Raymarine Vs Garmin

[GreeceSailing]

I need to buy new electronics nav systems and new radar for my bavaria 44, I almost decided on Ray E7 until someone told me that Garmin offer better functionalities and supports, I liked the Bluetooth connection facilities with IPad on the Ray,does Garmin have something similar, eventually the system might be expended to include autopilot, please help!

[chala]

Originally Posted by GreeceSailing

I almost decided on Ray E7 until someone told me that Garmin offer better functionalities and supports, I liked the Bluetooth connection facilities with IPad on the Ray,does Garmin have something similar, eventually the system might be expended to include autopilot, please help!

Why an E7, I do not like touch screens for many reasons (touch buttons too small for my fingers or obscure the screen too much when the right size, finger marks and also recommended by Ray not to be used in heavy motion) and the E7 normal use is to clumsy (not enough control buttons) I am looking at a C95 to purchase. Ray offer package which may be more easy to integrate with my existing Ray system. I am also considering Garmin because Garmin may have more chance to survive the economic down turn and may last longer and may offer better support and quality. But Garmin is an unknown to me and as a different cartography.

[senormechanico]

Garmin is a lot more intuitive.
I've had and used both and to me, there's no question which I'd pick (again).

[mrm]

I would second the Garmin vote. On a Bavaria I frequently sail we have two units 4010 at nav seat and 4008 at helm. Both extremely intuitive and easy to operate. One gotcha with this model, though, you can not have both a radar overlay and an AIS overlay simultaneously on.

With Ray E7, is it possible to operate the touch screen wearing gloves? Depending on where you sail it can be quite cold at times.. Your profile says UK - not the warmest weather around.

[nhschneider]

In the summer of 2010, I replaced all of Rutea's electronics with Garmin-made components: Chartplotter (6208), radar (HD18), AIS (600), sonar (with two transducers), wind sensor, electronic compass (not made by Garmin) and five of their GMI10 displays (3 in the cockpit above the companionway, one at the nav station and one right by my bunk). I did not replace my fixed-mount VHFs and I went with Simrad for the autopilot.

The system has worked flawlessly, draws very little power and is easy to use. Many a guest (usually a guy) sitting in our cockpit has marvelled at the displays and said, "I want one of those!" as I scroll through the features in a quick demonstration. We never turn the displays off unless we're going to be gone from the boat for days.

We have found the Garmin charts to be very accurate (except Baja California and Fiji but the only navigation system that's accurate in Fiji is Google Earth). We do use an iPad but don't have any need to connect it to our Chartplotter. The Navionics charts on the iPad are very good (except in Fiji - we have yet to see how well they'll do in Vanuatu) and it makes a good back up and cross reference to the Garmin.

Perhaps it's because Raymarine has such a large market share that I hear of many cruisers having problems with their systems and, of course, it's just anecdotal. But, so far, I'm delighted with my decision to choose Garmin.

Fair winds and calm seas.

[CharlesFCook]

Between yacht deliveries and Tall Ships I see a bit of different gear. I think Raymarine are faster more powerful machines then Garmin. If you overlay RADAR on your chart the Garmin will be very slow to refresh. I don’t like touch screens in a wet environment. Water makes it hard for them to figure out what you want to do.

I would buy Raymarine over Garmin any day.

[Matt Johnson]

I just bought a C95, RD418, x10 autopilot and a few other raymarine items from Defender. I was going to go with Simard for all this, but after playing with both, Raymarine's new Lighthouse interface was easier to use, I got a bigger screen, and and integrated with the older series 60 instruments that I already had.

I did not look at Garmin due to the cost for autopilot, camp chartplotter and radar. I didn't like the 740's touchscreen only, and the rest of their chartplotters are either much more expensive or old tech.

The RayControl function works well with my Android tablet. It's very cool to be able to see what is going on with the radar, charts and instruments down below without the need for a repeater chartplotter.

[Matt Johnson]

Also, the Raymarine and Simrad units can now act as your autopilot control saving a few bucks and power there.

[Arbour]

I am working with a boat that has a Garmin 5200 and Raymarine auto pilot and other instruments. I am told that there is a black box that would allow the garmin and raymarine to work on same network (sharing between seatalk and either Nmea 183 or 2000. True? and what would you recommend if it is true?

[Arbour]

Originally Posted by Arbour

I am working with a boat that has a Garmin 5200 and Raymarine auto pilot and other instruments. I am told that there is a black box that would allow the garmin and raymarine to work on same network (sharing between seatalk and either Nmea 183 or 2000. True? and what would you recommend if it is true?

Any help greatly appreciated. Just don't want to go through expense of replacing the raymarine or adding more hole in hull.

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by Arbour

I am working with a boat that has a Garmin 5200 and Raymarine auto pilot and other instruments. I am told that there is a black box that would allow the garmin and raymarine to work on same network (sharing between seatalk and either Nmea 183 or 2000. True? and what would you recommend if it is true?

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?...212&id=1108756

or

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?...212&id=1316618

[xymotic]

I find garmin way easier to use than Ray, however take a hard look at simrad NSS. they are hands down the best imo.

you can also get a NMEA to bluetooth black box and tie an ipad in to any system. The ray gives you radar and better integration, but at a cost

[GreeceSailing]

Originally Posted by xymotic

I find garmin way easier to use than Ray, however take a hard look at simrad NSS. they are hands down the best imo.

you can also get a NMEA to bluetooth black box and tie an ipad in to any system. The ray gives you radar and better integration, but at a cost

Many thanks, will look at it.

[Cotemar]

I have had both Raymarine and Garmin. I now have a Garmin 5208 and love the touch screen. Even the 1st mate uses it with no manuals. It just works. Its intuitive.

My Raymarine always needed a manual close by. It's menu's seemed bass akwards.

[chala]

I just had the time to check at the local dealer a Ray C120 wide, an E90 and a Garmin 4010. Yes 4010 has a lot of buttons for the data bar and an easy way of selecting data, it has also an alphanumerical pad, far better graphs than Ray’s graphs which need serious improvement but all this is let down by the screen. Poor resolution of chart, cursor, roses and data and graph, really nothing very crisp. The screen flickers on the sounder demo and when zoomed in and out the screen slowly rebuild in patches. The 4010 is a non-event and the C120W and E90 are outdated products, replaced by the new line of / c95 /c97 / c125 / c127 / e95 / e97 / e125 / e127 displays.