Installing Nav Instruments

Trying to figure out where to put a Navigation Instrument where it is the most useful can be a brain bender.  If it is going in a instrument panel makes it easy.  But if it is a free standing or bracket mount unit the install can a challenge to find the right place.  Where you can run the wiring, how long the wiring is, the size of the unit and where it is placed so you can read it and it is out of the way and protected all need to be considered.  Then add in the thought of drilling holes in your boat.  My wife goes nuts when it comes to drilling holes in her boat no matter what they are for.

If the unit needs to be connected to other instruments, you have to take that linkage wiring may be also involved.  Our two sailboats are over 20 years old and other than a compass they came with no other interments.  We have put things like depth finders, wind instruments, GPS on them and each time we have it has been a challenge on where to put the stuff.

What is nice about the new combo units are that they have multiple instruments built in to the same unit. My newest GPS Combo has the GPS, the chart plotter, a fish-finder/ depth finder, a compass, and it gives your speed underway, a guess on when you will get to where you are going, and a bunch more stuff I do not use.   All in one nice little box.  The box is water proof (so the directions say ) and more or less is readable in bright sunlight. 

I mounted the bracket for the unit on a board that sits in the cockpit where it is easily seen and used. The board has Velcro strips on it so it will not slide around when sailing, and when we do not need it, it can go into the cabin with the instrument still on it.  The wiring harness is the biggest limiting factor.  The Velcro let me mount it so no holes had to be put in the boat.  8-)  I also have Velcro in the cabin where it is stored so it can not does not slide around when stored. 

I think the biggest problem is seeing the display in bright sun. A home made shadow box is what I came up with for that.  The wiring harness is the only other.  The other option would have been to install it fixed mount, but I did not want it so it was exposed all the time. 

GPS Plotters and Trackers

We have a very old GPS tracker unit on our bigger boat and it works quite well. You lay out your course on a real paper chart, enter way points in to the GPS and the GPS shows a highway you follow to each way point. For most trips it works quite well.  But you do have to put the way points in manually.  Simple and dumb.  8-)

On our recent trip sailing with my wife's brother, I got to see and use his new GPS Plotter.  I admit it was more than dirt simple. No need for paper charts and looking up and plotting the course ahead of time.  We still had real charts and they are great and we used them for a quick coastal overview.  But all we did with his GPS unit was turn it on and it displayed the area we were in and where we were located.  We just had to mark with a way point where we wanted to go on the monitor, and it set the course for us.  The displayed chart showed us water depth, and you just way pointed through to keep us in deep water.  It also gave us our speed over the water, what compass reading we should follow and a estimation on when we would get there.

I knew the new GPS units did all these things, but I really did not figure I had to have them.  After all I have real paper charts. 8-)  They are old like me!!!  And there is something neat on useing a chat to set your course.

After a week using this "New" thing I found I liked it.   It did make navigation very easy.  And the display of the chart on the monitor over the area you were in was nice. You could zoom in and out for better detail or wider aria if you want.  You could save the plot to use it again another time.

But Dang!!   I still like paper charts and we have a BIG BOX of them.  I guess I could wall paper one of our bathrooms with some of the old charts we never use.  Better then pitching them I guess.

OK, when I got home I did check out the new GPS Plotters.   There are some very reasonably priced ones as well as high end ones like the one we used on the trip.  We do not really do much sailing where we need a GPS but I admit I like the one we used. I am going to surprise my wife with a GPS plotter.  I am going to get a small one that we can use on my 21' boat and can use it on her 37'  if we want to and need it.

With my boat and the trips we take in it all we need is a depth sounder and a compass, but going high tech will not hurt.  *-)    Lets see: a chart, a compass, an anchor, a depth sounder, a little beer and rum and now a GPS Plotter.  That makes for a happy OLD Pirate.  Arg!!