SvenglishTommy
Member
Maybe you guys can help me as I'm going round in circles here trying to decide what to do regarding updating electronics on my new(old) boat.
I intend to do a lot of off-shore single handed sailing, and want to have a good setup for this, especially stuff that can wake me up if needs be.
Currently the boat has old ST50 wind/speed/depth instruments which are perectly good, an ST700+ autopilot and a Lowrance 5300iGPS plotter(not AIS compatible).
Additionally I also have, but not installed, a Rayamarine SL72 radar with 2KW dome, and a NASA AIS.
I will definitely be buying the Digita Yacht AIS transponder no matter what.
My thoughts are:
Option 1: Go with what I have and just install the radar and NASA AIS, then just add the AIS transponder for transmition only.
Option 2: Get something like the Raymarine e7 and a digital radome, scrap the NASA AIS and link it to the AIS transponder so I get AIS on the new plotter.
If all the existing stuff was installed already I'd probably just go for option 1, but it will be a lot of work to install the radar and AIS, as well as having to link up the exisiting systems (the autopilot is not linked up to the other instruments etc). Maybe it's worth upgrading to a modern system while I'm at it. Are the new radars that much better than traditional radar?
One good thing about option 1 is that the NASA AIS would be installed insde, along with the alarm - I know it's a **** AIS system, but it would do the job.
Appreciate any thoughts.
I intend to do a lot of off-shore single handed sailing, and want to have a good setup for this, especially stuff that can wake me up if needs be.
Currently the boat has old ST50 wind/speed/depth instruments which are perectly good, an ST700+ autopilot and a Lowrance 5300iGPS plotter(not AIS compatible).
Additionally I also have, but not installed, a Rayamarine SL72 radar with 2KW dome, and a NASA AIS.
I will definitely be buying the Digita Yacht AIS transponder no matter what.
My thoughts are:
Option 1: Go with what I have and just install the radar and NASA AIS, then just add the AIS transponder for transmition only.
Option 2: Get something like the Raymarine e7 and a digital radome, scrap the NASA AIS and link it to the AIS transponder so I get AIS on the new plotter.
If all the existing stuff was installed already I'd probably just go for option 1, but it will be a lot of work to install the radar and AIS, as well as having to link up the exisiting systems (the autopilot is not linked up to the other instruments etc). Maybe it's worth upgrading to a modern system while I'm at it. Are the new radars that much better than traditional radar?
One good thing about option 1 is that the NASA AIS would be installed insde, along with the alarm - I know it's a **** AIS system, but it would do the job.
Appreciate any thoughts.