I love technology. It’s fun and it’s interesting. The Back Cove 37 has plenty of great innovation from her infused hull and deck to her interior lighting and the rest of the power supply. Today let’s talk about how easy the electrical system is to manage. Specifically, one of the most innovative items that Kevin and our engineers chose for the Back Cove 37 is her overhead lighting.

There are several circuits in the overhead lighting system. One in the forward cabin, one amidships, one in the galley, one in the salon and one for overhead deck lighting in the cockpit. That’s pretty standard stuff in boats. But how many times have the Captain and crew of your vessel had a “discussion” about which lights are on which breaker ? On the Back Cove 37 that is not any issue because the DC circuit breaker panel can be turned on and off with one main battery switch located beside the helm. All DC circuit breakers can be left in their on position when leaving the boat and when you step back on board all you need do is turn on the master DC switch and everything DC is ready to go. BTW cockpit lights, bilge pumps and stereo breakers are on a 24 hour circuit of their own.

What is even more cool (would my English teacher approve of that ?) is that by bringing your hand close to the lens of these overhead light fixtures they turn on and off and by holding your hand close and keeping it there, all fixtures in that group dim or brighten.

The Super Bowl is over and the Steelers have won their 6th Lombardi Trophy. I am not a Steelers fan but I have to give them and Arizona credit for one heck of an entertaining football game. But I’m here to talk about boats and not football. If you’re in the game I am in you get as excited about a great new boat as footballs players do about winning the big game. I think that if there were a Super Bowl for Boats the Back Cove 37 would be a 21 point favorite.

As I said at the end of last week the boat performed as well as we had hoped and then some. The figures I like best are the ones that appeal to my boating lifestyle here in the waters of Casco Bay. At 23.9 knots she consumes 19.2 Gallons per hour and the noise (or lack thereof) at the helm is 82 Db. I could get really excited about a run from Freeport, where I keep my boat, to Rockland, in under three hours.

As you can see in these shots we did not rig her electronics mast for the engineering trials

Only at WOT does she go beyond the one mile per gallon tipping point. At 26 knots she is still going 1.17 nautical miles per gallon. Now we do need to run her in warm air and in warmer, shallow water next Monday to really firm up these results.