Boat Tech: Systems, Equipment, Gear, Troubleshooting, and Advice for Recreational and Commercial Boaters

These articles were written years ago while I was working as a commercial fisherman, passenger boat owner/operator, Field Editor for the country's premier commercial fishing publication, National Fishermen, and freelancer for several other national and international marine magazines. The work collected here is not meant to be all inclusive, and in no way does it cover the breadth of equipment and gear found on a given recreational or commercial boat. However, anyone looking to purchase new equipment or begin a new project, whether it's painting the hull or taking out an old engine and replacing with a new one, may find some useful, money-saving advice in these pages. Wherever possible, industry experts were consulted and interviewed, and most of the interviewees quoted here are still in the business.

Robert G. Bernstein is a former executive fundraiser turned professional boat captain. He has worked as a commercial fisherman, charter boat captain and captain-for-hire for over thirty years. His technical marine articles, columns, short stories and features have appeared in magazines and books since 1987. The novellas, Beneath Cold Seas and Mother Lode - first serialized in Offshore Magazine in 1992 - are now available at Amazon’s Kindle Store, as is Bernstein’s memoir, What They Don’t Tell You About Alzheimer’s, an informative and heartfelt story about taking care of a mother with Alzheimer’s Disease. What They Don’t Tell You About Alzheimer’s held the top two spots on Amazon’s Top 100 Kindle Books on Aging for over seven weeks and rose to the top 25 on Amazon’s Top Ten 100 Memoirs. It has been in the top 100 books on aging since its January, 2012 debut. Mr. Bernstein’s first novel, Calamity, about a financially burdened Maine captain who finds himself way over his head as a private investigator, is available here on Amazon, as are the short story, Mother Lode, and novella, Beneath Cold Seas. The latter two are also included in an anthology of short stories called, Beneath Cold Seas and Four Other Stories.