Wayne.B wrote:
On Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:35:43 -0500, HK wrote:

I am sure your experiences
with Furuno fishfinders on the flying bridge of your RV are relevant.

We have the Furuno Navnet integrated system which includes a fish
finder/depth sounder, radar and GPS plotter - separate transducer
modules for each, networked into a common display unit. I installed
it myself 3 years and 11,000+ nautical miles ago, and it has never
skipped a beat. Mrs B is not exactly the world's biggest marine
electronics enthusiast but she has nothing but good things to say
about this system.

Have you ever seen a professional crab boat on the Chesapeake that did
not have a Furuno radar? I don't think I have, and that should tell
you something.



A "professional" crab boat?

Hehehe.

Most "professional" crab boats in this area, that is, crab boats with
commercial licenses, are pretty small, 20-30', with very little in the
way of electronics. Typically, they are low-sided inboards with only
enough front cabin to block the wind and mount the hydraulics to pull up
the pots. So, in answer to your question, yes, I have seen dozens of
"professional" crab boats working the bay without a Furuno or any other
brand of radar.

Oh, I have a Garmin "integrated" 4208 system on son of Yo Ho, but I only
use it as a GPS/Plotter, with a separate Ray fishfinder/depthfinder. For
about the same money, I could have bought Furuno gear, but after many
months of looking at units at high-end marine electronics stores, I was
not that impressed with the competing Furuno units. And, as I posted, my
previous Furuno fishfinder was somewhat of a lemon, both the head unit
and the transducers.

On the professional offshore fishing boats I have seen, Furuno, Ray,
and several others have significant market shares.

I don't pay much attention to the electronics on the RV barges. They're
so slow moving, there usually is plenty of time to get out of the way of
their semiconscious drivers.