Boating Texas

It's New and Exciting Year for Boating

2012-02-02T09:27:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since we last blogged about boating and it's driving me crazy! The holidays are always a slow time in the boating industry. They are a period to spend quality time with family/friends and reflect on the past year. I hope all of you had a great Holiday season and are off to a prosperous 2012. For us, 2012 started off with a good deal of anxiety. As everyone knows, the entire state of Texas has been in a drought for the last year or so. The impact of a drought has touched all parts of the State's economy and well being. Those of us that work in the boating industry, not only love the water for recreational purposes, but we count on it for our livelihood. If you listened to all of the doom and gloom on the news, North Texas was in for a very dry Winter, Spring, and Summer. It was looking like a very real possibility that some area lakes could be shut down to boating this year as they would be unsafe to use....A few rainy days in January changed all that! Proving that the only thing predictable about Texas weather is its unpredictability, North Texas experienced one of it's wettest Januarys on record. With over 6" of rain across all of North Texas, the ground and lakes received some much needed relief. All area lakes are now returning to their normal levels. Eagle Mountain is now only 1/2 a foot down, Lake Texoma has been re-opened as the fresh water reduced the blue-green algae levels, and we have more rain forecasted this weekend. Perhaps the best news is that with the drought maps that are released every Thursday, today's map reveals that the drought has officially been busted in North Texas! With our wettest months still ahead of us, it looks like we are going to be in great shape for the 2012 boating season.

The start of the new year also means Boat Show season for all of us in the boating industry! For us, the Dallas International Boat Show is the biggest show of the year. Our staff has been working tirelessly for the past week setting up our booth at the show. Dealers from all around D/FW are there doing the same thing, to show off all the latest models from the major boat manufacturers, display new technologies, and present fun seminars on how to get the most from your boating experience. We are particularly excited to debut some cool new models at the show this year including:

The Retro-styled Glastron GT 160
The Glastron GT Sport Edition
The New Four Winns H210 and H210 SS and
Our Exclusive South Bay Pontoons Texas Edition

The new year should be an exciting time for boating in North Texas. We hope this blog can serve as a resource to help you stay informed and have a great time out on the water! We plan to post articles about area lake conditions, area boating / lake events, tips for getting more enjoyment from your time on the water, and interesting news from around the boating industry. Please let us know how we are doing and please feel free to send us requests for information that you would like to see here.

Unless the Mayans are correct, 2012 is shaping up to be one of the best boating seasons we have had around here in a long time. We hope to see you out on the water!

Here are some pics of our boat show setup. check out our facebook page for more pics and updates from the show! facebook.com/northtexasmarine

Our Planet Earth

2011-11-16T07:14:00.001-08:00

So I came across this amazing video and I thought it would be fun to share. While it really has little to do with boats or boating, it IS pretty awesome to see. I suppose you could make the case that over 70% of the earth is covered in water and if there is that much water, then you certainly need a boat. Yeah, that's it.... Earth is covered in water, you live on Earth, therefore you need a boat! Just do it, buy a boat. Stop trying to use logic and reason to figure this out. Anyhow, here is an awesome video...Enjoy!

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Colbert Report: The Boating Industry Cares

2011-11-09T07:09:00.003-08:00

Happy Wednesday everyone! Saw this last night on the Colber Report program. Maybe this will help everyone get through their hump day a little easier. Only a few more days until the weekend! Just remember, "The Boating Industry Cares!"

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

How Boats are Made...

2011-11-08T07:16:00.000-08:00

Generally speaking, people are not all that familiar with how those shiny boats you see out on the lake and in showrooms are built. There aren't many other items that we purchase constructed using fiberglass. The whole process is much different than building a car, for example. No two boats are exactly the same. Boat building truly is an art-form and using fiberglass allows boats to be crafted with the beautiful lines you see on the water today. This video, from the Discovery Channel, is a great overview of how the process works.

Don't Mess With Texas

2011-11-04T12:08:00.000-07:00

While wandering the aisles of the convention center at the Fort Lauderdale show, we stumbled upon this beast! This is a Yellowfin 36' center console law enforcement boat built for the Texas Highway Patrol. This bad boy featured machine gun turrets on the port and starboard side, as well as one in the bow. It also had ballistic panels to protect the drivers console, shock absorbing seats, and triple Mercury Verados! Take a look at the pics bellow....should be sufficient to keep everyone at party cove in line.

You Don't Need to Winterize in Texas....True or False?

2011-11-03T06:51:00.000-07:00

False...

We hear it all the time, "I didn't think it got cold enough in Texas to need to winterize." I'm not sure what temperature water freezes in other parts of the country, but in Texas it is still 32 degrees. Service shops love customers that don't understand the concept of water turning to ice inside a boat engine. That expanding ice will pop a engine block like a tick! With an average repair bill of $6500 for an engine block replacement, it's easy to see why the guy that doesn't winterize is a service manager's best friend....that's an expensive way to make friends. This video is a cool demonstration of what happens to the inside of and engine when you have an internal water leak. Unless you enjoy spending money, you should probabaly get your boat in to your service shop for winterization to prevent this.

Fort Lauderdale Intl. Boat Show Part II

2011-11-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

There are boat shows and then there is the Fort Lauderdale boat show. The shear amount of boats is only outdone by the size of the boats on display. Every mega-yacht in the world that is for sale, lease or charter is in attendance. Most of the time it was difficult to even get a good look at the boats because they were packed in so tightly. The only way to get a good perspective on the larger boats was from the water. However, if you stayed on the docks, you could look at some pretty impressive transoms. Unfortunately, boarding the mega yachts wasn't possible as you had to have an invitation from a broker. I suppose ours was lost in the mail...

All the yachts lined up in the marina

Check out more pics after the jump!

Want a Bentley or Ferrari to go along with your new yacht? How about a $5.5 million helicopter?

As many transoms as you can look at!

Difficult to even get all the boat in one pic

You really have to love seafoam green to spend this kind of money...

Check out the V20 diesel engines that power some of these yachts...

These engines alone weigh more than most homes!

Truly beautiful boats to be enjoyed by those 1%ers out there

Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show

2011-11-01T14:39:00.000-07:00

We took a trip down to the Sunshine State to find out the latest in boating trends for the upcoming season. Unfortunately the weather didn't live up to the state nickname.....


Thanks to AA and their cool retro paint scheme for getting us there and back!

After arriving and settling in Saturday night, we hit up the show early Sunday morning. The folks over at Four Winns were gracious enough to get us some passes to check out the show. We headed over to the Four Winns booth to see the new H230, which debuted at the show, and the new V435 cruiser. We were thoroughly impressed by both.....

The New H230 making its world debut!

H230 Cockpit


H210SS, H210, S210 and H230 lined up on the docks

V435 Cruiser with Twin Volvo IPS drives

After checking out the brand we sell every day, we decided to go see what was out else was on display at this massive show. Stay tuned for more from Fort Lauderdale......

And We're Off to Fort Lauderdale

2011-11-01T13:57:00.000-07:00

Seems odd to start a blog about boating in Texas with posts about a boat show in Florida, but here we go!