Cruising Life

Photo by Will Ricketson

Iconic Shelter Island Runabout: Now with Outboards

By Peter Janssen on May 2, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The iconic Shelter Island 38 Runabout, which got a lot of attention when Billy Joel launched hull number one in 1996, is now being built with outboards. The original boat had twin 415-hp MerCruisers with Bravo 3 drives and counter-rotating props, delivering the “Newport by lunch” speed that Joel wanted. More recent versions have been powered by 370-hp Yanmar diesel sterndrives, topping out at 45 knots. Now, with twin 300-hp Mercury Verados, the top speed is about the same, but the outboards are quiet, and they can be lifted up for running in shallow water. Almost 30 years ago, the…

New Beneteau Antares 42-Foot Flagship

By Peter Janssen on May 1, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The flagship of Beneteau’s Antares fleet, the new 42-foot Antares 12 is a versatile flybridge cruiser that’s easy to like and easy to use. The Antares 12 is a three-cabin, two-head family cruiser, powered by three 300-hp Mercury outboards, with a top speed of 36.8 knots. Two 400-hp Mercury outboards are options. A fingertip joystick control makes slow-speed maneuvering and docking easy. A door next to the helm opens to the starboard side deck, so the captain can move around the boat quickly. All the way aft, a fixed bench seat runs across the transom, and the swim platform is…

“Bank Effect” Causes Crash: NTSB

By Peter Janssen on May 1, 2024 Cruising Life

A pilot’s navigation error and an unexpected “bank effect” caused a 600-foot-long tanker to hit a pier in South Carolina last September, sending a 300-foot section of the pier crashing into the water and cutting deep gashes in the tanker’s bow, according to a new report from the National Transportation Safety Board. The accident occurred on the Cooper River, north of Charleston, just after 4 in the afternoon, when the tanker Bow Triumph was heading outbound on the Joint Base Charleston Channel. The tanker had a beam of 105 feet and a draft of 26 feet. The channel was 600…

Rustler Launches Its First Powerboat

By Peter Janssen on April 30, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Rustler Yachts, a British semi-custom, blue-water sailboat builder with a well-earned reputation for craftsmanship and seamanship, just launched its first powerboat, the elegant Rustler 41. Adrian Jones, the director of Rustler Yachts, said, “We’ve been asked many times if we would build a motorboat by both existing Rustler customers, and those who simply understand our philosophy towards building boats.” The resulting 41, designed by fellow Brit Tony Castro, delivers “comfort, speed and pride of ownership,” according to the company. The 41 carries classic lines with a retro hint and looks that represent a European version of a lobster boat. For…

Pre-Departure Safety Briefing: Boat US

By Peter Janssen on April 30, 2024 Cruising Life

Here’s some great advice from BoatUS about how to brief your crew before you leave the dock. Taking a few minutes for a briefing can go a long way to keeping everyone safe underway: 1. LIFE JACKETS Don’t simply point and tell where they are. Get them out, and make sure everyone has a life jacket that fits, knows how to don it, and either wears it or knows where it’s located if stowed. Explain how inflatable life jackets work, as well as how to orally inflate or manually activate them. Show guests where the throwables (life rings, flotation cushions)…

Lyman-Morse Building New Revel 44S

By Peter Janssen on April 29, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Lyman-Morse Technologies in Thomaston, Maine, is building the first hull of the new Revel 44S, an outboard-powered vessel that’s designed to combine the practicality of a center console with the amenities and comfort of a cruising yacht. Revel is a new company, founded just two years ago, in Charleston, South Carolina. The new Revel 44S is an international effort, with the hull designed by Bill Prince Yacht Design of Port Washington, Wisconsin, and the interior and exterior by Macra Naval Architecture of La Spezia, Italy. A lot of the engineering came from Revel founder and CEO Joshua St. Germain, who…

New Mirrari 55: Pushing the Envelope

By Peter Janssen on April 29, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new 55-foot Mirrari, designed by Timur Bozca, is pushing the envelope a bit. Mirrari is a new brand, and its first boat is now under construction at the Enata Group yard outside Dubai. The new Mirrari, among other things, is marked by a high-tech glass dome over the salon that was inspired by the bone structure of birds. The Enata Group is an international composites manufacturer focusing on sustainable solutions for the aerospace and yachting industries. It made a splash in the international yachting community when it launched the revolutionary 32-foot Foiler Vaduz last year. With four retractable hydrofoils,…

New Channel Opens in Baltimore Harbor

By Peter Janssen on April 25, 2024 Cruising Life

There’s lots of news from Baltimore this week. A new, wide channel that’s 35-feet deep just opened, allowing some commercial ships to leave the harbor for the first time since a container ship hit the Key Bridge on March 26, sending its center span into the channel below. The Army Corps of Engineers removed a huge 56-ton steel section of the bridge, and a massive 200-ton hydraulic claw arrived on a barge from Galveston to remove more. The claw has a 1,000-ton lifting capacity. And the City of Baltimore sued the owners and operators of the Dali, the 984-foot-long container…

New Holterman 54: Heading for the U.S.

By Peter Janssen on April 24, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The Great Loop anyone? The new Holterman Commander 54 is currently in its yard in The Netherlands, but Holterman is opening an office in the U.S. soon. And the Commander 54, with two cabins, two heads, a low bridge clearance and a range of 500 nm at 8.5 knots would certainly seem to be good candidate for cruising the Loop, the ICW, or many other spots in the United States. For his part, Julian van Santen, Holterman’s sales director, said the new Commander 54 “is perfectly suited to the U.S. market and U.S. boating preferences.” The Holterman Shipyard was founded…

True North Building 39 Outboard Express

By Peter Janssen on April 24, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

True North Yachts just announced that its building a new 39 Outboard Express that will be launched this summer. The new 39 is being built in the Catalina factory in Largo, Florida. Catalina has built more than 80,000 sailboats over the past half century. It bought True North five years ago, and is now focused on expanding its market. True North already has a 34-foot outboard boat. The 39 has some of the Down East lines that date to the original True North 38, launched by the Pearson Marine Group in 2001 in Warren, Rhode Island. The first True Norths…

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