Good Reads - Ocean Navigator

02 Jun

Marine Industries Association of South Florida and Informa Markets U.S. Boat Shows Release Results of the Fort Lauderdale InternationalL Boat Show 60TH Anniversary Economic Impact Study

Ocean NavigatorGood Reads

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Following the 60th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS), held October 30th through November 3rd, 2019, Thomas J. Murray and Associates, Inc. conducted a study on the economic impact of the world’s largest in-water boat show. The Marine Industries Association of South Florida (MIASF), owners of the show, and Informa Markets U.S. Boat Shows, producers of the show, released the impressive results of the now completed study this week. The major findings in the report indicate FLIBS generated $1.3 billion in economic output throughout the state of Florida. That number is up from $857…

03 Apr

Pushing batteries to the limit

Ocean NavigatorGood Reads

For several years, I was part of a project developing energy systems built around massively powerful alternator-type devices; the one I have now will generate up to 8 kilowatts (kW). To put this in perspective, that would be 666 amps at 12 volts! (See the Integrel system at OceanPlanetEnergy.com; in full disclosure, please note that I now have a commercial interest in OceanPlanet and the Integrel system.) But, there is not a lot of point in having this kind of generating capability if there is nowhere to dump and store the energy. The “holy grail,” from my marine energy perspective,…

03 Apr

Fiddler's Green

Ocean NavigatorGood Reads

Olaf Harken Co-founder of sailing equipment maker Harken Inc., Olaf Harken, died on Oct. 21, 2019. He was 80 years old. Harken was born in Sumatra, Indonesia, to Dutch and Swedish parents. He fled the country with his mother and brother, Peter, when Japan attacked at the beginning of WWII. After getting an engineering degree at Georgia Tech, Harken took an engineering job in New York City. He ended up leaving that job, however, relocating to Wisconsin to assist Peter, who was building small sailboats for college racing teams. Olaf and Peter’s sailboat building business morphed into the hugely…

02 Jan

The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier

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The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier by Ian Urbina Alfred A. Knopf, New York 544 pages The basic premise of The Outlaw Ocean by Ian Urbina is a riff on the classic logic problem referred to commonly as “the prisoner’s dilemma.” We have treaties that protect the oceans and the people who sail upon them. And we have enforcement protocol for these treaties. But, while collectively we have incentive to enforce the treaties — thereby protecting our collective welfare (the cleanliness and health of the oceans’ ecosystems, the health of the fish and mammals that swim in…

01 Nov

Endeavour: The Ship That Changed the World

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Endeavour: The Ship That Changed the World by Peter Moore Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2018 Talk about good timing: Just as British author Peter Moore was putting the finishing touches on his biography of HMS Endeavour and its multifarious 18th-century voyages, marine archaeologists in Rhode Island pinpointed its final resting place near Newport, where in 1778 it had been scuttled by the British to prevent the French fleet from attacking. Most historical books are about people, with boats, countries and conflicts as supporting characters. In a refreshing twist, Moore flips this formula and makes Endeavour the protagonist while James Cook,…

01 Nov

Sailing America

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Sailing America by Onne van der Wal Introduction by Gary Jobson Rizzoli New York, 2019 In a magazine like Ocean Navigator, the photos play as big a part as the words, from the front cover all the way through. And we’ve been lucky to feature photos from some excellent photographers, including the Newport, R.I.-based dean of sailing photography: Onne van der Wal. His photos have graced several of our covers over the years and appeared inside the magazine as well. Now, van der Wal has assembled 200 of his photos depicting every aspect of sailing across the U.S. into a…

29 Aug

Supernavigators: Exploring the Wonder of How Animals Find Their Way

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Supernavigators: Exploring the Wonder of How Animals Find Their Way by David Barrie The Experiment Publishing Co. 2019 When Cole Porter wrote, “And this is why birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it,” he was referring to falling in love. But as science continues to discover, he could also have been referencing the ability of these same creatures to navigate long distances and then find their way home, as described in David Barrie’s new book, Supernavigators: Exploring the Wonder of How Animals Find Their Way. Many of us are familiar with the amazing journeys of the…

27 Jun

Murder Aboard: The Herbert Fuller Tragedy and the Ordeal of Thomas Bram

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Murder Aboard: The Herbert Fuller Tragedy and the Ordeal of Thomas Bram by C. Michael Hiam Murder Aboard jumps right into the action: An 11-person crew of the barquentine Herbert Fuller departs Boston with a load of timber in July 1896, bound for Buenos Aires. Also on board is a young Harvard dropout, a gentleman with a frail constitution who thought the southern climate would settle his nerves. He is sailing as the ship’s one passenger and shares the aft cabin with the captain and the captain’s wife. Within days of departure, when the ship is far offshore, the captain,…

28 Feb

Sailing to the Edge of Time

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Sailing to the Edge of Time by John Kretschmer Adlard Coles 2018 Sailing to the Edge of Time is a splendid book of nautical lore and, in its way, a profound book — a philosophical inquiry into the seductive enticement of seafaring. John Kretschmer is a professional mariner. A former delivery skipper and now, at 59, owner and master of a Kaufman 47 cutter, Quetzal, he makes his living conducting deepwater training passages on trans-Atlantic runs and in the Caribbean and eastern Med. “Yes, people pay for the torment I promise to dispense,” he tells us, “which strikes land people…

31 Dec

Winter Passage: Essays, Memoirs, Journeys

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Winter Passage: Essays, Memoirs, Journeys Six Mile Creek Press by Alan Littell Longtime newspaperman, travel writer and Ocean Navigator contributor Alan Littell has compiled a volume of his writings that demonstrates both his globetrotting experience and his keen skill at eyewitness journalism. This reflective collection of essays speaks to the power of nature, the tug of memory and the insights of travel for those with open eyes. Two of the essays were first published in ON. The title essay, “Winter Passage,” is a 1960 account of a trans-Atlantic crossing aboard a freighter, back when merchant ships still booked passengers. The…