Soundings

There are so many wonderful things about the work I do here developing stories for Soundings, and among them is the opportunity to learn about people who dare to dream of big adventures, and then go to the wall to make them happen. A friend of mine in Delaware recently told me about his former colleague, who took a risk to realize an ambition she’d had to cruise around the globe. The woman, Holly Williams, started sailing in San Francisco Bay around the time she began medical school at UCSF in the late 1980s. She wanted to see the world from a boat deck, but at the time she thought she’d have to put that fantasy to bed and choose her career over sailing. When she did her surgical residency in…

That was an excellent article by Charles Plueddeman on the new Mercury V-10 outboard (“The Power of 10,” February). I have just one small suggestion to add to his comments about using the motors. The story states that those who want to slow troll with this outboard on the transom have to consider that trolling speeds could be below the threshold of the 48-volt alternator that’s controlled by the Navico Fathom e-power system. I have a simple solution, provided there are at least two of these motors on the boat. Just troll with a low-rpm motor engaged, and idle up (in neutral) to above the 48-volt threshold with the other motor. I hope this might help those like me who do a lot of slow trolling. VINCE ZALECKASMONTGOMERY, NEW JERSEY MORE LESSONS We…

Fiery debates about the cause of whale deaths erupted along the mid-Atlantic coast in recent months after more than a half dozen humpback and sperm whales washed up on New York and New Jersey shores and near the Maryland-Virginia border. Some environmental groups demanded investigations into offshore wind-farm work, prompting the federal government to say there was no evidence tying that industry to the deaths. Initial findings from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration instead suggested that at least some of the whales died following vessel strikes—at a time when NOAA is pursuing a controversial proposal that would, for months at a time, limit the speed of many recreational boats along the Eastern Seaboard, in an effort to protect North Atlantic right whales from similar fates. Conservation groups that favor the NOAA…

LOA: 21’0” Beam: 7’3” Draft: 2’1” Range: 50 nm Top Speed: 30 knots Cruising Speed: 20 knots Power: (1) 125-kW electric motor About five years ago, at his dealerships all across South Florida, Nautical Ventures Group CEO Roger Moore tried to bring electric-powered boats into his customers’ lives. “We fell flat on our face,” he says. “The marketplace wasn’t ready. There were some pretty good products out there, but nobody wanted to hear about it.” Today, he says, boaters seem more interested in the idea, so he’s giving it another go. At a time when electric-powered automobiles are becoming a more common sight on America’s highways, Moore’s dealerships are now selling multiple brands of electric-powered boats. Early this year, Nautical Ventures Group became the Florida dealer for Swedish manufacturer X Shore. And the builder’s newest model, the X…

LOA: 60’3” Beam: 16’11” Draft: 4’0” Displ.: 53,350 lb. Fuel: 700 gal. Water: 150 gal. Cruise: 26 knots Top: 38 knots Power: (2) 1,000-hp Volvo Penta 1350s The October winds off Lake Michigan delivered a refreshing chill. Chicago beckoned from ahead as the Tiara EX 60 chugged at a steady 21 knots into a 3-foot chop. It’s a site that operators of tugboats and cargo ships have soaked up for decades as they maneuver toward the mouth of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. We were on a leg of the delivery of Tiara’s EX 60—the builder’s largest boat to date—from Holland, Michigan, to Florida. This was a trip not without challenges, including weather. The forecast for our original departure date called for seas near 20-feet and gale-force winds. I boarded the boat in the dark, so I couldn’t fully…

In 1917, Addison Whiticar moved his family to the then sleepy oceanside town of Stuart, Florida, to pursue a life in commercial fishing. The existence of a large and passable inlet, plus the knowledge that the Gulf Stream delivered desirable species to the nearby waters, created an opportunity that was too hard to ignore. Whiticar’s chance for success was boosted by Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway. In 1912, Flagler’s venture had connected Jacksonville to Key West, bringing increased trade, land development and tourism. In the mid-1930s, one of Whiticar’s sons, Curtis, who was a charter fisherman, built a single-screw 33-footer for himself. He then built a twin-screw, 38-foot sportfisherman for his dad. His skills set the family on a course that would inextricably bind their name with sportfishing—particularly among locals,…