If you’re anything
like me, you enjoy participating in all the activities that weekends
afford, and one of your chief goals in life is to achieve a state of
complete and utter relaxation. I like boating and fishing, but I also
sometimes enjoy sleeping in on Saturday morning and kicking back to
watch the Pats’ game on Sunday. (I’m from Boston, what can
I say?) Doing all these things at once, though, presents a problem:
It’s difficult to be in the cockpit waiting to hook-on to a striper
and at the same time watch Tom Brady make a stellar touchdown pass.
Similarly, it’s hard to be at anchor and check my depth and position
from my berth when I’m sleeping in on Saturday morning. And, if
you’ve ever been underway on a boat with an engine problem, you
know it’s impossible to relax when you’re 25 miles offshore
and you’re hearing funny noises from the engine room.
Imagine what it’d
be like to fish and watch the game, sleep in and check your course from
your berth while at anchor, or be on the flying bridge and monitor the
engine room all at the same time. Sound too good to be true?
Well, these days it’s
more of a possibility than ever before, and you don’t even need
to own a megayacht or have a five-person crew to make it a reality.
Several manufacturers have made groundbreaking strides in incorporating
high-tech safety, security, and entertainment features into boats 40
feet and longer.
But the premise for
developing these technological wonders might not be what you first think
it is. While I’m sure “because it looks darn cool!”
and saving space are reasons people install these high-tech systems
on their boats, I was delighted to learn that the reasons go far beyond
their coolness, and the more logical issues of safety, security, and
function are at the top of the list. And, conveniently enough, many
systems are designed to incorporate all these concerns into one package.