On Watch with Peter Janssen

Ohio Billionaire Building New Sub for Titanic

By Peter Janssen on May 30, 2024 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Larry Connor, 74, has made billions as an Ohio real estate investor, but he’s also a record-setting skydiver, a NASA-certified astronaut, and a deep-sea diver. Now he wants to build a $30 million, 14-foot, state-of-the-art Triton submarine and dive down to the wreck of the Titanic. His partner on the two-person sub: Patrick Lahey, one of the most experienced submersible operators in the world who’s also the co-founder and CEO of Triton Submarines. Lahey believes in designing safe subs. Indeed, he has said that the OceanGate sub that imploded last June on its own dive to the Titanic, killing all…

Scout Building Largest Outboard Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on May 5, 2024 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Scout Boats is building what it says is the world’s largest outboard-powered cruising boat in its factory in Summerville, South Carolina. The new Scout 670 LXC is powered by five 600-hp Mercury V-12outboards, and it’s scheduled to be launched later this year. The Scout 670 has an LOA of 66’9”, which makes it 1’9” larger than the HCB Estrella 65, made in Knoxville, Tennessee, and powered by six 450-hp Mercury outboards. An earlier, and slightly smaller, HCB was featured in an episode of Billions, which never shied away from excess. The new 670 is the flagship of the Scout fleet,…

Martha Stewart’s Picnic Boat

By Peter Janssen on April 28, 2024 On Watch with Peter Janssen

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…

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

By Peter Janssen on April 23, 2024 Cruising Life, On Watch with Peter Janssen, On Watch With Peter Janssen

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…

Beneteau Unveils New Swift Trawler 54

By Peter Janssen on April 3, 2024 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Beneteau just announced that it’s building a totally new Swift Trawler 54 that will make its debut at the Cannes Yachting Festival in September before coming to the U.S. The new boat, with three staterooms, two heads, and an unusual amount of glazing to provide light throughout the salon and the accommodations deck below, will be powered by two 550-hp diesels with a top speed of 20 knots, and a range of 800 nm at 9 knots. It has a new “fusion” hull by Bill Dixon that is supposed to be fuel efficient and seaworthy while providing more interior volume.…

Ship Loses Power, Topples Baltimore Bridge

By Peter Janssen on March 29, 2024 On Watch with Peter Janssen

About 00:39 on Tuesday morning, the 984-foot-long container ship MV Dali left the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore, heading down the Patapsco River to the Chesapeake and ultimately to Sri Lanka. It was fully loaded with 4,900 containers, a crew of 21 Indian nationals, and two harbor pilots (one was an apprentice). Two tugs escorted the Dali out the harbor for about 20 minutes, as was the custom, until they headed back home. Everything was under control. A spring tide was ebbing, and the Dali, powered by a single 55,630-hp, 9-cylinder MAN engine, was cruising at about 8 knots. About…

Ship Loses Power, Topples Baltimore Bridge

By Peter Janssen on March 27, 2024 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Iconic Hinckley Picnic Boat Turns 30

By Peter Janssen on March 14, 2024 On Watch with Peter Janssen

The late-morning fog had just lifted when I climbed on board Dasher, the just-launched hull number one of the Hinckley Picnic boat with Shep McKenney, the chairman of the company. A few lobster boats passed by the Hinckley dock in Southwest Harbor, Maine, as we cast off; he said their lines had inspired his idea for the boat. The Picnic Boat was a gamble for Hinckley. The company was suffering from the lasting effects of the 1990 luxury tax, which had decimated the recreational boating industry in the U.S. And the sailboat market, which had been Hinckley’s main business since…

Ferretti Building New 80 with Foredeck Terrace

By Peter Janssen on March 4, 2024 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Ferretti just announced that it’s making a new Infynito 80 with a lot of volume inside and out and a creative covered “all season terrace” on the foredeck. It also has a more conventional multi-deck beach club aft. The Infynito 80 is a smaller sister to the Infynito 90 that was introduced last year, representing something of a design break from the Italian builder’s sleek and luxurious line of motoryachts. The idea is to provide more interior space for relaxing and entertaining on a blue-water cruiser, starting with a raised, plumb bow with lots of beam carried forward. It’s 78…

Ever-Better Palm Beach Show Opens March 21

By Peter Janssen on February 26, 2024 On Watch with Peter Janssen, Palm Beach Boat Show

The Palm Beach International Boat Show, which just gets better and better every year, opens on Thursday, March 21, and runs through Sunday, March 24. Only a month after the Miami show, the Palm Beach affair gathers a variety of upscale cruising boats in an inviting, relaxed, and easy-to-navigate venue that has an appeal all its own. To my mind, Palm Beach is the Goldilocks of boat shows; not too big, not too small. It’s a boat-show case of less is more. The Palm Beach show is smaller than Miami, but some 800 boats will be on display this year,…

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