Which radar/chartplotter? probably again....

[D3B]

Looking to replace the RC435 Chartplotter with a radar system.

I have been quite happy with the Raymarine equipment I have used on last two boats.

Compass have a deal for the C70 plotter with 2KW dome and Raystar 125 GPS receiver @ £1790. I have just upgraded chart card to the new navionics XL9 28XG so would prefer not to replace that again.
Looks like the dome is the older version which has been updated according to Raymarine website.
havent checked installation costs but i would guess the same for whatever i go for.
do i need the new Raystar GPS receiver? already have the old style flat type receiver for the RC435.
have no idea what i should be looking for....
is chart overlay good with radar?
is the fishfinder helpful for looking at sea bed ahead of you?


is this deal as good as it seems or would the panel recommend something completely different?

also happy to wait until september and see whats available at SIBS

Doug

 

[Whitelighter]

Dougie,

the C70 plotter is an excellent unit. If you want to save a little dosh you can get ex-display units direct from Raymarine for about 60% of retail, still with a warranty and boxed with new instruction cards etc etc. I paid £520 for my C70 delivered.

However, the Raydome is about £700 and the antenna about £195, so £1790 all in is not too bad a deal.

C70 also has a Seatalk and Seatalk2 connector, so is backwards compatible with older kit as well.

 

[Wiggo]

The flat GPS antenna will almost certainly be a Raystar 125, which will work with the C70. Installation is not that hard and you could do it yourself to save a few quid.

 

[jfm]

Your old GPS should be backwards compatible - it communicates by Raymarine's Seatalk system which hasn't changed in years

IMHO radar overlay is a gimmick. To make it work halfway sensibly you need a gyro stabilised heading sensor and that is quite expensive. And, you still get a screen full of fuzziness, basically. Imho you are better with separate screens for radar and plotter, with linked cursors

Remeber the c70 isn't networkable, so you can't add a second screen later. If you want more screens you should get E not C series

 

[D3B]

Graham

the raymarine web site shows the raystar 125 as a mushroom shape. i guess this is the new style, so my flat one would still work ok?

Doug

 

[D3B]

[ QUOTE ]
Your old GPS should be backwards compatible - it communicates by Raymarine's Seatalk system which hasn't changed in years

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry bit of a thicky with these things /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
does that mean i should be able to unplug the 435 and plug in the C70 and apart from connecting the radar dome it should work?

IMHO radar overlay is a gimmick. To make it work halfway sensibly you need a gyro stabilised heading sensor and that is quite expensive. And, you still get a screen full of fuzziness, basically. Imho you are better with separate screens for radar and plotter, with linked cursors

the C70 has a three screen option so the overlay wouldnt be necassary?


Wouldnt need extra screens as i have a S29 with only one helm position.

thanks

Doug

 

[Whitelighter]

Yes, provided your GPS mushroom is connected via seatalk then you should just be able to plucg it in - any NMEA stuff you have on boards ditto.

The C70 works best on 2 screens, the triple screen for radar is - IMHO - a bit small.

 

[tome]

I would certainly not go for Raymarine GPS as it is a 'headless' unit which can only be controlled by the main display. Much better IMO to have an independent GPS

We have a networked system with 2 E series displays, and this works fine with external gps. You can still see the selected waypoint etc on the Raymarine kit, but if the system fails we still have the gps to fall back on (with all waypoints loaded)

Agree with jfm about the radar overlay - rarely use it. If you are considering MARPA you will definitely need the fast rate gyro

 

[David2452]

[ QUOTE ]
Graham

the raymarine web site shows the raystar 125 as a mushroom shape. i guess this is the new style, so my flat one would still work ok?

Doug

[/ QUOTE ]

The flat section at the top of the 125 is removable so you can mount it just like your old one, the "old one" would have come as amushroom and was parted from it's mount and inslalled flat.

I have just installed a C120, keeping the old (well 1 year) plotter as a back up, as has been said the overlay is not so good but if you install a G series auto pilot at some stage it will give you a stabilised reading then.

 

[jfm]

Yup, I'd second what David says. All the workings of the Raymarine GPS is in the flat bit at the top of the mushroom. The mushroom stalk can be removed, it does nothing and is just a plastic moulding

 

[Wiggo]

Yup. We have the old RL70's, but the same screen size and split screen radar/chart is a bit too small. Overlay is OK, but will only work with a rate gyro, and that's another £500 or so. Oh, and MARPA only works with the gyro as well, and is a bit pants anyway.

 

[oceanfroggie]

You can't go wrong with Raymarine, and the old GPS antenna will be fine. We recently replaced an RL70CRC with a C80 mainly to switch from C-MAP to Navionics. We also installed a completely separate Garmin 2106 plotter which gives us redundancy as well as backup. We tend to plot on the Garmin (prefer Bluechart presentation), and radar on the Raymarine - best of both worlds. Also prefer MapSource on laptop at home route and passage planning, then transfer to on board systems using card. The others are correct, radar overlay is a gimmick and Marpa useless without a fast heading input (ie either connect to a G series autohelm course computer, or separate fast heading sensor)