Cruising Life

Idyll Time Starts New Cruising Season in Alaska

By co_admin on June 14, 2021 Cruising Life

It’s the start of a new season for Jeff and Susie Parker on Idyll Time, their Kadey-Krogen 48 North Sea trawler, in Alaska. Veteran cruisers, the Parkers bought the boat new in 2006, cruised up and down the East Coast, completed the Great Loop, and three years ago shipped it to the Pacific Northwest, where they’ve been cruising ever since. Here’s their new blog posting, with Jeff’s terrific wildlife pictures: After eight days of work getting the boat ready for another season of cruising, we are finally pushing away from the dock for the first cruise of the season. It…

Hodgdon Building Two New Electric-Powered Tenders

By Peter Janssen on June 14, 2021 Cruising Life

Hodgdon, the historic Maine builder, just announced that it’s building new all-electric tenders, on the same hull as its diesel-powered 10.5-meter and 12-meter Venetian line of luxury tenders. The new tenders will use Vita Power’s high-performance powertrains with dual-prop stern drives. The 10.5-meter (about 34 feet) will use a single electric motor and three Lithium-ion batteries. The 12-meter (abut 39 feet) will have twin motors and four batteries. The range for both boats is about 20 to 50 nm, depending on speed and sea conditions. The batteries on both boats can be charged from the mothership, using AC or DC…

Wind Farms Coming for New York Bight

By Peter Janssen on June 13, 2021 Cruising Life

The Biden administration just announced that it’s starting the process of selling leases to develop wind farms in the New York Bight area between Long Island and New Jersey. The Bight is a triangle in the ocean between Montauk Point at the end of Long Island and Cape May at the southern tip of New Jersey. A total of eight leases will be for sale there, in what the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (part of the Interior Department) calls “a priority offshore wind farm.” The area is about 14 miles off the coast of New York and 26 miles…

Whale Swallows Cape Cod Diver, Spits Him Out

By Peter Janssen on June 12, 2021 Cruising Life

A lobster diver in Provincetown, Massachusetts, was swallowed by a humpback whale recently but he survived with just minor injuries. “I was completely inside,” the lobsterman, Michael Packard, 56, told the Cape Cod Times. Packard, a veteran diver from Wellfleet, was on his second dive of the day just before 8 in the morning. He was working from the boat Ja’n J, off Herring Beach Cove. A fleet of other boats were fishing for striped bass nearby. A commercial lobster diver, Packard dove down. When he was about ten feet from the bottom, he said, “All of a sudden, I…

New Zealand Developing Hydrogen-Powered Chase Boats

By Peter Janssen on June 9, 2021 Cruising Life

Team New Zealand just gave a big boost to the development of hydrogen power in recreational boating when it announced it is developing hydrogen-powered foiling chase boats for the next America’s Cup campaign. For years, RIBs have been the standard chase boats for most America’s Cup campaigns. But now Team New Zealand is working with AFCryo, a Christchurch company, to develop a hydrogen chase boat. They just released renderings of a prototype, a radical foiling catamaran with four hydrogen tanks in each hull and electric motors built into the foils and rudder. The hydrogen-powered boats will be built at the…

Riva Making New 68 Based on Iconic Hull

By Peter Janssen on June 8, 2021 Cruising Life

Riva, the iconic Italian builder, just announced that it’s making a new 68 Diable, based on the classic Riva Super America hull. Riva, now part of the Ferretti Group, plans to launch the 68 Diable in September. With Riva’s unmistakable lines, the 68 Diable has three staterooms, all with en suite heads, and a 40-knot top speed from optional 1,650-hp MAN diesels. Standard 1,550-hp MANs produce a cruising speed of 33 knots and a top speed of 37 knots, with a range of 260-nm. The new 68 Diable was drawn by Mauro Michell, the co-founder of Officina Italiana Design, with…

Back Cove Delivers 1,000th Yacht

By Peter Janssen on June 8, 2021 Cruising Life

I remember testing the very first Back Cove, a 29, in Biscayne Bay off Miami, in 2003 with Bentley Collins, the company’s vice president of marketing and sales. I was the editorial director of both Yachting and Motorboating then, and I wrote in my notebook, twice, the words “I like this boat.” So did a lot of other people. Indeed, Back Cove, the sister company to Sabre Yachts, just built its 1,000th boat, a 39O, and it was a long way from the original 29 that I liked so much. The 390 is the fastest and quietest Back Cove yet. Instead of…

Florida’s Manatees Dying in Record Numbers

By Peter Janssen on June 7, 2021 Cruising Life

Florida’s manatees are dying in record numbers, and it seems that some of them are malnourished and even starving. “If this continues through the rest of the year, this is going to be one of the highest mortality years ever,” said Jon Moore, a marine biologist at Florida Atlantic University. A new report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recorded 761 manatee deaths from January 1 to May 28, representing more than 10 percent of the entire manatee population, and more than the total number of deaths for all of last year. Scientists say the total deaths could…

Beneteau Building New GT 45 Express Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on June 7, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Beneteau just announced that it’s building a new GT 45, the newest in its popular line of express cruisers. With larger windows and more sophisticated systems, the new 45 replaces the 46 in Beneteau’s GT model line. The new 45, to be launched in September, has sporty lines, a swept-back windshield and cabin top, and windows all around for visibility and natural light. It has two cabins, with an optional third, and two heads on the lower accommodation deck, which also has much-larger-than-usual windows in the hull sides. Standard power comes from twin 380-hp Volvo diesels, while twin 440-hp IPS600…

New Proposal: 20-Foot Seawall To Protect Miami

By Peter Janssen on June 7, 2021 Cruising Life

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has written the draft of a new proposal calling for a $6 billion, 20-foot-high wall in downtown Miami to protect it from storm surges and rising sea levels. Most of the wall would be inland, separating neighborhoods, but a one-mile stretch would be built in front of the financial section along Brickell Blvd. The proposal is still in its early stages, and any construction is at least five years off. But the idea of a massive sea wall cutting across Biscayne Bay has already drawn some criticism. “The $40 billion in assets you’re trying…

Browsing: Cruising Life