Wireless sounds like a great approach. We just purchased a 2005 '36 with all Ray Marine electronics. Tons of functionality and complexity with it all. The interconnect wires are ridiculously thin and difficult to work with. Quite frankly, I almost long for all the Data Marine (DMI) electronics we had on our 1986 Catalina. DMI always available to consult with, and the equipment didn't require all the calibration that Raymarine's does. Plus, it wasn't designed with every imaginable feature that hardly is ever used and just adds to the complexity….but maybe that's just my opinion.

Sorry I can't help with any wireless knowledge. Good luck and enjoy your 36. We are still in awe with ours

Welcome, rbrooks. Hopefully, there are others with the experience you seek with wireless instruments.

Since you are a paid member, when you get a chance, use the User CP link at the top left to add a descriptive signature. This way we'll know who you are, where you sail, what boat you have, etc.

I am yet to run into someone that has something good to say about the wireless units (Tac Tik) so I have steered clear.

What has my eye is the B&G Zeus with the SailSteer feature which looks really nice. I have not had a chance to touch one yet. Hopefully I will see one at the St. Pete boat show.

Just installed the new Raymarine EV-200 below decks autopilot. Nothing but good things to say about it. Big PITA to put in (see Larry's article that I followed) but it drives straight as an arrow and is silent. It also doesn't seem to work very hard compared to my old wheel pilot that was almost useless and would seek all over the place.

Thought I should relate my experience with TackTick's wind system. It is a total and complete POS! You couldn't give me one for free.

First one became intermittent and then failed after a few months. Sent it to Ocean Equipment in CA, where Customer Service is a foreign concept. After numerous phone calls, and a couple/three months, they got it back to me. It worked most of the time, but needed frequent resets since it kept losing the signal from the wind transducer and would lock on to a nonexistent signal. Very annoying. Sold that boat (an Aloha 32) so don't know how long it lasted.

Second one (I'm a slow learner) was purchased from Defender and was dead in the box. Called Defender, who told me to pound sand and get in touch with Ocean Equipment. Told them, "I didn't buy it from Ocean Equipment, I bought it from Defender." No joy. Should have bought it from West Marine with its price match (not currently being offered), since WM's Customer Service confirmed they would accept a return on a defective unit. Live and learn. I'll never buy any electronics from Defender again.

Same experience with Ocean Equipment's so-called customer service. After a dozen phone calls, being really polite, the tech finally admitted he had more of these going TU than he could keep up with. Had four in pieces on his bench and wasn't sure which one was mine. Said the units had been showing intermittent failures and the factory in the UK was not authorizing simple replacements at that time. Finally got through to Ocean Equipment's GM and after the obligatory WTFO?, asked if my contacting the manufacturer direct would be helpful. That got some results and my (or someone's?) "repaired" unit arrived shortly thereafter.

The third unit worked most of the time, but still exhibited the annoying lock out, refusing to accept the transducer signal without a reset. Sometimes it would simply not work for a few hours and then come back online. Sold that boat three years ago and the purchaser has not said if it was still working or not.

TackTick? I'd toss it over the rail. Admittedly, that was 4-5 years ago and possibly they have cleaned up their act? Others with more recent experience please feel free to chime in and correct my misplaced criticism.

Have a friend with a Pretorian 35 who installed a Nexus system and reports being very pleased with it. From my recollection, the wind transducer sends a wireless signal to a receiver at the base of the mast and hardwired to the display from there.

Hope this is helpful.

I have a friend with a C34 that has been having the same issues with a new (one year ago) Tac Tik wireless wind instrument.... He has returned his unit at least 3 times.

No they haven't got their quality control issues fixed....

Maybe some other manufacturer has wireless instruments that work....Tac Tik does NOT!

As for wireless remotes for autopilot and windlass, they are great as long as you have wired controls as well.

Good Luck

Sorry to hear of all the trouble you had .I bought and installed a TackTick wind indicator about 2 years ago and have had no problrms.

Installed TackTick on my previous boat in 2006. Replaced the receiver due to being intermittent in the first month. Replacement unit worked fine. Had to replace the masthead unit about a year later (anemometer bearing failure). Sold the boat in 2007, so no history from that point on.

Have you ever run into someone who repeatedly mentions somethings, only to be proven wrong, wrong, wrong again? Over and over? I know a guy like that and he is the ONLY person I EVER heard of who said TacTick was good stuff.

I've never trusted wireless and I find it a misnomer in many cases. Unless you want to change batteries or recharge devices, you need wires for electrical power. If you run a wire for power, why not also run a wire for communications? I have Bluetooth control for the stereo from my Ipod but have not used it much. In several applications outside the boat I've given up wireless, finding wired connections being much more reliable. I've not tried wireless on the boat other than laptop to cell phone hot spot.

3 years ago I did a complete refit of all electronics. I put in everything that Raymarine offered (Radar, 12" chart plotter, autopilot, AIS, LifeTag MOB, with speed, depth, wind integration). It was all professionally installed and, in the past 3 years, I've had no more than 4 weeks when everything was working. The chartplotter has been back to Raymarine 3 times, radar shipped back 3 times. The AIS has been replaced 4 times so I'm on my 5th unit. I don't know if B&G is any better, but I cannot imagine anything being worse.

I checked out B&G at a boat show. Their chartplotter functionality for sailing is exceptional. It's the only think I see among the consumer grade chartplotters that includes layline support for plotting and tacking.

Guys,

As a marine electrician I get to do quite a few electronics package installs. NONE OF THE BRANDS ARE PERFECT...:mad:

IMHO Garmin is my winner based on the number of call backs I get, price, ease of use for the owner, and reliability. Are they perfect no, but they do better than many..

Don't even get me going on wireless!!!! I know more inside scoop about that stuff than anyone would care to know. Give it time and Raymarine will get it sorted out but IMHO, it is not ready for prime time.

Raymarine has also gone to exorbitant flat rate repairs for out of warranty stuff while Garmin will still no-charge you on occasion even past warranty. Ray takes a lot of bad press out there and some of it is deserved but much of it is not deserved. Nine times out of ten when I get a call about an autopilot for example it has never been properly set up for the boat, wire gauges are often incorrect etc. etc... The fault of Ray or the installer..?

If you must have a "sailing software package" the B&G Zeus is very neat but their "7" plotter is really 6.4" so most will want to bump up to the 8"... That said I am not a huge fan of Navico group in general (Lowrance, B&G, Simrad) due to some warranty dealings I have had. I suspect with their push to topple Ray this can only get better. The Navico group has made some smart moves recently including aggressive pricing. I definitely place them above Ray these days for brand preference but still have Garmin as my top choice based on all factors. That said, like Ray, the Navico stuff can be buggy. Software freeze ups etc. can be problematic and very annoying. I can't recall if I have ever had a Garmin freeze up... None of them are bad, but none of them are great either, it is what it is....

The new Garmin stuff hitting the street this spring will be very nice. I installed a bunch of the 741 series and hands down last season find it the best 7" plotter I have ever worked with. Another plus for Garmin is that when I do change plotters my dome will still work with the current crop of Garmin plotters. Many brands, when making a series upgrade, make your old dome incompatible... Raymarine is rather famous for this. This past September I replaced a 3200 series Garmin with the new 741. The radar from the old 3200 series simply plugged in and worked perfectly, as it should. They original dome they first came out with will still work with today's equipment. Certainly a nice detail...

Other than radar, with today's instruments you can pick and choose your gear and mix and match it provided it is NEMA 2000 compliant. Some brands such as Raymarine still won't cop to "N2K Compliant" and instead use vague terms such as "N2K compatible".

Getting rid of the old legacy equipment such as Raymarine's Sea Talk will be the best thing anyone can do for future expansion. Wiring up N2K is far easier and works and implements far easier, especially for a DIY.. There are now adapters that can convert existing transducers to N2K but my general preference is to simply go N2K where possible and limit the connections and interfaces... Heck these days you don't even need a wind or depth display and all that data can be displayed right on your plotter. I still personally prefer a dedicated wind, then a depth/speed combo. My own boat is still 0183 and it is a PITA and I hate it. There were so many issues with 0183 that I am not sorry to see it go.. I can't wait to be done with 0183 but people are slow to adapt so it will likely still be around, on some boats, 20 years from now.. Arghh......... Eventually I will move to a newer N2K plotter & instruments on my own boat but my current plotter is still working flawlessly. I get to install it all, I get to deal with all the manufacturers, I get to handle warranties, and when I do upgrade, it will be Garmin, again....

For me Furuno is rarely chosen on sailboats, though I always suggest my customers look at it. Furuno is very popular with my offshore sport fishing boats and on many commercial boats. Interestingly enough I have bunch of commercial fisherman/lobstermen now running Garmin and they love it..... Even today the Furuno user interface is a tough one for most of my sailing customers.

Ray and Garmin are the two most popular for me up here in Maine, on sail, with the Navico group tagging along behind with Simrad, Lowrance and B&G.. With WM carrying Lowrance, Simrad & B&G the Navico groups products are starting to grow and they do have some very nice features and the broadband radar for close in work is quite amazing...

Yeah, roger that.
Just got rid of my old Ray b&w plotter/radar and decided to go Lowrance HDS-8 and broadband radar and I couldn't be happier with the outcome.
Great bang for buck... (and the bang is digital, haha)