Almost every boat in Canada gets “winterized” in the fall and “summerized” in the spring. Here is an easy way to make sure it’s always done properly, to avoid breakdowns and expenses. We suggest that you invest in about two hours of time from the marine technician at your dealership and together, create a winterizing and summerizing checklist.
In both California and now in Florida, class action suits have been launched against gasoline companies alleging that they knowingly sold gasoline to boaters containing ethanol and that the ethanol would attack and damage the fibreglass fuel tanks in older boats.
I’ve never seen an official survey on this, but I’ll bet the primary reason people wind up poking around in their engine room is because they have battery problems. Especially with today’s new fuel injected engines; your battery only needs to crank the engine over a couple of turns and it starts right up, running happily with your alternator charging and all systems go.
A quiet boat is a good boat. “Quiet” says well engineered, solidly built, comfortable to ride in…new. New boats are quiet. Old ones are noisy – power or sail. Why is that? In a recent technical presentation, we learned that the life expectancy of the sound absorbing materials in most new boats is about 10 years.
I often get asked how to best call for help if I have a problem when out on the water. Do I use my cell phone or should I have a VHF Marine Radio? The simple answer is that both may do the job depending on the circumstances but there are limitations. The cell phone has to be in range of a tower to forward the signal. A cell phone will contact only one person at a time and how often do you make a call only to get an answering machine or voice mail at the other end?
My gawd! Don’t we all just love our music and video these days! A cruiser, power or sail boat from twenty years ago was not likely to have a TV onboard. Even a built-in sound system was not always a standard feature. But today, the new boats all come with a system; small boats get audio and bigger boats get audio and video systems. From the mid-30 foot range up, two flat screens are common and three or even four are not unheard of!
On September 15, after an 18-month global search, the Canadian Yachting Association announced the official appointment of Paddy Boyd as Executive Director. Recently, Canadian Yachting sat down with Boyd at the association’s headquarters in Kingston, ON.
On September 15, after an 18-month global search, the Canadian Yachting Association announced the official appointment of Paddy Boyd as Executive Director. Recently, Canadian Yachting sat down with Boyd at the association’s headquarters in Kingston, ON.
The largest online marine news network in the world, Australia’s TetraMedia Marine Group, publishers of Sail-World.com, Powerboat-World.com and MarineBusiness-World.com has announced a strategic alliance with a major North American magazine publisher.
The largest online marine news network in the world, Australia’s TetraMedia Marine Group, publishers of Sail-World.com, Powerboat-World.com and MarineBusiness-World.com has announced a strategic alliance with a major North American magazine publisher.
Nestled just west of Red Deer, at a point not two hours from Edmonton or Calgary, lies Sylvan Lake, one of the most popular recreational lakes in Alberta. The roads leading to Sylvan Lake are excellent. It is easy driving with a boat and trailer.
Imagine a place for a family vacation that you will never forget; a lake so beautiful and so vast that you could probably never see all of it. But, what if there was an event that could quickly connect you to a way to explore a lot of it in safety and in an organized fashion?
By four in the morning I was starting to wonder what I was doing, nearly naked, painted in silver mud and dancing through the streets of a tropical city. Even though I am on the greying side of fifty I wasn’t alone in the dawning light. Tens of thousands of people, some even more ancient then me, were dancing through the streets of Trinidad’s Port of Spain, having a great time kicking off Carnival.
Two cultures – one island. Where can a winter-weary Canadian Yachting reader go to “get-away” this winter? How about someplace that offers the breath-taking atmosphere of the Caribbean and the combined flare of European and Caribbean cultures? If that sounds good – then St. Maarten/St. Martin might just be the “two countries in one” island for you!
The longer we sail, the more we realize that some of our most treasured cruising experiences are often in places that are a challenge to get to or stay at. It seems that if a destination is tricky to reach navigationally, has few harbours with good all around protection or is off the main cruising route because of distance or prevailing winds then often that place is really special – quiet and undeveloped and people, unscathed by massive tourism, friendly and welcoming.
