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Ideal Marine Electronics, from the readers of http://www.panbo.com/
"Best" category: 50’ and better bluewater cruisers, sailboat ready for a circumnavigation including high latitude sailing, powerboat capable of ocean crossings and remote explorations; very healthy budget. ********************************************************** 3/19/07 Russ, who's building a 54' bluewater sail boat: This is a project on which I expect to spend a lot of time and effort. But you're on deadline so here is a "top of mind" snapshot based on what is available for purchase today.
Overarching priorities 1) Reliability - Cruisers don't stay in one place too long. It's not convenient to ship, track and receive a package when the typical service department response to a problem is "we've got an unusually high volume of calls/equipment/?? now so we're not sure when your unit will be ready - call back next week". Reliability trumps everything else. 2) Low power consumption - Bluewater boats make their own power, and this is a sail boat, the motor is not running continuously. 50' is at the low end of having genset, some do, some don't. I don't like the noise/vibration/exhaust of a genset, not to mention the need to service yet another engine, so I don't / won't. Low power consumption means less problems in general. 3) Redundancy (in case #1 is not realized!) - just like the first rule of navigation is to always cross check with a second source, the first rule of bluewater is to have a back up for every critical function. 4) This list is compiled from what is available for purchase today (at least to the extent of my knowledge).
Navigation Furuno BBWGPS
- network GPS receiver Furuno
10" color LCD with controls (i.e., 1824C w/o Radome) for cockpit Furuno
MU170C 17" color LCD monitor Furuno
PG1000 heading sensor Furuno
RD30 Nav Data Display Northstar
6100i - 6.4" display B&G
H3000 system with RemoteVision remote control B&G Autopilot, install two rams, buy two course computers and heading sensors- keep one set stored in a lighting safe spot Computer
with MaxSea Racing-Pro, OCENS WeatherNet, GRIB
explorer, MetMapper Communication Icom 802 with SCS PTC-IIusb modem Uniden
UM625C-BK with 2 WHAMx4 wireless remotes Iridium
phone with data kit and Direct Internet RadioLabs WiFi (or equivalent) Icom
IC-T90A handheld ham transceiver Inmarsat
BGAN with Nera WorldPro 1000
(global coverage coming soon...) Safety ACR GlobalFix EPIRB Furuno
FA-150 Class A AIS transponder Meteograf Baroscope MOB
system (needs more research) Comments 1) I've got Icom, Northstar, Furuno and Raymarine equipment on my Swan 44 (six years old). Furuno is the only equipment that has not been sent in for service. Every other piece of equipment has had to be removed from the boat and shipped to the manufacturer for service at least once during the last six years. In the case of Raymarine it took a letter to the CEO to get their attention. Icom never fixed the problem (earlier email on M502), and Northstar fixed the unit under warranty and it's worked fine since then. It's one thing to send equipment in from my home in the Bay Area, as you can see from my friend's letter, it's much more challenging when you're in the middle of the South Pacific. 2) Furuno is overdue to announce their new product line(s). I'm expecting pretty dramatically improved radar performance, better resolution on all their displays, a new release of MaxSea, Navionics Platinum and probably a smattering of other improvements. 3) I've owned 30-40 Garmin units over the last dozen years in many flavors and forms (currently own 4), though only the handheld marine units, no fixed equipment. They have a nice UI and good performance and very good RF performance (they were early to SIRF III). The good news is that Garmin issues frequent s/w updates to their products. The bad news is that they need to issue frequent updates. I've only had one hardware problem among all those units, but their firmware ships before it's ready and then they issue fixes to take care of the problems. Access to the web from a blue water cruiser is not a given. The equipment needs to work reliably out of the box, not when they fix the s/w 3-6 months later. That's why there is no Garmin on my list. 4) EVDO
and HSPDA are only available in US metro areas, and even then the coverage is
weak; they don't have a role in bluewater communications. That said, a good four-band GSM cell phone is handy because you buy
SIM cards all over the world and have a working local phone. For long
distance, Skype with WiFi and the appropriate Skype In, or Skype
Out services are tough to beat. 5)
I use the computer and MaxSea for route planning, then
upload the route to the Furuno and Northstar plotters, then shut off the
computer and save the power. Navigation while underway is mostly with
the Northstar 6100 which, if my 952XD is any indication, will draw less than
1a. Interface
diagram of Russ's current boat:
********************************************************** 3/13/07 Greg Pohl, Yacht Systems NW: Here is my favorite system to install. This is all of the most dependable equipment we have found. The price tag may not be for the faint of heart but on an ocean going vessel you need your equipment to work every time you turn it on. We have three or four boats out there with some variation of this system and we don’t hear from them very often. NAVIGATION: Primary Radar—Commercial grade black Secondary Radar---Nobeltec Insight 6 KW Radar Plotter---Nobeltec Admiral with XM weather on 2 computers with at least 4 com ports Compass---Satellite compass (FURUNO or SIMRAD) Instruments---Ultrasonic weather sensor (Airmar pb100) with nmea repeaters (RD30s or IS15’s) AIS--- class A AIS (Furuno FA 150) Fish Finder---Black Box (Furuno FCV 1200) fish finder with 2KW transducer Sonar---Black Box (Furuno CH300) Displays---At least 5 VEI or Ambient Nav displays per helm with touch screen controlled Video switching Autopilot—Simrad AP25 Backup Autopilot—Simrad AP25 Cameras: p/t/z cameras in e/r and on back deck and brow and thermal camera (FLIR or NVTI) Vessel monitoring: Krill Systems COMMUNICATIONS: VHF—ICOM 604 x2 SSB—ICOM 802 Satellite phone/data---Inmarsat Fleet 55 Satellite Television---Seatel Coastal 24 EVDO card on cellular amplifier and WIFI t JUNXION’s router for coastal Data With proper interfacing there is no reason to limit yourself by sticking with one manufacturer. All manufacturers have their strong suits and with all of the black box equipment out there now you really don’t need a network to get your different instruments on the same screen. It is all a matter of switching. This is great system for a larger power boat but variations on this theme (less screens, smaller radars) can be used for all power boats. ********************************************************** Big Max in Multifunctional Chartplotter > 12” ( SVGA ) AIS Transponder Radar 4KW or Vessel Management http://www.ftnav.com/ ********************************************************** 3/9/2007 Capt Dan Gingras, Beneteau 461 Lionheart…"Here's what I'd like to see on a 50' Sail Cruiser:" Performance: Navigation: Communications: Power Management And Dan shared some Brand preferences: Instruments - Raymarine (I like their service) SSB- Icom 802 Pactor - PTC (the only choice) VHF - Standard Horizon has the best in my opinion Plotter- Raymarine because I want the instrument integration to be seamless Radar- Raymarine – Makes sense to have a single system Software - Nobeltec but Maxsea has better racing software (although I think Nobeltec is getting better) Laptop – I still love the Thinkpads Autopilot - ??? maybe Raymarine 7001 due to integration (My own bias for Raymarine showing here) Navtex - ICS Navtex 6 AIS - ACR – All safety gear should be ACR including EPIRBS GPS - Raymarine or Standard Horizon Satellite TV - KVH Cell Amp – Digital Antenna Hailer- Standard, but built in to high end DSC radios Man overboard system – ACR
********************************************************** 3/8/07 This one will probably attract some wild set ups, but so far we just have a question which came by email recently (edited); “I'm a network engineer for a nationwide company w/ 26 locations, 50+ routers, etc etc. When my {relative} decided to have a $1,000,000 sailing catamaran built, he selected me as the best resource to oversee the electronics. So given a sizeable, but not unlimited budget—and bearing in mind that this boat is destined to circumnavigate, and emphasizing safety, ease of use and compatibility—where would you start and/or what would you consider must have's. Items that my {relative} believes that he would like include: Flir ThermoVision Mariner, chart plotter, MOB location, GPS Enabled PLB's, SharpEye radar, phone (Inmarsat?), Ocean Tracker, Sonar (forward looking?) and maybe Internet/TV, at least email.” And there will be “At least 4 display locations: port/starboard helms, interior helm, and owners cabin/nav station.” He added that it’s a “nice challenge, but I'm finding myself smack in the center of way too many options, standards, possible incompatibilities, and vendors all fluffing up their stuff.” Welcome to our world! [ Home ]
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