Experience of Raychart 435

[xcw]

Has anyone had any experience of the Raychart 435 chartplotter? It looks like a good piece of kit for the price and would be ok for my Solent/South Coast sailing with the odd hop across the channel. Any advice on this or alternatives would be welcome.

Many thanks.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[freeman]

I have had one of the black and white entry level Raymarine chart plotters 425 I think and it is EXCELLENT. Brilliant.
Get the largest chart chip for you area.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[sailorman]

i have the colour radar / plotter
its a fantastic bit of kit, especially singlehanded

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[StephenSails]

The garmin or simrad range are both worth looking at by I would go for Raymarine as the design and quality is very good.

<hr width=100% size=1>Visit my discount online chandlery and news site
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtinguniverse.com>http://www.yachtinguniverse.com</A>

 

[Talbot]

I have the Navman 5500 (C Map) and have it installed in my cockpit. This is the best bit of kit I have ever bought! If you single-hand at all, then these machines are the bees knees. Decide on what sort of chart you want then look at what plotters are available for that chart system (Vector is the only way IMHO and I prefer C Map)

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Robin]

Agree with you 100%. We have a Navman 5500i (built in WAAS/EGNOS dGPS) in the cockpit as a standalone backup for our 10" Ratheon C-Map one at the Nav table. The Navman is a super piece of kit and (despite YM twice reporting otherwise) is fully waterproof to 1m immersion standards.

Agree too that it is best to chose the chart systen first, then the plotter. I personally prefer C-Map to Navionics hence both of ours run on C-Map, plus we have the PC-Planner reader/software to use C-Map on the laptop for planning at home.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[bob_tyler]

I agree re Navman. I have the 5500i (built in aerial version).

This is mounted at the Chart Table and works perfectly below the GRP deck and partly below the solar panels!

I have mounted the bracket on Velcro on the Chart Table, bought an extra lead and put a Velcro pad on the cabin bulkhead in the cockpit so it can mount in either position.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Martin_e]

I had a 435. Nice piece of kit. Not too big, it was good to use and the price was right. HOWEVER the Navionics chart was 20 years out of date! Be very careful. When zooming in to get the "more informative/detailed" data, it was hopelessly out of date. I just could not "rely" on it. Had to run below and check paper charts as soon as I came into costal/buoyed areas. Could just as well saved the money and used paper. The old B&W Navionics chart for the 425 was more updated than the "new" Gold series! I do not know what it is like in the Solent though but know that the problem is not solved over here yet. Also it does have a limited NEMA output ie. you can't run a Clipper GPS repeater from it.
Full marks to Raymarine though who made sure that I became a satisfied customer and gave me a plotter that ran on C-Map.


<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Robin]

Ours is outside (2 possible mounts) since we have a plumbed in Raytheon below. The Navman is totally separate from instruments, pilot, radar etc and runs off a completely separate battery bank. The Nav screen is excellent too in the cockpit and we use this rather than the chart screen unless approaching the coast, confined waters etc, you chose your own selection of data to display and it is readable from anywhere in the cockpit. We display BTW, DTW, COG, SOG, VMG to Wpt, TTG, these are all available on our other system (ST50) but only at the wheel and only by scrolling though screens, either of which means getting up and climbing behind the wheel when on autopilot.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[pvb]

Before you decide...

For around the same price as a 435, you could get a Navman 5600, which is a superb chartplotter. It has a 6.4" screen - slightly bigger than the 435, and with the same resolution. The Navman uses C-Map NT charts, which seem to be very good, and are probably easier to buy and update than the Navionics charts which the Raychart uses. Despite what YM say, the Navman is fully waterproof.

The Raychart 435 only stores 500 waypoints (vs 3000 for Navman 5600) and only has 20 routes of 50 points (vs 25 of 50). I’d say that the Raychart is much less user-friendly, and subjectively has less attractive graphics than the Navman. The Navman’s controls are incredibly intuitive to use. In fact, it’s so intuitive that you wouldn’t need to refer to the manual much after the first few uses. The "compass" facility (not available on the 435) makes it very easy to keep on course whilst still being able to view the chart. When you switch the unit on, it's extremely quick to acquire a fix. Setting up or modifying waypoints/routes is incredibly quick and simple.

The Navman also has a couple of very useful feature advantages over the 435. Firstly, in addition to brightness/contrast, it has various formats for the screen display, including a “night” mode which is very effective indeed. Secondly, it has the ability to display lots of data from your other instruments, through an NMEA input, and you can configure the data screen to show just those items which you need.

Before you decide, have a look at the Navman too. You’ll probably be very surprised.


<hr width=100% size=1>