Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Sudden Fire Sinks 8 Boats at Seattle Marina

A nighttime fire sank eight boats and severely damaged one more at a Seattle marina recently. The fire raged for more than two hours before 75 firefighters were able to put it out. The fire was at the Jim Clark Marina on Harbor Island under the West Seattle Bridge. The first alarm came from the marina manager, who called 911 about 9:30 last Friday night. It spread quickly, from boat to boat, and caused some explosions. The lower portion of the bridge was closed temporarily because of smoke. The firefighters faced some unusual problems; the one floating dock that provided…

Cruising Life
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Who Needs Bow Thrusters? A Review from Lyman-Morse

In recent years, bow thrusters have become ubiquitous; most new cruising powerboats have them either already installed or as options. There is no question that they make docking easier (and I say that as the former owner of a Grand Banks 36 that did not have one), but they also can introduce problems of their own, particularly in an era of pod drives and joystick controls. They introduce new electrical or hydraulic systems on the boat; they require some degree of care and maintenance, and they can (in my experience, at least) occasionally not provide enough power to move the…

Cruising Life
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Colorful Sausalito Houseboat for Sale: $1.33 Million

Many, many years ago, I lived in Mill Valley, California, and commuted to work as an editor of Saturday Review in San Francisco. It was the best commute I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a lot – in Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York). I rode my bike on a bike path from downtown Mill Valley past the Sausalito waterfront and then took the ferry to the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco, where it was just a short walk to the office. The views from the ferry, of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Angel Island, The City (as San…

Cruising Life
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AccuWeather: “An Above-Normal” Atlantic Hurricane Season

AccuWeather just issued its forecast for this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, and it’s not particularly reassuring. The company’s meteorologists say they expect another busy year in the Atlantic Basic, following what they called a busy season last year. “It’s going to be an above-normal season,” said Dan Kottlowski, AccuWeather’s hurricane expert. “On a normal year, we have around 12 storms, six hurricanes and roughly three major hurricanes.” For this hurricane season, starting June 1 and ending Nov. 30, AccuWeather is predicting 14 to 18 named storms, seven to nine hurricanes, and two to four major hurricanes. From two to four…

Boat Reviews
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New Azimut Verve 47: Italian Style, Outboard Performance

Azimut just held the worldwide premiere of its new sleek, Italian-styled Verve 47 at the Miami Yacht Show in February. The new weekend cruiser turned heads throughout the show, but it really drew praise for its performance on the water, where its four 450-hp Mercury Racing outboards pushed it to a 50-knot top speed. The Verve 47, with a stepped hull by Michael Peters, the Sarasota designer who specializes in fast boats, represents a doubling-down on outboards by Azimut. It introduced its first outboard boat, a Verve 40, almost four years ago. The new 47, with an interior by Francesco…

Cruising Life
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NOAA: 54 Per Cent of U.S. Waters Still Not Mapped

NOAA just released its first report on its progress in mapping U.S. waters, and the results are startling: About 54 per cent of the U.S. coastal, ocean and Great Lakes water are still not mapped. The report is called Unmapped U.S. Waters and it includes the colorful graphics above, showing areas that have been mapped – and those that haven’t. It created the report from an analysis of publicly available bathymetry. The percentage of unmapped U.S. waters as of 2019: U.S. total: 54 per cent. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico: 43 per cent. Great Lakes: 95 per cent. Caribbean: 42…

Destinations
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New Marina Opens in the Breathtaking Maldives

While most of us are trapped at home during the current crisis, it’s helpful to remember that there are some incredibly beautiful places in the world, waiting for us when all this is over. Consider, for example, the newly opened Yacht Marina at Crossroads in the Maldives. The Maldives are a chain of 26 atolls in the Indian Ocean, about 620 miles from India and southwest of Sri Lanka. They’re rich with marine life, including 187 species of coral, 1,100 species of fish, 21 species of whales and dolphins, and five species of sea turtles. And gorgeous waters and beaches.…

Boat Reviews
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Huckins Launches First Sportsman 38 Diesel/Electric Hybrid

Huckins just launched hull number one of its Sportsman 38 Hybrid, and the new cruiser topped out at 35 knots under diesel power and 7 knots under electric. The Sportsman 38 is modeled after the Sportsman 36 that Huckins first launched in 1936 (pictured above), and it still runs on Huckins’ iconic Quadraconic hull. Huckins also is offering the new 38 with outboard power from twin 350-hp Suzukis. The new 38 Hybrid is the first production boat at Huckins, which was founded in 1928 by Frank Pembroke Huckins; his granddaughter, Cindy Purcell, runs the company, in Jacksonville, Florida, today. The…

Cruising Life
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New Street-Legal Boatcar for Sale for $55,000

If you want to arrive at your marina in style, or turn a lot of heads the next time you cruise down your local turnpike, take a look at the Boatcar, a marriage of a 24-foot Sea Ray Sundancer and a Ford passenger van. The innovative Boatcar is now listed on eBay under the heading “1995 Other Make Boat Car,” and it’s for sale for $55,000. The seller says it’s street legal. The Boatcar was created by Mark Ray of Mark’s Custom Cruisers in Georgia. They have built several vehicles out of boat hulls and airplane fuselages, but this is…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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How To Stay Sane in a Time of Crisis

For those of us who love to go cruising, these are trying times. We’re all heading into uncharted waters here, roiled by confusion and often competing narratives, and we don’t know how long this will last or how it will end. Many of us live in areas where we have been urged, or ordered, to stay in place, or at the very least to practice social distancing. Now, it seems to me that cruising people are unusually independent people, self-sufficient and capable on the water; we can take care of ourselves, our crew, and our vessels. On land, however, it’s…

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