On Watch with Peter Janssen

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By Peter Janssen on September 21, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Report from Newport: “Best Show Ever,” “Outstanding” and “Fantastic” By Peter A. Janssen The first show of the fall season, the Newport International Boat Show can serve as a bellwether for the coming year. And this year all the signs were good. Many new boats were introduced at the show – the Grand Banks 60, Sabre 45 Salon Express, Hinckley Dasher all-electric boat, MJM 35Z, Nordhavn 59 Coastal Pilot, Outer Reef 610, Beneteau Swift Trawler 35, and Hampton Endurance 658, among them. Nancy Piffard, the show director, said attendance was up 10 percent over the previous year. The show “was…

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By Peter Janssen on September 15, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Zeelander 55, Hinckley Dasher Win Best Powerboat Awards at Newport Show. Sabre 45 is People’s Choice By Peter A. Janssen The Dutch-made Zeelander 55, a gorgeous boat without a straight line anywhere, just won the Best Powerboat Over 35 feet award at the Newport International Boat Show. The judges said the boat was “all curves,” and presented an innovative approach to design. The Zeelander, pictured above, is a combination of a traditional Down East lobster boat and a 1930’s Gold Coast commuter boat, with a totally contemporary hull and performance. The award for Best Powerboat Under 35 feet went to…

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By Peter Janssen on September 7, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

In Irma’s Wake: “Apocalyptic” Destruction in Parts of the Caribbean and Florida Keys. Historic Flooding in Jacksonville and Charleston By Peter A. Janssen As Irma waned and moved into the Ohio Valley, the historic hurricane left a path of “apocalyptic” destruction in many parts of the Caribbean and the Florida Keys, while residents of Jacksonville, Florida, and Charleston, South Carolina, were still dealing with massive flooding in downtown areas. All told, the storm killed 56 people, including 13 in Florida, and officials warned that those numbers would probably increase. In the Keys, officials said 25 percent of the homes were…

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By Peter Janssen on August 31, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

47th Annual Newport Boat Show: First Look at the New Cruising Boats By Peter A. Janssen The Newport, RI, 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 47th annual, runs from Thursday, Sept. 14 through Sunday, Sept. 17, with most of the docks and tents at the Newport Yachting Center, but spilling over to neighboring docks; all told, some 600 boats are displayed over 13 acres. There’s also a brokerage show at…

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By Peter Janssen on August 24, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Vesper, a Nordhavn 68, Cruises to Greenland and Iceland with a Husband and Wife Crew By Peter A. Janssen Here’s a view you don’t see very often – the entrance to Prince Christian Sound in Greenland from the helm of a Nordhavn 68. This particular Nordhavn 68, Vesper, was well traveled even before it cruised into Greenland and Iceland. Indeed, Bob and Kathy Valleau, the owners, originally climbed on the boat when it was commissioned at Nordhavn’s headquarters in Dana Point, California, in November, 2015. Then, with a Nordhavn delivery captain, they cruised down to Mexico, the Panama Canal, the…

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By Peter Janssen on August 17, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Joe Blanchard Has Just About Done It All on His Red Grand Banks 36, but He’s Still Going Strong By Peter A. Janssen If you’ve been cruising anywhere in the eastern half of the United States or Canada in the past few years, you’ve probably run across Joe Blanchard on his red-hulled Grand Banks 36 Firebird. Blanchard has pretty much done it all, mostly singlehanded – the Great Loop, the Down East Loop, the Small Triangle Loop. And he’s still going strong, heading south from the Hudson River for Florida, the Bahamas, maybe Cuba. Now retired after a career in…

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By Peter Janssen on August 10, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Veteran Cruisers Ship Kadey-Krogen 48 from Florida to the Pacific Northwest, Start New Journey By Peter A. Janssen Ever since they bought their new Kadey-Krogen 48 Idyll Time in 2006, Jeff and Suzie Parker have pursued an active cruising life from their home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They’ve done the Great Loop, they’ve gone up and down the East Coast, they’ve become familiar with most of the stops on the Intracoastal Waterway. “Traveling up and down the ICW has become routine,” Parker wrote in his blog this spring. So they decided to expand their horizons – a long way – shipping…

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By Peter Janssen on August 3, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Claret Red? Awlcraft Shark? Owners Make Individual Statements Even on Traditional Down East Boats By Peter A. Janssen Most Sabre Yachts, of course, come with blue hulls, in keeping with their classic, Down East heritage. But times may be changing. We couldn’t resist a second, or third, look at this new Sabre 45, photographed by our friend Billy Black, off Nahant, Mass., on the North Shore above Boston. The hull is Claret Red. The picture reminded me of the color of hull number one of Dirigo, the 66-foot Sabre flagship, which was an eye-opening combination of blue and gray with…

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By Peter Janssen on July 20, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Long-Time Boaters Take First Extended Cruise on Back Cove 37. Want To Keep Going By Peter A. Janssen After cruising in the Great Lakes for 34 years, Mike and Melodie Kapolka pretty much know what they like (Georgian Bay and the North Channel are at the top of their list). But now that they have a Back Cove 37, their largest boat so far, they’re taking their first extended cruise, and they like it so much they’re planning for more. The Kapolkas are fairly typical of American cruising couples. They started boating from their home port in Algonac, Michigan, on…

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By Peter Janssen on July 13, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

We Test New MJM 35Z with Twin Outboards. WOW! By Peter A. Janssen It was a Chamber of Commerce summer morning when we headed out of Newport Shipyard on Zinnia, hull number one of the new MJM 35Z, with a beautiful light blue sky, the wind coming in from the ocean at an easy 15 knots or so, the waves on Narragansett Bay just about two feet with gentle, breaking, white foam on top. Leaving the dock, Bob Johnstone, the founder of MJM Yachts (and J/Boats before that), turned the teak joystick under his left hand and walked the boat…

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