Ocean Navigator - January/February 2023 - Ocean Navigator

First Delivery

A captain recounts his first paid passage in the dead of the Alaskan winter The engine quit, in the worst of all places at the worst of all times. I experienced that moment a long time ago, but I have thought of it often. It was 2009 and I had just quit my job in law enforcement and was set on becoming a professional sailor. Working part time as a boat broker opened the initial doors to boat delivery contracts. These entry-level opportunities were somewhere between leftover and rotten fruit, and this particular peach of an opportunity was a 30-foot…

Cold Boxes and Compressors

Refrigeration trends for voyagers Whenever cruising boaters gather marine refrigeration is always a hot topic. Back in the day it was a lot more controversial due to the prevalence of competing system philosophies, but what was once the new kid on the block now dominates. And the winners, by a long shot, are the many different 12-volt powered systems, either in self-contained refrigerators that are semi-permanently installed or as the cooling equipment for a custom built-in fridge. In the past you used to see a lot of rugged, long-distance cruising boats with refrigeration compressors powered by belts from the main engine, or…

Practical Cool

Marine refrigeration design, maintenance and repair Over the past 25 years, first with a CSY 44 monohull and now a St. Francis 44 catamaran, I have spent countless hours and way too much money messing with my refrigeration systems. Early on, I needed professional help before attempting modifications, maintenance or repairs. Now, after all this time at it (for me, learning these things takes time) I am a bit smarter and can do most of the work myself. Below find some of what I have learned along the way about refrigeration equipment design, maintenance and repair. Since big refrigeration systems…

A Tale of Two Rallies

A Look at Autumn U.S. to the Caribbean Sailing Rallies Thinking of taking your boat south to the West Indies for a winter of sailing among the tropical islands of the West Indies? Each fall, hundreds do. Some go on their own schedule, but the majority, hundreds of boats, join a rally. There are two, the North American Rally to the Caribbean (NARC) and the Salty Dawg Rally, that depart the U.S. East Coast in late October or early November, for the 1,500-mile offshore voyage to the Eastern Caribbean. This past fall, those two rallies experienced different conditions, and therein…

Speedy clipper Dreadnought

Dreadnought, was one of the most famous of all the clipper ships, built in 1853 in the shipyard of Currier and Townsend in Newburyport, Mass. Measuring 212 feet LOA with a 41-foot beam rigged as a barque, Dreadnought was built for the Red Cross Line of New York, one of the many packet companies that revolutionized passages across the Atlantic, usually from New York to Liverpool. Packets began as a business as early as 1817, carrying mail, goods and passengers, running on the first regular schedules. Dreadnought could carry as many as 200 passengers both in steerage and in cabins.…