The Fog Warning Blog

Time and Tide…

I. The Magazine!

At least one of your holiday wishes has been granted! The Winter issue of The Fog Warning Digital Magazine has just been published on the Apple and Google App stores:

The winter issue contains 178 pages of cool articles and in-depth listings of featured yachts. You can subscribe to this free and engaging diversion here:

The Apple Store

The Android Store

Enjoy!

II. An Explorer’s Dream

The hottest sector in super yacht construction for the last five years has been heavy duty, go-anywhere explorer yachts. The reason is not hard to fathom – Explorer’s speak persuasively to the adventurer’s among us. Big and long adventures – the Antarctic, the Galapagos, the Norwegian fjords – these rugged and distant lands require yachts that can travel long distances safely, stay out for at least six weeks at a time (in environmentally friendly ways), yet make no compromises to luxury or comfort.

This video captures the romance of that kind of yacht, and that kind of exploration, better than any I have seen. She’s a Dutch-built steel explorer, not too different than my Amundsen 42M or Zeelander 164. You are going to watch this video more than once, so make yourself comfortable….

On your second viewing, if not your first, you probably caught at moment 2:10 one of my Dutch tender’s at work, the classically inspired Long Island Yacht 28!

Some 80+ Long Island Yachts have been built in the last eight years. Half a dozen serve as tenders to megayachts. I can’t think of a better endorsement. You can find the Yachtworld listing for this fine little yacht right here:

Long Island Yachts Runabout 28

Legend, the yacht in this video, is a converted commercial ship. My yachts, built expressly for this kind of voyage, are the Amundsen 42M:

And the Green-Class Zeelander 164:

I have quite a lot of fun information on these builds. Curious readers, dig out your flare gun!

III. “And te tide and te time…”

As far as my research goes, those olde English words are the first recorded use, from the year 1225, of the term we all know: “Time and tide wait for no man.” The full expression was:

“And te tide and te time þat tu iboren were, schal beon iblescet.”

It doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue. Anyone who’s read the original Chaucer can tell you that. But I do like the historical nature of it all.

Last week I made a quick trip down to Fajardo, Puerto Rico to sea trial a really special sailboat. Running back into the harbor, the wind at our backs, I was momentarily surprised to see all the yachts at anchor pointing sideways to the wind. That reminded me that moored boats follow whichever is stronger – wind or tide. Docking a boat, its a good thing to know which is going to effect you more.

Here’s a video that makes the point. I’m docking The Baron, my Vicem 72 listing in Newport, a few months before her current owner took title. It’s a pretty tight fit. Tight enough that if you turn up the volume on my son’s play by play, you’ll hear

“Doesn’t look good, I don’t think he’s gonna make it!”

The tide was running from port to starboard, with a little more velocity than I anticipated (you’ll see it drift this 30 ton yacht a little closer to it’s neighbor than I would have liked). Here is where a good set of bow and stern thrusters really came into their own. I’ll note in advance, for the squeamish among us, that no people, animals or yachts were injured in the making of this movie:

The Baron is in Miami. If you are going to be at the Miami Boat Show next month, I would love to schedule an appointment with you:

The Baron!

IV. Robotics

I’ve been knee-deep all month in financials, analyzing comparative construction costs for yachts around the world. Globalization has made hardware and material costs virtually identical no matter where you go. Labor, of course, is the great variable. Lately, because of increasing labor costs in China, Turkey – with its newly devalued Lira – has become an extremely attractive place to build a quality yacht at a great price. Sooner or later, though, advances in robotic construction is going to narrow down these advantages wherever you choose to build.

If that sounds years away to you, it ain’t. Here’s an amazing video of how Grand Banks is using robots in Malaysia to make their production molds. The magic is scheduled nightly, when most of the staff is home with their families:

V. Zeelander 72, hull #1 Update

The Robb Report, and many other magazines you probably have lying around, has been covering the coming launch of our Z72 #1:

Zeelander Unveils Its Largest Yacht Yet

Hull #1 is on schedule to splash sometime between January 30th and February 14th.I’ll be in Rotterdam for her first sea trial, and I’d love to have you along for the ride.

Here are the latest construction pix: