I’ve decided to enter the powerboat event associated with this year’s Leukemia Cup sailing regatta here in Seattle. The powerboat event is called AquaQuest, and it sounds like a lot of fun.

AquaQuest is a scavenger hunt on Lake Union. It is NOT a race! There’s a 7-knot speed limit all over Lake Union and attached [...]

Raymarine’s first Class B AIS unit, the AIS500, is nearly ready to ship. Ben Ellison discusses some of its features over at Panbo; as usual, his report is well worth a look.
But I’ve got something to say about it, too.
Specifically, I want to address my own “pet peeve”: How to get all the data [...]

[This article appeared at MadMariner two weeks ago. Tomorrow morning a new Navagear item will appear on the front page of MadMariner. —Tim]
I haven’t yet had a chance to take the boat out with the newly released Rose Point Coastal Explorer 2009. But I did get down to the boat to determine if my [...]

I’ve had the boat “on the hard” for several weeks, doing some repairs and engine maintenance. So I haven’t had a chance to do any further “underway” testing of my new Shine Micro RadarPlus AIS-BX Class B AIS transceiver.

Until this past weekend, that is, when C-Brats (the C-Dory online owners community) held its annual [...]

I took Two Lucky Fish out last night, just as the light was fading. What a lovely night. The pictures don’t really do it justice.

Anyway, I got a chance to test my new Shine Micro AIS-BX Class B transceiver underway. I contacted Seattle Traffic on VHF Channel 14, and they could NOT see my AIS [...]

If you’re thinking of adding Class B AIS to your boat, you may want to pay attention here. Don’t worry, there’s nothing especially complicated about it, but you might save yourself some time by learning from my experience.
I’ve just installed a Shine Micro AIS-BX Class B transceiver. Here’s the finished installation aboard Two Lucky [...]

I’m pretty excited, because I’ve a couple of new toys coming my way.
One is the Maritech Virtual Lifeline. It’s a man-overboard alarm that shuts down the engine. I’ve written about this sort of thing before, both at MadMariner and here at Navagear.
Over the summer, I used a competing product—the Autotether—extensively, and determined that it [...]

Well…Sort of.
Shine Micro has figured out a way to sell some of their Class B AIS units without violating FCC rules. Clever!

CLASS B AIS UPDATE: Shine Micro is offering the RadarPlus AIS-BX Class B AIS configured for Receive-Only operation to U.S. boaters at a reduced price, with the option to activate transmit features upon [...]