Edison Marine, located in Portland, OR, has an electric boat at the Seattle Boat Show. My 8-year-old daughter said “Wow, that’s really shiny for wood.” Clever girl.
It is shiny, indeed. Constructed of mahogany, she looks for all the world like a 1940 barrelback runabout. Lovely, but not really innovative by itself.

The magic of the Edison boat is hidden inside, and below the waterline. This is a twin-prop 17-footer powered by a bank of 12 batteries.

The basics: She’ll run plenty fast…see the video under “Gallery” on the Edison Marine website. But to maximize battery life, run her at 5-6 mph and the batteries will last 8 hrs or so. Full recharge takes 4-5 hours. How much? About $120k as shown.

Here are some pictures I took at the show.

Just a quick note: If you are interested in keeping up-to-date on the current crisis with the Washington State Ferry system, your “Go-To” website should be Captain Richard Rodriguez’s BitterEnd blog. He’s keeping up with all the media outlets as well as presenting credible opinions from those without a voice in the conventional media. And…just occasionally…he might hint at an opinion of his own.

We’ve discussed Cruising Wikis recently—here, here, and here—mentioning ActiveCaptain and CaptainWiki specifically.

It turns out these aren’t the only contenders, though. I’ve recently learned about two new players, CruiserLog.com and MyCruisingLog.com.

Each of these new offerings is distinct from what’s already available. Competition is generally a good thing, but in the end, I think we’ll see the majority of users gravitate toward just one cruising wiki. There’s only one Wikipedia. If there were four, there’s a good chance none of them would really be very good.

But I could be wrong. Let’s talk about the new offerings.

(more…)

I’ve been waiting to see these in person ever since I first heard about them last fall. In case you weren’t aware, Hobie has one of the most innovative pedal-power systems around, the Mirage. It may look funny, but it’s actually a lot more ergonomic than conventional bicycle pedals driving a propeller shaft.

We’ve written about this before, in an entry entitled “And One Roto-Molded Kayak to Rule Them All.” Obviously, we’re big fans. That’s why I’ve been so eager to see Hobie’s inflatable Mirage-drive kayaks. Lo and behold… Here’s the tandem model, called the i14t. Fourteen feet long, 36″ wide, 61 pounds. The Mirage drive units weigh 6.6 pounds each. Each drive “cassette” locks into a rigid receptacle bonded into the inflatable body of the kayak. When inflated to 3-5 PSI, the boat feels very rigid.

That’s the real trick here, you see: (more…)

Remember my too-clever downrigger mount for the Magma grill on my C-Dory? I’m pretty pleased with the solution I’ve got, but I can’t help but wonder if I might have done it all differently, had I known about Burnewiin’s robust and attractive line of universal gunnel mounts.I got to look at the Burnewiin hardware on a couple of boats today, an Ocean Sport at Islands Marine Center’s display (West 41), and an Everglades sport fisher (East 1020). I tell you, these are some of the nicest fishing rod holders you’ve ever seen! Set phasers on stun…
But really, rod holders are only one of the components you can plug into these deck sockets. They’ve got fender cleats, sheaths for fishing knives, and sockets for battens you might use to support a cockpit cover.

Plus, if you contact them directly, you can buy the raw socket hardware all by itself and…

(more…)

Each year during the Seattle Boat Show, the folks at C-Dory Marine put on a party at the factory in Auburn. C-Dory owners are invited, along with prospective owners who’ve shown interest in the boats. As far as anyone can remember, nobody has ever been turned away.

As a card-carrying C-Brat myself, I figured this would be a good chance to see where the boats are made and meet some “fellow travelers”. I snapped a few pictures for those of you who might wonder what a boat factory looks like.

If you’re very familiar with the C-Dory boats, you’ll notice some strange, yet strangely familiar boats being built here. Those are the new “Venture” series, also known as the “Cape Cruiser line of boats that C-Dory obtained via lawsuit.” The consensus is that the new boats are sufficiently similar to fit well into the C-Dory line, and sufficiently distinct that they add something to the line.

(more…)

I saw several booths at the boat show with the SPOT. It’s a cool little device, and could be handy in a number of circumstances. But make no mistake, this is NOT a Personal Locater Beacon, like ACR’s excellent line of PLBs.

So please please PLEASE read Ben Ellison’s Panbo before you buy one. SPOT has some interesting features, but it doesn’t really do everything the manufacturers imply it does. Other tech journalists are getting it wrong, as well. Take a look at Ben Ellison’s red pen markup of an item from the New York Times…

I’m here! And so are the pink PFDs, at Fisheries Supply’s booth, Concourse 2114 & 2214 …

The C-Dories are here, of course, including the brand new boats…the Venture series. See them at West 38 and West 42.

…And for the first time, the boat show occupies Qwest Field proper…

You can even kick a football between the goal posts, if you want.

I’ve run into a few friends already, including Two Lucky Fish’s previous owner. More later…

Captain Richard Rodriguez went to the Seattle Boat Show today. He was unimpressed, judging from his report.

Oh well, we’re a gear -n- gadgets blog. It’s our JOB to be impressed!

I’ve got articles in the January and February issues of Southern Boating.

My roundup of cool new emergency gear begins on page 65 of the January issue. I’ll discuss several of those items here over the next few weeks. I had to wait, see, because I didn’t want to “scoop” myself!

My survey of the new Faria Maestro starts on page 36 of the February issue. With luck, I’ll get to see a Faria Maestro in person at the boat show!

Oh, and about the boat show, I’ve had a bad cold the past week or so, and I’m not well enough to check out women’s day at the show! I’ll start covering it…Real…Soon…Now.

Anyway, this Southern Boating gig is working out pretty well, so look for my articles in the March and April issues as well.