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Gray’s Reef This image of Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, off Georgia, is from an equirectangular panorama created from a stitched composite of six pictures taken around a central point. Photographer Bill Goodwin used a Sony ILCE-6000 camera with a fisheye lens. The photo is from NOAA’s new virtual dive gallery, which contains 360-degree images of Gray’s and four other national marine sanctuaries: American Samoa, the Florida Keys, Flower Garden Banks and Thunder Bay. Visit sanctuaries.noaa.gov/vr for the virtual experience.…
“There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart.” — Celia Thaxter There’s a saying in real estate: Buyers are liars. It explains the couple that insists they must have a split-level ranch house with four bedrooms and a two-car garage in the ’burbs but wind up in a bidding war on an eight-bedroom Colonial in the remote countryside. Sometimes we don’t know what we want until we see it. I had my heart set on a Marshall 22, or maybe a Pulsifer Hampton 22, but then I saw a beautiful, super-simple skiff. I don’t want to jinx it, because it’s not over until the fat lady — or in this case, the skinny surveyor — sings, but it looks as if I am about to become the proud owner…
Glenn Patron Miami WHO NEEDS A COCKPIT? I love the “Classics” feature in your wonderful magazine, so I was pleased to see the March issue’s write-up about the Sunfish. The essay correctly recognizes the Alcort Sailfish as the precursor to the Sunfish but states that it was designed with a cockpit. As an owner of a 1949 wooden Sailfish, I can attest that it does not have a cockpit. Its deck is as flat as flat can be, but it has grab rails on each side for bracing your feet. It can be a tad slippery, as Smokey, my German shepherd first mate, knows, but we Sailfish sailors scoff at cockpits and pity those fancy-pants Sunfish sailors who need all the help they can get. Guess they will want cup…
Grady-White may have cemented its reputation for durable and seaworthy boats by building center consoles, cuddies and walkarounds, but today the company is also a player in the expanding dual console market. With the introduction of the Freedom 215, the builder’s dual console lineup consists of 11 models. Grady-White says its aim with the Freedom 215 is to offer a smaller boat with many of the same features as its larger dual consoles. The new boat has loads of comfortable seating, including bucket seats at the transom, plush companion and helm seating, and a convertible bow lounge. There’s also room for fishing rods, and a tow pylon can be inserted at the transom for water sports. “The 19-degree progression of the running bottom on our Freedom 215 exclusive SeaV2 hull…
A THREE-MASTER WITH A PIZZA PAST Victory Chimes is the only surviving Chesapeake ram schooner. Built by the George K. Phillips Co. and launched in 1900 as Edwin and Maude — named after the children of her first captain — the 172-foot (sparred length) ship carried lumber, grain, soft coal and fertilizer into and out of Chesapeake Bay until 1945, when she was converted to carry passengers. She was brought to Maine nine years later and given the name Victory Chimes. She operated as a charter vessel until 1984, when she was sold and taken to the Great Lakes. Her next owner was Thomas Monaghan, the founder of Domino’s Pizza. Monaghan named her Domino Effect and used her for employee incentive cruises. He also invested in an extensive restoration. In…
San Francisco powers its Red & White sightseeing fleet with biodiesel. Seattle’s King County Water Taxi uses biodiesel to move people across Puget Sound. On the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Cup, which bills itself as the most environmentally responsible sailboat race in the United States, has fueled the event’s Class 40 fleet (for powering to and from the dock) with biodiesel since 2012, and plans to do so again in 2018. In 2015, the Volvo Ocean Race filled boats with bio diesel during the stopover in Newport, Rhode Island, and used the fuel for the shoreside Race Village’s diesel generators. Sailors for the Sea endorses biodiesel’s use as a best practice in the group’s Clean Regattas certification program. Curious about biodiesel? Watch this video: soundingsonline.com/boat-shop/know-how In 2008, skipper and conservationist…
