Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Castaways Spell HELP on Beach: Get Rescued

Three fishermen who were stranded on an uninhabited South Pacific island for more than a week were rescued by the Navy and the Coast Guard after they used palm fronds to write “HELP” on the white-sand beach. The men subsisted by eating coconut meat. They had some fresh water from a well. On Easter Sunday, the three, all experienced fishermen in their 40s, left their homes on Polowat Atoll in Micronesia to fish off Pikelot Atoll, about 100 nm away on a 20-foot open skiff. As they neared Pikelot, the boat swamped in heavy weather. The outboard quit but they…

Destinations
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Chicago’s Navy Pier Adding Transient Docks

There’s good news for anyone cruising in the Midwest or on the Great Loop. A new five-star transient marina is scheduled to open early in the summer of 2025 on Chicago’s iconic Navy Pier. The new Navy Pier Marina will be the only all-transient marina in Chicago, and it will have 6,400 liner feet of side-to docking for boats up to 130 feet. There’s no minimum boat size, and you can stay for hourly, daily or weekly docking on a mix of floating and fixed piers. The marina will have three gangways leading to Navy Pier itself, and it’s within…

Boat Reviews
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Silent Launches First 62 Tri-Deck

Silent Yachts, the creative Austrian builder, just launched its first 62 solar/electric tri-deck at its yard in Fano, Italy. The blue-water catamaran, with a CE A certification, has a trans-oceanic range at its cruising speed of 6 to 8 knots. The new Silent 62 is based on the company’s well-received 60, which won a Multihull of the Year Award and a Best of Boats Award when it was launched in 2021. It’s two feet longer, of course, but it has the third upper deck, giving it something of a superyacht flair. The new Silent has a reverse bow and a…

Cruising Life
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BluNav Studies Whales: Builds New Prop

BluNav, a French start-up, has a new idea for boat propellers. After studying humpback whales, it developed a Whale Design prop for its electric drives with the blades set on a magnetically driven inner ring. So far, of course, traditional boat propellers have been mounted on a shaft. But BluNav likes to think outside the box. Founded in 2020, the company wants to promote electric power for recreational and commercial vessels. Recently it has taken a hybrid approach, developing its BlueSpin electric propulsion system that can be used with a boat’s original combustion engine. The BlueSpin provides silent propulsion with…

Cruising Life
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More Channels Open in Baltimore

A larger temporary shipping channel to the Port of Baltimore will be open by the end of this month, and the larger main channel will reopen by the end of May, according to officials with the Unified Command there. The main channel to one of the most important ports in the U.S. has been closed since the 984-foot-long container ship Dali lost power and crashed into the 1.6-mile-long Key Bridge over the channel at 1:30 a.m. on March 26, sending it toppling into the Patapsco River below. The crash killed six construction workers filling pot holes on the bridge; the…

On Watch With Peter Janssen
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Bruce Kessler: A Man of Many Lives

Bruce Kessler, who managed to pack three overflowing lives into one, passed away on April 4 under hospice care in his home in Marina del Rey, California, just a week after his 88th birthday and wedding anniversary with Joan Freeman; they had been together for 54 years. Kessler’s seventh floor condo was filled with memorabilia reflecting his multi-faceted life: Pictures of race cars he had driven (and crashed); posters of movies and TV shows he had directed, and maps of the 34 countries he and Joan had visited on their three-year voyage around the world. Appropriately, the condo’s terrace overlooked…

Boat Reviews
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Pershing Launches Sporty GTX80

Pershing, the luxury performance brand from the Ferretti Group, just launched its sporty new GTX80, with a unique blend of Italian-styled indoor and outdoor spaces, at its factory in Fano on the Adriatic. The new 80 has two decks and a sportbidge, and can sleep eight guests in four cabins; there’s also a crew cabin with two berths. Standard power comes from three 1,000-hp Volvo IPS1350 pod drives, delivering a top speed of 34 knots and a cruising speed of 28 knots. Without stanchions to clutter the design, the Pershing GTX80 has a clean, aggressive, modern look with an almost…

Cruising Life
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Beer Can Island: Yours for $14.2 Million

Pine Key, aka Beer Can Island, a nine-acre uninhabited island in Tampa Bay, is now for sale for $14.2 million, a considerable markup from the $65,000 that four investors paid for it in 2017. The investors say they’ve spent $5 million on improvements, including adding toilets, a full-sized Tiki bar, a sand volleyball court, and a massive inflatable side. They also spent more than $1 million on lawyers’ fees relating to zoning. Right now, the island doesn’t have any zoning, something the Hillsborough County commissioners are working on. The island, accessible only by boat, has been a local partying destination…

Cruising Life
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First Yacht with Dog-Rescue Buoy

Now here’s an idea that I really like. Heesen’s new 197-foot superyacht Ultra G has a built-in U Safe smart rescue buoy to save the owner’s dog if the pet falls overboard. It’s built into a hatch on the starboard side just in front of the main steering system. As far as we know, it’s the first such system built into a new boat. The bright-orange U Safe buoy has already won a DAME design award and an innovation award at the Consumer Electronics Show. It’s self-powered and you can steer it with a remote to reach a pet, or…

Boat Reviews
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Aquila Unveils New 50 Power Cat

Aquila just announced that it’s building a new 50 Power Yacht Catamaran that will make its public debut at the Fort Lauderdale show in October. The 50 replaces the now-retired Aquila 48, which was the very first power cat that Aquila made in partnership with MarineMax 12 years ago to supply boats to MarineMax Vacations’ growing charter fleet. Aquilas are made in China by Sino Eagle and sold in the U.S. by MarineMax, the largest powerboat dealer in the world with more than 60 retail locations. The new Aquila will measure 52’ 2” overall with a beam of 25’ 6”;…

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