I just got back to my trusty laptop to start writing articles again. So I thought to myself what I should start with. There are thousands of topics that I want to cover. Then I had my ah-ha moment (yes, you can still get them at 66). Why not write about your recent experience discovering the NMEA 2000 installation?
In short, I am a cruiser at heart. I have been away from my sailboat for the last 2 years working to build my cruise / retirement kitty and this past winter I took a few trips to my Gulfstar 44 to make sure it was okay and missed me. I also decided that it was time to start installing the new instruments that I had bought for the last 2 years while traveling for my “little more money” (JOB).
Two years ago, my wife and I took a week off to drive her to St. Augustine from Miami to put her in trouble during the time she was traveling for work. During that trip I noticed very quickly that there were some systems that desperately needed attention. I really mean the replacement, but the care made it easier to swallow. All cruise ships despise the idea of having to break down multiple boat units (if you don’t know … a boat unit costs $ 1,000.00) to install new equipment, even if they do the work themselves.
In addition to the aversion to the term ship units, there is the fear of self-installing electronics. Most cruise ships are, and by necessity must be experts in all trades. But installing electronics for most is the scariest task. I consider myself pretty good at installing just about anything on my boat, but installing multiple instruments together and trying to get them to communicate with each other is a pretty scary idea. When I bought our Gulfstar, it came with electronic devices that worked well. I had a 4 “black and white and grayscale Garmin GPS, Simrad / Robertson autopilot, Furuno radar (my head was hitting the table … what was anyone here thinking?) And Datamarine Corinthian depth instruments and wind minus the anemometer that was flown during Hurricane Wilma.
Shortly after my purchase, I bought a Garmin GPSMap 4208 chartplotter to replace the small screen I had. When I read the documentation and installation instructions for the 4208 (along with a couple of phone calls to Garmin technical support), I discovered that over the NMEA 0183 cable I could get it to talk to my Simrad autopilot. Wow, I could build routes to different places and my GPS would tell the autopilot where and when to turn. Okay, I said. I have to do that.
So, with the installation instructions in one hand and the tools in the other, I proceeded to start stripping the wires from the GPS main cable, took them to the autopilot computer, and added a second manual to the mix. “Connect the blue / white wire from the autopilot to the brown wire on the GPS NMEA 0183 wire” and so on until you have this ball of connections. With the sweat of fear running down my forehead, it didn’t look very good until I turned on the GPS and autopilot and played what if. Holy mackerel … it worked. I cleaned the ball of connections and was a very happy cruise. I felt like I needed to have a medal on my chest.
Let’s move on to today. The autopilot stopped working properly during our trip to St. Augustine, the wind instrument did not work because the anemometer I bought from eBay was not compatible with the instrument head, my depth is erratic because I installed a transducer in the hull instead of a thru-hull for the new Garmin GSD 22 Sonar, plus I had to deal with the head bumper hanging over the dinner table for radar whenever it was needed (a difficult task from the cockpit of a center-cockpit sailboat ). Years before, I installed a GPS and Raymarine radar that overlapped the chartplotter and knew this was still possible. So I will update or replace my electronic devices.
As the owner of an online boat electronics and parts store, I had been hearing about this new NMEA 2000 material for a few years and decided to check it out. I typed Garmin NMEA 2000 into the search bar on my trusty laptop and found instructions for a basic Garmin NMEA 2000 system. I read these instructions several times and decided that NMEA 2000 was the way to go for me. I also checked my Garmin 4208 for compatibility. Surprise, surprise … it was NMEA 2000 compliant.
So I started shopping for the instruments I was going to replace and started planning my NMEA 2000 backbone. I sketched my spine probably 4 times until I was satisfied with my plan. I grabbed a piece of starboard and started screwing on these NMEA 2000 tees as I had planned. I routed the drop cables for each of the instruments I bought and connected them to the T’s on the backbone. Added the power tee and installed the male and female terminators on the lightning protection tee as instructed. NO GREAT CONNECTION PACKAGE! Simple plug and play. The hardest thing to do was pull the cables from the new Garmin GMR18HD radar and the wind transducer on the mast to the spine. He connected the few cables to the autopilot processor and installed the new wind transducer on the bumper and thru-hull. Other than that and actually replacing the existing instruments, it was a breeze with a little pre-planning. I even decided to add a Garmin GXM 51 antenna so I could add the Sirius XM weather while listening to the 60 on the 6th when we started sailing next July.
The only thing you could think would be easier would be to have all the wireless instruments! And you can do that with some teams today. I can’t wait for that update. I said all of this so you know that upgrading your boat’s electronics shouldn’t give you a rash, hives, or cause you to run the other way. NMEA 2000 has conveniently put the installation of new electronic devices in the hands of all willing beginners. If you can connect your DVD player to your TV at home, you can install NMEA 2000 electronics. So don’t put off the necessary upgrades or new systems you’ve been thinking about installing on your boat. Start shopping for the equipment you are considering, either in pieces of a complete package. Go to your local physical marine store and watch, play games and ask questions. After deciding what you want, start getting some prices and start the process of searching all the marine electronics stores online and have fun installing your new electronics. Happy sailing, good winds and calm seas.