Cruising Life

Riva, the Choice of Stars, Makes a Movie

By Peter Janssen on September 7, 2020 Cruising Life

Riva and the movies. They go together. The iconic Italian boat and the iconic movie stars who’ve owned one. Think Brigitte Bardot (pictured above), Sophia Loren, Grace Kelly, even James Bond, back in the day. Today, George Clooney is said to keep one at his waterfront villa on Lake Como, although when my wife and I cruised by on a Hinckley a few years ago we didn’t see George or the Riva; maybe he was driving it somewhere else on the lake at the time. Now Riva, part of the Ferretti Group, is celebrating Riva’s ties to the movies, by…

CEO Faces Criminal Charges in Lauderdale Crash

By Peter Janssen on September 6, 2020 Cruising Life

The cruise on a brand-new Hydra-Sports Custom 42 started out as a birthday celebration last Dec. 30 in Fort Lauderdale. It ended up as a tragedy, with one of the three passengers on board (the birthday girl) so badly injured that she’s had two major brain surgeries. Now the boat’s owner, the CEO of an insurance holding company, is facing criminal charges in a Florida court. The crash occurred just after midnight on Dec. 31, when Daniel Towriss, 47, drove his HCB 42 into the south jetty of the Port Everglades Inlet at a high speed. On board with him…

Expedition Yacht Cruises 500 Miles Through Arctic

By Peter Janssen on September 2, 2020 Cruising Life

Pioneer, a 151-foot-long expedition yacht with a rich history, just cruised 500 nautical miles through the Canadian Arctic for ten days, a voyage filled with icebergs, narwhals, whales, walruses, bears, and potential peril at every turn. The trip took the boat, designed by Vripack and built by Palmer Johnson in 1996, through the Canadian province of Nunavut, which is the size of western Europe but with only 29,000 people. The voyage started at the top of Baffin Island, basically across from Greenland and the start of the Northwest Passage, and then continued around glaciers and icebergs past Devon Island,…

Williams Gives More Power to Its Minijet 280 Tender

By Peter Janssen on September 1, 2020 Cruising Life

William Jet Tenders just announced that it’s giving more power to its new Minijet 280 tenders, which are designed for boats from 40 feet and up, although they’re fun as a second boat or sport boat in their own right. Starting with the 2021 models, all Minijet 280s will be powered by a 60-hp BRP Rotax engine; previous models have been powered by 45- and 50-hp engines. Top speed with the 50-hp version was 38 mph. Williams also has upgrade kits for existing owners of Minijets who want to move up to the 60-hp version. The move to extra horsepower…

Trends 2020: Solar, Electric, and Hybrid Cruising Boats

By Peter Janssen on August 31, 2020 Cruising Life

To some degree, the future of cruising is tied to the future of alternative energy – of electric, solar, and even hydrogen power or, more likely, some hybrid combination of all three. The movement toward alternative fuel is one result of the worldwide green movement, of the desire to move away from fossil fuel, to address climate change, to adopt new and renewable energy sources. And the advantages of electric- and solar-powered boats are obvious to anyone who’s cruised on them: They have no noise, no smoke, no pollution, no (or very little) vibration, and they leave behind no carbon…

Trends 2020: Ten Top Power Cats

By Peter Janssen on August 30, 2020 Cruising Life

All of a sudden, it seems, power catamarans are taking center stage in the U.S. cruising community. You now see them almost everywhere, and more and more people are talking about them at boat shows, on blogs, and on the docks. It’s easy to see why. Most obvious, is that power cats offer space – a lot of it. The salons resemble living rooms at home, with all the comforts of home. The decks are filled with lounging, dining, entertaining and private areas everywhere – on the foredeck, the aft deck, up on the flybridge, often even down in the…

Trends 2020: More Cruising Boats with Outboard Power

By Peter Janssen on August 30, 2020 Cruising Life

Perhaps the strongest trend in recent years has been the rapid growth of outboard power on cruising boats, even on some of the most traditional brands. The reasons are easy to understand, and they start with performance. Outboard boats are fun, they’re fast and agile, and they’re easy to drive and park. Outboards also are easier to repair, maintain, and ultimately replace, if necessary, than traditional inboards are, and they open up a lot of space inside the boat where inboards used to be. And you don’t have to worry about a lot of through-hulls, shafts, and struts. The HCB…

Woman Thrown Into Air by Explosion at Fuel Dock

By Peter Janssen on August 29, 2020 Cruising Life

Here are some astonishing pictures of a woman being thrown into the air and then into the water in an explosion at a fuel dock in Porto di Ponza, Italy. Incredibly, she was not injured; neither were her husband and his daughter, who jumped off the burning boat into the water, or the fuel dock attendant who was blown off the dock. The pictures come from a security camera at the dock via The Daily Mail. You also can see a video of the explosion in the link below. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8673917/Woman-thrown-air-sea-violent-explosion-motorboat-Italy.html

Yacht Burns, Sinks, Off Costa Smeralda; 17 Safe. See Video

By Peter Janssen on August 26, 2020 Cruising Life

Lady MM, a 155-foot Italian superyacht, caught fire and sank Tuesday morning about 50 miles off Costa Smeralda in Sardinia. All 17 people on board, nine crew and eight passengers, escaped uninjured on a tender. You can see a video of the fire and sinking below. The Italian Coast Guard in Olbia, on the north coast of Sardinia, picked up a distress call at 6 a.m. saying the yacht was on fire. It dispatched two patrol boats and a helicopter. A few hours later, someone from the yacht made an additional radio call, saying everyone had abandoned ship. A Coast…

Seven Best Beach Bars in Antigua

By Peter Janssen on August 25, 2020 Cruising Life

Antigua is one of the most beautiful, and cruiser-friendly, islands in the world. Indeed, serious cruising people have been heading there since Lord Nelson arrived in 1784, at a spot that is now known as Nelson’s Dockyard. Antigua also is home to some 365 beaches, one for every day o the year, as the tourist people point out, and most of them are gorgeous. Just in case you need another reason to go to Antigua, here’s a list of the seven best beach bars you’ll find there, from the people at The Moorings. (The picture above obviously is not on…

Browsing: Cruising Life