Cruising Life

5 Tips for Earth Day from BoatUS

By co_admin on April 13, 2021 Cruising Life

Here’s some solid advice from BoatUS about how to observe Earth Day, April 22. Although a lot of these tips deal with smaller boats, the principles are the same, no matter how big, or how small, your personal vessel may be. The basic idea is that the Earth, and all the water on it, belong to us all. Read on: ANNAPOLIS, Md., April 13, 2021 – Back in 1970 on the first Earth Day, going out boating often meant tolerating polluted waterways. We’ve come a long way since then. Largely gone are the foul-smelling air and unswimmable waters, remnants of…

Yanmar Tests Its First Hydrogen-Powered Boat

By Peter Janssen on April 12, 2021 Cruising Life, Engine Room

Yanmar just completed the first sea trial of its new hydrogen-powered boat, developed with Toyota, off the coast of Oita in Southern Japan. Yanmar says the 40-foot boat is the first to comply with Japan’s safety guidelines for hydrogen fuel-cell vessels. The boat used a marine hydrogen fuel-cell system that incorporates modules from Toyota’s Mirai car, the first mass-produced hydrogen fuel-cell car in the world; these cells have been used in large trucks and Tokyo’s buses for the past five years. The Yanmar boat, weighing 7.9 tons, was driven by a 250kW powertrain using two modules of polymer electrolyte fuel cells…

Classic Huckins, Restored with IPS, Now for Sale

By Peter Janssen on April 12, 2021 Cruising Life

A first cousin to the iconic Second World War PT boats, a 1954, 45-foot Huckins Fairform Flyer, totally restored with 300-hp Volvo Penta IPS pod drives, is now for sale at Yachting Solutions in Rockport, Maine. Yachting Solutions specializes in restoring classic boats, as well as selling new ones. It completed the restoration of the Huckins, named Northern Spy, back in 2012. The boat was the first existing boat to have a factory-authorized repower with IPS drives. The original Huckins, made in the same yard in Jacksonville, Florida, that produced scores of PT boats just a decade earlier, was powered…

New Forecast: More Hurricanes This Season

By Peter Janssen on April 12, 2021 Cruising Life

You’ll have to watch the weather even more closely if you’re cruising on the Atlantic coast later this year. The Atlantic hurricane season will be worse than usual. At least that’s the prediction from the Colorado State University Tropical Meteorology Project, which is considered an expert on these things. The project predicts 17 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes (with winds more than 115 mph) this year. All those are above the 30-year average. “We anticipate that the 2021 Atlantic basic hurricane season will have above-normal activity,” said Dr. Phil Klotzbach, the head of the project. The official…

New Alva 90 Flagship: All-Electric Power Cat

By Peter Janssen on April 11, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Alva Yachts, the fairly new German builder, is making a 90-foot flagship all-electric power cat that has trans-Atlantic range and a cruising speed of 8 to 10 knots. The entire surface of the new Alva 90 is covered with solar body panels; the solar modules have been adapted to the shape of the yacht. They produce 40 kWp; the battery capacity is 240 kWh. The luxurious cat is powered by two 500kW electric drive motors and two 100 kVA generators. A hydrogen fuel cell and storage tank are an option. The yacht also comes in a hybrid diesel-electric option, with…

Tesla Unveils Self-Sustaining Electric Yacht

By Peter Janssen on April 7, 2021 Cruising Life

Tesla just unveiled the design for its self-sustaining, all-electric Model Y yacht, and it represents just about everything you’d expect from the extremely creative and game-changing company. After all, Tesla has already made head-turning inroads in the automotive market and in outer space, so it seems reasonable that it might venture into the marine sphere with something new as well. (See the video below.) Elon Musk started making Tesla electric cars in 2008. This week, Tesla’s market cap is $663.85 billion, equal to that of the nine largest car companies in the world – combined. He founded SpaceX in 2002;…

Torqeedo Making New 2-hp Electric Outboard

By Peter Janssen on April 6, 2021 Cruising Life, Engine Room

Torqeedo is now making a 2-hp electric motor designed to power dinks and tenders and some types of small sailboats and light fishing boats. The new Torqeedo, called the Travel 603, weighs only 34 pounds, including its 500Wh lithium-ion battery, and it costs just $1,999.99. The new outboard is the lightest in Torqeedo’s Travel line, but it has the standard outboard configuration with a tiller and throttle. “Our goal in introducing the Travel 603 is to make it easier for boaters to discover the unique benefits of clean, green propulsion for smaller craft,” said Dr. Ralf Plieninger, the company’s managing…

Cruise in Style on 97-foot Luxury Barge

By Peter Janssen on April 6, 2021 Cruising Life

Here’s a way to travel in style: The 97-foot luxury super-barge named Savvy that was built to cruise the canals and waterways of Europe in luxury and comfort. Savvy is no normal canal barge. It was built by Hakvoort, the Dutch yard specializing in superyachts, and the interior was laid out by H2Design, the British firm that also usually works with large yachts. Most canal barges are about half Savvy’s size. Its steel hull measures out at 97’ 7”, making it one of the largest, if not the largest, of luxury canal barges. It has a slimmed-down beam of just 16’…

New Super Kayak Cat: Inflatable, Stable, Fun

By Peter Janssen on April 6, 2021 Cruising Life, Gear

Here’s something new and fun that you might want to take on your next cruise or just keep in the trunk of your car: The Super Kayak, an inflatable catamaran kayak that weighs just 30 pounds and takes only four minutes to set up or disassemble (see the video below). The brain child of Kirk Kirchev, a London product designer, the Super Kayak is now on Kickstarter, with a planned retail price of about $2,100 before long. It is 12 feet long, 3 feet wide and can carry a maximum load of 220 pounds. The modular craft has two inflatable…

Greenline 48 Fly: All-Electric or Diesel Power

By Peter Janssen on April 6, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The Greenline 48 Fly is a thoroughly modern, family-friendly, hybrid-powered cruiser with one-level living on the main deck and 360-degree views from anywhere in the salon. But what really sets the 48 Fly apart is Greenline’s hybrid drive system, where, with pushing one button, you can shift from electric to diesel power, or back again. So far, the Slovenian builder has produced more than 1,000 yachts with this system, and it’s elegant in its simplicity (see the video below). In the diesel mode, with standard 220-hp Volvos, the boat has a top speed of 17.4 knots; with optional 370-hp Yanmars,…

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