Camden Harbor is pretty quiet these days, but on Monday afternoon -- while I was stripping electronics off Gizmo prior to her inevitable haul-out -- Cangarda, the only existing U.S.-built steam yacht, suddenly slipped around the corner and silently maneuvered onto the Wayfarer dock just ahead of me. Yesterday I was further thrilled when Capt. Steve Cobb himself showed me around, paying special attention to his beloved engine room, where he'd fired up the boiler in order to check that the "water chemistry" was proper for lay up. You see, I already knew a fair bit about Cangarda, though I'd never seen the 126 foot vessel in all her awesome flesh before...
I wrote about BEP's CZone distributed power last April, but didn't get to see it live until I got a ride aboard Simrad's demo boat during the Fort Lauderdale show. Isn't it neat that the control screen can show you the amperage flowing through a specific circuit (and apparently detect a fault)? And if it's on an MFD, couldn't valuable details like that also be on apps pads and phones like I recently saw live with Maretron's N2KView? In April I also wrote about what a difficult niche distributed power is, but I still think the magic of digital switching is one of the most interesting frontiers in marine electronics. And that we're going to hear a lot more about it in 2011. BEP, for instance, made a series of announcements during METS...
Wasn't it telling that three DAME awards went to iPad apps yesterday (even though only two were entered)? I can't find the full award text online yet, but the judges explained their Marine Related Software choice of Navionics Marine: Mediterranean HD thusly: "This system's ease of use was better than any the Jury had seen to date. With fingertip control provided by the iPad it was extremely easy and intuitive to manipulate the charts and establish routes and waypoints. Moving from screen to screen, updating charts, and zooming in on a landmark was expected to be very simple even on a moving boat." It's a bummer that all regions of Mobile 5.0 aren't out yet, but testing Beta versions for Canada, the Caribbean, and U.S. East leads me to concur with the judges, particularly in regard to the updating charts. Creating user generated data -- the major feature of 5.0, as emphasized in the Navionics graphic inset above -- is so much easier on a big screen with a big keyboard...
We've had a run of interesting new products this week, but this may be the topper. That cast-aluminum "wheel" -- wrapped with I'm not sure what and threaded for a stainless steel masthead mount that's grounded to a Dynaplate -- is a new lightning protection technology called a Streamer Inhibitor from a new company called Lightning Electrotechnologies. I've posed it with the Lightning Master Static Dissipater which generated a fair bit of skeptical commentary when I took it off Gizmo's masthead last summer. The Inhibitor seems to be related to the Dissipater, but different. Understanding lightning and how you might avoid it is very challenging, and I have yet to form strong opinions one way or another...
That's a pair of Genasun LFP Lithium batteries that weigh a small fraction of what similar sized regular marine batteries would and offer a lot more usable power than even their 760 amp hour rating would indicate, because they can endure truly deep discharges and accept massive recharges. Combine these with no less than four Victron MultiPlus inverter/chargers, which can automatically kick in extra AC when shore power or the generator can't carry the load, and you've got power to spare. Yes, this is a high end project, but note the gray diagonal planking seen behind the lithium batteries...
That somewhat odd looking "waterborne structure" is Robinhood Marine Center's first Island 40, designed to give renters who may only have small boat skills a wicked nice Maine cruising harbor experience, as in swinging on a mooring with seals, osprey, lobster men, and cruisers for neighbors, with good exploration possibilities in all directions (and with a pleasant "destination" marina nearby). And it's a hoot! I'm sitting at the Tessie Ann's spacious aft dinette right now, enjoying a cool sea breeze and the use of a well thought out battery/inverter/solar panel system...
Paneltronics new load shedding system is somewhat related to my battery/monitor/charger travails. Boaters of all sorts are struggling to manage their electrical appetites, and the line between electrical and electronic is getting fuzzy indeed. And there are all sorts of us; I have no need for AC load shedding personally, though this device is unique in that it's aimed at boats like Gizmo...
There's no such thing as a stupid question, right? Please? Above is the only label on each of Gizmo's main bank 8D batteries, and though it says AGM in big letters upper right, I'm not completely sure that they actually are Absorbed Glass Mat batteries. Can anyone confirm one way or the other? Then I might have a better sense of how well my battery monitoring system is set up, and what it's telling me...
That big fella scrunched alongside Gizmo's Volvo Penta diesel is the new love of my life! It's hard to imagine a better engine guy experience than what I got last week from Pat Ricci, proprietor of Thomaston Boat and Engine Works. When I called him on Tuesday, after Monday's somewhat traumatic break down, I knew there was a major fresh water coolant leak somewhere around the exhaust manifold, and an engineer/sailor friend who'd had a look predicted a two phase repair -- dissemble and diagnosis, then parts ordering and repair -- that would total several days labor and several large boat bucks. But Pat did the diagnosis right on phone and said he'd order parts and do the whole repair in a half day, soon. Which is exactly what he did, and more...
