Category: Cruising Under Sail
Torqeedo Launches Next Generation of Tiller-Control Electric Motors
Torqeedo, which I’ve talked about a lot here on OceanLines, has launched the next generation of its tiller-controlled electric outboard motors. The company says the new Cruise 2.0T and 4.0T are “stronger, faster, more robust and more efficient. Torqeedo says the motors have a new, innovative display on the tiller, which shows information regarding battery [...]
Marinalife Expands Discount Program for Boaters
Marinalife announced an expansion of their card-holder Discount Program. The expansion brings access to thousands of discounts, along with a streamlined way to search for them by keyword, city, state, body of water and category. The company reports savings up to 50% on dockage, fuel, repairs, towing, service and maintenance, restaurants and more. Joy McPeters [...]
ActiveCaptain Expands Dramatically with Routes and More Reviews
ActiveCaptain.com, the crowd-sourced database of local navigation and cruising knowledge, has been expanding its offerings over the last couple of months with some significant new capabilities. The two most important, in my view, involve route-sharing and an allied site devoted to captain reviews of boating-related services. Here’s a quick rundown on some of the new developments. [...]
Nobeltec Releases Admiral and VNS 11.1 Service Pack
Nobeltec said today it has released a free service pack update for users of the new (January 2011) version of Admiral and VNS. The service pack offers integration with Furuno’s popular Digital Fish Finder (DFF1) Sounder, as well as a number of NMEA 2000 integration improvements. While I don’t often simply reprint a press release, [...]
Expedition Medical Kits — For Journeys Long and Short
The Expedition Medical Chest series is unlike the cheap kits you get from the typical marine supply house, these kits are stocked with professional-grade supplies and tools to help you deal with health emergencies while at sea.
Sea Fare — Victoria Allman in the Galley
Bimini Breakdown by Victoria Allman We were only going to be in Bimini for two days. There was no time to waste. I wanted Bimini Bread. Trouble was, we were anchored two miles off the east coast of the island and the tender was broken. Harry, our engineer was busy trying to fix it. [...]
Mac User Looking for Better WiFi on the Boat?
My fellow Write on The Water blogger, Christine Kling, has another fabulous tech piece on the blog today about a WiFi solution for her boat. Christine is a successful published author (I LOVE her Seychelle Sullivan mystery series), and she did a great piece for us here on using your iPad onboard the boat. Christine [...]
Time for a Satphone – KVH Shipping TracPhone V3 Mini-VSAT
One of the more significant news items from the recent Miami Show was the announcement from KVH of its new mini-VSAT package, the TracPhone V3, which is the smallest Ku-band maritime VSAT antenna in the world at just 14.5″ (37 cm) in diameter. The company said today that it has shipped the first fully FCC-licensed units [...]
Simrad Yachting Launches Broadband 3G Radar
Simrad Yachting this week announced a significant upgrade to its “”broadband” radar capability with the “Broadband 3G Radar,” which increases the range of its not-so-old BR24 Broadband Radar. I wrote about the BR24 when it was demonstrated at the Miami show last year and decided it was the real deal for short-range, high-definition radar detection. [...]
Time to Check Your Insurance for Hurricane Coverage
An updated 2011 Atlantic basin hurricane forecast from Colorado State University yesterday should serve as a reminder to all East Coast and Gulf Coast boaters to check their insurance policies for hurricane coverage. More importantly, now is the time to create your own “hurricane plan” — whether it is to move the boat, haul it, secure [...]
Sea Fare: Victoria Allman in the Galley – Spring 2011
Tribal Bartering By Victoria Allman “Are they still there?” I asked Patrick as he walked through the galley. “They haven’t left.” Patrick grabbed a slice of pineapple from the platter in front of me. “We’re surrounded.” I swatted his hand as he reached for another slice. The fruit tray was for the guests on Pangaea, [...]
Maybe You Don’t Need 3G on Your iPad 2?
Brian Chen, at Wired, has a piece today that suggests a clever way to avoid having to pay the extra money for a 3G version of the iPad 2 just to get GPS and phone data network capability. The solution basically involves using your current Smartphone as a wireless hotspot. Here’s an excerpt of his [...]
Routes Function in ActiveCaptain Will Change the Game
I know that’s a bold statement, but when I can have access to a library that will eventually likely hold many thousands of already planned (by me AND other boaters) routes, and then someday soon use those routes with more ActiveCaptain technology to tell me what’s up ahead, I will be in a different place [...]
Passagemakers Aboard S/V Quest Killed by Pirates
Conflicting news reports this morning have agreed on one sad fact, that the four passagemakers aboard the S/V Quest, hijacked late last week by Somali pirates, are dead. The CBS report is HERE. The pirates reportedly told Reuters that they killed the hostages after their two commanders were killed by U.S. military forces shadowing the [...]
Victoria Allman Breaks-In a Trawler Galley
At last week’s Trawler Fest, our own favorite professional chef, Victoria Allman, treated a group of VIP guests of Kadey-Krogen to an evening of haute cuisine hors d’oeuvres (classy snacks). For two evenings, Victoria gave the gorgeous galley aboard the Krogen 55′ Expedition a workout. The Kadey-Krogen folks (author Shannon Band, actually) wrote about the [...]
Looking for New Helm Displays? Nauticomp’s Genesis Might be Right
Nauticomp, the Ontario, Canada-based electronics manufacturer, is showing its new Genesis line of 15″ and 19″ sunlight-readable displays at the boat show circuit and if you’re in the market for new displays, they just might be the right solution. Marine display technology is gradually catching up to land-based consumer displays and these two Genesis units [...]
Navimatics Charts & Tides App Now Lets iPad, iPhone Update ActiveCaptain Data
Apple has just approved the latest update of the Navimatics Charts & Tides app so that iPhone and iPad users can update ActiveCaptain data from their devices. The update allows markets to be edited and reviews and comments to be added. The single license works on both an iPHone and IPad at the same time, [...]
Raymarine Extends Warranties to Three Years for Registered Products
Raymarine, a division of FLIR Systems, said today it would offer a third year of warranty to owners who register their products online with the company. The standard two-year warranty otherwise applies. The third year is offered at no cost. The warranty upgrade is applicable to all new products purchased starting January 1, 2011. [...]
Sea Fare Winter 2010-2011 — Victoria Allman in the Galley
—Editor’s Note — Victoria Allman is the chef aboard a 143-foot megayacht and the author of the recently released “Sea Fare: A Chef’s Journey Across the Ocean.” This is the ninth in a series of periodic columns here on OceanLines featuring her irresistible recipes. Best of all for OceanLines readers, who are travelers of the [...]
Marinalife Launches New Website
Marinalife, the online boating concierge and reservations service, has launched a new website, with a clean, nautical look that bodes well for the user experience. The company has also added a useful search function for back issues of the Marinalife Magazine, and its new blog. I did a quick test of the search function using [...]
Beneteau’s New Sense 50
by Guest Author Zuzana Prochazka Editor’s Note — Zuzana Prochazka is an award-winning writer and editor and currently serves as the president of the Boating Writers International association. Her website, TalkoftheDock, is “the boater resource for gear, boat reviews and other topics related to cruising and general loafing about on the water. “ Oh yeah, [...]
First Verizon iPad NOT for Boaters
I’ve been pretty happy over the last couple of years with the quality of signal that I get on Verizon’s networks in the United States. I have not, however, been happy with their equipment — in particular their use of the term “GPS” to describe the cellular- and WiFi-derived position reporting. It is most [...]
SI-TEX and Jeppesen Offer a Deal to Boat Show Goers
SI-TEX and Jeppesen said today that attendees at key North American boat shows over the next several months who buy a new SI-TEX ColorMax or EC Series chartplotter and compatible C-Map by Jeppesen MAX electronic chart will receive a free Jeppesen PC-Planner home navigation planning tool (a $149 value). First, the show list: Fort Lauderdale [...]
Intellian Offering Rebates Through Yearend
Intellian said this week it is offering a rebate promotion through yearend on several of its satellite TV antennae and Fleet Broadband antennae. Between October 26 to December 31, 2010, customers who purchase an Intellian i2 or i3 satellite TV antenna can receive $100, and those who purchase the i4, i6, or an Intellian Fleet [...]
Northern Lights Shrinks Genny, Adds WaveNet NMEA 2000 Monitoring
Northern Lights is basking in the southern sunshine this weekend at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) with a new skinny genny and a NMEA 2000-certified digital monitoring system called WaveNet. The newly shrunk generator, the M773LW3, is a 9kW model and is almost 30% smaller than its predecessor. “The overall size of smaller [...]
Sea Fare Autumn 2010 — Victoria Allman in the Galley
Editor’s Note — Victoria Allman is the chef aboard a 143-foot megayacht and the author of the recently released “Sea Fare: A Chef’s Journey Across the Ocean.” This is the ninth in a series of periodic columns here on OceanLines featuring her irresistible recipes. Best of all for OceanLines readers, who are travelers of the [...]
Sea Fare August — Victoria Allman in the Galley
Editor’s Note — Victoria Allman is the chef aboard a 143-foot megayacht and the author of the recently released “Sea Fare: A Chef’s Journey Across the Ocean.” This is the eighth in a series of periodic columns here on OceanLines featuring her irresistible recipes. Best of all for OceanLines readers, who are travelers of the [...]
Protector Offers a Unique Yacht Tender
Late last week, Protector USA announced the availability of a new, extremely unique, 20′ yacht tender (or ski boat, sailing coach/support boat?) called “Protector – the Jet.” The design marries the classic high-performance Protector RIB hull to a Yamaha FX Cruiser SHO personal watercraft, which serves as the propulsion, control and main seating station. Tiffany [...]
How to Mark Your Anchor Chain
This post is the result of an item on Jeffrey Siegel’s personal blog, Taking Paws, on which he and his wife Karen document their travels aboard aCappella, a 53′ RPH DeFever trawler. The subject of marking your anchor chain is a popular one on forums and discussion boards around the boating world, and one of the [...]
