At the end of the last century, Dick and Gail Barnes disengaged from the workforce and community volunteer life and began consulting while waiting for the commissioning of a new Nordhavn 50 trawler-style motor vessel. Dick was the President of a natural gas distribution company and a pipeline transmission company. When home in Anchorage, Gail remains active as a volunteer at the Alaska Native Medical Center. Soon after moving from San Diego to Anchorage in 1966 they purchased an aluminum skiff; in 1971 they built a 19-foot rough-water river boat, and in 1991 bought a 28-foot Sea Sport cabin cruiser.…

Getting marine insurance in the continental US and Canada is simple enough. Most homeowners can add a boat to their home insurance policy. Geico, Progressive and other major retail insurance companies offer marine insurance, but they are typically limited to boats less than 50 feet worth less than $2.5 million. Even with this limitation the major carrier approach sounds like it might work for Robin and Dale, a couple in their mid-thirties living in Annapolis, Md. They just bought a well-equipped 1999 Island Packet 35 for $150,000. The boat is set up for offshore voyaging, with a watermaker, generator, galvanic…

Have you ever been in an uncomfortable at-anchor situation? A fisherman friend told me once that anchoring is about 70 percent of boating. Maybe, for some people, but I see a lot of folks sweating it out, and a lot of boats bumping and/or crashing into each other. How could this be? Little or no experience - the test first and the lesson afterwards and we live and learn. Here are some thoughts on anchoring that voyagers can take to heart. Once while anchored on a voyage, I  had to confront just such an unexpected anchoring situation. My mariner’s eye…