Author Peter Janssen

On Watch
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Wellcraft Comes Back with 355 Adventure Cruiser

Wellcraft is coming back – back, at least, to the world of fast cruising boats where it once was a major player. Now owned by the Beneteau Group, Wellcraft just announced that it’s making a new 35-foot cruiser, powered by three outboards with 1,050-hp as part of a new direction. We’ll have more details in a few weeks, and the first boat, the Wellcraft 355 (pictured above), will be displayed at the Cannes show in September. I well remember Wellcraft’s heyday in the 1980s, when Bob Long was running the company, Irwin Jacobs owned it, and Don Johnson, aka Sonny…

Boat Reviews
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New 59-Knot, 7,800-hp AB Superfast 100

It’s probably a bit overpowered for the Great Loop, but if you want to cruise from, say, Greenwich to Newport for lunch, or Miami to Bimini in an hour or so, riding in style and comfort, then the luxurious new AB Superfast 100 may be a good bet. The just-launched hull number one of the AB Superfast is powered by three 2,600-hp MTUs (for a total of 7,800-hp), delivering a top speed of 59 knots and a cruising speed of 50 knots. Standard power is three 1,900-hp MANs, (only 5,700 hp) but the first owner wanted some extra juice. The…

Cruising Life
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Nordhavn Holds Largest Rendezvous Yet

Nordhavn just held its largest owners’ rendezvous yet, with 48 boats and the owners of 19 more attending the five-day gathering at Victoria International Marina on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Victoria is a popular location because of its proximity to the San Juan Islands, prime cruising grounds in their own right. The Victoria rendezvous also served as the start of the season for boats heading farther north up the Inside Passage to Alaska, another favorite destination for the owners of Nordhavns and many, many other cruising boats. Nordhavns of all sizes were represented in Victoria; indeed, 16 different models lined…

Charter
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Luxury Barges Cruise To Britain’s Castles

If you’ve been watching Downton Abbey, The Crown, Bridgerton, or a lot of other British dramas on Britbox or elsewhere, then European Waterways has a cruise for you. With the largest fleet of luxury hotel barges in Europe, European Waterway has designed a Thames River cruise that visits many of those locations on its eight-passenger Magna Carta barge, pictured above. The Magna Carta will cruise to many of the South of England’s most picturesque sites, including royal palaces, aristocratic estates, and centuries-old riverside villages. One highlight is a tour of Highclere Castle, scene of Downton Abbey’s Crawley family, and the…

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard Rescues Dog in Pamlico Sound

Myla is one lucky dog. About 6:10 p.m. last Saturday, the crew of Coast Guard CG24508, a 24-foot shallow water boat out of Hatteras Inlet, were on routine law enforcement patrol in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, when they heard an urgent radio call on Channel 16. A dog had fallen overboard and the owner’s couldn’t find her. No more than five minutes later, the Coast Guard crew saw something moving in the water. It was Myla, the dog overboard, paddling over to reach them. The Coast Guard posted on Facebook that “the crew made way towards the distressed dog and…

Boat Reviews
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Doggersbank Explorer Cruisers Make a Comeback

Doggersbank, the Dutch builder of rugged, offshore yachts, is making a comeback of sorts, taking advantage of the trend toward experiential cruising. Dick Boon, the founder of Vripack, the Dutch design firm, started work on the first Doggersbank in 1968. Over the years, more than 750 Doggersbanks were built, and they were soon headed all around the world – to the Arctic, the Antarctic, and most points in between. There were several circumnavigations. But times changed, and no new Doggersbanks were built for a while. The company built a new 66 last summer, and is finishing a slightly stretched version, an…

Cruising Life
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Record-Holding Gentry Eagle Broken Up for Scrap

This is sad. The Gentry Eagle, the 112-foot, 11,460-hp speedster that set a transatlantic record in 1989 and then also won the Motor Boating & Sailing Chapman Trophy for the fastest time from Miami to New York, is no more. It was just demolished for scrap in a yard in Ventura, California. The Gentry Eagle is the product of Tom Gentry, a Hawaiian builder and a serial world offshore boat racing champion. Gentry himself died four years after his 40-foot Skater cat crashed during the Key West World Offshore Championship race in 1994. The Skater flipped and Gentry was trapped…

Boat Reviews
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Cape Island Launches 38 Blue-Water Cruiser

Cape Island Cruisers, a new builder in Nova Scotia, has launched hull number one of its Cape Sable 38 line, a no-frills, fuel-efficient, ocean-going vessel based on the area’s commercial workboat heritage. The company says the Cape Sable 38 is “an ocean-friendly motorboat for cruising couples.” It certainly seems to live up to that billing, but it also could serve well as a liveaboard or a platform to take on the Great Loop or almost any other voyage. The first boat, named Stanley, is powered by a fuel-efficient 110-hp, four-cylinder turbocharged and intercooled Yanmar common rail diesel. The company says…

Boat Reviews
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Wally Launching Revamped 58 Power

Wally is introducing its revamped power lineup with the new cutting-edge Wallypower 58. The long, low, slender Wallypower 58 will have its world debut at the Venice show, starting May 28. Wally was founded in Monaco in 1994 by Luca Bassani, who launched an iconic line of sail and power boats that won worldwide acclaim for their looks and performance. Indeed, Wally is the only yacht builder to win the ADI Compasso d’Oro Award (twice) for quality and design. The worldwide Ferretti Group bought Wally in 2019. The new Wallypower 58 is the first yacht in a reimagined lineup for…

Boat Reviews
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Arksen Building Long-Range 65 Explorer

Arksen, the innovative British builder, just announced that it’s working on a new 65 world cruiser with a 3,000 nm range. The Arksen 65 is the third in the company’s explorer line, with an outboard-powered 45 built last year, followed by an 85. The new 65 is designed for an owner-operator to go anywhere in the world. “This vessel is designed to stand out from the crowd, as well as being built for worldwide exploration,” said Dominic Bryne, Arksen’s director of sales and marketing. “We want owners to really make the most of their adventure, wherever they choose to have…

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