Serious question. Can anyone recommend...

[Budgie]

Re: Radar/Chartplotter

I have a dual Raymarine 7 inch colour radar/chartplotter and I think that they are absolutely magic. The menus very soon become easy to use, and the colour display is the only way to go. If I was cash limited I would consider dispensing with the chart table display.

I have a centre cockpit Moody, and have placed the "upstairs" display under the sprayhood, rather than at the helm. This has the advantage of taking the display out of direct sunlight, and thus improving screen life and clarity. Additionally the screen can be viewed in dry conditions, rather than having to wipe rain off the screen. A further advantage is that the screen is visible to all in the cockpit, thus aiding crew involvement.

 

[tcm]

Re: Naked wimin and cigars

Powerboat brochures are full of near-naked wimmin. Sailboat brochures are full of people in (very new) wet gear.

Of course you can get Man U on the (Furuno) radar. It wil play whatever is on the TV. You need a KVH Tracvison satellite, the G4 or (for better reception) a bigger G6. But they are a bit (lot) expensive.

 

[JmsKidder]

Forget Raymarine!

Furuno 1833 and Si-tex Genesis are both superior, in many (different) respects.
But all in all, don't go for ANY overlay tool before trying them in the real life: offshore, heavy sea, in the dark - why not.
I bet you'd stay classic after such test.

 

[Chris_Stannard]

I have a Raymarine 10" Chartplotter at the chart table, and a 7" monochrome radar screen in the cockpit. they are connected by the HSB2 system and so either can display the radar or the chart information. I find I rarely use the radar at the chart table. When I bought the radar you could not get a daylight colour display but I do not think you need it for a radar screen, monochrome is just as good. when sailing in good visibility you can switch at the radar scanner off and use the display to show COG, Distance to Waypoints and so on which I like to have in the cockpit as we usually sail two handed.
The reason we bought the plotter was that SWMBO wanted to be able to get home if she ever got so cross with me she booted me off mid channel. Since we have had it (this spring) SHE HAS STARTED TO LEARN TO NAVIGATE!
The gear I have displays radar and chart as a split screen not one on top of the other but this is fine.
My advice would be,, you must have a plotter of the same make as your radar to ensure compatibility. If you are buying both radar and plotter at the same time, then the best choice is to have the same brand as the rest of the equipment in the boat , wind speed etc. This will reduce, although not totally eliminate compatibility problems, especially with the autopilot.
If you do get Raymarine two things they do not tell you in the handbooks.

1. Do not enable the NMEA bridge setting in the System setup for your chart plotter as it may syop the autohelm working (mine does).

2. If you have two diplays you need to do a factory reset at both to get both to display the radar information.



Chris Stannard