Article by Capt. Steve Katz
Second Season
While the traditional calendar has four seasons, for many there are only two seasons, fishing season and not-fishing season.
When the fall weather turns colder and the fishing slows down, many people turn to other activities, in the Maryland area hunting is a popular activity for many anglers. Meanwhile, before it gets too cold, many boat owners and crew use this time to accomplish boat projects. Some of these projects, maybe just a weekend or two and some take this non-fishing time to get started on major projects, such as re-powering, painting, or other large scale projects, usually out of the watery on a trailer or in the boat yard.
At Sunset Marina in Ocean City, the boat yard is filling up with fall projects for some of the larger boats. These boats are undertaking projects, such as sonar installations, engine re-powers, new generators, traditional bottom jobs, running gear, woodwork, and paint projects. A new Titan sportfish boat was trucked in the other night for final construction before its first launching . Many of these projects need to be finished by Thanksgiving, when many boats head south for the winter, or even travel on a ship to far-flung destinations, such as Costa Rica.
This is also a great time of the year for traditional preventive maintenance projects. It’s a good idea to get started on these things now, since sometimes a little issue is bigger or more time-consuming than you thought. Don’t don’t want to wait till spring to get started. If you have an outboard engine, changing the engine oil and the lower unit oil in the fall is a recommended practice so that way the engine sits with clean lubricants during the off-season. Just the opposite when it comes to batteries, if you think your batteries are at the end of their life, or have a problem, it’s best to wait until spring to buy new batteries so that way you don’t have new batteries sitting in storage during the cold winter.
For many of us, the off-season brings the excitement of boat shows and new products. Two new products were recently by Garmin: the xHD3 radar and the 9000 series chartplotter. With the popularity of Garmin products, these two new offerings will certainly entice those who have been waiting for the next new thing.
Garmin’s new GMR xHD3 series dome and open-array radars New xHD3 radars are Garmin’s first magnetron models to offer scan averaging, along with enhanced target-size processing and improved true echo trails.
Garmin this week unveiled its flagship GPSMAP® 9000 chartplotter series. Available with 19”, 22”, 24” or 27” touchscreen displays, these all-in-one chartplotters offer stunning 4K resolution with edge-to-edge clarity, powered by a processor that’s seven-times faster than previous generations. Thanks to the new Garmin BlueNet™ gigabit network, these premium multi-function displays (MFDs) provide comprehensive connectivity throughout the vessel with faster network speeds than ever before.
Earlier this year, Furuno expanded its line of the newest NavNet TZtouch3 by adding two new, extra-large 22” and 24” models. Aptly named TZtouchXL, these super-wide, full-HD (1920×1080 FHD resolution) MFDs include all of the features that make NavNet TZtouch3 the easiest yet most powerful system on the market.
Another company that has been introducing new products recently is Seakeeper.
The Seakeeper 4 gyro stabilizer for boats ~38-44 ft., and the Seakeeper 4.5, for boats ~40-46 ft., were designed to maximize angular momentum, or gyroscopic power, per cubic inch. These filled a gap in the lineup between the DC powered Seakeeper 3 and the much larger AC powered Seakeeper 6. If you have a larger boat, the Seakeeper 18 and Seakeeper 40 are also new product offerings in their lineup. As we have written about earlier this season in this column, Seakeeper started a new division called Ride, that offers a unique interceptor style trim tab that adjusts up to 100 times a second to provide optimal control of role in pitch of the boat.
The upcoming second season is a great time to catch up on projects on your boat, prepare for winter fishing in warmer climates or explore new boats and products at the fall and winter boat shows. §
