We're hard at work finally, putting the new site look up, and making sure all the content is fresh and newly updated. Please bear with us over the next week or two if you find something missing or a broken link or two. We are working hard to get caught up so if something doesn't work right today, please check back tomorrow!
If you're looking around for a few of the sections we had before, I'm sorry to say that some of them are just plain gone. I decided it was time to narrow the focus of the site a bit to make sure we can really do a good job of covering the things we kept around. We were getting a little thin before, trying to offer something for everyone. We've got a new sitemap here though, so you can see all the sections.
In our sailing section, we're going to cover a bit of everything related to traveling by windpower. If you're passion is racing, we'll keep you updated. If you are more of a cruiser, we've got that covered as well. And if you're into those adrenaline activities such as windsurfing, we've got something for you as well.
Running the full range from trailerboats on up to Megayachts, powerboats of all shapes and sizes are covered in this area. We've even got some coverage for those of you who prefer to spend your time on board a personal water craft or jetski. Whatever your pleasure, if it's got a throttle, it's in here.
For lack of a more appropriate place to put them, we've got some specific information on many of the major lakes and waterways in the west covered in this section as well. Places like Lake Powell, Lake Mead, Flaming Gorge and more, we've got a weatlth of information you should check out before you go.
I'm not sure I can explain why men are so interested in high tech goodies, so I won't try. Better to just embrace the madness, right? In our Tech section, we keep an eye on all the latest goodies that no manly man will want to go out onto the water without.
At the time we were sitting here busy overhauling this site, the economy was tanking, the popular media was beating us over the head with a continuous stream of bad news, and frankly, many people seem to want to just curl up under a rock somewhere and avoid all the doom and gloom. We decided to take a slightly different tack. We're going to stay focused on the positive around here. For me personally, no matter how bad the day has been, as soon as I step foot onboard Vortex, my Santana 22 sailboat, I begin to feel the stress and worries slide off my shoulders. I think boating is like that for many of us. Not only do we escape the concrete jungle when we head out onto the water, but in many ways we're able to escape the pressures of the day as well. Sure, they'll still be there when we get back, but the time we spend aboard is a welcome respite, a chance to recharge and renergize ourselves, so let's promise to do everything we can to keep enjoying the seas and lakes, to keep the bottoms of our boats wet and to keep focused on the good times that are surely to come just over the horizon.
While the auto industry seems to be getting all the press these days, the boating industry isn't just sitting around doing nothing to address the growing call to get us off our addiction to oil. Hybrids designs for powerboats are starting to take to the water, more efficient hull designs and propulsion systems are exploding in this arena. There is an explosion of improvements being made in technology that relates to boating, better navigation systems, easier to integrate control and monitoring systems and more. It's an exciting time to be watching the boating industy right now!
We're bringing a couple of new features to the site today. One is our Event Tracker Database and the other is our Organization Tracker. With these two databases, we're now giving you the ability to tell the world about your upcoming Event, or to tell us about a Company, Club, Team, Non-Profit Organization, Website or the like. Using the links below, you can now add information in to the database, or see what we currently have listed.
While we're getting the thing populated, we're also working on more detailed search and query options, to make it easier for you to search for a local event or a specific vendor, organization, etc. Take a look and if you know about something that's not in here, go ahead and feel free to post the information
Events
Organizations
For those of you who trailer your boats around between different bodies of inland water, we want to make sure we're doing our part to inform you of the dangers of aqautic hitchhikers. You may not heard much about them, but there are species of mussels that are tagging along on some of our boats and using this free ride to invade many of our lakes and reservoirs. These transplanted pests often have no natural predators to control their populations, and they can quickly cause all sorts of problems. For instance, in January of 2007, the Quagga Mussel was discovered in Lake Mead. You may have also heard these pests referred to as Zebra Mussels, and while technically two different species, they are very similar in nature. Both species, Zebra Mussels and Quagga Mussels, in general, are usually about an inch or less long, but may be larger. They attach themselves to hard surfaces and are often found in clusters. When they get into a freshwater reservoir, they can grow out of control, causing problems with all sorts of things such as water inlets, gateways and such. This problem is serious and immediate and if you move your boat around, you can take some simple steps to make sure you're not contributing to the spread of these pests.
If you want to see some pictures of these nasty little buggers and the damage they can cause, check out these pictures that the Bureau of Reclamation has on their site.
The 100th Meridian Intiative site is probably the single best stop to get yourself up to speed on the battle against these pests. They even have a short online training session you can go through, and at the end you'll get a certificate that you can use to show friends and authorities that you are doing your part to make sure you're helping in the fight.
Whatever doesn't fit into one of the specific sections above will wind up in our "other stuff" section. We do try to stay
organized around here, but once in a while we find something that we want to cover but that just doesn't really seem to fit
anywhere specific. So, don't be afraid to take a peek at that section from time to time, and if something really cool goes
there we'll mention it here too.
We also select a few advertisers to link up with here, so please visit them when you're looking to do a little shopping online. Their inclusion here plays a critical role for us, they pay the bills around here. We are careful when we choose those we link up with, but we would love to hear from you if you are an advertiser who thinks your product or services is a logical fit here.