Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2019 i Soundings

When Jenell Webster or any of her fellow command duty officers receive a call about a boater in distress, they fill out a quick reference card. Their goal: to collect information they need for input into the U.S. Coast Guard’s data-analysis program, and to have rescue teams searching for the boater within 30 minutes. “Our clock starts when we hang up the phone,” says Webster, a senior chief petty officer with the 5th District Command Center in Portsmouth, Virginia. “The more detail somebody knows, the more we can put into our program and find the optimal place to search.” The idea is to move swiftly and deliberately to the rescue phase of search and rescue, instead of getting stuck on search—an unfortunate reality that happened this past November, in a…

LOA: 30’0” Beam: 8’8” Draft: 1’8” Weight: 8,000 lbs. Fuel: 190 gals. Water: 23 gals. Power: (2) 200-hp Yamahas Price (w/power): $168,900 Keith Privott, vice president of sales at Albemarle Boats, says the company has changed along with lifestyles during the past 40 years.“Back then, we built fishing boats for hard-core guys who went out every weekend with friends,” he says. “But they’re a dying breed. Today, owners are more involved with their families. It’s why we built this boat.” The 27 is the first dual console from the North Carolina builder known for express boats. Like all dual consoles, the 27 is versatile by design. One part sportfish and one part family cruiser, it can tow the kids on tubes one moment and troll in salt water the next.…

The early days of fiberglass boatbuilding produced some distinctive designs that looked nothing like their wooden predecessors. The Bertram Bahia Mar 25 that debuted in 1964 was one of them. And while its unusual appearance may have shocked some, its versatility and performance made it a trendsetter, the first of a fleet of Bahia Mar models that Bertram produced into and through the 1980s. Each 25 was simple with an open cockpit, a protected helm and basic accommodations in a cuddy cabin. The Bahia Mar 25 also was a multipurpose boat long before the term became popular. Ideal for fishing, the model followed on the heels of the iconic Bertram 31 sportfishing boat. Under the 25’s sweptback superstructure was the same deep-V hull that made the 31 so famous. The…

The RS 104 Oscar Tybring IV just arrived in Skjervoy, Norway, to take on nearly 700 gallons of diesel. We’re 240 miles above the Arctic Circle, and the Barents Sea is just to our north. It’s late October, it’s dark and everything has acquired a thin, invisible layer of ice. Capt. Odd-Arne Hermansen is in the wheelhouse, and engineer Andreas Leroy is on the stern, pumping fuel. First Officer Roger Pettersen is already on the dock, talking to Stig Traetten, the diesel supplier. I have permission to go ashore, but I have to step on a used truck tire hanging from the dock to get there, and it looks precarious. I’ve already slipped a few times, and I can see Pettersen’s shoeprint glistening on the tire—right where I need to…

Big boats have plenty of upsides. In most cases, they handle sloppy weather better than smaller boats, have more room inside and out, have longer ranges, and are generally more comfortable. But much like a big house stuffed with possessions and a high-upkeep yard, big boats also demand more effort and attention to run and maintain. Smaller boats are generally easier and less expensive to maintain, use less fuel, are cheaper to dock, have simpler systems, and are easier to run shorthanded. There are definitely trade-offs to downsizing, but some boaters are willing to make them. These four cruising couples recently went the smaller-boat route. Here’s what they like most about their new boats. Loren and Ann Anderson, Aspen C120 Loren and Ann Anderson have owned a variety of boats,…

LOA: 63’ 9” Beam: 16’ 2” Draft: 4’ 9” Displ. (half load): 63,000 lbs. Fuel: 800 gals. Water: 250 gals. Power: (2) 725-hp Volvo IPS950 pod drives Price: $2.25 million When Sabre Yachts retired its 54-footer in 2017, the company was left with an 18-foot gap between its flagship, the Sabre 66 Dirigo, and the Sabre 48. Since 2011, the Raymond, Maine-based builder of Downeast-style cruisers has built 130 of those 48-footers. Some owners want to move up to a bigger boat, but the 66 might be too big. Now, with the Sabre 58 Salon Express, the gap is about to be bridged. “All models eventually come to an end,” says Bentley Collins, Sabre Yachts vice president for sales and marketing. “The 54 was a great design, but the pressure…

Jim Moores, founder and president of the Beaufort, North Carolina, restoration and refit company Moores Marine, is launching a new company and boat. The M30, an elegant 30-foot center console with a fantail stern and inverted bow, will be built at the Moores Marine yard under the Moores Yachts nameplate. Construction on the first coldmolded hull is set to begin in January 2019. “The M30’s lines are a tribute to the designers of the prewar era,” Moores stated in a press release. “The ducktail in the transom is inspired by John H. Wells. Known for his fast-running commuters, Wells designed for Consolidated, Defoe and the New York Yacht, Launch and Engine Co. The transom is inspired by the late L. Francis Herreshoff, and the bow is inspired by World War…

LOA: 32’10” Beam: 10’6” Draft (engines up): 1’4” Displ.: 7,055 lbs. Fuel: 132 gals. Water: 26.4 gals. Power: (1) 350-hp Mercruiser ECT 6.2L Bravo III I/O Price (base): $209,0 Every year, the Dutch celebrate their monarch’s birthday, a national holiday, by throwing a huge outdoor party. In Amsterdam, the celebration always gravitates to the city’s canals, which become choked with reveler-laden boats. The vessel of choice for this national holiday is a retired ship’s lifeboat, or sloep. Sloeps are purpose-built for carrying capacity and stability at sea, a combination the Dutch recognized as the perfect party platform. Sloeps are slow, but Dutch-born industrial designer and entrepreneur Meindert Wolfraad wanted to add speed to the double-ended design. Meindert lives in Sydney, Australia, where there’s a penchant for speedboats. So, he commissioned…

What do you showcase at your eponymous gallery in Fairfield, Connecticut? I concentrate on work by contemporary marine artists, but I also have a collection of 19th-century marine art. Everything I have is consigned to me either by artists or by collectors looking to sell. In that way, I’m able to keep nearly 1,000 works in the gallery covering a wide variety of subjects, styles, media sizes and prices. What is the price range? You can find something for $100 or $350,000 or anywhere in between. It’s a very eclectic collection. What’s the status of the marine art market? I think previous generations were more into collecting. Now as they divest, I see more work coming back into the marketplace than I have witnessed in years. With all the development…

Capt. Todd Anderson was skippering a 55-foot Ocean from Marsh Harbour in the Bahamas across the Gulf Stream. He was heading for Hillsboro Inlet in South Florida when the squall line came his way. “It was slick calm—I mean it was bathtub calm,” he says. “We were probably about 60 or 70 miles off of Hillsboro Inlet, and we started to see the cloud tops off in the distance, and then I started hearing reports on the radio of severe weather coming. We went ahead and kept charging, trying to get to some protection.” Anderson is no novice at the helm. He’s a professional captain who has worked for Hatteras Yachts, Jarrett Bay, HMY and Bluewater Yacht Sales, as well as for private boat owners. Even still, that storm caught…

We’ve all thought about it: buying an old fiberglass boat and fixing her up with a little cash and an ample application of sweat equity. It’s a way, at least in theory, to own a nice boat without spending a ton of money. But talk can be cheap—as cheap as a boneyard boat with grass growing in the bilges. Does the do-it-yourself concept play well in real life? Ask Mike Zani of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, who is now sailing and racing a true classic plastic on Narragansett Bay. Vela is a reborn 53-year-old Graves Constellation that’s been brought into the 21st century. Vela is Zani’s second rebuild. His first was a 1962 Cape Cod Marlin, a fiberglass version of Nathanael Herreshoff’s 23-foot Fish, designed in 1916. The Marlin is famous…

The language the United Nations (U.N.) chose when releasing its climate change report could not have been clearer. “There is alarming evidence that important tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in major ecosystems and the planetary climate system, may already have been reached or passed,” the report stated. “Ecosystems as diverse as the Amazon rainforest and the Arctic tundra may be approaching thresholds of dramatic change through warming and drying. Mountain glaciers are in alarming retreat, and the downstream effects of reduced water supply in the driest months will have repercussions that transcend generations.” And, the U.N. report states, there’s only about 10 to 12 years left of being able to live with current-level carbon dioxide emissions, if humanity has any chance of holding the planet to a brief “overshoot”…

On a twisting canal leading to the North Fork of Florida’s St. Lucie River, there was barely room for sweat between bulkheads that were heavily lined with boats. And yet, the Regulator 41 idled through the canal with the ease of an eel. The flagship of Regulator’s fleet then ghosted into open water: It was eerily quiet, even with four Yamaha XF425 4-stroke outboards on the transom. The eel turned electric in a hurry. Less than 10 seconds after the throttles were pinned, the Regulator was running at 43 knots. It then ripped to a top speed of 54 knots, and it did so with full diesel and water tanks. At the helm was Jim Penix, sales manager at Sovereign Marine Group of Stuart, a Regulator dealer. He and I…

One of the enduring and delicious pleasures of summer cruising on Chesapeake Bay is the crab feast. Hot steaming crabs—generously doused with Old Bay seasoning and perfectly paired with cold, cold beer—arrive at your table, piled high in the middle of the butcher-paper-covered surface. At the end of a long day on the Bay, cracking shells to extract sweet crab meat is a dining experience like no other—although some gourmands like to shore up their appetites with steamed clams, oysters on the half shell and other starters while waiting for the crabs to appear. Our crew had planned for a classic crab dinner at The Crab Claw Restaurant in St. Michaels, Maryland, following a photo shoot of the newest outboard-powered cruiser from Jeanneau, the NC 1095. But the weather had…

A broken towline hangs from the bow of the SS American Star as the ocean liner pitches in heavy seas and high winds. The Ukrainian oceangoing tug Neftegaz 67 takes a wave over the bow as she begins to maneuver back to the ship, to restore the tow. It’s early 1994, and these vessels are in peril, having motored straight into an Atlantic thunderstorm near the Canary Islands of Spain. What you don’t see are the struggles of the tugboat crew at this moment. Marine artist Marek Sarba is familiar with those challenges. He served for many years on salvage tugs and merchant ships, having traveled most of the Seven Seas aboard these vessels while honing his painting skills. Sarba has been on the towing deck, and he knows that…

A Grand Banks 42 cruises the coastline in this idyllic scene captured in 1969. Nowadays, the trawler-style cruising yacht is such a familiar sight around the waterways of America that it’s hard to imagine a time when this classic design wasn’t around. The trawler-style cruiser made its debut in the early 1960s with the Chantyman, a wooden boat that Robert Newton built halfway around the world at American Marine Ltd. in Hong Kong. Just under 35 feet long, it looked like a fishing boat as it was husky and high-sided, with a wheelhouse set forward like an Alaska trawler’s. With a big diesel engine, it bore little resemblance to the motoryachts of the day. And yet, the builder saw the possibilities in the design. It was seaworthy and, with an…