Garmin v Raymarine

[owenrms]

Hi all - our new yacht will arrive in August. I have grown up around Garmin products, land and marine, and have a wish to replace the basic Raymarine set up that will come with our Leopard and install all Garmin. Now I have heard the Raymarine Autopilot is excellent so we would probavbly keep that, however on all our charters I have never really liked the chartplotter or other instruments from Raymarine. I would like to hear from people who have experience with both. What would you do?

[sailjumanji]

I like the Raymarine autopilot too. Our ST60 wind, and tridata I have worked well, but I went with B&G chartplotter when the Garmin died. As the new plotter was nmea 2000 compatible, I used a seatalk to seatalkng converter to get all of the ST60 data onto the nmea 2000 network, and be seen by the chartplotter. Works perfect, and the chartplotter can show depth - for instance - on it too. So critical info all available in one spot. The autopilot however cannot be controlled by the chartplotter, because the interface is not compatible. However I don't see that as an issue. It can however see the chartplotter waypoints and steer to them.

[pcmm]

I would stay away from Raymarine. Their insistence on propreitary protocals is enough. I've had lots of issues with raymarine autopilots that are enough to keep me away from them. If you like Garmin, stick with Garmin.

[Pete7]

I always turn the Garmin chartplotter on, sometimes I even turn the Raymarine C80 on, that is probably telling enough. The reason is the Garmin menus are just easier to find your way around, were as on the C80 its hunt the function you know is there somewhere, but just can't find it.

However, we will fit a Raymarine wheel pilot, probably kept as a stand alone device.

Pete

[Mambo]

Garmin's customer service is far superior. Ray's use of SeaTalk instead of simple NMEA2K is ridiculous (yes its not difficult to convert most things but it comes at a cost). And, Garmin serves a much larger market and delivers more bang for the buck as a result. The AP is the one place where Ray remains justifiably well established.
.02

[CaptTom]

You're really in the realm of opinion here. So here goes:

Raymarine: Pros: solid hardware, good functionality. Cons: higher cost for the same feature set, most people don't find the user interface as friendly, and, as stated above, their preference for proprietary protocols.

Garmin: Pros: Better user interface, solid hardware, (somewhat) lower cost, easier inter-operability. Cons: frequent model changes with dropped support (no firmware upgrades) very shortly after a model goes "legacy."

Either one will serve you well, it's mostly a personal preference and a value question.

Navico (B&G, Simrad, Lowrance) is, IMHO, far behind in functionality and ships buggy firmware which is difficult to update without the whole suite. User interface is typically more confusing. The exception here would be for Autopilots, where Simrad would be an excellent choice, as Ray and Garmin tend to be more expensive but no better.

I have a totally mixed helm, using devices from all of the above (and more.) Everything interfaces fine together. The only problems I've had are with individual functionality on individual devices, particularly my B&G V50 VHF, which I don't like at all.

[senormechanico]

Agree with all of the above.

Having had experience with both,

Garmin, Garmin, Garmin !!!

[owenrms]

Thanks all... lots of good advice and seems to be a solid vote for Garmin

[Glenn C]

Hi,

I recently went through the same thing in speccing our boat. Launch later this year. We ended up with Garmin only because we found the user interface a little easier to use.

Initially I was not that keen on Garmin due to the requirement for only Garmin charts.

All the major players seem to have robust and quite well designed products these days, so wasn't too stressed about the decision, because either system will do a good job.