Ocean Navigator - Ocean Voyager 2025

Bluewater Gear Interview

A build-up to voyaging It was supposed to be a one-year sailing adventure, but it’s been 12. Sarah and Will Curry bought their first boat together in Mexico in 2012. They outfitted her for offshore use on a minimal budget and set sail across the Pacific in March 2013. After living the South Pacific dream, they sold the boat in Sydney, Australia, and a period of boat-less-ness ensued: No projects, no maintenance, and an easy land-travel life. It was during those six months that desperation grew for another cruising vessel on which to continue the life aquatic long-term. A Jeanneau…

Longer-Range Cat

The DEMEY 60 can cover more than 2,200 nautical miles at 9 knots without refueling. Sailors or couples looking to make the transition from a sailboat to a powerboat typically look at a trawler-style displacement boat, but a new catamaran from New Zealand gives them another option. The DEMEY 60 from Nic de Mey Yachts is powered by twin 550-hp lightweight Cummins diesels and has an estimated range of 2,238 nautical miles at 9.3 knots. That breaks down to 9.77 gallons per hour and 1.06 gallons per nautical mile. “That’s exactly what it’s targeted at with not only range but…

Spinning Wheels

From reversible and folding blades to changing pitch with rubber inserts, marine propellers are more versatile than ever. At the 2024 METSTRADE Show in Amsterdam, GORI Propeller introduced a hybrid folding propeller for electric and hybrid sailing yachts that can switch between regeneration and sailing modes. The Danish propeller maker said it has developed an integrated locking system that keeps the blades open when regeneration is prioritized. Through counter-rotating, the blades will release so they fold when the boat is in sailing mode. “Using the GORI 3-Blade Propeller for regeneration is not new, customers have been using our original propeller for several…

Offshore Safety Interview

The Colgates, the First Couple of Sailing In 1967, Doris Buchanan started working as a secretary to Bob Bavier, the executive vice president of Yachting magazine and the winning skipper of the America’s Cup in 1964. She had come from an advertising agency where Monday morning would usually be greeted by cranky co-workers to start the week. “(At Yachting) everybody was really happy on Monday mornings, and I didn’t know why,” she said. “I learned they were happy because they had been sailing all weekend, so I decided to learn to sail. The only place to go was Steve Colgate’s…

Prepping for Panama

What goes into planning a 5,200 mile voyage I’ve had a love of the sea for as long as I can remember. I did not have a boat growing up, but I had enough friends and extended family with boats that I spent time on the water every year as a kid, even if it was just a rowboat. I joined the Navy through the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship program and made my first ocean crossing from Pearl Harbor to San Diego as a midshipman. The ocean cast a spell on me. I spent almost 3 years after…

Voyaging Skills Interview

Sailors in the Vendée Globe faced multiple challenges including icebergs. An iceberg greeted Eric Bellion on the first day of 2025. This was not good news; he was not on a cruise ship bringing tourists to the Antarctic — but alone in the Southern Ocean — on Stand As One, a high-performance 60-foot sailboat weighing only around 8 tons, racing home to France via Cape Horn. The Vendée Globe is a round-the-world, solo, non-stop, without-assistance race that’s been held every four years or so since 1989. Ice is a real threat for any boat that heads into the Southern…

Tackling the Northwest Passage

A harrowing firsthand recollection of sailing from Maine to Alaska on a boat meant for the Caribbean. There are certain things in life for which no amount of research can prepare you — ventures of such breathtaking vastness, that when compared to any previous experience, the spirit would quail knowing what the mind can’t fathom. For me the biggest of these was the transit of the Northwest Passage, from Maine to Alaska in an ’80s vintage fiberglass cruising boat, Polar Sun. It had no insulation, paltry tankage, and a threadbare canvas enclosure barely clinging to its frame, limiting access to…

Fiddler’s Green

Sally Helme Elizabeth “Sally” Snowden Ely Helme of Middletown, R.I., beloved daughter, sister, aunt, niece, cousin and dog mom passed away unexpectedly on March 20, 2024, at 70. In her younger years her family summered on Shelter Island, N.Y., where Helme developed her skills and passion for sailing and boating. She sailed one-design boats, Woodpussy and Comet, at Shelter Island Yacht Club (SIYC) on the east end of Long Island for multiple regattas. She later moved up to sail large handicap boats as crew and occasional skipper of the family’s Bristol 34 Typhoon. She was SIYC’s first female sailing director.…

The End of an Era

Dear Readers, It is with much sadness that I must inform you that this will be the last edition of Ocean Navigator and Ocean Voyager. Since I acquired the rights to the publication in 2021, my team has worked hard to bring you great content, which I hope you found valuable. The publication was funded mostly by advertisers, and with all the new outlets that those advertisers have for promoting their products, traditional media has suffered. Over the past couple of years, fewer and fewer advertisers were able to support us, while costs continued to rise. I am very grateful…