New Electronics Install - 2019 Helmsman 43 Pilot House

We are anxiously awaiting the delivery of our Helmsman Trawlers 43 Pilot house in the coming weeks, and are using this time to get all the commissioning items in order.

We have locked in our electronics package that will be installed shortly after delivery. We have settled on Garmin. We have had Garmin on the last few boats and are happy with the features and performance.

We discarded SIMRAD pretty quickly after some pretty trivial limitations. We did give RayMarine a hard look at the recent NYC boat show. While they have a lot of new innovative features like Augmented Reality, and other bells and whistles, we could not get past our dealings with them in the past. They also required a bit more cabling and antennas than the comparable Garmin system.

This is the bill of materials that we will be installing -

Lower Helm:

1. Garmin 8622 MFD Chartplotter
2. Garmin 8610xsv MFD Chartplotter
3. Garmin VHF 315 Handset with Active Speaker
4. Garmin VHF 210 Radio
5. Garmin GHC 20 Autopilot Controller

Upper Helm:

1. Garmin 8616 MFD Chartplotter
2. Garmin 8610 MFD Chartplotter
3. Garmin GHC 20 Autopilot Controller
4. Garmin GHS 11 wired VHF Handset with Active Speaker

Hidden Bits and Pieces:

1. Garmin AIS 800 (Send & Receive)
2. Garmin GMS 10 Network Switch x 2
3. Garmin GT51M-THP Port & Starboard CHIRP Transducers
4. Garmin PS51-TH Forward View Transducer
5. Garmin GMR Fantom 24 Dome Doppler Radar
6. Garmin Reactor 40 Autopilot with SmartPump
7. Garmin GRF 10 Rudder Indicator
8. FLIR MD-625 Fixed Mount Thermal Camera
9. Garmin GC 12 Engine Room Camera
10. Garmin GC 12 Mast Camera (Rearview Mirror)
11. Garmin GC 12 Cockpit Camera (Angled down at the swim platform for sterning in)

The VHF 315 will have a dedicated VHF antenna.

The VHF 210 will use the splitter in the AIS 800 to a dedicated antenna.

Welcome feedback on any of the kit we have picked or happy to answer any questions!

I just had two of the 8610s (one xsv but the sonar transducer will have to wait until next haul out) installed yesterday with a Vesper AIS.

Question, are you adding the 22 for redundancy or for bigger screen? I am having mine routed to the Green Marine screens on the FB and PH, along with cameras and radar.

menzies said:

I just had two of the 8610s (one xsv but the sonar transducer will have to wait until next haul out) installed yesterday with a Vesper AIS.

Question, are you adding the 22 for redundancy or for bigger screen? I am having mine routed to the Green Marine screens on the FB and PH, along with cameras and radar.

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The 8622 will be the primary display at the lower helm.

The 8610 will display cameras and other data points.

Admiral
Have you considered a laptop based charting system in addition to your MFDs?

sunchaser said:

Admiral

Have you considered a laptop based charting system in addition to your MFDs?

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We have Navionics on an iPad 12.9" and my Chromebook Pixel.

We use those as backups and for route planning.

The new Garmin displays support HDMI in as well as USB touch support, so it would be pretty easy to integrate a small Intel NUC pc with some charting software in the future if needed.

I'm interested that you didn't consider Furuno. Any particular reasons?

twistedtree said:

I'm interested that you didn't consider Furuno. Any particular reasons?

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I did not spend an exhaustive amount of time reviewing, but initial observations -

#1 - Very limited choice of Display sizes for my limited space I have
#2 - They are quite traditional and lacking a lot of the bells and whistles of the other major brands (Forward view sonar, Watch integration)
#3 - Was not a big fan of the user interface