So if you just want to spot boats and markers, 7x is fine. But if you want to identify them, or identify wildlife, 10x or even 14x is the ticket, but they MUST be stabilized to be usable. We each have Fujinon 14x 40 stabilized and don't use anything else. Expensive, but well worth it.
An update on this thread.
I have a pair of Canon 10x30 stabilized binoculars that my parents bought years ago and I inherited. They have worked remarkably well for a couple of decades. However, they just recently have started to fail. The stabilization system sometimes doesn't work and when it does work the image becomes soft. This softness has been a complain of the Canon in some quarters but I have never seen it with my pair until the stabilization system started to fail.
I tried to find out if they could be repaired and serviced. As near as I could tell, the cost to do so would approach the cost of replacement. So I started to look for a replacement.
After doing a lot of looking, I decided to spend the big bucks and buy that Fujinon 14x40 stabilized. This was a lot more than I wanted to spend but I decided to do it anyway. They arrived this last week and I had the opportunity to use them this weekend.
Simply put, the stabilization is amazing. It makes identifying buoys, boat names etc so much easier. I am used to the Canon which is good. The Canon will eliminate hand shake very well. The Fujinon goes a step further and all but eliminates the motion of the boat as well. The Fujinon uses a gyro gimbal based stabilization system which is different than what Canon uses. The Fujinon 14x40 has a stabilization range of 5 degrees. The way I think of this is that I can move the binoculars 5 degrees and the system will hold it steady. In contrast, the Canon's range is .7 degrees. This is the difference between stabilizing vibration vs stabilizing movement.
At first, the stabilization gives a swimming type of motion to the object being viewed. I can imagine that those that are very sensitive to visual motion may experience some vertigo. That doesn't happen with the Canon. The 14x magnification of the Fuji is significantly greater than the Canon, with the accompanying reduction in field of view.
The Fujinon is much heavier and bulkier than the Canon. The Canon is very nice for quickly grabbing and looking and is better ergonomically. On the Canon, at least my old Canon, to activate the stabilization you press a button on the top of the binoculars. As long as the button is depressed, the stabilization is active. The Fujinon is a bit more involved. There are two buttons. You first have to hit power button to put the binoculars into a power-on stand-by mode. You then hit the power button again to activate the stabilization. If you hit the power button again, it goes back to stand-by mode. Pressing the power off button then turns them off altogether. I think I will get used to using them quickly, but it will take some getting used to.
My guess is that I will go through batteries much more rapidly than I ever have with the Canon. The Canon uses 2 AA batteries and I think I have only replaced them a couple times in the last 10 years. The Fujinon uses 4AA batteries and I think I better have spares available.
Edit: Forgot to mention that the Fujinon are waterproof as well. The Canon were/are not. They won't float however, so I really don't want to drop them overboard.