Author Peter Janssen

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Will Boat Owners Lose a Tax Break? Or Will Tax Reform Put More Money in Your Pocket? By Peter A. Janssen Is owning a boat – or taking out a loan to own a boat – about to become more expensive? The answer is yes, according to the tax reform bill recently passed by the House. It would end the mortgage interest deduction for second homes (which also applies to boats and RVs, as long as they have facilities for sleeping, eating and bathing). The Senate version of the bill, passed by the Finance Committee last week, retains the current…

Cruising Life
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Florida Floating Home Hero Back Before the U.S. Supreme Court in Fight Against Riviera Beach

Fane Lozman, a former Marine officer and now a successful financial trader, could be resting on his laurels. After all, he was hailed as a hero to floating home owners five years ago after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor in a suit he brought after the city of Riviera Beach, Florida, seized and destroyed his 60-foot-long, two-story-tall floating home at the city dock, claiming it was a boat and subject to maritime law. The Supreme Court saw it differently. “It was one of those cases where a picture was worth a thousand words,” Chief Justice John Roberts…

Cruising Life
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Sea of Garbage Floating in Caribbean. See the Video – and Worry

Take a good look at this picture. Then look again. Then look away. That’s the Caribbean, off the island of Roatán, one of the islands about 40 miles north of Honduras, and usually one of the premiere dive spots in the world. Here, it’s a giant floating garbage dump of plastic and junk. It seems that we’re looking at debris within a gyre, a system of circulating ocean currents driven by the wind. And this isn’t the worst. See the map in the story below the You Tube video for the location of five gyres that are considered much worse.…

Cruising Life
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Navy Adds AIS and More Sleep in Effort To Avoid Collisions

In addition to more training in basic seamanship, the Navy is introducing other reforms aimed at preventing more collisions at sea. The moves came after two destroyers, the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain (pictured above), collided with merchant ships in the Pacific recently, resulting in the death of 17 sailors. In a wide-ranging report, the Navy earlier said that the collisions were avoidable and were caused by preventable errors on both destroyers. It found that sailors were often sleep-deprived and didn’t have enough training to do their jobs properly. As a result, the Navy ordered additional training in basic…

Cruising Life
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A Fast Tour of the Best of Australia, from Perth to Tasmania, with Sunseeker

Here’s a fast tour of the horizon if you’re ever cruising in Australia (Oz), from Rottnest Island off Perth on the Indian Ocean to the separate island of Tasmania off the southeast coast, the Barrier Reef and much more, all from the pages of Sunseeker Magazine, from Sunseeker Yachts. Our tour starts in Perth, the capital of Western Australia, a modern metropolis with skyscrapers and bustle. (When I was there some 30 years ago, it was much sleepier, reminding me of an earlier San Diego.) From there it’s an 11-mile offshore hop to Rottnest Island, filled with wildlife (don’t miss…

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard Rescues Four Men Adrift in Ocean in 22-Foot Boat

The Coast Guard from Sandy Hook, New Jersey, had to rescue four men on a 22-foot boat that was out in the ocean in 30-knot winds and 3-5-foot seas. The boat was disabled and drifting. “This type of boat was designed to be operated on lakes, not the ocean,” Petty Officer 3rd Class Jennifer Smith told USA Today. The Coast Guard sent out a heavy weather boat to rescue the men, and brought them in to Atlantic Highlands Marina in Sandy Hook Bay. They were not injured. They left the boat anchored in the ocean. The owner was hiring a…

Boat Reviews
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New San Juan 40: Down East Looks and a High-End Northwest Pedigree

With its clean, sleek, Down East lines, the elegant San Juan 40 is the new iteration of the original San Juan 38, produced by new ownership of the Anacortes, Washington, high-end builder. Last May, San Juan Yachts was bought by Concorde Marine, also in Anacortes; Concorde also makes larger expedition yachts under the Northern Marine brand. The new San Juan 40, to be followed by a 50, keeps all the head-turning looks and solid performance of the popular 38. Powered by two 370-hp Volvo diesels with IPS 500 pod drives (and joystick control), the new 40 cruises in the 30-knot…

Cruising Life
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How To Repair and Restore the Non-Skid Deck on Your Boat. An Easy Guide

All good things do come to an end, as the saying goes, and that certainly applies to the non-skid on your boat’s deck. Sooner or later, it will require more than a hard washing to make it look good again. And the problem is that old or cracking or worn-down non-skid is more than just a matter of looks. It’s also a matter of safety, of helping you keep your footing as you move around the boat. Repairing non-skid, however, is a big job. Here’s some great advice from Practical Sailor about to do it right, so it not only…

Cruising Life
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Innovative CrewWatcher MOB System Wins International Award

CrewWatcher, the app-based man-overboard alarm system from Weems & Plath, just won the prestigious DAME award at the METS boating trade show in Amsterdam. When we first wrote about CrewWatcher last month, we said it was so good it “seems like a no-brainer.” The system consists of an app-based smartphone or tablet alarm and a small beacon that fits in your pocket. In giving the award, the DAME jury said, “CrewWatcher should be the winner because of the particularly simply and intuitive user interface of its smartphone app and the way in which it seemed easy to use right out…

Cruising Life
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Japanese Tug Loses Power, Drifts into U.S. Navy Destroyer; Some Scrapes, but No Injuries

In another case of a Navy destroyer colliding with a civilian vessel, the USS Benfold (above) was slightly damaged when a Japanese tug drifted into it during a towing exercise off central Japan. The tug lost power during the exercise and “drifted into the ship,” according to a Navy statement. No one was injured in this incident, and the Benfold just suffered some scrapes on its side. But it was a painful reminder of  earlier collisions between two other destroyers, the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain, and merchant ships that ended with the deaths of 17 sailors. In…

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