Hi We have ordered a new Bavaria 31 and are currently selecting instrument options. We want a plotter/fishfinder and have looked at the Raymarine C70, but with the thru hull copper transducer it's way too expensive for us. Can anyone recommend the Lowrance brand? We are looking at the LCX37C. It seems to do all the things we want, but it's much less expensive. Our other instruments will be Raymarine. Would be glad of some help. Cheers Bing
Which plotter to buy
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C-80
I have the Raymarine C-80 and Ray Depth,Speed,Wind and Autopilot, Radar on my 2007 Hunter and love the C-80. It came from the factory with plastic speed an depth transducers and this is my second hunter with the plastic transducers and hunter sells a lot of boats for many years with the plastic,I am not sure if ray makes them or not but they work great. Nick
I have the Raymarine C-80 and Ray Depth,Speed,Wind and Autopilot, Radar on my 2007 Hunter and love the C-80. It came from the factory with plastic speed an depth transducers and this is my second hunter with the plastic transducers and hunter sells a lot of boats for many years with the plastic,I am not sure if ray makes them or not but they work great. Nick
AIS
One thing I would be sure any new plotter had would be AIS capability. Being able to see the name, MMSI, SOG and COG and whether they are a danger to you of those big ships right on the radar screen at the helm is really nice. Paul
One thing I would be sure any new plotter had would be AIS capability. Being able to see the name, MMSI, SOG and COG and whether they are a danger to you of those big ships right on the radar screen at the helm is really nice. Paul
Navigating on Chartplotter Alone
Yesterday afternoon my Dad and I went for a sail on our new Beneteau 323. The fog was clearing nicely, and a we felt a beautiful day was forming. However after coming out of our cove, the fog blew back in and we had less than 50 yards of visibility in our Bay of 365 islands. Normally, on a purely pleasure sail, I would bring the sails back down and return to our cove cautiously. However, since our boat came with a Raymarine C70 Multifunction GPS chartplotter, we decided that we would forge on and put it to the test. This was our 4th sail on the new boat, and we had previously only glanced at it quickly. Now we were relying on it to keep us from going aground. We headed straight for a buoy to confirm accuracy, and realized that it was bang on. We then sailed for 1.5 in thick fog knowing exactly where we were. After a few moments of getting our bearings we were able to relax and enjoy the sail. After we had grabbed our mooring at the end of the sail the fog quickly cleared revealing the beautiful day we had expected earlier. We certainly like our C70 a great deal, and can't imagine cruising in foggy areas without it now. Its very readable, and comes with a short illustrated quick reference guide that teaches virtually everything you need to know in minutes. We have only had to look at the detailed reference guide once, and that was just to play with the palette settings. So far we are really impressed.
Yesterday afternoon my Dad and I went for a sail on our new Beneteau 323. The fog was clearing nicely, and a we felt a beautiful day was forming. However after coming out of our cove, the fog blew back in and we had less than 50 yards of visibility in our Bay of 365 islands. Normally, on a purely pleasure sail, I would bring the sails back down and return to our cove cautiously. However, since our boat came with a Raymarine C70 Multifunction GPS chartplotter, we decided that we would forge on and put it to the test. This was our 4th sail on the new boat, and we had previously only glanced at it quickly. Now we were relying on it to keep us from going aground. We headed straight for a buoy to confirm accuracy, and realized that it was bang on. We then sailed for 1.5 in thick fog knowing exactly where we were. After a few moments of getting our bearings we were able to relax and enjoy the sail. After we had grabbed our mooring at the end of the sail the fog quickly cleared revealing the beautiful day we had expected earlier. We certainly like our C70 a great deal, and can't imagine cruising in foggy areas without it now. Its very readable, and comes with a short illustrated quick reference guide that teaches virtually everything you need to know in minutes. We have only had to look at the detailed reference guide once, and that was just to play with the palette settings. So far we are really impressed.
What is your cruising area
Raymarine plotters now use Navionics chips. If you ever intend to cruise the Bahamas DO NOT get a Raymarine. The Navionics chip of the Bahamas is full of serious errors. I corresponded with them four years ago on this, all they could tell me was they had a newer chip. They could not tell me if the specific errors I noted were corrected. Last season in the Bahamas one cruiser was getting a petition up on Navionics rotten Bahamas chip. I compared chips with him, his "newer" chip was worse than my older (2004) one!! So if you intend to go to the Bahamas get a brand of plotter that uses C-Maps or Garmin chips. They use Explorer Charts (the best for the Bahamas). Apparently Navionics is too cheap to license Explorer Charts and instead uses god knows what which in some places put you up to half a mile from your real position! It's full of geo-referencing errors. As for US charts they're all ok as the data is free.
Raymarine plotters now use Navionics chips. If you ever intend to cruise the Bahamas DO NOT get a Raymarine. The Navionics chip of the Bahamas is full of serious errors. I corresponded with them four years ago on this, all they could tell me was they had a newer chip. They could not tell me if the specific errors I noted were corrected. Last season in the Bahamas one cruiser was getting a petition up on Navionics rotten Bahamas chip. I compared chips with him, his "newer" chip was worse than my older (2004) one!! So if you intend to go to the Bahamas get a brand of plotter that uses C-Maps or Garmin chips. They use Explorer Charts (the best for the Bahamas). Apparently Navionics is too cheap to license Explorer Charts and instead uses god knows what which in some places put you up to half a mile from your real position! It's full of geo-referencing errors. As for US charts they're all ok as the data is free.
Lowrance
Hello, I am on my second Lowrance plotter / sonar unit. The first one went when I sold the boat. The second one is on my current boat. I am very happy with them. Compared to Raymarine and Garmine I feel that Lowrance provides great value. The displays are large, high resolution, and easy to read. The units are easy to operate. Finally, with NMEA 2000 (and 0183) support, they are easy to install and connect to other devices. If you want to get Raymarine data displayed on the Lowrance unit you will probably need a Seatalk to NMEA 2000 or 0183 interface box. I have the LMS 337 CDF and I love it. Barry
Hello, I am on my second Lowrance plotter / sonar unit. The first one went when I sold the boat. The second one is on my current boat. I am very happy with them. Compared to Raymarine and Garmine I feel that Lowrance provides great value. The displays are large, high resolution, and easy to read. The units are easy to operate. Finally, with NMEA 2000 (and 0183) support, they are easy to install and connect to other devices. If you want to get Raymarine data displayed on the Lowrance unit you will probably need a Seatalk to NMEA 2000 or 0183 interface box. I have the LMS 337 CDF and I love it. Barry
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