Certified Michigan Clean Marina Eldean Shipyard added a 97-kWh solar array to the 66-kWh system it installed in 2014. Located in Macatawa on the south shore of Lake Macatawa, the yard said the solar array has produced more than 450,000 kWh of electricity — the equivalent of 486,000 pounds of coal or 737 barrels of oil. “Eldean Shipyard depends on a healthy environment for its continued success,” owner Wade Eldean said in a statement. “This second solar array will further [our] mission as a Certified Clean Marina so that future generations can enjoy fishing and boating in Michigan’s amazing freshwater lakes.”
Big Thunder Marine on Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks launched a virtual boat show to exhibit its complete model line. “We recognized that customers may still want that boat show experience but without traveling to a show during a pandemic,” general manager Jeremy Anderson said in a statement. Buyers can take a 360-degree tour of boats from Chris-Craft, Donzi, Fountain, Manitou and Monterey, as well as Crest and JC Tritoon. Big Thunder expanded into Florida with a Palm Beach Gardens location earlier this year.
Boat owners are being targeted with letters from third-party companies posing as the Coast Guard and offering to renew certificates of documentation at a higher-than-typical cost, according to BoatUS. The Coast Guard does send official renewal notices by U.S. mail, but BoatUS members have said that letters from third-party entities direct them to websites that show a significant increase in the annual fee to renew documentations. “The Coast Guard does not endorse any of these companies, and the companies do not operate on behalf of the Coast Guard in any way,” the agency said in a bulletin.
