Equipment?

[jojodir]

Can anyone give me an idea of the costs (installed) of the following equipment. I realize that this is quite subjective and in most cases it will heavily influenced by the ease or difficulty of the installation.
1. Radar
2. SSB radio
3. Watermaker
4. Refrigerator
5. Solar panels (2 or 3)
6. Wind generator

Also, how do you handle internet access while cruising? I'm not trying to nail anything down, I just want a general idea of how much to add to the cost of a boat that catches my eye and happens to be missing some or all of this equipment.

joe

[maxingout]

I've successfully installed all of the things on your list by myself on Exit Only. If I can do it, anyone can. I am not mechanically inclined or gifted in such things. Getting things like that installed cost $50 an hour or more when we were in Fort Lauderdale. I suspect most items would cost much more.

If you are going cruising, you will need to service these items eventually, and so you may as well install them yourself so you aren't intimidated when it becomes necessary to perform service.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by jojodir

Can anyone give me an idea of the costs (installed) of the following equipment. I realize that this is quite subjective and in most cases it will heavily influenced by the ease or difficulty of the installation.
1. Radar
2. SSB radio
3. Watermaker
4. Refrigerator
5. Solar panels (2 or 3)
6. Wind generator

Also, how do you handle internet access while cruising? I'm not trying to nail anything down, I just want a general idea of how much to add to the cost of a boat that catches my eye and happens to be missing some or all of this equipment.

joe

1) Difficult. The hardest part is mounting the transmitter.
2) Difficult. You'll need to go up the mast, and rig an insulator after slicing your existing aft stay.
3) Semi difficult. If you have a place to it, it's not so bad.
4) Depends on what you're putting in. If it's a mod kit for an existing ice box, that's a weekend project, but not too bad. Don't cheap out on routing the power, because it will probably be your #1 power consumer on the boat.
5) Easy, except for the mount if you want to be fancy (ie: above the dodger, etc).
6) Difficult. You need to find a good place for it, and get the mount set up. For this and the panels, you need (or should have, anyway) a charge controller, but other than that running the power lines is pretty no-brainer. The tough part (with the panels, generator, and radar) is mounting them in such a way that you'll feel comfortable with 50k winds and water blasting at them.

[Lancerbye]

That list can have a big spread depending on associated work and the quality and size of the equipment you wish to install. It could be done for $10,000 but it could also cost more than $30,000 depending on the mentioned variables

[henryk]

My boat came with Wells dinghy davits . On top there are brackets for mounting the solar panels, the special platform for your radar and pol for the wind generator , and it looks cool too

[Hud3]

Hi, Joe.

These (approximate) installed prices are from July, 2002, when we commissioned our boat.

Raymarine RL70 CRC color radar/chartplotter, Kato pole with davitlifting arm, WAAS GPS antenna -- $5,600.
Frigoboat keel-cooled refrigeration -- $1,800.
ICOM M710 SSB radio, AT130 tuner, backstay antenna, Dynaplate external gounding plate -- $3,500.

I've been looking into solar panels, and I believe you could buy two panels and a good controller for $1,700 or so if you shop around, plus a SS mount of some sort ($600-1,000), plus installation.

If you're coastal cruising around the east coast, you can set up your laptop to access the Internet through your cell phone. I haven't done this, but know someone who has done it very successfully, including uploading and downloading digital photos to the Internet. I have a Pactor IIe modem that attaches to my laptop for (very) slow email, radiofax weather, and GRIB weather file access using the SSB radio and Sailmail, which can be used almost anywhere in the world.

[jojodir]

My thanks to all that responded. You have been very informative. I am finding that the more I learn, the less I seem to know.
joe

[Kanani]

I installed most of those items myself. A lot depends on your mechanical aptitude. However, as was stated previously, it is always best to do it yourself so you know how to fix it if you have problems at sea. Mechanics are hard to find out there.

A lot also depends on the boat.

1. I easily installed our radar and tied it into our existing GPS. $1200. Everthing was just plug & play.
2. SSB radio I installed for less than $1,000 (Kenwood). I installed a separate insulated wire antenna to the mast-top. No big deal. Worked great. I would not even concider compromising my back-stay with an insulator.
3. I wouldn't have a water maker. Never had a use for one. Every cruising boat that I knew that had one, it was broken. My water maker was in the sky and I used a special built tarp to catch it.
4. Fridge...options run from $1,000-$5000. Depends on how it will be powered and what has to be done to install it. I highly recommend a cold-plate fridge.
5. I got creative on Solar panels. I mounted mine on the side of my pushpit & life lines. I had 2 - 60W panels on each side. I could easily adjust them for maximum sun-angle and fold them down and secure them for fowl weather. Each panel was about $400. You can get a decent controller for about $200. I recommend Gel-Cell batteries with solar panels. I had 4 - 8D Gells. They were about $400 each and lasted about 6 years.

6. I built my own wind-generator. You can buy the motor and plans on eBay for about $200. If you use a 40" 4-blade prop, you can get about 1A for every kt of wind (15kts = 15A), if you do a good job on the blades. The blades are the key. They supply the HP. I put a relay in the hot wire so that at 14.5V the relay would put the current to my electric hot water heater.

Cruising....internet....sorry...doesn't compute....

[Randyonr3]

I agree with " installing it yourself" Idea...and it can be overwhelming if you think of it all at once but if you write it all down and take one project at a time, its not bad.
(1) My radios were the first, an ICOM M502 and a M802 with a 140 tuner.. I was lucky as the boat already had the ground plane and the Backstay on it.
(2) Then came the radar and the chart plotter.. Using Raymarine I tied it all together Chart plotter and radar..
(3) Again I used Raymarine Autohelm with a worm drive off the rudder post and also added a smart pilot.. (great combo)
And then came the fun stuff....................
(4) The solar pannels, 2 each of the 100w pug-n-play mounted atop the bimine and run through a Pro-Star 15 regulator.
(5) and the wind charger, a Four Winds with the power running through a TS45
Tri-star controler. The tri-star take the over amps. and deverts them into the hot-waterheater coil, instead of a heat sink.
(6) Then came the watermaker, a Spectra 150 unit, with an MPC 3000 controler.
(7) and then came the reffer... Its a cool blue unit..From Technautics.
If you install the componants yourself, you can build the system you want and that applys to your needs..
A good example is the controler for my solar.. Its a Pro-star 15. and the reffer is tied to the power output of the controler so at a glance from the nav station, I can monitor the power the reffer is using.
My watermaker is the trick setup.. I have two tanks of 50 gallons each. the watermaker feeds the right tank, and the right tank has a transfer pump to fill the left tank.. at any one time, I always have atleast 50 gallons of water on the boat.
Its taken me just over 4 years. The first retro-fit was over 50 thousand, the second was about the same as it included a new reffer, stove, and a few odds and ends.
The third was just finished.. That was new canvas and new interior, and a complete re-wireing with a new pannel from Paneltronics
The boat is finished, the wife is happy, and loves her new home, and within the next few months, we're off for a 5 to 10 year trip around the world......
After 4 years I know each system in depth and can repair it at any time..
(and a short note) when I installed the watermaker, a spectra, I aproached the company about taking a class to repair the unit.. After 5 days in class I knew every part of the system and low-and -behold..I are now a Rep for the company and for added money while cruising, I sell and service the units........

[David M]

Boy...thats like walking on to a car lot, looking at the Porsche's, Ferrari's, Yugo's Volkswagens and then asking how much a car costs. Do you have a parts list? I have installed all those things except for a watermaker and a wind generator. Anyone who knows an alan wrench from a pipe wrench can install any of those things. Just follow the directions...very carefully.