Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Yearly Archive: 2016

Summer fun: Camden, Panbots & Gizmo 9

Navigation / AIS / Green Boating

Summer fun: Camden, Panbots & Gizmo

yachts_RH3_and_RH4_special_opps_style_lr_cPanbo.jpgHave we reached the era when “special ops” makes sense as a superyacht style? I joke, but RH3 would be pretty imposing even if it weren’t cruising Maine in company with the all-black, dual jet drive, 40-foot-plus RH4. Given the two other substantial black tenders on the boat deck — and lord knows what’s in the hidden arms lockers (ok, I’m fantasizing, but armament is a seriously untold big yacht story) — this team seems ready to fend off a serious bad guy attack or invade a small island nation…

NOAA introduces Zones of Confidence; mind your ZOC 6

Charts / The future

NOAA introduces Zones of Confidence; mind your ZOC

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Yikes! Did you know that some areas of the U.S. coastal chart you’re using may only show land and bottom features accurate in position to +/- 1,600 feet, and you shouldn’t be confident about the depth soundings either? NOAA has a new way to show boaters how old and inaccurate much of its survey data is, and it will surely give pause to those who pay attention. The concept is called Zones of Confidence and it’s slowly rolling out as diagrams on paper-style raster charts like the one above, but the ZOC accuracy info is coming much faster to NOAA’s ENC vector charts, and apparently it could be made easily accessible on the commercial vector charts you’re probably using.

Good instrument news: Garmin gWind Wireless 2 and Raymarine i70s 33

Navigation / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

Good instrument news: Garmin gWind Wireless 2 and Raymarine i70s

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Mount the new Garmin gWind Wireless 2 transducer on your masthead, plug the GNX Wind display into your NMEA 2000 network and — badda bing, badda boom — your sailboat has quality networked wind data that hardly uses any power and retails for $900 bundled. And if you already have a Garmin GPSMAP 7400/7600 or 8400/8600 chartplotter series, you don’t even need the GNX Wind to display and network the data. Meanwhile Raymarine’s updated i70s all-in-one N2K instrument display looks great on several levels…

Evinrude E-Link, one leg of a generous open architecture attitude 6

Electrical & Engines / The future / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

Evinrude E-Link, one leg of a generous open architecture attitude

Evinrude_E-Link_WiFi_gateway_n_app_aPanbo.jpgI suspect that a lot of now and future Evinrude E-Tec G2 outboard owners are going to appreciate the new E-Link hardware and app system almost as much as the Fourth of July. The easy-to-install NMEA 2000 WiFi gateway will cost about $360 and will neatly put all G2 gauges, calibrations, and fault codes into otherwise free E-Link Android and iOS (Apple) apps. One E-Link gateway will handle multiple outboards and the system doesn’t require or preclude any other monitoring and control options. In fact, you may soon see a full G2 interface on your favorite multifunction display…

Gizmo 2016, Pettit Hydrocoat Eco round 2 and Gadget redo 21

Gadgets / Good Gear (non electronic)

Gizmo 2016, Pettit Hydrocoat Eco round 2 and Gadget redo

Gizmo_2016_Pettit_HydroCoat_Eco_2_cPanbo.jpg“You’re pretty late, aren’t you? I heard that a lot recently! There are many reasons for Gizmo’s late launch last week — travel, getting old, boatyard miscommunications, etc. — but perhaps the most interesting one is what it took to properly retest Pettit Hydrocoat Eco bottom paint. Modern anti-fouling paint can be more of a technology than I realized and I’ll also have to admit to some classic boat owner denial. Plus, I’d like to show off some improvements to the good tender Gadget…

DeLorme inReach gets weather & goes to Cuba 28

Wireless & Apps / Communications / Weather

DeLorme inReach gets weather & goes to Cuba

DeLorme_inReach_weather_feature_cPanbo.jpgI’ve long felt that the DeLorme inReach is a valuable safety and communications tool for boats that sometimes go beyond reliable cellular (and/or VHF) contact with friends, families and rescue centers. But one gripe for skippers hoping to use an inReach as their only offshore communications device was the lack of weather forecasting. There were some necessarily crude third party solutions, but now DeLorme itself is offering easy-to-use and understand forecasts, both marine and terrestrial. I’ve just been testing this and many other inReach features in Cuba, though the legality of taking a satellite messenger/tracker there is uncertain…

A Search and Rescue boat’s critical electronics 10

Safety & SAR

A Search and Rescue boat’s critical electronics

RCMSAR Station1 West Vancouver Howie at HelmAs a welcome change from his usual duties, Howie relaxes at the helm of Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (RCMSAR) Unit 1’s Falkens class boat — Craig Rae Spirit. More often he’s face down in the water on a training exercise anxiously awaiting rescue from the ocean near Vancouver. Howie is integral to Unit 1’s training program which includes: emergency procedures, first-aid, seamanship, vessel handling, teamwork, electronic navigation and the use of marine electronics. Let’s take a closer look at the training needed to use some of the gear on SAR 1, along with how and why it is used on a search and rescue mission…

Thermal boat phones: Boat Beacon AIS, Flir One & the Cat S60 2

Wireless & Apps / Cabin & deck gear

Thermal boat phones: Boat Beacon AIS, Flir One & the Cat S60

Boat_Beacon_Flir_One_ship_test_1_aPanbo.jpgThe Boat Beacon app running on the iPhone screen above looks like a fairly ordinary AIS target display app that can also show your own vessel. In this specific example your 28-foot sailboat is plotted on center as you head south at 5 knots into the Solent with the ship Morning Calm overtaking you to starboard. But, hey, it’s pitch dark, the iPhone has a Flir One thermal camera attached, and Boat Beacon’s “Live View” augmented reality feature can now make use of this night vision device…

Land Rover BAR, can this AC35 tech partnership “bring the Cup home”? 6

The future / History

Land Rover BAR, can this AC35 tech partnership “bring the Cup home”?

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At this press conference in New York City on Saturday, May 7th, the UK’s largest automobile manufacturer, Jaguar Land Rover, made the case that their support of Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR) in America’s Cup 35 is not just about marketing. It’s also a technology partnership that may be critical to finally bringing the Cup back to England, which both parties would really, really like to do. I completely bought the story and I was especially feeling my inner Brit after taking in the rest of the weekend’s AC World Series pageantry off lower Manhattan…