Category: What’s on board…

That’s the hyper-green eco-adventure cat Plastiki posing for a press conference in San Francisco last Friday.  Sure, the project is somewhat mockable — they’ll be recycling urine as they cross the Pacific, for cripe’s sake — and there are even some who think that Mick Jagger’s daughter will join the already semi-glamorous crew.  But I’m sensing that this is the real deal, as did Kimball when he visited (and then Charlie pointed out that there’s a North Atlantic plastic patch too, damn it).  Wired’s detail on the innovative construction and a Treehugger interview with de Rothchild also helped hook me.  I’m planning to following this adventure, and as you’re about to see, that should be easy…

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…

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… 

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...