The MadCast is upon us.

Mad Mariner's podcast launched Wednesday, featuring a new 30-minute interview each week with people from all corners of the boating universe.

The goal is simple: to give Mad Mariner readers direct access to people they might not ordinarily meet, including CEOs, designers, authors, testers, cruisers, rescuers – and some ordinary boaters doing extraordinary things.

The MadCast is available every Wednesday on iTunes, BlogTalkRadio and right here on MadMariner.com, where you can also get links to more information on each topic. You can play them on the site, or download them to an iPod or any MP3 player. We also provide transcripts, for people who prefer to read the interviews.

Mad Mariner already has a full page of podcasts – eight separate interviews and four hours of listening – available on the site. Among the highlights:

• Mark Welsh and George Blaisdell of Triumph Boats talk about building with Roplene, a material that creates vessels that are nearly indestructible (proof: they dropped one of their boats from a helicopter).
• Jim Ewing, the president of the newly revived Trumpy Yachts, talks about the renaissance of a classic.
• Lenny Rudow, the former technical editor of Boating Magazine who has performed more than 700 boat tests, talks about how to review a boat.
• Jeff Siegel, the founder of ActiveCaptain.com and an expert on onboard mobile technology, talks about expanding your capabilities.
• Mark Doyle, the author of "Get Onboard With E-Charting" who has tested almost every navigation software package on the market, talks about designing, purchasing and installing a computer-based navigation system.

New podcasts will be released weekly, and we welcome suggestions.

As always, we hope you enjoy it.