Go to gCaptain and watch this video. I don’t care who you are, that’s just FUNNY.

Got to see these at the Pacific Marine Expo, and I was impressed.

I’m probably more receptive to Raymarine’s new “glass bridge” gear than competitive offerings from other manufacturers, but that’s only because I already have Raymarine C-series gear aboard my boat. The Raymarine feels more familiar, and the enhancements are obvious compared to the technology I’m used to. Unlike Ben Ellison over at Panbo, I don’t get a chance to play with every new unit that comes out!

Anyhoo, this G-Series gear looks great. The displays are noticeably superior to my trusty C-80, never mind the fact that they can present video, photographic and 3D overlays, and lots of other data that aren’t even possible with my multi-function display.

The “black box” CPU (really Raymarine grey) can be mounted out of site, and the display units are therefore much thinner than I’m accustomed to. Mounting options are more flexible than ever.

I first sailed offshore about 12 years ago, and I remember the HUGE Furuno CRT we had aboard that boat. And that was only radar! It’s just amazing how quickly this technology changes. I know, that’s not a particularly original thought…but it’s heartfelt, nonetheless.

At the Pacific Marine Expo, I saw the Simrad A150 and ACR AIS-300 Class-B AIS units in person. Cooool…

I’m obligated to remind readers that they are not FCC-authorized for sale in the United States yet, but according to Panbo, that could change before the end of December.

We seem to write something about AIS here periodically, and it’s no secret that we’re a little bit enchanted with this technology. Class B AIS appears to be just the thing for recreational vessels, and I’m eager to give it a try aboard Two Lucky Fish.

Not everybody is gung-ho about Class B AIS, though. At the Pacific Marine Expo, I got a chance to talk with Fred Pot, President of SeaCAS. He was there (more…)

Move over, Captain Rodriguez! At the Pacific Marine Expo, I picked up some unfamiliar periodicals, such as Work Boat, Boats & Harbors, and Western Maritime, Inc..

It was Western Maritime’s website the led me to discover the enchanting tug skipper’s log at Campbell Maritime. The picture above shows one of their tugs, with owner/skipper Brian Campbell hard at work on some critical boat maintenance project, no doubt. Last night, I stayed up too late reading the past four months worth of entries.

How is this tug captain’s log relevant to “gear and gadgets for cruisers”? Um…well…sometimes they have to move big yachts around, so I guess it counts! Anyway, I enjoy it, so now it’s on my own personal list of daily sites to visit.

I was excited when I first heard about Raymarine’s LifeTag wireless man-overboard (MOB) monitoring system. But once I learned what it did, I was somewhat disappointed. It only alerts you that somebody has fallen overboard…it doesn’t tell you where they are! Well, it does set an MOB waypoint as soon as it’s triggered, so that’s something.

But really, I was expecting something that would point the crew toward the MOB, updated from moment to moment. Something that would help show you where they are now, not where they were. Something like this:

The Sea-Marshall SMRS8-LR SOS man-overboard alerting unit (under $300 each) activates automatically when immersed in water, or it can be triggered manually. Once active, it transmits over the 121.5-MHz emergency homing frequency used by Search and Rescue authorities worldwide.

Now, to be clear, this is not a 406-MHz PLB (Personal Locater Beacon). It doesn’t transmit to satellites. There is no GPS onboard the unit. This small unit has limited line-of-sight range, so a receiver must be within range for it to do any good.

In the scenario Sea-Marshall envisions, however, there is a receiver nearby. It’s installed aboard the vessel the MOB just fell from. The original vessel is almost always an MOB’s best chance for rescue, after all: it’s already on the scene!

   
The Sea-Marshall SARFinder 1003 base unit, about $2800, installed aboard your vessel, uses a three-element antenna and direction-finding (DF) radio gear to indicate which direction the victim is relative to the vessel. It has a resolution of 10°.

I got to play with this device at the Pacific Marine Expo, and I was impressed. (more…)

Bombardier Recreational Products, manufacturers of Johnson and Evinrude outboards, have concluded that the failed engine holder casting on my Suzuji-manufactured 90-horsepower 4-stroke EFI outboard motor is not their responsibility.

Oh yes, they “apologize for any inconvenience”, and “customer satisfaction is a top priority”, but the problem I experienced was the result of corrosion, and that’s not covered.

A disappointment, to be sure, but not a big surprise. They were able to provide a bit of background on the changes I noticed in the part that failed:

“Upon further inspection of this issue after reading your letter, the change in the casting was due to the elimination of a test port. Your pictures illustrate this change well, the noted change in the casting was due to the elimination of the machining for a test port for an oxygen sensor, which is no longer used. Otherwise the casting is the same.”

That makes sense, and it explains the change. The engine has over 800 hours on it, which is a lot for a three-year-old engine. The previous owner used the boat a lot, and I’ve put about 100 hours on it in the past eight months. So maybe this part was just going to fail at this point eventually, and mine failed early due to the large number of hours on the engine.

It will be interesting to see if other owners of these Suzuki-manufactured engines begin experiencing the same failure in large numbers when they’ve got 800 hours on their engines. Affected models probably include Johnson and Suzuki 90 HP, 115 HP, and 140 HP 4-stroke EFI engines manufactured between 2001 and at least 2005, the model year of my engine. But I don’t know when Suzuki modified the part, so it’s possible some newer engines are similarly at risk.

If you own one of these engines and you’re experiencing exhaust leakage into the engine enclosure, please contact me. You can identify this problem because of the soot that will gradually build up in the vicinity of the exhaust leak and, eventually, rough running and stalling that’s difficult to diagnose.

Never fear, there’s a happy ending for this Thanksgiving story: now that it’s fixed, my engine’s once again the smooth, reliable runner I’ve come to know and love.

The folks from “Rite in the Rain” were at the Pacific Marine Expo, and I picked up a brochure, an all-weather pen, and another pocket-sized spiral notebook…thanks guys!

See, I use these products every day. Into my pockets each morning go my keys, wallet, coin purse, cell phone, and my little Weems & Plath-branded Rite in the Rain 3″ x 5″ all-weather spiral notebook.

Aboard Two Lucky Fish, my log is maintained in a (more…)

I went to the Pacific Marine Expo yesterday, and golly did I learn a lot. This show is oriented toward the commercial maritime industry, so it lacks a lot of the goodies you find at the Seattle Boat Show: No ski boats with 10,000-watt stereo systems. No 6-person jet-skis. No “new and improved” anchor designs you’ve never seen on an actual boat.

Instead, though, you can learn a lot about netting, about the latest in cutting-edge ice-makers, and about plumbing of every kind. If that’s not enough, there are really big engines, really big bilge pumps, and really big insurance policies! Honestly, it’s really fascinating…this is a different world.

But there’s a lot here that’s relevant for the recreational crowd, too. The latest safety and navigational gear, for instance. So look for some new product profiles here in the days to come.

But first…let me show you the single show feature that captivated me for the longest time.

Remote-control model boats! Yeah, THAT’S why I came to this show! Actually, I’m heading back this morning, with my children a contingent from Navagear’s crack team of “youth consultants”.

These are just pretty darned cool. The Standard-Horizon HX471S and HX600S submersible 5-watt marine VHF radios with DSC appear to be two of the best emergency VHF radios around at the moment. The HX471S is shown at left, and the HX600S is on the right below.

Aboard your boat, each sits in its charging cradle, which has NMEA connectors to receive position data from a GPS or chartplotter. If you have to leave your boat in a hurry, grab the radio and go; it should be fully charged, and will already have your most recent GPS coordinates stored in it. When you push and hold the “Distress” button, the radio will transmit a preformatted digital distress signal, complete with your vessel’s MMSI number and your last known location data.

“Hold on!”, I imagine you thinking. “Why don’t these radios just have onboard GPS receivers to provide updated realtime position data over DSC? What’s the problem?” Good question, and I’m glad you asked. (In my imagination, I mean.) (more…)

Personal Locater Beacons (PLBs) are intended to help authorities locate people needing rescue. But sometimes they can help rescue plain old stuff, too…as in the press release below, from ACR. There is also an online discussion about this incident at Florida Sportsman.

BOCA RATON, FL—NOVEMBER 12, 2007—According to government statistics, satellite detectable emergency beacons—EPIRBs and PLBs—have resulted in 291 rescues to date this year in the U.S.

The story starts early in the morning of October 19th when recreational fisherman Eric Pierce of Boca Raton returned to the dock after a night of swordfishing. While trailering his 31-foot sport fisherman, a fishing buddy grabbed Pierce’s fishing gear and set it on the dock—some $6,000-plus in gear, including a recently purchased ACR PLB.
(more…)