Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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The Best – and Worst – Ways To Prepare Your Boat for a Hurricane, from BoatU.S.

Now that hurricane season is heating up, you need to make double-sure that your boat is prepared for the worst. As the old saying goes – prepare for the worst, hope for the best. Here is some great advice from BoatU.S. about how to help your boat survive a hurricane, drawing on lessons learned from hurricanes dating back to 1983. Since then, BoatU.S. Marine Insurance has been collecting evidence of what worked – and what didn’t – when owners thought they were making their boats safe. You already know to take off your Bimini and anything else that can blow…

Charter
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European Waterways Starts New “Girls’ Getaway” Charters on Luxury Canal Barges

Here’s a new idea from European Waterways, the company that runs 17 hotel barges in nine countries, from the Scottish Highlands to the Midi in the South of France: “Girls’ Getaway” charters, aimed at the growing market of women traveling on their own or who want to create their own charters with families and friends. The Girls’ Getaways can be very flexible and organized around such themes as culinary excursions, wine appreciation, wellness or simply walking along scenic towpaths. “Today’s women travelers are more confident and independent than ever before,” says Derek Banks, managing director of European Waterways. “The social…

Cruising Life
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Floating Boom Heads for Pacific Garbage Patch. Goal Is To Collect 87,000 Tons of Plastic

A 2,000-foot-long floating boom just left San Francisco on its way to the Pacific Garbage Patch, a gyre of trash between California and Hawaii, with 1.8 trillion pieces of garbage, including 87,000 tons of plastic. The Pacific Garbage Patch is about three times the size of France. The unmanned boom was towed by a ship from the nonprofit Ocean Cleanup, an organization founded by Boyan Slat, a 24-year-old Dutch inventor. Once on site, the boom will detach from the towing vessel. The current is expected to pull it into a U shape, which will trap the plastic as it is…

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard Launches $225,000 Competition for Developing New PFDs

The Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard just launched the U.S. Coast Guard Ready for Rescue Challenge, a competition to develop easier ways to find people in the water, with $225,000 in prize money. The idea is to create new ways to find and rescue a man overboard. “Boater safety solutions that harness new designs and technologies can improve the chance of a successful rescue,” said William N. Bryan, from the DHS Directorate of Science and Technology. “New, innovative solutions are critical.” The competition starts with ideas for a new or updated life jacket or PFD, or an…

Boat Reviews
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Lexus Will Launch Its New LY 650 Luxury Yacht, Built in Wisconsin, Next Year

Lexus just announced it will launch its new LY 650 luxury yacht, which will be built in Wisconsin, in 2019. The LY 650 is the fourth in the brand’s new fleet, a 65-footer that Lexus says will be designed with the “L-finesse” language and aesthetic. The company, part of Toyota, unveiled its Lexus Sport Yacht Concept at the Miami boat show in 2017. That design won the “Boat of the Year” award at the Japan International Boat Show, where Shigeki Tomoyama, the executive vice president of Toyota, announced the company’s partnership with the Marquis-Larson Boat Group in Pulaski, Wisconsin. Marquis-Larson…

Cruising Life
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Which Dog is Best for Cruising? Other than the One You Have Now…

Which breed of dog is the best for cruising? This question is almost as likely to start a spirited discussion as asking what’s the best boat for cruising? The real answer, of course, is the dog (or boat) that you’re cruising with now. But while many boat owners acknowledge that some boats are more suited for cruising than others, and they may dream about trading up to one of them, very few dog owners will admit to harboring any such intentions about trading in their pet. Your dog, whether on your boat or at home, is still your best friend;…

Cruising Life
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Cruise Liner Loses Power in Buzzards Bay for Three Hours. All Safe

The 440-foot luxury cruise liner Star Pride with 351 people on board lost power for about three hours Friday afternoon on Buzzards Bay between Cuttyhunk on the Elizabeth Islands and Westport on the Massachusetts mainland. The Coast Guard sent boats from their stations in the Cape Cod Canal, Woods Hole and Menemsha plus a Jayhawk helicopter. Commercial tugs also responded. Windstar Cruises, the ship’s parent company, said the Star Pride lost cooling water for its engines and they shut down automatically. The ship lost propulsion. During that time, the company said, “the Star Pride was on emergency generator power, including power to navigational…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

From Seattle to Michigan to Florida to the Trent Severn Waterway in Canada: The Favors Find the Advantages of a Trailerable Ranger 29 By Peter A. Janssen When we last visited Jim and Lisa Favors, they had just bought their Ranger Tug 29 in Seattle and were spending a few weeks cruising and getting used to their new boat. Not that they needed an introduction to Ranger or to cruising. They already had cruised extensively on their Ranger 27 (completing the Great Loop, for example), but a year ago they wanted to move up in size and traded up to…

Boat Reviews
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Back Cove Tests Twin 300-hp Yamaha and 350-hp Suzuki Outboards on Its New 34O. The Suzukis Are 3 Knots Faster

It’s not often that you can compare the performance of a brand-new boat with different power configurations, but Back Cove has just released that information for its new 34O (for outboard) cruiser that will make its public debut at the Newport International Boat Show, starting Sept. 13. The standard power for the Maine-built couple’s cruiser is two 300-hp Yamaha outboards; two 350-hp Suzukis are an option. Here’s how they performed. Back Cove tested the two power options three days apart in mid-August with about the same fuel, water and load in similar sea conditions on West Penobscot Bay near the…

Cruising Life
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For Some of the Best Fall Cruising, Head North, to Canada

Don’t even think about putting your boat away for the season. Now that summer’s over, there’s still lots of cruising time left, when the autumnal colors can be gorgeous, the crowds thin out, and you can have more time to wander and explore at your own pace. Indeed, in many parts of the U.S., fall can be the best boating season. And this may seem counter-intuitive, but to enjoy some of the best fall boating, you need to head north, all the way to Canada. Here’s a look at some of the best cruising destinations that country has to offer.…

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