Raymarine's new releases put to the test

A short time ago we reviewed for you the Riviera 53 Enclosed Fly Bridge and made mention of the suite of very intelligent Raymarine electronics that had been fitted at the time of build, and that additional equipment was in the pipeline for installation before delivery of the boat to its owner.

‘Impressive’ is an understatement when describing the equipment already fitted so let’s delve a little deeper into the electronic heart of this Riviera.

Multi-functionality in marine electronics has come a long way, and while there are more ‘smarts’ being installed into smaller packages these days, it is that minimisation of bulk that has been a boon to boat builders big and small.

We now see in many larger boats the lack of necessity for overhead consoles in which to cram individual stand-alone single function units. Rather, simple consoles with just a couple of screens that can run the entire vessel are now becoming the norm.

These benefits are obvious on the 53 Riviera where a pair of Raymarine’s E-140 Wide Screen units perform a myriad of functions -- and all extremely well, we might add. Each of these screens retails for around $7,251 each and you can add an antenna for $476 to get the GPS function underway. They feature Raymarine’s trademarked ‘HybridTouch’ technology which allows the operator to switch between soft-key usage and the touch-screen technology.

Now many of us come from the ‘manual’ age and prefer pushing buttons rather than fingering the screen, so the unit may be focused by using ‘Touch Lock’ which effectively locks it in manual-operation mode. This system is also handy should you get into extreme weather conditions when it's difficult to accurately place fingers on digital button images on screen with the arm outstretched. The soft keypad across the bottom of the flush-mounted cabinet is easily and more accurately controlled with the hand resting on the console.

The anti-glare, scratch and weather resistant screens feature WXGA 1280x800 pixel resolution and we could view it with ease with direct sunlight falling on the screen, and from all angles. Importantly it was still fully viewable when wearing Polaroid sunglasses.

On the depth sounder side of things we found the 1kW B258 thru-hull transducer installed out of harm's way between two engine bearers under the front of the central Volvo IPS600. It is coupled to their DSM300 sounder module required as part of the kit for operation of the depth finder. Using the E-140 Wide Screen system one may option transducer output up to 3kW if required. That fitted to this package costs around $2,156.

Running along the Gold Coast's Broadwater we had only brief breaks in the bottom reading caused by aeration from boat traffic in the shallow channel but offshore and running at 22 knots the screen reading was solid with no interruptions.

This system has its plotter Gold Charts pre-loaded and any upgrades to those charts or other functionality of the headset are done via compact flash cards inserted into the unit. This cartography allows one to navigate in high resolution with aerial photography overlay on the chart with panoramic imaging of ports of call on demand. Throw in 3D bathymetric views, coastal points of interest, coast pilot book data and you have enough whizz-bang technology to keep you in the bridge for days on end -- you won’t get bored!

The screens on the Riviera were linked and you could arrange views of different functions as required on either the left or the right which suits those who rely on navigating with one function more than another and to have it central to the helm wheel. Eight such screen may be interfaced with each other should one want to look at more than two at a time in full-screen mode, though you will be heading back to extra console space requirement if that were the case.

There are four video inputs for cameras that may be installed about the boat and soon to be fitted on this boat was an engine room and a cockpit camera for safety’s sake. There is also a VGA output available and screens may be video networked.

The Raymarine equipment is aable to be interface with the engines, though the owner has not taken this option, rather relying on the digital screen supplied with the three Volvo IPS engines.

Raymarine’s T300 Night Vision camera was fitted on a custom mount above the spotlight on the Riviera’s hard top. The performance of this thermal imaging camera was stunning to say the least. It provides the same quality image, day or night with a reputed effective operation of between four to five nautical miles and will detect changes in temperature of less than 0.05 of a degree Celsius.

On the water from a distance of 1.5km we could get good visual images of high rise apartments on the hard, including doors, windows and balconies. Small Hobie Cat type yachts at half a nautical mile could be visualised showing individual sails, crew and the minuscule ripple wake coming off the stern. With no need for a separate control panel, all functions such as pan and tilt are available on the touch screen. The screen image could be changed from colour to white-hot, red-hot or black hot to suit ambient lighting in the bridge and the operators preferred hue considering individual vision. This unit costs around $12,861.

The camera manufacturer is Flir, the parent company of Raymarine for the past 18 months. Their speciality is night vision systems for the military, helicopters and airports so they came to the table with a brace of high technology that others will find near-impossible to keep up with; certainly fascinating equipment that imparts the next level of safety to low-visibility or night-time navigation.

So, what’s next? Well, about to be fitted was a Raymarine 4kW 72nm open array radar scanner (the E-140s are capable of handling up to 12kW arrays) and a 60cm STV satellite dome for Foxtel television viewing. The Radar array is priced at around $7,139 and the satellite TV dome approximately $11,308.

An automatic identification system (AIS) is also being installed and whilst the fit of these systems is compulsory to vessels of 300 tonne plus, more and smaller ships are seeing the safety benefits and accessing the advantages of this type of equipment.

Raymarine ST70 Wind System with stand-alone display at the helm and in the master stateroom is also going onboard at an extra cost of $1,846. The ST70 system is a stand-alone control screen that also functions when the necessary equipment is attached, such as an auto-pilot and depth system which was also being included on the 53. The componantry to get those up and running is priced at $4,862 and $1,604 respectively.

The E140 system also supports SeaTalk and SeaTalking protocols for seamless integration with a Raymarine external GPS sensor, LifeTag, SeaTalk instruments and SeaTalk autopilots. NMEA0183 and NMEA2000 support is also standard on the E140W providing easy integration with third party electronics and engine monitoring should you not wish to go with that supplied by the engine manufacturer.

Total recommended retail cost for the entire  lot without installation cost is $56,754.

What an impressive array it is! It is the very latest in technology and all of it so functional and compact; definitely worth investigating as a package or individually.

Further information may be obtained from Raymarine’s website at www.raymarine.com