Garmin or Raymarine systems?

[Spear06]

I'm looking at builder options for a new catamaran at the moment and the manufacturer offers both systems for Chartplotter/instruments/VHF/AIS etc. What's the consensus on which system is better in terms of service, support, ease of use, durability, and functionality?

I have limited experience with Raymarine equipment but have no experience with the new Garmin suites. Although I have tons of other Garmin products.


Please, lets keep this discussion to these two manufacturers. (I know there are other brands that offer similar options, better and worse).
Before anyone chimes in with the ol' "use the search function" I have and the comparisons are for older models 2008/2011 thread dates.

Thanks

[fishsail]

I work for a boat builder we make in the ball park of 1000 boats a year. We only offer Garmin now. We stared with Simrad, total disaster. tried Raymarine too many issues. Bad units, bad software not user friendly. Our dealers told us to stick with Garmin very user friendly, great out of the box. Easy to use. We have had them for over a year now and we will stick with them.

[TheOffice]

When I bought a new plotter 4 years ago, the Ray e7 had a joy stick and buttons. Garmin did not. Went with the e7. Get new OS updates about 2x a year that have added new features. First batch had bad screens. Ray replaced them. IF YOU REGISTER YOUR RAY PRODUCT YOU GET AN EXTRA YEARS WARRANTY!

[CS Cruiser]

Raymarines new stuff is great, Garmin usually a bit more user friendly out of the box as said, but newer RADAR stuff, Raymarine wins hands down, just check the Panabo site.

[senormechanico]

Had both.
Garmin wins in my book.
I do semi annual Seattle to and from Whidbey Island delivery for my neighbor's boat which has relatively new Raymarine chartplotter/radar and I can't stand using it.
I'm always glad to get back to my boat.

[Spear06]

Thanks all...I appreciate the feedback and first hand experiences.

[leftbrainstuff]

Garmin are not of interest to us as they don't support the chart options we need.

Were about to do a chartplotter, radar, ais, forward scan sonar update. BandG are number one. Raymarine dont offer forward scan sonar so they're a distant second for us.

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