Innehållsförteckning för September 2022 från PassageMaker

Maintaining exterior teak is a labor of love. Teak is fantastic for strength and durability, but when it’s used on decks, cover boards, swim platforms, ladder rungs and trim, it needs routine care. There are two ways of thinking about teak. Some boat owners simply ignore it, and allow the wood to gray and weather. No effort is required, but this approach can lead to cracks or checking, screwheads pushing up bungs, and possible leaks. If you prefer the rich, warm glow of oiled teak that looks yachty and retains a durable surface for safe walking, then maintenance will be needed. Teak is composed of soft and hard grain. Over time, the soft grain can be scrubbed away, leaving a rough surface that ages gracefully, but that encourages dirt, grime…

Many power catamarans, particularly those from the Leopard brand, are designed with bareboat charter fleets in mind. This is good news for two reasons: First, the boats have what bareboat charterers want (which is no different from what most boat owners want), and second, the boats are designed for easy maintenance. Full disclosure: I am a Leopardholic. I’ve chartered many Leopards, usually from five to 10 days at a time, in Thailand and Greece, the British Virgins and the Abacos. The builder’s vessels have been uniformly wonderful to use. They handled impeccably in ferocious line squalls, and maneuvered well. Many earlier Leopard powercats looked like sailboats with the mast replaced by a flybridge. The new 46 Powercat breaks new ground, with builders Robertson and Caine of South Africa drawing on…

This month’s design is the Camarone 40 (Spanish for “shrimp”), which is neither a full-on sailboat nor a full-on powerboat. I designed her for Spencer Duncan and Eric Letham, two biologists from British Columbia, Canada, planning a several-year journey around the world. Their plan was to conduct research, and they wanted a motorsailer as their base. Letham had previously built two of my designs (a Dipper 17 and a Candlefish 16), and he knew the specific needs for this boat were different. This trip would involve plenty of motoring in remote fjords that rarely see consistent sailing winds, as well as passages where the sails could add extensively to the vessel’s range, stability and capability. For me, this was a remarkably interesting design commission for an experienced builder. Giving each…

What cruising powerboat owner hasn’t wished for at least a shade more room and a few more nautical miles per gallon? We tend to adapt to what we have, but when we dream about our next boat, it’s probably safe to say we’re not thinking smaller and thirstier. French builder Neel-Trimarans has answered that call on both counts with its latest launch, the Leen 72. Neel, founded in 2010, has had success building sail-driven cruising trimarans from 47 to 65 feet. Last year, the company entered the power-tri market with the Leen 56. It launched Hull No. 1 of the 72 early this year. At 72 feet in length with a 29-foot beam, the boat has no shortage of usable indoor space: 1,378 square feet. It’s available in a three-…

More people these days are asking if they can set up their boats to run air conditioning from their batteries. A few years ago, this wouldn’t have been possible, but with powerful inverters, efficient a/c and the right size battery bank, boaters are now able to enjoy cool, generator-free silence at anchor. There are just a few details that have to be discussed first. The Good Ol’ Days The amount of electricity we expect our boats to store has steadily risen over time. Fifty years ago, a boat might have had a few lights and fans, a depthsounder and the need to start the engine. One or two small car batteries worked fine for this. DC electrical systems used to run lights, fans, electronics and a few other low-amperage devices.…

I had arrived in South Florida the previous afternoon and noted a far-from-ideal, howling north wind. It had been blowing stink for a few days, but the wind was slated to swing around out of the south once a mid-March, late-winter cold front reached us. “Slated,” the forecast read. Nothing to hang your hat on. Initially, I had thought the delay was fortuitous. But as the clock ticked past 2 p.m., the atmospheric change aboard the Beneteau Swift Trawler 48 could not be solely attributed to an improving forecast. The crew was overcaffeinated, a bit anxious and ready to cast off lines. I had arrived in South Florida the previous afternoon and noted a far-from-ideal, howling north wind. It had been blowing stink for a few days, but the wind…

It is particularly unfortunate that the two quotes most landlubbers know about boats are, “If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it,” and “A boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money.” This situation is lamentable for two reasons. First, the comments put a negative slant on boating. Second, they are so true. There is simply no way that any self-respecting accountant could sharpen a pencil and make the numbers work out for boat owners. Even the least-expensive boat is never going to appreciate in value, and it’s always going to require some investment. It might be something as insignificant as the fee for a launch ramp or the annual haul out to paint the bottom. Even the simple act of…

A determined boater could spend a lifetime navigating the inland canals in the United States, with more than 25,000 miles controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers alone. Early canal builders quickly realized that connecting bodies of water at different elevations would only result in draining the higher into the lower, so locks were invented to hold the higher water back while still allowing a vessel to pass through. Nationally, the Corps maintains 239 locks as part of its responsibilities. Safely handling a boat through a lock requires planning and familiarity, as not all locks operate the same way. Locks are operated by lockmasters, who control and manage vessel traffic. Lock tenders see thousands of boats pass through, and they know what it takes to keep a boat safe…

In the mid-aughts, when Back Cove emerged as a satellite of Sabre Yachts, I was a junior editor at our sister publication Power & Motoryacht. I have a penchant for Down East yachts, and at the time, lobster boats and other commercial craft were the design muse du jour. I appreciated the multitude of interpretations that builders from New England, Turkey, Italy and beyond had splashed, inspired by workaday, handsome Down East vessels. So, when the Maine-based upstart made its debut with the 29, it had me at hello. Back Cove combined a striking design, a practical package, the ability to be easily handled by a cruising couple, and the reliability and fuel-sipping qualities of single-diesel power. Inboard models that Back Cove released during the past two decades continued to…

I grew up the son of a career Coast Guardsman. I have 8 mm home movies of my father on board the Coast Guard’s oldest icebreaker, Storis, its hull breaking ice and bringing supplies to native villages in the Aleutians. He often told stories of visiting two of the most remote military bases at Adak and Attu in the late 1940s and early ’50s. So, when my good friends John and Kathy Youngblood asked if I’d help them bring their well-traveled Selene 53 Mystic Moon from Japan to Alaska via Russia and the Aleutian Islands, I jumped at the chance. My wife and I were aboard Mystic Moon when John and Kathy’s 11-year cruise started back in 2007. We helped them take the boat down the U.S. West Coast from…