Electronics

Lots of challenges in this category. Maintain the traditional look and feel of the vessel, take advantage of today's technology and still keep it simple. There is certainly a limit to how many antennas, sensors and instruments one can cram on to the mast head before she loses the BCC traditional image. And yet it is not necessary to do without GPS driven information, communication or weather forecasting capability. Note to self: be careful though, keep it simple or you will end up fighting downtime and maintenance issues and if you overdo it on instrumentation the whole restoration budget will be blown.

The heart of the system will be a low draw dc powered fanless mini computer (not high dollar ruggidized) permanently mounted at the nav station with standard keyboard and mouse. The computer will drive two VGA monitors, one a 10 inch waterproof touch screen mounted in the cockpit on the portside bulkhead and the other a 15 inch at the nav station. The computer will run chart plotter software and Maretron Nemea 2000 network software. I am leaning toward the Rose Point chart plotter software as they offer radar with chart overlay support in case I decide to move to Maine. The Nemea 2000 Maretron network will probably be the world’s smallest with tri-data info, gps and tank volume data only . Redundancy when Windows XP displays the blue screen of death?........ hand held Garmin and lead line.

Communication equipment will be VHF radio and AIS receiver with one antennae and a splitter. Does AIS fall into the Communication or Navigation category?  Both I guess.  Will Rose Point display AIS info on the chart.  Maybe it would it be better to have a stand alone AIS with its own display so it does not have to rely on the PC?

Weather, I don't know yet. Maybe XM radio for the summer but they charge a fortune. Best to wait until I need to rig up for an extended cruise (outside of Galveston Bay would be a good start :-) )

Leaving for Annapolis tomorrow to attend boat show. The maritime shopping binge continues