Refitting my boat - B&G or Raymarine.

Monique

Monique

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There is a RTW in our near future and the boat is in refit as I write this.

Part of this refit will be a new plotter/instruments/sonar. I also want integration of a cockpit Garmin 620 and AIS/iPad via wifi.

Which would you prefer and why?

TA as always.
 
Garmin has their own communication system and apparently, only marginally support NMEA 2000. I want compatibility.

The G620 is not so expensive that it would break the bank if I had to buy a new smallish cockpit plotter.

Good question though...
 
I went for the Raymarine E series, works very well with my ipad and phone, means i dont have any chart plotter clutter in the cockpit, just some i70's
 
Monique said:
Garmin has their own communication system and apparently, only marginally support NMEA 2000. I want compatibility.

The G620 is not so expensive that it would break the bank if I had to buy a new smallish cockpit plotter.

Good question though...
Click to expand...

What do you want compatability with? If you are replacing everything except the garmin plotter then you can choose one system and everything will be compatible with everything else. All the brands seem to have their own versions of communications protocols, seatalk for raymarine etc. If I were you I would look at the entire system and choose whichever one fits your requirements best. They all seem much of a muchness hence if you already have garmin equipment then it makes sense to go with them.
 
Raymarine, Garmin and B&G/Simrad/Lowrance all support NMEA2000 and compatibility is generally pretty good. If you have an autopilot, be very careful about mixing brands between the AP and the plotter - I have hit insuperable compatibility issues in that respect.
 
Thanks Maby,

I have already chosen a Raymarine AP... while keeping the serviceable 7000 as a back up. The B&G kit apparently works well with the new Ray AP's..

My concern is the reliability of Raymarine as opposed to B&G. Unless Ray... has uplifted its QC since being bought out...
 
Monique said:
Thanks Maby,

I have already chosen a Raymarine AP... while keeping the serviceable 7000 as a back up. The B&G kit apparently works well with the new Ray AP's..

My concern is the reliability of Raymarine as opposed to B&G. Unless Ray... has uplifted its QC since being bought out...
Click to expand...

Reassuring that Raymarine has a 3 Year warranty. You just need to register the purchase online to get years 2 & 3.
Raymarine software updates regurarly appear on the Raymarine Web Site. It would be difficult to apply these software updates to items like the AP if you did not have a Raymarine Plotter.
 
Monique said:
Thanks Maby,

I have already chosen a Raymarine AP... while keeping the serviceable 7000 as a back up. The B&G kit apparently works well with the new Ray AP's..

My concern is the reliability of Raymarine as opposed to B&G. Unless Ray... has uplifted its QC since being bought out...
Click to expand...

Hmmm, do you have first hand evidence for this? The Lowrance (close relation to B&G) plotter in our previous boat conspired with the Raymarine AP to try to run me ashore on many occasions! I spent a long time chasing this with both Raymarine and Lowrance with each blaming the other. By the time we sold the boat, I had given up and the plotter-AP combination had successfully helmed us over a distance of less than 1nm.
 
When I asked a long established surveyor his comments on instruments, especially Raymarine, he commented he rarely found any of their instruments not working on boats he surveyed. They were better than average for electronics. I had planned to update my B&G to Raymarine as the wind strut was missing when I bought the boat. A replacement strut was almost half the cost of a complete log, wind and depth Raymarine set of instruments, so this seemed a sensible route to follow. That was until I found a secondhand B&G windstrut and it has fixed the non- working wind instrument quickly and at a reasonable cost. I have fitted a Raymarine e7 plotter and had planned to interface the new instruments, then I thought that was unneccessary. As I planned to keep the boat for 10 years, I then realised that new instruments would be considered old in 10 years time, or no different to the B&G which will still probably be working. Now I might possibly add radar to the plotter instead.
 
Some strong points being raised for Raymarine. As I have the "OLD" B&G stuff and the wind direction/speed has gone AWOL, it may be better value to get all Raymarine with a c127 as one proposal indicated.

Keep the comments coming... in deep reflection at the moment....
 
Monique said:
Garmin has their own communication system and apparently, only marginally support NMEA 2000. I want compatibility.
Click to expand...
You should read a copy of the latest yachting monthly which explains in depth there is another marine databus standard coming our way.
 
maby said:
B&G - their 3G radar is far better than Raymarine's offering.
Click to expand...
This has been discussed before and the working assumption is that patent restrictions have locked Raymarine out of broadband radar. A big hole in their range in my opinion.
 
If you want all those fancy i-thing apps...

The only things you can use with Raymarine and Garmin's plotters' "wireless data" is Raymarine and Garmin's apps respectively. If you want to go off-menu you'll need to take off an NMEA-0183 feed and connect it over a separate serial to wireless device (or N2k->NMEA-0183->wireless).

B&G have their own apps too, but the new navico plotters...sorry "MFDs" as we're now supped to call them... also provide a "nmea-0183-over-ip" data output so it's possible to use man non-navico apps with it. Note that that the non-proprietary data is output only. If you want an app to control anything you're still tied into the navico stuff.
 
Hi Laica,

I am not a supporter of full integration. (having all eggs in one basket) For instance, I will keep the old analog 48 NM Furuno radar... coz it is still good kit.

I have iNavx on iPad which is proving to be very useable in real terms. If not integrated easily with the main plotter (MFD), I will keep the Garmin as stand alone or add a small "same manufacturer" MFD at the helm.

I sailed from SOF to Turkey using iNavx on iPad almost exclusively for both planning and the actual crossing. OK, it's not waterproof but I can live with this restriction. 3 long in the tooth crew mates were surprised at its functionality.
 
I've never had Garmin kit before, but I've just bought a new boat which came with Garmin 820 plotter, HD radome, VHF300i radio/AIS receiver, GHC autopilot, and GMI20 instruments with Garmin speed/depth/wind transducers. The autopilot computer powers a Jefa linear drive. I have to say I'm very impressed - the whole lot interfaces seamlessly, works exactly as you'd want it to, has great graphics and more display options than you can shake a stick at. Well worth considering!
 
Monique said:
I am not a supporter of full integration. (having all eggs in one basket)
[...]
I have iNavx on iPad which is proving to be very useable in real terms. If not integrated easily with the main plotter (MFD), I will keep the Garmin as stand alone or add a small "same manufacturer" MFD at the helm.
Click to expand...

I'm not talking about putting all your eggs in one basket: rather ensuring that you can use the ketchup you got with your fried egg breakfast with your lunchtime omelette. No dependencies, just expanding the experience of one thing by leveraging a function of the other.

Connect a wireless router (doesn't need to be the navico one, can be a super cheap job) to a B&G MFD and you can share your boat data with iNavX. You can't do that with Raymarine.
 
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