Gary Reich

More than 70 islands dot the seascape between New York Harbor and Fishers Island Sound on the New England coast.

Hylas Yachts has launched the M44, the builder’s first foray into the U.S. powerboat market, with construction by Salthouse Boatbuilders in New Zealand.

It’s a common dream among cruising boaters: packing up and slipping the dock lines to explore the vast waters that make up more than 70 percent of our planet.

Splashed in May for launch customer Jimmy Buffett, the Surfari 48 is the latest design from naval architect Ted Fontaine.

Yamaha Marine in May launched its XTO Offshore platform by introducing the XF425, a 425-horsepower, four-stroke outboard that is the company’s highest-horsepower offering to date.

It was 1977, only a couple of months before the original Star Wars movie was released, when my elementary school classmates and I shuffled up the steps of the long, yellow school bus.

It was a chilly day by Florida standards, but the 72-degree, midday high was the perfect tonic for my mid- Atlantic bones.

A new meteorological buoy in the Southern Ocean may have recorded the largest wave — 78 feet tall — ever measured in the Southern Hemisphere.

Hinckley recently took the wraps off its Sou’wester 53, a carbon-epoxy pilothouse sailboat that Tripp Design Naval Architecture drew for cruising families.

Packed with powerful photographs of shipwrecks from all over the world, Stefano Banazzo’s 144-page Wrecks: The Memory Of The Sea commemorates these ships’ histories and the sailors who ran them.

The Riviera 4800 Sport Yacht made its North American debut in April at the Newport Boat Show in Newport Beach, California, following its mid-2016 world debut in the builder’s home waters of Australia.

Nearly 20 years ago I moved off my 30-foot sailboat and started developing a fancy for stout-looking pilothouse trawlers and other full-displacement vessels.

With masts reaching high into the sky and carrying more canvas than any boat their size should, Chesapeake Bay log canoes require a hefty crew perched outboard on long boards to keep them balanced and upright. Watching crews manhandle these graceful, overpowered vessels is a summer Eastern Shore tradition.

Germania Nova is a reproduction of the 1908 schooner Germania, designed by Max Oertz. Built of steel in 2011 by Factoria Naval De Marin in Pontevedra, Spain, she is 196 feet with a beam of 26 feet and draws 18 feet.

I was a sophomore in high school when Baltimore’s sailing ambassador, the clipper Pride of Baltimore, sank.

Back Cove Yachts has taken the wraps off its first outboard-powered boat, the 34O.

Rambler Yacht Co. will launch its first boat, the Rambler 38. It’s a center console designed by Sparkman & Stephens and built at the Lyman-Morse yard in Thomaston, Maine.

Time seems in short supply for many of us these days, which is why daysailers and weekenders are a great choice for maximizing your time on the water.

Mercury Marine added three V-6 outboards to its FourStroke series at this year’s Miami International Boat Show.

Viking Yachts introduced the 44 Convertible at the Miami International Boat Show earlier this year. It joins the recently introduced 44 Open in the New Jersey builder’s fleet.

US Sailing named J/70 world champion Peter Duncan and Laser gold medalist Erika Reineke Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the year.

The Foiler may look like a fugitive from the set of a 007 film, but it’s a hybrid diesel-electric “flying yacht” that rides 5 feet off the surface on four carbon fiber hydrofoils.

Dawn Riley, the first woman to compete in both the America’s Cup and the Whitbread Round the World Race, is this year’s recipient of Mystic Seaport’s America and the Sea Award.

The exponential growth of dual consoles in the fishboat market is undeniable. They promise a blend of fishing and family fun, a claim that Pursuit Boats let me put to the test off Miami aboard its DC 365 — the largest dual console in the builder’s range.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are the days my father and I spent crabbing on Chesapeake Bay each summer.

Though the majority of seafood consumed in the United States comes from outside the country, there’s a movement toward sustainable, locally raised food from the brine.

A partnership among environmental and conservation organizations, state governments, oyster farmers and educational groups is aiming to increase the oyster population in Chesapeake Bay to 10 billion by 2025.

The oldest lighthouse in New York and the fourth-oldest active beacon in the United States, Montauk Point Lighthouse was authorized by the second U.S. Congress, under President Washington, in 1792.

Pride of Baltimore II remains one of the world’s most revered tall ships, delighting crowds wherever she sails.

The Windjammer Elite sea bag from Morris & Barth Ship Canvas has an oil-tanned leather bottom, a matching leather center band and heavy-duty canvas construction.

Late spring brings a chance for Chesapeake Bay anglers to tangle with behemoth black drum

If you’ve read any DIY boat repair or maintenance books, there’s a pretty good chance Nigel Calder wrote one of them.

Hatteras has added a flybridge version of its GT45X sportfish. Introduced at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show last November, the new model offers the same performance, build quality and features as its sister ship, but with a better overall view from above.

Kilkea, a 268-foot, concept expedition superyacht, has the credentials to serve as the lair for an international super villain, though she’ll proudly serve anyone who can afford the $72 million buy-in price.

There’s something tortuous about magazine deadlines.

Yamaha Marine Group has added a 90-hp model to its lineup of high-performance V MAX SHO 4-strokes.

Australia native Jon Sanders completed a record 10th circumnavigation on Dec. 21, 2017, aboard his 39-foot Sparkman & Stephens Perie Banou II.

Largely considered one of the greatest novelists who wrote in the English language, Joseph Conrad was born to Polish parents in the Russian Empire before leaving at age 16 to become a sailor.

These 27- to 35-foot powerboats are just the right size for cruising and day-tripping.

The 360 Offshore is North Carolina builder Tideline’s biggest center console power cat to date, leading the builder’s lineup alongside the 235 Hybrid.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That mantra may serve plenty of boatbuilders well, but not Beneteau. The company is resisting complacency by replacing its best-selling Gran Turismo 49 with the Gran Turismo 50.

After raising estimates for outstanding claims earlier this year, BP reported that the total costs of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill are around $65 billion.

Without overgeneralizing, Florida’s citizenry and I generally don’t mix well.

The new edition of the Vicem 58 Classic is an evolution of a design that the Turkish builder introduced in 2010. Vicem took the wraps off the boat at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in November.

A Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook heavy-weather crew rescued four stranded men from an “unseaworthy” 22-foot boat in Raritan Bay, New Jersey, late last year.

Big boats, little boats, beamy boats, tall boats, fast boats, slow boats: If it floats, there’s a good chance you can get a look at it during the Miami International Boat Show.

Anyone who has cruised offshore knows the sea can play tricks on the mind.