Navigation/ Electronics on a new sailboat

[Terminator]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your replies. I am trying to get some sense about this stuff and doing the research a bit in advance as wont buy the items for a few months anyway.

The boat is a steel boat and weighs about 13 000kg.

One idea is following

Radar: B&G 4G
Wind: Airmar 200WX
Speed: Airmar CS4500
Autopilot: Simrad HLD 2000, Simrad AC 42
Plotter:B&G Zeus at the helm
AIS: Vesper marine XB 8000
VHF: supports the DSC
Laptop for a cockpit
Satellite phone

Understood B&G and simrad works well together, also vesper marine xb 8000 can be integrated with these manufacturers.

Good ideas of receiving a weather?

Cheers

Eemeli

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Mycroft

It will initiate a DSC call, but only if the VHF supports that feature. Standard Horizon doesn't, (at least none that I found a year ago), but some ICOM models do support it.

Standard Horizon does.

Their radios have built-in AIS so you just push the call button on your selected AIS mobile.

Remember their plotters are built around their VHF radios and once the call is initiated from the AIS menu of the radio, there is no need for a separate function on the plotter. (Much as, off course, this would be very nice to be able to interface say a SH plotter with say a Simrad AIS, for DSC calls to be initiated by SH plotter).

C'est la vie. The intricacies of interfacing.

Cheers,
b.

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by Terminator

Hi guys,

Thanks for your replies. I am trying to get some sense about this stuff and doing the research a bit in advance as wont buy the items for a few months anyway.

The boat is a steel boat and weighs about 13 000kg.

One idea is following

Radar: B&G 4G
Wind: Airmar 200WX
Speed: Airmar CS4500
Autopilot: Simrad HLD 2000, Simrad AC 42
Plotter:B&G Zeus at the helm
AIS: Vesper marine XB 8000
VHF: supports the DSC
Laptop for a cockpit
Satellite phone

Understood B&G and simrad works well together, also vesper marine xb 8000 can be integrated with these manufacturers.

Good ideas of receiving a weather?

Cheers

Eemeli

Eemeli, you won't be disappointed with B&G. We re-fitted our electronics last year and are very pleased with the 4G radar as well.

RE: Wx Rx: Since you mentioned a sat phone, you may want to explore UUplus email service. The client has a lot of smart features including use of SailDocs for fetching gribs, WxFax, text, etc. Wx and any web file.

What is smart about it? The answers deserve a deep read of all the features these guys have incorporated.

e.g., We have routine wx documents fetched automatically twice daily. If we don't download for a few days [by choice or otherwise...] the next download only fetches the most recent documents- saving us precious sat data minutes... [Of course, the minutes wouldn't matter with something like an Iridium Go...]

UUplus also works over cell data, WiFi, and SSB/HF radio. We really like it.

SailMail and Winlink are other options. [Winlink is for HAMs only, and you cannot conduct business via email using it since it is HAM...]

Sailmail just released an IridiumGo client...

In the future should we decide on paying for Wx services, we may very well still use these vectors for product delivery, favoring UUplus in our case because it more than pays for itself [due to compression and other efficiencies] in sat phone time savings. [Again, this is moot with a Sat Phone hot-spot device like the IridiumGo with an unlimited data plan...]

I hope you enjoy this journey.

Cheers!

[Rough Magic]

Buy a good proven brand of intergated electronics, like RayMarine, Furuno, or B&G. Each system is designed to work with all the other parts of the same brand, often just plug and play. One call for tech support. One place to get parts and upgrades which will be compatable. Manufacturers make no guarantee that different brands will work together, only that they work on the same standards, and point the finger at each other as being the problem.

Back up your system with a laptop, tablet, or phone that gets updates easily, and will serve in an emergency.

And buy them after the boat is in the water. Seems to me that new systems are introduced every year.

Good luck, Dave

[DDabs]

You mention you want to use those ultrasonic wind and depth transducers, so you will need some type of gauges to read the data on. B&G has their Triton line, which display far more than just depth/wind, as they are used for their autopilot as well. Perhaps look into having a few of those on board either at helm or nav station.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[rsnini]

My 2 cents...

1.I think Furuno is the way to go...I have used Raymarine and Garmin and much prefer Furuno Time Zero technology.
2. Get the biggest chart plotter screen you can afford... sure does help on a night watch , especially if you want to multi screen.
3.I use a 15"Macbook Pro with a windows partition and windows 7 to run MaxSea navigation software. It integrates with my Furuno system thru a HUB and functions as a second chart plotter. This allows me to see anything on my computer that I can see on the cart plotter(Charts, Radar, Sounder, AIS, DSC, Sirius Weather, Instruments, Camera and to control the auto pilot)
4. MaxSea allows me to download Weather Grib files and to preplan routs on my laptop and then upload directly to my chartploter.
5. I think the new Furuno Time Zero Touch will integrate with IPad.
6. MaxSea does integrate with IPad and IPhone.
Hope this helps

[rsnini]

I need to modify my 2 cents..
Item #3...I think I misspoke....I know for a fact that I can see the charts, Radar, AIS, DCS, instruments, and can control my autopilot from the laptop...not sure about sounder, Sirius and camera.
Sorry, I got carried away.

[barnakiel]

I work with marine weather so if it counts for anything in your book, I would use some of the following for the weather:

- inshore: FM/AM radio, 4G Internet, VHF,
- close offshore: as above + Navtex,
- offshore: radiofax, HF voice, Sirius, gribs

If you can afford, offshore: broadband Internet, etc.

You will probably roll between various means and pick whatever method gives best information for any given area.

Remember the essential fact that no matter how very advanced your wx technology onboard is, it is next to useless unless you have the knowledge and the experience required to understand and interpret the wx information available.

Fair winds,
b.

[Terminator]

Thanks B, will do some research on them..

[northiceman]

Two things (I like to keep my life simple - that way I don't get criticised for "forgetting" at my age ! :>)
1. DON'T buy ANY electronics until they are needed (I have a whole box of electronics from the 70's that never did get installed !)
2. I buy only Garmin or RayMarine or Simrad (always buy a brand that has LOTS of other units out there and can be replaced later (if need be) easily.

More "talk"...-->I LOVE Garmin products-their support is endless ! I have used Raytheon (RayMarine) for over 19 years (still have the chartplotter and 40 mile radar and they NEVER failed me). I spent a LOT on a Simrad autopilot which can be driven by either the RayMarine chartplotter or the beautifully compact Garmin (hydraulic and electronic autopilot which has a Simrad drive motor added to the Wagner hydraulics - its been working flawlessly for more than 11 years.

[jtulls]

Might be worth mentioning -- Navionics recently announced the ability to wirelessly sync to Raymarine plotters. It would give you a way to connect you ipad/phone app to the Raymarine plotter in order to transfer planned routes, waypoints, etc.

See more info here: Plotter Sync with Raymarine Wi-FI | Navionics

[karle]

Around what area would you be sailing? opencpn is really good provided you have either BSB or S57 chart coverage for your cruising area.
I don't think you can get live weather etc unless you subscribe to $$$$$$$ satellite data plans.