On the Water

Well, the 2010 Innovation Awards are done! With a total of 51 entries this year, it was a pretty big field. My favorite in the bunch was the FLIR handheld thermal imager, which won in the safety category. Nifty stuff, but we’ve already talked about that. Another award-winner which should interest anglers in a new [...] …Read More

. The wind at dawn blew from the mountains across the plain and out to sea, bringing tears to unprotected eyes and cutting through parkas and fleece that yesterday felt warm enough for winter on the Spanish Mediterranean but now we know the falsehood of that. I walked from playa to darsena with the sun two [...] …Read More

But is a boat show really a great place to score a deal on a boat, or is it just glorified window shopping? And if you do buy, how can you get the best deals and the best financing? Those are a few of the topics I took on recently for PersonalWatercraft.com. But don't worry, I didn't just buy the company line. For my answers I went to both current and former dealers, salespeople, and loan specialists. They gave me the inside scoop on credit scores, interest rates, those "only at the show" deals, and a whole lot more. …Read More

Pacific Expedition Yachts will offer Cummins Mercruiser Diesel Zeus pod drives on its PE60 Expedition Class Power Catamaran. The first hull with Zeus drives is already under construction at Pacific Expedition’s Astoria, Oregon shipyard, with delivery expected later this year. Here’s how Pacific Expedition describes the decision to offer the Zeus drives: The PE60, equipped with twin [...] …Read More

Wow, after a full day of tromping through the conference center and running boats for the NMMA Innovations awards, the Miami show is already cranking at full speed – and it hasn’t even started yet! There aren’t a whole lot of new fishboats being introduced this year, but today we did see one that’ll be on [...] …Read More

Read my flags © KL Define slow news day. Paul Cayard walking around the media center with a EuroSport microphone interviewing journalists. Define buzz. Media Center staff walking through at noon with the surprise words, “We’re racing. We’re racing.” Define letdown. Three minutes later this screen comes on . . . Read my screen © KL Gee whiz. Yup, those were my [...] …Read More

Pacific Asian Enterprises said on its website that it has developed a version of its 75 Expedition Yacht Fisher (EYF) without the expansive flybridge common to most sportfishing battlewagons. The change acknowledges the cruising half of this split-personality ocean-going yacht and gives it a more conventional “Norhdavn look.” I took the liberty of scanning a print [...] …Read More

Taking this photo moments ago is my first official act of the Miami Boat Show. I can live blog this mother straight from my iPhone. Will be shooting grainy phone video, too. I apologize in advance for typos and accidental autofills. It’s not easy producing real time journalism typing with your [...] …Read More

I recently wrote an article for Ride Magazine on the re-release of two classic PWC videos, Jet Dreams and Jet Ski Fever, both of which are now available for the first time on DVD. At the time I featured an exclusive interview with Jet Dreams co-creator Gary Shlifer. Now, I'm happy to add another exclusive interview to the mix, this time with Jet Ski Fever's Chris Lauber. As I said in Ride, Jet Ski Fever is really the grandfather of all personal watercraft videos. Professionally shot in a documentary format, it's the story of the former World Cup Series, in particular the battle in 1983 between now-legendary riders Larry "The Ripper" Rippenkroeger and "Flyin' Brian" Bendix. In that way, it really chronicles the birth of the sport of PWC racing. You can now order Jet Ski Fever on DVD for $25, which includes shipping and handling. I highly recommend it if you're into all things retro, have an appreciation for our sport's history...or just want to laugh at a simpler time when cut-offs and facial hair were the height of fashion. …Read More

Whew – MADE IT!!! It looked liked SNOWZILLA 2010 was going to burst my Miami bubble, when late yesterday, I found out that my flight Wednesday morning was already canceled. Some quick work on the phone and on the net produced a flight to St. Louis, then a connection to Miami. After 2 hours in the car [...] …Read More