Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard Rescues Couple, Cat, from Sinking Houseboat. See Video

The Coast Guard rescued a couple and their cat from their 50-foot houseboat as it was sinking in North Carolina. The couple were rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter; the cat by a Coast Guard boat crew. The couple – and the cat – all survived unhurt. The rescue started when Coast Guard watchstanders in Elizabeth City got a call from a 911 call center in Pasquotank. It had received a call from a couple saying their houseboat was taking on water and sinking on the Scuppernong River along Albemarle Sound. The Coast Guard launched a Jayhawk helicopter and a…

Cruising Life
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Two People Burned in Boat Fire at Fuel Dock

Two people suffered serious burns when a Carver powerboat caught fire while refueling at a marina in Salisbury, Massachusetts. They were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. The Carver, named Vitamin Sea, was refueling at the Bridge Marina about 4 in the afternoon. Its owner had just picked it up a few minutes before, and was planning to cruise down to Boston. Dan Flynn, who was spending his second summer working at the marina, told newburyportnews.com that he was pumping gas into the boat’s tank and then saw gas leaking from the boat. A moment later, it blew up.…

Cruising Life
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Why Did This Superyacht Sink? Part 2. (And It’s Complicated)

Last week we ran a video about the $40 million superyacht Yogi. It was less than a year old when it sank in the Aegean, and at more than 195 feet, it was the largest yacht ever to sink. The video asked the obvious question, why did this yacht sink? Now we have part two of the video, which is an attempt to answer that question, based on the report by French authorities and other reporting. And it’s complicated. You can see the video below. Yogi was launched at the Proteskan Turquoise yard in Turkey in April, 2011, and it…

Cruising Life
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Cox Now Can Sell 300-hp Diesel Outboard in U.S.

Cox Marine, based in Shoreham-by-Sea in the U.K.,  just won approval from the Environmental Protection Agency to sell its new 300-hp diesel outboard, the most powerful diesel outboard in the world, in the U.S. The new outboard had to meet the EPA’s full Tier 3 emissions standards to be approved for both commercial and recreational applications in the U.S. Cox says it will start shipping the new diesels to the U.S. by the end of the month. The company says the diesel outboard burns 25 percent less fuel and has three times the lifespan when compared to a gas outboard with…

Cruising Life
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Whale Tosses 2 Fisherman in Water Off Jersey Shore

Two friends were fishing a few hundred yards off the New Jersey Shore about noon this past Monday, on a 23-foot center console in about 25 feet of water. Then a humpback whale suddenly breached, hit their boat, and threw them into the water. They had seen whales earlier in the day, but they didn’t see this one. “It came out of nowhere,” Jay DeBenedict, 62, told the Toms River Shorebeat. “This whale breached and I thought he was going to land in the middle of the boat. He hit right against the T-top.” DeBenedict and his friend, Robert Riley,…

Boat Reviews
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Meet Pretti Rose, a High-Tech Joint Effort

Talk about a joint effort, with a high-tech twist. The Newport (Rhode Island) Yacht Collaborative is working with Hutchinson Composite in Cushing, Maine, to build a custom Mussel Ridge lobster yacht, with the help of some state-of-the-art design technology. The result, the 54-foot Pretti Rose, is being built now in Cushing for a Newport Yacht Collaborative client who wanted a recreational version of a lobster boat for his growing family. Mussel Ridge has earned a reputation over the years for building proven offshore commercial lobster boats. The Newport Yacht Collaborative specializes in fitting new interiors into existing hulls, through redesigns…

Cruising Life
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Rafael Nadal Gets His New 80 Sunreef Power Cat

Rafael Nadal, one of the greatest tennis players in recent history, just took possession of his new 80 Sunreef Power catamaran in his home on the Spanish island of Mallorca in the Western Med. The luxurious $5.7 million yacht was launched last month at the Sunreef yard in Gdansk, Poland, and cruised down to Mallorca. Nadal, who has won 19 Grand Slam men’s singles titles and is currently rated at the number two player in the world, says he has loved yachting since his childhood. He grew up in the town of Manacor, on Mallorca, where he still has a…

Cruising Life
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Ship Carrying 6 Superyachts Lists a Bit in Palma

The 556-feet-long Super Servant 4, a transport ship that carries yachts around the world, ran into some problems when it started to offload its cargo in Palma, Mallorca. The semi-submersible ship was carrying six superyachts and other cargo from Fort Lauderdale. It weighs 12,600 tons and has a 105-foot beam. The problem was that it lost power as it started to submerge in Palma, and then developed a severe list to starboard. The captain was not able to right the ship, and several yachts came to rest next to each other. Emergency personnel used heavy dock lines and a tug…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Why Are These Ships Running in Circles?

We all know that AIS (Automatic Identification System) is a major advance in boat navigation and safety. It shows the track of vessels underway throughout the world, and is used by thousands of commercial and recreational vessels. It adds a new level of safety, and displays the name and location of boats near you, even before they can see you. When it works. There is now reason to think that some vessels’ AIS systems have been hacked. The mystery is why, and who did it. The problem is that AIS tracks showed about a dozen ships traveling in circles near…

Boat Reviews
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New Seaward 42: A Serious Blue-Water Cruiser

It’s always interesting to see a new cruising boat that actually looks – and behaves – like a real blue-water cruising boat. Take a look, for example, at the Seaward 42, built in Cowes on the Isle of Wight by a company that’s been making pilot boats and patrol boats for the past 40 years. The Seaward 42 is built to go to sea, even rough seas. Its semi-displacement hull, low profile, and sturdy build all say that this is a serious boat. With standard twin 370-hp Yanmar diesels, it can cruise up to 20 knots, and still be fuel-efficient…

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