New 28 - Electronics

[JuliaGCC25]

I will be taking delivery of my new 28 in spring 08. I plan to spend the next few months looking at new chart plotter / fishfinder / radar packages. My choices are Garmin, Northstar and Furuno and Raymarine.

Does anyone have a preference / experience with any of the above? I currently have the Northstar 6100i on my 25. It seems ok for the chartplotter, but the sounder / fishfinder leaves a lot to be desired.

[Split Decision]

IMO the only ones that do all good are Furuno and simrad. The week point on these are the plotters only because they are slower when compaired to a northstar. They are both comming out with new systems. I believe they both were at the Lauderdale show. I saw a video on the navnet 3 and looked impressive. I have not seen the new simrad system. I am trying to get info from the rep this week. I will let you know. Both systems have the best fishfinder and radar that you can get. Again their week points were the plotters but from what I have heard, this has been addressed.

Personally I like one manufacturer for a system. Just easier to use and most times have unique functions that only work this way.

[Bluefin 32]

I am in exactly the same situation as you with a new 28 about to be built. From my own experience, as noted above the Furuno and Simrad radar and sounder functions are in a different league from the others. I have had and used both extensively and they are excellent if set up properly with good transducers and an open array radar.

The chartplotter bar has been raised by the Furuno NavNet 3D, which solves the only real issue with NavNet with a terrific plotter function. I saw it at the Ft Lauderdale show and it is amazing. I also saw the newest Raymarine G series, which was good but not as good and much more costly.

I also have heard that there will be a new Simrad platform but I think it is not likely to ship before next summer. The NavNet 3D is supposed to ship "1st quarter 2008" but no one knows for sure and the Furuno reps were very cautious when I asked.

The NavNet VX2 is still very good equipment and will be a relative bargain. The plotter is much better now than the early versions. It would be several thousand dollars less for a full system than NavNet 3 and the sounder is identical. The main difference in the new radars is the automatic settings, which supposedly work much better. The actual radar performance is about the same so if you know how to tune it manually, you would do as well with the current Furuno NavNet radar arrays (that's what a senior Furuno engineer told me).

The current Simrad CX units have a very slow plotter and do not really network. You can just have a repeater display.

The Northstar 8000i equipment is impressive but expensive. I would stay away from Northstar nowadays because the multiple changes in ownership have really messed up the company from the good old days when the Northstar 951 was the "gold standard" of chartplotters.

[PurpleCedarPlug]

I was at the booth in Ft Lauderdale and viewed the new Furuno 3D and it was quite impressive.

It would be my choice if rigging new. Worth checking out in detail.

Good Luck..

[Fissues]

I might take a look at the new Garmin systems. They don't have any problems such as locking up, sluggish behavior and complicated user interface that the others are having. I've had nothing but great feedback on Garmin products.

[Wolakrab]

There are advantages to going with a single manufacturer for all the electroncs...especially in today's plug and play installations. It is also almost just as easy to interface different electronics. Knowing what I know now, I would go with the following:
Garmin 5212 for the Chartplotter
Furuno for the sounder-Navnet VX2 10" screen with a black box sounder.
Furuno for the radar--4KW open array using the same display for both this and the sounder
Simrad or Gladiator for the AP
Each manufacturer has their forte, and the ones that I have listed above are well-known for being the best in class for what I would use them for. I tend to go with what I have had good experiences with, and I have used all these without any major issues.
Just my 2 cents worth......

[reel dreams]

For what it is worth I just installed (July) a Furuno system consisting of the 1944C 6 KW radar chartplotter, 1720C 7" color chartplotter, RD 30's, DFF1 sounder with Airmar in hull wet box and Simrad AP 16 auto pilot. So far I have been very pleased. You can see pics at the gallery of "Reel Dreams".