Life is Better on the Water — Issue #9
Life is Better on the Water
Issue #9 — by Better Boat
Sharks are now tracking hurricanes, and somehow that is the least surprising thing in this issue. The more counterintuitive finding is that the smartest upgrade you can make to your boat this season might not be on the boat at all. Everything you need to make sense of that is a scroll away.
This Week in Boating
The Used Boat Market Is Officially a Buyer's Market
All those boats bought during the pandemic are now hitting the used market fast. Owners who called them "money pits" are bailing out, and the flood of late-model inventory is pushing prices down. If you have been waiting for the right time to upgrade or buy your first boat, the math is finally starting to work in your favor.
Read more at Boating Industry →
NOAA Moves Its Weather Supercomputers to the Cloud. Your Forecast App Gets Smarter.
NOAA just moved its entire weather supercomputing system to commercial cloud infrastructure. That is the backend that powers every marine forecast, storm track, and wind prediction you check before leaving the dock. Better cloud computing means faster model runs and more accurate forecasts. For anyone who has ever made a bad call based on a NOAA marine forecast, this is the upgrade worth watching.
Read more at US Harbors →
The Best Surface to Park Your Boat Trailer On (and What Each One Does to Your Gear)
Concrete, gravel, asphalt, and dirt all treat your trailer differently, and the wrong call costs you money. Asphalt gets soft in summer heat and can sink under a heavy trailer, gravel drains well but shifts, and dirt is fine until it rains and becomes a recovery operation. Toss a set of Better Boat Wheel Chocks under the tires and the surface under you matters a little less.
Read more at Better Boat →
Lithium Boat Batteries vs. AGM: Is the Upgrade Actually Worth It?
Lithium marine batteries weigh less, hold more power, and now come with app connectivity. But swapping out AGM batteries that already work fine is a real cost-and-effort decision. Optima's Orangetop Dual-Purpose units went through a long-term real-world test to find out if the upgrade math actually pencils out for the average boat owner.
Read more at Boating Magazine →
Sharks Are Now Helping Predict Hurricanes Off the US East Coast
Sharks tagged with oceanographic sensors off the US East Coast are now feeding real data into hurricane prediction models. The ocean temperature and salinity readings they collect from depth are hard to get any other way. So the same fish that scared you out of the water might now be the reason you get better storm warnings before your next offshore trip.
Read more at MarineLink →
The One Decision That Can Save Your Life on the Water
There is no piece of gear on your boat that matters more than the one most people leave clipped to a rail or stuffed under a seat. A PFD only works if it is on your body when things go wrong, and things tend to go wrong fast. Toss the Better Boat Throw Bag in reach for the people on deck, but put your own PFD on before you leave the dock.
Read more at Passagemaker Magazine →
Featured Boat
Viking Builds a 50-Footer That Actually Wants to Fish
Viking crammed serious offshore fishability into a 50-foot hull without sacrificing the kind of interior that keeps the non-fishing half of the family happy. That balance is hard to pull off at any size, let alone one that still fits in most marina slips. Details on power and layout are still coming, but the early look suggests Viking did not cut corners on either end.
Read more at Salt Water Sportsman →
Gone Fishing
The Gulf Leads the Nation in Recreational Fishing. Here Is What Keeps It That Way.
The Gulf of America tops every other US region in recreational fishing landings, runs second in commercial revenue, and drives a $20 billion annual fishing economy. From Florida Keys spiny lobster to Texas red snapper, that does not happen by accident. NOAA breaks down how the fishery management partnerships behind those numbers actually work.
Read more at US Harbors →
What Your Boat Really Needs
Seagull Decoy Accountability System
Projects a holographic image of a slightly more attractive boat 40 feet off your stern, redirecting 94% of incoming seagull traffic to a decoy GPS coordinate registered in international waters. The coordinate is updated quarterly to prevent the seagulls from filing a grievance.
Overheard at the Marina
Lost my favorite pair of polarized sunglasses off the bow on Saturday. Two hundred dollar glasses, gone in half a second. The lake has them now. The lake has everything.
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