2005 refit electronics backbone worth anything these days?

[52CMY]

As I trace a VHF whip antenna coax to add AIS through wire chases, I'm getting frustrated as I find my coax leads down to my circa 2005 stereo/computer/comms cabinet and disappears in a maze of coax and eithernet:
I'm looking at all the very nicely installed (in a 2006) over-the-top refit electronics wires/cables/boosters/Stereo radios/ Sirius radios/IR remote networks and MonsterCable HDMI cords as thick as my shorepower cables garbaging up every chase. My flybridge is wired for direct TV, Sirius, FM, Ethernet, Telephone, and Fax, as is each stateroom, Salon, and office. My Aft deck has an IR receiver that leads to a spiderweb of boosted terminals to each of the CD/DVD/BlueRays in a stereo stack. I have 5 (five!) Sirius Marine stereos in the boat, but only have used the helm unit occasionally until the PO subscription expired and don't miss Sirius at all. I see in the 2005 plans that the install was designed for growth including Sirius WX and DirectTV internet data-- but I think Mobile phone data and (hopefully) StarLink and my high-end PepWave wifi router will replace all of this.

I have a box of 10 or 15 remotes in a box somewhere that don't look like they were ever used by the PO and certainly not by me.

Before I continue on my plans to rip out most of this, am I missing something that I don't know? Is there any use for the three NetGear Gigabit switches and all this ethernet everywhere? Anyone who would leave some of it or most of it or repurpose it please let me know. I was thinking back up video camera could use the coax but even those are wifi these days. Any advice?

Thanks!

 

[Captain Ralph]

If it is in place and not needed today, but maybe tomorrow,,,, for the next owner,,, leave it in.
Coax and backbone will always be a part of any future technology.
Heck, even my spot light uses coax for control.

 

[cww]

Leave it. Speaking personally it would be a big selling point for me if I was looking at boats. Different owners are, well...different. A lot have kids who watch TV 24/7 and having TV's everywhere including the flybridge is the difference between them spending the whole trip below vs. being able to point stuff out as you go by. Some run businesses from the boat when traveling. There's always that annoying guy (me) who likes to rock out while underway on the flybridge and still be able to hear everything in the song. These are desirable features for most people.

I am actually going the other direction - I just got an estimate for adding more speakers on the flybridge. Just because you don't use it doesn't mean the next guy won't.

 

[CMeacham]

I'm going through this process as well. 44 years of previous owners adding to the wire bundles but never removing the old outdated/non usable stuff had clogged up the wire chases.

One of the biggest offenders is years of adding chart plotters and communication devices. I do not need 6 VHF antennas and 12 antenna cables running up to the top.

Looking at what technology is to be used moving forward there are things that I will leave/allow.

NMEA2000 Backbone
Ethernet Backbone (TV, Networking, etc)
WAN & LAN systems (WAN will be upgraded to Starlink in the near future)


Getting removed:

1) Coax cables for old tv systems... not pertinent in todays nor future world.

2) Phone cables/outlets in each room.... not pertinent and they aren't even installed in new houses anymore. Also removed is the complex "switchboard" that was in on of the engine rooms. Fax is done via Wifi now days.

3)NMEA 0183.... Old technology and years of abandoned lines and junctions throughout the boat. Not one thing that will be bought in the future of this boat will have this technology.

4)The extensive speaker wires and volume knobs in pretty much every room. Much better ways of having music in todays worlds. The current wiring is not up to the task of working with todays systems without seriously hurting the sound quality.

5) 44 years of PO adding/bypassing factory wiring trying to "fix" stuff. I'm finding most of the reasons for bypassing are easy fixes. Lots of wire runs freed up due to this.

I like to work under the "if its not being used nor has a purpose then it has no business being on the boat". This will take a lot of the chaos and confusion out of the wiring so when there are problems it will be a lot easier to diagnose and correctly fix problems.

 

[MadHatter53]

Just be sure to use the last wire removed to pull in a double pull string just in case.

 

[Pascal]

I would leave the old coax going to various rooms as it can be used to send satTV signal to receivers in individual rooms should you ever want sat tv.

A couple of years ago I updated the A/V system on the 84 I was running. It had a stack of sat receivers sending service to each room using A/V cables. Sounded like a good idea except that the RF remote control system sucked. I was able to move the receivers to each room by using left over coax from the FM antennas to stereos and using Harmony remotes in each rooms. Huge improvement!

 

[52CMY]

I'm going through this process as well. 44 years of previous owners adding to the wire bundles but never removing the old outdated/non usable stuff had clogged up the wire chases.

One of the biggest offenders is years of adding chart plotters and communication devices. I do not need 6 VHF antennas and 12 antenna cables running up to the top.

Looking at what technology is to be used moving forward there are things that I will leave/allow.

NMEA2000 Backbone
Ethernet Backbone (TV, Networking, etc)
WAN & LAN systems (WAN will be upgraded to Starlink in the near future)


Getting removed:

1) Coax cables for old tv systems... not pertinent in todays nor future world.

Here's my Comms cabinet now:


I "Cut the Cable" 4 years ago at my house and haven't looked back. My four boat TVs are are streaming off of my PEPWave LAN wirelessly as I am lucky and have great marina wifi. I've pulled out all the DirectTV receivers but planning to keep one coax per TV to retain option for broadcast HDTV from antenna in cases I can't get good marina wifi or mobile hotspot.
I'm planning for Starlink. Hoping it doesn't get crazy expensive for marine users (that could happen--SpaceX is losing money and may get greedy...it would be easy for them to geo-fence off all receivers located on the water and charge $200-500/month surcharge for us "wealthy yachties" to get get unlimited Starlink--I HOPE IT DOESN'T HAPPEN! Starlink just raised rates 10% to $110/month last week).
I'm tired of looking at these internet/Phone/Fax outlets everywhere:



Forgive my IT ignorance but is there any future use for ethernet drops through out the boat when wifi LAN is available?
Would it be possible to use the existing Cat 5 ethernet cables and convert outlets to USB outlets that could connect phones to computers in another room for power and comms?

 

[CMeacham]

Here's my Comms cabinet now:
View attachment 57897

I "Cut the Cable" 4 years ago at my house and haven't looked back. My four boat TVs are are streaming off of my PEPWave LAN wirelessly as I am lucky and have great marina wifi. I've pulled out all the DirectTV receivers but planning to keep one coax per TV to retain option for broadcast HDTV from antenna in cases I can't get good marina wifi or mobile hotspot.
I'm planning for Starlink. Hoping it doesn't get crazy expensive for marine users (that could happen--SpaceX is losing money and may get greedy...it would be easy for them to geo-fence off all receivers located on the water and charge $200-500/month surcharge for us "wealthy yachties" to get get unlimited Starlink--I HOPE IT DOESN'T HAPPEN! Starlink just raised rates 10% to $110/month last week).
I'm tired of looking at these internet/Phone/Fax outlets everywhere:
View attachment 57898


Forgive my IT ignorance but is there any future use for ethernet drops through out the boat when wifi LAN is available?
Would it be possible to use the existing Cat 5 ethernet cables and convert outlets to USB outlets that could connect phones to computers in another room for power and comms?

My set up is fairly similar except instead of PEPWave I'm using Digital Yacht WL510 and the 4GConnect. If I had to do it over I would probably go PEPWave.

So far everything is pretty much running off of Wifi and I haven't ran any ethernet for LAN yet except for to the Philips Hub (smart bulbs and pucks in every room so I can control light colors and dimness by voice command).

My original plan was to ethernet every room but the more I'm using it I probably won't need it. Everything pretty much works across the Wifi LAN now.