Author Peter Janssen

Boat Reviews
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Palm Beach Launches New Line of Elegant, Head-Turning Performance Yachts

Palm Beach has just launched a new GT series of elegant, fuel-efficient, high performance and head-turning yachts. Indeed, take a look at the wraparound windshield, the low profile, the long sheer line and the gorgeous tumblehome that would do a Down East boat proud, all on hull number one of the new Palm Beach GT50 Express. That boat will have its world debut at the Newport International Boat Show, starting Sept. 13, while other models in the series, going up to 70-footer, will follow. Palm Beach said it developed the GT series after finding a void in the high-performance motor…

Boat Reviews
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New Low, Fast, Pretty, 63-foot Lynx Commuter from Zurn Yacht Design

Doug Zurn has done it again: Another pretty boat, from Zurn Yacht Design. The new 63-foot Lynx Commuter has most of Zurn’s traditional design elements, many dating back to the Shelter Island 38 Runabout that was launched more than two decades ago. Hull number one of the Lynx Commuter, a modern version of the low, fast, commuter boats that carried the rich and famous from their Long Island mansions to work on Wall Street in the 1930s, was designed as a tender for a superyacht, but subsequent hulls can function as a day cruiser or weekender in their own right.…

Cruising Life
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Diplomatic Flare-Up Between U.S. and Canadian Lobster Fishermen in the Far Reaches of Maine

Shades of 1812: A minor diplomatic impasse, a sideshow to the current trade wars, has erupted in the cold, clear waters off Machias Seal Island in the Bay of Fundy about ten miles off the northeastern tip of Maine. It involves American and Canadian fishing boats sharing a gray zone, or territory that has been disputed since the 18thcentury, and claims that the U.S. Border Patrol has stopped at least ten Canadian boats there in the past few weeks. For their part, the Americans are not happy that the Canadians then sent a 100-foot-long Canadian Coast Guard vessel to patrol…

Boat Reviews
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Prestige Launches Luxurious 590, the Flagship of its Flybridge Fleet

Prestige, the high-end French builder, will launch its new 590, the flagship of its Flybridge line, at the Cannes Yachting Festival, starting Sept. 11, and then in the United States at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, starting Oct. 31. The low-profile Prestige 590 has fluid lines, a thoroughly modern, light-filled European interior, and a top speed of 29 knots. Started in 1989 as part of the powerhouse Beneteau Group, Prestige has been a worldwide success story. It has produced more than 4,000 boats, and says it is number two in registered powerboats from 50 to 60 feet in the…

Cruising Life
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Chicago Marinas: Where Have the Boats Gone?

In 2007, there were 980 moorings in Monroe Harbor on Chicago’s south side, and they were all occupied. But then, after the recession the next year, people started staying away. The city eliminated more than half the moorings, to 390, and now only 368 of them are occupied. It’s running a youth sailing program on an empty end where boats used to be moored. As the Chicago Tribune asks in this detailed story, where have the boats gone? The real story is more nuanced than what the numbers suggest at Monroe Harbor, which is owned by the city but operated by…

Cruising Life
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Great White Sharks Return to Cape Cod: Say Hello to Turbo, James and Jack

James is back; so is Jack. And so are a lot of their relatives and friends. So many great white sharks are swimming around Cape Cod that researchers have given them names. Turbo, pictured above, was spotted off Wellfleet. Sandy and Omar were both seen off Chatham. James and Jack were first seen off the Cape a year ago and are making a return visit this summer. All told, the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy reports sightings of more than a dozen great whites at the start of the summer around Cape Cod. Five were reported on the first Monday of…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

The Gardyne Family Cruises to Alaska on Their Nordhavn 40: Next Stop, the World By Peter A. Janssen The Gardyne family from Alameda, California, across the bay from San Francisco, didn’t want to wait for their retirement to start cruising around the world. Two years ago, they bought a 2002 Nordhavn 40 in Seattle and drove it home, on something of a trial cruise. And they were hooked. On April 17, the Gardynes – Dougal and Jen and their daughter Cassidy, 7 – passed under the Golden Gate Bridge on their Nordhavn, appropriately named Cassidy, and turned north. “Our goal…

Boat Reviews
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New Beneteau Swift Trawler 47: The Fifth Model in its Popular Cruising Lineup

Beneteau will introduce its new Swift Trawler 47 at the Cannes Yachting Festival on Sept. 11, the fifth model in its popular Swift Trawler line. It has three staterooms, two heads, a light-filled salon and galley, a low profile even with its flybridge, and a contemporary French look that will appeal to cruisers around the world. Full disclosure: I have a soft spot for Beneteau’s Swift Trawlers. A few years ago, George Sass, Sr., the photojournalist, and I spent a week on a new Beneteau Swift Trawler 34, The Greatest Loop, cruising from the top of Lake Michigan down to St.…

Cruising Life
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Ben Lecomte Already Swam Across the Atlantic. Now’s He’s Swimming Across the Pacific. Only 4,795 Miles To Go

When Ben Lecomte, a French-born long-distance swimmer who now lives in Texas, swam across the Atlantic in 1998, he said, “never again.” But that was then. Now Lecomte, 51, is trying to swim across a much larger ocean, the Pacific, and he’s off to a good start. Lecomte started in Tokyo on June 5, aiming for San Francisco, some 5,000 miles away. His swim across the Atlantic took 73 days. The Pacific will take six months. So far, he’s come 205 miles. If he makes it, he will be the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean. Lecomte says…

Cruising Life
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69 Boats Compete in Bass Harbor Lobster Boat Races in Maine; Winner Clocks 57 mph

The lobster boat racing season is off to a good start, with 69 boats competing in the eighth annual races all the way up in Bass Harbor, Maine. Wild, Wild West, a 28-foot West with a single 1,050-hp Isotta diesel, won the prize for the Fastest Lobster Boat (it’s a regular winner, usually clocking about 57 mph), while in the more specific geographic category, Rachel Irene, a Mitchell Cove 35 with a single 500-hp Cummins, won the Bass Harbor’s Fastest Lobster Boat race. In the picture above, Band-it, right, nosed out Just Colby 11 in its class (for boats 34 feet or…

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