Navigation/ Electronics on a new sailboat

[Terminator]

Hi ppl,

We are currently building a 40ft steel sailboat and I'd like to ask your opinion about the Navigation/ electrical equipment.

The boat is going to sail all over the globe and I need a system that works well and is integrated with each other.

The stuff we need is going to be something like this:
Radar
Chartplotter. What do you recommend? Open cpn? Navionics? Need something to get the maps all over the place.
Autopilot
VHF
AIS: Vesper marine XB 8000?
NMEA 2000 system
Laptop? PC? Ipad? A boats own computer so I can navigate and get a weather?

I know the topic is huge and there is plenty of options but I would like to hear good experiences/ opinions which direction to go to.

Thanks

Eemeli

 

[john_morris_uk]

I like Raymarine and you can be confident it will all talk to each other.

The bigger the better for the plotter but make sure you've done your sums on the power usage and recharging regime. Big screens are power hungry. Integrated AIS and radar etc. I've used the system on several boats and it works very well.

With steel you will need a special remote compass sensor for the electronics. (And a proper ships compass corrected for the steel boat).

What a autopilot were you thinking of. A proper job is one mounted straight onto the rudder stock below decks or plumbed into the hydraulics.

 

[GHA]

From an Atlantic circuit on a steel boat, if I was outfitting to "sail all over the globe" from scratch - a few thoughts...

I need a system that works well and is integrated with each other

I wouldn't bother. Just more stuff to fix when it breaks. And not much benefit, you don't need much.

Radar

- unless single handed it will hardly ever get turned on. But fantastic those few times it does.

Chartplotter. What do you recommend? Open cpn? Navionics? Need something to get the maps all over the place.

Low power computer system with opencpn & cm93 charts. World wide charts for a plotter must cost an arm an a leg. Offshore there's no real need for anything more than a basic gps anyway, sog & cog plus an occasional position. AIS is fantastic with opencpn being as good as any for display, though I'm a fan of a low power receiver with an alarm as well (the nasa I have onboard has worked fine to Brazil and back), so you can power most things down offshore.

Autopilot

Wind vane. No contest for long distance. Zero power, very reliable and if it does break 1,000 miles offshore you're in with a chance of fixing it with bits of string and jubilee clips. Electronic - lose just 1 resistor and you're hand steering for weeks.

Laptop? PC? Ipad? A boats own computer so I can navigate and get a weather?

Must be very few long distance boats without a boat computer these days. I would put a cheap shortwave receiver like a degen 1103 link to a computer for receiving weather-fax as a near essential item for offshore. Lots of low power computers around now like the raspbery pi 2 or cubietruck which are powerful enough to do all you need but a couple of cheap laptops (1 spare) should do the job as well.

Also on the outfitting list... seawater & freshwater foot pumps at the galley sink, saves so much water. Must be lots more tips like that.

That's on *my* boat... No doubt there are many differing opinions to come....

 

[prv]

Wind vane. No contest for long distance. Zero power, very reliable and if it does break 1,000 miles offshore you're in with a chance of fixing it with bits of string and jubilee clips. Electronic - lose just 1 resistor and you're hand steering for weeks.

It's not an either / or choice though. Assuming I also wanted to sail coastally once I'd crossed the ocean, I'd have both. They're useful in different ways.

Pete

 

[GHA]

It's not an either / or choice though. Assuming I also wanted to sail coastally once I'd crossed the ocean, I'd have both. They're useful in different ways.

Pete

True, a bit, even a small unit rigged up to the vane will steer in calms so you won't need to invest in anywhere near as big a unit & spares etc. And it's not so much coastal but motoring for a few days becalmed mid ocean where an autopilot comes in handy. Which sort of goes more generally as a bench mark for a long distance offshore boat IMHO. Aim for a boat which can still function pretty well when lots of bits are broken, like no engine, batteries on their last legs etc. Half decent set of sails, wind vane, cleanish bottom, LED masthead & low power ais/ssb(for wfax) receiver covers an awful lot for little power. Fixing stuff gets boring after a while, more so when you're stuck in a dirty harbour for weeks waiting for an overnight deliver of electronics spares.

 

[ianj99]

True, a bit, even a small unit rigged up to the vane will steer in calms so you won't need to invest in anywhere near as big a unit & spares etc. And it's not so much coastal but motoring for a few days becalmed mid ocean where an autopilot comes in handy. Which sort of goes more generally as a bench mark for a long distance offshore boat IMHO. Aim for a boat which can still function pretty well when lots of bits are broken, like no engine, batteries on their last legs etc. Half decent set of sails, wind vane, cleanish bottom, LED masthead & low power ais/ssb(for wfax) receiver covers an awful lot for little power. Fixing stuff gets boring after a while, more so when you're stuck in a dirty harbour for weeks waiting for an overnight deliver of electronics spares.

If I was contemplating this sort of use, I'd start with the assumption that the electrics had failed so what 'basics' would I need to continue:-

Self steering gear, sextant, oil lamps, (diesel powered stove and heater)

Then I would choose the least power hungry electronics that could be run from solar panels, as a backup.

 

[Monique]

Hello Terminator,

I read all the suggestions. We are about to go RTW ourselves and I'll offer what we did only as an example. (It is perhaps more than most people need or can use...)

Our boat has multiple options for all systems; for instance, we have dual DC gens on the main engine going to 2 selectable 70 and 100 Ah battery chargers, 8 house batteries giving 960 Ah, a 6.5 KW genset and 540 w solar array. I insist on redundancy... others disagree.

On the NAV kit side, we have OpenCPN on an ASUS Zen laptop and all Raymarine equipment for the rest, chosen because of the best worldwide support. There is an a98 at the helm, an a75 at the nav table. AIS A & B is from Ray as is the 12 kw SHD radar with a 4 foot array. There is also sidescan sonar as well as depth sounder. All are integrated on a Ray wifi and allow control of functions through an iPad. Worldwide Navionics charts were about GBP 1200 ... talk to Navionics. We also have a sextant and we know how to use it.

We have DSC VHF X2 (one is portable) as well as HF DSC Icom 801E (far better design than 802..IMO) with Pactor 4 and Sailmail. Last backup is Delorme InReach satellite tracker and email communications.

The integration is complete and we are rid of a specific radar CRT, liberating a new book storage space. The cockpit instruments are Ray i70's

We intend to go to places where few if any humans have gone before. Christopher Columbus is so old news!

GL with your RTW... we may cross paths!