Two years ago I made the decision to start an upgrade program to bring our vessel up to current electronics technology…..this included chart plotters, radar, AIS radios, autopilot and so-forth.  I knew I could not do the whole program in a single instance, but figured I would take 2-5 years from start to finish (if that’s even possible).  As an electrical engineer, with background in study and project management, i’m cursed to over analysis and complicate…..but I knew I didn’t want to spend my retirement studying, tweaking, interfacing and all the multitude of activities that getting “intelligent” devices talking to one-another….been there done that.

After some study, discussion with users and calling manufacturers tech support for “pre-assistance” evaluation I landed on the Garmin platform.  They are not the sexiest, nor most advanced, nor problem-free, but appeared Garmin would be easy to “plug-in-play”, get tech support and be found just about anywhere.  Kind of like the “Apple” of marine electronics.

After 2 1/2 years into the program, I’m convinced I made the correct selection of platforms.  It just works.  I have installed 3 chart plotters (2 w/sonar), radar, AIS, 2 VHF, XM Weather & Radio and have interfaced to a 20+ year-old Cetrek autopilot for auto-nav.  I use AquaMaps for route planning and upload the *.gpx files to the Garmin plotters.  My inclination that it would be like the “Apple” of marine electronics has proven true…..it all just works……some exceptions to be covered later.

I explain all this as I believed it was important to have a vision of future configurations before I started building.  The Radar was done half-way through the program listed above.  I selected the 4’ open array Fantom. It works great, is easy to use and tune.  The Garmin radar must be interfaced with a Garmin chartplotter for display.  There is an ability to interface a tablet to the chartplotter which will mirror the chartplotter screen for nav, radar or anything else displayed on the chartplotter.  I do not recommend the tablet for reliability purposes…..the wireless connectivity is good, but not without the occasional “drop” which could leave you in pinch.  I was going to use the tablet for flybridge navigation, but eventually opted for the 3rd chartplotter because the tablet would drop occasionally.

The Garmin radar does have the MARPA feature for tracking.  MARPA stands for Mini-Automatic Radar Plotting Aid.  MARPA similar to AIS can be used for collision avoidance and/or watching other vessels in close proximity.  The Fantom radar is a low power pulse compression technology (doppler). Another benefit of the lower power radar is less care is needed to avoid radar radiation.  Don’t mistake the lower power in less radar definition, it's just different technology with lower power requirement than traditional radar.

Garmin however is not without issues.  I have had multiple instances of infant mortality with half the equipment I have purchased from them, one chartplotter, AIS, XM weather antenna and VHF radio.  All were functional issues that were only resolved from an outright replacement of the devise.  Remember it is very important to fully check-out any new device for full functionality…….2 of my 4 replacements the device was working, however not fully functionality.  Tech support with Garmin in my opinion is good, contrary to the opinion of others.  I would say 3 out of 5 calls are very good and helpful.  When I get a dud technician, I just wait several hours and call back.  Appreciate how difficult their job is and work with them to help them, help you.  I have also worked with Garmin on resolving 4 software bugs they had, each resulted in an update to their next revision of software update.    Even with these issues with Garmin I give them high marks because they do stand behind their product and will work hard to ensure you are a happy customer…..as long as you are polite and willing to work with them and allow them to follow, what at times seem silly, standard troubleshooting procedures.

Sorry for the long reply, however thought it might be helpful.

Steve McCreary
DeFever 52 Offshore Cruiser
Now Lying Hilton Head Island

I have to agree with Dave - I've used Garmin "chart plotters" over the
years, and they served their purpose. BUT, I have never been able to
figure out why Garmin continues to name their chart plotters "GPSMAP"
something or other, when we all know that charts are not maps! You have
to wonder why they haven't figured it out. Every company's products play
nicely together; Garmin isn't anything special, IMHO.

<><><><><><><><><><><><>Mozilla Thunderbird<><><><><><><><><><>
Bob McLeran and Judy Young              Manatee Cove Marina
MV Sanderling                            Patrick Air Force Base
DeFever 41 Trawler for sale              Melbourne, Florida
Blog: http://mvsanderling.net/Blog
Web: http://cruising.mvsanderling.net/

On 2/3/2020 10:34 AM, David Sorenson via Trawlers-and-Trawlering wrote:

For what it's worth, I have 2x Furuno VX2 chart plotters, Furuno auto pilot
and Furuno VHF radios.  They all just work and this equipment is probably
over 15 years old.

When I have a problem (auto pilot recalibration as an example) I call
Furuno and they answer the phone.  They spend as much time as it takes to
work through the problem and even talked me through a sea trial.  This is
on equipment that I didn't buy but inherited.

I'm a Furuno fan.

Regards,

Jim
M/Y Kokomo
Hatteras 48 LRC
Lying The Pitons, St. Lucia, W.I.

Jim Felds, mobile

On Mon, Feb 3, 2020, 11:48 AM Bob McLeran via Trawlers-and-Trawlering <
trawlers@lists.trawlering.com> wrote:

I have to come down on the side of Furuno.  Their technical support is
better than excellent.  I once, through my own stupidity, ruined the
cable for a differential GPS.  Without asking or begging or whatever, they
just simply sent me a whole new antenna.  I am a fan.

As for Garmin, I love their autopilot, but the process of getting it
working was simply horrendous.  The yard that installed had access to their
top level support, and nonetheless they wasted at least a week of their
time getting it to function.

All I can say is that all of the fisherman and commercial guys around the
PNW have Furuno gear.  It must say something.

Best,

Steve

On Sun, Feb 2, 2020 at 3:58 AM Richard P via Trawlers-and-Trawlering <
trawlers@lists.trawlering.com> wrote: