I’m amazed you listed support as a plus. Most users, including myself, have had the extreme opposite experience. Lack of support is the only reason that I would never purchase B&G again. We have a Zeus3 12”, a Zeus 3 16”, 3 Triton II’s, Halo 24 Radar, VHF V100, VHF V60, NAIS, Autopilot and all ancillary equipment such as compasses etc. . At no time has everything worked as advertised. On hold time w support for us averages 4+ hrs. and has gone as long as 6hrs. Owners who have invested $$$ should not have to rely on often conflicting recommendations on FB or TH-cam!
My zeus 2 touchscreen stopped working after being splashed with saltwater in rough seas. The only option given to me by B&G support was a replacement unit for over $2000. Imagine that, a $4000 chart plotter wasted by saltwater in its 4th season without warranty. I hated the not-intuitive interface and regretted the purchase from the start.
i had a similar experience with a B&G Vulcan. It failed completely after one full week of use, would not even power up. B&G would not respond to phone calls or emails. Luckily Defender Marine, who i purchased it through, was willing to help me and replaced it. I don't recommend B&G, but highly recommend Defender Marine. Thank you, Donna Lillis, at Defender Marine
Thanks, this was one of the most honest reviews I have seen. Clearly, the support is critically essential, which as I understand it, B&G does an excellent job. I wished you had mentioned the unit firmware upgrade -- in particular, there are some "cons" that can be fixed that way. Cheers.
Hey, glad you have enjoyed the video. And thats a very good point, we have kept our units updated and haven't had any problems in that regard, but also didn't notice any issues that they would have fixed. We do however need to update our simrad tiller pilot to enable some extra functionality, so that is something we are looking forward to trying 😁. Thank you for commenting a very good point. All our best Brynn and Jade
i'm glad that you have a good experience. so far in my experience their tech support has been nonexistent. on the phone for 4 hours and no one answered. sent two messages on their web site and no response.
Thanks for the information, just planning to update my iPad 2 and iSailor with new hardware and B&G is one option because is hard to find a weather protective cover for a new iPad or Android tablet like my old iPad2 has.
Hello from the US! I'm glad to have found your videos, particularly this one. We have the B&G Zeus 2 and have had a very similar experience as what you've outlined. The written manuals are woefully lacking, (in the Zeus 2 manual, it points to the specific menus without any guidance on how to navigate the system to find the menus!), and much of what we've learned has been by trial and error. Once you move along the somewhat significant learning curve(s), it is a superb system, especially for sailors, and even more so for racing sailors. (We're cruisers.) And I can echo your experiences with B&G/Simrad technical support - stellar! Thank you again!
It is all personal choices, personally I use my boat to get away from technology so as much as possible I do not bring it on my boat. Cheers, and thanks for the review.
Great video guys, well done. Reference the difficulty learning the system, I think that depending upon your background, you’d find any clever nav system difficult. If you can generally find your way around the B & G without the hand book, it’s a pretty good system. Anything new takes time of course. Keep up the great work.
Hey thank you so much. That is a very good point, we definitely think this too. Most of the features we found intuitive to use with some of the lesser used bits needing a little learning. Thanks for commenting 😁
Yeah totally agree no matter what brand you go with you're going to need to learn how to use it, and if your fairly new to marine electronics then of course the learning curve in general is going to be steep
B&G Zeus3 7” user since 2016. The reason you might not get a following track maybe the speed threshold set. (Less than eg 3knot.) set it to 2 or 1. In your tracks page. It replays why it starts after leaving Marina on motor. (Going 2-3 knots…) ad then sailing. @4-7 knots. (I hope)
We have the Triton unit on my 30ft boat and I must admit I too am looking at upgrading the old and pretty useless Garmin chartplotter with a new B&G Vulcan unit. The only thing I am trying to work out is whether a 7 or 9 inch plotter would be the way to go. Thanks for the review of the B&G plotter on your boat. I like how it seems to be such a competent system.
I'm installing complete new B&G set, very similar to yours. Mainly to be used with tablet on cockpit by screen mirror, the vulcan will be installed inside...so it seems I will have some challenges wit screen mirror...
Hey thanks for messaging. There is a chance the screen mirror will be fine for you, i think apple tablets apparently work better than android. Something that I thought about when doing our install was which to have inside and which to use outside, I came to the conclusion that if conditions were bad its the B&G i would want in the cockpit as its able to stand up to the elements much better as well as having a brighter screen for the sunny days. This might be something for you to think about maybe, that way you can use the tablet at the nav desk or while eating lunch at the saloon 😁. Going back to the screen mirror, you might be able to try it out on a shop display maybe, and even though ours isn't perfect its still perfectly usable 👍. All our best Jade and Brynn
You have a gift for teaching! Keep up the great videos. I think your channel will continue to grow since it's rich in info and light on drama and click-bait.
Like you guys, we love our B & G Vulcan system. That being said, today’s on-board electronics foster a reliance on them. Equally important is to learn the manual ways to safely sail.
Hey thanks for commenting. We absolutely agree with you, we have always had it in our minds that the nav system is just a tool to help with thangs and not what gets us from on place to the next (even though is does make things much easier). We always make sure that when plotting a course its important to zoom in as some things will be to small to see on a zoomed out chartplotter and might take you off guard when they pop up out of nowhere haha. We also find that sailing in a manual sense is also fun and good to test our selfs now and again. All the best Jade and Brynn
I am just going to use Navionics on two Samsung tablets which have good GPS and are robust (one is for redundancy). There are some fancy features that your system has that Navionics does not have, but compared to your system Navionics is quite cheap (you pay for the maps but the app is free). Have you looked at Navionics and how it compares? I also have to say what I like about using a tablet is that you can take it with you wherever you like and use it for other things, but especially take it inside the boat for looking at your chart and plotting routes at a table where there is no glare. Like you I also have a separate system for AIS, but no radar.
Hey Hugo, thanks for this comment. We actually use Navionics as well on our tablet and smart phones, we consider them a good back up. when we first started sailing before getting the new equipment, we didn't have the intention of buying a new chart plotter or nav gear. instead we were going to stick with the old Raymarine chart plotter and use a tablet with Navionics. Unfortunately we soon ran in to a few issues that we wouldn't have been confident sailing further a field with. The first was that the tablet would overheat, even on cooler day's that were bright. The next thing was screen brightness, it was difficult to see on bright days. When we sat down to think about what tools we would want for sailing to places we have never anchored, moored/ docked before and it could be day or night, we then started to see the advantages of a nav package. Its definitely not the cheapest but we feel safer having it, we see it as any car can attempt to drive across a dessert but ones with the tools for the conditions will make it easier. Brynn & Jade
First I want to compliment you on your excellent informative video as well as the many skills you have learned in such a short time. I don’t know if you took any navigation courses before purchasing your navigation package, but navigation at sea is a bit more complicated than typing in your destination in the car. You talked about 20 advanced features which deal with complicated variables . It seems today you have a very good understanding of your tools. Most people learn the theory first before they learn to play a musical instrument, learning an instrument is very difficult until you understand the theory. Your learning curve is brilliant and it certainly helps to learn from others, as you mentioned utilizing the Facebook group. Safe sailing and enjoy the many sights along the way.
Hey, honestly I'm sorry I haven't got back to your comment sooner. This is one of the kindest comments I have read and I just want to say a huge thank you. I don't really talk about how I learn things to much but I definitely enjoy the learning process in what ever it is I pursue and try my best to understand things to the fullest. Thank you again for this comment its my favourite 😁
Great video. The how to, is quiet, good and a stand-up benchmark to weigh against a Garman. One item is your auto helm. I am summing it's a part of your Wi-Fi network not driven by a separate wind ex unite.
Hey thanks for watching and your comment 😊. So our auto helm is connected via the nmea 2k network, so essentially everything is plugged in together and they can all talk to each other and share information, then the chartplotter is how you use the information and set routes 😁. Hope this helps
The B&G certainly sounds like a great piece of kit. Have you checed the phone B&G app settings for a Map Shift setting? Which might be cause of off positioning of features like the marker bouy you pointed on the Mirror. Might be worth checking.
Hey thanks for commenting, and we definitely love it. This actually isn't something we have looked at so will definitely give this ago thank you 😁. All our best Brynn and Jade
Really good honest feedback on your B&G experience. I also have B&G and some aspects are completely unintuitive! That said, once learned and setup - it’s great kit
Thats a problem with a lot of IT based kit .. the invisible layering of menus and options to access functions. The problem could be eased by providing the equivalent of system overviews or maps. First you have to find the function exists .. then find the route through the options layers and decision gates and then be able to see and remember it under how shall we say sub optimal conditions of boat life. 🤔
Can you mirror the functions of the Vulcan on a iPad and if so can you then take it below while sitting all relaxed and "play" with it in your lap to learn the functions? Or, are there some limitations when in "mirror mode" (if it has that function for an equivalent-sized iPad) ?
So, as far as my testing went, we were able to use the mirror function to a tablet, and we had full use of the plotter on that screen. Was super handy on long passages when you want to keep an eye while not on shift. The only downside we had was some glitchy lines when mirroring but didn't affect any functions.
Thank you,Brynn... Very well done. I too am installing a Vulcan, Halo, Triton2 system on board. Your review gave some great heads up on what to expect and what I should be studying ahead of time. Amazing technology that, in some regards, was not even possible a few short years ago. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. BTW, I did get the solar mounts and they work perfect on my rail. Thank you for that!
Hey thank you for commenting again! So glad the mounts were good for you 😁. And yes it was hard to think the chartplotter we took of the boat was only about 8 years old. The industry has come quite far. Definitely keep us posted 👍, take care and all the best. Brynn and Jade
I have a smaller boat and am considering the Volcan 9. What is the small "Sail Steer" screen above the Vulcan 9 as it seems the 9 has the same function when overlayed on the chart (?). Can you explain to a complete newbi please?
Hey, yes, so the triton screen above comes as a package with the wind, speed, and depth sensors. It also meant we were able to keep the charts on the plotter screen and instrument data on the triton screen. You are absolutely right. This data can be shown on the vulcan, but it wasn't that much more for us to get the triton in our package 👍😊
Thanks for this, great review! I was wondering how ‚deep‘ you were able to integrate the tiller pilot into the system? Can you steer it manually from the Vulcan? Does it wind steer, taking data from the network etc?
This will depend on what tiller pilot and its age as the newer ones like the tp22/32 have what your mentioning but older and smaller units are a bit more limited 👍
I have exactly the same system and love it, as you said it does have a small amount of issues, I have got a second Sd card which I use and I have found no issues with lagging. I too would buy again should the need arise.
Hey thanks for commenting 😁. I think we will be putting in a sd card soon also. The lagging has only really occurred when we used predict wind auto route and it made lots of way points, other than that its been pretty good👍. All the best Brynn and Jade
Terrific job doing a pretty detailed review! 👍👍 I have the Zeus2 and have a few similar “lag”, “screen” , “complex/compound menu” observations (not complaints!!). I’ve been on a boat with the Zeus3S and all of the first two are solved. I live with the menus as “features.” 😎 (think windows or macOS-they are simple until you dive one step too deep-then 🤔🤔🤬🤬😭). I think the mirror issues are partly processor issues in the Vulcan (and Zeus2). I didn’t see it at all on the Zeus3S on his iPad though when I tried the same on my Zeus2/iPad combo, it wasn’t as smooth or precise. (Could also have been the WiFi/nmea2k latency caused by the add on WiFi). In any case, as mentioned in other comments, the 9” screen will be upgraded with a 12” model and I hope I can repurpose the Zeus2 as a slave unit (as well as using the flat screen in the salon as a large display through the HDMI). I just found your site and will track it. I hope B&G will come out with an even better Zeus4 at the Miami boat show. Then the old inventory on the Zeus3S generation will be discounted. I hope that will create an opportunity for you to upgrade to bring your B&G package (with AWESOME sailsteer, etc) up to the speed/accuracy you expect from the hardware. The interface…well, if they made it iPhone simple, they would probably lose bits of the functionality/customizability for which everyone has slightly different “desirements.”
Great video with fantastic observations from a system that you've obviously grown to love. We have Zeus 2 on our sailboat and after only minimal sailing I agree with your comment that the more advanced features are not intuitive to discover and use. The how-to comments in your video were excellent and certainly help me the next time out on the water next week. If you post future B&G videos, consider explaining your experiences with the sail steer such as tacking, steer to apparent wind, etc. Thanks and looking forward to your next video.
Hey thank you fornthe comment! Were going to try put some sort of informational videos together once were sailing to show how we use some features and what they are good for so it's good to know some people will enjoy this. Thank again, all the best Brynn and Jade
Good interesting piece. First sailing on holiday charter 1987 equipment was lead line stop watch for speed and hand heald compass with paper charts, so anything that's better and more informative is a bonus.
Hey thank you, glad you found this interesting. How people sailed with the instruments you mention is incredible, we would love to also do a celestial course in the future as we find it fascinating. Thank you for the comment, all the best Brynn and Jade
hi there love your channel and your videos if all your electronics fail could you navigate with a paper chart and dead reconing and do you double check your position when out of the site of land with a sextant regards John.
Hey John, so glad you enjoy the channel and videos 😁. If everything did fail we do have some backups. Unfortunately paper charts aren't a feasible option 😪, we do love using them but it would cost to much to obtain paper charts that we would only really be needing for a few days or a week as we are cruising. We do have several other electronic backups (phones, tablet, laptops, gps)dotted around the boat for each eventuality, these will be sprung in to action if we have lost all boat electronics. We also write in our log book every hour with position, course and other useful information (this is what we would refer back too if electronics were lost). We hope this answers the question 😁. All our best Jade and Brynn
Hey, glad you have found this helpful. To help get started we went to a shop that had one on display and asked for a demonstration to see the usability. We found the very helpful as we was able to ask questions if something didn't make sense. Also we downloaded the user manual online and gave that a couple of reads to familiarise ourselves. There are also some videos from B&G on their TH-cam that can help in bite size chunks. Hope this helps, all our best 😁 Jade and brynn
Nice vid, should help lots of people. On my Zeus3 9, I simply don't show all my 110 routes (1000's miles total), only the one I'm following, and I think that way the screen doesn't lag the way you describe it.
Hey thanks for the kind words. I've head the Zeus plotters don't suffer from this lag, just the vulcans. It seems like it's an internal memory bottle neck. Thanks for commenting 😁
Big changes over the last 20 years! How about power consumption with the radar running? Radar and AIS are the only upgrades i would like over a bog standard gps. Do you still use paper charts? Helpfull review.
Hey, thanks for commenting. I can't remember exactly how much power it uses now, but it isn't alot. We only have 200w or solar panels and 400ah of battery storage, and find we have never felt our electrical systems use to much power. Unfortunately we don't use paper charts now, we don't think it would be cost effective as we sometimes pass through areas in a couple of weeks and it would be alot of paper charts from the UK to Greece. We do keep other navigation backups on the boat though. So glad you found this video helpful. All our best Brynn and Jade
Good heavens, so much tech on such a small boat. Mind you I've seen another vlog where another young couple are attempting to sail round the world on a Seal 28 and the only nav aid they seem to have is a mobile phone. I wish them the best of luck. When I spent 5 years with my wife on a small boat in the late 80s we were uncontactable, and the isolation was a beautiful thing. Different world now, better? I don't know.
Hey, it definitely is a bit of tech. We feel its helped us learn faster for sure about sailing. We definitely agree about the isolation! We have found some anchorages with zero signal and enjoyed the nature around us. Its definitely a different world now we think. We would have loved to have done this in the 80s though. There seems alot more rules and regulations now and more boaters in anchorages maybe. Luckily there are always spots of the beaten path. Thanks for commenting 🤙 😁
You mentioned you have the Wireless WS320 Wind System. I always wondered how many batteries it took and how long they last. You have the connector pod but what about the actual wind vane? What is syouur experience with the batteries? How many are there and how often do you change or charge them?
Hey thank you for commenting. The ws320 has 2 batteries that are charged by a little solar panel built in to the unit. So they can potentially last years and years until the batteries can no longer cycle. So for the duration of us having this setup we have not one had any signal drop or flat batteries, it has just worked everytime we switched it on 😊. Hope this helps, Brynn
We did look at the vulcan 7 but luckily the 9 came up on a deal. Definitely a more usable size 😁. Its not the end of the world though being able to screen mirror 👍. Thanks for commenting, all out best Brynn and Jade
Great video! Just wondering if you guys connect the Simrad tiller pilot to the B&G system and use the autopilot to control it? I'm not sure if the system only can manage B&G's autopilot?
It is connected to the vulcan and follows routes etc, but we use the controls on the tiller pilot for adjustments. B&G and simrad are part of the same company so they can work together 👍
Routes storage. Can you export your routes via WiFi? For many years I have used a GPS puck and Open CPN on my laptop for navigation. With this system it is easy to store routes on the laptop and recall them for later use. They require less than 100kb memory each, so it is possible to store many of them. I am a fan of modern technology BUT the cost for all these gadgets make me wonder about the practicality of it all. And does it all get fried in the advent of a lightening strike? Of course if you have deep pockets, go for it. I do not.
Hey thanks for commenting. We can export the routes a couple different ways. one we can sync it to our B&G account and have them online or on our phone, alternatively we could use an SD card. The issue with it slowing down is when we have had very long routes with many many way points charted. In regards to a lightning strike we think unfortunately all the electronics wired around the boat might be affected, so this could include the nav gear and ships radio. We definitely don't feel like we have deep pockets either, we managed to buy our boat and these electronics to upgrade for less than £13,000. that's less than most people spend on their boats we think. We just looked for a boat cheap enough for us to allow to upgrade, rather than buying the biggest boat for our money with no money for extras. All our best Brynn & Jade
@@ChasingCurrents Way back last century when I went out for my first big solo sailing trip I had one of the early GPSs. Cost US$900 and worth every penny to me at the time. All my charts were paper copies in a booklet and one guide book. Fast forward 14 years when I set out to circumnavigate. My GPS was a handheld Garmin, cost US$80(with another identical unit as backup). Eventually I got OpenGPN and the charts to use it for free. But I did have small scale paper charts for the proposed route. It cost a lot for them but I still have them. WOW what a difference time and technology make for cruisers. Add four more years when I set out again. Newish laptop with US$35 GPS puck(with a spare). The boat had a depth sounder when I bought it. I had already learned from Bernard Moitessier that a two meter piece of black ribbon, cut into short bits, and tied to the shrouds made a fine apparent wind indicator. Now after all those years and 85,000 sea miles I find that I do not need to know if it is blowing 16 or 18 knots. I can judge the wind speed by the sea state and the sea height by looking at the waves. My ribbons and the feel of the breeze tell me the apparent wind direction. If I could afford it I would have more electronic goodies. The most valuable would be the ability to download wind and weather info at sea. Because I never trust forecasts more than three days out. And ocean crossings do take longer than that. Never had radar. An AIS receiver would be handy. But do not think I would be keen on transmitting my position. I have always had a VHF radio and a Ham HF radio. The Ham can be a great source for information when it is possible to reach one of the many Ham nets. And I know it is possible to download Grib files with the Ham but I never bothered to set all that up. Have fun in the Med.
Thanks for the video guys! Useful info and reassuring that you would purchase it all again as I have just purchased a similar system. Do you need the heading sensor? Does the Vulcan not have one built in?
Hey, we're glad you found it useful 😀. We definitely would buy the same again. With the heading sensor its not needed for a basic system, that being said the reason for us getting it was so we could overlay radar. It also helps with the auto pilot functionality and helps the tiller pilot having more information. If these two things arnt important then I dont believe you would need one 👍 Really hope this helps, all the best Jade and Brynn
Hi there quick question. I have a vulcan 7 the wireless wind meter and b&G transponder. I just bought the simrad tillepilot that I believe can link into the nmea2000 is there a specialist connector needed? Also you have a Triton 2. What's the benefit of having the Triton 2 as well as the Vulcan MFD? I'm thinking of getting one near the helm for depth and tacking. Thanks for any advice
Hey, thanks for checking out the video. So there is a connector needed and there are a few brands that make them. Its a nmea 0183 to 2000 gateway, the one we used is by actisense and was relatively simple to install. B&G also make one but you're best bet is to contact each company and see whats best for you 👍. As for the Triton 2, its just another screen that can display lots of different data, I think it can also be used as a remote for the auto pilot (but not definitely). We find it very useful having sail steer or speed and depth on it when sailing. Hope you find this useful 👍. All the best, Jade and Brynn
Hi Brynn, Finally got my backordered B&G Halo 20+ radome so I can finish my system install. I noticed in this video that you have the Simrad Tiller pilot. Is it the model TP32? and if so, do you have it on the B&G NEMA 2000 backbone? I have a TP32 on my boat also and it has in the past been able to run a GPS set of waypoints via NEMA 183. Were you able to successfully integrate the TP32 into your B&G chartplotter/gps network? Excited for the two of you and your upcoming new sailing year!
Hey, that sounds like amazing news! So the tiller pilot we have is the tp22 but we do have a friend with the tp32 also. Unfortunately as I'm not with the boat right now I can't remember exactly how it is wired in but I'm pretty sure it's on the backbone and the vulcan chartplotter recognises it in the devices page. For functionality you should be able to control it from the chartplotter or a controller as well as the unit its self, it can follow way points or sail to wind also. I think depending on the system it can also take information from some b&g hardware and help the performance. We absolutely can't wait to get started now, not long to wait. We will be back on the boat in just over 1 week to start season 2 😁. Thanks for commenting. Brynn and Jade
We usually check along the plotted course zoomed in on our plotter or on a paper chart. Some objects can't be seen on plotter charts unless you zoom in, this should hopefully help you avoid any unwanted accidents. It's also good for avoiding fishing zones and military areas. 😊
@@ChasingCurrents Ok, that is helpful thanks. That is what I thought but wanted to see if there were any other tricks. I just installed exactly the same system in my boat (I think slightly different radar) and loved this video. For flying airplanes in a very frequently used app called Foreflight (like navionics/predictwind combined) it has a rout review view that shows your whole trip and indicates danger spots where you are coming too close to terrain and or certain controlled airspace. th-cam.com/video/btfaaKLy-wA/w-d-xo.html I was hoping B&G had something like this....seems like an obvious feature, but it looks like you just zoom in and trace your route.
Top video. We have a new Hanse 458 with two B & G Zeus plotters. I am reasonably intelligent but did not find the operation of the plotter very intuitive. B & G have lots of flashy videos on their website but no real tutorials for noobs ;-). This video helped demystify some of the functionality. I think we will now get a lot more from our kit. - Thankyou 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
@@DirkJacobsz high Dirk the reason we have Zeus 3S kit is because that is what Hanse fitted to the yacht when we bought it. I guess we could have elected not to have any chart plotters fitted and selected our own but we weren’t in a position to make that decision this is our first boat and we have limited experience. We also have AIS and halo Radar. All seems to work well together. The issue is lots of menus with lots of sub menus several ways to get to the same menu option.
To continue….. the other issue is we only took ownership of the boat in September and have not had chance to play with the kit very often with large gaps between outings. We intend going cruising full time from the spring so hope it will all become much more familiar
@@phlippeflop Thanks Phil.. I am looking to upgrade my electronics - so i appreciate user input. Here is to fair winds and following seas - on your journey. Cheers Dirk
I was wondering any device in the market which is using B&G and then manage sails automatically with electrical winches , basically you do nothing Am I asking too much ? I maybe invent a device that will do it.
Hey John, as far as we know it dont exist on the market. But that's not to say someone hasn't done it as a home project. I have definitely heard others talk of something similar so your not alone. All the best Brynn and Jade
Sailed across the Biscay in 1968 in a 17 feet Silhouette plywood boat. Navigation equipment. Dead reckoning, radio direction finder, mechanical distance run. Sextant, didn't use, grid compass and a paper chart. Pair of ears and eyes. Haven't things changed.. how do you reckon you would have faired had this equipment failed. A guy I came across had been stuck for over a week because his GPS had failed..
That sounds epic, what an adventure! Yeah understand what you're saying, just the way it is in lots of aspects of life isn't it - technology advances and we rely on it more. At one point we used paper a-z in cars now we use satnavs. Respect those still doing it without any tech at all. We are literally completely new to sailing so it's been a huge learning curve, and having the tech has helped us feel safer with the AIS and radar among with other things. That being said, we would have been fine if the tech failed - we keep an hourly log of our position and are proficient with paper charts too as a back up. Appreciate the comment and thanks for watching 👍
@@ChasingCurrents I admire you for taking that route. Most on TH-cam seem to choose the canals, I personally would hate the canals. It's been some time since I've sailed and I'm getting back into it. The boat I buy will almost certainly have all this type of gear aboard. I'm seriously thinking about a Fisher 34, so your video was very useful.. regards..
May mom bought me and my brother a sailboat years ago so we could learn to sail. It was a Silhouette, yes a plywood boat that we had fun with for years. Thirty years later I now live and sail on my 44' Antigua/CSY cutter, thanks to mom... Had a Zeus 2 that lasted about six years before the screen went and I am now considering the Vulcan and or the Zeus 3 at about a better than a $500 difference and a smaller unit if I go with the Zeus. If you had a choice would you go with the 7" Zeus or for less money go for the Vucan 12"... is a larger screen and less money worth giving up on the Zeus 3?
Hi there, Thanks for all the great info and advice that you give on your channel. We find you very inspiring as we bought a Gibsea 77 at a similar time to you but you guys have travelled a lot further!! We are looking to install a solar panel so I can potentially work from the yacht. Just wondering if you have any advice on that front. We look forward to following your future adventures……. All the best. Chris & Jill.
Hey, really glad you are finding the video's useful. We can definitely try our best to answer any questions you might have. It might be easier finding us on Instagram or Facebook and dropping us messages there. We also looked at a Gibsea 76 just before we found Talisman and really liked the Gibsea's. Thank you for commenting, all our best. Brynn & Jade
One interesting item I see other sailors don't have, is an underwater drone which one could get for the cost of an expensive air drone... it's something I'd get in conjunction with my air drone. One could get a clear view of the underwater views, like sea bed if you need to anchor in the bay for a few days.. quite indispensable. Beside one's aerial drone, I'd also mount cameras on deck and mast, like Erik aaderaa sailing does, so he can monitor everything above deck, whilst under. Great for heavy weather when it's best to stay below deck..
An underwater drone would be a really cool addition to have, also for underwater filmmaking too! Yeah we agree, that's something we're going to work on this season too. Would be good to have some GoPro mounts set up, even just for capturing more action when we're sailing too.
Thanks for this - well done ..Hey guys .. what is the difference between a Vulcan set up and the Zeus 3.. chartplotter. Thanks in advance.. as I am in the market for one of these..
Hey thank you. I think the main difference is the hardware (processor, memory, screen) and that you also get buttons on the side. The is also some extra networking on the zeus and the ability for an IP camera. I hope this helps 😁
Hi guys just watched the video, we are from the UK, where abouts are you guys from in the uk if you don't mind me askin. By the way thank you for the information you just shard with us.
Hey Hannah! Thanks for watching :) We are both from the West Midlands, just outside of Birmingham (Oldbury and Halesowen if you know the area!) You're welcome, glad you found it useful😁
We have the same setup and overall like you are happy with it. Although we have the same issue with the screen mirroring. Which at this price point is very disappointing and it does make me question the longevity of the equipment under harsh conditions. We did try speaking with B&G about it but it seemed it became a blame game between them and developers of the link app. With noone wanting to know, although oddly it works fine on the zues kit when we tested it, so I wonder if it's a bad batch of Vulcan hardware that's out there. Other than that great video guys and very helpful.
Hey, thanks for commenting. I feel we think similar to you in regards to the mirroring, at the price point we hoped it would have been perfect too. So far we haven't any reason to question the longevity, and after hearing from some race teams they also seem happy with the ruggedness of the equipment 😁. Interesting comment though thank you. All the best Jade and Brynn
Hey, Unfortunately we haven't been able to play with savvy navvy much yet, we have just seen a couple of demonstration. From what we can tell they are different things to some degree. B&G offer very good hardware and instruments that will aid you in your sailing. Savvy seems to be a very good software that is brilliant for planning a passage that can also be used on a tablet kinda like a chartplotter. The savvy navvy we think has more features when it comes to passage planning and auto routing that takes in to account weather tide and depths . But B&G has very good rugged hardware that can stand up in bad weather and be seen in bright sunshine, as well as having good auto route functions (including weather routing from predict wind with subscription). So its a little difficult to pick a winner, ideally you could use savvy for planning and B&G for the passage 😅. It also comes down to budget as well we think. We might try savvy in the future and give our full thoughts in a video. Hope this has helped and all the best. Jade and Brynn
Hi guys, I started watching all your videos and subscribed of course. Its the most honest channel on sailing it seems and exactly how I'm planning my roote to the sea. Currently just lake sailing at carsington. I would like to ask if you took any qualifications (skipper, crew member etc) and what's your advice for a beginner trying to get to sea sailing. Maybe video idea. 😁Hope the best for you guys!
Hey! Thanks so much for such a lovely comment :) Really appreciate the kind words and glad you've found our videos useful so far too! Ooh it's nice around that area isn't it, been around there for hikes 😁 Good question, so Jade - just comp crew, Brynn did Day Skipper. In terms of advice for sea sailing, what we actually did is probably different to the advice we would give haha. We went straight into it with no experience and bought our boat and then just got out practicing after our courses. But what would have been a great route into it in hindsight, is crewing on peoples boats to get out on the sea. There are various sites ( I think crewseekers is one) or there are loads of Facebook groups. You could easily get out on other people's boats to gain some experience on the sea :) Hope this helps, but we may make a video on this in the future too - good suggestion! All our best, Jade and Brynn
I got turned on to you guys from the Andy H podcast. I just watched one of you first videos. And you mentioned gaming. Do you game on your boat? Because if I ever go sailing/living like you, I want my Xbox, for games but also TH-cam, Netflix, smart TV stuff. Any thoughts. Maybe you can make a video?
Hey Thomas, glad you found us! Yeah we used to have an Xbox, but got rid of it when we moved on the boat. Our power and space is very limited, so for gaming we now just have Nintendo Switch. We do also have our laptops which we game on sometimes too, mainly when we are in a marina so power is not an issue (we had to add an inverter so we could charge our laptops). We watch Netflix etc on our laptops or tablet too, so don't have a TV. We could definitely do a video on our set up/ gadgets at some point too, hopefully this answers your questions for now though :)
I think if we had the budget we would have got with the zeus, the buttons and overall more powerful unit would be nice. But our vulcan is still really good for what we are doing 👍. Thanks for the question, Brynn & Jade
Nice video guys. Personally I couldn't justify spending all that cash , as i'm a tight arse lol 🤣 Think I have spent about a grand on Nav gear, which includes second hand 5 inch screen plotter on port side with AIS receive. 10 inch Raspberry pi chart plotter with AIS on starboard side and also AIS class b transponder and a second hand Simrad TP10 auto pilot. However, the 300 watt solar arch and 200 amp Life p04 battery is a necessary expense, but only £1600 all in 👍
Hey, glad you enjoyed the video 😁. And it definitely was a hard decision when we purchased it. Thankfully its definitely not one we regret 😅. Its always difficult when on a budget trying to find the best way of spending on whats important. Your set up sounds pretty nice, the important thing for everyone is that they have what works for them 😁. Thanks again for commenting and hope you are well. All our best Brynn and Jade
Yes there is, but would need a back up to the card we think to save them. The main issue with the unit slowing is when using predict weather routing as the creates many way points. 👍
I read on Reddit that the screen mirror issue is often caused by your device ie phone and not by B&G per se. Just a thought. How is the battery holding up for the wireless wind instrument? Do you lose connectivity to it at any time?
Yes we have also heard similar. But this begs the question as to how so many phones are able to mirror to tvs with little problems. And in regards to the wireless battery, we haven't had any issues with it at all. We have neither lost connectivity at any point, overall we're very happy 😁. Thank you for commenting and all the best Brynn and Jade
I have so much respect for people who sailed before all this techno sailing. Any idiot can do it now - and they do, it’s like camping on water with no skill sets needed whatsoever.
Yep we have respect for those people too! Though any 'idiots' have always been able to buy a boat and have a crack at it - that hasn't really changed just because of tech. Plus most people still have to learn the same techniques with or without tech (I.e we still learned paper charts, navigation, tidal curves, ships lights etc) but we just have to learn all the tech on top of that too. It hasn't taught us anything about the parts of our boat, maintenence, repairs, engine, sails. So respectfully not sure we'd agree with the no skill sets needed at all, though that may be the case for some people it's not what we've found on our journey and meeting people with tech on their boats :)
@@ChasingCurrents - yes, I know, I sail too. My point was they had to do EVERYTHING you and I do PLUS a shit ton more. No GPS just for starters, no chart plotter, no EPIRB, no life raft, no depth sounder, no anchor winch, no furlers……..I could go on and on and on. It’s far easier now, no question about it and because it’s a lot easier and less of a challenge (read life threatening) a lot more people are doing it. If you doubt what I say strip your boat of JUST the chart plotter, just the one single item and see how you go, I doubt you’d leave the dock.
Hey, respectfully I disagree. When doing our training we wasn't aloud to use any instruments for a part of it and had to sail as If we had none. The sailing was much more simple as we took no risks on our course, we made sure we was in good charted depths and marked our position on the paper chart with bearings to land. We wouldn't have gone out in anything we didn't feel comfortable with and the preparation before setting sail (pilotage, danger zones, local weather) are all things we still do with tech. We still do the same things as someone without a chart plotter would just we plot on a screen rather than paper. We also check tides and currents using an almanac, and all the extra information just gives us more to think about and allows us to be safer. Not having the tech don't make it harder, just more risky (which would be countered by taking less risks). The tech can give a false sense of security which can lead to people making more mistakes. But no more easy or hard. I do agree it's less dangerous, alot of industries have adapted to be safer. And we definitely would leave a Dock if only using paper charts but your right if we had no charts or chartplotter we wouldn't leave the Dock, to us that would be reckless. Also we pull our anchor up by hand and furling systems have been around for 40 years or so. Epirbs and liferafts are brilliant safety equipment but I don't feel make sailing any easier. GPS has been one of the best modern tech to help sailors navigate for sure but a compass don't run out of batteries. 👍
@@ChasingCurrents - no, you can’t say “as if we didn’t have……”. There’s a huge difference between not having something and having it and not using it. It’s there, it’s a safety net and if the shit hits the fan you’ll use it and you’ll KNOW it’s there for that eventuality. You said yourself, you plot on the chart plotter because it’s easier. And there we have it. I never once expected you to agree with anything I said because to do so would mean you’re actually not doing anything special at all, much less something to make a TH-cam video about - but then again TH-cam has videos of people doing all sorts for pointless shite AND feeling the need to document it so……. I’m sure soon the RYA are going to include making TH-cam videos in their syllabus!
@@claywebb8199 There's a big difference between safety and easy, you seem to be using the two interchangeably. We use the chart plotter because it's safer with lots of features that paper charts certainly don't have. Some of our older sailor friends don't have a clue how to use the tech we use, and often state its too hard to understand. They don't find it easy to use and find it much easier sailing without. You're clearly very desperate to get into an argument and truly we don't feel strongly about the topic enough to oblige. Very curious to know why you're watching our b&g tech video though if you're so against tech and TH-cam? Do you have such an opposition to mobile phones? Satnavs? TVs? Or any of the other aspects we integrate into our life? We infact have already agreed with aspects of what you say more than once, but again you so badly want to dislike us and what we're doing that you seem to be ignoring that 😅 We do what we do because we enjoy it, anyone that thinks otherwise has clearly never watched our other videos which is fine 👍 As we've already said, we respect your opinion (even if you dont ours) and the generation of hardcore sailors that predate us.
Generally, I feel that all modern navigation systems have user interfaces that are appalling. They seem to be made by programmers, for programmers and not for boaters at all. When I am in a boat I want to be in a boat, I do NOT want to be a system administrator who just happens to be on the water. The complexity of modern systems are getting in the way of what they are supposed to be there for: Simplifying your boating experience.
¡Oye! Muchas gracias, nos alegra mucho que te guste nuestro canal :) Nos encantaría agregar subtítulos en español, lamentablemente no hablamos el idioma para poder crearlos :( (aunque estamos tratando de aprender) Enviando nuestro amor a la hermosa Galicia (esto fue hecho con el traductor de google así que espero que tenga sentido jaja)
@@ChasingCurrents se entiende estupendamente!!!😂 Creo que los subtítulos los puede poner automáticamente TH-cam. Lo podéis mirar, entiendo que si tuvieseis que traducir todos los vídeos sería muchísimo trabajo… Un saludo!!!!
Great review. Well balanced (and I don't mean you say something nice after every criticism - that nonsense is how we got Trump and Boris). I sailed on a updated B&G boat in the Bahamas. Great. But touch screens? Yeah. They worked but the weather was nice. (I loathe Garmin - I might not be a sailor if I was forced to use their gear. I'm also a sea kayaker, when they went to touch screens on their handheld units they stopped working. My hands were wet, wrinkled and cold - or in gloves. I don't think they've ever field tested anything. (I completely turned off the password on my iPhone (Until I got a 12) I'd put it down so as not to use up the battery and it would lock. Then I'd need something.... and the fingerprint thing didn't work, I'd have to remove a glove to type in the code. One or, or the main reason people jailbroke their iPhones is that they automatically lock after a maximum of 5 minutes. I used an iPhone as a GPS for backcountry hiking, and even though I carried maps and a compass - the crappy multi-step nonsense made even having it a risk. I've got old Ray Marine kit on the boat I just bought. It's 180° out, So my boat is pointing north but the boat symbol shows it pointing south and it says my heading is 179°. I tried finding a solution. The density and useless verbiage of Ray Marine FAQs on this is completely frustrating. (I guess they have no clear solution.) They tell me to reset my compass, but the menu steps don't work. When I find them on my own it says there's no compass. (So how does it know the exact opposite information?) RayMarine also suggests my compass unit is broken. But it's accurate - just backwards. (And it tracked correctly down the California coast, but we had to squint at the corner of the AIS screen to see our heading, or subtract 180°. None of these things are very smart. But I'm a bit of a grump. I remember the 1990s when computers when from sometimes working to actually beginning to work well. The interface got better and better (and things with computer chips got faster and more stable) but about 2005 - 2008 these improvements stopped happening. It was as though the monopolies had formed ....and why should we change we get your money no matter what we do? (Ask any Adobe user if the software has actually improved in meaningful ways since 2008, or if any of the things that interfere with their workflow have ever been fixed.) So I'll get B&G, spend some coin, and I'm sure I'll experience everything you share here.
You sir speak the truth! Firstly we both used to kayak around 10 years ago and understand the wet hands problem haha. And as a huge tech enthusiast I have also watch what you describe. And dont get us started on Adobe 😭. Were actually in the process of moving over to davinci resolve for editing now. Thank you for commenting 😁
I'm sorry, but autodocking is the dummest feature ever. Even if it draw an apparently good route, it makes sailors do even more mistakes, especially where there is current. And it keeps manufacturer busy programming futile features when they could actually work on chart quality (which is still questionable). But thanks for the review. How the user interface is organized and the fact that it lags is an important takeaway, for me.
Really???? Isn't learning to use any sophisticated device mandatory???!!! Also for us to appreciate the cons we need to understand your limitations and compression of technology!
Yes it is. Unfortunately in todays day and age most people barely read a manual and think that alot of tech should be intuitive, similar to phones or laptops which require minimal learning. And we are simply saying it obviously doesnt work that way with these types of things. With such things like a chart plotter it is beneficial to read the manual and learn all of its capabilities, even if some of the functions are simple. They are capable of more than meets the eye and it would be hard to appreciate this if you did just stick to the easy functions. Watching our other videos may have shown you my level of comprehension, I installed all of our electronics myself and do consider myself a very reasonable level. Numerous functions on the device aren't in the manual either, which means there's a certain level of messing around to figure it out, hence it's not exactly 'intuitive' or 'straightforward'. Does this clear it up? There were plenty of cons that could be appreciated without understanding limitations, such as screen mirroring, hot touch, and memory which are irrelevant to my knowledge.
Hello amazing people. I loved this video and made my mind really clean about navegations equipment. Thanks thanks thanks a loooot Big hugs from Mallorcaaaaa
@@ChasingCurrents i wish my experience was good. i called them several times and never got through to talk to anyone, one time i was on the line for four hours. i finally gave up and tried messaging them , no answer, messaged again , no answer, started a new message line, no answer. that's my experience
B&G is getting a really bad reputation. Even the Cat manufacturers are abandoning them. All my boats have had Raymarine and in over 35 years of use, not a single failure, although one took what seemed like forever to get correct in the initial setup.
I’m amazed you listed support as a plus. Most users, including myself, have had the extreme opposite experience. Lack of support is the only reason that I would never purchase B&G again. We have a Zeus3 12”, a Zeus 3 16”, 3 Triton II’s, Halo 24 Radar, VHF V100, VHF V60, NAIS, Autopilot and all ancillary equipment such as compasses etc. . At no time has everything worked as advertised. On hold time w support for us averages 4+ hrs. and has gone as long as 6hrs. Owners who have invested $$$ should not have to rely on often conflicting recommendations on FB or TH-cam!
My zeus 2 touchscreen stopped working after being splashed with saltwater in rough seas. The only option given to me by B&G support was a replacement unit for over $2000. Imagine that, a $4000 chart plotter wasted by saltwater in its 4th season without warranty. I hated the not-intuitive interface and regretted the purchase from the start.
i had a similar experience with a B&G Vulcan. It failed completely after one full week of use, would not even power up. B&G would not respond to phone calls or emails. Luckily Defender Marine, who i purchased it through, was willing to help me and replaced it. I don't recommend B&G, but highly recommend Defender Marine. Thank you, Donna Lillis, at Defender Marine
Thanks, this was one of the most honest reviews I have seen. Clearly, the support is critically essential, which as I understand it, B&G does an excellent job. I wished you had mentioned the unit firmware upgrade -- in particular, there are some "cons" that can be fixed that way. Cheers.
Hey, glad you have enjoyed the video.
And thats a very good point, we have kept our units updated and haven't had any problems in that regard, but also didn't notice any issues that they would have fixed.
We do however need to update our simrad tiller pilot to enable some extra functionality, so that is something we are looking forward to trying 😁.
Thank you for commenting a very good point.
All our best Brynn and Jade
i'm glad that you have a good experience. so far in my experience their tech support has been nonexistent. on the phone for 4 hours and no one answered. sent two messages on their web site and no response.
After working with RayMarine, Germain and now B&G thru 20 years I would rate them in thet order with B&G the best.
Thanks for the information, just planning to update my iPad 2 and iSailor with new hardware and B&G is one option because is hard to find a weather protective cover for a new iPad or Android tablet like my old iPad2 has.
Thanks
Hello from the US! I'm glad to have found your videos, particularly this one. We have the B&G Zeus 2 and have had a very similar experience as what you've outlined. The written manuals are woefully lacking, (in the Zeus 2 manual, it points to the specific menus without any guidance on how to navigate the system to find the menus!), and much of what we've learned has been by trial and error. Once you move along the somewhat significant learning curve(s), it is a superb system, especially for sailors, and even more so for racing sailors. (We're cruisers.) And I can echo your experiences with B&G/Simrad technical support - stellar! Thank you again!
Thanks for watching and commenting 😁👍
It is all personal choices, personally I use my boat to get away from technology so as much as possible I do not bring it on my boat.
Cheers, and thanks for the review.
Great video guys, well done. Reference the difficulty learning the system, I think that depending upon your background, you’d find any clever nav system difficult. If you can generally find your way around the B & G without the hand book, it’s a pretty good system. Anything new takes time of course. Keep up the great work.
Hey thank you so much. That is a very good point, we definitely think this too. Most of the features we found intuitive to use with some of the lesser used bits needing a little learning. Thanks for commenting 😁
Yeah totally agree no matter what brand you go with you're going to need to learn how to use it, and if your fairly new to marine electronics then of course the learning curve in general is going to be steep
B&G Zeus3 7” user since 2016. The reason you might not get a following track maybe the speed threshold set. (Less than eg 3knot.) set it to 2 or 1. In your tracks page. It replays why it starts after leaving Marina on motor. (Going 2-3 knots…) ad then sailing. @4-7 knots. (I hope)
We have the Triton unit on my 30ft boat and I must admit I too am looking at upgrading the old and pretty useless Garmin chartplotter with a new B&G Vulcan unit. The only thing I am trying to work out is whether a 7 or 9 inch plotter would be the way to go. Thanks for the review of the B&G plotter on your boat. I like how it seems to be such a competent system.
If you can go bigger, then do it. I kmdont know anyone who wished for the smaller one, but the budget does dictate. 👍
Thanks, yes I think that is what my thinking is re if the budget will permit to go for the 9’ unit.
I'm installing complete new B&G set, very similar to yours. Mainly to be used with tablet on cockpit by screen mirror, the vulcan will be installed inside...so it seems I will have some challenges wit screen mirror...
Hey thanks for messaging. There is a chance the screen mirror will be fine for you, i think apple tablets apparently work better than android. Something that I thought about when doing our install was which to have inside and which to use outside, I came to the conclusion that if conditions were bad its the B&G i would want in the cockpit as its able to stand up to the elements much better as well as having a brighter screen for the sunny days. This might be something for you to think about maybe, that way you can use the tablet at the nav desk or while eating lunch at the saloon 😁. Going back to the screen mirror, you might be able to try it out on a shop display maybe, and even though ours isn't perfect its still perfectly usable 👍. All our best Jade and Brynn
You have a gift for teaching! Keep up the great videos. I think your channel will continue to grow since it's rich in info and light on drama and click-bait.
Thanks so much for that, very kind words 👍 Appreciate you watching and commenting - all our best!
Like you guys, we love our B & G Vulcan system. That being said, today’s on-board electronics foster a reliance on them. Equally important is to learn the manual ways to safely sail.
Hey thanks for commenting.
We absolutely agree with you, we have always had it in our minds that the nav system is just a tool to help with thangs and not what gets us from on place to the next (even though is does make things much easier).
We always make sure that when plotting a course its important to zoom in as some things will be to small to see on a zoomed out chartplotter and might take you off guard when they pop up out of nowhere haha.
We also find that sailing in a manual sense is also fun and good to test our selfs now and again.
All the best Jade and Brynn
I am just going to use Navionics on two Samsung tablets which have good GPS and are robust (one is for redundancy). There are some fancy features that your system has that Navionics does not have, but compared to your system Navionics is quite cheap (you pay for the maps but the app is free). Have you looked at Navionics and how it compares? I also have to say what I like about using a tablet is that you can take it with you wherever you like and use it for other things, but especially take it inside the boat for looking at your chart and plotting routes at a table where there is no glare. Like you I also have a separate system for AIS, but no radar.
Hey Hugo, thanks for this comment.
We actually use Navionics as well on our tablet and smart phones, we consider them a good back up. when we first started sailing before getting the new equipment, we didn't have the intention of buying a new chart plotter or nav gear. instead we were going to stick with the old Raymarine chart plotter and use a tablet with Navionics. Unfortunately we soon ran in to a few issues that we wouldn't have been confident sailing further a field with. The first was that the tablet would overheat, even on cooler day's that were bright. The next thing was screen brightness, it was difficult to see on bright days. When we sat down to think about what tools we would want for sailing to places we have never anchored, moored/ docked before and it could be day or night, we then started to see the advantages of a nav package.
Its definitely not the cheapest but we feel safer having it, we see it as any car can attempt to drive across a dessert but ones with the tools for the conditions will make it easier.
Brynn & Jade
First I want to compliment you on your excellent informative video as well as the many skills you have learned in such a short time. I don’t know if you took any navigation courses before purchasing your navigation package, but navigation at sea is a bit more complicated than typing in your destination in the car. You talked about 20 advanced features which deal with complicated variables . It seems today you have a very good understanding of your tools. Most people learn the theory first before they learn to play a musical instrument, learning an instrument is very difficult until you understand the theory. Your learning curve is brilliant and it certainly helps to learn from others, as you mentioned utilizing the Facebook group. Safe sailing and enjoy the many sights along the way.
Hey, honestly I'm sorry I haven't got back to your comment sooner. This is one of the kindest comments I have read and I just want to say a huge thank you. I don't really talk about how I learn things to much but I definitely enjoy the learning process in what ever it is I pursue and try my best to understand things to the fullest. Thank you again for this comment its my favourite 😁
Great video. The how to, is quiet, good and a stand-up benchmark to weigh against a Garman. One item is your auto helm. I am summing it's a part of your Wi-Fi network not driven by a separate wind ex unite.
Hey thanks for watching and your comment 😊.
So our auto helm is connected via the nmea 2k network, so essentially everything is plugged in together and they can all talk to each other and share information, then the chartplotter is how you use the information and set routes 😁. Hope this helps
The B&G certainly sounds like a great piece of kit. Have you checed the phone B&G app settings for a Map Shift setting? Which might be cause of off positioning of features like the marker bouy you pointed on the Mirror. Might be worth checking.
Hey thanks for commenting, and we definitely love it.
This actually isn't something we have looked at so will definitely give this ago thank you 😁.
All our best Brynn and Jade
Really good honest feedback on your B&G experience. I also have B&G and some aspects are completely unintuitive! That said, once learned and setup - it’s great kit
Thats a problem with a lot of IT based kit .. the invisible layering of menus and options to access
functions.
The problem could be eased by providing the equivalent of system overviews or maps.
First you have to find the function exists .. then find the route through the options layers
and decision gates and then be able to see and remember it under how shall we say sub optimal conditions of boat life. 🤔
Can you mirror the functions of the Vulcan on a iPad and if so can you then take it below while sitting all relaxed and "play" with it in your lap to learn the functions? Or, are there some limitations when in "mirror mode" (if it has that function for an equivalent-sized iPad) ?
So, as far as my testing went, we were able to use the mirror function to a tablet, and we had full use of the plotter on that screen. Was super handy on long passages when you want to keep an eye while not on shift. The only downside we had was some glitchy lines when mirroring but didn't affect any functions.
@@ChasingCurrents Thank you so much for those informative and experienced replies. Very helpful for me. I think I am going to duplicate what you did.
Thanks for the reccomendation. I am planning to install B&G on a IP27
Aww amazing, I hope it serves you well 😊
Thank you,Brynn... Very well done. I too am installing a Vulcan, Halo, Triton2 system on board. Your review gave some great heads up on what to expect and what I should be studying ahead of time. Amazing technology that, in some regards, was not even possible a few short years ago.
I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
BTW, I did get the solar mounts and they work perfect on my rail. Thank you for that!
Hey thank you for commenting again!
So glad the mounts were good for you 😁. And yes it was hard to think the chartplotter we took of the boat was only about 8 years old. The industry has come quite far. Definitely keep us posted 👍, take care and all the best. Brynn and Jade
I have a smaller boat and am considering the Volcan 9. What is the small "Sail Steer" screen above the Vulcan 9 as it seems the 9 has the same function when overlayed on the chart (?). Can you explain to a complete newbi please?
Hey, yes, so the triton screen above comes as a package with the wind, speed, and depth sensors. It also meant we were able to keep the charts on the plotter screen and instrument data on the triton screen. You are absolutely right. This data can be shown on the vulcan, but it wasn't that much more for us to get the triton in our package 👍😊
Excellent overview. Thank you!
Really useful video, very interesting to hear your honest assessment of the B&G kit, and their after sales support.
Thanks for this, great review! I was wondering how ‚deep‘ you were able to integrate the tiller pilot into the system? Can you steer it manually from the Vulcan? Does it wind steer, taking data from the network etc?
This will depend on what tiller pilot and its age as the newer ones like the tp22/32 have what your mentioning but older and smaller units are a bit more limited 👍
I have exactly the same system and love it, as you said it does have a small amount of issues, I have got a second Sd card which I use and I have found no issues with lagging. I too would buy again should the need arise.
Hey thanks for commenting 😁.
I think we will be putting in a sd card soon also. The lagging has only really occurred when we used predict wind auto route and it made lots of way points, other than that its been pretty good👍. All the best Brynn and Jade
I have the same system and i agree with all the points you made especially the hot screen! Great review 😊
Hey Alex, thanks for the comment 😁. Glad you like the review and hope you're well 😀.
Terrific job doing a pretty detailed review! 👍👍
I have the Zeus2 and have a few similar “lag”, “screen” , “complex/compound menu” observations (not complaints!!). I’ve been on a boat with the Zeus3S and all of the first two are solved. I live with the menus as “features.” 😎 (think windows or macOS-they are simple until you dive one step too deep-then 🤔🤔🤬🤬😭).
I think the mirror issues are partly processor issues in the Vulcan (and Zeus2). I didn’t see it at all on the Zeus3S on his iPad though when I tried the same on my Zeus2/iPad combo, it wasn’t as smooth or precise. (Could also have been the WiFi/nmea2k latency caused by the add on WiFi).
In any case, as mentioned in other comments, the 9” screen will be upgraded with a 12” model and I hope I can repurpose the Zeus2 as a slave unit (as well as using the flat screen in the salon as a large display through the HDMI).
I just found your site and will track it. I hope B&G will come out with an even better Zeus4 at the Miami boat show. Then the old inventory on the Zeus3S generation will be discounted. I hope that will create an opportunity for you to upgrade to bring your B&G package (with AWESOME sailsteer, etc) up to the speed/accuracy you expect from the hardware. The interface…well, if they made it iPhone simple, they would probably lose bits of the functionality/customizability for which everyone has slightly different “desirements.”
Great video with fantastic observations from a system that you've obviously grown to love. We have Zeus 2 on our sailboat and after only minimal sailing I agree with your comment that the more advanced features are not intuitive to discover and use. The how-to comments in your video were excellent and certainly help me the next time out on the water next week. If you post future B&G videos, consider explaining your experiences with the sail steer such as tacking, steer to apparent wind, etc. Thanks and looking forward to your next video.
Hey thank you fornthe comment!
Were going to try put some sort of informational videos together once were sailing to show how we use some features and what they are good for so it's good to know some people will enjoy this. Thank again, all the best Brynn and Jade
Great review, you helped me a lot with all your views.
Thank you, so glad you found it helpful.
All our best
Brynn and Jade
i'm about to install a similar setting, your feedback was VERY informative
thank you very much
So glad you found it useful, thanks a lot for commenting!
Good interesting piece.
First sailing on holiday charter 1987 equipment was lead line stop watch for speed and hand heald compass with paper charts, so anything that's better and more informative is a bonus.
Hey thank you, glad you found this interesting. How people sailed with the instruments you mention is incredible, we would love to also do a celestial course in the future as we find it fascinating.
Thank you for the comment, all the best Brynn and Jade
hi there love your channel and your videos if all your electronics fail could you navigate with a paper chart and dead reconing and do you double check your position when out of the site of land with a sextant regards John.
Hey John, so glad you enjoy the channel and videos 😁.
If everything did fail we do have some backups. Unfortunately paper charts aren't a feasible option 😪, we do love using them but it would cost to much to obtain paper charts that we would only really be needing for a few days or a week as we are cruising.
We do have several other electronic backups (phones, tablet, laptops, gps)dotted around the boat for each eventuality, these will be sprung in to action if we have lost all boat electronics. We also write in our log book every hour with position, course and other useful information (this is what we would refer back too if electronics were lost). We hope this answers the question 😁. All our best Jade and Brynn
Can you just have the chart plotter without the triton 2 display?
Charts/Wind/Depth/Speed all viewed on Vulcan?
Hey Peter, yes you can definitely do that. We have the triton2 as it was apart of the package and a good deal 😊. Thanks for your comment 😁
Some plotters have sd card ability for storage of routes etc. May help speed it up.
Yes for sure, we're going to be adding an sd card soon 😁, hopefully it will help.
Thanks for commenting
Brynn and Jade
Helpful video. Any pointers for resources / step by step guides to help someone new to the system get off to a good start ?
Hey, glad you have found this helpful. To help get started we went to a shop that had one on display and asked for a demonstration to see the usability. We found the very helpful as we was able to ask questions if something didn't make sense. Also we downloaded the user manual online and gave that a couple of reads to familiarise ourselves. There are also some videos from B&G on their TH-cam that can help in bite size chunks. Hope this helps, all our best 😁
Jade and brynn
Great update. I have a similar set up to you and learning to use it Thanks
Nice vid, should help lots of people.
On my Zeus3 9, I simply don't show all my 110 routes (1000's miles total), only the one I'm following, and I think that way the screen doesn't lag the way you describe it.
Hey thanks for the kind words. I've head the Zeus plotters don't suffer from this lag, just the vulcans. It seems like it's an internal memory bottle neck. Thanks for commenting 😁
Those screen mirroring bugs have been there since at least 2014 when I first used a B&G system. Pretty disappointing they haven't fixed them by now.
Very well done!! Haven't seen a video showing how to use the equipment - really straight forward and easy. Thanks!
Hey, so glad it's helpful. Thank you for commenting 😁
Brynn and Jade
Big changes over the last 20 years! How about power consumption with the radar running? Radar and AIS are the only upgrades i would like over a bog standard gps. Do you still use paper charts? Helpfull review.
Hey, thanks for commenting.
I can't remember exactly how much power it uses now, but it isn't alot. We only have 200w or solar panels and 400ah of battery storage, and find we have never felt our electrical systems use to much power.
Unfortunately we don't use paper charts now, we don't think it would be cost effective as we sometimes pass through areas in a couple of weeks and it would be alot of paper charts from the UK to Greece. We do keep other navigation backups on the boat though.
So glad you found this video helpful.
All our best
Brynn and Jade
Or being able to store routes is a pain and you often want to reuse them or reverse them.
Good heavens, so much tech on such a small boat. Mind you I've seen another vlog where another young couple are attempting to sail round the world on a Seal 28 and the only nav aid they seem to have is a mobile phone. I wish them the best of luck. When I spent 5 years with my wife on a small boat in the late 80s we were uncontactable, and the isolation was a beautiful thing. Different world now, better? I don't know.
Hey, it definitely is a bit of tech.
We feel its helped us learn faster for sure about sailing. We definitely agree about the isolation! We have found some anchorages with zero signal and enjoyed the nature around us. Its definitely a different world now we think. We would have loved to have done this in the 80s though. There seems alot more rules and regulations now and more boaters in anchorages maybe. Luckily there are always spots of the beaten path.
Thanks for commenting 🤙 😁
Thanks for the review very thoughtful and thought provoking.
Thank you! Fantastic video very informative helped me make a decision for upgrading from my 20yr old KVH gear
Hey, so glad it has been useful for you 😀. Thank you for taking the time to comment, all our best Brynn and Jade
You mentioned you have the Wireless WS320 Wind System. I always wondered how many batteries it took and how long they last. You have the connector pod but what about the actual wind vane? What is syouur experience with the batteries? How many are there and how often do you change or charge them?
Hey thank you for commenting.
The ws320 has 2 batteries that are charged by a little solar panel built in to the unit. So they can potentially last years and years until the batteries can no longer cycle. So for the duration of us having this setup we have not one had any signal drop or flat batteries, it has just worked everytime we switched it on 😊. Hope this helps,
Brynn
Great vid........honest. We love our B&G but Vulcan 7 is too small....do most navigation on ipad/Navionics
We did look at the vulcan 7 but luckily the 9 came up on a deal. Definitely a more usable size 😁. Its not the end of the world though being able to screen mirror 👍.
Thanks for commenting, all out best Brynn and Jade
Great video! Just wondering if you guys connect the Simrad tiller pilot to the B&G system and use the autopilot to control it? I'm not sure if the system only can manage B&G's autopilot?
It is connected to the vulcan and follows routes etc, but we use the controls on the tiller pilot for adjustments. B&G and simrad are part of the same company so they can work together 👍
👍🏼🤓🌏🏝️ Just watch out for Sandbanks that move like Goodwin's and Fishing Net's.
Night vision security camera on the mast might be a help ...
This is an extremely instructive review. Thanks!!!
Routes storage. Can you export your routes via WiFi? For many years I have used a GPS puck and Open CPN on my laptop for navigation. With this system it is easy to store routes on the laptop and recall them for later use. They require less than 100kb memory each, so it is possible to store many of them.
I am a fan of modern technology BUT the cost for all these gadgets make me wonder about the practicality of it all. And does it all get fried in the advent of a lightening strike? Of course if you have deep pockets, go for it. I do not.
Hey thanks for commenting.
We can export the routes a couple different ways. one we can sync it to our B&G account and have them online or on our phone, alternatively we could use an SD card. The issue with it slowing down is when we have had very long routes with many many way points charted.
In regards to a lightning strike we think unfortunately all the electronics wired around the boat might be affected, so this could include the nav gear and ships radio.
We definitely don't feel like we have deep pockets either, we managed to buy our boat and these electronics to upgrade for less than £13,000. that's less than most people spend on their boats we think. We just looked for a boat cheap enough for us to allow to upgrade, rather than buying the biggest boat for our money with no money for extras.
All our best Brynn & Jade
@@ChasingCurrents Way back last century when I went out for my first big solo sailing trip I had one of the early GPSs. Cost US$900 and worth every penny to me at the time. All my charts were paper copies in a booklet and one guide book.
Fast forward 14 years when I set out to circumnavigate. My GPS was a handheld Garmin, cost US$80(with another identical unit as backup). Eventually I got OpenGPN and the charts to use it for free. But I did have small scale paper charts for the proposed route. It cost a lot for them but I still have them. WOW what a difference time and technology make for cruisers.
Add four more years when I set out again. Newish laptop with US$35 GPS puck(with a spare). The boat had a depth sounder when I bought it. I had already learned from Bernard Moitessier that a two meter piece of black ribbon, cut into short bits, and tied to the shrouds made a fine apparent wind indicator.
Now after all those years and 85,000 sea miles I find that I do not need to know if it is blowing 16 or 18 knots. I can judge the wind speed by the sea state and the sea height by looking at the waves. My ribbons and the feel of the breeze tell me the apparent wind direction. If I could afford it I would have more electronic goodies. The most valuable would be the ability to download wind and weather info at sea. Because I never trust forecasts more than three days out. And ocean crossings do take longer than that.
Never had radar. An AIS receiver would be handy. But do not think I would be keen on transmitting my position. I have always had a VHF radio and a Ham HF radio. The Ham can be a great source for information when it is possible to reach one of the many Ham nets. And I know it is possible to download Grib files with the Ham but I never bothered to set all that up.
Have fun in the Med.
Thanks for the video guys! Useful info and reassuring that you would purchase it all again as I have just purchased a similar system. Do you need the heading sensor? Does the Vulcan not have one built in?
Hey, we're glad you found it useful 😀. We definitely would buy the same again.
With the heading sensor its not needed for a basic system, that being said the reason for us getting it was so we could overlay radar. It also helps with the auto pilot functionality and helps the tiller pilot having more information.
If these two things arnt important then I dont believe you would need one 👍
Really hope this helps, all the best
Jade and Brynn
Hi
Great videos👍🏻 did u ever experience the autoroute say the route is to complex even though it’s a simple route?
Hey Thomas, glad you like the videos.
I havent actually had that one yet haha
Yet another GREAT video guys!! Really interesting as I’m soon to be in the market for a new system. Thanks a lot👍🏻
Thanks a lot Paul! Glad you found it useful 😁
Hi there quick question.
I have a vulcan 7 the wireless wind meter and b&G transponder. I just bought the simrad tillepilot that I believe can link into the nmea2000 is there a specialist connector needed?
Also you have a Triton 2.
What's the benefit of having the Triton 2 as well as the Vulcan MFD?
I'm thinking of getting one near the helm for depth and tacking. Thanks for any advice
Hey, thanks for checking out the video.
So there is a connector needed and there are a few brands that make them. Its a nmea 0183 to 2000 gateway, the one we used is by actisense and was relatively simple to install. B&G also make one but you're best bet is to contact each company and see whats best for you 👍.
As for the Triton 2, its just another screen that can display lots of different data, I think it can also be used as a remote for the auto pilot (but not definitely). We find it very useful having sail steer or speed and depth on it when sailing. Hope you find this useful 👍. All the best, Jade and Brynn
Hi Brynn, Finally got my backordered B&G Halo 20+ radome so I can finish my system install. I noticed in this video that you have the Simrad Tiller pilot. Is it the model TP32? and if so, do you have it on the B&G NEMA 2000 backbone? I have a TP32 on my boat also and it has in the past been able to run a GPS set of waypoints via NEMA 183. Were you able to successfully integrate the TP32 into your B&G chartplotter/gps network?
Excited for the two of you and your upcoming new sailing year!
Hey, that sounds like amazing news!
So the tiller pilot we have is the tp22 but we do have a friend with the tp32 also. Unfortunately as I'm not with the boat right now I can't remember exactly how it is wired in but I'm pretty sure it's on the backbone and the vulcan chartplotter recognises it in the devices page.
For functionality you should be able to control it from the chartplotter or a controller as well as the unit its self, it can follow way points or sail to wind also. I think depending on the system it can also take information from some b&g hardware and help the performance.
We absolutely can't wait to get started now, not long to wait. We will be back on the boat in just over 1 week to start season 2 😁.
Thanks for commenting.
Brynn and Jade
Very informative vid. Be happy, be safe
Glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for the comment.
Brynn and Jade 😊
What would be a better choice for a weekend sailor ? Vulcan 9 or Zeus S 7
What do you do to "double check the route"
We usually check along the plotted course zoomed in on our plotter or on a paper chart. Some objects can't be seen on plotter charts unless you zoom in, this should hopefully help you avoid any unwanted accidents. It's also good for avoiding fishing zones and military areas. 😊
@@ChasingCurrents Ok, that is helpful thanks. That is what I thought but wanted to see if there were any other tricks. I just installed exactly the same system in my boat (I think slightly different radar) and loved this video. For flying airplanes in a very frequently used app called Foreflight (like navionics/predictwind combined) it has a rout review view that shows your whole trip and indicates danger spots where you are coming too close to terrain and or certain controlled airspace. th-cam.com/video/btfaaKLy-wA/w-d-xo.html
I was hoping B&G had something like this....seems like an obvious feature, but it looks like you just zoom in and trace your route.
Hardly consider your giving a con to the product due to the learning curve unfair. The more sophisticated something is, the longer the learning curve.
Top video. We have a new Hanse 458 with two B & G Zeus plotters. I am reasonably intelligent but did not find the operation of the plotter very intuitive. B & G have lots of flashy videos on their website but no real tutorials for noobs ;-). This video helped demystify some of the functionality. I think we will now get a lot more from our kit. - Thankyou 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Hey Phil... can you talk about the Zeus vs the Vulcan... what made you choose the Zeus.. do you have other gear with it ie Radar - AIS etc.
@@DirkJacobsz high Dirk the reason we have Zeus 3S kit is because that is what Hanse fitted to the yacht when we bought it. I guess we could have elected not to have any chart plotters fitted and selected our own but we weren’t in a position to make that decision this is our first boat and we have limited experience. We also have AIS and halo Radar. All seems to work well together.
The issue is lots of menus with lots of sub menus several ways to get to the same menu option.
To continue….. the other issue is we only took ownership of the boat in September and have not had chance to play with the kit very often with large gaps between outings. We intend going cruising full time from the spring so hope it will all become much more familiar
@@phlippeflop Thanks Phil.. I am looking to upgrade my electronics - so i appreciate user input. Here is to fair winds and following seas - on your journey. Cheers Dirk
@@DirkJacobsz you are welcome. The only thing I wish we had done different is gone for 12” plotters rather than 9”
I was wondering any device in the market which is using B&G and then manage sails automatically with electrical winches , basically you do nothing Am I asking too much ? I maybe invent a device that will do it.
Hey John, as far as we know it dont exist on the market. But that's not to say someone hasn't done it as a home project. I have definitely heard others talk of something similar so your not alone.
All the best Brynn and Jade
Very informative, great episode!
Thanks Ian, glad you enjoyed! 😊
Sailed across the Biscay in 1968 in a 17 feet Silhouette plywood boat. Navigation equipment. Dead reckoning, radio direction finder, mechanical distance run. Sextant, didn't use, grid compass and a paper chart. Pair of ears and eyes. Haven't things changed.. how do you reckon you would have faired had this equipment failed. A guy I came across had been stuck for over a week because his GPS had failed..
That sounds epic, what an adventure! Yeah understand what you're saying, just the way it is in lots of aspects of life isn't it - technology advances and we rely on it more. At one point we used paper a-z in cars now we use satnavs. Respect those still doing it without any tech at all. We are literally completely new to sailing so it's been a huge learning curve, and having the tech has helped us feel safer with the AIS and radar among with other things. That being said, we would have been fine if the tech failed - we keep an hourly log of our position and are proficient with paper charts too as a back up. Appreciate the comment and thanks for watching 👍
@@ChasingCurrents I admire you for taking that route. Most on TH-cam seem to choose the canals, I personally would hate the canals. It's been some time since I've sailed and I'm getting back into it. The boat I buy will almost certainly have all this type of gear aboard. I'm seriously thinking about a Fisher 34, so your video was very useful.. regards..
May mom bought me and my brother a sailboat years ago so we could learn to sail. It was a Silhouette, yes a plywood boat that we had fun with for years. Thirty years later I now live and sail on my 44' Antigua/CSY cutter, thanks to mom... Had a Zeus 2 that lasted about six years before the screen went and I am now considering the Vulcan and or the Zeus 3 at about a better than a $500 difference and a smaller unit if I go with the Zeus. If you had a choice would you go with the 7" Zeus or for less money go for the Vucan 12"... is a larger screen and less money worth giving up on the Zeus 3?
Good set up and well worth the price/spec compared to many others
Hi there,
Thanks for all the great info and advice that you give on your channel. We find you very inspiring as we bought a Gibsea 77 at a similar time to you but you guys have travelled a lot further!! We are looking to install a solar panel so I can potentially work from the yacht. Just wondering if you have any advice on that front. We look forward to following your future adventures……. All the best. Chris & Jill.
Hey, really glad you are finding the video's useful.
We can definitely try our best to answer any questions you might have. It might be easier finding us on Instagram or Facebook and dropping us messages there.
We also looked at a Gibsea 76 just before we found Talisman and really liked the Gibsea's.
Thank you for commenting, all our best.
Brynn & Jade
This was very helpful and insightful, thank you🥰!!
Glad you found it useful :) You're welcome!
One interesting item I see other sailors don't have, is an underwater drone which one could get for the cost of an expensive air drone... it's something I'd get in conjunction with my air drone. One could get a clear view of the underwater views, like sea bed if you need to anchor in the bay for a few days.. quite indispensable. Beside one's aerial drone, I'd also mount cameras on deck and mast, like Erik aaderaa sailing does, so he can monitor everything above deck, whilst under. Great for heavy weather when it's best to stay below deck..
An underwater drone would be a really cool addition to have, also for underwater filmmaking too! Yeah we agree, that's something we're going to work on this season too. Would be good to have some GoPro mounts set up, even just for capturing more action when we're sailing too.
Thanks for this - well done ..Hey guys .. what is the difference between a Vulcan set up and the Zeus 3.. chartplotter. Thanks in advance.. as I am in the market for one of these..
Hey thank you. I think the main difference is the hardware (processor, memory, screen) and that you also get buttons on the side. The is also some extra networking on the zeus and the ability for an IP camera. I hope this helps 😁
Hi guys just watched the video, we are from the UK, where abouts are you guys from in the uk if you don't mind me askin. By the way thank you for the information you just shard with us.
Hey Hannah! Thanks for watching :) We are both from the West Midlands, just outside of Birmingham (Oldbury and Halesowen if you know the area!) You're welcome, glad you found it useful😁
We have the same setup and overall like you are happy with it. Although we have the same issue with the screen mirroring. Which at this price point is very disappointing and it does make me question the longevity of the equipment under harsh conditions. We did try speaking with B&G about it but it seemed it became a blame game between them and developers of the link app. With noone wanting to know, although oddly it works fine on the zues kit when we tested it, so I wonder if it's a bad batch of Vulcan hardware that's out there. Other than that great video guys and very helpful.
Hey, thanks for commenting.
I feel we think similar to you in regards to the mirroring, at the price point we hoped it would have been perfect too.
So far we haven't any reason to question the longevity, and after hearing from some race teams they also seem happy with the ruggedness of the equipment 😁. Interesting comment though thank you. All the best Jade and Brynn
Have you had the opportunity to compare B&G to Savvy Navvy. Thanks for doing this 👍
Hey,
Unfortunately we haven't been able to play with savvy navvy much yet, we have just seen a couple of demonstration.
From what we can tell they are different things to some degree. B&G offer very good hardware and instruments that will aid you in your sailing. Savvy seems to be a very good software that is brilliant for planning a passage that can also be used on a tablet kinda like a chartplotter. The savvy navvy we think has more features when it comes to passage planning and auto routing that takes in to account weather tide and depths . But B&G has very good rugged hardware that can stand up in bad weather and be seen in bright sunshine, as well as having good auto route functions (including weather routing from predict wind with subscription). So its a little difficult to pick a winner, ideally you could use savvy for planning and B&G for the passage 😅.
It also comes down to budget as well we think. We might try savvy in the future and give our full thoughts in a video.
Hope this has helped and all the best.
Jade and Brynn
Well done Brynn not an easy thing to do 10/10 👍
Thanks a lot Jon 🙂👍
Hi guys, I started watching all your videos and subscribed of course. Its the most honest channel on sailing it seems and exactly how I'm planning my roote to the sea. Currently just lake sailing at carsington. I would like to ask if you took any qualifications (skipper, crew member etc) and what's your advice for a beginner trying to get to sea sailing. Maybe video idea. 😁Hope the best for you guys!
Hey! Thanks so much for such a lovely comment :) Really appreciate the kind words and glad you've found our videos useful so far too! Ooh it's nice around that area isn't it, been around there for hikes 😁 Good question, so Jade - just comp crew, Brynn did Day Skipper. In terms of advice for sea sailing, what we actually did is probably different to the advice we would give haha. We went straight into it with no experience and bought our boat and then just got out practicing after our courses. But what would have been a great route into it in hindsight, is crewing on peoples boats to get out on the sea. There are various sites ( I think crewseekers is one) or there are loads of Facebook groups. You could easily get out on other people's boats to gain some experience on the sea :) Hope this helps, but we may make a video on this in the future too - good suggestion! All our best, Jade and Brynn
I got turned on to you guys from the Andy H podcast. I just watched one of you first videos. And you mentioned gaming. Do you game on your boat? Because if I ever go sailing/living like you, I want my Xbox, for games but also TH-cam, Netflix, smart TV stuff. Any thoughts. Maybe you can make a video?
Hey Thomas, glad you found us! Yeah we used to have an Xbox, but got rid of it when we moved on the boat. Our power and space is very limited, so for gaming we now just have Nintendo Switch. We do also have our laptops which we game on sometimes too, mainly when we are in a marina so power is not an issue (we had to add an inverter so we could charge our laptops). We watch Netflix etc on our laptops or tablet too, so don't have a TV. We could definitely do a video on our set up/ gadgets at some point too, hopefully this answers your questions for now though :)
On touch screen functionality ,would you have preferred Zeus with manual toggles/buttons?
I think if we had the budget we would have got with the zeus, the buttons and overall more powerful unit would be nice. But our vulcan is still really good for what we are doing 👍.
Thanks for the question,
Brynn & Jade
Which cards have you been using?
Navionics 👍
Good information. Thank you
Nice video guys. Personally I couldn't justify spending all that cash , as i'm a tight arse lol 🤣 Think I have spent about a grand on Nav gear, which includes second hand 5 inch screen plotter on port side with AIS receive. 10 inch Raspberry pi chart plotter with AIS on starboard side and also AIS class b transponder and a second hand Simrad TP10 auto pilot. However, the 300 watt solar arch and 200 amp Life p04 battery is a necessary expense, but only £1600 all in 👍
Hey, glad you enjoyed the video 😁. And it definitely was a hard decision when we purchased it. Thankfully its definitely not one we regret 😅.
Its always difficult when on a budget trying to find the best way of spending on whats important. Your set up sounds pretty nice, the important thing for everyone is that they have what works for them 😁.
Thanks again for commenting and hope you are well.
All our best Brynn and Jade
there's no memory card slot to save routes on?
Yes there is, but would need a back up to the card we think to save them. The main issue with the unit slowing is when using predict weather routing as the creates many way points. 👍
I don't know if it's too late, but B&G should sponsor you...thanks for the honest post
We would definitely welcome a sponsorship - B&G if you're watching 😅 Cheers for watching and commenting!
Thanks, excellent and interesting video. Regards from winterish Finland.
Thanks a lot, so glad you found it useful 😁 sending love to beautiful Finland.
Great video very informative
Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed 👍
I read on Reddit that the screen mirror issue is often caused by your device ie phone and not by B&G per se. Just a thought. How is the battery holding up for the wireless wind instrument? Do you lose connectivity to it at any time?
Yes we have also heard similar. But this begs the question as to how so many phones are able to mirror to tvs with little problems.
And in regards to the wireless battery, we haven't had any issues with it at all. We have neither lost connectivity at any point, overall we're very happy 😁.
Thank you for commenting and all the best Brynn and Jade
I have so much respect for people who sailed before all this techno sailing. Any idiot can do it now - and they do, it’s like camping on water with no skill sets needed whatsoever.
Yep we have respect for those people too! Though any 'idiots' have always been able to buy a boat and have a crack at it - that hasn't really changed just because of tech. Plus most people still have to learn the same techniques with or without tech (I.e we still learned paper charts, navigation, tidal curves, ships lights etc) but we just have to learn all the tech on top of that too. It hasn't taught us anything about the parts of our boat, maintenence, repairs, engine, sails. So respectfully not sure we'd agree with the no skill sets needed at all, though that may be the case for some people it's not what we've found on our journey and meeting people with tech on their boats :)
@@ChasingCurrents - yes, I know, I sail too. My point was they had to do EVERYTHING you and I do PLUS a shit ton more. No GPS just for starters, no chart plotter, no EPIRB, no life raft, no depth sounder, no anchor winch, no furlers……..I could go on and on and on.
It’s far easier now, no question about it and because it’s a lot easier and less of a challenge (read life threatening) a lot more people are doing it.
If you doubt what I say strip your boat of JUST the chart plotter, just the one single item and see how you go, I doubt you’d leave the dock.
Hey, respectfully I disagree. When doing our training we wasn't aloud to use any instruments for a part of it and had to sail as If we had none. The sailing was much more simple as we took no risks on our course, we made sure we was in good charted depths and marked our position on the paper chart with bearings to land. We wouldn't have gone out in anything we didn't feel comfortable with and the preparation before setting sail (pilotage, danger zones, local weather) are all things we still do with tech.
We still do the same things as someone without a chart plotter would just we plot on a screen rather than paper. We also check tides and currents using an almanac, and all the extra information just gives us more to think about and allows us to be safer. Not having the tech don't make it harder, just more risky (which would be countered by taking less risks). The tech can give a false sense of security which can lead to people making more mistakes. But no more easy or hard. I do agree it's less dangerous, alot of industries have adapted to be safer.
And we definitely would leave a Dock if only using paper charts but your right if we had no charts or chartplotter we wouldn't leave the Dock, to us that would be reckless. Also we pull our anchor up by hand and furling systems have been around for 40 years or so. Epirbs and liferafts are brilliant safety equipment but I don't feel make sailing any easier. GPS has been one of the best modern tech to help sailors navigate for sure but a compass don't run out of batteries.
👍
@@ChasingCurrents - no, you can’t say “as if we didn’t have……”. There’s a huge difference between not having something and having it and not using it. It’s there, it’s a safety net and if the shit hits the fan you’ll use it and you’ll KNOW it’s there for that eventuality. You said yourself, you plot on the chart plotter because it’s easier.
And there we have it.
I never once expected you to agree with anything I said because to do so would mean you’re actually not doing anything special at all, much less something to make a TH-cam video about - but then again TH-cam has videos of people doing all sorts for pointless shite AND feeling the need to document it so…….
I’m sure soon the RYA are going to include making TH-cam videos in their syllabus!
@@claywebb8199 There's a big difference between safety and easy, you seem to be using the two interchangeably. We use the chart plotter because it's safer with lots of features that paper charts certainly don't have. Some of our older sailor friends don't have a clue how to use the tech we use, and often state its too hard to understand. They don't find it easy to use and find it much easier sailing without.
You're clearly very desperate to get into an argument and truly we don't feel strongly about the topic enough to oblige. Very curious to know why you're watching our b&g tech video though if you're so against tech and TH-cam? Do you have such an opposition to mobile phones? Satnavs? TVs? Or any of the other aspects we integrate into our life? We infact have already agreed with aspects of what you say more than once, but again you so badly want to dislike us and what we're doing that you seem to be ignoring that 😅 We do what we do because we enjoy it, anyone that thinks otherwise has clearly never watched our other videos which is fine 👍 As we've already said, we respect your opinion (even if you dont ours) and the generation of hardcore sailors that predate us.
Generally, I feel that all modern navigation systems have user interfaces that are appalling. They seem to be made by programmers, for programmers and not for boaters at all. When I am in a boat I want to be in a boat, I do NOT want to be a system administrator who just happens to be on the water. The complexity of modern systems are getting in the way of what they are supposed to be there for: Simplifying your boating experience.
Muy buenas!!!! Me gusto mucho vuestro canal…enhorabuena!!!!
Estaría muy bien que tuviese los subtítulos en español…
Un saludo desde Galicia!!
¡Oye! Muchas gracias, nos alegra mucho que te guste nuestro canal :) Nos encantaría agregar subtítulos en español, lamentablemente no hablamos el idioma para poder crearlos :( (aunque estamos tratando de aprender) Enviando nuestro amor a la hermosa Galicia (esto fue hecho con el traductor de google así que espero que tenga sentido jaja)
@@ChasingCurrents se entiende estupendamente!!!😂
Creo que los subtítulos los puede poner automáticamente TH-cam. Lo podéis mirar, entiendo que si tuvieseis que traducir todos los vídeos sería muchísimo trabajo…
Un saludo!!!!
Great video and very informative. Does B&G stand for Broken Gauges?
Great review. Well balanced (and I don't mean you say something nice after every criticism - that nonsense is how we got Trump and Boris). I sailed on a updated B&G boat in the Bahamas. Great. But touch screens? Yeah. They worked but the weather was nice. (I loathe Garmin - I might not be a sailor if I was forced to use their gear. I'm also a sea kayaker, when they went to touch screens on their handheld units they stopped working. My hands were wet, wrinkled and cold - or in gloves. I don't think they've ever field tested anything. (I completely turned off the password on my iPhone (Until I got a 12) I'd put it down so as not to use up the battery and it would lock. Then I'd need something.... and the fingerprint thing didn't work, I'd have to remove a glove to type in the code. One or, or the main reason people jailbroke their iPhones is that they automatically lock after a maximum of 5 minutes. I used an iPhone as a GPS for backcountry hiking, and even though I carried maps and a compass - the crappy multi-step nonsense made even having it a risk.
I've got old Ray Marine kit on the boat I just bought. It's 180° out, So my boat is pointing north but the boat symbol shows it pointing south and it says my heading is 179°. I tried finding a solution. The density and useless verbiage of Ray Marine FAQs on this is completely frustrating. (I guess they have no clear solution.) They tell me to reset my compass, but the menu steps don't work. When I find them on my own it says there's no compass. (So how does it know the exact opposite information?) RayMarine also suggests my compass unit is broken. But it's accurate - just backwards. (And it tracked correctly down the California coast, but we had to squint at the corner of the AIS screen to see our heading, or subtract 180°.
None of these things are very smart. But I'm a bit of a grump. I remember the 1990s when computers when from sometimes working to actually beginning to work well. The interface got better and better (and things with computer chips got faster and more stable) but about 2005 - 2008 these improvements stopped happening. It was as though the monopolies had formed ....and why should we change we get your money no matter what we do? (Ask any Adobe user if the software has actually improved in meaningful ways since 2008, or if any of the things that interfere with their workflow have ever been fixed.)
So I'll get B&G, spend some coin, and I'm sure I'll experience everything you share here.
You sir speak the truth! Firstly we both used to kayak around 10 years ago and understand the wet hands problem haha. And as a huge tech enthusiast I have also watch what you describe. And dont get us started on Adobe 😭. Were actually in the process of moving over to davinci resolve for editing now.
Thank you for commenting 😁
Sorry. I just saw your subtitle remark. Was listening only…..:-)
Hey no problem 😊. Thanks for commenting though 👍
@@ChasingCurrents th-cam.com/channels/C9pI8oT9Dsno48ljwSdo5A.html
I'm sorry, but autodocking is the dummest feature ever. Even if it draw an apparently good route, it makes sailors do even more mistakes, especially where there is current. And it keeps manufacturer busy programming futile features when they could actually work on chart quality (which is still questionable).
But thanks for the review. How the user interface is organized and the fact that it lags is an important takeaway, for me.
Really???? Isn't learning to use any sophisticated device mandatory???!!!
Also for us to appreciate the cons we need to understand your limitations and compression of technology!
Yes it is. Unfortunately in todays day and age most people barely read a manual and think that alot of tech should be intuitive, similar to phones or laptops which require minimal learning. And we are simply saying it obviously doesnt work that way with these types of things. With such things like a chart plotter it is beneficial to read the manual and learn all of its capabilities, even if some of the functions are simple. They are capable of more than meets the eye and it would be hard to appreciate this if you did just stick to the easy functions. Watching our other videos may have shown you my level of comprehension, I installed all of our electronics myself and do consider myself a very reasonable level. Numerous functions on the device aren't in the manual either, which means there's a certain level of messing around to figure it out, hence it's not exactly 'intuitive' or 'straightforward'. Does this clear it up? There were plenty of cons that could be appreciated without understanding limitations, such as screen mirroring, hot touch, and memory which are irrelevant to my knowledge.
I have NEVER had a good outcome with B&G.
Hello amazing people. I loved this video and made my mind really clean about navegations equipment. Thanks thanks thanks a loooot
Big hugs from Mallorcaaaaa
I do hope you are backing up all this tech shit with paper charts 😉
do not buy B&G products. they have absolutely no customer service.
That's not been my experience. And I didn't call them saying I was a TH-cam or saying who I was. I just found the service to be good 🤷♂️
@@ChasingCurrents i wish my experience was good. i called them several times and never got through to talk to anyone, one time i was on the line for four hours. i finally gave up and tried messaging them , no answer, messaged again , no answer, started a new message line, no answer. that's my experience
B&G is getting a really bad reputation. Even the Cat manufacturers are abandoning them. All my boats have had Raymarine and in over 35 years of use, not a single failure, although one took what seemed like forever to get correct in the initial setup.
Incredibly overpriced displays. Definitely not worth the price.