Depth Finder News

There are countless examples of how an over reliance of GPS navigation and the electronic charting systems, as well as the use of dead reckoning without a known fixed starting point – instead “eyeballing” the situation – are leading vessels in to danger. August 21, 2017 was the Great American Eclipse, and the science fiction fantasy fan in me wondered if this is when I would get my superpowers back. The navigator in me pondered if I was in the zone of totality and took a sight of the sun and moon, at the moment of totality would it count as two lines of position on my chart.

Post Workboats has developed a unique Tornado RIB with water jet propulsion especially for the offshore and the wind farm industry. ‘It is the first time that such a RIB has been equipped with water jets’, says entrepreneur Klaas Post. ‘And what is more it offers many important advantages. With water jets you can maneuver accurately down to the centimeter, it is perfectly safe for rescuing people from drowning and for divers. The draught is determined by the bottom of the hull and not by the engine.

To Tim Domke, the new M/V Dixie Legacy is much more than simply the largest, most advanced lift boat in the world. To Domke, the Dixie Legacy is personal, the culmination of a career built sailing onboard these unique vessels with the last four years spent shoreside, overseeing the construction activities at Semco Shipyard for Power Offshore Service of Belle Chasse, La. Semco recently completed a 250-ft. (76.2 m) leg lift boat for Power Offshore Service, the first in a series of lift boats under construction for the company. Dixie Legacy features a number of technical innovations and amenities that should secure its profitable and successful future for many years to come.

SeaArk Marine, Inc. has delivered three distinct mission-specific patrol craft to the Baltimore City Police Marine Unit. Missions include patrolling Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, providing search and rescue, recovery and law enforcement. These enclosed cabin boats upgrade the marine unit’s fleet from open, center console boats to vessels that allow the officers all season protection in all weather conditions. The pride of the fleet is SeaArk’s 36’ Dauntless Class. The boat, powered by twin Caterpillar 3126 turbo-charged inboard diesel engines rated at 420 hp each, reaches speeds of 31 knots.

SeaArk Marine, Inc. has delivered three distinct mission-specific patrol craft to the Baltimore City Police Marine Unit. Missions include patrolling Baltimore's Inner Harbor, providing search and rescue, recovery and law enforcement. These enclosed cabin boats upgrade the marine unit's fleet from open, center console boats to vessels that allow the officers all season protection in all weather conditions. The backbone of the fleet is SeaArk's 36-ft. Dauntless Class. The boat, powered by twin Caterpillar 3126 turbo-charged inboard diesel engines rated at 420 hp each, reaches speeds of 31 knots. The variable dead rise deep-V hull, designed by C. Raymond Hunt & Associates, is constructed of all-welded marine grade aluminum.

Derecktor Shipyards delivered a 30-ft. fire boat to the Branford, Connecticut Fire Department. Based upon the asymmetrical catamaran designed Bridgeport Police vessel, Nigel-Gee & Associates and Derecktor have teamed up once again to provide a neighboring town with a high-quality civil-service craft. The fire boat is equipped with a 1500 gallon per minute at 150 pounds per square inch gasoline-powered fire pump provided by Darley and the salt water is supplied either directly from the bottom intake or a 20’ suction line. In case human evacuation is needed, the medically equipped pilot house is capable of transporting two persons via stretcher and has appropriate overhead hangers for IV bottles.

Semco Shipyard recently completed the M/V Dixie Legacy, a 250-ft. leg liftboat for Power Offshore Service, the first in a series of liftboats under construction for Power Offshore Service of Belle Chasse, La. The vessel will be used as a support platform from which various oil and gas industry activities can be performed, including activities such as coiled tubing, hydraulic snubbing, nitrogen stimulation, drilling, plug and abandonment, construction, facility installation or removal and diving. Dixie Legacy, the largest liftboat in the world, features a number of technical innovations both evident and unseen, but its greatest assets are immediately evident upon first laying eyes on the boat: its cranes, its deck area and its legs.

The Onondaga County Department of Drainage and Santiation recently chose an aluminum Workskiff 23 to house water sampling equipment on Lake Onondaga, near Syracuse, N.Y. The boat will be equipped with instruments and equipment for water sampling to monitor improvement in water quality. Sanitary Engineer Nicholas Capozza said the boat will be equipped with struts off the side with pulleys to handle water sampling gear, sampling gear, sampling tables and various instruments like GPS with differential global positioning capabilities, depth finder and other portable sampling equipment. The boat will be driven by a 150 hp Mercury outboard with EFI (electronic fuel injection). The boat will operate year-round, except when ice covers the lake.

The Eufala Police Department, in Alabama, recently unveiled a well-equipped boat for the purpose of search and rescue. The boat was presented to the department by the Alabama Marine Police. After some restoration and a new coat of marine paint, the boat only lacked a few essential items - primarily electronic equipment. Police Lieutenant Todd Register then contacted Techsonic Industries, and asked for a donation of a depth finder for the new rig. The company not only considered the request, but took it a step further. According to Techsonic President Charlie Stott, the company saw an opportunity to create perhaps the finest equipped search and rescue boat in the country. Techsonic first installed an NS-25, a sonar/GPS combination unit, which employs state-of-the-art C-Map cartography.