DecNews



	A day on the St. Johns River.


	The official Mirage Manufacturing newsletter


	Holiday greetings from our sales guy, Dr. Tom

Next week we will be launching our new Great Harbour N 37 that will be available for charter on the St. Johns River in northern Florida. There is no better way to get the feel of any boat than to spend some time aboard. The St. Johns is extremely picturesque, well protected and offers miles of wonderful sights and secluded anchorages.

I hope that your interest in trawlers is still alive. I welcome you to come to our manufacturing facility in Gainesville, visit with us at the Miami Boat Show or take a week cruise. When you have time refer to our website (www.mirage-mfg.com) for recent updates and new product information.

I hope that you have a safe, healthy and happy Holiday

season.

Dr Tom Zavelson
Director of Customer Services
Mirage Manufacturing
352-377-4146

CHESAPEAKE BAY MAGAZINE
REVIEWS THE...

“We slipped out of Back Creek into the placid mouth of the Severn River and headed out to the Chesapeake Bay. The little tiller worked well and the helm proved quite responsive as we threaded through the crab pot buoys off of Tolley Point. Running out in the open toward Thomas Point Light, where the tide chart on one of the center screens noted that the tide had just that moment turned slack, we found we were making 8.1 knots at 2300 rpm and 8.9 knots at 3000 rpm. On the way back, of course, we just let the auto-helm take us.”

--Jeff Holland
Chesapeake Bay Magazine

Click here to read the review in its entirety

By the way, if you’re ever up around Annapolis...

Jeff is the furrier of the two bipeds.

...be sure to check local listings for Them Eastport Oyster Boys, one of whom is the author of the above review. Jeff Holland and partner Kevin Brooks capture the history of the Chesapeake in music and song. You see, Holland is one of those rare scribes that can also strum middlin’ well. Be sure to buy them a beer and tell them Mirage says hello. Check out the Oyster Boys website.

Intrepid owners Paul and Sue Graham have taken their GH37 Odyssey over to the Bahamas for the third time. Click on the dolphins to catch their latest adventures.

GREAT HARBOUR
COUNTRY

Terry Woehr of the Great Harbour 37 Berlie Mae takes you on tour of Baltimore’s waterfront amenities. She makes a compelling case for making this Maryland city a long, leisurely stopover for anyone cruising Chesapeake Bay. Click here, and you will be transported to Great Harbour Country.

And now for something
completely different

Some of you may recall when the N37 was on the cover of PassageMaker magazine; it was a photograph of her at the entrance of Havana Harbor. Some of us at Mirage have an entirely separate venture under way. It’s a website devoted to cruising the coast of Cuba. Granted, this online magazine won’t be much good to our readers who happen to be U.S. citizens until relations thaw between the two countries, but for some crazy reason we’re doing it anyway. We’ve received officials Treasury Department permission to undertake an expedition to the North Coast of Cuba in 2005. Read more on www.cubacruising.net.


New rudders wow owners

	Mirage recently introduced a redesigned rudder to its Great Harbour line. The first boat to get them, Hull 34, is spending its commissioning period at Reynolds Park Yacht Center on the St. Johns River in Florida. Hull 34’s owners and other Great Harbour folks in the vicinity decided to do a comparison test: New versus Old. The verdict surprised even us. “At lower rpm's the new rudder cut circles right at half the diameter of the old...At full rudder, full rpm the new rudders cut a circle that was about three boat lengths in diameter -- no exaggeration,” one participant said. “Pretty damn impressive. We spent a good part of the afternoon going, ‘gee and wow’.” Of course, we always thought the boats handled pretty well before. Now that the owners have dubbed them “miracle rudders,” what can we do? Mirage has put out the word that we will build new rudders for any existing customer that wants to retrofit them. What makes these rudders work so much better? Rather than a flat-plate design, the new ones are shaped like an airfoil or “fishtail,” which is far less susceptible to stall. Read more about this concept from our favorite naval architect Lou Codega.



		A new rudder awaits bottom paint last week.


	To read previous editions of Trawler Times, click here.


	www.mirage-mfg.com