I did quite a bit of research into which instruments would be the best for my purposes, previously I had NAVMAN, and although they worked I had problems in a couple of areas, the true windspeed would not display with any reliablity and NAVMAN could not help, oh windspeed cups flew off - twice. I decided on Raymarine ST60+ instruments. I liked and looked into NMEA 2000 instruments with some detail, I mean my Volvo's do have a NMEA 2000 gateway so I could display the engine data. Maretron produces several sensors and displays and software (N2KView) and other vendors are adding sensors for anything you think you might want to monitor. But went with Raymarine in the end, somewhat cheaper. I am sure that in 5 years time we will be seeing more and more boats fitted as standard with NMEA 2000 setups - and in 10 years it will be the norm.

I have all the usual displays, windspeed and direction, boat speed, depth - presented at both the inside and external steering positions, plus the external position also has rudder angle and electronic compass.

AutoPilot

Raymarine again - ST6002+ control head and a S3G Smart Pilot, I have a Raymarine hydraulic pump as well, went for a Gyro autopilot in the hope for a better level of responsiveness, for long trips I intend to carry a complete spare pilot and control head.

Other Electronics

Radar - Nobeltec 36 mile colour radar, Noblectec VNS software and charts - AIS reciever. Garmin colour fishfinder - yeah I live in hope. Furuno GP32 GPS, had one on the last boat so don't need to learn how to drive it - well not too much anyway - ICOM VHF fixed and handheld radios, ICOM 718 HAM transciever and ICOM AH4 auto tuner. The standard Raymarine sounder transducer is mounted in the Starboard hull. The Garman fishfinder guy in the port hull, now the theory is - that if the 2 will work in shallow water together (without ultrasonic interference) we should be able to see the depth of water under both hulls at the same time, and as the centreline of the hull is 6.5m apart, well that might be useful, - yet to be tested of course, like everything else.