Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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The Care and Feeding (and UItimate Replacement) of Teak Decks: Advice from a Pro

There’s nothing quite as elegant, or as salty, as a teak deck. Whether on a brand new yacht or an ancient trawler, teak decks are a statement. You can look at them, and walk on them, with pride. Until…The problem is that teak decks do not just take care of themselves. (I know; I used to have a Grand Banks with enough teak to duplicate a Malaysian rain forest.) The normal care and feeding of teak, the slight sanding, the varnishing, the repeat sanding, the repeat varnishing, is well known. But there does come a time in the life of…

Cruising Life
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55-Foot Custom Sport Fishing Boat Sinks in Tournament off Charleston. Ten on Board All Safe

A 55-foot custom Paul Mann cold-molded-wood sport fishing boat sank off Charleston, S.C., on Saturday during the MegaDock fishing tournament, but all ten people on board were rescued by a passing boat before the Coast Guard arrived. The boat, Sportsmann from Kiawah Island, apparently hit something in the water. Charleston marine authorities said the boat had already taken on too much water before they arrived for them to save it. Saturday was the last day in the MegaDock three-day tournament. About 20 boats had entered, including Sportsmann. The tournament’s website says it is designed “to show off the latest trends…

Charter
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Greenline 33 Charter on Portugal’s Douro River, a UNESCO Heritage Site, with Great Video of a 100-foot Deep Lock

If you’re looking for a different kind of charter, take a look at the Douro River in Portugal. Ellen and John Goncalves, a cruising couple from Valparaiso, Florida (where they’re Harbor Hosts for the America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association), recently cruised the Douro on a Greenline 33 for 260 miles and loved it. They cruised the length of the river from Porto, on the Atlantic, to Spain and back, running ten days through ten locks (five each way), including the Carrapatelo Lock, one of the deepest in the world, with more than a 100-foot vertical drop (see the video below).…

Cruising Life
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Rare, Close-up Pictures of 20 Humpback Whales in Alaska

Here’s a rare treat – some great, close-up pictures of about 20 humpback whales near Hoonah, Alaska, which is west of Juneau and south of Glacier Bay. They were taken by Laura Domela, whose day job is a photographer in Portland, Oregon, but who also cruises on Airship, a Nordic Tug 34, that she runs with her husband, Kevin Morris. They lead the annual Slowboat flotilla from the San Juans up to Sitka. To my mind, much of the appeal of cruising in that part of the world is the random, sudden encounter with whales – and eagles and bears,…

Boat Reviews
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Sunreef Launches Supreme 68 Power Cat With Lots of Light and Space

Sunreef will introduce its new, massive Supreme 68 power catamaran at the Cannes yacht show in September, the newest model in the Supreme line that runs from 48 to 88 feet. The amount of attractive, modern, bright living space on the new Sunreef Supreme 68 is simply stunning: Indeed, the company says the new cat has 3,250 square feet of living space, more than many upscale New York City apartments. You enter the boat from two wide staircases leading up from the swim platform, and walk into the salon through large glass doors. Filled with light, the salon has sole-to-ceiling…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Volvo Turns to Outboards. Are Hybrids Next? Will your transom look like this, with a total of 2,508 horsepower coming from four Seven Marine outboards? Well, the answer is yes, if Volvo Penta has anything to say about it. Volvo just announced that it is entering the rapidly growing outboard market by buying the majority stake in Seven Marine, which Volvo Penta President Bjorn Ingemanson calls “the leader in the high-powered outboard market.” In a conference call, Ron Huibers, president of Volvo Penta of the Americas, said, “Now the idea is to make some of the most exciting outboards ever…

Cruising Life
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Aspen Power Cats’ 10,000-Mile Tour Already Reached Alaska, Now Heading South

Aspen Power Catamarans’ epic 10,000-mile tour is off to a good start, with Knot Wafflen’, the company’s new 40-footer, already having cruised from Anacortes, Washington, all the way up to Glacier Bay, Alaska. It’s now in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, on its way south, before ultimately circling most of the U.S. and ending up in Annapolis in October, 2018. The owners of the boat, David and Sue Ellen Jenkins, are both from Annapolis, and were looking for a major adventure after Jenkins, who calls himself a serial entrepreneur, sold Golden Malted, the largest waffle company in the U.S. Referring to…

Cruising Life
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Five Short Blasts: Danger, Doubt, or What? A Pro’s Look at the Rules

If you don’t remember any other sound signal, you really do need to know that five (or more) short blasts signal danger. Something is wrong. Your vessel and another vessel are in danger of a collision. The danger signal is clearly spelled out in COLREGs, the Rules of the Road, but even so, in the real world, it can lead to some confusion. The problem lies in failing to understand the actions or intentions of the other vessel, and knowing, even if you have the right of way, when to take action to avoid a collision. Drawing from the COLREGs,…

Cruising Life
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Increased Drug Smuggling Puts Strain on Coast Guard Resources

If you had seen this on Miami Vice, you probably wouldn’t have believed it, but drug smugglers from Guatemala and El Salvador increasingly are turning to homemade submarines in an effort to evade U.S. authorities, particularly the Coast Guard. This doesn’t always work, as evidenced by the picture above of the Coast Guard boarding a narco-sub in the Pacific. Indeed, the Coast Guard seized six narco-subs just last year, all filled with cocaine. And the subs are vastly outnumbered by fishing boats and speedboats (which the smugglers call pangas) in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. The Coast Guard’s problem…

Cruising Life
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Great Advice for Cruising the Beautiful but Remote North Channel from a Couple in a Mainship 30

It’s beautiful, but it’s also remote, with some very narrow channels and a rock-lined bottom. Still,  the North Channel of Lake Huron certainly qualifies as one of the best cruising destinations for boats coming from either the United States or Canada. Stretching 160 nm across the northern shore of Lake Huron, in the Canadian province of Ontario, the North Channel is filled with beckoning anchorages, uninhabited islands, hidden beaches and just enough marinas to keep everyone on board happy. Most cruisers who’ve been there agree that navigation can be tricky. The North Channel is 20 miles across at its widest point,…

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