I
’ve had yet another busy fall. In late
September I headed to San Diego
to attend the National Marine
Electronics Association’s (NMEA) annual
meeting. It’s been several years since I
have attended one of their meetings and
I welcomed the opportunity, not only to
speak to their membership, but also to
re-connect with some old friends. This
year my talk addressed some of the newest
ABYC Electrical Standards that could
impact electronic equipment installers.
I also met with NMEA’s education
committee chairperson to see if there
are more ways in which the ABYC can
work with NMEA to meet our members’
mutual education needs. One bonus in
attending meetings is that NMEA runs a
complete series of educational programs
in conjunction with their annual meeting
and also has an exhibit area where their
manufacturer members can display all of
their new products. So, I had a chance to
speak with company representatives from
all of the major electronics companies to
get a feel for what the latest and greatest
is in that sector of the industry. This is
important because it also gives me some
insight into areas within our standards
that may need to be addressed or added
in the future. Number 1 on my list of
takeaways this year is the growth in the
area of on-board wireless communication
between devices. Currently ABYC has no
standard addressing any of this.
From the NMEA gathering I moved on to
Austin, Texas to give a presentation at the
annual meeting of the Marina Association
of Texas. I talked about in-water shock
drowning and how to test for faults at
docks and what procedures to follow
to mitigate potential problems. This
program was very well received and from
that I have interest from the group in
conducting several one or two day hands
on sessions to demonstrate the procedures
discussed to marina personnel.
Mid-October brought me into Annapolis
for one of my favorite annual rituals, the
Cruising World Magazine Boat of the
Year Competition (BOTY), where I have
served as a judge for the last five or six
years. This year had us comparing 28
different boats ranging in length from 26
ft. to 67 ft. The fleet consisted of simple
entry level weekend cruisers to luxury,
any ocean globe trotters. My role in this
is to evaluate systems installations and
make sure they are done to acceptable
standards, both ABYC and CE. Most
people have no idea how involved our
judging process actually is. We actually
tear through the boats at the dock during
the boat show and then perform a series
of both motoring and sailing tests for each
boat after the show is over. Judges focus on
different areas of each boat. This year we
had Mark Schrader as our on-deck judge.
Mark has completed two single-handed
circumnavigations and two years ago
acted as project coordinator and skipper
for the Around the Americas trip. That
trip brought marine scientists, our BOTY
coordinator, and highly experienced
offshore sailor Herb McCormack through
the northwest passage around the top
of Canada down the entire east coast
of Canada and the US, as well as South
America around Cape Horn and back
?
Where
in the
Hull
is
Ed Sherman
F R O M A B Y C ’ S D I R E C T O R O F E D U C AT I O N A L P R O G R A M M I N G , E D S H E R M A N
16
American Boat & Yacht Council •
the
Reference Point
• Winter 2014
