A day out on your boat with friends and family can be quite enjoyable, until uninvited guests arrive. Yes, the little creatures that can turn your day sour with their annoying presence on your food, on your skin, and aboard your vessel. Marine insects and pests can be difficult to avoid, so it is important to take precautionary measures to prevent this unwanted interaction from becoming a permanent relationship. Taking the steps shown below will hopefully decrease the effect that the bugs will have on your days out boating.
PROTECTING YOURSELF
Wearing a strong, but safe bug spray/repellent is a necessity to avoid bites. Make sure to leave a decent layer on the skin and also reapply as specified on the bottle. Other bug repellents like citronella candles are perfect for common hangout areas like tables and countertops. Knowing what time of day these bugs are most active can also play as an advantage. Mosquitoes are most active at dawn and dusk. Wearing long sleeves and pants during these times will decrease the likelihood of being bitten.
PROTECTING YOUR FOOD
Bugs love food just as much as you and I! Cleaning your food and storing it properly can protect you from pest contamination and any diseases they might bring. The first rule of food is absolutely no cardboard when possible. Pests can live within the material to hide, lay eggs, as well as feast on the cardboard itself.
Place food and any other ingredients onboard in plastic sealed containers. Drinks should be treated the same if possible. Sugary drinks that can be sealed will keep flying insects from sneaking under the lids. If aluminum cans or other non-resealable drinks are the only beverage onboard, try to finish them quickly and throw away to prevent fruit flies from joining your journey. Immediately clean up any spills around eating or sitting areas as this will be the first place insects will colonize if there is a food source.
PROTECTING YOUR BOAT
Cleanliness is truly the best virtue. Much like in a home, leaving behind crumbs or sticky residue can lead to plenty of unwanted friends. So make sure to clean up! Wash and spray down the floor and seats in the vessel regularly. Don’t forget to get those small corners usually forgotten about. Those corners are the most likely to reside spider webs.
If you have a larger vessel with a kitchen, and plan to store produce aboard, consider this helpful tip. Placing a cap worth of bleach in a sink full of cold water is a great way to clean produce. Then, store your food in large plastic bins as an extra layer of protection and never leave anything sitting out. To avoid fruit flies, have vinegar on hand. Place a small amount in the bottom of a bowl or short glass. Cover the top of the glass with seran wrap and poke holes into it so that the flies can get inside. If there are a large amount of flies in your area, at the end of the day, that glass will be filled with flies! Which brings great news, because then they weren’t on your food.
The most important thing to remember is when you first see bugs, act immediately to solve the issue. The longer you wait, the more severe your bug problem will become and it will be harder to take care of the issue. These are only precautionary measures to take in preventing a problem. If you happen to have any sort of infestation aboard that seems too big to handle, it is best to have professional help. Hi-Tide wants you to make the most out of your aquatic adventures, and we hope that these tips and tricks will allow you to share your love for nature with all your friends without the worry of unwanted pests.
Now that you’ve learned how to keep pesky pests away, you can better protect your boat from all the harsh aquatic elements with a Hi-Tide Boat Lift. Check out our products and learn more.
Boat lift manufacturer partners with Mazda Road to Indy to ‘lift’ youth in U.S.
FT. PIERCE, Fla. (Feb. 27, 2017) — Hi-Tide Boat Lifts, a leader in the boat lift manufacturing industry, has announced the start of its 2017 ‘Kids on Track’ program, which will ‘lift’ the spirits and inspire the dreams of children throughout the country by providing them with unique access to INDYCAR racing events in the Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires series.
In its third year, Hi-Tide’s Kids on Track program will work with local charity organizations in 10 cities to grant children and their guardians and/or mentors free access to Mazda Road to Indy racing events, behind-the-scenes tours of the racetrack, and an opportunity to meet Mazda Road to Indy drivers and more.
“Mazda is very passionate about motorsports,” said John Doonan, director, Mazda Motorsports. “It means a lot to us that Hi-Tide Boat Lifts shares their passion by bringing children to the race track. Their goal of inspiring kids at Mazda Road to Indy events is something we support and admire.”
Craig Wood, owner of Hi-Tide, has a passion for motorsports and his desire to make a difference in the lives of youth prompted the company to sponsor the South Florida- based Mazda Road to Indy driver Kyle Connery in early 2015. This experience inspired Hi-Tide to sponsor the entire Mazda Road to Indy series and expand the Kids on Track program. In 2016, Hi-Tide partnered with local Big Brother Big Sisters chapters, Ronald McDonald House Charities and other local organizations in various U.S. cities to provide children and their mentors an unforgettable day at the races. The program was able to grant exclusive access to 19 organizations and more than 95 children nationwide.
“Hi-Tide is constantly striving to stay connected and involved within communities across the country, eager to give back in any way we can,” Wood said. “Kids on Track gives us the chance to engage our nation’s youth in a unique experience, with hopes to inspire them to chase their dreams and ‘lift’ their spirits to go above and beyond in their life endeavors.”
Kids on Track kicks-off on March 11, 2017, at the first Mazda Road to Indy race in St. Petersburg, Florida.
About Hi-Tide Boat Lifts:
Hi-Tide Boat Lifts is a pioneer in the boat lift industry, as the first manufacturer to design a product entirely of corrosion-resistant aluminum made specifically for the marine environment. As the leaders and innovators in the boat lift industry, the company also developed a patented Gear Drive gear box, which guarantees years of low-maintenance service. Learn more at: hi-tide.com.
About Mazda, Mazda Motorsports:
Mazda Motorsports boasts the most comprehensive auto racing development ladder system of any auto manufacturer in the world. The Mazda Road to 24 program offers a number of scholarships to advance drivers up the sports car racing ladder, beginning with the Global MX-5 Cup series and culminating with the Mazda Prototype team. The Mazda Road to Indy is a similar program that includes Mazda-powered categories of USF2000, Pro Mazda and Indy Lights. In grassroots road racing, more Mazdas race on any given weekend in North America than any other manufacturer. Mazda is also the title sponsor of the renowned Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, Calif. Follow all of the latest news at MazdaMotorsports.com, @MazdaRacing on Twitter, and MazdaMotorsports on Instagram and Facebook.
Media Contact:
Aliyah Shariff
(407) 722-7837
ashariff@findsomewinmore.com
Character building. That partly sums up the June 12-14 race weekend in Toronto for all of us.
For Kyle Connery, racing the #91 Hi-Tide/SeaRock Pro Mazda, it meant overcoming an unhappy 15th place qualification result on Friday. It meant dealing with difficult changing weather conditions. It meant avoiding the carnage of a first-lap 6-car wreck on the first lap of Race 1 on Saturday. It meant hanging on with ZERO visibility in Turn 3 of Race 2 on Sunday…..settling down and picking off cars.
For us, character building meant 3700 miles of the new experience of towing a small 18-ft travel trailer. And camping. In rain. In temperatures plummeting below 70 degrees. (We live in Florida, ya know!) It meant 3 of us learning to dance around each other living with less floor space than in our bathroom at home. And mud. This stuff was everywhere! Being a boat guy the only mud you normally have to deal with is on the anchor…..which has a convenient ocean in which to rinse it.
The goal of the trip was to get to the Toronto IndyCar Grand Prix, with everything else on the way up and the way back being catch-as-catch-can experiences. We immediately went to Plan B on the way north when awful weather conditions on the East Coast led us to go inland and up through Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, etc. So the trip basically became Florida, hook around the north shore of Lake Ontario, and return! Not a drop of saltwater in 3700 miles.
All we heard about Toronto was about the horrible traffic. From everyone. And it’s true. But we snagged VIP parking passes for the parking garage right at the race course, and we left early from the campground (Rouge Hill, near the Toronto Zoo) and beat traffic downtown. The traffic IS bad……but seems very polite. (Remember, we live in Florida!) And there is an advantage in heavy traffic downtown for us visitors in that we get to go really slow and better see the sights. And it is a very cool downtown. We could take the train, trams, taxis and ferries to get everywhere we needed, which beat walking during the heavy periods of rain. (Again, we live in Florida so the concept of friendly, clean, convenient mass transit is a bit foreign. But hey, we were in Canada……and to us, that’s foreign, eh?).
So, take a cool downtown on the edge of Lake Ontario, and then plunk a serious race course down at lakeside and the exposition place……and you have one amazing annual event. (St. Pete in Florida is similar but not quite on the same scale.) The drivers seem to love the race course, calling it a “road course” plunked down into a street setting. The turns are more open than St. Pete, with a few more runoff areas, and there are more open zones with passing possibilities. It’s bumpy as all get-out with difficult transitions between asphalt and concrete. But everyone seems to love racing here for the track and the wonderful hosting by the people of Toronto.
On & off rain was a major feature of the weekend, and if it wasn’t raining you still had lots of puddles to deal with ……whether you were walking around or driving a race car at 160 mph. I am glad I was walking.
There were two particular standouts for me in walking around in the rain in Toronto. The first was, no beer lines! Instead, attractive though drenched young ladies brought trays of a variety of beer right to ya! The second was……POUTINE. We knew about this Canadian comfort food from our time living in South Florida……the very best soft serve ice cream we’ve ever had was at Dairy Belle in Dania Beach. Super smooth, rich and creamy. The best!! Dairy Belle is a French-Canadian hangout, and the Quebecois (folks from Quebec) flock there for their poutine. Ready for it??? French fries with fresh cheese curd covered in brown gravy. We had always said we would go there and try it but never got around to it. Well, when in Rome……! It’s pretty good actually, and it certainly hit the spot in the cold pouring rain . Good stuff, eh?
Back to the races. Kyle and his #91 Hi-Tide car started 15th of 18 Pro Mazda cars. BANG….mayhem on the first lap with 6 cars crashing out. Kyle slipped through there, got down to business and had some of the fastest lap times, and ended up picking off a few cars to gain a solid 6th place finish. Then on Sunday, again starting 15th, he learned to stay out of the blinding rooster tails of the cars in front, really went fast, and finished 10th. Two top ten finishes!
These ladder series (USF2000, Pro Mazda, Indy Lights) are driver development series that teach the young drivers what they need to do to be successful race car drivers. And success here can lead to a seat in an IndyCar. This weekend in Toronto was indeed character building particularly with the adverse weather and driving conditions. Kyle gained confidence. And the JDC Motorsports crew resolved a pesky bug in the car that had been affecting shifting and acceleration. Character building indeed! Thank you, adversity! Eh??
Breast? Wings? Thighs? Hey…..I’m looking at the big chicken!!!
