Outfitting New Boat

[Snider]

Thanks Bob, that helps a lot. Speaking of paper charts, they don’t seem as easy to get as they used to be, there’s a sailmaker in town that’ll print them on demand. I’m going to get at least coverage of my area. I didn’t mention that above but I’ve spent many years with paper charts and a good hand bearing compass. We still plot our positioning and track with a pencil when offshore, especially at night. I love being on the boat late in the evening pouring over the chart planning the route for the next day. Being out at night is my favorite time to be on the water.

[ssobol]

[Snider]

That’s good to hear. I’m sort of thinking the same way, I think we’ll enjoy the dual platforms more than we’ll need a little kicker. I’m glad you mentioned that. Thanks

[thataway]

I bought one of the kicker "bolt on the swim platform brackets" for the Caracal Cat--and it works well. It only takes a couple of minutes to undo the bolts, if you don't want it there. I would go with a small kicker --dinghy motor--and that type of bracket.

Long ago I pushed a 26 foot Owens Sea Skiff (larger and weight more than the C Dory 25) home with a 2 HP on such a bracket. My 3.5 hp will push the C Dory 22 at 3 plus knots. Slow, but gets you someplace to safety. No, it will not push into heavy wind and waves.

[Snider]

I didn’t know there was such a thing, I’ve been writing on napkins for a few days trying to engineer one. I’ll have to talk to google about that. Thanks

[Foggy]

I would not minimize the advantage of having radar some claim is the second
most important nav/safety aid behind GPS. Of course, a VHF radio is essential.

Now the new doppler units are small, fast (no warm up), accurate and use only
40W (vs "small 4kW" units) and tract traffic incoming vessels as possible collision
in a different color vs out going non-threatening vessels. Garmin has a
"fantom" unit at under $2k. I'm licking' my chops.

Aye.

[Snider]

I was just looking at the Garmin and Simrad packages over at the WM site, interesting stuff. I don't keep up with this much but the 3G and 4G radar from Simrad seems interesting, as is that Garmin you mentioned.

[Snider]

Here's an idea, I could buy that new Icom M93d floating handheld, it has DSC and GPS and just keep my mounted unit for now, maybe upgrade later. I guess the benefit of an upgraded mounted unit would be the increased range from the higher antenna mount.

Horizon is coming out with a unit that sends and receives AIS, waiting on FCC approval and requires dual antenna mounts, interesting.

https://www.sailmagazine.com/gear/standard-horizon-gx6500-vhfais-transponder

[thataway]

[hardee]

Hi Brandon, Welcome and Congrats on the new C-Dory. You are going to love it. Yes, upgrade that VHF. Look at the ICOM M-506 with AIS receive. Much the same features as the Standard Horizon EXCEPT it also has a last call 2 minute record feature. Super valuable (IMHO) for monitoring ch 16 especially, unless you have instant recall and fast fingures to take notes.

I too am a total believer in radar, along with (at least) AIS receive capability.

And a hand held VHF is just a good safety feature to have on your pfd.

Harvey
SleepyC

[starcrafttom]

So I am going to get in on this a little. All advice above is great and well stated, sad it hear about the GX6500 combo Class B AIS and VHF, I was looking to buy that unit.

So if you are looking to not spend a lot on upgrades now you have to figure out what are have to have items and what are would like to have items and what are just cool to have items

Have to have= mounted vhf, depth finder. You can get by with just these items. boated with far less for years.

Would like to have= GPS chart plotter ( this is almost have to have) Radar, auto pilot.

Cool to have=AIS

Now people are going to be split on the RADAR and AIS categories but heres why radar trumps AIS. Radar shows everything you cant see. AIS only shows boats equipped with AIS IF!!!! they bother to turn them on. I would rather see what is there then only half ( on a great day) of what might be there. Radar will also show you what is there ( land masses, rocks, pilings, navigation ads, etc ) as appose to chart plotters that only show you what should be there and where it should be.

Same is true of depth finders and chart plotter ( thu its so cheap to get a multi function display these days) . Depth finder will show you the depth that is under you and not the depth that should be under you. Its funny but I catch people running their chart plotter with the depth sounder display turned off. WTF??? why run with half the info. At least have the depth read out on the side of the screen so you can see if the chart is up to date with reality.

So thats my take. Better to see reality then stored data or only half the data.

Ok quick side note on who you are boating with on the water. In a cruiser forum a Captain stated that he ran his radar ( 80 ft newer $$$ boat) so that other people could see him better. WTF???? he was under the impression that his radar signal was seen by other radar units.

[ssobol]

[Snider]

Thanks Hardee, I forgot about that feature of the ICOM, and thanks for the welcome, I love this group, and the boat.

Starcrafttom, that's funny, I'm never surprised by what I see on the water. I've been mostly running blow boats for almost 20 years (wow, where does time go) mostly with nothing but a compass and paper chart on the smaller ones, all the way up to the most sophisticated electronics on some big race boats and deliveries. One essential piece of gear that I leaned to love was a depth sounder, I'd even take that over a GPS. With a chart, hand bearing compass and depth finder I can follow on the chart what the depth 'should' bet based on what it is, especially at night in confined waters I could always take a tack over based on real depth, when it starts to get shallow I'd tack and would generally know where I was based on charted channel depths. Now that I'm not constrained by having to run an engine just to charge batteries, or large battery banks I figure I can have more conveniences. I have a non DSC 25watt installed VHF, of course I have my handheld VHF and GPS Map 76 that I've been using for over 10 years, add a few paper charts and I'm really good to go. Now that I have kids aboard I'll eventually add one of those ICOM's for the DSC distress capability. After learning and thinking about AIS, I agree, I'd much rather have radar. So in order of importance, and the way I'll upgrade would be to add a MFD (leaning towards the Simrad evo3), not sure what size, I really need to mock up the boat and see what doesn't restrict visibility, but maybe a 7-9". I've been offshore on sailboats at night and it kills me when I come up on deck to find the watch staring blindingly into a 16" display, and glancing at the horizon, it should be the other way around. That Simrad will leave the door open for a radar and or auto pilot if I decided on it. I think I'll get the VHF and MFD fairly quickly, or at least within the next few months, it's not really a need, but a nice to have/cool thing. The area I sail really has a lot of shoaling and changing areas, especially where I want to go, it's part of the reason I didn't buy another sailboat, plus we didn't want to take all day to get there. Since we will cruise some, I'll replace the little round depth gauge with a battery monitor gauge, and the depth will move up to the MFD, so hopefully the boat will retain it's simple but functional appearance except for the addition of the display.

I'm enjoying the vast knowledge that's searchable in this forum, great stuff here.

Thanks

[starcrafttom]

We talk a lot about how much room the chart plotter takes up in the window. You will find that most of that window view is of your front deck anyhow so do not go small on the screen. Yes it will block a portion of the window but its not a portion that you use to see anything. A 12 inch screen on the left side of the steering wheel is not going to block your usable view in the least.

I am thinking about ( and saving for) redoing all electronic on my 27 and going with the Simrad go 9 for cost reasons. It allows use of radar and auto pilot and wifi for a second screen.

[PaulNBriannaLynn]

We have two swim platforms, and a 5 hp Honda mounted to the starboard platform with an off the shelf bracket. It works well and doesn't interfere. I can even use that swim platform to stand on etc.

We're not far from you in Savannah. We have some great boating opportunities, and its a unique area. One thing I've found really useful is a good chartplotter. We had an older Furuno for a while and it did the job ok. I didn't know what I was missing. Our new Garmin with updated coastal charts is really helpful navigating the shoals and sandbars around the intercoastal and tidal creeks along our coast. It can get really shallow out of no where. It's really took a lot of the stress out of exploring.

I'm in the non-radar camp. We used to live and boat in the Pacific Northwest and there was really a need for it there. Heck some years the entire month of "foggust" was socked in. Fog is not nearly as much of a concern for me here in these waters. I've seen a handful of foggy mornings in the past couple of years, but nothing like most of the rest of the country. As for thunderstorms, we know they are coming. There's weather service warnings a day ahead of time, and we can get to safety.

One thing that I'm really thankful for is our generator. We keep it in the under sink cabinet and when we've needed it, we really needed it! Its also provides a huge sense of security and feeling of self reliance. We like to anchor out and explore the remote barrier islands, and I don't have to worry about running my batteries down. I can fire up our Honda 2000, and charge everything back up, and our cell phones too. The 1000 watt would have been fine for the boat, but we also use it as an emergency generator at home for storms too. Best $900 I've ever spent for the boat.

If your boat doesn't have a cooking stove, we bought a inexpensive butane single burner stove on Amazon for under $40. It is really efficient and has been working well for us.

That's my two cents worth.