Shoes, can’t help myself
OK, so I was nosing around Harkenstore.com looking for specs on some cam cleats I need for my Rhodes 18. Couldn’t help but check out the clearance section, and, wow, there beckon lots of the...
Monthly Archive: July 2005
Northstar 69, electronics easter egg
I knew about “Easter Eggs”—little jokes or animations hidden behind odd key combinations in PC software, particularly games—but I just learned last week about pushing star69 on a Northstar. Apparently back in the Loran days, the...
Race transponders, a new wrinkle
Some 75 boats in tomorrow’s 97th running of the Mackinac race will be using a new FlagShip transponder supposedly built to very high standards. It’s quite compact (empty Bass Ale bottle for size reference only), operates on...
Adveto advanced AIS presentation, & more
The animation above shows how AIS system data can be used to predict a vessel’s future track, even “bottom sweep”—in this case 2 minutes ahead of its actual position, speed, rate of turn, etc. It’s...
SeaMoon Passerelle, solid state 360 degree video
I’ve been researching boat cameras and finding neat developements. One is the SeaMoon Passerelle, which sees 360 degrees at once. The screen image above shows the hind end of a big yacht in two 180 degree panoramas,...
Sail performance software, free
Above is output from a free program developed in France called GPSActionRelay. It is written in Java, and will suppossedly run on any operating system. Features include replay of several boats in a regatta, polar...
Humminbird side scanning, as good as it looks?
Last week I mentioned (relatively) inexpensive side scanning sonar, and here’s what I’m talking about. This 7” diagonal Humminbird 981c, which retails at about $1,650, is a conventional 750 watt dual frequency (50/200kHz) fishfinder that’s also...
Rude Awakening, the IDEC crash
Good gracious, that’s IDEC’s engine lying in the rocks beneath her destroyed hull. It must have been hairy for Francis Joyon to wake from deep sleep and get off this boat in the pitch dark. Sea &...
Safe Pass plotting, why not?
Fred Pot showed me a really interesting new concept in target plotting that was developed at a Dutch maritime school. Currently many plotters/PCs and radars can automatically use ARPA and/or AIS info to calculate the CPA (Closest Point of...
Xantrex power octopus, handy!
This Friday’s gizmo is the big kahuna of all the portable power packs that can typically jump start a car (or boat), run 12v gadgets, inflate a tire, and more. Xantrex’s top-of-the-line 400R also includes a...
