Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Docking Made Easy: Create a Mental “Aim Point”

Here’s some great advice from Skipper Tips about how to dock safely and securely even when the space you’re assigned is just a few feet more than the length of your boat. We’ve all been there. The face or fuel dock is full of large boats, or at least the space you’re aiming for is flanked by two of the largest, most expensive yachts in sight, and you know that a lot of people nearby will be looking to see how you pull this off. Not exactly the time to brush up on your docking skills. Here’s what to do, and…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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The Hamiltons Cruise from Amsterdam up to Sweden on Their Nordhavn 52

The worldwide cruising adventures of James and Jennifer Hamilton continue, as the Seattle couple arrived earlier this week in the Swedish town of Kalmar on the Baltic Sea on their Nordhavn 52 Dirona. Pushing the season, they left Amsterdam at 0500 on March 19, with frost on the deck, to head for a spring and summer in Sweden, Finland and Norway. The Hamiltons had been in Amsterdam for five months, and they wrote on their blog that it was time to go. “We’re loving being underway again. It’s been such a long time since we were at sea.” They hit…

Cruising Life
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Top Ten Bucket List Adventures in the Caribbean. Start Packing Now

You’ll probably want to keep this. Here’s a bucket list of ten top adventures in the Caribbean, places to go and things to do this year, next year, or over a period of many years. You may already have your own favorites, but you also may want to add some, if not all, of these chosen by Coastal Living. Take a look: 1.Dive beneath a full moon in Curacao (see picture, above). There’s an aquatic wonderland beneath the waves around the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao), all found in the region’s vast coral reef. You can take a night…

Boat Reviews
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Hinckley Building 40x Sport Boat with Three Outboards and a Cabin for Two Couples

The renderings of the new Hinckley 40x sport boat, the cruising boat version, are certainly appealing, but they really don’t do the boat justice. I just saw a model of this latest Hinckley at the Palm Beach show, and it’s simply a beautiful boat. Everything is right – the proportions, the flowing lines, the updated application of Hinckley’s classic Down East heritage. The 40x is the second version of the outboard-powered sport boat that Hinckley introduced six months ago, and  it will be launched in a few months. The first version, the 40c, was the center console model, although as…

Cruising Life
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Simrad Launches New User-Friendly Chartplotter Starting at $399

Simrad just introduced its new Simrad Cruise chartplotter, which it says is the most intuitive chartplotter on the market. It’s designed for simple and straightforward navigation, with a user-friendly interface and a sunlight-viewable display. And it starts at just $399. The new Simrad Cruise comes preloaded with U.S. coastal charts, a mounting bracket and a sonar transducer. It combines GPS features with depth-finding capability. You control it with a rotary dial and keypad, so that it’s easy to navigate through menus that give you the information you need – speed, depth, GPS location to course, battery level and temperature. You…

Cruising Life
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British Magazine Names Finalists for Motor Boat of the Year Awards

Motor Boat & Yachting, the British magazine, has just announced the finalists for its annual Motor Boat Awards. The winners will be named in London on May 7. The Grand Banks Eastbay 44, pictured above, is one of the finalists. Here are all the nominations: Sportsboats and RIBS Agapi 950 Finnmaster T8 Jeanneau Cap Camarat 9.0 Nimbus W9 Parker 850 Voyager Superboats: Brabus Shadow 800 Cockwells Titian Tender Levi 8.5 SACS Strider 10 Sealegs 9.0 Hydrasol Zeelandeer Z44 Sportscruisers Up To 45 Feet: Fairline Targa 43 Open Grandezza 34 OC Keizer 42 Pardo 43 Prestige 460S Sportscruisers Over 45 Feet:…

Cruising Life
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For a Far-Flung Charter, Try an Outer Reef 70 on Australia’s Exotic Great Barrier Reef

If you’re thinking about a real charter adventure, take a look at Aroona, a 70-foot Outer Reef in Australia’s famed Great Barrier Reef, home to some of the most exotic cruising, fishing and diving grounds in the world. Aroona can hold up to nine guests in three staterooms, all with en suite heads and showers, and is based in Cairns in North Queensland. Aroona is privately owned, and is outfitted for a memorable charter, with three tenders, snorkeling, scuba and fishing gear, two SUPs and one kayak. It has ABT stabilizers for comfort, a washer and dryer and an available sat phone.…

Cruising Life
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Captain of Princess 60 That Killed Fisherman on 23-Foot Center Console Sentenced to Two Years’ Probation

Here’s the final chapter of a tragic story we’ve been covering since Sept. 22, 2015. A U.S. District Court Judge has just put the captain of a Princess 60 that ran over and killed an 81-year-old man on his 23-foot Steiger Craft center console off Westerly, Rhode Island, on two years’ probation. The judge also ordered the captain, Cooper “Chick” Bacon 80, to pay $1,800 restitution for the removal of the ruined center console and said he could not operate any boat larger than 26 feet. At the time of the accident, Bacon, who had a Coast Guard license, was…

Cruising Life
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Three Sailors Leave Anchored Ship for a Night of Drinking on Shore, End Up Next Day on a Rocky Island

If you’ve ever had a hard time finding your boat in a mooring field after a late dinner or a night out, and you realize all the anchor lights look the same – or worse yet, you don’t see any anchor lights  at all – you can relate to this story. Three men left their boat, the Russian cargo ship Alana Evita, anchored in the Bristol Channel in South West England, for a night of drinking on shore. They took the ship’s 13-foot RIB eight miles to the waterfront town of Barry. They left the bar there at 3:45 to…

Cruising Life
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Florida Officials: Now that It’s Spring, Look Out for the Alligators (All 1.3 million of Them)

If you’re in Florida in the next few months, here’s a timely warning from the state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: Look out for the alligators. They’re more active in warm, spring weather, and their mating season is from April to June. The state has 1.3 million alligators, so you could easily come across them near lakes, ponds, rivers, golf courses, or just about anywhere else they want to go. Indeed, a few days ago, a 12-foot-long gator weighing more than 700 pounds was caught while it was wandering around an office park near Jupiter. The Fish and Wildlife people…

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