-squarefoot, three-bedroom, two-bath home, plus an enclosed pool, attached two-car garage and 80-foot canal front with a concrete seawall, dock and boat lift. The home’s covered front entry opens into a foyer. The formal dining room is to the right, and a hall to the master suite is to the left. Ahead, a wall of glass…

NEWS, EVENTS, PEOPLE PERFECTLY PRESERVED The Swedish warship Vasa was built over three years, beginning in 1625. On her much-anticipated launch in 1628, she sailed 1,500 yards through Stockholm’s harbor and sank. Raised in 1961, the massive ship had been remarkably wellpreserved in the icy Baltic Sea. Vasa is now in her own museum in Stockholm, and more than 35 million people have visited the elaborately carved and decorated vessel. vasamuseet.se A legendary center console just got better. The Ocean Master 31 is faster and more fuel-efficient than earlier models, says Mark Hauptner, the company’s founder and president. Hauptner built the first 31 in 1975 for a customer who wanted a big outboard center console for a 2,200-mile journey through the Caribbean, and he has been making improvements to the…

Brad Read, the executive director of Sail Newport, started sailing as a kid and went on to win championships in several One designs, as well as three J/24 Worlds. A college All American, he was also the 1986 College Sailor of the Year. So it’s no wonder Read understands the role that sailing can play in a youth’s life. He has dedicated his career to it at Sail Newport, where he developed a nationally recognized sail education program and a world-class regatta management organization. Read lead the team that won the city and state bid to bring the Volvo Ocean Race to Newport, Rhode Island, the global race’s only North American stop in 2015. Thanks to the event’s resounding success, the VOR will return to Newport during the 2017-18 race.…

During the Roaring Twenties, a politically ambitious young man who had been crippled by polio bought a houseboat so he could cruise the warm waters of the Florida Keys and try to cure his damaged legs. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was stricken with the disease in 1921, at the age of 39, he withdrew from public life. He spent three winters aboard his houseboat, from 1924 to 1926. While on the boat, he kept a log in longhand in a three-ring binder, writing in it almost every day. Sometimes he used black ink, sometimes turquoise, pages full of playfulness. Roosevelt had always loved boats and water. When he was 5, in his first letter to his mother, he enclosed his drawing of sailboats. One night in August 1921, 34 years…

A buoy, the stars, the sea and the firmament make up Robert Beck’s Milky Way, conjuring a host of emotions. That’s just what the artist intended. The location is universal. It’s buoy No. 1, outside most any harbor, Beck says. “Either the first one you encounter coming home or the last as you head to sea,” he says. The feeling the painting evokes is one of solitude, he says, particularly the solitude of a sailor at sea. “I’ve been out to sea at night and seen the Milky Way from many places on Earth,” says Beck, who is 66 and from New Hope, Pennsylvania. “Like the moon, it grounds me, kind of puts me in my place.” Beck, who attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, paints mostly in the…

WHAT’S IN A NAME? Named for her designer, William Hand was built in 1933 by Hodgdon Brothers of East Boothbay, Maine. This 63-foot (LOA) motorsailer is all wood, from the yellow pine planking to the oak keel and teak transom. The boat was completely renovated between 2007 and 2010, and Strout’s Point Wharf Co. professionally maintains it. William Hand is listed by David Jones Yacht Brokerage at Rockport (Maine) Marine for $1 million. rockportmarine.com SENTINEL ON THE PACIFIC Overlooking the Pacific on the Oregon coast, Heceta Head Light is named for the explorer Don Bruno de Heceta. In 1775 Heceta set off from San Blas in present-day Mexico to map the North American coast for Spain. He turned back after reaching the Columbia River in Oregon, enduring food shortages and…