Have we been too enamoured with technology (and complexity) for our own good?
Boaters have always been torn between technology and tradition — it’s one of the paradoxes of the boating world. Today baby boomer boaters are uploading fishing pictures with their smart phones while operating pod drives, joysticks, and computer controlled engines. GPS, AIS, DSC, EPIRBs – a veritable alphabet soup of navigation provide direction and saftey. From smart phones to cloud computing technologies, products and services are changing our world at a startling pace.
One thing is certain: It’s critical that we remain open and adaptive to these changes. We also need to pay careful attention to just how these products, applications and services are affecting our time on the water. As part of that sprawling generation of baby boomer boaters I look for technology that makes my life richer- not more complicated. As a group, baby boomer boaters are as open as any to new products and change. We’ve learned how to post pictures on Facebook to share with family and friends, email video clips, check the weather and even shop- all from our phones.
One of the smartest applications of technology seen recently comes from Sabre Yachts, of South Casco, Maine. Starting this spring, every new Sabre 48 owner is being handed a customized iPad 2. According to Bentley Collins, vice president of sales and marketing for Sabre, the iPad dubbed the LaunchPad, contains useful marine information, including searchable PDF files of the owner’s manual for the boat and each piece of equipment on board. Imagine all of the pertinent information about your boat in one convenient App! The device comes preloaded with a number of marine apps — tides, weather, marina info and other lifestyle and entertainment stuff.
“The boating lifestyle is inherently mobile,” says Yacht.com creative director Sarah Robbins, who developed the LaunchPad for Sabre, “We need to provide the tools that match up with people’s lifestyles and their expectations.”
So what, you might ask, is the next big thing?
How about connecting your boat to the cloud? That’s exactly what the Boatsafe Sentry can do for any boater-any where. All that’s needed is a connection to the internet via WiFi or cellular modem.
As boaters we have longed to know that our bilges are dry, the bait freezer is working, the boat hasn’t been moved and now technology has given us the virtual eyes to see the condition of our vessels even when we are miles away. Actually with these virtual eyes we can peer into our boats from anywhere around the world enabling us to head off problems before a small leak or dead battery become an extensive repair or huge mess.
Want to make sure your boat is ready to go when you are? Check out the new Boatsafe Sentry- technology that makes life less complicated.