Cruising Life

Nordhavn Fleet Heads to Sea of Cortez

By Peter Janssen on November 30, 2023 Cruising Life

A small fleet of five Nordhavns left the company’s headquarters on Dana Point, California, yesterday, starting a two-week cruise down the coast to Mexico’s Baja California and the Sea of Cortez. The boats are scheduled to stop in Ensenada, Turtle Bay, Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, and Laredo along the way, all prime cruising destinations for boat owners on the West Coast and around the world. The crews include many Nordhavn staffers, starting with vice president Jim Leishman, who said the trip was good way to end the year. “It’s been a couple of very busy years for us,” he…

Miss Moonshine: A New Gentleman’s Racer

By Peter Janssen on November 29, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Miss Moonshine certainly isn’t one of the owner-operator cruising boats we usually write about, but it sure looks like fun. Described as a Prohibition Era gentleman’s racer, the all-mahogany Miss Moonshine is the brainchild of Kevin Fitzke, the head of Fitzke Boatworks in Minneapolis. He’s working on a prototype and will have the first boat in the water next summer. The 23-foot boat will be powered by a single 320-hp GM engine mounted amidships, with the prop and rudder aft. It will have a bow thruster, an accessory that’s unusual for 23-foot boats and one that definitely did not exist…

Fjord Launches Two New 39-Footers

By Peter Janssen on November 29, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Fjord just launched two new 39-foot boats, the entry level to its German-built fleet with its iconic minimalist look that goes up to 53 feet. The two new boats are called the 39XL and the 39XP. The major difference is that the XL is powered by twin 320-hp Volvo D4 diesel sterndrives, with 440-hp D6s as upgrades. The XP comes with twin 400-hp Mercury Verado outboards, providing a top speed of 45 knots. Both boats have joysticks at the helm for fingertip docking and low-speed maneuvering. Fjord is part of Hanse Yachts. The European market traditionally favors inboard and sterndrive…

Longreach Launches 58 Expedition Cat

By Peter Janssen on November 28, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Longreach Catamarans just launched its new 58-foot Expedition power catamaran and is holding sea trials in Thailand. A variation on the Australian company’s standard 58, the new Expedition has a fully enclosed flybridge as well as a customized fully enclosed cockpit that can be opened up with electric windows. Powered by twin 440-hp Yanmars, the Expedition has a range of 2,000 nm. Optional fuel tanks with a 2,560-gallon capacity extend the range to 3,500 nm at a cruising speed of 11.5 knots. Top speed: 25 knots. Solar panels on the flybridge hardtop produce 5 kW to power the cat’s 24…

New Limitless 45: Fast and Flexible

By Peter Janssen on November 27, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The Limitless 45 with its plumb bow, minimalist lines and transformer-type aft deck looks like the growing number of modern weekenders with a touch of speed. But unlike many other new boats in this category, the Limitless 45 does not trace its roots to Scandinavia; instead, it’s built in Turkey. Now in Fort Lauderdale, the Limitless 45 can be powered by three 400-hp Mercury outboards, or two 600-Mercury V12 outboards. With the larger engines, it reaches a 52-knot top speed and has a range of 260 nm at 35 knots. Like many other new yachts, the Limitless 45 has an…

SilverYachts Building Scandinavian-Designed Cat

By Peter Janssen on November 27, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Tillberg Design of Sweden just unveiled the new SilverCat 22M semi-custom power catamaran, now being built in SilverYachts’ plant in China. Tillberg Design of Sweden (TDoS) dates to 1964, when it first started designing interiors for ocean liners. Over the years, it has worked primarily on cruise ships and larger personal super yachts. For the new 72-foot SilverCat 22M it collaborated with the Norwegian yacht designer Espen Øino, perhaps best known for designing Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s 413-foot superyacht Octopus. The new SilverCat is a bit smaller, of course, but its 35’4” beam provides lots of space for creative design…

Piper Unveils New Steel-Hulled Hybrid Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on November 27, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The brand new Piper 12C steel cruiser with optional hybrid electric power is the new kid on the block, offering a no-nonsense, one- or two-stateroom alternative to more established displacement cruisers made around the world. The new Piper Cruiser, just introduced at the Southampton show, is made by Piper Boats, a well-established British yard that has been building Dutch-style liveaboard barges for the canals and waterways in England and the continent. (The new Piper would certainly be a candidate for the Great Loop if it were available in the U.S.) The 12C is Piper’s first recreational boat, a 39-footer with…

World’s Biggest Iceberg Breaks Loose

By Peter Janssen on November 26, 2023 Cruising Life

The world’s largest iceberg, about four times the size of New York City, has broken free of its grounding in Antarctica and is moving at about 3 miles a day toward the South Atlantic Ocean. The iceberg, known as A23a, covers about 1,500 square miles and measures 1,312 feet high. In the past few months, it lost its grip on the seafloor, as part of an iceberg’s natural growth cycle, and has taken on something of a speed spurt. Driven by wind and current, it has moved from the Weddell Sea and is now passing the northern tip of the…

Big, Fast, New Tiara EX 60 Flagship

By Peter Janssen on November 16, 2023 Cruising Life

Tiara’s new EX 60 flagship dominates the scene, wherever it is. The 60 is not just the largest yacht that Tiara has ever made; it’s a full 11 feet larger than the next largest model. Named the Crown Jewel (like previous Tiara flagships), the 60 ruled over the Tiara fleet at the recent Fort Lauderdale show, where Tom Slikkers, Tiara’s president, said the company sold 36 boats, a 33 percent increase from 2022, which was a good year in itself. The 60 is large, luxurious, and fast. With twin 1,000-hp Volvo IPS1350 pod drives, it tops out at just over…

New Sialia 59: All-Electric Weekender

By Peter Janssen on November 15, 2023 Cruising Life

The new Sialia 59 Weekender, with its clean, modern, European look, would certainly turn a lot of heads on any dock or harbor that it enters. It’s also a high-tech vessel, using state-of-the-art technology to qualify as one of the most advanced eco-friendly electric boats on the market today. The Sialia 59 actually comes in three versions, all made of carbon fiber and all using the same electric power: Weekender, Runabout and Sport. The difference is that the Weekender is a luxury cruiser with refined accommodations for four below, and a supersized head that includes a rainforest shower. Sialias are…

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