Panbo reader and offshore sailor Jon pointed out a possible downside to the Raymarine LifeTag MOB system that I hadn’t really picked up on (edited for brevity): “Curiously, this battery information [seen in the brochure crop above] is lacking from the installation and operating guides—I would want to know this before heading offshore on a two week passage. The system does warn you when the batteries go low, but unless you planned for it you would be unlikely to have the odd sized battery on board. Also, there is mention of the tags powering up/down automatically, but the information seems to suggest that the tags will only power down by shutting down the whole system [true]. OK for a daysail, but with that kind of battery life you would like to power down the tags for the off watch crew for example. The MOBi-lert system has a connected charging pod, when the tags are inserted in the pod the system recognizes where they are and puts them to sleep. On that system each tag is tracked individually, so you can check the status of each: #1 is charging, #2 is active, #3 has a low battery, #4 is overboard and so forth."
When I visited ACR last October, I got to write up the R&D department’s nifty GPS simulator but not the nifty new GPS-assisted PLB that was being tested in its “oven”. Well, now it’s official; the ResQFix got FCC approval today and will ship in February. ACR managed to make it 35% smaller and 25% lighter than its already compact and successful AquaFix GPS I/O model, plus goose up the 12 channel GPS to -136 dBm sensitivity for fast starts in bad places, and they’re bringing it to market for $750, less than the old I/O. You gotta like all that, not to mention its “full functional self-test of internal circuitry, battery voltage and power, 406 MHz transmission and GPS acquisition.” Here’s more detail at Landfall Navigation, and here’s a full picture with included float bag. It seems to me that the perfectly accessorized person overboard would have a proactive alarm system in one pocket, and a PLB like this in the other. Then a thoroughly equipped yacht could try to home in on his/her 121.5 MHz signal while the GPS and 406 MHz transmitter prepare SARSAT to send in the pros.
As noted yesterday, the LifeTag man overboard system really shines when interfaced via SeaTalk to an appropriate plotter, like the E-Series shown above. The data here is being generated by NemaTalker down in the Panbo Test Facility (aka my basement shop), but the E doesn’t know it. It thinks we’re tootling along near Schoodic Point until I walk the LifeTag more than about 30’ away from the base station, or plunge it into a bucket of water. After a 10 second delay, the buzzers go off and the E goes into MOB mode, establishing a new GoTo and zooming in as far as it can to include both boat and man-in-a-bucket. Again the install was simple, three SeaTalk wires for power and data, no set up. And the manuals are good. Now, as noted in part one’s comments, LifeTag won’t help you home in on the victim, and frankly I was surprised by the figure Russ dug up of 95% success if a GPS MOB point is established. The mermaid id he referenced sounds interesting, and I know there are other intriguing products. But I don’t think any work so well on an integrated system basis…if you have compatible Raymarine gear (well, excepting NKE). It would be nice if there were effective NMEA 0183 and 2000 MOB messages and LifeTag used them. Do note, though, that Ray’s system does have a 12v output for triggering “appropriate emergency systems”, though I’m not sure what they are (anyone?).
Raymarine introduced this LifeTag man overboard system last February, but then couldn’t actually start shipping it in the U.S. until November. These things happen, but it does tend to diminish a new product’s reputation. Well, I’ve been testing LifeTag, it works exactly as promised, and it deserves attention. One thing I particularly like is that—unlike some other safety gear, EPIRBs and life rafts come to mind—you don’t have to worry if it will function when you need it. LifeTag is what might be called an “alarm on failure” system; once on, the easy-to-tote tags regularly communicate (via ZigBee) with the base station, alarming if the connection breaks, or if just the tag breaks. The basic stand-alone system shown above was trivial to install and learn. The buzzer sounded if I wandered too far away or pushed the “help!” (or “wake up, matey”) button, plus you can disarm the alarm with the tag, and the multicolor LED tells you what’s going on. All nice, but even better is hooking LifeTag into a Raymarine SeaTalk network. More on that, and other considerations, tomorrow.
I may seem hung up on Garmin and NMEA 2000, but actually METS was worth months of future Panbo entries. For instance, the world introduction to the B&G H3000 system and also to Navico, the new “papa” brand over arching Simrad, Lowrance, etc., was wonderfully prefaced by extreme racing sailor Knut Forstad. Besides showing some stunning video of Volvo 70’s (100% B&G equipped), he had this slide illustrating an automatic sheet release system on a trimaran. Those Harkin cam cleats can be pneumatically opened by a Hercules processor based on any parameters in the system, like heel, pitch, wind speed, etc. Nice for a single hander trying to rest at 30 knots plus! After the press conference I asked Knut if offshore racers are using AIS. He told me that the Volvo Brazil picked up a receiver in Baltimore, loved it, and that many of the open 60 tris are now carrying full transponders. He was adamant about how valuable a technology it is, and how every offshore race boat should be carrying one. I learned a lot about AIS Class B at METS, but it will have to wait.
That's your thermal image, bigger here, of the Electronics Tent at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS)...all hot faces and legs. When you watch it live, it's the ears in particular that pop out, the lack of insulating fat combined with the camera's fairly high resolution I guess. And, yes, laddies, this technology will sort of see through clothing. A thermal camera images differences in temperature, so warm underwear under cool outerwear sometimes makes an impression (as I once had fun writing about). More important, really, is that most anything floating in the ocean, like say a container or an unlit daybeacon, is warmer than the water around it and thus will show up in a thermal image no matter how dark the night. A man overboard's head, or a thief on a dark pier, stand out like light bulbs! At any rate, Flir Systems, which calls itself the "world leader" in this niche, is doing a masterful job of marketing its new recreational marine level products at this show, even though it doesn't have a booth. The live image and cameras, like that ThermoVision Mariner {update: no longer made} model on top of the Northstar kiosk, are everywhere. Thermal cameras have been around a long time, but mostly in very expensive packages like the NVTi 5000, which is also on display here (and every bit as beautiful as I imagined). The real Flir news is that rugged, well supported thermal cameras have now become merely expensive; the company is even showing a fixed unit that only costs about $5,000 (the fixed Navigator model). Why? Economies of manufacturing scale. Inside the marinized case is the exact same camera that BMW is putting on 70,000 bumpers per year. Cool! or how about: Thermal!
When I wrote about lightning a few years ago, I interviewed Dr. Ewen Thomson, then an associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Florida and more-or-less the go-to guy when it came to this scary and mysterious phenomenon. Thomson was impressive, and I’ve been looking forward to the protection system he was working on as a side line to his teaching and research. Well, the time has come. Marine Lightning Protection Inc. is up and running and will be showing a complete system aboard the Mirage Great Harbour 47 at Powerboat Show in Annapolis.
The system works by creating, in effect, a "Faraday cage" around the boat and its occupants (illustrated below). It is named after inventor Michael Faraday who in 1836 discovered that an enclosure of conducting materials shielded its contents from electrical effects, and could be used to ptotect against lightning.
Thomson’s “Siedarcs” have also been installed on two sail boats— the mighty Maximus and the prototype of a Radford performance cruiser: “If lightning can be thought of as having a preference,” Thomson said, “that preference is to escape from a vessel at or near the waterline. By yielding to lightning's natural tendencies, our system can minimize dangerous sideflashes. The development of the Siedarc is one of the revolutionary features of our system."
Whereas we seem to have reached consensus that Iridium does not suffice as an EPIRB, it seems appropriate to post this intimate photo of a man apparently in love with his EPIRB. No wonder. At 7:30am on 7/25/06, Captain Nick Barran’s 40’ racing sloop was holed by a whale 415 miles north of Hawaii. He and his crew had about an hour to gather their stuff, inflate their life raft, and watch Mureadrittas XL vanish into the deep Pacific. They took pictures, too, and most sites published dramatic images of decks awash and a hand about to slice the raft’s tether. Me, I like the shot of Barran, probably very shook, laying back in the raft next to his faithful ACR RapidFix. The thing, and the whole COSPAS-SARSAT system, worked like a charm and this well equipped crew was aboard the container vessel Maersk Darwin before the sun set. ACR lays out the story here, and also has a pretty compelling advertising campaign here, but no PR person was there aboard the container ship prompting Barran to pose holding his EPIRB. I wonder when he let it out of his reach? By the way, there was also a satellite phone aboard Mureadrittas XL.
I am the proud owner of an Iridium satellite phone. Could I omit EPIRB from my safety equipment list? I believe that verbally communicating with the Coast Guard (with GPS in hand) is superior to the EPIRB. Do I miss something?
That question came through Sail’s “Ask an expert” section. My immediate reaction is “hell no”, but I’m curious what you all think? I figure that many marine distress situations happen so fast and are so wet that what you really need is a totally automatic (i.e. water activated) or semi-automatic (hold down the button) device that is completely waterproof and will call out the calvary, delivering your ID and location in the process. That’s exactly what EPIRBs and even PLBs, especially with optional GPS, do very well. That’s not to say the Iridium isn’t a fantastic technology. I know a lot of far voyaging skippers who count on it for offshore voice, e-mail, and even restrained Web browsing (thanks in large part to super clever compression software like XGate/XWeb). I recall, for instance, that Bluewater has a fixed Iridium in the wheelhouse and a spare in a Pelican case. And I can definitely picture how one could be very valuable during a slow speed distress situation, say a dismasting or a gravely ill crew member, or to check that the EPIRB really worked from your life raft! But superior to an EPIRB?
PS A nice shot from a French marine electronique company showing the sort of use Iridium is really suited for, sitting in the nav station making calls, checking e-mail, and downloading GRIB weather files into MaxSea. And, yes, that green thing is a Sailor radio of some sort.
I just got the new Captn. Jack’s catalog, which seems pretty quick given that Maptech just took over the operation a few months ago. The online Captn. Jack’s is also back in business, which means I can link you right through to some of the more interesting offerings:
* The fictional Jack is indeed bundling Maptech Chartbooks with Garmin plotters, as above, including putting all the on-paper waypoints into the plotter. Just the product combinations themselves look like decent deals, the waypoints a very useful bit of frosting. (I’m hoping to try the feature out).
* The Capn software (no previous relation to Captn. Jack, and different spellings retained) has now become CAPN Integra AIS, and there’s some more detail on how Maptech plans to market it. Jack is also selling the U.S. Boating Charts DVD, which I have tried (it’s excellent), both alone and nicely bundled with Memory Map.
Note that Captn. Jack’s is offering free ground shipping and a money back guarantee (though a tight one). Altogether it’s a pretty neat catalog, and probably the one most focused on marine computer navigation, though it still doesn’t thoroughly cover the products available. Isn’t it strange that Captn. Jack’s once offered almost every major ECS except the Maptech ones, and now it features Maptech’s even larger roster but is missing major products like Nobeltec, MaxSea, and RayTech?
hose Harkin cam cleats can be pneumatically opened by a Hercules processor based on any parameters in the system, like heel, pitch, wind speed, etc. Nice for a single hander trying to rest at 30 knots plus!
an impression (as I once had 
I am the proud owner of an Iridium satellite phone. Could I omit EPIRB from my safety equipment list? I believe that verbally communicating with the Coast Guard (with GPS in hand) is superior to the EPIRB. Do I miss something?
