Soundings is the news and feature publication for recreational boaters. Award-winning coverage of the people, issues, events -- and the fun -- of recreational boating. Check out our generous boats-for-sale section and our gunkholing destinations.
Boating in the Northeast doesn’t end when the summer slips away. As fall comes ashore, so does one of the most pleasant seasons on the water. Autumn can be prime time for many reasons. There are still a number of great weeks ahead to enjoy being in the outdoors. The fall cruising season can run through all of October and even into November if the weather plays out right. And often you have the waterways to yourself. Even the most popular cruising grounds—those that are packed to the gills in the summer—quiet down as traffic thins out. As a result, the process of exploring a spectacular shoreline can be safer, more relaxing and soothing for the soul. And then there are the boat shows. Some of the largest events on…
When Hurricane Matthew tore through Hilton Head, South Carolina, in 2016, it smashed Palmetto Bay Marina with such force that the water rose above the pilings. Winds were nearly 90 miles per hour. More than a foot of rain crashed down from the sky. The scene that a local Sea Tow owner described at the time seemed almost apocalyptic: “The entire marina lifted off of its anchor and then floated away.” But just 5 miles away at Shelter Cove Marina, the 42-foot Grand Banks Shangri-La was fine. The owners received a text message from the dockmaster saying “all is good,” along with a video of their boat resting at the still-standing dock. “Feel so bad for folks in Palmetto Bay,” they wrote on a cruisers’ forum. “Total carnage.” The experience…
With so many anchor options out there, how do we know which ground tackle is best? Usually, anchor manufacturer recommendations are based on a boat’s length or tonnage. Performance testing data of different anchor styles in various bottom types can be a good starting point to determine which type of anchor is appropriate for your boat. Tables for minimum anchor size and holding power performance are available online. But most importantly, do you have the right anchor for your sea bottom type? What you’re looking for when buying an anchor is holding power, how it burrows into the seabed. Most cruising boats face varying conditions and opt for two (or more) anchors to ensure the right anchor is available for different bottom types. Well-prepared cruising boats also carry a…
Setting out from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 2018, Jeff Bolster and his wife, Molly, hoped to circum-navigate on their Valiant 40. After port-calls in the Caribbean, Panama, Galapagos, French Polynesia, Cook Islands and the Kingdom of Tonga, they were in New Zealand waiting for South Pacific cyclone season to end when Covid-19 broke out, interrupting their voyage. Dealt lemons, they made lemonade, cruising New Zealand’s northern coast for 19 months, until leaving their boat and flying back to the States. Jeff and Molly plan to return to the boat in November 2022. Jeff’s thoughts on pulling off the voyage will appear in a few installments. This is the first. By the time we untied our snow-covered dock lines in November of 2018, outbound for the South Pacific, we had been…
As recently as a decade ago, the recreational boaters who pointed the bow at the horizon and headed for the other side of an ocean tended to be retired. They were most often a couple with a solid nest egg, both still in good health, finally able to devote months or years to relaxing on board. Today, when Nordhavn Marketing Director Jenny Stern looks at the types of people crossing oceans on the builder’s go-anywhere vessels, she sees something different. “It used to be a retired couple who had time to go exploring. It was like a sweet spot, age 55 to 65,” she says. “Now, we have a couple in their 80s who crossed the Atlantic. We have people who are just turning 40 with young kids doing it.”…
LOA: 28’7” Beam: 8’6” Draft (up/down): 19”/34” Weight (dry): 5,564 lbs. Power: (1) 300-hp Mercury Fuel: 75 gals. Water: 14 gals. Base price: $169,000 Even though it is the smallest model in Sea Ray’s SLX series, which ranges up to 40 feet, the new 260 Outboard could attract envious glances from other boaters as it zips past on the lake or river. It certainly looked sharp at the dock of the Marine-Max dealership in Pompano Beach, Florida, where we jumped on board for a sea trial. Offered in sterndrive and outboard versions, the SLX 260 is the first Sea Ray model to be designed by an all-female team: Sea Ray Senior Design Manager Carrie Fodor and Brunswick Boat Group Senior Industrial Designer Kristin McGinnis. Their goal for the new model…
