Cruising Life

Sessa Launches Innovative Fly 68 Gullwing

By Peter Janssen on August 3, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Sessa has launched its innovative, open Fly 68 Gullwing, with original glass doors that fold up from the sides of the salon. If they remind you of the iconic Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing (produced from 1954 to 1963), that’s not an accident. The Sessa gullwings create a large opening in the salon; they fold up and out of the way, providing immediate access to the wide side decks while flooding the salon with light and fresh air. With its raked-back windshield, low, open flybridge, windows all around and enormous sun pad on the foredeck, the new Sessa flagship is a…

“Best & Brightest” New Autopilots

By co_admin on August 3, 2021 Cruising Life, Electronics

Autopilots are becoming almost essential equipment on new cruising boats, but how to choose the right one? To help you out, the Marine Electronics Journal asked manufacturers to single out their Best & Brightest autopilots for review. These are not necessarily the latest models, or those with the most features, but ones that are the most popular or technologically advanced. Here are the replies from Garmin, Simrad, Raymarine, ComNav, Furuno, Octopus, SI-TEX, and B&G: Garmin’s Reactor 40 hydraulic autopilot (pictured at top) keeps you on course at cruising speeds, minimizes heading error, reduces power consumption and more, so you can…

Linssen Launches New 50 Coastal Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on August 2, 2021 Cruising Life

The brand-new Linssen 500GS is the largest open-cockpit boat the Dutch yard has built since it was founded in 1949. Although it was designed for cruising the inland waterways of the Netherlands and France (and anywhere else in Europe), the 500GS would be equally at home in coastal cruises in the U.S. or on the Great Loop. With its air draft of just 10’ 8,” the newest Linssen could easily slide under most of the bridges in Florida and the Southeast. The Linssen has a feature that could appeal to owners in colder climes, as well (not surprising, with its…

SpaceX Alums Build 40-mph Electric Boat

By Peter Janssen on August 2, 2021 Cruising Life

Arc Boat Company, a new high-tech company with heavy duty Silicon Valley funding, is now selling a 24-foot, 40-mph, all-electric boat powered by a 200kWh battery. The company is taking orders for the new Arc One, costing $300,000, with the first boat scheduled for delivery by the end of the year. So far, Arc, based in Los Angeles, has ten employees. All but one of them, CEO Mitch Lee, have worked for SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space exploration company. Lee founded the company with Ryan Cook; they studied mechanical engineering together at Northwestern University, and then went on to work at…

Amphibious Luxury RV Hits 7 Knots in Water

By Peter Janssen on August 2, 2021 Cruising Life

Just in case you’ve ever thought of driving your luxury motorhome into the water, take a look at the amphibious Terra Wind by CAMI that travels 80 mph on land and 7 knots when it’s floating. The Terra Wind is 42’ 6” long with an 8’ 6” beam; it weighs 33,000 pounds, or a bit more than a school bus, and it has a draft of 3’ 5.” It’s driven by a single 330-hp Cat turbo diesel, with an automatic transmission for the road and a marine gearbox for the water. It has two 19-inch bronze props. It comes with…

Boaters Camp Out Waiting for Slip Space

By Peter Janssen on August 1, 2021 Cruising Life

Here’s a sign of the times. Boat owners in Scituate, Massachusetts, on Boston’s South Shore, camped out in their tents next to the harbor master’s office for as long as four nights waiting for a slip to open up there. Boat sales soared during the pandemic, particularly among first-time buyers. Now many of them are discovering the unpleasant truth: They don’t have a place to put them. Across the U.S., last year was a 13-year-high for boat sales (and 9 percent above 2019), according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association. The number of first-time boat buyers rose for the first…

New All-Electric 20m Eegle: “Perfect Coastal Cruiser”

By Peter Janssen on July 28, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The creative, all-electric 20m Eegle trawler-like cruiser is being completed in a yard in the south of France. BYD, the Spanish naval architectural firm that drew the yacht, says that it is “designed to be the perfect coastal cruiser,” combining “the space and comfort of a beach apartment with the effortless mobility and seaworthiness of a highly capable motoryacht.” The new Eegle is 65’ 6” long with a beam of 16’4” and it’s powered by four 150-kW motors to give it a top speed of 20 knots and a range of 80 nm. An optional larger fuel tank and genset…

Inflatable Takacat: Creative, Fun, Tender

By Peter Janssen on July 27, 2021 Cruising Life, Gear

Here’s a fresh idea for a dink or tender or just a fun boat to have around, particularly when space is tight: The New Zealand-made Takacat, a catamaran-style inflatable with an open bow and transom that’s lightweight, compact, versatile and cost effective. The open bow is made for easy boarding from a mothership, or from the water if you’ve been swimming. And the fully removable transom keeps the boat dry, since water can flow out the back, while making it easy to pack the Takacat in two storage bags. Takacats come in six sizes from 8’ 6” to 15 feet…

Coast Guard Rescues 7; See Dramatic Video

By Peter Janssen on July 27, 2021 Cruising Life

Here’s a dramatic video of a Coast Rescue of seven people from a sport fishing boat 69 miles southeast of Cape May, New Jersey, last Sunday afternoon. A Coast Guard helicopter flew all seven back to its base in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The Coast Guard said it received a message at 1:19 p.m. that a 40-foot sport fishing boat, with seven on board, was running into difficulty in four- to six-foot seas and winds gusting to 30 mph. As conditions deteriorated, the crew on the boat activated their EPIRB. The Coast Guard sent a Jayhawk helicopter, a Hercules aircraft…

A Fast Guide to Some Nautical Chart Symbols

By co_admin on July 27, 2021 Cruising Life

Here’s an easy refresher for nautical chart symbols that could help make your next cruise, or landing in an anchorage, a lot safer and easier, all from Skipper Tips. Read on: You look at your nautical chart and see sharks teeth just inside the beach line? What do these mean and how can your best use them to advantage in your chart navigation? Unlock the mystery of land profile chart symbol secrets to boost your skipper-skills sky-high! Choose an anchorage, land a dinghy onto a beach, or make a passage through a coral reef or chain of islands. All of…

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