Electronics for the Small Boat

I assembled these notes in late November 2019 for an article published in Small Craft Advisor (No. 117, May/June 2020). Recently I saw ads for equipment that I listed now on sale for the holidays. And I thought it would be interesting to see how much prices had changed, or if there were new models that we might be interested in. I'll show my updates in BOLD.

Personal Light/Strobe on your PDF (prices from Defender -- WM usually has price match)

• ACR Auto HemiLight 3 -- $20. Now $19  very compact
• ACR Manually Activated C-Strobe -- $19. Now $17.
• ACR C-Strobe H2O, with water activation, $20
• UST See-Me Compact Light-Strobe -- $12. Now $13.50 for the original 1.0 model.
• UST See-Me Strobe 2.0, with water activation, $26.

Handheld/Portable VHF Radio with NOAA weather

• Standard Horizon HX40 -- $120, less $20 manufacturer rebate until 12/31/2020
• WM VHF75 -- $120 (frequently on sale for less than $100). Obsolete? No more WM models? Check The GPS Store for low-cost radios.

GPS Chartplotter (Fishfinder combo) and Depth Sounder

• Garmin 78sc handheld with BlueChart Coastal Charts -- $280. On sale at West Marine (WM) for $180, until 11/30/2020.
• Garmin echoMAP 44cv Fishfinder/Chartplotter with BlueCharts -- $349 today. When it's on sale, as low as $250.
• Upgrade to bigger display? Simrad Cruise 7 with coastal charts, $350 at WM until 12/24/2020. Hummingbird Helix 5 with coastal/inland charts, $400. Garmin echoMAP plus 64cv with BlueCharts, $449 at WM, "limited availability". Always check the prices at The GPS Store.

Navigation and Night Lights -- LED to save power. Portable or wired to 12V 

• Battery powered Navisafe 767 Tricolor/Nav and mount kit, $126 (Duckworks BBS). Duckworks is now selling Navisafe 954 kit, $146.40. Better?
• Navisafe N-001 Tricolor w/mag base, $55. Now $59.53 at Duckworks. Hmm.
• Portable solar-charged Luci Light -- $20. $13 at Walmart and on-line at MPowered until 11/29/2020.
• Wired -- Dimmer and lightstrip -- $30 + $6-10/ft LEDs. Home Depot - see my blog post for 11/20/2020

SPOT (Tracking and SOS)

• SPOT - Gen 3 -- $149 plus service subscription ($20/month; $200/year)
• SPOT - Gen 4 -- normally $150, on sale for $100 until 12/24/2020
• SPOTX -- normally $250, on sale for $200 until 12/24/2020
• Service plans: Annual Contract or Monthly Flex now available for both SPOT and SPOTX

Emergency Strobe -- USCG-approved replacement for handheld flares (required for OAL > 16 feet)

• Weems & Plath SOS Distress Light Electronic Flare -- $90
• Orion Electronic Beacon -- $90. On sale at WM for $60 until 11/30/2020

Rechargeable Batteries

• Capacity -- in “amp-hours,” e.g., Group 24 is around 65-80 A-hrs (can use half = 40 A-hr)
• Flooded (has caps to add water) -- most forgiving of abuse and cheapest, by far..
• AGM (absorbed glass mat; sealed -- no water required) -- less care; more sensitive to charging 
• “Starting” -- NOT for running electronics. Flooded, $115-135; AGM, $230
• “Deep discharge” -- for running things. Flooded, $190; AGM, $340
• Dual use -- Starting, and limited deep discharge. Flooded, $160; AGM, $249
• 12V, 50 A-hr lithium iron phosphate drop-in replacement -- $545 (Alt-E store). Now $575, same price as ReLion's 50 A-hr battery.
• 12V, 45 A-hr LiFeP battery -- $355 from M-Tech Lithium
• 12V, 100 A-hh LiFeP battery -- $825 from M-Tech Lithium
• Li-ion jump start pack -- USB power; limited 12V power (3 A-hr) but less than $100. Good ones are now between $50 and $80.

Battery Chargers

• Look for “three-stage” chargers that can float the battery once it’s fully charged (e.g., Guest; NOCO)
• Capacity -- charger ROT (rule of thumb): 10-20% of battery amp-hours; e.g., 5 amp charger for 50 amp-hour battery
• MPPT solar charger: 12V, 5 amp "brick" -- Genesun GV-5-Pb-12, $70. Now $68 at Alt-E Store.
• New low price: 12V, 10.5 amp MPPT charger: Genesun GV-10-Pb-12, $89 at Alt-E.
• Also consider the Victron Blue Solar 15-amp MPPT charger, $89 at Alt-E. With Bluetooth, $118
• 60-W solar module, $90 (Alt-E Store). 60-W module is gone. 30-W module, $49, 50-W module, $79. 100-W module, $149. 150-W module, $175. 200-W (24V) module, $219.
• Solar module ROT -- module current equal to 10% of battery amp-hour rating; e.g., 5 amp module for 50 amp-hour battery; 10-amp module for 100 amp-hour battery.

Tiller Pilot (since I now have a battery and a way to charge it)

• Raymarine ST1000 (3 ton, NMEA), $380, Defender; $364, Hodges.
• Raymarine ST2000 (5 ton, ball drive, NMEA), $486, Defender; $448, Hodges.
• Simrad TP10 (5 tons), $480, WM. $363, Hodges.
• Simrad TP22 (5 tons, NMEA), $600, WM. $444, Hodges.
• Simrad TP32 (6 tons, NMEA), $807, WM. $605, Hodges.
• compare to Pelagic (remote control unit), starting at $900.

Comments -- 11/27/2020

Improvements in the personal strobe lights. And the costs are very low. The Orion and W&P electronic strobes that replace flares look like they are dominating the market -- and the on-sale price for the Orion, less than half of the original price a few years ago, is incredible. And SPOT has released their 4th generation tracker. Not going away. More choice in subscription -- yearly or monthly. But does not appear that prices have gone down...What's improved in Gen4?

The manufacturer of the Luci Lights, MPowered, has greatly expanded their product line. You really need to spend some time on their website to see where they are heading -- very cool products. And prices ARE going down on early models.

As usual, the models and prices for VHF radios and GPS units are changing too fast to keep up. The same thing is beginning to happen with lithium batteries to replace lead-acid batteries. And the availability and prices for solar modules are very dynamic -- whatever I write will become quickly dated. I'm just putting a stake in the ground.

Don't fret if we're past the "sale price" expiration date. What I've seen is that a lot of this stuff will go back on sale around the end of the year, or in the spring before the boating season really gets going again.

Finally, there are interesting developments in other devices, such as Personal Locator Beacons, AIS, and Garmin's inReach devices. But that will take more effort to document. Stay tuned.

Sources

• Duckworks Boat Building Supplies -- www.duckworksbbs.com
• West Marine -- www.westmarine.com
• Defender (Waterford, CT) --  www.defender.com
• Jamestown Distributors (Bristol, RI) -- www.jamestowndistributors.com
• Fisheries Supply (Seattle, WA) -- www.fisheriessupply.com
• Hodges Marine -- www.hodgesmarine.com
• GPS Store -- www.thegpsstore.com
• Solar modules and MPPT chargers: Alt-E Store (Boxborough, MA) -- www.altestore.com
• Luci Lights: MPowered -- www.mpowerd.com
• LED strip lights: Inspired LED (Tempe, AZ) -- www.inspiredled.com
• LiFeP batteries: M-Tech Lithium -- www.mtechlithium.com
• LiFeP batteries: ReLion -- www.relionbattery.com