Innehållsförteckning för May/June 2020 från PassageMaker

The first indication of trouble we saw was smoke on the horizon. Closer investigation revealed a boat on fire, with one crewman sitting on the bow as flames engulfed the boat. As we approached, it became clear that the boat was beyond salvation. After we picked up the crewman, he told us the boat had old wire-and-pulley steering, and one of the wires had broken and fallen across the exposed battery terminals. Sparks flew. Batteries can be a serious hazard, so if it is time for a refit of your boat, then it is time to take a close look at the batteries. On modern boats, nothing works without the batteries. Engines will not start or run, nor will electronics systems for navigation and communication. You can tell that the…

Andrew Cilla, the president of Fort Lauderdale’s Luke Brown Yachts, has owned quite a few boats. He’s a fan of Nordic Tugs who likes to hang out aboard tenders, flats boats and paddleboards, and occasionally do some fishing. About eight years ago, he started talking about his experiences with Michael Peters, the Florida-based yacht designer known for high-speed boats. Cilla didn’t want to break any records, but he had an idea for taking his favorite kind of cruising to, say, the 20-knot level. He wanted a trawler, but one that could achieve twice the usual trawler speed Peters created a hull, and the Outback 50 became a real concept. “This is not a floating condominium,” Cilla says. “At 56 feet actual length and a 15-foot, 6-inch beam, it’s like a…

If you work on boats long enough, you learn some painful lessons. It has been said that the first time a task goes wrong, we call it experience; the second time, we call it a mistake. In no particular order, the following list shares some of our experiences and mistakes, in the hope that they will help you avoid your own. TIP NO. 1 Never partially assemble a component with loose parts, with the intent to return later to finalize the installation. Imagine that you are installing new hoses on a few seacocks. You carefully measure and cut several pieces of hose to length, and identify the proper hose clamps sizes. You want it all to look tidy and well planned, and toward that end, you decide to “dry fit”…

NOW, SHE NEEDS US. Refitting an old wooden boat is a powerful statement about her intrinsic worth, regardless of tonnage. To bring one back is to write another chapter in an adventure story that defies an ending. The older the boat, the more inspired the story to which you contribute. When that story grows long enough, it becomes history itself—legend. Enter America’s oldest wooden tugboat, the Arthur Foss. Built in Portland, Oregon, and launched in 1889, this tug’s tale includes rushing for Klondike gold, becoming a Hollywood movie star and dodging Japanese bombers at Wake Island and Pearl Harbor. Now owned and managed by the nonprofit Northwest Seaport of Seattle, she has what may become her most consequential chapter before her. If, that is, advocates can complete the multimillion-dollar refit…

One of the simplest, yet most satisfying ingredients has to be shrimp. It’s one of those galley-friendly, last-minute things you can make anytime, and it’s always a treat, fresh or frozen. Foolproof and easy, this hands-off method is hardly a recipe at all, yet it’s one of my favorite ways to produce perfect, evenly cooked shrimp. It’s just a lovely pan of shrimp, cooked in the oven until the rose-mary-and-thyme-infused oil permeates the shrimp. As each shrimp transforms into a tender, fragrant, succulent morsel, it drinks up the flavor and emerges hot, juicy and exploding with wonderfulness. The shrimp will be pink and opaque. Serve them with potatoes, pasta, rice or a simple salad. Or, if you want to get sassy, pile them onto a hoagie roll with some spicy…

Carts are about to change in a big way, and it’s not necessarily good for boaters. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has put in motion a five-year plan to end the production of paper nautical charts. For years, NOAA has been maintaining two parallel sets of charts—paper and digital—at great expense. As digital charts have become dominant, the production of paper charts has slowed. Today, the vector digital chart is primary, and the paper chart and its digital raster charts are updated to match. NOAA’s plan is to focus on the vector digital chart, which is created to international standards for Electronic Charting and Display Information Systems (ECDIS) that commercial mariners with redundant systems use instead of paper charts. Presumably, recreational boaters will be able to obtain printed copies…

The wilds of the Pacific Northwest are not to be taken lightly. Though beautiful, the rocky shores, verdant outcrops and deserted scenery—many only accessible by boat—come with their own unique challenges. Hard-to-spot deadheads float in the water. A long rainy season, coupled with chilly climes, necessitates an enclosed helm. And far-flung ports require a large fuel capacity. For that reason, from the San Juan Islands to Desolation Sound, you can find trawlers cruising all over the Pacific Northwest. But you also see the faster Cutwaters: cruisers with a little more pickup, able to get places in a hurry. Built in Arlington, Washington, by Fluid Motion (the company also owns Ranger Tugs), Cutwaters are no-fuss, pared-down vessels packed with features. The brand shirks any air of pretentiousness for a more utilitarian…

The owner attempted to cut away the structure of the tug and replace it to meet the new specifications. As many home boatbuilders do, he got lost in the conversion. Every creative person needs a fountain of inspiration. Pacific Northwest boatbuilder and designer Sam Devlin finds his spark on Sunday mornings in his office, listening to the Beatles on his radio. “After a busy workweek and catching up on Saturdays, I love my time on Sunday mornings tucked away in my den and with the Beatles soundtrack in the background,” Devlin says. “I allow myself to dream of creation and discovery.” We’re sitting down in what Devlin calls his den. What I really want to know, but forget to ask, is whether he is more creatively inspired by the “Magical…

“When we lend something we risk losing both the thing we lend and the friendship with that other person.”—Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Things in my life seem to escalate from the most innocuous of events. It seems as though something as small as a mental leaf falling on my personal snowy slope ends up triggering a mighty avalanche. In this case, I got a new tool chest. I am an inveterate tool collector, and my big red Craftsman tool chest had finally refused to close. The tool that caused the break was that weird little roller that you use to replace the spline in window screens. Never mind that I haven’t replaced a screen in three decades; tools are about being ready if The Need ever comes. A new tool…