There’s nothing urgent here, nothing mind-bending or surprising. But if you love boats, take a look at this video. It’s all about a pretty boat in pretty water handled by a pretty damn good captain. Meet the Lady J, a 389-ton, 142-feet-long, 1997 Palmer Johnson docking in Marigot Bay, St. Luca. Thrusters help, but here’s a nice look at some pretty professional boat handling: http://www.oceanofnews.com/dock-yacht-caribbean/
We’re all aware of the possibility of a fire on our boat. But I know from my own experience, and that of most of my friends, we tend to put that possibility in the back of our minds. Yes, we have enough extinguishers; yes, we check them periodically, and yes, we tell our family or crew where they are and how to use them. But that’s clearly not enough. Because fires are much worse than we think they are. They spread faster. They often cut off escape routes. They can be explosive. All this is spelled out in a great…
Just introduced at the Palm Beach show, the Minorca 34 is an entirely new entry, a light-filled, well-built Spanish cruiser being represented in the U.S. by SYS Yacht Sales of Jupiter and Sarasota, Florida. The two-cabin, one-head Minorca, made in the Balearic island of the same name, has an exceptional design on the outside, with gentle curves almost everywhere,while the interior is bright and open in a contemporary style that just as easily could be at home in Scandanavia as in the coast of Spain. Although new to the U.S., the Minorca 34 has already been displayed in Europe, winning…
We all know how easily this sort of tragedy can happen. And how easily it can be avoided. On Sept. 22, 2015, Cooper Bacon, 76, a Coast Guard licensed captain from Cape May Court House, New Jersey, was driving a new Princess 60 from the Newport, Rhode Island, boat show down to the Norwalk, Connecticut, boat show. Also on board was mate William Noe, 3rd, of Woodbine, New Jersey. It was 10:30 in the morning on a sunny, clear day. At the same time, Walter Krupinski, 81, a rod and reel commercial fisherman from Stonington, Connecticut, was heading home after…
Journalist Jamie Lauren Keiles spent four days on the Great Loop with Tim and Karen Bartel on their Bluewater 52, Let It Ride, for a story in The New York Times Magazine. The Bartels left home in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, last Sept. 2. Keiles caught up with them in Fort Myers, Florida, as they prepared to cross the Okeechobee. She ends up with a fun story about real life on the Loop, including an emergency trip to the dentist and an extra day tied up in a marina waiting for a missing part. Her story is a cinema verité snapshot of…
At 3:02 on the morning of Sept. 25, Miami Marlins star pitcher José Fernandez, 24, drove his 32-foot SeaVee at a high speed into a jetty at the north side of Government Cut. The impact killed him and his two companions, Eduardo Rivero, 25, and Emilio Macias, 27. Now a 46-page accident report by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spells out the details of the tragedy: Fernandez was high on cocaine, legally drunk and was driving at a WOT of 65.7 mph. “Fernandez operated the (vessel) with his normal faculties impaired, in a reckless manner, in the darkness…
James Ellingford, a retired Australian business executive and avid cruiser, doesn’t like to live a humdrum life. Indeed, six years ago, when he decided that he and his wife would take on a circumnavigation, he wrote, “Normality in every sense for us is, in a word, boring.” Ellingford certainly is a man who lives by his word. He has already cruised from Sydney to Seattle on his Nordhavn 62 with his wife and two daughters on the start of that circumnavigation; he’s just published his second cruising book, “Cruising Conversations, A Million Nautical Miles and Counting,” and on his blog…
Here’s a preview of the new custom F-28, designed and built by Mark Fitzgerald of Thomaston, Maine, that’s now being finished with a teak deck and Awlgrip at French & Webb in Belfast, Maine. It will be ready for launching in mid-May. Fitzgerald, of Fitzgerald Marine Architecture, Inc., designed the F-28 for an experienced client who wants to do the Great Loop. Originally, the client wanted a boat similar to a center console, since he expected to spend nights in hotels along the way. When he learned that there are stretches of the Loop, particularly along the Mississippi, where it’s…
Many of my best boating friends are also avid golfers. In the best of all possible worlds, they would combine their favorite two passions and take their boats to a great golf course. But where to tie up? Here’s a good list of first-class golf courses near first-class marinas, from Samoset in Maine (pictured above) all the way down the coast to Longboat Key in Florida, chosen by the editors of Dockwa. Pack your clubs on your next cruise. http://blog.dockwa.com/golf-courses-near-east-coast-marinas-tie-up-and-tee-off?utm_campaign=Blog%20Subscribers&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=46731505&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_kSHTzC8cQPAvKqtS4RgnhN4Ugb3WD-lLdmzTFVm9HXsMyhYul3yvpiFA1IbOrvNP9gKJ4ZoRVP8kTDx6A6NfnCUryYQ&_hsmi=46731505
The good news is that boating season, for those of us in the north, is just around the corner. The bad news, unless you’re really organized, is trying to remember everything you need to do to get your boat ready. Here’s where BoatU.S. is a big help. Take a look at their video, below, and then read – and print out – their spring commissioning checklist below that. Let them do the organizing for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLbDpQZub7Y And here’s the checklist: http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/spring_checklist.asp