Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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New 230-Foot Eco-Yacht Designed To Pluck 5 Tons of Plastic a Day from the Ocean and Then Power Itself with That Waste

Plans for the new Ocean Saviour, a 230-foot, $52 million eco-yacht that is designed to collect plastic from the ocean and then power itself by recycling that waste into fuel, were just unveiled in Southampton, UK. The boat will have two booms on either side that will funnel floating pollution into a conveyer. The plastic then will be chopped into tiny pieces, milled and processed onboard to power the boat. The high-tech process on Ocean Saviour will destroy ocean waste completely with “minimal atmospheric pollution,” according to its designers. The yacht can scoop up five tons of plastic pollution a day and…

Cruising Life
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Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island Resort To Reopen Soon, Rebuilt After Irma. See His Video

Sir Richard Branson is going to reopen his exclusive and beautiful vacation property on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands in a few weeks. It had been seriously damaged by Hurricane Irma last fall. “Delighted that Necker Island will soon be open again as we continue the recovery,” Branson wrote. Branson bought the 74-acre island in the ‘70s for $180,000 and spent millions making it one of the most sought-after luxury resorts in the world. Over the years, the guest list has included royals, Kate Moss, Kate Winslet, the late Nelson Mandela, and former President Barack Obama and his…

Boat Reviews
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New Vicem 65 IPS Classic: A Down-East Look from a Veteran Turkish Builder

The new Vicem 65 IPS Classic, the Turkish-built yacht with classic Down East lines, will have its world debut at the Annapolis powerboat show starting Oct. 11. The new low-profile beauty with its long sheerline and built-in-Maine-like tumblehome is the 153rd yacht built in Vicem’s 27-year history, and its 12th in the 60-foot segment. Powered by twin 800-hp Volvo diesels with IPS 1050 pod drives, the new Vicem cruises at 26 knots and tops out at 30 knots. At its cruising speed, the boat has a range of about 420 nm. Because of its cold-molded construction process using marine mahogany, Vicem…

Cruising Life
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Seal Slaps Kayaker in Face with an Octopus. See the Video

You’ve probably never seen this before: A video of a seal slapping a kayaker in the face with an octopus. Here, from The Washington Post, is a story about how Kyle Mulinder, 37, was kayaking off Kaikoura, New Zealand, when a seal jumped out of the water and slapped him across the face with an octopus. The octopus’s eight limbs were flailing as it fought for its life. “It’s a lot like a wet towel with a bit of hardness,” Mulinder wrote on Instagram. He says he was just in the “wrong place, right time.” His video quickly went viral.…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

We Test the New, Prize-Winning Back Cove 34O: A Fast, Fun and Game-Changing Couple’s Cruiser By Peter A. Janssen I nailed it. As I jammed the throttles all the way forward, I realized this isn’t your father’s Back Cove. Actually, it isn’t like any other Back Cove ever, and I’ve driven every new model since Back Cove introduced its first one, a 29, in 2003. Back then, Sabre Yachts created Back Cove as a single-diesel, low-maintenance, user-friendly Down East cruising boat. But now, on this brand-new Back Cove 34O, all that was ancient history. Powered by twin 300-hp Yamaha outboards,…

Boat Reviews
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We Test the New, Prize-Winning Back Cove 34O: A Fast, Fun and Game-Changing Couple’s Cruiser

I nailed it. As I jammed the throttles all the way forward, I realized this isn’t your father’s Back Cove. Actually, it isn’t like any other Back Cove ever, and I’ve driven every new model since Back Cove introduced its first one, a 29, in 2003. Back then, Sabre Yachts created Back Cove as a single-diesel, low-maintenance, user-friendly Down East cruising boat. But now, on this brand-new Back Cove 34O, all that was ancient history. Powered by twin 300-hp Yamaha outboards, the Back Cove simply took off. As the props dug in, there was a bit of bow rise and…

Cruising Life
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It’s “One Tough Year” As The BVI Struggles To Return to Normal

Here’s a solid story from The New York Times about how the British Virgin Islands are struggling to recover, one year later, from last fall’s devastating hurricanes. “A year later,” The Times reports, “the greenery is back, but Tortola’s lush hills are still pocked with houses wreaked by Hurricane Irma’s 178-mph winds. Some are neglected vacation homes…Others were abandoned by residents who fled the island. But many are the homes of those who have struggled to rebuild.” The BVI suffered  more than $3.6 billion in damages, four times its gross domestic product, in the two hurricanes last fall. It was one of…

Boat Reviews
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New 38-Knot Princess V60 Cruiser To Make Debut in Annapolis

The new 38-knot Princess V60 will make its U.S. debut at the Annapolis powerboat show, starting Oct. 11. Twin 1,200-hp MAN V-8 diesels power the new Princess, with three staterooms and two heads and a clean, Euro-style salon, to a cruising speed of 32 knots. Built at the Princess factory in Plymouth, England, the new V60 is designed for luxury, sociability and performance. The cockpit is a major social center, with a U-shaped lounge with a teak folding table and directors chairs. It’s equipped with a full wet bar and barbeque. It has a large sunpad aft; a garage below…

Cruising Life
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Maine Lobsterman To Plead Guilty to Seaman’s Manslaughter in Death of Two Crew

A Maine lobsterman will plead guilty to seaman’s manslaughter after his 45-foot boat turned over in a storm four years ago off Matinicus Island and his two crewmen drowned. The government says he took them out after smoking pot, attending a Halloween party, and buying 20 tablets of oxycodone. Christopher Hutchinson (pictured at top), who was 26 at the time, left the Linda Bean dock in Tenants Harbor about 1 a.m. on Nov. 31 on his boat, No Limits, with Tom Hammond, (pictured above), 27, from Rockland, and Tyler Sawyer, 15, from Waldoboro. He was told the weather was bad,…

Cruising Life
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Hobie Launches New Mirage Eclipse Pedalboard, Not Paddleboard, To Take You Farther, Faster

Hobie has been one of the most recognizable names in boating, ever since they started making sailing catamarans and surfboards in the ‘50s. And they’ve changed with the times, making increasingly popular paddleboards and SUPs for the past 20 years or so. That’s when they invented their MirageDrive, a propulsion system where you use your legs to drive fins under the boat. Here’s a story from The Manual about five new changes to Hobies’ lineup of boats and boards, but the one I like most is the Mirage Eclipse, a SUP with an improved MirageDrive that looks like a lot…

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