Lester Evans wrote:
For my little old sailboat. Coastal cruising along the New England coast.
I took a look on ebay. Wow,, there were binoculars and there were
binoculars. Many brands, so many I gave up looking.

What do you experienced cruisers use?

I'll give a different point of view. The "common wisdom" is that
proper marine binoculars must be 7x50. Certainly, this seems to be
true for night sailing. However, for daytime use, you may find that
smaller binoculars are more useful. I notice that West has a 7x25
with all the basic marine features for only $70. Although only a
quarter of the light gathering, it has the same magnification and
field of view of its big brothers, but at 9.8 oz's, its less than a
third the weight.

For my own use, I carry a Canon 10x30 Image Stabilizing at the helm -
I like the magnification for spotting marks, etc. An older pair of
waterproof 7x50 are backup. But the lightweight 8x30 Nikon that stays
in my glove compartment probably gets used most of all. Its small
enough to be stuffed in a jacket pocket, so it tends to get taken
places when a 7x50 would be left behind.