My autopilot was replaced in March of 2010. It sure was interesting bringing it as carry-on on the flight from Georgetown to Nassau, through customs, to Charlotte and then to Albany. Trying to explain what a heat sinked box with a bunch of wires in it was didn't go over incredibly easy, but I ended up making it through.

Regarding SeaFrost and ICOM, I was just using them as examples of other leading companies that I have sometimes (not frequently) read rants about. A number of people have had issues with interference on their SSB from the compressors SeaFrost uses. There have been various issues with ICOM handhelds and battery contacts. People post and talk about the bad, but not many talk about the good. I was just raising my hand to mention that I happened to have a good experience (several) with Raymarine.

I keep forgetting to empty out the Image URL box. That pic was taken during a race on Lake Champlain by a professional photographer (who gave us all rights). It was blowing 20+ and we were the only boat that didn't have to reef so we ended up being able to point real high and make the windward mark pretty easily. As a result, even though we were racing a cruising boat with teak decks, a short rig, full tanks, etc. we ended up 5th overall (corrected time) and 1st in class (non-spinnaker, corrected time). It was a pretty proud day for us!