Содержание выпуска: October 2018 — PassageMaker

Here’s a scene that plays out in the boatyard from time to time. A work order calls for rebedding a leaking porthole. After all the fasteners are removed, the hardware remains firmly in place. Some coaxing with a putty knife and some heat fails to free the porthole from the surface. At this point we can identify our foe. It’s a familiar antagonist known commonly by a number: 5200 (officially it is 3M™ 5200 Marine Adhesive Sealant). Out come wedges and hammers and solvents and curses and grunts. After an hour or two of struggle, the porthole finally lets go of the cabin side, but not without breaking off chunks of gelcoat and fiberglass. This unfortunate scenario begs this question: If the porthole is held in place with stout stainless…

Most of my career in the USCG was spent listening to the radio. Flying over the ocean, looking for the lost or otherwise missing, I was always tuned in and scanning the VHF band. Listening to what boaters said—and didn’t say—I learned over the years that radios are frequently misused, their capabilities are misunderstood, and very few know how to use them properly in an emergency. In the helicopter, I was usually too busy to chime in with a correction when a long conversation was taking place on Channel 16 or one vessel was ignoring the calls of another. Other boaters could always be counted on to call the novice out for his mistake and egos were beaten up pretty regularly. But the problem is more than just one of…

Sitting with Bob and Maureen Bush in the saloon of Turangalila, surrounded by teak cabinetry and plush, comfortable furniture, it was evident the new owners of the first Marlow Explorer 75E were more than delighted with their new yacht. “Building a yacht is time-consuming but fun,” Bob said. “There are so many details to consider, and that can be frustrating to some owners, but the end result is very personal, very satisfying.” Bob and Maureen previously built a 70-footer and loved most everything about the layout, especially the master stateroom, but finally decided after 12 years that it was time to move on. Turangalila is Hull No. 1 of the new Marlow Explorer 75E series (the E designates a European stern with twin stairways connecting the aft deck with the…

HUMANS ARE A RESTLESS LOT. It is our nature to explore and our nature to be curious, and traveling by boat is by far one of the most satisfying ways of keeping this explorer’s curiosity alive. The growing popularity of the “Great Loop”—a continuous waterway circling the eastern half of the U.S. and portions of Canada—is good evidence that many agree. No one is sure who first navigated the “Loop,” but it had to be some time after 1848, when the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which connected Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, joined the previously constructed Erie Canal. These two canal projects created an island of sorts of the eastern half of the continental United States. A collection of interconnected rivers, lakes, and waterways enabled a boater to circumnavigate…

Cameras offer more value per dollar than most electronic components. The technology and application have become commonplace, driving down the cost of high-quality cameras with zoom and directional control. Placing one or two of these cameras in your engine room will provide an extra level of monitoring easily done from the safety and comfort of your helm station. A camera does not replace a regular walk-through on long runs, but it helps. In rough conditions, when entering the engine room creates a new set of hazards ranging from injury caused by moving parts to seasickness, the camera will be your best friend. The clarity of the image is excellent and the ability to zoom in and pan gives you great vision. Simple, reliable, and easy to install, cameras also increase…

Garmin is riding high after taking away “Best of Show” honors at the annual ICAST fishing conference in Orlando, Florida. The company’s latest release, Panoptix LiveScope, bested 973 other products from 331 companies all vying for the same bragging rights. This win was not entirely unexpected. Earlier in the event, LiveScope had taken top honors for ICAST’s New Product Showcase, which was awarded by members of the fishing media. LiveScope includes a sonar black box and a two-way transducer that provides real-time scanning sonar. You can point it forward to see around your boat or straight down to see what’s beneath. In either case, LiveScope will resolve to a distance of 200 feet. What’s truly amazing about the technology, is the clarity with which you can make out structure or…

It’s not often that I get to sea trial a new yacht that has already been put through its paces, but that was certainly the case with the North Pacific 45 I tested earlier this year. It had just returned from a three-month shakedown cruise from Seattle, Washington, to Glacier Bay, Alaska. During that time, owners Patti and Andrew Atkins had racked up 4,000 miles and 500 hours on their single diesel—without any significant issues. To be perfectly honest, I don’t usually like to sea trial yachts when the owners are aboard. Owners are likely to object (perhaps rightly) to a reviewer running their precious possession at full throttle, making abrupt maneuvers, and so on. However, in this case, who better to come along than the people with the most…

Cruising the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) from Virginia to Florida is a bucket list dream for many cruisers. While the prospect of making the trip of more than 1,000 nautical miles may seem daunting, it needn’t be intimidating. Essentially it is just a series of day trips, and each year thousands of cruisers make the run. Here are a few ideas to keep in mind to make planning and executing this trip easier. If it helps, and it may not, you can think about navigating the ICW as a four-dimensional chess game. You monitor your boat east and west along the X axis while also monitoring your position north and south on the Y axis. You will have to deal with the Z axis, height, as well. You’ll need high water…

When Venolation sent us a pair of flip-flops to review, I have to say I approached them with a bit of skepticism. Their slogan is, “Soles with Holes.” We wanted to put them to the test over a long break-in period, the way any shoe ought to be tested. Let’s be honest, it’s hard to be innovative with flip-flops. For one, they date nearly as far back as the pyramids and the ancient Egyptians to roughly 1,500 BC. According to Wikipedia, the modern flip-flop is a version of the Japanese zori which was popularized in the West on the heels of World War II. I wore a pair of Ventolation’s Bali sandals for a few weeks after they arrived on my doorstep. The sandals are constructed of an EVA/rubber compound…

TRAWLERFEST-BALTIMORE UPDATE Baltimore’s inner harbor is set to host our 2018 September TrawlerFest at the brand-spanking-new marina facilities at Inner Harbor East. We’re excited to bring our legendary boating seminars to these shores from September 25-29, plus a fantastic land and sea boat show to match. In the classrooms, meet perennial favorites Steve Zimmerman and Nigel Calder, plus newer luminaries such as weather guru Chris Parker and boat-handling expert Bob Sweet. DAN Boater brings their always-important knowledge on medical emergencies at sea, and Kim Russo will speak about her expertise, how to prepare for your next — or first — big adventure on the Great Loop. Those are just a few of the classroom highlights, but also don’t forget to swing down to the docks starting on Thursday. We’ll host…

When you get on a brand-new trawler owned by Theo Koop, the boss of one of the world’s leading vendors of yacht stabilizers, you can expect it will remain upright. RotorSwing has supplied stabilizers to many of the world’s largest superyachts, as well as to the U.S. Navy, so he must rank highly as an expert in stabilization. As you would expect, the new Altena 50 was fitted with the latest product from Koop’s innovative company, and he was so proud to demonstrate its zero-speed capabilities that he had rigged up the system to show off its functionality even though we were alongside a berth in calm waters. But by changing a pair of wires, the owner was able to make the stabilizers operate in reverse, rolling the boat when…

Just as you get to Port Townsend on Washington’s Route 20 there is a turn off for the Glen Cove Industrial Park, where tucked around a bend in the road are two unassuming buildings that house the Port Townsend Foundry. Until I visited the foundry for the first time this year, I had always assumed it sat in the historic building on Port Townsend’s waterfront at the head of Point Hudson Marina. That is where I had always found Pete Langley and his crew during the annual Wooden Boat Festival. When Pete Langley first opened his business in 1983, it was in downtown Port Townsend, amid the splendor of the well-preserved Victorian era buildings. In fact, his first location was just a few blocks from where the original Port Townsend…

There are thousands of boats moving during the fall migration. Marina slips can be at a premium. If you plan ahead three days, you can almost always secure a marina reservation. Marinas understand that there are many factors that affect your progress. So if you cannot make your reservation, call early and let them know. They can usually fill the space and will let you reschedule. Just don’t forget to call and be a “no show.” That makes the trip harder for all cruisers. A marina stop generally allows you to refuel, pump out, do laundry, and maybe even use the loaner car to reprovision. As most cruisers pull into the marina around 3 p.m., this often results in a wait at the fuel dock or the pump-out station. Once…

For professional reasons I belong to several boating groups on Facebook. One of them—a sailing and cruising group—has an element generally lacking in the others, a surfeit of ignoramuses and pirate wannabees. Although I’ve been submerged in the trawler world for 15 years, I’m still a sailor, too, and I own a 41-foot ketch. I always thought sailors were the competent, thoughtful ones on the water. Not so much nowadays apparently, as I recently found during an online discussion of night vision. Night vision, otherwise known as “dark adaptation” has been an interest of mine ever since the Ranger sergeants staged a demonstration showing one of their colleagues smoking a cigarette on a blackened ridgeline a mile away. Night vision was of obvious importance as I began making night passages…