Off to the boat show

[DMCI]

In the next couple days, my small digital camera and I will attend the boat show with an emphasis on technology.

Outboard motors, electronics, and other things of interest to boaters having boats 20 feet and under. Plan is to find a motel room to stay overnight and then hit the show's morning opening.

While it seems pocket yachts may be a thing of the past will be interesting to see what is available. More later.

[Bflaherty]

You'll have to make sure to get down the north hall and check out the new evinrude/bombardier outboards, they are out of this world in styling... Also the folks at MVP-Aero have brought out their latest contraption and it is bizarre to say the least...

[Helmar]

In the next couple days, my small digital camera and I will attend the boat show with an emphasis on technology.

Outboard motors, electronics, and other things of interest to boaters having boats 20 feet and under. Plan is to find a motel room to stay overnight and then hit the show's morning opening.

While it seems pocket yachts may be a thing of the past will be interesting to see what is available. More later.

Hi Dave.
Not so with the pocket yachts as Marty has a website and its a Big thing in Port Townsend right now. Might check his website out as its under his name on the posts.
I always look forward to the Techo reports as he helps most of us keep up to date on what is out there...Way Cool Dave, thanks

[DMCI]

Well I spent two days at the boat show. The first day basically touring the show looking at a few boats of interest and then spending the balance of the time visiting accessories and electronics booths. The second day, I spent practically all day going to technical seminars. While most of the stuff they presented was pretty straightforward it was extremely interesting to get those topics wherein one lecture covered a single topic from beginning to end. Like for example an interesting topic on application of Marine radar. I learned a few things that I didn’t know and was exposed to in more detail a lot of things I did.

One of the most interesting things I saw and I will mention that up front a running lights for the boats which consists of two LED devices one to be bolted to the bow rail and the other attached by a vacuum clamp to the top of the outboard. Most of us in the summer don’t boat at night and at the boat comes without running lights has to my Skagit did this is a real quickfix to get yourself legal if you find yourself boating after dark. And since the top of the outboard is one of the highest places on a runabout clamping an8 inch high Stern light to the top of the outboard is a really good solution.

The other thing really interesting was offered by the Marine compass company and was a compass offered by the Ritchie compass company. The problem with our kind of boat a typical gimbal compass really takes more space than could be justified except for the absolute requirement for carrying a compass. So what they did was for our kind of boat they made a compass for which you drill another gauge hole in the dashboard the same size as you would for an engine instrument like a nanometer or oil pressure, etc.

All in all a very interesting and useful device for our kind of boat. More to come in individual topics as I’m able to get to them.

[img] http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?&id=HN.608...d=1.9&rs=0&p=0 [/img]

[Helmar]

I like that compass

Need updated. Nanometer on the boat is used for ?

[DMCI]

I like that compass

Need updated. Nanometer on the boat is used for ?

Helmar,

If I had a really competent automatic dictation program then it would've said ammeter, but since it doesn't I would have to say that I use a nanometer for measuring fly excrement. Some people say that a nanometer is one billionth of a meter if I did the math right.

[Stan D]

I have one of those compass'. I needed a compass and had a hole in my dash that needed to be filled. It seems to work just fine, even though I don't actually use it to navigate. It even has a light in case you want to use it at night with your stick-on running lights.

[DMCI]

I have one of those compass'. I needed a compass and had a hole in my dash that needed to be filled. It seems to work just fine, even though I don't actually use it to navigate. It even has a light in case you want to use it at night with your stick-on running lights.

I had an interesting conversation with the compass salesman. Told him that I had a complete system from Garmin on both my boats and therefore didn't need a compass. His argument was something like this: let's say you are several miles offshore and suddenly it gets foggy and your 12 V system stops working. Without a compass you might be totally lost and perhaps even still farther out to sea.

I told him around here don't go several miles offshore you are hardly ever reduced to dead reckoning by the fog and I have never seen the 12 V system totally fail. That didn't seem to impress him. So I will get a couple of those compasses. The Coast Guard will probably like it as well.

[GregJ]

I have two batteries so the likelihood of loosing 12v power is next to nil. I do have a simple hand held compass I would use if my Garmin fails. I also have waterproof charts. I try to keep everything as simple as possible.

[bruceb]

Dave-
Hey, I like that compass for it's installation and look(white gauge and all). We've never used a compass on our boat (even though it's standard for me to carry a map of the body of water, if it's salt, or unknown) as the boat's 99% of the time used on lakes we are very familiar. All that said, like the idea now that we use it more on salt (big water) and fog is pretty prevalent in certain areas in the summer.
Thanks for the head's up !
bruceb

[Stan D]

I had an interesting conversation with the compass salesman. Told him that I had a complete system from Garmin on both my boats and therefore didn't need a compass. His argument was something like this: let's say you are several miles offshore and suddenly it gets foggy and your 12 V system stops working. Without a compass you might be totally lost and perhaps even still farther out to sea.

I told him around here don't go several miles offshore you are hardly ever reduced to dead reckoning by the fog and I have never seen the 12 V system totally fail. That didn't seem to impress him. So I will get a couple of those compasses. The Coast Guard will probably like it as well.

The salesman forgot to mention the likelihood that North Korea will shoot down all of the GPS satellites.