Raymarine C- series plotters - any reports?

[arto]

I rather like the look of the Raymarine plotters. I'm trying to convince myself that it's really a sensible move to buy one of those than to buy a bunch of C-Map charts for my current B&W plotter (with postage stamp sized screen). (Sensible only in the sense of looking for an excuse to spend a ridiculous amount of money on something I don't really need - in other words, consistent with pretty much all boat-related expenditure).

Can anyone offer first hand experience of the current Raymarine products, and specifically the C70, C80 and C120?

What are the Navionics Gold charts like? I've seen them at the boat show, but what are they like to use in practice? Is the update service any good?

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

 

[GeorgeP]

Just bought a C80 after positive reports from fellow club members. Sorry but I haven't had a chance to use it yet. There's an article on this model in March 2005 YM, page 91/92 that was fairly positive. Expensive though. Can be upgraded to use with radar, which is my plan once the sailing kitty has been recharged.

 

[bonny]

Have 2 firends that have the C80, both also have radar which can be overlaid and they give glowing reports. I had a Navman 5600 on my last boat, very good but on my new boat which I will be collecting next month I have gone for the C80, and also have bought the 2KW radome. I've already bought one XL3 cartridge for it. 2 cartridges cover all UK, channel Is and north Brittany. A 3rd cartridge will cover the rest of France, Portugal, Spain, Ballerics?& Canaries.

Also like the look of the new E series but a bit pricey!

 

[StephenSails]

Hi Arto,

We have been selling the C and E series like hot cakes from your favourite auntie of late. They are very well made bits of kit like most of the Raymarine products. The nice part about them for me is that you can scale up your system with radar, fishfinding etc. Also they use an independant source of e-charts so there is non of the worry like when Garmin decided the G charts were no longer the way forward. My only real criticism is that Raymarine are a little vague when it comes to networking all the other kit together.

If you are looking for a really fair priced chart plotter, then Lowrance seem to be making huge waves, we will be getting up to speed on their kit soon.

Personally I always plump for Raymarine as they have offered by far the best technical support I could hope for even if it does mean talking to a ceptic on the other side of the pond.

 

[yachtbits]

If you have already got C-Map charts then look at the new Simrad products.

These are all C-Map based and the current ones will also use the new C-Map MAX charts as well. C-Map have also just extended the coverage of their chart areas

Simrad have good UK support as does C-Map. C-Map have won the NMEA cartography awards for the last load of years, which must say something.

Entry level plotter would be the CP31TFT 6", going upto the 15" CX54

kev

 

[freeman]

We have a C120 on our new boat and it is brilliant.
only 2 chips for all GB and 1 more to majorca and canaries

far better than previous black and white and far clearer.

 

[AlexL]

I've got a C80 at athough its new and I haven't really had a chance to use it much it seems excellent and very intuative. The Navionics charts are excellent, 220 quid for a XL3 chart which covers most of northern europe.

I looked at the simrad stuff at the boat show and wasn't too impressed especially as everyone was a bit vague about the compatibility of C-map NT+ and CMAP max or whatever the new one is, I got the feeling everyone was avoiding this answer. Also the radar overlay feature and MARPA didn't seem to exist, or at least nobody really knew what the features were.