Passagemaker

Story + Photos by Mario Vittone Sarah-Sarah at anchor near North Star Point, just east of Amundsen Gulf. Roald Amundsen and his crew left Norway on June 16, 1903, hoping to be the first to transit the fabled Northwest Passage. By mid-September, the ice closed in around their ship, the Gjoa, in a cove on the southeast coast of King William Island. A Netsilik Inuit man taught them how to survive, build igloos and drive dogsleds. They ate what they hunted and made clothes from the hides.

We came away impressed with the debut model from Australia’s Iliad Yachts, the 53F. Its semicustom abovedeck and belowdecks spaces, stowage solutions and wide, well-protected, walkaround side decks all hinted at the boat’s modus operandi: to travel far and wide in comfort and safety. The Iliad 60 continues the theme in a larger package. Her CE-A class hull has a reported range of 3,500 nautical miles with standard 600-hp Volvo Penta D8s.

I was on my third trip up the dock for another load of gear when I noticed the red plastic “For Sale” sign neatly lashed to a pulpit with waxed marline. The sign read: 38-foot trawler, ready for world cruising, fully equipped, Must sell immediately, best offer by May 1. That skipper hadn’t been around the dock in a few weekends, which was unusual. I knew him, this fellow we’ll call Hal, but in the boating way rather than socially.

Photos by Dori Arrington Moored quietly along the Chesapeake Bay, the 76-foot trawler Walrus looks like it slipped out of another century. The gleaming aluminum hull, jaunty smokestack and graceful fantail stern hearken back to a time when oceangoing yachts balanced function and beauty in equal measure. Yet, this is no museum piece. Beneath its classic lines beats the heart of a modern cruiser that has been thoughtfully upgraded for a new adventure: the Great Loop. The view from the pilothouse.

Most trawlers are designed around a familiar assumption. Diesel engines sit on the shafts, forming the mechanical heart of the vessel. Everything else is arranged around that fixed condition. Layout, tankage, sound insulation and interior volumes are optimized within those boundaries. It is a proven approach, but one that fixes the architecture early. Designing the OTG 20 without diesel engines on the shafts allows a realignment of how space, safety and comfort are organized.

Photos courtesy of Northman Yachts Poland has emerged during the past decade as a formidable boatbuilding location, attracting established European and American companies to take advantage of a deep and seasoned workforce. A number of its homegrown brands have extended their reach to American shores, too. Northman Yachts is one such builder. Its latest model, the 1300 Trawler, made its Americas debut at February’s Miami International Boat Show. She was docked stern-to the throngs of showgoers.

Story + Photos Matty Solow I fell in love with boating when I was 11. Sailing a Sunfish on an inland lake in Maine gave me a feeling that I could never find elsewhere. That connection to the water remains with me some 60 years later. About 25 years ago, I switched from sailing to power and purchased a 1986 48-foot Tollycraft. One of the most peaceful places for me is on my boat, sitting on a mooring or nestled in a beautiful harbor surrounded by the sights and sounds of the sea.

Every afternoon, Robert Creech leaves his home near where the Intracoastal Waterway whisks boaters safely past Cape Fear and Frying Pan Shoals in Southport, N.C. He visits Morningstar Marinas, looking for boats flying the America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association burgee. Creech and his wife, Kay, are the organization’s harbor hosts for Southport, a job they take seriously—and enjoy enormously. “The calls start before people arrive,” he says of the Loopers who cruise here.

The 430 EXP is a two-stateroom boat with an asymmetrical layout (her starboard side has a wide, protected side deck). This model also has features we know and like on sisterships from the Poland-based builder, such as a C-shape settee in the cockpit that can face forward or aft, sizable panes of glass in the superstructure, and folding bulwarks that expand her alfresco entertaining spaces.

We all know what a razor is. With a lifetime of beards, mustaches and other facial silliness, I know as well as anyone. But there is an intellectual razor as well: a snippet that provides a general rule for common things. The best known is Occam’s razor, misspelled for William of Ockham, who lived from about 1287 to about 1347. He stated that, when faced with compelling explanations for a problem, the simplest one is usually the best.