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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Installation Since the existing system was patently not to ABYC guidelines, I wanted to make sure the new one was. Insurance companies want regular surveys of “classic” (i.e., old fiberglass) boats, with an emphasis on mechanical and electrical systems meeting ABYC standards. ...read more
The project On older, skinnier boats, it can be difficult to find room even for something as small as a battery. You want to keep cable runs between alternator and battery as short as possible to avoid voltage drop, and locate the battery where it can be secured firmly against ...read more
Battery combiners The three-way Dual Circuit Plus is simpler than the four-position switch, but you still have to remember to switch to “combine” so that both batteries are charged when the engine is running, and back to “on” when the engine’s off, which means there is still ...read more
