Category: Cabin & deck gear

I drove the dogs in my neighborhood slightly nuts, but I did satisfy myself that this new loudhailer horn speaker works quite well.  Mister Fish Marine Electronics is primarily an online dealer, but this 40 watt, 4 ohm speaker is their own design.  The goal was improved longevity and sound over the “inexpensive” speakers while maintaining a reasonable cost, and my first impression — given the $89 price, shipping included — is “goal achieved.”  It feels solidly built and purportedly contains “lubricated internal o-ring gaskets” and all stainless hardware.  And sounds darn good, which I was able to test in multiple ways thanks to the Garmin VHF 200…

In Miami I got a good introduction to OceanLED’s new line of LIET LED down lighting fixtures, and was thoroughly intrigued. LIET (old English for “light” and pronounced the same way) seems to represent a significant technological leap.  That LIET6 core above, for instance, is less than five inches in diameter and a half inch thick, but produces what’s claimed to be the equivalent of a 50w Halogen bulb while only using 5.3 watts of power.  It even has built-in diagnostics and dimming.  And while blindingly bright, it doesn’t get hot to finger touch even though it lacks a discernible heat sink.  How did they do it?

Last summer I tried both SeaView and ScanStrut radar mounts, and was impressed with both.  I also got the sense that these are two able companies in healthy competition.  No surprise then that SeaView has just introduced electronics pods not unlike the ScanPod (originally called the DeckPod) that I also tested last season.  That big ScanStrut housing held up pretty well to the weight of a Raymarine C140 though it did jiggle a bit in rough going and I did have to adjust the clamp once.  SeaView’s design, above, looks to have two clamps and maybe more bearing surface, and I’ll be curious to get a feel for its range of motion and rigidity when clamped.  Maybe in Miami?  Meanwhile, ScanStrut has moved into cable deck seals…

Weird world that it is, I first learned of EasyBailer via Twitter, even though the “factory” is just down the coast.  Last week I stopped in and met “CEO” John Bianchi in his shop full of small boats, including an impressive plank-on-frame Rangeley Guideboat he build himself.  Thus I wasn’t surprised to see how neatly put together his solar-powered dinghy pump is (click above for detail).  And I consider myself somewhat expert about this as I tried to assemble a similar bailer myself with poor results…

An MFD ought to be mounted where you can see it well, and reach it easily, and on many boats that may mean a flexible mount that can move with you, or with the sun.  Like that new Navslide rig above, which looks like it will give great access to either the helmsman, or a navigator seated forward of him, irregardless of which side of the cockpit they’re most comfortable in. It’s a slick idea, and wait til you see the hardware quality…

Temporarily mounted on Gizmo’s scruffy masthead are two pretty neat LED flood lights. At right, facing aft, is a Lumitec Caprera, which purports to replace a 55 watt halogen while only using .9 amp and retailing for about $150 with a 22,000 hour output life.  It’s sealed into a deeply powder-coated cast-aluminum housing, comes with the tilting stainless bracket shown (but not the jury-rig strap), and seems very solidly built.  At left is an OceanLED Amphibian A6, which is mainly meant as an underwater light but somehow dissipates heat well enough through its polymer housing (and Tritonium lens) to be used anywhere. The bracket shown, which can cleverly fix the A6 any which way, is a new OceanLED accessory (though I can’t find it anywhere on their site). Amphibian A6’s draw .5 amp, claim a 40,000+ LED life, and retail for about $330.  To my eyes, and to those of several Gizmots, the Lumitec is a brighter light…

A big thanks to both ScanStrut and SeaView for contributing mast mounts to the ongoing Gizmo radar testing program (will it ever end?).  I found the SeaView SM-18-R to be as solid and easy to install as the ScanStrut. In fact, having just two mast feet instead of four might make the SeaView a little stronger and easier to align (though there may be a reason for the four-foot design I haven’t understood yet?)  SeaView also offers the optional canting feet shown attached in the photo above, which made the Gizmo flying bridge mount possible…

Not surprisingly, there were fewer than normal applications for this
year’s MAATS Innovation Awards, but we judges were pleased to find some
strong entries, and selected a winner in every category (though we’re free not to, and often don’t).  Also not surprising were the wins for Navionics Mobile 2.0 in Electronics and Revere/McMurdo’s FastFind 210 PLB in Safety.  But I knew nothing of Master Lock’s PulseCode access management system, and was impressed…