Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Helmsman Trawler 38E Wins People’s Choice Award in Seattle

The  Helmsman Trawler 38E just won the People’s Choice Award at Seattle Trawlerfest, quite an honor considering there were 45 other boats, from 23 to 72 feet, lining the docks there. The 38E is Helmsman’s most popular model, with a raised pilothouse, flybridge, large master cabin and a full-beam salon. Helmsman Trawlers are built in Fuzhou, China, and are designed for owners who want a quality cruising boat but don’t want to overpay for one. The Helmsman line runs from 31 to 43 feet, and the boats all provide classic trawler amenities and coastal cruising possibilities. They are particularly popular…

Cruising Life
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Will the Missouri River Just Keep on Flooding? And What Can We Do About It?

If you do the Great Loop counterclockwise, like most people, you’ll go down the Illinois River from Chicago to the Mississippi; I did this in three very easy days a few years ago on a Beneteau 34 Swift Trawler, and entering the Mississippi was breathtaking. The Mississippi at that point is simply awesome in its breadth and power. But then, about 20 miles or so downstream, the Missouri flows into the Mississippi on the west side, and the Mississippi simply gains in strength and majesty. It is indeed the Mighty Mississippi, carrying the strength and energy of the heartland all…

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Hudson Powercat 48: A Stylish, Stable Cruiser with Lots of Light and Space

With lines from the famed British designer Bill Dixon, the new Hudson Powercat 48 is a stylish, stable and strong catamaran with large, luxurious spaces to make long-range cruising or just weekend entertaining easy and inviting. One notable feature: The full-beam master stateroom is on the main deck forward, filled with lots of light and space. The Hudson 48 comes with three staterooms, all with en suite heads and showers, and three separate dining areas, offering a variety of shared and private spaces on board. Owners can choose to cover the flybridge with a Bimini or a hardtop or even…

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Can Boat Owners Avoid Paying Taxes? Read on…

As Ben Franklin once said, nothing is certain except death and taxes. For us, that includes sales taxes on boats – or does it? To some degree, the answer depends on where you live, and where you’ll use your boat. Here’s a great story from BoatUS that spells out the tax you’ll have to pay when you buy a new or used boat: SPRINGFIELD, Va., April 29, 2019 – Boaters who’ve heard about no-sales-tax states, such as Delaware or Oregon, wonder if they could eliminate sales tax on a boat purchase if they simply buy a boat there. The answer…

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How To Stay Connected on Board: One Cruiser’s Solution

Right at the top of most cruising people’s concerns is the ability to stay connected, to be able to use their smartphones, laptops and tablets, no matter where they are. Spotty Wi-Fi coverage, in-and-out cell networks, expensive (and often hard-to-understand) internet contracts all make for a major source of frustration and irritation. It doesn’t always have to be that way. Here’s a very clear personal story in Canadian Yachting by Jim Leshaw, a lawyer from Key Biscayne, Florida, who in installed a wireless network on his 34-foot PDQ powercat that lets him work while he’s cruising. And he spent less than…

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Yanmar’s Stand-Up Wheeebo: A Totally New, 3-Knot Electric Watertoy

Here’s something truly new from Yanmar: The Wheeebo, and it looks like fun. Usually when we think of Yanmar we think of diesel engines. Not the Wheeebo. It’s a stand-on circular board that’s powered by a nickel-hydrogen battery with a top speed of three knots. And it definitely will give you, and your kids or grandkids, something to do when you drop the hook in that secluded cove at the end of the day. You control the Wheeebo by leaning in the direction you want to go. Onboard sensors detect the change in weight distribution and engage the board’s motor…

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Controversy Grows Over Lighting on Government Cut Jetties After Recent Crash

The controversy is growing about lighting on the jetties marking Government Cut in Miami after a crash last week killed three people and seriously injured a fourth when their 32-foot center console hit the north jetty at 9:20 at night. The two jetties marking the entrance to the cut are not lighted, although they are clearly marked on charts. After the latest crash, Fabiola Santiago wrote an opinion story in the Miami Herald with the headline, How Many More Boaters Must Die Before We Properly Light Treacherous Government Cut? “This is a story of deaths foretold,” she wrote. The crash last…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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New Jersey Couple Ride the Great Loop on Their Yamaha WaveRunner, and Love It

When most people start planning a cruise on the Great Loop, they have to decide whether they want to do it on a 30-foot, 40-foot or even a 50-foot boat or more. Not John Cacciutti, a builder of luxury vacation homes from Ocean City, New Jersey. Cacciutti thinks outside the box. He and Barbie Evangelisti, his riding partner, are doing the 5,800-mile Great Loop on their Yamaha WaveRunner. And they’ve already put 1,700 Loop miles behind them. Cacciutti and Evangelisti are not the first people to do the Loop on a PWC. Indeed, Larry Harcum completed the Loop in 87…

Cruising Life
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For an Exotic Charter with Incredible Water and Easy Cruising, Try Thailand

It’s a long plane ride to get there, but chartering in Thailand is definitely one of the more exotic things to do. The colors, islands, beaches and food there aren’t like anything you’ll find closer to home in the U.S., and the sense of adventure is hard to overstate. If you want to cruise in a tropical paradise, where most of the navigation is still line of sight and where moorings are plentiful and the people are friendly, Thailand should be at the top of your list. The island of Phuket, off the west coast of Thailand in the Andaman…

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New Colorized Pictures of the Titanic Show the Luxury of Life on Board, and the Tragedy of the Sinking

The tragedy of the Titanic, the ship, not the movie, continues to grasp us even today, some 107 years after the largest and most luxurious cruise liner ever built at that time hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank, carrying more than 1,500 people to their deaths. Only 705 people, primarily women and children who made it to the lifeboats, survived. Another liner, the Carpathia, heard the Titanic’s SOS calls and arrived at the scene in only three and a half hours to rescue them. Now Popular Everything has colorized pictures of life on the Titanic before it sank. Somehow…

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