Cruising Life

Boston Whaler 350 Realm Wins Cabin Cruiser Innovation Award at Miami Show. See 15 Other Winners

By Peter Janssen on February 20, 2018 Cruising Life

The new Boston Whaler 350 Realm, powered by three 300-hp Mercury Verado outboards, just won the Innovation Award in the Cabin Cruisers category at the Miami International Boat Show. The annual Innovation Awards, recognizing groundbreaking new consumer boating products, were given in 16 categories by the National Marine Manufacturers Association and Boating Writers International. The 350 Realm, the first in Whaler’s fleet of express models, exemplifies the growing trend toward multi-purpose, outboard-powered boats. It offers lots of comfort for cruising or entertaining and high performance for offshore fishing. A forward console lounge provides a separate seating area, a portside dive…

Reserve a Slip on Line with GPDock, a New Free App

By Peter Janssen on February 19, 2018 Cruising Life

What could be easier, or more reassuring, when you’re cruising somewhere new, than to book your marina slip on line long before you arrive? A new free app, called GPDock, just announced at the Miami show, makes that possible with just a few taps of a finger. You even can pay for fuel when you make the slip reservation. GPDock, which works on iOS and Android devices, is the brainchild of two entrepreneurs, Carlos Courtaux, and Nicolas Posselt, who are both Scuba divers and passionate boaters. Courtaux has a past in the aeronautical industry, but Posselt has worked in hospitality.…

FLIR’s New Quantum 2 Radar is Most Advanced Yet. Uses Colors to Identify Moving Targets

By Peter Janssen on February 19, 2018 Cruising Life, Electronics

FLIR just announced its most advanced and user-friendly solid-state radar yet at the Miami Show. It even color codes targets so you can see whether they’re moving closer, or farther away, from your boat. The new Quantum 2 uses Doppler target identification technology, and works with Raymarine’s award-winning Axiom MFDs. It enhances situational awareness by identifying both moving and static images at long and short range. It even uses color codes to moving targets. Red means the target is getting closer, green means it’s moving farther away. Quantum 2 also has a new Safety Sector feature that highlights and color…

New Fountaine Pajot 37 MY: A Seakindly French Cat with Lots of Smart Space

By Peter Janssen on February 19, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new Fountaine Pajot 37 MY, the company’s entry-level cruiser, is a combination of many things, all of them good. It has all the space inherent in a catamaran design, making for comfortable living and entertaining on board. It has the easy seakeeping ability also inherent in a cat, where the boat’s widely spaced hulls seem to glide over the water. And it has the modern, French esthetic that makes the boat stand out in a harbor anywhere in the world. Fountaine Pajot has a wealth of experience building cats, and the new 37 joins a 40 and a…

Sea Levels Rising Faster than Expected, Scientists Report, and Acceleration Will Continue. See Video

By Peter Janssen on February 14, 2018 Cruising Life

Sea levels have been rising around the world faster than scientists had predicted, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The increase has not been steady; instead, it has accelerated in recent years, and probably will continue to increase the rest of this century. The study, based on data from NASA and European satellites over the past 25 years, shows that ice has been melting in Greenland and the Antarctic at an increasingly fast rate, and could result in the sea level rising by twice the amount scientists had predicted by 2100. Indeed,…

How To Prevent Fires on Board: Some Reminders from the U.S. Power Squadrons

By Peter Janssen on February 13, 2018 Cruising Life

Few things are more frightening, or potentially more lethal, than fires on board. The real point, of course, is to prevent them from starting in the first place. I’ve found that often people who own diesel cruising boats don’t worry about fires that much. But diesel burns just as fast as gasoline does once it’s ignited; it’s just that the temperature at which diesel ignites is higher. And gas is explosive. All that’s to say that everyone would be well advised to take some simple precautions to prevent fires on board, because once they start, they often spread quickly. And…

Drug Smugglers Now Using Low, Fast, Camouflaged Boats, but Are Still Getting Caught

By Peter Janssen on February 13, 2018 Cruising Life

Drug smugglers, it seems, are getting smarter. Well, if not smarter, at least faster. In an effort to thwart increased Coast Guard interdictions of suspected smuggling boats in the Pacific, the cartels are now running drugs in low, fast, camouflaged boats that are hard to pick up on radar, or to catch at sea. Still, a recent joint operation between the U.S. Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard resulted in 23 separate interdictions off Central and South America, capturing 47,000 pounds of cocaine with a street value of $721 million. The U.S. Coast Guard recently released videos and photos…

Avon Launches New All-Electric RIB with Luxurious Touches and a 26-knot Top End

By Peter Janssen on February 13, 2018 Cruising Life

Avon has a great idea for its new RIB: It’s all-electric, powered by an 80-hp Torqueedo Deep Blue Electric Motor paired to jet drives on an all-new hull. For cruisers who might want to use the new 14’ 8” RIB as a dink, this they won’t have to worry about fuel or oil – or making any noise in the harbor, for that matter. The new Avon e-JET has a 32 kWh BMW battery, the same one used in BMW’s i3 Cars. It gives the e-JET up to 90 minutes of running time at a top speed of 26 knots…

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Even After Cruising Thousands of Miles, The Naeves on Their Nordhavn 50 Face Some Challenges

By Peter Janssen on February 12, 2018 Cruising Life

In the fall of 2014, Clayton and Deanna Naeve moved aboard their 1999 Nordhavn 50, Tivoli. Originally from South Dakota, Naeve was starting his retirement. They sold their house, put their remaining things in storage, and began a new life afloat. The Naeves had owned three sailboats before, but Tivoli, powered by a 250-hp Lugger, was their first powerboat, and they headed south, to Florida. They basically have been cruising ever since. Last year, for example, they cruised to Bermuda to watch the America’s Cup, then up to Nova Scotia and Bras D’Or Lake, and even farther north to Newfoundland to…

The Jailed “Codfather” of the New Bedford Fishing Fleet: Pirate or Robin Hood?

By Peter Janssen on February 12, 2018 Cruising Life

Carlos Rafael seemed like an all-American success story. A Portuguese immigrant, he started out cutting fish on the dock in New Bedford, Mass., one of the most important fishing towns in the world ever since the days of Moby Dick. Over the years, Rafael, now 65, put together one of the largest commercial fishing fleets in the U.S., with almost two dozen boats, controlling almost a quarter of New England’s landings of groundfish and scallops. But now he’s in jail, having pleaded guilty to conspiracy, tax evasion, smuggling cash and falsifying his records. And the boats in his fleet, which…

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