Innehållsförteckning för November 2025 från Soundings

There’s something special about the moment you christen a boat with a name. It’s a blend of tradition, superstition and plain old fun. From clever puns to heartfelt tributes, a boat name tells the world a little about the owner. I’m better acquainted with reader David Avedesian, now that he’s shared how he named his boats. The Rhode Island native with a 100-ton license has owned three vessels in his lifetime. “They’ve meant a lot to me,” he says. “In fact, I’ve named two children in less time than it took me to christen my boats.” His first boat was an Evinrude Sweet 16, built by Outboard Marine Corporation in 1964 with a 115-hp outboard on the transom. After much thought, Avedesian landed on a playful moniker that felt just…

A dam Nowalsky is a licensed captain who has been chartering boats for more than 25 years. He grew up fishing with his father on a progression of boats that increased in size as he got older. Through high school and college, he worked in local tackle shops and as a mate on charter boats. He bought his first boat, a 26-foot Sea Ox with twin sterndrives, in the late 1990s. Not long after, he saw two Osmond Beal-designed Downeasters. The boats made an impression on him. “Once you see a Downeast boat, it gets in you,” Nowalsky says. “And it stays with you the rest of your life. This boat type blends form and function in a way that speaks to me.” He began to search for a Downeaster…

When Formula announced the release of its 360 Crossover Bowrider there was heightened anticipation, as this would be the successor to the company’s popular 350 CBR. Launched in 2013, the 350 was a hybrid design that took shorelines by storm at a time when there weren’t many luxury bowriders over 30 feet. It won admirers with a combination of multiple social zones on deck and a true cabin below. It also carried Formula’s reputation for high build quality and offshore performance. Now, a decade later, Formula has splashed the 360. Soundings recently ran the boat and determined that this next-generation dayboat was worth the wait. SMOOTH OPERATOR Vic Spellberg met us at Keystone Point Marina in Miami, Florida, for a sea trial. No ordinary throttleman, the Chicago native is a…

Certain boats are built to go the distance. Certain people find ways to take them all the way there, and then some. Tom and Jan Newman, aboard their Nordhavn 41 Meraki, are a prime example. Both sailors from a young age, they decided about 10 years ago that they wanted to retire on a boat. “The search for a boat became broad because we wanted to do the canals of France, the Baltic and the Caribbean. We wanted to do it all,” Jan says. They took delivery of Meraki in December 2022. The couple picked it up in Istanbul and are taking, well, as long as they want to bring it home to Alaska. “That’s our story and we’re sticking to it,” Jan says. “We are slowly—over many, many years—heading…

In the Straits of Mackinac on the Great Lakes, two tugboats clear a path through the ice for commercial shipping traffic on April 6, 1992. Leading the way is Biscayne Bay (WTGB-104), followed closely by Katmai Bay (WTGB-101). These cutters are part of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Bay-class fleet, which has remained in continuous service since 1979. The Coast Guard operates a range of icebreakers, including one heavy and two medium vessels in the polar fleet, as well as more than two dozen smaller vessels with icebreaking capability. Among them, the Bay-class tugboats are the only icebreakers dedicated solely to domestic icebreaking missions, tasked with keeping shipping lanes on the Great Lakes and other U.S. waterways open during the cold months. All nine vessels in the fleet, numbered WTGB-101 to…

Lyman-Morse recently splashed a creative refit of the cold-molded Hood 35 LM Hull No. 2. The boat has new owners, and they tapped the yard to help them reconfigure the deck to better suit their lifestyle. The result: Cymbria boasts living spaces that are more comfortable than ever, yet she maintains the original boat’s performance pedigree and clean design language. The refit focused on improving the express cruiser’s interior functionality. In the cockpit, the original aft bench and sun pad were replaced by a wraparound seating, and the pilothouse gained a wraparound bench to port. It sits opposite the galley, which has been relocated to starboard for better traffic flow. Belowdecks, the layout was updated with a full-length single berth to port and a raised double berth to starboard, to…

Osmond Beal was born in 1931, one of eight sons to a father who was a boat-builder on Beals Island, Maine. Four of the Beal boys would go on to become builders too, although Osmond was particularly prolific. According to Beal’s grandson, Erick Blackwood, Beal’s earliest job in his father’s shop was cutting massive oak planks with a handsaw, so they could become keels and ribs. He gained a bodybuilder’s physique and the knowledge to become a builder in his own right. One of the last boats he and his father built together was a 38-footer christened The Swan in 1954. When Beal started his own business, he’d work in a field, frequently shoveling snow out of hulls that were under construction. Beal would tell Blackwood stories about hunkering down…

In the mid-1980s, there was a rapidly growing interest in mid-range offshore sportfishing designs, particularly among those who wanted to tackle species found only in deeper waters. C. Raymond Hunt & Associates developed a hull design with the pedigree to handle big seas and changeable winds, as well as the trolling and handling needs of experienced anglers. The Black Watch 33 had that deep-V hull, with a well-flared bow that offered plenty of reserve buoyancy in tall waves. The boat’s helm was well protected behind a sturdy raked windshield, and the cockpit was spacious enough for a pair of anglers to fight fish. Thanks to this cockpit and a generous 11-foot beam, the boat was a fast success. It was prized for its ability to handle all kinds of water…

I have a nerdy fascination with the Gilded Age, when hard-charging industrialists amassed crazy fortunes and lived as only the 1 percent can imagine, with castles and cottages, yachts and steamships—trappings of wealth that even the Kardashians might have had a tough time keeping up with. Maybe I read too many Edith Wharton novels in college, but a delight in that period of opulence and extremes has stoked an interest in the Thousand Islands, a destination that seduced society to its shores in the late 1800s. Old and new money traveled to this northwestern corner of New York state to escape the summer heat in cities. Today, history buffs and those who love the water come here to explore the archipelago on the St. Lawrence River, and get a glimpse…

Hey, captain, sorry to wake you. Uh, the latest weather came in, and I thought you might want to take a look at it. So, yeah, if you have a chance. Just looking at the forecast and our track line. Thought you might want to take a look at it.” This was the third mate aboard the doomed freighter El Faro, calling down to the captain’s cabin on the night of September 30, 2015. The mate was trying to alert the captain that Hurricane Joaquin had strengthened significantly and was now on track to intercept the ship. The captain held a different view of the situation, making it difficult for him to imagine the magnitude of these developments. He didn’t come to the bridge. At the time of the conversation,…

The year 1965 was brimming with future classics. Billboard’s Hot 100 music chart had two up-and-coming British Invasion acts in the top 10: The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. It was also the first full model year of the Ford Mustang, and the Stuttgart stalwart, also known as the Porsche 911, had just arrived on our shores. Six decades later, these musicians and sports cars are still relevant. All have retained an enduring spirit and an oversized gravitational pull through constant refinement. They not only dug the foundation for goalposts, they kept moving them, and in the process exceeded expectations. The same can be said about Grand Banks Yachts. Its future classic, the Grand Banks 36, splashed in Hong Kong Harbour in 1965. Since then, the company has continued to…

If boat work was a Hollywood production, yacht finishers would be called make-up artists and stylists. “It’s kind of a running joke, how finishers get the glory because everybody’s wild about the shine,” quips Joni Blanchard. As a veteran of the trade, she knows the importance of plumbing and electrical installations, but that work is not on public display like a coat of paint or varnish. Hailing from Upstate New York, Blanchard came to Port Townsend, Washington, in the late 1980s via Bisbee, Arizona, and after sailing in Mexico. She never meant to become a yacht finisher, she says, but that’s how the dice rolled. She lived at a boatyard at first, then settled in a cozy Airstream that’s parked on her property next to her workshop, where she also…

During the 19th century, steamships were a lifeline for the farmers, whalers, merchants and other residents of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, connecting these small island communities to the mainland. In the oil painting Summer In The Sound, maritime artist Tim Thompson depicts the sidewheel steamer Nantucket passing Brant Point Lighthouse as a sailboat crosses in the foreground. The scene reflects the shift from commercial to recreational boating as the islands evolved into summer colonies. Thompson has spent his career painting vessels ranging from 16th-century ships to modern sailing yachts. Renowned for his meticulous attention to detail and atmospheric compositions, he does extensive research on the vessels he paints before putting brush to canvas, reading through contemporary accounts, ship’s logs, plans, coastal profiles and weather conditions. Born in Hull, Yorkshire, in…