This continues a new category of posts: Guest columns where friends and readers share how technology is reshaping their hobby – basket weaving, rugby – whatever.
This time it is my former PwC colleague, Curtis Beebe who has spent the last decade or so in various roles in the Microsoft Dynamics reseller world. Here he writes about his love for the sea.
“For centuries, sailing ships have been at the leading edge of technology. Innovations in carpentry for hulls, textiles for sailcloth, metallurgy for cannon all owe themselves to the demands of moving men and goods across the water. Even something as basic as a reliable time keeping device is a direct result of the demands of navigating ships across the ocean (read the book Longitude by Dava Sobel).In recent times, several well known technology guys have completed major projects that apply what we’ve learned in our vocation, to our avocation: Larry Ellison, Tom Perkins, and Philippe Khan are all avid sailors that have pushed the technology along.
My passion is less ambitious. I take my family “down to the sea” for relaxation and recharge. We enjoy sailing our boat, “High Cotton,” along the Florida coast as an escape from the pressures of modern life and to re-connect as a family. There is nothing like locking yourself in a 400 square foot space with your wife and three teenage boys if you are interested in reconnection!
The modern cruising sailboat is the result of thousands of years of technological development. Just in my lifetime, the refinement of fiberglass construction has resulted in relatively inexpensive, low maintenance hull shapes that are very complex, refined, and versatile. Sails can now be molded into shape out of high-tech polymers rather than woven and sewn. Carbon and Kevlar show up in hull, spar, and fittings. Suffice it to say, high technology is very prevalent in the design and construction of the modern sailboat.
That brings us to the electronics. When we purchased the boat 5 years ago, my goal was to keep it simple. A handheld GPS would be fine, because I’d use paper charts. The single permanent instrument on board was a combined depth and speed sensor. A depth sensor is mandatory along the west coast of Florida because, as the saying goes, “If you haven’t been aground, you haven’t been around.” The speed sensor was less important: we’re cruising on a sailboat….does it really matter if we’re going 4.6 knots or 4.8? We also had a marine band radio in case things hit the proverbial fan and we needed to call for help. (Cell phone service is unreliable more than a few miles offshore).
I boldly made the edict that we would NOT be one of those families that installed a TV, Playstation, and Microwave on the boat. We were going to read books, talk, play scrabble, and cook on a grill off of the stern.
In retrospect, we’re at least in partial compliance with that edict. As you know, modern technology is insidious and wiggles its way in when you aren’t looking.
Technology’s advance aboard “High Cotton” began innocently enough. I started out planning our trips on my notebook computer using free electronic charts then transferring the routes and notes to paper. That soon morphed to leaving the notebook on at the navigation station of the boat to save all of that copying and wasted paper. As long as the notebook was on, I might as well connect the GPS to display our current position on the chart, right? The horse was out of the barn, the camel’s nose in the tent, the genie unbottled.
Today, we’re sporting a fully integrated instrument, navigation, and communication system that is tied into an autopilot. I can plot out a course on a digital chart and the boat will follow that course. I can monitor wind speed and direction, depth, water temp, speed (both through the water and over the ground), heading, course, bearing to our destination, and expected time of arrival. I can get current weather reports via satellite and plot them on the same charts I’m using for navigation. I even get plots of ship traffic that sound an alarm if we are going to get too close. If we get into trouble, one button will transmit an SOS along with our location so help can find us quickly.
The good news is that all of this technology went together with a minimum of fuss. The sensors all share a common interface specification and the industry has done a pretty good job of keeping everything in compliance.
The bad news is the same bad news that affects electric cars, cell phones, notebook computers, Gameboys, and every other “wireless” gadget: batteries suck. When away from the dock, we rely on batteries for electrical power. We’ve got a small diesel engine for when the wind dies, and it will also recharge the batteries, but we’re out there to sail, not to listen to the noisy, smelly stinkpot of an engine.
As a result, I’ve become an electricity miser, hoarder, scrooge, and cop. (If I could be that miserly on land, our family would win several “green” awards). I have a meter that monitors every amp in, and every amp out of the battery bank. If one of the kids plugs in his cell phone charger we have a new conversation:“Is calling your girlfriend really worth 4 amps?” “Do you really need that fan on? It’s pulling 2 amps!”
If I could figure out how to recharge the batteries from rolling eyes I’d have it made :)”
Photo Credit: CafePress
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