Thursday, March 28

Browsing: Cruising Life

Garmin’s fast-growing marine business just got bigger. The publicly-traded electronics giant (GRMN, Nasdaq) just bought Navionics, the privately-held provider of navigation charts and mobile applications. “Navionics has long been known as a leading supplier of highly accurate navigational charts and mobile applications for boaters,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin president and CEO. “By combining Navionics’ content with Garmin’s BlueChart and LakeVu content, we will be able to offer the best available breadth and depth of coverage to our marine customers.” Pemble said that Garmin, a world-wide company based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, will keep the Navionics brand and support Navionics’ customers. The…

In the mail today, we just got the new Neiman Marcus Christmas Book, all 273 high-gloss, four-color pages of it. Don’t ask why we got this homage to high-end spending; I don’t know either. But, leafing through to see how the much-more-affluent-than-I-am are living, I did find some items that would be useful to cruising boat enthusiasts. On page 73, for example, under the “For Dad” heading, how could any boating dad resist the Funboy Yacht Pool Float (pictured above)? The catalog says it is made with “heavy-duty vinyl with day bed for two, cooler for drink/storage and cup holders,”…

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that, “There are no second acts in American lives.” Fitzgerald scholars debate what he actually meant by that, but there is no doubt that it does not apply to Jock West. A former boating magazine publisher and all-around marine marketing maven, West is at an age well beyond when most people start collecting Social Security; he’s also starting a new life as a professional photographer. Indeed, West, who lives in Newport, Rhode Island, has opened the West Photo Gallery with pictures he’s taken over the past 47 years. “Some are strange, some are whimsical, some…

It’s hard to grasp the scope of the size and luxury of the new Lagoon Seventy 8 power catamaran without seeing some pictures, but the company now has a great video to help it all sink in. The flagship of the Lagoon motor yacht fleet, the Seventy 8 – with a massive 36-foot beam – was designed for the top of the world’s exclusive powerboat market. With an emphasis on comfort, luxury and seaworthiness, the Seventy 8 certainly fits into that category. The twin hulls provide stability at sea or at a mooring, while the cat’s sheer volume translates into…

Good news if you’re thinking of heading to the British Virgin Islands for a cruise or charter vacation. The Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport on Tortola has just reopened for commercial flights. The airport, a welcome sight on Beef Island for generations of travelers to the BVI, had been closed after Hurricanes Irma and Maria caused “severe damage,” according to Denniston Fraser, the head of the BVI Airports Authority. It had been closed to commercial flights but it was open to some humanitarian, relief and evacuation flights. Now it is open to commercial flights on Cape Air, which already operated…

A great white shark attacked a 15-year-old girl who was kayaking near her family’s boat off South Australia, and she was rescued by the fast action of her father and her brother, who actually dragged her across the shark’s back onto their 14-foot aluminum craft. After the rescue, Chris Williams, the girl’s father, told The Guardian, “It’s something I don’t ever want to experience again. To hear the spine-chilling screams from your daughter is just indescribable.” All this started as a Sunday family outing on the water south of Adelaide. Williams and his son, Mitch, were on their small outboard…

Sea ice in the Arctic may be melting faster than scientists had predicted. The reason: Salty snow on the surface throws off the measurements from overhead satellites, according to a new study by the University of Calgary. The new report, published in an academic journal (Geophysical Research Letters), said that satellite measurements may be off as much as 25 percent, meaning the Arctic Ocean could be free of ice much faster than anyone had thought. In fact, ice could melt entirely during summer months as early as 2040. And summer without ice in the Arctic could alter global weather patterns,…

Hinckley Yachts, with their classic lines and Down East heritage, have always appealed to the rich and famous. The Rockefellers have had Hinckley sail and power boats at their places in Blue Hill, Maine, for generations. Martha Stewart had an early Picnic Boat at her place in Maine. Bob Wright, the former president of NBC, has a Hinckley, appropriately named Peacock, at his place in Southport, Connecticut. So it’s probably no surprise that Architectural Digest, the magazine that appreciates iconic design and celebrates the homes and lifestyle of people who live well, just wrote a story about the newest Hinckley,…

Now you can have all the immediate information you need – data measuring 30 different parameters – to keep your boat and all four of your engines running happily, thanks to Mercury Marine’s new VesselView 903 display, the company’s largest and most advanced multifunction display yet. And yes, its bright, high-def glass touchscreen displays information simultaneously for up to four engines, if you have that many. “Our next generation VesselView technology allows boaters the ability to simultaneously display information for up to four engines at a time in an easy-to-use-touch-screen interface,” said Zachary Savage, Mercury Marine’s VesselView Program Manager. The…

If you can’t have fun with this boat, well, I don’t think there’s much to say. Yes, I know it’s not the traditional cruising boat we usually write about, but it seems just so outrageous, so out there, that I couldn’t resist. And this definitely is a case where a picture is worth anybody’s 1,000 words. For the record, this is the new Evo 43, with a full carbon T-top, that will be launched at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show starting Nov. 1. Totally aside from its uber-modern, plum bow, minimalist design, it’s the boat that just keeps giving.…

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