Outdoors: Whatever floats (or sinks) your boat

A nor’easter that hammered Ocean City, Maryland, flooded a Boston Whaler Montauk 150 that had been tethered at canal-side property—despite the brand’s “unsinkable” marketing. The owner, who had planned to haul the boat for the season the following Tuesday, got a text Thursday morning saying it had filled with water. He arrived to find the stern heavy with water, checked the drain plug (still secure), restarted the engine, and used the bilge pump until it discharged the remaining water. Later, the neighbor said the string of storms and inches of rain explained the flooding, while the mystery remained why the bilge pump didn’t activate automatically.