Navigation

As I mentioned in an earlier post, navigation is one of the topics I've been doing research into.  I've looked at a lot of the new systems on the market and keep coming back to my old favorite, B&G, or Brooks and Gatehouse as it was known in my day.  Zetty and I had a chance to go to the Strictly Sail Show in Chicago last weekend and saw the new Zeus squared line.  Very nice!  It has all the features one needs, chartplotting, AIS, radar, autopilot, weather, depth, wind, sailing strategies all one one display.  I'm a big fan of the B&G instruments as we've used them on all out boats so far.  We sailed 60,000+ miles on the last B&G autopilot with only having to replace the electric motor brushes once.  It held a great course in some of THE nastiest weather mother nature could throw at us.  A good autopilot is also a safety issue for me as its a much better helm than I am and can stay awake with inexperienced crew!  Another great safety feature is the combination of GRIB files and the sailing strategies for planning around rough weather.  Avoidance is a great way to stay out of a pickle.  Last but not least, I know the software is good because one of our best friends writes a lot of the code for B&G, thanks Matt.

LJ