New chart plotter for a 2005 Jeanneau 43 DS

[raptor36]

I bought a Jeanneau 43DS last year and knocked enough off the price to redo the 15 year old electronics. But what to buy? I have quotes for:

B&G Zeus™ 3S 9 - 9" Multi-Function Sailing Display
Garmin 8610 Plotter

And someone suggested looking at Simrad. I will probably upgrade everything else to match whatever I get for a plotter. I think the 9" is the right size - bigger than what I have, at least (less plastic around the edges so it would fit in the existing spot).

We mostly cruise (with as much sailing as we can) around eastern Long Island Sounds, Block Island with plans to make it to Nantucket this year. A trip to Maine could be in our future as well. We also do a lot of day sailing, but we never race, so we don't need anything too fancy - just easy enough to use (I am pretty tech-savvy), and easy for my 66 year-old eyes to read, etc. Integration with phone, etc. would be nice but not essential.

Thanks for suggestions - real experience with any of these products - good or bad - would be welcome.

Thanks!

Aaron

[SV Zig Zag]

I sail on two different boats, and one has the B&G Zeus, it is oriented towards racing and is difficult to use a lot of the features.

On my boat in the states, I have the RayMarine Axiom, and I love it. Very easy to use and integrate into other systems. the i70 guages integrate well, and they have a great program to turn your ipad into an extra station. Also the Quantum radar works very well.

That's my 2 cents.

Sv Zig Zag

[NYSail]

On my 2005 beneteau 423 I went with Garmin 7610 plotter, AIS 800 and radar. All work wonderful together.

Greg
Souleil

Btw same sailing territory….

[raptor36]

Thanks very much for the responses!

Greg, How important/useful do you think the AIS is for sailing in our area?

By the way, what's your home port? I am in Guilford CT and we keep the boat at Guilford Yacht Club.

Thanks!

Aaron Abend

[hjohnson]

Originally Posted by raptor36

Greg, How important/useful do you think the AIS is for sailing in our area?

Not sure about his area, but I'm glad I have AIS on my boat here in the PNW/Sailish Sea. The RCN (Royal Canadian Navy) tends to operate with their AIS on, so avoiding them in the gulf islands is pretty easy, as do all the commercial ships. It's also allowed various commercial ships to call us easy enough on the radio when they needed to. Lastly, the one time we got stranded in the traffic lane while waiting for Sea-Tow, it let VTS know exactly where we were so they could warn/re-route commercial traffic away.

[pjShap]

I sail in your area. I sailed for years without AIS, when it didn't exist yet, but now consider it a very valuable additional safety feature. It lets me see any vessel broadcasting, and lets other vessels see me, even in fog. If it prevents one close call or worse, I think it's well worth the price.

[KompetentKrew]

I love my B&G Vulcan and find it perfectly easy to use - I haven't used the Zeus, but it looks like it has basically the same interface. Another thread here suggests it may not be worth paying the extra for a Zeus.

All the chart plotters I've used have basically the same idiom, irrespective of the brand - you move and centre the view in the same ways, the menus operate in similar ways - so I'm confused by the comment that the Zeus is hard to use. Not saying they're wrong, but maybe it's just a matter of what you're used to. I think I've used both Raymarine and Garmin plotters, although perhaps not the latest models, plus my B&G and some other cheap brand.

I believe that B&G has some of the best sailing features:

• https://www.bandg.com/sailing-features/
• https://www.bandg.com/en-gb/blog/rac...t-5-sailsteer/

I'm presently in the process of upgrading my sensors / transducers and building an NMEA 2000 network so that I can get wind/speed data into the plotter and take advantage of this.

I've only been sailing about 4 years but in that time I've sailed on boats with and without AIS, and I've sailed a couple of thousand miles on my own boat without it, mostly singlehanded, but I'm now in the process of upgrading to AIS. I would rather spend $1000 on a Vulcan and $1000 on AIS (em-trac) than spend $2000 on a Zeus. I don't think AIS is an essential, especially if you maintain a good watch, but it's nice to have and some people find it very reassuring.

I think all three major brands can mirror the screen to a phone or tablet, but it's not worth doing with a phone IMO as it's too small - a 10" tablet down below is perfect. The B&G app is brilliant when it's working although there is a well-known "green bars" bug that has taken too long to fix - last I heard they were claiming to be working on it in though.

[Smokeys Kitchen]

Another B&G fan here. We are using our Zeus to cruise in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico. We don't race, but find some of the available features very helpful while cruising.

I find most chart plotters are like excel. I know a lot of people that use them, but I know no one that uses all the functions of any given unit.

[stevead]

Besides the good advice that others have provided, one thing to keep in mind is if you possess, or intend to use an autopilot.

With most of the major brands now using NMEA 2000 (Raymarine call theirs Seatalk ng and use proprietary connectors), whilst it is easy to some degree to mix-n-match sensors (depth, speed, wind) and AIS transceivers/receivers, in general you can't mix-n-match autopilots.

Note that when you initially mentioned Simrad you should be aware that Navico, the parent company, position B&G towards sailing, Lowrance towards recreational powerboaters & anglers and Simrad towards motor yachts and commercial vessels and each have features specific to that market segment.

[NYSail]

Originally Posted by raptor36

Thanks very much for the responses!

Greg, How important/useful do you think the AIS is for sailing in our area?

By the way, what's your home port? I am in Guilford CT and we keep the boat at Guilford Yacht Club.

Thanks!

Aaron Abend

Aaron,

I sail out of Mt. Sinai….. I love my AIS. Makes a huge difference in the fog out East. Great complement to the radar.and it’s fun to watch other boats when sailing…..

Greg

Greg

[Smokeys Kitchen]

Originally Posted by stevead

Besides the good advice that others have provided, one thing to keep in mind is if you possess, or intend to use an autopilot.

With most of the major brands now using NMEA 2000 (Raymarine call theirs Seatalk ng and use proprietary connectors), whilst it is easy to some degree to mix-n-match sensors (depth, speed, wind) and AIS transceivers/receivers, in general you can't mix-n-match autopilots.

Note that when you initially mentioned Simrad you should be aware that Navico, the parent company, position B&G towards sailing, Lowrance towards recreational powerboaters & anglers and Simrad towards motor yachts and commercial vessels and each have features specific to that market segment.

I agree with stevead in general, but I believe that you can mix and match the brands within the Navico umbrella; i.e. you can use a Simrad auto pilot on a B&G chartplotter, etc. with a Lowrance radar. You can check with a Navico rep for more definitive info on that.

[fogmachine]

I'm on boats w/ B&G, Raymarine, and Furuno (and the occasional Garmin); I really prefer B&G for sailing. If the MFD is down below the additional cost of a Zeus might be worth it because the knobs are easier to use in a seaway. Both Zeus and Vulcan have built in WiFi hubs that provide 3rd-party laptop/phone/tablet apps (iNavX, SEAiq, OpenCPN, etc) data access.


For basic functionality Raymarine's Lighthouse3 OS is slightly easier to use and I really like the big data overlays but it's far less flexible than B&G and I can never get all the data I want to stay displayed. Raymarine is also a little less expensive but I don't think you'll notice in the long run.


The biggest advance will be when the first of the major brands accepts charts directly from NOAA as well as their "my cat peed in all the corners" customized Navionics/C-Map modern art. Because once one does it they'll all follow suit.



I think the B&G Triton2 displays are best right now no matter what MFD you choose. They have a great set of information pages, take up little juice, and are visible in all conditions.



I've also sailed many years without AIS (or Radar or even a chartplotter) but have found it to be a game changer. Highly recommended for anyone sailing near commercial traffic, in fog, or after dark. Having an idea of "what those lights are" is peace of mind at night and I've watched freighters change course 15 miles away to take our stern when offshore and it's been much appreciated.

[raptor36]

I went with the Garmin before some of the late responses. I expect it will be fine, but appreciate all of the feedback.

I am trying to figure out how to fit the AIS into the budget - many thanks for all the feedback!

I'll try to get back here and post some info after it's all installed and I have had a chance to use it.

Aaron