New Alpha 7 instruments

Last year, I raced in The Kings Cup Regatta in Palma on A’assifa, my friend Steve,s “first 45” performance cruiser. This year we also raced the Loro Piana Giraglia in St Tropez and Italy, where I saw and used his new Raymarine Alpha 7 navigation instruments he had been telling me about. They looked really smart and unlike the previous versions, which were difficult to see when wearing polarised sunglasses, the new version is unaffected and could clearly be seen. (This is useful, as I now wear glasses all the time). And they also provided much better navigation information.

On Luce Di Mare the instruments are the previous version i70’s which are very good, but, I liked the Alpha 7,s so much I decided to investigate and eventually ordered the upgrade.

PSI marine in Chatham supplied and started fitting these yesterday and agreed to relocate and wire up the my old i70’s in the downstairs navigation station as part of the deal, as I thought they would be handy and serve as a back up in case the new ones stopped working.

I had removed the i70,s, compass and speakers last week taking them home to clean them and took the fascia they were installed in to the PSI shop as a template for the new fascia they were making for the Alpha 7 units. Sure enough, due to confusion on dates, they turned up sooner than I expected and no sooner had I got home, I had to rush back down to the marina with the compass and speakers so they could fit them neatly in line with the Alpha 7,s. Whilst they were at it I got them to upgrade the USB charging socket to a new waterproof USB and C charging unit.

I had only just returned from the boat that morning to attend a funeral of my friend (Mick Kemp) who I had lost touch with, so I took my suit and changed on the boat. It seemed very strange and odd to be wearing formal shoes, a suit and tie on the boat.

(I met Mick at the Kent Boat and Ski Club back in 1991, but we lost touch when we both left somewhere around 2015. It was very sad he was lost to prostate cancer, he was only 67. It was a really nice service to remember Mick by. And to catch up with so many water skiing friends I have not seen for years. We all agreed to make a plan to meet up more regularly).

New instruments seen in photos below.

New Alpha 7 instruments in gloss black fascia

Old i70 instruments in a white fascia.

Old i70 instruments installed in Navigation station