Innehållsförteckning för July 2020 från Soundings

These days, cruising comes with its challenges. I’ve talked with longtime boaters who say they’ve experienced some discouraging moments since the coronavirus created a new normal on and offshore. Some say boating in a pandemic is a bit more stressful than they imagined it would be. Cruisers who typically spend summers visiting a variety of new ports are changing up their plans as they are unsure if some regions will have restrictions on visitors. Provisions and fuel can be more difficult to find, and social distancing rules on docks have robbed some boat owners of the joy they experience simply talking and eating with friends. And yet even with the logistical hurdles and ethical dilemmas, most people who love boats and boating still believe the water is the ultimate escape.…

The first time I sight-casted to a cobia, I was fishing in the Lower Chesapeake Bay with Capt. Ben Shepherd. He was a young captain, I was an aspiring outdoor writer and we were finding our way in a relatively new fishery. Shepherd and I left Lynnhaven Inlet in his 25-foot center console. The sleek boat was outfitted with a tower installed over its T-top. When we arrived at Thimble Shoal Channel, Shepherd invited me to join him in the tower. The mid-summer day was hot and bright, the clear, green water glowing as if illuminated from below. Standing in the tower, I could see into the water for 100 yards. “They’ll stick out like a sore thumb,” Shepherd said, and instructed me to scan the water for long, brown…

It might be one of the most easily recognized boats on the water. The Nordic Tug 26’s standout profile, with its big hull, upright wheelhouse and distinctive “smoke stack,” came on the scene 40 years ago, creating a new boating market–the trailerable, “pocket” trawler–that still inspires boating enthusiasts today. The concept began with Lynn Senour of Seattle and the fuel crisis of the 1970s. The former wooden boat designer, armed with an education from the Westlawn School of Yacht Design, sat down to create a fuel-efficient, cruising powerboat suitable for a small family or a retired couple. It also had to look good going slow. Inspired by the rugged commercial fishing boats of the Pacific Northwest, Senour drew a tugboat with a semi-displacement hull with hard chines for stability at…

Jonathan Azevedo runs an engineering company in South Florida that makes medical devices. This year has been a busy, challenging and stressful time for the 36-year-old robotics engineer. His 8-year-old Ft. Lauderdale firm, Outer Reef Technologies, was hard at work developing a free and open source medical ventilator when we went to press. Boating seemed a long way off. Still, even in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak and long days at work, there has been the promise that he will get back on the water soon, as Azevedo misses his boat. Tuggerknot is a 1999 Acadia 25, a trailerable pocket trawler made by Atlas Boat Works in Cape Coral, Florida. Azevedo is hoping to enjoy his third season with the boat this year. “It’s definitely my therapy, and anytime…

FIXING FLIPPERS Great article on the efforts of the team at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Florida, to rescue turtles in the Keys (“Second Chance,” May 2020). Did you know that there is another location in the state that also does great work for turtles? It is the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, Florida. In addition to surgery and recovery efforts, the professionals at this location do great work to protect the nesting sites on the beaches of South Florida. Your article seemed to imply that the Marathon hospital is the only facility of its kind in the country. I just wanted to set the record straight. Keep up the great work. JOHN FRUNCILLO SINGER ISLAND, FL MEDICAL MUST-HAVES Mario Vittone wrote a nice story on how to put…

The line of shapeshifters from Okean Yachts is entering its fourth year in a competitive U.S. marketplace and seems to be hitting its stride. With each successive launch the builder has managed to stick to its original mission, offering open boats that push the brief forward. The latest in the Italian-designed and Brazilian-built model line, the 50X shares a hull with the Okean’s first 50-footer, but veers off to establish its own identity. Yacht designer Paolo Ferragni has worked with Okean since the brand’s onset, drawing the semi-displacement hull—dubbed the “Duo Mode Hull”—with the goal of delivering a vessel that runs efficiently at trawler speeds but can also amble along at a comfortable cruise in the mid-20-knot range. Top speed, according to the company, is near 28 knots. Volvo Penta…

THE TERM “SOCIAL DISTANCING” WILL BE PART OF OUR vocabulary for at least a while to come, and there’s no better way to engage in the practice than heading out on a boat. Some of the finest Northeast and New England anchorages are tailor-made for our current situation, with fresh air, beautiful scenery—and the ability to see as many, or as few, other people as you desire. CUTTYHUNK, MASSACHUSETTS Bob Garber, the operations manager at Boston Sailing Center, says Cuttyhunk is not just one of the coolest spots in New England, but along the entire East Coast. “Cuttyhunk is one of those islands in the world where it’s a spiritual adventure every time you pull in,” Garber says. “I believe the graduating class last year was one person. It is…

Abarracuda swims by our catamaran while we rest at anchor. It’s a scorching day in Bimini, and the predator was likely looking for relief in the shade between the two hulls. In the distance, a lone sea turtle emerges in intervals between his dives. The water here is so clear that nothing goes unnoticed, especially when there are panoramic views from the flybridge of the Leopard 53 Powercat, the South African builder’s latest model. “This boat so far has exceeded expectations,” says Katie Baker, marketing manager for Leopard Catamarans. Just a month before, the 53 had debuted at the Miami International Boat Show, where the company sold five of these cruising catamarans. After spending a day on board, I can understand the boat’s appeal. We left the dock at The…

This seven-bedroom summer estate is located on Greening Island, Maine, just off Southwest Harbor. Faraway is set on approximately 4.75 acres and overlooks the Great Harbor of Mount Desert Island from Eastern Point. It also has views of mountains in Acadia National Park, the outer islands and the ocean. Faraway provides 1,500 feet of private shorefront. It is only minutes by boat from the 130-foot pier and deep-water moorings to Southwest, Northeast and Seal harbors. Along with the main house, the estate also has a two-bedroom guest house, storage sheds and a tree house. The property is encircled by trees for privacy, and it has views to the north, east and south. Faraway would make a stunning summer retreat, providing both island solitude and easy access by water to the…

The coronavirus pandemic has scrambled a lot of things. Toilet-paper supply chains. Presidential campaigns. The brains of parents trying to work from home with kids doing remote learning at the same kitchen table. One of the less-reported scramblings, though, has been patterns of boat traffic. All around the world, recreational boats have stopped moving to the places they usually move during spring and early summer. In Florida, there’s a pileup of yachts that usually head to the Bahamas and Mediterranean, both of which, as of this writing in early May, were closed to incoming cruisers. Along the southern East Coast, there’s a jam-up of owner-operated boats that would have returned north to states like Rhode Island, if not for the two-week quarantine that was in effect for all incoming boaters…

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING CHISELS, PLYWOOD AND FRAMES There’s something highly satisfying about watching sheets of plywood, planks, frames and other odd bits and pieces of wood slowly transform over time into a boat that sails or powers its way across the water. Along the way, there are many things to learn: scarfing, painting, planing, sanding, chiseling, lofting and more. Those are some of the boatbuilding and repair skills you can learn by watching master shipwright Louis Sauzedde, who posts his boatbuilding videos to YouTube in Tips from a Shipwright. On the channel, you can find complete, keel-up boatbuilding projects including a sport dory and a small work skiff, as well as tips for making your own repairs to fiberglass and wood boats of all types. You’ll be handy at boat…

If you take a look at the history of watercraft—be it tall ships, dugout canoes, rugged fishing dories or any other sort of boat—it’s easy to pick out certain moments in time when an innovation changed the way we work and play on the water. Whether it was the first time someone harnessed the wind to propel a boat through the water or used steam engines for propulsion, watercraft have greatly improved over time. Today, a different revolution in watercraft is underway—the liberal use of four-stroke outboard power in an array of boat designs—especially those near 30 feet in length. Modern, four-stroke outboards are reliable, quiet, fuel-efficient, fast and reasonably easy to maintain. They also don’t require the vast mechanical systems most inboard engines require, and that provides boatbuilders with…

The wooden-hull oyster boat Suzanne out of Bridgeport, Connecticut, works the waters of Long Island Sound in Brechin Morgan’s oil painting. At first glance, the scene is peaceful and idyllic, with an almost photographic quality. But the artist conveys what’s past the painted surface, what he calls the grit and beauty, the raw physicality of working on the water. “I have an emotional connection to these hardy wooden vessels,” the 73-year-old Morgan says from his home in Bridgeport. “My first job out of art school was as a deckhand on an oyster boat, the Eban Thatcher, very similar to the one in the painting. It was run by the Tallmadge Oyster Co. in South Norwalk,” also in Connecticut. Working in the first days of spring, Morgan helped dredge up young…

A mid-20th century novelty postcard from Florida must have lured anglers south for some of the Sunshine State’s “big catch” fishing, having played its part in creating and growing Florida’s world-class angling industry. Not all of America’s first postcards were as entertaining as this one; many, in fact, were austere. Issued by the federal government beginning in the late 1860s, strict rules permitted only an address on the front and a message on the back. But people loved them. Easier to write than a letter and only a penny to mail, the postcard became the text message of its day. When the government allowed for private production in 1898, the modern “picture” postcard was born. The message and address went on the back, and on the front, thanks to advances…