Xantrex announced a major re-design for their webstire today. The new site offers vastly improved customer assistance and technical support features. Check it out...

Xantrex launches new redesigned website with enhanced features, new options, more technical resources

VANCOUVER, B.C., August 31, 2010 -- Xantrex Technology Inc., a subsidiary of Schneider Electric, today launched its redesigned website, www.xantrex.com.

Senior Manager, Marketing & Product Development Grant Dunbar reports that the new website design offers not only a fresh, clean new look, but also much improved, user-friendly navigation featuring an intuitive interactive menu and a vast resource of technical, troubleshooting and product information.

“Working from our own experience and in analyzing select feedback from the field, we have strategically redeveloped and redesigned our Internet presence to create a much stronger and greatly improved tool for our end users, dealers/distributors and aftermarket retailers,” said Dunbar. “Our new website is very engaging and allows visitors to efficiently access information, compare and find related product accessories, plus locate technical and educational data with ease.”

The new website serves the company’s core markets including RV, Marine and Commercial/Industrial Vehicles, via distinguishable sections designed to meet the unique requirements of distributors/dealers, aftermarket retailers, end users, installers, electricians and media.

Besides its cleaner, streamlined interface, the site also offers dedicated product pages with all relevant content and imagery, media library/newsroom, technical downloads, FAQs and educational documents featuring topics of general interest in power electronics, including archival resources housing the company’s recently launched Tech Doctor editorial series. Visitors from all markets can sign up and opt-in to receive the company’s latest product updates including the introduction of new innovative power solutions, and more.      

Another major upgrade to the site is the dedicated Custom Power Solutions section designed for OEMs and aftermarket partners. Site content highlights the capabilities and services offered by the newly created Xantrex Business Development Team in the emerging niche markets of backup solar, wind, electric vehicle and automotive markets, including direct contact inquiry links.   

On Friday I shared a press release on one of the new Hella LED light fixtures. Since then I've heard from one of our readers about a potential problem that I always forget about, using modern LEDS with dimmer controls.

The bottom line here is simple, some of the new generation LED lamps may not be compatible with dimmer controls used in some lighting installations. The rather sophisticated control circuitry used on some of the latest (Hella included) light fixtures is designed to overcome an earlier problem with the LEDS operating under varying voltages found on board. Well with a simple resistive dimmer control, guess what, the variable voltage output from the dimmer might end up being compensated for by this newer circuitry, rendering your dimmer useless. So, if you have light dimmers and are going to swap out older incandescent lighting with LEDS, check with your LED manufacturer about how to deal with dimmer controls and get their recommendation.

Somehow I'm not too surprised at one of the newsbites that came in earlier today. It seems that the results of a survey conducted recently by the Alliance for Safe Navigation has discovered that most of us are terrible at keeping our charts up to date. The survey found that 64% of the respondents are not concerned enough about their navigational aids to make needed updates.

Further the survey disclosed that 79% of boaters fail to track US Coast Guard updates as found in regionally avaliable Notice to Mariners documents.

As I think of some of the areas I've cruised here in the US, today's revelations are  particularly scary to me.

 I'm thinking about the Outer Banks here. Lots of moving sandbars and super shallow water. The Florida Keys? Same thing. Were I live in New England we don't have as many sandbars, but we have some really big rocks, and by the way they don't move much if somebody hits them with their boat. The rock usually wins that encounter. I just came back from a cruise in the San Juan Islands in Washington state. More big rocks.

The bottom line here is that one of the fears I talked about in a recent interview Soundings Magazine did with me seems to be totally supported by this survey. The fear I expressed was that too many boaters today rely way too much on their electronics to tell them everything. But remember folks this stuff is only as good as the latest update for the electronic charts. Even then, things go on in between updates that you need to be aware of. Aids to navigation move, fishing gear gets relocated, sandbars shift location... all nice to know items. How can you find out? Its easy, simply go to the USCG Navigation web site and download the latest Notice to Mariners before you head out on your next trip. The web address: http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/ Do it now, before you have to make friends with your local SeaTow or Boat US salvage operator.... 

Back in May I received a surprise call from the editor of Soundings magazine, Bill Sisson. For those not in the know, Soundings is a well known East Coast boating publication. He wanted to interview me... Well I was a bit flattered and the whole idea forced me to go back through some of my boating experience and reflect on things past and present. Also, it forced me to go back through a pile of photo albums because the magazine needed some photos of me doing boating things. I had a blast poring over the photos and studying the various stages of my boating life and digitizing the photos finally. Of course I was a bit put back because for some reason or other I don't exactly look like I did 20 years ago. Somehow my hair color has changed a bit and my body mass has increased. So anyhow, for those of you who may be wondering who Ed is, Boats.com has re-published the article and its online now. Follow this link to read the whole article: Ed Sherman Talks Boats  http://features.boats.com/boat-content/2010/08/ed-sherman-talks-boats/

Also, for those following this blog let me give you a little insight into some up and coming events over the next few weeks. I'm officially on vacation but will continue to post when I can get to an area with internet access. Tomorrow, I'm going to be in the lab at Blue Sea systems and we're going to be shooting some video of some high current fuses burning up. Why you ask? My good friend Wayne Kelsoe, who is the chief engineer for Blue Sea Systems and I are trying to study and find some solutions to a vexing problem that many people don't think about, proper over-current protection for increasingly larger and more powerful battery banks on cruising boats, both power and sail.

Few cruisers are aware that if there is a short circuit at or near one of these battery banks, the potential for an on board fire is quite real. Anyhow, expect to see some new video of our tests on my You Tube channel within the next few days. It could be interesting. We may discover that the fuse that's protecting your bow thruster or anchor windlass for example, may not actually function when you need it most.

Thursday I'll be sailing through the San Juan Islands with my wife and taking many photos and video. I'll be on the lookout for some interesting boating events along the way. So stay tuned, we'll see what we come up with.

This past weekend I had the honor of being one of the judges for the annual Mystic Seaport Classic Yacht rendezvous.

This is an event I always look forward to because I get a chance to see some really beautiful boats. Beyond that I also get a chance to see up close and in great detail what efforts have been made in any restoration efforts. Some of the owners are really handy and do a fantastic job with these old gems. I'm jealous of the amount of free time they have to accomplish all that they do.

This year as I looked at the boats in the grouping I was responsible for (power boats under 40') I found myself reflecting on where we have been and where we have come in terms of technology. I also found myself thinking about the ABYC Standards for recreational boats as they exist today, and how they have evolved since 1954, in large part due to lessons learned the hard way over time. My next few installments here are going to graphically illustrate the where we are and where we were, and the why we needed to make changes along the way.

So, to start out I'll begin with something seemingly basic, engine instrumentation. First the old:

What you see above was found on a mid-thirties built boat that had  been re-powered during its lifetime with some Chrysler Crown engines. Understand that from a safety perspective, the ABYC considers engine instrumentation and monitoring quite important. After all, if your engine quits on you at the wrong moment, you could be in serious danger. The cluster above includes a tachometer, water temperature, oil pressure and alternator voltage output from each of the twin engines. So, you can monitor an engine's vital signs while underway, and with enough knowledge, react and affect repairs if needed before things reach a crisis state. This of course assumes you understand what the instruments are telling you. The way I explain this to most people is quite simple. Establish what the norm is for your gauge readings. Anything other than the norm means something is changing and needs attending to. Keep an eye on your engine gauges all the time when underway.

Now for the new, to compare and contrast:

The shot above is also of a twin engine installation package. Besides the two electronic engine monitor gauges in the upper right corner we see a Raymarine multi-function display and an electronic compass and some other miscellaneous displays. So, in an area not too much larger than the mid-thirties instrument cluster we can not only monitor engine status, but have access to a full-color chart plotter, perhaps with a radar overlay of the waters around you, and have depth information at your figertips. The electronic engine monitors are also equipped with a series of audible alarms that will activate if engine temperature exceeds a preset value, it may have an alarm if maximum engine rpms are exceeded and an alarm that could be activated for just about anything the engine manufacturer decided was important. Oh, and let's not forget the ability to automatically reduce engine rpms to a "get home" level if the situation is deemed critical.....by the onboard computer.

So where am I going with this?

Well, as I get older, and in spite of the fact that I've spent my entire career playing on the bleeding edge of technology, I'm starting to long for the days when things were a bit simpler and all you needed to get by were some basic skills to help control the outcome of things. I guess I'm a bit worried that the average boater today doesn't have those basic skills and the equipment manufacturers are forced to engineer that missing knowledge into the equipment they produce.

Computer controlled is becoming a scary notion to me.