The annual Providence Boat Show returns to the Rhode Island Convention Center Jan. 3 to 6.

The show features 250 exhibitors, with more than 300 boats on display.

This year’s show features a Small Craft Sailing Center and a Focus on Fishing area. The CastingKids program, presented by the Rhode Island Bass Federation, is a competition for youths 7 to 14.

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The San Diego Boat Show kicks off the New Year with more than 500 boats and the newest accessories Jan. 3 to 6 at the San Diego Convention Center and Marriott Marina.

The in-water display will showcase more than 100 boats. 

Highlights of the show include free sailboat rides and the Take Me Fishing Center.

The show is also participating in the Crocs Test Drive promotion. Interested attendees can provide their drivers’ licenses in exchange for use of the shoes during the show; they’ll have the option to buy the popular footwear before leaving the show.
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Harleyville, S.C.-based Carolina Composites is relocating its manufacturing operations, but has nixed its plans to move to Georgia.

Carolina Composites, which makes Pioneer Boats, plans to invest $5 million in a Walterboro, S.C., plant, according to The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C. The company plans to add 100 employees to its roster of 40 workers.

The company announced earlier this year a plan to relocate its operations to Claxton, Ga. It had planned to start production in January, according to the paper.

“The short of it is, we got them back into our neck of the woods,” Peter H. Arnoti, executive director of the Colleton County Economic Alliance, told the paper.

Pioneer Boats makes center-console bay, fishing and ski boats in lengths from 17 to 22 feet.

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Nominees for Yachtsman of the Year are: Ed Baird, Clay Bischoff; Andrew Campbell, Rick Doerr, Greg Fisher, Tomas Hornos, Pete Levesque, Jeff Linton, Colin Merrick and Dave Ullman.

Nominees for Yachtswoman of the Year are: Sally Barkow, Amanda Callahan, Emily Dellenbaugh, Liz Hall, Lisa Keith, Amy Linton, Karen Mitchell, Paige Railey and Anna Tunnicliffe.

The nominees will be reviewed by a panel of noted sailing journalists who discuss the merits of each nominee and vote to determine winners. The winners will be announced in January and honored on Feb. 29 during a luncheon at the New York Yacht Club in New York City, where they will be presented with Rolex timepieces.

For more information on the accomplishments of each nominee this year, visit www.ussailing.org/awards/rolex.

HMS Argyll, based in HM Naval base, Devonport, Plymouth, will be on the centre of the start line for the race in Plymouth Sound. On board the Type 23 frigate will be yachtsman Mike Golding OBE who will fire the starting flare pistol simultaneously with the ship’s ceremonial saluting cannon at 2pm.

The race, which tests endurance and sailing skills to the limit, will finish in Boston approximately 12 days later for the Imoca 60 Class and 15 days later for the shorter Class 40 boats.

The Royal Navy has strong ties with the sport of sailing through the Royal Naval Sailing Association (RNSA). It is for this reason and the fact that it is a maritime event that the Royal Navy was invited as associate partners to the race. Devonport Naval Base has long been the home of the Royal Navy in the South West and is proud to be the centre of the community and a major contributor to the economy.

Members of the RNSA were responsible for setting up and running with the support of Whitbread, the first ever trans-globe race in 1973-1974. Royal Naval personnel continue to compete in all aspects and at all levels of sailing – notably Lieutenant Commander Penny Clark (Royal Navy) has been selected for the British Olympic Sailing Team and will compete in the Laser Radial Class in Beijing later this year.

The race record for mono-hull boats stands at 12 Days 15 Hours 18 Minutes and 8 Seconds, which was set in 2004 by Mike Golding. First started in 1960, the race was won by Sir Francis Chichester in 40 Days 12 Hours and 30 Minutes followed by Lieutenant Colonel Blondie Haslar Royal Marines eight days later.

The race is held every four years and is the oldest solo race in history. The total race distance is 2,800 miles and takes the competitors through some of the most dangerous waters in the North Atlantic, passing through iceberg fields. The 1960 race is the only one where all the competitors who started (5 of 5), crossed the finish line. The lowest percentage of finishers is 51% (18 of 35) in the 1968 race.

The Transat ‘race village’ is located in the Sutton Harbour and Barbican area of Plymouth, where the Royal Navy have been given prime position for a public information stand to help promote and deliver the Service.

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In the off the beach dinghy class saw Emily Brougham have a very successful season in the Pacer dinghy All @ C.

Emily won the mixed dinghy championship and took out the title Queen of the Gulf in the Pacer class crewed with Tony Zetter at the Easter Regatta with line honours in the Triangular Long Race with crew Kevin O’Neil.

On corrected time David Shaw and Zac Day in Pace Maker drew with All @ C in the Triangular Long Race.

Mitchell Sawyer and Crispin Painter took out the South Long Race in the Pacer TZ, line honours went to Abe Casey and Georgia Gray in Slippery When Wet.

The overall line honours in all classes, WJ Murray Memorial went to Leon Jarvis in Cunning Stunt II and Emily Brougham in All @ C.

The novelty trophies were won by Abe Casey, The Bucket Trophy for the most capsizes and The Dunny Seat Award to Ashleigh Gardiner for numerous spectacular achievements.

Club achievement awards were presented to Grace Foubister, Toby Apsimon memorial club person of the season and the Eyre Peninsula Trophies Junior Club Person of the season, won by Abe Casey.

Crispin Painter won the Bridges Financial Services encouragement award.

Most improved trophy went to Mitchell Sawyer.

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It’s a long way from a mullet boat in Pumicestone Passage to the bridge of 73.5 metre super motor yacht Laurel but it is a transition that David Clarke has taken in his stride.

The latest in a long line of Clarke mariners from Caloundra, he could have been forgiven for taking a moment to reflect on the size of that stride as he handed over charge of the $139 million vessel to a Brisbane Marine Pilot off Kawana yesterday for the last leg of a passage that has taken him across the Pacific.

Two things are certain. Thirty eight year-old David Clarke has probably one of the world’s best jobs, and he certainly has one of the world’s best bosses.

Not only did he ask David to help design the layout when he decided to upgrade from a 165 footer to the Laurel but he insisted it include a nursery, a lure to ensure David and his wife Jodie, the ship’s purser, did not feel the need to leave if they planned a family.

Now one-year-old Keira Morgan, born two years after the ship was commissioned, travels the world in style – the first engineer’s baby for company.

The Clarke family is secretive about just who that boss is, David’s father Les prepared only to say that the mystery man and his wife are delightful, down-to-earth and private.

But he was less inhibited about his son’s employers’ generosity.

The Laurel’s current voyage started in Maine, charted a course via Panama and the Galapagos Islands to Tahiti before heading to Fiji and now here.

It is with considerable pride that David says that there is now not an ocean left that his son hasn’t crossed as skipper.

It is certain that his mother Lorraine, father Les and grandfather Lloyd, who stood on Caloundra Headland yesterday to watch the Laurel steam by, would have been thinking much about family history.

David’s grand grandfather Evan first fished Pumicestone passage in 1915. Son Lloyd took over going on to be the first to commercially fish the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1954 from his vessel the Larry Cork.

The family had a slipway in Pumicestone Passage off Maloja Avenue serving a fleet of 40 trawlers that operated out of Caloundra before the stabilising of the Mooloolah River mouth.

David grew up helping out on his father’s charter vessel The Love Boat working the bar and waiting tables at weddings and parties.

The pair later headed up to the Torres Strait line fishing where he proved a capable first mate navigating while his father slept.

He worked his way up from driving a dive boat on Lizard Island to deckhand on international boat transfers, gathering sea hours and mariner tickets as he went.

David has carried the Prince of Bahrain, Sean Connery and Sidney Poitier as well as skippering the vessel used in Rush Hour Two with Jackie Chan.

It may be a world away from the Passage and the mullet runs by which family life was once measured.

But it’s a life not completely out of step with his parents who have traded their house for home on a converted pilot boat, now anchored in Cairns in readiness for a two-year navigation of Australia.

LAUREL SPECS

The Laurel, built by Delta in Seattle, when launched in 2005 was the biggest private yacht built in the United States in the past 75 years.

Designed by Donald Starkey, it has a steel hull and composite super structure.

It has a 250Kw bow thruster and 150 Kw stern thruster.

Overall length: 73m; displacement: 1,595,000kgs.

Tim Mock, RNLI coxswain at Exmouth, saw the 22-foot yacht grounding in broken seas on the seaward side of the Pole Sands and launched the Mersey Margaret Jean and the inshore lifeboat George Bearman to help the one person onboard the vessel. Within half an hour the sailing boat had been towed off the sand on the rising tide – the station’s former Trent class lifeboat would have been unable to launch in low tide.

Kevin Riley, Exmouth RNLI lifeboat operations said: “The Mersey made all the difference.

“The Trent class lifeboat was tidally restricted and couldn’t leave her moorings for around two hours each side of low tide, so we wouldn’t have been able to use her.

“The Mersey with its shallower draft was able to negotiate the channel successfully so both the lifeboats could work together to assist the yacht. It’s proof the Mersey is the ideal lifeboat for Exmouth, especially with the channel changing and silting up so quickly.”

Once the yacht had been taken off the sand, one of the volunteer lifeboat crew brought the yacht into Exmouth docks while both lifeboats were then called on to assist three kite surfers who were in difficulty off Exmouth’s main beach.

www.exmouthjournal.co.uk

All told, 77 people died. Eight deaths were in Tampa Bay — from a 49-year-old Spring Hill man thrown from a speedboat to a kayaker who became unconscious after he fell into the water near the Gandy Bridge.

The 2007 statistics, released this week, come just weeks after state lawmakers bypassed a plan to phase in boater education requirements, which state officials believe would reduce deaths by as much as 25 percent.

Last year, 70 percent of all boating accidents involved operators with no formal safety education; for fatalities, that number was 85 percent.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission asked the Legislature to approve a plan to phase in mandatory boater education over the next 11 years. Currently, only boaters under 21 must take such coursework.

“The numbers show that boater education works,” said Capt. Richard Moore, the state’s top boating law administrator. “Our research shows that we could save 15 to 25 lives a year if everybody took a safe boating class.”

But at a Feb. 6 meeting of the House Committee on Conservation and State Lands, the commission’s proposal fell on deaf ears. Legislators were skeptical about expanding the current regulations, equating it to big government.

“I don’t think it’s necessary for every person, especially those who have grown up with boats and would have enough common sense to know what’s right and wrong when on the water,” said Rep. Faye Culp, a Tampa Republican and vice chairwoman of the committee.

Two other Tampa Bay area lawmakers also weighed in. Rep. Rob Schenck, R-Spring Hill, called it “another case where government tries to act as our grandmothers.”

Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, voiced support for the current regulations, but felt older boaters should recognize the risks. “For everyone who swims in a pool, we don’t force them to go take a course to tell them you are swimming at your own risk,” he said.

But Moore said older boaters are at the heart of the problem.

“Most of the boating accidents and fatalities involve people 36 years or older, who have more than 100 hours boating experience and no formal boating education,” he said.

In 1996, Florida began requiring boaters 21 years or younger to take a boater education course. Since its passage, young boaters have gone from being involved in more than 21 percent of accidents to 14 percent.

The Florida Boating Advisory Council, which is comprised of 18 people representing a variety of boating interests, supported the Conservation Commission measure. So does a majority of voters and boaters in the state, according to commission surveys, including one conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research in 2007.

The Mason-Dixon poll showed that 89 percent of those polled support requiring all boaters to undergo mandatory education.

The deadliest area for boaters in Florida was Miami-Dade with 13 fatalities. Statewide, the leading cause of death continues to be drowning.

State officials say drowning deaths would also decrease if boaters would wear life jackets, or personal flotation devices.

“There is really no excuse for it. Today’s PFDs are not hot or cumbersome like the old ones,” said Lt. Ed Cates, a commission boating safety officer. “You can wear one all day and forget you have it on.”

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With invasive mussels infiltrating California’s waterways, proposals are under consideration to temporarily ban boats from Santa Clara County reservoirs or simply inspect each watercraft for the pests that wreak havoc on the environment.

Neither the Quagga or Zebra mussels have been found in county reservoirs yet, but local officials don’t want to take any chances. The proposals are a pre-emptive strike against the threat.

At issue, though, is what to do and who will pay for it. And, at the center of it all are two entities, the Santa Clara Valley Water District and Santa Clara County.

Both have been in talks on how to develop an inspection process.

Under the water district proposal, the ban would last until the county can start a boat inspection program at all seven of its local reservoirs that allow boating.

“Now that we’re moving into the summer months, more people are out boating,” said water district spokeswoman Susan Siravo. The mussels usually spread on boats, she said, a concern because zebra mussels were recently found in San Bernardino County’s San Justo Reservoir.

The mussels cling to hard surfaces, such as boat bottoms, anchors and hulls, damaging boats and clogging water intake structures. Both species of mussel are non-native aquatic mollusks that disrupt the natural food chain and release toxins that affect other aquatic species. They range in size from microscopic to the magnitude of a fingernail.

“We know people like to go from one reservoir to another,” Siravo said. “There’s a real sense of urgency, since Zebra mussels have been found so close to our reservoirs.”

The possible ban will be discussed at the water district’s Tuesday board meeting, which will be open to the public.

But Santa Clara County officials say a temporary ban isn’t necessary and on Wednesday County Executive Pete Kutras called instead for an inspection of the boats to begin on Memorial Day weekend.

“The appropriate move to address the spread of Quagga and Zebra mussels is to immediately begin inspecting all boats launching in local reservoirs and to continue permitting active recreation,” Kutras said. “In the end, it’s their land and they can choose to ban boating, and I’m trying to be clear that they ought not to.”

The cost of the program is expected to be up to $700,000, and both agencies believe the other should pay for it. Kutras is proposing a $7 fee to help defray the costs of the program at Anderson Lake, Calero Reservoir and Coyote Lake.

Siravo said the financial responsibility rests with the county because the county handles the recreational aspect of the reservoirs and the water district doesn’t get any of the revenues.

But county officials pointed out that if the mussels spread here, they could damage water district equipment, and that the district has more financial resources to pay for it than the county. “We’re not doing this to facilitate recreation, we’re doing this to protect the infrastructure of the water system,” Kutras said.

Last year, 150,000 permits were issued for vessels to operate in the county’s reservoirs. Some boaters don’t like either idea.

“It’s a delicate subject. Personally, I think, most of these regulations are going to make the activity of boating much more difficult to participate in,” said Greg Smith, a boater who also works at West Marine in Saratoga. “These inspections are too strict, they’re not loose enough.”

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