Thursday, March 28

Browsing: Cruising Life

A 60-foot sportfishing boat caught fire Sunday afternoon just off Shooters Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, temporarily closing down the Intracoastal Waterway. Just a day before, two superyachts caught fire on the New River; about 100 firefighters were involved in extinguishing those fires. About 3:30 on Sunday afternoon, officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had just finished a traffic stop near Shooters when they saw smoke coming from the stern of a 60-foot fishing boat. They were able to rescue seven adults, two children and a dog on board just before the entire boat erupted in flames. (See…

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Travis County Sheriff’s Office is urging people to continue practicing safe social distancing when they go out. That includes social distancing on Lake Travis. Over the weekend, KXAN received several reports of dozens of people gathering on the lake in close proximity. Viewers sent in photos and videos of boats parked up against each other in Devil’s Cove. The Travis County Sheriff’s Office says local stay at home orders only make the lake more of an attraction. A viewer sent KXAN these photos, taken on Sunday, overlooking Devil’s Cove on Lake Travis. “Clearly, it’s beautiful weather,”…

A 2010 Tiara 3900 Sovran, on a delivery from Stuart, Florida, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, crashed into a reef off Norwalk, Connecticut, in five-foot seas recently and sank. Officers from the Norwalk Marine Police rescued the two men on board and brought them to shore safely. Greg Mahanna, 54, had just bought the boat, named Mach 3, in Stuart and was bringing it home to Portsmouth. An experienced boater, Mahanna is the former president of the Great Cove Boat Club on the Piscataqua River there. Also on board was Tom Raynor, 61, a delivery captain from York, Maine. The two…

Docking a single-engine boat can be a challenge, as I know from my first-hand experience over many years with my Grand Banks 36. But here are some good tips, and a great video, from Motor Boat & Yachting, to help make it easier. Take a look: Single-engine craft are making a comeback, boosted by lower prices, reduced servicing costs and better fuel economy. However, manoeuvring a single-engine craft takes practice. The Marex 310 Sun Cruiser we borrowed from Wessex Marine for this demonstration has a single Volvo D6 sterndrive. It also has a bow thruster, so whilst it’s perfectly possible…

Here’s an updated guide to what’s open for boating, state by state, from Discover Boating. Click on the link at the bottom of this story to find an interactive map showing all the states, and scroll down for a detailed list, state by state, spelling out what’s open there. Boating During COVID-19: Navigating Local Restrictions & Safe Social Distancing Boating safety is always—always—a critical consideration whenever you push off the dock, but with all the recent issues regarding COVID-19, many people are wondering if boating is considered a safe social distancing practice.  As boaters everywhere do their best to navigate these…

With a new i911 program, the Coast Guard now can use your cell phone to find you if you’re in distress – but only with your permission and only if you have your phone’s Location Services function turned on. The way it works is that if you call the Coast Guard in an emergency, they will ask for your cell phone number and then send you a text message authorizing them to use your phone’s GPS to find you. Your location, using the phone’s GPS information, will be displayed on a screen used by Coast Guard watchstanders. At that point,…

The Coast Guard rescued three people after their boat sank 18 miles east of Cumberland Island, Georgia. It said that the crew on the 54-foot powerboat Bacchus did everything right, and that their actions led to a fast and safe rescue. The rescue started when Coast Guard watchstanders in the Charleston, South Carolina, command center heard a VHF distress call from the Bacchus at 8:18 a.m. on Saturday. The crew said the boat was taking on water and they were moving to a life raft. The crew also activated the boat’s EPIRB, transmitting their exact location. The Coast Guard diverted the…

If you’re looking for another reason to go cruising in Maine this summer, think about exploring the Maine Island Trail, a 375-mile water trail that connects more than 200 wild islands and mainland sites from New Hampshire to Canada. You can visit them individually, or plan a summer-long cruise to stop at them all, and enjoy the best of Down East cruising while you’re at it. Many people’s plans for long-distance cruising have been upset this summer, by a combination of COVID-19 problems and previously announced lock closures for long-delayed maintenance. People planning on cruising the Great Loop, for example,…

If you’re thinking about something new and different for this summer, take a look at the King Hell Attitude 17 sport runabout, a retro-looking wooden vessel with a Harley-Davidson engine and motorcycle seats and handlebars. There’s only one is existence so far, but Chris Ashley, the King Hell’s builder and designer, is more than ready to make some more. Ashely (pictured at top) grew up messing around with boats in his grandparents’ home in Nantucket; he bought his first restoration project, a 1952 Chris-Craft, when he graduated from Cornell. Over the years, working from his home in Harvard, Massachusetts, Ashley…

A 1999 Sea Ray exploded after refueling at a gas dock on the Lake of the Ozarks last Saturday. One person was killed, three were injured, and only quick thinking by other people on the fuel dock and on PWCs in the water kept the tragedy from getting worse. The explosion occurred at 3:58 p.m. at the Bridgeview Marina, when Brent Soloman, 52, the boat’s driver, turned on the engines after refueling. The blast threw two passengers, Lauren Wilken, 37, and Benjamin Dodd, 47, into the water. Soloman himself jumped overboard. A fourth passenger, Shawn Carroll, 53, was missing. The…

1 147 148 149 150 151 308