Author Peter Janssen

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Martha Stewart’s Picnic Boat

It’s not a surprise that Martha Stewart, the doyenne of good taste in the United States for the past 30 years, owns an iconic Hinckley Picnic Boat. Indeed, she’s owned it for almost that long. The 36-foot-long Picnic Boat was the first boat Stewart ever owned, and she says “I learned how to drive it right from the get-go. It was the perfect size for me.” Stewart, if anything, is a hands-on person. After all, she won fame and fortune and created a media empire by showing the rest of us how to do things. Born 82 years ago in…

Cruising Life
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New Channel Opens in Baltimore Harbor

There’s lots of news from Baltimore this week. A new, wide channel that’s 35-feet deep just opened, allowing some commercial ships to leave the harbor for the first time since a container ship hit the Key Bridge on March 26, sending its center span into the channel below. The Army Corps of Engineers removed a huge 56-ton steel section of the bridge, and a massive 200-ton hydraulic claw arrived on a barge from Galveston to remove more. The claw has a 1,000-ton lifting capacity. And the City of Baltimore sued the owners and operators of the Dali, the 984-foot-long container…

Boat Reviews
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New Holterman 54: Heading for the U.S.

The Great Loop anyone? The new Holterman Commander 54 is currently in its yard in The Netherlands, but Holterman is opening an office in the U.S. soon. And the Commander 54, with two cabins, two heads, a low bridge clearance and a range of 500 nm at 8.5 knots would certainly seem to be good candidate for cruising the Loop, the ICW, or many other spots in the United States. For his part, Julian van Santen, Holterman’s sales director, said the new Commander 54 “is perfectly suited to the U.S. market and U.S. boating preferences.” The Holterman Shipyard was founded…

Boat Reviews
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True North Building 39 Outboard Express

True North Yachts just announced that its building a new 39 Outboard Express that will be launched this summer. The new 39 is being built in the Catalina factory in Largo, Florida. Catalina has built more than 80,000 sailboats over the past half century. It bought True North five years ago, and is now focused on expanding its market. True North already has a 34-foot outboard boat. The 39 has some of the Down East lines that date to the original True North 38, launched by the Pearson Marine Group in 2001 in Warren, Rhode Island. The first True Norths…

Cruising Life
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New Study: Rogue Waves Are More Common

This isn’t particularly good news, but there are probably a lot more rogue waves out there than we think. Indeed, a new study by a group from the University of Melbourne, involving measuring actual storms on the Southern Ocean, says that rogue waves, the subjects of ancient mythology, seamen’s nightmares and artists’ imaginations, are much more common than scientists had believed. The new study, just published in the journal Physical Review Letters, was the work of a Melbourne team under professor Alessandro Toffoli. They measured waves on the Southern Ocean, the home of some of the fiercest storms on the…

Cruising Life
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Two Killed in Biscayne Bay Boat Collision

The driver and a  passenger on a 17-foot Key West center console were killed Sunday evening when their boat and a 51-foot Azimut yacht collided in lower Biscayne Bay, south of Miami. The accident happened about 6:45 in the waters near Elliott Key and Boca Chita Key. Officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said there were seven people on the Azimut and two on the Key West. The Coast Guard was among the first responders at the scene, and they managed to pull one person out of the water. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said a helicopter took the…

Cruising Life
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New 55-Knot AB 80: “Formula 1 of the Seas”

AB Yachts in Viareggio, Italy, just launched its latest AB 80, a luxury speedster that the company calls “a real Formula 1 car of the seas.” Powered by three 2,000-hp MAN V12 diesels, the sleek, silver and sporty AB 80 tops out at 55 knots. AB says it has a range of 500 nm at 45 knots, something few other builders can achieve. With a state-of-the-art aerodynamic design and a composite hull, the new AB 80 is designed for family trips, a very fast getaway, or simply an extra adrenaline rush. It can be run by an owner-operator or a…

Boat Reviews
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Sessa Launches F48 Flybridge Cruiser

Sessa is expanding production of its F48 flybridge cruiser that was recently introduced in the United States. The standard Sessa F48 is a three-cabin, two-head upscale yacht with some Italian flair and a large flybridge meant for entertaining. Power comes from twin 550-hp Volvo Penta IPS700 pod drives, delivering a cruising speed of 26 knots and a range of 290-nm. Top speed: 35 knots. The Italian version of the F48 has the galley and pantry area amidships, but for the U.S. market it is located aft, so it can be more integrated into the aft deck and the social and…

Boat Reviews
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Karnic S37X: Room for Everyone

You’re probably not going to buy the new Karnic S37X cruiser, or even see one at a boat show in the United States. But it’s interesting because of everything it manages to pack inside, including three separate double cabins below. Karnic Boats has been making vessels on Cyprus for the past 30 years. It’s a well-regarded builder, popular in Europe, and the new 37 is the flagship of its fleet. Powered by twin 300-hp Mercury outboards, the Karnic S37X has a top speed of 41 knots, according to the builder. It carries just 211 gallons of fuel, so you’re not…

Cruising Life
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NOAA: Coral Bleaching Growing Around World

Here’s the latest from NOAA on the mass bleaching of coral reefs around the world:  The world is currently experiencing a global coral bleaching event, according to NOAA scientists. This is the fourth global event on record and the second in the last 10 years. Bleaching-level heat stress, as remotely monitored and predicted by NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch (CRW), has been — and continues to be — extensive across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean basins. CRW’s heat-stress monitoring is based on sea surface temperature data, spanning 1985 to the present, from a blend of NOAA and partner satellites. “From…

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