Author Peter Janssen

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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New Vesper Cortex Smart VHF; Touchscreen AIS

The new Vesper Cortex smart VHF is much more than just one more marine radio. It’s the first with high-speed AIS transponder technology, making your boat visible to others, and it’s also a major safety device, alerting you to potential collisions, providing an anchor watch, and giving you the security of a sophisticated man-overboard system. A New Zealand company, Vesper Marine developed the Cortex with wireless touchscreen handsets working with a mounted NMEA 2000-enabled mounted hub; it can work with up to ten tethered or portable rechargeable handsets, so you and your crew can use them from anywhere on the…

Boat Reviews
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Azimut Launching New 68 World Yacht

Azimut will launch its new 68 at the Cannes Yachting Festival starting Sept. 7, the latest in its Flybridge Collection of nine yachts from 50 to 78 feet. Azimut calls the 68 a world yacht, because it offers buyers three layout choices for the salon and dining areas on the main deck. With its growing popularity around the world, Azimut recognizes that people in different cultures use their yachts in different ways. Now they can choose the layout that best reflects how they like to spend their time on board. The first layout provides an elegant living area in the…

Cruising Life
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Arkup Launches New, 8.5-Knot, 40 Floating Home

Arkup, the innovative Miami startup, just launched its latest yacht/houseboat/floating home, a 40-footer that provides what the company calls “the ultimate user experience.” Arkup launched its first project, a 70-footer, more than two years ago, and so far it’s been featured in Architectural Digest, among other publications, and several music videos. The 70 carried a price tag of just under $6 million. We don’t have a price on the new 40 yet, but it’s certainly aimed at a broader market. The appeal of an Arkup is that it has four retractable stainless steel columns, or “spuds,” that can be deployed…

Destinations
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Mackinac: Horses, Boats and a Grand Hotel

A four-acre island at the top of Lake Huron, just around the corner from the top of Lake Michigan, Mackinac has been a major tourist – and boating – destination for more than a century. To visit Mackinac (pronounced “Mackinaw”) is to step back in time. Motor vehicles have been  prohibited since 1898, ten years before Henry Ford rolled out his first Model T. Since then, you get around on the island by horse, bike, or foot. Mackinac is known for its fudge. The first fudge shop was opened in 1887, the same year that the iconic Grand Hotel was…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Cruising 15,000 Miles on an Aquila Power Cat

April and Larry Smith, and their one-eyed dog Abby, don’t know how to quit. They completed the Great Loop in 2017 on a 52-foot Hatteras motoryacht; they completed it again in 2019 on their then-new 44-foot Aquila power cat. And they’re still going strong; in fact, earlier this week they were working their way up the East Coast, stopping in Ocracoke to explore the Outer Banks. Along the way, the Smiths have become well-known for their travels, as well as for Abby. They named their boat One Eye Dog, which helps make friends. They have electric bikes for exploring towns…

Cruising Life
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NASA: Moon Wobble Will Cause Higher Tides

A new study by NASA says that the moon’s wobble, combined with rising sea levels, will cause frequent and devastating high tides and flooding by the mid-2030s. The moon’s wobble, first reported in 1728, is a regular oscillation in the moon’s 18.6-year cycle. But NASA says, “What’s new is how one of the wobble’s effects on the moon’s gravitational pull – the main cause of earth’s tides – will combine with rising sea levels resulting from the planet’s warming.” The “wobble” is reached at certain points in the moon’s cycle when the gravitational pull is at such an angle that…

Cruising Life
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Saxdor Launches 320 with Full-Beam Wheelhouse

Saxdor, the new, creative builder from Finland, just introduced its new 320 GTC with a full-beam wheelhouse, providing much more room for the six people seated inside the 45-knot speedster. Last year, Saxdor launched the 320 with a T-Top, but now the 320 GTC provides all-weather protection as well as a more space inside. In the 320 GTC, you can reach the foredeck through a door in the front of the wheelhouse. Saxdor was founded at the end of 2019 by Sakari Matilla, who also was a founder of Axopar and several other boat companies. Saxdor now joins Axopar, Nimbus…

Boat Reviews
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Prestige Launching New X60 Luxury Cruiser

Prestige will introduce the upscale, highly designed X60, the second yacht in its new X series, at the Cannes Yachting Festival, starting on Sept. 7. It launched the inaugural yacht in the series, the innovative X70, just a year ago. The new X60 is a three-stateroom, three-head flybridge motor yacht with an unusually large and open salon. It’s powered by twin 600-hp Cummins diesels with v-drives, producing a cruising speed of about 20 knots and a top speed of 25 knots. With a combination of curved and straight lines, the X60 has a state-of-the-art European look, all created by Garroni…

Cruising Life
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Canada Opens Border on Aug. 9

Heres’s some welcome news from Canada, with the full story from Politico: OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will loosen border restrictions Aug. 9 for fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents looking to visit Canada for nonessential travel. All eyes are now on President Joe Biden for his own reopening plan. Canada announced the step Monday as it also laid out plans to welcome fully vaccinated travelers from other countries starting Sept. 7. “As we made decisions around reopening to the world in early September, and to American travelers, a few weeks before that, we kept the American government…

Cruising Life
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One Dead in Boston Harbor Boat Crash

A 35-foot center console crashed into a day marker in the Boston Harbor just after 3 a.m. on Saturday, sending all eight people on board into the water. Rescue workers were able to retrieve seven of them fairly quickly, but they had to search until 10 in the morning to recover the body of the eighth, a woman. Boston police later identified the woman as Jeanica Julce, 27, of Somerville, Massachusetts. Five of the seven were taken to local hospitals but there were no reports of their injuries. The capsized boat was recovered and will be used in reconstructing the…

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