Table of contents for Jul/Aug 2019 in PassageMaker

A few years ago, I overheard an energetic conversation between a contractor and an architect about “the perfect wall.” House construction details don’t interest me, but I admired the interest and intensity of the people involved on such a bland topic. In that spirit, let’s talk about the perfect seacock for below-waterline applications. It seems fairly simple: We need a reliable valve to close when needed and a suitable place to attach a hose; we need assurance that someone accidentally standing on it won’t loosen anything; and we need protection from corrosion, as it will be immersed in salt water most of the time. Hardware The perfect seacock must withstand two threats: physical stress and corrosion. Let’s tackle the physical demands first. The ABYC standard states it this way: “A…

Every time I take the helm on a sea trial, my mind goes into overdrive. It’s not so much the geeking out over helm gadgetry before me; rather, it’s about the waypoints in the distance. My mind wanders to all the faraway places I could see myself cruising. If points were awarded for far-out daydreams, then Outer Reef’s latest 700 Classic Series motoryacht, Rhapsody, would be a high scorer. With my hand on her throttle, I felt like the Starbucks barista had slipped a little extra octane into my “tall Pike” that morning. I first saw Rhapsody while she was sitting pretty at the end of a T-dock at Seattle’s Elliott Bay Marina. Walking up to her was a bit like meeting an old friend for lunch. The 700 model…

The Dutch take a pragmatic approach to life, probably because of their centuries-old battle to prevent the sea from invading their land. Their yacht designs tend to be pure, with not a line or shape wasted. Dick Boon, the founder of Vripack, personified the Dutch approach to yachtbuilding. He’s called “the father of the trawler yacht” because the Doggersbank he drew in 1968 changed motoryacht design. It was a sound yacht built in steel, one whose styling appealed to traditional seamen—it just plain looked like it could roam the oceans and come home safely. More than 500 have since been built in various lengths and materials, including composites since 1977. Boon’s Vripack design firm grew along with the Doggersbank brand, and today is known the world over for interior and…

In December 1968, John McDonnell was eastbound from Vietnam to Los Angeles as the 492-foot freighter American Robin’s first mate, and I was westbound from New York, via the Panama Canal, to Japan as a cadet aboard the 496-foot Export Agent. It was only recently, though, that I learned from his blog that our two ships shared a harrowing experience near the intersection of the Tropic of Cancer and the International Dateline. I’d gotten used to the rhythmic rise and fall of the Agent’s foredeck as three of us carried out routine maintenance, but there was nothing routine about glancing up and seeing more water than sky. I yelled to the others as a huge wave approached. We barely reached the shelter of the main deck in the lee of…

BOB ARRINGTON Diagnosed early in life as an incurable “aquaphile,” Bob Arrington finds most of his happiness on, in or under the water. A teacher and a storyteller at heart, Arrington shares his love of the water as a writer, a marine industry consultant, a boat training captain and a scuba instructor. Today, he and his photographer wife cruise extensively aboard their trawler, looking for the next story to tell. page 44 CHRIS CASWELL Winner of more than 50 marine journalism awards over his career, Chris Caswell hosted the weekly cable series Marine Voyager on the Speed Channel and Outdoor Life Networks. He’s also appeared on Oprah! as a boating lifestyle expert. “I’ve owned more boats than I want my wife or banker to know about,” he says of his…

What is the difference between a ship and a boat? It’s one of the questions I am most frequently asked. One would imagine that after several thousand years of seafaring, we’d have a simple and concise answer. We don’t. Most of the answers I’ve heard are somewhat true some of the time, but never true all of the time. Ships sometimes ride on larger ships; boats sometimes carry smaller boats. Some boats have multiple decks. Some ships lack permanent captains or crew, while some boats have both. And, like ships, larger multihull boats don’t heel much when they turn. Add to this the variety of new hull types that do not conform well (or at all) to traditional ship design, and the challenge of answering the question seems even more…

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“Navigator 2, Navigator 2, this is the motoryacht Angelo, channel 16. Switch to channel 68 and come in, please…come in, please.” The urgency in the voice coming from the flybridge VHF radio surprised us. For a couple of hours, our radars had been tracking the vessel closing in on us from astern—which, at present speed and course, presented a potential collision risk. Now, we learned, the boat had been following us on purpose. Responding on channel 68, an agitated voice informed us that the late-model, 40-foot motoryacht had been experiencing problems since leaving Cape May, New Jersey, which we’d had about 5 miles directly abeam some 12 hours earlier. The weather had since shifted: The wind was blowing a solid 20 knots from the north, gusting to 45. Seas were…

The 65-foot trawler San Gottardo was born a half-century ago in the Dutch fishing village of Harlingen, where five brothers built her and named her, well, Vijf Gebroeders (“the five brothers”). They planned to make their fortunes fishing the North Sea. Dutch fishermen are a hardy breed, often facing challenging conditions in their grueling line of work. It took just two years before larger ships, with more sophisticated gear, made smaller ships like the San Gottardo obsolete. Unable to keep up with the competition, the five brothers could no longer pay the mortgage on the boat and the bank auctioned her off. A few people tried to revive her, but by 1994, she was taken out of service altogether. She was laid up until 2006, when Dutch Capt. Gerrit de…

It exists in splendid isolation, at the cutting edge of history and the threshold of a dream, deep in the South Atlantic. It is St. Helena, a 10-mile-long, 7-mile-wide speck on the map, the second-oldest British overseas territory (after Bermuda and the Falkland Islands) and one of the most remote islands on Earth. About once a year, a cruise ship might stop at this island, which lies about 1,200 miles from Angola and 1,800 miles from Brazil. The most frequent visitors, though, are private boats: More than 700 called on St. Helena last year alone according to the tourism bureau, either seeking safe haven or supplies, or looking to explore the unspoiled destination. Most boaters are stopping for fuel and stores on a southerly transatlantic crossing, and most stay for…