BOE Marine

38 Fountain Express

2010-04-04T21:51:00.002-04:00

Here is a 38 Fountain we just wrapped up. These pics show a custom acrylic box we had to make for the starboard side Garmin 5215 display that would otherwise not fit.

Our Website is Down

2010-03-05T10:20:00.004-05:00

Our website had a major meltdown. Please bear with us while we pick up the pieces. In the meantime please call us for orders, availability, and support at 866-735-5926. Or email us at jim.maier@gmail.com.

We think the cause is the sudden traffic increase as word spreads of our Bronze Medal! Bronze Medal you say? Yes! If you didn't already know BOE Marine was recently voted as the #3 place to get marine electronics nationwide. Considering the 2 companies ahead of us just happen to sell a butt load more electronics than us because of their size, but they don't really have any technical support this sort of makes us the #1 company that specializes in Marine Electronics in the country.

So, we hope you 'll call us while we figure out how to improve our IT infrastructure to meet the demands of our new found popularity!

Blizzard of 2010

2010-02-06T21:39:00.002-05:00

We got hit hard. Here is Jim uning our tractor to clear the parking lot. Jim spent 7 hours total over two sessions trying to keep up with the snow!

New Airmar TM260 1kW Transom Mounted Transducer

2009-07-29T10:27:00.003-04:00

I had a few of these show up at the store today so I thought I'd snap a few photos to show you what it looks like. I put a CD in the pics to give you an idea of size. This thing is a beast, but is well made and goes together very easily. In the box you get the huge urethane ducer (might be plastic but feels just like their other urethane ducers), a robust plastic mount to hold the ducer, a few wedges to get the angle off the transom right, and a big metal mount that actually gets screwed to the transom. Without it mounted I was not able to get the ducer to "kick-up", however in a visual inspection it looks like it should kick up just fine if you hit something.

This is the latest offering from Airmar, offering their high quality ceramics in a transom mounted ducer. Performance will be similar to a the B260 through hull or M260 in-hull. There is a temp sensor on it but no speed sensor.

Things are busy busy busy

2009-07-02T23:25:00.006-04:00

A typical day at BOE. We have been fortunate enough to have boats coming and going daily, each getting its own first class installation. Our new facility has allowed us to be more efficient than ever, and to bring the quality of our installations to a whole new level. Please stop by to see whats going on!

BOE Kent Island Now Open!

2009-06-10T22:25:00.001-04:00

We have officially moved into our new store on Kent Island. We already had a few dozen boats through our custom installation shop, are getting the shelves stocked up, and getting all the newest electronics on display. Please stop by!

Our New Facility is Almost Done

2009-03-15T23:03:00.006-04:00

The new BOE Marine facility at the Kent Island Maritime Village is almost done. Siding is up, the interior is painted, and the electricity is on. Just need to finish up the parking lot, and do some final touches. We're hoping to move in April 1st or May 1st. The new facility really is the talk of the town, and we're proud to bring such a neat place to our little island.

Here are some pictures from a couple of weeks ago.

Garmin GXM51 - NMEA2000 XM Receiver

2009-02-11T10:54:00.005-05:00

Garmin has introduced a new NMEA2000 XM weather/audio receiver. It will integrate with any Garmin NMEA2000 compatible unit like the 4000 and 5000 Series. Here is a pic followed by the specs:Garmin International is pleased to announce the GXM 51 Weather and Audio XM Satellite Receiver. Delivering U.S. graphical weather data directly to your compatible Garmin chartplotter, this sleek, watertight XM satellite receiver/antenna offers easy plug-and-play installation with NMEA 2000 network connectivity. The integrated all-in-one design means there is no remote “black box” to install. The GXM 51 can be powered directly through the NMEA 2000 bus, so no separate power connection is required! In addition to conventional pole or surface mounting, the GXM 51 can also be installed on the underside of many fiberglass decks, using the included under-deck mount. Over 20 different types of weather information (including NEXRAD, lightning, wave heights, water temps, wind data, and more) can be accessed from your chartplotter screen (depending on the XM WX package selected). Plus, with a subscription, you can even use the GXM 51 to enjoy over 170 channels of quality audio entertainment via XM Satellite Radio.

The GXM 51 is compatible with the GPSMAP 4208, 4210, 4212, 5208, 5212 and 5215. The GDL 30A is also available for all GPSMAP 3000, 4000 and 5000 series products.

GXM 51 Package includes: GXM 51, 6m NMEA 2000/Audio cable, 305mm audio cable
(7-pin to RCA), pole mount, under-deck mount, surface mount, mounting
hardware, NMEA 2000 T-connector, NMEA 2000 terminator (male), NMEA 2000
terminator (female), installation instructions

Availability: May, 2009
Garmin P/N: 010-00753-00

Raymarine Introduces New ST70 Plus Display Instrument

2009-02-06T10:57:00.003-05:00

Raymarine is well onboard with the NMEA2000 rage with their new ST70 Plus Color instrument. This thing is sweet and one will definitely be going on my Seacraft this summer! This new display is sort of a universal all in one display that can control their pilots and can be used as a stand alone instrument to display info on the N2K network. It is color, very bright, and has a lot of screen area relative to the size of the fixture. In fact the fixture is all screen! They include a remote keypad for control. So you can put the display up on your dash where it might be a stretch to reach it, and put the control keypad closer to the wheel for easy reach. There are three variations of the keypad available - an instrument keypad, sail pilot pad, and powerboat pilot pad. One keypad can also control multiple displays. The picture below is worth a thousand words. Should be out the 2nd qtr of '09. I can't wait!

New Raymarine C-Series Brief

2009-01-31T08:38:00.000-05:00

Raymarine is going to officially launch their new C-Series in the USA at the upcoming Miami Boat Show. I thought I would give everybody a brief intro to it, so maybe you can include it in your show tour if it appeals to you.

The bullet points for this new system over the previous Raymarine C-Series are:

Video - You can plug in a camera or DVD Player
Internal GPS Antenna
Wide Screen Format - ideal for split screen modes
Pre-loaded with Navionics Charts
3D Charting Capability
Satellite Imagery
Dual Range Radar Mode
Limited Networking to share network devices like the DSM Sounder Module
..and an all new Rotary/Cursor knob

These are all significant improvements which puts the C Series more on par with the E-Series, and then some. In fact, the only major feature missing from the E-Series is networking with multiple units. I'm sure we'll see a major E-Series revision soon. The new Rotary knob is a neat improvement which will really help navigating around the menus. The prior C-Series had a knob that doubled as a button, and a separate scrolling pad. The new C-Series combines these. So when inputting waypoint data, or scrolling around the chart for info, you can do it all without removing your fingers from the new scroll pad button knob thingamajig.

The Limited Networking is a perfect upgrade for all single station boats, and smaller dual station boats. The C-Series networking is limited to 2 displays. Whatever you can do on one screen will be doable on the other. This includes radar, fishfinder, charting, and of course all nmea data such as heading, wind data, waypoints, etc.
The new wide screen format is really neat. It will basically make each screen segment wider while in split screen modes. The wider each screen section gets, the more usable it is.
The internal GPS is a great add on. Now we don't need to run a GPS antenna at boat shows . The same principle applies to boats. These new GPS sensors are so sensitive that there are not many center console or walkaround boats that really need an external antenna. While this may be a tough argument to make as everybody is accustomed to external antennas, I say give it a try and only add the external antenna if you find its needed (unless of course you have a boat that absolutely needs an external gps).
All the other C-Series Basics are in place to:

Sirius Weather and Audio
NMEA2000 Engine Data
Navionics Platinum Chart Capability
Seatalk
NMEA0183
Digital FF Capable
All new Digital Radar Capable
AIS

So if you make it to the show, check it out.
If anybody wants the pdf brochure just email me and request it. jim@boemarine.com

Selene Yachts East Coast Rendezvous

2009-01-27T20:16:00.002-05:00

BOE was happy to sponsor the East Coast Rendezvous for Selene Yachts. We donated money and prizes for the event. Selene has always been good to us. We have outfitted many of their new boats with electronics.

Roof is On!

2009-01-20T10:25:00.002-05:00

Both sides of the building are up and the roof is on. Next is to put in the doors and windows. You can really get a good look at our central area for displaying new boats under cover, and the area to the right of the picture where we'll be pimping boats.

A new roof!

2008-12-17T10:03:00.003-05:00

Our new building is getting a roof! We're getting close.

New BOE Facility Underway

2008-11-22T09:27:00.002-05:00

We've been working for 3 years on our new BOE Marine Facility. Well, we're finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The actual building is starting to go up. We'll have 3 other buildings going up shortly as well, but all we care about is this first one so we can officially move to our new property. Our new facility is located right on Rt 50 which is the epicenter of all commuting in MD for boaters going between Annapolis/Baltimore/DC and the ocean. Our facility will be seen by 75,000 cars per day on average! We're going to have an expanded showroom, more office space, an ecommerce call center, covered display space for new boats, and a huge covered work facility for installing electronics and customizing boats. We can't wait to open!

New Garmin Oregon 400C Touchscreen Handheld GPS

2008-08-13T10:45:00.006-04:00

Just got a shipment of Garmin Oregons in stock. As is customary with new-fangled Garmin stuff I always open one for myself.... so why not write a review?.. Several months ago Garmin came out with the Colorado series of handhld GPS's. These incorporated Garmin's sleek new look, pre-loaded charts, and a bunch of cool new features like wireless data sharing, magnetic compass, altimeter, and much more. Of course I had to have one of them. But when I caught wind of the new Oregon coming down the pipeline I couldn't sell my Colorado fast enough! The new Oregon is everything the Colorado is plus its Touchscreen! Having been a junky of other Garmin touchscreen products (Nuvi Automotive GPS, 5000 Series Boat GPS) for the last 2 years I couldn't resist. Here is what I've found so far:

Form Factor - the unit has a 3" color touchscreen. It easily fits in, and can be manipulated, with one hand. In fact I have found operation to be easiest with one hand. The screen has the same typical brightness as other Garmin handhelds. Not spectacular but hardly shabby. The screen is not affected by Polarized Glasses as many of these screens are when rotated. The unit comes with a nice Caribiner clip to attach it to a belt loop or whatever. The clip is removable. The bottom of the unit has a rubber flap to protect the USB port. Inside the unit (when the batteries are removed) there is room for a Micro SD card.

Interface - This is where Garmin does things so well - they make it easy. The touchscreen is incredibly intuitive and easy to operate. For example, the databoxes in the upper corners of the chart screen - to change what they display just click on the box and make your selection. To scroll around the Map just drag your finger across the screen. To move around the menu just swipe your finger across the screen like an iPhone. It really is awesome. With a touchscreen unit only the buttons that actually do anything at any given time are visible, so it makes knowing what to click at any given time quite intuitive.

Features - The feature set is through the roof for this thing. I honestly don't know what they are going to think of next that this unit can't already do. I'll keep this review boating related, but for the non boaters it does geocaching, topo maps, automotive routing, fitness stuff and more. Changing between modes, or "profiles" as Garmin calls it, is super easy and can be done with a couple of screen taps. Back to boating... I have put the unit through its paces for typical use on a boat - making waypoints, doing routes, finding local info like Marina locations, and navigating on a chart. It does all of this wonderfully well. Scrolling around on the screen is done by dragging across the screen with your fingertip. Zooming is done by the transparent + and - button. Every screen has a little X or back arrow on the bottom left to move to the previous page or menu. Making waypoints is simple. Just tap on the screen where you want it, then confirm it as a waypoint. Once you save the waypoint you can edit it. The edit features are extensive - you can change name, symbol, depth, comments and more. While editing text a keyboard pops up with the whole alphabet, so editing a name or comments takes seconds.

Routing is nice and easy too. You simply tap on "Routes" and either select a current route or build a new one. Building a new one requires the various waypoints to already be designated, then you pick among those waypoints to build the route. All very intuitive.

Garmin's "Where To" feature now makes an appearance on this unit. This feature has been very popular on the auto and larger marine units. Basically, after tapping the "Where To" button you can choose a route, or choose a waypoint, or choose a point of interest like a Marina. Once selected the unit will make that the active route or destination.

Compass - This unit actually has a built in compass. Don't even ask me how it works, but its pretty damn cool. You hold the unit level while in Compass mode and a magnetic compass actually appears and finds North. Awesome little piece of redundancy.

Tides - the Oregon has Tide Data built in for the whole USA, as well as Sunrise and Sunset, and Moon Phases. I could go on and on about other "cool" features as it has plenty. One I found especially cool though is the "area calculation" tool. With this tool you basically stand at the edge of a section of land you want to measure, hit the "start" button then walk the perimeter of the land. Once back to your original position you hit the "Calculate" button and it will spit out the total acres. I did it on my backyard and got .445 Acres. Pretty neat.

In my opinion this GPS has raised the bar. Garmin has done it again. I would highly recommend it to anybody looking for a handheld.

P/N 010-00697-03
Price - $599.99

Main Menu in "Fitness Mode"

Area Calculation Tool
Points of Interest Format
Huge selection of waypoint symbols - this is just one of many pages!
Chart with active route
System "Setup" MenuMy backyard :)
Main Menu in "Marine" Mode

Parker Rendezvous '08

2008-08-11T09:13:00.008-04:00

This Saturday we were invited to the annual ClassicParker.com rendezvous. We never turn down the opportunity to attend an event like this. We had a great time and would like to Thank the organizer, Kevin, for the invite and the Classic Parker founder, Dale, for running such a great site! Its so much fun to walk from boat to boat to meet the owners and hearing over and over - I bought this from you... I bought that from you... Thank you so much to all those Parker owners that give us a shot for their electronics and outfitting needs. To cap off the day we actually caught some Rockfish (yes, I intended that to be plural!) on the way home. That's a welcome change this year! Can't wait until the ClassicParker.com rendezvous next year.

All the Parkers Lined up - with our Plate Alloy Pacific (the one with the black engine dummy!)

Doing our mandatory "walk down the runway" for photos

Beth and Jim (me) hanging on the back of a 25' Parker owned by Kevin aka Megabyte on ClassicParker.com

Mast and Mallet

2008-07-16T10:13:00.001-04:00

Joe Reid from Mast and Mallet Boatworks dropped by today. Mast and Mallet is a custom boat builder in MD. They build some really cool downeast style boats (I hope I said that right!). His boats are all hand made one at a time. They combine the layout/features of a Maine Lobsterboat with a hull configuration more like a Chesapeake Bay "Deadrise" workboat. Joe is quite the character and a great friend of BOE. He buys all of the electronics for his boats from us, and inevitably stops by about once a week during the final fitout of each boat to ask a question or two about what hooks to what! If you have not checked out a Mast and Mallet boat at one of the local MD boat shows you are missing out.

- Jim

Fishing for a change...

2008-07-14T11:33:00.011-04:00

Saturday night I was on the back porch grilling and got a text from my pal Chris at Intrinsic Yacht - (want to fish). We keep it simple when we text. So I cooled off the grill, threw an extra t-shirt and drawers in the car and headed down to Ocean City, MD with my brother-in-law John for a midnight arrival at Sunset Marina. Just enough time to get a buzz at Teasers but not enough time to get in too much trouble. Fast forward a few hours... "Jimmy, get up, time to go" .... huh, Oh yeah, I'm in MD sleeping on Chris's 3 day old 54 Ocean, time to go fishing.

Chris gets a new boat every year (more on that later) to fish the coastal tournaments, mostly billfish stuff but he throws her into a Tuna tournament every now and again. This weekend happened to be the Ocean City Tuna Tournament. I love Tuna fishing since "food" is my #1 priority and who doesn't like fresh Tuna?

The boat we had was a 2009 Ocean Yachts 54 SS. Chris has a great eye for detail (almost as good as me :0 ) and he gets his tournament boat really tricked out. Too cool in fact. Ocean gets a lot of ideas for future boats from the ideas Chris puts out. He will have this boat at all the major Mid-Atlantic Shows, check it out. So we were styling, and the 34 knot cruise to the fishing grounds wasn't too shabby.

I'm an electronics guy right? So I better talk about electronics at some point in this story. This boat had all the new Navnet 3D black box equipment onboard with 2 17" displays and interfaced with the LCD TV in the salon..probably the master too. I really had a good chance to give the Navnet 3D some practical evaluation. As most of us know, the jury is still out on Navnet 3D, but here is my take: Radar, Radar, Radar! The radar is absolutely awesome and worthy of buying the system even if you only plan to use it for radar. Finding birds off the coast of OC is virtually useless as there are so few of them so I couldn't test that, but I was able to test some otehr features (we had a 12kW 6' array). The first thing that hit me was the zoom, while trivial, it just looks pretty damn cool the way the screen zooms in and out without blinking or redrawing. The radar picture just pans in our out like the charts do. On most units the screen will go blank for a millisecond then the new range will be visible.

The second test I put it too was for ARPA (target tracking). Oohh la la... it worked so well! We had three boats within 3 miles of us on the way back to the inlet. I was able to consistently track all three of them, and it was VERY accurate. Neat! The tracking data was visible on the radar screen and the chart screen no matter what mode we put it in (2D or 3D, panning, zooming, twisting, turning, whatever). We could pan over in 3D mode to make it look as if we were actually on one of the boats we were tracking!

The third radar test I did was to try the new double range feature. You can run this radar on two separate ranges at the same time...but it gets better...you can actually run each range at a different gain setting. This will come in handy for fisherman that want to find birds on a 8 or so mile range with the gain cranked up, but still want to keep an eye on traffic avoidance at a range of 3/4 mile. It worked perfectly (drooling on keyboard).

The final thing we messed with was the weather overlay, specifically surface temp. The unit will allow you to overlay surface temp right on your chart. You can overlay radar data at the same time. We made the surface temp image 50% transparent so we could still see the chart below it. It worked great. One thing I di d not like was the way the colors changed for no apparent reason while zooming in and out. When on a really zoomed in range the color would be red where we were, when zooming way out it would turn green. So I am not in love with that yet as there is a piece of the puzzle missing that I haven't figured out yet.

And the charts... well... lets wait to see what kind of updates Furuno has in store before further comment. Can't wait to get some Navionics data on this machine. One thing that really surprised me is how the bathymetric data stopped once you got offshore a short distance. I did not measure the exact distance but it seemed to be 20 or 30 miles. Bathymetric data is something that offshore fisherman typically demand, so its absence offshore took me by surprise. Perhaps this will be covered in an other update. The reason I think it is missing is because we had the Raster charts set to "wrap" themselves to the bottom contour. Once we got 3 miles offshore they no longer wrapped to the bottom.

Overall, Navnet 3D gets a huge thumbs up, but there is still a lot to be improved with the charting.

Back to the fishing - we ended up with a 55" Tuna, but didn't keep it as there was still plenty of time to bag a money fish. Unfortunately that 55"er was all she wrote, so all our fishbox had in it was ice....

The next time I get offshore will probably be the White Marlin Open in August, hopefully our luck will change.

- Jim @ BOE

Here is John pulling up his pants, he had just mooned the cockpit crowd.

Chris and Jim reciting the pledge of allegiance, we do this everyday at 3:30 no matter where we are.

Shelly in amazement of how straight I can keep the boat one handed. I actually have one eye closed and am standing on one leg too, but you can't see it in this picture.

Wind, wind, wind!

So close to being tonights dinner... this one was let go...

Raymarine Certified - We are so smart....

2008-06-14T12:21:00.001-04:00

As of last week all of out techs are Raymarine Certified. We are 100% certifiable... I mean certified to install Raymarine Electronics and qualify for onboard warranty. The Raymarine process basically tests each person for the aptitude in electronics installation techniques, product knowledge, electrical systems, grounding systems, and Raymarine protocol. You are going to have to come to our store to see our fancy plaques. They are hanging right next to all of our other fancy plaques, you can't miss 'em!

McMurdo Max-G PLB - 48 Hour Battery! New Product Introduction

2008-06-01T21:40:00.000-04:00

BOE Marine has been chosen by Revere/McMurdo to introduce the New Max-G Personal Locator Beacon. This new PLB has a built-in GPS and a 48 Hour battery just like a full sized epirb. For a limited time we will have an introductory price of $559! Order online - offer expires 6/20/08.

Click here for details

10,000th Customer Gets Order Free!!

2008-05-14T14:50:00.000-04:00

We would like to congratulate Tom Poole of SC for winning our impromptu give-away! It was actually not Tom's first order with us, and we have actually been through 3 different accounting programs in 6 years, but something said "10,000" so we felt compelled to celebrate. I immediately called Tom to give him the news. He shot back with "You're $hittin me". I said I was most definitely not $httin him and that his order would be free. After getting over his initial excitement, followed by the depression of not ordering that new 15" Garmin touchscreen system we talked about, he finally settled in with some genuine happiness. We were excited too. Thanks Tom for your support of BOE, we are hoping that the parts you received will not fit and you will need to return them for parts you have to actually pay for, but if you end up keeping them that's OK too!

New Boat Line - Bristol Harbor Boats

2008-04-04T21:42:00.000-04:00

Many months ago we had very happy customer that would not shut up about his boat (we have many happy customers so this was no stand-out event). I remember him talking about how nice the manufacturer was, and how great the boat was. We sent him off a whole suite of electronics for his new boat. Fast forward 5 months...... I get an email from the rep of Bristol Harbor Boats asking if we would like to see their 21' model as he would be dragging it through our area in a week. One glimpse at this boat and Ii was interested, I said "bring it on".

Adam from Bristol Harbor (BH) showed up a week later pulling a 2008 21' BH. It was love at first site (with the boat not with Adam!!!). Although Adam is a great guy too. In fact Adam told us he was BH's first dealer. Adam owns BLM Yacht Sales in Fall River, MA and is a huge supporter of BH. So much so that he does double duty as the BH sales rep setting up dealers. I let Adam go through his whole shpeal about the boat but it wasn't needed. The boat is as close to perfect as a recreational center console will ever be: a great layout, in console head, beautiful bow (if a boat doesn't have a beautiful bow forgettaboutit), perfect choice in colors and components, and a price that I wasn't sure was wholesale or retail. Basically I was hooked before he even opened his mouth...sorry Adam.

We spent most of the day with Adam learning about the boat, learning about his company, learning about the manufacturer, catching up on everything else we have to do each day, and talking boats in general. We took Adam out for a ride on our demo Black Lab Boat. Turns out Adam also has a Black Lab. Proof that there are lots of closet metal heads out there. To top off this great day Stephanie got a contract on a 53 Navigator, 39 Pearson, and 35 Sea Ray, and also had a Sea Trial on a 26' Black Lab all in the same day. We pretended every day was like this so to impress Adam :)

We are now the exclusive dealer for Bristol Harbor Boats for MD and DE. We have a 21' in stock ready for demo rides. We'll be keeping her right on Rt 50 at my friend Jeff Beanes Yacht Brokerage Company called Alliance Marine. She'll have her Mid-Atlantic debut April 24th at the Bay Bridge Boat Show. We will have it on display right next to our Black Lab. Please come by for a look-see and please wish us good luck in this new market for a New England boat.

Garmin GMI-10 N2K Display Just Released - Review

2008-03-27T19:38:00.000-04:00

This week feels like Christmas all over again. First Garmin ships me the new 4210, today they send me the new GMI 10, 3.5" NMEA2000 (N2K) Marine Display.

The new GMI 10 is Garmins recent effort to produce a multipurpose informational display. It has a color 3.5" display, a few buttons across the bottom, and a "look" like the rest of the new Marine Family of displays from Garmin like the 5212 or 4208.

First impressions - when I first opened the box from Garmin I though "Lucky me", being one of the first to get one of these (or a box full in my case). The GMI 10 comes packaged with a high quality plastic cover, similar to the other marine displays, and a full N2K network. It has the removable "silver" top and bottom trim piece which makes flush mount the unit from the front a breeze. Thats right, everything you need to build a N2K network is right in the box. The construction of the display is heavy and feels high quality. It has a 4" round area on the back to make it easily fit into 4" holes you might already have on your dash. The back of the display has a port for N2K (just like any N2K device has) and a port for the included power/data cable.

You are probably wondering why the power cable does data too since this is a N2K device. Well...it also does NMEA0183. The GMI 10 is able to receive data from 1 other NMEA0183 device. It will display this data on the screen but it will not pass it through the device in either NMEA0183 or N2K format. This will be useful in legacy applications, for example where you might want a repeater display for your Garmin 3210 (which is not NMEA2000), or any brand of NMEA0183 device. Of course if you do this the GMI 10 will "show up" your 3210 and make you feel compelled to upgrade...

What next - I had a few minutes to set up an operational N2K network this morning, been meaning to do it for a while. Setting up a NMEA2000 network really does just take a few minutes. Since I am a seasoned pro I was able to do it in 1 minute and 58 seconds! I connected the included Yellow N2K Power Cable to my 12V power supply, connected that to a N2K T, then connected 2 more T's. One for the GMI-10 and one for a 5212 we have on display. I then stuck the terminators included with the GMI-10 on each end of the network. Easy enough right? It really is that easy.

Next I powered up the 5212 and GMI-10 in no particular order. Whoa momma, the GMI-10 display was as bright as the 5212 display. Make no mistake, I am a junky for this N2K stuff, and I was a bit disappointed when I found out Garmin's screen was only going to be 3.5", but what they lack in screen size they make up for in brightness. I have have tested all the screens currently available, this little Garmin GMI-10 is incredibly bright. Here it is compared to a Northstar M84 that happened to be mounted nearby.

Speaking of screen brightness, the GMI-10 has a feature called "network sharing". Alledgedly this will maintain the screen brightness of one unit across the network. I did not hook up 2 GMI-10's to test this but I could not get it to work with the 5212 it was hooked to via NMEA2000. So either I am doing something wrong or this feature is strictly for the small instruments and not the big displays.

Next I played around with it. I found the menu system very intuitive and had it pretty well figured out in a minute or two. The screen is very customizable, you can split it up into 1-4 sections. Once you have your desired pages created pushing on one of the arrow buttons will cycle you to the next page. Below are screen shots of various pages.

There are probably 400 other pics I could post of data layouts, the ones above are just what gets cycled through when the store demo is running.

The future expandability of this display is endless. All new marine electronics coming down the block will be N2K enabled. So this will interface with any other N2K device. In fact in building my NMEA2000 network for this review I used a 2' cable from Maretron and a T from Lowrance. Garmin has a whole pile of N2K stuff coming out including a Fuel Flow sensor for Gas engines which we just got a pile of, depth/temp transducers which will plug right into the network, and other manufacturers already have engine sensors, weather sensors, heading sensors, and whatever else. If you haven't jumped on the N2K bandwagon now is a good time to start.

In general I am exceedingly pleased with this device. Garmin has hit another homerun. The only thing I would like to see is a bigger screen, but that is easily remedied by adding a 2nd display. The MSRP on these is $535, street price much less.

Garmin 4210 Just Released - New Features!

2008-03-26T12:01:00.001-04:00

Garmin has just released their new 4210 with a whole bunch of new features and innovations that further their commitment to bringing the best products to the market. This review will focus on the innovations the 4210 has over teh other units Garmin has put out in this series over the previous year to include the 4212 and 4208.

When I opened the box the first thing I noticed was the flush mount template. My box included 2, not sure if this was a mistake or if all boxes will include 2, but it allows for you to mess up at least once . The neat thing about these new flush mount templates is they have advesive on one side - they are basically a big sticker. So you will not need to tape them in place to draw out your lines to cut. Basically you can put this sticker in place and cut along the line (no more blue tape required).

The next innovation is including all of the NMEA2000 components. Lowrance has been doing this for a couple of years, but Lowrance actually uses the power cable for the display to power the nmea2000 network. Garmin has gone one step further to include a complete Stand-alone nmea2000 network in the box. It has a power cable (yellow cable in pic), 2 120ohm terminators for each end of the network, 3 T's, a 2' cable to go to the 4210, and a 30' cable to go to the GPS antenna. There is a T for the 4210, a T for the GPS antenna, and a T for the power cable.

Garmin's new GPS antenna, called a GPS17x NMEA2000, is a nmea2000 antenna. It has a standard NMEA2000 micro-c socket on the bottom of it. In fact all of Garmin's NMEA2000 cables are standard Micro-C. Since you can easily connect the cable to the antenna this allows you more flexibility in running your GPS antenna cable. NMEA2000 cables can be cut and spliced very easily so the GPS cable can be shortened if need be, or run from teh bottom up or top down as required. If you have a real skinny cable run you can cut the connector off and splice it back on.

Next is what I found to be the coolest innovation. Garmin is now including 3 ways to mount the antenna. The first is the standard threaded base which you can screw to a standard antenna mount.

The Second is a little plate you can screw to your hardtop or arch (pictured on the right)

And the third method of mounting is really cool, it is a platform you can screw to the underside of a surface. You are probably thinking "a gps won't work unless it can see the sky". This is not always true, in fact they can typically see through fiberglass very easily. I can see people using this to mount their antennas under poling platforms, or inside of electronics boxes, or under the top of the dash on an open boat. While this certainly won't be the most popular way to mount the GPS antenna, it sure is mighty nice of them to include it as an option. Garmin is the first to offer such a part.

The final innovation is the removable top and bottom strips on the front of the display. This allows the unit to be screwed into a flush mount surface from the front. Prior to this you had to insert some threaded rod into the back on Garmin units. This new format will make mounting the unit go a lot easier.

Finally, here is the unit powered up next to its big brother and little sister, the 4212 on the left, the 4210 in the middle and the 4208 on the right. The cousin 540S is on the far right.

Tradition Yachts

2008-03-12T22:46:00.000-04:00

A little late with this news, but better late than never. In February we committed to being the Tradition Yachts Dealer for the Northeast. Tradition Yachts are the best passagemaker offering we have seen in recent history, so we jumped at the opportunity to be the dealer for these boats. The passagemaker market is as hot as ever, the better yards are seeing waits of 24 months or more. This is the perfect time to bring a new contender into the mix. Tradition Yachts are built using the finest components and most modern construction methods.

In early February we went out to visit some of the design team, and owners of the company in Vancouver. We were very impressed by their staff and on-site resources. We had a chance to inspect "Feisty", the first Tradition built. Feisty is 54' of serious cruiser.

If you are in the market for a true passagemaker give us a call, we'd love to tell you all about the Tradition Series.

Stephanie is here!

2008-03-09T22:01:00.001-04:00

After 5 years of begging we finally convinced Stephanie Woron to come work for us! I have known Stephanie for 10 years, all the way back to when we worked in South Florida together selling yachts. Since starting BOE Marine in 2002 I knew she would be a perfect fit for our program. Late 2007 we moved her up here to take the reigns of our Yacht Sales Division.

Stephanie brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience in the 40' to 80' yacht market. Some of the lines she has worked with include Outer Reef, Alaskan, Defever, Ocean, Navigator, Jupiter and more. What is most impressive is her focus on customer needs and thorough follow-up. I can't wait to see where she takes our Yacht Sales Dept in 2008!

She didn't come alone! She brings with her a puppy Pug named Orsin. If you are looking to buy or sell your boat give Orsin's mom a call.

- Jim