Inside the Build: What we installed on a Grady White 330 Express

curtis626036
Jul 14
3 min read

Every project starts with a conversation. This one began when the owner of a Grady-White 330 Express came to us with a simple brief: he wanted an electronics and comfort package built for real offshore days, not just a spec sheet upgrade. No guesswork on the water, no dead zones in connectivity, and no compromise on visibility whether he's running at sunrise or coming home after dark.

This one shows what happens when navigation, safety, connectivity, and lighting are designed to work as a single system instead of a pile of separate boxes.

Navigation and Fishfinding That Actually Talks to Each Other

At the center of the helm sits the Garmin GPSMAP 8616xsv, a combo chartplotter and fishfinder built to be the single point of reference for everything happening around the boat. It's fed by three transducers working in tandem: the Garmin B175L bronze thru-hull, a Garmin bronze wide-beam thru-hull (Airmar B175HW), and the Garmin GT56UHD-TM transom mount. Together they cover depth, temperature, and high-definition sonar imaging across different ranges and speeds, so there's no gap between idle-speed structure scanning and a fast troll. A Garmin GPS 24xd antenna with heading sensor rounds out the navigation stack, delivering precise multi-band positioning even when conditions get tricky.

Built-In Situational Awareness

Offshore, the difference between a good day and a bad one often comes down to what you can see before it's a problem. The Garmin GMR Fantom 54 open-array radar spots weather cells, vessel traffic, and even flocks of birds well before they're visible to the eye, with MotionScope technology highlighting moving targets in real time. The Garmin GXM 54 satellite antenna streams live SiriusXM marine weather and radio directly to the chartplotter, so forecasts update automatically instead of relying on a signal that disappears the moment land does. And for the hours between dusk and dawn, the SIONYX Night Wave digital night vision camera detects objects up to 300 meters away and vessels up to 4 kilometers out — turning low light from a liability into a non-issue.

One Network, Not a Tangle of Wires

None of this works as an integrated system without the network behind it. A Garmin GMS 10 port expander, NMEA 2000 T-connectors, and Legacy network cabling tie every sensor, antenna, and display into one clean backbone rather than a maze of standalone units competing for space at the helm. It's the kind of infrastructure work that owners rarely see but always benefit from.

Staying Connected Miles From Shore

For an owner who wants to work, stream, or just stay in touch well past cell range, we installed a full Starlink Standard setup: the dish and router, a DC-DC power module that eliminates the need for a separate AC converter, and a flush-mounted V3 router mount. It's the same high-speed, low-latency connection SpaceX built for the most remote parts of the world, now running quietly on a 33-foot center console.

Lighting That Extends the Day

Finally, a pair of Lumitec Razor 18" flush-mount light bars means the day doesn't have to end when the sun does — clean, integrated flood lighting for docking, cleaning up, or just enjoying the boat after dark.

The Result

Individually, every item on this list is a solid piece of marine equipment. Wired and configured together, they become something more: a boat that gives its owner real confidence offshore, real-time information at the helm, and a connection to shore that doesn't disappear once he clears the sea buoy.