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

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Snowgoose-1

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I will start off with a Nautec Mk2 tiller pilot.
Used as a backup, but still ready to do it's duty.

I have the retro orange/red model.

 
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I've got a radio direction finder i bought in 1983 still sitting in a cupboard. It has however been unused for some time but it's ready. Indirectly I've an AVO 8, multimeter still used on occasion, in sorting out boat wiring, it's a very early one and may be older than I am, so early 1950s.
 
No idea the vintage of your kit.
However--
While the rest of my instruments have been upgraded over the years - the last Stowe one from 1986 lasted until about 2014 - I still have an Autohelm GPS display at the chart table that dates from about 1990. Its daisy chained with far younger Raytheon and Raymarine kit.
 
Before we sold Josepheline we had a Pronav 100 GPS. We kept it as back up but wired up and alongside a more modern chart plotter, Pronav was early in the GPS field, I think the 100 was sold for aircraft navigation. Pronav might have been bought out by Garmin. It had a simple digital display of lat and long and boasted a claimed accuracy of 100m. It was very clunky as to be useful you had to plot the position on a chart and it had no back light - so navigation at night was doubly difficult. We bought it early 1980s for the RORC China Sea Race. I checked that it remained functional - as it was one of our fall backs and had a little penlight battery pack (just in case)

For long offshore passages it was more than adequate - you simply don't need accuracy greater than 100m crossing a large body of water and being forced to plot positions was/is good practice. It consumed little power, unlike a modern chart plotter. It obviously did not interface with an AP - they came later.

Jonathan
 
About 8 years 'binned' the Stowe Dataline (purchased from Pumpkin Marine at Earls Court). When purchased it was the latest bit of electronics linked together, etc at a 'sensible' price. The other option was B&G and in another price bracket !
 
The Q said:
I've got a radio direction finder i bought in 1983 still sitting in a cupboard. It has however been unused for some time but it's ready. Indirectly I've an AVO 8, multimeter still used on occasion, in sorting out boat wiring, it's a very early one and may be older than I am, so early 1950s.
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My late Dad's Avo Model 7, which I have but doesn't work, must date from about then, too... (I bet he used it when building the TV on which we watched the Coronation!)
 
onesea said:
I have just upgraded from an autohelm 2000

View attachment 176937

And a Garmin GPS
View attachment 176938

I still have a trailing log which I cannot say I use.
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I had one of those on my Mystere. It was curious trying to steer with it because this involved turning the compass in the ‘wrong’ direction. I worked quite well and I even had the wind vane, except that after some hours of use the tension of the band squished the grease to the other side of the wheel’s bearing and it would stiffen up. It was a while before I worked this out on a dark night in the middle of the North Sea.
 
Apart from the distinctly unelectronic Walker log from about 1971 and a Mini hand-bearing compass of the same age, I think my oldest e-possession is a digital tuning Seafix which replaced a Hitachi radio with a rotating aerial, probably in the '80s.
 
The Q said:
I've got a radio direction finder i bought in 1983 still sitting in a cupboard. It has however been unused for some time but it's ready. Indirectly I've an AVO 8, multimeter still used on occasion, in sorting out boat wiring, it's a very early one and may be older than I am, so early 1950s.
Click to expand...
My RDF is 1970 but nothing to aim it at. I used to use it with my sestral compass to get lost in the N sea & Thames estuary. Toungue LV was a good aiming point though as it was always loud & clear.
 
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