308Win

If you've only got a 15 thou jump to the lands of the of the barrel that's too close for comfort for me Handloads are probably the way to go...

Thanks for that link. I'd not seen this system on the market before and looks like they have all the functionality sewn up as well as only a single payment (other than a PAYG sim) rather than a subscription model. Oh well, it was a nice idea while it lasted... Chalky, thanks for the pointers on power consumption. I think the drawing board beckons and if I can't offer something better or better value than BoatWarden there's probably little point in going ahead with the R&D.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I assumed these were on the market as well but there aren't any which cater for a variety of sensor suites. The plan was to have a touch screen central control panel, central processor with 3G, Wifi, SD card slot and serial port as well for connectivity and then a variety of different sensors such as fire, smoke, water, battery, shore power etc which can be expanded as required by the individual. I understand the difficulties with signal having lived on the cut and cruised the Cambridgeshire rivers, hence we were going to allow users to define which PAYG sim card they use for best performance in a given area allied to an additional high gain aerial. I am also considering a twin port GSM slot although there are sim cards out there (data only) which cover all netowrks and connect to the strongest signal. I already have a geolocation cross platform smartphone app which I can adapt to give geofencing and location information as well if required. We would be looking on the top end system to have a video camera (low light and daylight) to record any activity on the boat when the 'security' system is active. I did look at PLC systems but this is too expensive and ultimately very user unfriendly. Modern electronic circuitry can provide far greater flexibility and is much cheaper for mass production. We currently calculate a drain of about 0.5W on any battery so a small solar panel would easily be able to keep whichever the system was connected to topped up (there would be an onboard battery in case the main battery was disconnected and it would let you know). We could probably make the unit cheaper by removing the touch screen and having a mobile app to conduct all settings and alterations to notifications etc. but it's whether there would be a market for this. Current back of the (big) fag packet production costs are circa £250-£300 (not sale price). The ability to have something keep a watch on your boat's vitals while you are away from it and to warn you if it takes on water, the batteries get too low, or even if you have a break in would seem like a good idea but it's whether he boating community would pay for something like this and find it useful. Would you pay for a service which stopped a minor annoyance becoming a potential insurance claim and associated b@ll ache or are the risks of boat ownership just accepted as part of life's rich pageant? As for 7.62x51 NATO - headspace and case rupture comes to mind. Chambers cut loose enough for 7.62 can vary headspace and jump massively which can overpressure and affect accuracy especially at longer ranges (900x and 1000x). Jus'sayin'...

Hi everyone, I recently had a flooded engine compartment (fortunately no major damage) from a leaky weed hatch seal and when I approached my insurance company they said had it reached the alternator or battery bank I would not have been covered. As a student studying an engineering degree I want to come up with a solution to this and thought why not expand it to monitor other systems like the battery, shore power or even security, smoke/fire warnings etc. but my worry in considering the costs of R&D would be "Is this even a real problem?". I'd be really interested to hear of boaters' worries on the water, be it security, batteries discharging, shore power failure, flooding in the engine bay (from rainwater or leaky prop seal)? Or is this merely taken as a risk of boating? If anyone has had a major insurance claim I would like to hear about the circumstances so as to know whether a monitoring system could have alerted and possibly prevented it. I would also like to understand the human cost of a claim like being unable to live on your boat, dry dock costs and just how awkward (or otherwise) it proved. I'd be really interested to hear what everyone thinks, be it pleasure boaters, liveaboard canal boats, hire fleet managers etc. as it will help me make a decision about whether I pursue the prototype to commercial launch. Many thanks in advance for all your help. Chris