Cruising Life

NOAA: Extremely Active Hurricane Season Ends. See Chilling Four-Minute Video

By Peter Janssen on December 1, 2017 Cruising Life

The 2017 hurricane season is now officially over, and we have to say good riddance. Unfortunately, it matched NOAA’s predictions for being extremely active, with 17 named storms, including ten that became hurricanes. And six of those were major hurricanes, including the first two to hit the continental U.S. in the past 12 years. By NOAA’s records, 2017 was the seventh most active season going back to 1851, and the most active season since 2005. “This was a hurricane season that wouldn’t quit,” said retired Navy Rear Admiral Timothy Galladuet, acting NOAA Administrator. Three major hurricanes made landfall this year:…

On Watch

By Peter Janssen on November 30, 2017 Cruising Life, On Watch with Peter Janssen

Holiday Boat Parades, from Virginia to California, With Advice About How To Stay Safe By Peter A. Janssen Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it’s full speed ahead for the holiday season. And for boat owners, that means holiday boat parades, where people decorate their boats in everything from simple strands of lights to Hollywood-like productions filled with Santas and reindeer and almost anything else you can imagine. Most of the parades end, of course, with parties back on shore, which are at least half the fun. For those of us in the north, it’s getting too cold for…

Here’s a Different Look at the First Kadey-Krogen 50 Open from John Deere

By Peter Janssen on November 30, 2017 Cruising Life

The first Kadey-Krogen 50 Open is now on a ship heading from the factory in Taiwan to Florida, where it should arrive before long. And that’s none-to-soon for its owner, Larry Polster, a Kadey-Krogen vice president, who, with his wife Janet, has been actively engaged in the building and fitting out of their new boat, choosing everything from the hand-crafted vanity drawers to the single John Deere diesel. We’ve been covering Polster’s involvement in the boat, the first Kadey-Krogen with an open interior – meaning the salon and galley are open to the pilothouse, which is just one step up.…

Canadian Couple Cruises to Mexico, Falls Prey to “Four-Foot-Itis”

By Peter Janssen on November 29, 2017 Cruising Life

We all know what “four-foot-itis” means, right? It’s the legendary fever that grips boat owners who, even though they may love the boat they have, are more than ready to move onward and upward to a new one that’s four-feet longer than their current model. Well, here’s a story about “four-foot-itis” in spades: Lawrence and Penny Talbot, from Vancouver, British Columbia, like cruising; in fact, they’ve been cruising for about 40 years, primarily in the Pacific Northwest, throughout the San Juan Islands and even around Vancouver Island. They started with a 26-foot Tanzer sailboat and worked their up to a…

New GOST Apparition: A Cutting-Edge Monitoring and Security System for Your Boat

By Peter Janssen on November 29, 2017 Cruising Life, Electronics

GOST just launched a new, cutting-edge touchscreen monitoring and security system so you can know what’s going on inside and outside your boat, called Apparition. You control it with interactive 5- and 7-inch touchscreen keypads installed throughout the boat, as well as through an app that works with smartphones and tablets. You can install as many as 16 Apparition touchscreens throughout the boat and they work with up to 192 sensors, monitoring everything from a locked liquor cabinet or the door to a guest cabin to high-water alarms in the engine room. When an alarm sounds, you touch the flashing…

Solar-Powered Boat Completes the Great Loop – a First

By Peter Janssen on November 29, 2017 Cruising Life

A homemade 48-foot trimaran running entirely on solar panels, batteries and an all-electric Torqueedo propulsion system just completed the Great Loop. Jim Greer, the 75-year-old former filmmaker and captain of the boat, says it’s the first time a boat has done the Loop entirely under solar power. “With solar panels, batteries and Torqueedo electric motors, we were able to complete our travel days without any use of fossil fuels or plugging into marina electric hook-ups when we docked,” Greer said. “We don’t have a backup generator or power cords in case of emergency, and that’s the adventure of it.” Greer,…

Coast Guard Removes 1,968 “Displaced” Florida Boats To Avoid Pollution

By Peter Janssen on November 28, 2017 Cruising Life

The toll is staggering. So far, the Coast Guard and other government agencies have removed 1,968 vessels from Florida waters that were “displaced” by Hurricane Irma in September – meaning they sank or were damaged so badly that they couldn’t be moved by their owners. (Some 1,434 of these were from the Florida Keys.) And more boats are being added to that total every day. The Coast Guard is working with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to remove the boats based on their potential environmental impact. But they also are urging boat owners…

One of the World’s Great Cruising Destinations, St. Barts is Making a Comeback after Irma

By Peter Janssen on November 28, 2017 Cruising Life, Destinations

St. Barts suffered more than a glancing blow from Hurricane Irma in early September, but it wasn’t a knockout punch. Irma did cause a lot of damage throughout the island, destroying some hotels, restaurants and even wiping out the weather station, but now St. Barts, one of the world’s great cruising and vacation destinations, is staging a comeback. This story and video from Caribbean Journal tell how resilient the island is; some hotels have already reopened (although Eden Rock and Le Toiny will be shut until 2018), and more shops and restaurants reopening every day. But St. Barts is still…

Doug Zurn’s Fast, Very Fast, NEB 50, a Marriage of Good Looks and High Performance

By Peter Janssen on November 28, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

With Doug Zurn’s iconic low profile, long sheerline and slender, water-shedding hull, the NEB/Zurn 50 is a standout because of its looks and its performance. The looks speak for themselves, while the performance – a top speed of 56 knots – is due to the boat’s light weight, composite construction and two 1,200-hp MAN diesel power plants and Rolls Royce jet drives. A high-end, custom commuter boat or fast coastal cruiser built at New England Boatworks in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, the NEB/Zurn 50 combines the best of modern Down East design and cutting-edge engineering and construction. The hull and deck…

Ride on Water with a New Hydrofoil Bike from New Zealand

By Peter Janssen on November 27, 2017 Cruising Life, Gear

This is a hoot. Not exactly a cruising boat, but maybe something to give you a little exercise – or even take you ashore – when you anchor out. The 44-pound Manta5 is a hydrofoil water bike that lets you ride on the water. The two carbon fiber hydrofoils create lift (think of the America’s Cup boats in Bermuda), while a 400-watt motor provides enough power to reach a top speed of 12-mph. The battery lasts for about an hour, or you can just keep pedaling manually forever. The whole thing folds up to fit in a car trunk, or…

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