wheelerwbrian
Member III
My 1988 38-200's orginal Datamarine instruments appear to be reaching the end of their life - every year something else goes wrong. This year, the masthead anemometer has stopped working, the speed paddle stopped a few years ago, and the depth works sometime, despite replacing the transducer a few years ago (generally I pull it, clean it and put it back in, then its good for awhile). There's also an old Loran direction pointer that goes nowwhere, just taking up space on the bulkhead.
So I'm thinking of outfitting new instruments, but I definitely want to avoid the "while I'm at it" slide to big bucks. A few years ago I probably would have gone with Raymarine, since my AP is Raymarine, but with the acquistion by Flir, it seems like their instrument business may be on the downhill slide - the supply is getting iffy, and that will mean of course that support will disappear. Discussion on the SSCA forums points to Furuno.
So what are folks thoughts on a reliable, reasonable instrument set? I'm not interested in being on the bleeding edge here. What should I budget for costs?
And while I have the mast down, should I replace the standing rigging - I don't think its original and I had it inspected about 5 years ago and it was ok, but its certainly not new. Again, I need to reign in the costs here, so I would plan on sending it off, having it fabricated and installing it myself, unless the savings are not appreciable. Vendor recommendations welcome - I'm in the Annapolis area. I seem to remember that there may be a parts issue with Ericsons, regariding the chainplate attachements, however...
Thoughts, discussions, stories most welcome.
So I'm thinking of outfitting new instruments, but I definitely want to avoid the "while I'm at it" slide to big bucks. A few years ago I probably would have gone with Raymarine, since my AP is Raymarine, but with the acquistion by Flir, it seems like their instrument business may be on the downhill slide - the supply is getting iffy, and that will mean of course that support will disappear. Discussion on the SSCA forums points to Furuno.
So what are folks thoughts on a reliable, reasonable instrument set? I'm not interested in being on the bleeding edge here. What should I budget for costs?
And while I have the mast down, should I replace the standing rigging - I don't think its original and I had it inspected about 5 years ago and it was ok, but its certainly not new. Again, I need to reign in the costs here, so I would plan on sending it off, having it fabricated and installing it myself, unless the savings are not appreciable. Vendor recommendations welcome - I'm in the Annapolis area. I seem to remember that there may be a parts issue with Ericsons, regariding the chainplate attachements, however...
Thoughts, discussions, stories most welcome.