Soundings May 2021

As spring warms waters around the country, boat owners everywhere are heading down to the docks with big plans for cruising. For most of us, boating in the weeks and months ahead will satisfy an urge for pleasure—to see new places, to enjoy time outdoors with our favorite people, and to allow the healing properties of saltwater to soothe the sense of isolation so many of us have experienced during a long winter inside. While pleasure is one of the key benefits of boating, I’m always interested in learning about people who find ways to couple the fun of cruising with the joy of helping others in need. Soundings contributor Kim Kavin recently told me about Tom Corrigan, a 45-year-old professional at a New Jersey pharmaceutical company who used his Sea…

A LOYAL BERTRAM FAN I liked your story “The Legend of the Bertram 31” (soundingsonline.com). And I appreciate the reference to the fact that when Dick Bertram put this boat into production in 1961, he relied on a highly skilled workforce made up of Cubans who had fled Fidel Castro’s newly established communist regime. I was a part of that exile community. Today I’m proud of our accomplishments and thankful for the welcome we were given in the 1960s and beyond. One year after I became a U.S. citizen, I joined the U.S. Coast Guard Officer Candidate School and was commissioned an Ensign in 1969. I was assigned to USCG headquarters and assigned to the National Search & Rescue reporting system. I’m glad to have been of service. My first boat over 30…

For about $230,000, someone who loves sailing history is going to take home a piece of it. That’s the asking price for Gipsy Moth IV, a 53-foot ketch built in 1966 that Sir Francis Chichester commissioned to sail singlehandedly around the world in 1966-67. His journey captivated countless imaginations—a man in a boat trying to accomplish what Clipper ships five times the size were doing in those days. And, Chichester was 65 years old at the time. The BBC reported that a crowd a quarter million strong gathered at Plymouth Hoe to welcome Chichester and Gispsy Moth IV back to England as he completed the circumnavigation. Thousands of small boats accompanied Gipsy Moth IV into Plymouth Sound. The Royal Artillery sounded a 10-gun salute, and at the breakwater, Chichester’s wife and son…

It’s evening in late February and I’m at home listening to the howling wind. I pace the house, driving the family a bit crazy. As my departure time gets closer, I get the chart and spread it on the dining room table, using jigs and sinkers to lay it flat. With my finger, I trace the direction of both the wind and swell. “This will not be pretty,” I say out loud. I run a pilot boat on Block Island Sound. This evening we have an outbound ship arriving from New Haven, Connecticut. My job is to get the pilot off the ship so he doesn’t end up taking a ride to Singapore. We meet the ships between Block Island and Point Judith, Rhode Island. In weather, this maneuver can get…

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING THE ART OF BOATBUILDING Bob Emser is an internationally known artist and sculptor whose work has always been inspired by the way boats are constructed and their aesthetics. On his YouTube channel, The Art of Wooden Boatbuilding, Emser takes viewers on a journey through the process of boatbuilding as seen through his eyes—those of an artist and craftsman. Emser films the videos in his studio, which has been converted into a boatbuilding shop, and covers everything from keels and garboard planks to deep dives into tools such as planes, mallets and reefing hooks. MORE SALTY READS COASTAL CULTURE Photographer Caryn B. Davis’ new coffee table-style book Connecticut Waters: Celebrating Our Coastline and Waterways takes readers on a nautical journey around the rivers, sounds, bays and shores of the Nutmeg State.…

When it comes to diversity, the America’s Cup is still in the dark ages. This year’s 36th edition featured four boats with 11-man crews. Forty-four men, zero women. That’s not just sad—it’s pathetic. And it needs to change because female sailors have been marginalized for far too long. It’s been 32 years since Tracy Edwards showed up with an all-female crew for the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race. Male sailors openly mocked Maiden’s 12-woman crew, and many said they would never finish. Then, the women won two of the individual legs of the race and finished the grueling competition second in their class. Six years later, Mighty Mary showed up in San Diego with an allfemale crew for the 1995 America’s Cup with U.S.-born New Zealander Leslie Egnot at the helm. Eventually,…