Cruising Life

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,…

Best EPIRBs and Personal Safety Devices

By co_admin on January 31, 2023 Cruising Life, Electronics

Every year, the people at nmeaboater.com (the National Marine Electronics Association), ask manufacturers to name a model in a particular category that they consider their best. It’s not necessarily the most technically advanced, or the newest, or the one with the most bells and whistles, but rather the one they rate highest in that category for one reason or another. Here’s the list for boating safety and survival devices – three personal survival devices and two EPIRBs. Take a look: Personal Survival Device ACR Electronics ResQLink View RLS Introducing two-way confirmation between a 406MHz beacon owner and search and rescue…

NOAA Satellites Saved 397 People Last Year

By co_admin on January 30, 2023 Cruising Life, Electronics

Here’s some very good news from NOAA: NOAA satellites, which are crucial in weather and climate forecasts, helped rescue 397 people from potentially life-threatening situations throughout the U.S. and its surrounding waters in 2022. NOAA’s polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites are part of the global Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking system, or COSPAS-SARSAT, which uses a network of U.S. and international spacecraft to detect and locate distress signals sent from emergency beacons from aircraft, boats and handheld Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) anywhere in the world. A graphic showing three categories of satellite-assisted rescues that took place in 2022: Of the…

Browsing: Cruising Life