Marine Technology - Ocean Navigator

31 Dec

Victron BMS wins 2021 Husick award

Tim QueeneyBatteries, Marine Technology

The 2021 winner of the Ocean Navigator Chuck Husick Marine Technology Award is the Lynx Smart Battery Management System (BMS) (www.victronenergy.com/battery-management-systems/lynx-smart-bms). The Lynx unit is a full-featured BMSystem for managing lithium batteries, with capabilities like a battery monitor showing state of charge, a pre-alarm signal, Bluetooth connectivity, local and remote monitoring using a Victron GX device and more. Husick award judge and voyager Rebecca Childress wrote in an email, “Victron makes amazing products and this one sounds like another great way to stay on top of your electrical setup!” The runner-up finalist was the Groco E Valve series with a…

31 Dec

What is a marinized engine?

Tim QueeneyMarine Technology

In a recent issue that included a story on repowering, we wrote that Volvo marine marinizes Kubota engines for some of its engine offerings. This point brought a response from Stanley Feigenbaum, one of the founders and former owners of Beta Marine engines in the U.S., who informed us that Volvo uses a diesel engine manufactured by the Shibaura engine company as the basis for some of its marine engines. This was helpful, but it raised the question: what exactly does marinizing an engine mean and why is it important? It’s no surprise that the marine engine market is significantly…

31 Dec

Balancing and Busses

Dave McCampbellBatteries, Marine Technology

Editor’s note: Below is Part 2 of an article providing information on choosing and installing a LiFePO4 lithium battery system aboard a cruising sailboat. Part 1 appeared in our 2021 Ocean Voyager annual issue on page 8. Recently we removed 390 pounds of GEL lead acid batteries from our catamaran and replaced them with 100 pounds of lithium (LiFePO4) cells. The LiFePO4 batteries have almost twice the useable capacity and take up half the space. Our cells came from one of the many well-respected lithium factories in China. Most of these have been in business for ten years or more…

31 Dec

Battery changes?

Ann HoffnerBatteries, Marine Technology

Twenty years ago my husband and I were inside a Florida Sam’s Club buying deep-cycle lead acid batteries for our Peterson 44. That same year the Maxi-cat Playstation set a transatlantic speed record with a lithium battery on board. It started a trend in boating. In the years since then, how have lithium batteries done in the boating marketplace? At the 2021 US Sailboat Show in Annapolis I asked vendors whether they sold more lithium than lead acid batteries. Custom Marine Products’ Tom Trimmer said at the last pre-pandemic boat show people asked him to “tell me more about lithium.”…

10 Nov

Marine Electronics, November 2021

Ocean NavigatorMarine Technology

A final approach to an anchorage demands precise steering, sometimes requiring you to stand out on the bow to navigate through a difficult passage. While Wi-Fi-based systems connected to GPS or autopilot are available to aid in this task, a stand-alone remote steering system may be simpler to install, easier on the cruising kitty and simpler to control. Unlike most other areas of the marine electronics industry, only a small handful of manufacturers have gone through the trouble of designing a remote steering device that does not interact directly with a chartplotter via Ethernet or wireless connection. Most skippers are…

31 Oct

Signal GPS improvements

Story and photos by Craig SmithMarine Technology

The incredible accuracy and reliability of the Global Positioning System, which has been in use for more than two decades, has given it the quality of a force of nature — always there, doing its thing, like the seasons or the tides. In reality, of course, a sizeable group of U.S. Air Force personnel and civilian contractors work behind the scenes not only to operate the system but to improve it. Let’s take a dive into a somewhat complicated aspect of GPS that most users never consider: the steady improvements to GPS civilian navigation signals. The original Global Positioning System…

20 Sep

Marine Electronics, September 2021

Ocean NavigatorMarine Technology

Under normal conditions, we can expect our starter and house battery banks to be topped off regularly by the engine alternator and solar panels, along with perhaps a wind generator and water generator system, depending on our charging array. But when we need to charge a nearly dead battery in short order, it pays to have a portable charger handy to get the boat’s electrical system back in shape as quickly as possible. If you are looking for a durable, inexpensive charger capable of starting your main engine and charging your cranking battery bank, the Stanley BC15BS is a highly…

01 Sep

Better than an atomic clock

Story and photos by Craig SmithMarine Technologyatomic clock, chronometer, clocks, GPS, GPS navigation, John Harrison, longitude, marine chronometer, navigation, time

An essential element for navigation is time. For navigation via celestial observations, you need to know your time down to the second. When we get into electronic navigation systems like GPS, second-level accuracy is not good enough. For that application, we need to start adding prefixes like milli-, micro- and nano- to seconds. The better we know time, the more accurate the navigation solution will be. And now the scientists and engineers are devising a new type of timepiece, called a nuclear clock, that will be the ultimate timepiece. One of the great stories in the history of navigation was…

14 Jul

Ocean NavigatorMarine Technology, Newsletter

The possibility of someone stealing our floating palace or some high-end piece of onboard electronic equipment is a frightening thought. Fortunately, there are efficient, affordable digital tracking devices available to assuage our fears and keep our thoughts focused on our cruising aspirations. The SPOT Trace Theft-Alert Tracking Device offers a broad set of features to keep you in touch with its location at all times via your cellular device or home computer. What’s more, it is the only, or one of the only, tracking devices offering coverage in virtually all of North America, Mexico, Europe and Australia, plus limited coverage…

30 Jun

Harry HungateCommunications, Marine Technology

In the past 20 years satellite communications has grown from a novelty item for voyagers to something more like standard equipment for the voyaging boat. Between fixed terminal satcom options and handheld satphones, there are a variety of choices and combination products. And now companies like SpaceX and OneWeb are launching fleets of thousands of low earth orbit (LEO) spacecraft that will provide Internet connectivity to every point on the globe. While these LEO-based systems are primarily intended for land-based users, there will likely be options for mobile and marine users as well. We asked Dave Brengelmann, an avid sailor…