Editor’s Blog

Hat’s off to Marlow Marine today. I was in a funk about the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico when I received word that there are still companies that take environmental stewardship seriously.

Marlow Marine was awarded the title of ‘Green’ Maritime Company of the Year by Asia Boating Magazine and the 2010 Asia Boating Awards. It’s an important point that this China-based publishing company is aware that yachtsmen in big consumer nations are increasingly making decisions in which environmental factors are part of the equation.

What I really like are the comments David Marlow made on accepting the award:

A couple of weeks ago at a boat christening I handed David a green silicone bracelet that has the words “TREE HUGGER” on it. He laughed and immediately put it on. He and I have been around long enough to remember when the public thought that calling someone a “tree hugger” was a derogatory term. Now it’s nice to know that he and I and, I hope, you are cutting edge and getting lauded for it.

If you want to see more about Marlow Yachts’ eco-friendly shipyard, co to www.norsemenshipyard.com. If you want a Tree Hugger bracelet of your own, visit the rainforest site on the greater good network—www.therainforestsite.com

Breaking News

Gulf of Mexico

Marilyn Mower: Wednesday May, 19, 2010

Eliot Kamenitz / The Times-Picayune

The situation in the Gulf is deteriorating. Yesterday, NOAA tripled the size of area in the Gulf of Mexico where fishing and shrimping in banned. The status map for today indicates that, based on remote sensing data, oil is potentially moving south and east toward Florida as it is interacting with the loop current. The University of South Florida today deployed a research ship and scientists to the area to track and study the submerged oil plume containing millions of gallons of crude.

If you didn’t see the useful information distributed by our friends at Pettit Paint about oil and bottom paint, you can find the link on the Southern Boating Facebook page or visit pettitpaint.com/fileshare/tech_bulletins/GulfCoastOilSpillTech.pdf
The following is a synopsis of the daily response efforts released today by the Unified Response Command Center.

Total response vessels: 970
Containment Boom deployed: more than 1.38 million feet
Containment boom available: more than 380,000 feet
Sorbent boom deployed: more than 530,000 feet
Sorbent boom available: more than 845,000 feet
Total boom deployed: more than 1.91 million feet (regular plus sorbent boom)
Total boom available: more than 1.22 million feet (regular plus sorbent boom)
Oily water recovered: more than 7.87 million gallon
Dispersant used: more than 600,000 gallons
Dispersant available: more than 310,000 gallons
Overall personnel responding: more than 19,400

17 staging areas are in place and ready to protect sensitive shorelines. These areas include:
Dauphin Island, Ala.
Orange Beach, Ala.
Theodore, Ala.
Panama City, Fla.
Pensacola, Fla.
Port St. Joe, Fla.
St. Marks, Fla.
Amelia, La.
Cocodrie, La.
Grand Isle, La.
Shell Beach, La.
Slidell, La.
St. Mary, La.
Venice, La.
Biloxi, Miss.
Pascagoula, Miss.
Pass Christian, Miss.

Weather conditions for May 19:

Winds from the Southeast at 12-15 knots in the morning, higher gusts in the evening. 4-5 foot seas, protected waters are rough.

Hotlines:

For information about the response effort, visit www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com.

To contact the Deepwater Horizon Joint Information Center, call (985) 902-5231.
To volunteer, or to report oiled shoreline, call (866) 448-5816.
To submit your vessel as a vessel of opportunity skimming system, or to submit alternative response technology, services, or products, call 281-366-5511.

Gulf Oil Spill Update

Monday, May 12, 2010

NOAA’s Fisheries Service has modified the area closed to fishing in the Gulf of Mexico due to the BP oil spill, which will include federal waters seaward of Louisiana state waters in the vicinity of Timbalier Island to waters off Florida’s Choctawhatchee Bay.

These changes will leave more than 93 percent of the Gulf’s federal waters open for fishing.

NOAA will provide daily updates online by 12:00 p.m. EDT. Any changes to the closed area will become effective at 6:00 p.m. EDT the same day. The six-hour window is meant to give fishermen time to retrieve their gear from any areas that are about to close, and advance notice of areas that will soon open for fishing. A status message will be updated daily, even when closed area has not changed. This message will also be available on NOAA Weather Radio and by calling NOAA Fisheries southeast regional office at 727-824-5305.

The following is a synopsis of daily response efforts from the Unified Response Command:

• Total response vessels: more than 517
• Boom deployed: more than 1.5 million feet (regular plus sorbent boom)
• Oily water recovered: approximately 4 million gallons
• Dispersant used: approximately 436,246 gallons
• Dispersant available: approximately 120,00 gallons
• Overall personnel responding: approximately 13,000

For information about the response effort, visit www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com.
To contact the Deepwater Horizon Joint Information Center, call (985) 902-5231.
To volunteer, or to report oiled shoreline, call (866) 448-5816. Volunteer opportunities can also be found here.
To submit your vessel as a vessel of opportunity skimming system, or to submit alternative response technology, services, or products, call 281-366-5511.
To report oiled wildlife, call (866) 557-1401. Messages will be checked hourly.

Weather conditions for May 12: Winds from the Southeast at 12-15 knots in the morning, higher gusts in the evening. 4-5 foot seas, protected waters are rough.

Breaking News

Gulf of Mexico

Marilyn Mower: May 4, 2010

Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

The problem with leaking oil in the Gulf of Mexico could become an environmental and economic disaster of unprecedented proportion. This update (5/4/2010) from the unified taskforce is from one of the sites listed below, Deepwater Horizon Response:

Total Vessels (including tugs and skimmers): 196

Boom deployed: 486,940 feet

Boom available: 668,081 feet

Oil and Water Mix – Recovered: 23,968 gallons

Dispersant Used: 156,012 gallons

Dispersant available: 230,000 gallons

Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV): 10

Overall Personnel Responding: 7,484

In addition to the overall personnel responding, more than 2,000 volunteers have been trained to assist in the response effort.

State of Emergency Orders have been issued by the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida

Nine staging areas are in place and ready to protect sensitive shorelines. These areas include:

Biloxi, Miss.

Pensacola, Fla.

Venice, La.

Pascagoula, Miss.

Port Sulphur, La.

Port Fourchon, La.

Gulfport, Miss.

Dauphin Island, Ala.

Shell Beach, La.

To report oiled or injured wildlife, please call 1-800-557-1401.

For those of you who want to dig deeper into the facts and get the latest updates, here are some excellent web sources:

Response Taskforce
www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com

Boat Us
www.boatus.com/pressroom

Coast Guard District 8 External Affairs
www.d8externalaffairs.com/go/doc/425/455751/

Alabama emergency response site
www.governor.alabama.gov/oilspill

Florida Department of Environmental Protection
www.dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon/default.htm

Florida Wildlife Commission
www.MyFWC.com

Louisiana emergency response site
emergency.louisiana.gov

Louisiana governmental agencies
www.louisiana.gov

Mississippi governmental agencies
www.mississippi.gov

Environmental Protection Agency
www.epa.gov/bpspill

NOAA Office of Response and Restoration
response.restoration.noaa.gov

BP
www.bp.com

International Boat Show

She’s Got The Look

Newlywed makes her

way into annual

Swimsuit issue

Bill Ando April 8, 2010

You’ve probably been wondering which one of the lovely young women in our Swimsuit photo shoot is the amateur model. Who was the one we found on the beach in the Bahamas?

Truth be told, she was on her honeymoon, and had never done any modeling.

Breaking News

2010 Miami International Boat Show

Marilyn Mower

On this Web page, you’ll see something we’ve wanted to do for a long time—give you access to breaking news. The opening of the Miami International Boat Show and the Yacht and Brokerage Show seems the perfect time to do it. Check this page throughout the Show, February 11-15, to find out what we’ve been seeing and hearing.

Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing the debut of some new boats that promise to be interesting: Marlow’s 76LR tops my list. Close behind is the new Meridian 541.
Mercury has a new concept boat that’s hush hush until Friday. Regal is unveiling a new 40-foot sport coupe on

Thursday and Jupiter is taking the wraps of a new 26-footer and an updated 29, both designed to fly with less horsepower.

The new management of Vicem yachts seeks to be shaking things up and this Turkish builder is showing a number of beautiful cold-molded boats.

If you are interested in something new that you can trailer as well as cruise, don’t miss the Ranger Tugs display. They will have very smart 25 and 29 footers on display.
Check pages 52 to 63 of our February issue for more information.

2009 Fort Lauderdale

International Boat Show

Ah fall. And this year marks my 21st Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. I love this show and one of the reasons is because it’s my hometown show. Almost anybody who is anybody attends this show and I don’t have to drag a suitcase and live in a hotel to work it.

Yes, the show will be a bit scaled back this year (my feet will be happier), but most of the manufacturers are showing up, even if their booths are smaller or they display fewer boats. I believe there is pent up interest in buying boats and accessories. Most of the older models in inventory have “gone away,” although new commercial lending plans that that make it economically feasible for dealers to floorplan new models did not arrive in time for many dealers to place orders before the show. Still, that means that soon more builders will be calling furloughed workers back to the factory, and that’s a good thing. The upturn has already started in the RV market and historically, recreational boats follow close behind.

As the world learned to cut back and do more with less, I believe that many people learned that the quality of an experience is more important than the quantity of experiences. When it comes to quality experiences, you have to look hard to beat things that involve boats and water.

The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show begins October 29. You can pre-order tickets online at a $2 savings by going to showmanagement website

Between the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) Show and the International Boatbuilders Exposition (IBEX), there were several new products that caught my eye and you are going to want to check these out for yourselves.

FLIR has a new small thermal nightvision system that looks like R2D2. This cute little guy lets you see clearly in total darkness and has twice the range of earlier systems. flir site.

SureShade, which last year debuted an electric roller shade that slides out on telescoping tubes to cover cockpits, this year introduced a smaller product for center consoles and small cruisers under 35 feet, This time the shade rolls out with a hand crank. The manual system is three times lighter and costs 40% less than the automated version. www.sureshade.com.

Navico’s AP24 and AP28 series autopilots for Simrad were judged top of the class at the electronics show, and with good reason–www.simrad-yachting.com. Furuno took home several awards including top radar for the Furuno NavNet 3D Ultra-Hi Def, and its accompanying NavNet 3D display in the navigation category.

The 2009 Technology Award at the electronics show went to Simrad’s Broadband Radar, which we debuted to you last February.

At the IBEX show, we saw Raymarine’s E-Series Wide-Screen displays, which are pretty nice and useful, too. If you want to upgrade your plotter but don’t want to waste the money you already have invested in chart chips, you’ll be glad to know these units use both Jeppesen C-Map 4D charts or Navionics Platinum Plus. The screens come in 9”, 12” and 14” displays. They also have both touch screen and keypad controls and the visuals are great. www.raymarine.com.

The next two are for a more limited audience, but could be the answer to someone’s distress.

Several months ago one of our readers inquired about ways to hook up a alternate fresh water rinse to the onboard toilets on his brother’s boat. Seems they boat in stinky water. He’d MacGyvred something with a garden hose and a valve, which didn’t look very practical to me. Hope he sees the latest Marine Elegance electric toilets from Raritan – this has a very nice control system with a solenoid and double check valves built into the toilet’s base–along with the extra hose– so that you can give your raw water toilet a fresh water rinse, or in cases of extreme grassiness, use fresh water exclusively to flush. www.raritaneng.com
.

Those of you who are thinking about doing the great loop next year might really appreciate Kimberlite’s Signal Mate automatic controller takes the guesswork and recall out of sound and light signaling for reduced visibility conditions. With modes for boat inland and offshore, the Signal Mate controls a 360° light and your air horn. You punch up the problem from a menu, and Signal Mate makes sure you are displaying the right light combination and sending the right horn blasts for various situations such as powered, not making way, towing or under tow, danger, etc. www.signalmate.com.

If you are attending the Lauderdale show, stop by and say hello at our booth in the 400/500 Tent. If not, get out there on the water and have some fun.

Electronic Gremlins

Time to catch up on a few things. . .

Southern Boating readers have the chance to visit with the crew of 64-foot Ocean Watch on its 13-month Around the Americas tour to draw attention to the changing condition of the ocean. Ocean Watch left Seattle June 1 for a 25,000 mile clockwise circumnavigation of the Western Hemisphere,

This project represents the efforts of a consortium formed to make the public more aware of the Oceans. The founding partners are Pacific Science Center, a nationally-recognized leader in environmental education, and Sailors for the Sea, a non-profit organization that educates and empowers the boating community to protect and restore our oceans and coastal waters. They have joined in this undertaking with Mark Schrader, a world-record-holding, solo circumnavigator and ocean race director, and his experienced, professional crew of three.

David Rockefeller, Jr., co-founder of Sailors for the Sea, said, “This project is definitely an expedition for our times. The health of our oceans is important to all of us, not just those who live by the sea. Our food sources, our climate and even the air we breathe are dependent on the vast ocean systems. Around the Americas will demonstrate both the current deterioration of the ocean condition and what we as individuals can do to reverse or at least slow the negative effects.”

The official suppliers to this project reads like a Who’s Who of the marine industry and I’m glad to see several Southern Boating advertisers on the list, such as Jeppesen Marine Navionics and Winslow Life Raft Company.

Ocean Watch will be in Charleston, SC, on October, 12, in Miami, FL on October 18 and in San Juan, PR on November first on her way south to round Cape Horn in January.

Check out the Web Site www.aroundtheamericas.org or ” www.sailorsforthesea.org for information.
Also sailing related, I’m rather fascinated by a couple of sailing boats at opposite ends of the racing spectrum. I admit I used to view multi-hulls with disdain and I still do not find them particularly attractive under sail, but the science and the physics in the R&D and the sailing of Vestas SailRocket and BMW Oracle’s 90-foot trimaran have me captivated. I am especially intrigued by the fact that the tiny Vesta and the enormous Oracle use the same curved shape on foils of their outer hull(s).

Vestas SailRocket is a one-man, 28-foot proa-type boat that has previously clocked the speed of 45.7 knots sailing off a beach in Namibia. On October 2 the team will start open a 28-day racing window to try and achieve sailing 50 knots in 20 knots of wind and slso attempt to break the current speed record held by the French boat, Hydroptere. I find it fascinating that SailRocket is an outgrowth of testing programs to build better wind turbine blades by the British manufacturer, Vestas. Just treat yourself to a few minutes of video watching from the cockpit as the boat sails at 40-plus knots. You’ll find yourself grinning, too. www.sailrocket.com

For a jaw-dropping experience visit BWM Oracle’s home page and get a look at 2/3rd of the boat out of the water. I wouldn’t know how to begin to calculate the loads on the cross beams, but I would love to have a front row seat. bmworacleracing.com

While I think that the 33rd America’s Cup has become a nightmare that has almost nothing to do with competitive sailing, the knowledge generated by the development of the two freak boats for the battling billionaires will no doubt advance all sailing technology.

That Old Inventor, Necessity

Electronic Gremlins

Ethanol, again

What part of “NO” don’t they understand?

May 11, 2009

Marilyn Mower

Just when you think it can’t get worse, the Feds are asking if we’d like more ethanol in our gasoline. Uh, that would be “NO.” I’m referred to as a treehugger around this office but it doesn’t pain me to say “NO” to more ethanol. Look, this isn’t a case of where two negatives equal a positive; more ethanol is just – worse. Ethanol is a mess in the marine environment where open vent fuel systems just beg water to enter the fuel supply. Even though the EPA has mandated closed loop gasoline fuel systems by 2012 in all marine applications, any gas powered boat built before then is a sitting duck for fuel problems. Why not take a page from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and reject ethanol?Aircraft with bad fuel fall out of the sky and that scenario was enough to exempt private aircraft from ethanol. Well, boats with bad fuel will sputter to a halt just the same and the results could be being swept out to sea, overturned in an inlet or rundown by a freighter. Same potential for tragedy. Write your representatives at the state and federal level and say “NO” to more ethanol.

Palm Beach

International Boat Show

April 2, 2009

Marilyn Mower

I found some things to get excited about at the Palm Beach International Boat Show last week, and it wasn’t just the weather. If we handed out awards, I’d give a “Best Engine Room” prize to Nordhavn’s 75-foot yachtfisherman Hull #2. Jim Leishman showed me around this engineer’s heaven and I’m sure my jaw dropped more than once as I inspected the installation. It’s a spectacular and suitable for ABS or MCA class should the owner choose. So much space to work. . . such beautiful piping and manifolds. Rather than throw in redundancies on every system, Nordhavn’s approach is to upsize primaries so that they won’t fail at an inopportune moment, say halfway to Tahiti. Yes, this big girl can make 4,000 miles on a single tank. We’ll be having a full report soon. As for “Clever Electrical Panels,” the installation aboard the new Offshore 64 Voyager would be hard to beat. At the end of the helm station in the pilothouse, a short little section of cabinetry juts out to keep folks at the console from stepping over too far and falling down the stairs to the accommodations. This little half wall is fitted with the main electrical control panels under clear Lucite covers. The 12/24V DC breakers are on one side and the 110/220V AC system is on the other. The best part is that both of these panels hinge open like butterfly wings so that you can actually get to the wires behind both of them either from the pilothouse or from the stairway. Everything is beautifully labeled and tied. And there were some interior features that caught my attention as well. The Sea Vee 43 Express with triple outboards is a sure winner for space planning and finish (I haven’t been away from the dock on her yet). There’s no compromising fishability, but the interior makes the most of its space in a smart galley and a lounge/dining area that morphs into nice, extra sleeping quarters at the touch of a button, two buttons, really. One lowers the table to the floor and the other slides out the sofa into a double bed with a normal rectangular configuration, no filler cushions to wrestle or strange shapes requiring custom sheets. Viking’s 46 Convertible had a great main deck layout with a triangular island in the galley making room for a couple of stools and the perfect spot for morning coffee. The polished Corian counter top lacks fiddles, though, so you have to remember not to leave anything important there when the boat is moving. The arrangement of the owner’s cabin, which puts the head forward and the bed aft, makes a good use of the pointy end of the boat. Of course, the business end of the boat is true to championship form, although there’s a new wrinkle there, too. Prop pockets keep the draft at 4’ 6”. For exterior styling, I liked the upscale approach of the sparkling blue Soluna 46 Coupe. It blurs the line between retro cruiser and Down East lobster boat. The interior is a modern gorgeousness with plush seating, a great galley-down arrangement and beautiful joinery. What makes this boat a star, however, is the effort made to silence the generator. Not only is it back under the cockpit, but it’s so well shielded you’d be hard pressed to know when it’s running.

Boston Whaler Thinks Innovation

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Marilyn Mower

A few months ago in our sister publication, Marine Business Journal, I wrote about the need to create new products for changing times and changing audiences. I challenged readers to think about what new product or service they could bring to market to distin

guish their companies. Tough times, I believe, always bring out the best ideas. As boatbuilders go, the group of companies that make up Brunswick Marine have certainly been having tough times and big boss Dusty McCoy has had the tough task of reducing the number of brands in the Brunswick basket. John Ward, the CEO of Boston Whaler, is one of McCoy’s most nimble leaders and John should get kudos for shaking things up and bringing new ideas and products to market. The first of his new ideas was to look at the venerable 13-foot Boston Whaler in light of today’s generation of entry level boat buyers. After all, expectations have changed since the unsinkable Whaler his the market 50 years ago. I urge you to have a look at the colorful, adaptive new 13- and 15-foot Whaler Super Sports for 2009. Even their sales pitch is new: Buy your idea of a base boat and purchase accessories later on-line. Hey, a tower rack or a rail-mount livewell could make some teenager a cool birthday present. Whaler put it together as a package that gets people on the water for less than 10 Grand. Brilliant. At the other end of Whaler’s spectrum are its Outrage customers, folks looking for a very well appointed (read, high end) express cruiser. Those buyers were treated to the unveiling of the prototype of Whaler’s largest Outrage yet, a 37 footer. But not secure in the bigger is better promotion angle, the builder hedged bets by debuting its first modular deck option with this boat. Yes, you can always fish it, but if your family’s tastes run more toward entertaining friends pulled up to the local sandbar, the entire seat/livewell and tackle center can be replaced with a seat/summer kitchen option with twice the refrigeration, sink, grill, ceramic cooktop. This was innovation from the shop floor by employees so excited to bring it to market they finished it hours before the Miami Boat Show opened, threw it in the back of a pickup truck and drove all night to get it on display. Doubly brilliant. See http://www.whaler.com/boats for more. These are the kinds of innovations that will keep us all boating.

It’s an economic stimulus for boating

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Marilyn Mower

Kudos to those who worked tirelessly for eight-that’s right, eight–years to fix a problem with the U.S. Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act that has cost you, me, and everyone else who has ever had a boat hauled, repaired and repainted untold gob-lots of money. The short story is that employees and subcontractors working on boats and yachts have been subject to the same injury insurance as those maritime workers toiling away on massive commercial ships or handling cargo. Longshore insurance coverage is, A) difficult to obtain and, B) expensive, often costing the individual independent contractor or a small company or boatyard anywhere from $12,000 to $50,000 per year or more, as their employees did not qualify for coverage under state workers’ compensation injury coverage. Eight years ago, at the urging of its members, the Marine Industries of South Florida (MIASF) took up this cause. Sometimes working alone, sometimes partnering with other marine trades associations around the country, MIASF lobbied and bantered making the case with human resources departments, insurance boards, labor relations groups, government committees and government officials to explain that the guys who pressure wash the bottom of your little boat aren’t longshoremen. In 2008 their arguments picked up steam and around the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show, word came that all opposition to granting an exclusion for recreational boat and yacht workers had evaporated. All that was needed was sponsorship in the U.S. House and Senate and attachment of the exclusion to some piece of legislation. In addition to the volunteer board of directors and the employees of the MIASF, the hero and heroine of this tale are Representatives Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) and Robert Klein (D-FL) who seized the opportunity to put the legislation into the President’s economic stimulus package because U.S. boat yards are losing work to yards in Mexico, the Caribbean and South America where longshore regulations do not exist and hourly wages are a fraction of what they are in the U.S. The package was signed into law February 17. So there you have it. On page 830 of the some thousand-page American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 21 lines spell out the amendment. Those 21 lines will save the average boat yard and the average independent marine tradesman 55 percent annually in insurance costs. It’s a move that saves livelihoods and should save you $$$ on your next trip to the boatyard. And the best news about this part of the economic stimulus plan is that it doesn’t cost taxpayers a cent.

February 15, 2009

By Marilyn Mower

There’s still time to get to the Miami Boat Show and see a brand new radar product in the Convention Center that will knock your socks off. It’s the world’s first recreational marine Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave radome. Navico, the parent company of Northstar, Simrad, Lowarance, Eagle and B & G has introduced not just an incremental improvement, but an entirely new system for 24-mile radar that eliminates the magnatron entirely, which also eliminates the main bang that blinds radars eyes within 200 yards of your boat. The new radome transmits at 1/20,000 the power of traditional radar (less than 1/10th the energy of a cell phone) and emits no harmful radiation outside the dome. The technology is called BROADBAND RADAR and it’s brilliant—as are the displays on the screen. Simrad, Lowrance and Northstar will release the new 18” domes in Q-2 of this year. This is radar so precise you can use it for docking. Southern Boating will have a full feature on Navico’s Broadband breakthrough in our April issue.

Everything in Boating is Connected

February 9, 2009

Marilyn Mower

Chances are you have admired, owned or ridden on a boat designed by Jack Hargrave. Even if you don’t fall into one of those categories, if you are a power boater, Jack Hargrave changed the way you go boating. At the request of Willis Slane, in 1959 he designed the first inboard motoryacht built of fiberglass. Part yacht, part fishing boat, they called it a convertible.

Fiberglass was a new material at the time and the small resin and cloth boats testing the stuff were about as attractive and exciting as bathtubs or my rotomolded kayak. People didn’t trust fiberglass and resin to hold up in a pounding sea. Jack understood the science behind the petrochemicals and he worked with Owens-Corning to figure out the tricks of shaping fiberglass cloth into rigid structures. He did his own demolition tests on hull panels by driving over them in his Corvair.

Interestingly, Jack never went into the fiberglass boatbuilding business. He left that to Hatteras and to many other clients such as Atlantic, Amels, Hitachi Zosen, Striker, Prairie, Halmatic, Daytona, Cheoy Lee, and others. He continued to design boats built of wood, steel and aluminum for other customers, in fact, he was one of the first to help Burger Boat Company adapt to aluminum. Jack was not an innovation junkie, rather
what gave Jack a thrill was to sit down at his drawing board with a clean sheet of paper and sharpened No.2 pencils to begin a new project.

Jack did his designing before the advent of 3D computer modeling. His drawings were meticulous, his lines spare but never tentative. What’s all the more amazing is that he was blind in one eye. So what? He learned how to draw and to handle a boat anyway on Lake Superior. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Jack joined the Merchant Marine carrying fuel and supplies to the war effort.

Jack took what he’d learned as a kid on the lakes, as a merchant mariner, as a charter captain, and as a racing sailor and rolled it all into his Westlawn Yacht Design Course. He plowed through a two-year course in seven months so he could get to work. And work he did, right up until his passing February 26, 1996.

In 2008 Jack Hargrave was inducted him into the North American Boat Designers Hall of Fame in Mystic Seaport. In announcing Jack’s honor, naval architect Dave Geer said: “There’s no question that Jack Hargrave was the single most preeminent powerboat designer of the 2nd half of the twentieth century. To this day—if you can find a Hargrave-designed boat for sale—buy it. There are no finer powerboat designs.”

Recently, during the Stuart Boat Show, I was on an unusual 76-footer named Walrus designed by Dave Geer for John Luhrs as a floating showcase of the skills and craftsmanship available from a repair and refit yard he owns called St. Augustine Marine. In the conversation group was the owner of an Atlantic 47 in search of a complete refit. Our tour guide said, oh, a Hargrave. The owner of the yard loves Hargraves and has one called Koala.  

Everything in boating is connected. I remember the first time I saw Koala from the deck of my sailboat motoring up to a marina on Oyster Creek. I thought it was about the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. Two years later I recognized Koala immediately in a pile of photos when I began researching a book about Jack Hargrave’s designs called American Classic: The Yachts and Ships of Jack Hargrave. Koala was built in 1966 by Burger Boat Company. I had no idea John Luhrs was her current owner. He’s got good taste.

In putting together the annual Haul Out Guide, which will soon be in your mailbox or at your favorite newsstand, we took a look at some major projects requiring professional help. One was the repowering of a 64-foot Hatteras, designed of course by Jack Hargrave. It was a model that featured twin engine rooms separated by a passage to the owner’s stateroom aft—Hargrave’s solution for having accommodations fore and aft of the engine room without eating up space with a second stairway. This project was carried out at Saunder’s Yachtworks in Florida’s panhandle.

The second major project we show in the Haul Out Guide was a stern extension done to an 83-foot Cheoy Lee at St. Augustine Marine on Oyster Creek. The Cheoy Lee was designed by the late Tom Fexas, who followed Jack Hargrave as Cheoy Lee’s designer.  Fexas was a huge admirer of Jack’s and of his pioneering work with fiberglass.

So, Mike Joyce, who today owns Hargrave Custom Yachts, accepted Jack’s award from Geer. That and the fact that Joyce also owns the rights to build and distribute Tom Fexas’s famous Midnight Lace design just completes the circuit. Everything in boating is connected.

February 15, 2009

By Marilyn Mower

There’s still time to get to the Miami Boat Show and see a brand new radar product in the Convention Center that will knock your socks off. It’s the world’s first recreational marine Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave radome. Navico, the parent company of Northstar, Simrad, Lowarance, Eagle and B & G has introduced not just an incremental improvement, but an entirely new system for 24-mile radar that eliminates the magnatron entirely, which also eliminates the main bang that blinds radars eyes within 200 yards of your boat. The new radome transmits at 1/20,000 the power of traditional radar (less than 1/10th the energy of a cell phone) and emits no harmful radiation outside the dome. The technology is called BROADBAND RADAR and it’s brilliant—as are the displays on the screen. Simrad, Lowrance and Northstar will release the new 18” domes in Q-2 of this year. This is radar so precise you can use it for docking. Southern Boating will have a full feature on Navico’s Broadband breakthrough in our April issue.

Everything in Boating is Connected

February 9, 2009

Marilyn Mower

Chances are you have admired, owned or ridden on a boat designed by Jack Hargrave. Even if you don’t fall into one of those categories, if you are a power boater, Jack Hargrave changed the way you go boating. At the request of Willis Slane, in 1959 he designed the first inboard motoryacht built of fiberglass. Part yacht, part fishing boat, they called it a convertible.

Fiberglass was a new material at the time and the small resin and cloth boats testing the stuff were about as attractive and exciting as bathtubs or my rotomolded kayak. People didn’t trust fiberglass and resin to hold up in a pounding sea. Jack understood the science behind the petrochemicals and he worked with Owens-Corning to figure out the tricks of shaping fiberglass cloth into rigid structures. He did his own demolition tests on hull panels by driving over them in his Corvair.

Interestingly, Jack never went into the fiberglass boatbuilding business. He left that to Hatteras and to many other clients such as Atlantic, Amels, Hitachi Zosen, Striker, Prairie, Halmatic, Daytona, Cheoy Lee, and others. He continued to design boats built of wood, steel and aluminum for other customers, in fact, he was one of the first to help Burger Boat Company adapt to aluminum. Jack was not an innovation junkie, rather
what gave Jack a thrill was to sit down at his drawing board with a clean sheet of paper and sharpened No.2 pencils to begin a new project.

Jack did his designing before the advent of 3D computer modeling. His drawings were meticulous, his lines spare but never tentative. What’s all the more amazing is that he was blind in one eye. So what? He learned how to draw and to handle a boat anyway on Lake Superior. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Jack joined the Merchant Marine carrying fuel and supplies to the war effort.

Jack took what he’d learned as a kid on the lakes, as a merchant mariner, as a charter captain, and as a racing sailor and rolled it all into his Westlawn Yacht Design Course. He plowed through a two-year course in seven months so he could get to work. And work he did, right up until his passing February 26, 1996.

In 2008 Jack Hargrave was inducted him into the North American Boat Designers Hall of Fame in Mystic Seaport. In announcing Jack’s honor, naval architect Dave Geer said: “There’s no question that Jack Hargrave was the single most preeminent powerboat designer of the 2nd half of the twentieth century. To this day—if you can find a Hargrave-designed boat for sale—buy it. There are no finer powerboat designs.”

Recently, during the Stuart Boat Show, I was on an unusual 76-footer named Walrus designed by Dave Geer for John Luhrs as a floating showcase of the skills and craftsmanship available from a repair and refit yard he owns called St. Augustine Marine. In the conversation group was the owner of an Atlantic 47 in search of a complete refit. Our tour guide said, oh, a Hargrave. The owner of the yard loves Hargraves and has one called Koala.  

Everything in boating is connected. I remember the first time I saw Koala from the deck of my sailboat motoring up to a marina on Oyster Creek. I thought it was about the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. Two years later I recognized Koala immediately in a pile of photos when I began researching a book about Jack Hargrave’s designs called American Classic: The Yachts and Ships of Jack Hargrave. Koala was built in 1966 by Burger Boat Company. I had no idea John Luhrs was her current owner. He’s got good taste.

In putting together the annual Haul Out Guide, which will soon be in your mailbox or at your favorite newsstand, we took a look at some major projects requiring professional help. One was the repowering of a 64-foot Hatteras, designed of course by Jack Hargrave. It was a model that featured twin engine rooms separated by a passage to the owner’s stateroom aft—Hargrave’s solution for having accommodations fore and aft of the engine room without eating up space with a second stairway. This project was carried out at Saunder’s Yachtworks in Florida’s panhandle.

The second major project we show in the Haul Out Guide was a stern extension done to an 83-foot Cheoy Lee at St. Augustine Marine on Oyster Creek. The Cheoy Lee was designed by the late Tom Fexas, who followed Jack Hargrave as Cheoy Lee’s designer.  Fexas was a huge admirer of Jack’s and of his pioneering work with fiberglass.

So, Mike Joyce, who today owns Hargrave Custom Yachts, accepted Jack’s award from Geer. That and the fact that Joyce also owns the rights to build and distribute Tom Fexas’s famous Midnight Lace design just completes the circuit. Everything in boating is connected.