With the tremendous evolution of electronics - where I can get all my engine stats on screen WITH my navigation/radar/sonar combined - is there any good reason I need gauges? I understand the whole 'power outage' issue, but if the engine isn't working, or I lose power, I'm not going anywhere anyway. My back-up is actually a 15hp Yamaha kicker that needs nothing but fuel to bring us home. While I like having other back-ups, I'm just not sure I NEED all those gauges to be safe. Has anyone done this?
I currently have a Garmin 741xs, complete with fuel monitor, radar, 3 types of sonar, AIS and the base unit for adding most of their backbone devices. If I removed all the gauges, I could easily fit a 16" touch screen in the instrument panel space. This would make the rebuild a snap in comparison to a bunch of gauges independently wired with each one needing its own space and ........bin-dere, dun-dat, ....bought the T-shirt and burned it in effigy. This seems like it would be such an easy rebuild.
I'm thinking of upgrading to their GPSMAP® 7616. Granted, $6K is a lot for a 29 year old boat, especially when adding another $1500 for engine monitoring hardware. But when I think of the far less work in making the change, and the fact that we want to keep the boat, $7,500 seems like money well spent. I've seen many larger yacht builders go completely to electronics, so I'm fairly confident in them over gauges.
OR, I could just leave it the way it is and enjoy the boats unique and aging character. If you had the money to do it, what would you do? I welcome your thoughts and ideas. Photos are especially welcome.
Attached files
I currently have a Garmin 741xs, complete with fuel monitor, radar, 3 types of sonar, AIS and the base unit for adding most of their backbone devices. If I removed all the gauges, I could easily fit a 16" touch screen in the instrument panel space. This would make the rebuild a snap in comparison to a bunch of gauges independently wired with each one needing its own space and ........bin-dere, dun-dat, ....bought the T-shirt and burned it in effigy. This seems like it would be such an easy rebuild.
I'm thinking of upgrading to their GPSMAP® 7616. Granted, $6K is a lot for a 29 year old boat, especially when adding another $1500 for engine monitoring hardware. But when I think of the far less work in making the change, and the fact that we want to keep the boat, $7,500 seems like money well spent. I've seen many larger yacht builders go completely to electronics, so I'm fairly confident in them over gauges.
OR, I could just leave it the way it is and enjoy the boats unique and aging character. If you had the money to do it, what would you do? I welcome your thoughts and ideas. Photos are especially welcome.
Attached files