Electronics

[BarryL]

Hello,

VHF? Who really cares about that anymore?

I have a fixed mount unit down at the nav station and a second handset at the helm. I have a standard horizon handheld. I rarely, like really rarely, use the VHF. When I'm sailing it will be on and I will monitor channel 16. So I get to hear radio checks, fisherman talking to their buddies, the Coast Guard giving a securite message for a location very far away from me, and other information I don't care about. When I try to contact a marina for a slip assignment I get a response maybe 1/2 the time.

if I needed a new VHF I would spend $100 - $200 on a good handheld and be done with it.

What would you do with a new, high quality VHF radio?

Barry

 

[Davidasailor26]

Hello,

VHF? Who really cares about that anymore?

I have a fixed mount unit down at the nav station and a second handset at the helm. I have a standard horizon handheld. I rarely, like really rarely, use the VHF. When I'm sailing it will be on and I will monitor channel 16. So I get to hear radio checks, fisherman talking to their buddies, the Coast Guard giving a securite message for a location very far away from me, and other information I don't care about. When I try to contact a marina for a slip assignment I get a response maybe 1/2 the time.

if I needed a new VHF I would spend $100 - $200 on a good handheld and be done with it.

What would you do with a new, high quality VHF radio?

Barry

I think this one depends on where you sail. When we sailed in New Jersey VHF was pretty much just what you said. Now in the Chesapeake I think it’s more valuable. There are still plenty of radio checks and distant securite calls, but sometimes those calls are for relevant nearby hazards. We also have tugs and barges that often hail to coordinate crossings. We took a trip around the bay earlier this year and of 12 marinas I think 11 encouraged and responded promptly to hails on VHF 9 or 16.

 

[shemandr]

I have a hand held with GPS, which gives me position, course, speed, and it has duel scan and other features. I take it exclusively on daysails on the Flying Scot. I use the duel scan to monitor 16 and keep track of a race whether racing or doing RC. If I'm out on a boat I have my VHF with me even if I know there is a fixed mount on board.

 

[pgandw]

Cruised for up to 4 weeks at a time with 2 of us in an ODay 25 (before GPS). VHF-FM was the only electronics, no autopilot. VHF was/is used for calling marinas and bridges, and other boats when on a group cruise. We simply spelled each other on the tiller - only 2 overnight sails on the 4 week trip. Telltales (easily replaced yarn) and feel work for me for wind, even now in my old age. Except now the telltales are only 6ft up the shrouds so I don't have to crane my neck so hard. Carried a handheld RDF for electronic positioning.

While in the CG (both surface and aviation), I really came to appreciate radar as a navigation instrument, actually more important than GPS. Especially at night or in poor vis. And of course, radar does a good job with weather as well. When I first started flying, most helos did not have radar, and we were jealous of those that did. Later became standard equipment. However, practicality gets limited on smaller boats.

On my 19ft Mariner which I frequently single hand, there is no electrical system (intend to install one of these days). I use the Tiller Clutch, a handheld VHF, and my phone with Navionics beside me in the cockpit. Wear a pressure-activated inflatable life jacket with a PLB in the pocket. I chose PLB over AIS because of limited Coast Guard VHF coverage and lack of commercial traffic in my home waters. Other areas AIS would be more useful. I am a trailer sailor, and do trailer for cruises.

Top priorities for electrical system when installed are recharging phone/VHF, recharging electric outboard, CPAP, fan in cabin, and running lights (although may stay with removable battery powered for that purpose). Nice to have electronics is a tablet for larger screen for Navionics. Depth sounder is a low priority but would be next. Good stabilized binocs with internal compass are higher priority than depth sounder.

In other words, as a few have already pointed out, determine your use case and go from there.

Fred W
Stuart Mariner 19 Sweet P

 

[john6206]

Thanks again for all the advice everyone
I'm almost ready to wax up the credit card.

I bought the chart plotter during a pretty good pre-Christmas sale. It's a Garmin 743xsv. It's the smallest one, but I think it's plenty. If I were used to a 12" chart plotter I might find it wanting, but I'm used to a handheld.

Garmin wind instrument - I'm going with the wired sail pack for $734.

Standard Horizon VHF - My wife really really really wants that red button you can smack when your husband's myocardia is infarcting, so the one with the GPS and the AIS and the red button is $469.

Ram Mic for the cockpit??? Wired Ram mic will cause installation pain, but some of the reviews on the wireless ones say they are no good. People are either all in or all out... I'm tempted to try the wireless and return it if it doesn't work. They are both about $150.

3 ft whip antennas for the mast head - about a hundred bucks.

Nema 2000 - I already bought the starter kit. The extra add ons seem to be $25 - $100. I bet it's about $200 to make all my crap talk to itself.

I think that really gives me a pretty good package - It will be a massive upgrade from anything I've ever had before, and hopefully it all works!

While the mast is down - probably replace the steaming light and the anchor light, and get rid of the TV antenna.

I'm told the best pricing for all of that is late Feb, early March.

Autopilot seems like a good idea - but it's a good idea for another year.
Standing rigging, running rigging and all of the above is a decent investment for this winter.

And by "decent investment" I mean "Holy Crap."

Next year is a Genoa - year after that is Mainsail and sail cover, Bimini and dodger are on the list . . .
I think that means Autopilot is 2030??
Maybe we could swing Genoa and Main in same year.

Or Genoa and autopilot.

 

[john6206]

@BarryL
I've been wondering about that.

In the same way that just after I installed cockpit speakers in my 18' boat, bluetooth speakers became more common and I thought no one would ever drill holes in their cockpit again (mud daubers keep getting in mine). I've also wondered if the era of VHF is coming to an end. In the middle of Lake Michigan I had zero cell phone coverage for a couple hours, but most of the time I had at least enough for a text message - for now, it still seems wise.

If for nothing else, so that my wife has the red heart attack button.

 

[john6206]

@Tally Ho
Fortunately my wife does enjoy her turn at the wheel. She's been sailing as long as I have ( close to 30 years). I'm the one who has taken all the classes, read all the books, subscribed to all the magazines, watched all the videos.

She's the one with ANNOYINGLY better instincts:
"If you pull that red thingie we will go faster."
"No no no (as patronizingly as I can), that red thingie is more for downwind sailing."
"Humor me and give it a good tug. . . . Ok thanks, we're going faster now . . . why do they call the ropes "sheets?" "

 

[Davidasailor26]

Ram Mic for the cockpit??? Wired Ram mic will cause installation pain, but some of the reviews on the wireless ones say they are no good. People are either all in or all out... I'm tempted to try the wireless and return it if it doesn't work. They are both about $150.

I don’t know about Standard Horizon, but my Simrad wireless handset works just fine. If I were replacing my radio I’d have no desire to install a wired Ram mic.

 

[jssailem]

Cell phones are nice. All of the rescue services are set up with the VHF radio stations. Until the Government shuts down the VHF stations I’ll keep a VHF radio on board.

Project creep is real when it comes to a boat.

BOAT. (Break Out Another Thousand)

Sure looks like you’re engaged in projects and you’re on a familiar path. Good luck @john6206. Plan to finish the projects before they start to splash boats. There is no calamine lotion to calm the itch to use your new gear.

 

[Terry Cox]

Boat VHF now worky pretty good. No speaker for awhile, but repaired itself. Good for weather reports and boat-to-boat communications. Also monitor it for other nearby boats in distress, reporting missing navigation markers and water hazards, military test zone activity, such as whiskey golf in Georgia Strait, etc., etc., etc. Very important safety device for PNW waters. Not having one is like walking in the wilderness after dark without some sort of light. Also, have a handheld backup.

 

[BarryL]

Hello,

Regarding VHF and second station:
IMHO there really isn't much difference between wired vs wireless handset. One of my boats came with a wired second mic in the cockpit. It worked well. My next boat had a very old VHF. When I upgraded the plotter I bought a new B&G VHF with AIS receive. That unit supported a wireless second station. Cool, this will be much easier to install. Wrong. You still need to provide power to the cradle so the wireless unit gets charged. Yes, you could install the cradle down below, close to the battery, etc. But then where do you put the wireless handset when you're sailing? I mounted the cradle in the cockpit and had to run the power wire from the panel to the cradle. Running the second station wire from main VHF to the cockpit would have been the same amount of work.

Barry

 

[BrianQ]

But then where do you put the wireless handset when you're sailing?

VHF Radio Holders – SnapIt! Products, Inc.

 

[LLoyd B]

Old English stretch was pronounced sheet and new or foreign sailors we're taught to only pull the correct line or be thrown overboard.

 

[Foswick]

IMHO there really isn't much difference between wired vs wireless handset.

The problem we've had with our wired handset is that we run out of cable on longer trips. Maybe we're using it wrong?

 

[Davidasailor26]

Cool, this will be much easier to install. Wrong. You still need to provide power to the cradle so the wireless unit gets charged. Yes, you could install the cradle down below, close to the battery, etc. But then where do you put the wireless handset when you're sailing? I

We wrapped a Velcro strap around our binnacle guard and used that to hold the handset with its belt clip.

The only downside of that was that we couldn’t grab the rail to brace ourselves anymore. To fix that I 3D printed a holder that only bolts around the bottom of the railing.