Largest cruiser-sourced database of sailing destinations now online
by Mauro Calvi on 20 Oct 2012
Rum Cay - one of the featured destinations SW
This is something that every cruising sailor in the world should know about. Whether you are sailing in the Australia coral reefs, looking for a marina in Florida, or planning your upcoming cruise in Croatia, sQuidd.io is about to become as indispensable as your navigation software and your marine charts. And it's available for free!
The creators of sQuidd.io believe that a great way to enjoy and protect the ocean is to facilitate the sharing of information among boaters. This is why most of the content you will find on sQuidd.io is generated by users for other users.
All members are encouraged to contribute their seafaring knowledge by creating new destinations (marinas, anchorages, yacht clubs etc.), rating their favorite ones and by providing information and feedback. Thanks to its users, sQuidd.io is quickly becoming the most complete, comprehensive and up-to date source of cruising information in the world.
The site already contains about 10K such destinations in North America, the Caribbeans, the Med, Australia and New Zealand and some parts of the South Pacific. Destinations can be easily searched by country, proximity to a location or name, and viewed on a map.
Users can also rate a destination according to attributes such as the beauty of the place, the quality of service and even the quality of the Wi-Fi connection at the marina (if provided).
Understanding that this is but a small fraction of the thousands of destinations around our beautiful planet, sQuidd.io tries to make it very easy for a user to add destinations that are not yet in the database. In wiki-like fashion, users can also correct information about a destination (including its exact position on the map).
Boat utilisation:
And that's not all. You must have noticed that boats are one of the most underutilized assets in the world: just spend some time walking around a marina on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and look at the number boats sitting in their slips.
One of the reasons might be the belief that sharing your boat with others is cumbersome and risky. sQuidd.io provides a platform enabling boat owners to generate income by renting their boats out to people they trust, in a safe and easy manner.
So give it a go! Visit http://sQuidd.io and rate your favorite marinas, anchorages or other sailing destinations.
Can't find the favourite one you are looking for? Add it yourself.
About the creator of sQuidd.io:
Mauro Calvi is a veteran of the high tech industry, living in San Francisco, as well as an avid sailor. He has circumnavigated the Mediterranean with his family, crossed the Atlantic and the Pacific, and spent many years sailing in the US Pacific Northwest and California.
'What always struck me about boats in general is how under-utilized they are,' says Mauro about what inspired him to create the new website. 'I think the widespread adoption of social networks and the trust-based relationships they can encourage on the web, combined with the opportunity to 'crowd-source' the world's cruising knowledge and use mobile communications to stay connected, are going to change the way we experience boating.
'This is why I decided to create sQuidd.io, and am very excited about the response I am seeing from the boating community.'
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