[C320-list] Raymarine es series chartplotters

[David Eusden]

Hi,
I am a long time lurker here having been the original owner of C320 #581 for 11 years and then moved to C42 #773 6 years ago.  The radome failed on the C42 three years ago and that triggered  a re-assessment of which manufacturer to chose.  I ended up installing a Raymarine e7 and I have been very pleased with it.  Some factors to consider:
Do you want  to be wedded to a touch screen only? There have been times when touch screens do not work well (search youtube for touch screen problems in the rain) and I have been very glad to have Raymarine’s hybrid touch system.
Do you want flexibility in cartography?  I have not kept up with this topic but I understand that Garmin leaves you pretty much wedded to their proprietary charts.  I understand they are very good but I prefer the fact that Raymarine supports Navionics, C-Map/Jeppeson and their own (free) Raymarine raster and vector charts. Having choices seems preferable to me.  Search Panbo.com <http://panbo.com/> and there might be some articles and discussion on this topic.
Other thoughts:
A big selling point for me was that the Raymarine display was fully viewable with polarizing sun glasses - at the time the Garmin displays were not and “blacked out” at certain viewing angles.  This has probably been fixed by now but at the time I was considering the Garmin 741 and this issue was a deal-breaker for me.
Not sure if you are also replacing a radome.  If so, the very low power draw of the SImrad 4G may be a very compelling factor for that family of MFDs.  The Raymarine HD Color radome is a great unit (some consider it slightly more advanced than the equivalent Garmin unit) but it does draw some power: Chartplotter only: 0.5 amp; with radar on standby: 2.3 amps; with radar on xmit: 3.8 amps (readings on my battery meter).
If I were to do it again, I would still stick with Raymarine but I would have opted for a larger unit.  In my case, Navpod offered a pre-cut faceplate for the e7 that fit the existing box on my pedestal and that swayed the decision.  The extra display area of the 9” unit would be very nice, however. 
I have been very pleased with Raymarine’s continued support of the e-series through software upgrades.  I can also vouch for hardware support.  I bought a unit within the first year of its release and in the second season the touch screen “failed” (still displayed but touch registration was way off and could not be corrected).  Raymarine conducted a recall and replaced the screen at no charge - no problems since.
One more thing - watch the size of the cabling you will be snaking through your pedestal tubes.  Our C42 has the larger 1 1/4” tubes and it was a tight fit for the e7 wire with other cabling already running in the tubes.  As it was, I still had to cut off the video connector (had no need for the feature).  I imagine your 320 has the 1” tubes and you may need to watch this.  I also wished Raymarine made the cable about a foot longer.  The stock cable ended about a foot below the pedestal and on the C42 this left it in a very awkward position for positioniing a connector block.  I ended up extending each wire about 2 feet to get to a better position.  This may not be a problem on the 320 where the aft bulkhead is so close to the bottom of the pedestal and there may also be room within the steering gear shroud over the berth to install a connector block.

As you can tell, all this is experience with the e-series.  I have not thoroughly looked at the ES series to see what’s different.

Hope this helps.

David Eusden
2001 C42 #773  “Grayling”
formerly C320 #581  “Eiderdown"

> On Jul 12, 2015, at 4:53 PM, Dick Walker <dickwalker at att.net> wrote:
> 
> Jeff I would get the Garmin line.  It is nicely integrated
> 
> Does insurance pay for stuff like this?
> 
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Dick Walker
> 740 Olive Ave.
> Coronado ,CA 92118
> 619.435.8986
> 
> 
> 
>> On Jul 12, 2015, at 13:39, Jeff Hare <catalina at thehares.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> We took a lightning strike last week that took out everything electrical on board except the running lights and 5 of the interior cabin lights, bilge, freshwater and macerator pumps.  The shore power cord and inlet are also trash. 
>> 
>> Since we have a refit to do, I was noticing that RayMarine announced a new line of chartplotters.  The ES series.  Anyone have info on these?
>> 
>> We should be hauled next week to replace the transducers.
>> 
>> Jeff Hare
>> #809
>> 
>> Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID