It's the political season, and that means it is time for polls – but at Mad Mariner, we care about boaters, not voters.

The first-ever Mad Mariner Poll debuts today, a unique effort to cut through the dockside chatter and industry marketing and ask boaters directly about the issues that matter to them. The result is a trove of new information on how we use our boats.

The Mad Mariner Poll queried 400 boat owners (200 men and 200 women) nationwide on a broad range of topics – including safety, education, the cost of ownership and gender issues – and its findings yielded a range of unique information. For example, several questions combined to help generate today's article on the true impact of rising fuel prices in marinas nationwide. Additional stories will explore new issues and full results will be released next week.

Perhaps most important, we dedicated roughly two dozen questions to the role of women in our sport, yielding some first-ever observations about how women and men view their respective roles and experiences on the water. The result will be a three-part Women in Boating series launching next week.

The 30-question poll was conducted for Mad Mariner in June by Mountain West Research Center, an Idaho-based polling firm, using secure surveys delivered and completed online. The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 5 percentage points.

The Mad Mariner Poll is one more effort to deliver you exclusive information that helps you better understand the boating community in general and your boat – or your crew – in particular. We hope you enjoy it.

EDITORS'S NOTE: Full results are now available on the Poll Results Page.