Author Peter Janssen

Boat Reviews
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New Customer Wants “Fastest Zeelander Ever.” Zeelander Builds New 42-Knot Z55

Zeelander, the upscale Dutch builder, just completed a Z55 for a new customer who said he wanted “the fastest Zeelander ever built.” With twin Volvo IPS1350s delivering 2,000 hp, the new Zeelander 55 tops out at 42 knots; the traditional Z55, with twin IPS950s and 1,450 hp, tops out at 33 knots. To fit the larger engines, Zeelander had to customize the hull, adding more strength to the engine room and more lamination from bow to midship. It also upgraded the engine room insulation and installed double-flex mounts on all pumps and motors. As a result, the boat is quiet,…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

After the Great Loop, the McVeys Keep on Cruising: “There is so much more to see.” By Peter A. Janssen Charlie and Robin McVey from Louisville, Mississippi, just don’t know how to quit. Indeed, they’ve been cruising on their 42-foot 1986 Jefferson Sundeck trawler The Lower Place most of the time since they retired more than two years ago. After a few break-in cruises, they started the Great Loop at 5 am on Oct. 23, 2016, and completed it 343 days later, passing through 17 states, the District of Columbia and parts of the Bahamas and Canada. Back at their…

Cruising Life
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Front Street Shipyard Finishes Major Refit of 1962 North Sea Trawler Sindbad

Front Street Shipyard in Belfast, Maine, just finished an 18-month major refit of Sindbad, an 80-foot North Sea steel-hulled trawler that was built in Norway in 1962 as an ice-class vessel. Sindbad was transformed into a yacht in the early 1990s, and needed some major work to restore it to yacht-quality again. After the latest refit, Sindbad underwent sea trials off Front Street, where Billy Black took these pictures, before heading south for the season. Sindbad was a major refit for Front Street Shipyard, which is a combination of custom builder, service yard and marina. Front Street Shipyard also is something of a…

Boat Reviews
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Walker Bay Launches New 10′ 8″ RIB that Seats Five and Costs Just $14,500 with 20-hp Outboard

Walker Bay has just launched a new 10’ 8” RIB with a console that holds five passengers and costs just $14,500 with a 20-hp outboard. And the new Walker Bay Supertender 325 Deluxe Console RIB is a lightweight, coming in at just 259 pounds. “We feel this is the best lightweight console tender in its class,” says Michael Carroll, Walker Bay’s director of sales and marketing, “in that it offers superior comfort, unmatched luxurious features and exceptional performance for a boat this size.” The 325 hull has a sharp entry that flattens out aft and a hard chine that grips…

Charter
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Le Boat Opens North American Boat Rental Operations on Canada’s Historic Rideau Canal

Le Boat, the largest boat rental company in Europe, just opened its first operation in North America on the historic Rideau Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Canada. The company, which has 16 bases in eight different countries, hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Kilmarnock Lock Station on the Rideau Canal, with three of their new Horizon Cruisers among the first vessels to transit the lock to start the 2018 boating season. The Rideau Canal winds 125 miles through picturesque towns, unspoiled lakes and rolling pastoral countryside from Kingston, on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, up to Ottawa,…

Boat Reviews
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Maritimo Launches New 60 with Creative Space Aft. Your Choice: An Extra Cabin or a Beach Club

Maritimo just launched a new 60-foot, three-cabin, two-head motoryacht at the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show in Australia that has a unique space aft that can be arranged in many ways: As a traditional aft cabin, with an en suite head and shower and access from the salon or swim platform; as a “beach club,” essentially an upscale extension of the large swim platform for access to the water and water sports; as a garage for a pretty good-sized tender; or basically anything else a potential owner can think of. In other words, you decide. Tom Barry-Cotter, the lead designer…

Cruising Life
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Don’t Wait: Get the MMSI Number for Your DSC-VHF Radio Now. It Could Save Your Life.

Maritime Mobile Service Identify (MMSI) is a mouthful. It’s also long – a nine-digit number that works like a phone number on your DSC-VHF radio to call for help. If you have it, all you have to do is push a red button on your VHF (even a child can do this) and the radio will automatically and immediately broadcast your boat’s location, in exact latitude and longitude, to all other boats with DSC-VHF radios within range. It also will show your boat’s location on their chart plotters and determine the distance and bearing back to your boat. But it…

Cruising Life
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How To Keep Your Dog Safe This Summer: What To Look for in New Canine Life Jackets

Now that boating season is well underway, it’s time to make sure that everyone on board has a safe summer afloat. Let’s assume that we all have enough PFDs for everyone on board. But what about our pets, particularly our dogs? I have to admit that I just figured that my 75-pound yellow Lab was a good enough swimmer so I didn’t have anything on my Grand Banks or other boats for him. Labs do swim, right? Well, so do other dogs, but for how long, and in what conditions? And I never addressed the real issue, which was how…

Cruising Life
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Largest Dead Zone in the World (Where Ocean Does Not Have Enough Oxygen to Support Life) Found in Gulf of Oman

The largest ocean dead zone in the world, larger than the state of Florida, has just been found in the Gulf of Oman, a strait bordered by Iran, Pakistan, Oman and the UAE, measuring about 63,700 square miles. The dead zone is not only the largest but also the thickest in the world, according to researchers from the University of East Anglia, who studied the area for eight months, using underwater Seaglider robots to feed data to satellites. The scientists had last measured the gulf in the 1990s, and now report a “dramatic increase” in the size and severity of…

Cruising Life
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NOAA Predicts 75% Chance of Normal or Above Normal Atlantic Hurricane Season This Year

NOAA just released its 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook, with predictions of near- or above-normal activity. In fact, NOAA said there’s a 70 percent chance of 10 to 16 named storms developing this season; five to nine of them could become hurricanes, including one to four major hurricanes. Last year there were six major hurricanes in the Atlantic; three of them, Irma, Maria and Harvey, resulted in the loss of 251 lives. The specific forecast for the season, which runs from June 1 to November 30: 35 percent chance of above normal. 40 percent of near normal. 25 percent of…

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