Cruising Life

Floating Motors Turns Vintage Cars Into New Boats

By Peter Janssen on September 14, 2021 Cruising Life

Here’s a fun idea for your next boat: A floating vintage car that can be powered with electric motors or outboards to hit a top speed of 55 knots, turning heads all along the way. The car-boats are made by Floating Motors, a new company that’s a joint venture between Jet Capsule and the Lazzarini Design Studio in Rome. The idea is to take a vintage car, remove all its mechanical parts, mount it on a catamaran or hydrofoil base, and then set it loose on the nearest body of water. The company says the result is “a delightful combination…

Zeelander Announces Details of New 48-Footer

By Peter Janssen on September 14, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Zeelander, the Dutch builder of distinctive luxury yachts, just announced details of its new 48-foot Zeelander 5 at the Cannes Yachting Festival. The new yacht, available with three Volvo IPS650 pod drives, will have a top speed of 45 knots. It will be launched next year at the company’s yard in Groot-Ammers, just east of Rotterdam. The Zeelander 5 carries all the lines and amenities that have marked the brand, particularly its gracious curves and generous tumblehome leading to a large sun lounge and swim platform that fold out from the transom. The fit and finish, including elegant woods and…

Blue Game Launches Creative New 72 at Cannes

By Peter Janssen on September 13, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Blue Game just unveiled its hard-to-define new 72 at the Cannes Yachting Festival, where the aggressively styled cruiser with an aft deck that seems to go on forever caught a lot of attention. An Italian builder, Blue Game is a brand of San Lorenzo yachts, and it specializes in non-traditional styling that defies the usual yacht categories. Indeed, the company says the new 72 “is the perfect expression of its cross-over soul that escapes from belonging to a single segment.” The interiors can be customized, but the standard power comes from twin 900-hp Volvo IPS1200 pod drives for easy maneuvering…

Prestige Planning New Luxury Power Cat

By Peter Janssen on September 13, 2021 Cruising Life

Here’s some big news on the power catamaran front. Prestige, the French builder of luxury motoryachts and part of the powerful Groupe Beneteau, will start making luxury power cats. Erwin Bamps, the Prestige general manager, made the announcement at a Groupe Beneteau press conference at the Cannes Yachting Festival. He did not reveal any details, and said he would have much more about the new cat at the Düsseldorf boat show in January. But Bamps did say the cat was an expansion of the company’s “private island concept” and it would be aimed at both the charter and owner-operator markets…

Airline Pilot Commutes To Work on Ranger Tug

By Arnie Hammerman on September 12, 2021 Cruising Life

In the early 1900’s, New York businessmen discovered that the trip from Long Island and Connecticut to Wall Street in Manhattan could be accomplished faster and more luxuriously on a boat. They built some amazing fast commuters or business boats specifically for this purpose. Pan forward a hundred years and boat commuting still works. A resourceful airline pilot based in New York City and flying out of LaGuardia follows the lead of these early commuter boat pioneers by living aboard and commuting to work on a Ranger Tugs R-29. Instead of staying in an expensive and tiny Manhattan apartment and…

Candles Cause Fire that Sinks Yacht: NTSB

By Peter Janssen on September 12, 2021 Cruising Life

Two candles that had been lighted but left unattended in the VIP suite caused a fire that burned and sank the 120-foot yacht Andiamo at its dock in Miami two years ago, according to a new National Safety Transportation Board report. The NTSB also said that the crew’s failure to complete repairs to the yacht’s fire detection and alarm system contributed to the severity of the fire. The yacht, worth $6.3 million, was a loss, and the fire caused an additional $480,000 worth of damage to the marina and other boats. The NTSB reported this series of events: On Dec.…

Wellcraft Plans “Adventure Cruisers” with Outboards

By Peter Janssen on September 8, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Many years ago, when Bob Long was running the company, Wellcraft was a powerhouse. It made everything from Scarabs (think Don Johnson in Miami Vice) to cruising boats to fishing boats. It had a strong dealer network, and a worldwide presence. But times change, and Wellcraft’s fortunes waned. Then Groupe Beneteau bought the company in 2017, and now Wellcraft is poised for a resurgence. Indeed, Wellcraft just announced it will make a series of “adventure cruisers,” starting with a 35-foot Commuter driven by three outboards. It’s scheduled to be launched in the U.S. next spring. Wellcraft sees a trend for…

Cutwater Making New 28 Coupe with Twin Yamahas

By Peter Janssen on September 7, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Cutwater is making a new C-288 Coupe with twin 250-hp Yamaha outboards, a fully equipped pocket cruiser suitable for a couple or a small family. The boat has a 10-foot beam to maximize the cabin area for comfortable living on board and to give the boat stability, while still making it a trailerable vessel. The new 28 has a double-stepped, deep-V hull for performance and efficiency. It comes with a standard bow thruster and electric trim tabs to make maneuvering easy both around the docks and underway. Inside, the forward stateroom has seating around a table that drops down to…

Divers Find Source of Oil Spill in Gulf

By Peter Janssen on September 7, 2021 Cruising Life

Divers have found at least three damaged pipelines on the ocean floor in the Gulf of Mexico about two miles off Port Fourchon, Louisiana, that may be responsible for a 14-mile-long oil slick that appeared there after Hurricane Ida. The spill was so large that NOAA took pictures of it from space. The Coast Guard and other agencies have been monitoring the oil spill and they report that the rate of new oil flowing to the surface has slowed dramatically. Originally, the Coast Guard said it did not know where the oil was coming from. Talos Energy Inc., a Houston-based…

Garmin Launches New Surround View Docking System

By Peter Janssen on September 7, 2021 Cruising Life, Electronics

Garmin just announced that it’s launching a new Surround View Camera System to enhance situational awareness and help with docking. The new system uses six cameras to maximize visibility all around the boat. Garmin says that Surround View gives captains a bird’s-eye, 360-degree view around the boat. This visibility lets captains see what’s around their boat’s perimeter in low-speed maneuvers in real time. The technology uses six 1080p cameras located around the boat: a forward-looking camera in the bow, a rear-looking camera aft, and two side-looking cameras on both the port and starboard sides. It displays a full overhead image…

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