How about these command and navigation stations? Thursday evening turned out pretty horrid for a boat launching, but Lyman Morse pulled one off with its normal panache. The Hunt-designed 54' jet express Whistler (just visible beyond the catamaran's bow) is another stunner for its power boat portfolio, especially if she zips by you at her expected 30 knot cruise. While it was neat to check out Whistler's interior at the same time many of the local craftsmen involved were showing off details to their families, I particularly enjoyed some alone time on the 60' Morrelli & Melvin sailing cat Mala Conducta, which Lyman Morse launched just last month...
Aha, a worthy electronics-oriented blog I forgot in my "Resources" update (now fixed) is Tom Tripp's OceanLines. Check out this week's interesting project: Tom, who also blogs for MadMariner, got several major manufacturers to work up electronics packages for the new Kadey-Krogen 55. Here are detailed suggestions from Garmin, Furuno, and Raymarine. I'd be curious what an independent dealer/installer might suggest, particularly in terms of a more PC-based system, and what you all might do with that huge helm above (and a budget to match)?
PB200 with VHF extension pole for mounting atop a masthead
I am writing to share my excitement about a new product from Airmar, tested aboard my 39 foot sailboat this past October-November. The Airmar PB200 is a compact masthead sensor that includes an ultrasonic (no moving parts) wind sensor, solid state compass, GPS receiver and more, along with a 3-axis accelerometer. It has an NMEA-0183 output that I found compatible with my Raymarine instrument suite. Airmar doesn't market this for use on a sailboat, but when I learned about the new version of this powerboat product, I got excited about the potential to make my autopilot much more useful when sailing short-handed. Thanks in part to Panbo, I got the opportunity to evaluate a beta version on my own sailboat...
Tip of the beanie to Bob Taylor, who wrote from his Nordhavn 57 Istaboa to enthuse about the Cradlepoint MBR1000 router above, which can handle—even prioritize or load balance—multiple cellular, WiFi, DSL, etc. WAN (Internet) connections coming in via card, USB or Ethernet, and then deliver them to the LAN (PCs, iPod Touchs, etc. around the boat) via WiFi or Ethernet. In the photo Bob’s got an AT&T HSUPA USB Aircard, a Verizon EVDO USB Modem , and a Port Networks MWB-200 WiFi rig (which he heard about here) all connected to it and getting along fine, as he describes in his blog.
Bellissimo, no? Behold the WallyNano, which sports not only pink topsides, but all teak decks and smoked glass cabin sides, not to mention push-button hydraulic sheet handling. Tacktick is proud of this beauty as Wally put its Micronet Maxi displays (below) on the mast, controlled with a remote. She also uses Tacktick’s 4’5” high vertical wind wand in order to get more accurate readings, and—just maybe—to go with that pink plumb bow.
Here’s Russ and Fay enjoying the christening of New Morning last August (as did I). They’re now beyond the Gulf Stream en route to Bermuda. It would be nice if they posted a new entry on their blog (via Iridium/XGate, I think) and/or fired off a Spot OK message (which I get a copy of, and also gets plotted on their share page), but I’m confident that all is well.
The 18' Annie G. must have looked comical, not to mention bedraggled, circling the 169' schooner Meteor as she varoomed her 100 kW bow thruster to set twin 600 lb CQRs in the Outer Harbor yesterday. But my mate Max (once owner of his own noteworthy schooner) and I had never seen this superyacht before and had to gawk. In fact if it weren’t for a later Google search—hello Meteor!—I wouldn’t know a thing about her, and still can’t figure out what all those domes on the carbon spreaders do.
Two days in the deadline mill and I’m tuckered. But I thought you might enjoy this rather gorgeous helm, bigger image here. It’s the custom Wesmac 50 I mentioned back in June, i.e. the boat on which I got a taste of my writing subject, Garmin’s new autopilot. So let’s forget about that for the time being and take a look at the ergonomics of this dazzling command and control center. My notes:
Here’s some follow up on Russ Cooper, the Panbot who recently commented that he’s “spent >$10,000 to get an N2K coolant water pressure gauge that works...and still doesn't have one!” Ouch. He has a legitimate gripe, I think, though I doubt the problem is unique to Garmin. You see Russ bought a Bennington 2275RLi with a Yamaha 150 that he’s using on a particularly weedy lake in Ontario. Whereas the Yamaha is sort of NMEA 2000 compliant, he put together the nifty system you can see above (bigger here) and diagramed below. But—cue the Rolling Stones here—you can’t always get what you want, as Russ explains:
Now that, friends, is an antenna mast (bigger image here). By way of scale, the tubular frame radar array showing over the large horn is 24 feet wide. I also learned that while the crew of the USS Whidbey Island does get “slow” Internet access underway, it doesn’t work on some headings, which suggests that whichever dome delivers recreational Internet may sometimes be in the shadow of that huge mast. This 609’ LSD (dock landing ship) was here to celebrate Windjammer Weekend, and I lucked into a tour led by a cheerful Ensign in the “Electro” department. Details of interest:
not only pink topsides, but all teak decks and smoked glass cabin sides, not to mention push-button hydraulic sheet handling. Tacktick is proud of this beauty as Wally put its 
