Raymarine open days

[chubby]

In lieu of the London boat show, Raymarine are doing open days at their fareham offices, no doubt want to put to use the displays they would otherwise have taken to the boat show.


On up to feb 8th but by appointment.


Anyone been and what impressions? genuine help and discounts for the average cruiser or are they trying to sell stuff I never knew I needed like heat seeking cameras and augmented reality displays so Dabchick`s wheel house is even more like a warships Ops room, if you saw the recent warship series, not that it helped the Norwegians recently...………..


I was interested in the latest radar but when Martin of this parish showed my a quantum linked to eS75 in lighthouse 2 the purple smudges were a bit underwhelming compared to the black non overlain smudges of my still working Furuno, worth 1500 for quantum 2 with doppler or just stay put with a good book on the couple of times a year I get caught in genuine fog!

 

[DJE]

We went on Wednesday. Good displays and knowledgable staff there as you would expect and it's on our doorstep. Need a new plotter as the old one in the cockpit has died. And looking to replace the aging Navico Corus instruments and Autopilot sometime soon. Looking at the benefits of a fully networked set up we might be replacing the whole lot this winter.
If we buy from one of there approved suppliers the Raymarine are offering 5% cashback when we send them a copy of the invoice.

 

[LadyInBed]

I keep thinking about getting a new style RADAR but probably like you, quite hard to justify when the old JRC still works and is used once at start of season to test it then maybe a couple of times a year in anger.
As for the Raymarine open days at their fareham offices, I don't think I will bother!

 

[chubby]

We went on Wednesday. Good displays and knowledgable staff there as you would expect and it's on our doorstep. Need a new plotter as the old one in the cockpit has died. And looking to replace the aging Navico Corus instruments and Autopilot sometime soon. Looking at the benefits of a fully networked set up we might be replacing the whole lot this winter.
If we buy from one of there approved suppliers the Raymarine are offering 5% cashback when we send them a copy of the invoice.

my plotter died and has already been replaced with raymarine that seamlessly interfaces with their evolution autopilot, AIS and my tack tick instruments via the micro talk gateway: the new networking is so easy compared to the days of trying to work out which tiny coloured wire went where: the final piece of the jigsaw is radar but the old one still works and honestly used in anger once or twice a year. The 5% cashback is not enough to make me undertake another big purchase.

 

[chubby]

I keep thinking about getting a new style RADAR but probably like you, quite hard to justify when the old JRC still works and is used once at start of season to test it then maybe a couple of times a year in anger.
As for the Raymarine open days at their fareham offices, I don't think I will bother!

Difficult: I am with you here: technology has obviously advanced and the professionals clearly run big ship radar all the time and is their primary aid but like you I use mine in anger once or twice a year, am often singlehanded and wonder if you can get information overload from differently coloured inbound and outbound targets, MARPA and the like. trying to find a balance between moving with times and being led along by advertising on the back of most of the mags!

 

[Blue Sunray]

I keep thinking about getting a new style RADAR but probably like you, quite hard to justify when the old JRC still works and is used once at start of season to test it then maybe a couple of times a year in anger.
As for the Raymarine open days at their fareham offices, I don't think I will bother!

Why the anachronistic American capitalisation? It makes you look a bit odd.

 

[ithet]

Went and got some useful info and good demos. They are offering a winter install allowance to anyone, and 5% off list price to those that attend.

 

[LadyInBed]

Why the anachronistic American capitalisation? It makes you look a bit odd.

"belonging or appropriate to an earlier period, especially so as to seem conspicuously old-fashioned".

That's me, but not sure that anything American is involved.
I thought RADAR was an acronym (an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word), so should be capitalised but as you infer, it was a long time ago when I went to school!

 

[Dawnrazor]

I went on Friday and spent two hours with their UK sales manager who was very informative, explaining how everything connects together and all the parts i needed for the upgrade i'm doing.

Was offered 5% rebate off list price, for what i spent on Friday amounts to about £500 cheque back. An application form is being emailed through to anyone who attended the event. You fill that in, send it off with invoices and bingo.

Even if you don't buy anything after (they don't sell direct at the event - you have to buy through one of their dealers), the whole event is a good demonstration of what their latest kit does. I've bought a new Axiom 12-Pro and was amazed at what it did over my current E80.

 

[ashtead]

I would thought a free session for anyone new to Radar or indeed RADAR would be of benefit if you are a new user or consideridering fitting. I went on a trading day there which I assume is still run and had a basic knowledge of radar but found it helpful to learn the Raymarine device functions etc. If they are offering a free few hours it no doubt also helps fill units of time usefully if you are local. Seemed to be reasonable parking even if the location can be missed if the in car plotter is not working. I recall a previous post from someone looking to try devicesand if all manufactures offered these type of sessions it would assist newbies to radar form their views. Maybe a question for Garmin?