Unexpected Gems from the Miami Show: LilliPad, and SonarCharts Live

You expect to find cool stuff from major manufacturers at a major boat show, like all the goodies I told you about last week in Hot News from the Miami Boat Show. But one of the neat things about big boat shows is stumbling across the unexpected gems. And there were plenty of these, at Miami this year. Here are two everyone should hear about.

1. The Lillipad Diving Board. Yes, a diving board. Now, I know this is an item you wouldn’t expect to see on a boat. Elevating a board and making it springy has some obvious – and serious – repercussions on a boat. In fact, mounting a diving board to a rocking, rolling boat seems crazy. Here’s how they do it: the LilliPad has a spring in the base which absorbs all the force created by a jumping, frolicking kid. Or, adult. In fact, it can handle up to 250 pounds.

The LilliPad has some serious spring – ready, set, go!

Now, why would we fishers and hunter care about the LilliPad in the first place? If you have kids or grand-kids, and you’re looking for ways to keep them entertained on the boat, I just can’t see how the LilliPad can be beat. To find out more, check out LilliPad’s web site.

2. Navionic’s SonarCharts Live. How would you like to update your digital chartography… in real-time? That’s what SonarCharts Live, your cell phone (or tablet) and the Navionics app allow you to do, if you have a modern MFD with built-in or add-on WiFi. To put it in a nutshell, as your fishfinder/chartplotter records pings and positions, they instantly get beamed via WiFi to your cell phone. The real-time data is displayed, and viola—instant updates. One to three days later (depending on the volume of Navionics traffic) that same data updates your actual chartplotter, so you see your self-generated bathymetric charts right at the helm. That is what we in the industry officially call COOL!

Check out Navionics web site, to get more info on the system.