On Watch with Peter Janssen

Vripack Unveils Doggersbank 77 Long-Range Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on July 12, 2023 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Vripack, the Dutch yacht design firm, just unveiled a new Doggersbank 77 Offshore, a rugged adventure yacht with a creative, single-engine hybrid propulsion system. The new 77 will be the largest Doggersbank that Altena Shipyards, also in the Netherlands, has ever built. The Doggersbank line was started by Vripack founder Dick Boon in 1968; the name comes from a large sandbar in the North Sea. More than 750 Doggersbanks have been built since then, all marked by a high bow to cruise through rough water anywhere in the world, with steel hulls and aluminum superstructures. The new 77 was designed…

Simrad Launches Faster NXS Operating System

By Peter Janssen on July 10, 2023 Cruising Life, Electronics, On Watch with Peter Janssen

Simrad just introduced a new NSX operating system for mid-sized dayboats and center consoles with redesigned charts, its fastest routing ever, and seamless integration giving you more control of your boat. The NSX system is meant to be user-friendly, letting you spend less time playing with the screen and more time enjoying your time on the water. It is smoother, faster, and more intuitive than previous versions. It includes a new activities bar, a reconfigured activities menu, and a fully customizable instruments panel so you can make the system work the way you prefer. The new auto-routing is three times…

Titan Sub: “It’s a Lemon”

By Peter Janssen on July 6, 2023 On Watch with Peter Janssen

On Sunday, June 18, the five men who were going to board the 22-foot submersible Titan gathered for a last-minute briefing on the Polar Prince, the sub’s mothership, at 5 a.m. The mood was serious. For three of the five, this was going to be their first dive on the Titan as it descended 12,500 feet down to explore the historic wreck of the Titanic. The three had been told to stick to a low-residue diet the day before, and not to drink coffee that morning. There was no head on the Titan; the men could use a bottle or…

Titan Tragedy: More Questions than Answers

By Peter Janssen on June 29, 2023 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Twisted pieces of the doomed 22-foot submersible Titan were unloaded from the Horizon Arctic ship at a Canadian Coast Guard pier in St. John’s, Newfoundland, on Wednesday. They were covered in white tarps before cranes lifted them onto trucks taking them to an official investigation site. Among the wreckage: the titanium end cap that held the sub’s 21-inch wide porthole; the porthole was missing. All five people on board the sub died in what the U.S. Coast Guard said was “a catastrophic implosion” just one hour and 47 minutes after the Titan deployed from the Canadian expedition ship Polar Prince…

Brabus Offers Mercedes, Axopar, Watch for $1.5 Million

By Peter Janssen on June 21, 2023 Cruising Life, On Watch with Peter Janssen

Here’s something you probably haven’t thought of before. Brabus, the high-end German car customizer, is now offering a special Stealth Green Exclusivity Package, bundling a tricked-out Mercedes luxury off-road vehicle, a 38-foot Axopar boat, and a Panerai submersible watch, all for just $1.5 million. They all are painted Stealth Green. You could buy all these things separately, of course, piece by piece, but Brabus, which was founded in Bottrop, Germany, in 1977 to customize high-end cars, particularly Mercedes-Benz, now offers you the advantage of one-stop shopping. And then you have the Stealth Green thing too. The new Brabus 800 4X4…

Missing Sub’s Debris Found Near Titanic

By Peter Janssen on June 20, 2023 On Watch with Peter Janssen

At 10 a.m. on Sunday, June 18, the Canadian expedition ship Polar Prince launched its carbon-fiber and titanium 22-foot submersible, Titan, with five people on board, just over the wreck of the Titanic some 12,500 feet under the surface. Just 1 hour and 47 minutes later, the Polar Prince lost all communication with the sub. It had not been seen or heard from ever since. There was enough oxygen on board to last about 96 hours; the air would run out on Thursday morning. On Thursday afternoon, the Coast Guard said that a debris field, the result of a “catastrophic…

Just-Launched Akula: “A Boat for Cruising”

By Peter Janssen on June 15, 2023 On Watch with Peter Janssen

There are cruising boats and there are cruising boats. And then there’s Akula, the just-launched 195-foot-long, luxury expedition yacht built by Rossinavi in Italy. Don’t worry about running into Akula on your next cruise on the Great Loop. It won’t slide under the 19’ 6” fixed bridge on the Illinois River outside Chicago. And it certainly won’t be able to navigate the thin waters of the low countries on the ICW, where I’ve managed to make contact with the bottom on my 36-foot Grand Banks. Akula is a blue-water vessel, with a steel, ice-class hull meant to cruise safely to…

New Bering 76 with 4,000-nm Range

By Peter Janssen on June 6, 2023 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Bering Yachts has launched its new steel-hulled B76 Lemanja long-range explorer yacht, with a range of 4,000 nm. Lemanja is the smallest custom yacht that Bering has ever made. The Turkish builder’s fleet runs from 65 to 145 feet. It says that while Lemanja is rugged on the outside, ready to take on waters all around the world, the interior “is constructed as a full-fledged luxury house.” The new Bering has three staterooms for six guests on its lower accommodations deck; a luxurious master and two guest cabins. “Our client was looking for a tough, go-anywhere explorer yacht with an…

Spirit Launches Long-Range Electric Foiling Boat

By Peter Janssen on May 30, 2023 On Watch with Peter Janssen

Spirit Yachts and BAR Technologies just launched their classic, retro-styled 35-foot foiling boat with a range of 100 nm at its cruising speed of 22 knots. The companies say that is the longest range for an electric boat yet. Top speed is 30 knots. Spirit built the new SpiritBARTech35EF at its yard in Ipswich, UK, while BAR used its America’s Cup experience to design the hull and develop both the foiling technology and electric powertrain. (BAR worked with Sir Ben Ainslie’s foiling America’s Cup boats.) The 35 has a narrow, 7’ 6” beam and a modified deep-V hull with a…

Atlantic Productions/Magellan

Dramatic New Images of the Titanic

By Peter Janssen on May 22, 2023 On Watch with Peter Janssen

A high-tech digital-imaging project has created incredible and entirely new detailed views of the wreck of the Titanic lying 2.4 miles below the surface of the North Atlantic. The images are the result of a six-week expedition to the wreck last summer that produced a “digital twin” of the Titanic, the largest ocean liner in the world when it sank on its maiden voyage on April 15, 1912, after it hit an iceberg. More than 1,500 people perished that night. The expedition last summer was organized by Magellan Ltd., a deep-water mapping company. It sent two submersibles, Romeo and Juliet,…

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