Word: boats
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Should struggling boat dealers get the same sort of bailout from the federal government that is being doled out to the flailing auto industry? The Small Business Administration thinks so. It has just started a program that offers loans to help boat dealers to finance their inventory. But at least so far, few dealers seem to be interested...
Earlier this year, lawmakers from Indiana lobbied the government for months to get financing for RV and boat dealerships. "We don't see this as a bailout," said Indiana Rep. Joe Donnelly. "What we see these are loans to businesses who have always paid their loans back." Donnelly, along with fellow Indiana Rep. Mark Souder, say boats and RVs have the same financing challenge as the auto industry. Many auto dealers had their financing yanked, forcing some out of business. Traditional lenders like GMAC aren't as available to boat dealers due to the credit crunch...
...have second thoughts before you set sail? Not really. I just wanted to rush into it. It was really busy when we were getting the boat ready to go. We were working 16-hour days for four months. I finally got out there into the Pacific, and it was a pretty crazy feeling. I was alone for 23 days in the first passage to Hawaii. (See photos of an eco-voyage to the seven continents...
...walk me through a typical day on the boat? It changed day to day, depending on where I was in the ocean. If I was near the shore, I had to worry about fishing boats, local traffic and shifting winds. If I'm in the trade winds, it's pretty much like doing whatever it is you do at your house, because you set the sail and don't touch the line for three weeks at a time. The wind comes in the same direction for months. When you're doing that, you get your eight or 12 hours...
...Caruana hardly furthered the meeting's cause himself, however, when one week before its scheduled start, he issued a public statement reminding local boat owners that despite the European Commission's environmental ruling, Spain has no police jurisdiction in Gibraltar's waters and so "all requests by Spanish authorities within British Gibraltar Territorial Waters to board vessels ... should be refused." The call to what some Spaniards saw as open rebellion threw the talks into disarray; the Spanish press reported on Thursday, July 16, that diplomatic sources saw little likelihood of the meeting's going ahead...