Time for a new chartplotter

[Harlen]

My 15 y.o. Raymarine E Series is well past its sell-by date so I am in the market for a new system.

It looks like Raymarine and Garmin are the major players. I will want a two 12" display networked system with radar, of course, and depth sounder.

What advice and info will you share about these systems?

Thanks very much.

Harlen

 

[GregBrannon]

Do you have a budget? Is there other equipment onboard you want to interface with, like an NMEA network (which flavor?), a transducer, or an AIS?

Greg.

 

[oguidry]

Look at Simrad as well. Solid company. NSSevo3 series has physical controls (knob and buttons) as well as touch screen.

 

[Comodave]

The new Raymarine does lots of cool stuff including running a drone. Unfortunately my e127 and a128 won’t run the Lighthouse III like the Axioms will. I would check and see what all Axioms will do.

 

[ranger58sb]

It looks like Raymarine and Garmin are the major players. I will want a two 12" display networked system with radar, of course, and depth sounder.

And Furuno.

-Chris

 

[GH41]

My 15 y.o. Raymarine E Series is well past its sell-by date so I am in the market for a new system.

It looks like Raymarine and Garmin are the major players. I will want a two 12" display networked system with radar, of course, and depth sounder.

What advice and info will you share about these systems?

Thanks very much.

Harlen

What is your budget? I ask because I am boat shopping and to keep within my boat budget I am looking at 15-20 year old boats. Most with dated electronics. I friend is going through what I don't want to with his new to him 20+ year old Grand Banks. It's nickle and dimeing him to death! I want to start over when I buy. Looking at 12" Garmin upstairs and down with everything networked looks like an easy way to spend a 20 thousand dollar bill if I replace everything.

 

[caltexflanc]

And Furuno.

-Chris

That's for sure. Personally that's my first choice; high quality and outstanding lifetime customer service.

I'd look at Simrad after that.

Knowing what the budget is would help. At the other end you can get good performance from Lowrance and Si-tex

 

[Codger2]

Unfortunately my e127 and a128 won’t run the Lighthouse III like the Axioms will.

I checked on exactly what the difference is between the LH II & LH III software and I concluded that if I switched to LH III & Axiom Pro I would be losing some LH II advantages that LH III doesn't have. Below is an item by item comparison of the 2 systems.


http://www.raymarine.com/software-updates/mfds/lh3/es-gs-series/index.html#compareFeatures

(When using the link, be sure to scroll down to the comparison charts!)

 

[tiltrider1]

If you have raymarine radar, autopilot, and depth transducer and don’t want to replace them, then I would stick with Raymarine. If you plan to replace everything then shop around and see which system floats your boat.

 

[Nomad Willy]

You guys are mostly just play’in w toys.

Our plotter is over 13 yrs old. The only thing I’d like in a new one is quick finger zoom. But it is adequate. I don’t really know about all the features I could have in a new plotter but I doubt if it would allow us to navigate better.

 

[Harlen]

If you have raymarine radar, autopilot, and depth transducer and don’t want to replace them, then I would stick with Raymarine. If you plan to replace everything then shop around and see which system floats your boat.

According to my installer, only the autopilot can be kept, likely because it is an independent unit. The radar and transducer won't connect with the new equipment, which is fine with me as they are also significant upgrades.

 

[Jmarsh203]

Faruno gp32 piped into a solid state nuc computer running rosepoint costal explorer. Run all that through a NEMA200 network with two waterproof touch screens. Will easily control autopilots and have ais overlay. Depending on the setup you can also pipe in radar Or go stand alone. And as for depth sounder id run a stand alone unit.

 

[Harlen]

Do you have a budget? Is there other equipment onboard you want to interface with, like an NMEA network (which flavor?), a transducer, or an AIS?

Greg.

The budget is somewhat flexible as I am willing to pay more for a better and more functional unit.

I would also like to hear from anyone who is using newer Raymarine and Garmin systems, as well as some of the other ones that have been mentioned.

 

[Dcbeach]

Garmin guy here
I went from Raymarine to Garmin

I have two 10” inch displays in the pilot house, an older 742 on the fly bridge.
Sonar is the side scan, double unit, and the xxd 24” radome on the mast

My comment is that I love how they integrate

Any display can use any system. They turn on together and sleep together at the touch of one screen

Garmin has a App Garmin Helm, with this app my iPhone or iPad become another display. Since I do not have a display while fishing, my iPad becomes my fish finder display.

I know most other companies have this, my comment is I’m satisfied and not looking for any other system.

 

[menzies]

https://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s4/new-boat-toy-47337.html

Love the chartplotters, ties into my new Vesper XB 8000 AIS through NMEA 2000. using the new Garmin sonar Panoptix tranducer.

 

[Blissboat]

And Furuno.

-Chris

What Chris said. Especially since you plan to start from a blank sheet of paper. In the long run, I think you'll be more satisfied with your Furuno devices They last and last and last, while Garmin seems to bake planned obsolescence into every product.

 

[SoWhat]

Features are nice but service is important. I think Raymarine has the largest market share and a larger dealer network with qualified installers. After market service would be a lot higher on my list than a comparison of LHII and LHIII. Someday they'll come out with LHIV and it's whiz bang features will be must have.( Presuming FLIR sells Raymarine to a group that will run it as a business.)

I run all Raymarine, primarily because I want radar, mfd's, autopliot, AIS to just plug in and work and keep me off the rocks. I also run an older Garmin 2000 net as a backup. (and then an ipad as a backup to that)

Don't have anything negative to say about either Raymarine or Garmin.

 

[roddy]

Almost all manufactures are equal today. In fact so good that by the time you install new system it is already superseded with new model with more features.
Think a better question to ask is will new MFD pay nice with existing equipment!
To me manufactures that don't acknowledge there own legacy equipment and other manufactures equipment should steered clear of...
There is at least one manufacturer that does play friendly with others. Even their radars play friendly.

 

[murofrelwart]

When we purchased our boat it had a Garmin 1242xsv Touch on the flybridge connected to a Garmin 18HD radar and Garmin Clearvu sonar transducer. I added a Garmin 1242xsv at the lower helm with connection to the flybridge via Garmin network and NMEA 2000. All integrated seamlessly on start up.

I later added a Vesper 8000 AIS to the NMEA2000 network, which also integrated seamlessly.

The chart plotters also integrate well with Active Captain on an Android tablet via the Garmin WiFi network for another nav display if desired. This is also the path for software and chart updates.

Finally creating a route on the Navionics app, exporting as GPX to Active Captain, then uploading to the chart plotters, also works well and is very handy for pre-planning away from the boat.

Hope this helps. I am very pleased with the setup.

 

[O C Diver]

I think part of your decision should be based on what you plan to do with it. On my charter boat I have mostly Furuno. System held up well for 20 years with 80 to 100 days of work each year. Bought my trawler and was going to refit from Garmin to Furuno. My electronics guy for the last 25 years was pushing Simrad. After running the boat for the winter and then moving it North, I decided to stay with the Garmin and enhance it.

My takeaway was that you need to go play with a few systems before making a choice. A $20k investment requires some test drives so that you know the seat is comfortable and it has all the features you want.

Ted

 

[menzies]

I have a Furuno radar, mono monitor in the PH, color repeater on the FB. When I upgraded the Garmins my guy said there is no way to integrate the radar - but he gave me a big grin and said he could swap it out for a Garmin radar suite.

I gave him credit for trying but I told him that it just was never going to happen as long as the Furuno was in good condition. Especially since our actual use of radar is very minimal!

 

[Harlen]

Features are nice but service is important. I think Raymarine has the largest market share and a larger dealer network with qualified installers. After market service would be a lot higher on my list than a comparison of LHII and LHIII. Someday they'll come out with LHIV and it's whiz bang features will be must have.( Presuming FLIR sells Raymarine to a group that will run it as a business.)

I run all Raymarine, primarily because I want radar, mfd's, autopliot, AIS to just plug in and work and keep me off the rocks. I also run an older Garmin 2000 net as a backup. (and then an ipad as a backup to that)

Don't have anything negative to say about either Raymarine or Garmin.

Thanks, very helpful. Harlen

 

[rsn48]

So I am going to link you to a video by Jeff Cote owner/operator of a company Pacific Yachting Systems. He has done lots of presentations both at the Seattle and Vancouver boat shows. He has a column in Pacific Yachting and the freebie Pacific Northwest Yachting or something like that.

Jeff will talk about it, but I personally believe Furuno is the best of the lot. But I would never go Furuno. In the marina I live close to - French Creek - I'd say about 95 % of radar units I see are Furuno, but listen to Jeff as to why you may not want it. I went with Garmin as it is intuitive to use. I can leave my boat and come back 4 months later and know how to use it, Furuno isn't as intuitive to use even though it is better.

 

[ScubaPete]

According to my installer, only the autopilot can be kept, likely because it is an independent unit. The radar and transducer won't connect with the new equipment, which is fine with me as they are also significant upgrades.

I upgraded my 2002 Raytheon system to new Raymarine Axiom 12 and the same transducer works fine, just needed a short adapter cable.

 

[Simi 60]

Mouse driven opencpn is our #1 plotter now.
Far more features, one click instant response
Bigger better screen
And essentially, free

Dedicated marine plotter runs alongside as backup and several tablets with navionics are available if needed.

 

[TBW]

Furuno. And upgrade to satellite compass.

 

[Simi 60]

Furuno. And upgrade to satellite compass.

Why?

 

[Rhodewaves]

Please let me know if you want to sell your chartplotters after you pull them out please

 

[rgano]

And Furuno.

-Chris

 

[OldDan1943]

I'd be happy to replace my Raymarine C120 with a second E120.
Seems the C120 does not have enough memory to update the charts. SHRUG.
I use the C120 primarily for a separate RADAR display.

If someone wants to gimme an E120, I sure would appreciate it.

Because the C120 is so old, the cable to connect the the C120 to the E120 together is no longer available. I guess no one builds cables anymore.

Also, given I can only put the AIS on one unit (unavailable cable) which would be best, the RADAR or the chart plotter?