Decadent Boating

[mjf]

Just got back from a few days away.

Saw a strange sight - a newish S/S Portofino navigating down a fairly narrow channel with no one on the helm!


Bloody odd I thought as the boat altered her course a bit - then it dawned on me the skipper was helming from the sunpad on the fore deck whilst he lounged about with his lady.

Not sure frankly how safe this is. Certainly I know that raymarine can be used wireless for helm but engines too?


Prehaps ok to use this type of auto 'at sea' but in the confines of a channel. What if the helm goes hard over and will not re-centre?

Port in question was leaving the Mar Menor out under the bridge to the Med (Thomas M marina).

Actually I was surprised how many boats were about given the early time of year it was really quite busy. Several quite big jobs in there too

 

[Talbot]

I might risk that on a direct wired remote connection, but never on a wireless connection.

 

[steve_l]

You'll hate flying on very modern airliners then. They've moved on from fly-by-wire to fly-by-wireless /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif)
Sopposed to be more reliable as there aren't any cable runs to get damaged...

 

[Lakesailor]

So what's the back-up situation?

 

[Ships_Cat]

Ahh, that will explain why I was able to drive the plane from an economy seat with my wireless mouse.

John

 

[jfm]

perfectly ok imho

I often drive from the sunbed with a wireless remote.

Perfectly ok imho and I would never get so close to another boat that I couldn't run to the helm and shut down/alter course, etc But I wouldn't do it in a narrow canal with (?) other users and obstacles etc

BTW, the Raymarine wireless sensibly has a signal strength meter (like a cellphone) and bleeps if it loses radio contact with the base station. It repeats all seatalk info, so it shows SOG, STW, depth, heading, COG, XTE, etc etc, as well as allowing you to steer the boat. It doesn't do throttles/gears so it needs to be used in open water only. You can get separate remote throttles for electronic diesels and maybe the sunseeker had these?

 

[mjf]

Re: perfectly ok imho

Thanks for that - maybe the guy used the raymarine for steering only.........I did not see him alter speed, but in any event a bit daft in the busyish chanel IMHO.