What instruments do you have onboard?

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fireball

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There are loads of gadgets designed to help ease our wallets ... from the basic Log/Depth, Wind & GPS repeaters to the likes of Rudder Sensors and Close Wind indicators..

we have
At the Wheel: Autohelm, TriData, Chartplotter/Radar
Forward in the cockpit: Wind, TriData repeater & Chartplotter/AIS
At the Chart Table: GPS Info (on the VHF)

So - what do you have on your boat? And what am I missing out on?
 
A violin & a mouse organ. Ohh, you mean nav instruments don't you?

Steering & hand Compass, echo-sounder, speed/log, chart, binoculars, pencil, brain & eyeballs.

Occasionally supplemented by a PC with Tsunamis chartplotter & GPS mouse & a Garmin GPS76 usually in a locker somewhere with my handheld RDF. I can also call on Google earth on my GPS enabled phone if within GPRS phone coverage.

I also have a Wheel pilot, but it isn't connected to anything except 12v power.

The most important items in my view are brain & eyeballs, you don't seem to have thought of using them?:rolleyes:
 
Searush said:
The most important items in my view are brain & eyeballs, you don't seem to have thought of using them?:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Coo - a bit harsh!! I asked what was on board - not what you used!! ;)

TBH most of the 'Nav' we do of a weekend is line of sight and we could quite happily sail without power. The 'Nav' instruments tend to be used as an interest ... until we start venturing into unknown waters...
 
fireball said:
Coo - a bit harsh!! I asked what was on board - not what you used!! ;)

TBH most of the 'Nav' we do of a weekend is line of sight and we could quite happily sail without power. The 'Nav' instruments tend to be used as an interest ... until we start venturing into unknown waters...
Click to expand...

Sorry, it was only meant as a jovial tease and not specifically aimed at yourself. But I can see it would be read as an insult. That was not my intention. Please accept my apology.

The point IS an important one however for novices, I am sure you will agree that there are some who believe they NEED electronics, but don't use their eyes & brains.
 
fireball said:
There are loads of gadgets designed to help ease our wallets ... from the basic Log/Depth, Wind & GPS repeaters to the likes of Rudder Sensors and Close Wind indicators..

we have
At the Wheel: Autohelm, TriData, Chartplotter/Radar
Forward in the cockpit: Wind, TriData repeater & Chartplotter/AIS
At the Chart Table: GPS Info (on the VHF)

So - what do you have on your boat? And what am I missing out on?
Click to expand...

Not too much, I am very much still back in the 20th (or in some cases 19th?) century with no "modern" chart plotters, wind instruments, AIS etc:


At the helm:

- a fangled electronic log (currently out of use due to the amount of weed on the hull, but coming out the water in 3 weeks time)
- an old Walker trailing log (which is extremely accurate, but usually more trouble than its worth to stream the log)
- A tiller pilot
- A compass

At the chart table

- A "retro" GPS from the early 1990s (or before...) hooked up to a DSC VHF
- Paper charts
- A NASA depth sounder which can also be swung round to see it at the helm
- A JRC radar (my only real toy).
- A battery monitor
 
Helm:
Autopilot (with all instrument repeats)
Cockpit:
Tridata, Wind, Close hauled Wind, Graphic repeater, Radar and a remote control

Chart table:
Chartplotter, remote control

The remote controls tend to live in my pocket as they are great for sitting on the deck in the peace and quiet whilst motoring. With careful setup they are useful for displaying the things you need to see and control the autopilot.

Cheers
 
On a need basis: compass, depth and log. Log could be walker, but a lead line is just too difficult for a shorthanded crew, so electronic log seems like an essential.

Dad grew up using a lead line with left hand lay and coiling backwards.
 
My last boat had a seafarer echo sounder and a very good sestrel compass,hand bering compass., a walker trailing log.One of the problems of buying a s/h boat these days is the amount of gizzmos that I can not work or that will probably stop working after the ink is dry on the sale bill!!!!
 
Cockpit: Compass(es) Depth, Speed, Wind, GPS Repeater, & Tiller pilot
Chart Table: GPS, hand bearing compass, Paper charts and required tools

That's about it...

According to my oldest daughter, I don't have a brain, so must be using something else :D

Btw. if anyone has a used B&G Data or Quad I'd be interested - that would be at the Chart Table, then :) (Sorry, I know that belongs somewhere else)..
 
.
In cockpit:

NASA Wind, Depth, Log and Compass (compass is pretty useless, I may remove it someday)

NASA GPS repeater hooked up to a garmin 152 down below.

GPS 500 Plotter - hopefully shortly to be linked to an AIS engine for trips out of our native waters

Decent bulkhead compass mounted on spare washboard in case it is needed.

Clinoneter!!!! (On boat when we got)

Simrad TP10 kept down below to be connected as required

HB compass

Compass binocs

Sextant on long offshore trips just in case

Chartplotter on laptop with USB GPS

Hand-held GPS as backup.

Most of this is totally OTT for local sailing, but the chartplotter has revolutionised our exploration of strange places close inshore - I love it, but we sailed for many years without.

As a bare minimum set-up for coastal sailing I would want an echo sounder, HH GPS and decent telltales on the sails. With decent charts you could go most places with this set-up.

- W
 
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Searush said:
The point IS an important one however for novices, I am sure you will agree that there are some who believe they NEED electronics, but don't use their eyes & brains.
Click to expand...

I am getting my 9 year old son into sailing. Last summer, I watched him helm using the chartplotter as his only visual cue and not his surroundings. (Ok, the instrument pod is directly in front of the wheel at his head height and so rather more visible that the seas around him, but he could have stood to one side).

I commented that he should not rely solely on the electronics. The most important source of info was what he could see around him. We were in the Solent, where there is always something you can steer to, and lots of other boats around many of which could be on a collision course with us. Those boats (and, indeed, some of the smaller buoys) did not show up on the chartplotter, since the radar was off - oops, have I breached the COLREGS rule on "lookout by all available means"? - so he needed to keep an eye out on what was going on around him.

His response was brilliant, "That's your job, Daddy!" and he carried on staring at the chartplotter as if it was some computer game. What can you do?:(

Good news is that I have battery voltage problems and the chartplotter at the helm keeps crashing, so I have to sail with it off most of the time. (The one at the chart table is fine). Tempting not to fix these problems, since it will force him to use his eyes exactly as Searush suggests!

Now, to answer the OP:

At the helm, chartplotter with radar overlay (when I turn it on), wind indicator, tridata and compass.

At the chart table, another chartplotter, navtex (which also serves as an instrument repeater) plus the old fashioned paper back ups.
 
On Deck: Wind speed and direction, boat speed and log, fishfinder. + compass, autopilot

Below Decks: Navtex which acts as a repeater for NMEA/SeaTalk. GPS, Radar, Toughbook running CM93 charts and Maxsea.

Old ICOM non-DSC VHF and a SSB transceiver which can handle weatherfax and GRIBs with the toughbook.
 
At the chart table:

ST50 Tridata and wind speed/direction
Icom 505 DSC Radio
Garmin 152 connected to Yeoman plotter
Nasa battery monitor
ICS Navtex

At the Helm:

Garmin 4008 plotter/radar/AIS
ST50 tridata and wind repeaters
ST 4000 Autohelm with compass and control head
Icom DSC command mike

And last but not least, Mk1 eyeball controlled by common sense.
 
Searush said:
Sorry, it was only meant as a jovial tease and not specifically aimed at yourself. But I can see it would be read as an insult. That was not my intention. Please accept my apology.

The point IS an important one however for novices, I am sure you will agree that there are some who believe they NEED electronics, but don't use their eyes & brains.
Click to expand...
Hey - I know your style of posting ... hence my wink! :) no apology needed!

The initial post was triggered by Galadriel's photo of his pod - with CP, Tridata, Wind & what was a non-obvious instrument but turned out to be AP ...
 
Full instrumentation and radar but no plotter.

But when I bought this boat I didn't bother to turn any of 'em on. My pricing was, well they're old and will fail sooner or later..

Having said that the one I really do appreciate above all others is the depth sounder and fixed a/pilot of course.
Tucked away I have ( and don't we all ?) a towing log, a useful sextant, couple of gps and a handheld vhf for the grab-bag, handcompasses and leadline.

And possibly-or probably- in 5 years time there will be a Iphone and a waterproof Ipad, talking to each other wirelessly, that 'do' all of the above and which can be quickly stashed in the oven in a lightening storm ( faraday cage). Simples innit
 
Well - so far nobody has come up with any obscure whizzbang bits of kit like dedicated VMG display or forward looking sonar ...

I forgot to mention the compass in the binacle ... but then I hardly ever use it!
 
OK. This one is a bit more fun.

A tiny, pocket sized, venturi windspeed measurer so useful ashore/ headland walks/ cutting the cr*p/ showing real windspeed across the decks etc..
 
Am I the only one with an RDF, deep down in one of the lockers which hasn't seen the light of day for years?
 
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