Jools_of_Top_Cat
New member
Part II of a 2 part saga
Ok, my experiences and which RADAR I went for. I hope this helps anyone else considering a soon to be purchase of a small radar for their yacht or boat.
As I had made a decision that I really liked the look of the Raymarine we made a big effort to visit the Raymarine stand last in order to see the competition first.
Furuno.
As I was looking for narrowest beamwidth I have to look at 24nm sets as these are sold with the 18” scanners (5.2°). I was playing with the 1712, not a great menu system, it does all the normal yacht radar stuff but not to be unfair I want SWMBO to be able to use it easily and she is not a gadget freak so was a little concerned by this.
Eventually we had to nearly beg someone to come and talk to us, maybe it was my jeans and hava-sack that did it maybe it was my walking stick, but when I said to guy I am at boat show to buy a radar system I had 3 of them giving attention. We went through the basic functions of the radar in a demo mode that was very lacking. I then looked at the screen of it’s little brother the 1623 16nm 15” scanner set, the resolution was much cleaner and easier to interpret, I was told that this was newer and the 1712 would not be updated with new screen until the end of the year.
The Salesman now is telling me not to get hung up on the 24nm set as it will not work to 24nm anyway. “So why do you call it that then?” asks I, no good answer given, “why don’t you call it about 18nm maybe more if you are lucky?” asks I, dirty look given. Then I am told not to get hung up with mounting it up high, you wont see things up close, I say “I have eyes, if it has got that close I am already in trouble and should have been using the radar better in the first place”.
Next I am told I must have an approved FURUNO ‘man’ to come on board to inspect and validate my installation in order to get warranty validated, so says I, “ you want me a radar engineer for the RAF to organise and pay a man to come aboard my boat, 80 miles from my home to validate you warranty on a £1200 radar, I don’t think so!”
I then asked him if he had a website as I found no UK sites for FURUNO when I was searching. Here is the answer, which answers my angst from my previous post – This is not my business, I sell to the commercial boys, the yachts are too small to consider and commercial companies don’t buy off the web – so says I “oh, sorry to have bothered you then” and walked off. Abysmal.
Symrad
Here was the best and easiest to use small radar, I loved it, nice rotating wheel and easy to use menus, I got all around it without assistance. Pity, it was double my price range.
JRC
Sorry, these really are what you pay for, did not like the interface, look, feel – personal preference only, just not for me.
Raymarine
Very busy stand, again left alone until SWMBO went to get rep. Rep was very good, demo was ok, but I had to keep prompting him to show me stuff, some pre show training would not go amiss in this area. The radar is great, looks great, has everything and some extra’s of the FURUNO. Had an argument about using or not using a fluxgate, was told over and over I could not get a bearing of target that I selected, I says I can but it will be relative to mine, I eventually got through to him, I do not wish to explain his product to him, but alas I was pre warned of this in my last thread.
Sat down to buy it, showed salesman the price I had from MES which has been my benchmark for the last few months. His face dropped, he asked how they were doing that? Said he could not match, he would virtually make a loss.
Walked next door to MES and bought one, and a little garmin 12 ch h/h GPS with NMEA out as my plotter does not have this, nice to have a back up set anyhow. The GPS was £59.00, can’t sneeze at that. Got free transport too. Wont see them for a week or so /forums/images/icons/frown.gif but mission accomplished.
Thank you all for your advice, so much truth in the zero product knowledge, the commercial customers comments were priceless, I wonder how much business Raymarine have stolen so far…. The Raymarine seems to be a great set for the money, though the SIMRAD in this size bracket was brilliant.
Had a really good day even if all the electronics were in the power boat section ‘the dark side’ as I liked to call it, had to keep popping back to the raggies to keep some sensibility /forums/images/icons/smile.gif.
Fair Winds…….
<hr width=100% size=1>Julian
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.topcatsail.co.uk>Top Cat Homepage</A>
Ok, my experiences and which RADAR I went for. I hope this helps anyone else considering a soon to be purchase of a small radar for their yacht or boat.
As I had made a decision that I really liked the look of the Raymarine we made a big effort to visit the Raymarine stand last in order to see the competition first.
Furuno.
As I was looking for narrowest beamwidth I have to look at 24nm sets as these are sold with the 18” scanners (5.2°). I was playing with the 1712, not a great menu system, it does all the normal yacht radar stuff but not to be unfair I want SWMBO to be able to use it easily and she is not a gadget freak so was a little concerned by this.
Eventually we had to nearly beg someone to come and talk to us, maybe it was my jeans and hava-sack that did it maybe it was my walking stick, but when I said to guy I am at boat show to buy a radar system I had 3 of them giving attention. We went through the basic functions of the radar in a demo mode that was very lacking. I then looked at the screen of it’s little brother the 1623 16nm 15” scanner set, the resolution was much cleaner and easier to interpret, I was told that this was newer and the 1712 would not be updated with new screen until the end of the year.
The Salesman now is telling me not to get hung up on the 24nm set as it will not work to 24nm anyway. “So why do you call it that then?” asks I, no good answer given, “why don’t you call it about 18nm maybe more if you are lucky?” asks I, dirty look given. Then I am told not to get hung up with mounting it up high, you wont see things up close, I say “I have eyes, if it has got that close I am already in trouble and should have been using the radar better in the first place”.
Next I am told I must have an approved FURUNO ‘man’ to come on board to inspect and validate my installation in order to get warranty validated, so says I, “ you want me a radar engineer for the RAF to organise and pay a man to come aboard my boat, 80 miles from my home to validate you warranty on a £1200 radar, I don’t think so!”
I then asked him if he had a website as I found no UK sites for FURUNO when I was searching. Here is the answer, which answers my angst from my previous post – This is not my business, I sell to the commercial boys, the yachts are too small to consider and commercial companies don’t buy off the web – so says I “oh, sorry to have bothered you then” and walked off. Abysmal.
Symrad
Here was the best and easiest to use small radar, I loved it, nice rotating wheel and easy to use menus, I got all around it without assistance. Pity, it was double my price range.
JRC
Sorry, these really are what you pay for, did not like the interface, look, feel – personal preference only, just not for me.
Raymarine
Very busy stand, again left alone until SWMBO went to get rep. Rep was very good, demo was ok, but I had to keep prompting him to show me stuff, some pre show training would not go amiss in this area. The radar is great, looks great, has everything and some extra’s of the FURUNO. Had an argument about using or not using a fluxgate, was told over and over I could not get a bearing of target that I selected, I says I can but it will be relative to mine, I eventually got through to him, I do not wish to explain his product to him, but alas I was pre warned of this in my last thread.
Sat down to buy it, showed salesman the price I had from MES which has been my benchmark for the last few months. His face dropped, he asked how they were doing that? Said he could not match, he would virtually make a loss.
Walked next door to MES and bought one, and a little garmin 12 ch h/h GPS with NMEA out as my plotter does not have this, nice to have a back up set anyhow. The GPS was £59.00, can’t sneeze at that. Got free transport too. Wont see them for a week or so /forums/images/icons/frown.gif but mission accomplished.
Thank you all for your advice, so much truth in the zero product knowledge, the commercial customers comments were priceless, I wonder how much business Raymarine have stolen so far…. The Raymarine seems to be a great set for the money, though the SIMRAD in this size bracket was brilliant.
Had a really good day even if all the electronics were in the power boat section ‘the dark side’ as I liked to call it, had to keep popping back to the raggies to keep some sensibility /forums/images/icons/smile.gif.
Fair Winds…….
<hr width=100% size=1>Julian
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.topcatsail.co.uk>Top Cat Homepage</A>
