Thursday, September 24

Browsing: Cruising Life

Want to keep your hull clean? Who doesn’t. Here’s a new idea about how to do that, from a company in Sweden. It’s called Drive-In Boat Wash, which is pretty descriptive of what it does. Here’s how it works: You drive your boat into a U-shaped dock. Six rotating brushes (made with high-density polymer) automatically adjust to the hull shape. The brushes move back and forth along the length of the boat, removing fouling and even barnacles. Pressure is controlled hydraulically; the machine is operated by a hand-held remote. No chemicals are used in the cleaning and the fouling is…

Many cruisers consider the historic, pastoral 240-mile Trent Severn Waterway the most beautiful part of the entire 5,000-mile-long Great Loop. Connecting Trenton on Lake Ontario to Port Severn on Georgian Bay, the waterway runs through small villages,  farmland and lakes, and has no fewer than 44 locks. Jim and Lisa Favors, two experienced cruisers (they’ve already completed the Loop, for example), now write about their north to south passage on the Trent Severn, including their transit of the Peterborough lift lock, which is so unique it has been designated a Canadian National Historic Site. Built in the early 1900s, the…

The 24 boats nominated as finalists for the prestigious European Powerboat of the Year awards were just announced. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on January 19, the first day of the Düsseldorf Boat Show. Arranged in five categories, the awards are made by a jury of editors from the leading European powerboat magazines, including those from Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway and Austria. Many of the finalists come from familiar brands to American boaters, while others are limited to the European market. Boats up to 25 Feet: Boston Whaler 170 Montauk Glastron GTD 220 Nordkapp…

Whale sharks, the largest fish in the sea, usually live in the tropics. About the size of a school bus, growing to 40 feet long and weighing in at 20 tons, they prefer warm water, migrating every spring to the continental shelf off central west Australia, where the Ningaloo Reef provides them with an abundant supply of plankton, their food of choice. So Michael Krivohlavek, 21, a mate for Daymaker Sport Fishing Charters out of Charleston, S.C., was surprised to see a whale shark surface behind his boat recently. The fishing boat was in 150 feet of water about 36…

This news doesn’t seem a surprise, but it does serve as a point of closure. The owner of Miami Vice, a 95-foot, 55-knot charter boat, has pleaded guilty in the death of a passenger who was killed by the boat’s props while swimming behind it. The owner, it turns out, hired a captain even though he knew the captain didn’t have a Coast Guard license. To make matters worse, the boat didn’t have a charter license either. Finally, the owner filmed a video of the captain snorting cocaine as they drove around Miami Beach together. Laurent Marc-Antoine Jean Maubert-Cayla, the…

Here’s some bad news for anyone thinking of tackling the Great Loop in 2020: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is closing six locks and dams on the Illinois River, that part of the Loop connecting Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, from July 1 to October 31, for major infrastructure repairs. The options for Loopers are to stay in the Great Lakes and leave Chicago on November 1, although as someone who has lived in Chicago, I can safely say you might get a bit cold then. You also need to determine how many marinas and other facilities would…

The cold-molded, all-mahogany Vicem 65 IPS Classic, just displayed at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, is a Turkish-built beauty with Downeast lines powered by twin 800-hp Volvo Penta IPS1050 pod drives for superior performance and ease of maneuvering around a dock. It’s the largest Vicem to be fitted with IPS, and it has a cruising speed of 23 knots and a top speed of 26 knots. The optional 1,000-hp Volvo Penta IPS1350 drives add a few knots to the top speed. The long sheerline, low profile and beautiful tumblehome of the Vicem 65 all mark it as a timeless…

As the editor of Motor Boating & Sailing, I met Don Aronow (pictured above) many times in the 1980s. I wrote about him; I tested his boats. A three-time U.S. powerboat racing champion and the founder of Cigarette, Formula, Donzi, Magnum, Squadron XII, USA Racing and a larger-than-life figure, Aronow was known as the King of Thunderboat Row, a short stretch of 188thStreet in North Miami where most of his companies were located. Aronow was known for his boats, and for his friends, including future President George H.W. Bush, the Shah of Iran, and Malcolm Forbes, among many others. He…

Silent Yachts is building its new ocean-going Silent 79 solar-powered catamaran, a long-range cruiser with unlimited range at 6 or 7 knots and a top speed of 20 knots. The luxurious cat with a minimalist design is Silent’s largest solar yacht yet, and is designed after the Silent 55, which made its debut at the Cannes Yachting Festival this past September. An Austrian company, Silent is building its first three 79s at an Italian yard in Marotta, near the major shipbuilding town of Ancona on the Adriatic. The first is scheduled to be launched in 2020. The standard Silent 79…

If you’re on the West Coast, you may want to think about taking a cruise to Mexico this winter. The weather’s great, the anchorages and marinas aren’t crowded, and you can enjoy a different kind of cruising vacation. Here’s a compelling story about the advantages of taking such a cruise this winter, with a sample itinerary, from Sea magazine. Take a look: Mexico’s Gold Coast: a series of nine beautiful boating destinations and pristine anchorages strung like jewels on a golden crown. Together they provide several months’ worth of winter cruising pleasure. Here’s one winter cruising itinerary for Mexico’s Gold…

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