The West Palm Beach International Boat Show is right around the corner!

Need something to do this weekend?  Check out the 26th Annual Palm Beach International Boat Show, March 24 – 27, 2011, one of the top ten boat shows in the country – featuring more than $350 million worth of boats, yachts and accessories from the world’s leading marine manufacturers. It is truly an International Show. The event includes hundreds of Boats from 8 foot inflatables, power boats, fishing boats, center consoles, bow riders, personal watercraft to superyachts over 150’. Show entrances will be located at  Evernia St./Flagler Dr. (waterfront) and North Clematis St./Flagler Dr. (waterfront)

Boat transportation companies have been delivering yachts and boats from all over the world to one of the most opulent and beautiful cities in South Florida.  The City of West Palm Beach is a splendor of sunny palm-lined streets, scenic waterfront views, quaint shopping districts, historic neighborhoods and year-round outdoor festivals. A visit to the Downtown Retail and Entertainment district will showcase a vibrant area lined with fashionable martini bars, trendy nightclubs, elite boutiques and fine restaurants. Elegance and luxurious comfort are the hallmarks of this slice of paradise.

If you’re in the market for a new boat or something new for a boat you own, visit the Palm Beach International Boat Show.

The 26th annual show is Thursday through Sunday along Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach. In addition to a variety of boats transported to West Palm Beach, the show will also have the latest in marine accessories.

Boats on display include J Craft’s 42-foot luxury Torpedo motor launch and Jarrett Bay’s Jeff Burton 46, the custom sportfisherman built for the NASCAR driver. Global Satellite USA debuts The Bridge, its long-range, secure WiFi connection for boats of all sizes.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Part of Flagler Drive will be closed until April 1st as West Palm Beach hosts the Palm Beach International Boat Show.

Preparations for the boat show are underway along the waterfront. Flagler Drive is closed between Banyan Boulevard to Lakeview Avenue to get boats, tents, and attractions ready.

The boat show begins Thursday. Flagler Drive will partially reopen on Tuesday March 29th and will be completely reopened Friday, April 1st.

[Source: ShowManagement.com]

The tsunami that devastated Japan also sent strong currents to California’s northern coast, causing tens of millions of dollars in damage and leaving four coastal counties under a state of emergency.

Sunken Boats in Crescent City

Crescent City, Calif., near the Oregon border, ranks as the state’s most productive seafood harbor. But with no place for fishing boats to tie down, the entire commercial fishing industry is, for all practical purposes, dead.

Crescent City has earned its reputation as a “tsunami magnet.” The small, half-moon-shaped harbor traps the energy from churning ocean waves and has absorbed more than 30 tsunamis in the past eight decades. Last week’s tsunami, which hit as the harbor was still recovering from another tsunami that hit five years ago, sank 16 boats and damaged 47 others.

“We’re all shut down here, the whole fleet,” says Ivan Simpson, a deckhand on a fishing boat that survived. “Seems like it’s going to be a while before we can even tie up in here or work out of this port or any other port around here.”

“This is my source of income, my captains, there’s two to five people on each boat. You figure you got 100 or 200 boats that are shut down. That’s a lot of people out of work,” Simpson says. “We had a fairly good season until this.”

The tsunami also washed thousands of dollars of crabbing traps and gear out to sea. They are likely irretrievable.

Officials here fear another potential catastrophe. The sunken or damaged boats still hold fuel onboard, says Alexia Retallack of the state’s Department of Fish and Game.

“That fuel, should there be a rupture or puncture or something along those lines, could get into the environment,” Retallack says. “So every boat that is sunken or currently in the harbor and compromised is a source of petroleum product, so our idea is to get as much of it out of there to remove the threat.”

Officials in other coastal harbors face similar threats. In Santa Cruz, about 500 miles south, 30 boats sank or remain unaccounted for. And north of Crescent City, the harbor at Brookings, Ore., was trashed.

‘Could Have Been Far, Far Worse’

Even so, some experts say what happened last Friday is not the worst case event.

“In this case, Mother Nature was actually a little bit kind for the folks on the West Coast of the U.S.,” says Lori Dengler, a geologist at Humboldt State University in Northern California. “The Japan tsunami could have been far, far worse if it had happened six hours earlier to 18 hours later. Why? Because the largest tsunami surges coincided with our lowest tide.”

If there’s any other good news, it’s that scores of boats that normally dock in Crescent City managed to escape to nearby Humboldt Bay. They took advantage of a sophisticated warning and evacuation system developed over the years — ever since the legendary 1964 tsunami in which 11 people were killed and the city’s downtown was wiped out.  Any boats scheduled to dock in these norther harbors, will have to be diverted for now.  Boat transportation companies will transport the boats to safer waters.

Ironically, next week is California’ s Tsunami Awareness Week. And many more Californians will likely pay attention given the real evidence of disaster.

[Source: NPR.org]

Pirates in the Arabian Sea hijacked a yacht carrying seven Danish citizens, including three children, the Danish government said Monday, in the first reported attack on a small pleasure vessel since four Americans were killed by their pirate captors last week.

The Danish yacht was taken shortly after four Americans were killed.

That episode was the deadliest in recent years involving Somali pirates, who have struck with increasing impunity throughout the waters off the Horn of Africa, and appeared to represent a departure from the usual hijacking playbook, which calls for large cash ransoms and little violence.

What effect the American deaths would have on Denmark’s approach to the latest hijacking remained unclear. Along with United States Navy vessels, Danish naval ships are part of international antipiracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. In the past, however, Denmark has favored negotiation over taking an aggressive posture toward pirates.

Aboard the Danish yacht, which was taken on Thursday, were a man and a woman; their three children, ages 12 to 16; and two crew members, the Danish Foreign Ministry said. The ministry did not explain why it had waited several days to make the announcement; it said relatives of the hostages had been notified.

It was not immediately clear how many pirates boarded the yacht or whether they were Somali. Ecoterra International, a nonprofit maritime group that monitors pirate attacks, said the yacht had been hijacked in the southern Arabian Sea, far from the Horn of Africa, but appeared to be heading toward Somalia.

“Naturally, I am deeply concerned over the situation,” the Danish foreign minister, Lene Espersen, said in a statement. She added that was especially true “as there are children involved, and I can only express my utter disdain for the pirates’ actions.”

Governments have pleaded with shipowners and seafaring vacationers to stick to designated shipping lanes when passing through the Arabian Sea, where pirates continue to strike despite the presence of dozens of warships. The United States Navy sometimes provides escorts for convoys, and the ships travel in numbers for safety.  Many yacht and boat transportation companies have also taken additional precautions and/or avoid this region all together.

Last Tuesday, pirates shot and killed Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., and Phyllis Macay and Robert A. Riggle of Seattle during what appeared to be a dispute among jittery pirates as United States Navy forces shadowed the hijacked yacht, the Quest, in the Gulf of Aden. Why the pirates chose to kill their captives remains murky. Generally, Somali pirates try to ransom captives alive.

Several Danes have been held by Somali pirates in recent years. In 2007, five sailors were held captive for 83 days on board the hijacked Danish freighter Danica White, the Danish newspaper Politiken has reported, and pirates are currently holding two Danes and four Filipino sailors from a Danish freighter. That ship was hijacked Jan. 12 near Oman in the Gulf of Aden and later abandoned.

Somali pirates increased their attacks in 2010 for the fourth straight year, striking more ships and taking more hostages than in any year on record, according to a January report by the Piracy Reporting Center of the International Maritime Bureau. According to the report, 1,181 people were taken hostage and eight killed in attacks on 445 ships in 2010.

[Source: New York Times]