[They're hoping to sweeten the deal a little and encourage you to upgrade your electronics suite during their current promotion. If you've got older electronics  that are officially "worthless", this might be a tempting offer.  —Tim]

Dear Raymarine Insider,

Our Trade-In Days are back and start today! Don’t miss out on this opportunity to save an additional $200 by rebate when you trade-in your old electronics.

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My colleague and journalism mentor Eric Sorensen has a great pair of articles on powerboat helm functionality and ergonomics in the August-September and October-November issues of Professional Boatbuilder.

[Eric Sorensen/Professional Boatbuilder]

Part 1 can be found here. Click the Contents button at the top and find “The View From the Helm, Part 1″.
Part 2 can be found here. Click the Contents button at the top and find “At the Helm, Part 2″.

If you build, commission, or own powerboats of any size, you owe it to yourself to spend a few minutes reading these excellent articles.

Ben Ellison over at Panbo is reporting the following:

Today two reliable sources told me that all five FCC commissioners have now signed off on Class B AIS for US waters, though neither knows when the Order will become effective. The final step should be an announcement in the FCC Daily Digest.

Good news for those awaiting Class B. In case you don’t know or can’t recall what the heck Class B AIS is, here are some previous Navagear posts to bring you up to speed:

• AIS Class B Naysayers, Unite!
• More Talk About Class B AIS
• Class B AIS: Can’t We All Just Get Along?
• Class B AIS Now Available!

If you look through those posts, you’ll be able to follow the REST of the discussion within Panbo’s recent post: The “But is it all worthless?” part!

If this stuff really works as advertised, it’s going to be very very popular. The product is called Golden Shellback, and it claims to be…well…read for yourself:

Golden Shellback coating is a unique coating that protects critical operational equipment against damage and loss of function caused by exposure to weather and moisture. It is ideal for application in the electronics industry.

Golden Shellback coating produces a vacuum deposited film that is nonflammable, has low toxicity and has the ability to weatherproof electronic devices and other surfaces. It contains no volatile organic combustibles (VOCs). The clear, nearly non-detectable, uniform film is insoluble in solvents. When applied to clean, moisture free surfaces, such as plastic, copper, aluminum, metal, ceramic, steel, tin or glass, the coating is transparent with excellent weather proofing and anti-corrosion properties.

I have to say, it’s difficult to believe that it works, especially at the prices being discussed ($50-$75 for most phone/PDA devices) but people I take seriously say they’ve seen it with their own eyes, and it’s not a trick.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this. So will Ben over at Panbo.

I wrote about this in May, and after I had spent some time with the options I discovered, I came away underwhelmed. Here’s my big question for anyone out there: Has anyone gotten cTide or NavStation to run on a Windows Mobile 6 device?

Anyway, I was glad to see that somebody else has given this worthwhile topic a more thorough going-over. Karen and Jeffrey Siegel have published an article entitled “Tides and Currents on a Mobile Phone”, over at MadMariner.com.

If you’re not a MadMariner subscriber (and why-ever would you not be, forsooth?), you better read the article soon, before it slips behind the subscribers-only firewall!

“…are advised to navigate with extreme caution. Coast Guard Sector Seattle out.”

Wait…what? I missed the first part. What’s the problem? Where’s the problem? Should I care?

I hate that feeling. It seems that every time I get a slip assignment from a harbormaster, I forget it within five seconds. Or I hear the tail end of a transmission on the vessel traffic channel, and I’m not sure if they said that 20-knot container ship is inbound or outbound, which matters because I’m about to cross the lanes! I sure wish I could just listen to that last transmission once more, know what I mean?

The product developers at Cobra know what I mean, and they offer an innovative feature on some VHF models that should help. It’s called Rewind-Say-Again, and it uses a digital voice recorder to play back the last call received.

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Perhaps you clicked through to the post over at Ask JackRabbit that I linked to a couple days ago. If not, take a closer look.

Raymarine’s new MAP (minimum advertised price) policy has really stirred the pot, and in today’s entry, Peter James describes Jack Rabbit Marine’s response to the changing character of the marine electronics business.

It may confuse some consumers, but given the realities of the modern marketplace, it may be the only way to stay competitive. Check it out:

So we’re going to introduce a two-tier pricing system. You can pay a low price, competitive with the internet-only stores if you know what you are doing and need no support. Or you can choose to pay a higher price that qualifies you for full support including technical advice, installation help and a full warranty and replacement service.

As a consumer, I find this arrangement attractive. The fact is that I want to work out electronics installation issues for myself sometimes, while other times I need some extra help. In the midst my varying levels of confidence, I would prefer to do most of my purchasing at one or two places; I value the relationships that are formed when I conduct ongoing business with a firm.

For example, I make a lot of purchases at Fisheries Supply and The Offshore Store. They’re local for me, and I know the people there. For me, price is second to cultivating those valuable relationships; but it’s still a close second, know what I mean? The fact that both outfits are price-competitive with all but the lowest of bare-bones online discounters makes my choice pretty easy.

But I doubt boaters in many parts of the country have the same great choices I do, and Jack Rabbit’s new two-tier pricing structure, appealing to both bargain-seeking and service-seeking customers, could work out really well.

If you have any interest at all in understanding the marine electronics market, I strongly suggest you read today’s post by Peter James over on Ask JackRabbit:

New MAP Policy from Raymarine

Many electronics companies, including Raymarine, set MAP prices for their products. This is the Minimum Advertised Price, which is the lowest price that a dealer is allowed to use in advertising the product or listing it on a website. The dealer can sell the product at any price at all - he just can’t advertise it for under MAP.

The MAP price for an E120, for example, is $3899 (list price is $4600). Most dealers who sell online use a variant on the technique shown above from the Consumers Marine website. They show the MAP price, and invite the reader to click to see the actual selling price (at JackRabbit, you see the actual selling price when you add the product to your shopping cart). Clicking at Consumers Marine opens a pop-up window that shows the actual selling price. The MAP limitation applies only to dealers. Anyone with a web store can open an account with a wholesaler, buy an E120 at dealer price, and advertise it for any price at all. So this attempt to set a floor on pricing ends up penalizing dealers - who are undercut on advertised prices by the scruffy-guy-in-his-pajamas web stores.

Raymarine has decided to get tough.

Click here to read the rest of the story…

I just learned about this over at Ben Ellison’s Panbo. You can learn a lot from Panbo.

Anyway, Garmin is launching GHP 10, a marine autopilot system slated for release in the third quarter of 2008. What caught my eye was the “Shadow Drive” feature.

Essentially, it’s an interface scheme that uses a sensor in the hydraulic line to perform functions you would normally perform with conventional panel-mounted buttons.

Whuh-huh? Yeah, described that way, it sounds complex. But the point is that it’s actually very SIMPLE to use. Garmin does a better job explaining it:

The GHP 10’s patented Shadow Drive™ technology gives boaters the security of knowing they maintain control even when relying upon the autopilot. The Shadow Drive system automatically disengages the autopilot if the helm is turned, allowing the helmsman to maneuver the boat. The autopilot automatically re-engages when a steady course is held by the helmsman.

So imagine this scenario:

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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 FCC approval.
WHY?
Class B AIS is not yet approved by the FCC for use in the United States.
This means that U.S. boaters are not afforded the same tools for safety of navigation as the rest of the international boating community.
GOOD NEWS:
The wait is over for U.S. boaters who want to install equipment now so they can activate immediately upon FCC approval.
Click Here to Learn More!

So it’s $799 for the unit configured for receive-only operation, and another $200 will be charged to activate Class-B transmit capability when (or is that “if”?) the FCC approves the unit.

This is an innovative way to move some inventory and generate some operating revenue. It will be interesting to see if any of the other manufacturers and distributors follow suit.