Articles - Ocean Navigator

For want of a chronometer

By the time George Simpson took command of the transport hospital ship, Arniston, in 1814, he was a 60-year-old, seasoned mariner. Arniston was owned by a company called Borradailes of London and had been requisitioned by the Royal Navy to bring invalided soldiers of the 73rd Regiment and some of their families back to England from Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka). Arniston was an East India merchant ship built on the Thames in 1794. Armed with 58 guns, it was 175 feet LOA, with a 43-foot beam, drawing 17 feet. On this voyage, Arniston would be homeward bound with 378…

Pirate’s Lair Shop now open!

From hats to hoodies, performance shirts to parkas (not that you'll need a parka on the race, but who are we to judge?) Pirate's Lair has you covered. Literally. Check out their shop!

Seminars Announced for October through February

All hands! One thing that makes Pacific Cup different from other major ocean races is our extensive support for our participants, including our seminars (the "Pacific Offshore Academy"). Our first seminar will take place October 9 at Richmond Yacht Club. It'll focus on some of the longer lead-time items you'll need to plan for to have your boat in ocean-ready condition. These will include presentations by experts and race veterans as well as breakout small group discussions to get detailed advice and answers to your questions. The agenda and speaker lineup are subject to change; here's the current plan: Preparation…

Banner Year for 2022 Pac Cup: We have a (full) waiting list

There's nothing like pent-up demand. With the cancellation of the 2020 race due to COVID, a significant number of our entrants simply rolled their entries over to 2022. Add to that a healthy dose of new and returning racers from prior years, and we have a very complete entry line. A bit over a month ago, we had a flood of entries from the larger "sled-like" boats. One can only assume that the rumor mill got churning among that crowd as they assumed -- correctly -- that we might be activating the waiting list. The sudden rise in entrant count…

Fall rallies recover from COVID slowdown

Boats in Gran Canaria preparing for the 2021 ARC crossing to the Caribbean. Rallies are a popular way for voyagers to cross oceans in the company of other boats. The transatlantic rally known as the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) (www.worldcruising.com) has been around for 35 years. In this year with the COVID pandemic still lingering, there seems to be pent-up demand and the ARC event has 150 entries and even spawned added interest in the ARC’s associated rally the ARC+. The ARC starts from Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands and proceeds 2,700 miles through the northeast trades to…

Victron BMS wins 2021 Husick award

The 2021 winner of the Ocean Navigator Chuck Husick Marine Technology Award is the Lynx Smart Battery Management System (BMS) (www.victronenergy.com/battery-management-systems/lynx-smart-bms). The Lynx unit is a full-featured BMSystem for managing lithium batteries, with capabilities like a battery monitor showing state of charge, a pre-alarm signal, Bluetooth connectivity, local and remote monitoring using a Victron GX device and more. Husick award judge and voyager Rebecca Childress wrote in an email, “Victron makes amazing products and this one sounds like another great way to stay on top of your electrical setup!” The runner-up finalist was the Groco E Valve series with a…

Boating media scholarship

The Boating Writers International (BWI) Active Interest Media Boating Journalist Scholarship was created to honor undergraduate college students who demonstrate a passion for the field of boating media. Applications for this year may be downloaded at www.bwi.org/scholarship-fund and will be accepted through January 15, 2022. If you know a deserving college student who would like to pursue a career in boating journalism, photography, video, broadcasting, film, or art, please encourage them to apply. Judges will look for applicants with talent, promise and firsthand knowledge of the boating life. To be considered for the $3,000 award, deliver applications to 4599 Deep River…

Notable New Titles

Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton 368 pp; $15.76 If you’re a big fan of polar exploration and its pantheon of brave leaders –– Shackleton, Ross, Scott, Peary and Franklin –– you probably think you’ve read everything there is to know about these treacherous expeditions to unmapped regions. But you’d be wrong, because until now the story of the ill-fated Antarctic Belgica expedition has never been published in the English language. This extraordinary story of man versus nature was first inspired by a casual reference to the expedition in a 2015 magazine article that Julian Sancton…

What is a marinized engine?

In a recent issue that included a story on repowering, we wrote that Volvo marine marinizes Kubota engines for some of its engine offerings. This point brought a response from Stanley Feigenbaum, one of the founders and former owners of Beta Marine engines in the U.S., who informed us that Volvo uses a diesel engine manufactured by the Shibaura engine company as the basis for some of its marine engines. This was helpful, but it raised the question: what exactly does marinizing an engine mean and why is it important? It’s no surprise that the marine engine market is significantly…

Managing a power rally to Mexico

Christy Donnelly aboard Varnebank running the med-evac emergency, using three mics – the California Baja ham net frequency and two different VHF channels Christy Steinman-Crawford Donnelly herded a fleet of 30 recreational powerboats on a 1,000-nautical-mile voyage down to Mexico, as communications director for the 2019 Cruise Underway to Baja Rally (CUBAR), a bi-annual cruise from San Diego to La Paz, Baja for 30 to 50 powerboats. It was an odyssey that included one medical evacuation at sea. Of course, that was not her first rodeo. Donnelly has navigated and sailed with the “best of the best.” She navigated…