Life is Better on the Water — Issue #14
Life is Better on the Water
Issue #14 — by Better Boat
The oldest shipwreck ever found just reminded everyone that humans have been confidently going to sea and occasionally getting it wrong for 4,700 years, which feels relevant given that a self docking autopilot launched this week while researchers quietly confirmed that no single navigation system actually sees the full picture. History and headlines are having a moment together, and what connects them is more useful than either one alone.
This Week in Boating
4,700-Year-Old Shipwreck Found off Turkey Is One of the Oldest Ever Discovered
Someone was sailing the Mediterranean nearly 3,000 years before the Roman Empire, and we just found proof. Underwater archaeologists off Kekova Island, Turkey, pulled up Early Bronze Age pottery from a wreck nearly 5,000 years old. It is one of the oldest maritime finds ever recorded, and it is already reshaping what historians thought they knew about ancient sea trade.
Read more at MarineLink →
Minn Kota and Humminbird Merge Into One Brand
Two of the biggest names in fishing electronics just became one. Minn Kota, known for trolling motors, and Humminbird, the fish finder giant, have merged. Details on what this means for product lines and pricing are not yet available, but when your trolling motor and your fish finder share the same parent company, tighter integration is almost certainly coming.
Read more at Salt Water Sportsman →
Three Dead After Boat Capsizes on Lake St. Clair
Three people are dead after a boat capsized on Lake St. Clair in Macomb County, Michigan. All three were found in the water. Details on the vessel, the number of people aboard, and what caused the capsize are not yet available.
Read more at Google News: Big Boating News →
Simrad's AutoCaptain Can Now Dock Your Boat For You
Parallel parking a boat just became a lot less sweaty. Simrad's AutoCaptain uses stereo cameras, machine learning, and Mercury joystick control to dock a boat without touching the wheel. It is designed for production boats, not just concept builds. Details on pricing and availability are not yet available.
Read more at Yachting Magazine →
No Single Navigation System Sees Everything, and Sailors Are Learning This the Hard Way
Tug captains are asking why sailboats seem to disappear from their screens, and the answer is that AIS, radar, and GPS each have real blind spots the others don't cover. A LaGuardia runway collision is the land-based parallel: two systems said all clear, and they were both wrong. Relying on any one of these tools as your only set of eyes is a gamble you don't want to lose on open water.
Read more at Cruising World →
New App Detects Man Overboard Incidents Automatically, Even When No One Sees It Happen
Sixty percent of people who go overboard do so with no one watching. PredictWind built a new Man Overboard app for DataHub Pro users that alerts the crew the moment someone hits the water. Every second of delay puts more distance between the boat and the person in it, and this closes that gap automatically.
Read more at Boating Industry →
Featured Boat
Sea Ray's SLX 360 Outboard Is the Brand's Bet on Luxury Performance
Sea Ray built a 36-foot outboard sport cruiser that is trying to do everything at once: luxury finishes, serious performance, and enough tech to make it feel like a floating Tesla. Details from the full test are thin, but the SLX 360 outboard platform is a big deal for a brand that spent years committed to sterndrives. If Sea Ray pulled it off, this is one of the more interesting sport boats of the year.
Read more at Boating Magazine →
Gone Fishing
1,116-Pound Bluefin Tuna Nearly Sets New Hampshire Record, But a Technicality Killed the Title
A 1,116-pound bluefin tuna pulled from New Hampshire waters would have been the biggest ever caught in the state. It did not get the record due to a technicality, because of course it did. Details on the exact disqualification are not yet available, but a four-figure bluefin is a four-figure bluefin regardless of what any paperwork says.
Read more at Outdoor Life →
What Your Boat Really Needs
CaptainClap™ Hands-Free Docking Applause Module
CaptainClap™ monitors your docking approach speed and alignment, then triggers a built-in surround-sound crowd applause system scaled precisely to the quality of your park. A perfect landing earns a standing ovation; a piling strike triggers polite but clearly disappointed golf clapping.
Overheard at the Marina
I asked my seven-year-old to put on her life jacket.
We negotiated for forty minutes, agreed on the inflatable, then she wore it backward the entire day and called it a backpack.
Better Boat Pick
Pontoon Boat Stands Storage Blocks
$79.99
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