Chartplotter recommendations?

[Sunsetrider]

OMG that is hilarious!
(And exactly how I see myself!)

[DesertAlbin736]

OMG that is hilarious!
(And exactly how I see myself!)

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Glad you appreciated the humor & were not offended. I just remember you talking about Columbia last year. Say hi to Andrea for me.

OK, so back on topic: The install is complete. Wired in the 6 pin to 8 pin transducer cable for my legacy Airmar B117 transducer & seems to work fine, at least powering it up briefly while the boat is on the trailer. Will check it out further when we take the boat our on the lake on the 20th. The only thing with this setup is that with the depth sounder integrated with the chart plotter one cannot separately turn off the depth sounder & have the chartplotter running in GPS only, for instance while messing with it while the boat's on the trailer. Simple solution there is to simply unplug the transducer cable from the back of the chartplotter. Likewise I may or may not be able to test out the AIS & DSC functions unless another boat with AIS transponder happens to be out on our little 2 mile X 4 mile lake.

By the way, the pre-loaded g2 coastal charts that come with the unit do cover coastal waters of Canada, both East and West coasts, plus the Bahamas besides US waters. Not sure about St. Lawrence River, but the LakeView(TM) charts which cover many US inland lakes, including our home Lake Pleasant, AZ also comes pre-loaded. Other premium charts available have to be purchased separately.

So that does it for this project for now.

20180107_173049.jpg

[WillieC]

Since we have the Whisper Quiet (TM) MD17C on the WillieC, and we have the radio mounted on the wall to the right of the wheel, low down next to the heater, I have been pondering an external speaker. We have to throttle down to hear the radio, not unlike those with the dual Cummins set up. Maybe moving the radio up there might help, but with your installation I might have to get up off my... seat to reach the mic. If it's not one thing it's another!

Looks great! Why isn't there any rainwater on the dash? It lays quite nicely in the bottom of the ledge until it overflows and eventually makes its way to the bilge. Leave it there long enough, say under last year's Tides and Currents book, and the glass starts to bubble and blister, a very fetching effect. Oh, right. Arizona!

Surely somebody on Lake Pleasant has an AIS transponder. Anyone, anyone, Buehler? That is a little lake, though. We rarely get any targets out here on the end of the Canal, but every now and then a research boat goes by and I waste the rest of the day tracking its history down. It's either that or rip the light mast off and fix that leak. As soon as it stops raining.

[DesertAlbin736]

Since we have the Whisper Quiet (TM) MD17C on the WillieC, and we have the radio mounted on the wall to the right of the wheel,

I had moved my old VHF over to the side like that too, as can be seen in some of the photos in earlier posts. But this new radio has all that extra screen display stuff, whereas the old radio didn't have much more than channels displayed, so it's handier to have it back up on the dashboard. One drawback with the old radio mounted off to the side was that you had to be sitting at the wheel to use the radio, and the mic cord didn't reach very far. That old radio was truly a POS, & if I had it to do over I should have bargained harder on the price of the boat due to the lack of up to date electronics.

Why isn't there any rainwater on the dash?

Funny you should ask. It's actually pouring rain here with thunder & lighting tonight (yes I left the VHF antenna disconnected), between a quarter to a half inch accumulation expected, all from that same big storm system that brought horrendous mudslides and road closures to fire ravaged Southern California. Maybe 3 inches or so of snow up in AZ's high country around Flagstaff. I feel bad for those poor folks in SoCal. First drop of rain for us since August 23rd. Won't last though, should clear out by tomorrow with a few lingering clouds, and the rest of the week will be back to clear skies & sunshine with highs in the lower to mid 70s, lows in the upper 40s. By next month winter as we know it will be effectively over. This is the time of year we live for in these parts. Ordinarily our boat is completely water tight fore and aft. Will take a ride over tomorrow & check for leaks, but don't expect any. Couldn't have said that with the old pop top that came with the boat, but my hard top project of a couple years ago cured that problem.

Surely somebody on Lake Pleasant has an AIS transponder.

Hey! Don't call me Shirley!

There is that cruise tour boat on the lake that should have AIS transponder, but they're on winter hiatus right now & not running tours again until January 20th. There might be one or two boats in our sailing club that have DSC & MMSI, as well as some of the big motor yachts that inhabit the marinas. Yes, there are not only 60 foot houseboats, but also fancy 35 and 40+ foot motor yachts on our lake. Most of the time they never leave their covered slips & the owners come out on weekends to party on the docks & get sloshed. At planing speed those fast movers can get from one end of the lake to the other in 10 to 15 minutes or less, and pass anything but a fuel dock. Honestly, if all we ever did was putt around the lake I wouldn't bother with any of this. But coastal cruising, especially in the often rough Strait of Georgia up in BC, is another matter.

I did try out the new radio, listening to the weather channel. This Standard Horizon unit has a speaker built into the microphone, so if your engine is loud you can hold the mic up to your ear to hear better. Not sure what it is about those MD17C engines. Sunsetrider's is loud too. How much of that could be helped with a CV joint/thrust bearing setup (because in that case you have soft vibration isolating mounts on the engine & thrust bearing carrier) I'm not sure, but that question is probably moot for the MD17C anyway since it doesn't seem there's enough room in the engine bay for one. Some of it might be that VP engines are just plain loud.

[WillieC]

What you call "loud" we call Whisper Quiet (tm), right Sunsetrider!?
I also owned a Ford "Econoline" one ton van. Econoline... what a joke. 8mpg loaded to the gills or stark raving empty.

Yous guys and all your quiet, smooth running gear are what made me look a lot closer at my original gear. And you should have heard it before.

A speaker in the mic, huh? I may have to look closer at our radio, since it was manufactured most likely in this millennium.