The View from the Helm

I just returned from chartering a Sunsail Beneteau 473 in Croatia.  Beyond learning that Croatia is wonderful and the sun shone every day and humanity should never have migrated away from the shores of the Meditteranean, Sunsail has installed in some of their boats a holding tanks system that actually WORKS! They call them “gravity tanks.” It is so simple to use that.. you actually use it, and as a consequence the water in their huge marinas is so clean you can swim in it. At the hull in an easy to access location (inside a locker near the shitter) is a throughull fitting that is huge- I have no idea what goes on inside this thing. On top of it is a big red handle. When the handle is shut, the shit goes into the holding tank when you pump the toilet. When the handle is turned 90 degrees, two thing happen… the contents of the toilet go directly out to the sea when you pump it. And, the contents of the holding tank drain by gravity out to the sea. It’s as simple as that. And on our boat with three toilets, there was never any smell anywhere. It is simple, there are far fewer hose-clamped connections than any other system I am familar with, and did I mention, it doesn’t smell!

I have just returned from Miami Boat Show. My only interest was the sailboat part, held at Bayside. I regret to report that it has hit a new low. There were so few sailboats that they didn’t even bother moving the normal berth-holders out of their slips, lest it look woefully empty. To my eye there was only one boat of any interest on display- all the rest were cheaply built, poorly designed mass production consumer junk- the last thing we need any more of!

Morris yachts were in Miami, but not at the show. They had their beautiful, truly valuable yachts on display over in Coconut Grove, as far away from the grind-them-out-cheap crowd as they could get and still be in Miami. If they can stay in business, there is still hope.

The one boat of any interest to me at the show was the Presto sharpie. I don’t love this boat, (too special-purpose) but I know the builders who are fine people and I understand that in a world of 100,000 perfectly good and severely depreciated used sailboats begging for owners on Yachtword.com the only way to sell anything new is to chase tiny unserved niches, like shoal draft in the case of the Presto. When will our wealthy begin paying the vast premium required to buy a new and well designed yacht rather than a used sailboat? If that day ever comes, I’m back in business!

I have just returned from London Boat Show. My primary purpose was to meet with the editor of ClassicBoat magazine, which will be publishing a series of articles about my classic designs. The show followed the recent trend of being smaller each year, though what was missing were the plethora of massive powerboats chasing the maybe two customers left in the world who would want such a thing. The ClassicBoat stand was once again the best part of the show… remember, everyone, that I predicted in my memoir that the world of boating would go full circle and that what will be left in the end will be traditionally shaped, aesthetically derived, small raceable sailboats made of a material that grows on trees. The other thing that was really fun was the huge new aquasport pool where I leaned against the railing and watched improbably tiny kids trying to get their floating windsurfers to the northern end of the pool against a fan-generated wind. This, and anything shorter than fifteen feet that doesn’t consume fuel, is the future of boating!

I finally got to sail the Dave Gerr designed Nester dinghy that I converted from a pure rowboat over last winter. She sails fine, albeit with a bit of lee helm. And she twists bigtime as you can see, though not enough to actually let the ocean come in.

Paul and Chuck aboard Redwing

Paul Tingey (left) was happy to show off his recently finished Redwing in Auckland this February. The quality was beautiful, the ergonomics just as expected, the shape as close to perfect as anyone short of a reincarnated Nat Herreshoff could devise. And (whew) the two keelbolts that hold the keel on didn’t leak a drop. I think everyone who owns a motoryacht should have one of these on his boat deck. And everyone who doesn’t own a motoryacht though these will use a fixed, not removable, keel.