Electronics

In general, we really like our "IFR" trawler. Most of the stuff works great.

Major components include:

Raymarine ST7001 Autopilot - We had a previous Raymarine/Autohelm pilot on our Grand Banks and were so pleased with its service over a 15 year period there was no question we would go with it again. We did and anyone who says they can helm a vessel like this better than the Raymarine Autopilot will be mistaken. It makes the boat run on rails, especially in sloppy conditions that tax the captain and crew. Set a waypoint , hit track, and watch it go.

Furuno Navnet Radar - An excellent 72 mile open array unit that does an excellent job. It can superimpose radar images on the chart plotter, has two range and bearing markers that help anticipate closure with target, and it pops the waypoint up in a circle in front of you.

Dual Furuno GPS Receivers.

Furuno Chart Plotters - One each networked between pilothouse and bridge helms. Six C-map cartridges covering US and Canadian east coasts, the St. Lawrence River, and the Bahamas. I keep my laptop at the helm in the pilothouse and run Maptech Navigation Suite for all planning, route prediction, and to second guess the Furuno.

Furuno and Raymarine Depthsounders. I like redundancy. They read not more than half a foot of difference. I have them calibrated to show depth under the keel so I don't have to do the math every time. The Raymarine unit gave us some initial trouble but it was solved with the support of Raymarine corporate headquarters.

The Furuno displays can be controlled at a distance with the IR remote control. We find this to be a very nice capability.

Dual Standard Horizon VHF radios, each with a RAM microphone. This gives us, effectively, two independent radios in the pilothouse and two in the bridge. One of the radios on the bridge is also wired to a hailing speaker and works well to communicate audibly at a distance. We used the automatic fog signaling feature extensively in the cool waters we cruised up north. It also can be used to terrify unsuspecting acquaintances when the police siren feature is fired off.