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Connected Cruising
By Ben Ellison | Posted June 2007 | Add a CommentPicture a spring evening that's so clear and calm you've jumped out from Charleston, South Carolina, planning to chug through the night to Beaufort, North Carolina, and thus skip a sometimes shallow and/or tedious section of the Intracoastal Waterway plus enjoy some offshore solitude. But, darn it, you've got 21st-century habits and would like to spend some of that time on the Web, checking your
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SeaKey v2.0
By Ben Ellison | Posted June 2007 | Add a CommentSeaKey v2.0 is major upgrade from the original, adding an LCD interface and two-way Orbcomm satellite communications. However, the goals remains the same: to connect boaters underway with a call center able to both handle emergencies and deliver concierge service, plus provide geo-fence security and simple monitoring of bilge level and main battery bank when
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Gauges to GUIs
By Ben Ellison | Posted May 2007 | Add a CommentWhy reinvent the wheel? Faria tapped Maptech to help create Maestro.You can almost smell stacks of freshly stitched and pressed Civil War uniforms as you walk around Faria's antique brick and granite factory on the banks of the Thames River just north of New London,
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Cobra 425
By Ben Ellison | Posted May 2007 | Add a CommentThe big consumer electronics company Cobra has gotten serious about marine VHF, introducing both this feature-packed handheld and a Class D DSC fixed radio. For instance, the $170 HH425 and the $190 F80 are each submersible and backed by three-year warranties. Both also offer a "rewind, play again" feature that spaceshots like me will find handy—a built-in memory chip records the last 20
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McMurdo SmartFind
By Ben Ellison | Posted May 2007 | Add a CommentSimilar to ACR’s ResQFix PLB, McMurdo has introduced a GEPIRB (GPS-equipped Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) that's smaller yet supposedly performs better. The $849, 1.5-pound SmartFind Plus accomplishes this largely by using LEDs for its strobe, which
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Icom M34
By Ben Ellison | Posted May 2007 | Add a CommentIcom's new handheld VHF is its first without an aluminum chassis, but it's purportedly still "military rugged," and it actually floats, a combination that fuels the company’s "last handheld you’ll ever need" pitch. The M34, which costs about $180, also has an Aqua Quake mode that shakes water from its speaker plus a "favorites" feature that lets you limit channel scrolling to just the ones you
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Perfect Picks?
By Ben Ellison | Posted May 2007 | Add a CommentI had two strong reactions to the idea of picking ideal marine-electronics systems for three different styles of boats. The first went something like, “Yikes, there’s a fast way to annoy a lot of worthy but unlisted manufacturers,” and the second, “Oh, but that would be impossible anyway.” On further reflection I realized that truth number two would (hopefully) null out truth number one and that
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Universal Aggravation
By Ben Ellison | Posted April 2007 | Add a CommentCraig Wallace DaleYes!” was the almost universal response to my idea of opening this column about universal remotes with a soul-satisfying photograph of one being smashed to smithereens. I can’t think of another class of gadget that is such a universal example of beneficent technology run amuck. If you are anywhere near my age,
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Garmin 5000 Series
By Ben Ellison | Posted April 2007 | Add a CommentJust as the flagship 4000 series covered in the February issue was enjoying its U.S. debut at the Miami International Boat Show, Garmin upped the ante by showing prototypes of its even newer flagship 5000 series. The four models—eight- and 12-inch units, each with a choice of built-in chart portfolios—are very similar to the 4000 series except they’re almost completely
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Northstar 6100i Sirius Weather
By Ben Ellison | Posted April 2007 | Add a CommentAlso at Miami, Northstar demonstrated how the powerful soft-key interface on its 6100i multifunction displays (MFDs) can now enable users to easily mix and view all the real-time and forecast weather elements available from Sirius Satellite Radio. For instance, that overlay key can rotate through six customizable data mix presets, each neatly represented in the little window by icons. The
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