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Snack Barge
If you need an emergency tow, use Channel 9. If you need an emergency hot dog, you can now use Channel 13.

This summer, nautical entrepreneur Lisa Toscano of Branford, Connecticut, launched a business that literally caters to a previously untapped marketplace. The first and only licensed boat vendor in the area, Toscano turned her 20-foot SeaDoo jet boat into a floating concession stand and began delivering key cruising staples—ice cream, hot dogs, cigarettes, sunblock, and much more—to under-supplied boats all along the Connecticut coast.

“Boats are all tied up, and no one wants to untie and get out of their anchorage just to get more food or run an errand,” Toscano told the Associated Press when she launched the enterprise.

When she applied for the special vendor permit, Toscano had no idea how popular her business idea would become. Initially she imagined that her “Snacks on the Sound” delivery service would just cater boating essentials to anchored cruisers in Connecticut’s Kelsey and Thimble Islands. When word spread that a call to Channel 13 could summon a floating snack stand, all manner of requests began flooding in from boaters all over the Sound: roast beef sandwiches, pizza, cigars, even dog treats for water-loving pets.

Toscano, who is sometimes assisted by her two teenage sons, quickly expanded her onboard equipment to include a bevy of ice-cold coolers and a warmer for hot dogs and pizza. Her busiest days had her fielding calls that were pouring in from as many as 100 boats per weekend.

Though ice cream was far and away her most popular item this summer, there was no limit to the variety of customers—and vessels—she served.

“Huge, small, it doesn’t matter,” she says. “I once brought ice cream to a mom and daughter on a kayak, but I’ve also delivered hot dogs to yachts.”

48.4
The percent decrease in boating-related fatalities nationwide that occurred during the first six months of 2003 compared to the same period in 2002, according to U.S. Coast Guard. Specifically, there were 409 deaths in the first half of 2002, compared to 211 in 2003.

Things We Like
You know you’ve been there: You’re throwing a cocktail party on your boat and trying to greet guests with one hand while juggling a glass of wine and a plate of buffalo wings with the other. It’s hell on those white khakis. But now you can actually eat, drink, and shake someone’s hand all at the same time. Check out this gadget that managing editor Eileen Mansfield recently saw at the Volvo Penta press event in Göteborg, Sweden. It clips to your appetizer plate and can safely and securely carry your champagne flute or wine glass, eliminating the hand-shuffle normally associated with cocktail parties. You can order your own from www.partyclip.com. Genius.

NOVEMBER CALENDAR
Oct. 30-Nov. 3. The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in Florida. (800) 940-7642. www.showmanagement.com.
13-16. The Boat Show in Fort Myers, Florida. (239) 332-0604. www.swfmia.com.
13-16. Boys & Girls Clubs Rendezvous at Fisher Island, Florida. (800) 962-2420. www.yachtrendezvous.com.
20-23. The Boat Show in St. Petersburg, Florida. (800) 940-7642. www.showmanagement.com.

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