Cruising Life

Beneteau Launches GT 45 Express Cruiser Flagship

By Peter Janssen on October 12, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Beneteau just introduced the new Gran Turismo 45, the flagship of it express cruiser line, at the Cannes Yachting Festival, and the boat is already available in the U.S. Powered by twin 440-hp Volvo IPS600 pod drives, the sleek and sporty two-cabin, two-head cruiser tops out at 33 knots. Beneteau’s express cruiser line already has a 32, a 36, and more recently a 41. Now, the 45 extends the brand and makes it more attractive to families or owners who want to cruise with, or entertain, a larger group. Relaxing and entertaining are certainly easy on the GT 45. The…

U.S. Nuclear Sub Hits…Something

By Peter Janssen on October 12, 2021 Cruising Life

The USS Connecticut, the Navy’s 353-foot-long, multi-billion-dollar nuclear sub, hit something while it was submerged in the South China Sea earlier this month and is now in Guam for repairs. The U.S. Pacific Fleet issued a press release saying that the Connecticut “stuck an object while submerged” in international waters. There were reports that 11 personnel were injured, but the press release said “there are no life-threatening injuries.” It also said “the submarine remains in a safe and stable condition.” The nuclear reactor plant was not affected by the collision. But the sub took a week sailing on the surface…

New: LEGO Titanic in 9,090 Pieces

By Peter Janssen on October 11, 2021 Cruising Life

Just in time for Christmas shopping, or long winter evenings in front of the fire: a new LEGO replica of the Titanic, one of the largest LEGOs yet, with 9,090 pieces. The LEGO version of the Titanic is on a 1:200 scale. It’s 18 inches high, 7 inches wide, and 54 inches long. The real Titanic, which sank in 1912 in one of the greatest shipping disasters of all time, was 883 feet long. As you try to put together the LEGO Titanic, you can channel your inner Celine Dion as you assemble some of the favorite scenes from the…

Two Men Rescued after 29 Days at Sea

By Peter Janssen on October 10, 2021 Cruising Life

Two men were lost at sea and drifted for 29 days off the Solomon Islands before a passing fisherman rescued them. Their GPS stopped working during a heavy storm and they ran out of gas for their 60-hp motor. They survived by eating a sack of oranges they had brought with them and by collecting coconuts floating in the water. The men, Livae Nanjikana, and his friend, Junior Qoloni, left Mono Island in the Solomons for a trip 125 miles south to the town of Noro, on New Georgia Island. They had taken the trip before, and didn’t think they…

MJM Building 46-foot Performance Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on October 10, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

MJM just announced that it is launching a new high-tech performance 46-foot yacht named the 4z, and it’s already building hull number one of the outboard version; an inboard version will be ready for the 2024 model year. The company, now based in Washington, North Carolina, says the 4z is an evolution of the day yacht, but it can serve just as well as liveaboard cruiser, built in the Carolina Downeast style. With two cabins and one yacht-sized head below, and a fully protected helm deck up top, the 4z is a combination of the company’s new 3z day boat…

Actor Matthew Rhys Restores 1939 Wheeler

By Peter Janssen on October 6, 2021 Charter, Cruising Life

One night four years ago, Matthew Rhys, the actor, was at home in New York, drinking a whisky and scrolling through eBay, killing time, when he saw an ad for a wooden 38-foot, 1939 Wheeler Playmate. It wasn’t in very good shape, and it was in California, but it was the same model as Ernest Hemingway’s Pilar, and Rhys was a Hemingway fan. It also was one of the four documented Wheeler Playmates in the world. And both Rhys and his partner, Keri Russell (his KGB wife in The Americans), liked chartering wooden boats. They had just celebrated her 40th…

Vikings’ 1440 Map of Greenland a Fake: Yale

By Peter Janssen on October 5, 2021 Cruising Life

Scientists and cartographers at Yale University have decided once and for all that the Vinland Map, purportedly showing Norse settlements in North America in 1440, half a century before Columbus, is a fraud. For one thing, they have determined that the ink used on the map contains a titanium compound that wasn’t invented until the 1920s. For another, the map is just too good, the coast too detailed, for even expert seamen like the Vikings to have charted in 1440. Finally, seamen didn’t use maps to navigate back then anyway; navigation details were passed on largely by word of mouth.…

MarineMax Gets Bigger, Buys Intrepid

By Peter Janssen on October 5, 2021 Cruising Life

The big just got bigger. Indeed, MarineMax, the largest boat retailer in the world, just announced that it will buy Intrepid Powerboats. The two companies said they had signed a definitive agreement for the sale that will take place by the end of this year. This is the second acquisition for MarineMax recently. In May, it bought the privately held Cruisers Yachts, which had just bought Carver and Marquis, the late Irwin Jacobs’ brands. Founded in 1998 in Clearwater, Florida, MarineMax has 100 locations around the world, including 77 retail dealers and 31 marinas or storage operations. It says it…

Anatomy of a Disaster in Pictures

By co_admin on October 5, 2021 Cruising Life

Here’s a great recap by gCaptain of the wreck of the container ship Rena that hit a reef off New Zealand and eventually broke apart in that country’s worst maritime disaster: The MV Rena was traveling at a speed of 17 knots when it grounded on Astrolabe Reef off the coast of New Zealand on October 5, 2011, during a voyage from Napier to port of Tauranga. At the time, the ship was carrying over 1,300 containers and 1,733 tonnes of heavy fuel. What resulted became the country’s worst maritime disaster which took years to clean-up. Investigators eventually found that it was…

Fountaine-Pajot Launches Upscale 67 Powercat

By Peter Janssen on October 4, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Fountaine-Pajot has launched its most luxurious powercat yet, a 67-foot flagship that even has a Jacuzzi on the foredeck. In keeping with the French builder’s reputation for creating comfortable, seaworthy and blue-water boats, the new 67 also has a cruising range of 1,700 nm powered by twin 435-hp straight-shaft Volvo diesels. Everything about the new Fountaine-Pajot is massive and impressive. The volume comes not only from the overall length but also the more than 32-foot beam that makes the salon seem like a living room in a seaside home and the foredeck and aft cockpit like spas and entertaining areas…

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