Here’s a story we have been following from time to time because weather forecasts are such an essential element of our lives on the water. NOAA is at the epicenter of those forecasts. This week, the U.S. Senate confirmed Dr, Neil Jacobs to be the new Administrator of NOAA, the umbrella agency that supervises the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center and dozens of other agencies dedicated to earth science, weather and climate issues. Dr. Jacobs is eminently qualified for the position as a scientist and a veteran of NOAA. Under Trump 1.0, he served as the acting administrator,…
At the end of Herman Melville’s great novel Moby Dick, after doing battle with Captain Ahab and drowning him, the white whale turned it malevolence on the whaling ship itself. Ramming the Pequot at high speed, the whale sent its tormentors to a watery grave with only one survivor, the story’s narrator, Ishmael. While the tale is often thought of as an allegory, it is in fact based on two very real incidences of whales in the South Pacific sinking whaling ships, the Essex and the Ann Alexander. A survivor of the Essex sinking, Owen Chase, wrote a memoir of…
Italian builder Azimut has long been a style leader among Mediterranean yacht constructors with new models reinventing what it means to exude marine brio and duende. The new Fly 82, which is the flagship of the Azimut Fly series, does just that. With shapely lines and a strong sheer, the 82 looks like it is in motion even when tied to a dock. The stepped bow design, which is an Azimut staple, not only looks good it deflects spray and eases the hull up onto a plane. The cabin has a severely angled wind screen and the line of that…
Last Sunday, in fair weather, Arthur Furtney, 88, and his companion Paul Brown set off in Furtney’s 23-foot center console to transit Bogue Inlet, which cuts between Bogue Sound, North Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean. The Inlet is known to be swept by strong currents, and it appears that the 23-foot was caught in choppy waves and flipped throwing both men into the water. Furtney did not survive the accident and drowned. Brown was able to stay afloat and swam to the inlet’s Buoy #1 where he was able to hang on until help arrived. Help did arrive in the…
Chuck and Barb Shipley, who are retired and live aboard their Krogen 48 North Sea, are living the cruising dream They determined when they retired to move aboard and explore the world. They sold their Georgia home, and the rest is history. Barb was able to retire a year before Chuck, so she took that time to become a certified captain with a 50-ton license. This competency has proven valuable in every aspect of their cruising life aboard North Sea. The Shipley’s made the leap to cruise from the U.S. to the Bahamas and then on to the Caribbean by…
A government shutdown will affect recreational boating by closing boat ramps, marinas, and recreation sites in areas managed by federal agencies, such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Park Service. While essential services like the U.S. Coast Guard will continue, other agencies responsible for infrastructure, safety, and water quality could be disrupted. Direct impacts on access Army Corps of Engineers (USACE): Based on past shutdowns and current plans, most USACE-managed boat ramps, campgrounds, and day-use parks are expected to close entirely. Some concessionaire-operated facilities on leased land, however, may remain open. National Park Service (NPS): National parks and recreation…
This week, Tiara Yacht, the family-owned builder based in Holland, Michigan, announced that the company was introducing the all knew 39LE to its LE (Luxury Express) line. “We are advancing both our brand and the Luxury Express series with the introduction of the 39 LE,” said Tom Slikkers, CEO at Tiara Yachts. “Rooted in innovation and versatility, this cabin cruiser is a timeless model at the intersection of legacy and luxury. We are excited to introduce a new LE model to our customers, and we’re confident that the 39 LE will be as enduring as it is innovative.” The new…
This week at the Annapolis Powerboat Show Washington state builder Aspen Power Cats is introducing their all new 44-foot, C128 outboard-powered cruising cat. The company’s new flagship, with rakish good looks, defines what can be created in a 44-foot, flybridge cat. Aspen’s patented, award-winning designs are built on the asymmetrical proa hull configuration, with the starboard hull being full size and the port hull being narrower. This combination provides for a very stable ride while cutting fuel consumption significantly. With twin Suzuki 300-horsepower outboards with stainless steel, three-blade, counter rotating props, the C128 will have a cruising speed of 20…
The Helmsman family of cruising trawlers, now numbering seven models from 31 to 54 feet, has remained true to the trawler ethos from day one. They build semi-displacement cruisers, based on working trawler designs, that are seaworthy, simple to maintain, easy to handle and possess very long range capabilities. The 43E which is now in a second generation, evolved from the highly popular Helmsman 38, hence the E in its branding. By adding almost seven feet and increasing the beam, the new 43 had a much more spacious salon and bridge and enough volume forward for two full cabins with…
At the Newport International Boat Show, Hinckley Yachts of Portsmouth, Rhode Island introduced their new 39 Picnic Boat with a large forward lounge. It’s a first for the company that has nearing 100 years in the boat building business. The addition of forward seating in the 39 creates three distinct social areas on the boat. Aft you have the spacious cockpit with wrap-around sofa seating for six or more people. The stern door opens to the full-beam swim platform that will be easily accessed when boarding the boat from a dinghy. The salon has an L-shaped settee along the port…
The Swift Trawler 37 sedan replaced the venerable 35 and has established itself as a leader in the mid-size trawler market around the world. With top speeds of over 20 knots and efficient cruising speeds in the mid-teens, the 37 has proven that trawler cruising does not have to be equal to slow cruising. This year, Beneteau is debuting their new Swift Trawler 37 Fly which adds a bridge and upper lounge to the design. This new feature effectively increases usable social spaces by about 30 percent and gives the navigator a raised helm for eyeball conning and docking. The…
On September 10, 1982, three passengers aboard a light aircraft crashed into the sea off the Canadian Maritimes. They were able to deploy their life raft and they had with them the earliest version an Emergency Position Indicating Beacon (EPIRB). They switched it on and set in motion the very first COSPAS-SARSAT rescue. They were found and rescued in a matter of hours instead of the days such search and rescue missions took before the satellite rescue system was in place. Since then, more than 50,000 people have been saved from a watery end by EPIRB technology. For those of…
Whether you are looking to add radar to your boat or it’s just time to replace an old and out of date unit, there are a lot of considerations that should go into the decision-making process. To start, you need to be certain that a new or replacement radar is compatible with your existing marine electronics. In other words, will the radar display appear on your multifunction display so you can overlay the images onto the digital chart. For simplicity’s sake, it makes sense to stick with one brand for all electronics. The size of radar you choose depends on…
This is a down-and-dirty topic but fuel-water separators in your boat’s fuel lines are without doubt your first and most important line of defense in the war against contaminated diesel fuel. This is particularly true of you are cruising away from your home fuel dock and taking on diesel of unknown purity. Water in your fuel can come from several sources. First, it may be in the fuel dock’s own tanks that may have a leak or may not be well insulated and thus can sweat condensation in humid conditions Or, your own on-board metal tanks can sweat moisture from…
Volvo Penta introduced Joystick steering two decades ago and has continued to pioneer ways to use the combination of engines, thrusters and GPS to help skippers maneuver their boats more easily and precisely. I was involved in the early demonstrations of the Volvo Dynamic Positioning technology back then and was amazed at how well even the prototype held a boat in position and allowed the skipper to turn a boat inside its own length. Last fall at the Ft. Lauderdale show, I got to test the latest Volvo Joystick iteration with the new Assisted Docking Function that allows you to…
The Great Loop has many attractions from the coral reefs of Florida’s Dry Tortugas to the wilds of Georgian Bay in Lake Huron, but many a veteran looper will tell you that Canada’s Trent-Severn Waterway is the jewel in crown of the loop experience. And, for those who are not ready to ditch the work-a-day life and spend a year on the Loop, you can still experience the Trent-Severn aboard a self-drive or bareboat charter boat. The French canal charter boat company Le Boat has a base on Lake Ontario and from there you can spend days or weeks discovering…
Picture yourself at the helm of a 40-foot cabin cruiser motoring at 5 knots or so along a narrow canal that is bordered on both sides by towering plane trees whose roots form the natural reinforcement for the canal’s sides. Beyond, there are wide open fields of ripening wheat and sunflowers and huge rolling vineyards. It is hot and the air is still. You are on the Canal du Midi in the south of France and you are very close to heaven. For many a cruiser, a week or two on this ancient and historic canal ranks high on their…
The British Virgin Islands are the world’s most popular charter destination. There are hundreds of boats to charter, both power and sail. There are dozens of anchorages, some with moorings and some without. And, there are a score of beach bars and restaurants that all have been rebuilt since Hurricane Ivan struck the islands in 2017. If you are in the BVIs on your own boat or aboard charter boat, there are some regular attractions that most people tick off. There’s the Bite an Norman’s. There’s the wreck of the Rhone to snorkel over. There are the famous Baths on…
The Great Loop circles the eastern half of the United states and is comprised of 6,000 miles of connected rivers, waterways, canals and lakes. It can take nine months or more to complete a full circuit of the loop and along the way you’ll explore the whole east coast, the Great Lakes, the mighty rivers running south to the Gulf of Mexico and both coasts of Florida. Such a journey has long been on the bucket lists of many a cruiser, yet it is a big bite of the adventure apple to undertake with many challenges to impede your progress.…
At last September’s Cannes Festival of Yachting in the South of France, I attended Beneteau’s annual press event and was introduced to the innovative electric Island Cruising Concept Yacht. Always an innovator, Beneteau had a vision of boating and chartering in the future. Now, Dream Yacht Charters is offering that future in the BVI. Their fleet of sail and power boats now includes the boxy-looking electric hybrid power boats that are like floating beach houses with accommodations for a normal chart6er party The Island Cruising Concept is all about indoor-outdoor living and practical sustainability. The idea is to be close…
In the last few years as I’ve been making offshore trips as crew for my friends, whether back and forth to the Caribbean from New England or across the Atlantic, it seems that a lot of the crew aboard show up with their own hand-held GPSs and an InReach or a satphone. This is a “just-in-case” level of preparation by sailors who have in fact been on boats that were hit by lightning or suffered a battery bank collapse that meant built-in marine electronics were no longer working or reliable. Garmin has long been a leader in hand-held GPSs and…
Volvo Penta has been working on electric propulsion and hybrid diesel-electric systems for a decades. The diesel-electric system coupkled to IPS drives is now available for commercial and recreational use and provides an elegant and proven technology that will allow boats to run silent and carbon free. The electric motor in the system fits between the main engine and the IPS pod and is engaged with a clutch. The motors run off a bank of lithium-ion batteries that can be sized for each boat’s specific tasks and requirements. “A hybrid provides a flexible solution, one that maintains the high efficiency…
Most of the modern fast cruisers that run at planing speeds have trim tabs that are adjusted manually to level the boat off and make it run more comfortably and efficiently. Adjusting trim tabs takes practice and skill and affects trim slowly, not dynamically. Swedish inventor Niclas Olofsson, who has a PhD in hydrodynamics had a better idea. In 1994, while on a business trip to Fremantle, Australia, the boat builder he was calling on had a problem. The Chinese company that had ordered several small fast ferry boats had rejected the products because the ferries could not reach the…
Here’s a tragic story about a young, adventurous woman whose life was cut short. Last week, while moored in the Harbour Island resort and marina in the Bahamas, the crew of the 142-foot motor yacht Far From It was preparing the vessel for a charter when they noticed that their stewardess Paige Bell was missing. A search of the yacht brought tragic results. Bell was found stabbed to death in the engine room and near her was the yacht’s engineer Birgito Munoz with self-inflicted but non-fatal knife wounds. The scene suggested a violent and likely sexual assault. Munoz was arrested,…
We had just dropped the mooring off The Bitter End in Virgin Gorda’s North Sound in the BVI and started the 15-mile passage north to Anagada when a gusty squall swept in from the Atlantic and began pelting us with rain drops the size of grapes. But, there was no panic, no rushing to the mast to drop the mainsail, no frantic rolling up of the headsail. That’s because we were snug at the inside helm of a 45-foot power cat. The squall passed and soon we climbed to the bridge to enjoy the sunlight and the view of the…
The Galley Guys are three couples who often take boating vacations together and then write up their adventures in Canadian Boating magazine. This installment saw them chartering a power cruiser from Le Boat in which to explore the famously beautiful Trent-Severn Waterway. Le Boat charter craft have been designed to be simple to operate and safe for all levels of expertise. They only go six knots and have fenders all around in anticipation of collisions with lock sides, marina pilings and other boats. They have bow and stern thrusters so they are simple to maneuver and will turn in their…
This week, MarineMax Vacations announced its recognition as a recipient of the 2024 Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Award. This coveted honor celebrates businesses that consistently deliver exceptional experiences, placing MarineMax Vacations among the top hospitality companies worldwide. This achievement reflects the dedication and passion of the MarineMax Vacations team, whose mission is to provide unforgettable charter experiences in some of the most beautiful destinations on earth. From the British Virgin Islands to other idyllic locations, MarineMax Vacations has become synonymous with luxury, adventure, and seamless customer service. “We are incredibly honored to receive the 2024 Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Award,” said Raul Bermudez, Vice President of MarineMax Vacations. “This…