Table of contents for Jan/Feb 2020 in PassageMaker

Editor-in-Chief Several years ago, a buddy and I were delivering a new 44-foot motoryacht we had picked up at PortMiami to her owner’s dock in Fort Lauderdale. Easy jobs like that were a good source of drinking money in our younger days, and unless the owner specified otherwise, we would run outside up the coast to save ourselves a few hours of Intracoastal bridge openings and no-wake zones in order to be tied up before happy hour. A cold front had blown through earlier that day. As locals, we knew conditions would deteriorate as the breeze clocked around behind the front, but we also figured we’d be well inside the breakwater by then. Plus, we had free fuel to burn, so we headed out the cut. Forty-five minutes into the…

Tech entrepreneur Jasper Smith, who founded the PlayJam company that distributes interactive content, seems to be on the right track in creating his version of the ultimate explorer yacht. The Arksen series, which has three models from 70 to 100 feet length overall, is intended to cope with the harshest conditions, be autonomous for extended periods, and be frugal in fuel consumption. Smith wants to create yachts that can explore the remotest corners of the globe. To create the designs, Smith turned to Humphreys Yacht Design in the United Kingdom. The firm’s comfort zone is squeezing the last ounce of performance out of racing sailing yachts. For the Arksen line, Rob Humphreys and his son, Tom, worked to develop a power hull that’s fuel efficient and rough-sea capable. The hulls…

Most trawler-type yachts generally conform to a sound, seaworthy style that has been developed and refined over the years, adding comfort and finishing to workboat and fishing-boat heritage. But what if you wanted to start from scratch to design a cruising yacht? What would you come up with? This was the question that exercised the mind of Sietse Koopmans, the Dutchman who, after years of building cruising boats, developed and built the range of Zeelander yachts known for their stylish curves and luxurious touches. He was trying to think about what to create next. “For years, I have pondered the idea of starting with a clean sheet of paper to develop a design that met all the requirements of a cruising yacht and which would be adaptable to a wide…

BEFORE HAULING – TRIAL RUN ␺ TAKE READINGS AT 500 RPM INCREMENTS, FIVE-MINUTE INTERVALS.␺ RUN FOR 30 MINUTES AT 80% LOAD (OR 10% BELOW MAXIMUM RPM).␺ RUN AT WIDE OPEN THROTTLE (WOT) FOR 10 MINUTES AND CHECK TEMPS, SMOKE, VIBRATION.␺ CHECK SHAFT-SEAL DRIP RATE. IF CONVENTIONAL STUFFING BOX, TAKE TEMP OF HOUSING AT CRUISE. (SHOULD NOT BE HIGHER THAN 20 DEGREES ABOVE SEAWATER TEMP OR 130 MAX.)␺ FOR ALL SEALS, PULL INJECTION HOSE OFF AND CHECK FOR GOOD FLOW OF WATER. IMMEDIATELY AFTER HAUL OUT – STRUCTURAL ␺ SIGHT BOTTOM FOR BLISTERS WHILE PAINT IS WET. IF BLISTERS ARE PRESENT, CHECK BOTTOM WITH MOISTURE METER.␺ LOOK FOR AREAS THAT REMAIN DAMP AFTER SURROUNDING AREAS HAVE DRIED (CAN INDICATE A PROBLEM IN THE LAMINATE). WHILE ON LAND – BELOW THE WATERLINE…

Brian Saunders and Terri Deuel have been together for 11 years—or, in more relevant terms, three boats. They are partners in passagemaking now, but the difference in their boating backgrounds when they first met was dramatic. Saunders was a veteran sailor and off shore cruiser, a liveaboard who had been crossing oceans and working in the marine industry for most of his life, selling boats, delivering boats, running charters. He’d grown up in the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club; his dad was a member, and Saunders learned to race flatties in the junior program. Soon he was sailing club members’ 40- and 50-footers (winning his first silver cup at age 18) and then racing internationally. The first sailboat he owned, Kayoko, was an Ed Monk Sr. design built in a hobby…

While experience remains the best teacher, even the saltiest of captains find docking to be stress-inducing from time to time. Joysticks have made heroes out of a lot of us and become a must-have option: All the major engine manufacturers now offer one as part of a package to control multiple engines for close-quarters maneuvers. “Everyone has wanted to make docking easier forever,” Prestige Director of Marketing Eric Stromberg tells me. “It’s kind of the holy grail.” Raymarine’s DockSense assisted docking aims to do just that. The system adds what Raymarine calls a “virtual bumper” (I would’ve named it a virtual fender), a simulated geofence around the boat that senses objects—pilings, boats, floating debris—within its range. It adds semi-autonomous commands that will take the reins should a collision be imminent.…

Events Waterborne adventure finds the big screen at the Nordhavn Film Festival. Hundreds of Nordhavn enthusiasts gathered to attend the inaugural Nordhavn Film Festival, a black-tie gala held in Dana Point, California, in October. The festival, which received 18 entries, was conceived to be a celebration of adventures on Nordhavns, as interpreted by amateur filmmakers who are also owners and crewmembers. The top ten finalists were selected by a panel of judges, which included Passagemaker Editor-in-Chief Andrew Parkinson, and were screened live at the event. Denzil Baynes, a crewmember from the Nordhavn 120 My Aurora, took home the $10,000 grand prize for his film Aurora Saves, a riveting documentary about a day in which the My Aurora crew made several heroic ocean mammal rescues while underway. Baynes in his acceptance…

You head into the harbor at the end of a voyage and tie up in the marina, looking forward to a well-earned meal ashore. But do you ever think about what you are mooring your yacht to? Many of us take marina pontoons, mooring systems and posts for granted. When you think about it, though, the safety of your yacht depends on them being in good order. It is different when you anchor, because the whole responsibility for the safety of the yacht is in your hands. In marinas, you hand over a bit of the responsibility to the marina owners, who hopefully have maintained the mooring cleats and pontoons in good order. Those mooring cleats or rings on the marina pontoon can look so safe and secure that you…

No Light, No Problem FLIR LAUNCHES A ROBUST NEW LINE OF VISIBLE-LIGHT CAMERAS. FLIR has unveiled its M300 line of marine cameras with five models, including the company’s first visible-light-only camera, plus Color Thermal Vision (CTV) and MSX edge enhancing imaging technologies. I took a night ride on the FLIR/Raymarine demo boat in Virginia’s busy Norfolk Harbor and saw how all this technology can enhance situational awareness. The M300 line adds horizontal stabilization to the previous gen’s vertical stabilization capabilities. To make this happen, FLIR added an Attitude Heading Reference System (AHRS) to all cameras in the line. This also means that all cameras can now supply acceleration data to a Raymarine Axiom to enable ClearCruise AR without a separate AR200 sensor pack. CTV & MSX CTV is a major…

Why is it possible to sit in the front seat of a 19-year-old Toyota, just 3 feet from an engine running at 2000 rpm, and feel like the environment is quieter than the one aboard most boats? The answer to that question is complicated. A major contributor of noise on boats is marine generators that, typically for safety reasons, run on diesel fuel. Unfortunately, a number of factors make diesel-powered gensets noisier and more prone to vibration. Diesel fuel is heavier (it has a greater specific gravity and higher energy content per unit volume) than gasoline. Consequently, burning diesel fuel in an internal combustion engine involves a more violent release of energy. That release is, in itself, noisier than what you find in gasoline engines. Additionally, the more powerful release…

Hauling a boat for bottom cleaning and painting seems like a simple and routine procedure. Planned carefully, however, this annual ritual provides an opportunity for critical inspections and service that are not possible at any other time. Knowing what to do before, during and after the haul out will greatly improve your preventive maintenance. BEFORE THE HAUL OUT Most boats get underway to move to the hauling yard, and that provides a perfect opportunity for a mechanical test run. Take the time to get out in some open water where you can safely run at WOT. Once the engines have warmed up, take them to maximum rpm for about 20 minutes. Begin by recording the maximum rpm and comparing it to the rated engine rpm. If you cannot reach the…

The key trade-offs in selecting an antifouling coating for your boat’s bottom involve effectiveness, durability and longevity, all measured against cost in time, labor and dollars. For example, if you haul and lay up your boat at the end of the season for, say, six to eight months, then you may find that the most effective antifouling paint is also the least expensive—because your short use cycle precludes you from realizing the full value of paints with greater longevity. If, however, you keep your boat in the water year-round, then hauling to clean and paint (and relaunching) become added costs that can be avoided with more expensive paints that remain effective for two or three years. The point is that true cost involves more than what you pay per gallon…