http://threesheetsnw.com Three Sheets Northwest Boating News Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:50:03 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2012/02/boat-show-find-flexible-lightweight-solar-panels/ http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2012/02/boat-show-find-flexible-lightweight-solar-panels/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:00:02 +0000 Deborah Bach http://threesheetsnw.com/?p=22500 One of the more interesting products we saw at the Seattle Boat Show was the flexible, super-thin, lightweight solar panels made by Italian company Solbian. The Solbianflex Solar Panels, which were at the show for the first time this year, are about as thin as a flexible cutting board and weigh between 1.76 and 5.17 pounds, [...]]]> http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2012/02/boat-show-find-flexible-lightweight-solar-panels/feed/ 5 http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2012/02/cool-new-promo-for-cap-sante-marina/ http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2012/02/cool-new-promo-for-cap-sante-marina/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:29:36 +0000 Marty McOmber http://threesheetsnw.com/?p=22319 If you haven’t been to the Port of Anacortes’ Cap Sante Boat Haven in a while, you’ve got some catching up to do. Lots of new things to see and do at a location that really is a perfect place to start a cruise of the nearby San Juan islands and beyond.  But if you don’t want to wait – or navigate [...]]]> http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2012/02/cool-new-promo-for-cap-sante-marina/feed/ 0 http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/11/is-ultra-low-sulfur-diesel-harming-your-engine/ http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/11/is-ultra-low-sulfur-diesel-harming-your-engine/#comments Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:57:15 +0000 Marty McOmber http://threesheetsnw.com/?p=20791 BoatUS recently sent out the following release about the effects of ultra-low-sulfur diesel on marine engines. The upshot — there are a few problems, but not as many as initially feared. Here’s what the researchers found: As a way to reduce particulate matter, ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD), with only 15 ppm or less of sulfur, was mandated for [...]]]> http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/11/is-ultra-low-sulfur-diesel-harming-your-engine/feed/ 4 http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/11/from-net-to-table-salmon-cookbook-draws-on-couples-24-years-of-fishing/ http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/11/from-net-to-table-salmon-cookbook-draws-on-couples-24-years-of-fishing/#comments Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:00:49 +0000 Deborah Bach http://threesheetsnw.com/?p=20581 If anyone should know about cooking salmon, it’s LaDonna and Ole Gundersen. The couple has fished Alaska salmon for 24 years and typically dine on the iconic Northwest fish about five times a week, sometimes twice a day. As chief deckhand and cook on their 32-foot boat, LaDonna Rose, LaDonna has churned out literally thousands of salmon meals over [...]]]> http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/11/from-net-to-table-salmon-cookbook-draws-on-couples-24-years-of-fishing/feed/ 2 http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/11/what-makes-a-great-marina-ask-the-guy-who-visited-100-plus-in-a-season/ http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/11/what-makes-a-great-marina-ask-the-guy-who-visited-100-plus-in-a-season/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:00:03 +0000 Deborah Bach http://threesheetsnw.com/?p=20529 Very few people have visited close to 140 marinas in the Northwest in a single season, but Mark Bunzel has. Bunzel, the new owner of Waggoner Cruising Guide, traveled some 1800 miles over the summer boating season and visited most major marinas from Olympia to Ketchikan. He knows a few things about what boaters want, [...]]]> http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/11/what-makes-a-great-marina-ask-the-guy-who-visited-100-plus-in-a-season/feed/ 15 http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/10/on-watch-steve-jobs-the-sailor/ http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/10/on-watch-steve-jobs-the-sailor/#comments Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:00:19 +0000 Marty McOmber http://threesheetsnw.com/?p=19783 I have no idea if Steve Jobs ever stepped foot on a boat (and if he did, whether he liked it). But I do know that Apple’s iPhone, and increasingly the iPad, are fast becoming indispensible tools aboard boats here in the Northwest and around the world. Just hours before news of Job’s untimely death [...]]]> http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/10/on-watch-steve-jobs-the-sailor/feed/ 13 http://www.navagear.com/2011/09/06/sea-trial-morad-162-mhz-ais-antenna/ http://www.navagear.com/2011/09/06/sea-trial-morad-162-mhz-ais-antenna/#comments Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:00:51 +0000 Tim http://22.25845 In his enduring quest for a perfect AIS system, Navagears' Tim Flanagan takes a trip to a Ballard company that makes antennas for the commercial fishing industry and uncovers a local gem that all of us recreational boaters should consider. ]]> http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/09/sea-trial-morad-162-mhz-ais-antenna/feed/ 0 http://www.navagear.com/2011/07/15/first-mate-mw-flirs-new-compact-handheld-thermal-imager/ http://www.navagear.com/2011/07/15/first-mate-mw-flirs-new-compact-handheld-thermal-imager/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:04:00 +0000 Tim http://22.23533 [A FLIR thermal imager for under $2000? Yup! The first two questions I had: Does this unit have an output so I can view the image on a laptop or a chartplotter? Does it have a fitting so it can be mounted temporarily, perhaps with a sturdy suction-cup mount such as the SeaSucker? I passed [...]]]> http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/07/first-mate-mw-flir%e2%80%99s-new-compact-handheld-thermal-imager/feed/ 0 http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/07/farm-fresh-produce-just-a-walk-from-your-boat/ http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/07/farm-fresh-produce-just-a-walk-from-your-boat/#comments Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:00:55 +0000 Deborah Bach http://threesheetsnw.com/?p=17946 Seeing the mounds of mouth-wateringly fresh produce before us at the Olympia Farmers Market, I realized we’d made a major provisioning mistake. The colors and textures were dazzling. Plump red and yellow Rainier cherries. Deliciously crisp snap peas. Gorgeous crimson and white radicchio. Suddenly, the supermarket produce stowed in our boat’s refrigerator seemed limp and sad. [...]]]> http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/07/farm-fresh-produce-just-a-walk-from-your-boat/feed/ 8 http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/06/video-of-a-sailing-boat-dismasting-in-30-plus-knots-of-wind/ http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/06/video-of-a-sailing-boat-dismasting-in-30-plus-knots-of-wind/#comments Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:23:43 +0000 Marty McOmber http://threesheetsnw.com/?p=17799 So what happens on your sailboat when the rigging snaps and the mast goes over the side? How do you deal with the wreckage? What tools work best? And how do you salvage your sails and what’s left of the spar? The editors of the British boating magazine Yachting Monthly took out their “crash boat” for a fascinating [...]]]> http://threesheetsnw.com/blog/2011/06/video-of-a-sailing-boat-dismasting-in-30-plus-knots-of-wind/feed/ 3