BLOG: THE YEAR THAT WAS IN BOATING

So the Mayans were wrong and we’re still here. Bugger! I thought the end of the world might’ve gotten me out of the last round of parking fines.

And what a year it’s been. As I reflect on the previous dozen issues of TrailerBoat, some 2400 pages, or around 1,440,000 words, I finally appreciate the scope of what we set out to achieve this year, and it’s now rather obvious that we were, quite frankly, nuts.

Not your garden variety, salty, dried out old snack pack stuff, either. I’m talking the entire 1kg Christmas hamper type of nuts. We’ve had Gulf to Gulf, our Cape York Torture Test, Australia’s Greatest Boats — instalments one, two and three — massive buyers’ guides, boat tests, destination reviews, product insights, how tos, how not tos, and where to go if you couldn’t give a stuff tos.

We’ve given away books, coolers, boats, yet another Vortex outboard and our mega prize, the Outdoor Adventure Rig comprising, among other goodies, a Toyota LandCruiser and a camper trailer. Those who didn’t win anything, fret not because our generosity knows no bounds and lots more free booty is on the horizon.

When it comes to the core business of what we do — playing with stuff, trying to break said stuff and handing back the remnants before running away without looking back only to write about the experience then sit back in a corner rocking back and forth while waiting the fallout — we’ve been working overtime. We’ve witnessed the birth of a new trend as new, and some not-so-new, boats sprouted helmets, headgear and all manner of rooftop structures to satisfy an ever-increasing demand for rigid protection. And manufacturers have been responding in droves.

We also noticed another emerging trend: aluminium boats tackling their fibreglass counterparts, and vice versa, on the other party’s home turf. No longer content to just stick in their own patch, a turf war is about to erupt, and TrailerBoat’s booked a ringside seat. We’ve already been copping flak after various writers — okay, all of them — had the temerity to suggest several prime alloy boats we tested had a ride to rival the ’glass elite. And the ’glass brigade is now offering stripped back fishing machines that match the tinnies on price. Ding, ding, ding.

The growth in boating accessories continues unabated and satisfies just about any itch that might need scratching. Nowhere has this been more obvious than in the area of marine electronics.

We used to be content with scratches on rather expensive rolls of paper and later thought boxes the size of microwaves with screens the size of postage stamps were the height of boating and fishing technology. Not now. Oh no, now we have units that look down, sideways, forwards, backwards, and some even into the future. Fish no longer look like the characters in a game of Pong, but are rendered in enough detail to see bream peeling your prawn and skilfully nibbling at the offering, before flipping you the bird. And we are all buying into it with open arms and empty wallets. Woohoo!

The members of the TrailerBoat team extend our holiday wishes to you and yours and look forward to you joining us on the wild ride we have planned for 2013.