ACCESSORIES Five right ideas for your summer boating

As you wait to cast off your moorings and set off on your summer cruise, we give you some ideas to make your vacation safer, more comfortable and peaceful with a few accessories. Here are five interesting products, from the “all inclusive” medical bag to the inflatable LED light.

AUTOPROP
Autoprop is an automatic variable pitch propeller: ideal for cruising, it automatically adjusts pitch when sailing under power but with sails hoisted. The propeller takes into account the additional thrust of the sails, and the result is higher speed with less engine speed (and lower fuel consumption). With the blades in the flag position, it is able to reduce feed resistance by 85 percent (in the two-blade version, resistance is even lower). Moreover, the shape of the blades is identical in both forward and reverse gear, so power, stop control and side thrust do not change, making it easier to maneuver. www.sigmadrive.it

ENECOM
Very thin (the height is 1.7 mm, they are the least thick on the market), walkable and equipped with monocrystalline cells, Enecom’s flexible solar panels lend themselves to boat installation. Connection is made very easily with a kit that includes the panel, charge controller, and cables. There are many solutions available, with modules of 20, 40, 90 and 130 watts. A 40 W module (equipped with 32 cells, and whose dimensions are 60.4×5.36 cm), for example, is sufficient to power a set of ceiling lights and the refrigerator and is easily installed on the deckhouse, sprayhood or bimini. With a more articulated kit, an output of 1 kW/h is achieved over the 8 hours of sunshine. www.tregoo.com

MEDICAL BAG
For injuries on board, one of the products offered by safety expert Umberto Verna’s Safety World is the Medical Bag, a waterproof bag containing everything needed for first aid in the water, including the “Medical Pan on Board” manual. www.safetyworld.it

SOLAR LANTERN
Waterproof, inflatable, recharged by a solar panel. This ingenious lamp, Solar Lantern, takes up the space of a CD when closed. You inflate it in three seconds, and thanks to the rubber band at the top it turns into an elegant light to hang in the cockpit. By pressing the one button you can adjust the illumination in three ways: light, powerful and flashing. It takes eight hours of light for a full charge: then you can use it from 6 to 12 hours depending on the type of lighting you choose. The LED light has an output of 90 lumens, and the emitted beam reaches up to three meters. www.nauticplace.com

Z-RAY
All of Jilong’s extremely versatile Z-RAY series inflatable boats are suitable for use as a tender for your boat. They feature a structure composed of separate air chambers on the hull, keel, and bottom. The keel is also inflatable and V-shaped, fenders and transom are made of marine plywood, the dunnage of ultra-high rigidity air-deck. Z-Rays come with a pair of aluminum oars, double-action pump, pressure gauge and carrying bag. www.jilong-europe.com; www.nauticplace.com