Advice on Upgrading Instruments

[cheoah]

I bought my PSC 34 in Punta Gorda last summer, sailed her back with no working electronics. Now that I've sold my old boat, I'm investing a little in upgrades, including electronics. I'd love some input on what I've got planned, which is pretty basic. The boat will be sailed actively up and down the east coast, and often singlehanded. So far I have installed a Matrix AIS VHF, and I've got a Raymarine X5 wheelpilot waiting in the box. This comes with the 6002 display. I also have a Garmin 441 chartplotter from my old boat which still works pretty well and a cockpit mic for the MAtrix.

Here's the info I really want at the helm:

1)depth
2)water temp
3)wind speed and direction

I've never had a wind instrument but I think it will help me judge wind speeds a little better. If it were only for this I'd skip it, but I think my wife and other crew would benefit from it. Like for instance, I can have crew wake me up if wind speeds increase above a set threshold or something. As if it wouldn't wake me up anyway Can you actually set an alarm on them like with depth? This would be handy at anchor. Or I could save a ton and buy a little hand-held job?

OK, so I don't want a bunch of pods and stuff at the helm. I'm thinking my existing chartplotter on an arm, and maybe upgrade to 5** series Garmin. In addition, the autopilot control head which can repeat data from other Raymarine instruments, also mounted on pedestal guard, perhaps below the chartplotter on same side - stbd. I also have the existing slot over the companionway where the old NExus display was mounted, so I can put the depth/temp there.

Too bad the st6002 just repeats data, so I can't just add a sounder or anemometer and use that as a display. I think this means I need two additional instruments besides the 6002, one for depth/temp, one for wind. One of them I could mount below and repeat data on 6002, the other in the slot above companionway. This means I've got to have the autopilot on to get the other data, no? That's not optimal, and I'm trying to avoid too much networking. I don't want to be too much of a luddite about it though, and a failure of the instrument systems would be an aggravation but by no means would it really slow me down until I could fix it.

The Tacktick is a curveball here, and now that I've got interest in wind instrument, it is appealing. I could get a Tacktick system and bypass the whole Raymarine program.

The only other thing I think would be nice is XM weather on the chartplotter. This means chartplotter upgrade though. I could also use the other transducer space and add a second depth transducer to chartplotter/sounder combo.

Sorry so long, thanks for your input if you're moved...

csh

[bbbbbguy]

I'm a big raymarine fan. I use the tridata and a St60+ wind. All my equipment is Raymarine. With the seatalk system, one power wire runs everything. Raymarine has their repeaters so if you want to add screens at the nav station, just run 1 seatalk cable and you're there. IMHO

Dave

[cheoah]

thanks Dave-

Chase