On the Water: News & Events

Siwash at Cueva Valdez Once she held the Around Catalina record, now she’s 100 years old and it’s time to party. So if you hear a bit of shouting this Saturday, coming from the direction of Howland’s Landing, Catalina, the action is probably on the deck of the redoubtable Siwash, a piece of floating history. Is there [...] …Read More

While Panbo's logo is still a work in progress, check out the sharp name plate Gizmo is sporting, thanks to Garmin's industrial design department.  Gander too at how much electronic goodness I managed to squeeze onto the boat's latest flying bri... …Read More

There’s a new interactive NOAA map online that charts the Gulf oil spill, fishing closures, spill trajectories, environmental impact, and more; it even has aerial and satellite images. Say what you will about the feds, NOAA has done one heck of a job with this and whoever was in charge of it should get a pat [...] …Read More

Another California boatbuilding facility moves. Adelanto based Cabo Yachts will be closing the desert based plant and moving to North Carolina to consolidate production with parent Hatteras Yachts.  This loss, which will represent about 40 California... …Read More

Plastiki’s journey goers from trash to triumph. A catamaran descriptively named Plastiki and constructed from 12,500 recycled plastic bottles, completed a 4-month journey across the Pacific Ocean meant to raise awareness about plastic waste.  It is... …Read More

That's a pair of Genasun LFP Lithium batteries that weigh a small fraction of what similar sized regular marine batteries would and offer a lot more usable power than even their 760 amp hour rating would indicate, because they can endure truly deep d... …Read More

A group of New Zealand PWC enthusiasts is setting out from London on August 1st in hopes of breaking the world distance record for travel on a personal watercraft. The trip, dubbed “The Ultimate Ride,” is being led by Jerome Burfoot, who circumnavigated New Zealand in 2006 in a benefit aimed at raising funds for cancer [...] …Read More

From Noah to the sinking of the whaleship Essex to The Perfect Storm, maritime disaster stories have kept audiences riveted in accounts recorded on the written page. But in the Youtube and reality TV era, and particularly with the immense popularity of Deadliest Catch, the written word has some stiff competition. It is against these [...] …Read More

The picture tells a lot: Digital Yacht's new AIS200N2K is the first AIS receiver I know of with NMEA 0183, NMEA 2000, and USB outputs. But get this: it can also multiplex 0183 input and gateway it to N2K, "so that traditional data such as depth, po... …Read More

Adding a high accuracy fuel flow meter onto your boat is a much easier installation then most people would assume, and it gives you some important advantages. Let’s face facts: just about anyone who’s run a boat for years on end has either run the fuel tanks dry, or come close enough that they’ve stressed [...] …Read More