Author Peter Janssen

Cruising Life
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Kiwis Test 50-Knot Hydrogen Chase Boat

Chase Zero, the revolutionary, hydrogen-powered, America’s Cup foiling chase boat from Emirates Team New Zealand, is now undergoing sea trials in Auckland. The 33-foot catamaran tops out at about 50 knots and has a range of 100 nm with six people on board, a typical distance for a chase boat’s working day. A prototype, Chase Zero was developed in less than a year after the Emirates New Zealand team announced plans for a chase boat with zero carbon emissions. Emirates New Zealand is the defending America’s Cup champion, so it gets to set the protocol for the next races, scheduled…

Cruising Life
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New Luxury 9-Person Sub from U-Boat Worx

U-Boat Worx, the creative Dutch company that’s been building personal and commercial submersibles since 2005, just launched its NEXIS sub that can carry nine people (seven adults and two children) down to 650 feet below the surface and run for 18 hours straight. The new NEXIS is a luxury vessel, with business-class seats and a rotating platform so everyone on board can have an unobstructed view underwater. It even has an optional elevator to make boarding easier. The sub weighs 24,250 pounds and is about 16 feet long, 9 feet wide and 8 feet high. It runs on a 62kWh…

Boat Reviews
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Solaris Launches Head-Turning 40 Open

Solaris is introducing its new, head-turning 40 Open at the Palma show in Spain this week. The 40 comes on the heels of the Solaris 48 Open, which won a European Powerboat of the Year Award two years ago, and then the 44 Open that was nominated for the same award this year. Solaris Yachts has been making notable sailboats at its Italian yard since 1974; they started a power division in 2008, making yachts up to 100 feet. Their Lobster Boat line, with a 48 (pictured below) and 57, are just as eye-opening as the Open models. A new…

Boat Reviews
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New Archipelago 47 “Explorer’s Catamaran”

A new entry from the UK, Archipelago Expedition Yachts just unveiled its flagship 47-foot cruising catamaran that it says “offers the ultimate adventure.” The first yacht in a new Archipelago Range, the 47 is being built by Chartwell Marine on the Isle of Man. The range will include 38- and 56-foot yachts later on. The Archipelago 47 is designed as an “explorer’s catamaran,” according to the company, with a combination of luxury, fuel efficiency, stability, ocean-going performance and even wheelchair access. Powered by two 420-hp Iveco diesels, the 47 is projected to have a top speed of 30 knots and…

Charter
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Now: Charter Paul Allen’s Octopus for Antarctica

It’s never too soon to start planning for your holiday cruise next winter, so you may want to take a good look at Paul Allen’s Octopus for a charter in Antarctica. The eight-deck, 414-foot superyacht, one of the largest and most luxurious yachts in the world, is now available for charter there for Christmas or New Year’s, starting at $2.2 million a week. Launched by Lürssen, the German yard, in 2003 for world exploration, Octopus has an Ice Class A-rated steel hull, so that cruising in the Antarctic should be safe. Allen, one of the richest people in the world,…

Boat Reviews
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New Kadey-Krogen 58: Made for Adventure

The new Kadey-Krogen 58 EB (Extended Bridge), on display at the Palm Beach show last month, is a solid, full-displacement cruiser ready for an adventure anywhere in the world. With a single 325-hp John Deere diesel, the 58 has a range of 3,775 nm at 7 knots; speed up to 10 knots, and the range drops to 1,050 nm, still a very respectable performance. (Twin engines are optional.) Kadey-Krogen is hardly a newcomer to the world’s blue-water cruising fleet. Indeed, it has made more than 600 cruising boats over the past 45 years at its yard in Taiwan, earning a…

Destinations
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Acadia National Park: A Down East Favorite

Since this is National Park Week, it’s an appropriate time to plan a summer cruise to Acadia National Park on Mt. Desert Island, way Down East in Maine. Surrounded by some of the best cruising grounds on the East Coast, Acadia offers a land-and-sea experience that will provide memories for many years to come. If you go in the summer (as opposed to the late-spring/early-fall shoulder seasons), you won’t get lonely. About 3.5 million people visit the park each year, at least in pre-Covid years. A lot of them use the bustling waterfront resort town of Bar Harbor as a…

Cruising Life
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JFA Building Stunning 86 Power Cat

JFA, the high-end French yard, just unveiled its stunning new Long Island 86 power, a large, luxurious, cruising catamaran with an aluminum hull and composite superstructure. You can order the Long Island 86 with conventional or hybrid propulsion. The new 86 comes after the company launched the first of its Long Island series, a 78, and it’s a similar yacht, just stretched. Marc Lombard, who designed the cats for JFA, says, “Long Island catamarans are simple, efficient, seaworthy, and refined.” The 86-foot yacht makes use of its 39-foot beam to create impressive, light-filled living spaces on all three decks, with…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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NTSB: Anatomy of an Accident

The National Transportation Safety Board has just released its report about an accident on the lower Mississippi River involving a 599-foot tanker and a 70-foot tow boat with two barges that has some lessons for us all. The NTSB said the accident was probably caused by the tanker captain’s decision to pass the tow and its barges in a large bend in the river, with lots of other traffic around and a strong following current, as well as poor communications between the captains of both boats. The accident occurred in the afternoon of March 16, 2021, near mile 104 of…

Cruising Life
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New: Bugatti Pool Table for Yachts

Just when you think you’ve seen it all: Here’s a new stabilized pool table for yachts, brought to you by Bugatti, the French luxury car maker. It costs about $300,000, but then if you can afford a yacht large enough to hold the pool table, that might not be an issue. Bugatti says this is the most expensive pool table ever built. It’s a high-tech, carbon-fiber pool table with gyroscopic sensors to keep the surface stable, even when the yacht is on a gnarly passage (although there’s a very good chance that a yacht large enough to hold the pool…

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