Author George Day

On Watch With Peter Janssen
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Palm Beach Motor Yachts Celebrates Thirtieth Anniversary

One of the highlights for me at this year’s Newport International Boat Show, last week, was taking part in Palm Beach Yachts’ thirtieth anniversary celebration. The elegant dinner was hosted by Palm Beach’s founder and CEO Mark Richards who in turn invited a dozen or more Palm Beach owners and a whole gang of the Palm Beach team to be part of the event. In after-diner remarks, Mark emphasized that he might be the visionary who launched Palm Beach thirty years ago, but it is the owners and the dedicated staff that make the whole process of building the boats…

Boat Reviews
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Beneteau’s Swift Trawler 37 Fly Enhances a Proven Success

The Swift Trawler 37 sedan replaced the venerable 35 and has established itself as a leader in the mid-size trawler market around the world. With top speeds of over 20 knots and efficient cruising speeds in the mid-teens, the 37 has proven that trawler cruising does not have to be equal to slow cruising. This year, Beneteau is debuting their new Swift Trawler 37 Fly which adds a bridge and upper lounge to the design. This new feature effectively increases usable social spaces by about 30 percent and gives the navigator a raised helm for eyeball conning and docking. The…

Charter
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Young Stewardess Murdered Aboard Luxury Yacht in Bahamas

Here’s a tragic story about a young, adventurous woman whose life was cut short. Last week, while moored in the Harbour Island resort and marina in the Bahamas, the crew of the 142-foot motor yacht Far From It was preparing the vessel for a charter when they noticed that their stewardess Paige Bell was missing. A search of the yacht brought tragic results. Bell was found stabbed to death in the engine room and near her was the yacht’s engineer Birgito Munoz with self-inflicted but non-fatal knife wounds. The scene suggested a violent and likely sexual assault. Munoz was arrested,…

Boat Reviews
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Galeon Yachts Surprises Cannes Show-Goers with All-New 430 Explorer

This week at France’s Cannes Festival of Yachting, the Polish builder of sport cruisers unveiled a surprise for the cruising market, the all-new Galeon 430 Explorer.  The new 43-footer is their first boat in the long-range trawler style and promises to open new audiences for the builder. The design has a purposeful trawler styling with a fly bridge, a high saloon with expansive glazing and a large aft cockpit and swim platform. This last feature is enhanced by fold-down bulwarks on both sides that almost double the cockpit’s deck area. The helm at the front of the saloon is up…

Charter
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The Pleasures of Chartering a Power Cat

We had just dropped the mooring off The Bitter End in Virgin Gorda’s North Sound in the BVI and started the 15-mile passage north to Anagada when a gusty squall swept in from the Atlantic and began pelting us with rain drops the size of grapes.  But, there was no panic, no rushing to the mast to drop the mainsail, no frantic rolling up of the headsail.  That’s because we were snug at the inside helm of a 45-foot power cat. The squall passed and soon we climbed to the bridge to enjoy the sunlight and the view of the…

Boat Reviews
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Introducing the Aluminum Forte 47, Italian to the Core

West Navitech is a relatively new commercial shipyard based near La Spezia, Italy. Over the last decade they have earned a reputation for building robust aluminum commercial vessels of the highest strength and quality. They build passenger vessels, tugs, Coast Guard rescue craft and fireboats. Plus, they build aluminum hulls for other yacht builders in the La Spezia region. So, it is a little surprising to hear this month that the builder was venturing into the luxury yacht market with a new aluminum family cruiser called the Forte 47. The name Forte come from the Italian word for strength and…

Cruising Life
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MJM Yachts Announces New Boating Course for Women

This week, MJM Yachts announced that the builder of luxury motor yachts is introducing a course for women called “She’s the Captain” designed to help new boaters master the skills needed to fully enjoy a new yacht. The initial course will be held on September 19 and 20 in New Bern, Sout Carolina, not far from the MJM facility in Washington, South Carolina. The course is complimentary and will be taught by instructors with more than 20-years of experience. “While many of MJM’s female customers drive their yachts themselves or share the helm with a male partner, others have told…

Cruising Life
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Scottish Brothers Complete Record Setting 139-Day Row Across the Pacific

Calling for “pizza and beer”  Lachlan, Ewan and Jaimie McLean alerted the Cairns, Australia marina that they were near the end of their historic 9,000-mile rowing trip from Lima, Peru to Australia.  They had just crossed the world’s largest ocean by oar power alone and without assistance. The brothers departed Peru in mid-April with the intention of arriving in Sydney, Australia on August 2 or so. But it was not to be. Crossing the South Pacific is a monumental task, involving  a wide range of weather conditions. The hurricane season runs from November to March so they were not in…

On Watch With Peter Janssen
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New Sialia 45 Electric Cruiser Dishes Up Impressive Combination of Speed and Range

We’ve been covering the Sialia project for a year now and have had a chance to spend time on the first all-electric cruiser from the builder at last year’s Ft. Lauderdale boat show. The reason for our continued attention is simply that the company’s founders may well have found the holy grail of electric boats: extended range and high top speed. The Sialia 45 is being built in Poland and will be launched in a few weeks. This boat is the culmination of years of work on hull design, advanced composite construction and the latest in battery power and electric…

On Watch With Peter Janssen
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Annual Ode to America’s Great Loop Adventure

Every year, we like to dedicate the last issue of the summer to a cruising adventure that is uniquely American, that is as big a Paul Bunyon and as tall as some of Mark Twain’s tales. It is America’s Great Loop. The 6,000-mile route around the eastern third of the American continent is made up of many parts, each with its own character, challenges and rewards for cruisers. Many cruisers sample only sections of the route, while a special few become true loopers by completing the full circuit. The Great Loop Cruising Association provides an umbrella organization for want-to-be loopers,…

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