It's hard not play Panbo hooky during this superfine Spring in Maine, but I have been doing some testing even as I get Gizmo ready for a full season of it. You may recall my September entry about the new underwater cam company AquaBotix; well, above is their AquaLens boat hook cam at work in Camden Harbor. Click on the thumbnail above for a better look at the running gear of the able work and passenger vessel Harvest Moon. With the little LCD screen strapped to my wrist and the cam/LED control box clipped to my belt, I could move around and handle the boat hook fairly easily (as long as I didn't trip on the cable). And, while the water isn't always this clear here, I was able to inspect the hull pretty thoroughly, and even found a foot-long section of missing bottom paint, or worse, that Capt. Rob didn't know about...
EEL purportedly stands for Easily Engaged Locking system but perhaps more to the point are the strong and sleek eel-like jaws of Marinco's new shorepower connector. It's designed to work with existing screw-on-ring inlets -- like Marinco's own 30 and 50 amp models -- except that now you can easily and quickly make the connection with one hand. The EEL even has a built-in LED light for orienting the blades, but just grabbing the jaws tends to orient the plug correctly anyway, so hooking up is just a matter of a little twist and then letting the jaws grab the inlet threads. There's also a secondary lock though the product manager at Marinco's Miami press conference suggested that it was more about peace of mind than necessity. Those jaws are apparently moray eel strong, but is the EEL a sufficient response to the Smart Plug challenge?...
This entry is inspired by Edson's Miami introduction of a Manual Radar Leveling Kit that looks neat to me. I've seen pole mounts like this before--either custom fabricated or made by less familiar companies like Garhauer--and they struck me as a simple and economical way to deal with the issue of decreased radar performance due to boat heel. But before discussing the merits of manual (or electric) leveling mechanisms versus the many self-leveling mounts, I probably ought to address the fact that some sailors reject the whole notion of radar leveling as hokum!...
Another area of boating that may benefit from ever smaller and cheaper wireless computing components is video cameras used for monitoring and just plain fun. It may seem crazy to put a baby product on Panbo but not when you check out the specs of the Withing Smart Baby Monitor. That's a remotely controlled hi-res pan/tilt/zoom camera in that ipodish box seen above and it can connect to multiple iThing viewer/controllers via Bluetooth, local WiFi, or the Internet. It also has stereo microphones and a temperature/humidity sensor, and it can detect motion and noise anomalies. And if any of these multiple remote monitoring features lead you to think that your boat is unhappy, you can transmit a little sweet talk or play it a lullaby!...
The surprise of the annual FLIR/Raymarine Miami Show dinner-and-demo cruise was the introduction of a higher-end M-Series camera with two-axis gyro stabilization and other enhancements. You can download the M-618CS brochure here, and also see a video illustrating how well it corrects the camera for pitch and yaw (but not roll). I saw it in action on the otherwise calm-water cruise thanks to a clever motion-simulating mount FLIR engineers came up with, and the stabilization seemed quite effective. The M-618CS -- along with its sibling, the Raymarine T470SC -- also has a color low-light camera with 10x optical zoom. Plus its 640x480 resolution thermal sensor has a 18°x14° field of view that differs from existing M-Series models, and is purportedly able to detect a person overboard at 4,000 feet. Though even the online discounter prices are north of $33,000, I'm pretty sure that the M-618CS is the least expensive stabilized thermal camera ever...
I'd already gotten some details on the several interesting new products Garmin is announcing today -- and was excited about sharing them -- but it wasn't until late last night that I had any inkling about Garmin's acquisition of Interphase Technologies, a pioneer in phase array forward looking sonar (FLS). Wow! The deal means that Garmin will soon have a new and unique arrow in its quiver of MFD network sensors and that FLS for fishing and navigation will get some of the attention I think it's always deserved. It's not just that Garmin will market the Interphase technology better, but that the technology will no doubt be easier to use and to afford when integrated with Garmin displays. It will probably work better too...
Want more LED light at less cost to illuminate your deck or the water beyond? Rigid Industries may be new to the marine industry but the company claims patented optic systems that have already made it "the pioneer of forward projecting high intensity LED light bars" for uses like long-distance racing in souped-up dune buggies (on a course that may be booby-trapped). You can glimpse the unusual reflectors (for LED fixtures) in this photo from IBEX and I can tell you that even those small and relatively inexpensive "four bulb" cubes closest to the camera are blindingly bright...
Winter will not be slow on Panbo largely because I still have lots to cover from my summer cruising and fall travels, and more time to do it in. At IBEX, for instance, I learned about a couple of neat ways that Dometic is using sophisticated modern electronic controls to make existing marine appliances work better. And I even got a little (goofy) face time in a video about the Bypassable Variable Frequency Drive (select HD at your own risk)...
Daylight today was at the minimum, at least in my hemisphere, and I was also fiddling with various holiday lights (which might be related phenomenon). So it seems like a good time to write about these SolLight solar-powered LED fixtures that have been lighting up my life for years. I started testing that LightShip model in early 2007 and when Gizmo came along in the spring of 2009 I stuck it to the hatch in the head, where it's served well for three seasons. It's left so that the dim red LED comes on at night and then we often switch to the brighter white when using the facilities...
The Dorcy Cyber Light (model 41-4750), list price $29, or $18.50 on Amazon is an ideal flashlight for boating, deserving of a best flashlight award from the crew of my Wednesday night racing team who assisted with this article by comparing six flashlights under a variety of nighttime conditions above and below deck on my 39 foot sailboat.
