I don’t have a good marine Christmas image like last year’s, but I do know where to steal a goofy marine electronics holiday card on the Internet. That would be at Echopilot, whose proprietors Mike and Susan Phillips have a tradition of creating such nonsense, and sending it to their friends in the industry. This year’s card is titled “The Echopilot products that never made it to market” and you can learn all about them here. I don’t know the Phillips well, but enough to know they are the good humored and proud owners a 25’ gaff rig sloop that was built in 1894! They haul the wonderfully named Tom Titaround on a custom trailor with an antique truck. On this year’s card they note a summer trip to the Crinan Classic Boat Festival in Scotland, where they “found rain and whiskey, both in industrial quantities.” But their dream is to bring Tom Tit to the coast of Maine, and that’s where you come in, dear readers. Who can come up with economical transport for Tom Tit, trailor, and truck from somewhere in Great Britain to somewhere near Maine? And who wouldn’t if they could?
So one of many things I’m feeling thankful for on this Thanksgiving day (here in the states) is the computer and Internet technology I’m still fascinated by, and which is crucial to the way I enjoyably make my living. So I decided to participate in the One Laptop Per Child GoGo program. GoGo stands for “Give one, Get one” and means my $400 will get a nifty seeming XO laptop (Pogue take here) given to a child in the third world, plus one sent here to Panbo World Headquarters. Who knows, maybe some of the component technology—like the small but high res and inexpensive sunlight viewable display—will be useful on boats. Plus I’ve got a geekish little nephew who may soon be ready for his first computer. Maybe you too should GoGo?
I always make some time to get to the furthest reaches of the Fort Lauderdale and Miami Boat Shows. These are back rooms so far from the real action of these big shows that the new exhibitors you find there often think of themselves as exiled in “Siberia”. But I have sometimes found a really good product there, and have then helped make the product known…which is a thrill for me. But I’ve also seen some pretty weird scenes in Siberia, like when I turned a corner in the FLIBS convention center last month and found the four people above laying back in chaise lounges with goggles on and their mouths glowing blue! And apparently, bigger picture here, they’d paid $149 a piece for the privilege. I think it was the lab coats that cinched the deal. And that’s as serious as I’m going get, as my day of the year has rolled around again. At least I can look back at the last year and take pleasure in my coming out as a true propeller head.
As a young island boy, I spent a lot of time looking at maps and charts, plotting courses to find buried treasure, and later as a way to find my way in the world. In recent years, I’ve been drawn to the strong graphic images on my GPS screen as I navigate the local waters. This piece is painted on a rudder from a North Haven dinghy, the oldest one-class design in America, donated by J. O. Brown on North Haven. The image is a loose interpretation of Rockland Harbor around The Atlantic Challenge dock area taken from my GPS map. I like the idea of combining a rudder, the part of a boat that provides direction, with the GPS map imagery that tells you where you are, so you can choose where to go.
We haven’t had any “weekend weirdness” or contests for a while, and this seems so right. That’s Camden’s ever enthusiastic Harbor Master Steve Pixley holding up his recent invention. Your challenge is to figure out what its purpose is and why it might be valuable to certain boaters. Give us your best guess in the comments section. I’ll either confirm a winner, or explain the gizmo on Monday. The prize, per usual, is a free subscription to Panbo ;-)
7/30: OK, maybe I was misleading…the “certain boaters” I meant above are all the mooring installers and inspectors who may save time and fingers with Steve’s “Harbormaster” tool. Instead of having to haul up mooring chain one section at a time, the tool let’s them grab it just about anywhere they want, as surmised by Terry, and shown in video here. Congrats to Terry, and Steve, and thanks for all the…um…creative guesses. Whoever handles moorings in your harbor may appreciate learning about www.harbormastertool.com.
OK, I’m grumpy, and don’t feel like thinking about electronics. Late on a deadline, in all day when the weather’s gorgeous, it happens. Plus I’m still sour that I’m not megayachting in Cannes, especially now that Proteus showed up there. You may have seen shots of this wacky catamaran when it mysteriously appeared in San Francisco Bay. Later I found the site of Ugo Conti’s Marine Advanced Research, where you can download an enormous .mov movie of this baby in motion. Actually, you may need to go through the press registration, but the video really tells the tale. Proteus is a WAM-V, or Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel. Those are gigantic hinges and springs attached to that inflatable hull. Even the drives articulate. In motion the damn thing undulates like a movie starlet slipping off a slithery dress. Electronics seem to be by Raymarine, but isn’t the real question that backwards prop behind the pod? (Hint: “Modular”). Hey, wouldn’t you be grinning too.
As a young island boy, I spent a lot of time looking at maps and charts, plotting courses to find buried treasure, and later as a way to find my way in the world. In recent years, I’ve been drawn to the strong graphic images on my GPS screen as I navigate the local waters. This piece is painted on a rudder from a North Haven dinghy, the oldest one-class design in America, donated by J. O. Brown on North Haven. The image is a loose interpretation of Rockland Harbor around The Atlantic Challenge dock area taken from my GPS map. I like the idea of combining a rudder, the part of a boat that provides direction, with the GPS map imagery that tells you where you are, so you can choose where to go.
