Cruising Life

83 Containers Tumble Off Cargo Ship Near Australia. Debris Washes Up on Beaches

By Peter Janssen on June 3, 2018 Cruising Life

Reports of problems with cargo washing overboard from container ships just keep coming. In the latest incident, 83 containers tumbled off the 880-foot cargo ship YM Efficiency in heavy seas off the east coast of Australia. And debris from some of the containers was washing up on beaches north of Sydney. The Efficiency, owned by a Taiwan company but registered in Liberia, hit 16-foot seas in the Tasman Sea about 18 miles off the coast and rolled heavily. The 83 containers slid off the ship while another 30 were damaged but remained on board. TV pictures taken by a news helicopter showed…

Bells Stolen from Buoys off Coast of Maine. Coast Guard Asks for Help in Finding Culprits

By Peter Janssen on June 2, 2018 Cruising Life

This is just bizarre. Over the past six months, somebody’s been stealing the brass bells from offshore buoys off the coast of Maine. The Coast Guard is not happy about this, and neither would you be if you were relying on the sound signals from the buoys to help you navigate in the fog or at night. “These thefts not only reduce the reliability of our aids to navigation system and put lives at risk, said Lt. Matthew Odom of the Coast Guard waterways management division, “but they also create a burden and expense to the taxpayer for the buoy…

New Customer Wants “Fastest Zeelander Ever.” Zeelander Builds New 42-Knot Z55

By Peter Janssen on June 2, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Zeelander, the upscale Dutch builder, just completed a Z55 for a new customer who said he wanted “the fastest Zeelander ever built.” With twin Volvo IPS1350s delivering 2,000 hp, the new Zeelander 55 tops out at 42 knots; the traditional Z55, with twin IPS950s and 1,450 hp, tops out at 33 knots. To fit the larger engines, Zeelander had to customize the hull, adding more strength to the engine room and more lamination from bow to midship. It also upgraded the engine room insulation and installed double-flex mounts on all pumps and motors. As a result, the boat is quiet,…

Front Street Shipyard Finishes Major Refit of 1962 North Sea Trawler Sindbad

By Peter Janssen on May 30, 2018 Cruising Life

Front Street Shipyard in Belfast, Maine, just finished an 18-month major refit of Sindbad, an 80-foot North Sea steel-hulled trawler that was built in Norway in 1962 as an ice-class vessel. Sindbad was transformed into a yacht in the early 1990s, and needed some major work to restore it to yacht-quality again. After the latest refit, Sindbad underwent sea trials off Front Street, where Billy Black took these pictures, before heading south for the season. Sindbad was a major refit for Front Street Shipyard, which is a combination of custom builder, service yard and marina. Front Street Shipyard also is something of a…

Walker Bay Launches New 10′ 8″ RIB that Seats Five and Costs Just $14,500 with 20-hp Outboard

By Peter Janssen on May 30, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Walker Bay has just launched a new 10’ 8” RIB with a console that holds five passengers and costs just $14,500 with a 20-hp outboard. And the new Walker Bay Supertender 325 Deluxe Console RIB is a lightweight, coming in at just 259 pounds. “We feel this is the best lightweight console tender in its class,” says Michael Carroll, Walker Bay’s director of sales and marketing, “in that it offers superior comfort, unmatched luxurious features and exceptional performance for a boat this size.” The 325 hull has a sharp entry that flattens out aft and a hard chine that grips…

Le Boat Opens North American Boat Rental Operations on Canada’s Historic Rideau Canal

By Peter Janssen on May 29, 2018 Charter, Cruising Life, Destinations

Le Boat, the largest boat rental company in Europe, just opened its first operation in North America on the historic Rideau Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Canada. The company, which has 16 bases in eight different countries, hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Kilmarnock Lock Station on the Rideau Canal, with three of their new Horizon Cruisers among the first vessels to transit the lock to start the 2018 boating season. The Rideau Canal winds 125 miles through picturesque towns, unspoiled lakes and rolling pastoral countryside from Kingston, on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, up to Ottawa,…

Maritimo Launches New 60 with Creative Space Aft. Your Choice: An Extra Cabin or a Beach Club

By Peter Janssen on May 29, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Maritimo just launched a new 60-foot, three-cabin, two-head motoryacht at the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show in Australia that has a unique space aft that can be arranged in many ways: As a traditional aft cabin, with an en suite head and shower and access from the salon or swim platform; as a “beach club,” essentially an upscale extension of the large swim platform for access to the water and water sports; as a garage for a pretty good-sized tender; or basically anything else a potential owner can think of. In other words, you decide. Tom Barry-Cotter, the lead designer…

Don’t Wait: Get the MMSI Number for Your DSC-VHF Radio Now. It Could Save Your Life.

By Peter Janssen on May 28, 2018 Cruising Life, Electronics

Maritime Mobile Service Identify (MMSI) is a mouthful. It’s also long – a nine-digit number that works like a phone number on your DSC-VHF radio to call for help. If you have it, all you have to do is push a red button on your VHF (even a child can do this) and the radio will automatically and immediately broadcast your boat’s location, in exact latitude and longitude, to all other boats with DSC-VHF radios within range. It also will show your boat’s location on their chart plotters and determine the distance and bearing back to your boat. But it…

How To Keep Your Dog Safe This Summer: What To Look for in New Canine Life Jackets

By Peter Janssen on May 28, 2018 Cruising Life

Now that boating season is well underway, it’s time to make sure that everyone on board has a safe summer afloat. Let’s assume that we all have enough PFDs for everyone on board. But what about our pets, particularly our dogs? I have to admit that I just figured that my 75-pound yellow Lab was a good enough swimmer so I didn’t have anything on my Grand Banks or other boats for him. Labs do swim, right? Well, so do other dogs, but for how long, and in what conditions? And I never addressed the real issue, which was how…

Largest Dead Zone in the World (Where Ocean Does Not Have Enough Oxygen to Support Life) Found in Gulf of Oman

By Peter Janssen on May 28, 2018 Cruising Life

The largest ocean dead zone in the world, larger than the state of Florida, has just been found in the Gulf of Oman, a strait bordered by Iran, Pakistan, Oman and the UAE, measuring about 63,700 square miles. The dead zone is not only the largest but also the thickest in the world, according to researchers from the University of East Anglia, who studied the area for eight months, using underwater Seaglider robots to feed data to satellites. The scientists had last measured the gulf in the 1990s, and now report a “dramatic increase” in the size and severity of…

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