Congratulations to Gia Page on winning the Rose Point Navigation Software Package at the Newburyport Marinas End of Year Celebration!
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Blue Frontier enjoyed a beautiful day at the Newport Boat Show! Check out Blue Frontier installs which were on display at the Newport Boat show. A Rampage 38 (bottom left) from Bosun's Marine with Garmin 4kW open array and 5212. And the Sabre 456 (bottom right) from
Manchester Marine/East Coast Yachts with full Raymarine electronics package. What an important topic for everyone who enjoys the ocean! A very worthy cause to support. Donate now and help get the word out about protecting our waters!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/287212607/into-the-gyre-documentary-film-post-production Effective immediately, Raymarine will be lowering prices on their popular C- and E-Wide MFDs. This is a common first step to a phase out of the product as it looks like they are really banking on their new e-series (e7, e127, etc) to be their flagship models. However, these are still outstanding machines and Raymarine will continue to support them well into the future. Click below to open file of new MAP pricing:
Boatshow season has begun and there are plenty of great new products and ideas to inspire you for the upcoming season.
Blue Frontier has been at the New England Boatshow offering seminars on DSC VHF, AIS, and computer navigation. The latter includes discussion about both PC based and the latest "i" navigation craze. The new Nobeltec software, Trident and Odyssey, are making quite a splash. These programs are loaded with valuable features and have no shortage of "bells and whistles" either. If you are running a Furuno Navnet navigation system, this software will seemlessly integrate into the network and it works off the same "Time-Zero" based plotting engine. Odyssey is being offered at a special introductory price until the end of the February. And if you are an existing Nobeltec user, you can get into this software for about 50% of the retail price! Raymarine is debuting their new e-series displays. Already available in a 7" version, expect to see the 12" on display by Thrusday. Raymarine also released this week that there will be a price reduction in the C and E Wide series, effective immediately. Underwater lighting is hitting a new stride at both the high end market and the smaller trailerable market. Lumishore has introduced LED underwater lights are available that will change colors, limited only by the color spectrum. These lights can now be controlled by an app on your iPad or iPhone. Ocean LED continues to expand its offerings with not only small and trailerable boat lights, but also LEDs that can be used out of the water for the trailers themselves or as spreader or deck lights. Of course, the boatshow is loaded with all sorts of other products from canvas to clothing, electronics, jewelry, fishing rods, magazines, and BOATS!! Spring is a great time to brush up on boating some skills. and there are plenty of resources to get some refresher lessons or maybe add a new feather to your cap. Whether it is a navigation class, fly-tying, learning your electronics, a Captain's license, or commiting to getting some on-board instruction to master docking, winter and spring is the right time. And book early. While it may be a mental adjustment to think about boating in February, the longer you wait to enroll, the more likely classes will be booked. Check out these friends of Blue Frontier to see what offerings they have for spring classroom instruction. Then stick with it and continue with some on-the-water training. Boatwise Marine Training Boston Sailing Center _Blue Frontier has been named as an Authorized dealer for Rosepoint Navigation, the producers of Coastal Explorer Navigation Software. This west coast company has achieved tremendous success in the Pacific Northwest with boaters looking for a simple yet powerful navigation software that allows for system expansion and ease of updates. Call us for more info or visit their site at http://www.rosepointnav.com/ After 2 days of wandering the exhibitors hall and talking to manufacturers and product representatives, it is easy to feel the excitement for the upcoming year in marine electronics. There are a lot of new products out there and there is a lot of work being done to make the things as easy and accessible for the end-user as possible.
A big theme this year seems to be Wifi and Bluetooth compatibility as well as integration and accessibilty through the mobile computing venues like I-"anything" and Android applications. Three items in this field really jumped out to me; the Raymarine e7 multifunction navigation display, the Fusion 700 series multimedia entertainment systems, and the Digital Yacht BoatraNet Wireless Server. Raymarine's newest display is a small MFD at only 7", but there are plans for larger--I was told "much larger"--versions inthe near future. It handles and performs on all the levels we now expect from an MFD, including radar, AIS, camera inputs, fishfinder, etc. Options will include integrated charts or built-in sounder module. touch screen and built-in GPS is standard. But, it also puts out a Wifi signal that you can pick up with any mobile device, enabling you to create a "repeater screen" in the palm of your hand. So imagine you are fishing and the main display is at the helm, but you are back on the aft deck. Using your phone or iPad, you can check what the sounder is showing without having to run back and forth or by another display. You probably already own the second display! There is a free Raymarine App available to enable the reception. On the down-side, it is not a full functioning repeater. In other words, if you want to switch screens from fishfinder to plotter, you need to go back to the main unit. But, this unit, which is schedule to begin shipping this winter, will have a very nice price point, making it an attractive option for a base unit to be expanded on over the years. Base units should be around $1500. The Fusion 700 Series Entertainment System will have true NMEA2000 compatibility, allowing you to plug it into the N2K network with an unlimited number of remote controls around the boat. It has four speaker zones which can be named and has built-in amplifiers for 3 of the zones. There is plenty of power here. Plus, if you plug it into a wireless router, you will be able to control the player and the various media on it from any i-product or Android device. And the options are many. Like the 600 series, you can get a DVD version, or one that has a built-in dock for iPhone/iPod. Plus, there will be a USB port allowing you to have media (audio or video) from an additional source. Because the remotes are all plugged into the NMEA2000 network, they can also show any data from the buss, including navigation, depth, wind, etc. with 2-4 lines of data. You just scroll through the pages. The Digital Yacht BoatraNet system is an impressive wireless network server for your boat, allowing you to establish a network on your boat that has a large array of tools already built-in. BoatrNet establishes a "hotspot" on your vessel which allows you to access it via any web browser on ANY capable devicelike iPod/Pad/Phone, Android phones and pads, PC or Mac computers. The server accepts input from NMEA0183 and (coming soon) NMEA2000 networks. It has a USB port for the input of a wide array of formatted files, including music (MP3), documents (PDF), video (MP4), and phots (JPEG). This data is installed to the system via any USB device or data stick. once the data is on the server, it can be accessed by up to 250 of the above mentioned devices at any time. For example, if the kids want to listend to music or watch a video, they can log on and listen on their own device. And multiple devices can access multiple files at any time. They do not need to be all listening to the same channel. The browser page has an easy to navigate User Interface which has simple icons for the various features. beyond music and video are a suiote of valuable navigation tools and interfaces including instruments, AIS, and a plotter. Built in is a Navionics Silver embedded chartplotter system, allowing you to use basic plotter features on your mobile device. This is a much more solid format than using the straight Navionics app for an iPhone, for example, because the BoatraNet system is accessing the true navigational data from NMEA0183 or 2000 and applying that data to its built-in plotter and charts. It has an advantage over the previously mentioned Raymarine E7 as the BoatraNet is truly interactive through the device, it is not just a repeater screen. If you add an optional external boosted WiFi antenna, BoatraNet will seamlessly integrate into an internet hotspot, allowing full browsing access from any of the connected mobile devices. It is like having a wireless router network on your boat. this is ideal from folks who spend time at the dock and want to have access to the web but not be stuck on the computer below decks. The BoatraNet system is an open platform with the developers rapid adding new features and taking input from customers about the features they would like to see. In the near future, expect options that will allow the system to "Tweet" messages that provide data on vessel conditions (when linked to NMEA2000 network) like bilge and battery levels. More to come.... This year's annual NMEA convention is in Ft. Meyers, FL. The convention is an "insider's" show for manufacturers, dealers, and others and provides an opportunity to get together and discuss many of the issues and topics that effect the Marine Electronics industry and, consequently, you the customer. This includes input from organizations such as the FCC, the US Coast Guard, and numerous smaller working groups.
One of the highlights of the convention is the Exhibitors Hall, where manufacturers set up displays of their latest products, often prototypes, in an effort to woo dealers and installers. Essentially, it is not unlike a boatshow environment, but everything is Marine Electronics. This year has over 50 manufacturers booths covering smaller markets like Software manufacturers, underwater lights, thermal cameras, and NMEA2000 products all the way to the "big players", like Raymarne, Garmin and Furuno. It is a great way for Dealers, like myself, to see what is coming and to use that knowledge to help you find the best product for your needs. Another unique opportunity is in the real time demostrations where numerous manufacturers rig out boats for true, on the water experiences with theri equipment. Those of you who know me know that one of my big caveats with marine electronics is that "Everything looks good on the show room floor". In other words, we can be really drawn in by the LOOKS of a product at boatshows or in show rooms. But the true test is how it performs in real world environments. These on the water demos provide a glimpse into that reality. I am currently signed up for two such demos; one with Geonav, to look at their displays and highly praised Autopilot and another with FLIR, the thermal imaging company who now owns Raymarine. FLIR also has close ties with Furuno as well as Nobeltec navigation software (more on that later). A third trip is scheduled as a fishing trip, sponsored by various manufacturers. Not sure how that will play out yet. Either way, I intend to present feedback about each trip for you to hear about how products behaved in real, on the water use. Stay tuned.... As many of you know, in addition to Blue Frontier, I am the acting captain aboard a sailboat down in Newport, RI. It is New York Yacht Club Swan 42. Admittedly, this somewhat schizophrenic existence can make my scheduling and availabilty a bit tighter than normal during the busy months of May, June and July. It is during these months that I spend about 1/3 of my time in RI prepping and racing the boat that I "run". As "captain" my duties include building the boat in the spring, rigging and stepping, and tuning the mast, making sure the bottom is sanded smooth and race ready, prepping the interior equipment, and overseeing the launching and delivery of the boat arounf New England for racing. While we are racing, I am just another member of the crew. The Swan 42 class has very strict one-design rules (all the boats are as identical as possible) including one that says the owner of the boat must be the helsman during racing. This week I have the privelige of sailing in what has quickly become an international sailing phenomenon, the New York Yacht Club's semi-annual Invitational Cup. This regatta brings together some of the best teams of amatuer sailors ffrom around the globe to compete in the strict one-design racing. The 2011 event includes 4 US teams, all of whom had to compete in elimination qualifier series' in order to attend, as well as teams from places like England, Japan, Argentina, Ireland, Finland, Norway, and Austrailia. The boat that I run, Apparition, won the right to be the "home team" for the NYYC and essentially "Defend the Cup". The racing is based in Newport, RI Tuesday through Saturday, September 13-17 and overlaps with the Newport Boat Show. Please follow us online at www.invitationalcup.org where you will find results, photos and commentary from each days racing. There is also some very interesting data available at www.kattack.com where you can watch GPS, computer generated replays of each race. In the results pages and photos we are listed as New York and we are hull number 15. |
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