All Blog Posts (16)

It’s been a long nine months without my new Hake Seaward 26RK sailboat, but the helm seat track—despite being a revolutionary prototype design--was an accident waiting to happen.  As a beat-up old quadriplegic (who just turned 60!), I’ve determined to return to sailing after a lifetime away from my favorite pastime.  In fact, I set out to see if there was a sailboat designer out there who would be willing to help me create a moderately priced/sized sailboat…

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Fishing and Boating Key West and Key Largo by Boat

Most people think of Ernest Hemingway when they think of the Florida Keys, particularly Key West. Hemingway, an avid hunter and sport fisherman, spent much of his time in the Keys on the water. Fishing Key West was one of his passions, and Hemingway would be glad to know that fishing is still permitted in most of the waters surrounding the Keys, thanks to a widely practiced catch-and-release program that…

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hello people, i am from miami and i wanted to come down to the keys with my new jet ski. I wanted to know if there are any beaches or places where i can drop the ski in the water and also sit on the sand and beach the jet ski on shore. Thank you very much

Those of us with daysailers and/or weekenders browse the sailing magazines and boat shows with no small amount of envy. To have a real chart table, or a "nav station," well, that's just a pleasant dream. But in the meantime, we do the best that we can with what we have.

Like those on most small sailboats, our Seaward 26RK's table is small and it stows away neatly, but I couldn't figure out where to put my laptop everytime we need the table for…

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I recently finished reading Morgan’s Run, another great historic novel with sailboats aplenty. The myths and the superstitions surrounding seafarers are myriad, and it’s often hard to sort out those with true historical basis, from those spawned of alcohol consumption alone. Sometimes it just doesn’t matter . . . like this morning when my neighbor, Sandy, told me matter-of-factly that my friend, Gene, was a banana.

My prop-fouling disaster happened…

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The world is full of Gotcha! sounds. Every new (to you) house, car, motorcycle, power tool, and, yes, sailboat makes them. These intrusive noises are seldom harbingers of good news, and are almost always sorted out by accident. That is, nobody tells you in advance: “Mr. Foster, if you ever hear a loud CLANG, followed immediately by a metallic scraping noise and a shower of sparks, it probably means someone should have replaced those driveshaft bearings. Enjoy your hardly used…

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Spent another couple hours rehearsing on the 10^th, but this time with John & Carol, long-time friends visiting from NY. My last dock approach was the best yet, as the dance between throttle, gear shifter, wheel and bow thrusters gets more familiar. Drifted in so gently one might wrongly assume I knew what I was doing!

Actually had breakers splashing over the breaker wall, and whitecapped rollers marching into the Hawk…

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This business of getting a 59-year-old quadriplegic back into sailing is far more complicated and time consuming an endeavor than any relatively sane gimp might want to embark upon, but that's what adaptation is all about: living and enjoying a full life . . . even if getting at the heart of it is a bit more difficult. My new Seaward 26RK was delivered on the 18th of January, in the midst of the…

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As the Eleanor P, our new Seaward 26RK, slipped away from its temporary slip in Stuart last December, the gimpy old man at the helm was busy watching out for a harbor-full of holiday boaters, a string of unfamiliar channel markers, and a seemingly endless flotilla of UFO's (unidentified floating objects). What a beautiful morning for our first test run.



It reminded me of a morning back in the 70's, setting out our first string of crab traps in the ICW up in Melbourne, FL. I used to… Continue

Being disabled means learning how to adapt, and for over 30 years, as a C6/C7 quadriplegic, I’ve always managed to find a way to do most of the things I wanted to do. I am almost 59 years old now, and four years ago I was run down in a Marathon crosswalk by a little elderly lady in her white Toyota Corolla. My titanium wheelchair saved my life, but my pelvis is forever shattered, my balance will never be as good as it once was, and my stamina refuses to fully recover. In short, my ability to… Continue

If you’ve never gone surf fishing along the Florida beaches, you don’t know what you’ve been missing. This can be some of the most exciting fishing you’ve ever done. There are many different species of fish that can be found near the shoreline and many people are surprised to learn that some of them can grow to some very impressive sizes.

I had spent many years seeing people surf fishing before I ever gave it a try for the first time but now that I have done it, I love it. It’s a totally… Continue

If you’re going to buy a boat, you need a boat trailer. Or maybe you have a boat but you need a new trailer. You can learn a lot from these simple tips on how to buy a boat trailer so you can be sure you get the best one for your needs.

First, you need to know the size of your boat and how much it weighs plus any additional equipment you might be carrying with it. It’s always a good idea to estimate a bit higher rather than lower when you’re estimating the weight that you will be… Continue

When you live in Florida you simply must have a boat. Going out on the ocean is some of the most fun you’ll ever have, that is if you have the right boat. There are a few things that you should consider before you run out and go in debt for something that you’re really not happy with and I can help you do that. Talking from experience, you should take some time and think about what you want before you ever go boat hunting.



Start by asking yourself a few simple but very important… Continue

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Since the launch of the first BoatFlorida.com website back in early 2009, BoatBrevard.com has had over 40,000 unique users (different people/computers). The site continues to grow at a rate…

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There appears to be some confusion on the difference between forum / discussions and blogs. In general, a forum/discussion is intended for two way conversations and/or questions and a blog can be thought of as more of a one way journal that can be commented on.



A blog (short for weblog) is a personal online journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. They are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of… Continue