text:
Keywords: Dermopathy, erythropoietin, nephrogenic fibrosis, gadolinium, scleromyxedema
Panda S. Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis/nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy: A decade-old disease. Indian J Dermatol 2007;52:125-30
Panda S. Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis/nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy: A decade-old disease. Indian J Dermatol [serial online] 2007 [cited 2022 Jan 29];52:125-30. Available from: https://www.e-ijd.org/text.asp?2007/52/3/125/35089
Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF), also known as nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy (NFD), is a novel, acquired, rare, idiopathic, progressive, scleromyxedema-like fibrosing disorder of the skin. It is increasingly being recognized to have fibrosing systemic manifestations that are known to occur almost exclusively in the context of renal insufficiency, many of the patients being on dialysis therapy or having undergone renal transplantation.[1],[2]
In 1997, a team at Yale University led by Shawn Cowper first documented NSF as a pseudosclerodermatous fibrosing entity limited to skin in association with renal failure. Subsequent autopsy studies have identified apparent multiorgan fibrosis with involvement of skeletal muscle, myocardium, lungs, kidneys, testes, dura mater etc.[3]
While the specific cause of NSF remains to be established beyond doubt, the pathogenesis appears to be multifactorial with the postulated involvement of circulating fibrocytes. The natural history of the disease is fairly uncertain, although it is generally acknowledged to be a disabling and sometimes fatal disorder. Similarly, no standard therapy currently exists. Rare cases of partial-to-complete spontaneous resolution have been reported in the absence of specific therapy.
In 2000, the primary report by Cowper et al. in the Lancet carried the rather unwieldy appellation of the condition, viz. 'scle-romyxedema-like disease in renal-dialysis patients'.[4] Some time later, it came to be known as 'nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy'.[5] Still later, Jimenez et al.[6] and Levine et al.[7] suggested 'dialysis-associated systemic fibrosis' as a new and more accurate name for this disease; however, it was pointed out that this hardly solves the nosological confusion as the condition may emerge even in patients without dialysis.[8]
With the increasing recognition that the fibrosis associated with NFD can extend beyond dermis and, as part of a systemic fibrosing disorder, it can indeed involve a plethora of internal organs, in 2005, Daram et al. suggested that 'nephrogenic systemic fibrosis' would be a more appropriate term for this disease entity.[9] Currently, NFD and NSF are being interchangeably used to describe the same condition.[10] However, as the review of the recent literature on the subject suggests, more and more authors are favoring the use of NSF to designate the condition.
Since its first description ten years back, almost all the reports and series devoted to NSF have involved cases in the Western hemisphere (North America, mainly the United States and Europe). [11],[12] The geographical cluster expanded in 2004 when NFD was documented in a woman of Chinese descent from Singapore. [13] The following year, the first and as of now the largest series of NFD cases in the Eastern hemisphere was reported from Kolkata. [14] This series has since grown further to the current total of seven. [15],[16] Around 175 cases have been notified thus far in the Yale University NSF registry. The age of patients with NSF ranges from 8 to 87 years at the time of onset, with a mean age of 46.4 years. [17] NSF has been known to affect children, although very rarely. [18]
Though the risk factors for NFD have been studied extensively, a definite correlation is yet to be established. Possible correlations with severity of renal failure, history of hypothyroidism, thrombotic episodes, dependent edema and vascular procedures have been reported. [19]
There is a school of thought that strongly avers that NSF, being a novel condition, must be related to a comparatively new drug, diagnostic agent or environmental exposure. Following this hypothesis, exposure to newly discovered medications, namely, high-dose (>18,000 U) erythropoietin therapy and gadolinium-containing contrast agents that are used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have been studied and subsequently attributed to the development of NSF. [20],[21]
An Austrian study correlated NSF with gadolinium exposure, renal insufficiency and concurrent acidosis, [22] whereas a Danish study calculated a strong link between gadolinium exposure and subsequent onset of NSF in renal insufficiency patients with or without acidosis ( n = 13 patients with NSF, odds ratio (OR) of 32.5 for gadolinium exposure). [20] Alarmed by these results, the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) recently warned against the use of gadolinium-containing contrast material in patients with advanced renal disease (glomerular filtration role (GFR)≤15cc/minute), particularly with coexistent acidosis. [23]
Gadolinium: Pathogenic Trigger or Innocent Bystander?
Following the issuance of a public health advisory by the USFDA in June 2006 regarding the use of gadolinium-containing contrast agents in patients with renal failure, [24] the FDA Medwatch system received as many as 90 reports of NFD possibly related to them, as on December 25, 2006. [25]
From the time it was first suggested that gadolinium might have a role to play in the causation of NSF, attempts have been made to elucidate an exact mechanism for the dermal and systemic manifestations of this gadolinium toxicity, [26] but only with limited success so far. Gadolinium is a paramagnetic heavy metal, which is bound to a chelating agent ( e.g., iron) within the contrast agent. One hypothesis is that gadolinium might dissociate from the chelate and result in a fibrotic reaction. [20]
The reports relating gadolinium to the development of NSF basically suffer from a few common limitations. First, NFD/NSF is a rare condition. Therefore, the small sample size and the limited nature of positive and negative controls of the case-control studies limit the power to demonstrate statistically significant associations for variables other than gadolinium-containing contrast agents. For example, High and colleagues, who have published the results of a provocative study [27] demonstrating the presence of gadolinium within the tissue of NSF patients, could have made the study much more interesting if they could analyze the tissues taken from individuals without renal disease, who had received gadolinium-containing contrast material. Furthermore, the high concentration of iron in NSF tissue that they reported may point to yet another potential culprit: the chelators (carrier molecules) used to deliver gadolinium rather than the metal itself. Other investigators have also identified gadolinium in areas of calcium phosphate deposition within the blood vessels of patients with NSF, adding another potential piece to this jigsaw puzzle. [26]
Second, even the CDC report [25] that presented data collated from the largest cluster of NFD cases identified to date contains one serious flaw: it used the date of disease diagnosis rather than the date of disease onset, ostensibly because the actual date of disease onset is unknown. To identify the exposures that preceded the actual date of disease onset, exposures as early as one year before the date of diagnosis were included. However, this might have resulted in the inclusion of gadolinium exposures that were not related to the development of NFD, in other words, false-positives.
Finally, the gadolinium hypothesis fails to account for cases with acute renal disease never having dialysis.
Thus, the true nature of the association between gadolinium and NSF is yet to be completely clarified. Till the time this is done, it is prudent to follow the USFDA advice by avoiding the use of gadolinium-containing contrast material in patients with renal insufficiency.
The current model for evolution of NFD/NSF supports a role for aberrantly functioning circulating fibrocytes (fibroblast precursors) together with the elaboration of fibrogenic factors. The presence of fibroblast-like cells positive for CD34 and CD45RO and scattered CD68-positive cells in the affected tissues provide proof for this hypothesis. Immunohistochemical staining also showed the expression of factor XIIIA, CD31, smooth muscle actin as well as colloidal iron. [28] The similarity of these markers with that of scleromyxedema provokes the search for similar fibrogenic factors in the evolution of both these conditions. Dual immunohistochemical staining for CD34 and procollagen in the spindle cells of NFD suggest that the dermal cells of NFD may represent circulating fibrocytes recruited to the dermis, as originally demonstrated by Cowper. [1] The role of the fibrogenic factors was underlined by the increased expression of transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF/β1) in affected skin and muscles, together with large numbers of CD68 +/ factor XIIIA+ dendritic cells in those tissues. Decreasing plasma levels of TGFβ1 after plasmapheresis appear to correlate with the amelioration of the clinical condition. Accumulation of dermal mucin - an amorphous gelatinous substance composed primarily of hyaluronan (HA) and sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) - is one of the histopathological hallmarks of NSF. It has been found that fibroblasts derived from active lesions of NFD synthesize elevated levels of GAGs, particularly HA, in comparison with normal controls, while the serum from the patients with NFD stimulates GAG synthesis, including HA synthesis, both by control and patient fibroblasts. [29] This implies that fibroblasts from patients with active NFD are either activated to synthesize elevated levels of HA or they contain another cell type, possibly derived from circulating fibrocytes. In addition, this also supports the presence of a serum-derived factor that stimulates production of sulfated GAGs and HA by fibroblasts. This putative factor could be TGFβ1. Further, basic scientific and translational studies are necessary to understand the disease mechanism.
As noted previously, NSF/NFD occurs mostly in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) and very rarely in those with acute renal failure (ARF) too. A majority of the cases have been described in renal dialysis or renal transplant patients. Only five cases have been reported in which patients had ARF and never required dialysis. [30] Three cases have been reported to occur following liver transplantation for hepatitis B and C virus-induced cirrhosis. [24],[31] All these patients had encephalopathy, refractory ascites and malnutrition prior to transplantation. All these patients, however, had renal dysfunction and required hemodialysis before and after transplantation. In a large report, chronic ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients have been claimed to have higher estimated NFD attack rates than chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients. [26] The reason advanced is that peritoneal dialysis might achieve less effective gadolinium-contrast clearance than hemodialysis. Occasionally, NFD has been reported to occur in the background of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) nephropathy and antiphospholipid syndrome related thrombotic glomerulopathy, at times even without receiving dialysis. [32]
NFD is usually a diagnosis of exclusion; [33] however, the condition does have distinct clinical and histopathologic findings.
Cutaneous Findings
Indurated plaques with a 'woody' feel is the most characteristic finding of this condition. Sometimes brownish hyperpigmentation develops on the plaques. Extremities as well as the trunk may be affected. In general, the lower extremities are involved more frequently and to a greater extent. The spectrum of manifestations is diverse. Other than plaques and induration, erythema, edema, peau d'orange appearance, nodules and papules are also frequently observed. [34] In advanced cases, there is significant thickening and hardening of skin with the development of acral swelling and flexion contractures. Face is characteristically spared. In a series of nine patients, as many as eight had characteristic yellow scleral plaques. [35] At times, the patients exhibit a distinctive physical appearance, with elbows and knees angled inward with a concomitant complaint of a loss of a range of motions. In early cases, there might not be any finding other than circumscribed xerotic appearance of skin. Cases showing rippled hyperpigmentation and those resembling papular mucinosis have been reported, particularly from India. [15],[16]
Systemic Involvement
Recent reports have favoured the view that NSF is actually a systemic fibrosing disease with preferential cutaneous manifestations. [36] However, most of the multiorgan fibrosis involving, inter alia, striated muscles, lungs, kidneys, testes, dura mater, microvasculature, subcutaneous tissue, diaphragm, pericardium, great vessels of the heart and myocardium are autopsy findings. This implies that systemic involvement is mostly asymptomatic. However, there is a frequent elevation of the markers of systemic inflammation, such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP). Systemic involvement might also be a cause of mortality in NSF/NFD, e.g., by causing respiratory failure secondary to diffuse diaphragmatic infiltration. In one series, five out of six patients with lung involvement had a reduced diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide on pulmonary function testing. [6] There is a report of a patient developing progressively painful hyperkeratotic spicules on both the thighs and bone metaplasia was later confirmed. [37]
Laboratory investigations might reveal considerably increased circulating immune complexes, antinuclear antibodies in low titer and anti-double-stranded DNA antibodies even in the absence of SLE or other connective tissue disorders. [38] In patients having severe limitation of movements, computerized tomography showed fibrosis of the fascia and muscles, and electromyography showed mild to severe myopathic changes, thereby demonstrating that the limitation was caused predominantly by skin tightness and induration and by joint contractures rather than muscle weakness. [7] In recent case reports, circulating antiphospholipid antibodies have been proposed as markers of NSF. Systemic manifestations are generally understood to confer poor prognosis with a high mortality rate. [39]
Histopathological Findings
A spindle-cell proliferation infiltrating through the dermis and subcutis with varying degrees of mucin deposition in the dermis is the histopathological hallmark. There is dermal and subdermal thickening (as opposed to hyperkeratosis) and fibrosis with excessive dermal fibroblasts and abundant collagen bundles separated by prominent clefts. There is also an increase in elastic fibers. There may be lack of an inflammatory infiltrate. The reticular dermal fibroblastic spindle cells (postulated to be derived from the circulating fibrocytes) are of varied morphology: they may be plump large bipolar epithelioid, dendritic or stellate. [40] The absence of plasma cells on histology helps to differentiate NSF from scleromyxedema. The end stage of NSF may be exceptionally characterized by the presence of bone metaplasia. Sparse, small multinucleated histiocytes were the noticeable findings in our Indian series. [15] Focally, there may be zones of calcium deposition in dermal collagen without vessel calcification. Histopathology of affected muscles reveals a spectrum of mild to severe fibrosis, degenerating fibers and chronic inflammatory cells.
Dual immunolabelling for CD34 and procollagen in the spindle cells of NSF, although not yet fully characterized as a diagnostic test, may provide a sensitive and specific method of diagnosis.
A tip for the dermatologists and dermatopathologists: punch biopsy is often inadequate to diagnose NSF and should be discarded in favour of full-thickness wedge biopsy including subcutaneous tissue.
NSF has to be chiefly differentiated from the primary cutaneous mucinoses (lichen myxedematosus, scleromyxedema and reticular erythematous mucinosis) and the secondary mucinoses (lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis, scleroderma and granuloma annulare). While differentiation from some of these disorders ( e.g., lichen myxedematosus, granuloma annulare) is easy on the grounds of cutaneous morphology alone, differentiation from some of the others is not so very simple. The closest similarity is with scleromyxedema, where sometimes even microscopic difference is also hard to obtain. Association with renal disorder, characteristic lesional distribution (acral and truncal preferences, facial sparing), raised ESR and CRP, lack of plasma cells on histology, lack of paraproteinemia and characteristic immunohistochemistry with CD34 and procollagen tip the diagnosis in favour of NSF. The systemic nature of NSF may confound the diagnosis with systemic sclerosis; however, the serologic findings and histopathology provide the means of differentiation. Systemic lupus erythematosus is harder to distinguish as NFD may be associated with the former and antinuclear antibodies in low titer may be present in NSF per se . In this case, histopathology should provide the clue. Electromyogram may be necessary to differentiate from myopathies in some advanced cases. Eosinophilic fasciitis may also be a mimicker that is to be distinguished by deep biopsy. Pulmonary function testing in NSF may give a picture of restrictive lung disease in those with pulmonary involvement.
No specific treatment modality has been consistently effective for this condition; however, there have been reports of improvement that occurred either spontaneously with renal recovery or after renal transplantation. There are contradictory reports of unchanged skin lesions despite the normalization of renal function.
Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP), photodynamic therapy (PDT), high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin and other immunosuppressive therapies have been attempted with varying success. Among the immunosuppressives, the use of methylprednisolone and thalidomide are noteworthy. [41] There is a report on the marked improvement (softening of skin lesions, increase in joint motility) with four cycles of ECP and complete regression of the skin lesions with 16 cycles despite the constantly elevated renal values. [42] Plasmapheresis was moderately successful in treating three cases of NFD that developed following liver transplantation. [24]
In the absence of a standard, unequivocally effective treatment, prevention is of paramount importance. In this regard, avoidance of high-dose erythropoietin therapy and adherence to the USFDA guidelines on the use of gadolinium-containing contrast media in renal compromise are mandatory.
NSF, previously known as nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy, was first described in 1997 in the United States as a scleromyxedematous fibrosing condition of the skin occurring in the background of renal insufficiency. The first and, as of now, the largest series in the non-Western population was reported from Kolkata in 2005. Gradually, it has come to be recognized as a form of systemic fibrosis with preferential cutaneous involvement. The etiology is unclear with high-dose erythropoietin therapy and use of gadolinium-containing contrast media in the context of advanced renal disease being considered nowadays as potential risk factors. The clinical characteristics are that of cutaneous fibrosis with a typical acral distribution, sparing the face. Histopathology shows dermal thickening and fibrosis with haphazard distribution of collagen and mucin and the presence of spindle-shaped fibroblasts and fibroblast-like cells. The diagnosis requires a high degree of clinical suspicion and a great degree of coordination between nephrologists, rheumatologists, dermatologists and dermatopathologists. There is no standard treatment, with a variety of physical therapies and immunosuppressives offering variable responses. Prevention by avoiding the currently acknowledged risk factors is thus of utmost importance.
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Heart Tugging
Robert M. Lane
Tugboats are contagious.
I know. From my ground floor office in a house on Fidalgo Island, Washington, I spend too much time watching tugboats at work.
Often they escort oil tankers moving up Washington's Rosario Strait to refineries to the north. Not burdened with towing wires, they tag alongside or trail behind just to be there should something go wrong. Others, riding low and moving slowly, pull barges laden with construction equipment, wood chips, gravel, and other products on a constant parade both north and south day and night.
The weather doesn't matter; they are always there.
The tugs come into view as they pass the gap between Allan and Burrows Islands, so there's not a lot of time to watch. Usually, though, someone finds a minute to grab the binoculars or pull the lens covers from the spotting scope. Occasionally, a smaller towboat pulls inside the islands into the bay in front of my house with a boom of logs at the end of a long line to wait for the tide to change. Sometimes they come at night and we watch their white towing lights and yellow deck lights flicker in the distance and strain to see the faint lantern marking the end of the boom.
If that's not enough, I can pause in the living room before two watercolors of tugboats by Steve Mayo, a Bellingham, Washington, artist who has lived aboard an old tug. One is of the Challenger made fast to a log boom and the other is of the City of Olympia, a steam tug built in 1898, pulling a barge through the San Juan Islands.
Yes, we're a little nutty about tugboats. And I know others are, too. Boaters for years have been buying and building tug-yachts or converting the real thing to pleasure use in an effort to capture or share in the mysticism that seems to surround those hard working vessels.
My theory is that we like them for the same reason sport utility vehicles are so much in demand: They are sturdy and reliable, powerful and able to go anywhere at anytime. Macho.
Inside, both car and tugyacht are comfortable, luxurious, upholstered in leather and equipped with AC, stereo sound, a GPS system, and a host of other gadgets. They are powerful, yet easy to drive.
There's a gender thing here: The guy gets a vehicle with muscle and an attitude, while the gal finds luxury in the form of hot showers, a walk-around bed, a big refrigerator, and lots of storage space in a beast she can control as well as the guy.
There's a second reason some find tug-yachts attractive: the heart-tugging pull, if you will, of things nostalgic. For reasons of function, tugs for generations have had a high plumb bow, a pilothouse with a lot of large, vertical windows, a nice sheer line leading to an open working space aft and a fantail stern. It's a good look, and some are drawn to the tug-yacht style because it invokes memories of the way things used to be and perhaps ought to be now.
Truthfully, most tugboats make poor yachts. The majority of the interior space is given to a monster engine, fuel tanks and other machinery. Living quarters often are primitive. Ladders, or nearly vertical stairways, connect the pilothouse with the main deck and the engine room. And after decades of pushing, pulling, and bumping, they are battered, rusty, and tired.
Fortunately, there are enough courageous people who have bought old tugboats and converted them to pleasure use to prove that it can be done and to give the rest of us something wonderful to admire. Frank and Gayle Huff of Seattle have done it twice, and their latest effort is a handsome, comfortable, and seaworthy 70- footer. We'll visit them later.
Today's boat builders have seized the important aspect of the towboat-the glamour of the design and the appeal of nostalgia-and retained enough hints of the original lines and shape to intrigue us, while delivering fine yachts that make passagemaking delightful.
Two builders, Nordic Tugs and American Tugs, are rolling out tuggy yachts from factories only a few miles apart in farm country north of Seattle, Washington. They offer well-built and reliable yachts for those who want a pleasure boat with a taste of tug atmosphere.
Yachts, freshly launched are budget benders, but vintage tug-yachts are available on the usedboat market, including Nordic and a pair that appeared in the 1980s and then disappeared, the Sundowner and Victory Tugs, both Taiwanbuilt boats.
The Sundowner, which came in lengths of 30, 32, and 36 feet, often is misidentified as a Nordic Tug, but the difference is obvious because the Sundowners have a reverse raked windscreen, and the Nordic does not. Not many were built. Some estimates put the total at about 50. The 37- foot Victory tug is more tug-like, with a high bow, a steep sheer line, and a tight pilothouse. About 88 of the Victory Tugs were built; a few were 41 and 49 feet in length.
Victory Tugs were noted for the extensive use of teak, on the exterior and interior.
If you want something unique, build your own. Bruce Wright, a retired physician living on Camano Island on Saratoga Passage, near Stanwood, Washington, commissioned a one-off tug-yacht in steel and aluminum by Michael Kasten, a Port Townsend, Washington, naval architect. It is nostalgic, romantic, traditional, functional and has good space for two people.
Wright, whose 38-foot Nidaros now is out cruising in British Columbia after her launching a short time ago by a Bellingham builder, Iota Metalworking says, "I like the design because there's something nice about a double-ended boat. It's nice to reach out and pat it.
"I wanted something strong and dependable and that looked like a boat."
Kasten says the tug-yacht's aesthetic design delivers a message of strength and power.
"The thing that draws is not the technology of new tugs, but the nostalgia of what an old tugboat would look like. People are attracted to the old-time aesthetics of a tug pulling logs. The perception is that a tugboat is the toughest little bugger you can lay hands on."
Sam Devlin, an Olympia, Washington, boat designer-builder whose work incorporates the lines of vintage workboats, says a picture of a tug is "the first image of a boat that sticks in your mind.
"Ask kids to draw a boat and it'll be a tug."
Douglas Trumbull, whose John D. Bosler is a 42-foot Devlin-built tug-yacht, (PMM, June '01) appreciates the tugboat ethic that is obvious in the design. "It is functionality as against sleekness," he says. "I always have liked the look of old tugboats."
Frank Huff, who has owned traditional yachts as well as converted towboats, worked for years as a distributor of petroleum products. He was accustomed to handling heavy machinery, big trucks, huge pipes, and large valves. As a result, he wants "really strong stuff" in a boat. "Not yacht stuff," he says, throwing up his hands.
He now owns a 1954-vintage ex-Navy harbor tug that displaces 160 tons. "There is a nostalgic attraction," he says. "I am one of those guys. You can run these tugs thousands of hours without a problem. You can take them to Alaska and back and then to the South Pacific and back. They keep chugging 24 hours a day."
His wife, Gayle, identifies another factor that attracts Frank to tugboats. "You don't like little toys," she tells him. "You like big toys."
Chasing The Market
Nordic Tugs has been building tug-yachts since 1980. At first they were slow, small, simply finished, and sort of funky.
Today, still using the original Lynn Senourdesigned hull, Nordic Tugs are fast semidisplacement yachts that handle well at slow speeds and are finely finished and stylish.
As the boats have become more sophisticated, the fake smoke stack that is the company's trademark has gone from a stiff, vertical pipe to a sloping vestige of the original. Nordics still carry a faint trace of puddening, which on working tugs is a mass of woven rope or tires slung over the bow to protect it from chafing, as a tribute to the real thing and to protect the hull from anchor scratching.
Continuing as strong elements in the boats' design are the straight stem, round portlights in the trunk cabin, and a raised pilothouse with rectangular workboat windows. Senour's open interior, which is one of his best touches, has gone through many changes for the better.
Solid, weather-tight doors from Diamond Sea Glaze have replaced sliding wooden doors that faded in the sun and leaked wind and water. Oil pot burners have given way to diesel furnaces and propane galley ranges. Big batteries, generators, and inverters have displaced smoky kerosene lamps.
The line began with 26- and 32-foot models. The 26 has been dropped, perhaps only temporarily, while Nordic has added a 42 and a 37 and will launch a 52-footer, possibly next year. The new model will offer a flying bridge (Nordic's first), a laundry room, two staterooms, two heads, and two engines; it will be the first Nordic with twins in the engine room. (Purists will be able to order it with one 450hp engine, however.)
Nordic Tug recently completed a 30,000- square-foot laminating building at its Burlington, Washington, factory to improve the production process and to enable the company to build more boats efficiently, including the 52. President Jim Cress said molds for the big boat have been completed, but the company has not determined a construction schedule or calculated the price of the new tug-yacht.
About 470 Nordic Tugs have been built since 1980. NT has survived management changes and bad money times (luxury taxes and high interest rates) while the competition has faded away (mainly the Sundowner and Victory tugs).
Now, Nordic again faces competition close to home in the tug-yacht business.
Three executives left Nordic Tug about two years ago, formed a company called Tomco Marine Group, and bought the mold for a Senour fishing boat hull that had been stored upside down in a field for years and began building a yacht. They gave it an overall length of 34 feet, 5 inches and called it the American Tug. At that length, it fills the niche between the Nordic 32 and 37.
The Nordic line is so well known that many boaters see any kind of tug-yacht and exclaim, "A Nordic!" The boats can be found from Alaska to Mexico on the Pacific Coast, up and down the East Coast, and on the Great Lakes. They have been covered attentively by the trade press (see "Go Fast, Go Slow," PMM, Summer 1999). So let's take a closer look at its competition.
The New Kids
Considering the boat-building experience of Tom Nelson, Mike Schoppert, and Kurt Dilworth, one would expect them to deliver a winner. And they have.
Nelson has been building boats for more than 38 years. He began as an apprentice on wooden boats on Seattle's Lake Union and eventually owned the Nelson Yacht Corp., which built custom yachts of 70 to 90 feet until the luxury tax killed the business. He semiretired but soon was persuaded to join Nordic Tug. After four years in the Burlington plant, finally as president, Nelson was thinking about a second retirement when the Senour fish boat mold became available.
An Alaskan, Schoppert attended college in Washington state and began learning fiberglass construction at the Uniflite Corp. in Bellingham. He also worked for Chris Craft, Tollycraft, and Oceanus. At Nordic, he first supervised the lamination department and was general manager when he left to join the new venture.
Dilworth worked for Chambers' Craft in the late 1980s and Premier Boats in the early 1990s. After college classes, he worked as an apprentice on the conversion of Frank Huff's steel tugboat to a yacht. At Nordic, he started as a mechanic but quickly moved up to become head engineer and manager of warrantycustomer service.
"These guys came to me," Nelson recalls. "Lynn (Senour) had told them the old mold was available.
"My goal was an eight- to nine-knot boat with an honest thousand-mile range, but that could get up on the step to cross the Strait of Georgia or Lake Michigan, and that's a real challenge.
"I wanted a wide chine, an ability to carry a load. This boat is different than the 37 Nordic Tug; that's a good boat, but I wanted one that could carry a load without affecting performance.
"It's a niche boat, designed for a couple to go coastal cruising."
Quickly Successful
With 10 orders in hand, the new company decided in January 2000 to begin construction of the yacht.
That's not as simple as it sounds. Although they had a hull mold, in good shape even after years stored in a field, they had nothing else. The management staff plus a few others (including some lured from Nordic Tug) worked crazy hours for two months to build the plug and mold for the deckhouse, interior modules, and an integrated grid that is hidden in the belly of the boat.
The first was launched in nearby Swinomish Channel in August 2000, just in time for the boat show season.
It caught on immediately, with buyers pulling out checkbooks after one visit at a boat show. Soon, the new company had a backlog of 28 orders-nearly two years of production at its small LaConner, Washington, plant-and temporarily stopped taking orders and accelerated work on an addition that will double the size of its factory.
The new space also will enable the company to build a larger AT, probably a 40-something in length that will have two staterooms and two heads, and to increase production from about 18 boats a year to more than 40. AT has sold a couple of the larger yachts, even though the boat design has not been completed.
Several fishing boats were pulled from the 1980-vintage mold before it was retired to a vacant field and still are in use. Senour gave the boat a beam of 13 feet 3 inches-wide for a craft about 32 feet long-to make it stable and to enable it to carry a big load of salmon in the waters of Alaska's Bristol Bay, a performance characteristic that 20 years later would appeal to Tom Nelson.
Senour, of Seattle, an innovator in designing semi-displacement hulls that handle well at all speeds, created a fast fish boat that could hustle the catch to market.
With a 330-horsepower Cummins diesel in the engine room, the 34AT cruises nicely at 15 knots or more for a boater in a hurry to cross a darkening strait or at seven knots for gunkholing or an economical long crossing. At seven-plus knots, she can run nearly 1,800 miles on 400 gallons of fuel.
The NT and the AT look somewhat alike. Among the exterior differences: The America Tug has a windscreen with a slight reverse rake and pilothouse doors that are hinged and swing open, rather than Nordic-type sliding doors. Nordic boats have a colored accent strip set into the bulwark, and vertical stanchions support the stainless steel hand rail; the hull on the American Tug is free of extra colors and uses sloping stanchions to hold up the hand rail. The AT obviously is beamier, and it has more freeboard.
Innovations In Design
American Tug designed a new superstructure to fit atop the Senour fishing boat hull and emphasized high-tech features in the fitting out of the newest tug-yacht on the market. Deep inside and out of sight is a fiberglass grid, built separately from the hull.
Building the mold for the integrated grid was one of the small builder's most challenging tasks. Its design and position against the bottom of the boat control the placement of almost everything else, and the dimensions had to be precise.
It is bonded into place to provide a liner for the engine room and support for the engine and fuel and water tanks (including tank baffles). The grid establishes unchanging dimensions for bulkheads, which means that interior modules built in the wood shop always fit the first time. Only a few other builders use an integrated grid.
"There was a significant investment in the grid," Dilworth explained while we toured the AT factory in LaConner, "but it makes production more efficient and a better boat."
The skeg and rudder are made of composite materials, rather than stainless steel. Dilworth said a testing machine broke while attempting to break a composite skeg. In another test, the crew put a jack under the skeg and lifted the 17,000-pound boat-without incident.
The keel tapers at its after end to provide a clean flow of water to the rudder, which is tapered in front and squared off at the end to provide true tracking at sea, Dilworth says.
Other than the propeller and its shaft there is no underwater metal on the American Tug and thus no need for bonding. The shaft carries one sacrificial zinc.
Engine exhaust exits the boat underwater directly from the engine room. All noisy equipment, including the generator, furnace, and pumps, is enclosed in the heavily insulated engine room. The saloon deck has one inch of insulation to block the passage of sound; the pilothouse deck above the engine room has an inch and a half of acoustical insulation.
Floors are built of a plastic honeycomb known as Nida Core. American Tug vacuum bags a fiberglass surface to one side and plywood on the other. The 9-by-12-foot saloon deck needed no supports other than along the perimeter, but American Tug adds some for owners' peace of mind.
American Tug offers West Coast buyers a boat that comes equipped with an Espar furnace, propane stove, and generator. For the East Coast, it packages a boat with a 26,000 BTU airconditioning/ heating system, a generator, and an electric range. All boats have bow thrusters, Heatercraft heat systems, windshield washers, and space to run wiring for after-market electronics.
The fiberglass shower stall is roomy. AT found it cheaper to buy a home-style shower from a building-supply firm than to mold its own.
Only a few added-cost options are available. Among them: the buyer's choice of washer/ dryer, a dishwasher, or an icemaker. I've never seen a washer/dryer combo in a 34' boat, but I saw one on an American Tug. As the result of clever design, it hides in a saloon cabinet and pulls out for use.
The swim step is made of composite materials and is glued and screwed to the hull.
Twenty-one small LED courtesy lights are scattered through the boat. All lights are controlled by a central digital switching system than can be programmed. They can be left on indefinitely because the total power draw is less than one amp.
Storage is abundant, including beneath the saloon settee that opens to a berth larger than a double bed, and in the master stateroom forward. Beneath the saloon deck and above the shaft alley is a storage space large enough for eight milk crates. Every drawer in the boat slides on ball bearings and can be pulled all the way without fear the drawer will hit the deck.
The 34AT is a one-stateroom, one-head boat that is just right for a couple, but with space for special friends.
As in the Nordic Tug, the American Tug pilothouse is open to the saloon. This is a winning design feature because it offers the skipper the advantages of a pilothouse-better visibility and freedom from the clutter of cooking, dining, and cleaning-without separating the crew from the social scene in the saloon. The view aft is good, too, for backing into a slip.
Building A Tug-Yacht
Iota Metalworking is in the historic Fairhaven neighborhood of Bellingham, Washington, just across the street from the Alaska ferry terminal. There is no sign on the building, but the rusty steel hull out front is a good clue.
I found Pete Silva, company owner, and Bruce Wright. That was not his boat out front; Nidaros was undercover in a temporary pipe-and-plastic building at the back of Silva's boat shed.
Shipwrights were aboard, working on cabinetry and interior finish with the hope of having the 38-foot boat in the water by early summer.
Wright and his wife, Nancy, were owners of a 40-foot Pacific Trawler when he began looking for his dream, a metal boat.
He joined the Metal Boat Society and found that Silva also was a member. Wright drove to Silva's shop in Bellingham and found him at work on a small tug-yacht that had been designed by Kasten. The architect remembers: "Bruce called me immediately and said, 'I want one just like that, only bigger.'"
Kasten did the design work, but it was strongly influenced by Wright, who knew in detail what he wanted from his experiences as a long-time boater in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. The Wrights had owned several other boats, including one they had built in Alaska along the lines of a vintage fishing boat.
Nidaros is a displacement boat, but with some chine to moderate the normal rolling tendency. She has a four-cylinder, 110-horsepower Alaska Diesel Lugger engine that is based on a John Deere block.
Her cooling system is unusual. Instead of the heat exchanger or keel cooler found on many yachts, Wright chose skin cooling. Cheek plates are welded to the keel, and engine coolant flows between the cheek and keel.
"This is perfect in Northwest waters," Wright says. "There is nothing hanging out in the water."
The engine water pump circulates the 50-plus gallons of coolant contained in the system. The 55 square feet of cheek-cooling area theoretically will cool a 110hp engine operating in 75- degree seawater, Wright says. Nidaros will operate in waters of about 50 degrees, and only about 60hp will be needed to drive the boat at hull speed. "It's extremely conservative," he adds. "We are very much over cooled."
The Lugger has a dry stack exhaust. As a result, the boat has no through-hull fittings below the waterline.
The deckhouse is aluminum. It must be separated from the steel deck to prevent corrosion. While many builders use an "explosionfused" bimetal strip made by DuPont to provide the necessary separation, Silva and Wright chose neoprene rubber and bolts.
They were concerned about the expansion of dissimilar metals and feared that over time the bimetal strip would loosen. The neoprene gasket separates the two metals; 218 stainless steel bolts encased in plastic tubes hold it all together.
"It is weather tight," Wright says. "It is a superb system. And it does allow flexibility."
Many metal builders have steel and aluminum cut with computer-driven tools. Silva, however, chose to loft the boat in his shop and to cut the metal by hand.
The master stateroom is forward, with Vberths, storage lockers, and a dressing area. Steps lead up and aft to the pilothouse, which has seats for the pilot and navigator and folding tables for computer use or dining.
The Lugger diesel is beneath the pilothouse; while it does not have standing headroom, there is adequate space for engine maintenance, parts, and for a generator. (Wright did not install one.).
Nidaros carries 450 gallons of fuel in two tanks. Diesel flows through Racor filters to a day tank, which directly supplies the engine through another Racor. The engine-mounted secondary filter does final cleaning; Wright should never have a problem with dirty fuel.
Down steps from the pilothouse is the saloon, with galley, head,and space for two comfortable reading chairs with side tables and quarter berths for guests or daytime napping.
The Wrights are in their sixties and, as Bruce said, are finished with brave cruising. However, Kasten designed the boat to be self-righting. "I haven't asked him to be aboard when we do our first tip-over," Bruce jokes. "The boat should be able to tolerate an awful lot of abuse."
All doors are sliders. "That's another prejudice of mine," Wright said. "After six boats I think there should never be a swinging door on a boat. They are dangerous and can damage fingers."
Nancy Wright chose the color scheme: The hull will be painted black, the bulwarks red, and the house will be navy gray.
The Wrights chose a 38-footer because they believed that anything larger would limit their opportunities to explore the many small harbors and winding island waterways in Northwest waters.
Nidaros looks much more like a towboat than any of the mass-produced tug-yachts on the market. It's easy to imagine her with a towing bitt and a line stretching aft to a tow. On a working tug, however, the space aft of the pilothouse would be given to an engine, other machinery, and fuel tanks and would not have the space for comfortable living that Nidaros offers.
Island Ranger
Frank and Gayle Huff's 70-foot tugboat is moored in the right place: at Seattle's Jacobson Terminal, where vessels hundreds of feet long line the docks and machinery the size of houses is under repair.
As big as she is, Island Ranger lies in the shadows of that industrial-strength maritime scene.
Several people insisted I talk to the Huffs and check out their boat. Not knowing much about her, except that she was a former Army harbor tug built in 1954 for service during the Korean War, I was stunned by her beauty. The tug still looks like a tug in every way, perfect in detail, yet the interior provides comfortable, finely decorated, and spacious living areas.
It was an enormous job. When Frank Huff bought the tug on the Sacramento Delta in 1988 she showed the wear of a life of hard work. Her 30,000-pound Atlas diesel smoked heavily and the vessel was a dirty, battered mess.
But Huff, who already had built a 50-foot traditional yacht, converted a 110-foot tug for pleasure use, and restored a 65-foot Canadian forestry boat, could see the potential.
He hired a crew to deliver it to Seattle in the spring of 1988. The Huffs took their first cruise aboard her in 1993.
Huff was the general contractor on the job. He knew how because of his business career in petroleum distribution and through his experiences building and refitting boats.
Years ago, he bought a 50-foot Delta hull and hired Lynn Senour to design the interior and deckhouse. He found a boat shed and hired shipwrights and pitched in himself, while operating his business.
That was warming-up time. Later, the Huffs bought Lorna Foss, a retired 110-foot tug that has a footnote in history: A Navy YTM, she was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Using his metalworking and machinery skills and hiring shipwrights to help, Huff built a new pilothouse and created living spaces. Frank and Gayle fished commercially for salmon with the old tug, and cruised it for pleasure.
"Mom and I ran it," Frank says.
Next was the 65-foot forestry boat, Hecate Ranger, which had been designed as a crew boat and had sleeping space for 12.
When the Island Ranger reached Seattle, Huff and his crew cut it apart. The pilothouse disappeared, to be replaced with a larger command center with space for visitors, nav equipment and charts. They added wing decks off the new bridge.
The Atlas diesel stuck up into the space that was to be the saloon. It also was direct reversing, which means that it had no gearbox and that moving the tug in reverse required stopping the engine and then restarting so it would turn the opposite direction. And it was old and tired.
So it had to go. The deck was cut away and the aging engine lifted out. Huff's search for a replacement engine led to a salvage yard where he found four Detroit Diesel 12V-149 engines waiting to be scrapped.
They had finished at least one career driving generators that provided power for giant earthmoving trucks. They looked dismal sitting in the yard, but Huff bought two.
In the one error on the job, Huff took the word of an expert that the selected engine did not need to be overhauled. So it was dropped into place and the boat rebuilt around it.
After the first long cruise, in which the engine consumed enormous quantities of lubricating oil, Huff rebuilt it in place. The job would have been markedly easier in the shop.
Today, the engine gleams under a coat of green paint and delivers 10 knots of speed while burning about 15 gallons of fuel an hour. It is so large that the starting motor is powered by air, not electricity. Even changing the oil is a job: The engine holds 35 gallons of lube oil.
With original turbochargers and large injectors, the 12V-149 was rated at about 1,000 horsepower. Eliminating the turbos and installing smaller injectors reduced the engine output to 600 horsepower, Huff says.
The valve covers are chrome plated and every other piece of equipment in the engine room sparkles with fresh paint. I searched thoroughly for a flaw and finally found a smudge of oil beneath the engine about the size of a nickel. Huff apologized, grabbed a mop to clean it up, and explained that it came from around a seal between two sections of the block that he could not replace in the engine room overhaul.
If any engine room deserved to be rated a holy place, this is it. The temptation is to spend hours there, where spit-and-polish, fresh paint and perfection rules, but the rest of this tugyacht deserves attention.
Step aboard at the fantail stern. When I was aboard, it was wide open with space for a basketball game. While cruising in Alaska, Huff does some long-line fishing for halibut, and he has gear in place on the stern and an icemaker on the boat deck above for icing the catch.
Lynn Senour designed the interior spaces. The saloon stretches on and on forward to the galley. It's traditional in style with a dining area and settee to port and other chairs and bookshelves to starboard. The galley is home-sized with a commercial-style stainless steel Lang stove, a fullsized refrigerator and ceramic tile on the deck. A team of cooks can work here. (Had the Huffs followed the ship's lines, the galley deck would have been slanted. They built forms and poured concrete to create a level deck.)
Cabinets are made of ebony. You'll see other rare woods, including rosewood and koa, throughout the tug. Those woods are hard to find today, but Huff bought them for earlier boat restoration projects and saved leftover material for future use.
Access to the engine room is through a doorway and stairs to the left. Staterooms are down steps and forward. An area that once housed a galley and berthing spaces for a crew of 10, the forward area now has two staterooms, heads, and a utility room.
The pilothouse is forward and up a flight of steps. The helm station fills the forward area, and large windows all around offer excellent visibility. Doors lead to the wing deck and the boat deck aft. A comfortable settee fills the aft wall.
It is loaded with equipment, including the original magnetic compass, the original autopilot (plus a new one), two radars, a Sperry gyrocompass and two depth sounders.
Huff developed software that records GPS waypoints and times on his computer while the Island Ranger is under way. This produces records he considers invaluable and that, when combined with Nobletec navigation software, can generate all the courses he needs to find his favorite places in Southeast Alaska.
Not So Easy
The Huffs almost make the work sound simple. Snapshots in a photo album prove that it is not. Few of us possess Huff's qualifications, and there probably are not a lot of shipyards around that could do the work he performed.
A 70-footer is a nice size for conversion, Huff says, because it offers good living and piloting spaces. "It's just fine for two people," Gayle adds.
But the work is king-sized when it comes to removing and rebuilding a pilothouse, cutting open the deck to replace an engine, calculating the need for ballast and pouring it in place, and adding bow and stern thrusters and a new keelcooling system for the engine. Beyond that is the need to know what needs to be done, to be able to plan the work, to schedule it, and get it done.
The enormity of the job is evident in the time it took: five years.
Gayle Huff said visitors come aboard and are awe-stricken. "'We can do this,' they say. We have to say nicely that you probably can't," she adds.
There are others with courage to match the Huffs. Probably every major seaport has a few examples of stunning conversions. So, don't rule it out. Just be careful.
About now, the Island Ranger is in Southeast Alaska for another long summer of cruising and fishing. The Huffs must endure millions of admiring glances and thousands of questions, but they'll do it with grace.
A Last Look
Now that we've finished our pop psychology review of this love affair with tugs and tug-yachts, let's get down to basics.
While they may serve some inner need, Nordic Tugs, American Tugs, Sundowners, Victories, and converted towboats satisfy a common goal: to find a sweet, seaworthy boat that has good lines and handles well and will provide years of super coastal cruising.
With competition heating in the new-boat market, buyers should have a great time checking out the Nordic and American Tugs. While they are similar, there are differences that may count. Larger tug-yachts are coming for those who need more space.
Look closely and be sure the one you choose is the little tug that could.
Toot! Toot!
shipbuildersMetalworkinginteriortugboatstugyachtsPassageMakerlanenidaSundownerSenourvictory tugscorePMMtomco marine groupNordic TugsIota34ATamerican tugs
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Diana Film Just Gossip, Says Khan
Diana Film
Royalist Correspondent
Updated Jul. 11, 2017 8:49PM ET / Published Aug. 26, 2013 10:39AM ET
I, for one, am waiting with bated breath for the new Diana film to come out next month, but the man at the centre of the narrative, Diana's penultimate lover Hasnat Khan, is not quite so excited, slamming the movie as mere, "gossip," and vowing he will never see it.
Dr Khan, who was nicknamed Mr Wonderful by the Princess, has rarely spoken to the press but has been provoked into launching a scathing criticism of the forthcoming movie, claiming it was "completely wrong" and vowing he would never watch it after seeing just one still image from the film, which shows the actors playing him and Diana side by side at the hospital where they met.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Dr Khan, commenting on the actors' stance in the still, said: "I could tell immediately those were never our mannerisms at all, with [my] hands folded behind the back and all that. You could tell from that picture that it is all just presumed about how we would behave with each other, and they have got it completely wrong. There wasn't any hierarchy in our relationship. She wasn't a Princess and I wasn't a doctor. We were friends, and normal people stand like friends with each other."
He said he had refused to co-operate with either the fim makers or the author of the book on which it is based, and told the paper it was all "based on gossip and Diana's friends talking about a relationship that they didn't know much about, and some of my relatives who didn't know much about it either. It is all based on hypotheses and gossip."
The film, due to be released next month, stars Naomi Watts as Diana and Naveen Andrews as Khan and is directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, who made Downfall.
Jemima Khan, Diana's close friend, said last month in Vanity Fair that the Princess had been "madly in love" with Dr Khan, with whom she had a two-year relationship.
Diana had wanted to marry the doctor and secretly met his family in Pakistan to discuss the possibility of a union, Mrs Khan told the magazine.
The surgeon – who is raising money to set up a charitable hospital in Pakistan - says "There are a hundred could-have-beens. She (Diana) could be living very happily and married and having more kids, with me or with someone else. It could have led in that direction. I try not to think about these things. I can't change anything now."


Martha & Marley Spoon is one of four mid-priced meal kit companies out there (the others are Hello Fresh, Blue Apron and Home Chef) and so far, the one I've been least impressed with. "Martha" refers to Martha Stewart, with whom Marley Spoon struck a partnership in 2016. Supposedly she has some influence on their offerings.
I only got two meal kits, but both were somewhat disappointing. Still, two is a small sample and I may try more if I get any "come back" discounts on the mail.
Martha & Marley Spoon offers plans for 2 or 4 people, and you can choose among 2, 3 or 4 meal kits a week. Kits cost between $8.20 and $12 per serving, depending on how much you order. The typical 3-meal kits with 2-servings each plan costs $61.50 a week, or $21/kit – $10.50/serving. Shipping is free in all plans.
Marley Spoon offers 20 recipes a week, including 6 vegetarian ones. Vegans, however, are out of luck but there are at least 3 gluten-free options every week. The food seems to be modern American, with some ethnic accents. They seem to specialize in relatively safe recipes with broad appeal, including kid friendly offerings. Still, most of the recipes did not look particularly interesting or exciting to me.
While recipes are relatively quick and easy to make, they call for some kitchen equipment that not everyone has at home, in my case, kitchen sears. Problematically, they don't provide alternatives to that equipment.
The ingredients tend to be rather simple and not particularly exotic, and some are inadequate for the recipes. For example, the canned tomatoes I got were whole and asked me to dice them, when they could have just as easily provided diced tomatoes. Both of my dishes included baby spinach, but in both cases all the spinach did is provide an unpleasant bitter flavor to the dish.
Most of the food was fresh, but I did receive a bruised red pepper – still, it remained fairly firm until the end of the week, when I cooked it.
My biggest beef is that the kits did not include all the ingredients necessary to make the meal. None of the meal kits include oil, salt or pepper, and Hello Fresh irked me by not including butter, but Martha & Marley Spoon went a step further to not include balsamic vinegar – in a dish for which it was essential. To me this is a big fail.
My final complaint about Martha & Marley Spoon is that the portions were smaller than I wished.
Martha & Marley Spoon is a bit better than its competitors as far as packaging goes. While the freezer packs need to be thrown in the garbage, the lining of the box is recyclable – unfortunately, there was no mention of this on either the lining or the literature that came with the box, I had to look it up on their website.
Each kit arrives in a separate paper bag, which I prefer to plastic. I usually put the trimmings from the vegetables in these bags for curbside composting. The meats, as with other kits, were between two freezer packs and they arrived quite cold.
A decent dish, though it left me hungry. The glaze was a winner, though.
I paid only $18 for this box ($9 per kit or $4.50 a serving), using a promo I found online, and for that price the meals were a steal. At more than twice the price, I'd be pretty disappointed.
This was my second Marley Spoon's dish and, most likely, my last one. It was perfectly fine as a dish, and I thought the presentation was quite attractive, but it wasn't special enough to justify the issues I had with it.
First, the steak. It wasn't particularly great quality – it was sirloin, after all -, and the two steaks were of significantly different thickness, which means that cooking them both together resulted in one more done than the other. While the tamari sauce (recipe below) added a very good flavor, the steaks were not particularly tender.
The farro/red pepper stir-fry was good – or would have been, had I not added the spinach. Once again, it provided an unappetizing bitter taste to the dish.
The portion was also on the small side – I was left hungry after eating it.
Even more vexing was the fact that the kit didn't include all the ingredients I needed to make the meal. It asked that I provide my own balsamic vinegar. Fortunately, I had some – but the whole dish would have been a fail if I didn't. To be fair, Marley Spoon did mention in the instructions online that dark balsamic vinegar was needed, but I shouldn't have to look carefully at every recipe to see what ingredients I have to provide. They really should send everything you need other than oil, salt and pepper (other kits do).
In all, it was a nice meal but frustrating.
In a small bowl, mix all ingredients together until the sugar dissolves. Use to glaze meat or as a sauce.
I have been meaning to try Martha & Marley Spoon for a while, but I struggled to find, among their offerings, dishes that I really wanted to try. I suspect that part of the problem is the photography they use on their site makes the dishes look wash out and not particularly exciting . We eat with our eyes, after all. But their offerings seem mostly pedestrian.
In any case, I chose this kit for Stewed Chicken Drumsticks with Orzo & Olive-Parsley Relish because it was something I thought my daughter would eat and because I was intrigued by the idea of making stew in less than an hour. I was disappointed by the results.
The dish itself was relatively easy to make, though I was disappointed than rather than sending a can of diced tomatoes, they sent a can of whole ones and then asked me to cut them with kitchen shears – which I don't actually own. I transferred them to a bowl and cut them with a knife, but that should not have been a required step.
The main issue, however, was the results of the dish. The chicken, having been cooked at quite high temperatures, was not as tender as it should have been – and given that it was stewed for a relatively short amount of time, the flavors of the sauce had not been absorbed beyond the surface. The sauce itself was unbalanced – a bit too bitter from the spinach – and lacked seasoning. Some more garlic and oregano would have done wonders. The relish added acidity, but I'm not sure the dish needed it.
In all, it was an edible dish, but not at all exciting and I wouldn't order it again.
While the ingredients looked fresh when the kit arrived in Monday, by Wednesday night – when I cooked it – the spinach and the parsley were both losing its crispiness, even though I stored them in the fridge.
I paid $9 for this kit ($4.50 pp) using a promo code – the regular price is about $21.
Blue Apron offers plans for two and four servings. You can order either two or three meal 2-serving meal kits per week. Two will cost you $48 a week ($24 per kit, $12 pp) and three will cost $60 a week ($20 per kit, $10 pp). The 4-serving kits cost $72 for 2 kits ($9 pp), $96 for 3 ($8 pp) or $120 for 4 ($7.50 pp).
In addition to regular plans they have a Weight Watchers "freestyle" plan and a vegetarian plan, both only available for 2 servings, and costing the same as the regular plan.
Blue Apron offers 8 recipes a week, including 3 vegetarian ones – some of which can be turned into vegan. The recipes are mostly modern American food, which incorporates elements from other cuisines. I liked that they included ingredients that are not necessarily in my pantry – and that they didn't skimp in the quality. I got ghee, rather than having to use my own butter, for instance, and creme fraiche instead of sour cream. Blue Apron doesn't seem to offer steak, so perhaps that's how they save money.
The ingredients were high quality and they came and stayed fresh (except for some wobbly carrots). The recipes were easy to put together.
Like other meal kits, Blue Apron comes in a recyclable cardboard box. The ingredients were individually wrapped, but otherwise tossed together inside the box. There were small bags with "knick knacks" for each recipe, however. Still, I prefer to have all the ingredients for each recipe in their own bag, so I can easily take them out of refrigerator rather than having to search for them.
I was happy that I was able to drain the freezer packs – once defrosted – in the sink rather than have to throw them in the garbage. They were a thick gel even when defrosted, but it thinned with hot water. The lining of the box, however, wasn't recyclable or compostable.
I loved the curry spiced beef and the bread buns.
Liked the schnitzel, actually loved the kale. Really.
All in all, I had fun cooking these meals and the results were perfectly fine. Blue Apron is priced the same as HelloFresh and HomeChef, and I feel it offers a superior experience to the other two. Cancelling was easy – but that has been true of all the meal kits I've ordered.
Green Chef is a premium priced meal kit company, purportedly specializing in sending nutritious meals with a focus on organic ingredients. Their hook is that they offer plans for people in special diets – alas, they only offer five meal choices under each plan and you cannot pick kits from different plans. They also offer an "omnivore" plan, still with only five choices. This is the plan that I tried for a week – and in all, I didn't think the premium price was justified given the kit ingredients. However, for people in special dies who are not well served by other companies, this may be a good choice.
Green Chef offers two different plans. The 2-person plan provides 3 meal kits for 2. Subscribers choose one of seven diet categories: keto, paleo, gluten-free, vegetarian, pescatarian, vegan and omnivore, each offering five meal kit choices. Most plans are $79/week, including shipping, but the keto and paleo plans are $85. That means that kits cost between a little over $26/28 each and the per-serving price is just above $13/14. There is an extra discount if you order two or three vegetarian boxes per week – but not for the other plans.
The four person plan provides 2 meal kits for 4 people per week. There is both an omnivore and carnivore plan, and while you can chose or the other, each plan has set meals. The cost is $95 a week, or $47.50 per kit/$12 per serving.
Green Chef allows you to switch between plans every week, but you cannot pick and choose meal kits between plans.
There are often discounts for your first week. Use this referral link to get 2 meal kits/4 meals free your first week (a better deal than the one I got). I'm currently not a subscriber so I don't get anything for referring you. When I first subscribed, Green Chef allowed me to send a couple of free boxes to other people.
As mentioned, Green Chef offers 7 different plans, each with 5 choices each. I haven't looked carefully into each of the categories – but I did read a number of reviews that say the Keto plan does not actually include keto meals. The ones offered are too high in protein and carbs, and too low in fats. You can see the nutritional values of each meal on the Green Chef website before you order.
Personally, I found the limited choices offered by Green Chef problematic. I had been wanting to subscribe to Green Chef for months, but couldn't find a week where I was happy with three of the five choices in any menu. Of course, I'm a picky eater.
Green Chef is owned by the same company that owns HelloFresh and their meals seem to be pretty similar. I would classify it as modern American cuisine. There are some international flavors, but generally those that have already broken through to the American mainstream. That said, I also read reviews of people complaining the flavors were too strong or exotic so if you're a Sizzler and Mary Callender's sort of diner, this may not be the right company for you.
Green Chef is supposed to be a certified organic company, whatever that means. Most of the products Green Chef sent were organic, but interestingly, the meats were not. And while most of the ingredient seemed to be good quality, I can't say the meats were any better than those that you get from HelloFresh or Every Plate, the company's cheaper choices. I understand that before HelloFresh bought it, Green Chef used to send organic meats, but that's no longer the case.
I was also sort of disappointed that none of the meal kits had really exotic ingredients – one of the reasons I like buying meal kits instead of just ordering the ingredients myself is so that I can use exotic ingredients without having to chase after them or buy enormous quantities that I'll never use again. There were some cool black and white sesame seeds in one kit but everything else were supermarket-available ingredients.
Finally, Green Chef sends you ingredients that are more processed than other kits, for example, the cabbage was already shredded and the pineapple was already cubed. However, they still require you to do further processing (chopping the above), which seems like a waste of time. If they are sending you cut ingredients, why not cut them to the size the cook will need? I was particularly irked that the chicken katsu recipe required me to cut the chicken breasts into two thin cutlets – why not sent cutlets to begin with? Processing chicken is the last thing I want to do in the kitchen.
My box seemed to be in the road for several days. I got a notification that my box was on the way on a Friday, when it wasn't scheduled to arrive until Monday. It did arrive fairly early in the day, and the food was still cold – though perhaps not as cold as that from other services.
Despite its name, Green Chef is not particularly "green" as far as packaging goes. The kits came in an oversize cardboard box (which was OK, as my daughter re-used the cardboard to make dividers for her drawers). The paper lining was curb-side recyclable, which I appreciated, but it came within an unnecessary non-recyclable plastic bag.
Within the box, the items for the meal kits come organized in color-coded paper bags. I like this system because I can put the bags inside the refrigerator (minus any ingredient that really shouldn't be refrigerated) and take them out when it's time to make the kit. I then used the bags to put the food trimmings for curbside compost pickup.
As with other kits, the meats are placed between freezer packs at the bottom of the box. The freezer packs Green Chef uses must be thrown in the garbage, rather than composted our poured down the drain. This, to me, is a huge waste, as other companies manage to use more environmentally friendly alternatives.
Like pretty much every other company, Green Chef uses a lot of plastic bags for its produce and ingredients.
In all, I made three meal kits, including a vegetarian one. I was overall happy with the results, but not static. While the vegetarian dish became my daughter's favorite meal kit so far, the other ones were pretty average as far as meal kits go, and nothing in them justified the premium price.
All in all, Green Chef is not for me. The lack of choices and the less than amazing food simply does not justify the premium prices. It might for someone that is in a specific diet catered by Green Chef, but for the average person there are better and cheaper choices.
This meal kit was a mixed bag. The pork milanese was sort of bland and it really needed acidity. The blistered tomatoes just didn't provide enough of it. It was good with lemon juice, but not extraordinary.
I did like the cheesy mashed potatoes a lot – but what's not to like about cheesy mashed potatoes?
I think my favorite thing about the kit was getting the eggs in their little container. Plus they were cool eggs. I only had to use one, and it had the darkest yolk I've ever seen.
I made this kit for my husband and daughter, and they were both very pleased with it. A burger may seem like a trivial thing to make, but making a new and exciting burger and getting the right amount of fat in the meat – and the right quality meat – is not always easy. Given how expensive burgers have become, even at the regular price of $21 per kit this would have been a good meal, but I got the whole kit for $11 with a promo (make sure to always check on the right hand menu for referral links with promo), which was a super bargain.
BTW, keeping the buns in the oven and then toasting them seems tow ork very well.
There was nothing complicated about this kit for Chicken, Goat Cheese & Spinach Salad with Shallot-Date Chutney, but I really enjoyed it – despite the fact that by the time I made it I was missing a couple of ingredients (my daughter ate the apple meant for the salad as a snack, for instance).
The date-shallot chutney was a new flavor for me, and I appreciated it. I made the kit almost a week after I got the box, and the ingredients were still fresh. All in all, I was very pleased.
My only complaint is that I think the portion was a bit small (or I was particularly hungry).
I paid around $16 for the kit, or $8 a serving – using a "come back" promo I got in e-mail. It was a good price for the quality of the food.
This kit for Pasta Pomodoro with Steak and balsamic cremini mushrooms made me, once again, question what the whole point about Green Chef is. The beef was OK, the mushrooms were good but nothing extraordinary, and the pasta was bland. Most importantly, the meat wasn't organic, it was plain sirloin (which must be the most boring cut out there), and there were not exotic ingredients – which makes me wonder why this kit is over $26. It convinced me, more than anything, that Green Chef is not for me.
Still, my husband did love the mushrooms. But these were plain mushrooms cooked on the pan where the beef had been cooked for 5 minutes and then with balsamic vinegar for a couple of more minutes. Easy enough to do on our own.
This kit for Cauliflower Tacos al Pastor, Slaw with cilantro-lime aïoli and refried black beans was a complete success for my vegan daughter. She actually wants me to make her more of these.
The key to the dish is the sauce, of course, so I imagine I'll have to experiment and find one that my daughter might like. Safeway has a pineapple peach salsa that might fit the bill. The cauliflower for these tacos is basically sauteed for 3-4 minutes with green pepper (which she didn't like so I'll omit next time), you then add some cubed pineapple, 1/4 cup of water and the al pastor sauce, and put it in a 400F oven for 15 minutes.
This kit also taught me how to make mashed black beans – you put the canned beans in a pot with a little bit of water and a teaspoon of vegetable stock concentrate, cook it for five minutes and then mashed.
The cabbage in the kit was supposed to be mixed with a cilantro aioli, but this wasn't vegan, so I had to skip it. The cabbage was sort of blah on its own, but it added some crunch to the tacos.
Again, all in all she liked them and she wants me to make them again.
And I will, because I'm certainly not going to pay $26 to make this meal. I paid $10 with a promo, and for that it was a bargain.


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Richardson Racing can today confirm that it will return to the Porsche Carrera Cup GB for a third year in 2022, with a multi-car entry into the first season for the new 'Type 992' 911 GT3 Cup car.
The Corby-based outfit debuted in the fastest one-make series in the UK back in 2020 with a single car entry for rising star Will Martin, and then expanded to run three cars last year with the addition of Ginetta GT5 champion Josh Malin and experienced racer Will Bratt to the line-up.
As the Carrera Cup GB heads into a new era with the introduction of the latest incarnation of the hugely successful 911 GT3 Cup car, Martin will extend his relationship with the team into a fifth season, having first come onboard mid-way through the 2018 Ginetta Junior Championship campaign.
Having shown his talents in the Ginetta, taking nine wins en-route to a top three championship finish in 2019, Martin wasted little time in getting up to speed despite the huge step up to the Carrera Cup GB the following season.
Grabbing a maiden win at his home circuit of Thruxton, Martin picked up five further podium finishes to end the year fifth in the championship standings and scored two more wins last year in what was one of the most competitive seasons in Carrera Cup GB history to once again grab a top five championship finish.
Martin now heads into his third year in the series aiming to fight for top honours, with his focus very much on a championship challenge.
The second car will be driven by another rising star in the shape of Jack Bartholomew, who makes the move up from the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB for the new season.
Despite being just 23-years-old, Bartholomew brings a wealth of experience from his time in car racing, having graduated from karting into BRDC Formula 4 back in 2015. From there, he went on to finish second in the GT4 class of the British GT Championship the following season before switching to the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia and Middle East series', finishing third in both in 2017.
Title success in the UAE followed in 2018 alongside a second place finish in the Super Trofeo Asia, with a return to European soil in 2019 resulting in a top three finish in the Super Trofeo Europe.
Having been forced to spend 2020 on the sidelines as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bartholomew made a successful return to racing last year in the Sprint Challenge GB, taking two wins en-route to second in the standings and he will now look to carry the impressive form seen in his career to date into his debut Carrera Cup GB season.
The new livery for the Richardson Racing Carrera Cup GB programme will be revealed in due course, with the 2022 season getting underway at Donington Park in late April.
Will Martin, Richardson Racing said:
"I am extremely delighted to have extended my deal with Richardson Racing for another season, and am honoured to be racing with them for a third year in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB.
"We've enjoyed some really strong results over the past two seasons, and I'm looking forward to the challenges that are ahead in 2022 as we make the move to the new 992 Cup Car.
"Having ended the 2021 season on a high with a win in the final round, I hope we can carry that form into the new year and start off strongly when we get to Donington Park. I'm feeling confident about what we can achieve this season and can't wait to get started."
Jack Bartholomew, Richardson Racing said:
"The opportunity to join the Carrera Cup GB this season and to race on the TOCA package full time is a massive one, and I'm looking forward to the challenge. I also can't wait to start working with the team as they have shown they can fight for wins in recent seasons and from the moment we first spoke back in December, it was clear how professional they are.
"It's a bit of a cliche to say you want to win as that is what every driver feels going into a new season, but I'd like to think we can be in the mix towards the front, and a realistic goal for me would be to try and secure a top three finish in both the rookie and overall championships.
"I have no doubt that it will be a tough year and that consistency will be key, but the fact that this is the first season for the 992 car will level the playing field a bit as it is different to the outgoing machine. It'll be interesting to see how quickly drivers and teams get up to speed with the new car, but I can't wait to get out there testing and am looking forward to the first round."
Will Martin Shows Speed And Promise Amid Challenging Weekend At Snetterton


A recent study by Brigham and Women's Hospital and the National Cancer Institute found a direct relationship between levels of physical activity and increased longevity, regardless of body weight. The results revealed that walking briskly for just 11 minutes per day was associated with a gain of 1.8 years of life expectancy, compared with doing no such activity. Walking briskly for 43 minutes a day was associated with a gain of 4.5 years! Facts like this make it hard for almost anyone resisting exercise to find a reasonable excuse.
Anatomy of Exercise for Longevity: A Trainer's Guide to a Long and Healthy Life is the latest addition to a best-selling series and the ideal guide to approaching and maintaining physical activity beginning at any age.
No other exercise book provides such rich detail tailored to the general reader. Approachable, non-judgmental and accessible, it is the ideal resource for anyone who wants to live a long, healthy and active life-- and don't we all?
From The Publisher* A new addition to an innovative series with sales exceeding 250,000.
Review Quote* Guides readers through exercise regimens designed to keep you strong, flexible and heart-healthy for the long haul. Minimal gear is required: a set of dumbbells and hand weights, an exercise ball and resistance bands. Mr. Liebman, who is also a personal trainer, recommends yoga moves and range-of-motion stretches, cardio, resistance and core-strength workouts to build mobility and balance. Detailed instructions and illustrations show how to perform each exercise properly, avoiding strain or injury. For each exercise, the benefits are explained (building endurance or increasing coordination, for instance), the target area revealed (such as back or abdominals) and caveats are issued when a workout isn't advisable because of a particular condition, weakness or injury. He provides the tools to customize workouts to fit your particular goals. His training mantra: It's never too late to start-and it's never too early, either.
Hollis Lance Liebman has been a fitness magazine editor and national bodybuilding champion and is currently a fitness trainer for some of Hollywood's elite. Previous books include Anatomy of Exercise for 50+: A Trainer's Guide to Staying Fit Over Fifty. His web site is www.holliswashere.com.


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Celebrating over 160 of years of bringing the country to the city, the Royal Melbourne Show is Victoria's largest showcase of agriculture and is conducted annually by The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV).
Visitors to the Royal Melbourne Show will be entertained with a huge range of all-inclusive, interactive, and fun activities and attractions.
Get up close and see, pat and feed hundreds of farm animals at the Royal Melbourne Show's expansive animal precincts and attractions. Meet and greet adorable baby animals in the Animal Nursery, try your hand at sheep shearing and milking cows in The Farmhouse or visit The Animal Farmyard and see your favourite farm animals roaming their paddocks as they would on the farm.
Taste your way around the Royal Melbourne Show with a diverse offering of award-winning food and drink. The Winning Tastes Pavilion will host some of Melbourne's best eateries and Australia's most acclaimed chefs and producers, while a huge variety of mouth-watering cuisines from around the world will be available in the Woolworths Fresh Food Pavilion.
Your ticket to the Royal Melbourne Show provides hours of all-inclusive entertainment, with demonstrations, stunts and shows from talented performers and amazing animals.
Plus, enjoy the thrills and excitement of carnival rides for all ages, the always popular Showbag Pavilion, and much more.
The Royal Melbourne Show is a smoke-free event.
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Camer�n Econom�a 2000
Econom�a - descripci�n: Because of its oil resources and favorable agricultural conditions, Cameroon has one of the best-endowed primary commodity economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Still, it faces many of the serious problems facing other underdeveloped countries, such as a top-heavy civil service and a generally unfavorable climate for business enterprise. Since 1990, the government has embarked on various IMF and World Bank programs designed to spur business investment, increase efficiency in agriculture, improve trade, and recapitalize the nation's banks. The government, however, has failed to press forward vigorously with these programs. The latest enhanced structural adjustment agreement was signed in October 1997; the parties hope this will prove more successful, yet government mismanagement and corruption remain problems. Inflation has been brought back under control. Progress toward privatization of remaining state industry should support continued economic growth in 2000.
Producto Bruto Interno (PBI): purchasing power parity - $31.5 billion (1999 est.)
PBI - Indice de Incremento real: 5.2% (1999 est.)
PBI - por capital: purchasing power parity - $2,000 (1999 est.)
PBI - Composici�n por Sector:
agriculture: 42%
industry: 22%
services: 36% (1997 est.)
Poblaci�n bajo linea de pobertad: 40% (1984 est.)
Ingreso en casa o porcentage de consumci�n:
lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA%
Indice de Inflaci�n (precios del consumidor): 2.1% (1999 est.)
Fuerza Laboral: NA
Fuerza Laboral - por ocupaci�n: agriculture 70%, industry and commerce 13%, other 17%
Indice de desempleo: 30% (1998 est.)
revenues: $2.23 billion
expenditures: $2.23 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (FY96/97 est.)
Industrias: petroleum production and refining, food processing, light consumer goods, textiles, lumber
Industrial production growth rate: NA%
Electricidad - Producci�n: 3.285 billion kWh (1998)
Electricidad - producci�n por fuente:
fossil fuel: 2.59%
hydro: 97.41%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1998)
Electricidad - consumci�n: 3.055 billion kWh (1998)
Electricidad - exportaciones: 0 kWh (1998)
Electricidad - importaciones: 0 kWh (1998)
Agricultura - productos: coffee, cocoa, cotton, rubber, bananas, oilseed, grains, root starches; livestock; timber
Exportaciones: $2 billion (f.o.b., 1999)
Exporationes - comodidades: crude oil and petroleum products, lumber, cocoa beans, aluminum, coffee, cotton
Exportaciones - socios: Italy 25%, Spain 20%, France 16%, Netherlands 7% (1997 est.)
Importaciones: $1.5 billion (f.o.b., 1999)
Importaciones - comodidades: machines and electrical equipment, transport equipment, fuel, food
Importaciones - socios: France 25%, Nigeria 8%, US 8%, Germany 6% (1997 est.)
Deuda - externa: $11.5 billion (1999 est.)
Ayuda economica - recipiente: $606.1 million (1995); note - France signed two loan agreements totaling $55 million in September 1997, and the Paris Club agreed in October 1997 to reduce the official debt by 50% and to reschedule it on favorable terms with a consolidation of payments due through 2000
Moneda: 1 Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (CFAF) = 100 centimes
Indice de intercambio: Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (CFAF) per US$1 - 647.25 (January 2000), 615.70 (1999), 589.95 (1998), 583.67 (1997), 511.55 (1996), 499.15 (1995)
note: since 1 January 1999, the CFAF is pegged to the euro at a rate of 655.957 CFA francs per euro
A�o Fiscal: 1 July - 30 June