Garmin v. Raymarine & Radar Yea or Nay

I have a 2001 Mainship 390 with all 2001ish Raymarine Electronics. The Chartplotter worked for a while and now will not boot so no GPS and no sonar. The only thing that works is the corded autopilot remote and small display and the VHF radio (display visible with a flashlight).

I have a quote from a very respected electronics guy to do it all for about 14K. Top of the line Raymarine, middle of the line Garmin. Thoughts on that if you have them would be appreciated.

Mostly likely all of our travel with be rivers (TN Cumberland TomBB etc.).

Do I want to pony up for radar?

I am new to all of this. I made the trip home from Louisville KY to Nashville with just the depth finder (that quit working) and a handheld GPS, and VHF. The radar worked some and was neat but I really never needed it (no fog, no night running).

Thanks in advance,
Hawk

I like Raymarine. Have had excellent customer service from them. Whatever way you go with all the commercial traffic on the rivers, I would get an AIS transciever so they can see you and you can see them. I personally would not be without radar, or even our black lab, Radar.

Thank you Dave. I lean toward doing it all. I am thinking the boat is like my tractor. I have lots of attachments and I use them all from time to time. You don't know how much you need something sometimes unless you have it.
Hawk

Raymarine all the way- excellent product, excellent connectivity, excellent xcellent customer service.

I would like to have a FLIR camera but the price is still a bit much so I will wait. But it is nice that with Raymarine I can get it all and easily connected. With the Axiom systems you can even fly a drone. Luckily I have the generation before Axiom so I can’t do that...

I prefer to stay a generation behind. Let someone else detect the bugs.
Radar is not essential unless you run in fog or night. If you run offshore unanticipated fog you can be a real problem.

AIS receiver is an inexpensive addon and very useful around commercial traffic.

Most people use navionics or aquamaps on an ipad as a backup.

I went with Garmin and I'm very happy with the results. The AIS system is very nice. I can see commercial traffic like towboats and barges and they can see us. Its reassuring to see a tow coming 30 minutes before he appears. The auto pilot works well too.

Hawk

Hankshaw,


I'd ABSOLUTELY add radar to the package.


However, what do you now have in the package? Suspect 2 or 3 plotters, autopilot, AIS, sonar?, VHF?


I'd have all of the above for the rivers. FLIR would be nice, too, but expensive. I would also have some form of FLIR, even a good handheld. If I lived on those rivers, I'd be boating at night at times.

I installed a Raymarine Axiom system-gps, depth, radar, AIS, in 2018 and have been very happy with it. I have Navionics on it and on my iPad as well. It's much easier to pre-plan routes on the iPad, and then transfer them to the plotter.
Oldersalt