Author Peter Janssen

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Miami Show Opens Big: More Boats, More People, More Enthusiasm By Peter A. Janssen The Miami International Boat Show got underway under beautiful blue skies with more people, more boats, more outboards, more hybrids, more cats and more enthusiasm that I’ve seen in a long time. The mood on the docks, and in the lines waiting for water taxis and shuttle buses to and from the show at Virginia Key, was distinctly upbeat. Power boating has been coming back lately. The Lauderdale show in November was the best in years, the New York show last month was so good that…

Cruising Life
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Sea Levels Rising Faster than Expected, Scientists Report, and Acceleration Will Continue. See Video

Sea levels have been rising around the world faster than scientists had predicted, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The increase has not been steady; instead, it has accelerated in recent years, and probably will continue to increase the rest of this century. The study, based on data from NASA and European satellites over the past 25 years, shows that ice has been melting in Greenland and the Antarctic at an increasingly fast rate, and could result in the sea level rising by twice the amount scientists had predicted by 2100. Indeed,…

Cruising Life
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How To Prevent Fires on Board: Some Reminders from the U.S. Power Squadrons

Few things are more frightening, or potentially more lethal, than fires on board. The real point, of course, is to prevent them from starting in the first place. I’ve found that often people who own diesel cruising boats don’t worry about fires that much. But diesel burns just as fast as gasoline does once it’s ignited; it’s just that the temperature at which diesel ignites is higher. And gas is explosive. All that’s to say that everyone would be well advised to take some simple precautions to prevent fires on board, because once they start, they often spread quickly. And…

Cruising Life
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Drug Smugglers Now Using Low, Fast, Camouflaged Boats, but Are Still Getting Caught

Drug smugglers, it seems, are getting smarter. Well, if not smarter, at least faster. In an effort to thwart increased Coast Guard interdictions of suspected smuggling boats in the Pacific, the cartels are now running drugs in low, fast, camouflaged boats that are hard to pick up on radar, or to catch at sea. Still, a recent joint operation between the U.S. Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard resulted in 23 separate interdictions off Central and South America, capturing 47,000 pounds of cocaine with a street value of $721 million. The U.S. Coast Guard recently released videos and photos…

Cruising Life
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Avon Launches New All-Electric RIB with Luxurious Touches and a 26-knot Top End

Avon has a great idea for its new RIB: It’s all-electric, powered by an 80-hp Torqueedo Deep Blue Electric Motor paired to jet drives on an all-new hull. For cruisers who might want to use the new 14’ 8” RIB as a dink, this they won’t have to worry about fuel or oil – or making any noise in the harbor, for that matter. The new Avon e-JET has a 32 kWh BMW battery, the same one used in BMW’s i3 Cars. It gives the e-JET up to 90 minutes of running time at a top speed of 26 knots…

Cruising Life
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Even After Cruising Thousands of Miles, The Naeves on Their Nordhavn 50 Face Some Challenges

In the fall of 2014, Clayton and Deanna Naeve moved aboard their 1999 Nordhavn 50, Tivoli. Originally from South Dakota, Naeve was starting his retirement. They sold their house, put their remaining things in storage, and began a new life afloat. The Naeves had owned three sailboats before, but Tivoli, powered by a 250-hp Lugger, was their first powerboat, and they headed south, to Florida. They basically have been cruising ever since. Last year, for example, they cruised to Bermuda to watch the America’s Cup, then up to Nova Scotia and Bras D’Or Lake, and even farther north to Newfoundland to…

Cruising Life
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The Jailed “Codfather” of the New Bedford Fishing Fleet: Pirate or Robin Hood?

Carlos Rafael seemed like an all-American success story. A Portuguese immigrant, he started out cutting fish on the dock in New Bedford, Mass., one of the most important fishing towns in the world ever since the days of Moby Dick. Over the years, Rafael, now 65, put together one of the largest commercial fishing fleets in the U.S., with almost two dozen boats, controlling almost a quarter of New England’s landings of groundfish and scallops. But now he’s in jail, having pleaded guilty to conspiracy, tax evasion, smuggling cash and falsifying his records. And the boats in his fleet, which…

Cruising Life
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Greenline Now Takes Bitcoin, a Currency that’s Worth Half What It Was in December

Greenline, the innovative Slovakian builder now on its third generation of hybrid drives, is also setting a new standard in accepting payment for its boats. In fact, Greenline became the first builder to take bitcoins, starting with the Düsseldorf show in late January, and it says it also will take bitcoins at the Miami show this week. The problem is that the value of bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency, fluctuates widely and is now worth just half of what it was in mid-December. Bitcoin reached its peak value in mid-December when it passed $19,850. It then plunged to under $12,000…

Boat Reviews
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New Bavaria 40 Sedan: Honored in Europe, Now in the U.S. with Creative Interior Design

Named the European Power Boat of the Year in 2017 for its freshly designed salon and use of space, the innovative Bavaria 40 Sedan will be on display at the Miami International Boat Show. With two or three cabins, and two heads, the Bavaria 40 features a new layout where the helm is situated a bit farther aft than usual, so that the captain is part of the social interaction in the salon. The boat has large windows all around; the view from the helm is excellent. What’s also a bit different is that the engine room, with a 300-hp…

Cruising Life
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Meet the Greenland Shark: Slow, Ugly and Possibly 500 Years Old

The Greenland shark, which can grow to 18 feet, is slow, with stunted pectoral fins, and looks somewhat dim-witted, with a blunt snout and a gaping mouth. It has atrocious eating habits, ranging from fresh halibut (that’s the good news) to rotting polar bear carcasses. They can be found throughout the North Atlantic, but particularly in cold and dark Arctic waters. And they live forever. Well, not forever, but at least 400 years, and perhaps longer. Scientists speculate that some of the larger ones alive today could have been born before Columbus. There is no question that they are the…

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