ICOM SSB and NMEA 0183 vs 2000

[bbhflts]

Hi All.

I'm about to purchase a 2006 boat which will need to be fitted/refitted with most of the electronics as it's set up for coastal cruising and I intend to do a circumnavigation.

Hence I'm looking at how to build a relatively future proof standardised system with the best kit possible. I don't want vendor lock via integration/communication protocols so that I can use the best of breed.

So I figure that I should start with an NMEA 2000 bus linking the cockpit, nav station, engine, mast head gear, GPS, sonar etc..

My research on the net leads me to believe that SSB wise, the ICOM-M802 seems to be the best on the market for quality, reliability and functionality whilst also being a favorite of serious blue water cruisers. So I'm looking at the spec and it's only NMEA 0183 compliant. I know that I can integrate it with a bridge, but that doesn't make my solution future proof or as easily integrated to the rest of the electronics.

The arguements for NMEA 2000 not being necessary for SSB seem to center around the lack of current integration requirements to support applications. That being said, I can easily see it would be much easier if I could have my SSB punching out data onto NMEA 2000 system like DSC received calls and position data, perhaps fax or weather data for display on a cockpit console etc.. I understand the limitation is the defined "sentence" and that it's not like TCP/IP where as long as it's IP, anything can be punched onto the wire leaving up to the applications to deciphyr. Also there are many applications yet to be defined, so the use of NMEA 2000 will likely only simplify my initial installation and not provide a lot of additional functionality.

Does anyone know what the rationale is for ICOM not bringing out a new version of the M802 other than that it's been sucessfully selling since 2004? Most other manufacturers are bringing devices out with NMEA 2000 and it's frustrating to not be able to buy a best of breed radio that also has simple integration.

Anyone aware of the roadmap from ICOM?
Anyone aware of a comparable product from another vendor that does offer NMEA 2K?

Appreciate your thoughts.

Cheers.

Ben.