[RBJ]

Hello Barry

I sailed out of Dartmouth but am now almost three years into long term cruising. My Boat is 28ft.

If I were starting with a clean slate I certainly would not have the setup I have now.

I.E. Raymarine/Autohelm fully integrated Radar/Electronic Chart/Speed/Wind/Tiller Pilot/Depth with options for AIS Weather and Engine Data. All this feeds into one screen with data repeaters at the chart table and on deck. I can clearly see the plotter from the cockpit including when steering by hand (which is not that often).

With the C70 you buy the display and then various bits that feed information into it. Scanner, GPS etc.

It also can overlay radar on the chart or put chart and radar side by side. This is all just fine and dandy but it comes at a price, a very big price.

These forums indicate what happens when you stray outside the world of Raymarine with Raymarine base instrumentation installed.

I've been using Macs since 1985 and would really like to use MacEnc for all planning, archiving and analysis and use my Raymarine plotter for navigation. The user interface is vastly superior to Raymarine. Possibly if I had the time to get a Mac setup that was totally splash proof I would dispense with the plotter. Outside northern Europe or North America fiddling with this becomes a lot more difficult.

I don't like the Raymarine user interface (nor Garmin for that matter). Both are pretty neanderthal. Try one in demo mode and start entering waypoints. Then see if you would like to repeat the process hundreds of times as I have had to.

For me there are two issues.
1. Chart Compatibility
On my last boat I sailed in a relatively small area using paper charts and Maptech electronic charts. I had a small older Raymarine GPS/Display (2003). This worked fine and I did all my planning etc on a Mac and was easily able to upload/download waypoints and routes. In good weather I used the Mac for navigation as well.

On my new boat I'm sailing in a much wider area. The plotter uses Navionics Gold which I can't use with MacENC. I'm not paying twice so now, very sadly, I don't use my Mac for navigation or planning. I really resent this and wish I'd done more homework on Raymarine/Navionics before buying. As it was I had a week to refurbish my electronics and replace a knackered radar.

2. System Integration
Will the kit you are going to buy talk easily to a Mac? If it does not why buy it over something else that does.

What do you want to integrate with what and why.

The boys from MacENC constantly mention the pitfalls of proprietary systems over open systems. They are 100% right and have been a great help to me in the past.

With a clean slate I would be minded to seek out the best products for my needs and integrate them, mixing brands where necessary and discarding those that made integration difficult. Ideally all this chosen kit would feed into a Mac with MACEnc. I suspect there would be some very material savings in going this route.

Note: If you are just sailing in USA waters chart cost is not an issue so you can get Navionics and MacENC charts at little cost. (if you must have Raymarine)

I've had Kiriwina with Radar for 3 1/2 years. Used radar 1 (Autohelm) in anger in fog twice. The second time it blew up. (scanner full of water).
Radar 2 has been used once in anger in fog while passing Rio de Janeiro. The alternator drive belt failed and it was nice to know nothing was about to run me down while I replaced the belt.

Otherwise I've used the radar for things like checking the distance of squalls, land or passing ships. It also has MARPA which I've played with a few times. To be honest I'm not sure the radar is mission critical. But then I've only had fog three times in three years.

BTW so far I've found Navionics charts generally more accurate than new paper charts particularly outside northern Europe.

Fairwinds