On Watch with Peter Janssen

On Watch

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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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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