Raydata deal or no deal :)

[Captnkev25]

I recently posted about what I thought was a good deal for a Raymarine tridata. Turns out what the fella had is a brand new (unused) Raytheon Raydata. He is offering it to me with new depth transducer, speed and temp transducer and a garmin 16 hvs GPS receiver installed for $475. I know the Raydata is an older retired unit but it does have some nice useful features. I guess my question is : is it worth that kind of money being older and does anyone have any experience with these units and can give me some pros and cons?

 

[Calif. Ted]

So, it has a black case on the control head instead of gray? If so, my last boat had those instruments, seem to work about the same as ST 60's.
They are probably almost identical inside, when Ray bought AutoHelm I think they just changed the cosmetics. Some of the Mark I AP drives say Raymarine on the motor and Autohelm on the wheel clamps. They do use "old Seatalk" with round plugs, "new Seatalk" uses rectancular plugs but an adapter is available if you want to connect with newer instruments.
Not familiar with that model GPS, but check E-Bay for prices, I was once surprised to find the model I was using selling for $10. It was pretty old.

 

[Captnkev25]

Yes. It seems to do everything that the tridata does as well as interface with NEMA for Nav info. It can display lat/long, SOG, COG, Heading, distance to waypoint, you can lock a course and it will give you correction info. Seems to actually be more capable than than the tridata but is an older instrument. I can't seem to find the retail value of it anywhere. The two transducers and the GPS receiver sell for about $275 if I had to purchase separately.

 

[Calif. Ted]

$675 is what a new ST60 with transducers costs + new GPS + install versus $475 for older stuff that performs functions you want. You gotta make the call, don't know if the install is simple replacement or more involved, but just running the wires back to the helm can be a bear and that's the easy part.