On Watch with Peter Janssen

On Watch

By Peter Janssen on July 6, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Volvo Turns to Outboards. Are Hybrids Next? Will your transom look like this, with a total of 2,508 horsepower coming from four Seven Marine outboards? Well, the answer is yes, if Volvo Penta has anything to say about it. Volvo just announced that it is entering the rapidly growing outboard market by buying the majority stake in Seven Marine, which Volvo Penta President Bjorn Ingemanson calls “the leader in the high-powered outboard market.” In a conference call, Ron Huibers, president of Volvo Penta of the Americas, said, “Now the idea is to make some of the most exciting outboards ever…

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By Peter Janssen on June 29, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

After The Loop and 25,000 miles, The Coles and My Dream Are “Not Done Yet” Ted and Sue Cole of Placerville, California, just crossed their wake in Dania Beach, Florida, completing the Great Loop around the eastern half of the United States. That, of course, is a major achievement, but it’s not singular. After all, 127 other boats completed the Loop last year alone. But what is unusual, is that the Coles only cruised part of the time, taking seven years on the Loop from start to finish. And even then they managed to put in side trips to Mexico,…

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By Peter Janssen on June 22, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

After 35,000 Miles, The Ullmanns Are Just Getting Started So far, Jennifer and Mark Ullmann have put about 35,000 nautical miles on Starlet, their 17-year-old Nordhavn 46, and they’re just warming up. Right now, they’re in the Marquesas in French Polynesia, deep in the South Pacific (pictured above), and that’s about half way ‘round in their planned circumnavigation. Until about ten years ago, the Ullmanns were living traditional lives on land, although they both loved diving and had a 24-foot dive boat in the Florida Keys. Then, after a bad day at work, they were having dinner in a Thai…

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By Peter Janssen on June 15, 2017 Destinations, On Watch with Peter Janssen

Mackinac Island: A Laid-Back Boating Haven on the Great Lakes Little changed since 1897, when the town leaders banned automobiles (they scared the horses), Mackinac Island, at the top of Lake Huron and just around the corner from the top of Lake Michigan, is perhaps the leading summer destination in the Midwest, and certainly is one of the most picturesque in the United States. With its own marina on the historic island, and two more nearby, it’s also a major boating destination, and that’s before you count the 320 sailboats that will arrive there from Chicago at the end of…

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By Peter Janssen on June 8, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Cruising the Loop, A Canadian Couple Live Their Dream When Mike and Maria Fenn left Krates Marina in Keswick, Ontario (just above Toronto), early last July to start the Great Loop, a friend gave them a small toy monkey to put on their boat; in fact, he gave a monkey to everyone starting a long cruise. “The purpose is to get the monkey off your back and instead put the monkey on the dash of your vessel,” Fenn said. The Fenns probably didn’t need a good luck monkey; they’d been cruising out of Krates for 21 years. And last summer,…

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By Peter Janssen on June 1, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Former Music Exec and Wife Take Dream Cruise on New Sabre 48 Last September, Jerry Ade, a former music talent agency executive and real estate developer, and his wife, Marci, bought their dream boat, a Sabre 48 flybridge, from DiMillo’s in Portland, Maine. They named it Famous (Ade had been president of the Famous Artists Agency in New York, representing Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and The Beastie Boys, among others), and they headed down the coast to deliver it to their home in Naples, Florida. But weather, and a fuel problem, got in the way, and they ran out of time in…

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By Peter Janssen on May 25, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Slowboat Flotilla to Alaska: Safety – and Fun – in Company The peak cruising season in the Pacific Northwest is just starting, but the Slowboat flotilla has already left Roche Harbor in the San Juans, heading up the Inside Passage to Sitka, Alaska. The flotilla has six boats this year, a Nordhavn 50, West Coast 46, Nordic Tug 42, two Nordic Tug 37s, and a Nordic Tug 34. All the owners are experienced boaters (including some who have lived aboard for 20 years and some who have cruised to Alaska before), but Laura Domela, one of the Slowboat organizers, says…

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By Peter Janssen on May 18, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

At Sea Once More, the Hamiltons Are Halfway to Ireland on their Nordhavn 52 James and Jennifer Hamilton are at it again (or more accurately, are at it still). The Hamiltons, a high-tech couple from Seattle, have already cruised around the world on MV Dirona, their 52-foot Nordhavn. Last year they cruised 3,650 nm from St. Helena in the South Atlantic to Barbados, the longest nonstop voyage ever taken by a Nordhavn under 100 feet. Now, they’re in the middle of a 3,000-nm cruise from Newport, Rhode Island, to Ireland. After that, they plan to head for the Scottish Isles…

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By Peter Janssen on May 11, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Annapolis Couple Starts Epic 10,000 Mile Tour Around the U.S. on an Aspen Power Cat And they’re off. After a year of planning, David Jenkins and his wife, Sue Ellen, from Annapolis, and his brother-in-law, Blake Eder, a professional delivery captain from North Carolina, just left Anacortes, Washington, on the start of their epic 10,000 nm cruise around the United States, on the Jenkins’ new 40-foot Aspen power catamaran Knot Wafflen’. And they started by heading north, to Juneau, Alaska, before planning to turn around and circle the U.S., ending up back home in Annapolis in October, 2018. The 10,000-mile tour…

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By Peter Janssen on May 4, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

After Completing the Great Loop, a New Jersey Couple Plans to Keep on Cruising – in a Bigger Boat There’s no stopping Clark and Evelyn Woodworth, a retired couple from Rumson, New Jersey. For a while, after they completed the Great Loop a year ago, they thought they were finished. Then they bought a bigger boat… Avid boaters, the Woodworths started planning for the Loop more than a decade ago; they owned a Mainship 350, named Sea Moss, that they had bought new in 1999. They took Power Squadrons courses; Clark even took a Yanmar diesel engine course so he…

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