Full electronics upgrade - B&G, Raymarine or Garmin?

[moseriw]

B@G or navico. AP! always buy the bigger one!

[MHTinkler]

2011 boat. All Garmin. Chart plotter with radar, tri, wind and auto pilot. Salt water boat all it's life. Original gauges. Flawless.

[moseriw]

2013 Garmin VHF, always below deck. Cord's plastic dissolved. No spare parts!!!! from Garmin.
resume: SCRAP!!!!

[Siberian Sea]

#1 Furuno
#2 North Star
#3 JRC
#4 Si Tex
#5 Standard Horizon
#6 Garmin

[sailorxyz]

Originally Posted by Siberian Sea

#1 Furuno
#2 North Star
#3 JRC
#4 Si Tex
#5 Standard Horizon
#6 Garmin

Apart from Furuno, that list is hilarious!

[CarinaPDX]

Originally Posted by Siberian Sea

#1 Furuno
#2 North Star
#3 JRC
#4 Si Tex
#5 Standard Horizon
#6 Garmin

Well, I don't think it is hilarious but it is very dated, to say the least.

1) Yep, Furuno is the best.

2) North Star was one of the brands that Navico acquired several decades ago, in addition to B&G, Simrad, Lowrance, and others. While the hardware designs of these units mostly converged, the firmware was adapted for each market. North Star addressed the premium power boat market, B&G the premium sailing market, Simrad the mid-level
market, and Lowrance the fresh water fishing market. North Star disappeared as a brand quite some time ago so don't go looking for anything from them...

3) JRC is an old and very quality brand. It makes a lot of radars (among other things), but in the recreational space they have mostly been present through rebranding. Before solid state radars it was possible to buy good JRC radars at an attractive price, mostly online. I wouldn't be surprised at all if some of the players such as Garmin are still getting their radars from JRC.

4) Si Tex is another old brand. They are still in business but are mostly eclipsed by the big boys.

5) Standard Horizon is a marine radio brand, which really belongs in a separate category of its own. Standard Horizon is part of the company that makes Yaesu ham radios, and both brands offer quality, full-featured products at very competitive rates. Standard Horizon was the big boy on the block until Icom decided to compete in the marine VHF space (some time ago), and now the two pretty much own the market.

6) Garmin is Garmin: already discussed. They offer good equipment but with Raymarine and Furuno as options I don't see the attraction myself. YMMV.

Greg

[CaptainMarkS]

I am going through a similar process and will absorb the useful feedback on this thread. @kaz911 please share what you ended up choosing and why.

[kaz911]

Originally Posted by CaptainMarkS

I am going through a similar process and will absorb the useful feedback on this thread. @kaz911 please share what you ended up choosing and why.

I think I'm staying with Raymarine as "primary" units for now. But as much as possible stay away from Raymarine custom wires. So all network will be N2k and standard "Ethernet" - no Raynet - no SeatalkNG where it can be avoided.

I currently have dual autopilots on NMEA 0183 (seatalk) with a big switch between them. I think I have found a way to make a NMEA 2000 "version" with 2 N2K <-> N2k bridges. So both cant be online at the same time.

Then for 2nd station I can chose between any other system like B&G, Garmin or Furuno. As a backup I'll have a Orca and a small tiller pilot for my HydroVane.

[RobPatterson]

I chose B&G with complete satisfaction

[sinnerman]

My two cents:

Raymarine is entry level (my whell autopilot is plastic and looks like it was purchased at Toys-R-Us...)
Ditto for Garmin
B&G makes great sailboat racing instrumentation
Furuno is professional quality

cheers

[nrx500]

In reply to Sinnerman's post

B&G makes excellent sailboat instrumentation, but so does Garmin. As for plastic autopilots, Garmin only makes below deck hydraulic units. Don't know where you got your plastic information, but my Garmin autopilot is solid, reliable, and definitely not plastic!

[sinnerman]

Raymarine= plastic

[kaz911]

Originally Posted by sinnerman

Raymarine= plastic

Garmin Reactor = Plastic
B&G = Plastic (NAC2/NAC3..)

I think you are "B&G" 20 years ago. Modern B&G is all plastic.

[nrx500]

Si-Tex used to be a quality brand. But now they've stopped honoring their two year warranty. I installed a Si-Tex MDA-5 AIS transceiver on my NMEA 2000 network. The unit worked for the first summer, then began turning itself off after a few hours of use. Then after several hours, it would turn on again. I lost confidence in it. I sent it back to Si-Tex. They ran it, but said it was OK. Si-Tex charged me $70 before returning it, even though it was under a two year warranty. But it still worked intermittently, and I shipped it back. Si-Tex promised to replace it under warranty. That was four months ago. They still have my MDA-5. I've given up on Si-Tex. Now I have a Garmin AIS 800 that works.

[sv_pelagia]

Originally Posted by sinnerman

Furuno is professional quality

cheers

Several posts put Furuno at or near the top, with no subsequent disagreement.


So why so few here going with Furuno?