The best marine intercom systems allow quiet conversation during all sorts of tricky maneuvers without breaking a vocal chord trying to be heard against the wind at opposite ends of a boat.
I’m sure we’ve all seen or rather heard that boat that comes into an anchorage or mooring where there’s raised voices and “I can’t hear you” being one of the most uttered phrases, often followed with, “there’s no need to shout…”
With the best marine intercom, there really is no need to shout.
Sena Expand Mesh Marine Intercom
Specifications
Bluetooth/Mesh: Mesh
Bluetooth Version: Bluetooth 5.2
How many can be connected: up to 24
Type of Control: Button Control
Battery Life: 10 Hour Talk Time
Intercom Distance: Up to 400 m (0.25 miles)
Speaker Type 6.2mm Standard Speakers
Microphone Type: Boom
Reasons to buy
excellent clarity of sound, sturdy build quality, expandable
Reasons to avoid
Those with smaller ears or heads might find this headset feels less secure than one with a headband.
The Sena Expand Mesh headset fits snuggly over the ears, just attaching over the tops of the ears to hold it in place.
The headband actually goes to the back of the neck and simply acts as a spring to keep light pressure of the speakers on to the ears. The stay in place by clipping onto the tops of your ears.
The sound clarity is excellent and the simplicity of being able to talk with a normal, in fact, a quieter voice than you’d need for on deck normally is such a relief to the vocal chords.
The microphone can be positioned close to the mouth or further away and the foam mic cover does a decent enough job of blocking wind noise, but it wont block it all.
The open mic ability to just talk and be heard and have a normal conversation is so much easier than using a PTT system.
The headsets have volume controls too on the side so if you need to control that while wearing the headset it’s easy to located and adjust.
The Mesh comms system allows duplex voice and multiple connections, up to 24 devices.
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Crew-Talk Plus Marine Intercom
Reasons to buy:
Clear concise communication tool which stands up to the marine environment, Easy to set up, Can be expanded with additional units
Reasons to avoid:
Not ‘essential’ sailing kit, The fit feels lose
Could the Crew-Talk Plus be a key tool in keeping everyone in the picture and harbour manoeuvres harmonious? We thought we’d put a unit through its paces to see if this could be an asset to the cruising sailor or something better left to the racing set.
I admit I was initially sceptical about using a boat intercom system– right up until I tried actually using one onboard, at which point I became much more sold on the concept.
Clear, concise communication with your crew in moderate tones serves to remind us, not only of how often we need to raise our voice when onboard, but how inefficient shouting from the tiller is, how unclear those instructions can be and how much stress it adds to sailing.
It’s surprising how much calmer most situations are when you can talk in a normal, measured tone.
The headset plugs into the receiver via a headphone jack on the bottom of the unit.
Out of the box both receivers need to be paired to one another, with one unit designated the master. Each unit has two channel options on it, with the Crew-Talk Plus takes the shouting out of onboard communication, whatever the weather master unit paired via its Channel A to the secondary unit’s Channel B.
Up to four units can be paired in this fashion.
Straight out of the box, pairing took us a matter of a few minutes and even on a very blustery day the all-round audio performance was very impressive indeed.
A genuinely useful tool on board, particularly on larger yachts.
Buy it now from Crew-Talk on ebay