Going from Raymarine to B&G...

[jviss]

(@Phil Herring , surprised there isn't an electronics forum under "Forums for All Owners.")

Anyone make the transition from Raymarine chartplotters and autopilots and sailing instruments to B&G? I have, not out of choice, but that's what happened from old boat to new boat.

I'm impressed with the B&G stuff, particularly their attention to sailing - lots of sailing, and sail racing specific features.

Note that Simrad, Lowrance, and B&G are all the same company, under Navico. All of there stuff seems to work together. I have a Simrad pilot, B&G plotters, B&G 4G radar, Simrad sensors and other components. All works.

So, just curious. Anyone have B&G plotter or other stuff and want to discuss it?

 

[uncledom]

My buddy just put one on his Tartan 31 which we race on Tuesday nights. I have been looking at them for a while and would love to get rid of my Raymarine instruments but can't afford to do so right now. I think the Sail Steer screen layout is awesome. It is the perfect amount and display of pertinent information.

 

[jviss]

Yes, I haven't had enough time to plow through all of the features. I don't race, either, except in my mind! The boat came with a 9" Zeus2 display plus other things in a huge pod at the helm. I'm removing that pod and replacing it with a side-mounted 7" Zeus2 display in an Edson Vision pod, and relocating the 9" to the nav station below. I was able to get the 7" last fall from Defender, factory refurb'd at a great price.

 

[BarryL]

Hey,

I have a B&G Vulcan 7FS. I bought it for the sailing specific functions like Sailsteer and Laylines.
It replaced a Garmin 741 unit, which replaced an older Lowrance unit.
I like the Vulcan a lot but there are some things that the Garmin unit did better. For example, when you are navigating to a point, the Garmin unit draws a line from your current position to the waypoint. It's super easy to see if you are on course or not. The Vulcan doesn't display that line. It provides a bearing, but not the line. No big deal, just a nit. Also, The vulcan has a great race start screen with all sorts of info, but it doesn't include time to the line.
My friend just bought a new Raymarine ES75 unit. Nice unit but I found it VERY difficult to figure out. Totally different than B&G or Garmin or Lowrance.
It seems like most products that use NMEA2000 interface nicely. I have Raymarine depth, speed, wind and autopilot. All interface nicely with my vulcan unit.

Does your B&G have the wifi radio? It's pretty cool. You can control the unit from a smart phone or tablet. I use an old Ipad down below to plan trips and things. Very slick.

Make sure you download the latest firmware for your B&G unit. The latest FW supports autrouting (you need the right charts for that to work).

Barry

 

[jviss]

Does your B&G have the wifi radio?

Yes, there's a WiFi-1 unit on board.
I also just downloaded the May 30, 2018 update, thanks.

 

[SG]

Sailing Anarchy has an electronic gear board. The other boards there can be a bit “rough” and tumble. However that board is pretty good.

I have a B&G system (except not the chart plotters. It’s petty awesome, but can be tricky. They have the bugs out of it about 4 years out.

I have a Navico chart plotter and radar on 24’ outboard putt putt that we use in Florida. The Zeus 2 looks a lot better, but my old Northstar units work fine. Eventually, I’ll replace them.

Or radar and other chart plotters are Furuno Times Zero. Thy have been superseded, but they irk great. I like redundancy and distinct systems.

There really isn’t an equivalent for B&G in terms of sailing performance gear. For just cruising Garmin, Raymarine and some others do the job.

 

[Joe]

I have Vulcan 7 also. It displays wind info from my Triton wind sensor, it show AIS targets on the chart from a Simrad RS 35 vhf, (I bought the wireless, remote handset also), The Vulcan has an autopilot display that will control my Simrad TP22 tiller pilot allowing the unit to steer by apparent or true wind direction. The Vulcan also can control a recently added Fusion bt/media/am/fm unit. Other than an AIS transponder, (the radio has receiver) I probably won't add much more... Maybe radar, but I'd get a second display.
The Vulcan is mounted on a double swing arm that allows many viewing options, inside or out. I use the chart to set a waypoint for vmg, then switch to sailsteer for 90 percent of the time. You can also display engine data with the appropriate sensors linked. All in all.... a good, affordable system for small to medium sailboat.

 

[jviss]

Yes, Joe, I have almost everything networked. BTW, the Zeus2 is obsolete now, there's a Zeus3. That's why I was able to get the 7" display so cheaply, I think. I have the B&G 4G radar networked, the Simrad AC42 pilot with two AP24 heads, a Triton display, Vesper AIS transponder, Fusion radio, Raymarine W/S/D, and so on. It seems ever panel I open I find another piece of electronic gear. There are Ethernet hubs, Simnet (NMEA2000) hubs, mux's, adapters, etc. But, all of it is connected and talking!

I like that one can control just about everything from the chartplotter displays, including the autopilot. My radios are old, Icom IC-M502's, so I don't think I can initiate a DSC call from the chartplotter via a AIS target. Oh well.

I still have to spend some serious time studying and practicing with the chartplotter display. I had gotten pretty good one-handing the Raymarine e7 unit at the helm. I liked that the e7 had a joystick, the Zeus2 7" doesn't; don't know how well the touch screen will work when it's wet.

I'd like to have a MOB button at the helm. The small display lacks this, too.

Finally, I'd like to add the add the Noland RS-11, to collect all the engine data and get it onto the network, for easy viewing on the chartplotter, and the additional alarms.