The Marine Installer’s Rant, what’s your favorite?
Admittedly, that vessel immediately makes me think of Reese Witherspoon’s moderately immortal line in the moderately famous 1996 black comedy Freeway
Category: What’s on board…
Life next to the Fast Lane
“Or how I gave up a boat load of electronics and learned to be happy sailing with just two gadgets!” is the subtitle of this guest entry by the good Sandy Daugherty. And while...
Moonraker makeover, by Electronics Unlimited
While at FLIBS, I had the pleasure of meeting Mike Spyros, Director of Service & Technical Development for Electronics Unlimited. Per usual, I invited Mike to send in details of a notable install (an open invitation, incidentally), and by golly he did, and she’s a corker. The 116-foot M/Y Moonraker might have been built in 1992, but is still claimed to be the world’s fastest mega-yacht, with a cruise speed of 28 knots. And I think the electronics makeover Mike and his team did last year is an interesting example of how familiar smaller boat brands and NMEA 2000 can be used to manage even a giant jetski…
Electronics nostalgia, 1984 transatlantic
This was my view from a borrowed mooring on Saturday night, and it was quite a nostalgic one as my one and only transatlantic was sailed aboard this very same Nautor Swan 59 from the Canary Islands to Martinique in December, 1984. It’s hard to believe how very techy the boat’s electronics seemed at the time, how much they’ve changed since, and yet how old school they look today…
First Maine Cat flying bridge P-47, a Garmin horror show?
My first impression of this just-launched Maine Cat P-47 last June was all about how well the flying bridge looked on what I’d only known previously (and almost bought) as an express style design, and how much useful space it added. But, my, what a mess I found when I went aboard. The poor owner — just about to embark on an already delayed delivery trip to his home waters on the Great Lakes — gamely listed all the not-yet-functioning parts of the boat’s elaborate Garmin networks while sitting in a main salon littered with bits and pieces of other unfinished systems. While delays for complex, semi-custom boats like this are nearly a cliche, and possibly worse in these tight times, this case seemed particularly egregious. However, I’ve stayed in touch with this gentleman and am relieved to report that he’s a pretty happy boat owner today…
Low power PCs #1, & Farallon Electronics
I’ve been trying to search out a low-power 12v PC for Gizmo, though I might give up for this season — I’m so behind project-wise — and it may not be such an issue once I install a decent solar panel or two. But it’s certainly a dynamic subject, and one way to keep up is to watch the folks who are truly obsessed with power efficiency (and low weight)…offshore racing sailors. The photos of that unusual PC in the spartan interior of an Open 40 above were sent along by system designer Eric Steinberg, founder of Farallon Electronics, along with a few details…
M/Y Adastra, a win for Palladium
Regardless of anchoring acrobatics — and just how the heck do you tie this 146′ tri alongside a dock, with a line throwing gun? — M/Y Alastra joins the short list of exotic vessels I’d love to cruise around Penobscot Bay, if only briefly, and if only to freak out the traditionalists. And you can bet there will be some pretty interesting systems on board; in fact, I heard about this creature because Palladium Systems just announced the monster gear contract they’ve won. It includes not just their Ethernet/Windows-based SiMON monitoring system — with some 269 data points reporting to wheel house and engine room, and probably various iThings as well — but also their new Titan electrical system…
MTA Survey #1, brand awareness & perception
Please don’t jump to conclusions about this first real slice of the finished Panbo/MTA survey until you better understand what it represents. The questions quoted at the top of the table above were “open ended”. The 950 people who spent time taking the survey (thank you all!) got no check box guidance toward their answers. In fact, no brand names were specifically mentioned anywhere in the survey. So the 1,558 positive responses, along with the 773 negative ones — no, almost none of you ornery cusses did as asked, naming three of each — are purely the brand names that came into nearly 1,000 minds when asked in privacy which marine technology products had either pleased or displeased them. The individual response totals then are a mix of at least three factors: market share (how many of the survey takers own, or have owned, some of a brand’s products); brand awareness (most may remember whose MFD they use, but not necessarily whose inverter); and brand perception (the emotion that brings a brand name to mind). And there are more complexities beyond…
NMEA 0183 over Ethernet, on Mar Azul
Bob Ebaugh got some GX2100 installation help over on the forum, and that gave me a chance to bug him for some more information on the interesting system he’s put together. Check it out above: two laptops connected wirelessly and simultaneously to MFD, AP, VHF/rxAIS, and Internet. Bob’s a pilot and ex-networking engineer who didn’t think he could write up the project well, but I think he did just fine…
Inside Plastiki, electronics for the greater good?
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…
