The seatalk had no radar or chart plotter connected to it. The vessel has a
furuno Black Box 2105 radar and a Nobeltec VNS 7.0 chart plotting system
feeding only output NMEA to A/P. The reason the captain hooked all the
instruments to one port was that they were connected to separate ports and the
port that had the Control head blew out. Underway in rough seas he got in
there to "make it work" and hooked it all to one port. This worked for a few
hours then blew as well. I replaced the whole course computer. I isolated the
ST80 displays, depth and speed pods by using a separate feed of 12VDC. Only
after I feed them with 12vdc did I find the system to be loaded down. I only
hooked the Seatalk GPS, RAI and control heads to the course computer so as not
to risk another failure.

There are a lot of boats coming out with the raymarine equipment on board,
however I can tell you from direct experience after these vessels are sold they
come to companes like us to be removed and replaced with better equipment.
Then they go back to there dealer for the credit.

Raymarine has flooded the market with a lot of cheap alternatives. The dealers
have picked up on this only to provide a vessel with a "Complete Turn key
package"

Don't get me wrong I have been installing and servicing Raymarine (Ex-Raytheon)
equipment for in excess of 10 years. They are great equipment for the weekend
warrior but for serious ocean goers with any length of time at sea I would
strongly recommend against using them.

BC