Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2022 i Soundings

It was all clear skies, fair winds and administrative camaraderie for the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the old Armory on Thames Street in downtown Newport, Rhode Island, this past May. The Sailing Museum—a nonprofit, educational showplace—was ready for the public. Many of those who donated to make this building a reality were in attendance. The location was 20 years in the making, an effort spearheaded by sailing legend Gary Jobson. As museum President Gus Carlson said, “This is the culmination of the hard work Gary put in, and here we are about to enter a fantastic museum dedicated to the sport we all love.” At the ceremony, Jobson didn’t acknowledge the ups and downs and the twists and turns that had to be overcome, but city officials recognized the benefits of…

In late 2019, people started calling the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network to report seeing a dolphin that they thought might be trapped. Day after day, this dolphin was spotted in the same isolated cove area on North Padre Island in Texas. It was, well, an odd place for a dolphin to be. The Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network sent a team to check out the dolphin in April 2020 and found that it was behaving normally. “It was feeding on its own, it was showing boat avoidance, and it was definitely acting the way that a dolphin should act,” says Heidi Whitehead, the network’s executive director. “We determined that at high tide, it could leave the location, and it was seen leaving the area. NOAA made the decision to…

LYMAN-MORSE If any boatbuilder in Maine understands the need for diversification, it’s Lyman-Morse. Ever since he took over as president from his father Cabot in 2013, Drew Lyman and his wife, Mackenzie, have worked to ensure that the company can withstand the ups and downs of the boatbuilding industry. Over the years they’ve added numerous non-marine divisions to the company’s portfolio, but there is no lack of boatbuilding at Lyman-Morse, and the company is regularly rolling new boats out of its sheds. In early June, Lyman-Morse sea-trialed and launched the first of its Hood 35s, an express version of the new C.W. Hood design, which will be the first recreational vessel to use military-grade controls for the new Hamilton HJX29 water jets, which can be controlled with Hamilton’s “boat mouse.”…

Miami is the place where this photograph’s story begins, as so many things with gofast boats do. Sometime in the late 1950s, John William Maxwell Aitken witnessed one of the earliest Miami-Nassau powerboat races. In 1961, after participating in the Miami-Nassau race himself, Aitken launched the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race in Britain, creating the first offshore powerboat competition in Europe. A British man named Tim Powell spent many years trying to win the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race, starting in 19 consecutive versions during the 1960s and ’70s. Despite all of his tries, he never could make it to the finish line first. Then, in 2001, Italian boat designer Fabio Buzzi invited the 63-year-old Powell to drive Gincanotto, a 55-foot RIB that Buzzi had designed with quad inboard diesels totaling 3,120 hp. Buzzi—who himself had…

A REAL CLASSIC I am a longtime subscriber to Soundings and always look forward to the next issue. One section I have always enjoyed is Classics. The boats featured there always catch my interest. I have a suggestion for a design you might want to feature in a future issue; it’s a true classic, and the boat is mine. She is the original Able Marine Wolf Class 44 designed by Chuck Paine and built in Maine by Able. The company built only a few of this design, and everywhere I cruise the boat—from Maine to the Bahamas—she draws crowds of admirers. When she launched in 1993, she was on the front cover of a national boating magazine (Motor Boating & Sailing) and celebrated as one of the earliest of the…

MJM has announced its latest model, the MJM 42, a 46-foot, 8-inch performance cruiser with a 12-foot beam. The Carolina-based builder says the 42 will be available with twin 600-hp Mercury outboards or a choice of twin 400- or 440-hp Volvo Penta inboards with DPI drives. Top speed is advertised at around 44 knots depending on the power that the owner selects. On the main deck of this Downeast-style cruiser is the driving station. It has a business-class helm sofa for two that offers excellent sightlines thanks to large, opening front, side and aft windows that surround the space. Abaft the helm is a starboard-side galley that faces a big U-shaped dining area. Down below, a hideaway door and bulkhead system create an open floor plan that turns the belowdecks…

LOA: 59’0” Beam: 29’6” Draft: 3’0” Displ. (light): 58,000 lbs. Power: (2) 150-kW E-motors; 210-kWh Lithium-ion batteries; (1) 145-kW Hyundai diesel Price (base): $2,920,000 (approx.) I was talking with a colleague, my back turned to the helm, when Silent-Yachts Capt. Kyle Miller pulled the new 60 away from the dock in Fort Lauderdale. It wasn’t until I turned around and saw the shoreline receding that I realized our sea trial had begun. This solar/electric power catamaran from Silent-Yachts truly is that quiet. The only sounds I could hear were the faint hum of the air conditioning and later, when we were out on deck, the rush of water against the hulls. The Silent 60 is powered by a bank of lithium-ion batteries, which draw their energy primarily from the large…

The J-Class sailing yacht Shamrock V passes the Castle Hill Lighthouse on a calm day in Newport, Rhode Island. While this may seem like an everyday scene painted by artist Yves Parent, there is a rich history contained within its contents. Parent, who was born in Normandy, was a passionate sailor whose adventures crewing in multiple offshore races informed his work with watercolors. Much of his work documented famous yachts, such as the one pictured here. Shamrock V was built in 1930 for Sir Thomas Lipton, a Scotsman and founder of Lipton Tea. Constructed with mahogany planking over steel frames with a hollow spruce mast, she was the first British yacht to be built to the new J Class Rule and was designed to take Lipton on his fifth and…

When Drew and Mackenzie Lyman purchased the Wayfarer Marine facility on Camden’s inner harbor in 2015, they envisioned making improvements, but they weren’t planning on a complete overhaul. That changed in June 2020, when a fire at the location of what is now part of Lyman-Morse destroyed most of the property’s buildings. After the blaze, the Lymans worked with the town to rebuild a business that is important to the town’s economy. Their initial drawings had a super-modern aesthetic, but along the way, the Lymans—led by Mackenzie, who handles marketing and branding for Lyman-Morse—settled on a style that some people say is reminiscent of a Scandinavian waterfront village. The buildings, which offer 44,000 square feet of space, contain retail spaces, offices, restaurants, “hotel” suites and a working boatyard capable of…

A few years ago, I cleared in at a western Caribbean island with the help of two 18-year-old female deckhands. The port captain directed us to dock on the windward side of a concrete quay, in the row where they placed all the foreign yachts. I did as I was instructed, against my better judgment. After leaving the customs dock, we stood off, prepared the deck and had a discussion to ensure the execution of what we knew was going to be a tight fit. Our boat was a heavy, 60-foot, single-screw ketch with a long bowsprit. As we approached the narrow channel, we could barely see our slip in a long line of 30-plus yachts secured alongside. We proceeded bow-in, with an after spring line in hand and ready…

When two boatbuilders—both steeped in leading-edge construction techniques—share a vision for a design they can market to a discriminating audience, something good is bound to happen. Don Campbell and Randy McCurdy had worked together at Admiral Marine in Seattle. They shared a desire to produce a limited number of semi-custom yachts built stronger and lighter than competitive brands for superior performance, and with fit and finish to rival the handcraftsmanship of a true custom design. Hence, the San Juan 38. Campbell and McCurdy opened the doors of San Juan Yachts in Anacortes, Washington, in 1998. Naval architect Greg Marshall of Victoria, British Colombia, drew the lines for the San Juan 38, eschewing the traditional lobster boat deckhouse look for flowing lines that softened the overall look, and complemented the springy…

It’s hot. It’s humid. It’s summer on the East Coast. For many boat owners, this is the time of year to head to New England, where the air is cool, the water is even cooler and the coastal towns are charming. New England is the go-to destination for many cruisers during the lazy days of summer. But before you pull out your charts to plan that voyage, consider an alternative to New England’s fog, fields of lobster pots, large tidal shifts and strong currents. This year, consider a summer cruise to Lake Champlain, where the air is clear, the water is fresh, line-of-sight piloting is the norm, and the waterfront towns in Upstate New York and Vermont are mostly free of crushing crowds. Lying between New York’s Adirondack Mountains to…

Many powerboat cruisers operate at speeds and loads far below the levels that engine manufacturers expect. To maximize fuel economy, many of us cruise at displacement speed (less than 1.34 times the square root of a boat’s waterline length). That kind of speed requires relatively low rpm, and the load on the engine might be below 25 percent of its capacity. On older engines, this kind of sedentary life can be harmful. But what about with modern common rail computer-controlled engines? Does speed still matter, or are such problems no longer a concern? In the spirit of those who have busted myths throughout time, we set out in search for a definitive answer. THE PERILS OF AN EASY LIFE Many passagemakers are fitted with engines that have just enough extra…