Jonathan Sweet

As you’ve often seen me write about here and in the pages of the magazine, I think bringing more minorities into boating needs to be one of the top priorities for our industry … and others have been saying that for years as well. So it’s great to see one of the important parts of that effort come to fruition ...

Marine Special Products Group, a boating systems maintenance and installation company out of Connecticut, is employing cartoons on its website to have a little fun with common boating problems. The company worked with Walden Pond Marine Marketing to conceive the idea and hired former New Yorker cartoonist Al Raebuck to illustrate common boating issues, such as foul-smelling heads and uncomfortable ...

This week marks only four months until we kick off this year’s Marine Dealer Conference & Expo in Orlando. We’ve got a great lineup of speakers and events for you. We’ll lead off with an opening keynote from Chester Elton and wrap up with the first-ever MDCE closing keynote from Ryan Estis, with loads of great content in between. This ...

Elsewhere on the site today, you’ll find the unfortunate annual ritual of the reporting of the series of Independence Day boating fatalities. As most of us who spend any time on the water know, there’s a lot of stupid/inexperienced/drunk/otherwise intoxicated people out there, and alcohol is apparently to blame for many of the accidents reported this past week. My family ...

An interesting new study from the Pew Research Center shows the need to adjust the thinking on minority populations, especially Hispanics. Quite often, when the topic of reaching out to the Hispanic audience we commonly hear the word “immigrant” being thrown around, but that’s becoming an increasingly inaccurate way to describe that cohort. For the first time in more than ...

I just got back from the Honda Marine press event. You can read more about that in my article here. Along with a chance to give the engines the once-over, the media gathered there also had an opportunity to talk to several of the company’s boat-builder partners. I spent a lot of time talking to the folks at A.I. Boats ...

A Chicago entrepreneur has an interesting project on the drawing boards for Lake Michigan. Beau D’Arcy has unveiled ambitious plans for Breakwater Chicago, a floating city about a mile off the city’s shores. The estimated price tag for the project is $23 million. D’Arcy is looking to jumpstart funding with a $30,000 Kickstarter campaign that launched Tuesday.  As of Wednesday afternoon, ...

If you’re a reader of the print edition or the digital version of that print edition, you’ve probably noticed our Boating Industry Index. It’s our monthly measure of how BI readers are feeling about the current state of the industry. The survey base is a mix of dealers, marina owners, manufacturers, service providers, etc. This month, though, we ended up ...

Most of us in the industry know about the great work boat builders did during World War II to supply the military with vessels. It’s worth remembering, though, during this Memorial Day week. I was reminded of it once again as we finished up our anniversary issue, which went to print this week. The folks at Correct Craft/Nautique Boat Company ...

The industry is spending a lot of time and effort trying to figure out how to grow the boating audience and rightfully so. We all know the demographic changes that are impacting us and what’s coming down the pike. Senior editor Tom Kaiser wrote about the millennials earlier this week. Another big challenge is drawing a more ethnically diverse audience. ...