Cruising Life

Zeelander Building New 79-foot Flagship

By Peter Janssen on January 16, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Zeelander just announced that it’s building a new 79-foot-long Zeelander 8 flagship in its recently expanded plant in Holland. This latest Zeelander will be launched this summer, and it will carry the same unmistakable low profile reminiscent of America’s commuter boats of the 1930s and the company’s tapered transom and extendable beach club that set new standards for creating more space on the water. The Zeelander fleet already has a model 5, at 48’ 3”; a 6, at 55’ 9″; and a 7, at 66’ 7”. They all have the same lines, and the new 8 will have the same…

Mercury Debuts 2 New Electric Outboards

By Peter Janssen on January 16, 2024 Cruising Life, Engine Room

Mercury just introduced two new, more powerful, Avator electric outboards at the big Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Mercury now has a total of five electric outboards on the market. The new outboards are called the Avator 75e (10-hp) and the Avator 110e (15-hp). The high-torque, portable and rechargeable outboards are designed for small boats or tenders for cruising boats. The appeal for larger boat owners is that they can have an environment-friendly outboard for their tender and they don’t have to carry gas on board if they have a diesel-powered cruiser. The new Avators require minimal maintenance, and…

How To Avoid a Collision

By co_admin on January 15, 2024 Cruising Life

Crossing the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas, transiting Delaware Bay, heading into San Diego harbor, wherever you cruise, you’ll end up sharing the water with something larger than your vessel, including freighters or tankers that have very limited maneuverability. Consider that a ship cruising at 20 knots travels one nm every three minutes; you may be on a collision course sooner than you think. Here’s some great advice from Skipper Tips about how to track another vessel to avoid a collision, taking visual bearings. Even in an age of radar and AIS, you need to know how to do this…

Popular Prestige 520: Still Going Strong

By Peter Janssen on January 15, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Ever since it was first introduced at the Cannes Yachting Festival in 2017, the Prestige 520 flybridge motoryacht has been one of the French builder’s most popular models. Taking a good look at the newest 520, continually updated through the years, helps to understand why. The Prestige 520 is an elegant, comfortable, easy-to-handle cruiser, with separate social areas in almost every direction. The salon, with an aft galley that serves the cockpit as well as the flybridge, has large windows that provide views all around. In the salon, says Camillo Garroni, of Garroni Design in Genoa, who designed the yacht,…

Quarken Launches New 35 Weekender

By Peter Janssen on January 14, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Quarken, the Finnish builder, is introducing its new 35 Cabin at the big Düsseldorf show, starting Jan. 20. The 35 is Quarken’s largest boat yet. The 35 has the same lines as Quarken’s 27, just stretched quite a bit – a fairly plumb bow, an asymmetrical wheelhouse to provide as much interior room as possible, with a wider deck on the starboard side. But it also has a forward cabin below that’s large enough to sleep two adults and a sofa that can be extended to hold two children. The enclosed head has a shower. The new Quarken’s windshield is…

Fast Quiz: What 220,000 Boaters Don’t Know

By co_admin on January 10, 2024 Cruising Life

Here’s a fast, fun, quiz from BoatUS. You probably know the answers, but if you miss one, you might want to take a refresher course before you start cruising this spring: ANNAPOLIS, Md., Jan. 10, 2024 – The BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water offers a range of online boating safety training courses — including 36 free state boating safety courses — that make boating safety education affordable and accessible. More than 220,000 boaters took one of these boating certification courses last year, which require students to correctly answer some questions at the conclusion of each course. Which…

Source: Copernicus, ECMWF

2023 Hottest Year Ever: EU Report

By Peter Janssen on January 10, 2024 Cruising Life

It didn’t take them long to figure this out. Earlier this week, only nine days into the new year, a group of scientists at the European Union said that last year was the hottest year since people started keeping records in 1850, and it “most likely” was the hottest year ever. Indeed, Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, said that 2023 had been “an exceptional year…in a league of its own.” And this year could be worse. At a press conference in Brussels, Copernicus scientists said that global temperatures started breaking records last June and then…

New Bluegame BGX63: Prize-Winning Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on January 9, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The Bluegame BGXC63 is anything but one more luxurious, high-style Italian-made motoryacht. Indeed, its looks set it apart at the first glance, with low dark wraparound windows, an almost-military-looking, highly raked front windshield, and the hint of a slash of dark glazing along the hull sides running aft. A closer look reveals a creative two-tier design that opens up the salon and aft deck with so much glass that the interior and exterior tend to blend together. And below, the centrally located master stateroom is so big that it has its own private sitting area that can serve as another…

New Omikron OT-60: Comfort, Not Speed

By Peter Janssen on January 9, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Omikron, a Greek yard, will unveil its new OT-60 at the big Düsseldorf show, starting Jan. 20. The company says the 60, its first production boat, is “a motoryacht that feels like a sailboat,” offering “the perfect combination of the quiet, easygoing lifestyle of sailing and the convenience and space of a power yacht.” Standard power comes from twin 250-hp Yanmar diesels, producing a top speed of 16 knots, a quiet cruising speed of 12 knots, and a range of more than 1,000 nm at 8 knots. Omikron says the OT-60 is not designed for speed, but for comfortable cruising…

Arksen Starting New Line of Offshore RIBs

By Peter Janssen on January 8, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Arksen, the smart and ambitious new kid on the block in the expedition yacht neighborhood, just keeps growing. It’s finishing its flagship 85 on the Isle of Wight in Great Britain; it also has a 75 and a 65 in its Explorer series. It makes small boats too, introducing its 28 and 32 to the U.S. market at the Palm Beach show last March. Now it just announced that it’s starting a new Arksen 8 Discovery series of what it calls offshore open adventure boats, sturdy RIBs that are 26’ 2” long and have seats for 12. Available with single…

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