Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Couple Hurt in Jetty Crash Sue Driver for $100 Million

Here’s an update on a terrible crash into the Port Everglades Jetty last New Year’s Eve from the Sun-Sentinel: FORT LAUDERDALE — They celebrated her birthday with a late-night cruise through the Intracoastal Waterway on a powerboat dubbed Blue Steel. Nothing too daring or adventurous; they would be out for only a few short hours. They ended up bloodied and confused on a dark jetty near the end of the inlet at Port Everglades. Lauren Silagyi, who was celebrating her 33rd birthday on Dec. 30, fell onto the jagged rocks and ended up with a traumatic brain injury in the…

Boat Reviews
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Vicem Launching Elegant New 50 Classic Cruiser

Vicem, the Turkish builder of upscale Downeast-style cruising boats, is making a new 50 Classic that’s scheduled to reach the U.S. in October. Vicem is known as a leading builder of cold-molded wooden yachts, but the new 50, a larger version of the company’s popular 46, will have a fiberglass hull and superstructure and a high-quality wood interior. Vicem is making the new 50 Classic out of fiberglass for faster delivery and for easier maintenance. Overall, the boat is a combination of ageless style, contemporary performance, and old-world craftsmanship. Hull number one will have a single-stateroom layout, suitable for a…

Cruising Life
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3 Men Stranded on Pacific Island Saved by SOS in Sand

Three men were rescued from an uninhabited island in the South Pacific after searchers saw the giant SOS they had written on the beach. The men had been missing for three days after their 23-foot boat ran out of fuel and they drifted 118 miles from their intended destination in Micronesia east of the Philippines. The men set out from Pulawat Atoll and intended to go just 26 miles to Pulap Atoll. They ended up on tiny Pikelot Island, where they wrote the SOS in the sand that saved their lives. When the men didn’t arrive at Pulap, their families…

Boat Reviews
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Azimut’s New Magellano 25 Metri: Luxurious Long-Range Cruiser

Azimut just completed its new Magellano 25 Metri luxury long-range cruiser, an 82-footer with a 25-knot top speed and lots of high-tech touches. The latest Magellano makes extensive use of carbon fiber, it has an active air-sanitizing system based on a NASA patent, and it offers a Hotel Mode option for silent, zero-emissions power while at anchor. And that’s before you get to what the Italian builder calls “artistic fiberglass” in the hull, and brushed Verde Alpi marble, dark walnut wood, polished brass, lacquered wood and ribbed wood in the interior. If you’re looking for a no-frills, bare-bones cruising boat,…

Cruising Life
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New Desalinator Delivers Fresh Water. See Video Taste Test

A new tech startup based in Dubai and London is starting production of an innovative handheld, manually-operated desalinator that weighs only 1.5 pounds and costs about $70. It turns seawater into fresh water in just a minute. (See the Taste Test video below.) The desalinator is called Quench Sea and it’s made by Hydro Wind Energy. In trying to finance the desalinator, the company passed its crowd-funding goal by 700 percent. Quench Sea can make up to three liters (about 0.79 gallons) of potable water an hour. It uses a reverse-osmosis membrane that can produce 4,700 gallons before it needs…

On Watch
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Antique Boat Museum Holds Annual Boat Parade

Some traditions continue, even in a time of coronavirus. One of these is the annual boat parade in the Thousand Islands sponsored by the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, New York. The parade this year, held last Saturday, involved some 20 boats, not quite as many as usual, and it had to operate only in American waters, since the border with Canada is still closed. And the Museum’s annual live auction of antique boats, which listed about 100 boats last year, only had seven this year, and it was virtual. Still, an antique boat parade is something to celebrate. The…

Cruising Life
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Enjoy Social Distancing on New Eco-Friendly Floating Pod

Want to get away from it all, without really going too far? Take a look at the new Anthénea Suite, a luxury floating home that’s both head-turning and eco-friendly. The French-built Anthénea is a 540-square-feet pod that runs off solar power with full living quarters inside, and an opening rooftop solarium with built-in seating for 12 and 360-degree ocean views. You can enjoy the Suite by yourself, or certainly treat your friends and family to a different type of day, or evening, on the water. Jean-Michel Ducancelle, the architect, says he was inspired by James Bond’s floating saucer in The…

Engine Room
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Yamaha Tests Revolutionary New Electric Motor. See Video

Yamaha is starting sea trials on Aug. 7 on its revolutionary electric drive system that provides greater maneuverability, faster turning, and less vibration and noise than possible on most conventional drives. Yamaha says its new HARMO drive package is a “next generation control system platform” with an electric motor, a remote-control box, and a joystick. It generates about 10-hp and is available in single or twin applications. A major innovation is that the  prop is not driven through a central axle, as it is in conventional motors. Instead, HARMO has a Drive By Rim motor, where a ring of sequentially-activated…

On Watch
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Cruising Through Alaska in a Time of Coronavirus

Jeff and Susie Parker hadn’t really planned it this way when they left Idyll Time, their 48-foot Kadey-Krogen, in Petersburg, Alaska, last October and flew home to Tennessee. They simply figured that leaving it there would give them a head start on cruising through Alaska once the season opened again this summer. As things turned out, that decision meant that they are able to enjoy the boat, and to cruise in Alaska now, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most cruisers in the Pacific Northwest aren’t able to go to Alaska because the U.S/Canadian border remains closed to nonessential travel. But…

Cruising Life
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How To Use Flares in an Emergency. Take Heed…

Here’s some great advice about how to use flares safely from Skipper Tips.  Take a look now; these tips could help save you and your boat in an emergency: You cannot fire flares without permission from both the US Coast Guard and local authorities (check regulations in your area if outside of the US). But, you can train your crew before you cast off for cruising. Hold mock simulated drills out in the cockpit.  Follow these five steps: 1. Face Downwind Move to the edge of the boat. Put your back to the wind. Brace yourself as the vessel pitches and rolls. Double…

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