RIP LORAN

We are sadden to report that LORAN has passed away quietly after a long lingering illness on February 8th 2010 of Obsoletitis. Despite earlier efforts at surgery, a DNR was put in place by the family. LORAN is survived by his children GPS, and USNO GPS, and thousands of grumpy fishermen who would not give up on their TD's, and buy a GPS. Memorial services will held at Bob's Used Marine Electronics Emporium in Brooklyn NY. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to the GPS manufacturer of your choice.  

For those that did not get the TD's changed over, I will do a piece on how to convert TD's to Lat/Long numbers with decent fidelity. All is not lost.

I can't see clearly now, but it's all okay

One of the things I do regularly is to pull out old gear, and install shiny new toys. The problem then becomes, "What do you do with the hole where the 40lb antique radar display was. The simple answer is to to fabricate an overlay panel to cover the hole. I use 1/4" inch acrylic-esque materials to do this. The problem is that there are only three  practical color choices available. White, black, and clear.

The panels you see above are actually made from clear Lexan, that have had the back sides painted with a color of the owners choice. It works well, with a couple of caveats. make sure the spray paint you select won't melt the plastic panel. Look for paints at the hardware store that say they are for plastics and vinyls. Make sure the paint is very dry before attaching the panel. Also do all the cutting, and drilling before you paint, and mask the sides to stop over spray. I always have the owner pick the color, that way the color is always perfect. 

A Yamagull and the "Bermuda Around The Island Race"

What you are looking at above is what they call in Bermuda, a "Yamagull" owned by a gentleman named Brian. It is a clever marriage of a Seagull outboard with a Yamaha lower unit, a modified exhaust system, and many other changes. So what do you do with this strange hybrid machine you ask? You use it in the "Bermuda Around the Island" race. This is one of the most unique, and interesting boating events out there, and there are also several versions of it world wide.

The first rule is that all boats in the event must be powered by a British Seagull engine. You see these cranky little British engines on many a dingy world wide, and I own a 2 HP Seagull myself. There are multiple racing classes that are divided into antiques, by horse power, and the modified Seagulls. If you are using a modifed Seagull, you can do almost anything you want to the engine, but the block can't be modified. Maybe it can, the rules seem some what variable depending on where you are, but some part of the Seagull engine remains. You can also burn any fuel you want in your modified engine, although some of these engines do not alway survive the race. Like veal, they live fast, and die young

You must have at least two persons in the boat, proper safety gear, and I think I heard a case of beer had to be in the boat, at least when you check in. The course is about 40 miles long, and circles around Bermuda. About half of the course is in the lee of the islands, and the other half is in the open Atlantic, and at times it can be very challenging. The boat's design has to take the Atlantic's seas into consideration

And so this is where the story starts. Once upon a time Parmain built boats. This was a most satisfing thing to do, but a very tough way to earn a living. After losing prodigious sums of money, I added boat building to my "Museum of Shattered Dream's" vast collection, and only do repairs now. But back to the story. I get a call from Malcolm, who lives in Bermuda, inquiring if we could design a fast boat for the Bermuda race. It sounded like a fun project so I said yes, and send me some pictures of  typical boats used in the race. The pictures below are of some of the boats used in the race. They all have long wetted waterlines, are fairly narrow, and you can see the builders have done an excellent job of crafting their vessels with much pride.  

We started with a design that was very light, and would hopefully plane with 5hp, and two people in the boat. the primary design effort was done by Chris Doughtery, naval architect John Marples suggested widening the bow to improve water flow around it, and my friend Chris Wright who is a structural engineer of great talent, provided input on the construction details. Lloyd's grade 1/8" marine plywood was used to construct the boat, and the bilge areas were hollow. All the bulkheads had holes drilled in them to lighten them. It was similar to building an aircraft wing. The weight was about 100 lbs, it did plane well, and she was a beautiful vessel.

Malcolm flew over from Bermuda, and we tested the boat in Sarasota bay with a borrowed engine. It performed well, and we arranged to have it shipped to Bermuda.

When the boat arrived in Bermuda, Malcolm put the graphics on, and had a mount fabricated for his Seagull. 

I shamelessly brought over my own graphics when I flew over to the watch the race.

You can see some of the Seagull's and steering arrangements. 

This is Toothpick, another example of racing boat design.

This was a most excellent adventure, and Bermuda is a beautiful place. The people I met were fun, and generous to a couple of Americans who were visiting. Malcolm, and his family were wonderful hosts, and we were appreciative of their warm hospitality. 

The most fascinating thing about the race is the evolving boat designs. I saw pictures of earlier boats, and races, and you could see the designs change over time. I came back the next year, and was pleased to see a couple of the new boats had used some of the design elements that we had used in Malcolm's boat. They are quick learners in Bermuda.

I wish that maybe someone like Mercury Marine would put together this type of a race here. I would like to see what a 5hp Mercury would look like if a NASCAR team got a hold of it, and what the boats would look like here. Hmmm, maybe all black string composite construction with hydrofoils .

If the end of your shore power cord is cooked...........

Always check the inlet carefully. Something could be very wrong!. If you click on the lower picture, you can see the insulation has melted off, and the  wire has acquired a lovely green patina. Nice if you are a three hundred year old bronze vase, but bad if it's your boat's marine wiring. That's the neutral wire that has been fried. Once upon a time it was white. You can click on both pictures for a better view of the damage.

Morons at the gate. Just what were they thinking?

Just when you think you have seen it all, you find something new. This started when the owner wanted to install a new stereo in this center console fish boat. Sure, piece of cake, and it will take about an hour and a half. The owner also asked if I would look at the power feed on the boat to the console. He felt that there was some issue there, because things would turn off on occasion.

The holes get punched, the speakers and stereo go into them, and I climb into the console to hook up the wiring. Hmmm, no power block, and whats this on the breaker? What the dealer had done was to jumper onto the first breaker the power for the Standard Horizon VHF, Garmin GPS, Hummingbird depth finder, and a couple of other items. All of this was somewhat corroded.

Then I looked at the power feed to the console. In the upper picture, you can see the red #10 wire curled up that feeds the panel. That white #16 wire wrapped around the red wire was attached to it. The panel builder was expecting a #10 feed wire, but the boat builder used an under sized cheesy grade white wire to connect to the power to the panel. All of those other white wires you see are also 12VDC positive feed wires. I guess this builder had run out of red wire, and used whatever they had laying around.

In the second picture you can see the white wire coming out of the battery switch. Yep, the same cheesy white wire that feeds the panel. The panel was providing power for the electronics, bilge and baitwell pumps, fish box pump, nav  lights, and everything else. I think the total possible load would be approaching 20 amps, and all of it being carried on the cheesy #16 wire. At 3% voltage drop the wire should have been at least a #10. Funny, that's what the panel builder thought also, because that was the wire size they used.

If I hadn't made the point clearly enough, this was unsafe wiring, and could have resulted in a power failure, or in the worst case possibly a fire.

So in the end, I pulled in a new #10 feed, installed a fuse block for all of the accessories, cleaned up some corrosion issues, and life is now safer, and better for the owner. This was a very bad piece of work by this builder, and it appears they have no quality control, or just don't care, or both..

Anchor? We don't need no stinking anchor, or function follows form.

Okay, I already know this will not change any go fast boaters opinion about this subject, but I just don't get it. How would you safely anchor this boat in rough seas, if you needed to? 

I was at a local marina last week, and a very large go fast boat came into the basin,  Instead of the typical crew made up of scantly clad young ladies, and  swarmy looking guys wearing coins from the Atocha on gold chains, this boat incongruously had a normal looking family on board. Mom, dad, two daughters, and I would guess the grandparents. It was a cold, and very windy day, but the dad gracefully back the vessel into the slip, and a young girl tied off to a side cleat on the boat. She then jumped onto the dock, went forward of the windshield with a line, and carefully jumped from the dock onto the wet deck, and dropped to her hands and knees. She crawled forward to the bow, and attached the line to the bow cleat, and crawled back aft, carefully stood up and jumped  back on the dock with the line.

Here is the point of the story. There was no real access from the cockpit to the bow, no anchor locker, no handrails, and no real way to anchor this boat from the bow. Now imagine being caught off shore in a bad squall with no engines, what would you do, anchor from the stern? It might be possible in pitching seas to drag a thirty pound anchor along with the rode over the windscreen and crawl out on the wet slippery deck to the bow to do this, but it seems there should be a better and safer way.

By the way, stating the obvious, I would never anchor from the stern in rough seas. We just had a recent case where a center console fish boat got caught in a storm, and because it was anchored from the stern, it was swamped, and then rolled over. This resulted in three of the four passengers drowning.  It should be no surprise, that boats are designed to point into the waves. The pointy end always does a better job going into waves than the square end.

So I just don't see why a hatch couldn't be placed forward on the deck to allow someone to access the deck from inside the cabin, and from there be able to reach the anchor locker, where something other than a "Lunch Hook" could be stowed.

I know that safety and practicality get  in the way of beauty, and that these boats never get caught in bad weather, or break down. There are go fast boats out there that can be properly anchored, and I don't think they have a bad case of the uglies because there is an anchor locker on the bow, and a hatch to access it.

This is the last you will hear from me on this subject, and I hope Darwin is kind to those that own these un-anchorable boats.

Anchors aweigh a lot, can you install a winch?

This is the bow of a new and large center console off shore fishing boat that often goes into the Gulf of Mexico for fishing and diving. After the first trip, the owner calls and wants an anchor winch installed. It seems it wasn't a lot fun to hand haul a couple hundred feet of rode, chain and anchor up from the bottom of the Davy's Jones locker. So I go over to see the boat, and this is what I found. The shiny thing on the bow is a pop up running light. Just to the right and left of the bow light are pop up chocks, and you can see on the left side aft one of two pop up cleats (you can click on the pic for a better view). So just where would the builder think a anchor winch would go? The hatch covers the entire locker! Apparently they didn't think anyone with a large offshore fishing vessel would want one of those new fangled anchor winch devices on their boat. Popeye didn't need a winch on his boats, but then he had lots of spinach. Unfortunately the owners didn't have any cans of spinach on board. All is not lost, and there is a way to solve this problem. I will show you the results in a couple of weeks. A little design forethought by this builder would have saved this owner some real money.

Digital TV conversion for your boat DYI project

The vast majority of boats floating out there do not have digital TVs for reasons I discussed earlier, so I thought this would make a good subject for a DYI project that could be done by boat owners. When the project is done, you will have transformed your boat into an on air wonder with many crystal clear digital channels. Right now, most of you don't get on air channels at all since the digital change over. You need a few reasonably priced items, and some patience. The picture below is from a late model 44’ Searay Dancer, and this is the starting point for the project. If you look to the left side of the cabinet, you will see the Glomex TV signal amplifier. This is an ideal place to put the gear we are going to use. You can click on the picture for a closer view.

You are going to need some bits and pieces such as the following items. The first is an A/B switch shown below. This is used to switch the cable input between the dock, and the on air antenna. These run from about $10-$20 and can be found online, or at  Radio Shack

The next item is a LXXR extender. This cool small flying saucer shaped gadget will take the digital converter’s infrared remote control and will convert it to a radio frequency remote control. This will work with any infrared remote control that uses AA, or AAA batteries. This means you won’t have to open the cabinet door to change channels. This is available online for about $75.00. You can only use one per boat. Additional units hear each other.

The digital converter I like the best is the Apex unit available from Best Buy. This costs about $60.00, and is a nice compact unit with remote control.

You will also need to buy some coax TV cables (2-3), a plastic collar to pass the wires through the cabinet  side (1" diameter, 1 1/8 drilled hole) found at your hardware store, and maybe a small power strip. The converter, and the LXXR both need 110VAC. You will also need some 90 degree coax adapters. These little things screw onto a male coax fitting, and turn it 90 dgrees. This reduces the depth of the converter box by allowing the coax cables to come in sideways. A couple of coax butt connecters may also be needed. Both of these things can be purchased at a Radio Shack, or hardware store.

Below is a simple diagram of the wiring. You can click on the diagram to blow it up, and then print it as a 8 1/2" by 11" page,

Step one is to locate the boats coax splitter. This is often located somewhere behind the Glomex controller. This most likely means opening the electrical panel, and looking behind for a bunch of coax cables terminated into a splitter. One is the input, and all of the others are outputs, and all are clearly marked. The input to the splitter is the center cable of the Glomex box. This cable needs to be disconnected from the Glomex box, and moved to the "To TV" center connector of the AB switch (it may have to be stretched with an additional cable). A new short cable is installed from the center connector of the Glomex box to the "Antenna in" of the digital converter box. The Glomex box only has the "Antenna In" cable, and the center cable now connected. The dockside cable, that was the third cable to the Glomex, is attached to the "B" connector of the AB switch, and the digital converter "To TV" cable attached to the "A" connector. Look at the diagram if I have confused you.

In the picture below, I drilled a 1 1/8" hole to pass the cables through. This was a bit tight, but I got it all through. A 1 1/2 hole hole would be a little easier to work with. The LRRX, and the converter need 120VAC, and if you are lucky, there may be an outlet you can use behind the panel. I was not, and had to wire a small power strip in. If you have to do this, use 12/3 triplex marine wire, with real connectors, not wire nuts. If you are not comfortable with doing this, have your local boat electrician do this for you.

All in all it took me about 5 hours to do this. As you work, label the cables. They all look alike, and it is easy to put a cable in the wrong place.

Errata

The Glomex box has to be on, and turned all the way clockwise to pass the signal to the converter. You will see the red light lit.

The converter box can be set for channel 3, or 4. The default is 3. This means the TV's must be set for on air antenna, and tuned to channel 3. This is done in the TV's set up menu. To watch cable from dockside, the TV's set up must be switched to cable.

The digital converter is easy to program, and just takes a couple of minutes to program if you move to another port of call.

"A" on the AB switch must be pushed for local channels, and "B" for local cable.

When attaching the small eye to the infrared window of the converter, move it around while changing channels until you find a good location, then stick it on, and leave some extra cable, so the LXXR can be pulled out. It is also the batttery charger, and you need to get to the bottom of the unit. I used velcro to attach it. You can look a the picture to see the approximate location. In the Sarasota area the system receives about 30 channels, all very clear. You can now cancel the local channels you pay DirectTV for. Questions, post me a comment, and I will try to help.

The 2010 Boston Whaler Outrage 370, Wow!

As you could imagine I have seen a zillion boats, and I am I am rarely impressed. I was at the Sarasota Christmas boat parade, and a new Boston Whaler 370 pulled up to the dock right in front of me. This was a stunning vessel, and beautifully executed.  This is one of five boats that have been built, that are being moved around to various dealers to show them off. I understand that Whaler has a production line in operation, but I think at this point you would have to order one, and live with a short wait to get one.

The details in this vessel are well thought out, and if your yacht could accommodate this boat, it would make a versatile tender capable of being a dive platform, fishing machine, and fast transport vessel. A few of the features include dive tank storage, side access hatch, with ladder, triple Verado’s, retracting sun shade, refrigerator, and much much more. Below are additional photos, with some short dialog. Did I say wow! ? you can click on the photos to enlarge.

On the boat is Jim Shepard, GM of Marine Max Sarasota, He let me take the photos at their facility. Above Jim is the retractable sun shade. Just push a button, and it disappears.

This is not your average Whaler Outrage molded fiberglass sink, and it is typical of the way this vessel has been finished. This the first thing your eyes see when you go inside the console.

The teak table retracts at a push of another button, and there is dive tank storage under the seats.

This is a well thought out console with room for first class electronics. Those are decal's of the new Raymarine 14" Wide E-Series chart plotters. They appear to be most impressive, and the maximum amount of electronics allowed by law. There are three seats at the helm, with a fold down floor to provide better visibility while standing.

I just like the way the console surround looks. Form follows function, meets the future. The vent is at the top of the glass windscreen so things won't blow around, and the sun lounges are a perfect place to sip an adult beverage while catching some rays. And yes, lots of sound on board.

Great access at the dock. The hatch swings out of the way, and you can easily get around it when it's open. There is a large swim ladder that stows under the aft seat, and locks into the stainless steel plate on the deck.

Okay, here is the price, nicely equipped, but sans electronics. I would budget another $25K to $30K for  electronics that would be in keeping.with the vessel quality. The price might appear to be high, but it is a lot of  boat, with many unique features, and a lot of versatility.

I have only seen two boats this year, that I was really impressed with. This is one, and you can follow the link to the other one, a 1937 John Trumpy designed, Mathis built yacht owned by Donna and Rich Reiling. This is, without a doubt the finest vessel I have every had the privilege to board, and the owners have lavished endless effort into this true nautical jewel. There are few of these yachts left, and none of them are in this kind of new condition. Look at the photo album, and check the history. 

http://www.mvflyinglady.com/

Three chart chips, two GPS's, and an autopilot under the tree. What I what from vendors this Christmas

This is a list of things I would like various vendors to give me for Christmas:

From Garmin I would like a QWERTY  keyboard for the marine touch screen units. It drives me crazy trying to use the linear keyboard, and doesn’t make me feel smart. I’m sure the programmers wouldn’t want to use a keyboard like that at work. I would also like to have non-wind instrument based VMG data element in my stocking. Did I mention I want a QWERTY Keyboard?

My ho ho from Raymarine is to have the weather page on top of a real chart. It is difficult to see exactly where you are on the existing base map. I would also like to see if you could arrange for a inexpensive Sirius weather package that just has the Doppler radar. This is available on the XM side of what should now be one happy XM/Sirius family. In my stocking I would like a slightly longer hold time on the WPTS/MOB button to activate MOB. I get a lot of calls from clients wondering why the chartplotter is beeping at them.

The toys I want from Northstar are to remove the "Aye Aye Captain" message every time I "GOTO" a point, I don’t want cute, I just want to go. I also want the "Quick" point to go away when I am through with it.

I have to cut off transducer connectors from time to time, and solder on a new ones. Tiny connectors, two cups of coffee, old eyes,  lack of a third hand, and done in situ dockside makes this a tedious task. I would pay much more for the connectors if they had short wire pigtails  already soldered on them. This is the gift I want from Airmar, and Gemeco.

A cherry red light on the wireless control pad that will tell you whether the spotlight is on, is what I want from Go Light. Nice product, works well, but I can’t tell if it is on, or off.

From Brunswick for Christmas,  I want a NMEA N2K gateway for Mercury, and Cummin’s engines. You would sell a lot of them, and it seems to be a shame that all of those chartplotters, on all of your boats can’t use the engine display features available via their NEMA  N2K interface. (I know Northstar has it, but this was an accident of corporate geography)

This is my Xmas list, and if you have more xmas items you want, let me know, and I will add them to this list.you can e-mail me, or use the comments section.

My thank to Tim Ellam for the use of the GPS ornament photo. Tim has good tech based blog covering gadgets, geocaching computer technology, et al, and the link to his blog is: http://www.techblazer.com/

Tech support kudos

It can be a complicated world. and we all need a little help from time to time and I am certainly not an exception to this. In the real world, I could not do my job, without the assistance of the many marine technical support groups, and I am most indebted for the high quality assistance I receive from them.  It has been a tough year in the boating business, and despite this, the quality of the technical support has been maintained through all of the cut backs. The following are "Kudos" and comments about some of these fine groups.

Airmar

You would be hard pressed to find a more reliable device on your boat than an Airmar transducer. These devices live in rapidly moving salt water, get scraped on by divers, and run for years without touching them. I mostly deal with Irene when I have an issue. She is smart, a transducer goddess, and always a pleasure to talk to. The  phone is almost always answered quickly, and if you have to leave a message, it is quickly returned.

Raymarine

The tech staff at Raymarine are the best in the business. They know their  products forward and backwards, are always easy to talk to. Trevor, Mark, Winston, Linda, and the rest of the crew have been of immeasurable assistance to myself, and my clients through the years. There is rarely a long wait, and the phone menus are short and sweet. Thanks for the help.

Garmin

Garmin continues to do an excellent job of tech support, and gets a special "Kudo" for being the only company that actually custom wrote software to correct a clients software issue. They sent me a N2K data logger to collect the info, and within ten days sent me a software patch. Way to go, and we both have a very happy client. The phone wait time has improved, but I wish the interaction didn’t sound so scripted. "Have I answered all of your questions about Garmin today?"

Clarion

Every boat has a stereo, and most have Clarion. What color pair of RCA cables is the Is the aux input I am going to use for the audio feed from the weather module? John always knows the answer, even for the antiques. Rarely a wait, simple phone menu, and always helpful

Furuno

Quick, and responsive. You sometimes have to leave a message, but call backs come quickly. The manuals are sometime a little inscrutable, but Ron and Jeff are there to help.

Northstar

This group and been bought and sold a couple of times, but the support has been seamless. My namesake Bill has a good sense of humor, and always has the answer.

Searay, Boston Whaler, and Carver

These builder’s still get the support job done, despite the cutbacks. They also have some of the best configuration control in the business. Need to know what the matching fabric was in a 2004 vessel, or a battery wiring diagram? They have the info. It sometimes takes a few days to get the data, but you always get it. There are doing a great job on short staff. Thanks for the effort.

Beede Instruments

This is another special "Kudo" for Ken Lepage who was able to find the original software, and custom program a pair of engine instrument/engines interfaces to replace the units that were damaged by a lightning strike, and to Mike at Carver who remembered the boat, and what had been done to it. The work around to correct the problem had both of these gentlemen not gone to some extra effort, would have cost thousands of dollars. Thanks for the help Ken, and Mike, my client is tickled pink.

I have a huge set of tech support numbers in my phone, and they are my most important asset. Whether the issue is the NMEA colors for legacy equipment, software communication problems, or even my occasional dumb questions, these many support organizations are there to help all of us. Although the wait can be irritating at times, always be grateful for the people who help you, and don’t forget to say "Thank You".

"Oh, watch out for that electron avalanche storm", with apologies to Jimmy Buffett.

This is a cautionary vignette about lightning awareness. I had a salesman call me on a Saturday morning, who said "He has a client on a brand new boat (24’ Boston Whaler) who had called him, stating his boat was badly shocking him, and would I please call him ASAP". I called the owner on his cell phone, and he was both scared, and very upset. He claimed his brand new boat, was severely shocking him, it was obviously very defective, and what should he do?

A Nautical Poem by W.S. Gilbert

This is a little known nautical poem by W. S. Gilbert, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame. I read it as a kid, and never forgot it, much to my wife's chagrin. Amidst all of my bemoaning about what boat builders do, I thought on Thanksgiving day that it would be nice to wend down another path.  It is about nautical dining you know.  Enjoy

The Yarn of the 'Nancy Bell'

A Nautical Poem by W.S. Gilbert

'Twas on the shores that round our coast
From Deal to Ramsgate span,
That I found alone on a piece of stone
An elderly naval man.

His hair was weedy, his beard was long,
And weedy and long was he,
And I heard this wight on the shore recite,
In a singular minor key:

"Oh, I am a cook and a captain bold,
And the mate of the Nancy brig,
And a bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite,
And the crew of the captain's gig."

And he shook his fists and he tore his hair,
Till I really felt afraid,
For I couldn't help thinking the man had been drinking,
And so I simply said:

"O, elderly man, it's little I know
Of the duties of men of the sea,
But I'll eat my hand if I understand
How you can possibly be....

"At once a cook, and a captain bold,
And the mate of the Nancy brig,
And a bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite,
And the crew of the captain's gig."

Then he gave a hitch to his trousers, which
Is a trick all seamen larn,
And having got rid of a thumping quid,
He spun this painful yarn:

"'Twas in the good ship Nancy Bell
That we sailed to the Indian sea,
And there on a reef we come to grief,
Which has often occurred to me.

"And pretty nigh all o' the crew was drowned
(There was seventy-seven o' soul),
And only ten of the Nancy's men
Said 'Here!' to the muster-roll.

"There was me and the cook and the captain bold,
And the mate of the Nancy brig
And the bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite,
And the crew of the captain's gig.

"For a month we'd neither wittles nor drink,
Till a-hungry we did feel,
So we drawed a lot, and accordin' shot
The captain for our meal.

"The next lot fell to the Nancy's mate,
And a delicate dish he made;
Then our appetite with the midshipmite
We seven survivors stayed.

"And then we murdered the bo'sun tight,
And he much resembled pig,
Then we wittled free, did the cook and me,
On the crew of the captain's gig.

"Then only the cook and me was left,
And the delicate question, 'Which
Of us two goes to the kettle?' arose
And we argued it out as sich.

"For I loved that cook as a brother, I did,
And the cook he worshipped me;
But we'd both be blowed if we'd either be stowed
In the other chap's hold, you see.

"'I'll be eat if you dines off me,' says Tom,
'Yes, that,' says I, 'you'll be,' --
'I'm boiled if I die, my friend,' quoth I,
And 'Exactly so,' quoth he.

"Says he, 'Dear James, to murder me
Were a foolish thing to do,
For don't you see that you can't cook me,
While I can -- and will -- cook you!'

"So he boils the water, and takes the salt
And the pepper in portions true
(Which he never forgot) and some chopped shalot,
And some sage and parsley too.

'Come here,' says he, with a proper pride,
Which his smiling features tell,
' 'Twill soothing be if I let you see,
How extremely nice you'll smell.'

"And he stirred it round and round and round,
And he sniffed at the foaming froth;
When I ups with his heels, and smothers his squeals
In the scum of the boiling broth.

"And I eat that cook in a week or less,
And -- as I eating be
The last of his chops, why, I almost drops,
For a wessel in sight I see!

"And I never grin, and I never smile,
And I never larf nor play,
But I sit and croak, and a single joke
I have -- which is to say:

"Oh, I am a cook and a captain bold,
And the mate of the Nancy brig,
And a bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite,
And the crew of the captain's gig!"

Raymarine or Garmin, I can't decide!

There is always a way. In this case the client has best of both worlds. A Garmin 5212, and a Raymarine E=120. How can you lose, or get lost.

The angry wrathful technology gods at work (Click pic for a better view)

This is a case of the angry gods at work. This box is connected to sealed rubber covered switch pads on the dash, and is programmed to turn on chartplotters, stereos, pumps, and all of the other things on the boat. The boat is four years old now, and the box has failed, taking the operation of 16 pieces of equipment with it.

The box was made by Carling, who sold, or transfered it to another company. They promptly redesigned it, and discontinued production of the original box. There are no spare parts, no programmers for it, no wiring diagrams, no nothing period. The only option here is to remove the digital pads from the console, cover the holes with a overlay panel, and install 16 switches. Actually there is another box that controlled another 8 switches, so you might as well do all 24 switches at the same time. The boat builder feels bad about it, but can't do anything about it. It would have been cheaper to build the boat with 24 switches in the first place. Sometimes simple is best in a highly corrosive salt water environment.

Why does my new boat have obsolete equipmnt?

Avarice, poor decisions, and or acts of the angry wrathful technology gods are why I often see obsolete equipment on a new boat. How does this happen? I will pose a scenario that will explain how it happens, but it is still inexcusable that it happens at all in most cases.

Greed, or greed coupled with ignorance creates the biggest source of obsolete equipment, and here is how it can happen. The Chartomatic chartplotter company designs its new version 7 Chartomatic system (It won’t have any of the problems of the earlier Chartomatic version 6), and they start to manufacture them. Some one in Chartomatic’s management team notes the obvious that there are still 2000 Chartomatic version 6 units still in the warehouse, and they direct sales to discount these units, and sell them off quickly. Eager salesmen visit the boat builders, and tell them, "Have I got a deal for you, Chartomatic version 6 units are now half price for a limited time only". Limited time is only for as long as they have the units in stock. The boat builder says, "This is a good deal and we will buy 300 systems". Chartomatic ships the now obsolete systems, the builder installs the now obsolete systems, and sends the boats to the dealers who sell the boats with now obsolete systems.

Now I could say that the Chartomatic salesman did not bother to tell the boat builder that the systems are now obsolete, thus taking the blame off the boat builders, but I believe that the boat builders see an opportunity to get some additional margin out of a business that operates on razor thin margins. I have seen dealer invoices for the installed obsolete equipment that reflect the original full MSRP price, and not the discounted price the builder paid. Even worse, the buyer is usually not told the equipment on his new boat is no longer being made.

This happens with not only the Chartomatic systems, but often with other equipment of the vessel such as TV’s, microwave ovens, stereo equipment, and other related gear. I have recently been on brand new boats that had TV’s that don’t have digital tuners in them. You would have been hard pressed to go to a big box electronics store two years ago, and find a TV that didn’t have a digital tuner, and so the TV’s being installed were bought earlier, and were already obsolete when they were purchased at "Such a deal for you Mr Boatbuilder".

The boat buyer is hurt in several ways here. Not only is the equipment no longer being made, but he or she has been robbed of the time available to have the equipment repaired if it fails. All manufacturers will stop repairing the old gear at some point due non available parts, or to push customers into newer equipment. The replacement of a simple TV in a boat can be an expensive, and tedious task. You have to find a TV with the same exterior dimensions (The original TV is no longer being made), remove the old set, which is often difficult (When reason fails, force prevails). The mounts on the back of the TV’s are never in the same place, power has to be un-harnessed and new power pulled back in, and the story goes on.

Now all of this being said, in a few years of ownership, all of these problem will eventually present themselves anyway, but boat builders should not try to speed this problem up at the owners expense.

The wrathful technology gods do often play a role in this problem. Boat builders can buy the latest gear available, and six months later the manufacturer is out of business due to any number of conditions. This is certainly statistically more likely if the equipment is on the "Bleeding edge of technology". In the posting above, there is a photo of equipment that is on a four year old boat that can’t be repaired, is no longer made, and the work around fix will cost as much as the original equipment. The gods have spoketh.

Things in progress include proprietary equipment and systems, why good people made poor boat buying decisions,  the huge connector divorces the tiny pull hole, and my tech support kudos.


The old marine radio photo was taken by Wikimedia user Korrigan.

E-mail notification of new postings option added

I have added a e-mail notification option to the blog. if you want to be notified of a new post, you can place your e-mail address in the box, and click subscribe. Please let me know if there are any issues with my software. I tested it and you get a short "No reply", email giving the posting date. If you want to e-mail me directly, you will find the e-mail link under "View my complete profile" near the bottom of the page, and as always feel free to comment at any time. No e-mail addresses will be kept or sold to third parties. A new post will be on the site soon. Thanks Bill

Searay console face lift completed (click pic for better view)

This was a fun, and satisfying project. The owners are Kevin and Michelle, and they have taken excellent care of their ten year old Searay. The biggest challenge here was to relocate the original nine switch panel to two new locations. Three of the switches were moved to the upper instrument panel along with the cover that protects the engine start/stop switches from accidentally being actuated, The rest of the switches were mounted in the burl panel on the lower right side of the photo. The switch labels were lit from behind with the older flexible lighting strips. The trick was to cut out the the three banks, of three switches from the original panel, keeping the back lit nomenclature intact under the switches. The wiring harness had to be relocated, and stretched in some places. The three now smaller switch panels were epoxied into place in the new locations, and the back lighting strips were taped into place.

Two panels were fabricated from black 1/4" acrylic, and covered the upper and lower locations where the old Furuno, and switch panel were. The new Garmin 5212 was mounted in a black acrylic wedge, which in turn was mounted to the new upper panel. As I have mentioned before, flat panel displays must be viewed nearly head on for the best results. The wedge tipped the new Garmin 5212 about 20 degrees toward the helm station. Had this not been done, the display would have been difficult to be seen from the helm. This problem also existed with the original Furuno display which was mounted flat in the original location. As a note, the original space provided for the Furuno was at a bad angle, and was to far from the helm. Marketing must have designed this helm.

This type of project does not happen quickly. Equipment must be removed, templates made, and panels fabricated, wiring modified, glue has to dry, and new equipment installed. This project took about twelve man hours, spread over a week.

The black panels worked out well, and match the black plastics used elsewhere on the console. I was very pleased with the appearance of the console when it was finished. The fabrication of the acrylic panels, and the mounting wedge for the Garmin 5212 was done by Delcraft Acrylics in Sarasota. Bob Blanchette takes my templates, and turns them into highly polished works of art. Delcraft Acrylics phone number is 941-379-4037, or they can be contacted at http://www.delcraftacrylics.com/.  In the end the project was tres bon.

A Searay console get a face lift. (click pic for bigger view)

This is the before picture of a ten year old Searay console. Many owners are upgrading their boating investment, given the current state of the economy. The Furuno is going to be removed, and the adjacent switch panel is going to be relocated. A Garmin 5212 chartplotter is going to be installed where the Furuno was. This project will be completed in a couple of days, and I will post the after pic, along with  some dialog about how we did it.

Bad T-Top, go straight to your room.

This is the classic bad T-Top. This boat is a new 34 foot center console fishing boat, so we know the owner won't want any nav gear on top like radar, VHF, GPS, and weather antennas wiring pulled down to the console, right?  You can see the pull comes out of the electronics box, and takes a ninety degree turn into the pipe. It goes down about 3+ feet and then takes another ninety degree turn into the console by the cup holder. The interior of the pull is very sharp, and is shaving the wire casings as the wires are pulled through. The pull is only on one side, and the holes are a little less than an inch in diameter. Extra care must be taken in restraining the wires to make sure the sharp edges on the interior of the pipes will not cut and short the wires over time. Just wait until your father gets home you bad T-Top!