On Watch with Peter Janssen

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By Peter Janssen on April 5, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Energy Observer Starts a Tour of the World, Powered by Hydrogen Produced from Seawater By Peter A. Janssen The first vessel in the world to produce hydrogen from seawater, Energy Observer, which looks a bit like something from outer space, just crossed from Marseille, France, to Corsica at the start of its six-year, 50-country trip around the world. It will spend this summer cruising the Med, and ultimately will make it to the Americas in 2020. Energy Observer was launched last April in Saint-Malo, pictured above, and made the first of its planned 101 stops around the world in Paris.…

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By Peter Janssen on March 29, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

The Best of Both Worlds: A Kadey-Krogen 39 in the Pacific Northwest, and a Ranger Tugs 27 Anywhere East of the Mississippi By Peter A. Janssen John and Laurie Gray could easily serve as role models for the rest of us. They keep their big boat, Tribute, a 2004 Kadey-Krogen 39 pilothouse trawler, at their home port of Everett, Washington, just above Seattle. And they keep Trilogy, which they call “our other boat,” a 2012 Ranger Tugs 27, on a trailer almost anywhere east of the Mississippi River, ready to go cruising when and where the mood strikes. The Grays…

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By Peter Janssen on March 23, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Hinckley Building All-New, Carbon-Fiber, Outboard-Powered Line of 42-foot Sport Boats. A 63-mph Hinckley? By Peter A. Janssen Hinckley is on a roll. Last September it launched the first luxury all-electric, carbon-fiber 28-foot Dasher, named after hull number one of its iconic Picnic Boat, at the Newport boat show. Now, on the opening day of the Palm Beach show, it said it is building an entirely new line of carbon-fiber, outboard-powered, 42-foot sport boats. Powered by standard three 300-hp Mercury Verados, the company said the boats will top out at 52 mph, while two monster 667-hp Seven Marine outboards will push…

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By Peter Janssen on March 22, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Dashews End Quest for Functional Power Boats; Will Go Cruising Instead By Peter A. Janssen After more than a decade, Steve (Skip) and Linda Dashew are throwing in the towel. They are no longer designing or building their iconic FPB (Functional Power Boats) line of aluminum-hulled, long-range cruisers. Dashew wrote on their blog, “The time has come for us to do some cruising. Although we would have rather had the FPB marque continue, we simply could not find an approach that guaranteed our standards would be upheld.” The Dashews have been cruising together around the world for abut 40 years,…

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By Peter Janssen on March 15, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Legendary Alaskan Long-Range Cruisers Staging a Comeback By Peter A. Janssen Alaskan yachts, the legendary, long-range, Art DeFever-designed trawlers, just got a shot in the arm. Seattle Yachts announced that they bought the Alaskan brand and hired Phil Friedman, the former CEO of Palmer Johnson, to modernize and reintroduce the lineup, starting with a new 66-footer. Friedman, who just finished construction of a semi-custom 80-footer in Taiwan, where the new Alaskans will be built, said the cruisers will embody “value engineering” by concentrating on things that are core to the boat’s mission. “Our primary objective is to deliver a rugged,…

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By Peter Janssen on March 8, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Popular Palm Beach Show Opens March 22: More Boats, More Serious Deals. Plus, Our Reviews of 36 New Boats By Peter A. Janssen It’s not hard to understand why the Palm Beach International Boat Show has become the fastest-growing show in Florida in the past few years. Its location is terrific: Centered in downtown West Palm Beach along the shores of the Intracoastal Waterway, it’s pretty and easy to get to, on land or on water. And once you’re there, it’s easy to navigate the docks and tents without competing with hordes of other people. It’s a no-hassle boat show,…

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

Aspen Power Cat Arrives in New Orleans in Middle of the Night: “Crazy Boating” on the Mississippi By Peter A. Janssen A year ago, when he was planning a 10,000-mile tour around the United States on his then still-being-built Aspen C120 power cat, David Jenkins told me that he and Larry Graf, the company’s founder, president and “chief adventurer,” had to make a decision. Basically, how to get the boat from the west coast of Mexico to the Gulf coast of the United States. They looked at the normal route, through the Panama Canal, but decided it would take too…

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By Peter Janssen on February 22, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Report from Miami: “Bigger is Better,” More Outboards Than Ever, and “A Very Robust Market” By Peter A. Janssen Whatever else was going on (and a lot was going on), the people at Ranger Tugs and Cutwater Boats hit a home run at the Miami International Boat Show on Virginia Key. They had a bigger display than ever before, with three models from each brand, and there were people than ever before. “It was a great show for both brands,” said Sam Bisset, the communications director for Ranger and Cutwater, “and there were certainly buyers in the crowds.” Based in…

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By Peter Janssen on February 15, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Miami Show Opens Big: More Boats, More People, More Enthusiasm By Peter A. Janssen The Miami International Boat Show got underway under beautiful blue skies with more people, more boats, more outboards, more hybrids, more cats and more enthusiasm that I’ve seen in a long time. The mood on the docks, and in the lines waiting for water taxis and shuttle buses to and from the show at Virginia Key, was distinctly upbeat. Power boating has been coming back lately. The Lauderdale show in November was the best in years, the New York show last month was so good that…

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By Peter Janssen on February 8, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

You Can See More Cruising Boats than Ever at the Miami Shows Next Week. Here Are Our Reviews of 38 of Them By Peter A. Janssen It would be hard to find a larger or more impressive display of new cruising boats anywhere in the world than what you can see in Miami next week. At the ever-larger Miami International Boat Show on Virginia Key, you’ll find more than 1,400 boats (including many more in the 40- to 80-foot range), while at the Miami Yacht Show up on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, there are 500 more. (And that’s not…

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