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Boatbuilding with Robots
This 8-axis robotic CNC machine can do a month’s worth of work in a few days
RCMSAR And Facilitating Marine Rescue From The Cloud (BLOG/VIDEO)
My unit of the RCMSAR had 87 calls in 2015, making it the busiest volunteer marine SAR station in Canada. It's a situation that motivates a tech enthusiast and advanced crew member like myself to think about better tools and procedures.
Furuno NXT & Garmin Fantom, Doppler Marine Radar Is Here! (BLOG)
Furuno and Garmin are both announcing new solid state radars here at the Miami Boat Show and boy are they great products.... I mean, can I get a HOLY MACKEREL!?!
Google And Baykeeper Team Up To Map California Sealevels
With the help of Google, Torqueedo electric power, solar panels, and a specially designed multihull boat, the Baykeeper project is hard at work photographing some 500 miles of coastline around the San Francisco Bay area.
Pilot Line Autopilot, Unfinished Business
At the end of his career, a very experienced engineer came up with what he believes to be a superior autopilot technology, but it will never become available to boaters unless someone new carries the project forward.
Massachusetts Builder Tests Unmanned Catamaran (VIDEO)
Though far more in the realm of cool as opposed to power cruising, Autonomous Marine Systems has had its “Datamaran” in the Charles River since Monday for testing.
New Battery Technology
Marine batteries, their design, use, and charge/discharge abilities, have been a subject of intense interest within the recreational marine industry for decades. I clearly recall a meeting many years ago, when I worked as a boatyard electrician. I sat in the yard managers office with the manager and one of our long-time customers, a fastidious naval architect who had recently completed a roundtrip passage from New England to Bermuda aboard his 40-foot sloop as part of an organized race. In his hand he had a sheaf of papers which contained neatly written columns recording battery voltages, amperes being used, and the time that each reading was taken, which was roughly hourly, as well as an indication of when and how long the engine was used for charging purposes. He was less than content with the ability of his house battery bank to provide for the modest electrical needs of the vessel. It was equipped, of course, with cabin and navigation lights, communication equipment and radar (the latter only being used occasionally at night), as well as a few other small accessories. Even by the standards of the time, the late 80s, it was an electrically simple boat, yet, the batteries could keep up with its needs.