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August 13, 2007. I picked this item off a trawler web site I visit from time to time. It was posted by Marin Faure, who lives near Seattle and keeps his GB36 in Bellingham. Marin works in audio-visual for a major manufacturer of commercial and military aircraft, and can’t help himself from writing on the side. His most recent book is “Success on the Step,” a history of Kenmore Air. The book is well-researched and very well written. If you can’t find it in local bookstores, you can get a copy from Kenmore Air, either at their main office in Kenmore at one of their airport offices.
The posting is in response to an earlier item about autopilots, but that’s not what’s important, as you’ll see.
That's a pretty smart autopilot, then, to be able to tell if there's debris in the water in front of the boat and steer around it. We have a system like this on our boat, too. Manufactured in 1954, it has optical sensors that detect debris in front of the boat and transmit port or starboard steering directions to the electro-mechanical actuators attached to the helm. After the debris is passed, the system returns the boat to the entered course. The system was marketed at the time as the "Mark I WIFE." Very reliable and when not underway it performs a wide variety of other functions. I don't know if they are still made but if you can find one they put anything currently available from the Furunos, Raymarines, and Sperrys of the world to shame.
—C. Marin Faure
We have one of these also, a pre-war model but equal to anything manufactured since. We’ve all heard of something that does everything but wash the dishes? The one on our boat even washes the dishes!—BH
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