Cruising Life

Maritimo Building New S55 Offshore Sports Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on December 7, 2020 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Maritimo, the highly respected Australian builder, just announced that it is building a new S55 offshore sports sedan that will be ready next year. The new low-profile sedan is designed for long-range adventures and offshore cruising. The new S55 has a contemporary open plan, with a light-filled salon, galley aft, large cockpit for entertaining, and three staterooms with two heads below. It also has a unique expanded hardtop that goes all the way aft over the cockpit and is meant to be used as a utility space for toys or watercraft. You reach it via a ladder from the cockpit…

Beneteau Planning New Gran Turismo 41 Express Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on December 6, 2020 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Beneteau is working on a new Gran Turismo 41 express cruiser, an upgrade of the Gran Turismo 40 that it introduced in 2016. The 40 was not only popular, but it also was named European Powerboat of the Year. The new 41 is more powerful than the 40, and is designed with more entertaining and lounging spaces. It has two cabins and one head below; there also is a lower lounge and a full galley there. But the 41 also will have an upper, outdoor galley on the port side of the cockpit, with a sink, fridge, electric grill and…

New Six-Person Triton Sub Goes Down 3,300 Feet

By Peter Janssen on December 6, 2020 Cruising Life

Triton has just launched its new 3300/6 submarine, and the name gives it all away: The new Triton is certified to go down 3,300 feet under the water, while carrying six passengers. Triton says it’s the highest-capacity, 3,300-feet-deep certified recreational sub in the world. The 3300/6 is designed to be launched from the garage of a megayacht or an expedition yacht, using a standard tender lift. It weighs 24,300 pounds, is 14’’ 9” long, 11’ 8” wide, 7’ 9” high, and it can carry a 1,760-pound payload. The sub can cruise at a 3-knot top speed underwater, and it can…

MBY Names Finalists for Motor Boat Awards

By Peter Janssen on December 5, 2020 Cruising Life

The editors of Motor Boat & Yachting, the British magazine, just announced their list of finalists for their annual Motor Boat Awards. They had to reduce the number of categories because of the COVID-19 pandemic (they test all the boats on the list), so this year there are 29 boats in six categories. The winners will be announced in a virtual ceremony on January 19. Here are the finalists. SPORTBOATS Beneteau Flyer Sundeck Beneteau Flyer 10 (pictured above) Cranchi E26 Hydrolift X-27 SUV Nimbus T8 Saxdor 200 Sport SPORTSCRUISERS UP TO 40 FEET Axopar 37 MK11 Grandezza 37CA Gulf Craft…

Iconic Bimini Big Game Club Opens Again

By Peter Janssen on December 2, 2020 Cruising Life, Destinations

The Big Game Club in Bimini just reopened, one of the most iconic cruising, fishing and diving destinations in the Bahamas, and reachable from South Florida in five or six hours on a trawler, or about two hours on a fast boat. Take a Magnum or an Intrepid, and you can be at the Big Game Club for a relaxed lunch and get back at your dock at Turnberry or Fisher Island long before evening cocktails. (Although all the Big Game Club’s facilities – the marina, restaurants and resort – are now open, you have to abide by the Bahamas’…

New Princess V78: Light-Filled Luxury Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on December 2, 2020 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Princess Yachts has launched its new V78, a contemporary, light-filled family express cruiser that’s designed for an owner-operator and reaches speeds in the mid-30-knot range powered by twin 1,900-hp MAN diesels. The flagship of Princess’ V series of yachts, the new 78 has four staterooms, all with en suite heads, on its lower accommodations deck. The full-beam, midships master is reached by a private staircase from the salon. The salon is filled with natural light all around. The side windows are almost four feet high, and the electric sun roof opens far enough to expose about half the main deck.…

Dive Boat Captain Indicted in 34 Deaths

By Peter Janssen on December 2, 2020 Cruising Life

Federal prosecutors just indicted the captain of the dive boat that caught fire last year off the Southern California coast on 34 counts of manslaughter. The captain, Jerry Boylan, 67, is expected to turn himself in to authorities within the next few weeks. A fast-moving fire broke out at night on the 75-foot dive boat Conception on Sept. 2, 2019, Labor Day Weekend, when it was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, off the coast of Santa Barbara. The boat was on a three-day chartered dive trip, with 33 passengers and six crew on board. All the passengers, and one crew…

New Study: Megalodon Sharks Grew to 60 Feet

By Peter Janssen on December 2, 2020 Cruising Life

If you think today’s great white sharks are bad news, consider the Megalodon shark (above). It lived from 23 to 3 million years ago, and some were as big as 60 feet long and weighed 100 tons. By comparison, Nukumi, the largest great white ever tagged by OCEARCH, the shark research organization, was 17’ 2” long and weighed 3,541 pounds. In recent studies, scientists have learned much more about the Megalodon, particularly after finding fossils in nurseries in northeast Spain. Researchers from the University of Bristol and Swansea University just published a new study, based on 25 Megalodon teeth they…

Panama Posse, with 153 Boats, Starting in Mexico

By Peter Janssen on November 30, 2020 Cruising Life

The popular seven-month, 4,500 nm Panama Posse, a no-schedule, multi-route cruising odyssey from Mexico to Florida, kicks off this week from Barra de Navidad, Mexico. The rally was started in 2017 to promote safe cruising and to help boats navigate the Pacific Coast through the Panama Canal and up to Florida at the start of the cruising season. The first year the rally attracted 83 boats; the second year, 123 boats, and last year it had 178 boats. This year, with many cruisers worried about traveling during the pandemic, 153 boats have signed up. Initially, the rally was almost entirely…

Dramatic Video Shows Spanish Police Chasing Drug Smugglers

By Peter Janssen on November 30, 2020 Cruising Life

The Spanish police arrested five alleged smugglers after a five-hour, 100-nm chase in the Med, taking dramatic video pictures from their helicopter as the men tried to escape, throwing cubes of a white substance, thought to be hashish, into the sea. You can see the video below. “Do you want to see what the chase on the high seas was like?” the police asked in releasing the video. “More than five hours and 100 nautical miles.” The chase started when the National Police in their helicopter saw a 45-foot speedboat, with twin 300-hp outboards, about 80 nm off the coast…

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