If you were going to refresh

[Puget Sound Angler]

I am fairly new to boat ownership 22 angler and looking for a little advice on electronics. I’m getting ready to take my boat in for some work and am considering refreshing the electronics while I have it in.

A bit about me, most of my time will be spent doing short fishing trips around the south Puget Sound. I plan on using my MFD for primarily fish finding however I do plan on getting an auto pilot. Most of my general nav will happen from my iPad. I understand each major brand usually has three ish tiers and due to my interests I am planning on going with the higher tier either a 12 or 16 inch main display for the helm.

I know this is a bit like asking Chevy vs Ford and been asked here a hundred times but if you were going to start fresh and invest in a new plat form what brand would you recommend? I am pretty savvy with electronics so complexity or ease of use is not an issue. Right now my thoughts are between Garmin Lowrance and possibly Simrad although Simrad appears to be heavy on the wallet.

Garmin seems to have a nice ecosystem with a bit more options but have herd updating their maps is . . fun. Lowrance seems to be a little simpler in terms of their ecosystem (although they are a sister company to Simrad) and I kind just like the feel of their hds live units that I have played with. Simrad seams to be targeting larger vessels and a little on the pricey side.

I’m not super bent on any particular feature other then I do plan on getting auto pilot as well as radar. My primarily use will just be towing flashers around early mornings to waste time, I mean catch fish 😉

Are there any benefits to running open array radars vs broadband? Does anyone know if you can network a Simrad Halo-3 with a Lowrance HDS live unit? I don’t think I’ll need super awesome range or anything and am just starting to learn about radar.

Thanks in advance for any insights you can provide!

[smckean (Tosca)]

[colbysmith]

Whatever you get, my recommendation is to stay with the same manufacturer for all devices. Ie, if you are looking at a Garmin autopilot, then get a Garmin chartplotter. Also, FWIW, I've found Garmin has pretty decent customer service. The chart chips are expensive, but I don't find the software that hard to update. It's probably harder finding it on the website to download... I know many are going to iPads for charting, but I still like having a dedicated chartplotter that also displays sonar. Colby

[hardee]

I agree with Colby, stick with the same brands if there is going to be any interconnecting. AS to size of the plotter. I have had a Raymarine C-120 plotter since I got the boat, and love it. Too big? not really, and that size allows to run two side by side charts, one in close, 1 - 3 miles and one out at a respectable 6 - 18 and radar overlay on the close (Usually) and the AIS on the more distance screen. The sizing there is dependent on where I am, (crossing Juan de Fuca or up in the islands) but even with the dual screen those charts are large enough to be useful. Interestingly, the new Raymarine Axium 12 is shorter vertically than my old C-120 so will appear smaller on the helm dash.

Harvey
SleepyC

[thataway]

For most of us the dome type of radar is best. The only reason to go to larger open scanners is for finding birds. Is twice to 3x the price worth it? A 6' antenna on a 22 looks like a helicopter--and gets in the way. One C brat put a 6' antenna on a 25-even then it looked like a helicopter--and I believe that the owner was not all that happy with it.

I would go with the 24 Dome Halo if you go Simrad. RayMarine has Axiom and the Garmin is Fantom. All of these are solid state instead of magnetrons. There is less radiation hazard, and better discrimination of the close targets.

Play with the different models and then make the decision. I went all Furuno on one of my long distance cruising boats. I also used Furuno on several C Dorys I currently have RayMarine--it is very good--all radars are good now--For short ranges and good discrimination the dome type of digital are fine. Learn how to tune the radar, don't rely on "auto tune:. I don't do radar overlay, I do it in my head--the reason is that occasionally you can make a mistake and confuse a stationary object for a boat underway, or visa versa..Some of the latest readers have trails which emulate from the boat--and will show if going away or toward your position.

For other boats strongly consider at least an AIS reciever--and if in the shipping lanes much then a Class B + AIS transceiver. One exception to the all of the same brand, would be the AIS--Vespar Marine.

I prefer 2 10" or even a 9" and 7". As Harvey, I put put both large scale and small scale charts up. Then I may want two fish finder views--one down or side scan and then one standard A scope depth sounder. Be sure and get CHIRP technology. Also consider that touch screens are more difficult to use when it is rough.

I currently have RayMarine because the boat came with it, and I felt that recently RayMarine has improved the product and response. Before that I had Garmin for over 10 years, and I was in Navico (Lawrence and Simrad) for about 5 years.

RayMarine has the least expensive auto pilot, which is fine for 95% of use on our various boats. Where there is weakness in many of the auto pilots is very slow speeds when trolling.

[Peter & Judy]

My boat came with a 2005 era Raymarine C-80 plotter, radar, fish finder and autopilot. It is all still running fine 99% of the time, but as with everything it is getting old and I worry about reliability, especially when I am on a remote cruise. I am now looking at a new system and I am investigating the Raymarine Axiom+ system. I have contacted Raymarine to see if they can help me design the system and hopefully a few of my older components will be compatible and not need to be replaced. I plan to map out my entire system and then send it to Raymarine to give me their ideas of what they can do for me.

[kaelc]

I run a Lowrance HDS Carbon network, with an older SIMRAD radar and it works great. I have autopilot Lowrance and a second Lowrance for the cockpit so I can use the autopilot from the back of the boat. BassPro has a great deal on the Carbon 12.

System has been good, but not cheap.