Cruising Life

A Blowout Winterfest Parade in Fort Lauderdale

By Peter Janssen on December 15, 2021 Cruising Life, Destinations

Everybody loves a parade, and it seems that boating people particularly love a boating parade. There are boat parades across the U.S. this holiday season, where owners deck out their vessels with lights, Santas, reindeer and lot of other things to get in the holiday spirit. It’s not surprising that holiday parades are big in Florida; indeed, boat parades started there in the 1920s when owners decorated their boats with candles and cruised the waterways singing Christmas carols. Things have changed a bit since then; the candlepower, and horsepower, have grown. The wattage was most on display last Saturday night…

Life on Board a Stricken Nuclear Sub

By Peter Janssen on December 14, 2021 Cruising Life

The USS Connecticut, the Navy’s 353-foot-long, billion-dollar nuclear sub, arrived unannounced at San Diego earlier this week, completing a 6,000-mile journey on the surface from Guam. The sub, with 15 officers and 101 enlisted personnel, cruised on the surface because it hit an underwater seamount on Oct. 2 in the South China Sea, ripping off the entire forward sonar dome and doing other unspecified damage (although the nuclear reactor was not involved). It could no longer safely travel underwater, and it cruised on the surface for a week to reach a repair facility in Guam. Here’s a story from The…

Canada Delays Luxury Tax on New Boats

By Peter Janssen on December 14, 2021 Cruising Life

There’s some good news from north of the border. The Canadian government just decided to delay carrying out its luxury tax on new boats that was to have started on January 1. Implementation of the tax has been pushed back; details will be released after the start of the year. The delay represents a major victory for the Canadian boating industry, which warned that the tax would lead to millions of dollars in lost sales and the loss of almost 900 full-time jobs. The tax is calculated on 10 percent of the value of the boat, or 20 percent of the…

Rosborough Comes Back with Wild Island 25

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

Over the years, the Rosborough 246 trawler earned a reputation as a reliable, salty, pocket cruiser, popular in the Northeast and even (when a buyer could find one on the brokerage market) on the Great Loop. The iconic 246 was made in Nova Scotia by Rosborough Boats, which was founded in 1955 and started out refurbishing commercial fishing schooners into pleasure boats. Built for the treacherous waters of the North Atlantic, Rosboroughs were basic, rugged and not terribly expensive. Rosborough sold the molds to the 246 to Eastern Boats in New Hampshire in 2012, and concentrated on making military and…

Platypus Swordfish: New Semi-Submersible Trimaran

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

Here’s something new from Platypus Craft, a French company: The Platypus Swordfish, a 40-knot, 29’ 5” boat that has a submersible pod so you and half a dozen others can enjoy underwater views anywhere in the world. The boat will be built by a subsidiary of L2 Concepts in Antibes that has worked on other submersible projects. It can be ordered with twin gas outboards, or eco-friendly all-electric power. The Swordfish looks like a trimaran; its central hull is connected to the two outer hulls by arms. But push a button, and the central hull drops 6’ 5” under the…

Aquila Starts New Line of Offshore Cats

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

Aquila Power Catamarans just announced that it’s starting a new line of offshore boats called the Aquila 28 Molokai Power Catamaran and the Aquila 28 Molokai Cuddy Power Catamaran. Aquila says the Molokai name was chosen because the new cats are designed to perform like the boats that cruise in the Pacific among the Hawaiian chain of islands. “Aquila enters the offshore segment with a modern twist on a proven Hawaiian layout by shifting the paradigm of innovative boats and designs,” said Lex Raas, the president of Aquila Catamarans. Until now, Aquila has made power cats from 28 to 70…

Fraser Building Hydrogen-Powered 64-Foot Cat

By Peter Janssen on December 12, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Fraser Yachts is making a new 64-foot luxury catamaran powered by eco-friendly hydrogen fuel cells for virtually unlimited range and sustainable cruising. The new cat, called Aquon, was designed by the Christian Grande studio in Italy, which works on everything from the new Invictus 32 to superyachts, and it will be built at the Latitude Yachts yard in Riva, Latvia, on the Baltic. It is scheduled to be launched in 2023. The cat, made to resemble a pocket superyacht, has almost 700 square feet of solar panels on the flybridge roof. The renewable solar supply will be used to create…

Coast Guard Rescues Ten Crab-Fishing Boats

By Peter Janssen on December 11, 2021 Cruising Life

The Coast Guard has towed at least ten commercial fishing boats across treacherous bars to safety in the Pacific Northwest at the start of the Dungeness crab season. The start of the Dungeness crab season on Dec. 1 coincided with several bar restrictions due to hazardous conditions. When the Coast Guard issues a bar restriction recreational vessels are prohibited from crossing the bar. Commercial fishing vessels can cross the bar, however, if they follow a Coast Guard safety checklist and procedures. At times the Coast Guard will escort commercial vessels back across the bar if they are caught outside in…

Hermes Speedster: Porsche Looks, Electric Power

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

You don’t want to take this retro-looking gentleman’s runabout on the Great Loop, but it sure would be fun to cruise around your local harbor. The Hermes Speedster, made in Greece by the UK-based Seven Seas Yachts, is a state-of-the-art version of a classic 1930s runabout but with lines drawn to resemble the iconic Porsche 356 Speedster from the 1950s. When it was first made, four years ago, the boat was powered by a Rotax engine. Now, in our eco-conscious age, it’s driven by a 100kW electric motor with a 30kWh battery pack. With the Rotax engine, the Hermes topped…

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