Be it for safety, navigation or competition, all sailors have a need for information about their boat’s performance and its environment. Many recent advances have been made by marine electronics manufacturers, which have increased the accuracy, quantity and accessibility of data ...read more
B&G Vulcan 5 Sailing Chartplotter The new Vulcan 5 from B&G is a 5in multi-touch chartplotter with pinch-to-zoom capabilities. The Vulcan 5 can be integrated with existing NMEA 2000 networks and a wind instrument to allow sailors to tap into B&G’s SailSteer functionality. The ...read more
SI-TEX Explorer NavPro Got a spare VGA display or PC monitor laying around and want to convert it to a high-end navigation system? SI-TEX’s Explorer NavPro will let you do just that. Running C-MAP charts from a mini-SD card, the powerful black box has a fast processor, full NMEA ...read more
If you have your boatyard help out with repairs, upgrades and routine maintenance, you can often be one of the first to launch in the spring. But you’ll quickly run aground if you don’t understand boatyard service departments and their standard operating procedures. Having both ...read more
It’s true that I don’t navigate on paper charts anymore, but I appreciate them and I use their electronic equivalent—raster charts, which are basically an electronic scan of the paper originals—more than ever. One reason for this is what I learned last January while preparing ...read more
We’ve never been early adopters when it comes to technology. (We only recently started using electronic charts.) However, we surprised ourselves when we recently purchased the new and comparatively untested Iridium GO! portable satellite Wi-Fi hotspot system. For the past five ...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
While the Volvo Ocean Race has been dominating sailing headlines this year, there’s an unofficial circumnavigation “race” taking place: The contest to become the youngest person to circle the globe. At only 17 and 16 years old respectively, Zac Sunderland (USA) and Mike Perham ...read more