There are an estimated seven million recreational boaters in Canada. poneil@cns.canwest.com ) The Vancouver Sun 2004

Joe, My Annapolis "Arild" estimates that the AGMs will give you about half that lifespan...6 yrs. Watering batteries is no fun, but, with hydrocaps, twice a year ain't bad.

As others have noted, there are prior posts in the T&T archives....but one way to get an approximate handle might be to estimate each of the following you wish to include.

From my point of view, whenever a charted hazard comes close to the circle of possible error around my boat, roughly estimated as the size of a football field, I rely on eyeball navigation. Larry Z

The precision with which we can estimate conditions near The Cape is much better than it used to be. But The Cape is still the same old antagonist, and it has no mercy. By the way, I expect to be the object of the Cape's attention next Tues, after the remnants of the burned out typhoon that is approaching the coast tonight, clears out.

We estimate that among the yachties that we have met, mostly sail, far fewer than half are bona fide ham radio operators. On the other hand, these same yachts are nearly all equipped with ham radios, and use most of the applications listed above. Frequently they simply make up a call sign and act like a ham.

I think the reason you will never see mandatory licensing is because out of an estimated 77 million people that take to the water each year there were only 676 boating related deaths in 2005. You also have to consider how many of those deaths were on power boats and how many were the result of operator error the number will shrink.

Job allocation has also been high on the agenda, with Maersk sticking to its original estimate of 1,500 staff cuts in total. Another priority was to withdraw P&O Nedlloyd from consortia such as the Grand Alliance where it was the dominant member, renegotiate conference memberships and review countless other similar commitments.

Enhancements to the Public Safety 911 system will make it possible for Public Safety to read your callback number and to estimate your location. However, given the many variables with wireless radio service, no design will be perfect. There are three different phases that the FCC requires for this service.

All of this was done using an Iridium satellite phone at considerable expense--Judy estimates it took her about 500 minutes of Iridum phone time! And think about being in a foreign country with no usable credit cards to access ATMs. We were glad we had a few thousand euros hidden safely away! Did we report the incident to the authorities?