Starling Burgess' Ranger

Alden, Burgess, Herreshoff, Paine are some of the legends of yacht design. After my recent travels aboard a Lewis Francis Herreshoff schooner, I have been thinking about what exactly went on back then. There is no doubt we have come a long way in terms of performance and durability. Some may say we have lost in the ways of beauty though that always is a function of perspective. What I think we may have traded off is romance; it is impossible to replicate the smell and feel of a wooden classic on a modern yacht. Continue reading “The Past of Yachting” »

I am still off on delivery and unable to respond to comments until I get to a hotspot. Hopefully, I am experiencing better times than in the sea story below.

Safe Ashore at the Manzanilla Marina

I was offshore in a tropical gale with a dirty fuel tank and an engine with intermittent low oil pressure. Now the autopilot had failed; the backup autopilot could not handle the heavy seas. It was back to hand steering.

The boat was a Catalina 32, and my fellow mercenary sailor and I were enroute to Cartagena, Colombia. The seas seemed taller than the vessel’s length, and, with every surge down a wave face, I thought the rudder was going to snap off. Continue reading “Adrift Through the Windward Passage” »

This week I am enroute from Fort Lauderdale to St. Maarten aboard the pictured yacht, a 75-foot Herreshoff design.

SV Mistral

Please check back in the next few weeks for stories and technical articles from my delivery adventure to St Maarten.

30 Amp Shore Power Cord

Shore power is a jungle that takes equal parts captain and physicist to navigate. Add on the complexities of European power arrangements, and one is truly overwhelmed. In this article, I will organize the options, explain why each is used, and what you can and can not do. The options I will cover are 15/20, 30, 50, 16, and 32 amp service.

US Households: 15/20 Amp, 120 Volt, 60 Hertz
In US houses, outlets provide 15/20 amps of current with 120 volts over 60 Hertz alternating current (AC). All US appliances such hairdryers, vacuums, TV sets are engineered to run off this set of variables. US vessels provide these 120V AC outlets throughout their interiors, so those aboard can use the same electrical appliances. Logically older vessels plugged into a shore power supply that provided 15/20 amp, 210 volt service like any other appliance. The vessels were another appliance connected to the shore system. But with ever increasing complexity, vessels soon needed more than the 120 volts times 20 amps equals 2,400 watts of energy. Remember from physics that Watts = Voltage x Amps. Either the voltage or amperage needed to increase. Continue reading “Marine Shore Power – 15/20/30/50 Amps, 120/240 Volts, Adaptors” »

Staysail Schooner Rigged Tayana 55

Naval architects designate sailboat rig types by number and location of masts. The six designations are sloop, cutter, cat, ketch, yawl, and schooner. Although in defining and describing these six rigs I may use terminology associated with the sail plan, the rig type has nothing to do with the number of sails, their arrangement or location. Such terms that have no bearing on the rig type include headsail names such as jib, genoa, yankee; furling systems such as in-mast or in-boom; and sail parts such as foot, clew, tack, leach, and roach. Rig questions are one of the primary areas of interest among newcomers to sailing and studying the benefits of each type is a good way to learn about sailing. I will deal with the rigs from most popular to least. Continue reading “Sailboat Rig Types: Sloop, Cutter, Ketch, Yawl, Schooner, Cat” »