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Innhold levert av Matt O'Hara, Matt O'Hara | Owner, and Freedom Boat Club Lake George. Alt podcastinnhold, inkludert episoder, grafikk og podcastbeskrivelser, lastes opp og leveres direkte av Matt O'Hara, Matt O'Hara | Owner, and Freedom Boat Club Lake George eller deres podcastplattformpartner. Hvis du tror at noen bruker det opphavsrettsbeskyttede verket ditt uten din tillatelse, kan du følge prosessen skissert her https://no.player.fm/legal.
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Last summer, something monumental happened. One of Uncuffed's founding producers, Greg Eskridge, came home after more than 30 years in prison. In this episode we’ll bring you back to that emotional day last summer when he walked out of the San Quentin gates, free at last. Our work in prisons is supported by the California Arts Council, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, independent foundations, and donations from listeners like you. Learn more, sign up for Uncuffed news, and support the program at www.weareuncuffed.org Follow us @WeAreUncuffed on Instagram and Facebook Transcripts are available within a week of the episode coming out at www.kalw.org/podcast/uncuffed…
Anchors Aweigh
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Innhold levert av Matt O'Hara, Matt O'Hara | Owner, and Freedom Boat Club Lake George. Alt podcastinnhold, inkludert episoder, grafikk og podcastbeskrivelser, lastes opp og leveres direkte av Matt O'Hara, Matt O'Hara | Owner, and Freedom Boat Club Lake George eller deres podcastplattformpartner. Hvis du tror at noen bruker det opphavsrettsbeskyttede verket ditt uten din tillatelse, kan du følge prosessen skissert her https://no.player.fm/legal.
Anchors Aweigh is a podcast for all boaters, from aspiring to experienced. Featuring in-depth conversations with boating experts and industry leaders, and packed full of tips, tricks, gear, and industry info, boaters of all levels will come away with new skills and knowledge each episode.
…
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54 episoder
Merk alt (u)spilt...
Manage series 1331294
Innhold levert av Matt O'Hara, Matt O'Hara | Owner, and Freedom Boat Club Lake George. Alt podcastinnhold, inkludert episoder, grafikk og podcastbeskrivelser, lastes opp og leveres direkte av Matt O'Hara, Matt O'Hara | Owner, and Freedom Boat Club Lake George eller deres podcastplattformpartner. Hvis du tror at noen bruker det opphavsrettsbeskyttede verket ditt uten din tillatelse, kan du følge prosessen skissert her https://no.player.fm/legal.
Anchors Aweigh is a podcast for all boaters, from aspiring to experienced. Featuring in-depth conversations with boating experts and industry leaders, and packed full of tips, tricks, gear, and industry info, boaters of all levels will come away with new skills and knowledge each episode.
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54 episoder
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1 Planning the Charter Vacation of Your Dreams with Renee Sawyer 24:09
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As you’ll hear me say in this conversation, chartering a catamaran through the virgin islands or on the med has been a dream trip for me for as long as I can remember. So it was really fun speaking with Renee Sawyer, owner of Out of the Blue Yacht Charters . Renee has been a General Manager of select service and full-service hotels as well as boutique hotels for 25 years. Renee’s passions are many pertaining to the Caribbean however, sailing, underwater photography, interacting with all types of wild life and marine life are at the top of the list. After living her dream of sailing the turquoise waters of the Caribbean, she has set a goal of helping others to realize their dreams of a fully arranged yacht charter vacation. We spoke about her early days fishing, her time as a crew on a yacht charter, and how a broker can help make sure your charter vacation goes smoothly. Enjoy!…
I really enjoy meeting and speaking with people who have made boating a big part of their lifestyle, especially people like Steve Payne, who went from knowing next to nothing about boats to living and traveling through Europe on one. Steve has been able to use his skills as a photographer, creator, and community builder to live the boating lifestyle and share it with the world. His youtube channel, Jaywalking the World , recently surpassed 100 episodes. He has sent out thousands of Friendly Flags in an effort to foster a communal spirit among like minded boaters. His photography skills will be showcased on marina websites around the world. And he is just a blast to chat with. Enjoy!…

1 Live the Life You Dream About With First Mariners Club Founder Kevin Dorry 32:10
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It is always exciting speaking to and learning from others who are advancing the subscription and membership boating model, especially seeing all of the different market segments who are finding value in this way of boating. One such leader has found traction in the premium luxury subscription segment and I had a great time speaking with First Mariners Club founder, Kevin Dorry. Kevin is an entrepreneur and adventurer with a successful track record as the founder of a web development firm and co-founder of RewardJet, a program boasting over 300,000 members. Beyond the corporate world, he is an Ironman triathlete, marathoner, licensed pilot, 200GRT boat captain, and master scuba diver. We discussed his first job in boating on the Circle Line cruise boats, how First Mariners Club began and their amazing fleet, and about the many benefits of the subscription boating model. We are both strong advocates for the membership boating lifestyle, but provide it in a very different way. If you spend a lot of time in South Florida, and are looking for an amazing way to enjoy luxury experiences on the water, check out the First Mariners Club! Enjoy the conversation!…

1 The Power of Positive Fishing; Adam Gamble, Author, Publisher, Angler 33:26
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I had the great pleasure of speaking with Adam Gamble, writer, publisher, and avid fisherman. Adam conceived, wrote or cowrote, and supervised the production of three hundred titles in the Good Night Books series for pre-schoolers, which currently has more than nine million copies sold worldwide, including many to my family. Adam recently wrote and published The Power of Positive Fishing alongside Michael J. Tougias,New York Times bestselling author and coauthor of thirty books for adults and six books for young adults. He is best known for his nonfiction narratives of survival and rescue stories including The Finest Hours which was made into a movie starring Chris Pine and Casey Affleck The Power of Positive Fishing is an emotional journey interspersed with humor on how two individuals finally began tapping their full potentials, while hooking some great fish along the way. Adam and I discussed how he got started in fishing, what makes a great fishing companion, learning from mistakes and much more. Enjoy!…

1 Promoting Diversity, Inclusion, Safety, Conservation and Careers 30:15
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Diversity is not something that is often associated with boating and the boating industry. Many people have a stereotypical boater in mind, and I’m guessing as you read this you do too. One of the biggest obstacles to expanding the reach of boating is that so often, the way someone gets into boating in the first place is being exposed by family or close friends. If no one in your orbit is boating, you are much less likely to try it and pass it on to others. However, there are many people doing great work in bringing recreational boating, and the boating industry as a career, to new audiences. Willard Franklin, along with his wife, son and daughter, are working hard to help make boating and fishing more diverse, inclusive, and safe. As members of the Four W's Fishing Team , they work to build communities that support water health, fish, safety, and the joy of boating and fishing. The Four W's Fishing Team promotes the outdoors to elementary, middle school, high school, & college students preparing them for careers in the outdoors. You may also find them educating new and potential boaters at churches, car and boat shows, fairs, and even as a friendly face at the boat ramp! Willard and I discussed how fishing has been passed down from generation to generation in his family, how the Four Ws came about, some great boat safety tips, and much more (including of course who the best angler in the family is). Enjoy!…
The boating industry has welcomed over 800,000 new boaters into the fold in the last couple of years and is hard at work reaching new, more diverse audiences to continue growing boating. As more and more people experience boating and boat ownership for the first time, it is incumbent on marine businesses to make sure that the boating experience is as headache-free as possible. One aspect of boat ownership that can be frustrating is not just the expense of service and maintenance, but the challenge in finding good service providers. One company looking to change that dynamic is SHIPSHAPE.PRO . I got to speak with Merrill Charette, founder and CEO of SHIPSHAPE.PRO. While living on his sailboat the last 5 years, Merrill has launched several marine industry focused businesses, products, and even a podcast! Merrill’s Marine Industry Digital Agency helps marine businesses optimize their presence on the web. On the Shipshape podcast Merrill interviews top boating journalists, experts, and liveaboards exploring the many perspectives of life on the water and in the maritime industry. At SHIPSHAPE.PRO, Merrill is working to connect boat owners and service providers to reduce the friction of boat ownership and help boaters remain boaters for longer. Merrill was also inventor of the Dinghy Thingy which was featured at (and saved) the Newport Boat Show in 2019. We discussed life aboard a sailboat, how he got into the marine business, and much more, enjoy!…
I love to mix in guests who may not be ‘in’ the boating industry but rather demonstrate to us what boating can enable. Stephen Ladd is an author and adventurer who certainly pushes the limits on where a boat can take you. In is mid-30s, Steve designed and built a 12-foot boat named Squeak and rowed and sailed her over 6500 miles over a three year journey, chronicling it in his book Three Years in a 12-Foot Boat . Nearly two decades later, Steve teamed up with his now-wife, Ginny, to spend five years on a 21-foot boat, traveling from Florida down through the Western Caribbean, navigating the river systems of South America, having a baby in Brazil and every kind of adventure you can imagine in between. They covered over 18,000 miles via sail, rowing, and motor in some of the later stages and visited almost 20 countries. Please Enjoy as Steve and I discuss his vessel, his journey, and the book it inspired, The Five-Year Voyage .…
If you have seen a boat rising out of the water as it gets on plane and seemingly gliding above it, you have seen hydrofoiling in effect! Hydrofoils have been used in high technology applications like the Americas Cup races for years and have recently been applied to recreational craft including smaller runabouts and even surfboards! I have been interested in learning more about foiling on the water, why they are used, what benefits they provide, and how they work. Luckily, I had a chance to speak with Tom Ward, founder of Epoch Boats . Epoch Boats is helping usher in a new era in boating by building accessible hydrofoiling boats that are efficient, eco-friendly, and high performance. Their first class of boats is a skiff series that will be introduced in the middle of 2022. Tom broke into the marine industry as an engineer for SeaStar Solutions where he rose to Director of Engineering and managed a fleet of test boats. He transitioned to Lippert Components where he also held the role of Director of Engineering before deciding to strike out on his own. Tom has also served on the ABYC Tech Board and is a wealth of knowledge about everything that makes boats work. We talked about growing up around boats and sailing, his experiences at SeaStar and Lippert, I got a great education on hydrofoils, and we discussed what Epoch is coming to market with. Enjoy!…
Think about your typical vehicle buying experience, whether it be car or boat. You research online, head to the showroom either eager to interact with a salesperson armed with all of your knowledge or dreading the back and forth, let me ask my manager negotiation. Some showrooms may stand out to you – well decorated, nice waiting room, great coffee, for me – an area to wait with kids toys. But the experience can often be….unremarkable. And when it comes to boats, something you are buying for the fun of it, the experience should be remarkable! Boats by George , located on our home lake in upstate NY, Lake George, is turning this typical shopping experience on its head and innovating the whole boat buying process. Boats By George is celebrating its 40th anniversary and represents esteemed brands like Cobalt, which they are a top 10 global dealer for, Chris Craft, Malibu, Axis, and Barletta Pontoons. With the recent purchase of a 50,000 square foot former event space, Boats By George is creating an immersive and interactive boat buying destination. I spoke to Adam Pensel, General Manager of Boats By George, about how this concept will redefine the showroom experience, bring new potential boaters into the mix, become part of the community, and bring back the joy in vehicle shopping. Adam worked his way up through the family business as a dockhand, delivery captain, salesperson and marketing lead prior to taking the GM role. We also spoke about his early days boating with his family then on his own by age 10, technology and connectivity trends in boating, the importance of safety and conservation, and much more. Fun fact, Adam’s grandfather owned the marina we currently own and operate. When we were renovating, we found his original deed, and saw the mortgage payment. That has gone up just a bit in the past 60 or so years… enjoy!…

1 Connected Boating - Your Vessel and the IoT 21:52
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Making boating easier. Frictionless operation. Lowering the barrier to entry. Reducing the average age of the new boater. These are all goals that are being accomplished through the development and introduction of new and exciting on-board technologies. Connectivity is a major part of some of the largest marine companies in the world including Yamaha and Brunswick. We are all so used to living connected lives and expect that the things we use will ‘play along’. Our cars, our security systems, our fridges, all of these and other IoT enabled devices that make our lives easier are ubiquitous at home and at work….and soon on the water. Siren Marine has been providing boaters with peace of mind by connecting the boater to their boat with real-time monitoring. They want you to spend less time worrying about your boat and more time enjoying it. I recently spoke with Alex Puskar, the National Sales Director for Siren. We have started experimenting with Siren on some of our Freedom Boat Club boats and Alex has been a tremendous resource in getting us set up. Alex is an ABYC Certified Marine Electrician, ABYC certified marine diesel Technician, and a NMEA certified Marine Electronics Installer. He knows his stuff and you can tell. We discussed how he grew up boating and fishing, connected boating and how it helps the user experience, advice for getting started in boating and some other ways in which the industry is appealing to the next generation of boaters. Oh yeah, and this conversation happened days before the HUGE announcement that Yamaha was acquiring Siren, so although that partnership is mentioned, Alex did a great job not blowing his cover and letting the cat out of the bag early. Enjoy!…

1 Raising the Horsepower Bar for Electric Outboards 24:07
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It is an incredibly exciting time in the boating industry. We have seen two years of record sales, dealers are selling production slots because they can’t get inventory fast enough, more Americans than ever are enjoying time on the water with family and friends, and the pace of innovation continues to accelerate which is providing a better and more frictionless boating experience. Within the innovation category, electric propulsion is experiencing an influx of investment, and new motor options are steadily hitting the market. General Motors recently invested $150 million into Pure Watercraft. ePropulsion just announced a Series B raise in the tens of millions of dollars. Arc electric boats has raised over $30 million with investors including actor Will Smith, music mogul Sean Combs, and NBA superstar Kevin Durant. Torqeedo continues to impress, recently winning METSTRADE’s Boat Builders Award in collaboration with Groupe Beneteau’s Excess brand and mobility technology company ZF. I enjoyed speaking recently with Ben Sorkin, founder of Flux Marine . Ben grew up boating on our home lake in upstate NY, Lake George, which has me even more excited about what he is doing. Ben has been able to merge his passion for boating with his passion for tinkering into an exciting start up career. After stints interning at Tesla and working full time designing electric systems at Navatek, plus a decade of planning and researching electric motors on his own, Ben co-founded Flux Marine with the goal of revolutionizing electric propulsion in the marine environment. It was a great time to catch up with Ben as he and his team recently took home two big awards at the Newport boat show, Best Green Product and the Best New Boating Operation, Maintenance or Safety Product. Ben and I discussed how he got his boating and fix-it start, the benefits and challenges of electric boating, we got into the weeds a bit about battery technology and talked about the power their outboards will be brining to the market. Full disclosure, I am an investor in Flux marine and will be purchasing one of their motors to use in our Freedom Boat Club fleet this coming year. Enjoy the conversation!…

1 Simplifying Marina Management and Boat Ownership 27:07
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We have seen technological advancements drive tremendous change in the boating world. Most prominently, these new technologies have improved the boats themselves – more on-board electronics and capabilities, better boat building processes and materials, connected apps and more. But outside the boats, technology is helping the businesses who enable boating – marinas! One such area is marina management software. What was once (and still, often, is) done with pen and paper and endless file folders can now be streamlined in a do-it-all marina software suite. Slip reservations, service work orders, inventory management, invoicing, and more are available at the tips of our fingers. This improves the efficiency of the business, surely. But is also improves the boating experience for the customer with easier tracking of billing, online payments and reservations, and the ability to quickly pull up a service history on a boat. I recently spoke with Lucas Isola, founder of Molo (disclosure: we use Molo as our marina management service provider), a management platform for marina businesses. When Lucas saw a marina owner struggling to keep track of their business, he combined his lifelong passion for boating and deep tech background in the medical industry to try to solve this problem. The result, Molo, is an iPad and web-based software that helps marine businesses gain efficiency and offer new levels of customer service. We discuss how software is helping boaters and marina owners, his life in boating, how he got his family into boating, and more. Enjoy!…
There have been some extremely exciting developments in the electric boating space in the past year. PURE Watercraft raised over $37million to continue their expansion. Vision Marine had a successful IPO . Torqeedo delivered its 100,000th motor. And a variety of smaller companies are making strong plays as the space grows. While the momentum is exciting, it is clear there is still a long way to go to make electric a widely adopt way to power a boat. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Graham Balch, Managing Broker of Green Yacht Sales . Graham is an avid sailor and joined the boating industry after stints as a consultant, educator, getting his MBA and then shifting course and starting in the brokerage business before launching his own venture. Before striking off on his own, Graham distinguished himself in the brokerage world with a variety of performance awards, including Highest number of sailboat sales out of 300 sales reps nationwide. Green Yachts began in 2019 and is dedicated to supporting the electric boating community on the water by selling, servicing, and advocating electric powered boats. Green Yachts aspires to helping customers who want the benefits of electric propulsion while enjoying inspiring, well-made, award-winning boats. I learned a lot from Graham and love his strategy of making sure people who do go electric are successful with it. This means making sure they have not only the right motor, but the right boat, the right technical skills, and the right expectations. Graham and I discussed what drove him to focus on electric boating, design and technological advances and needs, what consumers can look for in the future, and more. Enjoy!…
In the five years I have spent as part of the boating industry, I have often tried to put into words how impactful boating can be for creating memories, sharing experiences, and just spending quality time with family and friends enjoying the beauty of being on the water. In that time, I don’t think I have ever done it as effectively as Jesse Simpkins does day in and day out. Jesse is the Director of Marketing for St. Croix Rods and was recently named the Chairman of the Board of the American Sportfishing Association . You can tell even from this short conversation that Jesse eats, sleeps and breathes fishing, and loves sharing it with others. From conservation efforts to ensure strong fisheries, to improving rod technology making the experience more enjoyable, access to fishing is a major focus for Jesse in both his product and advocacy roles. We discussed Jesse’s first fishing experiences on a farm pond, his evolution into the serious angler he is today, great products coming out of St. Croix (and what goes into them), and some of the important advocacy issues the industry is tackling around Conservation. Enjoy!…
I had a great conversation with Derek Horner, content manager at ANGLR . ANGLR is a fishing intelligence platform built for anglers by anglers that consists of a free fishing logbook, app that syncs across mobile and web devices, optional tracking accessories and community of anglers who are passionate about growing and helping others grow. ANGLRs goal is to empower anglers through measurement, learning, and collaboration using both data and technology, elevating their fishing experience. The app helps plan, record, and relive their fishing successes, and failures, to improve their ability to catch more fish the next time out. After Derek made the jump from hobby angler to serious angler, he started tournament fishing which led him to Penn State University where he was the Captain of the fishing team. Soon after graduating, he ‘hooked up’ with the ANGLR founders and helped grow the fledgling company to where it is today. We talked about the resources he used to go from amateur to tournament winner, how technology is changing the game in fishing, new things coming from ANGLR in V2 and more!…
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It has been a very interesting time to be in the boating industry. Right when we would normally be ramping up and commissioning boats for the spring, doing the boat show rounds, and seeding future sales, Covid-19 hit and we were shut down. Soon after, the term ‘social distancing’ became part of our lives and it became more and more clear that outdoor activities, away from other people, were the safest ways to have fun this summer. Boating quickly saw a surge in interest like we have never seen before and we have had our busiest summer yet! From initially thinking we may lose an entire season of boating, to setting sales records, it has been a roller coaster ride but we are thrilled to see so many new people getting hooked on boating. I recently spent some time chatting with Skip Sorenson with this as a backdrop. Skip started his career as a fourth-generation shipbuilder and since has achieved proven value creation results for both public and private equity companies. He has been involved in multiple restructuring and process improvement initiatives as both a CEO and CFO. Sorenson has been involved in a multitude of M&A transactions during his career, selling and purchasing both private and public companies. He was awarded "CFO of the Year" by DCEO Magazine in 2011. Skip launched Anchors Aweigh Capital in 2013. Anchors Aweigh Capital is a boutique investment banking firm formed to pursue the buying and selling of maritime related businesses, including shipping, tankers, and ship and boat building companies, as well as industrial, alternative energy, and technology companies. Since the founding of the firm, AAC has investigated and facilitated multiple boat and shipbuilding transactions, including the facilitation of the acquisition of Intrepid Powerboats, a major, center console boat brand. The firm has recently been hard at work acquiring notable boating companies, including Century Boats and Vanquish Boats. Skip is also hard at work building membership in the Club Yacht Charter business, making luxury yacht charters more accessible through fractional charters. Skip and I discussed growing up in a boatbuilding family, the recent M&A push in the boating industry, how the pandemic has affected boaters and boat companies, the impact technology is having on boating, and more, enjoy!…
Boating to the Rescue Boating has long been thought of as a great way to enjoy nature, spend quality time together with loved ones, and disconnect from our busy lives to get away from it all. Now, more than ever, those qualities of boating are the reason it is positioned to be the perfect social distancing activity in our Covid-19 world. We, like many, have been homebound for a month plus. All social engagements and activities for our kids have been cancelled. Cabin fever is real. And now, with warm weather approaching, along comes boating! We know that boating is going to look different – for example we won’t be inviting anyone outside our immediate family on board any time soon – but it remains the number one thing we are looking forward to doing over the next several months. And, we are happy that marinas have been considered essential so that we can work to provide the same relief to others! In this context, I was able to speak with David Gee, Editor-in-Chief of Boating Industry Magazine, to discuss his life on the water and the current state of the boating industry. David has tremendous enthusiasm for boating and particularly watersports, and his optimism about the future of boating as a family pastime and as an industry where we make our living is highly encouraging! As he said when discussing how boating is positioned to meet the need of the moment, ‘Boating to the Rescue!’ Enjoy and stay healthy!…
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1 Bringing Generations Together - The Waketoon! 20:18
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Amazon, Google, Facebook…. Brunswick . What do all these companies have in common you might ask? All will be exhibiting at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. While you don’t often see marine brands lumped in with these technology titans, Brunswick has made innovation a key focus as technology becomes a bigger and bigger part of boating. From launching an innovation lab in partnership with the University of Illinois, to leading the way in connected boating with Nautic-On , Brunswick has recognized that in order to continue growing boating participation, technology must play an important role. Lee Gordon has been able to combine his passion for the boating lifestyle with his skills as a communicator and storyteller honed from years as a journalist to take on the role of Director of Marine Public Relations and Communications for Brunswick Corporation. Lee Manages global public relations, communications and media activities to support all marine brands under the Brunswick portfolio including Mercury Marine, Brunswick's boat group and Business Acceleration division. Lee is in charge of communications for, it is safe to say, one of the largest marine companies in the world. Lee had a 15 year career as an Emmy nominated TV news/sports anchor for CBS and FOX, winning 25 Associated Press awards while covering some of the world's biggest events such as Hurricane Katrina, 9/11 and various Super Bowls. All the while, he took every opportunity he could to get out on boats after having great boating experiences growing up in Chicago. I recently had an opportunity to meet Lee, and to see him present, at our franchise conference as Brunswick purchased Freedom Boat Club this year, and after seeing him present I knew I had to have him on the show. He did not disappoint, as we talked about what got him into boating initially and the positive impact it has had on his life, fun stories from the boating industry life, some of the key Brunswick initiatives including presenting at the Consumer Electronics show, and more!…
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Anyone who has been following the podcasts probably can tell I have a particular interest in electric boating. That's why I was so excited to connect with Mark and Tim from Templar Marine. Templar - whose mission is to eliminate our carbon footprint on global waterways and provide affordable, year round, eco- friendly, low maintenance electric boating to the general public, for personal use and for small commercial use such as water taxis, eco lodges and sightseeing tours - has designed a very unique and innovative electric boat line. Utilizing the same hull design but offering several versions and styles, they have been able to economically build stylish electric boats for personal and commercial applications. Tim Bieber has been boating his entire adult life and when we saw the concept being rolled out he instantly knew that this was the future of boating that he hoped for. Tim and I discussed his passion for boating, the attributes of the Templar line, and much more!…
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1 River Queens - Saucy Boat, Stout Mates, Spotted Dog, America 53:20
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Alexander Watson is an entrepreneur, adventurer, and lately, an author. With his wedded partner Dale Harris, Alexander rescued his family business, a furniture studio, built a portfolio of rental properties, and then sold it all to restore a vintage motor yacht and travel ‘The Rivah’. Watson’s book , River Queens – Saucy Boat, Stout Mates, Spotted Dog , America tells of their escape from the urban jungle and passage through the nation’s midsection. It is full of stories from the finding of the boat, to the characters they met along the way, to the challenges presented on the river. Their boat, Betty Jane , A forty-five-foot wooden motor yacht built in the height of the Korean War is hardly an extravagance; it is an obscenity. Promoted as part of Chris Craft’s "Freedom Fleet" for 1955, it had all the conveniences of a well-appointed home at twice the cost. She had fitted carpets, polished mahogany paneling, an en-suite for the owners, and quarters for the crew. The journey starts with an over-the-road transport from Lake Texoma , the impounded Red River on the Texas/Oklahoma border, to Applegate Cove Marina on the Arkansas River, one hundred miles south of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The journey ends at Cincinnati, Ohio on Labor Day Weekend 2009. Alexander is primarily the deckhand. He is better able to shinny down docks and throw lines. He swabs the decks and shines the brass. He is also the painter, plumber, and carpenter. His upbringing in the world of fine furniture and interior design gives him intrinsic understanding of fine joinery and finishing. We discuss how Alexander got into boating, and specifically how he and Dale decided to take this journey. The book is full of colorful characters and vivid experiences from their time on the river and though you will get a sense of it from our conversation, we very specifically left a lot of the book in the book so that you can pick it up and give it a read. Enjoy!…
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1 Making Sailing More Portable, Affordable, and Accessible 27:42
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Alex Caslow, with his wife KC, founded and owns Red Beard Sailing, the official US dealers for MiniCat, Xcat, Reverso, and RowOnAir brands. Alex was introduced to sailing by his grandfather at a young age and has been able to turn that passion into a career, helping others experience the same joy he gets out on the water under sail. In 2015, they did some extensive research looking for a portable sailboat option as consumers, and were so blown away by the MiniCat that they built a business around it. They then added XCat and later Reverso and RowOnAir, and Red Beard Sailing started to take off. The flagship line, Minicat, is a unique, small and light, but full-bodied sailing boat – a catamaran with inflatable floats. With excellent sailing characteristics and simple control, MiniCat appeals to young budding yachtsmen, experienced sailors, and even world explorers such as Laura Dekker. All MiniCat models fit in a car, camper, yacht, or on a plane. They can be assembled in 30 minutes or less, with no extra tools required. Alex and KC have decided that will be involved in many charitable sailing events nationwide and have made it part of their mission to keep today's youth involved with sailing and provide children everywhere with an opportunity to experience the sport. Hope you enjoy my conversation with Alex ‘Red Beard’ Caslow.…
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1 From Sick to Smiling, Transforming the Boating Experience 25:42
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Kelsey Albina is currently the Communications Manager for Seakeeper, Inc. Seakeeper is the global leader in marine stabilization. Seakeeper’s innovative technology changes the boating experience by eliminating up to 95% of all boat roll, the rocking motion that causes seasickness, fatigue and anxiety. Kelsey is responsible for all internal and external communications for Seakeeper including: Public Relations, social media, email, their ambassador program, corporate communications, and corporate responsibility. Prior to Seakeeper, Kelsey worked at Bonnier as the Marketing Manager of the Fishing Group. Kelsey grew up on and around the water and always knew she wanted to find a career that harnesses that passion. In fact, she has enjoyed boating trips with three generations of family members aboard so she never really had much of a choice! Kelsey’s mother grew up boating in the Bahamas and passed that passion right down. Kelsey was racing sailboats with her mother at a young age, became scuba certified and still enjoys big diving trips. She currently has a boat of her own with her fiancé, and truly lives the boating lifestyle. We discussed her days spent on the water as a child, great boating and diving trips she’s had, the incredible innovations happening at Seakeeper that are allowing more people to enjoy boating, and more! Enjoy! Growing up Boating..... I’ve been on the water longer than I can actually remember. The first thing that really comes to mind was when I was five years old and my mom had a Hobie 16 and we were going camping off one of the little islands where I grew up. This was Easter weekend and I was devastated that the Easter bunny wasn’t going to be able to find me. She assured me that the Easter bunny has a canoe and I have nothing to worry about and of course I woke up that morning and the Easter bunny had found me on the island and the basket was waiting for me! Learning Boating Skills..... My mom has a passion for boating as well, she grew up in the Bahamas so it’s been something that’s been a part of my life for my entire life. I did sailing lessons when I was little. We’ve always had boats. We started out in sailing then became traitors and got into power boats. She’s the one who taught me everything pretty much. We became this well-oiled machine of me crewing for her on our own boats. By the time I got old enough to do it myself, I knew what I was doing. Boating in the Bahamas..... We went to Freeport, Nassau, and Eleuthera growing up and more recently she took me to the Abacos and we rented a boat over there and did some snorkeling and saw the Green Turtle Club . It’s a big boating and fishing club on Green Turtle Quay. Her mom and dad ran it for over a year. Life Below the Water..... My favorite thing is scuba diving. I now have my advanced open water certification and try to plan a trip every year. This past year my fiance and I went to Belize to do the Great Blue Hole which is just about the depths of recreational diving limits. It’s this big sink hole where when you get down to the right depth there’s these big stalagtites that hang down and stalagmites and you can swing among them and then maybe 20 feet below you there’s sharks circling this giant black pit. It was a little bit scary but exhilarating. There's something called the Wreck Trek which you can do in the keys. You go from the upper keys to the lower keys and they stop at all the different wrecks on the reefs there. Favorite Places to Boat and Dive..... Diving it would be Belize, there's just so so much life there. My favorite place to boat is in my home waters. Somewhere where you know what the weather has done to the landscape, and you can predict when a storm is coming through and you just know the area. That’s the easiest and most comfortable place for me to boat so just being home on my boat is my favorite place. Current Boating Lifestyle..... We have a 15’ Boston Whaler . We adopted it from my mom. She upgraded from the Whaler and has a 25’ Rosborough which is a more Northern Trawler style boat so she can spend the weekends on the boats. I think the people who live on their boats are so, so awesome. Having the ability to just go out whenever you want and all your stuff fits in this compact place. I think that lifestyle, even if it is just for a short period of time, would be such a challenge and you learn so much about boating and yourself, I think it sounds awesome. Seakeeper's Role in the Boating Experience..... Seakeeper is the global leader in marine stabilization. It takes all the side to side roll out of your boating trip at rest or under way. It is a gyroscopic stabilizer so it has no external appendages. We can stabilize boats as small as 27 feet up to over 200 feet. It has an active computer control so it can automatically detect the sea conditions and react instantaneously, there’s nothing you have to set. Seakeeper's Growth..... The growth is booming. It’s hard to keep up with how fast we are growing. In February we launched the Seakeeper 2 and that’s our smallest Seakeeper to date for boats 27-32 feet. We launched the Seakeeper 5HD which is our heavy duty model mostly for commercial and military applications in July. We expanded the factory and added twelve new assembly lines. We opened an office in Italy and grew out of our headquarters in Maryland and got a larger office there. And have had a couple of OEM manufacturers that have standardized Seakeeper. Bertram standardized across their entire fleet and Scout standardized on some of their models as well. Our goal is to get down to about 21 feet. We want to make the water accessible for as many people as possible and make Seakeeper a reality for the average boater. We even have somebody on the Keys who is going to be one of our Ambassadors this year. He has a 23 foot Sailfish and he has a Seakeeper on it. The lengths are a guideline but if you have the space that thing will work on a smaller boat. Seakeeper's Corporate Responsibility..... We’re going to have two different areas that we want to give back to. One of them will be the more environmental organizations that are making sure that our waterways are around for future generations so that everyone can continue to enjoy them. The second factor will be focusing on the ways that we can give access to everybody and making sure that their time is enjoyable on the water. How to Join the Lifestyle..... For a lot of people, and I speak from a woman’s perspective - just start small. You don’t have to go out and buy a brand new 27 ft center console and launch it by yourself the first day. There are so many ways you can start small. Whether that’s getting a kayak or canoe or something you can manage yourself, or something like joining a boating club where you have help and assistance and somebody to do some of the work so you can get used to being on the water. Inevitably when you start small, you’re going to want to get bigger and bigger as you learn more. You’re going to want to go farther and stay out later and break those boundaries and that’s when you get the confidence to take the next step.…
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1 You Bought a Boat, Now Where do You Put It? 29:23
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Matt Putnam is a founding partner and Managing Director of the Leisure Property Advisors . He specializes in the sale of marina, golf and leisure properties throughout the United States and Canada. Prior to becoming a broker, he served as the financial analyst and marketing coordinator for the National Golf and Resort Properties Group for two years. Matt has held an active real estate license since 2006 and been in the Leisure Properties industry since 2009. In addition to investment sales, Matt and his team focus on building advisory relationships with clients and routinely provide market research, financial analysis and management best practices at every point through the property ownership life cycle. Matt has served a wide range of clientele from single property owner-users to $100B pension funds and everything in between. Matt has been a part of transacting more than 40 leisure properties since 2011. Matt served as the national marina director at Marcus & Millichap and was an integral part of launching and building the marina division there. Matt grew up in Florida on and around the water starting boating and fishing from a young age with his grandparents. Matt’s had lots of experience owning his own boat and as a Freedom Boat Club member and still gets out on the water and makes it a big part of his family’s life with his wife and his daughter. Matt and I talked about his experience growing up around the water, how he got into leisure properties, some really great insight into what’s going on in the marina ownership world, and most importantly for boaters, advice on how to pick a marina and what to look for when you’re deciding on where to keep your boat. Growing up in Florida….. I am in Tampa and I’ve lived my whole life in Florida. I grew up in Dunedin , on the water on the west coast. I grew up with an appreciation for the water. My grandparents grew up in Englewood and we did a lot of fishing and boating and developed an appreciation for the water early on. As far back as I can remember I was fishing at the dock at my grandparent’s house. My grandpa had two boats so we would go fishing regularly and if I wasn’t on the boat I was on the dock or the seawall fishing. They also had a home up on Saginaw Bay and we spent a lot of summer time there in the water and on the water. I didn’t start fishing in the area I live until early high school when some of my friends started to have access to parents’ boats so I’ve been fishing in this area about 20 years. Learning to drive the boat….. We had a couple experiences here and there from a pretty young age but it didn’t always go well. My grandparents lived in a canal and there was always the prospect of turning a boat around in a tight space. I remember trying to help my grandpa do that on a couple occasions that always ended with him taking the wheel and setting the boat back in the right direction. Owning a boat….. My first experience with my own boat was once I moved back here from the Panhandle. I tease my wife, we had dated for quite a while and I bought my first boat before I bought her engagement ring so that was the tone that I set and she always teases me about that. We had a Maverick flats boat that we spent a lot of time fishing here locally and trailering down to the Keys for lobster season and to fish and dive down there. The family boating lifestyle….. My wife didn’t grow up boating in the capacity that I did but she took to it from early on in our relationship. She loves being on the water. We’ve got a four-year-old little girl that now has the same affinity for being on the water whether it’s fishing or just cruising out to an island and spending time in and around the water. And our dog is the same, he loves to be on the boat as well. Joining Freedom Boat Club….. We sold our boat when we were pregnant. It was a flats boat, very low to the water gunwales and we didn’t want a toddler moving around on a boat that didn’t offer a whole lot of protection. We sold it with the idea that we would get a bigger boat and life got in the way. Earlier this year we finally said - we're sick of not being on the water in the capacity that we're used to and we love doing - so we joined Freedom Boat Club and we’ve gotten a heck of a lot of use out of it, both personally and I’ve gotten to use it for business. A typical day on the water….. Our day out on the water consists of fishing for a couple of hours, probably boating to a restaurant to grab lunch, and then spending time on our barrier islands here. I’ve got a friend of mine who owns a charter fishing business down here so the more serious fishing is done with him. We go offshore so we’re typically targeting grouper or snapper and every once in awhile we'll catch a cobia or kingfish. Current state of the ‘hot’ marina market….. These generational assets that have been in families for multiple generations and for whatever reason the next generation doesn’t have the interest, passion, or desire to take over the family business, we see that a lot. And there are a couple of big groups that are very well capitalized buying marinas in scale trying to execute on a business plan. You’ve got this top down consolidation, two or three big groups out there actively acquiring marinas. And it’s just like anything else. Once people see these big firms going after a product type, it becomes more desirable to them as well. At the end of the day, worst case scenario in a lot of cases, you end up with waterfront property! Helping marina owners….. We are a true full-service real estate firm. That means we’ve got folks that focus solely on debt and equity, we’ve got a valuation team that does appraisals, project management, all the way through the gauntlet of an ownership period. We’ve tried to position ourselves to add value through that whole period. Marina industry trends….. I see the marina space trying to transition to more of a country club type atmosphere. People don’t want to just show up, get on their boat and never interact with anybody. A lot of times it’s folks bringing clients to the marina and they want that high level of service, they want their boat to be gassed up, they want ice, they want the dockhand to know their name. Beyond that, having other service lines gives somebody a reason to store their boat at a particular location. Investors often times are looking at a marina and thinking – what else can I do here? Marina owners are looking at how they can get more potential boaters to their property. Helping boaters choose a marina….. You want to look at the age and condition of the facility. If you're going into a dry stack, age and condition of the forklift. You don’t want an old beat up fork lift that could scratch and ding your boat. Same thing goes for wet slip marinas. Old beat up docks can beat up your boat pretty quick. And then it's just, how is it staffed, what is the level of service. Those things are pretty easy to tell just walking in, talking to people behind the desk. Then it's - what comes with storing my boat here, when you pull it out of the water, are you going to flush the engine and hose it down. What hours are you available to put my boat in and take it out. Advice for boaters or aspiring boaters….. The best piece of advice that I’ve ever received is just take it slow. Boats don’t have brakes so trying to do anything too quickly generally works out pretty poorly. And be open to constructive criticism. The people that I see pick it up the quickest and become the safest boaters are the ones who are willing to learn and take advice from people who have been doing it a long time.…
Matt Sellhorst is the founder and CEO of Boat Dealer Profits and the creator of the SPLASH System guaranteed to help select dealers sell more boats, make more money and have more fun. Matt is the sales and marketing columnist for Boating Industry Magazine , host of the Boat Dealer Profits podcast and Boat Dealer Profits TV where he shares tips, tricks and tactics to boost profitability in any dealership willing to implement the ideas. Sellhorst has also been featured in the Movers and Shakers edition of Boating Industry and has spoken multiple times at the Marine Dealer Conference and Expo, Marine Retail University, dealer and manufacturer events and other industry conferences. His journey from a 'no-boat-selling-son-of-a-gun' to a top producer at a 6 location dealership to sought after coach and consultant to dealers around the world mean all of his strategies are based on real world, nose-to-nose, toes-to-toes experience that have been proven to work in today's changing boat sales environment. Matt grew up boating and still has a great love for being out on the water with family and friends. We talked about podcasting, how to have fun working in the boating industry (hint, it's not really work), the positive feeling of putting families in the right boat to start making memories of their own, and more. Enjoy! On his boating start......As a kid I remember it vividly. I was five years old, I had an older brother and a younger sister and my uncle talked my parents into getting into boating. I remember climbing up on the wheelwell, it was a 16’ Larson tri-hull, and I’m barely seeing over into the boat and from that day forward the Sellhorst family was boaters and I thought I was in Heaven. From that day forward its been a part of our family. Growing up in Nebraska, I went to little tiny lakes. Day one, I learned how to ski. My brother learned right away and I started on a little sled that you would pull behind and stand up on. My brother and I taught ourselves how to barefoot when we were about eighteen. It’s always revolved for us around family and friends. On his current boating lifestyle.....We have a lake place on the Lake of the Ozarks where we have a 22’ South Bay tritoon that we go out on all the time and we have a 32’ bowrider. If you’ve ever been on the Lake of the Ozarks, it can get pretty rough so that’s the cruising boat if you want to go explore. I’ve been going down there since I was five years old and I bet I haven’t been on a third of the Lake. It’s still my favorite place to be on the water. On fitting your boat to your lifestyle.....I’ve got two little girls and for me, it’s a tritoon. I can’t even believe I’m saying a pontoon is the way to go but just a 25-footer with the big outboards, that’s perfect for my lifestyle right now. I remember when I was actively selling and we could take the boats out and there would be a 28’ or 30’ cruiser out and I would pick the pontoon or the tritoon. Don’t get me wrong. Getting in the bowrider and putting the hammer down and hearing that thru-hull exhaust and those twins rumbling, that’s fun too but 90% of the time, it’s the pontoons. On getting into the boating industry.....When I was in college I worked at a local marina and it didn't feel like work. I got into finance and went through an IPO and started my own mortgage company. Everything was going great until the financial crisis hit and I had to make the hard decision to close the business. After struggling with that I decided I wanted to go to the Lake to work and do something I really love. My first year was nothing to write home about but the second year, there was a conversation I remember with Jeff Hall, he said you have to ask for the sale. You have to help them buy a boat. You have to actively ask them to take the next step of getting them involved with the lifestyle otherwise you are doing your client a disservice. On feeling good about putting clients in boats.....That vision of me at 5 years old and all the memories I made. Having all my college buddies coming out on the boat with my parents and my brother and sister, I mean who is hanging out with their family that much when they’re twenty years old? If you’re a boater, you probably do. If you know in your heart of hearts this is the right match for them, and they are capable and financially able to buy the boat, it’s your duty to get them to do it. It’s your job to get them through that fear so that they can have those memories. On the importance of having fun at 'work'.....There are a lot of ways to make money and with running a business, there’s challenge after challenge. Too often, all of the drudgery and wearing seventeen different hats, sometimes you’ve gotta step back and say, 'we don’t sit in a cubicle. We get to go to the lake and ride on boats and help people get involved in the boating lifestyle.' That’s pretty darn fun. It's so much fun to talk about how can we get this industry to grow, how can we get more people involved. There’s somebody that’s gonna make a memory that’s gonna stick for decades. On boat safety.....When we were at the lake, you wear your lifejacket from the time you leave the cabin and you take it off when you walk in the cabin and you’re ready to go to sleep. If you’re a kid and you’re at the lake, you’re wearing your lifejacket. It’s a non-negotiable rule. Several of things with kids, they know if it’s negotiable. When the boat’s moving, you’re sitting down. It’s what I would teach my clients when I did deliveries. Mom and Dad, whoever is handling the boat, you make the rules and you make the rules for all guests and all kids on the boats. Here is what I recommend – life jackets, always sitting, don’t reach your hand outside the boat when you’re coming to a dock. Just little things that you have to set the rules for your boat and your boating environment. Matt has an incredible enthusiasm for the boating lifestyle and for spreading that love of boating to others. If you're a dealer, check out his site and find out how he can help grow your business. If you're a boater, find a salesperson whether you are buying a boat, joining a boat club, or any other way of joining the lifestyle who cares as much as Matt does about finding the right match for your lifestyle.…
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Claude Beaulac is the VP of Sales and Marketing for the Canadian Electric Boat Company . I spoke with Claude just before it was announced that the CEBC was awarded the ‘ Future of the Industry ’ award at Quebec’s annual Marina Industry Gala. The Canadian Electric Boat Company manufactures a line of 100% electric boats that do not produce any pollution or emissions. Powered by a lithium battery, CEBC boats can provide eight to twelve hours of use on a single charge. They are completely noiseless, handcrafted with high quality materials, and they even boast in their line the fastest electric boat in the world, the Bruce . Claude has boated around the world throughout his career and currently enjoys his personal boating on a beautiful lake in Canada in a private preserve. We spoke about the boat building process, upcoming shows, how he got involved with the CEBC and more. Enjoy! On boat show strategies.....We want to show the world we can build something different than what is already out there so we bring out the Volt 180 with several different possibilities of power options. We’re really proud of showing it and when we’ve showed it, everybody was impressed and looking forward to trying one. That’s the key to electric boats. People like the idea but didn’t know it existed so they are discovering the idea that it is there today, not just coming in the future. We’ll be at Newport Beach at the end of this month. We have a boat rental business there, the eboat rental. That’s a great location to test and try out all the things that we develop because seasons are better there than here in Montreal. So far we have been the novelty at all the shows. On the electric boat experience.....Everybody gets very surprised because when we get started they feel like we’re drifting. You don’t feel anything or hear anything. It’s a comforting feeling once you’re on the water and know that you have control of the boat and you’re going at the proper speed, and you don’t hear any noise but the water flapping on the boat, and the wind. On hurdles to electric boat adoption.....The first barrier is that people don’t even know that it can be done. That’s 90% of the people that come to us at a boat show. The next one is ‘what’s the autonomy?’. They’ve seen things in electric cars and think that cars need to be charged a lot and they think of the extreme. People think they’re going to be on the water all day and wonder if it is going to last. We tell them it’s going to last eight to twelve hours depending on the speed you run with it and they are flabbergasted. It’s a matter of educating people. On the CEBC product line.....The Quietude and the Fantail are the biggest sellers. In the last four years we’ve seen some Bruce being sold and now we’ve got the Bruce T Version with Torqeedo . The Volt just came out and we’ve sold three so far and are expecting quite a few more as we work with cities who have eco-recreational programs. On boating around the world.....I've traveled quite a bit and got to boat in different cities in Switzerland, Greece, Australia, and China. In my family there were no boats but we had friends with boats, and my first wife had a sailboat we went on quite a bit. Now we have a cottage and have a small boat that we go fishing with. It’s a reserve so it’s a protected area. There’s moose, there’s deer, there’s bears, there’s all sorts of things walking around. We catch a lot of Trout and Pike. On his favorite boating destination.....The Caribbean is a great place to go, when you can see the bottom and all the fish swimming around. Up by our cottage, the water is clear and when the sun is in the right direction, you can see the bottom of the lake in a lot of places. I like to boat in those areas where you can see the marine life underneath you. On his mission at CEBC.....It makes a difference in the world and that was one of my criteria. I want to work for a business that’s going to make a difference in the world. This was a perfect mix. It’s a big challenge which is always what I’ve been looking for in life. We have a plan and we’re acting our plan on a daily basis. On improving standards for eboating.....We’ve met with the people at the NMMA and ABYC to make sure that they put a category for leisure electric boats into their system and that they have rules and regulations to apply to manufacturers so that there are no accidents that happen with electric boats. We want this to be safe. We’re a bunch of people who are concerned about the environment and the safety of people. On what draws people to the water.....I think it’s the pleasure and the freedom that you feel when you are out on the water. You are completely in a different element. When you get onto the water it’s that good feeling that you’re floating and it’s effortless. There are many ways to do it and you have to pick what you feel best with and think about your real need. We hear all the horror stories of people who say 'I loved the boat when I bought it and I loved it when I sold it' because they didn’t buy the right boat for their need. A lot of people buy the lifestyle but never live it. Think about what you’re going to do with it and try it before you buy it. I have enjoyed learning about electric boating through my conversation with Claude and previous conversation with Steve Trkla of Torqeedo. It is exciting to watch the developments in this segment of the industry and the possibilities of environmentally friendly boating continuing to grow will help make our natural waterways cleaner for generations to come!…
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Niels Kisling is in charge of Marine Sales and Marketing at Davis Instruments , a company with a huge range of products for sailors and powerboaters. Many of you boaters and especially sailors are probably using or have used Davis products and may not even know it. In 2017, Neils accepted the Miami International Boat Show Innovation Award in the Category of Boat Care and Maintenance for their Snap Tool Multi-Key. Niels has spent his entire life boating and sailing, on boats his father hand made! From a rowboat to a 20’ catamaran, Captain Kisling provided Niels a variety of ways to enjoy the water from a young age. Niels grew up boating on Long Island but moved to the West Coast in elementary school and continued pursuing his love of boating off of Capitola, California. It is here that one of the most harrowing events one can imagine occurred in Niels life. Sailing in a race from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara, Niels and his two boatmates got caught in bad weather, hit by a freak wave, and capsized. Sadly, both of Niels friends succumbed to exposure, but Niels persevered. After almost 24 hours at sea, through the sheer power of will, he stayed with it until a tanker saw him a half mile away and maneuvered to rescue him. The power of Niels spirit continues to shine through to this day as he chooses to live his life to the fullest, helping people enjoy the water and spreading the word about safe boating. While we did not get into details about this event, we did have a great discussion about how he got started in boating, navigating at sea, Davis products for everyday boaters, a unique partnership with the O’Neill Sea Odyssey, and more. Enjoy! On his current boating life.....I’m about five miles away from the harbor. We have a boat that was built in Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz was the leader of the light boat design concept back in the 70’s. It’s a Wilderness 40, designed by Gary Mull and it was built by Wilderness Boatworks just about eight miles from where I live. On boating as a child.....I was born in Long Island, NY. My folks moved us out here when I was nine years old. In Long Island we were boating but it was a much different kind of boating. My dad built all our boats and our biggest boat was a 20’ catamaran. We lived on the Bay and the boating was very serene, the wind didn’t blow very hard. Our smallest boat was a little rowboat my dad made me when I was three years old. It was five feet long with four foot oars and I used to be able to take that out by myself any time I wanted to. On boating in his blood.....My dad called himself Captain Kisling, that’s where I got my handle Captain Niels. He went to sea when he was sixteen years old. This was back in 1922. He didn’t have much interest in school so he left home and went to sea on a Danish trading schooner that sailed between Denmark and England. Then he became a third mate and became a radio operator on ships sailing between Denmark and the Far East and Denmark and the Caribbean. On learning to boat.....I think I learned by osmosis, or learned by watching my dad. We used to go sailing and he would ask me to do tasks and I would do it. It was always very relaxed, I never got yelled at. He would encourage us to do things and if we did it right he would praise us. I think that rubbed off. When I take people sailing today we are very casual. There's no yelling or screaming, just a lot of explaining. On teaching kids to boat.....I think one of the biggest things that parents can do wrong is to expect that their children are going to enjoy the same boating lifestyle that they do, and some parents can put a lot of pressure on that. I've taken my boys out on the sailboat ever since they were six weeks old. This morning I was talking about what my son's earliest memory might be and Christian told me his earliest memory was laying in the bean bag in the cockpit looking up at the sails. I thought that was pretty cool. On the Davis product line.....If you're a sailor, you know our Windex wind vane. We have been the North American manufacturer and distributor for going on forty years. Most people with a sailboat look up at their masthead and see your Windex up there. It was designed really well back in the 60’s and still works really well to this day. The next most popular product is Davis Fiberglass Stain Remover . We sell a bunch of it to the US Navy. You’ve got Happy Troller which is great for fishermen trying to slow down their motors. You’ve got Queaz-Away wrist bands which keep you from getting seasick. The whole company was founded on plastic sextants and navigation tools. On the importance of learning navigation skills.....People are losing the ability to put an X on the chart to locate their position. I’m still a believer in paper charts. I encourage my kids when we sail to plot their position on a chart. You can do that with a GPS if you do it on a regular basis. If the GPS ever goes out you only have to go back an hour or two and you know where you were. I think it’s a pretty important thing. One of the coolest things that Davis has experienced lately is that the US Navy has made it mandatory to have a sextant on board and to have two people who know how to use it. For a long time the US Navy discontinued celestial navigation because GPS is so bulletproof but about ten years ago somebody got smart and realized that our electronic navigation can shut down any time and all of a sudden you have Navy ships out there that don’t know where they are. Sextant navigation being in demand on Navy ships has increased demand for home hobbyists and boaters. On the O'Neill Sea Odyssey program.....Jack O’Neill founded this program with Tim O’Neill. They had the concept that they’d like to give back to the community so they made a foundation called the O’Neill Sea Odyssey Foundation where they take schoolchildren out in their sixty foot catamaran for free but in order to be taken out your school has to perform ten hours of community service. It’s a two part program where they take you out on the boat and collect plankton, do navigation with our compasses, and have a little program about the environment and effects of pollution on the ocean, then they go up to the classroom and have a one or two hour program to back up what they do on the water. Right now they are at 995,000 kids they have taken out and this summer they are going to have their one millionth kid on the water. On the most important item to bring boating.....My kids and I always wear our inflatable lifejackets. We really like our inflatable life vests because you don’t even know you have them on but if you fall in the water they’re a huge benefit. Now I realize that all I have to do is slip or fall in the water or hit my head and it’d be very stupid not to have a life jacket on, or have it down below. I think that’s probably the single most important piece of equipment we go boating with. On the best piece of boating advice received.....I was always bothered by sailing downwind. I was always afraid of jibing by accident. My seventh-grade school teacher who built a boat with me taught me the simplest piece of advice that I’ve passed on to thousands of people - 'If you’re afraid you’re close to a jibe, push the tiller towards the boom'. When you do that, the boat comes up into the wind and you get further away from a jibe situation. General boating advice, I think somebody told me a long time ago to go out there and have a good time. Boating gets you to live in the moment. When you’re out there boating it’s all about what you're doing right this second in time. It's not about what bills you have to pay or what appointments you have back on land. Living in the moment is why I go boating.…
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1 Redefining a Genre With Overblue - Part Power Cat, Part Houseboat 33:49
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Rok Babarovic is part of a team that is redfining a genre of yacht. As Business Development Manager, Rok has helped launch the Overblue series of yachts – part power cat, part houseboat. Sensing that people today are seeking comfort, safety, innovation, efficiency as well as adventure all combined in one product, Overblue designed a yacht that offers all the comfort of modern home, is able to cruise in all conditions, is full of innovative solutions, is easy to maintain, is ecological and competitively priced. Prior to joining Overblue in 2015, Rok worked for Seaway Yachts with a focus on sales and marketing and as a Senior Project Manager on carbon high performance blue water sailing yachts. Rok grew up boating around the islands of Croatia and has had many amazing experiences boating around the world in places like Norway, Greece, Hong Kong, and the Caribbean. We discussed what it was like growing up in one of the most beautiful boating destinations in the world, how he transitioned from Computer Science to the boat industry, the origins of the Overblue design and how it came to market, and much, much more. Enjoy! On growing up in the boating lifestyle.....I’ve been involved in boating since I was little. My parents live on an island in Croatia and this is where I started with small fishing boats with my father. Everyone has a boat there so in the summer we used to mess around with different boats and take the tourists around and play. This is how my hobby boating started until I joined it professionally around twenty years old. It’s not a very big island but in Croatia it’s the second biggest island. My father was born in a village with five hundred people. Once a week a ship came from Split and brought everything the small village needed. When I started spending my summers on the island it was all about fun, spending time on the boats and fooling around. On Croatia as a boating destination.....There are over one thousand islands. I've been sailing there for most of my life and it's really something unique. It's still very preserved so you get to experience nature and sail around island hopping. Islands are not far from each other so you’re safe from the sea, from the bigger waves, which is very comfortable for newcomers. On sailing versus power.....I always take a sailboat. It brings me closer to nature and allows me to switch off. Lifting those sails up, listening to the wind, just switching off is one of the nicest things you can experience on a boat. On boating around the world.....One of the very unique places which I was astonished by is Norway . It is something extremely unique and a one of a kind experience with very steep mountains and fjords and beautiful nature and sea. Down south you have Greece which is totally something different. Not a lot of marinas or ports like we’re used to in Croatia or other parts of the Mediterranean. Then you have the Caribbean, another experience totally different and unique. Hong Kong is also a beautiful place and then going further down south in Australia and New Zealand – I remember going out on a powerboat in Auckland going fishing for snappers. Sometimes when I go fishing with friends in Croatia we go for two or three days and we’re happy if we catch a bucket. But when I went for an afternoon in Auckland by the time we finished putting the baits in half were already full with fish. In two hours we had a full cockpit of snappers. That was just amazing. On the Overblue reception in the US.....I love the US market and the way people are open minded. This year we had three boats at the show and it turned heads around. We had a lot of visits and half of the people were dealers and brokers from the industry. We appreciate this market so much because people are so open minded and when they see Overblue and come into the cockpit area with a nice big flat platform, no steps around, they come into the salon with the nice big sofa, they just get it. They understand immediately why this boat is designed the way it looks. On the origins of Overblue.....Our founder has owned a lot of boats and was always a little bit restrained to enjoy space and comfort. They went to one of the lakes in the United States and rented a big house boat and really loved the space. He was really blown away by the comfort but at the same time, the same way he was fascinated by the volume and space, he was not very impressed by how the boat was built and the design and implementation of all the furniture inside. Also, he was not impressed with the fact that these houseboats are not really made to move around a lot. So he asked himself why nobody has built or designed a boat which has all this space and volume focused around the person, but can also go out in the sea. It needs to offer simple solutions in terms of usage, maintenance, handling etc. Eventually we said we have to build one now. The whole idea of the range was 44 and 54 which soon became a range of six models today because of the demand in the market. On getting CE Class B Certification.....At the end of the day, it’s registered, designed, certified and engineered as a power cat. The fact that we’re using the full beam allows us to use the terms home environment, home dimensions, head room, and things like that, but it’s a boat, it’s a catamaran. On changes in the boat industry.....I think the boat industry has changed more in the last five to seven years than in the last thirty years. Traveling around a lot, talking to a lot of different people, cultures, mentalities, I see that owners are using boats in a different way. You will experience soon that the younger generation has a tendency to not like to own things. This is one of the facts we will have to accept because we are selling something that people don’t really need. We’re selling something that people actually want so the approach to the market is completely different. All the boat builders will have to understand that because they will need to adapt. Organizations such as timeshares and boat clubs are unique approaches to the market that are needed today and are actually successful. This is where Overblue offers different ways of owning and using this product, applying it to the industry in terms of different businesses. We’re at the moment building a boutique hotel on the Overblue 58. They’re going to sell cabins with a captain. The product offers it and this is what’s very nice for whoever wants to own it and enjoy it. On advice for aspiring boaters.....When you decide to boat, two questions are the most important. The first one is 'what can you afford?' and the other one is 'how much time do you have?' This will define how you can actually boat, whether it's spending more time on a bigger boat or weekends on a smaller boat, whether that’s sharing a boat with a friend or chartering a boat because you are too busy. Those two questions will direct you. Advice that I was given when I was doing a lot of sailing was 'respect the sea'. If you follow that advice you will always enjoy, you will never be surprised, and even if you do get surprised you will be prepared. After all, it’s nature and it’s extremely strong and we should really know what we’re doing. Respect the sea was one of the strongest pieces of advice I’ve gotten in my career which affects the way I boat. I had a blast talking to Rok and hope to get to visit them overseas and see some of the boat building in action!…
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1 It's All Storytelling - Family and Industry Adventures Around the World 35:17
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Paul Fenn’s career in the boating industry led him to Jeanneau where he eventually took the helm as President of Jeanneau America. Paul ‘passed the baton’ in 2014 but is still on board in a consulting and marketing role with a major focus on brand and lifestyle videos. Paul’s video production extends to his Take a Shot Media company as well as his personal boating life which you can see on his great blog at www.pfenn.com. Paul grew up boating in Connecticut and although it was a major part of his life and a passion of his through school, he graduated without a clear plan for turning his passion into a living. From working charter boats and helping with a transit from New England to the Caribbean, to moving to Annapolis to sell boats, Paul got a taste of how fun working in the business could be and he ultimately ended up at Jeanneau, and hasn’t left! Paul and his wife have raised three kids in the boating lifestyle and have gotten to experience family fun on the water in places like Thailand, the Seychelles, and many more amazing destinations. We discussed his childhood boating, his time at Jeanneau, family trips, and the importance of video in marketing the boating lifestyle. Enjoy! On growing up a boater.....I grew up on the water. I live steps from it just off the Chesapeake Bay . I grew up in New England in a small town called Noank , just at the mouth of Mystic River on Fishers Island Sound . By the time I was 15, I had access to a thirteen and a half foot whaler and I was the king of the sea in that boat. On his earliest boating memories.....We had a little boat called the Skimmer. It was a little wooden boat about 8 feet long, had a wide transom, narrow bow. I remember my dad taking me out and teaching me how to row. Back then we rowed with open oar locks. You really had to get your stroke correct. We had a little 3.5 horsepower engine. I ran around in that at a young age, even by myself at age 9 or 10. My dad loved the water. He loved to sail. When we moved to Connecticut he got into racing small sailboats. He had a boat called the Jolly Boat that he raced with my sister. He loved to be on the water and make the boat go quick. On racing sailboats.....I enjoyed racing but on the Long Island Sound there would be times that you'd go out and there wasn’t a breath of air, so I never became a proficient racer although I still race today when I'm invited to be a guest. I did a race last year with a dealer of ours who owns a Sunfast 3600 . We raced it from Miami to Havana, Cuba. We were out for about 24 hours. You don’t realize how close Cuba is to Miami. But it was a lumpy ride. I just ran into the same folks this last week and we were reminiscing about what an awesome time we had. That’s the way these things go. When you're out there, you're getting beat up and ask yourself what you're doing, and by the time you get to the bar in Cuba you say what an awesome trip, we gotta do that again. On the family trip around the world.....It was my wife’s idea. She wanted to take a world adventure before the kids got too old and didn’t want to go with us anymore. We were on the road for three months but probably could have been on the road for a year. It's not always easy traveling with a family of five. We sailed in the Seychelle Islands . Thailand was really exceptional. We sailed in Phuket . It was just amazing to sail around these beautiful islands. They're very mysterious. They have a lot of limestone in the geology which finds its way into the water. The water itself is sort of a milky emerald green, it's super warm and you get these amazing structures that have been worn down like the inside of a cave. On chartering boats as a travel option.....We had this idea but didn’t follow through on the whole concept. We thought it would be a neat thing to buy like a season pass from a charter company like Moorings or Sunsail or DreamYacht , we sailed with DreamYacht. You pay X amount and you get on and off the boats wherever they have a base around the world. We chartered with DreamYacht a few different times so they knew who I was, helped me get the boats ahead of time, knew what my itinerary was so when we came in they were ready for us. It wasn’t hard and getting around the world on charter boats is a great way to do it. You can fly in and all you have to do is provision and away you go. On his path into the marine industry.....I went to college in New Hampshire and then I came home after graduating with no real plan. I wound up working on a local charter boat and at the end of the summer, someone invited me to do a transit from New England to the Caribbean. Then I got a job at a small charter company up North. One thing led to another and I wound up in Annapolis selling boats on the retail side. An opening became available in Jeanneau and I took that job with the idea that I’d stay for five years or something and it turned out being a twenty year career. In 2014, I passed the baton to a friend who was interested in moving up in the company. I'm still there as a consultant and doing marketing and brand videos. I’m not running the company any more but I’m very involved with Jeanneau and other members of the Beneteau group. On Jeanneau's current line.....We build something like four or five different ranges of powerboats with three or four models in each range. We build sailboats from 30’ up to 64’ and then we have our whole Prestige Yacht range building boats from 46’ up to 75’. It’s a company that has a great deal of expertise and a huge range of talents. On using video as a marketing tool.....We started using video at least eight years ago. We started videoing some of our boats and then we started using video in more of our marketing campaigns. Youtube has become such an amazing vehicle to get the word out. What enables someone like me to be successful at it is that consumers like videos and ones that are authentic and not overproduced. Videos that give good information but are enjoyable to watch and not a corporate video that’s like a brochure in motion. I’m fond of saying that for social media to be successful, your media has to be social and you have to be social with your media. They’re all a story, some of them are funny and some are a little more serious but it's all storytelling. On the Jeanneau BVI rendezvous.....We started offering a rendezvous for our owners in the BVI in 2012. We have owners all over North America coming from Canada and California and Texas and they all come down and charter a boat and we spend a week together sailing around the BVI. We get something like 20 boats to join us. We’re going to go back down for 2018. It would have been very easy for us to say this is probably not the best year to go but we just felt that we had a lot of customers down there and if we came we would help the Caribbean recover quicker. During the Annapolis Sailboat show we ended up raising several thousand dollars for Hurricane relief efforts and we are going to direct that money through the Richard Branson Foundation. We’re going to meet with a representative from the Foundation when we’re down there and hand over this check and get a tour of the islands and see what the hurricanes did. We’re trying to be part of the solution because we want to see people get back down there as soon as possible. On why he likes boating.....I like boating for the simple reason that it gets me away from all the electronics and all the noise of real life. If I can go cruising and wake up in the morning and have my first cup of coffee in the cockpit and just look around, I'm a better person. At sea, offshore, you realize that despite all the advances in technology, when you’re off shore and you’re on the water its exactly the same as it was a thousand years ago. For anyone, being out on the water is a lot of fun. It’s a great social activity available to the entire family.…
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