RUMOR: RayMarine minus C-Map?

C

Casey

New member
SO FAR, THIS IS RUMOR, (but ripe for interpretation).

Has anyone heard of RayMarine dropping C-Map from its cartography choices for any of its product line?

On the C-Map Forum ( http://www.c-map.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=314 ), the writer poses the question, but has yet to get a response from C-Map.

On the RayMarine site ( http://www.raymarine.com/raymarine/Prod ... uct_id=721 ) RayMarine is still advertising C-Map/NT+ for the "SL" equipment series, but no mention of Navionics (a choice, two years ago).

Futhermore, on the RayMarine site for the new "C" equipment series ( http://www.raymarine.com/raymarine/Prod ... ct_id=1676 ) RayMarine mentions Navionics Gold but no other choice.

This suggests SOMETHING is going-on, but frankly I have no clear insights. Is RayMarine moving away from C-Map?
(...I'm hoping Les will wade-in and provide his thoughts)

Sorry for the multiple links which may cause some of you to do a lot of jumping around - but I would welcome your ideas.

Casey
C-Dory Naknek
 
Casey,

Les is now down to only 4300 unreads! I'll ask him this a.m. over our mornin' coffee ritual. My C80 has the Navionics.

Dusty
 
The Raymarine A and C series plotters I've looked at over the past year and a half use the Navionics CF chart chips exclusively.

-- Chuck
 
Casey":27kgrxea said:
SO FAR, THIS IS RUMOR, (but ripe for interpretation).
Click to expand...

My guess is C-Map is on the way out at Raymarine, but that's based on nothing other than speculation.

It makes no sense to have contracts with multiple cartography vendors. One would assume your licensing costs would be much less working with only one of them.

Also, with two vendors you have increased engineering and R&D costs, and lack of consistency in hardware and firmware design. All of this is bad for business, particularly with Garmin nipping at your heels - a company that has a proven track record at delivering high quality electronics, with a consistent interface, at very competetive prices. Raymarine can no longer afford to be one of the "elite" marine electronics vendors - Garmin's entry into the integrated market with their RADAR is just a first step.

As to why this move at Raymarine may be taking place...who knows. Could be more attractive licensing terms with Navionics, or the fact that Navionics uses the non-proprietary CF format for their data cards. My guess is, it has more to do with the latter...

While there currently is a lack of PC software that can utilize the Navionics CF cards, I'd expect that to change rapidly - it's far easier (and cheaper) for software vendors to work with the CF format, and customers don't have to buy yet another proprietary piece of hardware to read the cards as you do with C-Map cartridges. More software vendors writing for your cartography data results in more hardware sales of your marine electronics.

Just a guess...time will tell.
 
I'm not much into these chart plotters, since I do almost all of my boating on inland lakes, rivers, and the California Delta, but I'm thinking it sure would be nice if all these manufacturers would establish a common piece of hardware for the charts, so that one device would be universally used by all the chart plotters for map storage.

It seems the present game is for each manufacturer to have their own memory device so as to also be able to profit from the chart sales and preserve their own corner of the market, but sooner or later the market shake out should come down to a common denominator.
 
You got that right. It's a very competitive business. I worked for Sperry Marine for a number of years in the mid 90s and after awhile they wouldn't even play in the consumer electronics business because of it. They still make military stuff and some commercial integrated bridges with chart displays but not the little stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if RayMarine (Raytheon) switches, after awhile, unless someone else big uses the old charts, they'll become obsolete and then everyone will have to buy new electronics too. That's what they live for...

It'll never happen that they all use the same chart, then the only differentiation would be the electonics and there's not much in that area different from one to another...

Charlie
 
Casey,

Les sez he's in the same guessing game we are. Right now C-Charts on the high end stuff like you use, and Navionics on the cheapy C-80 I use. The old guy thinks the bottom line may be money. :wink:

Guess I'll admit the Blues are absolutely beautiful. OTOH both the C-Chart and Navionics do the job I need. I'd personally be a little reluctant to jump into the first Garmin release of radar and integrated systems, but they've been super units so far. Always growing pains...

Dusty
 
Hey Dusty, other than one is G A R M I N and the other is R A Y M A R I N E, why shouldnt the Garmin NEMA 182C output drive the Raymarine ST6001 Autopilot? I thought NEMA was NEMA, a standard as far as polarity, level, etc, etc.

The Raytheon Radar/Chartplotter I've got, the SL72RC (or something like that), uses Seatalk which is a fancy name for the NEMA network data sharing.... I'm 100% sure that will work but I'm not all enamoured with the charting on the 7" B&W display. The radar is fine (I love the MARPA, have used that for some time in Sperry units) but the charts (CMap) fall far short of the Garimin BlueChart color (IMHO). And the B&W units will not overlay.

When I finally get this beast hooked up (Radar/and both chartplotters work fine now, just don't have the hydraulics on the AP hooked in yet), I'm going to try first to drive it with the Garmin NEMA signals. If that works, the Raymarine Chart system (and it's GPS) will remain a backup. The radar will always be on....

Your earlier comment made me wonder if you've tried this and found it didn't work...(WETSU)

Charlie
Heading for Maine in a week!!
 
Naw, Charlie me lad,

Ain't tried it -- and you are right, it should work okay. And I had a Sperry autopilot on me charter boat. GREAT unit, but you could buy a fully equipped C-Dory 25 for the price of that rascal -- so it's obvious why Sperry doesn't want to tackle the "consumer" market. That dog-eat-dog, build a new mousetrap every 6 months to make your well-designed equipment obsolete just doesn't seem their style.

Dusty
 
Charlie,

Doubled with you, sorry. You are right on the pretty Blues. But I want my charts for navigation -- if I wanted 'em framed on the wall and could afford a frame, I'd use the Blue Charts. And if Garmin gets their opening act together -- I'll line up to get their system. Used Garmin before I went to Raynav, and thought it was great. Don't give a hoot who builds it as long as it does the job. MARPA is an important part of the way I boat here -- a mon age I'm always in a fog, foggy or not, and we always have tugs with tows, tankers with escorts, commercial boats of all marks, sport fisherman who always run in circles -- makes MARPA a cool tool.

Dusty
 
Boy, haven't heard "doubled with you" before on the site.... Almost like "say again, you dropped sync"....That's what us "small boys" said when the Flag told us to do something we didn't want to do.....I was ready to send the following when yours popped up..I use mine for Nav too and can't see the B&W nearly as well as the color Blues....


Dusty, you're right, it's expensive but good stuff. They build the WSN 7 now, the replacement for the WSN 5 Inertial Gyro unit. The 7 is a Ring laser Gyro, so much better than the 5 that they have trouble calculating MTBF data on it. Their radars, the SPS series were unparalleled. When I went there was when former SECNAV John Lehman and his company bought it from Tenneco in 1994 and took it private. We built it up and sold it to Litton in 1996. Wish I'd made as much money as he did but I did OK.

Hate to see all the overseas stuff but we drove Toyota's and Volvos for years so I can't say much. Now got Dodge/Chrysler stuff so I feel better. Sorry to see the recent Ford recall, bet that cost them a bunch.

Stay warm, thanks for the answer. I'll let alcon know if it works OK.

Charlie
 
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