SailNet Community banner
  • SailNet is a forum community dedicated to Sailing enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about sailing, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, repairs, reviews, maintenance, and more!

A Picture of My New Boat

6K views 38 replies 31 participants last post by  mccary 
#1 ·
Thanks everybody for the encouraging words and congratulations. I am psyched, as is my wife and kids. Now, the $ drain begins... I do have some $ to play with so I need a new VHF and a chartplotter. Suggestions? Oh yeah, here she is.

montenido
 

Attachments

See less See more
1
#2 ·
Nice...I see many happy days ahead.
 
#8 ·
Great looking boat...enjoy!

For nav and general eectronics I am a huge Raymarine fan, but I have to admit I have limited experience with the other big brands.

For a VHF I recommend this one


I have it on my boat and it has every feature imagiable....Class D DSC, hailer capable, WHAM capable, color screen...and the best feature is every channel has a reference name like Distress, Commercial, Ship to Ship, Ship to Shore so you can quickly and easily Navigate around the channels.

Enjoy!
 
#11 ·
I have it on my boat and it has every feature imagiable....Class D DSC, hailer capable, WHAM capable, color screen...and the best feature is every channel has a reference name like Distress, Commercial, Ship to Ship, Ship to Shore so you can quickly and easily Navigate around the channels.
Congrats, wonderful looking boat...

I'll recommend Standard Horizon GX3000S to the contrary of 625SE... 3000x has all the bells and whistles on the 625S except the color screen, which I don't favor much due to pixel loss by time, at an affordable price... I bought mine for $150 at defender March sale...
3000x has the fog horn bells and whistles, customizable (is that a word?) channel names, loudhailer(with optional 40W speaker which is about 20$) and options like phone style handset,RAM(remote access microphone) etc...

May God fill your sails with fair winds and cabin with laughters...
 
#32 ·
I like the hand held, waterproof, floating VHF. That way I don't have to go down below to make a call. And I can take it with me when I leave the boat.
True, but you want a fixed mounted one as well. You want some height on the antenna if you need the distance. I actually have a fixed mount at the nav station with a ram mike at the helm. But I find that I use the Handheld most of the time.
 
#12 ·
Nice boat. I used to have Catalina 30 and loved it. Take a look at the Garmin GPSMap 545 Chartplotter (or go big with the 4208). The 545 has an internal antenna and their user interface is very easy to use. No need to buy seperate charting chips, all of the charts you need come pre-loaded. Optionally, they have an advanced g2 Vision chip that has some really cool features. I bought Garmin 4212 this year and was previously a Simrad (CX34) and Raymarine (C80) customer. I was happy with Simrad and Raymarine, but I like my new Garmin the best.
 
#14 ·
I like the Icom M504 for a VHF radio. I think you're better off having a full-power boat VHF unit rather than just a handheld. Getting a handheld as a backup or auxiliary makes sense.



For chartplotters, I like the older Garmin 492 if you can find it. It comes with the US Coastal charts pre-loaded, and I like the User Interface better than the one found on the newer Garmins... as the newer units still have a few bugs to work out IMHO.

 
#15 · (Edited)
congrats on the new boat.
welcome to poverty.
as far as chartplotter and radio i can only comment from experience as i just replaced both last week.
my wife got me this
Welcome to StandardHorizon.com
and i later that day bought this(hey,i needed a matching set :rolleyes: )
Welcome to StandardHorizon.com
cant beat the price,the maps are fair priced,they both do what i need them to do, and they are compatible.
i cant get too far in depth as to function as i am still learing how to use the chartplotter.
only complaint i have is the mount for it is a poor design.
i prefer garmin mounts as they are rectangular as opposed to the sh triangular mount that doesnt fit my old bezel on my pedestal.
as for the radio, i was able to flush mount it in my nav station and it looks awesome.
 
#16 ·
I agree with getting a full power primary VHF and also like the Icom M504. You can get the commandmic for this unit, which works great from the cockpit. I find that with my commandmic, I actually listen to the VHF. For me, the speaker down below isn't loud enough to keep my attention. A hand held in the cockpit will serve the same purpose, but not as powerful.
 
#22 ·
Can install a cheap VHS with a Metz antennae on the rail until you have a chance to put an antennae on the masthead for better reception. But the handhelds are limited in range.

The boat looks great. First thing is to sail and then decide what else you might need.

As far as Chartplotters - beware of Garmins pricing strategy these days. Buy a pre-loaded Colorado or 478 unless you are ready to go ahead and install a big unit and then I think Raymarine is better. They don't have a handheld.
 
#25 ·
Budget, Features

Hello,

What is your budget for VHF and Chartplotter? What features do you require and want?

You can spend as little as $400, and can also easily spend $2000.

For VHF, on the low end, there are lots and lots of decent 25watt fixed mount basic VHF units for under $100. They are all pretty much the same. If you spend a little more, like $150, you get DSC (do a little research if you don't know what it is). Spend $200 or so and you get a bigger screen and maybe color. I don't know how useful that is, but it is available.

Note that my price estimates are for the base unit only, no antenna or remote mic.

Last year I spend $150 for a Standard Horizon GX1500S, a basic VHF with DSC. I like it because when connected to a GPS it provides dual channel DSC (like most do) and the display will show speed, course, lat / long, etc. I spend another $100 for the remote mic, and it was the best $100 I have spent.

On the chartplotter side, for under $400 you can get a small Lowrance or Humminbird unit with color display and decent charts, some even include a SONAR as well.

For $500 or so you get a bigger screen.

Garmin makes great stuff, but it gets pricey. Same with Raymarine.

Since you are in the market for both VHF and GPS you may want to consider a combo unit like the Standard CPV350 GPS Chartplotter w/ VHF.

Good luck,
Barry
 
#26 ·
Congratulations, Looks good, but do me a favor and take the fenders off the lifelines and onto the base of the stanchions Please. (yeah, I'm not overly retentive)
As tempting as the great new chartplotters are they are usually overkill for what we need here. If you've got some kind of handheld that will point you at Two Harbors it'll work fine, I'm using an old GPS III and a lot of people opt for the 76's around here. Base station coverage by the CG and vessel assist in our area is strong enough and overlapping that a 6 ft. railmount ant. has worked well for many if you don't have a masttop.
 
#27 ·
Welcome and congrats on your new boat! Its nice to see someone else take the plunge right when the economy is going down the drain. I bought my first boat right after the bursting of the .com bubble! I have enjoyed it immensely!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top