Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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How Safe Are Lithium Batteries?

How safe are lithium batteries on boats? That is a question that is becoming increasingly important as more and more builders around the world are using lithium-ion batteries to power solar/electric vessels, and as more and more boat owners and guests are bringing small lithium-powered devices on board. A symposium of marine industry experts recently met in the UK to try to find some answers, and to judge the fire risk that lithium-ion batteries pose on boats big and small. Their conclusions, as reported in Motor Boat & Yachting, the British publication: The technology is safe, but the risks increase…

Destinations
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Harbour Island: A Little Gem in the Bahamas

It’s only about 3.5 miles long and a little more than a mile wide, but Harbour Island, just off the northeast coast of Eleuthera, is a little gem of a boating, fishing, or vacation destination in the Bahamas. Once there, you won’t find any casinos, high-rise condos or big chain hotels, but you will find a charming community, Dunmore Town, with pastel houses (some dating to the 1700s), winding streets, quiet resorts and vacation rentals, two first-class marinas, and Harbour Island’s iconic Pink Sand Beach, a three-mile stretch of soft sand that’s on almost everybody’s list of best beaches in…

Boat Reviews
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Archipelago Launching Methanol-Powered Cruiser

The new Archipelago zero.63, built by Chartwell Marine on the Isle of Wight, aims to become the first expedition-class, recreational boat using methanol power. A relatively new British company, Archipelago launched its first boat, an aluminum-hulled 47 power cat with twin 420-hp Iveco diesels, a 30-knot top speed and a 3,000-nm range, just last summer. Now it wants to bring the methanol-powered version to market, estimating it will have a 20-knot top speed and a 4,000-nm range. The new cat will be powered by a combination of a methanol-reforming system and a methanol combustion engine. It will have a dedicated…

Boat Reviews
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A New Look at U-Boat Worx’s 123-foot Sub

We usually deal with boats that go on top of the water, and cruising boats that are owner-operated, to boot. But U-Boat Worx, the Dutch submarine builder, just released some renderings of its 123-foot Nautilus, and they’re just too good not to share. U-Boat Worx says that Nautilus is “the ultimate adventure vessel” because it’s both a luxurious superyacht on the surface and a submarine that can dive down to 650 feet below the surface, carrying up to 10 passengers and seven crew. Power comes from a series of diesel/electric motors ad a 1,200kWh battery pack. Nautilus was designed in…

Destinations
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CCA Publishes New Digital Guide to Maine

The Cruising Club of America just launched its new digital Maine Cruising Guide, offering detailed information and local knowledge about more than 70 harbors and anchorages along the coast from the Isle of Shoals on the New Hampshire border up to Eastport on the Canadian border. You don’t have to be one of the CCA’s 1,400 members to access the guide; it’s free to everyone, and it builds on members’ experience with the first guide, written last year. It provides up-to-date local knowledge shared by 30 veteran CCA members who either homeport in Maine or have cruised there for decades.…

Boat Reviews
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Silent Launches New All-Electric Tender

Silent Yachts, the creative Austrian builder of solar-powered catamarans, just launched its first all-electric tender, a 13’ 1” Silent Tender 400 that holds six people and can hit a top speed of 20 knots. With a carbon fiber hull, the Silent Tender weighs just 199 pounds, so it can fit on the swim platform of a Silent 60, the company’s smallest cat. The tender also replicates some of the 60’s styling, with angular lines, a lowered bulwark, and a black-and-white finish. The hull is surrounded by a stripe of rubber coating; the company says it resembles the signature window stripe…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Sarp’s Edge: Thinking Outside the Box

When Sarp launched the first hull in its XSR 85 line in Turkey last summer, it said the head-turning yacht represented thinking outside the box; it was aimed a fresh generation of owners. Hull number one, named Edge, got a lot of attention when it was shown at the Cannes and Monaco shows last fall. Edge was indeed hard to miss. The hull was painted in “Porsche Guards Red,” a unique color not found in many other yachting venues. It was a finalist in two categories of the 2023 Boat International Design & Innovation Awards, “Outstanding Exterior” and “Best New…

Boat Reviews
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Lazzara Building Luxury 70 Power Cat

Lazzara Yachts of Tampa is building its first 70 LPC luxury power cat for an owner who wants to cruise the Med. The new Lazzara has some nice luxury touches, including the pool on the upper deck, a full-beam (29 feet) master stateroom with a balcony that folds out of the hull on the starboard side, and glazing all around the main deck to provide spectacular views in every direction. The 70 will be powered by twin 1,000-hp Volvo IPS1350 pod drives, producing a top speed of 28 knots, a cruising speed of 18 knots, and a range of 1,000…

Cruising Life
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Mercury Ships First 7.5e Electric Outboards

Mercury Marine just announced that is has shipped its first batch of Avator 7.5e electric outboards to customers around the world, setting a milestone in the popularization of sustainable power. Part of the giant Brunswick Corp., Mercury says the Avator 7.5e is the first of five electric outboards to be announced this year, including an Avator 20e and Avator 35e. (We don’t yet know the size of the other two.) John Buelow, Mercury’s president, said the current shipments were history-making, and that Mercury is committed “to being the industry leader in both internal combustion products and electric propulsion.” The Avator…

Cruising Life
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Pacific Garbage Patch: Growing, Permanent

(CNN) Scientists have found thriving communities of coastal creatures, including tiny crabs and anemones, living thousands of miles from their original home on plastic debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a 620,000 square mile swirl of trash in the ocean between California and Hawaii. In a new study published in the Nature Ecology & Evolution journal on Monday, a team of researchers revealed that dozens of species of coastal invertebrate organisms have been able to survive and reproduce on plastic garbage that’s been floating in the ocean for years. The scientists said that the findings suggest plastic pollution…

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