This is an incredible video of how a family of ten realized their motor yacht was starting to sink about seven miles off Egmont Key at the mouth of Tampa Bay. Florida. The captain of a sailboat, only a mile away, heard the Mayday call and went to help. See how this story unfolds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSTX6JLr-Ak&feature=em-subs_digest-vrecs
All across the United States, indeed, all around the world, there are boat shows and there are boat shows. Shows for big boats, shows for small boats, shows for regional boats and shows for different kinds of boats. But nowhere, to my mind, can you find a better show, in a better place, and with more boats (from 15-foot runabouts to 250-foot megayachts) than at the 57th annual Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, which runs from Thursday, Nov. 3 through Monday, Nov. 7. The Lauderdale show (or FLIBS, as it’s called in the industry) is centered, as always, around the…
If you haven’t been to Monhegan Island, about 12 miles off the tip of Port Clyde in mid-coast Maine, go. Well, wait for summer, and then go. This is laid-back Maine at its best, a summer art colony with a terrific hotel overlooking the harbor and walking trails that don’t end. There are no cars, and about 75 people live there year-round. Picture an iconic Maine waterfront scene in your mind and you’ll find it on Monhegan. There is no marina (it’s not that kind of place). Instead, you hail the “harbormaster” when you arrive and he’ll come out in…
You really don’t appreciate how much room there is in the new Fountaine Pajot 37 power cat until you climb aboard. There’s space everywhere – in the clean, wide cockpit, the spacious flying bridge, the super-sized salon, the three cabins below and even more on the bow. When I was on the boat at a recent show, I looked around and counted nine other people there, with room to spare. Not bad for a 37-foot cruising boat. But extra space is only one of the advantages of this latest entry from a highly respected French builder. Performance is another. With…
The Lauderdale show is the first display of the new Marlow 53 Explorer, a fuel-efficient, long-range, state-of-the-art cruiser. For long or short trips, the new Marlow offers the same elegance, comfort and sophisticated engineering as its siblings. David Marlow uses aviation-like standards in the yachts bearing his name, with lots of Kevlar, carbon fiber and modified epoxy, while keeping both the overhead height and the center of gravity low. The new 53 tracks straight with Marlow’s exclusive Strut Keel. The engine room has standing headroom and walkaround access to the twin John Deere diesels. The boat’s salon has a desk…
Nordhavn has just launched its new 60 on the east coast, and the company expects it to be as popular as the 55, a proven world-wide displacement cruiser. In fact, the 60 has almost the same interior as the 55, but with an additional five feet in the cockpit and lazarette to make it easier to enjoy water sports or evening cocktails as the sun goes down. The additional five feet also mean a larger boat deck up top, so there’s more room for a larger tender or more water toys. The extra footage also means a slightly higher speed…
A contemporary, stylish Italian version of a classic trawler, the Azimut 66 Magellano is a four-cabin, four-head cruiser that is designed to bridge the gap between traditional blue-water boats (think Grand Banks or Fleming) and more avant-garde designs. It also has what Azimut calls a “dual-mode” hull, with two chines and a less rounded bottom than previous Azimuts, which means it can run efficiently through all speed ranges. If you want to go slow, the 66 Magellano has a range of 1,000 nm at 9 knots. If you’re in a bit of a hurry, the boat tops out at 23…
The iconic Fort Lauderdale show just got off to a good start, with blue skies, large crowds, and boats, boats and more boats. Indeed, at breakfast just before the show opened, Skip Zimbalist, who runs the show as the head of Show Management, said there were more boats than ever before, including eight over 200 feet, while advance ticket sales were up 20 percent from last year. The Lauderdale show, arguably the largest show in the United States, has seven locations with small boats, big boats, superyachts and all the appropriate toys. Zimbalist noted that a $7 million helicopter landed…
For most of us, it’s that time of year – unless you’re heading for Florida and the Bahamas or Southern California and Catalina. The last cruise is probably over, and you’re scheduling a haulout with your marina any day now. But even before your boat is out of the water, there’s a lot you can do yourself. Here’s one of the better lists I’ve seen about what you can do to make sure your boat makes it through the winter safe and sound and is ready to go next spring. Take a look: look.http://blog.boattrader.com/2016/10/winterizing-boat.html
It’s been 11 years since Brian Calvert left Friday Harbor, Washington, on his Selene 48 Further, heading for Alaska, Mexico and the South Pacific. He’s now in Raja Amput, a remote section of Indonesia, and reports that the boat’s Cummins QSL diesel has 8,049 hours and is still running strong. In fact, all is well except that he broke a stabilizer on a treacherous passage and then had to hire a local bike mechanic to try to fix it. Spoiler alert: It didn’t work. Read more in Brian’s blog here: http://www.furthuradventures.com/blog/2016/10/15/Seven-Year-Report–the-Boat