Power And Motoryacht | PMY - Power&Motoryacht

Author Articles

by Ben Ellison

Krill Monitoring System

By Ben Ellison | Posted October 2006 | Add a Comment

The goal of Krill Systems is to make the elegant and informative monitoring we often see on megayachts possible on the boats most of us cruise in. The solution is a flexible system that employs two types of Sensor Pods—one for all things electrical (shown at right), the other for tanks and switches—and an efficient program called SoftDisplay (shown below). The

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Airmar PC WeatherStation

By Ben Ellison | Posted September 2006 | Add a Comment

It’s astounding how many sensors are packed into that 23/4-inch-diameter housing: ultrasonic wind, GPS, compass, accelerometer (pitch and roll), thermometer, barometer, and humidity. That means, among other things, that Airmar’s WeatherStation can separate apparent wind activity from boat motion and, thus, deliver true wind speed and direction to most any

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Maretron Weather Station

By Ben Ellison | Posted September 2006 | Add a Comment

Maretron’s $699 Weather Station is as ambitious as Airmar’s but itself only senses wind—again ultrasonically, which means both accurately and without moving parts—plus temperature, pressure, and humidity. That’s because it uses the NMEA 2000 protocol, which is far better than 0183 at combining and distributing data. Hence a 2000-compliant display

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Garmin 3210, 478, and G2 Cards

By Ben Ellison | Posted September 2006 | Add a Comment

Garmin offers so many plotters these days! The 32xx series—in 05, 06, and 10 models, i.e. screen sizes—is an update to the top-of-the-line networked 30xx series, still in production, the major difference being that all U.S. charts, in the new BlueChart G2 format, are now built right in. Shown is a $2,667 3210, which is running an optional G2 chart card that adds

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Navionics NavPlanner

By Ben Ellison | Posted August 2006 | Add a Comment

If Navionics charts come on standard CF and SD memory card formats, why do you need the special card reader shown to view them on a PC? The answer—that Microsoft operating systems would not provide the expected file security—supposedly played a large part in NavPlanner’s much-delayed release and its $129 price tag. But Navionics itself has to take

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Northstar Radar Unit

By Ben Ellison | Posted August 2006 | Add a Comment

Brunswick New Technologies Marine Electronics (BNTME), is calling its new Northstar and Navman radar units "the industry’s first High Definition (HD) Digital Radar solution." Five available scanners, ranging from a 2-kW, 18-inch radome to a 25-kW, 84-inch open array, will work with either the 6100i or 8000i multifunction displays (and the smaller units will also

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Olympus Stylus 720 SW

By Ben Ellison | Posted August 2006 | Add a Comment

This is one tough camera. I dunked it into the harbor, even took some snapshots of the muck, rinsed it under the tap, and it’s still snapping fine. Olympus’ $399 Stylus 720 SW has a 3x zoom lens and can take digital photos as large as seven megapixels. It offers no less than 28 shooting modes, ranging from standards like “portrait” to more esoteric situations

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Port Network WiFi

By Ben Ellison | Posted August 2006 | Add a Comment

Port Network’s approach to maximized marine WiFi is to minimize coax loss, packing a high-powered radio and 5.5-dB antenna into a waterproof box for deployment on deck whenever you anchor or tie up. Both power and signal run through a no-loss 25-foot Ethernet cable. While the $349 MWB-200 will usually find the best available WiFi signal automatically, complete

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Keys to the Kingdom

By Ben Ellison | Posted May 2005 | Add a Comment

MaxSea software got access to NavNet hardware.At the 2001 Miami International Boat Show, Furuno USA product development manager Eric Kunz and marketing manager Dean Kurutz delivered an impressive double-team presentation on their new NavNet electronics series to an overflow

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