FLOTSAM JETSAM
ODE TO TICONDEROGA
Designed by Bruce King and inspired by L. Francis Herreshoff’s Ticonderoga, Whitehawk’s 105-foot, cold-molded hull launched in 1978 from Rockland, Maine. This stately ketch has a three-stateroom, three-head layout with crew quarters. Lyman-Morse refitted her during the winter of 2010-11, replacing the teak decks and refurbishing the interior.
Whitehawk’s towering Sitka spruce masts were refinished in 2017. She is listed through Sparkman & Stephens for $3.95 million. sparkmanstephens.com
BUCKET AND CHUCK IT
The 5-gallon-bucket: It’s the unsung hero of boat gear. These plastic companions hold scrubbing suds, stow tools and, ahem, are there when nature calls and there’s no onboard facility. The problem is that most buckets fail after a few years of use. Yeti, known for coolers that hold ice for ages, aims to solve that dilemma. The company says its LoadOut bucket is overengineered to “to exceed any need, from the boat to the backyard.” And it comes in several colors. $40. yeti.com
WIRING MADE EASIER
If you’ve ever installed electronics, upgraded an electrical panel or replaced an old boat’s crusty wiring, chances are you’ve consulted a table to ensure you’re using the correct wire. Now the American Boat & Yacht Council has an app for that. Wire Sizer lets you enter the current draw, voltage drop, number of bundled wires and whether the wires run inside or outside an engine space. The app then prescribes the required wire size. Wire Sizer is downloadable from the Apple Store or Google Play for $5.
These boats have been a problem for a long time. … If we do not [remove them], the debris from the boats will physically impact organisms and ecosystems, such as corals and marine vegetation. — Tania Vazquez Rivera, Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, which established a protocol with the Coast Guard to remove more than 260 boats displaced when Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in September
’ROUND THE WORLD RUGGED
Racing more than 45,000 nautical miles around the world in thoroughbred sailboats capable of 20-plus knots requires specialty gear. And anyone who has had cold, wet feet knows how important sea boots are. Dubarry of Ireland is equipping Volvo Ocean Race teams Brunel and Scallywag with its Crosshaven boots. Made of leather, high-grip rubber, waterrepellent Cordura fabric and a Gore-Tex membrane, the boots have a thermally insulated footbed and a drawstring to keep things dry inside. $499. dubarryboots.com
A LOOKOUT OVER EMERALD SEAS
Cape Lookout Lighthouse towers 163 feet over the sandy dunes and emerald Atlantic on the lower Outer Banks of North Carolina. The second lighthouse to stand at this location, it was completed and lighted on Nov. 1, 1859, at a cost of $45,000. Confederate soldiers removed its lenses and lights — as with all of North Carolina’s lighthouses — in 1861 to impede Union forces, but Union troops captured the area in 1864 and relighted the beacon, even as Confederate troops tried, unsuccessfully, to destroy it. Automated in 1950, the lighthouse’s Fresnel lens shines 12 miles out to sea, warning mariners of the area’s shifting shoals.