Author Peter Janssen

Boat Reviews
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Sirena Shows Luxurious New 88 Long-Range Cruiser

Sirena, the Turkish builder of luxury yachts, just displayed its new flagship 88 long-range cruiser at the Düsseldorf show. Designed by Germán Frers, the Sirena 88 has a top speed of 25 knots and a cruising speed of 16 knots. Dialed back to 9 knots, it has a range of 2,100 nm; additional fuel tanks boost the range to 3,100 nm. A raised pilothouse design, the Sirena features the full-beam master stateroom on the main deck, and it has panoramic views. There’s a sitting area to port, and a fold-out balcony. And it has direct access to a private “dipping…

Boat Reviews
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Prestige Announces Groundbreaking New X70 at Dusseldorf

Prestige just introduced a groundbreaking new X70 cruiser at the Düsseldorf show, representing a major departure for the French builder. The new 70 is the first in Prestige’s X series (joining the yard’s Flybridge and S series) and it offers some new ideas about how to use and maximize space on board. The X70 does not have traditional side decks, for example. The side decks that usually are on the main deck level are up top, on the flybridge level, on the X70. And the flybridge is not a traditional flybridge, either. In addition to the walkaround area, it…

Cruising Life
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Feds Say Smugglers Use Yachts To Bring Chinese to Florida

Federal officials say that human smugglers are using recreational yachts to carry dozens of Chinese without papers from the Bahamas into South Florida. The Coast Guard has stopped two boats, one a 63-foot Sunseeker and the other a 70-foot Hatteras (pictured above), as they approached South Florida. Federal authorities charged three men who were running the boats with human smuggling, and said that each of  the Chinese paid them thousands of dollars for the trip. In the most recent case, the Coast Guard stopped the Sunseeker, INXS FINALLY, which was carrying 14 Chinese and one Bahamian to the U.S. from…

Cruising Life
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Bumfuzzle Moves On, Cruising in the Caymans

When we last heard from the Schulte family, they were waiting out the hurricane season up Rio Dulce in Guatemala. But now a new season has started, and they’re on their way again. The Schultes, Pat, Ali, their daughter Ouest, 10, and son Lowe, 8, just reached Little Cayman Island on their 1986 Grand Banks 42 Bumfuzzle, and they’re happy to be there. In late November, the Schultes, from St. Paul, Minnesota, topped off their fuel tanks, giving them about a 1,000 nm range, and headed out into the Caribbean, staying a while in Roatan, the largest of Honduras’ Bay…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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New Erie Canal Report: A Problem for Loopers?

Earlier this week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed spending $300 million over the next five years to improve the historic Erie Canal. Some $135 million of this amount was earmarked to research recommendations made by the Reimagine Task Force, which dealt with mitigating floods, preventing invasive species, and restoring the canal’s ecosystem. Some of these recommendations could affect anyone cruising on the canal, including the great majority of people who are cruising on the Great Loop. Completed in 1825, the Erie Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic, an enormous boon to economic growth at the time. It’s…

Cruising Life
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New Compact ThrowRaft PFD: Easy To Store, Easy To Use

Here’s something that you might want to get for your boat, or even for your ditch bag: The new ThrowRaft compact, throwable Personal Flotation Device that inflates into a life-saving “raft” in seconds. It’s approved by the Coast Guard as a Type IV PFD, meaning it must be immediately accessible on the boat and can be thrown to a person in the water to keep him or her afloat until rescued. One appealing feature of the ThrowRaft is its compact size. It’s much smaller than the traditional Type IV PFDs – buoy rings or seat cushions. Since it’s small, measuring…

Cruising Life
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Right Whale Calf Hit by Boat; May Starve

Here’s a terrible story from Patch about a new-born right whale calf apparently being hit by a boat prop; the injuries may prevent it from nursing and surviving: ST. PETERSBURG, FL — The FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg is closely monitoring a rare right whale and her calf after the calf was discovered with two open wounds on its head consistent with a boat propeller last week. “The injuries are concerning because of the severity and location of the wounds,” commented marine biologists at the research institute. “One of the injuries appears to include damage to the calf’s…

Boat Reviews
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Solaris Launches New 48 Lobster Flybridge at Dusseldorf

Solaris Power, based in Forli, Italy, is introducing its new 48 Lobster Flybridge, with more than a nod to traditional Maine-built lobster boats, at the Düsseldorf boat show, from January 18 to 26. Solaris previously had introduced a 55-foot lobster boat and a 48-foot open, which now has morphed into the flybridge version. Norberto Ferretti is one of the three founders of Solaris and he’s been a fan of lobster boats for many years, even when he was running the powerful Ferretti Group. “Among the many boats that I  have conceived over the years,” he said, “I was especially smitten…

Cruising Life
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Cruising With a Cat – Around the World

Long-range cruising is one thing; long-range cruising with a pet is another. But James and Jennifer Hamilton have managed to make all this seem easy, as they’ve been cruising – literally around the world – with their cat Spitfire ever since they left Seattle on their Nordhavn 52 Dirona in 2012. The Hamiltons, who now are in Amsterdam, have written an account of life on board with Spitfire on their blog, MVDirona.com. Here’s how they – and Spitfire – have managed so far: When we first started planning our boat trip around the world, we expected that cruising internationally with…

Boat Reviews
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BRABUS Launches New, High-End, 60-Knot Axopar 37

If you thought the original Axopar 37 was cool, take a look at the new version, being introduced this Saturday at the Düsseldorf boat show. The new boat actually is called the BRABUS Shadow 900, and it’s a collaboration between BRABUS, a German company that transforms luxury cars (think Mercedes-AMG) into even higher-end luxury performance vehicles, and Axopar, the innovative builder from Finland. For the Shadow 900, BRABUS starts with the platform for the Axopar 37 and then customizes it. “BRABUS Marine products are designed for a select group of boat owners who want to enjoy the very best exclusive…

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