Cruising Life

The Moorings Building New Flagship 534 Power Cat for Charter

By Peter Janssen on August 13, 2019 Cruising Life

The Moorings is building a four-cabin flagship 534 PC as the latest addition to its worldwide power charter fleet. The new cat, with a draft of just 3’ 2”, will be ready for charters in the summer of 2020. The new 534 is being built by Robertson and Caine in Cape Town, South Africa. Founded in 1991, Robertson and Caine is one of the most important catamaran builders in the world. They also built Leopard cats. The new Moorings 534 is designed for maximum charter comfort. The four cabins, all with en suite heads and showers, also have their own…

New Law Requires Boating Safety Courses in NY State

By Peter Janssen on August 12, 2019 Cruising Life

New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo just signed a law requiring anyone operating a motorboat on the state’s waterways to take an eight-hour boating safety course. The law has a phase-in period, giving boat owners time to comply, that goes to Jan. 1, 2025. The new legislation is called Brianna’s Law, after Brianna Lieneck, of Deer Park, New York (pictured above), who was killed in a boating accident in August, 2005. She and her family were riding home on Great South Bay when a larger powerboat crashed into the side of their boat where Brianna was seating. She was killed,…

New Solaris 48: An Italian Version of a Lobster Boat

By Peter Janssen on August 12, 2019 Cruising Life

Solaris just announced that it will introduce its new 48 Open, a modern Italian version of a traditional Maine lobster boat, at the Cannes Yachting Festival starting Sept. 10. It will be available later in hardtop and flybridge versions. Norberto Ferretti, the former head of the Ferretti Group, helped design the Solaris 48 Open. He said he missed being involved in boat building, and he drew the new Solaris because “I was especially smitten by the lobster boat: a perfect combination of seaworthiness, functionality, technology and safety.” Power for the 48 Open comes from two Volvo IPS packages: Twin 435-hp…

NOAA Raises the Odds for a Stormy Hurricane Season

By Peter Janssen on August 11, 2019 Cruising Life

Here’s some sobering news from NOAA. Its updated prediction for the Atlantic hurricane season, now entering its peak, calls for greater activity than normal. Indeed, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, says the likelihood of above-normal activity is now 45 percent, a major increase from the 30 percent it had predicted in its preliminary outlook in May. The latest prediction calls for as many as 17 named storms (with winds of 39 mph or more). As many as nine of them will become hurricanes (with winds of 74 mph or more), including two to four major hurricanes (with…

Tony Fleming Cruises 1,848 nm Through British Columbia on Venture

By Peter Janssen on August 7, 2019 Cruising Life

Tony Fleming, the founder of Fleming Yachts, is one of the most accomplished cruisers we know. Aside from what he’s done on other boats throughout his career, he’s put 64,000 nm under the keel of Venture, his personal Fleming 65, starting from his homeport in Newport Beach, California, and going up to the Aleutians, down to the Galapagos, through the Panama Canal and all the way up to the St. Lawrence and back down to Annapolis. Fleming has just finished his 15th summer cruise on Venture, deciding to explore the beautiful waters of British Columbia. He started on May 27 in Sidney…

Walt Bueller, 100, and Living On Board for 37 Years

By Peter Janssen on August 6, 2019 Cruising Life

Walt Bueller just turned 100 years old, and he celebrated with a party on his boat, Why Not, a 32-foot Pacemaker, where’s he’s been living for the past 37 years. Bueller’s boat is tied up at the Marina Pacifica in Long Beach, California. He moved on board in 1982, and he plans to stay. “I have salt water in my veins,” he told The Grunion. “This is where I want to be.” Bueller and his family lived in Minnesota until the Great Depression hit, and his father sent him to work on a farm in Northern California. That didn’t work out…

Azimut Building New Verve 47 with Four Merc Racing Outboards

By Peter Janssen on August 6, 2019 Cruising Life

The new Verve 47 isn’t your typical Azimut. Indeed, it’s only Azimut’s second outboard boat, powered by four 450-hp Mercury Racing engines, and it is expected to top out at 45 knots. The Verve 47 builds on the success of the Verve 40, which was launched at the Newport, Rhode Island, boat show in 2016 and was powered by three 350-hp Mercury Verado outboards. In a sense, with the new 47, Azimut is doubling down on outboards, particularly in the American market. Even such traditional American builders as Hinckley, Back Cove and MJM have introduced outboard-powered cruising boats in the…

The Strange Story of the Sinkable Stunt Boat from Jaws

By Peter Janssen on August 6, 2019 Cruising Life

BY JAKE ROSSEN In nautical circles, building a boat that proceeds to sink an astonishing 24 times would be considered a disaster. For the purposes of the crew tasked with filming 1975’s shark thriller Jaws, it meant they had done their job. In an era before computer effects, director Steven Spielberg and production designer Joe Alves wanted their adaptation of the Peter Benchley novel—about a shark that terrorizes the tourist hub of Amity Island—to feel authentic. That meant shooting on location at Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, where they spent five agonizing months putting actors and several malfunctioning mechanical sharks in the…

NTSB Points to Failures in John S. McCain Accident Report

By Peter Janssen on August 6, 2019 Cruising Life

August 5, 2019 by gCaptain The August 2017 collision between the USS John S McCain and a commercial tanker was caused by insufficient training, inadequate bridge operating procedures and a lack of operational oversight, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a Marine Accident Report released today. Ten sailors aboard the John S McCain died and another 48 were injured when the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer collided with the chemical tanker Alnic MC in the Middle Channel passage of the Singapore Strait Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS). There were no injuries sustained by the crew of the tanker. The collision occurred as…

Lia Ditton: Rowing Alone 5,500 nm Across the Pacific

By Peter Janssen on August 5, 2019 Cruising Life

Lia Ditton, 38, wants to be the first woman to row alone and without support across the Pacific Ocean, some 5,500 nm from Choshi, Japan, to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Don’t bet against her. An ocean racer, in sailboats and rowing boats, Ditton already has 150,000 nm under her belt, and she’s racked up a number of firsts. Last month she was in Anacortes, Washington, training on her new boat. Born in London, Ditton studied as an artist, and traveled to India and the Far East to learn how to carve in stone. In Thailand, she answered…

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