
The Gift of Boating: Better Than Any Box Under a Tree
The holidays give us a rush. It’s up to us to ensure that it’s a good rush.

The holidays give us a rush. It’s up to us to ensure that it’s a good rush.

I cannot think of any time that has more built in quality than the time you can spend with a child on a boat cruise.

For our silver anniversary in 2009, Vic and I thought it would be a good idea if we came up with a slogan that could—hopefully—become our slogo. Shucks, if it’s good enough for Arby’s and Macy’s, why not Southwest Florida Yachts?

Most of our yacht chartering customers have cruised before. Many own or have owned yachts. When I go over the do’s and don’ts, they get

Barb takes some notes on Heaven and how after a loss, we are often inspired to be better. Boaters have always taken care of boaters, so here’s the thing, be better.

I’ve always tilted toward presidents who, in my mind’s eye, are in a boat. George Washington crossing the frigid Delaware with his soldiers in the dead of night makes him a star forever in my imagination. Teddy Roosevelt paddling a canoe down racing rivers is a boating hero, too.

Like many people in this fast-paced world, it seems that I always have too much to do and not enough time to do it. I’ve

As part of the curriculum at our liveaboard yacht school, we teach our student an old mantra: Attitude is the difference between suffering an ordeal and

Boats should have a “gadget-free zone” at least while underway, unless they are being used as a navigational aid. Instead of looking down at your phone, look up and around at the beauty that surrounds you.

I have no plans to lobby in Washington, but I would like to share a health reform idea with our elected representatives and the inside-the-beltway crowd. What I will tell you has been pretty much boating’s secret but it’s time we told the rest of the world. Are you sitting down?

We can spend years planning for a bucket-list trip and then life gets in the way. Go now.

Splashing later this year.

Karly and Evan Nietzel—aka YouTube’s @Navigating Nietzels—tailored their careers for remote work after buying a trawler, moving onboard and completing the Great Loop. Along with their pup, Ripley, they’re just getting started.

This aluminum vessel’s throwback design belies its modern systems, all installed for a Great Loop cruise.

The three-stateroom, semidisplacement model has a range of power options and a low air draft.

A solar-power system on our classic trawler lets us spend time moored or anchored with more than enough juice to meet our energy needs.

America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association has been helping boaters complete the ultimate voyage for a quarter century.

The steel-hull Nightfall, designed by William Garden, connects generations of this family through a love of cruising.

Larry Graf, the founder, designer and lead engineer of Aspen Power Catamarans, talks about Aspen’s proa hull designs and adventure cruising on his own creations from the Arctic to the Sea of Cortez.

With her vertical bow, reverse raked windshield and indoor-outdoor living space, the Galeon 430 EXP defies categorization.