Cruising Life

New Cutwater C-288 Pocket Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on February 8, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The all-new Cutwater C-288 Coupe is a versatile, trailerable pocket cruiser that’s ready for doing just anything you want to do on the water, whether fishing, cruising, picnicking, or even working remotely on board. The C-288 is powered by twin 250-hp Yamaha outboards producing a top speed of about 45 knots, and a range of about 200 nm at 30 knots. It has a 10-foot beam for stability, and a double-stepped, deep-V hull with Cutwater’s Laminar Flow Interrupters, basically small indentations that help in higher-speed cornering. The boat sleeps two in the forward cabin, which also has an enclosed electric…

New Endurance 590 Blue-Water Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on February 7, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The Endurance 590, a blue-water cruiser designed to be run by a couple, is the latest member of the Endurance by Hampton Yachts fleet. A sturdy, three-cabin, two-head cruiser, the new 590 is built for comfortable living on board, even on a long cruise. Experienced cruisers will like a lot of its design features, including a Portuguese bridge for weather protection, a pilothouse with interior stairs to the flybridge, and an open plan that offers unobstructed views from the aft deck settee all the way forward to the pilothouse helm. The walkways are wide and protected overhead, the engine room…

VisionF Making New 100-foot Cat with Kevlar

By Peter Janssen on February 7, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

VisionF, the fairly new Turkish yard, just announced that it’s building a massive, luxurious 100-foot-long power catamaran, the flagship of its growing fleet. The new VisionF 100 will be built out of Kevlar composite, instead of the aluminum used in the previous yachts. The yard is using Kevlar in the new 100 because of its strength and light weight. It’s also strong and rigid. The yacht is powered by four 900-hp Volvo IPS1050 pod drives, delivering a top speed of 22 knots. Its draft of just 3’ 9” means it can safely go in the shallow waters of the Bahamas…

Fairline To Show Sporty Targa 45 in Miami

By Peter Janssen on February 6, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Fairline will be showing its sporty, prize-wining Targa 45 Open at the Miami show that starts on February 15. The Targa 45 Open will be at show’s Herald Plaza location, with an outboard-powered Fairline 33 and a Fairline Squadron 50 cruiser. A well-respected British builder, Fairline has grown its dealer network in the U.S. in the past two years. The Targa 45 Open has won a Motor Boat of the Year Award in its size range. The company says it has a touch of Riviera glamor with its low profile, huge opening sun roof and sun pads available for some…

Viking Polaris

Coast Guard Investigating Deaths in Antarctic

By Peter Janssen on February 6, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating a series of accidents involving the deaths of four Americans and injuries of five more on expedition cruise ships in the Antarctic. The accidents all occurred in the two weeks from Nov. 15 through Dec. 1 in some of the harshest marine environments in the world. The Coast Guard and NTSB have sent teams to Ushuaia, Argentina, the jumping-off point for cruise ships heading for the Antarctic. They are working with investigators from other countries where the ships are flagged. Two U.S. citizens died when a RIB from the…

Silent Launches First Yacht from Italian Yard

By Peter Janssen on February 6, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Silent-Yachts, the pioneering Austrian company, is continuing its growth mode, just launching the first yacht, a Silent 60 solar-electric power catamaran, at its yard in Fano, Italy. Silent bought the five-acre Fano yard last spring. It had been making its yachts in Thailand and Turkey. It launched its first 60 two years ago. But the launch of its first boat at the Fano plant shows how rapidly Silent has grown, and signals the continued growth of the rapidly expanding solar-electric power market. Silent is building several other 60s in Fano for delivery this year, plus its first Silent 62, due…

Coast Guard Rescues Man on Stolen Boat

By Peter Janssen on February 6, 2023 Cruising Life

On his last day of training, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer saved a man who was thrown from his overturned boat in 20-foot seas off the Oregon coast last week. In a bizarre twist, police say the man had just stolen the boat after leaving a dead fish at the house portrayed in the 1985 Stephen Spielberg movie The Goonies. The rescue started at 10 a.m. last Friday when the Coast Guard station near Astoria heard a Mayday call on VHF Channel 16. The call did not include any other information, but the Coast Guard was able to determine the…

King Charles’ New Yacht (Almost)

By Peter Janssen on February 2, 2023 Cruising Life

The British royal family has gotten a lot of attention in the U.S. and the English-speaking world lately, with millions of us glued to our screens to watch Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and all five seasons of The Crown on Netflix (2.8 million people watched just one episode last November in the UK alone). More recently, Prince Harry’s tell-almost-all biography Spare sold 1.43 million copies in the U.S., Canada and Britain on the first day it was available. Now, we can get a new look at the lives of the royals – almost. One of the most poignant episodes of The…

Miami Show Opens Feb. 15. See 1,000 Boats

By Peter Janssen on February 1, 2023 Cruising Life, Miami Boat Show

The massive, sprawling and generally fun Miami International Boat Show will start on Wednesday, February 15, and run through Sunday, February 19. Based on last year’s attendance, the show’s organizers expect more than 100,000 people over those five days. The show is owned by the National Marine Manufacturers Association, in partnership with the International Yacht Brokers Association, and is produced by Informa Markets, a worldwide events management company based in London. They say it is the largest boat and yacht show in the world, with more than 1,000 vessels on display and an economic impact of $1.34 billion. This year,…

A New Owner for Hooper Island Lighthouse

By Peter Janssen on January 31, 2023 Cruising Life

Last August, the Government Services Administration announced that it was holding an online auction to sell the Hooper Island Lighthouse, a sparkplug-type structure in the lower Chesapeake that had fallen into disrepair. Built in 1902, the lighthouse lies in 18 feet of water about 3.75 miles west of Middle Hooper Island; it’s a bit south of Solomons and closer to the eastern shore, and it’s 63 feet high. The GSA said it required a starting bid of $15,000, and “inspection of the structure must be done at a safe distance.” The bidding deadline was Sept. 21. As it turned out,…

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