Leisure: Boats Ahoy

American boatniks, now 7,000,000 strong, have two great compulsions: to get out on the water, and to trade their boats in for something bigger and better. This week in Manhattan, rag-haulers and stinkpotters thronged the New York Coliseum to see the bigger and better at the 52nd National Motor Boat Show.

Predictably, the trend is to luxury and gadgetry. Small runabouts with rakish lines, chrome fittings, and decorator-styled upholstery look more and more like cars, presumably to attract diffident womenfolk. Oceangoing yachts sport bulkhead-to-bulkhead carpeting and baby blue staterooms. New compact radar sets, depth-sounders and other electronic gear cram the cockpits. Pushbutton winches eliminate the need to “weigh” anchor. Hot-water heating, cold-water cooling, seawater evaporators and adapters for turning iceboxes into electric refrigerators lure the boat owner. Apparently it takes a heap of gadgets to make a boat a home.

For the orthodox, there was some relief in the discovery that many boatmakers are still building hulls of wood, although fiber glass and aluminum are still gaining. Top eye-catchers in the show:

> Most expensive boat is Stephens’ 50-ft. twin-diesel yacht, which sleeps ten, has two heads and a shower, and an all-electric galley. Price: $100,872.

>Fallout protection is an extra amenity claimed for Wheeler’s otherwise conventional 43-ft. motor yacht. It has a pump-and-filter system that allows fallout-safe operation for eight to twelve hours; the makers provide enough fuel capacity (300 gal.) to enable a surviving skipper to head for uncontaminated waters. Price: about $45,000.

> Biggest sailboat in the show is Pearson’s fiber-glass sloop, the Alberg 35. It has a 30-h.p. auxiliary engine, a loft. beam, draws 5 ft. Price: $18,885.

> Outstanding design departure is a 17ft. reinforced-plastic motorboat by Outboard Marine. It has a three-keeled hull which, say the manufacturers, reduces pounding at high speeds. Like a number of other boats in the show, Outboard Marine’s is equipped with an inboard-outboard (80 h.p.) engine, a style that is increasing in popularity. This design allows for use of the more efficient and con venient in-line inboard engine, and at the same time provides the advantage of an outboard drive, i.e., allowing the propeller to be raised for shallow channels and for beaching. Price: $3,640.

> A small jet-propulsion unit for planing hulls up to 22 ft. in length is Aerojet-Generals Hydrocket. This device scoops water through an intake duct and feeds it into an engine-driven impeller. Centrifugal force shoots the water through perforations in the impeller at high speed, driving the boat forward. Aerojet-General claims speeds of 40 m.p.h. for an 18-ft. hull. Price: $400 to $750.

> Biggest news for sailors is Ratsey’s refinement of the holed spinnaker, the Venturi. The sail has a series of horizontal slots across its top half. The breeze flowing through the slots shoots downward, thus by counteraction pushing the sail itself upward and providing extra lift. According to Designer George Ratsey, the slots also operate to reduce the “knockdown” or heeling effect on close reaches. Price: 25% higher than conventional spinnakers.