Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Northern Georgian Bay: A Path Less Traveled

Northern Georgian Bay on Lake Huron is a remote but rewarding cruising ground. It’s off the beaten path, which is part of its charm. But its natural beauty is another. Here’s a great story from Canadian Yachting about what you’ll find there: It’s like we’ve waved a magic wand and disappeared into a picture-perfect painting, our 28-foot Sea Ray a small maroon and cream dot plunged into the middle of an unraveling canvas of color. It’s a landscape where the only real interruptions to nature’s miracles are the navigation marks guiding a winding way through seemingly impenetrable rock scatterings. Welcome to…

Cruising Life
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Take This Boating Safety Quiz from the Coast Guard. Let’s Hope You Pass

How good is your memory? Do you remember all the basics, and the nuances, of the rules of the road from your Power Squadrons or Coast Guard boating courses a few years ago? Now that the spring boating season is here, it never hurts to brush up, to give all those brain cells a refresher course. Here are some questions about basic boating safety from the U.S. Coast Guard. See how you do. (You’ll have to click below for the answers.) 1.You’ve left the dock well before dawn on an offshore trip to fish the canyons. It’s still dark, but…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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New Zurn 60 Powercat, Filled with Light, Space and Innovation

With his new Zurn 60 Powercat, Doug Zurn has definitely stepped out of the box – again. There’s a lot going on in this boat, originally designed for an experienced ocean-cruising owner, from its innovative layout to its 23-knot top speed, but the main themes are privacy, space and light. Ever since he drew the first Shelter Island Runabout two decades ago, Zurn has designed low-profile, long-sheerline, Downeast-style boats with generous tumblehome, head-turning looks and head-snapping performance. Bob Johnstone saw that boat and had Zurn design the first MJM, a 34z (the “z,” of course, is for Zurn), in 2003.…

Cruising Life
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Sign Up Now for CUBAR Rally Next Fall from San Diego to La Paz, Mexico

Planning for next fall’s CUBAR rally, 910 nm from San Diego to La Paz, Mexico, is well underway, with a kickoff dinner on May 18 at the San Diego Yacht Club. The rally, which is open to powerboats with a minimum range of 450 nm at 8.5 knots, is one of the major events on the West Coast every two years, and includes shore parties, overnight cruises, fishing, kayaking, dinghy explorations and all the fun and challenges involved in blue-water cruising. This year’s rally starts on Nov. 4 and is expected to end in La Paz on Nov. 20, with…

Cruising Life
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New Belize 66 Sedan: Low-Profile Luxury in a Boutique Brand

The low-slung, high-end Riviera Belize 66 Sedan, with its singular looks, is now being featured at the Palm Beach International Boat Show. Belize is a boutique brand from Riviera, the large Australian builder with a 40-year history of making solid, well-performing blue-water boats. Powered by twin 1,000-hp Volvo IPS pod drives, the Belize 66 tops out at about 33 knots; dial back to 10 knots, and it has a range of more than 900 nm. Belize offers a greater level of customization than is possible in most Riviera models. The Belize 66 comes with three or four staterooms, three heads…

Cruising Life
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New Floating Bungalows: How To Downsize with a Boat/Home on the Water

Here’s something new: Floating Bungalows, built to ABYC standards, complete with a hull number and 550-square feet of living space. They cost only $225,000. Floating Bungalows are the brainchild of Warren and Cynthia Billings, who sold their large house in New Hampshire a few years ago to move to warmer weather and all-year water access in Florida. They also wanted to downsize. Once they got there, however, they suffered severe sticker shock at prices for homes on the water, even small homes on the water. So they started to design something themselves. It had to be on the water, small,…

Cruising Life
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Lyman-Morse Starts Building New, Creative, 39-Knot, Hood 57 Downeast Cruiser

The new, high-performing Hood 57, a Downeast boat with creative input from many directions, is now under construction at the Lyman-Morse yard in Thomaston, Maine. Powered by twin Volvo IPS1350 pod drives, Volvo’s most powerful, it is expected to top out at 39 knots when it is launched in 2020. The new Hood 57 has an unusual history. It is being built for a New England owner who came to Chris Hood, the head of C.W. Hood Yachts in Marblehead, Mass., to repower his 24-foot boat. They ended up talking about a much larger boat, as in 50-feet plus. Hood…

Cruising Life
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First Floating Taco Bar in Caribbean Opens in St. John; Will Deliver to Boats Nearby

The first floating taco bar in the Caribbean just opened in Round Bay, St. John, with specialty drinks and gourmet tacos you can enjoy at its swim-up bar or have delivered to your boat nearby. It’s the brainchild of the people who run the Lime Inn in Cruz Bay, and it’s called Lime Out. And Lime Out is green in more than its color. It has a solar-powered kitchen, and the cups, menus and packaging are all recyclable or biodegradable. Don’t look for a straw; there aren’t any. Because of licensing restrictions, you don’t actually enter the Lime Out. One side…

Cruising Life
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Flat Earth Society Plans Cruise to Antarctica To Find the “Ice Wall” at the Edge of the Planet

You won’t want to miss this. The Flat Earth Society has just announced that it’s organizing a cruise next year to Antarctica’s “ice wall” that they say is at the edge of Earth. The ice wall, they believe, holds back the oceans. They say the cruise, which will be “the biggest, boldest adventure yet,” will prove their belief that the earth is a flattened disk with the North Pole in the center and a towering wall of ice around the edge (see the rendering, above). Members of the society, which dates to the 1800s, think they can find the ice…

Cruising Life
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Norway Opens Investigation To Find Out Why Stricken Cruise Liner Ever Left Port

Norwegian officials have opened an investigation to determine why the 745-foot-long cruise ship Viking Sky ever left port despite storm warnings. The ship lost propulsion, requiring helicopters to rescue 479 of its 930 passengers off the western coast of Norway. The ship eventually limped into port after a harrowing day and night in stormy seas. The United States and Britain also are investigating the incident, which easily could have ended in tragedy. The Norwegian Red Cross said that 20 passengers were hospitalized with injuries, including broken bones and cuts. Three suffered serious injuries; one is in critical condition. Videos taken…

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