Ocean Navigator 174 2008.11-12

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Super accurate GPS H Talking gensets
November/December 2008
Issue No. 174
$4.99 U.S. $4.99 Canada
www.OceanNavigator.com
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Nordhavn Seaworthiness
With her stability, safety and comfort, my Nordhavn

is better than most boats almost twice her size.
Nordhavn 64 owner Richard Ackerman
Nordhavn 64 Medallion lies ready for the next destination. A long-time boater, Richard Ackerman has logged over 250,000 miles on both sailboats and
powerboats. After owning a number of different boats, Ackerman is a Nordhavn devotee, thanks to the overall quality and "outstanding customer support."
Nordhavn designs for speedy, safe
journeys in all waters. It's easy to
imply that bigger engines will get you to
your destination faster. But experienced,
passagemaking sailors know better.
Nordhavns are designed for optimum seaworthiness, in other words, safety and
comfort are not sacrificed for speed. Yet
with its superior design, a Nordhavn can
often reach a destination hours or even
days ahead of a larger, more powerful boat.
Just ask Nordhavn 64 owner Richard
Ackerman. "My Nordhavn is truly a small
ship," says Richard. "She performs unbelievably. Now I saw a really beautiful, 105'
boat come limping into port after getting
battered by seas - the same seas we had
just crossed without incident. This boat,
40II
43
47
52
made by a well-respected builder, had sustained life-threatening damage because

since it was built with big twin engines to
go 15, 20 knots, as a function of that
design, it had smaller rudders. It was
much bigger than my Nordhavn, but its
rudder was one-quarter the size. So when
they tried to go fast in somewhat rough
seas, the boat started to pound. If they
went slow, they couldn't steer the boat and
the boat would broach. It was, as I was told
later, a very harrowing experience for the
professional crew."
Nordhavn also designs for
comfort, and Richard was able to take
this aspect of his Nordhavn one step further.
"My Nordhavn has a very large, elegant
interior and it gives me the opportunity to
55 56MS
60
62
64
68
72
decorate exactly the way my wife and I

enjoy. I like crystal. We have crystal vases,
crystal glassware, crystal everywhere.
When we head out, the crew puts everything
away. But I felt that my Nordhavn was very
stable, so I had the crew leave the crystal
out. We went 1,000 miles this summer,
across to Maine and back, and not one vase
moved, not in 20 knots, not in 30 knots."
Nordhavn seaworthiness is quickly becoming
the standard by which all other passagemakers,
offshore and coastal, are judged. See for your
self how Nordhavn can make your journeys
safe, comfortable and luxuriously relaxing.
Call Nordhavn today at (949) 496-4848 or
visit www.nordhavn.com
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
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Your journey is the motivation behind

every detail shaped and fitted by our
master craftsmen.
Every member of our team takes
personal pride in helping further the
Pacific Seacraft legend.
Sail Pacific Seacraft. Call us or visit
our website to discover which of these
elegant yachts is the perfect fit for you.
1.252.948.1421
w w w. p a c i f i c s e a c r a f t . c o m
Salvador Hernandez, Master Carpenter

29 years shaping blue water dreams
Making the Journey

photography by Bill Kund
9/30/08
1:14 PM
Page 2
Contents
Departments
Chartroom Chatter
6
Transpacific row
German couple completes second Nordhavn

circumnavigation
SSCA Down East Gam
Local pollution and climate change
10 Morris 29 announced
10 Amelia Earhart search continues
11 Hybrid to use diesel and sun
21
12 Notable New Books
Marine Tech Notes
10
13 Throwback to the future

by Tim Queeney
Power Voyaging
16 Talking gensets
by Chuck Husick
Correspondence
24
21 Voyaging under the midnight sun

24 Cell phones at sea
27 Crew finding on the Internet
Voyaging Tips
57 A practical mast boot
by Ann Hoffner
Nav Problem
64 Storm tactics innovator
by David Berson
12
For bonus materials, check out the

current issue at www.OceanNavigator.com.
9/30/08
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Page 3
28
OCEAN
NAVIGATOR
MAR I N E NAVIGATION AN D OCEAN VOYAG I NG
Issue #174
November/December 2008
Features
33
Ocean Voyaging
28 Sea of the Moon
Island-hopping under sail in
French Polynesia
45
by Alan Littell
33 Small cruising cat on a

big ocean
Voyagers Carllie and Garett
Hennigan and their experience
of deploying a sea anchor in
the Pacific between Mexico
and Hawaii
by Carllie and Garett Hennigan
57
38
Networking
38 Battle of the networks
Voyagers have rallied to the plug
and play revolution
by Ralph Naranjo
45 Handheld wireless
networking
Networking goes mobile
by Chuck Husick
50 Assuming nothing
The unfortunate mislabeling of a
key element of celestial navigation
has long confused beginners
by John Karl
On the cover: While climbing the mast to conduct a rig
check of the 43-foot Bahati, Josh Warren-White
snapped this shot of the cutter at anchor in the Tabago Cays in the Grenadines. Josh Warren-White photo.
50
64
9/30/08
1:15 PM
Page 4
CONTRIBUTORS
OCEAN
NAVIGATOR
MAR I N E NAVIGATION AN D OCEAN VOYAG I NG
Alan Littell (Ocean Voyaging, Sea of the Moon, Page 28) is

a journalist, novelist and former merchant mariner
who in recent years has made extended voyages in
commercial sailing vessels. He is a nationally distributed travel journalist with credits that include
The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The
Chicago Tribune and Travel & Leisure magazine
and he is a longtime contributor to Ocean Navigator.
He is the brother and uncle respectively of novelists
Robert and Jonathan Littell. Littells new book,
Courage, a novel of the sea, is scheduled for December 2008 publication in hardcover by Thomas
Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press.
Carllie Hennigan (Ocean Voyaging, Small cruising cat on a
big ocean, Page 33) and her husband Garett Hennigan
hail from Vancouver, British Columbia, where they first
go the bug for multihull voyaging. In 1999 they
launched their 32-foot Richard Woods-designed Gypsy
catamaran, Light Wave. For the next seven years they
sailed and modified Light Wave, adding an arch and
hardtop, a catwalk and a bowsprit with a free-flying
screecher, and reinforcing and upgrading the boat in
many other ways to prepare it for offshore sailing. In
2006 they departed Vancouver for a two-year adventure
to Mexico and Hawaii, returning to Vancouver where
they are currently readying for further voyaging exploits.
ALL DEPARTMENTS: 207-772-2466

FAX: 207-772-2879
www.OceanNavigator.com
EDITORIAL
Editors@OceanNavigator.com
EDITOR Tim Queeney
COPY EDITOR Larissa Dillman
ART DIRECTOR
Kim Goulet Norton
ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Susan Sargent

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Scott Bannerot
Twain Braden
John Snyder
Nigel Calder
Steve C. DAntonio
Eric Forsyth
Chuck Husick
Jeff & Raine Williams
David Berson
ADVERTISING/MARKETING
Advert@OceanNavigator.com
WEST COAST/CANADA
INTERNATIONAL Susan W. Hadlock
MIDWEST / GULF / FLORIDA Bruce Cole
EAST COAST
MARKETING MANAGER
Charlie Humphries
Matt Geoffroy
PUBLISHER/
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Alex Agnew
BUSINESS / CIRCULATION
BUSINESS MANAGER
Doreen Parlin
CIRCULATION ASSISTANT/
EVENTS COORDINATOR Sarah Grimm
RETAIL PARTNERSHIP Josh Roberson
FINANCE/PARTNER Michael Payson
WEB SITE
arobinson@navigatorpublishing.com
John Karl (Assuming nothing, Page 50) has a Ph.D. in

theoretical physics from the University of Wisconsin, and is retired from teaching and directing
physics research at UW. He is also an oil painter and
a commercial pilot. After years of racing, he now
cruises and makes boat deliveries. He taught himself
celestial navigation while a student MIT. He has
taught celestial navigation workshops at the University of Wisconsin, aboard the tall ship S/V Denis
Sullivan, and for Offshore Sailing School. He is the
author of Celestial Navigation in the GPS Age, and
Latitude and Longitude from the Noon Sun. He has
also created a PowerPoint presentation called Celestial Navigation Made Easy accompanied by comprehensive course manuals.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
oceannavigator@pcspublink.com
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ISSN 0886-0149
Ocean Navigator is published in January, March, May, July, September, October
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
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Copyright 2008 by Navigator Publishing LLC. All rights reserved. No part of
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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES BY THE LANE PRESS
4 OCEAN NAVIGATOR
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008
www.oceannavigator.com
9/30/08
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Page 5
9/30/08
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Page 6
Chatter
Chartroom
BY JOHN SNYDER
Savage is no newcomer
to ocean rowing. In
2005-06 she rowed
across the Atlantic, mak-
Courtesy Roz Savage
row and was rescued by

the U.S. Coast Guard.
Weather considerations
prevented her from relaunching that year.
Her boat, Brocade, is
named for her lead
sponsor, Brocade Communications Systems of
San Jose, Calif. The 23foot-long, 6-foot-wide
carbon fiber boat was
originally built by
Woodvale-Events for
Simon Chalk, ocean
rower and founder of
the company that sponsors the Atlantic Ocean
Challange. Dolphin
Quay Boatyard, of
Emsworth, U.K., fit out
the boat for Savage.
Through her voyages
Savage hopes to raise
awareness of environmental issues, especially those
facing the worlds oceans.
As a writer and motivational speaker, she works to
inspire others to rise to
their own challenges big
or small. Savages blog
from the voyage along with
real-time route tracking
can be found on her web
site www.rozsavage.com.
ing history as the only

solo female competitor in
Atlantic Rowing Race
Transpacific row the
from the Canary Islands
to Antigua. In the race
BRITISH ROWER ROZ SAVAGE
ARRIVED SAFELY IN HAWAII ON
she covered a distance of
September 1, having
2,935 nm in 103 days.
completed the first leg of
Despite the harsh cona three-year, three-leg
ditions and equipment
ocean row across the
failures she encountered
Pacific to Australia. Savin the Atlantic, Savage
age set off from San Fran- quickly set her sights on a
cisco in her 23-foot rownew goal of being the
ing boat, Brocade, on May first woman to row from
24, 2008. She arrived in
the U.S. to Australia. Her
Honolulu after 99 days, 8 first attempt to cross the
hours, 55 minutes and a
Pacific in 2007 failed 10
distance of nearly 2,600
days into the voyage
nautical miles. When she when her boat capsized
finally reaches Australia
several times in one day
she will have covered
after losing its sea anchor.
7,600 nm of open ocean. She decided to abort the
Courtesy Roz Savage
<<
British ocean rower

Roz Savage hopes to
become the first
woman to row alone
across the entire
Pacific Ocean from
the U.S. to Australia.
She successfully
completed the first
leg of her row arriving in Honolulu after
99 days at sea.
Inset : Savage's boat
Brocade in San
Francisco before
departure.
6 OCEAN NAVIGATOR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008
9/30/08
1:17 PM
<<
Page 7
Circumnavigators
Wolfgang and Heidi
Hass have set a new
record for powerboat
<<
circumnavigations.
Kanaloa, the Hass'
46 foot Nordhavn
trawler at anchor in
the South Pacific.
Courtesy P.A.E. Nordhavn Yachts
A GERMAN COUPLE, WOLFGANG

AND HEIDI HASS, RECENTLY COMpleted their second circumnavigation aboard Kanaloa,
a 46-foot Nordhavn trawler
built in 1995. Completion
of the second voyage (which
began in California in
2003) establishes a new
record for the first twin circumnavigation aboard a
production powerboat.
Named for a great Hawaiian deity, their Nordhavn
46 logged almost 5,000
engine hours and about
33,500 miles during the last
five years.
Kanaloas Lugger engine,
well designed systems and
rugged hull all stood up well
to the rigorous ocean voyaging. The only breakdown
that the couple encountered
came when the boats star-
Courtesy P.A.E. Nordhavn Yachts
board paravane boom

broke, off the coast of
Mozambique. After some
jury repairs the boom held
up, seeing the couple all the
way to South Africa. Now,
safely back in Dana Point,
Calif., (coincidentally where
P.A.E. Nordhavn is headquartered) the couple plans
to spend several months laying over while Kanaloa
receives maintenance and is
readied for their next adventure. After revisiting the
South Pacific the Hasss
hope to continue on to
Shanghai, China and visit
single-handed sailor Zhai
Mo, whom they befriended
during their voyaging.
A successful circumnavigation is a respectable
accomplishment for any
sailor, and two in a row is
awe-inspiring, but the
Hasss most recent voyage
actually represents their
third global orbit the
first was completed aboard
a 38-foot Van Dam sailboat
that they owned prior to
the Nordhavn.
Marten 49, Francolini / Azzura Marine Photo
WINCHES
German couple completes

second circumnavigation
SELF-TAILING WINCHES
Self-tailing winches free your
tailing hand and allow a
single person to trim
or raise the sails. Either
manage light loads with one
hand, or use both hands to
deliver more power to a
Speedgrip handle.
POWERED WINCHES
The touch of a button allows you to sit back

while a powered Harken winch does all the work.
Upgrading to powered winches lets you
perform high-load jobs effortlessly
and sail larger boats shorthanded. In
marginal conditions a single electric winch

can make the difference between
sailing and motoring.
ELECTRIC WINCH
CONVERSION
Harken winches made
after 1999 can
be converted to
electric power
(size 44 and up).
1251 E. Wisconsin Ave., Pewaukee, WI 53072, Tel: 262-691-3320

Fax: 262-691-3008, Email: harken@harken.com, Web: www.harken.com
9/30/08
1:18 PM
Page 8
Chatter
Chartroom
OPTMIZED FOR
ENGINES UP TO
75 HP
A whole new perspective

in performance!
Imagine if you could obtain a feathering propeller for
your sailing yacht that is more advantageous than all
others available so far, without compromising our highest quality standards. Get to know the new Variprofile.
For more information, visit www.variprofile.com.
Courtesy Dick de Grasse
SSCA Down
East Gam
Thomaston, Maine | 207-354-7064
info@varipropusa.com | www.variprofile.com
WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO?

Maretron can get you there using less fuel. We
monitor fuel rate and report fuel economy so
you can set engine RPM for the best fuel burning
efficiency. And, we monitor tank levels to provide
distance and time until empty so you have less
to worry about. So get out your destination list
and head off to sights unseen.
866.550.9100
<<
To find out more about all of Maretrons vessel

monitoring products, visit us at www.maretron.com
THE 18TH ANNUAL DOWN EAST

SSCA (SEVEN SEAS CRUISING
Association) Gam was
held August 1-2, 2008, at
the cottage of Dick and
Kathy de Grasse, in Islesboro, Maine. The Gam
was co-hosted by Alex
and Diane Allmayer-Beck
with the help of many
other sailors anchored in
the harbor.
The weather cooperated; morning fog cleared by
mid morning on both Friday and Saturday. The Friday afternoon dinghy raft
up was a big success. Nearly all the dinghies from the
62 boats anchored in the
harbor were tied behind
the Allmayer-Becks Ariel
III. New friendships were
established as hors doeuvres were passed around.
The fog lifted by Gam
time on Saturday. There
were a total of 72 boats
registered for the Gam: 62
boats at anchor, eight boats

whose sailors came by ferry
(their boats were elsewhere) and four visitors
from the island including
the Islesboro harbor master. There were 150 sailors
on the front lawn: 68
SSCA Associates, 34 SSCA
Commodores and 48 nonmembers. Two of the
attendees were SSCA circumnavigators. Two new
members were recruited.
Attendees were introduced
by Diane Allmayer-Beck,
and Mike Arbo. Saturday
featured a delicious
potluck lunch followed by
presentations about Maine
Maritime Academy programs, highlights about
boat insurance, duties transiting the Panama Canal
and circumnavigating.
Dick and Kathy de Grasse,
S/V Endeavour
Dick de Grasse at the

center of the SSCA raft
up at Islesboro, Maine.
9/30/08
1:18 PM
Page 9
Local pollution and climate change

<<
According to a
recent report
issued by
NOAA, local
short-lived
environmental
pollutants are
having a
greater impact
on global pollution than scientists previously thought.
NOAA
A RECENT REPORT RELEASED BY

THE NATIONAL OCEANIC AND
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) suggests that

localized pollution in the
form of particulate matter
such as soot, nitrates, sulfates and short-lived gases
such as low-level ozone
may be having a greater
effect on climate change
than previously thought.
The findings, released as
part of a series of Synthesis
and Assessment Reports

coordinated by the U.S.
Climate Change Science
Program (CCSP) suggest
that while these short-lived
pollutants are generated
locally, their consequences
may have global impacts.
Each type of pollutant
effects surface temperatures
differently. Some reflect
sunlight as is the case with
sulfate particles, while the
black carbon found in soot
particles absorbed heat.

By 2050, projected
changes in short-lived pollutant concentrations in
two of the three studies are
responsible for approximately 20 percent of the
simulated global-mean
annual average warming.
By 2100, changes in the
levels of short-lived gases
and particles could account
for a significant portion of
the predicted warming, due
to a projected increase in
black carbon and ozone
and a decrease in sulfate,
said Drew Shindell, Ph.D.,
climate scientist at NASAs
Goddard Institute for
Space Studies in New York
and co-author of the new
CCSP report.
According to Alice
Gilliland, Ph.D., a lead
author of the new CCSP
report and previously a
physical scientist with
NOAAs Air Resources
Laboratory, This report
finds that reducing black
carbon emissions in the
domestic energy/power sector in Asia appears to offer
the greatest potential for
substantial, simultaneous
improvements in local air
quality and global climate.
Reduction in emissions
from ground transportation in North America
could have similar beneficial impacts. To assess
potential impacts of air
quality management
actions on future climate,
current decision-making
tools must be extended to
consider local and global
scales concurrently. There
is a critical need for integrated decision-making
with respect to air quality
and climate mitigation,
Gilliland said.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 9
9/30/08
1:18 PM
Page 10
Chatter
Chartroom
Morris 29 announced
MORRIS YACHTS OF BASS HARBOR, MAINE, HAS INTRODUCED A
Courtesy TIGHAR
THE INTERNATIONAL GROUP FOR

HISTORIC AIRCRAFT RECOVERY
(TIGHAR) is seeking
information on pre-World
War II Brandis sextants as
part of their research into
the disappearance of
Amelia Earhart and her
navigator Fred Noonan on
July 2, 1937. Brandis and
Sons Manufacturing Com-
Courtesy TIGHAR
<<
new day sailor to their MSeries line. Joining the

Sparkman & Stephens
designed M36, M42 and
M52 is the new M29
scheduled for launch in
February 2009.
The new boat is
designed for short and
single-handed sailing. It
will have the same classic
looks and performance
that come to define the
M-Series boats. Unlike
the rest of the M-Series,
the M29 features classic
tiller steering. With an 8foot beam, light carbon
fiber spars (the mast
weights just 75 lbs) and a
weight of 6,875 lbs., this
Morris is trailerable.
The entire package is
designed for transport
and can easily fit in a
high volume shipping
container, including trailer and rig. Its portability
opens up a whole new
world of sailing options
near home or around
the globe.
The boats design
stresses simplicity a
small cabin features fulllength settees, a head, a
cooler and forepeak storage. All of the lines are led
to the cockpit and a

clever spinnaker launching system developed by
Cuyler Morris makes single sailor spinnaker
launching possible. For
auxiliary power there is
even a 14 hp Yamar diesel
saildrive, and like all
Morris yachts the fit and
finish is extraordinary.
Morris believes that the
new boat even has the
potential for a one-design
class. But one thing is for
sure, this addition to the
M-Series is sure to become
one of yachtings newest
objects of desire and a
classic in its own right.
Sextant box to aid Earhart search?
A sextant case and its serial number may hold clues to the
mystery of Amelia Earhart's last flight. She and navigator Fred
Noonan (above) went missing in 1937 in the South Pacific.
pany, Brooklyn, N.Y.,

made the instruments.
The group is endeavoring to identify a sextant
box that was discovered
while conducting excavations at a site on the island
of Nikumaroro. The sextant box bore the stenciled
number 3,500 as well as
the number 1,542 which
had been painted over.
TIGHAR is also interested
in modifications made to
the original sextant cases to
accommodate Brandis
marine sextants that were
modified with bubbles for
aviation use. Also discovered during the excavation
was a replacement Cats
Paw heel for a womans
shoe and a brass shoelace
eyelet artifacts consistent with the type of shoe
Earhart wore on her flight.
TIGHAR is compiling
a database relating the
Brandis serial number to
U.S. Navy serial numbers
and U.S. Naval Observatory Certificates of inspection.
All inquires should be
directed to James Thompson, Select GIS Services,
P.O. Box 395, Northampton, Mass., 01061-0365 or
e-mail brandis@selectGIS-services.com.
9/30/08
2:29 PM
Page 11
Courtesy Island Pilot, LLC
ISLAND PILOT, LLC OF MIAMI,

FLA., BUILDER OF THE ISLAND
Pilot 435 Crossover
Trawler plans to introduce
a new breed of cruiser this
year. The company, which
builds its boats at Uni
Shine Marine in Zhuhai,
China, has dubbed the
new boat the Pilot DSe
Hybrid 12m (39 in
length). As a true hybrid,
the motoryacht will
incorporate solar and
diesel electric power and
is built around a twin-hull
structure for stability and
to maximize living area as
well as to provide space
for the solar panel
arrays.
The new yacht was
designed in conjunction
with naval architect
George Petrie and can
travel at 7 knots in the
zero emissions mode
and/or up to 13 knots
under diesel power. A 6
kW solar array and a 20
kW-hour battery bank
<<
Hybrid to use
diesel and sun
Sleek torpedo-like
catamaran hulls give
the new hybrid yacht a
speed and stability
advantage over monohull design.
eliminate any need for

generator at anchor. In
addition to being economical, the DSe Hybrid
12m will also feature
many of the amenities
found on conventional
motoryachts such as a
large, well appointed galley and spacious accommodations.
According to Reuben
Trane, president of Island
Pilot, At a time with
record high oil prices, we
are bringing to market a
product that will dramatically reduce the most visible expense of a recreational motorboat the
cost of diesel.
The company plans to
introduce the boat at the
2008 Fort Lauderdale
Boat Show in Florida. For
more information visit
www.dsehybrid.com.
SHORE POWER
CANT HANDLE
EVERYTHING
AT ONCE.
Plug into shore power. Turn on the A/C, the coffee
maker, the water heater, and CLICK the shore
fuse blows! But with a Phoenix MultiPlus you
can draw more current than your shore
connection can provide! The battery compensates
for insufficient shore power. Excess current is used
to recharge. And parallel operation of two or more
units lets you meet even
the greatest power
demand. For more
information on Victron
Energy products,
including our FREE book,
Energy Unlimited, visit
www.victronenergy.com.
Thomaston, Maine | 207-354-0493

www.victronenergy.com
9/30/08
1:20 PM
Page 12
Chatter
Chartroom
Notable New Books

Living a Dream
A Journey from Aide to the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff on 9/11 to Full-time Cruiser
By Suzanne Giesemann
Paradise Cay Publications, 2008
281 pages
Suzanne Giesemanns
new memoir is truly
about the journey and
not the destination. This
very personal narrative
follows Suzanne and her
husband Ty as they
embark major career and
lifestyle changes, ultimately morphing into
full-time cruisers. Giesemann, a former aide to
the Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff on
9/11, and her husband,
a former defense analyst,
systematically put their
land-based affairs in
order to live aboard fulltime and pursue their
lifelong dream of voyag-
ing but it
was not as simple as sailing
off into the sunset. The
challenges that they face
are not only those that
come from the sea, they
are also the economic and
emotional consequences of
their decisions. In the end,
the answers come from the
heart.
Their journey will
touch anyone who has
taken the time and had
the courage to re-examine
their lives and careers to
live their dream.
FROM RUNNING FIX, THE ON BLOG

Be sure to stop by Running Fix, our Ocean
Navigator blog. Heres
an excerpt from a recent
post on lightning: The
MP3 player was fried
when lightning struck us

during our Bermuda crossing in June. I was at the
helm at the time, though
the player wasn't on.
Oddly enough, it still
Float Your Boat!:

The Evolution and Science of Sailing
By Mark Denny
The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008
257 pages
Sailor and physicist

Mark Denny traces sailings roots as he
explains the science of
sailing in language that
is clear to anyone.
With a bit of humor
and easy to understand examples, he
demystifies the
process of sailing and
answers such questions
as: What were the key
innovations that made
sailboats more efficient?
How do sailboats travel
into the wind? How do
you increase boat speed?
Building on the history of sailing, the subsequent chapters are a
bit more technical in
nature dealing with
Running Fix
OCEAN NAVIGATOR BLOG
works! Only problem is I

can't read the screen. For
more, visit the blog at
www.oceannaviga
tor.com/blog.
such specifics as fore

and aft motion, torque,
vortices and lift.
Detailed explanations
get to the core of the
matter and if math is
used to illustrate a
point, the reader can
easily read around it
without missing the
plot. Notes, appendix
and a good glossary are
there for those who may
want to dive deeper.
But regardless of how
deeply you want to
explore the science,
Dennys book is an
entertaining read for
any sailor, or any armchair physicist for
that matter.
13_20_ON174_TECH_POWR.qxd
9/30/08
1:22 PM
Page 13
MARINE TECH NOTES
Throwback to the future
ne look at the new

IstarGPS HSM-104
GPS receiver from Farallon
Electronics can evoke memories of 1987. Back to a
time when a GPS receiver
was the size of a microwave
and had only one channel
for listening to the signals
from GPS satellites.
Not that the HSM-104 is
old technology. In fact, it is
just the opposite, this is a cutting-edge GPS devised by a
group of West Coast sailboat
racers and technology experts
who wanted to come up with
the ultimate high-performance GPS. The HSM-104 has
more sophisticated signal-processing technology and networking capability than that
found on most GPS units sold
to recreational mariners.
The look and feel of the
product, however, is drastically different from the sleek,
miniaturized GPS units now
offered by the top marine
electronics companies. The
HSM-104 has a geeky, grad
student vibe that recalls the
early days of GPS, when the
biggest issues where 1) how
many channels a unit had
(most had only one, dual
channel units were a big
deal) and 2) finding room at

the nav station for a big
marine electronic.
By the mid 90s,
GPS receivers had
multiple channels
and had slimmed
down to the point
that they easily fit in
the nav station. But it
is very much the black
box form of the HSM-104
that explains its high-end
performance. It is equipped
with a sensitive 16-channel
GPS engine made by the
chip company Atmel, which
supplies single and dual-chip
GPS engines for a variety of
applications. This Atmel
GPS engine is noted for its
sensitivity. According to Farallon, the unit can grab GPS
signals at -158dBml; a level
that Farallon claims is roughly 10 times better than the
HSM-104s competitors.
And the HSM-104 has
impressive networking capabilities, with four independently configuable NMEA
output ports that can drive up
to 12 devices at baud rates up
to 38,400. The unit can also
send NMEA data via Ethernet User Datagram Protocol
(UDP, a transport protocol
BY TIM QUEENEY
for
short
ics
tron
Elec
data mesllon
Fara
y
s
e
rt
Cou
sages that uses
less handshaking and error
correction than Transmission
Devised by a
Control Protocol, commonly
group of techused for Internet data comnologists and
munications). This allows
racing navigaIstar GPS data to be sent via
tors, the Istar
Ethernet to a PC without
GPS is a highly
the need for a USB or serial
accurate unit
port connection.
that can deterAnother area where the
mine speed
HSM-104 is reminiscent of
and course
1987 is its use of MotionSense
over the
technology. This is a sophistiground with
cated feature that produces
nearly instannearly instantaneous velocity
taneous
and course data. In fact,
results.
MotionSense is so high end
that it has generally been used
only in expensive survey-quality and military GPS units.
9/30/08
1:22 PM
Page 14
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If MotionSense is that good, how

is it anything like 1987? The answer
lies in the technique used. MotionSense looks at the Doppler shift of
the GPS carrier frequency as it
arrives at the receiver from each
satellite. Doppler shift, of course, is
the frequency shift imparted on the
transmissions from an object that is
moving relative to you whether
those transmissions consist of
sound, radio waves or light. The
received frequency is shifted higher
as the object approaches and then
lower as it recedes. The Doppler
shift of radio waves was the primary
technique employed in a radionavigation system widely used in 1987:
The Navys Transit system (popularly referred to as SatNav). A Transit
receiver tracked the signal from a
polar orbit satellite as it passed. By
sensing the Doppler shift of the signal and given the knowledge of the
satellites orbit (broadcast by each
satellite), the receiver could determine its position.
Somewhat like Transit, MotionSense technology uses the Doppler
shift of GPS signals to determine
changes in the velocity of your vessel. One advantage to this method
is that it is extremely fast and it
provides an instantaneous reading.
Most recreational GPS units determine speed over the ground
(SOG) and course over the ground
(COG) by determining a series of
positions and then averaging them
over time, much the same way a
loran receiver used to determine
vessel speed. According to Farallon, the HSM-104s MotionSense
COG/SOG is precise to 0.1 knot
and responds within one second.
The team behind the IstarGPS

HSM-104 includes Eric Steinberg,
Stan Honey, Matt Wachowicz and
Mark Rudiger. Steinberg has a
marine electronics background and
is a principle of Farallon Electronics
which is the U.S. importer for
the Pactor brand of HF radio
modems made by the German company SCS. Honey, Wachowicz and
Rudiger are all experienced sailboat
racing navigators. Honey is an electrical engineer who has been associated with a number of Silicon Valley
start-ups, such as Etak, an early car
navigation effort, and Sportvision,
the company that improves television sports with digital enhancements like the yellow first down line
used in football broadcasts.
According to Steinberg, he and
Honey, Wachowicz and Rudiger
have talked about putting together a
high-end GPS. This years Bermuda
Race prompted them to action.
Weve known for a while there are
chipsets available that can do better
course over ground and speed over
ground, said Steinberg. We wanted something that would allow a
navigator to look at Gulf Stream
current with more instantaneous
results. And if you can determine
Gulf Stream currents, then you can
determine the effect of just about
any current highly useful data
when racing.
If you want the ultimate GPS for
sailboat racing, the HSM-104 is for
you. Just be prepared to spend a bit
more than for a handheld Garmin.
The price for the basic version of the
HSM-104 is $1,895. Farallon
expects to ship units before the end
of the year.
9/30/08
1:22 PM
Page 15
NORDHAVN 55
Every day is another adventure. You may not know it,
but you should be here too-lifes too short to miss such experiences!
Nordhavn 55 Owners Buddy & Kathy Bethea
The Nordhavn 55 Always Friday in Glacier Bay, Alaska. One Year, 14,000 Miles, Alaska, Panama, Caribbean. One Adventure Down, Many More To Go
uddy and Kathy Bethea live by the

credo that regrets are unacceptable.
When they decided to step up their 35-year
boating career with an expedition yacht they
invoked the inspiring words of Americas
favorite wanderlust, Mark Twain:Twenty
years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you did not do,
than by the ones that you did do...
Explore! Dream! Discover!
Finding The Right Boat A year-long

maiden voyage with stops in Alaska,
California, Mexico, Central America,
Panama, the Caribbean, Florida and eventually Virginia Beach might have seemed
daunting for a lesser boat, but Buddy and
Kathys Nordhavn 55, Always Friday, was
more than up for the challenge. Kathy
and I spent a lot of time at boat shows
looking for our first expedition yacht, and
it quickly became apparent that Nordhavn
was head-and-shoulders above the rest,
Buddy said. Now, after being on her for
more than a year and 14,000 miles, I
know thats true. There could not be a
40II
43
47
52
better boat for what we did than our

Nordhavn the adventure would have
been impossible without her.
Likes to Fish After routinely releasing
75-pound halibut back into the water in
the northwest and deftly backing down on
marlin in southern waters, Buddy and
Kathy quickly learned the Nordhavn 55
likes to fish. We had four rod holders
mounted in the transom, outrigger clips
rigged to the railings and a teaser rig run
from the centerline cleat, Buddy said. It
was a very impressive presentation of
world-class lures. Always Friday rolled
victoriously through some of the greatest
sport-fishing waters in the world, and no
Viking, Hatteras, Rybovich or Merritt was
laughing at our full freezers and seven marlin release flags!
Foul Weather Fighter The first leg of
the voyage included a springtime run to
Canada with wind, waves, swells and currents head-on every inch of the way. The
seas were reported at 15 feet with frequent
55 56MS
60 62
64
68
72
20-footers, and we watched many break

over the bridge windows as swells went by
well above our heads more than 20 feet
above the waterline, Buddy said. We sat
in amazement as the boat pitched into the
seas, but essentially did not roll thanks to
the stabilizers, which were an almost magical contribution to the adventure. We
remained comfortable, cozy and safe on
the bridge while Always Friday trudged
on, generating growing confidence that
this boat is amazing in heavy seas.
On the Horizon So whats next for
Buddy, Kathy and crew? There are thousands of miles of open ocean and many
new adventures in front of us, Buddy said,
and Always Friday churns on! Visit
www.alwaysfriday55.com for more information about Buddys voyage.
To begin your own adventure, call, click or
fax Nordhavn today. (949) 496-4848 or
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9/30/08
1:23 PM
Page 16
POWER VOYAGING
Talking gensets
accompany the
starting of induction motors in air
conditioning
compressors.
The benefits of
applying computer technology to
genset design is
also evident in the
new, and substantially improved,
supervisory moniCourtesy Westerbeke
toring and control
reliable supply of comsystems such as Westerbekes
mercial-line quality AC
D-NET. Operating with
power has become a necessieither Westerbekes proprity of onboard life for many
etary Westerlink databus syspower voyagers. Fortunately,
tem and displays, or using
recent improvements in
the NMEA 2000 databus
genset design are making it
and compatible Westerbeke,
easier to meet this need.
or other comprehensive disComputer-controlled
play modules, the system
engines are replacing the traprovides the boat owner with
ditional mechanical speed
an enhanced level of assurcontrol governors, ensuring
ance of genset operation and
accurate frequency control.
the ability to efficiently anaQuiet and fuel-efficient
lyze and correct problems.
common rail diesels are
Todays typical power
gaining popularity in highcruiser is equipped with
er-powered units. Engine
both a low voltage (usually
speed control and alternator
12 volt) DC electrical sysexcitation supplied by
tem and an onboard source
microprocessors ensure preof AC electrical power. The
cise maintenance of AC freAC power may be supplied
quency and voltage and
from the boats battery bank
improve the gensets ability
via a DC/AC inverter or an
to deal with load surges that
engine-driven AC power
A
Just as diesel
propulsion
engines have
acquired electronic components for monitoring and control, so have
gensets. Above,
a genset from
Westerbeke is
equipped with
Westerbekes
D-NET networking standard, or an
optional NMEA
2000 package.
BY CHUCK HUSICK
alternator (a genset). The
choice of inverter or genset
is usually determined by the
magnitude of the peak AC
power load and the length of
time the AC loads must be
powered; inverters can supply in excess of 7 kW of AC
power. However, the cost
and size of the battery bank
necessary to provide this
much power for more than a
relatively short time will
usually lead to the installation of a genset. Boats
equipped with electric galleys and air conditioners
larger than about 5,000
BTU will almost invariably
carry a genset.
Matching needs
A successful genset installation requires matching
power output to the vessels
AC loads, selecting a model
whose voltage and frequency
stability will closely match
the power supplied by a
high-quality shore power
connection and ensuring a
proper installation. Most
often the unit selected will
burn the same fuel as the
boats main engine,
although some gasoline-propelled boat owners have
elected to install diesel sets
9/30/08
1:23 PM
to gain the advantage of low to no

carbon monoxide emissions. (All
of the major genset manufacturers
now offer gasoline-fueled gensets
equipped with computer controlled engines and catalytic converters to produce exhaust that is
virtually free of CO).
The next and critical step is to
select the size or power rating of
the genset. It may seem desirable
to install a unit whose maximum
power output is equal to the total
rating of the shore power system,
for example a 12 kW genset for a
boat equipped with a 240V, 50amp shore power system. However, unless you operate your boat in
the tropics and run all of the air
conditioning equipment continuously, a 12 kW genset will be seriously under-loaded much of the
time. Genset engines perform best
when powering loads equal to at
least 25 percent of maximum
capacity; long-term operation at
very low load levels is fuel inefficient and can decrease engine life.
Many boat owners install inverters
to provide the AC power required
to operate appliances such as
microwave ovens for short periods
of time, eliminating the need to
run the genset at a minimal load
for five to 10 minutes.
Proper installation of the genset
is critical to its ability to provide
the sought-after AC power equilibrium. Gensets, like children in
Victorian homes, are most welcome when they are neither seen
nor heard. For this reason they are
usually installed in the engine
room (which in all but a large vessel may be a cramped place, offerwww.oceannavigator.com
Page 17
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9/30/08
1:23 PM
Page 18
POWER VOYAGING
ing only limited access to the

genset). All gensets require a flow
of air sufficient for the combustion
needs of the driving engine and to
remove radiated heat from the
engine and alternator. The manufacturers installation instructions
will provide a guide to the minimum required air-flow.
Most gensets are housed in a
sound shield, which is also a visibility shield. Once installed, the
genset can become a prime example of out of sight, out of mind.
Although todays genset engines
are very reliable, things can still
go wrong, including faults such
as a water or oil leak not bad
enough to cause a shut-down,

but if left unchecked can lead to
a significant mess and possibly
significant damage.
Monitoring inside the sound
shield
Lack of easy access causes the captains (who are used to regularly
inspecting their propulsion
engines when underway) more
than a little stress when they consider that their genset will accumulate more operating hours per
year than the main engines. Short
of installing a group of color
video cameras within the gensets
sound shield (not a bad idea), the
best assurance that all is well is

furnished by the gensets monitoring system. Most genset monitoring systems will create alarm signals for high coolant temperature,
low oil pressure, low AC voltage
and excessive alternator temperature. Some may also alarm if the
level of the lubricating oil
becomes too low. In some installations the alarms may be limited
to illumination of annunciator
lights and perhaps a sound alert.
Other installations may include a
comprehensive control/status
indicator panel. In most installations there is only one monitor
panel, located at a lower helm sta-
9/30/08
1:24 PM
tion and connected to the genset

with a multi-conductor cable.
The gensets fuel should be
supplied from dedicated fuel lines
and water separator/filters, not
teed off the supply to the propulsion engine. Remember that in
many installations, the genset
will accumulate more operating
time than the main engines. The
worth of locating the fuel filter
where it can be serviced easily
will be particularly appreciated
when the filter element has to be
replaced when the engine room is
at its hottest.
When underway, many boats
will have the genset in operation
Page 19
while the boat is being operated

from the flybridge. A genset fault
announced at the lower station
may go unnoticed. Fortunately,
the use of digital bus communication technology can alleviate this
problem by making it easy to
monitor virtually every system on
a boat using either dedicated system-specific or general purpose
programmable display and alarm
annunciator modules. An excellent example of databus use can
be seen in the new Westerbeke
electronic diesel gensets equipped
with D-NET.
Available in two digital communication protocols: Westerlink
(Westerbekes proprietary system)

or NMEA 2000, the latest marine
electronics industry standard for
digital communications, either
system makes it easy to provide a
boat with multiple monitor stations. The Westerlink module
provides LED annunciators that
will indicate deviation from normal for oil and coolant temperature, exhaust temperature, battery
voltage, generator AC voltage and
AC frequency. The LCD panel
provides direct readings for
engine speed, oil pressure,
coolant temperature, battery voltage, generator AC voltage and
engine operating hours.
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9/17/08 12:50:49 PM
9/30/08
1:24 PM
Page 20
NMEA 2000 monitoring

Electing to use the NMEA 2000
version of the Westerbeke display
operating on the NMEA 2000 network will provide the same comprehensive range of monitored
functions and allow genset monitoring on other, multiple displays
including the Maretron DSM200
Multi-function Graphic Display.
Maretrons PC interface package
can be used to display a wide range
of information from a NMEA
2000 bus on computers running
the Windows operating system.
Many of the latest multi-function
chartplotters are capable of displaying data transmitted on a
NMEA2000 bus, and with the use
of appropriate software, will be
able to monitor genset operation.
The convenience of being able to
instantly view the operating condition of propulsion engines and the
genset on the same screen being
used for navigation can have
immense value.
The NMEA 2000 digital bus
system can be much easier to
install in an existing boat than the
bulky, multi-wire cables required
when connecting a traditional and
usually much less comprehensive
genset monitor. The bus cable contains only four wires, is flexible
and small in diameter. It does
require the use of NMEAapproved connectors which may be
more costly than the ordinary connectors or direct splices often used
when installing NMEA 0183 or
analog wiring, however, they offer
the very real advantage of reliability in the marine environment and
will maintain the data throughout
capacity of the bus system.

21_27_ON174_CORR.qxd
9/30/08
1:25 PM
Page 21
CORRESPONDENCE
Nigel Calder
Voyaging under the midnight sun

Nigel Calders
Malo 45,
Nada, at right,
moored
Swedish style:
the bow is tied
off to rocks (in
this case using
an iron ring)
and an anchor
is set off the
stern.
To the editor: For
years we
have sailed in the Caribbean
with our friend Peter Hancock. So it is business as
usual when Peter and Jake
Crump, our crew for a circumnavigation of Cuba,
joined Terrie and me for a
cruise in our Malo 45, Nada.
But this time we were on
Swedens west coast, far from
our traditional cruising
grounds in the Caribbean.
Most days, the ocean in
the morning is flat and calm.
Peter, Jake and Terrie go
exploring ashore while I tinker with the boat and write.
Around lunch time a breeze
begins to fill in as rising heat
over the sun-warmed islands
sucks in air from off the sea.
By mid-afternoon we have
the boat moving at hull
speed and can continue sailing until 8 or 9 in the

evening we are at latitude
58 N and the sun does not
set until after 10 p.m.
The cruising was wonderful with many exciting surprises. The most spectacular
anchorage we found so far
was at the foot of the
medieval castle in
Marstrand, with its massive
central keep dominating the
view for many miles. Over
the centuries it was the scene
of many a savage battle as
Norway and Sweden fought
to control this coastline,
with occasional forays from
the Danes.
Away from the towns, in
some ways, the region
reminds us of Maine, but
without the fog. Tens of
thousands of granite rocks

and small islands create a
multitude of protected
anchorages and ever
changing vistas.
The rocks were scraped
clean by glaciers in the last
ice age. It is amazing how little topsoil developed since
then. Many of these islands
are still almost barren, with
heather and other small
plants that eked out a tenuous existence in crevices, and
in low spots. There were few
trees. The numerous picturesque small villages were
draped over the rocks like a
mantle. There were boats
everywhere mostly older
boats, many wooden, with
lovely classic shapes. At 47
feet we were invariably the
largest boat in an anchorage
and felt a little ostentatious.
The area is sprinkled with
guest harbors that welcome
visiting yachts. But these
were exceptionally crowded
at this time of the year, with
tight quarters maneuvering,
and they do not really want
boats more than 40 feet in
length. So we anchored out
which in any case we prefer as it gets us a refreshing
breeze at night and
dinghy ashore. In the mornings we had swans with
cygnets swimming under the
stern. In the evenings we
heard the steady beat of their
wings as they flew by.
9/30/08
1:26 PM
Page 22
CORRESPONDENCE
There is almost no tide,

so when anchoring the
Swedes throw out a stern
anchor and power slowly up
to the rocks to step ashore
off the bow and secure a line
to a large rock or a stake
hammered into a crevice.
Many Swedish boats have
better stern anchoring facili-
Nigel Calder
about any private property

for up to three days (etiquette says you should ask
for permission after the first
night), so there is plenty of
exploring to be done. Terrie
had avidly read the guide
books. She marched us off to
see numerous Bronze Age
rock carvings, Viking cairns,
and
labyrinths of
stones laid
out on the
cliffs long
ago. Her
real passion,
however,
was painting
the villages,
for which
we need to
anchor out
front.
Looking
at the
charts, there
appear to be
a multiplicity of suitable
anchorages, but it was a bit
more complicated than this.
Sweden has a tremendous
infrastructure of buried
power lines and pipelines for
these islands, and numerous
ferries. Time after time we
picked out the perfect vista
only to see a Kabel sign
ashore, or a pipeline on the
chart, or find we were in the
path of a ferry. Some of these
ferries pull themselves along
on a cable strung from shore
to shore. As soon as the ferry
gets moving, the cable goes
Smgen on
Swedens
rocky west
coast draws
boats from all
over northern
Europe.
ties than bow anchors! We

were not set up for this and
so we anchored off in the
conventional manner. You
would think that with the
lack of topsoil setting an
anchor would be a chore,
dragging over bare rock, but
everywhere we went the
hook took an immediate
bite and dug deep into mud.
Whatever topsoil forms
ashore must get washed into
these natural harbors!
In Sweden its pretty much
legal to go ashore anywhere
and pitch a tent on just
taught, coming off the bottom and creating a serious

hazard to navigation. We
rapidly learned to stay out of
the way of moving ferries!
I found the navigation
challenging in other ways.
The charts contain a number of unfamiliar symbols: I
had to pull out a copy of my
own book How to Read a
Nautical Chart to decipher
them. In particular, the
Swedes, as do all Europeans,
have numerous cardinal
marks, which are not used in
the U.S. These let the navigator know on what side
N, S, E or W a hazard
should be passed. For 15
years I was based in Maine,
and when sailing at home
the mainland was always to
the west. Now the mainland
was to the east. I found it
quite disorienting, with my
instinctive sense of compass
directions frequently messed
up, especially when the
weather was overcast.
This is International
Association of Lighthouse
Authorities, Region A, so
the red and green buoys are
reversed from the U.S. In
addition, the direction in
which the numerous channels were presumed to be
running is complicated
two channels next to each
other may be charted in
opposite directions, which
means the red and greens
reverse. The only way to tell
was by looking for the
9/30/08
1:26 PM
direction of buoyage arrows on

the charts.
Many of these channels were
narrow, tortuous and bordered by
low rocky cliffs. In some places
there was barely room for two
boats to pass. In spite of the lack
of tide, there were frequently currents of a knot or two. With the
boat moving at 7 or 8 knots things
happened fast and there was no
room for error. There were rocks
everywhere, and one rock looks
much like another it was easy
to get confused. We were thankful
for our electronic charts, which
took all the work out of keeping
track of the boats position.
And so we head for our final
anchorage before Peter must leave
us. We had heard Smgen was a
pretty neat town, but were quite
unprepared for what we found.
We anchored in a small bay with
50-foot bare rock cliffs on all
sides. A narrow canal, with room
for just two dinghies to pass, led
to the town. We came around a
corner into a spectacular harbor
in a cleft in the rocks, with a
boardwalk and small cabins built
on piles along the base of the
cliffs, and the town of Smgen
perched above.
It was just so Swedish! Terrie,
who originally was quite opposed
to sailing in these northern waters,
and wanted to head immediately
for the Mediterranean, announced
that it would take years to explore
this area. It was true we missed the
warm waters of the Caribbean,
and the ever-changing spectacular
show on the coral reefs, but not
enough to keep us from coming
Page 23
back here. And then there are the

fjords of Norway, even further to
the north.
If we are not careful, we may
get infected with the high latitude
bug. At least our boat, as with
most Swedish-built boats, has

excellent central heating!
Contributing editor Nigel Calder is the
author of numerous books, such as Boatowners Mechancial and Electrical Manual.
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9/30/08
1:26 PM
Page 24
CORRESPONDENCE
Cell phones at sea

To the editor: Does it
Courtesy Casio
make sense to rely on

a cell phone as a serious part of an offshore voyaging vessels
communications
equipment? There is
no question that cell
phones provide convenient, private communications, but
what about the use of
cell phones by boat
owners for emergency
communications?
For a time, beginning in the early
1990s, cell phone
service providers
offered a special code
feature (*CG) in some areas
that would provide direct
access to a U.S. Coast Guard
operations center provided
you were within range. However, as providers moved from
analog to digital systems,
some did not continue the
*CG feature, resulting in a
confusing patchwork of service that contributed to significant delays in the Coast
Guard response.
Also contributing to the
confusion and
hampering
Coast
Above, some cell

phone manufacturers are offering ruggedized
cell phones that
are designed to
withstand the
elements, such
as the Casio
GzOne. Below, a
cell phone
antenna booster
from Digital
Antenna.
Co
ur
te
sy
D
ig
ita
lA
nt
en
na
Guard response efforts was the

fact that many, if not most of
these callers could not provide
an accurate location, could
not communicate with the
rescue craft, and in some
cases, the phones batteries
died before they could complete the call. In one case,
Coast Guard watchstanders
received a call from a disabled
16-foot ski boat near the Texas
City, Texas, dike about 6:00
p.m. The boat owner reported
that his boat was disabled and
anchored about a quarter mile
(1,320 ft.) from the dike.
After an hour into the search
the owner could no longer be
reached on the cell phone.
Around 12:00 p.m. a passing
tug reported sighting a disabled boat near light 48 in the
Houston Ship Channel,
(about 10 miles north in
Galveston Bay) and the rescue
was affected.
Another very significant
factor, according to Capt.
Gabe Kinney, then head of
Coast Guard search and rescue
operations, in a March 2000
article in BoatUS magazine,
the biggest downside of using
a cell phone to call for assistance is that Youre calling the
Coast Guard alone. But when
youre on VHF channel 16
calling for help, other boaters
in the area can hear you and
answer too. He went on to
say, Often, they are lots closer
than a Coast Guard boat and
can get to you more
quickly. Good Samari-
tan boaters do a fair amount of

rescues, but they wont know
youre in trouble if they cant
hear you call for help. Thats
just as true today.
In October of 2006, the
Coast Guard asked all cell
phone service providers in
states other than Alaska to
remove the *CG feature as a
method of requesting emergency assistance. All of the
cell phone service providers in
Alaska have the *CG feature
available and routed to a single Coast Guard emergency
line ensuring that calls are not
missed and cannot be misdirected. The Coast Guard
urged all boaters to use VHFFM radio as their primary
means of making distress calls
and that if a cell phone is
their only means of communication, the call should be
directed to the nearest 911
operator. Be careful here
though, the call could be
answered in the hometown of
the cell phone owner, hundreds of miles away!
Unfortunately it is not possible to be very definitive about
cell phone coverage at sea. It
depends on so many factors
topography, inherently low
transmit signal power, line-ofsight limitations, etc. Another
major factor, of course, is that
most cellular systems are
designed for land-based service.
Thats where the most current
and potential subscribers and
revenues are. Even where cell
towers are located on high hills
9/30/08
1:27 PM
Page 25
Cells and phones
beams, their shape and direction are designed to achieve maxi-
Two things are critical to cellular telephone service 1) the reuse of
mum coverage; however, some gaps and dead zones are inevitable
a limited number of frequencies, and 2) low-power transmissions.
generally in unpopulated, untraveled areas. Cell phone transmit
The network configuration that makes these two things possible
power is considerably lower, ranging from 0.001 watt when near a
are geographic areas called cells. A cell phone service provider,
cell tower to a maximum of less than one watt. Different frequen-
given a geographic area in which to provide service, divides the
cies are used in adjacent cells, again, to avoid interference. Cells
area into a number of cells. A cell may be two to 10 miles in radius,
are kept small since small cells mean shorter transit times and
depending on the topography (hills, valleys, tall buildings, etc), the
more frequent release of frequencies for reuse.
population (number of actual and/or potential subscribers who
As the cell phone moves toward the edge of a cell, the cells
reside in the cell) and the density of traffic in the area. The cell con-
base station detects its diminishing signal strength. At the same
tains a base station with a tower, usually with three or more anten-
time, the base station in the cell toward which the phone is mov-
nas mounted on it and pointing in different directions, plus the
ing, detects its increasing signal strength. The two base stations
necessary transmitting and receiving electronics.
coordinate with each other through the carriers Mobile Telephone
Each antenna, using a cone-shaped directional beam, like a
Switching Office and at some point the cell phone receives a signal
flashlight beam transmits within the cell with limited power
on its control channel telling it to change frequencies. This handoff
from a few watts to about 100 watts, depending on the size of the
switches the cell phone to the new cell.
cell, to avoid interference with adjacent cells. The number of
Ev Collier
9/30/08
1:27 PM
Page 26
CORRESPONDENCE
and headlands, transmission is lineof-sight and may be blocked in

coves, inlets and the backside of
islands, creating gaps in the coverage.
As to how far off shore you can
be and still make and receive phone
calls or send emails, etc.; the limitation is not so much with the base
station as it is with the cell phone
itself. Lets say you have a cell tower
located on a high hill right at the
shoreline with its signals directed
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obtained. The AMEL 54 is designed to thrive as a live aboard and offshore cruising yacht.
QUALITY IN CONSTRUCTION. Our exclusive one piece/full monocoque construction eliminates the typically weak, leaky and trouble prone hull to deck joint. All mechanical equipment
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repair a process, not a mystery. The standard equipment is the most comprehensive in the industry and includes an all furling rig, powered winches, generator and air conditioning/heat, powerful bow thruster, refrigeration and genuine deep freezer, windlass, sailing instrumentation, GPS
and autopilot just about everything that all of us need to start with. Way more comprehensive
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make your AMEL uniquely capable of fulfilling your mission. Options are also installed at the
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QUALITY IN SALES AND ONGOING SERVICE. AMEL spends a large sum of money each
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401 East Las Olas Boulevard, #130-126, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301
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right out to sea. A signal from the

cell tower may under optimum
conditions get out to 30-45
miles. If you dont see the dreaded
no service message on the screen,
that means that the signal from the
tower is reaching the cell phone,
but your cell phones signal may
not be able to reach the tower. This
is where cell phone external antennas and booster amplifiers come in.
A booster, such as Digital Antennas
DA4000 PowerMax, is claimed to
increase the usable range out to 50
or more miles when coupled with
Digital Antennas 8-foot Trifecta
combination (cellular, VHF and
AM/FM) antenna.
Keep in mind that cell phones
are, for the most part, not
marinized keypads and cases are
not sealed, printed circuit boards
are not conformally coated so
you will have to take some special
precautions to keep it out of rain
and spray.
Verizon Wireless has just recently
introduced its GzOne (Gee-ZeeOne) cell phone designed for use in
high-abuse environments. Verizon
claims it is ruggedized to military
standards for shock and vibration,
dust, heat, cold, etc and fully waterproof; it can be submerged for a full
30 minutes and still remain completely functional. No reports from
users yet, but worth looking into.
So, by all means, take your cell
phone with you, just dont rely on
it for emergency communications,
thats for the VHF!
Ev Collier is an electrical engineer, an avid
voyaging sailor and powerboater and an amateur boatbuilder.
9/30/08
1:27 PM
Crew finding
on the Internet
To the editor: I read with interest the
letter from Conor Dillon on finding

crew and/or boats using the Internet
(Crewing in the age of the Internet,
Issue No. 172, September 2008).
Boat owners and delivery skippers
have indeed been able to locate each
other much easier since nearly everyone is now connected via the Internet. I should know since I have been
running the oldest and No. 1 crew
networking service in North America
since 1993, long before the Internet
became popular. Despite my efforts I
was dismayed to not find my service,
Offshore Passage Opportunities
(OPO), on the list of crew-finding
Web sites listed on page 31.
Our Web site, launched in January
1996 ancient in the Web world
has posted monthly Notices to
OPO Mariners for free, containing
editorial and crewing opportunities
that allow the luxury of time. More
important to members are the short
e-mail notices sent to members all
month long. These e-mail notices are
sent directly to members, with all the
pertinent information, including contact information and, in many cases,
a personal recommendation. Uniquely, we know many of the boat owners
and delivery skippers, which is very
important if you are thinking of
spending money for one-way tickets
and scarce vacation time off from
work. Finding a berth with strangers
is not only possible, but actually happens. Our track record has proven to
be vastly superior to the tack of simply posting wanting to crew messages. Rare is the site that has quality
Page 27
postings from delivery skippers and

boats owners that have been vetted to
some extent.
I e-mailed Dillon to inquire why
we did not make his list of Web sites.
He responded that, being closer to
Generation X, he was looking for the
facebook.com type sites that are more
of the social network variety commonly used by younger sailors. Our
experience has shown the demographics of the people who have the
time, money and desire to go sailing
are a lot older than Generation X and
they are not using this type of Web
site. The baby boomer generation is
still more comfortable with traditional conveyances of sailing magazines
and boat shows and more recently
Google to learn more, but much less
likely to join social Web sites. They
are also more likely to understand the
concept of you get what you pay
for and are willing to pay a small fee
and join an organization to make
their offshore sailing connections.
I encourage your readers to take a
look at www.sailopo.com, as it offers
a lot more than the opportunity to
post your picture and resume in the
hope that someone will call you and
offer you the passage opportunity of a
lifetime. We offer the stepping stone
to the offshore sailing lifestyle and
passage opportunities for those that
do not have the time, bank account
or family that would justify buying
an offshore boat. We offer the opportunity to go sailing through a network of delivery skippers and boat
owners looking for crew.

Hank Schmitt has been a delivery skipper for
more than 20 years and is the owner and founder
of Offshore Passage Opportunities.
28_37_ON174_VOYAGING.qxd
9/30/08
1:29 PM
Page 28
OCEAN VOYAGING
Sea of the Moon

Island-hopping under sail in
French Polynesia
Story by Alan Littell

Photos by Caroline Littell
Star Flyer, a
367-foot
working
barquentine
greets the
dawn in
French
Polynesia.
n the late 1920s a globegirdling yachtsman named

William Albert Robinson
lay off the northwest coast of
Tahiti in his 32-foot ketch,
Svaap. He probed for a pass in
the barrier reef that would
lead him to the islands main
town, Papeete.
We ran in with the thunder of surf on both sides,
Robinson would write. Once
in the fairway along the shore
the air was heavy with the
scent of flowers and we could
hear the sounds of birds,
dogs, cattle
Some 80 years later voy-
aging in one of the worlds

biggest commercial sailing
ships, the four-masted barquentine Star Flyer I came
through the same pass. It was a
nighttime arrival. Breakers
crashed on the surrounding
reef. With master and harbor
pilot conning the vessel from a
wing of the bridge, we lined up
a pair of flashing green range
beacons and coasted under
power to the maritime quay in
the center of town.
Yet instead of Robinsons
birdsong and bellowing of
cows, we were greeted by the
roar of traffic from Papeetes
sprawling 21st-century waterfront. Neon signs proclaimed

shoreside attractions: to starboard, the Vaima Shopping
Center; dead ahead, Les 3
Brasseurs (Three Brewers)
Caf. Almost under our
bowsprit a clutch of open-sided
restaurant vans, ablaze with
light, dispensed everything
from sushi to steak.
Papeete was my final port of
call in a week of sailing and
motorsailing among the Society Islands, semi-independent
territories of France. With
names like Tahiti, Moorea,
Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa and
9/30/08
Bora-Bora, these storied outposts of reefs, lagoons and

upthrusting volcanic crags lie
scattered across 12,000 square
miles of Polynesia west of the
149th meridian between latitudes 16 and 18 south. My
passage in the huge windjammer recreated the age of 19th
and early 20th-century trading
schooners packet ships
hauling passengers and freight
that at one time were fixtures of the South Sea Islands.
Star Flyer and her younger
twin, Star Clipper, are the collective brainchild of 62-yearold Swedish shipping entrepreneur, Mikael Krafft. Built in
Belgium in 1991 and 1992,
the vessels carry Luxembourg
registry, but are operated by
Kraffts Monaco-based Star
Clippers, Ltd. A third passenger packet, the five-masted fullrigger Royal Clipper, rounds
out the fleet. A fourth is
being planned.
Page 29
passengers include
a library, a barlounge, a capacious dining room,
and compact cabins with private
baths. Topsides, an
instrumentcrammed pilothouse is recessed into a break
in the foredeck a few steps forward of the helmsmans station, on the open bridge. Four
large motor lifeboats double as
shore tenders.
The ships overall length is
367 feet. Her beam is 50 feet
and the draft is 18 feet. The
gross registered tonnage is
2,300. Sixteen Dacron sails
totaling 36,000 square feet, tailored by the Polish loft Sail Service, spread from masts as tall
as 20-story buildings. The auxiliary is a 1,360 hp Caterpillar
diesel geared to a fully feather-
ing four-bladed screw. Engine

exhaust vents clear of the fantail through the jigger mast.
Two 560 kW generators supply ample electricity for the
ships lighting, air-conditioning
and watermaking needs.
With a hollow clipper
entrance and a clean run aft,
the vessel can achieve 17 knots
under sail (12 under power).
But on my particular voyage
the tropical belt of light-tomoderate southeast trades
rarely permitted us to exceed
10 knots, with the wind abeam
or on the quarter.
Star Flyer,
which can
carry 36,000
square feet of
sail and reach
17 knots by
wind power
alone, rides at
anchor in
Moorea.
Star Flyers route

took Alan and Caroline Littell from
Papeete, on the island
of Tahiti, to the
islands of Huahine,
Alfred Wood/Ocean Navigator Illustration
Steel, aluminum
and teak
Save for her aluminum
yards, wooden wheel and
acre of teak decking, Star
Flyer is steel to the trucks.
Sheets, halyards and foremast yard-braces are
nylon rope. Standing rigging stays and
shrouds are steel wire.
The shrouds are set up
with rigging screws, not
deadeyes. Belowdecks,
amenities for up to 170
1:29 PM
Raiatea, Tahaa, BoraBora, and Moorea

before returning to
Papeete. Light winds
limited the ships ability to show its true
speed under sail.
9/30/08
1:30 PM
Page 30
OCEAN VOYAGING
ing language; master and

mates spoke it fluently.
Tahiti was the jumping-offpoint as well as terminus for
the trip I took, and I joined the
ship on a hot, humid evening
at the end of May. With 140
passengers aboard we motored
out of Papeetes pass a few
miles west of Matavai Bay,
where Bligh of the Bounty once
had anchored and Captain
Cook charted the coast.
Above, Star
Flyers Polish
captain, Mariusz Szalek,
has extensive
commercial
sailing experience. At right,
the barquentine is constructed of
steel save for
its aluminum
yards. The
running rigging is nylon
rope, the
standing rigging is steel
wire and the
sails are lowtech, dependable Dacron.
A 46-year-old Pole, Mariusz Szalek, was skipper. A

slim 6-footer, his dark hair
touched with gray, Szalek,
who trained in sail, has spent
his professional life as mate or
master in yachts, container
ships and square-riggers. He
assumed command of Star
Flyer in early 2008. In addition to his international masters ticket, he holds the
unusual qualification of
licensed lagoon pilot for all of
the Society Islands except
Tahiti, where taking a government pilot is mandatory.
Of Szaleks polyglot crew of
75, most were in hotel or galley jobs, the rest on deck or in
the engine room. His chief
mate hailed from Italy; his second and third mates from the
Ukraine. Two of the three
deck officers had, like Szalek,
put in their time in both sail
and steam. One had experience solely in sail. English, by
the way, was the ships work-
Dropping the pilot

Clearing the pass, the ship
dropped the pilot into a bobbing launch. Our course was
west-northwest. Destination:
Huahine. A light breeze
puffed out of the east. Szalek
ordered loose-footed staysails
set on fore, main, mizzen and
jigger masts. Inner and outer
jibs rode up the stays. Pitching and rolling easily in a
southerly swell, we motorsailed overnight the run
was 110 nautical miles
closing with Huahines west
coast at dawn. The sun lit our
way through a narrow pass
edged by exposed reefs.
Szalek tied up to a mooring
buoy at the south end of a
quietly beautiful lagoon. A
few dwellings hugged the
shore, backed by deep valleys
and precipitous crags clothed
in a mantle of foliage. Passengers were ferried to a small
pier by tender to explore
ancient archaeological sites or
to haggle over sticker prices
for ubiquitous black pearls,

staple commodities in this
part of the world.
Late in the afternoon we
retrieved our passengers and
doubled back through the pass
to the open sea. Visible some
22 miles to the west were the
saw-toothed ridges of Raiatea,
our next island-hopping stop.
We had a good slant of wind,
southeast at 10 knots a perfect sailing quarter. Szalek shut
down the engine and Star
Flyers fore-mast squares
scrolled down from rollers in
the hollow yards like hydraulically operated window shades:
forecourse, lower and upper
topsails, lower and upper topgallants. To port, wisps of pink
cirrus clouds flew on the
breeze. The sea was ruffled,
9/30/08
blue-black shot through with

reflected glitter. Masts and sails
rose stark against a darkening
sky. Our squares filled and
pulled us forward. We picked
up speed. The bow curled back
a furrow of foam.
Standing off
With safety a prime concern,
Szalek avoids after-dark passages of the island reefs. In succeeding days at Raiatea and
again at neighboring Tahaa
we stood off overnight before
slipping in at daybreak through
constricted passes. The two sister islands are linked by an
encircling reef and the grand
sweep of a shared lagoon studded with palm-fringed islets,
called motus. For shore parties
there was a schedule of excursions to pearl farms, vanilla
plantations, snorkeling reefs;
for the crew, the unending
shipboard round of sail repair
and overhauling and renewing
wire and rope.
At sunset of the voyages
fourth day we weighed anchor
and motored out through
Tahaas Papai Pass to the offing.
A heavy surf broke on the reef
as we ran clear. Now out to sea,
Star Flyer rolled and pitched
like a hobbyhorse in the rising
southerly swell. With the wind
east at 15 knots, gusting to 20,
Szalek shaped a course northwest for the 20 mile downwind
sleighride to one of the more
celebrated of the Polynesian
islands, Bora-Bora. Well
1:30 PM
Page 31
make it in two, two-and-a-half

hours, the master said. Ill go
inside; I wont lay off. Its one
of the islands where the lights
always work.
In the dark, on the starboard tack, all sails set and
drawing, we came up fast along
Bora-Boras west coast to the
reef entrance, Teavanui Pass. As
we fetched the reef I could see
the lighted channel markers:
green to starboard, red to port
the reverse of U.S. buoyage.
The French Hydrographic
Office chart showed 300
meters between the lights.
There was plenty of water
under our keel. Szalek doused
sails at the mouth of the pass
and worked through under the
auxiliary to an anchorage in 25
fathoms about half a mile
below the chief town, Vaitape.
Measuring no more than 2
miles by 5, the island is completely enclosed by a sheltered
and navigable lagoon. Its single
dominant feature is a 2,000foot crag that juts from the
landmass like a shattered tooth.
Ashore in Vaitape the next
morning, I wandered along a
dusty harborside road flanked
by a depressing straggle of
tourist shops hawking pearls,
trinkets, Turkish-made tropical
sportswear. But a few steps
from the town wharf I stumbled on a curious reminder of
the islands more traditional
appeal, as rest stop and even as
sanctuary for sea-weary
mariners. Half hidden in a cul-
de-sac rose a stepped plinth of

black volcanic rock monument to the great French
yachtsman Alain Gerbault. In
1926 Gerbault called at BoraBora on his epic solo voyage
around the world in the 39foot sloop Firecrest. Later he
lived on the island for several
years. The circumstances surrounding the death of this
reclusive navigator are uncertain; but he is thought to have
died in the East Indies in 1941.

We sailed again at 1700.
The sun was veiled, the sky
full of racing clouds a good
omen. At the seaward lip of
the pass the wind piped up
out of the northeast at 20
knots. Theres a low around
here somewhere, the master
said. This wind will shift to
the north.
The offing was gray, lumpy
and flecked with whitecaps.
The swell was still in the south,
but higher now, about 9 feet.
Star Flyer
paid a visit to
Huahine, 110
nautical miles
northwest of
Papeete.
9/30/08
1:31 PM
Page 32
OCEAN VOYAGING
The ship rolled heavily. The

pilothouse inclinometer
recorded swings of 10, 12
degrees. At 1800, with the
wind at 25 knots and backing
into the north as advertised, we
rounded the top of Bora-Bora.
A few of Star
Flyers 140
passengers
get some of
the sailing
vessel experience by
hauling away
on a halyard.
Sails set, the big barquentine

came smartly across the wind
onto the port tack sheets
cast off, staysail booms hauled
out to starboard, yards swung
and braced. The ship leapt
ahead at 10 knots on a compass course of east-southeast.
Last night at sea
Our last full night at sea, Star
Flyer tracked north of Tahaa
and Huahine on a 140-mile
passage to Moorea, the heartshaped island lying 10 miles
northwest of Tahiti across the
strait called Sea of the Moon.
The wind, fair at first, died at
dawn. The auxiliary shoved us
along under bare poles
through the short, steep swell.
Within an hour the distant

blue scribble of Mooreas peaks
and pinnacles came into view
in the southeast.
At noon we drifted in
toward land. Szalek picked his
way cautiously through a gap
in the jagged coral guarding
the islands northwest coast.
Just off the village of Papetoai,
on the starboard hand, the pass
opened into a broad, funnelshaped lagoon: Opanohu Bay.
It was an idyllic, unspoiled spot
rimmed by white sand beaches
and lush volcanic crags. Most
of the location scenes for Dino
De Laurentiiss 1984 remake of
the cinema classic Mutiny on
the Bounty were shot at
Opanohu. We anchored in 20
fathoms of crystalline water,
and passengers went ashore by
tender to swim and snorkel off
a pretty little cove on the east
side of the bay. (Anchored
close by was a weathered 36foot sloop, Wind Dancer, one
year into a two to three-year
circumnavigation and crewed
by a couple from Juneau, Alaska, Chris and Richelle Burns,
with their children, Grant, 12,
and Grace, 8.)
Departure once more was
scheduled for 1700. With all
hands aboard, the bosun stood
by the windlass. The wildcat
engaged; the port anchor started up; the riding pawl clanked
against ratcheting chain. We
motored northwest up the bay.
Szalek conned from the port
bridge rail. He called out orders
to the man at the wheel: Port

tenport five. The ships
head, which had fallen off to
starboard, came over. Star Flyer
threaded the opening in the
reef. Midshipssteady on
three-three-five. A stones
throw away to port, breakers of
cresting foam smothered the
superstructure of an old wreck.
Now through the gap, Szalek
brought the barquentine round
to the southeast. Bands of rose
and turquoise spread across the
western sky.
After stopping overnight
and most of the next day
seventh of the voyage at the
second of Mooreas two northern inlets, Cooks Bay, we
eased back through the reef
and logged 8 knots under
power across a glassy, windless
sea. We were on the final leg.
The course was east by south.
At 1800, the sun set blood red
in a cloud-streaked sky.
Moorea dropped astern;
ahead, Tahitis peaks loomed
on the horizon. Darkness
spread quickly. The lights of
Papeete glimmered in the
night. The islands pilot launch
signal lanterns white over
red raced out to meet us.
Alan Littell is a novelist, journalist and longtime contributor
to Ocean Navigator. His new
book, Courage, a novel of the
sea, is scheduled for December
2008 release in hardcover by
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martins Press.
9/30/08
1:31 PM
Page 33
Small
cruising
cat on a
big ocean
Voyagers Carllie and
Garett Hennigan and their
experience of deploying a
sea anchor in the Pacific
between Mexico and Hawaii
Story and photos by Carllie and Garett Hennigan
Before they
experienced
gale conditions, the
Hennigans
began their
passage from
Mexico to
Hawaii in
benign conditions.
ethered on our parachute anchor to a heaving sea midway

between Mexico and Hawaii,
we were losing heart. We
were not stuck in a storm system that would pass in 12 to
24 hours; this was a stationary weather system of intensified trade winds that would
not shift for days, possibly
weeks. As huge waves rolled
under our small voyaging
catamaran, Light Wave, our
spirits flagged. We were losing
confidence in ourselves and
in the forward momentum of
our crossing. We had expected our first ocean crossing to
be pretty easy, having set out
during the prescribed time
when, as one friend put it,
this passage is supposed to be
one of the most benign in the

world. It wasnt. In the end
we did safely complete the
2,700-mile passage to
Hawaii. And in doing so, we
answered some questions for
ourselves about sailing offshore in a catamaran.
As voyagers discover the
joys of sailing and cruising on
catamarans, many are venturing offshore. Despite the fact
that the ancient Polynesians
sailed the uncharted Pacific in
their double-hulled sailing
canoes for thousands of years,
the myth lingers that catamarans are somehow unsafe. Perhaps this stems from people
seeing lightweight beach cats
flip or pictures of capsized racing multihulls. These highperformance boats are very
different from the modern

cruising catamaran.
How did we prepare ourselves and our boat for the
crossing? There is a growing
base of knowledge on the special considerations in sailing
offshore in a catamaran, and
here we cover some of those
points and share the knowledge we gained in sailing our
32-foot cat on our first offshore passage.
The vessel
We built our Richard Woodsdesigned Gypsy catamaran
and launched her in 1999.
She is of modern design and
construction, the hulls being
constructed of cored foam
fiberglass, and the cockpit and
bridgedeck cabin of wood,
9/30/08
1:31 PM
Page 34
OCEAN VOYAGING
glass and epoxy composite.

During the next seven years,
sailing in our home waters of
British Columbia, we tweaked
Light Wave, adding an arch
and hardtop, a catwalk and a
bowsprit with a free-flying
screecher, and reinforcing and
Gale conditions due to

La Nia reinforced trade
winds forced
the Hennigans to use
heavy weather tactics.
upgrading her in many other

ways to prepare her for offshore sailing. In July 2006 we
literally cut the tie to land and
set out on a two-year adventure to Mexico, Hawaii and
back to Vancouver.
Sailing down the rough
and windy northwest coast
of America, we identified a
few further areas that needed
upgrading. Even with our
best intentions to cruise light
(we hadnt gotten to the stage
of cutting our tooth brushes
in half to reduce weight) our
cat was still heavily loaded
for long-term voyaging.
While a keel boat can absorb

an extra 1,000 pounds above
designed weight and not feel
that different, a catamarans
performance suffers, especially a smaller one like ours:
it sails slower, there is more
hobby-horsing, and because
it sits lower in the
water, there is
more slamming to
the bridgedeck in
big following
cross seas.
We addressed
these limitations
during our trip,
thanks to the simplicity of the
Woods design. In
one week on the
water at a San
Francisco marina,
we cut out the
bridgedeck nacelle
floor and raised it
5 inches. And during seven
weeks on the hard in Guaymas in the Sea of Cortez from
mid-April to mid-June 2007,
we extended the aft hulls 4
feet and raised the whole
cockpit and central cabin sections another 6 inches.
We started psyching ourselves up for our maiden
ocean crossing when we
returned to the Sea of Cortez
in September 2007 after having spent the hot Mexican
summer months at home in
British Columbia. Although
we had made many two or
three-day passages and done
lots of night sailing over the

years, the thought of sailing
out into the big blue sea with
untold fathoms of water
under our hulls and no land
for more than 1,000 miles
was still daunting.
Heavy weather toolbox
The most important point of
seamanship in considering
heavy weather is to avoid it by
sailing passages only in the
recommended times (Jimmy
Cornells World Cruising
Routes is the definitive guide);
and, equally important, to
move out of areas during their
hurricane, typhoon or cyclone
seasons. Even with careful
planning, bad weather can
still catch up with anyone.
Successfully handling it in a
catamaran requires special
consideration. Though techniques such as heaving to and
lying ahull can be used in a
catamaran, its relatively
lighter weight causes it to not
only surf in smaller waves,
swells and wind, but also to
surf faster. This requires early
use of a speed-limiting drogue
off the stern in moderate conditions and a parachute
anchor deployed off the bow
in a full-blown storm to stop
the boat and keep the bows
into the breaking waves.
The following describes
our experience with the cruising catamarans heavy weather
tools a drogue and parachute anchor when we
9/30/08
sailed from Mexico to Hawaii

in March 2008. Before leaving the Sea of Cortez, we
extensively practiced deploying our 48-inch Para-Tech
Delta on 150-foot, nonstretch, 3/8-inch polyester
line and our 12-foot ParaTech Sea Anchor with 350
feet of super-stretchy nylon
rode, a retrieval float and a
400-foot, 1/4-inch polyester
non-floating trip line.
Our catamaran was ready:
all equipment had been
checked and double-checked
and spares purchased. We left
the city March 2, 2008, and,
after two overnight stops
heading around the tip of the
Baja Peninsula, on March 4th
bade gentle Mexico Adios y
gracias para todo! as we sailed
past Cabo San Lucas.
The Woods-designed
Gypsy is designed for safety:
the hulls are separated from
1:32 PM
Page 35
the bridgedeck
by 6-inch
walkways,
which means
you can walk
forward very
safely to the
bow in heavy
seas with four
feet of hull
deck between
you and the
water, the
trade-off being
that you have
to go outside
to get from
one living area to the other.
We actually like this arrangement as it gives us more privacy in each living area, and
one of us can be actively living life, so to speak, in one
area while the other is resting in another. We had
beefed up Light Wave by
completely surrounding the
cockpit with hefty 42-inchhigh railings made with 1
1/4-inch stainless tubing.
For our crossing we also
tied several sets of ropes at
shoulder height to provide
additional safety in the
more extreme movement in
big seas; and we had a firm
rule that we never ventured
forward out of this cage of
railings and lines without
attaching our inflatable life
vests onto the our jacklines
running to the bows.
For the first 10 days of
our westward passage, we
coped with this years La

Nia reinforced trade winds
of 20 - 25 knots. Sailing in
these east-northeast winds
and waves would have been
fine, but we were constantly
jarred by cross swells generated by the last of the winter
storms far away in the North
Pacific. It was like tubing
behind a water-ski boat, going
around and around in circles
as the waves get all mixed up,
only in this case the combined waves were 10 - 12 feet
high. As the sun set on the
11th day, the winds cranked
up to 30 - 35 knots and the
gale developed. Exactly as
practiced, we deployed our
Left, the Hennigans 32foot Woodsdesigned

Gypsy cat
Light Wave
at rest in the
Sea of Cortez
before they
departed for
Hawaii.
Below, to
deal with the
large waves
during their
voyage, the
Hennigans
deployed a
sea anchor.
Alfred Wood/Ocean Navigator Illustration
9/30/08
1:32 PM
Page 36
OCEAN VOYAGING
The Hennigans were

well prepared for
heavy weather, having
taken time to
practice
deploying
both sea
anchor and
drogue.
Above, their
parachute
sea anchor
components
ready for
deployment.
Right, Garett
on the bow.
The Hennigans checked
for chafe on
the sea
anchor rode
every two
hours.
drogue off our starboard aft

quarter to slow us down to 5
knots and prevent surfing
down the ever-steepening
waves. By then it was pitch
black night, and being
deprived of sight, our more
acute hearing was assaulted
with the sound of the water
and wave tops crashing, gurgling and rumbling around
and under us. Conditions had
deteriorated so much by midnight that we decided the
drogue was not sufficient, and
it was time to lie tethered to
our parachute anchor off the
bow. Fortunately, a seasoned
offshore catamaran sailor had
advised us to set up all the
lines for the parachute anchor
before putting out to sea
running from the bows,
through a bridle, back to the
cockpit along the deck edge
(tied with small twine that
would break when the rode
was loaded), ready to deploy
from the cockpit

while running downwind. This way we
could avoid going
out onto the bows in
the teeth of a storm.
Now, we share this
vital piece of advice
with every catamaran
sailor we meet.
Before we could
deploy the parachute, we had one
small problem: we
had to retrieve the
drogue first as we did
not want to risk it tangling
with the parachute. However,
because we did
not want to go
sideways to the
seas to slow the
boat down, we
were unable to
pull the drogue
in against the
force being
generated by
our 6 knots of
boat speed.
And so
we waited.
By 0400,
with winds of
35-plus knots
and the seas building, we
decided to risk putting out
the parachute with the drogue
still trailing behind us. We
easily deployed the parachute
anchor system from the aft
deck, again exactly as practiced, and Light Wave slowly
turned her bows into the
wind and virtually came to a

stop. We were now, in effect,
anchored to the surface of the
water. Fortunately, the parachute rode did not foul with
the drogue line, and we were
able to retrieve the drogue
without difficulty when our
speed dropped to near zero.
Now we were safe. It was a
relief just to relax and rest
until dawn as Light Wave rose
and fell on each huge wave.
We quickly established a routine of crawling forward every
two hours to check the heavy
rubber chafe guards that protected the bridle lines.
We endured 28 hours on
our parachute anchor midocean, pinned to the sea like
bugs to a corkboard as Light
Wave was relentlessly buffeted
by the huge waves roaring
under and around her.
Through monitoring weather
channels and the ham nets of
9/30/08
other voyagers and by downloading weather faxes, we

determined that this was not
a low-pressure system, front
or hurricane that would blow
through in 12 to 24 hours,
but a huge unmoving area
1,000 by 1,500 miles of
very reinforced La Nia trade
winds that may not move for
a week or even a month.
Declaring our first and only
axiom of the trip, There is
no point in being safe in the
middle of the ocean if you
can never leave, we decided
that in spite of our qualms it
was time to go. Fortunately,
we had used a full trip line
from the parachute back to
the boat, so it was relatively
easy to retrieve all the components of our parachute anchor
and set sail into the sunshine.
Boy, did it feel good to be
finally under way again!
As night approached, the
winds and waves were still up,
so we re-deployed our drogue
off the stern, only this time
with a bridle run through two
snatch blocks. What a difference! Our speed was not only
controlled to a smooth 5 - 6
knots, but all the side-to-side
sloshing motion stopped.
Lessons learned
Although we still faced 1,350
miles, once we cleared this
area the seas gradually moderated and the rest of our crossing became a continuous routine. We sailed faster during
1:33 PM
Page 37
the day and usually shortened

our sails for the night watches. As we progressed toward
our idyllic tropical destination, we mulled over our handling of the unexpectedly big
winds and seas we had
encountered and concluded
that we would have been far
better off in these conditions
to use our drogue properly
deployed on a bridle, rather
than our parachute anchor. In
our fright at our first
encounter with big wind and
waves mid-ocean, we could
hardly wait to get that parachute anchor out so we would
be safe on the sea, just like
other catamaran sailors whose
experiences we had read about
in the Drag Device Data Base.
Now that we are more seasoned blue water sailors, we
know better.
A parachute anchor is still
the ultimate survival tool for
a catamaran in anything
more than 45 - 50 knots, but
in 30 - 45 knots a drogue
deployed with a bridle off
the stern controls your speed
and direction while allowing
you to continue sailing at 5 7 knots (depending on the
size of the cat), which is
exactly what you want. It is
essential to carry a drogue
and parachute anchor of sufficient size and with enough
rode to do the job (the manufacturers will tell you exactly what you need for your
catamaran); to practice
deploying this equipment in

non-threatening conditions;
and to set it up ready to
deploy from the cockpit
before you go to sea.
Our reward for the long
days and nights and countless
lonely hours on watch crossing the Pacific Ocean has
been spending three months
exploring the Hawaiian
Islands as only
voyagers can.
Very soon
after our
arrival we felt
the tension of
the long days
at sea ease out
of our bodies
and minds, to
be replaced
with the calmness generated
in these tropical islands,
where ancient
wisdom has
molded a people whose heritage is music,
generosity and
gentleness.
The lessons we
learned on our
maiden crossing have seasoned us, and
now we look forward to our
next crossing of the Pacific to
head home.
Carllie,
equipped
with foul
weather and
safety gear,
prepares to
go on deck.
Check out Carllie and

Garetts adventures at
www.lightwave99.com.
38_49_ON174_SPECIAL.qxd
9/30/08
1:34 PM
Page 38
NETWORKING
Side-by-side
networked
displays allow
for more options
in viewing data
from electronic
charts, radar,
performance
data, etc.
Battle of the networks

Voyagers
have
rallied to
the plug
and play
revolution
38
he three big players in

electronic networking
are Furuno, Garmin
and Raymarine. Each have
expanded from making high
quality stand-alone electronic navigation equipment to focus on system
integration. These players,
along with Simrad,
Lowrance, Northstar and a
couple of others are doing
more than setting shoreside
technology afloat. Their
hardware may differ a bit in
electronic architecture, but
all base their systems on
multifunction displays and
high data rate cable links

that can access information
from sensors that include
radar, GPS receiver, depth
sounders and more. Any of
the networked hardware
output can be accessed on a
multifunction display, either
individually or simultaneously giving users fingertip control of more information than ever before.
As with all good things,
there are a couple of downsides to networked electronics that go beyond the substantial price tag attached
to the components. One of
STORY AND PHOTOS BY

RALPH NARANJO
the biggest issues is human
sensory overload, by no
means an electronic flaw. It
is linked to the avalanche of
data that all of these systems offer, and it can cause
a user to navigationally lose
the forest for the trees. The
cure lies in understanding
how to manage the information, prioritizing whats
the most important input(s)
at any given time, and
learning how to sideline the
rest. For example, in overcast conditions the radar
operator wants detailed
accuracy, and the sensitivity
9/30/08
and selectivity of modern

digital radar has the ability
to reveal a small skiff or
lump of granite shrouded in
fog. Unfortunately, a display screen clogged with
radar, DCS plotter graphics, fish finder info and a
virtual dashboard showing
engine instrumentation will
clutter the small display
and reduce the value of a
superior radar signal.
Display size is one of the
biggest differences between
commercial digital charting
systems and those found
aboard recreational craft.
The professinal wants both
detail and a wider field of
view attributes that lead
to safer navigation. The
recreational boaters big
screen option is still half
the size of what is used by
the commercial world. Add
this to the clutter factor
and it is clear that network
usage is a little like ordering
food in a good restaurant
there is a menu full of
options, picking and choosing becomes as important
as whats available.
Some feel that the zoom
function offers a chance to
compensate for a large-scale
digital chart displayed on a
small screen, and to some
extent thats true. But when
a paper harbor chart is
shrunk to a 6-inch diagonal
dimension, a user must
either zoom in to see specific detail or zoom way back
1:35 PM
Page 39
out to gain a
wider angled
perspective.
The International Maritime Organization is the
governing
body of commercial shipping, and
their technical
support specialists decided that size
does matter.
They set
much larger minimum
dimensions for screen size
on approved Electronic
Chart Display and Information Systems. Many
small craft navigators recognize that screen surface area
is a limiting variable, and
carefully arranges what is
and is not displayed.
Adding multiple monitors
may be costly, but it can
really increase safety as well
as user friendliness. The
past few years, I have sailed
aboard a cruising ketch that
had two Raymarine C80
flat screens mounted side
by side under a hard dodger
and one at the nav station.
The two on deck provided
dedicated screens for radar
and a digital chart plotter.
This arrangement made
tricky passages in tight confines, especially in bad
weather, a much more user
friendly experience, not to
mention added a valuable

display redundancy.
Furuno NavNet 3D
Furuno won the National
Marine Manufacturers
Associations prestigeous
2008 Innovation Award for
its NavNet 3D product.
Feedback from users of this
latest network upgrade has
reportedly been equally
upbeat. The 3D head-on
and top-down view system
offers a preload of all
domestic National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration charts (raster, vector
and bathymetric) plus satellite photos and an array of
plug and play hardware
ranging from sonar to masthead instruments. There are
three network options that
cover the bases from small
boat coastal cruisers to
mega yacht owners. The
new radar system is like
The waterproof
connectors
used on
Garmins
network port
expander add
ease and
versatility to
the plug and
play setup
process.
9/30/08
2:03 PM
Page 40
NETWORKING
Above, the
Furuno MFD 8
and MFD 12
(two units on
the left) and
the Raymarine
E-80 and E-120
(two units on
right) offer
good image
brightness
control as well
as a wide array
of display
options. Right,
split screen
options offer a
chance to view
multiple inputs,
but the more
data placed on
a single screen
means there is
less area
available for
important
detail.
having two stand alone

units on board.
For decades, the name
Furuno has been synonymous with high quality radar
units and their leadership in
this part of the industry
remains as strong as ever.
Their new line of digital
radar systems range from 2
to 25 kW and come with
true dual range functionality.
Not only can these units
select a dual range to monitor, but they do so simultaneously, transmitting and
receiving on both ranges
operating as if they were two
independent units.
Plug-ins are Ethernet cable
linked to one or more multifunction displays or larger
marine monitors. Furunos
Time Zero digital cartography
is instant up with no drawing
time associated with seamless
shifts from one chart to the
next. The biggest difference
however is the 3D view and
forward looking as well as top
down perspective. It literally
changes how a navigator

views his or her surroundings.
The visual image is a
blend of raster, vector and
bathymetric charts that
allow satellite photos,
weather maps and even
radar overlays to augment
the picture. This expansion
of what digital charting has
to offer is more than simply
a graphics upgrade. These
new tools are an integral
part of the 3D nav system
and represent a value added

that is well worth using. Just
short of being a holographic
image, this new depth conveying medium communicates channel boundaries
(the granite ledges of Maine,
shoals fringing Cape Hatteras, and the entrance to
San Francisco) better than
ever before. Furuno is
preparing 3D cartography
for regions outside U.S. territorial waters. In areas
9/30/08
1:35 PM
where 3D cartography is not yet

available, conventional 2D raster
and vector digital cartography
works just fine.
Garmin marine network
Garmin has also staked its reputation on a tried and proven Ethernet approach to their plug and
play network. The Garmin network interfaces with a full range
of electronic navigation components. They have launched an
installer-friendly plug and play
set of components eliminating
much of the voodoo linked to
first generation networking. Sensors connect to multifunction
displays with either a proprietary
Ethernet cable or, in some cases a
serial cable. Assembly of the network is straight forward and certainly ranks as a do-it-yourself
endeavor. Start with a multifunction device (MFD), which
includes the 3205, 3206, 3210
chart plotters. Quick connect
cables can link a couple of other
input devices such as a radar or
depth sounder. You can also add
a network port expander, linking
more cables with additional multifunction displays, and, as with
all the networks covered in this
article, each MFD is capable of
calling up data from every sensor,
even those linked via a NEMA
2000 link.
Garmin features BlueChart g2
cartography with aerial and satellite photo enhancement providing a very easy to read graphic
display. Fish eye and mariners
eye perspectives do not quite give
the three dimensional feel of
Page 41
Furunos 3D, but they are very

useful navigation tools. Online
updates and fairly complete
world wide coverage round out
Garmins cartography and add to
the upside of the system.
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
NEW
The flip side of the coin, however, is the reality that chip cost
for the long distance cruiser can
be significant, especially when a
crew spends short periods of time
in each location and is coastal
teak deck
deck hardware
standing rigging
running rigging
electric winches
engine
12V DC, 24V DC, and 110V AC systems
complete wiring and panels
electronics, computers, and satcomm
watermaker
air conditioning
AwlGrip
REFIT
BY
MAINE YACHT CENTER
Call us about your refit.

MAINE YACHT CENTER
100 Kensington Street, Portland, Maine 04101

207.842.9000 www.maineyacht.com
9/30/08
1:36 PM
Page 42
NETWORKING
cruising rather than long

distance passage making,
which is the preferred routine. Those whos cruising
grounds are closer to home
and whos itineraries are
Above, an
autopilot control
can be
more repetitive, will find

cartographic costs much less
of an impact.
networked with
other electronics,
like the dual
displays, installed
so they can be
rotated for the
best viewing
angle. Far right, a
nav station on a
catamaran
brimming with
electronics, but
also with space
to lay out a
paper chart: the
best of both
worlds.
Raymarine SeaTalk high

speed
The third generation of
Raymarines SeaTalk networking handles the interconnectivity of radar, plotters, sounders, a Sirius satellite weather receiver, Automatic Identification System,
Forward Looking Infrared
and much more. Theres no
problem with latency when
integrating instrument signals and auto pilot commands. Their rendition of
an Ethernet approach can
handle NEMA 0183 and
2000 connectivity with non

Raymarine equipment, and
it affords a convenient
means of wiring engine
monitoring sensors to the
SeaTalk network. There is a
capability to
link video signals and provide live engine
room monitoring, deckscapes,
infrared video
and satellite TV.
Like its competitors, networking Raymarine electronics is a user
friendly plug
and play exercise. Two displays can be
connected with
cables and an inexpensive
optional coupler. Up to
eight sensors can be incorporated in the network by
using Raymarines efficient
router. As with Furuno and
Garmin, cables are costly
but well sealed, and as many
a pro will attest to, failure
of an electronic device is
often a result of a connection rather than a flaw in
the device itself. By using
self-sealing factory-made
cables, such problems are
greatly reduced.
Raymarine is anything
but a one-size-fits-all electronics company, and a key
feature of their product lineup is the array of systems
that they offer. Ranging

from small boat A-series
gear to the C and E network
systems, one characteristic
carries over, and that is user
friendliness. Even their top
of the line G-series, with its
portable wireless keyboard
and large screen displays follows the sensible SeaTalk
high speed network protocol. The G-190 19-inch digital display is crisp, bright
and the epitome of what a
chart display or radar screen
should be. However, with an
MSRP of $12,000 it will be
slow to make its way onto
the bulkhead of most 45foot and under sailboats and
power cruisers.
Screen clutter is a big
deal, and with networking
comes the challenge of
understanding why, in many
cases, less is more. As mentioned earlier, recreational
DCS screen size is small
when compared to what
commercial navigators deem
essential, and this holds true
up until price tags approach
five digit significance.
This is why anti-networkers make an interesting
case for a KISS keep it simple stupid philosophy. Far
from being Luddite in
nature, these mariners rave
about their state of the art
digital chart plotters and
stand alone radar units.
They read depth from a
depth sounder display and
the engine panel renders
9/30/08
1:36 PM
Page 43
information about the health of

the internal combustion process.
There are no cables interconnecting gadgets and each screen has a
dedicated role.
Multifunction comparisons do
not infringe on the space of other
information, and above all, full
screen radar and chart plotter
info remains continuously displayed on the same screen. These
voyagers cringe at the thought of
a TV program playing on their
radar screen and have no interest
in an arcade-like graphic dashboard showing a digital picture of
an analog dial. When it is time to
log the engine oil pressure, they
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Page 44
NETWORKING
dont mind looking at the instrument panel. They point out that
trouble with the radar has no
impact on the chart plotter or
visa versa. Their arguments
underscore that there are at least
two different ways to embrace
modern technology.
To get a better feel for how
boaters are responding to navnetworking, I swung by the shop
of a local Annapolis, Md., electronics expert, Phil Mitchell, for
a chat about networking trends.
He verified that sailors and power
cruisers are by no means reluctant about linking electronics and
the new systems are indeed user
friendly. He pointed out the
rugged reliability of the dedicated
plotter navigation approach, as
compared to the greater computing power, but added vulnerability of laptops sporting navigation
software. Mitchell sees the best
answer as having both on board,
but acknowledges that budgets
usually do not allow that level of
flexibility. He also feels that buying the biggest display one can
afford or going to multiple
screens is a big step forward, and
regardless of the brand chosen,
being sure that the chart detail
and coverage match up with the
type of sailing that is planned.
Visual watch keeping
The sailors view of the surrounding horizon, like the
power boaters pilothouse window vista, remains the primary
focus of safe navigation. Networked electronics are, at best, a
facsimile of the real world and
any navigation routine that
backseats visual watch, keeping
in favor of screen gazing could
be a step in the wrong direction.
Dont get me wrong, radar in
pea soup fog and the omniscient
GPS guided cursor marching
across an LCD screen are
extremely useful. In fact, as we
grow closer to virtual reality mimicking the real world, the more
reliance will be placed on gadgets

rather than the gaze out the pilothouse window. Tech advocates
point out that the human retina
and optic nerve are limited by
their sensitivity and the spectrum
that they can sense, so why not
rely on radio, microwave, infrared
and acoustic measurements of
the surroundings?
The answer is that we should
welcome all equipment that
adds valid and reliable input to
the navigation process, but at
least at the present time the
black boxes are meant to augment to navigators craft, not
replace his or her function. So
the science becomes an art form
as the data is handled, evaluated, prioritized and accepted or
rejected by the navigator making decisions about vessel location and heading.
Ralph Naranjo is a freelance
writer and photographer living in
Annapolis, Md.
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Garmin
Raymarine
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Instruments, ECDIS
Instruments
Instruments, coms, cameras
9/30/08
1:37 PM
Page 45
An Apple iPhone,
Palm OS or
Windows CE device
can be used as a
wirelessly
networked display
for viewing
electronic charts or
other nav data.
Courtesy Apple
Handheld wireless networking

BY CHUCK HUSICK
etworking solutions
always used to mean
wires and fixed electronic boxes at the nav station or the helm. Now you
can add wireless handheld
devices that make networking a handheld accessory.
Perfect examples of this are
the Apple iPhone 3G
equipped with iNavX (a fullfunction GPS chartplotter)
or a Palm OS device running a chartplotter program
called ActiveCaptain.
First well look at Apples
iPhone. Out of the box the

iPhone provides Wi-Fi or cellular access to information
from the National Weather
Service real-time doppler
weather radar. Its Safari web
browser also accesses a host of
other weather and information resources, including
National Oceanic Atmospheric Association (NOAA)
and U.S. Coast Guard sites,
Notices to Mariners and the
Physical Oceanographic RealTime System (PORTS). After
activating the iPhone we pur-
chased the iNavX electronic

charting application from the
Apple iTunes online App
Store ($49.99). Download
and installation took only a
couple of minutes.
As with the two other
GPSNavX chartplotter programs (1. GPSNavX that
uses NOAA raster navigational charts [RNC] and 2.
MacENC that uses both
electronic navigational charts
[ENC] and RNCs) the
iNavX is remarkably easy to
use. A brief touch on the
Networking
goes mobile
45
9/30/08
1:37 PM
Page 46
NETWORKING
Chuck Husick
Screen shots
from Chuck
Husicks iPhone
running the
iNavX program
show some of
the nav data
you can access
with handheld
networking: An
electronic
chart, chart
description
data and a
Waypoint
naming screen.
iNavX icon on the iPhones

screen opens the application.
After a few seconds the initial screen automatically displays the list of NOAA raster
scan charts (RSC).
As soon as the iPhone has
determined its location, the
chart list shows a selection of
the charts closest to the
phones position, in chart
scale order. We touched the
line for chart 11415, Tampa
Bay Entrance and confirmed
our desire to download the
chart on the subsequent
screen. About 20 seconds
later the chart was on the
screen, centered on our position icon. After downloading, charts are stored in the
iPhones memory which,
depending on the amount of
other stored information,
can hold the charts for a very
large area (the entire RNC
library occupies less than
400 MB).
As with all chartplotters,

the screens the thing. The
iPhones 3.5 inch diagonal,
320 x 480 pixel, 160 bpi
color screen is easy to see in
every situation, including
direct tropical sun. Screen
brightness range, in the fully
automatic, manual and
night modes will cope with
any condition you are likely
to encounter.
Just as with the GPSNavX
and MacENC chartplotter
programs, learning to use the
iNavX chartplotter is a simple process. The opening
iNavX screen displays the
initial selections; Charts,
Waypoints and Instruments
with a secondary field for
access to the TCP/IP NMEA
Client, Units choices and
commands for removing
local charts, removing tracks
(the plotter will store 100
track points, recorded at a
0.1 nmi interval) and About
iNavX which shows the software version in use. Touching the Setup icon at the top
right of the chart screen
opens the seven-item Chart
Setup menu which provides
toggle control switches for
Position Icon Kept Visible,
Position Icon Transparent,
Velocity Vector, Night View,
Show Waypoints, Show
Tracks and Show AIS Targets
(the latter function requires a
separate AIS receiver, there
are limits to what could be
built into the phone). Once
set, this menu will rarely
demand attention.
Chartplotter functions are
controlled via the five icons
at the bottom of the screen,
Chart, Info, Waypoints,
Instruments and Tides (the
latter requires purchase of
AyeTides from the App store
($14.99). Alternatively you
can download a free tide/current application, Tides or
9/30/08
1:38 PM
Tide Graph ($1.99) although AyeTides is easier to use since it is

accessed directly within iNavX.
Chart management is a fingertip process. The chart is scrolled
by sliding your finger across the
display. Move the chart to a position partially or completely off the
screen and it will be redrawn to
display the new area in a couple of
seconds. Chart zoom, from 5 perent to 100 percent, is controlled
with a tap on the chart scale bar at
the bottom of the screen. Waypoints can be created by entering
latitude and longitude or with a
touch on the New Waypoint box
on the Waypoints screen. A single
Page 47
tap on an on-screen waypoints ID

will highlight it, allowing the waypoint to be dragged to a new location. A double tap on the screen
establishes a base point for measuring bearing and distance to a
second point and to display its latitude and longitude.
The units internal GPS receiver
provides the primary position
determination information. However, in the event GPS information is lost, the iPhone automatically reverts to determining position by triangulation based on
cellphone tower locations. Data
links to the outside world include
Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE cellular
service in addition to its cellular

voice telephone capability. (Dont
plan on using iNavX to plot your
flight path when traveling on a
commercial airline, switching the
phone to the Airplane mode disables both GPS receiver and the
Wi-Fi link. However, with the
advent of in-flight cellular service,
allowing cell phones to be on in
flight, you will be equipped to
back-up the pilots navigation).
The iNavX can communicate
with an NMEA server to display
instrument information and can
work with the MacENC chartplotter program running on the laptop
at the chart table.
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There are few limits to what the

iNavX program can do for the
ease, speed and accuracy with
which it performs its functions.
The handheld iPhone chartplotter
might be easier to use in rough
water than the fixed mount unit at
the helm. Put it in a buoyant
waterproof case and its ready to
accompany you anywhere. However, this iPhone-based chartplotter must be viewed in proper perspective. Its strong point and its
primary limitation are identical: it
is small, barely a handful. As the
progressive increase in the size of
computer, radar and chartplotter
screens clearly show, people will
choose the largest available screen.
Keeping this in mind, an iNavXequipped iPhone will be an
unbeatable back-up navigation
(and when in cell range, communication) device. It will shine most
brightly when you take it with you
in the dinghy or in a sea kayak
and when you use the phones
Web browser or cell phone channel to download the current
weather radar image.
You can also make screen shots
Page 49
of the chart in use by simultaneously pressing the Home button

at the bottom of the phone and
the Sleep/Wake button on the
top. The images will be stored in
the phones Photo Album and can
be downloaded to iPhoto or emailed from the phone using an
application such as Palringo.
A Palm OS alternative
Load the ActiveCaptain software
(www.activecaptain.com) and for
less than $50 a Palm OS unit
can become a valuable on-thewater navigation and information resource (versions compatible with other cellphones are in
works). The system can access
the entire NOAA RNC library
and can store the entire set in a
4GB memory card. With an
active Internet connection the
program will provide a wealth of
information about the area in
which you are cruising, including details on anchorages and
notes about phone numbers for
services. Add a Bluetooth GPS
and the Palm becomes an active
chartplotter. Operation is based
on a combination of screen taps,

cursor key operations and the
pull-down menus familiar to users
of most Windows-based chartplotter programs. ActiveCaptains
online tutorial is easy to follow
and will assure a smooth transition to this version of in-yourhand chartplotter navigation.
We would be remiss in this brief
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The technology for this advance in
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50_60_ON174_FEATURE.qxd
The
unfortunate
mislabeling
of a key
9/30/08
1:40 PM
Page 50
Assuming
nothing
by John Karl
element of
celestial
navigation
has long
confused
beginners
50
oor Marc St. Hilaire.

No one understands
him even though
over 130 years have elapsed
since his 1875 publication
describing his new method of
celestial sight reduction.
Perhaps this situation has
arisen because its easy to
learn the mechanics of the
St. Hilaire method (also
called the intercept method)
without understanding the
true fundamentals. After all,
for many decades hundreds
of navigators have easily, and
successfully, navigated their
vessels over the open oceans
using the heavenly bodies. In
writing my book, Celestial
Navigation in the GPS Age
(2007), Ive had occasions to
review many books on celestial navigation (CN). In all
of these, the true fundamental idea is conveniently
skipped over, or when
John Neal/Mahina Expeditions/www.mahina.com
explained, its explained

incorrectly I can only
conclude that most celestial
navigators havent had an
opportunity to understand
what theyre actually doing.
Even though the method
can be used without understanding it, most boaters wish
to know, as far as possible,
every detail of their vessel and
its equipment. So why not
correctly understand the
celestial navigation method
thats been universally used
for the last century? It will
make you a more confident
celestial navigator.
Its all about that assumed

position, the infamous AP
that many beginners find
mysterious. And you cant
blame them. After all, in getting other lines of positions
(LOPs), such as from the
bearing of a known object or
from a lighthouses height, we
dont assume anything. We
measure one angle and plot
the LOP from that. Why
should CN be any different
where we also measure one
angle (the bodys altitude)?
The sextants measurement
determines one thing the
great circle distance from the
9/30/08
1:40 PM
bodys GP (its geographical position on earth) to a point on the

ships LOP. And when combined
with the suns position, obtained
from the Nautical Almanac using
the sights time, we have all the
needed information to plot the
celestial LOP.
Nonetheless, many authors
(including one who wrote a navigation classic) state that this is
not enough information to plot
the LOP we need to introduce
an assumed position to solve for
the LOPs location. Others claim
that we must assume some position as a starting point because it
requires an unreasonably large
Page 51
chart to plot the distance from

the bodys GP to a point on the
LOP. Another author states that
no one has been able to figure
out the curvature of the LOP, so
it can only be plotted as a straight
line. None of this is correct.
The celestial LOP
To place the mysterious assumed
position into its proper perspective,
well take a vicarious stroll through
direct ways of plotting the equalaltitude LOP. Well use the sun as
our exemplary celestial body. The
celestial navigator measures the
suns angle above the horizon
(called the suns altitude) with a
sextant. But for explaining CN,

well use the angle between the sun
and the point directly overhead the
observer (their zenith). This angle
is called the co-altitude its simply 90 minus the altitude.
Figure 1 is drawn in the plane of
the ships location, the suns GP,
and the earths center. Because the
sun is so far away, its rays from any
particular point on its surface reach
the earth essentially parallel to each
other. This means the angle at the
observer between the sun and their
zenith, the co-altitude, is also the
angle shown at the earths center.
So the figure shows us that the
great circle distance, R, is propor-
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Page 52
Figure 1: the
angle formed
by the co-altitude (90 - altitude) at the surface is the same
angle at the
Earths center
and R, in nautical miles, equals
60 times co-altitude. Figure 2: a
circle of equal
altitude; all
observers on
the circle will
note the same
angle of the
sun above the
horizon.
Figure 2
tional to the co-altitude (i.e.,

if one is increased by a certain percentage, so is the
other). The proportionality
constant is approximately 60
nautical miles per degree of
co-altitude. Thus R, in nautical miles, equals 60 times
the co-altitude, in degrees.
So the sextants co-altitude
gives us R, the ships greatcircle distance from the suns
GP. And since the Nautical
Almanac gives us the location
of the sun for the time of the
sight, we know everything
that there is to know. As
shown in the 3D drawing of
Figure 2, the ship must be
on a small circle of radius R,
centered on the suns GP.
The ship could be anywhere
on this LOP; every navigator
on this circular LOP would
see the same suns altitude,
the same co-altitude, and
would compute the same

great-circle distance, R, as
shown in the figure.
The purpose of sight
reduction is to determine the
latitude and longitude of
some points on this celestial
equal-altitude LOP. Latitude
and longitude can specify the
position of any point on
earth, as every sailor knows.
It follows that the same coordinates also specify the position of the point directly
under a celestial body, its GP.
However, for celestial bodies
these coordinates are called
declination, instead of latitude, and Greenwich hour
angle, GHA, instead of longitude. These locations of
the sun and an arbitrary
point X on the LOP are
shown in Figure 3, where
weve labeled the distances
from the North Pole rather
From Celestial Navigation in the GPS Age/Paradise Cay Publications
Figure 1
than distances from the equator. That is, instead of latitude, we used the co-latitude
which is just 90 minus the
latitude. And weve done the
same for the sun, using the
co-declination, instead of the
declination. The polar angle,
called LHA (local hour
angle), is the difference
between the longitude of
point X and the suns GHA.
The triangle formed by the
three points, North Pole,
point X, and the suns GP, is
called the navigation triangle.
As can been seen, it has three
sides and three included
angles. All we need to know
about this triangle is that if
we know any three of these
six sides and angles, we can
determine any of the remaining three (using a calculator
or tables). But a celestial
observation only gives us two
9/30/08
Figure 3
pieces of information: the

suns altitude and its declination. (We dont know the
LHA because that requires
knowledge of the ships longitude.) Thus were stumped:
we are short one piece of
information. But thats as it
should be. We cant expect
one altitude observation to
determine a unique point on
the 2D surface of the earth
it takes two pieces of
information relative to the
suns GP to fix a point on a
2D surface.
However, if we use the two
known sides of the triangle
(the co-altitude and co-declination) and specify a value
for a third parameter, a plotting variable, we can solve for
the latitude and longitude of
a point on the LOP that has
that third parameters value.
Thus by varying this plotting
1:41 PM
Page 53
Figure 4
variable and keeping the codeclination and co-altitude

constant, we can trace out the
latitude and longitude coordinates of points on the LOP,
plotting them on a chart.
Plotting the LOP
exactly
Any plotting variable will
work. We could, for example,
pick longitude. Then using
three known quantities, LHA
(from this specified longitude
and the suns GHA), observed
co-altitude and co-declination, we could calculate the
latitude of that point on the
LOP. Repeating this process
for selected longitudes traces
out the LOP by its latitude
and longitude coordinates
no assumed position used.
We could also do the
reverse: we could pick the
latitude as the plotting vari-
Figure 5
able. Then we would calculate the longitude of a point

on the LOP from this latitude, co-declination and
observed co-altitude. (The
resulting longitude comes
from calculating the LHA,
and using the known GHA
of the sun.) This is exactly
what Capt. Thomas H. Sumner did while commanding
the ship Cabot off the coast
of Ireland on December 18,
1837. He was bound ENE
up St. Georges Channel,
closed-hauled with a SE
wind making Irelands coast a
lee shore. By calculating the
longitude for three separate
latitudes, he demonstrated
that its possible to compute,
and hence to plot, the location of any number of points
on the LOP.
A third plotting variable
(which is particularly conven-
Figure 3: elements of the

navigational triangle, including
co-latitude (90lat.) co-declination (90-dec.
and co-altitude
(90-alt.). Figure
4: the location
of any point X
on the LOP is
calculated from
the suns declination,
observed altitude and bearing. Figure 5:
the intercept
and LOP drawn
in relation to
the reference
point, or RP.
9/30/08
1:41 PM
ient for computer use) is the bearing angle Bx between the suns
meridian and the co-altitude arc, as
shown in Figure 4. By incrementing Bx, we can conveniently sweep
out any desired arc of the LOP.
Now, the three known quantities
are the co-altitude, the co-declination and the variable angle Bx.
Its significant to point out that
all of these methods produce the
same exact LOP (i.e., within the
accuracy of the Almanac and the
altitude measurement). There are
no assumptions no assumed
position, no dead reckoning.
Using any of these methods, we
can easily and exactly plot the latitude and longitude coordinates of
Page 54
the LOP on any map, of any scale

and any projection.
This shows that there is no
problem calculating the points on
an equal-altitude LOP directly and
accurately anywhere and everywhere. But at sea we only want to
plot a segment of the LOP in the
region of our interest. In two of the
above methods, we need to decide
either a latitude or a longitude that
were interested in. But this in an
incomplete specification of our
region of interest, leading to potential problems. For example, picking
a latitude could lead to a longitude
on the LOP thats far from our
region of interest. This is where
Capt. St. Hilaire saves the ship.
The St. Hilaire method

In his method we specify both the
latitude and longitude of a point in
our region of interest. Well call this
point the RP, the reference point.
Using the coordinates of both this
RP and the sun, we calculate the
suns altitude and azimuth that
would be observed at this RP at the
time of the sight. Plotting a straight
line at this azimuth on a Mercator
chart from the RP toward the sun
points directly and accurately
toward the sun. Since this line
points toward the sun, if we move a
little away from this line at right
angles to the azimuth line, we
would still see the suns same altitude, as can be appreciated from
9/30/08
1:41 PM
Figures 2 or 3. Therefore, a short

line draw perpendicular to the
azimuth line is an equal-altitude
sun LOP.
Figure 5 shows a plot of this
azimuth line draw toward the sun
from the RP. In this example, the
calculated altitude (labeled Hc) at
the RP is 34 40. Other contours
of equal-altitude LOPs are also
shown, crossing the azimuth line
at right angles. Now lets say that
our actual observed altitude on
our ship (labeled Ho) measures
34 50. We would then know that
the ships LOP lies 10 (or 10 nautical miles) toward the sun, at
point A, as shown in the figure (its
toward because the observed alti-
PRACTICAL SAILOR VERDICT

We consider it an essential
piece of safety equipment
Page 55
tude was greater than Hc.) This 10

mile distance, Ho minus Hc, is
called the intercept distance. Point A
is exactly on the ships LOP within
the error of approximating the
intercept distance by a straight line
(a rhumb line on a Mercator
chart). In practice, this error is
always negligible.
Using other RPs, we could calculate other points like A, tracing
out the LOP exactly. But theres no
need to. As noted above, a straight
line draw perpendicular to the
azimuth line must show no change
in altitude along it (at least for
short distances). So it must be tangent to the true LOP, and thus its
an approximation to the true LOP.
This line is St. Hilaires LOP.

In practice, the only error in
this method arises from the divergence of the straight-line LOP
from the true-curved LOP. This
depends on the ships distance
along the LOP from the tangent
point, A, compared to the curvature of the LOP. For altitudes less
than about 75, the curvature of
the LOP is small enough that this
discrepancy is acceptable.
The misleading
assumed position
Weve shown that we assume
nothing in using the St. Hilaire
method. We decide which region
we wish to plot the suns LOP by
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specifying the latitude and longitude of a reference point. And

the method gives us a straightline approximation to the segment of the true LOP that is
nearest that position theres
no assumption, no approximation (other than the slight curvature of the true LOP).
Unfortunately, poor old Capt.
St. Hilaire invited confusion by
referring to this geographical reference point as an estimated
position in his 1875 publication
(at least in my English language
version). This term later morphed into the assumed position,
the AP, the term currently used
for the reference point.
Page 56
Even though St. Hilaire used

the unfortunate term estimated
position, its clear that he, and
even Capt. Sumner in his 1843
publication, understood how to
exactly plot the celestial LOP by
calculating the latitude and longitude of several points on the
curve.
Of course in normal navigation, we wish to know the segment of the LOP which is nearest where we think our ship is.
So we pick our latest DR position, or (to simplify calculations) another position near the
DR position for our RP; and
unfortunately we call it the
assumed position.
M
N
GAM Electronics, Inc.

191 Varney Street
Manchester, NH 03102
Phone: (603) 627-1010
Fax: (603) 622-4738
www.gamelectronicsinc.com
gamelectronicsinc@juno.com
John Karl is the author of

Celestial Navigation in the GPS
Age, published by Paradise Cay.
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Many readers might think that

Im putting too fine a point on
the distinction between the terms
reference point and assumed
position. But assumed position
is a misnomer incorrectly implying that an assumption is necessary for some reason: because the
distance between the suns GP
and the ship is too great to plot,
because theres insufficient information to plot the LOP, or
because we dont know how to
plot the exact LOP. Weve just
seen that none of this is correct.
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expert Gordon West
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9/30/08
1:42 PM
Page 57
VOYAGING TIPS
A practical mast boot
BY ANN HOFFNER
hen Tom and I set up

our Peterson 44, Oddly
Enough, for voyaging, the mast
had been out of the boat for
three years. The mast on a
Peterson 44 is keel stepped and
I couldnt recall what kind of
boot had been installed to keep
water from running through
the deck and into the cabin. I
wandered around the yard in
Florida where we were hauled,
and found a man putting the finishing touches on his own mast.
Truck inner tube, he said.
Hasnt failed me yet.
Most truck tire repair businesses
will give away blown inner tubes,
even in the bigger towns in the
islands. The original boot lasted 10
years, and gave watertight protection until the Sunbrella covering
lost its UV protection. I recently
made a new one, using part of an
inner tube I had on the boat.
Heres how to make the boot:
1) Cut crosswise through the
tube and wrap around the base

of your mast to get a rough idea
of the fit. Add plenty of extra
length for overlapping edges
and errors in calculating; measure along the tube and make
another cut.
2) Using a flexible measuring tape, measure from deck
level (outside the ring of
your mast collar) a comfortable distance up the mast
above your mast wedges.
This will be the height of
your boot. Be generous in
9/30/08
1:43 PM
Page 58
measuring, and then add 3 inches. Total measurement will likely

be 8-9 inches.
3) You should now have a semicircular piece of tube. Slit this piece
along the outside circumference
and open it up. Measuring from
the outer circumference of one side
of your opened tube, cut the rubber so that you have a curved strip
whose width is the dimension
determined in step two, and whose
length is the circumference of your
mast collar on the outside and the
circumference of your mast on the
inside, with room for overlap in
both cases (an extra 4 inches is advisable).

4) To set up the mast
boot you will need two
hose clamps, one to go
around the mast and one
around the collar. I put two
clamps together to make
one big enough for my collar. You will also need a
tube of sealant and a screw
driver to tighten up the hose
clamps, plus paper towels or rags to
clean up pesky sealant drips.
5) Position the rubber boot
around the mast with the wider bottom above the narrower top (upside
down). Pull edges together and
secure the first hose clamp over the
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9/30/08
1:43 PM
Page 59
P R E V I O U S L Y
O W N E D
NORDHAV N 55 ('05)
Y A C H T S
NORDHAV N 62 ('01)
Honu Kai is the 55

that took the cruising
world by storm and is hull
number one of what very
well may become the
biggest success story
ever by PAE/Nordhavn.
She has cruised the
Hawaiian islands and
has ventured back to
California and then
returned home to Hawaii
where she is presently
moored. She is equipped
with the majority of the
popular factory options
and had been carefully
looked after by her
thoughtful owners. Located in Hawaii.
Patty M is the first

Nordhavn 62 to conquer
the globe! Delivered in
2001 she toured the world
from California to England
with her original owners.
Her current owner did an
extensive upgrade fit out
in 2006 before crossing
the Atlantic and Patty M is
back in the Pacific.This is
a captained yacht which
has been given professional attention and shows
much younger than her
years. Shes ready for a
second lap around the
planet. Located in California.
Asking $1,499,000
Asking $1,675,000
For details contact

Jeff Merrill at
949-355-4950
For details contact

Jeff Merrill at
949-355-4950
NORDHAV N 55 ('07)
Always Friday is the
newest Nordhavn 55 to
come on the market. She
is hull 21 of this line and
is extremely well
equipped. Located in
Virginia
Asking: $1,899,000
For details contact
Dave Balfour at 401-2930910 Jeff Merrill at
949-355-4950
NORDHAV N 76 ('05)
Inside Passage III is
an Aft Pilothouse widebody model with the bulbous bow and cockpit
extended 4 feet. This
series lends itself very
well to operation by
owner, or by professional
crew. Located in Washington.
Asking: $3,695,000
For details contact
Larry Gieselman at 949-496-4933
NORDHAV N 43 (' 07)

Navigator is one of
the most complete Nordhavn 43s on the market
today. No expense has
been spared in construction and outfitting. Located in Washington.
Asking: $915,000
For details contact
Don Kohlmann at 206223-3624 or Andy Hegley at 772-223-6331
62
57
57
50
47
47
47
47
47
47
46
46
Asking: $1,100,000
sistership
For details contact Dave

Balfour 401-293-0910 or
Jeff Merrill at
949-355-4950
NORDHAV N 46 ('00)
NORDHAV N 47 (' 04)

Susan J is a beautifully equipped Nordhavn 47
located in the Pacific
Northwest and designed
for northern. Located in
Oregon.
New to the market, Sea

Once is a lightly used
Nordhavn 46 that is ready
to cruise. Over 30k in
updates have recently been
done. Located in Rhode
Island.
Asking: $945,000
For details contact
Jeff Merrill at
949-355-4950
Asking: $695,500
Dave Balfour at 401-2930910 or Jeff Merrill at
949-355-4950
A D D I T I O N A L
Nordhavn
Nordhavn
Nordhavn
Nordhavn
Nordhavn
Nordhavn
Nordhavn
Nordhavn
Nordhavn
Nordhavn
Nordhavn
Nordhavn
NORDHAV N 47 ('04)
Dance is a thoroughbred
throughout and will delight
you as you cast off for
adventure to wherever you
want to go. Located in
Rhode Island.
(93)
$995,000
(02)
Pending
(01)
$1,200,000
(04)
Pending
(06)
$1,499,000 tax paid
(05)
$795,000
(04) $1,325,000 NZ tax included
(03)
$895,000
(03)
$905,000
(03)
$935,000
(00)
$715,000
(94)
$485,000
L I S T I N G S
Nordhavn 43
Nordhavn 43
Nordhavn 40
Nordhavn 35
Hatteras 75
Alden 51
Viking 48
Cranchi 48
Saberline 36
Glacier Bay 34
Chaparral
Catalina 36
(05)
(03)
(07)
(04)
(88)
(95)
(05)
(03)
(98)
(06)
(98)
(03)
As a division of P.A.E., the developer and builder of Nordhavn trawlers, we are intimately familiar with each vessel on the market.
We also have listings of other quality power and sail vessels. Please call our office nearest you. www.nordhavn.com
$799,000
$849,000
$665,000
$459,000
$850,000
$579,000
$995,000
$485,000
$225,000
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$29,750
$139,900
N-ON-Nov08
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
9/30/08
1:44 PM
Page 60
7
rubber. Tighten lightly. Dont worry
if it feels awkward; with the clamp
loosely in place you can pull on the
rubber without losing it.
6) Roll the boot over the clamp
and pull it down over the collar. You
should be able to use the natural
curve of the inner tube to get a pretty good fit over both the mast and
the collar, though a few puckers at
the bottom are okay. Here is where
you will see if you left enough room
for a good overlap. Roll the boot
back up, and by pulling on the cor-
ners with it unrolled you can get a

smooth fit. It may take a few tries.
7) When youre satisfied, tighten
the clamp so the rubber mushes up,
but doesnt flatten. Roll the boot
down. Fasten your second clamp
loosely around the mast and pull it
down over the collar, making sure
the rubber stays in place. Make sure
the overlapped edges are flat against
each other. If youre not happy with
the fit, pull the boot up and work at
the top corners again.
8) With the bottom hose clamp
again out of the way, spread sealant
around the outside of the mast collar and under the overlapping edge.
Smooth boot in place. Work the
hose clamp over the collar once
again and tighten gradually.
Run a bead of sealant in the joint
where the rolled-over boot meets the
mast. Mast boot is now finished.
Rubber will degrade in sunlight,
so it is imperative to cover the boot
for both looks and protection.
61_64_ON174.qxd
9/30/08
1:44 PM
Page 61
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9/30/08
1:45 PM
Page 62
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make good safe decisions.
Locus Weather
207-236-3935
www.locusweather.com
The Sheave
Factory
Custom Delrin Sheaves & Sheet Rollers
www.zephyrwerks.com
360-385-2720 edo@cablespeed.com
SMALL AD, SMALL PRICES

Standing and running rigging,
lifelines, furling gear, winches, line,
windlasses, travelers, wire and
terminals, blocks, vangs, clutches, etc.
Problem solving is our specialty.
We are a rigging shop specializing in
discount mail order. Free catalog.
Rigging Only 508-992-0434,
E-mail: sail@riggingonly.com.
Web: riggingonly.com
FOR COMPLETE INFO, VISIT US AT

www.macksails.com
Stuart FLORIDA Ft. Lauderdale
772-283-2306
Fax: 772-283-2433
800-428-1384
VISIT US ONLINE AT
The Coast Guard

Protects Us.
Every Day. Every Night.
Now more than ever, your support of the
Coast Guard Foundation is vital to the brave
men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Please contribute today.

www.cgfdn.org
(860) 535-0786
Your support pays for programs and services
that cannot be funded through government sources.
61_64_ON174.qxd
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Page 63
WebSmart
CELESTAIRE World's largest selection of marine sextants, navigation computers, compasses, books, videos and software for traditional navigation.
www.celestaire.com
LONSEAL FLOORING: Matte and varnished Teak andHolly sheet flooring

products. High performance and slip retardant safety flooring. Flooring for
exterior and/or interior installations. Call today for complimentary samples:
800-832-7111 www.lonsealspecialty.com
DAVIS INSTRUMENTS has a full line of marine products for sailors, power
boaters, fishermen, and outdoor enthusiasts of all types. www.davisnet.com
MAPTECH: Makes Navigation a whole lot easier. From the simplest paper
charts tomulti-functional Touch Screen Command systems, our marine product line is designed with ease-of-use in mind. www.maptech.com
DIGITAL WAVE Visual Passage Planner 2 (VPP2) was designed to bring the
power of the computer to the passage planning process. VPP2 automates the
tedious, time consuming task of evaluating passage conditions and then estimating passage elapsed times with pen and paper. Using VPP2, many "whatif" scenarios can be played out in the time it would take to manually calculate
one route using traditional methods, allowing selection of the best
route.www.digwave.com
MARETRON Maretron designs, manufactures and markets leading-edge

marine electronic instrumentation for recreational and commercial boating.
Our products are designed to the open industry NMEA 2000 standard,
which allows electronic equipment from diverse manufacturers to be networked together to share information throughout the vessel.
www.maretron.com
EPIFANES The Worlds finest Yacht Coatings for over 100 years: varnishes and
Clear finishes, one component topside finishes, primer systems, thinners and
additives, specialty finishes, brushes and accessories.
www.epifanes.com
NANNI DIESEL is the leading manufacturer of light, compact blue engines

that are easy to install. They are quiet and environmentally friendly with low
gas emissions. The sail drive range is from 10-62 HP. Call us to find a dealer
near you! www.nannidiesel.com
FUJINON Fujinon Mariner II Binoculars100% waterproof. Heavy Duty.

For over 50 years Fujinon has offered the largest variety of quality optics at a
great price. That is why the US Army, Navy, the FBI and NASA have ordered
over a quarter million units from Fujinon.
www.fujinonbinocular.com
NOBELTEC NEW! Nobeltec Admiral and Visual Navigation

Suite Version 9, now with Sailing and XM Weather Plus Packs
available. Sailing Plus Pack features polar diagram display, auto
record of real-time data, lay lines and wind arrows over the
chart,enhanced boat tracking and basic instrument support for
B&G and Ockam instruments. XM Weather Plus Pack gives you
continuous data stream of weather and sea conditions via
satellite. www.nobeltec.com
FURUNO Manufactures more than 200 marine electronic products for both
recreational and commercial vessels, including state-of-the-art radar, GPS,
depth sounder, sonar, chart plotter, charting software, weatherfax, satellite communications, VHF, SSB radio, AIS system, GMDSS and nav instrument systems. www.Furuno.com
GOZZARD YACHTS
NORDHAVN Nordhavns have remained a leader in the boating industry

thanks to consistently staying on top of the latest technology and maintaining
the utmost in safety, comfort, luxury and reliability. Whether cruising around
the world or day-tripping to a nearby harbor, a Nordhavn will get you there.
www.nordhavn.com
GOZZARD YACHTS Builders of the sail 31, 37, 41, 44 and 54 and custom power and sail to 70. Come and see for yourself the excellent craftsmanship that sets Gozzard Yachts apart... in a class of its own. Feel and touch the
quality that people around the world are talking about. www.gozzard.com
NORTH SAILS produces more cruising sails to higher standards of performance and durability than any other sailmaker in the world. All are manufactured using premium fabrics from North Cloth as well as other quality suppliers. All North cruising products are built to give you years of trouble-free sailing. www.northsails.com
HANSEN MARINE is dedicated to customer service. We are a major distributor for Westerbeke, Universal, Aquadrive, and Reverso. We also have
developed the XRT power system. Please visit www.xrtcombi.com for more
information. www.hansenmarine.com
SEA FROST
SEAFROST Manufacturers of a broad line of marine refrigeration and freezer

systems including Engine Drive 110/220 volt and D.C. units. Used by the
finest charter fleets worldwide. www.seafrost.com
HARKEN, INC. is a leading manufacturer and marketer of quality sailboat

hardware and accessories. Our gear has dominated such events as the America's
Cup and Olympics. Our blocks, travelers, furling systems and winches can be
found aboard the smallest dinghies to the largest megayachts and cruisers.
www.harken.com
SPECTRA Since its inception in 1997, Spectra has designed, manufactured

and sold advanced technology RO systems known for reliability, energy efficiency and a global service network, making Spectra the system of choice for
the cruising market. www.spectrawatermakers.com
HRO Horizon Reverse Osmosis is the pioneer of marine watermakers since

1975. HRO watermakers range from 170 to 1,800 gallons per day of fresh,
pure water. Visit our website and download our brochure.
www.hrosystems.com
STEINER For more than 25 years, Steiner's Commander Series has been setting standards worldwide for marine binoculars with unrivaled reliability and
innovation.www.steiner-binoculars.com/marine
ICOM fixed mount VHF: Practical Sailor editors rate the Icom M302 the best
fixed-mount VHF. "With better basic audio and transceiver performance, the
Icom M302 surpasses more full-featured competitors in our test of units under
$160." www.icomamerica.com
VARIPROPELLER USA The best feathering and folding propellers!

www.varipropusa.com
KATO MARINE Stainless Steel sailboat and powerboat davits, outboard lifts,
radar and wind generator poles, radar mounts for mast, mini backstay mounts
and sailboatarches. www.katomarine.com
VICTRON ENERGY: A world quality leader in independent electric power.

Victron Energy products are developed to provide clean and silent power.
Enjoy the comforts of home onboard without being dependent on limited
capacity shore power or a noisy generator. www.victronenergy.com
Retail Partners
California
Maine
Seabreeze LTD
1254 Scott St., San Diego, CA 92106
888-449-7011 / 888-449-7012
www.seabreezebooks.com
Hamilton Marine
100 Fore St, Portland, ME 04101
207-774-1772 / 800-548-6352
www.hamiltonmarine.com
Colorado
Hamilton Marine
20 Park Drive Rockland, ME 04841
207-594-8181
GeoMart
516 Villanova Ct, Ft. Collins, CO 80527
P: 800-248-6277 / F: 800-321-6277
www.geomart.com
Connecticut
Rex Marine Center
144 Water Street, South Norwalk, CT 06854
203 831-5234 / 203 866-2518
store@rexmarine.com
www.rexmarine.com
Hamilton Marine
155 E Main St, Seaport, ME 04974
800-639-2715 / 800-548-6352
Landing Boat Supply
106 Lafayette St.
Yarmouth, ME 04096
(207) 846 3777 / (207) 846 4791

www.landingboatsupply.com
landingboat@aol.com
Portland Yacht Services
58 Fore Street
Portland, ME 04107
(207) 774 1067 / (207) 774 7035
www.portlandyacht.com
Joanna@portlandyacht.com
Maryland
Fawcett Boat Supplies
110 Compromise St.
Annapolis, MD 21401
(410) 267-8681 / (410) 268-6528
www.fawcettboat.com
info@fawcettboat.com
North Carolina
Marine Electronics
of the Outer Banks
4711 Croaton Highway Nags Head, NC
27959
P: 252-441-1360 / F: 252-441-7322
rocketman@beachlink.com
Pennsylvania
Pilot House
Tupper Barrett
1600 South Columbus, Philadelphia, PA
19148
215-336-6414 / 215-336-6415
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NAV PROBLEM
From To the Great Southern Sea
few days
before the
summer solstice of
1928, 25-year-old
William A.
Robinson, left his
job as an engineer
at a textile factory
on the lower east
side of New York and joined
his yacht Svaap for the 1928
Bermuda Race. Svaap was a
three-year-old John Alden
design 27-foot gaff-ketch
Robinson bought for $1,000.
Svaap means dream in
Sanskrit and Robinson had a
dream to sail around the
world in what was then the
smallest yacht to circumnavigate. After completing the
Bermuda Race he set off. Two
years later he returned to New
York to a heros welcome. He
wrote a best seller, 10,000
Leagues Over the Sea, lectured,
wrote magazine articles and
became famous.
Robinson started a shipyard
in Ipswich, Mass., where he
began building Baltimore clippers and trawlers. During
World War II he built boats
for the Navy. With the help of
W. Starling Burgess and L.
Francis Herreshoff, he also
built and designed his ideal
yacht, the 50-ton, 70-foot
brigantine Varua.
After the war he took his
wife and sailed to Tahiti where
William A.
Robinsons 70foot brigantine
Varua,
designed by
Robinson with
the help of
famed naval
architects
Starling
Burgess and L.
Francis
Herreshoff.
he settled. In 1955 he took his

new wife, his child and a couple of Tahitians and went looking to test his boat by sailing
into the roaring 50s. It was
there, about 1,500 miles west
of Cape Horn, that he met
what he called the ultimate
storm. With estimated sustained winds of more than 100
mph and seas greater than 50
feet, Varua struggled to stay
afloat. He wrote: I had tried
the conventional methods of
riding it out by holding Varua
into the wind under riding
sails, but had abandoned that
when the seas became too steep
and high.
Finally, and against the
accepted wisdom of the time,
Robinson ran off before the
wind streaming hawsers astern.
Although under bare poles
Varua picked up speed and
began running 6 or 7 knots
we at once put out our rope
drags and slowed her to the
point where she had just
enough forward motion for
good steering. It took 75 fathoms of 2-inch diameter manila
line which we dragged in a big
bight, plus four 75-foot mooring lines of the same size.
The fear was that Varua
would pitch pole going down
the steep waves, but Robinson
discovered that by slowing the
boat down, he could maintain
steerage and keep the bowsprit
BY DAVID BERSON
from digging into the waves
and the boat from going over.
After this adventure, which
he chronicled in another book,
he returned to Tahiti. By the
time of his passing, Robinson
had written six books.
Lets join Robinson on
Varua on October 26 (use the
2008 Nautical Almanac). He is
at 53 25 S by 110 25 W.
He is trying to get a lower limb
sun sight before the clouds
move in. His height of eye is
15 feet and there is no index
error on the sextant. The
chronometer is four minutes,
20 seconds fast. The time of
his sight is 16hrs, 53min, 30sec
GMT. The Hs is 41, 10.5.
We want to find the Ho,
and then the intercept. We
then want to plot the position and compare the sun
line to the Dead Reckoning
position. We also want the
estimated position.
A. What is the Ho?
B. What is the Intercept?
C. What is the estimated
position?
For a complete solution,
visit www.OceanNavigator.com.
Answer
A: Ho is 41 21.9
B: Intercept is 9.1 NM away
in direction 046
C: EP is S 53 18 by W 110
17
Storm tactics innovator
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GOZZARD
YACHTS
1:47 PM
Page c3
GOZZARD 37
Yachts of
Classic
Distinction
VOICE:
519-524-6393
FAX:
519-524-9180
email:
info@gozzard.com
GOZZARD 41
website
www.gozzard.com
197 Huckins St.

Goderich, Ontario,
Canada, N7A 4C6
Builders of the 31, 37,

41, 44 and 54
51/53 MY
Custom
GOZZARD 44
GOZZARD 53MY
Visit our website

for a list of dealers
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Page c4

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Super accurate GPS H Talking gensets

With her stability, safety and comfort, my Nordhavn

made by a well-respected builder, had sustained life-threatening damage because

decorate exactly the way my wife and I

Your journey is the motivation behind

Salvador Hernandez, Master Carpenter

Making the Journey

German couple completes second Nordhavn

SSCA Down East Gam

Local pollution and climate change

12 Notable New Books

Marine Tech Notes

13 Throwback to the future

21 Voyaging under the midnight sun

For bonus materials, check out the

33 Small cruising cat on a

Alan Littell (Ocean Voyaging, Sea of the Moon, Page 28) is

ALL DEPARTMENTS: 207-772-2466

Kim Goulet Norton

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Susan Sargent

John Karl (Assuming nothing, Page 50) has a Ph.D. in

Courtesy Roz Savage

row and was rescued by

ing history as the only

British ocean rower

6 OCEAN NAVIGATOR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008

A GERMAN COUPLE, WOLFGANG

Courtesy P.A.E. Nordhavn Yachts

board paravane boom

Marten 49, Francolini / Azzura Marine Photo

German couple completes

The touch of a button allows you to sit back

marginal conditions a single electric winch

1251 E. Wisconsin Ave., Pewaukee, WI 53072, Tel: 262-691-3320

A whole new perspective

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO?

8 OCEAN NAVIGATOR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008

To find out more about all of Maretrons vessel

THE 18TH ANNUAL DOWN EAST

boats at anchor, eight boats

Dick de Grasse at the

Local pollution and climate change

A RECENT REPORT RELEASED BY

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) suggests that

and Assessment Reports

particles absorbed heat.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 9

THE INTERNATIONAL GROUP FOR

new day sailor to their MSeries line. Joining the

to the cockpit and a

Sextant box to aid Earhart search?

10 OCEAN NAVIGATOR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008

pany, Brooklyn, N.Y.,

Courtesy Island Pilot, LLC

ISLAND PILOT, LLC OF MIAMI,

eliminate any need for

Thomaston, Maine | 207-354-0493

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 11

Notable New Books

FROM RUNNING FIX, THE ON BLOG

when lightning struck us

12 OCEAN NAVIGATOR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008

Float Your Boat!: