Browsing: On Watch

On Watch
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Volvo Unveils New Assisted Docking System

Volvo Penta just introduced its new Assisted Docking system for IPS boats, and it’s designed to overcome the effects of wind and current while docking. Assisted Docking isn’t guaranteed to eliminate all the fear and stress from docking in adverse conditions, but it certainly comes pretty close. Volvo announced the new system at its virtual booth in the Consumer Electronics Show. It first unveiled the self-docking prototype two years ago. Assisted Docking uses software from Volvo’s GPS-based Dynamic Positioning System to work with the IPS fingertip-controlled joystick. The new package includes a “human-machine interface” (or HMI, as Volvo calls it)…

Boat Reviews
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Lyman-Morse Building New Hood 35 Down East Cruiser

Lyman-Morse is building a new Hood 35, named the Hood 35 LM Express Cruiser, and it’s bound to be an instant classic, with simple, elegant, Down East lines and contemporary 38-knot performance from twin 440-hp Yanmar diesels paired with Hamilton waterjets for sporty maneuvering and skinny-water exploring. The 35 is the second collaboration between Lyman-Morse, in Thomaston, Maine, and C.W. Hood, in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Just this fall the companies launched the first C.W. Hood 57, also with Down East lines; it was designed by Chris Hood and Stephens Waring Yacht Design in Belfast, Maine. Hood designed the new 35. Designed…

Cruising Life
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Iridium Launches First World-Wide Marine Distress Service

Iridium just launched the first world-wide, real-time emergency marine distress service. The new Iridium Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) started last week; it is the first immediate response and rescue service that works anywhere in the world, even in the Arctic and Antarctic. At a virtual press conference from its headquarters in McLean, Virginia, Iridium officials said the new service can provide life-saving help to mariners at sea. “This is a historic moment in both the satellite and maritime industries,” said Iridium CEO Matt Desch. “It is not every day that you get to announce the launch of…

Cruising Life
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Seven Tips for Plotting Your Next Cruise

Here are seven tips from Skipper Tips about how to plot your next cruise in advance to make it safer and easier. One tip: Plot waypoints around hazards along the way. Read on: 1. Get Ready to Navigate Now! Make your piloting preparations in advance to save time and effort underway. Complete 90% of navigation plotting in the comfort of your home or apartment. Plot your base sailing courses onto each chart you will use. Highlight dangers, emergency anchorages, and prominent aids to navigation (i.e. lighted aids or those with sound signals). Plot waypoints at the start and finish of…

Destinations
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Silent Yachts Building Solar-Powered Resort in Bahamas

Silent Yachts just announced that will build a solar-powered luxury waterfront resort in Eleuthera, the Bahamas, that also will include the Austrian company’s solar-powered catamarans. The Eleuthera location will include 16 waterfront villas and eight Silent power catamarans. The first of half a dozen other Silent Resorts planned around the world, the Bahamas destination will include a beachside clubhouse, resort pool, restaurant, bar, fitness room, game room, and a spa. Construction will start in 2021. Other possible destinations include Belize, Panama, French Polynesia, Maldives, and Indonesia. “With Silent Resorts, we are creating the world’s first 100-percent solar-powered, luxury adventure cruising…

On Watch
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Fleming Building New 25-knot, Ocean-Crossing 85

Fleming just announced that it’s building an all-new, 25-knot, flagship 85 ocean-crossing cruiser. The company says the goal is to make “the finest possible ocean-going pilothouse motoryacht in every respect.” In Fleming’s case, this is no idle talk. Over the years, Flemings have built up an almost cult following of owners and admirers, an adventuresome group who have cruised their Flemings all over the world. Many, if not all, have been inspired by Tony Fleming’s own stories and videos of cruising on his personal boat, a Fleming 65 named Venture. It’s not every boat company founder who cruises on his…

On Watch
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The Shape of Things To Come?

By now, we all know that one of the fastest-growing trends in boat design in the past few years has been the expansion of usable space on board, particularly in cockpits, swim platforms, and the aft ends of recreational boats. The trend started in megayachts and now has worked its way down to 30- and 40-foot production cruising boats. The idea is to create extra space, and to erase (or at least camouflage) the distinction between the interior and the exterior areas of the boat. We now have “beach clubs” where the transom opens up to a new indoor/outdoor cabin…

On Watch
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After Refit, Billy Joel’s Vendetta Is Up for Sale

Billy Joel’s classic 57-foot commuter yacht Vendetta, launched in 2005, has had a two-plus year refit in Newport Beach, California, and now is up for sale. I have to admit that I have a soft spot in my heart for this boat. I was the editorial director of Yachting at the time, and I went to its launch party on a hot July afternoon at the Derecktors’ Yard in Mamaroneck, New York, and then tested it the next morning with Doug Zurn, the designer, and Gene Pelland, Joel’s full-time captain, taking it out to Joel’s waterfront estate on Centre Island…

Boat Reviews
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New 43-Knot Back Cove 39O Down-East Cruiser

Back Cove just launched its new 39O, and it’s the fastest and quietest Back Cove yet. Indeed, powered by three 400-hp Mercury Verado outboards, the new Maine-built cruiser tops out at 43 knots, and it’s so efficient it has a range of 300 nm at 30 knots, a remarkable performance. It also registers a sound level of just 73 dB(a) at the helm, which means you can talk and listen to your playlist and generally enjoy yourself on a long day’s cruise. (See the boat’s performance numbers at the end of this story.) The 39O is Back Cove’s second outboard…

On Watch
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37-Knot, Porsche-Designed Cat for Sale – Again

Now’s your chance to get a Porsche-designed yacht to go with your Panamera, Cayenne or even an old 911. The 135-foot, 37-knot Royal Falcon One, first launched in the summer of 2019 and listed by Camper & Nicholsons, is on the market again. Campers says it will provide the price for what it calls a spaceship on the water “upon application.” The yacht was built by the Kockums yard in Sweden as part of the Royal Falcon Fleet in Singapore. Porsche Design Studio drew the lines, working with the naval architects Incat Crowther. The entire project took ten years. Porsche…

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