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hi everyone jeff cote here with another

session of votingtechtalk.com

so we've got a question from a boater

and the question goes as follows best

minimum electronics package for safe

offshore sailing

what's absolutely necessary to the very

much recommended thinking for a budget

builder who's going no matter what

all right good question

building blocks of a safe electronic

package for sale boaters that are going

to go offshore

well i think

um i'm not saying the first but let's go

through the list of the in my opinion

non-debatable

non-debatable are avhf radio

with an aerial at the top of the mast

that would be

non-negotiable you need to have a vhf

another one too that i would

recommend strongly is a depth sounder

nothing fancy doesn't have to be a fish

finder but a depth sounder that works

you know at least in 200 250 water depth

that is low power consumption right so

ideally something that you can leave on

all the time and that's the challenge

with some fish finders that have to run

through a chart plotter

right so you want something that is very

very very low power draw something that

has very low bright settings you know

just just simply depth at very low power

cost

so that you can have depth on all the

time

so we covered depth and we covered vhf

the other one i would say today because

you know

in the age of gps

and it's been here for a while i would

say at the very least every single one

of us should have uh gps coordinates end

time honor modes and that is something

that has been around for a very long

time we can go way above and beyond that

but

i would at least have those three things

and of course navigation light is

something else but again not it's not

electronics so we're talking about depth

sounder

vhf radio um are way way way high there

on the list and then a just a simple

data repeater gps receiver would be the

other one okay all right so those are to

me would be my bare minimum and to be

honest what i think i'm always thinking

about when we're building an electronic

package for a boater is that every

boater should have that it doesn't

matter you're going offshore or not

every boater every trawler every single

boater should have those three things

and you should have them no matter what

else you have on board so even on my own

boat

i basically have what i consider an

instrument breaker something that i turn

on that takes very low power draw and

gives me critical information right

depth being one of them gps information

being the other and a vhf being the

other one right so for me those are the

three most important things and every

single one of us as voters should have

that and you should almost have a backup

if you've got a very big navigation

system

often we do a complete standalone

get you home nav system vhf radio sharp

water and dev sounder and that's a

complete redundant system from

everything else all right above and

beyond that for offshore sailors

certainly an instrument depth

would be good like we talked about but

why not just spend a little bit more

money and get a dst transducer depth

speed and temp right

so now you can know what sort of apps

and again that's not a lot of money

right it's just one layer above a depth

sounder but having a triducer that gives

you all three right so you got a paddle

wheel

that you're going to have to maintain

regularly of course you're going to have

temperature which is going to be useful

to know what type of currents you're in

right the temperature of the water is

going to influence a lot of things and

then you're going to have your depth so

that would be the next level up after

that my next advice would be a

winnometer

you probably want to know what the wind

speed is and the wind direction

that's going to affect your life in a

dramatic way and you can imagine the

worst when the winds are blowing at 35

40 45 50 knots and it's reassuring

sometimes to know that the wind isn't as

bad as you thought it was

all too often i've heard the wind

thinking it was 40 45 and it was only 30

or 28.

so sometimes it's reassuring to know

what the numbers are and let not let

your imagination run wild after that

what i would recommend an ais

transponder

ais transponder why because it's an easy

way for other vessels to know your

position assuming that you are within

vhf

reach

right but that'd be really good and not

only would they see you but you would

see all ais vessels that are transponded

again over vhf vhf frequencies on

probably a standalone eco their phone

right for example some of those

manufacturers make basically all the

information not even show up on the

display but your phone is the display to

the device so that would be the next one

all right

after that what would i do

well i have to say with the prices of

chartplotters nowadays and even if you

know a seven inch six inch five inch at

the very least i would get a

chartplotter

i think that with the prices of

charplotters today it's really hard even

if you have an ipad

to not at least get something that's

hardwired maybe you don't use it all the

time but if ever you run out of powers

from your batteries from your ipad or

your ipad slips your hand falls on the

ground and breaks you're not going to

lose your primary navigation system so

as a backup and i recommend that to even

voters that have larger screens or are

really big in ipad navigation

or tablet navigation is to consider

putting a small standalone chart plotter

your budget will really influence the

size of the screen and what features

you're looking for it

but you know you can look at at the very

least a seven inch chart plotter or a

five inch sharp plotter something again

to get you home

because it's one thing to have gps

coordinates but it's pretty convenient

to be able to see your ship

surrounded on top of a chart when you're

navigating unknown waters so that would

be the next one

and the screen size of course there's no

limit i mean they're 24 inches you don't

have to go to that of course i say

something like 9 or 10 if you can afford

one

great because a 12 inch even a 12 inch

can be split in split screen and then

you basically have almost two

it feels like two seven or eight inch

screens side by side so it's a lot of

real estate to go from an 8 to 12 and if

you can afford a 12 recommend a 12.

people always find as we grow older even

myself my eyes are not what they used to

be

so the next was a chart plotter

after that i would probably strongly

consider radar and radar to look for

ships over the horizon and to give you

that a little bit of safety buffer again

not all of us are going to be able to

afford a radar i'm not saying you need a

radar but if you can afford having one a

radar for arriving in again waters that

are unknown

you'll be able to pick up a lot of

basically

sort of maybe the shoreline is briefs

that are partially submerged you'll be

able to put that on radar you'll be able

to pick up also storms coming on radar

flocks of birds far away that maybe tell

you where the fish are there's a lot of

reasons for why you would want radar but

not all not all of us are going to have

radar in our boat it's not to say you

need it but there's definitely benefits

and then after that you know

weather station right to get weather

station updates that's another really

big one that people would think about

having on their boats uh connecting that

to your chart plotter so you can have

overlay but it's not gonna work

everywhere but if you're going in the

geography depending on where you're

going that might be an option and then

again very lastly on the list would be a

thermal camera

but listen that's very very far you know

like when we're starting the first thing

i talked about was a vhf radio the

thermal camera is not side to side

but again it all depends on the budget

it depends if you're going to be going

in places where

you're really worried about a debris in

the water maybe at night or you're going

to be doing landfall again at night in a

lot of places which we shouldn't

especially in places we don't know but

if you will then our thermal

imaging camera might be giving you a

little bit more peace of mind

and so that's the question and that's my

answer my recommendation thanks for

asking i want to thank you for watching

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again

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