HBR 34 - Electronics Questions - Nav - Safety - Audio - WIFI

[johnalison]

If it is a Hallberg-Rassy 34, I don't think any were built with a wheel.

Quite a few were built with wheels. Most German ones had wheels, and I have sailed on a friend's 34 with a wheel. The early ones intruded badly into the aft cabin but the later ones much less so. The cockpit doesn't suit a wheel very well but it's OK to sail. I can't remember how big the 352's space under the hood is but the 34 is possibly less generous. The later 342 has a taller (and uglier) sprayhood.

Planning on a cockpit screen may be OK much of the time, but not always. I sometimes take a perverse pleasure in watching skippers out in the cold and wet trying to fiddle with their plotters while their families are enjoying themselves downstairs in the warm.

 

[Boathook]

If the kit works try it first before spending money on upgrading. Ideally if replacing, go for one make to make integration easier; though the new systems do seem to talk together ok.

 

[pvb]

Planning on a cockpit screen may be OK much of the time, but not always. I sometimes take a perverse pleasure in watching skippers out in the cold and wet trying to fiddle with their plotters while their families are enjoying themselves downstairs in the warm.

As most modern plotters have wifi, planning could be done on a tablet and transferred. If someone's going to buy a plotter, it might as well be in the cockpit - it will be sunlight-viewable, waterproof and permanently powered, 3 attributes which tablets don't have.

 

[PaulRainbow]

As most modern plotters have wifi, planning could be done on a tablet and transferred. If someone's going to buy a plotter, it might as well be in the cockpit - it will be sunlight-viewable, waterproof and permanently powered, 3 attributes which tablets don't have.

[smug mode]

I do my planning below decks on a 24" screen (TV connected to laptop) and transfer to the cockpit plotter

[/smug mode]

Spent two years experimenting with tablets in the cockpit and they just don't compare to plotter, IMO.

 

[prv]

I generally plan passages with a pilot book, a chart of the overall area, and a tide app on my phone. Unless your plotter is the only thing on board with charts (no paper charts, no iPad with Navionics or Imray app, etc) I don't really see why you would need to use it for planning a passage the night before. And while I don't subscribe to the idea that you will be swallowed by a sea monster the moment you pass the breakwater without an inch-thick stack of Admiralty cartridge paper, having only a single set of electronic charts definitely seems unwise.

I prefer a plotter at the forward end of the cockpit; that's where mine is even with a wheel. With the former tiller-steered boat, I had a demountable plotter that could go there.

I don't think any of the OP's electronics are in desperate need of replacing, though the plotter is certainly quite elderly by modern standards. I would want to have AIS receive capability if crossing the Channel. The CP180 will display it even if the Simrad won't, though its target display and alerting capabilities are rather primitive - I've had one and was a bit disappointed that AIS was less useful than I'd expected because of the limited plotter features.

I don't think Navtex is all that much use on the south coast and in the Channel - don't rush to rip it out if it's not doing any harm, but certainly don't expend effort fixing it, and if you need the space it can go without being much missed. I fitted it on Ariam (partly because the display was offered really cheap on the For Sale forum ) and in retrospect probably shouldn't have bothered.

Don't see the point of a TV aerial on a boat, but then I don't watch broadcast TV at home either.

I don't have, or see any particular need for, 4G capability fitted to the boat. Except when setting out towards France, well south of the Needles, I have perfectly good signal on my phone at all times on board, including when anchored in little bays in the Channel Islands (they had a major upgrade there a few years ago). My iPad can share that signal. This is just ordinary Vodafone. Free in France too unless and until the clown-car of imbeciles in London get their way.

Specifically what to do next?

Moderate budget improvement: fit an AIS receiver wired to the CP180, and optionally to the Simrad if it can display it. Then go sailing.

Big budget upgrade: replace the Simrad and CP180 with a Raymarine Axiom 9 in the cockpit (and use a phone or tablet in the cabin if you insist on fiddling dozens of waypoints into it in advance for some reason), a Seatalk1 to SeatalkNG adapter to connect the existing instruments, and a Quantum radar scanner. Also an AIS receiver (or consider a transmitter?) with NMEA2000 connectivity. Sell the old plotters and radar on eBay, there is still a market for them.

This certainly isn't the only way to go, just what I would probably do if I wanted to spend the corresponding amount of money.

Pete

 

[djr]

Wow, you guys are great this is so helpful - I will digest and get back to you with more questions.

Some good points, and useful sanity and logic - thank you