Here’s a fun way to while away a few winter evenings by the fire. Get out your map of North America and follow Matt and Lucie Clairborne’s guide to the Great Loop and all the alternative routes that go with it. Most Loopers take about a year to 15 months to make the full. traditional Great Loop and that is an adventure in itself. But, if you have the time and inclination, that year can easily be expanded to two or three or more. As most readers know, the 6,000-mile long Great Loop circles the eastern third of North America…
Owning a cruising boat can be pricey to start with and then expensive to operate on an on-going basis. This is particularly true for boat owners who cannot afford the time to to get the full benefit of the cruising life. It has no doubt occurred to many of us that running our boats like charter businesses, with income to offset expenses and other benefits of business ownership, would make the whole process more attractive. But, there are wrinkles to running a charter business on your own, not just with the IRS but with handling bookings, deposits, scheduling and more.…
The Back Cove 41, with more than 100 hulls delivered so far, has to be one of the most popular mid-range family cruisers to come out of Maine. With its jaunty sheer, flared bows, attractive cabin with large windows, the 41 is a true Doowneast classic. But even a classic can benefit from a few significant upgrades and tweaks. Thus, the birth of the Back Cove 412, which takes all the great qualities from the first generation and makes them better. First generation 41s are remarkably versatile and many have plied the Intracoastal Waterway, crossed the stream to the Bahamas…
Larry Graff, the founder and president of Aspen Catamarans, is an adventurer at heart and there are no adventure he likes better than leading a flotilla of Aspen cats and their owners to wild and wooly destinations. In this flotilla, that was the west coast of Vancouver Island off British Columbia. Twenty Aspens gathered in Anacortes, Washington and set off for a cruise in company. Aspen cats are designed for long-haul, efficient cruising and can make excellent average speeds. The design that Larry Graff developed is actually a proa configuration. In a proa, one hull is narrower than the other…
At the Ft. Lauderdale International Boats Show, I had the chance to test out the performance of Seakeeper’s Ride stabilization systems aboard a 35 foot performance cruiser capable of hitting 40 knots. We took the boat to government cut and ran it in and out through a nasty washing-machine seaway. The stabilizers are mounted on the stern and make trim adjustments in micro seconds. The effect was dramatic. With the Ride system engaged, the boat leveled off, did not roll or pitch and did not yaw as it moved through the mixed up sea. Turned off, the boat’s motion was…
The 4500-square-mile body of water on the U.S. East Coast known as the Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in North American. It is fed by freshwater rivers at its head and then flushed by oceanic tides in is lower regions. The result is an aquatic stew that can be divided into three distinct regions. Blessed with many sheltered harbors, coves and river mouths, the Chesapeake Is a cruising paradise with historic towns like Annapolis and Oxford to visit and easy access to the Potomac River and the historic attractions around Washington, DC. Famed for it seafood –oysters, shrimp and…
The Northwest Yachts brand has been around for quite a while but when the pandemic hit and their factory in China closed, owner Peter Whiting, who owns Seattle Yachts, moth-balled the line. Following the pandemic, the boat market was strong and the opportunity arose for Whiting to re-launch Northwest and renew its offerings. He turned to legendary trawler and motor yacht designer Steve Seaton who drew three models from 52 to 58 feet. The 55 that was introduced at this year’s Seattle Boat Show. It is hull number one and makes a solid statement about where Whiting and Northwest are…
At boot Dusseldorf in January, YOT power cats, a subsidiary of Catana Catamarans, will introduce their 41-foot sport cruiser with the all-new Mercury Verado V12, 600-horsepower outboards. While the YOT 41was launched at boot 2025, the new version is a technological breakthrough that will set a new standard in performance and maneuverability. The YOT 41 is an open plan cat with comfortable cabins with ensuite heads in each hull. The salon has a full hard top and opens onto the vast cockpit. On both sides of the cockpit, the bulwarks fold down to make balconies that double the area’s acreage.…
Nord Star, a family-owned builder of express cruisers and offshore yachts from 28 to 49 feet, has been building boats in Finland since the 1920s. To date they have launched over 4,000 fiberglass hulls and have a well-earned reputation for offering a wide range of options and customizations. The Nord Star 49 is the company’s flagship and demonstrates the builder’s commitment to an elegant combination of comfort, pilot house styling and performance. In the comfort department, the 49 is a three-cabin, two-head family cruiser with berths for up to seven. All three berths use the boat’s full beam. The salon…
The lines of the new Santasevera 42 Sport, likes those of her 36 and 52-foot sister ships, are aggressive and modern yet somehow evoke the purposeful look of a traditional Mediterranean, plumb-bowed lobster boat. That is by intent since the designers started with a lobster boat in mind and then let their design imaginations run wild. Everything about the 42 Sport coupe could be called shapely. The hull is full forward a quite rounded sections. These are then given faux lapstrakes that give dimension to the high sides. The sheer has a slight reverse curve that melds very neatly with…
And now for something completely different, an all-aluminum workboat style cruiser from Sweden designed and built for “camper cruising.” Camper cruising is a thing in Scandinavia and cold weather vacationing is also a thing since the summers are short and the winters long. Such is the origin of the new Ockelbo 25 Cab from this purveyor of aluminum sport boats. The brand’s boats are built by the aluminum boat specialists at Anytec. The new boat is actually a multi-purpose sport boat with a cabin and the horsepower to top out at 45 knots. It comes with remarkably few amenities. There…
YANMAR Marine International has announced the launch of its VC30 at Metstrade, a third-generation Vessel Control System, with advanced design and functionality, a newly designed precision-engineered joystickand easy installation. YANMAR’s most advanced control system to date, the VC30 is designed to simplify throttle control and docking in one integrated system, whilst making it easier to view data and create a seamless dashboard. The full system is enhanced by a high-quality display and modern design, including alarger, 4.3” 1000cd optically bonded screen, to reduce reflection and improve readability, with NMEA2000 output. The display unit has an auto dimming function for dark…
On September 10, 1982, three passengers aboard a light aircraft crashed into the sea off the Canadian Maritimes. They were able to deploy their life raft and they had with them the earliest version an Emergency Position Indicating Beacon (EPIRB). They switched it on and set in motion the very first COSPAS-SARSAT rescue. They were found and rescued in a matter of hours instead of the days such search and rescue missions took before the satellite rescue system was in place. Since then, more than 50,000 people have been saved from a watery end by EPIRB technology. For those of…
Whether you are looking to add radar to your boat or it’s just time to replace an old and out of date unit, there are a lot of considerations that should go into the decision-making process. To start, you need to be certain that a new or replacement radar is compatible with your existing marine electronics. In other words, will the radar display appear on your multifunction display so you can overlay the images onto the digital chart. For simplicity’s sake, it makes sense to stick with one brand for all electronics. The size of radar you choose depends on…
This is a down-and-dirty topic but fuel-water separators in your boat’s fuel lines are without doubt your first and most important line of defense in the war against contaminated diesel fuel. This is particularly true of you are cruising away from your home fuel dock and taking on diesel of unknown purity. Water in your fuel can come from several sources. First, it may be in the fuel dock’s own tanks that may have a leak or may not be well insulated and thus can sweat condensation in humid conditions Or, your own on-board metal tanks can sweat moisture from…
The coast of British Columbia in the Pacific Northwest has long held an allure for cruisers. Yet, it is hard to get to on your own boat unless you are based in the Seattle or Vancouver areas so the next obvious option is to charter a boat for an adventure cruise Every year, the Bellingham, Washington-based charter company NW Explorations runs a Mother Goose flotilla charter from their base to Desolation Sound and back. It’s a distance of roughly 300 miles. They have a fleet of mostly Grand Banks trawlers that each can take six or more passengers. The adventure…
On France’s north coast, just south of the famous Normandy beaches, lies the Brittany Peninsula which is blessed with dozens of quaint seaside towns and many good harbors. But, the one hitch is the massive tides that rise and fall 20 feet twice a day. In some of the harbors, the mooring fields dry out completely at low tide so your boat has to be able to rest safely on its own bottom. The larger harbors and river mouths have locks for entry and exit which open on regular schedules. So, timing your arrival to make an open lock is…
The Great Loop has many attractions from the coral reefs of Florida’s Dry Tortugas to the wilds of Georgian Bay in Lake Huron, but many a veteran looper will tell you that Canada’s Trent-Severn Waterway is the jewel in crown of the loop experience. And, for those who are not ready to ditch the work-a-day life and spend a year on the Loop, you can still experience the Trent-Severn aboard a self-drive or bareboat charter boat. The French canal charter boat company Le Boat has a base on Lake Ontario and from there you can spend days or weeks discovering…
Picture yourself at the helm of a 40-foot cabin cruiser motoring at 5 knots or so along a narrow canal that is bordered on both sides by towering plane trees whose roots form the natural reinforcement for the canal’s sides. Beyond, there are wide open fields of ripening wheat and sunflowers and huge rolling vineyards. It is hot and the air is still. You are on the Canal du Midi in the south of France and you are very close to heaven. For many a cruiser, a week or two on this ancient and historic canal ranks high on their…
Volvo Penta introduced Joystick steering two decades ago and has continued to pioneer ways to use the combination of engines, thrusters and GPS to help skippers maneuver their boats more easily and precisely. I was involved in the early demonstrations of the Volvo Dynamic Positioning technology back then and was amazed at how well even the prototype held a boat in position and allowed the skipper to turn a boat inside its own length. Last fall at the Ft. Lauderdale show, I got to test the latest Volvo Joystick iteration with the new Assisted Docking Function that allows you to…
At last September’s Cannes Festival of Yachting in the South of France, I attended Beneteau’s annual press event and was introduced to the innovative electric Island Cruising Concept Yacht. Always an innovator, Beneteau had a vision of boating and chartering in the future. Now, Dream Yacht Charters is offering that future in the BVI. Their fleet of sail and power boats now includes the boxy-looking electric hybrid power boats that are like floating beach houses with accommodations for a normal chart6er party The Island Cruising Concept is all about indoor-outdoor living and practical sustainability. The idea is to be close…
In the last few years as I’ve been making offshore trips as crew for my friends, whether back and forth to the Caribbean from New England or across the Atlantic, it seems that a lot of the crew aboard show up with their own hand-held GPSs and an InReach or a satphone. This is a “just-in-case” level of preparation by sailors who have in fact been on boats that were hit by lightning or suffered a battery bank collapse that meant built-in marine electronics were no longer working or reliable. Garmin has long been a leader in hand-held GPSs and…
Volvo Penta has been working on electric propulsion and hybrid diesel-electric systems for a decades. The diesel-electric system coupkled to IPS drives is now available for commercial and recreational use and provides an elegant and proven technology that will allow boats to run silent and carbon free. The electric motor in the system fits between the main engine and the IPS pod and is engaged with a clutch. The motors run off a bank of lithium-ion batteries that can be sized for each boat’s specific tasks and requirements. “A hybrid provides a flexible solution, one that maintains the high efficiency…
Here’s a story from the Moorings about a different way to own and enjoy a cruising power catamaran. Richard and Deborah Heinegger, who haul from Kanasa City, have been life long boat owners and at one point lived aboard and cruised they 76-foot motoryacht. When the big boatwas soild and the couple were reensconced in Kansas City, the hankering to own a boat and reconnect with the cruising life was just too strong to ignore. Their solution? Dive into a yacht ownership program with The Moorings. Here’s their story. For Richard and Deborah Heinegger, life has always been closely tied…
Here’s a tragic story about a young, adventurous woman whose life was cut short. Last week, while moored in the Harbour Island resort and marina in the Bahamas, the crew of the 142-foot motor yacht Far From It was preparing the vessel for a charter when they noticed that their stewardess Paige Bell was missing. A search of the yacht brought tragic results. Bell was found stabbed to death in the engine room and near her was the yacht’s engineer Birgito Munoz with self-inflicted but non-fatal knife wounds. The scene suggested a violent and likely sexual assault. Munoz was arrested,…
We had just dropped the mooring off The Bitter End in Virgin Gorda’s North Sound in the BVI and started the 15-mile passage north to Anagada when a gusty squall swept in from the Atlantic and began pelting us with rain drops the size of grapes. But, there was no panic, no rushing to the mast to drop the mainsail, no frantic rolling up of the headsail. That’s because we were snug at the inside helm of a 45-foot power cat. The squall passed and soon we climbed to the bridge to enjoy the sunlight and the view of the…
The Galley Guys are three couples who often take boating vacations together and then write up their adventures in Canadian Boating magazine. This installment saw them chartering a power cruiser from Le Boat in which to explore the famously beautiful Trent-Severn Waterway. Le Boat charter craft have been designed to be simple to operate and safe for all levels of expertise. They only go six knots and have fenders all around in anticipation of collisions with lock sides, marina pilings and other boats. They have bow and stern thrusters so they are simple to maneuver and will turn in their…