Author Peter Janssen

Destinations
By

Devastated by Sandy, Freeport, Long Island, Makes a Comeback

Four years ago, Hurricane Sandy ripped into Freeport, a major boating area on the south shore of Long Island, NY, destroying boats and marinas and damaging 3,500 homes. Now Freeport has come back. Its famed Nautical Mile is open with its traditional seafood restaurants, bars and boat slips. The water taxi and sunset cruises were busy this summer; so was the waterfront steel band. Here’s a great story from The New York Times about how Freeport made a comeback. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/23/realestate/freeport-ny-a-waterfront-community-rebuilds.html

Cruising Life
By

Nordic Tugs Head Down the Waterway to the Keys

Here’s a group of cruisers who are living the dream. So far, ten Nordic Tug owners have joined Ben Wilde’s “ICW Nordic Tugfest,” cruising down the Waterway together, heading for Marathon in the Florida Keys. Wilde, who runs Wilde Yacht Sales, the largest Nordic Tugs dealer in the world, started out on his personal Nordic Tug 54, Nordic Lady, from his office in Essex, Connecticut. The cruise officially got underway from his other office in Rock Hall, Maryland, on the Chesapeake. The picture above is of the group leaving Spring Cove Marina on Solomons Island on the Chesapeake. The Nordic Tug…

Gear
By

How to Install a Diesel Heater in your Boat

Winter’s coming. Those of us in the north can extend our boating season by staying warm, and by installing a heater if our boat doesn’t have one already. Even in the south, a heater can take the chill out of the air and make winter boating more enjoyable for all on board. Here’s a great how-to article about how to install a heater. Even though the example is on a sailboat, the installation (and benefits) are exactly the same as on a cruising powerboat. Read on: http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/gear/installing-a-boat-heater-33132

Cruising Life
By

Smaller Seakeeper Gyro for 30- to 39-Foot Boats. See Video

The newest Seakeeper gyro stabilizer, just introduced at the Fort Lauderdale show, is specifically designed for boats from 30 to 39 feet, and it runs exclusively on 12-volt DC power without any need for a genset or AC input. The new Seakeeper 3 model is 30 percent lighter, and 25 percent smaller, than any previous Seakeeper, and is the first streamlined for smaller boats. The Seakeeper 3 has a new touch screen control panel with an intuitive user interface and the company says installation is easy, without requiring any structural modifications, and can be completed in two days. Seakeeper is…

Engine Room
By

Volvo’s New Key Fob: Power Up Your Boat from 100 Yards Away

Volvo is continuing to make boating easier. At the Fort Lauderdale show the Swedish company introduced its 8-liter diesel engine and its matched IPS pod drive to the United States market for the first time. They are designed primarily for cruising boats in the 30- to 45-foot range (we wrote about these a few months ago). Also new is Volvo’s key fob for powering up your boat before you even climb on board; indeed, you can be standing as far as 100 yards away. You can use the remote key fob to switch on the battery, turn on the deck…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
By

Lauderdale Show Opens: Good Vibes, $4 Billion Worth of Boats, Plus Ferraris, Helicopters

. The iconic Fort Lauderdale show just got off to a good start, with blue skies, large crowds, and boats, boats and more boats. Indeed, at breakfast just before the show opened, Skip Zimbalist, who runs the show as the head of Show Management, said there were more boats than ever before, including eight over 200 feet, while advance ticket sales were up 20 percent from last year. The Lauderdale show, arguably the largest show in the United States, has seven locations with small boats, big boats, superyachts and all the appropriate toys. Zimbalist noted that a $7 million helicopter…

Electronics
By

Brand-New Simrad Radar, GPS, Fishfinder Package for Smaller Cruising Boats

Simrad has just announced its new GO9 XSE 4G radar bundle with the company’s TotalScan, fishfinder and chartplotter, all in a user-friendly, multi-touch 9” display for smaller cruising boats. The new package has plug-and-play support for Simrad Broadband Radar and halo Pulse Compression radar systems. The bright widescreen has built-in GPS, GoFree Wi-Fi and standard NMEA 2000 capability. You can connect it to smartphones and tablets, control the sound system, monitor engine data and choose from an array of built-in sonar technology to catch the fish you want. The FMCW radar has Simrad’s Broadband 3G radar but with more features,…

Gear
By

Fill Those Cracks and Gaps with Pettit’s New Epoxy Compound and Glue

Who doesn’t need this? Pettit has just created two new products to help you take care of your boat, one called EZ-Tex epoxy repair compound, and the other EZ-Bond thickened epoxy glue. EZ-Tex is a two-part epoxy repair compound for when you want a permanent, high-strength waterproof repair. It bonds to most surfaces above and below the waterline, and won’t sag or shrink. Pettit says it’s great for filling cracks, gouges and voids. Once it’s cured, it can be sanded, drilled, tapped and painted. EZ-Bond is a two-part thickened epoxy glue for bonding wood, fiberglass, composites and metals, with a…

Boat Reviews
By

MJM 35Z: An Elegant, Fast, Outboard Cruiser

We first reported on plans for the new MJM 35Z back in September. Now we can flesh out the details of this latest collaboration between Douz Zurn, the designer, and Bob Johnstone, the founder of MJM, and so far the new outboard-powered 35Z is living up to our expectations. It’s no surprise that the new boat has all the classic Down East lines of earlier MJMs, with its low profile, gentle tumblehome and long sheerline. Or that it’s a serious offshore boat, with a 20-degree deadrise at the transom and the highest rating for stability and seaworthiness for any boat…

Cruising Life
By

Fog: How to See It Coming, How to Cope

I grew up in San Francisco, so I’ve always thought of fog as my friend, my reminder of  home. That is, as long as I’m landlocked. Step on a boat, and fog is a different matter. Recently I’ve been in fog so thick – at the top of the Bay of  Fundy, coming through the Cape Cod Canal – that I could barely see the bow of the boat in the middle of the day. With reduced (or no) visibility, you rely on radar, AIS, GPS and your own experience. Still, fog can be scary. Here’s some of the best…

1 … 379 380 381 382 383 … 398