One Sweet Ride

Fishing tournaments always arouse competitiveness, but imagine the heightened spirit when everyone participating in the inaugural Abaco Billfish Challenge got a load of this: a custom marlin motorcycle created by Paul Teutul Sr. and Jr. of Orange County Choppers, featured on the popular TV show "American Chopper."

The tourney, hosted by the Abaco Beach Resort and Boat Harbor, attracted 40 boats. While only one went home the weekend of June 16 with the beautiful bike, the Teutuls, who were at the event, also designed a dolphin bike (in the background of the photo), which was auctioned off for $300,000.

New Slips, Safe Manatees

On Tuesday, the Broward County Commission passed a plan that allows for the construction of 4,392 new boat slips. An earlier draft of the proposal called for 7,000 new slips to be built but was hotly contested by environmentalists hoping to limit the number of manatees in Broward that are killed by boats. The approved proposal marks a compromise between the boating industry and state wildlife officials.

The Broward plan greenlights the construction of storage units, parking spaces, and other boating facilities. It also mandates that 513 of the new slips be set aside for those who cannot afford private dock space. The County Commission instated additional means of protecting manatees including a fee increase for boaters that are caught speeding and the installation of speed-reduction signs that light up when manatees are present.

"Everybody understands this is a compromise plan," said Frank Herhold, executive director of the Marine Industries Association of South Florida in an interview with the Sun-Sentinel. "We all hope it will stand the test of time."

Calculating Costs

If you've done banking or even just researched your financial lending options online, no doubt you've noticed those handy cost calculators the major banks feature on their Web sites. Have you ever wondered why there isn't a marine equivalent?

Well, actually, there is, and it's on the Web site of Luxury Yacht Group, a firm offering a variety of services ranging from yacht management to crew placement and charter. But Luxury Yacht Group's Cost Calculator is arguably better than the banks' version, going beyond a simple "enter price and APR here" numbers-cruncher. It takes a total of 33 pieces of specific information about your yacht into account, to ensure you get a customized report breaking down your annual operating costs.

Here's how it works. You start with basic details such as the length of your yacht, then add more in-depth information such as engine type and hours, cruise and top speeds, the dockage rate you pay, even whether you have crew (and what type of uniforms they wear), how often you wine and dine guests, and whether your yacht is regularly adorned with fresh flowers. (Don't laugh; you'd be amazed at what some owners spend on fresh flowers—on a weekly basis.)

Interested in offering your yacht for charter? Luxury Yacht Group's Cost Calculator even has a section devoted to that, giving you the ability to input rates for summer and winter, along with the number of weeks you'll make the yacht available each season. This helps you determine whether you can offset your overall expenses.

Once you've input all the data, hit "submit," and you can get a printable report.

Now if only deciding between the Feadship and the Lurssen you've been eyeing was so easy...

Waterman Challenge

Imagine paddling 3.6 mph over the course of a few days to travel 175 miles. Crazy? Not to Kevin Horgan, who'll be doing just that, barring any weather-related delays, from New York City to Newport, Rhode Island beginning June 29.

Horgan is a water fanatic and an expert at paddle surfing, a fusion of canoe paddling and surfing. In fact, last summer, while standing on a 12-foot board and paddling with a seven-foot paddle, he became the first person in recent history to have paddled the four major channels in the Hawaiian islands.

Horgan is also the brother of Harry Horgan, the founder of Shake a Leg in Miami, an organization that creates water-based programs for kids and adults with disabilities as well as disadvantaged youth. Harry himself is in a wheelchair, due to an accident many years ago, but it’s never stopped him from pursuing his passion for the water and from encouraging other people to do the same. (He even worked with the build and design teams behind the 153-foot Genesis, now known as Argyll, to ensure the yacht’s passages were wheelchair-friendly.) Kevin says he’s always looked up to Harry and wanted to do his share to raise awareness of the power that water has to be many things to many people: “The ocean doesn’t care if you’re on a surfboat, in a wheelchair, or on a sailboat—it just is.”

Thus the Waterman Challenge was born. Various sponsors, including Shake-a-Leg, are supporting Kevin’s efforts, but regular folks like you and me are donating as well. Everyone who gives a donation of $100 or more receives a special Waterman Challenge T-shirt. You could also win a stay at the NamiNori House in Hawaii and the chance to learn to paddle with Kevin. For more information, click here.

Make Gas Last

With summertime gas prices skyrocketing, here are BoatU.S.'s top ten tips for getting the most from a tank of gas.

1. Leave the extra ‘junk’ home: Don’t load the boat up with weight you don’t need. Do a little spring cleaning—unused equipment that has been collecting mildew in the bottom of lockers for years should be taken home.

2. Water weight: At 8.33 pounds per gallon, why keep the water in the tank topped off if you’re only going out for the afternoon?

3. Tune her up: An engine tune-up is an excellent investment and should easily pay for itself over the summer.

4. Tune your prop: If your boat goes 30 mph with a like-new prop and only 27 mph with a prop that’s dinged and out of pitch, that’s a 10% loss in fuel economy, or, you’re wasting one out of every ten gallons you put in your tank.

5. Paint the boat’s bottom: When boating in salt or brackish waters a fouled bottom is like a dull knife. It takes a lot more fuel to push your boat through the water.

6. Keep the boat in trim: Using trim tabs or distributing weight evenly will help move your boat through the water with less effort – and less fuel.

7. Go with the flow: Consult tide tables and try to travel with the tide whenever possible.

8. Install a fuel flow meter: A fuel flow meter is like a heart monitor; when consumption starts to rise, it’s an early warning that something is amiss. A fuel flow meter also allows you to select a comfortable cruising speed that optimizes the amount of fuel being consumed. If you don’t want to spring for a fuel flow meter (about $300), you can calculate your fuel mileage by dividing distance traveled by gallons at fill-up. Using your logbook, you can then approximate fuel flow using average speeds and time underway.

9. For sailboats only: While their engines are miserly, a sailboat with a fouled bottom, prop, or poorly maintained engine can have marked effect on its fuel economy.

10. Get a discount: Many of the 870 BoatU.S. Cooperating Marinas around the country offer up to 10 cents off a gallon of gas. To get the discount all you have to do is to show your BoatU.S. membership card.

Photo credit: www.wjye.com