Posted by Patrick King on Mon, Dec 05, 2011 @ 11:16 AM
With all the new gadgets available on the marine market today I’m surprised that hydraulic steering is not used on more small boats. Lets face it, if you are about to take invest in a small craft why not increase its value by ensuring the utmost safety and performance that this steering system affords? I find it to be one of the best yet most overlooked options on the market.
Here is a photo of a customer’s 6 year-old daughter running their Nantucket Skiff equipped with BayStar™ hydraulic steering. This would neither be wise nor safe with a conventional system.
Give it a try. I think you’ll agree that hydraulic steering is worth the extra few bucks over the typical cable-type steering which is standard on almost all small boats.
~ Chris Roth
Posted by Joe Kelly on Tue, Sep 27, 2011 @ 12:03 PM
As I have grown older and become slightly wiser, my knife of choice has changed. The "best" knife for boating does not exist. It is a preference.
Some of the things I have used my knife for:
- Cutting fishing line
- Cutting heavy lines that have become jammed
- Saved a seagull
- Sawed away splintered wood and fiberglass
- Used the handle to bang out cotter pins
- Used the handle to bang bent metal
- Used the tip to spin a screw if time was of the essence
- Cut dinner
- Cut lines caught on props and rudders
Accessibility- How accessible your knife is very important. A lot of boaters store their knives down in some deep dark cubby. The problems with this are that when you really need a knife you need it fast. I always keep mine clipped onto the most outer piece of clothing I have on. This means that if I put on foul weather pants I take my knife off my shorts and then put the knife into a pocket on my foulies. If you do not like carrying the knife look around your boat and find a good place that you can easily stow your knife.
If you are going to put the knife in a cubby it might not hurt to put it in a zip-loc bag. Three things about that will help. The bag will help keep moisture out. If you are on salt water this is especially important. You can use the bag for preventative maintenance and spray WD-40 into it so your knife always has some lubricant. The final and most important thing you can use the bag to help you find the knife. Purchase a few of the multi-colored bags. Use the red bag for your knife. Now you have something larger to look for when you need it.
Another option for a very accessible knife is to permanently it. Below is a good knife for this purpose. The sheath lets you use either a ziptie for around something or four small wood screws with a washer.
Safety Knife with Sheath
I have seen a few skiff owners attach the knife on the seat back.
Where to mount a knife on a Nantucket Skiff
Blunt Tip vs. Pointed Tip
I have found that using a blunt tip knife fits my needs the best It is a bit safer to handle this type of knife in rough conditions. The below knife has a fully serrated blade with a blunt tip. It is the exact knife I currently use.
Gerber EZ-Rescue
Serrated vs. Strait Blade
Strait blades are more durable and easy to sharpen. Serrated blades are a bit lighter and better for cutting rope or sawing at items. My choice on this option is serrated. The time that you want your knife the most is when you are sawing at a line that is caught and about to cause harm.
Overall have a knife on board, know where it is and keep it well maintained.
Posted by Joe Kelly on Thu, Sep 22, 2011 @ 02:09 PM
Looking towards Navy Point Marina in Sackets Harbor
Sackets Harbor is located on Lake Ontario. It is in the north east corner 40 miles south of the Canadian Border by water. It is a small town with a year round population of under 2,000. The town has a lot of history and just as importantly a lot of great boating.
Getting to Sackets is quite easy by boat. You have lots of deep water in Lake Ontario. Your biggest concern will be if you are coming from Henderson Harbor. That approach does send you past a few shoals and islands that have shoals running off from them.
You will have a few options to put your boat. The largest marina is Navy Point Marina. This is a great spot with lots of slips and a great view of town and the water. Navy Point Marina is on its own small peninsula that faces town. If you walk towards the main bay though on their property you can are greeted with a large expanse of water looking north. The best part about the marina in our opinion would be the picnic tables and grills with the north looking vantage. You will find other boaters hanging out over here for fun conversation and meeting some locals.
Many of the towns we visit it is hard to pick just one favorite place for dinner. It is an easy choice when visiting Sackets though. Tin Pan Galley has amazing food, great service and a wonderful patio. I have never been there and not had the Spinach and Artichoke Dip. There is just something different and great about it. Make sure to make a reservation on nice summer and fall days. It can get crowded, especially on the patio.
Tin Pan Galley patio
After dinner walk down to the Parade/ Battlefield Grounds. If you just walk down the Main Street towards the water you will find them. Sometimes reenactments take place here. If anything you will have a spectacluar place to watch the sun set!
Looking out towards Lake Ontario from Sackets Harbor
Sackets Harbor in the morning
Posted by Joe Kelly on Fri, Sep 16, 2011 @ 06:24 AM
Oxford Maryland is one of those towns that appeals to all types of boaters. Many professional Captains always stop into on their way south or north, relaxed cruisers tend to stay a few extra days and people who have never been their always leave saying they will come back. Oxford is located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It is a quaint town that has a deep marine heritage. It is home to less than 1000 people and is one of the oldest towns in America. The town has a great historical feel because of the old homes that are kept in pristine condition. Many of the locals are avid boaters and therefore take care of their fellow transient boaters. It is not uncommon to hear stories of people meeting on the docks and then having a local invite a transient boater back to their home for dinner.
On my recent trip to Oxford, on a Nantucket Skiff, I took a few pictures and put together a small guide for a boater’s first trip there!
Navigating to Oxford:
As you go up the Tred Avon River you will pass a large Red floating navigational aid. (R "2" Flashing Red every 4 seconds) Leave this on your Starboard side. Keep an eye out for the ferry that crosses the Tred Avon between Oxford and Bellevue. It is a relatively slow ferry but take it's stern out of courtesy. You will find a lot of "watermen" out on the water during your approach. Watermen is the colloquial term for an eastern shore commercial fisherman or fisher woman. Please give them clearance as well because most likely they will have lines out for crabbing, fishing or working on catching oysters. After you pass the red buoy and the ferry keep an eye out for a day mark that is 15 feet tall showing red. This marks the entrance to Oxford. Make sure you keep this red on your starboard side as well. The harbor after this is very well marked.
Where to Dock:
Oxford has many options for dockage or anchoing. If you have the swing room you can anchor almost anywhere in the harbor as long as you are out of the main channel. If you want a dock you can stay at any of these marinas.
- Oxford Boatyard
- Hinckley Boatyard
- Campbell's Boatyard (3 locations)
All of these boatyards are very nice. The one thing to note is that Campbell's has a total of three boatyards in Oxford so you have many location options. Campbells also has the most extensive repair facilities.
Where to Eat:
Pope's Tavern is a great place to get some wonderful food in a great atmosphere. You can eat at either the Tavern or in the more formal dinning room. The formal dinning room is very nice with great architecture. I loved the detailed tin ceiling. For boaters though the best part is the POPE MOBILE!!! If you call the Tavern they will drive and pick you up at any of the local marina's.
The Tavern will pick up any boaters from local marinas in the Pope Mobile
Latitude is a 5 minute walk out of town and very much worth it. You will find many locals here enjoying food at the bar or the sit down tables. When you walk there do not be confused when you see a gas pump outside. Yes it is formal dinning and the sole gas station in town. I would suggest the Oyster's Rockefeller.
The Masthead is the perfect place to eat a true eastern shore meal and watch the sunset. They have dock space so you can drive the boat over for lunch or dinner. You can eat on the deck and look out over the water. I would suggest ordering a "Mess of Crabs". Don't expect to keep your hands clean. Dig into the wonderful Maryland Crabs and have fun!
Enjoy your time in Oxford. It is a great place to relax, take long walks and enjoy the quite town.
Some of the workboats in town
View of the Harbor
Cutts and Case- A traditional boatyard that is definitely worth exploring
Posted by Joe Kelly on Sat, Sep 03, 2011 @ 04:01 AM
On the recent Cape Cod Circumnavigation we took a brand new Nantucket Skiff on a 225 mile trip in four days. The boat had an Evinrude E-Tec 60-HP engine on it.
The motor came out of the box, put on to the boat and then I took off. With some other engines you have long break in periods where you need to put around at 1/4 throttle for hours on end and constantly changing the RPM of the motor. Not the case with this motor.
Another thing that really impressed me was the minimal use of oil. Two-Strokes over the past few years have been given a dirty name. The models from 10 years ago you would need to mix oil directly into your gas and they would burn a lot. There is no comparison with the new E-Tec two cylinders. During the trip I only burnt 3-4 cups of oil judging by the below picture. I was averaging 20 knots during the longer passages but sometimes going wide open throttle touching 30 knots.
We only used this much oil for the entire trip!!
When you do need to fill up the oil it is a very simple procedure. Turn off the engine before you begin. On the outboard, the top cover is removed. This is called the engine cowl. Taking it off only involves opening two levers located on either side of the engine. Evinrude built these large enough so that if your hands are wet or the outboard is wet you will still have enough grip. You then pull the cowl off the top of the outboard and place it inside the boat. The oil reservoir on the newest model 60-hp is located on the port side of the motor. When you unscrew the cap it has a built in safety lanyard so it can not fall into the water. Pour your oil in and you are ready to go. One thing to note is be careful where you put your hand on the motor after it has been running. Some areas can get very hot.
Overall very happy with the engine and glad it stood up to our trip. It was fuel efficient, quiet and had lots of power and torque for maneuvering up the backsides of waves in the heavier conditions.
Posted by Joe Kelly on Thu, Aug 25, 2011 @ 08:21 AM
A great night sleeping under the stars on the Skiff. I set my alarm for 4:30am and was greeted to a beautiful pre-dawn morning. There was a light south west breeze and enough light from the stars that navigation was easy getting out of the harbor.
I left Nantucket harbor and set my first course for about a quarter mile off the Great Point Light House. It was 7 nautical miles to that point. The seas were one foot or less coming from behind me. At Great Point I started to get more light from the sun but it still had not come up from the horizon.
Sunrise off Great Point Nantucket
After getting to great point I headed almost due south towards Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. This was about a 20 mile leg of the trip. The actual sunrise occurred during this part of the trip. Off Monomoy you are greeted with a lot of shoals to navigate through if you decide to stay close to shore. It is very well marked but I unfortunately ran into a very heavy fog bank. The picture below shows pulling up to one of the marks where fog bank began. After this picture was taken I was in fog for almost 2 hours.
When I came out of the fog around Eastham on Cape Cod it was a beautiful sunny day. The wind had started to pick up but I was protected by the large dunes along Cape Cod. I rounded Provincetown around 10am.
I decided to take a break from running the boat and decide if I should pull into Provincetown or go across Cape Cod Bay to Green Harbor to get fuel. As I was looking at the different distances on the GPS and deciding what the best use of time and safest decision would be a whale surfaced 200 feet from the boat!!!! The wale came up twice to get air and then disappeared. I tried to get a picture but unfortunately missed it. After that excitement I spent some more time thinking about my fuel situation and decided to go 20 miles across Cape Cod Bay and get fuel in Green Harbor.
The trip over to Green Harbor was very easy. I pulled in and Chris Roth came down to the gas dock and met me. We chatted about the trip for 30 minutes and then pushed off the dock for the last leg up to Boston. The last 30 miles up to Boston were rough. The wind had picked up but I was glad I left so early from Nantucket. It was around 1pm when I pulled into the Harbor.
I was a happy boater docking the boat that afternoon!!! 225 Nautical miles in 4 days!!!!
Pulling into home!! Boston Harbor Lighthouse
Posted by Joe Kelly on Wed, Aug 24, 2011 @ 04:17 AM
Woke up early in Edgartown on Saturday August 20th. My plan for the day was to get over to Nantucket in time to watch some of Nantucket Race Week sailing regatta. I purchased fuel at Edgartown Marine just before I left. There fuel dock is very easy to approach as long as you head into the current during your docking.
Edgartown harbor has a huge amount of current that runs through it. In a small or large boat you need to be very conscious of this. In April of 2007 a big storm broke through Norton Point Beach. This has happened in the past and over time the breach fills in. The breach is one of the main causes of the large current in Edgartown harbor.
A chart dated 1894 shows the 1886 breach that connected Katama Bay to the Atlantic Ocean. Image NOAA
As you navigate around the harbor keep your eye on how the current is moving your boat around. There are some areas that back eddys occur, especially around fixed piers. The current also is felt when anchoring in the outer harbor. If you are going to put your skiff out there I would suggest putting it close to the beach on the Chappaquiddick side and a good distance away from the mouth of the harbor.
Just as I headed out of the Harbor I saw some friends on a sailboat anchored. Four of them had purchased a cruising sailboat and were fixing it up themselves. They plan on sailing from the New England area, down to the Caribbean and then over to Europe. Best of luck to the crew on RIOT. As I left they snapped a few picture of the skiff also!!
Leaving Edgartown Harbor enroute Nantucket!!!
The trip over to Nantucket was really easy. There was a light south west breeze with maybe a 1 foot chop. The course that I took to Nantucket is ONLY for small shallow draft boats. Their are a lot of shoals if you take the straitest route from the tip of Chappaquiddick directly to Nantucket. From Island to Island it is about 18 miles. The first harbor that you can enter when you get to Nantucket is Madaket. It is truly one of my favorite spots in New England. It has a very narrow passage in with most of the harbor being to shallow to navigate. All of the shallow water though gives it the appearance of a tropical area.
Madaket Habor. Madaket Marine is the building off the port bow.
One thing that should be noted about Madaket is all of the shell fishing that is done here. Please watch the shoreline for people wading in the water raking, snorkeling or scuba diving. If you see people shell fishing it is appropriate to reduce your speed so as to not give them a large wake.
I pulled into Madaket Marine to take a quick break and grab a cold soda. It is a great marina with a full service boatyard.
I left Madaket and headed out to the race course to watch the sailboats. The wind picked up some and the sailors on board the boats were obviously having a blast.
The final part of the trip was heading into the main Nantucket Harbor. Going into Nantucket is always a treat. The scenery is beautiful as well as some spectacular boats to look at. Below are a few examples of the boats you will see in Nantucket.
Motor Yacht Sea Owl leaving Nantucket
Motor Yacht Innisfail
The Nantucket Lightship
After driving around the harbor some I need to spend some time on logistics for the trip. My plan had been to spend the next day (Sunday) on Nantucket and then leave for Boston on Monday. Because of the weather forecasts though I needed to leave very early the next day so I would not get stuck in a Storm!!
Getting dockage in the middle of the summer on Nantucket is difficult. It is next to impossible during Nantucket Race week. I knew this and had the boat anchored. The logistical issue was that I wanted to leave the next morning at 4:30am. I knew that the wind would not start to pick up until 8-9am. So with those 3-4 hours of perfectly flat seas I could go much faster and knock off a lot of miles on my 100 mile trip back to Boston. I had arranged to sleep at a friends house for the night but needed to use the water taxi to get back to the skiff on the anchor.
Well......The water taxi only runs from 7am until midnight. The solution was sleep on the boat!!! I put the cushions down on the cockpit floor and jumped in my sleeping bag (very glad I brought it). It was a beautiful night under the stars!
Posted by Joe Kelly on Mon, Aug 22, 2011 @ 02:15 PM
I spent Thursday night in Vineyard Haven at some good friends house. We got take out at the Art Cliff Diner. The food was amazing as usual. Went to bed early though from the long day of travel.
I took the boat out in the morning with two different couples who were interested in the skiff. It was still quite breezy but we had a nice time cruising around Vineyard Haven Harbor and the Lagoon. The second couple I took out were leaving on the noon ferry so I dropped them off at the ferry dock. After they left I started to make my way over to Edgartown.
Leaving the Steamship Authority Dock in Vineyard Haven, MA bound for Edgartown
The strong south west breeze had already stirred up Vineyard Sound so it was a bumpy ride over to Edgartown. Once in Edgartown I spent some time taking out a few more people that had been interested in the skiff and had contacted us. It was alot of fun to meet some great people and share the story of the Nantucket Skiff.
I took one group into one of my favorite spots on Martha's Vineyard. Caleb's Pond is a tidal pond on Chappaquiddick. You can enter the pond from the main harbor in Edgartown. There are spots in the pond, especially at the entrance, that are very shallow. When entering the pond stay as north as possible at the mouth. As you go through the channel stay close to the outside of all the 90 degree turns and you should have at least 4 feet of water underneath your boat.
After an extensive day of cruising I got to bed early so I could wake up very early the next day and make my way over to Nantucket!
Posted by Patrick King on Sun, Aug 21, 2011 @ 12:21 PM
Here are some shots of Joe with the Nantucket Skiff taken a couple of hours ago in Marshfield on his way to Boston. He'll file a complete report on his trip shortly.
Posted by Joe Kelly on Fri, Aug 19, 2011 @ 06:19 AM
A perfect day on the Skiff!
After packing up the boat at the shop in Marshfield, MA we took the boat down to the water. We put the boat into the water at a marina in Plymouth, MA. By the time I had stowed my gear on the boat, did my final check on making sure I had everything and put my life jacket on it was 7:30am.
We knew the biggest weather issue for the day was the strong south westerly that would start to pick up as the day went on. As I drove the boat out of Plymouth harbor it was blowing about 10 knots and the seas had not had time to start to build much chop. I turned the corner near Plymouth light house and took off going south towards the Cape Cod Canal.
The trip down to the Canal took about an hour and a half. The boat averaged about 20 knots. During this leg of the trip I had my morning coffee and a breakfast sandwich with a big smile on my face.
10 more miles until the Cape Cod Canal
I knew that I would be going against the current in the Canal. When planning the trip we were faced with the option of leaving early and missing the heavier wind in the late afternoon from the sea breeze but having current with us in the canal or we could have done the opposite. We chose early trip but LOTS of current. As we went through the canal there were 4-5 foot standing waves that were built up by the water rushing through. These rough patches though are easy to dodge as long as you are willing to dodge back and forth.
After going through the canal I wanted to fill up on gas. I took the boat into Onset. This is a small town just west of the Canal. The Onset Bay Marina staff was very nice and had lots of questions about the skiff. At the gas dock I put in 4 gallons or a little under a quarter of a tank.
Onset Bay
I left Onset around 11am and headed out into Buzzards Bay going towards Woods Hole. Buzzards Bay is notorious in a South West breeze for being choppy. It lived up to its reputation yet again!!!!! After a 15 mile slog up the bay going due south west I turned the boat into Woods Hole. I had the current going with me and shot half way through Woods Hole. I decided to take a break near the Woods Hole Oceangraphic Institute and the Steamship Authority Ferry Terminal before the last 5 miles to the Vineyard.
Woods Hole
After the little break in Woods Hole I took off for the last leg of the day. I pulled into Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard around 2:30pm. I made a quick stop at the Black Dog Marina docks to run in and grab a few supplies. I then took the boat over to Owen Park and tied up to the town dock. It is one of my favorite places to keep a boat for the night. Very protected and lots of beautiful boats to look at!!