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Pagoda64

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I am in a 25' Parker WA. Most fishing will be in the Chesapeake Bay. Stripper, flounder, spade, cobia, trout, etc.. I have been looking at Raymarine, Furuno, Simrad, Nortstar and Garmin. I had a Garmin 2006c in old boat. Not happy with Fish Finder. With the new boat, I will be adding Radar and autopilot either now or later. Garmin has an interesting unit, but I have to take the new boat in the next few weeks. Dealer is giving free install. With your recommendations, I am looking at in hull, with concerns on thick Parker Hull or transom mount. I would like to see better Fish Finding than on the 2006c. I never knew what was bait, beer cans, fish or whatever else. Looking at $2500-$4000.00. Will come back with radar and autopilot in the next few months. Mainly looking for GPS, Chart and Fish Finder to start. Please HELP!!!
 
IMO, Furuno has always been the leader in marine electronics. Go to any working marina and look at what the commercial boats use.

I have a Furuno 600L which has been pretty much the class of the field for years. Now, 2 new Furuno "digital" units get even better reviews. The Airmar Tilted-Element transducer works great, and is now able to handle up to 1000 watts (although I doubt you would need that much in the Cheaspeake).

Do a search at THT and Florida Sportsman. Although other brands may have more "gee-whizz" features, look at how many fail. By the way, "By Owner Marine Electronics" at THT is a great place to do business (best price and service of anyone I have ever dealt with). They did have some super deals on Furuno GPS/plotters.
 
In the price range of which you speak, Furuno is probably the best made IMO.
 
I PUT A RAYMARINE C80 ON MY PARKER 2520 LAST SUMMER. IT WORKS GREAT, YOU MAY WANT TO LOOK INTO IT. IT WAS VERY EASY TO INSTALL ALSO.
GOOD LUCK,
SCOTT
 
I had the 600L Furuno on my last Parker and loved it. Have a C-80 now and am very pleased with the FF, as well as the chart plotter and radar. If you get the c-80 you can add the radar later if you like and save some space too. I kept my old Furuno GPS on dash for redundancy and so I could go full screen on c-80 while using Furuno GPS at times. The c-80 is now flush mounted on my XL.
 
I have the older Raymarine L755RC 7" grayscale fishfinder with chart, and the RL70CRC color radar with chart displays. They are linked via SeaTalk, HSB2, and NMEA to a 4kw radome, WAAS GPS antenna, and ?? depth/speed/temp transducer. I got both with chart capability so if one display ever failed, I could move the C-MAP+ chip to the other display for map data. I have the NMEA wired so that if the WAAS CPS antenna (on SeaTalk) ever failed, I could attach my Garmin GPSMAP 60C handheld for position data.

I've found that you don't need color radar, so I move the radar display over to the grayscale FF unit, and then do split-screen on the color unit with chart and FF.

Works great.
 
I'm on my third boat and have had Raytheon, Sitex, Interphase, Raymarine, Lowrance and most recently Furuno Navnet. I'd go with Raymarine or Furuno IMHO.
 
Here is a pic of the way I mounted the transducer on the transom...on a starboard plate. The plate is mounted once, permanently with 5200 in all screw holes. Many transducers can come/go without ever punching another hole in the transom.

The pic also shows the Cobra plates.

newfolder_030_small_148.jpg
 
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