Carbon black blues

Years of experience tells me something is awry. The charred appearance lends me to believe the little box has suffered some malady. My sharply honed instincts tell me this is likely at least one of the reasons the boat's air conditioning system is no longer functioning. It's also possible it's not as bad as it looks. Crap, I'm just pretending to be an optimist. The same observational skills tells me this thing is toasted into oblivion and under the best of circumstances won't suitable for an open casket viewing.

Is boat lightning protection even possible?

Lightning is one badass force of nature. It's seemingly indiscriminate and random, but not quite as much you might think. It favors pointy things, but sometimes ignores them and a less than pointy object nearby it is blown to smithereens. A VHF radio in the dash can be melted from a strike and the chartplotter next to it is fine. Lightning hits the boat next to you in the marina and is barely damaged, while your boat in the next slip has $60,000 dollars worth of destroyed electrical gear and melted wiring. Mother nature can be a bitch and isn't always fair. So what's going on here anyway?

P79 transducer install and repair

I've given some thought to what color this slightly lubricious material is and I have two options. The first is petri dish pink. The second is hot porno pink. You know I choose the more salacious name for this not occurring in nature color. This is the back end of a Airmar P79 inhull transducer installation repair. The housing apparently is leaking ergo it's my fault since I installed it. The porno pink colored stuff is nontoxic antifreeze, aka propylene glycol.

Step hulls and sonar systems

I will be the first to say that step hull designs have shown marked improvement over the years, and also that I'm still not quite a fan yet, but I'm getting closer. I'm however adamant that 2nd stations should not be added to these boats without consulting with the designer first.

I get the fuel efficiency argument, but then again if the boat's cost is north of $300,000 with quads on the back burning 100+ gallons per hour, do you really care about fuel savings? It's like asking the buyer of a new 70' sportfish if he's interested in the new green super fuel efficient 450hp hybrid diesel power package. I can hear the buyer's snorted guffaws now.

So what's my latest beef about these boats now? Too often the efforts that go into designing these high speed fishing machines and recreational boats don't seriously consider installation of all the amazing sonar technology that's available to help you actually find fish and the bottom. This conversation to some degree also includes the more traditional hull designs many of which don't do any better.