Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Foxy’s Iconic Bar in BVI Adds a Music School

If you’re heading for Foxy’s Tamarind Bar on Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands, you may  not find Foxy himself. That’s because Foxy (Foxy Callwood ) is spending a lot of his time at his music school down the road behind the restaurant, helping kids from the islands. Foxy’s has become an institution of almost folklore proportions ever since it opened on the beach in Great Harbour in 1968, a destination for cruisers and charter-boat customers from all around the world. (If you don’t have your own boat, you can take the ferry from West End, Tortola, across…

Boat Reviews
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New Regency 65: Designed for Extended Cruising

The new Regency 65 is designed for comfortable, long-range cruising anywhere from Alaska to the Caribbean, plus anywhere else you might have in mind. It’s a relatively heavy yacht (88,105 pounds) and its 18-foot-plus beam gives it a large footprint, so there’s lots of room. But that also means it will give you a good ride in a seaway where stability is always a blessing. The Regency 65 is powered by twin 900-hp Volvos, giving it a cruising speed of 15 to 17 knots. Dial back to 8 to 9 knots and the yacht has a range of more than…

Cruising Life
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Search Continues for 12 Still Missing in Gulf

At 4 on Tuesday afternoon, the National Weather Service in New Orleans broadcast a marine warning, predicting steep waves and winds above 58 mph in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico nearby. At 4:30, the crew of the Seacore Power, a 129-foot commercial lift boat, sent out an emergency distress call. It had capsized eight miles off Port Flouchon, the southernmost port in Louisiana. An odd-looking vessel, the Seacore Power has extendable 250-foot legs that can reach the sea floor; it is used by energy companies for offshore construction projects or to service oil rigs. When the Coast Guard…

Destinations
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Bumfuzzle: Playing Tourist in St. Croix

The Schulte family, Pat and Ali and their daughter Ouest, 11, and son Lowe, 9, have been cruising on their 1984 Grand Banks 42 Bumfuzzle for a few years now. (Pat and Ali previously sailed around the world.) Now they’re in St. Croix, playing tourist while waiting out the pandemic, learning about the history, the flora and fauna, and the kindness of strangers in a new land. Here’s their report: A couple weeks back Ali and I were hiking back to the boat from the grocery store, where we had purchased way too much. We were struggling with all the…

Cruising Life
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Ranger Tugs Launches New 43 CB Flagship

Ranger Tugs has a new flagship, the 43 CB (Command Bridge), that’s powered by twin 340-hp Volvo IPS450 pod drives and hits a top speed of 29 knots but burns only 10 gph at a more tug-like 11 knots. (See the boat in action in the video below.) With two staterooms and two heads, the new Ranger can be just about anything you want it to be: A waterfront property that moves, a comfortable liveaboard, a floating office, or most likely, a family cruiser for everything from an overnight near home to a journey around the Great Loop. And you…

Cruising Life
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Big Changes at Kadey-Krogen, Summit Yachts

Some big changes are coming at the legendary Kadey-Krogen Yachts and Summit Yachts, its new brand. From its headquarters in Stuart, Florida, Kadey-Krogen just announced that it has secured equity capital to grow from an investor, and the company says the new infusion will fund a multi-year innovation and strategic plan that will be launched in August; the plan will include details about new models. Just two years ago, Kadey-Krogen introduced Summit Yachts, designed to appeal to younger owners, or those who just wanted to go faster than the 8-knot trawler speed of the full-displacement Kadey-Krogens. The Summit 54 (pictured…

Cruising Life
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Garmin OnDeck: Stay Connected to Your Boat

Garmin has launched a new remote OnDeck system that keeps you connected to your boat, no matter where you are. OnDeck lets you track, monitor and control (via up to five switches) what’s happening to your boat. “OnDeck is a comprehensive vessel monitoring and management tool designed to deliver important information about your boat directly to your fingertips, so you’ll always know that it’s safe, secure and ready for your next adventure,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin VP of global consumer sales. Is your bilge pump running, and running and running? You’d certainly want to know. Has your boat moved, and…

Cruising Life
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Yanmar Tests Its First Hydrogen-Powered Boat

Yanmar just completed the first sea trial of its new hydrogen-powered boat, developed with Toyota, off the coast of Oita in Southern Japan. Yanmar says the 40-foot boat is the first to comply with Japan’s safety guidelines for hydrogen fuel-cell vessels. The boat used a marine hydrogen fuel-cell system that incorporates modules from Toyota’s Mirai car, the first mass-produced hydrogen fuel-cell car in the world; these cells have been used in large trucks and Tokyo’s buses for the past five years. The Yanmar boat, weighing 7.9 tons, was driven by a 250kW powertrain using two modules of polymer electrolyte fuel cells…

Cruising Life
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Classic Huckins, Restored with IPS, Now for Sale

A first cousin to the iconic Second World War PT boats, a 1954, 45-foot Huckins Fairform Flyer, totally restored with 300-hp Volvo Penta IPS pod drives, is now for sale at Yachting Solutions in Rockport, Maine. Yachting Solutions specializes in restoring classic boats, as well as selling new ones. It completed the restoration of the Huckins, named Northern Spy, back in 2012. The boat was the first existing boat to have a factory-authorized repower with IPS drives. The original Huckins, made in the same yard in Jacksonville, Florida, that produced scores of PT boats just a decade earlier, was powered…

Cruising Life
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New Forecast: More Hurricanes This Season

You’ll have to watch the weather even more closely if you’re cruising on the Atlantic coast later this year. The Atlantic hurricane season will be worse than usual. At least that’s the prediction from the Colorado State University Tropical Meteorology Project, which is considered an expert on these things. The project predicts 17 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes (with winds more than 115 mph) this year. All those are above the 30-year average. “We anticipate that the 2021 Atlantic basic hurricane season will have above-normal activity,” said Dr. Phil Klotzbach, the head of the project. The official…

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