Boats, Engines & Equipment Reviews

href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Graduate" target="_blank">The Graduate …Read More

I hate frozen lettuce.  How many times have you pulled from the boat fridge a frozen chunk of produce and after resetting the thermostat, your shrimp thawed and had to be thrown away?  I never know exactly where to set the temperature for the optimum trade-off between food preservation and minimum power consumption and I have no idea what happened in between the off/on cycles which makes me wonder about those shrimp.  Enter a smart little idea called the Freezer Safe.  Powered by two AAA batteries and just a little bigger than a pack of chewing gum, Freezer Safe will record temperatures from -5 degrees F to +122 degrees F (-20 C to +50 C). The Freezer Safe audible thaw alarm starts beeping when it's been above 31 degrees F for 2 hours or more...but must have been below 29 degrees before it starts tracking.  With one in the freezer and one in the box you can see at what temperature the compressor turns on, and how temperature varies during a cycle in different parts of the box. It will record and store high and low temps for 100 days, 100 hours, or 100 minutes, so you'll know exactly where to set your thermostat for maximum performance. Think of the money you’ll save by not throwing away food that may or may not have been put at risk.  And dialing in power consumption means there’s more juice to run other toys aboard.  You can even use it to track temperatures in the engine room during a voyage since it has an attachment ring to keep it from flying around or landing in the bilge. Freezer Safe carries a 90 day warranty and retails for $29.95 for one or $49.95 for a pair. …Read More

Jeffrey Siegel said this week that the ActiveCaptain “X” beta website, under development for the past year, is now fully launched and live, providing everything from a new user interface to NOAA charts and Microsoft Virtual Earth cartography.  The website benefits greatly from having been available in beta form for the last several months and [...] …Read More

Sea-Doo has high hopes its new RXT-X 260 (read my review here) will begin to challenge Kawasaki for endurance-race supremacy, and as such the company is offering a little more incentive for racers to compete aboard the company's products. Yesterday BRP announced that the company has once again expanded its grassroots "Sea-Doo X-Team Bounty" racer contingency program for 2010, which will now offer support for top finishers in offshore and endurance events. BRP also announced the addition of Novice class championship payouts to the existing Expert and Pro closed-course program. …Read More

target="_blank" href="http://www.ilmor.com/marine">Ilmor Marine …Read More

target="_blank" href="http://www.ilmor.com/marine">Ilmor Marine …Read More

href="http://www.showmanagement.com/miami_boat_show_2010/event/" target="_blank">Yacht & Brokerage Show …Read More

The Suunto KB-20 is a hand-bearing and floating compass that weighs only about an ounce.  But it’s not the size that matters here but rather the accuracy.  The Suunto KB-20 allows the user to sight and follow bearings with accuracy better than 1 degree. The Suunto KB-20 has a scale graduation of 1 degree, a reverse scale for readings through an optical lens and regular scale for viewing from above.  It’s bright yellow so you aren’t likely to lose it even in the bottom of a dark bag and it has a lanyard to keep it handy.  This little compass is so accurate it’s actually used in commercial applications.  It can function from -40 degrees F to +140 degrees F and has a self-cleaning capsule bearing.  It’s easy to read and therefore use. It’s not cheap – MSRP is around $85 but you can find it for up to 30% less online.  This compass is not for those who point the bow in roughly the right direction and hope for the best.  This is for those times when precision is everything.    …Read More

Ferretti creates the sensation of spaciousness aboard this new flagship of the company's Altura line. …Read More

In a civil case filed with the Court of the 15th Judicial Circuit of Florida in Palm Beach County, Government Employees Insurance Company—Geico—is suing Super Boat International Productions and its principals John Carbonell and Deana Carbonell. Attorneys for Geico filed the case over the payment of $150,000 by Geico for CBS television coverage of SBI races. Geico’s complaint against SBI alleges: “On August 20, John Carbonell, as president of SBI and Deana Carbonell, as vice president of SBI made false representations regarding the Miss Geico Racing Team boat participating in races organized by SBI. At that time, it was represented to the Plaintiff that the SBI races would be shown on CBS television on Saturday afternoons from October, 2009 through December 2009. Additionally, Geico was provided with a press release regarding the fact that SBI racing would be broadcast on the CBS Television Network. Based upon the representations of SBI and Carbonell, Geico entered into a contract and paid to SBI the sum of $150,000. “In fact, at the time the representations set forth above were being made by SBI and Carbonell to the Plaintiff, both SBI and Carbonell knew these representations that were being made to Geico by the Defendants were false since SBI had never paid any of the sums required to be paid to CBS, and at the time that the agreement was executed by Geico and SBI, SBI was in arrears in its payments to CBS and was unable to perform as required under its agreement with Geico.” Geico is suing for $150,000 plus interest and legal fees. …Read More