Raymarine Electronics Upgrade 2019

Old but good!

We have been happy with the old Raymarine E120 Classic nav system and had found the RD218 Radar invaluable during out 2018 summer trips to northern France and the Channel Islands, especially with the addition of AIS.

Old Analogue RD218 Radar

In terms of the Radar, it saved our bacon approaching both Cherbourg and Guernsey in grey-out fog conditions. With Guernsey in particular, we had two small fishing boats appear out of the fog anchored off exactly where we knew something would be, pre-warned by the Radar blobs overlaid on the chart plotter screen.

Thinking ahead, it was clear that we were at some point going to upgrade the ageing (13 years plus) electronics and we are of the mindset that if we leave it later rather than sooner, we are effectively doing the work for someone else (Grace's next owner).... so at the end of 2018 we pulled the trigger.

Dave Hudson at Hudson Marine Electronics gave us the advice and support we needed. HM are at our own Mercury Marina in Hamble and so it was easy to pop in for a chat.

https://hudsonmarine.co.uk ... I will say that this is a family run business and the team have been brilliant. They are committed and well stocked (very well stocked!) so if you are doing the online shopping thing then they are a safe bet also. But, if you own a boat and have the time then walk in the shop! One day we will lose these places so go meet and trade with a human being while you still can!

ES127 MFD

Dave steered us away from the most expensive Axiom MFD plus Doppler Radar setup to a step cheaper using the ES Series, ES127 MFD (£2000 ish) and the Quantum radar (£1439). This setup was saving us over £1000 compared to my original intention. Always good to have a supplier down sell you and explain the reasons.

We also saw a little (£160) Raymarine rebate. Add in the SeaTalkNg to SeaTalk1 convertor (£106) and the install costs (Can't remember! about £700) and we have a £4200-£4500 project. Bear in mind that I sold our working E120 MFD and RD218 radar on Ebay for a total of £1000 which helped.

Of course, we retain all our old transducers, auto pilot and instrument displays. We are just swapping out the MFD brain and the radar here. You have to do both together as all the new MFDs will not talk to older analogue radars. You have to go digital.

Install Details:

We used the old RD218 existing mast bracket. The hole centres are compatible with the new radar but it sits further forward on the bracket. We did not want this so Hudson do a convertor plate that sits the radar back again. 

No! Run the cable!

The Radar "should" only need a small power cable running up as the connection to the MFD is wireless (Wi-Fi). I was worried about that... and reassured... but guess what... we found the wireless connection to be unreliable. We have a fog horn speaker mounted below the radar and we concluded it was masking the wifi. So the Hudson lads (Paul and James) came back to run the stupid expensive Raymarine Cat6 cable up the mast back to the MFD. Problem solved. Honestly, if you are reading this, run the damn cable.

L-R Main Power, Radar Network, SeaTalk

In Situ

Interfaces with our older instruments and transponders

GPS:

The new ES127 has its own internal GPS and this is clearly better and faster to get a fix on power up compared with the old one (it sees more satellites too). Our old GPS antenna is still recognised by the new kit so we have left it in.

Lighthouse II or III

The eS series MFD plotters were released at the time of Raymarine Lighthouse II software. The screens are responsive and very fast compared to our old kit. From what I can see and understand the LH III software enhances 3D viewing that I do not use and will slow down the user interface of my eS and compromise the integration of the (old) Autopilot control onto the MFD. 

LH II is working for me so I am going to leave that all alone. 

In Use: First Impressions

The main thing we notice is screen resolution and chart plotter speed as we move around and zoom in and out. It's quick! 

The radar experience is no different and I am not sure what benefit the digital thing is buying me. I will say that the old RD218 was a 27 Watt  device in transmit where the Quantum digital system is 17 Watts. Thats is over 35% more power efficient on your batteries.

Our old system would sometimes refuse to get a GPS fix after turn on and would need a reboot to encourage it. All good with the new system. More reliable.

We like the AIS target interception plot. It gets too busy in the solent and thinks basically that everything is going to hit you! However it is perfect for off coast passages and working out what is going on in shipping lanes with the big stuff. You can easily see where 10 different ships are crossing and how to prioritise your attention to the closest. Really good.

Safety Updates 2017

I prioritised the following safety updates for Grace in 2016

Purchased, registered and fitted an EPIRB. This went on the boat before returning to the UK.

Danbouy and Kim MOB Sling

• Installed a KIM man overboard sling.
• Installed an inflatable Danbouy.
• Located a knife and holder permanently in the cockpit.
• Purchased and stored a suitable set of bolt cutters (Grace has 10mm rigging) 
• Replaced the JackStays (UV compromised)

Purchased and fitted out a Grab Bag with the following contents:

• Knife

  

  Grab Bag

• Spare GPS and batts
• Epirb
• Hand Held VHF DSC Distress call and GPS
• Spare VHF batts
• Water
• Flares
• First aid kit
• Torch 
• Reading Glasses
• Thermal blanket
• Sea sick tabs
• Whistle

Std Horizon Portable VHF with GPS

GME MT403 Epirb

Finally the current rigging refit now has the spinnaker halyard remade longer to allow it to be brought back to the electric primary winch for man overboard recovery from the middle of the boat. This is made from 12mm cruising dyneema so will be fine for loading. 

New Sails in 2017

Grace was purchased with the original UK Sailmakers tri-radials.

Original Mildew Stained UK sails

I think these were a laminated design and it was clear that the laminates were separating. Water had got in-between the layers and then dark mildew stains had formed in places. This was particularly noticeable on the genoa.

The basic sail shape was pretty blown out with both the main and genoa hooking on the leech.

We had the sails laundered and basic repairs done in preparation for the sail back to the UK from France but it was clear that these were going to be changed as a matter of course once the bank balance had recovered.

Towards the end of the 2016 season we looked at comparative quotes from North Sails and Rolly Tasker as examples of providers at either end of the price spectrum. The Rolly Tasker deal was keen and looked favourable to us.

Peter Sanders at Sanders Sails Loft, Lymington

In the end... and on local recommendation I visited Sanders Sails in Lymington and have a good chat to Peter Sanders. Prices looked to be between Tasker and North. Why would I not want a local UK manufacturing sail loft to make these for me? I went local.










With much sail cloth research and advice from Peter I went with Hydra Net Radial from Dimension Polyant. This is not a laminate but the sail cloth has spectra woven in to give the stiffness associated with modern designs. For the main and genoa we kept with the tri-radial configuration.

Hard Wind Jib hanked onto inner solent stay

I also had Sanders make a hard wind crosscut "blade jib" with reduced sail area for upwind 25 Knot + wind
speeds. This would lead us to the addition of a solent stay which is made from dyneema. The solent stay is tensioned on a 2:1 purchase dyneema control line lead back to the primary winch in a similar way (and on the opposite side) to the genny furling line.

Grace has the standard 42Msq genoa and with the hard wind jib reducing foresail area to 18Msq. Not quite a storm jib which would be more like 10Msq.


Finally some video clips of the new sails going upwind

2017 Standing Rigging Replacement

Well it had to be done at some time!

It is recognised that standing rigging should be replaced every 10 years and insurance companies may require it. As Grace is a 2006 boat we were looking down the barrel of this particular stainless steel shotgun and decided to pull the trigger at the start of 2017.

This was "encouraged" along by Pav, our rigger from RigitUK (Southampton) who we had originally engaged to install the additional solent stay needed for our hard wind jib. Pav performed a general rig inspection and warned of general rig age, fitting wear and swelling out of tollerance on the swage terminals.

Mast Removal

At this point you become a passenger in an expensive process. I am not sure you can just ignore such advice and so down the rabbit hole we went.

We sailed up Southampton water to Rigit's HQ where Grace was de-masted for a complete standing and running rigging replacement.

New Rope Stock in Preparation

Much of the rope stock on board was UV damaged and aged and so we took the opportunity to replace the lot with low stretch cruising dyneema.  

Mast Inspection

While the mast was down I was able to repair and service the radar and re-powdercoat the radar bracket. I also changed the mast hear anchor light and tricolour over to LED.

Old Rigging 

Old Turnbuckles Replaced

Strange Mastless View

An unexpected additional cost resulted from us deciding to sack off the old Furlex furling system and replacing it with a brand new Profurl 350. The old unit needed major bearing parts replacing and looked to be an uneconomic repair.

The total damage cost wise was in the region of £6200 inc VAT for the main standing and running rigging parts and labour. The Profurl  added another £2200 inc VAT so the total pain added up to around £8400 for the full job.

New Rigging in Prep

Everything seemed to work well. The boat was left to stand for a week or so with the rig set to basic tension. At this point everything settles in and any movement and stretch comes out of the wires.

The Rigit team returned before we put the sails back on to bring the rig to final tension.

I have since put a couple of turns on the lowers as the downwind pair were just going slack in 25 knot plus winds. We have also put a little more tension in the forestay so we can get the desired upwind genny shape without mast bend.

As the main is in mast furling it is best to have as straight a mast as possible when the correct backstay tension is brought on.

More New Rigging

AIS System Added

Not our example but makes the point

Audrey and I plan to make some channel crossings to France over the next two years or so.

We made one crossing from Hamble to St Vaast along with a group from Flexisail in 2016 and we realised just how good it was to have AIS to help keep an eye on the "big stuff".

Neat Install by Hudson Marine
behind the instrument panel

I had worked out our Raymarine E120 is comparable with AIS so I asked local marine electronics suppliers Hudson Marine Electronics to do the job. Hudson are based at Mercury Marina and I could quite literally walk off the boat to go and see them.

We fitted the Raymarine AIS650 system along with a VHF splitter to make use of our existing antenna. A dedicated GPS is fitted for the AIS and Hudson have hidden this somewhere! Not had a good look yet.

By now I have made one journey up Southampton water with the AIS running and updating the display with other vessels location and heading/speed etc. It is really good!



The AIS650 transmits Grace's position too when the nav systems are turned on so you can see Grace here.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/photos/of/ships/shipid:4762701/ship_name:GRACE

Gybe Preventer

Grace has a great pole out system for the 130% Genoa and downwind sailing wing on wing is great.
For extra peace of mind, I wanted to have the option of a removable Gybe Preventer.

After much research and a few test systems, I settled on the design showed in this little video I took. Its easier to show it than explain it.

New Batteries

Removing old AGM's

On return to Grace ay SMN I was disappointed to find the service battery bank flat. Fully discharged, which is never a good thing for a lead acid battery. With the boat back on shore power we recharged and I did some basic tests. Not good. The boat would not manage more than 6 hours off the mains, sailing with nav systems on. The AGM batteries were goosed.

On charge and discharge the old cells were getting warm. Too warm. Also indicative of serious issues.




Grace has a brilliantly installed Fischer Panda genset and this is configured to come on if the battery voltage falls below 60% charge capacity so we were fine to go anywhere but I like to have proper power available.

My internet cafe in Port Grimaud

Someone told me that "BOAT" actually stands for "Bring Out Another Thousand" and that is pretty
much what we did. It took a bunch of searching on the wifi of my local cafe, round the corner from Grace but we managed to find a set of three MasterVolt AGM 120AH cells with the right terminal config and form factor to fit.

These things are damn heavy. When I got the old ones out it was clear that the cases were warped and heat damaged. This was not a recent issue.

I fitted the new cells taking great care not to short anything. The power available here is pretty scary.

I tested the calibration of the genset and battery charger making sure we had no overcharge issues. I also tweaked the generator's turn on / turn off points.

Its easy to write this in summary but it took me a few hours to learn and troubleshoot these systems. I am now reasonably confident with Grace main power electrics.


We knew the MasterVolt charger/inverter had non working indicator panels both on the remote panel at the nav station and on the unit itself (seen during survey). On speaking to MasterVolt the only way to get this fixed was going to be to return the unit for repair... thats a pretty big strip out job and one that I may take on in the future.. Testing has proved that the unit is working 100% in both charge mode and inverter mode. Someone is home, its just that the lights are not on!

Done and dusted. New cells in.

After the power refit... Grace ran for 4 days off mains with me leaving stuff on 24/7 before the genset kicked in. I love POWER! Fixed.