I'm a newby and I've got a 2001 Raymarine 70 series Radar/GPS with a 7 or 8 inch screen that can take a chip. The East Coast chip runs around $200. Just wondering if I should invest in the chip or upgrade to the latest chartplotter, etc. Thoughts?
GPS CHip
- Thread starter bnort3
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Even if you upgrade, you may still need the chip.
Not sure about a 2001, but the current Raymarine models all use Navionics data and require the CF(?) chip/card. You probably need to make sure what you unit uses. The Navionics chip for the Easc Coast is $199.00 retail for the Gold version.
bnort3-- Your Raymarine uses C-Map Nt's. They are still available from West Marine or C-Map. You have a nice piece of equipment, I would not bother upgrading unless I had a wad of money burning a hole in my pocket.
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I'll second that-our 70 series system has proven reliable and effective, adn after you get your first cmap-nt chip you can join their club (club cmap, now club jeppeson) and get updates and discounts for $80 per year
Becarful when buying the chips. Many chips sacrifice detail for volume. My navionic chip has most sounding of the bay and includes most slips when you zoom in. It terminates at Cape May NJ and I believe the southern point is the mouth of the bay. I have depended on it to steer the boat when I could see or when I could believe what I was seeing (narrow channel with strong cross wind and currents). Went to Fl with a guy that had a chip of the east coast, it was almost useless. As you zoomed in the detail wasn't there, that's a problem, what good is 1/2 or 1/3 of the detail for the sake of fitting it on a chip. Its like giving a person a book map with most of the pages missing. I would want the see the chip detail or be able to return it if it isn't what you think it should be.
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"when I could see or when I could believe what I was seeing (narrow channel with strong cross wind and currents). "
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when I could not see or when I couldn't believe what I was seeing (narrow channel with strong cross wind and currents).
Sorry
"when I could see or when I could believe what I was seeing (narrow channel with strong cross wind and currents). "
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when I could not see or when I couldn't believe what I was seeing (narrow channel with strong cross wind and currents).
The C90W is wonderful, comes fully loaded from Maine to Florida. It is also well integrated with the other Raymarine products. Included is the RayTech Planner, works very well providing a real simulation of the instrument on your P.C. This allowed me to become familiar with it while not having to be aboard. Planning for trip at home and loading it into a compact flash card, then uploading the routes and waypoint into the instruments really is convenient and save time aboard.
It depends a little on where the RL70 is and what you want to do with it. I have an RL70 on my boat. I bought C-Map for the East coast of Australia and New Caledonia. I can't really say anything nice about the device as a chart plotter. I never use it as such anymore. If I had $200 or $300 to invest in electronic charting and was in the USA I'd get a decent netbook and load it with SeaClear and all the NOAA charts I could ever need. I did that with my little Acer Aspire when I was in San Diego and it is a much better display system and draws less power than the RL70. Of course, it isn't splash proof. That's not a problem in my set-up, but YMMV.
--Tom.
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