Cruising Life

Now Coast Guard Using Your Cell Phone To Find You

By Peter Janssen on May 11, 2020 Cruising Life

With a new i911 program, the Coast Guard now can use your cell phone to find you if you’re in distress – but only with your permission and only if you have your phone’s Location Services function turned on. The way it works is that if you call the Coast Guard in an emergency, they will ask for your cell phone number and then send you a text message authorizing them to use your phone’s GPS to find you. Your location, using the phone’s GPS information, will be displayed on a screen used by Coast Guard watchstanders. At that point,…

Coast Guard Rescues 3 After Boat Sinks Off Georgia

By Peter Janssen on May 11, 2020 Cruising Life

The Coast Guard rescued three people after their boat sank 18 miles east of Cumberland Island, Georgia. It said that the crew on the 54-foot powerboat Bacchus did everything right, and that their actions led to a fast and safe rescue. The rescue started when Coast Guard watchstanders in the Charleston, South Carolina, command center heard a VHF distress call from the Bacchus at 8:18 a.m. on Saturday. The crew said the boat was taking on water and they were moving to a life raft. The crew also activated the boat’s EPIRB, transmitting their exact location. The Coast Guard diverted the…

This Summer’s New Cruising Destination: The Maine Island Trail

By Peter Janssen on May 6, 2020 Cruising Life

If you’re looking for another reason to go cruising in Maine this summer, think about exploring the Maine Island Trail, a 375-mile water trail that connects more than 200 wild islands and mainland sites from New Hampshire to Canada. You can visit them individually, or plan a summer-long cruise to stop at them all, and enjoy the best of Down East cruising while you’re at it. Many people’s plans for long-distance cruising have been upset this summer, by a combination of COVID-19 problems and previously announced lock closures for long-delayed maintenance. People planning on cruising the Great Loop, for example,…

New King Hell 17: A Retro Runabout with an Attitude

By Peter Janssen on May 5, 2020 Cruising Life

If you’re thinking about something new and different for this summer, take a look at the King Hell Attitude 17 sport runabout, a retro-looking wooden vessel with a Harley-Davidson engine and motorcycle seats and handlebars. There’s only one is existence so far, but Chris Ashley, the King Hell’s builder and designer, is more than ready to make some more. Ashely (pictured at top) grew up messing around with boats in his grandparents’ home in Nantucket; he bought his first restoration project, a 1952 Chris-Craft, when he graduated from Cornell. Over the years, working from his home in Harvard, Massachusetts, Ashley…

Sea Ray Explodes at Gas Dock; One Killed, Three Injured

By Peter Janssen on May 5, 2020 Cruising Life

A 1999 Sea Ray exploded after refueling at a gas dock on the Lake of the Ozarks last Saturday. One person was killed, three were injured, and only quick thinking by other people on the fuel dock and on PWCs in the water kept the tragedy from getting worse. The explosion occurred at 3:58 p.m. at the Bridgeview Marina, when Brent Soloman, 52, the boat’s driver, turned on the engines after refueling. The blast threw two passengers, Lauren Wilken, 37, and Benjamin Dodd, 47, into the water. Soloman himself jumped overboard. A fourth passenger, Shawn Carroll, 53, was missing. The…

Ranger, Cutwater Start Webinars To Help Owners During Crisis

By Peter Janssen on May 4, 2020 Cruising Life

Ranger Tugs and Cutwater Boats have started a series of live weekly webinars aimed at helping their owners learn more about their boats during the coronavirus crisis. So far, the webinars, called As the Prop Turns, cover everything from spring maintenance to how to use the boats’ Garmin multifunction display. Hosted by the Ranger and Cutwater customer service teams, the webinars are hosted on Zoom and are free to everyone. You can sign up for them on the link below; you don’t have to purchase anything from Zoom or open an account. You will not be on camera or on…

British Carpenter, 72, Rows Solo Across Atlantic. Sets Records

By Peter Janssen on May 4, 2020 Cruising Life

Graham Walters, a 72-year-old retired British carpenter, just became the oldest person to row across the Atlantic. It took Walters 96 days to row a boat he built in his front garden about 3,000 miles from the Canary Islands to Antigua. And he did it solo. Walters has now rowed across the Atlantic five times, the last in 2007; two times with another person, three by himself. The editor of the Guinness World Records said that Walters now holds three world records: The oldest person to row across the Atlantic solo; the oldest person to row across any ocean solo,…

Palm Beach Boat Show Opens May 14 – On Line

By Peter Janssen on April 29, 2020 Cruising Life, Palm Beach Boat Show

The Palm Beach International Boat Show, rescheduled twice because of the coronavirus pandemic, now will open on Thursday, May 14. And you can watch it from the comfort of your home; it’s all on line. The 35th edition of the increasingly popular show originally was scheduled to run from March 26 through 29 on the West Palm Beach waterfront along Flagler Drive. Then, as virus spread, it was rescheduled from May 14 through 17. Now, Informa Markets, the organizers of the show, have decided to cancel the live event because of safety concerns and move it on line instead. The…

NTSB Faults Duck Boat Company, Coast Guard, in Tragic Sinking

By Peter Janssen on April 29, 2020 Cruising Life

The National Transportation Safety Board just issued a report that spread the blame for the tragic sinking of a duck boat two years ago on a Missouri lake, killing 17 people, among the company that ran the tourist duck boat fleet there, the Coast Guard, and the design of the boat itself. The basic problem, the NTSB said, was that Ripley Entertainment Inc, which ran the Ride the Ducks operation in Branson, Missouri, should have shut down operations after receiving a severe thunderstorm warning before Stretch Duck 7 entered Table Rock Lake with 29 passengers and a crew of two…

New Seafloatech Eco-Friendly Group Mooring Pods

By Peter Janssen on April 27, 2020 Cruising Life

Here’s a new communal mooring system from Seafloatech, a British company, that holds a group of boats in a pod connected to the seabed with a single permanent anchor. It’s designed to be eco-friendly and reduce damage to the seabed in areas with sensitive ecosystems. The way it works is that a central Seafloatech pod is built around the permanent anchor as the base. It’s held in place by an anchor screw to the seafloor. An articulated mast is hooked to the base with a hydraulic piston. It swings from side to side and rises and falls with the tide.…

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