Networked chartplotter/radar - Raymarine competitors?

[BlueSkyNick]

Raymarine seem to have cornered the market with the E80/120 range for networked chartplotters with radar option.

Garmin have networked chartplotters but no radar option. Ditto Simrad I believe.

Just window shopping at this stage, but would like to plan ahead.

Are there any others, or is it Hobson's choice albiet that might be a good one?

 

[roly_voya]

Garmin do do radar units (GMR18), Furuno (Nav net2) have a good reputation and there are others but you need to talk to a specialist dealer. The Raymarine stuff is currently reletively cheap which may be why its popular. Are you shure you want networked? you do pay quite a bit extra for the network electronics and if you look at most comercial setups the have seperate radar and chartplotter next to each other, they probably have a good reason for doing it that way!

 

[BlueSkyNick]

thanks for the Furuno tip. You're right, there are advantages and disadvantages of seperates versus combined units, space being one of the primary issues, so want to explore all the options.

 

[pvb]

Lots of competition...

There's a lot of competition in this market. Garmin, Furuno, Simrad and Lowrance all offer networked multi-function displays with radar capability. Raymarine's products are well-known and widely available. From my experience, I'd say they're particularly easy to use and quite good value.