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Shoreway Marine, Highway 73, Berlin, NJ 08009. Call 1-800-543-5408 for
ordering and product information (609-768-8102 in NJ). This is what
Larry and Irwin Goldberg did after they sold out to E&B. Well organised
and printed catalog on recyclable newsprint type paper. Powerboat
oriented with little of interest specifically to sailboaters but great prices
on electronics and other common use items. (wms).


Marine Exchange, in Peabody, MA. According to one netter, "They sell
both new and used equipment and will also special order items for you.
They also have a complete rigging service. The owner is Arlene and she is
far and away the most knowledgeable person I have ever met in the boat
supply business. She can help you figure out what you need for a project
and where to find it. She can get it for you at a discount, and if she can't
get it for you, she can tell you where else to find it. Not only has she
found us a number of obscure items at substantial savings, but she's also
told us where to find netting (at fishing supply houses; it's cheapest
there); where to get the stern swim ladder welded; who in the area makes
custom size, rigid holding tanks, etc., etc. They have hundreds of boating
manufacturers catalogs and will look up items, prices, specifications for
you. They're a great outfit to deal with."


Hamilton Marine, Searsport, Maine. "Good prices, mail order." (ph)
Hamilton Marine in Searsport, Maine is (207) 548-2985 They have a lot of
good gear, a nice catalogue, and are strong on many fishing/lobstering
supplies (claw bands, freezer gloves) that are missing from yacht
chandleries. Plus they have a lot of bronze fittings around. (db)


Marine Center, 1150 Fairview Ave North (retail outlet); PO Box 9968,
Seattle WA 98109 (800 242 6357) "They are a catalog company in Seattle
that I have dealt with a dozen or so times. Prices lower than local retail;
180 page annual catalog + 2 sale catalogs per year. General marine
supply: electronic, sail and power equip. Outstanding selection of small
specialty stuff: switches, lamps, lifeline stantions to name items I have
bought.


Fawcett Boat Supplies, 110 Compromise Street. (410) 267 7547. They
have almost everything in stock, and can locate anything else.
Unfortunately, they are not cheap. Their self-proclaimed nickname is
"Tiffany's on the Severn." (ag)


Signet Marine: Several people have posted requests recently for
information on parts and service for Signet Marine instruments. Signet
Marine went out of business a few months ago. However, Signet has been



                                 36




"reconstituted" under new ownership recently. (mt)


You can contact them at:


Signet Marine Service 505 Van Ness Ave. Torrance, CA 90501 (310)
320-4349


Sailrite Kits, 305 W. VanBuren St.,PO Box 987,Columbia City, IN 46725.
1-800-348-2769, FAX 219-244-4184. They can sell you precut kits, custom
stuff and even a line of heavy duty sewing machines, some of which are
built to run on 12V. Lots of help for the nervous rookie as well. Good
people (no, I don't work there). (sm2)


Nilcoptra 3 Marine Road; Hoylake, Wirral; Cheshire L47 2AS; United
Kingdom; tel. 051 632 5365 (eb)


G.L. Green; 104 Pitshanger Lane; Ealing, London W5 1QX; United
Kingdom (eb)


Department B; Chevet Books; 157 Dickson Road; Blackpool FY1 2EU;
United Kingdom (eb)


Mr. Reginald H. Stone; Red Duster Books; 26 Acorn Avenue; Bar Hill;
Cambridge CB3 8DT; United Kingdom (eb)


Gerald Lee Martin Books; 73 Clayhall Avenue; Ilford, Essex IG5 0PN;
United Kingdom (eb)


McLaren Books; 91 West Clyde Street; Helensburgh; Dunbartonshire G84
8BB; United Kingdom (eb)


Seafarer Books and Crafts; 18 Market Courtyard; Riverside,
Haverfordwest; Pembrokeshire; United Kingdom (eb)


Companies specializing in used and out-of-print books:


W. Weigand and Co.; PO Box 563; Glastonbury CT O6033; [Smaller,
general list, periodic mailings.] (eb)


Fisher Nautical; Huntswood House; St. Helena Lane; Streat, Hassocks;
Sussex BN6 8SD; United Kingdom; [Huge list, periodic mailings. You can
ask to be placed on the "Yachting Only" list. General list has the most
amazing stuff on it: Admiralty reports, old ships logs, sailor's diaries,
shipwreck reports, and on and on. Occasional curmudgeonly newsletter
from the proprietor. Very good at searching for specific books.] (eb)


Columbia Trading Co.; 504 Main St.; W. Barnstable MA 02668;



                                 37




[Mid-sized list, periodic mailings. Seems more attuned to the serious
bibliophile, e.g., pricey first editions.] (eb)


Safe Navigation in Long Beach, CA is a VERY complete book/chart
store. You can get Admiralty, Canadian and US sailing directions,
courtesy flags for many many nations, lots of books for the yachting
crowd, plus fascinating tomes like "How to store cargo", "Sailing
Distances Between World Ports" and "Self-Study Guide for the Merchant
Marine Ableseaman Exam". They try to stock a complete set of NOS and
DMA charts and also have (so they say, I did not check - yet) Canadian
and British charts, perhaps others as well. They do mail order. (db)


The Nautical Mind, (416) 203-1163. Bookstore in Toronto. They seem to
have an extensive set of titles in stock. Good source for obtaining
European cruising guides on this side of the Atlantic. The only bookstore
I could find which carried any British canal guides.(al)


International Marine - A Division of McGraw-Hill Blue Ridge Summit,
PA 17294-0840 US 800-822-8158 FAX 717-794-2080 Foreign orders
717-794-2191 8:30-5:00 EST or FAX, use credit card IM is both a major
international publisher and a mail order vendor. They put out a flyer
about once a month which covers about 300 boating titles, with
descriptions. They offer discounts on new releases and on close-outs.
They have extensive listings on design, building, maintenance, navigation,
cruising guides, fiction, etc., etc. Typical shipping is $3 to $6 in US, $5 to
$8 foreign per order. Great catalog, good service (wv)


J. Tuttle Maritime Books; 1806 Laurel Crest; Madison WI 53705; [Smaller
list, periodic mailings.] (eb)


Diesel Engines: Info about Perkins deisels is available from Perkins Group
of Companies, Eastfield, Frank Perkins Way, Peterborough, PE1 5NA,
England, Phone: 44 733 67474



5.1.1  NMEA Specification for inter-electronic communication



The NMEA will sell you the specs or I will loan my copy to you. ("I" in
this remark is ben@cv.hp.com) NMEA phone number is (205) 473 1793.
(dk1)



                                 38




5.1.2  Anchor Chain And Rode, Other Hardware



For the best prices on anchor chain and anchor rode (e.g. 100' 1/2" PC =
$188.00) try SEA SPIKE ANCHORS, FARMINGDALE, NY (516) 249
2241


The Rigging Company, in Portsmouth RI. 401 683 1525 They have the
best prices I've seen on rope and wire rigging, better than the big
discount houses. (em)



5.1.3  Navigation and Simulation Software and Equipment



Celestaire sells a few types of software. Their address is Celestaire, 416 S
Pershing, Wichita, KS 67218, (316) 686-9785.


They also sell aviation and marine navigation eqpt.; their catalog is the
most complete I've seen in this area. High prices, though.


Davis Instruments, 3465 Diablo Ave, Hayward, CA 94545, USA sells PC
Astro Navigator. They also sell sextants and a few other useful devices.


I (jfh@cs.brown.edu) have a C subroutine package that implements (let
the user beware) the programs that used to be used in the HP41 Nav Pac.
These include a nautical almanac program and a basic sight-reduction
software. This is the only free software I know of. I also have a variation
of the "stars" program that uses the Yale Star Catalog to print a start
chart, customized to any day of the year, from any geographical position,
at any time. It comes with no documentation, though...


I have one which helps brush up on the tactics of racing. It's available
from



Criteria instruments
7318 N. Leavitt Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97203-4840
phone 503-289-1225 fax 503-286-5896
John P. Laurin
bbs 503-297-9073  1200/2400 baun 8,n,1.



(ps)


Software/hardware for getting weather faxes: Crane in San Diego. For
$119 you get the software, manual shortwave headphone adapter,
modulator for IBM compatible. 619 233 0223 (da)



                                 39




OFS WeathFAX, 6404 Lakerest Court, Raleigh, NC 27612, USA (phone
1-919-847-4545) sell a card with software. It's $355 for the kit, $495
assembled. Foreign orders add $14. Animation software is "free". The
half-length card goes in your PC, accepting audio from your receiver. It
demodulates/displays HF marine fax, along with satellite transmissions.
Visa/Mastercard accepted.(la)


Software Systems Consulting, 615 S. El Camino Real, San Clemente, CA
92672, USA (phone 1-714-498-5784) sell a demodulator with software for
$250. The (external) demodulator plugs into your PC serial port.(la)


MFJ Enterprises Inc, Box 494, Miss. State, MS 39762, USA (phone
1-323-5869, fax 1-601-323-6551) have the MFJ-1278 "Multi Mode Data
Controller". It (with software) supports RTTY, CW, SSTV and some
other modes, along with fax of course. It is an external unit and connects
to your PC serial port. Last price I saw was about $280. Software around
$60.(la)


Ed Wallner's TIDES program is one of the simplest and best, and it's
shareware! Valid for as long as 200 years from now (albeit with some loss
of accuracy). TIDES can be downloaded from many bbs's, or: Edwin P.
Wallner; 32 Barney Hill Road; Wayland, MA 01778-3602; 508-358-7938
(pk).


Also you can get TIDES 3.02 by ftp to sunsite.unc.edu (pk).


Other Tides programs: tides202.zip is available for awhile on ftp.ais.org in
pub/jon. I haven't checked the accuracy yet, but it appears to do what I
want. (jz)


More Software: More prorams are available on the ship to shore bbs. (jz)



Vancouver     BC 1-604-540-9596
Portland      OR 1-503-297-9073
Alameda       CA 1-510-365-8161
Redwood City CA 1-415-365-6384
Chicago       IL 1-708-670-7940
Arlington     VA 1-703-525-1458
NYC           NY 1-718-430-2410



5.2   Safe boating courses and organizations



The short answer is: The US Power Squadron and The US Coast Guard
Auxilliary. Here's how to find more:



                                 40




You can find out about the safe boating courses in your area by calling the
nearest Coast Guard station and asking. It's best to do this in late Fall,
since many of the courses take place during the winter and early Spring.


A beginning handbook 'Start Sailing Right' by US Sailing and the
American Red Cross is available from US Sailing. US Sailing also
manages many community sailing programs and can probably provide
information about courses available in various parts of the US. (sc)


BOAT/U.S. Courseline (800) 226-BOAT in Virginia (800) 245-BOAT Has
information about upcoming Safety Courses in your area. (dk1)


Coast Guard Boating Safety Hotline (800) 368-5647 Has information on
boat recalls and defects. Also you can report your safety problems here.
(dk1)


Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons 26 Golden Gate Court Scarborough,
Ont. Canada, M1P 3A5 (416)293-2438 or 1-800-268-3579 (pb)



5.3    Should I get GPS or Loran?



GPS appears to be the wave of the future in electronic navigation. Prices
are falling fast, and there are now GPS units for under $400. Since Loran
units cost over $300 (typically), the $400 GPS sounds like a pretty good
deal. Loran has excellent repeatability (i.e., you can get back to the same
spot, within about 100 yards), but GPS has greater accuracy (the
LAT/LON reading is likely to be closer to where you are than that of a
LORAN). (jh)


As an example, an Apelco DXL6350 ( I have a 6300) is available regularly
at under $250. It functions very well but lacks route capability. It is not
like the reallly low priced units that lack ASF and other needed features.
No other apologies needed. I believe I saw it on sale for $224 from E&B.
(1994 prices) (cp)


If my Loran gave out on me, I would, at this point, probably replace it
with a GPS. If I were looking for a cheap way to navigate electronically,
I'd look for some folks who just got GPS and offer to buy their Loran unit
cheap. It's worked fine for a very long time, and there's nothing wrong
with it. (jh)


Here's a summary of how GPS works, contrinuted by Craig Haggart:


HOW GPS WORKS: AN INTRODUCTION



                                 41




Amazingly precise satellite navigation receivers are now widely available
and reasonably priced, thanks to the Global Positioning System (GPS).
How do these little wonders figure out exactly where you are?


The basic principle behind GPS is simple, and it's one that you may have
used many times while doing coastal navigation: if you know where a
landmark is located, and you know how far you are from it, you can plot a
line of position. (In reality, it's a circle or sphere of position, but it can *
 *be
treated as a line if the circle is very large.) If you can plot two or more
lines of position, you know that you are at the point where the lines cross.
With GPS, the landmarks are a couple of dozen satellites flying about
12,000 miles above the earth. Although they are moving very rapidly,
their positions and orbits are known with great precision at all times.


Part of every GPS receiver is a radio listening for the signals being
broadcast by these satellites. Each spacecraft continuously sends a data
stream that contains orbit information, equipment status, and the exact
time. All of the information is useful, but the exact time is crucial. GPS
receivers have computers that can calculate the difference between the
time a satellite sends a signal and the time it is received. The computer
multiplies this time of signal travel by the speed of travel (almost a billion
feet per second!) to get the distance between the GPS receiver and the
satellite (TIME x SPEED = DISTANCE); it then works out a line of
position based on the satellite's known location in space.


Even with two lines of position, though, the resulting fix may not be very
good due to receiver clock error. The orbiting satellites have extremely
accurate (and expensive!) clocks that use the vibrations of an atom as the
fundamental unit of time, but it would cost far too much to put similar
atomic clocks in GPS receivers as well. Since precise measurement of time
is critical to the system - a clock error of only one thousandth of a second
would create a position error of almost 200 miles - the system designers
were faced with a dilemma.


Geometry to the rescue! It turns out that GPS receivers can use
inexpensive quartz clocks (like the ones used in wristwatches) and still
come up with extremely accurate position fixes as long as one extra line of
position is calculated. How does this work? First, imagine two
earthbound landmarks with known positions - for example, Honolulu and
Los Angeles. If we measure the travel time of radio waves from each of
these cities to San Francisco, we can use the known speed of the radio
waves to compute two lines of position that cross. If our clock is a little
fast, our position lines will show us to be closer to both cities than we
really are; the lines will cross, but that crossing point might be somewhere
out in the ocean southwest of San Francisco. On the other hand, if our
clock is too slow, we will appear to be farther away from the chosen



                                 42




landmarks than we really are, and our position lines might cross to the
northeast of us, near Sacramento.


Now, if we get just one more position line - from Seattle, let's say - the
three lines would form a triangle, and the center of the area in this triangle
is our REAL position. The clock error is the same for all three lines, just
in different directions, so moving them together until they converge on a
point eliminates the error. Therefore, it's OK if our GPS receiver's clock
is a little off, as long as the clocks on the satellites are keeping exact time
and we have a computer that can pinpoint the center of a triangular area.


For accurate two-dimensional (latitude and longitude) position fixes, then,
we always need to get signals from at least three satellites. There are now
enough GPS satellites orbiting the earth to allow even three-dimensional
position determination (latitude, longitude, and altitude, which requires
signals from at least FOUR satellites) anytime, from anywhere in the
world. The more satellites your receiver can "see" at one time, the more
accurate your position fix will be, up to the system's standard accuracy
limit of a few hundred feet.


The U.S. Department of Defense is responsible for the GPS system, and
they reserve increased accuracy for military users. For this reason, the
satellites broadcast a coded signal ("encrypted P-code") that only special
military receivers can use, providing positions that are about ten times
more accurate than those available with standard receivers. In addition,
random errors are put into the satellite clock signals that the civilian GPS
receivers use. Not everybody is happy with this intentional degradation of
accuracy, though, including the U.S. Coast Guard.


To get around the DoD-imposed accuracy limitation, the Coast Guard is
setting up "differential beacons" around the U.S. A differential beacon
picks up GPS satellite signals, determines the difference between the
computed position from the satellite and the beacon's own exactly-known
location, then broadcasts the error information over a radio channel for all
nearby differential-equipped receivers to use. With this method,
inexpensive GPS receivers can produce position information accurate to
within a few inches using the standard, uncoded civilian signal. GPS
receivers that can take advantage of this differential broadcast are
becoming quite common, although a separate differential beacon receiver
usually must be purchased.


The way GPS receivers pick up the satellite signals is pretty interesting:
all of the satellites broadcast their messages on the same frequency, but
they each include a unique identification number. The receiver determines
which message is from which satellite by matching the identification
number with the ones stored in its memory. This is sort of like standing in



                                 43




a room with many people speaking at the same time - you can listen to
what just one person is saying among all of the conversations taking place
simultaneously, and you can identify a person's voice by its particular
sound. In the same way, a GPS receiver picks up signals from all of the
satellites in view and matches them with patterns in memory until it
figures out which ones are "talking" and what they are saying. This
technique allows GPS receivers without backyard-sized dish antennas to
reliably use the extremely weak signals that the satellites transmit
towards the earth.


Ten years ago, it would have been hard to believe that you could buy a
device capable of providing your precise location anywhere on the globe,
much less that it would be smaller than a frozen waffle and cost less than
a new winch. In just a few years, I suspect that these technological
marvels will be just about everywhere, and much cheaper - at this writing
(May 1994), there are terrific handheld units with basic course plotters
selling for under $500, and the prices keep going down.



5.4    What other newsgroups discuss boating stuff ?



There is rec.boats and rec.boats.paddle, rec.boats.racing, and
rec.boats.building. There is also alt.sport.jetski and rec.sports.waterski.
You might also want to look at rec.woodworking. There are also some
sailing-related WWW pages; pointers to some can apparently be found at
http://pdsmacii.as.utexas.edu, and some laser-related stuff to be found at
ftp://ftp.law.indiana.edu/pub/laser and a WWW site at
http://www.law.indiana.edu/misc/laser.html; further online sources are
listed below.



5.5    What's the 800 number for the User Fee Sticker?



There is no longer a User-Fee sticker required!



5.6    What's it cost to own a boat?



Here is what I have posted previously about the costs of owning Sarah, by
1970 Alberg 37 sloop. The items labelled "startup" are things that I knew
I'd need to do when I purchased the boat, or that were consequences of
pre-existing problems (e.g. a couple of substantial engine repairs). There
are a couple of charges that others may want to rule out: the bank charge
is for an account I maintain just for Sarah, and "books and magazines"



                                 44




are not directly related to owning the boat. The list also includes a bunch
of "one time" expenses, like repairing the injector pump on the engine. It
turns out, though, that there are *always* one-time charges, and it's
worth learning to expect them.


Note that the list below does *not* include the opportunity cost on the
investement in the boat, which was $34,000, and hence could be earning
(at 6 percent interest) about $2000 per year. Since it's not earning that,
it's a hidden cost of ownership. (jfh)



                                   1992          1991        1990    change(91/*
 *92)
Startup (i.e. pre-existing probs)
ENGINE WORK-startup              30.77        73.77      1431.79     -43.00
Interior systems-startup                                  365.86
Safety Equip-startup            105.69                     95.14    +105.69


Books and magazines             260.47        64.83                 +195.64
DINGHY                           114.75       533.95       174.05    -419.20
Electronic Equip.               210.48       348.78       225.19    -138.30
Engine maintenance              632.12       374.07      1194.97    +258.05
Sailing Hardware                              246.95       229.27    -246.95
General Maintenance on Hull+Eq 458.87       617.96                 -159.09
Insurance                        881.00       825.00       750.00     +56.00
Interior systems, exc elec+eng  63.47       165.21       490.51    -101.74
Miscellaneous expenses          200.00       306.03                 -106.03
Moor'g,Haul'g,Storage, Anchor  830.28      1110.26      1886.08    -279.98
Not Categorized                  -73.73        75.73         9.56    -149.46
Operating expenses               77.17       546.49       498.31    -469.32
Boat-related phone calls         10.00        97.98       416.80     -87.98
Rigging Replacement             198.74                              +198.74
Safety Equipt.                                226.57        18.14    -226.57
Sail repair and purchase        111.56       447.40                 -335.84
Monthly Bank Charge              30.50        37.00        52.00      -6.50
Tools for boat                   191.84       216.63        30.00     -24.79
Yard Labor and Tax                                        180.00
                                ------------------------------------------
Total                           4333.98     6,314.61      8047.67  -1980.63



A few remarks: I've gotten less diligent about recording which phone calls
are boat related. The large engine expense this year is partly due to
having some transmission work done. The "mooring, etc." costs went
down only because I failed to pay one bill before the end of 1992. They'll
go up next year. So will rigging replacement.

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