FLIR- Thoughts ?

Willie 1st the FLIR is no Toy what is really nice about the FLIR is the ability to run and see much better then using a spotlight and ruining other vessels night vision or your crew's. I have the MFD I watch the FLIR on dim/dark and my wife is the lookout/ Watch Commander! I swear she can see things a mile before I can in the dark or even daylight. My FLIR unit cost about $10k. Even though I really like the new NMEA2000 networked units I can not justify spending another $18-$20k and still have my original unit which works AAA+++. Heck with the price of some 34-40 foot Trawlers that need work I could spend $25 to $30k or what I would have in both FLIR units and start rebuilding a used Trawler. Would I use a FLIR in the trawler? Absolutely especially when going under bridges and in poor to no lighting conditions in narrow channels and where the shore lights get confusing. So I will keep the FLIR unit I have and if I ever get that Trawler I'll move it. Unless the new owner of my current boat sticks to the asking price. Otherwise I can negotiate the price down by removing various systems and they would not even know they were ever installed.
Bill
 
Billy, I did not. Its still on my list. My slush fund was raided. I am the proud owner of living room chairs and pillows that no one will ever see or sit in.

UGH
 
Rob, Have you looked at the hand held FLIR unit? I was considereding the hand held until i found out they don"t work looking through the pilot house glass, they have to be used with no obstructions. Great if you have an open fly bridge.
 
Adam,
I actually have a pair that is a few years old. It gets alittle old picking it up to put to ur eye . I guess im just getting old and lazy. All these years later though it still works great.

Rob
 
using USCG SAR as an example of how useful FLIR can be is as relevant as saying the president rides in an armored limo so everyone should as well

Over the past few years I have done probably close to 20k NM, including a lot of night time or restricted visibility running. A lot of it included running in unfamiliar waters, coming into new harbors or inlets and a radar/plotter has always been enough to get me in safely. I have yet to have a piling or small dinghy not showing up on standard radar...

I remember a run in the Gulf ICW where the fog started just past NOLA and lasted all the way to Galveston... A good chunk of it at night. Ended up anchoring a side canal overnight in Port Arthur arriving around 1am... Must have been 200' wide and I never saw the banks even the next morning we left The plotter and standard radar got us in and out safely. Every pilIing,dolphin and tied tugs showed up cristal clear.

On another memorable trip up the AICW, schedule issues forced me to run at night thru many sections in GA and the Carolina's... Probably did 30 or 40 hours of night running on that trip. Again the radar showed every piling, every range, every small dock jutting out in the channel. What would I have gained with FLIR? Spot a dog in someone s backyard?

And I can go on and on and on with more real world examples.

Besides the cost (most of us live in the real world where $ matters) on most boats under say 50 or 60' the FLIR display is going to take valuable space often reducing the size of your radar and plotter windows. I feel that s mistake. When running at night and/or in rest vis I want one big radar picture one MFD and my plotter data on the other one. I want to see the echo from that piling 150' off my bow... Nothing else matters

The one use I see for FLIR is avoiding pots at night if you boat in areas where pots are a problem like New England or the Keys. But I would like to see a picture showing a lobster/crab pot really visible on a FLIR display as I wonder if the pots are really visible once the are at the same temp as the water?
 
Not everybody has your piloting skills Pascal. The FLIR takes about as much dash space as nothing now that they are NMEA2000 controlled. Got an MFD with SeaTalk or NMEA2000 no external controller is required. Most MFDs you can split the screen and use the FLIR either left/right or top/bottom. Even if you needed dash spece because you had a dated unit like my Navigator II it takes up the space an AC outlet with a cover plate would or the same space as a dual bow thruster control. If you enjoy cruising at night and have a 2nd set of eyes ( a watch) these are an inredable feature to have on a boat any size. The USCG runs them on some RIBs in my area. If you ever have a MOB situation I can't think of a more useful tool to have other then perhaps a "Big Ear" well I'm joking about the big ear because your generator sound would overload the Big Ear.
Too bad Rob maybe next year?

Bill
 
We re not the CG and our goals our different. How many of us have had a night time MOB?

You didn't get my point about splitscreen... It reduces the size of your radar or plotter window which is the last thing you want

Again, if a standard radar will show the echo of a piling or day marker 200' ahead why do i want and most importantly what do I gain to see a grainy image if the thing?

Just trying to understand...
 
I'm talking if I ever lost somebody overboard on my own vessel or was in the area of a Pan Pan. I have an advantage if this ever happened I'm just saying it would be a great tool in this situation.
This in addition to it's almost unbelievable ability to pick up floating debris, non reflective private channel markers and crab pots.
It's pretty obvious you have not used a FLIR for any period of time or at all or you wouldn't have just made the grainy image comment that happens only on night vision generation 1, 2 or 3.
The picture posted above is a picture of a picture the grain is in the digital camera taking the picture not the FLIR monitor as seen from a LED TFT screen by the human eyes.

Bill
 
I have spent a lot of time on the water in the past 30 years and have never been in a situation where I had to rescue an MOB whether from my own boat or responding to an emergency call

We can over equip our boats with "what if" gear till the waterline needs to raised, but it s not very efficient.

No I have never used FLIR. As I have said,a standard radar will show pilings, day markers, unlit dinghies and more. Now if you can show me a screen shot of fishing pot buoy nice and visible, then I will agree that for those boaters who routinely operate at night In areas with numerous pots, FLIR would be useful
 
Personally I like the picture you get from a ultra low lux camera better. But they both can come in handy at times.

That said, they are a bit pricey for the average boater. And I would recommend getting radar to most people first.
 
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