Diversity is not something that is often associated with boating and the boating industry. Many people have a stereotypical boater in mind, and I’m guessing as you read this you do too. One of the biggest obstacles to expanding the reach of boating is that so often, the way someone gets into boating in the first place is being exposed by family or close friends. If no one in your orbit is boating, you are much less likely to try it and pass it on to others. However, there are many people doing great work in bringing recreational boating, and the boating industry as a career, to new audiences. Willard Franklin, along with his wife, son and daughter, are working hard to help make boating and fishing more diverse, inclusive, and safe. As members of the Four W's Fishing Team, they work to build communities that support water health, fish, safety, and the joy of boating and fishing. The Four W's Fishing Team promotes the outdoors to elementary, middle school, high school, &amp; college students preparing them for careers in the outdoors. You may also find them educating new and potential boaters at churches, car and boat shows, fairs, and even as a friendly face at the boat ramp! Willard and I discussed how fishing has been passed down from generation to generation in his family, how the Four Ws came about, some great boat safety tips, and much more (including of course who the best angler in the family is). Enjoy!

Diversity is not something that is often associated with boating and the boating industry. Many people have a stereotypical boater in mind, and I’m guessing as you read this you do too. One of the biggest obstacles to expanding the reach of boating is that so often, the way someone gets into boating in the first place is being exposed by family or close friends. If no one in your orbit is boating, you are much less likely to try it and pass it on to others. However, there are many people doing great work in bringing recreational boating, and the boating industry as a career, to new audiences. Willard Franklin, along with his wife, son and daughter, are working hard to help make boating and fishing more diverse, inclusive, and safe. As members of the <a href="https://fourwsfishingteam.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Four W's Fishing Team</a>, they work to build communities that support water health, fish, safety, and the joy of boating and fishing. The Four W's Fishing Team promotes the outdoors to elementary, middle school, high school, &amp; college students preparing them for careers in the outdoors. You may also find them educating new and potential boaters at churches, car and boat shows, fairs, and even as a friendly face at the boat ramp! Willard and I discussed how fishing has been passed down from generation to generation in his family, how the Four Ws came about, some great boat safety tips, and much more (including of course who the best angler in the family is). Enjoy!

Promoting Diversity, Inclusion, Safety, Conservation and Careers

The boating industry has welcomed over 800,000 new boaters into the fold in the last couple of years and is hard at work reaching new, more diverse audiences to continue growing boating. As more and more people experience boating and boat ownership for the first time, it is incumbent on marine businesses to make sure that the boating experience is as headache-free as possible. One aspect of boat ownership that can be frustrating is not just the expense of service and maintenance, but the challenge in finding good service providers. One company looking to change that dynamic is SHIPSHAPE.PRO.   I got to speak with Merrill Charette, founder and CEO of SHIPSHAPE.PRO. While living on his sailboat the last 5 years, Merrill has launched several marine industry focused businesses, products, and even a podcast! Merrill’s Marine Industry Digital Agency helps marine businesses optimize their presence on the web. On the Shipshape podcast Merrill interviews top boating journalists, experts, and liveaboards exploring the many perspectives of life on the water and in the maritime industry. At SHIPSHAPE.PRO, Merrill is working to connect boat owners and service providers to reduce the friction of boat ownership and help boaters remain boaters for longer. Merrill was also inventor of the Dinghy Thingy which was featured at (and saved) the Newport Boat Show in 2019. We discussed life aboard a sailboat, how he got into the marine business, and much more, enjoy!

The boating industry has welcomed over 800,000 new boaters into the fold in the last couple of years and is hard at work reaching new, more diverse audiences to continue growing boating. As more and more people experience boating and boat ownership for the first time, it is incumbent on marine businesses to make sure that the boating experience is as headache-free as possible. One aspect of boat ownership that can be frustrating is not just the expense of service and maintenance, but the challenge in finding good service providers. One company looking to change that dynamic is <a href="https://shipshape.pro/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SHIPSHAPE.PRO</a>. I got to speak with Merrill Charette, founder and CEO of <a href="http://SHIPSHAPE.PRO" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SHIPSHAPE.PRO</a>. While living on his sailboat the last 5 years, Merrill has launched several marine industry focused businesses, products, and even a podcast! Merrill’s <a href="https://mida.pro/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Marine Industry Digital Agency</a> helps marine businesses optimize their presence on the web. On the <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shipshape/id1619649771" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Shipshape podcast</a> Merrill interviews top boating journalists, experts, and liveaboards exploring the many perspectives of life on the water and in the maritime industry. At <a href="http://SHIPSHAPE.PRO" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SHIPSHAPE.PRO</a>, Merrill is working to connect boat owners and service providers to reduce the friction of boat ownership and help boaters remain boaters for longer. Merrill was also inventor of the Dinghy Thingy which was featured at (and saved) the Newport Boat Show in 2019. We discussed life aboard a sailboat, how he got into the marine business, and much more, enjoy!

Reducing Boat Ownership Friction

I love to mix in guests who may not be ‘in’ the boating industry but rather demonstrate to us what boating can enable. Stephen Ladd is an author and adventurer who certainly pushes the limits on where a boat can take you. In is mid-30s, Steve designed and built a 12-foot boat named Squeak and rowed and sailed her over 6500 miles over a three year journey, chronicling it in his book Three Years in a 12-Foot Boat. Nearly two decades later, Steve teamed up with his now-wife, Ginny, to spend five years on a 21-foot boat, traveling from Florida down through the Western Caribbean, navigating the river systems of South America, having a baby in Brazil and every kind of adventure you can imagine in between. They covered over 18,000 miles via sail, rowing, and motor in some of the later stages and visited almost 20 countries. Please Enjoy as Steve and I discuss his vessel, his journey, and the book it inspired, The Five-Year Voyage.

I love to mix in guests who may not be ‘in’ the boating industry but rather demonstrate to us what boating can enable. <a href="https://www.stephen-ladd.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stephen Ladd</a> is an author and adventurer who certainly pushes the limits on where a boat can take you. In is mid-30s, Steve designed and built a 12-foot boat named Squeak and rowed and sailed her over 6500 miles over a three year journey, chronicling it in his book Three Years in a 12-Foot Boat. Nearly two decades later, Steve teamed up with his now-wife, Ginny, to spend five years on a 21-foot boat, traveling from Florida down through the Western Caribbean, navigating the river systems of South America, having a baby in Brazil and every kind of adventure you can imagine in between. They covered over 18,000 miles via sail, rowing, and motor in some of the later stages and visited almost 20 countries. Please Enjoy as Steve and I discuss his vessel, his journey, and the book it inspired, The Five-Year Voyage.

The Five-Year Voyage

If you have seen a boat rising out of the water as it gets on plane and seemingly gliding above it, you have seen hydrofoiling in effect! Hydrofoils have been used in high technology applications like the Americas Cup races for years and have recently been applied to recreational craft including smaller runabouts and even surfboards! I have been interested in learning more about foiling on the water, why they are used, what benefits they provide, and how they work. Luckily, I had a chance to speak with Tom Ward, founder of Epoch Boats. Epoch Boats is helping usher in a new era in boating by building accessible hydrofoiling boats that are efficient, eco-friendly, and high performance. Their first class of boats is a skiff series that will be introduced in the middle of 2022. Tom broke into the marine industry as an engineer for SeaStar Solutions where he rose to Director of Engineering and managed a fleet of test boats. He transitioned to Lippert Components where he also held the role of Director of Engineering before deciding to strike out on his own. Tom has also served on the ABYC Tech Board and is a wealth of knowledge about everything that makes boats work. We talked about growing up around boats and sailing, his experiences at SeaStar and Lippert, I got a great education on hydrofoils, and we discussed what Epoch is coming to market with. Enjoy!

If you have seen a boat rising out of the water as it gets on plane and seemingly gliding above it, you have seen hydrofoiling in effect! Hydrofoils have been used in high technology applications like the Americas Cup races for years and have recently been applied to recreational craft including smaller runabouts and even surfboards! I have been interested in learning more about foiling on the water, why they are used, what benefits they provide, and how they work. Luckily, I had a chance to speak with Tom Ward, founder of <a href="https://epochboats.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Epoch Boats</a>. Epoch Boats is helping usher in a new era in boating by building accessible hydrofoiling boats that are efficient, eco-friendly, and high performance. Their first class of boats is a skiff series that will be introduced in the middle of 2022. Tom broke into the marine industry as an engineer for SeaStar Solutions where he rose to Director of Engineering and managed a fleet of test boats. He transitioned to Lippert Components where he also held the role of Director of Engineering before deciding to strike out on his own. Tom has also served on the ABYC Tech Board and is a wealth of knowledge about everything that makes boats work. We talked about growing up around boats and sailing, his experiences at SeaStar and Lippert, I got a great education on hydrofoils, and we discussed what Epoch is coming to market with. Enjoy!

Ready For Liftoff with Epoch Boats

Think about your typical vehicle buying experience, whether it be car or boat. You research online, head to the showroom either eager to interact with a salesperson armed with all of your knowledge or dreading the back and forth, let me ask my manager negotiation. Some showrooms may stand out to you – well decorated, nice waiting room, great coffee, for me – an area to wait with kids toys. But the experience can often be….unremarkable. And when it comes to boats, something you are buying for the fun of it, the experience should be remarkable! Boats by George, located on our home lake in upstate NY, Lake George, is turning this typical shopping experience on its head and innovating the whole boat buying process. Boats By George is celebrating its 40th anniversary and represents esteemed brands like Cobalt, which they are a top 10 global dealer for, Chris Craft, Malibu, Axis, and Barletta Pontoons. With the recent purchase of a 50,000 square foot former event space, Boats By George is creating an immersive and interactive boat buying destination. I spoke to Adam Pensel, General Manager of Boats By George, about how this concept will redefine the showroom experience, bring new potential boaters into the mix, become part of the community, and bring back the joy in vehicle shopping. Adam worked his way up through the family business as a dockhand, delivery captain, salesperson and marketing lead prior to taking the GM role. We also spoke about his early days boating with his family then on his own by age 10, technology and connectivity trends in boating, the importance of safety and conservation, and much more. Fun fact, Adam’s grandfather owned the marina we currently own and operate. When we were renovating, we found his original deed, and saw the mortgage payment. That has gone up just a bit in the past 60 or so years… enjoy!

Think about your typical vehicle buying experience, whether it be car or boat. You research online, head to the showroom either eager to interact with a salesperson armed with all of your knowledge or dreading the back and forth, let me ask my manager negotiation. Some showrooms may stand out to you – well decorated, nice waiting room, great coffee, for me – an area to wait with kids toys. But the experience can often be….unremarkable. And when it comes to boats, something you are buying for the fun of it, the experience should be remarkable! <a href="https://www.boatsbygeorge.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boats by George</a>, located on our home lake in upstate NY, Lake George, is turning this typical shopping experience on its head and innovating the whole boat buying process. Boats By George is celebrating its 40th anniversary and represents esteemed brands like Cobalt, which they are a top 10 global dealer for, Chris Craft, Malibu, Axis, and Barletta Pontoons. With the recent purchase of a 50,000 square foot former event space, Boats By George is creating an immersive and interactive boat buying destination. I spoke to Adam Pensel, General Manager of Boats By George, about how this concept will redefine the showroom experience, bring new potential boaters into the mix, become part of the community, and bring back the joy in vehicle shopping. Adam worked his way up through the family business as a dockhand, delivery captain, salesperson and marketing lead prior to taking the GM role. We also spoke about his early days boating with his family then on his own by age 10, technology and connectivity trends in boating, the importance of safety and conservation, and much more. Fun fact, Adam’s grandfather owned the marina we currently own and operate. When we were renovating, we found his original deed, and saw the mortgage payment. That has gone up just a bit in the past 60 or so years… enjoy!

Reimagining the Boat Buying Experience

Making boating easier. Frictionless operation. Lowering the barrier to entry. Reducing the average age of the new boater. These are all goals that are being accomplished through the development and introduction of new and exciting on-board technologies. Connectivity is a major part of some of the largest marine companies in the world including Yamaha and Brunswick. We are all so used to living connected lives and expect that the things we use will ‘play along’. Our cars, our security systems, our fridges, all of these and other IoT enabled devices that make our lives easier are ubiquitous at home and at work….and soon on the water. Siren Marine has been providing boaters with peace of mind by connecting the boater to their boat with real-time monitoring. They want you to spend less time worrying about your boat and more time enjoying it. I recently spoke with Alex Puskar, the National Sales Director for Siren. We have started experimenting with Siren on some of our Freedom Boat Club boats and Alex has been a tremendous resource in getting us set up. Alex is an ABYC Certified Marine Electrician, ABYC certified marine diesel Technician, and a NMEA certified Marine Electronics Installer. He knows his stuff and you can tell. We discussed how he grew up boating and fishing, connected boating and how it helps the user experience, advice for getting started in boating and some other ways in which the industry is appealing to the next generation of boaters. Oh yeah, and this conversation happened days before the  HUGE announcement that Yamaha was acquiring Siren, so although that partnership is mentioned, Alex did a great job not blowing his cover and letting the cat out of the bag early. Enjoy!

Making boating easier. Frictionless operation. Lowering the barrier to entry. Reducing the average age of the new boater. These are all goals that are being accomplished through the development and introduction of new and exciting on-board technologies. Connectivity is a major part of some of the largest marine companies in the world including Yamaha and Brunswick. We are all so used to living connected lives and expect that the things we use will ‘play along’. Our cars, our security systems, our fridges, all of these and other IoT enabled devices that make our lives easier are ubiquitous at home and at work….and soon on the water. <a href="https://sirenmarine.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Siren Marine</a> has been providing boaters with peace of mind by connecting the boater to their boat with real-time monitoring. They want you to spend less time worrying about your boat and more time enjoying it. I recently spoke with Alex Puskar, the National Sales Director for Siren. We have started experimenting with Siren on some of our Freedom Boat Club boats and Alex has been a tremendous resource in getting us set up. Alex is an ABYC Certified Marine Electrician, ABYC certified marine diesel Technician, and a NMEA certified Marine Electronics Installer. He knows his stuff and you can tell. We discussed how he grew up boating and fishing, connected boating and how it helps the user experience, advice for getting started in boating and some other ways in which the industry is appealing to the next generation of boaters. Oh yeah, and this conversation happened days before the <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211215005069/en/Yamaha-to-Purchase-Siren-Marine" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> HUGE</a> announcement that Yamaha was acquiring Siren, so although that partnership is mentioned, Alex did a great job not blowing his cover and letting the cat out of the bag early. Enjoy!

Connected Boating - Your Vessel and the IoT

It is an incredibly exciting time in the boating industry. We have seen two years of record sales, dealers are selling production slots because they can’t get inventory fast enough, more Americans than ever are enjoying time on the water with family and friends, and the pace of innovation continues to accelerate which is providing a better and more frictionless boating experience. Within the innovation category, electric propulsion is experiencing an influx of investment, and new motor options are steadily hitting the market. General Motors recently invested $150 million into Pure Watercraft. ePropulsion just announced a Series B raise in the tens of millions of dollars. Arc electric boats has raised over $30 million with investors including actor Will Smith, music mogul Sean Combs, and NBA superstar Kevin Durant. Torqeedo continues to impress, recently winning METSTRADE’s Boat Builders Award in collaboration with Groupe Beneteau’s Excess brand and mobility technology company ZF. I enjoyed speaking recently with Ben Sorkin, founder of Flux Marine. Ben grew up boating on our home lake in upstate NY, Lake George, which has me even more excited about what he is doing. Ben has been able to merge his passion for boating with his passion for tinkering into an exciting start up career. After stints interning at Tesla and working full time designing electric systems at Navatek, plus a decade of planning and researching electric motors on his own, Ben co-founded Flux Marine with the goal of revolutionizing electric propulsion in the marine environment. It was a great time to catch up with Ben as he and his team recently took home two big awards at the Newport boat show, Best Green Product and the Best New Boating Operation, Maintenance or Safety Product. Ben and I discussed how he got his boating and fix-it start, the benefits and challenges of electric boating, we got into the weeds a bit about battery technology and talked about the power their outboards will be brining to the market. Full disclosure, I am an investor in Flux marine and will be purchasing one of their motors to use in our Freedom Boat Club fleet this coming year. Enjoy the conversation!

It is an incredibly exciting time in the boating industry. We have seen two years of record sales, dealers are selling production slots because they can’t get inventory fast enough, more Americans than ever are enjoying time on the water with family and friends, and the pace of innovation continues to accelerate which is providing a better and more frictionless boating experience. Within the innovation category, electric propulsion is experiencing an influx of investment, and new motor options are steadily hitting the market. General Motors recently invested $150 million into Pure Watercraft. ePropulsion just announced a Series B raise in the tens of millions of dollars. Arc electric boats has raised over $30 million with investors including actor Will Smith, music mogul Sean Combs, and NBA superstar Kevin Durant. Torqeedo continues to impress, recently winning METSTRADE’s Boat Builders Award in collaboration with Groupe Beneteau’s Excess brand and mobility technology company ZF. I enjoyed speaking recently with Ben Sorkin, founder of <a href="https://www.fluxmarine.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Flux Marine</a>. Ben grew up boating on our home lake in upstate NY, Lake George, which has me even more excited about what he is doing. Ben has been able to merge his passion for boating with his passion for tinkering into an exciting start up career. After stints interning at Tesla and working full time designing electric systems at Navatek, plus a decade of planning and researching electric motors on his own, Ben co-founded Flux Marine with the goal of revolutionizing electric propulsion in the marine environment. It was a great time to catch up with Ben as he and his team recently took home two big awards at the Newport boat show, Best Green Product and the Best New Boating Operation, Maintenance or Safety Product. Ben and I discussed how he got his boating and fix-it start, the benefits and challenges of electric boating, we got into the weeds a bit about battery technology and talked about the power their outboards will be brining to the market. Full disclosure, I am an investor in Flux marine and will be purchasing one of their motors to use in our Freedom Boat Club fleet this coming year. Enjoy the conversation!

Raising the Horsepower Bar for Electric Outboards

We have seen technological advancements drive tremendous change in the boating world. Most prominently, these new technologies have improved the boats themselves – more on-board electronics and capabilities, better boat building processes and materials, connected apps and more. But outside the boats, technology is helping the businesses who enable boating – marinas! One such area is marina management software. What was once (and still, often, is) done with pen and paper and endless file folders can now be streamlined in a do-it-all marina software suite. Slip reservations, service work orders, inventory management, invoicing, and more are available at the tips of our fingers. This improves the efficiency of the business, surely. But is also improves the boating experience for the customer with easier tracking of billing, online payments and reservations, and the ability to quickly pull up a service history on a boat. I recently spoke with Lucas Isola, founder of Molo (disclosure: we use Molo as our marina management service provider), a management platform for marina businesses. When Lucas saw a marina owner struggling to keep track of their business, he combined his lifelong passion for boating and deep tech background in the medical industry to try to solve this problem. The result, Molo, is an iPad and web-based software that helps marine businesses gain efficiency and offer new levels of customer service. We discuss how software is helping boaters and marina owners, his life in boating, how he got his family into boating, and more. Enjoy!

We have seen technological advancements drive tremendous change in the boating world. Most prominently, these new technologies have improved the boats themselves – more on-board electronics and capabilities, better boat building processes and materials, connected apps and more. But outside the boats, technology is helping the businesses who enable boating – marinas! One such area is marina management software. What was once (and still, often, is) done with pen and paper and endless file folders can now be streamlined in a do-it-all marina software suite. Slip reservations, service work orders, inventory management, invoicing, and more are available at the tips of our fingers. This improves the efficiency of the business, surely. But is also improves the boating experience for the customer with easier tracking of billing, online payments and reservations, and the ability to quickly pull up a service history on a boat. I recently spoke with Lucas Isola, founder of <a href="https://getmolo.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Molo</a> (disclosure: we use Molo as our marina management service provider), a management platform for marina businesses. When Lucas saw a marina owner struggling to keep track of their business, he combined his lifelong passion for boating and deep tech background in the medical industry to try to solve this problem. The result, Molo, is an iPad and web-based software that helps marine businesses gain efficiency and offer new levels of customer service. We discuss how software is helping boaters and marina owners, his life in boating, how he got his family into boating, and more. Enjoy!

Simplifying Marina Management and Boat Ownership

There have been some extremely exciting developments in the electric boating space in the past year. PURE Watercraft raised over  $37million to continue their expansion. Vision Marine had a successful  IPO. Torqeedo delivered its  100,000th motor. And a variety of smaller companies are making strong plays as the space grows. While the momentum is exciting, it is clear there is still a long way to go to make electric a widely adopt way to power a boat. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Graham Balch, Managing Broker of Green Yacht Sales. Graham is an avid sailor and joined the boating industry after stints as a consultant, educator, getting his MBA and then shifting course and starting in the brokerage business before launching his own venture. Before striking off on his own, Graham distinguished himself in the brokerage world with a variety of performance awards, including Highest number of sailboat sales out of 300 sales reps nationwide. Green Yachts began in 2019 and is dedicated to supporting the electric boating community on the water by selling, servicing, and advocating electric powered boats. Green Yachts aspires to helping customers who want the benefits of electric propulsion while enjoying inspiring, well-made, award-winning boats. I learned a lot from Graham and love his strategy of making sure people who do go electric are successful with it. This means making sure they have not only the right motor, but the right boat, the right technical skills, and the right expectations. Graham and I discussed what drove him to focus on electric boating, design and technological advances and needs, what consumers can look for in the future, and more. Enjoy!

There have been some extremely exciting developments in the electric boating space in the past year. PURE Watercraft raised over <a href="https://www.tradeonlytoday.com/industry-news/pure-watercraft-secures-37-5-million-in-series-a-funding" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> $37million</a> to continue their expansion. Vision Marine had a successful <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/vision-marine-shares-soar-on-trading-debut-51606243107" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> IPO</a>. Torqeedo delivered its <a href="https://www.torqeedo.com/us/en-us/news-and-press/blog/blog-2020-4-1.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> 100,000th</a> motor. And a variety of smaller companies are making strong plays as the space grows. While the momentum is exciting, it is clear there is still a long way to go to make electric a widely adopt way to power a boat. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Graham Balch, Managing Broker of <a href="https://greenyachtsales.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Green Yacht Sales</a>. Graham is an avid sailor and joined the boating industry after stints as a consultant, educator, getting his MBA and then shifting course and starting in the brokerage business before launching his own venture. Before striking off on his own, Graham distinguished himself in the brokerage world with a variety of performance awards, including Highest number of sailboat sales out of 300 sales reps nationwide. Green Yachts began in 2019 and is dedicated to supporting the electric boating community on the water by selling, servicing, and advocating electric powered boats. Green Yachts aspires to helping customers who want the benefits of electric propulsion while enjoying inspiring, well-made, award-winning boats. I learned a lot from Graham and love his strategy of making sure people who do go electric are successful with it. This means making sure they have not only the right motor, but the right boat, the right technical skills, and the right expectations. Graham and I discussed what drove him to focus on electric boating, design and technological advances and needs, what consumers can look for in the future, and more. Enjoy!

Finding Success With Electric Sailing

In the five years I have spent as part of the boating industry, I have often tried to put into words how impactful boating can be for creating memories, sharing experiences, and just spending quality time with family and friends enjoying the beauty of being on the water. In that time, I don’t think I have ever done it as effectively as Jesse Simpkins does day in and day out. Jesse is the Director of Marketing for St. Croix Rods and was recently named the Chairman of the Board of the American Sportfishing Association. You can tell even from this short conversation that Jesse eats, sleeps and breathes fishing, and loves sharing it with others. From conservation efforts to ensure strong fisheries, to improving rod technology making the experience more enjoyable, access to fishing is a major focus for Jesse in both his product and advocacy roles. We discussed Jesse’s first fishing experiences on a farm pond, his evolution into the serious angler he is today, great products coming out of St. Croix (and what goes into them), and some of the important advocacy issues the industry is tackling around Conservation. Enjoy!

In the five years I have spent as part of the boating industry, I have often tried to put into words how impactful boating can be for creating memories, sharing experiences, and just spending quality time with family and friends enjoying the beauty of being on the water. In that time, I don’t think I have ever done it as effectively as Jesse Simpkins does day in and day out. Jesse is the Director of Marketing for <a href="https://stcroixrods.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">St. Croix Rods</a> and was recently named the Chairman of the Board of the <a href="https://asafishing.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">American Sportfishing Association</a>. You can tell even from this short conversation that Jesse eats, sleeps and breathes fishing, and loves sharing it with others. From conservation efforts to ensure strong fisheries, to improving rod technology making the experience more enjoyable, access to fishing is a major focus for Jesse in both his product and advocacy roles. We discussed Jesse’s first fishing experiences on a farm pond, his evolution into the serious angler he is today, great products coming out of St. Croix (and what goes into them), and some of the important advocacy issues the industry is tackling around Conservation. Enjoy!

Giving Anglers the Upper Hand

Anchors Aweigh is a podcast for all boaters, from aspiring to experienced.  Featuring in-depth conversations with boating experts and industry leaders, and packed full of tips, tricks, gear, and industry info, boaters of all levels will come away with new skills and knowledge each episode.

Great podcast and great way to promote boating

Love it

Enjoyed the mix of entertaining stories and practical boating advice. Look forward to new guests!

Fun podcast!

Anchors Aweigh

Dock

Dan DeGeorge is VP of Sales for Dockwa. Founded in May 2015 and since Featured in Forbes, the NY Times, Boating Magazine, the Boston Globe, and more, Dockwa is changing the way boaters and marinas connect and reserve dock space. It allows boaters to search, reserve, and pay for transient dockage from their mobile device. It also allows marinas to manage their inventory online and connect with thousands of customers like never before. At the time of our recording Dockwa featured over 400 marinas and though boater numbers are not disclosed it was in the six figures. That is a lot of boaters connecting to marinas! Just prior to our conversation, Dockwa acquired Marinas.com, the world’s most extensive online marine directory of more than 75,000 marine locations, including 15,000 marinas, yacht clubs, and shipyards. Marinas.com was the first online resource of its kind for the marine industry, pioneering a comprehensive guide for boaters worldwide and amassing more than 100,000 users. With this acquisition, Dockwa has grown its marina partner network to more than 500 businesses and further expands its international footprint to Central and South America, and parts of Europe. Dockwa’s marina network and boater community tripled in size in 2016, resulting in a 1,766 percent increase in nights served. Dan himself is an avid boater and grew up boating on our home lake, Lake George. Starting with some rental boats and now boating on his family Sea Ray, Dan never lost his love of the water while getting his Economics degree at Princeton, embarking on a professional baseball career with the Cleveland Indians, and finally joining the marine/technology industry, helping Dockwa go to market in 2015. On getting into boating…..I grew up going to the lake every summer. My first time ever out on the water was on Lake George. We rented a Hurricane boat from Snug Harbor. For the majority of my childhood we rented and then we bought a Sea Ray that we can go skiing and wake-boarding on. On learning to boat…..My dad was always one of those guys who threw you into the fire. As far as I can remember it went well! We went to a place where no one was around and by the time we got our boat I was ready to go. The most important thing he taught me was check the weather early and often before you go out. On the Dockwa launch…..I was there pre-launch to market. It was the brainchild of our CEO, Mike Melillo. Mike had moved to Newport, RI out of college. He happened to live on top of a few marinas. One summer day he was watching one of the dockmasters take reservations, and it was a particularly crazy day. He was watching the dockmaster run around back and forth between docks and writing reservations in a notebook and walked up and asked the dockmaster about how he takes reservations. The dockmaster said it’s the way we’ve always done it, it’s an old school industry, and that set the idea off in Mike’s head. On fostering change in the marina business…..It’s our biggest challenge but also presents the biggest opportunity. There’s a lot of room for us to help these marinas and operators get more efficient and create a better experience for the boater. On response from the boating market…..We work with a little over 400 marinas. Boaters love it because they’re used to it in other industries. They can go online or on their phone and make a hotel reservation or an airline reservation, so it only makes sense that you should be able to do it for marinas and for boating. On the marina side you’re always running up against the challenge of people who have done something the same way for the past 30 years and there’s always that little resistance to change but once they see it working for other marinas and then use it themselves, it’s been well received. On the Marinas.com acquisition…..On the boater side we want Marinas.com to be the place you go to for all things boating. Whether that’s long term dockage, short term dockage, repair work, buying a boat, we want it to be the place boaters go to find anything they need. Within that, marinas can gain more exposure to their customers. On expansion and new locations…..We’re down in the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and we just signed up a marina in the Dominican Republic. Ideally we’ll expand internationally. A big opportunity is the Great Lakes. We have a good number of marinas in the Great Lakes and a big help for has been that the Chicago Harbor municipal marinas use Dockwa. The Puget Sound is a big hot spot, that’s our next target domestically. Internationally is a little farther down the product road map. I’d love to get out to Italy. On where he would like to do some personal boating…..I would love to go to the BVIs and hop around to the islands. I have a college roommate who grew up around the Puget Sound and speaks real highly of it so that’s on my vacation list. On the Dockwa Figawi sponsorship…..This will be our third year. We officially launched at Figawi two years ago. I had never heard of it until I moved to Newport. The first week I joined the company we went and it’s a blast. It’s great for boaters and non-boaters, a great experience. On the Dockwa Dock Free giveaway…..We were fortunate to team with BoatUS on that. It was an awesome promotion. Not only for BoatUS and for us but I think the winner has already made a few reservations to take advantage of the winnings. On technology taking hold in the boating industry…..I feel like we’re getting closer to the tipping point, especially as the younger generation who is more used to technology starts to get more into boating. With Boatbound and GetMyBoat, the younger generations really value the experience and embrace the sharing economy so that will become more prevalent and force the marine industry to embrace technology. On his dream boat(s)…..It was always a wooden Chris-Craft growing up on the lake. It looks so cool and smooth. Coming up to Newport, you see a lot of the newer center consoles like the Regulators, or Viking sport fishers, so I’ve gotten more into those recently when I moved up here.   Hope you enjoyed the conversation with Dan and check out the Dockwa app. Editors note: Having done both a sailing trip through the BVIs and raced in Figawi weekend, the Dockwa guys sound like they know how to enjoy their work! 

Dan DeGeorge is VP of Sales for <a href="https://dockwa.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dockwa</a>. Founded in May 2015 and since Featured in Forbes, the NY Times, Boating Magazine, the Boston Globe, and more, Dockwa is changing the way boaters and marinas connect and reserve dock space. It allows boaters to search, reserve, and pay for transient dockage from their mobile device. It also allows marinas to manage their inventory online and connect with thousands of customers like never before. At the time of our recording Dockwa featured over 400 marinas and though boater numbers are not disclosed it was in the six figures. That is a lot of boaters connecting to marinas! Just prior to our conversation, Dockwa acquired <a href="https://marinas.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Marinas.com</a>, the world’s most extensive online marine directory of more than 75,000 marine locations, including 15,000 marinas, yacht clubs, and shipyards. <a href="http://Marinas.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Marinas.com</a> was the first online resource of its kind for the marine industry, pioneering a comprehensive guide for boaters worldwide and amassing more than 100,000 users. With this acquisition, Dockwa has grown its marina partner network to more than 500 businesses and further expands its international footprint to Central and South America, and parts of Europe. Dockwa’s marina network and boater community tripled in size in 2016, resulting in a 1,766 percent increase in nights served. Dan himself is an avid boater and grew up boating on our home lake, <a href="http://www.lakegeorge.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lake George</a>. Starting with some rental boats and now boating on his family <a href="http://www.searay.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sea Ray</a>, Dan never lost his love of the water while getting his Economics degree at Princeton, embarking on a professional baseball career with the Cleveland Indians, and finally joining the marine/technology industry, helping Dockwa go to market in 2015. On getting into boating…..I grew up going to the lake every summer. My first time ever out on the water was on Lake George. We rented a <a href="http://hurricaneboats.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hurricane</a> boat from Snug Harbor. For the majority of my childhood we rented and then we bought a Sea Ray that we can go skiing and wake-boarding on. On learning to boat…..My dad was always one of those guys who threw you into the fire. As far as I can remember it went well! We went to a place where no one was around and by the time we got our boat I was ready to go. The most important thing he taught me was check the weather early and often before you go out. On the Dockwa launch…..I was there pre-launch to market. It was the brainchild of our CEO, Mike Melillo. Mike had moved to <a href="https://www.discovernewport.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Newport</a>, RI out of college. He happened to live on top of a few marinas. One summer day he was watching one of the dockmasters take reservations, and it was a particularly crazy day. He was watching the dockmaster run around back and forth between docks and writing reservations in a notebook and walked up and asked the dockmaster about how he takes reservations. The dockmaster said it’s the way we’ve always done it, it’s an old school industry, and that set the idea off in Mike’s head. On fostering change in the marina business…..It’s our biggest challenge but also presents the biggest opportunity. There’s a lot of room for us to help these marinas and operators get more efficient and create a better experience for the boater. On response from the boating market…..We work with a little over 400 marinas. Boaters love it because they’re used to it in other industries. They can go online or on their phone and make a hotel reservation or an airline reservation, so it only makes sense that you should be able to do it for marinas and for boating. On the marina side you’re always running up against the challenge of people who have done something the same way for the past 30 years and there’s always that little resistance to change but once they see it working for other marinas and then use it themselves, it’s been <a href="http://ahoy.dockwa.com/dockwa-marina-success-testimonials" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">well received</a>. On the <a href="http://Marinas.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Marinas.com</a> acquisition…..On the boater side we want <a href="http://Marinas.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Marinas.com</a> to be the place you go to for all things boating. Whether that’s long term dockage, short term dockage, repair work, buying a boat, we want it to be the place boaters go to find anything they need. Within that, marinas can gain more exposure to their customers. On expansion and new locations…..We’re down in the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and we just signed up a marina in the Dominican Republic. Ideally we’ll expand internationally. A big opportunity is the Great Lakes. We have a good number of marinas in the Great Lakes and a big help for has been that the <a href="http://www.chicagoharbors.info/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chicago Harbor</a> municipal marinas use Dockwa. The Puget Sound is a big hot spot, that’s our next target domestically. Internationally is a little farther down the product road map. I’d love to get out to Italy. On where he would like to do some personal boating…..I would love to go to the <a href="http://www.onlinecruisingguide.com/eastern-caribbean/virgin-islands-cruising-guide/BVI-sailing/british-virgin-islands.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BVIs</a> and hop around to the islands. I have a college roommate who grew up around the Puget Sound and speaks real highly of it so that’s on my vacation list. On the Dockwa <a href="http://figawi.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Figawi</a> sponsorship…..This will be our third year. We officially launched at Figawi two years ago. I had never heard of it until I moved to Newport. The first week I joined the company we went and it’s a blast. It’s great for boaters and non-boaters, a great experience. On the Dockwa <a href="http://ahoy.dockwa.com/free-dockage-sweepstakes-2017" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dock Free</a> giveaway…..We were fortunate to team with <a href="http://www.boatus.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BoatUS</a> on that. It was an awesome promotion. Not only for BoatUS and for us but I think the winner has already made a few reservations to take advantage of the winnings. On technology taking hold in the boating industry…..I feel like we’re getting closer to the tipping point, especially as the younger generation who is more used to technology starts to get more into boating. With <a href="https://boatbound.co/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boatbound</a> and <a href="https://www.getmyboat.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GetMyBoat</a>, the younger generations really value the experience and embrace the sharing economy so that will become more prevalent and force the marine industry to embrace technology. On his dream boat(s)…..It was always a wooden <a href="http://www.chriscraft.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chris-Craft</a> growing up on the lake. It looks so cool and smooth. Coming up to Newport, you see a lot of the newer center consoles like the <a href="http://www.regulatormarine.com/#/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Regulators</a>, or <a href="http://www.vikingyachts.com/pagesNew/index.asp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Viking</a> sport fishers, so I’ve gotten more into those recently when I moved up here. Hope you enjoyed the conversation with Dan and check out the Dockwa app. Editors note: Having done both a sailing trip through the BVIs and raced in Figawi weekend, the Dockwa guys sound like they know how to enjoy their work!

Dock Space? There's an App for That! 

Matt Putnam is a founding partner and Managing Director of the Leisure Property Advisors. He specializes in the sale of marina, golf and leisure properties throughout the United States and Canada. Prior to becoming a broker, he served as the financial analyst and marketing coordinator for the National Golf and Resort Properties Group for two years. Matt has held an active real estate license since 2006 and been in the Leisure Properties industry since 2009. In addition to investment sales, Matt and his team focus on building advisory relationships with clients and routinely provide market research, financial analysis and management best practices at every point through the property ownership life cycle. Matt has served a wide range of clientele from single property owner-users to $100B pension funds and everything in between. Matt has been a part of transacting more than 40 leisure properties since 2011. Matt served as the national marina director at Marcus &amp; Millichap and was an integral part of launching and building the marina division there.  Matt grew up in Florida on and around the water starting boating and fishing from a young age with his grandparents. Matt’s had lots of experience owning his own boat and as a Freedom Boat Club member and still gets out on the water and makes it a big part of his family’s life with his wife and his daughter. Matt and I talked about his experience growing up around the water, how he got into leisure properties, some really great insight into what’s going on in the marina ownership world, and most importantly for boaters, advice on how to pick a marina and what to look for when you’re deciding on where to keep your boat. Growing up in Florida….. I am in Tampa and I’ve lived my whole life in Florida. I grew up in Dunedin, on the water on the west coast. I grew up with an appreciation for the water. My grandparents grew up in Englewood and we did a lot of fishing and boating and developed an appreciation for the water early on. As far back as I can remember I was fishing at the dock at my grandparent’s house. My grandpa had two boats so we would go fishing regularly and if I wasn’t on the boat I was on the dock or the seawall fishing. They also had a home up on Saginaw Bay and we spent a lot of summer time there in the water and on the water. I didn’t start fishing in the area I live until early high school when some of my friends started to have access to parents’ boats so I’ve been fishing in this area about 20 years. Learning to drive the boat….. We had a couple experiences here and there from a pretty young age but it didn’t always go well. My grandparents lived in a canal and there was always the prospect of turning a boat around in a tight space. I remember trying to help my grandpa do that on a couple occasions that always ended with him taking the wheel and setting the boat back in the right direction. Owning a boat….. My first experience with my own boat was once I moved back here from the Panhandle. I tease my wife, we had dated for quite a while and I bought my first boat before I bought her engagement ring so that was the tone that I set and she always teases me about that. We had a Maverick flats boat that we spent a lot of time fishing here locally and trailering down to the Keys for lobster season and to fish and dive down there. The family boating lifestyle….. My wife didn’t grow up boating in the capacity that I did but she took to it from early on in our relationship. She loves being on the water. We’ve got a four-year-old little girl that now has the same affinity for being on the water whether it’s fishing or just cruising out to an island and spending time in and around the water. And our dog is the same, he loves to be on the boat as well. Joining Freedom Boat Club….. We sold our boat when we were pregnant. It was a flats boat, very low to the water gunwales and we didn’t want a toddler moving around on a boat that didn’t offer a whole lot of protection. We sold it with the idea that we would get a bigger boat and life got in the way. Earlier this year we finally said - we're sick of not being on the water in the capacity that we're used to and we love doing - so we joined Freedom Boat Club and we’ve gotten a heck of a lot of use out of it, both personally and I’ve gotten to use it for business. A typical day on the water….. Our day out on the water consists of fishing for a couple of hours, probably boating to a restaurant to grab lunch, and then spending time on our barrier islands here. I’ve got a friend of mine who owns a charter fishing business down here so the more serious fishing is done with him. We go offshore so we’re typically targeting grouper or snapper and every once in awhile we'll catch a cobia or kingfish. Current state of the ‘hot’ marina market….. These generational assets that have been in families for multiple generations and for whatever reason the next generation doesn’t have the interest, passion, or desire to take over the family business, we see that a lot. And there are a couple of big groups that are very well capitalized buying marinas in scale trying to execute on a business plan. You’ve got this top down consolidation, two or three big groups out there actively acquiring marinas. And it’s just like anything else. Once people see these big firms going after a product type, it becomes more desirable to them as well. At the end of the day, worst case scenario in a lot of cases, you end up with waterfront property! Helping marina owners….. We are a true full-service real estate firm. That means we’ve got folks that focus solely on debt and equity, we’ve got a valuation team that does appraisals, project management, all the way through the gauntlet of an ownership period. We’ve tried to position ourselves to add value through that whole period. Marina industry trends….. I see the marina space trying to transition to more of a country club type atmosphere. People don’t want to just show up, get on their boat and never interact with anybody. A lot of times it’s folks bringing clients to the marina and they want that high level of service, they want their boat to be gassed up, they want ice, they want the dockhand to know their name. Beyond that, having other service lines gives somebody a reason to store their boat at a particular location. Investors often times are looking at a marina and thinking – what else can I do here? Marina owners are looking at how they can get more potential boaters to their property. Helping boaters choose a marina….. You want to look at the age and condition of the facility. If you're going into a dry stack, age and condition of the forklift. You don’t want an old beat up fork lift that could scratch and ding your boat. Same thing goes for wet slip marinas. Old beat up docks can beat up your boat pretty quick. And then it's just, how is it staffed, what is the level of service. Those things are pretty easy to tell just walking in, talking to people behind the desk. Then it's - what comes with storing my boat here, when you pull it out of the water, are you going to flush the engine and hose it down. What hours are you available to put my boat in and take it out. Advice for boaters or aspiring boaters….. The best piece of advice that I’ve ever received is just take it slow. Boats don’t have brakes so trying to do anything too quickly generally works out pretty poorly. And be open to constructive criticism. The people that I see pick it up the quickest and become the safest boaters are the ones who are willing to learn and take advice from people who have been doing it a long time.

Matt Putnam is a founding partner and Managing Director of the <a href="https://www2.colliers.com/en/Experts/Matt-Putnam" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Leisure Property Advisors</a>. He specializes in the sale of marina, golf and leisure properties throughout the United States and Canada. Prior to becoming a broker, he served as the financial analyst and marketing coordinator for the National Golf and Resort Properties Group for two years. Matt has held an active real estate license since 2006 and been in the Leisure Properties industry since 2009. In addition to investment sales, Matt and his team focus on building advisory relationships with clients and routinely provide market research, financial analysis and management best practices at every point through the property ownership life cycle. Matt has served a wide range of clientele from single property owner-users to $100B pension funds and everything in between. Matt has been a part of transacting more than 40 leisure properties since 2011. Matt served as the national marina director at <a href="https://www.leisurepropertiesgroup.com/about-mm/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Marcus &amp; Millichap</a> and was an integral part of launching and building the marina division there.  Matt grew up in Florida on and around the water starting boating and fishing from a young age with his grandparents. Matt’s had lots of experience owning his own boat and as a Freedom Boat Club member and still gets out on the water and makes it a big part of his family’s life with his wife and his daughter. Matt and I talked about his experience growing up around the water, how he got into leisure properties, some really great insight into what’s going on in the marina ownership world, and most importantly for boaters, advice on how to pick a marina and what to look for when you’re deciding on where to keep your boat. Growing up in Florida….. I am in Tampa and I’ve lived my whole life in Florida. I grew up in <a href="https://www.dunedingov.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Dunedin</a>, on the water on the west coast. I grew up with an appreciation for the water. My grandparents grew up in Englewood and we did a lot of fishing and boating and developed an appreciation for the water early on. As far back as I can remember I was fishing at the dock at my grandparent’s house. My grandpa had two boats so we would go fishing regularly and if I wasn’t on the boat I was on the dock or the seawall fishing. They also had a home up on <a href="https://saginawbay.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Saginaw Bay</a> and we spent a lot of summer time there in the water and on the water. I didn’t start fishing in the area I live until early high school when some of my friends started to have access to parents’ boats so I’ve been fishing in this area about 20 years. Learning to drive the boat….. We had a couple experiences here and there from a pretty young age but it didn’t always go well. My grandparents lived in a canal and there was always the prospect of turning a boat around in a tight space. I remember trying to help my grandpa do that on a couple occasions that always ended with him taking the wheel and setting the boat back in the right direction. Owning a boat….. My first experience with my own boat was once I moved back here from the Panhandle. I tease my wife, we had dated for quite a while and I bought my first boat before I bought her engagement ring so that was the tone that I set and she always teases me about that. We had a <a href="http://maverickboats.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Maverick</a> flats boat that we spent a lot of time fishing here locally and trailering down to the Keys for lobster season and to fish and dive down there. The family boating lifestyle….. My wife didn’t grow up boating in the capacity that I did but she took to it from early on in our relationship. She loves being on the water. We’ve got a four-year-old little girl that now has the same affinity for being on the water whether it’s fishing or just cruising out to an island and spending time in and around the water. And our dog is the same, he loves to be on the boat as well. Joining Freedom Boat Club….. We sold our boat when we were pregnant. It was a flats boat, very low to the water gunwales and we didn’t want a toddler moving around on a boat that didn’t offer a whole lot of protection. We sold it with the idea that we would get a bigger boat and life got in the way. Earlier this year we finally said - we're sick of not being on the water in the capacity that we're used to and we love doing - so we joined <a href="https://freedomboatclub.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Freedom Boat Club</a> and we’ve gotten a heck of a lot of use out of it, both personally and I’ve gotten to use it for business. A typical day on the water….. Our day out on the water consists of fishing for a couple of hours, probably boating to a restaurant to grab lunch, and then spending time on our <a href="http://www.pinellascounty.org/environment/coastalMngmt/barrier-islands-inlets.htm" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">barrier islands</a> here. I’ve got a friend of mine who owns a charter fishing business down here so the more serious fishing is done with him. We go offshore so we’re typically targeting grouper or snapper and every once in awhile we'll catch a cobia or kingfish. Current state of the ‘hot’ marina market….. These generational assets that have been in families for multiple generations and for whatever reason the next generation doesn’t have the interest, passion, or desire to take over the family business, we see that a lot. And there are a couple of big groups that are very well capitalized buying marinas in scale trying to execute on a business plan. You’ve got this top down consolidation, two or three big groups out there actively acquiring marinas. And it’s just like anything else. Once people see these big firms going after a product type, it becomes more desirable to them as well. At the end of the day, worst case scenario in a lot of cases, you end up with waterfront property! Helping marina owners….. We are a true full-service real estate firm. That means we’ve got folks that focus solely on debt and equity, we’ve got a valuation team that does appraisals, project management, all the way through the gauntlet of an ownership period. We’ve tried to position ourselves to add value through that whole period. Marina industry trends….. I see the marina space trying to transition to more of a country club type atmosphere. People don’t want to just show up, get on their boat and never interact with anybody. A lot of times it’s folks bringing clients to the marina and they want that high level of service, they want their boat to be gassed up, they want ice, they want the dockhand to know their name. Beyond that, having other service lines gives somebody a reason to store their boat at a particular location. Investors often times are looking at a marina and thinking – what else can I do here? Marina owners are looking at how they can get more potential boaters to their property. Helping boaters choose a marina….. You want to look at the age and condition of the facility. If you're going into a dry stack, age and condition of the forklift. You don’t want an old beat up fork lift that could scratch and ding your boat. Same thing goes for wet slip marinas. Old beat up docks can beat up your boat pretty quick. And then it's just, how is it staffed, what is the level of service. Those things are pretty easy to tell just walking in, talking to people behind the desk. Then it's - what comes with storing my boat here, when you pull it out of the water, are you going to flush the engine and hose it down. What hours are you available to put my boat in and take it out. Advice for boaters or aspiring boaters….. The best piece of advice that I’ve ever received is just take it slow. Boats don’t have brakes so trying to do anything too quickly generally works out pretty poorly. And be open to constructive criticism. The people that I see pick it up the quickest and become the safest boaters are the ones who are willing to learn and take advice from people who have been doing it a long time.

You Bought a Boat, Now Where do You Put It?

I really enjoyed recording this episode, as the guest is a friend who I have been fortunate to have a lot of fun on the water with. Chris Hefferen currently helps manage Subsea Fleet Support for Noble, a leading offshore drilling contractor for the oil and gas industry. The company owns and operates one of the most modern, versatile and technically advanced fleets in the offshore drilling industry. Noble performs, through its subsidiaries, contract drilling services with a fleet of 28 offshore drilling units, consisting of 14 drillships and semisubmersibles and 14 jackups, focused largely on ultra-deepwater and high-specification jackup drilling opportunities in both established and emerging regions worldwide. Chris has been with Noble since 2011 and has traveled the world maintaining their fleet, doing rotations of up to 90 days living aboard the ships. Chris grew up sailing with his father off the coast of Massachusetts and attended the Massachusetts Maritime Academy where he concentrated in Marine Engineering and was a member of the varsity sailing team. When he’s not at sea for work, he is at sea for fun aboard his C&amp;C 41 Leverage, which he purchased at the age of 25 to fully dedicate himself to the boating lifestyle. Chris has extensive regatta and offshore long-distance sailing experience – for instance he has completed 7 round trip sails from New England to the Caribbean, including multiple trips with just himself and one crew, and just as many Figawi races from Cape Cod to Nantucket. I have had the pleasure of being a guest on Chris’s boat many times including a week in the BVI, many of the previously mentioned Figawi races, sails in Newport, RI and Boston, MA, and more. Chris is a first rate captain and I am truly indebted to him for helping create some of my all time favorite memories on the water. This is a really fun interview with some great stories from sea including an incredibly harrowing tale of foul weather way off shore around the 16-minute mark, working on 90 day rotations off shore, and his ambitious sailing goals he'd like to accomplish before the age of 40. This is jam packed with too many stories to write so give a listen, and if you’re in the market for a sailboat, check out his listing. Enjoy! On his sailing start.....I started out sailing when I was young. My dad had smaller sailboats off the coast of MA. As I progressed I went to Mass Maritime Academy and joined their sailing team. From there I ended up doing some off shore racing and sailing and the play part came when I purchased my own boat at 25 years old. I bought that before I ever bought a house. I learned strictly through my dad, I never had any opportunity to go to a sailing school or anything. We usually sailed just off the coast of Newburyport, MA and Portsmouth, NH. Usually day sailing and a couple of overnight trips. On getting into racing.....Racing didn’t come until I went to college. I actually got cut my freshman year first semester. I had sailed and had plenty of experience but I didn’t have the gear or terminology down. I tried out the next semester and did make the team. The dynamics of sailing are the same, I always tried to make the boat go as fast as possible so that part was easy. It was more the tactics against other boats and trying to position yourself ahead of them or in the right spot to make sure you can stay ahead and beat them ultimately. We would go through drills, but it was more observing the better or more senior people and the coach would have some input as well. On some of his favorite college races.....We raced from Maine to Annapolis. They had quite a program down at the Naval Academy. They had 44 foot sailboats all of the same kind. That was a lot of fun having a one-design sailboat so you didn’t have to rely on any kind of rating system to keep the playing field level. On deciding to attend Mass Maritime.....My dad knew that I liked to be outside and work with my hands, and being close to the water. I went my sophomore year and looked around, and all the beaches and water was intriguing to me. They had an engineering program and all the boats around. I applied early and got in early and never looked at another school. The backup plan was…there was no backup plan. On the inspiration for buying his own boat.....When I went to Mass Maritime, I met quite a few people who didn’t go to school there and one of them introduced me to the off shore sailing aspect. I did a few off shore deliveries with him on other people's boats, moving them from Massachusetts to the Caribbean. I did one delivery on a Swan 48.We sailed 9 days straight to the Caribbean and I remember approaching the islands and seeing the clear waters and blue colors and that’s when I decided I needed my own boat that could go offshore, I could handle by myself, and something that I could live on so that I could reach those places on my own terms and own schedule. On DIY work around the boat.....The reason I do the work myself is it saves me a lot of money. It's hard to find marine technicians. And I like to know all the ins and outs of my boats, especially doing trips off shore where I am completely reliant on the boat. If something fails I know where it is and how to fix it, I think that’s the most important part of DIY work. On his favorite places to sail.....In New England, my favorite place is Nantucket. Everyone is on vacation there. It is completely relaxing and fun and has beautiful beaches. Bermuda is a wonderful spot as well. Not only do they have incredible waters, flight-wise its only two hours from Boston. The people are friendly, it's a very protected island, and in the way of off shore sailing it was put in a perfect place to be a harbor of refuge between New England and the Caribbean. I started off sailing in the BVI when I took my boat down the first time and that is a beautiful area. I know they were recently hit by two devastating hurricanes and it’s a different landscape from when I last saw but the beauty is still there and the people are friendly. The water is the same temperature as the air and the wind is always blowing perfectly. On what he is looking for in his next boat.....I want the strength of the current boat that I have, I like the speed for its size. But I'd like more tankage, and a couple more cabins so that families and friends can join us wherever we sail off to next. Ultimately the goal is to cross the Atlantic from New England before I'm 40 and see some of the Mediterranean, then down to the Caribbean and come back up, the great Atlantic Loop (Ed note: I think Chris made this term up, but I like it and what a great goal!). I'm looking for a boat strong enough to do that, 50-60 feet. There's a wide range of boats out there. I've looked at modern boats, classic cruising boats. I’m excited for the next chapter. On sail versus power.....I’m partners in an old 18 foot bass boat, a 1956 Palmer Scott built in New Bedford, MA. It currently needs a bit of work before we put it in next year. But when it comes to sailing the distance, I prefer to use the wind instead of fuel to get across oceans. On life aboard the work boats.....I did about five years on oil tankers running between Alaska and if we got lucky down to Hawaii. I used to do 75-90 day rotations and that got a little old. I looked for something shorter and decided to move to drill ships and became an engineer on a drilling rig. It floats in about 10,000 feet of water using thrusters to keep itself on location and drilling into the earth as deep as 40,000 feet. Since then I've shifted into Subsea engineering. We maintain the blowup preventer and all the associated equipment. On the best boating advice received.....The best advice is have your ducks in a row when it comes to safety. That was always drilled into my head and now that I skipper my own boat I would never want to hurt anybody on board and think about what I could have done differently. Other than that it's being comfortable on the water. To have a nice day on the water you have to be relaxed and comfortable with your boat and what you’re doing and that goes out to everybody else's attitude and affects them to positively have a nice day. On essential equipment.....Life jackets are a basic, simple thing to have on board but that’s a great start right there. I have an EPIRB on board and that gives me a lot of comfort knowing wherever I am in the world I can activate that and help is on its way. I also carry a life raft when I go anywhere off shore, it would be foolish not to.   As I mentioned, there's a lot more packed into this half hour, so give a listen and let us know what your boating goals and dream destinations are! 

I really enjoyed recording this episode, as the guest is a friend who I have been fortunate to have a lot of fun on the water with. Chris Hefferen currently helps manage Subsea Fleet Support for <a href="http://www.noblecorp.com/about-noble/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Noble</a>, a leading offshore drilling contractor for the oil and gas industry. The company owns and operates one of the most modern, versatile and technically advanced fleets in the offshore drilling industry. Noble performs, through its subsidiaries, contract drilling services with a fleet of 28 offshore drilling units, consisting of 14 drillships and semisubmersibles and 14 jackups, focused largely on ultra-deepwater and high-specification jackup drilling opportunities in both established and emerging regions worldwide. Chris has been with Noble since 2011 and has traveled the world maintaining their fleet, doing rotations of up to 90 days living aboard the ships. Chris grew up sailing with his father off the coast of Massachusetts and attended the <a href="https://www.maritime.edu/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Massachusetts Maritime Academy</a> where he concentrated in Marine Engineering and was a member of the varsity sailing team. When he’s not at sea for work, he is at sea for fun aboard his C&amp;C 41 Leverage, which he purchased at the age of 25 to fully dedicate himself to the boating lifestyle. Chris has extensive regatta and offshore long-distance sailing experience – for instance he has completed 7 round trip sails from New England to the Caribbean, including multiple trips with just himself and one crew, and just as many <a href="http://figawi.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Figawi</a> races from Cape Cod to Nantucket. I have had the pleasure of being a guest on Chris’s boat many times including a week in the <a href="http://www.bvitourism.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">BVI</a>, many of the previously mentioned Figawi races, sails in Newport, RI and Boston, MA, and more. Chris is a first rate captain and I am truly indebted to him for helping create some of my all time favorite memories on the water. This is a really fun interview with some great stories from sea including an incredibly harrowing tale of foul weather way off shore around the 16-minute mark, working on 90 day rotations off shore, and his ambitious sailing goals he'd like to accomplish before the age of 40. This is jam packed with too many stories to write so give a listen, and if you’re in the market for a sailboat, check out his <a href="http://www.boatersresources.com/bfs_detail.php?adid=451389" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">listing</a>. Enjoy! On his sailing start.....I started out sailing when I was young. My dad had smaller sailboats off the coast of MA. As I progressed I went to Mass Maritime Academy and joined their sailing team. From there I ended up doing some off shore racing and sailing and the play part came when I purchased my own boat at 25 years old. I bought that before I ever bought a house. I learned strictly through my dad, I never had any opportunity to go to a sailing school or anything. We usually sailed just off the coast of Newburyport, MA and Portsmouth, NH. Usually day sailing and a couple of overnight trips. On getting into racing.....Racing didn’t come until I went to college. I actually got cut my freshman year first semester. I had sailed and had plenty of experience but I didn’t have the gear or terminology down. I tried out the next semester and did make the team. The dynamics of sailing are the same, I always tried to make the boat go as fast as possible so that part was easy. It was more the tactics against other boats and trying to position yourself ahead of them or in the right spot to make sure you can stay ahead and beat them ultimately. We would go through drills, but it was more observing the better or more senior people and the coach would have some input as well. On some of his favorite college races.....We raced from Maine to Annapolis. They had quite a program down at the Naval Academy. They had 44 foot sailboats all of the same kind. That was a lot of fun having a one-design sailboat so you didn’t have to rely on any kind of rating system to keep the playing field level. On deciding to attend Mass Maritime.....My dad knew that I liked to be outside and work with my hands, and being close to the water. I went my sophomore year and looked around, and all the beaches and water was intriguing to me. They had an engineering program and all the boats around. I applied early and got in early and never looked at another school. The backup plan was…there was no backup plan. On the inspiration for buying his own boat.....When I went to Mass Maritime, I met quite a few people who didn’t go to school there and one of them introduced me to the off shore sailing aspect. I did a few off shore deliveries with him on other people's boats, moving them from Massachusetts to the Caribbean. I did one delivery on a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_48" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Swan 48</a>.We sailed 9 days straight to the Caribbean and I remember approaching the islands and seeing the clear waters and blue colors and that’s when I decided I needed my own boat that could go offshore, I could handle by myself, and something that I could live on so that I could reach those places on my own terms and own schedule. On DIY work around the boat.....The reason I do the work myself is it saves me a lot of money. It's hard to find marine technicians. And I like to know all the ins and outs of my boats, especially doing trips off shore where I am completely reliant on the boat. If something fails I know where it is and how to fix it, I think that’s the most important part of DIY work. On his favorite places to sail.....In New England, my favorite place is <a href="http://nantucket.net/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Nantucket</a>. Everyone is on vacation there. It is completely relaxing and fun and has beautiful beaches. <a href="http://www.gotobermuda.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Bermuda</a> is a wonderful spot as well. Not only do they have incredible waters, flight-wise its only two hours from Boston. The people are friendly, it's a very protected island, and in the way of off shore sailing it was put in a perfect place to be a harbor of refuge between New England and the Caribbean. I started off sailing in the BVI when I took my boat down the first time and that is a beautiful area. I know they were recently hit by two <a href="https://www.tradeonlytoday.com/industry-news/video-marinemax-the-moorings-work-together-to-help-bvi-recover?utm_source=trade-enewsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=textlink&amp;utm_campaign=enewsletter-012318" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">devastating hurricanes</a> and it’s a different landscape from when I last saw but the beauty is still there and the people are friendly. The water is the same temperature as the air and the wind is always blowing perfectly. On what he is looking for in his next boat.....I want the strength of the current boat that I have, I like the speed for its size. But I'd like more tankage, and a couple more cabins so that families and friends can join us wherever we sail off to next. Ultimately the goal is to cross the Atlantic from New England before I'm 40 and see some of the Mediterranean, then down to the Caribbean and come back up, the great Atlantic Loop (Ed note: I think Chris made this term up, but I like it and what a great goal!). I'm looking for a boat strong enough to do that, 50-60 feet. There's a wide range of boats out there. I've looked at modern boats, classic cruising boats. I’m excited for the next chapter. On sail versus power.....I’m partners in an old 18 foot bass boat, a 1956 <a href="http://www.merrymaiden.com/palmerscott.htm" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Palmer Scott</a> built in New Bedford, MA. It currently needs a bit of work before we put it in next year. But when it comes to sailing the distance, I prefer to use the wind instead of fuel to get across oceans. On life aboard the work boats.....I did about five years on oil tankers running between Alaska and if we got lucky down to Hawaii. I used to do 75-90 day rotations and that got a little old. I looked for something shorter and decided to move to drill ships and became an engineer on a drilling rig. It floats in about 10,000 feet of water using thrusters to keep itself on location and drilling into the earth as deep as 40,000 feet. Since then I've shifted into Subsea engineering. We maintain the blowup preventer and all the associated equipment. On the best boating advice received.....The best advice is have your ducks in a row when it comes to safety. That was always drilled into my head and now that I skipper my own boat I would never want to hurt anybody on board and think about what I could have done differently. Other than that it's being comfortable on the water. To have a nice day on the water you have to be relaxed and comfortable with your boat and what you’re doing and that goes out to everybody else's attitude and affects them to positively have a nice day. On essential equipment.....Life jackets are a basic, simple thing to have on board but that’s a great start right there. I have an <a href="http://www.epirb.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">EPIRB</a> on board and that gives me a lot of comfort knowing wherever I am in the world I can activate that and help is on its way. I also carry a life raft when I go anywhere off shore, it would be foolish not to. As I mentioned, there's a lot more packed into this half hour, so give a listen and let us know what your boating goals and dream destinations are!

Work Hard, Play Hard. Designing a Boating Lifestyle. 

Jim Palmer

Jim Palmer is a marketing and business building expert and in-demand coach. He is the founder of the Dream Business Academy and Dream Business Coaching and Mastermind Program. He is the host of Dream Business Coach TV, the hit weekly Web TV show watched by thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners, and he is also the host of Dream Business Radio, a weekly podcast based on Jim's unique brand of Smart Marketing and Business Building Strategies. Jim is best known internationally as 'The Dream Business Coach' and creator of No Hassle Newsletters, the ultimate 'done-for-you' newsletter marketing program used by hundreds of clients in nine countries. Jim has authored seven books and speaks and gives interviews on such topics as entrepreneurial success, newsletter marketing, client retention, how to build a profitable business and how to create your own Dream Business. Jim is a cancer survivor, has been married for over thirty-five years, has four grown children and two great children. Recently, Jim and his wife Stephanie JUST SAID YES to their dream of living on a boat. Join their adventure, which is chronicled on Our Floating Home.  Jim and I spoke about growing up boating, how they decided to live aboard, finding the perfect boat, and a whole lot more. This one is definitely worth a listen all the way through as Jim packed a lot of inspiring advice into this half hour, much more than I could fit in the blog. Enjoy!    On early boating experiences.....I grew up boating. My grandparents had a cottage on a Lake in Western Massachusetts. My parents grew up in that cottage. I remember I learned how to water ski there on this little 14’ boat with a 40 hp Evinrude engine. I just really love the water and boating. My parents had a boat. My older brother is big time into boating. My own boating career started four years ago. We bought a 30’ Sea Ray that we kept at the top of Chesapeake Bay. On deciding to live aboard.....A little more than a year ago, Stephanie was retiring from her career and came home and said ‘I think its time for a big adventure.' We didn’t know quite what that meant. Eventually she said hey, what if we lived on a boat? We sold our house and we bought a 50’ Carver motor yacht. On how the adventure is going so far.....We are so in love with this boat. I loved my Sea Ray, the only difference is Sea Ray had so many great t shirts and Carver makes nothing! We have been loving life. It is slower, easier and we can feel disconnected from everything so much easier. It's an amazing lifestyle. On how boating equals stress relief.....We had about an hour and twenty minute drive on Fridays from our home to our boat and we could feel ourselves de-stressing on the drive. When we stepped on the boat, 100% of whatever was going on that week was forgotten. It was an amazing way to de-stress. We could go ten minutes, drop anchor, and feel like we were on vacation.   On how to follow their adventure.....We started a blog – ourfloatinghome.com – everybody was so curious about where we were going and how to stay in touch. I just wrote a blog post called ‘Simple, Slower, and Chores’ and I describe how simple life is on the boat. We get up, I go up and watch the sun go up over the water, have breakfast. I love watching boats. We’re always looking at the water. It’s a slower way of life. We have no commute. We’re not dealing with traffic. We’ve got reality TV just outside our boat. And then for chores, when I had my home, I was tired of cutting the grass and shoveling the driveway, all that stuff. The thing about the boat, it’s always gotta be clean, something always gas to be fixed, and I don’t mind! I would so much rather wash and wax my boat than mow my lawn or weed whack! On planning their route, or not.....It’s less planned out than you might think. We came up with an 18-month plan. It’s not bothering us that we don’t have a specific reservation or know where we’re going. I’ve structured my coaching business to do three days per week. All the calls happen Tuesday-Thursday. Friday through Monday we can be mobile. If we pull into somewhere we love we can stay there. We’re totally flexible and loving not having an exact idea of what we’ll be doing. On useful technology for living aboard.....I have so many apps. I have an app called BoatTracker which will tell you your average speed, top speed, how long you were out. That’s a very good way for me to keep track of oil changes and things like that. It will also show you with a satellite where you were with your entire trip. There’s another one I got called Anchor Alarm. When you set your anchor, you use your finger and draw a little area that the boat is allowed to swing. If it heads out of the circle you have drawn, it will alert you. The other thing I use is Navionics. It’s always updating and is really cool. On 'Just Saying Yes'.....Some people say you should have waited a year and maybe, but are you ever really ready? Sometimes you just have to say yes and go for it. Sometimes you can overthink things, the what if. When you get really excited about doing something big in life, you get romantically excited about it but then the other side of our brain kicks in and we start playing the what if game. On using Social Media to further boating education.....We both belong to a lot of these Facebook groups. There’s a facebook group called LiveAboard, Trawler Living, Carver facebook groups. There's boat repairs, so many things you can learn from other people. There’s an education out there if you’re willing to look and be open minded. On possible future boating plans.....There’s a thing called the Great Loop! We started reading these books and it’s something we are considering. We’ve read several stories of people who do the Great Loop, it takes them about a year. One of the things that appeals to us when you do the great loop, most of it is slow. You're seeing parts of this country that nobody really sees.   Please, listen to the whole podcast. The blog really doesn't do this one justice! Happy boating! And to all the Northern listeners, I hope you delay the shrink wrapping as long as possible! 

Jim Palmer is a marketing and business building expert and in-demand coach. He is the founder of the Dream Business Academy and Dream Business Coaching and Mastermind Program. He is the host of Dream Business Coach TV, the hit weekly Web TV show watched by thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners, and he is also the host of <a href="http://www.getjimpalmer.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Dream Business Radio</a>, a weekly podcast based on Jim's unique brand of Smart Marketing and Business Building Strategies. Jim is best known internationally as 'The Dream Business Coach' and creator of No Hassle Newsletters, the ultimate 'done-for-you' newsletter marketing program used by hundreds of clients in nine countries. Jim has authored seven books and speaks and gives interviews on such topics as entrepreneurial success, newsletter marketing, client retention, how to build a profitable business and how to create your own Dream Business. Jim is a cancer survivor, has been married for over thirty-five years, has four grown children and two great children. Recently, Jim and his wife Stephanie JUST SAID YES to their dream of living on a boat. Join their adventure, which is chronicled on <a href="http://www.ourfloatinghome.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Our Floating Home</a>.  Jim and I spoke about growing up boating, how they decided to live aboard, finding the perfect boat, and a whole lot more. This one is definitely worth a listen all the way through as Jim packed a lot of inspiring advice into this half hour, much more than I could fit in the blog. Enjoy!  On early boating experiences.....I grew up boating. My grandparents had a cottage on a Lake in Western Massachusetts. My parents grew up in that cottage. I remember I learned how to water ski there on this little 14’ boat with a 40 hp Evinrude engine. I just really love the water and boating. My parents had a boat. My older brother is big time into boating. My own boating career started four years ago. We bought a 30’ <a href="http://www.searay.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Sea Ray</a> that we kept at the top of Chesapeake Bay. On deciding to live aboard.....A little more than a year ago, Stephanie was retiring from her career and came home and said ‘I think its time for a big adventure.' We didn’t know quite what that meant. Eventually she said hey, what if we lived on a boat? We sold our house and we bought a 50’ <a href="http://www.carveryachts.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Carver</a> motor yacht. On how the adventure is going so far.....We are so in love with this boat. I loved my Sea Ray, the only difference is Sea Ray had so many great t shirts and Carver makes nothing! We have been loving life. It is slower, easier and we can feel disconnected from everything so much easier. It's an amazing lifestyle. On how boating equals stress relief.....We had about an hour and twenty minute drive on Fridays from our home to our boat and we could feel ourselves de-stressing on the drive. When we stepped on the boat, 100% of whatever was going on that week was forgotten. It was an amazing way to de-stress. We could go ten minutes, drop anchor, and feel like we were on vacation. On how to follow their adventure.....We started a blog – <a href="http://ourfloatinghome.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">ourfloatinghome.com</a> – everybody was so curious about where we were going and how to stay in touch. I just wrote a blog post called ‘Simple, Slower, and Chores’ and I describe how simple life is on the boat. We get up, I go up and watch the sun go up over the water, have breakfast. I love watching boats. We’re always looking at the water. It’s a slower way of life. We have no commute. We’re not dealing with traffic. We’ve got reality TV just outside our boat. And then for chores, when I had my home, I was tired of cutting the grass and shoveling the driveway, all that stuff. The thing about the boat, it’s always gotta be clean, something always gas to be fixed, and I don’t mind! I would so much rather wash and wax my boat than mow my lawn or weed whack! On planning their route, or not.....It’s less planned out than you might think. We came up with an 18-month plan. It’s not bothering us that we don’t have a specific reservation or know where we’re going. I’ve structured my coaching business to do three days per week. All the calls happen Tuesday-Thursday. Friday through Monday we can be mobile. If we pull into somewhere we love we can stay there. We’re totally flexible and loving not having an exact idea of what we’ll be doing. On useful technology for living aboard.....I have so many apps. I have an app called <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/boat-tracker/id523038889?mt=8" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">BoatTracker</a> which will tell you your average speed, top speed, how long you were out. That’s a very good way for me to keep track of oil changes and things like that. It will also show you with a satellite where you were with your entire trip. There’s another one I got called <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.webmajstr.anchor&amp;hl=en" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Anchor Alarm</a>. When you set your anchor, you use your finger and draw a little area that the boat is allowed to swing. If it heads out of the circle you have drawn, it will alert you. The other thing I use is <a href="https://www.navionics.com/usa/apps/navionics-boating" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Navionics</a>. It’s always updating and is really cool. On 'Just Saying Yes'.....Some people say you should have waited a year and maybe, but are you ever really ready? Sometimes you just have to say yes and go for it. Sometimes you can overthink things, the what if. When you get really excited about doing something big in life, you get romantically excited about it but then the other side of our brain kicks in and we start playing the what if game. On using Social Media to further boating education.....We both belong to a lot of these Facebook groups. There’s a facebook group called LiveAboard, Trawler Living, Carver facebook groups. There's boat repairs, so many things you can learn from other people. There’s an education out there if you’re willing to look and be open minded. On possible future boating plans.....There’s a thing called the <a href="http://www.greatloop.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Great Loop</a>! We started reading these books and it’s something we are considering. We’ve read several stories of people who do the Great Loop, it takes them about a year. One of the things that appeals to us when you do the great loop, most of it is slow. You're seeing parts of this country that nobody really sees. Please, listen to the whole podcast. The blog really doesn't do this one justice! Happy boating! And to all the Northern listeners, I hope you delay the shrink wrapping as long as possible!

Our Big Adventure - Living Aboard with Jim Palmer

Boating to the Rescue Boating has long been thought of as a great way to enjoy nature, spend quality time together with loved ones, and disconnect from our busy lives to get away from it all. Now, more than ever, those qualities of boating are the reason it is positioned to be the perfect social distancing activity in our Covid-19 world. We, like many, have been homebound for a month plus. All social engagements and activities for our kids have been cancelled. Cabin fever is real. And now, with warm weather approaching, along comes boating! We know that boating is going to look different – for example we won’t be inviting anyone outside our immediate family on board any time soon – but it remains the number one thing we are looking forward to doing over the next several months. And, we are happy that marinas have been considered essential so that we can work to provide the same relief to others! In this context, I was able to speak with David Gee, Editor-in-Chief of Boating Industry Magazine, to discuss his life on the water and the current state of the boating industry. David has tremendous enthusiasm for boating and particularly watersports, and his optimism about the future of boating as a family pastime and as an industry where we make our living is highly encouraging! As he said when discussing how boating is positioned to meet the need of the moment, ‘Boating to the Rescue!’ Enjoy and stay healthy!

Boating to the Rescue Boating has long been thought of as a great way to enjoy nature, spend quality time together with loved ones, and disconnect from our busy lives to get away from it all. Now, more than ever, those qualities of boating are the reason it is positioned to be the perfect social distancing activity in our Covid-19 world. We, like many, have been homebound for a month plus. All social engagements and activities for our kids have been cancelled. Cabin fever is real. And now, with warm weather approaching, along comes boating! We know that boating is going to look different – for example we won’t be inviting anyone outside our immediate family on board any time soon – but it remains the number one thing we are looking forward to doing over the next several months. And, we are happy that marinas have been considered essential so that we can work to provide the same relief to others! In this context, I was able to speak with David Gee, Editor-in-Chief of <a href="https://boatingindustry.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boating Industry</a> Magazine, to discuss his life on the water and the current state of the boating industry. David has tremendous enthusiasm for boating and particularly watersports, and his optimism about the future of boating as a family pastime and as an industry where we make our living is highly encouraging! As he said when discussing how boating is positioned to meet the need of the moment, ‘Boating to the Rescue!’ Enjoy and stay healthy!

Boating to the Rescue!

It was a real pleasure speaking with Barry Berhoff, CEO of Shurhold Industries. Barry is an avid boater who lives and breathes Shurhold everyday not only as a job, but as a lifestyle. Under his direction Shurhold has become the global leader in high quality detailing products. Shurhold was started in 1973 in the garage of William E. Peach. Over the next two decades Shurhold continued to grow and migrated into a 10,000-square-foot facility in City. Barry purchased the company in 1998 and expanded the company into a 20,000 square-foot state of the art manufacturing facility. He’s helped continue to expand the product line and grow it into the international company it is today. Barry and I discussed growing up boating on Lake Michigan, family vacations living aboard their boat in the Bahamas, tips for keeping the boat clean and misconceptions about boat maintenance. I learned a lot and hope you do too, enjoy! On getting started in boating…..I started as a child. My dad got into boating. We started boating on Lake Michigan. Being little it was a lot of safety stuff which I find myself now saying to my kids. We did it every summer and I just loved being on the boat. Everything from tying the knots to running the electronics to learning to drive and take care of it, it was something I was just drawn to. All my learning was through my father. The classes weren’t as prevalent as they are today. You can go to any Coast Guard Auxiliary; they’ve got online courses. It’s a much better environment for learning. On teaching his kids to boat…..I do make an effort to get them learning about navigation, the rules of the road. Florida has an online boater safety course and both my boys have taken that. My older one just finished a two-week camp at Chapman School of Seamanship. They do an amazing kids course and have a whole fleet of little boats. The kids learn how to dock them and anchor them and man overboard drills. On family boating now…..The family boat is a 43’ SeaVee Express model. It’s been a great boat for us. We do a mix of everything. Boats are always a game of compromise. There is no perfect boat because there are so many different styles and one day you want to do one thing, one day another. It’s great cause it’s still outboard so it allows us to still get up on sandbars and treat it like a little center console but being an express we still have a cabin and we still can take summer vacations to the Bahamas and live on the boat as a family. It’s a great time. No electronics allowed. It’s just about being together, being out on the water. On essential gear to have aboard for long trips…..According to my wife the first and foremost thing is sunblock. You can never have enough sunblock down here. Probably the most important is safety gear. We never leave the dock without making sure that we have the Coast Guard required safety gear, and we have additional stuff that we take.  We carry an emergency life raft on board, an EPIRB, and a satellite phone. On meeting like-minded boaters…..Yeah we have our summer cruising family. At each port we tend to bump into the same people around the same time of the year. We didn’t know what we’d run into but we found a lot more families than we expected. One thing that’s always true is that almost every boater you ever meet is friendly. People are out there to have a good time. This is their way of relaxing and kicking back. Not only is everyone friendly but everyone is there to help each other out. Whether I’m giving someone a spare part or someone is helping me fix something on my boat I didn’t know how to do, there’s always someone on the dock that you can help or that is willing to help you. On Shurhold’s education goals…..The first and foremost thing that I hope that we provide is the information and education. It seems daunting if you’ve never done it before and we try to strike a balance. We are advocating that people don’t procrastinate and that they do the basic things on a regular basis. That’s going to serve them well and make their job easier over the long run and make sure the boat is ready for them when they want to use it. On their popular video series…..We get a lot of really good feedback from the basic videos. All the way from what to do when you get back, the fact that you don’t have to scrub the boat every time but rinse it. A good rinse will do you a lot of good. We talk about the proper order in which to wash a boat. Top down, front to back, working with the natural flow of water. And then we do some on oxidation and waxing that have been very popular. A lot of people are afraid to use rotary tools or buffers and we show them how easy they are and how that makes their job easier. We take a lot of the mystique and voodoo out of it. Anyone can maintain and care for a boat. It isn’t that hard if you just do a couple of key things and do them on a consistent basis. On what can be done to keep boats looking new…..There is a protective coat, a lot of people call it wax, we call it a protectant or polish, that your boat should have on it. Depending on whether it is up north or down south, how much sun exposure, is it covered, etc will determine how many times a year that needs to be done. Think of it like sunscreen on your boat. That is what is protecting it and making it look good, making it so that when you get back to the dock you can just rinse it and walk away. A good coat of wax or protection goes a long way, and making sure it is done in the right way. On common maintenance misconceptions…..One of the biggest misconceptions that I can share is people want to know - Should they do two coats, should they do three coats? I’m surprised that people have this idea that more coats is going to do more, it really isn’t. Think of it like sunblock. Get one good coat on and somewhere down the road, do the second coat. The second coat the same day doesn’t do you any good. Putting sunblock on twice in 30 seconds doesn’t make it any better but doing it later in the day does. The other thing is there is definitely a difference between boat soap and dish soap. A lot of people will take products from the home and there are two major issues with it. First, a lot of the home products have degreasers in them and they are going to strip your wax. The other is if you happen to be washing the boat on or near the water, those are not environmentally friendly products. On industry maintenance product advancements…..Our biggest advancements have been in the waxing technologies. Most of the wax today doesn’t have any real wax in it. It is a polymer base. There are little to no fillers in it. When we protect a boat, it is a lot more like putting a sunblock on cause you’re rubbing it in until it disappears and that’s it. There’s no powder, no heavy working to get it off. It’s much more viscus when it goes on so it bonds with the boat better, fills in the seams and pores better. That has made the chore of waxing a boat take half the time and half the work. On industry boat advancements…..As technologies from other industries get cheaper and filter down into our industry you start to see it. We’ve seen it in the last couple years, a lot more advancement in some of the computer animated drafting and robotic mold making that’s really allowed some of the boat builders to do really unique things. You’re seeing a lot more bigger boats with outboards which has changed boating a lot. You’re seeing a lot bigger horsepower outboard boats which really lets the manufacturer focus on building the boat and not the engine. It allows them to get a lot more space and use space better and get much prettier curves and lines. The product and the quality that I’m seeing from the manufacturers over the last couple of years has been really exciting. On boating destinations…..It’s on my bucket list to do the Great Loop as a cruising trip. We do a lot in the Bahamas and I’m really happy with that. We’ve done crossing the state of Florida through the locks and that’s an amazing little trip. I think we’re going to try in the next year to go north a little bit up through Georgia and Hilton Head. On Shurhold’s product philosophy…..Everything that we manufacture is based on a couple simple principals. Everything we do is to help you keep your boat clean and simple. Part of keeping it simple is making products that are multi-purpose. We don’t do 22 different chemicals for 22 different parts of the boat, we do about 5 or 6 chemicals that cover the 22 parts of the boat. All of our handles and brushes and attachments are meant to cut down on storage so you have one handle that covers it all. We decided we could do that for the bucket so we came up with a series of accessories for the bucket. (Editors note: Barry describes the one bucket system in detail and it is phenomenal, check it out here!) On advice for would-be boaters…..The first thing I tell everyone is definitely do it, you’re going to love it! The second thing I tell them is take a lesson. Taking a boater’s safety course, going out with someone to show them a couple basic thing, it really doesn’t take but an afternoon. It’s not a big investment but being comfortable on the boat will do you well.   Barry was great. Listen to the full episode for many more great tips and stories. 

It was a real pleasure speaking with Barry Berhoff, CEO of <a href="https://shurhold.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Shurhold</a> Industries. Barry is an avid boater who lives and breathes Shurhold everyday not only as a job, but as a lifestyle. Under his direction Shurhold has become the global leader in high quality detailing products. Shurhold was started in 1973 in the garage of William E. Peach. Over the next two decades Shurhold continued to grow and migrated into a 10,000-square-foot facility in City. Barry purchased the company in 1998 and expanded the company into a 20,000 square-foot state of the art manufacturing facility. He’s helped continue to expand the product line and grow it into the international company it is today. Barry and I discussed growing up boating on Lake Michigan, family vacations living aboard their boat in the Bahamas, tips for keeping the boat clean and misconceptions about boat maintenance. I learned a lot and hope you do too, enjoy! On getting started in boating…..I started as a child. My dad got into boating. We started boating on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Michigan" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lake Michigan</a>. Being little it was a lot of safety stuff which I find myself now saying to my kids. We did it every summer and I just loved being on the boat. Everything from tying the knots to running the electronics to learning to drive and take care of it, it was something I was just drawn to. All my learning was through my father. The classes weren’t as prevalent as they are today. You can go to any Coast Guard Auxiliary; they’ve got online courses. It’s a much better environment for learning. On teaching his kids to boat…..I do make an effort to get them learning about navigation, the rules of the road. Florida has an online boater safety course and both my boys have taken that. My older one just finished a two-week camp at <a href="http://www.chapman.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chapman School of Seamanship</a>. They do an amazing kids course and have a whole fleet of little boats. The kids learn how to dock them and anchor them and man overboard drills. On family boating now…..The family boat is a 43’ <a href="https://www.seaveeboats.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SeaVee</a> Express model. It’s been a great boat for us. We do a mix of everything. Boats are always a game of compromise. There is no perfect boat because there are so many different styles and one day you want to do one thing, one day another. It’s great cause it’s still outboard so it allows us to still get up on sandbars and treat it like a little center console but being an express we still have a cabin and we still can take summer vacations to the Bahamas and live on the boat as a family. It’s a great time. No electronics allowed. It’s just about being together, being out on the water. On essential gear to have aboard for long trips…..According to my wife the first and foremost thing is sunblock. You can never have enough sunblock down here. Probably the most important is safety gear. We never leave the dock without making sure that we have the Coast Guard required safety gear, and we have additional stuff that we take.  We carry an emergency life raft on board, an <a href="http://www.epirb.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">EPIRB</a>, and a satellite phone. On meeting like-minded boaters…..Yeah we have our summer cruising family. At each port we tend to bump into the same people around the same time of the year. We didn’t know what we’d run into but we found a lot more families than we expected. One thing that’s always true is that almost every boater you ever meet is friendly. People are out there to have a good time. This is their way of relaxing and kicking back. Not only is everyone friendly but everyone is there to help each other out. Whether I’m giving someone a spare part or someone is helping me fix something on my boat I didn’t know how to do, there’s always someone on the dock that you can help or that is willing to help you. On Shurhold’s education goals…..The first and foremost thing that I hope that we provide is the information and education. It seems daunting if you’ve never done it before and we try to strike a balance. We are advocating that people don’t procrastinate and that they do the basic things on a regular basis. That’s going to serve them well and make their job easier over the long run and make sure the boat is ready for them when they want to use it. On their popular video series…..We get a lot of really good feedback from the basic <a href="https://shurhold.com/articles/marine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">videos</a>. All the way from what to do when you get back, the fact that you don’t have to scrub the boat every time but rinse it. A good rinse will do you a lot of good. We talk about the proper order in which to wash a boat. Top down, front to back, working with the natural flow of water. And then we do some on oxidation and waxing that have been very popular. A lot of people are afraid to use rotary tools or buffers and we show them how easy they are and how that makes their job easier. We take a lot of the mystique and voodoo out of it. Anyone can maintain and care for a boat. It isn’t that hard if you just do a couple of key things and do them on a consistent basis. On what can be done to keep boats looking new…..There is a protective coat, a lot of people call it wax, we call it a protectant or polish, that your boat should have on it. Depending on whether it is up north or down south, how much sun exposure, is it covered, etc will determine how many times a year that needs to be done. Think of it like sunscreen on your boat. That is what is protecting it and making it look good, making it so that when you get back to the dock you can just rinse it and walk away. A good coat of wax or protection goes a long way, and making sure it is done in the right way. On common maintenance misconceptions…..One of the biggest misconceptions that I can share is people want to know - Should they do two coats, should they do three coats? I’m surprised that people have this idea that more coats is going to do more, it really isn’t. Think of it like sunblock. Get one good coat on and somewhere down the road, do the second coat. The second coat the same day doesn’t do you any good. Putting sunblock on twice in 30 seconds doesn’t make it any better but doing it later in the day does. The other thing is there is definitely a difference between boat soap and dish soap. A lot of people will take products from the home and there are two major issues with it. First, a lot of the home products have degreasers in them and they are going to strip your wax. The other is if you happen to be washing the boat on or near the water, those are not environmentally friendly products. On industry maintenance product advancements…..Our biggest advancements have been in the waxing technologies. Most of the wax today doesn’t have any real wax in it. It is a polymer base. There are little to no fillers in it. When we protect a boat, it is a lot more like putting a sunblock on cause you’re rubbing it in until it disappears and that’s it. There’s no powder, no heavy working to get it off. It’s much more viscus when it goes on so it bonds with the boat better, fills in the seams and pores better. That has made the chore of waxing a boat take half the time and half the work. On industry boat advancements…..As technologies from other industries get cheaper and filter down into our industry you start to see it. We’ve seen it in the last couple years, a lot more advancement in some of the computer animated drafting and robotic mold making that’s really allowed some of the boat builders to do really unique things. You’re seeing a lot more bigger boats with outboards which has changed boating a lot. You’re seeing a lot bigger horsepower outboard boats which really lets the manufacturer focus on building the boat and not the engine. It allows them to get a lot more space and use space better and get much prettier curves and lines. The product and the quality that I’m seeing from the manufacturers over the last couple of years has been really exciting. On boating destinations…..It’s on my bucket list to do the <a href="http://www.greatloop.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Great Loop</a> as a cruising trip. We do a lot in the Bahamas and I’m really happy with that. We’ve done crossing the state of Florida through the locks and that’s an amazing little trip. I think we’re going to try in the next year to go north a little bit up through Georgia and Hilton Head. On Shurhold’s product philosophy…..Everything that we manufacture is based on a couple simple principals. Everything we do is to help you keep your boat clean and simple. Part of keeping it simple is making products that are multi-purpose. We don’t do 22 different chemicals for 22 different parts of the boat, we do about 5 or 6 chemicals that cover the 22 parts of the boat. All of our handles and brushes and attachments are meant to cut down on storage so you have one handle that covers it all. We decided we could do that for the bucket so we came up with a series of accessories for the bucket. (Editors note: Barry describes the one bucket system in detail and it is phenomenal, check it out <a href="https://shurhold.com/featured/one-bucket-system/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>!) On advice for would-be boaters…..The first thing I tell everyone is definitely do it, you’re going to love it! The second thing I tell them is take a lesson. Taking a boater’s safety course, going out with someone to show them a couple basic thing, it really doesn’t take but an afternoon. It’s not a big investment but being comfortable on the boat will do you well. Barry was great. Listen to the full episode for many more great tips and stories.

Boating, Clean-N-Simple

Diane Seltzer

You could say Diane Seltzer is a jack-of-all trades in the marine world. In her day job Diane is the Marketing Director for SureShade. SureShade designs and manufactures innovative retractable sunshade systems for the marine industry that enhance and facilitate the boating experience. Diane is responsible for branding, public relations, social media implementation, advertising, web site management and marketing communications…and in her 8 years with the company has won multiple Marine Marketer of America awards and has seen it go from concept to factory installed option on over 100 boat models! Diane is also the founder and editor of multiple boating websites for boating enthusiasts including myboatlife.com and boaterkids.com. On the industry side, Diane is founder and editor of Marine Marketing Tools, a collaborative site to share marine marketing best practices, tools and resources - exclusively for boat dealers, marinas, boat builders, marine suppliers, boating product manufacturers and boating service providers. If that isn’t enough to keep her busy, Diane has also written and self-published a children’s book called The Amazing Adventures of Boat Girl! And yes, she still has time to enjoy the boating lifestyle herself, anchoring out in her ‘spot’ with her husband and daughters and cruising the Chesapeake Bay. Diane and I covered a lot about starting to boat later in life, hitting milestones at SureShade, and most importantly tips for raising young kids in the boating lifestyle and how to safely enjoy being out in the sun all day. Enjoy!   On getting into boating…..Before my husband and I were married, we were invited out for a trip on a sailboat and we took a 6 hour cruise down the bay. We spent the weekend in Rock Hall, Maryland. By the time we got to Rock Hall we decided we were not sailors, but the weekend we spent at the marina was so much fun, being out on the water, being around boaters, everyone was so friendly. By the end of that weekend we said we need to get into boating. On her first boat…..By the end of the summer we bought our first boat. It was all new to us, neither of us had ever boated before. We ended up buying a 1982 25’ Bayliner. After a couple of years we were hooked on the lifestyle and upgraded to a newer, bigger boat. We’re on to our third boat. We have a Sea Ray 410 Sundancer. It’s a great boat! On learning to boat…..The first time my husband got behind the wheel of a boat was when we bought the first boat and they dropped him in the water. He spent all winter reading books about boat handling and how to drive and dock a boat. It was all book knowledge the first time he actually drove the boat. A lot of trial by error. All that book knowledge stuck with him through the years. He knows what you’re supposed to do and not supposed to do. [Also important were] learning how to relax and learning our individual responsibilities out on the water. It comes down to communication and experience. Once you learn not to yell at each other and to just calm down a little bit docking gets a lot better! On raising children to be safe boaters…..We’re fanatical about life jackets. Before we even get out on the dock they’re in their life jackets. Walking down the dock, when they’re climbing on and off the boat, when were underway, they’re in the life jacket. They also know that docking is the most stressful part of boating so they know that there’s no carrying on. You sit in your seat and let the captain and first mate do whatever they need to do. They learned really early on about the rules being on the boat. They learned not to hang over the side of the boat and not to hang their toys over the side of the boat because they will be gone! On advice for getting kids to wear life jackets…..It was always the rule. They didn’t know anything different. Sticking with the rules, no exceptions, it’s just a part of life on the boat. We try to get them fun character life jackets that they really like. For my older daughter, we got a cool watersports jacket so it’s more comfortable for her.  On authoring The Amazing Adventures of Boat Girl…..The inspiration was my older daughter Emma. When she would put her life jacket on and hold our hand and jump from the side of the boat to the dock, we would always kind of say ‘Hey Boat Girl!’ She was super empowered because she had her life jacket on and she started getting more confidence getting on and off the boat. Then it expanded to, ‘wouldn’t it be fun to do a little story about Boat Girl and just about being on the boat?’ It’s just all about our day out on the boat and using the life jacket idea as giving you that superpower confidence when you’re wearing it. On her current boating life…..We’re on the Chesapeake Bay. It’s a beautiful, enormous body of water that stretches from Maryland down to Virginia. There’s tons of rivers that are all along the bay. Lots of nooks and crannies and small little fishing towns on the eastern shore and big cities on the western shore with Baltimore, DC, and Annapolis. We always say you could spend a lifetime boating on the Chesapeake Bay and exploring it all. On hitting the 100 boat model mark at SureShade…..It was pretty cool. I’ve been with SureShade since the beginning. Eight years ago SureShade debuted on its first boat with the Boston Whaler 370 Outrage. They were relative newcomers to the boating industry, came up with this product, invented it, patented it, brought it to the industry at IBEX and within two years got their first factory install. Fast forward eight years and we have 100 different boat models that offer it as a factory option or standard feature and then there’s a huge aftermarket part of the business as well. Walking down the docks at Miami and seeing all these boats was definitely a pinch me moment. On increasing demand for SureShade…..It’s a push and pull demand. We’ve been working very closely with the manufacturers so when they come out with a new model they’re designing it into their boats. What’s happening with the ones that don’t offer it on a boat, boaters are going to their dealers and saying I want this shade that I’m seeing on this other model. It’s an opportunity for the dealers to offer as a value add product, to have their service department generate some revenue, so definitely a push and a pull. The more boats you see with it on, the more other boats want to add it, the more private owners want to add to their existing boat. On innovation from SureShade…..We’ve expanded the product offering so now we’re able to offer product for boats of all sizes. Last year we won top new product with boating industry for our RTX pull out shade, for boats under 27’. The way it works is you just lift and pull it out and within seconds you’ve got shade covering your cockpit or your bow. When you get into the bigger sizes we have the manual shade that works with a hand crank. 30’ and above you have the automated shade which is electrically wired and you can operate with a switch at the helm. When you get into bigger boats you have our M3 product which can extend up to 10 feet. On the importance of Sun Safety…..We really didn’t realize until we started getting feedback from customers about how important the sun safety aspect was to them. We’ve heard from skin cancer survivors that say this is the only way they’re able to be out on the boat any more. So many boat designs leave part of the boat exposed. We were lucky enough to hook up with Mike Schimdt. He’s a skin cancer survivor and did a PSA campaign with us about his bout with skin cancer and how important it is to stay protected out on the water. That turned into an industry collaborative called Sun Safe Boating where we’re looking to educate the industry as well as individual boaters about the importance of sun safety. We feel like it is just as important as any other element of boat safety, it’s your health, it’s your life. On attracting new boaters…..From a financial side, having more entry level boats that people can afford. It’s a big financial commitment if you’re not experienced. Also, ways to get into boating with boat clubs like Freedom Boat Club (editors note: I own a Freedom Boat Club franchise), offering the ability to rent boats to give people a chance to experience the boating lifestyle before they make a bigger financial commitment. We’re seeing a lot of new boat styles coming out that serve a lot more purposes. You see a lot of crossovers and dayboats that are good for fishing, cruising, overnights. So I think the industry is trying to pull in a younger demographic but also give boaters more options and make their boats more multi-purpose. I would also add more physical access to boating with more ramps and docks and marinas, especially in urban boating areas, is another big thing the industry could be doing.   Hope you enjoyed that one. Please visit the Sun Safe site and stay safe out there! 

You could say Diane Seltzer is a jack-of-all trades in the marine world. In her day job Diane is the Marketing Director for SureShade. <a href="http://www.sureshade.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SureShade</a> designs and manufactures innovative retractable sunshade systems for the marine industry that enhance and facilitate the boating experience. Diane is responsible for branding, public relations, social media implementation, advertising, web site management and marketing communications…and in her 8 years with the company has won multiple Marine Marketer of America awards and has seen it go from concept to factory installed option on over 100 boat models! Diane is also the founder and editor of multiple boating websites for boating enthusiasts including <a href="http://www.myboatlife.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">myboatlife.com</a> and <a href="http://www.boaterkids.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">boaterkids.com</a>. On the industry side, Diane is founder and editor of Marine Marketing Tools, a collaborative site to share marine marketing best practices, tools and resources - exclusively for boat dealers, marinas, boat builders, marine suppliers, boating product manufacturers and boating service providers. If that isn’t enough to keep her busy, Diane has also written and self-published a children’s book called The Amazing Adventures of Boat Girl! And yes, she still has time to enjoy the boating lifestyle herself, anchoring out in her ‘spot’ with her husband and daughters and cruising the Chesapeake Bay. Diane and I covered a lot about starting to boat later in life, hitting milestones at SureShade, and most importantly tips for raising young kids in the boating lifestyle and how to safely enjoy being out in the sun all day. Enjoy!   On getting into boating…..Before my husband and I were married, we were invited out for a trip on a sailboat and we took a 6 hour cruise down the bay. We spent the weekend in <a href="http://www.rockhallmd.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rock Hall</a>, Maryland. By the time we got to Rock Hall we decided we were not sailors, but the weekend we spent at the marina was so much fun, being out on the water, being around boaters, everyone was so friendly. By the end of that weekend we said we need to get into boating. On her first boat…..By the end of the summer we bought our first boat. It was all new to us, neither of us had ever boated before. We ended up buying a 1982 25’ Bayliner. After a couple of years we were hooked on the lifestyle and upgraded to a newer, bigger boat. We’re on to our third boat. We have a <a href="http://www.searay.com/page.aspx/pageid/162289/Owners-Resources.aspx#ModelArchives" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sea Ray 410 Sundancer</a>. It’s a great boat! On learning to boat…..The first time my husband got behind the wheel of a boat was when we bought the first boat and they dropped him in the water. He spent all winter reading books about boat handling and how to drive and dock a boat. It was all book knowledge the first time he actually drove the boat. A lot of trial by error. All that book knowledge stuck with him through the years. He knows what you’re supposed to do and not supposed to do. [Also important were] learning how to relax and learning our individual responsibilities out on the water. It comes down to communication and experience. Once you learn not to yell at each other and to just calm down a little bit docking gets a lot better! On raising children to be safe boaters…..We’re fanatical about life jackets. Before we even get out on the dock they’re in their life jackets. Walking down the dock, when they’re climbing on and off the boat, when were underway, they’re in the life jacket. They also know that docking is the most stressful part of boating so they know that there’s no carrying on. You sit in your seat and let the captain and first mate do whatever they need to do. They learned really early on about the rules being on the boat. They learned not to hang over the side of the boat and not to hang their toys over the side of the boat because they will be gone! On advice for getting kids to wear life jackets…..It was always the rule. They didn’t know anything different. Sticking with the rules, no exceptions, it’s just a part of life on the boat. We try to get them fun character life jackets that they really like. For my older daughter, we got a cool watersports jacket so it’s more comfortable for her.  On authoring <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Adventures-Boat-Girl/dp/1500550086" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Amazing Adventures of Boat Girl</a>…..The inspiration was my older daughter Emma. When she would put her life jacket on and hold our hand and jump from the side of the boat to the dock, we would always kind of say ‘Hey Boat Girl!’ She was super empowered because she had her life jacket on and she started getting more confidence getting on and off the boat. Then it expanded to, ‘wouldn’t it be fun to do a little story about Boat Girl and just about being on the boat?’ It’s just all about our day out on the boat and using the life jacket idea as giving you that superpower confidence when you’re wearing it. On her current boating life…..We’re on the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/chba/index.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chesapeake Bay</a>. It’s a beautiful, enormous body of water that stretches from Maryland down to Virginia. There’s tons of rivers that are all along the bay. Lots of nooks and crannies and small little fishing towns on the eastern shore and big cities on the western shore with Baltimore, DC, and Annapolis. We always say you could spend a lifetime boating on the Chesapeake Bay and exploring it all. On hitting the 100 boat model mark at SureShade…..It was pretty cool. I’ve been with SureShade since the beginning. Eight years ago SureShade debuted on its first boat with the Boston Whaler 370 Outrage. They were relative newcomers to the boating industry, came up with this product, invented it, patented it, brought it to the industry at IBEX and within two years got their first factory install. Fast forward eight years and we have <a href="http://www.sureshade.com/sureshade-hits-milestone-100-boat-models-miami/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">100 different</a> boat models that offer it as a factory option or standard feature and then there’s a huge aftermarket part of the business as well. Walking down the docks at Miami and seeing all these boats was definitely a pinch me moment. On increasing demand for SureShade…..It’s a push and pull demand. We’ve been working very closely with the manufacturers so when they come out with a new model they’re designing it into their boats. What’s happening with the ones that don’t offer it on a boat, boaters are going to their dealers and saying I want this shade that I’m seeing on this other model. It’s an opportunity for the dealers to offer as a value add product, to have their service department generate some revenue, so definitely a push and a pull. The more boats you see with it on, the more other boats want to add it, the more private owners want to add to their existing boat. On innovation from SureShade…..We’ve expanded the product offering so now we’re able to offer product for boats of all sizes. Last year we won top new product with boating industry for our RTX pull out shade, for boats under 27’. The way it works is you just lift and pull it out and within seconds you’ve got shade covering your cockpit or your bow. When you get into the bigger sizes we have the manual shade that works with a hand crank. 30’ and above you have the automated shade which is electrically wired and you can operate with a switch at the helm. When you get into bigger boats you have our M3 product which can extend up to 10 feet. On the importance of Sun Safety…..We really didn’t realize until we started getting feedback from customers about how important the sun safety aspect was to them. We’ve heard from skin cancer survivors that say this is the only way they’re able to be out on the boat any more. So many boat designs leave part of the boat exposed. We were lucky enough to hook up with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz-hH8m1rcY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mike Schimdt</a>. He’s a skin cancer survivor and did a PSA campaign with us about his bout with skin cancer and how important it is to stay protected out on the water. That turned into an industry collaborative called <a href="http://sunsafeboating.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sun Safe Boating</a> where we’re looking to educate the industry as well as individual boaters about the importance of sun safety. We feel like it is just as important as any other element of boat safety, it’s your health, it’s your life. On attracting new boaters…..From a financial side, having more entry level boats that people can afford. It’s a big financial commitment if you’re not experienced. Also, ways to get into boating with boat clubs like Freedom Boat Club (editors note: I own a Freedom Boat Club franchise), offering the ability to rent boats to give people a chance to experience the boating lifestyle before they make a bigger financial commitment. We’re seeing a lot of new boat styles coming out that serve a lot more purposes. You see a lot of crossovers and dayboats that are good for fishing, cruising, overnights. So I think the industry is trying to pull in a younger demographic but also give boaters more options and make their boats more multi-purpose. I would also add more physical access to boating with more ramps and docks and marinas, especially in urban boating areas, is another big thing the industry could be doing. Hope you enjoyed that one. Please visit the Sun Safe site and stay safe out there!

The Shady Side of Boating, Sun Safety with Diane Seltzer

Matt Sellhorst is the founder and CEO of Boat Dealer Profits and the creator of the SPLASH System guaranteed to help select dealers sell more boats, make more money and have more fun. Matt is the sales and marketing columnist for Boating Industry Magazine, host of the Boat Dealer Profits podcast and Boat Dealer Profits TV where he shares tips, tricks and tactics to boost profitability in any dealership willing to implement the ideas. Sellhorst has also been featured in the Movers and Shakers edition of Boating Industry and has spoken multiple times at the Marine Dealer Conference and Expo, Marine Retail University, dealer and manufacturer events and other industry conferences. His journey from a 'no-boat-selling-son-of-a-gun' to a top producer at a 6 location dealership to sought after coach and consultant to dealers around the world mean all of his strategies are based on real world, nose-to-nose, toes-to-toes experience that have been proven to work in today's changing boat sales environment. Matt grew up boating and still has a great love for being out on the water with family and friends. We talked about podcasting, how to have fun working in the boating industry (hint, it's not really work), the positive feeling of putting families in the right boat to start making memories of their own, and more. Enjoy! On his boating start......As a kid I remember it vividly. I was five years old, I had an older brother and a younger sister and my uncle talked my parents into getting into boating. I remember climbing up on the wheelwell, it was a 16’ Larson tri-hull, and I’m barely seeing over into the boat and from that day forward the Sellhorst family was boaters and I thought I was in Heaven. From that day forward its been a part of our family. Growing up in Nebraska, I went to little tiny lakes. Day one, I learned how to ski. My brother learned right away and I started on a little sled that you would pull behind and stand up on. My brother and I taught ourselves how to barefoot when we were about eighteen. It’s always revolved for us around family and friends. On his current boating lifestyle.....We have a lake place on the Lake of the Ozarks where we have a 22’ South Bay tritoon that we go out on all the time and we have a 32’ bowrider. If you’ve ever been on the Lake of the Ozarks, it can get pretty rough so that’s the cruising boat if you want to go explore. I’ve been going down there since I was five years old and I bet I haven’t been on a third of the Lake. It’s still my favorite place to be on the water. On fitting your boat to your lifestyle.....I’ve got two little girls and for me, it’s a tritoon. I can’t even believe I’m saying a pontoon is the way to go but just a 25-footer with the big outboards, that’s perfect for my lifestyle right now. I remember when I was actively selling and we could take the boats out and there would be a 28’ or 30’ cruiser out and I would pick the pontoon or the tritoon. Don’t get me wrong. Getting in the bowrider and putting the hammer down and hearing that thru-hull exhaust and those twins rumbling, that’s fun too but 90% of the time, it’s the pontoons. On getting into the boating industry.....When I was in college I worked at a local marina and it didn't feel like work. I got into finance and went through an IPO and started my own mortgage company. Everything was going great until the financial crisis hit and I had to make the hard decision to close the business. After struggling with that I decided I wanted to go to the Lake to work and do something I really love. My first year was nothing to write home about but the second year, there was a conversation I remember with Jeff Hall, he said you have to ask for the sale. You have to help them buy a boat. You have to actively ask them to take the next step of getting them involved with the lifestyle otherwise you are doing your client a disservice. On feeling good about putting clients in boats.....That vision of me at 5 years old and all the memories I made. Having all my college buddies coming out on the boat with my parents and my brother and sister, I mean who is hanging out with their family that much when they’re twenty years old? If you’re a boater, you probably do. If you know in your heart of hearts this is the right match for them, and they are capable and financially able to buy the boat, it’s your duty to get them to do it. It’s your job to get them through that fear so that they can have those memories. On the importance of having fun at 'work'.....There are a lot of ways to make money and with running a business, there’s challenge after challenge. Too often, all of the drudgery and wearing seventeen different hats, sometimes you’ve gotta step back and say, 'we don’t sit in a cubicle. We get to go to the lake and ride on boats and help people get involved in the boating lifestyle.' That’s pretty darn fun. It's so much fun to talk about how can we get this industry to grow, how can we get more people involved. There’s somebody that’s gonna make a memory that’s gonna stick for decades. On boat safety.....When we were at the lake, you wear your lifejacket from the time you leave the cabin and you take it off when you walk in the cabin and you’re ready to go to sleep. If you’re a kid and you’re at the lake, you’re wearing your lifejacket. It’s a non-negotiable rule. Several of things with kids, they know if it’s negotiable. When the boat’s moving, you’re sitting down. It’s what I would teach my clients when I did deliveries. Mom and Dad, whoever is handling the boat, you make the rules and you make the rules for all guests and all kids on the boats. Here is what I recommend – life jackets, always sitting, don’t reach your hand outside the boat when you’re coming to a dock. Just little things that you have to set the rules for your boat and your boating environment.   Matt has an incredible enthusiasm for the boating lifestyle and for spreading that love of boating to others. If you're a dealer, check out his site and find out how he can help grow your business. If you're a boater, find a salesperson whether you are buying a boat, joining a boat club, or any other way of joining the lifestyle who cares as much as Matt does about finding the right match for your lifestyle. 

Matt Sellhorst is the founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.boatdealerprofits.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Boat Dealer Profits</a> and the creator of the SPLASH System guaranteed to help select dealers sell more boats, make more money and have more fun. Matt is the sales and marketing columnist for <a href="http://boatingindustry.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Boating Industry Magazine</a>, host of the Boat Dealer Profits podcast and Boat Dealer Profits TV where he shares tips, tricks and tactics to boost profitability in any dealership willing to implement the ideas. Sellhorst has also been featured in the Movers and Shakers edition of Boating Industry and has spoken multiple times at the Marine Dealer Conference and Expo, Marine Retail University, dealer and manufacturer events and other industry conferences. His journey from a 'no-boat-selling-son-of-a-gun' to a top producer at a 6 location dealership to sought after coach and consultant to dealers around the world mean all of his strategies are based on real world, nose-to-nose, toes-to-toes experience that have been proven to work in today's changing boat sales environment. Matt grew up boating and still has a great love for being out on the water with family and friends. We talked about podcasting, how to have fun working in the boating industry (hint, it's not really work), the positive feeling of putting families in the right boat to start making memories of their own, and more. Enjoy! On his boating start......As a kid I remember it vividly. I was five years old, I had an older brother and a younger sister and my uncle talked my parents into getting into boating. I remember climbing up on the wheelwell, it was a 16’ <a href="http://www.larsonboats.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Larson</a> tri-hull, and I’m barely seeing over into the boat and from that day forward the Sellhorst family was boaters and I thought I was in Heaven. From that day forward its been a part of our family. Growing up in Nebraska, I went to little tiny lakes. Day one, I learned how to ski. My brother learned right away and I started on a little sled that you would pull behind and stand up on. My brother and I taught ourselves how to barefoot when we were about eighteen. It’s always revolved for us around family and friends. On his current boating lifestyle.....We have a lake place on the <a href="https://www.funlake.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Lake of the Ozarks</a> where we have a 22’ <a href="http://www.southbaypontoon.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">South Bay</a> tritoon that we go out on all the time and we have a 32’ bowrider. If you’ve ever been on the Lake of the Ozarks, it can get pretty rough so that’s the cruising boat if you want to go explore. I’ve been going down there since I was five years old and I bet I haven’t been on a third of the Lake. It’s still my favorite place to be on the water. On fitting your boat to your lifestyle.....I’ve got two little girls and for me, it’s a tritoon. I can’t even believe I’m saying a pontoon is the way to go but just a 25-footer with the big outboards, that’s perfect for my lifestyle right now. I remember when I was actively selling and we could take the boats out and there would be a 28’ or 30’ cruiser out and I would pick the pontoon or the tritoon. Don’t get me wrong. Getting in the bowrider and putting the hammer down and hearing that thru-hull exhaust and those twins rumbling, that’s fun too but 90% of the time, it’s the pontoons. On getting into the boating industry.....When I was in college I worked at a local marina and it didn't feel like work. I got into finance and went through an IPO and started my own mortgage company. Everything was going great until the financial crisis hit and I had to make the hard decision to close the business. After struggling with that I decided I wanted to go to the Lake to work and do something I really love. My first year was nothing to write home about but the second year, there was a conversation I remember with Jeff Hall, he said you have to ask for the sale. You have to help them buy a boat. You have to actively ask them to take the next step of getting them involved with the lifestyle otherwise you are doing your client a disservice. On feeling good about putting clients in boats.....That vision of me at 5 years old and all the memories I made. Having all my college buddies coming out on the boat with my parents and my brother and sister, I mean who is hanging out with their family that much when they’re twenty years old? If you’re a boater, you probably do. If you know in your heart of hearts this is the right match for them, and they are capable and financially able to buy the boat, it’s your duty to get them to do it. It’s your job to get them through that fear so that they can have those memories. On the importance of having fun at 'work'.....There are a lot of ways to make money and with running a business, there’s challenge after challenge. Too often, all of the drudgery and wearing seventeen different hats, sometimes you’ve gotta step back and say, 'we don’t sit in a cubicle. We get to go to the lake and ride on boats and help people get involved in the boating lifestyle.' That’s pretty darn fun. It's so much fun to talk about how can we get this industry to grow, how can we get more people involved. There’s somebody that’s gonna make a memory that’s gonna stick for decades. On boat safety.....When we were at the lake, you wear your lifejacket from the time you leave the cabin and you take it off when you walk in the cabin and you’re ready to go to sleep. If you’re a kid and you’re at the lake, you’re wearing your lifejacket. It’s a non-negotiable rule. Several of things with kids, they know if it’s negotiable. When the boat’s moving, you’re sitting down. It’s what I would teach my clients when I did deliveries. Mom and Dad, whoever is handling the boat, you make the rules and you make the rules for all guests and all kids on the boats. Here is what I recommend – life jackets, always sitting, don’t reach your hand outside the boat when you’re coming to a dock. Just little things that you have to set the rules for your boat and your boating environment. Matt has an incredible enthusiasm for the boating lifestyle and for spreading that love of boating to others. If you're a dealer, check out his site and find out how he can help grow your business. If you're a boater, find a salesperson whether you are buying a boat, joining a boat club, or any other way of joining the lifestyle who cares as much as Matt does about finding the right match for your lifestyle.

Have More Fun! 

Rachel Johnson

One of the things I have come to realize in talking to so many boaters over the last few years is that boating in and of itself is great, but often times it is the means to another end. It is a gateway to a wide variety of activities and experiences that bring happiness into so many lives. Just think of all the things boating can give you access to: fishing, diving, cruising, skiing, wake boarding and wake surfing, time with family and friends, camping and hiking in remote places, boating up to restaurants...the list goes on and on! My last two guests in particular were great reminders of the fact that it isn't just boating, there are many other ways to enjoy the water. Nathan Heber talked about his love of kite-surfing that spawned from his days of sailing, and Rachel Johnson is now an avid stand-up paddle-boarder after growing up on powerboats. The things they all have in common are the love of the outdoors, the appreciation of nature, and of course - the water. Put all these people on or near water and you have a formula for instant happiness. I hope you all find the same.  Rachel Johnson is the Executive Director of the National Safe Boating Council (NSBC). She oversees the strategic direction and daily operations in support of the NSBC’s mission of Safer Boating through Education, Outreach, and Training. Rachel has been with the NSBC for nine years, previously as its Communications Director. Rachel was recently appointed by the Department of Homeland Security to serve as a member of the National Boating Safety Advisory Council, has done extensive committee work with the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators as Subcommittee Chair and Committee Member, and, most recently, her article on the importance of developing and implementing grassroots campaigns and their impact on positively changing people’s behaviors was published in the U.S. Coast Guard Proceedings magazine. Rachel was recently recognized with PR News’ People to Watch in PR Under 30 and the Association Forum and USAE’s “Forty Under 40,” recognizing 40 up-and-coming association or nonprofit professionals under the age of 40. Among other accolades, under her management, the NSBC’s “Ready, Set, Wear It!” Life Jacket World Record Day received ASAE’s 2013 prestigious Summit Award for making “America and the world a better place to live” and, in 2016 alone, the NSBC was recognized with eight national awards. Rachel and I discussed, of course, safe boating and some of the outreach initiatives they are working on; how she has fun on, and below, the water through her stand up paddle boarding and scuba diving hobbies, and lots more! On their latest outreach.....Our Get Connected campaign is our newest campaign. The idea behind this is letting boaters know about the engine cut off device and how, if you're wearing it, you can stop what could potentially be a tragic propeller strike or something similar. It is really a positive campaign and we want to focus on the proactive always wearing it. On living the boating lifestyle.....I’m originally from outside of Baltimore and I grew up on the Bush River. My parents had a 23’ powerboat. These days I’ve traded it in for a stand up paddleboard. I like that slow, easy style of the SUP. My parents had two boats that I remember. One was a smaller 19’ Bayliner. Then they upgraded to a Trojan powerboat. They also had a couple of PWCs. For me it was just about being out on the water. My first job was a lifeguard at one of the yacht clubs.  On what attracts people into boating.....Every story is so personal. the water draws you in of course and I think all of us share that. But why it draws you in differs – some people love to go fishing, or crabbing at 5am, whereas some like me just want to relax on a quiet Saturday morning. Some people just want to hang out by the dock. They want to relax and hang out with their friends. It draws out your sense of adventure, but everybody’s story is a little different. On spreading the word about boat safety.....Nowadays, with social media and more access to non-profits and to companies, the safety side of things has changed. It’s so much more readily accessible than it was when I was growing up.  Things like the media and social media are helping to bring these important topics to the front so we can have these important conversations. Bringing in some spokespeople that speak to our audiences help. Shaw Grigsby was wonderful to work with. And just last month we introrduced a PSA with Hunter Bland. He says to this day ‘I would not be here if it were not for my life jacket and engine cut off device.’These people’s lives get changed by a couple of seconds and people like Hunter want to do such good in the world sharing their stories so others don’t have to face the same consequences. On the importance of partner organizations.....We have an incredible member base. This past year we introduced two new categories for instructors and instructor trainers that want to get more into the training side. We have member organizations and what I really love about them is how varied they are. We have other non-profits, boating and water safety groups, local USCG Auxiliary Groups and Power Squadrons, manufacturers and the commercial industry side. Even though we come from different audiences, we’re all sharing that same message On the the hazards of Boating Under the Influence.....Last year, where the primary cause was known, alcohol was listed as the leading factor in 15% of deaths. We partner with NASBLA on their Operation Dry Water campaign. Nationwide they work wit state agencies to ramp up enforcement. We support them with our outreach efforts. You can have fun enjoying what boating offers without boating under the influence. On bringing safe boating to children.....We’re coming out with an entire new youth program. The sidekicks activity books teach kids about boating safely. They are absolutely amazing but we have been using those characters for 20 year so coming up in the very near future we are printing new books to bring in the next wave of our youth program! On her scuba passion.....We’re big scuba divers and have been around the world to go to different dive sites. My husband was a rescue diver in the Navy and has thousands of dives under his belt. I’ve always loved the water and I thought 'why am I not under the water, why am I not closer to this beautiful nature?' I started diving around 21 or 22. We got to dive with some reef sharks in the Bahamas. We went to Bermuda and went diving there. Costa Rica was an amazing dive, we saw a barracuda. The one that will never be beat is when we went diving in December in Iceland alongside the Tectonic Plates. Additional safety tips.....On a national level, the life jacket wear rate for adults is really low. Last year, 83% of those that drowned weren’t wearing a life jacket. We always want adults wearing their life jackets. Boating under the influence is a big one for us. And then some other simple things before your trip like filing a float plan. The Coast Guard has a free app where you can file the float plan and send it to a friend. Another one is taking a safe boating course. One other is think about the weather before and throughout your boating trip. Don’t be afraid to postpone it if the weather is bad. On advice for soon-to-be boaters.....Get out there and try different types of boats! There are things like boat clubs. Take up your friends offer. Try out different types. Think about what you want to do on the boat. It’s such a gateway to other activities. Sometimes the boat is what gets you to what you want to do. Discover Boating helps you determine which boat might be right for you. Seek out the experts and see what resources they might have for you.  

One of the things I have come to realize in talking to so many boaters over the last few years is that boating in and of itself is great, but often times it is the means to another end. It is a gateway to a wide variety of activities and experiences that bring happiness into so many lives. Just think of all the things boating can give you access to: fishing, diving, cruising, skiing, wake boarding and wake surfing, time with family and friends, camping and hiking in remote places, boating up to restaurants...the list goes on and on! My last two guests in particular were great reminders of the fact that it isn't just boating, there are many other ways to enjoy the water. Nathan Heber talked about his love of kite-surfing that spawned from his days of sailing, and Rachel Johnson is now an avid stand-up paddle-boarder after growing up on powerboats. The things they all have in common are the love of the outdoors, the appreciation of nature, and of course - the water. Put all these people on or near water and you have a formula for instant happiness. I hope you all find the same.  Rachel Johnson is the Executive Director of the <a href="http://www.safeboatingcouncil.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">National Safe Boating Council</a> (NSBC). She oversees the strategic direction and daily operations in support of the NSBC’s mission of Safer Boating through Education, Outreach, and Training. Rachel has been with the NSBC for nine years, previously as its Communications Director. Rachel was recently appointed by the Department of Homeland Security to serve as a member of the National Boating Safety Advisory Council, has done extensive committee work with the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators as Subcommittee Chair and Committee Member, and, most recently, her article on the importance of developing and implementing grassroots campaigns and their impact on positively changing people’s behaviors was published in the U.S. Coast Guard Proceedings magazine. Rachel was recently recognized with PR News’ People to Watch in PR Under 30 and the Association Forum and USAE’s “Forty Under 40,” recognizing 40 up-and-coming association or nonprofit professionals under the age of 40. Among other accolades, under her management, the NSBC’s <a href="http://www.readysetwearit.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">“Ready, Set, Wear It!”</a> Life Jacket World Record Day received ASAE’s 2013 prestigious Summit Award for making “America and the world a better place to live” and, in 2016 alone, the NSBC was recognized with eight national awards. Rachel and I discussed, of course, safe boating and some of the outreach initiatives they are working on; how she has fun on, and below, the water through her stand up paddle boarding and scuba diving hobbies, and lots more! On their latest outreach.....Our <a href="http://getconnectedboating.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Get Connected</a> campaign is our newest campaign. The idea behind this is letting boaters know about the engine cut off device and how, if you're wearing it, you can stop what could potentially be a tragic propeller strike or something similar. It is really a positive campaign and we want to focus on the proactive always wearing it. On living the boating lifestyle.....I’m originally from outside of Baltimore and I grew up on the Bush River. My parents had a 23’ powerboat. These days I’ve traded it in for a stand up paddleboard. I like that slow, easy style of the SUP. My parents had two boats that I remember. One was a smaller 19’ <a href="http://bayliner.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Bayliner</a>. Then they upgraded to a Trojan powerboat. They also had a couple of PWCs. For me it was just about being out on the water. My first job was a lifeguard at one of the yacht clubs.  On what attracts people into boating.....Every story is so personal. the water draws you in of course and I think all of us share that. But why it draws you in differs – some people love to go fishing, or crabbing at 5am, whereas some like me just want to relax on a quiet Saturday morning. Some people just want to hang out by the dock. They want to relax and hang out with their friends. It draws out your sense of adventure, but everybody’s story is a little different. On spreading the word about boat safety.....Nowadays, with social media and more access to non-profits and to companies, the safety side of things has changed. It’s so much more readily accessible than it was when I was growing up.  Things like the media and social media are helping to bring these important topics to the front so we can have these important conversations. Bringing in some spokespeople that speak to our audiences help. <a href="https://www.bassmaster.com/anglers/shaw-e-grigsby" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Shaw Grigsby</a> was wonderful to work with. And just last month we introrduced a PSA with <a href="http://www.propellersafety.com/13180/prevention/kill-switch-public-service-announcement-bland-nsbc/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Hunter Bland</a>. He says to this day ‘I would not be here if it were not for my life jacket and engine cut off device.’These people’s lives get changed by a couple of seconds and people like Hunter want to do such good in the world sharing their stories so others don’t have to face the same consequences. On the importance of partner organizations.....We have an incredible member base. This past year we introduced two new categories for instructors and instructor trainers that want to get more into the training side. We have member organizations and what I really love about them is how varied they are. We have other non-profits, boating and water safety groups, local USCG Auxiliary Groups and Power Squadrons, manufacturers and the commercial industry side. Even though we come from different audiences, we’re all sharing that same message On the the hazards of Boating Under the Influence.....Last year, where the primary cause was known, alcohol was listed as the leading factor in 15% of deaths. We partner with NASBLA on their <a href="http://www.operationdrywater.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Operation Dry Water</a> campaign. Nationwide they work wit state agencies to ramp up enforcement. We support them with our outreach efforts. You can have fun enjoying what boating offers without boating under the influence. On bringing safe boating to children.....We’re coming out with an entire new youth program. The <a href="http://www.safeboatingcouncil.org/boating-safety-sidekicks" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">sidekicks</a> activity books teach kids about boating safely. They are absolutely amazing but we have been using those characters for 20 year so coming up in the very near future we are printing new books to bring in the next wave of our youth program! On her scuba passion.....We’re big scuba divers and have been around the world to go to different dive sites. My husband was a rescue diver in the Navy and has thousands of dives under his belt. I’ve always loved the water and I thought 'why am I not under the water, why am I not closer to this beautiful nature?' I started diving around 21 or 22. We got to dive with some reef sharks in the Bahamas. We went to Bermuda and went diving there. Costa Rica was an amazing dive, we saw a barracuda. The one that will never be beat is when we went diving in December in Iceland alongside the <a href="https://www.icelandontheweb.com/articles-on-iceland/nature/geology/tectonic-plates" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Tectonic Plates</a>. Additional safety tips.....On a national level, the life jacket wear rate for adults is really low. Last year, 83% of those that drowned weren’t wearing a life jacket. We always want adults wearing their life jackets. Boating under the influence is a big one for us. And then some other simple things before your trip like filing a float plan. The Coast Guard has a free app where you can file the float plan and send it to a friend. Another one is taking a safe boating course. One other is think about the weather before and throughout your boating trip. Don’t be afraid to postpone it if the weather is bad. On advice for soon-to-be boaters.....Get out there and try different types of boats! There are things like boat clubs. Take up your friends offer. Try out different types. Think about what you want to do on the boat. It’s such a gateway to other activities. Sometimes the boat is what gets you to what you want to do. <a href="http://www.discoverboating.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Discover Boating</a> helps you determine which boat might be right for you. Seek out the experts and see what resources they might have for you.

Fun On, and Under the Water with Boating Safety Expert Rachel Johnson

Kelsey Albina is currently the Communications Manager for Seakeeper, Inc. Seakeeper is the global leader in marine stabilization. Seakeeper’s innovative technology changes the boating experience by eliminating up to 95% of all boat roll, the rocking motion that causes seasickness, fatigue and anxiety. Kelsey is responsible for all internal and external communications for Seakeeper including:  Public Relations, social media, email, their ambassador program, corporate communications, and corporate responsibility. Prior to Seakeeper, Kelsey worked at Bonnier as the Marketing Manager of the Fishing Group. Kelsey grew up on and around the water and always knew she wanted to find a career that harnesses that passion. In fact, she has enjoyed boating trips with three generations of family members aboard so she never really had much of a choice! Kelsey’s mother grew up boating in the Bahamas and passed that passion right down. Kelsey was racing sailboats with her mother at a young age, became scuba certified and still enjoys big diving trips. She currently has a boat of her own with her fiancé, and truly lives the boating lifestyle. We discussed her days spent on the water as a child, great boating and diving trips she’s had, the incredible innovations happening at Seakeeper that are allowing more people to enjoy boating, and more! Enjoy!   Growing up Boating..... I’ve been on the water longer than I can actually remember. The first thing that really comes to mind was when I was five years old and my mom had a Hobie 16 and we were going camping off one of the little islands where I grew up. This was Easter weekend and I was devastated that the Easter bunny wasn’t going to be able to find me. She assured me that the Easter bunny has a canoe and I have nothing to worry about and of course I woke up that morning and the Easter bunny had found me on the island and the basket was waiting for me! Learning Boating Skills..... My mom has a passion for boating as well, she grew up in the Bahamas so it’s been something that’s been a part of my life for my entire life. I did sailing lessons when I was little. We’ve always had boats. We started out in sailing then became traitors and got into power boats. She’s the one who taught me everything pretty much. We became this well-oiled machine of me crewing for her on our own boats. By the time I got old enough to do it myself, I knew what I was doing. Boating in the Bahamas..... We went to Freeport, Nassau, and Eleuthera growing up and more recently she took me to the Abacos and we rented a boat over there and did some snorkeling and saw the Green Turtle Club. It’s a big boating and fishing club on Green Turtle Quay. Her mom and dad ran it for over a year. Life Below the Water..... My favorite thing is scuba diving. I now have my advanced open water certification and try to plan a trip every year. This past year my fiance and I went to Belize to do the Great Blue Hole which is just about the depths of recreational diving limits. It’s this big sink hole where when you get down to the right depth there’s these big stalagtites that hang down and stalagmites and you can swing among them and then maybe 20 feet below you there’s sharks circling this giant black pit. It was a little bit scary but exhilarating. There's something called the Wreck Trek which you can do in the keys. You go from the upper keys to the lower keys and they stop at all the different wrecks on the reefs there. Favorite Places to Boat and Dive..... Diving it would be Belize, there's just so so much life there. My favorite place to boat is in my home waters. Somewhere where you know what the weather has done to the landscape, and you can predict when a storm is coming through and you just know the area. That’s the easiest and most comfortable place for me to boat so just being home on my boat is my favorite place. Current Boating Lifestyle..... We have a 15’ Boston Whaler. We adopted it from my mom. She upgraded from the Whaler and has a 25’ Rosborough which is a more Northern Trawler style boat so she can spend the weekends on the boats. I think the people who live on their boats are so, so awesome. Having the ability to just go out whenever you want and all your stuff fits in this compact place. I think that lifestyle, even if it is just for a short period of time, would be such a challenge and you learn so much about boating and yourself, I think it sounds awesome. Seakeeper's Role in the Boating Experience..... Seakeeper is the global leader in marine stabilization. It takes all the side to side roll out of your boating trip at rest or under way. It is a gyroscopic stabilizer so it has no external appendages. We can stabilize boats as small as 27 feet up to over 200 feet. It has an active computer control so it can automatically detect the sea conditions and react instantaneously, there’s nothing you have to set. Seakeeper's Growth..... The growth is booming. It’s hard to keep up with how fast we are growing. In February we launched the Seakeeper 2 and that’s our smallest Seakeeper to date for boats 27-32 feet. We launched the Seakeeper 5HD which is our heavy duty model mostly for commercial and military applications in July. We expanded the factory and added twelve new assembly lines. We opened an office in Italy and grew out of our headquarters in Maryland and got a larger office there. And have had a couple of OEM manufacturers that have standardized Seakeeper. Bertram standardized across their entire fleet and Scout standardized on some of their models as well. Our goal is to get down to about 21 feet. We want to make the water accessible for as many people as possible and make Seakeeper a reality for the average boater. We even have somebody on the Keys who is going to be one of our Ambassadors this year. He has a 23 foot Sailfish and he has a Seakeeper on it. The lengths are a guideline but if you have the space that thing will work on a smaller boat. Seakeeper's Corporate Responsibility..... We’re going to have two different areas that we want to give back to. One of them will be the more environmental organizations that are making sure that our waterways are around for future generations so that everyone can continue to enjoy them. The second factor will be focusing on the ways that we can give access to everybody and making sure that their time is enjoyable on the water. How to Join the Lifestyle..... For a lot of people, and I speak from a woman’s perspective - just start small. You don’t have to go out and buy a brand new 27 ft center console and launch it by yourself the first day. There are so many ways you can start small. Whether that’s getting a kayak or canoe or something you can manage yourself, or something like joining a boating club where you have help and assistance and somebody to do some of the work so you can get used to being on the water. Inevitably when you start small, you’re going to want to get bigger and bigger as you learn more. You’re going to want to go farther and stay out later and break those boundaries and that’s when you get the confidence to take the next step.

Kelsey Albina is currently the Communications Manager for Seakeeper, Inc. <a href="https://seakeeper.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Seakeeper</a> is the global leader in marine stabilization. Seakeeper’s innovative technology changes the boating experience by eliminating up to 95% of all boat roll, the rocking motion that causes seasickness, fatigue and anxiety. Kelsey is responsible for all internal and external communications for Seakeeper including:  Public Relations, social media, email, their ambassador program, corporate communications, and corporate responsibility. Prior to Seakeeper, Kelsey worked at <a href="https://www.bonniercorp.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Bonnier</a> as the Marketing Manager of the Fishing Group. Kelsey grew up on and around the water and always knew she wanted to find a career that harnesses that passion. In fact, she has enjoyed boating trips with three generations of family members aboard so she never really had much of a choice! Kelsey’s mother grew up boating in the Bahamas and passed that passion right down. Kelsey was racing sailboats with her mother at a young age, became scuba certified and still enjoys big diving trips. She currently has a boat of her own with her fiancé, and truly lives the boating lifestyle. We discussed her days spent on the water as a child, great boating and diving trips she’s had, the incredible innovations happening at Seakeeper that are allowing more people to enjoy boating, and more! Enjoy! Growing up Boating..... I’ve been on the water longer than I can actually remember. The first thing that really comes to mind was when I was five years old and my mom had a <a href="https://www.hobie.com/sail/hobie-16/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Hobie 16</a> and we were going camping off one of the little islands where I grew up. This was Easter weekend and I was devastated that the Easter bunny wasn’t going to be able to find me. She assured me that the Easter bunny has a canoe and I have nothing to worry about and of course I woke up that morning and the Easter bunny had found me on the island and the basket was waiting for me! Learning Boating Skills..... My mom has a passion for boating as well, she grew up in the Bahamas so it’s been something that’s been a part of my life for my entire life. I did sailing lessons when I was little. We’ve always had boats. We started out in sailing then became traitors and got into power boats. She’s the one who taught me everything pretty much. We became this well-oiled machine of me crewing for her on our own boats. By the time I got old enough to do it myself, I knew what I was doing. Boating in the Bahamas..... We went to Freeport, Nassau, and <a href="https://www.bahamas.com/islands/eleuthera-harbour-island" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Eleuthera</a> growing up and more recently she took me to the Abacos and we rented a boat over there and did some snorkeling and saw the <a href="https://greenturtleclub.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Green Turtle Club</a>. It’s a big boating and fishing club on Green Turtle Quay. Her mom and dad ran it for over a year. Life Below the Water..... My favorite thing is scuba diving. I now have my advanced open water certification and try to plan a trip every year. This past year my fiance and I went to Belize to do the <a href="https://belize.com/belize-blue-hole/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Great Blue Hole</a> which is just about the depths of recreational diving limits. It’s this big sink hole where when you get down to the right depth there’s these big stalagtites that hang down and stalagmites and you can swing among them and then maybe 20 feet below you there’s sharks circling this giant black pit. It was a little bit scary but exhilarating. There's something called the <a href="https://fla-keys.com/diving/wreck-trek/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Wreck Trek</a> which you can do in the keys. You go from the upper keys to the lower keys and they stop at all the different wrecks on the reefs there. Favorite Places to Boat and Dive..... Diving it would be Belize, there's just so so much life there. My favorite place to boat is in my home waters. Somewhere where you know what the weather has done to the landscape, and you can predict when a storm is coming through and you just know the area. That’s the easiest and most comfortable place for me to boat so just being home on my boat is my favorite place. Current Boating Lifestyle..... We have a 15’ <a href="https://www.bostonwhaler.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Boston Whaler</a>. We adopted it from my mom. She upgraded from the Whaler and has a 25’ <a href="https://www.rosboroughboatsusa.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rosborough</a> which is a more Northern Trawler style boat so she can spend the weekends on the boats. I think the people who live on their boats are so, so awesome. Having the ability to just go out whenever you want and all your stuff fits in this compact place. I think that lifestyle, even if it is just for a short period of time, would be such a challenge and you learn so much about boating and yourself, I think it sounds awesome. Seakeeper's Role in the Boating Experience..... Seakeeper is the global leader in marine stabilization. It takes all the side to side roll out of your boating trip at rest or under way. It is a gyroscopic stabilizer so it has no external appendages. We can stabilize boats as small as 27 feet up to over 200 feet. It has an active computer control so it can automatically detect the sea conditions and react instantaneously, there’s nothing you have to set. Seakeeper's Growth..... The growth is booming. It’s hard to keep up with how fast we are growing. In February we launched the <a href="https://seakeeper.com/seakeeper_products/seakeeper-2/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Seakeeper 2</a> and that’s our smallest Seakeeper to date for boats 27-32 feet. We launched the <a href="https://seakeeper.com/seakeeper_products/seakeeper-5hd/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Seakeeper 5HD</a> which is our heavy duty model mostly for commercial and military applications in July. We expanded the factory and added twelve new assembly lines. We opened an office in Italy and grew out of our headquarters in Maryland and got a larger office there. And have had a couple of OEM manufacturers that have standardized Seakeeper. Bertram standardized across their entire fleet and Scout standardized on some of their models as well. Our goal is to get down to about 21 feet. We want to make the water accessible for as many people as possible and make Seakeeper a reality for the average boater. We even have somebody on the Keys who is going to be one of our Ambassadors this year. He has a 23 foot Sailfish and he has a Seakeeper on it. The lengths are a guideline but if you have the space that thing will work on a smaller boat. Seakeeper's Corporate Responsibility..... We’re going to have two different areas that we want to give back to. One of them will be the more environmental organizations that are making sure that our waterways are around for future generations so that everyone can continue to enjoy them. The second factor will be focusing on the ways that we can give access to everybody and making sure that their time is enjoyable on the water. How to Join the Lifestyle..... For a lot of people, and I speak from a woman’s perspective - just start small. You don’t have to go out and buy a brand new 27 ft center console and launch it by yourself the first day. There are so many ways you can start small. Whether that’s getting a kayak or canoe or something you can manage yourself, or something like joining a boating club where you have help and assistance and somebody to do some of the work so you can get used to being on the water. Inevitably when you start small, you’re going to want to get bigger and bigger as you learn more. You’re going to want to go farther and stay out later and break those boundaries and that’s when you get the confidence to take the next step.

From Sick to Smiling, Transforming the Boating Experience

Niels Kisling is in charge of Marine Sales and Marketing at Davis Instruments, a company with a huge range of products for sailors and powerboaters. Many of you boaters and especially sailors are probably using or have used Davis products and may not even know it. In 2017, Neils accepted the Miami International Boat Show Innovation Award in the Category of Boat Care and Maintenance for their Snap Tool Multi-Key. Niels has spent his entire life boating and sailing, on boats his father hand made! From a rowboat to a 20’ catamaran, Captain Kisling provided Niels a variety of ways to enjoy the water from a young age. Niels grew up boating on Long Island but moved to the West Coast in elementary school and continued pursuing his love of boating off of Capitola, California. It is here that one of the most harrowing events one can imagine occurred in Niels life. Sailing in a race from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara, Niels and his two boatmates got caught in bad weather, hit by a freak wave, and capsized. Sadly, both of Niels friends succumbed to exposure, but Niels persevered. After almost 24 hours at sea, through the sheer power of will, he stayed with it until a tanker saw him a half mile away and maneuvered to rescue him. The power of Niels spirit continues to shine through to this day as he chooses to live his life to the fullest, helping people enjoy the water and spreading the word about safe boating. While we did not get into details about this event, we did have a great discussion about how he got started in boating, navigating at sea, Davis products for everyday boaters, a unique partnership with the O’Neill Sea Odyssey, and more. Enjoy! On his current boating life.....I’m about five miles away from the harbor. We have a boat that was built in Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz was the leader of the light boat design concept back in the 70’s. It’s a Wilderness 40, designed by Gary Mull and it was built by Wilderness Boatworks just about eight miles from where I live. On boating as a child.....I was born in Long Island, NY. My folks moved us out here when I was nine years old. In Long Island we were boating but it was a much different kind of boating. My dad built all our boats and our biggest boat was a 20’ catamaran. We lived on the Bay and the boating was very serene, the wind didn’t blow very hard. Our smallest boat was a little rowboat my dad made me when I was three years old. It was five feet long with four foot oars and I used to be able to take that out by myself any time I wanted to. On boating in his blood.....My dad called himself Captain Kisling, that’s where I got my handle Captain Niels. He went to sea when he was sixteen years old. This was back in 1922. He didn’t have much interest in school so he left home and went to sea on a Danish trading schooner that sailed between Denmark and England. Then he became a third mate and became a radio operator on ships sailing between Denmark and the Far East and Denmark and the Caribbean. On learning to boat.....I think I learned by osmosis, or learned by watching my dad. We used to go sailing and he would ask me to do tasks and I would do it. It was always very relaxed, I never got yelled at. He would encourage us to do things and if we did it right he would praise us. I think that rubbed off. When I take people sailing today we are very casual. There's no yelling or screaming, just a lot of explaining. On teaching kids to boat.....I think one of the biggest things that parents can do wrong is to expect that their children are going to enjoy the same boating lifestyle that they do, and some parents can put a lot of pressure on that. I've taken my boys out on the sailboat ever since they were six weeks old. This morning I was talking about what my son's earliest memory might be and Christian told me his earliest memory was laying in the bean bag in the cockpit looking up at the sails. I thought that was pretty cool. On the Davis product line.....If you're a sailor, you know our Windex wind vane. We have been the North American manufacturer and distributor for going on forty years. Most people with a sailboat look up at their masthead and see your Windex up there. It was designed really well back in the 60’s and still works really well to this day. The next most popular product is Davis Fiberglass Stain Remover. We sell a bunch of it to the US Navy. You’ve got Happy Troller which is great for fishermen trying to slow down their motors. You’ve got Queaz-Away wrist bands which keep you from getting seasick. The whole company was founded on plastic sextants and navigation tools. On the importance of learning navigation skills.....People are losing the ability to put an X on the chart to locate their position. I’m still a believer in paper charts. I encourage my kids when we sail to plot their position on a chart. You can do that with a GPS if you do it on a regular basis. If the GPS ever goes out you only have to go back an hour or two and you know where you were. I think it’s a pretty important thing. One of the coolest things that Davis has experienced lately is that the US Navy has made it mandatory to have a sextant on board and to have two people who know how to use it. For a long time the US Navy discontinued celestial navigation because GPS is so bulletproof but about ten years ago somebody got smart and realized that our electronic navigation can shut down any time and all of a sudden you have Navy ships out there that don’t know where they are. Sextant navigation being in demand on Navy ships has increased demand for home hobbyists and boaters. On the O'Neill Sea Odyssey program.....Jack O’Neill founded this program with Tim O’Neill. They had the concept that they’d like to give back to the community so they made a foundation called the O’Neill Sea Odyssey Foundation where they take schoolchildren out in their sixty foot catamaran for free but in order to be taken out your school has to perform ten hours of community service. It’s a two part program where they take you out on the boat and collect plankton, do navigation with our compasses, and have a little program about the environment and effects of pollution on the ocean, then they go up to the classroom and have a one or two hour program to back up what they do on the water. Right now they are at 995,000 kids they have taken out and this summer they are going to have their one millionth kid on the water. On the most important item to bring boating.....My kids and I always wear our inflatable lifejackets. We really like our inflatable life vests because you don’t even know you have them on but if you fall in the water they’re a huge benefit. Now I realize that all I have to do is slip or fall in the water or hit my head and it’d be very stupid not to have a life jacket on, or have it down below. I think that’s probably the single most important piece of equipment we go boating with. On the best piece of boating advice received.....I was always bothered by sailing downwind. I was always afraid of jibing by accident. My seventh-grade school teacher who built a boat with me taught me the simplest piece of advice that I’ve passed on to thousands of people - 'If you’re afraid you’re close to a jibe, push the tiller towards the boom'. When you do that, the boat comes up into the wind and you get further away from a jibe situation. General boating advice, I think somebody told me a long time ago to go out there and have a good time. Boating gets you to live in the moment. When you’re out there boating it’s all about what you're doing right this second in time. It's not about what bills you have to pay or what appointments you have back on land. Living in the moment is why I go boating.

Niels Kisling is in charge of Marine Sales and Marketing at <a href="https://www.davisnet.com/marine-and-outdoor-recreation/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Davis Instruments</a>, a company with a huge range of products for sailors and powerboaters. Many of you boaters and especially sailors are probably using or have used Davis products and may not even know it. In 2017, Neils accepted the Miami International Boat Show <a href="http://www.boatingbusiness.ca/news/innovation-award-winners-announced-at-miami-boat-show" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Innovation Award</a> in the Category of Boat Care and Maintenance for their Snap Tool Multi-Key. Niels has spent his entire life boating and sailing, on boats his father hand made! From a rowboat to a 20’ catamaran, Captain Kisling provided Niels a variety of ways to enjoy the water from a young age. Niels grew up boating on Long Island but moved to the West Coast in elementary school and continued pursuing his love of boating off of Capitola, California. It is here that one of the most harrowing events one can imagine occurred in Niels life. Sailing in a race from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara, Niels and his two boatmates got caught in bad weather, hit by a freak wave, and capsized. Sadly, both of Niels friends succumbed to exposure, but Niels persevered. After almost 24 hours at sea, through the sheer power of will, he stayed with it until a tanker saw him a half mile away and maneuvered to rescue him. The power of Niels spirit continues to shine through to this day as he chooses to live his life to the fullest, helping people enjoy the water and spreading the word about safe boating. While we did not get into details about this event, we did have a great discussion about how he got started in boating, navigating at sea, Davis products for everyday boaters, a unique partnership with the O’Neill Sea Odyssey, and more. Enjoy! On his current boating life.....I’m about five miles away from the harbor. We have a boat that was built in Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz was the leader of the light boat design concept back in the 70’s. It’s a Wilderness 40, designed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Mull" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Gary Mull</a> and it was built by Wilderness Boatworks just about eight miles from where I live. On boating as a child.....I was born in Long Island, NY. My folks moved us out here when I was nine years old. In Long Island we were boating but it was a much different kind of boating. My dad built all our boats and our biggest boat was a 20’ catamaran. We lived on the Bay and the boating was very serene, the wind didn’t blow very hard. Our smallest boat was a little rowboat my dad made me when I was three years old. It was five feet long with four foot oars and I used to be able to take that out by myself any time I wanted to. On boating in his blood.....My dad called himself Captain Kisling, that’s where I got my handle Captain Niels. He went to sea when he was sixteen years old. This was back in 1922. He didn’t have much interest in school so he left home and went to sea on a Danish trading schooner that sailed between Denmark and England. Then he became a third mate and became a radio operator on ships sailing between Denmark and the Far East and Denmark and the Caribbean. On learning to boat.....I think I learned by osmosis, or learned by watching my dad. We used to go sailing and he would ask me to do tasks and I would do it. It was always very relaxed, I never got yelled at. He would encourage us to do things and if we did it right he would praise us. I think that rubbed off. When I take people sailing today we are very casual. There's no yelling or screaming, just a lot of explaining. On teaching kids to boat.....I think one of the biggest things that parents can do wrong is to expect that their children are going to enjoy the same boating lifestyle that they do, and some parents can put a lot of pressure on that. I've taken my boys out on the sailboat ever since they were six weeks old. This morning I was talking about what my son's earliest memory might be and Christian told me his earliest memory was laying in the bean bag in the cockpit looking up at the sails. I thought that was pretty cool. On the Davis product line.....If you're a sailor, you know our <a href="https://www.davisnet.com/product/windex-15/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Windex</a> wind vane. We have been the North American manufacturer and distributor for going on forty years. Most people with a sailboat look up at their masthead and see your Windex up there. It was designed really well back in the 60’s and still works really well to this day. The next most popular product is <a href="https://www.davisnet.com/product/fsr/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Davis Fiberglass Stain Remover</a>. We sell a bunch of it to the US Navy. You’ve got Happy Troller which is great for fishermen trying to slow down their motors. You’ve got Queaz-Away wrist bands which keep you from getting seasick. The whole company was founded on plastic sextants and navigation tools. On the importance of learning navigation skills.....People are losing the ability to put an X on the chart to locate their position. I’m still a believer in paper charts. I encourage my kids when we sail to plot their position on a chart. You can do that with a GPS if you do it on a regular basis. If the GPS ever goes out you only have to go back an hour or two and you know where you were. I think it’s a pretty important thing. One of the coolest things that Davis has experienced lately is that the US Navy has made it mandatory to have a sextant on board and to have two people who know how to use it. For a long time the US Navy discontinued celestial navigation because GPS is so bulletproof but about ten years ago somebody got smart and realized that our electronic navigation can shut down any time and all of a sudden you have Navy ships out there that don’t know where they are. <a href="http://www.clipperlight.com/howusesextant.html" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Sextant</a> navigation being in demand on Navy ships has increased demand for home hobbyists and boaters. On the O'Neill Sea Odyssey program.....Jack O’Neill founded this program with Tim O’Neill. They had the concept that they’d like to give back to the community so they made a foundation called the <a href="http://oneillseaodyssey.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">O’Neill Sea Odyssey Foundation</a> where they take schoolchildren out in their sixty foot catamaran for free but in order to be taken out your school has to perform ten hours of community service. It’s a two part program where they take you out on the boat and collect plankton, do navigation with our compasses, and have a little program about the environment and effects of pollution on the ocean, then they go up to the classroom and have a one or two hour program to back up what they do on the water. Right now they are at 995,000 kids they have taken out and this summer they are going to have their one millionth kid on the water. On the most important item to bring boating.....My kids and I always wear our inflatable lifejackets. We really like our inflatable life vests because you don’t even know you have them on but if you fall in the water they’re a huge benefit. Now I realize that all I have to do is slip or fall in the water or hit my head and it’d be very stupid not to have a life jacket on, or have it down below. I think that’s probably the single most important piece of equipment we go boating with. On the best piece of boating advice received.....I was always bothered by sailing downwind. I was always afraid of <a href="http://www.schoolofsailing.net/tacking-and-jibing.html" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">jibing</a> by accident. My seventh-grade school teacher who built a boat with me taught me the simplest piece of advice that I’ve passed on to thousands of people - 'If you’re afraid you’re close to a jibe, push the tiller towards the boom'. When you do that, the boat comes up into the wind and you get further away from a jibe situation. General boating advice, I think somebody told me a long time ago to go out there and have a good time. Boating gets you to live in the moment. When you’re out there boating it’s all about what you're doing right this second in time. It's not about what bills you have to pay or what appointments you have back on land. Living in the moment is why I go boating.

Living In The Moment, Why I Go Boating

Stephanie Vatalaro was recently promoted to Vice President of Communications for the Recreational Boating &amp; Fishing Foundation. RBFF’s mission is to implement an informed, consensus-based national outreach strategy that will increase participation in recreational angling and boating and thereby increase public awareness and appreciation of the need to protect, conserve and restore this nation's aquatic natural resources. Stephanie has been with the RBFF for over 10 years and has helped steward the Take Me Fishing and Vamos A Pescar national campaigns, providing the tools to help people get started. RBFF’s digital assets, TakeMeFishing.org and VamosAPescar.org, are the most comprehensive fishing and boating websites nationwide and are the key destinations for individuals to learn, plan and equip for a day on the water. They have now exceeded 12 million! Pageviews under Stephanie’s watch. After boating on Lake Erie as a young child, Stephanie’s family moved at the age of 7 to Florida where her father became a fishing guide in the Florida Keys. From catching Pacific sailfish in Costa Rica to boating on the Potomac with her family, Stephanie has maintained her love of boating and shares it with her husband and daughter. In 2016, RBFF announced its 60 in 60 goal to increase yearly angler participation to 60 million in 60 months. This aspirational goal comes at a critical time for the fishing and boating industry. It was a great time to catch up with Stephanie and find out more about how they are working to achieve this lofty goal, the accomplishments to date, and learn about how her love of boating was fostered through family and is being passed down the same way. Enjoy!     On her first boating experiences…..It’s one of those all in the family things. I was born in Ohio and my grandfather was a boater, so I started going out on Lake Erie as a young child. When I was 7 my family relocated to the Florida Keys and my dad became a fishing guide. We had two boats, the boat he worked on, and then a center console that was the family boat. He would take us out to go snorkeling and swimming but we also definitely went fishing. On memorable catches….The first fish I caught was on Lake Erie, but I don’t vividly remember the first catch. I certainly have great memories of some of my big catches! I had the opportunity to go to Costa Rica and I caught a 120 lb. Pacific Sailfish and that was amazing. It was quite a fight. On learning to boat…..As a kid, my dad took it all very seriously, the safety part in particular. I learned a lot of the basics as a kid. He said if I wanted to operate the boat I had to take a course and get my license and make it official. As an adult, with my husband, I started doing it more hands on myself. On family boating now.....We now have a 24’ Pursuit center console. It’s something we can go fishing on, we can take to the beach, hose it off at the end of the day. My husband is the captain, I have anchor duty. On raising a boating daughter…..She has been boating since she was an infant. As she gets older, we’ll start getting her involved more in helping with things. We can give her jobs, pack this bag, do that. She really likes being on the water. She fishes off her grandpa’s dock and she is quite the fish slayer! On the RBFF 60 in 60 initiative…..I will give that credit to Frank Peterson, our President and CEO. There are a few numbers in his head that he has said if we can hit this this and this, our industry will be in pretty good shape. One of those numbers is 12 million visits to our website and we hit that this year. The other, and I think the more important one, is the 60 million number. If you look at fishing participation numbers they have been pretty flat over the last several years and with the changing demographics, in order to even maintain that flat rate a lot of change has to be made. What we really need to do is energize the industry to get that number even higher, to get on the front end of these changes and try to make that difference now. It’s a rallying cry for the industry. Let’s do this together. You’re not in this alone. The RBFF is here to help. We’ve developed tools for people to recruit, retain, and reactivate anglers (known as R3). On what those changes are…..People are becoming more multicultural. Families are not the traditional families that they always looked like. There are a lot of other activities competing for people’s time, and boomers are aging out of the sport. On their Disney partnership…..I didn’t even know fishing excursions were available at Disney but they are and they’re great, they have a fantastic stocked lake, almost a guaranteed catch. They are reaching the exact target audience we’re after. Years and years of research have led us to this group called Multicultural Family Outdoors. These are parents, people with kids age 6-12 , who are involved in outdoors activity but don’t fish yet. Getting through their channels has been really beneficial to us and we’ve seen an increase in our brand awareness and intent to go fishing and boating. On RBFF's digital outreach…..Takemefishing.org is a huge part of our success. People are getting their information online so it has become a largely digital campaign because that’s where our family outdoors audience is. The website is all about getting people the info they need to get started – how to, where to, and licensing. We have all the basics on what kind of gear you need, how to reel in a fish, how to prepare your catch. We have a map where people can go and look in there are for different bodies of water that also has points of interest on it. We want to make sure people are aware that people need their license and that those dollars go back to water conservation efforts on the state level. On the challenges facing millennials who want to boat…..That’s a secondary target audience of ours. We’re calling them Untethered Explorers. They’re millennials who aren’t married and don’t have kids yet but they’re into the outdoors and we reach them through digital and social media outreach. We run an influencer campaign that speaks to that millennial target. [Their challenges] are time, it’s not having the mentor or the experience and not knowing that these opportunities are very close to them. A lot of younger generations are moving back to the city and they don’t realize that there are a lot of urban fishing and boating opportunities. On what boaters need to get started…..More than a thing, I would say training is important. Do your homework first. Before you go out on the water understand the rules of the road, navigation basics, how to read a chart or GPS. If there’s a chance to do a training or do a trial take it! On where she hasn’t yet, but would like to fish…..Patagonia. It just looks amazing. I love the landscapes, I'd love to be fly fishing in a river with all that beauty surrounding me. Anywhere that has turquoise water, I’m in. On her dream boat…..It’s not practical but I absolutely adore big sportfishers. Big Vikings or Hatteras. Something about those boats is so beautiful to me. When I go home to the Keys I see them. We’ll get back into cruising some day and we’ll have some type of trawler to cruise around. On advice for would-be-boaters…..Before you dive in, you should go out with some friends, try different boats, go to boat shows, go out with anyone who has a boat, feel it out, do your homework. Figure out what you want to do on the water and match the boat to your lifestyle. We’re in a time where there are so many different styles of boats. We have the Discover Boating boat comparison tool on our website. You go through and say what activities you like to do and it serves up the different styles of boats. There really is something for everyone.   The RBFF is doing great work, check out their website, particularly their interactive map, if you have any interest in fishing!

Stephanie Vatalaro was recently promoted to Vice President of Communications for the Recreational Boating &amp; Fishing Foundation. RBFF’s mission is to implement an informed, consensus-based national outreach strategy that will increase participation in recreational angling and boating and thereby increase public awareness and appreciation of the need to protect, conserve and restore this nation's aquatic natural resources. Stephanie has been with the RBFF for over 10 years and has helped steward the Take Me Fishing and Vamos A Pescar national campaigns, providing the tools to help people get started. RBFF’s digital assets, <a href="https://www.takemefishing.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TakeMeFishing.org</a> and <a href="http://vamosapescar.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">VamosAPescar.org</a>, are the most comprehensive fishing and boating websites nationwide and are the key destinations for individuals to learn, plan and equip for a day on the water. They have now exceeded 12 million! Pageviews under Stephanie’s watch. After boating on Lake Erie as a young child, Stephanie’s family moved at the age of 7 to Florida where her father became a fishing guide in the Florida Keys. From catching Pacific sailfish in Costa Rica to boating on the Potomac with her family, Stephanie has maintained her love of boating and shares it with her husband and daughter. In 2016, RBFF announced its <a href="https://www.takemefishing.org/60in60/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">60 in 60</a> goal to increase yearly angler participation to 60 million in 60 months. This aspirational goal comes at a critical time for the fishing and boating industry. It was a great time to catch up with Stephanie and find out more about how they are working to achieve this lofty goal, the accomplishments to date, and learn about how her love of boating was fostered through family and is being passed down the same way. Enjoy!   On her first boating experiences…..It’s one of those all in the family things. I was born in Ohio and my grandfather was a boater, so I started going out on Lake Erie as a young child. When I was 7 my family relocated to the Florida Keys and my dad became a fishing guide. We had two boats, the boat he worked on, and then a center console that was the family boat. He would take us out to go snorkeling and swimming but we also definitely went fishing. On memorable catches….The first fish I caught was on Lake Erie, but I don’t vividly remember the first catch. I certainly have great memories of some of my big catches! I had the opportunity to go to Costa Rica and I caught a 120 lb. <a href="http://sportfishingcostarica.com/costa-rica-marlin-sailfish-fishing.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pacific Sailfish</a> and that was amazing. It was quite a fight. On learning to boat…..As a kid, my dad took it all very seriously, the safety part in particular. I learned a lot of the basics as a kid. He said if I wanted to operate the boat I had to take a course and get my license and make it official. As an adult, with my husband, I started doing it more hands on myself. On family boating now.....We now have a 24’ <a href="http://www.pursuitboats.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pursuit</a> center console. It’s something we can go fishing on, we can take to the beach, hose it off at the end of the day. My husband is the captain, I have anchor duty. On raising a boating daughter…..She has been boating since she was an infant. As she gets older, we’ll start getting her involved more in helping with things. We can give her jobs, pack this bag, do that. She really likes being on the water. She fishes off her grandpa’s dock and she is quite the fish slayer! On the RBFF 60 in 60 initiative…..I will give that credit to Frank Peterson, our President and CEO. There are a few numbers in his head that he has said if we can hit this this and this, our industry will be in pretty good shape. One of those numbers is 12 million visits to our website and we hit that this year. The other, and I think the more important one, is the 60 million number. If you look at fishing participation numbers they have been pretty flat over the last several years and with the changing demographics, in order to even maintain that flat rate a lot of change has to be made. What we really need to do is energize the industry to get that number even higher, to get on the front end of these changes and try to make that difference now. It’s a rallying cry for the industry. Let’s do this together. You’re not in this alone. The RBFF is here to help. We’ve developed tools for people to recruit, retain, and reactivate anglers (known as <a href="http://news.takemefishing.org/R3_Guidelines" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">R3</a>). On what those changes are…..People are becoming more multicultural. Families are not the traditional families that they always looked like. There are a lot of other activities competing for people’s time, and boomers are aging out of the sport. On their <a href="https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/recreation/fishing/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Disney</a> partnership…..I didn’t even know fishing excursions were available at Disney but they are and they’re great, they have a fantastic stocked lake, almost a guaranteed catch. They are reaching the exact target audience we’re after. Years and years of research have led us to this group called Multicultural Family Outdoors. These are parents, people with kids age 6-12 , who are involved in outdoors activity but don’t fish yet. Getting through their channels has been really beneficial to us and we’ve seen an increase in our brand awareness and intent to go fishing and boating. On RBFF's digital outreach…..<a href="https://www.takemefishing.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Takemefishing.org</a> is a huge part of our success. People are getting their information online so it has become a largely digital campaign because that’s where our family outdoors audience is. The website is all about getting people the info they need to get started – how to, where to, and licensing. We have all the basics on what kind of gear you need, how to reel in a fish, how to prepare your catch. We have a map where people can go and look in there are for different bodies of water that also has points of interest on it. We want to make sure people are aware that people need their license and that those dollars go back to water conservation efforts on the state level. On the challenges facing millennials who want to boat…..That’s a secondary target audience of ours. We’re calling them Untethered Explorers. They’re millennials who aren’t married and don’t have kids yet but they’re into the outdoors and we reach them through digital and social media outreach. We run an influencer campaign that speaks to that millennial target. [Their challenges] are time, it’s not having the mentor or the experience and not knowing that these opportunities are very close to them. A lot of younger generations are moving back to the city and they don’t realize that there are a lot of urban fishing and boating opportunities. On what boaters need to get started…..More than a thing, I would say training is important. Do your homework first. Before you go out on the water understand the rules of the road, navigation basics, how to read a chart or GPS. If there’s a chance to do a training or do a trial take it! On where she hasn’t yet, but would like to fish…..<a href="http://www.patagoniariverguides.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Patagonia</a>. It just looks amazing. I love the landscapes, I'd love to be fly fishing in a river with all that beauty surrounding me. Anywhere that has turquoise water, I’m in. On her dream boat…..It’s not practical but I absolutely adore big sportfishers. Big <a href="http://www.vikingyachts.com/pagesNew/index.asp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vikings</a> or <a href="http://www.hatterasyachts.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hatteras</a>. Something about those boats is so beautiful to me. When I go home to the Keys I see them. We’ll get back into cruising some day and we’ll have some type of trawler to cruise around. On advice for would-be-boaters…..Before you dive in, you should go out with some friends, try different boats, go to boat shows, go out with anyone who has a boat, feel it out, do your homework. Figure out what you want to do on the water and match the boat to your lifestyle. We’re in a time where there are so many different styles of boats. We have the <a href="http://www.discoverboating.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Discover Boating</a> boat comparison tool on our website. You go through and say what activities you like to do and it serves up the different styles of boats. There really is something for everyone. The RBFF is doing great work, check out their website, particularly their interactive map, if you have any interest in fishing!

How to Get to 60 Million Anglers in 60 Months

Anyone who has been following the podcasts probably can tell I have a particular interest in electric boating. That's why I was so excited to connect with Mark and Tim from Templar Marine.  Templar - whose mission is to eliminate our carbon footprint on global waterways and provide affordable, year round, eco- friendly, low maintenance electric boating to the general public, for personal use and for small commercial use such as water taxis, eco lodges and sightseeing tours - has designed a very unique and innovative electric boat line. Utilizing the same hull design but offering several versions and styles, they have been able to economically build stylish electric boats for personal and commercial applications. Tim Bieber has been boating his entire adult life and when we saw the concept being rolled out he instantly knew that this was the future of boating that he hoped for.  Tim and I discussed his passion for boating, the attributes of the Templar line, and much more! 

Anyone who has been following the podcasts probably can tell I have a particular interest in electric boating. That's why I was so excited to connect with Mark and Tim from Templar Marine.  Templar - whose mission is to eliminate our carbon footprint on global waterways and provide affordable, year round, eco- friendly, low maintenance electric boating to the general public, for personal use and for small commercial use such as water taxis, eco lodges and sightseeing tours - has designed a very unique and innovative electric boat line. Utilizing the same hull design but offering several versions and styles, they have been able to economically build stylish electric boats for personal and commercial applications. Tim Bieber has been boating his entire adult life and when we saw the concept being rolled out he instantly knew that this was the future of boating that he hoped for.  Tim and I discussed his passion for boating, the attributes of the Templar line, and much more!

Electric Boating From the Ground Up

Betty Bauman

All I can think about is fishing after speaking with Betty Bauman, the Founder and CEO of Ladies Let’s Go Fishing/Executive Director of the LLGF Foundation, Founder and CEO of MetroMedia, and Program Manager for Save-Fish.com. Betty started her career as a PR Manager for Wellcraft, Donzi, and Aquasport before starting her own agency. Along the way she has supported the Fort Lauderdale Billfish Tournament and Treasure Cay Billfish Tournament. Betty is a frequent radio guest on Fish Talk Radio with John Henigin and Mike Ritz broadcast to millions of listeners including iHeart Radio, and on Bill Kelly's fishing radio show in Islamorada, FL SUN FM 103.1 and iHeart Radio. As Program Manager of Save-Fish.com, Betty created and launched a go-to informative website on how and why to release fish, partnering with the Save Our Seas Foundation, an internationally-based nonprofit with the mission of preserving oceanic habitat. Finally, Betty has helped over 8,000 women graduate from Ladies Let’s Go Fishing! The seminar series — often dubbed “The No-Yelling School of Fishing” — is renowned nationally. Bauman established a partnership with the State Department in 1997 when she offered the state a solution to the lack of opportunity for women to learn fishing and conservation skills. “Ladies, Let's Go Fishing!®” is a national organization dedicated to attracting more women to sportfishing and to promoting conservation and responsible angling. LLGF promotes networking among women anglers and emphasizes mentorship between novice and experienced members. The organization has earned rave reviews from national media including “Inside Edition,” CBS’ “The Early Show,” NBC's “Nightly News with Tom Brokaw,” “Good Morning America,” “Outdoor Life Network,” USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Southern Living and more. The weekend seminar series offers a complete fishing experience presented in a non-intimidating environment. Leading sportfishing and marine industry professionals teach classes and provide hands-on training in inshore, offshore, bottom and fly fishing techniques. And it’s not just for ladies, women are now encouraged to register male and teen guests to join them! The Foundation is a 501C3 whose mission is to provide educational opportunities for women and families to learn fishing and conservation. It's a wonder Betty had time to join me but I am sure glad she did. Enjoy!   On getting started in boating…..I always loved boating. We always had a small boat when I was growing up. And back in the 70’s I got a job with Wellcraft Marine doing their marketing. At that point I got my own boat and I didn’t even think twice about how to drive it. I had a whole company of people I could go to for reference. I loved the water and I loved the outdoors! I had some exposure with boating through work and I just really enjoyed boats. Now I have a Ranger boat which is fantastic. On getting into fishing…..With my job at the boat company I did learn fishing. They would bring me to fishing tournaments and put me on boats to fish with, say the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Arthur Smith Tournament. It was there I realized I need to know a little more about fishing. I was fishing on my own boat and I just kind of winged it and I realized if I had some training I would be a little more productive and catch more fish. On challenging parts of learning…..The trickiest part was docking and trailering, how to get the boat in the water. And also things like how the pumps and batteries work. For fishing it was what kind of lures you use for what kind of fish and what do you do with the lures. Those are all things you can learn but as a beginner we’re not born with that knowledge. On equipment for beginners…..It’s the rod and reel. And learning what’s conventional, what’s spinning, what kind of reel you need for the fishing you want to do. For boating it’s what kind of boat do you want, what kind of boat suits you. On inspiration for LLGF…..I like to fish, and married a guy who is a tournament champion. We would go fishing and he would bark out orders. And by the time I asked the question it was already too late to perform the task. Because of that I could never learn in the actual situation. I realized if I had a place I could go without him where I could learn the theory, and use the equipment, tie the knots, have a chance to practice, and then go out on the water and practice my skills on the environment then I would be a better part of the fishing team. On feedback from graduates…..I get the feedback that we changed their lives. They were wanting to be fishing and once they took this they had the courage to go out and challenge the sport and find ways to go fishing. A lot of them ended up buying boats, getting the tackle and now they’re sending me pictures of them fishing in other countries. It gave them something really fun to do, something to look forward to, and ways to make memories with friends and family. On boating as a family activity…..Boating and fishing are so unique and so important. A family can get together in one place, without the electronic distractions, and they’re actually talking, sharing, doing things together. It’s a very special sport. On favorites place to fish…..My favorite places are the Florida Keys, Chokoloskee, which I call the Jurassic Park of fishing, and the Bahamas. For me it’s the kind of fish you can catch, the scenery, and the destination. It all kind of works together. On conservation…..The things that we instill at LLGF and through save-fish are how to release fish that you’re not intending to keep or you accidently catch, how to use the dehookers, how to use fish grips. If you must take a photo, try to leave the fish in the water. Don’t keep it out of the water longer than you can hold your breath. Hold it sideways. Use wet hands, not gloves. That is their home. You have to really think about the impact of what you’re doing on the water. On favorite fish to catch….. Sailfish of course! They really give you an exciting show. You go from boredom to sheer excitement in one second. Sometimes you have 3 or 4 sailfish on at the same time. I like to kitefish for them and we use goggle-eyes for that. So we are drifting with kites. On fish for beginners…..What’s nice about Mahi-Mahi is that there’s a lot of them sometimes and they can be caught using simple strategies such as trolling. Sometimes there’s so many of them that you can make mistakes and lose a few until you get the rhythm of bringing them to the boat and positioning them. And they grow very fast, they’re good to eat, and they’re beautiful. They glow green and blue underneath the water and when you have a school there it is just sheer excitement! On continuing to learn fishing skills…..Come to another LLGF in a different city! They can join a forum, that’s a good place to look up information. Read Magazines, there are a lot of great ones, for instance Florida Sportsman. Also, we teach them how to go into a tackle shop and what questions to ask. A lot of tackle shops have friendly people there that you can walk in and say ‘Hey, I wanna catch a redfish or a snook can you show me what lures they’re biting on?’ Go to shows where they have seminars. And then wear fish jewelry and wear fish clothes. You’re going to run into people that will comment on them and you will make some friends and those are other people that are sources!  On great fishing advice received…..One of the best is don’t be afraid of your fishing mistakes. Use them as a way to learn. Practice is king. The more you practice, the more you go fishing, the better you’re going to be. On the importance of sponsors…..The registrations only pay a percentage of this year round operation. Without the sponsors, there would not be a LLGF. All of our sponsors can be found on our website and they are all so important and appreciated!   On advice to anyone thinking about boating…..Do it! You’re gonna learn by experience. Try to build a network around you of people who fish and boat. Fishing and boating is something really fun to do. Especially if you’re already boating, fishing is a way to interact with what’s on the other side of the ocean, what kind of world is down there. With fishing, you can reveal what is down there and interact with it and have fishing stories to tell for the rest of your life.  

All I can think about is fishing after speaking with Betty Bauman, the Founder and CEO of <a href="https://ladiesletsgofishing.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ladies Let’s Go Fishing</a>/Executive Director of the <a href="https://ladiesletsgofishing.com/foundation/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LLGF Foundation</a>, Founder and CEO of MetroMedia, and Program Manager for <a href="http://save-fish.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Save-Fish.com</a>. Betty started her career as a PR Manager for <a href="http://wellcraft.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wellcraft</a>, <a href="http://donzimarine.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Donzi</a>, and <a href="http://www.aquasportboat.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Aquasport</a> before starting her own agency. Along the way she has supported the <a href="http://fortlauderdalebillfishtournament.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fort Lauderdale Billfish Tournament</a> and <a href="https://treasurecay.com/marina/tournaments/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Treasure Cay Billfish Tournament</a>. Betty is a frequent radio guest on <a href="https://www.iheart.com/show/Fish-Talk-Radio/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fish Talk Radio</a> with John Henigin and Mike Ritz broadcast to millions of listeners including iHeart Radio, and on Bill Kelly's fishing radio show in Islamorada, FL SUN FM 103.1 and iHeart Radio. As Program Manager of <a href="http://Save-Fish.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Save-Fish.com</a>, Betty created and launched a go-to informative website on how and why to release fish, partnering with the Save Our Seas Foundation, an internationally-based nonprofit with the mission of preserving oceanic habitat. Finally, Betty has helped over 8,000 women graduate from Ladies Let’s Go Fishing! The seminar series — often dubbed “The No-Yelling School of Fishing” — is renowned nationally. Bauman established a partnership with the State Department in 1997 when she offered the state a solution to the lack of opportunity for women to learn fishing and conservation skills. “Ladies, Let's Go Fishing!®” is a national organization dedicated to attracting more women to sportfishing and to promoting conservation and responsible angling. LLGF promotes networking among women anglers and emphasizes mentorship between novice and experienced members. The organization has earned rave reviews from national media including “Inside Edition,” CBS’ “The Early Show,” NBC's “Nightly News with Tom Brokaw,” “Good Morning America,” “Outdoor Life Network,” USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Southern Living and more. The weekend seminar series offers a complete fishing experience presented in a non-intimidating environment. Leading sportfishing and marine industry professionals teach classes and provide hands-on training in inshore, offshore, bottom and fly fishing techniques. And it’s not just for ladies, women are now encouraged to register male and teen guests to join them! The Foundation is a 501C3 whose mission is to provide educational opportunities for women and families to learn fishing and conservation. It's a wonder Betty had time to join me but I am sure glad she did. Enjoy! On getting started in boating…..I always loved boating. We always had a small boat when I was growing up. And back in the 70’s I got a job with <a href="http://wellcraft.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wellcraft</a> Marine doing their marketing. At that point I got my own boat and I didn’t even think twice about how to drive it. I had a whole company of people I could go to for reference. I loved the water and I loved the outdoors! I had some exposure with boating through work and I just really enjoyed boats. Now I have a <a href="https://www.rangerboats.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ranger</a> boat which is fantastic. On getting into fishing…..With my job at the boat company I did learn fishing. They would bring me to fishing tournaments and put me on boats to fish with, say the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Arthur Smith Tournament. It was there I realized I need to know a little more about fishing. I was fishing on my own boat and I just kind of winged it and I realized if I had some training I would be a little more productive and catch more fish. On challenging parts of learning…..The trickiest part was docking and trailering, how to get the boat in the water. And also things like how the pumps and batteries work. For fishing it was what kind of lures you use for what kind of fish and what do you do with the lures. Those are all things you can learn but as a beginner we’re not born with that knowledge. On equipment for beginners…..It’s the rod and reel. And learning what’s conventional, what’s spinning, what kind of reel you need for the fishing you want to do. For boating it’s what kind of boat do you want, what kind of boat suits you. On inspiration for LLGF…..I like to fish, and married a guy who is a tournament champion. We would go fishing and he would bark out orders. And by the time I asked the question it was already too late to perform the task. Because of that I could never learn in the actual situation. I realized if I had a place I could go without him where I could learn the theory, and use the equipment, tie the <a href="http://www.berkley-fishing.com/Berkley-ae-knot-tying-videos-instructions-on-how-to-tie-fishing-knots.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">knots</a>, have a chance to practice, and then go out on the water and practice my skills on the environment then I would be a better part of the fishing team. On feedback from graduates…..I get the <a href="https://ladiesletsgofishing.com/grad-comments/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">feedback</a> that we changed their lives. They were wanting to be fishing and once they took this they had the courage to go out and challenge the sport and find ways to go fishing. A lot of them ended up buying boats, getting the tackle and now they’re sending me pictures of them fishing in other countries. It gave them something really fun to do, something to look forward to, and ways to make memories with friends and family. On boating as a family activity…..Boating and fishing are so unique and so important. A family can get together in one place, without the electronic distractions, and they’re actually talking, sharing, doing things together. It’s a very special sport. On favorites place to fish…..My favorite places are the <a href="http://www.fla-keys.com/fishing/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Florida Keys</a>, <a href="http://www.chokoloskee.com/Fishing.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chokoloskee</a>, which I call the Jurassic Park of fishing, and the <a href="http://www.bahamas.com/things-do/fishing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bahamas</a>. For me it’s the kind of fish you can catch, the scenery, and the destination. It all kind of works together. On conservation…..The things that we instill at LLGF and through save-fish are how to release fish that you’re not intending to keep or you accidently catch, how to use the <a href="https://www.google.com/#q=fish+dehookers&amp;tbm=shop&amp;*" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">dehookers</a>, how to use <a href="https://www.thefishgrip.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">fish grips</a>. If you must take a photo, try to leave the fish in the water. Don’t keep it out of the water longer than you can hold your breath. Hold it sideways. Use wet hands, not gloves. That is their home. You have to really think about the impact of what you’re doing on the water. On favorite fish to catch….. <a href="http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/sailfish/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sailfish</a> of course! They really give you an exciting show. You go from boredom to sheer excitement in one second. Sometimes you have 3 or 4 sailfish on at the same time. I like to kitefish for them and we use goggle-eyes for that. So we are drifting with kites. On fish for beginners…..What’s nice about <a href="http://www.howtocatchanyfish.com/dorado.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mahi-Mahi</a> is that there’s a lot of them sometimes and they can be caught using simple strategies such as trolling. Sometimes there’s so many of them that you can make mistakes and lose a few until you get the rhythm of bringing them to the boat and positioning them. And they grow very fast, they’re good to eat, and they’re beautiful. They glow green and blue underneath the water and when you have a school there it is just sheer excitement! On continuing to learn fishing skills…..Come to another LLGF in a different city! They can join a forum, that’s a good place to look up information. Read Magazines, there are a lot of great ones, for instance <a href="http://www.floridasportsman.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Florida Sportsman</a>. Also, we teach them how to go into a tackle shop and what questions to ask. A lot of tackle shops have friendly people there that you can walk in and say ‘Hey, I wanna catch a redfish or a snook can you show me what lures they’re biting on?’ Go to shows where they have seminars. And then wear <a href="https://www.etsy.com/market/fish_jewelry" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">fish jewelry</a> and wear fish clothes. You’re going to run into people that will comment on them and you will make some friends and those are other people that are sources!  On great fishing advice received…..One of the best is don’t be afraid of your fishing mistakes. Use them as a way to learn. Practice is king. The more you practice, the more you go fishing, the better you’re going to be. On the importance of sponsors…..The registrations only pay a percentage of this year round operation. Without the sponsors, there would not be a LLGF. All of our sponsors can be found on our <a href="https://ladiesletsgofishing.com/sponsors/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">website</a> and they are all so important and appreciated!   On advice to anyone thinking about boating…..Do it! You’re gonna learn by experience. Try to build a network around you of people who fish and boat. Fishing and boating is something really fun to do. Especially if you’re already boating, fishing is a way to interact with what’s on the other side of the ocean, what kind of world is down there. With fishing, you can reveal what is down there and interact with it and have fishing stories to tell for the rest of your life.

Ladies Let's Go Fishing with Betty Bauman

Alexander Watson is an entrepreneur, adventurer, and lately, an author. With his wedded partner Dale Harris, Alexander rescued his family business, a furniture studio, built a portfolio of rental properties, and then sold it all to restore a vintage motor yacht and travel ‘The Rivah’. Watson’s book, River Queens – Saucy Boat, Stout Mates, Spotted Dog, America tells of their escape from the urban jungle and passage through the nation’s midsection. It is full of stories from the finding of the boat, to the characters they met along the way, to the challenges presented on the river. Their boat,  Betty Jane, A forty-five-foot wooden motor yacht built in the height of the Korean War is hardly an extravagance; it is an obscenity. Promoted as part of Chris Craft’s "Freedom Fleet" for 1955, it had all the conveniences of a well-appointed home at twice the cost. She had fitted carpets, polished mahogany paneling, an en-suite for the owners, and quarters for the crew. The journey starts with an over-the-road transport from Lake Texoma, the impounded Red River on the Texas/Oklahoma border, to Applegate Cove Marina on the Arkansas River, one hundred miles south of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The journey ends at Cincinnati, Ohio on Labor Day Weekend 2009.  Alexander is primarily the deckhand. He is better able to shinny down docks and throw lines. He swabs the decks and shines the brass. He is also the painter, plumber, and carpenter. His upbringing in the world of fine furniture and interior design gives him intrinsic understanding of fine joinery and finishing. We discuss how Alexander got into boating, and specifically how he and Dale decided to take this journey. The book is full of colorful characters and vivid experiences from their time on the river and though you will get a sense of it from our conversation, we very specifically left a lot of the book in the book so that you can pick it up and give it a read. Enjoy!

Alexander Watson is an entrepreneur, adventurer, and lately, an author. With his wedded partner Dale Harris, Alexander rescued his family business, a furniture studio, built a portfolio of rental properties, and then sold it all to restore a vintage motor yacht and travel ‘The Rivah’. Watson’s <a href="https://www.riverqueens.us/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">book</a>, River Queens – Saucy Boat, Stout Mates, Spotted Dog, America tells of their escape from the urban jungle and passage through the nation’s midsection. It is full of stories from the finding of the boat, to the characters they met along the way, to the challenges presented on the river. Their boat, <a href="https://www.riverqueens.us/river-queens-betty-jane-chris-craft-corsair" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Betty Jane</a>, A forty-five-foot wooden motor yacht built in the height of the Korean War is hardly an extravagance; it is an obscenity. Promoted as part of Chris Craft’s "Freedom Fleet" for 1955, it had all the conveniences of a well-appointed home at twice the cost. She had fitted carpets, polished mahogany paneling, an en-suite for the owners, and quarters for the crew. The journey starts with an over-the-road transport from <a href="https://www.laketexomaonline.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lake Texoma</a>, the impounded Red River on the Texas/Oklahoma border, to <a href="http://www.applegatecove.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Applegate Cove Marina</a> on the Arkansas River, one hundred miles south of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The journey ends at Cincinnati, Ohio on Labor Day Weekend 2009.  Alexander is primarily the deckhand. He is better able to shinny down docks and throw lines. He swabs the decks and shines the brass. He is also the painter, plumber, and carpenter. His upbringing in the world of fine furniture and interior design gives him intrinsic understanding of fine joinery and finishing. We discuss how Alexander got into boating, and specifically how he and Dale decided to take this journey. The book is full of colorful characters and vivid experiences from their time on the river and though you will get a sense of it from our conversation, we very specifically left a lot of the book in the book so that you can pick it up and give it a read. Enjoy!

River Queens - Saucy Boat, Stout Mates, Spotted Dog, America

Rok Babarovic is part of a team that is redfining a genre of yacht. As Business Development Manager, Rok has helped launch the Overblue series of yachts – part power cat, part houseboat. Sensing that people today are seeking comfort, safety, innovation, efficiency as well as adventure all combined in one product, Overblue designed a yacht that offers all the comfort of modern home, is able to cruise in all conditions, is full of innovative solutions, is easy to maintain, is ecological and competitively priced. Prior to joining Overblue in 2015, Rok worked for Seaway Yachts with a focus on sales and marketing and as a Senior Project Manager on carbon high performance blue water sailing yachts. Rok grew up boating around the islands of Croatia and has had many amazing experiences boating around the world in places like Norway, Greece, Hong Kong, and the Caribbean. We discussed what it was like growing up in one of the most beautiful boating destinations in the world, how he transitioned from Computer Science to the boat industry, the origins of the Overblue design and how it came to market, and much, much more. Enjoy! On growing up in the boating lifestyle.....I’ve been involved in boating since I was little. My parents live on an island in Croatia and this is where I started with small fishing boats with my father. Everyone has a boat there so in the summer we used to mess around with different boats and take the tourists around and play. This is how my hobby boating started until I joined it professionally around twenty years old. It’s not a very big island but in Croatia it’s the second biggest island. My father was born in a village with five hundred people. Once a week a ship came from Split and brought everything the small village needed. When I started spending my summers on the island it was all about fun, spending time on the boats and fooling around. On Croatia as a boating destination.....There are over one thousand islands. I've been sailing there for most of my life and it's really something unique. It's still very preserved so you get to experience nature and sail around island hopping. Islands are not far from each other so you’re safe from the sea, from the bigger waves, which is very comfortable for newcomers. On sailing versus power.....I always take a sailboat. It brings me closer to nature and allows me to switch off. Lifting those sails up, listening to the wind, just switching off is one of the nicest things you can experience on a boat. On boating around the world.....One of the very unique places which I was astonished by is Norway. It is something extremely unique and a one of a kind experience with very steep mountains and fjords and beautiful nature and sea. Down south you have Greece which is totally something different. Not a lot of marinas or ports like we’re used to in Croatia or other parts of the Mediterranean. Then you have the Caribbean, another experience totally different and unique. Hong Kong is also a beautiful place and then going further down south in Australia and New Zealand – I remember going out on a powerboat in Auckland going fishing for snappers. Sometimes when I go fishing with friends in Croatia we go for two or three days and we’re happy if we catch a bucket. But when I went for an afternoon in Auckland by the time we finished putting the baits in half were already full with fish. In two hours we had a full cockpit of snappers. That was just amazing. On the Overblue reception in the US.....I love the US market and the way people are open minded. This year we had three boats at the show and it turned heads around. We had a lot of visits and half of the people were dealers and brokers from the industry. We appreciate this market so much because people are so open minded and when they see Overblue and come into the cockpit area with a nice big flat platform, no steps around, they come into the salon with the nice big sofa, they just get it. They understand immediately why this boat is designed the way it looks. On the origins of Overblue.....Our founder has owned a lot of boats and was always a little bit restrained to enjoy space and comfort. They went to one of the lakes in the United States and rented a big house boat and really loved the space. He was really blown away by the comfort but at the same time, the same way he was fascinated by the volume and space, he was not very impressed by how the boat was built and the design and implementation of all the furniture inside. Also, he was not impressed with the fact that these houseboats are not really made to move around a lot. So he asked himself why nobody has built or designed a boat which has all this space and volume focused around the person, but can also go out in the sea. It needs to offer simple solutions in terms of usage, maintenance, handling etc. Eventually we said we have to build one now. The whole idea of the range was 44 and 54 which soon became a range of six models today because of the demand in the market. On getting CE Class B Certification.....At the end of the day, it’s registered, designed, certified and engineered as a power cat. The fact that we’re using the full beam allows us to use the terms home environment, home dimensions, head room, and things like that, but it’s a boat, it’s a catamaran. On changes in the boat industry.....I think the boat industry has changed more in the last five to seven years than in the last thirty years. Traveling around a lot, talking to a lot of different people, cultures, mentalities, I see that owners are using boats in a different way. You will experience soon that the younger generation has a tendency to not like to own things. This is one of the facts we will have to accept because we are selling something that people don’t really need. We’re selling something that people actually want so the approach to the market is completely different. All the boat builders will have to understand that because they will need to adapt. Organizations such as timeshares and boat clubs are unique approaches to the market that are needed today and are actually successful. This is where Overblue offers different ways of owning and using this product, applying it to the industry in terms of different businesses. We’re at the moment building a boutique hotel on the Overblue 58. They’re going to sell cabins with a captain. The product offers it and this is what’s very nice for whoever wants to own it and enjoy it. On advice for aspiring boaters.....When you decide to boat, two questions are the most important. The first one is 'what can you afford?' and the other one is 'how much time do you have?' This will define how you can actually boat, whether it's spending more time on a bigger boat or weekends on a smaller boat, whether that’s sharing a boat with a friend or chartering a boat because you are too busy. Those two questions will direct you. Advice that I was given when I was doing a lot of sailing was 'respect the sea'. If you follow that advice you will always enjoy, you will never be surprised, and even if you do get surprised you will be prepared. After all, it’s nature and it’s extremely strong and we should really know what we’re doing. Respect the sea was one of the strongest pieces of advice I’ve gotten in my career which affects the way I boat.   I had a blast talking to Rok and hope to get to visit them overseas and see some of the boat building in action! 

Rok Babarovic is part of a team that is redfining a genre of yacht. As Business Development Manager, Rok has helped launch the <a href="http://www.overblue.it/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Overblue</a> series of yachts – part power cat, part houseboat. Sensing that people today are seeking comfort, safety, innovation, efficiency as well as adventure all combined in one product, Overblue designed a yacht that offers all the comfort of modern home, is able to cruise in all conditions, is full of innovative solutions, is easy to maintain, is ecological and competitively priced. Prior to joining Overblue in 2015, Rok worked for Seaway Yachts with a focus on sales and marketing and as a Senior Project Manager on carbon high performance blue water sailing yachts. Rok grew up boating around the islands of Croatia and has had many amazing experiences boating around the world in places like Norway, Greece, Hong Kong, and the Caribbean. We discussed what it was like growing up in one of the most beautiful boating destinations in the world, how he transitioned from Computer Science to the boat industry, the origins of the Overblue design and how it came to market, and much, much more. Enjoy! On growing up in the boating lifestyle.....I’ve been involved in boating since I was little. My parents live on an island in <a href="https://www.sail-croatia.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Croatia</a> and this is where I started with small fishing boats with my father. Everyone has a boat there so in the summer we used to mess around with different boats and take the tourists around and play. This is how my hobby boating started until I joined it professionally around twenty years old. It’s not a very big island but in Croatia it’s the second biggest island. My father was born in a village with five hundred people. Once a week a ship came from Split and brought everything the small village needed. When I started spending my summers on the island it was all about fun, spending time on the boats and fooling around. On Croatia as a boating destination.....There are over one thousand islands. I've been sailing there for most of my life and it's really something unique. It's still very preserved so you get to experience nature and sail around island hopping. Islands are not far from each other so you’re safe from the sea, from the bigger waves, which is very comfortable for newcomers. On sailing versus power.....I always take a sailboat. It brings me closer to nature and allows me to switch off. Lifting those sails up, listening to the wind, just switching off is one of the nicest things you can experience on a boat. On boating around the world.....One of the very unique places which I was astonished by is <a href="https://www.visitnorway.com/plan-your-trip/getting-around/by-boat/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Norway</a>. It is something extremely unique and a one of a kind experience with very steep mountains and fjords and beautiful nature and sea. Down south you have Greece which is totally something different. Not a lot of marinas or ports like we’re used to in Croatia or other parts of the Mediterranean. Then you have the Caribbean, another experience totally different and unique. Hong Kong is also a beautiful place and then going further down south in Australia and New Zealand – I remember going out on a powerboat in <a href="https://www.newzealand.com/uk/auckland/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Auckland</a> going fishing for snappers. Sometimes when I go fishing with friends in Croatia we go for two or three days and we’re happy if we catch a bucket. But when I went for an afternoon in Auckland by the time we finished putting the baits in half were already full with fish. In two hours we had a full cockpit of snappers. That was just amazing. On the Overblue reception in the US.....I love the US market and the way people are open minded. This year we had three boats at the show and it turned heads around. We had a lot of visits and half of the people were dealers and brokers from the industry. We appreciate this market so much because people are so open minded and when they see Overblue and come into the cockpit area with a nice big flat platform, no steps around, they come into the salon with the nice big sofa, they just get it. They understand immediately why this boat is designed the way it looks. On the origins of Overblue.....Our founder has owned a lot of boats and was always a little bit restrained to enjoy space and comfort. They went to one of the lakes in the United States and rented a big house boat and really loved the space. He was really blown away by the comfort but at the same time, the same way he was fascinated by the volume and space, he was not very impressed by how the boat was built and the design and implementation of all the furniture inside. Also, he was not impressed with the fact that these houseboats are not really made to move around a lot. So he asked himself why nobody has built or designed a boat which has all this space and volume focused around the person, but can also go out in the sea. It needs to offer simple solutions in terms of usage, maintenance, handling etc. Eventually we said we have to build one now. The whole idea of the range was 44 and 54 which soon became a range of six models today because of the demand in the market. On getting CE Class B Certification.....At the end of the day, it’s registered, designed, certified and engineered as a power cat. The fact that we’re using the full beam allows us to use the terms home environment, home dimensions, head room, and things like that, but it’s a boat, it’s a catamaran. On changes in the boat industry.....I think the boat industry has changed more in the last five to seven years than in the last thirty years. Traveling around a lot, talking to a lot of different people, cultures, mentalities, I see that owners are using boats in a different way. You will experience soon that the younger generation has a tendency to not like to own things. This is one of the facts we will have to accept because we are selling something that people don’t really need. We’re selling something that people actually want so the approach to the market is completely different. All the boat builders will have to understand that because they will need to adapt. Organizations such as timeshares and boat clubs are unique approaches to the market that are needed today and are actually successful. This is where Overblue offers different ways of owning and using this product, applying it to the industry in terms of different businesses. We’re at the moment building a boutique hotel on the Overblue 58. They’re going to sell cabins with a captain. The product offers it and this is what’s very nice for whoever wants to own it and enjoy it. On advice for aspiring boaters.....When you decide to boat, two questions are the most important. The first one is 'what can you afford?' and the other one is 'how much time do you have?' This will define how you can actually boat, whether it's spending more time on a bigger boat or weekends on a smaller boat, whether that’s sharing a boat with a friend or chartering a boat because you are too busy. Those two questions will direct you. Advice that I was given when I was doing a lot of sailing was 'respect the sea'. If you follow that advice you will always enjoy, you will never be surprised, and even if you do get surprised you will be prepared. After all, it’s nature and it’s extremely strong and we should really know what we’re doing. Respect the sea was one of the strongest pieces of advice I’ve gotten in my career which affects the way I boat. I had a blast talking to Rok and hope to get to visit them overseas and see some of the boat building in action!

Redefining a Genre With Overblue - Part Power Cat, Part Houseboat

I caught up with Scott Croft, Vice President Public Affairs at BoatUS, after he spent some time on the road assisting with BoatUS teams in Hurricane damaged Florida. When he is not out in the field, Scott is Responsible for all external publicity and media relations for the half-million member boating services, advocacy and safety organization. Duties cover all BoatUS departments, including Government Affairs, Consumer Affairs, Towing Services, Insurance as well as the BoatUS Foundation for Safety and Clean water. Scott learned to boat and ski on the great lakes as a youth and later in life spent 10 years in the US Air Force, which is where his love of boating was resurrected on the coast of Japan. After that Scott worked with some exciting travel and tourism clients like New York City, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica before his passion for boating delivered him to his current role at BoatUS.   Scott and I discussed how he got into and re-entered the boating lifestyle, the variety of benefits BoatUS provides boaters, current issues that are important to boaters on capitol hill, the importance of boat insurance and more! Enjoy! On getting started in boating…..My grandad had a ski boat on Lake Erie when I was in my single digits. He got me up skiing. Then I got out of it for a while when I wasn’t near any water. I picked it up again when I went into the military. I was in the Air Force stationed in Japan and I had at my leisure a fleet of Yamaha 13 sailboats. It lit my passion again. On sailing in Japan…..I was in Okinawa. It’s ringed by coral so you had these reefs just a few hundred yards out or potentially several miles out and you’d sail from shore out to the reef and back. It was unbelievably clear, warm water, like something out of Jacques Cousteau. On learning to ski…..I remember getting pulled up many times and swallowing many gallons of Lake Erie water. We started knee-boarding and that progressed to two skis and it took me a couple summers to drop a ski. I always felt I would lose sight of where we would drop the ski but we always found it. On his current boating whereabouts…..I’m on the sail side now. I’m on the Hudson River. We have a wide expanse called the Tappan Zee and it’s spectacular. There’s 300, 400 foot cliffs on one side. If you’ve ever heard of the Hudson River School of painting, that still exists today. When I go out on the water I see these magnificent sunsets and majestic mountains, it just puts me in the right place. On coming together after the hurricanes…..I gotta tell you something about the human spirit. We were down there salvaging vessels. Every day we got to go home to our air conditioned hotel, these folks didn’t. But they’d come up to us with cold water and say ‘do you want a cold water?’ Neighbors were helping neighbors start to clean up. People were helping to push boats out of people’s front yards and driveways, it was heartening to see. On the importance of boat insurance…..I looked at this hurricane event as an educational moment for people to ask themselves what's in their policy. Boat insurance is unlike automobile or homeowners. It’s a lot less regimented and what features that you have in your policy can vary significantly. People either insure their boat with a policy that covers everything, that includes liability coverage. The second way is a liability portion only. It doesn’t pay for damage to fix your boat, only damage to others. The last way is they self-insure. They decide they don’t wish to have a policy and if it’s a total loss they can eat that loss. The only reason you have to have insurance is if your lender requires it or if you physically want that policy. I told people after Irma, even if you don’t have full hull coverage its really smart to get a liability only policy because it’s really affordable and it covers a lot. On why he loves boating…..Boating is in my heart. I live and breathe boating, it’s something I believe in - keeping the family together with all the things that compete for your time like technology and sports. Today boating still keeps the family together. On his favorite boating destination…..It’s going to sound crazy but Lake George has been at the top of my list pretty much my whole life. There used to be a bunch of boats at the south end of the lake and a marina there that rented boats. I talked my mom when I was 14 or 15 into signing on the dotted line and going out for an hour or two. Of all the places I’ve been in the world I still like the Adirondacks, I like Lake George, it’s the closest to my heart. On the benefits of BoatUS membership…..We are the nation’s largest advocacy services and safety group. The first part of our triad is looking out for the recreational boater’s interests. Whether that’s an advocacy issue or something going on in a state or federal level. The services we offer, of course, are insurance and on the water towing. We’re the largest on the water towing outift in the country with TowBoatUS. We have over 600 red tow boats at 300 locations so if you are going to break down on the water, and it’s a question of when not if, we’ve got your back. The BoatUS membership offers a lot of discounts on things like marina slips and fuel discounts. We have over 1,000 partner businesses and 600-700 of them are marinas. We also can’t forget BoatUS Magazine and to me that’s one of the biggest benefits. It simply gives you the best information to make your boating better. On what causes people to need their services…..The number one reason why 70,000 people called us last year for routine on the water help was engine trouble and part of that is unknown. Number two is battery issues. Its engine issues, electric issues, battery jumps and running out of gas in that order. It will happen and its really easy to get an on the water towing plan. Very much like a AAA for the water, we’ll come get you 24 hours a day. What we do is make a bad day go a lot better. On current advocacy efforts…..BoatUS is the only representative up on the hill representing recreational boaters. We try to make sure that when you go out on the water that day its as hassle free as possible. Ethanol is a big issue. There’s a movement that requires an increasing amount of ethanol in relation o our fuel supply. We have big challenges with that. Ethanol is scouring tanks and causing fuel related issues and that is still the #1 national issue with us. We’re not anti-farmer or anti-biofuels, we just want safe fuel for our boats. Coast Guard funding is a big thing right now on Capitol Hill. We have to ensure the things we need like the weather that NOAA provides or the rescue services are not cut. This is a game of numbers. Those with the most voices often get the attention they need. We want to create the largest advocacy group in the country. Join BoatUS and become part of that advocacy effort. Sign up for our email alerts that let you know about legislation going on in your state that will affect your boating.   There is so much more useful information in this interview so give a listen and let us know what you think! 

I caught up with Scott Croft, Vice President Public Affairs at <a href="http://www.boatus.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">BoatUS</a>, after he spent some time on the road assisting with BoatUS teams in Hurricane damaged Florida. When he is not out in the field, Scott is Responsible for all external publicity and media relations for the half-million member boating services, advocacy and safety organization. Duties cover all BoatUS departments, including Government Affairs, Consumer Affairs, Towing Services, Insurance as well as the BoatUS Foundation for Safety and Clean water. Scott learned to boat and ski on the great lakes as a youth and later in life spent 10 years in the US Air Force, which is where his love of boating was resurrected on the coast of Japan. After that Scott worked with some exciting travel and tourism clients like New York City, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica before his passion for boating delivered him to his current role at BoatUS. Scott and I discussed how he got into and re-entered the boating lifestyle, the variety of benefits BoatUS provides boaters, current issues that are important to boaters on capitol hill, the importance of boat insurance and more! Enjoy! On getting started in boating…..My grandad had a ski boat on Lake Erie when I was in my single digits. He got me up skiing. Then I got out of it for a while when I wasn’t near any water. I picked it up again when I went into the military. I was in the Air Force stationed in Japan and I had at my leisure a fleet of Yamaha 13 sailboats. It lit my passion again. On sailing in Japan…..I was in Okinawa. It’s ringed by coral so you had these reefs just a few hundred yards out or potentially several miles out and you’d sail from shore out to the reef and back. It was unbelievably clear, warm water, like something out of Jacques Cousteau. On learning to ski…..I remember getting pulled up many times and swallowing many gallons of Lake Erie water. We started knee-boarding and that progressed to two skis and it took me a couple summers to drop a ski. I always felt I would lose sight of where we would drop the ski but we always found it. On his current boating whereabouts…..I’m on the sail side now. I’m on the Hudson River. We have a wide expanse called the Tappan Zee and it’s spectacular. There’s 300, 400 foot cliffs on one side. If you’ve ever heard of the <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hurs/hd_hurs.htm" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Hudson River School</a> of painting, that still exists today. When I go out on the water I see these magnificent sunsets and majestic mountains, it just puts me in the right place. On coming together after the hurricanes…..I gotta tell you something about the human spirit. We were down there salvaging vessels. Every day we got to go home to our air conditioned hotel, these folks didn’t. But they’d come up to us with cold water and say ‘do you want a cold water?’ Neighbors were helping neighbors start to clean up. People were helping to push boats out of people’s front yards and driveways, it was heartening to see. On the importance of boat insurance…..I looked at this hurricane event as an educational moment for people to ask themselves what's in their policy. Boat insurance is unlike automobile or homeowners. It’s a lot less regimented and what features that you have in your policy can vary significantly. People either insure their boat with a policy that covers everything, that includes liability coverage. The second way is a liability portion only. It doesn’t pay for damage to fix your boat, only damage to others. The last way is they self-insure. They decide they don’t wish to have a policy and if it’s a total loss they can eat that loss. The only reason you have to have insurance is if your lender requires it or if you physically want that policy. I told people after Irma, even if you don’t have full hull coverage its really smart to get a liability only policy because it’s really affordable and it covers a lot. On why he loves boating…..Boating is in my heart. I live and breathe boating, it’s something I believe in - keeping the family together with all the things that compete for your time like technology and sports. Today boating still keeps the family together. On his favorite boating destination…..It’s going to sound crazy but <a href="http://www.visitlakegeorge.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Lake George</a> has been at the top of my list pretty much my whole life. There used to be a bunch of boats at the south end of the lake and a marina there that rented boats. I talked my mom when I was 14 or 15 into signing on the dotted line and going out for an hour or two. Of all the places I’ve been in the world I still like the Adirondacks, I like Lake George, it’s the closest to my heart. On the benefits of BoatUS membership…..We are the nation’s largest advocacy services and safety group. The first part of our triad is looking out for the recreational boater’s interests. Whether that’s an advocacy issue or something going on in a state or federal level. The services we offer, of course, are insurance and on the water towing. We’re the largest on the water towing outift in the country with TowBoatUS. We have over 600 red tow boats at 300 locations so if you are going to break down on the water, and it’s a question of when not if, we’ve got your back. The BoatUS membership offers a lot of discounts on things like marina slips and fuel discounts. We have over 1,000 partner businesses and 600-700 of them are marinas. We also can’t forget BoatUS Magazine and to me that’s one of the biggest benefits. It simply gives you the best information to make your boating better. On what causes people to need their services…..The number one reason why 70,000 people called us last year for routine on the water help was engine trouble and part of that is unknown. Number two is battery issues. Its engine issues, electric issues, battery jumps and running out of gas in that order. It will happen and its really easy to get an on the water towing plan. Very much like a AAA for the water, we’ll come get you 24 hours a day. What we do is make a bad day go a lot better. On current advocacy efforts…..<a href="http://www.boatus.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">BoatUS</a> is the only representative up on the hill representing recreational boaters. We try to make sure that when you go out on the water that day its as hassle free as possible. Ethanol is a big issue. There’s a movement that requires an increasing amount of ethanol in relation o our fuel supply. We have big challenges with that. Ethanol is scouring tanks and causing fuel related issues and that is still the #1 national issue with us. We’re not anti-farmer or anti-biofuels, we just want safe fuel for our boats. Coast Guard funding is a big thing right now on Capitol Hill. We have to ensure the things we need like the weather that <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">NOAA</a> provides or the rescue services are not cut. This is a game of numbers. Those with the most voices often get the attention they need. We want to create the largest advocacy group in the country. Join BoatUS and become part of that advocacy effort. Sign up for our email alerts that let you know about legislation going on in your state that will affect your boating. There is so much more useful information in this interview so give a listen and let us know what you think!

Lessons From the Half-Million Member BoatUS Team

Nathan Heber is the Founder and CEO of Boatyard, the world's first on-demand marketplace for recreational boating. The Boatyard app makes it easy for boaters to find and book qualified marine professionals for services ranging from fuel delivery to cleaning to captaining a boat. Boatyard also has a B2B application. Boatyard for Business provides marine professionals with an easy-to-use platform for automating their admin tasks, while helping them to deliver remarkable customer service experiences to their boat owners.  Nathan grew up in Miami Beach and has been boating since he was a child. Later in life, he took up sailing and has been hooked ever since. An avid kite surfer, Nathan has found that being on and around the water is an invaluable component of a happy life for him and his family. We discussed his sailing adventures, the founding of boatyard and how it helps both boaters and marine professionals, ways to make the boating lifestyle accessible, and much more. Enjoy! On growing up in Miami Beach…..You grow up on boats. I’ve been boating my entire life. Seven years ago my wife bought me sailing lessons and I’ve been sailing ever since. On learning to boat and sail.....I was probably too young to remember how I learned to boat. Sailing has a lot more components. Understanding angles of wind and all the technical stuff that goes into learning to sail, I’d have to say learning to sail is harder. We took a private lesson, just me and my wife and the teacher He was an Olympic hopeful who teaches out of 79th Street in Miami. We took 10 or 12 hours with him and then we could pay him to have access to the sailboats and jump on whenever we wanted. On the inspiration for Boatyard.com.....In a way, it started when I was a kid because I’ve been hearing about this pain point my entire life. The sailing lessons led to a series of events that led to the creation of Boatyard. We were taking a trip to the BVI and jokingly she said, "Why don’t we just sail down there.?" It was an off-season time and they agreed to do a short, bareboat charter for us. The two of us went island to island and had the greatest adventure of our lives. When we came back we wanted to rent that same sailboat and it was $800 a day. We thought, if our neighbors knew that we were responsible professionals who were certified sailors I’m sure they would let us rent it for less. But at the time there was no mechanism to do that. I set out to build a peer-to-peer marketplace. I was in an accelerator to do that and kept hearing from our boat owners what a pain it was to service their boats and I saw this big opportunity that wasn’t being tapped. So we pivoted the business and that’s how Boatyard was created. On solving boat owner's biggest headache.....When we originally launched, boat owners were really resigned to word of mouth or google searches to find the providers to service their boats. There’s the old joke the best two days of a boat owner’s life are the day they buy it and the day they sell it and a lot of that has to do with what a pain it is in between to find qualified guys who will show up on time. They’re out there but the average boater has to sift through and find those people that they can trust. We looked at that and said, if we could create a marketplace where we aggregated the best providers we could find and then gave boat owners a really simple user interface where they could place a request and get a qualified service provider, and have a really great experience, we thought we could change the way boat services are ordered.  On what boaters use Boatyard for.....The most popular are fuel and boat washing. We’ve been able to expand our service offering to mechanical service, captains, boating lessons, on water help with Sea Tow and a number of other services. On the reception among boaters.....You have people who are forward thinking and progressive about technology and those people really buy into it. It’s a challenge to get people who aren’t forward thinking to try it but once they do they continue to come back. 80% of our orders come from someone who has ordered from us before. On the reception among marine professionals.....Currently, they don’t really have a great place to put marketing dollars where they’re gonna generate a good ROI. With us, the fees we take are far less than the cost of acquisition for attaining those same customers. In addition to that, they don’t pay us until they make money. We’ve had great experiences and great luck finding amazing providers that are very forward thinking and willing to provide this high level of service that we demand for our users. We’ve even had some customers tell us we’re the reason they didn’t close. On finding qualified service providers.....It’s a challenge across the whole industry. It’s hard for me to understand why that’s happening in such a big way. Boating and boat services is one of those industries where it truly needs a skilled labor set, where having that job can provide someone with a comfortable middle-class lifestyle or more. Some of it comes down to messaging. Letting kids know who are coming out of school or who are in other technical schools about the great opportunities there are in the boat services industry. On helping marine businesses grow.....We’ve recently launched a new platform called Boatyard for Business. It’s a B2B SaaS platform that helps marine professionals manage their service requests. They can basically run their whole business off it. It takes all the admin duties that take up a lot of time and keep the smaller shops from growing and allows them to get it through Boatyard for a small monthly fee. On getting new boaters into the industry.....It's great what you guys are doing with Freedom Boat Club, the launch of all the peer-to-peer boat sharing platforms, Boatsetter, Boatbound, Sailo, and then companies like Dockwa that make it easy to book dockage with the click of a button. One of the biggest things we can do is make boating more accessible which is happening but also just getting more people on the water. We all know it’s not the boat that makes you happy, it’s the experiences that you have. On misconceptions about the boating lifestyle.....Still, a lot of people think that boating is for wealthy people, that it’s intimidating, that it’s not accessible. By having boat clubs and peer to peer and all the tech to make it easier to use the boat, I think that’s going to go a long way towards introducing a lot more people to boating. At Boatyard we think that when you own a boat it shouldn’t be a hassle. You shouldn’t spend your free time fixing it, you should be spending your free time on the water and we’re trying to solve that pain point. On the changing demands of marine customers.....Millennials prize access over ownership. There’s a whole significant portion of our business that comes to us because there’s no one else to talk to. Close to 40% of our orders are placed between 5pm and 9am or over the weekend. I think it’s really important to be able to transact 24 hours a day and make it really easy for customers to connect with you. Customers are having much higher standards as far as customer service goes. If the marine businesses are not doing it now, they’re going to have to in order to make customers happy. On how boating can drive happiness.....They’ve done a ton of studies on what drives true happiness and it all came down to experiences. When you’re planning an experience, you have all the excitement leading up to it, then you have the time on the water, then you get to look back on it fondly. That’s what drives true happiness. That’s what we all need to work on – how to enable more people to have these remarkable experiences on the water. On learning to kitesurf.....I picked it up because I couldn’t sail and boat as much. I couldn’t make a whole day of boating but I could throw the gear in the car, set up, go kiting and come home. Last year was the first time I went kiting off a boat and that was spectacular. I’m a pretty good snowboarder and I surf and it still took me 10 hours to pick up. No matter what, it takes some commitment. Once you learn it you can get much better much quicker. The best thing to do is get a little trainer kite and fly it on the beach. Once you get the kite control down, you can pick up the board part fairly quickly. I have a 9-meter kite, a 12-meter kite, and a 15-meter kite for the light winds. The next thing I want to get into is to learn how to foil. On advice for would-be boaters.....It can fundamentally change your life. When we learned how to sail it gave us something we could enjoy together for the rest of our lives. You’re out there, you’re enjoying the elements. And it opens up a world of new experiences you can have. You can go to new parts of the world and have this incredible experience with this incredible perspective that not everyone can have.   It was so great and uplifting speaking with Nathan. He truly believes that boating and being on the water can lead to a happy life and incredible experiences you will never forget, and is working tirelessly to make those experiences easier to come by. Check out Boatyard and keep an eye out for it in an area near you soon! 

Nathan Heber is the Founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.boatyard.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boatyard</a>, the world's first on-demand marketplace for recreational boating. The Boatyard app makes it easy for boaters to find and book qualified marine professionals for services ranging from fuel delivery to cleaning to captaining a boat. Boatyard also has a B2B application. Boatyard for Business provides marine professionals with an easy-to-use platform for automating their admin tasks, while helping them to deliver remarkable customer service experiences to their boat owners.  Nathan grew up in Miami Beach and has been boating since he was a child. Later in life, he took up sailing and has been hooked ever since. An avid kite surfer, Nathan has found that being on and around the water is an invaluable component of a happy life for him and his family. We discussed his sailing adventures, the founding of boatyard and how it helps both boaters and marine professionals, ways to make the boating lifestyle accessible, and much more. Enjoy! On growing up in Miami Beach…..You grow up on boats. I’ve been boating my entire life. Seven years ago my wife bought me sailing lessons and I’ve been sailing ever since. On learning to boat and sail.....I was probably too young to remember how I learned to boat. Sailing has a lot more components. Understanding angles of wind and all the technical stuff that goes into learning to sail, I’d have to say learning to sail is harder. We took a private lesson, just me and my wife and the teacher He was an Olympic hopeful who teaches out of 79th Street in Miami. We took 10 or 12 hours with him and then we could pay him to have access to the sailboats and jump on whenever we wanted. On the inspiration for <a href="http://Boatyard.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boatyard.com</a>.....In a way, it started when I was a kid because I’ve been hearing about this pain point my entire life. The sailing lessons led to a series of events that led to the creation of Boatyard. We were taking a trip to the <a href="http://www.bvitourism.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BVI</a> and jokingly she said, "Why don’t we just sail down there.?" It was an off-season time and they agreed to do a short, bareboat charter for us. The two of us went island to island and had the greatest adventure of our lives. When we came back we wanted to rent that same sailboat and it was $800 a day. We thought, if our neighbors knew that we were responsible professionals who were certified sailors I’m sure they would let us rent it for less. But at the time there was no mechanism to do that. I set out to build a peer-to-peer marketplace. I was in an accelerator to do that and kept hearing from our boat owners what a pain it was to service their boats and I saw this big opportunity that wasn’t being tapped. So we pivoted the business and that’s how Boatyard was created. On solving boat owner's biggest headache.....When we originally launched, boat owners were really resigned to word of mouth or google searches to find the providers to service their boats. There’s the old joke the best two days of a boat owner’s life are the day they buy it and the day they sell it and a lot of that has to do with what a pain it is in between to find qualified guys who will show up on time. They’re out there but the average boater has to sift through and find those people that they can trust. We looked at that and said, if we could create a marketplace where we aggregated the best providers we could find and then gave boat owners a really simple user interface where they could place a request and get a qualified service provider, and have a really great experience, we thought we could change the way boat services are ordered.  On what boaters use Boatyard for.....The most popular are fuel and boat washing. We’ve been able to expand our service offering to mechanical service, captains, boating lessons, on water help with <a href="https://www.seatow.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sea Tow</a> and a number of other services. On the reception among boaters.....You have people who are forward thinking and progressive about technology and those people really buy into it. It’s a challenge to get people who aren’t forward thinking to try it but once they do they continue to come back. 80% of our orders come from someone who has ordered from us before. On the reception among marine professionals.....Currently, they don’t really have a great place to put marketing dollars where they’re gonna generate a good ROI. With us, the fees we take are far less than the cost of acquisition for attaining those same customers. In addition to that, they don’t pay us until they make money. We’ve had great experiences and great luck finding amazing providers that are very forward thinking and willing to provide this high level of service that we demand for our users. We’ve even had some customers tell us we’re the reason they didn’t close. On finding qualified service providers.....It’s a challenge across the whole industry. It’s hard for me to understand why that’s happening in such a big way. Boating and boat services is one of those industries where it truly needs a skilled labor set, where having that job can provide someone with a comfortable middle-class lifestyle or more. Some of it comes down to messaging. Letting kids know who are coming out of school or who are in other technical schools about the great opportunities there are in the boat services industry. On helping marine businesses grow.....We’ve recently launched a new platform called Boatyard for Business. It’s a B2B <a href="http://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/saas-10-faqs-software-service/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SaaS</a> platform that helps marine professionals manage their service requests. They can basically run their whole business off it. It takes all the admin duties that take up a lot of time and keep the smaller shops from growing and allows them to get it through Boatyard for a small monthly fee. On getting new boaters into the industry.....It's great what you guys are doing with <a href="http://freedomboatclub.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Freedom Boat Club</a>, the launch of all the peer-to-peer boat sharing platforms, <a href="https://www.boatsetter.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boatsetter</a>, <a href="https://boatbound.co/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boatbound</a>, <a href="https://www.sailo.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sailo</a>, and then companies like <a href="https://dockwa.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dockwa</a> that make it easy to book dockage with the click of a button. One of the biggest things we can do is make boating more accessible which is happening but also just getting more people on the water. We all know it’s not the boat that makes you happy, it’s the experiences that you have. On misconceptions about the boating lifestyle.....Still, a lot of people think that boating is for wealthy people, that it’s intimidating, that it’s not accessible. By having boat clubs and peer to peer and all the tech to make it easier to use the boat, I think that’s going to go a long way towards introducing a lot more people to boating. At Boatyard we think that when you own a boat it shouldn’t be a hassle. You shouldn’t spend your free time fixing it, you should be spending your free time on the water and we’re trying to solve that pain point. On the changing demands of marine customers.....Millennials prize access over ownership. There’s a whole significant portion of our business that comes to us because there’s no one else to talk to. Close to 40% of our orders are placed between 5pm and 9am or over the weekend. I think it’s really important to be able to transact 24 hours a day and make it really easy for customers to connect with you. Customers are having much higher standards as far as customer service goes. If the marine businesses are not doing it now, they’re going to have to in order to make customers happy. On how boating can drive happiness.....They’ve done a ton of studies on what drives true happiness and it all came down to experiences. When you’re planning an experience, you have all the excitement leading up to it, then you have the time on the water, then you get to look back on it fondly. That’s what drives true happiness. That’s what we all need to work on – how to enable more people to have these remarkable experiences on the water. On <a href="https://www.kiteworldwide.com/en/learn-kitesurfing/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">learning to kitesurf</a>.....I picked it up because I couldn’t sail and boat as much. I couldn’t make a whole day of boating but I could throw the gear in the car, set up, go kiting and come home. Last year was the first time I went kiting off a boat and that was spectacular. I’m a pretty good snowboarder and I surf and it still took me 10 hours to pick up. No matter what, it takes some commitment. Once you learn it you can get much better much quicker. The best thing to do is get a little trainer kite and fly it on the beach. Once you get the kite control down, you can pick up the board part fairly quickly. I have a 9-meter kite, a 12-meter kite, and a 15-meter kite for the light winds. The next thing I want to get into is to learn how to foil. On advice for would-be boaters.....It can fundamentally change your life. When we learned how to sail it gave us something we could enjoy together for the rest of our lives. You’re out there, you’re enjoying the elements. And it opens up a world of new experiences you can have. You can go to new parts of the world and have this incredible experience with this incredible perspective that not everyone can have. It was so great and uplifting speaking with Nathan. He truly believes that boating and being on the water can lead to a happy life and incredible experiences you will never forget, and is working tirelessly to make those experiences easier to come by. Check out Boatyard and keep an eye out for it in an area near you soon!

Boat Services on Demand with Boatyard

Episodes 6-10 featured a wide range of boating experts and industry people: Betty Bauman, Founder/CEO of Ladies Let’s Go Fishing; Dan DeGeorge, VP of Sales for Docka; Stephanie Vatalaro, VP of Communications, Recreational Boating &amp; Fishing Foundation; Diane Seltzer, Marketing Director, SureShade, Founder/Editor myboatlife.com and boaterkids.com; and Kristen Frohnhoefer, President of SeaTow International.   Safety: With the timing of these episodes falling around National Boat Safety Week, we touched on a lot of safety issues. Kristen and the SeaTow Foundation are working hard to promote the Designate a Sober Skipper Campaign and National Safe Boating Week. National Safe Boating Week is the kick off week but safe boating is a year-long effort. Freedom Boat Club participated in a national  PFD awareness effort. Diane and I discussed raising safe boating children and that starts with getting them accustomed to wearing their lifejackets as soon as they step on the dock. Start the good habits young! We also talked about the importance of Sun Safety and the industry collaborative called Sun Safe Boating. This can often be overlooked but is an incredibly important aspect of safe boating.  Many of our guests took the boat safety courses as children and Stephanie was no different, her father required it!   Getting Started: Diane was not a boater as a child, but was hooked after a weekend trip on a sailboat in Rock Hall, Maryland. Soon after, she bought her first boat with her now husband, but then boyfriend. His initial training came from reading everything he could get his hands on and still carries that book knowledge with him on the water today. Kristen, on the other hand, has been boating since just about birth. She too was required to take a boating safety course and learned how to sail and operate power boats. Much of her childhood was spent out on the sailboat, sailing over to Newport or Essex, spending the night in Block Island, or just rafting up with friends. I remember those great days out with the family. Stephanie was boating as a young child on Lake Erie, until at age 7 they relocated to eh Florida Keys and her father became a fishing guide! Dan’s family rented boats at their summer getaway on Lake George before purchasing their own, and his father taught him how to boat. Betty also loved boating growing up but got more serious about it after getting a job with Wellcraft doing their marketing. That’s where she also learned to fish, figuring after working some tournaments she needed to know a little something about it!   Favorite things to do: Betty loves to fish in the Florida Keys, Chokoloskee, which I call the Jurassic Park of fishing, and the Bahamas. Stephanie and her family go out on their 24’ Pursuit center console for a day of fishing or going to the beach. Kristen spends her time on the water rafting up with friends, taking a ride around Shelter Island or Sag Harbor, or going out with her niece and nephew beaching the boat, watching them swim in the water and jump off the boat. Diane is on the Chesapeake Bay - a beautiful, enormous body of water that stretches from Maryland down to Virginia. She says you could spend a lifetime boating on the Chesapeake Bay and exploring it all. Dan still likes to come to Lake George to cliff jump and do watersports with his Dockwa team.   Important for Beginners: Kristen says make sure you do have a cooler full of water and some snacks because you never know how long you’re gonna be out there. You might want to bring an extra jacket in case you get stuck a little bit later. Stephanie suggests, More than a thing,  is do the training beforehand. Before you go out on the water understand the rules of the road, navigation basics, how to read a chart or GPS. If there’s a chance to do a training or do a trial take it! Betty wants to make sure you get the right rod and reel. Learn what’s conventional, what’s spinning, what kind of reel you need for the fishing you want to do. For boating it’s what kind of boat do you want, what kind of boat suits you. Visit your local tackle shop and they will point you in the right direction for the fish you want! Discoverboating.com comes up with almost every guest. It’s a great place to start the research process and find out what type of boating – buying, renting, or boat clubs – is best for you and what type of boat fits your lifestyle.   Random Notes and Quotes: Betty: I realized if I had a place I could go without him where I could learn the theory, and use the equipment, tie the knots, have a chance to practice, and then go out on the water and practice my skills on the environment then I would be a better part of the fishing team. I get the feedback that we changed their lives. They were wanting to be fishing and once they took this they had the courage to go out and challenge the sport and find ways to go fishing.  Don’t be afraid of your fishing mistakes. Use them as a way to learn. Practice is king. The more you practice, the more you go fishing, the better you’re going to be.   Dan: He was watching the dockmaster run around back and forth between docks and writing reservations in a notebook and walked up and asked the dockmaster about how he takes reservations. The dockmaster said it’s the way we’ve always done it, it’s an old school industry. There’s a lot of room for us to help these marinas and operators get more efficient and create a better experience for the boater. Boaters love it because they’re used to it in other industries. They can go online or on their phone and make a hotel reservation or an airline reservation, so it only makes sense that you should be able to do it for marinas and for boating.    Stephanie: If you look at fishing participation numbers they have been pretty flat over the last several years and with the changing demographics, in order to even maintain that flat rate a lot of change has to be made. What we really need to do is energize the industry to get that number even higher, to get on the front end of these changes and try to make that difference now. It’s a rallying cry for the industry. Let’s do this together. We run an influencer campaign that speaks to that millennial target. [Their challenges] are time, it’s not having the mentor or the experience and not knowing that these opportunities are very close to them. A lot of younger generations are moving back to the city and they don’t realize that there are a lot of urban fishing and boating opportunities.   Diane: Eight years ago SureShade debuted on its first boat with the Boston Whaler 370 Outrage. They were relative newcomers to the boating industry, came up with this product, invented it, patented it, brought it to the industry at IBEX and within two years got their first factory install. Fast forward eight years and we have 100 different boat models that offer it as a factory option or standard feature and then there’s a huge aftermarket part of the business as well.  We’re seeing a lot of new boat styles coming out that serve a lot more purposes. You see a lot of crossovers and dayboats that are good for fishing, cruising, overnights. So I think the industry is trying to pull in a younger demographic but also give boaters more options and make their boats more multi-purpose. I would also add more physical access to boating with more ramps and docks and marinas, especially in urban boating areas, is another big thing the industry could be doing.   Kristen: We always encourage our members to be proactive in maintenance. It is important to have that regular maintenance. Especially if you’re in the northeast and there are seasons, you want to do that spring commissioning and winterizing. Double check your fuel gauge on a regular basis, know how much fuel you put in your boat. Those fuel gauges don’t always work. Education ahead of time and knowing the area you’re in and being familiar with the waters is very helpful. I see the peer-to-peer market, where current boat owners are going to rent their boats out to individuals through sites such as Boatsetter, as something that’s going to change the market. Boat clubs are blowing up at the moment because people see it as a way to get into boating, they’re just not ready to make that purchase yet. 

Episodes 6-10 featured a wide range of boating experts and industry people: Betty Bauman, Founder/CEO of Ladies Let’s Go Fishing; Dan DeGeorge, VP of Sales for Docka; Stephanie Vatalaro, VP of Communications, Recreational Boating &amp; Fishing Foundation; Diane Seltzer, Marketing Director, SureShade, Founder/Editor <a href="http://myboatlife.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">myboatlife.com</a> and <a href="http://boaterkids.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">boaterkids.com</a>; and Kristen Frohnhoefer, President of SeaTow International. Safety: With the timing of these episodes falling around National Boat Safety Week, we touched on a lot of safety issues. Kristen and the SeaTow Foundation are working hard to promote the <a href="http://www.designatedskipper.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Designate a Sober Skipper Campaign</a> and <a href="http://www.safeboatingcampaign.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">National Safe Boating Week</a>. National Safe Boating Week is the kick off week but safe boating is a year-long effort. Freedom Boat Club participated in a national <a href="http://www.tradeonlytoday.com/2017/05/freedom-boat-club-marks-national-safe-boating-week/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> PFD awareness</a> effort. Diane and I discussed raising safe boating children and that starts with getting them accustomed to wearing their lifejackets as soon as they step on the dock. Start the good habits young! We also talked about the importance of Sun Safety and the industry collaborative called <a href="http://sunsafeboating.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sun Safe Boating</a>. This can often be overlooked but is an incredibly important aspect of safe boating.  Many of our guests took the boat safety courses as children and Stephanie was no different, her father required it! Getting Started: Diane was not a boater as a child, but was hooked after a weekend trip on a sailboat in Rock Hall, Maryland. Soon after, she bought her first boat with her now husband, but then boyfriend. His initial training came from reading everything he could get his hands on and still carries that book knowledge with him on the water today. Kristen, on the other hand, has been boating since just about birth. She too was required to take a boating safety course and learned how to sail and operate power boats. Much of her childhood was spent out on the sailboat, sailing over to <a href="https://www.discovernewport.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Newport</a> or Essex, spending the night in <a href="http://www.blockislandinfo.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Block Island</a>, or just rafting up with friends. I remember those great days out with the family. Stephanie was boating as a young child on Lake Erie, until at age 7 they relocated to eh Florida Keys and her father became a fishing guide! Dan’s family rented boats at their summer getaway on Lake George before purchasing their own, and his father taught him how to boat. Betty also loved boating growing up but got more serious about it after getting a job with Wellcraft doing their marketing. That’s where she also learned to fish, figuring after working some tournaments she needed to know a little something about it! Favorite things to do: Betty loves to fish in the <a href="http://www.fla-keys.com/fishing/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Florida Keys</a>, <a href="http://www.chokoloskee.com/Fishing.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chokoloskee</a>, which I call the Jurassic Park of fishing, and the <a href="http://www.bahamas.com/things-do/fishing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bahamas</a>. Stephanie and her family go out on their 24’ <a href="http://www.pursuitboats.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pursuit</a> center console for a day of fishing or going to the beach. Kristen spends her time on the water rafting up with friends, taking a ride around <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g48596-Shelter_Island_Long_Island_New_York-Vacations.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Shelter Island</a> or Sag Harbor, or going out with her niece and nephew beaching the boat, watching them swim in the water and jump off the boat. Diane is on the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/chba/index.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chesapeake Bay</a> - a beautiful, enormous body of water that stretches from Maryland down to Virginia. She says you could spend a lifetime boating on the Chesapeake Bay and exploring it all. Dan still likes to come to Lake George to cliff jump and do watersports with his Dockwa team. Important for Beginners: Kristen says make sure you do have a cooler full of water and some snacks because you never know how long you’re gonna be out there. You might want to bring an extra jacket in case you get stuck a little bit later. Stephanie suggests, More than a thing,  is do the training beforehand. Before you go out on the water understand the rules of the road, navigation basics, how to read a chart or GPS. If there’s a chance to do a training or do a trial take it! Betty wants to make sure you get the right rod and reel. Learn what’s conventional, what’s spinning, what kind of reel you need for the fishing you want to do. For boating it’s what kind of boat do you want, what kind of boat suits you. Visit your local tackle shop and they will point you in the right direction for the fish you want! <a href="http://www.discoverboating.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Discoverboating.com</a> comes up with almost every guest. It’s a great place to start the research process and find out what type of boating – buying, renting, or boat clubs – is best for you and what type of boat fits your lifestyle. Random Notes and Quotes: Betty: I realized if I had a place I could go without him where I could learn the theory, and use the equipment, tie the <a href="http://www.berkley-fishing.com/Berkley-ae-knot-tying-videos-instructions-on-how-to-tie-fishing-knots.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">knots</a>, have a chance to practice, and then go out on the water and practice my skills on the environment then I would be a better part of the fishing team. I get the <a href="https://ladiesletsgofishing.com/grad-comments/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">feedback</a> that we changed their lives. They were wanting to be fishing and once they took this they had the courage to go out and challenge the sport and find ways to go fishing.  Don’t be afraid of your fishing mistakes. Use them as a way to learn. Practice is king. The more you practice, the more you go fishing, the better you’re going to be. Dan: He was watching the dockmaster run around back and forth between docks and writing reservations in a notebook and walked up and asked the dockmaster about how he takes reservations. The dockmaster said it’s the way we’ve always done it, it’s an old school industry. There’s a lot of room for us to help these marinas and operators get more efficient and create a better experience for the boater. Boaters love it because they’re used to it in other industries. They can go online or on their phone and make a hotel reservation or an airline reservation, so it only makes sense that you should be able to do it for marinas and for boating.  Stephanie: If you look at fishing participation numbers they have been pretty flat over the last several years and with the changing demographics, in order to even maintain that flat rate a lot of change has to be made. What we really need to do is energize the industry to get that number even higher, to get on the front end of these changes and try to make that difference now. It’s a rallying cry for the industry. Let’s do this together. We run an influencer campaign that speaks to that millennial target. [Their challenges] are time, it’s not having the mentor or the experience and not knowing that these opportunities are very close to them. A lot of younger generations are moving back to the city and they don’t realize that there are a lot of urban fishing and boating opportunities. Diane: Eight years ago SureShade debuted on its first boat with the Boston Whaler 370 Outrage. They were relative newcomers to the boating industry, came up with this product, invented it, patented it, brought it to the industry at IBEX and within two years got their first factory install. Fast forward eight years and we have <a href="http://www.sureshade.com/sureshade-hits-milestone-100-boat-models-miami/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">100 different</a> boat models that offer it as a factory option or standard feature and then there’s a huge aftermarket part of the business as well.  We’re seeing a lot of new boat styles coming out that serve a lot more purposes. You see a lot of crossovers and dayboats that are good for fishing, cruising, overnights. So I think the industry is trying to pull in a younger demographic but also give boaters more options and make their boats more multi-purpose. I would also add more physical access to boating with more ramps and docks and marinas, especially in urban boating areas, is another big thing the industry could be doing. Kristen: We always encourage our members to be proactive in maintenance. It is important to have that regular maintenance. Especially if you’re in the northeast and there are seasons, you want to do that <a href="http://www.discoverboating.com/owning/maintenance/startup.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">spring commissioning</a> and <a href="http://www.discoverboating.com/owning/maintenance/winterizing.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">winterizing</a>. Double check your fuel gauge on a regular basis, know how much fuel you put in your boat. Those fuel gauges don’t always work. Education ahead of time and knowing the area you’re in and being familiar with the waters is very helpful. I see the peer-to-peer market, where current boat owners are going to rent their boats out to individuals through sites such as <a href="https://www.boatsetter.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boatsetter</a>, as something that’s going to change the market. <a href="http://freedomboatclub.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boat clubs</a> are blowing up at the moment because people see it as a way to get into boating, they’re just not ready to make that purchase yet.

Learning From the Pros Episodes 6-10

As climate change becomes a bigger issue for boaters every year (see boat damage from this year's storms as exhibit A), there are many companies looking for solutions that will help slow down this process while also enabling boaters to continue using the waterways in powered vessels. Electric mobility is one of the top solutions and I was fortunate to speak with Steve Trkla, President of Torqeedo Inc. Torqeedo is the market leader for electric mobility on the water. Founded in 2005 in Starnberg, the company develops and manufactures outboards and inboards, electric motors and hybrid drive systems ranging from 1 to 80 hp. There are also all sorts of functional and innovative accessories – from lithium batteries and solar charging equipment to smartphone apps.  Steve has been with Torqeedo for a decade and has been responsible for launching Torqeedo products in the North American market, from Travel to Deep Blue. His wide-ranging experience in sales and marketing in the high-tech sector and his excellent feel for trends in the nautical industry have reaped great success for Torqeedo in the USA and Canada. Besides leading the US team and acquiring new customers, Steve has ensured Torqeedo's constant presence in the media in North America and helped us achieve a strong market presence within a short period. Before joining Torqeedo, he worked as sales director for a number of Silicon Valley start-ups, helping them achieve sales and growth. His understanding of IT products led him to Red Oak Marketing, a provider of online marketing strategies in the marine industry. And from there it was just one small step to Torqeedo. Steve and I spoke about when he joined the boating lifestyle, innovations in electric mobility, and some of the ways Torqeedo is leading the charge towards more environmentally friendly boating. On his boating past.....I have not been a lifelong boater. When I went off to college I met a very good friend who was an avid fisherman and boater and I ended up really enjoying it. He had different boating options as our friendship grew but the first time it was a Lund-style fishing boat on Lake Jennie in Minnesota. Later he taught me how to water-ski and after that we did some fishing on Lake Michigan out of Manitowoc-Two Rivers Wisconsin. On learning to handle a boat.....I was always a passenger and it really wasn’t until my younger brother and I bought our first boat together that was the first time that I started driving a boat by myself. It was a Four Winns family style boat. We had that where I boat today which is the Chain O'Lakes about 45 minutes outside of Chicago. It's been since Torqeedo that I really had to learn how to operate a boat on my own. I didn’t take courses. We had several demo boats that we show to customers so more and more I was taking advantage of using the boats. At first, driving and operating the boats was somewhat simple. Learning the etiquette on the water was somewhat simple. Where I found it to be the most nerve-wracking is when you bring it into a dock and need to tie it around other boats and people are watching. And so that took a little more building confidence but each time you get better and better and eventually you get to a point that it becomes second nature. On learning boating etiquette.....The Chain O'Lakes is a great lake to learn etiquette because when you have a series of lakes that’s just 45 minutes outside a city of six million you have one of the most active boating waterways that there is in the country. You learn it quickly - and that is knowing how to show intention when you're on the water and there are lots of different boats on the water, knowing how to keep distances from kayakers and fishermen, knowing what's right and wrong in no wake zones when you're going through the channels.   On the growth of the electric mobility market.....It has been an evolution. Back in 2007 when we had our one motor which was the Travel 801, it was a revolution at the time. It was all so new to the marine industry so what you found back then is most of the consumers would come up and go, ‘is that electric’? And a year or two would go by and those same customers would go, ‘that’s the future’. And my favorite part this year was at the Annapolis Boat Show, the amount of customers that were coming to our booth that knew everything about Torqeedo, and how many customers had bought our systems and told us how much they love what we’re doing. It really was a ten year progression of ‘what is this’ to ‘that’s the future’ to ‘its here’. On common misconceptions about electric mobility.....There has always been this term ’Range Anxiety’ – how long and how fast can you really go with an electric motor. Those were the early misconceptions. When people thought of electric motors they thought of the trolling motor market, they didn’t think of it as something that was competing in the horsepower class against the gas motor market. That is changing as technology is continuing to change and electric is so much more mainstream. That is probably the biggest misconception, the speeds and range electric motors can give you. On how marine mobility compares to other markets.....The greatest driver is the auto industry, the second is the e-bicycle market. If you look at marine, the industry and acceptance is matching that of where the auto industry was ten years ago and bicycle industry was five years ago. On technology driving the business.....Over the last two years one of the great innovations and revolutions of the marine industry for electric mobility is the lithium battery technology. We invested in some of the best battery management system technology to ensure that we have the safest units on the market today. We do produce on the low-power range our own lithium batteries. The partnership with BMW has been a wonderful opportunity. We’re able to take their automotive lithium battery technology in the high-power segment and marine grade the battery. You have the shock mitigation, the venting, the waterproofing and the cell management system. On growth opportunities for electric mobility.....We started with the Travel series of motors as recreational solutions. Then we attacked the 'green lake' market with our line of cruise motors. And then we moved into the paddle sports industry with our Ultralight systems. All of that was a retail product. In 2012 we announced our first high power system, the Deep Blue. And we really ventured for the first time into the commercial segment of the market and that’s when our growth took an even steeper increase. Going forward, the significant growth that is expected over the next five years is in the project sales and commercial side. On prop technology as part of the solution.....What we learned from the beginning was that we had such great motor design and such high torque motors we needed to build our prop design to match the power of the motor. So each one of our systems has a unique prop that goes with that system so that we maximize the efficiency of the motor and in some cases we set world records for efficiency in water. On boating advice received and given.....First and foremost, and I've been told this by several people, is to always wear a life jacket. No matter what I do wear my life jacket. The second thing is take care of what you purchase!   Editor's Note: I am so excited about the potential Torqeedo has to help make boating a more environmentally friendly activity that we have signed on to become Torqeedo dealers out of our marina. Check out www.torqeedo.com to see if there is an electric marine solution for you! 

As climate change becomes a bigger issue for boaters every year (see boat damage from this year's storms as exhibit A), there are many companies looking for solutions that will help slow down this process while also enabling boaters to continue using the waterways in powered vessels. Electric mobility is one of the top solutions and I was fortunate to speak with Steve Trkla, President of Torqeedo Inc. <a href="https://www.torqeedo.com/us/en-us" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Torqeedo</a> is the market leader for electric mobility on the water. Founded in 2005 in Starnberg, the company develops and manufactures outboards and inboards, electric motors and hybrid drive systems ranging from 1 to 80 hp. There are also all sorts of functional and innovative accessories – from lithium batteries and solar charging equipment to smartphone apps.  Steve has been with Torqeedo for a decade and has been responsible for launching Torqeedo products in the North American market, from Travel to Deep Blue. His wide-ranging experience in sales and marketing in the high-tech sector and his excellent feel for trends in the nautical industry have reaped great success for Torqeedo in the USA and Canada. Besides leading the US team and acquiring new customers, Steve has ensured Torqeedo's constant presence in the media in North America and helped us achieve a strong market presence within a short period. Before joining Torqeedo, he worked as sales director for a number of Silicon Valley start-ups, helping them achieve sales and growth. His understanding of IT products led him to Red Oak Marketing, a provider of online marketing strategies in the marine industry. And from there it was just one small step to Torqeedo. Steve and I spoke about when he joined the boating lifestyle, innovations in electric mobility, and some of the ways Torqeedo is leading the charge towards more environmentally friendly boating. On his boating past.....I have not been a lifelong boater. When I went off to college I met a very good friend who was an avid fisherman and boater and I ended up really enjoying it. He had different boating options as our friendship grew but the first time it was a Lund-style fishing boat on <a href="http://www.lakejennie.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Lake Jennie</a> in Minnesota. Later he taught me how to water-ski and after that we did some fishing on Lake Michigan out of <a href="http://discoverwisconsin.com/destinations/manitowoc-two-rivers/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Manitowoc-Two Rivers</a> Wisconsin. On learning to handle a boat.....I was always a passenger and it really wasn’t until my younger brother and I bought our first boat together that was the first time that I started driving a boat by myself. It was a <a href="http://www.fourwinns.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Four Winns</a> family style boat. We had that where I boat today which is the <a href="https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/parks/pages/chainolakes.aspx" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Chain O'Lakes</a> about 45 minutes outside of Chicago. It's been since Torqeedo that I really had to learn how to operate a boat on my own. I didn’t take courses. We had several demo boats that we show to customers so more and more I was taking advantage of using the boats. At first, driving and operating the boats was somewhat simple. Learning the etiquette on the water was somewhat simple. Where I found it to be the most nerve-wracking is when you bring it into a dock and need to tie it around other boats and people are watching. And so that took a little more building confidence but each time you get better and better and eventually you get to a point that it becomes second nature. On learning boating etiquette.....The Chain O'Lakes is a great lake to learn etiquette because when you have a series of lakes that’s just 45 minutes outside a city of six million you have one of the most active boating waterways that there is in the country. You learn it quickly - and that is knowing how to show intention when you're on the water and there are lots of different boats on the water, knowing how to keep distances from kayakers and fishermen, knowing what's right and wrong in no wake zones when you're going through the channels.   On the growth of the electric mobility market.....It has been an evolution. Back in 2007 when we had our one motor which was the Travel 801, it was a revolution at the time. It was all so new to the marine industry so what you found back then is most of the consumers would come up and go, ‘is that electric’? And a year or two would go by and those same customers would go, ‘that’s the future’. And my favorite part this year was at the Annapolis Boat Show, the amount of customers that were coming to our booth that knew everything about Torqeedo, and how many customers had bought our systems and told us how much they love what we’re doing. It really was a ten year progression of ‘what is this’ to ‘that’s the future’ to ‘its here’. On common misconceptions about electric mobility.....There has always been this term ’Range Anxiety’ – how long and how fast can you really go with an electric motor. Those were the early misconceptions. When people thought of electric motors they thought of the trolling motor market, they didn’t think of it as something that was competing in the horsepower class against the gas motor market. That is changing as technology is continuing to change and electric is so much more mainstream. That is probably the biggest misconception, the speeds and range electric motors can give you. On how marine mobility compares to other markets.....The greatest driver is the auto industry, the second is the e-bicycle market. If you look at marine, the industry and acceptance is matching that of where the auto industry was ten years ago and bicycle industry was five years ago. On technology driving the business.....Over the last two years one of the great innovations and revolutions of the marine industry for electric mobility is the <a href="https://www.torqeedo.com/us/en-us/products/batteries-1" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">lithium battery</a> technology. We invested in some of the best battery management system technology to ensure that we have the safest units on the market today. We do produce on the low-power range our own lithium batteries. The partnership with BMW has been a wonderful opportunity. We’re able to take their automotive lithium battery technology in the high-power segment and marine grade the battery. You have the shock mitigation, the venting, the waterproofing and the cell management system. On growth opportunities for electric mobility.....We started with the Travel series of motors as recreational solutions. Then we attacked the 'green lake' market with our line of cruise motors. And then we moved into the paddle sports industry with our Ultralight systems. All of that was a retail product. In 2012 we announced our first high power system, the Deep Blue. And we really ventured for the first time into the commercial segment of the market and that’s when our growth took an even steeper increase. Going forward, the significant growth that is expected over the next five years is in the project sales and commercial side. On prop technology as part of the solution.....What we learned from the beginning was that we had such great motor design and such high torque motors we needed to build our prop design to match the power of the motor. So each one of our systems has a <a href="https://www.torqeedo.com/us/en-us/technology-and-environment/propeller-technology.html" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">unique prop</a> that goes with that system so that we maximize the efficiency of the motor and in some cases we set world records for efficiency in water. On boating advice received and given.....First and foremost, and I've been told this by several people, is to always wear a life jacket. No matter what I do wear my life jacket. The second thing is take care of what you purchase! Editor's Note: I am so excited about the potential Torqeedo has to help make boating a more environmentally friendly activity that we have signed on to become Torqeedo dealers out of our marina. Check out <a href="http://www.torqeedo.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.torqeedo.com</a> to see if there is an electric marine solution for you!

Leading the Charge In Electric Mobility

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