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Tammy Brown called me recently to introduce herself and ask if I knew about America’s Boating Club. I said it sounded vaguely familiar. She countered: “How about the United States Power Squadrons. That ring a bell?” It certainly did. When Brown explained that they are one and the same, I felt a bit sheepish. How the heck did I not know that? As it turns out, a number of us are still coming up to speed on the new name for the old Power Squadrons, the nonprofit organization that’s served recreational boat owners since 1914. Today, the group has 20,000 members throughout the U.S., organized into more than 340 chapters—or clubs—across the country, in fresh and saltwater. “We changed the name because we felt the old one was not descriptive…
COLD FACTS I read with interest your recent article on cold molding (November 2023). My 46 years of experience with cold molding indicate that the advantages of this construction technique are significant and the fears about it are unfounded. In 1977, Sanford Boat Company, Inc. began building the 26-foot Alerion Class Sloop, a close reproduction of Nat Herreshoff’s personal sailboat. The big difference between Herreshoff’s original and our reproduction is cold molding. Our boat looked like Herreshoff’s, but the engineering was radically different and designed to take advantage of epoxy bonding. Only the tiller would be interchangeable with the historic boat. Cold molding allowed our boat 20 percent more ballast to improve performance and the expected life span seems indefinite. Of the 29 Alerion Class Sloops built, 11 were delivered…
Tired of seeing derelict vessels in coastal waterways where you want to cruise or anchor? Boy, does Heather Lougheed have some good news for you. Lougheed—who got her start at BoatUS 24 years ago in membership and marketing, and then rose up the ranks to become vice president of the 800,000-member-strong organization of boat owners—is now also taking on the role of president at the nonprofit BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water. Issue No. 1 on her to-do list is making good use of a $10 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to address the cleanup of derelict vessels. NOAA awarded the four-year grant to the BoatUS Foundation in September as part of the government agency’s Marine Debris Removal Program, which includes not only boats,…
Sam Devlin has been using the “stitch-and-glue” method to build wooden boats at Devlin Designing Boat Builders in Olympia, Washington, for over four decades. He’s built over 400 wooden boats from 8- to 48-feet long, and he also sells plans with instructions to those who want to build their own boat or hire a yard to handle the job. The stitch-and-glue technique relies on wire sutures to hold panels together until they can be joined by epoxy and fiberglass tape. Then, the hull is coated with fiberglass or Dynel cloth sheathing to ensure seamlessness. To make the process easier for laymen to understand, Devlin recently published the second edition of Devlin’s Boatbuilding Manual. Here, he shares details about the new book. What motivated you to release this latest book? Twenty-five…
Decatur, Indiana-based builder Formula Boats will introduce two new center console models in February—the 457 Sport and Fish models. The boats will make their public debut at the 2024 Miami International Boat Show. Known primarily for designing luxury family dayboats and bowriders, Formula re-entered the center console market after a long absence with the release of the 387 Center Console about a year ago. The series now expands with the addition of the 457, which has an LOA of 45 feet 7 inches and a 13-foot, 9-inch beam. “Unmistakably a Formula from near or afar, the 457’s bloodline is evident in its looks, performance, amenities, engineering and fit and finish,” says Scott Smith, the company’s marketing manager. “This model is destined to set itself apart from others in its class,…
I’ve had some great cruising experiences on power catamarans. Those trips introduced me to beautiful islands and were always aboard chartered boats—vessels that averaged 45 to 50 feet in length and stretched as wide as 21 feet. The beam felt tremendous to me, so much that I was relieved to give the helm over to my husband when we got into a sticky docking situation. He had the better boat-handling skills in the relationship, so the decision made sense. The truth is, those twin-hulled cruisers were intimidating and unlike the 32-foot monohull we had back home. And yet the big cats were exceptional for all the space and comfort they provided. I remembered those trips when I boarded the Four Winns TH36 in Fort Lauderdale last fall. This boat, I…
