The Marine Electronics Hub
There’s been a lot written recently about the strength of the boat and RV markets. I’ve struggled at times to understand why, especially with the uncertainty looming around all of us. But, I also understand the escape that a recreational vessel or vehicle can bring. In fact, I understand it so well that my wife Laura and I decided to add an RV to our fleet of mobile residences — the fleet now sits at two with the RV.
Over the next four weeks I’m teaching a marine electronics seminar. The course covers the basics of electronics and outfitting a boat for cruising. We will touch on installed equipment, safety gear, mobile apps,...
Holy cow! While the timing is weird, the current Wall Street Journal features a lovely portrait of the Ben and Laura Stein family aboard Have Another Day in Fort Myers. And although the headline writers got a little carried away — yesterday, for instance (and ugh), Ben was replacing the vacuum head system duck valves in his “luxury watercraft” — Panbo readers may enjoy a peek at Stein life beyond all the electronics…
The 2020 Panbo reader survey is now available at https://panbo.limequery.com/837196?lang=en. Helping Ben and I understand our readers will both help ensure we provide you the coverage you’re looking for and help us explain the value of Panbo to potential advertisers.
I’m pleased to announce that, like Ben Ellison, I’ve added a smaller, faster, simpler boat to my test fleet. Last week I took delivery of a new-to-me 2016 22-foot Cobia 220CC center console powered by a Yamaha 150 engine. When Ben Ellison posted about his new boat last fall he teased that I was also in the market for a similar boat and though it took a while to get find the right one, I’ve done it and I’m thrilled.
It may not be everyone’s idea of a good time, but trying the first dual-color electronic Visual Distress Signal Device (eVDSD) is how a writer trying to cover the present and future of marine electronics gets his kicks. And it happened because the annual and always valuable NMEA Conference is now also the annual RTCM Conference, and also because Panbo covered the event with dual Bens…
When I went down to visit Gizmo this morning, the cold rain had pretty much eliminated the ice, snow, and slush that helped make the Thanksgiving holiday such a joy. But that composite float...
Except for the possible name confusion, I’m very pleased to report that Ben Stein has become Panbo’s new Publisher while I get to focus entirely on the Edit side. As you may know, “new Ben” has been serving as a Contributing Editor since January, we walked the Miami Show together, and it was “Ben S” who spearheaded the Panbo website rebuild that went live in late March. We’ve been working together closely…
Ben and I are excited to report that we’ve teamed up with Steve Mitchell from SailBits to co-present the Marine Electronics Forums. Steve brings a wealth of knowledge to the forums and if you...
We’ve launched a new Panbo Forum today. We will also keep the old forum around read-only so that all discussions will remain available…
