Author Peter Janssen

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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FLIBS Opens with a Wave of New Cruising Boats

It wasn’t even noon yet on the second day of the massive Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, but there were lots of new cruising boats and lots of smiling people everywhere. No one was happier than Mark Richards, the president and CEO of Grand Banks and Palm Beach Motor Yachts. Richards had good reason to be pleased. He told me he had taken his gorgeous new Palm Beach 70 out for two sea trials in the past two days. “Two sea trials, two deposits,” he said. The price for a Palm Beach 70: about $4.5 million. The show runs for…

Cruising Life
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New Porsche-Designed, 35-Knot “Spaceship” Now for Sale

Royal Falcon One, a Porsche-designed, 135-foot, 35-knot “spaceship on the water,” is now for sale. It was launched from the Kockums yard in Sweden earlier this summer, and is now listed by Campers & Nicholsons. The luxury catamaran, with four decks and five staterooms, was built in conjunction with the Royal Falcon Fleet in Singapore; the project took almost a decade. The head-turning, futuristic yacht is filled with large windows, sliding doors and light flowing in from many directions. It has an open sundeck on the upper deck, and an observation lounge forward on the main deck. All told, the…

Cruising Life
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Idyll Time Ends Season in Alaska, Posts Best Wildlife Photos

It’s the end of the season for Jeff and Susie Parker on Idyll Time, their 48-foot Kadey-Krogen North Sea Trawler. They just hauled the boat in Petersburg, Alaska, and posted their last cruising blog for the year. They also posted their best wildlife pictures, which are a real treat; see them below. The Parkers’ home port is Chattanooga, Tennessee. After they bought Idyll Time new in 2006, they cruised up and down the East Coast, they did the Great Loop, and they spent so much time on the Intracoastal Waterway that Parker said it had become routine. They wanted to…

Electronics
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Best Satcom Systems for Smaller Cruising Boats

Large yachts have been able to fit and house satcom systems for many years, letting their owners enjoy satellite-driven communications and entertainment at sea or at the dock. The only problem was that many of these systems were too large (and too expensive) for most cruising powerboats. Now that has changed. Many of the leading satcom companies now have internet, phone and data systems that are appropriate for smaller boats. Here, Marine Electronics Journal takes a look at the best on the market now: INTERNET, PHONE & DATA Intellian FB 250 The Intellian FB 150, FB 250 and FB 500…

Charter
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Cruise Through France’s Champagne Region on a Luxury Hotel Barge

For a truly different and totally relaxing charter, consider six nights on the Panache, a 12-passenger luxury hotel barge run by European Waterways that cruises through the heart of France’s Champagne region, with frequent stops at vineyards and historic sites along the way. (See the video, below.) The cruise starts on the River Marne, about 75 miles from Paris. The Champagne tasting centers on Epernay, where you can tour the home of Moët & Chandon and inspect thousands of bottles of Champagne in 17 miles of underground tunnels. After some sampling there, you can move on to a hillside tasting…

Cruising Life
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Cruising Down the Tenn-Tom Waterway on a Nordhavn 59

When we last checked in with Larry and Jamie McCullough on Independence, their Nordhavn 59 Coastal Pilot, they were in Lake Michigan, about halfway through the Great Loop journey they had started last April in Florida. Now they’ve cruised down the Tenn-Tom Waterway, the 253-mile long cut from Pickwick Lake on the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River near Demopolis, Alabama. Before the Tenn-Tom opened in 1985, boats had to continue down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, and then head east across the Gulf of Mexico. The Tenn-Tom basically was a shortcut, saving hundreds of miles. In addition, the…

Cruising Life
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Popular Panama Posse Fleet Will Leave Mexico in December

The rapidly growing annual Panama Possé, a fleet of some 150 boats, will leave from Mexico on Dec. 5 for a 2,000 nm cruise to Panama. It is timed to pick up after the CUBAR fleet from San Diego ends its own voyage in La Paz. This year will be the third for the Panama Possé, which started with just 83 boats. It now will have power and sail vessels from 27 to 225 feet, and it will make stops in seven countries – Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama. It will start at Marina Puerto…

Boat Reviews
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Bruckmann Launches New, Elegant, Abaco 47 Downeast-Style Cruiser

Bruckmann just launched its new Abaco 47, an elegant, Downeast-styled cruiser and the flagship of the Canadian builder’s powerboat fleet. Designed by Mark Ellis, the Abaco 47 has a low profile, long sheer, and a sharp entry for a classic look, while the raked windshield adds a sporty, aggressive touch. The boat is offered with two power options: A single 1136-hp CAT diesel, or twin 641-hp CATS. Top speed with the single is about 30 knots; with twins, about 34 knots. The efficient hull shape puts the Abaco 47 up on plane at 12 knots, while a full skeg and…

Boat Reviews
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Azimut Brings Sporty New Atlantis 45 to the U.S.

The new, sporty, low-profile Azimut Atlantis 45 is making its U.S. debut at the Fort Lauderdale show as a successor to the company’s 43. The new two-cabin, two-head, light-filled Azimut is powered by twin 440-hp Volvo IPS600 pod drives, giving it a top speed of 33 knots and a cruising speed of 28 knots. And it’s a boat that’s made for enjoying the sun. It has a large sunpad on the foredeck for lounging or a picnics, while another sunpad all the way aft adds a separate lounging and social area. The windshield and side windows are all large, and…

Electronics
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Garmin Launches New Hi-Res, Detailed Coastal and Lake Charts

Garmin just made navigation easier along the U.S. coastline and many interior lakes, expanding its coverage and improving the details and shading on its coastal and lake cartography. The new coverage, on Garmin’s BlueChart g3 Vision and LakeVü g3 Ultra premium cartography, will be shown at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. The new high-resolution shading and improved detail showing the ocean floor and lake bottom cover the entire coastline of the continental United States plus 150 inland lakes. New hi-res satellite imagery overlaid on navigation charts provides a more realistic view of your surroundings and helps with situational awareness.…

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