Nav upgrades

[milesandmel]

Hello guys,

We've recently purchased a 49', French designed steel sloop to sail from South Africa to Brazil, the Caribbean, then US. I would appreciate some suggestions on practical, affordable upgrades to the nav equipment. Everything is working but is a bit old. We’ve got mostly Raymarine equipment—st60s for depth, speed, anemometer, st7000 autopilot with smart pilot 30, furuno radar and fixed gps, digital yacht AIS (usb output), interphase forward looking sonar, etc. AND, a ray marine A70 chart plotter, the focus of my question. Most of the equipment interfaces but the A70 is not repeatable and is currently mounted under the dodger, accessed standing in the companionway. It is a decent position to see from the helm, but I’d rather plan routes at the nav station. We are currently rewiring much of the nav station and putting in a new front panel, so now would be a great time to upgrade.

The options I see are as follows:

-Buy two new chart plotters (rather not).
-Use a laptop down below and either an iPad in waterproof case, or a new, wifi enabled plotter above. The second option would require the iPad instead of the computer down below, I believe, if I stick with ray marine and navionics; ray marine chart plotters won’t wifi with a laptop…?

-Use ray marine’s software on laptop, (or even a small desktop box with flat screen mounted at nav statiion?) and attempt to access data through adapters, then repeat as above.

All these options would put the a70 as a backup, if I want my data and charts to interface. I have mac and pc laptops, I have an iPad, i have an LCD flatscreen, I have an excellent marine electrician with many trans-Atlantic deliveries under his belt. As mentioned above, working here in SA (and local currency) , buying the latest and greatest nav system in not in the cards. Moreover, the latest and greatest might be computer based by now. I know opinions are divided on this, but your sage advice would be much appreciated!

All the best,
John

Sent from my iPhone


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[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, John.

[TitoSoto]

My suggestion would be to get the iPad, and combine it with a smart phone so you can use that as your speed and direction at the helm.

I am actually considering not replacing any of my electronics since current handheld technology has come along way.