Author Peter Janssen

Miami Boat Show
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On Watch

Here’s a Guide to the Big Miami Shows (All of Them) in February By Peter A. Janssen You’ll find lot of changes at the Miami boat shows (all of them) next month. The big yacht show along Collins Avenue has rebranded itself so it’s now officially called the Miami Yacht Show, although it’s in exactly the same place but with some nicer amenities. It also has a sub-show for superyachts, available by invitation only, down on Watson Island. Meanwhile, the big Miami Boat Show down on Virginia Key, which used to be only for powerboats, now has incorporated what used…

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard Closes Mouth of Chesapeake Bay Because of Ice, Blizzard

The Coast Guard just closed the entrance to Chesapeake Bay to all inbound and outbound traffic because of hazardous ice formations and the impending blizzard. It officially closed Cape Charles and Cape Henry, which function as the entrance to the bay. The Captain of the Port set “ice condition two,” meaning there is significant ice in navigable waters. Blizzard warnings were issued for much of the Lower Bay, so the situation will probably get worse. “The impending blizzard will cause a variety of maritime hazards, including strong winds, zero visibility, topside icing and heavy seas,” said Capt. Rick Wester, the…

Cruising Life
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Great White Shark “Freaks Out” Family of 7 on Holiday Fishing Trip. See Video

A 16-foot great white shark circled a family of seven on a holiday fishing trip in South Australia for 20 minutes before they headed back to shore. “The girth of the shark just freaked us out as much as the length,” Jodie Brown, the mother of the family told the Adelaide Advertiser. The family was on a 19-foot boat, and Mrs. Brown said the shark was easily as wide as the boat. Mrs. Brown and her children were visiting her family over the Christmas holidays when they decided to go fishing off Port Victoria, near Adelaide. They caught some fish,…

Cruising Life
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Autopilots 101: A User’s Guide

An autopilot is not exactly a necessity for a cruising boat, but it certainly makes life a lot easier. If you’re just doing local or occasional coastal cruising, you may not feel that you need one. If you’re starting the Great Loop, though, an autopilot would help on a lot of it – crossing Lake Michigan, for example, or heading outside in the ocean for major stretches of Florida, where staying inside, traveling along the Waterway, can mean major delays for bridge openings or slowdowns in manatee zones. Autopilots can vary greatly, as they need to match the boat’s individual…

Cruising Life
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Dalton DeVos Completes Two-Year Circumnavigation on Nordhavn 76. He was 23 When He Started

Reliance, a Nordhavn 76, just completed a two-year circumnavigation, ending up in Fiji and becoming the 10th Nordhavn to circle the globe. What’s particularly remarkable about this voyage is that Dalton DeVos, the owner of Reliance, was 23 years old when he started the circumnavigation, making him by far the youngest Nordhavn owner to complete such a voyage. The other three members of the crew, including the captain, were all in their 20s. DeVos, the grandson of Amway co-founder Rich DeVos, bought Reliance on the brokerage market in 2014, a year before he started out, and spent that time preparing for…

Cruising Life
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Battery Chargers: How To Choose the Best One for Your Boat

Regardless of the size or quality of your boat, or the number of nautical miles you have under your belt, you’re not going anywhere if your battery is dead. A good battery charger can make sure your battery is charged and healthy and is ready to go. This is particularly an issue if you’re not using the boat frequently. But which battery charger do you need, and then where do you install it on your vessel? Here’s a great story to answer those questions from Boating World. First off, make sure the charger has enough options and features to insure…

Cruising Life
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A Popular Boating Destination near Seattle, Poulsbo Seems a World Apart. Don’t Miss the Viking Fest

Only 13 nm from Seattle, Poulsbo, Washington, is in a world of its own. First settled by Scandinavian immigrants in the 1880s because the snow-capped Olympic Mountains to the west reminded them of home, Poulsbo today is a popular boating and tourist destination known as Little Norway. It even has a Viking Fest on the third weekend in May to mark the start of the summer, complete with a parade, carnival and lots of live entertainment. For cruising boat owners, Poulsbo is not only easy to get to; it’s also an easy place to stay. It’s basically just behind Bainbridge…

Boat Reviews
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Padebco V32: A Pocket Cruiser with a Classic Downeast Pedigree

A pocket cruiser with Downeast lines and a made-in-Maine pedigree, the new Padebco V32 cruiser comes with a variety of power and drive systems to fit the owner’s preferences. With twin 330-hp Yanmar diesels and Hamilton jet drives, it tops out at a very respectable 33 knots. Padebco has been a custom builder with a full-service yard in Round Pond, Maine, just above Boothbay, for the past 60-years. Its current models range from 17 to 32 feet. At the top of the line, the V32 has the builder’s traditional lobster boat lines, with a long waterline, a classic sheerline and…

Cruising Life
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Beneteau and Peugeot Create New Helm Station for the Future

Is this the helm station of the future? It will be if Peugeot and Beneteau have their way, since the French auto maker and the French boat builder have joined forces to create what they call the Sea Drive Concept, building on each company’s research and design labs to combine the best of automotive and boating technology and ergonomic design. The basic idea was to take Peugeot’s i-Concept cockpit format and meld it into a boating format. Peugeot’s Design Lab created the i-Concept for its luxury cars five years ago; the third generation i-Concept is in the Peugeot 3008 SUV…

Cruising Life
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Twin Disc Makes It Easy to Maneuver the New Duffield 58. See Video

It’s not easy to maneuver a 58-foot, single-screw cruising boat around the docks in the best of circumstances. Add a wind or current or a narrow fairway, and well, it’s easy for the captain to look bad and really hard to look good. So, when Duffield Yachts was putting the finishing touches on hull number one of its Doug Zurn-designed Duffield 58 Down-East-style cruiser, the California company got a call from Palmer Johnson Power Systems, the distributor for Twin Disc. To make the boat more maneuverable, Twin Disc suggested using its MGX QuickShift transmission, EJS controls and Max Power hydraulic…

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