Thursday, March 28

Browsing: Cruising Life

Horizon Power Catamarans just unveiled plans for a new Horizon PC68, a four-stateroom, four-head cruiser with an open salon, an innovative Portuguese bridge deck, and various options for its massive flybridge up top. Horizon says it’s celebrating a record-breaking year, reaching a milestone of 50 boats sold. The 68 will be the newest of the company’s range of power cats that now has a PC52, PC60 and a flagship PC74. Horizon is offering buyers several options for the PC68, all taking advantage of the big cat’s 24’ 6” beam. Up top, the company offers an option of an open bridge…

Sirena Yachts just announced that it’s building a new 78 cruiser with the Turkish builder’s elegant, modern-European lines and a lot of options for a new owner. The 78 will debut at the Cannes Yachting Festival in September. The new 78 is designed to be run by an owner-operator or by a crew. It’s in the middle of the Sirena lineup that already has a 58, 66, and 88. And it has Sirena’s plumb bow, a long, low hardtop over the flybridge and an aft deck that’s protected by the overhang from the boat deck above. It also has the…

XO Boats, the relatively new builder in Finland, just announced that it’s starting work on a 26-foot DFNDR 8 go-anywhere, all-purpose boat that will top out at 50 knots with twin outboards. The new DFNDR 8, like other XO boats, has a rugged aluminum deep-V hull with a 23-degree deadrise at the transom. XO says it uses military-grade aluminum because it’s sturdy, sustainable, and easy to maintain. The DFNDR 8 is designed for owners who want to be able to go out in less-than-ideal conditions, and it will be fun to drive. Indeed, Erkki Talvela, the CEO of XO Boats,…

Here’s an incredible real-time video of lightning hitting a Stamas 39 with seven people on board earlier this week, about 100 miles off Clearwater, Florida. All seven people were rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. Remarkably, they all escaped injury. The rescue started after the owner of the boat, Glenn Rumer, activated his EPIRB; the lightning strike had knocked out all the boat’s power and electronics. The Coast Guard in Clearwater received the EPIRB alert, and contacted Rumer’s wife, who said her husband and a group of friends were in an offshore fishing tournament. The Coast Guard sent a Jayhawk…

Sunreef, the Polish builder of luxury catamarans, just announced that it’s starting an entirely new line of Explorer Yachts for global expeditions, and it has hired Mike Horn, an adventurer and explorer, as its brand ambassador. Sunreef said the new Explorer Yachts line of power cats is dedicated to discovering cruising grounds around the world, with a pioneering design that combines seaworthiness, redundancy and extreme range for long voyages. It will build on the Sunreef 50M (164 feet) that was unveiled this spring. And it will use its association with Horn to expand its exploration theme to a larger audience.…

A team of American and British deep-water explorers just found the deepest shipwreck in the world, the remains of an American destroyer sunk by the Japanese in the Second World War that was 22,621 feet under water. The team was under Victor Vescovo, a Texas investor, adventurer and reservist in the U.S. Navy. He also founded Caladan Oceanic Expeditions, based in Dallas, which runs a deep-diving submersible. Caladan was working with EYOS Expeditions, from the U.K., in the search for the USS Samuel B. Roberts, a 306-foot destroyer that was sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October, 1944.…

Wayne Gretzky, probably the greatest hockey player of all time, and his wife, Janet, are now cruising on Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho on their new 340 HT Steinway mahogany boat from Coeur Custom there. The Gretzkys actually took delivery of the boat last September, but then used it for just two days before closing their vacation house in Coeur d’Alene and heading south. This summer they’ll enter it at the Coeur d’Alene Antique and Classic Boat Festival, starting August 13. The boat took 12 months to build, and it’s made of Sapele wood with 16 coats of varnish, white…

The Rosborough 246, a no-frills pocket cruiser built by Eastern Boats in Milton, New Hampshire, almost cries out, “Great Loop.” With its protected cabin, V-berth for two, enclosed head and single-outboard power, the Rosborough is fully capable of tackling the Great Loop, or almost any other coastal cruising destination. Indeed, John Hauck, an 82-year-old retired Special Forces major, has completed the Great Loop twice on his 2003 Rosborough 246. Rosboroughs were originally made as commercial fishing boats in Nova Scotia, where they earned a reputation as salty and reliable performers. Rosborough sold the molds to the 246 to Eastern Boats…

Doug Zurn usually draws the lines of larger, and faster, boats. Known for his Down East designs with slim, slippery lines, Zurn, the head of Zurn Yacht Design in Marblehead, Massachusetts, has designed boats for MJM, Bruckmann, Marlow, Hylas, plus the Shelter Island Runabout and Billy Joel’s 57-foot commuter Vendetta, among many others. Zurn just announced that he’s working on a new project with Boston BoatWorks – a 30-foot electric launch called the AMC 30 for the Appalachian Mountain Club. It’s in memory of Mark Lindsay, the founder of Boston BoatWorks, who passed away in 2019 at the age of…

A 198-foot all-electric ferry just said a new world record of cruising 50 nm on a single battery charge, according to its builder. The ferry, named Ellen, cruised from Sónderborg, Denmark, where it was on display at the International Energy Agency’s annual conference, back home to its base in the islands in the south of Denmark. Danfoss Editron, which supplied the ferry’s drivetrain and motors, said it would submit the cruise to Guinness World Records for the longest sea voyage on a single charge. Ellen was built by the Danish yard of Soby Vaerft, with a 4.3MWh battery system. The…

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