Greetings, all. I've been out of the boating scene for about 5 years, new vessel arrives in about a month. It's an older C-Dory 25 and a complete electronics retrofit is being planned.
After doing a bit of research on current offerings, I'm leaning strongly towards Furuno this time around. I spent close to 30 minutes on the phone with tech support yesterday with pre-sales questions, and what a breath of fresh air. They pointed me down the right path, but there are still many decisions to be made.
Use will be 90% cruising in PNW and Canadian waters, occasional fishing. Items that have been decided on:
- TXT12F MFD
- DRS4D-NXT 24" RADAR
- NavPilot 300
Items I'm investigating and would welcome input on:
- Transducer. I'm really ignorant here. The boat currently has a thru-hull for the old Garmin MFD. For basic depth readings, which I think will be the majority of my use - it functions beautifully, even at 30+ knots. Should it be replaced, Furuno suggested a basic 600W 525STID-MSD to a B275 on the high end. For those of you primarily cruising, is there a justification in your minds for the significantly more expensive Chirp transducers?
- Compass. My NSS system on my Nordic used a magnetic fluxgate unit and worked perfectly fine for the AP. In the Furuno world, it looks like I can go with the PG700 if I stick with magnetic or the GPS SCX20 at about double the price. Again, $$ will be spent if justified - but for those of you who own it, what features of the SCX20 made you go that route?
Thanks for any input. No doubt, more questions to come.
After doing a bit of research on current offerings, I'm leaning strongly towards Furuno this time around. I spent close to 30 minutes on the phone with tech support yesterday with pre-sales questions, and what a breath of fresh air. They pointed me down the right path, but there are still many decisions to be made.
Use will be 90% cruising in PNW and Canadian waters, occasional fishing. Items that have been decided on:
- TXT12F MFD
- DRS4D-NXT 24" RADAR
- NavPilot 300
Items I'm investigating and would welcome input on:
- Transducer. I'm really ignorant here. The boat currently has a thru-hull for the old Garmin MFD. For basic depth readings, which I think will be the majority of my use - it functions beautifully, even at 30+ knots. Should it be replaced, Furuno suggested a basic 600W 525STID-MSD to a B275 on the high end. For those of you primarily cruising, is there a justification in your minds for the significantly more expensive Chirp transducers?
- Compass. My NSS system on my Nordic used a magnetic fluxgate unit and worked perfectly fine for the AP. In the Furuno world, it looks like I can go with the PG700 if I stick with magnetic or the GPS SCX20 at about double the price. Again, $$ will be spent if justified - but for those of you who own it, what features of the SCX20 made you go that route?
Thanks for any input. No doubt, more questions to come.