On my little boat, I don’t usually worry much about chafe. But during a minor blow during which I put my 6-kg Rocna anchor to the test, I was a bit surprised to see that my anchor line had chafed a bit more than I would expect for a simple overnight stay, at the bow roller. The anchor held fine, but it became obvious that I would need some sort of chafe protection for the rode, or else I would have to switch to all chain.

So I was pleased to learn recently about Fjord’s Chafe-Pro product line, which seems to enjoy a good reputation, judging from the fact that it’s used by the US Navy, Coast Guard, Army, Military Sealift Command, NOAA, and MARAD!

Chafe-Pro is designed to be a simple, cost-effective means for preventing chafe abrasion to synthetic lines such as nylon, Kevlar, Spectra, HMW-PE, and other polyethylene and polyester lines. Commercial Grade Chafe-Pro is made from a rugged, highly abrasion-resistant nylon, and it is intended for use on yachts, tug boats, and ships; they also offer Yacht Grade models that are suitable for use on small craft.

FJORD developed Chafe-Pro to be installed or removed anywhere along a line in a matter of seconds, requiring no lashings or lacings to secure it to lines. All models are downward compatible relative to line sizes, giving boaters a lot of flexibility; buy what you need for your largest line, and use it on whatever line happens to need protection.

So hold on: How does this all work? I poked around on the website to find the instructions:

1. If possible, lay the Chafe-Pro unit and line on a flat surface.
2. Start at the edge and place line on the Velcro “hooks” in the desired protected area. Once hooked, begin rolling the line and Chafe-Pro together until the unit is snugly rolled up.
3. Lock the Chafe-Pro unit by interlocking the Velcro edge units.
4. To move the position on the line, simply remove the Chafe-Pro, adjust to the desired location and secure.

So it stays put on the line because the Velcro “hooks” grab the fibers of the rope being protected. That’s pretty clever!

I don’t have any direct experience with Chafe-Pro, so I’m interested in feedback from other boaters: What do you use for chafe protection?

You know, folks, I do my best, but there is just an awful lot of marine technology to keep up with these days! Thank goodness there’s Panbo, without which I wouldn’t be nearly as up-to-date on some very interesting product technology.

Take the Jotron AIS-SART Ben discusses here:

I once heard a gentleman who probably knew what he was talking about complain fairly bitterly about the electronic radar reflectors called SARTs.  He said they’d been pushed on the GMDSS by a member nation where they were made and that they’d never proven themselves effective in search and rescue operations.  Which is just one reason why the new Jotron AIS SART is an interesting development…

Read more

[It’s a press release, of course, but the concept makes sense to me. Any of our talented Navagear readers have experience with marine toilets that can use either fresh or seawater? —Tim]

While conserving freshwater is important, sea and lake water and the small organisms that come with it can cause heads to stink. SAIL magazine recently honored the Sea/Fresh Marine Elegance from Raritan with its annual Pittman Innovation Award. This revolutionary marine toilet is able to switch effortlessly between the two water sources using a patented water selection system. Owners can flush with seawater to conserve onboard water, as well as rinse the bowl with fresh before leaving the boat for a few days or when traveling in dirty water. It’s also now available in four new bowl styles: tall and standard with either a straight or angled back and color choices of white or bone.

Featuring Vortex-Vac Flush technology, the advanced Marine Elegance provides the quietest, most efficient flushing action of any comparable toilet on the market. Ensuring a sound night sleep for guests aboard, it performs at a noise level of less than 63 decibels.

Offering a sleek, one-piece vitreous china bowl and full-size toilet seat, Marine Elegance delivers a streamlined presentation and is easy to clean. Specially-designed holes under the bowl rim deliver superior rinsing capabilities with less water. An innovative discharge loop helps eliminate odors and permits the bowl to hold water similar to home toilets.

Employing a heavy-duty motor coated with epoxy paint, the powerful head can pump an amazing 10′ vertically and 100′ horizontally. A built-in shredder with stainless steel blades breaks waste up into small particles to reduce clogs. Making installations in tight spaces possible, the incredibly compact head has a simplified mounting system and choice of straight or angled back, ensuring a contoured fit.

An attractive, programmable Raritan Smart Flush Control provides four convenient flush options to conserve water and extend the useful capacity of the holding tank. The wall-mounted control enables the Marine Elegance to be flushed normally, with a low-water option or with an empty-only function. It also allows water to be added to the bowl before use.

Available in 12 and 24V versions, the suggested retail price of the Sea/Fresh Marine Elegance from Raritan starts at $1,360.

Wow! I’m VERY interested in this product line. So I’ll echo Ben Ellison’s query over at Panbo this morning: Any of our readers have any experience with the NaviCom RT650 VHF/DSC/MOB/AIS?

An interesting new product I didn’t see at the Miami Boat Show is this NaviCom RT650 MOB.  The company site is mostly in French, but MyBoatsGear.com links to a catalog PDF in English, and Foxtrot Marine has the most detail I can find.  This DSC VHF seems to have an integrated AIS receiver much like the Standard Horizon GX2100, plus optional wireless handsets like the Uniden Whams, plus integrated MOB fobs that seem to work a lot like Raymarine LifeTags (with more here).  The latter can apparently even trigger a DSC alert, and, in fact, all the parts make a lot of sense together, at least for some boats.  Has anyone out there tried an RT650, or know why the company hasn’t come to the USA?

Go to Panbo, where the discussion in the comments section is already underway.

[Navagear readers will appreciate this piece by Lenny Rudow over at MadMariner today. —Tim]

Miracle Workers: From Sealant to Polish, We Bring You the 10 Best Boat Care Products – Ever

Few products become legends, but it does happen. Duct tape, for example, has become a part of American culture – and I’ll bet everyone reading this article has at least one roll stashed someplace at this very moment.

WD-40 is another such product. It’s become known as the galaxy’s ultimate spray lubricant and can be found in virtually every household in the country.

But what about us boaters?

Do we have any products that have become universally useful – or are destined to do so in the future? And after testing literally hundreds of boat care products through more than a decade of writing for boating magazines and websites, a few have become fixtures in my boat maintenance arsenal.

These are the best that have been invented yet (Note: products less than one year old have been excluded from the running, since there hasn’t been time to thoroughly test them yet.) Among them I’m sure we’ll find one of those legends that lives on forever. In any case, you’ll want to know about this stuff – and perhaps test it out yourself.

Read more

[It’s another MadMariner feature from a few weeks back. —Tim]

The 2010 Seattle Boat Show wrapped up on Saturday, February 6, and everyone in the recreational boating industry is wondering: how was it? Did consumers show up? Did they spend any money? What does it mean for the industry as a whole? The entire boating world is holding its breath, waiting for somebody to answer these crucial questions.

OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but the Seattle Boat Show is the largest boat show on the west coast, and manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, and retailers really do want to know about it.

Never fear, Navagear is here. I attended the boat show every day it was open, from the preview event to the very last day. I met new people, I caught up with old friends, I learned about lots of new products, and I brought home a new Feathercraft BayLee dinghy for my boat.

[KIERA RUDDEN-FLANAGAN photo. This year's total attendance (at both the Qwest Field Events Center and the Lake Union "Boats Afloat" location) was 59,607, compared to 54,835 a year ago, an increase of almost 9 percent.]

While it was a successful boat show for me, what about the exhibitors?

Keep reading →

Time for another Navagear feature at MadMariner. This time, I talk about how I tackled a couple of electronics mounting challenges.

You’ve seen those Microsoft ads that say “Windows 7 was my idea,” yes?

Well, this is sort of like that. Rose Point’s Coastal Explorer 2010 beta is ready to go, thanks to me.

See, I asked the folks at Rose Point about the beta yesterday, and was told I could download it, but they weren’t ready to release it generally because of an intermittent and unpredictable bug that caused the program to crash.

The big problem was that Brad Christian and his crew at Rose Point were unable to reproduce the bug—which is a lot like when you take your car into the shop but it won’t do the bad thing while the mechanic’s looking at it. When the problem doesn’t occur, it’s extremely difficult to diagnose it!

So I downloaded the beta, and guess what? It crashed. I offered to bring the laptop into Rose Point’s office so they could see the crash, and Brad accepted my offer with obvious enthusiasm.

Here he is, running his debugger on my laptop while the beta crashes.

Witness the arcane mystery that is software development! Look at the concentration! Observe the dedication to quality!

Anyway, he found the bug, and as anticipated, fixing it required a change to one single line of code…ain’t that always the way?

So the Rose Point Coastal Explorer 2010 beta is now ready to go, and we should expect an official announcement anytime now. You’re welcome.

I’m trying to come up with an inexpensive, compact mount for a stereo head unit. There are plenty of commercial products on the market, but they tend to be bulky, in my opinion. On my small boat, I want the entertainment electronics to occupy as little physical and visual volume as necessary.

So this weekend I cobbled together this mock-up using some scrap lumber, my miniature Micro-Mark table saw, and an 18-gauge air nailer.

The little nook on the right is for an iPod or cell phone, since this unit can charge either via USB. I’ve gone to a bit of extra work to recess the stereo about 1/2”. I’m using 1/2” material for the two primary verticals, and 1/4” material everywhere else.

The plan is to take this over to Paul at BrighterWorks (who I met at the boat show) and have him fabricate the final version out of Seaboard HDPE lumber, which is available in 1/2” and 1/4” (as well as 3/4” and 1”) thicknesses, and three colors.

So if any of my Navagear friends have suggestions, NOW is the time to let me know! I think the nook needs to be wider, to accept the largest Blackberry/iPhone/iPod products on the market. Otherwise, what else should I take into consideration? Thanks!

[It’s another MadMariner feature from a few weeks back. Since this went live while I was at the Seattle Boat Show, I was able to get some feedback on it right away from the folks at Standard Horizon.

Their position is that the inconvenient NMEA networking requirement I identified is NOT a problem for consumers, and that they hadn’t received feedback from other users about difficulties completing the NMEA networking part of the installation. My situation is unique because I’m continuing, for the moment, to rely an older chartplotter with just one NMEA 0183 port.

If so, I’m thrilled! I would love to learn that I’m the only one who finds this inconvenient. That would be awesome, because this appears to be a tremendous product otherwise. —Tim]

I wrote about Standard Horizon’s new products in the Matrix line of fixed-mount VHF radios when they were first announced back in November. The thing that caught my eye was the AIS integration these models included. The GX2000 accepts the datastream from an external AIS receiver or transceiver, while the GX2100 includes an integrated two-channel AIS receiver, the data from which can be connected to a chartplotter or laptop.

[The GX2000 accepts the datastream from an external AIS receiver or transceiver, while the GX2100 includes an integrated two-channel AIS receiver, the data from which can be connected to a chartplotter or laptop.]

AIS/DSC/VHF integration will be extremely beneficial for most boat owners, in my opinion. It’s easy for propeller-headed geeks like me to forget that the vast majority of recreational boats do not carry AIS receivers of any kind. As one of my cruising buddies put it, "If an AIS receiver is basically just a VHF radio and some kind of a modem, then I’ll buy it when it’s built into the regular VHF radio."

That time has come, my friend. I think these Standard Horizon radios could make AIS a lot more attractive to a significant and largely untapped market: Owners of smaller boats with older, perfectly serviceable navigation electronics.

What makes these AIS-integrated VHF radios so wonderful? Two things spring to mind: usability and ease of installation.

ENHANCED USEABILITY

AIS/DSC/VHF integration makes both AIS and DSC more powerful, and more user-friendly.

The Matrix display acts as a low-resolution AIS and DSC plotter, if it has both AIS and vessel-position GPS data. For small boats and tenders that might not have radar or a chartplotter at all, the display on the Matrix units could prove useful, whether your priority is locating and identifying large vessels (AIS) or locating and making contact with vessels in distress (DSC).

But even more important in terms of shear usability, these two units permit one-button DSC hailing to vessels broadcasting AIS. As I’ve written before (here and here), DSC is a potentially powerful but terribly underutilized communication protocol. It’s really a shame, but users can hardly be blamed if they never use DSC at all.

Have you ever tried to input a MMSI number into your DSC radio while underway? Particularly while you are navigating in fog or other difficult conditions when AIS, radar, etc. are intended to help? I have, and it’s nearly impossible. I’m squinting into a tiny screen that is bouncing around like crazy, and my fingers are fumbling the knob trying to dial in each digit. God help you if you make a mistake. Except in emergencies, when the one-button "Distress" feature comes in mighty handy, DSC just isn’t usable for most of us.

[Instead of keying in a long MMSI number one digit at a time, you just select the AIS target you want to hail, and press the soft-key labeled “Call.” The radio already has the MMSI, so there’s no need for you to enter it manually.]

AIS/DSC/VHF integration like that included in these Standard Horizon units may begin to change that. Instead of keying in a long MMSI number one digit at a time, you just select the AIS target you want to hail, and press the soft-key labeled "Call." The radio already has the MMSI, so there’s no need for you to enter it manually. Nice.

EASY INSTALLATION

Second, and just as important for owners of smaller boats with limited space and smaller chartplotters, AIS/VHF integration makes it much easier to install AIS.

To begin with, it’s easier to install one component rather than two, and it’s easier to install one antenna rather than two. The GX2100 model, which includes an onboard dual-channel AIS receiver, requires only one antenna, eliminating the bother and expense of installing a second antenna for AIS. Antenna manufacturers tell us that AIS units should really have dedicated antennae tuned to the AIS frequencies, but my own unscientific testing indicates that regular VHF antennae work just fine for AIS.

But beyond these basics, the new Standard Horizon Matrix AIS radios really shine when it comes to NMEA networking. Or they ought to, anyway.

DISAPPOINTMENT

Longtime readers will remember all the trouble I had trying to network my AIS receiver, my DSC VHF radio, and my chartplotter.

[I'm really impressed with the thought that went into the design of these new AIS-integrated VHF radios from Standard Horizon. They are definitely on the right track.]

The trouble was that my Raymarine C-series chartplotter only sports a single NMEA connection, which can be configured for either low-speed 4800-baud or high-speed 34,800 NMEA 0183 data traffic. AIS requires the high-speed connection, while virtually every VHF radio on the market requires the slower connection.

These new Standard Horizon models, equipped to handle high-speed AIS data traffic, seemed to offer the ideal solution to the sort of problem I experienced: Just one high-speed, two-way NMEA 0183 connection between my plotter and the VHF/AIS would allow all the data to move where it needs to: GPS data from the chartplotter would get to the VHF, supporting location-tagged DSC calls, including distress calls; AIS data from the VHF’s integrated AIS receiver would get to the chartplotter, so it could be displayed there; DSC data – such as the location of a vessel placing a DSC "Distress" call – would get from the VHF to the chartplotter, allowing it to be displayed there as well.

This is great. No $300 NMEA multiplexer needed. No kooky NMEA traffic runarounds to get the data where it’s needed. And at long last, my chartplotter’s single NMEA 0183 port won’t prevent me from enjoying the full benefits of all my marine electronics.

Imagine my disappointment, then, when I dug deeper into the Matrix GX2000/GX2100 manual and read the following: "The GPS must have the NMEA Output […] set to 4800 baud." Wait, what? Why? To make matters even worse, the DSC message are, apparently, fed back through this same tiny NMEA pipe. They aren’t aggregated into the high-bandwidth NMEA pipe that carries the AIS datastream.

I figured I must have misunderstood, so I made contact with Standard Horizon directly, where I reached Product Manager Scott Iverson. Scott was very helpful, and he understood the situation I described perfectly, but it was his unfortunate duty to inform me that I had not misunderstood the manual after all.

Besides finding this frustrating for my individual situation, I find it perplexing, as well. If the Matrix AIS units are capable of handling high-speed AIS traffic, why require a second, low-bandwidth NMEA port as well?

I doubt that my situation is all that unique. Lots of boaters have older chartplotters that work fine, but have a limited number of NMEA ports. I write Navagear, and I have no plans to upgrade my 2004 chartplotter at this point. And although most newer chartplotters include more than a single NMEA port, that’s no reason to use up two of them when one could handle all the traffic. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

I appreciate that the Matrix AIS units need to receive GPS coordinates, and aboard many boats, that NMEA data will come in at 4800 baud. So the possibility of an incoming 4800-baud datastream must be supported. But there’s no reason the VHF’s outgoing DSC data needs to move at 4800 baud; certainly not if the chartplotter on the receiving end is capable of receiving the high-bandwidth AIS datastream.

It’s impossible to design a product that is optimal for every customer scenario. I understand this. And obviously I tend to imagine that the problems I experience are more or less typical for a lot of potential customers who are interested in new technology, but don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on electronics upgrades every year; I could be mistaken about that. Still, I just can’t get over the feeling that requiring two NMEA connections operating at two incompatible speeds represents a small miscalculation in an otherwise amazing product design.

BULL’S-EYE? NOT QUITE

I’m really impressed with the thought that went into the design of these new AIS-integrated VHF radios from Standard Horizon. They are definitely on the right track. In five years, all manufacturers will support AIS/DSC/VHF integration, and we’ll all be a little shocked when we recall that this wasn’t completely obvious way, way back in the early 21st century.

And as a veteran of the high-tech industry myself (software, not hardware), I can appreciate how difficult it can be when designing a product to place yourself in the position of a customer who is not a "propeller-headed geek" embracing all the latest and greatest technology the moment it becomes available.

Meanwhile, though, out there in the real world, the vast majority of potential customers pick and choose what new technology they’re willing to bother with. If the benefits are clear, the hassle is minimal, and the price is right, they’ll embrace it. I fear that Standard Horizon has unintentionally neglected a portion of the potential market for these innovative radios, and I think that’s a shame.

Nonetheless, I plan to upgrade my VHF radio to one of these new models. I’m looking forward to the benefits of AIS/DSC/VHF integration, once I work out the tricky NMEA data routing!