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Old 30-03-2009, 11:20   #46
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"Go to ¹ãÖÝÅͲ©×ÊѶ¿Æ¼¼ÓÐÏÞ¹«Ë¾ and read up on Lowrance/simrad's forthcoming "
Personally I would avoid anything made by Lowrance.. just my H.O. ........
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Old 28-10-2013, 06:17   #47
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Re: Radar or no radar??

Any thoughts four years later?

Lower prices & higher sophistication of units available...

Wider use of AIS...

For a mid-size cruising sloop with a limited budget, where do you think dollars are best spent as far as electronics are concerned?

Alan
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Old 28-10-2013, 07:02   #48
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Originally Posted by Wolfhound View Post
Any thoughts four years later?

Lower prices & higher sophistication of units available...

Wider use of AIS...

For a mid-size cruising sloop with a limited budget, where do you think dollars are best spent as far as electronics are concerned?

Alan
If you can afford it , its always useful

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Old 28-10-2013, 07:41   #49
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Re: Radar or no radar??

Among other uses, I frequently use the radar for distance ranging. If you have a good target, it is great for establishing range, off a coast line for example, as several spots in the Caribbean require.

The instant-on feature works great for limited electrical capacity, and the fact that many of the newer radars no longer emit such dangerous radiation helps with installation.

In close quarter maneuvering, the ability to clearly define a target 100-200 feet away has proven more useful to me, than to see a ship at 15 or more miles.

And as stated by others, it takes some time to learn the system. My old CRT Furuno required manual sea state/gain/clutter adjustments, but lacked many of the modern features. The newer models require some time with the manual, and much time operating the system to gain the most benefit. I am still learning about my Simrad system!

By the way, we just added a chart plotter this year (I am a Luddite of the first order), and I have to say it has been an astounding help - in certain circumstances.

As for electronics, I would list them, in order of descending utility as: VHF, GPS, Radar, Plotter

No experience with AIS, yet
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Old 28-10-2013, 07:52   #50
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Re: Radar or no radar??

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfhound View Post
Any thoughts four years later?

Lower prices & higher sophistication of units available...

Wider use of AIS...

For a mid-size cruising sloop with a limited budget, where do you think dollars are best spent as far as electronics are concerned?

Alan
Terrifically good radar and AIS have come way down in price in the last few years.

AIS is the killer app for collision avoidance, and if you sail anywhere where you might encounter commercial traffic, in my opinion, AIS is a must-have. It's now so cheap -- less than $600 for a black box transponder -- that it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to be without it.

I have been caught out in fog without radar and I'll tell you, would not want to repeat that experience. Radar with guard zones set is a great enhancement of safety and general situational awareness.

You can buy the excellent Simrad NSS 7" MFD plus 3G radar for $2300 from Defender -- in my opinion, a crazy price. So with AIS even including the extra VHF antenna and so forth, less than $3000 if you install it yourself.

This deal is simply incredible: http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?...cartId=4670709
Raymarine 7" MFD with radar including the cable. The Ray MFD has WiFi built in. Only $1926, which is ridiculous, and several hundred cheaper than the comparable Simrad package.

At that price, I think few people would have an excuse to do without.

Garmin and Raymarine offer similar deals for also excellent equipment. The prices are simply crazy compared to four or five years ago.


Concerning electronics, is that all you need? If you were starting over from scratch, I would strongly suggest going to NMEA2000 which is easy to install yourself (saving you money) and infinitely expandable/upgradeable since there is much greater compatibility.

The aforementioned plotter/radar/AIS.

Then add N2K wind instrument of your choice. An ultrasonic one is only $600 or so (I use the Maretron WSO-100 and recommend it).

N2K depth and speed -- various choices.

Autopilot -- Simrad is top notch but there are other choices.

A good electronic compass of your choice -- Maretron and Airmar are the obvious choices.

Instrument displays and pilot control -- you could use the B&G Tritons for this, which are my favorites and what I use. You will want as many as you can find room for, because there are so many useful screens, but you could probably squeak by with two -- one for depth/speed, the other for wind. You can use the MFD for pilot control, although a third Triton plus keypad at the helm would be better. I have five Tritons on my boat, and will install a sixth this winter (not a budget installation, but will give you some idea of how incredibly useful they are).

Garmin and Raymarine also make very nice instrument displays, and they can all be had for less than $500 each if you watch the sales.
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Old 28-10-2013, 09:28   #51
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New Garmin Gmi. 20 should be a triton killer IMHO m


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Old 28-10-2013, 10:12   #52
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Re: Radar - fix or eliminate?

The "new" boat came is an old Pathfinder 70 that currently does not work (although the PO said it used to work). I have never had radar before although could have used it many times while on LI Sound and I haven't run into fog in NC nor the Bahamas. Considering the legal issue also, am I not better just stripping this off and adding AIR instead?
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Old 28-10-2013, 11:30   #53
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Re: Radar or no radar??

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheechako View Post
I had no trouble seeing squall lines, wind spouts, thunderstorms etc 6 - 10 miles out with both my old Furuno's I believe they were 24 mile units.... 24" dome...?
Power consumption was never really an issue overnight sailing. You dont have to run it all the time. Sure is nice for avoiding Thundersqualls at night in the Carribean though!
I considered options last year when the magnetron ($500) on my old Furuno finally wore out. I considered side-band as well as AIS. I concluded AIS would help me avoid other vessels but not natural obstacles. New units looked sweet but cost much more. . .

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfhound View Post
Any thoughts four years later?

Lower prices & higher sophistication of units available...

Wider use of AIS...

For a mid-size cruising sloop with a limited budget, where do you think dollars are best spent as far as electronics are concerned?

Alan
With so many improvements recently in power consumption, integration, and features I figure we will see even better systems and lower cost in the near future. . . I settled on getting my Furuno repaired and delaying a full system upgrade for a couple years. Until then, I'll be sailing with my old school radar, GPS, openCPN, and paper charts.
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Old 28-10-2013, 12:03   #54
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Re: Radar or no radar??


R
RADAR! If one is a day sailor maybe no, but any cruiser who sails alot of places
can find fog, thunder storms, other boats and ships, set the Marpa Alarms.......its really great to have, especially the newer digital radar. I wouldn't leave homeport without it. So the vote is YES to RADAR. Done, next topic.
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Old 28-10-2013, 12:43   #55
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Re: Radar or no radar??

I have had RADAR on all my boats in the last 10 years. First a stand alone JRC, hten a stand alone furuno, then a Garmin and most recently a Garmin HD. It as amazing how much better and less expensive they have gotten. The Garmin HD with the chart plotter overlay is a great tool. Sailing in Maine, I would not go out very often without it.

I also agree about it being good to have AIS and going NMEA2000.

I built a system in 2012 that fits our electronics needs very nicely. I will be upgrading the chart plotters next year.

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