As part of PassageMaker magazine’s campaign to improve quality and better deliver crucial intelligence to a savvy readership, we announce a new partnership with one of the world’s foremost experts on marine systems and maintenance.
Author and researcher Nigel Calder’s will join the PassageMaker team as its technical editor, a role that will involve writing in-depth features about cutting-edge topics and advising the editors about overall coverage of systems and gear. Additionally Steve Zimmerman, owner of four boatyards, comes on board with regular how-to stories and advice on developing the diagnostic and mechanical skills so readers can keep their own boats running smoothly.
Calder is author of six books, including Boatowner’s Mechanical and Electrical Manual, Marine Diesel Engines, Refrigeration for Pleasureboats, The Cruising Guide to the Northwest Caribbean, and Cuba: A Cruising Guide.
“We are delighted to have Nigel Calder on board with us,” says PassageMaker Editor-in-Chief Peter Swanson. “Besides broad technical expertise that commands respect from both the boating public and boatbuilders themselves, Nigel has decades of family cruising experience. As our readers know better than anyone, this is a point of view that cannot be faked. And take it from me, Calder is a darn good writer.”
As part of his role as technical editor, Calder will also help develop and lead our engine and generator instruction at TrawlerFest-Baltimore in September, alongside long-time presenter Steve Zimmerman.
Zimmerman, a long-time friend of the magazine, is president of Zimmerman Marine, which operates four boatyards, in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, specializing in repairs, refits and maintenance. He has been repairing and building boats for almost four decades. Most recently he contributed a blog to our website entitled “Boatyard Bemused.”
“Steve Zimmerman is going to keep our technical coverage grounded,” Swanson says. “True, many of our readers have been cruising for decades and know how to keep their boat running quite handily, but we’ve got many others who are just getting started. Steve’s mission is to deliver the nuts-and-bolts information they will need to cruise safely, comfortably and as inexpensively as possible.”
Like Calder, Zimmerman is a real-deal cruiser, having transited the East Coast from Nova Scotia to the Bahamas and done the Great Lakes and the Inside Passage to Alaska. He’s made more than 40 delivery trips.
