Friday wrap: Whittley Boats opens Sydney showroom

The new dealership follows on the back of another factory-owned Whittley salesroom that opened on the Gold Coast earlier this year.

The site is home to an extensive range of new Whittley boats, sales office, dry stack storage options, café lounge, nearby restaurants and off-street parking suitable for vehicles towing large boats.

Whittley says the new business will sell the complete range of Australian-made turnkey boat, motor and trailer packages

Whittley NSW sales manager Brock Cohen said the time was right to establish a Sydney base in the wake of the success of the Queensland branch, and the launch of two new outboard-engined models.

“With an exciting new model development program underway, the Whittley family is looking forward to building on the success of its factory-owned sales outlet model,” Cohen said.

“The new Sydney facility is the group’s third sales outlet across the eastern seaboard and now sees Whittley boats sold in Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast.”

Whittley packages range from $44,990 to more than $250,000 depending on the model and options fitted.

Sydney-based Riviera dealer R Marine Pittwater has moved to a new, larger location at Newport in Sydney’s northern beaches.

The dealership moves its sales and service centre to the Princes Street Marina – the site where the dealership was located when it was first established in 1980.

R Marine Pittwater director Lee Dillon said the move felt “very much like old times for the dealership”.

“But compared with the dealerships I’ve been associated with over the past 40 years, this is the best ever,” he said.

“It’s a very large office with a lovely outlook on the second floor. The marina itself is maintained beautifully, and it’s a pleasure to drive into.

There’s a big carpark and a sheltered marina with our boats for sale right in front of us on one arm,” Dillon said.

R Marine Pittwater sells both new and used Riviera and Belize models.

More than 50 millIon people took part in recreational fishing in the US in 2019, a report looking into participation rates has found.

The Outdoor Foundation and Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation report found the number of people in the US aged six and older who went fishing at least once in the year rose to 17 per cent to 631 million trips, with a net increase of the number of people fishing rising by 700,000 compared with 2018.

However, of the 50.1 million people who went fishing in 2018, only 13.2 million fished in saltwater compared with 39.2 million for freshwater fishing. That said, the number of people heading to the sea to fish rose by 3.0 per cent compared with 2018.

Of note, female participation in recreational fishing in the US rose by by 3.0 per cent to 17.9 million – the biggest growth was for those aged 13 to 17 – while more fish were released than taken home, the survey says.

Aussie-flavoured recreational boating app Deckee has released a significant update that makes it significantly easier to use than before.

The app goes international, now offering enhanced international weather updates including wind, swell and tide, a larger library of markers to identify hazards such as bridges and overhead cables, and the good bits such as diving spots and toilets.

The Deckee app’s mapping function now includes What3Words integration so that users can identify theoir location using a unique combination of three words – much faster and easier than sending a GPS coordinate.

The Deckee app is available via the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Boatigo, a website aiming to link spare seats on recreational boats with fishing enthusiasts, has relaunched as a fee-free service after its former business model was challenged by Australia’s marine safety watchdog.

However, the site still shows day rates for anyone wanting to jump on someone else’s vessel, ranging from $20 per person a day to head out for a sail up to $160 to jump on a catamaran and head out to Rottnest Island off Perth.

Boatigo originally launched with a business model where passengers contributed to the skipper’s running costs for a day out on the water.

However, because Boatigo stated it would collect a fee from every paying passenger, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said the arrangement was commercial, and not recreational, and all boats signing up to Boatigo would need to meet strict commercial safety requirements before taking on passengers.