Radar for my Reg 26

[Mayoki]

Looking for advice on a radar for my Reg 26. I have the following electronics, so if there is something that will work well with my existing components let me know what you all think.

Garmin 2006C
Furuno 582L
Simrad AP-11

[Saltdog]

Do you have the factory T-Top? It has limited weight capacity for the antenna array. What are your primary purposes in having the radar? Navigation, finding birds, etc?

[Mayoki]

Yes I have the factory hard T-top. I will use for both finding birds and navigation.

[Saltdog]

Without reinforcement,you won't be able to mount anything bigger than a 4kW dome antenna up there, so real bird-finding will be limited. I would stick with a Furuno unit. You might want to consider getting an 1833C 10.4 " Navnet unit with a "black box" sounder and selling your 582L. It can use the existing transducer and has the same performance characteristics as a 582L, but the screen is much bigger in sounder-only mode. Even the split screen radar/sounder is the same size sounder display as a 582 roughly. If you spend $200 bucks for the WAAS GPS sensor, you will have a back-up GPS/plotter for your 2006C. Depending upon which junction box and compass you have on the AP-11, you may also be able to feedheading formation to the 1833C and have radar/chart overlay.

I have this precise setup on my boat (32 Reg) (1833C, 2006C, AP-11) and I am very pleased with it.