This Friday’s gizmo is the big kahuna of all the portable power packs that can typically jump start a car (or boat), run 12v gadgets, inflate a tire, and more. Xantrex’s top-of-the-line 400R also includes a 400 watt inverter, an emergency light, and an AM/FM radio with alarm! Inside is a replaceable 20 amp hour AGM battery which seems to have guts (and contributes to a total unit weight of nearly 30 pounds). In my experience, the 400R powered quite a bit of reciprocal sanding, and then smartly alarmed and eventually cut out when the battery went too low, or if I bore down too hard. That’s a digital watt meter showing in the picture (bigger here); when the inverter is turned off, it can show percentage of charge. This thing is obviously designed for emergency backup during hurricanes and the like, but I found it darn useful around my little back field boat yard, and it might have a place on some cruising boats. It’s fairly well made, certainly better than other jump start packs I’ve had. Xantrex’s page on the 400R is here, and a fellow named Jack has written a lengthy and careful review here (he’s right that it takes a long time to recharge, but I thought the radio performed OK, at least a low volume).
I’m a little concerned that readers who ordered the nifty Bridgenorth Bailer I touted a couple of weeks ago may not have gotten prompt service from the site listed. It turns out that boathookbailer.com is actually a U.S. distributer (there’s good news in this: the deal does include free shipping in the U.S.). At any rate, if you have any problems, here’s the Canadian manufacturer’s site, bridgenorthbailer.com, which is still somewhat under construction but has solid e-mail and toll free phone info, plus more dope on the product (including the compelling photo illustration above).
Big power outage here earlier this morning…coffee bean grinder no grind, DSL modem no blink…I’m definitely off my stride. I’m declaring this an OFI Friday, and will soon be off to fool with the fleet. If you’re stuck inside somewhere, you might want to picture yourself strolling down a dock with this Flintstone tablet PC in hand (for full effect, include the GSM whip antenna not screwed onto this prototype). I saw it displayed at a show once, and the developer’s site is still up, but I’ve never seen one in the field. In my fantasy, the case is carbon black and the boat I’m strolling toward is the Wally 118. Oh yeah.
Friday bonus gizmo: you can lock the two part handle open to get a sturdy 5’ boat hook, or you can apply some pump action and suck the last drop out a bilge or dinghy. The fluid stays in the handle until you pump again, so the thing can also be used as a ‘manual’ power washer, or a wicked squirt gun. Or to test the CFR/NEMA rating on your electronics (there, topic maintained). It works like a champ and is so darn well made that I’m worried the inventor isn’t asking enough money for it. He sells them for $44 at Bridgenorth Bailer with free shipping (maybe only in Canada, the site isn’t clear). Have a good weekend!
Rugged waterproof build, 3 levels of LED light going all the way from “holy cow” bright to 28 hours on 3 AAAs dim, this Friday’s gadget is the best boat headlamp I’ve had my mitts on. Plus the accessory red gizmo adds backup or can protect your night vision. The $39 EOS and $10 Pilot are also good examples of the amazingly detailed product reviews some outdoor folks are putting on the Web, like here, here, and here. So I shall say no more. Have a great weekend.
Navagear found a solid state bilge pump switch that can discriminate between fuel/oil and water, so presumably you will not pump the bad stuff overboard. I’m just a wee bit skeptical about how well this works in the real world. What if there is just a little oil swirling around your bilge; might the switch shut down when you didn’t really want it to? A while back I tested SensaSwitch (above), another solid state “float” switch that I liked a lot. It does not claim to “discriminate” against hydrocarbons but one reader wrote in claiming that oil films made it stick on or off, which of course is what no-moving-part switches are supposed to avoid (my test didn’t include oil!). The company tried to investigate the claim but the guy said he’d thrown the switch away, and his email went dead, so this report is very much hearsay. Does anyone out there have either SensaSwitch or Water Smart Switch installed in their boat?
Eli, proprietor of the often stimulating EliBoat, knows Maine waters and yesterday wondered “if the new charting programs will ever find a way to plot 6 trillion lobster pots.” His number is only a slight exaggeration; the pot buoys and their warps really are a navigation problem. Eli jests but I do hear talk of AIS transponders replacing RACON buoys at harbor entrances and maybe someday the tiny RFID radios supposedly coming to everything in Walmart will warn a boater of a dead on buoy about to tangle his prop. But in the meantime a sharp blade can do what electronics can’t. I tried this Hook Knife from Sailors Solutions last summer and it is wickedly effective.
Yeeeeeha! The basic V-24 is a 26’, 360 Hp, 70 knot racer designed a few years ago by Ocke Mannerfelt, and said to be relatively ‘safe’ and easy to drive. Panbo reader Tom W. has a custom version sporting 650 Hp and capable of over 100k—nicely displayed at www.batboats.com. You can imagine that it gets noisy in there! He and his passenger currently use a full duplex “helmet intercom system made by PCI Race Radios that’s tied into my VHF radio with push to talk buttons in the dash for both driver and passenger.” He’d like to do away with the wires. Can anyone suggest a solution?
Friday gizmo: Davis just announced WindScribe, a $129 ultrasonic wind speed sensor that apparently uses some of the technology seen in Airmar's WeatherStation. WindScribe also measures temperature and computes wind chill, and can be mounted using an included bracket. There’s nothing up on the Davis Web site yet but it will probably go in this section of wind indicators. One thing I don’t understand in the press release is the gadget’s ability to “monitor maximum headwind, maximum tailwind, 5-second average and running average.” How can you measure head and tail winds without knowing your own speed?
Tip of the hat to Scuttlebutt for today’s kind News Brief about Panbo. It’s been crazy here, it’s Friday, and I’m going to keep it quite light. So meet LightCap, a 32 oz water jug with a solar panel, Ni-Cad battery pack, and both red and white LEDs built into its top. It sounds like a foolish thing but I’m liking the prototype Sollight sent over. You can’t quite read by it but there’s a wonderful shimmer created by the light passing through the water, which also gives it some stay-put heft. LightCap could definitely add a little more magic to a balmy summer evening spent relaxing in the cockpit.
Do unto others dept: visit Zephyr, a newish blog pleasantly probing “sailing culture for voyagers, zealots, poets and populists”.
Eli, proprietor of the often stimulating 
Friday gizmo: Davis just announced WindScribe, a $129 ultrasonic wind speed sensor that apparently uses some of the technology seen in Airmar's 
Tip of the hat to Scuttlebutt for today’s kind