Innehållsförteckning för May 2021 från Cruising World

What’s not to like about a good birthday bash? The more festivities, the better, I say, which is just what the Herreshoff Marine Museum has planned for the remainder of 2021, its golden jubilee year. Located on the waterfront in Bristol, Rhode Island, on the site of the storied boatbuilding company that bears the family’s name, the museum has a number of events planned, including a Classic Yacht Rendezvous to run in conjunction with the annual Herreshoff Classic Yacht Regatta the last weekend in August, and a Jubilee Gala in late September. Several educational events are also planned, both in person and virtually, as COVID-19 restrictions allow, executive director Bill Lynn says. And up and down the New England coast, the museum plans to host a dozen or so celebrations…

Until recently, my husband, Bob, and I cruised the Bahamas and Caribbean every year aboard Scaramouche, our Tayana 58. As we headed south from Florida, our home port, my mind sometimes drifted to the favorite “meals out” we’d left behind. One was a delicious, juicy burger from our local bar and grill. I decided to create my own ideal burger on board, and it’s since become our benchmark, whether eating aboard or dining out. The ideal burger is made from ground chuck with 20 percent fat (this is not the time to go lean), and is grilled to a crusty char outside and (per our own preference) perfectly rare to medium-rare inside. Use a digital meat thermometer to cook the burgers to your own desired level of doneness (see “Cook’s…

Departure Day: As the plane lifted off the runway, I muttered my final goodbyes out the window. My parents had purchased an Island Packet 445 10 months prior, and the day to board this boat had finally come. I was 11 years old and knew absolutely nothing about this cruising lifestyle my father had been speaking so highly of for the previous five years. I wasn’t on that plane by choice, but rather bribed on with the promise of a trip to Disneyland; the only thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t want to leave my home. Because I didn’t have any say in this big life change, I did anything possible to avoid moving onto the boat. I didn’t help pack the house. I made my homeschooling…

First thing, acquire a copy of A Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast by Hank and Jan Taft, with updates by Curtis Rindlaub. This comprehensive and well-written guide has been “the bible” since 1988. The Tafts spent four years tucking into hundreds of coves, harbors and anchorages along the entire coast, gathering detailed information. The guide has been updated since 1994. Make sure to get the 6th edition, which is the most recent. It’s available through various online sources. Pull out NOAA’s paper chart No. 13305, which covers lower Penobscot Bay and all the islands. Hang this on your wall for daydreaming, planning your cruise, and as a reminder of last summer’s cruise Down East. Here are some helpful websites and apps: The Waterway Guide for New England will be helpful for its ads…

Here are three ways we put our canned salmon to good use when we’re sailing: • Hors d’oeuvres. It’s a classy and delicious topping to a cracker and cream cheese. • Maki sushi rolls. Rolled up in nori (roasted seaweed) and sushi rice, it’s great on its own or combined with avocado, cucumber and/or cream cheese. • Fettucine Alfredo. It makes your favorite homemade creamy pasta sauce a whole lot more interesting, and it’s fast and easy to add. This one is a stand-by for me on passages.…

The 17th day of March was cause for a massive celebration in Auckland, New Zealand, this year, and it had nothing whatsoever to do with St. Patrick’s Day, leprechauns or green beer. Nope, on a glamorous summer afternoon, with tens of thousands of maskless, COVID-free Kiwis cheering and hugging one another, the hometown lads aboard Te Rehutai, the foiling AC 75 monohull representing Emirates Team New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, in demanding fashion won the America’s Cup. The final score, over a gamebut-vanquished crew of the Italian challenger, Luna Rossa, was 7-3, but when all was said and done, the result seemed more of a foregone conclusion and wasn’t really that close. Luna Rossa’s co-skipper, the well-traveled Aussie Jimmy Spithill, summed it up well: “The best…

James Baldwin’s voyaging-lifestyle philosophy—travel frugally, and take the time to reflect on and learn from every experience along the way—continues in this third book in his retrospective Distant Seas trilogy. This volume continues the saga begun in Bound for Distant Seas (2015) and The Next Distant Sea (2018). Readers rejoin James and Atom, his 28-foot Pearson Triton, in South Africa, and are swept along as he voyages across the South Atlantic to Brazil and the Caribbean, then homeward (with mixed feelings) to the United States. Baldwin is a calm, keen observer of places, people and events. His mini profiles of the sailing characters he meets along the way make the reader feel the cruising life, as do his descriptions of places explored and situations encountered. His acquired profession—boat repair and restoration—plus his…

Cruisers sailing the Florida Keys this year may have noticed the fleet of catamarans clustered off Stock Island near Key West. They’re part of Dream Yacht Charter’s newest US base, which opened in November 2020. “The North American bases grew very fast,” says Yanik Aube, America and North Caribbean operations manager for DYC. “We now have nearly 30 boats in Key West, as well as 55 boats in the US Virgin Islands instead of the usual 15.” All those boats require upkeep, of course, and good staff can be tough to find. Enter the Dream Yacht Academy, a new internship program based in Key West that trains marine mechanics, dock staff, skippers and chefs to work in the charter industry. Participants are provided housing (a private cabin and bathroom aboard…

While I raced competitively as a youth in Optis and Lasers—and loved to sail big boats in all the Caribbean regattas during the’80s and’90s—I fell out of Grand Prix yacht racing as I began to focus on circumnavigating a couple of decades ago. The few times I hopped aboard others’ boats and raced in the Med, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa were unsatisfying on two fronts: One, I didn’t seem to be able to completely focus on winning for the entire duration of the event; and two, the vessels and crews were disappointments as well. Once you’ve raced on top-notch racing boats that are designed, built, financed, campaigned, and equipped to win against similarly serious craft, well, it’s hard to go back to the mom-and-pop beer-can races. Thus, my…

SYSTEMS Sailors are forever watching out for promising new gear while also keeping a weather eye on risky leaps from technology that’s long been settled. During Cruising World’s 2021 Boat of the Year roadshow this past fall, we judges saw a couple of new proprietary systems that test that tension and promise new ways of using our boats, one of which comes from Seldén. We were sailing the new Island Packet 439 off St. Petersburg, Florida, when we first set eyes and hands on its Synchronized Main Furling system. (For a review of the IP 439, see page 52.) This system is actually two separate products—each a stand-alone device worthy of its own attention—joined by one electronic brain. The first is an in-mast furling motor that Seldén’s designers created for…

“It’s an industry problem—there are too many names for the same thing,” Quantum Sail’s Dan Kaseler says when asked about the various names applied to off-wind sails. Talk to boat salespeople, and you’ll hear terms like blaster, screecher, reacher, gennaker, cruising chute, etc. “As a sailmaker, we can see the same geometry, but for the general public, it can be difficult to parse it out. People don’t realize that they’re talking about the same thing.” The key to navigating this nomenclature minefield, according to all three experts, is to establish the right rapport with a reputable sailmaker. “A sailmaker needs to know how your boat is set up, so they come and measure the boat,” UK’s Adam Loory says. It’s important that the sailmaker understands your cruising agenda and how…

Oyster World Rally With high demand resulting in a sold-out 2022-23 event, Oyster Yachts has announced that its fourth Oyster World Rally will depart Antigua on a 16-month circumnavigation on January 14, 2024. The rally provides a fully supported experience for any Oyster owner. For more information, visit oysteryachts.com/oyster-world-rally. Keep the Dink Safe When cruising, your dinghy is your car—and so much more! Here are some tips from the Sailing Totem crew to keep your dinghy from going on walkabout. “Hoisting a dinghy out of the water is probably the biggest deterrent to theft,” said Behan Gifford. “Davits make this easy. If you don’t have davits, lift it with a spinnaker halyard and secure amidships against the hull flush with deck level.” Also, lock up your tender at the boat…

Nostalgia is welcome now when the pandemic makes most of us long to go cruising—coastal, ocean crossing, even an afternoon sail to join friends inside a cruiser bar in a nearby harbor. Into this longing for the recent past drops a new book by Mike Jacker, Taken by the Wind: Memoir of a Sailor’s Voyage in a Bygone Era. In 1976, after college graduation, he and a couple of friends set out to cruise the South Pacific. Their story is both a timeless one of young people seeking adventure before taking up careers and a look back at a kind of cruising that has all but disappeared. By today’s standards, the Cal 30 they could afford is undersize for three people and not a suitable design (single lifelines!) even for…

1. GILL os3 system • $240 (jacket), $180 (trousers) • gillmarine.com This new coastal gear from Gill is designed to have all the wet-weather protection that sailors need, without being cumbersome or restrictive. Both items feature Gill’s new nontoxic XPEL finish for water and stain resistance. 2. SUNCHILL float • $599 • sunchill.co Ready to up your anchorage game? The Sunchill float was designed by a sailor who was tired of water toys that wore out quickly, so he designed something that would last and could easily stow aboard when deflated. It features tough PVC construction with welded seams and removable cup holders—perfect for a party. 3. MONTAGUE m-e1 electric bike • $3,599 • montaguebikes.com If you enjoy long bike rides on your cruising adventures, check out the M-E1 full-size…

It’s called Devil’s Backbone for a reason: It’s a dangerous stretch of rock, coral and shifting sand shoals along Eleuthera’s north shore. Winding through this spine lies the passage from Spanish Wells to Harbour Island. By most counts, a local pilot is required. I began hearing about the Backbone while in the Abacos on my Tartan 34, Jade. A handful of boats was piled in Little Harbour, staging for crossing the Northeast Providence Channel to Eleuthera. Folks at Pete’s Pub in Little Harbour hunched over beers and cocktails and talked about the Backbone’s danger and beauty, and even the moreseasoned sailors told me to hire a pilot boat and make the run. A few days later I was in Spanish Wells, known as the hub of commercial fishing in the…

Out Island Explorers (outislandexplorers.com) off ers guided and solo charter options aboard kayaks, Sea Pearls and even a traditional Bahamian sloop from the base in Great Exuma. The Moorings (moorings.com) off ers bareboat and crewed charters aboard three- and four-cabin sail and power catamarans from the company’s base in Nassau. Sunsail (sunsail.com) off ers bareboat and skippered charters aboard four-cabin catamarans from the company’s base in Nassau. Dream Yacht Charter (dreamyachtcharter.com) off ers bareboat, crewed and by-thecabin charters aboard cats, monohulls and powercats from the company’s base in Nassau.…