I just
bought a Raytheon ST2000+ from Defender Industries. The cost was $558.00, which
beats West Marine by about $80 or $90. It's being delivered today. The Simrad
looked pretty solid, but I liked Raytheon's built-in display, along the NMEA
thing. I think the Simrad product is probably pretty decent as well. But a
friend has an ST2000+ on his Newport 30, and he swears by it. So I basically
went with that.
I also
chose the ST2000+ over Raytheon's ST1000+ plus because the ST2000 had better
specifications in the boat displacement department. The Vega displaces a little
more that 5000 lbs., and the ST1000+ handles up to 5500.00 lbs. I was a little
squeemish about that because you never know what you might use the Vega for, and
I like some of my gear to be a little over spec'd than under spec'd. I felt the
autopilot should be one of them if I'm going to have one, especially now that
I'm singlehanding "Erendira," and plan on doing more sailing outside the Golden
Gate.
But I
think the Simrad's TP20 looks like a pretty solid product as well. I just
haven't bumped into anyone using one, which doesn't mean people
aren't.
Speaking of singlehanding, I just lead my main halyard into the cockpit,
and installed two single-line reefing systems that lead into the cockpit, too.
This week, I'm having the yard install lazy jacks, and inspect the standing
rigging. Just an FYI about deck-stepped mast rigging: when I asked the
rigger to tune the rig, I mentioned that the Vega sometimes has a deck
compression problem when the rig is tuned too tight. He pointed out that on
most deck-stepped rigs, on just about any boat, you don't want to tune the rig
tight. I remember talking to Sid Rosen about this a few years ago, and he pretty
much told me the same thing. The guy really loved the Vega.
Best,
Steve
DeMont
"Erendira"
Vega
#2947
408.275.1080
sdemont@...
