Cruising Life

Army Corps Says Great Dismal Swamp Canal Won’t Reopen Until Late Summer

By Peter Janssen on May 24, 2017 Cruising Life

If you’re planning on the Great Loop or just cruising on the East Coast this summer, you’ll have to wait a while to go through the Great Dismal Swamp. The Army Corps of Engineers, which closed the Great Dismal Swamp Canal after Hurricane Matthew in October, now says it may not reopen until late this summer. The 22-mile-long canal dates back to George Washington, who visited the Great Dismal Swamp in 1763 and suggested draining it to create a waterway connecting the Chesapeake with Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. After the canal was dug, mostly by slave labor, it opened…

A Speeding Cat Kills Friend and Passenger on Smaller Boat in Fort Lauderdale

By Peter Janssen on May 24, 2017 Cruising Life

A 31-foot catamaran, going fast, crashed into the back of a 22-foot center console running slowly in the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale at 10:30 last Saturday night, killing two people on the smaller boat and injuring two more. No one on the cat was hurt. Witnesses said the cat, driven by Max Irvine, 36, rode up over the back of the center console as it approached Bokamper’s Sports Bar and Grill on the Waterway at 32nd Street. “The catamaran straddles the other boat,” said Timothy Heiser, the assistant chief of Fort Laudardale’s Fire-Rescue. The drivers of the two boats…

Problems with Your Diesel? Here’s a Great Guide on How To Diagnose and Fix Them

By Peter Janssen on May 23, 2017 Cruising Life, Engine Room, Maintenance

Do you know what to do if your diesel exhaust suddenly turns grey? Or the engine loses power? Or overheats? Even if you do, here’s one of the best and most thorough stories I’ve seen about how to diagnose and fix most problems with a diesel engine. It’s great as a primer, if you’re new to diesels, and as a refresher, if you’re an old hand. And it covers all the bases, including how to bleed air from the injectors, drain a filter, and change an impeller. The graphics are clear and easy to understand. Take a look: http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/sailing-skills/diagnose-and-fix-marine-diesel-engine-problems-29940

New, Innovative, Fun and Fast Walker Bay Generation 525. See Review and Video

By Peter Janssen on May 23, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

It’s hard to fit the new Walker Bay Generation 525 into a narrow boat category, because this new, luxurious 17-footer offers so much: It’s a RIB, certainly, but it also can be a sport boat, a day boat, a tow boat, a runabout or even a megayacht tender. It would be fun to have the 525 just to zip around a harbor by yourself, or to take a crowd – the boat’s rated for ten passengers. A California company (located in Fairfield, about half-way between San Francisco and Sacramento), Walker Bay is known for its innovation and creative design. Indeed,…

Monster 63-foot Wave Measured in Southern Ocean 400 Miles South of New Zealand

By Peter Janssen on May 22, 2017 Cruising Life

The southern-most wave buoy in the Southern Ocean, some 400 miles south of New Zealand, just recorded a monster 63.6-foot wave, four times the height of a single-story house. “This is one of the largest waves recorded in the Southern Hemisphere,” says Oceanographer Tom Durrant. The wave buoy was just recently moored in 492 feet of water about six miles south of Campbell Island, pictured above, in a joint effort by the New Zealand Defense Force and MetOcean Solutions, to get accurate readings of wave and air-sea interactions in that remote part of the world. So far, wave heights from…

Sabre 66 Flybridge Sea Trial Video: 29.2 Knots WOT

By Peter Janssen on May 22, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Even with its flybridge, the Sabre 66 Dirigo maintains a sleek, low profile, and the Maine-built beauty also performs on the water. We’ve written about the boat before, and I cruised on hull number one in northern Florida more than a year ago, but now Sabre has released a video of the flybridge boat’s initial sea trials in Penobscot Bay. The flagship of the Sabre fleet, the flybridge 66 cruises at 24.6 knots, and is a quiet boat, registering only 68 dB(A) at the helm; at its top speed of 29.2 knots, it registers only 70 dB(A). On board the…

New 2018 Ranger Tugs 27 with 300-hp Yamaha Outboard Power

By Peter Janssen on May 22, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

As more evidence of the increasing move to outboard power, Ranger Tugs just introduced its 2018 R-27 with a single Yamaha F300 outboard, opening up the cockpit a bit, adding to the boat’s overall length, and certainly producing a bump up in speed. We don’t have any performance details yet, but we do know that the shift to an outboard will appeal to a portion of Ranger’s potential market that wanted some more juice. The Kent, Washington-based company will still offer the popular R-27 with a standard 200-hp Volvo D3 diesel. Over the years, I’ve cruised on Ranger Tugs in…

Will a Floating Container Sink Your Boat? Here are the Odds…

By Peter Janssen on May 18, 2017 Cruising Life

They’re everywhere on oceans around the world. Big and small container ships, going in every direction, some new and looking seaworthy, many less than new and looking less than seaworthy. Officials estimate that there are 5 to 6 million containers on ships at any given time; 10,000 of them wash overboard every year. If you’re cruising at night or in fog, you probably won’t even see one in your path; if the container is floating just under the surface, or covered by a wave, you probably won’t see it in any time of day. Here’s a great story, including some…

Restoring Gelcoat: Tips from Pros (And Watch Those Corners)

By Peter Janssen on May 17, 2017 Cruising Life, Maintenance

Nothing is more disheartening than that faded-gelcoat look on a boat, particularly when it’s your boat. Time for a work order and a check at the yard (yikes, not another one!), or some elbow grease of your own. Because while a dull, faded hull is embarrassing, a bright, shiny, new-looking hull is a matter of great pride, something to aim for. Here are some tips from pros on how to get there, how to breathe new life into your old topsides, with great advice on everything from rubbing compounds to wet sandings to avoiding going too deep on thin-gelcoat areas…

Top Ten Boat Names, and What They Say About You

By Peter Janssen on May 17, 2017 Cruising Life

BoatU.S. just released its annual top ten list of boat names, carrying on a 25-year tradition. It has some old favorites, Andiamo, Freedom (hard to beat that one for overall patriotism) and Seas the Day. The new number one, Serenity, certainly relates to feelings of calm and quiet (probably not an apt name on a boat someone is docking for the first time), while ending the list at number ten is Firefly (hmmm). BoatU.S. got the names by adding up requests for new names from BoatU.S. Graphics. They also had some fun by defining what each name means, at least…

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