Ken Cook Co. creates award-winning app for ABYC
MILWAUKEE, Wisc. – The American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC) won the International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition (IBEX) coveted Innovation Award in the Safety Equipment category for the Boating Safety mobile app “Boat Essentials – USCG Safety Gear” developed by Ken Cook Co. The award was announced September 17th, 2013 at the IBEX opening in Louisville, Kentucky.
Ken Cook Co. partnered with ABYC to create a powerful iPhone app to identify both required and recommended safety equipment for powered and non-powered recreational boats used in U.S. waters. The app uses the USCG recreational boat rules to generate a required equipment checklist for up to three different boats and has the ability to create shopping lists, maintenance notifications, float plans and more.
This is the second IBEX innovation award for Ken Cook Co., having received the award in 2008 for the Marine BookBuilder online owner’s manual portal. Marine BookBuilder allows boatbuilders to make customized international owner’s manuals, in 19 languages, and the ability to print just one copy at a time shipped to any location. “It was the innovation we built into Marine BookBuilder that caught the attention of ABYC.” said John Jost, Director of Software Solutions who added “We have an outstanding staff of content creators, illustrators, writers, publishers and application developers that routinely provide our customers with unique solutions.”
Ken Cook Co. is making this app available to boatbuilders to combine with their Owner’s Manual to provide new generation boaters with value using mobile devices. “New boaters, especially those purchasing used boats may not have the help of a marine dealer and the requirements can sometimes be confusing…” said Jost, adding “…the Y generation is more likely to seek information from an app with the bonus of generating a shopping list.”
The free iPhone app is available at the Apple iTunes app store.
