Raymarine Thermal Night Vision Cameras

[dann]

When I finally get my RIB I plan to do some fairly extensive cruising even though it is unlikely to be above 5 metres! (Most likely Ribcraft 4.8) And was wondering whether for night passages, as well as radar, is it worth having the Raymarine Thermal Night Vision Camera for that little bit of extra visibility.

Cheers

[Pikey Dave]

Probably not. Assuming it's a fixed camera, it will be all over the place in anything but the calmest water. Might be ok for picking a mooring or pontoon in the harbour / marina.

[Polwart]

Originally Posted by dann

When I finally get my RIB I plan to do some fairly extensive cruising even though it is unlikely to be above 5 metres! (Most likely Ribcraft 4.8) And was wondering whether for night passages, as well as radar, is it worth having the Raymarine Thermal Night Vision Camera for that little bit of extra visibility.

Cheers

Dann, I think you are kidding yourself on putting radar on a 4.8m boat never mind FLIR!.

To be effective you want your radar to be mounted as high as possible, and for both safety and imaging reasons want the scanner above the height of the crew. So that means the scanner will need to be on quite a tall A-frame, which will need to be beefy to take the weight of the scanner. All together this will mean you have a lot of weight high up on the rib and at the back which isn't going to be good for balance. Then to get a usable radar display on a small bouncy boat in the dark, you will need a fairly large plotter screen, which to be practical either has to be separate from some of your other instrumentation/plotter/fishfinder etc or has to be really big. On a typical 4.8m boat console you are going to really struggle to fit that in a usable position. Moreover whilst trying to helm a small rib in anything other than ideal conditions you will struggle to read, monitor and adjust the radar, helm, navigate, keep a good lookout etc, so you will really need a navigator to handle the instruments - but I doubt you can fit twin jockeys and a double console in. Now there might be ways to do it but not very practical ones. No doubt someone will shortly post examples of a 4.8 with radar etc...

Not sure how far you are planning to cruise or in what conditions. A 4.8 is a great boat, and loads of fun for a day trip, or even the odd weekend away - but the weather conditions and length of trip most people would consider OK for regularly using a 4.8 will be far less than say a 5.85m rib. To be planning investing a lot of cash in radar and night vision kit I would need to be planning to be out in the dark regularly. If that were me I'd either be putting that money in a bigger boat with fewer gizmos, or if the gizmos were important getting an older boat so I could afford to go bigger.

[Ribochet]

I agree with Pikey Dave – I have tried a few night vision goggles during courses in the past and have been less than impressed. Radar is good especially Broadband but constantly looking at a screen at night, even with it set on night view, will reduce your night vision - more if there is any white light from background instrumentation. Also if the helm is trying to interpret the image on the screen - who is keeping a visual proper lookout?
A RYA Advanced Powerboat course is worth its weight in gold in this case as it specifically covers night navigation and the better centres will offer two night navigation exercises. An Advanced Instructor will give you all the top tips that you will need that makes running safely at night at a fair rate of knots one of the best experiences you can have in a RIB

[willk]

I agree with all of yiz. Maybe not the way to go.

Ribochet, I think we've met - Ardbeg, wasn't it?

...and the top workshop when you were nailing those Suspension Seats in

[Ribochet]

Hi WILLKs - yes we did meet in that most sacred of destinations where all Redbay’s are pre-programmed to go to and I was the “bloke” who asked which one of the 850 crew was you. I since decided to stop secretly following the threads on RIBnet and come out from under the chair and join up and offer my 10p’s worth every so often.

Making sure that the nails were not too long was a big problem but they seem to be working OK as the seats haven’t fallen out yet.

[willk]

Welcome aboard. That's a nice rig you have there, btw. I'm MOST envious!

Don't knock nails - they're quite popular on here

[Cookee]

Have you priced that stuff up yet? If the biggest boat you can afford is a 4.8 all that Raymarine stuff will be as much as the boat - and it's going to be a bugger to fit a big enough A frame to hold it all!

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by Cookee

Have you priced that stuff up yet? If the biggest boat you can afford is a 4.8 all that Raymarine stuff will be as much as the boat - and it's going to be a bugger to fit a big enough A frame to hold it all!

Steady on Cookee, you'll give the lad a "small boat complex"