Marine Electronics

With many of the 38-million-sold iPads winding up on board boats, it’s no wonder there are hundreds of iPad apps that are well suited for the sailing life. This begins Practical Sailor’s three-part series on those apps. Part 1 of the series reports on PS’s field tests of multiple navigation apps—using raster and vector charts—to see how well they perform and how they compare to traditional navigation software. They review looks at the top performers: iNavX, iPad Navionics, and Charts & Tides.

If you are considering buying a satellite phone, much depends on how long you will need it, how you will use it, where you are going and what your cost limitations are. As with cell phones and other communication services, total costs can get complicated with setup charges, access fees, service plans, features packages, and air time bundles. Today’s satphones offer cruising sailors the peace of mind to keep in touch with the office, family, and friends with a private conversation while anywhere on the high seas and open ocean. Practical Sailor looked into the availability, features, functions, limitations, and pricing of the handheld portable satellite phones on the market today. We reviewed the Iridium 9555, Iridium 9575, and Inmarsat Isatphone Pro.

In the November 2011 issue, we compared the chart-plotting features of four small-screen plotter-sounders from Garmin, Humminbird, Lowrance, and Raymarine. In this article, we look at the fundamental sounder functions of five plotter-sounders, priced from $700 to $1,500. The high-end products in this test, the Raymarine A70D and the Garmin 740S, have larger, high-resolution screens, can handle 3D charts, and are designed to network with wind instruments and autopilots. The smaller units were the Lowrance Elite-5, the Humminbird 788ci, and the Humminbird 798ci SI, which has side-imaging capability; these are marketed mostly to anglers. Units were tested for screen visibility, sounding capabilities, and user-interface.

Practical Sailor tested four small-screen chartplotter-sounder combo units priced from $700 to $1,500: Raymarine A70D, Garmin 740S, Lowrance Elite-5, and the Humminbird 798si. While there was a disparity in what features the units offer, the plotter-sounders were similar in terms of the GPS-based functions. Testers looked at ease of installation, ease of use, screen visibility, resistance to fogging, and water/spray resistance. They also compared features including price, man-overboard functions, waypoint and route storage, available charts, chart interface, and user interface. This article focuses on the electronics' chartplotter capabilities. The December issue will include the report on the devices' sounder functions.

Fogging screens, water intrusion, poor visibility in bright sunlight, and slow redraw rates are the most common complaints we get regarding plotter-sounders. Better construction, new screen technology, and faster processors in our current crop of units seems to have addressed these issues. None of our products experienced serious problems during our environmental testing. Our tests focused on four key elements:

Practical Sailor Chandlery: October 2011. This month reviews a pocket video, new mastclimber, and belowdeck comfort.

Most of today’s fixed VHF marine radios come equipped with Digital Selective Calling (DSC) capability, and many high-end handheld VHFs do as well. For years, Practical Sailor has recommended that buyers select a model with this capability—and for good reason: As the U.S. Coast Guard’s new marine radio network Rescue 21 becomes operational, rescue centers are able to receive instant distress alerts from DSC-capable VHF radios. However, spending the extra money to have a feature-loaded, DSC-capable VHF offers little benefit if you do not have the radio properly registered and set up. The Coast Guard recently issued a safety alert, warning that mariners were endangering their lives and those of their crew by having a DSC-capable VHF that lacks identifying information.

Not every sailor has a selection of local sailmakers to choose from. He or she must instead rely on Internet research and phone conversations to find the best sail for the best price. As most of the world’s sail production takes place in a handful of high-volume production lofts abroad (China, Sri Lanka, and Africa), U.S. sailmakers have taken on the role of sail designers—rather than sailmakers.

Practical Sailor Chandlery: August 2011. This month reviews a tiller, tool toter, and smart-phones.

Practical Sailor reports on its test of the new Lowrance BR24 broadband radar. Unlike conventional radar, the BR24 transmits a low-power, frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) signal that varies in tone and frequency. It has low power consumption and is very quiet with very low emissions from its transmit power. It has a high resolution at close range, but can be less effective than conventional radar at picking up distant storm cells and difficult shorelines and has an overall limited range.