Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2024 i Soundings

Being a safe boater is really quite simple. All you have to do is have an answer for the question, “What if?” Most conscientious boaters do a pretty good job with the big queries: What if someone falls overboard? What if there is a fire? It’s lacking an answer for the less-obvious questions that has gotten more than one boater into trouble. Today’s modern, long-distance power cruisers give us the means and reliability to explore distant islands and harbors. But every time we go out, we are still placing ourselves at the mercy of Mother Nature—a force capable of challenging the most seasoned crew and most stoutly built vessel. Only when you’ve determined what you would do in any “what if” scenario are you truly safe handling your passagemaker. As…

LOA: 26’7” Beam: 9’8” Weight: 2,535 lbs. Power: (2) 150-hp Mercury outboards I did as any prudent mariner would prior to taking the helm of a 26-foot, 7-inch RIB with a pair of 150-hp Mercury outboards bolted to the transom. I spun my cap around on my head to prevent what I expected would result in its expeditious loss overboard. Wise move, as it turned out. Seconds after shoving the throttles to the wall, I had a 50-knot breeze in my face and a pucker or two elsewhere. I’ve driven faster in boats, but the thrill of howling across flat water at high speed never gets old. My little thrill ride took place on Lake Cadillac in northern Michigan in September, during the Highfield Boats North America dealer meeting and…

Dense, green trees line a distant shoreline across the water in Caren-Marie Michelle’s painting, “Cadillac from Schoodic Loop Road.” Seaweed-covered rocks make up the foreground, with a few stray buoys floating serenely in the water. The crisp blue sky and sparse clouds declare a sunny atmosphere, and one can almost smell the fresh air. The Schoodic Loop is an exquisite view to walk or drive in Winter Harbor, Maine. While the loop is an always-changing environment, the rocks in the foreground and mountains in the distance are an ever-constant presence, and a place of peace for Michelle. Born in Portland, Maine, Michelle grew up surrounded by idyllic scenes of nature, raised by parents who supported her artistic dreams. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the Portland School of Art…

Mention the name Porsche and usually cars come to mind, but in 1959 Porsche began promoting an air-cooled marine engine in the U.S. called the Type 729. Weighing in at 285 pounds, it was nicknamed the “light engine for lightweight boats.” Based on the 1.6-liter, four-cylinder boxer engine used in the Porsche 356 A, the original 729-type marine engine was offered as a transom drive, although Porsche also planned to offer it as a traditional inboard with shaft and prop. Ferry Porsche, son of Porsche founder Ferdinand Porsche Sr., installed one of the first 729-type engines on his personal motorboat, which he tested on Wörthersee Lake in Austria. Producing 52 horsepower at 3600 rpm, the engine offered features that the company claimed others did not. Porsche said that apart from…

Barb Hansen stood at her sliding door, looking out to her backyard in Cape Coral and her 36-foot Grand Banks trawler tied up at the dock. It was about 4 p.m. on September 28, 2022. Hurricane Ian pounded harder and harder until her trawler was lunging up and down in 12-foot swings, with storm surge roiling the Gulf of Mexico and rivers heading inland to southwest Florida. “Water started coming into our house so fast,” she recalls. “It was four adults, four cats and three dogs in the attic for eight hours. We sat around the opening of the attic in our garage and watched the water come in. We’re about 8 feet above sea level, where we were located, and about 4 feet of water came in.” It would…

LOA: 30’10” Beam: 10’0” Draft (motors up): 2’1” Weight (approx.): 10,500 lbs. Power: (2) 300-hp Yamaha outboards Fuel: 200 gals. Water: 41 gals. The Solara S-310 Sport Coupe came quickly on plane as I advanced the throttles located to the right of the wheel. The twin 300-hp Yamaha F300 outboards poured out steadily-rising torque as the boat passed 26 knots in short order. For this sea trial, I was aboard with Tim Wilbricht, director of sales for Pocket Yachts, the Chesapeake Bay to Florida East Coast dealer for Solara, Ranger Tugs and Cutwater Boats—all brands from the parent company Fluid Motion based in Monroe, Washington. I advanced the throttles to the stops, and the S-310 SC accelerated without hesitation to 43 knots. We were running south out of Crab Alley…

When I moved to Annapolis to edit Rudder Magazine in 1982, one of my first assignments was to test a new Surfhunter 25 on Buzzards Bay. As luck would have it, high winds turned the bay into a washboard of punishing 3-footers. I dreaded what was to come, but the Surfhunter 25 was based on the same deep-V breakthrough hull that C. Raymond Hunt developed, the one that won the storm-raked 1960 Miami to Nassau Powerboat Race. On the bay, the Surfhunter was comfortable on any course and turned with great authority. It never tripped over its own bow, and she provided a dry ride. I spoke to Winn Willard, the longtime president of C. Raymond Hunt Associates in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and he told me that in the early…

LOA: 66’10” Beam: 19’2” Draft: 4’3” Displ.: 62,832 lbs. Power: (2) 900-hp Volvo D13 diesels Fuel: 1,532 gals. Water: 291 gals. Stepping up in size is one of the recurring themes of boat ownership, particularly for the couple who own this Grand Banks 60 Skylounge. Their previous boat was a Grand Banks 47 Europa, which they kept in the Pacific Northwest. As their experience afloat increased, they decided they wanted to spend more time aboard and cruise East Coast waters, with an eye towards crossing the pond. The GB60 Skylounge checked all the boxes as a liveaboard, distance-cruising yacht. The 60 Skylounge gave them a long-distance cruiser capable of making passages over significant bluewater distances with a wide range of speeds and efficiencies. They also wanted all the redundancies that…

Until recently, self-parking cars were considered revolutionary, but now self-docking boats are entering that stage. On a blustery day last September, I got aboard the Boston Whaler 405 Autonomous Docking Boat at Brunswick Corporation’s media day in New York. While I went in with no expectations, my perspective quickly changed when Brandon Ferriman approached me and began to explain the intricacies of this complex technology. Ferriman is the program director of Brunswick’s Autonomy and ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) programs. Before joining Brunswick two years ago, he spent about 10 years working on autonomous operations in the automotive industry. Ferriman explained that there are two key components to Brunswick’s autonomous docking technology, each requiring a profusion of intelligent information. The components are called Object Detection and Path Planner. Six stereo…

LOA: 52’7”  Beam: 16’5” Draft: 3’5” Displ.: 60,053 lbs. Fuel: 502 gals. Water: 159 gals. Power: (2) 550-hp Cummins QSB6.7 The Sirena 48 is the smallest vessel in a four-model line that runs to 88 feet from the Turkish shipyard. Like her sisterships, the 48 is drawn by the Argentinian yacht designer Germán Frers. Her profile is defined by an elegant plumb bow, copious hullside glass and a tall pilothouse with oversized windows that echo her straight bow. It is a fetching look that translates well up and down Sirena’s model line. During the Sirena 48’s premiere at the recent Cannes Yachting Festival, the optional passerelle brought me over her hydraulic swim platform and into the cockpit, where buyers have a choice of layouts. These can include fixed or loose…

It doesn’t matter which dock you walk down. It could be in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Port Townsend, Washington, Newport, Rhode Island, or anywhere in between. Every single boat on those docks—the styling cues, hull shapes, sheerlines—began as visions in the minds of boat designers. Trying to decide which designers made the biggest impact during the 60 years Soundings has been published is like trying to decide which cruising ground is the best. They’re all exceptional in their own ways, with the beauty being in the eye of the beholder. As we chose 12 designers from the past six decades, we aimed to include people who achieved not just excellence, but also legacy. To come up with a dozen names we started with a list of over 50 designers. We know…

New York City’s rich maritime heritage goes unnoticed by a large swath of its population. Even with four of its five boroughs essentially surrounded by water, the city’s sheer density tends to drown out its robust waterways. Brooklyn transplants Fitzhugh Karol and Lyndsay Caleo Karol were fortunate to spend some time on the Hudson and East rivers on friends’ boats, a welcome return to the halcyon days of their youth. Fitzhugh “knocked around” with his grandfather off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on a sailboat, camping out in his sleeping bag in the harbor, and did his share of canoeing and kayaking on the Connecticut River near his childhood home in New Hampshire. Lyndsay’s maritime experience ran deeper. She grew up on Canandaigua Lake, one of New York’s Finger Lakes, with all…

Sometimes a boat project seems simple, but it’s not. Other times a project can seem difficult, and it turns out to be easy. When I decided to add a gas spring to a hatch on my Pathfinder 2700 Open, the job turned out to be a bit of both. The hatch on the large cooler forward of the console came mounted on friction hinges that quickly lost their ability to hold it open, probably because of the hatch’s weight. The cooler also serves as seating when the cushion is snapped into place. The risk of the hatch slamming shut on someone’s fingers prompted a fix, and rather than replace the hinges I decided to install a gas spring. Gas springs are self-contained, nitrogen-driven units that provide a uniform lifting force…