By Tom Burden, Last updated 11/30/
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The pillars of functional and practical onboard instrumentation are speed, depth, and on sailboats, wind data. Marine instruments are available as standalone units (basic depth sounders, for example) or as systems with identical displays. We'll walk you through the components of a typical system and help you choose the right ones for your boat.
Racing sailboats should have a complete integrated instrument system, including boat speed, wind speed and direction, depth, and GPS data.
Cruising sailboats can get by with less complete instrumentation, but skippers interested in performance will probably want to have at least boat speed, depth and wind information.
Powerboats need to have boat speed and depth as well as the normal engine monitoring gauges, and may add wind information for voyaging or Race Committee duties. It&#;s nice to be able to monitor environmental conditions on a voyaging powerboat, since steering from a pilothouse or interior helm station makes it hard to determine the wind conditions.
Raymarine's i50 Speed Instrument is a great knotmeter for smaller powerboats, sailboats and rigid inflatables.
A knotmeter measures a boat&#;s speed, and knotlog records distance traveled through the water. Both are basic navigation tools and provide information of general interest. Virtually all boaters want to know how fast the boat is going.
Sailors want to trim sails to optimize boat speed, and the powerboaters want to optimize towing, cruising or trolling speed, or just know how quickly they are getting somewhere.
A depth sounder indicates how deep the water is so you can avoid running aground, can set your anchor with proper scope, and can navigate more accurately. Transducers, similar to those of a fishfinder, gather depth and speed information and pass it to connected displays.
The Garmin gWind Masthead wind instrument features twin-fin tech and a three-blade propellor for more accurate True Wind Speed (TWS).
Wind instruments display wind angle and speed in the cockpit or at the base of the mast. This information allows you to sail as fast and efficiently as possible, and helps you know when to reduce sail. Wind instruments are also helpful for night sailing, when watching the water for waves and gusts is impossible. They are occasionally found on powerboats, especially those that cruise or perform race committee duties.
Wind instruments, when connected to speed, depth, compass and GPS data, can calculate an array of useful data: true and apparent wind, velocity made good, closehauled wind angles and tacking angles. Instrument packages are a simplified way to buy three common sailboat instruments: a knotlog, depth sounder and wind instrument.
As the name suggests, a repeater mimics information that is being transmitted on the data network, and can occasionally create new information by combining data. For example, true wind angle can be computed from boat speed, wind speed, and apparent wind angle. Repeaters do not have transducers; they merely process data measured by other instruments.
Digital and/or analog readout of a fluxgate compass.
Garmin's GMI&#; 20 digital marine mulifunction instrument is designed for both power and sail vessels. GMI&#; 20 clearly shows depth, speed, wind and 100+ marine and vessel parameters.
The instruments we described above display one sort of data only. A knotmeter, for example, outputs your speed and distance traveled. It won&#;t display wind or depth data. Multifunction instruments combine different information read outs, like depth, speed, wind and more, into a single display. Instruments that use the NMEA network are essentially small multifunction displays and can be customized to your preferences to show just about any information from anywhere on your boat&#;s network. Raymarine&#;s i70, Garmin&#;s GMI 20 and Simrad&#;s IS40 are examples of these NMEA instruments. The GMI 20, which is pretty typical, shows depth, speed, wind and more than 100 marine and vessel parameters.
An instrument system allows you to view a variety of useful data when using your boat
Speed over the ground (SOG) allows you to see the effect of current, which may be substantial. Connected to a GPS, your instruments can tell both how fast you&#;re going through the water and your SOG.
Just like your car&#;s Trip Odometer. Good for determining your cruising speed and fuel consumption.
Very useful for anglers, cruisers wondering if they have entered the Gulf Stream, or divers.
The wind you feel when stationary is the true wind. Apparent wind is a vector that combines your boat&#;s speed with the true wind. True wind is useful for showing wind shifts, how high a sailboat is pointing and tacking angles.
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Shows your true speed toward a waypoint. If you&#;re heading directly at the destination, your SOG and VMG will match, but when traveling off-course your VMG will be lower. Especially important for sailors going upwind. For example, if you point a little lower, but travel through the water faster, your VMG may go up or down.
Alarms that show decreasing or increasing depth are very important safety features to keep from running aground, or show if your anchor is dragging.
Countdown or count-up timers provide a great way for racing sailors to keep track of their start time, with big letters visible anywhere in the cockpit.
The Raymarine i50 Speed Instrument displays speed through water, speed over ground (GPS required), sea surface temperature, trip and log data.
The most affordable choice is a segmented monochrome display. Since you&#;re mainly looking at numbers on these single-purpose instruments, this inexpensive LCD display works fine.
Fully networked instruments take advantage of this pictorial format to show you a huge selection of gauges, diagrams, very large and bright numbers&#;with NMEA networking, the sky&#;s the limit.
When choosing an instrument system, consider how close you&#;ll be when reading the numbers. If you&#;re looking at mast-mounted instruments from the cockpit of a 40&#; racing sailboat, you&#;re going to want bigger displays than if you&#;re reading a dash-mounted display on your 19&#; Sea Ray. Look at B &G and Nexus for sail racing instruments for all sizes of boats.
The availability of wireless connections for boat instruments eliminates the headaches associated with drilling holes in the deck or hull and routing cables up the mast. Micronet instruments talk to each other through a secure wireless network that does not interfere with other onboard systems and that does not transmit one boat&#;s data to another with the same system.
Selecting a marine GPS system suitable for your own boat involves some research into the capabilities of the various systems available. There are a number of manufacturers, and each GPS unit may have some features that are different from others. You may find that some of the units have an electronic charting display, and some can be interfaced with your boat radar, which will show you not only your destination, but also a visual display of the progress you have made. Other GPS receivers have the capability to link to your fish finder or autopilot. The boating GPS system you select will depend on how you want to use it.
Marine GPS systems are handy to use on a boat, rather than relying on maps, which can be cumbersome out on the water. Boating GPS units are related to those you can use in your car, and in fact, some waterproof hand-held GPS units can be used in an automobile or on a boat. In either setting, GPS devices will provide a sound way for you to easily determine your exact location.
Marine GPS Systems Features
Before you select a GPS system for your boat, find out what you need in a unit. If you travel between United States ports, or into other countries&#; ports, the system you need will be much different than a boater who only navigates on local lakes, and may just be trying to find the nearest campground.
You will also want to ask yourself who will be doing the most programming of the unit. The more complex units are more suitable for experienced mariners, and if you&#;re a pleasure boater, those units may not only be out of your price range, but they will probably also have features on them that you don&#;t need. You should select a unit that has only the features that you want and need.
One feature that is commonly found on marine GPS systems is a navigate-to-point feature. The display of the &#;path&#; you follow will be included on each unit. You may also be able to use your navigate-to-point features to follow a track already saved in your unit memory. This is especially handy if you are cruising in reduced visibility and can&#;t see familiar landmarks or sea markings.
Another helpful feature is called &#;MOB&#; which means &#;man overboard,&#; and this will let you mark the position of the incident by touching one button.
Each marine GPS unit should provide you with an accurate reading of your speed, the distance and time to your destination, and a course that is easy to read. Many units also have digital compasses on them.
Advanced GPS Features
Some of the more complex marine GPS units have a chart plotter display, which basically tells you where you are currently located. High-end recreational and commercial boat GPS navigation systems include satellite imagery, tide information and auto-guidance for the GPS-autopilot link up.
Some GPS systems even include customized alarms that can be linked to your radar, which will advise you when you are coming to a turn, or when another boat is entering your route on the water. In the latter case, you would need to contact the other driver by radio. You can use GPS devices systems for customized charts, which offer you more geospatial information that isn&#;t normally displayed.
Check to see how easy your prospective GPS unit is to program, including points of navigation. How easy is it to use the functions on the unit? One touch programming is not usually available for every function, but your GPS unit should be easy to program, especially since you may encounter poor weather conditions while you&#;re out on the water.
Boat GPS Size and Display
The size of the GPS unit you select will affect the display size, and may also limit the areas on your boat where it can be installed. The characteristics of the display, contrast, and brightness are essential for you to be able to easily see important navigational information. The value of the unit to you is not very good if you can&#;t easily read the display.
The ease of installation of your GPS system, and whether it can be interfaced with other marine electronics or not, is important to consider, if your boat has radar, a single band radio receiver or an autopilot function. This equipment should all have the capability to be linked to your marine GPS unit, to make your boating experience more enjoyable.
Source: www.boats-florida.com
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