Lengthy piece over at Yachtingnet on real-time weather data systems from WSI and WxWorx.
"Imagine a wall of gray between you and your destination. Ship�s radar sees only 24 miles ahead, and your little boat is not particularly speedy. With real-time weather sent from one of these providers to your chart plotter, you can expand your weather window and display the same NEXRAD Doppler-radar feed you see on television, complete with lightning flashes."
So when you're list of on board electronics and gadgets looks like a summary of this website, how do you make sure interference won't be spoiling the party? Well, start by reading John Payne's electronics column in DIY boat owner magazine's 2004#1 issue.
"Noise sources on a boat are often classified as radio frequency interference (RFI) or electromagnetic interference (EMI). They are major enemies of electronic systems, corrupting your GPS position fixes, degrading radio communications and causing general electronics performance problems. RFI is essentially interference and noise that is superimposed as a disturbance or voltage transient either on the electrical power supply or the data and signal lines. This is then processed along with the good data to corrupt or degrade the processed information."
The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) launches 'Admiralty EasyTide', the new tidal information service, on May 17. It has a worldwide coverage of around 6000 primary and secondary ports.
"A new port search function including world map, area and text search means the required tidal data can be identified effortlessly. The new service has been designed for easy PDA access with minimal loading times and the display has been adjusted to suit the smaller screen size."
Let's start with a quote from the article: "Sailors are preoccupied with weather." I guess that's a true statement, so where should we get our weather information? If you have a Practical-Sailor.com subscription, you can find out all about it right here. For those of you who don't, there is a free trial available...
"Once you step aboard the boat and drop the mooring, however, things change. Unless you have satellite television aboard, The Weather Channel is a fond memory, and (lacking an unlimited budget) high-speed Internet access is just wishful thinking."
MotorBoating has a short review on Nobeltec�s eChart Planner. Read all about it here....
"If you want to learn something new about personal computers, simply ask a teenager. But if you�re interested in learning how to operate a navigation program with your computer, ask Nobeltec. Better yet, get Nobeltec�s eChart Planner software for PCs. This software puts charts, weather and tide animation at your fingertips, and as I discovered during my test, it�s fun to use."
An article by Dick Aarons from Yachtingnet that discusses the problems that arise with having so many options to navigate your boat. It's a short guide into the different components of a ship's navigation system.
"Today's electronic navigation systems let you accomplish just about any navigation task in three or four ways. And therein lies the problem. Some of these systems offer so many options we can easily lose track of the fundamental task at hand: getting from point A to point B safely and relatively gracefully."
Thinking of competing in one of the major ocean races, or may be just pretend you are..? Have a look at SetSail's special race package.
"It's 2004, and the Bermuda Race, Pacific Cup, and Transatlantic races are on the horizon. SetSail and MaxSea have teamed up to create special packages for these events. These include our high-end Yacht software, together with modules for Routing and Performance. These elements give you the best routing software in the world, the choice of boats like Mari Cha lV and Cheyenne, along with virtually the entire singlehanded racing and Volvo Ocean Race fleets, not to mention the ORMA racing trimarans. The best part is that this software is easy to learn and easy to use (you don't even need to be a professional navigator or teenager). In addition, this software comes with the latest in S57 Vector charts from NOAA (which include details of Newport, San Francisco, and New York) plus our package of world-wide and U.S. planning charts."
Lots of weather news today... Boat Test highlights 'The Weather Channel Marine' which was co-developed with NASA and is designed to withstand harsh marine environments. The system consists of a small satellite receiver and antenna and is available for purchase through authorized marine electronic dealers.
"The Weather Channel Marine uses advanced satellite broadcast technology specifically designed to deliver critical information in real-time to professional and recreational boats. This is not a static download of outdated images or a blurry weather fax -- it's a full color overlay of marine weather that is continuously updated as new information is received."
A new solution from WeatherData for those of you who prefer to sail the coastal waters, since it won't work if you are to far away from land... Apparently they have some special marine features as well, but it was originally developed with land based applications in mind.
"Special features will be available for marine use including marine charts for the U.S. and surrounding coastal waters, and reports on wave height, buoy observations, high surf advisories and tide data tables. A future version of Storm Hawk will also offer predicted radar that includes the location of storms ten to 30 minutes into the future and will provide the location and prediction of cloud-to-ground lightning with up to 97 percent accuracy, a WeatherData exclusive service."
Every now and then stories on collisions between commercial vessels and private yachts are making headlines. There are several ways to prevent these from happening, and one development in particular will help reduce colission risks. Automatic Identification Systems (AIS). Furuno won a contract to supply more than 300 of its FA100 Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) to Tidewater Marine, so let's have a look at their product.
"How does AIS work? AIS is a shipboard VHF broadcast system that transmits and receives information that is pertinent to the safe navigation of ships. This data may be shown on the display of the AIS equipment, or RADAR/ECDIS equipment. Each AIS system consists of one VHF transmitter, two VHF TDMA receivers, one VHF DSC receiver, and a communications link (IEC 61162/NMEA 0183) to shipboard display and sensor systems. Static and dynamic Navigational data is sent via VHF from ship to ship using SOTDMA. Position and timing information is normally received from an internal or external global navigation satellite system (e.g. GPS) receiver, including a DGPS receiver for precise position in coastal and inland waters. Other information broadcast by the AIS, if available, is electronically obtained from shipboard equipment through standard marine data connections."
Lengthy piece over at Yachtingnet on real-time weather data systems from WSI and WxWorx.
So when you're list of on board electronics and gadgets looks like a summary of this website, how do you make sure interference won't be spoiling the party? Well, start by reading John Payne's electronics 
The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) 
Let's start with a quote from the article: "Sailors are preoccupied with weather." I guess that's a true statement, so where should we get our weather information? If you have a Practical-Sailor.com subscription, you can find out all about it right 
MotorBoating has a short review on Nobeltec�s eChart Planner. Read all about it 
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Thinking of competing in one of the major ocean races, or may be just pretend you are..? Have a 
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