Catalina 350 International Association

I would like to connect AIS into my 350 (hull #495) and in advance of purchasing I am looking for places to make connections. When I spoke to the person who installs the electronics in the boat at manufacture he told me that there is no seatalk backbone and everything is connected through the chart plotter/wind instrument etc. Rather than running a seatalk spur from the AIS up to the chartplotter he suggested hardwiring the spur onto the seatalk input that connects to the computer that controls the autopilot. This would be an easy solution but from what I have read in Raymarine manuals this seems to be an inappropriate wiring connection.

I see others have installed AIS in a 350 - where did you connect?

Thanks for your help
Regards Phil

My C120 Raymarine did not have a nema connection for my AIS. An electronics guy wired it into my autohelm smart box. Works great with my C120.