Tabla de contenidos para March 2019 en PassageMaker

Let’s make an example of an early June passage from Anacortes, Washington, to Juneau, Alaska, via the Inside Passage. The idiosyncrasies of all the tides and tidal currents for a passage such as this would fill a book (or several). In this case we’ll focus only on the departure and arrival. DEPARTURE At a speed of advance of 12 knots, the voyage will take us about three days. We depart just before sunrise on June 3 at 5:00 a.m. local time. We begin our voyage at Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes, where the controlling depth of the marina and entrance channel is 10 feet. Our vessel drafts 5 feet. Our predicted tide is 7.6 feet, added to 10 feet for 17.6 feet of water. Minus 5 feet for our draft…

It would be easy to describe the Sirena 58 as another pretty example of European style and leave it at that. Certainly her profile—with plumb bow, fully windowed house, and crisp superstructure accent lines—is enough to draw approving glances at any marina. Doing so, however, overlooks a host of substantive features, including the healthy dose of yachting passion that went into the design, engineering, and construction of this new model. It’s about more than her electrohydraulically operated lay-down antenna mast, which should appeal to any mariner who has to deal with low bridges, or her hydraulic tender platform, which makes launch and retrieval a breeze—even when shorthanded, anchored in a seaway. I’m talking about, for example, an inspired hull form that runs at an almost constant (and nearly level) angle…

Not being a commercial fisherman, I had no exposure to the Xtratuf® brand of outdoor gear until a pair of 6-inch ankle deck boots showed up in the office, courtesy of our local West Marine store. For anglers and other outdoors aficionados, owning a pair of sturdy nonskid foul-weather boots is a must. Likewise, if you live in a place with persistent drizzle such as the Pacific Northwest, a go-to pair for boating, dog-walking or errand-running can be of equal necessity. Xtratuf ankle boots provide capable protection from rain and puddles, and as an owner would be wise to pair the uninsulated boots with a set of Smartwool socks, sizes run about a half-size larger than marked. So then, by my estimation, they are sized well. In case your foul-weather…

SPRING TRAWLERFESTS THROTTLE UP PassageMaker’s signature boat show series for cruising enthusiasts kicks off again this March with new offerings in Stuart, Florida, before heading to an all-new location on the Seattle waterfront. Designed to educate and inspire with more than 30 seminars to choose from, both shows will offer select certificate courses designed to not only give you peace of mind on the water, but to help save you money on insurance premiums. TrawlerFest: Stuart Forget anything you may have seen in Robert Redford’s movie “Lost.” Debuting at Stuart this year is Safety & Survival at Sea ($130), a new seminar by ocean survival experts Mario Vittone and Michael Carr, designed to address important safety topics from preparation and gear to seamanship under duress. For the ultimate experience, pair…

In late 2017, John Deere Power Systems (JDPS) announced a new marine engine designed for light commercial duty and pleasure craft vessels. The PowerTech 4045SFM85, a 4.5-liter engine, is lighter and has greater power density than its 445AFM predecessor. Available in 275- and 315-horsepower variants, it’s a great option for repower of full- and semi-displacement boats, as well as planing hulls. In designing its new 4.5-liter, JDPS emphasized durability, reliablity, and fuel efficiency, undergoing extensive bench testing, which included 500 hours spent cycling between high RPM and sudden low RPM throttling. Last summer, the manufacturer field-tested four of the new engines on boats around the country: a pleasure boat, a dive boat, a bowpicker in Alaska, and a New Jersey-based crabber. According to the manufacturer, all four owners were impressed…

In a the aluminum, outboard-powered Coastal Craft 33 ProFish. Its 40-knot top segment driven largely by function, it’s rare to find a fit and finish—inside and out—worthy of a list of flowery adjectives. Yet that’s just what I found on speed, open cockpit with room to reel in the big ones, dedicated fish-cleaning station, and vast storage lockers will appeal to anglers, sure. But Coastal Craft’s newest edition also has all the attributes that have earned the British Columbia–based builder high marks in the luxury aluminum boatbuilding segment. With distinctive lines, immaculate fairing, notable craftsmanship, and performance prowess, “ProFish” is somewhat of a misnomer, as this new model is equally suited for non-anglers looking for speed, economy, and quality in a small, easy-to-handle yacht. Design and Construction The length of…

Nathan Nelson remembers the day he realized a career in academia wouldn’t be his calling. It was the moment his university advisor asked him to begin a fourth thesis project. Nelson had been studying neuromuscular communication at Oregon Health and Science University, but when he stopped to think about what he wanted to do—in science and in his life—he realized that nothing he enjoyed doing actually required a Ph.D. Even if he stayed in the neuroscience field, he didn’t need a doctorate to do the hands-on research benchwork that he loved so dearly. So he finished his thesis and left the university with a master’s in neuroscience instead of continuing with his doctoral program. The decision seemed a bit like a midlife crisis, though Nelson was hardly old enough to…

Yes, I attended the 2018 International Boatbuilder’s Exhibition, in Tampa, Florida. And yes, I found plenty of innovative technology to tell you about. However, it’s probably not what you expect. I’m not going to tell you about the latest trends in fender clips, or the newest, baddest LED underwater lighting array, or any of the items that won awards for innovation this year. Instead, I want to go deeper and tell you about a group of distinct technology waves coming together in a synergistic swell that will change the way you generate and manage onboard electrical power. A Chilling Revelation Traditionally, the single most significant factor in a yacht’s total electrical loading has been the current demand produced by its air conditioning system. That’s because starting a traditional a/c compressor…

Like expensive custom homes, building a large custom boat can be stressful. Design debates, change orders, delays, cost overruns, negotiations and renegotiations—these are the soul-sucking realities of a custom job. For Timothy Coffey, those problems proved trivial by comparison when the owners of Custom Steel Boats, the company building his 72-footer, were murdered mid-project. All work stopped on Coffey’s project as the yard owners’ family coped with the loss and the children struggled to manage a business they did not expect to be inheriting so soon. According to Coffey, work on his boat stalled for nearly two years, but she was floatable. “I hired a tugboat and took the boat to St. Augustine Marine in Florida, hauled it out of the water, put it in one of the sheds, and…

Reasons for needing a tow can range from loss of steering or loss of a propeller to engine failure, fuel issues, or a number of other problems. Most likely you have literally lost power and/or control. If you are like me, it’s easy to feel deflated and disappointed in such a situation, but remember that you still have some control over how smoothly the towing process goes. While you’re waiting for the towboat to arrive, there are a number of steps you can take to reduce the risk of complications (and thus additional costs) during your tow. FREEWHEELIN’ Unless you lost the propeller, the force of the water across the prop during a tow will cause the shaft to spin, an effect sometimes called “backdriving” or “windmilling.” (A boat tied…

You’ve picked out your perfect boat and now it’s time to outfit it for your cruising needs. If you walk the electronics tent of a boat show, you might conclude you will need a six-figure budget for your electronics alone. The reality is there are a handful of essential items needed for safe navigation of your vessel and a lot of products out there that are designed to make cruising easier. Finding the right balance between the two is important to setting yourself up for safe and successful boating. When selecting electronics, it’s important to pick what works for you. Your comfort with using the electronics is a critical factor that is often overlooked. Navigational electronics are designed as navigation aids, and for them to be effective, you must be…

Let’s be honest: nobody ever really knew exactly where they were with certainty before GPS came along. Dead reckoning was the navigator’s daily stock-in-trade, that and his ability to maintain a poker face when putting his finger on the chart and saying: ‘We’re here.’ My first offshore race was the North Sea Race, a triangular course starting on the east coast of England and ending, with any luck, just outside the Dutch port of Rotterdam. All was going according to plan until, late in the evening before the start of the race, our navigator announced that he had left the charts back in London. Since it was too late to go back and fetch them, he set about making his own chart on the back of an old one, using…

Demand for trailerable boats has caught fire over the last decade, and boatbuilders have answered the call with a wide variety of solutions. Though designed with a common objective, the solutions vary greatly in how they address the needs of a portable market. Conceived to take a cruising couple on waterborne adventures, these trailerable boats are a natural fit in the world of trawlers, but in a different fashion. Traveling is at the core, but the question is how far, how fast, and how long. Here are six capable cruisers you can strap down and take with you this summer. ATLAS Acadia 25 When I first wrote about this boat in 2012, the Acadia 25 was only offered as a diesel. But I was taken with her simplicity and rugged…