Fighting bio invasion H Engine room noise control

May/June 2009
Issue No. 178
$4.99 U.S. $4.99 Canada

www.OceanNavigator.com
 See the Nordhavn 55 at the Lido Boat Show in Newport beach California April 15-19, 2009 • Greenport Trawler Fest, NY June 26-28

NORDHAVN Tech
Cruise with experts when help is far, far away.
The Nordhavn Owner’s Manual

You are off the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego. You have taken on 600 gallons of diesel and discover water in the fuel dirty water now what?
Building an adventure yacht that propulsion and many others. In addition to iary systems, complete with detailed specifi-
can take you and your crew around everyday procedures like starting the cations, maintenance suggestions and dia-
the world in safety and first-class engines, operating the thrusters and grams. Before I was halfway through, I was
comfort is no simple task. launching the dinghy, the manual also sold – a manufacturer capable of creating
By necessity, a Nordhavn is a complicated provides quick and thorough answers when such a manual would simply have to be
piece of machinery that requires a high an owner needs to find a valve or a fuse, one helluva manufacturer.”
level of skill and knowledge to operate. needs to know how the gravity-fed fuel sys-
Understanding this, Nordhavn creates a tem works or needs to know how to operate It’s not enough to hand the owner
custom owner’s operation manual with the emergency bilge pump or fire system. the keys to a boat like a Nordhavn
detailed schematics for each boat that and say “bon voyage.” Providing own-
explains in great detail how each system It comes as no surprise that the boating ers with an industry-leading manual enables
aboard works. media has taken notice. Renowned boating them to quickly climb the learning curve and
journalist, Capt. Bill Pike, had this to say begin enjoying their journey whether it’s just
“Every boat we build about the Nordhavn down the coast or all the way across an
includes a certain owner’s manual: ocean. You can’t put a price on peace of
level of customization “Talk about thor- mind, and the Nordhavn owner’s manual
by the owner,” says Jim oughness. A prelimi- provides that and much more.
Leishman, Vice President nary section on law
and co-owner of Nordhavn enforcement hit Find out what Nordhavn can mean
yachts. “This is one reason everything from to you. Visit www.nordhavn.com or
we have two dedicated sys- radio procedure to call (949) 496-4848 to learn more about the
tems engineers on staff boating safety. A con- exciting adventures you can have aboard
who inspect every boat and write a manual struction summary described laminates, the any of Nordhavn’s current fleet of 15 yachts,
specific to each boat. Many well-seasoned hull-to-deck joint and lots of other nitty- including the brand new 56-foot Motorsailer
boaters have told me the manuals we pro- gritty items an owner bent on understand- and the 75 Expedition Yacht Fisher.
vide are the best they’ve ever seen.” ing, maintaining and making passages
aboard a yacht would want to know. Then
Each manual extensively covers every system came the good stuff – approximately 150
aboard, including fuel, water, electricity, pages dealing with engineering and auxil-

40II 43 47 52 55 56MS 60 62 64 68 72 75EYF 76 86 120

Pacific Asian Enterprises • 34179 Golden Lantern, Suite 101 • Dana Point, CA 92629
949.496.4848 Fax 949.240.2398 www.nordhavn.com
WARNING
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 Contents 9

8
Departments
Chartroom Chatter
6 Plastic voyager

7 Boatbuilder does solar

8 Marion-Bermuda Race symposiums

9 Panama Canal Yacht Club demolished

9 Chuck Paine retires

10 West Marine green product award

10 First woman captain

11 Notable New Titles

12 Product News

Marine Tech Notes

14 Fighting bio invasion
by Tim Queeney

Power Voyaging
17 Quieting engine noise
by Chuck Husick

49 10 Correspondence
21 Fishing for the pot

24 Emergency decision making

26 Voyagers crewing with voyagers

21
Voyaging Tips
49 Rudder bearing replacement
by Peter Stoops

Nav Problem
56 Heroics from a Gloucester fisherman
by David Berson

For bonus materials, check out the

12 current issue at www.OceanNavigator.com.

2 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009 www.oceannavigator.com

 OCEAN
NAVIGATOR
MAR I N E NAVIGATION AN D OCEAN VOYAG I NG

Issue #178
May/June 2009

28

Features
Ocean Voyaging
28 Colombian exposition
Voyagers explore two intriguing
sets of islands off Colombia’s
Caribbean coast
by Carolyn and Bob Mehaffy 37

Special Section
37 The virtues of VHF
A VHF/DSC radio remains the pre-
eminent communications tool for 41
coastal voyaging
by Chuck Husick

41 Satellite phones 45
Handheld solutions for voyagers
wanting to stay in touch
by John Snyder

45 Solid state radar

The new Navico BR24 broadband
radar is a fascinating departure for
low-power radar technology
by Chuck Husick

On the cover: Maryland sailor Bill Richardson

after a night of rough weather en route to the Azores
aboard the Morris 48 Consulting Time II.
John Snyder photo
11
www.oceannavigator.com 3
 CONTRIBUTORS OCEAN
NAVIGATOR MAR I N E NAVIGATION AN D OCEAN VOYAG I NG

ALL DEPARTMENTS: 207-772-2466

FAX: 207-772-2879
www.OceanNavigator.com

Ann Hoffner (Correspondence, “Voyagers crew- EDITORIAL

ing with voyagers,” page 26) and her husband Editors@OceanNavigator.com

EDITOR Tim Queeney

Tom Bailey set off in the early 1990s to sail
COPY EDITOR Larissa Dillman
around the world. Two-and-a-half years later they ART DIRECTOR Kim Goulet Norton
bought a bigger boat, fixed it up and in 2000 set ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Susan Sargent
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Scott Bannerot
off again. In their Peterson 44, Oddly Enough, Twain Braden
Hoffner and Bailey sailed from the Bahamas to John Snyder
Maine, to Florida and through the Panama Nigel Calder
Steve C. D’Antonio
Canal. They zig-zagged across the South Pacific, Eric Forsyth
spent time in Darwin, Australia, returned to the Chuck Husick
Jeff & Raine Williams
South Pacific and are now exploring Indonesia.
David Berson

ADVERTISING/MARKETING

Frederick Gary Hareland (Correspondence, Advert@OceanNavigator.com

WEST COAST/CANADA
“Emergency decision making,” page 24)
INTERNATIONAL Susan W. Hadlock
Fredrick Gary Hareland holds an AAS degree in MIDWEST / GULF / FLORIDA Bruce Cole
rescue and survival operations and in avionic sys- EAST COAST Charlie Humphries
PUBLISHER/
tems technology and is a certified marine elec- ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Alex Agnew
tronics technician and NARTE certified
telecommunications technician. He has served in BUSINESS / CIRCULATION

the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, the Military Sealift BUSINESS MANAGER Doreen Parlin

Command-Pacific and has worked for Maersk CIRCULATION ASSISTANT/

EVENTS COORDINATOR Sarah Grimm
Line Limited and Norwegian Cruise Line. Hare- FINANCE/PARTNER Michael Payson

land currently works at China Lake Naval Air

WEB SITE
Warfare Station as a microwave-communications
PUBLISHER INTERACTIVE MEDIA Tony Napolitano
technician. He lives in Ridgecrest, Calif.
WEBMASTER Alden Robinson

Chuck Husick (“The virtues of VHF,” page 37, CUSTOMER SERVICE

“Solid state radar,” page 45) is an Ocean Navigator Oceannavigator@pcspublink.com
contributing editor who lives in Tierra Verde, Fla. A 866-918-6972

sailor, pilot, photographer, and writer, Husick has run

such diverse companies as Narco Avionics, Cessna ISSN 0886-0149
Ocean Navigator is published in January, March, May, July, September, October

and Fairchild Aircraft and Chris Craft. He was
involved in NASA projects in the 1960s and also
directed an industrial X-ray imaging company. He
sails his 46-foot Irwin ketch, Bonne Etoile in Florida
and the U.S. East Coast and uses the boat as a test
vehicle for evaluating marine gear. Husick recently
began collaborating with Ocean Navigator on a pod-
cast called “Chuck’s Corner.” The podcasts are avail-
able via the ON Web site.
and November, with an annual special issue of Ocean Voyager in April, for
$27.95 per year by Navigator Publishing LLC, 58 Fore St., Portland, ME 04101.
Periodicals postage paid at Portland, Maine, and additional mailing offices.
Postmaster: Please send address changes to Ocean Navigator, P.O. Box
461468, Escondido, CA 92046.
Copyright © 2008 by Navigator Publishing LLC. All rights reserved. No part of
this publication may be reprinted in any way without written permission from
the publisher.
Subscription rate is $27.95 for one year (eight issues) in the United States
and its possessions. Canadian subscription rate is $31.95 U.S. funds. Other
foreign surface is $33.95 U.S. funds. Overseas air mail is $62.95 U.S. funds
per year.
Distribution: Newsstand distribution, domestically and internationally: Coast
to Coast Newsstand Services LTD., 5230 Finch Ave. East, Suite 1, Toronto, ON
M1S 4Z9. Phone (416) 754-3900; fax (416) 754-4900.
Contributions: We solicit manuscripts, drawings and photographs. Please
address all material to Editor, Ocean Navigator, P.O. Box 569, Portland, ME
04112-0569. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee the safe handling of con-
tributed materials.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES BY THE LANE PRESS

4 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009 www.oceannavigator.com

Chatter
Chartroom
BY JOHN SNYDER
crossed the Pacific in 1947.
The boat is designed to
be representative of con-
struction materials that are
easily and fully recyclable.
The design team members
include Michael Pawlyn,
concept architect, Aus-
tralian naval architect
Andrew Dovell, cabin
architect Nathaniel Croun,
solar array designer Jason
Iftahar, and boat builder
Mike Rose.
Construction of Plastiki
consists of filling the hull
sections with about 12,000
plastic sealed beverage bot-
tles that are held in place by
retaining nets and longitu-
Courtesy Plastiki
dinal tubes. Each of the
bottles are filled with 12
grams of dry ice and re-
sealed with a ratchet style
Plastic voyager device. The hulls of the boat
IN AN EFFORT TO DRAW ATTENTION will be built by sandwiching
TO THE IMPACT OF PLASTIC BOTTLES plastic foam between sheets
<<
Plastiki, a 60-foot
on the environment, 30- of recycled plastic cloth
cat, is being built
year-old David de Roth- made from woven fibers of
entirely from
schild and his team are srPET (self-reinforcing
reclaimed materials
building a 60-foot catama- polyethylene terephthalate,
and without any
ran out of plastics and plas- the type of plastic used in
glues or resins. At
tic bottles called Plastiki. beverage bottles). The hulls
the end of the voy-
The catamaran’s name pays will then be connected by
age it will be possi-
homage to Norwegian rigid srPET tubes. The mast
ble to recycle the
explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s and miscellaneous hardware
entire vessel.
balsa raft Kon-Tiki that will be the only metal com-
6 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
ponents used on the boat.
Systems on the boat include
a full complement of mod-
ern navigation and commu-
nication electronics all pow-
ered by solar arrays. The
sails are Dacron. Plastiki will
be assembled without any
glues or resins and when the
voyage is done de Roth-
schild hopes to recycle the
entire boat.
Once the boat is built,
de Rothschild and his crew
plan to sail Plastiki from
San Francisco to Sydney,
Australia, in an effort to
spread the message that
plastic waste is a problem
for our planet and that
there are creative solutions
out there. De Rothschild,
who is an accomplished
polar explorer hopes that
the new boat will serve as a
vehicle to educate and pro-
mote projects to eliminate
waste. He also is founder of
Adventure Ecology — a
web-based organization
dedicated to increasing
environmental awareness
through adventure, educa-
tion, the arts and lifestyle.
For more information on
the Plastiki Expedition visit
www.adventureecology.com
www.oceannavigator.com

Boatbuilder does solar
TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES CALL FOR
CREATIVITY — NOT SOMETHING
that has ever been in short
supply at Lyman-Morse
Boatbuilding. The Thomas-
ton, Maine-based boat
builder, known for some of
the finest sail and power
yachts afloat today, is now
applying its talent and
innovation to alternative
energy. J.B. Turner, presi-
dent of the 160-employee
company, said that the
company has developed
what they call a Power-
Cube, a self-contained solar
power generator for off-grid
applications. Turner said
that they got into solar
power at the suggestion of
Zach Lyman, son of Cabot
Lyman, the company’s
owner. “Zach and Cabot
have been working on it for
a few years and we first
built a prototype, then the
actual units. No one had
Nanni Diesel
Courtesy Lyman-Morse
looks out for the true
sailor and fisherman
device — a three-panel and
with
a six-panel array. They use
200-watt Sanyo photo-
marine engines
voltaic panels configured from 10 to 320 HP
into two sizes — 600-watt
and 1,200-watt. The larger for fishing & sailboats
unit has a generator as well.
Turner said that nine RELIABLE, POWERFUL,
units have been sold so far E A S Y TO M A I N TA I N
— all to the U.S. govern-
ment. He said that they are
being tested all over the SAILDRIVES 10 - 62 HP
world in a variety of diverse
applications. One of the INBOARDS 10 - 320 HP
units is being used on a SOLAS 21 - 50 HP
mountain in Afghanistan.
Turner said that the KUBOTA & TOYOTA based
company is trying other
alternative energy projects.
Zach Lyman is interested in
water turbines while his
father is the “solar guy.”
Turner still has five boat IN THE USA
projects in the shed and 1 - 800 - 286 - 8758
working on getting up to e-mail: nannidiesel@waterwaypowercenter.com
speed on wind power.
Nanni Industries S.A.S.
<<

Lyman Morse’s PowerCube

taken these pieces and pack-
aged them in this way.”
Turner said.
The company is manu-
facturing two sizes of the
units are self-contained
solar powerhouses. They
are available with either
three- or six-panel arrays.
Z.I. - 11, Avenue Mariotte - 33260 La Teste – France
Tél. +33 (0) 5 56 22 30 60 - Fax +33 (0) 5 56 22 30 79
world wide nannidiesel.com – www.nannidiesel.com
© Ufficio Grafico Nanni Trading, Roma – design: MONICA INFANTINO

www.oceannavigator.com MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 7

Chatter
Chartroom

Courtesy Marion-Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race

Marion-Bermuda Race symposiums

IN PREPARATION FOR THE 2009
MARION-BERMUDA CRUISING
Yacht Race many
crewmembers participated
<<
chusetts Institute of Tech- sessions dealing with med-
nology’s Kresge Auditori- ical emergencies, weather,
um. The symposium’s Sat- CPR and a course that
urday agenda included dis- included in-water survival

Getting to the fin-

in a Safety at Sea Sympo- cussions on safety equip- skills including cold water
ishing celebration,
sium funded and organ- ment and abandon ship survival.
like these boats in
ized by the Marion- procedures, damage con- The symposium was
Bermuda, means
Bermuda Race Commit- trol, first aid, heavy weath- open to anyone who
staying safe. A Safe-
tee. The two-day event, er techniques, and more. cared to expand their
ty at Sea symposium
held March 28 and 29 fea- After the more theoreti- sailing knowledge and
with hands-on train-
tured a line up of speakers cal apparoach of Saturday, was not limited to race
ing sessions was
to address a series of topics Sunday’s sessions stressed participants.
recently held in
of vital interest to all seri- the practical side with This year’s 17th Mari-
Boston for skippers
ous sailors. Sanctioned by more hands-on training. on-Bermuda Cruising
and crew to ramp
U.S. Sailing and moderat- The Sunday sessions were Yacht Race is scheduled for
up for the 17th Mar-
ed by Capt. John Bonds available on an à la carte June 19, 2009. For more
ion-Bermuda Cruis-
USN (Ret.) the sympo- basis and complemented information please visit
ing Yacht Race.
sium was held at Massa- the Saturday lectures with www.marionbermuda.com.

8 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009

www.oceannavigator.com
Panama Canal << Yacht design icon Chuck

Yacht Club Paine has turned over the

tiller to pursue his other
demolished passions.
THE PANAMA CANAL YACHT CLUB
(PCYC) IN COLÓN, PANAMA, Paine has written a
has succumbed to the book that chronicles his
Courtesy Chuck Paine

wrecking ball and will no career and designs (the

longer be available to serve book will be available
transiting yachtsmen. this spring). He also is
According to Tina McBride pursuing his other pas-
who has served as a yacht sion, painting.

Courtesy Mark Fitzgerald

agent for boats transiting Chuck Paine
the Panama Canal since
1990, “The club has been retires
demolished and now the A FTER MORE THAN 30 YEARS
only two berthing options DESIGNING SAIL AND POWER
for transiting yachtsmen in yachts, Chuck Paine
Meanwhile, Paine’s
two long-time employ-
ees, Mark Fitzgerald and
Ed Joy, have struck out
on their own. Paine’s
senior designer, Fitzger- Long-time employee Mark

<<
Bahia de Limon on the has retired. While ald, has taken over the Fitzgerald has taken over
Atlantic side of the canal are Paine’s accomplish- majority of Paine’s many of Chuck's design
Shelter Bay Marina at Fort ments in naval architec- design assets, intellectu- assets and the rights to
Sherman on the Northwest ture are many, his true al property and the build from existing plans.
side of the bay and anchor- legacy lies in his classic rights to build from den, Maine, and is the
age area ‘Foxtrot’ to the east offshore voyaging existing plans. Fitzger- principal at Ed Joy
on the Colón side.” designs. Over the ald’s new company, Design (www.edjoyde-
McBride said the eventu- decades his collabora- Fitzgerald Marine sign.com).
al fate of the site of the tion with Architecture Does Paine have any
PCYC is anybody’s guess. some of Inc. parting words? “I stand
The Shelter Bay Marina, a the (www.markfitz- by ready to consult with
new facility with all the world’s marine.com) my former employees
amenities, is still at least 30 best based in Cam- should the need arise.
minutes by road to the out- yacht den, Maine, Who knows, should the
skirts of Colón . In contrast, builders will continue economy rebound and
the PCYC was conveniently have to serve dis- my heart get some
located not far from down- given criminating much needed rest you
town Colón. us fast buyers in their may find me once again
On the Pacific side of the and endeavors to at my drawing board.
canal, yachtsmen still have able build new clas- For now, I thank you
the option of using the Bal- voyaging sics, power and for an intriguing career
boa Yacht Club and the Fla- boats whose design sail. and wish all of you who
menco Yacht Club in Pana- concepts have stood the Joy has also estab- aspire to launch new
ma City. test of time. lished himself in Cam- yachts the very best.”

www.oceannavigator.com MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 9

Chatter
Chartroom
West Marine green product award
WEST MARINE ANNOUNCED
ITS FIRST ANNUAL G REEN
Product of the Year con-
test at the 2009 Miami
International Boat Show
in February. The
nation’s largest marine
retailer will award one
prize of $10,000 to the
winner at the 2010
Miami show.
West Marine is
<<
According to Geoff
encouraging
Eisenberg, the compa-
innovators to come
ny’s CEO, “One of West
forward with their
Marine’s goals is to be a
best ideas for new
leader in sustainability.
eco-friendly marine
Through this initiative
products.
we hope to encourage
innovation and a steady
stream of environmen-
tally-friendly products
so our children, and our
children’s children will
have the opportunity to
enjoy plentiful oceans
and beautiful blue
FROM RUNNING FIX, THE ON BLOG
Stop by Running Fix, our Congress last October 31
Ocean Navigator blog. suggested that roughly 19
Here’s an excerpt: “Maybe GPS satellites had little
there won't be a GPS margin for system failure.
gap after all. A Defense Losing a single system on
Department report to these spacecraft could
10 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
First woman
waters, as we have.” captain
The competition is MOLLY KOOL, FIRST WOMAN
open to individuals, LICENSED AS A SHIP CAPTAIN IN
manufacturers, distribu- North America died at
tors and/or inventors of her home in Bangor,
boating products. A Maine on Feb. 25, 2009,
panel of judges includ- she was 93.
ing Randy Repass, Known as Captain
chairman and founder Molly, she was a native of
of West Marine and the Canadian province of
Ruth Wood, president New Brunswick. She
of BoatU.S. Founda- earned her captain’s
tion, will select a winner license at the age of 23
based on eco-effective- and after that operated
ness, cost effectiveness, her father’s 70-foot sail
applicability and and power scow, Jean K,
breadth of market hauling cargo around the
impact, degree of inno- Bay of Fundy.
vation and originality She eventually gained
and compliance with the respect of her male
the official rules of the colleagues and in 2006
competition. was officially recognized
An entry form, rules by the Canadian govern-
and entry requirements ment as the first woman
can be found at in North America to hold
www.westmarine/green. captain’s papers.
Running Fix
OCEAN NAVIGATOR BLOG
make them fail. If this launch yesterday of a
happened, there could be GPS satellite from Cape
a coverage gap in GPS. Canaveral.” Visit the blog
Now, some of that danger at www.ocean
has lessened with the navigator.com/blog.
www.oceannavigator.com
 She was born Myrtle Notable New Titles
Kool on Feb. 23, 1916,
the second of five chil-
dren. Her father was a Get Onboard with E- this brave new world of ing software packages.
Dutch sailor who had Charting – The Complete navigation. The book The final section, “Fea-
emigrated to Canada. Reference Guide to Elec- explains why computer E- tures At a Glance,” takes
From the time that she tronic Charting and PC- charting is an important an honest and more in-
Based Marine Navigation
was a small child she was technology that we can all depth look at each of
on the water. Hoping to By Mark and Diana Doyle embrace with systems tai- these products and their
serve her father as mate Semi-Local Publications, lored to meet our individ- applicability in various
she applied to the Mer- 2008 ual needs and budgets. situations. The book ends
chant Marine School in 232 pages The Doyle’s begin by with appendices that
Saint John, New Includes CD of trial soft- explaining the concept of include a nautical refer-
ware
Brunswick, and was using a personal computer ence library, useful Web
rejected. She eventually for navigation and explore links and a glossary of
earned her mate’s papers Take a seat at just about the history of global posi- more than 460 naviga-
in 1937 and her master’s any nav station and it’s tion finding. From there, tion, electronic charting
papers in 1939, legally clear that laptop com- they deal with the nuts and computer terms used
changing her first name puters have become as and bolts of hardware and in the main chapters.
to Molly in 1940. commonplace as software and how they Is this a reference book
Much of Jean K was dividers and parallel work. There is a detailed that will become obsolete
destroyed by fire in rulers. Not with passage of
1944. By the time it had only do they time? Of
been rebuilt Kool had send and course, but it is
moved to Maine, mar- deliver our E- only as dated as
ried and settled down for mail, Skype the hardware
a life ashore. our phone and software
She is predeceased by calls and currently occu-
two husbands, Ray Blais- entertain us, pying the nav
dell and John Carney and they also serve table.
survived by a sister, as powerful That said, for
Martha Miller. multifunction anyone consid-
Efforts are underway navigation ering an E-
by the Fundy Beautifica- tools, most capable of discussion about the vari- charting system, hold off
tion and Historical Soci- integrating other ship- ous types of electronic on the hardware/software
ety to preserve Capt. board instruments. chart formats that are purchases until you have
Kool’s 19th century In Get on Board With available and their the Doyle’s book in your
childhood home and E-Charting, authors strengths and weaknesses. hands. Reading it may
move it to Fundy Mark and Diana Doyle It follows with a compari- very well save you from
National Park. have created a guide to son of 14 popular e-chart- some costly mistakes. ■

www.oceannavigator.com MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 11

News
Product
Watching for a silent killer
Few toxic dangers are more insidi-
ous than carbon monoxide (CO)
gas. As an odorless gas, CO can
overpower you without warning and
can cause brain damage or even
death. The EvrSafe Gas Detection
System from Sea-Fire Marine reveals
even the smallest level of the harm-
ful gas. The EvrSafe Gas Detection
System is able to accurately detect
and measure a variety of toxic
gases, including CO, nitrogen diox-
ide, hydro carbons, LPG, butane and
smoke. If this state-of-the-art system
detects presence of a hazardous
gas, it will alert crew and passen-
gers via audio and visual alarms
before it reaches problematic levels.
An LCD display will show the
type of gas detected, the amount in
12 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
parts per million, thermal readings,
and monitors whether the levels are
increasing or decreasing. The EvrSafe
central processing unit (CPU) is avail-
able in multiple languages and can
audibly instruct crew with spoken
commands to open specific hatches
or vents to remove or disperse gases.
If contamination creates a dangerous
situation, the CPU can also activate
external equipment, such as fans,
pumps and generators, to bring air
quality back to acceptable levels.
For more information, contact:
Sea-Fire Marine, 9331-A
Philadelphia Rd., Balti-
more, MD, 21237, or
call (410) 687-5500;
www.sea-
fire.com.
Compact binoculars
for exploring
One of the joys of voyaging is getting
off the boat and exploring (except on
those Indonesian islands with komo-
do dragons walking around). And
exploring is more fun with a good set
of compact binoculars like the new
Safari Pro line from Steiner which is
easy to put in a backpack and take
along. This new compact line of
binoculars features three binoculars:
8x30 Sports Auto-Focus model, an
8x22 and 10x26 pocket binocular. All
three models of the new Safari Pro
series feature new optical and inter-
nal enhancements and bold external
styling. The most notable perform-
ance updates include longer eye-
relief and an improved, ergonomic
focus wheel to the two pocket sized
compacts. All models feature a more
durable chassis and robust new
outer armoring that is both durable
and comfortable.
For more information, contact:
Pioneer Research, 97 Foster Road,
Moorestown, NJ, 08057, or call toll
free 1-800-257-7742; www.stein-
er-binoculars.com.
Reliable vane
points the way
When a tool does its job so
effortlessly, you can sometimes
overlook it. That might be the
case with the best mast-mount-
ed wind indicator in the busi-
ness, Davis Instrument’s 15”
Windex vane wind indicator. It
works so well and requires no elec-
trical power, it might be the ultimate
dependable voyaging tool. Incredibly
sensitive, the Windex Vane works in
as little as 2/10-knot wind. It regis-
ters the smallest air puffs and is
highly-responsive to breeze changes.
Extensively tunnel tested at wind
speeds up to 80 knots, the sturdy
vane will provide years of trouble-
free service when installed correctly.
Highly visible, the Windex Vane
has a reflective underside for night
viewing. Simple to install, it
includes a through-bolt or tap
mounting socket, as well as stain-
less steel studs, washers and nuts.
Extending above the vane, an inno-
vative bird-proof spike keeps birds
from landing.
For more information, contact:
Davis Instruments Corp., 3465 Dia-
blo Ave., Hayward, CA, 94545, or
call (510) 732-9229; www.davis-
net.com.
www.oceannavigator.com
Easy switching for satellite TV
Intellian Technologies, a manufacturer
of marine satellite communications
antennas, is now offering a product
that reportedly makes it easier for
satellite TV users to switch between
DISH Network’s three satellites. The
Intellian DISH Network Multi-satellite
Interface Module (MIM) is said to
provide automatic and instant satel-
lite switching
Changing channels on the DISH Net-
work marine satellite TV antenna sys-
tem requires the satellite receiver to
switch between satellites. The new
MIM provides customers with the
ability to access all three DISH Net-
work satellites automatically and
replaces an active four-port multi-
Satcom sweetener
KVH Industries is offering $1,000 in
free air time to entice mariners to pur-
chase a KVH TracPhone 252, which is
a marine satellite telephone system
that operates with the Inmarsat mini-
M network. The new promotion offers
a $1,000 airtime credit to customers
who purchase a new TracPhone 252
satellite communications system
through June 30, 2009, and activate
their Inmarsat mini-M service using
Inmarsat Airtime by KVH.
It offers a single-cable, self-con-
tained design. The system also
allows the user to simultaneously
www.oceannavigator.com
switch for control of the DISH Net-
work receivers. Providing total access
to satellite broadcasts as fast as a
user can change channels, the MIM is
compatible with Intellian’s full line of
i-series, Ku-band marine satellite
antenna systems. The Intellian DISH
Network MIM has outputs to connect
to four receivers. If additional
receivers are required, multiple MIM’s
can simply be connected together.
Each unit features an RS-232 port to
receive channel-switching commands.
For more information, contact:
Intellian Technolgies, 9261 Irvine
Blvd. Irvine, CA, 92618, or call (949)
916-4411;
www.intelliantech.com.
connect telephone/PABX systems,
fax machines, and computers to cre-
ate an onboard communications
center. Inmarsat’s near-global mini-
M satellite coverage means tele-
phone service is available in many
cruising locations.
For more information, contact:
KVH Industries Inc., 50 Enterprise
Center, Middletown, RI, 02842, or call
(401) 847-3327; www.kvh.com.
A Heading to a
working recreational first
bosun’s chair Airmar Technology has just released a
Going aloft to inspect the rig or make heading sensor with impressive capa-
repairs is not the first choice of most bility that not so long ago would have
voyagers. Part of the problem rests been cutting edge stuff in military cir-
with uncomfortable and poorly- cles. Inside the housing of the H2183
equipped bosun’s chairs — sometimes heading sensor is a three-axis solid
not much more than a flat plank tied state compass, three-axis accelerome-
off to some line. ter and three-axis rate gyro — a first
Harken now has reworked the ven- in the recreational marine industry.
erable aloft chair and developed a safe, The H2183 can be mounted on any
comfortable chair that comes with angled bulkhead.And it provides bet-
wide-mouth pockets and lanyard ter than 1° static head-
attachments. A wide seat provides a ing accuracy and
secure platform and a low halyard 2° heading
attachment point gives sailors more accuracy in
room to work. “Harken’s new Bosun’s dynamically
Chair is a great addition to their changing condi-
famous line of performance sailing tions — including rough seas, hard
products,” comments Chuck Hawley, turns, and steep heeling.Also unique
West Marine’s VP of Product Develop- to the H2183 is that the three-axis
ment. “Eventually every sailor has to accelerometer and three-axis rate gyro
go up the rig to perform maintenance are temperature compensated across
or to retrieve a halyard. This ruggedly the entire operating range, resulting in
built chair is very comfortable so an precise tilt and rate-of turn-data.The
extended time aloft will not ruin your H2183 can output NMEA 0183 and
weekend. I like the deep pockets for NMEA 2000 data at a fast output rate
carrying gear, the numerous lashing of 10 hertz, making it the best choice
and attachment points for securing for interfacing to autopilots, chartplot-
tools and parts, and the low attach- ters, and radar systems — dramatical-
ment point which allows you to get ly improving their performance.
above the masthead.” For more information, contact:Air-
For more information, contact: mar Technology Corp., 35 Meadow-
Harken, Inc., 1251 East Wisconsin brook Drive, Milford, NH, 03055, or
Avenue, Pewaukee,WI, 53072, or call call (603) 673-9570;
(262) 691-3320; www.harken.com. www.airmar.com.
MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 13
MARINE TECH NOTES
Fighting bio invasion
W ider use of electron-
ic-controlled air
conditioning systems on
voyaging boats in warmer
Dealing with climates has given rise to
marine organ- an insidious, unseen inva-
isms that foul sion: Barnacles and other
cooling water marine growth that set up
piping is a shop in the piping and
problem for heat exchangers of marine
boat owners in air conditioning units. If
warmer cli- left unchecked these
mates who use invaders can create an
air condition- expensive mess.
ing. The Bio- Solutions to this prob-
Guard unit lem include 1) passive
from Spectra (non-electrically powered)
Watermakers systems that produce dis-
can prevent ruptive ions to inhibit bar-
fouling. nacle attachment and
growth and 2) active sys-
tems (drawing an electrical
current) that use a copper
anode to disrupt fouling.
One of the passive systems
14 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
Courtesy Spectra
is an ingenious new device
called the Bio-Guard water
treatment system from
Spectra Watermakers
(http://www.spectrawater-
makers.com). Employing
this system will reportedly
greatly reduce the need for
cleaning out cooling water
plumbing.
This type of bio-fouler
invasion was less of an
issue before the widespread
use of electronic controls
for air conditining units.
With the rise of smart con-
trols, boat owners can set
the A/C unit to one tem-
perature and forget it. The
unit then cycles on and off
as necessary to maintain
that set temperature. The
result is mutiple hours of
A/C operation. This nearly
continuous running sets
BY TIM QUEENEY
the stage for the culprits in
all this fouling, those pesky
little aquatic creatures
from the class Cirripedia,
more often known — and
cursed — as barnacles (for
fresh water vessels, zebra
mussels have also become a
problem).
As filter feeders, barna-
cles like to live where they
can get a steady flow of
snack-happy water past
their frilly mouth parts.
The intertidal zone where
the tide ebbs and flows
twice a day is a great haunt
for barnacles. But as boat
owners in southern waters
have found, there is an
even better place for these
hungry critters. When an
A/C unit runs for several
hours a day it produces a
steady flow of sea water
moving through the cool-
ing pipes. For a barnacle,
that equates to a feast. The
barnacle larva, called a
cyprid, swims into the
cooling circuit and attach-
es itself. When the A/C is
on and cooling water is cir-
culating, its as if the barna-
cle is living in a smorgas-
bord. Lots of barnacles
join the party and the vol-
www.oceannavigator.com
ume of cooling water drops
until eventually the unit can
become so starved of water it
shuts down.
One way of dealing with this
problem is to flush the cooling
system with an acid wash. If the
issue is not caught early
enough, however, the growth
can restrict cooling water flow
sufficiently that the A/C unit
will not operate. In that case
only a complete rebuild of the
raw water loop can solve the
problem of low water flow. That
means replacing most, if not all
of the plumbing components.
Spectra Watermakers was one
company that looked into the
problem of fouling of pipes,
hoses and heat exchangers. Its
solution is the Bio-Guard. This
is a unit consisting of a metal
tube enclosed in a clear plastic
tube with plastic fittings at
either end. This unit is installed
in the line and cooling water
flows through the inner metal
tube. As the water does so, the
tube releases metal ions into the
water. “The metal leaches out
and the ions disrupt organisms
from starting to grow,” said Ray
Carter of Spectra. The result is
an unpleasant environment for
barnacles and other marine
organisms, inhibiting them from
growing in the system.
Spectra first developed the
device roughly a year and a half
ago, providing them to selected
boat owners on a test basis.
According to Carter, a large
yacht in Florida that runs A/C
equipment on nearly a 24/7
basis and that had experienced
considerable problems with
fouling, was fitted with the
units. “This boat had such a
problem that they would replace
their hoses every two to three
weeks and acid wash two times a
year,” Carter said. Since the Bio-
Guard was fitted they have
MARINE TECH NOTES
reportedly not had to replace
any hoses.
According to Spectra, barna-
cles and marine growth are even
inhibited from growing
upstream of the device, which is
typically mounted close to the
raw water seacock to provide
protection to the components
downstream. The product has
been available for purchase for
the last six to eight months.
The Bio-Guard unit is a pas-
sive device, which means it
requires no electrical current to
do its job. Because it is chemi-
cally interacting with the water,
the Bio-Guard metal doesn’t last
16 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
indefinitely. The inner tube,
which acts as a sacrificial anode
and gives up ions, eventually
becomes sufficiently depleted
for pin holes to form in the
tube. The holes leak water into
the outer plastic tube which
indicate to the boat owner it is
time for the inner tube to be
replaced. The unit is an ingen-
ious approach to the problem of
pipe and hose fouling.
In additon to passive systems
like Spectra’s Bio-Guard, there
are active pipe antifouling sys-
tems generally used on larger
boats. One example of this type
of system is from a British com-
pany called Cathelco
(http://www.cathelco.com/yacht
_af.htm). It has a unit for
yachts from 20 to 70 feet in
length that consists of a control
box that can be powered with
either 12 to 2 volt DC or 110
volt AC. The control box is
wired to an anode that is placed
in the intake strainer or seawa-
ter inlet. A current is impressed
onto the copper anode and it
inonizes the water to prevent
marine growth.
Passive or acive, both these
approaches are designed to help
boat owners fight the battle of
the bio foulers. ■
www.oceannavigator.com
 POWER VOYAGING
Quieting engine noise
A n English friend used to
use a few quietly spoken
words to restore order in a
noisy meeting. “Let’s have a
little bit of hush,” he would
say. This phrase had an amaz-
ing ability to get everyone to
quiet down. There are many
times when I wish I had a sim-
ilar means for quieting
machinery noise on a boat.
The first step in getting
noise under control is to
understand that what we per-
ceive as noise is actually vibra-
tion, the back and forth move-
ment of air molecules acting
on our eardrums. To control
the noise we need to find and
minimize the source of the
vibration. We also need to
understand that whatever is
vibrating is changing the form
of, or transporting, energy.
The typical marine engine
or genset presents us with a
wealth of vibration sources
and therefore noise-makers.
The rapid rise in cylinder pres-
sure during the combustion
cycle vibrates the entire
engine. The meshing of gears
creates vibrations. The exhaust
gas flow (and in water cooled
exhaust systems, the flow of
cooling water) create pressure
pulses and therefore noise. An
engine’s air intake is a prime
www.oceannavigator.com
BY CHUCK HUSICK
source of noise, a fact easily
confirmed by removing the
intake silencer, the din may
different frequency response
and stiffness at each location.
Where location-specific
MTU, the man-
ufacturer of
large diesels
astound you. (One of the rea- mount characteristics are not found in luxury
sons the Onan QD series of specified, a general purpose yachts has
diesel gensets are unusually resilient mount such as the devised an
quiet is their use of tuned Metalastik “Cushyfloat” from active engine
helmholtz resonators in the air The Evolution Company mount that
intake system, a technique that (www.evolutionmarine.com) reportedly can
works especially well for should be used. sense engine
engines that run at constant However, to obtain the noise and
speed). Fact is, there will be maximum value from the use vibration and
things vibrating and therefore of resilient engine mounts, then activate
creating noise so long as we vibration transfer through the the mount to
have a mechanical power prop shaft should also be cancel it.
source on our boats. The chal-
lenge is to obtain that “little
bit of hush.”
Resilient engine mounts
To begin we need to deal with
the vibration-to-sound-to-
vibration cycle, to reduce the
magnitude of the vibrations
transferred to the vessel’s struc-
ture. Installing an engine on
resilient mounts will minimize
the transfer of energy to the
Courtesty MTU
engine beds. Some engine
manufac-
turer’s
specify
each
engine
mount
individu-
ally, pro-
viding a
MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 17
POWER VOYAGING
addressed, either with the use of a
flexible shaft coupling or for the best
results, a shaft system that incorpo-
rates a thrust bearing at the shaft log.
The combination of flex coupling
and thrust bearing removes the pro-
peller thrust load from the engine
mounts, increasing their effective-
ness in isolating engine vibration
from the vessel structure. The use of
a shaft system that combines the flex
coupling, thrust bearing and a prop
shaft enclosure that eliminates the
Magnus effect loss created by an
open, rotating prop shaft can be a
very attractive choice. Such systems
are available from companies such as
The Evolution Company and
Seatorque Control Systems
(www.seatorque.com).
Once all practical steps have been
taken to minimize vibration energy
transfer to the vessel’s structure we
can begin to deal with trapping the
sound energy created by the vibrat-
18 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
Courtesy MTU
ing machinery. Sound energy
behaves like water; it will leak
though even the smallest hole or
crack. There is not much to be
gained by lining an engine enclosure
with sound absorbing materials if
the sound is leaking out through
overlooked apertures. The objective
is to trap all of the sound energy and
convert it to something we can’t
hear, heat!
If you doubt the effectiveness of a
reasonably airtight enclosure in
reducing sound level you might try
placing a portable radio, tuned
between stations to obtain a wide
spectrum noise, in the bottom of an
open cardboard box and noting the
sound level outside and above the
box. Then close the box and note
the change in noise level. Since judg-
ing sound level differences with the
unaided ear is quite imprecise, we
used a sound level meter, set on the
“A” scale. The sound level from the
These graphs by MTU show the marked
difference between noise and vibration
produced by the engine with the active
mounts turned off, far left, and then
with them turned on, near left.
radio in the open top box was 71
dBA, with the cover of the box
closed, 60 dBA, a major reduction
in sound level. Admittedly, the
sound from the radio does not have
a frequency spectrum anything like
that of a marine engine, however the
test does prove the point, trapping
the sound in the most air tight
enclosure you can achieve does a
great deal toward achieving that little
bit of hush we all want.
Sound absorbing material
Once we have created an effective
sound isolation barrier we may find
it useful to cover the interior surface
with a sound absorbing material.
This may range from a special paint-
like coating to a multi-layer con-
struction that includes a limp, high
density barrier constrained within
the covering. The high density mate-
rial resists being deflected or vibrated
by the sound energy, converting that
mechanical energy into heat.
If the sound shielding enclosure
is to be successful, the intake and
exhaust air ducts must include a
sound blocking mechanism, typi-
cally a labyrinth that forces the
incoming air to go around corners
and simultaneously prevents sound
energy from flowing freely out
from the port or duct. The interior
surfaces and the partitions that
make up the labyrinth in the duct
www.oceannavigator.com
are usually lined with sound- cooling fan — assuring that the oxygen for the combustion of fuel,
absorbing materials. panels of the enclosure are not con- the engine would not continue to
Allowing an engine to obtain tributing to the din can be chal- run for very long since it would
the required air volume from the lenging. Fortunately, there are soon overheat. A practical enclo-
bilge of a boat or through improp- numerous sound treatment prod- sure must be equipped with an air
erly designed air intake ports or ucts, ranging from special elasto- intake port that allows the unim-
ducts will make it very difficult to metric paints to multi layer passive peded entry of a very large amount
achieve the desired level of engine sound absorbing mats that can of air and a second port through
noise reduction. keep the enclosure from singing its which an even larger volume of
The surfaces of an enclosure own song. It’s important that any heated air can be extracted.
intended to reduce the sound level hatches, ports or doors in a sound Totally closing the intake and
in a vessel must not be allowed to enclosure are as carefully gasketed exhaust air ducts in a properly built
resonate, to vibrate in sympathy as the door on the freezer. enclosure or engine room would
with the impinging sound energy. An ideal engine enclosure shut down the engine in a very short
Since the spectrum of sound fre- would be totally sealed. Unfortu- time. You may not be able to equal
quencies from an engine can cover nately, the engine in this ideal this level of air-tightness, however it
a very wide spectrum — from a enclosure would run only until the is a worthwhile goal. There is little
few hertz to the high-pitched oxygen in the enclosure was con- point in devoting time and money
whine of the engine’s alternator sumed. Even if given just sufficient to trying to quiet an engine whose

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www.oceannavigator.com MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 19

 POWER VOYAGING
bottom end is exposed to the entire
length of the boat’s area.
Active noise reduction
In addition to the passive sound
reduction techniques listed above,
MTU, the manufacturer of large
diesel engines, is working to bring
active noise reduction technology to
the marine world. MTU is now test-
ing active vibration engine mounts
for use on its 2000 and 4000 series
engines. The operating principal of
the MTU system parallels that used
in noise canceling headphones.
Interfering noise is sampled, ampli-
fied and phase inverted to produce
an “anti-noise” within the head-
phone’s earcup that will ideally can-
cel the unwanted noise.
While the sound canceling head-
set deals with interfering sound
energy, quieting a massive diesel
engine must begin at the vibration
level. To that end each of the four
engine mounts used in the system
are built with the typical three-axis
set of elastometric vibration-absorb-
ing supports. The frequency
response of the mount system, 6 to
7 Hz vertical, 4 to 5 Hz lateral, is
tuned to the optimum for each type
of engine and for each axis. Three
vibration sensors are built into each
mount along with three collinear
force actuators. The signal output
from the 12 sensors in the engine
mounts, plus eight additional sen-
sors located elsewhere on the engine
and engine bed are fed to a comput-
er where a proprietary algorithm is
used to create 12 audio frequency
signals, each uniquely configured to
power a particular force actuator in
an engine mount. (The develop-
20 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
mental control unit can accept up
to 32 analog inputs and provide an
equal number of analog outputs).
The results achieved by MTU in
their testing show substantial
promise. Single peak vibration
reductions of up to approximately
30 dB have been measured with an
overall reduction of about 8 to 10
dB. MTU demonstrated the opera-
tion of a single active engine mount
at the recent Miami Boat Show,
using a low frequency vibrator to
excite the water in a container fas-
tened to its top and a second con-
tainer, connected to the vibrator
through an active vibration cancel-
ing mount. The demonstration was
convincing, the water in the lower
basin was entirely free of the vibra-
tion excited waves seen in the
upper water container.
The application of active vibra-
tion cancellation systems will initial-
ly be directed to very large engines
and vessels where the considerable
cost of the equipment and especially
the development of the control algo-
rithms can most easily be cost justi-
fied. However history teaches us that
when electronic technology is
involved, today’s high-tech/high-cost
equipment and products evolve
quite rapidly into equipment suit-
able for the mass market.
If you decide to undertake a
significant sound elimination
project keep in mind that success
depends on careful attention to all
of the details. ■
Contributing editor Chuck Husick is
a sailor, pilot, photographer and engi-
neer who lives in Tierra Verde, Fla.,
and rides a surprisingly quiet bicycle.
www.oceannavigator.com
 CORRESPONDENCE
the pot and you will need
strong gear: for instance, line
with a breaking strength of at
least 80 lbs. Furthermore, only
fish for what you are going to
eat: if you catch a 10-lb dorado
(mahi-mahi), don’t stop fishing
until you have finished it.
Towing two lines
Trolling — towing lures — is
the only option for fishing
Jack Gush photos
while on passage, inshore or off-
shore. Two lines can be towed
behind the yacht, one from
each quarter, each with its own
Fishing for the pot lure. These lines need to be
To the editor: Catching fish on a about 400 yards long and
passage not only makes your wound onto 80-lb reels. The
provisons last longer, but fish reels can be attached to fishing
from the sea are both tasty and rods (ocean) or to a stanchion
nourishing. If you have never on the pushpit — or to any
eaten really fresh fish, you have other suitable strong point.
missed out on a great culinary At the business end of the
delight. In addition, the line (the hook end), an 8-foot
scream of the reel as a big one nylon trace of 110-lb breaking
is hooked does stir up the strength must be attached by a
adrenaline and adds action to strong swivel, usually of brass.
your passage making day. It is this trace that as the fish is
When fishing from a yacht brought alongside, may get
on an offshore passage, your dragged under the keel or
catch will be pelagic fish: tuna, chafed against the rudder — it
bonito, albacore, dorado or needs to be tough.
Spanish mackerel. Any of The outer end of the trace
these species may weigh sever- should be a short length of
al pounds and will fight vigor- stainless wire: most fishing
ously when hooked. Right shops sell it in various strength.
from the start, forget about The wire is to prevent the fish
the sportfishing where you are from biting through the line
expected to land a 25-lb yel- and freeing itself. Finally, the
lowfin tuna on 5-lb line. trace is passed through the
Fishing while voyaging is head of the lure and then the
definitely a case of fishing for skirt and a suitable stainless
www.oceannavigator.com
hook is attached, single or
double. The curve of the hook
should be level with the trail-
ing end of the skirt.
You need strong gear
because when a fish strikes it
immediately fights. It will
sound deeply, pulling out yards
of line, then swim off to one Left, Jack Gush
side or the the other and then with a freshly
possibly surface, jump clear of caught meal
the water and shake itself furi- while on an
ously to rid itself of the hook. ocean passage.
Below, one
Learning the knots approach to
For your part, you will have to
learn a few simple fishermen’s
fishing while
underway is to
knots, because nylon line does latch the rod to
not respond to bowlines and a strong point.
round turns and half hitches.
Stainless wire cannot be knot-
ted, but can be hitched back on
itself to form an eye and
crimped (crimps are on
sale in tackle shops).
Swivels are important —
without them the line
will become twisted and
will tangle into a mess.
When a fish strikes,
the rod supported in a
rod holder acts as a
shock absorber. If you
don’t own a rod and the
reel is attached to a stan-
chion or other fixed sup-
port, there is no absorp-
tion factor and a strong
rubber strop must be
attached to the line and
to the strong point; the purpose
of this is to take the initial
shock of the strike. The rubber
MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 21
CORRESPONDENCE
hangs in a loop, but becomes
stretched taut when a fish is hooked.
For trolling, live bait is not neces-
sary. Lures can be inexpensive plastic
ones that look like rubbery octopus,
but the most effective — and most
expensive — have stainless heads,
pink glass eyes and multi-coloured
plastic skirts. Some people make their
own lures: even strips of white cloth
attached to the shank of a hook have
been known to catch fish. The color
of the lure should be the same as that
of the bait fish that the predators are
hunting. If dorado are chasing flying
fish, then you need a silvery-grey lure
of that size and shape. Good colors
for dorado, Spanish mackerel (wahoo)
and tuna are green, yellow and a mix
of pink, blue and silver.
Lures must skip on the surface —
the splash attracts the fish. They must
not spin, which, despite the swivel
will put twists in your line. If your
lure is not catching fish, try another
color. Metal spinners, about the size
of a soup spoon, with hook incorpo-
rated, can also be used — especially
for Spanish mackerel.
Do not make tight turns in your
course with two lines out or they will
tangle. Troll with one long line and
one short; the long one should be set
with the lure about 200-feet from the
stern, the lure of the short one at
about 130 feet back. Test the per-
formance of a lure by trolling it along-
side and watch how it behaves — it
should skip and splash, but not spin.
Best times for trolling
It is useless to leave the line out all
day while you take a nap. The best
times for trolling are just after
22 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
dawn and in the late after-
noon as the sun begins to
sink. Take in the lures at
night. Sometimes at dawn
it pays to put out a very
short line, only a few yards behind
the boat, and jig it about, so that it
skips and splashes. Dorado some-
times spend the night under the
boat and are still there at dawn.
Birds circling and diving are a
sure sign of fish — the bigger fish
have driven the smaller ones to the
surface; patches of weed or semi-
submerged objects attract fish
because of the mollusc attached to
them and it’s worth towing a line
close by; flying fish breaking the
surface and winging away in droves
means they are being hunted, most
probably by hungry dorado.
Once you’ve hooked one, the pull
of a fighting fish plus the 6 or 7 knots
of the yacht’s speed puts a tremen-
dous strain on the line. Remember
that once on the line, the fish will
usually sound — that’s why you need
440 yards of line on your reel.
The adjustable pressure of the
drag on the reel should be set to one
third of the breaking strength of the
line. Pull the hooked fish by steadily
and firmly raising the rod until the
tip points to the sky; then lower it
Left, a lure with a mix of colors that are
effective with desirable pelagic fish
species like tuna and dorado (mahi-
mahi). Below, Gush’s homemade scraper
for descaling the catch.
and quickly wind in the slack in the
line. Repeat this action as many
times as it takes to tire the fish and
bring it to the stern. To get a hooked
fish of any size aboard requires skill
and a good strong gaff. You will have
to slow or stop the yacht.
Finishing the fight
Many people don’t fish because they
are disturbed by the spectacle of a
large fish flapping and jumping wildly
all over the cockpit, spraying blood
and scales in all directions. But there is
an effective remedy: as soon as the fish
comes on board, drop a rope like a
small lasso over its tail and cinch it
tight; then pour a dose of alcohol,
such as rum, into the gills. The effect
is instantaneous: the fish is totally
stunned, anesthetized, stops flapping
and becomes easy to handle.
Fish, such as bonito and tuna
with dark red meat, should be bled
as soon as caught. These fish are best
scaled, cleaned and chopped into
steaks. Others are best filleted. For
scaly fish you need a scaler — which
you can make yourself.
www.oceannavigator.com
 For filleting you need a razor-
sharp knife. It is best done as nearly
as you can in a single stroke, from
head to tail, with the blade sliding
along the backbone. All bones
should be removed. Wash blood off
the boat before it dries, but in clean-
ing and preparing the fish use as little
water as possible; keep the meat dry
as this helps to keep it fresh.
To store fillets or steaks in the
fridge they should be tightly packed
in a closed container, such as a plastic
box, with a little salt between layers;
in a refrigerator they will keep fresh
for several days. It is a misconception
to think that all fish smells — it only
smells when it is stale.
There are just as many ways of
cooking fish as there are of meat, but
fish is more delicate and cooks in less
time. It can be fried, baked, grilled,
poached, casseroled, curried or eaten
raw, as in sushi or the French Poly-
nesian poisson cru. Contrary to pop-
ular belief, fish is not salty: it needs
salt added to bring out its full flavor.
Herbs also enhance its flavor, espe-
cially fennel, bay leaf, coriander,
parsley and garlic.
Fish taken straight from the sea
has a special succulence of its own:
the fresher it is, the simpler the cook-
ing should be. For white fish, a gen-
tle frying in olive oil or a gentle
grilling is sufficient; small fillets can
be rolled in egg yoke and fine bread-
crumbs or in seasoned flour. Slices of
lemon are an excellent garnish.
With blue meat the darker the
color, the stronger the flavor. Mari-
nating in lime or lemon juice and
finely chopped onion takes the edge
off the oiliness of these fish.
www.oceannavigator.com
To make the most of fresh fish, it —Jack Gush is a sailor and freelance writer
needs to be cooked and eaten almost currently based in Spain. He and his wife,
as soon as you catch it; but what’s Lella, have spent years voyaging aboard their
wrong with fresh fish for breakfast or 20-ton steel cutter, Jackella.
in the middle of the afternoon?
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CORRESPONDENCE
Emergency decision making
To the editor: I recently had occasion
to think about and contemplate the
proper response to emergencies
afloat, while following the harrowing
mid-ocean survival and rescue of
solo-sailor Ken Barnes, whose 44-
foot ketch was disabled by a storm.
Barnes’ boat was dead-in-the-water
and adrift approximately 500 miles
off the southern coast of Chile. I fol-
lowed his dire plight during the three
days that it took authorities to plan
and execute his rescue by a fishing
boat and I attempted to evaluate his
decisions and actions in order to do
the following analyisis. The purpose
of this analysis is not to find fault
with Barnes, but to learn from his
experience and help others who may
find themselves in a similar situation
in the near future.
My qualifications for evaluating
emergency decision making comes
mainly from being a professional
mariner, however, I am also bor-
rowing from my days in the Cali-
fornia Air National Guard where
my training was in life support and
I used to give survival, rescue, and
egress briefings to C-130 aircrews. I
have attended USAF mishap inves-
tigation school and have an AAS
degree from the Community Col-
lege of the Air Force in Survival and
Rescue Operations. Proper decision
making for flight crews is empha-
sized by the USAF, and part of my
training was to help evaluate crew
actions. The main difference
between flying and the maritime
environment is of course things
happen a lot faster in aircraft and
24 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
decisions are required at a much
accelerated pace as compared to
shipboard, which usually affords
more time to think and evaluate
the situation.
The one factor that is common to
both aviation and maritime emergen-
cies is the rapidity of events leading to
a complete change of fortune.
Whether flying or sailing, your status
can go from “A-okay” to “Oh No,” in
a hurry. Although Barnes was sailing
in some pretty bad seas for a few
days, his situation changed complete-
ly within two minutes. A combina-
tion of wind and waves rolled his
boat 360 degrees, dismasting his ves-
sel and breaching its watertight
integrity. His engine propulsion and
electrical power were also affected as
the initial emergency caused collateral
damage, not unlike falling dominoes.
Before his vessel rolled, he wasn’t even
worried because he didn’t think con-
ditions had gotten to the extreme
point…yet!
Once Barnes and his boat were
catapulted into an extreme emer-
gency situation, he was prepared and
wasted no time in instituting an
emergency plan. The first thing to
do is check out the situation and
survey the damages. In Barnes’ case
that meant masts broken, hatch and
porthole breached, water inside hull,
and some major systems out of com-
mission: steering, propulsion, and
electrical. Thus, his situation was
clearly dire and he needed to think
of what to do next.
Could he/should he extricate him-
self from this dire situation or imme-
diately call for help? This question is
one of the hardest to answer due to
the many factors involved, both
physical and mental and probably
one of the most important due to
time constraints. Ken did the right
thing in his situation and activated
his EPIRB and called his girlfriend
on his satellite phone, thus setting
into motion his ultimate rescue. Let’s
digress a bit to discuss reasons why
people sometimes make the wrong or
delayed decisions during an emer-
gency, to hopefully help the reader
not to make these same mistakes.
Consider why trained military
pilots sometimes delay their ejection
decision, when the difference
between life and death can be meas-
ured in tenths of a second. Basically
there are six factors that can affect the
timeliness of the decision to eject and
are described as follows:
I. Disbelief - this can’t really be hap-
pening now and to me.
II. Fear - of getting injured, of getting
killed, of an unknown environment.
III. Questioning - have I done every-
thing possible to save the aircraft and
extricate myself?
IV. Reluctance - to leave familiar sur-
roundings, to leave comfort zone.
V. Physical - injury or incapacitation
of pilot.
VI. Temporal - temporal distortions,
loss of time element, time speeds up
or slows down.
In addition to the above factors,
an individual who owns the vessel or
craft involved in an emergency or an
adventurer would be hampered from
making timely and proper decisions
www.oceannavigator.com
 by the additional eight factors:
VII. Failure - sometimes we are so
focused on success that we do not
consider failure a probability, even
though statistically failure may be
quite probable.
VIII. Ego - our ego is a powerful fac-
Decision logic during an emergency
➧
tor and we hate to admit defeat no
matter what!
IX. Hiding - often after personal
failure we are reluctant to face other
people and would rather fade away,
go down with the boat, get lost,
instead of face our embarrassment.
X. Broke - sometimes we have the
go-for-broke attitude that fogs
our thinking.
XI. Gamble - we sometimes gamble
with our fates, when we need to stop
and think instead.
XII. Disappointment - we are too
disappointed to admit defeat and go
with an emergency plan.
XIII. Push - sometimes we just push
the envelope beyond all reason.
IVX. Home - we may feel that we
don’t want to leave what was our
home sweet home.

I hope that the aforementioned

decision-hindering factors make it
Emergency
occurs clear the importance of an emergency
plan. Once this plan is ready to insti-
tute in an emergency it is important
not to waste much time thinking
about it before acting. Barnes was
quite good during his recent emer-
gency and did all of the right things.
can it cause me to Activate After activating his EPIRB, he then
lose the vessel or EPIRB
YES put on his emergency survival suit,
can it cause injury? Contact help
got his inflatable life raft ready to
deploy, rigged a sea anchor, did what
NO
he could to keep the sea out of his
boat and communicated for the next
three days until being rescued. He is a
good example to illustrate the five Ps
Institute
can the rule: Prior Planning Prevents Poor
emergency
situation get YES Performance.
plan – Get
worse?
emergency
equipment ready —Fredrick Gary Hareland holds an AAS degree
NO in rescue and survival operations and in avionic
systems technology and is a certified marine
A simple decision tree for situa-
Alfred Wood/Ocean Navigator Illustration

electronics technician and NARTE certified techni-

tions when decision making is
cian. He has served in the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard,
not so simple. Faced with emer-
the Military Sealift Command-Pacific and worked
No assistance gency situations, voyagers need
for Maersk Line Limited and Norwegian Cruise
required a good plan already in place
Line. Hareland currently is at China Lake Naval Air
that they can initiate quickly.
Warfare Station as a microwave-communications
technician. He lives in Ridgecrest, Calif.

www.oceannavigator.com MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 25

CORRESPONDENCE

months. We began courting the sion that the voyage wasn’t

skipper, trying to put our per- going to work. We all felt
sonalities in the best light. We abandoned, angry, and Tom
helped her to reprovision and and I had to find a circuitous
get medical supplies. But we all path home for which we had
failed to check each other out to pay ourselves. That we were
for our fitness for the real pur- willing to do so indicates how
pose at hand: getting three peo- much we wanted out.
Tom Bailey photos
ple in a small boat across a large Each person in a story has a
ocean. Tom and I assumed point of view. This view is
from the number of combined specifically from the part of
years of cruising among the experienced voyagers signing
three of us, and the various as crew on an experienced
Voyagers crewing with voyagers places the skipper had been cruising boat.
To the editor: My husband Tom with the boat, that we were all Stories of bad crew experi-
Bailey and I embarked on a dif- competent and would make a ences pervade the sailing world,
ferent sort of sailing adventure good team. and, like any news, you rarely
this past season: crewing on a We left on a mild day in hear of the good ones. Most of
Above, Ann voyaging boat heading to Mau- July. The skipper said she the time permanent personnel
Hoffner in the ritius and the east coast of wanted the trip to be fun. The complain about temporary
cockpit of a South Africa. Things didn’t boat was packed with good crew, but Tom and I have also
voyaging boat turn out quite as we had food for passages, wine and heard stories from the crew’s
she and her hoped, but we did learn some beer and munchies for the point of view.
husband, Tom lessons about crewing on a voy- times we’d be at
Bailey, planned aging boat. anchor. We had high
to crew aboard We met the skipper in Dar- hopes for adventure.
across the win, where she was looking for From the moment
Indian Ocean crew to replace her husband, we pulled out of the
from Australia who had taken ill. Finding slip, however, it was
to South someone for the long Indian clear that we hadn’t
Africa. Right, Ocean run, which can last done our homework.
Hoffner at the three or four months, is diffi- I, for one, assumed
nav station. cult. Most backpackers and that because the skip-
other potential crew wanted to per had taken crew on
go from Australia to Indonesia. numerous occasions, that she
We had been using Darwin knew how to knit varying per- Ask some questions
as a cruising base for four years, sonalities into a workable What is the best way to ensure
and it seemed unlikely we’d group. What’s doable for short a good matchup if you are
cross the Indian Ocean soon on term sailing tends to unravel looking to sign on? Start with
our Peterson 44, Oddly Enough. over a longer time, though. pointed questions.
As time went by without other And our assumptions about 1) What is the length of
bites, we convinced ourselves the condition of the boat fell time proposed for the voyage?
that this was what we could be one by one. Ultimately, we 2) Is the boat of a type that
doing with our next three came separately to the conclu- you would feel comfortable

26 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009 www.oceannavigator.com

sailing for the proposed voyage?
3) How long has the captain been
sailing, and where?
4) Has the captain worked with
crew before? Do you have experience
as crew?
5) What arrangements will be
made for you at the other end?
If these basic questions are
answered satisfactorily, and you feel
you might sign on, go on to the fol-
lowing questions. As you ask these
questions, listen carefully. Are you
comfortable that the captain knows
the boat fully?
6) Ask for a tour of the boat. You
can get initial impressions of the
boat, equipment and rigging from a
deck tour, but make sure you go
below. If the voyage is extended, the
boat will be your home as well as the
captain’s. This can also reveal under-
lying inconsistencies which don’t crop
up when you are simply talking.
7) Talk about food preferences,
both yours and the captain’s. Do
you drink alcohol at sea? In port?
Teetotalers or light drinkers don’t
generally get along with drinkers for
extended tours. Smokers? Ditto.
How about snoring?
8) Are bunk space and storage for
your gear acceptable — think about
the length of time, again. You’ll need
space that’s your own.
9) Don’t take experience for grant-
ed. The length of time someone has
cruised and where they have gone are
not necessarily good measures of how
they handle extended voyages or the
quality of their skills.
The hardest thing to get to know
is how people react to being at sea.
We spent three weeks in the same
www.oceannavigator.com
marina with the skipper, seeing her
socially, and once we settled on the
cruise, we shopped jointly. Neither
Tom nor I, however, participated in
getting her boat ready for sea. We
were busy getting Oddly Enough
ready to be left on its own.
Our biggest mistake was to not
ask for a trial sail. If we had taken
the boat around the harbor, we
could have gotten a preview of what
to expect in our personal interac-
tions, and we would have quickly
sized up the readiness of the boat.
A test sail is key
If the answers to the above ques-
tions satisfy you, and you’re still
talking about a joint cruise, here’s
what you should tell the captain.
Because what comes next assumes
some commitment.
10) Go for an afternoon sail
together. You’ll all be on good behav-
ior, but in the interaction as you do
things you should get a sense of
where you might rub each other
wrong. Is the captain competent?
Does he/she let you do things, is
willing to explain and show where
you are unfamiliar? Check out sail-
ing equipment, electronics and sys-
tems. Discuss safety equipment as
well as man overboard and abandon
ship philosophy and technique. Nav-
igation, sail handling, rigging, gear,
and engine are all important.
11) Set an atmosphere in which
everyone feels comfortable to be
honest in assessing their expecta-
tions and their own personalities.
This may not be easy, which in
itself says something.
12) Talk about duties. What
will the captain expect of you?
What do you like to do and what
are you good at? What about night
watch schedules? Does the captain
have a fixed onboard routine or is
it flexible? Which are you more
comfortable with?
13) Will there be enough food
that you like and will it be available
to you without asking? Who cooks?
14) Does the captain seem to be
someone who will listen to you and
consider your ideas, or is he/she likely
to only accept the way things have
always been done?
There are special pitfalls for voy-
agers thinking of crewing with voy-
agers. If you are all experienced, the
assumption is you all know what you
are doing. Your competence should
not threaten the captain, who should
be taking you because your presence
will lead to a safe and successful — as
well as hopefully a fun — voyage. If
the passage is extended you’ll also
need to feel vested in the boat, that
it’s your home and that the captain
understands that. Ultimately, you
have to trust each other and the boat.
Crewing can be a way to sail
somewhere you don’t want to take
your own boat, or you may, like us,
combine adventure with helping a
fellow voyager. But you can do your
best to make sure it ends up one of
those good stories that rarely makes
the news. ■
—Ann Hoffner and her husband Tom Bailey
liveaboard their Peterson 44, Oddly
Enough. They started voyaging in the early
1990s and have spent a large portion of
their voyaging time in the Pacific. They are
currently exploring Indonesia.
MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 27
OCEAN VOYAGING

had come from conversations

Voyagers explore
two intriguing
sets of islands off
Colombian with Mauricio Lemaitre, the
owner of Manzanillo Marina
Club in Cartagena and one of
Colombia’s notable yachtsmen.

Colombia’s
Caribbean coast exposition
Story and photos by Carolyn and Bob Mehaffy
Knowing that we had spent 10
years voyaging in the Pacific
Ocean and that we write maga-
zine articles and books, he was
adamant: We had to see the
Colombian islands he knows

C
runch! The sound was
Carricklee, the unmistakable. The keel
Mehaffy’s Hardin of our heavy ketch, Car-
45 ketch, tucked ricklee, had hit the reef and
among the ground to an abrupt stop.
islands of Sal- The grounding on the reef
sipuedes, a wasn’t a complete surprise, of
lagoon on Isla course. We were approximately
Tintipán, in the one-half mile off the north
Islas de San coast of Isla Tintipán, the
Bernardo. largest island in Islas de San
Bernardo, a small group of
Colombia islands 40 miles
south of Cartagena. Navigating
between an inner and an outer
reef in search of an elusive route
through the inner reef to Sal-
sipuedes, a protected lagoon
carved out of the center of Tin-
tipán, we had known the pas-
sage would be risky.
The impetus for our search
and loves. And to appreciate
them fully, we had to go where
the local yachtsmen go. On Isla
Tintipán, that meant anchoring
in Salsipuedes, the name a
telling one: “Get out if you
can,” or in our case, “Get in if
you can.”
After our 10 years of voyag-
ing in the Pacific, from as far
west as Midway Atoll to as far

28 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009 www.oceannavigator.com

north as Alaska’s Glacier Bay
and as far south as Ecuador in
South America, we had
thought we knew enough
about sailing among reefs to
stay out of trouble. But this
incident with the reef was yet
another in the growing list of
examples from our year in the
western Caribbean that have
illustrated to us we’re now navi-
gating in foreign waters.
We had transited the Canal
de Panamá from the Pacific to
the Caribbean and had then
spent a few months exploring
Bocas del Toro, the popular
province and islands of western
Panamá bordering Costa Rica.
At the end of the dry season
and the imminent approach of
the legendary rains and light-
ning of the wet season, we left
Bocas del Toro for the drier, less
electrifying Cartagena, 400
miles east.
An invitation to
the Islas Rosarios
One of our earliest lessons in
how different navigating along
the western coast of Colombia
is from that in the Pacific
Ocean came also at the instiga-
tion of Mauricio Lemaitre, that
same good friend who urged us
to try Salsipuedes. (After all,
what are friends for?)
Our major boat projects
completed after we had
returned to Cartagena the fol-
lowing fall, one early morning
we were preparing to leave
Manzanillo Marina for the
anchorage off Isla Manga,
www.oceannavigator.com
near the colonial walled city of
Cartagena. Mauricio stopped
by to tell us he was leaving
immediately on his Contessa
33 to sail to his island getaway
on Isla Grande in Islas del
Rosario. He invited us to fol-
low him aboard Carricklee and
tie up on one of his docks at
the island for a few days. In
addition to promising us a
quiet and relaxing excursion,
he also said he’d give us a per-
sonal tour of the Rosarios, this
from one who has had a
retreat there for 28 years.
Although we’re not given to
making passages to destina- long-time resident. So we
tions we haven’t thoroughly agreed we’d follow him out as Bob and Carolyn
researched — and we hadn’t soon as we could, perhaps Mehaffy ashore in
yet studied Islas del Rosario within two or three hours Colombia.
— we felt we couldn’t pass up after his departure.
this opportunity to see these En route later that morning,
popular islands as guests of a we learned making the trip to
a
Se
a
n
Sabanalarga
e
b
b
ri
a
C
On Colombia’s
Cartagena
Caribbean coast, to the
southwest of the city of
Islas del
I A
Rosario Cartagena, lie seldom
traveled islands, the
Islas del Rosario and
B
Carmen Islas de San Bernardo.
M
Islas de San
Alfred Wood/Ocean Navigator Illustration
Bernardo de Bolívar The Mehaffy’s were
O
lucky to have local
L
Tolú O guides show them pas-
C sages through the
Coveñas
island’s many reefs.
Isla Fuerte
MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 29
OCEAN VOYAGING

Mauricio’s Isla Grande home is on decades-old surveys, show

a little more complicated than
simply sailing eight miles
Carricklee at through the well-marked chan-
anchor in the nels of Bahía de Cartagena,
Islas de San exiting into the Caribbean
Bernardo. through the entrance at Boca
Chica, maintaining a course of
243° for 10 miles, to Isla
Tesoro, and, finally, picking up
a course of 190° for three miles.
This course, Mauricio had
assured us, would bring us to
and through the channel
between the reefs and into the
protected waters of Canal
Ratón, between Isla Grande
and Isla Marina, where we’d see
his sailboat on the dock. He
did suggest, however, we call
him on his cell phone as we
approached the reef to get exact
waypoints for the channel.
We readily agreed, knowing
the charts for this coast, based
little detail for the offshore
islands or the ubiquitous reefs
around them. We did have one
small chart — really, no more
than a sketch a visiting sailor
had made a few years ago —
that provides a view of Isla
Grande and the passes through
the reef. However, this sketch
includes neither waypoints nor,
for that matter, lat/long lines.
Our departure that morning
was delayed longer than antici-
pated when we discovered the
anchor of the boat Med-tied
alongside us was on top of ours,
the rode of that anchor intri-
cately entangled in our chain.
As a result, we arrived offshore
of the passage through the reef
at 1600, only two hours before
sundown and far later than
advisable for making passages
through unfamiliar reefs.
Small buoys not visible
While Mauricio had said a
green and a red buoy marked
the channel through the reef,
even with the binoculars we
could see neither of these
apparently unusually small
buoys. Once we’d called him
for the waypoints, we knew
where to look. We located the
buoys designating the break in
the reef. Within minutes, we
were transiting the narrow pass,
all the while nervously watch-
ing the water breaking on the
reefs only a few feet off either
beam. Yet, as Mauricio had

Islas de San Bernardo, another for them at a specified bank in Office and essentially start the
The chart runaround
group of islands we had visited El Centro, several miles away on entire process over again.
Wherever we have voyaged in
and planned to revisit. The streets plugged with traffic. Unfortunately, our chart search
Colombia, we have had numer-
price for the bundle was $30, a Then we would have to return had begun on a Friday, and we
ous experiences underscoring
genuine bargain. to the Hydrographic Office with had already checked out of the
the need for better charts. On
We spent most of a day get- the receipt in order to obtain country for a passage to
our subsequent return to Carta-
ting permission to enter the the charts. Panamá over the weekend.
gena, we explored a rumor the
Navy Training Base in Cartage- When we arrived at the Though we would leave Carta-
Colombian Hydrographic Office
na, the location of the Hydro- bank shortly before closing gena without a better chart
had charts of Islas del Rosario
graphic Office, and to examine time, the employee with whom than we’d had before, we did
that could be made available to
the chart. We discovered a prob- we spoke told us the number have the waypoints and sound-
the public. We verified the exis-
lem in purchasing the charts, we had been given by the sailor ings for the Rosarios that we’d
tence of such a useful chart
however. We could order copies who showed us the charts was gathered with Mauricio.
and learned it is bundled
of the charts only at the Hydro- no longer valid. We would need
together with three or four Carolyn and Bob Mehaffy
graphic Office, but had to pay to return to the Hydrographic
other charts, one of those for

30 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009 www.oceannavigator.com

promised, we never had less
than eight feet of water.
This adventure reinforced
for us the importance of our
supplementing or in some
instances supplanting the infor-
mation on charts with local
knowledge whenever possible.
This lesson has been valuable
particularly in Latin America,
for which the available naviga-
tion charts rely on data collect-
ed nearly a century ago. But, of
course, local information is not
always immediately available
unless one has the fortune, as
we do in Cartagena, of having
a local friend who is a sailor.
Because Mauricio has a life-
time of experience in navigat-
ing boats along the coasts of
Colombia and Panamá, he
knows well the inadequacies of
the charts. One of the first sug-
gestions he made after we
arrived at Isla Grande was that
we should take a dinghy ride
with him through the canals
and around the islands of Islas
del Rosario, taking waypoints
and depth soundings along the
way. The results of this excur-
sion turned out to be extremely
helpful on our subsequent visits
to these islands — many of
which are surrounded by mul-
tiple reef systems.
After this brief visit in the
Rosarios, we returned to Carta-
gena and anchored off Club
Nautico for a few weeks of
exploring the city and further
preparing our boat for the sea-
son’s cruising.
When we departed Carta-
www.oceannavigator.com
gena this time, we wanted to Caribbean in the summer and
be fully prepared to explore all fall. In these months as well as
the islands between there and in the spring — the wet season
the Panamá border. On this — the winds are typically light
agenda, our first destination and variable except for the
would be a return to Islas del occasional culo de pollo (which
Rosario. Its 27 islands, seven can be literally translated to the
of them large, are all tropical enigmatic phrase “wind from a
paradises that beckon to both chicken’s ass”). This is a sudden,
colombianos and international strong south wind sometimes
visitors. The Rosarios are close reaching 50 knots.
enough to Cartagena so visi- During the dry months of
tors can make the passage in January, February, and March,
less than an hour in a power- when most voyagers visit the Bob looks on as
boat and in three or four islands, the prevailing easterlies Carricklee is
hours in a sailboat. of the central Caribbean deter- returned to the
mine the winds along the water. The boat
Seclusion available Colombian coast. By the time spent the summer
Despite the dozens of boats these winds reach the islands, on the hard at the
daily bringing visitors from they are more northeasterly and Manzanillo Marina
Cartagena to various popular typically in the 10 to 20 knot Club in Cartagena.
island sites in the Rosarios and range during the day with often
the numbers of Colombian a 5 to 10 knot increase at night.
families visiting their island Given these conditions, the
homes, we could always find a
beautiful reef where we were
alone with the tropical fish
swimming among the many-
hued varieties of healthy corals.
After the tour boats had
returned to Cartagena in mid-
afternoon, we were the lone
visitors to the Oceanario and
the Aviario, the surprisingly
splendid aquarium and aviary
owned by a local colombiano.
The wind patterns in the
Colombian islands are general-
ly mild and predictable. The
entire Colombia coastline,
including the offshore islands,
lies far enough south so it has
never been visited by the hurri-
canes that yearly threaten dev-
astation to much of the
OCEAN VOYAGING
most popular anchorages in the
dry months are on the south
sides of the islands, though one
must remain alert to the poten-
tial for a culo de pollo. However,
Bob gets help while the dry months are the
from locals to favorite voyaging months, we,
relaunch the as well as other voyagers, have
Mehaffy’s inflat- found much to enjoy during
able for the the wet months. In these
beach at Isla months when the stronger
Fuerte. northerly winds rarely blow, all
the beautiful anchorages along
the north shorelines of the
islands become tenable. Indeed,
as colombianos have known for
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32 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
centuries and voyagers are dis-
covering, the Rosarios offer
protection 12 months a year.
During one of our visits at the
end of the wet season, we sim-
ply moved from one side of an
island to the other when a con-
trary wind came up and made
the motion aboard the boat
uncomfortable.
On to the Islas
de San Bernardo
After Islas del Rosario, our next
destination along the route
between Cartagena and the
Panamá border, Islas de San
Bernardo, lies 25 miles almost
due south. On this passage near
the end of the wet season, we
encountered another naviga-
tional hazard. A few miles
south of the Rosarios, on the
distant horizon in every direc-
tion but behind us, we began to
spot one “ship” then another in
the misty morning air, some
with “masts.” Soon, with the
binoculars we identified these
apparent vessels heading out to
sea on the outgoing tide as
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islands of vegetation, some as
big as many of the islets in the
Rosarios and a few topped by
small coco palms.
From a distance, these float-
ing islands appeared to leave lit-
tle water surface for us to pass
between them. Yet as we
approached each, we handily
navigated around it, though
we’d not want to play this game
of dodge at night. Nighttime
coastal passages, no matter
where we are, are always a
source of some anxiety. Along
this Caribbean coast, where in
the wet season numerous
coastal rivers carry volumes of
water and masses of vegetation
down to the sea, such passages
are downright dangerous.
Isla Tintipán, one of the
eight San Bernardo islands, is a
common stop ocean voyagers
from around the world typical-
ly make as they transit Colom-
bia’s Caribbean coastline. Lis-
tening to these sailors, we
repeatedly heard the anchorage
on the south side of the island
is the place to go.
www.oceannavigator.com
 But this information contra-
dicted Mauricio’s advice. He
recommended we follow the
example of colombianos from
such cities as Cartagena,
Bogotá, and Medellín who
have long considered the
lagoon in the interior of the
island to be the perfect getaway
for vacations. When we asked
about the extensive reefs along
the north and west sides of the
island indicated on our charts,
he assured us these reefs would
not be a problem if we were
careful. We asked him for way-
points, but he had never both-
ered to record any. His advice?
Go slowly through the reefs,
avoiding places appearing to be
too shallow for the six-foot
draft of Carricklee. And we’re
sure that’s how colombianos
long familiar with this entrance
do navigate it.
Lacking either a chart or
waypoints for entering the
lagoon, we had instead plotted
a cautious route around the
eastern end of Tintipán and
dropped anchor where the
other visiting sailors typically
anchor — off the south shore.
A passage into the lagoon
On the third day, though, we
awoke to a bouncing boat in
brisk 15-knot south winds.
Mauricio and others had
warned us to beware of the culo
de pollo winds along the entire
Colombia coast. Not knowing
if this 15-knot wind was the
precursor of the dreaded south
wind, we decided to go around
Tintipán to try to find the pas-
sage into the protected waters
of the lagoon.
To be ready to move in the
event of a south wind, we had
gone around the island the day
before in our sportboat, taking
approximately 40 soundings at
regular intervals to locate the
route through the reefs.
From the south anchorage,
In the Islas del
keeping Carricklee between
Rosario many of
one-half and one mile offshore,
the dwellings
we carefully navigated around
extend over two
the reef on the east end of the
or three reef
island and then began the grad-
islets.
ual turn to take us westward
along the north side of the
island. Initially the depths were
around 15 feet, but decreased
steadily until they were consis-
tently under 10. We backed off
on the throttle to idle ahead,
giving us about 2 knots of for-
ward motion, intently studying
the bottom below the clear
water. We began actively dodg-
ing coral heads.
Eventually, though, we mis-
judged the depth of water
ahead, and our keel crunched
onto a coral head. We were
reluctant to engage reverse gear
because the turbulence from
the prop wash would stir up
sand that could, if picked up

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www.oceannavigator.com MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 33

OCEAN VOYAGING

by the intake water, destroy the
engine impeller. The alternative plan
was to drop the sportboat into the
water and row out a distance to set
an anchor for kedging the boat off
the reef.
Local guide
While we were getting the kedge
anchor loaded into the sportboat, a
local fisherman and his son raced out
from shore in their lancha to help us.
We kedged Carricklee off the reef in
minutes, and the fisherman, José,
stayed aboard to guide us through the
labyrinth of reefs and on around
Frigate Point, and then through the
channel into the lagoon.
When José, with his years of
experiencing fishing in the San
Bernardos, guided us through the
channel into Salsipuedes, we fol-
lowed a zigzag course of three
unmarked turns through the reef in
a space of about 500 yards. Later,
even though we could see the track
on our electronic chart, we had no
assurance we could safely find our
way out again. Consequently, before
we exited the lagoon a few days later,
we spent three hours out in the
sportboat with our portable depth
sounder and GPS, developing way-
points for the entrance into the
lagoon with only three turns, this
route obviously based on the earlier
trip through the reef with José.
Since that time, we’ve been
through the reef with a Colombian
friend, Carlos Londoño, at the helm
of his powerboat. Carlos, whose
expertise comes from his countless
trips between Cartagena and Tin-
tipán during the 16 years since he
built his vacation home here, has
installed two markers on the reef
that allow him — and anyone else
who knows about them — to enter
the lagoon without making any
turns. When we used his route as
we exited the reef aboard Carricklee
the last time, we saw no depths less
than nine feet.
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34 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009 www.oceannavigator.com

iety-ridden passage through the
channel. From this lagoon fully pro-
tected from the winds and seas by
the encircling islands, we made daily
exploratory excursions in the sport-
boat. While we snorkeled on the
coral reefs around the island, walked
on the lush white sand beach under
the mangroves on popular Isla
Mucurá, or shopped for provisions
in the four tiny tiendas on crowded
Islote, we worried about neither a
strong norther nor a culo de pollo
threatening our boat in the anchor-
age of Salsipuedes.
Our story of Tintipán reinforces
the importance of adequately detailed
and up-to-date charts for sailors navi-
www.oceannavigator.com
gating among coral reefs, and it also
reinforces the importance of local
knowledge. That local knowledge
comes not only in the navigation tips
one can obtain from a local fisher-
man such as José and a local yachts-
man such as Mauricio or Carlos Lon-
doño. It also expands the options for
destinations. If not for Mauricio, for
example, we would not have seen the
potential at Islas del Rosario, nor vis-
ited Salsipuedes. Nor would we have
continued on from Islas de San
Bernardo to Isla Fuerte.
Our experiences on the 40-mile
passage from the lagoon at Tintipán
to Isla Fuerte prove another truth:
“The best laid plans . . .”
The 40-mile distance as well as
the slow-going we would have
threading through reefs for the
first eight miles from the anchor-
age suggested an early morning
departure for our arrival at Fuerte
before dark. Yet, despite these con-
straints and our newfound confi-
dence in navigating through the
reefs, we waited to leave Sal-
sipuedes until 1000, when the
sunlight would give good visibility.
Our tense negotiation of the initial
eight miles was blissfully uneventful,
and by 1200 the reefs and shallow
water were behind us — at least until
the approach to Isla Fuerte. With
slightly more than 30 miles to go and
MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 35
OCEAN VOYAGING
winds under 5 knots, we made
the easy decision to motor sail,
calculating that even with the
adverse current slowing us
down, we should arrive at
Fuerte and have the anchor
down by 1800, the hour of
sunset.
Boarded by the Colombian
Coast Guard
Sunset behind
But we couldn’t anticipate the
tiny Islote island
unexpected in our passage. As
in the Islas de
we were motorsailing along,
San Bernardo.
minding the clock, a sudden
Islote is home to
roar off our starboard side
more than 1,200
jolted us. Seemingly out of
inhabitants living
nowhere, a 36-foot boat with
in the 90
three 250-hp Yamaha out-
buildings that
boards on the transom was
cover the island.
alongside us, four members
of the Colombian Guardacos-
ta smiling at us expectantly
from the open boat.
The officer aboard the boat
motioned for us to slow down
and then expressed his inten-
tion to come aboard Carricklee.
We sighed inwardly, put out
fenders, rolled up the Genoa,
and slowed the engine to idle
ahead. By this time the winds
had increased to nearly 10
knots, and the seas were run-
ning at about 4 feet, so tying
36 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
the patrol boat to Carricklee
was something of a challenge.
Once the officer was aboard,
the crew kept busy preventing
the two boats from banging
into each other in the boister-
ous seas.
The boarding officer was
perfectly polite and profession-
al, examining our papers and
asking questions about our voy-
ages in Colombia. Then after
asking if he could check the
cabins below decks, he exam-
ined the engine room and liv-
ing quarters, peering briefly
into lockers. Thirty minutes
later, he thanked us for our
patience, shook our hands, and
rejoined his crew aboard the
patrol boat.
Although we regretted the
delay caused by this boarding,
our experience with the board-
ing party served to increase our
confidence in the safety of
ocean voyagers in Colombia.
The Colombian Coast Guard
clearly takes its patrol duties
seriously. Though boarded only
this one time, we saw these
patrol vessels in every island
group and anchorage we visited
along coastal Colombia and
watched them carefully make
note of the name and port of
call of each boat. Considering
the violence and crime that
plagued Colombia as recently
as five years ago, and reportedly
continue to be a problem in
some remote inland regions,
the highly visible presence of
the well-trained and polite
members of the Colombian
Coast Guard is most reassur-
ing.
After the Coast Guard boat
had disappeared over the hori-
zon, a remarkably short time at
the 50-mph speed of their
boat, we set about getting Car-
ricklee back on course for Isla
Fuerte. As if to make up for the
delay, the winds had picked up
to a consistent 10 knots, and
the adverse current reversed to
a 1-knot favorable current,
helping to push Carricklee over
the bottom at 7 knots. Despite
the time lost picking our way
carefully through the reefs and
the delay from the boarding,
we had the anchor down at Isla
Fuerte before sunset.
Though we encountered
some challenges while voyaging
along the Colombia coast, we
retain primarily good memories
of these cruising grounds. As
we recall the several weeks of
exquisite anchorages and,
everywhere, kind and helpful
colombianos, we also recall pro-
ductive hours spent collecting
numbers of waypoints and of
soundings. When we collated
these numbers and entered
them on our previously inade-
quate charts, we did so with the
expectation this “crunching of
the numbers” could help us
avoid another crunching on the
reefs of Colombia. ■
Frequent contributors to
Ocean Navigator, Carolyn and
Bob Mehaffy are liveabord voy-
agers on their Hardin 45 ketch
Carricklee.
www.oceannavigator.com

The virtues of VHF
tep on a boat, move far
S enough from shore or
another boat to make
your spoken or even the
shouted words inaudible and
you will have to rely on some
assisted means of communi-
cation. Guglielmo Marconi’s
first successful radio trans-
mission from a vessel pres-
ents us with a plethora of
communication options,
including some specialized
for marine use: VHF/DSC-
FM, MF and HF single side-
band in addition to cell
phones, satellite telephones
and ham band transceivers.
The challenge is to select the
communication system that
will be most effective in the
www.oceannavigator.com
environment in which we
normally voyage.
We will concentrate on
voice communication for
those who voyage primarily
in in-shore waters (within
about 20 nautical miles of
shore) but who will, when
the opportunity arises, gladly
make extended coastwise pas-
sages out to a few hundred
miles offshore. Our goal is to
ensure that we will have two-
way communication, a level
beyond the one-way signal-
ing provided by a 406-MHz
EPIRB. (When venturing
more than a few miles from
shore, voyagers should carry
either an EPIRB or a PLB).
Whatever system we elect
A VHF/DSC
radio
remains the
preeminent
communica-
tions tool
for coastal
voyaging
BY CHUCK HUSICK
Lt. Cmdr. C. T. O'Neil/USCG photo
to use must satisfy both rou-
tine, good weather, “all is
wonderful out here” commu-
nication needs and maximize
Coast Guard Petty
Officer Derek M.
Crews, assigned
to Coast Guard
our ability to obtain outside
Station Miami
assistance if we need it. We
Beach, talks to a
must be able to reach anyone
boater over the
near us, including those with-
VHF radio. Cell
in radio range but out of
phones may be
sight beyond the visible hori-
fun for talking to
zon. Relayed messages have
people on shore,
played a critical role both in
but coastal
rescue situations and by pro-
voyagers need
viding information that keeps
VHF radio to talk
an inconvenience from
with other boats
becoming an emergency. It is
and with the
therefore essential that our
Coast Guard.
primary means for communi-
cation be a broadcast device,
one that will be heard by a
multitude of listeners.
37
COMMUNICATIONS

Not a reliable marine

distress device
Unfortunately, too many
recreational mariners are rely-
ing on their amazingly capa-

PA2 Brian N. Leshak/USCG photo

ble cellular telephones as
their primary communica-
Right, Coast
tions device. A check of the
Guard Station
received distress call logs for
San Francisco
many Coast Guard sectors
crewmembers,
and stations shows that all
onboard a 41-
too often the call for assis- privacy this characteristic pro- vessels, regardless of size or
footer, escort
tance was made using a cell vides in normal conversations where they may operate. A
the sailboat
phone and that very often the is a complete negative when VHF radio’s greatest virtue is
Elizabeth
call was interrupted before people on nearby boats don’t that it is required equipment
Mulh from
the information needed to know of your need for assis- on all ships and commercial
Alcatraz to a
conduct an efficient search tance. In contrast, VHF radio vessels, most large yachts
pier in San
and rescue effort was broadcasts your message to and is used by all of the
Francisco after
received. Search missions every radio in range of your world’s Coast Guards and
Elizabeth
based on minimal informa- vessel. Additional limitations
Mulh struck a
tion are costly, can delay inherent in relying on a cell VHF/DSC radio
buoy. Below,
response to other emergency phone include the fact that tutorial
the FM3000
calls and can expose the SAR cell tower antenna patterns
VHF/DSC from
personnel to unnecessary risk. are carefully aligned with The BoatU.S. Web site
Furuno.
The technical risks in rely- areas where high concentra- (www.boatus.com) provides
ing on a cell phone as the sole tions of cell phone users are access to a seven-part tutorial
means for communication likely to be found, not neces- about the selection, installation
begin with the fact that the sarily offshore. and use of VHF/DSC radio. Select
cell phone is a narrowcast A further complication the “Boating Safety” tab on the
device. By design it “talks” to occurs when cruising to areas top row and then the “VHF/DSC
only one listener at a time. where the available cell system Radio Tutorial” tab. The tutorial,
Only the called party knows is incompatible with the cell developed with the cooperation
that you are “on the air.” The phone on board the boat. of the U.S. Coast Guard, provides
There is no question that a cell a wealth of useful information
phone can be almost indispen- and includes a VHF/DSC radio
sable on a boat, for example, an simulator you can use to familiar-
iPhone (a computer with an ize yourself with the DSC MAY-
integral cell phone) can serve as DAY and routine DSC hailing
a back-up chart plotter and can functions. An adjacent tab under
even be used to obtain usable the Boating Safety tab provides
information for practicing access to the free Maritime
celestial navigation. Mobile Service Identity (MMSI)
Courtesy Furuno

However, a VHF marine registration process.

band radio is the essential Chuck Husick

communication device for all

www.oceannavigator.com
Naval vessels. It is without a doubt
the most effective way to contact
another vessel.

Covering more area The VHF band

The most basic VHF radio, even a is used for the
minimum power (1-watt) hand- automatic
held, will enable you to contact identification
other VHF equipped vessels within system (AIS)
a range of at least five miles from designed to
your location, an area of about 80 prevent
square miles! If you are in the collisions.
coastal waters served by the Coast Courtesy West Marine
Guard’s new Rescue 21 communi-
cation system the signal from your the shore-side R-21 antennas. communication range to other sim-
1-watt, handheld radio will very Equip your sailboat with a mast- ilarly equipped boats will likely
likely be received even when you head antenna and a fixed mount, encompass an area of about 800
are 20 nautical miles from one of 25-watt radio and your effective square miles.

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www.oceannavigator.com MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 39

COMMUNICATIONS

The safety value of the VHF
marine radio was attested to on
Oct. 26, 1996, when the Federal
Communications Commission,
acting in conformance to a new
law passed by Congress, eliminated
the requirement for a radio station
license (and the then substantial
fee) for VHF radios, radar and any
type of EPIRB voluntarily installed
on recreational vessels that operate
in U.S. waters or cruise in interna-
tional waters. (A license is still
required for U.S. vessels that may
operate in foreign waters or com-
municate with foreign stations.)
The immense value of the VHF
radio is further recognized by the
requirement that a VHF radio
must be installed as a prerequisite
for issuing the radio station license
required for equipment such as a
MF/HF transceiver.
The overall value of the VHF
radio system was significantly
enhanced with the introduction of
digital selective calling (DSC), a
capability that has been required in
all fixed mount radios approved
since early 1999. Prior to the avail-
ability of DSC hailing, success in
attempting to contact another ves-
sel depended on whether the chan-
nel 16 voice hailing call was heard
on the other vessel. And that was
often determined by the setting of
the receiving radio’s volume con-
trol and the presence of an alert
watchstander. Today, reception of a
DSC-initiated “all ships” or “may-
day” call will cause any DSC-
equipped radio in range to emit a
loud and distinctive sound, regard-
less of the setting of the volume
control. The Global Maritime Dis-
tress and Safety System (GMDSS)
equipment carried on board all
Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) con-
vention vessels includes VHF/DSC
radios, making it very likely that
such ships will be alerted to a
VHF/DSC call.
The MF/HF marine band SSB
radio transceiver can be a valuable
part of the communication system
on a boat, especially for voyages
offshore and beyond the range of
VHF coast stations. However, for
most coastal sailors a satellite tele-
phone, such as those available from
Iridium or Globalstar, will provide
capabilities that surpass the
MF/HF radio, especially in an
emergency situation where it can
be used as an adjunct to an EPIRB.
There are numerous instances
where a satellite phone was used to
inform the Coast Guard of the
details of the emergency that
prompted the activation of the ves-
sel’s EPIRB. A handheld satellite
phone is independent of the vessel’s
power and antenna systems. Like a
VHF radio, a satellite phone can
be used by relatively untrained
crew and along with the VHF
radio should be a number one pri-
ority for the boat’s ditch bag.
An ideal communication
equipment suite will include a
fixed mount VHF/DSC radio,
connected to a GPS or loran
receiver; a handheld VHF radio
(preferably one with DSC capabil-
ity and integral GPS receiver); a
satellite telephone, a strobe light
and an EPIRB or PLB. The rec-
ommendation for a strobe light
stems from conversations with
Coast Guard pilots who com-
mented on the value of the strobe
light when they were trying to see
a vessel or life raft. ■

The adventure of a lifetime

CELESTIAL June 1 - 11, 2009

New London, Ct to Bermuda
NAVIGATION
June 16 - 26, 2009
VOYAGES
2007 ©Michael Berman

Bermuda to Charleston, SC

ABOARD November 11 - 20, 2009 Space is limited!

Norfolk, VA to Bermuda Call (757) 627-7400 for reservations.
SCHOONER
November 23 - December 2, 2009 Complete voyage descriptions at
Vi rginia Bermuda to St. Thomas SchoonerVirginia.org.

40 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009 www.oceannavigator.com

Satellite phones
BY JOHN SNYDER

ntil the mid-1990s, considerations, the system was original cost. A variety of serv-

U satellite phone commu-

nication was a technolo-
gy found primarily aboard
merchant ships, large yachts
and the military vessels. Anten-
nas tended to be large, compli-
cated affairs that were not par-
ticularly well suited to most
voyaging sailboats. All of that
changed with the introduction
of reliable handheld units.
Once a bulky and expensive
luxury, handheld satellite
phones have become nearly as
ubiquitous as the cell phone,
the VHF and the HF SSB for
sailors venturing offshore.
Iridium
The first hand-
held to offer glob-
al communication
and data coverage
was Iridium. The
cut back in size and is made up
of 66 satellites in low earth
orbit (LEO) at an altitude of
ice plans are available, with per
minute charges beginning at
about $1.40. A number of Handheld
about 485 miles. Probably the companies rent Iridium solutions for
most impressive aspect of the phones with typical rates
system is its ability to transfer beginning at about $25 per voyagers
calls between satellites across week for the earlier model
the constellation until one of 9500 handset and $70 per wanting to
the satellites is over an earth sta- week for the latest model
stay in touch
tion, at which point the call 9555. An 8-week rental,
data is downlinked. The result long enough to cover
is the only system that can offer most offshore voyages will
global coverage. cost between $200 and
Iridium began providing $660 depending on which
service in late 1998. Unfortu- phone model is selected.
nately, the company went into Airtime charges range
bankruptcy in the summer of from about $1.00 to
1999. Among the causes was $1.78 per minute.
the fact that the cost of equip- Iridium hand-
ment and service was beyond sets have evolved Satellite phones
the reach of most customers. At from the original have followed the
the time the company 9500 Iridium, cell phone trend
only had 55,000 sub- produced by of decreasing size
scribers. In 2001, the Motorola, to the and increasing
Courtesy Inmarsat

original Iridium sys- assets were purchased new 9555. The capability. Far left,
tem design called by a group of private 9555 is about the this Iridium 9555
m
y Iridiu

for 77 satellites to investors and the size and has the model has 30
Courtes

orbit the earth in low company was same comfortable “feel” as a hours of standby
earth orbit (Iridi- reestablished cell phone of a few years ago. It time and up to
um is named after as Iridium is about 30% smaller and four hours of talk
the atomic ele- Satellite LLC. lighter than previous Iridium time before
ment of the By 2005 the phone and is equipped with a needing a
same name number of mini USB data port (making it recharge. Near
which has subscribers easy to use for e-mail). The left, Inmarsat’s
an atomic had doubled. handset weighs 9.4 ounces and entry in the
number Today Irid- can operate in standby mode satphone market
of 77). ium service is for up to 30 hours with talk is the iSatphone.
Due to available for a time up to four hours. It has a
cost fraction of its 200-character illuminated

41
COMMUNICATIONS
graphic display, illuminated weather-
resistant keypad, integrated speaker-
phone and two-way SMS and short
e-mail capability. There is also a SIM-
based address book with a 155-entry
capacity. There is also a mini USB
port for data applications. The 9555
handset is priced at about $1,500.
Globalstar
Globalstar established commercial
satellite phone service in early 2000.
It is comprised of a LEO constella-
tion of 48 satellites orbiting about
932 miles above the earth. The key to
Globalstar’s system is it’s signal. It uses
a code division multiple access
(CDMA) signal. Every call over the
network is assigned its own code, dis-
tinguishing it from other calls on the
network. The CDMA technique
used by Globalstar is now the basis
for all 3G communication services.
Signals from Globalstar phones
are relayed to ground-based “gate-
ways” which pass the calls and data
communication on to a terrestrial
telephone network — land-
line or cellular. Globalstar
satellite phones work as
both cellular and satellite
phones.
Globalstar offered reli-
able voice and data serv-
ice in more than 100
countries covering six
continents with the
exception of high polar
regions and some mid-
ocean regions until 2007.
At that time, its satellites
began to fail, seven to 10 Courtesy Globalstar vide voice, data, fax and SMS
years earlier than expected. A Globalstar GSP- service, and as such, they func-
The problem was devastat- 1700 satphone
ing; Globalstar’s stock fell and cus-
42 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
tomers were left without a reliable
satellite carrier.
Following the failure, Globalstar
launched eight spare satellites in 2007
and is scheduled to deploy additional
replacement satellites during 2009.
The company says that it will contin-
ue to provide and support two-way
voice and data communications, but
there will be gaps in service depending
on your location and time of day.
Despite the fact that the system is
only partially functional, Globalstar is
offering what they call Unlimited
Loyalty Plans. These include unlimit-
ed calling plans for 2009 and 2010
priced at $19.95 per month. It is
unclear what ßrates will be when the
system is fully functional again.
Globalstar’s GSP-1700 satellite
phone is one of the smallest and light-
est satellite phones available today and
offers a wide range of accessories for
the phone including data transmission
kits, and auxiliary antennas for marine
use. With the data kit, the GSP-1700
works with any Point-to-Point Proto-
col, or PPP, standard Internet
devices including Windows,
Mac OS and Linux and offers
the fastest satellite data speed of
any handheld satellite phone.
Free trials of OCENS Mail and
OCENS WeatherNet are
included with the data package.
The Globalstar GSP-1700 sells
for about $995.
Thuraya
Thuraya satellite phones use
geosynchronous satellites to pro-
tion best when the terminal unit
is stationary. Thuraya’s satellite cover-
Using a handheld with
an external antenna
While many voyagers with handheld
satellite phones like Globalstar and Iridi-
um Satellite use them in the handheld
mode, it is also possible to use these
phones with an external antenna that is
mounted on the exterior of the vessel.
With this setup, you can plug the satellite
phone into an external antenna lead and
make a call from down below. You don’t
have to
go up on
deck
every
time you
want to
make a call. Most of these external
antenna units don’t add any extra func-
tionality to an Iridium.
There are also more sophisticated
iridium-based units that use an external
antenna and have a belowdecks unit
with both RJ-11 and RJ-45 jacks for plug-
ging in standard telephone handsets.
Global Satellite has a unit called the
ComCenter Outdoor. This uses a pole-
mounted external antenna for use with
the Iridium system. Users can make stan-
dard voice telephone calls and also send
data by plugging their computer into the
ComCenter Outdoor’s belowdecks unit
using an RJ-45 jack.
Another enhanced iridium product is
the OpenPort unit (seen above) from Irid-
ium. This uses an external antenna about
the size of a small radome with a
belowdecks control box. The OpenPort
belowdecks interface is equipped with
three RJ-11 ports for connecting standard
telephone units. This device is intended
for the large yacht/commercial ship mar-
ket as it allows for multiple users simulta-
neously accessing voice or data services.
Tim Queeney
www.oceannavigator.com
age includes a large region of north-
ern, central and western Africa, the
Middle East, Central Asia and the
Indian subcontinent.
Thuraya offers two handheld
satellite phones — the Thuraya SO-
2510, priced at about $865 and Thu-
raya SG-2520 at $1,095. The Thu-
raya SO-2510 is small, lightweight
and features GPS tracking, fax/data
and SMS service. The Thuraya SO-
2520 is also a 3-in-1 phone that fea-
tures satellite, GSM and GPS service.
Thuraya customers can purchase
prepaid airtime SIM cards for
$155.95 and recharge them as need-
ed (small at 49.50/3 months, medi-
um at $97.50/6 months, large at
$189.50/12 months — about 40, 80
and 160 minutes each respectively)
or postpaid airtime for a one time
activation fee of $50, a monthly fee
of $47.50 and a rate of $1.49/min.
for calls placed in the Thuraya sys-
tem. Calls to other systems are
$3.99/min. for GSM calls and
$10/min. for other satellite systems.
Inmarsat
Inmarsat is another system based on
geostationary satellites and currently
provides handheld satellite phone
coverage in Asia, Africa, and the
Middle East. A newcomer to the
handheld market, Inmarsat terminals
have been common on ships and
larger yachts for some time. The
company’s latest generation
Inmarsat-4 satellite is located over the
Indian Ocean and as such also pro-
vides service to Western Australia.
The IsatPhone handheld satellite
phone features voice and data com-
munications as well as GSM (900-
MHz) functionality. In the GSM
www.oceannavigator.com
mode the phone can send and receive Calls to landlines or cell phones are
text messages up to 160 characters. billed at $0.95 per minute.
Two service plans are offered — a The new phone is lightweight,
Basic Plan at $20 per month and a rugged and retails for about $600.
Travel Plan for $95 per month Inmarsat hopes to offer North Ameri-
including 120 minutes of airtime. can coverage within one year. ■
AMEL 54
LADIES, PLEASE SHOW THIS AD TO YOUR SAILING PARTNER
For more than thirty years. I have enjoyed the best job in the entire world, selling serious cruising sail-
boats and comfortable liveaboards to clients from every possible walk of life. I even get paid! Here is what
I've learned are the five most telling concerns expressed most often by gals who are considering passage-
making and long-term living aboard.
I AM NOT SURE ABOUT MY ABILITY TO HANDLE THE BOAT IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO YOU. While
not pleasant to contemplate, this is usually the deepest fear. The AMEL 54 is, really and truly, designed to be single handed.
If you can pick up and hold 50 pounds of weight, you are strong enough to do everything aboard this boat. Setting, reefing,
and furling the sails, tacking, anchoring, launching/retrieving the dinghy and outboard or even an errant spouse gone over-
board, and docking the boat even with plenty of breeze and current...strength does not enter into the equation. We delight
in gently proving this to your complete satisfaction. The ladies really appreciate the confidence this inspires.
I SEEM TO BE MUCH MORE CONCERNED WITH DANGER THAN YOU ARE. We don’t believe you can find
a safer fiberglass boat. There are four full height collision bulkheads that are 100% watertight, eight major watertight com-
partments, a double bottom around the keel, a deep and fully weather protected cockpit, full perimeter stainless tube lifelines,
substantial bulwarks around the entire deck...nobody else offers all these features. Your safety is our primary concern. Period.
Being safe and secure is the ultimate luxury.
I ALWAYS GET STUCK WITH THE HOUSEKEEPING CHORES RATHER THAN THE MORE INTEREST-
ING JOBS ON BOARD. Uh...gals, I could make a pretty good argument about the relative joys of housekeeping versus oil
changes, raw water pump overhauls, and repairing masthead sending units! Whichever side of the mechanical
engineer/domestic engineer job description you fall on, your duties are much easier aboard an AMEL 54. The galley is
ergonomically correct and equipped with everything you have at home. The watermaker allows unrestricted use of the clothes
washer and the dishwasher. The separate watertight/airtight walk in engine room contains most of the equipment and all of
the machinery including all the attendant mess, smell, heat, and noise. An easier to care for boat does not exist.
A MONTH OF LIVING ABOARD IS JUST LIKE CAMPING, WITHOUT THE DIRT. Not on an AMEL! On deck
there are six huge lockers that hold all the sails, docklines, ground tackle, fenders and fenderboards, deck awnings, dive gear,
dinghies and outboards, tools, spare parts, barbecue grills...all the stuff required for comfortable cruising is stored on deck out-
side of the accommodations. Nothing goes down the companionway inside the boat unless you eat it, wear it, or read it. Very
civilized indeed.
IT SEEMS WE SPEND TOO MUCH TIME FIXING THINGS, FINDING PARTS AND LOCATING QUALIFIED
TECHNICIANS TO EFFECT REPAIRS. All of the 130+ AMEL 54's built to date are nearly identical. They evolve for
the better each year but the basic concept is cut in stone. These are very refined boats that have far less problems than other
cruising sailboats. As each boat is an evolution, you are not getting a “Beta Site”, as with other builders, that you then must
refine yourself. This is a developed and perfected cruising system. Our after sales service is second to none. We are very proud
of this and urge you to ask anyone who purchased a new AMEL 54 how we have treated them.
BROKERAGE EXAMPLES AVAILABLE IN FLORIDA
JOEL F. POTTER – CRUISING YACHT SPECIALIST, LLC
AMEL’S SOLE ASSOCIATE FOR THE AMERICAS
Phone: (954) 462-5869 Fax: (954) 462-3923 E-mail: jfpottercys@att.net
DEMONSTRATOR CONVENIENTLY LOCATED IN FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA
MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 43
 Index to Advertisers
Page Advertiser Product Page Advertiser Product

43 Amel - Joel F Potter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sailboats 19 Nobeltec. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Electronic charting

16 Balmar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alternators
44 Cape George Cutter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Boatbuilder—Sail
47 Dr. LED - Dynamic Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lights
23 Epifanes USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Varnish/Paint
35 FloScan Instrument Company Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flowmeter
1 Fujinon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Binoculars
c4 Furuno USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Electronics
48 GAM Split Lead Antenna. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Antenna
20 Hansen Marine Engineering. . . . . . . . . . Engines & generators
52 Hart Systems (Tank Tender). . . . . . . . Tank Measuring System
44 International Marine Insurance Svcs . . . . . . . . . . . . Insurance
35,39 Kato Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Davits/Radar mounts
47 Maximum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Weather Instruments
7 NANNI TRADING SRL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diesel engines
51 Nordhavn Brokerage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brokerage
c2 Nordhavn Yachts . . . . . . . . . . . . . Boatbuilder—Power & Sail
5 North Sails Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sailmaker
32 Para-Tech Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sea anchors
15 Pioneer Marketing and Research/Steiner . . . . . . . . Binoculars
50 QuicklineUSA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anchors
50 Scan Marine Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stove/Heater
40 Schooner Virginia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Training
34 Sea Frost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Refrigeration
39 Smithwick & Mariners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Insurance
47 Spartite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mast wedge
52 Speedseal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Engine equipment
33 VARIPROP USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Propellers
52 Winslow Marine Products Corp . . . . . . . . . . . Life rafts/Safety

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44 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009 www.oceannavigator.com

 toward exceptional perform-
ance for mariners such as
ocean sailors who place great
stock in low-power devices.
The BR24’s range choices
extend from 1/32 of a nautical
mile (just under 200 feet) to a
maximum of 24 nautical miles,
The new
which is more than sufficient
for virtually all yacht navigation Navico BR24
needs. The unique value of the
BR24 is most evident when it is broadband
operated at its shortest full-scale
range, 1/32 of a nautical mile. radar is a
Navigators who have experi- fascinating
enced conditions of extremely
limited visibility will attest to departure for
the fact that radar’s ability to
accurately detect and display low-power
targets at very short range can
radar

Solid
be critical for navigation safety.
Courtesy Navico

We need to “see” the daymarks, technology

isolated pilings and unofficial

state radar
aids we casually refer to for nav-
igation guidance in good
weather. Conventional marine
radars are usually unable to dis-
BY CHUCK HUSICK
play the images of targets closer

T
he Navico group recently cell phone. It’s likely the BR24 than about 180 feet, a distance Inside the broad-
introduced a new radar: will set a new level of perform- that can be well beyond visual band radar’s
the 24-mile Simrad ance for yacht radars. range. The BR24 avoids this radome is a solid
BR24. This isn’t an unusual The technical advances of limitation, clearly showing even state antenna
event in the fast-moving world the BR24 don’t suddenly make the closest radar reflective with separate
of marine electronics. This par- conventional magnetron-based objects (including, on our sea banks of ele-
ticular radar model, however, is radars obsolete, of course. In trial, small wood pilings). ments for trans-
different from any other fact, radar units in general The BR24’s exceptional tar- mitting and
marine radar previously have been get- get imaging capa- receiving signals.
released. The BR24 is a com- ting better bility is primari- The lower bank
pletely solid-state, low-power and more ly the result of transmits the
design that can display targets capable with the use of a FM-modulated,
as close as a boathook’s length each model. continuous continuous wave
away. And the BR24 provides The BR24, wave radio signal and the
this close-in information using however, transmitter in upper bank
a transmitter that is a bit less does point place of the receives return-
powerful than the one in your the way pulse transmitter ing echoes.

www.oceannavigator.com 45

The Navico broadband radar at 200 foot
range. Compare radar detail to electronic
chart at left.
in the conventional radar, plus the use
of separate transmitting and receiving
antennas. (This technology, a contin-
uous wave transmitter and separate
transmitting and receiving antennas is
used in aircraft radar altimeters).
Measuring distance
Standard pulse radars find the dis-
tance to a target by measuring the
time delay from transmission of a
pulse to the arrival of the reflected
return signal. A non-modulated, con-
tinuous wave radar can deter-
mine the speed of an object
that is reflecting energy back to
the receiving antenna by meas-
uring the Doppler shift fre-
quency of the returning energy
(the technique used in speed
measuring radars employed by
police and LIDARS), however,
Courtesy Navico
it cannot determine the dis-
tance to a target. To obtain dis-
tance information, the BR24
frequency modulates the continuous
wave carrier. The change in frequency
is at a rate chosen to match each
selected maximum viewing range.
The frequency of energy reflected
from a target can therefore be related
to the time that has elapsed since the
beginning of each frequency sweep of
the modulating signal. This data
comparison provides an accurate
measure of the time that has elapsed
since the signal was transmitted,
thereby providing the distance to the
target. For example, detection of a
frequency that was equal to the fre-
quency of the modulating signal at
the mid point between the start and
end of the frequency sweep would
define the target’s position to be at 50
percent of the maximum selected
range. Detection of even weak return
signals is enhanced by the fact that
the receiver circuits can analyze the
incoming data by comparing its
modulated frequency component
with the modulation impressed on
the transmitted signal.
Similar to an aircraft radar altime-
ter, the BR24 uses separate transmit-
ting and receiving antennas, eliminat-
ing the need for the switching circuits
used in a conventional radar to alter-
nately connect the antenna to first the
transmitter and then the receiver. The
two printed circuit board antennas
are mounted to the radar’s antenna
rotation mechanism with the receiv-
ing antenna above, the transmitting
antenna below. Stacking of the two
antennas results in a slightly higher
radome than those used to enclose a
conventional shared antenna set. A
close examination of the antennas
discloses a small but significant differ-

Using FM
continuous wave
to measure range
A conventional radar transmits
a stream of short duration pulses
of radiofrequency energy. The
receiver then measures the time
that has elapsed since the trans-
mission of a pulse and the detec-
tion of a returning echo signal
from a target. Since the propaga-
tion speed of the radar signal in air
is known (and is reasonably con-
stant), the time delay from pulse
transmission to detection of a
return signal can be used to deter-
mine the target’s radar range.
The range measurement sys-
tem employed in the Navico
broadband radar determines the
distance to a radar target in a dif-
ferent fashion. It compares the fre-
quency of a target echo to the
known and linearly increasing fre-
quency used to modulate the
transmitter.
For example: if the modulating
frequency varied from 1 Hz to 100
Hz during the time it takes the
transmitter’s signal to travel 1,000
feet and the measured frequency
of the signal reflected from a tar-
get was 50 Hz, we would know
that the target was located 500
feet from the transmitter. In actual-
ity, the modulating frequency is
swept over its designed frequency
range very rapidly since it takes
only 6.3 microseconds for the
radar signal to travel one nautical
mile.
For the technically inquisitive,
the published specifications for the
BR24 state that the available
range settings are from 1/32 to 24
nautical miles in 16 range steps,
the sweep repetition frequency is
200 Hz and the sweep time 1 ms
with a sweep bandwidth of 65
MHz max. Antenna horizontal
beam width is 5.2 degrees. The
BR24 radar automatically adjusts
the modulating frequency sweep
rate (rate of change) to match the
user-selected maximum range.
Accurate measurement of dis-
tance, especially to close-in tar-
gets, achieved by this radar
requires very rapid and precise
comparison of the frequency in the
echo signal with the transmitted
signal. The signal processing
achieved in this radar has only
very recently become affordable
with the development of new solid
state high-frequency devices.
Chuck Husick

46 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009 www.oceannavigator.com

ence in the pattern of the conductors
on the circuit board. The difference is
visual evidence of the fact that the
antennas have opposing polarity, a
technique that reduces the overall
sidelobe response of the antenna sys-
tem. Sidelobes are undesirable but
generally unavoidable characteristics
of directional antennas that cause
than many cell phones. While
100 mw is a very small frac-
tion (1/20,000) of the typical
2 kW peak pulse power of a
magnetron radar transmitter,
it is more than sufficient to
provide excellent results out to
the radar’s maximum 24 nau-
tical mile range. The BR24s

energy to be radiated in unwanted
directions away from the pattern of
the main beam, simultaneously creat-
ing areas of undesirable increased sen-
sitivity to incoming signals.
Milliwatt power
The transmitter in the BR24 radiates
only 100 milliwatts (1/10 of a watt)
of radiofrequency (RF) energy, less
Courtesy Navico
ability to image distant targets
at long range, with very low
power can be understood
In this broadband radar screen capture,
when its average power, 100 mw, is
the nearest radar target is only 50 feet
compared with the average power of
away.
the 2 kW radar. A reasonable approx-
imation of the difference between the magnetron transmitter radar. Both
two radars is evidenced by their DC sets use a part of the power for the
power consumption, 18 watts for the motor that rotates the antenna. The
BR24, 28 watts for a typical 2 kW filament in the vacuum tube in the

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 conventional radars magnetron also patible Lowrance (HDS - High Defi-
consumes a fair amount of power. nition System), Northstar (8000i, 12”
There is nothing new in the ability & 15”, M121 an M84) or Simrad
to achieve reliable radio communica- (NX40, NX45 and GB40) chartplot-
Since 1985 Ocean Navigator tion over vast distances using minute ters is simplified by radar’s “instant-
has been the resource that amounts of RF power, including on” capability. With no magnetron
offshore voyagers swear by. radar mapping of the moon and ham filament to heat before activating the
radio communication over continen- transmitter, there is no need for the
tal distances. The performance of the usual 90 second (or longer) time
N ow you can access those
years of expertise any
time you like. With its search-
BR24 is aided by the improved differ-
entiation of target echo signals from
delay. Sailors whose boats have limit-
ed electrical power will appreciate
able archive containing more the background noise provided by the being able to operate the radar in a
than 2,000 serious navigation frequency modulation of the carrier. “watchman” or intermittent mode
and seamanship articles, when the radar is used as a general
Ocean Navigator Online is the
perfect companion to your
Easy installation surveillance device when voyaging in
Ocean Navigator subscription. Installation of the BR24 radome is open water.
simplified by its relatively low, 16.3- Although the BR24 can be used
lb weight and the use of Ethernet successfully without much attention
www.oceannavigator.com cable for connection to the associat- to the various radar controls they are
ed chartplotters (various models all there, accessed through the menus
from Lowrance, Northstar and Sim- on the associated chartplotters. The
Split Lead rad). Power for the radome is sup- list includes gain and STC (automat-
SSB Antenna plied via four small wires that, with ic and manually selected), rain,
the Ethernet cable, result in an over- EBL/VRM, choice of display, head-
M all cable diameter of only 1/2 inch. ing up, north up, course up, plus rel-
Anyone who has “enjoyed” cutting ative and true motion (provided the
N
M No need and splicing the typical 22 conduc- necessary heading sensing equipment
for backstay
insulators tor plus coax cable used with con- is installed). Learning to use the
M Easy installation ventional radars will particularly BR24 will be exciting, especially for
M No swaging, no
cutting appreciate this aspect of the installa- experienced radar users.
M Tough, water- Communications tion of the radome. The antenna Navico claims that the use of FM
proof, reusable expert Gordon West
M Highly conduc- reports specifications for the BR24 are typi- modulation improves the detection
tive RF elements “I have done cal for any similar sized radome, of targets in rain. The clear skies dur-
M Watertight lead- numerous SSB ham
wire to antenna and marine radio horizontal beam angle of 5.4 ing the sea trial in Miami prevented
connection checks with this sys-
M Stiff 34’ LDPE tem and have found
degrees, vertical beam angle of 25 us from verifying this claim.
housing secures no discernible signal degrees. The very low emitted power For bigger vessels that are already
firmly to back- losses, even when
stay wire used with a well-
of the BR24 eliminates concern equipped with conventional 48 to
grounded backstay about exposure of personnel close to 72-mile range equipment, the BR24
aboard a steel-
hulled vessel. The the radar to RF energy; the intensity can be used in a specialty role: it can
GAM Electronics, Inc. antenna...can bang at the surface of the radome is signif- provide the close-in images that the
191 Varney Street out a signal just as
Manchester, NH 03102 though it were sus- icantly below the level considered conventional radar sets may not be
Phone: (603) 627-1010
Fax: (603) 622-4738
pended in mid-air.” safe for human exposure. able to deliver. ■
– Sail Magazine
www.gamelectronicsinc.com October 2005 The BR24 is the radar sensor for
gamelectronicsinc@juno.com
Navico’s Lowrance, Northstar and Contributing editor Chuck Husick is
Simrad chartplotters. Operation of a sailor, pilot and writer who rides his
the BR24 radar with any of the com- bicycle in Tierra Verde, Fla.

48 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009 www.oceannavigator.com

 VOYAGING TIPS
Rudder bearing replacement
E ventually, rudder bearings
need to be replaced.
Recently, I refit the bearings
on my 1971 Swan 36, Free-
dom. I’ve owned Freedom for
22 years and this is the sec-
ond set of bearings I’ve put
on her rudder. I can tell when
they need replacing because I
can hear the rudder stock
“clunk” in the gudgeon when
she’s in any kind of a seaway.
A look at this process demon-
strates that rudder bearing
replacement is something you
can do yourself.
Essentially, the rudder is
constructed of a 35mm (1
3/8”) stock to which two pin-
tles are welded. Those pintles
grasp the rudder blade on
each side, with through-bolts.
The entire assembly sits in
www.oceannavigator.com
and is supported by the gud-
geon, which itself is through-
bolted to the hull. There are
three bearings (originally
made of Delrin); one resides
in the gudgeon, one in the
lower part of the rudder tube,
one in the upper part of the
rudder tube.
I’d be willing to bet that
other rudders are easier to
deal with when it comes to
bearing replacement. While
the removal of Freedom’s rud-
der is fairly straightforward,
the gudgeon is held captive
by the balanced rudder blade
— the leading edge of which
extends forward of the stock
under the gudgeon. As a
result, to get the gudgeon off,
and to remove/replace that
bearing, the blade must be
removed by grinding
clear the pintles so
that the through-
bolts can be exposed
and unscrewed.
The steps for this
were as follows:
1. The two pieces
of the quadrant were
unbolted from the
rudder stock, and the
key removed from
the keyway shaft.
2. The fairing
around the gudgeon
was ground away to
expose the bolts,
which were then
STORY AND PHOTOS BY PETER STOOPS
removed and the rudder
dropped. With Freedom, the
total length of the rudder
and stock was such that I did
not need to dig a trench to
lower it enough for the stock After years of
to clear the hull, though I service, the
know this is not the case rudder bearings
with many boats. on voyager
3. The fairing on the rud- Peter Stoops
der was ground away to 1971 Swan 36,
expose the bolts on the pin- Freedom,
tles. As with the gudgeon, I above, needed
had tightened those bolts replacement.
(during the last bearing Stoops chose to
replacement) using an do the job
impact wrench, meaning himself. At left,
that same tool was required the rudder after
to loosen them. being dropped
4. Once the pintle bolts free from the
were removed, the blade of hull.
the rudder slipped very neatly
from them, and the gudgeon
simply dropped off the shaft.
MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 49
 VOYAGING TIPS
5. The stock, gudgeon, and old
bearings were taken to a machine
shop where the new bearings were
created using a high abrasion-tol-
erant/low friction polyethylene
called UHMW.
6. However, after cleaning the
fairing from the stock, it was
noticed that the pintles suffered
from some crevice corrosion,
which could have compromised
their strength. As a result, the
Top right, Stoops works on freeing the
bolts that hold the pintles to the rudder
blade. Middle right, the rudder post
holds a bearing. Bottom right, the pin-
tles reattached to the rudder blade.
50 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
assembly was brought to a stainless
welder, who removed the old pin-
tles and welded on new ones, with
some added reinforcement. This
was a job that required several
tries, as there is very little clear-
ance on Freedom for the rudder
both in terms of its swing, and the
spaces between the top of the rud-
der and the hull, and where the
balanced section of the blade clears
the gudgeon.
7. Reassembly of the rudder was
basically the reverse of the above,
with the first step being the inser-
tion of the gudgeon bearing in,
then the gudgeon itself being slid
onto the end of the shaft. Next, the
www.oceannavigator.com
 P R E V I O U S L Y O W N E D Y A C H T S
NORDHAV N 76 ('05) NORDHAV N 62 ('07)
“Inside Passage III” is an “Obatala” is an out-
Aft Pilothouse wide-body standing vessel repre-
model with the bulbous senting an excellent
bow and cockpit extended value for anyone interest-
4 feet. This series lends ed in purchasing one of
itself very well to operation the best available luxury
by owner, or by profession- long-range passage mak-
al crew. She has all of the ers built. Symmetry is the
elegant transoceanic capa- common theme for
bility that continues to vali- “Obatala” from her dou-
date Nordhavn’s reputation ble walk around side
as the premier producer of decks surrounding the
passagemaking motory-
achts. US and Canadian saloon (making fishing
import duty have been and docking line handling
paid. Located in Washington. easier) to her two search
lights and two even sized
satellite antenna domes.
Located in Florida.

Asking $2,395,000
Asking: $3,695,000 For details contact
For details contact Andy Hegley at 772-223-
Larry Gieselman at 6331 or Adam Cultraro at
949-496-4933 949-496-4933

NORDHAV N 55 ('07) NORDHAV N 47 (' 06) NORDHAV N 47 ('05)

“Always Friday” is the “Alter Ego” is arguably, “Miss Fitz” ” offers excep-
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come on the market. She equipped Nordhavn 47 Nordhavn 47! Some equip-
is hull 21 of this line and ever built. This boat has ment includes: Trac stabi-
everything! She has lizers, air conditioning with
is extremely well been taken care of by a reverse heat, 12 KW North-
equipped. Located in full-time Captain and ern Lights generator, Lug-
Virginia crew, year round. gar wing engine, bow
Asking: $1,899,000 Located in California. thruster. Located in British
For details contact Columbia.
Asking: $1,150,000
Dave Balfour at 401-293- For details contact Asking: $775,000
0910 Jeff Merrill at Gerry Edwards at For details contact Barbara
949-355-4950 949-496-4933 Lippert at 206-223-3624

NORDHAV N 57 ('98) NORDHAV N 43 (' 05) NORDHAV N 40 ('05)

This 1998 three stateroom “Stella Maris” presents “Samba” is hull #49, well
model Nordhavn 57 has a unique opportunity to into the Nordhavn 40 II
been meticulously outfitted purchase a Nordhavn 43 series — perhaps the most
and upgraded by her pres- at a very attractive price. capable 40-foot passage-
ent owner. Kept in beauti- She has the well-proven making powerboat ever
ful condition and with over Nordhavn dry stack designed. She has the well-
3,000 miles of non-stop exhaust system and proven Nordhavn dry stack
gravity feed fuel system. exhaust system and gravity
range, “Starweather” is Located in Washington. feed fuel system. Located
ready to go! Located in in Washington.
Seattle, WA.
Asking: $805,000 Asking: $595,000
Asking $1,049,000 For details contact Don For details contact Don
For details contact
Larry Gieselman at 949-496-4933 Kohlmann at 206-223-3624 Kohlmann at 206-223-3624
A D D I T I O N A L L I S T I N G S
Nordhavn 62 (‘04) $1,100,000 GBS Nordhavn 46 (‘99) $629,000
Nordhavn 62 (‘98) $1,965,000 Nordhavn 46 (‘94) $449,000
Nordhavn 62 (‘93) $995,000 Nordhavn 43 (‘05) $799,000
Nordhavn 57 (‘04) Pending Nordhavn 43 (‘05) $849,000
Nordhavn 50 (‘04) $950,000 Nordhavn 43 (‘04) $785,000
Nordhavn 50 (‘99) $825,000 Nordhavn 40 (‘07) $639,000
Nordhavn 50 (‘99) $925,000 Nordhavn 40 (‘05) $645,000
Nordhavn 50 (‘99) $835,000 Nordhavn 40 (‘01) $449,000
Nordhavn 47 (‘06) $1,050,000 Nordhavn 35 (‘04) $459,000
Nordhavn 47 (‘04) $995,000 Nordhavn 35 (‘02) $350,000
Nordhavn 47 (‘04) $1,095,000 NZ tax included Nordhavn 35 (‘01) $389,000
Nordhavn 47 (‘04) $945,000 Nordhavn 35 (‘01) $359,000
Nordhavn 47 (‘04) $995,000 Hatteras 75 (‘88) $850,000
Nordhavn 47 (‘03) $875,000 Alden 51 (‘95) $579,000
Nordhavn 47 (‘03) $905,000 Cranchi 48 (‘03) $485,000
Nordhavn 47 (‘02) $815,000 Hatteras 42 (‘74) $128,500
Nordhavn 46 (‘03) $695,000 East Bay 38 (‘02) $359,000
Nordhavn 46 (‘00) $715,000 Chaparral 27 (‘98) $29,750
Nordhavn 46 (‘00) $685,000 440 Island Packet (‘07) $499,000

As a division of P.A.E., the developer and builder of Nordhavn trawlers, we are intimately familiar with each vessel on the market. N-ON-May09
We also have listings of other quality power and sail vessels. Please call our office nearest you. www.nordhavn.com
Nordhavn Yachts NE • 222 Narragansett Blvd. • Portsmouth, RI 02871 • Tel: (401) 293-0910 • Fax: (401) 293-0914 • nesales@nordhavn.com
Nordhavn Yachts SE • 600 NW Dixie Hwy • Stuart, FL 34994 • Tel: (772) 223-6331 • Fax: (772) 223-3631 • sesales@nordhavn.com
Nordhavn Yachts NW • 901 Fairview Ave. North, Suite A100 • Seattle, WA 98109 • Tel: (206) 223-3624 • Fax: (206) 223-3628 • nwsales@nordhavn.com
Nordhavn Yachts SW • 24703 Dana Drive • Dana Point, CA 92629 • Tel: (949) 496-4933 • Fax: (949) 496-1905 • swsales@nordhavn.com
Nordhavn Yachts Newport Beach • 151 Shipyard Way #4 • Newport Beach, CA 92663 • Tel: (949) 706-5543 • Fax: (949) 706-5548 • nbsales@nordhavn.com
Nordhavn Europe Ltd. • 10-12 Firefly Road, Hamble Point Marina • Hamble, Southampton SO31 4NB • UK • Tel: +44 (0) 2380 456342 • Fax: +44 (0) 2380 457741 • europesales@nordhavn.com
Nordhavn Australasia Ltd. • Level 30, AMP Place 10 Eagle St. • Brisbane Qld. 4000 • AUS • Tel: +61 (0)1300 783 010 • Fax: 61.7.3102 6253 • peter@nordhavn.com.au
For more brokerage listings, visit www.nordhavn.com
 VOYAGING TIPS
The semi-balanced rudder blade faired
and reattached to Freedom. Stoops found
the task was well within his abilities.
52 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
pintles were bolted to the blade
and faired. I’ve always had a hard
time getting West System epoxy to
“stick” to stainless, so for the first
layer of fairing I used Interlux’s
InterProtect Watertite epoxy, which
seems to be very tenacious. After
that, all the fairing was done with
West System epoxy, using their 410
additive to create an easily sanded
fairing surface.
8. Sanding and painting fol-
lowed, as well as the two bearings
being installed in the rudder tube.
9. Lastly, the rudder was simply
pushed back up into the boat, the
gudgeon bolted through, faired
over, and the quadrant reattached.
TA N K T E N D E R
PRACTICAL SAILOR VERDICT
“We consider it an essential
piece of safety equipment”
Includes
NEW Impeller Removal Kit
800 675 1105
Action Demo T/ F 011 44 1372 451992
www.speedseal.com
Dropping a rudder to repair it,
or any of its attendant parts and
pieces, may sound like a huge job,
but it isn’t necessarily so. Like
many do-it-yourself boat projects,
it’s a matter of thinking the
process through, and moving
ahead with (sometimes feigned!)
confidence. There’s no doubt
you’ll get to know your boat better
once you’re done. ■
Peter Stoops is the owner of Free-
dom and an owner of Chase a
Swan 40 on which he has made
multiple Atlantic crossings. Stoops
lives in Maine and runs a software
company when not sailing.
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www.oceannavigator.com MAY/JUNE 2009 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 53

 Classifieds
Sails
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54 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
Instructions/Schools
REALLY LEARN
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CELESTIAL NAVIGATION
COURSE
Introduction to Celestial Navigation
by Marion Bermuda Race &
Ocean Navigator Magazine
Sippican Women's Club
Marion, Massachusetts
May 2 -3, 2009
The 2-day Ocean Navigator celestial
seminar is a hands-on course covering
basic celestial theory, sight reduction
of sun, moon, planets, stars, and spe-
cialty sights of certain bodies, like the
noon sun sight and latitude by Polaris.
The class covers related topics such
as time and time zones, sight planning,
sextant accessories and offshore navi-
gation plotting techniques, especially
dead reckoning. Practical plotting of
each kind of sight, as well as celestial
running fixes, is covered in detail.
Sextant use is discussed during one
session, but no sights actually are
taken during the class. The emphasis is
on practical use of celestial navigation,
with plenty of pencil and paper work.
(Up to a dozen sights are reduced and
plotted during the weekend, with
numerous additional exercises.) using
H.O. 249 and H.O. 229 in conjunction
with the Nautical Almanac.
Students will find the Introduction to
Celestial Navigation seminar to be a
comprehensive, yet fast-paced, celes-
tial navigation course. Over the past
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celestial-only ocean crossings.
A review of basic navigation con-
cepts such as chart work, plotting, true
to magnetic course conversion, DR,
time/speed/distance, etc. is recom-
mended.
For those who have had no previous
exposure to the subject reading one of
the following books before the seminar
would be helpful: Celestial Navigation
in a Nutshell by Hewitt Schlereth or
The Celestial Navigation Mystery
Solved by David Owen Bell (Landfall
Navigation 203-851-3176 www.land-
fallnavigation.com).
For sextant use and care, try The
Sextant Handbook by Robert Bauer.
Students should bring to class: (1)
2008 Nautical Almanac (either blue or
orange version) (2) Volume 2 of H.O.
249, (3) parallel rules and dividers.
Optional is volume 1 of H.O. 229.
To register or for more information
contact:
Dave Jackson
Ocean Navigator
School of Seamanship
207-236-7014
fair.winds@verizon.net
www.oceannavigator.com
 WebSmart www.oceannavigator.com

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 NAV PROBLEM
Heroics from a Gloucester fisherman
A nyone familiar with the
history of the Gloucester,
Mass., fishing fleet has proba-
bly heard the name Howard
Blackburn. A heroic character,
his lifetime compassed the
great age of the fishing
schooners working off the
Grand Banks in search for hal-
ibut and the once ubiquitous
cod. Great schooners would
depart Gloucester in all
months of the year bound to
the Banks where the fishermen
would row off in two-man
dories setting long lines of bait-
ed hooks. This occupation was
fraught with danger. Winter
storms would overwhelm
them, sometimes they would
be run down by passing steam-
ers, and sometimes they’d get
separated from their ships and
be lost forever on the lonely
From A Speck on the Sea
sea. Some survived and per-
haps the greatest survival story
belongs to Howard Blackburn.
In the winter of 1883,
Above, Blackburn shipped aboard the
Gloucester fishing schooner Grace L. Fears
fisherman and bound for the Burgeo Bank off
small boat the coast of Newfoundland in
adventurer search of halibut. Along with
Howard dory mate Tom Welch, they set
Blackburn. At out from Fears to lay out the
top, the 30- long line. The following day
foot Great with the weather beginning to
Western which
deteriorate, they went out in
Blackburn
the dory to collect their gear.
sailed solo
But soon snow fell. They lost
across the
sight of the their ship and
Atlantic.
found themselves buffeted by
56 OCEAN NAVIGATOR MAY/JUNE 2009
impossibly cold, blustery
winds. For two days they
bailed and tried to find their
schooner. While bailing
Blackburn lost his mittens.
Worst of all, Welch died. Made
of sterner stuff than we can
imagine, Blackburn dipped his
hands into the ocean and froze
them into position around the
oarlocks so that he could con-
tinue rowing. It was about 60
miles to the Newfoundland
coast and he was determined to
make it there alive.
With the body of Welch in
the stern sheets, Blackburn
rowed for five days until he
made the shore. He crawled
from the dory, found a small
fishing cottage and was saved.
He lost all his fingers, except
for his thumbs, and most of his
toes. Blackburn returned to
Gloucester, gave up fishing and
opened a bar.
When gold was discovered
in Alaska, he put together a
mining company, bought a
schooner, then sailed around
Cape Horn to San Francisco.
Blackburn pushed on to Alaska
and went broke.
Instead of being beaten by
the experience, Blackburn
decided to sail single-handed
across the Atlantic. In 1899, he
had commissioned a 30-foot
gaff-rigged cutter patterned
after a local fishing boat. He
called the boat Great Western
and off he went, arriving in
BY DAVID BERSON
England 62 days later. How he
was able to handle a
gaff–rigged boat, bereft of fin-
gers is a mystery. Even more
intriguing is how he was able
to use a sextant to get sights.
In the intervening years
Blackburn undertook more
small boat adventures before
dying in Gloucester in 1932.
Let’s go aboard Great
Western. It is July 15th and we
are approaching Sable Shoals
heading east across the Atlantic
Ocean. His DR is 42° 50’ N
by 58° 30’ W. He is approach-
ing Cape Sable Island and
wants to make certain in that
fog-bound part of the ocean
that he doesn’t get into the
shoals that surround the area.
His height of eye — Blackburn
was a big man — is nine feet
above the water. He gets a
glimpse of the sun at 1306. At
1606:15 he takes a lower limb
shot of the sun with an Hs of
68° 34.3’.
A. What is the Ho?
B. What is the intercept?
C. What is the estimated
position (EP)?
For a complete solution,
visit www.OceanNavigator.com.
Answers
32’ W
C: EP is 42° 36’ N by 58°
Toward
B: Intercept is 25 nm
A: Ho is 68° 46.9’
www.oceannavigator.com
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