Yachting August 2016

THERE IS A WAYPOINT about 50 miles southeast of Ocean City, Maryland, and 12 years ago this month, it’s where I started going gray. A silver anniversary, of sorts. Our five-man crew was en route to the Ocean City inlet when the skies darkened, the wind whipped into a frenzy and the seas went from fairly flat to furious. It was about 3 p.m., according to the boat’s GPS, but it looked like midnight on the bridge deck. The only way home was straight into the building waves. We scurried around the boat, securing everything loose that could potentially cause a load shift. Then we gathered on the bridge deck, looking above the helm station for the life jackets. My friend Paul, seeking to lighten an otherwise tense moment, said:…

WINTERS’ MAGIC Loved the article about [our 65 Express] build (“Winter is Coming,” June 2016). Could not be more excited about this project, and Tim [Winters] is the perfect guy for it. As you mention, the uniqueness of this project is why you go custom. Your piece captured that very well. [The headline] “Magic Johnsons” was icing on the cake. It really has been magical. REGARDS, ANTHONY JOHNSON ENCHANTING, ALWAYS I read your article (“Beautiful Truth in a Changing World”) in the May 2016 issue regarding chartering in Greece. Congratulations on a job well done. My wife, Rita, and I charter every year in Greece, and you conveyed our thoughts about people panicking and canceling due to the reported crisis. News of the day cannot change the beauty of the…

THERE IS A new generation of ultra-high-net-worth individuals that’s radically changing the face of luxury.” So says a new report by Wealth-X and Camper & Nicholsons International, whose top thinkers say the fastest-growing segment of people who have $30 million or more are those who inherited wealth and then expanded it dramatically. This younger generation — say, 40 or 50 years old — grew up traveling the world with their parents. What they really want now, the report states, is to cruise to places their parents never imagined possible. “The thing they really like the best is being able to tell special stories,” says Winston Chesterfield, the Wealth-X lead researcher on the study. “Not, ‘The King came aboard,’ but, ‘We had some sunburn, and the crew went ashore and found…

YOUR SON HAS FALLEN overboard. You aim your 60-footer’s spotlight and keep the beam on him while turning the boat around, in a figure eight. But your searchlight can’t make the 360-degree turn. Its internal wires are twisted to the max. You have to spin the light around as the boat continues to turn. Then you have to find your son again. Not with Imtra’s CLite2 LED Searchlight. Not only can it beam 40,000 lumens at a range of 4,900 feet, but it also uses slip-ring design for unlimited rotation, which is simply smart design. It can enhance security as well, particularly when paired with the useful, optional FLIR camera. “Say there’s somebody you don’t want coming up next to you,” says Nate Cabral, ColorLight product manager. “You can target…

LOA 40'4" MAX BEAM 11'4" A RICH, MAHOGANY-ADORNED cockpit set against a mirrorfinish, navy-blue Awlgrip hull seemed to appear from out of nowhere in a sea of white fi-berglass. It stopped me right in my Sperrys. I was walking the docks the day before the Palm Beach International Boat Show and was drawn to this 40-footer like a wide-eyed fish is attracted to a shimmering lure. Hooked, I approached to get a closer look. Her transom read Reliant with a Newport, Rhode Island, hailing port. Hmm. Who was she? I needed to know more. I later learned this captivating craft, called the Reliant Commuter 40, comes courtesy of some serious boatbuilding veterans and their new company, Reliant Yachts. David MacFarlane and Jim Ewing have decades of experience. They met while…

THE RACKSTAND Montague won a Eurobike Award for its RackStand, which offers a trifecta of uses: It works as a rear-wheel cargo rack, converts to a kickstand and lets the bike stow upright when folded. It comes standard with the Allston. MONTAGUE HAS BEEN in the folding-bike business since 1987, when founder David Montague was a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His idea: to build folding bikes that were easy to assemble, strong and high performance out on the road. He has far surpassed that goal; among the company’s accolades are building the official mountain bike of the 1996 Summer Olympics and developing mountain bikes for paratroopers. Now comes the Allston, a folding bike Montague designed specifically for boaters. The standard metal chain has been replaced with…