Furuno Marine Electronics

Furuno marine electronics have been helping boaters find their way on the water with top notch chartplotting gear and well respected radar, and find the fish in the water with highly touted sounders, for more than 60 years.

Furuno Electronics Co., LTD., was formed in 1948 when the world's first fishfinder was commercialized. The company is headquartered in Japan, and about 60 percent of its marine electronics are manufactured in its Miki Factory in Nishinomiya. Furuno USA, Inc., is in Camas, Wash., and there are 11 other subsidiaries across the globe, including Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Furuno may be best known for its radar, which it developed in 1959. But the manufacturer also offers GPS navigators and chartplotters, depth and fishfinders, autopilots, marine VHF radios, AIS (Automated Identification System) transceivers, compasses, satellite weather and weather faxes, wind displays and navigation repeaters.

Talk about a comprehensive fleet of marine electronics products, Furuno has it.

Furuno, like most of the other marine electronics manufacturers, has its proprietary functions and features with catchy monikers. Furuno's "TimeZero" technology enables the user to move through large amounts of chart data seamlessly. The "RotoKey" eliminates the need for soft keys with a revolving on-screen menu interface.

Furuno Multifunction Displays

Furuno NavNet 3D is the company's networked navigation system where multiple functions, such as GPS chartplotting, radar, sonar and satellite weather, can all be accessed and controlled via one or more multifunction displays (MFD), which include 8.4- and 12.1-inch color units. The MFD8 has NavNet 3D capabilities as part of the 8.4-inch multi-function display package. A GPS/WAAS receiver, UHD Radar, and network fishfinder can be added; the MFD12 is the same setup with a 12-inch screen. More on the latest Furuno software update for NavNet 3D.

Standalone Navigation

This is high-tech stuff, but basic GPS, radar and sounder machines are also available in the product family of Furuno marine electronics. One of their latest product releases is the Furuno GP-33 Navigator.

The chartplotter fleet consists of seven models with screens from 7- to 12.1-inches. We reviewed an early Furuno GP7000F chartplotter. The latest model, the GP7020/NT WAAS chartplotter has a 7-inch widescreen color LCD that runs C-Map/NT+ Max cartography while the GP1920C/NT features a 10.4-inch color LCD screen and a WAAS/GPS receiver. It uses C-MapNT+ and NT Max cartography.

Fishfinders

In fishfinders you will find that Furuno marine electronics units range in size from the 5-inch monochrome display in the Furuno LS4100 to a 12.1-inch color LCD screen in the FCV1150 sounder. The Furuno LS6100 sounder with a 6-inch monochrome screen, Furuno FCV620 and its 5.6-inch color LCD display and the Furuno FCV585 with an 8.4-inch color LCD screen round out the lineup. The company also has a line of black box sounders that includes the Furuno DFF1.

Furuno Radar

Furuno offers an impressive 25 models of radar, ranging from a 16-nautical mile system with a 2.2 kW transmitter and six-inch screen to a 25 kW transmitter, 96-nautical mile radar system with a 12.1-inch color LCD display to a commercial grade 120-nautical mile radar system with a 60 kW transmitter and a 20.1-inch color LCD display screen.

There are 15 models of radar and chartplotter combination units. All of these units utilize C-MapNT+ and NT Max cartography. At the high end, you have the 1964CBB/NT with a 25 kW transmitter, 10.4-inch color LCD screen, and a 72-nautical mile black box radar/chartplotter. At the low end, you have the 1724C/NT with 2.2 kW transmitter, 24-nautical mile radar/chartplotter, 7-inch color VGA LCD display and 18-inch radome.

Furuno marine electronics carry a two-year warranty on parts and labor. Furuno won manufacturer of the year in the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) competition four consecutive years (2006-2009), and the company has collected 176 NMEA awards since 1971.