We considered a few different brands of sailing instruments. So why did we pick Raymarine? It’s a pretty popular brand in the sailing industry, and they have a pretty good reputation. Ultimately, it was because we already had a Raymarine radar. Our boat came with a pretty old Standard Horizon speed log and wind gauge. The only depth indicator was a Raymarine fish finder that was mounted in the companionway.
Raymarine Instruments
We replaced an old Standard Horizon wind gauge in the cockpit with a Raymarine i50. A second i50 for the speed and depth was added next to the first one in the cockpit. We also decided on an i60 that covers wind speed and direction. It shows close hauled wind options in analogue and digital formats. It’s easy to see from the helm and has simple push-button controls.
We love our i70s Multifunction Instrument that we installed at the nav station. It relays the data from the instruments in the cockpit as well as displays AIS targets from our NMEA 2000 AIS receiver (we’ll have a post on the Vesper soon). We added an iTC-5 instrument transducer converter for integration with our analog depth, wind, speed, compass and rudder transducer. The magnetic compass is mounted under the floorboards forward of the mast compression post. It’s basically right under the door to the head.
If we had to do it all over, we’d probably go with B & G Sailing Electronics for our instruments. They use a standard NMEA 2000 cables system as opposed to Raymarine which uses their proprietary NMEA 2000 Seatalk cables.
Windex
After sailing around the delta we realized we couldn’t see the Raymarine wind vane on the front of the mast from the helm. Yes, we have the gauges in the cockpit, but if someone is sitting in front of them, or using the winch they can be hard to see as well. So we decided to install a Davis Windex 15 on the back of the mast. After sailing with it a few times, I’m surprised how much we rely on it. It’s a great addition.
