Raychart 425

[brians]

I would be pleased to receive any comments, good or bad, on the Raychart 425.

In particular:

Is mono feasible for a chart plotter? I am trying to imagine my paper charts in black and white.

Is Navionics any good? C Map appears better.

I understand that the 425 does not have Seatalk and therefore will not communicate with my other Raytheon gear.

 

[billmacfarlane]

Does it have an NMEA interface ? If it should be able to communicate with most modern electronics including Seatalk instruments via a converter.

 

[Guest]

I used the Raychart 425 for this season and overall have been very pleased. The unit had to be changed early on because the backlighting did not work, but other than that has been very reliable.

At a cost of £200 for large cartridges I was not sure about investing in the 3 that I needed for cruising around the East, South and Continental coasts. £600 outlay seemed too much, so I opted for a single very wide area chart which covers all the way from Ushant to Kiel. It does not support the latest tidal information, but I have been amazed at the detail it does provides. Picking up your point about the 6" B/W screen clearly this restricts the level of detail that is useful, so the wide area chart seems to work really well. As an example I am based in the River Deben on the East Coast and it shows river buoyage. Depth contours are there but not really very clear in monochrome, but used in conjunction with a good pilot book or paper chart (which of course you should have anyway) it really is a good set-up.

Finally on the Seatalk issue this has not been a problem, although you may need to buy the Seatalk/NMEA/RS232 interface box for around £120 depending on instrumentation. I output the GPS data to a Navico DCS radio, A Furuno Radar, A Simrad Wheelpilot as well as Seatalk ST60 multi and log units - and surprise surprise it all works.

Malcolm