Fujinon Techno-Stabi
When you are preparing to cruise you buy a lot of things that you hope will make cruising safer and more enjoyable. On Footloose no single item has had a greater impact than the addition of these stabilized Fujinon Techno-Stabi binoculars. Being able to see where you are is obviously important for navigation, but good binoculars also help with identifying other boats, exploring shore features, and watching the wildlife and birds that abound in the cruising life. Using binoculars from the deck of a moving sailboat can be challenging; the stabilizing feature of these binoculars makes it much easier.
Binoculars usually carry a marking with 7 x 50 being a common boating pair of binoculars. The first number refers to the power of the lenses, and most agree that the 7 or 8 power is as much as anyone can hand-hold on a small boat. The power refers to the degree of magnification. 8 power means that the object seems to be 8 times larger or at 1/8th the distance when compared to your bare eyes. The second number, usually between about 15 and 50, refers to the size of the objective (front) lens of the binocular. The bigger the number the better the low light performance (light gathering) ability of the unit. While larger objective lenses are available they make the binoculars too heavy to hand hold for any period of time.Binoculars with larger objectives are usually tripod mounted for bird watching or astronomy.
The Techno-Stabi binoculars add the feature of stabilization, which is a big deal. All of a sudden you can hand hold the binoculars with much higher magnification. Our Techno-Stabi’s are 14 x 40. After using 7 x 50 binoculars the change is nothing short of remarkable. Guests and crew are fascinated by the magnification. What color is that birds eye anyway? If you are an optical geek, you might notice that because of the additional optical elements needed for stabilization, these binoculars may not be quite as bright or quite as sharp as say a high-end pair of Steiner Commanders, but the stable image takes you from seeing a dot with your bare eye or a buoy with the Steiners to seeing the sleeping sea lion on the buoy with the Techno-Stabi’s.
After 2 years of almost continuous use, we cannot recommend this product highly enough. An amazing help entering the harbor or avoiding traffic, plus lots of fun for looking at wild life. Push a button to power on, again to stabilize. Another to turn off. They are robustly constructed, armored, and use four AA batteries about once every 6 months.
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One of the larger things we were trying to get rid of was our Hobie Mirage Adventure Island Kayak. We enjoy sailing it but we just didn’t use it enough because it was a little too much work to rig and launch from the deck of Footloose. This single item was responsible for 250 lbs of weight and would also give us the advantage of a less cluttered deck. But how to transport this beast?
We drive the loaded beast to Los Mochis and then Guaymas. Nervously easing her over each speed bump… Mexico loves speed bumps..Topes. They are somewhat random in nature and not always marked. The roof makes a kind of “crunkling” noise if you hit them too fast……