Voyaging Under Power

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Voyaging Under Power
fourth edition


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Voyaging
Under Power
fourth edition
By Captain Robert P. Beebe
Revised by Denis D. Umstot

International Marine / McGraw-Hill Education

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To Mary, my life and cruising partner who made this lifestyle enjoyable and possible.
And to all those voyagers out there who shared their experiences
about their sea adventures.


Contents
Foreword by Bill Parlatore
Preface by Denis Umstot

xiii
xv

Chapter One. Robert Beebe: An Introduction

1

by Jim Leishman

Chapter Two. Historical Background of Power Voyaging
by Robert Beebe, 1974
Early Atlantic Crossings
Other Historic Voyages Under Power
Speejacks: The First Power Yacht to Circumnavigate, 1921–1922 • Westward:
First Motor Yacht to Circumnavigate Entirely on Its Own Power, 1970–1976 •
Westward’s Next Adventure: Circumnavigating the Pacific in 2007–2008 •

Larry Briggs’ Circumnavigations, Beginning in 1977 • Egret’s Circumnavigation:
The Southern Capes

Chapter Three. Evolving the Passagemaker Concept
by Robert Beebe
The Story of the Passagemaker Concept

Chapter Four. Passagemaker : Designing, Building, and
Testing—and the Lessons Learned
by Robert Beebe
Building Passagemaker
Passagemaker’s Cruising
What We Learned

5
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10

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18

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32

Chapter Five. The Philosophy of Power Passagemaking

37

Beebe’s Philosophy of Power Passagemaking
Keys to Enjoyable Voyaging Under Power
Voyaging Approaches
Two Voyages Under Power
Transatlantic Aboard Salvation II • Heading for Antigua, Almost
3,000 Miles Away

37
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Chapter Six. Beebe on the Technicalities of the
Seagoing Motorboat
Displacement/Length Ratio
Speed/Length Ratio
Above Water/Below Water Ratio
Prismatic Coefficient
True Trawler versus Light Trawler Yachts
Light Trawlers
Beebe’s Conclusions

Chapter Seven. Seaworthiness and Seakindliness:
Stability and Other Design Concepts
Stability

A Stable Boat
What Makes a Boat Self-Righting in Extreme Conditions?
Motions and Stability in a Seaway
Hull Shape and Weight
Free Surface and Stability
Catamaran Stability and Design
Importance of Rudders
Improving Rudder Performance
Bulbous Bows: How Effective?
Final Thoughts on the Importance of Stability Information

Chapter Eight. Stabilizing Against Rolling
Beebe on Curing the Roll Problem
Paravanes or Flopperstoppers (F/S)
Beebe on the Design and Operation of  Flopperstoppers
Handling the Rig • Umstot on Retrieving Paravanes • Problems with Paravanes
Active Fin Stabilization Systems
Jim Leishman on Active Fin Systems • Problems with Active Fins
Passive Antiroll Tanks
Swan Song’s Passive Antiroll Tank
Bilge Keels and Fin Keels
How Well Do Fin and Bilge Keels Work in the Real World?
Evaluating Bilge and Fin Keels
Sails for Reducing Roll
Evaluating Sails for Roll Reduction
Gyro Stabilization
Stopping Roll at Anchor

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Chapter Nine. Choosing a Boat

107

The Spiral Model of Boat Choice
Choosing What Is Important

108
109
Contents  I  VII


New versus Used Boat?
Building Your Own Boat
Which Material to Use?
Overall Boat Design and Appearance
Beebe’s Comments on Accommodation Design Choices • Accommodation
Decisions and Design
Other Important Choices
Choosing a Tender

Chapter Ten. Interior Layout
General Layout Considerations
Living Above Versus Below Deck • Open Versus Compartmentalized Layout •
Hybrids or Combinations
Roaming Around the Boat
Saloon • Galley • Pilothouse • Master Stateroom • Guest Staterooms • Office •
Heads • Storage Space • Shop Space
Comfort Systems
Ventilation and Air Conditioning • Heating Systems • Entertainment System •

Handholds
Voyaging Interiors: Observations from Experience

Chapter Eleven. Passagemakers’ Systems
Engines
The Engine Room • Selecting an Engine • Single or Twin? • Get-Home Options •
Dry or Wet Exhaust?
Fuel System Management
Engine Gauges • Engine Room Ventilation
Transmission, Stuffing Box, and Propeller
Control Systems
Electric Control • Hydraulic Control • Bow and Stern Thrusters • Rudder
System • Anchoring Systems • Autopilot System • Engine Controls • Bilge Pumps
The Electrical System
Generator Options • Inverters • Battery Choice
Shore Power
Night Lighting for Voyagers
Electronics Systems
Reliability, Repairability, and Redundancy • Critical Electronics Systems

Chapter Twelve. Selected Passagemaker Designs
Boatbuilders’ Designs
Dashew FPB 64 • Kadey-Krogen • Nordhavn • Seahorse Marine
Designers
George Buehler • Dave Gerr • Michael Kasten • Charles Neville • Bruce
Roberts-Goodson • Stephen R. Seaton • Malcolm Tennant Catamarans

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Chapter Thirteen. Proven Passagemakers of the Past
Romsdal North Sea Trawlers

Malahide North Sea Trawlers
Willard Marine
Skookum Marine
Cheoy Lee Trawlers
Stephen Seaton’s Boats
Beebe’s Passagemakers
Steel Magnolia
Knight & Carver
Kadey-Krogen
Krogen 54' Passagemaker • Krogen 48' Whaleback
Nordhavn
Nordhavn 62
Cape Horn Trawlers

Chapter Fourteen. Voyage Preparation and Planning
Get Experience
Mine Information Sources
Evaluate Health Risks
Routing: Where to Go and When
Who Will Go?
How Will You Find Your Way?
What Will You Eat and Drink?
Resource Planning
Prepare Engines and Transmission
Check Rudder, Autopilot, and Stabilizers
Deck and Interior Preparation
Electronics and Communication
Develop Emergency Plans

Chapter Fifteen. Crossing Oceans

Choose a Comfortable Route and Season
Finding Buddy Boats
Crew Decisions
Watchstanding • Watch Schedules • Watchkeeping Lessons Learned •
Duties of the Watchstander
Running at Night
Machinery Monitoring at Sea
Underway Fluid Management
Handling Emergencies at Sea
Nets or Ropes around the Propeller • Mechanical Failures at Sea
Arrivals: Time to Take Care

235
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286

Contents  I  IX


Avoid Night Arrivals in Strange Harbors • Do Not Bet Your Life on Charts
(or Guidebooks) • Watch Out for Bars • Seasickness: The Spoiler on Ocean Passages
Anxieties and Realities about Ocean Passages
“His” Anxieties and Realities • “Her” Anxieties and Realities

Chapter Sixteen. World Cruising Destinations
Cruising the North Coast of Cuba

Cayo Cruz del Padre
Cruising the Mediterranean Sea
Spain: Pickpockets and Festivals • St. Tropez, France • Italian Harbors and
Islands • Mediterranean Mooring at Porto de Roma • Surprising Tunisia •
Croatian Imprints • Looking for Zorba! • A Taste of Turkey • Black Sea •
The Middle East
Patagonia, Cape Horn, and the Chilean Canals
South Pacific Highlights
Hanamenu Bay, Hiva Oa, Marquesas • Ofalonga Island, Ha’apai, Tonga •
Fiji: Adventures in the Yasawa Islands • Suwarrow, Cook Islands
Indonesia: A Delightful Surprise
Papua New Guinea: Going Back in Time
Madagascar and Mozambique: High-Risk Destinations

Chapter Seventeen. Maintenance, Repairs, and Haulouts In
Far-Away Places
What Spares Should I Take?
How Would a Failure Affect the Safety of the Voyage? • What is the Probability
of Failure? • Types of Spares
What Tools Do I Need?
Don’t Leave Without These Tools • Take These Instruments Along • Possible
Tool Additions
What Technical References Are Required?
Troubleshooting Strategies
Getting Help
Haulouts and Going on the Hard
A Case Study of Injector Pump Failure and Repair in the Remote South Pacific
  Aboard Diesel Duck Ice
Hindsight Observations from Ice’s Repair

Chapter Eighteen. Weather, Waves, and Storm Strategies
Weather
Study Historical Data before You Depart • Don’t Forget Pacific Storms • Watch
Out for Known Trouble Spots
Avoiding Difficult Passages
Weather Tools for Voyaging
Use the 500-Millibar Charts • GRIB Forecasts • Weather Routers •
Weather Communication
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Waves: The Real Danger
Breaking Waves
Forecasting Wave Heights
Storm Strategies
How Do You Ride Out a Storm? • Preparing for a Storm

Chapter Nineteen. Safety and Anchoring
Offshore Safety
Avoiding Ships and Other Boats • Communicating with Ships at Sea •
Can Other Boats See Us?
Near-Shore Safety
Chart Inaccuracies • Running Aground • Hitting Objects in the Water •
Fixing Leaks in an Emergency • Safety at the Dock
Lightning
Life Rafts and Survival Suits
Piracy and Theft
Strategies for Minimizing Risk of Pirate Attacks
Medical Emergencies
Anchoring
Anchor and Chain Selection • Choosing an Anchoring Spot • Setting the Anchor •
Anchoring Problems • Using Your Anchor for Med Mooring

Chapter Twenty. Social Dynamics of Voyaging
by Mary Umstot
Categories of Voyagers
Couples Alone • Voyagers Who Take On Nonfamily Crew
Captainship and Leadership
A Sampling of Skills Needed for an Ocean Passage • Feedback Sessions
The Cruising Community: Fellowship of the Voyagers
Building Informal Cruising Communities: Encounters in Anchorages and
  Ports and a Rendezvous
Rendezvous—The Georgetown Gathering • The Croatian Rendezvous in
Starigrad
Formal Cruising Communities for Voyagers
Rallies • Cruising Organizations
Off-Season Connections: Wintering in the Mediterranean
Barcelona, Spain • Gaeta, Italy • Marmaris, Turkey
Beyond Fun: Support and Help from Cruisers
Cross-Cultural Opportunities
Activities to Build Social Relationships

Postscript: Successful Long Distance Voyaging Under Power

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by Linda and Steve Dashew

Contents  I  XI


Appendices

387

Appendix A. Robert Beebe’s Method for Figuring a Boat’s Horsepower and Range
Appendix B. ISO Design Category Definitions by Michael Kasten
Appendix C. Real World Fuel Burn for Selected Passagemaking Boats

Appendix D. Recommended Spare Parts and Supplies for Trans-Ocean Cruising
  Med Bound 2007 Rally by Milt Baker
Appendix E. Recommended Ship’s Library

387
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Endnotes

403

List of Contributors

414

Acknowledgments

418

Index

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XII  I  Contents

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Foreword
Bill Parlatore

W

hen my wife, Laurene, and I started
PassageMaker, The Trawler & Ocean Motorboat
Magazine in 1995, it was chiefly because we had
interest in these boats, but could find little information about them. Our many questions were largely
unanswered because there were few passagemakers
with experience to share. Around the same time, Jim
Leishman was updating the earlier edition of Beebe’s
classic, Voyaging Under Power. That third edition was
a fresh look at the concept of cruising long distances
under power and included the worldly experiences of
Jim and Suzy Sink on Salvation II, a Nordhavn 46
that Leishman’s company PAE built to demonstrate
that a production powerboat could be safely voyaged
around the world.
But past editions of this book represented, in my
opinion, a single voice, a single point of view. Back then
few people had voyaged long distances in powerboats
and anyone interested in pursuing this lifestyle generally
lacked hard information on how to go about it. But that
didn’t tarnish the dream potential of the book. Readers
of Voyaging Under Power could buy into the dream, and
many did. One of those readers was Denis Umstot.
As we grew PassageMaker Magazine, I became
passionate about adding practical information to fill

in the gaps, publishing various people’s preparations
and voyaging experiences—material that gave others
confidence to pursue their own dreams. Most passagemaking couples were happy to share the details, techniques, and skills that came from voyaging offshore.
When I first met Denis and Mary they were deeply
involved in restoring Teka III on which they intended
to see the world, up close and personal. Like many

others who wanted to pursue the passagemaking
lifestyle, they figuratively inched along, gaining experience on each trip, finding what worked, and what
needed modification. By the time they stopped to visit
us in Annapolis, Maryland, on their way to cross the
Atlantic to Europe, they had sorted it all out.
It is a process that is both fulfilling and inspiring.
And therein lies the reason I am confident that
Denis’s new edition of Voyaging Under Power is a tour
de force. It is significantly more than a freshening up
of the earlier editions.
To best describe why this is such a valuable work unlike
anything done before, I offer one word: community.
The biggest change in passagemaking, and what
Denis captures so well, is the growing community of
people out there cruising the world. No single voice
represents what it is, how it is done, and why it is so
wonderful. Many men and women experience this
lifestyle and freely offer their advice about living the
dream. There are lessons to be learned by anyone venturing offshore—with so many passagemakers having now successfully crossed oceans there is a virtual
wealth of information about long-distance voyaging.
The heroic exploits of early pioneers has been
largely displaced by ordinary people living the dream
in safety and comfort. Not every distance cruiser

yearns to complete a circumnavigation—many are
satisfied simply to do a transatlantic or cross the
Pacific. Others just want the capability of a passagemaking vessel since coastal cruising can be challenging in many parts of the world.
There were a decidedly small number of suitable
passagemaking boats and their courageous crews at
Foreword  I  XIII


sea in 1995. Today it is a much larger community, and
a truly global one at that. (When the Sinks crossed
the Atlantic there were but a handful of Nordhavn
sisterships; today the Nordhavn fleet numbers almost
500 boats. And there are many other vessel choices
out there, both production and custom, as you will
read in this edition of Voyaging Under Power.)
What is so great about this community of cruisers
is our willingness to learn about, and readily share, our
collective experiences. No two passages are alike, and no
two boats and crew experiences are the same, even when
experienced together. There are too many variables:
crew personalities, presence and condition of onboard
equipment, vessel characteristics in a seaway, food, and,
of course, wind and weather. Sometimes life is so good
the passage is boringly calm and uneventful, all systems
work well, individuals become a team, and the seas are
flat calm. Write a book, live in paradise, all systems go.
Other times, well—thoughts of selling the boat
and buying a pig farm far from the sea. (Yes, that was
their sentiment.) But that feeling passes quickly as
tomorrow is another day….

Querying one cruiser to get his or her ideas on the
right boat and its systems may not reveal your silver
bullet, but it adds to your knowledge base. An experienced cruiser with an older boat, for instance, especially on a relatively small budget, has a vastly different
concept of voyaging and its priorities than another
starting out with a shiny new boat, and perhaps more
money than experience. Each may be valid, but it is
prudent to hear both cruisers address and answer the
same question.
Denis has masterfully compiled a rich body of
knowledge in this new edition, interweaving many
voyagers’ experiences, opinions, and recommendations on the many subjects that encompass passagemaking. To this he adds the wealth of his own experience gained while traveling thousands of miles aboard
Teka III. As a result, the reader of the fourth edition
of Voyaging Under Power has a vast amount of information from which to form his or her own ideas, or
make one’s lists about what is needed to cruise long
distances in powerboats. The chapters offer not one
perspective, but many perspectives. The people who
contributed to this book are the major players, if you

will, within our community—they speak from experience and know what they are talking about.
The level of detail here is practical and useful. I am
reminded of one ocean crossing I went on some years
back. The owner, a nice fellow eager to learn the ropes
of a competent world cruiser, pulled me aside into the
engine room before we departed. He told me he read
my articles over the years and my fairly consistent message to go into the engine room hourly when underway offshore. He said that while it made sense to him,
what exactly was he supposed to do when he went into
the engine room? This book will help enlighten those
with such questions.
Advances in technology have dramatically changed
the passagemaking seascape. We now have utterly reliable propulsion systems, stabilization solutions, and navigation equipment. Even anchors have come a long way.

Satellite communications and watermakers are commonplace, and comfort is an essential priority. Modern
electronics improve and weather routing gets better and
more accurate with each passing year—today a family
can safely cruise without the many unknowns that once
made such adventure a risky proposition.
While Denis makes a fine argument for doing more
with less—which I happen to agree with—it is also
true that others can get away from it all bringing every
piece of technology with them as well. Denis includes
these varying perspectives throughout the book. It is
refreshing and informative to see what works for successful cruisers.
The list of contributors shows the quality of experience in the pages of this fourth edition of Voyaging
Under Power. Anyone wanting to join, or at least understand the elements of the long-distance passagemaking
lifestyle will find a great deal of knowledge that is realistic, useful, and timely. Denis has done a superb job at
pulling this all together and I salute him for the result.
I know the cruising community will as well.
I am sure you will keep Voyaging Under Power,
Fourth Edition, on your pilothouse bookshelf (or its
electronic equivalent) for years to come.

XIV  I  Foreword

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Annapolis, Maryland
October, 2012


Preface to the Fourth Edition
Denis Umstot

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you
didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from
the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain

I

had no intention of writing another book. Before
we started our life as voyagers, I taught management in various universities in the United States and
Hong Kong.* I had to write academic papers and textbooks to maintain my status in academia. When I
retired from that life, I told my wife that I was through
with writing. Well, I was dead wrong. My wife and
partner, Mary Umstot, began her writing career about
the time I was retiring from mine. She has written
13 articles for Passagemaker Magazine (a few with my
assistance or perspective). As a result of our involvement with Bill and Laurene Parlatore, PassageMaker
Magazine, and Trawler Fest, we have been lucky to be
meet many of the leaders in this field.
Our voyaging life started out slowly and gradually
developed into major passages, including two Atlantic crossings. We started out with a Hershine 37',
Taiwan trawler, which we owned for about 10 years
* I also spent 20 years in the United States Air Force, part of the
time in various logistics jobs, and the remainder as a Professor of Management at the Air Force Institute of Technology.
I have a Ph.D., courtesy of the USAF, from the University of
Washington. My additional academic teaching and research
positions were at the University of Washington, the Air Force
Academy, the University of Puget Sound, and the Chinese
University of Hong Kong.

and cruised the Pacific Northwest from our home in
Gig Harbor, Washington. After my retirement, we
sold the boat and went looking for something more
seaworthy. At that time we were thinking of Alaska
and the Queen Charlotte Islands. While searching for
this boat, we discovered Bob Beebe’s Voyaging Under
Power. Reading this book opened entirely new horizons for me—imagine, a boat that could cross oceans!
(I had dreamed of world cruising in a sailboat since
adolescence. Alas, my bride did not share my love of
sailing—she hated heeling!)
We looked at several affordable passagemakers,
but each had some major fault. One had the master
stateroom combined with the galley. Another big,
steel European boat had heavy waterproof doors,
making it look more like a submarine than a yacht.
Then in 1996 we were visiting our son in San Diego,
when we saw an advertisement for a Beebe Passagemaker, called Teka III. This was the boat for us! It had
some quirks that we learned to love, like an entrance to
the owner’s stateroom via the covered aft deck. It also
had a very large covered area behind the pilothouse
that has turned out to be one of the best things about
the boat. In addition, it had a legendary Gardner
engine that looked very businesslike and bulletproof.
The boat was already 15 years old so we spent a lot of
Preface to the Fourth Edition  I  XV


time and money repairing, replacing, and improving
systems, but the hull was strong and seaworthy. The

boat had already crossed the Atlantic four times with
the original owner.
This began our odyssey with Teka III. We took her
up the Pacific Coast to Canada and then to Alaska.
Then we decided to experience the Sea of Cortez and
Central America. It was an easy decision to transit the
Panama Canal into the Caribbean, where we found
new places to explore. We finally wound up cruising
the Intracoastal Waterway from Florida to Maine.
Sometime during these voyages, we decided we would
take the boat to Europe. Crossing an ocean for the first
time is anxiety producing, but the rewards could be
great. Mary was not sure about this ocean-crossing
business, but decided she could jump ship in Bermuda
if she did not like the experience. However, she was
hooked! She did not want to miss one moment of the
adventure. She has been aboard every one of Teka III’s
over 60,000 nautical miles. She wrote a book about
our cruising experiences, Voyaging to the Mediterranean
Under Power. You will get a chance to read a few
excerpts later in the book.
When Mary was publishing her book, Bill Parlatore
put her in touch with his friends at International

Denis and Mary Umstot aboard Teka III.

Marine. They asked Mary if she would be interested in
doing the revision of Voyaging Under Power. Mary said
she didn’t feel competent to handle the technical parts
of the book, but recommended me for the job. I was

reluctant. I had been through the process of publishing
a book before and knew I would have to make a major
time and energy commitment. On the other hand, I felt
that I had learned a lot over the years of cruising, much
of it the hard way. I felt an urge to share my experiences.
Thus began this revision of Captain Beebe’s seminal
work. I feel honored to continue his legacy.
One of the advantages of this edition over earlier
ones is the wealth of cruising experience that is now
available. Thanks to the Internet and numerous websites and blogs, it is much easier to gather the experience of others. This edition is full of the experiences,
good and bad, of experienced voyagers. There are
also many more boats to choose from, both new and
used. Systems are complex and sometimes difficult to
understand. Choosing the right boat, especially if you
are on a budget, is a major task.
I have tried to balance the coverage for various
boat builders and designers—there are many paths
to successful voyaging. Nordhavn gets a good deal
of coverage simply because they have more boats out
there cruising so there are more tales to tell. You may
tire of my now 30-year old boat, but it would still be
my first choice (with perhaps one exception, not to
be disclosed), even if I were rich enough to afford any
boat out there. I hope you will see that you can still
go cruising on a relatively modest budget and with a
relatively small investment.
My general philosophy of voyaging seems close to
Captain Beebe’s—crossing oceans to exotic, interesting, and beautiful places, in comfort, with a minimum
of problems and expense. Boats that are overly complex may cause a great deal of angst rather than joy. It
is no fun to spend most of your time fixing problems.

I have never envied the mega yachts, with crew and
engineers needed full time just to keep the boat operating. For me, that is not what cruising is all about.
The Mark Twain quote at the beginning has been
cited by many passagemakers and is so true. There is
a wonderful world out there if you just make up your
mind to do it. If you wait too long, success may be
elusive or your health may fail.

XVI  I  Preface to the Fourth Edition

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chapter one

Robert Beebe: An Introduction
Jim Leishman

B

orn in 1909 and raised as an “Army brat” (his own
description), Robert Beebe was introduced to
his lifelong passion as a young child. His interest
and love for all things nautical began with his experiences in a dugout canoe given to him by his father,
the commanding officer of a garrison on the island
of Zamboanga in the Philippines.
Recalling his childhood, Captain Robert Beebe
states:
I don’t think one day passed that we were not out on
those marvelous, clear, tropical waters right in front

of our quarters. I have never forgotten those days
and have been a tropics buff ever since, and a boat
nut as well. In a dugout canoe my brother and I,
together with some of the neighboring kids, fought
more pirates, found more buried treasure, and raised
more mysterious shores than any kid today possibly
could in the present-day outboard-driven dinks.

Throughout adolescence, Beebe’s experience and
skill grew, and he began to develop an appreciation
for the technical aspects of the various sailing dinghies and small cruisers he had sailed aboard. He
studied the few periodicals of the day and paid particular attention to the “How to Build” articles by
William Atkin that appeared in Motorboating. As he
neared completion of his primary school education,
aviation caught his interest, and he was faced with a
decision: whether to study aeronautical engineering
at MIT or enter the Naval Academy at Annapolis.
In the end, his lifelong love of the water drew him
to Navy service and Annapolis, where the Academy
offered plenty of opportunities to hone his already

keen sailing skills, along with a degree in aeronautical engineering.
Graduating in 1931 and becoming a naval aviator in 1933, Beebe spent his first fleet tour in the San
Diego/Long Beach area. It was there on the West
Coast that he began to think of an oceangoing cruising sailboat for himself and his new bride. When it
became apparent to the Beebes that his next tour
of duty would be in the Hawaiian Islands, they
searched for a vessel capable of crossing the Pacific

Captain Robert Beebe, 1909–1988.

Robert Beebe: An Introduction  I  1


Figure 1–1. Philippine canoe Robert Beebe owned as a boy.

and suitable for cruising the islands. They located a
partially completed 30-footer that seemed perfectly
suited for the voyage. Beebe later related:
We inspected the boat. She was set up in her own
building shed in what is now Newport Beach. The
hull was practically complete, and all the material
for her rigging and interior was present. All the
workmanship was beautiful, all fastenings the best,
lead keel, bronze hardware, and so on. She was
an Atkin design, number 311, and had never been
given a name. She was one of his double-enders.
Many vessels of this size go to Hawaii every year,
but in 1936 we didn’t get much encouragement.
The problem was getting her done in time. We
checked everywhere and had several builders in to
give us an estimate, more of time than money. We
reluctantly had to conclude there was practically no
chance for us to get her in time for a proper shakedown and passage before I had to report to Hawaii.
We let her go. I’ve often wished since then we had
been a little bolder. She was really an exceptional vessel. The next year a member of the services did sail
out for duty in Hawaii—(then) Colonel George S.
Patton, U.S. Army, arrived in an Alden schooner.

Stationed at Pearl Harbor in 1936, Beebe found

himself piloting the biplane flying boats of the era

over the waters west of Hawaii. The
Pearl Harbor Yacht Club had a fleet
of eight Herreshoff S-class sloops,
two of which belonged to the commanding officers of the air station
and navy yard. Beebe became sailing officer, responsible for all maintenance of the two vessels, which
allowed him to participate in almost
every one of the weekly races. What
he learned from competitive sailing
in the rugged conditions around the
island of Oahu would be formative: “I
developed a profound admiration for
the Herreshoff S and, by extension, a
liking for heavy keelboats in general.”
His continuing desire to own a
cruiser with live-aboard accommodations was as
strong as ever, and his experience with the S boats
caused him to develop his own ideas about a suitable
design. “I started sketching my own ideas, and it was
soon apparent I didn’t know beans about how to go
about it.”
Beebe ordered a copy of a newly published book
called Yacht Designing and Planning, by Howard I.
Chapelle.
I must have read through that book a half-dozen
times. It certainly changed my life. Where formerly I had been content to sail in what I could
find without much thought as to whether the boats
were really good or not, now the fundamentals
explained in Chapelle’s book led my thoughts to

how things could be improved, the advantages of
certain shapes, and the influence of various factors.

Beebe continued to develop his own rough sketches,
and when time permitted he read the published works
of other designers. He began to correspond with
William Atkin about his ideas. When his tour of
duty in Hawaii ended, he returned to Annapolis for
postgraduate studies, where he developed a friendship with his mentor, Howard Chapelle. Chapelle’s
sharpie designs greatly appealed to Beebe for sailing in
shallow Chesapeake waters, and after a visit with the
designer in Ipswich, Massachusetts, Beebe returned
to Annapolis with a set of Chapelle plans in hand.

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He commissioned a local Annapolis yard to build a
34-foot sharpie, christened Sara Reid after his mother.
Beebe sailed his new ketch every chance he got
and was so impressed by her performance that he
wrote numerous articles about her, the first of which
appeared in the August 1939 issue of Yachting. The
next 40 years saw many articles by Robert Beebe in
the most popular boating magazines, and not all of a
purely technical nature. Beebe developed the skills of
an excellent storyteller, and his adventures gave him a
constant supply of new material. He tells of a particular experience aboard the Sara Reid that undoubtedly influenced his lifework:

Working to windward once in the company of
a 40-foot ketch, we were in the center of the bay
(Chesapeake) with a south wind of 22 knots blowing
against an outgoing tide. Naturally we could not hold
the ketch under those conditions. We started our borrowed 2-horsepower outboard and ran it at half speed.
The Sara Reid caught and passed the ketch both
pointing and footing—the best illustration I have ever
seen of the effect of a bit of power in windward work.

1939 marked the beginning of World War II, and
Beebe found himself called to Florida as a training
officer, producing much-needed carrier pilots. He
found time to sail the Sara Reid south, and it was
while sailing aboard his agile sharpie on
the north end of Biscayne Bay on a beautiful winter’s day that Beebe learned of
the attack on Pearl Harbor. There was
no time now to think of yachting.
With his accumulated experience
and training, Beebe was given command
of an air squadron in the Pacific. But
then the unexpected happened:
Well, we did go West, and I did get
command of a dive bombing squadron.
Unfortunately, just as our air group was
ready to proceed to the South Pacific, I
had to be hospitalized for some necessary
surgery. My squadron went off and left
me, and by the time I returned to duty, I
was sent to the USS Saratoga as a ship’s
officer, where I became navigator of this

aircraft carrier, one of the world’s largest ships, and
served in her the rest of the war.
Regardless of how I might have felt at losing my
squadron, from the point of view of yacht design, no
job could have been better. The navigator’s duties,
while extremely important, were not overwhelmed
with the details of a department with hundreds of
men. He did have some free time. In addition, he
had at hand an excellent source of drafting paper
because so many of the ship’s charts were made
obsolete by later ones, a process that went on with
amazing speed as we probed deeper into the South
Pacific. In addition, while the ship was underway,
which was most of the time, the navigator was on
the bridge and in his charthouse. This kept him out
of such mundane distractions as bridge games in the
wardroom and encouraged industry. The result was
the production of a good bit of work in several fields.

It was this sequence of events that likely sealed
Beebe’s fate—becoming a designer/authority whose
expertise would ultimately equal those for whom he
had such great respect.
At the war’s end, Beebe had amassed a considerable amount of design work on cruising sailboats,
particularly sharpies similar to Sara Reid. Beebe’s
now close friend Howard Chapelle admitted that he
could not justify working on the sharpies for clients

Figure 1–2. Aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, Beebe’s wartime ship.

Robert Beebe: An Introduction  I  3


who were so value-conscious that they were unwilling or unable to pay a reasonable designer’s fee.
Beebe, considering himself an amateur and with a
primary income paying his bills, took referral work
of this type from Chapelle for a number of years.
Robert Beebe proved to be a very modest man.
Even in 1980 he continued to refer to himself as an
amateur, but note how he qualified the term and considered it an important ingredient in his success in
the field of long-range seagoing motorboats:
Certainly I have sold plans from time to time since
the earliest days of learning the art. But at no time
have I been under any compulsion to try to make
designing my principal source of income. I think this
is the key. A professional yacht designer is anyone
who intends to make designing his primary source
of income. He may fail, of course, but if he does have
this intention, he is under certain constraints that do
not affect the amateur. He must, for instance, seek
out the most active and popular field of design of his
day and try to carve a niche there. Recently this field

has been the so-called cruiser-racer sailing vessel.
And here he must work in the restrictions of the rules
in vogue, regardless of his own ideas. However much
he may wish to experiment and advance the art, he
must judge his work not on whether it is, in fact, a
new breakthrough, but on what is saleable. An amateur does not labor under any of these restraints. He
is free to go where his interest leads him.

Beebe’s experience and enthusiasm for sail and his
extensive design work in the field were all a solid foundation for his developing concept of passagemaking
in specially designed motorboats. The thought process could not have evolved without the sailing experience and possibly the “amateur” association with
naval architecture. It should be remembered that in
the late 1950s when Beebe was developing his Passagemaker concept, long-range cruising in small motorboats was almost unheard of.
Let’s move now to Robert Beebe’s introduction to
his vessel Passagemaker and some of the history that
led up to her design.

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chapter two

Historical Background of
Power Voyaging
Robert Beebe, 1974

I

t was the last day. As I came on deck for the
0400–0800 watch, a faint light in the east showed
the horizon clear, with brilliant stars overhead. There
would be a good fix on this, our landfall day.
Sipping a mug of coffee while waiting for sight
time, I had much to think about: the years of research
and theorizing, the days and weeks of drawing plans,

the months of watching the vessel grow in the builder’s yard—a vessel whose highly unusual makeup
we hoped would prove my theories—the sea trials,
the first miles of our cruise, the ports we visited, the
weather. Everything. Now, just ahead lay Rhodes,
one of the fabled islands of Greece.
My thoughts went back even further: to World
War II. Like so many other armchair long-cruise
planners, I found myself transported to the South
Pacific under circumstances that had never entered
my wildest dreams. There, as navigator of the aircraft carrier Saratoga, I observed firsthand the conditions small cruising boats would meet after the war.
It was this experience that first turned me toward
a vessel distinctly different from traditional longrange types. Now, as we neared Rhodes, the work
begun on the bridge of the old Saratoga had passed
from dream to reality, and the reality was carrying
me and my crew northward across the Mediterranean on this clear, calm morning toward the castle of
the Knights Hospitalers.
The yacht Passagemaker was about to complete
her first voyage in six weeks to the day we had made
the passage to Greece from Singapore. Almost six

thousand miles of calms, brisk breezes, and gales
lay astern. And through it all, our ocean-crossing
motorboat had chugged steadily along, averaging
exactly her designed passage speed of 7.5 knots.
I knew now that crossing oceans in owneroperated small craft in the 40- to 50-foot range,
under power alone and using crews by no means
made up of rough-and-tough seamen, worked well.
I had also learned what I’d only suspected before:
that a very good case could be made for the power
approach over sail for all long voyages.

To generations of seamen brought up on tales of
long voyages in small sailing craft, such statements
must sound like heresy. Some years ago, I too would
have counted myself among those seamen. But certain experiences, certain selective reading with a
critical eye, and certain designing in new directions
had finally convinced me that it was possible on long
voyages to do better. It is the evolution of the theory,
its testing with Passagemaker, what we learned, and
what can be recommended for the future that this
book is all about.
This book, then, is about voyaging under power
as contrasted with voyaging under sail. While a vast
literature exists about deep-sea cruising under sail,
there is little in print about long-range power voyaging. Of course, many of the problems encountered at
sea are similar in both cases. But the power approach
does differ from sail in several important ways that
need consideration. To cite just one example: the
naval architecture rules that govern the speed and
Historical Background of Power Voyaging  I  5


range of a long-range motorboat are quite rigid and
must be thoroughly understood before selecting
such a craft or operating it to the limits of its ability.
On the other hand, the sailing cruiser, with its “free”
propulsion power, is largely independent of these
rules.
Of course, I have nothing against cruising under
sail. The long sailing cruises I have made have all been
great fun. But, there are certain conditions and certain groups of sailors for whom the power approach

has definite advantages. It is for those sailors this
book is written.
It was the search for a retirement boat that led
me to consider power as an alternative to sail. The
more I looked into it, the more interesting it became,
until the years spent pursuing the matter finally led
to the building of our 50-foot Passagemaker. Some
sixty thousand miles of deep-water cruising in her,
including three ocean crossings, a round-trip to
Hawaii, and two East Coast–West Coast passages
taught me much that can be safely passed on to those
who share this interest. Of course, during those
years I exchanged experiences with the few others
who had background in this narrow field, considered
the features of other ocean-crossing motorboats, and
studied the work of other designers.

One of the first things I undertook when I decided
to embark on the design of a long-range motorboat
was research in the history of the boat type. It is a
scanty field, but useful lessons can be learned from
what material is available.

Early Atlantic Crossings

There were two early small-boat voyages across the
Atlantic under power; both were made to demonstrate the reliability of the internal combustion
engines then coming into use in boats. The first voyage
was by the Abiel Abbot Low, using a kerosene engine.
In 1902, she crossed from New York to Falmouth,

England, in thirty-eight days. The second voyage was
by the motorboat Detroit in 1912. She used a gasoline
engine to cross from New York to Queenstown (now
Cobh), Ireland, in twenty-eight days. What lessons
have we learned from these two pioneer efforts?
My first impression after reading the logs of the
Low and the Detroit was that the voyages were excellent examples of what not to do. With due regard for
the guts of the crews, it is clear that the designers
and builders had a lot to learn. This is understandable, of course, because no one had attempted such a
voyage. Possibly more important, the men involved
in these projects had their major training in sail.
It must have been this sail background, for instance, that produced the astonishing layout of
Detroit. She was 35 feet long with
a 9-foot beam and a 4-foot 6-inch
draft. She was double-ended and
resembled a lifeboat in that she
had high shelters bow and stern.
Amidships she was lowsided, and
in the center of this deck space was
the steering station—a stand-up
wheel with no shelter whatsoever.
The watchstander was supposed
to stand there with no handholds
and steer the vessel while waves
washed across the deck from
either side. Fantastic! Here was a
Figure 2–1. The Tordenskjold, built in 1911 in Seattle, was one of the early longstation well laid out for the watch
range motorboats. It was designed for halibut fishing in the waters off Alaska. This
to keep an eye on the sails—but
boat and many like her are still fishing there one hundred years later. (Puget Sound

Maritime Historical Society)
no sails!
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Understandably enough, this feature caused a good deal of discontent
among the crew of four when Detroit entered the open Atlantic.
However, the engine performed flawlessly, and Detroit arrived in
Queenstown in good order.
The Low was not well laid out for the crossing, either. She
was 38 feet long with a 34-foot waterline, 9-foot beam, and
3-foot 8-inch draft, double-ended, with a trunk cabin
forward and cockpit aft. Instead of providing some
shelter by putting the wheel against the trunk
cabin forward, it was placed aft as on a sailing
vessel and was wide open to the elements.
Low’s principal problem was crew
trouble. Her skipper, having been
hired to make this engine-demonstrating voyage, chose to take his
16-year-old son as his only crew;
then he tried to do everything
himself. With no relief from the
tyranny of continuous steering,
he soon became exhausted. This Figure 2–2. The Detroit crossed the Atlantic in 1912 in twenty-six days. Note the
produced all sorts of crises. Low steering arrangement and the low side amidships.
also had unfortunate luck with
weather, spending a good deal of time hove-to or rid- to the limit the endurance of hardened professional
ing to a sea anchor. When this was compounded by seamen makes this reluctance understandable.

Commencing in 1912, annual motorboat “races”
her copper fuel tanks springing numerous leaks due
to the pounding of heavy seas, by kerosene getting were held from the United States to Bermuda.
into everything below decks, and by a constant battle They died after three runs from lack of entries. I
to bail as much oil as possible back into the tanks, do not think the designs of the vessels that particiher crew was reduced almost to survival conditions. pated show any developments of particular interest
But they toughed it out and made it. The engine ran to us today.
Arielle’s 1937 Atlantic crossing. It was not
perfectly all the way.
until 1937 that the next crossing of the North
Nobody felt impelled to follow in the wake of
these two vessels, and the way these voyages tested Atlantic by a small motorboat took place. This
voyage is of great interest because it was the first
in a craft incorporating features found in modern
ocean-crossing motorboats. The voyage was made
by a Frenchman named Marin-Marie, who was
the official marine painter to the French government. Marin-Marie had been a smallboat sailor all his life. In 1933, he built a
double-ended cutter and sailed it
singlehandedly across the Atlantic from France to New York.
He enjoyed this adventure so
much that he wondered how the
Figure 2–3. The Abiel Abbot Low, the first motorboat across the Atlantic. She crossed
in thirty-eight days in 1902.
voyage would go under power.
Historical Background of Power Voyaging  I  7


He certainly did a good job of researching the project
and made up a specification designed to correct
the flaws of earlier boats and to add features permitted by modern developments. His book, Wind
Aloft, Wind Alow is maddeningly vague about

details, but it appears that his Arielle was about
42 feet 6 inches long and drew 4 feet 6 inches.
She was equipped with a 75-horsepower,
4-cylinder diesel and carried 1,500 gallons
of fuel, a steadying and emergency
propulsion rig, an enclosed steering
station, a primitive form of photoelectric autopilot, and a vane
steering gear that antedated by
many years the models popular today on sailing cruisers. In
fact, I think the only thing missing from Arielle’s equipment
was some method of stabilizing
Figure 2–4. Arielle, profile. Note the covered steering station, steadying rig, and
against rolling. She did use her general air of competence in this excellently planned 43-footer.
steadying rig for this purpose,
Marin-Marie’s voyage was met with devasbut it was ineffective for the usual reasons (see
tating silence on both sides of the Atlantic. The
Chapter 8).
In spite of dire predictions of disaster, to the fact that a yacht of Arielle’s size, under the compoint that the elders of the Club de Yachts de mand of a well-known yachtsman, had crossed
France considered having Marin-Marie restrained the Atlantic to now cruise the fascinating waters
legally from such a foolish venture, Arielle left of Europe, and had done so in less time and for
New York on July 22, 1937, and arrived in Le Havre, less money than would have been required to
France, nineteen days later, essentially with noth- prepare the boat and ship it across (and probably
ing to report—the way any well-conducted cruise arrived in much better shape than if she had been
shipped), didn’t seem to make any impression.
should end.
Marin-Marie and Arielle were far
ahead of their time, and I want to
pay tribute here to their successful
pioneering effort.
Eckero’s 1939 east-to-west crossing. In 1939, the first [small-boat]

crossing of the Atlantic from east to
west was made in a 31-foot motorboat
named Eckero. One might say this voyage presaged things to come: Eckero
was not designed for the voyage; nor
was she specially fitted; nor was her
crew trying to prove anything.
Eckero’s owner was Uno Ekblom,
Figure 2–5. Arielle at sea—a photo taken from the deck of a steamer. Despite her
seamanlike crossing in 1937, the feat was met by a “devastating silence.”
who lived on the Aland Islands in the
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