Category Archives: Tech Talk
Try the Beta Version of MyNOAACharts
As recreational boaters gear up for a summer of fun on coastal waters and the Great Lakes, NOAA is testing MyNOAACharts, a new mobile application that allows users to download NOAA nautical charts and editions of the U.S. Coast Pilot. … Continue reading
Tech Talk
Burch at the Helm Starpath Navigation founder and BWS columnist David Burch has assemble his technical pieces on a diverse range of cruising and maritime topics into a new book, Burch at the Helm. The book covers the technical aspects … Continue reading
Massachusetts Region 2.1 Chart Set Now Available
Sailing cruisers and power boaters heading to Maine this summer, or to explore the many historic islands of Boston harbor, now have a new Eastern Massachusetts regional charting set from nv‐charts. Region 2.1, Maine South and Massachusetts, covers the coast … Continue reading
A Cruise Ship for Techies?
While the world has no shortage of pie-in-the-sky renderings for floating cities, a new proposal by Silicon Valley start-up Blueseed is perhaps the first to invoke entrepreneurial spirit and the American Dream in its soapbox pitch. Looking for a way to give foreign-born tech … Continue reading
Boat Trader’s Innovative New App
The Boat Trader iPad app is designed to make searching and finding a boat easier. It was developed using technologies that animate the widest selection of boats for sale in the U.S. Users can now access more than 150,000 boats … Continue reading
Stone Shown to be Mythical Navigation Tool
This is some serious old-school sailing technology! The milky white stone found in the remains of a ship dispatched to France in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, which foundered off the Island of Alderney in the English Channel, IS a … Continue reading
World’s Smallest PLB Certified for Use
The tiniest PLB in the world, introduced to the sailing world in January, has now been fully certified for use throughout Europe and the USA after being awarded relevant COSPAS-SARSAT and product approvals. Ocean Signal’s rescueME PLB1 has shown full compatibility … Continue reading
New Maine Chart Set Available from NV-Charts
The coast of Maine, measured directly from one end to the other, is only 228 miles long; but it has nearly 3,000 offshore islands, and a 3,478 mile coastline, making it one of the globe’s most popular cruising and gunkholing … Continue reading
NASA’s Solar Sail Prepares to Fly
Navigating space isn’t as easy as crossing oceans. As Jason Dorrier comments below, there’s no air, water, or earth to push your spacecraft in another direction. As far as space travel is concerned rocket fuels and gravity-assist have been the … Continue reading
T200 Thermal Camera Ideal for Smaller Sailboats
Raymarine’s new compact T200 thermal camera is ideal for sailors wanting all the advantages of the latest thermal technology without the hefty price tag. It’s still not inexpensive, but unlike radar, which only lets the skipper know there is “something” … Continue reading
Innovative iPad/iPhone Attachment for Sailboats
With the iPad and iPhone becoming ever more useful for the sailor, with multiple apps available, a company was bound to come up with some secure attachment systems to made these items of new technology easier to use while sailing, … Continue reading
App Helps Sailors Lost in Fog
A yacht delivery skipper caught in fog with a failed AIS system, used an inexpensive smartphone app to avoid collision with a container ship. Ian Engelbrecht and crew Ibolya Palko were delivering a Jaguar 36 catamaran from Cape Town to … Continue reading
Yanmar Partners with ORACLE TEAM USA
ORACLE TEAM USA announced that Yanmar has been selected as Official Technical Partner. Yanmar, a Japanese company with an intimate knowledge of the world’s oceans, will provide engines for ORACLE TEAM USA’s chase boats during the bid to defend the … Continue reading
San Juan Islands: New Free Cruising Guide Download
Salish Sea Pilot has unveiled a new cruising guide to Washington state’s San Juan Islands, with 60 pages of information and almost 80 illustrations covering the archipelago’s anchorages, marinas and passages. The 2013 edition follows in the wake of Salish … Continue reading
Autopilots About to get More ‘Intelligent’
For the typical short-handed cruising sailor, the autopilot is often the third crewmember, enabling the short-handed crew to be more places at once when necessary, relieving weariness and allowing more sleep for the off-watch crew member. Autopilots have their strengths … Continue reading
eSeaClear Office Opens in Antigua
The office, located a few doors away from Customs and Immigration, has computers for captains to use and full-time staff to help first-time users. “Since eSeaClear is new across all agencies involved in the clearance process, we felt a real, … Continue reading
The Bad Elf GPS Pro
The Bad Elf GPS Pro was designed specifically for pilots, boaters and other outdoor enthusiasts based on feedback collected since the launch of the original dock-connected Bad Elf GPS back in 2010. But they didn’t want to launch another generic … Continue reading
NOAA Announces Free Nautical ‘BookletCharts’
One of NOAA’s handiest navigation products, especially for recreational boaters, has been Coast Survey’s experimental BookletCharts™ — nautical charts that are easy to download and print from home computers. Coast Survey has now moved the BookletCharts from experimental stage into … Continue reading
NOAA and U.S. Power Squadrons Renew Cooperative Charting Program
This week, NOAA and the U.S. Power Squadrons, a non-profit organization dedicated to safe boating, will renew a 50-year commitment to a cooperative charting program that helps to update the nation’s thousands of navigational charts. Under the voluntary program, formalized by a … Continue reading
nv-charts Now Available for Chartplotters
nv-charts, a global leader in highly accurate, detailed maritime chart products, announces the availability of nv-charts for Lowrance, Simrad, and B&G chartplotter systems. The charts are supplied on SD memory cards for chartplotters only, and include all current nv-chart regions … Continue reading
