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Modern Man Tries to Build a 3,500 Year Old Boat from the Bronze Age and Fails A team of people from 2012 tried to re-create and build a boat from 1550 BC, the Bronze Age, but failed spectacularly. When the ship was lowered into the ocean, it immediately filled with water and started sinking. Yikes, we suck. The team was made up of British archaeologists and craftsmen who have been hammering away and building the boat with Bronze Age tools and methods for the past three months. The boat it was based on, used oak planks sewn together with yew...

Weekly FR Boating Thread ~ Vol. 5 ~ Feb. 24, 2012 ~ Effects of the Economy on Boating If the boating market is a barometer of the economy - perhaps we are currently in the eye of the storm.. When the economy heads south, boating is one of the first things people stop doing, and one of the last things people start doing again when the economy warms up. If you listed things from need to not need; food, water, clothing, shelter would be at the beginning the list, and boating would be second to last, right before owning property...

Weekly FR Boating Thread ~ Vol. 4 ~ Feb. 17, 2012 ~ Spring Projects Launching ~ Weekly FR Boating Thread ~ Vol. 1 ~ Jan. 27, 2012 Weekly FR Boating Thread ~ Vol. 2 ~ Feb 3, 2012 ~ “Off Season” Weekly FR Boating Thread ~ Vol. 3 ~ Feb. 10, 2012 ~ Boat TransportationLast week’s thread had 23 posts, including boat transportation sources and recommendations. With Spring in the air and the boating season around the corner, what is everyone doing to prepare? This week I have been busy helping clients either prep their boats to sell or get...

Last week saw the launching of this Weekly FR Boating Thread. 15 posts with 6 boating links – nice start! Launching ~ Weekly FR Boating Thread ~ Vol. 1 ~ Jan. 27, 2012 Everyone is welcome to come aboard – come on it, the water is fine!This time of year almost all boaters are mired in the midst of ‘off-season’. What do you do to survive your ‘off season’? Listen to boating music, watch boating movies, surf boating YouTube and blogs, busy yourself with Winter boat upgrade and maintenance projects, catch up on non-boating stuff? Where you do your boating...

built for a Malaysian businessman by British designer Stuart Hughes. It is 30.5m (100ft) long and is claimed to feature around 100,000kg of solid gold and platinum – making it worth a reported £3billion. Its main sleeping quarter is adorned with platinum accents, including a wall feature made of stone from a meteor - and bone from a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The hull is also wrapped in a thin layer of gold, while precious metals were used to make the deck, dining area, rails and anchor. ‘He wanted a plane doing as well but the thing would never take off if...

Marquette, a luxury 'river city' worth 109 million dollars, would reportedly cruise on America's waterways all year round, bringing back memories of the Mark Twain era. This kind of floating communities were a common sight on the Mississippi in the 19th century, which used to ply up and down the mighty river and develop trade in the process. But now such a view can also be witnessed in the 21st century. The five-deck Marquette will be a floating village with swimming pools, restaurants and its own 18-hole golf course. It also includes 180 apartments, each with a private balcony, the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A ruling by the Obama administration allowing the sale of gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol is running into legal hurdles from trade groups opposing the plan. The National Petrochemical and Refiners Association sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday over the decision to allow the sale of gasoline containing higher blends of corn-based ethanol, the second major group to protest the ruling. The Obama administration said in October that gas stations could start selling the ethanol blend for vehicles built since the 2007 model year, increasing it from the current blend of 10 percent ethanol.

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit noted over the weekend that buried deep on the HHS website is a list of over 100 companies/organizations that have been granted waivers from the new health care law. Some of the companies on the list are well know, e.g. Olive Garden and Cracker Barrel restaurants and CIGNA health insurance. Others on the list seem conspicuous because of their small size. For instance, how did a company called Captain Elliot’s Party Boats get a waiver for their 10 employees? It turns out Captain Elliot’s Party Boats is the name of a company in Freeport, Texas...

Why waste your money on a 2006, used-up Maxum 4200 SY? Or yet another boring Lexus that lets you down? Over here in Sweden and elsewhere in Scandinavia, a lot of people are crazy about restoring old (wooden) yachts and veteran cars of the 1930s-1970s, even if nurturing such projects often set them back way more than buying new cars and boats would. Why is that so? Perhaps life was better around 1950? Or perhaps not. Personally, I'd say life always has involved hardship and seldom been carefree, but that didn't exactly bother people like Virgil Exner, did it? (Click...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Some 750 boats drafted in to scoop up oil from the Gulf of Mexico are having "trouble" finding any crude in the sea, a top US official said Wednesday, almost a week after a busted well was capped. "We are starting to have trouble finding oil," US pointman Admiral Thad Allen, who is in charge of handling the government's response, told reporters. The boats, which have been drafted in to skim oil off the surface of the Gulf, are "really having to search for the oil in some cases" around the area of the capped well, he...

While transit advocates are discussing where to put rail and how soon, a broader debate continues about the wisdom of spending any tax money on any form of rail. Critics say that if passenger rail were practical, private investors would happily build it and reap the profits. They're half right. If profits were to be had, many people would be trying to capitalize. But that's no justification to refuse to subsidize better mobility on corridors where road expansion is impossible or would cost much more than a rail line. The great expense of right of way, the slow return on...

The new coalition government's transport secretary has told the Financial Times that domestic flights will become a "thing of the past." In an interview discussing the government's aviation strategy, Philip Hammond said hi-speed intercity trains will be key to quelling demand for domestic and short-haul European flights. The government has already blocked plans for new runways at the country's three largest airports, Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, and instead wants to focus on developing a high-speed rail network between London, northern England and Scotland. The airlines are hardly panicking yet though, noting that it takes decades to build such rail networks....

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland plans to build a long-awaited intermodal transportation center near the lakefront to link the new medical mart, convention center and Flats east bank redevelopment. The center, north of the east edge of Mall C, would serve rail passengers, motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists. It would likely extend over railroad tracks to just south of the Shoreway and include walkways to the mall and North Coast Harbor, city Planning Director Bob Brown said Tuesday. Along with hosting a new Amtrak station that would be a stop on the proposed high-speed rail line between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, the...

LONDON – The volcanic ash cloud that's closed European airports in recent weeks is changing travel habits, leading to a surge in rail and ferry bookings. Richard Branson's Virgin Trains is reporting increased demand on its London-Scotland route. Channel Tunnel rail company Eurostar says summer sales are up, and ferry operators Stena Line and Irish Continental Group say that recent gains in bookings are more than a blip. The eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano on April 14 grounded 100,000 flights in six days, costing airlines $1.7 billion in sales, figures show. Further bursts have closed airspace across parts of Europe....

SNIPPET: "08:20 GMT, April 2, 2010 defpro.com | The African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the none-militant Somali Islamists Ahlu Sunna wal Jama'a, which has ties with Somali government, have warned of simultaneous terrorist attacks by al-Shabaab militants in Mogadishu and in some neighbouring states including Kenya and Djibouti. The spokesman for the moderate Islamist group, Sheik Abdullahi Sheik Abdurahman Abu Yusuf, said in a press conference in the central Somali town of Dhusamareeb late Thursday that his intelligence services have gained reliable information that al-Shabaab are in the final preparations of planned terror attacks which will be...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2010 – The United States recently donated a number of water trucks, field artillery cannon and patrol boats to the Pakistani government, according to U.S. State Department news releases. The United States donated five fast-patrol boats to Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency at the Karachi shipyard Feb. 13, 2010. The U.S. government also recently donated field artillery and water trucks to the Pakistani military. The U.S. government is set to donate four more fast boats to Pakistan later this year. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Four water trucks were provided to the Pakistani Army’s special...

2009 Blessing of the Fleet The 41st annual “Blessing of the Shrimp and Pleasure Boat Fleet� will be held Sunday May 3, at 2:00 on the Clear Creek Channel, along the Kemah Boardwalk. Colorfully decorated shrimp boats and pleasure craft will file past the Cadillac “Authentic Mexican Restaurant� where they will be blessed by the officiating priest and minister. Hurricane Ike took a devastating toll on our area especially the local shrimpers.  Their livelihood was directly affected and many have yet to recover.  Therefore, our main focus this year will be to help them in their recovery efforts.  Bring...

SNIPPET: "Israeli naval patrol identifies Palestinian fishing boat moving towards Israel; boat, apparently unmanned, explodes as it nears coast; no injuries, damage reported. IDF sources believe incident was botched terror attack" SNIPPET: "A Palestinian fishing boat exploded as it neared the Israeli coast from the direction of Gaza. IDF sources estimated that the booby-trapped boat was activated by remote control and meant to explode near an Israeli Navy vessel or a coastal community. A naval patrol followed the boat for about an hour and spotted no people on board. As it was several hundred meters off the Gaza shore and...

04/13/2009 SNIPPET: "A home-made fire-bomb exploded at 3:25 a.m. at the KAPA Marines showcase, and the ensuing fire quickly spread throughout the two land plots where the company's pleasure craft are on display, totally destroying or causing extensive damage to more than 20 boats." SNIPPET: "Police bomb disposal experts are investigating the site, and have so far come up with two propane canisters."

For three days in September, an ordinary-looking cargo ship traveled up and down Norway's Oslo Fjord. Few casual observers would have guessed that the 272-foot (83-meter) -long vessel was gliding on a carpet of air.

SNIPPET: "The fire was reported about 11:23 p.m. Thursday by someone who called 911 reporting flames coming from the covered slips at the Halls Crossing Marina, a remote part of Lake Powell on the Kane/San Juan County border. National Park Service firefighters from all over responded, some flying up from Page, Ariz., to help. Photographs provided to the Deseret News showed boats engulfed in flames and burned out hulls floatingon the water. There were more than 150 boats moored at the marina — firefighters saved about 130 of them." SNIPPET: "Anyone with information on the fire is asked to call...

Print By RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM, Ramola Talwar Badam MUMBAI, India – The gunmen who attacked Mumbai set out by boat from the Pakistani port of Karachi, then later hijacked an Indian fishing trawler that carried them toward this financial capital on their suicide mission, a top police official said Tuesday. As evidence of the militants' links to Pakistan mounted, Mumbai police commissioner Hasan Ghafoor said ex-Pakistani army officers trained the group — some for up to 18 months — and denied reports the men had been planning to escape the city. "It appears that it was a suicide attack," Ghafoor...

<p>An annual parade of boats on a Long Island river that dropped "Christmas" from its name has apparently lost lots of supporters.</p> <p>About 1,000 people showed up Sunday for the Patchogue (PACH'-awg) Boat Parade of Lights. That's 500 fewer than usually showed up when it was called the Patchogue Christmas Boat Parade.</p>

(The high price of fuel has boating enthusiasts spending more time anchored and less time with the motor running) Down on the boat docks, fishermen and weekend sailors are getting keeled by high fuel prices. Marina gas generally sells at about 50 cents a gallon more than auto fuel. By the peak of the power-boating season, in July, boaters could pay nearly $5 for a gallon of fuel that in some cases lasts only a few miles. Even now, a few hours of fishing on Lake Michigan costs George Artka several hundred dollars in fuel. He keeps his 39-foot power...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2008 – Three U.S. Navy vessels took evasive actions after five Iranian boats buzzed the ships transiting the Straits of Hormuz yesterday, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said today. Speaking to Pentagon reporters, Whitman called the Iranian provocation “a serious incident.” The fast Iranian boats approached at “distances and speed that showed reckless, dangerous and potentially hostile intent,” he said. The incident lasted about 15 to 20 minutes, he said. The Navy ships were going into the Persian Gulf when the Iranian boats confronted them. “Small, Iranian fast boats made some aggressive maneuvers against our vessels and indicated...

IMMOKALEE, Fla. -- From a distance, the brown object near the bank of Lake Trafford looks like a log, or maybe a big alligator. Close up, though, it becomes identifiable as a large section of a dugout canoe, possibly more than 1,000 years old. As lake levels have dropped during the ongoing drought, normally submerged areas have become dry. Ten canoes, long buried in the sand, have been exposed. Click here to find out more! "They started showing up a couple of months ago, but I wanted to verify what they were," said Ski Olesky, owner of the Lake Trafford...

August 9, 2007 -- Lost in a fog so thick and dark that they might well have been in the belly of Jonah's whale, six Hasidic fishermen drifted off the eastern end of Long Island for 14 hours before they were finally rescued early yesterday. Throughout the damp night, two of the men, who'd gone on the trip wearing only their bathing suits, kept warm by sharing the traditional Hasidic garb in which their four pals were dressed. "It was very frightening. We were just afraid of the unknown," said Levi Kirschenbaum, 22, a Brooklyn resident.

Swedish boaters may soon need to pass a 'driving test' before taking to the seas. Should a forthcoming government proposal gain acceptance the new requirement will apply to boats that are over seven metres long and/or have a top speed of at least ten knots. "Between 200,000 and 250,000 boat owners may need to take the driving test," said Lars Högdahl from the Ministry of Enterprise. A generous set of transitional rules may however soften the blow. Seasoned boaters with many years of documented experience will for example be eligible for a licence without needing to first pass a test....

Storm-battered and abandoned in winter, Sweden’s harbor-side restaurants come alive in the summer. But two million boat lovers’ thirst for good food and seaside relaxation means tough work for the seasonal restaurant owners.

RVs -- or trailers, auto or trailer coaches -- cannot be stored for more than 48 hours in the home's "setback" area. That's basically the driveway or any spot between the sidewalk and the front of the house. That's city ordinance 15.140.020. Break the city's 48-hour rule and you could get a $100 ticket. ... If a person really is loading or unloading the RV for a trip, officials may give him some extra time, Fernandez says. But, he says, you can't keep putting things in and taking things out. "You can technically load and unload ad infinitum," he says....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20070606/pl_bloomberg/aoxpwtwsapma_1

Just a few questions for freepers. I'm looking into buying a houseboat here in NYC, and I've never bought or owned a boat before, what do I need to know. I.E. Do I need to have insurance, or some kind of drivers licience or an equivalent of it?What are slip fee's usually for docking a boat at the marina's in New York?Is it hard to find a place to dock the boat?Is there laws about living on the boat?What kind of permits do I need, and how do I register ownership of the boat, is there an agency or something...

Calling all fishermen. the Great state of Tennessee has long been known for its call to service and has earned the title, "Tennessee Volunteers." Well it time to step up to the plate for all of the fishermen out there as well as the lady fishermen. The American Bass Anglers, along with the Paris/ Henry Coounty Chambers, The Stewart Co Chamber, Northwest TN Tourism and the Friends of Paris Landing need your help to take the solders of the 101st Airborne Div on a fishing trip to be held on KY Lake out of Paris landing State Park on Oct...

EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. -- Proponents of ethanol see it as a fuel additive that can relieve the nation's energy woes. Pleasure boaters like Walter Kaprielian say they need it like a hole in the hull. Mr. Kaprielian's 1969 boat was made in Miami by Bertram Yacht, whose sturdy older vessels have a devoted following. But the 20-footer, a beamy craft with a small cabin, has had all sorts of things go wrong with it since marinas here began selling nothing but ethanol-blended gasoline two years ago. The boat has spent the summer sitting in a repair yard while its owner...

SHEARWATERS: Captain said hail of creatures hit his boat for up to 30 minutes. More than 1,600 sea bird carcasses have washed onto Unalaska shores over the last two days in a mysterious die-off that scientists are scrambling to understand. Some say they may have died of hunger. Others say they're smashing into boats. Maybe it's both, some scientists said. Several hundred black, gull-like shearwaters died after flying into a crabbing boat that steamed through the early morning darkness in Unalaska Bay on Wednesday morning, said Forrest Bowers, a fisheries biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game in...

Spanish intercept migrant boats Almost 250 migrants arrived in the space of 24 hours Spain has intercepted four boats carrying almost 250 migrants trying to reach the Canary Islands from the west African coast in the space of 24 hours. Authorities said two boats arrived at the islands of Tenerife and La Gomera on Saturday, while Friday saw two vessels reach Gran Canaria. Reports say that some of the migrants were suffering from dehydration and twelve of them were taken to hospital. Thousands attempt a dangerous crossing by sea to reach Europe each year. Many die on the journey. So...

I always lurk on these computer-help threads because they're so informative and downright useful. But this is my first request. My dear lady friend drives long-haul OTR and wanted me to help her with using a laptop logged on the net and without trailing a 3,000 mile cable.So we got a new lap top (a Dell that comes with a "wireless" card.)The question is: What do we need to do to enable (what kind of) wireless link from a mobile (tractor-trailer or a boat/ship) unit to the internet?

CHICAGO, June 23 (UPI) -- Captain Roger Sardina navigates the Sea Ray Run, a 40-foot-long Sundancer motor boat made by Brunswick, through the "Danger Spot A" of Burham Harbor on Lake Michigan, using the wireless global positioning system. We've just completed a quick cruise of the lake, on a very rainy morning here in Chicago, but the sea state -- the height and movement of the waves -- was relatively steady. Today's luxury motorboats are outfitted with networks, wired and wireless, making them quite advanced, although not as state-of-the-art as one might encounter on a ship in the U.S. Navy....

ABOARD THE USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN, May 2, 2006 – While there is a ring of steel around the Iraqi oil terminal platforms in the Northern Arabian Gulf, small rubber boats with special boat crews do much of the heavy lifting for security and stability in the area. A small-boat boarding party from the Royal Australian Navy's HMAS Ballarat prepares for maritime operations in the Northern Arabian Gulf. American, British and Australian are always a part of Coalition Task Force 58, which provides maritime security in the region. Other countries' ships join when available. Photo by Jim Garamone   (Click photo...

New Boats Help Iraqi Police Secure Waterways With five new patrol boats, the Iraqi police are now in a position to secure waterways believed to be used as insurgent supply routes. By U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class John J. Pistone Multinational Security Transition Command—Iraq BAGHDAD, April 24, 2006 — The Tigris River runs through Baghdad and, with more than 35 miles of waterways in the Baghdad area, many coalition advisors and Iraqis believe this is the major supply route for insurgents. Until recently, it has gone virtually unprotected. With five new patrol boats provided by the coalition, the...

When in Vietnam, Build Boats as the Romans Do Richard Stone INDO-PACIFIC PREHISTORY ASSOCIATION CONGRESS, 20-26 MARCH 2006, MANILA In December 2004, researchers drained a canal in northern Vietnam in search of ancient textiles from graves. They found that and a whole lot more. Protruding from the canal bank at Dong Xa was a 2000-year-old log boat that had been used as a coffin. After a closer look at the woodwork, archaeologists Peter Bellwood and Judith Cameron of Australia National University in Canberra and their colleagues were astounded to find that the method for fitting planks to hull matched that...

Despite bombs, boats and rubber bullets, dozens of sea lions are continuing to kill salmon near the Bonneville Dam. This month, biologists are trying one last time to scare off the problem sea lions, but if that doesn't work, they may try to kill them. Sea lions could kill as much as 10 percent of this spring's salmon run and biologists say if they cannot get the problem solved soon, the situation could get ugly. The problem is that the salmon are disappearing. An estimated 8,000 salmon will be lost this spring at Bonneville Dam. "The difficult part about it...

SCHAGEN, Netherlands (AP) – Some people think he's crazy. His wife's not exactly thrilled either. But like the biblical Noah, Dutchman Johan Huibers is steadfast in his mission: he's building an enormous working replica of Noah's Ark as a testament to his faith in the literal truth of the Bible

Hemingway's Fishing Boat May Be Restored Ernest Hemingway's 40-foot, black-hulled fishing boat, the Pilar, could be getting a little restorative nip and tuck. Local watercraft preservation specialist Dana Hewson and members of the Boston-based Hemingway Preservation Foundation are heading to Finca Vigia, Hemingway's estate in Cuba, where he will photograph and examine the Pilar. "Professionally, this is a really fascinating project for me," Hewson told The Day of New London. He works at Mystic Seaport. Hemingway sailed the boat when he lived in Cuba from 1939 to 1960, and is said to have conceived some of his greatest works, including...

IN an effort to capitalize on the megadollars that megayachts can bring to a harbor area, coastal resorts around the globe are racing to build or retrofit their marinas to accommodate the colossal cruisers. [. . .] . . . new marinas . . . are being developed . . . To keep megayacht owners busy - not to mention spending - while their boats are parked at the marina, developers are surrounding their ports with high-end restaurants and retail shops. To entice yacht owners and their entourages to stay longer, they are also building luxury condominiums and five-star hotels....

(snip) Maj. Gen. Glenn K. Rieth, the Guard's adjutant general, ordered the naval militia to stand down in 2002 while state officials, concerned about training, liability and funding issues, reviewed its status. Jordan and fellow militia members John Jedrejczyk and Mark Tegeder, along with former member Louis Ianniello, counterattacked this month. They fired a legal salvo at state officials, accusing them in a civil rights complaint of military branch discrimination. "We're doing this for the other members," said Jordan, 47, of Jackson, a certified firearms instructor. "We hope to get this moving again in the right direction. We've been totally...

NEW ORLEANS — Mayor Ray Nagin ordered 1,500 police officers to leave their search-and-rescue mission last night and return to the streets to stop looting that has turned increasingly hostile as the city plunges deeper into chaos. "They are starting to get closer to heavily populated areas — hotels, hospitals — and we're going to stop it right now," Nagin said. The number of officers called off the search-and-rescue mission amounts to virtually the entire police force in New Orleans. The out-of-control thievery had escalated while cops joined National Guardsmen in focusing on saving lives. In some cases, New Orleans...

Kemah Blessing of the Fleet Kemah-TX (Houston) The Colorful 37th annual Kemah Blessing of the Shrimp and Pleasure Boat Fleet will be held Sunday August 7 at the Kemah boardwalk. Decorated shrimp boats and pleasure craft file past the Cadillac Authentic Mexican Restaurant where the officiating priest and minister bless each of the boats. Bring your family and friends down to the Kemah Boardwalk to witness the festive boats and colorful crews as they parade down the channel in celebration of this time honored tradition. Visit http://www.kemah.net download an entry form or pick one up at Kemah Boardwalk Marina (281)...

Violent Pirate Attack On Two Yachts Off Yemen Here is a firsthand account of a pirate attack on two yachts. It took place only 30 miles off the coast of Yemen at 13°28' North 48°07' East on 8 March 5pm local. This report has been filed with the relevant authorities: the Yemen Coast Guard, Yemen Navy, Aden Port Control, US Coalition 5th Fleet, US Embassy and State Department. Richard Donaldson-Alves, Controller, Mobile Maritime Net, South East Asian Waters (14,323 MHz 0025 Z daily Wx @ 0055 Z daily) On 8 March 2005, two sailing yachts, Mahdi & Gandalf, were moving...

Scrapping looms for veteran linerTime seems to be running out for the venerable SS Norway. The former liner that helped launch Norwegian shipowners' venture into the cruise industry will reportedly be scrapped if no buyer steps forward by next week.The vessel continues to be owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL), but hasn't sailed since an explosion in its boiler room in 2003. The explosion and fire killed several crew members.Vastly in need of expensive renovation, the vessel has since been berthed at Bremerhaven in Germany. NCL initially announced plans to repair the vessel, but the Associated Press reported Friday that...