Panbo

The Marine Technology Hub

Category: Safety & SAR

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Press Releases / Safety & SAR

New from Garmin: OnBoard wireless MOB & engine cutoff system

Garmin, the world’s largest and most innovative marine electronics manufacturer, today announced Garmin OnBoard, a versatile Man Overboard (MOB) and engine cutoff solution for boaters that uses wireless technology instead of traditional tethered cords. Tags can be worn on a wrist band, carabiner or key ring float, and designated as either captain or passenger. If an MOB is detected, the system will save a waypoint on the chart plotter, and audible alarms will sound…

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Wireless & Apps / Network & control / Safety & SAR / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K / Monitoring & Tracking

NMEA 2025: Digital Yacht Bilge IQ

Last week, the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) held their annual conference in West Palm Beach. This year’s conference featured quite a few interesting product introductions. I had the opportunity to see most of them while helping judge the NMEA’s Best New Product and NMEA Technology Awards. I plan several articles covering the various product introductions, though I’ll have to be quick about it as IBEX begins next week. Digital Yacht’s Bilge IQ is a NMEA 2000 and WiFi connected bilge pump control and monitoring system. The clever system monitors bilge pump activations, runtime, and current draw. My fellow judges and I thought enough of it to give it the Best New Product award. What did we see that intrigued us enough to award it? Let’s take a look.

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LiFePO4 / Safety & SAR / Electrical & Engines / The Trade

ABYC Examines the 48-volt boat

The past several years at IBEX, Metstrade and other trade shows, we’ve seen the introduction of electric devices — grills, bow thrusters, trolling motors, air conditioners and such — powered at 48 volts DC. In 2018, Integrel Solutions won a DAME Design Award for its 48-volt alternator. In 2022, Mercury Marine won a Consumer Electronics Show innovation award for its Verado V-12 outboards incorporating a 48-volt alternator. At the 2024 Annapolis Sailboat Show, six of the 16 new boats entered in Cruising World’s Boat of the Year contest had 48-volt house systems. 

4

Navigation / Safety & SAR / Charts

Simrad NSS 4, preliminary on the water testing

Simrad’s NSS 4 (and Navico stablemate B and G Zeus SR) is the second major installment in Navico’s march towards their new Neon Android based operating system and C-Map X series charts. NSX, the first Navico MFD with Neon showed very well at launch. I am a fan of the visual presentation, new charts, and overall look and feel of the new operating system. So, I’ve anxiously awaited Neon making its way to the rest of Navico’s line. NSS 4 sits atop Simrad’s line and serves as an indication that Navico sees Neon as ready to tackle the biggest of their installs. Now to find out if NSS 4 and Neon back up that belief.

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Safety & SAR / Electrical & Engines

WIF-Pro’s water in fuel monitors, keeping a watch on your fuel

WIF-Pro is my favorite kind of company to cover, a relatively new startup with a fresh take on an old problem. I first learned about and met WIF-Pro’s founder, Brian Benedict, at IBEX 2023. Brian, a mortgage banker by day and water in fuel alerter by night, founded WIF-Pro because of his own experience with water in his outboard engine’s fuel filters. Many, fuel filtration systems make it difficult or impossible to know when the filter is full of fuel and when it’s full of water. Even filters that employ a clear bowl are generally mounted in a location that makes checking them regularly difficult. So, more often than not, we first become aware of a watery problem when our engines either sputter or die altogether. WIF-Pro looks to change that with proactive monitoring of water in your boat’s fuel system.

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Getting Technical / Editors' Blog / Wireless & Apps / Network & control / Safety & SAR / The future

Getting Technical: Getting it together

When new classes of technology are introduced to the marine marketplace, they tend to focus on core functionality. Niceties like integrating with the rest of the boat’s control systems are not a priority. Hence, new technology and systems are frequently introduced with dedicated control systems. One result is that helms and control panels are littered with disparate controls, making real estate at the helm a hot commodity.