Cruising Life

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…

Barge Crushes Loop Boat at Dock on ICW in Virginia, but Boat Owner Says She’ll Start Again

By Peter Janssen on May 17, 2017 Cruising Life

This is a story about having a dream, suffering some incredibly bad luck, and planning a comeback in the face of adversity. In April, after three years of saving and planning, Susan Pellett left her home in Riverview, Florida, just south of Tampa, to start the Great Loop on SuzieQ, her 1985, 21-foot Sport Craft. Now, on a rainy Friday morning in May, she was walking up the long face dock at the Atlantic Yacht Basin, a large, full-service marina at mile 12 of the Intracoastal Waterway in Chesapeake City, Virginia. “I was 42 days into my Loop trip single-handed,”…

6 Gems of Anegada: Reefs, Beaches, Lobsters and, oh, Shipwrecks

By Peter Janssen on May 16, 2017 Cruising Life, Destinations

When Columbus first saw this low-lying coral atoll in the Caribbean Sea on his second voyage in 1493, he named it Anegada, meaning drowned island. The highest point then, and now, is only 28 feet above sea level. Anegada, about 14 miles northeast of Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands, now has some waterfront restaurants and beach bars, but the 15-square-mile island really hasn’t change all that much. It is still virtually surrounded by Horseshoe Reef (accounting for 300 shipwrecks), which protects miles and miles of secluded white sand beaches. One of the best, Cow Wreck Beach, is home…

Surveyor’s Tips: How To Buy a Better Used Boat

By Peter Janssen on May 16, 2017 Cruising Life

It’s not hard to find a used boat nowadays; indeed, ten used boats are sold each year for every new one. The trick, of course, is to find one in good condition. What looks like a bargain could either be the deal of the century or a dog that develops a serious drain on your checkbook. We all know about the merits of getting a good survey before you write that first check on your new (used) dreamboat. But there are also signs you can look for yourself. Here are some tips from a surveyor with more than 35 years…

Summer – and Salmon – Along the Inside Passage to Alaska

By Peter Janssen on May 16, 2017 Cruising Life

Summer is cruising time along the Inside Passage, the roughly 1,000-mile journey from Seattle to Juneau, Alaska. It’s also salmon season, when tens of thousands of Alaska salmon return to the more than 2,000 freshwater streams, rivers and bays where they were hatched, often jumping (as high as 12 feet) up rapids and other obstacles. And salmon fishing is a huge business; sales of Alaska salmon, halibut, cod and crab reach $6 billion a year. Here’s a beautifully written story by Karen Evenden about cruising the Inside Passage with her husband Bill, with gorgeous illustrations by Jean MacKay. But it’s…

Texting While Boating? A Very Bad Idea

By Peter Janssen on May 16, 2017 Cruising Life

We all know about the dangers of texting while driving a car, but what about texting while driving your boat? It’s just the same really, leading to distractions, not looking where you’re going, losing situational awareness, and potentially leading to an accident of one shape or another. (I actually have a thing about paying attention when I’m driving a boat, whether it’s my old 8-knot Grand Banks or a 162-mph Fountain raceboat. I do want to concentrate on what’s going on, and I hate it when a passenger, however, well-meaning, leans in front of me to adjust the chartplotter or…

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