On Watch with Peter Janssen

Fall Boat Show Special: We Preview 48 New Boats

By Peter Janssen on September 16, 2020 On Watch with Peter Janssen

This is usually my favorite time of year. The boat show season has started, I can see all the new cruising power boats, catch up with my friends, and feel good about notching one more year on the belt – a combination of a sense of survival and renewal. Well, not this year. In normal times, this would be the second day of the Newport International Boat Show, and I’d be sitting in a tent early in the morning, waiting to find out the winners of the best boats in the show contest. Not this year. The COVID-19 pandemic has…

New Spirit P70: A Very Special Long-Range Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on September 7, 2020 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Before we get to the basics, let’s consider some numbers about the elegant new Spirit P70 long-range cruiser. Sean McMillan, the head designer and CEO of Spirit, drew 22 exterior profiles of the boat before the owner signed off one. It took three men seven months to varnish the mahogany interior. It took eight craftsmen three years to build the boat. The boat has a range of 1,000 nm at its cruising speed of 18 knots, something the owner stipulated so that he could cruise from his home port of Southampton in the U.K. to the Baltic without having to…

Our 200th Issue! Plus, Trends 2020

By Peter Janssen on September 2, 2020 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Welcome to the 200th edition of Cruising Odyssey, the weekly digital newsletter that celebrates the idea of living the dream under power. Two hundred weeks. Who’d have thought? Well, when we (George Day, our publisher; Scott Akerman, our ad director, and me as editor) started this enterprise, we never really had a longevity discussion. We hoped Cruising Odyssey, the newsletter and the associated website, would catch on, but we never really considered a timeline for that. As things turned out, we hit a nerve – the right idea at the right time. The growing power cruising audience was more than…

New Bering 70 Takes 1,200-nm, 12-Day Summer Cruise

By Peter Janssen on August 25, 2020 On Watch with Peter Janssen

In a successful effort to show what’s possible in a 12-day cruise, the leaders of Bering Yachts took a new Bering 70 steel-hulled expedition yacht on a 1,200 nm trip around Turkey’s Turquoise and Aegean coasts earlier this summer. With a two-person crew moving the yacht at night, they spent the days exploring historic sites, visiting waterfront restaurants, swimming in remote coves, and generally having the time of their lives. (See the video below.) Berings are built in Antalya, Turkey, and the cruise started and ended there. Alexey Mikhailov, the company’s president, said, “We wanted to demonstrate that a fast…

New 60-foot Luxury Cat Carries a Mini Sub

By Peter Janssen on August 19, 2020 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Officina Armare, the upscale Italian design firm, has just unveiled its latest head-turning custom yacht: a 60-foot luxury catamaran called Project Aquanaut that carries its own two-person submarine. The design studio says it was “heavily influenced” by the looks of a Ford Bronco, and calls the new 45-knot cat an SUV of the sea. The cat does have a low, sporty, boxy, and very aggressive profile, and it’s clearly meant for versatility and adventure. It will be built to order by Licia Yachts in Turkey. Powered by twin 800-hp Volvo IPS1050 pod drives, the Aquanaut tops out at 45 knots…

No Boat Shows? The Boats Will Come To You

By Peter Janssen on August 13, 2020 On Watch with Peter Janssen

No boat shows? No problem. Many of the traditional fall boat shows have been closed, or changed to virtual, on-line versions of their past lives, fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic. But boat companies are nothing if mobile, and if you can’t go to shows to see their new boats, they’ll bring their new boats to you. Or at least to a controlled space that’s relatively close to you. Here’s a look at what some of them are doing: Hinckley Yachts is hosting showcases in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Stamford, Connecticut, and Annapolis. These will be semi-private, limited-access events, using Hinckley…

New 48 Wallytender: 55-Knots with 4 Merc Verados

By Peter Janssen on August 11, 2020 On Watch with Peter Janssen

The new 48 Wallytender X, powered by four 450-hp Mercury Verado R outboards, is designed for the U.S. market, particularly for the South Florida area, where its aggressive styling and 55-knot performance make it an easy fit. The 48 is the first Wally built since the Ferretti Group took over the Monaco-based company. An earlier version was powered by twin 480-hp Volvo IPS600 pod drives, and it topped out at abut 38 knots. Wally’s shift to outboard power is part of a major trend that’s been growing in the past few years, and includes such Downeast builders as Hinckley, MJM,…

“A Giant Pile of Broken Boats” in Southport, NC

By Peter Janssen on August 6, 2020 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Southport, North Carolina, and left a trail of damage and broken boats at two marinas there. WRAL News reported “a giant pile of broken boats” at the marinas, and boat owners reported looking around and trying to find their vessels in the debris. The storm skirted Florida; Sean Collins, the dockmaster at Vero Beach Municipal Marina, said one boat had a cleat pulled out there, and largely avoided Georgia, but it then slammed into the Southport area with 94-mph winds and a five-foot storm surge that simply stacked up water at Southport Marina and South…

Antique Boat Museum Holds Annual Boat Parade

By Peter Janssen on August 3, 2020 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Some traditions continue, even in a time of coronavirus. One of these is the annual boat parade in the Thousand Islands sponsored by the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, New York. The parade this year, held last Saturday, involved some 20 boats, not quite as many as usual, and it had to operate only in American waters, since the border with Canada is still closed. And the Museum’s annual live auction of antique boats, which listed about 100 boats last year, only had seven this year, and it was virtual. Still, an antique boat parade is something to celebrate. The…

Cruising Through Alaska in a Time of Coronavirus

By Peter Janssen on July 29, 2020 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Jeff and Susie Parker hadn’t really planned it this way when they left Idyll Time, their 48-foot Kadey-Krogen, in Petersburg, Alaska, last October and flew home to Tennessee. They simply figured that leaving it there would give them a head start on cruising through Alaska once the season opened again this summer. As things turned out, that decision meant that they are able to enjoy the boat, and to cruise in Alaska now, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most cruisers in the Pacific Northwest aren’t able to go to Alaska because the U.S/Canadian border remains closed to nonessential travel. But…

Browsing: On Watch with Peter Janssen