Cruising Life

Crew Member Killed by Speeding Yacht as He Raises Anchor in Cannes

By Peter Janssen on May 27, 2019 Cruising Life

A 29-year-old British crew member was killed in a freak accident in Cannes when another yacht moving through the anchorage hit the bow of his boat as he was raising the anchor. Emergency medical staff called to the boat tried to resuscitate the crewman but he suffered “severe trauma” and was declared dead. French authorities said the accident occurred about 8 p.m. on the last night of the Cannes film festival. The Minx, an 88-foot Princess motoryacht with nine guests on board (pictured above), was ”anchored and stationery” in the bay. The crew member was starting to raise the anchor.…

New Aquila 36: A User-Friendly, Multi-Purpose Power Cat

By Peter Janssen on May 27, 2019 Cruising Life

The Aquila 36 power catamaran, with two cabins with en suite heads and showers, is a user-friendly, fast, multi-purpose boat that provides a stable platform in a seaway or an anchorage. With optional twin 350-hp Mercury Verado outboards, the Aquila 36 tops out at 42 mph. Aquilas are built by the Sino Eagle Group in China for MarineMax. They are sold to private buyers and are also put into the MarineMax Vacations fleet. You can try one out in a charter in the BVI, or enjoy all the advantages of a virtually carefree cruiser on your own. Indeed, the Aquila…

Forecasts Call for a Normal Hurricane Season, but “It Only Takes One”

By Peter Janssen on May 24, 2019 Cruising Life

From The New York Times By John Schwartz This year’s Atlantic hurricane season should be “near normal,” government forecasters announced on Thursday, with the likelihood of nine to 15 named storms, and two to four major Category 3 hurricanes with winds of 111 miles per hour or greater. Hurricane season officially begins on June 1 and runs through Nov. 30, with the peak coming in August, September and October. This week, a subtropical storm, Andrea, weak and short-lived, slipped in — the fifth year in a row that a storm gained enough strength to warrant a name before the season’s start.…

BoatUS Releases Annual List of Top 10 Boat Names

By Peter Janssen on May 23, 2019 Cruising Life

Aquaholic was the number one boat name SPRINGFIELD, Va., May 23, 2019 – Each year, Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) tallies the most popular boat names. The tradition dates back a quarter century, with the list derived from adding up requests for boat name designs from BoatUS Boat Graphics. Each reveals something about the personality of the vessel’s owner. The 2019 BoatUS Top 10 Boat Names: 1. Aquaholic: After a four-year absence from the Top 10 list, this popular boat name returns. Its appeal is in its intoxicating wordplay about overdoing too much time on the water.…

Summit 54, the New 26-Knot Cruiser from Kadey-Krogen, To Be Launched Later This Year

By Peter Janssen on May 22, 2019 Cruising Life

Summit Motoryachts, the new line of planing cruising boats from Kadey-Krogen, is working on hull number one of its new 54, and plans to launch it later this year. The new Summit 54, powered by twin Cummins QSB6.7 diesels, is expected to top out at 26 knots and have a range of 330 nm at 23 knots. The new Summit line is being built at Asia Harbor Yacht Builders in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where more than 600 Kadey-Krogen full-displacement trawlers have been built over the past 40 years. Kadey-Krogens generally cruise at about 8 knots. Kadey-Krogen will continue to make its…

How To Prepare Your Boat for a Hurricane: Four Great Tips from Boat US

By Peter Janssen on May 21, 2019 Cruising Life

SPRINGFIELD, Va., May 21, 2019 – When a hurricane approaches, recreational boat owners have a big problem. Faced with limited time to protect their homes, and with families to possibly evacuate, what can they do to prepare their boats? The nation’s largest boating advocacy, services and safety group, The Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS), says you only need to look at last year’s hurricane season to find answers. And with the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season beginning June 1, BoatUS has some valuable preparation tips for boat owners. On September 14, 2018, Hurricane Florence lumbered ashore near Wrightsville…

Essex, Connecticut: A Boating-Centric, Historic, Small New England Town

By Peter Janssen on May 21, 2019 Cruising Life

A quintessential New England small town, Essex, Connecticut, six miles up from Long Island Sound on the Connecticut River, is the home of white picket fences, American flags, and a historic past. It also is a boating mecca. Indeed, Essex has more transient slips for boats than it has parking spaces for cars. If you’re heading east or west on the Sound, Essex is easy to get to (just keep an eye out for the well-charted sandbar off the entrance that deterred British warships from entering the river during the War of 1812). Just up the river, past the Saybrook…

6,000 Miles to the Arctic on a C-Dory 22 with twin 40-hp Honda Outboards

By Peter Janssen on May 20, 2019 Cruising Life

From The C-Dory WHEELHOUSE: Some people dream of a cruise around the Mediterranean. Others want to bask in the Jamaican sun while sipping something fruity with an umbrella in it. Not Paul Souders. Not this time, anyway. What started out as a, perhaps, fleeting thought, turned into an adventure that would reward him exponentially. A professional wildlife photographer by trade, Souders dreamed of an excursion that would take him all the way to the Canadian Arctic to capture images of the elusive polar bear in its natural habitat. At this point, Souders had been to over 65 countries shooting the…

15 Top Tenders and RIBs for This Summer

By Peter Janssen on May 20, 2019 Cruising Life

CONNECT WITH US Top 15 Tenders and RIBs Top 15 Tenders and RIBs Here’s a look at some of today’s top Tender and RIB builders and their models. Tougher fabrics, lighter accessories and more powerful engines have continued the trend of making today’s tenders and RIBs more versatile than ever. For some, a RIB is their only vessel, a do-it-all wonder that is easy to operate, gentle around other boats because of the rubber collar, and filled with features (like a head) that make them comfortable for all. Today’s RIBs benefit from outboard motors that are better than ever—cleaner, more…

Was Cabot, the Great White Shark with a Twitter Account, Ever in Long Island Sound? “Hello, Greenwich”

By Peter Janssen on May 20, 2019 Cruising Life

At first, the story was just too good to ignore. Cabot, a ten-foot-long great white shark, had been tracked swimming in Long Island Sound off Greenwich, Connecticut. OCEARCH, the organization that tracks marine life and that had tagged Cabot off Nova Scotia in October, said that Cabot’s tracker had pinged there, and that it was the first time they had traced a shark to the Sound. OCEARCH also created a Twitter account for Cabot, a “sub-adult’ weighing about 533 pounds. “Hello Greenwich,” Cabot Tweeted. “How are you today?” The media frenzy was immediate, and worldwide. The Daily Mail in London…

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