Índex per July/August 2023 a PassageMaker

I was short on time, and the evening rush hour was in full effect on the streets of Gotham. Eschewing Uber, I biked to One°15 Brooklyn Marina and avoided the snarling cacophony of car horns and idling engines. It pays to have local knowledge. The marina is within Brooklyn Bridge Park, a 1.3-mile-long section of waterfront that was packed on the warm spring evening. I got to the water’s edge, commandeered the observation binoculars and trained the optics on Buttermilk Channel. Unlike the asphalt, the East River was filled with moving traffic all along the swirling tidal strait. A steady flow of ferries and commercial vessels atop an incoming tide and 15 knots of wind had whipped the waterway into a confused mess. After a few minutes, she came into…

My friends and I are intrepid souls. For us, seeking adventure on the water is what we enjoy most. We have found that being adventure-ready requires adaptability. It can be something as simple as a vessel with movable furniture in the cockpit to host a family dinner, or to make way for a quartet of enduro motorcycles, ready to explore the coastline of a remote archipelago. For this, you need a smart platform with a flexible system that allows you to bring what you need for any given adventure. This is the ethos of Project Corsair, a boat that is adventure-ready in her bones. Her moniker is inspired by two things: my favorite vintage aircraft, the Vought F4U Corsair; and the French corsairs, who were swashbuckling privateers who conducted raids…

Back in the mid-aughts, I was among the first journalists to sea trial the Riviera 3600 Sport Yacht. It was the Australian builder’s first non-convertible boat to make it stateside. I came away impressed with its versatility, performance and accommodations. The single-level living space really set that boat apart. Riviera is now the largest boatbuilder in the southern hemisphere, with several distinct lines of craft. My favorite is the SUV collection, which combines the offshore-performing hulls of flybridge models with the entertainment spaces first seen on Riviera’s Sport Yachts. The latest SUV, the 585, continues the mélange of indoor-outdoor living from stern to stem. In the cockpit, there’s a demarcation of two distinct social areas: Far aft is easy egress to and from the water for people and water toys,…

It was 6 p.m. in Baltimore, and the crew of Ever Forward was readying the ship for an overnight trip down the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk, Va. Other than a slight delay with line handlers, the ship departed without incident. Two hours out of the harbor, the 1,000-footer with almost 5,000 containers stacked high on its decks made a turn to the south, leaving the Patapsco River and heading toward the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The pilot knew the river and bay waters well. Only three more gentle turns in the Craighill Channel would line up the ship between the bridge’s twin center spans. Unfortunately, the ship wouldn’t pass under the bridge that evening. At approximately 8:18 p.m., the ship missed the turn at lighted red buoy 18, running hard aground…

At Marine Weather Center, a client recently asked why the computer model forecast predicted small seas on the windward side of Saint-Martin, when what was really happening were strong winds and large seas. The answer had everything to do with how weather models are designed, how they work and how they don’t. Weather forecast models are ubiquitous for good reason: They provide precise forecasts for weather information, such as wind, waves, temperature and precipitation that we’re looking for, at precise times and locations—or so it would seem. But weather models have limitations, and understanding these limitations will help you better interpret their forecasts and be a safer boater. WHAT IS A WEATHER MODEL? Weather models break the Earth down into grid boxes, with each grid box representing a specific area…

Turkey’s Taurus Mountains are only a few miles from the coast, but they tower so high that there’s plenty of snow up top, even in April. Down at sea level, warm sunshine perfumes the air with springtime herbs, which do tend to work on the appetite. I was constantly checking my watch to see if it was lunchtime. We were in the region aboard Lemanjá, a new Bering 76 owned by Michael and Claudia Datzer. They had a long voyage ahead of them: all the way to Canada, ultimately, by way of the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. But before all that, there would be an enviable shakedown cruise through the Greek islands, around Italy and Sicily, past Spain’s Balearic Islands and then to Gibraltar. “It is a long-awaited dream…

This lesson I learned ona Pacific Northwest cruise applies to day-in, day-out boating experiences for us all. But, first, let me introduce the Three Princes of Serendip. In case you slept through the classes on Persian fairy tales and 17th-century English (Horace Walpole stole from their poem), the Three Princes of Serendip were from a mythical land whose king was their father. He sent them in search of a lame camel. Their path to discovery is marked by accidents and whimsical misjudgments, leading them to wondrous adventures. Now, this may seem far afield from boating, but here’s the bottom line: Too many of us have everything planned on our outings, whether we are out for an afternoon cruise or a monthlong voyage. And that takes some of the joy out…

Who says the NP45 from British Columbia’s North Pacific Yachts has outlived its usefulness? Answer: no one. Twenty hulls of the venerable pilothouse cruising yacht have been built since the model’s introduction in 2014 and they’re still rolling out of the shed. What, then, made the company decide to introduce a “slightly more modernized” version, called the 450 Pilothouse? Simple: “To attract a wider customer base,” says North Pacific president Trevor Brice. “We’ll keep the traditional 45, as most of our buyers love that look and feel. We hope the 450 will attract buyers that might have chosen a different boat.” The NP45 is based on the builder’s most successful model, the NP43, which saw more than 60 hulls delivered before production ceased. The 45 is spacious for its size…

Longtime sailboat manufacturer Hylas Yachts made its first foray into powerboats with the M44 in 2018. With that boat, the builder utilized the classic, Down East workboat lines of the New Zealand-designed Corsair 44 and the construction know-how of a seasoned Asian shipyard for a vessel aimed at U.S. boaters. The latest vessel takes the M44’s proven hull and exchanges the diesel inboards for a pair of 300-hp, oil-burning outboards from Cox Marine. Meet the Hylas M47. The new boat retains much of what made the M44 an impressive debut, including oversize pilothouse windows; two large, manual sliding hatches in the hardtop; and a roomy, uncluttered cockpit. Keeping the opening manual window aft was a smart move. The window opens easily on a gas ram and secures to the hardtop,…

For many of us, summer boating plans include coastal cruising to various ports. This often means booking transient slips where you have to accept what is available, anchor or grab a mooring buoy. Many skippers have aced docking at their regular slips, but they sometimes get a little shaken when the dockmaster sends them to a slip flanked by a big motoryacht and a towering sportfisherman. Being prepared, and having your crew ready for whatever transpires, can save you from considerable duress, not to mention possible damage to your boat or finding yourself a viral sensation on social media. All of us can recall battles against current and wind with a pier full of dock-watchers. There are ways to avoid this scene: If you have any doubts about a tight…

Sweden-based boatbuilder Nimbus recently announced plans for a new flagship, the 465 Coupé. Known as The Voyager, it is being designed for long-distance exploration. The 465 is a shift for Nimbus, which entered the U.S. market with dayboats in 2017 and is now looking for boaters who want fast trawlers. The first 465 is expected to be powered by twin 480-hp Volvo Penta IPS drives, returning an estimated top speed of 27 knots and a range of more than 450 nautical miles. Future builds may incorporate optional electric propulsion (in parallel with the IPS drives) for no-wake zones and emissions-free boating. Nimbus is also planning a hybrid-powered version of the 465, with a generator to feed the battery pack and electric motor. This version is expected to have longer range…

As a commercial salmon fisherman in Ketchikan, Alaska, I know firsthand the importance of having easy, delicious recipes at sea. This one, for teriyaki salmon with shiitake mushrooms and fresh chives, is the perfect addition to any yacht chef’s recipe book. To make this recipe even easier to prepare in a heaving galley, I recommend preparing the ingredients ahead of time. You can mix the soy sauce, brown sugar and sesame oil in a small container, and slice the shiitake mushrooms, before leaving shore. You can also remove the skin and pin bones from the salmon fillets beforehand, to save time and space in your galley. When cooking the mushrooms, be sure to use a large, ovenproof skillet to minimize the number of dishes you’ll need to clean. You can…

There comes a time when certain truths about your boat become evident. The initial honeymoon thoughts of water whispering under the hull, and of enjoying drinks in the moonlight, change to dirty oil diapers and leaks over the matrimonial bunk. If you’re the rare person who has kept your new boat for 20 years or, more likely, someone who bought an older boat with the idea of fixing it up, some work will be needed to save the relationship. Model year 2003 was a good one for boats. Many of the big names producing cruising boats back then are still around now. Asian boatbuilders were stepping up their game. Competition between European and U.S. builders was fierce. Overall build quality was generally high. You probably would have found a great…

We left our home port of Key Biscayne, Florida, in March 2021 with no plan other than to head al norte along the Intracoastal Waterway. With neither a destination nor a time frame in mind, we were free to make as many stops, detours and side trips as we desired. The approximately 2,500-nautical-mile, six-month trip took us through mostly protected waters, including rivers, swamps, bays and bayous. We made it as far north as Massachusetts before deciding to head south, to join New York’s Hudson River and then the Erie Canal, to ready the boat for the westward portion of our return home along the Great Loop. The Atlantic ICW affords tremendous diversity as it passes through large cities, small towns, secluded fishing ports and desolate anchorages. We tend to…