Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Historic Iceberg Breaks Up in South Atlantic

One of the largest icebergs ever measured (roughly the size of Delaware) has broken up near South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic, releasing billions of tons of fresh water into the ocean and potentially affecting life at sea and on shore. The iceberg was known as A68A, and it broke off the Larsen-C Ice Shelf in the Antarctic in July, 2017. At the time, it was more than 100 miles long and 30 miles wide. It also was almost 800 feet thick, with only the top 120 feet showing above the surface. Scientists from the European Space Agency said…

Boat Reviews
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Vicem Launches Cold-Molded 82 Cruiser

Vicem, the high-end Turkish builder, just delivered its first 82-foot cold-molded cruiser, the flagship of its Classic line. The three-stateroom, three-head beauty, with its Down East looks, is powered by two 900-hp Volvo diesels; it hit a top speed of 17.8 knots and a cruising speed of 15 knots in its first sea trial. The Vicem 82 has a range of 1,100 nm at 9 knots. Since it is cold molded with mahogany wood, Vicem is able to customize the interior of the yacht to meet each owner’s specifications. The interior uses book-matched mahogany veneers and premium joinery. The semi-displacement…

On Watch
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Astra Rounds Horn on Epic Circumnavigation

Earlier this week, Iain Macneil and his crew rounded Cape Horn on his converted 77-foot rescue boat Astra, on week eight of what they hope is a record-breaking trip around every cape in the Southern Ocean. Macneil, the CEO of Witherbys, a maritime publishing company in Scotland and former Merchant Navy seaman, bought the boat more than a year ago and renovated it for the voyage. It had served in the Swedish Rescue Service from 1995 to 2016. His goal: To set a record for a full-displacement powerboat less than 24 meters (78’ 7”) circumnavigating the world via every cape…

Cruising Life
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See Winners of European Power Boat Awards

The winners of the European Power Boat of the Year awards were just announced, chosen by the editors of eight leading boating magazines across the continent. The awards this year were in five categories, organized by size, plus one innovation award and one special mention. The annual awards are usually given at a banquet at the big Düsseldorf show, but that was cancelled this year because of the pandemic. The awards were announced digitally from Hamburg. The editors who had tested the boats represented magazines in Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and Austria. Here are the winners:…

Boat Reviews
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Absolute 48 Coupe: Prize Winner with New Ideas

The new Absolute 48 Coupe, already a prize-winner, is the Italian builder’s first in a new line of express yachts. It was introduced at the Cannes show last fall, and then won a “European Boat of the Year” award in its class, with the citation saying, “Absolute once again combines ground-breaking design with masterful boat building.” The massive side and hull windows are obvious, and offer the advantages of air and space and views, whether the boat is at anchor or on a two-week cruise. What you don’t see, is that Absolute has a new idea (at least for a…

Cruising Life
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Sergio Davi Reaches Cape Verde on RIB

After a brief interruption with Covid, Sergio Davi, the 65-year-old Italian professional yacht captain, is back on track with his 10,000 mile Ocean to Ocean RIB Adventure from Sicily to Los Angeles. A few days ago, Davi completed the most recent leg of his trip, taking 44 hours to run the 840 nm from Grand Canary Island to Cape Verde, averaging a little more than 19 knots on his 36-foot Nuova Jolly Prince RIB, Aretusa Explorer. Antonio Aiello, the owner of Nuova Jolly (pictured at left, above, with Davi), was along for this leg. Davi said they had “very good…

Boat Reviews
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Swallow Whisper: New Boat, Nice Ideas

The good-looking 30-foot Swallow Whisper is a new boat from a small builder in the U.K. that has some features that might be welcome in the U.S. Built of light-weight wood with the hull sheathed in fiberglass and epoxy, it’s powered by two relatively small 70-hp Yamaha outboards that are hidden in an engine box, instead of hanging off the transom. A weekender that can sleep four, it tops out at 26 knots, and has a range of 160-nm. Until it launched the Whisper last summer, Swallow Yachts made trailerable sailboats in its yard in Wales. But it decided to…

Cruising Life
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French Rower Lost at Sea

Jean-Jacques Savin, 75, is no stranger to adventure. A former French paratrooper, he’s sailed solo across the Atlantic four times, climbed Mt. Blanc, and in 2019 he spent four months in a barrel-like capsule floating from The Canary Islands to the island of St. Eustatius in the Caribbean. Savin left the port of Sagres in southern Portugal on January 1 to start his latest adventure. He wanted to row, alone, across the Atlantic on his 26-foot boat. He said the trip was his way “to laugh at old age.” Savin celebrated his 75th birthday on January 14 on the boat…

Cruising Life
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5 Tips To Keep Your Boat Safe This Winter

Here are some important tips from BoatUS about how to keep your boat safe and protected this winter: SPRINGFIELD, VA., Jan. 24, 2022 – Storms have hammered the U.S., and many recreational boats are sleeping away the winter under a layer of ice and snow. If you store your boat outside and haven’t checked up on her lately, Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) has five tips for a midwinter checkup that could help prevent an insurance claim, help keep you safe, and also make spring commissioning easier. If your boat is stored in the water over the…

Charter
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La Datcha, Explorer Yacht, in Antarctica

At more than 252 feet, the explorer yacht La Datcha, pictured above recently in Antarctica, is a bit larger than the boats we usually cover. But I think it’s interesting in terms of seeing what’s possible in the charter and expedition yacht areas today. La Datcha was built in the Damen yard in The Netherlands and launched in 2020 as the company’s SeaExplorer flagship, designed by Azure Yacht for cruising the world’s most remote destinations. The hull is steel and the superstructure is aluminum, and it’s built to be IMO Polar Code compliant. It also can run 40 days without…

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