Electronics

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Quiet. That’s what you hear as you back away from the mooring. No chug, chug, chug from the diesel as water cascades out of the exhaust. Just a slight whirring as the boat smoothly glides in reverse. A twist of the throttle and the boat moves forward with the most notable sound ...read more

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What is the optimum method of installing solar panels? Duncan Kent explains how to get the best from your solar array Having trawled through hundreds of “deals” to get the best price on the most efficient panels you can afford, you need to know how to install them to best ...read more

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Even cheap smartphones pack thousands of times more computing power than the machine behind the Apollo 11 moon landing, so it’s hardly surprising that their use has crept into every corner of sailing. Many sailors use smartphones to get weather and tide information afloat, but ...read more

cables

When we acquired our new project boat, a 1987 Pearson 39-2, it was evident that she was in need of much TLC. Not only had she been sitting forlorn and unloved in a boatyard for a couple of years, but those of her systems that were not original were a couple of decades old. ...read more

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With today’s ever-increasing reliance on chartplotters with AIS overlay for collision avoidance, what role should radar play as a safety device? Duncan Kent investigates While your chartplotter will (hopefully) show you where the land and sea should be, only radar can show you ...read more

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I had been sailing my Tayana 42, Eclipse, for a few years without any installed electronics on board. I’d gone pretty far up and down the New England and Mid-Atlantic coasts with paper charts, the Navionics app on my Android phone, a hand-bearing compass and the ship’s compass. ...read more

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Sailing is the ultimate escapist activity. However, many of us still want to remain somewhat connected to family, friends and, alas, even work. Over the years, I have discovered a number of good techniques for staying in touch. The one I seem to use most often is “borrowing” ...read more

High-resolution, power-frugal solid-state digital radar is all the rage. Here’s what sets it apart from traditional scanners

Radar remains the single most important collision-avoidance device available to both leisure and commercial sea-going vessels, and now that a clutch of high-performance, instant-on solid-state radar systems have come onto the market, sailors can buy high-definition radar at a ...read more

I have seen the enemy, and it looks like this

As a marine electrician, I’ve found that in-line fuse holders are the most common cause of problems I encounter with modern electronics equipment. Quality marine electronics are generally very reliable, as long as their electrical connections are sound and there is no voltage ...read more

Reliable navigation lights are essential and required by law

Unlike the owners of many new production boats, we planned to use our brand-new 44-foot sloop, Red Thread, as our family home for five years. She would take us through the Caribbean, the Panama Canal, down the west coast of South America, and finally across the Pacific. After ...read more

ShorePowerPromo

Wiring a boat for shore power is a by-the-numbers project requiring more care than skill. Alternating current (AC) can be as dangerous as a cornered viper, so you must not be casual about AC wiring. Nor should you conclude that successfully completing some wiring jobs around ...read more

Garmin’s GMR Fantom highlights moving targets in red with a blue trail

Exclamation marks, curse words...honestly I had trouble holding myself back when Furuno and Garmin both announced new solid-state radars at the Miami Boat Show in February. After many years of Navico trailblazing what is arguably a better way of doing radar, and with ...read more

I often see poor electrical installations on boats, but here is a real classic. The owner of this boat wanted to install a switch for the air conditioning water pump, but there was no room for it on the shore power breaker panel. So, he simply attached it to the waste pipe ...read more

It was easy to gather a slew of devices on board Gizmo that hunger for a USB power supply at least occasionally. Heck, when the Verizon Android Galaxy phone is providing an LTE Wi-Fi hotspot and also streaming Bluetooth audio to the Fusion IP700 stereo as it is now—I’m online ...read more

The frozen Raymarine aSeries MFD had almost finished a two-day low temperature test, but that was only the beginning of its suffering. Next it had to run another two days in a high-temperature cabinet with 85 percent relative humidity, followed by 19 more days of torture as part ...read more

Pocket Weather Station The Vaavud wind meter (currently being distributed in North America by Ronstan) is both accurate and truly pocket-friendly, with a compact two-cup durable plastic rotor and low friction PTFE bearings. Easy to pop in and out of your smart phone’s audio jack, ...read more

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In recent years it has become more feasible than ever to navigate using a smartphone or tablet. Apps have improved to the point where they rival paper charts and chartplotters. With so many good navigation apps available, the question is: which is best for you? There are free ...read more

Sprucing up an older cruiser with new switch panels Having had so much fun upgrading the systems on our project Norlin 34, it came as something of a shock to realize that after installing a windlass, propane system, new winches, new portlights and new genoa sheet tracks in the ...read more

If your boat has a holding tank, chances are it doesn’t have a level gauge. This is odd, as you’d think they would be standard on all new boats, but in fact, just the opposite is true. After experiencing firsthand what happens when a holding tank is overfilled last summer—not ...read more

Back in the day, each electronics unit aboard your boat did what it did, and never the twain did meet. Your depthsounder told you the depth, your radar showed what was around, your GPS told where you were, and so on. I remember my first onboard interface: my new radar accepted ...read more

When my flexible solar panel gave up the ghost early last summer, I was surprised at how much motoring it took to replenish our Norlin 34’s two Group 27 house batteries after they’d been run down by a week of sporadic bilge-pumping (caused by a slow leak around the keelbolts, ...read more

In 1982, I mounted four ARCO Solar M-55 monocrystalline panels to a stainless steel frame above the dodger on my Ericson 41 sloop, Wind Shadow. On sunny days during the hours closest to noon, my amp meter indicated an 8 to 10 amp charge. Before and after the midday feast, the ...read more

Back in the 1990s when I was cruising full time and living aboard a 1964 Pearson Alberg 35, my electrical system was dirt simple. I had two 100AH wet-cell batteries, a battery selector switch, a 30-watt flexible solar panel and a multimeter. When I wanted to know how the ...read more

As part of the gradual replacement of outdated systems on our Norlin 34 project boat, it was time to look at communications. As any radio manufacturer will tell you, the problem with VHF radios is twofold: they are inherently reliable, thus tend to be a long way down the list of ...read more

A few years ago, I left my boat’s two lead-acid batteries on board over winter. It wasn’t intentional—an early snowfall led me to cover the boat up sooner than anticipated, and I just never got around to taking the batteries off. After three months of freezing New England ...read more

Further reading A Boater’s Guide to VHF and GMDSSBy Sue FletcherPublished by McGraw-Hill Boatowner’s Illustrated handbook of WiringBy Charlie Wing Resources Glomex Antennas available from Imtra, www.imtra.com, 508-995-7000 Hamilton Marine, www.hamiltonmarine.com, 800-639-2715 ...read more

As part of a major refit of our BoatWorks Bailout boat, a 1983 Ericson 34, we installed an up-to-the-minute electronics package. It was easier than expected.By Mark Corke Installing a new pedestal from Edson gave us space for a number of instruments, with the C80 display taking ...read more

GLOSSARY HF: High Frequency (between 3-30MHz) SSB: Single Sideband Ham radio: Amateur radioAmtor: Amateur Teletype Over Radio—the first popular digital communication protocol for radioClover: A higher-speed HF protocol utilizing multiple-tone, phase-shift encodingPactor: The most ...read more

The rapid evolution of communications technology in the last decade has meant that more of us are able to keep in range of a regular cell phone. We asked many of the entrants in the 2006 ARC transatlantic rally how they planned to stay in contact with those back home and ...read more

More stories on LED lights from BoatWorks magazine. Let There Be Light Think you need a bigger battery to run the lights on your boat? Changing to LEDs could lower your power consumption and mean that you never have to buy another light bulb. LED Lowdown Changing to LED could ...read more

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