I’ve written a lot recently about stereo alternatives for iPods and other media players. It appears this is definitely a growth segment in the mobile stereo industry, and we can add this new entry to the list. Here’s the press release:

As more marine stereos are compatible with portable media devices, boaters need a way to keep these electronics secure while underway. The Milennia MIL-idock from Prospec Electronics employs a slide-drawer system to provide a safe, weatherproof docking location.

Flush-mounted, the convenient Milennia MIL-idock supplies dry storage and easy connection for today’s popular media devices, including iPods, mp3 players, cell phones, flash memory cards and other small, USB accessories. An optional power cable can also be run though the docking area to charge electronics. Simple to install, it measures 5-3/4" W x 1-5/8" H x 6-3/4" D.

The versatile Milennia MIL-idock-MC model can be used in conjunction with Prospec’s JBL-MC19 Commander/Remote. It coverts the control unit into a hinged panel that swings down to reveal the hidden drawer. Existing JBL-MC19 systems are easy to retrofit.

The sleek Milennia MIL-idock from Prospec Electronics has a suggested retail price of just $39, while the MIL-idock-MC costs $69.

Time for another Navagear feature at MadMariner. This time, I’ve expanded my list of Navagear gift ideas. Most of these are things I own and use myself, and would not hesitate to recommend. In one case, however, I decided to include an item I do not own myself. Can you guess which item that is?

It was only a matter of time. After all, an AIS receiver isn’t much more than a VHF radio with a bit of logic thrown in. Panbo’s Ben Ellison has the scoop on this new unit from Standard Horizon. Please note that this is an AIS receiver only; it is not a Class B transceiver.

Even so, this might be an ideal solution for owners of boats that aren’t ready to mount Class B AIS aboard, but that recognize the benefit of receiving the AIS signals other vessels are broadcasting. It occurs to me that this all-in-one unit would have been a LOT easier to install aboard my own boat, Two Lucky Fish.

Two Lucky Fish is equipped with a Raymarine C-80 chartplotter, a unit with only one NMEA port on the back. I had to come up with my own crazy wiring schematic to get AIS data and DSC messages into the unit while also providing GPS coordinates to the VHF. What a hassle that was! See for yourself:

This Standard Horizon unit could be a tremendous blessing to owners not yet ready to upgrade their core chartplotter. Think about it: No NMEA multiplexer. No antenna splitter. Essentially, just plug the VHF into the chartplotter, set the plotter’s NMEA dataport speed to AIS/38,400 baud, and turn on the AIS layer on your chart view.

Additional features allow you to hail an AIS vessel over DSC at the push of a button. No typing MMSI numbers in one digit at a time! Include goodies like a 30 Watt PA/Loud Hailer with pre-programmed fog signals and you’re talking about a seriously feature-packed piece of gear for MAP (minimum advertised price) of $400. I’m interested!

In fact, even though I have Shine Micro’s excellent Class B AIS equipment aboard, I almost always run it through my PC running Rose Point Coastal Explorer. I would love to have an additional AIS datastream displayed on my Raymarine C-80. Nuts? Maybe. Consider it a backup.

What the heck’s a “DTLP”?!? Turns out it’s a special kind of PFD for law enforcement and military personnel. DTLP stands for Damage-Tolerant Life Preserver. I learned about these during my visit to the Pacific Marine Expo last week.

It seems that maritime law enforcement folks have really embraced the concept of comfortable, compact inflatable PFDs, which permit relatively unrestricted movement. The trouble is that inflatable PFDs are fragile, compared to the bulky foam-vest alternative. When you add the fact that law enforcement and military personnel already carry a lot of bulky gear, the PFD problem becomes even more challenging!

So Mustang Survival has developed the MD4020 Damage Tolerant Life Preserver and the MD4030 Compact Damage Tolerant Life Preserver, shown above (in tan), mounted to MOLLE gear. What’s MOLLE? Read on!

Both are designed to withstand a direct hit from a firearm or ballistic fragment and still inflate when submerged in water. (US Patent 6,453,840, Canadian Patent 2,392,416)

Using Hydrostatic Inflator Technology (HIT™), these DTLPs will automatically inflate within seconds when submerged in 4 or more inches of water and will not inflate prematurely due to rain, humidity or wind-driven sea spray. Both units provide 65 pounds of buoyancy to compensate for nearly all configurations of personal equipment and small arms carried on missions.

The MD4030’s one-size-fits-all design integrates with almost any tactical vest or armor plate carrier that uses Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment (MOLLE) system. The four-point attachment system incorporates side release buckles to permit emergency doffing of the life preserver and allows quick-release vests to fall away.

The MD4020 comes with a harness and can be integrated with most ballistic vests. It contains two inflatable cells. If one cell is compromised prior to inflation, the other cell can be inflated to provide full flotation performance.

The cost? About twice that of a top-of-the-line civilian inflatable PFD.

It turns out Mustang has several lines of industry- and application-specific  flotation products. The Fisheries Supply Emergency Equipment catalog, which I picked up at the show, is a veritable treasure trove of serious safety, rescue, and emergency gear.

[Woops! Once in a while I forget to reset my favorite offline blogging tool (Windows Live Writer) from "Navagear" blog to "Puget Sound Maritime" blog, and so my Navagear readers see these off-topic posts. I could pull them down, but maybe it's a good thing to remind Navagear readers about the existence of sister blog PugetSoundMaritime.com. —Tim]

West Seattle Blog (which has actually grown to become a kind of primary news source for ultra-local current events) has this item:

In the past few weeks, we’ve heard from several people about a traffic problem on the “low bridge” during rush hours, involving truck backups, and Port of Seattle Police directing traffic. Rob was the first to e-mail, and he made the Google Map you see above (follow the “View Larger Map” link for more details on what it shows). Most recently, Desiree wrote the other day to ask about this. We inquired with the port – so here, for starters, is what we received back from Port spokesperson Peter McGraw…

Read more

I’ve been holding out for the RadarPlus SM162B (the all-in-a-tube Class B AIS unit from my neighbors at Shine Micro).

But if you’re not yet convinced you should broadcast your own position via Class B AIS, but you are convinced you’d like to see the vessels that do transmit, this is a very attractive all-in-one AIS receive-only unit from the folks at Digital Yacht. On a small boat like mine, without a lot of room for extra componentry in the cabin, this might be a great alternative.

Once it’s released in North America, this unit is expected to retail for under $300, making it yet more attractive.

Here’s the press release:

NEWBURYPORT, Mass. – Digital Yacht have expanded their range of AIS products with the world’s first, fully self contained, Smart AIS antenna.  The SmarterTrack ANT200 incorporates a highly sensitive dual channel AIS receiver into a waterproof antenna housing no bigger than a traditional GPS antenna.  Simply connect the power and interface connections to any compatible AIS plotter (such as those from Raymarine, Standard Horizon, Garmin, Furuno, Lowrance etc) and you’ll be presented with an overlay of AIS targets directly onto your plotter screen.  All commercial ships over 300 GRT have a mandatory requirement to carry a Class A transponder – sending and receiving AIS data which includes position, identity and course information.  Leisure users can also opt for a more simplified Class B transponder if they wish to transmit as well as receive their position information.  The SmarterTrack ANT200 will decode both types of transmission.

The innovative SmarterTrack ANT200 fits a standard 1" threaded deck or rail mount base and comes complete with 10 metre cable.  The interface connections are via a traditional 2 wire NMEA 0183 connection and the product can also act as a multiplexer taking an input of NMEA data and combining it into one single output.  This could be particularly useful on multi-function displays.

[Editor’s note: I consider this last feature critical for boaters with older chartplotters, such as my Raymarine C-series. There’s only one NMEA port on the plotter, so if you can have the AIS unit act as a one-way NMEA signal aggregator (it isn’t, strictly speaking, a “multiplexer”), you can probably keep all your electronics talking to one another. You can read about my experience hooking up my DSC VHF radio and AIS. —Tim]

Navagear has been fascinated with electric propulsion, and with the Torqeedo motors in particular, for several years now.

So count us “very interested” in this event. IN FACT, let me go so far as to suggest that we would probably not turn down an invitation to crew or cover this event, were it offered.

Anyway, here’s the press release with the background and details:

Torqeedo is always looking to push the envelope in developing the most efficient and powerful electric outboard motors in the marine industry. That’s why they created the Torqeedo Catalina Solar/Electric Boat Challenge, proving that electric outboards are destination motors. It also honors Bob Nordskog, a man who took the challenge 30 years ago to travel the intimidating Pacific Ocean over 26.5 nautical miles from Long Beach Harbor to Catalina Island in the first electric boat ever built.

The first successful Torqeedo Catalina Challenge took place on October 24 in a 16′7" Hobie® Getaway Catamaran named the Kona Concept®, modified to accommodate batteries and a solar panel and powered by the Cruise 4.0R Torqeedo Electric Outboard Motor. Captain of Kona Concept and grandson of Bob Nordskog, Erik Robert Nordskog, and navigator Jim Czarnowski, director of engineering for Hobie Cat, were very proud to recreate the crossing. They completed it in just 6 hours and 41 minutes and with 35% battery power remaining.

So, why establish the Torqeedo Challenge? The purpose is to go beyond using electric propulsion only on green lakes, in marinas and on cocktail cruisers. It’s to demonstrate that electric propulsion can be developed into a destination motor in the mainstream boating industry. The challenge is intended to provide a means of recognition for and is open to individuals and manufacturers who demonstrate, in offshore conditions, improvements in both range and speed of recreational electric craft. Torqeedo also wants to encourage both atmospheric and noise pollution reduction.

There are four classes in which to compete: mono-hull, above and below 18′, as well as multi-hull, above and below 18′. Participants need to submit a proposal and document the voyage for consideration. Winners will be rewarded with a bronze medallion replica of the original Catalina Challenge Trophy. This year it was presented to Erik Nordskog and Jim Czarnowski by Larry Smith, founder and owner of Team Scarab, and Steve Trkla, US president of Torqeedo.

Erik’s grandfather, the late Bob Nordskog, first attempted this feat in 1980. His close friend, Larry Smith, bought the motor, controller and batteries from Bob to build a 14′ bay launch. As president of the American Power Boat Association Race Group, as well as founder and owner of Powerboat magazine, Bob Nordskog held many offshore endurance racing records that are still unchallenged to this day. He was an innovator and believed in solar technology and attempted the first ever solar electric boat run to Catalina Island.

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I love this “boat show”. It ain’t really a boat show at all, of course. It’s really the Pacific Marine Expo, a trade show targeting professional mariners, including shippers; commercial fishermen; tugboat, crane, and dredge operators; and government and research organizations.

Amid the many amazing industrial products of dubious utility to recreational boaters, I spotted several items of potential interest to Navagear readers.

Among them, the McMurdo FastFind PLB (Personal Location Beacon). It’s basically a GPS connected to a radio, which you activate in an emergency. It broadcasts your location to a global network of satellites, and some sort of rescue response is launched.

This product isn’t news to regular readers of Navagear or Panbo, but what was news to me was seeing how tiny it really is! This is one compact little unit, and under $300. Any serious wilderness recreation enthusiast—skier, backpacker, hunter, kayaker, sailor, pilot—ought to consider it.

And the model boat crowd was out in force, as usual.

In fact, when I told my older daughter (age 10) that the Pacific Marine Expo was going on now, she immediately asked “When are we going?” She loves the swag, the candy, and the model boats. I’ll probably bring her along Saturday.

Thanks to Capt. Rodriguez over at BitterEnd for this item:

Now you can get current wind data in a handy, readable format on your desktop OR on your iPhone from WindAlert.com.

The website is still under construction, judging by the “lorem ipsum” text on several pages.

Still, the service is up and running. Give it a try, and let Navagear know whether you find it useful or not.

[Forgive the goofy title…I couldn’t resist! Anyway, it’s another MadMariner features from a few weeks back. —Tim]

Coast Guard statistics tell us that more than two-thirds of all fatal boating accident victims drown, and of those, 90 percent were not wearing a life jacket. That’s just one reason I treat falls overboard as the top safety issue aboard my boat.

In such incidents, happy outcomes generally require successful execution in four key areas: Keeping the person afloat, bringing the boat alongside the victim safely, bringing the victim aboard safely, and providing warmth and first aid as needed.

Over the years here at Navagear, we’ve discussed all of these priorities. Some are relatively easy to address. For instance, on my boat everybody wears a PFD while the boat is underway, which goes a long way toward keeping a potential PIW (person in the water) afloat.

One of the more difficult tasks is to get the victim, exhausted and waterlogged, back into the boat without endangering the rest of the crew. In rough seas, this can be especially difficult. And while there are several solutions available for smaller and low-freeboard boats, where the crew can easily reach a PIW, there are fewer solutions appropriate for larger, high-sided power yachts.

GETTING ABOARD

On such boats, often the only place to bring a PIW aboard is on the swim platform at the transom. The trouble is that this is one of the most dangerous places to be in heavy seas. Swim platforms can hammer up and down as the boat rolls, possibly striking a person in the water. In addition, crewmembers must leave the safety of the boat and venture out onto the platform to assist the PIW, where they could be swept into the water as well.

[The C Rescue MOB Recovery Cage is especially well-suited for use aboard high-sided vessels equipped with some sort of powered hoist or crane.]

There’s got to be a safer way to bring a PIW aboard a high-freeboard boat; preferably one that allows the PIW to remain alongside the vessel until pulled out of the water, and allows the rest of the crew to remain safely aboard.

Thanks to Robert Reid, a retired commercial fisherman from Scotland, there is: The C Rescue MOB recovery cage is especially well-suited for use aboard high-sided vessels equipped with some sort of powered hoist or crane. It ought to be; it was designed for use aboard commercial fishing boats.

I recently met Alex Reid, Rob’s nephew, at Seattle’s famous Fisherman’s Terminal, home port to our own nautical daredevils, the crews of the Deadliest Catch fleet. Alex was showing off a sample of his uncle’s design, which is currently only manufactured in the United Kingdom.

The C Rescue is an impressive bit of "kit", as they say in the UK.

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