I need a chartplotter. Brands to avoid?? What do you use??

[damoses1]

Well, my wife has given in and is allowing me to buy a new chartplotter for my Cal 29.

I really liked the way the Raymarine unit operated in my local West Marine, but the clerk told me to avoid them because getting parts from Raymarine can be extremely difficult.

Another popular favorite is Garmin, but I am not sure if I could interface it with my existing Nexus wind data instruments.

The third option is the Lowrance HDS series (5 inch or 7 inch). The only problem with Lowrance is that I have tried in the past to contact their customer service department and it took them OVER 3 WEEKS to respond to my emails.

Also, should I wait til the spring for new models to arrive? When do the new models hit the shelves??

What do you use in your sailboat? I'm not a racer yet, but will be in the next year or two.

Any tips or comments are greatly appreciated!

 

[rpwillia]

Humminbird 785C2

Really like mine. It has the external GPS and works well. Their customer service is awesome (this is the 2nd Humminbird product I have owned; left the old fishfinder on the old boat but it is still going strong after 8 years.) It uses the Navionics charts which are kind of substandard for the price, but the display is one of the biggest color ones around.

My only regret (minor one) is I did not get the upgraded unit with the integrated fish finder.

 

[rpwillia]

Here is a picture

The Chartplotter does talk to my Standard Horizon VHF for DSC and to my Raymarine S1 Autopilot through NMEA, but there is no interface to the SeaTalk instruments like the ST60 wind, depth or speed log.

One option would be to look for an NMEA 2000 unit. I have no experience with them.

 

[Snotter]

Re: I need a chartplotter. Brands to avoid?? What do you u

Raymarine is fat, dumb, and happy now that FLIR has bought them out. They are even responsive on the phone.

I bought a used Ray C80 off ebay for a fraction of the cost that new MFDs go for. I also bought a used Ray radar, fishfinder, and AIS receiver off of ebay. Everything is plug and play and is still being supported by Raymarine. I had existing Ray AP and ST60s. I'd rather have new Garmins but it would probably cost me 10k+$.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Re: I need a chartplotter. Brands to avoid?? What do you u

I do not have my Garmin 172C connected to my Nexus but I believe that I can. It is just standard NMEA 0183 ouput.

 

[kloudie1]

Chartplotter

I have been very happy withh my Garmin 545.. mounted on a little stainless arm at the helm. The 536 has the inland lakes charts preloaded..Check it out.. look at prices at Pyacht.com in addition to other places..
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=148&pID=28971

 

[Tom Spohn]

Re: I need a chartplotter. Brands to avoid?? What do you u

My Furuno works well with my Nexus wind instruments.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Re: I need a chartplotter. Brands to avoid?? What do you u

What this kinda tells you is that regardless of what others' experiences have been, YOU are the one who has to live with it, and LIKE it. Really. There haven't been too many reports of "failure" equipment, or the word would have gotten out a long time ago. Recommendations have always been to do some homework on what your needs are, check the different methods of providing charts (built-in, disc downloads, SD-cards, etc.), read up in West Marine Advisors, and then go into a store and play around with them. Each manufacturer does the keyboard/human interface a bit differently, and some may be more intuitive to you than others. For instance, my friend's 10 year old Garmin GPS72 drove me nuts with its multiple menu requirements to even get to a Go To input - I hated the thing, and was turned off by Garmin for years, until another friend showed me his new Garmin GPSMap 76 Csx, which was easy and intuitive, to me. The menus were made much easier and they even added a, get this, GO TO button! Only took 'em 10 years! That's how this stuff works: it's what YOU like and are comfortable with.

Happy hunting.

 

[FastOlson]

Garmin: hiss... boo...

Under the heading "avoid" I would put Garmin at the top. Since they changed from a friction chip door to a powerful magnet (and specify that it must be 39" away from the steering compass) I deduce that they are not intended for wheel steered boats, power or sail.
We have a pre-magnet Garmin 3005c plotter, and have had problems with software and poor quality construction.
The display looks great, long as the duct tape on the connections holds up.

BTW, that Garmin warning about interference is buried deep in the install manual, probably because their attorneys told 'em to put it in somewhere, and their marketing dept told 'em to hide it pretty well.

I like our Raymarine St-60 instruments and our Furuno radar. When we find some more $$ we will switch to a Furuno plotter.

L

 

[RECESS]

Re: I need a chartplotter. Brands to avoid?? What do you u

I have had one of Humminbird's bigger models for a couple years now. I hear people poo poo the name from time to time but it works well for me and was loaded with all of the US coastlines and Bahamas. I like all the alarms, I just wish they were louder.... or I had better hearing. In the middle of the night any audible alarm sounds loud though. I made the mistake of setting my anchor alarm to small in circumference. It did not take long to wake me.

 

[agaliha]

Stick with one brand and things are simple

I bought a Raymarine RC 435 to make sure all the data from my Raymarine ST60 instruments and Raymarine autopilot would work together. They do and I love the 435. I was particularly happy went I chartered a boat from the Moorings in the BVI and stepped aboard to see a 435. I knew how to use all of its features without any instruction.
Agaliha

 

[stephen Penny]

Buy Garmin's 3210 with gps and you can tie-in a radar, depth, etc. Cost is ~$1000. Google it and you should find low price. I purchased and installed one from West Marine last December. I like the large screen. It also has a split screen for radar and chartplotter.

 

[wufibugs]

Re: I need a chartplotter. Brands to avoid?? What do you u

I was a little disturbed by the support at Lowrance. I was given an old Globalmap 3300c and an X-48. I did not find the installation manual to be "dummy" friendly, so I wrote support asking about what plugs go where [I didn't even ask them the myriad of questions I had about creating a network out of these disparate parts]. They wrote back that these are discontinued products and I should just upgrade. Thanks.

 

[higgs]

Re: I need a chartplotter. Brands to avoid?? What do you u

I use my laptop and Seaclear, which is a free download. Charts ar NOAA, which are also free.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Dito laptop and seaclear

You have to consider the price of chart upgrades in the total cost of ownership. You can rapidly get into a lot of dollars if you choose the wrong unit and it requires "their" maps.
I use a retired laptop, serial port it to my GPS, and SeaClear Software. The serial port cost me $1.28 the laptop, charts and software were free. Chart update is also free and can be done from the boat if there is an wireless internet conncetion nearby
It ain't waterproof and is not visable from the helm. I have not found this to be an issue as the Admeral can read charts pretty well and can answer any questions I might need to throw to her. OR let Outto helm the boat and go check for myself. the Dell laptop wall wart lable says it supplies 18 volts DC to the laptop but if you check the battery it is only a 12 volt one. I have successfully run that laptop off of 12 volt ships power for over a week without draining the battery.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Re: I need a chartplotter. Brands to avoid?? What do you u

I have used both Ray Marine and Garmin systems and while both are fine instruments, I like Garmin best because it is so intuitive to use. With the Ray Marine it seems that you always have to get the book out. Garmin's should be able to "talk" to any system that uses NMEA.

 

[Chuck Creel]

Re: I need a chartplotter. Brands to avoid?? What do you u

Standard horizon has done it.. the all in one unit that i would consider if my present system takes a dive.



http://cgi.ebay.com/Standard-Horizo...=180565985786&ps=63&clkid=4503245381442007063

 

[NYSail]

Re: I need a chartplotter. Brands to avoid?? What do you u

I have a standard horizon 165c that I have had for 6+ years... so far no problems with the unit.

 

[dscribner]

Re: I need a chartplotter. Brands to avoid?? What do you u

I don't know if you're looking for used or new. But if used it your thing (it is mine) don't buy a unit that requires the BlueChart CD. That is discontinued and I beleive it will be completely unsupported as of this December. I have a 76C and loaded it up this spring. If I every sail outside of my area, I'll have to get hold of a key cracker.

So, buy one that takes a card.

 

[CarlN]

+1 on going with the chartplotter with a user interface you like (and your wife too). I used to have Furuno but my wife could never remember what button did what (and I had a few problems too ). If I used a chartplotter every day a Furuno woulds still probably be my first choice since complexity wouldn't matter so much.

I find the biggest problem with all these units (Garmin included) is feature bloat. I never use half the stuff but it can get confusing. I'm waiting for a "4D" chartplotter with a space-time curve display.

The Garmin's are really easy to use and have been great. I have the units with the supposed door magnet and my compass is perfect. Of course I compensated my compass. No boat is free of magnetic fields - and most are electrically generated that are harder to compensate than a fixed magnet. But I doubt that dinky door magnet is causing any noticeable problem.

The Garmin's are especially easy to self install which can save a huge amount of money. The networking is very well thought out. Much more "plug and play" than most. I added an AIS transponder this spring and it just "worked". Nothing on a boat is supposed to work the first time.

I don't have Nexus equipment but I've been on a boat with Garmin/Nexus combination that worked great. Installation ease isn't a problem if you plan to have professional installation but that can sometimes cost as much as the equipment. I've found the support excellent and have had no quality problems.

Raymarine had their own proprietary networking standard (Sea Talk) for many years. It was a good standard and worked well when you were "all Raymarine". I haven't had recent experience with Raymarine and the newer network standards like NMEA 2000 but I would check and double check before buying.

Carl