Shops & Yards

Closed-circuit television systems are common fare for the boater who has everything—and wants to see it all from the helm. Now two Washington companies are going overboard with a concept that lets a skipper peer underwater to check out the running gear, stabilizers and sea life. Kevin Pattison, founder and CEO of the Anacortes-based Underwater Control Technology Inc., first got the idea two years ago while working a Seattle Boat Show booth next to Ocean Systems, an Everett company that markets Splashcam marine video equipment. The Ocean Systems camera pointed straight down, largely as a novelty for fishermen and other boaters interested in looking at fish. Pattison, whose company installs stabilizers and thrusters, convinced Ocean Systems to start pointing the camera aft, so it can look at a boat’s running gear. Working together—Ocean Systems knows cameras, Pattison knows hulls—they developed a hull pod to hold the camera. The unit has a hydrodynamic shape to reduce bubbles around the lens and a plastic housing to resist impacts with logs and other debris. Pattison is marketing the $3,500 camera as an investment in protecting a boat’s running gear, which can be worth tens of thousands of dollars. The owner of a 65' trawler might have as much as $100,000 invested in shafts, props and struts. “If that poor guy picks up a cable or that high-tensile line they’re using in crab pots now, the amount of damage he can do is pretty extensive if he keeps running,” says Pattison. “Any boat from 28' to 30' all the way up to ocean-going sea freighters will be able to utilize this type of feature,” says Jason Whittle, managing director of Ocean Systems. For more information: www.splashcam.com www.underwatercontrol.com

 

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