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Snack Barge
If
you need an emergency tow, use Channel 9. If you need an emergency hot
dog, you can now use Channel 13.
This summer, nautical
entrepreneur Lisa Toscano of Branford, Connecticut, launched a business
that literally caters to a previously untapped marketplace. The first
and only licensed boat vendor in the area, Toscano turned her 20-foot
SeaDoo jet boat into a floating concession stand and began delivering
key cruising staples—ice cream, hot dogs, cigarettes, sunblock,
and much more—to under-supplied boats all along the Connecticut
coast.
“Boats are all
tied up, and no one wants to untie and get out of their anchorage just
to get more food or run an errand,” Toscano told the Associated
Press when she launched the enterprise.
When she applied for
the special vendor permit, Toscano had no idea how popular her business
idea would become. Initially she imagined that her “Snacks on the
Sound” delivery service would just cater boating essentials to
anchored cruisers in Connecticut’s Kelsey and Thimble Islands.
When word spread that a call to Channel 13 could summon a floating snack
stand, all manner of requests began flooding in from boaters all over
the Sound: roast beef sandwiches, pizza, cigars, even dog treats for
water-loving pets.
Toscano, who is sometimes
assisted by her two teenage sons, quickly expanded her onboard equipment
to include a bevy of ice-cold coolers and a warmer for hot dogs and
pizza. Her busiest days had her fielding calls that were pouring in
from as many as 100 boats per weekend.
Though ice cream was
far and away her most popular item this summer, there was no limit to
the variety of customers—and vessels—she served.
“Huge, small,
it doesn’t matter,” she says. “I once brought ice cream
to a mom and daughter on a kayak, but I’ve also delivered hot dogs
to yachts.”
48.4
The
percent decrease in boating-related fatalities nationwide that occurred
during the first six months of 2003 compared to the same period in 2002,
according to U.S. Coast Guard. Specifically, there were 409 deaths in
the first half of 2002, compared to 211 in 2003.
Things We Like
You
know you’ve been there: You’re throwing a cocktail party on
your boat and trying to greet guests with one hand while juggling a
glass of wine and a plate of buffalo wings with the other. It’s
hell on those white khakis. But now you can actually eat, drink, and
shake someone’s hand all at the same time. Check out this gadget
that managing editor Eileen Mansfield recently saw at the Volvo Penta
press event in Göteborg, Sweden. It clips to your appetizer plate
and can safely and securely carry your champagne flute or wine glass,
eliminating the hand-shuffle normally associated with cocktail parties.
You can order your own from www.partyclip.com.
Genius.
NOVEMBER CALENDAR
Oct.
30-Nov. 3. The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in Florida.
(800) 940-7642. www.showmanagement.com.
13-16. The
Boat Show in Fort Myers, Florida. (239) 332-0604. www.swfmia.com.
13-16.
Boys & Girls Clubs Rendezvous at Fisher Island, Florida. (800) 962-2420.
www.yachtrendezvous.com.
20-23. The
Boat Show in St. Petersburg, Florida. (800) 940-7642. www.showmanagement.com.
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