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Sam Devlin

Character Matters

In Sam Devlin’s last column for Passagemaker, he shares what makes any boat the right boat.

Rover 29

This boat is designed for one or two people to cruise comfortably and safely just about anywhere.

Golden Goose

A cherished family boat for adventures far and wide, Honker inspires a new design to cruise portions of the Great Loop.

Mirror, Mirror

A different approach leads a designer to make updates to the Devlin 37 while retaining her essence.

Pure Purpose

The Camarone 40 can be designed as a pure powerboat, but she shines as a motorsailer.

Tough Little Duck

The Surf Scoter 26, named for a stout seabird, can be matched to a range of power options, each with its own advantages.

A Small Cabin on the Water

With a shallow draft, protected keel and efficient outboard power, the Shanty 36 begs you to find your gunkhole.

The Little Dipper

This tiny, capable coastal cruiser can be stowed—or sent across the pond—in a standard-size shipping container.

Putting Flotsam to Work

I took a look around my shop, and in the debris of projects past, I could see my boating future.

Twin delivery captains Assen and Nikolay Alexandrov standing on the bow deck of a motor yacht docked alongside a pier.

The Twins

After more than 500,000 nautical miles as yacht delivery captains, Assen and Nikolay Alexandrov are still bringing boats home.

Alt Text: A close-up view of two polished stainless-steel windlasses and anchor gypsies mounted on the white foredeck of a yacht under a partly cloudy sky.

Anchors Aweigh

Windlass and ground tackle maintenance can make all the difference in an emergency.

A Garmin marine chartplotter display screen showing a digital nautical map with AIS vessel tracking, route waypoints, and navigation data overlay.

Understanding AIS

Good seamanship means using every available tool, but never relying on any one alone.

Three side-by-side screenshots from the Navionics app showing nautical charts of Hell Gate and Wards Island, contrasting a correct manually plotted water route on the left with two flawed AI-generated routes on the middle and right that erroneously plot course lines directly across land.

A Suspicious Plot

I used AI to chart a course through a notorious waterway. The results were unusable.

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