More than just navigation. That is the marketing slogan Raymarine has attached to its new G Series, “the complete information, command and entertainment system.”
The top of the range G Series, launched by Raymarine at this year's London Boat Show, represents a major step on even from the same manufacturer's still impressive E Series multifunction displays (MFDs).
It needs to: the ultra-bright marine display is available in four screen sizes, from the 12” (304mm) G120 to the 19” (481 mm) G190 at prices ranging from £3,895 to £8,760 respectively - and to that you need to add the processor module (another £3,642), the command centre keyboard (£417, or another £211 if you want it wireless), a GPS aerial (£258), an HD Digital radar scanner (£3,484), an AIS receiver (£770), a state of the art DSM 300 HD sounder module (£575), not to mention autopilot, instruments - and several hundred pounds' worth of cables and connectors to link the whole lot together.
Altogether that's say £25,000 for a “basic” set-up - and the sky's the limit if you want extra screens and processors, satellite TV, computer, or a host of other potential network add-ons. So unless you are commissioning a great big Oyster, and have the budget to match, don't even think about it!
However, I was delighted to have the opportunity to have hands-on experience of all this state of the art kit, on board Rubeus, the Hardy 36 powerboat Raymarine uses to test out all its new gear.
Hardly surprisingly, Rubeus boasts a dream installation, with no less than four screens, two top of the range G190s and two mere 17 inch computer screens, and four processors. All can be controlled from a single command centre keyboard, which can be flush-mounted or portably wireless.
(You can have as many keyboards as you like - or can afford - but Raymarine insists at least one is permanently wired in, as you would be in a muddle if you dropped the only wireless one overboard!)
Typically, a completely waterproof G series screen would be mounted at the wheel, and a (less expensive) computer screen would be installed at the chart table, to keep costs down (relatively speaking). But on Rubeus, with four screens in front of you, you could call up all sorts of functions at once, and really see the versatility of the system in action.
So what does the G Series do that others don't? Well, if you wanted to, you could use it to watch TV and DVDs, or CCTV cameras (might be useful when parking that 100' Oyster). But I was only interested in the navigation information.
One of the benefits of the G Series is that the hard drive comes preloaded with Navionics Platinum cartography - you can choose one or more of three comprehensive packages, covering Europe, America and Asia - and updates are conveniently supplied via USB memory stick.
Platinum charts include 3D imagery, and aerial photo overlays. Personally, I have yet to be convinced about the usefulness of these. Luke Wilbraham, from Raymarine, accepted that they might be regarded as a gimmick - “but a potentially useful gimmick.”
If you want to, you can pan and tilt the 3D images to provide all kinds of different viewpoints. Impressive, but is it really necessary? Otherwise, the G Series is a very good standard 2D chart plotter, and the high definition screen is noticeably sharper and clearer than previous generations.
As is increasingly the case with today's electronics, you can customise the display to your heart's content, splitting it into two, three or four windows, so that you can show, for example, chart and radar, 3D and CCTV side by side, should you want to.
Raymarine prides itself on the intuitive quality of its operating systems, and it really doesn't take long to work out how to find your way through the myriad features of this miracle of electronic sophistication, via a self-explanatory system of colour-coded soft key commands.
It's all wonderfully versatile. But the really impressive new feature is HD (high definition) digital radar. At the moment, this is only available via a 48” open array scanner, too big for even quite large yachts, but apparently a smaller radome is on the way.
The quality and clarity of the full colour radar display is amazing. For example, we passed a mothballed warship in Portsmouth harbour, with a line of yacht moorings in front of it. On a conventional, analogue radar display, these would merge into one amorphous blob.
In HD they were discernible as a ship-shaped ship, with a row of yacht-shaped yachts in front of it. How useful is this additional information? It could be argued that the analogue blob tells you all you need to know: there is something there that has to be avoided.
On the other hand, there's absolutely no doubt that the picture-like quality of HD digital radar makes interpretation ever so much easier - and the bonus is that it also uses a great deal less power.
HD radar is not only easier to understand, it is also much “smarter,” doing most of its tuning automatically.
Another key advantage is that you can view two different ranges at the same time (side by side on a split screen if you want to) seeing clearly what is happening both at close quarters and further away, which could be very useful in a crowded TSS like the Dover Straits for example.
Another bonus is that when you overlay the radar on to the chart, long a useful feature of Raymarine MFDs, you can adjust its transparency, so that the chart detail underneath is not blotted out, as it has been up to now.
The G Series is designed for Sea Talk NG, Raymarine's equivalent of NMEA 2000, the next generation of marine electronics, so you would have to install it in a new boat with the appropriate new generation cabling built in - or face a major rewiring job.
For the moment, then, this level of technology remains out of reach for most of us, but presumably, like all other innovations in marine electronics, it will gradually become more affordable, and eventually enter the mainstream.
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This is extremely impressive kit. It really does do more. If I won the Lottery, I'd be seriously tempted. But as Raymarine points out, it still comes with a reminder whenever you switch it on that it is no substitute for conventional navigation and watch-keeping.
You still need to know how to manage without it.
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