October 2022: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions . . .

Blue Tortuga
Oct 15, 2022
2 min read

*We are not sponsored by any company and receive no payment for the information presented here. Strictly the opinion of the writers after doing our own research.

The items pictured are older modes of navigation (while interesting and important when technology fails) we are so glad that the navigation options are much more updated. Unfortunately, also considerably more complicated. The navigation that boaters choose can be as varied as human beings themselves. Perhaps that is why so many options exist. From pleasure fishing boats to cruise ship navigation selecting the right option for us meant we

needed to do some homework! Some of which promised to be fun reviewing all the options. On the other hand, as we learned more, it also became clear that the navigation system could be complicated. Bells and whistles, integration with other systems, power usage, and cost all played a part in the decision process.

Sailing purists we are not (no offense to those that are). We like technology and have a healthy respect for what it can do – and what can happen when it doesn’t work. Tom would say, “Did you shut down and re-start?” We seek to strike a healthy balance - for us.

What we discovered during a review of the many companies providing options for navigation is that it had to include other systems that were needed for our boat. These systems include hardware and software for auto-pilot, chart plotters, radar, rudder sensor, compass, GPS, etc,. After all, what good is navigation, if you don’t know where in the great blue ocean you are? There are a lot of great companies out there. Some with long histories, others with a focus on fishing or sailing, or combinations of the same, for example Raymarine, Garmin, Simrad, Lowrance, B&G and many many others.

To narrow down our search we focused on companies that provided systems for cruising sailors. As we did that we realized that Simrad, Lowrance and B&G are all owned by the same company and have similar features but focus on particular niches. That led us to B&G. The company has a focus on the sailing community, especially cruising sailors and great support.

One would think the decisions stop there. But there are components to work through and after long hours and several visits to the marine stores. We selected the Zeus3 chartplotter with Triton instrumentation. The system will integrate to multiple screens, and layers can be added to include charts, trip planning, etc. We will learn more about those as we get them up and running.

See the details at their website: https://www.bandg.com/bg/type/autopilots/

We are not compensated by any vendor.

B&G in conjunction with American Sailing Association (ASA) has offered several classes on the features of their products and how to use them, including trouble shooting segments. It has been informative. There is so much to learn with these systems.

Additional displays that will be included will provide information on speed, depth, and wind direction. The large displays are easy to read, as we age – dare I admit it – we want to see these without having to use readers. Imagine that!