Having retired from the engineering/technical field of the electronics industry and from my limited personal experience with the various boats I've owned and a few boats owned by friends, I make the following observations where I think the marine industry is sadly lacking in quality. For example, by comparison to the high end of the automobile industry. 1. System documentation generally stinks, and any attempt to provide good flow diagrams is often missing, In particular showing interconnections between various interfaces. Generally speaking I have always been quite satisfied with the manuals provided from the equipment manufactures, perhaps with the exception of the lack of schematics, which they seem to think everybody would want to copy, if they provided.( If I really wanted to copy a piece of equipment I wouldn't need a schematic. ) 2. If cables were just colour coded and numbered it would not only make it easier for the installer, but certainly for trouble shooting later. The idea of adding an extra cable in certain locations might be a good one, but I would be quite satisfied with a string left in the run to be able to pull an extra or replacement cable through at some later date if needed. 3. Connections & connectors, which are generally a major cause of equipment failures on boats should always be made with as many environmentally approved connectors as possible, where practical hermetically sealed, using an approved dielectric for insulating the connections and connector. Edge connector contacts are rarely of the highest quality, I would think gold contacts should be mandatory in the marine industry where feasible. I have really been amazed to see how much this is lacking from reputable navigation equipment manufacturers. YMMV Graham Pugh