Boats on the Web
This is a collection of World Wide Web sites created by or for recreational boaters, power and sail. I stumbled on, linked to, or was pointed to these web pages (and others) while researching an August, 1995, article about boating and the Internet for Soundings, the nautical newspaper based in Essex, Connecticut. As might be expected, the links are somewhat dated. I had hoped to find time to update them all in the summer of '97, but just didn't get around to it. However, I did find time to write another couple of articles for Soundings, including one about Walt Bilofsky and his Web pages for the California Cape Dory Owners Association and the rec.boats burgee museum. That article appeared in the August issue of Soundings. Another one was scheduled for September or October, and it's in part about the links you'll find on this page -- including the stories behind some that no longer work. If I can find a neat little graphic of a cobweb, I'll add it to the ones that have disappeared. If you're looking for a sailing site and its link doesn't work, check the directory at The Sailing Source (see link below). Laser and Sunfish have moved because of the boat company's change in ownership, but luckily I've been introduced to Bob Ames Naval Architecture site, Bob's own designs, and his links to the new Team Vanguard site, which includes his Vanguard 15 and the Laser, Sunfish and Optimist classes.Soundings itself has gone online, but a change in Internet providers has at least temporarily taken off its archive of stories, including a few wrote about the Internet, starting with Navigating Cyberspace and Becoming a Virtual Community two years ago.
-- Fairwinds to old and new friends online and on the water,
Bob Stepno
COMMERCIAL SITES
http://www.paw.com/sail/
The Sailing Source calls itself a weekly web sailing magazine, but it's also a launching place for other marine business and information services, including a searchable database of sailing schools and charter operators and another of all the vendors at S ail Expo. The November Sail Expo in St. Petersburg and new sites for Harken and JBoats were among those planned this summer.http://www.paw.com/sail/SunfishLaser/
An online catalog for Sunfish and Laser sailboats.http://www.paw.com/sail/Fernhurst/
Fernhurst Nautical Books adds new titles as published, with samples of the cover photos, including books on engines, electronics, motorboating, and a section called "Navy, knots and nautical humor."http://www.aztec.com/pub/aztec/mariner/
The Mariners Net includes a newsletter for Catalina Sailors, a catalog for women sailors, a captain's license training program, marine weather conditions on Chesapeake Bay, and links to boat manufacturers, magazines, government agencies, marinas, classifi eds, and plans contests and games.http://boatworks.com
BoatWorks, the "Marine Marketplace of the Internet" in Jacksonville, Fla., has a national listing of more than 100 powerboat and sailboat brokers and is inviting brokers to establish their own home pages. Among the first onboard were Taber Yacht Sales of Port Salerno, Fla., and Greenport, N.Y., and Jacksonville Yacht Sales, the largest full-service yacht brokerage in Jacksonville.http://www.gsn.com/datanet.htm
Soundings Marine Datanet is this magazine's home on the Internet, with a searchable database of the 10,500-boat brokerage advertising section. Datanet is part of the Global Shopping Network (GSN), which has a substantial marine trades section. Besides ads , Soundings provides a selection of its articles and photos online, and its extensive marine events calendar listings. GSN is also home to Boston Whaler, West Marine, the KVH marine electronics company, and many others.http://www.yachtnet.com/
Yachtnet includes the Intersail journal and Yachtnet boat show. The journal includes the Herreshoff Marine Museum Newsletter, and news of events including the Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year awards.http://www.tiac.net/users/marine/mart.html
Marine Mart offers advertising and listings for pleasure boat marine goods and services. It includes pages for several marinas: Wordly Bay Marina, Charleston, N.C.; Wentworth By The Sea Marina in New Castle, N.H., and Marina Bay on Boston Harbor in North Quincy, Mass.http://www.yachtsales.com/listings/
Don Robertson Yacht Sales is based in Port Credit, Ontario, Canada, and its Web site lists used and new boats, marine stores, yacht clubs, marinas, charter companies, surveyors and sail makers.http://www.glf.com/iyc/index.html
The Internet Yacht Club is a Web page for Gulf Star Charters Inc. in Apopka, Fla., supplementing its charter information with, news forums, weather, and marine services, particularly a Hild Sails company page.http://serv1.vossnet.co.uk:80/yacht/
The Yachtlink Web Server is based in Great Britain and offers boats for sale and charter not only in the British Isles, but in Spain, France, Turkey and Sweden, organized by location, type and size, some with photographs.http://www.boatnet.com/boatnet/index.html
BOATNET started in the Pacific Northwest, but is bringing other areas online, with spec sheets and color images of pleasure and commercial boats offered by individuals and brokers, as well as a "Boat Show" section with new models, charter listings, and bo ating products.http://www.cybermalls.com/cywharf/cywhamal.htm
The CyberWharf at the CyberMall has display space for information from powerboat and sailboat builders, accessories, clothing, hardware and equipment dealers, electronics and navigation instrument suppliers, fishing equipment, and more. This one may be go ne for good, but was looking for funding in the spring.http://www.yahoo.com/Business/Corporations/Sports/Boating/
Yahoo is a guide to hundreds of Web sites; by adding the subcategories you can go directly to the boating area of its database for links to lists dozens of commercial boating sites. The Netscape Web browser links Yahoo to it's "net directory" button.http://webcom.com/~criteria/
Criteria Insturments, Inc., had its own bulletin board before discovering the World Wide Web. Criteria makes Fleetwise/RVO, a boating safety education program, among other products. The Web site includes a visitors log, with a chance at free software as a promotion for signing in.http://www.ac95.org/
The America's Cup may have flown to New Zealand, but the cup organization's high-tech web site was nominated for site of the year by Internet users and is still online with well-sponsored technical information, detailed America's Cup newsletters, press re leases, photos and more.http://www.databoat.com/
Databoat has boat-building plans and books for sale online, and will offer a discount for orders that mention finding the Internet site through Soundings.
PERSONAL, COLLEGE AND CLUB SITES
http://www.apparent-wind.com/sailing-page.html
Almost any site related to boats has a link to, and from, Mark Rosenstein's page. It features more than 30 screens full of pictures and links organized into 17 categories (at last count) from one designs to tall ships, and from marine archaeology to celestial navigation.http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~ward/chanty/chanty.html
The Cal Tech Sailing Club is collecting addresses for words to sea chanteys likeBlow the Man Down and Early in the morning (What do you do with a drunken sailor), and has a few nautical tunes in digital form for sound-equipped computers, but can they spel l "bail" as "bale" and still graduate?http://www.inrete.it/vela/sail.html
The Angelo Mascaro's Sailing page is in Italy, but has both English and Italian language versions available, with links about boat building, marine software, and an exaustive collection of Internet addresses. If you read Italian, you can also read Angelo Mascaro's opinions regarding the America's Cup.http://www.atlanta.olympic.org/sports/yachting/yachting.html
With IBM's sponsor logo already proudly displayed, this site will probably have more information as the 1996 Olympics approach. It already has information on each sport and each venue, as well as an official program, ticket and travel information and a calculator that counts down the days to the Olympics at the root addres of http://www.at lanta.olympic.org/
http://www.iia.org/~morris1/nyack.html Nyack Boat Club in Nyack N.Y., complete with a photograph of the club and a map showing the clubhouse's Hudson River location north of the Tappan Zee Bridge has its own club information and race results, but also links to the America's Cup pages, weather information, and a variety of sailing pages.
http://www.msen.com/~pwmeek/
Pete Meek is a Michigan boater who has been a computer hobbyist for years and loves to share information about his boat, Honky Tonk, his favorite cruising area, the St. Clair Flats, and has shipped Internet yachting caps around the world.http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~ec10576/
Elaine Chapin, a lifelong boater who was finishing her doctorate this spring, sails with the Decatur Sunfish Club on Lake Decatur, Illinois and with the University of Illinois Sailing Club.http://www.well.com/www/pk/fishmeal.html "Call me Fishmeal" is Paul Kamen's invitation to a web site full of tongue-in-cheek America's Cup satire (some of it using rather salty language), Zero-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race, and serious information about yacht design (which is what he does for a liv ing). Look for the America's Cup Free Press, as well as the Merit 25 Class home page, the Cal Sailing Club, and the CyberCruise home page.
http://www.edu.isy.liu.se/~d94einbr/
Einar's sailing site is in Sweden...http://www.ai.mit.edu/snipe/snipe.html
The Snipe Sailing Server. The Snipe Class is one of many one-design fleets represented on the net, but with a computer address at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology you'll find Web expertise as well as regatta schedules, results, and photos.http://ngp.ngpc.state.ne.us/boating/boating.html
The state of Nebraska has even come up with a boating information page for natives and visitors to its lakes and rivers.http://www.law.indiana.edu/misc/laser.html
Laser sailing is the topic of this site at the University of Indiana School of Law.http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~dkern/sail.html
Doug Kern at the University of Texas created a website dedicated to sailboat racing of all types, with links to not only the America's Cup, but the Pan Am Games in Argentina, The Brut/Faberg‚ Match Race Series, British Telecom Global Challenge '96, The BO C Challenge, and the 50th Annual Sydney-Hobart Race, Whitbread 97-98 campaign, a dozen one-design classes, and more.http://www.aladdin.co.uk/sihe/
Aladdin Sails in England has its own index of boating information on the Internet.http://www.enst-bretagne.fr:3000/
The Brest 96 international rendezvous for boats and mariners has its own site whether or not you are planning a voyage to France for the July 13 to 20 event next year.http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~bbjones/nauticalbook.html
The nautical book list at Stanford University is alphabetical by author's last name, with incidental information, and dates when first published, including about 244 authors and 863 titles.http://www.mit.edu:8001/usa .html
This is a map of current weather conditions across the United States. To get a forecast for a specific location, click on that location.http://www.tiac.net/users/dmurphy/harbor.html
Provincetown, Mass., has its own cruisers' guide online, complete with not only descriptions of local attractions, but a sample harbor chart, Cape Cod Canal current and tide tables, and a couple of photographs.http://tigger.cc.uic.edu/~toby-g/pyrates.html
The Pyrate's Life is eclectic and historical, with famous pirates of the past, their parrots, treasures, myths and facts.
Caveat emptor
Sites are coming and going rapidly, adding menus hinting at great collections of features which may eventually lead only to an "under construction" sign, or to less than you expected. One major marine store, for example, had an icon with a picture of foul weather gear on a button marked "clothing." Clicking on it produced the detailed "clothing" menu, consisting of two categories: "bags" and "watches." Going farther uncovered exactly four duffels and four timepieces.
This page has not been updated since 1995, but I hope to get back to it sometime in the summer of 1997.... along with writing a new article for Soundings. I can be reached by email at bob@stepno.com
-- Bob Stepno