Radar and Gps upgrade time. Any suggestions?

[ColdEH]

Hi Everyone

The next thing on my list to do in the next few months is to install Radar, and GPS . I would like to network it all together with a small screen (6") in the cockpit and a 10 inch screen at the chart table . Weather fax would be nice as well or some way of receiving weather broadcasts. My main cruising area will be in the Caribbean, Bahamas to Trinidad.

I would love to hear every ones opinions and experiences so I can make a good decision on the new equipment.

Regards John.

[Vasco]

John,

I have the Raymarine C series plotter with a 2 kw scanner. I've been pleased with the operation so far. Especially like the ability to overlay the radar on the plotter. The only problem with the C series is that it is a standalone unit and cannot relay to another unit down below. I have not missed having a unit at the chart table. At first I thought it might be more difficult planning passages but it hasn't turned out that way. Do all the planning on paper charts then put the waypoints in the plotter. Word of warning the Navionics chips that Raymarine now uses are not the best for the Bahamas but will do as long as you have the paper Explorer Charts.

[ColdEH]

Hi Rick.

Thanks for the info Rick

I was thinking of the Raymarine, I like the overlay of the Radar. How do you find the reliability?

Do you find yourself wanting for a bigger scanner say 4KW ? Or is the 2KW enough, I like the small radome of the 2KW.

I think I would have to go to the e series to get the dual stations.

Regards John.

[sabray]

Recently installed Garmin 4208 With 18hd dome. Install was easy. Images are great. my 6 year old plots routes on it (Granted the routes would put us in a desert).
I didn't put the repeater down below the vhf has a gps display.I use a millitech ais receiver and this works well. the nmea 0183input baud rate is adjustable and there are enough inputs/outputs also has nmea 2000 as well as the garmin network ports. Happy with it so far. agree the overlay options are nice as are the variables with the split screen

[ColdEH]

I was just reading a few other threads on the subject and it seems Garmin gets the thumbs up from a lot of people in this forum. I wonder if they will talk to my Simrad Robertson autopilot. I think it is nmea.

Regards John.

[amytom]

West Marine has the Raymarine C70 and 2kw on sale. Add the Raymarine GPS ant. and send the position data to a laptop via nmea interface. Use charting software on the laptop to set routes then either program to chip for the plotter or program to plotter manually. If you have a portable GPS for backup that could also be used with the laptop.

[sabray]

. I wonder if they will talk to my Simrad Robertson autopilot.


I think it is nmea. My 4208 is linked to autohelm 6000 using nmea 018

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by typhoon

Hi Rick.

Thanks for the info Rick

I was thinking of the Raymarine, I like the overlay of the Radar. How do you find the reliability?

Do you find yourself wanting for a bigger scanner say 4KW ? Or is the 2KW enough, I like the small radome of the 2KW.

I think I would have to go to the e series to get the dual stations.

Regards John.

Mine has been very reliable so far. I've used it for four winter seasons now. The 2 kw is fine. I don't use the radar much but 2 kw is plenty good enough. I use it mainly for watching weather and landfalls at night. Have only experienced fog once in my winter sailing grounds and did not have radar then. I've told the story before but the first time I used the radar overlay was to enter an unfamiliar harbour that had a tricky entrance. I was anchored off waiting to go in the next morning when another sailboat ran aground going in. TowBoat US got them off and towed them in. I watched all this on radar with the overlay and the next morning followed the track that the towboat used. My radome is mounted on my arch and works fine.

[David M]

Originally Posted by typhoon

Hi Everyone

The next thing on my list to do in the next few months is to install Radar, and GPS . I would like to network it all together with a small screen (6") in the cockpit and a 10 inch screen at the chart table . Weather fax would be nice as well or some way of receiving weather broadcasts. My main cruising area will be in the Caribbean, Bahamas to Trinidad.

I would love to hear every ones opinions and experiences so I can make a good decision on the new equipment.

Regards John.

What is your budget? How fancy does it need to be? I just bought a real nice Furuno NavNet 3D system but the main black box unit alone is 10K.

If you want something other than the very basics, Raymarine and Furuno have the best integrated systems for yachts.

[LtBrett]

I use a Lowrance system and have been extremely happy with it. They are about to release a new line, and retailers like boe marine are blowing the old units out. How about a 2kw radar with a chartplotter for under $1000? They are nema 2000 and can easily be networked, along with all your tank level senors, fuel flow, even weather. Really slick stuff.

Brett

[Pelagic]

David, that Furuno system looks pretty impressive. I will be replacing all my electronics as there is no more support for what is installed and I have always had good luck with Furuno.

What kind of charting versatility can you get with Furuno? Will it accept more than one type of chart system. Could you for example feed a signal from a laptop?

Unfortunately, no dealer has anything like that in the Philippines.

[ColdEH]

My budget should be around 6000$ There should be some sort of choice around that price.

I don't need to many bells and whistles, two station MFDs so I don't have to keep going down below to take a look at the radar or make an adjustment . I would like to tie in all the speed and depth instruments just so I have one display at the wheel . They are B&G , may have to replace them. I will keep the autopilot control , I have gotten very use to it .

Wow 10 grand for the black box , must be something!

I will check out Lowrance , thanks .

Regards

[Paul L]

Typhoon,
You do not need the Furuno blackbox. That is for high end large displays. Look at the MFD8 for the display and the 24in 4KW HD radar. The radar quality is really superb. The chartplotter is decent, but it is suffering from some early release issues. Furuno is actively updating the firmware to fix issues. Updates are available from their website.

Pelagic,
The Navnet3 come with a full set of US raster charts and close to a full set of vector charts. They sell a USB harddrive that contains ROW (rest of the world) charts. You purchase a key for each section you want to enable, then copy the chart from the harddrive to an SD card. You sue the SD card to update the chartplotter.

Paul L

[richardhula]

Originally Posted by typhoon

My budget should be around 6000$ There should be some sort of choice around that price.

I don't need to many bells and whistles, two station MFDs so I don't have to keep going down below to take a look at the radar or make an adjustment . I would like to tie in all the speed and depth instruments just so I have one display at the wheel . They are B&G , may have to replace them. I will keep the autopilot control , I have gotten very use to it .

Wow 10 grand for the black box , must be something!

I will check out Lowrance , thanks .

Regards

FYI I have full range of B & G Network instruments & autopilot working very nicely with Raymarine C series MFD & 2kw Radar using NMEA. I also have AIS hooked in as well. This means the single NMEA input to C80 is dedicated to AIS at 38400 baud. To overcome lack of connectivity I added the Raymarine Seatalk/NMEA adapator E85001 to restore NMEA in/out at 4800 baud. See attached wiring diagram.

With this set-up the C80 drives the autopilot, with the option of using my PC based chartplotter to drive it should the C80 fail. Typically I plot routes using this chartplotter as it's quicker, & upload them to C80 by switching over temporarily from AIS transponder. B & G instrument data is repeated at chart table & optionally on C80. GMDSS data from VHF Icom is also plotted on C80 when distress message received.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by sabray

Recently installed Garmin 4208 With 18hd dome. Install was easy. Images are great. my 6 year old plots routes on it (Granted the routes would put us in a desert).
I didn't put the repeater down below the vhf has a gps display.I use a millitech ais receiver and this works well. the nmea 0183input baud rate is adjustable and there are enough inputs/outputs also has nmea 2000 as well as the garmin network ports. Happy with it so far. agree the overlay options are nice as are the variables with the split screen

Mine's the same with HD except it's the touch screen version. 5208.
I am completely satisfied with it.

Steve B.