Marine electronics installation in Port Washington, wired for the fog on the Sound.
Manhasset Bay is deep, protected and busy — and the water outside it is some of the least forgiving on Long Island. We install and repair marine electronics at your slip or mooring in Port Washington, from radar and AIS to full helm networks.
LIME is an NMEA-certified marine electronics installer working across Nassau and Suffolk. When you call, you get the person who does the work. No 4-hour minimum, no separate setup charge, and your costs given up front.
Why Port Washington is different
Manhasset Bay is easy. The Sound outside it is not.
Inside the bay you have deep, protected water and one of the densest concentrations of yacht clubs and marinas in Nassau County. Ten minutes past the breakwater, you are on Long Island Sound with commercial traffic, real tide, and fog that arrives faster than the forecast said it would.
That is why the electronics conversation in Port Washington is different from the one on the South Shore. Down in the canals, people want a bottom machine and a stereo. Here, the first thing worth spending money on is knowing what is around you when you cannot see it — radar, AIS, and a chartplotter that shows both on one screen without you having to interpret two.
We fit a lot of Garmin, Simrad and Raymarine radar in this bay, and a lot of AIS transponders alongside them. Not because they are the expensive option, but because a boat that crosses the Sound at night is a different risk profile than a boat that stays in the bay.
What we fit most here
The three things Port Washington boats actually ask for.
Radar that works in the real fog
Dome or open array, mounted on a mast bracket, arch or hardtop and networked to your existing display. We set the gain, sea clutter and rain clutter with you on the boat so you know what the picture should look like — not left on factory defaults.
AIS so the ferry sees you
Class B transponders wired to a proper antenna and shown as named targets on the plotter. Crossing the Sound at night, being a labeled contact on someone else's screen is worth more than any other single upgrade.
One network, not four islands
NMEA 2000 backbones built properly — correct terminators, drop lengths inside spec, power injected at the right point. Most "intermittent GPS" calls we get in this bay are a network fault, not a failed unit.
Where we work in Port Washington
At your slip, your mooring, or the town dock.
Manhasset Bay is well served — Capri Marina, Manhasset Bay Marina, and the yacht clubs around the bay including Port Washington Yacht Club and Knickerbocker. We work at all of them, and we work off the town dock at Sunset Park for boats on moorings.
Mooring work is worth calling out. A lot of installers quietly will not do it, because it means a tender, a tide window, and no shore power for testing. We do it. What we ask in return is a clear conversation up front about what the job needs, so we are not out there discovering the boat has no house bank capacity to test an install on.
- Slip-side installs and repairs, Monday through Saturday
- Mooring work by tender, weather permitting
- Winter and shoulder-season work — the best time to do a full helm
- Haul-out yards across Nassau if your boat is already on the hard
Ready to talk? Or keep reading below.
Two very different boats
Half this bay is sail. We wire both.
Port Washington has a serious sailing population alongside the 35–55ft express cruisers, and they need opposite things. A powerboat owner wants the helm to look factory and everything on one screen. A sailboat owner wants masthead instruments that read true, a depth number they trust in a tide, and cabling that does not chafe through in a season.
Masthead work is the part most electronics shops quietly decline. Wind transducers, VHF antennas, mast cable runs — it is awkward, it needs the rig, and it is easy to do badly. We do it, and we do it to ABYC wiring standards with proper strain relief and drip loops, because a mast is the single worst place on a boat to have to go back and fix something.
On the power side, the common Port Washington job is a helm that grew by accretion — a plotter from 2014, a sounder from 2019, a VHF nobody has updated, and none of it talking. We rebuild those into one network so the radar overlays on the chart, the AIS targets show up where they should, and the VHF knows your position for a DSC distress call.
Straight answers on money
What a Port Washington job actually costs.
Everything is time and materials. We do not give firm fixed prices, because a boat is not a fixed thing and anyone who quotes you a flat number before seeing the wiring is either padding it heavily or about to have an awkward conversation with you later.
- $280 flat for the first hour — one man, and that includes travel up to 30 minutes each way plus setup
- $140/hr after that, billed in 15-minute steps, not rounded up to the hour
- Two-man crew is $440 first hour, $220/hr after — used for mast work and big panel jobs
- No 4-hour minimum. No separate setup line. Multi-day jobs restart the first-hour rate each day
- Parts at cost plus markup, and we tell you the number before we order
- Shop, admin and R&D time is $125/hr; CAD and design is $140/hr — never billed at the field rate
Your costs are given up front and we keep you posted as the job moves. Labor carries a 60-day warranty; the equipment carries the manufacturer's warranty.
ABYC Electrical Standards
Empire Wind NETP Approved Vendor
Fully Insured
$280 First Hour · $140/hr After
No Minimums
60-Day Labor Warranty
You Call, You Get The Installer
What Long Island boat owners say
Real reviews from real helms.
Steve K. — Pursuit 325 DC
★★★★★
Full helm rebuild — new StarBoard panel, dual Garmin 9" displays, radar, AIS, and autopilot. Cleanest installation I've ever seen on a boat. LIME is in a different league.
Gary M. — Albemarle 280
★★★★★
Had an NMEA 2000 issue no one else could solve. LIME found a bad terminator that was causing intermittent GPS drops. Fixed in two hours. Would have cost me a week chasing the wrong problem.
Dave F. — Regulator 31
★★★★★
Best in the business on Long Island. NMEA certified, professional, and the cleanest wiring I've ever seen. Worth every penny.
Port Washington questions
Questions we get on Manhasset Bay.
Do you service boats on moorings in Manhasset Bay, or only at a slip?Both. Plenty of Port Washington boats live on moorings off Sunset Park and the town dock, and we work on them there. For mooring jobs we come out by tender, and we bring everything needed to finish in one visit — we do not make two trips because a fitting was left in the van. If the job needs shore power for testing, we will say so up front and coordinate with your marina instead of guessing.
Both. Plenty of Port Washington boats live on moorings off Sunset Park and the town dock, and we work on them there. For mooring jobs we come out by tender, and we bring everything needed to finish in one visit — we do not make two trips because a fitting was left in the van. If the job needs shore power for testing, we will say so up front and coordinate with your marina instead of guessing.
How long does a radar install take on a sailboat with a mast mount?
Usually a full day, sometimes two. The variable is the cable run, not the radar. Getting a cable from a mast bracket down through the deck gland and aft to the display without leaving exposed wire is the slow part, and it is the part that separates a clean job from one that leaks. We price it time and materials at $280 for the first hour and $140/hr after, billed in 15-minute steps.
Can you integrate a new chartplotter with the autopilot already on the boat?
We can network the chartplotter to it and get them talking over NMEA 2000 or NMEA 0183. What we do not do is install or service the autopilot drive unit itself — the ram, the clutch, the hydraulics. That is a specialist job with real liability attached and we refer it out to a drive specialist. We are straight about that line before the work starts, not after.
Is Manhasset Bay far enough that you charge travel?
No. Travel up to 30 minutes each way is already inside the first-hour rate, and Port Washington is comfortably inside that. There is no separate setup line and no 4-hour minimum. Past 30 minutes each way it is $40 per half hour per man, door to door, and we tell you before we book.
What do you actually mean by AIS, and do I need it on the Sound?
AIS broadcasts your position, name and course to other vessels and shows you theirs. On Long Island Sound, where you are sharing water with ferries, tugs and barges that cannot stop for you, it means the other guy sees you as a labeled target instead of a smudge. A receive-only unit shows you them. A transponder shows them you. For anything crossing the Sound at night or in fog, we recommend the transponder.
Get your Port Washington boat sorted before the fog does.
Call and you get the installer, not a call center. We will tell you what the job needs, what it is likely to run, and when we can be at the boat.