GPS Advice?

[hcalmar]

I just replaced my radar with a Furuno 1942 Mark-2 6kW very nice unit. I need to replace the Garmin 215 GPS tied into Raychart 620. Although the Raychart's size is nice I do not have confidence in either unit. I am looking for a single station GPS chartplotter. Does anyone have experience with Raymarine's A65? Any other ideas. Money is running low in this years boating budget.
Hal

[Maynard Rupp]

We have Navman GPS/chartplotter and a Navman fish finder/fuel flow system. They have several different models which vary mostly by screen size. We love them, they are inexpensive, and the displays are bright but can easily be dimmed. What more do you want or need. our Navman GPS also has a NMEA output which we routed to the lower station to put the boat on our laptop with Nobletech program.

[Genesis]

I've been crazy-happy with Garmin's plotters over the years in my boats..... Gigabite had one and so has every small boat I've owned since 2000. Their new line contains INTERNAL charts for the entire coastal and inland US! No chips required.

[Rickysa]

I've been crazy-happy with Garmin's plotters over the years in my boats..... Gigabite had one and so has every small boat I've owned since 2000. Their new line contains INTERNAL charts for the entire coastal and inland US! No chips required.

Ditto

We got the 3010 w/ XM weather/radio and have been very pleased.

[Dave Phipps]

I just finished installing a new Garmin 3010C chartplotter with XM Weather radio a few weeks ago. This unit replaces my 3 1/2 year old 2010C, which was a nice, but which I'll move to the flybridge as a back up.

The 3010C allows the satellite weather download to be overlaid on your nautical charts and includes (by subscription with XM Radio) wind and wave heights, doppler weather radar, frontal boundries, and other graphical weather products. This represents a quantum leap forward for boaters, and provides a decided safety advantage. It is a huge step forward; much the same magnitude of having a chartplotter added to the old GPS units!!! Imagine, having a full time, accurate weather eye instantly, when you want it, regardless of your location or time of day! You can purchase the chartplotter, XM radio module, depth sounder module, and network port expander to connect them, in a "bundle" for just under $3,000. Or buy the individual units and build the system as your budget allows.

While I would caution people about networks...(you don't want your ONLY source of navigational information all in one basket...what would you do if the display screen or network failed?) and (you should always be plotting course and position on paper charts).....I do think that a network system has some advantages when backed up with something else..and the Garmin 3010C system is very nice.....I actually have more weather information at my fingertips on the boat now, than I do in the cockpit of the airliner I fly for a living. I highly recommend it!!!

Dave

[Will]

We are happy with our Sitex Fish Plot 10, color plotter. It has NEMA connections to the Furuno radar and Robertson autopilot. It is a commercial grade unit. I don’t know if this model is still available but if not, there must be comparable models out there.

Will

[solanderi]

Hey Dave,

I have been impressed w/ the Garmin 3210C also. Where did you purchase your system? Did you install it yourself ? The XM weather link looks cool. How does the sounder look? Did you use an existing transducer or a new Garmin model? Thanks for any help,

Greg

[dougl33]

I've been using a Garmin 182c on my 33 Bert for 5 years. Prior to that I had a Garmin 160 on my 28 Bert.

2 years ago I bought a new radar when I had my hardtop installed. I decided to go with a 2kw Raymarine Radome with a C70 display. This year I added the Navionics Gold chart chip and fed a gps signal from the Garmin to the C70 so I could overlay the radar on top of the chart.

While it has worked great, I would not want to use the C70 as my sole chart plotter. Its not as easy to use as the Garmin and in my opinion the Navionics Gold is not as good as Garmin's Blue Chart.

If I was getting a new stand alone plotter I would go with Garmin. That being said, I would not go with their radar as I've heard its not very good.

Regards,

Doug L.

[Mike36c]

I recently bought a Garmin 376c w/XM weather and music as a back up for my 36. I've found that the WX function is downright incredible. On my last trip home from the Bahamas I was able to dodge HEAVY weather by animating NEXRAD. It sure was nice to be in West End while it blew 40kts than out in the gulfstream. Since the system is portable I'm also able to place it on the dash in the airplane, works great there too and is very accurate. Well worth it.

[DeeRow]

Mike,
Does the XM Weather work in the Abacos? Someone posted on another forum that he could not get weather data for Elbow Cay. What has been your experience?
Mark