Here are the latest Local Notices to Mariners and NAV ALERTS that are relevant to ICW cruising in Districts 5, 7 and 8, the OBX, AICW, OWW, Keys, GIWW and adjacent waters. Open each LNM link for the USCG notice and a chart for each location. Listed north to south to north. NAV ALERTS will also be posted on our Homepage.
For previous Local Notices, go to the Specific State or Region on our Homepage
This week’s lowest current marina fuel prices as of Oct 28 Diesel Range: $5.80 to $8.09 Lowest @ Osprey Marina in (South Carolina) Gas Range: $4.52 to $4.52 Lowest @ Galveston Yacht Marina in (Texas) Remember to always call the marina to verify the current price since prices may change at any time. Also please let us know if you find a marina’s fuel price has changed via the Submit News link.
SELECT Fuel Type:
SELECT Format:
Lowest Diesel Price in Each Region
Fuel Price Report Brought to you by:
Ft. Pierce City Marina specializes in overnight dockage and 22 hour fueling.
The National Hurricane Center chart below updates automatically and shows the latest storm positions. Click the chart for the full NHC report. While port conditions are primarily for commercial mariners, they give a strong indication of the Coast Guard’s appraisal of the storm’s severity.
Categories:
Category 1: winds between 74 m.p.h. and 95 m.p.h.
Category 2: winds between 96 m.p.h. and 110. m.p.h.
Category 3: winds between 111 m.p.h. and 129 m.p.h.
Category 4: winds between 130 m.p.h. and 156 m.p.h.
Cruisers Net publishes Loose Cannon articles with Captain Swanson’s permission in hopes that mariners with saltwater in their veins will subscribe. $7 per month or $56 for the year; you may cancel at any time.
You can see the new Whalers at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show this week.
INTRODUCTION: Brunswick Corporation has held a stepped hull patent since 2014, but the marine manufacturing giant waited nearly 10 years to apply that technology to a European brand in its stable. Earlier this year, Brunswick launched new Boston Whaler models—the 290 and 330 Outrage—incorporating “WhalerSteps.” According to its patent language, the underwater architecture was intended to mitigate the tendency to “swap ends and/or broach, i.e. become airborne, while maneuvering.”
So far, the press for these boats has been good. One writer said, “The hull creates a keel-like geometry that grips the water laterally in the corners, preventing any skittish behavior that plagued earlier stepped designs.”
Of course, the same writers also said some pretty nice things about those “earlier stepped designs,” which went on to kill people. Here’s the 2025 Loose Cannon history lesson no one else would write:
Stepped Hulls: A Deal With the Devil
Two Decades of Death and Injury. Spin-Out, After Rollover, After Spin-Out
In this screenshot from YouTube video that went viral, a Fountain 38 yaws violently during a 2012 “poker run” event on Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. You can watch the video at the end of the story. Another Fountain 38 was at the center of a lawsuit regarding its stepped hull after a 2003 accident on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire.
Val Jenkins was vice-president for manufacturing at Cigarette, a legendary go-fast company serving racing and consumer markets. Throughout his career, Jenkins refused to build stepped-hull boats for Cigarette’s civilian customers, whom he described as “dentists, doctors and owners of dry cleaners.”
These amateurs were just not serious enough. Their notion of boating was “go fast, look good, get laid,” Jenkins said.
Stepped hulls have tremendous appeal because they make fast boats go even faster without adding horse power. The trade-off has been that many, if not most models can become unstable when turning.
The existence of that deadly flaw was kept quiet in the early days of center-console adoption, according to an industry insider who will be quoted later in the story.
With a handful of notable exceptions, the story of the stepped-hull design is a story about an industry that made a deal with the Devil. The money was good, even as the body-count rose and continues to do so. The cruel irony has been that the dead have often been the bikini-clad companions, not the operators themselves, as the latter survived by clinging tight to the wheel during 65 mph spinouts and rollovers.
At this point, regular readers might be saying, “So what? I’ve got a sailboat, or I’ve got a trawler. We all know the go-fast crowd are a bunch of knuckleheads. Who cares?”
Recent stories about the Bayesian disaster, the loss of the first Pride of Baltimore and a hybrid jetski-pontoon boat that will flip over forward during deceleration weren’t exactly “on market” either, but taken together with this account, they begin to paint a picture.
Boats with design flaws are like mirror-world slot machines. When a certain malign combination of symbols finally displays—call ’em the circumstances—the unwitting players become the opposite of rewarded, whether billionaires on a yacht or a family tooling around Pontoon Lake.
Quad powered, 1800-horsepower Fuel Me Up was going 77 mph when she yawed and rolled. One man died.
Recent Fatalities
November 9, 2024: Eytan Genoune, 22, was killed when the Nor-Tech 34 in which he was riding made “an unexpected sudden turn” while traveling southbound on the Intracoastal Waterway near Miami. The turn was violent enough to break off the boat’s T-top and eject all three people on board.
November 7, 2024: Stephanie Rodriguez, 24, was killed when the Deep Impact Custom 39 in which she was riding, spun out ejecting six of eight occupants after the operator made a turn to starboard. The boat had been traveling from Miami to Key West in a “poker run” event.
September 26, 2023: Michael Garcia, 41, was killed on Biscayne Bay when Fuel Me Up, the Contender 39 in which he was riding “yawed to starboard and rolled multiple times to port,” ejecting the three men onboard. Garcia was interested in buying the boat, and this was a seatrial. He was at the helm.
All the quoted information above comes from Florida Fish & Wildlife investigation reports. Investigators made no mention of drugs or alcohol being a factor. Each vessel is a center-console with a stepped hull.
Contender is a major American boatbuilder. Loose Cannon emailed the company for comment on the Garcia fatality, referencing Val Jenkins’ position on stepped hulls. There has been no reply.
How They Work
Those two notches toward the aft end of the boat are the edges of the steps that run transversely across the bottom to the other side. This boat happens to have been built by SeaVee, one of a handful of manufacturers who have cracked the code on how to make this hull design safer for an average boater.
The “steps” molded into a planing hull act as ventilation tunnels, which means they draw air down below the surface of the water. The roiling mix of air and water reduces the friction in the area of the hull behind the step. Reducing friction increases speed and makes for better gas mileage.
The boat’s pivot point, the base of the transom on a conventional deep-V hull, now resides at the step instead, helping to reduce pitching and reduce bow angle, which industry people call the angle of attack. Running flatter means you can see the horizon over the bow.
Michael Peters
At this point, Michael Peters should be introduced. He is the naval architect most associated with stepped-hull technology. His first time in a stepped-hull speedboat was with his wife. Peters rolled it and almost killed them both. He went on to develop a stepped-hull safe enough to have been adopted for U.S. Navy fast-attack craft.
Writing in the November 2010 issue of Professional Boatbuilder magazine, Peters highlighted how dangerous unrefined stepped hulls could be compared to conventional deep-V hulls:
A speed, a conventional deep-V runs with its lateral area aft. And, when trimmed in for a turn, the boat adds lateral area and carves a nice, controllable turn. A stepped hull, however, behaves differently. At speed, the wetted surface and lateral area have gaps caused by the steps. The water under the bottom, aft of the steps, is actually an air-and-water mix—there are bubbles—making for very little resistance and a very fast bottom. So when you turn the boat, if you trim in (as with a conventional deep-V), you plant the bow and move all the lateral area forward, with nothing but bubbles—a wetted surface that behaves more like ballbearings…As far as the boat is concerned, there is no drive aft. And therefore no resistance to spinning out and rolling…
We’ve since learned that every manufacturer of stepped hulls has had the same thing happen. Repeatedly. It is the best-kept secret out there.
Hushed-Up
That last paragraph is intriguing. In the early years of the millennia, boatbuilders were taking step-hull technology from the racing teams—whose throttlemen were strapped in and wore helmets—and applying it to center-consoles, which were family and recreational fishing craft.
What Peters was saying, and what he repeated in an interview with Loose Cannon, was that the entire marine industry knew stepped hulls were deadly. Professional Boatbuilder covered the history and proliferation of stepped hulls most thoroughly, but ordinary consumers did not subscribe to Probo, as it was called. It wasn’t on the magazine racks at airports.
The enthusiast magazines—publications read by ordinary boaters—kept quiet about the issue even though stepped hulls were becoming central to a growing number of personal-injury and wrongful-death lawsuits. And, even though, according to Peters, a stepped-hull boat on seatrial actually rolled with bunch of magazine writers aboard!
Not a word was written, presumably because a potential advertiser was involved. By March 2014 Soundings—the newsiest of the boating magazines—was writing about the stepped-hull trend, and although the story buried the lead (as editors like to say), it did include a couple oblique references to the carnage.
“In a sense it’s like going from Army boots to ballet toe shoes. In the boots you can move around a lot and not fall over, but in the toe shoes you had better put some thought into your movements or risk an accident.”—Naval Architect Richard Akers, writing in Professional Boatbuilder magazine.
A quarter century has passed since the early stepped hulls were introduced to recreational craft and a decade since Soundings leaked its grain of truth. Today, the center-console market is booming in harmony with the near perfection of the outboard motor.
Jenkins and other experts interviewed for this article argue that the behavior of unrefined stepped hulls is too unpredictable for your average weekend boater to master. Going back to the slot-machine analogy, there are several factors on a continuum that are always combining to affect performance as their values change: Speed, trim angle, sea state, weight (fuel in tanks), weight distribution, rate of turn, etc. The number of possible combinations is mind-boggling.
Refinements
Some builders are selling stepped-hull boats that aren’t much improved at all. Others have steadfastly refused to put steps in their hulls, saying their boats were fast enough already. Time has normalized the idea of steps even though the accidents continue.
Some of these stepped-hull boats are much better than they used to be, however. As mentioned, Michael Peters came up with an innovation that largely prevented his stepped-hull designs from spinning out, though he will remind you that spinouts are never impossible given the high speeds involved.
Peters’ refinement was to add another indented section running longitudinally connecting the aftmost step to an opening at the transom. This shallow box-like indentation was inspired by the racing powercat pontoon architecture. This “tunnel” presented just enough lateral area “to catch the hull, but not so abruptly that it will trip it,” Peters told Soundings.
Peters’ innovation. If you want to understand the lingo: Longitudinally means something is laid out fore-and-aft. Transverse means something is laid out from side to side, as is the case with the actual steps. The tunnel is said to be longitudinal.
Peters is not a boatbuilder. He founded Michael Peters Yacht Design of Sarasota, Florida in 1981, specializing in high-speed watercraft. Peters designs boats for builders and governments. He won’t license his patented stepped hull to third parties.
His stepped-hull designs are sold by several center-console brands, including Invincible, Blackfin, Valhalla, Barker, Mag Bay and Caymas.
(According to Peters, Contender asked him to design its first stepped hulls, but a contract with a competing builder precluded him from doing so. Had things gone differently, Michael Garcia might be alive today and tooling around Biscayne Bay in a newly purchased Contender 39.)
The U.S. Navy’s Special Warfare Command contracted Peters to draw the lines for its MK VI Patrol Boat, a 61-foot stepped-hull design. Yes, Navy Seals ride into combat on a Peters hull, considered too valuable to die in a boating accident before they can get to the fight. (This story is part of an Invincible Boats YouTube video at bottom.)
Stepped-hull designers Robert Kaidy (left) and Michael Peters.
SeaVee
SeaVee has been building center-consoles in South Florida since 1974. At around the same time that Peters was working toward his ventillated tunnel refinement, SeaVee decided to come up with its own solution and hired a naval architect named Robert Kaidy as vice-president of engineering.
Where Peters’ solution had been to incorporate an “inny” feature, Kaidy found similar results from an “outy.” That is, a series of strakes, which SeaVee dubbed a “Speedrail.” Thus, declared SeaVee, the stepped-hull was “perfected.”
The SeaVee patent illustration describes its “Speedrail” as strakes labeled 78B & C, 80B & C and 82 B & C.
According to SeaVee, its Speedrail “creates a vertical positive pressure surfaces that does not allow the boat to ‘slip out’ at right speeds or going into a turn.” AI wasn’t a thing 12 years ago, when SeaVee applied for its patent, but there was such a thing as computer modeling. SeaVee went further, as shown below.
A plug is a hull-prototype used by boatbuilders to create the female hull mold (any mold really). SeaVee set out to test the design by reinforcing the plug, powering it and going out on seatrials.
At the time, SeaVee produced a marketing video documenting the company’s philosophy and the design process that produced it’s Z Series line of stepped-hull center-consoles, which you can watch below.
Armchair experts may view both of these refinements as obvious. As Peters pointed out, however, the history of invention is full of products or methods that, while obvious in hindsight, represented a huge investment in time, money and human energy during development—in his case, an entire career.
The fact that both solutions are patented means that any other builder who wants to refine its stepped hull to make it safer has to come up with something distinct from the Peters tunnel or the Kaidy strakes.
Or that builder can wait until the patents expire.
SeaVee’s Speedrail patent does not expire until 2034, but the expiration for one of the Peters stepped-hull patents is just around the corner—July 1, 2028. Loose Cannon asked Peters to channel his inner Gandhi. Would he consider releasing his patent for general use early, you know, for the public good? He chuckled and said something about “un-American.”
Illustrator Douglas Coffin caught the spirit of the stepped-hull’s appeal in this cartoon published in Professional Boatbuilder magazine back in the early days of its introduction to a mass market. (Reproduced with permission)
Training
The U.S. Coast Guard does not have standards for center-console hull designs. The International Organization for Standardization, or ISO, has language on hull construction but not design. The American Boat & Yacht Council, or ABYC, sets standards for many facets of boat construction, but not hull design.
The courts have been handling lawsuits over stepped hulls ever since their introduction into center-consoles, but these proceedings aren’t advertised and attracted little or no attention. You’ve already read how the marine press responded to stepped-hull disasters; this institution is even more lame today than it was then.
So, buyer beware. Anyone with good enough credit can buy a boat that goes over 70 mph and just might rollover under circumstances that are difficult to predict. The only institution that is protecting the public appears to be the insurance industry, which is actually protecting itself.
Some insurers are requiring go-fast buyers to present a certificate from a training organization. The primary motivator may not be as much about hull design as the fact that there are, say, four 450-horsepower outboards attached to the transom of an applicant’s boat. Nevertheless, guys like Tres Martin include lessons in stepped-hull operation in their curriculums.
Martin was an accomplished “throttleman” from the same go-fast culture as Val Jenkins. Back when actor Don Johnson ruled the airwaves playing the lead on “Miami Vice,” Martin was ruling the actual waves of offshore racing, winning multiple world championships. He reinvented himself as a teacher when he founded Tres Martin Performance Boat School in 2004.
He and two other instructors teach 70 to 90 people a year. The courses cost between $2,000 and $3,600 for multiple days of instruction, including time on the water on a customer’s own boat. One of the most difficult parts of the job, Martin said, is telling a student that he or she had failed the course and they would not be getting the certificate needed to obtain insurance coverage for a boat already bought.
“There’s a lot of boats out there that are stepped bottoms developed by trial and error, not even involving a naval architect,” Martin said, acknowledging that some designs are still potentially dangerous. “All I’m here to do is keep people safe. Stepped bottoms are here to stay,” he said.
LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Every so often he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.
Cruisers Net publishes Loose Cannon articles with Captain Swanson’s permission in hopes that mariners with saltwater in their veins will subscribe. $7 per month or $56 for the year; you may cancel at any time.
This is a painting of Loose Cannon’s Morgan Out Island 41, underway in the Abacos. Her name is Rio.
Anyone who upgrades to a paid subscription by November 23 is eligible to purchase a painting of their own boat or someone else’s by contemporary fine artist Osiris Salomón Santos of the Dominican Republic. Naturally, existing paid subscribers are also eligible.
Santos is a friend who painted Loose Cannon’s ketch from a photo of Rio underway in the Bahamas.
There are two sizes to choose from: 20 by 24 inches for $100 and 24 by 30 inches for $150. (Rio is the latter.) The medium is acrylic on canvas, which is ideal for shipping.
Speaking of which, we must tack on $36 onto those prices to cover our shipping costs, first to the U.S. and then via the Postal Service.
Paintings will be sent to their purchasers via USPS Priority Mail in the first week of December.
Osiris Salomón Santos and some of his work.
My Man Salomón
Santos works from a studio in Sosua on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic. He is considered a contemporary fine artist, though he makes much of his living painting portraits for tourists who travel there on beach vacations, usually working from photos.
The key to Santos’ productivity and reasonable pricing is his use of a wide-format printer to reproduce the image on the canvas itself, which he then paints over. Before you say that this is some form of cheating, you should know that artists of the last century often achieved similar results by sketching over an image from an overhead projector.
Before that—and going back to the late 1500s—artists employed what was called a camera obscura to project scenes through a pinhole onto a surface such as paper or canvas, thus helping those old masters sketch out a scene.
As far as the topic at hand—using photography as a tool for a painter—the pinhole camera brings this discussion full circle. In the first half of the 19th century this technology was refined to expose light-sensitive materials to the projected image, and so photography was born.
Now, enough tech talk and onto the fun—and more tech talk. We can also use ChatGPT to re-render your photo into the style of famed nautical painters of yore, or any recognizable artist for the matter—before Santos applies his brush strokes. As a demonstration, I am showing how Rio would look, if she had been painted by:
WINSLOW HOMER
IVAN AIVAZOVSKY
CARL G. EVERS
VINCENT VAN GOGH
The Process
Here is the process to get your own boat painting:
Sign up for, or upgrade to a paid subscription.
New people and existing paid subscribers (We know who you are) should then email the photo they would like to see as a painting to petercswanson@gmail.com. The email must be received by November 23. Include your physical mailing address.
If you want your painting to be done in the style of a particular artist, include that info. We will send you the re-rendered image for approval.
Once Santos has finished the painting. He will email you a picture of the picture, and an invoice for the price of the painting plus $36 for shipping. He will include instructions on how to pay via Moneygram.
You pay. We deliver.
And that’s it. The painting will come by mail, rolled into a triangular shipping tube. It will be insured. You will then have to have it stretched for framing or attach it to the side of that big fridge of yours with magnets.
Nautically themed works by the artist.
Santos at work en plein air.
LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Every so often he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.
Fred Pickhardt’s Substack is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Fred Pickhardt’s Substack that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won’t be charged unless they enable payments.
In November 1950, the polar vortex underwent a massive disruption that caused upper-level winds to stretch into an enormous, elongated loop, sweeping freezing Arctic air deep into the American South late in November, fueling the historic November 1950 Superstorm (aka Great Appalachian Storm). …
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Fred Pickhardt’s Substack to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
Cruisers Net publishes Loose Cannon articles with Captain Swanson’s permission in hopes that mariners with saltwater in their veins will subscribe. $7 per month or $56 for the year; you may cancel at any time.
The author is deputy editor of Marine Industry News, a U.K. based business-to-business outlet. This story was published on October 23, 2026 and is reprinted here with permission.
By ANNA CUMMINS
The New Jersey boatbuilder, Viking Yacht Company, is evaluating WhaleSpotter whale-detection technology aboard its new Viking 70 Convertible demonstration boat. The system, which uses thermal cameras and artificial intelligence to detect whales ahead of moving vessels, can be used to alert captains in good time.
Atlantic Marine Electronics, a Viking subsidiary, installed the system on the test yacht’s tuna tower using a removable mount. The camera and processing computer sit within a single unit, while a tablet at the helm shows thermal images alongside the estimated distance and bearing of detected whales. An audible alert notifies the captain when a whale is spotted.
WhaleSpotter reports reliable detection at distances of two to three nautical miles, day or night, depending on camera height and whale size, and claims its software distinguishes whales from waves, spray and other activity on the water.
WhaleSpotter combines a thermal camera and processing computer in a single unit
Time To React
“Seeing a whale two or three miles ahead gives a captain time to make a small course correction to avoid it,” says Shawn Henry, CEO of WhaleSpotter, which specialises in sportfishing vessels. “That’s the value of long-range detection. Captains can identify a potential risk and respond well before the vessel gets close to the whale.”
The system collected data during the yacht’s recent trip from New Jersey to Florida, although no whales were detected. It will stay aboard during regular operations. Viking will also demonstrate it at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show this week. According to WhaleSpotter, this is its first demonstration on a sportfishing yacht.
Since 2022, Viking has worked with technology partners, including Viam, to evaluate systems intended to reduce vessel strikes.
“We’re seeing tremendous progress in whale-detection technology, and these systems are becoming more practical and accessible for recreational boats,” says John DePersenaire, Viking’s director of government affairs and sustainability. “The WhaleSpotter demonstration is another example of technology that’s available today and can help captains avoid whales. We want to demonstrate these capabilities in real-world boating conditions.”
Partnerships and Testing
Viking and industry partners formed the Whale and Vessel Safety (WAVS) Taskforce in late 2022, focusing particularly on the endangered North Atlantic right whale. Its 24-foot Contender research boat carries thermal imaging, radar and AI detection equipment.
The boat is finishing a season in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Visitors included National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) personnel, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation board members and marine electronics companies. The team conducted manoeuvres and examined National Marine Electronics Association vessel data to assess how responses to detections can be tracked. Plans are being developed for winter operations in the South Atlantic.
NOAA is considering changes to the 2008 vessel speed rule, which requires most vessels of 65ft or longer to travel at 10 knots or less in designated East Coast Seasonal Management Areas at certain times of year. President Donald Trump’s September 17executive order directed NOAA to use advances in avoidance technology and coordinate with the private sector.
Viking is now urging the agency to propose a rule incorporating technology-based measures.
“The technology has advanced significantly since the 2008 rule was adopted,” DePersenaire says. “Through WAVS, we’ve been working to demonstrate that these systems can detect whales and give captains the information they need to avoid them. WhaleSpotter illustrates the rapid pace at which whale-detection technologies are being commercialised and put into use.”
Research, AI
WhaleSpotter grew out of more than a decade of research at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Co-founder Dr Daniel Zitterbart helped develop the technology, which uses AI trained on whale and ocean imagery. The company reports more than 70 systems deployed worldwide, including commercial vessel installations and shore-based monitoring sites.
“Our research covers different whale species under a wide range of conditions,” Henry says. “We can often identify a North Atlantic right whale by the distinctive V shape of its blow. That allows us to distinguish it from a humpback whale, for example, and gives captains more information about what they’re seeing.”
LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Every so often he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.
A manatee surfacing for air / Photo by: Erin Weeks/SCDNR
Welcome to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Coastal Updates newsletter! You are receiving this email because you attended one of our public programs or signed up for updates from our agency. In this monthly newsletter, you’ll find the latest outdoors news, volunteer opportunities, useful career information and more. We hope it will help you enjoy and protect our state’s beautiful coastline.
What’s happening outdoors along the coast in November?
The Atlantic red snapper season may be over, but the work is far from done. We ask that anglers continue to declare their bottom-fishing trips and report the red snapper they release via the VESL reporting platform throughout the remainder of October and November. Both in-season and out-of-season data is critical to gaining a complete understanding of the red snapper fishery as a whole, and we need your support in working toward the goal of more state-based management. Help us spread the word to fellow anglers to keep reporting their data! Plus, each week in November, we’ll be providing a few lucky winners with offshore fishing fear from Shimano and Crowder Rods; any angler who logs a bottom-fishing trip and reports their catch in VESL will be eligible to win. Follow us on Instagram for updates!
November is Manatee Awareness Month! With temperatures dropping in the Lowcountry, manatees have begun their migration south. This time is crucial to document any manatee sightings in South Carolina waters; if you see any lingering visitors, share your findings here!
Oyster season in the Lowcountry is well underway, and we want to help YOU enjoy the season sustainably. If you’re hosting an oyster roast this season, let us know a week in advance by calling (843) 396-0965; we’ll help you to roast responsibly and show you how to recycle your shells and support our resilient coastline. Find the closest oyster recycling drop off near you here!
Trash Picking with Charleston Waterkeeper (Charleston, SC) Tuesdays, November 3, 10, 17 and 24, 1–3 p.m. | Volunteer with our SCORE team alongside Charleston Waterkeeper to pick trash out of recycled oysters every Tuesday of the month! Roll up your sleeves and help ready this shell to be replanted in various state shellfish grounds and restoration projects. Register here.
Veterans Day Fishing Clinic (Yemassee, SC) | Wednesday, November 11, 9 a.m.–noon | Join SCDNR biologists and certified fishing instructors for a fun day of fishing at Nemours Plantation! In celebration of Veterans Day, SCDNR — in partnership with Nemours Plantation and the Nemours Wildlife Foundation — is offering a free clinic for veterans and active-duty military members. Please note: One military member or veteran is required; you can show your DD 214, Veteran’s ID, Active Duty Military ID or discharge papers. Registerhere.
SCDNR Saltwater Fishing Clinic (Yemassee, SC) Wednesday, November 11, 1–4 p.m. | In partnership with Nemours Plantation and the Nemours Wildlife Foundation, we’re offering a saltwater fishing clinic for anyone interested in learning how to fish! You’ll learn how to tie knots, rig your rod, how to cast, what bait to use and what fish you can catch. Registerhere.
Kayak Fishing 101 (Myrtle Beach, SC) Wednesday, November 11, 6–8 p.m. | Join us for Kayak Fishing 101, taught by our fishing instructors! This program builds on the introductory class to kayak fishing, and will teach you more about the different types of kayaks, freshwater versus saltwater, safety and more! Kids ages 6 to adults are welcome to attend. Registerhere.
MWR Fabrication with Charleston Waterkeeper (Charleston, SC) Thursday, November 12, 12:30–3:30 p.m. | Volunteer with our SCORE team alongside Charleston Waterkeeper to construct manufactured wire reefs (MWRs)! These MWRs will be used as a substrate for oyster larvae to land and grow on. You’ll cut, bend and fasten galvanized wire to form a reef structure, then add recycled oyster shell to complete the process. Register here.
ACE Basin Property Tour (Edisto Island, SC) | Friday, November 20, 9 a.m.–noon | Join SCDNR staff on a tour of the ACE Basin where we’ll explore the cultural and natural resources found throughout Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve and Wildlife Management Area! Register here.
Saltwater Fishing Clinic (Georgetown, SC) | Tuesday, November 24, 10 a.m.–1 p.m. | Join SCDNR, North Inlet NERR staff and certified instructors to learn the basics of saltwater fishing! You’ll learn how to tie fishing knots, rig a rod and reel, cast and fish! Kids ages 4 to adults are welcome to attend. Registerhere.
Women’s Inshore Saltwater Fishing Clinic (Georgetown, SC) | Tuesday, December 15, 10 a.m.–1 p.m. | Join SCDNR, North Inlet NERR staff and certified instructors to learn the basics of saltwater fishing! You’ll learn how to tie fishing knots, rig a rod and reel, cast and fish. Women ages 12 to adults are welcome to attend. Register here.
SCDNR Natural Resource Fest (West Columbia, SC) | Friday, January 29, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. | Join the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources for a free, agency-wide career fair designed for middle school students. As students begin exploring their interests and planning for their futures through their personal pathway to success, Natural Resource Fest gives them a firsthand look at the many careers that support and protect South Carolina’s natural resources. Register here by Jan. 1, 2027.
We’re hiring!
Administrative Specialist II| Charleston County, SC | This employee will assist the Boat Titling and Licensing Section with the processing of watercraft and outboard motor transactions and the sale of hunting and fishing licenses.
Vehicle/Equipment Repair Technician II | Charleston County, SC | This employee will work within SCDNR’s Vessel Operations Section at the Marine Resources Division.
Wildlife Biologist II | Hampton County, SC | This employee is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day tasks, training and follow up of staff in completion of management activities and administrative duties in Unit 4-D.
NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management opened applications for the 2027–2029 Margaret A. Davidson Graduate Fellowship, and we have an opening for one at the ACE Basin NERR! This two-year program invites graduate students to conduct a collaborative research project on a key reserve management need. Learn more about the fellowship and applyhere!
SCDNR is seeking public input on the proposed ACE Basin NERR Management Plan for 2026–2031. Created in partnership between SCDNR and NOAA, this plan serves as a framework to guide authorizations, approvals, fund and other actions for the ACE Basin NERR over the course of its cycle.Find the survey for public comment, as well as the drafted management plan, here!
SCORE Spotlight
Calling all coastal cooks! As a part of the SCORE/SC Sea Grant Consortium’s Title I schools grant, we will be developing a coastal cookbook highlighting South Carolina’s coastal cuisine. Please be as detailed as possible and include a picture, ingredients, cookware, step-by-step instructions, a fun recipe name and a personal or historic anecdote about your dish. If chosen for inclusion, we’ll share a copy of the cookbook with you! Please send your submissions to score@dnr.sc.gov.
Michael Hodges, SCDNR SCORE’s fearless leader, will be retiring from the program after 24 and a half years of service! Michael’s commitment to grassroots oyster restoration has always centered on fostering a sense of ownership for our natural resources. Under his tenure, SCORE has educated more than 26,500 people about the importance of oysters and salt marsh resiliency and has grown to be the largest state oyster shell recycling and restoration program in the country. Many other agencies, nonprofits and groups have applied what SCORE and Michael have created in South Carolina to their home fisheries.
Cruisers Net publishes Loose Cannon articles with Captain Swanson’s permission in hopes that mariners with saltwater in their veins will subscribe. $7 per month or $56 for the year; you may cancel at any time.
Far, far away: Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is home to just 220 people.
Here’s another from the New York Times. We have started sharing stories designated as “gifts” from our Times account. This one was first published earlier today. Use the link below.
By NICK SCHONFELD
To reach Tristan, roughly halfway between Africa and South America, Kelly Green crossed 1,738 miles of the South Atlantic from Cape Town aboard the M/V Edinburgh, a 205-foot lobster boat. She had never been to sea before, and she worried about seasickness, but it never came.
After a week at sea, the ship dropped anchor off Calshot Harbour, in front of Tristan da Cunha’s only settlement—Edinburgh of the Seven Seas. Its two small piers, jutting into the water, looked to Kelly like arms reaching out to welcome her.
Kelly could see most of the island’s residents (then 264 people) waving, including her mother and father, Marina and Sean Burns. Her father had been sent to the island, a BritishOverseas Territory, to serve as its administrator. He persuaded his reluctant 22-year-old daughter to visit, though Kelly, living in Britain, was more interested in clubs than remote islands. Kelly remembers him saying: “You have to come out, because you’ll never get the chance again.”
Among the men who helped carry her bags off the boat was Shane Green, 21. They met again that night at the island’s only pub. They danced.
Kelly went home after six weeks. The first night back in Cape Town, South Africa, where most ships leaving Tristan travel to, her hotel phone rang. It was Shane. They talked every night for months.
That was in 2012. Two years and several visits later, Kelly made the decision that would change her life: She moved to Tristan and became the first woman in over a century to settle there for good. The last had been three Irish sisters, in 1908.
Living on an isolated island requires residents to be rather social—to pitch in for the common good, wear multiple hats, work long days and make their own fun.
Tristan was first sighted in 1506 by Tristão da Cunha, a Portuguese naval commander. Britain annexed the island in 1816 and set up a garrison for a year. A Scottish corporal stayed behind with his wife, their two children and two English stonemasons. That was the beginning of the community that lives there today.
Only 220 people now call it home, down from a peak of 300 in 1993. In the past three years, there have been 21 deaths and only six births. A few islanders have emigrated over the years.
LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Every so often he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.
Cruisers Net publishes Loose Cannon articles with Captain Swanson’s permission in hopes that mariners with saltwater in their veins will subscribe. $7 per month or $56 for the year; you may cancel at any time.
That swim ladder amidst the flames is the clue that we are looking at a Great Harbour G37 engulfed by fire that produced crematoria temperatures. That’s me then and me now, five years older and still giving the same spiel.
I’m guessing most of you guys don’t watch true-crime series on the tube. I certainly don’t, but I’m a true-crime talking-head veteran. I talked about the same trawler murders twice—same story, different networks. And I’m here to tell ya: These true-crime folks don’t do nuance.
On the surface it was a simple boy-meets-girl story: Boy with boat meets girl. They marry. Boy is actually a monster. Boy and girl divorce. Girl gets boat in divorce. Boy kills girl and new boy inside boat, then burns boat to the waterline. Police gun down boy. The end.
But there was another interesting twist to this story, which goes unexamined by both shows. Maybe, because a nuanced examination might cross some true-crime line by suggesting that the victim was somehow less than saintly in her own behavior.
This is what a GH 37 looks like when it’s not burning.
Two Shows
The were a couple differences between the two treatments.
The 2019 “Dark Waters: Murder in the Deep” episode entitled “Burned,” mixed talking heads with actor reenactments. The reenactments were a little cheesy because the actors were younger and, of course, better looking, but at least they had an actual Great Harbour trawler for the filming, even though it was a GH 47 instead of an actual 37.
This year’s “Deadly Waters with Capt. Lee” episode “River of Fire” didn’t have much in the way of reenactments, but it did have Capt. Lee. I didn’t know anything about Capt. Lee until now. He was the “beloved” Capt. Lee Rosback of the “Below Decks” reality show until he was sidelined with a medical issue.
One of my fellow talking heads was Ken Fickett, builder of the boat in question, who came to know David Trauger in the process. In the most recent episode, Fickett got to reprise a line he used when Georgia police called him for information: “Sonofabitch, he burned the boat!”
Nothing against Lee—he is a salty old dude—but his commentary in between us talking heads seems like a distraction, at least during the episode in question.
So, what is my beef with these dueling true-crime narratives? Neither thought it was worthwhile getting the murderer’s side of the story. Don’t get me wrong, David Trauger is no less a villain just because he acted out of love. For his boat, that is. He loved that trawler so much that he rather die than give it up.
How do I know what Trauger may have been thinking? I asked Trauger’s lawyer. That’s why I was twice recruited to be a talking head; I had written stories about the case for Soundings and PassageMaker magazines. When you are trying to do journalism, your job is to get all sides of the story.
Trauger may have been dead, having succesfully suicided-by-cop, but not before he had told his side of the story to Crystal Ferrier. Ferrier is an attorney in Brunswick, Georgia, just down the road from the scene of the crime, St. Marys.
Neither show quoted Ferrier. If they had, they would have learned that she had scheduled a court date to ask a Georgia judge to nullify Trauger’s divorce from Karen Barnes based on fraud. Trauger never showed up for the August 14, 2012 hearing because there was really no need to. He had spent the night before murdering Barnes and her friend (and possible lover) Larry Ford.
One thing that both shows agreed upon: Premium Time was insurance man David Trauger’s most prized possession. He also had a first ex-wife of 22 years that he owed $235,000. Ferrier said Trauger was terrified that she would try to collect by executing a lien on Premium Time, which Trauger had purchased for $558,000.
The divorce from Karen, according to Ferrier, had been a sham, an ill-conceived scheme to put Premium Time beyond the first ex-wife’s reach. Trauger and Barnes would continue living together and then remarry sometime in the future, or so Trauger thought.
In the first TV portrayal David Trauger and Karen Barnes were played by younger actors.
Why this rings true:
Trauger loved his boat. Yes, indeed, the true-crime shows agree, but they don’t follow that notion to any logical conclusion.
Trauger was well off financially. He had other assets and property that would have satisfied the financial distribution requirements of an ordinary divorce, given the circumstances of the marriage. His decision to relinquish a prized possession should be seen as odd, out of character.
Chime in here, divorce attorneys: Isn’t a $558,000 item a pretty hefty settlement for a marriage that had lasted only 27 months, assuming the going rate in 2012?
The divorce was entirely amicable: No haggling over the boat was reported, even though it was Trauger’s prize possession, etc., etc.
In fact, the divorce was so amicable that they had gone on a vacation to Hawaii just before Trauger transfered Premium Time’s documentation into Barnes’s name and the divorce became final.
Even though divorced, Trauger continued to live on Premium Time with Barnes for a couple months after the fact, until early June 2012.
Isn’t any of this worthy of mention in a serious conversation about the crime. Shouldn’t Trauger’s lawyer have been one of those talking heads?
Barnes Plays Her Hand
In early June 2012, Trauger left the boat and returned to his home state of Pennsylvania to conduct business in connection with his insurance companies. He was only away for a couple weeks.
“He came back to the boat on Jekyll Island on the 22nd of June with wine and flowers in hand, and he found that the locks had been changed,” Ferrier said. Barnes had summoned a Georgia state trooper to tell Trauger he was not to go on the boat again. The trooper handed him a key to a storage locker where his personal possessions had been taken.
Why might Karen Barnes have given Trauger the impression that she was collaborating with his idea for a sham divorce?
Though he had seemed charming at first, Trauger turned out to be a drunken, jealous man subject to hair-trigger rages. He was physically abusive, having broken her arm during a trip to the Bahamas. Barnes was on a video call with her sister who in effect witnessed the assault.
Appearing to go along with Trauger’s sham-divorce plan may have seemed like the path of least resistance, a safe path toward ridding herself of a man whom she truly feared.
Barnes had come into the marriage without much in the way of assets. A half-million boat could provide means with which to begin a new life. She deserved to be happy.
All she had to do was wait for the right opportunity to make her escape. That’s the thing about a boat. It can go places.
That would not have been a bad plan, but it failed because Barnes did not flee fast enough or far enough. She and Larry Ford, a marine installer and West Marine employee, helped pilot Premium Time only as far as St. Marys, Georgia, less than a full day of travel on the Intracoastal Waterway from the marina where Trauger had found himself locked out of “his” boat.
Either they buddy-boated or took two trips because Ford’s boat ended up anchored at the same creek nearby Barnes’s boat.
After the fire was suppressed, Premium Time was towed into the boatyard haul-out and the ashes were sifted for evidence.
There was something else neither true-crime version mentioned: A fellow trawler owner and buddy of Trauger had stoked his rage in the weeks leading up to the murder, reinforcing the notion that Barnes had been a gold-digger all along.
At one point, Trauger’s buddy shared with him a story he found on the Internet about how Karen Barnes had once been involved in some kind of grift in Kentucky. (After the murders, Loose Cannon, determined it had been a different woman named Karen Barnes.)
In July and August 2012, Trauger tracked Barnes down. There was an incident at in WalMart. Karen tried to get a protective order, someone sabotaged of Premium Time’s steering. The TV people concentrated on this timeline stuff.
As for that missed court date to undo the divorce, even Trauger’s lawyer said there was only a slim chance of prevailing. Ferrier said a Georgia judge was unlikely to look favorably on Trauger’s argument that Barnes had reneged on a contract with him—the sham divorce—when they aim of that contract was really a conspiracy to defraud Trauger’s previous ex-wife. Farrier said she only wished that Trauger had given her the chance to try to make the case.
He Lost His Mind
He had lost his wife. He had lost his boat. Then came the day, as I reported in a 2013 magazine piece, when Trauger lost his mind:
In the early morning hours of August 13, David Trauger dressed all in black. He then motored a skiff alongside a trawler anchored on St. Marys River in Southeast Georgia. According to police, he crept aboard and murdered Barnes and her new male friend. Using gasoline or some other accelerant, he “skillfully” torched the vessel, lighting the night “like rocket motors” and effectively cremating the bodies inside.
The last moments in the lives of Barnes and her companion were recorded over an open line, a 911 call from Barnes’ cell phone…
Here’s how police described the sickening final moments in the lives of Barnes and Ford: “The male on the recording sounds to be in great distress and agony. The male screams audible words occassionally such as ‘you bastard!’ and ‘why?!’ At the end of the recording is a deep voice which says, “How’d you get in here?”
These were the kind of details that true-crime TV got right—the easy part. They entertain the viewer telling how it happened. They were far less interested in why it happened, except that David Trauger was a nasty, no-good villain of a man and Karen Barnes was a good, totally good woman.
Her friends—and surely her family—will dispute my more nuanced interpretation, as they have in the past. They adhere to what I call “the St. Karen narrative.” In doing so, they fail to give Barnes enough credit. I see a woman who was engaged in an asymmetrical struggle against a monster who chose to use the best weapon she had—her wits.
LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.
Harbour Town Yacht Basin, A CRUISERS NET SPONSOR, is ready for your reservation with newly renovated docks, upgraded electrical service and onSpot WiFi, also a CRUISERS NET SPONSOR. And, as always, numerous activities at the Sea Pines Resort are offered for your enjoyment, as you will see in the Event Schedule below. Hilton Head Island is absolutely marvelous any time of year.
Trash Picking with Charleston Waterkeeper (Charleston, SC) Tuesdays, November 3, 10, 17 and 24, 1–3 p.m. | Volunteer with our SCORE team alongside Charleston Waterkeeper to pick trash out of recycled oysters every Tuesday of the month! Roll up your sleeves and help ready this shell to be replanted in various state shellfish grounds and restoration projects. Register 
Be the first to comment!