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IBEX13 #1: Garmin/VP Glass Cockpit vs Raymarine ECI-100 4

Navigation / Electrical & Engines

IBEX13 #1: Garmin/VP Glass Cockpit vs Raymarine ECI-100

Volvo_Penta_Glass_Helm_IBEX_cPanbo.jpgI just spent five full days at IBEX 2013 — as press guy, Innovation Awards judge, and NMEA seminar presenter — and I’m heading home with LOTS to write about. I’ll start with the deep integration Garmin and Volvo Penta put into the handsome Glass Cockpit system I was checking out above, and how smartly Raymarine has responded to this market-share threat. In my view it’s happy story about how competition and technology are making boating better…

Panbo at AC34, photo tweeting 10

What's on board... / AIS / The future

Panbo at AC34, photo tweeting

Panbo_at_AC34.jpgBest ticket ever?  I’m so excited about getting slightly behind the Americas Cup 34 scene — and out on San Francisco Bay for races 6 and 7! — that I’m dreaming up things might go wrong. Could there be too much wind to race?  In race 4 both boats averaged 31 knots — with bursts to 45 — in winds that averaged 19 with peak gusts at 23. Obviously things can really wrong when a catamaran is going that fast while delicately balanced on relatively tiny lifting foils. Or might Oracle Team USA find some way to delay further as crew and/or boat changes are hotly rumored?…

Onboard R/V Falkor, the Google “See Inside” way 6

What's on board... / Charts

Onboard R/V Falkor, the Google “See Inside” way

Google_Inside_RV_Falcor_helm_cPanbo.jpgI was blown away, partially due to the timing. Just after writing about how apps can make fascinating historical cartogrphy easily accessible, I learned about a fascinating advance in 21st century mapping. I’d guess that most every Panbo reader has marveled at the seamless panoramic photography found in Google Street Maps; well, now it’s possible to use very similar technology to tour inside a ship, and the vessel Google chose for the first demonstration is a corker…

Historical cartography, a Skipper app first? 3

Charts

Historical cartography, a Skipper app first?

Skipper w historical topo basemap.jpgI was testing the new marine navigation app Skipper when I realized that historic topos were among the many “base maps” it can display along with regular NOAA raster charts. Skipper has some interesting features (to be covered soon), but I’ve been waiting a long time for this historic angle. Haven’t marine electronics and software become so powerful that they can help us with more than just the ‘work’ of operating a boat? As in my hopeful 2005 comment that “one day PC/plotter memory will be so abundant that historical charts will be included in navigation packages just for the fun of it!” Of course I didn’t realize then that tablet computers with wireless broadband Internet connections would come along, and aren’t they dandy for accessing the ever growing cloud of cartography?

Brian’s P47: “Picking a Partner” 7

Cabin & deck gear / Navigation / What's on board...

Brian’s P47: “Picking a Partner”

Maine_Cat_P47_Audrey_Louisa_cPanbo.jpgA handsome addittion to Camden Harbor recently has been the latest launch of the power catamaran design that was almost Gizmo, and darned if it doesn’t have a certain gizmological flare. Check the high-low combination of solid state and magnetron radars, for instance. In fact, the gadget-loving owner, Brian Strong, is a regular Panbo reader and he wrote up an interesting explanation of his electronics choices…

Hand’s on Vesper Vision, Class B AIS superstar 38

Wireless & Apps / AIS / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

Hand’s on Vesper Vision, Class B AIS superstar

Vesper_Marine_WatchMate_Vision_on_Gizmo_cPanbo.jpgI ended my entry about Vesper Marine’s excellent AIS collision avoidance software with tentative enthusiasm about the company’s next generation WatchMate Vision transponder.  Well, a test unit has been installed on Gizmo’s dash since mid-July and, frankly, it’s spectacular. While it certainly offers the AIS target filtering and alerting genius previously discussed, now these talented developers have put maximum AIS utility into a 5.7-inch touchscreen while also creating what could the central WiFi link between a boat’s fixed sensors and a boater’s mobile apps…

VIRB cameras, the Garmin ‘ecosystem’ expands 7

Wireless & Apps / Cabin & deck gear / The Trade

VIRB cameras, the Garmin ‘ecosystem’ expands

Garmin_VIRB_elite_Panbo.jpgYesterday Garmin big-footed into a new niche with new VIRB action cameras — VIRB as in verb, as in action (I think). It’s not a boat camera per se, but I expect that one will be useful and fun around a boat, and it’s also another indication of the company’s product ‘ecosystem’ stradegy. Garmin was just getting into dedicated marine electronics when I began covering the subject in depth over a decade ago, but nonetheless the major players almost unanimously cited the big Kansas complex full of engineers (with its own factory in Taiwan) as their biggest competitive fear. I suspect it was capablities like this that caused the concern. VIRB is not an assault on any marine companies but CNet’s sharp analysis is aptly titled “Garmin gets up in GoPro’s grill with VIRB HD cameras“…

WiFi MFD’s, Navico GoFree promises more than met 36

Wireless & Apps / Navigation

WiFi MFD’s, Navico GoFree promises more than met

Simrad_GoFree_in_action_cPanbo.jpgAfter Raymarine and Furuno introduced multifunction displays with WiFi built-in and apps that could mirror and even control the MFD screen on an iPad or Android tablet — a great idea that caught on quickly — I was frankly a dite dubious when various Navico folks said that they had an even better idea. Eventually, though, we got to discuss the WiFi1, their MFD network hotspot, and then the whole multi-tier GoFree concept.  It’s a complicated concept largely because it’s so ambitious — for instance supporting both Navico screen control apps and multiple third party apps like the ones seen above — but it seems to me that GoFree is now doing even more than Navico promised, and there’s virtually no limit to where it’s headed…

Eva-Dry your boat interior 14

Cabin & deck gear

Eva-Dry your boat interior

EvaDryArticle1_cDCorcoran_for_Panbo-7436l.jpgOne of the products above has proven itself a far superior option in keeping my 39-foot sailboat pleasantly dry and odor free, despite an occasional need to close up the boat with wet sails or gear down below.

Summer bummer, please don’t blame charts or electronics 46

Safety & SAR / Charts

Summer bummer, please don’t blame charts or electronics

East_Goose_Rock_wreck_courtesy_Leonard_Lookner.jpgWhile my friend Leonard Lookner was first to come upon this bad scene Wednesday afternoon, he too was sailing and thus a powerboat just behind him was first to offer assistance. But it was Leonard’s iPhone photos that fueled a local PenBay Pilot news piece which then prompted an interesting SailNet discussion. Of course it was suggested that marine electronics or digital charts were somehow to blame, allegations I’d like to refute, and I also want to report on how how well this worse-than-it-even-looks situation actually turned out. Plus getting reminded to be careful out there is never a bad idea…