Tabla de contenidos para May/June 2021 en PassageMaker

I woke up a few nights ago in a cold sweat. In the dark of night, it came to me that I was a fraud. Not the grimy sort of fraud, but nonetheless, still a fraud. The truth is that I am a double-ender guy. It just sort of crept up on me, and now I’m admitting to my sorry lot in life. Before now, I had always thought I was sternbidextrous, meaning I liked all sorts of sterns, but I now realize that I am hampered by a firm prejudice toward double-ended designs. Of the half dozen boats residing under my stable roof, half fit the definition of a double-ended design. If I add up the length of the whole fleet, the double-ended models make up 64 percent. Wouldn’t…

It’s pretty obvious what you should do above deck to keep your windlass running smoothly. At least once a year, preferably during spring layup, discombobulate the mechanicals and apply waterproof marine grease to the appropriate parts, in accordance with your owner’s manual. Also check the oil in the device’s gearbox, and add more per instructions if necessary. But hey, what should you do belowdecks, where your windlass electrics dwell? The answer’s simpler than you’d think. After you’ve used rags or, better yet, a Shop-Vac to clean everything off—meaning all the cobwebs, dirt and detritus—spray the motor terminals, foot-switch terminals and terminals on the reversing solenoids with a good, aerosol-type rust inhibitor such as CRC Long Life Anti-Rust Lubricant. Alternatively, you might also go with a product such as WD-40. It’s…

In some coastal areas, there are almost as many boats on moorings as there are in slips tied to piers. Knowing how to handle a boat in a mooring field and secure a boat to a mooring ball will provide for a good night’s sleep and worry-free trips to shore. Just like making a reservation for a slip, it is important to give the marina staff or harbormaster accurate information about your boat. Moorings are precisely spaced to allow boats to swing with the wind and current, without interference from surrounding boats. Rounding down when giving the harbormaster your boat’s length overall won’t save you any money, as it might with a marina slip; moorings most often have a fixed rate for the boat length they can accommodate. This pricing…

A crisp breeze sweeps through Old Saybrook, Connecticut, as I stand on the dock at my homeport of Saybrook Point, watching the Back Cove 39O approach. Coated in salt from its trip down the coast, the Down East hull looks right at home on the Connecticut River. The 39O is the second outboard model from Back Cove, following the 34O, which debuted in 2018. With hull number 47 of the 34O about to splash, Back Cove has gathered customer feedback to incorporate into the larger model. While both the 34-and 39-footers have new hull designs specific to outboard propulsion, the 39O is truly a new build. “On the 34O, we utilized a lot of the same tooling from our Back Cove 32, which is an inboard model, in order to…

NAME Kevin Fairbrother AGE 61 HOME PORT Fort Myers, Florida CURRENT BOAT 1989 Offshore 48 Yachtfisher YEARS OWNED 9 Kevin Fairbrother has been boating for 30 years, having caught the bug from his brother. He has owned a range of small boats, from an 18-foot bowrider to a 28-foot Wellcraft Coastal. Today, he lives aboard his Offshore 48 Yachtfisher and cruises extensively with his wife, Katie, their dog, Kilo, and their cat, Lima. BEGINNINGS My brother purchased a 21-foot boat, and once I got out on the water, I fell in love with the feeling of freedom and the peacefulness. A friend of mine had a boat at the time, and I lived on a canal with Gulf of Mexico access. We made a deal: He could keep his boat…

Apollonian Yachts is a new brand created by Washington state-based naval architect Howard Apollonio, and Seattle yacht salesman Vic Parcells. The Apollonian 52 is marketed as an affordable, well-built cruiser set up to be easily managed by an owner-operator. At 52 feet length overall and with a 16-foot, 8-inch beam, the Apollonian 52 is designed to fit in most 50-foot slips. The raised pilothouse design includes large living spaces and has traffic-flow areas for entertaining. “This is a very versatile boat with a little something for everybody,” Apollonio says. The 52 is a three-stateroom, three-head boat. Two heads are below, in the full-beam master and VIP staterooms, and one is in the pilothouse. “With two doubles, it’s a good two-couples boat, but with a twin-berth cabin that would be good…

A clean bilge may not be as sexy as freshly varnished mahogany trim or oiled teak decks, but having one is an important part of keeping any vessel shipshape. One popular (and ineffective) technique for cleaning a bilge is to flood it with a sudsy wash. This approach will never clean thoroughly enough to remove the stench from the sour water that the bilge pump leaves behind. In fact, doing this can make matters worse, especially if there is fuel or lube oil residue in the mix. Adding more water lets the residue spread over and cover additional bilge surface areas. I’ll use a commercial bilge cleaner, but only after I have sufficiently hand-scrubbed the bilge to remove as much grime and oil as possible. Heat, moisture and a lack…

“Repaint exterior window frames” This was one of those jobs I considered delaying until next season. The main issue was that the canvas screens that snap onto the outside of the frames trap a lot of moisture, causing the paint to lift. I could have been OK with waiting, but by October they would have been much worse. Also, the yard was unable to save any of the existing paint because of adhesion issues. Once you’re into it, you’re into it. After starting this project, I weighed the costs of replacing the wooden salon windows. Vetus makes an aluminum window that would work well on our Grand Banks. Check it out at passagemaker.com/window-replacement “Exterior varnish” When I first saw the five-figure varnish estimate, my eyes bled. Especially since I consider…

Caesar salads are perfect for warm-weather dining, especially when topped with fresh sea-food. The tangy homemade Caesar dressing in this recipe is quick and simple to make in a small blender. Anchovies, garlic, lemon and Dijon mustard add a substantial kick to this classic dressing. The garlic-butter croutons with Parmesan really elevate this salad, making it look and taste quite fancy. The cheese crusted onto each toast will have you snacking on these croutons all by themselves. Grill the salmon on top first to get perfect grill marks, and then flip it over and grill it on the skin side until it’s cooked through. If you don’t have a grill, you can use a stovetop grill pan or an oven broiler. This easy weeknight salad will take you from zero…

For Chris and Jolene Knapp, it all started with relatives in Oregon. The couple wanted to keep their family members up-to-date about life with their three boys in Texas, so they started making videos to share. “We had a small little cabin cruiser, and we would stay weekends on different lakes all throughout Texas, where we’re from,” Jolene says. Today, the family is known as the Wandering Knapps, which is the name of the YouTube channel Chris and Jolene created. After about two and a half years, the channel has about 8,500 subscribers who watch their liveaboard life unfurl aboard a 1987 47-foot Marine Trader Tradewinds trawler. Chris and Jolene have posted close to 200 videos so far, as well as built a companion website, Facebook page and Patreon account…