Saturday, October 17, 2009

The Ehler's Garmin 5212 trip meter fills up (Click pic for a bigger view)


Garmin says it will reset to zero in 16 miles, but said they have not actually seen it happen. The "Great Loop" will add some miles to your boat too. I am going to change from miles, to nautical miles to buy a little more time, if it hasn't turned over yet.Posted by Picasa

The owner buys the perfect boat

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There she is, 36' of percision fishing machinery. The T-Top is glistening in the sun, spiked with rockets, and the gold anodized outriggers are piercing aft.  Three massive outboards generating 300 hp each guarantee you can get to the giant marlins in record time. Fish boxes galore, baitwells,  filet table, and built in tackle boxes. No detail has been overlooked in the quest to hook the big one. Months were spent on this search for the perfect fishing craft. Sales staff were groveling and salivating, sea trials were done, the contract is signed, and  finally, with a much lighter owners wallet the perfect fishing machine is delivered. Fishing nirvana has arrived at his dock.

The owner is excited, and calls me. He wants the very best gear he can get for the boat. This includes a 10KW radar that will cook birds at 1000 feet, no wait a 100 feet.  A 1000W transducer must be had, along with twin 12" touch screen displays, and don't forget the weather module. Stereo, amp, speakers, sub woofer, and remote are needed, "because you must have tunes to fish", and don't overlook the under water lights, "gotta have them", and "I want the blue ones". 

We spend a few days grinding out the details, make the purchases, and I show up with a huge pile of boxes ready to go to work, and the the "Warts show up"  Up next, the T-top from hell, and the little anchor light that couldn't.

What it's about

The point of this blog is to relate my every day frustrations with trying to install a wide variety of marine electronics on boats of all sizes and types. It is hoped that boat builders will read these postings, have an epiphany, and make the small changes needed to make my life easier, and hence save some of my clients hard earned dollars. I am going to abide by the rule, that I will leave the offending boat builders names out of the blog, but you know who you are, and straighten up. I will also include tidbits of general boating interest, and bits of nautical fancy.

 If you have comments, agree, or disagree, I would love to get any constructive insight that is available.

As a last note, the vessel above is Doc and Jean Ehlers 44' Manta Power Cat. Doc and Jean have traveled over 10,000 miles using a full suite of Garmin gear including twin 5212's, 6' open array N2K Yanmar engine interfaces GDL30A weather module, GSD22 sounder module, and a portfolio of other systems.  
Bill Bishop - Parmain (By Hand) Boatworks

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