Replacing Raymarine C70 on 07 Sundancer 290 - ideas?

[ersands62]

we have a failing C70 unit and will be replacing. looking at Raymarine a98 Chartplotter as option vs Garmin

 

[SmilingMonkey]

do you have radar? If you move to the newer raymarines (or a different brand obviously), you'll need to replace the radar as well.

I just replaced my c80 with the a97 and Quantum radar. Both are great units and the install was fairly simple.

 

[ersands62]

we do not have radar. was planning to leverage the a98 which seems to indicate it has a strong enough transmitter that radar can be avoided for now. we are just new chesapeak bay boaters and not heading to deep water anytime soon. quote from Raymarine site: With the a98 there is no need to connect[FONT=open_sansregular] and mount an external GPS receiver; there is a high sensitivity, fast acquiring 10 Hz internal receiver[/FONT]

 

[SmilingMonkey]

you're right, that it will probably work without an external GPS antenna. Mine works beautifully without one, but RADAR and GPS are two different things.

Radar tells you what you're about to hit, GPS tells you where you are when you hit it.

 

[Ididntdoit]

GPS receiver speed has nothing to do with the need for radar......If there is any chance or you intend to operate in low visibility conditions (at night, fog) then radar is needed

 

[ersands62]

thanks guys! i shared my ignorance! this is very helpful. we are new to boating - beyond trailering an old wellcraft for last few years - so this is a big help. appreciate the candor

 

[Henry Boyd]

Since you don't seem to have any additional RM accessories, I suggest the Simrad NSS7 Evo 2. Cost is only slightly higher than the A68 $ 1000ish vs $850ish. It is a standalone unit with builtin GPS, It also has built in fish finder/depth sounder capability (you would need to add a transducer). The big thing in my mind going for it is that the new VesselViews from Merc for Smartcraft are mini-me clones of the NSS. SO should you want to add VV like engine viewing in the future it would be easy to set it up.

I'm on my second RM system, a C80 with GPS, radar, depth and AIS that was an upgrade from the previous RM SL70RC display. If I didn't have all of the legacy accessory stuff, GPS antenna, AIS receiver, heading sensor etc. I would switch to Simrad in a heartbeat.

Henry

 

[Fly'n Family]

Just installed a Garmin 840xs, very much in the learning stage with it - but it's a very nice unit. More capabilities than I'll ever need, but can do pretty much everything.

 

[ersands62]

thank you!