Not too many listers chiming in on this topic. Anyone? Is everyone else out sailing?
Fred Street -- Minneapolis S/V Oceanis (1979 C&C Landfall 38) -- Bayfield, WI > On Aug 10, 2015, at 12:17 PM, Frederick G Street via CnC-List > <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > > John — like most Furuno gear, I imagine the black-box radar is pretty > reliable. My concern is with the other gear needed to use it. If you’re > going to spend that much on buying and installing a system, you want it to > work when you need it. And that’s generally when conditions are bad; which > is also when the consumer stuff (laptop, iPad, etc) is going to fail. Then > your investment is worthless. > > Fred Street -- Minneapolis > S/V Oceanis (1979 C&C Landfall 38) -- Bayfield, WI > >> On Aug 9, 2015, at 9:07 PM, John Pennie via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com >> <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> wrote: >> >> Any thoughts on the reliability of the Furuno unit itself? It's a bit of an >> oddity but has been on the market for a while. Radar is not a critical >> function to me (except when it is) but I view this more of an offshore tool >> than anything else. Just my opinion which I'm sure most would disagree with. > On August 9, 2015 at 4:47 PM, Frederick G Street via CnC-List > <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > > > Hi, John. No, you’re not crazy; just be careful with mixing and matching > equipment from different vendors. And as long as you’re putting in modern > electronics, there’s no reason I can think of to NOT integrate all of them > together; you get benefits like autopilot steering to wind angle or to > waypoints; and the ability to repeat GPS, wind, depth and other data out to > WiFi if you’re so equipped. And as far as not having a knot meter, that > means you lose the ability to correlate the GPS and boat data to determine if > you’re dealing with current set and drift, which can be very helpful. > > Only you know what you’d really like to have; but I would at minimum do a > full instrument install, and my preference would be for the i70 Sail Pack > system if you’re looking at Raymarine. > > If you go with the Furuno black box radar, you’re completely blind if your > iPad dies. I’m a fan of having dedicated marine electronics for functions > you consider critical; if radar falls into that category, I’d think twice > about that setup. > > If the current B&G autopilot system works well, there’s no reason to replace > it; if it takes NMEA0183 data in, I’d definitely convert that from NMEA2000 > so it can talk with other gear as mentioned above. > > If you’d like AIS receive only, consider putting in a VHF radio like the > Standard Horizon GX2200, which has separate AIS receivers built in, and can > pass that info on to other equipment. If you’d like to be seen as well, > there are a bunch of choices in AIS Class B transponders; I’d recommend one > after you nail down the rest of the equipment, so it plays well with > everything else. > > And finally, chartplotters. I can see no reason to put in a Raymarine GPS > receiver just to give GPS to other gear. If you’re NOT going to do a plotter > (see notes about reliability of iPad and radar…), putting in an AIS-enabled > VHF can get you position data just as well. I’d suggest, though, that you > look at the new small MFDs that Simrad, B&G, Raymarine and Garmin have out. > Under $1000, and you can attach radar, AIS, instruments, etc to get a fully > marine-capable system that runs off your boat’s batteries (no limited iPad > battery life, which ALWAYS seems to fail when you need it most…). > > I’ll be interested to see what others recommend. > > Fred Street -- Minneapolis > S/V Oceanis (1979 C&C Landfall 38) -- Bayfield, WI > >> On Aug 9, 2015, at 4:30 PM, John Pennie via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com >> <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>> wrote: >> >> The basic electronics (b&g h1000 system) on Paws have been a challenge since >> I first got her. Intermittent failures at the start of each season. Now >> depth has failed and of all things it appears to be the transducer. I'm >> debating modernizing. Please tell me if I'm crazy. A little background: >> >> Close hauled wind indicator is important to me (which I currently don't have) >> The autopilot (B&G) is a thing of beauty and will be kept >> There are two Furuno chart plotters running older Navionics charts. Frankly >> I use the iPad almost exclusively now (nobeltec ap and visual tides being my >> preference) >> AIS is important to me sailing in NY harbor - also off an iPad ap but would >> consider upgrading >> I couldn't care less about any interface between chart plotter and auto >> pilot and/or wind >> The boat does have radar which is never used for our current sailing. >> Offshore would be a different story and we do do plan another offshore run >> (Bermuda/Caribbean, etc) >> >> So here's what I'm thinking. >> >> Ray i50/60/70 instruments as a stand alone installation >> Existing auto pilot remains as a stand alone unit >> Replace existing Furuno radar dome with the PC version with built in wi-if >> (works with Nobeltec iPad ap) >> Perhaps add a wireless router >> Add new Ray GPS head for a multifunction display; use iPad GPS for chart >> plotter through ap >> I wouldn't install a knot meter - Gps is fine >> >> Any thoughts on the reliability of wifi offshore? I would think it's fine >> but would love to hear opinions. >> >> All of this could be done for about 4k less whatever I can sell the old >> equipment for on eBay. Feel free to tell me I'm nuts. Keep in mind we do >> have limited offshore runs in the future. >> >> Opinions welcome >> >> John
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