Cruising Life

New Mayflower Plans To Cross Atlantic With No Humans On Board

By Peter Janssen on September 21, 2020 Cruising Life

The Mayflower Autonomous Ship, a joint project by IBM and Promare, was just launched in England, with the goal of becoming the largest totally autonomous ship ever to cross the Atlantic. After six months of testing, it is scheduled to leave Plymouth, UK, next April, and land in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The $1.3 million trimaran will not have any humans on board, or offering any kind of help once it’s underway. IBM’s advanced AI computing systems, helped by 30 sensors and 6 AI cameras, will make all decisions at sea on their own, with no human intervention. The solar-driven ship is…

Brooklin Launches New Version of Hemingway’s Pilar

By Peter Janssen on September 20, 2020 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new Wheeler 38, a recreation of Ernest Hemingway’s famous Pilar, was just launched at the Brooklin Boat Yard in Maine, and now is cruising down to Key West with a top speed of 34 knots. The new boat is named Legend, and it was reverse engineered from the original Pilar by Bill Prince Yacht Design. It was built for the Wheeler Yacht Company at Brooklin with modern technology and creature comforts, including a Seakeeper gyro stabilizer. The original Pilar was built by the Wheeler Shipyard in Coney Island, New York, in 1933. Hemingway paid $7,495 for the boat and had…

Get Ready for Winter: Thorough Advice from BoatUS

By Peter Janssen on September 19, 2020 Cruising Life, Maintenance

Ready or not, winter is coming. For those of us living in the northern part of the country, that means getting our boats ready for snow, cold, and ice. Here’s about the most thorough advice I’ve seen about how to best protect your boat from what’s coming, from BoatUS. You can download an entire PDF with worthwhile advice at the end. It’s that time of year again. The leaves have started to change color, and the nights are getting longer and cooler. Before the mercury dips below freezing, you need to prepare your boat for the coming winter. At its most…

Cruising the Inside Passage on a Fleming 53

By Peter Janssen on September 17, 2020 Cruising Life, Destinations

Here’s a great story, with lots of pictures, from Fleming Yachts, about how Anne and Bill Knorr bought a used Fleming 53 and lived their dream by cruising for 12 weeks and 3,200 nm from Anacortes, Washington, to Glacier Bay, Alaska, and back. Read Anne’s account here: For several years, two long, narrow maps have hung side-by-side in our garage, a colorful illustration of the waterways from Puget Sound to Southeast Alaska depicting the route along the Inside Passage. It has been a long-time dream of my husband and me to motor the entire passage from Anacortes, Washington, to Glacier…

Fall Boat Show Special: New Boats 35 Feet and Under

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

Here’s a look at just some of the new cruising boats, 35 feet and under, that, in normal times, you’d probably see at the fall boat shows this year: RANGER TUGS R-27 It would be hard to find a more user-friendly pocket cruiser than the Ranger Tugs R-27. Its two-cabin, one-head layout is made for cruising with a small family or a few friends; its light-filled salon makes living enjoyable, and its 300-hp Yamaha outboard delivers a 42-mph top speed that gets you where you want to go in a hurry. Ranger Tugs are made by Fluid Motion, in Kent,…

Fall Boat Show Special: Boats 36 to 50 Feet

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

Here’s a look at just some of the new cruising boats, 36 to 50 feet, that, in normal times, you’d probably see at the fall boat shows this year: BRABUS AXOPAR 37 If you thought the original Axopar 37 was cool, take a look at the new version, the BRABUS Shadow 900, and it’s a collaboration between BRABUS, a German company that transforms luxury cars (think Mercedes-AMG) into even higher-end luxury performance vehicles, and Axopar, the innovative builder from Finland. For the Shadow 900, BRABUS starts with the platform for the Axopar 37 and then customizes it. “BRABUS Marine products…

Fall Boat Show Special: Boats 51 Feet and Up

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

Here’s a look at just some of the new cruising boats, 51 feet and up, that, in normal times, you’d probably see at the fall boat shows this year: KROGEN EXPRESS 52 Even with a flying bridge and raised pilothouse, the Krogen Express 52 manages to carry a classic low profile, enhanced by a long, flowing sheer line that emphasizes the boat’s distinctive profile. And the “Express” part of its name is not a misnomer: With twin 480-hp Yanmars the Krogen Express tops out at about 22 knots. Dial back to 8 knots and the boat has a range of…

Lauderdale Show Plans To Keep You Safe

By Peter Janssen on September 14, 2020 Cruising Life, Ft Lauderdale Boat Show

Most boat shows have been cancelled this fall because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Fort Lauderdale show has announced that it will open, as planned, for five days starting Wednesday, Oct. 28. But the show, the largest in-water show in the world, won’t be the same. This year will be the 61st annual boat show in Fort Lauderdale; the show has never been cancelled. Last year, about 100,000 people attended the show; some 1,300 boats were on display. The show is estimated to have a $1.3 billion impact on the state. Last week, the Broward County Commission announced that…

Why Are Orcas Attacking Boats Off Spain?

By Peter Janssen on September 14, 2020 Cruising Life

Orcas, aka killer whales, have attacked several boats off the coasts of Spain and Portugal in the past few months, and marine scientists are trying to figure out why. The black and white orcas, the largest in the dolphin family, are high intelligent social animals. They’re also very powerful; an adult male can grow to be 26 feet long and weigh 10,000 pounds. They often play in the bow waves of boats. But in the past two months several captains of boats off Spain and Portugal have issued distress calls after orcas have damaged their vessels. One attack, off Cape…

Croc Races Boat: See Video

By Peter Janssen on September 12, 2020 Cruising Life

Here’s a fairly frightening story about a crocodile racing next to a powerboat in Australia from republicworld.com. See the video: An incredible footage of a tiny crocodile racing along the speedboat like a dolphin has caught the attention of the internet. Almost 4.5metre long, the saltwater crocodile named ‘Tommy’ was filmed by a North Queensland fisherman on the Bloomfield River who said the little crocodile didn’t seem ‘very happy’. Shared by the page named Gators Daily on Twitter, the 13 seconds footage originally shot by Alec Dunn, shows the miniature reptile pop besides Alec in Queensland’s Cape York, as it dipped and reappeared,…

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