Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Read This Before You Buy a Used Boat

More than 63,000 boats were damaged in the hurricanes and storms earlier this year. Some sank, some have been repaired, and some – nobody knows exactly how many – are showing up in the used boat market. It’s never been more important for you to get a professional survey before you make a commitment on a used boat. But to help you evaluate a used boat yourself, BoatUS has come up with eight telltale signs that the boat you’re looking at may have been damaged. They range from looking at new sealant in the hull-to-deck joint (boats that slam against…

Cruising Life
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Best Water Toys of the Year – On, In and Under the Water

Here’s a best-of-the-year list that’s fun, and that can give you some ideas about what to put under the tree in a few weeks or to add to your boat for the next cruising system. It’s a list of the best water toys of the year from New Atlas, and it covers some “toys” that we’ve already written about (the Aston-Martin/Triton personal submarine, for example) and many that are brand new: Take a look at the Scubalec wearable jet drive that you strap to your wrist, pictured above left, to give some extra boost to your next underwater experience. The…

Boat Reviews
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New Legacy 42 IPS: A Classic Mark Ellis Design with State-of-the-Art Performance

The Legacy 42 IPS is a classic Down East cruiser with two cabins and one head and a traditional look that will never go out of style. Legacy originally introduced the 42, designed by Mark Ellis, about ten years ago; now, under new ownership by Tartan Yachts in Ohio, Legacy is reintroducing it with Volvo’s pod drives, a proven hull shape, advanced composites and a luxurious interior. The modified-V hull carries an 18-degree deadrise at the transom and has wide chines for stability. Driven by twin Volvo 400 IPS engines (310-hp), the 42 cruises at 28 knots, burning about 19…

Cruising Life
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EPA Adds More Ethanol to the Gas Supply, Despite Opposition

This isn’t good news if you have a gas engine, particularly an older outboard. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency just added more ethanol to be blended into the gas supply, despite opposition from boating and other recreational groups. The EPA’s new standard represents a 0.05 percent increase in ethanol. The EPA held hearings this past summer, asking the public how much ethanol it wanted to be added to the gas supply. At that time, owners of recreational boats, RVs and others spoke up against increasing the amount of ethanol covered by the Renewable Fuel Standard. “Ethanol has been demonstrated to…

Cruising Life
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Tug Ran Aground, Spilled Oil in Bella Bella, BC, Because Mate Fell Asleep: NTSB

A 98-foot-tug ran aground and sank off Bella Bella, BC, last year, spilling more than 28,000 gallons of diesel fuel, because the second mate fell asleep at the wheel, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Bella Bella, about 98 nm north of Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, is one of the most beautiful parts of the Inside Passage, and is home to the Heiltsuk First Nation. The accident occurred on Oct. 13, 2016, when the tug Nathan E. Stewart, with an articulated barge, ran aground and sank in Seaforth Channel, just west of Bella Bella. The NTSB investigation says…

Cruising Life
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Is It Cheaper to Live Near the Water, or On the Water? In Portland, Maine, the Answer is Clear

Robert Stephens and Paul Waring, of Stephens Waring Design in Belfast, Maine, do much more than design beautiful, fast and innovative boats. Now they’ve done a comparison of real estate and boat prices in Portland, Maine, to see if it costs more to live near the water or on the water. Their answer: In a side-by-side comparison of actual living space, floating residences (including houseboats, floating homes and live-aboard boats) come out ahead; it’s considerably cheaper to live on a boat. And they have maps and charts to prove their point. Stephens and Waring looked at upscale neighborhoods near the…

Cruising Life
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Heroes: Two Ship Pilots Get International Bravery Award for Saving Ship in Houston Fire. See Video of Flames

September 6, 2016, started as just another night at work for Captain Michael C. Phillips (above, left) and Captain Michael G. McGee, two ship pilots working on the Houston Ship Channel, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the United States. Just after midnight, they were piloting the Aframax River, an 810-foot-long tanker, undocking it from its terminal. All of a sudden, the ship lost propulsion, drifting into two mooring dolphins and breaching a diesel fuel tank. Diesel spilled from the ship, starting an inferno with flames leaping 90 feet into the air. (See a video taken from another ship,…

Cruising Life
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More Details and Performance Charts for Yanmar’s New 50-hp Diesel Outboard

Production has started on the innovative Yanmar Dtorque 111 50-hp, common-rail, turbo-diesel outboard, which the company says is the world’s first viable diesel outboard. The new outboard was developed as a Neander-Shark engine; Neander Motors, based in Kiel, Germany, on the Baltic, specializes in producing small capacity diesels with two con-rods per piston. The new outboard has two counter-rotating crankshafts in a lightweight aluminum block to create a perfect balance, free of vibration. The diesel outboards are lighter and more compact than traditional gas outboards of the same size. The company says they have twice the engine life, up to…

Cruising Life
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Proposed Offshore Wind Farm in Nantucket Sound is Dead

Here’s some news for those of us who love to cruise on Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind, which was supposed to build the first offshore wind farm in the U.S. with up to 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, is dead. It isn’t going to happen. Indeed, Cape Wind, based in Boston, has notified the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that it has terminated its wind development lease covering 25 acres about 5 miles off Cape Cod in the area of Horseshoe Shoal. The idea had been to develop a 468-megawatt offshore wind farm, creating enough energy to power 200,000…

Cruising Life
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NOAA: Extremely Active Hurricane Season Ends. See Chilling Four-Minute Video

The 2017 hurricane season is now officially over, and we have to say good riddance. Unfortunately, it matched NOAA’s predictions for being extremely active, with 17 named storms, including ten that became hurricanes. And six of those were major hurricanes, including the first two to hit the continental U.S. in the past 12 years. By NOAA’s records, 2017 was the seventh most active season going back to 1851, and the most active season since 2005. “This was a hurricane season that wouldn’t quit,” said retired Navy Rear Admiral Timothy Galladuet, acting NOAA Administrator. Three major hurricanes made landfall this year:…

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