On Watch with Peter Janssen

Hunt, Huckins, Back Cove Big Winners in Newport

By Peter Janssen on September 17, 2021 On Watch with Peter Janssen

The Hunt 63, the Huckins Sportsman 38, and the Back Cove 39O were big winners at the Newport boat show, all collecting awards in various categories. The electric outboard by Flux Marine won an award in the show’s green products category. The awards are part of the show’s Newport For New Products showcase, open to domestic and foreign products that were launched in the U.S. after April 1, 2021, that made their debut at the Newport show. Winners were selected by a panel of judges, industry experts, on the basis of innovation, value to the consumer, safety, and aesthetics. An…

Grand Banks Consolidates Its Three Brands

By Peter Janssen on September 15, 2021 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Grand Banks just announced that it’s consolidating its three brands – Grand Banks, of course, plus Eastbay and Palm Beach Motoryachts – under the umbrella of the GB Marine Group. They will all be manufactured in Malaysia; Palm Beach moved there from Australia last year to join the other two brands. And they all will use Mark Richards’ V-Warp hull. Richards used it when it launched his first motoryacht, a Palm Beach 28, in 1998, and he’s been incorporating it on Grand Banks and Eastbays ever since Grand Banks bought out Palm Beach in 2014 and put him in charge…

Hinckley To Debut New 35 Outboard in Newport

By Peter Janssen on September 8, 2021 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Over the summer, Hinckley delivered hull number one of its new 35 with twin outboards to its proud owner. The boat will make its public debut at the Newport boat show, starting Sept. 16. This newest Hinckley combines the classic looks of the original Picnic Boat with the performance of an outboard vessel. Standard power is twin 300-hp outboards (Mercurys or Yamahas); you can upgrade to 350-hp outboards, from the same companies, and hit a top speed of 48 mph. The new 35 has a range of 300 nm at 35 mph. “This new model is a true Hinckley in…

The Day the Mississippi Ran Backward

By Peter Janssen on September 2, 2021 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Earlier this week, the Mississippi River ran backward. For the last 70 million years, the Mississippi has flowed from north to south, emptying out in the Gulf of Mexico. But last Sunday, as Hurricane Ida made landfall with 150-mph winds at Port Fourchon, Louisiana, the river reversed course. A U.S. Geological Survey gauge south of New Orleans registered “a negative flow” of the river. It rose seven feet and changed from running about two feet per second going south to half a foot per second going north. “That is extremely uncommon,” said a government hydrologist. Ida devasted the area, leaving…

Brit Rows Wrong Way Across Atlantic, Solo

By Peter Janssen on August 29, 2021 Cruising Life, On Watch with Peter Janssen

Ian Rivers, a 55-year-old veteran of Britain’s Special Air Service, just became the first person to row across the North Atlantic by himself, without any support, without using a GPS and navigating with a sextant. All told, Rivers rowed 3,100 nm from New York to the Isles of Scilly in 85 days on his 27-foot boat. This voyage is “the wrong way,” going against the prevailing winds and currents. About 500 miles from the end, the boat capsized three times in a storm and Rivers was trapped upside down in the cabin filling with water. He suffered a concussion and some…

Virginia Oliver: Lobstering at 101 Years Old

By Peter Janssen on August 26, 2021 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Three days a week, Virginia Oliver, 101 years old, gets up at 1:15 a.m., pulls on her boots and goes to work on her son’s lobster boat in Rockland, Maine. Her son, Max, is 76. Virginia’s father was a lobsterman; she’s been working on lobster boats, on and off, since she was 7. Her husband, who died 15 years ago, was a lobsterman. A long time ago, Virginia worked for a printer, but she quit. She wanted to go to work on the boat with her husband. Now, Max hauls the traps and Virginia measures the lobsters, tossing out the…

Futur-E Electric Boat Flies on Four Foils

By Peter Janssen on August 22, 2021 On Watch with Peter Janssen

David Cipriani, the Italian yacht designer, has developed an all-electric concept boat that looks something like a sportscar and handles like a jet fighter. The Futur-E boat has four foils so it can fly over the water at abut 30 knots. The CEO of Centrostiledesign in Bologna, Cipriani designed the Futur-E with foils on four retractable wings based on tank testing with the latest computational fluid dynamics technology. The boat’s “Foil Integrated Kinematic System” manages how far the four foils extend, and the angle of attack. They are independently adjusted for optimal attitude. The foils are operated by electro-hydraulic actuators…

New 50th Anniversary Whaler with 3 V12 Outboards

By Peter Janssen on August 17, 2021 On Watch with Peter Janssen

In 1971, Boston Whaler launched its first Outrage, a 21’ 4” unsinkable vessel with a single outboard. Whaler sold hull number one to the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, which is still using it today. Over the past 50 years, Whalers have become ubiquitous around the world. Who among us has not owned, driven, or wanted a Whaler? Now, Whaler has launched a special 50th Anniversary Edition 420 Outrage, and it’s a bit different from the first. The new Outrage has grown to 42’ 6”, and it’s powered by three 600-hp V12 Mercury Verado outboards, giving it a…

Father and Son Cruise Solar/Electric Boat to Alaska

By Peter Janssen on August 10, 2021 On Watch with Peter Janssen

When we last wrote about the father-son team of David and Alex Borton at the end of May, they had just left Bellingham, Washington, on their 27-foot solar/electric boat Wayward Sun, headed for Alaska. They wanted to be the first to take such a vessel all that way, without using any fossil fuel at all. And they succeeded. Using only the sun for power, the Bortons cruised 1,216 nm from Bellingham to Ketchikan, Alaska, and then up to Glacier Bay and finally to Juneau, in a total of 45 days. They actually were underway for 38 days, averaging 32 nm…

Boat Sinks in Marlin Tournament. See Rescue Video

By Peter Janssen on August 4, 2021 On Watch with Peter Janssen

The 48th annual White Marlin Open, the world’s largest billfish tournament, started on Monday morning in Ocean City, Maryland, with 421 boats competing for a record $9 million in prize money. At 10:30, Knot Stressin’, a 34-foot Pursuit and one of the competitors, sent out a Mayday call saying its engine room was flooding and all six men on board were abandoning ship. It was about 60 miles offshore. The Coast Guard heard the call and sent out an 87-foot patrol boat and a 47-foot lifeboat. But Bill Chapman, the captain of Fishbone, a 65-foot fishing boat that also was…

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