The Fort Lauderdale Boat Show is a whirlwind and by Monday morning the tents are down, vendors packed up, and the floating docks hauled out and heading back to temporary storage. During the sheer craziness that is FLIBS, you often miss a piece of news or realize you never got back to talk with that vendor about the latest product release or the newest widget. Now that we are home and somewhat rested, here are a few things we missed during last week’s show.
Garmin Partners with Yacht Controller
Yacht Controller by The Yacht Group is a popular remote-control system for yachts. “Yacht Controller is on more than 17,000 boats,” Gerald Burton, president of the Yacht Group, told our sister site, Trade Only Today. There are two versions of Yacht Controller, an IPS joystick-style remote and one with arrow buttons for changing direction and control. The partnership with Garmin will allow for Yacht Controller to be manipulated by Garmin’s OneHelm protocol via their MFDs. This will allow someone at the helm or chart plotter to make adjustments to positioning as well as allow for a cleaner helm as there won’t be the need for a separate yacht controller panel.
See more here: https://www.yachtcontroller.com/garmin-integration
New KVH antenna
KVH Industries rolled out a new small form SATCOM antenna at FLIBS, the TracPhone V3-HTS antenna. We are used to seeing huge SATCOM antennas atop large yachts and often might think, that doesn’t belong on my boat. But the new 14.5 inch diameter and 25 pound antenna is designed for boats as small as 25 feet. The TracPhone V3-HTS SATCOM antenna is designed to provide data speeds of 5 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload.
See more at: kvh.com
Volvo-Penta Aims to Bring Hybrid Power to the Marine Market
Our sister site Trade Only Today also caught the Volvo-Penta presentation that we missed in which the leading propulsion manufacturer announced plans to bring an electric-hybrid to the marine market by 2021. The company has an existing electric-hybrid system that has already been implemented in trucks and an electric bus. The only step they have now is to adapt the existing technology and marinizing it for the boating world.
Diesel Outboards from Cox Powertrain
Our coworkers over at Soundings magazine came across these dual 300 hp diesel outboards. With outboards becoming a go-to for many new designs, these diesel powerplants are a unique offering. As Soundings explains, “Cox Powertrain says the diesel outboard offers at least a 25 percent better range compared to a gasoline outboard. It weighs in at 827 pounds, and the company says it will last up to three times longer than a gasoline outboard.” So slap that on the back of your Ranger Tug and smoke it!
Find more at: coxmarine.com
Beneteau Swift Trawler 47
Beneteau announced its newest addition to the Swift Trawler line. The 47 looks to fill the gap between the existing 44 and 50 in the product series. Like all Swift Trawlers, you can cruise her comfortably in the 10-12 knot range but also run her at a top speed of 25 knots when you need to get somewhere in a hurry. With three cabins and a fold out couch, just like on the Swift Trawler 35, she can sleep eight and will make a great boat for many cruising adventures. If you want to learn more, check out this video from our friends over at Power and Motoryacht.
Find out more at: beneteau.com
FLIBS 2018 might be over but the wealth of knowledge, pending boat tests, and story ideas are just starting to get sorted out. So keep your eyes peeled to future issues and online content for more on these products as well as others that we are sorting through in the aftermath.
