Author George Day

Destinations
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Cruising Adventure of a Lifetime to Desolation Sound

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…

Boat Reviews
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YOT Power Cats Introduces their 41 with Twin Mercury Verado 600 Outboards

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.…

Cruising Life
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New Study Sounds Alarm About Potential Failure of the Atlantic’s Ocean Currents

This is a story that Cruising Odyssey has been covering from time to time for the last five years because it relates to how reliant we are on the Atlantic Ocean’s currents to provide our temperate climates in the US, Europe and Scandinavia.  And, that will affect how we use our boats. Based on an exhaustive study of Atlantic clam shells, the new report, published by a team from University of Exeter in the U.K., asserts that the data indicates that the Atlantic’s subpolar gyre is behaving strangely. The gyre delivers warm water to the north and ferries cold water…

Boat Reviews
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Nord Star 49 Flagship Express Cruiser from Finland

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…

Cruising Life
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A Happy Week in France Cruising Brittany’s North Coast

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…

On Watch With Peter Janssen
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An In-Depth Look at Fire Prevention on Our Boats

Several years ago, I got a phone call from our yacht club’s manager in the middle of the day. He was looking for my son’s phone number because, he said, “His boat is on fire on its mooring off the club.” On fire? I called my son and then raced down to the water front and low and behold his 21-footer was engulfed in flames, If you have never seen a fiberglass boat with full fuel tanks burn, it is a terrifying sight. The fired burned through the mooring lines and the flaming hulk began drifting with the wind toward…

Cruising Life
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Dramatic Florida Speedboat Crash Kills Three

Last Saturday, November 29, a 39-foot MTI racing-style power cat flipped on the Caloosahatchee River near Fort Myers, Florida, crashed and killed three of its passengers. A fourth is in critical condition. While official reports have yet to be issued eye witnesses and good Samaritans were near by and soon tried to come to the rescue. One person near the crash said the boat was traveling at 75 to 80 mile-per-hour when the accident occurred. No other boats appear to be involved. Trenton Zamniak, who was nearby when the boat flipped, told Gulf Coast News Now that the boat “nosed up about…

Boat Reviews
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New Santasevera 42 Sport Exudes Italian Style and Craftsmanship

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…

Boat Reviews
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The Ockelbo 25 Cab is a Rough and Tumble Four-Season Cruiser

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…

Cruising Life
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The Christmas Winds in the Bahamas Make Life Afloat Difficult

Hundreds of cruisers migrate to the Bahamas from North America every winter with the fleets basically splitting in two with one gang headed to the Abacos and Marsh Harbour, while the second heads south through the Exumas to Stocking Island and George Town. Veteran cruisers make their crossings of the Gulf Stream and to their Bahamian destinations before December 1 for a very good reason.  The months of December and January are often plagued –and that’s not too harsh a word—by the infamous Christmas Winds. The winds during this period are driven by repeated passing cold fronts that swoop off…

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