On Watch with Peter Janssen

On Watch

By Peter Janssen on July 18, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

The Leopolds Cruise Their Ranger Tug 27 Up the Inside Passage to Alaska, All Three of Them (and Moxie) By Peter A. Janssen When Mark and Peggy Leopold drove a trailer with their 27-foot Ranger Tug out of their driveway in Anacortes, Washington, on June 2, heading for the launch ramp to start their 3,000 nm round-trip to Juneau, Alaska, they left the davit crane that they usually use to lift their daughter Nicole on board behind. Instead, given the uncertainty of docks they would be encountering along the way, they brought a two-person sling, with secure straps, to carry…

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By Peter Janssen on July 11, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

New Aspen Power Cat Knot Wafflen’ Finishes 10,000 Mile Tour of U.S. from Alaska to Annapolis By Peter A. Janssen They made it. The 10,000 Mile Tour is over. Knot Wafflen’, the 40-foot Aspen Power Catamaran that left Anacortes, Washington, last May, on a voyage around the United States, is home in Annapolis, Maryland, some 10,540 nm and 1,001 engine hours later. And its owner, David Jenkins, who calls himself a serial entrepreneur, is happy. “The boat was as advertised,” he told me. “It held up as I thought it would, based on my factory tour of its construction. Mileage,…

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By Peter Janssen on July 2, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

The Gardyne Family Cruises to Alaska on Their Nordhavn 40: Next Stop, the World By Peter A. Janssen The Gardyne family from Alameda, California, across the bay from San Francisco, didn’t want to wait for their retirement to start cruising around the world. Two years ago, they bought a 2002 Nordhavn 40 in Seattle and drove it home, on something of a trial cruise. And they were hooked. On April 17, the Gardynes – Dougal and Jen and their daughter Cassidy, 7 – passed under the Golden Gate Bridge on their Nordhavn, appropriately named Cassidy, and turned north. “Our goal…

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By Peter Janssen on June 27, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Trade Wars Already Hurting U.S. Boating. Sales Are Cancelled, Layoffs Are Threatened By Peter A. Janssen The Trump Administration’s trade wars are already hurting U.S. boat manufacturers, as European and Canadian sales are cancelled because of higher tariffs. Some manufacturers say they will have to cut production and lay off workers if the trade wars continue. In retaliation to the tariffs that President Trump imposed on some imports, the European Union has imposed a 25 percent tariff on sail- and power-boats built in the United States. For its part, Canada will start a 10 percent tariff on U.S.-made boats starting…

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By Peter Janssen on June 21, 2018 Engine Room, On Watch with Peter Janssen

Volvo Unveils Revolutionary New Self-Docking System on 68-foot Azimut. See Video By Peter A. Janssen Volvo Penta just demonstrated its new self-docking system in a 68-foot Azimut in Sweden where the boat docked itself perfectly in a tight space without the aid of a human hand. And it has a video to prove it. The new system. called “Easy Docking,” is an example of Volvo’s research in autonomous vehicles, and it was displayed during a stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race in Gothenburg. After the captain pushed a button at the helm, the boat maneuvered itself with a combination of Volvo’s…

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By Peter Janssen on June 14, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Ranger Tug 25 Update: Nellie May Passes 4,000 Miles on Great Loop, Now in Erie Canal By Peter A. Janssen The beat goes on. Tim and Mary Kenyon have put more than 4,000 miles under the hull of their Ranger Tug 25 Nellie May since they left Illinois last Sept. 11, and now they’re cruising on the Erie Canal (see the picture, top). If all goes according to plan, they expect to cross their wake in Ottawa, Illinois, about half way between Chicago and Peoria, in early September. We last covered the Kenyons in February when they left Nellie May in Melbourne,…

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By Peter Janssen on June 7, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Fatigue and Outdated Watch System Caused Sinking of U.S. Tug in British Columbia, Investigation Says By Peter A. Janssen In a new report that resonates with all of us who go cruising, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said that fatigue, caused by the 6-on, 6-off watch system, was the major factor in the grounding and ultimate sinking of the 95-foot-long tug Nathan E. Stewart near Bella Bella, B.C. in October, 2016. The tug ran aground on Edge Reef on the Inside Passage, about 10 nm west of Bella Bella, just after 1 a.m. when the second mate, the only person on…

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By Peter Janssen on May 31, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

After the Great Loop, the McVeys Keep on Cruising: “There is so much more to see.” By Peter A. Janssen Charlie and Robin McVey from Louisville, Mississippi, just don’t know how to quit. Indeed, they’ve been cruising on their 42-foot 1986 Jefferson Sundeck trawler The Lower Place most of the time since they retired more than two years ago. After a few break-in cruises, they started the Great Loop at 5 am on Oct. 23, 2016, and completed it 343 days later, passing through 17 states, the District of Columbia and parts of the Bahamas and Canada. Back at their…

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By Peter Janssen on May 24, 2018 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Larry Polster Finally Takes His New Kadey-Krogen 50 Cruising in the Bahamas: “Damn, We Nailed This” By Peter A. Janssen For Larry Polster, a vice president and partner of Kadey-Krogen Yachts, this cruise has been a long time coming. Indeed, it started more than two years ago when Polster put in his order for hull number one of the new Kadey-Krogen 50 Open series; he wanted it for his personal boat so he and his wife Janet could go cruising again. The Polsters were intimately involved in every aspect of the new build, inspecting it in the factory in Taiwan,…

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

Unlawful Search, Part 3. A Lot of You Wrote Us About Your Own Experiences Being Stopped and Searched for No Apparent Reason. Are These a Violation of Your Fourth Amendment Rights? By Peter A. Janssen We have written two stories now about the case of a Lake Erie boat owner whose 23-foot boat was searched by a Pennsylvania Fish and Game Commission officer who gave him a citation with a $75 fine for having only four life jackets for the five people on board. The boat owner, Frederick Karash, 37, fought the fine in court, saying the search violated his…

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