Author Peter Janssen

Boat Reviews
By

New VQ80 Vanquish Sportfish: Just a Chase Boat

The new VQ80 Sportfish from Vanquish Yachts in the Netherlands certainly isn’t the typical cruising boat that we usually write about, but it’s so over the top that I couldn’t resist. Consider this: The 79-foot Vanquish (top picture) isn’t the owner’s main boat: It’s just a chase boat for SkyFall, his 194-foot superyacht (above picture), now under construction as Heesen Yachts, also in the Netherlands. For its part, the Vanquish isn’t too shabby. It’s the most powerful Vanquish yet, with state-of-the-art C32 Cat diesels producing 4,800-hp paired to two surface drives. Top speed is expected to be 51 knots. It…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
By

After One Baja Bash and 4,000 nm, Red Rover Comes Home

One Baja Bash and 4,000 nm later, Red Rover, the well-traveled 2005 Nordhavn 55, is back home in the United States after cruising in Mexico both before and during the time of coronavirus. Back in 2016, Kevin and Allison Jeffries, lifelong boaters, sold their house in Seattle and moved aboard Red Rover full time with their two shelter dogs, Zoe and Max. Their children were grown, and they’ve been cruising ever since. Last October, the Jeffries cruised down to Mexico; they went as far south as the far side of Puerto Vallarta before heading back to the Loreto in the…

Boat Reviews
By

Aquila Making New 54 Power Cat for Comfortable Cruising

Aquila just announced that it’s building a new 54-foot cruiser for its large, worldwide catamaran fleet, and it is designed for maximum comfort inside and out. The full-beam master stateroom is forward, for example, with panoramic views from hull side windows; it takes advantage of the cat’s more than 25-foot beam to make it a special place underway or at an anchorage. The 54 will debut later this year, and we’ll have more details later on as well. But what we know now is that the boat will have three-, four- or even five-cabin configurations, plus a possible skipper’s quarters…

Cruising Life
By

New Forecast: 20 Named Storms in Atlantic Hurricane Season

By Brian K. Sullivan (Bloomberg) –After a frenzied start, the Atlantic hurricane season could turn out to be the most active since 2005, when a record 28 storms formed. Colorado State University has raised its annual forecast to call for 20 named storms, up from its outlook issued in June calling for 19. Five tropical storms have already spun out of the western Atlantic this year, with two hitting the U.S. so far. This is the fastest start in the record books dating to 1851 and, while the storms have been weak and short-lived, most forecasters see ominous signs for…

Charter
By

The Moorings Reopens Charter Base in the Bahamas

Here’s some good news. It’s now possible to start planning, and even start taking, some great charter vacations again. Indeed, The Moorings just reopened its Bahamas charter base in Nassau, serving the gorgeous Out Island Exumas chain, on July 7. You have to meet the current requirements for traveling to the Bahamas, but with a little paperwork that’s easy to do, and then you can take a week’s charter there just the same as you could in the pre-COVID days. With its 50 years of experience, The Moorings is trying to make today’s charters as easy as possible, and to insure…

Boat Reviews
By

New Fast, Efficient, Delta Carbon 54 Cruiser from Sweden

The super-modern Delta Carbon 54 is a fast, efficient cruiser from Sweden that’s made with infused carbon fiber for strength and light weight. The three-stateroom, two-head yacht with its distinctive angular profile tops out at 37 knots with twin 600-hp Volvo IPS800 pod drives; dial back to 7.5 knots, and the range is about 2,200 nm. Delta Carbon Yachts are part of Delta Powerboats, started in Stockholm in 2002. They have built more than 600 boats from 25 to 88 feet. In 2010, the company started Delta Carbon Yachts; at the time, it was the only company to make production…

Cruising Life
By

One Dead, Two Injured, One Missing in Bimini Boat Crash

One American was killed, two were injured, and one is missing after their 34-foot powerboat hit something at night near Bimini in the Bahamas. The two who were injured were flown to the U.S. for medical treatment, and the Coast Guard and Bahamian authorities were searching for the missing woman. Bahamas authorities said that officers at the Alice Town Police Station in Bimini received a distress call from a boater near Turtle Rock Cay, about two nm south of Bimini, about midnight on Friday. Members of the Royal Bahamas Defense Force found two people hurt on the boat, a 34-foot…

Boat Reviews
By

Vripack Designs New Doggersbank 66 Pocket Explorer

Vripack, the highly regarded Dutch yacht design studio, just announced the building of a new Doggersbank 66 Offshore pocket explorer. The new Doggersbank is under construction at the Altena yard, also in the Netherlands, and is scheduled to be launched at the end of 2021. Vripack designed the yacht for a family of experienced sailors who are transitioning into motor yachts. Doggersbanks, with their iconic high bow, are rugged offshore vessels, made for long passages at sea. They were first designed by Dick Boon, the founder of Vripack, in the 1970s, and are named for a sandbank in a shallow…

Cruising Life
By

Man Seriously Injured When Run Over by His Own Boat

A 19-year-old Ipswich, Massachusetts, man was seriously injured on the Fourth of July when he fell out of his boat and it then ran over him. The three other  people on the boat, who also were thrown out, were not injured. After hitting the driver, the boat kept circling and finally crashed into his family’s boathouse. The accident occurred near the Third Creek Mooring field off Ipswich just before 3 in the afternoon. The Ipswich police said it happened when the 19-foot boat, powered by a 90-hp Mercury outboard, “took a turn” with four people on board. They said that…

Cruising Life
By

Boat Business is Booming: The New York Times

In case you missed it, here’s some good news from The New York Times: By Courtney Rubin July 2, 2020 In April, when reality set in for the advertising executive Joseph Gordon — that his family’s spring and summer vacation plans were canceled, that his two kids’ camps would likely be canceled, too — he cast about for an escape. After a lot of research, Mr. Gordon, 40, of downtown Manhattan, located two 19-foot Yamaha jet boats (which cost $30,000 and more) for sale at Patsy’s Bay Marina in Stony Point, N.Y. He asked to reserve the blue one. When…

1 … 183 184 185 186 187 … 398