Article by Capt. Steve Katz
2022 Season Summary and 2023 Thoughts
While the season started off with shortages of equipment and service people, things seemed to have gotten better throughout the season. Many of the manufacturers adapted by narrowing their offerings and or focusing production on their most popular products. For many others of the marine electronic and related components, manufacturers have been able to build up inventory levels of their most popular products.
Additionally I often heard about other delays besides materials causing backlogs at local boat yards and from local contractors. Finding skilled labor is still difficult in the marine trade all around the world. Plan your winter and spring projects well in advance to help get you on an acceptable schedule.
Product shortages are an opportunity for manufacturers to highlight available products and can act as a substitute for a preferred product. For instance, Simard’s most popular GPS chartplotters, the NSS12 evo3S was “redesigned” earlier this season by removing the HDMI output port due to a global supply chain shortage. This allowed Simrad to ramp up production of this unit and availability remained good throughout the season with a new model, the NSS12evo3s-h.
Another big change this season was the restructuring of Navionics chart offerings. About 5 years ago Garmin purchased Navionics, the maker of popular electronics marine charts, especially popular with anglers due to their detailed fishing areas. This fall, Garmin updated its GPSMAP chart plotters product line to include Navionics charts pre-programed into the chart plotters. These units are noted as GN+. The Garmin acquisition recently affected other manufacturers whose hardware was compatible with Navionics charts, such as Furuno. Modern Furuno chart plotters could use optional charts, some of them produced by Navionics, while existing charts will still function, now however no new Navionics charts can be activated for use on Furuno chart plotters. While not a huge problem in the continental USA, some other fishing areas, like the North Drop in the BVI’s have great Navionics coverage on a Furuno but are no longer available to purchase.
There are still shortages carried over from last year of the popular Omni style Sonar, the Furuno unit and the Simrad SY50 are both delayed from their overseas factory. If an OMNI isn’t in your future, how about the newest Side-Scan transducer from Furuno? TZtouch3 owners will be thrilled to learn about a free software update that unlocks all-new functionality for the flagship MFD series, including the long anticipated side scan capability. Furuno’s CHIRP Side-Scan for NavNet TZtouch3 scans both port and starboard, allowing boaters to see the shape of bottom structure in high definition. Operating on a lower frequency spectrum than competitors, Furuno’s CHIRP Side-Scan reveals the shape of fish targets and fish hoarding structure up to 750 feet off each side of your vessel. Furuno’s CHIRP Side-Scan is ideal for fishing or simply showing hidden, uncharted bottom structure in rich detail in 1/4, 1/2, or full-screen presentations on NavNet TZtouch3 TZT12F, TZT16F, or TZT19F MFDs.
In October of 2020, there was a three-day large scale fire at the AKM Factory in Japan, where most of the worlds digital-to-analog converters (DACs) and analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) for the audio industry were manufactured. Turns out this is also where the microchips are made for ICOM marine VHF radios and other brand communication radios. While this fire was over two years ago, the entire audio industry is still recovering. ICOM made some product changes that allowed them to produce the most popular VHF radios. This inventory seemed to arrive here in large batches, so once inventory sells out, there has been an extensive delay until the next batch.
This fall, safety and survival specialist ACR Electronics launched a new product, a combination Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) and AIS Personal Locator Beacon (PLB). The ACR Electronics GlobalFix V5 EPIRB and ResQLink AIS PLB both feature integrated AIS (Automatic Identification System) to increase the speed of location and aid, as well as compatibility with Return Link Service (RLS) alerting.
The combination of both local and global rescue ensures faster rescue in an emergency and maximum chance of survival for boaters, whether it is for the boat (EPIRB) or the crew (PLB).
The new pair of safety beacons deliver mobile connectivity to a cell phone with a free mobile app. This industry first benefit is due to the introduction of NFC (Near Field Communication) technology into the beacons. This enables users to monitor their beacons, review self-test results, view GNSS test locations, monitor beacon performance & maintenance all by simply scanning the beacons with their mobile phones. This pulls the beacons’ data into the ACR mobile app for viewing.
If new purchases are not on the horizon, updating your GPS chartplotters software can bring new life into older machines – often giving you new features at no additional cost. For instance, Furuno offers software for the older TZT2 system that dramatically updates the user interface and makes it match the user-friendly user interface of the new TZT3 systems. One of Garmin’s most recent software updates adds lots of Mercury integration. Another Garmin software update adds capability for the optional Garmin Navionics charts and another offers voice integration, like Siri but for your chartplotters.
As Chairman of the Board of the National Marine Electronics Association, I would be remiss if I did not mention the annual NMEA product of excellence award winners that were announced at the NMEA fall 2022 conference. NMEA members cast votes for their choice of the best in each category, this year’s winners are:
NMEA Product of Excellence Award Winners
Marine VHF—ICOM M510
Radar—Furuno DRS4DNXT
Satellite Communications Antenna—KVH TracPhone V30
Multi-Function Display—Garmin GPSMAP 8616xsv
Multimedia Entertainment—Fusion Apollo MS-RA770
NMEA 2000 Sensor—Furuno SCX20 Satellite Compass
Marine PC Software—Nobeltec TimeZero Professional
Marine Apps-Utility—Garmin ActiveCaptain
Satellite TV Antenna—KVH TracVision UHD7
Fishfinder—Furuno DFF3D Multi-Beam 3D Fishfinder
Marine Camera—Teledyne/FLIR M364C
Marine Specialty—Furuno CSH8LMK2 Omni Sonar
Furuno CSH8LMK2 Omni Sonar
AIS—Vesper Marine Cortex M1
Autopilot—Garmin Reactor 40
Remote Monitoring—GOST Apparition
Safety Device—Garmin GPSMAP 86sci Handheld
Commercial—Furuno FAR2228NXTBB IMO Radar
Wi-Fi/Cellular Device—KVH TracPhone LTE-1
Best New Product Award - Maretron WSO200 Ultrasonic Weather Station
Maretron WSO200 Ultrasonic Weather Station
NMEA Technology Award - Airmar’s SmartBoat System
Manufacturer of the Year Awards
Actisense won Manufacturer Level 1&2 (small to mid-size company)
Garmin won the Manufacturer Level 3 award for large Manufacturer
If you have any of the above products on your boat, you have made a great choice and if you are shopping, be sure to consider the listed award winners.
Plan ahead in 2023 to keep your boat up to date with maintenance, technology and of course fishing gear. Whether for safety, maintenance or just a desired upgrade, there are numerous new technologies and products that will help keep your boat in good condition and will help to provide owners, captains and anglers safe and productive fishing trips. §
