A complete navigation and electronics package for a 40–60 ft cruising yacht runs $16,000–30,000 installed in 2026, and takes a yard three to five weeks. Spend it in this order: an AIS transceiver first, because it makes commercial ships able to see you; a solid-state Doppler radar second, because it sees what AIS cannot; a 12–16 inch chartplotter third, because everything else plugs into it. Autopilot, sonar and satellite internet come after that. The table below prices each component for 2026, and the sections that follow explain what each system actually does before you commit the money.
What a full electronics package costs in 2026
Prices are 2026 US street prices, excluding tax and shipping. Installation labour is the widest variable: a sailboat with short cable runs sits near the bottom of the range, a motor yacht with a radar arch, a mast and long cable runs sits near the top.
| Component | Typical 2026 price |
|---|---|
| Chartplotter, 12–16 in MFD (e.g. Garmin GPSMAP 8616xsv) | $4,800–6,300 |
| Solid-state dome radar (Garmin Fantom 18x / 24x) | $2,300–3,100 |
| AIS transceiver, 5 W Class B+ (Raymarine AIS700, em-trak B954) | $1,100–1,300 |
| Autopilot: course computer, drive unit, control head | $2,500–5,000 |
| VHF radio with DSC | $200–500 |
| Starlink flat high-performance terminal (plus $250–1,150/mo airtime) | $2,000–2,500 |
| Wind, depth and speed instruments | $1,500–3,000 |
| NMEA 2000 backbone, cabling, connectors | $500–1,000 |
| Professional installation, 3–5 days | $3,000–8,000 |
| Total, 40–60 ft yacht | $16,000–30,000 |
Treat $16,000 as the realistic floor, not a sales figure. It assumes one display, a dome radar, a 5 W AIS transceiver and a competent installer. Two displays, an open-array radar or a large Starlink install push the total toward $30,000. A documented, current-generation package is also one of the few upgrades that recovers real money at resale — buyers pay a premium for a bridge they recognise, and a dated install is treated as a refit cost.
Chartplotter: the screen everything else plugs into
The chartplotter is the hub of the system. Radar overlay, AIS targets, sonar, engine data and the autopilot all display here, so choose the display before you buy anything else. Five factors decide which one:
- Screen size. 9-inch suits a small helm; 12–16 inch is right for a flybridge or pilothouse; 24-inch belongs on superyacht bridges. Bigger is genuinely better when the boat is bouncing.
- Brightness. Look for an IPS panel rated 1,200 nits or more, bonded (laminated) so it will not fog internally.
- Charts. Navionics and C-MAP are the dominant formats. Most displays support both, but confirm before buying — some lock to one.
- Network. NMEA 2000 plus Ethernet (Garmin Marine Network, RayNet, Simrad OneNet) is what lets radar, autopilot, AIS and engine gauges share data across screens.
- Controls. Touchscreens misbehave in rain and spray. A keypad or rotary controller is not a luxury on a working boat.
Three current 16-inch references, at 2026 US street prices. The Garmin GPSMAP 8616xsv lists at $6,299.99 and sells for roughly $4,800–5,400 at major US dealers, with built-in sonar and Navionics+ charts preloaded. The Raymarine Axiom 2 Pro 16 RVM runs about $5,600–6,600, with RealVision MAX sonar and the fast LightHouse OS. Simrad's NSO evo3S 16-inch display-only unit is about $6,200 and scales up to a six-screen glass bridge. Pick the ecosystem that matches what is already on the boat — the display is the most expensive single component and the hardest to swap later.
Radar and AIS: seeing traffic, and being seen
Solid-state radars have replaced magnetron units at this size: instant-on, lower power draw, better close-range targets. The meaningful feature now is Doppler processing. Garmin's Fantom series and Raymarine's Cyclone colour-code targets by motion — red for closing, green for receding — which is the fastest way to judge threat at night or in fog. Garmin's Fantom 24x dome sells for about $3,100 at US dealers (the 18x is around $2,300), covers 20 ft to 48 nm and rotates at 60 RPM for a fast refresh. MARPA target tracking follows up to 30 targets and calculates CPA and TCPA, but it needs a heading sensor, so budget for one. How to tune gain, rain clutter and run a proper CPA watch is its own skill — our radar and collision-avoidance guide covers it in depth.
AIS answers the question radar cannot: who is that, and where are they going. Class A (12.5 W, position reports every 2–10 seconds) is mandatory for commercial ships over 300 GT. Recreational yachts fit Class B, and the classes differ more than most owners expect. Basic Class B (CSTDMA) transmits at 2 W about every 30 seconds and typically reaches 5–7 miles. Class B+ (SOTDMA) transmits at 5 W, reserves time slots the way Class A does, and reports as fast as every 5 seconds at speed — typically 10–15 miles. In crowded water the difference is real: 2 W messages get dropped from congested slots, and a ship's watchkeeper may never see you. Current US prices: Raymarine AIS700 with antenna splitter, $1,099.99; em-trak B954 with splitter and Wi-Fi, about $1,300; Garmin AIS 800, about $900. Buy a transceiver, not a receive-only unit — hearing traffic without being heard is half a safety system. After dark, electronics and watchkeeping have to work together; the night sailing guide covers watch rotation and radar protocols.
Autopilot, sonar and the forward-looking tier
An autopilot does far more than hold a heading. Fed by the chartplotter and wind instruments, it follows routes, holds an apparent wind angle and steers for hours without complaint — the difference between arriving rested and arriving exhausted. Four parts make up a system: a course computer that learns the boat's steering characteristics, a drive unit (hydraulic pump on larger yachts, mechanical drive on smaller ones), a 9-axis heading sensor that compensates for pitch, roll and magnetic interference, and a control head. Garmin's Shadow Drive, worth copying in concept, disengages the autopilot the moment you take the wheel and re-engages when you let go — no button hunt at the worst moment.
Sonar has quietly become a safety tool as much as a fishing one. Forward-scanning units — Garmin Panoptix LiveScope, Simrad ForwardScan — show reef edges, shelves and submerged objects up to a few hundred feet ahead, which changes how confidently you enter an uncharted anchorage. CHIRP sonar sweeps a band of frequencies for far better target separation than single-frequency units, and side-scan shows the bottom shape on either side, useful for judging holding ground before you commit the anchor.
Satellite comms offshore: what Starlink really costs
Cell coverage ends a few miles offshore, and in 2026 Starlink is the default replacement. Maritime plans start at $250 per month for 50 GB of priority data; the 1 TB tier runs about $1,000–1,150 per month; the flat high-performance terminal costs roughly $2,000–2,500 one-off. Real-world offshore speeds sit around 25–100 Mbps with coastal peaks near 220 Mbps, at 25–45 ms latency — video calls and streaming work underway, which no earlier maritime service managed. Budget the install honestly: arch fabrication, a marine router and yard labour commonly add $2,000–5,000 beyond the terminal, and airtime, not hardware, dominates year one.
Keep a fallback layer. A satellite outage mid-ocean is rare but total, and the failure mode of an internet-only comms plan is silence. EPIRB and PLB beacons remain the distress layer that works when every other system is dark, and they cost a fraction of a terminal. Satellite internet is for work and weather; the beacon is for the day everything else fails.
Wiring it together: NMEA 2000 and a five-step install
Integration is where packages succeed or disappoint. Done right, the chartplotter overlays radar and AIS on one chart, the autopilot follows the plotted route, engine data sits on the same screen, and the anchor alarm fires the moment the boat drags. Done wrong, you own five isolated boxes. Five steps that keep an install clean:
- Plan the NMEA 2000 backbone first. One trunk cable through the boat with a T-connector at each device location, terminated at both ends. Daisy-chaining devices causes the intermittent dropouts that are miserable to trace later.
- Give navigation electronics their own circuit and bus bar. Separate them from windlasses, thrusters and other high-draw loads — voltage dips reboot displays at exactly the wrong moment. Battery capacity and charging are covered in the electrical systems and battery guide.
- Use marine-grade tinned copper wire. Automotive wire corrodes, resistance climbs, and the failure shows up within a season.
- Mount the radar high, but respect geometry. An antenna 15 ft above the water sees a sea-level target at roughly 5 nm. The horizon, not the 48 nm spec sheet, sets the practical limit against small targets.
- Update firmware monthly. Connect the display to Wi-Fi or Starlink and check for releases — they fix bugs and occasionally add real capability.
If the electronics upgrade is part of a larger project, sequencing it around hull work and other trades is covered in the refit and renovation guide.
FAQ
How much does a full marine electronics package cost in 2026? Between $16,000 and $30,000 installed for a 40–60 ft yacht, including the chartplotter, dome radar, AIS transceiver, autopilot, Starlink terminal, instruments, cabling and professional labour. Airtime on top of that runs $250–1,150 per month depending on the data tier.
Do I need AIS if I already have radar? Yes. Radar sees everything but identifies nothing; AIS identifies AIS-equipped vessels but sees nothing else. They cover different halves of collision avoidance, and overlaying AIS targets on the radar picture is the standard integrated-bridge setup.
Is Class B+ worth it over basic Class B AIS? In busy waters, yes. The 5 W SOTDMA unit reserves slots, reports up to every 5 seconds at speed and typically reaches 10–15 miles, against 5–7 miles and 30-second reports for the 2 W CSTDMA unit. The premium is a few hundred dollars.
Can I mix Garmin, Raymarine and Simrad gear? Over NMEA 2000, mostly yes — but expect extra configuration and the loss of brand-specific features. One ecosystem is simpler to install, easier to troubleshoot and reads better to a surveyor and a buyer.