Boating is the world's foremost magazine for boating enthusiasts. Written by experts for those who love the sport, the editorial covers the waterfront -- from runabouts to sportfish convertibles to luxury showpieces, and everything in between.
A lot can happen in 525,600 minutes. That’s one year, for those who don’t like to do math. We’ve seen artificial intelligence enter the world of collision-avoidance technology, AI-powered autopilots and even a safety drone with an infrared camera that can locate a person overboard and drop rescue equipment to them. Did I mention self-driving boats? They’re here too. And that’s just the start. There is now a selective catalytic reduction system for superyachts that enables them to cruise in environmentally sensitive areas by vastly reducing emissions. One superyacht builder, Sanlorenzo, has constructed a yacht that runs its house loads on green methanol. The builder developed the system with Siemens Energy, and the technology turns green methanol into hydrogen gas while fuel cells use the gas to produce electricity by…
Back in the day, would sometimes awake up with a start, anxious about my fishing boat, worrying about my pride and joy as it bobbed in the slip, unattended, miles from my house. Was it taking on water? Was the bilge pump working? Were the batteries charged? Were thieves removing my electronics or, worse, stealing my boat? Today, advanced app-based boat-monitoring and security systems can eliminate sleepless nights and provide assurance that things are OK, no matter how many miles separate you from your boat. All it takes is a few simple clicks on your smartphone to get an update on your vessel’s vital signs. Most of these systems will immediately alert you through the app on your smartphone should a sensor—such as high-bilge-water sensor—be triggered, giving you time to…
Boating is expensive enough without having to replace all of the onboard electronics unexpectedly. Yet this was my dad’s fate one day in the late 1980s when Windancer, his beloved C&C 37, sustained a lightning strike while hanging from its mooring in a Connecticut harbor. Granted, Windancer was a modest sailboat, meaning that its discrete electronics were far more basic than the high-tech networked equipment found aboard today’s tricked-out rides, but I still remember my dad’s frustration at having to rebuild the nav station. While we were lucky there wasn’t a fire and that we had insurance, the situation still cost several months of sailing. We were far from alone. Lightning strikes have threatened ships since the days of the ancient mariner. Ben Franklin’s famous lightning rods deliver strike-to-ground protection,…
To be conversationally fluent on the topic of boat design and, more specifically hull design, you’ll need an awareness of the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools used by designers, naval architects and engineers. CFD works like a virtual water tank, simulating how water flows around a hull in real-world conditions. Once limited to costly government, industrial or academic research projects, many CFD programs can now be run on standard engineering workstations, making 3D hydrodynamic analysis available to even small design teams. While the democratization of CFD can be largely attributed to our collective access to ever-increasing processing power, another factor contributing to the rapid adoption of CFD is the concept of the “Digital Twin.” ost hulls, in fact most boats in their entirety, are built digitally during the design process…
The holy trinity of sail material qualities has always been light, durable and resistant to stretch. Inevitably, as with many engineering problems, there are conflicts between these demands that require compromise. For example, a massively strong, overbuilt sail won’t stretch, and while it will be durable, it will definitely not be light. While two out of three ain’t bad, where the compromises are made will depend entirely on the sailor. And for cruising sailors, the priority is almost always durability. It’s important to understand then, that advances in sail material technology are context dependent. And not everyone will be willing, nor will they need, to pay for the very latest that technology has to offer. Since the 1950s and the advent of the polyester material known as Dacron, sails have…
“Do you like to breathe? Do you know where the oxygen comes from?” This is one of my favorite cocktail party icebreakers. Most people I ask are surprised to learn that phytoplankton are responsible for producing 50 percent of the planet’s oxygen and absorb nearly one-third of human-generated carbon dioxide. The primary source of nutrients for phytoplankton comes from a process called the Whale Pump. As you might guess from that name, whales play an important role in the complex systems that support life on planet Earth; because those nutrients generated by whale pump are whale feces and urine. When whales feed at depth, they return to the surface for air where they expel nutrient-rich waste. These nutrients feed the carbon-capturing phytoplankton blooms. Globally, marine phytoplankton capture the equivalent of…
