New to me 400 Mainship

All,
I've found a nice 40 ft Mainship trawler so I bought it. Overall, very clean, few discrepancies, and low ~ 500 hours. Single Yanmar 370 with bow and stern thrusters. I debated a lot over twin vs single, but decided on the single for simplicity. And most of the Mainships came with a single.

It's in great shape, but the electronics need updating.

It has the old Ray C80s, two on the flybridge, one on the lower station. New VHF on the flybridge, and only depth on the lower station (but a warning for 5 ft depth on the flybridge, so it surely needs some upgrading.

Thoughts are a big new MFD screen on the upper and a smaller one on the lower. Add AIS in and out (has in with the new SH VHF on the flybridge).

Keep the C80s for the radar and a backup.

Also needs an autopilot. And considering forward sonar.

The previous owner is very nice guy and will help me bring it home. Also, going to trawler training school, too.

Any thoughts on the above appreciated.

Congratulations, that is a great boat. I think the ones with the colored hulls look great, but for Florida sun and maintenance your color is the way to go.

Your C80s on the bridge should be capable of displaying the depth if they are networked into your sounder...that is how ours works.

Jeff

IRENE said:

Congratulations, that is a great boat. I think the ones with the colored hulls look great, but for Florida sun and maintenance your color is the way to go.

Your C80s on the bridge should be capable of displaying the depth if they are networked into your sounder...that is how ours works.

Jeff

Click to expand...

Irene,
The depth is separate and does not feed the C80. What do you have that feeds the C80?

Digital Sounder Module

Raymarine calls it a DSM ##, but I can't remember the number. It's about a 2006 vintage. I don't have a separate depth display, so it sounds like we have completely different sounder systems.

I will try to get the number tomorrow and let you know.

Jeff

Server
Congrats on the new MS
I think you made a great choice.
If you haven't already you will want to bookmark Steve Cyr's website "Stella Blue".

IRENE said:

Raymarine calls it a DSM ##, but I can't remember the number. It's about a 2006 vintage. I don't have a separate depth display, so it sounds like we have completely different sounder systems.

I will try to get the number tomorrow and let you know.

Jeff

Click to expand...

Jeff,

That would be much appreciates. Thx.

Might want to put a little time in the seat before changing out systems, you will find what you need and not need, forward sonar is one of those things I believe are not all that beneficial if you think that will save you from grounding.... Also you want to play around with systems to see what you like from an operational standpoint.

Seat time with something like iNavX on an iPad might change your mind about a big fancy MFD. That plus depth plus an autopilot that can keep a heading are all I felt I needed to do Seattle/Juneau/Seattle. I worry that an autoP that will handle waypoint in sequence might make me complacent at the helm.

Oops, and radar and fixed and handheld VHS of course.

Seevee said:

I've found a nice 40 ft Mainship trawler so I bought it.

It's in great shape, but the electronics need updating.

It has the old Ray C80s, two on the flybridge, one on the lower station. New VHF on the flybridge, and only depth on the lower station (but a warning for 5 ft depth on the flybridge, so it surely needs some upgrading.

Thoughts are a big new MFD screen on the upper and a smaller one on the lower. Add AIS in and out (has in with the new SH VHF on the flybridge).

Keep the C80s for the radar and a backup.

Also needs an autopilot. And considering forward sonar.

Any thoughts on the above appreciated.

Click to expand...

Nice looking boat, congratulations!

Seems odd to have depth only at the lower station; one sounder, hardwired to one C80? (If so, perhaps that signal could be split to service both C80s?) Or maybe it's feeding a bridge C80 too, but the signal path is interrupted for some reason? Or a C80 setting is disabled? (Stuff the previous owner will know.) Or is it one sounder with it's own display head?

FWIW, I found it useful to use our boat for a while (turned out to be a three years) before decisions about the electronics refit. That gave me a better idea of what exactly I wanted to fix, priorities (in case cost brought constraints), degree of integration, etc.

And then we worked out the refit components on paper while we decided which brand, which models, integration, which vendor/installer, etc. along with some decisions about physical locations.

-Chris

AndrewAdams said:

Seat time with something like iNavX on an iPad might change your mind about a big fancy MFD. That plus depth plus an autopilot that can keep a heading are all I felt I needed to do Seattle/Juneau/Seattle. I worry that an autoP that will handle waypoint in sequence might make me complacent at the helm.

Click to expand...

Andrew,
Thx for the info. I've never downloaded iNavX, but seems like the competition to Garmin BlueChart, which I have and like which also has Active Captain which is also is great. Does the iNavX support Active Captain?

Also iNavX has three options: iNavX $24.99, MacENC $189.99, GPSNavX $59.99. I haven't figured out the major differences, but GPSNavX apparently will display radar, which would be a nice option for the lower station, should it be needed down there. Need to figure out if the higher priced ones have better benefits.... but the iNavX at $24.99 is a no brainer. Assume it comes with current charts?

Overall, I like at least one real GPS Map on the boat. Doesn't have to be fancy, but bigger the better.

I've had the C80s before and really don't like them, so something will replace them, just not sure what... yet.

And, yes, an autopilot is on the list. It shouldn't make one complacent. It's only a tool and should be used when appropriate. Still don't know which one.

Good info, thx.

ranger42c said:

Nice looking boat, congratulations!

Seems odd to have depth only at the lower station; one sounder, hardwired to one C80? (If so, perhaps that signal could be split to service both C80s?) Or maybe it's feeding a bridge C80 too, but the signal path is interrupted for some reason? Or a C80 setting is disabled? (Stuff the previous owner will know.) Or is it one sounder with it's own display head?

FWIW, I found it useful to use our boat for a while (turned out to be a three years) before decisions about the electronics refit. That gave me a better idea of what exactly I wanted to fix, priorities (in case cost brought constraints), degree of integration, etc.

And then we worked out the refit components on paper while we decided which brand, which models, integration, which vendor/installer, etc. along with some decisions about physical locations.

-Chris

Click to expand...

Chris,

Yea, I thought it odd to not have depth on the flybridge, too. The old owner doesn't seem to be quite up to speed on the electronics (but neither am I). But the old owner is a great guy and we got along great, and will help train me on the delivery.

I've talked to RayMarine, and the tech said it's possible to connect the depth to the C80s... depending on what's talking to whom, now, which I'll find out.

C80's of that era were not networkable except via NMEA (Raymarine might call it SeaTalk). So one C80 will be hooked to the DSM/Sounder module and it can show the fancy sonar chart with structure/fish/etc. That C80 will then generate the NMEA sentences for depth, which the other C80 could display ... just as a number ... no sonar chart.

It was the E series that was fully networkable in 2006. Every screen could see everything. The next generation of the C series which came out around ~2009 supported 2 screens being fully networked. Only 2 screens though ... as Raymarine wanted to force anyone that wanted more than 2 displays to the more expensive E series displays.

And no you can't split the signal to 2 displays from any of the modules, except GPS which used NMEA/SeaTalk to communicate to the displays. Sonar, radar, weather would only work on one C series display.

cowdogs said:

And no you can't split the signal to 2 displays from any of the modules, except GPS which used NMEA/SeaTalk to communicate to the displays. Sonar, radar, weather would only work on one C series display.

Click to expand...

Actually I will semi-correct myself in that you could build a switch box that would let you send the sounder data to one screen OR the other (not both). I guess for a typical trawler usage this would work fine.

cowdogs said:

Actually I will semi-correct myself in that you could build a switch box that would let you send the sounder data to one screen OR the other (not both). I guess for a typical trawler usage this would work fine.

Click to expand...

Cowdogs,

Thx for the response. I would have thought that the sounder would not work on the C80s at all, but if it could work on one, and still display depth on it's own screen, that would do it.

I'm kinda negative with the C80, having had one and operating several, I find them not user friendly, and just old stuff that doesn't work that well. I'm hoping to just add some stuff to them until I can toss them. However, I could argue to keep one for the radar.... maybe.

Make sure they have the latest software update, and give them one last test run to make sure you hate them.

If you have DSM300 sounder module, and you could find nice used 2009 C series then you would have full sharing of radar & sounder using you existing equipment ... I am 99% sure of this. The 2009 C series version had much faster processor and higher res wide screens. But the interface was more similar than it was different from what you have now.

Seevee said:

Cowdogs,

Thx for the response. I would have thought that the sounder would not work on the C80s at all, but if it could work on one, and still display depth on it's own screen, that would do it.

I'm kinda negative with the C80, having had one and operating several, I find them not user friendly, and just old stuff that doesn't work that well. I'm hoping to just add some stuff to them until I can toss them. However, I could argue to keep one for the radar.... maybe.

Click to expand...

Seevee said:

Jeff,

That would be much appreciates. Thx.

Click to expand...

It's a DSM 300, sir.