Simrad Packaging

A few days ago I returned from Panama City with most of my Simrad order and thought I would discuss it's packaging. All of the electronic units (displays) were packaged in white non-descript boxes. The boxes are made of heavy and firm corrugated cardboard and each has a label on the outside describing the contents with serial numbers. Unlike other electronics I have purchased in the past the cardboard is very stiff and seems to provide pretty good protection. There's also very little air space in the box so each box just big enough for it's particular contents. The only exception was the DST-800 Depth/Speed/Temperature transducer from Airmar, it was in brown cardboard box but also very well packed.

Each box contained a single display with an owners manual. All of the owners manuals from Simrad are spiral bound on heavy paper with easy to read font. The manuals for monochrome displays are printed in black and while while the manuals for color displays are printed in color. Also included in each box are the corner tabs to cover the holes where the mounting screws go. While there are four corners each display comes with six covers, two spares. The display covers that are also included are positive locking so they won't accidentally slip off and are off-white in color, they won't show dirt as easily as our previous white covers. Stainless steel screws are also included with each box for mounting the display. I like that each display mounts from the front, this eliminates having to remove any back access panels to install or remove a Simrad display. Each display also includes associated wiring.

The IS20 displays and the NSE-8 display are made in Mexico while all the SimNet cables, the AP28 autopilot display and masthead wind transducer are made in Norway.

As we continue with our installation after the remaining items arrive we will discuss build quality, installation process and of course features and use in the real world.

Simrad products on the boat

I returned from Panama City yesterday where I had picked up my three boxes of Simrad electronics. After getting back to the boat I unpacked everything and did a quick inventory. Most everything showed up but a couple crucial parts were on back order so we can't quite yet start the installation. Since we're not tied up at a dock this installation isn't something that we can do at a leisurely pace. We're anchored and actively cruising so we want to make sure we have all our parts on hand before we start installing so that we can have minimal down time, maybe a week or so. We hope to have the back ordered items on the boat in the next week or two. There were also three connectors that I was expecting but didn't get so Simrad is verifying if they were included in my order and not shipped or if they didn't make it on my order form. I'm confident it'll be resolved easily and they'll be headed this way with the remaining items.

I was very happy with the way the units were packed. Simrad didn't skimp on the use of bubble wrap and other packing materials and all the smaller boxes were well protected in the shipping boxes. There were no invoices for my order either inside the box or on the outside but it's quite possible that our shipping agent in Panama City may have removed them if they were on the outside of the box. I should have asked him.

I want to write about how each unit is packaged and shipped as well as my first impressions of the Simrad units but I'm going to wait until tomorrow when I'm more rested. We had a long and rough trip today and we're just beat.

Radar - ways we use it

Most people think that the only reason to have radar on the boat is to see through fog or at night. A lot of boaters decide against adding radar because they don't sail in areas of fog or they don't sail at night. We've also met a lot of boaters that have radar but don't use them but we have found our radar to useful in many ways. We don't have fog here in the tropics but we do sail at night when making passages, but there are so many other ways that radar can be useful on a cruising boat.

I have poor depth perception and can't accurately judge the distance between myself and other boats or land but with the radar running I get a clear picture of the anchorage and can find a suitable and safe spot to drop the anchor. When the winds pipe up or a storm blows in, especially at night, I can use the radar to not only see if we are dragging anchor but I can see if anyone in front of me is dragging anchor. While we don't have fog here in the tropics we do have some dense rain squalls, the radar allows me to see land and traffic in the rain when visibility is reduced.

Radar is excellent for weather tracking. Whether at anchor or underway I can track squalls and thunderstorms to see which direction they are heading. If we are at anchor and a large rain storm is headed our way I can get brushes and soap out and be ready to give the boat a good washing. David can make sure our rain catching system is up and ready too. With High Definition radar the intensity of squalls or storms are displayed in different colors, less dense being light blue and very dense being red. Underway I can see where the least dense part of a squall is and pass through it accordingly if I can't go around it.

Radar is an excellent tool during the day but especially at night for spotting traffic. While most commercial ships use running gear we can see them first on radar and determine if we're on a collision course or not. Many small fishing boats do not use lights at night so the radar is important for picking them up.

Another way we use our radar is to track other vessels with the radar overlayed onto the chart. If a vessel is moving through a passage that I have not yet been through I can watch their radar return on my chart and place waypoints every time they turn, this gives me a reasonable starting place for creating a route from where they just entered or exited. Using the overlay I can also guide vessels into an anchorage by watching their target return on my chart and can give directions over the radio guiding them over my track and into an anchorage that otherwise might be tricky to get into.

These are some of the ways we use our radar and I'm sure there are other applications as well.

Why a fish finder on a cruising boat?

In our previous posts discussing our upcoming Simrad electronics refit I had mentioned that we will be installing a Simrad BSM-1 broadband sonar (fish finder). One of the most common questions seems to be "why a fish finder on a cruising boat". When we originally outfitted out boat with electronics six and a half years ago I felt the same way, it didn't make sense to have one on the boat since we're not a fishing boat. But two and a half years ago we installed a new Northstar M84 multifunction display which had a built in sonar module and for $79 we purchased a transducer that gave us the fish finder feature. After using this sonar for the last few years I have to say that I like having it, thus the BSM-1 on our upcoming refit list.

A regular depth sounder usually has digital read out that displays instantaneous depth which is important information for any boat to have. But a fish finder, or sonar, not only displays instantaneous depth but also shows a history of the depth of where you just traveled. For me being able to see the history is important. It allows me to find a pocket of deeper water surrounded by shallow water. We like to drop our anchor in the pocket of deep water as it's almost impossible to drag an anchor uphill into shallow water. When traveling over shoals I can look back at the history to see how long the shoal was. A sonar will also give me a good idea of what the bottom looks like, whether it is a relatively flat bottom, lots of tall weeds or full or rocks or coral heads. When we were in Cartagena we were aware of a sunken sailboat and with the sonar we could ensure that we didn't drop our anchor on top of it. Another nice feature is we can see if there is any fish activity under the boat when we are anchored in case I feel like fishing. Underway we can see at what depth the fish swimming and if we had a downrigger we could deploy our lure at the appropriate depth.

Since we already have a transducer installed from our Northstar system, and because it's compatible with the new Simrad system we decided to utilize the sonar feature on our new NSE-8 multifunction display. It's similar to other items on the boat. If you have never used radar or sonar before then you don't miss it, but once you use it you realize how valuable and useful it is.

A word about solar panels

For those of you who are considering adding solar panels to your boat you should be aware that the rated output and what you get may not be the same. All solar panels are temperature sensitive and as the temperature of the panels go up the output goes down. For example our Kyrocera 130 watt solar panels are rated for 120 watt output when the panel temperature is 27 degrees celcius. But when the temperature of the solar panel reaches 47 degrees celcius the output drops nearly 25% to 87 watts. This is all according to the specifications sticker on the solar panel. This is also our real life experience. With a total of 500 watts of solar panels (rated) our actual maximum output here in the tropics is about 385 watts. So if you're shopping around for solar panels be sure to read the specifications on the back of the panel or in the brochure. And when planning your electrical gain from solar panels don't forget to take into consideration the area you will be cruising and the temperature of the panels.

A word about Navpods

Like us many boats house their instruments in Navpods. With the installation of our new autopilot and NSE-8 multifunction display we had change out the front of our Navpod, the new instruments won't fit in the holes where our current instruments are. Navpods aren't cheap but the good news is that the front pieces can be bought direct from Oceans Equipment. If you can re-use the back piece you can save close to 50%. Just thought we would share...

Almost Here

I had a great few days in Panama City and returned to the boat yesterday. We were getting ready to raise anchor and head on to another anchorage but after checking emails we're going to stick around in Nargana for a few extra days. It turns out that two boxes of our Simrad order arrived last night in Panama City and our agent, Arturo, cleared them in this morning through customs. Now we have to figure out how to get the boxes to us in the San Blas. One option is to deposit money into Arturo's bank account at the bank here in Nargana then Arturo would ship the boxes to us via Air Panama. Another option is for one of us to fly to Panama City to pick them up but because there's only one flight per day to Nargana that would require an overnight stay in Panama City. We're talking with Arturo on what he thinks would be the best way to go but we're leaning towards making a flight into Panama City to have better control of the electronics.

We also found out that a third box is shipping this week and a fourth box with the backordered items might be shipping around February 1st. We won't begin the installation until we have everything on board but that's okay, that leaves more time to play! In the mean time I was able to pick up a Navionics chip which has all the electronic charts for the area we are cruising and Navplanner, a computer software program that allows us to do waypoint and route planning with our Navionics charts. I've been playing with that for a few days now. While the Navionics charts use the same data that the C-Map charts use (we've used C-map for six years now), the presentation is different. It will take a while for us to become accustomed to the Navionics charts. The other challenge is that waypoint, route and track files are in different formats which means it will take a lot of time to convert all our routes and waypoints manually. Already starting on that too.

In the mean time I guess it's back to some play time

Purchase Completed

Well, we finally got our order in for all the new Simrad gear, we hope it ships soon to make our scheduling needs here in Panama. I'm going to be in Panama City on the 18th and if it ships in time I'll be able to pick it up while I'm there, otherwise I might have to buy another plane ticket and get a hotel for when it does arrive. Let's hope it's here before the 18th.

We changed our plans just slightly from originally posted. We did get everything on the list but opted to pass on the new VHF radio system as it was going to put us over our budget for this refit project. We will be able to use our current Northstar VHF radio and have it tied into the Simrad gear so it will receive position information from the GPS.

Now the waiting game....

Planned Schematic

Here's a schematic on how we think we'll be installing our new Simrad equipment. It looks like a lot of wires but it really isn't. Actually, it's much less than what we have installed now on our current equipment.

Our refit selection - Simrad

As mentioned in our previous post we will be doing an electronics refit on Bruadair over the next month or so and after carefully reviewing the products from all the manufacturers we have decided to go with Simrad. Simrad is owned by Navico which also owns Northstar, Lowrance and Navman among other brand names. Our previous experience with Navico's technical support and customer service team as well as dealing with warranty issues has generally been positive and Navico has usually responded to our email inquires promptly. We are confident that the service they have provided for our Navman and Northstar equipment will be repeated with our Simrad equipment.

Other reasons for choosing Simrad include compatibility with our current radar antenna and radar processing unit. Not having to purchase a new radar antenna and related equipment will help with the budget. SimNet is Simrad's proprietary data network based on the NMEA 2000 CAN bus and will allow for connectivity and easy interfacing of all our new equipment reducing the amount of wires running through the boat. We estimate that we will be able to reduce between 50 to 75% of the wires, if not more, used for our current electronics. Data transfer on the SimNet network is 50 times faster than that of our current NMEA 0813 network and is easily integrated with NMEA 2000 and NMEA 0813 devices with optional adapters. The SimNet cable has small connectors at the end requiring a hole no larger than 3/8" making running wires through small conduits or through bulkheads easy. Because this is a powered network the SimNet cable will also provide power to some of the instruments further reducing existing wiring on the boat. Having power and data wires in a small cable means running only one cable rather than numerous wires as in our old system. A schematic of how our system will be wired will follow shortly.

So here's the equipment we have settled on offered by Simrad with a brief description. Each individual item will be reviewed in following posts.

NSE-8 Multifunction display. Just now being released this is a new product from Simrad and is packed with features. We will utilize it as a chartplotter, radar and sounder. AIS targets will be displayed on the radar display as well as the chart display, it has MARPA capabilities, track colors can be customized, waypoint 'lolipops' will be displayed on the radar screen, radar overlay, direct access keys for quick display selections and an alphanumeric keypad for easier labeling of waypoints and routes. USB ports located in the front and rear will allow for easy transfer of system settings, screen shots, waypoints, routes and tracks to a memory stick. An option is given to navigating by a rhumb line or via the great circle route. With an 80gb hard drive there will be more than sufficient space to store our numerous waypoints and routes. This 8" display (SVGA), also available in 12" (XGA), can be networked with additional displays. The display has a very high brightness bonded screen with LED back lighting making for easy viewing both during the day and at night. It has very fast redraw performance, 3D charting and satellite photo overlay capabilities. Radar controls such as Gain, Sea and Rain will be displayed on the radar screen as icons and easily controlled via the rotary knob. It's also preloaded with Navionics charts for North America and utilizes Navionics SD cards for the rest of the world. The NSE-8 will fit nicely in our Navpod instrument housing and will only require 5 small cables to be run through the stainless steel tubing of the pedestal guard. It will be interfaced with a BSM-1 sounder module. With full back lighting this multifunction display will draw a maximum of 1.8 amps.

AP28 Autopilot with AC42 control box, RC42 compass and RF25 rudder feedback unit. The AP28 autopilot display includes 14 push buttons and the much appreciated rotary control knob. With it's large back lit display all the information we want to see will be easily viewable. The display also has numerous data screens available to show a variety of information provided on the SimNet system. With a width of 6.8" the display will fit nicely in our Navpod next to the NSE-8 and will require only one SimNet cable to be run through the tubing. It will allow us to steer by a compass heading, a set angle to the wind or to a waypoint via interfacing with the NSE-8. The AC42 control box is the largest offered by Simrad and is rated at 30 amp continuous power with peak power at 50 amps. This is one of the largest offered in the industry and should be powerful enough to handle Bruadair's displacement of 28,000 pounds. The AC42 is also compatible with our current hydraulic pump and ram. The RC42 rate compass is connected to the system via a single SimNet cable and heading data will be sent to both the autopilot and NSE-8.

IS20 Sailing Instruments. Our sailing instruments will consist of a wind instrument to provide wind direction and speed, two combi displays to display depth, speed, water temperature and trip logs. These will be located in the cockpit area. A graphic repeater will be installed at the nav station. Each display is 4.5" x 4.5" and draws only 0.1 amps. Each will be connected via a single SimNet cable which will provide power and data. A DST800 transducer will be installed at our next haul out which will provide depth, water speed and water temperature in a single unit and requires only one hole in the hull. It will require only one wire to be run between the transducer and the SimNet system.

RS87 Dual Station VHF Radio. This is a black box VHF radio system where the transceiver will be mounted in an out of the way place with two full featured active handsets, one installed at the nav station and the other at the helm. The RS87 has DSC calling and will receive the ship's position information via a single Simnet cable connected to the SimNet system. Other features include intercom calling, hailing and fog horn options, alphanumeric keypad and separate speakers.

NAIS-300 Class B AIS Transponder. This is already installed on our boat and will interface with our NSE-8 multifunction display via a single SimNet cable. This dual channel unit provides Class A and Class B target information as well as transmits our position, course and speed to other vessels with an AIS receiver.

As we continue with our refit we will be discussing each individual unit as it is unpacked, installed and used as well as a full list of features for each equipment. Our first order of business is to get all our new equipment ordered and delivered by January 10th. Once on the boat the process will first start with uninstalling our current equipment, removing unnecessary wiring, running the backbone of the SimNet system then installing each unit one at a time. Stay tuned!