Which Instruments?

[boatmike]

I have, for my sins, a fairly ancient set of instruments on my boat. Mostly Cetrek (no chance of service there then!) and a Vetus wind instrument that I have posted about before. I am coming to the conclusion that at the end of the season I might have to replace the lot, so it will be a boat show jobbie. Now I am not made of money, but don't want budget stuff that will let me down miles away from home. I want a company that will service their products if they do go wrong. I would prefer something that is not obsolete as soon as I have bought it, and would also prefer to have kit that does not require me to have a degree in computer science to work it. We are talking wind, depth & log basically, I have a Raymarine colour radar bought last year (magic!) and am therefore inclined to go their way ST60plus style. I don't intend however to interface with my chartplotter or radar preferring to keep things simple so it could be anybodys kit.
The question then is which?
Am I right to go STplus?
Brookes and Gatehouse (expensive)
Or what have you?
Also, are my transducers for depth and log OK to work Raymarine or W.H.Y. instruments or do I need to replace these too? A little bird told me most trannies are made by the same company anyway......
What does the panel think?

 

[bbg]

Have you considered TackTic (sp?). I don't have any personal knowledge but have read good things. The wireless aspect sounds appealing.

 

[Boatman]

Go STPlus route have used them for years with no probs. Interface them its only a seatalk cable easy to fit and seems to be reliable.

 

[simonfraser]

ST v good and you can interface later, if you change your mind, as if you would . . .

i put tacktic on my boat this year, dead simple to install, the multifunctional displays are wonderfull, when you change your mind and want something else displayed . . .

 

[ShipsWoofy]

I have nasa, which you make clear is not what you are after. If I was starting again which way would I go? Probably not nasa. But, I would keep my Lowrance X51 fishfinder, I would always avoid the instrument depth sounders.

With the extra transducer the X51 is also a log, I don't know how good it is at this, I guess it is included for trolling, whether or not it maintains your running totals I don't know, if it does, then one instrument would act as a dual depth and log. It can be mounted flat and is not that dissimilar in size to a standard instrument.

For wind, as much as I would like to avoid Raymarine, I really like their windex, I am trying to avoid RM since they declared their best UK profit to date, oh and we're moving production to Malaysia to make some more.

If money were no object, I would certainly without doubt go with tac-tics, the idea of wireless connections and solar power is just too attractive. Their multi head which will show everything anywhere on the boat. Fantastic.

 

[Aja]

I replaced my speed and depth this season and added wind. After much humming and hawing decided that the extra for ST60s was worth it.

Shopped around and ordered early on the internet. Got a very good deal for the three-pack - but had to wait over a month for the depth. Wind and speed were delivered within two weeks.

Very easy to fit - I was also fitting a 4000mk2 autopilot at the same time.

IMO use your plotter as the power source via the sea-talk cabling. It is worthwhile to cable it up whilst fitting and you have everything in place if you need it or not.

My only grumble is that the speed transducer fitting instruction is not clear - and I think I got it wrong. It says (not word perfect here..) to fit the transducer pointing towards the bow. Now is that fitting facing forward but parallel to ... or as I did offset but pointing to the actual pointy bit.

I find that the speed is over optimistic on starboard and I sail crap on port.

Other than that - easy to fit and does the job asked.

Donald

 

[steverow]

I think the important thing here is to future proof as far as possible.
Try and give yourself as many options as possible.
You already seem to be limiting yourself though by saying I wont want to interface to this and that.
Who knows what you might want to interface to in a few years time?
I like NASA stuff, but for good sound (though expensive) instruments then I think I would fit Raymarine.
This then gives you the option of both Seatalk and NMEA interfaces.
If you get these then you will be able to link to your radar and use that as a single source display panel with the options of other instruments/plotters later.
Dont limit yourself is my advice.
Get the ST60 range.

Steve.

 

[Mirelle]

Beem there, done that thing (Stowe Dataline X).

WHEN (not "if") I replace these the new ones will be B&G, which I confidently expect to be cheaper in the long run, and which I should have biught in the frist place.

 

[aluijten]

You could also consider the Echopilot Bronze product line. Well build and pretty versatile. There is a nice plus for these instruments, namely you can keep you current sensors. The depth sounder has an adjustable frequency setting (the old sensors use 150kHz and the newer sensors use 200 or 220 kHz). Also the calibration of the log has a pretty wide setting range. They are not the cheapest though. The do feature a lot of networking (NMEA) possibilities. I've had one (TrioBronze) on my last boat and and it worked very well.

Arno

 

[BAtoo]

I have Raymarine ST 60's and CRC Radar/ plotter, ST 6000 autohelm & Raystar 125 GPS. All talk to one another via seatalk; can't see why you wouldnt want to interface cos if you do you can get COG & Heading & Tide vectors on the screen - I find it all very useful. Also can get data boxes on screen giving all your info - poss too many but havent found how to reduce number shown?
If going for wind ST60 you have choice of "conventional" & "vane" which is a simpler/cheaper version- wouldnt do that again!

 

[john_morris_uk]

Another vote for ST60's. We've had them in our last two boats, and we are very happy with their performance.

 

[bigmart]

My vote is for Tacktick. Theyre easy to fit, easy to add to(if you want to) the company are very helpful & offer excellent after sales service.

It is hard to imagine a better system.

Martin

 

[simonfraser]

and it is v easy to change the location of the tacktick units afterwards, if you change your mind . .

 

[chasroberts]

I agree with other posters who recommend ST60. Great bits of kit.

Chas

 

[Talbot]

should be offset pointing towards the sharp end! (according to SILVA instructions)

 

[Talbot]

Very impressed with the SILVA range at the price, but budget version were not capable of interface except with themselves. The next range up does interface, so worth a look (Nexus IIRC) as are the Navman instruments (heard good things about them.


Its only a couple of years ago that everybody was moaning about raymarine instruments and water ingress.

The ST60 echosounder cant be fitted inhull above IIRC abt 30 degrees so was unsuitable for my boat.

 

[tillergirl]

Had the ST60 Wind and Tridata instruments for 5 years now. The wind transducer failed after two years with water inside it and the agents got Raymarine to replace it leaving only their £30 bill to pay. No-one could explain how it got water inside it but they have recommended that I remove it everytime the mast is removed in the winter and laid flat. Last October, the speed function on the Tridata failed and I have just spent £50 for Raymarine to tell me that the instrument is fine so the transducer has failed. Since I have the bronze multisensor at £200+ I'm not very impressed - four seasons use isn't enough in my view. When they work though, they are fine.

 

[Aja]

Oh well got it right then. Still overeads on starboard tack though.

Donald

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Without going into Raymarine delivery problems etc, which I understand to be resolved, having just re- instrumented the boat with ST60+ Wind,Depth,Speed and Graphic display with a C80 radar plotter I can only advise that they offer superb value for money and the company offers excellent backup and support should you need it. If you are going to change instruments for the money you would save using the old transducers I wouldn't bother, replace with new it's not a big problem there are several ways to enlarge existing holes, the other way round is more difficult and expensive. Use your plotter as the power source if you have a linked autohelm be carefull that it does not try to use the data link as a power source otherwise connect together its simple and quite usefull. Hope things go well and if you need info on enlarging pre existing holes pm me.

 

[gardenshed]

I went for Navman but only because of interfacing, would go for Raymarine or Silva NX2 if faced with the choice again.