For the 1300-mile trip south, and for the safety of the crew, the yacht was temporarily fit with a Furuno 1932mk2 Radar and an ICOM M-127 VHF radio. The delivery skipper used dead reckoning to navigate, and the boat was delivered safely to Orange Coast Yachts in Newport Beach.

The yacht sold in March of 2000 and, after equipping her, the new owner plans to cruise throughout Mexico and Southern California initially.

After removing the temporary radar and VHF, we had an absolutely bare boat to work with. The owner relied on Orange Coast Yachts to outfit the newly named "Chum’s Infinite Freedom", and together we put together an electronics package which would be high quality and powerful, yet simple to use. Also, there is redundancy. Both the bridge and pilothouse have the same or very similar equipment. The gear is placed in similar locations, with a central focus on the radar screens, and the communication equipment is grouped together conveniently.

Here at Alcom Marine, we believe there is no single manufacturer that builds the best of all electronics. The National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) has a standard format to which all marine electronics manufacturers build their equipment in order to interface consistently. Therefore, we pick the best and most appropriate piece of gear from some or all manufacturers depending on its function.

For the main radar, we’ve installed a Furuno FR 7112. This unit is a 12 kW model with a 12-inch screen. It’s large screen and high power will allow the boat’s operator to steer in confidence in any type of weather conditions. In some cases we use a repeater as a secondary station for the flybridge. Repeaters, such as Furuno’s FMD series, are fully functional units that share a single antenna with the main radar. Because this boat arrived with a complete radar, temporarily installed, we opted to use it as the secondary radar. The 1932mk2’s 10" screen and 4 kW power output will compliment the main radar and, being a Furuno model, will operate very similar to the FR 7112. It’s a waste of time learning the various intricacies of various gear, so when doing redundant systems, we like to match the equipment in one station with that of the other. Click here to continue

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