News
Boating Tips
VHF Radio
Launch Ramp
Know-How
GPS Beacons
Top Ten Tips From BoatUS For Getting The Most
From A Tank Of Gas
Fuel prices could be on the rise again, so Boat Owners Association of The United
States (BoatU.S.) has a few tips that could help stretch your fuel dollars:
1. Leave the extra
‘junk’ home: Don’t load the boat up with weight you don’t need.
Do a little spring cleaning - unused equipment that has been collecting mildew
in the bottom of lockers for years should be taken home.
2. Water weight:
At 8.33 pounds per gallon, why keep the water in the tank topped off if you’re
only going out for the afternoon?
3. Tune her up: A
tune-up is an excellent investment and should easily pay for itself over the
summer.
4. Tune your prop:
You can lose up to 5 mph of boat speed with a poorly tuned prop. If your boat
goes 50 mph with a like-new prop and only 45 mph with a prop that’s dinged and
out of pitch, you’ve lost 10% of your speed but are still using the same
amount of fuel. That converts to a 10% loss in fuel economy.
5. Clean the
boat’s bottom: A fouled bottom is like a dull knife; it takes a lot
more effort – fuel – to push it through the water. Barnacles and slime slow
the boat dramatically and increase fuel consumption.
6. Keep the boat
in trim: Either by using trim tabs or with weight distribution. A boat
that is trimmed correctly will move through the water with less effort – and
less fuel.
7. Go With the
Flow: Consult tide tables and whenever possible try to travel with the
tide.
8. Install a fuel
flow meter: A fuel flow meter is like a heart monitor; when consumption
starts to rise, it’s an early warning that something is amiss. A fuel flow
meter also allows you to select a comfortable cruising speed that optimizes the
amount of fuel being consumed. If you don’t want to spring for a fuel flow
meter (about $300), you can calculate your fuel mileage by dividing distance
traveled by gallons at fill-up. Using your logbook, you can then approximate
fuel flow using average speeds and time underway.
9. For sailboats
only: If you own a sailboat, all of the above apply, but the real
savings begin when the engine is shut off and the sails are raised.
10. Get a
discount: Many of the 800 BoatU.S. Cooperating Marinas around the
country offer up to 10 cents off a gallon of gas. To get the discount all you
have to do is to show your BoatU.S. membership card. If you aren’t already a
member, join online now for a special rate of $14.00 by calling 800-395-2628.
BoatU.S. – Boat Owners Association of The United States – is the nation’s
leading advocate for recreational boaters providing its 600,000 members with a
wide array of consumer services including a group-rate marine insurance program
that insures over 240,000 vessels; the largest fleet of more than 500 towing
assistance vessels; discounts on fuel, slips, and repairs at over 800
Cooperating Marinas; boat financing; and a subscription to BoatU.S. Magazine,
the most widely read boating publication in the U.S.
Why
your VHF radio is Sooooo Important!
And why knowing how to use it, is more important!
By Wayne Spivak
, National
Press Corps
National Marketing & Public Affairs Department,
United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
Cell
phones have large number of disadvantages, starting with the inability of other
mariner's to hear
your call for distress, which may not be heard by a
What
to do in an emergency:
So, if your vessel is named Blue Duck and you have an emergency, your broadcast
may sound like this:
"Mayday-Mayday-Mayday
This Is Blue Duck - Blue Duck - Blue Duck
Cape Henry Light Bears 185 Degrees Magnetic-Distance 2 Miles
Struck Submerged Object
Need Pumps-Medical Assistance And Tow
Three Adults, Two Children Onboard
One Person Compound Fracture Of Arm
Estimate Can Remain Afloat Two Hours
Blue Duck Is Thirty Two Foot Cabin Cruiser-White Hull-Blue Deck House
Over"
How To Avoid Stress, Stares And Honking Horns At
The Launch Ramp
When launching your vessel at a boat ramp, does it seem
like the whole world is watching your every move? In the June 2005 issue of
BoatU.S. Trailering magazine, Chapman’s Boating Etiquette author Pat Piper
offers ten tips for happier boating:
1. Prior to backing down
the ramp have everything that needs to be transferred from the tow vehicle
placed in the boat. Trailer boaters who wait until their vessel is in the water
cause delays and get nasty stares.
2. Concrete and fiberglass
don’t mix. Unhook the boat from the winch after the vessel is in the water,
not before. Once your boat is splashed, have your crew secure it to the dock
while you park your tow vehicle and trailer, leaving the ramp open for the next
launch.
3. Don’t make others
wait while you’re having a discussion with your crew on where to go or else
those waiting in line behind you will happily offer suggestions.
4. Offer assistance if
someone needs help. If you have never backed down a ramp, practice in a large
parking lot prior to launching.
5. If you’re on the ramp
and would like help, be succinct. This is not the time to ask questions about
bleeding the brakes or to debate the advantages of bias ply tires.
6. Trailer parking spaces
are for tow vehicles and trailers only. Guests should park elsewhere.
7. Get into a routine at
the ramp and use a checklist. It will make your life easier.
8. When returning to a
ramp, drop off the person who will get the tow vehicle and trailer from the
parking lot first and wait for them in an out-of-the-way location while they
retrieve the vehicle.
9. Once the boat is on the
trailer, secure safety chain to the bow eye and move up the ramp. Secure the
remaining tie downs and transfer stuff back to the tow vehicle when you get to
the parking lot – not on the ramp.
10. If you’d like to
talk to other boaters about launch ramp etiquette, your experiences at boat
ramps or other boating related issues, go to the messages boards at BoatUS.com.
Boat U.S. Issues Warning On GPS
Emergency Beacons
By Louis Gerlinger
Log News Service – Boat
U.S. is warning boaters that all Global Positioning System-equipped 406 MHz
emergency beacons are not created equal.
In an April 19 release,
Boat U.S. reported that in a test of six beacons from three manufacturers
conducted in December 2003 and January 2004, the GPS location function of one
manufacturer’s products routinely failed when tested under other-than-ideal
conditions.
An equally important test
finding was that the international standards to certify the GPS-enabled 406 MHz
beacons fail to take into account the real-world, conditions that often exist
when beacons are activated. The test was conducted by the Equipped to Survive
Foundation, an independent reviewer of survival equipment and funded by the Boat
U.S. Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water and West Marine.
The beacons were
specifically tested for their GPS functionality, or the ability to self report
their location to Geostationary (GEO) satellites, which can relay the location
information nearly instantaneously to rescuers.
The Equipped to Survive
Foundation said that the beacons tested were manufactured by ACR Electronics
(Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), a subsidiary of Chelton/Cobham PLC (England); McMurdo
Ltd. (Portsmouth, England), and Techtest Ltd. (Herefordshire, England). The
three companies produce beacons approved for the U.S. market and which are also
sold worldwide.
All of the six tested
beacons primarily use the 406 MHz distress-alerting frequency in conjunction
with the COSPAS-SARSAT system of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and Doppler
principles to provide position information. The report did find that all of the
tested beacons successfully allowed a Doppler location to be derived - a minimal
acceptable level of distress alerting.
However, Boat U.S. said
that the purpose of GPS-enhanced 406 MHz beacons Is to save precious rescue time
by supplying much more precise location information via their own GPS-derived
location through GEO satellites - ever present in the sky - rather than waiting
for an orbiting satellite to appear in view, then obtain a less accurate Doppler
computed location.
Equipped to Survive
Foundation Founder Doug Ritter said, unfortunately, in the testing, the
off-the-shelf McMurdo Ltd. 'Precision 406 MHz GPS EPIRB' (also known as G4 406
MHz GSP EPIRB) and the McMurdo Ltd. 'Fastfind Plus 406 MHz Personal Location
Beacon' (also known as the Fastfind Plus 406 MHz PLB) both failed to reliably
acquire a GPS location 'fix' under operational real-world conditions.
Based on the test
results, which proved to be consistent with previous identified testing
conducted by the U.S. government, the foundation said that users of the McMurdo
self-locating beacons tested may expect to find that GPS-derived location may
not be transmitted unless environmental conditions are generally benign
and the beacon is stable, and unless there’s a largely uninterrupted sky view
covering most of 180 degrees above and 360 degrees around the beacon location.
This level of performance appears to be inconsistent with that portrayed In
McMurdo's advertising and product literature and consumers' reasonable
expectations.
Based on the test
results, users of the ACR and Techtest self-locating beacons may expect to find
that under most moderate environmental conditions a GPS-derived location will be
reliably transmitted.
The tests revealed that
purchasers of McMurdo GPS-equipped 406 MHz Beacons who paid a premium for the
added GPS technology in the hopes of potentially shortening rescue response with
faster location information and increased location precision - are apparently
not getting what they paid for and are operating under false expectations?
Ritter said.
This lack of GPS data
could result in tragedy that might have otherwise been prevented?
The evaluation was
divided into three distinct phases: Baseline, Maritime, and Inland. Within each
of the latter two phases, a series of tests was designed to replicate real-world
conditions, with variables such as sea state, limited horizon, forest canopy,
mountains, and the number of GPS satellites in view.
Boat U.S.
Foundation President Ruth Wood said, Emergency beacons are often called upon to
send an alert during inclement weather or less-than-perfect conditions. We
tested the six beacons aboard a life raft, floated them in the water tethered to
an inflatable or held by a swimmer in moderate 1-to-8-foot swells, the study
showed clearly that not all these beacons operated equally, she said. Inland
performance was mixed, with McMurdo's PLB failing to acquire a GPS fix where
handheld GPS receivers had no difficulty acquiring a location.
The Equipped to Survive
Foundation issued 17 specific conclusions and 23 critical recommendations for
action based on the test results.
The bottom line is that while
the international COSPAS-SARSAT system does an extraordinary job of saving
lives, the COSPAS-SARSAT testing standard for GPS performance needs to better
reflect real-world conditions. Consumer expectations regarding performance
of these emergency beacons are very high, this is one area where those
expectations must be better met, said Ritter.
A detailed summary of the
200-plus page report is available on the Equipped to Survive Foundation Web site
at:
http://www.equipped.org.
In response to the test
results, West Marine announced that it would provide a full refund or exchange
of the affected McMurdo products while it works with McMurdo to resolve the
issues noted in the foundation report.
