Raymarine Open House - worth it or not?

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Deleted User YDKXO

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I've been thinking about replacing the Raymarine E120 MFDs on my boat for a while now and out of the blue an email dropped into my inbox today inviting me to attend a Raymarine Open House. Has anyone been to these Open Houses before? Is it worth it in terms of getting sound technical advice or are you just talking to sales people? Thats another way of asking whether I'll come away from the event with a clear idea of what my options are for replacing my E120s as painlessly and cost efficiently as possible
 
I've not been to their Open House, but before I bought into the Axiom gear I visited them at a boat show and was surprised by how knowledgeable the folks were on the stand and not sales people , especially with integrating into older Raymarine gear that I was keeping - it was a positive experience.
 
It is my understanding that Raymarine only supply trough dealers in the UK. So their Boatshow stands tend to be manned by dealer people, not unlike boat stands. However, I have only had good technical advice from those I have spoken to on stands. In my experience you will get good advice without a hard sell. I might drop into the Port Hamble event. Raymarine keep their test boat at Premier Swanwick, so I guess it will be on a pontoon at Port Hamble?
 
rafiki_ said:
So their Boatshow stands tend to be manned by dealer people.
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Not true at SIBS last year.

We had Raymarine people design the system for our UK boat and show us in detail how it all worked/interfaced , and we then spoke to the dealers to get the best package.

One dealer actually argued that an interface was not possible.

It was and is.
 
Just_sayin' said:
Not true at SIBS last year.

We had Raymarine people design the system for our UK boat and show us in detail how it all worked/interfaced , and we then spoke to the dealers to get the best package.

One dealer actually argued that an interface was not possible.

It was and is.
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Only stating my own experience. I didn’t visit the Raymarine stand last SIBS.
 
Deleted User said:
a clear idea of what my options are for replacing my E120s as painlessly and cost efficiently as possible
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You won't like my personal version of a "clear idea" on the matter of onboard electronics M, but here it goes, fwiw:
unless defective, don't replace them at all.
I mean, are you sure you aren't looking for a solution to a problem that you don't have?
Imho, there's no such thing as outdated instruments on pleasure boats, if by outdated we mean (as it should be) not fit for purpose anymore.
I've got the previous generation of Raymarine stuff on the DP, the so-called Pathfinder.
And while I would rather have the (even older!) Furuno stuff that I had on the old lady, it's more than good enough anyway.
The only thing which I would like to have in your boots is a second screen in the lower helm.
In fact, whenever conditions call for radar usage (which is rare in the Med anyway, as you know), keeping it on a dedicated screen makes a lot of sense.
All you should do is look for another E120 on eBay and replace the current panel with one of the same size but two holes rather than one, job done.
By comparison, updating to a digital system would mean replace just about everything: radome, MFDs, transducer... You name it.
That's easily in the 20k+ quid ballpark, and for what, touch screen control and a bit faster response?
Just think of how many dinners in starred restaurants that money could buy..... :cool:
 
MapisM said:
Just think of how many dinners in starred restaurants that money could buy..... :cool:
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just failed on your man maths II exams P!

it's easy to justify 20K (not for me, I'm with you fully on that!) by arguing how much more you're going to get when trading the Ferretti in for the next boat change (which should be soon, no?)
Second argument is that all these old electronics are reaching the point of no return (or cap out of range, fancy errors, not firing up, etc) "when you most need them" OK, summer in the Med, that's a bit far fetched I agree...

V.

Edited to say, nice avatar Mike, commiserations!
 
MapisM said:
Actually, the justification of 20k+ spent in starred restaurants belongs to man maths III program, V! :ROFLMAO:
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nice but don't forget that these courses are "interlocked" you cannot pass III unless you've cleared II :p
btw, check the curriculum, pretty sure it was in man math IV
 
rafiki_ said:
It is my understanding that Raymarine only supply trough dealers in the UK. So their Boatshow stands tend to be manned by dealer people, not unlike boat stands. However, I have only had good technical advice from those I have spoken to on stands. In my experience you will get good advice without a hard sell. I might drop into the Port Hamble event. Raymarine keep their test boat at Premier Swanwick, so I guess it will be on a pontoon at Port Hamble?
Click to expand...

The stand is manned by Raymarine staff and dealers but a purchase can only be made through one of the dealers, the Raymarine guys are there just to provide support and once they have advised you what you need to know they will introduce you to a dealer if you wish to go further, i would say that’s a good way to manage the stand and have found to be helpful to me a few times when trying to decide what to buy.
 
Mike,

I toyed with the idea of upgrading our E80, but in my rough research I found that the new plotters are not backwards compatible with non digital radar, so now I’m in for a new plotter and radar. This then brought the whole thing to a tipping point because if I was in for a new plotter and radar I might as well upgrade the autopilot pack. Well now we are looking at a significant lump of disposable income that could be better used on other things.
So I parked the whole idea.
 
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