Tabla de contenidos para September 2017 en PassageMaker

In July, Active Interest Media’s Marine Group (parent company to PassageMaker) launched a new endeavor called Boaters University, an online platform for continuing boating education. Based on the tremendous success of TrawlerFest seminars over the years, Boaters University will bring the same expert knowledge and resources to you, but on your schedule and at a pace that suits you. Debuting with an in-depth, 11-segment series on marine diesel engine maintenance and troubleshooting, this first series is designed to convey the mechanical know-how that students need to venture past the sight of land or to destinations beyond the range of SeaTow. This coming year we will introduce additional courses, with classes on Boat Handling and Docking, First Aid, Navigation, Weather, and much more. Find out more: boatersuniversity.com KNOT WAFFLEN’ IN ALASKA We…

A trawler owner recently contacted us to schedule a routine haul-out and bottom- paint job. He told us that he had some concerns about past discoloration of the bottom paint around through-hull fittings (see photo, page 24). As it turns out, the paint discoloration pointed toward a much more serious condition, a lifethreatening one at that. This example also serves as a reminder to pay attention to your through-hull fittings each time you haul your boat. Through-hull fittings get no respect. Hidden below the waterline, slathered inside and out with bottom paint, and often fouled with marine growth, these fittings do their jobs in obscurity. When you haul your boat, the through-hulls usually receive little more than some scraping and more bottom paint. But bronze throughhull fittings offer a surprising…

The rumble of lobster boats, occasionally punctuated by the sharp cry of gulls, echoes across the water at the break of day. The tide, too, is heading out, slowly exposing more and more of the rocky shore glinting in the morning light. Here, a heron stalks silently in shallow pools; there, a dory and its reflection rest before a day of work. In the distance, islands fade from green to blue, then merge with sky on the far horizon. Equipped with pen, paint, and deep curiosity, I have been drawn to Maine’s rocky coast each summer for nearly 15 years. As a naturalist and watercolor artist, I have filled many sketchbooks while exploring quiet coves, spruce forests, ancient rocks, and tide pools. Sketching is the best way I know to…

HOW IT STARTED I bolted awake at 1:15 am to a shrieking alarm. We were 50 miles south of The Grand Banks, in large seas, on passage from Newport, Rhode Island, to Kinsale, Ireland. I ran upstairs to the pilothouse and Jennifer, at the helm, said only, “High bilge water.” Yuck. Better than “fire” but far from good news. I ran back downstairs and into the engine room and, yes, conditions there certainly did warrant an alarm. I hadn’t even stopped to get dressed, but in the short time between the alarm’s firing and my arriving in the engine room, the water had come up above the bilge. The portside pan that forms the walkway around the engine was already awash. We have never enjoyed crossing oceans, but we neither…

It’s not difficult to imagine that soon, very soon, every sort of craft from small waterski boats to luxury motoryachts will be equipped with smart technology, allowing owners to be tethered to the systems of their boat remotely and around-the-clock. Siren Marine is at the forefront of making sure this happens, and, with their newly launched MTC System, the company is ensuring that another milestone is crossed by providing affordable boatmonitoring solutions to a wide variety of owners. No connected solution exists without full integration to iOS and Android operating systems, so companion apps, available in each platform, let you monitor anything from your batteries to your bilge through your phone or tablet. This, in turn, creates peace of mind, so that when you’re heading down the dock with family…

It’s not every day that a brand-new 58-foot performancetrawler appears on the marketplace radar, but that seems to have happened with the debut of the Duffield 58 Motoryacht. More peculiar still is that this new entry—and you may recognize her name—sporting graceful, downeast lines and a New England navy hull, comes not only from Southern California, but from the same builders of the highly successful, if not ubiquitous, Duffy electric boat. As most waterfront homeowners know, you can’t throw a Titleist very far in Newport Beach, California, or Fort Lauderdale, Florida, without hitting a Duffy or two, such is their penetration into the quiet, clean, leisure pocket-craft market. So when you think of building a 58-foot, 53,000-pound fast trawler on the heels of this business, you’d be hard-pressed to find…

Sometimes simple things make a significant difference. Marine engines must be protected from internal corrosion with sacrificial anodes (zincs). Do you know how many your engine requires and where they are located? Heat exchangers, lube-oil cooler, aftercoolers, and transmission coolers have unique requirements with varying lengths and diameters of anodes. This transmission oil cooler has been well-marked to indicate two anodes. Note the manufacturer’s label regarding frequency. The frequency is subject to variability and only through diligent attention will you get a feel for how often to replace the zincs. The cold reality is that failure to replace a $3 anode could lead to the failure of a $30,000 engine. The white paint will bring attention to any leaks or weeps, highlighting maintenance needs early. So often we see paint…

Love to shoot pictures? Want to share your adventures? Send us your favorite high-resolution photos with a short description, and we’ll showcase our favorites in Viewfinder. For consideration, email: editor@passagemaker.com On Instagram: #viewfinder FAMILY STRONG From the docks at Rhode Island’s Fort Adams State Park, a single photo captures just 7 of 37 Kadey-Krogen yachts that gathered in Newport Harbor from June 29 to July 2. Like all Kadey-Krogen events, the clear emphasis was placed on community-building, be it through mansion and vineyard tours, sailboat racing on classic America’s Cup 12 Meters, dinners and dancing, or in the common thread of boat ownership. What made this event extra special was that the company is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year after its founding in 1977. In honor of that achievement,…

In the darkest corners of your boat, there is an unspoken place—maybe at the chart table, possibly in the galley—where a spaghetti-tangle of USB cords tethers your phones, tablets, camera batteries, and assorted electronics to a power source. It may be unseemly, but it’s today’s reality. Wireless charging devices are still uncommon, though there are rumblings that the upcoming iPhone 8 will venture down the cord-cutting path. Until then, we have a few companies like Scanstrut, who have developed the ROKK Charge+, a superfast dual-port USB charger that is waterproof, spaghetti-proof, and corrosion-resistant. Over 3X faster than standard wall-socket USB Type-A chargers, the Charge+ features a click-and-lock lid, through which can be fed two USB cords. With one or both cords plugged in and the stainless hinge snapped shut, the…

In our last installment we discussed the basic techniques of ocean and coastal dead reckoning, which is determining our location based on our course and speed since the time of an earlier known position. In this installment we will discuss how to obtain our boat speed in the absence of GPS. SPEED OVER GROUND VERSUS SPEED THROUGH THE WATER GPS speed, meaning Speed Over Ground (SOG), is a measure of our total speed over the surface of the earth, regardless of how that speed was accomplished, whether from our own propulsion, wind, currents, or any other source. Speed Through the Water (STW) is only the speed of your boat relative to the moving medium of the water. For example, imagine that you are floating in a barrel in three knots…

A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horge! —KING RICHARD III IN THE SHAKESPEARE'S PLAY OF THE SAME NAME We are driving on a country road, digging into the history of a storied motoryacht—the 58-footer named Granma that brought Castro to power. We’re in a 1956 Ford that originally belonged to my driver’s grandfather. Ivan is a nice kid. He’s well educated. He’s not a member of the Communist Party, but he is a Cuban patriot and a believer in the Revolution. “Ivan,” I ask. “Do you know what ‘granma’ actually means?” “Of course. Granma is the name of the Comandante’s boat, the one that brought the revolutionaries here from Mexico. It is also now the name of the province where the boat landed, and it is the name…

Rice has long been the staple food for a significant part of the world’s population, but I confess I was blown away when I first learned that there are 40,000 varieties of this essential grain. And I thought I was being extravagant by stocking my pantry with four or five of my favorites. Rice, the seed of a specific species of grass, is said to have grown in China as far back as 2500 B.C. Then, throughout the centuries, cultivation spread to Sri Lanka and India, and by the Middle Ages—thanks to Arab traders—it was introduced to Spain and Italy. With its appearance in those Mediterranean countries, new cooking methods and flavor combinations were born. Welcome, paella and risotto. Both of those rice-based dishes are steeped in the customs of…