A brand new attraction at the 2012 International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition & Conference (IBEX) is the Social Media Lounge, where marine professionals can connect and engage with their online communities, and learn how to use these new tools to enhance their professional development and grow their businesses.
Managed by social media guru Josh Chiles, the Social Media Lounge will be located in the center of the exhibition hall.
Steve H. Murdock, former director of the U.S. Census, will be the keynote speaker at the 2012 International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition and Conference (IBEX) Industry Breakfast at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville Oct. 2. He will speak on how demographic trends in the U.S. population will affect the boating industry.
While the focus will be the US market, Canada is facing major demographic changes as well and our mix of products and advertising are strongly affected by the US market forces.
Sea Ray has announced that it will launch a new sport boat series featuring the very latest in jet propulsion technology. Sea Ray is slated to launch a 21-foot sport boat in fall 2012, followed shortly by a 24-foot model.
According to Robert J. Parmentier, president Sea Ray Group, “We will leverage the world’s leading marine brand, drawing on our best-in-class product development and engineering practices, as well as our award-winning dealer network, to deliver the very best jet propulsion boats on the market.
Mercury Marine announced that the company was the only marine engine manufacturer to receive three “Best Buy” outboard designations from Consumer Digest in its July/August issue published last week.
Mercury winners included the new 150 FourStroke in the 150-199 hp category, the 9.9 hp Bigfoot in the Below 50 hp category and the 75 hp OptiMax in the 75-99 hp division.
The ABYC Marine Corrosion Certification will be offered in Kingston, Ontario starting Tuesday, September 25, 2012 through Friday, September 28, 2012. Classes run from 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM daily.
The course location will be the PeachTree Inn at 1187 Princess Street, Kingston.
The four day Corrosion Certification course with instructor, Dwight Escalera, covers all aspects of marine corrosion.
Campion Marine, Canada's largest independent fibreglass powerboat manufacturer, has announced Doohan Company Limited as the distributor of Campion products to South Korea, effective June 1, 2012.
Campion Marine participated for the first time at this year's Korean Boat Show during which time Campion's President, Brock Elliott, met with Mr. Park Min Seok to work out details of the agreement.
The "Friends of Keewatin" a volunteer group from Port McNicoll invited all of the boats in the Midland, Penetang, Georgian Bay area to come and celebrate the return of the SS Keewatin. Literally hundreds turned out!
There were boats of every size and description taking part in this once-in-a-lifetime event. Many boats opted to anchor along the route and gave the proud ship a salute as she went by. She was decorated with bunting and flew the Red Ensign and the Union Jack, flags that she had been flying when she was decommissioned in 1966.
Uncharted Waters: Toronto’s Enigmatic Harbour is opening on Thursday, June 21, 2012.
Harbourfront Centre is proud to announce the opening of Uncharted Waters: Toronto’s Enigmatic Harbour presented with the assistance of the Toronto Port Authority. This outdoor exhibition, held in Canada’s biggest outdoor exhibition space, features work by six of the nation’s premier artists exploring the various facets of Canada’s largest inland port.
Patrick Robert William Hurst, Managing Director , Whale (Munster Simms Engineering Ltd) has been honored with an MBE in the 2012 Queens honors list for service to the Northern Ireland Business Community.
Patrick is currently involved in a number of business activities, which include the role of Managing Director for Munster Simms Engineering as well as working on behalf of Invest NI, and a number of privately owned manufacturing companies as an Independent Business Advisor.
Despite being in Chapter 11 proceedings, Hunter Marine Corporation has announced that the company has gained two new US dealers. Simple Sailing Charter & Sales is located in St. Petersburg, FL and operating out of the Municipal Marina in St. Petersburg. They will exclusively represent Hunter’s full line of trailerable small boats and up to the 27 foot keelboat for the Tampa Bay area and the Northern Florida Gulf Coast. Simple Sailing’s owner, Ed Ecker, states that their offering of charters and sailing lessons will give potential customers a chance to “try before they buy” experience.
Custom yacht builder Northern Marine has added Wes Fridell to its team as human resources and safety manager. Company president Andy McDonald made the announcement.
Fridell has more than 30 years of marine industry experience, serving the boatbuilder, retail, marina and distribution markets. He worked previously for Northern Marine under former owner Bud LeMieux.
On July 7th, Buckeye Marine will host Ontario’s only Wake Surf competition at an all new location-Garnet Graham Park in Fenelon Falls. This exciting location is only one of the upgrades to an annual event hosted by Buckeye called Mastercraft’s Big Day Out.
“We are so happy to be offering this premier event in Fenelon Falls. This great new location and the addition of a rock climbing wall, paddle boarding, and live entertainment are sure to add to the excitement!” states Carly Poole, marketing co-ordinator for Buckeye.
New for the 2012-2013 instructor led training season, Volvo Penta has announced that they are relocating from the former Midland location of Georgian College to a Volvo Group facility, located in Mississauga, Ontario, not far from the Toronto Pearson International airport.
The company said the decision was in response to dealers’ requests for more comprehensive training in a more central location, so Volvo Penta has decided to relocate the Canadian training facility to the Toronto area.
The organizers of the Lake Ontario 300 Challenge Race are proud to announce that loyalty and rewards platform provider Ackroo will be the title sponsor of the 2012 Lake Ontario 300 Challenge taking place on Saturday, July 21st starting from the Port Credit Yacht Club, Mississauga Ontario.
The Lake Ontario 300 Challenge race organizers are delighted to have a sponsor who shares similar desires to grow and support the boating industry.
This corrects the information in the Paynes Marine Group advertisement on page 17 of the June 2012 Boating Industry Canada magazine.
The 27th Annual Paynes Marine Show will be held on Sunday, November 4 and Monday, November 5 at the Crystal Garden Conference Centre from 9:30am to 5:00pm. The Preview Night will be on Saturday, Nov 3 from 6 to 8pm.
Sea Ray Group, which consists of the Sea Ray and Meridian Yachts brands, continues to add to its award-winning network of sales and service representatives, which numbers more than 400 dealers operating on six continents. The Group is pleased to announce the 20 newest dealers to join its global industry-leading team.
“With the addition of these distinguished dealerships, we continue to expand our heritage of credibility and reliability around the world,” said Rob Parmentier, president of the Sea Ray Group.
Discover Boating Canada has launched their new “Welcome to the Water Movie Maker” app on Facebook. The movie maker app is now LIVE on facebook.com/DiscoverBoatingCanada. “Welcome to the Water Movie Maker” enables boaters to create their own customized short boating movie using photos of their favourite boating memories. Once created, the personalized boating movie can be shared with family and friends on Facebook. In addition to using their own photos, boaters can choose their favourite music, background theme and write their own captions to create their individual ‘Welcome to the Water’ movie.
The boating industry will gather in Louisville, Kentucky from October 2nd to the 4th for IBEX 2012, the premier marine technology trade exhibition, conference and network event of the year.
More than 90 seminars in 13 tracks will be hosted by more than 100 industry experts. Whether you're a boatbuilder, designer, distributor, marina operator, boatyard owner, marine dealer or sales rep, there's something of value for you at IBEX 2012. The show organizers promise you'll return to work with lessons you can put to use for your business immediately.
ICOMIA (International Council of Marine Industry Associations) and Southampton Solent University have launched Keel Checker Version 3.0 in response to ISO-12215 Part 9 being published as a full ISO standard on 8 June 2012.
Keel Checker is a free online tool for assessing whether keel designs are within the parameters of ISO 12215-9 (sailing craft appendages) and is intended to serve as a training aid to help with interpretation of the standard.
Bavaria has announced a new, state-of-the-art boat called the B/ONE that is a delight to sail in. B/ONE has adopted some of the features included in its big sister, the FARR-400 standard category. The boat's design is ultra-modern, but extremely stable – both in terms of the design and when sailing on the wind. As a dinghy yacht, the B/ONE is so stable that even in strong winds, beginners will quickly have fun. The boat spans the bridge between dinghy and yacht sailing. At the same time, it offers the agility of a dinghy and the characteristics of modern yacht design.