Raymarine Carbon Fibre items

[adam1759]

Hi all

A friend who is a member of this forum directed me here. I am building a Carbon Fibre development and distribution company and he has suggested that Raymarine instruments (ST60/60Plus) are popular items on your boats? I believe I could reproduce the covers and/or fascias in Carbon Fibre if there was enough interest. I would welcome any feedback?

I am also exploring ideas such as replacement gauge consoles,shrouds for Plastimo bearing compasses, forced air funnels etc so again any feedback would be very welcome.

Thank you
Adam

 

[adam1759]

There is a thread concerning this - with some good ideas - in the For Sale section, if anybody is interested in any items

 

[jfm]

Hi Adam
Yes there are tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of st60/60+ installed. It is a last generation item though, nmea0183/seatalk, so does not have a huge future. Raymarine's replacement nmea2000 item, ST70, is disappointing and a significant chunk of raym market will move over to garmin during the next 5 years or so becuase it is just better all round. I have had all these products: st60, 60+, st70, and now garmin

Whether all that is good or bad for you I don't know. If you can cheaply tool up to make cf for all these items then it's good. If tool up costs mean you can only tool up for one, say st60+, then it's not so good

I'm curious technically how you make a replacement fascias. The stX0 fascia is not user removeable afaik becuase it is part of the water tight enclosure. If you are proposing the user should split the seal and remake the waterproof enclosure you might have a small take up due to folks not wanting to do that and warranty claims if water ingress, etc. Happy to be corrected if I'mn forgetting how the fascia fits on

I think you have to be careful with cf. In the right applications it is and looks fantastic. I have a cf tiller arm on my Laser tender and it is just a beautiful thing, for example. But in some places it looks tacky, halfords-y, etc. I personally would not us for clip-on fronts for dash-mounted instruments because that is heading towards tacky territory (purely imho). I would use it for items where the properties of the cf are being used as engineers, not Halfords buyers, intended. Cantilever arms and brackets, for sure. I'd be more likely to buy an uber light directors chain in cf than a clip on cover for instruments, for example

Anyway, all I'm saying is beware in estimating market size for some cf things. Mobo owners can be quite fussy buyers - this is their very favourite (non human) thing that you're proposing to sell accessories for!

Good luck with the business

Edit: I have no idea what a shroud for a plastimo bearing comapss is

 

[adam1759]

jfm

Thanks for the info, this is just sort of feedback I need.

 

[adam1759]

jfm - Know I have a little more time, my business will be specialising in replacement pieces, not Max Power style stick on additions! I am working on other projects and I've had lots of requests for 'after market' parts, this is something which I have no interest in. I will be producing original equipment fit items.

I agree that CF as a feat of engineering is amazing but as I'm just starting it will be out of my range for some time. It's also worth remembering that even in applications like your Tiller, the advantages of CF might be more visual than practical (I'm no sailor though so stand to be corrected!!), as would a replacement dash with multiple gauges but each would look equally terrific!

 

[adam1759]

Edit: I have no idea what a shroud for a plastimo bearing comapss is

jfm - this is what I mean.