Is your boat high tech or low tech?

[garymalmgren]

Hi Alan and JSsailem.
I will clarify my comment " No VHF radio. No one in Japan has a radio. "

I know it sounds absurd.
Firstly , just because VHF radios are made in Japan doesn't mean they are common.
Yamaha PWC jet skis are a made in Japan. But you will very rarely see one.

When I say No one, I mean recreational boat owners and fishing boats under 20 or 30 ton.
So, I was meaning people like us.

Three years ago I did my Japanese A class boat license.
This is up to 50 tons and 500 miles off shore.
It cost $1200. Training 2 full days in the class and one on the water.
Then the test paper test in the morning and boat handling it the afternoon. (4 full weekdays)
I asked the instructor why there were no questions on radio (especially Pan Pan and Mayday procedures)
he (78 year old retired Coast Guard Commander) told me that no one with a small boat has a radio.

In Japan there is no leisure boating class. There are only commercial licenses.
Yes to ride a jetski you needed a commercial license.
In the last year or so they introduced a Jetski license. $800 thank you.

So to use a VHF you need a commercial radio operators license. You need to be able to read semaphore (flags) and be able to tap out Morse at a given rate. And you need to pay $1000 for the test. The radio needs to be inspected every three years.
Before I bought mine I looked at about 15 boats on the internet ( all under 35 feet) and none had radios.
In the port where I am moored there are two boats that sail long distance (Hawaii or Alaska ) with radios the other 20 or so. No radios.

The reason are the cost and the hoops that you have to jump through.


gary

 

[Alan Gomes]

Hi Alan and JSsailem.
I will clarify my comment " No VHF radio. No one in Japan has a radio. "

I know it sounds absurd.
Firstly , just because VHF radios are made in Japan doesn't mean they are common.
Yamaha PWC jet skis are a made in Japan. But you will very rarely see one.

When I say No one, I mean recreational boat owners and fishing boats under 20 or 30 ton.
So, I was meaning people like us.

Three years ago I did my Japanese A class boat license.
This is up to 50 tons and 500 miles off shore.
It cost $1200. Training 2 full days in the class and one on the water.
Then the test paper test in the morning and boat handling it the afternoon. (4 full weekdays)
I asked the instructor why there were no questions on radio (especially Pan Pan and Mayday procedures)
he (78 year old retired Coast Guard Commander) told me that no one with a small boat has a radio.

In Japan there is no leisure boating class. There are only commercial licenses.
Yes to ride a jetski you needed a commercial license.
In the last year or so they introduced a Jetski license. $800 thank you.

So to use a VHF you need a commercial radio operators license. You need to be able to read semaphore (flags) and be able to tap out Morse at a given rate. And you need to pay $1000 for the test. The radio needs to be inspected every three years.
Before I bought mine I looked at about 15 boats on the internet ( all under 35 feet) and none had radios.
In the port where I am moored there are two boats that sail long distance (Hawaii or Alaska ) with radios the other 20 or so. No radios.

The reason are the cost and the hoops that you have to jump through.


gary

Wow. Very interesting.

A great example of what not to follow.

 

[Terry Cox]

Medium tech here. VHF radio/s, Garmin GPS (circa 2005), Mac laptop (circa 2006), flip phone with Bluetooth, tube tv, microwave oven (1991 model), Autohelm ST50 instrument cluster (circa 1991), electric toilets (circa 1991). All work just fine, albiet a bit creaky at times, just like the skipper.

 

[jssailem]

Wow. A true cultural difference. We see the ability to communicate/call for help as an essential element of good seamanship. We support this thinking with regulations that reduce the barriers.

Your experiences and information identify a different approach. No radio no call for help. Your on your own when in the sea. I wonder if some of the evolutionary differences are a result of post WW2 controls imposed.

Thank you Gary for sharing. This helps me expand my understanding of the different ways we boaters venture out away from safe harbor.

 

[dLj]

Hi Alan and JSsailem.
I will clarify my comment " No VHF radio. No one in Japan has a radio. "

I know it sounds absurd.
Firstly , just because VHF radios are made in Japan doesn't mean they are common.
Yamaha PWC jet skis are a made in Japan. But you will very rarely see one.

When I say No one, I mean recreational boat owners and fishing boats under 20 or 30 ton.
So, I was meaning people like us.

Three years ago I did my Japanese A class boat license.
This is up to 50 tons and 500 miles off shore.
It cost $1200. Training 2 full days in the class and one on the water.
Then the test paper test in the morning and boat handling it the afternoon. (4 full weekdays)
I asked the instructor why there were no questions on radio (especially Pan Pan and Mayday procedures)
he (78 year old retired Coast Guard Commander) told me that no one with a small boat has a radio.

In Japan there is no leisure boating class. There are only commercial licenses.
Yes to ride a jetski you needed a commercial license.
In the last year or so they introduced a Jetski license. $800 thank you.

So to use a VHF you need a commercial radio operators license. You need to be able to read semaphore (flags) and be able to tap out Morse at a given rate. And you need to pay $1000 for the test. The radio needs to be inspected every three years.
Before I bought mine I looked at about 15 boats on the internet ( all under 35 feet) and none had radios.
In the port where I am moored there are two boats that sail long distance (Hawaii or Alaska ) with radios the other 20 or so. No radios.

The reason are the cost and the hoops that you have to jump through.


gary

How interesting! Thank you Gary for such a detailed explanation.

Do you know how foreign boats are treated that carry such equipment? Might there be a time limit permitting carrying such equipment? Or perhaps are they limited in their use? Obviously, it would seem you aren't calling into port upon arrival, or pre arrival.

dj

 

[Jackdaw]

Wow. A true cultural difference. We see the ability to communicate/call for help as an essential element of good seamanship. We support this thinking with regulations that reduce the barriers.

Your experiences and information identify a different approach. No radio no call for help. Your on your own when in the sea. I wonder if some of the evolutionary differences are a result of post WW2 controls imposed.

Thank you Gary for sharing. This helps me expand my understanding of the different ways we boaters venture out away from safe harbor.

Agree mostly, but would add that our system of near total non-regulation and testing creates other issues.

The Japanese government site says that the Marine VHF network was created in 1991, so a very recent thing. And the authoritative cruising resource NOONSITE confirms what Gary says.

JAPAN
COMMUNICATIONS
VHF is not normally used by yachts in Japan and you may not get an answer if you use it. Channel 16 is used for a lot of general chatter.


The government pictures does not even show ship-to-ship pleasure communications.

 

[Justin_NSA]

Sort of like what happened to Citizen Band radio. I'm sure the professional truckers didn't appreciate the spotlight. It was amusing though, listening to the hookers at the truck stops.

 

[TomY]

The first question from the CG during a VHF distress call around here is always, "Do you have life jackets one? "

The second question seems regularly to be, "Do you have a cell phone?"

 

[Davidasailor26]

@Davidasailor26 you want to do consulting work in Lake Guntersville AL? Love the idea of tech and monitoring just lack the time to figure it out. I did add a second hand Galaxy Tab A with Navtronics to my cockpit. It is nice to have the depth of the lake now and was a major help returning in the dark with no moon out last year too.

It’s a fun hobby but I also lack the time to do all I want with it. If I were building a system now I’d use OpenPlotter. (Sailing with free hardware | Sailoog). That seems to provide all the integration And extensibility I’d want. I started building my setup before that was a thing, but it’s pretty home brew.

 

[Jackdaw]

Do you know how foreign boats are treated that carry such equipment? Might there be a time limit permitting carrying such equipment? Or perhaps are they limited in their use? Obviously, it would seem you aren't calling into port upon arrival, or pre arrival.

In the vast number of these cases, the marine custom of 'comity' comes into play, where a boat is allowed to operate approved equipment under the equivalent rules of the ships flag.

 

[Jackdaw]

In the vast number of these cases, the marine custom of 'comity' comes into play, where a boat is allowed to operate approved equipment under the equivalent rules of the ships flag.

This is why I highly recommend anyone sailing outside of US waters to have both a FCC radio licence, and some manner of recreational craft licence or operator certificate. Comity means that you don't need their licence, but you need to have yours that matches.

 

[DougM]

I like to stay on the high tech side of the equation. I find it difficult to stay ahead of the curve, or at least on it.
The problem is when the original high tech becomes low tech, there seems to be no easy backward compatibility even within the same brand. Its economically infeasible to change everything at once, made more difficult by planned obsolescence and proprietary design.

 

[dLj]

This is why I highly recommend anyone sailing outside of US waters to have both a FCC radio licence, and some manner of recreational craft licence or operator certificate. Comity means that you don't need their licence, but you need to have yours that matches.

It's interesting that in all the foreign ports I've entered, the only documentation I've been asked to produce has been passports and ship documents. But I've only done this in Europe prior to the EU integration. So that is a very dated statement, although at the time quite a few countries. I was never asked for any documentation regarding a license to operate the boat nor any equipment on-board. At the time I was told nobody cared as clearly I was sufficiently skilled to have arrived safely to port. Perhaps in a more "stressed" arrival that could have changed things. I do believe in "flying under the radar" is always the best policy....

dj

 

[jon hansen]

love the high tech. i have kept up. aesthetically i try and keep the 66' alden looking 66'. big pods in the cockpit or on deck would not look right for me. so my high tech is micro when i can.
fresh, crisp sails, VC17, garmin handheld gpsmap 78s, icon minni hand held fm radio, switlik M.O.M., ten man mackinac life raft in soft case, binoculars, binoculars with a built in compass, binoculars with electronic stabilization, four large stout access ports to my water tanks, large stout access ports to the fuel tank, smart phone, the entire interior comes apart without cutting anything, i can get every place on the boat, split rig for great control going any direction, crab crusher keel, 1974 mansfield vacuflush head, three par pumps, two whale hand pumps, 35 lbs danforth anchor, teak decks, two supersoaker squirt guns, all this gear, very high tech.
did i mention sails, crisp fresh sails in perfect shape? oh yeah , very high tech.
design tech, i have ribs inside the glass hull. the interior is mounted to the ribs leaving an air gap that breathes for the entire hull. constant circulation means a sweet smelling vessel.
some of these things are not new tech but they all are very "high tech".

henri lloyd rain gear

 

[jon hansen]

............ but really, the tech of the vessel ain't much, it's the people on board and the things you see while playing in the wind.