Boats sales - new & used - Boat builders, dealers, sail and power boating reviews

If you are a boater and agree with Ratty's celebrated point of view that there is absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as messing about in boats, then you probably enjoy boating activities as much as we do.

Welcome to our boating information site - it is my pleasure to share some of our experiences on the water with you, and we hope these  pages are worthy of your attention.

 Many hobbyists enjoy endless hours of entertainment operating their remote controlled boats in a local pond or lake; I decided I'd like to do that too, but with a slightly larger vessel that I can actually sleep on. I bought Serenade as my radio controlled hobby boat in the summer of 2004.

Serenade is a comfortable, reasonably quick sailboat with a tall masthead rig, plenty of sail area, and a sleek canoe hull with a deep fin keel and high aspect ratio spade rudder. The standard marconi rig provides good light air performance. Her tumblehome topsides complement her streamlined profile.

 

In the spring, summer and fall months, we live on Vancouver Island, British Columbia (BC), Canada, where I cruise the amazing waters surrounding the island with Jenni and Belle (our Golden Retriever) in Serenade. For me, sailing is a very pleasant experience, often full of elation, at other moments a source of peace and tranquility, where your eyes feast on the beauty of the scenic marine environment and your lungs breathe volumes of the freshest air on earth.

We aren't open ocean sailors, and our style can probably best be summarized by something a famous naval architect once said:

"I happen to know several sailors who do not like night sailing, having done too much of it already. They do not like the hardships of ocean racing in a sport that is supposed to be a pleasure. . . . What they want is to sail in the daytime in pleasant weather and sail fast enough to get the sensation of sailing. The only thing that will satiate the desire of these men is the sailing machine, and they should be allowed to have it."

--L. Francis Herreshoff, The Common Sense of Yacht Design

Our home port is the City of Nanaimo, a perfect sheltered location to keep a vessel, as you can see in this picture. Serenade is tied up to the Newcastle Island Provincial Marine Park docks on the far left. You don't even have to leave the harbour to visit one of the most beautiful marine parks in North America!

With access to the many thousands of miles of spectacular sheltered coastline, including the vast myriad of islands, inlets, sounds, rivers, lakes and white sand beaches (often with a backdrop of 10,000 ft mountains), we never run out of places to go and things to see. These experiences have given me the opportunity over the years to learn something about boating, having met many interesting characters along the way.

We will be discussing a variety of nautical subjects on this site, with the principal focus placed on boat automation with our Navitrol system, navigation software, communications and boating safety. To this end, we will be examining all manner of modern marine electronic navigational aids, including GPS position locators, digital charting, and radar overlays. We'll be talking about communications and the satellite phones we use, mobile GSM cellphones and VHF systems, and other modern devices designed to make your boating safer and more enjoyable. Check out our cell phone article and see how well Nokia Bluetooth GSM phones work in the marine environment.

 

Learn about rapid changes in center of gravity and center of buoyancy during capsize from one of our principal contributing authors, John Carlton, a senior professional Naval Architect with many years of experience in areas of hull design and stability testing. He is a veteran of many offshore ocean voyages and races in a variety of crafts, and has much knowledge to share. As John says, when you're out on the open ocean, in the middle of nowhere, the first thing you do (after coffee) when you wake up in the morning is pose the question 'how do I stay alive today?'

When John wants a little excitement, he takes out his 10 square meter (10m²) International Canoe. Only slightly bigger than a wind surfer, it is billed as the 'one of the fastest single handed monohull sailboats in the world', capable of speeds in excess of 15 knots. It has the unique feature of a sliding seat that enables the helmsman to place his or her weight a long way out from the side of the hull. With ten square meters of sail area (110 sq ft) on a 17' hull, the ride is exhilarating indeed! (contact John here).

The sliding seat moves back and forth across the boat and is held in place by the sailor's body weight. It allows the sailor to maneuver around in the boat and sit on the outside of the hull. This balances the force of the wind and sails so the canoe will move quickly.

 

One of the most popular single handed sailing challenges in the world, International Canoes are raced in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Sweden, France, Germany and Australia by sailors ranging in age from 17 to 70.

 

John is currently working with Aluminium Boats Australia Pty Ltd, manufacturers of extraordinary aluminum wave-piercing catamaran designs. 

So kick back and relax, and take a cruise through our website ... we sincerely hope you enjoy exploring the wide wonderful world of boating with us!