Saturday, December 21

Browsing: Cruising Life

This February at the Miami International Boat Show, Aquila will introduce two new coupe models, the 42C and 46C. The two models are the beginning of a whole new coupe-style performance cruiser line with truly innovative hulls. The boats have fairly narrow beams as better performance dictates. The hulls have double chines or steps that reduce wetted surface and improve planning performance. The addition of  foils between the hulls, one forward and one aft helps lift the boats partially out of the water but not clear of it. In combination with the hull shapes, the foils will greatly facilitate rising…

While this isn’t exactly breaking news, it is worthwhile for us to look back to three days in September when boat builder Fluid Motion invited their owners and friends to a huge shindig at Roche Harbor, Washington. Fluid Motion builds Ranger Tugs, Cutwater cruisers and Solara cruisers. They have built hundreds of these models and have owners all over the North America. When the final tally was made, 225 boats and 500 owners and fans joined the rendezvous. This has to be one of the largest builder-customer events in the boating world. This year, the event had a western theme…

This week, the gurus at BoatHowTo.com announced that their new course called Marine Diesel Engine Maintenance was live on their website and ready for attendees. The 11-hour series of seminars is given by Nigel Calder and Dr. Jen Athenstadt, the founders of the instructional website  and developers of the courses. The diesel maintenance course is the second in-depth course offered by the website. It follows the two courses on marine electrics, Boat Electrics 101 and Advanced Marine Electrics, which have been attended by more than two thousand boat owners and industry professionals. Nigel Calder will be well known in the…

The Slovenian builder of efficient motor yachts from 39 to 58 feet announced this week that is is offering a new option that will eliminate the need for generators on all of their diesel-powered boats. A genset has been an integral part of traditional diesel technology but Greenline now has a better solution. On all of their models with diesel engines, they now are adding the Responsible Power Pack that includes huge solar arrays and large lithium battery banks that replace the need for a separate generator. When the boat is at anchor, the panels charge the batteries with enough…

While we don’t normally cover yachts of this size, preferring to focus on our core owner-operator readership, but this is an exception in no small part because it comes from the Turkish builder Sirena Yachts. At the Ft. Lauderdale International Boats Show, Sirena’s management team hosted a reception so they could introduce the Sirena 88, which had not been shown in the U.S. before, and launch the design for the Sirena 118. We often think of Sirena as a builder of family cruising boats in the 48 to 68-foot range. These stylish designs with plumb bows and very angular, muscular…

The legendary Italian builder Pardo Yachts celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. To mark the milestone, they introduced a new flagship, the Pardo 75 T-Top. The boat has the builder’s distinctive reverse bow and rounded shape, with sculptured hull chines that run aft to deflect spray. The sheer has a slight reverse curve, another Pardo trademark, that matches up visually with the line of the large T-Top over the cockpit. As the photo illustrates, the 75 has been created as a true waterfront piazza, with a huge lounge forward, an al fresco dining area in the cockpit and a beachfront…

This fall, Cruisers Yachts, which has been building quality American-style pleasure boats in Oconto, Wisconsin for 71 years, introduced a new flybridge model with the 57 Fly family cruiser. The 57 joins the Cantius 60 Fly as the only other flybridge model in the builder’s line. The 57 Fly is a three-cabin, twin-head sport cruiser that will make a spacious floating home for a family that enjoys cruising together. A single cabin has been included for a crew member or skipper. The 57 offers expansive living spaces with a lounge on the fore deck, a large cockpit aft and a…

One of my first stops at the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat show last week was the Palm Beach in-the-water display to see the new and much anticipated Palm Beach 70. The Australian builder of fine Downeast-style cruising boats had made a splash earlier in the year when the company became an official sponsor of the Newport-to-Bermuda Race, all sailboats, and was first to arrive in Bermuda. The 70 needed only 36 hours to cover the 636-mile course. CEO and Chief Designer Mark Richards noted before the race: “I’m very proud to have Palm Beach Motor Yachts sponsoring this prestigious race.…

The Swedish marine engine builder, Volvo Penta, has been working on their Dynamic Positioning technology and the all-new Assisted Docking function for years. Finally, at the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show the company was ready to give real-life demonstratiosn. The first Assisted Docking system in North America is installed on a new MJM M4. The boat was at the 17th Street Boat Basin, where I met up with the Volvo team. I had used Volvo’s Dynamic Positioning technology before, so this was not new. Basically, the technology relies on a highly sensitive GPS receiver with eight antennas that then feeds…

Last Friday, during the Ft. Lauderdale boat show, I had the opportunity to go out on a 37-foot center console powered by twin Mercury Verado 300-horsepower engines.  The boat was equipped the Seakeeper’s new Ride stabilizers, and we were going to put the system to a test in some bouncy water. Seakeeper is well-known for their gyro boat stabilizers that have become increasing popular in the cruising fleet. The gyro systems use heavy flywheels spinning around an axis to create the stabilizing force to hold the boat level, much the way a spinning top is hard to reorient due to…

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