Here’s a great gift idea for the ostentatious mega-yacht owner in your life. This would be especially appropriate if the boat has a dinghy "garage" in the transom. What better vehicle for a "garage" than a "car", eh?

Plus, it’s a zero-emission electric vehicle, which should appeal to all those nutty eco-friendly tree-hugging mega-yacht owners.

But I joke. This is a genuine, operational vehicle, after all. Rinspeed’s "sQuba" (see the big "Q"?) made its debut at the Geneva Motor Show, as reported on AutoBlogGreen.

I grew up on James Bond books and movies, so there’s no use denying it: I love this thing. It’s hard to describe the sheer elation young gentlemen of a certain age experienced during this scene from 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me…

Just imagine little 12-year-old Tim: "THE CAR’S A SUBMARINE! OhMyGod, THAT IS SO COOL!!"

Alls I’m sayin’ is that it would make a great Navagear.com "company car", if anybody wanted to donate one to us.

The Walker Bay Airis is a sit-on-top inflatable kayak. What sets it apart is that it’s not only extremely light, but also extremely rigid.
It really defies expectations. Something this light ought to be a floppy, insubstantial “pool toy”. But this isn’t like that at all. It feels substantial, sturdy, structurally sound.

At the boat show, they’ve got it supported by two pieces of plywood on edge, one at the front of the cockpit and one at the back. And they invite you to sit down in it.
It’s fun to watch people CAREFULLY commit their weight to it. You can see it in their faces: “It’s going to fold in half at any instant!”

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Edison Marine, located in Portland, OR, has an electric boat at the Seattle Boat Show. My 8-year-old daughter said “Wow, that’s really shiny for wood.” Clever girl.
It is shiny, indeed. Constructed of mahogany, she looks for all the world like a 1940 barrelback runabout. Lovely, but not really innovative by itself.

The magic of the Edison boat is hidden inside, and below the waterline. This is a twin-prop 17-footer powered by a bank of 12 batteries.

The basics: She’ll run plenty fast…see the video under “Gallery” on the Edison Marine website. But to maximize battery life, run her at 5-6 mph and the batteries will last 8 hrs or so. Full recharge takes 4-5 hours. How much? About $120k as shown.

Here are some pictures I took at the show.

I’ve been waiting to see these in person ever since I first heard about them last fall. In case you weren’t aware, Hobie has one of the most innovative pedal-power systems around, the Mirage. It may look funny, but it’s actually a lot more ergonomic than conventional bicycle pedals driving a propeller shaft.

We’ve written about this before, in an entry entitled “And One Roto-Molded Kayak to Rule Them All.” Obviously, we’re big fans. That’s why I’ve been so eager to see Hobie’s inflatable Mirage-drive kayaks. Lo and behold… Here’s the tandem model, called the i14t. Fourteen feet long, 36″ wide, 61 pounds. The Mirage drive units weigh 6.6 pounds each. Each drive “cassette” locks into a rigid receptacle bonded into the inflatable body of the kayak. When inflated to 3-5 PSI, the boat feels very rigid.

That’s the real trick here, you see: (more…)

We’ve talked about the Klepper folding kayaks before. They’re classic, and it’s difficult to argue with the success and reputation these German boats enjoy. But we’re a “gear and gadgets” blog, so we’re always on the lookout for something new.

Grabner’s Discovery line of kayaks, available single-seater and tandem models, appears to be a real Klepper competitor, though. Perhaps it isn’t a surprise that Grabner is (more…)

Recent discussions here and over at Panbo have revealed some confusion about how at least one of the tender tracking systems (Rendez-vous) use AIS to display the tenders on a chartplotter.

When one hears “tender tracking using AIS”, one can be forgiven for assuming that the tenders will have AIS transponders installed. Obviously, that’s one way to track tenders; looking at current prices for the currently available tender tracking systems, AIS might even be cheaper! I’m kidding, of course: please don’t install AIS on your jet ski.

No, that’s not what Rendez-vous does. Instead, (more…)

Nobeltec is the big daddy of computer-based navigation software, and all the more so now that they’re owned by Jeppesen Marine, a Boeing subsidiary. They’ve been an important innovator in the field, and continue to bring interesting new capabilities to their product line, although at prices that would make some cruisers cringe.

Recently I saw a press release on the Tender Tracker, a $1,500 addin for the Nobeltec Admiral navigation suite. This price does not include the hardware that makes it work, an interesting bit of technology from Seetrac. Basically it’s a proprietary AIS-like technology, so that a tender or jet ski carrying the Seetrac transmitter sends position and other navigation data back to the mother ship. This would, for instance, allow a yacht captain to keep track of a his guests as they explore. Another possibility is sending out a tender with a depth sounder that electronically reports back its data to the mother ship’s navigation software. (more…)

When I was a kid, my friends and I watched re-runs of Gilligan’s Island after school. There was one episode that was always our favorite. We loved the one where the Japanese sailor (who doesn’t realize the war is over, of course) arrives in our castaways’ lagoon aboard his tiny submarine. Oh, how we longed for a tiny submarine of our own. Deep down inside, I still long for one.

So it’s no exaggeration to say (more…)

On smaller cruising boats, the choice of dinghies is fraught with compromise. Some voyagers opt for small, rowable tenders that can be stowed upside-down on the cabin-top. Some are good rowers, but at the smaller end, they offer a leisurely pace and limited carrying capacity, and can putter along with tiny outboards if you don’t want all the fresh air and exercise.

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We’re replacing our first version of the Klepper folding kayak demonstration to correct some editing problems we noticed. So, if you want the quick and fun look at putting an 80s vintage Klepper together, have a look-see!