Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Ranger Tugs and Cutwater Boats Hold Popular Owners’ Rendezvous in Punta Gorda, Florida

Part of the fun of owning a boat is getting together with like-minded people, particularly people who like the same kind of boat you do. That truism explains much of the popularity of owners’ rendezvous, and nobody knows this better than the owners of Ranger Tugs and Cutwater Boats, who hold owners’ rendezvous regularly all over the country. The 2018 Southwest Florida Ranger Tugs/Cutwater Boats Rendezvous was just held at Burnt Store Marina in Charlotte Harbor, Punta Gorda, Florida, which is just north of Fort Myers and in from Boat Grande. It’s the largest marina on Florida’s west coast. Ranger…

Boat Reviews
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New, Sophisticated, Streamlined Prestige 680 S: A French-Built Luxury Cruiser

The new flagship of Prestige’s line of luxury yachts, the sleek, Euro-styled, streamlined 680 S comes with three or four staterooms below and a sophisticated, light-filled salon that makes cruising easy and enticing anywhere in the world. A new large sliding-glass sunroof that opens over the salon is particularly striking and is also unusual on a flybridge yacht. But the flybridge on the Prestige 680 S, with a low-profile, extremely-raked radar arch, is located farther aft than usual to accommodate the sunroof, adding to the sense that the boat is moving forward even when it is standing still. An owner…

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard Warns Mariners After 70 Containers Tumble Off Ship 17 Miles from Oregon Inlet

The Coast Guard issued a warning of “navigation hazards” after at least 70 containers tumbled from the Maersk Shanghai off the North Carolina coast during a nor’easter with gusts approaching hurricane-strength levels. The ship was about 17 miles off Oregon Inlet on the Outer Banks of North Carolina at the time, heading for Charleston, South Carolina. After the storm hit, the Maersk Shanghai called the Coast Guard saying that 70 to 73 containers had been lost. The 1,063-feet-long, 10,081-ton ship was built in 2016 and flagged in Liberia. The World Shipping Council, which measures these matters, says an average of…

Cruising Life
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Fisherman Hooks 3,000-pound, 16-foot Great White Shark Off Hilton Head. “Holy ….!” See the Video

Chip Michalove, a charter fishing captain from Hilton Head, South Carolina, went out looking for great white sharks recently. He found more than he bargained for. At first, Michalove hooked a 10-foot great white, but it got away. He was going to call it a day, when he saw a giant 16-foot, 3,0000-pound great white swimming under his boat. With only one other person on board (two of his regular crewmen had taken the day off), Michalove called a nearby boat for help. The reinforced crew hooked the great white and brought it near the boat, as you can see…

Cruising Life
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Simrad Announces Software Update for NSS evo3 MFDs. More Color, Easier Controls

Simrad just launched new software for its NSS evo3 multifunction displays with more intuitive controls and lots of color to help you navigate and determine where you’re going and where you’ve been. The software has new control bars so you can make faster autopilot and audio adjustments, and you can expand the autopilot control button to access heading, rudder and steering information. New color tracks are based on SOG (speed over ground), STW (boat speed through water), TWS (true wind speed), and AWS (apparent wind speed). One new feature is a heat map that’s a chart overlay showing a history…

Cruising Life
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Sudden Gale Destroys Marina in Wales, Damages 80 Boats, Leaves Wake of Accusations

An end-of-winter storm with gale force winds tore through Holyhead Marina on the northwest coast of Wales, the United Kingdom, damaging at least 80 boats, destroying the marina and leaving a wake of accusations and fears of environmental pollution. The marina is on a peninsula on Anglesey Island, almost due east across the Celtic Sea from Dublin in Ireland. As you can see in the video and pictures below from the BBC and the Daily Post, the sudden storm tore boats from their moorings, destroyed the docks at the marina, and sank some boats while tossing others, including large commercial…

Cruising Life
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Diesel Duck Designer George Buehler Passes Away. Believed in the “Concept of Simplicity”

George Buehler, the iconoclastic designer of salty Diesel Ducks trollers, just passed away in Washington state after suffering from an aortic aneurysm. He was 69. Born in Oregon, Buehler wrote that he was always “boat crazy” and even worked in custom boatyards in Maine while he was in high school. But his fancy always returned to the rugged, single-diesel, fuel-efficient salmon trollers of the Pacific Northwest. He decided to apply those same principles to his Diesel Ducks, designing safe and comfortable trollers for a couple who wanted to cruise long distances. Buehler saw a niche for his trollers after looking…

Palm Beach Boat Show
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Popular Palm Beach Show Opens March 22: More Boats, More Serious Deals. See Our Reviews of 36 New Cruising Boats

It’s not hard to understand why the Palm Beach International Boat Show has become the fastest-growing show in Florida in the past few years. Its location is terrific: Centered in downtown West Palm Beach along the shores of the Intracoastal Waterway, it’s pretty and easy to get to, on land or on water. And once you’re there, it’s easy to navigate the docks and tents without competing with hordes of other people. It’s a no-hassle boat show, with a bit of the Goldilocks’ effect: It’s not too big, it’s not too small, its, just right. In one of the most…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Aspen Power Cat Arrives in New Orleans in Middle of the Night: “Crazy Boating” on the Mississippi By Peter A. Janssen A year ago, when he was planning a 10,000-mile tour around the United States on his then still-being-built Aspen C120 power cat, David Jenkins told me that he and Larry Graf, the company’s founder, president and “chief adventurer,” had to make a decision. Basically, how to get the boat from the west coast of Mexico to the Gulf coast of the United States. They looked at the normal route, through the Panama Canal, but decided it would take too…

Cruising Life
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Plan Your Cruise Now: Ten Best Small Towns on the Chesapeake

Some of the best cruising in the U.S. is on the Chesapeake, and some of the best waterfront towns, in my opinion, are along its shore. It seems too obvious to mention Annapolis, except that I’m happy every time I go there, by land or by sea. And then there’s the trifecta of Oxford, Cambridge and St. Michaels across the bay on the Eastern Shore; all three are also cruising meccas, and they’re all filled with history, charm, and (unfortunately) a lot of summer visitors. But what about the other small towns on the Chesapeake that also are cruising destinations,…

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