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 [...]
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 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, 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. [...]
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 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. . .
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 [...]
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 [...]
Jeppesen said today that selected C-MAP by Jeppesen MapMedia charts are available for the Furuno NavNet 3D chartplotters. The charts come pre-installed on U.S.-based, newly purchased NavNet 3D units and the company said older NavNet 3D plotters can be updated with a free software update to be compatible with the new charts. Jeppesen said boaters [...]
I’ve been looking for a reason to have to get an iPad and I think now I’ve found it. In his latest on-the-road blog entry, Jeff Siegel of ActiveCaptain demonstrates how well the software works on the new tablet platform from Apple. Regular readers know I’m a big fan of ActiveCaptain — I use it [...]
In an announcement made on the London Stock Exchange today, Garmin announced it is offering 15 pence (19.74 cents U.S.) per share for all the shares of Raymarine Plc. Raymarine lately has been discussing the various offers made for its shares but had not specifically mentioned Garmin since talks broke down between the two firms last [...]
Fugawi recently announced the release of Navionics NavPlanner2, powered by Fugawi. The company also said it has released version 4.5.5 of its Fugawi Marine ENC. NavPlanner2 is an atlas of U.S. coastal waters, navigable waterways, and more than 12,000 inland lakes for use on a home computer for map viewing, searching, printing, waypoint planning and [...]
Mobile Mariner LLC has announced the official launch of the Mobile Mariner™ for the Blackberry® smartphone, which will provide NOAA marine weather forecasts, tide information and life weather conditions for the coastal United States, including the Great Lakes. More upcoming releases will expand the application to other smartphone platforms and cover more international areas. Mobile [...]
KVH Industries said today that it will offer rebates up to $200 through the end of April on its TracVision M1 and M3 satellite TV systems. The M1 and M3 systems are typically used on smaller boats, although the M3DX unit, with its HDTV capability could easily serve as the workhorse on almost any size [...]
Simrad Yachting said customers purchasing certain new marine electronics products from authorized dealers are entitled to rebates up to $200. While the program runs til the end of June, customers who purchased eligible products beginning February 8, 2010 are also eligible for the rebates. That’s a nice touch. Here’s a list provided by Simrad of [...]
KVH Industries said today that current TracVision satellite TV customers can upgrade to the latest HD7 system and get a rebate of up to $2,000, depending on which system they are upgrading. The promotion runs through June 30, 2010. The deal requires the customer to return to KVH the old system’s circuit boards via an [...]
With this article, we are beginning a new series that illustrates how the Nordhavn 55, one of the most popular of the globe-girdling Nordhavns built by Pacific Asian Enterprises, might be equipped with computers for navigation and other chores. Earlier this year, OceanLines ran an extensive series of articles on outfitting the Kadey-Krogen 55′ Expedition [...]
Intellian this week announced a new, dual-band “All-Americas”tm Low Noise Block (LNB) for satellite TV. According to the company, a simple press of a button will now allow boaters to switch between DIRECTV, Dish Network or ExpressVU in North America and DIRECTV Latin in Central and South America. The All-Americas LNB eliminates the hassle of [...]
Simrad-Yachting, a division of Navico, yesterday announced the availability of a new series of fully integrated, networkable chartplotters — the NSE series. Available in both 12.1-inch and 8-inch displays (NSE12 and NSE8, respectively), the units purchased in North America come fully loaded with Nautic Insight HD high-resolution vector cartography. They are fully compatible with the [...]
