Innehållsförteckning för October 2019 från Soundings

I was hanging on a line someone had thrown over the side of the boat, tugging at it to stay close to the side of the hull, even as a muscular current conspired to sweep me away. Armed with a large sponge and plenty of enthusiasm, I set to work gussying up that waterline, bobbing along in the cool water of the anchorage and humming a tune while making my way down the length of the 46-foot cruiser. Some people might call that work. For me, it was nothing but play. The boat was a Prestige 46 Flybridge. The anchorage was Vineyard Haven in Martha’s Vineyard. And the cleaning effort was easy and entertaining because I was doing it on a beautiful summer afternoon with the help of my colleague…

If there’s one maneuver that gives even qualified skippers the shivers, it’s docking a boat. Whether you’re performing in front of an audience at the fuel dock or pulling into your home slip against a cross-current or gusty winds—or both—chances are pretty good the procedure has upped your anxiety more than once. Joystick control systems have helped to alleviate these jitters for an ever-growing number of boat owners, but there’s more to these systems than just making docking easier. (Listen up, anglers: This means you.) Yamaha’s Helm Master is a joystick system that works like others: Toggle the joystick to port or starboard, and the outboard engines move the boat sideways. Nudge the joystick forward or aft, and the Helm Master makes those motions happen. Twisting the joystick pivots the…

BRIAN PERRY Perry’s Boat Repair, Portland, CT A paint job is 80 percent preparation, so some customers save money by doing that work themselves. Filling and fairing the hull is tricky, but not rocket science; some older boats need fiberglass mat laid over crazed gelcoat, so the crazing won’t print through the paint. The key is to use products the paint manufacturer recommends and follow the directions to a T. The materials alone for painting a 40-foot boat will cost around $3,000, so saving a few bucks on filler isn’t smart. I recommend doing the prep work and applying the first coat of primer in the fall. The boat can sit like that through the winter. Because I spray outside at Portland Riverside Marina, which is a do-it-yourself yard, springtime…

If you wanted to buy a rugged, seaworthy motor cruiser in the mid-1930s, a Wheeler was a good choice. Howard E. Wheeler’s shipyard in Brooklyn, New York, had been in business since 1910, turning out everything from skiffs to larger power yachts. The 38-foot Wheeler Playmate was popular as a sport boat and family-friendly cabin cruiser. Built with mahogany planking on oak frames, it had an easily powered hull with a modest 12-foot beam. The cockpit was open, and the helm station was to starboard inside a protected wheelhouse with room for gear and charts. The trunk cabin’s design added headroom below, where the layout might include a stateroom forward, an enclosed head and a galley. In 1934, the American novelist Ernest Hemingway, fresh from an African safari, picked up…

Rhode Island Sound is in our wake and Vineyard Sound is ahead as the cliffs at Aquinnah on the west end of Martha’s Vineyard rise off the bow, the face bleached by the sun. A boulder-strewn beach and rolling, aqua-colored ocean at the base of the bluffs make the setting more than Instagram-worthy. The midsummer wind is hot, brisk and scented with salt, and a lively chop slaps harmlessly at the big, offshore-ready hull. Conditions are so prime they draw the whole crew up to the flybridge, where we take it all in from the best seats aboard. “You been here before?” asks my colleague Simon Murray, who looks happy and relaxed in the lounge to my left. I had traveled to the Vineyard years ago, but I was boatless…

JAMESTOWN, RHODE ISLAND SPONSORED CONTENT Located 25 miles south of Providence, Rhode Island, and a mile west of Newport in Narragansett Bay, Jamestown is both a summer destination and year-round community. Nine miles long by one-mile wide, the island was home to farmers in the 1630s. Today, Jamestown is appreciated for its quiet, rural character and for the atmosphere of a traditional village that’s found in town. It also offers convenient access to Newport, Providence Airport and commuter trains. Stone House is a good example of the architectural influences found in Jamestown’s Mackerel Cove. Built in 1926, this French Provincial cottage designed by Albert Harkness has a unique stone exterior, slate clad roof and tall brick chimneys. The private compound is comprised of two properties: the main dwelling, Stone House,…

FAMILY TIME I enjoyed the story “Boats Create Bonds” (August). Do I believe boating can make a family closer? Absolutely! I grew up with boats. My father, a skilled carpenter, built me a delightful 5-foot sailboat for my sixth birthday and taught me how to sail. As I grew, so did my boats. We took our bigger sailboat cruising every weekend and for summer vacations. I did my homework aboard on many days and had my 8th grade graduation party on the boat. I felt more at home aboard than ashore. I have such fond memories of cooking, swimming and laughing with my brother and parents, of being responsible and independent. I wouldn’t trade that experience for all the money in the world. -HOPE WRIGHT A boat offers a great…

Storm-force winds are Force 10 winds or greater on the Beaufort scale. That’s sustained winds of at least 48 knots, or 55 mph—sobering conditions, even in port. Buildings may sustain structural damage. Deck gear—such as Bimini tops, dodgers, sails and covers, hatch screens, jerry jugs and dinghies—might carry away. Last fall in Greenport, New York, a violent frontal passage blew a steeple and roof section off a church in 65 knots of wind. Bimini tops split at the seams, genoas unfurled and flogged themselves to shreds, and dinghies blew around like toys. Storm-force winds are brutal, but if you have a storm strategy, then you can prepare your boat and protect against damages—a task that is your responsibility as a boat owner. Leaving the boat as-is on your mooring with…

It’s hard not to love a place whose website begins with the beers on tap at the local brewery, and where a passer-by at the free town dock asks strangers whether they want a ride to “the Piglet.” That’s what the locals call the town’s Piggly Wiggly, smaller than most of the supermarkets in the chain, but chockablock with nearly everything boaters need for the galley and some things they don’t, like T-shirts sporting a smiling pig and an outsized OiNc, an abbreviation for Oriental, North Carolina. If “the Piglet” doesn’t have it, the old-fashioned Village Hardware store up the road does. If that fails, there’s a well-stocked Inland Waterway Provision Company, with everything from organic produce to composting toilets. Those stores serve visiting boaters as well as the 900…

The first time Emily Penn crossed the Pacific Ocean on a boat, she was fresh out of college with an architecture degree, thinking she was going to be cruising straight into a picture-perfect postcard. Her mind was filled with palm trees, blue water and clear horizons. “It didn’t make any sense to me,” she says of what she actually saw. “I’d grown up thinking the Pacific was a paradise of islands and whale sharks, and all I saw were beaches covered in plastic. I decided to do something about it.” In 2014, she co-founded eXXpedition, which organizes all-female sailing voyages to educate people about ocean plastics. Since then, eXXpedition has completed 11 voyages aboard chartered vessels, and now is preparing for its first round-the-world trip, a two-year odyssey of 30…

Born in the Netherlands and raised near Cape Town, South Africa, Onne van der Wal is considered one of the planet’s best nautical photographers. In October, his latest book, Sailing America, will be released. We caught up with him at his gallery in Newport, Rhode Island, to learn more about the project. You were a 25-year-old professional sailor when you were hired as the bowman and engineer on the second Flyer for the 1981-82 Whitbread Around the World Race. How did that come about? I wrote a letter to Cornelis “Conny” van Rietschooten, the skipper of the first Flyer that won the Whitbread in 1977-78. He liked that I was a trained machinist, because he needed someone who could take things apart and put them back together. That’s what got…

56 FT ALDEN 56 1996 Stunning 3 Stateroom Downeast Alden. Exterior Photoshoot To Follow In The Next Week. If You Have Not Seen An Alden You Owe It To Yourself To See The Quality, Fit & Finish On This One. Painted Hull, Teak Cockpit, Bow Thruster & So Much More. Vic Redden Knot 10, 410-924-6905, vic@knot10.com. $349,900 46 FT WESMAC SPORTFISHER 2005 46 foot Wesmac Sportfisher 2005, CAT 803 HP with 1300 hrs, extended warranty to 3500 hrs or 3/21. 18-20 knot cruise, 750 gal. fuel, 9K generator, 3 stations, 4 plotters, 2 heat pumps, watermaker, ice maker, 3 fighting chairs, Rupp riggers. $575,000. Serious inquiries only, 252)241-2651. $575,000. 2010 MJM 40Z DOWNEAST 2010 MJM 40z Downeast, Twin Volva D6-IPS Pod Drive with Dynamic Positioning System, Black Hull, Lift Kept…

As more and more of the nation’s historic lighthouses have moved from government to private hands, leading preservationists, lighthouse enthusiasts and coastal boaters are wondering whether this will save these landmarks or allow them to crumble and be swept away by the sea. “There’s no way to know, when somebody buys one, what they’re going to do with it,” says Dave Waller, who in 2013 bought Graves Light Station off the coast of Boston. “It’s out of the government’s control, once they sell it. They can’t take it back, really. It’s a sale, and it’s done.” The trend of selling lighthouses into private hands has its roots in the year 2000. The expense of maintaining lighthouses was weighing down the U.S. Coast Guard’s budget, so the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation…

There is nothing more dangerous in boating than an unexpected trip over the side. Medical problems may be the most common at-sea emergency, and most flooding may be caused by poor maintenance of through-hull fittings, but going overboard is far and away the deadliest mishap. How dangerous? If the U.S. Coast Guard gets called to look for you, then there is a 40 percent chance you’ll never be seen again, alive or dead. You can dramatically increase your chances of survival by having the right gear and wearing it, but what should those left aboard do when a crewmember ends up in the water? If someone falls off your boat and the first thing you do is hit the MOB button on your GPS or reach for the VHF radio,…

Every summer until I was 15, my dad and I fished the skinny coastal waters inside Indian River Inlet, Delaware, for fluke. Though I remember our excursions with great fondness, I recall my dad always wanting a boat that would allow us to go farther offshore, while still being able to work inside the inlet. Unfortunately, boats were purpose-built for one or the other in those days. Boatbuilders eventually cracked this problem with bay boats: relatively flat-decked, low-freeboard, shallow-draft designs that can fish and explore coastal waters, and that can venture offshore when the weather is palatable. Regulator Marine, known for smooth-riding offshore center-console hulls, launched its first bay boat—the Regulator 26XO—in February. “We designed the 26XO for coastal fish and play, and for offshore fishing and exploration on the…

How do we get hooked on boats and boating? Where does our passion for being on the water come from? When did it start? For some, it began as a child, on that first family cruise or fishing trip. For others, it started with a model boat launched on a sunny summer day. The latter is the theme of Leonard Mizerek’s 24-by-36 oil painting “Sailing Day.” “I came across this scene in Cape Porpoise, Maine, not far from the Bush estate in Kennebunkport,” Mizerek says. “They were launching toy boats in the shallow water.” Mizerek, with a sailor’s eye, saw the scene as a beginner’s experience—a bonding of father and son. And, yes, “a future sailor in the making,” he says. The Maine-based painter also saw the scene with an…

In the 1960s, the marine engine and equipment conglomerate OMC—known best for its outboard engines—formed a boating division. It would produce and market fiberglass pleasure boats under the Johnson brand name. The 16-foot Johnson SeaSport II shown in this 1970 brochure image is a good example of its designs. These boats were meant for active fun. Gone was the closed floor plan of double -and triple-cockpit runabouts that were meant for riding around and enjoying the scenery. The Johnson boats were instead built for stopping to take a swim, breaking out a fishing rod or pulling up on a beach for a picnic. A 1968 magazine article called the bluff-bow, somewhat rectangular SeaSport II with its wide-open interior “a seagoing sports car [with] snappy performance, spacious accommodations and top-notch construction.”…