Present: R. Barnaby, A. Bucklin, K. Ekstrom, C. Goudey, Bob Kohl, G. Williams.
Absent: R. Groman, D. Holsom, D. Mountain, C. Pendelton, P. Wiebe
We began the meeting, at 10:00am.
Ann, Rollie and Cliff are to talk to Cam to firm up arrangements for including his boat (F/V Adventurer) in FleetLink and bring the total of boats with FleetLink systems to three. Ann and Rollie should explain his role, and Cliff should address payment.
Installation of FleetLink on Bob Kohl’s Glenna and Jacob is scheduled tentatively for August 2, 3, and 4. Installation is contingent upon Bob obtaining services of welder to attach masts needed for met sensor cross-arm and interface box, and Inmarsat/GPS antennas. Gary would like to turn the electronic compass in the interaface box during the installation, or soon after.
Bob Kohl discussed the power situation on his boat. His computer is powered by 110 from a 12-volt inverter. He said his generator (10 kW) was offline and that he was trying to get it fixed, but that it was not used except for lighting the deck. It was agreed that the FleetLink computer should be protected with a uninterruptible power supply.
Bob Kohl gave a demonstration of P-Sea WindPlot 6.74N a navigation program he uses at sea. He was not that familiar with Captain, which is installed on the Susan and Caitlyn. He showed vessel tracks and discussed features such as snags records, tows, tow amenities like color-coded depths and LORAN conversions. Ken will install WindPlot on the FleetLink computer installed on the Glenna & Jacob. Bob purchased WindPlot at Tomtronics (Fairhaven, or New Bedford)
Bob also demo'd ChartView, a PC program for illustrating tides and currents. Bob discussed its uses when towing near the time of slack waters.
There was a general discussion of software used to calculate yearly time at sea which is specified by NMFS. Bob Kohl has used software from MV Software and from Barbara Stevenson. Bob's observations was that software logs of time at sea did not agree with the numbers generated by NMFS. Cliff agreed to try and locate a source of software for the MV Software product (TripTime?). It was mentioned that BoatTrax calculates time at sea that is accepted by NMFS. Ann thought that this was possible through a MOU between BoatTrax and NMFS. The consensus was that FleetLink should ultimately include a calculation of time at sea and that at some point FleetLink should seek an MOU to obtain the algorithm used by NMFS for their calculations of this management parameter. Ken was instructed to consider inserting code to perform time at sea calculations.
Cliff agreed to call Fred Surchuck (NMFS) to see if it was possible to learn how NMFS calculates time at sea from departure and arrival times determined by NMFS and relayed to the vessel operator when leaving and returning to port.
There was some discussion of the extensive data dropouts observed by Ken for Inmarsat transmissions from the Susan & Caitlyn. Since there had been no direct voice communication with Mike concerning the problems, it was decided that a discussion of what might be done to facilitate problem solving was premature. However, it was decided that FleetLink software might need to generate a highly visible warning to advise the user that major data loss was occurring, and to suggest corrective action such as rebooting the FleetLink computer.
Bob Groman should take Bob Kohl off the email list server. Cliff will make sure that Bob Kohl receives all pertinent mail.
Gary explained the cost proposal for FleetLink SST sensors to replace Imet equipment. He was directed to go ahead and construct three SST sensors which would be installed on the Glenna & Jacob, and, perhaps the Adventurer.
The next meeting will be Tuesday, September 5, 2000, at the MIT Sea Grant, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Tentative agenda:
· FleetLink usefulness for fishing and fishermen
· Identification of additional vessels/fishermen for expansion under new funding (renewal, other sources)
· Use of FleetLink data by NMFS environmental, resource survey, assessment groups (if David M. can attend)
Prepared by Gary Williams
Original: July 26, 2000