The following PDF is from a presentation given to North Pacific Yachts Rendezvous attendees at Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes, WA in September 2026
This presentation is intended to provide the basis to understand the value of remote monitoring of a vessel and explain the means used to provide remote access to the vessel. In our case I provide the means to use Starlink or Amazon LEO to provide Internet Access to equipment that is monitored onboard.
This presentation provides details on the state of Satellite Based Internet for boaters as of August 2026. Information is provided about up coming systems that are currently in development that will add competition for Starlink from SpaceX. Amazon LEO and AST Cellular Access exclusively via LEO satellites are likely to be widely available by 2028. Both constellations are in process of being populated but are being paced by the availability of launch vehicles. Amazon had planned to use Blue Origin New Glenn spacecraft to launch its satellites but the destruction of a New Glenn first stage during a firing test at Cape Canaveral set the program back many months if not over a year.
Nonetheless Amazon LEO and AST will eventually reach capacity in orbit to provide initial operating experience for limited users and then full access by al subscribers.
The following PDF is from a presentation given to the North Pacific Yachts Rendezvous at Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes WA in September 2026.
This is a tremendously complex topic and really requires a significant book to cover all of the issues appropriately. The following PDF file is the basis of a presentation offered to the North Pacific Yachts Rendezvous in Anacortes, Washington USA in Mid September 2026.
Contrada Crete was founded as a Farm to Table Restaurant in Valledolmo Sicily by Rossella Battaglia in 2019. The new restaurant offers the very best in fresh local foods prepared by a Sicilian Chef. This very special Restaurant has high social values as seen in this quote from the Contrada Crete “Our Values” Page:
TRUST
Relationships are built through a mutual exchange; we cultivate trust as a fundamental value with both our customers and our suppliers.
We source raw materials from local and Sicilian producers; in this way, we can guarantee a high quality standard to our customers.
This location is far more than just a restaurant! Rossella offers wonderful single day activities for visitors to Valledolmo. You can have a charming time with Sicilian Wine and Local Food Pairings, (https://www.contradacrete.com/activities/wine-and-food-pairings/) or learn local Sicilian Cooking methods in 3 different dishes by signing up for the Cooking Lessons (https://www.contradacrete.com/activities/cooking-lessons/) or brush up on your very rusty Italian Language with Italian Lessons to help enjoy your visit to Sicily and Italy much more. Plan your travel to Sicily and Sign up today! (https://www.contradacrete.com/activities/italian-lessons/
If you plan to stay for more than a day or two Contrada Crete offers multiday adventures as well. Consider a 3 day stay in Valledolmo and experience the true nature of living in this lovely mountain town. Find more details here: https://www.contradacrete.com/multi-day-programs/live-the-town-life/
Available for a 5 day immersive stay in Valledolmo? Then consider becoming an honorary Sicilian!! Contrada Crete offers five days of immersion in local foods and local living style in and around Valledolmo. Write to Rossella and her team at this link and learn far more. https://www.contradacrete.com/multi-day-programs/become-sicilian/
A great deal more information on finding and booking meals at Contrada Crete can be found here: https://www.contradacrete.com/english-version/home/ and a full menu – in Italian – found here: https://www.contradacrete.com/menu
A small sample of the delicious meals prepared at Contrada Crete:
If you are planning a trip to Valledolmo to find relatives or just experience the town of your family heritage or just visiting rural Sicily be sure to book a meal at Contrada Crete for a wonderful true Sicilian Heritage meal made from locally sourced ingredients. Note that Contrada Crete is also prepared to help with special dietary restrictions for visitors. Contact the restaurant via the main webpage Contact information for specific help with dietary limitations.
A meal at Contrada Crete will make your visit to Valledolmo into a very special memory!
Many of the visitors to Vacanti Yacht Design LLC website may well wonder about our Vacanti name being at least Italian in origin. In fact it is actually Sicilian as both sides of my family emigrated from the small town of Valledolmo Sicily along with about 3000 other people from the same town to the US about 1895. Nearly all of these immigrants to the USA settled in the farming country of Western New York State between Rochester, NY and Erie PA.
UPDATE JULY 1,2024
We are very excited to announce the opening of Contrada Crete the new farm to table restaurant by Rosella Battaglia of Valledolmo. Rosella plans to open for business mid-July 2024.
The restaurant will focus on locally grown food supplies and is especially proud to offer menu items for people with severe food allergies.
Please visit www.contradacrete.com for pictures, location, menu and hours of operation.
Rosella has been helped by family and dear friends to make this long planned dream a reality.
We are very excited and very strongly support Rosella in her new restaurant Contrada Crete!
LIMITS OF USE OF THIS BLOG
The blog is a personal one and is intended primarily for the use of our extended family so that they may see what we saw and possibly consider a trip to Valledolmo as well. This posting is covered by Copyright Vacanti Yacht Design LLC and is not intended for use by any commercial entity.
There have been a number of American families, who are descendants of the original 19th Century immigrants who have made the trek back to Valledolmo Sicily, Italy to see if they can find connections to their past or at least see where their families began. This Blog post will detail a recent trip we took to Valledolmo in Early June 2022.
We were privileged to visit this lovely farming town in June of 2022. We re-discovered the warmth and charm we have always known among our US family members among the people we met in Valledolmo. We also discovered that the town is well known for a special type of tomato, wine (White, sparkling and red), excellent Pasta, Lentils and other produce.
Approach to Valledolmo!
The view below is what a visitor first sees when approaching Valledolmo from Palermo. The newly paved road made it a very easy drive and was especially wonderful to see the town from the road just outside of town. This very lovely hillside town is surrounded by pastoral scenes and state of the art Wind Farm and Solar arrays on the surrounding hills. It was a great thrill to see this place that my grandfather had described to me well over 50 years ago.
Upon arrival in town at the Municipal Building (Town Hall) you are greeted with the scene below.
And the main square of the town
Our visit began as our local Sicilian Guide Silvia was joined by town representatives (Mr Orazio Pizzolanti and Rosella Battaglia). We admired the town hall and its furnishings as we were encouraged to go upstairs to the Town Hall Conference room.
On the way upstairs we tried to absorb photos of town celebrations and functions that had been captured in large photos and displayed on a square tower located in the stairwell so that it can be viewed as you ascend or descend on the stairs.
When we arrived in the council conference room we were surprised with a large spread of traditional Sicilian food that I easily recognized as being identical to what I grew up with when visiting my Grandmothers’ home. We had a chance to talk to many towns people, some of who had relatives that matched my paternal and maternal family names. It was sometimes startling to see someone who closely resembled Aunts and Uncles of my own family. Because so many people emigrated to the same area of Western NY (Dunkirk, Fredonia, Buffalo, Rochester and others) I found that the family surnames of those we met were the same as children I went to school with in Fredonia NY.
We had a delightful time meeting town folk and members of the town council , especially the Mayor (sitting with Italian flag colored banner) and the Council President (far left). Shirley and I are center in the photo below. I am looking closely at the plaque that was made for our visit and placed in a special velvet case.
We were asked to be photographed with the Mayor(center), council members. Mr Pizzolanti and Silvia (our tour guide) are shown back left. They combined with Rossella Battaglia (third from back left) to provide a very memorable experience in Valledolmo. This little town was filled with friendly, warm and welcoming people that were a great pleasure to meet.
As we sampled the great food prepared by town families, we had a chance to visit with towns people who had relatives who moved to the US in the 19th century and who had relatives with names that matched my maternal and paternal family names. It was a great thrill to wonder if I was meeting relatives of my family. As of this writing the towns records department was looking into the names and birth dates of my family grandparents and a couple great grand parents. I hope we someday have great news about finding family connections.
Be aware that most town folks only speak Italian / Sicilian and that we were blessed to have Rosella, our guide Silvia (Sicilian born) and our local professional driver Ludovica who all spoke Italian and Sicilian to help us a great deal. I encourage US families to try to learn a little conversational Italian to help with your visit.
After our traditional foods and chats with town members we headed out to the records keeping area and saw the very old registers of recorded births in the city. The records seem to date from about 1820.
The Catholic church shown above after restoration from being bombed by the Allies near the end of World War II. We were told that the new church was rebuilt with some donations made by US descendants of Valledolmo Families who had emigrated to the US about 50-60 years earlier.
On this typical inclined street in Valledolmo, we were surprised to learn that this home on the corner had been abandoned since the late 1890’s when the family emigrated to the US. It is available for purchase and restoration by Americans who would be willing to participate in an Italian Renovation program that allows the homes to be purchased for a few thousand Euro so long as the building was then renovated and brought up to modern standards. We understand that renovation expenses would then be rebated to some extent by the Italian government.
The views down the streets in Valledolmo are just beautiful. At its highest point Valledolmo sits at an altitude of about 3000 ft (~1 Km) and is the equivalent of a Western Washington (USA) person living at the same altitude as Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Mountains near our present home in Anacortes, WA and about 1000ft higher than the Allegheny State Park Mountains East of Fredonia and Dunkirk NY.
My grandfather told me stories about being a boy in Valledolmo whose chore was to walk a donkey up the local mountain sides to pick fruit and place it in saddle bags or baskets carried by the donkey. I can only imagine which of the hills surrounding town were the scene of my Grandfathers chores!
A different view of the surrounding hill sides greets you as you look down any street. The hills nearby grow grapes, fruit, chick peas, lentils, wheat and much more. There are at least two wineries associated with Valledolmo. We were happy to sample a delicious sparkling white wine from the Castellucci Miano Winery. An excellent description of the heritage of the Catarratto and Perricone grapes from Valledolmo can be found on a page in the Castelluci Miano Winery Website: https://www.castelluccimiano.it/noi-e-il-territorio/
After our short walking tour of the city area near the town center we drove a short distance to a wonderful family restaurant where we had a fantastic dinner meal of local produce and meats.
Our prepared table above was soon covered with several fabulous dishes made with local materials and prepared just before our getting to the restaurant.
A sampling of the first courses is seen below and was followed by delicious lamb chops and local sausage.
Our trip to Valledolmo was made very special by the great warmth and welcoming that was expressed to us by the towns people. We strongly encourage any Valledolmo Descendant American Family to visit the town if you have the means to make the trip. We would advise hiring a professional driver to assure the easiest and the shortest possible trip from Palermo or Cefalu. Expect at least an hour drive through mountains and valleys from either of the two larger cities.
The people of Valledolmo encourage American descendants to visit and to contact the town to make arrangements for a visit with plenty of advance notice to the town before you arrive. Our travel agent contacted the town well before we visited and worked with the town council to arrange for the surprise meeting with the council and the towns people. We were very much surprised and very touched by the generosity of the town in greeting us.
Valledolmo does not have a hotel but they do have a few local Bed and Breakfast houses that might be able to allow you to stay a bit longer than the long afternoon we were able to experience. Be sure to provide as much detailed information about family members – such as full original names (not anglicized in the US) dates of birth or marriage if you wish to learn more about your relatives. The records are organized by date of birth so that information is of the greatest value. If you have the year of birth of your family member that can be sufficient if there are not too many similar names of family members born in the same year.
Travel Arrangements to Valledolmo / Sicily
Our travel arrangements were handled for us by Rem Malloy at Italy4Real (https://italy4real.com), Rem has team members who are natives of Sicily and who made a special effort to travel to Valledolmo to meet the town Mayor and other town members before they arranged our visit. They now have the detailed knowledge of who to contact and the best means of making your visit as rewarding as possible. The newly re-elected Mayor Dott. Angelo Conti and his staff are very welcoming and encourage your visit and your on going support of Valledolmo. They know Rem’s team (Mattia and others) so the visit will be made much easier. We have known Rem and Italy4Real for over 18 years now and have had two exceptional trips with his travel service.
Contacting the Town of Valledolmo
As of this writing in June of 2022 you are encouraged to contact either Mr Orazio Pizzolanti (Segreteria Commune di Valledolmo) at segreteria@comune.valledolmo.pa.it or Ms Rossella Battaglia at rossellabattaglia075@gmail.com. Rossella speaks excellent English and Mr Pizzolanti is very good as well. The town website (in Italian / Sicilian) is here: https://www.comune.valledolmo.pa.it/
Even if you are not able to physically visit Valledolmo, I would encourage you to write to either Mr Pizzolanti or Ms Battaglia to let them know you are interested in the town.
Web Resources About Valledolmo
An excellent website with Genealogy information about the town of Valledolmo can be found here: https://valledolmo-genealogy.org/the-people-of-valledolmo.html
Civil Engineering Student Canoe Design Competition
The Annual Concrete Canoe Design Competition for all US Civil Engineering Students is sponsored by the American Society for Civil Engineers. Information on the competition can be found on the ASCE Website .
Students are required to create a canoe that can not only float but be raced by team members in the water. Each team must also prepare a full design report that provides structural analysis as well as hydrostatics calculations and stability analysis with crew in place. As a result each Concrete Canoe design team must obtain design and analysis software that allows them to meet the design competition requirements as well as be sure that their proposed design will be safe to paddle to victory with a crew of four aboard. Knowledge of the actual waterline and remaining freeboard above the water that will afford protection and prevent water coming aboard in wind and wild paddling battles!
Standard Mechanical Design Software that is used for both Mechanical and Civil Engineering structural design makes a lot of sense when it comes to Structural analysis for each team, but standard hydrostatics calculations are not readily available from standard CAD like AutoCAD or similar programs. But PROLINES 8 provides not only 3D NURB hull design with unlimited shape control using 3D vertex control points that are easily adjusted to refine a “Parametric Hull Design” to initially create the first canoe design by entering basic hull dimensions in addition to bow and stern shapes selected from check boxes.
PROLINES 8 has become a design standard for Civil Engineering Student Concrete Canoe Design competitions and has been in use by CE Teams for more than 25 Years. Clearly your team should strongly consider adding PROLINES 8 to your design program. Teams across the USA will be competing against others using PROLINES for their design proposals. Don’t start your design without PROLINES 8 as one of your design tools!
Consider the following Colleges and Universities that have used PROLINES for CE Canoe Design Competitions:
Alaska, Kansas, Iowa St, Michigan St, Penn St, Purdue, Tulane, Illinois, Arkansas, Cincinnati, Central Florida, Nevada Reno, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, Texas El Paso, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Air Force Academy, Vanderbilt and many others!
As the hull design is adjusted it becomes critical to the CE Student Team to have a detailed understanding of three critical factors. They are:
One of the most critical real world issues the Canoe team must address is the ability of the canoe design to actually carry the required crew of 4 safely during a paddle race. The Canoe must displace sufficient water to match the combined mass of the crew and the hull itself and still have enough “freeboard” or remaining hull height above the water to prevent the canoe from swamping due to wind driven waves and splashing from spirited paddling during the race.
The Canoe Design Cycle can be imagined as follows:
Creating a Concrete Canoe Design Proposal and Submittal is a significant task. Students must have an excellent grasp of what the Canoe Design means in terms of materials and labor cost to build the canoe. The most “weight efficient” hull design will carry the weight of the crew with the lowest possible weight of the canoe hull. Not only will the lowest possible weight canoe be “weight efficient” but the lowest total mass design will be among the fastest designs on the water during the race.
PROLINES “Parametric Hull Design” offers rapid initial start to the design phase. Hull shape changes can be accomplished by simple movements of shape control vertices or overall hull changes in beam, length or draft are instantly made using the TOOLS and EDIT Menus. Saving incremental designs with serialized names will allow the team to compare design concepts by opening the various designs and choosing a most likely winner.
Standard CAD tools may offer the ability to generate a canoe hull shape but PROLINES provides integrated Analysis tools that instantly imply the viability of the design.
Once the design is complete, PROLINES 8 Student PRO edition provides 3D CAD files that permit 3D Rendering, 3D Printing, 3D Structural Analysis. For teams that are cash strapped, Vacanti Yacht Design LLC will provide one set of 3D CAD files for PROLINES 8 BASIC users at no charge to the team.
by David Vacanti, Vacanti Consulting Services LLC
Starting in the summer of 2022, and growing rapidly in the summer of 2023, we observed a large number of boats cruising the San Juan Islands of the Washington State and Gulf Islands, Broughtons and the Inside Passage to Alaska carrying various installations of Starlink Mobile and a few Starlink High Performance antennas aboard both Sail and Power boats. On the water experience led to many reports of excellent Internet access and WIFI calling capability all the way to Ketchikan, AK. While technically the waters of Washington and Southern British Columbia (along Eastern Vancouver Island) are notionally “protected” and are not directly exposed to the Eastern Pacific Ocean, they can nonetheless become hazardous with open fetches of 150Nmi and widths of more than 20Nmi in many places. High mountains fjords offer spectacular vistas but also create significant weather conditions. Certainly anyone venturing North of Cape Caution at the Northern end of Vancouver Island would be exposed to the Eastern Pacific at several locations on the way to Prince Rupert BC, Ketchikan AK and finally Juneau AK and would require timely weather and sea condition reports. Cellular coverage is very sparse approaching the Northern end of Vancouver Island and cannot be relied upon for collection of weather data, sea conditions or cell phone calling.
As a result there has long been a need to provide some form of internet service in these remote locations, preferably by Satellite so as to solve the massive infrastructure problem of locating hundreds of miles of remote cell towers along the BC and AK coasts.
The first generation mobile version of Starlink, initially reserved for parked RV’s, was later licensed for operation in motion at slow speeds (below 10Kts) using the 2022/23 “Standard Mobile” mechanically actuated antenna. It was later joined by the “High Performance” flat mounted Starlink antenna designed for in motion operation on high speed vessels. Both of these antenna systems proved to be a huge benefit to boaters of every walk of life by providing precisely the needed connectivity for exploring these fabulous cruising areas with safety via continuous phone coverage using WIFI calling and weather data for critical cruising plans in these very remote areas. These two critical functions were also accompanied by creature comforts like streaming favorite movies and high speed email access.
A “New Standard” Antenna Released
In December of 2023, Starlink announced the release of a “New Standard” Mobile antenna that no longer used motors to tilt and scan the entire Starlink antenna to follow overheard Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites that passed overhead. This “New Standard” antenna has a simple plastic “Kick Stand” that tips the antenna up about 11 degrees but otherwise has no mounting pole and no motors inside the antenna structure. I read many RV / Boating Blogs and viewed many YouTube videos that described all manner of “hacks” to get a Starlink “Mobile” antenna installed without the motors activated and without the OEM mounting pole. These hacks even involved using CNC machines or hand held Dremel Routers to cut off the back of the antenna or drill large holes at precisely the right place and disconnect the motor DC power and control lines. Any of these physical changes immediately invalidated the Starlink warranty and involved the potential for moisture or water to directly enter the antenna system and damage or destroy it.
Simplified Installation and Better WIFI
The New Standard antenna not only solves all of the antenna complexity issues, it comes with a fantastic WIFI 6 router that sports two Ethernet Cable connections and a separate Power Supply module that makes installation far easier than anything seen on the web for the “Standard Actuated Antenna”.
The old Mobile Antenna is now called the “Standard Actuated Antenna” and the new antenna without motors or mounting pole is now dubbed the “New Standard Antenna”. Anyone intending to purchase a new Mobile Starlink antenna should be aware of the large differences between the two and make sure they are acquiring the “New Standard Antenna” because it allows direct flat mounting on the roof of a pilothouse or coach roof with the simple one handed pinch and pull removal of the “kick stand” and then manufacturing simple mounting blocks that can capture the corners of the new antenna. There is no doubt that clever companies will soon sell flat mounting kits for this New Standard antenna.
The other issue associated with installing and using a Starlink antenna aboard a vessel is the supply of power to the unit. The “New Standard” antenna requires on the order of 100W of 120V AC power on startup and on a transient basis when in motion. Power requirements drop to 50-60W of quiescent power for fixed operation. At 120VAC this amounts to 0.5 – 1 Amp of power but at 12VDC this amounts to 9 amps input to an Inverter. While operation underway could easily be accomplished by most Inverters using engine alternator input, once the vessel is at anchor, power transitions to batteries at 12-24VDC. Thus it becomes necessary to provide an Inverter capable of at least 100W and preferably double that to avoid operation of the inverter at near maximum capability over long periods of time. We have seen still more “hacks” by DIY folks on the web to replace the older combined Starlink WIFI Router / Power Supply but the cost of the components required is very high and the complexity of cutting OEM cables and rewiring them for Ethernet Data and DC to DC converters is usually beyond many DIYers capabilities.
Happily the New Standard Antenna comes with a separate high performance WIFI 6 Router complete with two Ethernet ports to connect to onboard hardwired systems and a separate 120VAC power supply that can be located as needed. As a result of all of these changes, all a boater needs to install this new version of Starlink Mobile antenna is the courage to drill a hole for the Ethernet cable (9/16″ Diameter) and configure some simple “stand offs” at each corner of the antenna. The cable access hole must be sealed using a typical cable gland but otherwise one is looking at a total of 5 holes topsides to mount the antenna. Alternately, if flat space is not sufficient, the standard “house mount” intended for wall mounting affords an easy way to mount the antenna on the side of a mast or dry stack mast system on larger vessels. Mounting the new WIFI 6 router can be as simple as placing it on a chart table or desk and the power supply can be hidden away if necessary.
In our case I opted for a hidden installation of the WIFI 6 router and power supply and using a 250W dedicated inverter with remote On/Off control above the headliner in our pilothouse. Each installation will be a bit different but essentially there is no longer any need to modify the Starlink equipment and the only addition is the consideration of a dedicated Inverter ($150 by Victron) so that the vessels large 2000 – 3000 Watt inverter is not being toggled on an off (along with all appliances it may power) to save battery power when the Starlink system is not needed.
Please see the attached PDF file for more information and detailed photos
While we have reliably sold software worldwide since the mid 1980’s and have always been sure to maintain a secure website for secure financial transactions we had not previously taken the extra step of Digitally Signing our distributed software. This had not been a problem for WINDOWS OS through version 8 but starting with WIN 10 and especially WIN 11 it has become apparent that proving software is not supplied by a dubious source is of paramount importance. We witnessed the distressing warning messages shown to WIN 11 users in particular when software is not digitally signed and have decided the time has come to apply for a Global digital certificate and install full Digital Code Signing for all of our DEMO and Full operational software to assure all users worldwide that the products we deliver and sell are trustworthy and from a reliable source.
We have therefore applied for a full EXTENDED VERSION, Global Digital Certificate of Authenticity from GlobalSign (World Wide Provider of Digital Software Certificates). We will receive our hardware validated and Encrypted Digital Software Certificate in a few days and will completely revise and replace all of our Software Installers for all Software by July 4, 2022.
We invite anyone who has had any issues with installing our software, especially any Demonstration Software to re-apply for free demo versions of the software with the new installer after July 4, 2022. We are certain that none of our previously distributed products is harmful in any way but Microsoft and other entities have substantially raised the bar for software security for any software installed on a PC. This is a very good thing in general and protects all of us from as many harmful and potentially dangerous applications.
We want to always assure our customers and any one interested in our software that our code is safe, is developed by us alone and has not been sourced from any other entity. We use a state of the art Delphi Compiler provided and supported worldwide by Embarcadero. All of the code used in our software is vetted and is not intended to be dangerous in any way. It is critical however that any computer user employ proper software security steps to prevent malware and rogue software from infecting ANY of their computer software. This is normal and standard practice for any Computer user (PC, MAC etc).
The addition of our new Digital Certificate will also make it more difficult for “bad actor” viruses or other software to specifically infect our software once it is posted on our website. We have already installed protection systems on our professional WordPress website to prevent infection and attack by outside bad actors. We will always be diligent in maintaining a safe and helpful website for all to use.
We ask that anyone who has had distressing messages displayed by the WINDOWS OS when installing our software to please contact us and arrange for a new copy of our Digitally Signed software that has the highest possible “automatic green light” from WINDOWS 8 / 10 / 11.
It is also very important to understand that we do not support WIN 7 or earlier WINDOWS versions due to a number of compatibility issues and a number of copy protection issues. We stated in 2020 that our older software designed before WIN 10 could not be supported any longer on WINDOWS 8 and higher because our old copy protection system was no longer compatible with WINDOWS 8. We therefore adopted a new State if the Art copy protection system provided by a major software supplier that will continue to be compatible for many years to come. We also strive to provide the best possible products that operate at high resolution with great detail to make the task of computer aided drafting more rewarding. We know that our professional users appreciate this capability and it provides a high quality experience for students and hobbyists.
Therefore versions of our software previous to PROLINES 8, LOFT 11, FOIL 10 and WINGS 10 are no longer supported for new “unlock” or “License Key” code requests for re-installation on computers. We have no means to digitally sign this older software and no means to provide copy protection “unlock codes” or “license keys”. We have created all new versions of our programs that provide many new features and capabilities, higher speed and higher screen resolution capability and compatibility with new WINDOWS 11 and future operating systems. We encourage any user of older software versions to purchase SOFTWARE UPGRADES to any of our programs for a fraction of the cost of a new copy of any program.
Please contact us with any questions!
Vacanti Yacht Design LLC, June 2022
Many of the visitors to Vacanti Yacht Design LLC website may well wonder about our Vacanti name being at least Italian in origin. In fact it is actually Sicilian as both sides of my family emigrated from the small town of Valledolmo Sicily along with about 3000 other people from the same town to the US about 1895. Nearly all of these immigrants to the USA settled in the farming country of Western New York State between Rochester, NY and Erie PA.
UPDATE JULY 1,2024
We are very excited to announce the opening of Contrada Crete the new farm to table restaurant by Rosella Battaglia of Valledolmo. Rosella plans to open for business mid-July 2024.
The restaurant will focus on locally grown food supplies and is especially proud to offer menu items for people with severe food allergies.
Please visit www.contradacrete.com for pictures, location, menu and hours of operation.
Rosella has been helped by family and dear friends to make this long planned dream a reality.
We are very excited and very strongly support Rosella in her new restaurant Contrada Crete!
LIMITS OF USE OF THIS BLOG
The blog is a personal one and is intended primarily for the use of our extended family so that they may see what we saw and possibly consider a trip to Valledolmo as well. This posting is covered by Copyright Vacanti Yacht Design LLC and is not intended for use by any commercial entity.
There have been a number of American families, who are descendants of the original 19th Century immigrants who have made the trek back to Valledolmo Sicily, Italy to see if they can find connections to their past or at least see where their families began. This Blog post will detail a recent trip we took to Valledolmo in Early June 2022.
We were privileged to visit this lovely farming town in June of 2022. We re-discovered the warmth and charm we have always known among our US family members among the people we met in Valledolmo. We also discovered that the town is well known for a special type of tomato, wine (White, sparkling and red), excellent Pasta, Lentils and other produce.
Approach to Valledolmo!
The view below is what a visitor first sees when approaching Valledolmo from Palermo. The newly paved road made it a very easy drive and was especially wonderful to see the town from the road just outside of town. This very lovely hillside town is surrounded by pastoral scenes and state of the art Wind Farm and Solar arrays on the surrounding hills. It was a great thrill to see this place that my grandfather had described to me well over 50 years ago.
Upon arrival in town at the Municipal Building (Town Hall) you are greeted with the scene below.
And the main square of the town
Our visit began as our local Sicilian Guide Silvia was joined by town representatives (Mr Orazio Pizzolanti and Rosella Battaglia). We admired the town hall and its furnishings as we were encouraged to go upstairs to the Town Hall Conference room.
On the way upstairs we tried to absorb photos of town celebrations and functions that had been captured in large photos and displayed on a square tower located in the stairwell so that it can be viewed as you ascend or descend on the stairs.
When we arrived in the council conference room we were surprised with a large spread of traditional Sicilian food that I easily recognized as being identical to what I grew up with when visiting my Grandmothers’ home. We had a chance to talk to many towns people, some of who had relatives that matched my paternal and maternal family names. It was sometimes startling to see someone who closely resembled Aunts and Uncles of my own family. Because so many people emigrated to the same area of Western NY (Dunkirk, Fredonia, Buffalo, Rochester and others) I found that the family surnames of those we met were the same as children I went to school with in Fredonia NY.
We had a delightful time meeting town folk and members of the town council , especially the Mayor (sitting with Italian flag colored banner) and the Council President (far left). Shirley and I are center in the photo below. I am looking closely at the plaque that was made for our visit and placed in a special velvet case.
We were asked to be photographed with the Mayor(center), council members. Mr Pizzolanti and Silvia (our tour guide) are shown back left. They combined with Rossella Battaglia (third from back left) to provide a very memorable experience in Valledolmo. This little town was filled with friendly, warm and welcoming people that were a great pleasure to meet.
As we sampled the great food prepared by town families, we had a chance to visit with towns people who had relatives who moved to the US in the 19th century and who had relatives with names that matched my maternal and paternal family names. It was a great thrill to wonder if I was meeting relatives of my family. As of this writing the towns records department was looking into the names and birth dates of my family grandparents and a couple great grand parents. I hope we someday have great news about finding family connections.
Be aware that most town folks only speak Italian / Sicilian and that we were blessed to have Rosella, our guide Silvia (Sicilian born) and our local professional driver Ludovica who all spoke Italian and Sicilian to help us a great deal. I encourage US families to try to learn a little conversational Italian to help with your visit.
After our traditional foods and chats with town members we headed out to the records keeping area and saw the very old registers of recorded births in the city. The records seem to date from about 1820.
The Catholic church shown above after restoration from being bombed by the Allies near the end of World War II. We were told that the new church was rebuilt with some donations made by US descendants of Valledolmo Families who had emigrated to the US about 50-60 years earlier.
On this typical inclined street in Valledolmo, we were surprised to learn that this home on the corner had been abandoned since the late 1890’s when the family emigrated to the US. It is available for purchase and restoration by Americans who would be willing to participate in an Italian Renovation program that allows the homes to be purchased for a few thousand Euro so long as the building was then renovated and brought up to modern standards. We understand that renovation expenses would then be rebated to some extent by the Italian government.
The views down the streets in Valledolmo are just beautiful. At its highest point Valledolmo sits at an altitude of about 3000 ft (~1 Km) and is the equivalent of a Western Washington (USA) person living at the same altitude as Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Mountains near our present home in Anacortes, WA and about 1000ft higher than the Allegheny State Park Mountains East of Fredonia and Dunkirk NY.
My grandfather told me stories about being a boy in Valledolmo whose chore was to walk a donkey up the local mountain sides to pick fruit and place it in saddle bags or baskets carried by the donkey. I can only imagine which of the hills surrounding town were the scene of my Grandfathers chores!
A different view of the surrounding hill sides greets you as you look down any street. The hills nearby grow grapes, fruit, chick peas, lentils, wheat and much more. There are at least two wineries associated with Valledolmo. We were happy to sample a delicious sparkling white wine from the Castellucci Miano Winery. An excellent description of the heritage of the Catarratto and Perricone grapes from Valledolmo can be found on a page in the Castelluci Miano Winery Website: https://www.castelluccimiano.it/noi-e-il-territorio/
After our short walking tour of the city area near the town center we drove a short distance to a wonderful family restaurant where we had a fantastic dinner meal of local produce and meats.
Our prepared table above was soon covered with several fabulous dishes made with local materials and prepared just before our getting to the restaurant.
A sampling of the first courses is seen below and was followed by delicious lamb chops and local sausage.
Our trip to Valledolmo was made very special by the great warmth and welcoming that was expressed to us by the towns people. We strongly encourage any Valledolmo Descendant American Family to visit the town if you have the means to make the trip. We would advise hiring a professional driver to assure the easiest and the shortest possible trip from Palermo or Cefalu. Expect at least an hour drive through mountains and valleys from either of the two larger cities.
The people of Valledolmo encourage American descendants to visit and to contact the town to make arrangements for a visit with plenty of advance notice to the town before you arrive. Our travel agent contacted the town well before we visited and worked with the town council to arrange for the surprise meeting with the council and the towns people. We were very much surprised and very touched by the generosity of the town in greeting us.
Valledolmo does not have a hotel but they do have a few local Bed and Breakfast houses that might be able to allow you to stay a bit longer than the long afternoon we were able to experience. Be sure to provide as much detailed information about family members – such as full original names (not anglicized in the US) dates of birth or marriage if you wish to learn more about your relatives. The records are organized by date of birth so that information is of the greatest value. If you have the year of birth of your family member that can be sufficient if there are not too many similar names of family members born in the same year.
Travel Arrangements to Valledolmo / Sicily
Our travel arrangements were handled for us by Rem Malloy at Italy4Real (https://italy4real.com), Rem has team members who are natives of Sicily and who made a special effort to travel to Valledolmo to meet the town Mayor and other town members before they arranged our visit. They now have the detailed knowledge of who to contact and the best means of making your visit as rewarding as possible. The newly re-elected Mayor Dott. Angelo Conti and his staff are very welcoming and encourage your visit and your on going support of Valledolmo. They know Rem’s team (Mattia and others) so the visit will be made much easier. We have known Rem and Italy4Real for over 18 years now and have had two exceptional trips with his travel service.
Contacting the Town of Valledolmo
As of this writing in June of 2022 you are encouraged to contact either Mr Orazio Pizzolanti (Segreteria Commune di Valledolmo) at segreteria@comune.valledolmo.pa.it or Ms Rossella Battaglia at rossellabattaglia075@gmail.com. Rossella speaks excellent English and Mr Pizzolanti is very good as well. The town website (in Italian / Sicilian) is here: https://www.comune.valledolmo.pa.it/
Even if you are not able to physically visit Valledolmo, I would encourage you to write to either Mr Pizzolanti or Ms Battaglia to let them know you are interested in the town.
Web Resources About Valledolmo
An excellent website with Genealogy information about the town of Valledolmo can be found here: https://valledolmo-genealogy.org/the-people-of-valledolmo.html
Boaters tend to regard AIS as a source of absolutely correct and valid information that they can rely on to provide them with data regarding approaching and overtaking vessels. But the fact is that AIS data can be erroneous and it can lack critical details about vessels that may pose a hazard to them.
Lets give at least two specific examples about AIS data that may be surprising. The first example is AIS data from a tug with a tow. The AIS reported position is at the location of the tug and does not depict the fact that a tow is following several hundred feet behind and that the length of the towed barge is not presented on the MFD. Thus if a boater were in bad weather or cruising at night with a tug and tow crossing perpendicular to the path of the cruising boat. If that boater follows a path that is immediately aft of the tug and does not see the trailing barge the mistake could be fatal when the cruiser hits the huge tow hawser just underwater.
The second example is when AIS data for direction, speed or location are erroneous. This author has witnessed several vessels that were traveling in directions nearly 180 degrees from the true course / heading of the vessel. The error arises when the AIS transponder uses a Heading or Course data source that has not been calibrated or validated at the time of the AIS transponder installation. This can occur because you cannot see your own AIS ICON on your own chart plotter or MFD. It requires a separate boat that has AIS receive capability to verify that the reported heading /course over ground is correct. This author has witnessed even County Sheriff Patrol boats transmitting wildly inaccurate heading or course data as shown in the image below.
In the first example the AIS broadcast is valid and is not misleading in terms of the tug itself. But your MFD / chart plotter will not show an extended target that properly indicates the full nature of the threat. In the case of large ferries and other ships, the chart plotter or MFD usually reports a special AIS vessel icon that implies a ship or other large vessel is present. But there is no display of a hybrid vessel that consists of two vessels – one powered and the other towed. The only way to know that you are crossing paths with both a tug and tow is to either physically see the vessels or to observe them via radar.
In the second case one must be lucky to visually observe that the transmitted heading / course over ground data vector (usually a line with an arrow that is 3-6 minutes long at the vessel reported speed) does not fall anywhere along the actual periodic GNSS position updates that are reported by the vessel transponder. This is very hard to detect happening when there is a busy waterway involved. A skipper assumes the plotted direction vector data is correct and plans his course accordingly. The only way to detect the AIS course data is in error is to observe the vessel on radar and being using “trails” or MARPA / ARPA target vector data that is independently measured by the radar itself.
It is an interesting thing to observe that if an ownship course or heading data is in error then radar observations of other vessels will also show incorrect course data of EVERY other vessel that is being reported by the radar. Now one would hope that an error this large would be easily detected and corrected by the vessel owner.
Vessels equipped with no radar and AIS receive only are certainly ahead of the game when compared with a vessel with neither capability. AIS receive equipped vessels have the benefit of seeing other threats around them and certainly this dramatically improves their chances of safe travel at night or in poor visibility conditions.
These vessels can receive emergency man over board or other vessel emergencies in order to render assistance or to steer clear of a critical situation. They can also observe special Aids to Navigation (ATN), buoys or markers that physically are not present as anchored buoys or day marks but exist only as a mark that is present only on an AIS equipped vessel.
Thus the vessel equipped with AIS receive only has gained several advantages but it is not broadcasting its own presence to other vessels. Therefore this vessel must assume other vessels may not be observing them visually or on radar and must choose to navigation to avoid collision without interaction with other vessels or by contacting other vessels on VHF radio on 16 or other Vessel Traffic System channel to avoid a hazardous crossing.
The great value of AIS is in poor visibility conditions. So the AIS receive only vessel is burdened with making sure they have been observed when crossing with other vessels. Certainly they are far better off than a vessel with no AIS and no Radar but they do have some handicap.
In the image below one can see radar returns painted in magenta (purple) for the nearby islands and a nearby AIS icon for a vessel passing well to starboard aft of the Own Ship Icon. The image shows that the actual position of the AIS target is in front of the current location. This reflects the delay in transmitting position for high speed vessels. Just to the right and below of the AIS target is another Radar target on a second vessel that is not carrying AIS. While this radar target for the second vessel shows it poses no problems for the Own Ship vessel it does point out that AIS does not report everything on the water.
By only carrying AIS receive and not using Radar a vessel still cannot detect other recreational vessels that are not equipped with an AIS transponder. This suggests that a vessel without radar and only AIS receive will be at risk in poor visibility conditions and should avoid being underway in such conditions. Certainly this is not too great a limitation in fine summer boating weather on salt water or small inland lakes where pontoon boats do not carry AIS transponders!
AIS is a great asset for safety and general situational awareness on board most recreational vessels. Given that there are now VHF communications radios that provide built in GPS receiver, AIS receive and even an AIS target display and target list even small boats can easily afford to have AIS monitoring capability even if they do not have a Chart Plotter or MFD installed. For vessels that do have a chart plotter or MFD installed these same VHF radios with built in AIS receive can provide AIS data to the Chart plotter or MFD via NMEA 2000 or NMEA 0183 High Speed data.
AIS receive capability is a tremendous help to displacement or semi-displacement vessels like sailboats and trawlers that travel at relatively slow speeds and therefore have limited ability to make meaningful course changes in the event of a close encounter with a high speed vessel like a ferry (330+ ft and 17+Kts in Pacific NW of USA) or standard shipping that can be 1000ft and traveling close to 20+kts.
If a small slow vessel does not carry Radar, the least expensive alternative to provide the most cost effective collision avoidance is a modest VHF Communications radio with AIS receive and display built in. These systems typically sell for under $500 and offer emergency distress calling when registered with an MMSI number in addition to providing AIS information. Examples are the Standard Horizon GX2400 and GX6000 that both retail for under $500 (The GPS Store prices May, 2022).
In congested waterways like the beautiful San Juan Islands of Washington State and The Gulf Islands of Canadian British Columbia AIS is a huge help in detecting the many ferries, ships and tugs that ply these waters. Being able to know that there is a high speed ferry approaching from behind an island is a great asset indeed! Being caught in summer time fog in these channels not only poses a navigation hazard but is a real threat when commercial ferries traveling close to 20Kts can be expected at any time.
In the image below we highlight a busy water way in the San Juan Islands of Washington State in the US. In this image the tow tug Island Mist AIS Icon can be seen with a radar detection that follows the AIS Icon. This is a direct indication that there is a TOW barge present that does not have a corresponding AIS Icon. While it appears that the Radar return (red blob) is very close to the reported AIS Icon, note that the image scale shows 1 Nmi is about 1/2″ on the display! So the red radar image is actually a long way aft of the reported AIS Icon for Island Mist at this scale. Zooming on the chart plotter would readily show the actual separation distance.
You can also notice that the “Own Ship” Vessel Icon in the center of the image is being followed close behind by an AIS Icon from another trawler and intends to pass to Starboard. At this range the radar return for the very close vessel may have been suppressed but would appear when zoomed in to shorter range for tactical information.
In the image above we notice that there is a large AIS target (designated as shipping by the AIS Icon type) just to the right of Island Mist. There is no radar detection of this vessel because it is just behind the high point of Cypress Island. The island is blocking the direct illumination of the vessel by the radar. This shows that while AIS signals can leapfrog over most nearby land masses radar cannot “see around corners”.
If you look closely at this image you will note that there appears to be a number areas that are missing radar detections, such as the left side of Guemes Island and no detections of Sinclair Island. In all of these cases the issue is “radar shadowing”. If the radar does not have a direct line of sight to the object because of a large object in the foreground the radar cannot see that target.
AIS can receive signals that are behind many (not all) other land masses because it does not depend on illuminating the target with a transmitted signal. But it can receive a signal that is either refracted (bent) or bounced from other land masses to the AIS receiver. These bounced or bent signals may flicker or come and go as the own ship changes position but they are at least observable part of the time.
Another significant problem for radar is angular resolution of multiple closely spaced targets. When it comes to radar systems, size does matter. A small radome radar that encloses a hidden rotating antenna that is barely 18″ across will produce a very wide beamwidth that can be as much as 6.5 degrees wide. Consider that at 3000ft (1/2 Nmi) a 6.5 degree radar beam will be 331ft wide! Clearly a couple of 100ft long boats could be within 100ft of each other and so far as the small radar is concerned there is just ONE vessel present because it cannot measure less than 331ft.
A 6ft long open array on the other hand will have a 1.2 degree beamwidth and can resolve 61ft of separation between targets. It will clearly show the two 100ft vessels placed 100ft apart and report them as both being present.
Finally the most challenging conditions for a radar system are very heavy seas or very heavy rain conditions. In these conditions waves themselves generate radar reflections that directly compete with the reflections from small vessels. Attempting to attenuate “sea clutter” or reflections from wave tops can also eliminate detection of small vessels in the same wave structure.
Rain can pose a similar problem when it is very heavy (1 – 2″ inches per hour – a very heavy storm by any measure) by generating large areas of “volume detections” – meaning that rain can fill the entire 22Degrees of vertical extent and say 1.2 degrees of azimuth extent with rain that is readily detected. This competing “rain clutter” can be attenuated but it will also cause small targets in the same area as the rain to be eliminated as well. Heavy rain (>1″ an hour) will also directly attenuate the radar signals themselves on both the transmit and receive paths.
While attenuation of typical X Band Marine Radar signals is virtually hill in heavy fog conditions, heavy rain poses a threat of total loss of visibility and attenuation of radar detections as well. When combined with heavy seas and wind, heavy rain conditions pose the most threatening conditions on the water so far as collision avoidance is concerned. Commercial shipping carry C Band radars that employ very large antennas of 6 -12 feet so that under heavy rain and wind conditions they can still maintain radar visibility. C Band radar incurs much lower attenuation of radar signals and can penetrate rain with less rain reflectivity. But C Band radars operate at 3 GHz and will require antennas that are on the order of 2- 3 times larger than a standard X band antenna to achieve the same angular resolution. Carrying a 12f – 18ft open array antenna on recreational vessels is totally impractical and is reserved only for large ships for that reason.
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