Cruising Life

Minorca 34: A Totally New, Bright, Prize-Winning Cruiser from Spain

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

Just introduced at the Palm Beach show, the Minorca 34 is an entirely new entry, a light-filled, well-built Spanish cruiser being represented in the U.S. by SYS Yacht Sales of Jupiter and Sarasota, Florida. The two-cabin, one-head Minorca, made in the Balearic island of the same name, has an exceptional design on the outside, with gentle curves almost everywhere,while the interior is bright and open in a contemporary style that just as easily could be at home in Scandanavia as in the coast of Spain. Although new to the U.S., the Minorca 34 has already been displayed in Europe, winning…

Princess 60 Captain Found Guilty in Killing Fisherman in 23-foot Steiger Craft Off Watch Hill

By Peter Janssen on March 28, 2017 Cruising Life

We all know how easily this sort of tragedy can happen. And how easily it can be avoided. On Sept. 22, 2015, Cooper Bacon, 76, a Coast Guard licensed captain from Cape May Court House, New Jersey, was driving a new Princess 60 from the Newport, Rhode Island, boat show down to the Norwalk, Connecticut, boat show. Also on board was mate William Noe, 3rd, of Woodbine, New Jersey. It was 10:30 in the morning on a sunny, clear day. At the same time, Walter Krupinski, 81, a rod and reel commercial fisherman from Stonington, Connecticut, was heading home after…

Real Life on the Great Loop: Four Days Across Lake Okeechobee

By Peter Janssen on March 22, 2017 Cruising Life

Journalist Jamie Lauren Keiles spent four days on the Great Loop with Tim and Karen Bartel on their Bluewater 52, Let It Ride, for a story in The New York Times Magazine. The Bartels left home in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, last Sept. 2. Keiles caught up with them in Fort Myers, Florida, as they prepared to cross the Okeechobee. She ends up with a fun story about real life on the Loop, including an emergency trip to the dentist and an extra day tied up in a marina waiting for a missing part. Her story is a cinema verité snapshot of…

Miami Pitcher Jose Fernandez Was High, Drunk and Speeding When He Drove His Boat into a Jetty, State Report Says

By Peter Janssen on March 21, 2017 Cruising Life

At 3:02 on the morning of Sept. 25, Miami Marlins star pitcher José Fernandez, 24, drove his 32-foot SeaVee at a high speed into a jetty at the north side of Government Cut. The impact killed him and his two companions, Eduardo Rivero, 25, and Emilio Macias, 27. Now a 46-page accident report by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spells out the details of the tragedy: Fernandez was high on cocaine, legally drunk and was driving at a WOT of 65.7 mph. “Fernandez operated the (vessel) with his normal faculties impaired, in a reckless manner, in the darkness…

Nordhavn 62 Owner James Ellingford Completes First Leg of Circumnavigation with His Family, Writes New Book, and Details the Real Costs of Cruising

By Peter Janssen on March 20, 2017 Cruising Life

James Ellingford, a retired Australian business executive and avid cruiser, doesn’t like to live a humdrum life. Indeed, six years ago, when he decided that he and his wife would take on a circumnavigation, he wrote, “Normality in every sense for us is, in a word, boring.” Ellingford certainly is a man who lives by his word. He has already cruised from Sydney to Seattle on his Nordhavn 62 with his wife and two daughters on the start of that circumnavigation; he’s just published his second cruising book, “Cruising Conversations, A Million Nautical Miles and Counting,” and on his blog…

New Fitzgerald Marine F-28: A Land Rover for the Great Loop, and Beyond

By Peter Janssen on March 20, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Here’s a preview of the new custom F-28, designed and built by Mark Fitzgerald of Thomaston, Maine, that’s now being finished with a teak deck and Awlgrip at French & Webb in Belfast, Maine. It will be ready for launching in mid-May. Fitzgerald, of Fitzgerald Marine Architecture, Inc., designed the F-28 for an experienced client who wants to do the Great Loop. Originally, the client wanted a boat similar to a center console, since he expected to spend nights in hotels along the way. When he learned that there are stretches of the Loop, particularly along the Mississippi, where it’s…

Cruising the East Coast and Love to Play Golf? Here’s Where to Go

By Peter Janssen on March 20, 2017 Cruising Life

Many of my best boating friends are also avid golfers. In the best of all possible worlds, they would combine their favorite two passions and take their boats to a great golf course. But where to tie up? Here’s a good list of first-class golf courses near first-class marinas, from Samoset in Maine (pictured above) all the way down the coast to Longboat Key in Florida, chosen by the editors of Dockwa. Pack your clubs on your next cruise. http://blog.dockwa.com/golf-courses-near-east-coast-marinas-tie-up-and-tee-off?utm_campaign=Blog%20Subscribers&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=46731505&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_kSHTzC8cQPAvKqtS4RgnhN4Ugb3WD-lLdmzTFVm9HXsMyhYul3yvpiFA1IbOrvNP9gKJ4ZoRVP8kTDx6A6NfnCUryYQ&_hsmi=46731505

Time To Get Ready: Spring Commissioning Checklist and Video from BoatU.S.

By Peter Janssen on March 20, 2017 Cruising Life, Maintenance

The good news is that boating season, for those of us in the north, is just around the corner. The bad news, unless you’re really organized, is trying to remember everything you need to do to get your boat ready. Here’s where BoatU.S. is a big help. Take a look at their video, below, and then read – and print out – their spring commissioning checklist below that. Let them do the organizing for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLbDpQZub7Y And here’s the checklist: http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/spring_checklist.asp

Brand New Sabre 45 Just Launched in Florida; Tops Out at 32 Knots

By Peter Janssen on March 19, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new Sabre 45 Salon Express was just launched in Florida (above) and had its first sea trials off Jupiter Inlet, where the Sabre engineers said the waves were stacked, as is often the case there. But the new Sabre came through with flying colors, running 27.5 knots at a continuous cruise speed, burning just 35 gph. It topped out at 32 knots, burning 44 gph. Like many of its predecessors, this new Sabre is a quiet boat, registering just 72 dB(A) at cruise and 75 dB(A) at wide open throttle. The 45, fitting between the company’s existing 42- and…

An Easy Guide to Whistle Signals: What They Mean, How to Respond

By Peter Janssen on March 19, 2017 Cruising Life

We’ve all probably had the same experience, particularly on the inside passages of the ICW or the rivers of the Great Loop, when you’re about to pass another boat. You sound the proper whistle signal, indicating what you’re going to do – and nothing happens. Or you get a response that makes no sense whatsoever, such as four or seven blasts. There’s been some discussion about this, which could lead to confusion at best and a collision at worst, on the America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association blog lately. As a result, Dick Hermann, from Green Cove Springs, Florida, who cruises…

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