Beacon offers WiFi access on the sea

• At the Noank Shipyard in Groton, an antenna moored to a fuel shack just a few feet from the choppy waters of Long Island Sound allows customers to check their e-mail and access work from their computers without ever coming ashore.
• "If you hang out on a boat Saturday and Sunday, it's because you work Monday to Friday," said Russell Schmidt, co-owner of Beacon WiFi, a wireless provider based in Wilton.
• His business takes in marinas in wealthy enclaves such as Sag Harbor on the eastern end of Long Island, Block Island, R.I., and Charleston, S.C.
• Beacon and other companies are working to fill in blank spots where WiFi doesn't reach between marinas up and down America's coastlines.
• He is now harbor master at a marina in North Fort Myers, Fla., and said the advent of wireless technology has made his life easier.
• "You could sit at the Clam Shack with a cup of chowder and figure out what the stock market is doing," said Kathleen Burns, general manager of the Groton shipyard.
• ICOA is beginning to establish a presence at marinas in Virginia and Rhode Island, and provides WiFi to 55 marinas, said John K. Balbach, vice president of corporate development at ICOA.
• An increase in the number of devices equipped for Wifi -- personal data assistants, phones that switch between cellular and WiFi, hand-held gaming devices and digital cameras -- are helping to spur WiFi business, Balbach said.
• At marinas, "wireless is a perfect solution" because marina facilities such as restaurants and yacht clubs, along with boaters, can pick up signals, he said.
• Kevin Keating, general manager of BroadbandXpress LLC, which provides WiFi to marinas in Washington state and British Columbia in Canada, said access to the Internet and e-mail provides important information such as up-to-date weather forecasts.