Sea Ray Navigator…soggy carpet, happy customer

So here’s where I was during some of Wednesday’s Northeaster, on the bridge—tightly enclosed, thank goodness—of Dennis Barca’s spanking new 2006 Sea Ray 44 Sedan Bridge. The occasion was a chance to observe the training portion of the “Red Carpet Advantage” which Maptech includes with that Sea Ray Navigator on the dash, also known as a SRN, and also marketed as the i3. The Red Carpet concept means that if a new owner like Barca registers SRN (who wouldn’t?), he gets an extra year of warranty, for a total of three, and a two hour SRN orientation onboard his own vessel.  The training is wisely scheduled for a few weeks after he or she has taken possession of the boat and has thus had a chance to try the SRN and develop questions. In fact, Barca had already owned a smaller Sea Ray with the first generation SRN on board. He definitely noticed the many improvements in this third edition (well described at Maptech), as did I. The tutorial was delivered by Rick Kilborn, below, founder of a neat training organization called Boatwise, which offers all sorts of courses including docking using your own vessel, and has been contracted and trained by Maptech to deliver the Red Carpet in New England. At any rate, it was too soggy/windy to get underway but I think Barca learned more than he already knew about his SRN, and he’s definitely a satisfied customer (as can been seen better in bigger versions of the pictures above and below).