Updating Navigation System - Recommendations? (Seattle)

We have a 2004 trawler that came equipped with [what is now] an outdated Furuno / Navnet chartplotter system. I don't think it's even possible to obtain updated chart chips any more, so it's time to bid our system adieu and join the 21st century.

Although I have used PC and iPad based systems (as well as paper charts of course) I want to replace the existing system.

At the Seattle boat show the vendors handed us component price lists - very nice, but we're not gonna configure and install it ourselves.

I'm hoping that if we stick with Furuno, we may be able to take advantage of some of our current system (the radar dome perhaps?) but I don't have a clue. If we can't leverage anything then I'm open to Garmin I suppose.

Does anyone have suggestions for a reputable dealer / company in the area that we can work with? Or barring that, suggestions / guidance on moving forward on our own? TIA!

Give Brian Taylor at Selene Yachts NW a call, he is a Furuno dealer and does service and installations.

206 352-3041
brian@selennw.com

Or Lunde or Harris. Or Emerald Harbor Marine, or Pacific Yacht Management, or S3 Maritime.

Call Brian Coleman of Coleman Marine Systems- he will steer you right.

(206) 755-3566

debbiet said:

We have a 2004 trawler that came equipped with [what is now] an outdated Furuno / Navnet chartplotter system. I don't think it's even possible to obtain updated chart chips any more, so it's time to bid our system adieu and join the 21st century.

I'm hoping that if we stick with Furuno, we may be able to take advantage of some of our current system (the radar dome perhaps?) but I don't have a clue.

Click to expand...

FWIW...

When we did a major electronics refit 10 years ago, our starting point included an existing Furuno radar.

That radar was old enough so that it would not support overlaying data onto a new plotter... but it already had it's own display (and I like having a dedicated radar display anyway), it will receive some useful info from the rest of the network via NMEA0183, it was (still is) a perfectly good radar, a new radar would have added another $5K or so to the refit cost... so I saw no reason to change that old one out.

-Chris

Here is a talk by Jeff Cote with Pacific Yacht Systems given at the 2017 International Boat Show. It is two years out of date, the over riding philosophy is still sound and he does discuss all the major systems available. I think you will like what you hear and help you decide for yourself what you want:

Thanks to all for this info - I appreciate it!

I honestly have been considering this for a couple of years and felt like I was going in circles (like a person with a bad navigation system) - now I feel like I have some direction!