All those bodies boating in the rain represent a lot of money spent over a problem never fully "solved"...which may be why I let the story gather dust for many months. Two are representatives from Raymarine who drove several hours to investigate why the boat's new ST7002 control head and SPX30 course computer autopilot system was still making the owner very unhappy. The other two are employees of Wayfarer Marine, which had already put about ninety hours -- some of it uncharged -- into what had seemed at first to be a simple replacement needed because the boat's original Raymarine 300 course computer (manual PDF still available) stopped turning in one direction. Anyone with an autopilot, or concerns about the cost of marine electronics, might want to know more about what happened...
It was just coincidence that all the leather seating on this rather amazing Albatro 50 RIB was darn close to Simrad's shade of red, but you had to wonder as Navico seemed to think of everything when it came to the launch of the Simrad NSS touch-screen MFD series in Palma, Spain. First there were detailed presentations on the state of Navico, where Simrad and NSS fit into the brand and product matrix, and just how the NSS was developed (which included lots of before and during usability testing). Then each of the nearly fifty magazine writers got four demo sessions aboard an appropriate selection of the ten highly varied yachts Simrad had rigged with NSS and selections of what has become a large family of NS display and system options. And throughout the two days we had all sorts of Navico/Simrad staff to ask questions of, and they all seemed to know the products well...
I'm a little hazy about my Miami International Boat Show history -- twelve in a row, I think -- but I'm pretty sure this has been the best yet. One highlight was planing a skiff with a pair of Torqueedo Cruise electric outboards, which may be more "proof of concept" than practical, but sure was fun and surely did showcase Torqeedo's outstanding engineering and design. The topper, though, was receiving Boating Writers International first prizes in both the Marine Electronics and the Online Content categories, nicely reported here. Plus our friend Gram Schweikert got second prize for his Cruising World article on testing a KVH/Inmarsat FB-150 and an Iridium OpenPort that began as series of Panbo guest entries. I've got tons of electronic news to report on but I've also got more boat show to do, an article to finish, and then a side trip to NYC on my way to Maine. So, sorry for the lack of entries, or even tweets. Patience please!
I've been waiting on some screen shots before writing about the "Geonav writers event" I attended in early December but, frankly, the gear demonstration was rather preliminary anyway, as the two most technically advanced products -- the GIS multifunction and MID instrument displays highlighted here in September -- were not shown. While I'll soon have more about what I did see in action, I've realized that what I did learn a lot about in Florida was the family of companies Geonav has joined. While it was clear that the brand would undergo serious changes when it was bought by Johnson Outdoors in late 2007, I didn't really understand what that Johnson name meant until I received the presentation from which I clipped the slide above...
Nice! As of New Year's Day all new Raymarine products are eligible for a free extra year of warranty as long as the owner registers them online (always a good idea anyway). And that's not all: Raymarine has also instituted a "Rapid Care" feature, which means that if your product (excepting radar and sat TV antennas) is in its first year of warranty and needs repair, Ray will ship you a "like-new remanufactured" unit within two business days of receiving the broken one. This strikes me as a smart way for FLIR -- which might be called Raymarine's thermally-obsessed sugar daddy) -- to express its longterm commitment to the company and its customers, but does it also mean that Raymarine now has the best warranty program in the business?...
While the currently advertised marine services sound modest, the Geek Squad has major ambitions regarding the marine electronics installation business. To be more specific, they hope to eventually have installers based at some 450-500 Best Buy stores which are within 50 miles of fresh or salt waters that harbor significant numbers of registered boats. And while the idea started with stereos in trailer boats, the Geeks are gearing up for a full assortment of electronics and boats of most any size. I learned this and lots more because a Bonnier Marine Group editorial colleague shared a lengthy interview he did with Ben Wells, who's been working on the project for three years in Southwest Florida...
Once again -- and a nice contrast to my various METS ramblings -- the good Kees Verrujit kindly wrote up his impressions of the huge Amsterdam marine equipment trade show:
Today I visited METS for the fourth year in a row. This year the show was even bigger than last year, by about 20%. Anyone who still claims they can do all halls and booths on one day is a close relation of Baron Münchhausen. I visited some booths as a NMEA 2000 enthusiast, some in my role of technologist for a yard, but most in my role as a delegated Panbo blogger. This year that was a lot easier than last, as more and more people seem to read Panbo or at least know Ben's name -- most vividly portrayed by a huge quote sign in the Fusion Marine Audio booth {like this one, only bigger!}. The major themes I noticed were: Pads (and iOS apps) were everywhere; AIS is taking off in a major way; Chinese electronics are coming; and
NMEA 2000 is here to stay...
DAME Awards will be chosen at METS this coming week for multiple categories, but there are electronical things well beyond the main marine electronics category discussed on Thursday. Consider, for instance, how the ODEO Flare seen above attempts to replace pyrotechnics with four lasers and a revolving prism. It does cost almost 100 pounds, but purportedly stays lit for 10 hours on 2 AA batteries, and it won't burn you. Also in the Lifesaving and Safety Equipment category are SeeTrac's Jet-trak high-end PWC tracking system, McMurdo's SmartFind S5 AIS SART, and Weatherdock's easyRescue, which seems to be a personal-size AIS SART. And of course there's the Marine Related Software category...
EchoPilot's 3D forward looking sonar, mentioned here last year when Kees covered METS, purportedly just started shipping, and the screen shots posted at the company site are even more compelling. That spire imaged above, for instance, represents a navigation buoy with a triple mooring system. But might this product be causing the judges of this year's DAME (Design at METS) Award some anguish? They did choose it as one of the six finalists in the Marine Electronics category, but it's got to be difficult to judge such a unique technology on the basis of screen shots, especially when they can get more hand's with some of the other other nominees...
I've been using an iPad for a week now and -- sorry, Steve -- I'm not yet feeling "the magic". But just the fact that I can envision so many improvements to something already so cool speaks to how amazingly fast this wireless, touch screen, app device phenomenon is moving. My iPhone and iPod Touch have been almost magically transformed by iOS 4 (coming soon to the pad) and my Android phone is such a hotbed of fertile app chaos that it sometimes gets hot quite literally. And almost everything that's useful and fun about these devices is doubly so on my boat, with loads of room to grow. Which is why I suggested to the NMEA Conference crowd on Saturday night -- I got to make a little spiel again when the Technology Award was presented -- that integrating marine electronics with these things is an important challenge to them (along with addressing some of your diverse grumblings, like fixing some issues with NMEA 2000). It's also why I asked many manufacturers in the exhibition hall what their iThing plans are, if any, and, by golly, there are some good things coming...
