Raymaarine C90W vs Raymarine C95

[chef2sail]

Our boat was sideswiped by lightning a few weeks ago and damaged our chartplotter. ST60 depthfider, and Yanmar engine panel as well as a few smaller componenets. It appears the insurance company will total them and give me the choice of a comparable replacement to our Raymarine C80 chartplotter.

Does anyone have experience with the Raymarine C90W chartplotter or the newer one Raymarine C95. I will also have to get a new radar unit as both accept only the HD radars. I want to stay with Raymarine as all of my other instruments seatalk with it easily and I dont want to have to get adapors for all.

Thank you

Dave

[Greggegner]

I have the C90W and like it. Being able to have a large screen or split screen is nice. i also moved my ST 60 speed and depth output to the nav area and use the Satalk link to post depth and speed to the C90W. The down side is I can't or don't know how to turn the depth alarm off, I can silence it. I also installed the 4 kw radar on a Scanstrut backstay mount. No external antenna is also a plus.

[dennisjay]

I upgraded to the C90W last year and like it a lot, especially the integration with auto helm. It's easy to use and accurate. Also upgraded to the 4kw radome and digital GPS antenna. It loses signal a bit more often than the old analog one, but that's a minor complaint.

[chef2sail]

Isn't it a requirement to have the digital radar dome. It won't accept the analog correct?

[dennisjay]

That is correct. You must also upgrade to the digital radome. And it's worth it. I found the digital to be much more accurate and the distance was greater.

[Roy M]

For a cruising sailboat, replacing its electronics, it would be very valuable to check out the Simrad systems. The displays are bright and use little power. The Broadband radar operates at less power than the Raymarine in standby mode. And the depthsounders are very cool, especially the Structure Scan side scan radar that looks like a sepia-tone photo of the bottom. I still like the Raymarine autopilots because I have conventional steering, but if I had hydraulics..... again, Simrad. Sail all night long with the radar, AIS, chartplotter, depthsounder and other toys, and don't drain the battery bank. Go look at it, at least, then make a decision. I have a full Raymarine kit (E120, 6 years old) with all the bells and whistles. I will probably get an NSS 12 as my new primary and keep the other stuff as backup. It's that good.

[Talulah]

If you go the C95 route you'll need to think about how you connect it up.
Your old C80 presumably connected to your ST60 instruments through Seatalk1.
Seatalk1 is being phased out.
So in addition to the C95 you'll need a Seatalk to SeatalkNG converter in order to connect the ST60's to the chartplotter.
If you have a Raymarine SPX Autopilot you won't need the converter as your ST60 instruments will be connected to the AP via Seatalk1 whilst the C95 and SPX would be connected together by installing a SeatalkNG backbone.

[sogin]

On a new Sabre 426, we installed a C125 at our Nav Station and after giving the matter a great deal of thought we installed an E95 at the Helm. The C125 is much faster than the C90 on our old boat and the digital radar is a significant improvement. What surprises me is just how much I like the touch screen on the E95 at the helm. COupled with the extra drop-down data bar, I think the E95 or even the small E7 is a better choice than the C series for use at the helm. On the other hand, for the nav station, the touch screen is not as important for managing the display. As for connectivity to an I-Phone, I find that capability to be relatively uninteresting.