Cruising Life

Army Corps Will Close Locks on Illinois Waterway Next Summer

By Peter Janssen on November 11, 2019 Cruising Life

Here’s some bad news for anyone planning for the Great Loop or cruising in the Midwest next summer. Many of the locks along the Illinois Waterway, running from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, will be closed for repairs and no vessels will be allowed through. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates the eight lock and dam sites along the Waterway, and it closed some of them for short periods of time earlier this year. It has announced the dates for major repairs in 2020 and again in 2023, and said that “during the scheduled closures, no vessels will be able…

23 Boats Nominated for European Boat of the Year Awards

By Peter Janssen on November 6, 2019 Cruising Life

Nominations for the European Powerboat of the Year 2020 Awards are in, and they include some names that are familiar to those of us in the U.S. The prestigious awards, which have been given since 2005, are in five categories. The winners, selected by writers and editors of leading European boating magazines, will be announced at a gala ceremony on the opening night of Boot Düsseldorf on January 18. Here are the categories and the nominees. You can see pictures of the boats and brief writeups by clicking on the link at the bottom of this story. Boats Up To…

New Mansion Yacht Sits on Hydraulic Legs, Holds 149 People

By Peter Janssen on November 5, 2019 Cruising Life

The new Mansion Yacht wasn’t the largest boat at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, but it was one that almost everybody was talking about. Part yacht, part houseboat, part New York condo, the Mansion cruises at 5 knots with a 440-hp Cummins diesel and then stays put, resting on four hydraulic 18-foot legs that anchor it to the seafloor and suspend it over the water. Then you can relax with your family and friends in five large staterooms, all with king-sized beds and ensuite designer heads, or you could call everyone on your contact list and invite them over;…

Where To Put the Toys? Buy Another Boat

By Peter Janssen on November 5, 2019 Cruising Life

Most cruising boat owners have a problem with space, particularly space for the dinghy or tender and all the water toys we want to take on board. Where to put them all? Larger boats have aft boat decks as extensions of a flying bridge with cranes, but the rest of us have to find room on the transom, the cabintop, the lazarette, wherever. Here’s a solution: A separate boat. Indeed, Incat Crowther, an Australian company, has developed Hodor, a “Shadow Cat,” as a 217-foot backup boat that carries all the boats and toys that don’t fit on the megayacht mothership.…

Coast Guard: 7 Tips To Keep Safe This Winter

By Peter Janssen on November 4, 2019 Cruising Life

Here are seven tips from the Coast Guard about how to stay safe on the water this winter: Posted by LT Katie Braynard Regardless of the region in which you live, the winter season brings added tips to help you stay safe on the water. With colder air and water temperatures, it’s crucial to be prepared for anything if you happen to be heading out on the water for any activity this winter – boating, kayaking, paddle boarding or even ice fishing and snowmobiling. If you plan to participate in any water activity this winter – know what will keep…

New Porsche-Designed, 35-Knot “Spaceship” Now for Sale

By Peter Janssen on October 29, 2019 Cruising Life

Royal Falcon One, a Porsche-designed, 135-foot, 35-knot “spaceship on the water,” is now for sale. It was launched from the Kockums yard in Sweden earlier this summer, and is now listed by Campers & Nicholsons. The luxury catamaran, with four decks and five staterooms, was built in conjunction with the Royal Falcon Fleet in Singapore; the project took almost a decade. The head-turning, futuristic yacht is filled with large windows, sliding doors and light flowing in from many directions. It has an open sundeck on the upper deck, and an observation lounge forward on the main deck. All told, the…

Idyll Time Ends Season in Alaska, Posts Best Wildlife Photos

By Peter Janssen on October 29, 2019 Cruising Life

It’s the end of the season for Jeff and Susie Parker on Idyll Time, their 48-foot Kadey-Krogen North Sea Trawler. They just hauled the boat in Petersburg, Alaska, and posted their last cruising blog for the year. They also posted their best wildlife pictures, which are a real treat; see them below. The Parkers’ home port is Chattanooga, Tennessee. After they bought Idyll Time new in 2006, they cruised up and down the East Coast, they did the Great Loop, and they spent so much time on the Intracoastal Waterway that Parker said it had become routine. They wanted to…

Cruising Down the Tenn-Tom Waterway on a Nordhavn 59

By Peter Janssen on October 27, 2019 Cruising Life

When we last checked in with Larry and Jamie McCullough on Independence, their Nordhavn 59 Coastal Pilot, they were in Lake Michigan, about halfway through the Great Loop journey they had started last April in Florida. Now they’ve cruised down the Tenn-Tom Waterway, the 253-mile long cut from Pickwick Lake on the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River near Demopolis, Alabama. Before the Tenn-Tom opened in 1985, boats had to continue down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, and then head east across the Gulf of Mexico. The Tenn-Tom basically was a shortcut, saving hundreds of miles. In addition, the…

Popular Panama Posse Fleet Will Leave Mexico in December

By Peter Janssen on October 27, 2019 Cruising Life

The rapidly growing annual Panama Possé, a fleet of some 150 boats, will leave from Mexico on Dec. 5 for a 2,000 nm cruise to Panama. It is timed to pick up after the CUBAR fleet from San Diego ends its own voyage in La Paz. This year will be the third for the Panama Possé, which started with just 83 boats. It now will have power and sail vessels from 27 to 225 feet, and it will make stops in seven countries – Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama. It will start at Marina Puerto…

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