Issue 1, April 2, 2013
Welcome to the maiden entry in Lat-titudes, the blog of Lat Spinney, Director of the Hunt Marine Services Division, where I’ll be highlighting the latest projects we are tackling here at Hunt Marine Services and sharing advice that boaters can put to use at any Lat-itude.
The amazing staff that we have here at Hunt brings a wide variety of engineering and design experience generally not found in a single marine service operation. Whether the project is a refit or complete restoration, or just routine maintenance, power or sail, we can guarantee that a customer’s experience with the Hunt team will be second to none, as will the quality of the workmanship. In the coming months, I’ll look to bring you some insight into some exciting projects we are handling here, but for today’s blog I wanted to focus on marine electronics.
The marine tech market has really reached its stride in the last few years, and many of the latest gadgets and gizmos can truly change the way we go to sea. Some of my favorites among the newest tools are marrying the functional necessities demanded by the yachting industry with the wireless communication technologies available today. A couple of the more popular accessories that we are installing this winter come from our latest preferred technology partners.
Get Your Tablet On Board GARMIN WI-FI ADAPTER & BLUE CHART MOBILE APP
The first is actually a combination of Garmin products.
The on-board Garmin Wi-Fi Adapter combined with the Garmin Blue Chart Mobile App allows captains toremotely plan and create routes and mark favorite waypoints, and even allows passengers to track route progress on a smartphone or table.With the flexibility of the mobile app, captains can plan routes from home (or…ahhem, the boardroom) before transferring the coordinates wirelessly to their networked plotter. The end goal is less time on the dock and more time out in the great blue!
Continuing that theme, the second product we’ve had a lot of demand for this winter is from Siren Marine.
Siren Pixie
The company manufactures a monitoring device that wires directly to the yacht’s control system and allows captains to receive text message updates on critical systems status. So when the bilge pump engages, a message lets the owner know, or when a battery reaches a critical point, a text message can alert the captain. Essentially, there are a lot less surprises awaiting any owner when they get to the dock. The system a can even be used to engage electronics remotely, so if that bilge is concerning a captain can simply fire up the pump remotely. One of the other key features (and this is big) of the Siren Marine products is a GPS locator; so if your vessel is on charter or, God forbid!, stolen a single tap on the smart device shows its exact location in real-time.
It’s hard to believe, it’s finally time to get your vessel back in seafaring condition. Whether it’s a routine tune-up, a major engine retrofit, a simple repair, or the installation of a new device like a Siren Pixie,our factory-trained experts at Hunt Marine Services are available to help you keep your yacht the pride and joy of the fleet.
Boating season is right around the corner. My best advice to you is to make sure you spend the time getting your vessel ship shape now so you aren’t stranded on land when the sun is shining this summer.