On Watch with Peter Janssen

On Watch

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…

On Watch

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…

On Watch

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…

On Watch

By Peter Janssen on April 27, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

A Man with a Plan Richard Bost, 66, a meteorologist and retired New York City high school principal, plans ahead, and so far he’s planned well. He left Providence, Rhode Island, on his 1989, 42-foot Kadey-Krogen Dauntless on July 20, 2014, and he’s been at sea ever since, crossing the Atlantic to the Azores, then cruising up to Ireland, the North Sea, the Baltic, and finally down the coast of Europe to Spain and the Canary Islands. He then crossed the Atlantic again, making landfall in Martinique before transiting the Panama Canal. Dauntless is now at Fish Hook Marina in…

On Watch

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

Another Nordhavn Fleet Plans an Atlantic Crossing Nordhavn is at it again. Another group of Nordhavn owners, six this time, are going to be leaving Florida soon, with four of them ultimately heading across the Atlantic for Gibraltar. (Two will go as far as Bermuda, watch the America’s Cup there and then cruise up to Nova Scotia.) The other four will continue to Horta in the Azores and then on to Gibraltar. The original Nordhavn Atlantic Rally, in 2004 (pictured in Gibraltar, above), was the first fleet of recreational powerboats ever to cross the Atlantic, with 18 boats (including 15…

On Watch

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

Carlo Riva: The Engineer Who Created an Icon Ten years ago, my wife and I were cruising along the western shore of Lake Como, not far from the Villa d’Este, looking for George Clooney’s waterfront estate. She was hoping to see Clooney; I wanted to see his Riva. As it happened, we both struck out. But as the day wore on I was able to satisfy my Riva quota; there are more than a few Rivas running around on Lake Como. Actually, they’ve been built nearby in the little town of Sarnico, on Lake Iseo, since 1842. The great-grandson of…

On Watch

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

The Manatees, and the Manatee Zones, Are Here to Stay There’s good news for the manatees, Florida’s official marine mammal. They are no longer an “endangered” species; instead, they’ve been downgraded to just “threatened.” The U.S. Interior Department, which is in charge of such things, announced the change just after Manatee Appreciation Day. (Who knew? It’s March 29, in case you want to celebrate next year.) Manatees, which can live 60 years or so, have been around for the past 45 million years. They move slowly, spending most of their time eating seagrass or sleeping, although they can swim four or…

On Watch

By Peter Janssen on March 30, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Report from Palm Beach: “The Best of the Season.” Traditionally, the Palm Beach boat show is a buyer’s show; a lot of people, so the thinking goes, look at the Miami shows, but then a month later they actually buy in Palm Beach. The Palm Beach show, which just ended, certainly had a lot of the major cruising boats that had already been displayed in Miami, but it also had some new ones, including the Vicem 46IPS from Turkey and the Minorca 34 from Spain, while the new Sabre 45 (from Maine, of course) was undergoing sea trials just up…

On Watch

By Peter Janssen on March 23, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Now You Can Buy a Certified Pre-Owned Hinckley Hinckleys are certainly among the most beautiful yachts on the planet and, with their patented JetStick controls, among the most fun to drive. Most people would like to think about owning one. (I know I fit in that category, ever since I tested Dasher, hull number one of the Picnic Boat, in Southwest Harbor, Maine, back in 1994.) The basic problem, of course, is that they’re also expensive. The obvious solution: Buy a used one. But then, even with a good survey, do you really know what you’re getting? Now Hinckley has an answer…

On Watch

By Peter Janssen on March 16, 2017 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Solarwave 64: The Fossil-Free Future of Long-Range Cruising? Is this the new look of long-distance cruising? The new Solarwave 64 catamaran, with 42 solar panels on the hardtop, claims it can have virtually unlimited range at about 6 knots under solar power alone. Hybrid versions, powered by twin 220-hp Volvo diesels, can reach speeds of 20 knots. A Swiss company, Solarwave makes a 54-, 64- and 74-foot version of its new cat. They’re all designed for long-range cruising under solar power. They’re built in Turkey, by NEDSHIP, which has launched 350 yachts since it was funded in 1985, and all…

Browsing: On Watch with Peter Janssen