Gear Up For Spring - And Save!

Our friends from BoatNameGear.com wanted to share this special offer, this weekend only, exclusively for readers of FirstBoat.com and the Daily Boater!

Use this special promo code (DAILY15) now and save 15% on orders of $99 or more of personalized boating gear at www.BoatNameGear.com.
 
Shirts, Hats, Jackets and More
Shop for embroidered boat name visors and hats, or popular wicking performance polo shirts, a new assortment of spring weather jackets, all embroidered with YOUR BOAT NAME!

Buy More And Save
Many items, like our personalized shirts, and our boat name visors and hats have quantity discounts built into the price so you can double your savings.

Save On More Than Apparel
Choose from our popular boat name coffee mugs, or our bamboo cutting boards for limes or cheese, or even an embroidered boat tote to gather all your nautical gear.

Marine Product Review: Sperry SeaRacer

In this week’s Marine Product Review, we test the Sperry Top-Sider SeaRacer Boot...

For the latest installment of the Daily Boater's Marine Product Review, Mark Sutton of MarineProductReviews.com put a pair of Sperry Top-Sider SeaRacer boots to the test.

Are you interested in having your product or service featured in a future Marine Product Review on multiple boating websites? Get the details here or contact Nautical Sites Media for more info.

Read on for our review of the Sperry Top-Sider SeaRacer boot, which is made for serious sailing...

Living and Learning Aboard A Boat

We've been sharing a lot of tips for cruisers from The Boat Galley recently and thought this article/book review from Knots and Boats might help people who want to get started... 

Living Aboard A Boat
By Peter Kozodoy, Knots and Boats

When you have a boating obsession – like I do – you spend some time finding literary daydreams to quench your thirst for getting back on the water.  One of these recently discovered, splendid reads is The Art of Living Aboard a Boat by husband and wife team Al and Lisa Fittipaldi.

The book is a great narrative of two souls who ventured away from land-life and onto the sea, and never looked back.  Most books in this genre often speak too poetically to the emotional and spiritual benefits of being on the water, but the Fittipaldi’s struck a good balance between inspiration and hard-hitting how-to’s.

Boat Galley: Flush or Don't Flush

This week's Boat Galley article contains a little light reading for the head...

Photo courtesy theboatgalley.com

Tips From The Boat Galley
By Carolyn Shearlock, author of The Boat Galley, with over 500 FREE articles to get the most out of your boat kitchen with galley tips, insights & equipment recommendations. A few recipes, too - plus an active Facebook community to ask questions and share tips with other readers! The Boat Galley Cookbook, written with Jan Irons, is now available at Amazon and other retailers.

Okay, this is another post that is only semi-galley... but I've recently had a couple of e-mails on what to do with used toilet paper on board - flush it or not? - and also on one of the forums I'm on. So here goes!

First Spring Boat Shows

This weekend there are sport and boat shows in Florida, NY, Texas and more...  

Although it may not yet feel like it in many parts of North America, this is the first weekend of spring and there are several spring boat shows going on. Although it may not feel like it, spring really is in the air, and it is time to get ready for boating season. And there's no better place to prepare for the season than at a spring boat show.

More of this weekend's boating events are detailed after the pic... 

Yachts on display in Palm Beach. Photo courtesy facebook.com/PalmBeachInternationalBoatShow

The Boat Galley: Tips for New Cruisers

This week's Boat Galley article will help new cruisers begin to figure it all out...

Tips From The Boat Galley

By Carolyn Shearlock, author of The Boat Galley, with over 500 FREE articles to get the most out of your boat kitchen with galley tips, insights & equipment recommendations. A few recipes, too - plus an active Facebook community to ask questions and share tips with other readers! The Boat Galley Cookbook, written with Jan Irons, is now available at Amazon and other retailers.

New and Overwhelmed?
If you're new to boating and cruising, you may be feeling a little overwhelmed. I was SO excited when we bought Que Tal!  And then I woke up the next morning in pure panic as it hit me that I had to figure out what all I needed to put on the boat, where it would fit, what we needed to buy, how I was going to cook and everything else! (continues after this pic of the author and her husband...)

Green Beer at the Boat Show

This St. Patrick's Day weekend, there are boat shows in Maine, Mass, Michigan, Florida, NY and Canada...  

You may or may not find green beer being served at any of the boat shows going on this weekend, but we wouldn't be surprised if you do. A boat show on St. Paddy's Day Weekend - can you think of a better way to celebrate then by attending a boat show with your family and friends. It's the perfect time to get ready for boating season!

More of this weekend's boating events are detailed after the pic...

Robalo boats on display at last week's Philly Boat Show. Photo © Nautical Sites Media.

BoatUS Announces Top Boat Names

BoatUS announces top ten boat names for the past year, including Island Time and Seas the Day...

Is your boat name on the list of top ten boat names? Some people look for a list like this to get ideas for their next boat name. Others look to such a list and breathe a sigh of relief that their current boat name is not included.

Love them or hate them, below are the year's top ten most popular boat names according to BoatUS. (continues after the pic...)

A boat name blanket emblazoned with one of this year's top boat names. Is yours on the list?

The Boat Galley Talks Trash

This week's Boat Galley article gets down and dirty in discussing the issue of garbage in the ocean...

Tips From The Boat Galley

By Carolyn Shearlock, author of The Boat Galley, with over 350 FREE articles to get the most out of your boat kitchen with galley tips, insights & equipment recommendations. A few recipes, too - plus an active Facebook community to ask questions and share tips with other readers! The Boat Galley Cookbook, written with Jan Irons, is now available at Amazon and other retailers.

I've written a number of articles about trash management, and anyone who has driven by a Wal-mart - or in a less developed country - knows the eyesore that windblown trash can become.

And many boaters have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, although there are actually numerous patches. Somewhat less known are the Atlantic Garbage Patches. Actually, there are garbage patches in all of the oceans. While no one has an accurate estimate of the size of these, we know they're big. And mostly plastic. (continues after this disturbing pic...)

Today's Boat Galley Topic: Keeping Trash on the Boat 

Philly Boat Show and More

This weekend's boat shows include Philly, Long Beach, Ft Myers, Knoxville and more...  

You may have trouble getting to many of the boat shows going on this weekend in the Northeast, but not the Greater Philadelphia Boat Show which escaped the brunt of the big snow storm. 

More of this weekend's events are detailed after the pic...

No snow, but tons of boats inside at the Philly Boat Show: www.phillyboatshow.com

The Boat Galley: Propane 101

This week's Boat Galley article provides the basics of using propane on board your boat...

Tips From The Boat Galley

By Carolyn Shearlock, author of The Boat Galley, with over 350 FREE articles to get the most out of your boat kitchen with galley tips, insights & equipment recommendations. A few recipes, too - plus an active Facebook community to ask questions and share tips with other readers! The Boat Galley Cookbook, written with Jan Irons, is now available at Amazon and other retailers.

Add caption

Prior to our first charter trip, I'd never used propane for anything - not even a camp stove or gas grill! And I had very little experience with a gas stove or oven; about all I remember is a few friends having them and seeing them when I helped in their kitchens, but never using one.

So you could say I had more than a few questions... and more as we bought our own boat and began cruising!

I'm not going to try to cover everything about using propane in depth in this article (in particular, I'm not covering maintenance or troubleshooting), but basically hit on the important things to know if you're not very familiar with it.  

Today's Boat Galley Topic: Propane 101

Now I Want A Fleming

Warning: After reading this article from Knots and Boats about the man behind Fleming Yachts, you may get an uncontrollable urge to go out and buy a Fleming. Read on, but don't say we didn't warn you... 

Fleming Yachts - Subscribe to Tony Fleming
By Peter Kozodoy, Knots and Boats

Photo: flemingyachts.com

What follows is a true story.

At 4:47 PM on February 19th, I sent an email to Nicky Fleming, the Director of Marketing at Fleming Yachts, asking for an interview for an upcoming story.

At 10:32 AM on February 20th, Tony Fleming emailed me back.

This is where the Fleming brand begins and ends – with Tony Fleming.  If you have ever read any of Tony’s interviews or articles (this is a great one in which he speaks at length about the reasons behind Fleming builds), you’ll recognize that doing business with Fleming Yachts means doing business with Tony Fleming.  Essentially, by purchasing a Fleming, you’re subscribing to Tony’s system.  You’re saying, “I agree with Tony Fleming that bluewater cruising boats should be incredibly sturdy, timelessly elegant, technologically sound, whisper-quiet, mechanically perfect, and increasingly better with every rendition.”  If you agree with Tony Fleming, come aboard.

Boat Shows March In

This weekend's boat shows include Baltimore, BC, Colorado, Savannah and more...  

If you couldn't get to the main event in Miami last weekend, don't worry, there are still plenty of boat shows to help get you through these last few weeks of winter. This weekend, in fact, there are nautical events all over the country, including Georgia, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland and Maine. There's even a show up in British Columbia worth mentioning.

But we're really jazzed about the big Greater Philadelphia Boat Show which begins this time next week - it's slated to be Philly's largest boat show in 7 years, and admission is only $8 with a coupon from the website: www.phillyboatshow.com

Our boat show calendar has details on these and other upcoming boat shows, and this weekend's events are detailed after the pic...