First post here. Boat is 1987 Freedom 28 sailing sloop (6,000# displacement). Used for daysailing & coastal cruising in New England.
Currently has 1987 vintage VHF & datamarine Speed, depth, & wind installed.
Leaning towards a Garmin centered system based on past experience. Intuitive ease of use is important to the admiral.
Desired components
Multifunction display - either a 10-" 4000 series Garmin plus a 700 series (to display wind, speed depth data primarily, chartplotter secondary) or a singe 12" 4000 series plus 2 or 3 GMI10 instruments. Location: At the helm - mounted to the edson pedestal guard. If I go with dual displays, I figure it will be easier to read radar and chart data at the same time, or am I wasting $$ - is a 12" big enough for everything?
Does anyone make a "pod" that is compatible with a built in gps antenna? Most I've seen are aluminum - seems to me that would inhibit reception?
New speed, depth & wind sensors - Is it worth springing for the Airmar ultrasonic sensors??? Any N2K issues with them? The Merrimac river has considerable current which kept the speed paddlewheel moving last season w/o any maintainance.
HD Radar 4kw mounted on edson pole at transom (The freedom has a carbon fiber spar that I am hesitant to put holes in).
Autopilot? (perhaps next season) - Looking for a reasonably priced option - everyone says below decks is better, but $$$$$ - is a wheel mount reasonable for a 28 footer?
New fixed VHF with DSC - leaning towards Standard Horizon
Connection to laptop at nav station for shore based planning. Can I electronically transmit waypoints to the Garmin MFD over the N2K network or do I need to download to the memory stick?
What am I missing? - Is AIS overkill? Boat is moored in Newburyport - little if any commercial traffic (some fishing charters).
How fast do the tank sensors read (refersh rate)? I have 2 small water tanks ~20 gallons each, I end up overfilling them every time since you can't get a visual on how full they are.
Thanks in advance for your feeback. Looking to make some purchases the end of the month during Defender's warehouse sale.
How big are your batteries?
How do you charge them?
What time between charges t.i. how long do you go out for, and do you expect to use your engine to recharge your batteries?
Asking this because you want to make sure you can actually use all the energy hungry colour screens. IMO the Garmin GMI-10s & most MFDs are not really designed for a small sailboat with limited power availability.
I'd get at least one 4" display capable of controlling the (future) autopilot anyway.
Nobody really likes their wheel mounted autopilot on a sailboat, no matter what size the boat is. It doesn't work as well as a good below decks one and is noisy. I sailed with several people that have one and the noise drove me crazy... They generally don't have rudder feedback so they hunt for the correct course a lot more.
IMHO if radar is a requirement your starting point on this project should be full consideration of the advanrages of the Simrad BR24 radar. It is a unique solution perfectly suited for your situation. Brian
Batteries are (2) group 24 with plenty of room to move up a size or 2 plus add a dedicated starting battery if needed. But you've made me aware that I should take into account power consumption of the setup.
Typical day sail is 4 hours +/-. Engine (inboard diesel) is used to get out/in the river (3nm).
Thanks for the tip on the Simrad radar. I've been looking at their website.