Hi All, As always I like to pass on information to fellow boaters that manufacturers fail to see as important. My electronics were brand new in 2005 and all Raymarine. I have a C-80 display, Depth, Speed, Wind and Auto Pilot. Today I went to my boat to go for an evening sail on the first sunny day of the year and I can't seem to get a GPS fix. A short while later I notice that my Auto Pilot Display is reading STLK FAILURE. So I go below and get my manual. After a long time on hold I actually get a human being on the phone and he tells me stray current has hit me from a lightning strike? Hmmmm seems strange that my wind, depth, radar, chartplotter, stereo, vhf, ipod, refrigeration, running lights, macerator etc. etc all seem to work but this failure must have been lightning? So I take apart my Navpods and dig in to the wiring disconnecting things in the Sea Talk buss to see what is causing the problem. The minute I disconnect the C-80 from the rest of the instruments my autopilot begins working perfectly? Hmmmm seems strange. So now I know my autopilot and everything else but my GPS fix works. Next I begin tapping on my Raystar125 GPS antenna, kind of like kicking tires, and what do you know there is water coming out of the antenna? I then take my screwdriver and unscrew the base from the antenna and it's FULL of water and certainly fried! So now I'm pissed. I have an "all weather" antenna designed for marine use and it's full of water? I know its been raining a lot but this is ridiculous. So I dial the dreaded Raymarine tech support number and begin another bout of on hold. While I'm on hold with Raymarine, just for the heck of it, I grab my wife’s phone and call Garmin tech support on the other ear. Guess who won that race?? Garmin picked up in less than 2 minutes. While Raymarine took 19 even with a "direct extension" that was supposed to make my return calls faster. Hey I was bored and it killed time.. So to make a long story even longer the tech support guy at Raymarine says “oh yeah we had a bunch of those Raystar 125's go out that did not have drain holes drilled so I guess that’s sort of our fault”. Hmmmm drain holes drilled? The piece I'm holding in my hand looks like a perfectly fine piece of injection molding and guess what there were no drain holes in the mold!! How about admitting you guys F@#ked up and have a design error? How about letting boaters know that they could be stuck without GPS and doing a recall? This would obviously be more important with the Sea Ray crowd than sailors but hey it's just a thought?? ALL of these units will eventually fill up with water and fail! Raymarine please play nice, step up to the plate, eat with the adults and recall these faulty Raystar 125 antenna units! On a lighter note the Raystar 125 also fried my C-80 display when it shorted out. So now I need to drive, not ship, my gear to Nashua, NH to get it fixed. I'll have to do the walk in service because they told me that if I ship it it could take up to four or five weeks? I'd rather take a vacation day than wait four or five weeks for my C-80 to be repaired. Hello this is boating season and its only 10 weeks long? So the long and short of it is that Raymarine is going to replace my antenna and they will fix my C-80 but it's going to cost me a vacation day, $80.00 in fuel and the removal re-install time. If they had sent out a recall I could have had them just send me a Raystar 125 by FedEx because I would have caught it before it ruined my C-80. Next time I'm going back to Garmin or Furuno. The arrogance or Raymarine kills me it's to small an industry to treat your customers like total idiots. The first guy I spoke to on the phone new damn well it was not a lightning strike. If you own a Raystar 125 please, please check it for water intrusion. The photo shows my Raystar 125 draining after unscrewing it from the base!! Note the wet rail. Everything on the boat was bone dry but the antenna….. Happy Sailing -Acoustic
