Author Peter Janssen

Boat Reviews
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New Award-Winning CLB88 To Debut at Lauderdale

The new CLB88, a family-friendly motor yacht with classic lines and a thoroughly modern interior, will make its debut at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, starting Wednesday, October 28. The CLB88 is made by CL Yachts, a new brand under the Cheoy Lee Shipyards umbrella in Hong Kong, with a rich history dating back to producing teak yachts in the 1950s. The new CLB88 is a contemporary luxury yacht with an open layout that makes cruising easy and comfortable for a large family or a group of friends. “CLB88 marks a new chapter for us,” says Hans Lo, deputy…

Boat Reviews
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New J Craft Torpedo RS: Retro Style, IPS Speed

J Craft Boats, the small Swedish builder, just delivered its first 42-foot retro Torpedo RS boat to its owner in St. Tropez. Powered by twin 480-hp Volvo IPS650 pod drives, the mahogany beauty tops out at 47 knots, and has a range of 270 nm at its cruising speed of 30 knots. But J Craft Boats are not about statistics. They’re about style, elegance and craftsmanship. Consider that it takes J Craft a year to build each boat by hand on the island of Gotland. And that the cockpit is fitted with diamond-stitched white upholstery with midnight-blue piping. The helm has…

Cruising Life
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NTSB Faults Owner, Captain, in Dive Boat Tragedy

The National Transportation Safety Board sharply criticized the owners and captain of the 75-foot dive boat Conception that burned and sank off Southern California last year, killing 34 people, for not posting a night watch and for failing to train the crew in how to handle emergencies. In a virtual meeting of the five-member board, NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt told Truth Aquatics, the Conception’s owner, to “clean up your act.” And board member Jennifer Homendy, who traveled to Santa Barbara after the fire and toured a sister ship of the Conception said, “I hate the term accident in this case…

Cruising Life
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Tula’s Endless Summer – Now on a Highfield RIB

You can’t say that Bill Swezey and Sierra Growth, the cruising couple behind the popular Tula’s Endless Summer You Tube videos and blog, aren’t adaptable. Indeed, a few years ago, they cruised up and down the East Coast and the Bahamas on a 34-foot Marine Trader trawler with their dog Jetty, living and working on board. Then they moved to a 40-foot Crowther Spindrift sailboat. Now, they have it for sale and they’ve ordered a new Seawind catamaran. While they’re waiting for it to be built in Australia, they’re driving to the best cruising spots from Florida to New York…

Cruising Life
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New Unmanned Fleet To Explore Ocean Floor

A Norwegian yard is building a fleet of unmanned exploration vessels, powered by Volvo Penta’s new D8 diesels, that will try to map the entire ocean floor by 2030. This will be the first time that a fleet of autonomous surface vessels, called Armada, will be used for underwater exploration. The Armada fleet will be run by Ocean Infinity, one of the world’s leading marine robotics companies. Founded in 2017, it is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with offices in Southampton, U.K. It hired Grovfjord Mek. Verksted in Norway to build the fleet of up to 13 vessels for entirely unmanned…

Cruising Life
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New Coast Guard Rules for VHF Radio Check

POSTED BY CWO KURT FREDRICKSON ON OCTOBER 19, 2020 • The Coast Guard Inspections and Compliance Directorate has issued MSIB 20-20 to inform mariners of the proper procedure for performing a VHF radio check. Sea Tow Automated Radio Check System no longer available: For several years, Sea Tow operated an Automated Radio Check System, which was available on VHF Channels 24 to 28 for the benefit of mariners in over 130 locations. However, on October 2nd, 2020 that service was discontinued. How to test a VHF Radio using Rescue 21: The U.S. Coast Guard continues to offer an automated Digital…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Beneteau Building Long-Range Grand Trawler 62

Beneteau is doubling down on the trawler market, and is now building hull number one of a Grand Trawler 62, a long-range vessel with a full-displacement hull made for safe, comfortable (and slow) cruising. The new Grand Trawler 62 follows on the popularity of Beneteau’s Swift Trawler line, which now runs from 30 to 50 feet. But while they have semi-displacement hulls and cruise easily in the 15-16 knot range, the new 62 is most efficient cruising at 9 knots, where it has a 900-nm range. Powered by twin 730-hp MAN diesels with straight shafts, the new 62 will be…

Cruising Life
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Maine: Summer of the Superyachts

Here’s a fun story from maineboats.com about the influx of superyachts this summer, largely because of the pandemic, but also because, well, Maine is simply one of the best cruising destinations in the world in any summer. MaineBoats Blog Not only did boat rentals and sales see a huge surge this summer as pandemic shutdowns sent more people out on the water. In addition more super-sized yachts than ever cruised along the Maine coast, visiting ports both big and small. Normally in the summer many of these boats head across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. But when Europe shut the…

Cruising Life
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New Dive Spot: The Museum of Underwater Art

Here’s a new cruising/diving/charter destination, although it is a bit far away: The Museum of Underwater Art, about 50 miles off the coast of Australia in the Great Barrier Reef. The non-profit museum, a highly creative venture, features sculptures of 25 people housed in a Coral Greenhouse some 53 feet under the surface (see them in the video below). The sculptures, all molded from real people and all anchored to the seafloor, were crafted by Jason deCaires Taylor, a British artist. As opposed to many other contemporary artists, Taylor used heavy-set models for his sculptures, thinking they would attract more…

Cruising Life
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Boat Fire Burns 13 in Lauderdale Music Video Shoot

By Brooke Baitinger and David Lyons Sun Sentinel FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.  — Nearly two dozen people were aboard a boat that caught fire on the New River in Fort Lauderdale Thursday, and at least 13 have burn injuries of varying degrees, authorities said. The blaze broke out just before 2 p.m. on a 41-foot Wellcraft pleasure boat that was cruising the New River toward the Intracoastal Waterway. A blast rang out over the narrow waterway, and the next thing nearby boaters knew the boat was floating down the river, engulfed in flames. Multiple boaters called 911 to report the explosion as people fell or jumped into the water to escape…

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