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It went viral in late September. The visual shown above, that is, which captures a tender moment during a jawdropping rescue in the Gulf of Mexico, 25 miles off Sanibel Island as Hurricane Helene approached Florida. It’s a clip from a video that was shared hours after a man and his dog were pulled from storm-tossed seas by the Coast Guard because the man’s 36-foot sailboat had become disabled and was taking on water. The video opens with Petty Officer 2nd Class Todd Hudson from Air Station Clearwater, descending from a helicopter. Once Hudson is close to the boat, the man and dog clamber overboard. Hudson gets them clipped into a rescue basket and hoisted up. The video ends with the man holding his dog in the helicopter, exchanging high-fives…
When it comes to designing and building a new model, there are people who pay attention to detail, and then there’s the team at Sabre, who argue over fractions of an inch in the spring of the sheer. “When we’re developing a model like this, it’s years in the making,” Kevin Burns, vice president of design and product development, says of the Sabre 51 Salon Express. “A lot of thought goes into these things.” The 51 is an evolution of the Sabre 48. More than 200 of those hulls have been built, sold and resold in the past dozen years, giving the Sabre team plenty of feedback to chew on. Burns figures they heard from more than 300 owners and dealers about the 48, and about the next-biggest model in…
I was at the helm of my 47-foot wooden cruiser Puffin with the Gardner 6LXB diesel purring away below when a familiar voice called out a Pan Pan over the VHF. Robert aboard Paragon, one of the boats that was following us across Dixon Entrance, reported that he was halfway across the sound and dead in the water. Dixon Entrance straddles the border between Canada and the United States. It is one of two open ocean crossings on the Inside Passage and it’s not a good place to lose power. As I reversed our course, I told my crewmates to break out the towline and looked for Paragon’s AIS position on the GPS plotter. Robert reported that his boat had an electrical issue, and that his diesel had stopped without…
LOA: 46’8” Beam: 12’0” Draft (drives up): 2’4” Draft: (drives down) 3’6” Displ: 19,432 lbs. Fuel: 350 gals. Water: 110 gals. Because August had delivered a slew of dog days, muggy mornings and humidity too thick for canines and captains, the weather change on this brisk morning in early September feels fantastic. There’s a snap in the 60-degree temperature, the sky is an intense blue and the water is scattering shards of sunlight in every direction. Conditions are sweet for a swift ride in Newport, Rhode Island, and we have the right boat for the trip. The MJM 42 and its 10 passengers—all guests of the builder, which hosted a launch party for the boat last night—pulls away from the dock at Sail Newport in Fort Adams Park and heads…
It’s not unusual for a production sailboat builder to make a foray into the powerboat market. One of the earliest examples was Bristol Yachts, which debuted the Bristol 42 Offshore Trawler in 1969. Bristol Yachts got its start in 1964 after Clinton “Clint” Pearson, who had founded Pearson Yachts with his cousin Everett in 1956, left that company, bought out Sailstar, and hired Carl Alberg to design the Bristol 27 sloop. Alberg had previously designed the hugely successful Pearson Triton 28. Bristol Yachts rapidly became known for solid craftsmanship and a line of well-finished, stoutly built sailboats drawn by Alberg, Halsey Herreshoff and Ted Hood. Between 1969 and 1981, Bristol Yachts built two trawlers, a 38 and a 42—both displacement hulls with diesel propulsion. Clint Pearson tapped the venerable firm…
Driving into town from the west on Highway 20, visitors descend a hill that opens a splendid panorama of old Victorians, azure ocean, snowcapped mountains and dozens of boats sprinkled throughout the scene. For many who wash up here—coming from California, the East Coast or far-away countries—this sight is the eureka moment that suggests they have found Shangri-La. And yet no matter how they come—by jalopy, boat or unicorn and wearing chainmail—once they enter Port Townsend’s field of gravity, it becomes impossible to leave. Maybe it’s because of the festivals that take place here: jazz, blues, farm, films, fiddle tunes, rhododendron, steampunks, writing, or the kooky Kinetic Skulpture Race. They all have a devoted following, but they also bow to the iconic Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, which is celebrated…
