head sets

[Gentleannie]

Hi everybody ,I have use of quite a large motor yacht and I am considering buying head sets to help communicate with my two crew whilst docking and leaving harbour.
This is to make communication easier, and quieter.
I would like to communicate in
Rain and wind noise as probably evident at all times .
any advice welcome and very helpful.Gentleannie.

[captain58sailin]

Welcome to the forum Gentleannie, it would really depend on the experience of the Captain and crew, the more experience the less talk is needed. Most experienced folk have a talk about the docking and what to expect from each crew member before arriving. If you all have been working (sailing) together for years then you pretty much know what to do when. If you all are new to each other and the boat, then it would be helpful to have headsets, I have read in this forum how some folks find the head sets useful when setting the anchor, picking up a mooring and or docking, so they have their uses. Depending on the situation you might be able to just use hand sets, they come fairly inexpensive these days.

[Windcall]

Any one have Eartec headsets? Bought them last Christmas, left for Connecticut in April discovered a dead battery, they replaced it.They work great no more yelling. Problem is we moor almost never on shore power. The batteries won't fully charge on the inverter, green light never comes on even after hours of motoring. Hook up to shore power green light comes on in a few hours from dead.
Windcall has a Xantrex Freedom 2000 inverter charger, everything else runs fine.

[a64pilot]

We have a set, one of the better, more expensive sets.
We never use it. After awhile you learn your jobs and begin to use hand signals and don’t holler at each other

[Windcall]

Thank you for that, Captain Mary is very visual and talking calmly with descriptions helps immensely. Turns out the Inverter is probably the problem, the company is shipping a 12v charger.
Happy Wife....

[sguerrero1971]

We use a set every time we set\pull-up anchor or come into a dock. I know everyone says you don't have to talk when you're doing these things because everyone should know their jobs. I don't disagree with this, however when I do need to say something I'd like to be heard and saying something around a dodger with the engine going means now I'm yelling. With these headsets now I can say what I need at a level tone and no one (My Wife) takes it the wrong way.

Sena Bluetooth Headset Marriage Saver (1) | APS

[Sojourner]

Good wind cancelling tech would be a must. Our headsets sound like a hurricane is inside them, so we resort back to hand signals

Also, at first glance I thought you were buying your crew toilet sets, and I thought, wow, you're a cool owner

[ranger58sb]

We have SENA SPH-10s, and they come with a wind guard for the mic. So far, they've worked as advertised.

Mostly useful when crew can't actually look at me for hand signals while we're docking, but they've also recently turned out to be useful during a couple maintenance chores where we each needed to be in different places and out of sight of each other, doing something on the same system.

Haven't tried pairing them with phones or music, but apparently they'll do that too.

-Chris

[Dave_S]

I bought the Sena Headsets, I'm not happy with them. The noise cancelling is crap, with the large mic sponge in 15kn there is a fair amount of wind sound, enough to make it difficult to hear. Also there is no sound of your own voice when you talk which I find distracting. Third issue is it is too complicated, all I want is on/off and volume.

They don't get used much.

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by sguerrero1971

We use a set every time we set\pull-up anchor or come into a dock. I know everyone says you don't have to talk when you're doing these things because everyone should know their jobs. I don't disagree with this, however when I do need to say something I'd like to be heard and saying something around a dodger with the engine going means now I'm yelling. With these headsets now I can say what I need at a level tone and no one (My Wife) takes it the wrong way.

Sena Bluetooth Headset Marriage Saver (1) | APS

That's a very good price. I paid $320 for the pair, at the boat show. Only difference was that I got two soft-padded cases with them. We just paired ours up, and wife walked out onto the dock in the wind. A little bit of crackling on her end - that she heard - but I heard crystal clear. It is a bit strange that you don't hear your own voice when talking.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

Also there is no sound of your own voice when you talk which I find distracting.

Originally Posted by sailjumanji

It is a bit strange that you don't hear your own voice when talking.

I suspect that's just a function of duplex frequency operations, much like with a telephone. I think most people don't hear themselves over their telephone either... instead being able to hear the other party through the speaker(s) if they talk at the same time.

Or maybe I'm misunderstanding the comments. FWIW, I can hear myself talking, just not through the headset speakers. Just as on a telephone...

-Chris