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I'm fitting a diesel inboard 31 Bertram with a new half tower and electronics before taking it down to the Bahamas. Question, In your opinion which chirp unit to buy Garmin or Furuno? What would be the best transducer to use with either? I'm fishing in water up to 2,000 for swords and 1200' for tiles and other fish.

no contest the pro's will tell you there is Furuno and then there is the rest. i have the "full boat" with Simrad on the 32 CC and the Bertram has Furuno DFFI-URD computer and the chirp transducer.i look at this two- foot long fairing block and decided to do the impossible and that it was.i have done every conceivable project on a 31 Bertram and i would have to say in all honesty making a flush transducer dead center of the keel would be as hard as the windshield replacement! i started with a muti-plywood exact plug of the transducer and the coated it with mold release, then a 3/4" lay- up of bi-axle and epoxy and made a mold around this plug then release the plug, outlined the plywood mold dead center of keel and cut the keel (yea 1 3/4 " thick) i put the epoxy mold directly over the cut and lay up into the dead center of keel from inside until it was 1" thick with woven- roven and biax.there are a series of photo`s on THE 31 BERTRAM SOCIETY . you could see a mackerel at 1500' deep and the Furuno unit has many more features.

I’m with Bob, every charter boat around here is loaded with Furuno! I have older Furuno 3D on my boat and love it.
I am seeing more Raymarine on new CC charters (funny seeing Center Console Charters, I’m so old school, Sportfish models are the real charter boats!) but that may have to do with the boat manufacturer and their production electronic agreements more than owners choice...
Also, the Transducer has a huge impact and is as important as the unit manufacturer. With Furuno you have options with other manufacturers such as Airmar.
Happy Hunting!

the state of the art chirp transducer used by Furuno is a Airmar model 265 at 1000 watt.one of the huge advantages is the large coverage both port and starboard of your boat as it follows a course into deep water.

Like Bob and Seapalm said, Furuno is the Best, period. As before I have owned my 31 for 34 years, always Furuno. Bought the boat with a Furuno 6” paper machine. Then the 7000 Chart Plotter/ Sounder/ Transducer. I now have the TZT-9 with the UHD-1 Black Box. In addition I have Airmars B-275 LH-W Transducer flush mounted encapsulated on the centerline in Fiberglass Box, just forward of the midships transverse bulkhead. Those of you don’t know, where the door is! The 7000 though not made anymore is mounted on the cabin headliner as a back-up. Also have the Older Furuno Radar Mark V11. Needed it all day last Wednesday. Went to Sea for 30 years, though not in the Whellhouse, in the Enginerooms, every vessel had Furuno! Plus we have two Icom VHF radios, the best also. EarleyBird

Have a question on a key component that often gets overlooked. Which VHF antennas? Your radio will only be as good as you antenna set up. I also have read that 1 antenna is better than 2 if you can not keep the at least 6 feet apart and/or different heights so they do not interfere with each other. Having 2 antennas within close proximity can cut range in 1/2.

Current mounts are top of 1/2 tower. so would have to go the 8 ft route.

Most popular antennas seem to be Shakespeare Galaxy 5225-XT or Digital 529 or 829. The 829 allows you to disconnect the antenna from the base without affecting the wire. The digital seems to have a wide frequency if you add AIS or have an AIS radio. Supposed to be made better too. But the Digital is almost double the price.

The 5225 has very good performance. Anyone have experience or preference from one or the other?

Thanks.
Mark

Mark

I have only used digital. In the 45 years we have owned the boat, we have only gone through 3 Antennas. The first one just got pretty ugly with glass starting to flake off, and we put on a new radio. The third one went on with a new radio. Thinking about upgrading the radio again, but the Antenna still cranks out fine and the finish has held up well. So replacing that one is still up in the air.

i should mention my 31 had twin 12" displays and 4kw open array,with smart heading sensor ,a complete Raymarine boat for 12 years and the 32 CC is a complete Simrad boat , the 38" is Garmin and Furuno radar. i fish on eastern long island and pilot the 32' Albamare which is entirely Garmin and presently equipped my 31 Bertram with all the latest and greatest of Furuno with two 12" TZ-touch displays .the entire system is ethernet wired connected with a server and NEMEA 2000 cam bus ,Sooooo i have a opinion and really like Furuno digital radar, and no match on sonar but GPS is about the same with Simrad,Furuno.