Radar

[purplerobbie]

I'm Going to replace the radar on my boat when I get the money which wont be for a while so this is just theoretical But

There is a Lowrance plotter and a Raymarine radar on my boat I would like to replace it for a plotter radar combined.
What make should i go for?

My first thought was get the Raymarine C70 and scanner.
I did think that I could get Raymarine instruments and link them and have wind,depth,log repeated on the chart table.

But now I'm not so sure?
I have just had a look at the Garmin offering and it looks good. I like the idea of being able to overlay the weather.

The Lowrance one is a very competitive price and I quite like the plotter I have.

The other thing to think of is charts.
The c-map for the Raymarine is widely available and I think the Lowrance is the same chart but I'm not sure about the Garmin?
Plus the C-map's coverage is getting wider all the time.

For some reason I feel that garmin have had a few different chart software packages in the past (I could be wrong here?) so longevity is a concern to (I wont be changing this again) are they going to change the chart format again?

It would be nice to have the log and depth at the chart table it is by no means important and if i really wanted it i could just buy a repeater.
Plus if I didn't go for the Raymarine plotter it would open up all the other makes of instruments.

I have a plain old Garmin gps so I'm not putting all my eggs in one basket so to speak should the display fail the most important thing i would lose is radar.
So
Garmin - I have had a garmin gps on every boat I have had and I really rate them for there gps's but have no idea about there plotters or radar's
Lowrance - I really like the plotter I have but have no other knowledge of them.
Raymarine - I have had a couple of raymarine radars and they have been good but i have never used any others.

Any thoughts anyone?
Who have I missed that I should be looking at?

Rob

 

[AIDY]

[ QUOTE ]
The c-map for the Raymarine is widely available

[/ QUOTE ]

The new raymarine plotters use Navionics gold cards for C series platinum for E series.

For a boat your size you should be thinking of an C80 or E80. the C70 screen is too small to work with.

 

[Blue5]

Ditto, I am in the same boat(bad choice of words)

I had been looking at the Garmin Bundle of chartplotter and radar, the 3010c and wondered if anybody had this model and/or could offer opinions for prosecution and defence

 

[mph]

I've just delivered a boat over to Ireland which was fitted with a Garmin 3010 plotter/radar package.
I was very impressed with this unit which had some very useful features and was very easy to use.
It uses Garmin 'G' charts which seem to be OK, I don't know about cost of these though. One handy feature are photos of 100's of harbours or points of interest, this may sound like a gimmick but it is quite useful if your going into a strange harbour!
Another useful thing with the Garmin radar unit is that fitting is easy due to the scanner unit having a processesor inside it, this means that the cable going down the mast is much slimmer making fitting easier - it's effectivly the same as a Cat5 computer cable. I also understand that you can easily network two Garmin 3010 plotters together....best check 1st if this is important to you but I think this is correct from reading the manual.
Having used the Garmin unit, I would put it at least on a par with a Raymarine C80 for ease of use and performance.
So there you go, I liked it and it was easy to use.
I hope this helps.

 

[LadyJessie]

I have the Raymarine C80 and I am extremely pleased with it. It is very easy to work with, the human interface engineering is superb. Almost Apple Mac standard.

Another plus for Raymarine is that they are the market leader and therefore there are service companies all over the world that can give you support. I have been in out of the way places on Sardinia and in Turkey and still got sterling support within a very short time. Their web page support is also one of the best I have seen from any company in any business. One example: you can download the manual for any product that they have ever made. Great stuff. Many companies could learn from this.

I know there are lots of other good products out there, but at the end of the day; I think Raymarine offers a better package. Saving a couple of tenners up front might cost you down the road.

 

[purplerobbie]

[ QUOTE ]
The new raymarine plotters use Navionics gold cards for C series platinum for E series.

For a boat your size you should be thinking of an C80 or E80. the C70 screen is too small to work with.

[/ QUOTE ]

If i went for the C80 or E80 that is pushing the cost up again and the other two look even more attractive.

I could really do with having a look at them all working
Rob

 

[bigwow]

"I could really do with having a look at them all working"


Come over and finish wiring up mine and you can play with them to your hearts content
/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
John

 

[pau1gray]

I was just wondering why you haven't got the Navman 8020 on the list?

 

[purplerobbie]

[ QUOTE ]
I was just wondering why you haven't got the Navman 8020 on the list?

[/ QUOTE ]
I dont really know anything about them?
Are they any good?
what are the prices like?
Chart availability?
Will they interface with there instruments?

Rob

 

[AIDY]

watch out for boat show deals. I bought my C80 at SIBS. Raymarine were giving £250 (cash back) off the package deal which brought it in line with other manufactures just under the 2K mark. included C80 display, raydome, and gps sensor.

You could buy a refurnished unit from Raymarine. often just used at boatshows still with warentee. raymarine have an ebay shop now.

Or You could always import from the states and get it cheaper, the us version i belive has weather function with it.

I'm well pleased with mine. I don't know how easy it's to upgrade the software on garmin, but raymarine use scandisks so you can download the latest software from the raymarine webpage to disc then put it in to your plotter and upgrade your self.

Looks like your going to the boats shows soon !

 

[Gin]

I may be wrong but I think the weather function only works in the States as it receives weather forecasts broadcast there for the U.S.