Cedarville, Mich.-based Great Lakes Boat Building School (GLBBS) has secured a $354,600 Rural Business Development Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The school applied for the support as part of its “Enhancing Education with Equipment” campaign, which provides equipment and technology for skilled trades training. According to an article in Soundings Trade Only, GLBBS [...]

The American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) Foundation has opened registration for its fourth Educator Training Conference set for April 2-4, 2024, in Annapolis, Md. The in-person conference caters to high school and post-secondary educators and administrators who are involved in, or thinking about starting, marine service technology programs at their school. Industry leaders interested [...]

Sea Tow, an on-water marine assistance provider, is marking its 40th anniversary in business in 2023. Sea Tow is a provider of non-emergency on-water assistance including towing, fuel delivery, battery jumps and ungroundings, as well as salvage and recovery services including response to catastrophic events and marine spill response. At the forefront of on-water assistance [...]

The latest sales trends report for cruisers, watersports, fishing boats and trailers, part of the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) 2022 U.S. Recreational Boating Statistical Abstract, is now available. The report examines retail unit sales for each category and by application. Following two years of extraordinary record growth, sales of new cruisers, watersport and fishing [...]

The latest Powerboat Sales Trends report, part of the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) 2022 U.S. Recreational Boating Statistical Abstract, is now available. Coming off extraordinary record demand in 2020 and 2021, as expected, sales of new traditional powerboats (outboard, inboard wake sport, inboard cruisers, sterndrive, jet) began a correction in 2022 with a normalizing [...]

The Sea Tow Foundation, a boating safety nonprofit, announced the winners of its fifth annual National Boating Safety Awards. These awards recognize efforts to promote boating safety within the for-profit sector of the boating industry. This year, the Sea Tow Foundation received a record-breaking number of entries. The winners of the 2023 National Boating Safety [...]

The International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition and Conference (IBEX) has announced the 17 winners of the 2023 IBEX Innovation Awards Program. The program is managed by the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) and judged by Boating Writers International (BWI). The judges selected 13 Innovation Award winners and four honorable mentions from nearly 100 entries submitted by exhibiting [...]

Yamaha Rightwaters™ announced it has joined forces with Georgia Southern University’s (GSU) College of Science and Mathematics and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Coastal Resources Division to initiate a new conservation project designed to restore degraded oyster beds on the Georgia coast. The research gathered during the project will help determine the carbon burial [...]

The Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced $3.9 million to the Marine Technology Society (MTS) to establish a multi-year framework to engage the Ocean Enterprise as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. The Ocean Enterprise includes public, private, non-profit, tribal and academic entities that provide ocean observation, [...]

The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA) Educational Foundation has announced a call for nominations and applications for the 2023 annual scholarships and the 2023 Darlene Briggs Marine Woman of the Year Award. Scholarship recipients and the award winner will be presented this December at MRAA’s Dealer Week Conference and Expo in Tampa, Fla. [...]