some years ago, a friend
asked me to help deliver his
sailboat from Anacortes, Wash-
ington, to Seattle, following
a late-season cruise in the
gorgeous San Juan Islands.
The mid-November evening
was dark and damp, and our
thinly staffed crew was for-
tifi ed with thickly insulated
jackets, Gore-Tex foul-weather
gear and piping-hot coff ee. ¶
The boat, however, was fairly
light on electronics. While she
carried a listen-only AIS, we
were naked of radar and bereft
of a thermal-imaging camera,
which are extremely useful on
Pacifi c Northwest waters that
are rife with heavy metal (con-
tainer ships) and deadheads
(upturned logs, with their root
balls exposed to the water’s
surface). ¶ Fortunately, our
passage was a cold but quiet
one, and while the AIS kept
us clear of commercial traf-
fi c by quantifi able distances,
we had no choice but to trust
the big-ocean theory when it
came to dodging deadheads.
¶ Our needs would have been
diff erent in, say, the sun-kissed
Bahamas and Caribbean, or if
we’d been enjoying the freshwa-
ter solitude of the Great Lakes.
Most yachts are delivered with
a bevy of electronics and sen-
sors, including multifunction
displays, GPS receivers, radar
and VHF radios, but diff erent
itineraries have area-specifi c
hazards, including shifting
sandbars (Bahamas and Carib-
bean), heavy commercial traffi c
(Great Lakes and Puget Sound)
and potentially hull-damaging
debris (Pacifi c Northwest). ¶
These real-world hurdles can
be ameliorated with itinerary-
specifi c equipment.
Bahamas & Caribbean
The Bahamas and Caribbean
are world-class destinations,
but the Bahamas experiencesregular shifting sandbars, and
the Caribbean has its share of
tricky, reef-protected passes in
places such as the U.S. Virgin
Islands’ St. Croix. Addition-
ally, some of these waters are
beyond U.S.-based satellite-
weather coverage. ¶ Some
weather services focus cover-
age on the United States, but
outside of that footprint, the
information isn’t accessible.
¶ “Furuno’s Fax-30 weather
fax delivers digitized weath-
er information, but it doesn’tuse any printed paper or con-
sumables, and it automatically
captures the latest weather,”
says Eric Kunz, Furuno’s senior
product manager. ¶ The black-
box Fax-30, Kunz says, receives
its information from shoreside
weather stations around the
world, with experts editing the
weather information. While
Kunz cautions that the Fax-30
requires some user knowledge
when it comes to determining
the best channels, the service
is free, and mariners can viewthe data on a networked PC
or Furuno TZtouch2 multi-
function display. ¶ When it
comes to plying question-
able waters, Jim McGowan,
Americas marketing manag-
er at FLIR/Raymarine, says
boaters can never have enough
high-quality charts from dif-
ferent manufacturers. Baha-
mas- and Caribbean-bound
cruisers can supplement exist-
ing cartography with off erings
from the United Kingdom Hy-
drographic Offi ce and WaveyLine Charts. ¶ “You want a lot
of diff erent chart options for
the Bahamas and the Carib-
bean,” McGowan says, adding
that Raymarine developed its
Lighthouse operating system
to display cartography from
any manufacturer. “This lets
us talk to smaller, boutique
chart-makers and give them
a pathway to get their PC charts
to the Raymarine family.” ¶
Dave Dunn, Garmin’s direc-
tor of sales and marketing for
marine, and Steve Thomas,Simrad’s product line director,
both say forward-looking sonar
is another wise investment, so
long as users understand the
technology’s range ( ballpark
300 to 500 feet) and safe op-
erating speeds (about 5 to 10
knots). As long as users respect
these guidelines, forward-look-
ing sonar is a game changer for
wending through keel-crunch-
ing reefs and dodging sandbars.Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are premier
freshwater cruising grounds.
However, the myriad cities
and towns that punctuate their
shorelines portend a heavy vol-
ume of commercial shipping.
Moreover, the Midwest’s blis-
tering summer weather fuels
some of the country’s fi ercest
electrical storms. ¶ Here, a
smart upgrade includes Siri-
usXM Marine Weather, which
uses a black-box receiver to
provide graphical information
that can be overlaid atop com-
patible multifunction displays.
Users can view current weather,
including information on the
direction of cells, their speed
and whether they contain light-
ning; NOAA marine forecasts;
and proprietary fi shing infor-
mation for anglers. Note, how-
ever, that SiriusXM Marine
Weather is a graphical-only
layer that cannot be used for
weather-routing purposes. ¶
In addition to satellite weath-
er information, Kunz points
to radar as a critical Great
Lakes cruising tool. While a
one-radar installation works,
a much smoother setup is a
large, open-array radar set
to long range, and a smaller
radar that delivers close-
range perform ance, giving
the navigator a huge amount
of situational awareness with-
out having to share displays or
jump ranges. ¶ “Doppler ra-
dar is [another] critical tool,”PACK YOUR BIG EYES
Spotting objects and aids to navigation at a distance
is key, especially if there’s also commercial traffi c,
deadheads and tricky navigation. Carry a pair of
high-quality, powerful and waterproof marine-specifi c
binoculars that off er a water-resistant lens coating,
an integrated and dampened (or digital) compass, a
durable and grip-friendly outer body, and high-
defi nition optics. Image stabilization is a plus, as are
integrated range fi nders and positive-fl otation straps.
Many off erings exist, and brands including Bushnell,
Canon, Nikon and Steiner deserve serious attention.M A RCH 2 01 8 YACHTING 75