Cruising Life

New, Creative, Carbon-Fiber Anvera 48: The Coolest Tender Ever?

By Peter Janssen on August 28, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

“The new Anvera 48 might well be the coolest, most technically accomplished yacht tender ever,” says the Robb Report. “Drawn by Aldo Drudi, who first imagined the 48 as an ‘elegant and very fast dolphin,’ the carbon-fiber boat is strong, tough and fast. “’While the hull has been developed with hydrodynamic features in mind, the superstructure has been defined by aerodynamics,’ says Drudi. The black profile does indeed have a sleek, aerodynamic look – especially with the nifty hard top that seems to float its way backward over the helm station, across the amidships dining table, and to the rear…

Black Bear Boards Four Boats in North Channel of Lake Huron; Climbs Up Swim Ladders

By Peter Janssen on August 28, 2018 Cruising Life

A hungry 250-pound black bear broke into four boats in three days anchored off Heywood Island in the North Channel of Lake Huron, climbing up swim platforms, confronting owners in the middle of the night and generally sowing fear and anxiety. The local paper, The Manitoulin Expositor, says the first reported bear problem came from Brian Laux, from Walworth, New York, who was below in his cruiser Serenity, fixing dinner – a bass he had caught earlier. Laux heard a strange scratching noise and thought it might be a swimmer in distress. “But when I went outside there was a…

Manattees Now Migrating from Florida along Gulf Coast, as Far as Louisiana

By Peter Janssen on August 27, 2018 Cruising Life

Who doesn’t love a manatee? Even when we’re frustrated with all the low-speed manatee zones in Florida, it’s still hard to bear any ill-will to these smile-inducing, half-ton creatures. They’re just big and slow and somehow endearing; children want to hug them. And manatees, at least some of them, migrate, swimming along the northern Gulf Coast from Florida in the summer, traveling as far as Louisiana. Now boaters in the coastal southern part of Louisiana are reporting manatee sightings in places where they haven’t been seen in years, and the state is issuing warnings to protect them. The West Indian…

New Calvin Beal 38 with a Rich Maine-Built Heritage and 20-Knot Speed

By Peter Janssen on August 27, 2018 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

It just doesn’t get any more Down East than this – Star, a new, well-appointed 38 Calvin Beal lobster boat with roots in Maine that just won’t quit. First off, Star was designed by Calvin Beal Boats in Beals, Maine, on an island off Jonesport way up the Gulf of Maine (go to Northeast Harbor on Mt. Desert Island and keep on going). It was built as SW Boatworks in Lamoine, back on the mainland at the entrance to Mt. Desert Island. And the sea trials were conducted at Billings Marine in Stonington on Deer Island on East Penobscot Bay. Enough…

Scientists Test an Ozone Treatment System To Fight Florida’s Red Tide

By Peter Janssen on August 27, 2018 Cruising Life

Scientists at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota say they have come up with something to fight Florida’s toxic red tide. Called an Ozone Treatment System, the new device processes 300 gallons of water a minute, breaking down toxin-infested water, injecting it with ozone and then pumping out clean water. At this point, with a state of emergency in seven counties and dead fish and marine life washing up on beaches and in marinas in southwest Florida, any solution offering hope to boaters, residents and the tourist industry seems too good to be true. Basically, the system kills high concentrations of…

A Survivor’s Story: “I’m waving at the guy, yelling, and all of a sudden, his boat was sitting on top of our boat.”

By Peter Janssen on August 27, 2018 Cruising Life

The story continues, building on one of the most memorable boating pictures in recent memory: A 37-foot charter fishing boat sitting on top of a 35-foot J/105 sailboat in calm conditions near Thomas Point in the Chesapeake, just south of Annapolis. The picture went viral, for the obvious reasons, with everyone wondering, what in the world happened here. Now, from the Capital Gazette, we have the story from the skipper of the sailboat. Read more: http://www.capitalgazette.com/sports/sailing_boating/ac-cn-boat-collision-survivor-0827-story.html

Cruising a 27-foot Avalon Pontoon Boat from Key West to Cuba, a First

By Peter Janssen on August 27, 2018 Cruising Life

It’s not news any more that Americans are cruising to Cuba. I went there myself in with Scott Porter, the president of Formula, on one of his 40-foot cruisers way back in 1998 (and it was one of the best trips ever). But it is news to cruise there on a pontoon boat, a vessel usually found on inland rivers and lakes. Here’s a fun story from Boating World about how Jim Wolf, the CEO of Avalon pontoon boats, and three friends drove a 27-foot Avalon from Key West to Cuba. Actually, they took the boat much farther, from Clearwater,…

Cruising Lake Michigan on an Ancient Mahogany Pacemaker 47 – and Loving It

By Peter Janssen on August 27, 2018 Cruising Life

This is a story about passion, and a labor of love. Don and Linda Nase bought their 47-foot mahogany Pacemaker cruiser in Saugatuck, Michigan, in 1975. It was seven years old, and its twin Detroit diesels had only 100 hours. They live in Phoenix, Arizona, but they spend their summers cruising on the boat, usually on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, going four or five hours a day, usually at about 10 knots. And they named the boat Naco, which Nase says loosely translates into “foolish pleasure” in Spanish. It’s easy to love cruising on a beautiful, restored wooden…

New Amphibious Dobbertin HydroCar: Fast on the Water, Very Fast on Land

By Peter Janssen on August 22, 2018 Cruising Life

You probably don’t want to cruise this to Bermuda, but if you want to do the Great Loop in a hurry, and not have to worry about how you’ll drive to the grocery store for supplies every night, take a look at the new Dobbertin HydroCar. With a 762-hp engine, it’s supposed to top out at 125 mph on land and 60 mph on the water, although it’s still so new it hasn’t been tested yet. The brainchild of Rick Dobbertin, who spent most of his career building fast cars (he won Hot Rod Magazine’s Street Machine of the Year…

World’s Largest Fish (Not a Beauty) Caught on New Video off Nova Scotia

By Peter Janssen on August 22, 2018 Cruising Life

It may not be the most beautiful fish in the world, but the ocean sunfish, weighing in at more than two tons, qualifies as the largest. Here’s a fun video of something you don’t see every day, a sunfish swimming next to a diver. The diver’s not in any danger; a gentle giant, a sunfish will not attack humans. A group of Nova Scotia boaters came across this particular sunfish while it was on the surface. As the writer for MTL Blog points out, it was just trying to chill and catch some rays. Sunfish do this frequently to regulate…

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