Provisions: Boston Whaler



Boston Whaler

Founder: Dick Fisher
Founded: 1958
Location: Edgewater, Florida
Representative products: “Unsinkable” boats like the 150 Montauk, 130 Super Sport, and the 220 Dauntless.

At a glance:

  • Offers fishing boats, cruising boats, and tender boats, as well as runabouts, cruisers, and center console boats.
  • Trusted by navies around the world, including Navy SEALs and the U.S. Coast Guard.
  • Has been building boats for more than 60 years.
  • After graduating from Harvard, founder Dick Fisher revolutionized the hull-making process by using polyurethane foam injection.
  • Boats range in size from 13 feet to 42 feet.
  • Purchased by marine manufacturing giant Brunswick Corporation in 1996.
  • Two Boston Whaler Conquest models won Innovation Awards at the 2024 Miami International Boat Show.
  • Has also won best in Fiberglass Outboard Boats category at the NMMA Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) Awards for 16 years in a row.

In their own words: Ron Berman, VP of Product Development and Engineering

We are very focused on what is important to the customer. There is a lot of information you learn from surveys, but you learn by actually spending time with boat owners. When you do, you find your answers. People want to feel like they are in something big and roomy. Maximize comfort. Every seat should have a good view and be comfortable. And you should feel secure. They want a boat that has very predictable performance and handling. They want a boat that allows you to maintain visibility, meaning when you get on plane you don’t lose visibility. They want a boat that doesn’t do anything erratic in rough water.

Making people feel safer and more comfortable in their boats is something we’ve done through technology. Take, for instance, our Dynamic Running Surface — an automatic trim adjustment system that makes boating more predicable. Also, we have Quiet Ride, which does a great job of keeping noise down on the boat. And with any type of twin-engine boat, you can get joystick control — inboards, outboards, I/Os, you name it. We also just introduced something called the Command View camera system on our yachts, which gives you a view all around the boat so people feel more confident docking because they can see the side and stern in one image. These are all aimed at making people feel safer and more confident in their boats.

I love to reinvent things. A new boat should not be a warmed-over version of the last boat you had. I like being able to take an idea and create something that has never been done or take an existing boat and find a way to reinvent it so it’s new and fresh and gets people really excited. I like to figure out what the boater wants and come up with a way to create it and use it on the boat.

Another massive cargo ship loses control while leaving an American harbor — this time halted before bridge



A massive container ship attempting to leave the waters around New York City Friday reportedly suffered a similar issue to that experienced by the vessel that tragically brought the historic Francis Scott Key Bridge crashing into Baltimore Harbor late last month.

Unlike the Singapore-flagged Dali, the propulsion problem suffered by the APL Qingdao did not ultimately prove to be calamitous.

The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed to the New York Post that the APL Qingdao, a 1,145-foot, 89,000-ton ship flying under the Malta flag, lost propulsion around 8:30 p.m. while sailing along the shipping lane between Staten Island and Bayonne, New Jersey.

According to John Konrad, a maritime journalist and the CEO of gCaptain, the three tugboats that had been escorting the ship down the 3-mile Kill Van Kull waterway were aided by another three in an effort to bring the ship under control.

The ship subsequently dropped anchor just north of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

BREAKING: A NY tugboat captain has reported to @gCaptain \u201ccontainer ship APL QINGDAO lost power while transiting New York harbor. They had 3 escort tugs but 3 more were needed to bring her under control. They regained power & were brought to anchor near the verrazano bridge\u201d
— (@)

"Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service New York received a report from the M/V APL Qingdao around 8:30pm, Friday, that the vessel had experienced a loss of propulsion in the Kill Van Kull waterway," the Coast Guard said in a statement obtained by the Post.

"The vessel regained propulsion and was assisted to safely anchor in Stapleton Anchorage, outside of the navigable channel just north of the Verrazano Bridge, by three towing vessels," continued the statement. "These towing vessels were escorting the vessel as a routine safety measure, which is a common practice for large vessels departing their berth."

Prior to leaving, the crew had to submit a casualty report accounting for what caused the loss of power. CBS News noted that repairs were also made to the ship's system following the incident.

At the time of publication, VesselFinder indicated that the ship had successfully made its way out of the New York harbor and was nearing its destination of Norfolk, Virginia.

Staten Island Assemblyman Charles Fall (D) told SILive.com, "While the swift response by tugboats to secure the vessel prevented immediate harm, this incident further highlights the urgent need for comprehensive safety reviews of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the Goethals Bridge, the Bayonne Bridge, and the Outerbridge Crossing."

"The recent disaster at the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland is a harrowing reminder of what could happen if we fail to prioritize the integrity of our infrastructure," added Fall.

BREAKING: Ship collides with Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse
— (@)

Two weeks after power outages and a propulsion problem allegedly sent the container ship Dali crashing into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, divers continue to search for bodies. At least six people are believed to be dead.

Officials announced Friday that they had recovered the body of a third victim, 38-year-old Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval, reported the Independent.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers indicated that a new channel will be ready for use by month's end, enabling ships to enter and leave the second-busiest port in the mid-Atlantic.

Gov. Wes Moore (D) told CBS News' "Face the Nation" that maritime operations in the Port of Baltimore could be functional as early as May.

March was apparently a bad month for American bridges and boats.

A bridge over the Arkansas River south of Sallisaw, Oklahoma, was also struck by a boat late last month. Despite a powerful thwacking sound, there was minimal damage and no casualties.

The Associated Press reported that a barge struck a pier holding Highway 59 over the river on March 30. After a brief road closure, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation indicated that the structure was subsequently deemed sound by engineers and safe to transit.

Barge crashes into the Arkansas River Bridge in Oklahoma
— (@)

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Video: Killer whales are attacking boats; young orcas are following suit



Orcas, also called killer whales, are attacking boats, and young calves are learning to do the same, Live Science reported.

"The orcas are doing this on purpose, of course, we don't know the origin or the motivation, but defensive behavior based on trauma, as the origin of all this, gains more strength for us every day," Alfredo López Fernandez, a biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal and representative of the Atlantic Orca Working Group told the outlet.

López Fernandez was referencing a worrisome run of attacks on boats in the Strait of Gibraltar. In one attack May 4, off the coast of Spain, a group of three orcas repeatedly rammed a craft and took aim at the rudder.

"The little ones shook the rudder at the back while the big one repeatedly backed up and rammed the ship with full force from the side," skipper Werner Schaufelberger told Yacht, a German publication, as reported by Live Science.

Schaufelberger and his crew were rescued by members of the Spanish coast guard, but the boat sank at the entrance to the port.

Just two days before the attack on Schaufelberger's yacht, experienced sailor Greg Blackburn from Leeds in the United Kingdom tangled with six of the apex predators, Australia's 9 News reported.

Greg Blackburn told the outlet the encounter near Tangier did not feel malicious.

"You can see in one of the videos the matriarch coming up and attacking the rudder with calf at side of her, then she drops back and then the little calf gets in to have a go," Blackburn said.

"It was definitely some form of education going on," he added.

The "education" caused an estimated $8,000 to $9,000 worth of damage to Blackburn's vessel, including damage to the rudder and two snapped helm chains.

A British couple on the 46-foot Bavaria completing a sailing course praised the skipper's calmness during the hour-long attack. The fact that winds were clocked at 25-30 knots that day made matters worse.

"Orcas enjoy the thrill of the chase, so ideally we'd have kept still, but that wasn't possible because of the winds."

Most encounters with orcas are harmless, López Fernandez told Live Science. The spike in aggression is a more recent phenomenon.

According to López Fernandez, a "critical moment of agony," such as a collision with a boat, may have flipped a behavioral switch. The behavior of that single orca may have been picked up and reproduced by others, simply by imitation.

Another theory posed by ocra researcher Deborah Giles is that the interaction with the boats may be a form of play as opposed to aggression.

Watch video from the Daily Mail below of a pod of six orcas attacking a yacht for about an hour off the coast of Morocco.



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