Browsing: Cruising Life

Cruising Life
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Living the Dream in Mexico on a Maritimo 51

Tom Campbell and Beth Davidow know they lead an unconventional life; they also know they’re living the dream. He’s an award-winning wildlife and underwater cinematographer, and she’s a scientist and his filmmaker partner. Together they produce documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic, and the Discovery Channel, among other outlets. A few months ago they took delivery of their new, Australian-made Maritimo 51 motor yacht in Newport Beach, California. “We’ve thrown the lines of a conventional life (not that ours was all that conventional) for a life at sea aboard our Maritimo custom 51-foot motor yacht,” she wrote at the time.…

Cruising Life
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Former Gunboat Sailboat Salvaged, Rebuilt as 64-foot Power Cat

Here’s a story of restoration, renewal and rebirth, of a state-of-the-art sailing catamaran that ran into a storm 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina, lost its mast, and then floated in the Atlantic for 14 months until it was salvaged, taken to the U.K. and redesigned into a 64-foot power cat. (See the video below.) The boat started out as hull number one of the Gunboat 55 series, named Rainmaker. On Jan. 30, 2015, its owner, Brian Cohen, an investor in Pinterest, his son, and three professional crewmembers were sailing it from the Gunboat yard in North Carolina…

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Revitalized Northern Marine Building New 57-Foot Pilothouse Cruiser

Northern Marine, the storied builder of high-end expedition yachts, is back, with a new owner, and it’s now finishing a 57 Raised Pilothouse cruiser in its yard in Anacortes, Washington. Northern Marine was started in 1995, at first building strong commercial vessels and then earning a reputation for its robust, world-circling cruising boats. It had a lineup of models from 57 to 100 feet. But then the 2008 recession hit, and a few years later the yard suffered a major blow when a new boat capsized in an accident during its launching, resulting in a video that went viral around…

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Prestige Launches New 690S, 31-Knot Sports Cruiser

Prestige Yachts, the French luxury yacht builder, just launched its new 690S cruiser, with sporty looks, a swept-back bridge, and 31-knot Volvo IPS performance. The new 690S is a three-cabin, three-head yacht, with the appealing feature of a private staircase leading to the owner’s stateroom below. The 690S has a low, modern profile, with a raked front windshield; the bridge is situated fairly far aft. The electric sunroof and large windows all around the salon let in a lot of natural light, and long hull side windows on the accommodations deck let in even more light to the staterooms below.…

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The New All-Electric Zin Z2R: The Next Tesla?

Is Zin going to be the Tesla of the water? Or, if you’re an early-adapter, will an all-electric runabout from a startup company in Seattle be your next boat? Zin Boats has launched its first vessel, the Z2R, a carbon-fiber 20-footer with head-snapping acceleration but no carbon footprint, fumes, noise or vibration. Piotr Zin, the company’s founder, says it’s perfect as a tender, a second boat, or a picnic boat that you can run up on a beach. Zin himself worked as an industrial designer at BMW and GM before he settled down and moved aboard a houseboat on Seattle’s…

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard Rescues Two from Sinking Boat Off Bradenton, Florida

The Coast Guard rescued two people after their boat took on water and started to sink about two miles west of Anna Maria Island, off Bradenton, Florida. The boat, a 35-foot sportfisherman named the Last Lap, sank after the rescue. The owner is working with a commercial salvage service for salvage operations. The Coast Guard said its watchstanders in St. Petersburg got an emergency call from the boat saying it was taking on water. The Coast Guard dispatched a 45-foot response boat from its Station Cortez in Bradenton; the Manatee County Sheriff Office marine patrol also sent a boat to help.…

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New Dinghy Lift for Outboard-Powered Ranger 27, Cutwater 32

Ranger Tugs and Cutwater Boats have just come up with another good idea – a patent-pending Dinghy Lift. The new Dinghy Lift solves a problem that many people have when cruising on an outboard-powered boat: Where to put the dink? The new Dinghy Lift, created by the engineers at Fluid Motion, the parent company for Ranger and Cutwater, so far is in production and available on Ranger 27s, powered by a single 300-hp Yamaha outboard, and on Cutwater 32s, powered by two 300-Yamaha outboards. You can see it in action in the video below. The Dinghy Lift is made from…

Cruising Life
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NOAA Update: “Extremely Active” Atlantic Hurricane Season

Was Hurricane Isaias (pictured above) just a warm-up act? A harbinger of things to come? In a new update, NOAA warns that we could have an “extremely active” Atlantic hurricane season this year and it could include as many as 11 major hurricanes. The new forecast comes in NOAA’s annual August update, called the Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook. The previous forecast was published in May. Forecasters with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center say that atmospheric and ocean conditions are ideal for fueling new storms; they warn of a potentially record-setting hurricane season. So far this season, which started June 1, there…

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New 56-Knot Taiga Orca All-Electric Jet Ski

Here’s a new toy for the rest of the summer – and for a lot of summers to come: The Taiga Orca electric jet ski, and it gives a whole new meaning to plug and play. The Orca, made by Taiga Motors in Montreal, is powered by a 180-hp electric motor and a battery with a 20kWh capacity. It has a top speed of 56 knots and a range of 130 nm. After that, you just plug it in and it will charge back to 80 percent capacity in 20 minutes. Then it’s time to go out and play again.…

Cruising Life
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Volunteers Rescue 45 Dolphins Stranded on Cape Cod

Here’s a heartwarming story from The Cape Cod Times about how a group of volunteers rescued 45 dolphins that were stranded on a beach in Wellfleet: WELLFLEET — When a call came in at 7 a.m. that 45 dolphins were stranded in a stretch of beach in Wellfleet known as The Gut, volunteers from the International Fund for Animal Welfare responded. Almost 50 volunteers were on site by 8 a.m. trying to save the animals. Stacey Hedman, global marketing startegy manager for IFAW, said it wasn’t clear how the dolphins got stranded. “Cape Cod is a hook, and Wellfleet is…

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