Cruising Life

Orcas Sink Boat Off Portugal

By Peter Janssen on November 9, 2022 Cruising Life

A pod of seven orcas sank a 40-foot French sailboat off Portugal as few days ago by ripping a hole in the hull and swimming off with the rudder. The crew of four had to abandon ship in their life raft. They were rescued by a nearby boat and a Portuguese life-saving vessel. The men said the orcas attacked their boat for about 45 minutes before it sank. They said the orcas circled the boat, named Smousse, and at first just bumped it. They said the orcas then attacked so fiercely that they shook the boat until they heard a…

Top Ten Boat Names from BoatUS

By Peter Janssen on November 8, 2022 Cruising Life

SPRINGFIELD, Va., Nov. 8, 2022 — Now that recreational boating is coming to a close in much of the country, BoatUS takes a look back at the Top 10 boat names ordered this season through its online boat graphics service and provides some commentary. Andiamo: Meaning “let’s go / we go / come on” in Italian, Andiamo remains in the No. 1 spot from last year’s list. It’s also a happy refrain heard from the person behind the helm as they put the throttle down and head to open waters. Osprey: This year marked the premiere of Osprey, having never…

New SiOnyx Nightwave Night-Vision Camera

By Peter Janssen on November 7, 2022 Cruising Life, Electronics

SiOnyx just introduced its innovative Nightwave night vision camera at the recent Lauderdale show. The new Nightwave is an ultra-low-light camera that adds an extra level of safety and situational awareness if you’re navigating at night or in reduced visibility. The new Nightwave uses SiOnyx’s most advanced sensor, the Black Silicon CMOS. It sees well beyond the possibilities of human eyesight and can detect man-sized objects almost 500 feet away in low-light situations. It also has a 44-degree field of view, offering a fairly wide look at any obstacles ahead – another boat, for example, or a channel marker or…

HMY and Two Oceans Launch Outboard Cruisers

By Peter Janssen on November 7, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

HMY Yacht Sales and Two Oceans Marine just announced that they’re developing a new line of luxurious outboard-powered, express cruising boats, starting with a 50- and a 60-footer. HMY is one of the largest yacht brokers and dealers in the U.S., with offices in Florida and South Carolina. Two Oceans is a long-time builder of blue-water catamarans in Cape Town, South Africa. The two companies joined forces last year to introduce a line of power cats to the U.S. The new express cruisers are the ECLIPSE 505 (pictured at top and below) and ECLIPSE 605. They are designed by Michael…

New Pearl 72: Lots of Superyacht Touches

By Peter Janssen on November 7, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Pearl just unveiled its new 72 at the Fort Lauderdale show, with some creative touches inside and out. For the interior, the new Pearl has the equivalent of two master staterooms (so nobody feels like a second-class citizen), while the exterior, by Dixon Yacht Design, has Pearl’s supersized raked windshield, deep cut-outs in the bulwarks to open up the views from the salon, and one long piece of glass that replaces windows in the hull sides. It also has a large garage that is revealed when the transom lifts up. The garage is large enough to hold an 11’ 3”…

Fishing Boat, Container Ship, Collide. 13 Saved

By Peter Janssen on November 2, 2022 Cruising Life

It’s hard to imagine how this happened, but a 115-foot commercial fishing boat collided with a 1,000-foot container ship 63 miles southwest of Chincoteague, Virginia, last Friday and sank. The Coast Guard and two good Samaritan vessels nearby rescued all 13 people (including a child) who had been on the fishing boat. No one was injured on the containership. The Coast Guard reported that its base in Virginia got a Mayday call at 2 a.m. from the fishing trawler Tremont, from Massachusetts, reporting that they were in a collision with the Rita, a container ship flagged in Panama. The captain…

Navico Fathom: Say Goodbye to Gensets

By Peter Janssen on November 1, 2022 Cruising Life, Electronics

Brunswick’s recently formed Navico Group just launched what it calls “the world’s most advanced power system” that could replace generators on powerboats. Navico’s totally new Fathom e-Power System links lithium-ion batteries with the boat’s charging systems, power conversion, distribution, digital switching, and control and monitoring. It ties all the electrical components together, providing house power for communications, entertainment, lighting, audio, air conditioning, heating, gyro stabilizers and appliances. All that linkage means that the boat no longer needs a generator, which takes up space and requires fuel and maintenance. The Fathom system is silent (certainly an advantage in a mooring field…

Cockwells Designs 40-Knot Foiling Electric Tender

By Peter Janssen on November 1, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The striking-looking Alte Volare 12M Hydrofoil Tender is the result of a technical study by the superyacht tender specialists at Cockwells in the UK. So far, the 40-knot, electric limousine tender exists only on paper, in a report presented at the Monaco show last month. But the Alte Volare shows what is possible in the high-performance, foiling sphere right now. Henry Wars, the Cockwells design director, says the new tender combines a “distinctive design with a fully electric drivetrain and retractable foiling technology to create a tender that is efficient and elegant, inside and out.” The forward foil contains the…

New TEMO 1000: Electric Outboard for Tenders

By Peter Janssen on November 1, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The TEMO 1000 is an innovative, lightweight, all-electric outboard that’s made to power tenders and RIBs and small sailboats. It also has a clear appeal. Since it’s powered by a 1,000-watt electric motor (the equivalent of a 3-hp gas outboard), you don’t need to carry a gas tank on board, and there are no noise, fumes or pollution either. The TEMO 1000 consists of a rudder-shaped shaft with the motor at the bottom and a long, thin battery that slides down into it. You don’t need to connect any wires or plug it in; it connects automatically. And its slim…

Sunreef Building New 55 Open Power

By Peter Janssen on October 31, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Sunreef just announced that it’s building a new 55 Open Power, a luxury hybrid catamaran with a blend of speed, stability and comfort. With low-slung, modern, aggressive lines, the Sunreef 55 almost demands that you take a second look. The cabin roof slopes forward to enhance a sense of motion, and the cat is marked by its reverse bows and a slash of windows along the lower hull sides that provide a lot of interior light to the cabins on the accommodations deck below. But it’s when the boat stops that it’s really eye-catching. The bulwarks on both sides of…

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