I am looking to update the nav electronics on my 86’ H34. I have original equipment and asking for advice to update the system in a cost effective manner. Any help would be appreciated….
Update Electronics
- Thread starter Tywanon
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jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,787
Hello and welcome to SBO Forums.
An interesting and open ended question for your first post. With “46 years of experience.” Sailing and a 34 ft Hunter (nice boat by the way) I’m a little unsure about what answer you seek.
How you plan to sail and where you intend to sail are important starting points.
For instance if you plan to circumnavigate the planet your needs would be very different from day sailing in Long Island sound only during favorable weather. This gets to the second part of the query
Where on the spectrum do you see your self?
An interesting and open ended question for your first post. With “46 years of experience.” Sailing and a 34 ft Hunter (nice boat by the way) I’m a little unsure about what answer you seek.
How you plan to sail and where you intend to sail are important starting points.
For instance if you plan to circumnavigate the planet your needs would be very different from day sailing in Long Island sound only during favorable weather. This gets to the second part of the query
“asking for advice to update the system in a cost effective manner”
Some sail bare bones with a paper chart and a compass. Others like the gadgets and won’t leave the marina without the latest FLIR internet integrated electronic hardware.Where on the spectrum do you see your self?
Welcome aboard! Lots of H-34 guys here..
I am one of the almost bare bones guys so I won't be much help. I still have the original (1985) Signet Scientific instruments, but I sent them to Signet and had them rebuilt a couple of years ago. I am happy with their service. I have only a depthsounder, knot/log, and wind instrument. To that I have only added a Garmin chartplotter, and a Raymarine autopilot. No provisions for instrument-to-instrument communications. Boat is used for daysailing and coastal cruising in areas where we mostly don't have a lot of fog nor large commercial traffic. The commercial stuff is limited by our thin water so they are mostly in channels and the ICW.
Most new stuff is based on multi function displays with sensors based on the owners needs/wants..
Again, Welcome!
I am one of the almost bare bones guys so I won't be much help. I still have the original (1985) Signet Scientific instruments, but I sent them to Signet and had them rebuilt a couple of years ago. I am happy with their service. I have only a depthsounder, knot/log, and wind instrument. To that I have only added a Garmin chartplotter, and a Raymarine autopilot. No provisions for instrument-to-instrument communications. Boat is used for daysailing and coastal cruising in areas where we mostly don't have a lot of fog nor large commercial traffic. The commercial stuff is limited by our thin water so they are mostly in channels and the ICW.
Most new stuff is based on multi function displays with sensors based on the owners needs/wants..
Again, Welcome!
Welcome to the forum!!
Same question came up on these threads: Electronics Ugrades - best approach? | Sailboat Owners Forums , New electronics | Sailboat Owners Forums and Need Guidance - Electronics | Sailboat Owners Forums . You will get a lot of recommendations on the subject of upgraded electronics, manufacturer, models and pc-based systems. What electronics do you have now? Some considerations depends on the sailing/motoring conditions (fog, navigation channels, night) and amount of redundancy:
Navigation display with GPG, AIS, wind direction, sonar and radar with repeater at the navigation station
Depth indicator
Wind meter
Independent knot meter
Autopilot
VHF with DSC, GPS, AIS and hailer
Same question came up on these threads: Electronics Ugrades - best approach? | Sailboat Owners Forums , New electronics | Sailboat Owners Forums and Need Guidance - Electronics | Sailboat Owners Forums . You will get a lot of recommendations on the subject of upgraded electronics, manufacturer, models and pc-based systems. What electronics do you have now? Some considerations depends on the sailing/motoring conditions (fog, navigation channels, night) and amount of redundancy:
Navigation display with GPG, AIS, wind direction, sonar and radar with repeater at the navigation station
Depth indicator
Wind meter
Independent knot meter
Autopilot
VHF with DSC, GPS, AIS and hailer
Thanks for your reply, I should have explained that I am currently mostly day sailing and line of sight sailing, reading charts. I am on the Hudson River so it’s either North or South, although looking to do some blue water down the shore or out to Long Island. I currently us my iPad with the Navionics app which seems to work just fine. I too have the Signet Scientific instruments, but the depth sounder and knot meter are hit or miss. Most likely the transducers. Ultimately, is it worth putting the investment into the boat, or let the next person do it?
Right now I am bare bones, day sailing sailing on the Hudson River. Other than occasional barge traffic, it‘s pretty wide open. Right now the iPad with Navionics seems to work just fine, but I know I need to upgrade for the long term. although, I am possibly looking to upgrade to a newer model maybe early 2000s.
Thank you for your response and I’ll check out the other threads you cited above.
I had Signet depth and speed on my 1987 Hunter 31 that worked well. Added a Garmin navigation display with radar, tick tac wind and Raymarine autopilot (my best friend). Since then, my Huntet 386 and 46 and Symbol powerboat all have mid-2000 vintage Raymarine electronics, which meet my needs, are reliable and likely good value for $$.
Last edited:
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,787
Ok. Thanks that helps.
Selling a boat is an opinion based answer.
I do not think electronics influence the price one pays for an old boat. You could sink 2000 easy into electronics and not get the money back in the sale. Best advice I’ve heard is to SUPER CLEAN THE BOAT!
Emphasis intended. Show your laptop and the abilities it has to a potential buyer. They will in all likelihood be new to sailing and also River sailors. Your boat is a clean slate that they can make what they want of her.
Selling a boat is an opinion based answer.
I do not think electronics influence the price one pays for an old boat. You could sink 2000 easy into electronics and not get the money back in the sale. Best advice I’ve heard is to SUPER CLEAN THE BOAT!
Emphasis intended. Show your laptop and the abilities it has to a potential buyer. They will in all likelihood be new to sailing and also River sailors. Your boat is a clean slate that they can make what they want of her.
I have a 2007 H38 with the Raymarine electronics of that vintage, two C90W plotters, 4kW radome, st60 depth, wind, a/p. I'm going hybrid. I have a raspberry pi4 with a PICAN-M hat, and seatalk to seatalk-ng converter. Prob less than $300 invested in that, plus a cheap 5v ethernet switch I had in my junk box.
I plug the seatalk to seatalk-ng converter into the original seatalk connector block, and use a seatalk-ng to nmea2000/devicenet to connect the pi, which is running openplotter/opencpn. I insert the ethernet switch in between the radar and the two chartplotters, now not only can I get radar on opencpn (which has vastly better chart presentation than the c90w's) but the chartplotter at the helm is now independent of the chartplotter at the nav station for radar.
Now I have an NMEA2000 devicenet backbone I can add an independent high quality gps, ais, vhf/dsc etc easily and even replace the chartplotter at the helm either with another opencpn or anything nmea2000 compatible (newer raymaine, garmin, b&g etc) if and when desired.
I can use either a cheap touch screen to see opencpn on the pi, or vnc over to it from my ipad.
all the old seatalk data is easily seen on the openplotter/signal k dashboards etc.
I plug the seatalk to seatalk-ng converter into the original seatalk connector block, and use a seatalk-ng to nmea2000/devicenet to connect the pi, which is running openplotter/opencpn. I insert the ethernet switch in between the radar and the two chartplotters, now not only can I get radar on opencpn (which has vastly better chart presentation than the c90w's) but the chartplotter at the helm is now independent of the chartplotter at the nav station for radar.
Now I have an NMEA2000 devicenet backbone I can add an independent high quality gps, ais, vhf/dsc etc easily and even replace the chartplotter at the helm either with another opencpn or anything nmea2000 compatible (newer raymaine, garmin, b&g etc) if and when desired.
I can use either a cheap touch screen to see opencpn on the pi, or vnc over to it from my ipad.
all the old seatalk data is easily seen on the openplotter/signal k dashboards etc.