u/planeray

https://preview.redd.it/bxy9n2jtxbbh1.jpg?width=6144&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=73aa28e6fad852eaee79d26e6cc166d0d629f7fc

Just wondering as I'm looking to upgrade the setup on my boat. It's a race boat and doesn't really have anywhere you can permanently setup panels, so I've just been trying this flexible panel over the deck at the bow.

The bifacials would be ideal for me as I'd imagine if get a fair bit of bounce back from the deck, and something that folds up to store away is great. The boat is on a swing mooring, so I just have to live with whichever way the wind/tide has pushed it and what shadows it gets from the rigging.

Only concern is whether the glass would crack. My understanding is that the main panel is efte plastic, but the rear ones are tempered glass? All the reviews go into great detail about the stands, but I was wondering if I could just unscrew them totally and use the grommets to tie it in place. I do get a bit of wind underneath the current panel though, so not sure if that would just break the glass instantly?

It's barely 24°C!

The rest of the system is Tacktick, so wouldn't be surprised if it was a Raymarine. I've not really seen a horizontally mounted pedestal like this - normally stuff set vertically into the sides.

Power cable looks to be a simple two prong outlet. It's in the top left of second picture, the other stuff mounted around the top is outboard key & kill, no idea what the other two are.

I've been doing a bit of a review of what instruments are working on my new (to me) boat.

It's outfitted with all Tacktick instruments, and it seems that most of the sensors (heading, wind, water speed, depth, temp) are working (wired into the hull transmitter), though I'm not sure about the GPS (wired into a wireless interface). It might just be that because it hasn't been fired up for a while, it needs a bit of time to grab the almanac itself and I haven't had it on long enough.

Display wise, I've got 1 mast display that works, 1 that kinda works & 1 that's broken. In the smaller standard displays, working, I have a wind display, a dual display and a remote, along with a broken single line display & remote.

I want to expand and modernise somewhat so that I've got all of this on NMEA2000. Plotter wise, I have a Vulcan 7 laying about from the old boat. I'd also like to get fuel data in as I don't have a fuel gauge & might as well tie my Victron stuff in too. I'm not remotely interested in using a tablet - it's a race boat with a tiller and there's not really an easy way to mount one.

So rather than replacing everything with new NMEA2k gear, I was thinking I could end up with a bit of a hybrid system. Maybe get the mast displays fixed out of warranty, install the Vulcan (or wait and see what prices for the Axiom2 around boat show time in August) and bridge the existing sensors across.

For that, from what I can see, I've got 2 options. Either connect a nmea gateway to the out of the wireless interface (say, one of the Actisense ones) or install a Raymarine Micronet Gateway, which would also mean I'd have to deal with SeatalkNG cabling and adaptors.

I've heard that the Micronet gateway is perhaps faster. I think a normal gateway only comes up as a single source when selecting on your plotter, though not sure if that would be an issue.

Anyone done something similar? Also, opinions on the new Axiom's sailing features compared to a B&G (previously, B&G were the only ones doing anything, but now it looks like Raymarine even lets you load polars, which I'd love)