The Pascagoula Bar Pilots Association has taken delivery of "Singing River Island", a new 55' aluminum pilot boat built by Metal Shark and showcasing a complete suite of quality Furuno marine electronics.

Camas, WA - The Pascagoula Bar Pilots Association has taken delivery of "Singing River Island", a new 55' aluminum pilot boat built by Metal Shark and showcasing a complete suite of quality Furuno marine electronics. The suite includes the Furuno TZtouch2 multifunction black box system, packing the processing power required to drive multiple 19" touch-control displays. The system also boasts the DFF3D Multibeam Sonar, enabling the vessel to create detailed 3D charts using the powerful PBG (Personal Bathymetric Generator) capabilities.

The Furuno TZT2BB black box MFD brings together critical systems required for safe navigation, including advanced chart plotting, GPS, Radar, Fish Finder, and more for dependable depth sounding, and an updated, intuitive user interface for ease of operation. The TZT2BB comes preloaded with NOAA raster and vector charts for the western hemisphere in MapMedia's MM3D format, and free satellite photography for the entire US coastline is available. The system also incorporates the ability to control the vessel's FLIR M-series 364C thermal imaging system to enhance the safety of nighttime operations.

Singing River Island is the second of Metal Shark's Defiant-class vessels to join the Pascagoula Bar Pilots' growing fleet of modern pilot boats

Notably, the Pascagoula Bar Pilots Association chose to include the robust DFF3D Multibeam Sonar. The DFF3D will give Singing River Island's crew the ability to perform initial survey work following recent and future hurricanes, recording changes to the seafloor that cause shoaling near the deepwater docks. The DFF3D enables the PBG feature to quickly create accurate, detailed bathymetric charts on the fly. These detailed shaded relief maps include depth contours and variable colors, making it easy to identify hidden hazards and critical seafloor changes in a simple, easy-to-interpret presentation. The ability to create custom bathymetric charts ensures that ships are navigating in safe waters at all times. The 120-degree beamwidth of the DFF3D covers a seafloor area of approximately twice the depth at the time of recording, so at a depth of 100 meters, a 200 meter-wide area is displayed and recorded to the system. Instead of just one depth point per ping, the DFF3D provides 50 depth points. The area below is over 250 football fields in size and was mapped in 22 minutes at 6 kts. TZT2BB has enough memory to store a lifetime of custom charts.

Furuno is the global trailblazer for bringing Black Box technology to the maritime industry, and the TZT2BB is a perfect solution for workboats looking to display Navigation, Radar, cameras, and other sensors across multiple displays to maximize available workspace. For more information on the Furuno line of quality marine electronics, contact your Furuno dealer or visit their website at www.FurunoUSA.com.

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