Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Martinique: A French-Caribbean Haven Where Cruising Is Easy

If you really want to get away from the winter chill, think about heading for a cruising or charter vacation in Martinique, the French-Caribbean haven in the Lesser Antilles, about 440 miles south of Puerto Rico. The beaches are beautiful (see Les Salines, above), the cruising is easy, and life on shore is an exotic combination of French flair and laid-back Caribbean vibes. If cruising down there on your own is too far, there are direct flights from New York, Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Then you can check into The Moorings for a bareboat or crewed charter. Seven nights on…

Cruising Life
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Lots of Enthusiasm, Happy People, at the New York Boat Show

It seemed like old times, the best of times, on Saturday afternoon at the New York Boat  Show. The aisles at the Javits Center were filled with people looking at the 350 new boats and probably a thousand or so new boating accessories, and everybody seemed in a good mood. “We just had one of our best  years ever,” a New England dealer told me. “And it looks like this one is off to a pretty good start.” People were lined up to look at the new boats; indeed, the line to climb on the Azimut 60, the queen of…

Miami Boat Show
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Miami Boat and Yacht Shows Preview (Say Goodbye to Miami Beach), Plus 39 Reviews of New Cruising Boats

The big news about the big Miami boat shows next month is that the Miami Yacht Show, which had been up on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach for the past 30 years, is moving to downtown Miami. The traffic problems on Collins, and the show’s distance from the large Miami International Boat Show down on Virginia Key, were just too much. This year the yacht show will open at its new location on Biscayne Bay, at One Herald Plaza, between the MacArthur and Venetian Causeways, with a brand new look and layout; it also will be at Sea Isle Marina…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Miami Boat and Yacht Shows Preview (Say Goodbye to Miami Beach), Plus 39 Reviews of New Cruising Boats

The big news about the big Miami boat shows next month is that the Miami Yacht Show, which had been up on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach for the past 30 years, is moving to downtown Miami. The traffic problems on Collins, and the show’s distance from the large Miami International Boat Show down on Virginia Key, were just too much. This year the yacht show will open at its new location on Biscayne Bay, at One Herald Plaza, between the MacArthur and Venetian Causeways, with a brand new look and layout; it also will be at the Sea Isle…

Cruising Life
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Increasing Noise from Ships, Offshore Drilling, Threatens Marine Life

The oceans are getting louder, with increased noise levels coming from ever-larger commercial ships and new offshore drilling. And the new sound levels are so high that they pose health problems for marine life from right whales to plankton. The newest problem is coming from seismic air guns used for offshore drilling in oil and gas exploration. The Administration has allowed offshore drilling, with seismic mapping, along the Atlantic coast from Florida to the Northeast. Similar exploration and seismic mapping, with the use of air guns, is expected soon along the Gulf Coast and the Pacific Coast as well. “They…

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star, 42-years-old, Reaches Antarctica, but with Problems

The aging Cutter Polar Star, the Coast Guard’s only heavy icebreaker, just reached Antarctica, cutting through ice up to 31 feet deep, but it ran into some problems along the way. The 399-feet long, 42-year-old ship with a crew of 150, completed its mission, leading a support vessel with 400 containers to resupply McMurdo Station, the main U.S. logistics center in Antarctica. But the Polar Star developed a leak from the prop shaft, and it also experienced several electrical problems while in deep ice. The crew had to halt icebreaking operations to send a scuba diver in the water to repair…

Cruising Life
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Aspen Launches New 34-foot Cat with Two Offset Yamaha Outboards

Aspen Power Catamarans is launching its new 34 Aspen C107 with two outboards at the Seattle Boat Show that opens this Friday, Jan. 25. The new Aspen, with the company’s patented asymmetrical proa hulls, is similar to its previous C100 model, except that it has a 200-hp Yamaha on the starboard hull and a 70-hp Yamaha on the port hull, instead of the earlier single-diesel application. Larry Graf, Aspen’s CEO, founder and “chief adventurer,” started testing a 32-foot outboard-powered prototype last summer, in response to the increasing popularity of outboard cruising boats. The trick was to get the right balance…

Cruising Life
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Cranchi and Garmin Big Winners of European Powerboat of the Year Awards

Cranchi and Garmin were big winners at the 13th annual European Powerboat of the Year awards at the Düsseldorf boat show. The prestigious awards were decided by a jury of editors from eight European boating magazines; they considered 24 finalists drawn from more than 200 new boats launched in Europe last year. The awards were divided into four size categories, a displacement hull category, and an innovation category. The Nordkapp Noblesse 660 won in the small boat class, up to 25 feet. The judges said it was a new concept in the day cruiser segment, with a protected cockpit and excellent…

Cruising Life
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Docking Made Easy (Very Easy) with Raymarine’s New DockSense and Virtual Bumper

With a little help from its own brand of artificial intelligence, Raymarine just developed a new DockSense system with a Virtual Bumper zone that automates docking. It introduced the new system at the Düsseldorf boat show, and will demonstrate it on a new Prestige 460 at the Miami boat show, starting Feb. 14. Prestige, a Beneteau brand, is the first production boat company to use the new system. DockSense uses intelligent object recognition and motion sensing to help dock a boat. It relies on FLIR vision camera technology and video analytics to integrate information from the boat’s surrounding imagery with…

Cruising Life
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New Head-turning 48 Wallytender: First Boat Under the Ferretti Group

Yes, I know this isn’t the typical cruising boat that we usually cover, but a pretty boat is a pretty boat, and this one has a fairly unusual heritage. The new Wally 48 Wallytender, just announced at the Düsseldorf Boat Show, is the first boat in the new partnership of Wally and the Ferretti Group, along with the news that the Ferretti Group (Ferretti Yachts, Riva, Pershing, CRN and Custom Line) is buying Wally. The 48 Wallytender is being built at the Ferretti plant in Forli, Italy, with the first boat scheduled to be launched in June. The new Wally keeps…

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