On Board with Mark Corke

Heading South - part 1

 

So the trip started off well enough, and it should have a been a straight forward delivery to the Chesapeake from Maine. Rita and I had set aside just over a week centered around the Memorial Day weekend, so I opined that eight days would be more than sufficient. Just before the off however it was discovered that the header tank on the Ford Lehmann engine was leaking and the neck on the filler would need to be repaired by a radiator shop. Yankee Marina and Boatyard in Yarmouth, Maine went above and beyond would be expected to get us on our way. Curt, the yard manager, drove the header tank to the radiator shop, waited while they repaired it then turned up on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and personally refitted it. I can't say enough good things about this yard; perfect service. 

After the drama with the header tank, I thought our problems would be over, and it would be plain sailing from then on, but oh no. We were literally about to leave the dock, and I thought I'd double check the engine oil in my familiar fashion, pull the dipstick wipe off the oil with a paper towel, replace dipstick then pull out one more time for an accurate reading. A simple task that takes a few moments at best. On pulling the dipstick for the second reading, I was horrified to see that the bottom half of the dipstick was missing! I was in a panic, how could this have happened? Where was the missing bit of dipstick? Thinking that it had fallen off into the oil pan, I knew that we would not be going anywhere if that was the case. An errant piece of metal in the oil pan could lead to catastrophic engine failure. The engine could not be run until the piece was retrieved. I was thinking that I would have to pull the engine and drop the oil pan, a very expensive job which would scupper our plans of heading south anytime soon for sure.

I rushed to True Value and bought the strongest magnet on a stick that I could find. I thought that I could poke this down the dipstick hole and by some luck catch the wayward piece of the dipstick, but even if I did the chances of actually pulling it back through the dipstick tube were slim to none. I was doomed, and I knew it. Just as I was about to break out the whisky and slump on the salon cushion I had the thought that maybe the piece had snapped off and fell into the bilge. I have white clean oil pads under the engine, and if the piece of dipstick were there, I would have seen it. I fished about for a couple of minutes and then if by some divine miracle I heard a click and up from the depths came the magnetic stick with the piece on the end. What luck! How it broke off and fell into the bilge I will never know but I was thankful that I found it and doubly glad that I did not spend days pulling then engine apart only to find it afterward, that really would have pissed me off.

The errant piece of the dipstick and the cause of much angst and swearing. I might not look like it in the picture but I was happy, things could have been so much worse.

Due to our late start, we only made it as far as Kennebunkport, I wanted to fill up with diesel anyhow so we put in for the night thankful that at least we were on our way and heading south. I went for a walk in the rain and stopped by this nifty looking boatyard across from Seaglass, our boat. I  wanted to take other pictures, but all I got was this shot before my camera battery decided to die.

 

The forecast for the morning was not promising with rough seas and fog. In fact, we had lots of fog, this shot is on one of the better days! Instead of continuing our journey on the second day as planned we left Kennebunkport and turned back after half an hour when we realized that the visibility was about a hundred yards with five-foot seas from the south. This was very frustrating, but I always think it better to be safe than sorry. An added concern was that I had recently refinished the mast on the boat and although I had a shiny new 4G radome fitted this was not hooked up to the chartplotter. I never thought I would need it, how wrong I was!

A couple of days later we made it as far as Gloucester, Massachusetts where we had a fine night in the marina and met our friends Tom and Alice who invited us to dinner. A splendid run, the next day, across Massachusetts Bay saw us in Sandwich, a perfect jumping off point for the following day's run through the Cape Cod canal and out into Buzzards Bay. The current is swift, and this helped us along nicely, Seaglass making 12 knots over the ground at one point. Our good fortune did not last long, however, as the day wore on the weather deteriorated, the wind and rain came back with a vengeance.

 

The seas were right on our nose, and we were taking green water over the bow which slammed the windscreen making it hard to see, the wipers did their best but were not up to the task. In fact, it was so rough at one point that the fridge went walkabout and the cutlery drawer had to be taped up with masking tape to keep it in place. This is not my kind of boating at all! I had planned to make it to Westbrook in Connecticut but was worried about navigating the harbor entrance in the rough conditions so put into the Connecticut river instead where the entrance is wide, and it's safe and easy to enter. We secured a berth then went for showers and beers, that first one tasted so good, we'd earned it!

 

 

The drawer taped shut and the fridge after we wedged it temporarily  back into place.

 

You need a compass

 

I was surveying a large motoryacht not long ago and found myself on the bridge, where there was a prodigious array of electronics but no compass. GPS is a great navigation tool, but it’s no substitute for a properly adjusted magnetic compass. A magnetic compass works independently, without electricity or another power source, so it can be relied upon at all times to determine the direction the boat is headed.

For a compass to be effective it has to be properly mounted and adjusted, which to some extent are dependent on each other. The compass should be mounted on a flat, level surface that’s as far as is practical from ferrous metal fittings (iron, steel), magnets (speakers, microphones), and electronics and other current-carrying devices, all which can interfere with accuracy.

The compass typically is mounted on the steering pedestal in the cockpit aboard sailboats and on the dash or console aboard powerboats. It should be in the helmsman’s direct line of sight so it’s easy to read when the navigator gives a course to steer.

To calculate the error, or deviation, in the compass it must be “swung,” whereby the boat is put on a known heading that’s checked against the compass reading. Typically this is done by lining up a set of transit marks and comparing the boat’s course to the indicated reading. Any error is corrected by adjusting the built-in magnets, which are attached to compensator rods.

A compass should be routinely checked, and bearing lines are perfect for this. John Rousmaniere devotes a lengthy chapter to compasses and compass adjustment in The Annapolis Book Of Seamanship. Of course, you can call in a professional compass adjuster to help with all of this.

A correctly adjusted compass points toward magnetic north, not true north. The difference between true and magnetic north varies depending on where you are on the planet; this is known as variation, which must be compensated for when plotting a position. Variation is shown in the compass rose on navigational charts and tells the navigator how many degrees to add or subtract (east or west of true north) to your bearing.

Once the compass has been swung and adjusted, there are likely to be errors that cannot be compensated for, so a deviation card is produced. If a compass is professionally adjusted, this card will be provided by the compass adjuster, but you can also work up your own. Deviation should be no more than a few degrees on each heading. Therefore both deviation and variation must either be accounted for when working out the plot on the chart or when communicating a compass course to steer to the helmsman.

A compass has a lubber line — two pins or some type of marking — that must be parallel to the centerline of the boat when the compass is mounted. As the boat turns, the compass continues to point at magnetic north, and the course is shown (relative to magnetic north) in reference to the lubber line.

Practice steering a compass course rather than following the chart plotter. You’ll have more situational awareness and less strain on your eyes. On a sailboat, steering by compass can keep you in tune with the wind. As the wind shifts you may be able to harden up or crack off a few degrees, rather than trying to follow that line on the plotter.

A properly installed and adjusted compass is a valuable navigation tool. Buy the best one your budget will allow and take good care of it — you’ll be rewarded with years of service.

Dealing with fog

 

This is story that I originally wrote for Soundings Magazine which I republish here. Part narative and part practical advice it just may help you should you get caught in fog this summer.

“Don’t worry,” I told my son Sam as we slipped the dock lines and headed out of Greenport Harbor at the eastern end of Long Island, New York. “It’s early, and the fog will have burnt off by the time we get to Orient Point.” I’d done this trip a bunch of times, both alone and with crew. It’s an easy sail from Greenport back to the marina in Clinton, Connecticut. Piece of cake, I told myself. “Should be there in a couple of hours, in time for a late lunch,” I said to Sam.

The sudden onset of fog, and the potential hazards it brings, can change the parameters of a float plan instantly.

Rounding the breakwater, the fog was thicker than I thought it would be. Mallard, our 26-foot wooden gaff cutter, was simply rigged, with no GPS or radar, but she did have an accurate depth sounder and log. Taking departure from the end of the breakwater, I carefully plotted our position using dead reckoning, measuring course steered and distance run in addition to taking into account leeway and an allowance for tidal set as best I could. A pencil mark on the chart every 15 minutes showed our progress. The fog was all-enveloping, and the limp sails, saturated with moisture, dripped relentlessly into the cockpit. I could barely make out the end of the bowsprit in the pea soup. Creeping along under power, we closed Orient Point, our jumping-off mark for crossing Long Island Sound.

The tide runs strongly around the point, and I knew that, once committed, there would be no turning back. I was weighing our options and at the same time trying to hide my concerns from Sam. Just then the fog lifted enough for me to get a plain view of the Long Island ferry that runs between Orient Point and New London, Connecticut. She was dead ahead. Just in the nick of time I pushed the tiller hard over, and we swooped to starboard, almost ramming the side of the ferry. A few moments longer, and Mallard’s bowsprit would have been turned to matchwood. The close shave made up my mind for me, and we carefully retraced our steps back to Greenport to await a change in the weather.

That trip happened many years ago, and when I think of it, it still raises the hair on the back of my neck — and reminds me of how disorienting fog can be. I’ve had some sort of sailboat for more than 40 years. Thinking back, it would be fair to say that I’ve been frightened more often by fog than I have of rough weather. Dealing with fog demands respect and the highest levels of seamanship. Mess up, and things

can go bad quickly. Fog is disorienting, and you can find yourself disbelieving the compass. Chart plotters and radar are a comfort and a big help, but they are not a panacea for navigating perfectly in thick weather. There is a tendency to blindly follow a line on the plotter when you can’t see much of what’s in front of you. Bu there might be a small boat or other object in your path that does not show up on radar. A keen forward watch would catch it. There is a very good chance you will get caught in fog at some

Good seamanship requires that you be proactive and at the same time react in a calm and efficient manner to changing conditions. Here are some important points that should help you stay out of trouble when the fog closes in.

Prepare for the unexpected

I keep collision flares handy and will often stuff one into my oilskin pocket so it can be set off at a moment’s notice. The bright white pyrotechnics are pretty good at burning off the fog around the boat. Don’t think twice about setting one off if you’re concerned that another boat might not have seen you. A skipper’s senses and reflexes may be tested when vessels and objects emerge suddenly from a bank of fog.

Slow down

One of the biggest concerns is running into something — another boat, a floating object, the beach, even a breakwater if your navigation is at all off. Slowing gives you time to think and react. Charging along at 20 knots is never safe in thick weather. If you run up a sandbar at that speed you’ll likely do serious damage to the boat, and you won’t get off without expensive help. Nudge the same bit of sand at 3 knots, and you’ll probably incur superficial damage, with a good chance that you can free the boat yourself.

Use sound signals

Few recreational boaters use the correct sound signals in fog. For a power-driven vessel underway and making way, that means one prolonged blast every minute. A vessel under sail sounds one long blast, followed by two short blasts. (Note that even if you have the sails hoisted, a sailboat is classified as a power vessel when the engine is running.) On a still, foggy day, sound travels a long way over water, so even if you think no one else is around, you should sound your horn. I strongly urge you to get a proper foghorn. Those aerosol types may mean that you comply with the letter of the law, but they soon run out of puff.

Don’t be a slave to the screen

Chart plotters and radar are powerful tools, but you should think of them as aids to navigation. Don’t stay glued to the screen. Electronics can be a great comfort, but trust your instincts and remember that there may be other boats in the vicinity that are using the same buoy you are as a waypoint. Electronically guided collisions are fairly frequent, and keep in mind that not all boats show up on radar.

Get familiar with your electronics

Spend time operating the radar and chart plotter so it becomes second nature. This is especially true of radar. You don’t want to reach for the instruction book when you need your wits about you. Practice in good weather so you can compare what you actually see with what is shown on the screen.

Don’t lock yourself in

When it’s damp and cold outside, it’s tempting to stay in the warm pilothouse. Go outside from time to time to look around and listen. Sailors have an edge here, as they likely will already be in the cockpit.

Use your ears

If you’re close inshore and under power, turn off the engine and listen. You might hear other boats or breaking surf that easily could be missed otherwise.

Make sure you can be seen

Many small boats have a poor radar signature and may not be visible to larger vessels. Hoist a radar reflector in the rigging and turn on your navigation lights. The lights obviously won’t make you show up on radar any better, but they are often the first thing you’ll see when you come across another vessel in the fog.

Don’t be afraid to wait or turn back

Listen to the weather forecast. If you are in a harbor, it may pay to stay there until the fog lifts. That’s what I should have done instead of heading out from Greenport. There is no shame in turning back — it’s just prudent seamanship. Be flexible and don’t adhere to a rigid schedule.

Good seamanship requires that you be proactive and at the same time react in a calm and efficient manner to changing conditions. Here are some important points that should help you stay out of trouble when the fog closes in.

Celestial navigation

 

 

I well remember the first time that I worked out my position using celestial navigation – that cross on the chart represented more than my position – now I had joined the big boys, I was a proper navigator. There is a lot of mystique surrounding astro, or celestial navigation and reading texts about it early on only seemed to perpetuate the myth that you had to be some sort of mathematical wiz to actually fix you position on the earth surface using a sextant.

To find our position we must be able to find our latitude and longitude. In the case of GPS this is done automatically usually with a legend or icon on an electronic chart. This takes very little effort on behalf of the operator beyond turning on the unit. These days one would think that there is little point in using observations of planets and stars to find our position and you may be right most of the time but understanding celestial navigation gives the small boat navigator enhanced confidence should all the electronics fail, plus it’s just a cool skill to master.

To get started with celestial navigation I strongly suggest starting with the sun and becoming proficient in what’s known as the noon sight and then if you have the interest progressing from there to other stars and planets. Truth be told if you can use the sun there is almost no point going on from there unless you really want to. By accurately knowing the angle of the angle between the sun and the horizon at noon where you are, called local noon, and the time it’s more than possible to get a very accurate position of where the boat is.

In simple terms the navigator measures the suns altitude using a sextant at local noon then subtracts the reading recorded on the sextant from 90 degrees, which is the total amount of degrees in each hemisphere between the pole 0degrees and the equator, which is 90 degrees. The number that you end up with is called zenith distance, ZD for short. Next we look in the nautical almanac to see what is the declination (the angular distance of the sun north or south of the equator) of the sun was to the nearest hour when noon occurred at your location. Add the suns declination to ZD, if you and the sun are in the same hemisphere, subtract if not. The resulting answer will be your latitude.

To work out longitude it is essential to know the precise moment that local noon occurs, the sun will be due south at this point if we are in the northern hemisphere and due north if south of the equator. We do this with the sextant. There are several ways of doing this, the most often quoted is to keep taking a sight of the sun until it stops rising, it appears to hang at it’s highest point for a minute or so before it starts to fall. The other method is to take a sight of the sun approximately 10 minutes or so before we expect midday to occur, record the time then without adjusting the sextant keep taking sights until the sun starts to descend and the sight corresponds to the one you took earlier, again, record the time. The average of these two reading will be local noon. For instance if you recorded 57.40’16 at 10.34 and the sextant reading once again true at 10.42 local noon would be 10.38. We then refer to the almanac from which we can work out what is known as Greenwich hour angle.

There are 360 degrees around the earth and it takes 24 hours for the earth to revolve which means that each 15 degrees one hour before or after GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) which is also where 0 degrees is.

All this is fairly basic and involves measuring angles with a sextant, noting the accurate time and looking up data in the almanac. The one fly in the ointment is that there are several corrections that have to be taken into account. The first of these is index error and relates to the error that is inherent in the sextant itself, which in many cases are so slight as to be inconsequential. The second is dip, which is the height of eye of the observer above the horizon. On a small boat this may be fairly small but on the bridge of a ship could be 80 feet or more. The last one is time error, which you need to add or subtract if your watch runs at all fast or slow.

A note on sextants.

It is possible to buy a fairly cheap plastic sextant, which gives acceptable results, but I’ve found that they do need careful handling as they can go out of adjustment fairly easily. If you are planning on doing much celestial navigation then you may well find that you want to invest in a quality instrument. It’s possible to spend $2000 on a sextant but it’s also possible to buy an Astra111B a popular model that is perfectly adequate and robust. EBay is good place to look too and there are some bargains to be had. Buy the best that you can afford and it will last several lifetimes.

Get used to handling the sextant, practice really does make perfect, start ashore before you try to do on the boat. The boat motion is another factor that makes taking sights difficult.

For further reading might I suggest: Celestial Navigation For Yachtsmen by Mary Blewitt

 

Image courtesy of the U.S Navy

Repairs and upgrades - Norcold and Simrad

This picture (above) was taken with taken with my iPhone at close range and as I could not get far enough back so you will have to excuse the parallax error, but it shows the fairly well, I think the progress to date on the new fridge installation. The old fridge was noisy, the seals were worn so it ran all the time, it used a ton of electricity, iced up with gay abandon and the small freezer compartment door did not properly close. With that said I am pretty impressed that it managed to soldier on for 26 years, but it had to go and is being replaced with another, which like the first is from Norcold. The fridge is a dual voltage 12/120 model which looks pretty slick, but installation has required some modifications to the cabinet work around the unit as the overall size is a little smaller. The old fridge had what can best be described as flange around the unit and this screwed into the wooden framework. This had two functions, it sealed the gap between the fridge and the cabinetry preventing dirt and debris from entering and secondly held the fridge in place preventing it from moving when the boat moved about at sea. The new fridge lacks the flange which I miss and I hope that at some time in the future Norcold sees the wisdom in reintroducing this feature to at least some of the models in their range. The 0788 model that I am installing is fixed in position with screws through the feet which are visible when the door is opened. This works well on my boat but I could see may be a problem where the fridge is located higher from the sole where a solid attachment point may not be available. Because the fridge is less tall than the original I also have room for cutlery drawer and you can see the drawer front temporarily taped into position for photography purposes.

After talking with the technical folks at Norcold I found out that I had been operating my fridge incorrectly in the past. I had always assumed that with a dual voltage fridge one had to turn off the DC breaker before turning on the AC breaker to power the fridge but it seems that I should have been keeping both the 12 volt and 120 fridge breakers on when I was aboard. Apparently there is an automatic relay in the back of the fridge which by default runs off AC voltage, if this is interrupted or unavailable then the appliance automatically switches to 12 volts DC until 120 volts AC is restored. They have been wired that way for years, it seems, but I never knew, and now you do too.

I've never liked the way that many radar and chart plotter displays just tend to get bolted down to any free bit of space with the cables sprouting out of the back. I think this messy and I wanted to do something better. Seaglass has surprisingly never had a multi function display installed at either helm and this is something that is being addressed during this winter and spring fit out season. The truth is that I have a bunch of equipment on long-term loan from the good folks at Simrad for a series of features that I have been working on about installing an NMEA 2000 network. At the heart of the system is a beautiful 16 inch NSS evo2 MFD. I've played about for ages trying to work out the best location for this with initial thoughts that it might go above the windscreen. This looked like a good bet and would have worked well with the general refit of the headliner and lighting upgrades but a mock-up showed that it was just too far forward of the helm seat to make controlling it as easy as it could be. So further head scratching and another mock up brought me to the point I am at now with what I can best describe as a teak nacelle which sits on the self and to port of the main  steering compass. The MFD can now be controlled with relative ease from the comfort of the helm seat and the large screen is easy to read from most anywhere in the salon making watching movies when swinging on a hook a distinct possibility. I am going to miss the flat surface on which I placed pilot books and charts when underway and so I have to find alternative placements for these, but I think the trade-off worth it. 

In the picture above the MFD has been temporarily dropped into place just to see how it will look when finished properly; there's to be a matt black surround between the teak 'eyebrow' and edge of the MFD but this will not be installed until after the nacelle has been varnished to match the rest of the boat interior. Also, you will notice that the teak is still somewhat of a rather odd color. The nacelle is made of 9 mm marine ply onto which I have glued teak veneer with the adjoining corners and eyebrow from solid teak. Teak when freshly cut has a definite green tinge but this soon fades and the color reverts to that familiar honey tone within a few days and the nacelle is still in that phase but by the time the varnishing starts the color will be somewhat different to what you see here. I should add that the color continues to mellow even through the varnish and so with time will blend in well with the 25-year-old teak interior.

 

B and G Vulcan and Simrad G07 - a brace of beauties

 

Simrad have just announced the GO7 Multi Touch display but before we get into that let's take a step back and remember a time not too long ago before multi function displays when there were chart plotters whose only job was to display and chart and show where you were. Not long after that we started to see charts that could be overlaid with radar data and then from there....well you get the idea. I am sure that I am not the only person out there that till tends to call them chart plotters even if they can do everything now from operate the stereo to control the autopilot.

So then it is somewhat gratifying to see the Simrad G07 which is being marketed as a 'stand alone' display harkening back to earlier times when there were just chart plotters. The unit itself has a 7 inch display and this helps keep the price down to a reasonable level. The list price has been announced as $799 but expect to see these discounted in the retailers when they go on sale to the boating public at the beginning of May. I suspect that there will be lot of interest in these units and being small with an attractive price point they will surely find their way onto many center consoles and smaller boats. There are basically two versions of the unit the G07 with the Simrad badge and an almost identical B and G version called the Vulcan which features the very useful SailSteer function which is aimed as you might have guessed squarely at sail boaters.

Both units should sell well and the absence of knobs on the front means that operation is akin to using a tablet, so anybody that has a smart phone should be able to get the unit up and running right out of the box with very little time spent looking over the owners manual. Another way that the price is kept down is to reduce the amount of connections on the back which on the G07/Vulcan is limited to just three; an NMEA port,  power and a connection for a sounder. Lacking is an Ethernet connection so radar is not supported and also missing is a video input. All that said this is one smart little unit and I would have jumped at the chance to get my hands on a Vulcan for my Golant Gaffer to replace the rather aging Raymarine unit that was still in place when I sold the boat. I think Navico, the parent of Band G and Simrad are onto a winner with this unit and I look forward to seeing how sales shape up in the coming months especially seeing they are making them available, wisely in my view at the beginning of the 2015 boating season.

 

Simrad NSS evo 2

I am in the process of finishing up a feature on NMEA 2000 and 0182 protocols which will be published soon and as part of that I have some new marine electronics on long term loan which I am linking together to show how a network is set up. I don't want to go into great detail here and you'll have to wait or the full story later but one of the major components in any on board system is the MFD (multi function display). Often called the chart plotter by many folks including me because not so many years ago that is they did was to display a chart they have since morphed into a truly do anything display that can display data from multiple sources and that is where the net work comes in. In the old days of NMEA 0183 there were what is known as 'talkers' and 'listeners' where essentially something like a depth transducer was a talker and the instrument at the helm was the listener – data was only sent in one direction. That changed with NMEA 2000 and now we have a situation where data can be transferred at much faster rates and in addition is bidirectional meaning things can be both talkers and listeners.

So back to the multi function display which is the heart of the system. At the risk of over simplifying things it helps to think of this as the brains of the network in much the same way as your computer is the hub of things on your desk to which other stuff is connected, scanner, printer, internet etc etc. Anyway the main thing that we want an MFD to do is to tell us where we are and where we are going so the main function is still as a chart plotter but then as we add other things to the network it can display such things as depth, radar, engine data and even control the stereo system aboard.

Announced at METS at the end of last year the Simrad NSS evo2 comes in a range of sizes 7,9,12 and 16 inches and as you might have guessed the evo2 moniker means that this is the second iteration of the NSS series of MFD's. Now you may be wondering why I am mentioning these almost a year after they were first introduced. Well the models at last years METS were early examples and deliveries to the press and retail markets did not start in earnest until a good way through this current year. I am not sure if that was a good or bad thing but I do know that folks like me who saw those early pre production models couldn't wait to get their hands on one for themselves. Simrad sent me a 16 inch and so far I am beyond impressed, the screen is super clear has a fast refresh rate thanks to a quick processor and the display is customizable to suit individual tastes. On the two smaller models the screen can be split in two for say a radar on one half and a chart on the other but on the larger 12 and 16 models there is the option of splitting the screen into 3 or 4 due to the extra real estate available. The displays use what they call 'touch sensible' which is very similar to the Raymarine Hybrid touch interface in that you can navigate around all the functions, access the menus etc using either the knob at the upper right of the display or the touch screen. I have found that the touch screen works well when at the dock or in calm conditions but when the wind and seas pipe up the knob is the better choice. One other thing that I like is that the the NSS has a glass bridge look. Although the displays can be trunnion mounted they look so much better when mounted flush into the boat dash and with only an 8mm protrusion just look so damn cool.

The 12 inch version which is likely to be the most popular model almost won the BWI technology award at this years recent NMEA conference at which I was head judge but was pipped at the post by a new camera from FLIR.  

Ipad as low cost chart plotter

I have been using my iPad as a navigation tool almost since the time that I got it and I have to say that I like it although it does have some short comings in one or two areas. The first of these is that the iPad is very difficult, no make that impossible to see in bright day light and secondly the it is not water proof or even splash proof come to that. For that reason I do not use my iPad as a main navigation tool but as a secondary unit either at the chart table or some other area on the boat where it will be protected from water and sun.

I attach the Ipad to the boat with a Sea Sucker mount which I wrote about here. One of the best $99 that I ever spent.

 

Many of the charting apps that you can use on your iPad can also be used on the iphone but the small screen size of the phone reduces the functionality of the charting somewhat. It is useful to understand a little about electronic charts which come in two basic forms depending on the manufacturer; raster and vector charts. Raster charts are scanned images of paper charts, a picture if you will over which the little cursor or icon of you vessels position moves. Vector charts on the other hand are for the want of a better word full electronic charts where additional information can be added or subtracted to the chart without affecting the base layer. With a raster chart as you zoom in you just get a bigger image of what is on the chart and thus at very large magnifications details will start to get lost as the coastline edges, depth contours and other information starts to become pixelated, a bit like looking at a newspaper through a powerful magnifying glass. These problems are somewhat alleviated with a vector chart and as you zoom in additional detail may be revealed to the user such as spot depths and other data which is not shown when zoomed out. You also have the option of turning layers on and off so you can thus show and hide some information depending on your personal preferences.

Although I have not tried all the charting apps that are out there I have been using three regularly; Navionics, Jeppesen and the Nobletec

I started using the Navionics app almost as soon as I got my iPad 3 years ago and have to say that I like it a lot. The cartography is virtually identical to that found on my aging Raymarine unit it is easy to use and is not burdened with two many functions that you will never use. Navionics is a vector chart app and although you can't use a 3D display like you can with the Jeppesen and Nobletec I am not too fused about that. In concert with the other apps you can choose to overlay Google earth so that will give you some idea of the surroundings, especially useful if you are trying to make out some landmarks approaching a strange harbor for instance. Another cool feature which to be honest is not one that I have used a lot is to take a picture with the Ipad while the app is open which is then geotagged to the location that you took it. In other words you could take a shot of a harbor entrance and then a little camera icon pops onto the screen of the location to show that you have a picture then anytime you touch the icon the shot pops up, very nifty. $55

The Jeppesen has 3D viewing meaning that you can by sliding your fingers up the screen lay the horizon down to give you some idea of perspective. The Jeppesen uses there own C map cartography and in may ways this is more colorful than the Navionics charts if you like that sort of think. However I do find the screen a little fussy and there are a ton of small button icons along the bottom of the screen which I still do not understand all of what they do and exactly what their function is. What is useful however is the compass function which displays a compass rose on the bottom of the screen and rotates in a very lifelike way just like a proper magnetic compass does.$30

The latest app to me at least is the Nobletec time zero which like the Jeppesen has 3D capability, route planning, real time tidal updates, tidal vectors and currents and weather data. What is cool about this is that it is free to try, it comes with chart of Miami so you can fiddle with it a bit and find out if t is for you and if so you can download the charts for North America for $40 which is a real bargain. Charts are saved on the device itself so even if you do not have a wifi or cell connection you can still use it for navigation. The screen shot is actually from last weeknd when I was aboard and as you can see it is a very clear and easy to understand chart. Click on it to make it larger if you like.

 

 

Oarsman's compass

I have been rather slack about posting on the blog lately, mostly due to family and other commitments getting in the way and frankly I have just been to worn out to sit at the computer when I get in or up at the crack of dawn. I do have some interesting projects coming up soon though which will be greater in depth than those posts of late. Anyway enough of excuses. 

I was down at water the other day and the first thing that i spotted this rather sweet lapstrake pulling dory. I was admiring the lines and construction from the dock when I spotted the compass in the stern. Obviously this is a boat for serious rowing the compass doing much to keep the oarsman on track when there are no shore side reference points. In fact even if there shore side reference points the wicked tides up her in Maine mean that transits move at an alarming rate and trying to keep a couple of trees aligned or some other points can often mean that you would be trying to row to less than best advantage. The compass in the stern where it is easily seen by the oarsman (or woman) will make steering a straight course that much easier and when pulling hard against a wind one does tend to dip ones head a little. A simple but effective solution which could even have some benefit when rowing from the boat to the dock when the trip is longer than all but a short hop a small battery could even be used to illuminate the compass at night if it has an internal bulb built it to light the card. 

Zeus touch - wow

Chart plotters or more correctly called multi function displays are great. You get an electronic chart along with tons of other information, providing you have the transducers of course such as a radar, depth sounder, wind and even engine data etc.

But to me the most useful feature is the chart, you can see where you are at any time even in thick fog which is comfort and you can put in way points, make up a route and judge with some degree of accuracy at what time you will make your final destination albeit across the bay or across the ocean.

However the one downfall of chart plotters especially for sailing vessels is that they do not take into account that unless the destination is downwind you will have to tack and thus cannot steer straight to your destination. This is the marine equivalent of the GPS in your car telling you to drive in straight line when in reality you have to drive on roads so I was very excited to spend a couple of days with the folks from B and G trying out the new Zeus touch which is a multi function display with a twist.

Brookes and Gatehouse have been around for a long time and have for many years held the market in high end instruments for sailing displays. Now part of the Navico group they have benefited from the cross platform R and D with the Zeus unit looking identical to the Simrad NSS and indeed sharing many of the same features such as wireless networking which allows the user to access all the functions apart from auto pilot controls from a smart phone or tablet. What sets the Zeus apart for the sail boater is that it has some innovative features that would be of little interest to a power boater but make a huge difference when out sailing. To my mind the biggest innovation is lay line feature which shows the helmsman where he should tack in order to make an upwind mark. Very useful for racers but also a boon to cruisers. I am sure that I have not been the only one keen to get around a headland for calmer water only to have tacked too soon and thus requiring additional tacks to make my way point successfully. Added to this the display can be configured in a number of ways but I do like that you can display heading, true wind speed, VMG and such like along the top of the display. One useful feature is the histogram display of wind direction and speed so the user is available to go back over the wind shifts and speed over the last 90 minutes or so and thus he or she should be able to predict with some certainty what the wind is up to, a great feature. Depending on what is connected to the interface bus you also get radar as already mentioned, rudder angle indicator when connected to a suitable pilot and a bunch of other useful features.

The Zeus really is an innovation and will prove to be a boon for recreational and competitive sailors alike. The learning curve is quick and everything is pretty intuitive and I am sure it will if used in the way it is intended, as a sailing diagnostic tool and not just as a chart plotter will make almost anyone a better sailor. Available with 12, 8 or 7 inch screens they have suggested retail prices of US $3,999, $2,745 and $1,599, respectively

Highly recommended.