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The Instruments
The sailing
instrumentation is based on the Raytheon Autohelm ST60 concept. All practical speed, depth, wind, navigation, etc
information provided by SeaTalk and NMEA protocols aboard is on display or
at hand on 10 instruments (incl. the autopilot displays) in
both the cockpit and at the chart table. Log and depth information is produced by dual
transducers, on both sides of the hull, connected through gravity switches to the control
units and displays.

Click on this photo for a large version.
There are two independent autopilot systems, one is built around a Raytheon Type 300 Course Computer
connected to a powerful Type 2 Rotary Drive Unit,
with an ST 6000 Plus Control Unit and one ST 600R Remote Control Unit, which link seamlessly with
the other Sea Talk instruments and by the NMEA-protocol with the other equipment. In addition to this system we recently (NZ, April 2008) installed a second, independent, even more powerful hydraulic linear unit directly installed to the steering quadrant. This systems consists of a Raymarine S3G course computer with built in gyro controlling a Lecomble & Schmitt hydraulic drive via a Raymarine ST 6002 control head.
Radar and GPS. The Raytheon R40 X radar and
five GPS-units: the Garmin 75, two Garmin 128 (with separate antennas and spare antennas), the hand held Magellan Explorist
and a mobile USB-to-PC unit complete the navigation instrumentation and
share data with the Raytheon Autohelm units and the DSC VHF radio (ex the
mobile units). The GPS's
data is also fed to the VHF and to the PCs for use with electronic charts.
The radio communications department boasts the fixed (DSC) ICOM M502 VHF at the Nav Station with a complete remote unit, Icom MH127, in the cockpit, and two
VHF handhelds, the Icom M7
VHF and Uniden Atlantis 250 VHF, for short range, plus a pair of FRS radios
(walkie-talkies). Long range traffic MF/HF traffic is managed on the Icom 710M SSB/HAM.
This radio is connected to a DELL Inspiron P4 5100 computer via a SCS PTC IIe
Pactor3 modem for world wide, anytime,
email traffic using the SailMail system. In addition to the weather reports obtained by the VHF- and SSB-radios there is also an independent
Nasa Target Pro Navtex receiver for constant automatic retrieval of weather
bulletins world wide. Aboard is also a Samsung X-480 GSM cellular phone with connections
to the computer for fax and data communication in coastal waters (and normal voice communication)
wherever there is a GSM 900, 1800 or 1900 Mhz operator with a roaming agreement with
Radiolinja or Tele Finland, our Finnish operators. For emergencies we carry an ACR 406 MHz EPIRB and an older Halotech EPIRB, which transmits on 121,5 and 243 MHz.
At times, when we stay longer in a country we may purchase a local mobile
phone with prepaid connections. In New Zedaland we have a basic Nokia 1100. We have certainly come a long way since Slocum's times!
Electronic navigation: The Captain prefers the old fashioned way of plotting your position on paper
charts and as a general rule, this is the way we navigate. However, the
yacht is equipped with electronic charts covering the whole world. The
communications computer receives NMEA information from the main GPS and the
boat's position can be displayed on the electronic charts at any time, using
one of three different programs.
Entertainment is provided by the built in Sony AM/FM radio, MP3 CD player with 10 disc exchanger
and 5 pairs of stereo speakers in the salon, the cabins and the cockpit,
the Samsung
19" multisystem
(most world standards) LCD TV, VCR (VHS PAL and NTSC) and a Pioneer DC-383S code free, multi system DVD-player, which plays
DVD-records from any region and of any standard (PAL, NTSC etc.). It also
plays mp3-music, DivX etc. The TV, VCR, DVDs and PCs are all connected to a surround music
system. We have several hundred video movies onboard. We also carry
three Sony digital
camcorders, one of them a full HD1080 CMOS, to record our journey, which we can play back on the TV
and edit to movies on the Mac (or PC), usually using Adobe Premiere Pro CS3.
The SSB radio will also normally allow reception of any major radio
transmissions anywhere, be it BBC, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, Radio Sweden or Radio
Finland. During night watches we sometimes listen to music or voice books on mp3-players. Our camera inventory include a digital Canon 500D SLR (14 megapixels and
18-200mm lens) and a handy compact Sony DSC-HX5 (10 megapix and 10x optical zoom and full HD video). On the wish list is a watertight housing for one of the digital still cameras to
be used when SCUBA diving.
The three main computers are two Windows machines and one Mac. The DELL P4 Inspiron 5100 (Windows XP) is dedicated to communications and navigation and the Acer (Windows 7) and
a Mac Power Book Pro 2,4 GHz running both Os X and Windows, are for writing, maintaining inventories, editing our
videos and photos, maintaining our web site, storing music etc. The computer
systems include several CD- and DVD-burners and -players. And
naturally the computers act as back ups for each other. Because of my
video editing hobby we have a huge extra storage capacity of more than 3.000 gigabytes
(yes 3 terrabytes) on external hard discs.
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