Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Dutch Students Build Hydrogen-Powered Foiler

A team of students from the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands will try to demonstrate the power of green energy by driving a hydrogen-powered foiling boat across the English Channel from Dunkirk to England next month. The 23-student team from Delft has designed the zero-emissions monohull, called Aurora, that takes off, or foils, at 17 mph and cruises at 24 mph. Its fuel cell has 40 kW of power, and it carries three hydrogen tanks weighing 8 pounds each. Aurora is 26’ 2” long with a beam of 8’ 6” and weighs 3,968 pounds. The struts are 6’…

Boat Reviews
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Azimut Launches Eco-Friendly Seadeck 6

Azimut just launched its new 57-foot, eco-friendly Seadeck 6 at the Venice boat show, the debut of the Italian builder’s new series of low-emission, sustainable motoryachts. Azimut says the new Seadeck series yachts are built to reduce emissions by as much as 40 percent a year, when compared to conventional yachts the same size. The new Seadeck 6 provides zero-emissions at anchor or while cruising with the generator off. Its hotel mode is based on a 42-kWh lithium battery pack and an alternator connected to one of the three 480-hp Volvo IPS650 engines. At anchor, the zero-emissions mode can last…

Boat Reviews
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Bering Launches Three New 80 Explorers

Bering is on a roll. It launched one new long-range B80 explorer yacht at the end of May at its yard in Antalya, Turkey; a second one on June 3, and a third one is due at the end of the week. Alexei Mikhailov, Bering’s founder, said simply that the B80 “is becoming one of our most popular models.” The B80 has a steel displacement hull and an aluminum superstructure. Power comes from twin 350-hp Cummins diesels, producing a top speed of 10.5 knots and a range of more than 5,000 nm at 8.5 knots. It holds a massive 10,502…

Cruising Life
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Coast Guard Rescues 8 Off Boca Grande

The Coast Guard rescued seven adults and one child after their boat capsized on Saturday about 36 miles off Boca Grande, Florida. They had been hanging on to a cooler to stay afloat. (You can see the Coast Guard’s video in the link below.) The boaters called the Coast Guard on VHF channel 16 at 12:36 a.m. saying their 28-foot boat was sinking. They activated their EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon). A Jayhawk helicopter crew from the Coast Guard station in Clearwater used that signal, plus others from the boaters’ Personal Locator Beacons, to find them. The helicopter crew…

Cruising Life
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Gulf Waters Hotter: More Hurricanes

Here’s some more bad news on the hurricane front. The National Centers for Environmental Information just reported that water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico are already just as hot, or hotter, than they are in August. That’s important because tropical storms and hurricanes feed on warm ocean temperatures; warmer water usually means more hurricanes. The hurricane season started on June 1 (and runs through November 30). But the Gulf waters had already grown hotter than usual before then. The water temperature off Butternut Key (between Key Largo and Islamorada) reached 88 degrees F in mid-May and was 90.1 on…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Ohio Billionaire Building New Sub for Titanic

Larry Connor, 74, has made billions as an Ohio real estate investor, but he’s also a record-setting skydiver, a NASA-certified astronaut, and a deep-sea diver. Now he wants to build a $30 million, 14-foot, state-of-the-art Triton submarine and dive down to the wreck of the Titanic. His partner on the two-person sub: Patrick Lahey, one of the most experienced submersible operators in the world who’s also the co-founder and CEO of Triton Submarines. Lahey believes in designing safe subs. Indeed, he has said that the OceanGate sub that imploded last June on its own dive to the Titanic, killing all…

Cruising Life
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Maine Offshore Wind Turbines One Step Closer

The prospect of wind turbines floating off the coast of Maine just got a lot closer this week. That’s because the federal government just approved an environmental review involving a research lease for 12 wind turbines floating about 28 nm southeast of Portland. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, part of the Interior Department, approved the review, which was necessary before the state could move forward with developing the turbines. “Floating wind technology can make offshore wind a reality in the Gulf of Maine,” said Elizabeth Klein, the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in the Interior Department.…

Destinations
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Russian Oligarch Building VIP Resort on Skorpios

A Russian oligarch is building a luxury resort and marina on Skorpios, once the famed Greek island vacation home of shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis and former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The 205-acre island on the Ionian Sea was the site of Onassis’ wedding to Jackie Kennedy on Oct. 20, 1968. Onassis had bought it in 1963 and imported 200 varieties of trees to create a lush forest, cleared a white-sand beach, and built a harbor for his 325-foot yacht Christina O. Now, Onassis, his son, Alexander, and his daughter, Christina, are all buried there. A trust representing the 24-year-old…

Cruising Life
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New Hi-Tech Batboat: 85 mph, $250,000

If you want to be the first superhero on your dock, take a look at the new Stormy Knight. It’s a sleek jet ski-like craft that looks like a Batboat and is a joint production of Hollywood and Silicon Valley that goes 85 mph and costs $250,000. The new hi-tech 14-foot “hyper vessel” is built by Wayne Enterprises, a luxury brand from Warner Bros., and T3MP3ST, a Silicon Valley sports company. It’s officially called the Maverick GT Stormy Knight, and the Bruce Wayne website says “It’s crafted by a team who are masters of their trade, with a long history…

Boat Reviews
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EXTRA Building Low-Profile X90 Fast

EXTRA Yachts just announced that it has sold the first hull of its new X90 Fast series and it’s building the low-profile cruiser in its factory in Ancona, Italy. The new EXTRA will be delivered in the summer of 2025. Designed by the Hot Lab studio in Milan, the new EXTRA has a distinctive profile that includes low windows that still admit lots of natural light to the interior. It has a mix of several entertaining and relaxing spaces inside and out, and the company offers a high range of customization. Power comes from three 1,000-hp Volvo IPS1350 pod drives.…

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