Product Reviews

FLIR Systems have launched Raymarine Axiom+, a powerful series of multifunction displays (MFDs) for anglers, cruisers, and sailors, plus updated Raymarine LightHouse™ Charts cartography, bringing new levels of clarity and control to marine navigation. The successor to Raymarine’s award-winning Axiom® line of MFDs, Axiom+ is engineered for speed, responsiveness, and future expansion. Available in 7-, 9-, and 12-inch display models, Axiom+ comes performance-tuned with a powerful quad-core processor for fast chart redraws, multi-channel sonar views, and augmented reality navigation. Designed …

The popular tables format in PredictWind has been given a gleaming update. “Over the years we have added many parameters to the tables. It was time to take a fresh look at this feature and reduce the complexity” said Jon Bilger, the Director of PredictWind. The design team started with a clean sheet and went from the ground up creating the design, with input from customers and the PredictWind support team who are all experienced sailors. Bilger went on to …

Stuck for a Christmas gift idea for the yachtie in your life? Victorinox, manufacturers of the original Swiss Army knife, solves that problem with two different and very versatile sailing knives. Recently released is the new Navy Camouflage Collection with 3 different options of a small, medium and large pocket knife in a navy camouflage look. With these knives one will be able to tackle any situation. The small knife comes with a blade; nail file; screwdriver; scissors; key ring; …

by Richard Crockett In this country we are starved of modern boats, both dinghies and keelboats, and as a result once a class is established with good numbers there is huge resistance to change and especially change to other classes. It’s a pity as on occasions a really good new dinghy class comes onto the international market and instantly makes a huge hit. The Melges 14 is one of these, with the good news being that Alex Schon has seen …

Unique technologies and product updates harness the benefits of augmented reality, drone integration, and advanced MFD integration to open up new possibilities for boat owners. Leading the industry in bringing a new era of navigation and awareness capabilities to boat owners through the most innovative developments in marine electronics, Raymarine is bringing together its game-changing range of technology advancements at this year’s METSTRADE. Its unique product range for 2018 includes the new award-winning Raymarine® ClearCruise™ AR (Augmented Reality), Axiom® XL …

The WINNER is Lars Kessel of Cape Town. Lars will undoubtedly put his prize to very good use as he is from a sailing family who own a fleet of yachts – including a keelboat, Optimist, Sonnet and Argie 15 dinghy. And he works at Harken in Cape Town too! DISAPPOINTED THAT YOU DID NOT WIN? Well, there is another opportunity for you to win a Garmin Quatix 5 watch as we have a NEW competition running for the month …

by Richard Crockett The Kraken 66 is the Flagship of the Kraken range of luxury blue water cruising yachts designed by award winning yacht designer, Kevin Dibley, and epitomises the key features the brand prides itself on; safety, comfort, reliability and performance. The Kraken 66 has just been awarded the ‘Best Blue water cruising yacht’ accolade from Sailing Today magazine. The award was presented at the Southampton Boat Show. Best of all though is that their flagship model, the Kraken …

by William Crockett I’m a lover of gadgets, and especially new technology. ‘Wearables’ is a buzzword in the tech world these days. The latest offering from Garmin, specifically a wearable designed for sailors, is the Quatix 5. This is more than just an upgrade on the popular ‘Quatix 3’. The Quatix 5 is built on the popular and widely regarded ‘Fenix’ platform. To start off, I was given the Fenix 5 ‘Sapphire’ variant for two weeks to test, and that …

by Richard Crockett Protest models are something one is unlikely to get excited about, but the range from Sail Mates is really innovative – especially if one is only used to the ‘Elvstrom’ models that were neatly tucked into the Elvstrom Rule book in days of yore – and which are no longer available! These are well made with several options available. Over the years I have often had requests for protest models and have been unable to source any …

Tides, a Norwegian boat equipment provider, launched their first product, a winch seat, in 2015. The product named ‘WinchSeat’ is an innovative product raising the cockpit experience on sailboats. The seat has a peg which fits into the swivel hole on top of the winch, providing a new elevated sitting spot with great overview. The seat can be used when the winch is idle, typically during calm sailing or when the boat is docked. Depending on the number of winches …

by William Crockett Raymarine, owned by Flir Systems, Inc. recently launched their latest product offering to the world. This included some brand new, completely rethought Multi-Function Displays, a new suite of software, and for the first time, Thermal Imaging cameras by Flir Systems, which have price points that are affordable for the leisure marine industry. I was invited to Lake Maggiore, Italy to see these products in action and take them for a test drive. Axiom Multifunction Displays with RealVision …