Who owns (and still uses) the most ancient bit of marine electronics.

Snowgoose-1

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Seafarer 700 echo sounder and Seacourse tiller pilot. Not in use quite yet, but soon.
You could, until fairly recently still buy the Stingray sounder from NASA Marine. Their website say they are no longer being made because the right parts are becoming scarce.

I don't wish to swank, but I have the one that also has a digital read out as well as the whirligig . Also stand alone if required with AA batteries .
 

wombat88

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Seafarer depth sounder anyone? Or better still a VDO speedo/log driven by a small prop and speedometer cable. Admittedly I took this out...
 

DownWest

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You could, until fairly recently still buy the Stingray sounder from NASA Marine. Their website say they are no longer being made because the right parts are becoming scarce.

I don't wish to swank, but I have the one that also has a digital read out as well as the whirligig . Also stand alone if required with AA batteries .
The 700 has a digital readout (bit cloudy) and takes a 9v battery. On the shelf, I also have the Seafarer log unit with the solid state sensor, but that is staying there.
Best bit of old kit is the central processing unit that integrates wind speed and direction, depth, course to steer, speed and autopilot, but that is begining to get glitches, dates from '47 :cool:
 

Rappey

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Seafarer voyager echo sounder,(digital)around 35yrs old, on its 2nd transducer but a great echo sounder.
Seafarer voyager wind instrument. The part up the mast reliably spun and rotated for 33 years without any maintenance or repairs but finally lost the wind direction readout. Took it to be repaired, but it is not repairable :(
 

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Buck Turgidson

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Screenshot 2024-05-16 at 12.08.24.png

Prosser Tideclock.
I'm sure this was state of the art at some point in the past. Its current function is to hide the screw holes for it's own mounting bracket in the otherwise lovely GRP. It still works but I've never used it in anger.
 

AngusMcDoon

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View attachment 177043

Prosser Tideclock.
I'm sure this was state of the art at some point in the past. Its current function is to hide the screw holes for it's own mounting bracket in the otherwise lovely GRP. It still works but I've never used it in anger.
I've got one of those too. I usually get tide curves from the BBC website but use this device when there's no GSM signal. It's quicker than booting up the chart plotter if it's not on.
 

Frank Holden

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Did someone mention Lucas - Prince of Darkness?
I still have the original 1986 Lucas sternlight on my boat with the original incandescent bulb. It's outlived more than a few Aquasignal tris and bi's.
Some young pup suggested I should change it for a fancy new LED jobby ( that's Glaswegian).
That would be akin to turning off the Centennial light
Centennial Light - Wikipedia
 

oilybilge

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It's hardly an antique, but our boat came with this very nice Stowe trailing log.
 

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Poignard

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Cheating because I don't use it but...

Autohelm Personal Compass


View attachment 176957
I used mine until recently (I have sold my boat) simply because it was very useful.

The ability to take 3 accurate bearings of distant objects, and store them until required, made it very useful for coastal navigation, and for collision avoidance, especially when crossing busy traffic separation lanes

The built in stopwatch also came in handy, and not just for timing eggs!
 

DownWest

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I used mine until recently (I have sold my boat) simply because it was very useful.

The ability to take 3 accurate bearings of distant objects, and store them until required, made it very useful for coastal navigation, and for collision avoidance, especially when crossing busy traffic separation lanes

The built in stopwatch also came in handy, and not just for timing eggs!
I borrowed one to set up my first satelite dish, back in '91. Not very impressed with it as around 5/6° off, which made the line up tricky. Dug out an ancient binnacle job, which sorted things out.
I still use my little Souwester one, got to be 50 yrs old.
 

Poignard

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I borrowed one to set up my first satelite dish, back in '91. Not very impressed with it as around 5/6° off, which made the line up tricky. Dug out an ancient binnacle job, which sorted things out.
I still use my little Souwester one, got to be 50 yrs old.
That's odd. I never had any reason to doubt the accuracy of mine whilst navigating around the French Atlantic coast.
 

Poignard

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Was France colder than you expected and all the Frenchmen lived in Igloos and fur seemed suddenly fashionable? 🤔
:)

It was so cold in Brittany in May this year you might be forgiven for thinking you were far to the north.

Some evenings we had the Taylors cabin heater fired up!
 

OffScotland

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Raytheon R72 Radar. What is good about it is that I have the manual which includes the full circuit diagrams which identify each and every component. Only date I can find in the manual is 1987
 

johnalison

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Raytheon R72 Radar. What is good about it is that I have the manual which includes the full circuit diagrams which identify each and every component. Only date I can find in the manual is 1987
I had that with its plotter in 2000. I liked the fact that it kept a half-hourly log. The radar was perfectly adequate for me and enabled us to actually enjoy several foggy trips. The later e7 has more functionality but so what?
 
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