At the Newport Boat international Show on Thursday morning, I ran into Winn Willard, president of Ray Hunt Yacht Design, aboard the new Hunt 56 by DiMillo’s which he and his team designed. While we were admiring this handsome new cruiser, which we have reviewed, Winn mentioned that Lyman Morse was at work building a custom Hunt 70. That pricked my interest, so I wandered over to the Lyman-Morse stand, where they are showing the new Hood LM 42, also recently reviewed, and ran into Drew Lymam, president of LM. Yes, indeed, he is building the new Hunt 70 and…
Browsing: Cruising Life
Last week, the U.S. Coast Guard reported that a 15-year-old boy was rescued from his overturned fishing boat in a capsize that caused the deaths of his two fishing companions. In an interview with ABC News after the rescue, the Coast Guard pilot who found the boy said that he and the rest the crew were on “an emotional roller coaster” as they swept Alaska’s Bering Sea looking for survivors. Lt. Commander Jonathon Resch said, “We are beyond excited and beyond grateful that we found him, and at the same time, we are overwhelmingly remorseful that we didn’t find the…
Next week in Newport Rhode Island, cruising enthusiasts from all over the Northeast will make their annual pilgrimage to the ity by the Sea to attend the Newport International Boat Show. The show has grown in size and importance over the last decade and is now the place for many boat builders to debut their newest models. Here’s a look at nine new cruisers and trawlers that are having their debutant parties in Newport next week: Hunt 56 by DiMillo’s The new Hunt 56 marks the first model introduced under Hunt Yachts by DiMillo’s, pairing the legendary Ray Hunt Deep-V…
You have to hand it to the brand managers and designers at Jeanneau for constantly thinking outside the box. If fact, it seems at times that they don’t know there is a box. The Sea Loft 480 proves the point. And it is informative that in the description of the boat on the Jeanneau website and brochure the concept of “cooking’ is an oft repeated theme. Sure, we all cook when we cruise, but they seem to be inferring that what’s going on here is instead cruising while actually cooking. And why not, the new design was created for families…
The new 800 from the Italian builder Ferretti carries the company’s unmistakable DNA – that unique Italian blend of style and power. At 80 feet, the hull is of a size that carries its lines including the flybridge sweetly and without any jarring visual angles. The actual flybridge is almost invisible from off the boat. Like this generation of Ferretti yachts, the 800 has been dedicated to outdoor living at its best. On the fore deck, the designers have included a spacious sunning area with wide sunbeds. Plus, there is a lounge and a dining table that will seat five…
This is a first for Cruising Odyssey. We have never reviewed a boat from the Finnish builder Grandezza even though they have been building boats for a generation and have dealers around the world. Simply put, they do not show boats at American shows and do not have an American distributor. So here we go. The newest boat in their line of sport cruisers from 25 to 37 feet is the 34 Outboard. This is the same hull used in the 34 inboard but by moving the propulsion aft useful interior spaces have been opened up. Built on Finland’s west…
This year has seen ocean temperature in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans set record levels with select areas reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This increase is causing flora and fauna in both oceans to change traditional patterns and none more so that the great bloom of Sargassum in the Atlantic. Up until 2011, the Atlantic Sargassum bloom was mainly confined to the Sargasso Sea in the middle of the North Atlantic. Small patches of the weed would break off and float into the trade winds that blew them west. But these were occasional patches and few and far between Starting…
As we have reported over the last month, West Marine, America’s largest marine chandlery, filed a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy that will allow it to work with its creditors to reduce debt and to reorganize the company’s finances. How did the company get into this dire situation. Craig Lewisk, editor and publisher of Scuttlebutt Sailing News, is a sailboat owner and a long-time customer at his local West Marine. Here’s his amusing and revealing take on issues that are driving the company toward failure. I insert a thru-hull plug into my Alerion 28 hull when removing the speed/depth transducer, which is…
On July 20, seven days into his second Great Loop speed record attempt, Robert Youens and his co-skipper Steven Hernden called it quits. They departed from Chickasaw, Alabama on July 13 and were making record time, often covering 400 miles a day in their single engine aluminum Jon boat In the first three days, they covered 1,300 miles of the 6,000 they would have to tick off to complete America’s Great Loop. By the fourth, they had outrun the RV that was trailing them with beds for the night and spare fuel. Youens is no stranger to the Great Loop.…
Turkish builder Renda Yachts which is based in the beautiful coastal town of Marmaris, has set for itself a lofty goal: They intend to build yachts for owner operators that deliver mega-yacht style and finish. Their new Renda 62S has a very distinctive and aggressive look with an angular sheer, plumb bow, low black cabin and wide open transom. In a way, with its dark tinted windows, it looks like a boat for the villain of a Jame Bond novel complete with a giant laser to atomize his foes. With aluminum hulls and deck structures, the boats are light and…