Calling all Techies!! :o)

[Donner74]

Hello Everyone! My name's Greg, and I'm new to the forum. I'm not sure what to expect, but looking forward to meeting others with a passion for sailing! I live in Boston, and sail out of Marblehead. I've had a J/109 for the last 3 years and enjoy cruising with my wife and our five year old. So far our favorite spots are the Isle of Shoals and Newport/Cape Cod. Now that my boat's on dry land I have some plans for her, and thought this might be a good place to turn for some advice.

I thought I'd get started with a post on something near and dear to my heart, TOYS (electronics)!

My J/109 is in need of some new nav gear and I'd love to get some of your thoughts. I am true electronics geek at work and home, but I'm feeling overwhelmed by the options when it comes to my boat. I've been dealing with a bit of a mishmash since I bought her, the previous owner didn't seem to apply any rhyme or reason when selecting electronics. Suffice it to say, out with the old and in with the new. I'm in the market for a new nav system, some instruments, and an AIS. I have also been debating a new radar. Honestly, I'd really like to do a total refresh at this point, save my Simrad pilot, which works fine.

I have been reading and researching a lot online lately and in some magazines, and the one thing I'm definitely thinking is that I'd like to try to stay with one brand if I can ... not only because I think it's a clean look, but also because it seems like there are a lot of cool things you can do these days over a network with compatible technology.

So, for starters ... what do you think about my one brand idea? Do you have any recommendations? And, is there anything I should definitely steer clear of?

THANKS!
-Greg

 

[Danny]

Definitely a good idea to go for one manufacturer. Doing this avoids the problem of manufacturers blaming each other when their pieces of kit fail to network.

 

[Monique]

One brand?? Great idea. If it was me... I would go for Garmin/AIS....(unless there is little traffic in your cruising grounds)... don't know if you need radar...

I have a Garmin 76 CSX at the binnacle and it works well while sailing. Plotting is done at the nav station.

Welcome aboard, this is a great site with much DIY expertise. Fabulous.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

One brand is the right way IMHO. No matter how good cross-platform standards are, there will be times when you wish there was only one company to blame.

We have as much Garmin kit as possible. I just felt that it was best to go with a big company that had lots products in various markets and who would hopefully be around for the lifetime of the boat.

As you are US based I would say Garmin is by far the best choice for you.

Have a good read on panbo.com . Lots of good advice there and you get all the weather integration stuff as well.

I would go INavx on iPad as backup.

Good luck.

 

[Donner74]

Ok, excellent. I will certainly look into Garmin. The only thing that has me thinking about Simrad is that I already have their pilot. Do you think it will interface easily with all the Garmin product? Or should I stick with all Simrad? They've been around for a while too, no? Have any of you used their new stuff, or know of any reason not to?

Thanks,

Greg

 

[Donner74]

Have it! Love it! Have a Fugawi X-Traverse account too so I am able to use tons of chart formats with it including Navionics. Man, I love toys!

I would go INavx on iPad as backup.

 

[pugwash60]

Can't answer on the interface thing re garmin and simrad but if it were me I would never interface an autopilot to a gps anyway, the idea of having the boat follow way points and turning without my say so at the time frightens me, there is too much scope for the unexpected.
Again it's personal choice and I know it doesn't make for a clean look but I much prefer separate radar and plotter rather than having the whole thing going to one screen. I just find it much more intuitive to go to the radar for the radar and not to look for a button to push and then another to split the screen and another because I just pushed the wrong button.

 

[flaming]

the idea of having the boat follow way points and turning without my say so at the time frightens me, there is too much scope for the unexpected.

This is a common myth amongst those who don't have this setup, and does not happen. When you reach the waypoint it beeps and asks you if you would like to change course.

 

[Twister_Ken]

I've mixed-and-matched on my new boat, all works fine.

TackTick wireless wind/water/depth/etc
Garmin plotter at helm, Yeoman at chart table
Raymarine autopilot
Digital Yacht AIS rx only
Icom VHF.

Autopilot is interfaced with plotter, and works in that mode, but I much prefer aim-and-set.

 

[KellysEye]

>This is a common myth amongst those who don't have this setup, and does not happen. When you reach the waypoint it beeps and asks you if you would like to change course.

The problem is autopilots in general if set on a heading. A major wind shift can bring the rig down.

 

[Cantata]

This is a common myth amongst those who don't have this setup, and does not happen. .......

Yes it does if you tell it to.
I have a set of Raymarine instruments including a tillerpilot, and interfaced with a simple Garmin GPS. If I define a 'route' in the GPS, and tell the boat to follow the route when on autopilot, that's exactly what it does. I only tried it once out of curiousity, and it's really quite unnerving.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

>This is a common myth amongst those who don't have this setup, and does not happen. When you reach the waypoint it beeps and asks you if you would like to change course.

The problem is autopilots in general if set on a heading. A major wind shift can bring the rig down.

That's why we set the autopilot to sail an angle to the wind and then monitor location and cross track error.

When motoring we set the autopilot to follow a track, but when crossing the channel in light winds we just set a heading based on a net tidal vector and allow the tide tovdo it's thing.

I love autopilots.

 

[Donner74]

This is all great information guys, thanks so much for chiming in. As I don't really have an opinion when it comes to GPS control of my pilot verses independent control, I'd like to select something that leaves me with the option to do either or. One feature I read about on Panbo.com which I thought was very exciting was that the Simrad unit I am looking at can not only connect with the my pilot, but allow me to fully control it from the screen. Though admittedly as cool as I think that is, I'm definitely going to keep my standalone control head.

I'm actually struggling with the same thing on the AIS front. It looks like the NSE can display ships on top of the charts which I think is cool, not only for me but for my wife who can be a bit directionally challenged. But we do most of our cruising in the Isle of Shoals and around Newport and I'm concerned about the amount of clutter there might be on the screen due to bigger ships, and all the smaller boats installing transmitters. So I'm thinking I should get the Simrad AI50 to keep it all one brand, or the Vesper Marine unit which I have read a lot of good things about, so I'm not trying to do everything on a 12" screen. Thoughts?

Thanks again for your input!

Greg

 

[DaveS]

Yes it does if you tell it to.
I have a set of Raymarine instruments including a tillerpilot, and interfaced with a simple Garmin GPS. If I define a 'route' in the GPS, and tell the boat to follow the route when on autopilot, that's exactly what it does. I only tried it once out of curiousity, and it's really quite unnerving.

Mine does too (Raymarine 2000 autohelm) when operated manually but, curiously, if I use the remote control, it acts as flaming says and bleeps to ask!

 

[Mr Cassandra]

Have it! Love it! Have a Fugawi X-Traverse account too so I am able to use tons of chart formats with it including Navionics. Man, I love toys!

Hi
Welcome to the forum

 

[alan_d]

Yes it does if you tell it to.
I have a set of Raymarine instruments including a tillerpilot, and interfaced with a simple Garmin GPS. If I define a 'route' in the GPS, and tell the boat to follow the route when on autopilot, that's exactly what it does. I only tried it once out of curiousity, and it's really quite unnerving.

From the manual for my Simrad Tillerpilot, under Nav Mode:

On arrival at the target waypoint an intermittent alarm will
sound. As a safety feature, to avoid an unexpected course
change, the next waypoint will not be automatically loaded
until the NAV key is pressed. When the vessel reaches the final
waypoint, the Tillerpilot will continue its current course under
Compass (Auto) mode.

 

[grumpy_o_g]

Go to Panbo.com and have look there. In general go for NMEA 2000 unless you have a very good reason not to. Whilst one manufacturer can be a good thing don't assume all a manufacturers products will work together or offer all the functionality even if they do - read the small print very carefully.

Going Simrad means you have the option of "Broadband" radar and some snazzy fish-finders/echo-sounders ( have a look at the Structure Scan sounders). Simrad aren't the cheapest though you can mix and match with Lowrance up to a point. Simrad also have a wireless remote control that will offer some control of a chartplotter (and just about everything else I believe) which is handy if you have the plotter on arm in the companion-way.

Garmin are definitely the flavour of the month and seem to be original fit for quite a few builders these days - the touch-screens are brilliant but I haven't used them in anger on a sailboat so can't speak for VMG and speed trending for sail trim or anything like that.

For transducers look at Airmar and Maretron, especially the ultrasonic wind transducer. Airmar also do a solid-state water-log transducer.

One other point - because I crew rather than own I tend to use quite a few different systems but don't get to know many that well. That's made me realise that a lot of things that people complain are counter-intuitive in reviews quickly become second nature when you own and use the kit regularly.

 

[john_morris_uk]

>This is a common myth amongst those who don't have this setup, and does not happen. When you reach the waypoint it beeps and asks you if you would like to change course.

The problem is autopilots in general if set on a heading. A major wind shift can bring the rig down.

Are you sailing an Open 60 in high winds? Or perhaps some sort of racing Trimaran?

I don't believe that there is a cruising boat built that should lose its rig due to an unexpected course change. Big gybes in big winds can break gear, but even then, it shouldn't bring the rig down (I'm not suggesting you try it - kickers and mainsheet blocks can explode with some of the forces found in really heavy winds). So standfast really heavy gybes in heavy winds, cruising boats might find themselves pinned down (and some modern designs broach very easily) if an unexpected course change happened automatically, but 'bring the rig down' is an exaggeration IMHO.

Furthermore the only scenario in which you might break something is not one in which most autopilots are much good at steering in.

Sorry to drift the thread...

 

[Cantata]

Originally Posted by Cantata
Yes it does if you tell it to.
I have a set of Raymarine instruments including a tillerpilot, and interfaced with a simple Garmin GPS. If I define a 'route' in the GPS, and tell the boat to follow the route when on autopilot, that's exactly what it does. I only tried it once out of curiousity, and it's really quite unnerving.

Originally posted by Alan_D
From the manual for my Simrad Tillerpilot, under Nav Mode:
Quote:On arrival at the target waypoint an intermittent alarm will
sound. As a safety feature, to avoid an unexpected course
change, the next waypoint will not be automatically loaded
until the NAV key is pressed. When the vessel reaches the final
waypoint, the Tillerpilot will continue its current course under
Compass (Auto) mode.

Well, it appears that the Simrad and the Raymarine systems work differently then, doesn't it?

 

[Twister_Ken]

I've never done it, but apparently my Raymarine system (SPX10 + ST6002) will beep on arriving at a waypoint, and won't change course to the next until the appropriate button is pressed. That appears to be the default state, whether it's possible to override that I don't know.