An electronics budget

[allegria]

Could anyone give a rough estimate ( ball park figure if necessary) as to what it would cost to kit out a 7.5m rib with all the necessary and up to date electronics, nothing fancy. Just wondering what other people have spent?.

[Hugh Jardon]

i think you need to be a little more specific


ie fixed radio or handheld, icom....200
colour or b/w chartplotter, garmin 178c 550
depth/fishfinder, colour or b/w built into garmin
then what ever maps/charts you want

anything else you might want ?

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by allegria

Could anyone give a rough estimate ( ball park figure if necessary) as to what it would cost to kit out a 7.5m rib with all the necessary and up to date electronics, nothing fancy. Just wondering what other people have spent?.

How long is a piece of string???

I ended up spending quite a bit but shopped around for the best deals.

With a normal boat with a cabin I would have used a laptop with my handheld gps connected to it but on an open RIB that was ruled out!!!

Electronics have come down massively in price lately - just read a test in MBY on h/h vhfs - they rated the Cobra at about £50 as quite good - just need a waterproof bag for it.

As to what I bought

Raymarine C80 with fishfinder module and GPS - no radome yet
Wide area chart
Navman 3100 fuel computer
Raymarine 54E vhf
Icom M1V h/h vhf

Total spend was about £2200 plus VAT

One thing I learnt was the transducers are more important than the actual units!!! For example a cheap Raymarine display with an expensive radome will outperform a much more expensive set with a smaller scanner.

Same with fishfinder/echo sounders. Some transducers run into the £thousands - a cheap head unit with an expensive transducer will be better than the other way around!!!

Suppose you could say the same about radios - an expensive set with a cheap aerial will not perform as well as a budget set with a bloody great big aerial fitted to it.

[Jimbob]

To give you idea of what we have, however the types are endless

VHF DSC ICOM 421 (i think) - about 250
Depth/log = 200
Compass = 100
chart plotter , ours is Raymarine, but i think you could get a colour one for about 700, with same screen dimensions

All other gauges i need came with the engine

If your really on a budget, VHF (so you call for assistance), depth log (so you dont run aground and distance), Compass (so you know what direction), and a cheap GSP (so you know where you are on the chart),,e.g navigate

[Nos4r2]

I've got an eagle/lowrance cuda 240 combined gps/fishfinder and a waterproof dsc radio on my 4m-whole lot came to under £400 and the screen size for the fishfinder means the gps is really easy to use. You'd get away with those two and a chart easily. Depth on the fishfinder seems to work ok at speed.

[roycruse]

Only one choice for me

Garmin 178C (£579) + Icom M421 (£199) + Rib Raider Antenna ($47)

I have this kit in my boat - and will fit the same kit in my next boat (or equivalent models when that day comes)

[Hugh Jardon]

Originally Posted by roycruse

and will fit the same kit in my next boat

Hey Roy are you thinking ahead already?

was the weather kind this weekend? did you do a few hours/miles

[roycruse]

Originally Posted by Hugh Jardon

Hey Roy are you thinking ahead already?

was the weather kind this weekend? did you do a few hours/miles

No - not thinking ahead at all - am over the moon with the rib just trying to point out how much I like these two pieces of electronics.

Yes the weather was kind to us in the end - check here or follow the riblog link in my signature for what I've been up to...

[The Jackeens]

Originally Posted by allegria

Could anyone give a rough estimate ( ball park figure if necessary) as to what it would cost to kit out a 7.5m rib with all the necessary and up to date electronics, nothing fancy. Just wondering what other people have spent?.

Again, hard to say (radar etc?).

Depends on what you consider 'necessary' but a starting budget of £2,000 should get you somewhere.

Might be worth having a brief chat with your local chandler.

Good luck!

Us

[allegria]

Hi,

Thanks for all the info so far, its been very helpful. I've always been a fan of the raymarine range so would probaly opt for their products. But having read the replies i may now take a closer look at others (garmin and Icom).I would want to have a fixed radio/vhf, colour charplotter, depth/fishfinder and compass, no radar.

I guess raymarine and garmin are towards the top end of the market?.