A Small Boat Guide to Electronics Afloat

From the simplest echo-sounder to the computerised instrument network installed on an offshore racing yacht, electronics have become a fact of life aboard modern yachts and powerboats. You can buy electronic devices to pinpoint your position, steer you to a waypoint, plot your track, keep tabs on the weather, monitor the wind, boatspeed and distance covered, and even check your sailing performance and tell you when you should be doing better!

But how accurate are these systems? How do they work, and what do you need to know to get the best out of them? Which devices should you invest in first, and how can you build up a system to suit your particular needs? How do you use them, in practice, out there in the wind and the waves? This book will tell you.

Includes:

• Electronic navigators: GPS, Transit, Loran, Decca
• Chart plotters
• Depth sounders
• Flux-gate compasses
• Logs and wind indicators
• Autopilots
• Interfacing
• Performance computers
• Power supplies and installation

As an ex-officer in the Royal Navy, a practising yachtsman and a navigation instructor, Tim Bartlett has had ample opportunity to get to grips with all manner of electronic devices aboard all types of vessels.  Now technical editor of the magazine Motor Boat & Yachting, he spends much of his time testing and using the very latest equipment and techniques developed for small craft under power and sail.