I admit it. I have a little bit of an obsession with the Torqeedo electric outboards. They’re so cool. I got a demo of the Torqeedo Traveller from Steve Trkla, national sales manager for Torqeedo USA, at Strictly Sail. Sadly, there were camcorder handling issues, which is a shame as it would have made a pretty cool video. But, I did learn some things Torqeedo fanciers would probably like to know, so listen up:

1. The Torqeedos are designed for high thrust and displacement speeds. They will not get your RIB up on a plane.
2. The big modular lithium manganese batteries that can be used with the larger Torqeedo drives are prohibitively expensive (on the order of $3,500). Regular lead acid batteries will be the logical choice for most folks.
3. One of the designers of the Torqeedo had a boat on an engine-free lake in Europe, and found that existing trolling motors were inadequate to move it effectively, which inspired him to design a higher peformance electric drive.
4. If you’re at Opening Day (the official start of boating season) in Seattle, watch for a Duroboat with a Torqeedo drive.

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With the consolidation of marine retail in the last few years, boatshows have added importance as a place where the little guys can get some exposure for their products. We here at Navagear like covering practical and innovative products, so we especially enjoy finding them at the boatshow and talking with their inventors. First up, Miguel Praca, creator of the RopeTie, making a go at building a business, Hitchcraft, around creating his own products. The RopeTie is a nifty rope holding device that’s great for adjustable tie-down and tensioning applications. Check out the video to see how it works!

The new chart plotters using the latest, greatest cartography are promising photographic views of favorite destinations. Playing with a Garmin 545 the other day, I was actually pretty impressed with the aerial photos. Being able to visualize the entry and dock layout of an unfamiliar marina can be really helpful. If you’re not really ready to shell out the bucks for new electronics or $200 chart chips, take a look at Marinas.com. They provide a catalog of marinas with sets of outstanding bird’s eye photographs, maps, contact andservices information, weather, and much more. The photos are actually very high resolution, and you can zoom way in on details you are interested in. Very cool.

Walking by an Aqualarm display at Strictly Sail, a cellphone-based emergency alert system that ties into your boat’s systems caught my eye. I’ve seen some other devices and services that provide some similar functionality, e.g. the sophisticated SeaKey system that uses a two-way satellite connection to monitor your boat’s position and systems. The Aqualarm is a simpler system that’s relatively affordable. A small black box can monitor most any circuit that has a two conductor, closure switch, such as a bilge water detector, smoke or fire alarm, intrusion alarm, etc. It also has a low battery voltage alarm, and can detect excessive bilge pump cycling. When an event is detected, you receive a cellphone text message alerting you to the problem. Best of all, the $15/month flat fee for the monitoring service is pretty reasonable. If you are away from your moored or docked boat a lot of the time and want some peace-of-mind, this system seems like a pretty good value. Prices with various sensor options range from about $750 to $1,200.

Aqualarm has a whole range of safety-oriented sensors and alarms. After an unfortunate experience with a plugged exhaust manifold and a ruptured exhaust hose on an inboard-outboard motorboat a few weeks ago, I have a heightened interest in the raw water flow and exhaust hose temperature sensors. I bet a large proportion of Aqualarm’s sales come after a scary and/or expensive event on board! Their products seem to be fairly priced and good quality, and not overly high tech. Worth a look.

We’ve been talking a bit about AIS lately, the automatic identification and position information that commercial vessels broadcast now. And we’re pretty enthusiastic about AIS receivers getting put to use improving the situational awareness and safety of pleasure boaters. More and more navigation software packages and chartplotters are supporting AIS, and it’s on the way to becoming a regular part of a boat’s arsenal of electronics. So, we here at Navagear are looking forward to getting our hands on an AIS receiver to try out with the Raymarine C80 on Tim’s C-Dory, and with Rosepoint Navigation’s Coastal Explorer on my laptop. Consequently, the SeaCAS receiver caught my eye at Strictly Sail.

The SeaCAS is an appealingly compact and simple device. The white plastic case is diminutive—roughly the dimensions of a small paperback. There are actually three models available, the 100 which is the basic dual band AIS receiver, the 150 which includes a GPS in the same case, and the 300 which bundles a combined VHF and GPS antenna to connect to the base unit.

My favorite feature of the SeaCAS line is the USB port for connecting directly to a computer. If you want to use your favorite navigation software as a chartplotter, this is great. In fact, the SeaCAS can be powered solely from your computer’s USB port, though wiring into a 12 volt supply is also possible. An NMEA out (talker) is provided, and I was hopeful that there would be an NMEA in (listener) as well, so the unit could act as an NMEA to USB interface, but no such luck! It’s also worth noting that the SeaCAS should have a VHF antenna separate your vessel’s VHF.

The upshot is that we’d love to have one of these. However, with prices ranging from $800 for the non-GPS model, to over $1,200 for the package with the combined VHF/GPS antenna, it’s not exactly an impulse buy. I suspect as prices for AIS receivers fall below $500, and AIS support in the major GPS/chartplotters/fishfinders becomes widespread, we’ll see a lot more uptake among pleasure boaters.

It’s time for me to get a first aid kit for my little C-Dory…but there are so many choices! Initially, I thought I wanted something in a hard, bulkhead-mountable case. I’m not really sure why I thought this was a good idea.

The more shopping I did, the more I came to appreciate the benefits of soft-sided cases. They’re easier to store, because they conform (a bit) to the space you have available. They float. They won’t rattle around as much in rough water. They’re less likely to damage an inflatable if tossed in with a bit of urgency. They’re less likely to smash a toe or bonk a head in the heat of the moment. OK, I get it! (more…)

It’s not that often that I get to brag that the Pacific Northwest weather is nicer than California, but after a couple days of showers and breezes while visiting friends in San Francisco and checking out the boatshow in Oakland, I returned to a sunny, almost balmy spring day here in Port Townsend. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time, and succeeded in shooting video of several neat things that I’ll be posting as we get them edited and uploaded. I hope you enjoy this experiment in a new format for Navagear, and find the video segments informative if not a little entertaining.

A few days ago, one of my favorite sailing bloggers, Zen, posted that he was thinking of going to Strictly Sail on Saturday, so I was very happy to spot him walking the docks and got a chance to introduce myself. He’s written some posts and shared pictures of people and boats that caught his eye at the show, which is a nice contrast to the gear and gadgets I focused on this time.

One general observation that friends and I have noted about the show is that boats and boat stuff sure have gotten big and expensive. There were many huge, luxurious, high tech boats, which are fun to see, but you can lose sight of the pure joy of being on the water with a well-found boat when you are focused on the dream boat and tricking it out with all the coolest new equipment. Being a gear geek and writing about all this technology stuff, I’m afraid I’m contributing a bit to this distraction. And that’s one reason I like to read Zen—to remind me of the essential nature of sailing.

We’re replacing our first version of the Klepper folding kayak demonstration to correct some editing problems we noticed. So, if you want the quick and fun look at putting an 80s vintage Klepper together, have a look-see!

Due to a change in travel plans, I’ll be getting to the show on Friday and Saturday, but not Thursday.

Navagear will be at Strictly Sail Pacific in Oakland, California, to have a look at all the gear and gadgets this Friday andSaturday. Roving reporter/publisher Aaron (that’s me!) will be toting a video rig so we can bring you the action-packed highlights of the show at the comfort of your computer. I’ll be the guy with the tiny camcorder, dwarfed by a big microphone. Email me (aaron ‘at sign’ navagear ‘dot’ com) or call (206) 650-7976 (cell) if you’d like to hook up at Strictly Sail, or if there’s something you’re hoping to see that I might otherwise overlook. See you at the boatshow!

In my recent entry about all these newfangled anchors, I listed quite a lot of anchors, including the Rocna.

Steve posted this comment on April 15th:

Have you seen Rocna’s “expose” of its copy? www.rocna.com/boat-anchors/manson-supreme-anchor.php Likely to inspire yet more “lively discussion”, but several of these newer anchors are merely variations on traditional types rather than huge leaps forward.

Thanks for the comment, Steve. I’d like to talk about the Rocna, actually. I’m of two minds about it. On the one hand, (more…)