Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Boots!


I am weary of the sweaty feet factor of rubber boots, and not entirely sure they are flattering, but classic boots are seen on the decks of King Crab Boats, Wooden Sloops, Sportfishing boats and even those weird barges used to pull moorings. A man or women in a hideous flannel, short shorts, a hat littered in bird poo and rubber boots with no socks is not even double-looked on the water, but if you could drop one of these folks into a downtown restaurant, they would be instantly tazed and incarcerated to the satisfaction of every diner in the place.

Pick Up a Pair Today!

Link

Has it come to this?


In between raining frogs and children speaking in tongues, is a man in an inflatable turnip being towed behind a boat the sign of the coming apocalypse? Can you imagine telling a man dying on the beaches of Normandy that thanks to his heroics his sons and grandchildren are free to do this sort idiocy!! If it had not been on sale I never would have bought one.

Bonadeo, Bonadeo, Bonadeo


Some authors repeat key words in their texts 3 times to stress the importance of the word. I think we can all agree I am a better writer than Joseph Conrad, but I will slum it with "Bonadeo, Bonadeo, Bonadeo". This boat is almost upsetting it is so perfect for me. I need this boat - worst part, custom, damnation, custom, as in "never to be another like it", not custom like a LL Bean Tote with your initials on it (How unique!), but custom as in the owner is some where off of Florida right now laughing until he vomits. The lines of the boat are somehow shallow, express and battlewagon all at the same time and the finish pays respect to all the best parts of smaller and larger boats (sort of the opposite of my genetic core; mom is crazy but pretty, dad is bald but smart, me: crazy and bald . . .) Hat - Tip to Yachting Magazine for finding and reporting on this boat, very cool find, I hope boat builders around the globe pay respect. Be sure to pick up a December copy of Yachting to hear more about it.

Click over to Bonadeo and see this sucker in action

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

What the $%*# took so long


I think that there have been watches that told the tide, but judging from the price, there must have been a little woman living in the watch with a copy of Eldridge. But now, finally, Timex has a $120 Tide Watch that is handsome, or maybe that's just the booze talking. The watch also tells the temp, and if you hold your wrist in the water, maybe the water temp too, or maybe a barracuda will rip your hand off.

Check it out (of the shopping cart and into my stocking)

Allbury Brothers


The father of a friend of mine is lucky enough to run an small Allbury Skiff in Florida. Really is perfect for south Florida - small enough for backwaters and some flats fishing, but sturdy enough to chase Tarpon, Dolphin and Tuniods offshore. Sounds nice aye? What is so great about Allbury buit boats is the simplicity and resistance to keep up with the new lines found in Regulators, Intrepids and even Whalers. The visible ribs under the gunwales, the proud bow and tradtional color choices are classic. Another bonus of an unchanged design standard is the fact that these designs are proven all over the southern waters since the 1950's. You can find Allbury in Riviera Beach, Florida.

check the skiffs out online here

Monday, November 27, 2006

Stuck in the North / Inland


Are you a sad pathetic loser who cannot muster up the inner-pirate to find a way to the warmer climes in order to surf, fish, sail, booze or gaze a sunsets (read: bikinis)? Well, so are we, generally it is best to focus on all the of the bad sides of coastal and offshore activities, such as the costs, barnacles, constant cleaning and of course, sharks. Let is be known that the staff of Nautics do not consider sharks to be a drag on the ocean life, but are respectful of the globo-phobia of sharks. Our suggestion to those of you posessing no airline tickets to anywhere south of Hatteras for the next few months is to look over the lovely Shark attack map at Discovery.com - while a giant icicle may fall from a skyscraper and pierce you like a green olive at a martini bar - you do not have to worry about spending your last minutes gripped to a bell-bouy screaming while a toothy bastard tears you from limb to limb.

Shark Attack Map

Groovy Nuvi


I am asuming "Nuvi" is pronounced in a way that rhymes with "Groovy". If you are someone who knew that Nike was "NikE" and Teva's are actually "Tehvas" before the rest of us, please send the correct pronunciation of Garmin's shiney little GPS box to us immediately, we always prefer to be in the "Smug" column over the "Has better things to worry about" column. Nonetheless, Garmin seems to have a winner here - the map graphics, interface and fluidity of motion are very nice, and considering that most of us have used their products on the water before, that their primary business is GPS, not manufacturing cars - a portable device for your car, boat, bike and kite-board from Garmin makes a tremendous amount of sense. Which would explain why we don't have one.

Check out the device and see if it has good nautical capabilities too, we couldn't figure that out

Fractionalize What?


Yachting Magazine has a nice breakdown / overview / highlights / insights of the Fractional Yacht Ownership industry. This was a cover story that clearly represents some investigation work on the part of Patricia Borns, the author of the peice. Fractional Ownership of yachts continues to produce more and more outfits all basically providing the same thing - boats a fraction of the cost, for a fraction of the access / time when compared to "traditional" yacht ownership. The differences in the individual fractional yacht companies appears to be boat type and level of service, and many different ownership schemas.

Read the article at Yachting Magazine

We weren't fishing


September 20 was the last post Nautics was able to eek out. You would think with the major boat shows we might report on some of the news coming out of the industry, but no. Additionally, we were NOT fishing, which is the only acceptable excuse - truth is, we were simply not blogging about the marine industry or any other. I think I read a report recently that over 100'000 blogs are launched a day (oh the humanity), so there was no shortage of other blogs to bother with in our absence.

$25 to anyone who gets the reference to the associated photograph to this post.