Cruising Life

Coast Guard Finds 459 Derelict Boats in US Virgins after Irma and Maria. Now Trying to Find Owners

By Peter Janssen on December 19, 2017 Cruising Life

Three months after Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Coast Guard has found 459 derelict boats that remain damaged or sunk, resting in marinas, coves, bays, mangrove swamps or washed up on shore. Some are hazards to navigation, others are simply in the way. But in all the cases, the Coast Guard is trying to find their owners, taking out ads on the radio and TV and websites, while working to recover the damaged boats and salvage those that can be fixed. Many boats were damaged so much that the owners won’t take them back. The…

Navionics To Remap South Florida Waters Hit by Irma; Will Work with Local Community

By Peter Janssen on December 18, 2017 Cruising Life

When Hurricane Irma hit Florida on Sept. 10, it damaged marine resources, changing and rearranging shorelines and bottom contours, making existing charts and maps out of date. Now, Navionics, working with industry leaders and the South Florida boating community, is starting an effort to remap the area’s marine and inland waterways to make them safer in the future. The month-long remapping will start on Jan. 19, and individual boaters can help. You can record and upload sonar logs to Navionics from any boat, because Navionics accepts sonar data from all major brands. Boaters can record sonar logs on their plotter…

New Huckins Atlantic 44: A Thoroughly Modern Boat with a Retro Look and a Rich Heritage

By Peter Janssen on December 18, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Over the years, ever since 1928, in fact, Huckins Yacht has been true to itself. A Huckins is a Huckins. It doesn’t look like any other boat; Huckins simply tweaks its iconic retro lines a bit as the years go by so they never get stale. A Huckins doesn’t perform like other boat, either. With its patented Quadraconic hull, it performs like a Huckins. The new Huckins Atlantic 44 represents the best of Huckins’ classic approach to boating from stem to stern. If the new Huckins’ profile harkens back to an earlier age of yachting, its performance will challenge most…

For a Touch of Adventure, Head to the Real Downeast: The Bay of Fundy, with Ferocious Tides and Lots of Fog but Not that Many People

By Peter Janssen on December 17, 2017 Cruising Life

If you want to tweak your sense of adventure, think about cruising Downeast next summer, the real Downeast, the part that starts at Northeast Harbor, Maine, which is about as far as most people ever go. But if you leave Northeast Harbor in your rearview mirror, you’ll primarily be traveling on your own through cruising grounds that have changed little since John Smith first sailed there in 1614, passing spruce-covered little islands, rocky shoreline fronting dark green forests, and countless little coves and inlets. You won’t have to look hard to see ospreys, bald eagles, puffins and, if you’re lucky,…

Here’s What to Look for in New Binoculars, from $99.99 to $5,858.99

By Peter Janssen on December 17, 2017 Cruising Life

Talk about buying a new pair of binoculars and a lot of people’s eyes glaze over. Too many choices (including many that truly are not easy to see); too many pairs of numbers. But even if you just pick a pair off the shelf, you’re ahead of the game. In my opinion, no cruising boat should be without a decent pair of binoculars – for both safety and enjoyment reasons. You use them to pick up buoys and breakwaters, to see other boats, to tell whether that white thing you spy on the horizon is a low-lying cloud or a…

New, Prize-Winning RIB that Flies on Two Adjustable Foils

By Peter Janssen on December 17, 2017 Cruising Life

Here’s a first: A flying RIB, or more precisely, a RIB that is able to fly on two foils built into the hull. Developed by SEAir on a Zodiac Pro 5.5 hull, the flying RIB just won the 2017 Innovation Award at the Nautic Paris Boat Show. SEAir has been working for two years to perfect the foils, which are full integrated into the Zodiac’s deep-V, fiberglass hull and move up and down in a shaft, with an adjustable angle of attack. The Zodiac Pro 5.5 is 18 feet long with an 8’4” beam and powered by a Yamaha F115-hp…

What Does It Cost To Buy – and Keep – a Hatteras 58? One Owner’s Video Report

By Peter Janssen on December 16, 2017 Cruising Life

What does it really cost to own a boat, to buy it, to maintain it, and to use it for coastal cruising? Ask this question of 1,000 boat owners, and you’ll probably get 1,000 different answers. But here are the real-world actual costs of a 58-foot motoryacht, put together by Ed and Lyn of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He’s a tax accountant, who works from Jan. 1 to April 15 and she’s retired, so they have a lot of time to spend enjoying their boat. Here’s what it costs them. They previously had owned a 35-foot Carver for two years to…

Ships Collide. One Thought They Would Pass Starboard to Starboard; the Other, Port to Port

By Peter Janssen on December 13, 2017 Cruising Life

Here’s a story about a collision between a tanker and a ferry in Sweden that didn’t have to happen; it basically was the result of a total miscommunication (or lack of communication) between the captains of the two ships. And the lessons learned, a result of an official investigation, apply to recreational boats as well as to larger commercial vessels. This is what happened: At 2 am the tanker was outbound from a port at nine knots; its captain realized that an inbound ferry only 0.7 nm away was closing at about 20 knots. He called the ferry on VHF…

For a New Cruise Off the Beaten Path, Try Norway Next Summer, a Land of Deep Fjords and Endless Daylight

By Peter Janssen on December 13, 2017 Cruising Life, Destinations

For a real cruise next summer, think about Norway, the high-latitude Scandinavian country with prehistoric glaciers, deep fjords, thousands of islands and about 20 hours of sunlight a day. It’s not particularly easy to get to for a recreational powerboat – you have to go across the North Sea from the UK, the Netherlands or Denmark – but once you’re there, the rewards are immense. As one captain quoted in this story from Superyacht Times says, you’ll find “silky smooth cruising grounds within the endless network of fjords, each with their own set of snow-capped mountains melting in the summer…

How To Care for Your Seacocks: Ignore Them at Your Peril

By Peter Janssen on December 13, 2017 Cruising Life, Engine Room, Gear, Maintenance

Nothing is more vital to the integrity of your boat than its seacocks. Have a problem with one of them, and you literally could be sunk. Depending on the size and type of your boat, you could have a few, or quite a few, down in your bilge, but you’ll certainly have them for your engine(s), genset, head(s) and other equipment. It’s also a good idea to have a mallet and tapered plugs, sized to fit, ready to go in case one of them totally fails. Here’s a good story from Sea about how to care for seacocks and how…

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