WHAT WE WRITE ABOUT
Our View on Maritime Safety
We share our insights on maritime safety for pleasure sailors – from coastal cruising to offshore passages. Drawing from our direct sailing experience and technical expertise, we write about what we’ve learned, what we believe needs to change, and how technology can make sailing safer without adding complexity. The sea obeys physics — and so should we, finally.
We Hate the Ads That Say You’ve Got Another Crew Member May 24, 2026 - We Hate the Ads That SayYou've Got Another Crew Member Open any marine-electronics brochure — for an AIS overlay, a connected anchor alarm, a smart NMEA gateway, a black-box monitor, an app, almost any of them — and somewhere in the body copy you will find a sentence that goes… ... Read More
Four Subscriptions a Sailor Owes. The Rest Is a Tax. May 24, 2026 - Four Subscriptionsa Sailor Owes.The Rest Is a Tax. A short audit of the recurring fees you have been signed up for since you bought your last chartplotter. It is, on inspection, an interesting bill. We are going to draw a line in it. Where the line falls — and what… ... Read More
The Price of a Watt May 24, 2026 - The Price of a Watt A sailing boat is a small power station with no grid behind it. Every Watt on board has a price — paid in solar real estate, in wind-generator bracket weight, in hydrogenerator drag through the water, in lithium-ion bank capacity, in noisy alternator hours, and… ... Read More
Who’s Looking? The Bracelet Knows. May 24, 2026 - Who's Looking? The Bracelet Knows. The attentive reader of these pages — and we are grateful for the attentive reader of these pages — has by now built up a fair picture of what the Galvanic Pulse bracelet does. Man-overboard detection by negative signal, covered in Schrödinger's Watchkeeper. Fatigue and… ... Read More
The Boat That Knows What It Is Doing May 24, 2026 - The Boat That Knows What It Is Doing Open the menu of any modern marine instrument and you will find the same long list of toggles you are expected to keep track of in your head. Anchor watch on / off. Passage mode. Day / night display. Coastal versus offshore… ... Read More
AIS Is Magic. Until You Have to Steer. May 24, 2026 - AIS Is Magic.Until You Have to Steer. AIS solved one of the great problems of night-time sailing — knowing that the light on the horizon is, in fact, a 280-metre tanker bound for Algeciras. It did not solve the next problem, which is what you are supposed to do about… ... Read More
Galvanic Polars: The Polar Diagram Your Boat Draws of Itself May 24, 2026 - Galvanic Polars: The Polar Diagram Your Boat Draws of Itself Every new boat comes with a polar diagram. It is a beautiful curve, drawn in the back of the manual, that tells you what the manufacturer believes your boat should do in a given wind — eight knots upwind in… ... Read More
OK, a Voice. But Why a Glass Speaker? May 24, 2026 - OK, a Voice.But Why a Glass Speaker? A companion piece to Behind the Scenes of the Galvanic Voice. The short version, for anyone arriving here first: the Galvanic Voice is a marine alert device that watches the boat's sensors continuously and announces what matters in calm spoken sentences — instead… ... Read More
Why the Galvanic Voice Is Complementary to Your Multifunction Display May 24, 2026 - Why the Galvanic Voice Is Complementary to YourMulti-Function Display (MFD) The first question every prospective customer asks us is some version of "I already have a chartplotter — why do I need this?" It is a reasonable question, and the answer is the subject of this piece. The short version:… ... Read More
Behind the Scenes of the Galvanic Pulse May 24, 2026 - Behind the Scenes of the Galvanic Pulse On the night of 2 December 2024, a Swedish sailor — Mr Dag Eresund, 33 — went over the side of the leading boat in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers. Per the public statements released by World Cruising Club, his loadout was the… ... Read More
Behind the Scenes of the Galvanic Voice May 24, 2026 - Behind the Scenes of the Galvanic Voice It started with fancy ideas — and the fancy ideas are not dead yet. I went looking for tools that would genuinely make my own boat safer. The more I dug into it, the more I realised that the problem was not where… ... Read More
The Screen That Doesn’t Save You May 24, 2026 - The Screen That Doesn't Save You The modern boat's nav station is a wall of glass. A multifunction display with the chartplotter, a second one with the AIS overlay, a third with radar, a tablet at the chart table running a routing app, a phone on the binnacle running another,… ... Read More
Schrödinger’s Watchkeeper May 24, 2026 - Schrödinger's Watchkeeper:The COLREG Rule You Cannot Honestly Obey On every offshore passage there is a single COLREG rule that every sailor signs up to obey, that every sailor has to obey, and that no shorthanded sailor can fully obey. This piece is about the rule, about the physiology that makes… ... Read More
The Intelligent Anchor Alarm — How the Galvanic Voice Watches the Anchor For You May 24, 2026 - The Intelligent Anchor Alarm — How the Galvanic Voice Watches the Anchor For You The anchor alarm built into a typical NMEA 2000 chartplotter is, if we are honest about it, almost the same product it has been for twenty-five years. You drop the anchor. You walk back to the… ... Read More
Fatigue at Sea: A Sailor’s Guide to Watchkeeping and Sleep April 22, 2026 - Fatigue at Sea: A Sailor's Guide to Watchkeeping and Sleep Departure: planned. Weather: studied. Fuel: topped up. Food: provisioned for a small war. Sleep: we’ll figure it out. It is 0330. The wind has gone forward ten degrees and the autopilot has absorbed it without comment. Your watch-mate is below,… ... Read More
A Cookbook for Sailing from A to B March 22, 2026 - A Cookbook for Sailing from A to B Preparation time: longer than the app says. Serves: one crew. Pairings: rosé. Every recipe begins with a promise. Combine these ingredients, follow these steps, and something predictable will emerge from the oven at the end. This is the social contract of cooking:… ... Read More
COLREG Collision Rules for the Confidently Wrong Sailor (Part 2) February 21, 2026 - The practical reality of collision avoidance — or, what your sailing instructor did not have time to mention before lunch. ... Read More
COLREG Collision Rules for the Confidently Wrong Sailor (Part 1) February 21, 2026 - The complete legal framework that keeps you from hitting things — and why reading just one rule is like reading just one chapter of a murder mystery. ... Read More
Anchoring Physics: The Real Chain Reaction, Explained February 12, 2026 - Anchoring Physics: The Real Chain Reaction, Explained On catenary curves, Captain Brown’s revenge, and the Sunday skipper’s 3:1 delusion There is a moment, in every anchorage in the Mediterranean between June and September, that repeats with the reliability of a Greek tragedy. A gleaming white charter catamaran motors in, drops… ... Read More
Heels and Heeling: The Physics of Looking Good While Going Bad February 10, 2026 - Heels and Heeling: The Physics of Looking Good While Going Bad Anyone who has ever attempted a cobblestone street in 10-centimetre heels already understands, intuitively, that maintaining a steep angle requires disproportionate effort, causes disproportionate damage, and impresses only people who don't understand the physics involved. Sailing at 45 degrees… ... Read More
From Silence to Spam February 5, 2026 - From Silence to Spam How we went from "lost at sea" to "you have 47 unread messages" Sailors used to dream of being connected. Now they pay extra not to be. This is the story of maritime communication—a tale of progress so complete that we barely notice it anymore, like… ... Read More
What Women Do Better Than Men January 31, 2026 - What Women Do Better Than Men You wouldn't expect a marine electronics blog to have much to say about gender. But when 97% of your readers are men—as a Panbo survey famously revealed—perhaps it's time to examine what the other 3% might be doing differently. This isn't about politics. It's… ... Read More
The Chart on Your Phone Knows Where You’ve Been—And It’s Not Keeping That Secret January 11, 2026 - The Chart on Your Phone Knows Where You've Been—And It's Not Keeping That Secret You wouldn't drive across Europe with a 1940s road map. But that's effectively what you might be doing at sea. Half of the depth information on NOAA charts comes from surveys conducted before 1940. Some areas… ... Read More
To Tether, or Not to Tether: That Is the Question January 7, 2026 - To Tether, or Not to Tether: That Is the Question Going overboard is a coin toss with a 47% chance of death. The safety harness is designed to keep you attached to the boat. The problem is, sometimes staying attached is exactly what costs you your life. Two Philosophies, One… ... Read More
When Everything Beeps, Nothing Matters January 4, 2026 - When Everything Beeps,Nothing Matters How commercial shipping learned that fewer alarms save more lives - and what pleasure sailors can take from a billion dollars of maritime research. The Organisation That Investigates Every Accident When a commercial vessel runs aground, collides, or sinks, it doesn't simply become a tragic story… ... Read More
Your Phone Won’t Save You: Why Smartphones Make Terrible Alarm Systems January 3, 2026 - Your Phone Won't Save You: Why Smartphones Make Terrible Alarm Systems Your smartphone can video-call someone on the other side of the planet, process payments, navigate you through unfamiliar cities, and access the sum of human knowledge. It's arguably the most capable device ever created. So when a marine electronics… ... Read More
Lost on Paper, Even More Lost on Digital Charts\! November 18, 2025 - Lost on Paper, Even More Lost on Digital Charts! With a paper chart spread across the nav table, the eternal question was "Where am I?" With a glowing plotter screen showing your position to the metre, you'd think we'd have it sorted. Instead, we've traded one mystery for another: "Where… ... Read More
The Anchoring Illusion: Why Being “Safely at Anchor” Is More Dangerous Than You Think November 8, 2025 - The Anchoring Illusion: Why Being "Safely at Anchor" Is More Dangerous Than You Think "We're safely anchored for the night." These might be the most dangerous words in cruising. While sailors worry about offshore passages and heavy weather at sea, some of the deadliest maritime casualties happen at anchor—often within… ... Read More
Man Overboard: Understanding the Risks and How to Prevent Tragedy October 30, 2025 - Man Overboard: Understanding the Risks and How to Prevent Tragedy Man Overboard (MOB) is the nightmare scenario every sailor fears but few genuinely prepare for. The statistics are sobering: between 40-47% of MOB incidents result in the loss of life. In cold water, there may be less than 11 minutes… ... Read More
MARPA vs. ARPA: When More Is Less August 12, 2025 - MARPA vs. ARPA: When More Is Less "Our radar has MARPA." — Every marine electronics salesperson, confidently overselling what that actually means. The Acronym Confusion Walk into any chandlery, and you'll hear radar systems marketed with impressive-sounding acronyms. ARPA. MARPA. Target tracking. Collision avoidance. The brochures show crisp displays with… ... Read More
Things More Dangerous Than Sailing (And One Thing That Isn’t) July 22, 2025 - Things More Dangerous Than Sailing (And One Thing That Isn't) "Sailing is one of the safest recreational activities." — Every statistic you've ever read, technically correct and completely misleading. The Comedy of Risk Sharks kill approximately one American per year. This fact terrorizes millions of beachgoers annually, spawns documentaries, and… ... Read More
AIS: Powerful Against Collisions, But Only If Everyone Plays Along June 20, 2025 - Automatic Identification System technology can dramatically reduce collision risk. But what happens when fishing boats turn it off, recreational vessels don't have it, and small boats become invisible sea mines for others? ... Read More
Radar: The Safety Equipment Most Sailors Don’t Actually Use May 5, 2025 - About a third of boats at anchor have radar installed. But how many of those sailors actually use it while sailing? And of those who do, how many understand its significant limitations? ... Read More
What Maritime Safety Can Learn from Aviation: The Story of TCAS and TAWS April 15, 2025 - What Maritime Safety Can Learn from Aviation: The Story of TCAS and TAWS How aviation tackled the challenge of collision avoidance—and what lessons apply to the sea. When we think about improving safety at sea, we would be foolish not to look skyward. Aviation operates in a far more unforgiving… ... Read More
The Multifunction Display Paradox: Essential Equipment We Barely Understand April 1, 2025 - The Multifunction Display Paradox: Essential Equipment We Barely Understand We all love our B&G MFD. It's probably one of those assets that simply cannot be absent from a boat—like the rudder, the anchor, or the sails themselves. Together with GPS, multifunction displays have genuinely improved navigation to a level of… ... Read More
The Perfect Crew Member: Why Livestock Might Have Been the Better Choice March 20, 2025 - The Perfect Crew Member: Why Livestock Might Have Been the Better Choice Joshua Slocum sailed alone around the world with only a goat for company. Other sailors have kept chickens aboard—at least they produce eggs. But after decades of sailing with human crews, perhaps it's time to admit the truth:… ... Read More
The NMEA 2000 Paradox: A Mountain of Data Nobody Uses March 10, 2025 - Modern boats are equipped with sophisticated NMEA 2000 networks that gather incredible amounts of data. So why do most boat owners have no idea what's actually available to them? ... Read More
The 360-Degree Lookout Problem: Why Slow Boats Face Danger from All Directions February 25, 2025 - The 360-Degree Lookout Problem: Why Slow Boats Face Danger from All Directions When you're one of the slowest vessels on the water, collision threats can come from any direction—not just ahead. Yet most recreational sailors spend their watch time staring forward, sitting in the cockpit's visual dead zones, unable to… ... Read More
COLREG Rule 5: The Impossible Lookout Requirement February 10, 2025 - COLREG Rule 5: The Impossible Lookout Requirement "Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of… ... Read More The Great Fuel Gauge Lie: Why Your Boat Has No Idea How Much Diesel Is Left February 1, 2025 - The Great Fuel Gauge Lie: Why Your Boat Has No Idea How Much Diesel Is Left In aviation, they say there are two types of pilots: those who have landed gear-up, and those who will. The maritime world has its own version: those who have run out of fuel at… ... Read More
Why Recreational Sailors Deserve Commercial-Grade Safety Systems January 15, 2025 - Commercial vessels are required by international law to have sophisticated Bridge Alert Management systems. Pleasure boats? We're left to cobble together separate alarms that often go unnoticed. Here's why that needs to change. ... Read More
The Inescapable Truth: Humans Are the Weakest Link at Sea December 20, 2024 - The Inescapable Truth: Humans Are the Weakest Link at Sea Human error accounts for 75-96% of all maritime accidents. The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), along with Australian and Canadian counterparts, consistently report that 82-85% of all marine accidents involve human error as a primary causal factor. Yet we… ... Read More
On the Origins of Galvanic Works: A Letter from the Founder June 20, 1870 - On the Origins of Galvanic Works: A Letter from the Founder We recently received a question about the origin of our name. Rather than explain it ourselves, we thought it fitting to share this letter from our founder, written from his island retreat. Captain Nemo Taking the Altitude of the… ... Read MoreWant to learn more about our technology?
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