I wrote about the wood stoves last year, and that post generated a recent comment from Roger Lehet, the manufacturer of an especially intriguing model: The Kimberly.

Last year, the Kimberly was a prototype only, but by the end of summer Lehet had an actual production model in hand.

I’ll let him describe some of the operational details:

The new design incorporates my 26 years in the stove industry and results in a boat stove which delivers plenty of controllable heat output, the ability to cook, and best of all will burn up to 10 hours on one 5 lb extruded presto log, 12 hours on charcoal, and with its stainless interior can burn salt water drift wood as well.

We are now developing add on equipment such as an oven, hot water coils, a blower system, and the ability to produce electricity from the heat output of the fire.

Great news! I’m eager to see one in person.

Capt’n Pauley is at it again, fabricating and installing his own boat improvements, and documenting the process for the rest of us:

The headliners in many older boats are on their last legs, dirty, off-white and sagging in places and are a prime candidate for replacement. I decided to replace mine with one with removable access panels. A prime advantage is that it allowed me access to the fasteners holding on the deck-mounted equipment.

Concept

The idea behind a panelized overhead is to divide the overhead area into manageable panels. These panels are then individually and easily removed to access any fittings or fasteners located on the overhead or to add new hardware to the deck above.

My method would be to bond a series of flat plywood panels to the overhead. Teak trim strips would define the shape of the removable panels that would be held in place with Velcro.

I used 1/2” MDO plywood for the fixed panels. MDO plywood is “Medium Density Overlay” plywood and has a phenolic paper layer bonded to one or both sides. Exterior glue is used and the core has no noticeable voids. Better than marine plywood in many respects and far cheaper. The phenolic paper surface is also extremely smooth and ready for paint or epoxy.

Read more

Mike over at Tiburon36 has been working on his Bill Crealock-designed Tiburon 36 for a few years now, and it looks like it’s coming along nicely.

His recent wood stove project is the sort of thing that makes me regret that I never learned to weld. Maybe it’s time…

In any case, take a look at the finished product first:

It’s just set in place in the photo above, obviously. The blue masking tape is not a permanent feature, nor is the lack of an exhaust stack. But you can’t deny that this is one nice-looking stove!

So was it built from a kit or something? I wish! On the contrary, it’s an original design, fabricated from scratch. Here’s the first photo from Mike’s report:

Click over to see the progress photos, start to finish.

Thanks to BoatBits for bringing this to our attention.

Could a porta-potty really be fancy? Well, you’ll have to judge for yourself. On with the press release! …

Thetford Corporation, the company that introduced the original Porta Potti® in 1968, will preview the next generation of stylish and comfortable portable toilets at the International BoatBuilders Exhibition and Conference (IBEX) 2011.  From the brand new Curve to the Porta Potti 260 Marine, Thetford’s entire Porta Potti offering has been revamped.

Thetford’s new Porta Potti Curve features a user-friendly, battery-powered flush to complement its sleek, modern and home-like design.  A raised seat height and increased bowl size create a more comfortable and relaxed sitting position.  Controls are hidden to keep them in safe, working order and maintain a smooth appearance.  An integrated toilet paper holder ensures the ultimate in convenience.  Fresh and waste water tanks can be easily monitored with a simple check of the easy-to-read level indicators.  The Curve also features an improved water tank carrying handle for easy transportation.

In addition to the brand new Curve, Thetford’s entire Porta Potti offering has been revamped.  The line now features a refreshed, modern appearance with a cleaner cover and seat design.  A more ergonomic carrying handle simplifies transportation and a now standard lid latch prevents any accidental spillage.  All models also offer a redesigned valve handle, fill cap and pump.

While Thetford is dedicated to innovation, the company knows when to stick with ideas and products that work.  Along with the new features the Porta Potti range still provides the same industry-leading performance.  Fresh and waste water tank sizes remain unchanged and the toilets continue to feature an exclusive, rotating pour-out spout.  A deodorant sample is included with every Porta Potti, as usual.

Thetford’s Curve Porta Potti and improved Porta Potti line-up will debut to consumers this January.

I went down to the boat Thursday morning to hook up my new Vesper Marine AIS WatchMate 850 Class B transponder. Things went pretty smoothly, with one exception I’ll discuss below.

First, here’s what it all looks like now. It’s a bit ugly back there, but I’ll tidy up later. That bundle of cables and 3M Scotchlok wire connectors has replaced the NoLand NMEA multiplexer, and no functionality has been lost, that I know of. See, I didn’t bring the laptop, so I haven’t tested the entire suite of networking functionality I use. Specifically, I want to confirm that Vesper’s AIS WatchMate will really act as the NMEA gateway between my installed Raymarine navigation gear and Rose Point Coastal Explorer on the laptop.

Those with sharp eyes will note my super-classy blue duct tape mounting solution in the photo above. This is temporary, while I assess the ergonomics and performance of the current installation. Although—full disclosure—my Shine Micro AIS unit was never mounted with anything more permanent than magic blue duct tape.

Navageek Chris Hallock commented the yesterday that some LCD screens can be difficult to view from below. So I took this “skipper’s-eye-view” photo from the helm seat. Lookin’ good!

What about NMEA networking? As indicated, I couldn’t do a complete test, but at least we can see AIS target information showing up on my antique Raymarine C-80:

And GPS coordinates made it into the VHF just fine, but that connection is completely separate from the AIS WatchMate. What I don’t know is whether DSC messages from the VHF will make it to, and through, the AIS WatchMate. And the whole USB/laptop issue mentioned already.

So what was the snag? What was “the exception” to “things went pretty smoothly” that I mentioned above?

The antenna connection.

Summary: I’ve either got a bad antenna, or (more likely) a bad antenna splitter.

The much, much longer story: When I bought the boat, it had this Shakespeare model 4357-S antenna splitter, which is a bottom-of-the-line unit intended to allow your AM/FM radio to use your VHF antenna when the VHF isn’t broadcasting.

I still used it with the two previous AIS units I had installed on the boat, because why? Because the antenna cable for the original 4-footer was cut so short by the installer that it won’t reach any further than the back of the VHF radio. I need about two extra feet to reach any other component installed on this overhead shelf. This antenna splitter has 30 inches of cable coming off it, so I use it as an extension. And since I’ve got it there, I plug the antenna cable from my stereo into it.

Except today, when I connected the 4-foot antenna to the Vesper AIS WatchMate through this Shakespeare antenna splitter, the WatchMate refused to transmit over it. It’s another one of Vesper’s clever tricks: The unit tests the antenna jack to make sure there is an antenna attached to it BEFORE it starts transmitting, in order to protect the unit from damage. While connected through the antenna splitter, the AIS WatchMate’s test procedure didn’t return a message that made it happy, so the unit switched itself over to silent mode and displayed a notification on the screen. Yet another simple, sensible feature that sets Vesper’s AIS units apart from most (all?) of the competition.

So I turned it all off, connected the other VHF antenna (the 8-footer I normally connect to the VHF) and tried it again. And my Vesper AIS WatchMate 850 was happy as could be. No problem. No little triangle exclamation point in the corner of the screen. Appears to be working fine.

Of course, I also connected the first antenna to the VHF, without the antenna splitter; it reaches that far, just barely. But…um…I don’t know if that old antenna works. It might. It used to. But I couldn’t tell today. I made two low-power attempts at a radio check on channel 16, but nobody responded. I didn’t want to make a high-power transmission, because what if the antenna cable or connector is bad? I could ruin my radio! I may have done so already. Who knows?!

After I left the boat, naturally, I realized that I could conduct my own radio test using my handheld (duh!), but that would require the help of a buddy.

[Confidential to my buddy, code-named “Gypsy Slim”: You busy Friday? Wanna grab sandwiches in Fremont and have lunch on the boat? Navagear’s buying; it’s a business expense.]

I’ve been corresponding with Jeff Robbins of Vesper Marine. We get along because we’re both geeks about this stuff. I’m about two steps behind him, though: So far, whenever I ask him some esoteric question about the unit, his response is “Yeah, it’ll do that.”

We join this email thread already in progress…

Tim: “That all seems like it would work. But one thing I can do through the multiplexer: Rose Point Coastal Explorer on the laptop can run my Raymarine autopilot. I don’t want to lose that functionality. So if Coastal Explorer’s NMEA messages (via USB) are aggregated into the 38.4kb NMEA stream running out the Vesper AIS WatchMate, I’m still in business without the multiplexer. What say you? ”

Jeff: “Yup, that should work, Tim. Anything presented to the WatchMate’s USB input will also be multiplexed into the NMEA output stream.”

Tim: “And just to be OCD about it all, will the laptop receive the DSC target data entering through the AIS WatchMate’s NMEA port? I’m confident the answer is yes. Reason I don’t just test it for myself is that it’s difficult to get a DSC target to test without a buddy on another boat helping out.”

Jeff: “Yup. Essentially it’s a cross-multiplexor (is that a word?). It takes anything received over either input port and multiplexes it into the output stream which also contains internally generated GPS and AIS data. It’s a little more complicated in that it won’t repeat out the USB port things that were received over it (to stop a loop), but otherwise that’s the gist of it.”

Tim: “That’s $300 of functionality right there! Well, almost. In my case, anyway, it gets me back to operating without a (separate) multiplexer.”

Jeff: “Yes, that’s why we put it in there. I figured it’s very useful and makes sense. But it’s hard to explain to people and so we haven’t found a way of spreading the word that it’s in there. It seems that when we are talking about our products, people’s eyes glass over when we start talking about NMEA sentences and multiplexing. So, I’m hoping you’ll help spread the word ”

I’ll do my best.

Folks, when you buy a Vesper Marine AIS WatchMate product, Vesper throws in an NMEA multiplexer for free. Even though you have no idea what I’m talking about, you may come to care a great deal about this when you try to make all your electronics talk to each other the way they’re supposed to.

How’s that, Jeff?

OK, so where does that leave me? It sounds like I can eliminate the NoLand NMEA multiplexer from the boat. By the way, the NoLand unit works fine…no complaints from me on that score! But in general I prefer fewer separate electronic components whenever possible.

Let’s take a look…

[What the what?! Did I do this installation? What are all those wires?!]

OK, the big white cable with the goofy zip-tie/3M wire connector assembly is the incoming AIS data. Let’s get that out of the way and see if we can make sense of the rest of it…

I need at add some labels to this photo or I’m going to go insane. Thus…

Click on the image to enlarge it so you can read the labels. It ain’t pretty, but it’s sure going to help me once I get back to the boat.

And with this bit of reverse-engineering accomplished, I THINK I’m ready to hook it all up. Weather looks good; guess I’ll head down there. Wish me luck!

The first challenge I face is where and how to mount my new Vesper Marine AIS WatchMate 850 Class B transponder.

I want it up and out of the way, but viewable and accessible. It’s the classic contradiction: I want it right in front of me, but I don’t want it to block the view out the windows or access to anything else in the boat.

There’s really only one sensible spot for this unit on a C-Dory 22: Attached to the overhead shelf, as shown here.

The trouble with that is that the space between the shelf and the cabin ceiling is slightly too short for the Vesper unit. The only way to install it here without making major modifications is to mount it so it extends beyond the edge of the shelf, and the only way to do that is to either drill new holes in the mounting bracket to make it shorter, or to install the bracket at an angle. Picture = 1k words:

So once I got back home this afternoon, I ripped a piece of lumber into a beveled mounting block. It might work.

Stay tuned!

The UPS guy stopped by late this afternoon, and I’m in boat geek heaven. My new Vesper Marine AIS WatchMate 850 Class B transponder is here!

It may seem a bit childish, but I know I’m not the only person who, upon receiving a new gadget, immediately wants to “turn it on” and see how it works. Tough to do with 12V gadgets when you’re stuck at home.

So already, I’m thrilled with this unit. The ability to run the unit off my laptop with USB power is truly inspired. Such a minor thing, you might think, but here I am, in the comfort of my home, getting acquainted with the interface, running through options, and testing various functions.

Here’s a snapshot from my living room, which also serves as a music studio, and now also as an AIS testing laboratory.

The unit won’t transmit while running off USB, which is just as well as most users won’t happen to have a VHF antenna attached to it when it isn’t installed on the boat. Transmitting without an antenna connected can do Very Bad Things to a radio! (Think “Smoke Test”.)

And discovering, along the way, that the internal GPS antenna is PLENTY sensitive is nice, as well. I’ve got eight or more strong satellite signals consistently, from inside my house, a few feet in from the windows. In the image above, there are ten solid bars with it sitting near the fireplace. I wasn’t expecting it to receive more than a couple satellites, all through the window, and here I’ve got a 3D position fix! I tell ya, I’m loving this thing already, and it ain’t even installed.

With a GPS fix, I’m able to test the anchor alarm functionality I wrote about a few months ago. So far my house does not appear to be dragging. That’s a relief.

I’ll post again once the unit is installed aboard Two Lucky Fish. Looking at the supplied power-and-data cable and the configuration options, I’m wondering if I might be able to…[wait for it]…dispense with the NMEA multiplexer I finally acquired. See, the AIS WatchMate already has a USB port onboard, so I can get the AIS data out to both my installed chartplotter and my take-along laptop running Rose Point Coastal Explorer. But what about getting DCS vessel-in-distress target data from the VHF into the laptop? Hmmm…This will require further analysis. Stay tuned!

[This product has been on the market for years, and I’ve often wondered if it really works. I’d be interested in hearing from Navagear readers about their experiences with Davis’s Rocker Stoppers or other similar roll-dampening products. —Tim]

Boat roll while at anchor or drift fishing is at the least, uncomfortable and at the most, nausea-inducing.  Rocker Stoppers from Davis Instruments help dampen this annoying sensation with a simple, inexpensive device that is easily configured and installed.

Rope is strung through Rocker Stoppers at equal 18" intervals with a 5-10 lb. weight attached at the bottom.  Hanging amidships off each side of the boat, three Rocker Stoppers per side will steady boats up to 26′ long.  For larger craft, a graduated scale of 4 to 8 units per side help stabilize boats from 27′ up to 50′.  They are effective on both power and sailboats.

When used without a weight, Rocker Stoppers assist drift fishing by slowing movement substantially.  They also are great to hang below the end of a floating dock to reduce swaying.

Only 14" in diameter, Rocker Stoppers nest together neatly for inconspicuous storage.  Mushroom anchors make good weights for use with these devices, as they fit nicely inside the last Rocker Stopper on the string when the stabilizers aren’t in use.

Lightweight and molded of high-impact, virtually indestructible styrene Rocker Stoppers are impervious to saltwater.  They deploy and retrieve in seconds, and will not damage gunwales.

The suggested retail price of each Rocker Stopper is $12.99.

Simrad recently announced its new touch-screen multifunction display, the Simrad NSS Sport. The promotional materials make much of Simrad’s “Touch Sensible” technology, a hybrid “touch screen but you can still use the buttons” interface purported to provide quick and efficient access to whatever functionality the skipper needs.

I have not had a chance to play with one, but I always appreciate it when manufacturers demonstrate a real commitment to usability. Has Simrad done so with the NSS Sport? Ben over at Panbo suggests that they have. I am in complete agreement with Ben that some tasks are best suited to the touch-screen interface modality, while others are quicker and more intuitive with a dedicated physical interface device suck as a knob or button.

Until I put one through it’s paces myself, however, I’m reserving judgment. I’m a fairly demanding user-interface critic. In the meantime, here’s the press release…

Simrad Yachting – the innovative world-leader in the design and manufacture of marine navigation, autopilots, communications, and fish-finding systems – announced today its new, feature-packed, touch-screen, multifunction display, the NSS Sport. Developed for maximum ease of use, the Simrad NSS Sport’s Touch Sensible™ technology provides quick and efficient access to the information boaters need to enhance every on-the-water experience.

Available in three sizes, the NSS Sport range includes the NSS7, NSS8 and NSS12. Providing boaters with the perfect combination of control options, the NSS Sport offers touch-screen, keypad and a Simrad-Yachting signature rotary-control knob – enabling the user to remain in complete control in any boating situation.

Designed for performance, the NSS Sport features a bright, clear and highly visible display that employs Simrad Yachting’s unique LED backlighting technology and includes a powerful built-in GPS and BSM-1 echosounder*. Ensuring ultimate flexibility, the NSS Sport can be networked to the Simrad NSO and NSE multifunction displays, as well as Simrad Yachting’s comprehensive range of innovative performance module options — including the award-winning Broadband Radar™, StructureScan™ Sonar Imaging, SonicHub™ marine audio server and WM-2 SIRIUS® satellite weather/radio module. The NSS Sport is also pre-loaded with Insight USA™ inland and coastal cartography, and is fully compatible with the complete range of Navionics chart options on microSD.

“With the addition of the NSS Sport, Simrad Yachting now offers the most exciting and integrated portfolio of marine electronics on the market,” said Louis Chemi, COO, Navico Americas. “Whether you’re in the market for a touch-screen 7-inch chartplotter or you require a broader range of fishing, sailing or cruising equipment – Simrad Yachting has got you covered with a full selection of award-winning products.”

Whether routing to a waypoint, marking a fish or cranking your favorite tunes – operating the NSS Sport is simple with Simrad Yachting’s Touch Sensible technology. Panning and zooming are fast, responsive, and most of all, easy to learn due to its intuitive icon-driven menu system. The bright LED display also uses less power than traditional display technologies and greatly extends the life of the product.

“The NSS Sport is another example of our driven focus to lead with technology that provides meaningful innovation,” continued Chemi. “The combination of a touch-screen display and rotary-control knob enables boaters of all skill levels to complete tasks with absolute ease and precision.”

The Simrad NSS Sport range features high-brightness (1200 NIT) bonded LED displays in 6.4-inch (VGA), 8-inch (SVGA) and 12-inch (XGA) diagonal screen sizes. All support NMEA 2000®, SimNet and composite video input. The NSS series uses little power and is designed for use in 12 and 24V DC power systems. The system has an operating temperature range of 5 degrees to 131 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees to 55 degrees Celsius); like the NSE and NSO multifunction displays, the NSS Sport is waterproof to the IPx7 standard, and protected by a two-year limited parts and labor warranty. The new Simrad NSS Sport is also covered by Simrad Yachting’s 24-hour exchange program. In the unlikely event that the device is identified as defective within the first year of warranty, Simrad Yachting will ensure shipment of a replacement device within 24 hours.

The Simrad NSS7, NSS8 and NSS12 have suggested retail prices of $1,895, $2,845 and $3,995 US, respectively, and can be purchased from authorized Simrad Yachting dealers and distributors throughout the United States and Canada.