[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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Thanks to Ben Ellison over at Panbo for directing our attention to a great series of retro advertisements published by Maine Boats, Homes, and Harbors.

They’re all charming, but this one really caught my eye. Anybody who knows about one of these units aboard a boat in the Puget Sound area, operational or not, please let me know!

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.

Just one year ago, we wrote about the cool Weems & Plath Lightrule, at the risk of repeating, let me quote Aaron’s description of the product:

The Lightrule is a nicely put-together reference tool for interpreting those COLREGS (International Regulations for Avoiding Collisions at Sea) required light arrangements. It’s a kind of slide rule where the sliding piece has patterns representing most any kind of light configuration you might encounter, which line up with little holes in the diagrams on the outside of the rule. A magnifier strip along the edge tells you what you are seeing, and the diagrams show the lights described.

Little known to us at the time, however, that version of the Lightrule contained a minor error, which was spotted by Captain Richard Rodriguez. Read the comments on our original post to learn what the trouble was.

Well, here’s an update: Captain Rodriguez has just reported over on his BitterEnd blog that the error has been fixed!

Honestly, though, it was a very minor error, so don’t feel you need to throw away your old one. Richard can be kind of a curmudgeon about COLREGS sometimes.

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!

Apparently, there’s something new under the sun in the world of celestial navigation. It’s the Cassens & Plath Horizon Ultra Sextant.

Actually, I don’t think this is all that new, but when Wired Magazine decides to write about an instrument most people assume is obsolete, one gets the impression that there’s something new happening here.

Regardless, it’s a beautiful instrument. And it’s important to recognize that there is still a place for it aboard any vessel heading offshore.

I wonder what portion of modern offshore sailors carry a sextant? Twenty years ago, that number would have been about 100%, I imagine. Nowadays, it’s got to be lower…but how much lower?

Thanks to gCaptain for the lead.

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!

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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We’ve been wishing someone would do a mash-up of Google Maps with nautical charts for a good long while now. And a French company called Magic Instinct Software has obliged with their product GeoGarage. The NOAA charts overlayed on Google Maps are really just a demo of the capabilities of their map server product, which provides the capability to overlay all kinds of images on maps. Definitely worth a bookmark for planning/fantasizing about your next boat adventure.

Thanks to H2UhO and Messing About In Sailboats for linking it up!

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.