Top 10 New Boating Products at METS

The Marine Equipment Trade Show, or METS, is the largest boat equipment trade show in the world. More than 1,470 companies are exhibiting at this year’s show, held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, showing their new products to more than 22,000 marine equipment distributors and dealers from over 100 different countries. There’s no larger collection of new marine equipment anywhere in the world – here’s just a look at some of the best.

Sea-Tags

Sea-Tags is a simple, affordable and reliable man overboard alarm system. The Sea-Tag looks like a wrist watch, but connects to a free smartphone app for iOS and Android – if the Sea Tag is immersed in water, the signal is lost, signaling an alarm while recording the exact GPS coordinates. The App will display the boat position, heading and distance to recover the unscheduled swimmer. Visit www.sea-tags.com for more information.

Active Trim

Active Trim is an integrated GPS, speed-based, automatic engine trim system from Mercury Marine. This intuitive, hands-free system continually adjusts engine trim based on changes in boat speed to improve performance, fuel economy and ease of operation. It responds to boat maneuvers with precision and delivers a better overall driving experience. Visit www.mercurymarine.com for more information.

Motion

The biggest problem with having a drink onboard a boat is that glasses tend to slide on hard tabletops, and are prone to falling on the deck. Motion is a new line of magnetic glassware and accessories that incorporate a powerful neodimium magnet imbedded in the glass, allowing the glass to be held firmly in place with corresponding magnets mounted beneath surfaces such as table tops, placemats or storage trays. Works well in RVs too.

LED Surface Strip Lamps

Surface mount strip lamps from Hella Marine feature an innovative waterproof switch for reliable operation. They’re completely sealed, UV and corrosion resistant with an ultra-low profile design with exceptional output for interior and exterior uses. Visit www.hella.com for more information.

Garmin Nautix

Garmin Nautix in-view display keeps important data in plain sight, no matter where your sight is directed on the boat or horizon. Boaters can keep an eye on water temperature or depth, boat speed and RPM easily. More information is available at www.garmin.com.

GlowWormy

Who hasn’t taken a step on or off the boat at night and tripped on one of the dock lines? You’ll never stumble again with GlowWormy – an innovative glow-in-the-dark dock line. The GlowWormy glows brightly for 40 hours with one power bank charge, providing greater safety. Click here for more information.

Foldable 9L Bucket

Storage space is always an issue on every boat, making a new folding bucket from Sadira truly useful. With a 9L / 2.3 gallon capacity, its unique design allows it to stand freely when filled, yet it folds flat for easy storage. More information is available at www.sadira.com.

Retractable Bow Thruster

Bow thrusters make it a lot easier to dock a big boat. A new retractable thruster from Vetus provides that helping hand when docking in the wind, yet retracts when not in use to reduce drag and improve fuel economy. It features lock-and hold functionality, with overload and jam protection. Visit www.vetus.com for more information.

Ocean Scout Handheld Thermal Camera

FLIR’s Ocean Scout is a handheld marine thermal camera with video recording and image snapshot capabilities. Designed for day or night use, the Ocean Scout provides greater awareness and safety by allowing boaters to see clearly in all lighting conditions, from total darkness to blinding solar glare. Visit www.raymarine.com for more information.

DRS4D-NXT

The DRS4D-NXT is the first solid-state radar in the world to use Furuno’s exclusive Target Analyzer and Fast Target Tracking functions utilizing Doppler technology. Users can easily identify and track approaching hazardous targets from different echo color and target vectors. It’s even sensitive enough to spot birds diving on a school of fish with its dedicated bird mode. For more information, visit www.furuno.com.