Surfing in port

Boaters with computers find they can go online while still on board, using wireless technology that frees them from wall sockets.

[Times photo: Willie J. Allen Jr.]

Melissa Klafter, who lives with her husband, Ron Everest, on their 44-foot sailboat, uses a Wi-Fi connection Tuesday at Harborage Marina in St. Petersburg.

A boat dock might not seem to be the most obvious place you'd need a wireless Internet connection.

But local marinas are joining cafes, hotels and airports as the latest "hot spots" for Wi-Fi, as wireless Internet technology is known.

"I can plug (a wireless modem card) into my laptop and walk up and down the docks and surf the Internet," said Rick Proefke, manager of Marker 1 Marina in Dunedin. "It's pretty cool."

Typical customers include people who live on their boats, business people who boat infrequently but need to stay in touch with their offices and families on weekend trips, according to Russell Schmidt, co-founder of Beacon Wi-Fi of Wilton, Conn. Beacon has set up a Wi-Fi network at the Harborage Marina in St. Petersburg.

At the moment, Wi-Fi serves a small number of local boat owners. Out of Harborage's approximately 300 boat slips, only 15 to 20 customers have signed up for Wi-Fi. At Marker 1, which has a Wi-Fi system set up by Sun WiFi of Clearwater, nine of the 150 have signed up.

A Wi-Fi subscription at one marina may not be good at another. And the service isn't cheap. Sun WiFi charges Marker 1 customers $29.95 a month, or $9.95 a day. Beacon offers the same monthly rate at Harborage, but only with a 12-month subscription. Without a subscription, Beacon charges $79 a month, or three days of service for $19.99.

But the market opportunity is great enough that some companies such as Beacon are focusing exclusively on providing Wi-Fi services to marinas and neighboring restaurants and bars. Schmidt said his company's goal is to serve 15 percent of boaters per marina.

Building a marina-based Wi-Fi network presents special challenges, including covering an unusually wide area, having only limited roof space on which to place antennas and taking into consideration the impact of tidal surges, Schmidt said.

One satisfied Wi-Fi subscriber is Melissa Klafter, who lives with her husband, Ron Everest, in Harborage on their 44-foot sailboat. Klafter, 41, says she uses her Wi-Fi connection for personal use as well as for her Web-page design business and the yacht repair business she and Everest run. Klafter also provides periodic technical support on behalf of Beacon when a new customer signs up at Harborage.

"It gives you a lot of flexibility," Klafter says. "I can take the computer anywhere on the marina and I still have access."

Proefke also is optimistic about the growth of Wi-Fi services, which Marker 1 has recently begun marketing to potential customers. Under Marker 1's contract with Sun WiFi, the marina earns a small profit margin on each customer who signs up. "We're getting it out there now," he said. "It's growing."

- Louis Hau can be reached at hau@sptimes.com or 813 226-3404.

With a computer and a wireless networking card, a computer user visiting a Wi-Fi "hot spot" can access the Internet without cables or a modem. Wi-Fi networks are frequently found in Internet cafes, which typically charge for access, airports and other public areas. The term is short for "wireless fidelity."