BROADBAND RADAR &CF MASTS

Boat Systems
1

Hi All,

I trust your summer sailing is going well.
I am thinking about upgrading our electronics and am somewhat overwhelmed by all the options - I’m not really into electronics.
It seems the thing to do is start with a multifunction display which usually comes as a chartplotter with fishfinder/depth sounder. Then add radar, but I notice the adds never mention speed/distance logs.
Broadband radar seems very efficient so first question is how would it work with two CF masts in close proximity. Will that create two huge blind spots?
Second question if MFD fails, how to cover speed and distance. At present I have raymarine ST60 wind speed and direction and SG1 hydraulic pilot. then B&G 330 depth - digital below and analogue in cockpit, and the same with speed and distance. The B&G gear is now more than 20 years old and I plan to replace it There is also a stand alone Furuno radar which works quite well, but is also old, and parts are getting hard to find.

Any suggestions on a spread of equipment that would link in with the raymarine gear and give the helmsman speed through the water and depth, while GPS plotting, radar watch etc can be done at the chart table? Please keep it simple and be mindful of limited budget.

Thanks,
Mike.

2

Mike;

A good place to get an overveiw of the eelectronics for boating is “Panbo”. He does in depth reveiws of all marine electronics. He also writes for Yachting and others.

Harv, s/v Invicta II, F-25

3

Mike,

I don’t know what units you’re looking at, but with the RayMarine C and E series you can customize what info you want displayed on the chart plotter. For example, I show COG, SOG, Depth, XTE and DTW.

As far as integrating existing components, you’ll need a box that takes the various feeds and converts them into whatever the chartplotter likes, which is probably NMEA 2000. Older systems may have used NMEA 0183 and in the case if your RayMarine ST60, SeaTalk. There are quite a few boxes which will convert from these formats to NMEA 2000. If you went with RayMarine some of the older chartplotters (like the C series) directly input SeaTalk and NMEA 0183. The newer versions moved to faster versions of SeaTalk.

– Geoff