Table of contents for July/August 2024 in PassageMaker

When I was younger, I did a passage with five companions from Massachusetts to Bermuda on a 56-foot ferrocement sailing ketch. From the dock, the boat looked enormous, fully suited for the task at hand. She had a berth for each one of our crew, and space to stow gear and provisions for the six-day passage and beyond. Truth be told, when we were fully loaded and ready to cast off, there was precious little space for personal effects and extraneous gear. Things were so tight, we had to use the oily bilge for the two cases of cheap Polish beer we felt we’d need when we made landfall (or in case the wind died en route). That experience made an impression on me. As I’ve evaluated boats throughout the…

There was a level of enthusiasm among the attendees at this year’s Trawlerfest in Stuart, Fla., that stood out to me from the dozen others where I have presented. I was reminded again of what a terrific opportunity the event is to connect with a great group of power cruising enthusiasts, and of why the boathandling session is one of my favorites to lead. To watch someone come into the program nervous and uncertain, and then see them leave with a newfound confidence, is very rewarding. People come in dreaming and leave believing that cruising on their own boat is a real possibility. The questions asked in this year’s session reminded me about the importance of the basic skills that even experienced boat handlers may have forgotten or possibly were…

Trawler buyers face a limited window of time between receipt of the survey reports and the deadline to sign vessel acceptance. Your due diligence comes down to understanding the significance of the findings, along with analyzing the results of oil-sample lab results and the mechanic’s discoveries. Your objective in this phase is to know with certainty that you are ready to accept the vessel on the contract date and have everything in place before you sign the closing paperwork. Insurance approval happens during this time, and it’s a process that takes several days. The survey report needs to be sent to your insurance broker and underwriter. You need acknowledgment that the insurance company approves the survey, and that the company is ready to bind coverage and issue your policy on…

My bucket list consumes me. As I grow older, it tells me where to go, what to do, and with whom to do it. That’s why, newly retired, I chartered a 30-foot steel trawler in north Holland and convinced my wife, Grace, that it would be the best summer vacation yet. Truth be told, this was my third attempt at chartering a boat in the country’s renowned Friesland province. Years prior, my first two attempts were thwarted by work obligations and the pandemic. But this time, on a warm summer day, Grace and I boarded our chartered boat, Tigris, and set off on a do-it-yourself Dutch adventure. Friesland is known throughout Europe as a premier boating destination. Located northeast of Amsterdam and south of the Wadden Sea, its numerous rivers…

Real estate agents long ago discovered that a good way to make a house more appealing was to bake chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen before potential buyers arrived. I’m told that this is now such an obvious ploy that many have shifted to the understated gambit (albeit with more carbs) of baking bread. It’s clear that aroma has much to do with our appreciation of product value. The nose can distinguish among 10,000 different odors, and companies like McDonald’s work hard to make sure that every Big Mac smells exactly like every other Big Mac worldwide. Our sense of smell runs directly to the region of our brain that regulates emotions and memory. Freshly mown grass may bring back positive memories of childhood picnics, while pine scent is a…

NORRIS COMER THE BALLAD OF TEAL WRITER Norris Comer is a Pacific Northwest-based author, writer and sometime seagoer. His award-winning memoir about being a commercial fishing greenhorn and outdoorsy wanderer, Salmon in the Seine: Alaskan Memories of Life, Death, & Everything In-Between, is available wherever books are sold. You can follow him on Substack at “Norris Note.” LISA MIGHETTO EARLY DEPARTURE WRITER Lisa Mighetto is a historian and seasoned sailor who lives in Seattle. She has cruised throughout the Salish Sea, San Francisco Bay, Mexico, Caribbean, Croatia and French Polynesia. She has written for several publications, including Cruising World, Pacific Yachting, Sailing and BoatUS. Her monthly column “A Northwest Sailor Navigates the Past” appears in 48° North magazine. JOE TOKARZ JR. CHASING WINDMILLS WRITER Joe Tokarz Jr. is the creator and…

Just in time for high season in the Mediterranean, Hull No. 1 of Nordhavn’s N51 hit the brine off Istanbul, Turkey, bound for Rhodes, Greece, on a 600-nautical-mile maiden voyage. The N51 is the second model that the manufacturer builds in Turkey. Like the 41-footer that preceded her, the N51 has a build process that emphasizes series production instead of the semicustom approach with its Asian-built boats. What series production means is that the N51’s standard equipment list is as long as a Viking’s oar. It includes Humphree fin stabilizers, an 11.5-kW Onan genset, a Sleipner bow thruster, a 1,000-pound-capacity Steelhead davit, an extra freezer, a separate washer and dryer, a six-person Lalizas Oceano life raft, a Fusion sound system, and a Garmin electronics suite with twin chartplotters, a sounder,…

Furuno has taken a leap forward with artificial intelligence in its NavNet TZtouchXL series of multifunction displays. The series combines video technology, an intuitive user interface and enhanced navigation capabilities—most notably, AI-driven routing and hazard avoidance. These multifunction displays have a clarity of TZ Maps cartography that is unmatched in its ability to mimic the appearance and detail in raster charts while remaining fully vector. Users can add custom depth color shading and bathymetric data overlays for even more detail. The heart of this new series is the melding of TZ Maps and AI routing, a synergistic combination that transforms route planning and management into a seamless, time-efficient process. The AI-enhanced routing algorithm considers draft, navigational hazards and real-time ambient conditions to determine the safest, most efficient routes. This approach…

Whether you’re crossing an ocean or day-tripping through the islands, the crew will need water to drink and, hopefully, for more than the occasional shower. With a fuel-efficient passagemaker and a large fuel tank, it is more likely that running out of fresh water, not fuel, will bring a boat back to the dock—unless you can make your own fresh water with a watermaker. HOW IT WORKS In its most basic sense, a watermaker uses a high-pressure pump to push seawater through a filter called a membrane. All watermakers have membranes, which are installed in sealed, pressure-rated tubes. The membranes have pores small enough to keep out salt and other contaminants, while still allowing fresh water through. This sheeted material is wound spirally around a permeate tube. As salt water…

“Dare to be lucky,” one of my friends always says whenever I consider a risky adventure on the water. Ever the cautious planner, I was hesitant to charter a Grand Banks 42 for a cruise to Desolation Sound in British Columbia in late spring. “That’s not a good time to go,” another friend warned. “Last May was windy and nasty. Locals will tell you that summer up there starts on July 5.” My husband, Frank, and I took the leap anyway. And we were lucky: May 2023 was one of the driest and mildest on record in the area. We set out from Bellingham Bay on Seahome with our friend Alan Newell on a cloudless, breezy morning. It was what I call a “diamond day,” with the sun sparkling on…

Many naval architects and builders have succeeded with recreational boats that evolved from working-class vessels. In just about every issue of Passagemaker, there are new builds with full-displacement hulls, reverse-raked windshields and wide side decks protected by high bulwarks and beefy, stainless-steel railings. Alongside these new builds, converted workboats often have attractive profiles and roomy interiors ripe for refit. The workaday, Down East DNA of a lobster boat has launched innumerable recreational iterations. With their handsome, strong profiles, roomy cockpits and enclosed cabins, the boats are an ideal blend of functionality and grace. Our challenge for this concept, Project Langosta, was to use the classic lobster boat profile as a starting point to design a comfortable, speedy cruiser that would function as a platform for day-tripping, water sports and long…

The red light at the helm for the bilge pump in the lazarette was coming on with repeated regularity. After securing my lines back at the dock, I peered into the bilge, expecting to find a clue as to why the pump had been so busy underway. I was surprised to see a rather dry bilge. And, the float switch for the bilge pump and the float switch for the high-water alarm were both operating properly when I manually lifted each one. I shut off the breaker to the pump and turned on the dock hose to fill the area with enough water to activate the bilge pump. Then, I restored the power source. The instant the pump kicked on, I saw my problem. The flexible polyethylene bilge-pump hose had…

Jennifer Greer perplexed some of the cruisers she met in Alaska’s Glacier Bay. They expected the once-in-a-lifetime scenery, but not the first-in-their-lifetime encounter with her. “People just aren’t used to seeing a female with nobody else on the boat, other than a cat,” says Greer, who was exploring the region aboard her Nordhavn 40, Symphony. “They’re like, ‘What do you mean you’re single-handing the boat?’ That’s not their experience. They always go with a spouse or a friend.” Greer, with Boo by her side, is among an increasing number of owner-operator women who are heading off on big adventures aboard Nordhavns. Of course, women have always cruised as part of a couple on Nordhavn’s go-anywhere boats, but more recently, single females are in command of everything from the budgets to…

Seattle’s vibrant working waterfront is home to an array of vessels. It is the port-of-call for a great deal of the North Pacific fishing fleet, made famous on Deadliest Catch, U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers and workboats for just about any maritime need. Seamlessly blended in among the working craft in the city’s Ballard district, even a landlubber’s gaze will be drawn to Teal, a charismatic, 78-foot motoryacht with a tale to tell. “We’re the latest in a long line of caretakers,” says Amado Shuck, a retired crane operator and deck engineer with 25 years in the operating engineers union. “I started commercial fishing in the late ’80s in Alaska and was enamored with it. [I] went on to get a license and become a towboat captain.” Teal is immaculate and…