The Original Unsinkable
Few names in boating are as instantly recognizable as Boston Whaler. Celebrating 60 years in 2018, the company has a long-running reputation for building unsinkable, foam-cored boats. Its legacy started with a 13-footer that founder Dick Fisher famously sawed in half, then motored around Wampatuck Pond in Hanson, Massachusetts. In Unsinkable: The History Of Boston Whaler, author Matthew D. Plunkett traces the boats’ DNA from the Hickman Sea Sled to today’s flagship 420 Outrage. The book’s 198 pages are illustrated with historic patent applications, vintage advertisements and photographs of Whaler models past and present. (Quarto Publishing, $35)
Cruising To Warmer Climes
Annually updated by on-the-water editors with local knowledge and cruising information, Waterway
Guide’s Southern 2018 edition covers Atlantic and Gulf sections of the Intracoastal Waterway between Fernandina Beach, Florida, and Brownsville, Texas. Broken into geographic sections, the guide has descriptions of inlets, known shoaling areas, and bridges and opening schedules, as well as anchorages, dockage facilities and ports of call. The 778-page, spiral-bound guide is designed to lie flat on a chart table or in the cockpit, and it’s illustrated with NOAA charts, aerial photography and colorful imagery of ports and shoreside towns.
(Waterway Guide, $45)
This article originally appeared in the January 2017 issue.
