Category: Electronics
What is the best marine navigation app for the iPad?
(Editor’s note — Christine Kling is an accomplished sailor and mystery author and she has spent a great deal of time actually using the iPad on the water for navigation and related tasks. While your mileage may vary, I would put a lot of stock in Christine’s evaluation of these apps. I’ve included here the [...]
Northport Systems Announces Fugawi Marine 5
Northport Systems announced that its newest marine navigation software, Fugawi Marine 5, will be available at the end of March for new purchase and upgrade from Fugawi Marine ENC. According to the company, Fugawi Marine 5 takes advantage of the latest Windows technology, including a touch-screen control optimized for use with Win 7 and 8 [...]
ActiveCaptain Expands Dramatically with Routes and More Reviews
ActiveCaptain.com, the crowd-sourced database of local navigation and cruising knowledge, has been expanding its offerings over the last couple of months with some significant new capabilities. The two most important, in my view, involve route-sharing and an allied site devoted to captain reviews of boating-related services. Here’s a quick rundown on some of the new developments. [...]
Nobeltec Releases Admiral and VNS 11.1 Service Pack
Nobeltec said today it has released a free service pack update for users of the new (January 2011) version of Admiral and VNS. The service pack offers integration with Furuno’s popular Digital Fish Finder (DFF1) Sounder, as well as a number of NMEA 2000 integration improvements. While I don’t often simply reprint a press release, [...]
Mac User Looking for Better WiFi on the Boat?
My fellow Write on The Water blogger, Christine Kling, has another fabulous tech piece on the blog today about a WiFi solution for her boat. Christine is a successful published author (I LOVE her Seychelle Sullivan mystery series), and she did a great piece for us here on using your iPad onboard the boat. Christine [...]
Time for a Satphone – KVH Shipping TracPhone V3 Mini-VSAT
One of the more significant news items from the recent Miami Show was the announcement from KVH of its new mini-VSAT package, the TracPhone V3, which is the smallest Ku-band maritime VSAT antenna in the world at just 14.5″ (37 cm) in diameter. The company said today that it has shipped the first fully FCC-licensed units [...]
Simrad Yachting Launches Broadband 3G Radar
Simrad Yachting this week announced a significant upgrade to its “”broadband” radar capability with the “Broadband 3G Radar,” which increases the range of its not-so-old BR24 Broadband Radar. I wrote about the BR24 when it was demonstrated at the Miami show last year and decided it was the real deal for short-range, high-definition radar detection. [...]
Simrad Yachting Launches New Touch-Screen MF Displays
Simrad Yachting last week announced a new series of touch-screen multifunction displays — the NSS Sport Series. Available in 7-inch, 8-inch, and 12-inch models, the NSS Sport units feature LED backlighting and allow the user to control the display with the touchscreen, keypad and/or the “Simrad Yachting-signature” rotary control knob. My friend Ben Ellison at [...]
Maybe You Don’t Need 3G on Your iPad 2?
Brian Chen, at Wired, has a piece today that suggests a clever way to avoid having to pay the extra money for a 3G version of the iPad 2 just to get GPS and phone data network capability. The solution basically involves using your current Smartphone as a wireless hotspot. Here’s an excerpt of his [...]
Routes Function in ActiveCaptain Will Change the Game
I know that’s a bold statement, but when I can have access to a library that will eventually likely hold many thousands of already planned (by me AND other boaters) routes, and then someday soon use those routes with more ActiveCaptain technology to tell me what’s up ahead, I will be in a different place [...]
Nobeltec: The Future Has No Dongle
I have seen the future of Nobeltec, and it has no. . . okay, okay, I couldn’t resist. But c’mon, let’s admit, that dongle was the only real thing we hated about Nobeltec navigation software. And yes, I know all the reasons they had for using it, but it really got in the way. And [...]
I Think I Want This on My Flybridge
Yeah, I know this photo is from a press release. But maybe it’s not just a cute demonstration. Maybe it’s actually an effective way to prove a marketing claim of dust- and waterproof capabilities. Nauticomp says it tests its marine LED-lit LCD displays to an IP67 ingress protection standard. The ’6′ in that designation indicates [...]
What Would YOU Do With this Nordhavn 63 Helm?
The folks at Pacific Asian Enterprises just recently unloaded N63-01 from its freighter in Miami and brought it up to the Stuart completion center. It’s a beautiful boat; an evolution of the N55/60 hull with the aft pilothouse and overall look of the venerable N62 (but not quite the beam of that boat). In looking [...]
Fugawi Offers Avia Instrument Display Software
Fugawi announced today the availability of its new Avia Motor and Avia Sail instrument software. If you have NMEA 0183 or 2000 data streams, you can use this software to set up a nice monitor configuration that suits your preference. The software will read 0183 data via a standard serial port input, or using an [...]
New Website for C-Map by Jeppesen
Jeppesen, a Boeing company, said today it has launched a revamped website for its light marine business. The new look is clean and uncluttered and looks like it will be much easier to navigate. I’m a big fan of “white space” on websites. It allows your eye to quickly capture the most important information, and [...]
Ranger Tugs, Cutwater Buyers Can Get Garmin Factory-Installed
Fluid Motion, the company that builds Ranger Tugs and the new Cutwater fast pilothouse boats said this week it has a deal with Garmin to provide that company’s marine electronics as factory-installed packages on both lines of boats. Of course, if you don’t want Garmin gear, you can certainly order your boat without but I [...]
Looking for New Helm Displays? Nauticomp’s Genesis Might be Right
Nauticomp, the Ontario, Canada-based electronics manufacturer, is showing its new Genesis line of 15″ and 19″ sunlight-readable displays at the boat show circuit and if you’re in the market for new displays, they just might be the right solution. Marine display technology is gradually catching up to land-based consumer displays and these two Genesis units [...]
Navimatics Charts & Tides App Now Lets iPad, iPhone Update ActiveCaptain Data
Apple has just approved the latest update of the Navimatics Charts & Tides app so that iPhone and iPad users can update ActiveCaptain data from their devices. The update allows markets to be edited and reviews and comments to be added. The single license works on both an iPHone and IPad at the same time, [...]
Raymarine Extends Warranties to Three Years for Registered Products
Raymarine, a division of FLIR Systems, said today it would offer a third year of warranty to owners who register their products online with the company. The standard two-year warranty otherwise applies. The third year is offered at no cost. The warranty upgrade is applicable to all new products purchased starting January 1, 2011. [...]
First Verizon iPad NOT for Boaters
I’ve been pretty happy over the last couple of years with the quality of signal that I get on Verizon’s networks in the United States. I have not, however, been happy with their equipment — in particular their use of the term “GPS” to describe the cellular- and WiFi-derived position reporting. It is most [...]
SI-TEX and Jeppesen Offer a Deal to Boat Show Goers
SI-TEX and Jeppesen said today that attendees at key North American boat shows over the next several months who buy a new SI-TEX ColorMax or EC Series chartplotter and compatible C-Map by Jeppesen MAX electronic chart will receive a free Jeppesen PC-Planner home navigation planning tool (a $149 value). First, the show list: Fort Lauderdale [...]
Intellian Offering Rebates Through Yearend
Intellian said this week it is offering a rebate promotion through yearend on several of its satellite TV antennae and Fleet Broadband antennae. Between October 26 to December 31, 2010, customers who purchase an Intellian i2 or i3 satellite TV antenna can receive $100, and those who purchase the i4, i6, or an Intellian Fleet [...]
Northern Lights Shrinks Genny, Adds WaveNet NMEA 2000 Monitoring
Northern Lights is basking in the southern sunshine this weekend at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) with a new skinny genny and a NMEA 2000-certified digital monitoring system called WaveNet. The newly shrunk generator, the M773LW3, is a 9kW model and is almost 30% smaller than its predecessor. “The overall size of smaller [...]
Judging Innovation in the Boat-Building Biz
As I write this, I’m on my way back home from the “IBEX” international Boatbuilders Exhibition in Louisville, Kentucky, where I served as one of the judges in a panel that gave out a series of awards to recognize innovation in new products. IBEX is a unique, trade-only show where the people who make everything [...]
Here’s Why You Need an iPad on the Boat
by Christine Kling (Editor’s Note — Chris Kling is a sailor with with more than 30 years of experience on the oceans of the world. She’s also an English professor at Broward College, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the published author of the Seychelle Sullivan series of mysteries, including SURFACE TENSION (2002), CROSS [...]
Furuno’s New WS200 Brings NMEA 2000 Ultrasonic Weather to Your Helm
Actually, it brings ultrasonic weather data to your helm. Are we straight with that now? Okay. The basic ultrasonic instrument has been around for several years — the most recent version, still available, is the PB150, a NMEA 0183-compatible unit – but the WS200 is a significant upgrade, both in sensors and networking. It’s also a little [...]
Fugawi X-Traverse Now Compatible with iPad
Yeah, now you can use your Fugawi X-Traverse account to bring it all onboard your cool new iPad. Okay! Okay! I’ll buy an iPad already. . .
Review: Fugawi Marine ENC Navigation Software
During a recent offshore delivery of a new Krogen 58′, I had the opportunity to check out Northport System Inc.’s Fugawi Marine ENC charting and navigation software. It loaded painlessly on a new Windows 7 laptop, ran flawlessly for 3 days nonstop, and had an easy learning curve. If you’re looking for something to run [...]
Comark Offers New All In One Pilothouse Computer
Comark Corporation announced that it has developed a new pilothouse computer with integrated 19″ display. The Comark Pilothouse Computer features Intel Core Two Duo processor options, conformal coatings for corrosion resistance and a host of other pilothouse-friendly features. Best of all perhaps, the price. Comark says the CPC is being offered at a starting price [...]
Furuno Announces NavNet 3D Rebates And Freebates
Buy a new Furuno NavNet 3D display, like the 8.4″, 12.1″, or Black Box Multi Function Display and get a $200 rebate. If you’re buying a NavNet 3D system, you can also get a free C-MAP by Jeppesen MapMedia chart, valued at $300. The company is also offering rebates from $100 to $300 on a [...]
