Safety & Seamanship

Unlike aluminum or steel propane tanks, clear composite tanks allow users to see how much fuel remains, a nice feature in an LPG tank.Following our year-long evaluation of Ragasco’s 9-kilogram one-piece blow-molded tank, Practical Sailor tested the American-made Lite Cylinder, a two-piece composite tank. The two tanks have nearly identical dimensions, and may be a challenge to fit in a standard propane locker designed for metal tanks. In fire tests, composite tanks melt rather than “explode” like metal tanks, giving them a slight edge in safety, and the non-metal tanks resist rusting, a common problem of aluminum LPG tanks.

Practical Sailor found that the full brightness that LEDs offer, coupled with a huge energy savings, a wide tolerance to voltage changes, and a very long expected lifespan, make LED a great alternative to incandescent lights for masthead tri-color. The tradeoff is the considerable heft of the price tag. Practical Sailor tested LED tri-color lanterns from Orca Green Marine (OGM), Signal Mate, and Lopolight. We also evaluated LED tricolor bulbs designed to replace those in the popular Aqua Signal Series 40 tri-color light. Those were bulbs from Lunasea, Dr. LED, and LED Shop.

In an effort to find an inexpensive, reliable way to connect a PC (or Mac) to our onboard electronic navigation system, Practical Sailor testers scouted basic NMEA 0183 multiplexers with good track records. We zeroed in on the easy-to-install MiniPlex Lite from Holland-based ShipModul. This multiplexer was one of the first high-speed NMEA 0183 multiplexers capable of handling the data rates required for some of the newer electronics like AIS receivers. With very little effort, the Mini Plex Lite allowed us to network our Dell Latitude D620 laptop, AIS, GPS, and chartplotter, and it handled the data transfer without a glitch. Our chief gripe: This entry-level model uses the laptop for its power source.

During our testing of pocket navigators for the December 2009 issue, we examined other approaches to propagating a GPS signal around the boat and found some viable alternatives. Several aftermarket options can turn smart phones or PDAs into handheld navigation tools by supplying or sharing reliable GPS data. Practical Sailor looked at a Bluetooth-enabled Globalsat BT-338 GPS receiver with the SiRFStarIII chipset and Franson Technology’s GPSGate software for Windows and Windows Mobile, which was designed specifically for the task of sharing GPS data. Testers found both utilities to be good choices for the job, however, we still caution against relying solely on a PC-based navigation network onboard.

Practical Sailor’s roundup of practical boater websites covers all topics related to sailing, boat owning, and boat maintaining. From weather forecasting and navigation sites to boat-owners’ groups and social networking sites, these links to online sailing resources are editors’ and readers’ top picks from the world wide web.

From gut-wrenching novels to marine maintenance manuals, lessons in boatie Spanish, a sailor’s cookbook, an anchoring handbook, and a new twist on an old classic—here are a few sailing books we’ve plucked from the Practical Sailor library to help get us through the winter. The reading list includes the Annotated Sailing Alone (Rod Scher / Joshua Slocum), the Motion of the Ocean (Janna Esarey), Ten Degrees of Reckoning (Dr. Hester Rumberg), and the Outboard Motors and Marine Diesel Engines maintenance and repair manuals.

This months report on man-overboard recovery (pages 7-11) offers a chilling reminder of why our testers spend so much time evaluating jacklines, harnesses, and other equipment designed to keep us onboard. Safe recovery of a person in the water leaves little margin for error: "A two-minute spinnaker takedown can leave a victim more than a quarter-mile away," writes Technical Editor Ralph Naranjo, author of that report.

In your testing of the West Marine AIS1000 (September 2009), did you identify what NMEA sentences it outputs? I’m thinking of buying one and agree that their documentation is not adequate. I’m trying to determine whether it can be used as a general-purpose, backup GPS receiver.

Practical Sailor tests a cross-section of PDAs, pocket PCs, and smart phones between $100 and $800. Palm OS and Windows Mobile software were included. Readability, functionality and practical application were foremost considerations. Reliability, weather resistance, and batteries were also considered. We evaluated Palm Phones Palm Treo, Hewlett Packard iPAQ, Palm PDA Palm TX, Active Captain MobileSource, Memory Map Navigator, and Ozi Explorer CE. Testers compared the mobile devices to a handheld GPS specifically designed for navigation, the Garmin Oregon 400C.

Practical Sailor testers report on five alternative seasickness treatments and prevention. Acupressure bands Davis Queaz-Away and electrical stimulation bands like the ReliefBands use pressure points on the inside of the wrists to ease sickness. Queasy sailors have long turned to ginger-based remedies at sea, and Sailors Secret Ginger Caps offered relief for mild cases of seasickness, with no side effects. Two recent introductions to the market claim to use herbal therapy to prevent symptoms of seasickness. MotionEaze is a liquid solution of essential oils applied to the soft tissue under the ear lobe. Quease Ease, a cylindrical metal tube with perforations at the top like an inhaler, uses essential oil aromatherapy to relieve symtpoms.