Instrument Recommendations

[Jon Schneider]

Does anyone have any burning opinions about the various brands of depth/speed/wind instruments?  I have Standard Horizon now, and don't mind them, but they're dying off (speedlog is already dead and I doubt I'll make it through another season with the depthsounder), and I'm very tempted by just about every other brand which offers larger read-outs.  What's wrong with SH anyway?  Four inch cut-outs, and yet they only provide half inch data.  Because I have them now, I'm restricted pretty much to replacing them with something that will fill those gargantuan holes.  I know I could create a panel out of teak or starboard to hide the holes, but I'd prefer not to do that.  I'm leaning toward Raymarine's ST60 series, based on a Practical Sailor review year, the read-out size, and the fact that they'll more or less fit the existing holes.  I don't feel the need to go with wireless (unless they're better in other ways), since all of the instruments are already wired, and I can probably re-use the existing wires or use them as messenger lines for new wires.  I'm also thinking that eventually I'll probably end up with a Raymarine radar, so networking should be made easier by brand consistency.

Thoughts?  Anything significantly better than Raymarine?  Anything significantly wrong about Raymarine?

[Paul Bosquet]

I too am in need of replacing my instruments and am about to order an instrument package from Simrad. In order to minimize on size I will get the depth / speed combi and wind instrument.
I hope I can use my existing original round pods.
http://www.go2marine.com/frameset.jsp?servletPath=/g2m/action/GoBPage/id/92083F/hiLiteSku/92174/categoryId/14068/
Paul

[Mike Smith]

I like Raymarine because of the large readout - and all my instruments are Raymarine.

Mike

[Chris]

I bought last fall the Raymarine ST60 value pac from West Marine. Also had to buy a NavPod Instrument  Housing.  Make sure the Housing will fit the Pod. Measure the Center to Center spacing on the pod and order accordingly.  I forgot to measure this fall when the boat went on the hard so on our way to Strictly Sail in Chicago we will stop by Hammond and measure. Of course, I've already received the instruments.   Most important , I have a friend at our marina who knows exactly what to do and is a lot younger than I  which means he doesn't mind climbing the mast for the wind inst. Total cost for the instruments, NavPod, taxes , and shipping was 1695.17. Labor is estimated around $400.  Ben  ChriSea # 832