Panbo

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Category: What’s on board…

Fire Boat “City of Portland” — wet & wired 9

What's on board...

Fire Boat “City of Portland” — wet & wired

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This morning I managed to talk my way onto Portland’s new fire boat, City of Portland (IV), just before it headed home from Rockland Marine, and I was glad I did.  Apparently the firemen themselves got to choose the electronics and they ended up with an interesting mix.  Those are two Garmin GMR HD24 radar domes just forward of, and beneath, that remote-controlled 3,000 gallon-per-minute water cannon.  It’s aimed to starboard like that because when its dedicated 525hp diesel pump fires up, it burps a “large dollop” of salt water before going full stream, and the crew are trying to give the domes a chance.  Given that the canon can purportedly hole a building at close range, the fire fighters must also have strategy (like rotation stops) to avoid blowing that Furuno satellite compass (upper left) into space…

AC33, Communications Challenges 11

Communications / What's on board...

AC33, Communications Challenges

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From Dan Corcoran in Valencia, SP:  Because of the great speeds of the two sailboats, this America’s cup will be held further from shore and on a longer race course than those of recent memory, causing tremendous challenges communicating on the race course. Even the judges are unsure that they will be able to communicate successfully in boats equipped like the one pictured above with retractable towers for VHF communications and satellite dishes.

NMEA 2000 opens up, in a Dutch attic! 11

Network & control / What's on board...

NMEA 2000 opens up, in a Dutch attic!

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I love this photo.  It may look messy, but not only is one man’s fine N2K+++ yacht system being tested here, but the standard itself is getting explored, possibly to the benefit of many boaters.  This is Kees Verruijt’s attic somewhere in the Netherlands and, as explained on his new Yacht Electronics blog, that Commodore PET is the “PC” he first learned programming on back in 1979.  The rest of the gear is going on Merrimac II, a Stadship 56 now under construction that Kees and his family have obviously put a lot of thought into.  Kees wants to extend the usefullness of his NMEA 2000 data system, even to his iPhone, and he’s had to go to some serious trouble to do so…

Lyman Morse big cat, almost done 4

What's on board...

Lyman Morse big cat, almost done

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How about these command and navigation stations?  Thursday evening turned out pretty horrid for a boat launching, but Lyman Morse pulled one off with its normal panache.  The Hunt-designed 54′ jet express Whistler (just visible beyond the catamaran’s bow) is another stunner for its power boat portfolio, especially if she zips by you at her expected 30 knot cruise.  While it was neat to check out Whistler’s interior at the same time many of the local craftsmen involved were showing off details to their families, I particularly enjoyed some alone time on the 60′ Morrelli & Melvin sailing cat Mala Conducta, which Lyman Morse launched just last month… 

KK 55 electronics packages, OceanLines 0

What's on board...

KK 55 electronics packages, OceanLines

Aha, a worthy electronics-oriented blog I forgot in my “Resources” update (now fixed) is Tom Tripp’s OceanLines. Check out this week’s interesting project: Tom, who also blogs for MadMariner, got several major manufacturers to...

Sailing with an Airmar PB200 66

Navigation / What's on board... / Weather

Sailing with an Airmar PB200

I am writing to share my excitement about a new product from Airmar, tested aboard my 39 foot sailboat this past October-November. The Airmar PB200 is a compact masthead sensor that includes an ultrasonic (no moving parts) wind sensor, solid state compass, GPS receiver and more, along with a 3-axis accelerometer…