On Watch with Peter Janssen

On Watch

By Peter Janssen on November 1, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Fort Lauderdale Report: First Day at FLIBS By Peter A. Janssen Walking down the Beneteau dock at the opening day of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show was like running into a new, improved version of an old friend. I could almost hear the new Beneteau 47 Swift Trawler, which was making its U.S. debut at the show, calling my name. After all, I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for Beneteau’s Swift Trawler line ever since I took one around part of the Great Loop a few years ago. But that was a two-cabin, single-diesel 34. The new…

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By Peter Janssen on October 25, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

What To Look for at FLIBS: New Boats, New Trends, New Dreams By Peter A. Janssen Take a good look the yacht above, one of the 1,500 new boats you can see at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show that starts next Wednesday, Oct. 31, and runs through Sunday, Nov. 4. It’s the Utopia IV from the Rossinavi yard in Italy, and it’s 207 feet long. It’s powered by four 2,600-hp MTU diesels and it tops out at 33 knots. If you want to get some exercise, or just get wet, it has three swimming pools, plus a “beach club” aft,…

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By Peter Janssen on October 17, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Fort Lauderdale ’18: A New Look, New Entrance, New Food & Drink and 1,500 New Boats. Plus: Our Reviews of 40 New Cruising Boats There By Peter A. Janssen The ever-growing Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show will run from Wednesday, Oct. 31, through Sunday, Nov. 4, with a lot of improvements from its new owners – and a lot more boats, displayed at seven locations linked by a network of water taxis and shuttle buses. The first thing you’ll find is a new, redesigned entrance on Seabreeze Blvd. a few hundred yards north of the Bahia Mar Hotel and Marina,…

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By Peter Janssen on October 10, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

New UN Report on Global Warming: “Quite a Shock.” If Temperatures Keep Rising, Say Goodbye to Coral Reefs, the Maldives By Peter A. Janssen The United Nations just released a major report on global warming, painting a darker picture of the consequences of rising temperatures than scientists had previously thought. The report, by hundreds of scientists around the world and endorsed by 180 nations, “is quite a shock,” said Bill Hare, the author of earlier Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports and a physicist. The consequence are particularly dire for coral reefs, which are vital to supporting ocean life. Warmer…

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By Peter Janssen on October 4, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Welcome to Our 100thEdition. Holy Smoke! By Peter A. Janssen Welcome to the 100thedition of Cruising Odyssey, our dynamic weekly e-newsletter that helps owners of cruising boats live the dream under power. One hundred issues. Who’d have thought… When my partners (George Day, our publisher, and Scott Akerman, our ad director) and I started thinking about creating Cruising Odyssey more than two years ago, we wanted to be at the forefront of the digital revolution. We are all veterans of traditional boating magazines, and we have a lot of issues – and a lot of nautical miles – under our belts.…

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By Peter Janssen on September 25, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

We Test the New, Prize-Winning Back Cove 34O: A Fast, Fun and Game-Changing Couple’s Cruiser By Peter A. Janssen I nailed it. As I jammed the throttles all the way forward, I realized this isn’t your father’s Back Cove. Actually, it isn’t like any other Back Cove ever, and I’ve driven every new model since Back Cove introduced its first one, a 29, in 2003. Back then, Sabre Yachts created Back Cove as a single-diesel, low-maintenance, user-friendly Down East cruising boat. But now, on this brand-new Back Cove 34O, all that was ancient history. Powered by twin 300-hp Yamaha outboards,…

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By Peter Janssen on September 20, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Flag Flying Over Frying Pan Shoal Tower During Florence Becomes Popular Symbol of Resilience By Peter A. Janssen Here’s a story about how one tattered American flag, flying over a former Coast Guard lighthouse off the coast of North Carolina, became a symbol of resilience and renewal during storm Florence. The Frying Pan Shoals lighthouse was built in 1854, about 39 miles off Southport and 32 miles from Bald Head Island, at the southern end of the shoals there. So many boats had broken apart on the shoals that the area was named the Graveyard of the Atlantic. On a…

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By Peter Janssen on September 13, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Newport Show Opens with More Great Looking – and More Powerful – Boats than Ever Before By Peter A. Janssen The Newport show, the first of the fall boat show season, just opened, with more boats than ever before and, to my mind, more great-looking and great-performing boats than ever before. The brand-new Palm Beach 50GT, for example, just launched for the show, is boating eye-candy writ large, with a head-turning sapphire blue hull, low profile, drop-dead gorgeous tumblehome and curves everywhere. The fact that it tops out a 42 knots, driven by twin 600-hp Volvo IPS800s, is just icing…

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By Peter Janssen on September 6, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

From Seattle to Michigan to Florida to the Trent Severn Waterway in Canada: The Favors Find the Advantages of a Trailerable Ranger 29 By Peter A. Janssen When we last visited Jim and Lisa Favors, they had just bought their Ranger Tug 29 in Seattle and were spending a few weeks cruising and getting used to their new boat. Not that they needed an introduction to Ranger or to cruising. They already had cruised extensively on their Ranger 27 (completing the Great Loop, for example), but a year ago they wanted to move up in size and traded up to…

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By Peter Janssen on August 30, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Newport ’18: First Show of the Season Is Larger than Ever. Plus, Our Reviews of 29 New Cruising Boats You Can See There By Peter A. Janssen The Newport International Boat Show has always been my favorite. It’s the first of the fall show season, so almost all the new boats are there, and then, well, it’s in Newport. Enough said. This year the show, the 48thannual, runs from Thursday, Sept. 13, through Sunday, Sept. 16, with most of the docks and engine and accessories tents at the Newport Yachting Center, but also spilling over to neighboring docks. There’s also…

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