Friday, March 29

Browsing: Cruising Life

Lyman-Morse just announced that they’re building hull number two of the new Hood 35 LM at their factory in Thomaston, Maine. It’s the first of that model to have a flybridge, and it’s scheduled to be launched next spring. The flybridge boat, like the express version in hull number one, was designed by C.W. Hood Yachts in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and the lines are classic. When I first glanced at the rendering I thought of a modern, updated version of a Bertram 31, a Blackfin 32. Like those boats, the Hood 35 LM Flybridge is definitely built for performance. Power comes…

Holterman Shipyard in The Netherlands just launched its new X-Treme 78 Sport, the latest in its cruising yacht series. Powered by twin 1,000-hp Volvo IPS1350 pod drives, the new four-stateroom X-Treme tops out at more than 28 knots. Holterman was founded in 1964 in Meppel, northeast of Amsterdam. Its X-Treme series now has a 54, 62, 78 (Sport and Fly), 90 and 105. They are all meant to be relatively fast, comfortable, cruising motoryachts. The 78 Sport has an all-aluminum, V-shaped hull, designed by Bernd Weel Design. The luxurious interior is by Kitty van der Kamp Design. The design is…

Here’s a sobering report from Freethink.com about how changes in the Loop Current can make this year’s hurricane season even worse than expected: The Atlantic hurricane season started on June 1, and the Gulf of Mexico is already warmer than average. Even more worrying is a current of warm tropical water that is looping unusually far into the Gulf for this time of year, with the power to turn tropical storms into monster hurricanes. It’s called the Loop Current, and it’s the 800-pound gorilla of Gulf hurricane risks. When the Loop Current reaches this far north this early in the hurricane season…

Longreach Catamarans, a relatively new builder near Sydney, Australia, just unveiled its new Longreach 40 that comes with 300-hp Cox diesel outboards and hydrofoils. Longreach already has a 44 and a 58, both designed to offer stability, fuel-efficiency and long range. The new 40 has the same DNA, but with the options of the diesel outboards and hydrofoils for added performance. It is also offering the 40 with more traditional twin 250-hp Yanmar inboard diesels. They produce a top speed of 25 knots and a range of 1,200 nm at 12 knots. Twin Cox 300-hp V-8 diesel outboards boost the…

A humpback whale breached and landed on the bow of a boat off Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Sunday. Chad Hunter, the Plymouth harbormaster, said the incident occurred around 10 a.m. off White Horse Beach. The bow of the boat had some damage, but it was able to return to the boat ramp under its own power. No one was injured. “The boat was in the right place at the wrong time,” Hunter told NBC10 Boston. “This could have been much worse for all involved.” (You can see the station’s pictures above.) The harbormaster actually had crews monitoring the area after a…

A boat caught fire and burned inside the Chickamauga Lock on the Tennessee River on Saturday morning. The two people on board jumped off and were rescued by workers on a construction boat nearby. The lock is about 7 miles above Chattanooga, Tennessee, and a Chattanooga fireboat attacked the flames inside the lock with its deck gun. Then the boat was towed outside the lock, where the fire was extinguished. Operated by the TVA, the lock measures 60 feet by 360 feet and has a drop of 53 feet. The cause of the fire was not immediately determined. The lock…

Some 30,000 gallons of fuel spilled from an oil ship on Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas early Wednesday morning. The spill was at the Old Navy Base in George Town on Great Exuma, the largest island on the Exuma chain, known for its white sand beaches and swimming pigs. Chester Cooper, the Bahamas’ Acting Prime Minister, said the spill occurred as an oil carrier named The Arabian was unloading fuel, and that crew members first saw it at about 4 a.m. The ship was contracted by Sun Oil and was offloading fuel for Bahamas Light and Power at the…

Here’s the latest monthly report from NOAA, with some disturbing news: June’s average global temperature continued 2022’s remarkably warm trend, as both the month and the year so far ranked sixth warmest on record. In addition, global sea ice reached near-record lows last month, with Antarctica seeing its lowest June ice coverage on record, according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). (An iceberg on the Antarctic Peninsula is pictured above.) Here’s a closer look into NOAA’s latest monthly global climate report: Climate by the numbers June 2022 The average global surface (land and ocean) temperature in…

The latest Outback 50, with the company’s unique “infinity deck” aft, just arrived in Miami. Designed by Michael Peters, the new Outback has twin 480-hp Volvo diesels with direct drive that produce a top speed of about 25 knots, while it has a draft of only 3 feet so it can maneuver through the skinny waters of the Bahamas or elsewhere that normally would be off limits to a 50-foot motoryacht. Outback is the result of a collaboration between Peters and Andrew Cilla, the owner of Luke Brown Yachts in Fort Lauderdale and a long-time cruiser. It’s designed for active…

A grandfather drowned when he tried to save his 3-year-old grandson who fell off their boat after it was hit by the wake of a passing boat in Saginaw Bay, Michigan. The tragic accident occurred last Saturday afternoon during a family fishing outing on the bay, which is part of Lake Huron. The grandfather, James G. David, was fishing with his son, 32, and his two grandchildren, 3 and 9, on a 17-foot boat. About 4 in the afternoon, local police got a 911 call from the 9-year-old, saying his little brother had fallen into the water. Police were able…

1 62 63 64 65 66 308