Hi

I am looking into Starlink, using the roaming package. Hardware is currently discounted to $359 (until 30 July), and the roaming plan is $174 / month but can be paused at any time.

This seems relatively cheap for a roaming internet setup with bandwidth similar to or better than a residential NBN FTTN connection, and which provides access when out of reach of the mobile network.

Anyone have practical experience of installing and using Starlink on a boat?

southace said..
Yes I have been using it from the far west coast of South Australia till now the Whitsundays. The roaming works well but if you get offshore approximately 25nm from land you will need to toggle onto the $3 per GB plan. It chews plenty of power around 6 amps ...it's pretty strait forward to connect once out of the box.

Thanks. It seems to assume mains AC power? Are you powering it from an inverter?

Thanks. I've only 400w of solar, and can consume about 20-25% of house battery capacity in 24 hours running the chartplotter, instruments, AIS, auto pilot, radios and lights. That's fine for passages of 4 days or less, but looks like running Starlink as well would make a dent. I expect on multiday passages I might run it for a period in the morning and another in the evening for zoom calls, emails, updates, weather and so on, and leave it turned off in between. Assume that's feasible. Does the set up take long to boot up, find satellites and so on?

We were just in Cid harbour for a few days and there was a Seawind with a family with three kids and Starlink. I hardly saw anyone. The kids didn't play on the beach, dam the creek or drive the dinghy or make Turks heads or anything our kids did 20 years ago. I guess they were on the net instead. Starlink may not be all good.

We were just in Cid harbour for a few days and there was a Seawind with a family with three kids and Starlink. I hardly saw anyone. The kids didn't play on the beach, dam the creek or drive the dinghy or make Turks heads or anything our kids did 20 years ago. I guess they were on the net instead. Starlink may not be all good.

Quixotic said..
Thanks. I've only 400w of solar, and can consume about 20-25% of house battery capacity in 24 hours running the chartplotter, instruments, AIS, auto pilot, radios and lights. That's fine for passages of 4 days or less, but looks like running Starlink as well would make a dent. I expect on multiday passages I might run it for a period in the morning and another in the evening for zoom calls, emails, updates, weather and so on, and leave it turned off in between. Assume that's feasible. Does the set up take long to boot up, find satellites and so on?

I have fitted a separate bank from my house battery's I call my Luxury bank. It runs the inverter, 240v all TVs , starlink and IPad pros.perhaps you could fit similar and just fit a VSR or a manual switch to open the banks when charging is required. Works great for me.

Ambler said..

Quixotic said..

Kankama said..
We were just in Cid harbour for a few days and there was a Seawind with a family with three kids and Starlink. I hardly saw anyone. The kids didn't play on the beach, dam the creek or drive the dinghy or make Turks heads or anything our kids did 20 years ago. I guess they were on the net instead. Starlink may not be all good.

Hi

I have reservations about having the Internet on my boat. I go sailing in part to get away from the 'net. But I am considering the Van Diemen's Land Circumnavigation in 2026, and one of the questions on the application form is:

Internet Connection: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mandatory - the connection must work everywhere on the Tasmanian coast e.g. Starlink with sufficient bandwidth to support fleet discussions via Zoom or equivalent. (A terrestrial mobile phone connection via a SIM card is not a viable option.)

Also being able to access Meteye and grib files when out of mobile range; receive and send emails; and load chart updates and so on, would be useful.

PS Cid Harbour, eh? I'm jealous

Surely a HF Radio would suffice for the round Tassie. It is one of the few states that still give reliable hf weather forecasts 3 times per day and even personal HF 2 way communications if required and is in my opinion a must for the remote west coast of Tasmania. I wouldn't do the VD loop if i had to be internet connected.

It doesn't surprise me that sailing in remote tropical locations has become a form of child abuse for the youth of today unless they can remain "connected".

Requirement for previous VDL-Cs has always included HF, and HF is still required. My guess is the internet connection for "zoom or equivalent" video calls is about being able to hold simultaneous multi party conference calls for the organisers to communicate with the fleet.

How much is a hf setup compared to starlink?

tarquin1 said..
Quick google search shows plenty of how to vids. Even off the shelf systems. Uses 57 volts. They say a saving of 10-20%. Obviously don't need an inverter is the bonus.

It's a saving of approximately 1 amp hour if you spend about $800 or so to convert it to 12 volt or u can buy a 500w kings inverter for $99. The version 3 uses even more power apparently.

www.trioflatmount.com/shop/p/gen3-12vconversion

Not sure where $800 comes from. It says 90 on the site. OK it's a US site. Sure there is something available in Oz.
But yes if you have an inverter and there isn't much power saving maybe not worth it.
We looked at getting Starlink recently and I don't want to leave the inverter on just for the Starlink. So have been looking at the 12 V converter. Plenty of cheap ones on Amazon!!

Yes, it seems like plenty in the US and Europe for around $100 or euros but 400 in Oz??

It works very well and very handy crossing to Tassie but for most coastal sailing around the eastern coast of Australia, 4G with a decent modem and antenna are more than enough.

I used the maritime version of starlink (flat antenna with high performance) it is fast, really fast.

But it uses a lot of power. We were looking at spikes above 20A with 3 to 5A being the overall consumption. As expected consumption varies according to the amount of data being transferred, uploads in special.

Realistically it is designed for power boats, not sailboats, even the design of the antenna seems better fitted to a flying bridge. On a sailboat you end up with an ugly looking pedestal.

Also be careful with some of these 12v convertions. The power supplies tend to use crappy step up converters / regulators (from 12v to the 48+ the Starlink uses). Your VHF ends up with serious noise from their interference unless you spend some cash on a decent DC/DC isolated converter.

Regarding GRIB files and updates, any modern data solution does that. GRIBS are very small files and downloading them can be done even over HF modems via pactor modems or via iridium. When you run jnto electrical issues and all you have is an iridium go and sails you will be glad not to depend on Elon's fleet.

Starlink is for comfort and very good at it but I wouldn't depend solely on it for weather routing.

I have indirect experience its very good. Multiple of our Trek Transponder users use Starlink to connect to the Trek to monitor their boats around the world and they all say its highly reliable. Theres a boat in Sydney monitored by the owners in San Francisco and an owner in Sydney who watches his boat in Scotland for example.

I don't yet have Starlink (although considering it). Its high power consumption is obviously a negative, although, like a watermaker, it can be turned on and off as needed.

I strongly second that vlogger's sentiment about Iridium Go being super reliable and the PredictWind integration being bullet-proof.

I've had one board Arriba for over seven years and never once have I been unable to obtain weather at sea. Even setting aside blue water passages, there are plenty of places in southern Australia where the mobile carrier network is non-existent, including my favourite bay on Kangaroo Island.

EastCoastSail said..
I found this to be interesting, he is sponsored by Predict Wind (Iridium Go) but his second half views on running Iridium and Starlink are worth a look.

Thanks for this. He's not exactly succinct, but I think his views are genuine and informed by experience rather than sponsorship, so good to consider. I'm tending to the view that my current approach of using mobile coverage for coastal sailing off NSW is my default. I'll activate my Iridium Go on a monthly plan for going offshore or for significant coastal stretches with no mobile coverage, and I'll only get Starlink late next year if the RYCT continues to insist on it for the VDL-C in 2026, and I am able to participate in that cruise. And I'll probably de-install Starlink after that. However I'll keep an open mind as I get more experience of that approach.