A boat built like
a brick ... outhouse
Young sailors in the Buffalo, N.Y., unit of Sea Scouts
expect another season of drawing curious stares aboard Me and
Brix, “The world’s first and only brick boat.” That
designation, given by Ripley’s Believe It or Not, comes from
the brick-face finish the scouts have on their Irwin 25
sloop.
The “brick” boat came about from a conversation between the
scouts and their leaders about the various materials used to
build boats, says Bill Zimmerman, a leader and director of the
Seven Seas Sailing School at RCR Yachts Skyway Marina, where
the boat is kept.
“One Sea Scout quipped, ‘They’ve never made a boat out of
brick,’ so we had to test that theory,” Zimmerman says.
The Sea Scouts and leaders applied Flexi-Brick to their
sloop’s hull and deck house. FlexiBrick is a flexible quartz
sand and polyacryl brick-on-mesh product that can be applied
around curves. Foam support was used inside the Irwin to
compensate for the added weight.
Me and Brix was featured in a Ripley’s syndicated comic
strip, which appears in newspapers worldwide. Zimmerman says a
professor in New Zealand contacted the scouts to request plans
for the brick boat with the intention of building a second
one.
The next generation
of Furuno’s NavNet
Since its release in 2001, Furuno’s NavNet has been voted
Best Integrated Navigation System by the National Marine
Electronics Association for three consecutive years.
In March Furuno USA introduced NavNet vx2. Like the
original version, NavNet vx2 uses an Ethernet-based network to
transfer information between components. More options are
available in the new version to connect and interact with your
PC, and add multiple displays and components to the network.
NavNet vx2 also allows users to customize their marine
electronics with more than 50 different display mode options.
Other upgrades include a choice of Navionics Gold XL3 or C-MAP
NT Max charts. www.furuno.com
U.S. tower opens
Croatian franchise
Marine assistance provider Sea Tow Services International
has opened its first franchise in Croatia. Situated on the
Adriatic Sea, Croatia’s cruising grounds are known for their
small islands, Mediterranean villages and clear water.
Owned and operated by brothers Christian and Wolfgang
Dauser, Sea Tow Croatia will comprise five locations: Istria,
Kvarner, Kornat, and Central and South Dalmatia. The five
ports will service the country’s 200 nautical miles of
coastline.
There are some 19,000 recreational boats on Croatian waters
— fiberglass sail- and powerboats mostly in the 25- to 35-foot
range — and more than 70 percent are from other European
countries, according to Thomas Wollmer, owner of Sea Tow
Europe Operations.
“Croatia is a very young country, so the boating community
is also very young,” says Wollmer, “and there is little
support.” Budget-constricted coast guard and marine police
units regularly have to answer calls for assistance with, “Not
today,” according to Wollmer. They will, of course, respond to
a mayday.
The Sea Tow Croatia fleet will consist of 26-foot Twin Vee
power catamarans customized for towing with twin 150-hp
Mercury outboards. They will be painted yellow, with the same
Sea Tow logo as in the United States.
Sea Tow also announced in March the continued expansion of
Sea Tow Services Australia, with the addition of towing
operations in Perth and Broken Bay. www.seatow.com;
www.seatow.europe.com | 
