Kenwood TS 930s

[Goudurix]

I overlooked the Icom 718 when recommending the Yaesu FT897, Icom IC 7000 or Kenwood TS480. Have never worked with the Icom 718 but indeed it is mainly "non-menu" driven so really easy. Will do all the essential stuff and email via HF if you invest in the extra hardware (the modem).

The issue of antenna and ground was brought up - as essential. More than enough info on those on these threads.

The easiest setup for "all band" use is a sloping wire antenna from a spare halyard, an good quality (Icom; SGC) automatic antenna tuner (matcher) and RF ground system.(don't go into the debate of RF grounds here there is plenty of stuff on it)

If you want only to use some dedicated frequencies the simplest and cheapest solution are vertical wire dipoles. They don't need an RF ground system to work but given the size of your boat you will be limited to frequencies from 12 Mhz and above and you'll need one per frequency....
But they will be by far the best and most efficient antenna systems you can have on a sailing boat.
Again: plenty of information to be found on those in this forum.

Jan