Cruising Life

Prestige Launches New 690S, 31-Knot Sports Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on August 16, 2020 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Prestige Yachts, the French luxury yacht builder, just launched its new 690S cruiser, with sporty looks, a swept-back bridge, and 31-knot Volvo IPS performance. The new 690S is a three-cabin, three-head yacht, with the appealing feature of a private staircase leading to the owner’s stateroom below. The 690S has a low, modern profile, with a raked front windshield; the bridge is situated fairly far aft. The electric sunroof and large windows all around the salon let in a lot of natural light, and long hull side windows on the accommodations deck let in even more light to the staterooms below.…

The New All-Electric Zin Z2R: The Next Tesla?

By Peter Janssen on August 12, 2020 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Is Zin going to be the Tesla of the water? Or, if you’re an early-adapter, will an all-electric runabout from a startup company in Seattle be your next boat? Zin Boats has launched its first vessel, the Z2R, a carbon-fiber 20-footer with head-snapping acceleration but no carbon footprint, fumes, noise or vibration. Piotr Zin, the company’s founder, says it’s perfect as a tender, a second boat, or a picnic boat that you can run up on a beach. Zin himself worked as an industrial designer at BMW and GM before he settled down and moved aboard a houseboat on Seattle’s…

Coast Guard Rescues Two from Sinking Boat Off Bradenton, Florida

By Peter Janssen on August 12, 2020 Cruising Life

The Coast Guard rescued two people after their boat took on water and started to sink about two miles west of Anna Maria Island, off Bradenton, Florida. The boat, a 35-foot sportfisherman named the Last Lap, sank after the rescue. The owner is working with a commercial salvage service for salvage operations. The Coast Guard said its watchstanders in St. Petersburg got an emergency call from the boat saying it was taking on water. The Coast Guard dispatched a 45-foot response boat from its Station Cortez in Bradenton; the Manatee County Sheriff Office marine patrol also sent a boat to help.…

New Dinghy Lift for Outboard-Powered Ranger 27, Cutwater 32

By Peter Janssen on August 11, 2020 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Ranger Tugs and Cutwater Boats have just come up with another good idea – a patent-pending Dinghy Lift. The new Dinghy Lift solves a problem that many people have when cruising on an outboard-powered boat: Where to put the dink? The new Dinghy Lift, created by the engineers at Fluid Motion, the parent company for Ranger and Cutwater, so far is in production and available on Ranger 27s, powered by a single 300-hp Yamaha outboard, and on Cutwater 32s, powered by two 300-Yamaha outboards. You can see it in action in the video below. The Dinghy Lift is made from…

NOAA Update: “Extremely Active” Atlantic Hurricane Season

By Peter Janssen on August 11, 2020 Cruising Life

Was Hurricane Isaias (pictured above) just a warm-up act? A harbinger of things to come? In a new update, NOAA warns that we could have an “extremely active” Atlantic hurricane season this year and it could include as many as 11 major hurricanes. The new forecast comes in NOAA’s annual August update, called the Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook. The previous forecast was published in May. Forecasters with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center say that atmospheric and ocean conditions are ideal for fueling new storms; they warn of a potentially record-setting hurricane season. So far this season, which started June 1, there…

New 56-Knot Taiga Orca All-Electric Jet Ski

By Peter Janssen on August 10, 2020 Cruising Life, Gear

Here’s a new toy for the rest of the summer – and for a lot of summers to come: The Taiga Orca electric jet ski, and it gives a whole new meaning to plug and play. The Orca, made by Taiga Motors in Montreal, is powered by a 180-hp electric motor and a battery with a 20kWh capacity. It has a top speed of 56 knots and a range of 130 nm. After that, you just plug it in and it will charge back to 80 percent capacity in 20 minutes. Then it’s time to go out and play again.…

Volunteers Rescue 45 Dolphins Stranded on Cape Cod

By Peter Janssen on August 10, 2020 Cruising Life

Here’s a heartwarming story from The Cape Cod Times about how a group of volunteers rescued 45 dolphins that were stranded on a beach in Wellfleet: WELLFLEET — When a call came in at 7 a.m. that 45 dolphins were stranded in a stretch of beach in Wellfleet known as The Gut, volunteers from the International Fund for Animal Welfare responded. Almost 50 volunteers were on site by 8 a.m. trying to save the animals. Stacey Hedman, global marketing startegy manager for IFAW, said it wasn’t clear how the dolphins got stranded. “Cape Cod is a hook, and Wellfleet is…

Locks Repaired, Lake Champlain Opens to Cruising Boats

By Peter Janssen on August 10, 2020 Cruising Life, Destinations

The Champlain Locks are finally open, after a long, coronavirus-delayed repair, and the 125-mile long Lake Champlain, one of the most beautiful spots in the U.S., is now accessible for anyone cruising up from New York or coming east along the Erie Canal. Whitehall, the last lock leading to the lake from the Hudson River, just above Albany, opened a few days ago; the repairs originally had been scheduled to be finished by the start of summer, but they were delayed by shutdowns caused by the coronavirus. The good news is that late summer and fall are spectacular times to…

Thom Drew: The Last Lighthouse Keeper

By Peter Janssen on August 6, 2020 Cruising Life

Why a Nova Scotian couple refused to leave their island paradise (From The Globe and Mail) The waters around Mosher Island can be treacherous, and it was Thom Drew’s job to help ships navigate them – until the Coast Guard automated lighthouses like his. He and his wife are still there, living a solitary and hard-working life, and they wouldn’t have it any other way. The sea that thrashes at the rocks along Nova Scotia’s South Shore has claimed hundreds of ships since record keeping began here. On a recent Monday morning, it took one more – Anne Drew’s little…

Couple Hurt in Jetty Crash Sue Driver for $100 Million

By Peter Janssen on August 5, 2020 Cruising Life

Here’s an update on a terrible crash into the Port Everglades Jetty last New Year’s Eve from the Sun-Sentinel: FORT LAUDERDALE — They celebrated her birthday with a late-night cruise through the Intracoastal Waterway on a powerboat dubbed Blue Steel. Nothing too daring or adventurous; they would be out for only a few short hours. They ended up bloodied and confused on a dark jetty near the end of the inlet at Port Everglades. Lauren Silagyi, who was celebrating her 33rd birthday on Dec. 30, fell onto the jagged rocks and ended up with a traumatic brain injury in the…

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