Furuno Electronics-where to buy

[surazo]

Hi friends .I'm thinking a total renew of my electronics by Furuno devices .All my systems are raymarine and I don't have any experience where I can find good prices for it and I thinking in Furuno radar 1835;Ais FA 150 or Fa170;ecosounder GP1971;navtex NX700 .
Any suggestion about this equipment ? .Any advice ? .Thanks

[ka4wja]

Surazo,
Assuming you're in Chile....you can find Furuno gear here:

FURUNO U. S. A., INC. 4400 N.W. Pacific Rim Boulevard Camas Washington
98607-9408, USA +1 360-834-9300 +1 360-834-9400 http://www.furunousa.com/

MARCO INDUSTRIAL SpA. Los Gobelinos 2584 Renca - Santiago +56 2-7824400 +56 2-6464623 http://www.marco.cl/ jcastro@marco.cl

Electronica Marina ITECH LTDA BLANCO ENCALADA 444 OFFICE 703 CHILE, 4260000 +56 412 69 7819 http://www.itechmarine.cl/


Furuno gear has a good reputation (it does work well, and is generally fairly heavy-duty), and Furuno service (at least in US and EU) is top-notch!

But, in my opinion, their consumer marine equipment is usually not as "user-friendly" or versatile as Raymarine, etc....and, in general is usually a step or two behind modern / state-of-the-art....
Unless specified by rule/regulation, I find Furuno consumer marine electronics gear to have some unhelpful features....although, their commercial maritime radar is very good!



You may have differing applications / desires / experiences....no worries....here are just a few of mine...
I prefer Icom gear for communications.....
Vesper (or Emtrak) for AIS....
Raymarine gear for autopilot, MFD/Chartplotter, and instruments, as well as for radar (although Furuno radar is really good, I prefer to keep to one manufacture in MFD/Chartplotter, Instruments, Radar, Autopilot, etc.).....

Of course, this is just my opinion....and a lot of your choice here, depends on two things:
a) Your specific applications...(mine are offshore sailing, with energy independence, and ease of use when in heavy-weather)

b) Your personal preferences... (I place reliability at the top of my list, second place is low power consumption, third is ease of use....fourth is ability for different devices / systems to work independently as well as share data, etc...)

Your applications and preferences will be different....just be sure you remember to include power consumption / energy budget / energy systems, into your marine electronics choice criteria....as they all need electricity! And, the more you desire the electronics to do, the more power you will need!



I hope this helps.

Fair winds.

John

[surazo]

Thanks. ka4wja .good information and really always and in several seas I sailing offshore but here in the Patagonia is all the time inside the islands and I need to be an expert in wind changes ,island effect and others .
Garmin could be an option but I don't know where or whommask about the electronics .
Thanks again
Hernan