<p>CAN BLUETOOTH HELP SAVE YOUR LIFE?</p>

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I put the PanPan CrewWatcher through its paces in the protected conditions of our Power & Motoryacht Test Shed in Essex, Connecticut. Why not brave the bounding main to test a system designed to help boaters stay alert to man overboard situations, and locate and recover lost crew, you may ask? I had the idea to see if this safety device meets a baseline of usability in ideal conditions, before being subjected to the rigors of on-water testing. Could we get it to connect to a tablet in a warm, dry office?

CrewWatcher is a system that combines an app, which runs on mobile smart devices, and an electronic beacon (app is free; $90 for one beacon, $170 for two). Tablets and smartphones that use the Apple iOS 6.1 or Android 5.1 and up are recommended. In the interest of simplicity, I loaded the app on an iPad 2, a 16-gigabyte model running iOS 9.3.5. The app uses the iPad’s built-in GPS sensor (the system won’t work with assisted GPS as found in wifi-only iPads) and Bluetooth connectivity (compatibility with Bluetooth 4.0 is recommended). Also, the manufacturer of the system recommends it for non-steel boats under 45 feet.

The CrewWatcher beacon is a sealed cylindrical unit measuring about 3¼ inches long and 1¼ inches in diameter with a lanyard loop at one end. The manufacturer says its battery life is three years or more. The beacon needed to be activated, counterintuitively, by submerging it in water. And not just a glass of water, the manufacturer suggests a bucket. Once activated, the beacon is attached to a lifejacket or foul

This story is from the February 2018 edition of Power and Motoryachts.

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